If you are caught doing that, you could face a 100 fine or have to take an online course. But if youre caught a second time, that fine is 500. Reporting live in san jose Marianne Favro nbc bay area news. Thanks marianne. Lets bring in chief meteorologist jeff ranieri who is watching the air quality. It has been hazy through the day. Some thick haze through the east bay and the Santa Clara Valley. Youre going to see in the time lapse that haze sitting right across portions of the Santa Clara Valley as the camera from the east bay is looking off towards the west. The key problem, no doubt that is keeping this air pollution very poor is the fact that we have very calm winds, only about 5 to 7 Miles Per Hour and its also the direction of the wind, continually coming in from the east. So its scooping up any pollution in the Central Valley and pushing it right here across the bay area. You see exact reverse direction of those winds and how they typically are across the bay area. So tomorrow is expected to be a spare the air day yet again with all areas in the unhealthy levels and illegal to burn. We are likely to see spare the air through fridays forecast. When if comes to the winter forecast and the air pollution, we have seen some of the highest spare the air alerts in winter, especially during 2012 2013 and 2014. This year, while we had all of that rainfall in december we have not seen any rainfall in january. And thats why weve seen 12 spare the air alerts. What we need is a major directional change in the wind. I do think thats going to definitely happen by sundays forecast. The wind will be more on shore and a little bit to the north. And that should help scatter out this air quality. But saturday and sunday is the next time we see some relief. You can see whats going on with the air on our web page. Again thats nbcbayarea. Com. A high speed rail project in california raced out of the station today after a decade of furious debate with Governor Brown leading the charge the groundbreaking finally took place today in fresno. The controversial multibillion dollar project will link San Francisco to l. A. In three hours. Nbc bay areas Michelle Roberts is in fresno this evening. Exciting for many people, but others are calling this the train to nowhere. Reporter yeah. Thats right. Im here in down town fresno. This is where the station will be. Construction has already started here. There used to be a building here. They took it down. You can see debris left behind. But trains wont be rolling through this spot until 2022. This is truly a california project bringing us together today. Reporter Governor Brown says hes proud to finally Start Construction on the first highspeed rail in the country. It will connect to madera county. Passengers are expected to arrive in San Francisco from l. And the in three hours. Theres a sustainability on the type of fuel the protection of the air a protection of the land. Reporter critics fear the 68 billion project will leave a massive debt for future generations. It started at 10 billion when it was voted on. Now its up to 70 billion. Whens it going to stop . Reporter state and federal dollar will cover half the project. But the other half is still a mystery. On a big project like this theres never been a project that began with all the money necessary to complete it. Reporter rob dearden believes that the economy of the bay area depends on the success of this bullet train. They went on to say that the economy in the area cant grow unless theres more room on the roadways or this train. In case youre wondering about the trip cost about 85. Nbc bay area news. Thank you. We also got a look at San Franciscos new transbay Transit Center. Take a look. This is today. Bullet trains will be rolling through in about 15 years here. The so called train boxes have been built underground. Above ground the area will have link connections with bart amtrak and muni. The futuristic design will reflect the new role. It had a very dark, very closed feel to it. The new Transit Center is going to be beautiful, light, open large public art is going to be in there. Theyre working on this night and day, not just the Transit Center. More than 100,000 square feet of retail space will also be part of the center. The grand opening is scheduled for 2017. Also someone set the mrs. Doubtfire home on fire. The home opener a Plastic Surgeon believes a disgruntled patient did it. The owner smelled smoke. When he opened the front door he saw the doormat on fire. He also noticed scorch marks on the garage door and called police. Officers are now keeping an eye on this house. Obviously, this was an intentional act. We dont want to see the suspect come back and try to finish the job. The Pacific Heights home was made famous in the 1993 movie mrs. Doubtfire, and it also became the site of a makeshift memorial after the death of Robin Williams last summer. This man is accused of setting multiple car fires over the holidays. But hes refusing to face a judge. Gilleyland has been in jail ever since he was arrested. When it came time to go to court today he refused. Officials will try again tomorrow. Also a day of change for san jose a new mayor and four knew City Council Members took their places at city hall today. Robert honda is live at the center for performing arts where they will officially be sworn in tonight. Reporter it is a rather unusual arrangement. They will be sworn in after a full day at the office. A lot of people are calling this a new start but with a lot of old doubts lingering. Good afternoon. Id like to call the meeting to order. Reporter sam lacarda opened the meeting. People are tired of the fighting. They want to move forward, and this is our opportunity to move forward. Congratulations. [ applause ] reporter the city council will also have four new members. Pam wynne. I think everyone is coming in with an open heart. Reporter this Council Member says he hopes so. Look its january. Its a new year a new council. We have every opportunity in the world to make some positive changes, and it really starts with the mayors office. Reporter and in less than an hour, the new mayor will get a chance to address that during his swearingin ceremony. Coming up at 6 00 the event as well as advice from dave cortesy. A new year and the same old gridlock. Youre looking at capitol hill where members of congress were important in today. John boehner was reelected as House Speaker despite two dozen republicans voting against him, calling him too moderate. Mitch mcconnell is now the majority leader. Republicans now control congress for the First Time Since 2007. The first order of business will be passing a keystone xl pipeline bill, however, the white house says president obama will veto it. Gearing up for the Golden Gate Bridge closure. Just ahead, the highly specialized equipment that just arrived and the equipment theyll be moving each day to keep you safe. Also. Came to my a very close call for a man whose car was hit by an amtrak train this morning. We talk about what happened and how he was able to walk away unhurt. Im live in hayward and will have all the details coming up in a live report. Im scott budman in las vegas car safety, incar electronics, and yeah, a pretty sweet ride. Coming up, well show you whats moving at the Consumer Electronics show. Then at 6 00 more than 1,000 dogs have died and many owners blame tainted treats. We investigate a new development, the new move designed to keep your pets safe. [ bell ringing ] on wall street today, the dow lost 130 points on top of a 331point drop yesterday. Many traders see the continuing plunge in oil prices as a warning sign that the Global Economy is slowing. The gadgets of tomorrow are here today. This is considered the most exciting week of the year for the tech world. The Consumer Electronics show, not just geeks and programmers, but regular people like all of us waiting to see these new gadgets. Our business and tech reporter scott budman is in las vegas with a look at the next big thing. Reporter good evening. Today all about cars and car technology. Its a huge and growing business, because if you think about it, there is a whole lot of gadgetry safety and convenience coming your way when you get behind the wheel. There are a ton of gadgets at ces that point to the future. But if youre biking today youre probably worried about cars and volvo has a helmet for that. It has gps and alerts you if a car is coming quickly. Its technology also built into this new volvo which can detect nearby bikes. Its not only making things safer, its actually also providing information to cars and bicyclists. So they know the traffic environment around them. Reporter and heres an app for you bmw drivers that really gets you. It might be the first piece of Behavioral Technology inside a car. Based on your driving pattern, now you know when to park. We recognize that. Based on the information we give you for the next time recommendations. Reporter and speaking of phones inside cars this company lets you take dash cam video straight to your smartphone. So you can view what the cameras viewing on your phone, but you can also pull videos off the car so you can share it on facebook or however you want to share video immediately. Reporter we like to share, and we like safety. Expect both to ride along with you soon. And coming up tonight at 6 00 well take you on a different kind of ride with a Bay Area Company thats becoming the hit of the show with something very exciting and very terrifying. Reporting live in las vegas, scott budman. A tech play ground for grownups. Bridge officials are days away from closing the bridge. It will allow them to install a movable barrier. The onefootwide barriers can be moved to adjust the number of lanes in each direction with specialized trucks. The goal of the barrier is to preeft headon collisions. Starting monday morning coming across the Golden Gate Bridge, drivers will actually be separated by a movable and flexible but very solid median barrier. And the safety implications of that are obvious. Bridge engineers say the last fatal headon collision on the bridge was back in 2001. The bridge is set to reopen next monday. How about this. A hayward man has an incredible story to tell. His car was hit by this amtrak train this morning. Our chopper was overhead. Not only did he walk away uninjured. He even managed to drive the car home after the accident. Thats his car down there in that parking lot. Nbc bay areas Kimberly Tere is live with this story. Reporter the 84 year old man says he was on his way to get some breakfast when he hit traffic right here and ended up on the tracks. Thats when he saw the train coming at him. He was sitting inside his car at that moment and knew he had literally seconds to save himself. Came to my if im not able to move off this i know what will happen. Reporter angel says he was petrified when he looked to see the amtrak train barrelling toward him. I can see it already. How far is that up a mile i see it . Reporter his Nissan Sentra was sitting across tracks in hayward. Its not good for me to be caught there. So i have to move on. And it happened that the traffic did move on. So i keep on driving until i was able to free. Reporter but it wasnt completely free. A few inches of his car were still on the tracks, and the train clipped it. Destroying the back bumper but leaving the 84yearold unscathed. Im so glad to have my life. The car was hit. I still have my life. I do not know anything else. Why, why should i live up to this moment. Reporter his drivers license has been readvocated pending reevaluation. He was also cited for failure to obey crossing bars which he insists never came down. They did not kol down. They did not. Reporter coming up big concerns about this particular crossing and why they say its not hard to believe the warning arms may not have come down this morning. Live in hayward Kimberly Tere, nbc nbc bay area news. I dont think weve heard a story like that. He was hit by a train and smiling through the whole interview. Lets talk about the weather. A lot of hazy conditions outside. A lot of sneezing jeff. Its not going to get better over the next 24 hours. Were going to have to wait several days for that. I dont think it will be clear until sunday maybe mondays forecast. Temperatures right now are continuing to drop, mainly 50s across the bay area but where an east wind is in effect down in the south bay its moving across lower elevations and thats helping to keep temperatures lightly warmer. Its about four to five degrees above where we should be for those daytime highs. Well take you outside to the sky camera network. And the other thing has been the haze and the pollution. In fact, its so thick right now as the sun sets you cant even see any downtown lights in san jose. And you see the orange glow across the bay as the sunset reflects off the dirt particles in the atmosphere and it does this prism effect. And thats why you get all the colors in the atmosphere. We have High Pressure aloft. This creates dry, sinking air across the bay area. So basically, its like putting a big shoe on top of the bay area. All those particles go all the way to the surface and its going to stay there keeping that poor air quality with us. Not only High Pressure aloft but winds coming out of the east taking pollution thats also in the Central Valley and scooping it up and moving it right across the bay area. That will stay in effect for tomorrow. Those easterly winds will also keep us with near recordsetting temperatures for a lot of the bay area. In fact for tomorrow we will likely have a record here in San Francisco. A forecasted 66. Record at 65. In gilroy, a forecast of 72 with a record of 69. You can see a lot of sunshine up at the higher levels. But at the lower levels, haze is going to stay put. The south bay is going to have the warmest temperatures. 70 at los gatos. Palo alto 67 and pacifica64. In oak land, 68 degrees, walnut creek 61. Where those winds interact with the Higher Elevations in oakland coming out of the east its going to boost your temperatures and its not going to be the same in walnut creek with 61 degrees. A spare the air alert in effect for wednesday. Not just for a few select areas. All sections of the bay area expecting unhealthy levels of ozone. You can see dry weather expected for wednesday also for thursday. Cloud cover increases by thursday night also into friday. But any kind of rain chances right now at least a slight chance of showers would be in San Francisco and also on saturdays forecast it will looks like it will be dry across san jose. So our big hopes for any kind of big time rainfall pretty much dashed at this point, but we still have the rest of winter. Hopefully well get bigtime rain in the next few weeks. Still ahead, the worlds safe els airline. Teaming up to fight parkinsons disease. How two Bay Area Companies are working to find a cure. And youre looking at it, the problem on the peninsula that closed three schools today. Cant say thank you enough. You have made my life special by being apart of it. everyone cheers glad you made it buddy. Thanks for inviting me. Thanks again my friends. For everything for all your help. Through all lifes milestones our trusted advisors are with you every step of the way. Congratulations thanks for helping me plan for my retirement. You should Come Celebrate with us. Id be honored. Plan for your goals with advisors you know and trust. So you can celebrate today and feel confident about tomorrow. Chase. So you can. Its being considered a case of suicide by cop. And in less than an hour San Francisco police will hold a town hall meeting to discuss their investigation. Sunday night Police Officers shot and killed 32yearold Matthew Hofmann at the Mission District police station. He was armed with a fake gun and approached officers with it. Officers saw his suicide letter last night. In it he apologized and said officers were not at fault. The weapon is expected to be shown that he was carrying. Take a close look. No school today, this water main break closed three peninsula schools. The cell phone video was shared to us by one of the Staff Members there. San carlos parents dropping off their kids this morning were turned away as they pulled up to school. Two other schools which share the campus they will reopen thankfully tomorrow. A custodian, acting very smart managed to sandbag classroom entrances so the classrooms stayed dry. Quick thinking there. Two bay area Biotech Companies are joining to fight parkinsons. They will perform gene sequencing. The goal is to use the information to treat the nerve disorder, which, right now, has no cure. Genentech will get the startup. 23 and me will give permission for this research and will remain anonymous. The Safest Airlines in the world. 94 years in the sky and not one fatality. Thats what makes qantas the safest airline. The report was based on audits from aviation organizations. Nearly 150 other airlines also received seven stars for their safety. The highest rating possible. But five airlines received the lowest safety rating of one star. Here they are. Agni, nepal, scott and terra. A local boy inducted into the hall of fame. Huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Yeah, Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast . You got to know when to holdem. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run. You never count your money, when youre sitting at the ta. What . You get it . I get the gist yeah. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Its the highest honor in baseball. Today it was announced that pitcher Randy Johnson from livermore has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of fame. He won the cy young award five times during his career and in 2008, while pitching for the giants, he became the seventh lefthanded pitcher to reach 300 wins. Today he talked about getting the call to coopers town. I got goose bumps, and i felt like ive never felt before in my life. This is not things that you plan out in life. Same haircut. Moments after the announcement, the diamondbacks announced that he will act as assistant to the ceo. How cool. Congratulations to him. Thanks for joining us here at 5 00. Brian Williams Joins us next with nightly news. Well see you back here at 6 00. On our broadcast tonight, triple threat. Bone chilling cold, wind, and snow as serious weather now grips much of our country. That includes mudslides tearing through homes and forcing evacuations. The price you pay. While the price for gas has come way down, the freefall in oil prices isnt all good news for Family Finances in this country. Battling alzheimers. Tonight Julianne Moore on the emotional role that could win her an oscar. The movie that will make a lot of people think. And cliffhanger. The story of an incredible climb, perhaps the most difficult ever attempted, as tonight people all over the world are following the vertical progress of two brave men. Nightly news begins now. 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