right now at 11:00, bay area malls and stores taking extra measures to make sure shoppers are safe and sure that the weekend chaos doesn't happen again. good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia. marcus washington is off. bay area elected officials calling for consequences for people connected to the weekend crime spree that targeted retail stores. nbc bay area's bob redell joins us from walnut creek. malls and stores they are on high alert. >> correct. and walnut creek, if you're not familiar, broadway plaza, popular high-end shopping district. walnut creek, the city of has shut down the road in front of

it. walnut creek police just showed up here within the past couple of moments. not clear what the call is they are responding to. they aren't normally posted here but the road is normally -- has been shut down since saturday night. that is when about 80 people stormed the nearby nordstroms here at broadway plaza. stole thousands of dollars of merchandise. they escaped in getaway cars that were jammed in this road out front which is why this road is now shut down. yesterday nordstrom's closed early at 5:00 as precaution. as you can see on this map, mobs of people robbed stores over the bay area over the weekend starting with union square in sf on friday. walnut creek nordstrom. and a location in lululemon store in san jose. police were out patrolling at many malls yesterday, last night. extra guards on hand at santana row. even one stationed outside the lululemon store that was hit sunday. police say a group, including at least one man with a gun in his

waist band made off with $40,000 in merchandise from that store. at the same time, across the street at the valley fair mall, $7,000 worth of sun glasses were stolen. vp security services in san jose is seeing an increased call for its guards, including from stores and malls. >> a lot of people think cameras will replace security officers but it doesn't replace the persona, the energy that we give off. but it does tell people, hey, i'm serious about my security. serious about my property and i want to prevent loss. >> local district attorneys say they are talking to each other and to police departments about how to put a stop to the surge in retail theft. we spoke with former prosecutor steven clark who says the thefts we've been reading about, reporting on, should not be treated like simple property crimes. >> what you're seeing is grand theft because of the amount of goods that are being stolen. but you could also see robbery charges if people that work in

the stores are getting this product taken away by force or fear. >> reporter: governor gavin newsom is directing the chp to increase presence. organized retail crimes task force. bob redell, nbc bay areathere, bob. head to nbcbayarea.com for a timeline of the past weekend mayhem. online we break down when and where all those robberies happened. there you can also see surveillance video that shows some of the robberies. taking a live look at sfo, the airport is busy. roads are filling up as families are heading out for the big thanksgiving dinner. it's a return to normal holiday travel rush after most people's plans were canceled last year because of the pandemic. nbc bay area's kris sanchez is at sjc with a look at what you or your family visiting can expect. >> reporter: aaa says this holiday travel will be 95% of

pre-pandemic levels. this is what it will look like. 54 million people are going to travel. 7 million in california alone. 1 million say they'll travel by air. 6 million by car. aaa says the busiest times on the road will be midday to 8:00 wednesday evening. noon to 4:00 thanksgiving afternoon and saturday and sunday expect the roads to be packed from 1:00 to 7:00. according to the price tracking site gas buddy, we're just cents away from the highest gas prices ever recorded for this holiday so it's possible that this year's travel may be fueled more by that than concerns of covid. in any case, make sure you give yourself extra time and make sure you're patient. in san jose, kris sanchez, nbc bay area news. >> if you're staying around the bay area, everyone is wondering what the weather will be like. a beautiful look at the golden gate. kari hall has been tracking everything for us.

>> we're seeing sunshine all across the bay area as we take a live look outside at the tri-valley. not as many people out as we've seen recently, but i do think the roads will be busy for this afternoon. looking at our temperatures and the sky conditions looking pretty nice out there. some low 60s for our afternoon high temperatures, and we'll get there at about 3:00 to 4:00. looking at travel and flight delays. as of now, all across the country, some really quiet weather. it's a good travel day not only here regionally but also across the country as we are only seeing a couple of areas that may be of concern. but nothing major going on. looking good as our temperatures once again head for the low to mid-60s for today. looking at a high of about 65 in san jose. it's a little cooler than it was yesterday but these next few days will be pretty much just like this starting out with fog and then clearing out with a mix of sun and clouds at times. we'll talk more about that forecast and what's ahead going into the weekend coming up in a few minutes. >> sounds good. we'll check back with you. with the statewide drought showing no let-up, san

francisco's latest bay area city asking people to cut back on water use. today the city's public utilities commission will discuss asking customers to reduce water use by 5% compared to what they used two years ago. it also plans to ask communities that buy water from san francisco to slash use by 14%. reductions will not be ed. no penalties will be implied. the white house announced the u.s. would release 50 million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve in order to try to bring down gas prices. scott mcgrew joins us now. other countries doing the same. >> that's right. india and the uk. an effort to increase supply in the supply and demand formula. pretty standard strategy for a president who is facing high gas prices and the blame that comes with it. historically this move does not have a huge effect. no matter who is in the white house, presidents really don't have much leverage over gas prices. supply and demand does. nonetheless, the white house

took credit this morning saying today's announcement reflects the president's commitment to do everything in his power to bring down costs for the american people and continue our strong economic recovery. and it is that strong economic recovery and supply problems that have that big effect on prices. presidents, very small lever. releasing oil from the strategic reserve, laura. happens fairly often. president trump did it. president obama did it. bush before him. sometimes they do the opposite. they fill the reserves, buy up oil, try to bring the price of energy up. trump did that during the start of the pandemic when oil prices collapsed. no one could drive, right? energy companies were in danger of going under. he worked to drive prices up by filling the reserve. again, supply and demand, trying to increase demand. president biden is scheduled to speak about gas prices any moment. we'll be monitoring that for any news. >> most definitely. thank you very much, scott.

moving you forward, covid transmission rates now stabilizing across the bay area. take a look at this new map. now a sea of yellow indicating moderate transmission. ucsf infectious disease expert dr. peter chen hong says the variety of cases statewide may surge over the coming weeks, especially with the holidays here. >> in fact, the central valley has talked to l.a. offer the last day or two to try to get them to have a plan about taking some of the patients during a winter surge. so i think what it means is that different parts of california, same amount of cases, but it will result in different hospital rates in the community. >> the number of severe cases in the bay area will likely stay low because vaccination rates here are so high. the trial of three white men charged in the shooting death of ahmaud arbery, a 25-year-old

black man, is now in the hands of the jury. travis mcmichael, his father greg and william bryan were all charged in arbery's death. defense attorneys argue the men were attempting a legal citizens arrest speaking only to detain and question arbery about suspected crimes in the area and fired only in self-defense. prosecutors claim there was no evidence that arbery had committed a crime in the defendants' neighborhood. the questioning is likely much harder for former theranos. so far her defense team has been leading her through issues likely to be far more pointed when prosecutors get to cross-examine. some of the terrain includes efforts to secure deals with the department of defense and test trial theranos ran with large pharmaceutical companies like pfizer. all of it trying to establish holmes and her team had a plan and desire to succeed and not defraud investors. we've been walking you through this trial and continuing

coverage on air and online. stay with nbc bay area for complete coverage of today's testimony. a san jose high school doing what they can to ensure members of their commuity have a meal. they set a goal of donating 1,000 turkeys to sacred heart community services. this year, no exception. cierra johnson was at the big turkey drop-off and joins us with more. >> today is a big day for the girls here at presentation high school. folks are bringing in those turkeys and they're all going to sacred heart. the goal, a thousand turkeys. and it looks like they're inching closer to that goal. we won't have the final count until after this newscast, but community members, students, staff, faculty, anyone they could find were asked to bring in 8 to 12-pound turkeys, hams or chickens to the school and again all of the frozen food collected goes to sacred heart community services. this has been a long tradition

here at the school. really brings all of the community members and the girls together. as you can see, it's a little bit of a competition for each of the grades as well with each of the grades working to see who can collect the most turkeys, hams or chickens. for one student we had a chance to speak to, it really makes everyone feel like a part of a larger community. take a listen. >> it makes me feel like such a big part of a community. like i was only a freshman the last time this was held in person. and so seeing the entire community come out to go support sacred heart, it ties me with my school community but also my community in silicon valley as well. >> and we hope to have that final count as soon as it comes in, but it's not just food these girls were collecting. i'm being told they also spent time collecting feminine products, baby food and diapers for the community as well. so really a season of giving for thanksgiving for the girls here

at presentation high school. in san jose, cierra johnson for nbc bay area news. >> really nice to see. san francisco leaders on the hot seat over two new housing developments put on hold. where the hundreds of units could still be built. and it is a mission straight out of science fiction. nasa launching a rocket to hopefully knock an asteroid off its course. we go into the science behind tonight's big mission. plus, lin-manuel miranda taking kelly head-to-head in a lyrics challenge. the battle of the mic you have to see. watch kelly clarkson here at 3:00 this afternoon.

now to a story that really feels like a hollywood movie script. later today nasa will be launching its first ever mission to redirect an asteroid. the asteroid is not in danger to earth but the mission is an important test for the future.

nbc's morgan chesky joins us with more. >> how big? >> it's what we call a global killer. nothing would survive. not even bacteria. >> reporter: in a scene straight out of "armageddon," real-life nasa scientists are going to ram a spacecraft into one massive asteroid. unlike the movie, though, this space rock is not heading towards earth but the mission is the first test of nasa's planetary technology should the need ever arise. >> this is the first time spacex has taken a nasa spacecraft and intentionally launched it on a trajectory to escape earth and crash into an asteroid. pretty cool message. >> reporter: double asteroid redirection test, d.a.r.t., will launch on a falcon rocket and travel more than 6.5 million miles to reach the asteroid and slam into it.

they'll see if and how the trajectory of the asteroid changes after it p. our hope is to prove that by impacting a spacecraft onto the rock we change its movement. we change its overall speed. >> reporter: d.a.r.t.'s goal, intercepting an asteroid called didymos and target its secondary body or moon-lit called dimorphos which itself is 525 feet wide. the smaller rock orbits the larger asteroid. >> we're going for the smaller one because it's easiest to measure a deflection with the smallest one. if you try to push a car, it takes with the same force, it's a lot easier to see any motion than if you push the larger car or a truck. so trying to go after the one object where measurement of change is the easiest for us to get back from the ground. >> reporter: d.a.r.t.'s long and epic journey starts today and

expected to make impact with the asteroid come fall 2022. pg&e facing new fallout with regulators. the state fined the utilities $5 million for failing to inspect a high voltage transmission system running through the golden gate national recreation area to sausalito. another $2.5 million for missing an important deadline. our investigative team first told you about back in may. that is when pg&e failed to fully inspect more than 53,000 power poles in its distribution network, many in high-risk areas. pg&e says it reported the breakdowns to regulators and has now completed all of those delinqient inspections. read our full investigative report online at nbcbayarea.com. it's right there on our home page. state housing leaders now reportedly demanding answers from the city of san francisco over recently rejected development plans. here's a live look at san francisco this morning. the chronicle reports the state department of housing and

community development is giving the city 30 days to explain why two high rise proposals were recently blocked. one near sixth street south of market would have created 495 units. another in the tenderloin would have added 316 units. the state is seeking the reasoning and evidence why supervisors sided with opponents on appeals after city planners approved the project. the city planner's chief of staff is among those calling it a fair request because his department strongly supported both. happening now, governor gavin newsom is in mexico on vacation. he and his family will be there until sunday. his office announced the trip yesterday after he was in san francisco. lieutenant governor will be in charge in his absence. the governor was criticized for holding no events for 12 days and canceling an overseas trip. he said later he wanted to be with his kids on halloween and chose to work in his office.

no doubt it will be sunny skies in mexico, but here in the bay area, we've been having decent weather ourselves. >> i think it's nice to just stay at home with this kind of weather going on. it's been a little cool to start out. especially in the morning. but we are going to gradually warm up today. but you'll notice that for this afternoon, we're not hitting the 70s like we were yesterday in the south bay. so right now, if you are about to head out for lunch or going out for a walk, temperatures are mainly in the mid to upper 50s. we've seen some cooler 50s farther to the north. and then going out for workout for today in concord, just enjoying more time outside. once again, it will be a little bit cooler compared to yesterday. only reaching the low 60s. and we'll see a few more clouds in the mix especially going into this afternoon. hitting the south bay right now, a look at the high temperatures. 66 in morgan hill and 66 in east san jose. but you'll notice lower 60s for walnut creek as well as livermore. antioch reaching 65 today. also 65 for a high temperature

at redwood city. in san francisco, downtown, we're looking at mainly low 60s here and some mid-60s for much of the north bay. the seven-day forecast is up at the bottom of the screen. not much of a change in our temperatures going into the week. and we're in a fairly quiet weather pattern, even as we see a very weak storm system passing by the region with some rain farther off towards the north. but you can see the clouds staying well off the coast. as a lot of that moisture has been moving closer to us, it's been drying up. we have a very dry air mass in place. going into the next week or so, no changes here. we may see an increase in cloud cover on friday. saturday and sunday are looking nice and sunny. but notice there's no rain in the forecast. i just ran the computer model out about ten days to see if there's anything showing up here. and it's really not showing too much. we're in a dry weather pattern. and it looks to stay around for at least the next week or so. possibly into the start of december. and temperatures are just going

to come down a few more degrees. it will be chilly for thosend thanksgiving day is looking perfect.low 60s. sunshine. nice and heading out for shopping on friday. small business saturday we have some mid to upper 60s in the forecast. for san francisco, more of the same. we're not going to see a wide range in temperatures from the coast to the inland areas. we're all looking at highs in the mid to upper 60s over the next few days. looks like we're about to take a special report. we're going to send it right now over to nbc news. this is an nbc news special report. here's lester holt. >> good day. we're coming on the air as president biden begins remarks regarding the economy and inflation. let's take you now to the white house. >> we have to face. we made historic progress over the last ten months. unemployment is down to 4.6%. two years faster than anyone

expected. we started this job, it was over 14%. wages are rising. disposable income is up. more people are starting small businesses than ever before. and our economy has created a record 5.6 million jobs since i became president on january 20th. there's a lot we can be proud of. a lot we can build on for the future. but we still face challenges in our economy. disruptions related to the pandemic have caused challenges in our supply chain. which have sparked concern about shortages and contributed to higher prices. moms and dads are worried asking, will there be enough food we can afford to buy for the holidays? will we be able to get christmas presents for the kids on time? and if so, will they cost me an arm and a leg? i told you before that we're going to take action on these problems. that's exactly what we're doing. it starts with my report action

plan. proactive three-month effort to invest in our ports and relieve bottlenecks. 40% of the good, forexample, that come into this country on the west coast come through two ports, los angeles and long beach. to help ease the congestion at these ports i brought together labor and management and asked them to step up and cooperate. to move from operating the ports at 40 hours a week at those ports to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. and i provided the resources to other key ports, including savannah, georgia, and on the east coast, on the east coast, and to help reduce congestion and undo damage done by covid. we also met with the ceos of walmart, target, home depot, tjmaxx and others. those large retailers and others agreed to move products more quickly, stock their shelves more quickly and, by the way, you may have heard the ceo of

walmart yesterday on the steps we've taken. he said, and i quote, the combination of private enterprise and government working together has been really successful. all the way through the supply chain there's a lot of innovation. because of the actions we've taken, things have begun to change, end of quote. in the past three weeks, the number of containers sitting on docks blocking movement are down by 33%. shipping prices are down 25%. more goods are moving more quickly and more cheaply out of our ports onto your doorsteps and on to store shelves. and so all these concerns a few weeks ago, there would be -- there would not be ample food available for thanksgiving. so many people talked about that. understandably. but families can rest easy. grocery stores are well stocked with turkey and everything you need for thanksgiving. and the major retailers i mentioned have confirmed that their shelves will be well stocked and stores this holiday

season. that's good news for those moms and dads who are worried about whether the christmas gifts will be available. that goes for everything from bicycles to ice skates. to date, though, i want to address another challenge that families are facing. and the one i think the most focused on right now. high gas prices. this is a problem. not just here in the united states but around the world. the price of gasoline has reached record levels recently in europe and in asia. and france, at the end of last month, it reached about $7 per gallon. in japan, it's about $5.50 per gallon. the highest it's been in years. of course, it's always painful when gas prices spike. today the price of gas in america, on average, is $3.40 a gallon. in california, it's much higher. the impact is real, but the fact is we faced even worse spikes before. just in the last decade, we saw in 2012, when the price of gas

hit $3.90. we saw it in 2014 when it hit $3.69. and as recently as 2019, we saw it surpass $3 in many places. the fact is we always get through those spikes but we're going to get through this one as well and hopefully faster. but it doesn't mean we should just stand by idly and wait for prices to drop on their own. instead, we're taking action. the big part of the reason americans are facing high gas prices is because oil-pricing countries and large companies have not ramped up the supply of oil quickly enough to meet the demand. and the smaller supply means higher prices globally. globally for oil. to address these issues i got on the phone with leaders from other countries grappling with this challenge to try to find ways to lower oil prices and ultimately to -- the price you pay at the pump.

so today i'm announcing that the largest ever release from the u.s. strategic petroleum reserve to help provide the supply we need as we recover from this pandemic. in addition, i brought together other nations to contribute to the solution. india, japan, the republic of korea and the united kingdom have agreed to release additional oil from their reserves. and china may do more as well. this coordinated action will help us deal with the lack of supply which, in turn, helps ease prices. the bottom line, today we're launching a major effort to moderate the price of oil. an effort that will span the globe and its reach and ultimately reach your corner gas station, god willing. i worked hard these past few weeks and calls and meetings with foreign leaders, policymakers to put together the building blocks for today's global announcement. and while our combined actions will not solve the problem of high gas prices overnight, it

will make a difference. it will take time but before long, you should see the price of gas drop where you fill up your tank. and in the longer term, we'll reduce our reliance on oil as we shift to clean energy. but right now, i will do what needs to be done to reduce the price you pay at the pump. from the middle class and working families that are spending much too much and it's a strain. you are the reason i was sent here, to look out for you. there's another issue that i'll be addressing as well. because the fact is the price of oil is already dropping prior to this announcement. and many suggest in anticipation of the announcement. the price of gasoline on the wholesale market has fallen by about 10% over the last few weeks. but the price at the pump hasn't budged a penny. they do not seem to be passing it on to the consumers at the

pump. in fact, if the gap between wholesale and retail gas prices was in line with past averages, americans would be paying at least 25 cents less per gallon right now. as i speak. instead, companies are pocketing the difference as profit. that's unacceptable. that's why i've asked the federal trade commission to consider whether potentially illegal and anti-competitive behavior in the oil and gas industry is causing higher prices for consumers. so we can ensure the american people are paying a fair price for their gasoline. i also want to briefly address one myth about inflated gas prices. they are not due to environmental measures. my effort to combat climate change is not raising the price of gas or decreasing its availability. it's increasing the availability of jobs. jobs building electric cars like the one i drove at the gm

factory in detroit last week. for the hundreds of thousands of folks who brought one of those electric cars, they'll save $800 to $1,000 on fuel costs this year. and we're going to put those savings within reach of more americans and create jobs installing solar panels, batteries, electric heat pumps. jobs making those clean power-generating devices. and by the way, deploying these technologies for each home where they're installed is going to save folks an additional hundreds of dollars in energy costs every year. let's do that. let's beat climate change with more extensive innovation and students. we can make our economy and consumers less vulnerable to these sorts of price spikes when we do that. and finally, even as we meet to work out this challenge, it's important to maintain perspective about where our economy stands today. the fact is america has a