Students to show them any threats that they find online so that officers can investigate. Now, so far no one has actually seen a creepy clown outside of a bay area school, but police are looking. It is a threat against the school and or people at the school. Reporter the Oakland Unified School district is the latest to find threats from creepy clowns on social media. Students at two different schools told add might be straighters about the posts. We deployed resources, vetted the threat, we call fbi, joint Terrorism Task force. Police continue say which two schools are mentioned. In fairfield that district received threats naming four schools. It is a scare sweeping the country, but so far only people in costume have appeared. The Bay Area Police arent clowning around. Theres no validity to the threat, but we also maintaining a patrol presence. Reporter while police investigate, real clowns say the threats are no laughing matter. It is annoying to us as real clowns and it makes us sad. Reporter the director of the clown con ser advancy in San Francisco says the creepy clown scare puts an ugly face on a noble profession. The fact is it has nothing at all to do with what we as human cartoons are doing with our careers. Clowns go to hospitals, they make people feel better. Reporter professional clowns and police would like to see an end to the threats. We dont need to be chasing creepy clown radio calls day by day. Reporter police say they are busy enough. Now, those threats can be considered criminal. They could be considered terrorist threats. Reporting live in San Francisco, jean el jean elle, nbc bay area news. Tonight the contra costa District Attorney is set to charge six people in connection with attacks. We first broke the news of the possible link between robberies yesterday. The d. A. Is connecting the group to home invasions in danville, livermore and fremont and potentially to a robbery last week in orinda, pistol whipping the husband and shooting the wife ties. That obviously would make the whole neighborhood and the whole family feel a lot more safe. Nicholas spalder, a School Board Member is in the hospital recovering from her wounds. Not quite clinton and trump but there were fireworks tonight in the Vice President ial debate. Tim kaine and mike pence, two experienced and mild mannered politicians attacked each other and the running mates. Highs and lows from virginia. Reporter they tangled from the start, democrat tim kaine and republican mike pence, defending their running mates and savaging their opponents. We trust Hillary Clinton as president and commanderinchief, but the thought of donald trump as commanderinchief scares us to death. He has employed tens of thousands of people in this country. And payed few taxes. And built literally. And lost billion dollars a year. And clinton. Come some, she had a Clinton Foundation accepting contributions from foreign government. Tangle number two came on jobs. The policies of this administration which Hillary Clinton and senator kaine want to continue have run this economy into a ditch. Were in 17 million new jobs . Slowest recovery since the great depression. Millions more People Living in poverty today. How about donald trump apparently not paying decades of income taxes . But he used the tax code just the way it is supposed to be used, and he did it brilliantly. So it is smart not to pay for our military, it is smart not to pay for veterans. Next issue, insulting americans. Hes called women slobs, pigs, dogs, disgusting. It is small potatoes calling half of Donald Trumps supporters a basket of deplorables. Reporter a fight till the end on immigration, trump and putin, clinton and isis. Reporter pence at one point here tonight did break with trump on russia, calling voeld putin small and bullying. But overall the fire here tonight foreshadows the next president ial debate on sunday being a battle royale. Live from farmville, virginia. Im steve handlesman, nbc bay area news. Thank you. Closing down the arena in virginia. The biggest question, did tonights debate change the mind of voters. Our political analyst says probably not, but it does set the table for sunday night. But lets remember, we have two big debates coming up and those in all likelihood will tell the story as to what happens between now and the election. Correct. Two more president ial debates. Nbc bay area news is Fact Checking the Vice President ial debate and you can see the results posted online. New at 11 00, snuffing out an arsonist. 15 fires in the past three months, all in the same area in the east bay. Fremont police are stepping up patrols in the warm springs neighborhood for a serial arsonist. Nbc bay areas Terry Mcsweeney joins us. People who live there have to be freaked out. Reporter they are. So far the arsonist has been targeting bushes and trees, garbage and dumpsters. The concern of force is the fire bug could change targets. Kind of scary and feel very unsafe. Reporter unsafe because of the serial arsonist who has been setting fires on either side of warm springs room from hackamore lane to maiden way, the most resent fire this past weekend, first set in midjuly. It has been quite consistent and so many times it has happened and in the same area. Reporter Fremont Police say almost all of the fires have been set from saturday evening into sunday morning and sunday evening into monday morning, ten of the fires set between hours of 12 00 a. M. And 5 00 a. M. This neighbor saw the aftermath of last weekends fire. It was scary because i was driving after that and i saw the trees, you know, burnt trees, right. It is amazing. I mean how can people do it . Reporter ar shon investigators know when the fire starts but have no description of the arsonist. Of course we live in a good neighborhood. We dont expect that here. Reporter Fremont Police and Fire Departments are working together on this case, and neighbors are prepared to help. Theres a Neighborhood Watch where we have a group with people that are concerned and they have mentioned, mentioned what we can do to make the neighborhood safe. Reporter no motive, no description. Police are asking everybody in fremont and especially the people here along warm springs road, to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Live in fremont, Terry Mcsweeney, nbc bay area news. Terri, thank you. An emotional tribute for a fallen san pablo officer today. Officer ken zinc was killed in a motorcycle accident last week on his way to work. Stund and staff from helhelms ge cards to the family. A memorial is scheduled for next week. Evacuations are over and more help is on the way. Santa clara county supervisors did approve emergency funds to help rebuilding process after the fire in santa cruz mountains. The dollars allows homeowners to apply for additional state and federal home. Loma fire 92 contained. The fire burned 4500 acres and 12 homes. Crews hope to have the fire fully surrounded by this saturday. Okay. A lot of cheering in the east bay tonight, and here is why. Take a look. The oakland debut of kevin durant. The crowd went wild. The warriors new superstar scored 21 points as the warriors beat the clippers, but thats not the big story. Nbc bay area cheryl hurd joins us from the oracle. Making his bay area splash. How was it inside the arena . Reporter well, the arena was full of excitement. It was warriors basketball. One fan told me it felt like a playoff game, but it was a special night. It was katies night to shine. Lights, music, excitement. The first home preseason game for the warriors, fans have their eye on one player. Durant. Kevin durant. Durant. Reporter the highprofile nba player playing for the first time at home before a packed house in front of his new fans. Chemistry. It is all of those new players, they seem to be meshing pretty good tonight. Theyre at home. Everything happens at home. Reporter home is where durant got his first dose of love from warrior fans. They tipped their hat to their new star player. Fans hoping he will bring consistency. Reporter to a Championship Team that many are hoping will go all the way this season. He is a great shooter, good teammate. Hes going to be really solid for the warriors. Reporter durant may have been the reason some showed up the night, but theres no way his presence can dim the light of the teams captain, steffan curry. Hes been here the longest. He is the heart of the team. I think durant will be great. Might be the best player on the team, but curry has been heart for years. I was worried after the first preseason game, but they looked fantastic. Reporter the first 10,000 fans got one of these, a steph fan curry bobblehead. If you didnt get a chance to see the warriors play tonight, you will get another chance later this week on thursday at the shark stank. Im cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. I will not rest until we see the systems deployed nationally, because all of the votes have to count. But will those votes count if the electronic and election system is compromised by hackers . Coming up we investigate a new technology being developed right here in Silicon Valley that could make future elections hack proof. And a major hurricane headed towards the u. S. What is being done to prepare for potentially catastrophic damage. Good evening. Im chief money list jeff ranieri. Ill have the impact on the United States and when this could be bearing down on the florida coastline, and then back here at home mostly clear skies. In San Francisco, how these clear skies will lead to hotter temperatures in a few minutes. Am an iraq veteran. Lowering drug prices. Dollars to defeat it. Vets in voting yes on prop 61. Am an iraq veteran. Lowering drug prices. Dollars to defeat it. Vets in voting yes on prop 61. Youre watching nbc bay 1. Area news with the bay areas biggest Investigative Unit holding the powerful accountable. Nbc bay area, we investigate. Security experts have been sounding the alarm about the possibility that someone could hack the Voting System for next months election. Now, a possible solution to prevent hackers, and it is being developed in the Silicon Valley. Our Senior Investigative reporter Stephen Stock has the inside story. Steven. Raj, last month we showed you just how vulnerable some of the current Voting Systems are to hackers. Experts say one way to make sure they cannot be hacked in the future is to make sure the computer code that runs them is public, open source, available to all for inspection. They date back to the 2000 president ial election and the hanging chad debacle in florida. Voting machines that rely on pc Computer Technology to cast and tally votes, machines adopted by election supervisors around the country after the mess in florida. Most of the same machines are still in use today. It is wellknown that the types of Voting Machines we have today are pretty vulnerable. John sebis cofounded the nonprofit oset institute behind the trust the vote project, dedicated to developing secure, transparent, modern day open source Voting Systems. He is osets veef Technology Officer who knows a thing or two about hacking the systems and how times have changed since the days of the hanging chad. We didnt have the threat, nobody said, by the way, it would be a bad idea to run a super Important Software on a regular pc that can be hacked the same as your grandmas pc. The idea of public open source system is a major departure from the proprietary systems in use around the country. About 87 of the Voting Systems are produced and maintained by three private corporations. Critics call them black box systems because the source code is kept private. The same critics say open source or glass box systems are more secure and transparent because their code can be scrutinized looking to hack it or find bugs. Transparency is your friend when it comes to security. Chances are if you are an Elections Official in the u. S. You have heard of brent turner. I refer people to air force and necessary use it. The former rock singer has spent the last decade spreading the gospel of open source Voting Systems as a member of the California Voting association. I will not rest until we see the systems deploy nationally because all votes have to count. Nearly everyone agrees the private systems used today are at the end of their life span and need to be replaced. When that happens both turner and sebis hope open Source Systems replace them. What happens if we do nothing and stick with what we have . I think it is the definition of insanity. You will get the same result, which is insecure systems, a lack of voter confidence and more expense than the counties can bear. Reporter and Elections Officials may just be starting to listen. Both los angeles and San Francisco are the first two california counties to set aside money to develop and try out open Source Systems for use in two to four years. It is really important to have a lot of transparency around the Voting Systems used to vote. The Vice President of San Franciscos Election Commission which paid 1. 2 million up front and continues to pay another 200,000 a year just to license the software from their current private source vendor. He says open source Voting Systems could cost taxpayers half as much as the current private vendor system. This seems like a no brainer. Why arent more governments rushing to do this . Thats what i ask myself every day. Thats part of with were doing in San Francisco, were taking a leadership position. Depending on the county in california, you are looking at a system maybe 15 years old, based on 20yearold technology or older. California secretary of state wants counties to modernize their current Voting Systems. He says his office would approve an open source system if it passes the certification process. Open source, i mean thats the ultimate transparency in accountability for all, but at the end of the day it is a decision for each county to make for themselves. Reporter all of this will take time and wont be ready for this novembers election. Thats why Cyber Security experts tell us theyre bracing for what might happen this november given how vulnerable the current old systems are. Were going to have that now and we will get through it, but we dont need every other election to be conducted in that environment of fear, uncertainty and doubt. Reporter now, we reached out to those three major private vendors that provide currently the majority of election systems around the country. None of them got back to comment about this story. Experts say a few counties likely will be using these open Source Systems in two years, in time for the next congressional elections. They hope the vast majority of open source is widespread throughout the country including here in california in time for the next president ial election in four years. In the meantime, hold on, it could be a wild ride this november. Raj, jessica. Weve been warned. Thank you, stephen. If you have a tip for the Investigative Unit or stephen specifically call 888996tips or send stephen an email. Hurricane matthew is on the move. The night it reached cuba, next stop could be the United States. From florida to the carolinas people are gearing up, storing water, flashlights and batteries. More than a Million People in South Carolina alone have been forced out of their homes as the governor ordered evacuation of the coastal areas. The damage has already been done in the caribbean. Take a look at this video, the hurricane ripping through haiti today, killing at least nine people. Chief meteorologist jeff ranieri, it is one of the most powerful forces to come through in nearly a decade, impacting a lot of people. Yes, and just a Slight Movement in this again as we head towards the next 24 hours and we could see more devastating impacts ahead for florida. Just in the way that the track is currently positioned. As we get a look at microclimate weather we want to bring you this. If you are doing traveling, have family, loved ones out here, this is going to take center stage on what you are thinking about right now. You see current winds at 125 miles per hour. You will see here on the path, we havent seen a change too much from this time last night, again increasing the confidence of exactly what were seeing right now. It is a category four storm just parallel to west palk beach by thursday at 8 00 p. M. , winds of 130 miles per hour, and sometimes between friday morning and friday evening between Daytona Beach and jacksonville, winds of 115 miles per hour. You can see how close that line is. Again, more of a westward movement and in could be a lot more deaf stating for florida. Were going to have more updates at nbcbayarea. Com in the coming days. Tomorrows forecast relatively quiet and calm for the bay area. Not too much in the way of fog in San Francisco, and 51 for east bay, 49 degrees, and mostly clear start in south bay and 51. Clear conditions to start tomorrow morning will lead us to an excellent day by the afternoon. Temperatures warm up a few degrees but beautiful. Look at this, south bay 75 degrees, for san jose, for the peninsula, palo alto 72. San francisco, 60s across the board. For north bay, east bay and trivalley, no 90s, no 80s, but were getting close at least to some 80s in north bay as warm as 79 in santa rosa, east bay, 73 oakland, and trivalley with 76 in danville. Temperatures will change. They will get hotter this week looks like by friday. A hotter area of High Pressure bill and not only the warm air associatewood it but dryer offshore winds moving across the bay area and thats heating up temperatures. You can see by saturday that will put San Francisco at 74 degrees. Perfect for fleet week and for the interior valleys we go from an average of 77 tomorrow to 89 on saturday. Then well drop back down by next tuesday. We may get more rainfall in here by october 20th. We will have to wait and see on that. October 20th, maybe. Yes. Put it on the calendar. Sure. Up next. Toxic algae outbreak spreads. Swimmers told to stay out of more lakes in the east bay. And we have jimmie. Guys, miranda is here, plus john goodman, Olivia Newton john, do not change the channel happening now on home page, former raiders quarterback todd maronovich facing charges. Police arrested the 47yearold last month in irvine after he was found naked in someones backyard. Alaska airlines may shut down Virgin Airlines headquarters. They have told the 200 plus employees that work there they may have to go. Back in a moment. To all charges today a man accused of torturing and killing cats pleaded guilty to all charges today. Here he is, robert farmer. He showed no emotion as he admitted to 21 counts of felony animal cruelty. Farmer was arrested last year after surveillance footage, seen here, showed him trying to round of cats in a san jose neighborhood. He is due back in court for sentencing. He faces up to 16 years in prison. Stay out of the water. Two more East Bay Lakes hit by toxic algae outbreak. Theyre in oakland and in fremont and now closed to swimmers. Both lakes remain open for fishing and the parks remain open for other types of activity. Both lakes have been previously impacted by the toxic algae. The list grows to five. In berkeley has been closed since august. Near livermore and shadow cliff and pleasanton also impacted. All eyes on twitter this week. The San Franciscobased Company Reportedly is fielding bids for potential buyers. In the running reportedly sales force, google and disney. Now, the ceo of sales for has called twitter an unpolished jewel. Analysts say twitter could sell for 20 billion. Up next, the baseball playoffs are here. Were going to check in with the giants in new york city. Colin resch joins us next. Amazing sleep stays with you all day and all night. With sleep number, you choose the exact firmness and comfort you want and so does your partner for the best sleep ever. The columbus day sale is on now with the queen c4 mattress set only 1399. 98. Plus 24month financing. Learn more at sleepnumber. Com. Alla lot of its a hoax. Bal warminits a hoax. Itll get cooler. Itll get warmer. Its called weather. We need some Global Warming we need leaders who get it. So that we can move away from coal and oil to clean energy. Im tom steyer. If you want to do something about climate change, you can. Please. Register and vote. Nextgen California Action Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. Jon batiste has mastered new ways to play old classics. With chase atms, he can master new ways to deposit checks too. Easy to use Chase Technology for whatever youre trying to master. Giants. All right. It was big, big night. K. D. Making his appearance at for the warriors tonight. Do you know who k. D. Is . Yes, kevin durant, his debut for the warriors at home went well. We showed you that. You ready for baseball now . The playoffs begin in the big apple. Giants have the magic. Colin resch leads us from new york city. Theyve done it before. Two years ago, in fact. The giants went to pittsburg, won that wild card game and went on to win their third world series in five years. The giants hoping history repeats itself this time around. Of course, it doesnt start in the seal city this time but here in the big apple. A Late Afternoon workout at city field tuesday for the guys, a marquee pitching matchup expected on wednesday. Mad bum with past post season prowess to lean on and fact he has a 40 lifetime record at city field. Why so much success here . I dont know. I think it just worked out that way for whatever reason. Certainly glad it has, but i dont think theres any good reason for it. I love it. I have to. We have a ring because of this wild card, and i have a chance now. We have to find a way to score more runs thae they do. Reporter of course, hes right. 10 or 1110, it doesnt matter. In even years bum gardner and the giants have proven themselves on the stage over and over again. Can they do it . Well find out tomorrow night. Colin resch in new york, nbc bay area. Very simplistic. If we score more than they do, we win. That i follow. Back in a moment. Stay with us. Narrator it wasnt that long ago. Years of devastating cutbacks to our schools. 30,000 teachers laid off. Class sizes increased. Art and music programs cut. We cant ever go back. Ryan ruelas so vote yes on proposition 55. Reagan duncan prop 55 prevents 4 billion in new cuts to our schools. Letty munozgonzalez simply by maintaining the current tax rate on the wealthiest californians. Ryan ruelas no new education cuts, and no new taxes. Reagan duncan vote yes on 55. Sarah morgan to help our children thrive. Reagan duncan vote yes on 55. Everyone likes it. Okay. Shes big, shes naked and not everybody likes it, but 55foot tall statute part of an art attraction on a tech campus next to the san leandro b. A. R. T. Station. Some commuters not happy about her being naked. The statuea name is truth is beauty and said to represent female empowerment. A lot to see near that b. A. R. T. Station. A lot to see. Thanks for joining us here at 11 00. Have a great wednesday morning. Byebye. [ cheers and applause ] steve from studio 6b in Rockefeller Center in the heart of new york city, its the tonight show starring jimmy fallon. Tonight, join jimmy and his guests john goodman, linmanuel miranda,