Kind of weapon that suspect had. Its a small victory in our deepening drought. Were finally conserving water. Today state water leaders announcing californians have cut water use by 20 . Eve better were about to get wet. We have Team Coverage this evening. Chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is tracking some muchneeded rain, but we begin in san jose with michelle roberts. Michelle what do you have . Reporter well, im here in a pond, although it seems a little bit odd to call it a pond because theres nothing here. Were in this spot about a year and a half ago i would be swimming. So even though we are doing more to conserve obviously, more needs to be done and we also need that rain. Generally, i just try and use less water. I mean its a mentality. Reporter a mentality that seems to be working, at least lately. The state water board says water use fell 22 in december compared to the same time last year. It was just a drop in the bucket, and rain or shine, we need to continue to conserve. Reporter jerry de la piedro with the valley Water District calls it a small success but points out that people use more water in the summer months and locally we only saved 17 water last year which isnt enough to protect the depleting groundwater basins. Were worried people are thinking, well the droughts over, i can go back to my old behavior and it will take a long time to recover from the drought and we dont know how long the current droughts going to last. Reporter the bay area had its driest january on history. If Drought Conditions continue the Water District is prepared to ask homeowners to conserve up to 40 or 50 , which will mean more brown landscapes and shorter showers. I dont know where else i would get it from, so its going to be a challenge. Reporter we tend to use less water in the winter months because were not watering the lawn as much. So we had that big storm last month, and some say that may have contributed to people watering their lawn even less. So, still a lot more to be done when it comes to conserving. But tonight, reporting live in san jose im michelle roberts, nbc bay area news. Okay michelle thank you. Well, well get more help this week for this drought. Chief meteorologist jeff ranieris tracking the rain heading our way. All signs right now continue to point toward the fact that this event is going to happen. Were now at 41 days with no rainfall at all. And you can clearly see offshore what we are tracking. Its a huge plume of moisture thats now centered across the pacific northwest. What were waiting on is for that plume of moisture to sink off towards the south. Its all part of this Atmospheric River of moisture we keep talking about and where exactly that points we will find some of the heaviest rainfall. Its going to interact with our storm system as we head throughout fridays forecast. Right now, yes, it looks like its going to be aimed right here at california, but again, some of the largest effects likely in the extreme end of california. So with that incoming rain i do want you to think about a couple of things. Our elevated flood risk will likely be the highest here in marin, napa and Sonoma County where we could have 1 1 2 to 3 inches of rainfall. The biggest thing is where that Atmospheric River of moisture sets up. It still looks like it will impact the bay area at this point. Forecast models have some disagreement on timing. Thats not good for our confidence but what you should know is all forecast models are showing some sort of rain on friday through sunday. Well have more details in the timing coming up in about ten minutes. Okay, thanks jeff. You can track the weather in your neighborhood by downloading our nbc bay area app. See the latest forecasts as well as realtime radar. The app is free for iphone and android users. A popular rapper from the east bay has been shot dead. Tonight, as word spreads, as fans and family remain stunned. Hundreds of people have been gathering throughout the day where Dominic Newton was gunned down. Hes better known as the jacka. He was found on mcarthur boulevard in east oakland around 8 15 last night. Newton died a short time later. Witnesses say he was rapping with a group of friends on the street when someone pulled up and started shooting. So far, no suspects have been announced. Tributes are pouring in though for the 37yearold, including this one on the website of kmel radio. Newton who went to Live Oak High School in antioch, had been active in the bay area rap scene since 1999. Now to a developing story overseas. Vows for revenge after isis released a horrifying video today. It shows jordanian pilot lieutenant Muath Al Kaseasbeh being burned alive inside a cage. He was captured in december after ejecting from his fighter jet during a Bombing Mission against isis in syria. Isis had offered to exchange him for a convicted al qaeda suicide bomber being held in jordan. Jordan was up for it and asked for proof of life but never received it. Now its believed the pilot was already killed a month ago. Should in fact this video be authentic, its just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization. President obama offered his condolences to King Abdullah of jordan who happened to be visiting washington today. Hes now cut his trip short to fly home and deal with this crisis. Tonight on nightly news with brian williams, is it a turning point . How jordan could react to this savage killing. Plus more on the american a 26yearold woman, being held by isis. Thats coming up at 5 30. The debate and call for action is intensifying when it comes to the Measles Outbreak. In washington today, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle urged parents to vaccinate their kids. It happened during a congressional hearing on contagious diseases. The Measles Outbreak spread across the country after an infected child visited disneyland last month. Many parents choose not to vaccinate their children fearing side effects, but medical experts today reaffirmed there is no credible evidence to support that claim. Heres some of the numbers. There are 102 measles cases across the United States right now. 92 of them in california including 14 right here in the bay area. Well they used to fill the skies. Now pigeons in the bay area are dying at an alarming rate. At least 1,000 of the dead birds have been found in arinda Portola Valley and the los gallas saratoga valley so all across the area. Scientists say a parasite is killing them. They are related to the Passenger Pigeon which was once the most abundant bird until it was hunted into extinction. All this week the Investigative Unit is looking at Disaster Preparedness in the bay area. Tonight we investigate columns, a critical element supporting many of the roads and bridges we use every day. Investigative reporter elise kirshner discovered that 29 years after the 1989 loma prieta quake, some still need to be retrofitted. When the suppress freeway lapsed after loma prieta we saw what can happen when columns fail. Decades later, some columns still need to be stabilized to withstand a large earthquake. Now, the Investigative Unit merged the national bridge inventory with data provided by caltrans and discovered that more than 20 bridges owned by local authorities from sonoma to fremont have yet to be retrofitted. San franciscos director of earthquake safety says if columns are not stable when the next powerful earthquake hits it will be even harder to get help to those who need it. We look at a lot of things of making sure our First Responders have access to these folks post disaster. The last thing we would want to do is we would definitely want to make sure that the Transportation Networks are intact. Reporter and we also found that a welltraveled stretch of bark has yet to be retrofitted. Well have more details tonight in our full investigation at 11 00. Elise kirshner nbc bay area news. If you have a tip for elise or anybody in our Investigative Unit, give us a call 888996tips or you can also email theunit nbcbayarea. Com. Its frustrating, nightly commute just picking up on 101 in palo alto. Tonight, new information that shows its going to get worse. The one thing, though you wont be able to count on in the future. Plus reporter im Marianne Favro live in san jose. This report just released today shows that our economy is booming locally. Coming up find out just how many new jobs were created in the bay area. I want my senior year to blow up and i decided to make my mark. He often felt like an outsider until now. How this newly crowned homecoming king is helping others feel like they too, belong. Its part of our bay area proud series. Then at 6 00 a seafood favorite fished into near oblivion. These animals are really right on the brink of extinction. The promising bay area experiment giving new hope for all kinds of endangered animals. Started with 12 animals and now we have thousands. Thats new at 6 00. At Kaiser Permanente everything you need is under one roof. Another way care and coverage together makes life easier. Okay, a little easier. Become a member of Kaiser Permanente. Because together, we thrive. Heres breaking news were following on the other end of the country, actually. This is near new york city. One of our nbc helicopters is overhead there. This is a commuter train packed with hundreds of people that crashed into a car on some Railroad Tracks there. This is the height of the evening rush so its about 8 00 in new york city. This is in Westchester County which is a suburb north of new york city. This sparked a fiery crash and injured several people. Officials say the impact pushed the car about 150 yards on the track. So its a train against a car outside of new york city. You can see the plumes of smoke there pouring out from the train. Well continue to follow this breaking news story as we get more updates into our newsroom. Back here at home we want to bring you a live picture of the shark tank an area weve experienced another warm day. As for the tech economy, it is hot. Industry analysts issued its annual economic study today, and it shows our local economy is thriving. Nbc bay areas Marianne Favro is live in san jose with the latest on these numbers. Marianne. Reporter janelle, this is the Silicon Valley index, we leased today and it says that the bay area saw its highest job growth rate in 14 years. And this new construction site behind me is a perfect example. Companies are moving in and expanding like crazy, with more than 16 million square feet of new office space approved in Silicon Valley. Silicon valleys economy is thriving with 58,000 new jobs created last year. Thats the highest new job growth since the dotcom boom in 2000. Its amazing. Were seeing extraordinary growth. Reporter San Francisco is flourishing, too adding more than 18,000 new jobs with Companies Like uber and dropbox leading the charge. But its not just Tech Companies reaping the benefits. We have a thriving tech sector, but its driving Economic Growth across the board. So were actually seeing tremendous growth in areas Like Health Care and medical devices, Community Infrastructure construction jobs. Reporter the down side . Youve probably already noticed it during your commute. The new report shows Traffic Congestion reached record levels. And rents are way up. In Silicon Valley the average rental rate is more than 2,300 a month. The index also reveals a surprising change. Since 2008 our birth rate has declined a little over 13 . Its significant. Reporter so while business is booming, we are definitely not seeing a baby boom in the bay area. Tomorrow, though will be a state of the valley conference at the Santa Clara Convention center to talk about the challenges and the opportunities in this booming economy. Reporting live in san jose Marianne Favro, nbc bay area news. Okay, thanks marianne. Well high school can be tough for any teenager but if youre the new kid and have special needs, it can be extremely tough. And thats exactly the situation the young man at the heart of this story found himself in. Lets bring in nbc bay areas Garvin Thomas with our bay area proud series. Raj, the many things that make Brandon Gruber special is that he not only turned a rough High School Experience for himself into a great one, its that hes dedicated himself to doing the same for others. And do you want to go back over your stars one more time or would you like to start with the tree . Im going to start with the tree now. Reporter Brandon Grubers art teacher says it was all the way back in third grade that she first recognized Something Special about brandon when it came to painting something she felt worth sharing with the world. I love my art stuff. Reporter this story though is about brandon using his art to share something hes even more passionate about these days. I am going to help my friends. Okay, so today we are starting a new assignment. Reporter this all begins three years ago, when brandon transferred to Aptos High School as a freshman. A tough transition for any teenager, but for one with down syndrome well it wasnt a happy time. No. Im not happy. Hey, junior. Reporter but then at the beginning of his senior year brandon decided to make some changes. Whats up brandon . Reporter tired of being an outsider he joined every group he could put himself out there like never before. Blow it up he told his mom. And i decided to make my mark. The moment youve all been waiting for. The envelope, please. Reporter and did it work . Homecoming king is Brandon Gruber reporter oh, yeah. Brandon becoming homecoming king would make a great ending to this story, except that its not. I decided to make it the beginning of my new journey. Reporter you see, feeling a part of his school like never before had felt so good brandon couldnt wait to share the feeling. He began doing it by selling note cards with his artwork on them. So, what were going to do is were going to get you started measuring you. Reporter brandon raising enough money to pay the way for half a dozen other aptos high students to go to this years winter ball. Tuxes, dresses, tickets and transportation for kids who, due to special needs or low income would have been left out of such fun. But wont be this time. For everyone. Reporter all thanks to a young man with special needs, sure but one who is also just plain special. Hes working it hes got the moves. I love it. A great dancer as well. So, this was for the winter ball which was last weekend. Brandons going to do the same thing, raise the money again and do the same thing for prom coming up this spring, give a half dozen of his classmates who wouldnt normally have a chance to go to such things. Hes going to pay for their transportation tuxes, dresses. And dances are so special in high school and now theyll be so much more memorable. Some of us didnt go to winter ball and the prom. Well sorry to bring up a sensitive subject. I dont know what to say to that. You needed brandon is what you needed. We need brandon. Thanks garvin. Thanks, garvin. Jeff ranieris in. Yeah. Is it raining yet . A lot of rain. Not raining yet. I wish it was raining right now all the way through next week but were not going to see that. At least were seeing positive signs on the satellite radar picture, and that is a huge plume of moisture just off to the north. The tally continues. Right now 41 days without any kind of rainfall. Lets show you how extensive this plume of moisture is. This subtropical moisture stretching way back towards hawaii. And again, just a small slice of this and thats going to give us something we have not seen really at all in january. Take a look outside in the Sky Camera Network and you can see temperatures for the most part in the low 60s. We have overcast and haze. We did manage some sunshine for today, albeit it was not our sunniest day over the past week or so. Tomorrow were going to continue with that trend. Were looking more partly sunny in our microclimate youll find across the south bay, peninsula and also San Francisco. Another mild day with more temperatures near recordsetting. Likely one of the warmest would be los gatos at 71. A little cooler in san jose with 69. Well begin to see the wind shift, more of a stronger westerly wind and that should drop temperatures at the coastline in pacifica to 61 degrees, and for San Francisco, well have 60 in forest hill and slightly warmer here in downtown, 5 degrees on the plus side here in soma with 65 degrees. For the north bay, east bay and the trivalley youll notice widespread, once again partly sunny skies. Well average 64 in santa rosa. That will be the coolest in the north bay. And for the trivalley though well have some slightly warmer air trapped back in the valleys. That will give us 71 in pleasanton also 70 in livermore. But this is all going to be of course changing with that rainfall in the forecast. Some slightly colder air will be getting here by thursday. And so now as we get to those forecast models i want to give you the first immediate change that we have seen from today. Really, without any rainfall, you really want to test these forecast models out to see what theyre doing at each and every model update. Right now, the storm system seems to be slowing down. So some of the heaviest rainfall we saw yesterday may happen in the morning to early afternoon hours. Its now getting pushed back. You can see on friday at 11 30, well begin to see rain we think, here across the north bay, also down to San Francisco. But some of the heaviest rainfall may not get here until about 7 00 on friday. And as we advance this we think the storm will stall out with some heavier rain maybe through 3 00 a. M. On saturday. Then as we head throughout saturday afternoon, well get a break in here on the forecast and then well begin to see another storm system still on the way by sunday evening, also into monday. Lets take you now into the storm totals. What we are still seeing on the gfs model, the american model, is a stark contrast yet again. Down in san jose right around an inch of rainfall. But you head up to the north bay, likely 2 to maybe 3 inches there. On the european model, it is also still showing the contrast. Great for our confidence here to know that well likely see lesser amounts in the south bay and then once again some higher amounts up into the north bay. Now, i want to encourage you as we get closer to that storm system to head to nbcbayarea. Com. Click on the weather tapb and we have a brandnew killer home Weather Center there. You can track the rainfall as it comes in. Probably one of the best interactive radars in the area. Check it out because friday will be the day test that radar out as we expect the rainfall to come our way, guys. Good to know. Thank you, jeff. Still ahead at 5 00 say it aint so. The demolition has begun at our old favorite place, Candlestick Park. Well show you the early stages. Plus rushed to the hospital. The drama that unfolded at the courthouse after rap mogul shug knight faced the judge for the first time today. Ring ring . Progresso its ok that your soup tastes like my homemade. Its our slow simmered vegetables and tender white meat chicken. Apology accepted. Im watching you soup people. Make it progresso or make it yourself you say avocado old el paso says. Zesty chicken and avocado tacos in our stand n stuff tortillas. record scratch you say stand n stuff tortillas old el paso says. Start somewhere fresh this was an eventful day, to say the least. First, an appearance in court and then a trip to the hospital for rap mogul suge knight. Authorities in l. A. Say knight complained of chest pains while in a lockup. He had just pled not guilty to four counts of murder attempted murder and two hitandrun charges, stemming from a deadly confrontation last week. Knight, cofounder of death row records, is expected to be back in court next monday. Well new at 5 00 the growing traffic in the bay area is doing more than overcrowding roads and freeways. Its also making commute times unpredictable. You probably already know that. Thats according to a recently released study. Drivers used to be able to predict their commute times, but as the economy improves and more cars hit the road, the usual commute time is becoming a little more unpredictable. The south bay, though even with the Silicon Valley and all the new jobs is faring a little better than the rest of the bay area. The study found commuters in Santa Clara County have the lowest average commute times, under 25 minutes. Saying goodbye to an old friend. The demolition process of Candlestick Park kicks into high gear. We want to show you pictures captured from our nbc helicopter. Crews spent the day clearing some debris from the field before the major demolition starts on friday. Tomorrow, city officials will hold a final News Conference and the media will be given a final chance to tour the old stadium. The demolition should take about two months. Once candlestick is gone, a Shopping Center hotel and housing complex will go up in its place. I can smell candlestick from here. You can, still . Up next a surprise sequel to an american classic, to kill a mockingbird. Thats next. Whats that thing . I moved our old Security System out here to see if it could monitor the front yard. Why dont you switch to xfinity home . I get live video monitoring and 24 7 professional monitoring that i can arm and disarm from anywhere. Hear ye the awkward teenage one has arrived dont be old fashioned. Xfinity customers add xfinity home for 29. 95 a month for 12 months. Plus for a limited time, get a Free Security camera call 1800 xfinity or visit comcast. Com xfinityhome. Tonight at 6 00 its a controversy you can see thats playing out on youtube, and its all about the ads. Why some people are calling for these ads to be taken down because of who they say theyre targeting. Thats tonight on our 6 00 newscast. One of the most beloved novels in American Literature is about to get a sequel. To kill a mockingbird is author harper lees only published book. Well shes now 88 years old and learned her original book go set a watchman will be released. She wrote the book first with the same characters, but scout is an adult. The book will be released in july. Harper lee won a Pulitzer Prize for to kill a mockingbird and also won the medal of freedom. So, to kill a mockingbird is the sequel. I will buy that as soon as its out. Taking us back to our High School Reading days. Thanks for joining us at 5 00. Brian williams is next with nightly news. Have a good night, folks. On our broadcast tonight, is it a turning point . As isis finds a new way to shock the world with the execution of a Jordanian Air force pilot. Jordan vows revenge for the death of a fellow muslim, and tonight what were learning about the American Woman being held. The vaccine debate. Despite a mountain of evidence that theyre safe and save millions of lives, the reason so many parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children. Threeparent babies. The world watches a pivotal decision of the in vitro fertilization. Some fear a world of designer babies. The surprise sequel to the american classic to kill a mocking bird. Turns out the reclusive harper lee wrote another novel, and much to the excitement of readers everywhere. Nightly news begins now