Statues last night, former president ulysses s. Grant. It comes amid growing debate of the legacies of historic figures. Christie smith joins us live with more from golden gate park. Reporter the city says the crew came out here and worked through the night after the statues were pulled down. I want to step aside so you can see what it looks like out here. Basically just the pedestals remain here and at another location. Now, today people keep coming by to see what happened. City crews removed spray paint from pedestals. I think that those should have been taken down a long, long time ago. Reporter statues of Francis Scott key, ulysses s. Grant are gone. We obtained video of the monuments being pulled down. Last night hundreds of people showed up and bottles were thrown at officers. Established missions and accused. Scott key composed the star spangled banner and was known to have owned slaves. And grant, the 18th president , had a history with both. Havent seen any representation of oppression or racism or slavery come down. Mayor london breed released a statement saying in part theres real pain in the country of slavery and oppression especially against africanamericans and indigenous people. I know that pain all too well. But the damage done to our park last night went far beyond just the statues that were tore down and included significant damage to golden gate park. A statue was spray painted and the city says the concourse was widely spray painted too including benches, a sculpture, and drinking fountain. This neighbor was upset by what we saw. Its wrong. Why . What are you accomplishing . Youre destroying things that dont belong to you. Its from the city, our city, my city. Bridgette ford is a professor of history at cal state east bay. I think these public spaces matter, and i think students i know young people i meet with are very hungry for an accurate history of the past. Theyre very hungry for more representative history. I have mixed feelings about it, but i understand the sentiment very well. Back here live the mayor says also in that statement that every dollar spent cleaning up after this taeks funds away from supporting the community including the africanamerican community, adding that she does not say that to defend any particular statue or what it represents. Reporting live in San Francisco, christie smith, nbc bay area news. Thanks very much. A number of activists showed up to San Francisco city hall today to paint a clear picture in giant letters, spelling out defund police. Reform does not happen when its in the hands of police. In other words, police cant police themselves. They want a pledge from the city to dismantle the Current Police department and build something better. Were calling for justice. Its time for community oversielgt of the process. There needs to be Community Oversight of how change happens. Activists say instead of a Police Department, the city should build an institution that guards Public Health and safety. The demonstrations, calls for justice continue across the bay area today. Youre looking at a live picture from our sky ranger over solidarity march. This is a group that marched on Martin Luther king, turned on 40th. Theyre going under 24 right now. It started at the berkeley Police Department and theyre headed to the mcarthur b. A. R. T. Station in oakland. We will keep you posted on that. The demonstrations and the call for justice continue across the bay area today. This one a solidarity march in berkeley. You see a few hundred people showed up and theyre marching down the streets. What were seeing here is people gathering at a park. People also gathering to honor and celebrate the juneteenth weekend. This is an event for wellness, community and healing, the crowd is growing. President trump is in tulsa tonight for his First Campaign rally since the on set of the coronavirus pandemic. Its a highly controversial visit during the juneteenth weekend, with positive tests for covid19 spiking across the city and even among the president s Campaign Staffers. Heres jay gray in tulsa. And the home of the brave reporter early, its as much street fair as political rally. Food trucks and vendors, thousands here putting their money on president trump. We need to let them know that its okay to have our freedom of speech. We can come out here and support our president. I mean, hes great. He wants to make the country great again, and i support him 100 . Reporter the core of the city is k locked down, standing watch getting unsolicited help. You see in help where you see lawlessness occur. Youre not going to see that here. Were not going to allow that to happen here. As thousands move through the gates, theyre handed face masks, private vendors giving away shields. But few wears them in a city with spikes of covid19 tests, and the Trump Campaign announcing six advance Campaign Staffers havest theed positive for the virus. The virus is a risk but in the past several weeks weve seen many different groups come out in great groups to protest their cause. Were Just Another Group like that. There are sign of protest in the crowd. You had a ticket, right . Yes yes this woman wearing an i cant breathe tshirt pulled out by tulsa police. Tension high ahead of the president s First Campaign rally in more than three months. Jay gray, nbc news, tulsa. Well, president Trumps Campaign released a statement about the protesters at todays rally. It reads in part, sadly, protesters interfered with supporters, even blocking access to the metal detectors, preventing people from entering the rally. Radical protesters coupled with the relentlessness of the media. P one man is under arrest after a stabbing spree outside london. Local media is reporting at least three people are dead. Ef several others are hurt. Police say theres no indication this liis linked to a protest. The political tug of war continues. President trump has fired geoffrey berman, the u. S. Attorney in manhattan. This coming less than 24 hours after attorney general bill barr said berman would be stepping down. At first berman said he had no intentions of resigning but in the past couple of hours says he will step down, ending the showdown. Barr says he was surprised and quite disappointed by the original spot. President trump says he wasnt involved in that decision. Were learning new details about a drug many hoped would help treat coronavirus patients. The National Institute of health has halted its Clinical Trial of hydroxychloroquine after finding it has no benefit to covid19 patients. This is the latest in the series of antimalaria drugs. The fda revoked the emergency use of the drug on monday. The World Health Organization dropped the drug from its global study on wednesday. The nih says while there was no benefit, there was also no harm in patients treated with that drug. Cases nationwide continuing to climb. There are now more than 2. 2 million reported cases of covid across the united states. Nearly 120,000 americans have lost their lives to the virus. So far today the bay area has added nearly 300 new cases. Alameda county continues to be the hot spot. Last week it was, again now adding 101 new cases in the past 24 hours getting the total there to over 4,800. An increase in cases not keeping everyone home though. Take a look at this. Get the fairly good traffic out there northbound 101. People trying to get to eikea. Marianne favro with more on the busy shopping day on the peninsula, marianne. Youre right. Hundreds of people headed to this ikea store. This is the first time this store has been open in more than three months. If you take a look now, even now with the store closing at 7, there are more than 200 people in this line. The lines were so long it looked like customers were waiting for a ride at disneyland. Some people drove more than 60 miles to shop here. For many this was the only ikea around that was open. I needed to go to ikea. We have one in emeryville, but theyre closed. Unfortunately the line is ridiculous out here. Its really ridiculous. We need a sense of normalcy, to get out. Reporter it was so busy at one point the parking garage even filled up and there was a highway 101 back up at the off ramp for the store. Customers are required to wear a mask and the restaurant is not open. Some of the customers we talked to said it took two hours to get inside the store. Reporting live in east palo alto, marianne favro, nbc bay area news. All right, thanks very much. Another sunny weekend, people out and about, social distancing being observed here. Sky ranger flying of alamo square park in San Francisco this afternoon. You can see people there staying inside the circles. The white circles there, everybody giving each other space, at least six feet. Similar scene in do lor res park, people keeping in their circles. Every time we check theyre inside those circles. We know keeping track of whats open and whats closed very confusing. So, we have broken it down by county on our website. To reach our guide, use the qr code on the bottom left of your screen. Just point the camera on your phone at that code dont take a picture. Just point it there. It will take you right to the article on our website. Up next at 5 00, bringing a football franchise back to the east bay. How an oakland business groups plan to make that happen could make nfl history. Cal state students may have a requirement to check off before getting their diplomas. The extra class that could become mandatory. And were officially now into summer and the 7day forecast is certainly looking a lot like it when those 90s make a big come back and we come back in just a couple minutes. Were all doing our part by staying at home. That could mean an increase in energy bills. You can save by using a fan to cool off. Unplugging and turning off devices when not in use. Or closing your shades during the day. Stay well and keep it golden. Video just into our news room, a grass fire on San Francisco bay. Were told the fire boat at the scene was able to put the flames out quickly. You see the smoke coming up. You cant hide that fire. Its in the middle of the bay. Everybody can see it. No homes damaged, nobody hurt. Fire crews arent sure how it started. Group of Business Owners working to bring an nfl team back to open. Raiders just left but the africanamerican sports and Entertainment Committee sent a letter of intent to file a formal application with the nfl this past week. Weve learned the group has heard back from the nfl, just acknowledgment that they did relief the letter. Its not clear whether the nfl will listen to the group proposal. We havent heard anything about the nfl wanting to expand. The plan is described as a privately financed, developed and operated endeavor. Well keep you posted. California State University students may soon have a new graduation requirement, an ethnic studies class. Under a bill approved by the state senate, all undergraduate students in the csu system would have to complete at least one threeunit course in ethnic studies in order to graduate. The bill could be a way to reduce racism. The bill is headed to governor newsoms desk. He has not indicated whether he will sign that. From capitol hill to the peninsula, the latest bay area city to get its own black lives matter mural painted right there in the street. Traffic is slow again after a deadly solo car crash closed all lanes. Happened about 1 00 this morning. The chp says that car somehow flew off eastbound and crashed on to el camino royal below. The 22yearold driver is dead. The crash forced officers to close all lanes. No word on what closed the crash. A fire captain with cal fire died in a hiking accident three days ago. Fire captain david lucks. He was 33 years old, born in los gatos, began his career as a firefighter in 2008 with the san mateo unit. He worked as fire captain at al grenada nation within the Fire Protection district. Pg e has taken the final step toward bankruptcy. They announced the Bankruptcy Court for california has confirmed the chapter 11 plan. That plan was approved by the California PublicUtilities Commission last month. Todays ruling means pg e can focus on implementing reorganization and compensating wild fire victims. Theyve agreed to pay 25. 5 billion to wild fire victims groups. Weve seen in washington, d. C. Now palo alto is getting its own black lives matter mural painted on the street. This is downtown near king plaza. They started a petition to get the mural painted. They wanted it painted by yesterday, juneteenth, the actual day. The City Council Approved the plan but by the time they approved it, there wasnt enough time to get it painted before juneteenth. The Community Members did paint this temporary mural that made it for juneteenth weekend. Lets talk to rob. This is the first time i can say this, happy summer to you. Officially this afternoon. Summer solstice in the bay area and beyond. Were getting a taste of summerlike microclimates. Low clouds and fog pour back in. Its the ocean air conditioning really on overdrive right now. Wind speeds up to 24milesperhour. Currently 61 degrees with drizzle and mist around San Francisco this evening as we take you to san jose, you can see the difference in the weather. Lets head to walnut creek where its 84 degrees right now. Youve got a little bit of wind at 14. But over the next few days youre going to see less of the ocean influence inland towards walnut creek and concord. San jose, a blend of the two, 70s in san jose. Theres enough wind where the air quality is good for tomorrow even as temperatures begin to climb. Keep in mind as the 7 day forecast continues to trend hotter, these days begin to build on themselves where might see air quality issues especially in the inland east bay a little bit later on next week. Its a look at the winds now, as you can see another blustery evening from the coast. Those same winds push the low clouds inland locally across the bay for the morning. So, dont be surprised to wake up to a little bit of mist or drizzle in a few spots. As wi as we go through the morning hours, not much changed on the coast. 60s to low 70s coast and bay side. Inland temperatures closer to 90 degrees tomorrow. In the morning, lots of low clouds. Show you temperatures moving into tomorrow afternoon. San jose starting to climb into the mid80s. Notice morgan hill and san martin closer to 90. Well take you to the trivalley, notice numbers in the upper 80s to near 90s. Get to concord and antioch and notice how oakland in the 70s for now, 70s and 80s down in the peninsula, palo alto 82 degrees, low 70s near downtown San Francisco even with the wind off the ocean, a little bit of warm up to wrap up the weekend and north bay temperatures, combination of 80s and 90s. Pleasanton, those numbers as you saw in the mid to upper 70s. So, summer sized High Pressure builds in. What might be a little bit different this time around is not really going anywhere. The second half of the week its probably going to strend stronger. As you just saw on the extended forecasts, notice how San Francisco, those temperatures stay in the 70s. Once we get there, through the week looks like the warmest day will be thursday and friday. Similar spread across the valleys where tomorrow clearty coolest day of the next 7. Just like that terry were officially into summer and the forecast looking a lot more like it both at the coast and inland. Back to you. All right. Yeah, happy summer thytime to everybody. Little by little sports make a come back. Weve got a date for you and the nba will draft a new crop of players. Next. For just the second time in franchise history, the National Football league in washington is going to retire a players jersey number. Theyre going to put bobby mitchells, number 49, up there on the field. Mr. Mitchell was the first black player in the teams history. The Team Announced its going to rename the lower half of the field after the hall of famer. He died in april of this year. Chuck todd continues his series meet the press College Round table going to be joined by mark cuban as well as a uc berkeley grad student. Theyre going to talk about the black lives Matter Movement and the role nba owners play in addressing racial inequality. You can watch the conversation on meet the press tomorrow. This years nba draft is set in stone as much as anything is set in stone these days. The 2020 draft was supposed to take place in just five days but that was postponed because of covid19. The league announced the draft is going to be on october 16th. Free agency would be two days after that but we dont know yet when or how prospects will begin. Lots to figure out. Back in a moment. Finally tonight, its summer solstice, the day when the sun shines the longest and summer officially begins. Take a look at the sun setting at stonehenge in england. Theyre about eight hours ahead of us. Usually thousand of people gather at this ancient monument for the summer solstice. They werent there this year and i bet you know why. Yes, the pandemic. The position of the stones in position to the summer and winter solstices which occur when one of the earths polls have its maximum tilt toward the sun. Meteorological summer is june, july, and august which goes along with the way a lot of people think about summer. Nightly news up next. Back at 6 00. Hope you can join us. Breaking news tonight, the rally in the middle of a pandemic, the president speaking to a packed crowd as six members of his advanced team there test positive for coronavirus. Well, im not wearing a mask, i havent yet. Im not going to start today. The controversy over holding a rally indoors right now. Standoff at the justice department, the president fires the powerful u. S. Attorney in new york after he refused to step down. Democrats claim he was fired for investigating the president. The new ruling today on that bombshell book from john bolton and whether it can be published. Pushed to the brink, the Florida Hospital now at capacity amid