. right now on "nbc bay area news tonight," more rain and more snow just in time for the weekend. chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is tracking it all for us. then, a worrying outbreak of whooping cough. 65 cases at a bay area high school. what you need to know about it. plus, pg&e on the hook for a $1 billion bill it says it can't fully pay. that's despite recent rate hikes and a record year of profits. we investigate. and it's opening day for the mlb. we are live at the coliseum where feelings about today are complicated.

good evening. this is "nbc bay area news tonight." i'm audrey asistio. well, today is major league baseball's opening day. a lot of excitement and some uncertainty as well. the a's are taking the field right now for what could be their last home opener. we'll get to that in a few minutes. first, we want to catch you up on some headlines we're watching tonight, including a whooping cough outbreak in the north bay. 65 cases tied to one high school alone. the marin county health department is tracking it all. they say the cases have been happening since december, and they're part of a larger outbreak of 113 cases county wide. symptoms include runny nose, sore throat, and a distinctive cough. while teenagers and adults usually experience mild cases, the highly contagious respiratory infection can be deadly for infants.

>> our primary goal here in public health is protection of the infant. that's because these infants have very small lungs and also they can't start their vaccines until they're 2 months old. >> the school district tells us they're working closely with public health to monitor the outbreak. they aren't requiring masks, but students and staff are being told to stay home if they are showing any symptoms. another headline tonight, b.a.r.t.'s crackdown on crime is apparently paying off. more patrols at stations and on trains are leading to a jump in arrests. b.a.r.t. says felony arrests went up more than 60% in 2023 compared to the prior year. from 448 felony arrests in 2022 to 726 last year. officers also seized 49 illegal guns last year. that's actually the most they've recovered in a single year since 2003. we did speak with b.a.r.t.'s police chief today about what the department's been doing

differently. >> last year, we made probably the single biggest change in our deployment strategy that i've seen in my 27 years here at the b.a.r.t. police department, and that was to really emphasize train patrol, both for our sworn police officers and for our unarmed civilians who are out there in the system. >> we're told that b.a.r.t.'s also working aggressively to recruit new officers to try and fill vacancies. also tonight, the wet weather isn't done with us just yet. today on-and-off showers and cloudy skies. you are looking at time-lapse video from our san jose camera this afternoon. i want you to check this out now because this right here, that right there, another storm on the radar. it's offshore, but it is headed this way just in time for the easter weekend. and if you are planning a weekend getaway to tahoe, you might want to hold off. more snow will be falling in the sierra. this is the drive on i-80. the roads are clear right now, but that could change as early as tomorrow morning, especially

in the higher elevations. let's bring in chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. jeff, when do we expect this next storm to come in? >> it's going to start to arrive by tomorrow morning. so after a few spotty showers today, you'll see here on stormranger, our doppler radar, we have started to see things dry out. let's get you that pacific view. we'll show you an even more expansive look. what we have is this broad upper-level low pressure system, also a cold front embedded in that. it's basically going to just slowly linger down the coastline tomorrow, saturday, and sunday to keep these rain chances with us, albeit i think the heaviest widespread rain will come as we head through tomorrow's forecast. we'll start to see that rain at the coastline at 7:00 in the morning. check this out, by 11:00 a.m., heavy, heavy rain just offshore. that's going to slam us for the afternoon commute. 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, extremely heavy downpours expected with that. wind gusts could hit up to 50 miles per hour. then we change up here into some scattered rain and thunderstorm chances by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow night. so along with that rain, we also

just talked about the wind. 20 to 50 miles per hour, and those thunderstorms. we'll also see easter weekend rain chances continue. sierra snow as we head through tomorrow and saturday looks like at this point it's going to stack up to about 16 inches at kingvale. 8 south tahoe. 15 in kirkwood. we think at this point by easter sunday, we should only have maybe an inch or two, and it looks really good as we head through easter sunday, at least up through the sierra. i've got more looks at our hourly timeline. it's coming up in about ten minutes. also tonight, pg&e is getting a break on a $1 billion bill. the utility owes us, its customers, that money for helping them with the massive wildfire bailout. the bill is due at the end of this month. but as our investigative unit has been reporting, pg&e wants to delay the bulk of that payment because it says it doesn't have the funds right now. our investigative unit has now learned that california regulators recently okayed that

plan. critics point out that pg&e has known for years that this bill would come due. they also say pg&e should be flush with cash right now thanks to a string of rate hikes and $2 billion in profits last year. >> the idea that the shareholders, after reporting record profits, don't have the money to fulfill their legal obligations is laughable. >> so joining us now is investigative reporter jaxon van derbeken. jaxon, so why does pg&e say it's short on cash right now? >> reporter: well, it's a complicated question. basically they spent an extraordinary amount on wildfire reduction measures, including $2 billion, they largely expended their entire earnings for last year on wildfire efforts. so they basically say that they had counted on a regulatory approval for a way they had

planned to raise money. that didn't come through quite the way they hoped, and so now they're stuck in what they consider a financial challenge. >> okay. so pg&e has its reasons, but jaxon, a lot of people who are paying for their pg&e bills are saying, you know, i'm paying more. so will this delay impact our bills at all? >> reporter: well, right now the fund, which is a running fund. it started with a billion dollars. it's running about $250 million or less, and so depending on how many users there are and how much electricity is being used, the fund is depleted by, you know, to the tune of $30 million or more a month. so pg&e could theoretically run out of money if there's a heavy demand. so the idea is they're going to put some money in the fund now, not the full billion that they promised, about a third of it, and that way it will tide them through for about a year.

>> they're going to try to put a third in it, but eventually pg&e will have to pay up. so what's the plan to make that happen? >> reporter: well, they were hoping on this plan to sell off a large stake of their energy-producing assets, their hydroelectric dams and other power plants to investors to raise some of that money, about $3.5 billion was going to hopefully come their way so they could pay off this installment that they owe and try to move forward on a bunch of different fronts. but right now, a regulatory judge has basically said that plan is not in the public interest because it could raise rates further although pg&e says that won't happen. and there's also just general concerns about instability when the asset is partly owned and the hope is that the details could be worked out so regulators really know what pg&e has in mind.

right now the judge isn't satisfied about that. >> surely a lot going on right now. thank you for that update. appreciate it. we're going to switch gears now because it is opening day for the mlb, and it might be a historic night for a's fans at the coliseum. right now the oakland athletics are taking on the cleveland guardians in what could be the team's very last home opener. fans are celebrating with a boycott. frustrated fans who are holding out hope that the a's won't relocate to las vegas are packing the parking lot for a block party boycott. it's being hosted by a number of fan groups including last dive bar. and during the fifth inning, you might start to hear honking to signal the start of the "sell the team" chants. it's all in an effort to send a message to the a's ownership. now, inside the park, not everyone was boycotting. this was video taken just ten minutes before the game started. you can see not too many people there. some fans did show up, though, looking pretty sparse right now.

let's bring in our pete suratos at the coliseum for us tonight. pete, looks like there's a lot of people behind you there. what's the latest? >> reporter: yeah. you know, quite the crowd here in parking lot b of the coliseum. they're here for this opening day tailgate boycott. there's no plans for the folks here to go inside the coliseum. you've got thousands of fans here in this area. again, this tailgate is a boycott of the game. there are no -- [ inaudible ] a message to ownership, but they're not happy about the imminent move of the team to las vegas. of course we saw something similar -- not something similar, but inside the ballpark last year, they had that reverse -- [ inaudible ] -- throughout the year, but i'll tell you it is a pretty big crowd out here. the folks i spoke to, they're telling me there's no plans for them to go in.

>> we talk about these are fans, you know. they love their team. i hear them chanting right now. pete, if you can hear me, how are those fans feeling about being there but not going inside? >> reporter: yeah. you know, for the fans, it's pretty bittersweet. they want to go inside, but they know it is a bigger cause. i spoke to one woman who says her family goes to all of these opening day games, but they understand again that this is a bigger cause for all the fans who are unhappy about the a's making that move to vegas. so she's going to stay put here in this parking lot, to stay here with these fans who are unhappy about the a's eventual move to las vegas. >> pete suratos live at the oakland coliseum for us today, thank you. we did also ask the a's new play-by-play announcer, then ji cavnar, about opening day. we asked her if she had any reservations about taking the job given fans perfect frustrations. here's what she told us

yesterday. >> i saw this a lot. my husband is a huge oakland raiders fan -- was a huge oakland raiders fan. i saw the emotion from him during that course of time. i feel like i understand a little bit what these fans are going through. but, no, i didn't. this is an organization that has a history that dates back to the early 1900s. we're talking about the 124th opening day coing up tomorrow for the athletics. i just think when you look at the history and all the things that come with that, it's exciting to be a part of baseball history. >> all right. as for the giants, they opened up their season in san diego this afternoon. many new faces on the team, so lots of optimism as they can get back into the playoffs this year. it started off well for the giants. took the early lead in the third inning, but the padres rallied to come back. giants lose this one 6-4. giants home opener at oracle is next friday.

still to come, san jose's outgoing police chief gets a little choked up when talking about taking off his badge for the last time during our exclusive sit-down interview. and later, yeah, it's a robot serving food to customers. we're going to take you to the

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gershkovich was detained in russia. charges against him include collecting russian state secrets. he's the first american journalist detained on such charges since the cold war. u.s. officials have called those charges fiction. gershkovich's family recently learned that russia is extending his detention by three months. despite that, they say they are holding out hope that evan will come home soon. his sister spoke with our ginger conejero saab earlier today. >> it's devastating to know that he is going to be in pretrial detention for a year and three months. every single day is too long. but he is remarkably strong. he works very, very hard to stay this strong, and we have to keep going for him. so we're just going to continue to be advocates for evan, keep him in the news, and just do whatever it takes to get him

home. unfortunately the path forward is really a conversation between governments. we're right now relying on president biden's promise to our family that he's going to get evan home, and the team of experts who are working around the clock on this. >> putin has indicated that he is open to a prisoner swap for gershkovich if an agreement can be reached with washington. there's no word on when that might be. moving on, san jose top cop is getting ready to say goodbye. saturday is chief tony mata's last official day on the job. he spent 28 years on the force. last three served as chief. but now he is moving on to lead the investigations team at the santa clara county d.a.'s office. chief mata sat down for an exit interview with us today. he told us he hadn't thought about how it would feel to take his badge off for the last time.

>> it's pain. it's -- i can't explain it. i know it's going to be emotional given that i've been here for 28 years, serving the community and leading, you know, the amazing men and women here. >> assistant police chief paul joseph will serve as acting chief until a permanent replacement is found. yesterday on this show, raj mathai spoke to san jose mayor matt mahan about how long that search will take. >> are you guys close, and is it going to take 13 months like it did in oakland? >> i don't think it should take that long in san jose. we just completed six community feedback sessions. we do have a very robust process. this is a national search. it's competitive, open to people from across the country as well as applicants from within the

department. we want to make sure we get a lot of community feedback. we'll have different community panels. and ultimately the city manager will bring forward a nominee, and then the council has to also interview that person and ultimately approve or send the city manager back out to continue the search. i'm hopeful that we'll have a new chief in place by the fall. >> we also spoke to the mayor about using a.i. to track homeless encampments and keeping longtime san jose community members from being priced out. you can watch those portions of the interview at nbcbayarea.com. well, this has been years in the making. a new training center for firefighters is now up and running in san jose, and we got an up-close look at how they're using it to make the south bay a safer place. the new training center includes a six-story tower meant to mimic a lot of environments firefighters would encounter in the field. the fire chief says this site was badly needed. >> believe it or not, i've been in the department almost 35 years now, and our told training center was old when i started.

so we're in a facility that's been long overdue. >> there's also a new emergency operations center at that same site. this gives city officials a central location to monitor things like an earthquake or a flood. it features upgraded technology. it's about five times bigger than the last operations center. all right. another live look outside at the oakland coliseum. the a's playing the guardians in their home opener right now. je is going tffo

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don't wait- call today. look at this. robots at restaurants. there's a new robotic waitress

at a seafood restaurant in the east bay. it's been nicknamed rosie the robot at cajun kraken in concorde. rosie can serve up to three tables at once, lasts the whole shift when fully charged, can even sing happy birthday to guests. servers say the robot is a big hit with the kids and has really helped out during the dinner rush. right? >> i've got one thing to say. >> okay. what? >> bring me more of those french fries. we missed it. i did a little robot here. >> you have to show it again. it was too good. >> bring me more of those french fries. they look delicious, right? >> so good. >> we do have some rainfall coming our way. we'll bring you some sunshine eventually but it's all about this system moving down the coastline here as we head through tomorrow, saturday, and easter sunday. let's show you more about what's going to be happening with that storm right now in your microclimate forecast. as we start it off for tomorrow morning, 7:00, we'll see that rain starting to approach. we'll have the best chance here

at the coastline for the 7:00 commute. things will start to pick up here offshore as we head through 11:00. really the worst of this is from 1:00 through about 5:00 tomorrow with some very heavy downpours. then we should transition into some scattered rain as we move through tomorrow morning. saturday, we'll keep some scattered thunderstorms in the mix for the morning and right into the afternoon. here's the good part. by easter morning when you're trying to do those egg hunts, looks like it's going to start off with some dry weather here, even some sun mixing in. then as we head through easter afternoon, we'd have the chance here of some thunderstorms. so rainfall totals overall tomorrow, a quarter to three-quarters of an inch for most of us. santa cruz mountains and coast could get up to about an inch. on saturday, a quarter to about a half inch. on easter sunday, it's trace amounts to about a tenth of an inch. right now for easter morning, we're looking all good with thunderstorm chances eventually for the afternoon. look at this. sunshine coming back by the

afternoon. some low and mid-70s for monday, tuesday, and wednesday. so that is going to be shaping up really snies. >> >> jeff, thanks. as we wrap up, kit hoover is getting started with "access hollywood." >> well, the quiet on-set doc has dropped so many bombshells about the inappropriate and criminally abusive acts suffered by some of nickelodeon's biggest child stars back in the heyday. tonight for the first time, kenan thompson opens about his experiences. then we're bringing you the stories behind two wildly different new films. in school, gillian anderson stars as the journalist who questioned prince andrew in the midst of the jeffrey epstein scandal. then it's the comedy we didn't know we needed about breakfast. jerry seinfeld shares why he's bringing his obsession with cereal to the screen, just

moment awa on "access hollywood." >> kit, thanks. coming uponig in prime time, it's our law & order lineup beginning at 8:00. then svu at 9:00, and law & order: organized crime at 10:00. then at 11:00, a mixup in paradise. a bay area woman says someone built a house on her property without her knowing it. the bizarre story unfolding on the big island. at's goingth

tonight on "access hollywood" -- >> i have no idea! >> it's a tough subject, you know. >> sharing his own experience as one of nickelodeon's biggest child stars, kenan thompson's first words on the "quiet on set" abuse allegations. >> it's supposed to be a safe place. >> the question is why you? >> public displays of affection are not something i do. >> he talked to try to clear his name, but it backfired. now "access" unveils the new film recreating prince