storm. so i've been seeing videos of his report, but the last i heard was that communication has been knocked out. all of us are kind of concerned if he's safe. >> reporter: no one has heard from him since last night. other friends are busy helping to coordinate relief efforts. >> we collect as much as we can. >> reporter: the national alliance was created in 2009 and has an ongoing campaign to help victims of natural disasters in the philippines. >> we send it directly to the people and communities that have been affected. >> reporter: this typhoon comes less than two months after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit the

same area. >> we need food and water. immediately after that, all the homes, which are very sub standard to begin with, we need to help them reconstruct it. >> reporter: he's a philippines former secretary of state. he says countless people will be affected by the devastation this last typhoon has left behind. if you want to help, there are links on nbcbayarea.com to organizations that are raising money for relief efforts. in these situations, emergency relief organizations tell me cash is truly king. water and clothing is just too expensive to ship all the way overseas. cash is king. they are looking for monetary donations. now let's go straight to our chief meteorologist. he's tracking the super storm.

>> it really is almost unimaginable. the magnitude of this storm, it is a category 4. the center of the storm has passed off to the west of the philippines at this point. they're out of the danger of at least some of the strongest winds, but some of the outer bands are still lashing the islands. when we compare storms, it's hard to do in the first place because every storm is completely different. a lot of us in the u.s. will compare things to hurricane katrina because how big that storm was. you can see how much larger this storm system is with some of those bands stretching out several hundred miles. the strongest ever when it comes to a super typhoon.

winds at landfall 129. our most recent other storm here in the u.s. that did cause tremendous damage and loss of life was hurricane sandy. maximum winds of 1 -- current winds, it has backed off a little bit, but still very potent and dangerous. deadly again as it heads towards vietnam. the other thing you want to note there is the overall movement. west-northwest at 26 miles per hour. it is going to get to vietnam sooner than thought. saturday, winds will be at 100 miles per hour with this additional landfall as a category 2 storm. i will say cautionary, if you do have any family or friends living in vietnam who are

watching this very closely, the strength and the paths could still waiver as we head through the next 36 hours. all the meteorologists will continue to watch this powerful storm very closely. while it is a category 2 in vietnam, it could strengthen in some respects as well. >> we will tracking this throughout this weekend as well. the magnitude of this typhoon has other bay area storm watchers in awe. the chair of the department says this is the most glaring example of some strange effects happening in the earth's waters this year. >> the atlantic hurricane season this year, virtually nonexistent. that's a very interesting corresponding -- that's kind of weird, yeah. >> this is the biggest typhoon

in recorded history. or is it? that's the big question. we talked to some local storm experts about how this storm ranks historically. you can watch raw video of the storm rolling over the philippines. just go to our website, nbcbayarea.com. we're tracking some breaking news now. one of the biggest political scandals in santa clara county history. george is headed to jail. just minutes ago, he was officially sentenced for a dozen crimes. chase cane has been in the courtroom throughout the afternoon and joins us with the very latest. >> reporter: they took george into custody just about 20 minutes ago from the courtroom to face a sentence of one year

in jail. he entered a guilty plea to back in march. the 51-year-old has held public office since 1993 on the school board and san jose city council and eventually the santa clara county board of supervisors. he's misused nearly $100,000 of taxpayer money. prosecutors and defense sort of debated the semantics of exactly how all that happened. it is centered around a gambling addiction. an addiction that was well-discussed. the attorneys for him say sending him to jail would be a waste of time. they called him a good public servant. however the prosecutor had a very different side of that. he broke the public's trust. he left part of the county without any representation for

quite some time. all of these tax dollars that came into question too. the end result the judge ordered him to spend one year in county jail. it's unclear if that will be here in santa clara county or elsewhere. he'll have to spend time on restitution. the judge said he should never be allowed to enter a gambling establishment. his attorney walked out of the courthouse and did not say a single word. the only word george said throughout this whole hearing is, yes, sir, when the judge asked if he understood. the prosecutors are saying they wanted to send a message here with this sentence. you'll hear about that more in

our next hour. in other news tonight we're learning more about a wild fire that broke out in like county today. the fire is 100 acres right now. crews have it 15% contained. they're fighting this fire. it is burning off highway 29. it started as a vehicle fire around noon today. it then spread to the nearby brush. a sheriff is making some major security changes at the hospital. this after a missing patient was found dead last month. we confirmed a sergeant and two senior deputies will transfer out of the hospital. six new people will replace them. this will happen in the next two weeks. one person has already been replaced. the changes are in response to the lynn spalding case. it was an emotional show of

solidarity today. young men and women arrived at school wearing a skirt. it was to show support for the 18-year-old that was set on fire earlier this week. this was a moving gesture. >> reporter: his classmates are outraged about what happened to their friend. today they came to school here in berkeley determined to send a message about how much they care. >> i'm in utter disbelief that something like this could happen. when i heard the news, my face was like, what? >> reporter: students are taking their shock, sadness, and outrage over what happened to their classmate and turning it into something positive. students and their principals showed up to school this morning wearing skirts to signal their

support for the skirt wearing 18-year-old who was set on fire police say by another teenager who investigators say he admitted he was homo phobic. >> i want them to know we support them so much. we want to make sure they feel strong and they feel so supported. we love them. we're here for them. >> reporter: some of the victim's classmates say they've had a chance to visit their friend at the hospital. he's grateful for all the visits and people who have helped and the donations. >> people were coming out of the woodwork to help and show that they care. >> reporter: ian tried to dress just like his friend from head

to toe. he wants sasha to know he is fully behind the teen. >> lots of people wearing a skirt for you. everyone here loves you, man. get well soon. >> reporter: tonight sasha's mother is putting up rainbow ribbons on ac bus route 57. that's the route where the attack happened. we'll have a report tonight at 6:00. a moment of silence today at hundreds of airports across the nation to mark the death of a tsa officer exactly one week ago. workers paused at 9:20 this morning to honor the tsa agent that was shot and killed at l.a.x. last fridays. he was the first tsa officer ever killed in the line of duty. 23-year-old paul ciancia was shot and wounded by police.

he deliberately targeted tsa officers. it was a terrifying morning commute for some drivers in the south bay. they hit and killed a man who was walking on the freeway. it happened around 4:45 a.m. in san jose at the 287 interchange. he was walking across 280. a driver saw the man and swerved, but it was too late. another car swerved in the opposite direction and also hit that man. the man has not yet been identified. container ships will be shutting down their engines and plugging. instead of lighting cargo ships idle their engines, they'll be able to plug in to the port's own electrical power grid. it's in response to new state

regulations aimed at reducing port emissions 80% by 2020. >> once you've gone through the process of plugging in, it can immediately reduce emissions onshore. >> a thousand ships a year will be able to plug into the power grid. coming up next the disturbing way instagram is being used by some people in philadelphia. police say it is putting dozens in danger. kids with lice asked to come to school instead of staying home. i'm at the star trek convention. it hit town this week. a gorgeous weekend coming our way. details on that and our next best chance of showers coming up in just a few minutes.

the fight to keep san francisco city college open is growing tonight. four months ago, the regional commission ruled city college failed to clean up its finances and fix other problems and said the college must close by next summer. a coalition of students and employees is suing the commission. this new lawsuit is the third filed against the commission calling for its decision to be invalidated. 21 schools have agreed to accept city college students if it is not reversed. despite last month's government shutdown, the united states economy added 204,000 jobs. some of the industries with the biggest gains hospitality. the unemployment rate also rose

slightly. furloughed federal workers were temporarily counted as unemployed. city police are trying to find out who was behind the account that identified witnesses to violent crimes across philly. it posted pictures, police statements, and testimony identifying 30 witnesses since february. police found out about it just last week. an officer who was keeping an eye on twitter saw pictures of a 19-year-old who witnessed a shoot last year. he's been shot at since. >> how do we ensure that they're safe? i'm not sure how we do that. >> the account had more than 6,000 followers and featured more than 150 pictures. it is tough to get a hotel room in the south bay this weekend.

the sold out star trek convention is here this weekend. >> reporter: there are characters along with shirts, models, and lots of trekkies. >> three days of absolute heaven for me. >> reporter: it's the return of the official star trek convention to the bay area complete with a chance to meet the captains. >> i've been planning for two years to come out here and this is better than i could have expected. >> what are you looking forward to? >> just meeting william shatner. getting my picture taken with him. >> reporter: through the weekend, with lots to see. >> i'm so excited for this. i've been to star trek conventions before. it's great because you get to be here with all the fellow trekkies, which is absolutely amazing. you get to meet where the stars, people that i literally grew up watching and pretending to be in

my everyday life. >> reporter: let's be honest, lots to buy. pumpkins carved with cast members. a convention special for $125 each. or the tribble for just $25. if you want a photo-op with william shatner, that will cost you 90 bucks. >> it's on the peninsula. >> that's a pretty good deal. what are you charging for a picture with you and your weather forecast? priceless. free for all of you every day. let's get a first look at that saturday forecast. it looks great as we head not only through saturday but also for sunday. we'll have some cloud cover to start here at the coastline. areas of fog that will develop for tomorrow morning.

temperatures right about near 50 degrees. a few low clouds by the bay and inland as well. we are expecting types to primarily stay into the 60s at this point up until then. on this friday, tgif. clear skies. looking good. we do have some fog that will be developing for tonight. if you suffer from allergies or respiratory problems, that could be a concern for you. 68 santa cruz. low to mid 70s for morgan hill and gilroy. 74 in livermore. 72 in concord. san francisco with 68. right up and down the cost line,

mid 60s. 67 in berkeley. the 49ers at candlestick, you know the drill. take that jacket with you. temperatures will be in the 60s throughout that game as they go up against the panthers. some fog will roll right across the peninsula. i do want to spend a little bit of time on this. what you're going to notice is by next week temperatures do cool off. we still keep that possibility of showers in here. it is just not a major storm at this point. i definitely think we'll get a few rain drops mainly up into the north bay. looks pretty null and void at this point for the south bay. most important thing, the weekend looks pretty good. after some morning clouds, sunshine by the afternoon. still ahead, damaging new video of toronto mayor after he

admitted to smoking crack cocaine. for the second time, congressman mike honda is caught on camera supposedly asleep. what he says he was doing.

video of a congressman with his eyes closed wouldn't get much attention unless an election is coming up of course. >> a camera caught mike honda possibly dozing. an opponent is circulating this video and another video. he's being portrayed as not

having the tech savvy energy to keep representing silicon valley. the congressman sometimes closes his eyes when he is thinking on concentrating about an issue. a new video has surfaced in which he is heard threatening to kill someone while in a drunken rage. >> i was very, very in'breeuated. >> mayor ford insists he will complete his term. his attorney says he may take a leave of absence. more schools are no longer requiring that kids with lice

stay home or leave class immediately. the change is to keep children from missing class and to protect their privacy. by the time children are actually sent to the school nurse, they're already had lice for three weeks to two months. up next, the big musical opening in san francisco this weekend. stay with us.

a well-known broadway musical opens in the bay area this weekend.

porgy and bess opens sunday. it tells the story of a crippled man who falls in love with a troubled woman. it features a 23 piece orchestra. a lot of people excited for this weekend. >> looks pretty good. it's time for the seven-day forecast. a little bit of morning fog for tomorrow. temperatures in the mid 70s for the interior valleys by the afternoon. for sunday, low 70s. a slight chance of showers by next tuesday. mainly for the north bay. we'll see some storm track intensity and timing changes on that. stay tuned for that tuesday storm. we could get a lot more rainfall or a lot less. it's a 50/50 deal right now.

>> we hope to see you back here at 6:00. on our broadcast tonight, direct hit from perhaps the most powerful storm ever to make landfall. and tonight we don't yet know the full extent of the death and the damage in the philippines. the promise from the president to fix health care after his apology for a promise not kept. an innocent man who spent decades in prison for a murder he didn't commit. now the prosecutor who put him there is facing jail time for keeping evidence a secret. and it's here. the once-far-off notion of space flight for us civilians. now they're taking reservations and window seats are going fast. "nightly news" begins now.