Were tracking other stories, including the smoke that is still sticking around. Thankfully, we have good news as we head into the weekend. Also, a poker player from the bay area said he had colon cancer, raised thousands of dollars, turns out it was a lie. Our Jodi Hernandez is talking to those who know him. And a fight in the stands. Look at this. We are making calls right now about the 49er fans who got into this brawl at last nights game. Lets go ahead and begin with a warning for anyone planning to drive through the south bay this weekend. A san jose road Improvement Project is likely to back up traffic all weekend long. Northbound highway 87 is shutting down starting tonight, so cal tra in,s can repave the major stretch of road. What all of us need to know. Ian, take us through whats going to be happening. Reporter yeah, audrey, first off, you can see the evening commute is well under way. As you said at the top of the show, in about four and a half hours, this road is not going to be an option for quite a while. If you drove on 87 today, you could see some of the signs that were up warning drivers of the closure. We also spotted some heavy equipment that has been staged on the shoulder of 87 so they can get to work right away. Highway 87 northbound will be closed between 85 and the south to 280 and downtown from 9 00 tonight until monday at 5 00 a. M. Cal trans will use 56 hours to repave this fivemile stretch of road. Some local businesses expect it will cut into their sales this weekend. This owner says people requesting deliveries through various apps may see delays as well. The drivers are going to be lost. A major closure like that, that will affect their ability to deliver and find it because they already have trouble finding us in a parking lot this size. Surely a lot of people impacteed, ian. Why did cal trans decide on a full weekend closure for this one . Reporter its an interesting question. I asked them that today. Part of it has to do with the 49ers. The team was going to have their home opener. That home opener was last night, and san jose state instead of playing on a saturday, they play tonight. So this closure wont affect that gameday traffic. Plus, they say they wanted to get it done over a weekend as opposed to jamming up traffic overnight for weeks on end. The closure is part of a 69 million Improvement Project that will also include updated guardrails and barriers, improved bike paths, and drainage. Weve definitely heard from the public. You know, people have been saying its time to fix some of the potholes or the drainage systems on the highway. Its been years that people have been saying its time, and were finally out there repaving the entire structure. Reporter while the northbound side will be closed tonight at 9 00 until 5 00 a. M. On monday, we can tell you, though, too in a few more weeks, the southbound side is going to get the same treatment. That closure will begin on october 20th. Audrey . All right, ian, thanks for the heads up. Appreciate it. Thats whats going on, on 87. So how do we get around this closure . Heres our morning traffic anchor mike with some work arounds to help us move forward. Yeah. Well, we hope they open early or at least on time monday morning. For the time being, north 87, northbound 87 still closed for this repaving work for the rest of the weekend. You have a couple of alternates. This is just a fivemile stretch, this one red stretch here. Your alternate to the north will be heading up 85 to 17 over to 280 south. Thats another 10 miles, 10 miles longer. So 15 miles total. If you go to south, thats an even longer diversion. Heading south to 101, back up to 280, and around. Thats an extra 15 miles. Thats four times as long and even more time thats involved there. That is necessary if youre coming from the almand valley and continuing up to the airport, thats sjc up here. If you have to get anywhere in between these two, that alternate is not the greatest because youll have to take surface streets. You can use monterrey highway, the expressway continuing up toward lincoln, but all these signals just be careful. Allow yourself extra time. If you navigate anywhere in this perimeter until they reopen north 87, hopefully the latest at monday 5 00 a. M. Youre going to need a lot of extra time to get around that one. If 87 does reopen early, youre going to want to have our news app handy because well be pushing an alert to your phone the moment we get word. As always, you can download our app for free. Switching to our microclimate weather alert, this is a live look at walnut creek this afternoon. A spare the air alert is extending into a fourth day, and cynthia is with us now. A lot of people want to know about the relief because it is in sight. And the weekend too. Of course. That relief will start to come in for the weekend. Were seeing more hues of the blue above the Golden Gate Bridge right now. As we take it on further into the weekend and into the microclimate forecast, i have better news to share with everybody. Well see improving air quality as we go on into saturday and further on into sunday. Were still going to keep the north bay here at unhealthy for sensitive groups. That means people who are dealing with some respiratory issues, children of course, and we have to continue to watch out for the elderly. Well keep everybody else, though, in the moderate category. What were looking like with our nearsurface smoke is were going to continue to see improvements little by little. It will be gradual to start off the weekend, but it will slowly start to ramp up here. By the middle of the day tomorrow, concentrating to the north bay. Also in the north bay, look at that. Parts of moren county, sonoma seeing more relief. As we take it further into sunday, a little bit of uptick in the wind too will help clear just about everybody as we go on into the second half of the weekend. Also speaking of the second half of the weekend, watch whats happening here. Were opening our storm door as some rain is coming into the picture. More of that is starting to focus itself, though, into the parts right around the border there with oregon. Possibly helping out the fires that are going on. Our chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is going to work on all of these details for us. Hell be along with us at 5 00. Back to you, audrey. We need that rain. Thank you. Some in San Francisco tell us theyre going to go on with plans despite the conditions. Our crews spoke with people at the tunnel this morning. We saw people walking their dogs taking a stroll, even children playing. People without respiratory problems said they were comfortable being outside. Some say theyve already been through worse pointing to those smoky and orange skies we had three years ago during wildfire season. One man says the haze isnt changing his daily routine much. Fires and Climate Change are part of the change in our society, and were starting to get used to it. Okay. But you guys are still going on your daily walk and not any shorter . No. Gotta take the walk. I do advise against spending too much timeout side, especially people with respiratory problems. Use your phone, scan the qr code you see on your screen bottom left, it will take you to our website, or you can type in your address to find out the air quality where you are or go to our website. This was an unpleasant surprise at the u. S. Bank branch in alamo. This window was found out knocked out this morning. Almost entirely shattered. Not clear why or how the window was broken. We reached out to police for more information. The bank was open for business today. A poker player from vallejo is facing severe backlash this afternoon after it was discovered he lied about having terminal cancer. He started a go fund me account, raised thousands of dollars, and now many in the poker world and beyond are upset. Jodi hernandez has been digging into this story today. Jodi, can you tell us what exactly happened here . Reporter well, basically this man claimed to have terminal colon cancer, a man here in martinez saw a post on social media, so he convinced other poker players to rally behind this man and raise money. They shared his go fund me and raised 10s of thousands of dollars to send that man to the world series of poker main event in las vegas. Thats considered the super bowl of poker. So they covered his travel expenses, his fee to get into the tournament, and put him up in the bellagio apparently for 10 days. It turns out apparently he did not have cancer at all. The Poker Community also supported a man who actually is terminally ill and was also on that same trip. That man says tells me things just didnt add up, and just a few days ago he says that the vallejo man admitted to him in a text message that he does not have colon cancer. Wow. You know, i would imagine a lot of the donors who donated 10s of thousands of dollars are probably frustrated about this whole situation. I know you got to speak with someone who donated mercer and donated money to him. Whats he telling you today . Reporter well, you know, i talked to a couple of people who actually, who did donate to mercer, including that terminally ill man who donated part of his winnings from the tournament to mercer. They are very, very upset. So they really want to spread the word. One man here tells me he hopes that mercer is eventually prosecuted, but they say they just cant believe that he would actually use cancer as a way to get some money and to get some attention. Now, i have to say that mercer told his friend that he actually has a different kind of cancer, breast cancer. But he says its undiagnosed. So its a really strange story. You got to tune into our story at 6 00. Well have all the details. Yeah, very strange. All right, really looking forward to your full story at 6 00. Thank you for the preview. New video from levi stadium. The niners winning wasnt enough to keep fans happy yesterday. This violent brawl spilled into the aisle. The x user said, quote, its been in the works since the game started. We did reach out to levi, the city of santa clara and santa clara pd, no response as of yet. We dont know if there have been any arrests or if anyone was hurt. Our climate in crisis is in, some cases, turning into an insurance crisis for california homeowners. The growing numbers of atrisk neighborhoods being left behind by insurers and the efforts now under way to protect them. Plus, a community in contra costa gets ready to host its firstever pride celebration, but one big sponsor is in jeopardy. How you can help. And here is another chance to get that qr code to track the air quality in your neighborhood. It will take you to our website where you can type in your address to check out the air quality where you live, or you quality where you live, or you could always just entresto is the 1 Heart Failure brand prescribed by cardiologists. It was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. Dont take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if youve had angioedema with an ace or arb. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. Ask your doctor about entresto. Companies pulling out of states like california and florida where the risks of storms and wild fires are high. The effects will soon extend nationwide, warn experts. I would imagine, cynthia, if they plan to extend this nationwide, so many homes will be impacted. I know. And the Climate Change is really knocking at our front door. Theres not going to be a way to shoo off this visitor. The numbers were looking at are in the millions. Take a look at this map that shows the areas where first Street Foundation says insurance premiums could skyrocket to match the risk posed by Climate Change. Were looking at the orange colors around the gulf coast, east coast, california, and out west. An estimated one in four homes or about 30 Million Properties are under too large of a risk, financial risk for Insurance Companies to cover them. Maybe youre wondering about the bay area. We have those details for you too. Santa clara county, 19 of homes. 40 in coco county, and over 52 of homes in Solano County are vulnerable. And thats if theyre not experiencing them already. I mean, thats a lot of homes, cynthia. 40 in Contra Costa County, 52 in Solano County. Were just looking at california. The state will bring new rules to let insurers look at the future when setting their rates. Companies will only be able to do this if they agree to write more policies for homeowners who live in areas with the most risk. Whether its Government Intervention or no action at all, it all carries a cost. We can address this collectively through democracy or leave it up to wall street. Right now, wall street is driving the wagon and making the decision. My hope is through insurance regulators working together with the private sector, we can think about transition plans and managing risk in our economy. All of this, of course, wont be easy, and it wont happen overnight. Like i mentioned, theres no turning off the lights and pretending your h youre not home when Climate Change is knocking at the door. I thank your report you just gave us. Very eye opening for so many homeowners. People want to learn more information, for sure. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And we do have a link on our website if you want to learn more about the climate crisis. You can go to nbcbayarea. Com. What youre looking at right now is people immersing themselves in creativity while being surrounded by redwoods. You can do this, this weekend at the mill valley fall arts festival. It starts at 11 00 in the morning tomorrow and sunday in old mill park. The Event Features artists, crafters, and musicians. The festival is run completely by volunteers. Like many art festivals, its struggling for money after the pandemic and soaring inflation. They fear they wont have enough to return next year if the crowds dont return, so theyre hoping for a big turn out this weekend. With the festival now in its 66th year, it means so much to so many artists. Its grown and developed completed from the community, created by artists that lived in mill valley so they could make a fun event to show their work to people, buy their tickets at the gate, and help us make it another year and keep going for another 50 years. By the way, tickets cost 20 for adults, 15 for seniors. But everyone gets a discount if they buy their tickets online. Okay, get ready to celebrate pride. One city in Contra Costa County is holding its inaugural pride celebration this weekend, but even though its the first year, it may already be in jeopardy. Heres today in the bays Marcus Washington to explain. Reporter the city of martinez will host its first ever pride celebration this weekend, but one of the Event Sponsors fears it may not be around much longer if they dont get some help. Now, Rainbow Community center in concord is a nonprofit. Its been serving 19 cities in Contra Costa County for decades. Among other thing, it offers hiv prevention, clinical services, and food pantry referrals. It blew through most of the grant money it received to help with the surge of clients during covid. Expenses increased after much of its staff unionized. The closure would be devastating for clients. We have people that rely on us because theyre not out or because they, you know, they dont have family members that support them. And i think without the attack to the lgbtq community, its been really tough to where it effects everyones Mental Health and wellbeing when needing to receive a service. The Rainbow Community center says they badly need donations. If you would like to help, you can go to rainbowcc. Org. All you have to do is join us for today in the bay every monday through friday from 5 7 00 a. M. The whole team is here and well get you ready for the day. Marcus washington, back to you. Im with janelle wang. Weve made it. We have another story of a smash and grab. Theyre happening every day. This time a mom and pop burger joint in San Francisco. This is actually the second time this restaurants been hit in recent weeks. It even implemented a new strategy to try and prevent breakins. It didnt work. Well tell you what that was and what it plans to do next. And as weve reported, the spare the air alert extended through tomorrow as we deal with this bad area. A company has a new way to track the air quality around us by car. Our business and tech reporter scott budman was invited for a ride. Hell join us live at 5 00 to tell us how it works. I think youre going to like this too. This is a good story coming up. I love this story. I love it. Theyre actually back at it again. The mens Cross Country team has released their funny photos for a second straight year. For a second straight year. Well sh ow if you have Heart Disease and are on a statin, lowering cholesterol can be hard. Diets and exercise add to the struggle. Today, its possible to go from struggle to cholesterol success with leqvio. With a statin, leqvio is proven to lower bad cholesterol by over 50 and keep it low with two doses a year. Common side effects were injection site reaction, joint pain, urinary tract infection, diarrhea, chest cold, pain in legs or arms, and shortness of breath. Ask your doctor about twiceyearly leqvio. Lower. Longer. Leqvio. As a child, you may have dreaded picture day. But a Cross Country team has made it one of the highlights of their season, so take a look. These are some of the head shots for Santa Clara UniversitysCross Country team. This is a longrunning tradition for the broncos. They went viral for it last year when a sports blogging site noticed, made a tik tok celebrating the unconventional styles. That raised the stakes even more for this go around. So what do you think . The team comes together to cut each others hair before the pictures, and team leaders say its just really a great bonding experience for them. Love it. Many fans have called the as cheap, right . They say the team wont pay for top players, wont build a new park in oakland, but some are saying this costcutting measure may be the weirdest of all. Detroit tigers slugger cabrera is retiring at the end of the season after a hall of fame career. So teams are sending him off in style when he visits their park. Tigers play the as, so oakland gave him this bottle of wine. Looks pretty nice. Well, turns out it only costs about 80 bucks. What makes the gift even stranger is that cabrera is a recovering alcoholic. So not exactly the most thoughtful gift. All right, lets stick with alcohol. We actually have a chance to meet jason mamoa right here in the bay area. Not on the red carpet but maybe at your local Grocery Store. Hes here to promote his liquor company. They made stops in redwood city and san jose earlier today to sign bottles of their vodka at a Grocery Store in each city. If you missed him, dont worry. Hes also going to be in danville and oakland tomorrow. Schools often take their names from important people, but its not often students actually get to meet that name sake. Were talking about betty reed. She celebrated her 102nd birthday today where she met with students at the middle school named after her. Not long ago, she was our countrys oldest active park ranger, and two years ago the school was renamed in her honor. I really didnt want anyone to name anything after me until it came and someone called and said they wanted to name the school after me. And i said thats exactly what i want. So sweet. Soskin retired shortly after turning 100. Shes remembered not only as a longtime park ranger but also for her work in the civil rights movement. Love that. Thank you so much for joining us at 4 30. Janelle is working on the 5 00 janelle is working on the 5 00 newscast next, and we are back i suffer with Psoriatic Arthritis and psoriasis. I was on a journey for a really long time to find some relief. Cosentyx works for me. Cosentyx helps real people get real relief from the symptoms of Psoriatic Arthritis or psoriasis. Serious allergic reactions, severe skin reactions that look like eczema, and an increased risk of infections, some fatal, have occurred. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to or if ibd symptoms develop or worsen. I move so much better because of cosentyx. Ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. Right now at 5 00, another day of unpleasant air as our air quality continues to be poor in many parts of the bay area, but things are gradually improving. What you can expect for the weekend. Also trying to get a better reading on air quality. We ride along with a company that gathers air samples by car. And a San Francisco restaurant is hit again by thieves. The way owners tried deterring another break in, only to have it not work. Good friday, everyone. The news at 5 00 starts right now. Thanks so much for joining me. Im janelle wang. As we wrap up the workweek and head into the weekend, parts of the bay area still dealing with hazy skies and poor air quality. Well look at outside to see what looks like like at this hour. From San Francisco to san jose to palo alto, we see a little bit more blue sky, but still not clean air. Lets bring in jeff. It is Getting Better gradually each day. Will things finally clear out of here, all that hazy air . I think were going to get into marked improvement by tomorrow, and by sunday we should start to get in on blue sky across the bay area. These fires continue to burn off to the north, and were seeing that smoke trail down through the bay area. We did get a small system in the atmosphere moving across to help us stir things up, so we are looking at improvement right now compared to yesterday. Still unhealthy for sensitive groups, san jose 118. Look at San Francisco, now in the moderate. And halfmoon bay, also moderate. When we look at that smoke forecast, theres still a smoke plume here by tomorrow morning, but as we head through the afternoon, it does break up here. Were going to be left with more of that haze, but again i do not expect super unhealthy air here throughout the bay area. Still may range unhealthy for sensitive groups in the north