working on. janelle. the road to 40,000. the dow closing lower today after briefly topping 40,000 for the first time ever. our business tech reporter scott budman joins us with what this really means for everyone. also is crime in oakland really going down? that's what published crime reports show. but our investigative unit has uncovered major gaps in the data. we're going to fill you in new details on the plans to extend bart into downtown san jose, the billion dollar price tag for the major transportation project. welcome back, everyone. the news at 530 starts right now. thanks so much for joining us. i'm janelle wang and i'm raj mathai. a new record on wall street as investors continue to pour money into the stock market for the first time ever, the dow hit 40,000 before closing just under that. to put that number and figure in perspective, the dow has now doubled since 2020. that's just four years ago. the main

takeaway from all of this is that we've had a remarkably resilient and robust economy. the job market continues to be strong. the demand for workers continues to outstrip supply, and there is a prospect for lower interest rates in the fall. yeah, it's interesting what's happening. let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman. we talk a lot about tech stocks obviously around here. are tech stocks fueling this surge? they largely are raj because right now tech stocks are fueling the ai surge. and that's what's red hot right now. and where everybody wants to put their money. but that's really what's fueling the individual stock surge. what's also fueling the 40,000 and records. by the way, this week for the nasdaq and the s&p 500 are the broad ranges of stocks that people are investing their retirement and college funds in. right now, just about everybody out there wants a piece of the market. sure. and that's 401 k's. and what we do for the 529 for our. exactly. and so forth.

okay. so a lot of people making money, we see all these big numbers. but everyone kind of watching at home. wait a second. where's my money? i'm i'm still spending so much on groceries and gas. the inflation continues . it's hard for people. right. and that actually it kind of goes hand in hand. we saw a lot of money come in during the pandemic in the way of stimulus. we also recently raised the minimum wage. people have jobs. their wages are up. so money is in the system. that's a inflationary because companies are raising prices. but it also puts money in people's pockets that they are saying, what should i do with this? at least what i have left over? and they're putting that in the stock market. so overall the economy is really robust. and that means both high prices but also frequently a high stock market. it's an election year, so no doubt president biden will be focusing on this number and the dow today. where do we go from here just in the next 3 to 6 months? you know, it's so hard to say. part of the reason the dow hit 40,000 today. and the other indexes hit all time highs is because people think the

federal reserve might actually lower interest rates, a sign that inflation is coming down. that's also good for us and good for the economy. and if that happens, it's likely the market will continue to go higher. but you never know. we are there are two wars going on in the world right now. there's all sorts of things that could pop up and cause people to panic and sell. but if you look at the broad picture and what we've seen for quite some time now, our economy has really been strong and people are kind of betting on america in the future. it's amazing we will end how we started. we've doubled that 40,000 mark today in the dow, and the stock market doubled for since four years ago. and that is a really rare fast gain. but if you look back even 100 years, the long term market has been very strong for a very long time. okay thank you scott. janelle overseas. now the u.s. has finished installing a floating pier off the coast of gaza. and it's expected to deliver critical aid for refugees. u.s. central command announced back in march its plan to build a temporary pier to improve access to supplies. it

says supplies should begin moving within the next few days. the pier is docked 3 to 5 miles off the coast, and a causeway will bring supplies to shore. un aid workers will distribute the items in just the first few days of operation. the port should deliver more supplies than all of the recent airdrops combined. the big plans for san jose to extend bart into downtown san jose could cost upwards of $10 billion. that's according to new proposals filed with the vta. there are three proposals on the table to transform the area around the existing diridon station. this is near the shark tank, the arena, the report says. those options would cost between two and a half and $13 billion. two of the options would have an underground connection to bart, which one would opt for a street level connection. but the san jose bart extension is running behind schedule, and they're still fine tuning the details. bart currently only connects to northeast san jose at the

berryessa station. are we getting the real story from the oakland police department? from homicides to shootings to car break ins, opd says crime is down this year. our investigative unit, though, started digging into opd's data and found some major gaps that span years. let's bring in our investigative reporter, candice nguyen. this information is from the oakland police department's crime reports, where you'll find the latest car break ins each week. during this one week in april, just ten car break ins. if that sounds too good to be true, it is. another day in oakland. it happened so quick. hey hey hey, another day. hoping your car is spared. it happens all the time. it's blatant and it's out of control. according to our analysis of opd's raw crime data, people have reported about 20 car break ins every day

this year. but you might miss that detail if you looked at the department's weekly crime summary posted on their website. take this week in april, for instance, opd's public crime reports show just ten break ins. but if you look at the actual number of reports for that week, they show 58 break ins and we found this troubling inconsistency has been going on for years. let's look at three years ago in 2021, in this first week of november, opd's weekly crime report shows 14 car break ins the following week eight, then four, and then three. that's about 30 car break ins for the entire month of november. but when we look through the actual crime reports for that month, we found about 30 car break ins each day, meaning opd was underreporting the numbers by nearly 97. we asked oakland police to talk with us about this issue, but they declined. they told us they

eventually true up all that extra crime data by adding the excess reports in their year to date columns. so although the weekly and monthly stats may be wrong, they get it right by the end of the year. they say our review shows that appears to be essentially true, but that makes the weekly and monthly crime numbers basically meaningless. police data are complicated, and they're often very messy. jacob kramer is a senior policing researcher. he worked as an analytics supervisor for the tucson police department and says law enforcement need timely, accurate data to respond to crimes, for instance, to staff up patrols at car break in hotspots. so there's a lot of, missed opportunity when the data is not put together in a in an actionable or useful way for departments, but also for communities. so why is opd's crime data so far behind? in their statement, police told us they use an online tool called cop logic. it allows people to report crime incidents when it's

most convenient to them, which means some people don't report right away, according to city officials like council member janani ramachandran, the department is understaffed so they might enter information into the system long after some reports come in. and rather than try and add each to the week it actually happened again, they just add them all into year. to date, we don't have the police record specialists and some of these, you know, behind the scenes, but incredibly important roles that aren't being filled. a city staff report from february lists dozens of open civilian staff positions, including crime record specialists, evidence technicians and crime analysts. it's infuriating to see that we can't get our basic records management systems down, to be able to present a clear picture of what's going on. agencies are understaffed nowadays, kramer says. although agencies want to be proactive, they often end up being reactive. and oakland, unfortunately, is an example of

that. oakland officials tell us they recently hired a new hr director to start filling those civilian police department vacancies. a big step to help those numbers add up. again with the investigative unit. i'm candace wen, nbc, bay area news. if you have a story for our investigative unit, give us a call 888996 tips. you can also visit our website, nbc bay area.com/investigations. all right. up next, it's the joy of creativity how this drawing inspired a children's book and the universal message its authors want to send. as we continue to celebrate aanhpi heritage. and if you're trying to get a glimpse of the top of the bridge, it might be tough with that marine layer. but how long is it going to linger? and what can we expect

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pacific islander heritage. and tonight we look into the world of creativity and art in children's books. yes. what in the world is ezra's art releases on tuesday, and the coauthors are asian american, and the book's main character is asian american. yet the one thing they don't address about dress in this book is race. here's nbc's gia vang nobody understands ezra's art. that's an original right there. i was going to say it's a little easter egg, is that this is actually that's what it looks like. that's his. wow. that's an art. that's pretty good, right? that's cool. i have to ask you. yeah what is it, i don't know. we met coauthors eric toda and shay phan at reasonable books in lafayette, an independent asian owned bookstore, to discuss their new project for toda, a marketing executive, it's been a personal journey. when i was growing up, all you wanted to do was just fit in. even when i entered into my career, you

know, i entered into a predominantly white industry. i'm fourth generation japanese american. i'm still on my journey. i'm still learning more about my culture. and part of that learning comes from his young children. it's why he wanted to write this book. what in the world is ezra's art? there's a place for progress by putting us in the main character position of a very universal story that crosses over into. so many different communities. it's based on the real life learning that i've had, drawing from my children, but placed into a main character who is my son, who is asian american, but never calling out that he's asian american. ezra is today's son. my wife likes to call him my mini me because he very much so has my personality. so you've centered this book around him as a character. tell me about how this idea was even sparked. writing this book. yeah, i mean, this story is actually based on my own very poor ability to draw pictures. and one of the things

that we found when i was drawing for my children was that they were not seeing the same things that i was seeing. eric, you know, one day, like, posted on instagram, a rather interesting drawing. sand is a children's book author. she and eric worked together at a tech company. i loved the drawing, and this is probably where you're going to show it. but you know, i loved the drawing. he has kids, of course. rightfully. ask any parent like, hey, can you draw me this? can you draw me that? and he drew a mermaid and his daughter did not react in a very favorable manner, but rather i think the exact words were cried, crumpled it up and said she looked mean. i was like, what is this? i thought i did a fantastic job creating ariel the mermaid from little mermaid, she didn't think so. she latched on to it as a as a hilarious moment in which we can take, you know, some of the learnings from that, and hopefully foster more imagination and creativity. what

are you guys hoping that readers get that, that parents get that children get? a lot of times you're often doing things because you think about the outcome, you know, are you the best at it? and if you're not well, then why are you doing it? but for this book, it's like, no, like do it. it is your art. it is your creativity for the kids, you know, who see themselves in ezra is like, yes, i can be messy. i can be creative. it was important for you guys not to call out his race. why? i think the representation is felt because you can see, of course, who he is. but i think it's just that whole point of like, we're just people. when people read this book, when they, they share it with their kids, when they see my kid at school, when they see, you know, shea shea's daughter at school, they're just american. that's it. a lot of the stories in the past, rightfully so. we needed to highlight this in our community and the challenges. but let's also talk about like the joys, the progress and moving forward. gia vang nbc, bay area news. we are celebrating asian american, native hawaiian and pacific

islander heritage all month long. and for more of our stories, we have so many beautiful stories on our website. go to nbcbayarea.com. it's really a fun collection of things we're doing. vianey arana is here also celebrating our weather. it has been fantastic. we'll take the little wind. we're good with it. take a little wind, a little bay area coastal fog right behind us and the temperatures are going to be slightly cooler. in fact, we're already seeing a temperature difference further up in through inland areas and north. but it will impact your weekend. so let's get right to your microclimate forecast. and i can showcase some of our live cameras. right now we're seeing clear skies over san jose. but we did get some cloud cover early on. it's about 74 degrees right now, and if you notice in through san francisco it's about 58. and there goes that fog. now that's not going anywhere. unfortunately even into tonight and into early tomorrow, we're going to be waking up to cloudy skies with clearing, but mainly in inland areas. now let's talk about the cooling because it's becoming quite significant in through the interior. look at

concord about 11 degrees cooler compared to the past 24 hours. and we did see some 80s expect to see some low 80s once again tomorrow. look how cool the marine layer looks on satellite radar extending from point arena down through santa rosa, san francisco, and of course, even further south through salinas. so if you had plans to head to the beach, even though it's going to be quiet and calm, it might be tough to get that sunshine to roll through. please be mindful of this as well. if you're trying to get a shot of the golden gate bridge this weekend, you might also notice some early morning drizzle. this is around 3:06 a.m. for san francisco and the coastline, along with half moon bay. and then i move the time stamp forward to around 1130. you'll notice fantastic clearing in inland areas. a great thing about microclimates is you can choose a little bit of sunshine at some point in the afternoon. if you drive further inland. but notice how this fog stretches all the way down through parts of gilroy, and it does look like that lingers for the majority of not only your friday, but your weekend is going to start out a little cloudy and it's going to stay in the 70s notice the daytime highs for tomorrow will be in the 70s, leading us into

saturday with similar conditions. so comfortable temperature wise there are no major changes, but it will be a little bit breezier kicking up into saturday and sunday. you'll notice here in the key we've got the green and the yellows here, especially in through parts are fairfield, concord and danville. extending getting gustier as we head in towards your sunday and you can see the increase here in santa rosa in through san rafael, but also stretching down through san francisco. your long range outlook right now looks fantastic. look at this. we've got a system to our north that's not going to bring us any rain. it's going to bring that cooling in the breeze. but if you notice we still have that warmth. and yes, dry weather. finally, heading into a great stretch of dry weather that's going to linger into our 7-day forecast, let's take a look at some of those temperatures heading into your inland daytime highs saturday and sunday we're going to be seeing daytime highs only in the upper 70s, so it will still be warm, breezy. and then by the time we get to monday, we do briefly warm back up into the 80s. overall, these are pretty average temperatures. we did manage to see some above average last week, but i think we're

finally starting to settle into a more spring like pattern, not just in inland areas, but also around the coastline. it's very consistent. it's friday tomorrow. yeah, we're there it is. we're there. counting down. we did it. thanks. tomorrow. thanks. thanks vanna. you got it. up next, we're live in san jose. where 40 niners, stars, past and present, honored niners legend dwight clkar

to be tonight. legends are in the house for a heartwarming celebration. this is pretty cool. the niners, old and young, are reuniting to honor dwight clark, who died of als six years ago. let's bring in nbc's anthony flores, who joins us in san jose. anthony, what a special night. not just for the players here, but also for the fans. it certainly is, guys. the past and present coming together tonight to honor a 49ers legend. it's the fourth annual dwight clark legacy series. and this year's event is being held right here at the california theater in san jose. this annual charity speaking series celebrates the legacy of dwight clark, who passed away from als in 2018. of course, he's famous for making the catch to beat the cowboys in the 1981 nfc championship and helping launch the 49ers dynasty. the money raised tonight goes to the golden heart fund, which helps support former 40 niners facing life challenges after football and what a great lineup fans will hear from a quarterback roundtable of hall

of famer steve young, alex smith, jeff garcia and current qb brock purdy. what an honor, you know, to even be able to go up and speak with those with those guys like legends, in this organization, then obviously being, being a part of a special night to raise money, you know, for, for such a great organization and obviously to help out our alumni that have given everything that they've got for this organization. so being able to raise money to help them in their areas, it's a great cause. so, i mean, you know, if i was a 40 niner fan, i'd try to buy tickets and be there that night. so show up, baby. that's right. show up, baby. you know who was also showing up? general manager john lynch to give a state of the team. linebacker dre greenlaw will also be honored with the dwight clark legacy award. that gives annually to the player who best represents the spirit of dwight clark. his teamwork and camaraderie. and this is the football player's dream and a football fan's dream. there's

plenty of things going on, and of course, some good football. oh, there's a touchdown right there. of course, the real quarterbacks will be here later tonight. the dwight clark legacy series kicks off at 7:00 live in san jose anthony flores nbc bay area. that's the only pass i got in me guys. there's a nice pass. nice pass. nice catch. i hope the guy down there knew he was going to throw it i think so thanks, anthony. anthony what a night out there. it's just about to begin at 7:00. up next we're gonna take you now to baltimore. as we count down to this weekend's preakness, the important role of a slow network is no network for business. that's why more choose comcast business. and now, we're introducing ultimate speed for business —our fastest plans yet. we're up to 12 times faster than verizon, at&t, and t-mobile. and existing customers could even get up to triple the speeds... at no additional cost. it's ultimate speed for ultimate business. don't miss out on our fastest speed plans yet!

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in galveston when a barge carrying oil crashed into that bridge right there. that bridge is the only road between the city of galveston and pelican island. the crash is creating problems for students and faculty at texas a&m who live on the island. so far, though, the coast guard says why has not been impacted. we're pretty confident there was a much less oil introduced to the water than we initially estimated. we're estimating between 1000 and 2000 gallons, but we will not have details on that until we get a final survey from the vessel. the count. the condition of that roadway is also being assessed. officials say that only one car at a time can leave pelican island. pedestrian traffic can cross the bridge, though in both directions. the second jewel in horse racing's triple crown is happening saturday at the

historic pimlico race course in baltimore. it is the 149th running of the preakness stakes. right here on nbc bay area, and we are meeting the bugler, who will be calling the horses to post this weekend. that is justin noren. he's been playing the trumpet for decades, with three music degrees under his belt and the life experience to match. he's played for the pope. he's played at carnegie hall, among many other performances. this, i think, might have to be the biggest in terms of, up to 100,000 people here in person. i know how big of a deal it is. i know how important it is the tradition of horse racing, especially in maryland. as for the race, the horse that won the kentucky derby, mystic dan, is the favorite. you can watch our live coverage of the preakness beginning right here on nbc bay area at 130 in the afternoon. don't don't bother me at 130 on

saturday. i know you've been watching the horse races. we have a lot more news ahead. audrey asistio joins us now with what's coming up next. i'll be watching as well. all right. janelle and raj, right now at six, it is a party in downtown san jose. the kickoff for a series of block parties to help local restaurants and shops rebound. we're going to take you there live. also, some confusion and controversy as the president of sonoma state university was suspended after working with the gaza protesters. we have the very latest. but first, the gates are open. the contra costa county fair is kicking off right now with some tougher rules for teenagers. the news at six starts right now. good evening and thanks for being with us. i'm raj mathai and i'm audrey asistio for 88 years, the contra costa county fair has been a showcase for live music, raising livestock and of course, carnaval rides. but there is a big change at the fair this year. in response to a series of

fights that broke out last year, nbc bay area sergio quintana has what that change is. it's opening day at the contra costa county fair, and for some who know this event well, this is the day to be here. why come opening day? because it's cheap, you know. dollar thursday. hello richard bell is here with lots of his family on the way into the fairgrounds, he read the signs spelling out the new entrance policy. everyone under 18 must have an adult chaperon who's at least 25. it's a policy adopted after a series of fights broke out during last year's fair involving groups of minors. bell and other fair goers say they understand why the new policy is needed. it's not just last year, it's every year. kids don't know how to act. everyone wants to try to act grown and beat up the people from school. you know what? i think it's a pretty good idea. i know they had a little bit of problems last year, so i think it's better that they have more supervision. the contra costa county fair is only