>> what's coming up at 6:00? >> age is nothing but a number. really hope she makes the team. right now at 6:00, janelle and raj, a new storm rolling through the bay area right now. we are tracking where it is raining now and what it's doing for the drought. >> marin situation, i think is the one that's going to feel the most relief. >> good news. what's the fallout? we talk with a district attorney after the grand jury accuses the sheriff of misconduct. and a prolific robbery crew is busted. how these men terrorized elderly asian women in the south bay. the news at 6:00 starts now.

thanks for being with us on this wednesday. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm audry asistio. rain returning. this is a live look at the radar right now, where you just see all that green on the map. let's get right over to chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. where's it coming down hard right now? >> well, right now in areas near the bay we are seeing some of those heavier down pours. you can see the storm system starting to drop down. what we are watching out for are wind gusts 20-50 miles per hour. let's get you in to a close are view and put a track on the top two locations. the first area is now approaching san ramon and just exited hayward moving off to the east. it's going to pick up rain in dublin by 6:36. and rainfall over portola valley. what about the rainfall totals

on this one? we'll be able to get through it without any major problems. the rest of the bay area, .5 to 1 inch. some of the mountains could still be 1 to close to 2 inches. we'll a talk more about sierra snow and additional rainfall chances coming our way. i have it all detailed for you in about 18 minutes. >> how much it all of this help us dig out of our drought? every drop helps, but this was not a game changer. nbc bay area visited one of our driest reservoirs in santa clara county, stephanie? >> reporter: i'm at stevens creek reservoir. it was over 10% full on sunday, and today it's over 20% full. it isn't the only reservoir that got a boost after this

atmospheric river hit us. water experts say some bay area counties may actually be able to move out of the deepest drought category. >> the sonoma, mendocino, marin situation i think is the one that's going to feel the most relief. >> reporter: the drenching rain also hit another one of california's soft spots, our snow totals. parts of the sierra gained five feet of snow, putting us at 76% of the average snowpack statewide. last friday it was at 19%. >> these rains and particularly the snow, which allow it is to melt out slowly to refill the reservoirs can re-water our streams and seep back into groundwater. it does take longer to recharge groundwater.

>> reporter: they will need more to really start talking about an end to the drought and loosening water restrictions. >> we're on track for the first one. >> the question is will it sustain itself for the rest of the winter? >> reporter: santa clara water says they need to see more things improve before they look at lifting restrictions that have some paying higher charges. >> there's no new water or very small amounts of water coming into the county. if it comes in, we use it. >> reporter: for now, they are recommending making water conservation a way of life, even if the storms keep coming. in santa clara county, nbc bay area news. >> here's a very helpful app for you. you'll get minute by minute updates on where that storm is heading. you can also track our live radar right there on your phone so you can see when the rain will arrive in your neighborhood. a sad day for the women and men who wear the badge in santa clara county. those are the words of the

county's chief prosecutor, district attorney jeff rosen, who sat down with an exclusive interview with steven stock following yesterday's civil grand jury formally accusing lori smith of corruption. he joins us now. a lot of people are worpding, as you told us jid, could she lose her job over this? >> reporter: that's a very distinct possibility now. while he was not involved with the civil grand jury proceedings, because he's handling the criminal case, local d.a. jeff rozen told me this is very, very serious. the sheriff is likely to face a jury trial, he says, and if even one of the seven accusations by the grand jury are found by noir another jury to be true, he says she could be removed from office. >> for them to say the sheriff should be removed from office is rare, unprecedented.

>> reporter: he usually lets his office's action speak in court, but jeff rozen told me today the growing scandal surrounding lori smith's administration and management prompts him to speak publicly now. >> when people say this is civil grand jury, it's not serious, what they're referring to are other kinds of investigations that the civil grand jury does of different agencies where they publish a report. this is completely different. this accusation says that the grand jury found the sheriff had malfee sans of duty and that the sheriff should be removed from office. >> reporter: rozen is pursuing a criminal investigation into the way ccws were carried out, often in exchange for sheriff smith's political campaign.

she now faces a threat to her political future in the form of a civil grand jury which convened after county supervisors unanimously asked to investigate the sheriff. >> this is something that we undertook with great care in the d.a.'s office, to be as careful as we could. >> reporter: more than a year ago, our investigation compared campaign contribution records to concealed weapons permits or ccws. we found if you gave to sheriff smith's political campaigns, you were about 14 times more likely to get a rare and coveted ccw permit than if you did not contribute. >> the truth is, i was elected to enforce the law, and that's what i'm doing, and the sheriff was also in a different way elected to enforce the law, and unfortunately, she's also broken the law. >> reporter: prior to this civil grand jury, two different grand juries handed down criminal

indictments against ten different people in the alleged pay-to-play scheme, including prominent attorneys, and tech officials. some have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors. two of those cases have been dismissed by the court. and five other people, including two of sheriff smith's top officials, captain james jenson and undersheriff rick sung have pleaded not guilty and are now awaiting trial. the civil grand jury also accused sheriff smith of misconduct in office on a totally unrelated issue to the ccw for failing to cooperate with an independent review of how an inmate with mental health issues was allowed to seriously hurt himself while being transported to the jail. as for why the civil grand jury was able to act against the sheriff but so far the criminal grand jury has not acted, d.a. rozen says there are two different legal standards at play here.

he also said the criminal grand jury is not over. we reached out to the sheriff's department for comment on all of these issues but so far have not heard back. we'll stay on this story. raj, audry? a crime ring targeting asian women has been busted in the south bay. san jose police and the d.a. met with business owners in little saigon to announce several arrests related to dozens of attacks within the asian community. this is swrans video cap tuing one of at least 70 robberies. the d.a. says the felony robberies will also be treated as hate crimes. >> it also affects people in the asian-american community who are not targeted because it makes them fearful that they might be next. >> the police chief also assured business owners that the police foot patrols in little saigon

there in san jose will continue indefinitely. an east bay family tonight is calling for three police officers to be fired after an autopsy linked a loved one's death to the way he was restrained. 26-year-old mario gonzalez died as alameda police officer restrained him in april. video show as officer with his knee to his neck for five minutes. they called it a homicide, adding that drugs and obesity contributed. mario's brother says, quote, our family demands these officers be fired immediately and that the district attorney bring criminal charges against all those involved in his murder. can you now add alameda to the list of cities launching a mobile mental health crisis team to respond to non-violent 911 calls. they will begin responding to calls involving people experiencing a mental health crisis. the mobile team consists of nine paramedics with the alameda fire

department that have completed crisis intervention training. the team is available 24/7 and will work hand in hand with alameda family services. the goal is to reduce work load for police officers and reduce the number of unnecessary arrests and confrontations. it's a model antioch is also hoping to follow. >> we're pretty excited that this will help our police officers be really focussed on the job at hand in fighting crime in our community. >> we are the first fire department in the county that has been able to have psychiatric holds. >> it should hit the streets next summer. up next, to mask or not to mask. we clear up the confusion as you head to dinner. the ultimatum google is handing out to employees who don't get vaccinated. 50-100 mile-per-hour winds.

i'm tracking our bay area rain coming up in about eight minutes.

this is elodia. she's a recording artist. 1 of 10 million people that comcast has connected to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities.

welcome back. the statewide indoor mask mandate announced by health officials earlier this week went into effect in california today. if you haven't noticed any changes you're not alone. yesterday they backed off the full-scale mask mandate, they opted to allow several counties to use other rules. in contra costa county there are exemptions for gyms and other places. business owners are trying to sort it all out. >> so yeah, it's confusing, but, you know, i think most everybody here have been wearing their mask all the time. even when it wasn't mandated. people were still wearing masks. >> after a couple of weeks, a customer has been very

healthful, they're showing vaccination card along with their i.d. >> the mandate does mean until at least january 15th, counties cannot ease any current masking requirements. the goal of the new order is to slow the spread of new cases after a spike following thanksgiving. big news from google. google is giving all of its employees a vaccine ultimatum. all of its u.s. employees will need to show proof of being fully vaccinated or exemption by january 18th cnbc is reporting that hundreds of googlers have signed onto a manifesto opposing the move. the question is whether other tech firms will follow google's lead. >> they're going to be watching how the protests go as well. and what kind of blow back they get from employees of google.

>> uncharted territory for so many of us. google is among the bay area's biggest and largest employering. they declined our interview request but issued a statement saying our vaccination requirements is one of the most important ways we can keep our service up and running and our workforce safe. we firmly stand behind our vaccination policy. if you haven't shipped your holiday gifts yet, get ready to pay more. outside the north pole, the u.s. postal service is among the busiest places. and today was the deadline for getting the cheapest rates for holiday packages. tomorrow it will cost you more if you want your items to arrive by december 25th. >> it's important to actually be aware of what the end date shippings are. it's also a consideration for cost and understanding that those costs can yichb crease the longer you wait. >> she has that right. if you missed today's deadline,

the next best option is first class mail. >> i'm going to hand my presents to you and jeff. >> exactly. >> oh, we get presents. >> hand-delivered. i have to go shopping. first. >> i did a lot of gift card this is year. >> good call. >> i see green on that screen. >> another gift we're giving everybody is that rainfall, right? so go ahead and get you into storm ranger. roadways are going to be slick tonight. certainly a little dangerous when you get into a heavy downpour. we're going to track some of that on storm ranger. you can see this yellow indicating a heavier pocket that just left daley city. off to the south, some of this rainfall to the south of half moon bay moving towards redwood city by 6:53. we'll continue to see this rain

move through hayward and dublin, move across the bay over the next 20-30 minutes. there you can also see heavier pockets of rain that was over dublin. this will keep it wet in live more. as we move through this evening, it looks like it will be situated by 8:00 p.m. it will drop down to the east bay and peninsula by 11:00 p.m. i think we're in here for overnight rain in the south bay as we roll into 4:00 in the morning. for the bulk of the morning commute around 7:00 a.m., we have a few pockets. and i do think we will get into sunshine as we head into tomorrow afternoon. temperature also start off cold. we have been used to this lately. 48 for the south bay. tri valley 45. have you coming in with 40 in the north bay, san francisco48.

there's not going to be many variations. if you live out here in the east bay, you're commuting into san francisco. the temperature is pretty much the same here, with lots of those low and mid-50s in the forecast. we got you ready with this storm system. let's get you ready for the nest thing on tap for us. and it's going to be another cold blast of air coming in saturday morning. widespread 30s inland. we could even see 30s near the bay, which is very unusual. 39 in hayward. maybe even down to 39 in half moon bay, patchy frost as we head into saturday morning. and hang on. yes, there's even more on the way. we haven't been used to this in a couple of years, but some much-welcomed wet weather again returning. once we hit sunday night we'll see shower develop, and this system could stall out for four days next week. our mountains next week could be four-plus inches. for the lower elevations, in the

1-2.5 inch range. as we get closer, we will of course share that with you. >> we need four-wheel drive for santa's sleigh. >> but i'm getting early word, he's still able to get through. we cannot disappoint. >> the kids would be very unhappy. up next, $500 a month, no strings attached. the bay area city giving some residents guaranteed basic income.

♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪

another outage for amazon ales web services that led to connection issues across the country. the outage affected a wide range of websites, including facebook, doordash and hulu. the sites had issues around 8:00 this morning, but the issues were resolved a short time later. you might remember last week amazon's web service experienced an outage as well that disrupted disney plus, netflix and other sites. it is up and running, as of

today, 160 families in south san francisco have received at least one check as part of the city's guaranteed basic income program. it launched to help those with covid. no strings attached. south san francisco is the first city in san mateo county to implement a guaranteed income program >> this is a way to provide opportunity and rye move some of the barriers. >> so the program is funded by money from the c.a.r.e.s act. >> remember this? an anniversary situation of a different kind. this was a scene one year ago as the city saw its first covid

vaccine administered. frontline workers were the first to get jabbed. since the first injections, san francisco's become one of the world's most-vaccinated cities right now with the rate of above 80%. today, one year later, covid protocols changing at chase center. what you need to know before you head to your next warriors game. when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online.

pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost.

okay, here's the deal. if you're taking your young kids to chase center for a warriors game or anything else, be prepared. >> kids aged 2-11 have to show proof of full vaccination or negative covid test to get into the arena. the test must be within 24 hours of the event if it's an antigen test. the simple blood test from a bay area company that could be the next major cancer break through. how this blood test works, and the man who says the test saved him from one of the deadliest types of cancer. then at 7:00, we'll be joined by one of the doctors in channel of developing this blood test. lester holt joins us now. breaking news tonight, the unprecedented december storms sweeping across the country as we come on the air reports of tornados on the ground and damage in the plains and midwest. nearly 100 million americans under alerts

from arizona to new york in the west rain and snow hurricane force winds, gusts over 100 miles an hour. travel nightmares on e road and in airports al roker tracking it all. it comes on the heels of that deadly tornado outbreak president biden in kentucky today touring the disaster zone. a massive recovery effort underway. growing fears of the omicron variant. now in at least 36 states dr. fauci today saying there is no need for an omicron-specific vaccine at this time because the current boosters work against it and the plea in one major u.s. city to avoid holiday gatherings. plus, new outbreaks in the nfl and nba. the new warning from u.s. airlines the danger they say from 5g networks why airlines ceo faced a grilling today on capitol hill. the new guilty plea from derek chauvin. months after his conviction for george floyd's murder our nbc news broadcast exclusive, the potential life- saving test that can detect cancer earlier.