seat. is there anybody saying in california anymore? >> challenges to san jose's new law requiring liability insurance for gun owners and how the city defends its decision. the fed announces plans to raise interest rates soon to handle inflation and the possible fallout for consumers. good afternoon. one of the longest-serving members of the supreme court is about to step down. skyler henry is live with the retirement of justice stephen bryer. >> reporter: one thing that is abundantly clear is that democrats plan to move quickly in terms of the nomination and confirmation process given when the president chooses to find a replacement for him, as he says he plan on retiring. but the white house said they are not announcing anything yet and waiting for an official announcement from the long-term justice. >> reporter: justice stephen bryer, the oldest member of the supreme court, will retire at the end of the court's current term. at 83 years old, the liberal justice had been under pressure to step down and to give president biden's first opportunity to pick a successor. the president said the timing was left to justice stephen bryer to decide. >> it's an opportunity to decide to have he or she announce it on their own and then there has been no announcements from justice stephen bryer and let him make whatever statement he is going to make and i will be happy to talk about it later. >> reporter: appointed by president clinton in 1994, he is the second longest-serving of the current justices just behind clarence thomas who joined in 1991. the court's current term runs until the end of june and president biden is expected to name his pick for the replacement of justice stephen bryer in the next few weeks and during his campaign he pledged to nominate a black woman. >> the president has stated and reiterated his commitment to nominating a black woman to the supreme court and he certainly stands by that. >> reporter: as a liberal justice his ruling supported abortion rights and healthcare axis and lgbtq+ causes but in the 6-3 conservative majority has often found himself in descent. the timing allows the president to fill the vacancy well democrats hold the slim majority in the senate and a margin that could slip away in the mid-term elections. senator dianne feinstein said of justice stephen bryer, he is a outstanding and well respected justice and has been pivotal on many key issues and went on to say that was six months until the departure of justice stephen bryer from the court the senate judiciary committee will have ample time to hold hearings on president biden's potential nominee and that will be the big question as we pay attention to the weeks ahead, who will the president choose to fill his seat when it is time. >> democratic senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema have not always voted with their party as we have seen lately and is this likely to be the case with this nominee? >> reporter: you know, that is funny and i think it is certainly safe to call those two contrarians in terms of walking and lockstep with their democratic colleagues but if you look at that short list of who are considered front runners, one of them was confirmed to serve here in the dc circuit and both joe manchin and kyrsten sinema voted to confirm them. it would be hard to imagine them voting against her if she were to be nominated, but the other interesting thing about that is both of those votes came alongside those who had bipartisan support so that will be the other thing to pay attention to is move forward and remember, there only needs to be 50 votes for whomever the president chooses to be nominated and not 60 as we have seen in the past. >> thank you so much. >> earlier i spoke with donna crane a professor at san jose state about what is next for justice breyer and the nomination and confirmation process moving forward. >> what happens next is actually justice stephen bryer still needs to announce his retirement and so far it is just rumored so he needs to announce and then what happens behind the scenes is the department of justice and the white house frantically carefully put together a short list of successors. president biden will meet with one or two or three of those and he will make his decision and announcement and then there is a lot of paperwork in the background checks that have to happen and the nominee does this ritual in washington called courtesy visits with senators. and then it starts and there is usually a week of confirmation hearings for the senate judiciary committee, and they take a vote. if the vote is affirmative and it moves forward to the full senate and the full senate votes and it just requires 51 votes, then that person is confirmed for the best lifetime job in the country i think. >> you talk about the list and one candidate mentioned is leander kruger and how much of an impact would a new younger liberal justice have in the courts ideological balance? >> this is a great question. justice stephen bryer is considered a moderate liberal so a successor to him that feels the same political space would not alter the courts balance and it is about 6-3 conservative at the moment. but we are looking at a list of potential nominees who are like 40 years younger than him or 35 or 40 years younger. we are talking about shaping the court for the next generation and that is one important difference in the second is that somebody with different life experiences and skills can persuade other justices on decisions. we may actually see these decisions change because of the conversation they have in conference with the justices. >> justice breyer has strong ties to the bay area and this video is from 2015 and he gave the keynote at an address at uc berkeley. he was born in san francisco in 1938. his father was a lawyer who worked with the city's board of education and briar attended lowell high school and city philosophy at stanford. his younger brother charles, a senior judge of the us district court in san francisco. san jose city officials defending their decision to require gun liability insurance for gunowners and this after filing of a federal lawsuit challenging the new ordinance. >> i am confident that we will emerge from this litigation with an ordinance that survives constitutional scrutiny and we could implement this and do it in a way that ensures the city of san jose and we have families that feel devastating tragedies of loved ones of these guns. >> earlier today some gun rights advocates announce they filed a lawsuit minutes after the city council voted to approve the ordinance. >> we did an immediate bay because we wanted to make it very clear that the ramifications to passing america's most insane gun control. and where else will it happened but california? >> the new ordinance also requires gun owners to pay an annual fee and it is set to take effect in august and if it survives the legal challenges. new numbers released by the state. california's test positivity for covid saw another decline and it is now at 18.7%, but there are 87,000 new cases with a 1% increase. across the country new daily covid cases and hospitalizations are down but deaths are increasing. the weekly average for covid deaths is nearly 200 a day, highest since last february. >> milder doesn't mean mild and we can't look past the strain on her health systems and the substantial number of deaths. >> the free covid tests are helping to stop the spread and those have started arriving by mail and masks from the national stock pile are being handed out at pharmacies and health centers across the country. for information on testing sites, you can click the red banner at the top of kpix.com. evacuation orders have been lifted on the colorado fire burning in monterey county. we also learn what caused it. investigators say the wind blew hot embers from a pile burning operation onto the nearby vegetation and wildfires burn 700 acres since it broke out on fire -- friday. they haven't 55% contained. u.s. stocks fell slightly after the federal reserve said it plans to raise interest rates soon. the dow dropped 129 points and the nasdaq did gain about 3 and the s&p down 6.5. we look at how a rate increase could affect everything from car loans to credit cards. >> reporter: the federal reserve is set to begin raising interest rates for the first time in three years, likely beginning in march. >> i think there is quite a bit of room to raise interest rates without threatening the labor market. >> it comes as they focus to have the highest spike in decades and amid concerns about the ongoing pandemic and supply- chain backups. >> it is a little bit of good news and not so good news story. the good news is that a number of things are happening in the economy like higher wages and that wage growth is helping to drive consumption and raising interest rates means everything from mortgage rates to credit card rates and auto loan rates will go up. >> reporter: he said it could take a year to get inflation under control. >> it will take a long time to put people in jobs and move the goods from one place to another and ultimately get them in the country back to a place where things appear more normal. >> reporter: the federal reserve chairman says the economic outlook remains highly uncertain but the federal bank remains nimble and attentive to risks. >> we are prepared to use our tools to make sure that higher inflation doesn't become entrenched. >> we a some real challenges and we have to get prices and check for the working people out there. >> reporter: the private ceos met with president biden wednesday to discuss how his policy proposals could help grow the economy and bring down inflation. still ahead, you see this backed up behind me? is it a pretty sight? we will show you the 53 guys that are practicing on the other side of it as the nfc championship week continues. >> the new approach on bringing you the weather. we have those details on that. we will talk about what is in store for the rest of this week and as we look at the top of mount hamilton this hayes four days and counting until the rivalry comes to ahead and the nfc championship game is on the line and vern is live for us at levi stadium. >> reporter: let's get this. there are 53 guys on the other side of the stadium and they are just getting after it and the nfc championship week. nfc championship week. and today was important because is installation game plan day. eric armstead and the rest of the defense or drilling even if i speak as they are training to get up to the rams quarterback matthew stafford. jimmy garoppolo's shoulders feeling good was still dealing with the thumb injury and the 49ers have waited too long years to get back to the stage and they are on the brink of returning to the super bowl after losing to the chiefs and missing the playoffs last season. sect the thing i remember most from watching the game was george kittle saying we will be back in back with a vengeance. >> i will be back here and i will be back with a vengeance. >> that is something that has always stuck in my mind since we lost to kansas city and we started 8-0 and nomany things went bad that super bowl year until the end and i think everybody came back fired up thinking it would be a fun year again and it quickly turned out to not be. >> reporter: as we go back in san francisco you a lot of the rhetoric has been this string of six straight victories over the rams but i will tell you right now in this championship week, everything is different and you have to completely forget about that streak that starts with each position player winning their position every play coming up on sunday starting at 3:30. we will have more to talk about later on in the day. >> we do have more and we will analyze the whole playbook. a big change tell you about in the weather department here. paul heggen is here with some details. starting today we are launching first alert weather and it is an approach that puts even more focus on when and how changes in the bay area's weather will impact you. it is climate change in action. look at this. >> reporter: we have seen this winter how severe weather can impact the bay area. weather conditions lives and property at risk and it is one of the reasons why kpix 5 is introducing first alert weather. it is our renewed commitment to serve our viewers and a promise to be first and to alert you in the change in weather's you can better plan your life. it goes deeper than that. every day we pre arent how e fore evving. , outeam deare ions taa areaweatr severe or disrtive on first alert weather days, we will help you plan, prepare and stay safe. it is not just winter storms. you can look for first alert weather days for extreme cold, dangerous heat, poor air quality, plus something we have come to know all too well, fire weather and wildfire smoke. first alert weather isn't just a slogan but our pledge to keep you informed across all kpix 5 platforms. it is our promise to clearly communicate weather changes before the impact the bay area. >> first alert is not just about severe weather that will hit us. >> right. it doesn't see that much in the way of severe weather and it is a key part of this when it happens but it is about keeping you updated as the forecast evolves, anything that is just disruptive or inconvenient in the weather that you need to plan ahead for and we will be tracking that and being transparent on how the forecast changes day-to-day and ironic we are launching this is the forecast has been stuck in the same pattern for the past few weeks we do have some changes later on this week in this big area of high pressure has been blocking everything around us and it will be shifting around a little bit. that will allow a few storm systems to affect the weather. whether or not they bring us rain is up in the air. this one is way out there and it will go down toward the coast into the weekend and it will prompt an increase in the wind with more cloud cover and cooler temperatures and another one will follow up and try and the emphasis is on try, to send showers sunday night into monday but this did slow down a little bit since yesterday and the best chance will be monday but the best chance much of a chance with only 20% or 30% range in the long range forecast models have changed places in terms of which one is giving us the best showers. i will show you more at 5:00. don't get your hopes up for rain but this is the best chance we have for a while and the outlook from the climate prediction center which did look so promising for the month of february is now also shifted with a significant chance of below average rainfall for the first five days of february and the first nine also shows significant chances of below average rainfall. eventually, it does have to rain again but we don't have any significant signs of in the forecast which means it will still be an issue air-quality and the worst was for the north bay and around the central bay for san francisco and oakland and inland and the east bay and i think it will shift to the south and santa clara valley tomorrow and it may be some improvement by friday through sunday but this category of moderate is the best we will do and you can see the smudge of hades on the horizon. temperatures are in the upper 50s for oakland and livermore and san francisco is at 60 with low 60s right now in san jose and later on tonight temperatures will drop down to a mix of upper 30s and 40s with a little bit warm around the bay and along the coast with high temperatures tomorrow back above average from 4 to 7 degrees above normal. not as much fog to start out tomorrow and it should dissipate quickly and allowed temperatures to warm up along the bay. things don't change a whole lot friday and saturday as the onshore wind kicks in and temperatures will drop during the daylight hours and it will be cooler around the bay and even further inland by early next week especially more clouds by monday and still not putting any rain in the forecast for monday just because we have such low confidence and that little system bringing us even trace amounts of moisture and we hope we can add more in icons the fost aswe get oser next week. coming up, a warning about apples air text. are some people are using them to spy on others and how to protect yourse apples popular air tax can be used to find everyday items when they get lost, but now law enforcement agencies are warning that some people are actually using the tiny device to spy on unsuspecting victims. we have that story. >> i think it is an easy tool to track people and to do it relatively anonymously and that is concerning. >> reporter: elizabeth is talking about the apple air pad and these can be placed on everything from luggage and keys and then tracked down if lost or stolen but elizabeth said somebody put one on her car while she was out shopping and during the drive home her iphone warned an air tag was detected and tracked her for 5 miles. >> you can see on the map the air tag had dropped off in the street not far from my house. i felt really creeped out. >> reporter: another woman found this one in her purse after receiving the series of notifications from apple that somebody was tracking her movements. >> it is designed to track items. >> reporter: apple said they discourage this type of tracking which is why you get a notification of an unknown air tag is seen moving with you over time, but elizabeth said more should be done to educate the public. >> in my case i didn't realize that you should probably drive straight to the police station have them check your car before going home so that somebody can't track you. >> reporter: would you have done that? >> yes. >> reporter: if it is tracking you apple gives instructions on how to find it and disengage it. and android users can download the tracker detect app. a fast food giant taking a cue from its customer and the latest menu options based on any parent will tell you the second you have a kid, it's like your heart is living outside of your body, which means you never, ever stop worrying. that's why we got health insurance and for way less than we thought was possible. the kids' doctor and dental check-ups are free, and i get screenings for my cholesterol and my blood pressure. don't get me wrong, i still worry. just a little less. covered california. this way to health insurance. enrollment ends january 31st at coveredca.com new numbers released on crime in san francisco that show an uptick in car burglaries in parts of the city and that story coming up on the news at 5:00. you have heard of the secret menus? this is more like a fan menu. starting monday mcdonald's will offer four fan favorite menu hacks on their app and stores and first is the hash brown mcmuffin but with hashbrowns instead of bread and a crunchy double which are nuggets inserted into a double cheeseburger and the land air and sea combines a chicken sandwich, a big mac and a filet of fish and they do a surf and turf which puts the cheeseburger and filet of fish and mcdonald's is selling all of the ingredients separately and you have to assemble it yourself which seems like cheating. >> men of those sound appealing. >> no. too much. it is too much. everything. >> that is it for our news at 3:00. th evening news is captioning sponsored by cbs >> o'donnell: the big news from the supreme court: justice stephen breyer will retire, giving president biden his first nominee to the nation's highest court and the chance to secure a lasting legacy. tonight, the court's most-senior liberal plans to step down. president biden promising to nominate a black woman. our reporting on the short list of front-runners who could make history. wild day on wall street. the dow falls 130 points as the fed signals interest rates will go up in march. what it all means for your pocketbook. dangerous nor'easter: bitter cold temperatures as new york, boston, and the east coast brace for a possible bombogenesis snowstorm.