Reporting live in san jose, matt keller, abc7 news. Also developing news this morning, this years mavericks big wave surf contest may be in jeopardy. Abc7 news has learned the competitions organizers, cartel management, inc. , and titans of maverickss, llc, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday. The competition draws some of the biggest surfers from all around the world and they were just about to introduce a womens heat. An official told our media partner last night they will release new information this morning that will hopefully help with understanding the strategy overall. Mavericks has held surf competitions when conditions are ideal. This morning, republicans are applauding tmps nomination of judge neil gorjs. Theres already talk of a filibuster among the democrats. Reporter conservative Appellate Court judge neil gorsuch is president trumps pick for the Supreme Court. He has outstanding legal skills, tremendous discipline and has earned bipartisan ort. Reporter thats exactly what gorsuch will need over these next few crucial months, especially after Many Senate Democrats vow to derail gorsuchs nomination. Its a big honor for him but hes in for a rough ride. Reporter we were there as the dean of the university of San Francisco school of law watched the announcement. He says its less about gorsuch and more about capitol hill infighting. Will Senate Democrats, because of their great frustration with the president , block this nomination . Will they do it right from the beginning or will they allow the process to go forward . Reporter the Supreme Court seat has been vacant since the death of antonin scalia. The balance wont change. The 49yearold promised impartiality and strength. A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge. Stretching for results he refers rather than those 2 the law demands. Reporter in San Francisco, lisa amin gulezian, abc7 news. Nancy pelosi is challenging Senate Democrats to scrutinize gorsuchs record. She calls the nomination a bad decision. Its a very hostile appointment. If you breathe air, drink water, eat food, take medicine or in any other way interact with the courts, this is a very bad decision. She made the comment during a cnn town hall last night. Pelosi did not say whether democrats will filibuster the nomination. Republicans will try again to confirm Jeff Sessions for attorney general. Democrats used a procedural move to delay the Committee Vote until today. They invoked the twohour rule. It bars Senate Meetings from running past 2 00 in the afternoon. Senator die Yan Feinstein is among the democrats questioning whether sessions can act independently of trump. This is ronald vitiello. He will lead the department as trump tries to build a wall along the Mexican Border and add thousands of agents to the department as well. And closer to home, the legal battle against president trumps immigration order is heating up. San francisco became the first city in the nation to file a federal lawsuit against that order yesterday. And now, slaerk county plans to do the same thing at the county level. The president s order strips sanctuary cities of federal funding and Santa Clara County believes the order is unconstitutional. Each stands to lose 1 billion in funding. 872 refugees will get waivers to enter the u. S. This week. The agency sed they were already clear to enter before the president signed his immigration order. None of these people was detained in the airport protests we saw at sfo and across the nation. The executive order bars all refugees worldwide for 120 days and nationals from seven majority muslim countries for 90 days. Days. New this morning, cheerleaders are suing the nfl. Jessica has documents at the live desk. Yes, ive been going through the documents this morning. It was obtained by abc7 news last night. Pretty thick so were reading it this morning and i can tell you the case involves 49ers and raiders cheerleaders and those from other nfl teams. The lead plaintiff was part of the 49ers gold rush girls team and you may recall traiderettes case regarding minimum wage. This takes it a bit further. The suit is an antitrust violation suit against the nfl. Saying that they conspired to keep their wages low. None of the cheerleaders you see here in this video are specifically involved in this suit. I should point that out. But all of their teams are named. The suit claims the cheerleaders were paid a flat wage per game, not paid for rehearsals and predicted from getting other cheer leading jobs. No formal response from the nfl. Im going to keep going through these documents and find further details so well have that coming up throughout the newscast. Thank you. The raiders proposed move to las vegas may be coming apart at the seams which means renewed hope for radar nation. Investment bank goldman sac sachs withdrew yesterday. This just one day after billionaire casino mogul adelson announced he was out. He complained he was being shut out of critical stadium chris to beens says the frustration is understandable. If i was going to put 650 million in someones pocket and knowing what he did to get the deal together to get the local elected officials and make a deal happen and to not get a piece of the action, for like i say of a better way to say it, id be upset too. Ronnie lotts group says it is ready to get something done in oecd. It says, bottom line, if the raiders want to stay, we are more than ready to be a partner. Aeld county sheriffs deputies hope you will recognize a prisoner. This is 27yearold shawn new. He escaped from a car yesterday while being driven to sfo. New was being returned to kentucky to face fraud charges. Today, lawyers for the wife of orlando nightclub shooter omar mateen will ask a federal judge to release her on bail. Fbi agents arrested noor in november. The government says she helped her husband plan the attack, which left 49 people did. Her family says she didnt know what happened until after the shooting. 4 38 now and happening today, the city of richmond is going to court to defend a rent control law. Opponentsment a judge to grant a preliminary injunction to suspend the voter approved measure. They say the law is too vague. The measure rolled back rents to july 2015 levels and limits annual rent increases. It covers an estimated 10,000 rental units in the city. How about 18 days with rain in january. Thats what you see all shaded in blue but notice from the 25th through today, dry. So, were on quite a streak right now. That is going to change. Hey, right now, also, inland east bay, our livermore reporting station says weve got some poor air quality right now for those most sensitive but as we head deeper into the forecast, the north bay could join on this seventh winter spare the air. Upper 40s to low 50s in afrs right now, 42 in petaluma should say plaent, slaerk, wal for some of the cool spots, 48 in richmond, 47 in san leandro, a mild day today even with a lack of sunshine. Upper 50s to low 60s. Tomorrow, mild breezes even with the wet weather. 56 to about 63 our temperatures spread. And then by friday were at about 57 to 61 so slightly cooler. Heres whats going to happen for our next two commutes. The morning commute, yellow, caution because we have fog out there, dangerously low visibility is going to develop. For the evening commute, weve got some skat so we could have some slick spots. The heaviest of the rain rolls in tonight. An hour by hour look at that coming up next. Heres alexis. Seeing plenty of that fog already on our visibility layer. I have live doppler 7 on top of the traffic maps. If youre getting out of the Central Valley into the trifl, you are going to be dealing with that reduced visibility. Livermore, westbound 580, were getting reports of a new collision, sounds like its blocking the hov lane on the westbound side. I am working to confirm that. Traffic flow is showing a little bit of a delay. Few details in at this point. And heres a look at some of that fog creeping in along the san mateo bridge commute so no delay on westbound 92 but it is going to be part of the commute this morning. Flipped semi in the gilroy area. Ill talk about that coming up. An Adoption Agency closes its doors without any warning. Now dozens of new moms and dads are in limbo, wondering whats next. Construction of a third lane on the richmondsan rafael bridge hits an unexpected roadblock. And first samsung now apple. And first samsung now apple. The device that one anything with a screen is a tv. Stream 130 live channels, plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. You can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. Only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. Download the xfinity tv app today. Will one day be affected by some kind of vision problem. Save your vision for the years ahead. Call. Or log on to seeabettertomorrow. Org to learn about glaucoma and macular degeneration. It is 4 43 and what a horrible thing for several bay area families. Theyre looking for answers this morning after the sudden closure of the independent adoption center. This had branches all over the country. Abc7 News ReporterLeslie Brinkley spoke to some of these frustrated families who claim this closure is leaving them in limbo. Her name is riley rose. Reporter this couple brought riley home two months ago from her birth mother in texas but theyve only completed one of six required postplacement visits for the adoption to be legal. Your adoptions not final yet. You need your paperwork. You need your info. We do. Reporter we you dont have access to it. We have nothing. We absolutely have nothing. Reporter and you spent how much money . Close to 23,000 zblr and you want to keep this baby girl. Absolutely. We dont want anything to jeopardize our adoption. Reporter but the agency abruptly closed. A handmade sign posted on the office door after 34 years facilitating 4,000 open adoptions. Executives declined to go on camera, but said in an email, it is with deep sadness we write to inform you that the iac is declaring chapter 7 bankruptcy and will be closing permanently effective immediately. I tried to call them, trield to email them, no response so i went by the offices. Reporter this walnut creek woman did not want to share her name but is worried. Part of the adoption process is they have very personal information on us, and there were no directions about how to get that back. Reporter adoption attorneys say theyre getting many tearful calls from families like these. Some could be out money and a few may have to start all over again, theyre bonding on faks about what to do next. A humming bird egg is getting in the way of upgrades to the richmondsan rafael bridge. Caltrans is spending 70 million to open a third lane on the lower deck to ease congestion but about a week ago, workers found an itty bitty nest and a tiny egg in a tree that was about to be removed for the project. And the species of that bird is federally protected, which means it cant be touched. As a result, some work on the bridge could be delayed until the egg actually hatches and thangd be quite a few weeks. B. A. R. T. Is touting higher ridership numbers for january and they say thats in part because of protests against president trump. B. A. R. T. Says more than 347,000 people road the trains on january 21, the day of the womens march, and that is the second highest number of rierds for a saturday in b. A. R. T. s history. Eclipsed only by last years Super Bowl Weekend and on saturday, 6300 people road to sfo to protest president trumps executive order on immigration. Happening today, protesters will be out in force at uc berkeley against a planned speech by controversial Breitbart News editor milo yiannopoulos. The selfproclaimed Internet Troll has been criticized as being racist and a misogynist. His appearance at uc davis last month was canceled at the last minute because of big protests there. Some students and professors oppose tonights visit which is sponsored by the Berkeley College republicans. Yiannopoulos spoke last night where he plugged an Education Grant that hes making available exclusively to white men. A florida woman says her iphone 6 caught fire on her night stand while she was asleep. She says fortunately shes a light sleeper. She woke up after it burst into flames. Her husband put out the fire with a flame retardant work shirt before it spread. She says her phone was plugged in at the time but she was using an apple charger. Shes asking apple for a new device. Apple wants to investigate her phone before they replace it. Oeakland sending out warning to residents. Oakland gave out 15,000 sandbags in january. Abc7 news was at the work yard yesterday as neighbors stopped in for sandbags and tarps ahead of todays storm. Not far away, Westover Drive is closed because of a mudslide. Water is still running off that hillside. Just down the street, theres still only one lane open. Part of the street caved into the culvert after the last storm. So lets talk about that rain that is coming. Not until this afternoon, right, mike . Exactly. Hi, everybody. All right. Weve got a lot to talk about. Sutro tower quiet right now. Chance of lighter showers all weekend then heavier showers return next week. Heres a look at our storm. You can see its very impressive, the counterclockwise spin there. Still about 850 miles away. But when we head into the evening hours, some light showers turning breezy, some damp areas for an evening drive but during the overnight hours to this time tomorrow morning when well have the downpours, so ponding on the roadways, shiegt chance of thunder and winds gusting. You can see scattered showers out there. By 7 00, 8 00, were starting to see more rain develop but the heaviest rain, look at the yellows and oranges and reds, 1 00 up in the north bay during the mortganing hours all the wa through our neighborhoods by 4 00, so puddles on the road wade and breezy conditions then lighter showers toward the end of the morning commute and thats what well deal with. First round of rain, anywhere from 3 4 inches to nearly 1 inch for the rest of us, to 2 inches in the mountains. My accuweather 7 day forecast, look at that, a chance of rain just about every single day with the lightest showers saturday and sunday. Hey, alexis. Good morning. We kind of are feeling like deja vu here this morning. Yesterday, we had a flipped semi. This morning, weve got another one in the same location so that is a sharp curve there for those big rigs. 42,000 pounds of meat is what this was hauling here so this is going to be quite the operation to get this separate and had get that load totally out of the way here. Im guessing this morning. So right now just seeing a little delay on that westbound side but i will keep an eye on that. Collision on westbound 580 past vasco road and that is blocking the hov lane so you can see delays starting to build there. We will take a look at what thats doing to our drive times coming up next. The fbi offers a big reward to nab a serial bank robber. The Surveillance Video they want you to see. If youre eyeing a tesla model s, we have some important information, the one thing that kept it from getting a top rating in the safety test. Plus this elderly woman who dialed 9d 11 and the random act of kindness that followed. Flu first this mornings tech bytes. Apple is once again the worlds top smart phone seller. It isnt just for people. Taking a swipe at love. Scientists have developed an app like tinder for an 11yearold orangutan in the netherlands. They show her tablet and monitor how she responds to the images of the guys. Their first mistake was handing her the tablet. She immediately destroyed it. I guess she didnt like that guy. Guy. Maybe shes not into the Apartment Building where the fire was. When things like this happen, i think you find a new perspective on life. Hi. Red cross put us in a hotel so we were able to stay together. Were strong and, if we overcame that or if we can overcome that, we can overcome anything, so. [ sniffle ] the abc7 storm impact scale. Todays storm is level 1. That means light rain, so keep an umbrella handy and drive safely. Track todays storm any time on the abc7 news app. Download it now. Its 4 53. Welcome back. New this morning, some surprisingly low marks for two luxury all electric cars, neither the 2017 tesla model s nor the 2017 bmw i 3 earn the Insurance Institute for top safety pick. The model s earned good ratings in four of the institutes five tests but received a lower rating when the cars safety belt allowed the crash dummy to move too far forward and it hit its head on the steering wheel. The model s also earned a poor rating for its headlights. The bmw fell short in a head restraint test. The fbi hopes a 20,000 reward will help capture a bank robber who struck at least nine times in northern california. Here Surveillance Videos. The investigators say the man robbed the same bank in napa twice since 2013. He appears to be in his 20s or 30s and stands about 58. They consider him armed and dangerous. In florida, surveillance cameras captured this dramatic Jewelry Store heist. They just start smashing the display cases. They shoved jewelry and gold into plastic bags and then just a few seconds later a man casual casually walks in and starts grabbing the loot. The stores owner tried to fight back, he grabbed a chair and threw it at the robbers and it didnt stop them from doing anything, though. The whole thing went down in 34 seconds and they got away with 200,000 worth of jewelry. Concord police are getting kudos. The Department Posted images on its facebook page. The post says an elderly citizen called to say her power was off. Officers discovered she forgot to pay her pg e bill. So they helped her pay it and waited with her until the power came back on. Concord police say this is a reminder to check on your loved ones during the cold months to make sure everybody is safe. Lets talk about some other aspects youll have to deal with with this storm coming in. Wind advisory, so, were going o have some gusty conditions that could drop some trees and power lines. Today at 10 00 in the evening through 3 00 friday morning. You can see those areas shaded in yellow, mainly above 1000 or 1500 feet. My storm concerns, ponding on the roadways, absolutely, Power Outages moderate and theres a low chance of river flooding. If youre aheading to the sierra, moderate to heavy snow begins and continues through saturday. Thats going to be a bear. Yeah, definitely plan ahead if you are going to be traveling to the sierra and taking a live look right now at the bay bridge toll plaza, nice and light here so far this morning. So no metering lights, of course, weve got about 30 minutes until they flip those on. Quick check of drive times. Problem on westbound 580 drive between tracy to dublin. Not terrible yet, though. 34 minutes for you southbound 680 looking great. I do have a new report of a collision on the peninsula. Well talk about that coming up at 5 00. Happening today, a hightech change coming to the white house. For the first time ever, reporters will be able to ask questions via skype. Officials say its part of an effort to bring more voices into the Briefing Room using video conferencing. White House Press Secretary sean spicer says four journalists from outside the Washington Area have been selected for the launch of skype seats. They will include outlets that are not usually represented in the briefings. Next at 5 00 a. M. , imagine being arrested for warrants that dont even exist. A broken system appears to be causing chaos in bay area courts. Whats being done to fix it. New details from the raid that left a navy s. E. A. L. Dead, including a source that says al qaeda new the attack was coming. President trump is getting hit with lawsuits over his executive orders. Now Silicon Valley may be taking legal action. We want to take a live look outside for you and the embarcadero right now, dark and early. Keeping weather and traffic up through the break so youre not through the break so youre not know good morning to the middle of the week, february 1. Im reggie aqui. Beginning of a new months. Im natasha zouves. Everything is the same. Still us, still you. Jessica castro, hows it going. Good morning. Alexis smith tracking the roads and mike nicco bringing us our first day of rain in february. Still dry right now. Fog the issue this morning but rain will be an issue during the evening hours. Our next storm is lining up offshore. Here it is with live doppler 7. You can see a few radar returns there. Thats going to evaporate. That and the cloud cover is going to keep us cooler than average today. Starting off in the 40s this morning, no more 30s, hang on to the mid to upper 50s, once that sunsets, the showers arrive. Ill give you an hour by hour look coming up next. We havent had any major problems yet but we do have a handful of smaller issues, including a new one here. If youre trying to