. right now at 11:00, san francisco's mayor london breed touting what's been described as a milestone. the department hit a landmark

moment as crime rates fall. the event getting underway at city hall. good morning, thanks for joining us for our midday newscast. i'm marcus washington. right now leaders are gathering to discuss those reform efforts. nbc bay area live for us at city hall. what does this actually mean for the department? >> reporter: well, marcus, hopefully this means it can be the start of a new chapter for the department. it's a celebratory feel here at city hall. this is more than seven years in the making this milestone moment. i want to give you a look just behind us because a program will start any moment now. you can see sfpd officers are here even with their families. they will be joined by san francisco mayor london breed, san francisco police chief bill scott, and other city officials to recognize this moment. earlier this month, sfpd

submitted the final 27 responses to the 272 reform recommendations that were issued from the department of justice more than seven years ago. that review was launched in response to the department's use of force policies and practices. it came in the wake of a deadly police shooting back in 2015 that sparked public outcry as well as subsequent disclosure of racist and homophobic texts that were exchanged by some of his officers. the doj then made those 272 non-binding recommendations to transform policing with an emphasis on reducing use of force, increasing then transparency within the department, and working towards racial equities. now, all this comes as the city is reporting lower crime rates during the first quarter of year, property crime is down 32%. violent crime is down as well 14%. that is -- those numbers reflect a decrease compared to the first quarter of last year, and you're

seeing those numbers now. the governor's office also recently announced that there is continued progress with the city's partnership with the chp. since may of 2023, the chp has seized 42 pounds of fentanyl in the tenderloin district. and if you can see now just kind of beyond where the media is situated there, chief bill scott is here greeting staff from the city. mayor london breed is expected to start speaking soon, but what is notable here is that these reforms and policies not only mean a milestone for sfpd but they are also used or also will be used in other departments nationwide setting kind of standard for how policing will be, not just here in the bay area and the city but across the country. back to you. >> that's good to see some what is exciting news coming from the police department there.

ginger, thank you. today's news conference comes as nonprofit executive daniel lurie is head and shoulders above his opponent when it comes to funding the quest to becoming san francisco's next mayor. the chronicle crunched the numbers and the data shows that lurie's campaign raised nearly $4 million by the end of last year. the paper is reporting 12 of those donors have given at least $100,000. now, current mayor london breed's campaign garnered 923,333,000 was raised by supervisor ahsha safai. we expect to get their data in july. new at 11:00, caltrain is facing major delays in palo alto. the train is stopped at california avenue station because of police activity. video from our sky ranger showing there is a person dead on the tracks, but it's still

unclear how this person died. we are working to find out more information with that. we can tell you that those passengers had to get off the train. caltrain briefly canceled service at that station offering passengers a bus bridge. now it says that all trains are running and single tracking through the california avenue station. a legal challenge could be on the way. this is after the oakland commissioners voted unanimously to rename oakland international airport to san francisco bay oakland international airport. nbc bay area's thom jensen life for us in san francisco. they already were threatened by sfo about a potential lawsuit just before this vote, are? >> that's right, marcus. they let the port of oakland know that they were strongly opposed to this. they did not want san francisco in the first name of this name change, and they even showed them a letter that threatened of

a trademark lawsuit, but the commissioners did vote unanimously last night to move forward with the name change after listening to nearly an hour of public comments. many people from oakland did speak out in favor of it, but san francisco tourism interests supposed that some simply put oakland at the front of the new name to make it clear to foreign visitors and other travelers from outside the area exactly which city they're flying into. the city of san francisco made it pretty clear through its attorney who showed a letter to the port board threatening a trademark lawsuit. >> that reaction of lack of one worry you? >> i really hope that they're being advised properly by counsel, but it's clear that there is a very strong trademark set of claims. >> reporter: the city telling us this morning that no lawsuit is going to be filed today, possibly in the future, they'd

keep us up to date on any new details. they said lawsuits could also come from environmental groups who believe this name change would meet the requirements for the california environmental quality act. this also comes as oakland is dealing with rising crime and the effects of losing all of its mayor professional sports franchises to other communities. and the city and the airport itself because of it in an identity crisis. this was not a final vote. a final vote will come on may 9th, so there's still time before a lawsuit is filed for san francisco and sfo to work out a new name with the port of oakland, if they're willing to do that. it's something that they did extend the olive branch and say, look, we'll work with you. we just don't think san francisco is right to have as the first name because it will be confusing for people coming from outside the area. we're live in san francisco, thom jensen, nbc bay area news. >> understandable, tom, thank

you. new details this midday in what police are saying was a repeated vandalism targeting a san francisco mosque. so the suspect now facing hate crime charges. police say surveillance video from last week shows 35-year-old robert gray using a skateboard to smash the windows of that mosque. he allegedly later returned at least twice this week causing more damage before police arrested him. san francisco district attorney brook jenkins says gray is facing vandalism along with hate crime charges. she says that her office has zero tolerance. they'll discuss the recent attacks. just into our newsroom, the man accused of sitting off two separate fires at san jose state will appear in court today. those fires happened on march 31st and april 8th. this was at the martin luther king jr. library. authorities say both of those fires were set in separate rest rooms and no one was hurt. sjsu police and cal fire used

security video to ultimately arrest that man. he is facing four counts of arson. take a live look outside this midday, beautiful sight there in walnut creek looking nice. does it feel nice? that's the question we're going to turn to meteorologist kari hall. how is today feel something. >> it's been warm. it's starting to warm up gradually. not as fast as the past couple of days. we are seeing the clouds roll in over san francisco and the golden gate bridge. it will be partly cloudy and definitely cooler. we were close to records over the past couple of days. but now we're back to some more seasonable weather, and going into the weekend, we will see some times of rain, even snow on the hills as those temperatures will be dropping, but then next week we'll be warming up, and we'll be back in the 70s before you know it. we'll see temperatures in oakland in the upper 50s and low 60s today, and starting out with sunshine, but notice the clouds that will be coming in later this evening. overall, our temperatures will

be in the upper 60s and low 70s. san jose the warmest is the 71 degrees. later tonight this storm system with a cold front is going to be coming in. we'll time it out hour-by-hour as you're making weekend plans, i'll show you when and where it's going to be raining in a few minutes. >> thanks, kari. attorneys for north bay legal firm will speak out tomorrow. this is after the recent decision to not file criminal charges against the former mayor of windsor. state attorney general's office recently suspended a criminal investigation tied to dominick pa poe lee. this is after multiple women accused him of sexual assault. the state prosecutors say the lack of sufficient evidence to file those charges. the attorneys representing some of those women will speak outside of sonoma county courthouse to talk about a possible civil case. traffic is now clear on 880. this is in the east bay after a big rig crash. it happened just after 5:00 this morning on southbound interstate 880. this is near the highway 92 in

hayward. two big rigs crashed, each of of them causing one to flip over on its side. it took several hours to remove the trailer. all lanes are back open this midday. vice president kamala harris will campaign in arizona today and abortion will no doubt be top of mind. earlier this week an arizona supreme court said a near total ban on abortion could go forward. >> and based on a very old law, good morning, marcus. it's an 1864 arizona law that had been dormant for years. 1864 abraham lincoln was president. several states have these dormant laws popping up. as we have said many times, abortion rights drives democrats to the polls. the biden/harris campaign ready to take advantage of that. vice president harris will make the case for democrats to arizona voters, according to prepared remarks released ahead

of time, we must all understand who is to blame, she says. it is the former president donald trump. it is donald trump, she says, who during his campaign in 2016 said women should be punished for seeking an abortion. now, that's pretty accurate. trump said during an interview with chris matthews that he agreed with a question, a scenario that matthew was asking about. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no as a principle? >> the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. >> for the woman? >> yeah, there has to be some form. >> ten years, what? >> that i don't know. that i don't know. >> why not? you take positions on everything else. >> i do take positions on everything else. it's a very complicated position. >> now vice president harris is expected to arrive in tucson just any minute just 45 minutes from now. this is her fifth visit to the state since taking office. and of course we'll have a lot of her remarks and highlights

coming up. >> thanks, scott. well, landowners are filing a new legal claim. this is against pg&e in connection with california's second largest wildfire ever. this is the dixie fire. it burned just under 1 million acres in the summer of 2021. this is well north of the bay area. cal fire has since determined that it started when a falling tree struck pg&e equipment. seven businesses, they're now seeking damages in excess of $200 million. the utility so far not commenting. a new directive for u.s. embassy employees in israel, ahead for you here during our midday newscast, the reason new travel restrictions are in place. closer to home after being postponed, one beloved east bay gathering is back on. everything you need to know if you're planning to attend oakland's first fridays, including your forecast. and a reminder this weekend fc looks to defend their home pitch against seattle reign fc.

you can watch full coverage at 5:00 on nbc sports bay area. go bay fc.

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breaking news into our newsroom, baseball star shohei ohtani's former interpreter is now in federal custody. this is in connection to those massive theft charges. federal investigators say ippei mizuhara used money to fund his illegal sports gambling addiction. it included using his position to set up a bank account for ohtani and transferring money to illegal bookmakers. he is accused of stealing more than $16 million. if convicted he could face 30 years in prison. he is due in court later this afternoon. new overnight, one person is critically injured. this is after being struck by a car in san francisco eastern tenderloin. it happened near turk and

leavenworth. police say the driver stayed at the scene, was not impaired and is cooperating with the investigation. the u.s. is restricting travel, as nbc's hala gorani reports, if iran retaliates for a deadly air strike in syria. >> reporter: there are new warnings to embassy employees inside of israel as israel continues to brace for a possible counterattack by iran, an attack widely attributed to israel led iran to promise it wouldretaliate. u.s. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel, outside the greater tel aviv, jerusalem, areas until further notice reads the alert. iran's supreme leader has said that any attack on his country's

diplomatic missions are akin to an attack or a strike on the country itself. he said if they attack our land, the wicked regime made a mistake in this case, it must be punished and it will be punished. this comes of course after there are fears that spillover from israel's war in gaza will affect the entire region. and in fact, the fbi director christopher wray is concerned that perhaps this could lead to violent attacks inside the united states itself. meanwhile, in israel, defense minister has said that an attack on israeli territory would lead to a response by israel in kind. gala gorani, nbc news, tel aviv. thank you. we want to take a live look in oakland. that event was supposed to kick off last week, but of course rain postponed it. it's taking place on telegraph

avenue. this is between 22nd and 27th street, starting at 5:00 tonight, and of course i know a lot of folks are going out there, last week rain affected it. this week there is rain coming but not going to affect it? >> right, it's later on tonight. it looks like it's going to be a good time. we are going to see temperatures mostly in the upper 50s to start. and then as we go later into the evening, more clouds coming in. once again, the rain holding off until later on tonight. you can enjoy that and also just maybe wear some extra layers because it will be quite chilly out there. we're feeling the cooler air already with our temperatures, as we approach the lunch hour in the upper 50s and low 60s, not really rising too much more from where we are now. and when you compare it to yesterday at this time, we are 10 to 11 degrees lower than we were at this hour yesterday. so we are feeling that cooldown despite really having a big impact in terms of any rain coming in or gusty winds. the wind is still light, and we

are going to only see our high temperatures in the mid to upper 60s. tonight is when we get another push of some cooler air, and by tomorrow, we're only seeing temperatures in the upper 50s and even mid-50s. fairfield only reaching a high of 53 degrees. so let's talk about this system that is coming in. you can see the center of the storm well off the coast, and the rain that's moving in to northern california even producing some thunderstorms over some of those upper elevations over the northern sierra. so the rain is expected to make it into the north bay later on tonight. by about noon or -- not noon, midnight to 1:00 in the morning, and then going into early tomorrow morning, and then look at the change in the colors. we are going to see some punks pinks there, which is a wintry mix and snow as you go up above 3,000 feet. we can we can see that on mount hamilton and a bit of a brief break tomorrow at 12:30, but then seeing the activity ramping up again for the evening, so this is when we could see another wave of rain coming in

and the potential of some thunderstorms before we get another break sunday morning. but we may not be done there. there could be one last wave of showers coming through on sunday evening, and then we see things completely clearing out and drying out for next week. with all of that rain coming this weekend, here's how much we may measure, anywhere from an inch to an inch and a quarter for the north bay, and then the farther inland you go, the rainfall totals drop off to about 3/4 of an inch of rain. if you're going to the sierra this weekend, we're already seeing the clouds coming in. we have off and on snow showers and falling temperatures here as well. but the snow will be fairly light, about 1 to 5 inches of snow for the weekend. here in the bay area. we're going to see those temperatures feel very much like winter for a couple of days. mid to upper 50s. a lot of clouds saturday and sunday, and next week as we're heading back to work, it will be in the upper 60s and low 70s for the middle of the week, but a lot of changes here for the weekend. marcus.

>> speaking of the weekend, over in san francisco the 57th nor cal cherry blossom festival is kicking off. it's going to run this weekend and next weekend. thousands of people will be heading out to take festiv festivities. they will have sword displays, tea ceremonies and other activities. the parade is scheduled for next sunday, april 21st. not many 10-year-olds would actually spend their birthdays doing something for others, but we want to tell you about max razor. he has set a goal of ten acts of kindness for his tenth birthday. we checked in with him just to see how far along he is into those acts of kindness. >> i have an update to share with you about a story about an undeniably kind 10-year-old. we introduced you to max last november. after seeing bay area proud story about a man who vowed to do 30 acts of kindness to celebrate his 30th birthday, maxx was inspired to do ten acts

for his tenth birthday. he is halfway through his quest, five acts in and they are not small. one of them was sending 7,000 food packets to children living in ukraine. max is on track to reach his goal, although he says he wants to keep going even after ten. you can experience the whole story at nbcbayarea.com/bayareaproud, as well as hundreds of other stories of people being good to each other in the bay area. >> i love seeing that. happening now for you, if you have your sights on yosemite, we have the school on reservations. starting tomorrow e you'll need a reservation to drive through yosemite on sundays, those days will be saturdays, sundays, and holidays. starting july you'll need a reservation every day. new spots will open each morning at 8:00 a.m. they go fast, so the park says you need to act quickly. still ahead, the accommodations experts say teachers can take to help

thanks for sticking around, for autism awareness month some advocates are focused on accommodation ned of change. they're laying out ways schools and employers can create an accepting space for students and workers. some people on the spectrum need loud noise input. others are averse to noise.

some like to follow a routine and structure suggesting agendas in advance can help. and some others on the spectrum are uncomfortable with eye contact indicating priority on verbal response and body language. one south bay special education teacher tells us that there are many ways to better understand someone with autism by taking what's called a more neurodivergent approach. >> individuals with autism except such as different kind of movement in trying to make different kinds of noises. instead of telling them to be quiet or stop doing that these are behaviors that they can't control. so sort of thinking of trying to hold your sneeze or hold your cough in a public setting is something that's really hard. >> she said two groups provide helpful resources including autism speaks and the autism society of america. this weekend a cesar chavez parade and festival kicks off in san francisco. this is the parade route on your screen. it starts at dolores park on

19th street ending at 24th and mission street. now, it starts at 11:00 in the morning. the festival just a few blocks down from where the parade ends between fulsome and bryant street. there will be live music, vendors, other activities out there. that event just a couple of weeks after cesar chavez day. this weekend hit or miss with that rain. >> it's going to be hit or miss. i'm hoping we can get some clearing in time for the parade. there will be some off and on waves of rain in our saturday forecast. it's overall going to be cool. highs only reaching into the mid-50s. >> all right, there you have it. we've wrapped up. thank you for joining us for our midday newscast. our next one at 4:30. we're

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