right now at 11:00, looking for a new trial. scot peterson's lawyers trying to overturn his murder conviction. the new defense his family members are mounting to try to set him free. good morning and thanks for joining me. i'm laura garcia. new developments on the high-profile murder case that shook the bay area nearly two decades ago. right now scot peterson is serving life in prison for killing his pregnant wife lacy peterson. nbc bay area's cierra johnson is live outside the courthouse in redwood city this morning. talk about why his legal team thinks he has a chance for a new case. >> reporter: good morning,

laura. we'll get to that evidence that they believe will help exonerate scot peterson. this hearing is just wrapping up. some of those attorneys are addressing members of the media. after getting off to a little bit of a late start, the judge wasted no time really setting the dates for the evidentiary hearing. now i listened along as scot peterson, who appeared over the phone as well as his four defense attorneys worked to establish a time line for that evidentiary hearing. now, this will determine if peterson had a fair trial back in 2004 as well or whether or not he gets a retrial. the focus of today was really about setting those dates. right now a september 22nd date was set. that's when we can expect scott's team back in court. it's unclear at this moment if scott will be present or if he'll still be over the phone. but scott's sister-in-law sat down in an interview with the "today" show to discuss what she believes will be that new

evidence that will allow him to win a new case. it involves the couple's golden retriever and when neighbors at the time witnessed the dog in the yard. >> so your theory is lacy was kidnapped by the men who were robbing the house across the street and then they disposed of her body 90 miles away where scott happened to be fishing? a lot of people would say, well, that seems a little far fetched. >> if you have an opportunity to get away with murder, you're going to do it. >> reporter: so, that robbery that they were discussing was a robbery that apparently took place across the street from the couple where they lived. that robbery took place at the same time period when they believe peterson left. she's speaking about the dog that the couple had so it all kind of ties into really

exonerate peterson here. walking away, they just have ys about 45 minutes in court. got off to a little bit of a late start. but that september 22nd date was definitely set here in the courtroom. and that's when they will reconvene. we're live in redwood city, cierra johnson for "today in the bay." >> such a huge case in the bay area we've covered for a couple of decades now. thank you, cierra. new video this morning shows the caldor fire burning in el dorado county. right now the air quality is at its worst levels on record. and there are fears that the fire may breach the lake tahoe basin. it's burned over 126,000 acres. cal fire now says 461 homes are destroyed. some 17,000 structures are still threatened. we've got team coverage this morning tracking the smoke from the wildfires burning and how they're affecting people right here in the bay area. one of the areas of concern in the years past has been the grape harvest. nbc bay area's bob redell live

in livermore. is the smoke a concern for winemakers this year as well, bob? >> reporter: good morning to you, laura. in the long term, yes for sure but not right now because those wildfires are now encroaching on the bay area. in about 30 minutes local religious leaders are going to bless the grapes here in livermore. this is an annual tradition to kick off the annual livermore valley wine harvest, which began this morning. this is video from several hours ago. overnight in the vineyards where we watched workers harvest, pick about five tons of grapes. this is a white varietal from portugal. the winemaker is excited about it this year because the weather has been mild here, not much in the way of heat waves. this is what the livermore valley wine harvest looked like last year. lots of smoke from the scu fire that was burning thousands of

acres south of livermore which can lead to smoke permeating the grapes and ruining the taste of the wine. not much of that happened here last year and nothing so far this year. but in the long term, again, smoke taint is a major concern given the number of wildfires in the state of california. >> there aren't a lot of answers to that yet. obvious options could be blending. might have to just distill the wine. but as we encounter this more and more, i think there's been a lot of progress on fixes for it. i don't know if we figured it out completely yet, but i think we're working towards it. >> reporter: now as the winemaker again, he hopes to have the juice from those grapes in the bottles for customers in time for thanksgiving. that's a quick turnaround when

you consider chardonnay usually takes about a year in a bottle, reds a little bit longer. reporting live here in livermore, bob redell, nbc bay area news. >> thanks so much, bob. well, pg&e is taking new steps aimed at helping to reduce the threat of wildfires. installation of 200 additional weather stations across california. 35 are newly installed in the bay area. the tiny weather stations capture temperature, wind speed, and humidity levels which helps predict the need for power safety shutoffs. the new installations are now among 1,200 across the state. we all know how important it is to take a look at our weather. take a look at this live look outside the bay bridge where you can see that mix of haze, clouds over san francisco this morning. monitoring it all for us as meteorologist kari hall tracking those conditions. the fire continues to rage on. >> it does. and it's not too far away. but the smoke is blowing away from us for the most part, and the clouds that we are seeing this morning getting a little bit of that smoke mixing in. but it is starting to clear up

around fremont. and while we do see a hazy sky, we look at our current air quality sensors, they are all green right now showing what we are breathing in near the surface is actually pretty good at this point. but it does look hazy out there. and that will continue today for the coast as well as the south bay we do have good air quality that's expected to continue through the afternoon, but moderate for the north bay, east bay as well as santa clara valley. we're still nice and cool today after that cloudy start, and our high temperatures are headed toward the 60s, 70s, and low 80s. we'll talk more about what to expect going into the weekend. that's coming up in a few minutes. >> all right, good, because we'll need to prepare. next new developing news, johnson & johnson says a second dose of its vaccine provides a strong boost of protection from covid. that means a booster shot may be coming soon for millions of americans. the drug company will submit its data to the fda, which is

evaluating similar studies from pfizer and moderna. when a booster shot was given at six months, covid antibodies in patients increased ninefold. just in, the u.s. military moving faster to mandate the covid-19 vaccine for all service members. during today's pentagon degree offing, defense secretary lloyd austin determined that vaccinations are necessary for the safety of service members and all service members must receive their shots immediately. according to the pentagon, more than 800,000 service members have yet to receive their shots. among active force members, 69% are fully vaccinated. delta airlines has warned its employees they will face a $200 surcharge on their health insurance cost if they're not vaccinated. the ceo said the average cost to the airline for an employee hospitalized with covid was $50,000. in san jose, the city voted unanimously to require proof of vaccination for events with more than 50 people at city-owned

facilities. this impacts buildings like the sap center, san jose convention center and the san jose center for the performing arts. mandates will not go into effect immediately so venues can prepare. city council members were met with a covid booing and holding signs against the move. and that meeting was at one point shut down because of all the chaos. mayor sam liccardo says while he understands the frustration, he reiterated the virus is still spreading. just posted on our website, we've got an easy way for you to see how many covid cases each bay area school district has. head to nbcbayarea.com, click on the covid-19 dashboards button. it's right up there in the trending section. turning to the crisis in afghanistan. president biden has declared he is sticking to his august 31st deadline for completing a risky airlift of americans endangered afghans and others seeking to escape taliban-controlled

afghanistan. nbc's richard engel reports from kabul. >> reporter: the clock is running out on america's longest war. the taliban stressing it's time for the u.s. to pack up and fly out. now what may be the biggest airlift in america history is in full swing, finally working with spectacular efficiency. but that doesn't always last once they land. there's a huge and ugly bottleneck at transit hubs. one of the main ones is at the u.s. base in doha, qatar. thousands crowded in holding areas. >> we are aware of what had been some terrible sanitation conditions at qatar. >> reporter: similar complaints about the ramstein u.s. base in germany. the daughter of an afghan translator arrived in the u.s. after transiting through both of the american bases. >> it was kind of hard especially when we were in qatar because it was so hot there. it was very scary.

everyone thought they were going to die. then in germany it was the exact opposite. it was very, very cold. people didn't have blankets. so, yeah, it was a nightmare. >> reporter: in kabul, the taliban are maintaining order. and now discouraging at times blocking people from reaching the airport. they don't want a terrorist attack by isis, their enemy, or anyone else to slow down the evacuation and keep the americans in their country even one day longer. the u.s. and other countries have ewhackated about 80,000 people from afghanistan. that's the size of a small city. they're out of taliban-controlled afghanistan, but now they are in this very uncomfortable holding pattern, and they may be there for some time as the state department, u.s. military, intelligence has to go through their documents, many of them have no documents at all including many children. they need to verify their stories so that they can be

ultimately settled in a third country or potentially the united states. richard engel, nbc news, kabul. a violent trend is hitting a south bay high school. fights breaking out on campus. one of them leaving a student unconscious. the action school leaders are taking today. and the giants back on nbc bay area later this week. on friday they're heading to atlanta to take on the division leading braves. you can watch the game right here on nbc bay area. it all starts at 4:00.

at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military,

we've grown to serve all who've honorably served. no matter their rank, or when they were in. a marine just out of basic, or a petty officer from '73. and even his kids. and their kids. usaa is made for all who've honorably served and their families. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join. new this morning, some video of the country talking about scary moments for drivers in southern california after a small plane made an emergency landing on the freeway. happened yesterday on southbound interstate 5 near del mar just outside of san diego. driver of the car says she's relieved everyone was okay. >> we broke the fall because we

had a couple people behind us drive up to us after and say it literally landed on our car. today there will be a meeting about safety at a south bay high school. comes after several fights on campus. in one case, a student was knocked unconscious in the middle of the main quad. nbc bay area's damian trujillo is there. >> reporter: the video from last week is troubling. we are disguising the students' identities. it shows a freshman being knocked unconscious by a third student who intervened during the fight. >> this does elevate to a serious level of assault. it's not a simple basic battery. losing consciousness is very severe and can be dangerous. >> reporter: since school started on august 10th, there have been multiple fights at silver creek high school. two required a police response. some parents privately tell me they believe kids feel

emboldened since there are no longer police resource officers on campus. we showed the video to parents today. >> yeah, they got to get some type of control over it. it's sad. >> i think there should be security on campus definitely. especially if that stuff's going on. >> reporter: many school districts across the country have gotten rid of resource officers on campus. community groups argued that children were being arrested and getting criminal records for incidents that could have been handled by the school, not the courts. >> that we have been in collaborating with the police department as appropriate. >> reporter: the new superintendent of the east side high school district in san jose says he hired 24 counselors instead to provide a social approach to problem-solving. he also says the district is hearing from all sides about the possibility of resource officers returning. >> others are saying, no, please don't let an isolated incident or the incident of one site change the approach that we've been taking. >> reporter: the principal at

silver creek has scheduled a zoom meeting with parents on wednesday to talk about the fights and explain how she plans to keep their children safe on campus. damian trujillo, nbc bay area news. a hillsborough mom is expected to enter a guilty plea today in connection to the college admissions cheating scandal. marci palatella is expected to make a deal with prosecutors. she is the ceo of a liquor distribution company. prosecutors say she'll admit to paying half a million dollars to get her son into usc as a football recruit even though he would never play for the team. she's expected to spend six weeks in jail and pay a quarter of a million dollars fine. this would be the 33rd parent to admit to charges in the scandal. a recent candidate in the recall effort now endorsing his rival. former republican representative doug bowed out last week after suffering a heart attack. he shared the debate stage with three other candidates.

newsom's supporters meantime will rally later this week where vice president kamala harris is expected to attend. the recall election coming up september 14th. but we put together a voting guide that's got answers to any question you may have. some sad news this morning surrounding a legendary figure in san francisco's social scene. harry denton has died. if you ever lived in san francisco for any amount of time, you probably visited at least one of his night spots. started with harrys on filmore. denton was always the man about town. he suffered a stroke eight years ago and was living in a nursing home in seattle. "the chronicle" reports he died on sunday. harry denton was 77 years old. trending this morning,

tributes to a rock and roll legend. rolling stones drummer charlie watts died in a london hospital yesterday surrounded by family. earlier this month a spokesperson for the stones said watts was unlikely to join the band this fall following a medical procedure. no word on exact cause of death. mick jagger and another legendary drummer both paying tribute to watts on twitter following his passing. watts was 80 years old. a lot of legends there. all right. time this midday to get a look at our forecast. kari, you mentioned that a warmup's on the way. >> yeah, it's going to heat up. and we've also been watching all of the smoke. this camera is around the lake tahoe area. you can barely see anything, and it is so bad out there. we talked about this. this area experiencing some of the worst air quality in the world. this has an outline of how much

of this area has burned. and we know very well highway 50, we know that kyburz has been evacuated as well as strawberry. and a lot of these areas are close to the leading edge of that fire. as we look at just kind of a mapper here showing you how far the leading edge of the fire is from south lake tahoe. it's about 14 miles. there is a lot of steep terrain there. but this is something we'll be monitoring over the next few days as our winds shift and we've seen it also possibly moving closer to some more populated areas. as we look at our air quality here, the reason why we've had all of the smoke moving in is because of those fires, but we've had fresher breezes coming off of the ocean. and so the coast has cleared as far as the near surface smoke. we're expecting more of the same for much of the day tomorrow. but then when we go into late tomorrow evening, we start to see some red here onirfield. may stay just out of the viewing

area. but we will see more of that smoke coming in between friday, saturday, and sunday as the wind direction changes, and we also see some of that smoke really being pushed down into the valley and moving into the bay area. but as far as the wind direction, once again we have a westerly wind now. but then we will see the wind turning more from the south. as far as temperatures, still very comfortable today with some 70s and low 80s. but then it does start to warm up tomorrow. we're going to start to see 90s here in the inland east bay. then before we even make it to noon on friday, it's going to be much warmer. and so that heating up trend will continue. looking at antioch. take a look at our highs. upper 80s today. mid-90s tomorrow. and then over 100 degrees for friday, saturday, and still pretty hot on sunday. as far as the rest of our inland areas on average we're looking at temperatures mainly trending into the mid- to upper 90s throughout the weekend and to start out the new week. for san francisco, we will see

temperatures in the mid-60s. and then reaching into the mid-70s but also with all of that sunshine, we're going to get some more smoke coming in, and that's going to be our concern for those weekend outdoor plans. we will have to definitely monitor that air quality. >> that's why we'll keep checking back with you. thanks, kari. coming up a bay area dance team making moves on the hit show "america's got talent." we're going to show you what's next for the team and the connection the team has with our own crew here at nbc bay area. but first happening now, the spread of the delta variant putting the brakes on forward ford's hybrid return to work program. about 120 of 130,000 ford's 182,000 employees primarily in manufacturing have already returned to work. ford says the flexible hybrid model will be the primary work arrangement for employees whose work is not site-dependent.

we'll be right here right after the break. adopt, donate, and find your forever friend during clear the shelters. we're taking you along with us as we discover the best california has to offer, from food to lifestyle and everything in between, we're covering the entire state on "california live." weekdays at 11:30 a.m. on nbc bay area. majestic mountains... scenic coastal highways... fertile farmlands...

there's lots to love about california. so put off those chores and use less energy from 4 to 9 pm when less clean energy is available. because that's power down time.

trending this morning, a happy reunion for a 15-year-old dog that's deaf that became stuck in a storm drain. it happened in arlington, texas, over the weekend. neighbors say they could hear animal sounds all over the neighborhood and it was zoey who ca hear, calling out for help. firefighters quickly went in to

remove her from the drain, but it took some time, ten hours, to break through the ground and eventually find zoey. her owners say she was a little shook up but it said to be okay. a dance team making the bay area proud showing off their talent on a national stage. ♪♪ [ cheers and applause ] pretty amazing. the dance studio is from fairfield. our own jody hernandez rooting for her two sons on the team. we've been following their journey for over a month, even since the little boys were little. they really awed the judges with simon calling them the best act they've seen in a mile. now it's up to the viewers. voting closed at 4:00 this morning. you can watch the results tonight at 8:00 right here on nbc bay area. it's great to see co-workers' kids grow up. let's check in with kari right now. your kids are still little. are you going to take them out this afternoon or keep them in? >> we're going to go out for a little while. as we go into the next few days

it's really going to be heating up. so we'll see temperatures going from the low 80s to the upper 90s this weekend. i think we'll have to make some plans to maybe go swimming, maybe head to the beach. san francisco's going to see temperatures in the 60s and 70s. we will see some low 70s for the weekend. but we'll also see some more smoke coming in so we'll have to monitor the air quality. and as we go into next week, we are going to gradually cool back off and head back to our typical summertime pattern. a wide range in temperatures in the forecast here. laura? >> i love it. working moms always thinking about our kids and planning ahead. thanks for joining us today. our next newscast is coming up at 5:00. you can also get all the latest information all day. it's at nbcbayarea.com. we'll be back here bright and early tomorrow morning for "today in the bay" 4:30 to 7:00 a.m. in the meantime, try to have a great day.

the bay area and the rest of your world all in one hour. ♪♪ nbc bay area news at 6:00, nbc "nightly news" with lester holt at 6:30.

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right now on "california live," scoop's up. we're celebrating national banana split day. then, amber's taking us to a new breakfast club that is picture perfect. >> i have my breakfast club and i'm so ready for my closeup. and we're giving you a brand new look at a los angeles treasure that will take you back to la la land. >> so many movies have been filmed here. we ought to have a star on the e're going to show you a safety spot you can take with you anywhere. >> what if i told you that this tiny little device could save your life?