Temperatures starting to climb, hottest places around morgan hill and santa rosa. 70s into San Francisco and hoekd. The item to watch will be increasing north wind, heading in tonight as the red flag warning starts in the north bay hills above a thousand feet. At 8 00 tonight, gusty winds, dry conditions, something to watch, as we head into sunday. And by the way, sunday, even hotter weather for the valley. So a closer look at that in the forecast coming up in 15 minutes. Even hotter. We will see you in 15 minutes, rob. Thanks. This warmup rob was just talking about has Fire Departments ramping um. A red flag warning starts tonight, for the north bay hills, as rob mentioned. Marin county fire is bringing in extra crews with more equipment. Firefighters tell us that dry fuel and these warm winds can be a devastating combination. We know that this weather, you know, given the right conditions, fires can get way out of our control. Marin fire also has extra eyes up high, dispatchers used this network of cameras to spot smoke, and then send crews to those locations. Pg e tells us theyre ready, too. The utility is operating the Emergency Operations center, and its prepared to cut power, in the sierra foothills to prevent power lines from igniting fires, as weve seen in the past. Pg e says it will be monitoring conditions in sonoma, lake and napa counties, through tomorrow. The good news though is that conditions are not as dry as they were last year at this time. When 87 of our state was experiencing drought conditions. This year, its down to just 5 of california. Be sure to get your weather news on the go, download our nbc bay area app. You can get tailored forecasts for your area, right on your phone. Now, to a story you will see right here, only on nbc bay area. A 77yearold man killed in a violent hitandrun crash. Now, the victims friend is mourning his loss and trying to understand how it could have happened. Meanwhile, the accused attacker sits in jail. Today in the bay has more. In this photo, lawrence is waving the American Flag with family members, who were visiting from romania. The picture was taken by his best friend mike. I met him for the first time, maybe 50 years ago, back in romania, he was a chess player. Over the years, they lost contact with each other, then got reacquainted when lupa started working in the bay area. He worked for the lockheed, for trumbull, he is especially trained gps. And santa clara investigators say he was killed tuesday by a 50yearold who is facing murder charges with a special enhancement for using her car as a deadly weapon. Witnesses say she hit him, as he was walking in the preserve and then backed up and ran him down again. Investigators say they still dont know why she allegedly did it. Were in the aware of any relationship between the defendant or any of the victims. Thats something were looking at. The motive of this case is an ongoing investigation. His neighbors say he offered shared fruit and vegetables from his garden and often Walking Around the neighborhood. Mike says he slowed down a little in his retirement but not much. His mind, his memory, absolutely excellent. He was a very good friend. Nbc bay area news. Now, to a Second Intelligence official, considering filing a whistleblower complaint about president trumps dealings with ukraine. The New York Times is now reporting that official has more direct knowledge and was among those interviewed to corroborate the first whistleblowers claims about trumps call with the ukrainian president. The first complaint, as you may know, filed in august, sparked the impeachment inquiry in the president , who is accused of abusing his power in office to get dirt on political rival joe biden. Back here locally, at least 20 businesses are still without water, following a water main break in san ramon. The break happened around 4 00 yesterday afternoon, on the 2400 block of San Ramon Valley boulevard. Thats just off 680. The water flooded cars, and got dangerously close to pouring into some businesses. It also flooded the onramp to sohbound 680 which was closed for a few hours. East bay had to shut off the main line to start cleanup and repair. I have insurance, but not water insurance for floods but it is crazy, i heard that they shut down the freeway. Thats another thing, too. But yes, i was afraid it was going to come in my business. At this point, we dont know the exact cause of that break. Now, to a new clue in the triple shooting. Local police are releasing new Surveillance Video that is connected to a shooting that left two people dead. Investigators believe the person driving a ford explorer, seen in this video, may have information related to the shooting that happened thursday in richmond. You can hear it there. You can see the explorer there, cross the intersection, right after you heard those shotted fired. It happened near the intersection of 32nd street and edmond avenue in richmond. Two peopleer killed. Only one additional person was seriously hurt. Grieving families of the ghost ship fire victims will have to endure a second trial as prosecutors get another shot at convicting the Master Tenant derrick almena. He found out yesterday, he will be retried on all 36 Involuntary Manslaughter charges. Just last month the jury acquitted almenas associate but it was a hung jury for almena himself. Yesterday a judge refused to lower the bail of 750 thousand, meaning he will stay in jail until the next trial. M almeas wife was visibly upset leaving court. My kids father, have not been able to hold his hand, to touch him at all. The retrial is set to begin in late march. San Francisco Mayor london breed appointed a new interim District Attorney just one day after George Gascon resigned. But some people arent happy about who the mayor chose. Protesters gathered at portsmouth square in chinatown yesterday morning for the mayors announcement. It was in anticipation of the mayor appointing suzy loftus as interim District Attorney and protesters say the appointment is not fair because the mayor will halready endorsed loftus in next months election. They wish he had cut the office open to let the Voters Decide but the mayor said she is not waiting. We dont leave an office open just because an election is coming up, especially one of the most important offices in the city. The mayor argues loftus can hit the ground running because of many years serving as a prosecutor. Just shy of 7 08. Much more ahead on today in the bay, coming up, he scammed more than a dozen people in contra costa county. And hear how one victim says she was tricked over handing over hundreds of dollars. And the hot Housing Market in the bay area may be cooling off. At at t we believe in access. The opportunity for everyone to explore a digital world. Connecting with the things that matter most. And because nothing keeps us more connected than the internet. Weve created access from at t california households with at least one resident who receives snap or ssi benefits. May qualify for Home Internet at a discounted rate of 10 a month. No commitment, deposit, or installation fee. Visit att. Com accessnow, to learn more. Welcome back. 7 10 on your saturday morning. Were taking a live look outside at downtown san jose. For the rock and roll Half Marathon. The 5 k today and the Half Marathon tomorrow. Prepare for road closures in and around downtown san jose, including san pedro street and north third street. And if youre headed out that way, it will be nice weather to get out and cheer for those runners. It is the ultimate rental ripoff. An east bay woman indicted for real estate fraud. Shes accused of taking thousands from unsuspecting rental applicants, looking for a place to live. The problem is, the places werent hers to rent. Today, in the bay, spoke with the victim, heres the story. A grand jury unsealed the indictment against 25yearold mercedes gonzalez, of san pablo, she was formally charged with real estate fraud. Over the past few months, a lot of the residents have seen different postings of houses, and you know, places that they can rent on social media. The suspect would collect dollars, collect deposits and would disappear. According to police, that happened to 23 people. Lydia morales is one of the victims chievement fou victims. She saw this home on the site and fell in love, the suspect can be seen in the video they took. And she filled out the application and her son gave gonzalez a 1500 deposit. It didnt take long for morales to realize the family was being ripped off. I realized that something was wrong, because she didnt give him anything, like any documents, or anything stating that he had paid 1500 for a deposit. The suspect was a no show. When it was time to hand over the keys. If you see something online, make sure youre going into the home to actually check it out. Thats the biggest thing ha we can tell you. And then dont give any money until its that time. Cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. It is 7 12, we have much more ahead on today in the bay, coming up a new tool to fight where, we will tell you about this special gel created at stanford, firefighters may soon be using it. Were watching a clear cool start to the morning right now, with temperatures in the 40s and 50s. But later on, well be watching rising temperatures and increasing fire danger, we will show you where we will see the hottest temperatures and the worst fire danger when we come right back. Tv just keeps getting better. How you watch it does too. This is xfinity x1. Featuring the Emmy Awardwinning voice remote. Streaming Services Without changing passwords and input. Live sports with realtime stats and scores. Access to the most 4k content. And your movies and shows to go. The best tv experience is the best tv value. Xfinity x1. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity. The future of awesome. Welcome back. 7 15. On your saturday morning. A live look outside in walnut creek. Clear skies. Golden skies. As we start a hot weekend. Cool morning though. Meteorologist robert mayeda will be along in just a moment to detail a very hot heatup on the way. Lawyers for disgraced theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes say they want to quit, according to court documents, attorneys for holmes say she has not paid them in more than a year, defending holmes in federal court, and she is accused of a fraud scheme getting millions of dollars from investors. Holmes claimed that a blood testing machine could run tests on a single drop of blood. Turns out, that device never worked. Holmes faces 20 years in prison. A Bay Area Hospital is apologizing for sending letters to the wrong people. San francisco General Hospital says the mistake was a computer error. The error put the wrong addresses on 600 different letters that they sent out over the past year. Fortunately, the letters didnt have any personal or Financial Information on them. The hospital says the problem is now fixed. And some good news for home buyers in the bay area. Housing prices are coming down. The latest numbers show that some sellers are starting to reduce their asking prices. According to zillow, 16 of listings in the south bay dropped the price in the last 12 months. In San Francisco, 12 of sellers also dropped their price. Realtors say theyre noticing this trend, each though the overall economy remains strong. Employment is good in silicon valley. People have a decent income. But people are done, i believe, with buying at crazy prices. Realtors say the number of ipos has dropped lately and buyers are becoming more cautious. Now to a simple affordable gel that could dramatically cut the number of wildfires. Stanford researchers say they developed a gellike fluid that acts as a retardant. Scientists say it is long lasting nontoxic and eventually degrades. Researchers say they tested the gel with the help of cal fire. They found it completely protects vegetation, even after a lot of rain. It is being tested in high risk areas. And what a perfect time now to check in with meteorologist rob mayeda with a look at our weekend forecast. We are going to be headed into an overnight sort of fire danger. Yes, the reason why temperatures will be climbing over the next couple of days, High Pressure building in, unfortunately, that means dry gusty north to northeast winds, and the reason for the micro climate weather alert. It is cool this morning. Not a lot of wind for now. We think that will be changing after sundown tonight. And speaking of cool, look at san jose, 50 degrees, and clear skies, not much wind, as we watch temperatures climbing later on into the 80s, and there is a pretty view, emeryville seeing temperatures already near 50 degrees. With clear sky, and our final stop takes us to the golden gate which looks great, with that sunrise sunlight there, 55 degrees currently, in San Francisco, and we should actually see 70s around San Francisco. A little bit later on. So with the clear skies, light winds, dry air, in place, 41 this morning, in morgan hill. And 44 degrees in santa rosa, but notice the wind, light, but starting to turn offshore, a sign not only of strengthening High Pressure, but fire danger, and we will detail that coming up in a moment. Highs in the santa clara valley, low 80s around downtown san jose, and then upper 80s as you head south around morgan hill toward san martin and gilroy. Mid80s around the trivalley today with 70s around oakland and into fremont and similar temperatures for san mateo, and redwood city today. Notice the coast. 70s around Half Moon Bay and 80s to the south around santa cruz. And San Francisco, low 70s and upper 80s possible, in santa rosa and that will be the place to watch. The hilltops above a thousand feet in the north bay, starting at 8 00 tonight to about 10 00 tomorrow morning. Wind speeds increasing, humidity decreasing. One way to think about it is sort of like having a hair drier on the atmosphere, it starts to dry things out and warm things up, even at night, and you can see here, weve got wind speeds at 20 to 35 miles an hour. Approaching sunrise, in lake county and the higher hips of t, hills of napa county and out to the north and east. Look at the humidity levels. Really, daytime dry air out there with the gusty winds. Any fires that might get started would move through quickly, which is the reason for the red flag conditions through sunday morning. Now, notice the temperatures. Were going to head out to santa cruz, a little hot by the time we get into monday. You can see the temperatures continue to climb. And you can see the lake tahoe region, numbers in the 70s. By the te weekend wraps up, and again, temperatures will be climbing, today, low to mid80s, inland, the upper boundary for most of our temperatures but by sunday afternoon, you can see the time stamp there close to 90 in morgan hill and maybe even mid80s around San Francisco, and oakland. And a little bit of cooling on monday. Bay side. But still, another day, where we could see 90s inland around concord, for monday. And we will see cooling as we head to the middle part of the week but the issue with that, is the pattern that sets that up, it could be another round of gusty winds. So the high will not be quite as strong or as warm. But with a strong low, it is dropping east to the sierra, that once again sets us up for dry gusty winds, potentially stronger winds for next wednesday and thursday. So shortterm, warmer finish to the weekend, San Francisco, breezy around the hills, could get closer to the 80s, for monday, as well, and you can see for the valleys, we will see temperatures climbing, warmer tomorrow, and drier and gusty in the hills for sunday morning and then we will see the cooling temperatures as we approach the middle part of the week. We will take a look at the tenday outlook in the second half hour, to see if there is any precipitation in the longrange forecast. Back to you, kira. Interesting to see, from nearly 90s, to rain. Rob, we will see you soon. Thanks. 7 21. Still ahead on today in the bay hiking with purpose. The tragedy that is pushing this bay area firefighter to trek from here to san diego. Its a story that will make you bay area proud, next. Welcome back. When it comes to veterans and suicide, the numbers are staggering. Veterans take their own lives at a rate twice as high as the rest of the population. In 2017 alone, close to 500 veterans died by suicide in california alone. A local marine is now doing what he can to bring those numbers down. And today in the bays Garvin Thomas has his story in this mornings bay area proud. Weve been following john prestons story for close to five years. We shared how he uses his music to reach out to other vets. How he had to overcome the loss of his own brother, and now, how he is using his feet to amplify his voice. John preston is loading his pack for a training hike. The iraq war veteran doesnt care whats in it, just what it needs to weigh. 48 1 2 pounds. Or 22 kilograms. 22, being a number that has driven this marines life for much of the past decade. The daily veteran suicide rate, its how many taking their lives every day. What john has in mind is a hike from palo alto, to san diego. Covering 22 miles a day. Carrying those 22 kilos on his back. The entire way. I think with the whole hike in general, im saying ill carry the weight, you know. Just keep walking. Thats the whole concept. Is just keep walking. And i finally see the road ahead can be better if you let it be better, if you allow your mind to see better things. This hike is not johns first step into veteran advocacy. The palo alto firefighter is also a successful musician. Every bit of me is filled with rage. Some of johns songs have even made it on to the billboard charts. All of them carry a message of understand