Were also talking low snow for tomorrow morning. Snow levels could drop as low as 2,000 feet. Well let you know who could get a rain snow mix coming up a little later on in the weather forecast. Thanks, jeff. The new eastern span of the bay bridge is set to open by this labor day and transit officials want to throw a big party giving people a chance to walk on the bridge before it opens to vehicle traffic. The catch, that party is over budget and the agency wants to use your money to help pay for the party. Jodi hernandez is live at Treasure Island with more on this proposal. Reporter transit experts say the eastern span of the bay bridge will most certainly become a globally recognized icon of the bay area and its opening deserves a huge celebration. But the party theyre proposing, the price of the party theyre proposing is making some squeamish. Weve got the finish line in sight. Reporter and big plans are in place to celebrate the completion of the eastern span of the bay bridge. The bay area toll thoerauthorit proposing spending 5. 6 million in toll money on a grand Opening Party that will give tens of thousands of people the chance to walk across the bridge on Labor Day Weekend before it opens to traffic. Public funds are expected to be used for transportation and public safety. I think of it as the four bs. Its buses, barricades, bathrooms and bodies. Reporter the Toll Authority is teaming up with a Nonprofit Group to make the celebration even more spectacular. The bay Bridge Alliance is raising private funds to pay for a cycling event, a fun run, fireworks and even a concert on Treasure Island. The 280,000 folks who use the bridge every single day and who have been waiting for this to happen for a long period of time deserve a couple of days to celebrate this. So were going to make that happen any way we can. Reporter but the price of the party is raising eyebrows. Stewart cohen, of transform, a transportation advocacy and Watchdog Group likes the idea of a celebration, but says public money should be used as a last resort. Theres a lot of wealth in the bay area. Lets try to see if we can do it with sponsorships. If not just so toll pairs dont feel taken advantage of. Reporter leslie says spending millions on a bay bridge party just doesnt make sense. I think 5. 6 million for a party is just way too much. We have a lot of people in this area that are just struggling trying to make ends meet and just trying to get across the bridge themselves to get to work or home, so i think thats way too extravagant. Reporter we are back here live. Youre looking at the selfanchored suspension span due to open after labor day. Now, the bay area Toll Authority will be taking its initial vote on whether to spend 5. 6 million in tolls that they have already collected on a party next week. Reporting live on Treasure Island, im jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. Thank you, jodi. We have uncovered new details involving yesterdays San Francisco cable car accident. We knew a bolt on the tracks brought the car to a grinding halt and sent seven people to the hospital, but where did that mysterious bolt come from . Muni says its from one of its own, its own system. Inspectors returned to the tracks on washington and powell streets in San Francisco today. Thats where the cable car, cable car 25, came to an abrupt halt yesterday after striking that bolt. Muni has since determined the bolt came off one of their own switch plates. As a result of the accident, muni is now changing its practices. What we will do now in addition to visually checking them is that at least once a week we will tighten up all of the bolts. Muni says the cables have sensors that trigger an alarm back at the main station when theres an obstruction on the track, but yesterday the bolt was deep enough into the channel, therefore, it did not trigger that alarm. Now a followup to a story we first brought you last month. A woman who falsely reported a child kidnapping is now facing legal troubles. On january 15th, she told police a stranger tried to pry her 2yearold daughter from her arms in the front yard of their san jose home. She later admitted the story was a hoax and is now facing a misdemeanor charge of falsely reporting a crime. She turned herself into police and posted bail immediately. She is scheduled to make her First Court Appearance march 6th. Right now in downtown san jose, mayor chuck reed is preparing to deliver his seventh state of the city address. A live look now where preparations are under way at the san jose civic auditorium. An awards ceremony will precede the mayors talk, most of which will address the citys financial outlook. Mayor reed has already said he will address the Pension Reforms that were approved by voters last year. The second part of this issue is the retaining the Police Officers who were angered by those reforms. Ahead at 6 00 well look at how the mayor has fulfilled those promises from his last state of the city address. Today state lawmakers, Law Enforcement officials and several california mayors gathered in sacramento to outline new gun regulation. As a backdrop, they used a display of semiautomatic rifles and highcapacity magazines they want banned. The violence is most sharp in our cities, in the big cities. The numbers not only tell us that, but the grief. State democrats are introducing seven bills in ball aimed at tackling Mental Health issues and further regulating firearms. Theyre hopeful state republicans will support the measures. Treading water west of the bridge. It takes a little while for your head to wrap around that because youre thinking thats something thats not supposed to be there. Still ahead here at 5 00, not what they expected. A man floating in the bay and a lifesaving decision made in aint. As part of our bay area proud series. And shes known on the world stage. We catch up with one of the most wellknown bay area residents to find out about golfing with the famous. And he gave the cops the slip. What were learning about a criminal whos on the loose in the south bay. Good evening, im jeff ranieri in the nbc bay area weather center. We are tracking rain here lingering off the coastline. We are going to let you know not only how long this rain is going to be lasting but also how cold those temperatures will be getting coming up in just a few minutes. He was handcuffed but somehow he escaped. Police in san jose are on the lookout for the man that got creative and got away. Because he is a large man, the officers had to link two sets of handcuffs together. Somehow sanchez was able to slip his handcuffs to the front of his body and then when the officers werent looking, he hopped into the drivers seat of a police van and he drove off. He ditched the van in a local neighborhood and ran. Police found the van but could not find sanchez. A frightening night for an east bay family after two men kicked in the door to their home and opened fire. Vallejo police got the call that a mother and her two Adult Children have been shot at a home. The family was taken to the hospital. All are expected to survive. Police dont know why their house was chosen. It appears at this time to be random. One of apples biggest investors says its time for the company to show us the money. David einhorn who runs an Investment Firm called Green Light Capital is suing apple demanding that the Cupertino Company give more of its cash back to its shareholders. Apple has 137 billion in cash reserves, more than any other public company. And today responded to the lawsuit by saying it will discuss ways to give more cash to investors. Apple stock jumped 3 on that news. Movie stars, rock stars and one former secretary of state joined the best golfers in the world for the first round of the at t pro am at pebble beach. Phil mickelson is getting a lot of attention. The fourtime champion is here again this year to defend his title. Hes one title away from tying fivetime winner mark omeara, the king of pebble beach. The bigname newcomer is condoleezza rice, former secretary of state. She lives on the peninsula and golfs at stanford regularly. She told us shes nervous about playing in front of all these celebrities and the large crowd. Well, i had wanted to do it and the scheduling has never quite worked out. Maybe i wanted to get my golf game a little bit better, so hopefully ive succeeded. What are your expectations here . Oh, im just going to try to hit the ball well and have fun. Any pressure playing in front of a gallery. Oh, no. Of course there is, are you kidding . You just have to try to put that aside and swing the club. Good attitude. Well, there are some noticeable noshows this year. On the amateur side, comedian george lopez. On the professional side, tiger woods. Play continues through the weekend. But bill murray is in full swing. And you know that whole mustache, hes preparing for a role he said. Its not just what he does every day. Well, were surrounded by water, right . The bay, the ocean and rivers. There are a lot of places around here you can get in trouble on the water. And its often other boaters rather than professional rescuers who are first on the scene to help. For one man in deep trouble last fall, that turned out to be just as good. Garvin thomas is here with that story. Reporter it was early in the morning of october 31st. Crew change aboard the tugboat guard had just taken place. The captain said he spotted a dark shape in the water about 150 yards away. He almost didnt investigate it. Good thing he did, though, because what happened next is tonights bay area proud. Even on a morning when the weather is calm and the water is flat, there is no such thing as an ordinary day on San Francisco bay. At least not when that day is spent aboard a tugboat. Like the guard. Captain Perry Overton has spent enough years at the wheel to know that. Some jobs can be a real challenge, but thats thats what keeps you awake, you know. Its pretty cool. Reporter still, one day last fall, cool quickly gave way to Something Else entirely. The tugs job that morning was tos court a container ship into San Francisco bay. With overton at the helm and chief engineer Keith Manning on deck, the guard had just passed under the golden gate bridge. The boat was a mile and a half out to sea when overton spotted something floating in the water. Logs, crab buoys, you know, youre always seeing something in the water out here. Reporter at first he kept his course, kept to the boats schedule. But when the container ship radioed it was running 45 minutes late, overton turned the tug around. I said lets go check this out and see what it is. We got up to it and it was a guy. It was a guy treading water a mile and a half west of the bridge. And, you know, it takes a little while for your head to wrap around that because youre thinking thats something thats not supposed to be there. Reporter something, someone the crew clearly needed to get out of the water quickly. A life ring was tossed, but the man in the water didnt even reach for it. No response at all. Hes just staring at us, which is really spooky, because there was no emotion on the guys face, nothing. He was just treading water, just barely keeping afloat. The victim was in the water over this way. Reporter keith decided someone was going to have to go in, and he volunteered himself for the job. He lowered a ladder over the edge, went below deck and got ready. Grab the handle. Out it comes. Reporter wearing his immersion suit, he jumped into the dark, cold pacific. If i had to get in his face and say, okay, now youre going to have to do this for me, one foot up that ladder at a time slowly got him up the ladder. Reporter they saved the mans life. People who spend their lives on the water know help isnt always close by. Its why the crew of the guard practices man overboard drills every month, so that when its not practice, they are perfect. And they did a really fine job. Were proud of them. The first thing i wanted to mention is not just us saying they did a good job, this from a National Park service rescue swimmer. In the 20plus years of my career, ive never seen such a professional rescue by nonprofessional rescuers, talking about what they did. Of course youre wondering whats the guy doing in the water . Yes. The tug crew is wondering too. The guy was in such a state he couldnt talk when they got him on board. They handed him over to the coast guard. They have no idea. They have no idea who he was or what he was doing in the water. Thanks, garvin. Lets bring in jeff ranieri, our chief meteorologist. Weve got rain, weve got snow, weve got it all. Yeah, we definitely do. I know a lot of you have seen some sunshine after that morning round of rain but another wave of activity off to the north. Lets get to the some of the activity immediately offshore. Its not much but you can see some scattered rainfall that well see move in over the next couple of hours. Its going to be scattered in nature again so not everybody is going to see something over the next two hours, but heres what im concerned about. Off to the north we do have a few areas of Lightning Strikes near chico, reading and also red bluff. Theres enough instability in the atmosphere as we head throughout the evening hours, also for tomorrow, that we cant rule out a stray Lightning Strike here for the bay area so keep your eyes to the sky tonight. Otherwise right now temperatures have dropped. It feels like were in the freezer here across the bay area. This time last week we had 70s and now we have low 50s across the entire board. You add in a little wind and it feels like the 40s. Lets take you outside to that live hd Sky Camera Network on this brisk evening. We do have some cloud top buildup. Not too bad there in san jose, but once again, dont let your guard down because we do have more rainfall coming your way for tonight. There you can see also up into oakland, we have plenty of cloud cover off to the north that eventually will bring us more raindrops. So lets get you into the mix here. What we have happening is that area of upper low pressure. Theres a ton of uplift in the upper atmosphere so as this passes over tonight, thats where we get that chance of thunderstorms. Its only going to be with us throughout early tomorrow morning and then that pushes off to the east. Then here we go for this weekend. We get some sunny weather, High Pressure returns, but it will stay cool as we head throughout saturday and also on sunday. Otherwise for that rain timeline well find that next wave of Energy Moving in at 9 00, 10 00 tonight and tomorrow morning we are still forecasting areas of showers at 5 00, 6 00 and 7 00, and thats where it gets extremely interesting back for the east bay and the south bay because temperatures will be in the low to mid30s. So that could mean from about 4 00 a. M. To 7 00 a. M. , maybe a rain snow mix. Yes, in livermore and also in san jose. So if you hear some raindrops early tomorrow morning, you may want to go outside and take a look. You may get a few snow flurries mixing on in. Were going to start with 35 in napa, 35 in san jose and also 33 in los gatos. And for tomorrow, daytime highs will top out in the low to mid50s with plenty of sunshine by the afternoon and definitely not only the jacket but youll need those layers with you. On the threeday forecast we get sunny weather in here on saturday and also sunday. Then as we head throughout next week, wed like to put more rainfall in here but its just not going to happen. It will stay dry on monday and tuesday. Temperatures will warm up with low to mid60s. And for valentines day, we cant forget that, my producer, anthony, is right on top of things. For all of you lovebirds out there, or ones looking for love, we will have some partly cloudy skies and 64. Thats next thursday. Next thursday. Dont forget that. All right, jeff. You and your counterparts on the east coast saying it might be one of the biggest blizzards in recorded history and its about to hit the northeastern states with a vengeance. Airlines have already begun cancelling hundreds of flights in new york, chicago and other cities in the next few days. Meanwhile in boston, school has already been cancelled. Still to come at 5 00, a Close Encounter as a record asteroid is headed our way. And fed up with the skin or too much skin . The new dress code coming to one of hollywoods biggest events. I safe landing, no problems reported after a dreamliner test flight. Boeing got the okay to fly one of its 787s from its test factory to washington. Dreamliners have been grounded after two battery fires. Today the ntsb said it was a short circuit in the lithium ion battery which caused it to smoke and burn, but the agency cant explain why there was a short circuit. The dreamliner is expected to be grounded for at least another month. They have cancelled all flights to tokyo through march. How close is close . Only nasa would consider 17,000 miles a Close Encounter. A potatoshaped asteroid, take a look, the size of a half a football field is heading towards earth and will zip by us next friday. It will pass within 17,000 miles of our planet, which nasa says is the closest known approach ever for an object this size. For some perspective, if you drove from here to miami six times, that would be about 17,000 miles. Amateur atraun mestronomers exp see the big rock. We should say a lot of amateurs are excited to see the big rock this coming friday. Well, there is a dress code at the grammys. That story when we come back. When i take a picture of this check, it goes straight to the bank. Oh. Oh look the lion is out no mommy no dont worry honey, it only works on checks. Deposit checks from your smartphone with chase quickdeposit. Just snap a picture, hit send and done. Take a step forward and chase what matters. Just call them the fashion police. The Grammy Awards are thr sunday and cbs network has sent a memo saying Everyone Needs to be adequately covered. That means cover those buttocks and breasts. That also means no thongtype costumes or sheer clothing on stage. Something lady gaga has been a fan of. Cbs is also banning any type of lapel pins backing an organized cause as well as visible brand names and obscenities on tshirts. Wow. Youve got to be covered up, its going to be too cold to wear revealing clothing. Thats no fun. Thanks for watching us here at 5 00. We hope to see you at 6 00. Good night. On our broadcast tonight, the manhunt for a rogue ex cop turns sniper. The entire state of california placed on alert all day after a twoday killing rampage. Blizzard warning here in the east. A potentially historymaking winter storm 50 million americans in its path. Nearly 3 feet of snow predicted in some places. Hurricaneforce winds. Our team is in place tonight with the latest track. Clear the room. A senator gives the order after protesters disrupt a hearing on the subject of drones and torture, and the president s pick to lead the cia. And the giant comeback under way in one of the most Majestic Places on earth. Restoring the redwood forest to its old glory. Nightly news begins now. From nbc news World Headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with brian williams. Good evening. To our viewers out west tonight, we begin our broadcast out west this evening after a very dramatic and disconcerting day in southern california. After three murders, two more people wounded and the word from police today that one of their own, an ex police officer, a military veteran, is targeting Police Officers. As a result, law