breaking news right now, streets are closed off in the south bay as police surround a popular denny's. our nbc bay area sky ranger was flying over that scene earlier. thanks so much for joining us. i'm marcus washington. >> i'm laura garcia. this standoff in campbell started hours ago and going strong. kris sanchez is live at the scene since about 8:00 this morning. what is going on now? >> reporter: well, laura and marcus, we are going on five and a half hours here of road closures and heavy police presence here in campbell. you can see that there are plenty of campbell police officers down there. they're also getting assistance

from los gatos and santa clara police. i saw an atf officer out here, as well. what we know is that this man was out in the parking lot and had some sort of confrontation with an employee of that denny's restaurant there in the distance. and no -- there was no argument. however, according to the police captain, something happened and at that point the suspect pulled out a gun and then went into the restaurant. at that point, because it was so early in the morning, 5:30 or so, there were about half a dozen people inside. campbell police arrived on scene, they were able to get some folks out safely. now it appears that the gunman is the only one inside. at this point. they have the police negotiators out here. they're trying to talk with him and coax him to come out safely. we have talked with some folks who were just passing by in the area, living in the area what it is like for them. >> yeah. i've been trying do get home and

keep driving up the side streets. >> all of the officers are trained in mental health crises. we're all cit trained and our crisis negotiation team even has more specialized training so if it does turn out to be associated with an incident like that, very confident that our officers are equipped to handle it. >> reporter: now, we have seen some officers with long guns and also pretty -- dressed up like for an s.w.a.t. situation. however at this point it appears that they're trying to negotiate with the man inside seemingly alone inside that denny's restaurant and trying coax him out safely. at this point, the biggest impact on the traffic situation. this is south baskin. dry creek in one direction and all the way to campbell in the other direction. a lot of local businesses in this area and also some apartment complexes so a lot of folks are feeling an

inconvenience of this but at this point campbell police want to keep people far enough back so if there's some sort of gun fire from the suspect that no one else is going to be in that line of fire. but again, this has been going on for five and a half hours now and patience could be the key in dealing with this situation. our colleague here is on scene. she is picking up the story from this point and, of course, any developments you can find at nbc bay area.com and on twitter and facebook. law are and marcus? >> all right. thank you for the latest live from the scene, kris. in alameda, lockdown at island high school is lifted. the school district tells us a student was assaulted this morning on campus. this is new area of sky ranger. police were on the scene looking for the suspect. and several other nearby schools were having a shelter in place. that, however, has been lifted we are told. so far, no word on a suspect

description. our other top story, we have issued a microclimate weather alert as a new round of rain hits the bay area. here's a live look at san francisco and san jose. cloudy out there. don't see any rain from the view right now but that radar was lit up this morning as the storm hit the bay area. well, right now, let's go to kari hall who's been tracking the forecast for us. kari, what is it looking like now? >> that rain is close by san francisco. just off the coast an getting ready to move its way into the inland areas. going into the next hour or so. it may affect the lunchtime plans heading out but right now it is a good time to drive out. grab a sandwich an come back to work and we are going to also see that rain continuing into the afternoon. this is a fairly large storm system but it's not all that strong and it will bring in some rounds of rain, a few of those wind gusts that could reach about 25 to 35 miles per hour. but overall, the rain will be the main story as it continues to spread in in time for the evening commute. by 5:30, we are getting a pretty

good coverage of rain across the bay area and heavy pockets of some downpours coming down and then by early tomorrow morning this will start to taper off for a little while and then another round of rain behind it to linger into saturday night and sunday. i'll be tracking this with another update coming up in just a few minutes. >> thank you, kari. the sierra is expecting a round of fresh snow. you can see there on kingvale and there's a winter storm watch starting at 4:00 this afternoon and according to kari about two to three feet of snow to fall in most of the sierra between tonight and sunday. if you're planning to head that way you are expected to make sure you're extra cautious because the roads can be very dangerous out there. this is a great time for you to download the nbc bay area app. that way you can keep track of where that storm is heading and also get the breaking weather alerts straight to your cell

phone. you can actually track the weather in the neighborhood, as well. download the nbc bay area app. marcus, repairs continue in san francisco after the massive gas line explosion and fire earlier this week. now we know the ntsb is on the scene. nbc bay area sharon katsuda joins us with the latest. sharon? >> reporter: we saw a dozen firefighters show up and made the way up to the top of the building. you can also see there are federal investigators here on scene. i just spoke to a few of them when they first showed up and told me they will have a briefing later today on this situation. now, we also have seen pg&e crews out here all morning examining the buildings and making repairs. ntsb investigators and the fbi showed up. they're taking pictures of the site right now in daylight. ntsb investigators first arrived last night. they surveyed the area along parker and gary where a crew cut a natural gas line wednesday

causing the explosion and fire. several nearby building were damaged as flames shot up in the air. many neighbors questioned why it took pg&e hours to turn off gas to the area and the company said it had to turn off the right gas line carefully by hand. investigators will look into all of that. today, neighbors are cautiously walking by the area hoping the federal investigation will bring some answers. >> my wife and daughter were actually right at that intersection right before the fire and luckily they were okay. >> i trust the government to do whatever investigation needs to be done but, you know, repairing the edifice and getting it operational is -- >> reporter: fortunately, no one was injured by the explosion and fire. pg&e has restored gas service to about 80% of the customers in this area. and ntsb investigators tell us that it could take months or possibly even years to determine an exact cause of this explosion. reporting live, sharon katsuda,

nbc bay area news. >> sharon, thank you. the richmond san rafael bridge back open. it was shut down for hours yesterday afternoon and part of the evening because of falling chunks of concrete. cal trans said there's still work to be done and they've installed metal plates. cal trans says that it's issued an emergency order to get the crew in this weekend to make term went repairs. new at 11:00, students at oakland tech holding a sick-out march this morning. sky ranger captured this video of many students holding signs: they were walking down broadway. stacy morrison, the school's principal, said in letter to parents absent students will be marked as unexcused. the students said it's in support of teachers. you might recall oakland teachers voted do go on strike

earlier this week. they've been working without a contract for a year and a half. the teachers are demanding a 12% raise over 3 years, the district says it wants to pay teachers more and can't afford a pay bump avoiding a budget deficit. the democratic house flexed the muscle this morning questioning the acting attorney general. >> scott mcgrew joining us now. >> this will be a big part of the news cycle moving forward i suspect. matt whitaker, the man that president trump appointed just after he fired jeff sessions, not the permanent attorney general but he is the attorney general for now, and as such oversees the mueller investigation. the house wanted the know a lot about it. some in congress and democrats in particular concerned whitaker might intersphefere with the ru investigation or tell president trump about it. whitaker said he had not. >> i do not intend today to talk about my private conversations with the president, nor white

house officials but i will tell you consistent with what i have said i have talked about the investigation with senior white house officials. >> now, whitaker claimed executive privilege, a legal reason not to answer questions because there are circumstances where it's perfectly legal not to tell congress about private conversations with the president because the expect civ a separate branch of government. and then there was this. >> in your capacity as acting attorney general, have you ever been asked to approve any requests or action to be taken by the special counsel? >> mr. chairman, i see that your five minutes is up and so i'm -- we -- i am here voluntarily. we have agreed to five-minute rounds and -- >> wlhitaker will be an attorne general for a short time. bill barr is approved and he is not off the hock. the committee can and hinted it

would call whitaker back after stepping down, laura. >> thank you so much. now to the decision 2020 coverage. senator harris is hiring a seasoned operative for the presidential campaign in the early voting state of south carolina. washington-price will be harris' south carolina state director. also serving as campaign's national deputy political director. harris said she'd visit the four states that hold the nation's earliest primary and caucus voting in 2020 and tour begins next week. much more ahead here this midday. actor albert finney died. next here, the tributes pouring in from other hollywood stars this morning. plus, jeff bezos accused the "national enquirer" of blackmail and extortion. why he is now going public with the claims. for comfort food at a comfortable price,

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alert well, right now a live look at nbc bay area radar. powered by our storm ranger. we are that microclimate weather alert. here's a look at the current conditions in fremont. not looking bad. but, of course, we know that that rain is a-coming. >> you have been watching the radar for us, kari. >> and it's because the next storm moving in has slowed down just a little bit and it will bring in rain to the weekend an a weekend where a lot of things are going on with the lunar new year celebrations and once again a lot of events going on around the bay area. so we're trying to make some plans an seeing the clouds rolling by. here's a look at mendocino coast and as we head inland to sunol. it is mostly cloudy. looking at san jose, you can still see the very top of those hills still coated in snow and will be some more know moving in going into the weekend. temperatures stay cool, only reaching about 51 degrees and

continuing to cool off as we go into tonight as the rain starts to move in. but right now as we get a look at storm ranger, the red scan parked on san bruno mountain and see how close it is to san francisco so i'd give it another few minutes and see it moving in around ocean beach and then going into the rest of the late morning, early afternoon hours seeing it moving into the peninsula. a lot of bright reds there and no storms and will have a slight storm chance going into this afternoon and into the evening as the system moves in. saw one lightning strike there off the coast and we can see how large the storm is but it is not that strong. it will bring us, though, some more rain on top of the rain we have already gotten and there will be a low flood risk with it bringing a quarter up to an inch of rain. wind gusts mostly at about 25 miles per hour. and again, an isolated lightning, the threat for the rest of the evening. and our snow levels will be at about 3,500 feet.

timing it out, we start to see more of the rain moving in at 12:30 to 1:00. and this becomes more widespread during the evening commute. 5:00 to 6:00. we're pretty much all seeing some rain. where we see the brighter colors indicates the heavier downpours. off and on through 9:00 tonight and then seeing it tapering off some as the snow gets going heavy across the sierra. we catch a bit of a break and still rain chances through tonight. by early tomorrow morning, this may be your chance to get outside. we are not seeing the whole radar covered but there will be rain chances in there but some spotty light showers moving through and then does become widespread going into saturday evening, right around sunset it's pretty much raining everywhere across the bay area and then we start to see this elevation dropping for our snow levels and parts of the north bay so expect a wintry mix possibly up there between saturday night and sunday. and another round of some snow

that could be moving across our south bay/east bay hills and then monday's a break in the rain before another storm system moves in so it's going to be busy going into next week, as well. we are looking at the possibility of about three quarters of an inch up to an inch of rain once again. and for the sierra, we are looking at some of those snow pictures. if you're heading in that direction, snow will really start to come down later on tonight. i'd say around 7:00 to 8:00 and it just continues all throughout the weekend. bring the tire chains. we are going to see the potential of several feet of snow once again and our forecast shows scattered showers throughout the weekend. bay area snow mostly at about 3,000 feet and above. and then monday's a break. once again. busy into next week as we get possibly an atmospheric river moving in. marcus? >> keep those umbrellas handy. thank you, kari. actor albert finney has died, best known for roles in

"annie" and "erin brockovich" and passed away after a short illness. he was 82 years old. stars have been paying tribute to the actor on twitter. rufus said apart of being great he was a great all around example of how to behave. amazon ceo jeff bezos taking on the tabloid accusing "national enquirer" of blackmail and extortion to go public with the intimate and private pictures. >> reporter: overnight jeff bezos dropping a bombshell. the boss of amazon accusing "national enquirer" ami of extortion and blackmail. bezos says representatives for ami and its owner david pecker reached out to his attorney in an attempt to stop bezos' investigation into how the

enquirer obtained text messages of him and the woman he's reportedly dating, lauren sanchez. bezos says if he refused they threatened to publish texts and photos. explaining the decision to speak out, he writes of course i don't want personal photos published but i also won't participate in ami's well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks on corruption. i prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out. despite what he calls the personal cost and embarrassment they threatens, bezos posts what he says are ami e-mails detailing the ten images they're threatening to publish, including a below the belt selfie of bezos. and sanchez wearing a two-piece red bikini revealing her cleavage. nbc news has not independently reviewed the e-mails and ami declined to comment. the tabloid's demand the e-mails

to release a public statement saying they have no knowledge or basis to suggest the coverage was politically motivated. bezos pointing to the publisher's past cooperation with president trump as well as its reported connection to the saudi arabian government. bezos also owns "the washington post" which is extensively reported on the president as well as the murder last year of its columnist jamal khashoggi, a saudi dissident. it follows bezos and wife mckenzie after 25 years of marriage. that announcement coming before the enquirer published an article alleging bezos was having an affair with sanchez who's also married. "the post" reporting that bezos longtime private security consultant said he was investigating whether sanchez's brother, is powerpoint porter of president trump might be behind the leak. >> "washington post," that's

basically the lobbyist for amazon. you know? he uses that, bezos with bigger problems than anybody right now. but bezos uses that as his lobbyist. okay? as far as i'm concerned. >> reporter: about the enquirer bezos writes ux if in my position i can't stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can? peter alexander, nbc news. watching the markets on this friday midday. u.s. stocks fell for the third straight day on friday as skepticism of the united states and china reaching a trade deal been the deadline certainly adding to concerns of a global growth. right now markets down. dow jones industrial average down about 144 points. there will be no environmental review to replace the border barrier in san diego. the trump administration is waving that process, the sixth such waver in the trump president si. 2005 law gives the homeland

security secretary the authority to wave laws coming to building border barriers. work can begin to replace up to 14 miles of the border barrier which is a steel mesh wall in san diego. well, happening this weekend, a chance to learn about an important event in bay area black history. >> tomorrow will mark the 75th anniversary of the mutiny trial surrounding the disaster at port chicago. in july of 1944, more than 300 people died in a massive explosion at the port near concord. many were young black sailors ordered the load and unload explosives with no training and inadequate equipment. it prompted 50 black sailors to refuse to go back to wok and known as the port chicago 50. while they were eventually convicted of mutiny, they also paved the way for social juice tis movements that followed. >> they were the precursor to the desegregation of the u.s. armed forces and at the time

didn't seem that the work meant anything but through the courage we were able as a nation to finally see that the situation that happened at port chicago was a cause to begin to desegregate. >> port chicago story is another one of the threads of history that starts back in 1944 but continues into concerns of the future with black lives matter and colin kaepernick. >> the event starts at 1:00 tomorrow at the treasure island museum an it's free. it will include a panel of speakers and clips of films covering the disaster. coming up next on "today in the bay," super bowl mvp and redwood city ed epman gets a makeover. new feature of instagram to make it easier for users to donate to nonprofit groups. happening now, a daringing rescue after a small plane crashes into the atlantic ocean near miami. one person on board pulled from the water by a coast guard helicopter and wreckage of the

plane was floating nearby.

nonprofit groups. new at 11:00, instagram is working to make it easier to donate to nonprofit groups. when you take a selfie or record a video on instagram stories you can add a donation sticker to let your followers donate to organizations directly through the app. >> great for your birthday. donate there. >> coming up.

>> no. >> so's kari's. >> no. >> good. happening today, super bowl mvp julian edelman -- >> he lets ellen shave his beard for donations. >> are you nervous? >> not really. >> okay, good. >> kind of. >> hmm. >> are you? >> no. >> you have to wait and see. ellen also survived him with the super bowl mvp trophy to take home. watch today at 4:00 and then nbc area news at 5:00. before we leave you on this friday, we are talking about the rain. the series of storms coming through. >> the rain is closer. i have seen a couple of lightning strikes off the coast and monitoring that. i'll have live updates coming up

here within the next hour. >> sounds good. we'll look forward to that. looking forward to the weekend, as well. see you back here monday morning. >> have a great one. it's a deal so good, it will make everyone a fish lover. you get 100%, wild-caught alaska pollock breaded with panko bread crumbs and topped with tartar sauce. plus, hot and salty fries and a drink. for just $4.99! the $4.99 fish sandwich combo. at at&t, we believe in access.

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