we the people spoke right now at 11 alameda county district attorney pamela price is in the

fight for her professional life as county supervisors prepared to discuss options for an election that could remove her from office. we're going to show you why, she says the effort is undemocratic. but first, we begin with breaking news coming into our newsroom. this is from the office of president biden. president biden's administration is taking a historic step. this is toward easing federal restrictions on marijuana. sources telling nbc news that biden plans to announce an interim rule soon, reclassifying the drug for the first time since the controlled substance act was enacted more than 50 years ago. the dea is expected to approve an opinion by the department of health and human services that marijuana should be reclassified from the most strict schedule one to a less stringent schedule three. by making the change, the drug would now be studied and

researched to identify concrete medical benefits. that move would also eliminate significant tax burdens for businesses in states where the drug is legal. and i want to thank you for joining us for our midday newscast. i'm marcus washington, and i'm ginger conejero saab. laura garcia is off today. now to our other top story, alameda county district attorney pamela price is coming out swinging on the day that the alameda county registrar of voters is to present the recall effort to the supervisors. the da is accusing him of trying to conduct an illegal election. nbc bay area's kris sanchez joining us now from the newsroom. and, kris, you have more on what a lot of folks are calling this, a fiery news conference. yeah, it certainly felt that way. alameda county district attorney pamela price just talked about the complaints that she filed with the state attorney general's office, the california fair political practices commission, and irregularities with the county registrars process as well. da price filed the motions on

behalf of the group, protect the win for public safety, who support her, saying that the group behind the recall effort, save alameda for everyone, did not comply with financial disclosures for nearly $600,000 in funding. she also accused some of the signature gatherers of showing people one petition, then getting them to sign a different one in a bait and switch. she called it, and in some cases, harassing people. as for the registrar of voters, she says his process has not been by the book. with this proposed recall election, there has not been sufficient notice of it. the registrar has not followed the law, consistently. he's picked and he's cherry picked. what provisions should apply and what provisions should not? and that is not a democratic process. at 1:00 this afternoon, save alameda for everyone or safe, as they call themselves, they will talk about the reason they want da price out. they have said repeatedly that price's criminal justice reforms

put the rights of suspects ahead of those victims and of their families, and have led to higher crime rates. now, here's what could happen today. alameda county supervisors could set the recall election as part of the fall election, or they could call for a special election, or they could declare the special election invalid altogether. i should say the recall election altogether out. the supervisors will take up the recall issue at 2:00 this afternoon. marcus and ginger, much to watch out for. thanks a lot, chris. also just into our newsroom, a car fire. this is slowing down traffic on the bay bridge. let's get over to mike, who's tracking the backup on this mike. yeah. look, just seconds ago, actually, the fire trucks arrived. we've seen this since we saw this plume of black smoke. this is the upper deck. remember? on the san francisco side, you can tell there's the upper and the lower deck. upper deck. getting into san francisco, this black smoke, they have blocked off the three lanes. the three left lanes. as you're getting into san francisco and fire crews just arrived. they had to come over

from the oakland side because this is on the oakland side of treasure island. so there's the black smoke on that side starting to ease up just a tad bit. but you saw the flames as you're approaching san francisco. the backup through the treasure island tunnel all the way up the incline and then continuing back just as the morning commute was starting to ease up a bit, we had the buildup continue once again at the bay bridge toll plaza, so westbound 80 is jammed up from that san francisco approach. all the way back in toward the toll plaza again. and we have not had relief for the richmond bridge that might see more traffic. again. we'll track that. but just know there is that delay. back to you. thanks a lot, mike. well, there are no longer flames at this fire right now. firefighters are still, however, on the scene of a large fire which destroyed a commercial building over in the east bay. nbc bay area's bob redell joins us live from concord. and bob, do we have an idea on the cause of this fire yet? not yet. the contra costa county fire protection district says they are still investigating or going to be investigating this fire

that burned, as you can hear behind me, near concord. bart station, you can see firefighters are still out here. they've been out here for well over 12 hours and until about five, ten minutes ago, they were still dumping water on this building. as you mentioned, the fire is out, but they are on the scene to make sure there's nothing in there that is still hot. that could flare back up. this is video from khan fire overnight. it shows you just how big and dangerous this fire was when the firefighters arrived around 1030 last night. this was a vacant three story commercial building, not far from concord, bart. as i mentioned, it is bordered by three streets east sunset and clayton and it is, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. according to khan fire, who we spoke to earlier. this is video taken by other people who are about a block or two away. again, it gives you a good sense of just how bad this fire was. khan fire tells us that they did immediately search the building to make sure no one was inside. fortunately, they did not find anyone and because

the structure was already at least 50% involved and the roof already collapsing, or at least in danger of collapsing, they went into defensive mode, which meant they stayed outside on the street at a safe distance. they poured water on the fire and made sure it didn't spread to other structures. now, the biggest challenge for this one is, of course, the safety of all that we're fighting. this fire. we had external collapses, we had internal collapses. the roof collapsed inside the building. so just making sure everybody was safe while we controlled what was going on inside the structure. and that's why one reason why you went defensive kind of right off the. yeah exactly. khan fire says they had this fire under control within 2 to 3 hours. again, no one was hurt. there's no evidence that anyone had been squatting inside the building at the time of the fire. khan fire believes that someone had been slowly renovating this building over the past five years, but not sure if it was currently hooked up for electricity. and i say that as within the past 30

minutes, some pg and e trucks have shown up. don't know what that means. if that means there was power connected to this building, just not clear. again, that was part of the investigation. the roads around here are closed and it could be several hours before they reopen because the city needs to come out here, remove the debris, secure the site. and it looks like that's something you could see with a little backhoe that they're doing right now, reporting live here in concord, bob redell nbc bay area news. sounds like that's still going to take some time there, bob. thank you. and we continue our coverage on what's happening in new york city. this is where columbia university is threatening protesters who are barricaded inside a campus building with expulsion. this comes after tensions are boiling over from overnight. those protesters storming an academic building on campus demanding the university divest from companies doing business with israel. nbc news george solis is in new york at the university with the latest things here at columbia university as tense as they ever

were. after those protesters stormed hamilton hall, essentially seizing the building, and have been in there now for several hours, about 200 or so protesters at last check here outside of campus, restricted access only one way in or out. security here, outside of the gates. only essential personnel and certain students allowed on campus. you can imagine. very frustrating for those trying to get in to complete final exams ahead of commencement, which at this point is unclear if it will happen here on campus or some other location. keep in mind all of this unfolding after that 2 p.m. deadline yesterday provided by the university, asking for those pro-palestinian demonstrators to break up their encampment and voluntarily leave. well, that came and went. those students calling the university's bluff. and now again, taking control of this building. the nypd has a presence here outside of the campus, but at this point, they are not going on campus. and that is from the university saying they have worked with them, especially during this

siege of the building. but at this point, no plans to go on campus at this time. all of this, of course, unfolding as these campus clashes with police continue nationwide. up to this point, more than a thousand arrests from coast to coast as these protests continue. back to you, george. thank you. meanwhile, closer to home, students at san francisco state joining the encampment movement as well, protesters there waking up this morning in a new encampment. this was created just yesterday as sf state, now one of several bay area schools where tent protests are taking place. those protesters there, like those at schools at uc berkeley and stanford, have similar demands in trying to keep a united front happening now, state attorney general rob bonta is hosting a roundtable in san jose. you're seeing a live look from that roundtable. he is meeting with local leaders to talk about efforts to prevent gun violence. now, back in 2022, bonta announced the launch of the state department of justice's office of gun violence

prevention, the first of its kind in the country. now he is expected to speak now. at some point, we will have updates on our evening newscasts as well as online at nbcbayarea.com. a new york judge is ordering former president donald trump to pay $9,000. this is for violating a gag order in his ongoing hush money trial, which is underway again today. the first witness is expected back on the stand is a bank executive who prosecutors claim helped facilitate that $130,000 payment to adult film star stormy daniels. this morning. the judge in that case warned trump that he could be jailed for further violations. trump has pleaded not guilty to trying to hide payments made to both daniels and playboy model karen mcdougal, both tied to alleged affairs ahead of the 2016 election. a live look outside in downtown san jose this midday. a beautiful day outside. if you want to get out. meteorologist kari hall has been tracking all of the beautiful weather we've been having

recently. rain in our forecast at all for the weekend, but we i know, but we are enjoying some beautiful weather for our workweek. let's get out there and enjoy it here soon. we are going to continue to see this sunny sky and also the breezy wind that's been kicking up will also increase again later on this afternoon. it's going to be windy for the hills. some of our inland areas, especially in solano county where there will most likely be wind advisories going up, and then also warmer temperatures starting to build for our valleys. that will be in the 70s and 80s over the next couple of days with changes this weekend, as we mentioned, a chance of showers, cooler and breezy weather. so right now, as you're heading out in san rafael , we've got a wind at about 13mph. at 63 degrees, we're headed for the upper 60s here today, and we'll see low 70s for the south bay, as well as the low 70s for the east bay and much of the north bay. we'll talk about the nice warming trend that we have, but then that weekend cooldown, that's coming up in the full

microclimate forecast, marcus and ginger put on those jackets for now are in the weekend. yeah all right. well, mysterious liars about a new utopian city popping up in san francisco. so ahead for you this midday newscast, the tech workers behind them and the action they want residents to take, plus working to prevent rolling blackouts during heat waves, the way artificial intelligence is being used to balance the energy grid. we'll be right back

pursuing over artificial intelligence in a lawsuit, it says microsoft and openai illegally harvested millions of copywritten materials for its products. the paper, outlining the legal claims in its publication. we have reached out to microsoft, which is not commenting at this time, but that lawsuit echoes a similar suit filed by the new york times

in reference to those legal claims. microsoft and other ai said openai. as you say, say that allegations that ai threatens journalism are, quote, pure fiction. well, college bound students and their parents, this one is for you. listen up here. because california is extending its deadline for state financial aid programs, you can now have until thursday. this is to apply through fafsa or the california dream act. applications governor gavin newsom's office says that fewer high school students are actually filling out those forms for that financial aid. the extension was made possible after the governor signed an urgency measure into law. now to a follow up, a san jose school district is settling three lawsuits for abuse, which took place more than 20 years ago. former sierra mont middle school teacher ronald gardner was recently convicted for sexually assaulting students in the early 2000. he is serving a 22 year prison sentence, now the san jose berryessa union school

district was accused of ignoring blatant red flags about gardner's behavior. the district will settle the lawsuits for more than $10 million. well, new at 11, there's a new proposal to build a new community within san francisco. want to give you a live look at the city right now. so if you've been walking around, you may have seen those fliers advertising a project by the nonprofit city campus. well, that plan would transform a square mile of lower lower haight, hayes valley, and alamo square neighborhoods into a walkable campus with the idea of the community, people could live, raise families, and work near their friends. the nonprofit wants to fund a major piece of the infrastructure every six months, with a goal of $750,000 to get the project off the ground. the group leading the push for a new city in solano county says it has more than enough signatures to put an initiative backing the proposal on the november ballot. this is video from a news conference taking place over in vallejo

within the hour. the project is called california forever. now. developers want to build it from scratch on land between rio vista and travis air force base, a group of billionaire investors are behind or is behind the plan. and here is the founder and ceo of california forever. the thing that i personally love is the number of people who have looked at this new economic engine in eastern solano county and said, this is a place where i see a future for me and for my family. california forever says it has gathered 20,000 signatures. 13,000 was a number that was necessary to put it on the ballot. the county says it will take about 30 to 60 days to verify those signatures. well, we are getting a look at new research when it comes to energy efficiency across the u.s, and three major cities right here in the bay area are cracking the top ten when it comes to large metro areas. in fact, san

francisco coming in at number one when it comes to the grades handed out by the american council for the energy efficient economy as part of the city's clean energy scoreboard. oakland coming in at number five, san jose making the list at number nine. now, the climate efforts such as clean transportation policies, reducing energy waste and buildings and homes, as well as cutting climate pollution. but even with the good news, san francisco still only gets a 63% at the top of that list. the organization says there are ways the city can improve some things that we recommended in the scorecard that they take a look at, is that they can take a look at, for example, passing, standards that would require buildings that are already in existence. so not your new construction, but, some of your larger, say, office or multifamily buildings. now the nonprofit research organization develops policies to reduce energy waste and combat climate change. in case you are

wondering, akron, ohio, comes in last, right? well, hopefully some of these efforts that we're making here in the bay area to push for better climate or make changes for our climate, they'll result in better weather, maybe. yeah, hopefully. i mean, that's the goal, right? yeah we don't want it to get worse. and we've really been enjoying a nice stretch of some beautiful sunshine and slightly warmer than normal temperatures, but still very nice. and our temperatures in oakland is at 59 currently. we do have a breezy wind that's been picking up moving through the north bay as well as san francisco. we are going to see those winds get stronger once again as we go through our hour by hour wind gusts forecast, it shows that we'll see 2530 five mile per hour winds near the coastline in some of the valleys. a light breeze, but definitely not that windy. and we are also going to see it increasing for the evening 30, possibly 40mph there in san francisco. and then later on tonight, the wind gradually

starts to calm down. so looking at the south bay, morgan hill, you're going to see a high of 75 and 74 in milpitas. and we'll see a high in the mid 70s as well. for much of the east bay. walnut creek, 75 and 69, in hayward and then near the coast. we're in the low 60s today. half moon bay, 62 degrees in redwood city, 68 and san francisco in the mid 60s. downtown while the ingleside district will be in the low 60s and 71 in novato and in clear lake, 73 degrees. so we're in the 70s. it feels nice. we'll have a couple of more days like this, but then things change as we get into the weekend. with a cold front dipping in. it will bring in a brief, spotty shower. and this is right in the middle of saturday. the sierra is going to get some snow and then the cool air continues with rain very close to the north bay into early next week. so we're going to see some showers. it doesn't look like a heavy soaker. and this is an early look at how much rain we may see. the areas

in green that's higher rainfall totals near the coastline in the santa cruz mountains. that's about a quarter to half inch of rainfall. while most of us will get a quarter inch of rain or less. so that's barely enough to wet the lawn. and then we go back to some dry conditions. our temperatures in san jose will be in the upper 70s. and then look at saturday's high only 62 degrees. it's going to be a chilly weekend, but next week is looking comfortable as well, with highs up to about 70 degrees. a look at our 7-day forecast shows that we will be well above normal for the next couple of days in the inland areas, and then into friday. still looks nice, but we will see some rain chances on saturday. it's mainly going to be some very spotty showers and then for early next week we'll see temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s. while san francisco will see highs in the 60s, but only 58 degrees on saturday. and now let's turn to our climate in crisis. there is a big effort around the world to

use natural resources like solar and wind energy to generate electricity in a way that doesn't harm the planet. but we're finding that there is a delicate balance between when that energy is available and when it's used due to the hours of sunlight or when the wind blows. so there's a challenge on how to store that energy to make it useful later when it's dark, or when the wind is calm. and a company called grid beyond has found a way to use artificial intelligence technology to not only forecast peak renewable energy, but how to balance the grid. ceo of grid beyond michael fallon says they're also looking into ways to use vehicles as a way of storing clean energy and a really neat example of that are school busses. so school busses spend about 4 to 6 hours a day on the road, and the rest of the time they're charging well, if you turn them into a vtg system, a vehicle to grid system, or even vehicle to building system, they can give back the power that they have in

the battery on the peak, so they can actually help the grid at those times. and in the summer, obviously they're not used very much either. so they become effectively batteries that are available to balance the grid in the summertime. so they're a really good example of how vehicles can really help to stabilize the grid. using ai to balance the power grid may help us transition to green energy sources much more quickly and efficiently. we'll post more on how you can learn about grid beyond. it's on our website, nbcbayarea.com, and look for this story on our climate in crisis page. carrie thank you. good information. well, happening now, oakland's brand new baseball team should be sliding safely into its new home later today. council members expected to sign off on the team's plan to play this season over at raymond park in west oakland. now, the ballers will be joining the independent pioneer league. the team plans to spend $1.5 million. this is to bring that field

burnt out vehicles still on the bay bridge, getting into san francisco is jammed. we see a flatbed tow truck and they are slowing traffic to continue that work. they hopefully will clear that soon, but look at the big jam all the way across that bay bridge. the fire is out. happened at about 45 minutes ago. for about 20 minutes we had the entire bridge shut down. the backup continues to build out of

oakland, so you should use the san mateo or the richmond bridge or bart as your alternates. this should clear soon, but not yet. back to you. all right. thanks, mike. last look at that forecast for us. yeah. nice and sunny temperatures. a little bit warmer than normal. headed for the low to mid 70s today and slightly warmer tomorrow into thursday. the weekend though if you're already making plans, it is going to be very chilly. only 63 degrees. all right. not letting go of that jacket. just yet. no, not yet, not yet at all. all right. look, thanks for joining us here on our midday newscast. don't forget, we're streaming 24/7 on roku, amazon fire as well as samsung tv plus and xumo. you can also get the latest on nbcbayarea.com. our next newscast is at 430. thanks so much

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