When firefighters arrived, they found a woman dead inside, and late today, the Alameda County coroner said after examining her body, it was determined she was murdered. We want to bring you live at the Alameda CountySheriffs Department where a News Conference is under way right now. Lets listen in. I will tell you, she was not shot. But this is a very brutal murder. Its very concerning. In the manner she was killed. The subsequent fire is concerning. And the investigation right now leaves us with a lot of unknowns as to why this would have occurred. Our victim is a person in very Good Standing in the community. She is a person that you would not expect this to happen to. She is a widow and lived here alone. Whether or not this she was targeted for those reasons were not sure. So were looking into all those aspects. As of now, those are most the details we know. You dont know youve been listening to the Alameda CountySheriffs Department, giving us an update on this fire in the east bay. Now a homicide investigation. They have not released the name of the victim, but said she was a Good Community member and at this time they do not have a motive. Our reporter, michelle roberts, is there at that News Conference and will bring the latest tonight at 6 00. If you would like to continue to listen to this News Conference, we are streaming it live right now on our website, nbcbayarea. Com. Other headlines tonight. The cold, gray skies are already above, and the rain is soon to come. A big storm is headed our way. Lets take you outside. A live look now in San Francisco. Very cloudy. And over san jose, some clouds, as well. Lets bring in our chief meteorologist, jeff ranieri. Jeff, what will we see in the next 48 hours . Ahead of the storm system, we do have a Flash Flood Watch that has been issued for some heavy periods of rainfall as the storm system gets here. The main focus on the high flood threat will be clout the Santa Cruz Mountains, especially in the loma fire burn zone. 2 to 3 inches could bring the quick onset of flooding, maybe flood and also debris flow. Some spotty light showers throughout the bay area, but what i really want to show you is when things pick up on thursdays forecast, when the storm hits. We expect some heavier rainfall from the north bay all the way down to the south bay by the early afternoon on thursday. I have your full time online oh this coming up at 5 18 tonight. Thanks so much, jeff. With rain on the way, there is hope that a wet winter could mean full reservoirs. But that wont be happening at one of the biggest in the south bay. Nbc bay areas Marianne Favro is live to explain why the reservoir cant be completely filled no matter how much rain we get. Marianne. Reporter well, theyre expecting to build now a modified reservoir, and what that means, it will be at least four years before this reservoir will be able to capture its full amount. At capacity, Anderson Reservoir in morgan hill, holds more water than the other nine reservoirs in Santa Clara County combined. Problem is, the reservoir has not been at capacity in years. When tests in 2008 showed the dam could shift in a major wake, the Santa Clara CountyWater District reduced the amount it holds to just 66 of capacity. A repair project was set to begin in 2018, but now it will need to be delayed two years, because of a new discovery. And what we found recently were trace faults underneath that dam that they didnt know about when this dam was built. So now we have to consider those what would happen if those faults were to rupture. Reporter that means a more extensive and costly process to dig out the dam and reconstruct it. Doubling the cost to 400 million. Debby smalls home was in the flood plain below the dam. I think its better to be safe than sorry. And do it the right way. Reporter others are concerned the additional way to start the project means another two years, this reservoir isnt operating at full capacity. Possibly wasting precious rain water. The change with the modified project is now the dam will have to be torn down all the way to its clay core and then rebuilt. And thats why theres an additional 200 million in costs. Reporting live in morgan hill, Marianne Favro, nbc bay area news. Thank you, marianne. You can track the storm as it rolls across the bay area on our website. Just put in your zip code and it will bring up the radar picture in your neighborhood. Thats at nbcbayarea. Com. There are new developments surrounding the fire in oakland. The warehouse was never inspected. This is something that our Investigative Unit uncovered last week. Today it was confirmed by oaklands fire chief. Nbc bay areas Elyce Kirchner joins us from 31st avenue with more. Elyce. Reporter well, raj, tonight the oakland fire chief is acknowledging that the building here simply fell through the cracks. The now burned out building was never inspected. Meanwhile, we have learned that the atf is still trying to determine the exact cause of this deadly blaze. You can also see a growing memorial here remembering the 36 people who died in the fire. There was no hiding it. Just common sense when you have people coming and going that much. Reporter mike ricky says for years, everyone in the fruitvale neighborhood knew people lived inside the now historic ghost ship warehouse in oakland. He also saw and heard the parties. Once a month. Reporter still, even with the firehouse located around the block, oaklands fire chieftersa deloach reed says her department has no record of the warehouse ever being inspected. We do not inspect vacant buildings. We only inspect active businesses. Reporter and there was no trigger for any of the citys eight inspectors to come out and see all of the potential fire hazards inside. If they have pulled a permit to request a change of occupancy. If they pulled a permit for special activity, all those things would trigger us going out to the facility. Reporter a series of suspicious fires, including one at the neighboring vacant lot years before the deadly blaze also never triggered alarms. Thats when lease holder derek almena claims fire investigators went inside the warehouse. They came to investigate to see if our building was damaged. Reporter meanwhile, atf says it is still looking for the exact cause of the blaze. All while the memorial for the lives lost continues to grow. Like being in a graveyard. Because it is a graveyard, you know. Reporter and to hopefully present another deadly warehouse fire, the fire chief says authorities are talking about developing a better reporting system so that all enforcement agencies are alerted when complaints or fire hazards are found inside other buildings like this one. Reporting live from oakland tonight, im Elyce Kirchner, nbc bay area news. Thank you, elyce. The highest profile cabinet pick and now official. As we reported, president elect donald trump has nominated Rex Tillerson for secretary of state. A trump aide says tillerson and the president elect, quote, just hit it off. Trump tweeted, Rex Tillerson has vast experience dealing successfully with all types of foreign governments. Some democrats and republicans are concerned about tillersons long business ties with russia that could add fireworks to his Senate Confirmation hearing. An eclectic mix of people met at trump tower today. Microsoft co founder bill gates talked with the president elect about innovation and health and education. Rapper, kanye west, also visited with trump, saying the two spoke about multicultural issues, including bullying and education. Trump also named governor rick perry as his energy secretary. San francisco hooked up with russia today for an exclusive chat with edward snowden. Jack dorsey spoke with cyber security, government surveillance and the recent election. Snoed snowden insists he did nothing wrong by exposing classified documents a couple years ago. He warned anyone on a cell phone, though, that the government is listening. If you pick up the phone and you dial the number, you are making records of government. He doesnt want to necessarily be seen as some great villain. He doesnt want to be seen as someone changing world events. There have been rumors snowden may get a pardon but scott budman tells us the less than flattering things snowden had to say about mr. Trump today. That story in about ten minutes. Reporter one plan to build a stadium in oakland is picking up steam. Im Jodi Hernandez at Oakland City Hall, where the raider nation has reason to be hopeful. Thats something money cant buy, is making that particular wish come true. A young womans wish that has an entire high School Coming together. Tonights bay area proud. Im meteorologist jeff ranieri. We are tracking that storm system for thursday. Here are some of the top things were watching. King tides, the next 48 hours. Rising river levels. Possibly some isolated street flooding. And trees that could come down with the storm. Well have the time line and a look at the extended forecast in about eight minutes. The fight to keep the raiders in oa it could be a turning point in the fight to keep the raiders in oakland. City and county leaders deciding today whether to build a new stadium for the team. Nbc bay areas Jodi Hernandez is live in oakland where halloffamer, ronnie lott and a host of former nfl stars are making a final push to keep the raiders hear. Jodi. Reporter thats right, ronny lot, marcus allen, rodney pete and kessler, just a few in town today to push for a stadium here in oakland. Well pan over here. Push over here. You can see numbers of the raider nation are here in Oakland City Hall where the city council is set to vote on the plan later this evening. And tonight the raider nation is feeling optimistic. Right now im just excited. Reporter a revved up ronnie lott says he believes hes on the winning team that can keep the raiders in oakland. Go forth and prosper. Reporter the board of directors planned to build a 1. 3 billion stadium in oakland. After hearing from lott supporters, an offensive lineup of football greats, including former raider, marcus allen. The raiders are, in my opinion, as important to oakland as the packers are to green bay. I mean they are synonymous like synchronized swimmers. That synergy. Theyre meant to be together. Reporter mayor and former nba player, kevin johnson, also added his voice. Johnson says building arena for the kings has created 11,000 jobs. He says if sacramento can do it, so can oakland. As long as there is time on the clock, i believe the oakland raiders, i believe in the community. Reporter the Oakland City Council still needs to sign on. But the real challenge will be convincing the nfl and the raiders owner, mark davis. I have had a chance to talk with him a number of times. And as hes always said to me, good luck. Continue pushing forward. Continue to try to see if you can get this done. Reporter again, the Alameda County board of supervisors today voted for approval of the plan and now the city council will vote tonight. One City Council Member says he expects the vote to be unanimous. Of course, the big test will be convincing the nfl and convincing mark davis. But for today, raiders nation the raider nation says its a good day, and a good moment. Reporting live in oakland, im Jodi Hernandez, nbc bay area news. Coming up at 6 00, a top nfl executive says while momentum for a new raider stadium project is building in oakland, its far from a done deal. Well tell you why at 6 00. How about this . No need for santa claus. Holiday wishes coming to san joses branhamhuis thanks to the students. This year is especially important for one young girl. Garvin joins us. Robin gutierrez has congenital muscular dystrophy, stealing her breath. Its why making robins simple wish come true is what her classmates want to do. Contrary to what one might think, robin gutierrezs mobility is not limited by the wheels on her chair. Nor the breathing equipment always lurking nearby. No, robins only limit in life is her imagination. And what a wide and wonderful place that is. I like being able to be somewhere else. And its just fun getting to be somewhere else for the day. Reporter robins escape of choice is writing, directing, and starring in videos she makes with friends, then posts on her youtube channel. Its training robin, says, for the career in show biz she would love one day. Though one day robins mom fears may be too far away. She may not be here long enough to get an acting job where she gets to be on tv or in the movies or the limelight. For me, this is her chance to show people who she is and the talent she has. Reporter if only, erica thought, her daughter had a bigger audience now. But she didnt know where to find it. So for this next event, i would like to bring out robin gutierrez. Reporter but robin did. At high school. Everyone at Robins School makes a wish at the start of the school year. Yet only some are selected to present theirs in front of the entire school. I have thought a lot about life, and the people in my life. Reporter here, robin shared the struggles of her life with her classmates and made her wish. To get more subscribers to her youtube channel. Thank you. Reporter the school said, lets do it. Thats something money cant buy, is making that particular wish come true. And i am really grateful that theyre going to try and make that happen for her. Reporter robin says she is excited for the followers to come, and to complete more episodes of the series shes working on for them to watch. Still, even with the subscribers, robin knows that fame can be fleeting. But then again, so can life. So she is determined to make the most of it while she can. What do you say, guys, think we can help her out . I think weve got three followers right here. Im going to my Facebook Page right now, garvinthomas nbc bay area and post a link to her youtube channel. I want everybody, including you guys to subscribe to her not only subscribe, but share that posting so we can get this out to as many people as possible. We want to check out her creative work, too. A star is born. Very talented. Thanks, garvin. Thank you. An array of wigs, colored and carefully styled, waiting to be worn. This is what the wig bank looks like. The clients are patients at san joses cancer center, a Nonprofit Group called cancer care point arranged todays event for women dealing with changes to their appearance on top of the health. Volunteers helped not just with the wig fitting but also instruction on how to style and care for the wig. Thats a nice program. Yeah, great. A check of our forecast. We see some raindrops on the lens. More is coming. Thats exactly right. Our storm system is on the way. And we really havent seen any huge timing changes. Thursday is the day when we do expect that heaviest wet weather to arrive. Lets get a live look at the Doppler Radar and a few light showers from the north bay right on down through the peninsula. Most consistent zone of activity really has been from San Francisco up to novato, impacting the golden gate bridge, the slickest over the next 30 to 45 minutes. If youre expecting someone home, brake lights are probably in these major arteries so probably plan extra time. In tomorrow mornings forecast, cloudy all around with the possibility of a few spotty showers in the peninsula and 256. Well also have a chance for showers in the east bay, San Francisco and the north bay. Overall in the microclimate forecast for tomorrow, again, were not expecting a huge storm to arrive. I do think winds will kick up ahead of this storm, 5 to 15 miles per hour. Well keep the overcast skies and 62 in morgan hill. 60 for milpitas and 63 in east san jose. Contra cast at that, 64 in antioch and danville. Near the peninsula, winds breezy. 58 in daly city, 6 it for palo alto. San francisco, this will be one of our windier locations out of the south at 14. 58 in the marina and 56 in the embark dao. 61 expected in sonoma. Now the storm system. Again, looks like 10 30 on wednesday, we see moderate rainfall develop in the north bay. Then we get into this widespread heavier coverage of rainfall by 10 30 on thursday. Primarily for the north bay. But then pushing down to the east bay by 3 00 in the afternoon. And then down to the south bay by 5 30 with the heavier rainfall. Once we hit about 10 00 and 11 00 in the evening, the storm begins to push to the south and that eventually will give us some dry weather. How about the rainfall totals . A lot of us in blue on this map. Check out the key. That means a half inch to 1 1 2 inch on average. A few purple zones means anywhere from 1 1 2 to 2 inches, likely for the Santa Cruz Mountains and north bay mountains, as well. So overall, i think everyone is locked in for about an inch at this point. Were watching river levels. The one that will rise the highest is the Russian River near guerneville, up to 26. 8 feet friday, should stay out of flood stage. How about the extended forecast . I have a look right now. Drying out friday, saturday and also on sunday. Not only in San Francisco, but for the inland valleys. Once we get past the storm, all about the cold temperatures. Friday, a blustery morning near 33 degrees. Winds that could be about 25 miles per hour. Wear your layers on friday. Plan for it now. Okay, its coming. Thanks, jeff. Bill cosby all smiles and in a joking mood as he finds himself in court again. Well take you there, next. my hero zero by lemonheads zero really can be a hero. Get zero down, zero deposit, zero due at signing, and zero first months payment on select volkswagen models. Right now at the volkswagen sign then drive event. Gets 3. 2 billion dollars for two happening now on our home page, the california highspeed rail gets 3. 2 billion for two segments of track. Some of the money will go to electrifying a stretch of existing tracks from san jose to San Francisco. Thats the caltrain corridor. And Child Protective Services has temporary custody of a baby girl born yesterday in Golden Gate Park. Her mother living on the streets. A shouting match in court. This happed a shouting match in court. This happened during a hearing for bill cosbys Sexual Assault case. At issue, whether 13 sex abuse accusers, three of them from the bay area, should be allowed to testify against cosby at this trial. The District Attorney says he wants to show that an alleged Sexual Assault in 2004 was part of a decadeslong pattern. Cosbys lawyers want the women barred from taking the stand. Cosby is charging with drugging and sexually attacking Andrea Constand during an encounter in 2004. Sad news to report from bay area sports. Stanford alum and tight end conrad royland died from a brain aneury aneurysm. His memory and spirit will never leave us. We love you. Royland was part of the 2011 team that went to the orange bowl and played briefly with the niners. He was 29 years old. Back in a moment. First time. Talking to the media for the fst tonight at 6 00, shes talking to the media for the first time. Only on nbc bay area, were going to hear from the homeless woman who gave birth at Golden Gate Park yesterday. Whats next for her and her baby . That story and more coming up on our 6 00 newscast. The most famous tourist attraction in paris closed because of a worker strike. About 140 workers at the eiffel tower walked off the job today, demanding higher pay and better working conditions. Theyre also concerned about an upcoming paint stripping project that could pose potential risks. No word if the eiffel tower will reopen tomorrow. It was also closed last week for a different problem. A rat infestation. Ooh rats at the eiffel tower . Yes. A problem there. We will leave you on that note. Thanks for joining us here. Nbc nightly news is next. Bye. Tonight, confirmation showdown, as donald trump picks the powerful ceo of exxonmobil, with close ties to vladimir putin, to be americas secretary of state. Tonight, concerns being raised even by bigname republicans, setting up a critical fight. Horror in aleppo. With the wartorn city on the brink of falling, terrified messages coming from inside. A frantic exodus to escape the slaughter. Car talk. The new plan to change the way we drive. Imagine your car connected to every other car around. Sensing a potential accident before you even have time to react. Dangerous appliance recall. The largest of its kind in history. In millions of kitchens, do you have one of these in yours . And a matter of faith. A