hopefully it's cooled down a little bit there, sharon. >> reporter: audrey, if you can believe it, it went up one degrees in the past hour. it was 90 degrees earlier, and now it says 91 degrees on this sign behind me. now it's supposed to hover around 90 degrees for the next week every day, and that's kind of frustrating for people. they're trying to hold on, hoping that they'll avoid brown-outs. >> a blessing in hebrew and in english. at this blessing of the grapes in livermore today, it's clear there was a lot to pray for. farmers are keeping an eye on this triple-digit heat this week. just one more challenge in the midst of an historic drought. >> mostly all of the violence are irrigated with zone 7 water. so they dictate how much water we can use. we do have some rationing going on here. >> reporter: but farmers here are staying positive, despite a series of challenges over the past two seasons. two seasons ago crops had smoke stains from fires. but this year. >> a post-covid wine country that is getting back on its feet that's struggling with our kind of friendly cousin of the drought that we seem to battle with every year. >> reporter: farmers tell us they're adapting to the climate change and flex alert. >> the winery is air conditioned. so we are keeping it up about 70 degrees. a lot of wineries keep their cellars much cooler. so we're not keeping it as cool and that conserves. we also have a lot of solar panels on our roof. >> reporter: during the flex alert homeowners are asked to set the ac at 78 degrees or higher. local vintners suggest a glass of cold wine might help you get through it. at the winery they followed a tradition that dated back to the 18th century, clearly showing they know how to get through the tough times. >> cheers. >> cheers. >> reporter: and so during this flex alert until 9:00 tonight, you're also supposed to avoid using your oven. so eat some salad tonight, and some -- a lot of wine actually sounds really good to me about now. back to you. >> ah, you're speaking my language, sharon. all right. thank you so much. if you'd like to know what the weather will be like in your neighborhood, feel free to download our nbc bay area app. all right. a major backup for drivers after a big rig crashed on the freeway today. some told us they were stuck for hours. our nbc bay area sky ranger flew over this morning. you see it right here. according to the chp, it all started at around 7:45 along 680 southbound north of pacheco boulevard. the crash involved a big rig. dozens of gallons of diesel spilled on to the highway. all southbound lanes were blocked for hours as crews cleaned up. the northbound lane was shut down as caltrans repaired the center divide. we do know an ambulance did respond to the scene this morning, but we're still working to learn if anyone was hurt. new details tonight in an investigation into a string of violent home invasions in san jose. a fifth suspect was arrested this week. it all started back in may. one of the invasions was caught on this dash cam video by the victim's wife as she came home. take a look here. she found the suspects with her husband and 15-month-old child at gunpoint. the suspects were able to get away in a car that police say was stolen in a separate home invasion. days later, another invasion involved an elderly couple who was attacked and robbed at gunpoint. five suspects were arrested and are now in custody at the santa clara county jail. well, he is accused of injuring a bay area chef so badly, he had to be put into a coma. and tonight that man is once again saying he was protecting himself. it happened back in january at sofi stadium before the nfc championship game between the 49ers and rams. east bay chef daniel luna was found unconscious in the parking lot. nbc bay area's velena jones explains what the suspect is saying after pleading not guilty to all charges. >> he said this was an act of self-defense. >> reporter: months after a tailgating fight that put daniel luna in a coma, the man accused of hitting him believes he did nothing wrong. >> i am looking forward for my day in court. and i ask everyone to remember that we all have a right to defend ourselves. >> reporter: today outside an l.a. courtroom, a rams fan bryan sifuentes and his attorney capturing the cold front indication at sofi stadium will show luna was the instigator. >> my client at the time was the only rams fan in a group of 30 niners fans. and he was assaulted. and there was a reaction to it. >> reporter: sifuentes is facing battery charges after investigators say he hit luna who then fell, hitting his head on the pavement. inglewood's mayor show says video shows luna shoving sifuentes first. the 40-year-old chef spent over a month in a medically induced coma. we reached out the his family who declined to comment. tonight we are still waiting to hear back from his attorney. in the days after the incident, we spoke to a friend of luna and fellow business owner who worried if he would recover. >> have this happen just as like starting to feel like maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. maybe we're going really start to get to a point where we get through this. to this v this happen to chef luna is just heartbreaking. >> reporter: today luna's once popular peruvian restaurant remains closed for business, an upsetting reality some feared might happen. >> it's a huge loss to our neighborhood to have it closed. especially over something so -- just so ridiculous. >> reporter: in oakland, velena jones, nbc bay area news. >> okay. we do have an update minutes ago. an attorney for daniel luna sent us a statement. in it, he disputes the defendant's claim of self-defense and says the family remains focused on daniel luna's continued recovery. a teenager faced a san francisco judge today. he is accused of beating and robbing an elderly chinatown woman. police say the suspect and three others ages 14, 13, and 11 approached the 70-year-old woman last month. when she turned to enter her building, she says they attacked her. today darryl moore was in court. cameras weren't allowed inside. moore and the 13 and 14-year-old suspects face several charges including robbery and elder abuse. the cases of the younger suspects will be heard in juvenile court. the 11-year-old will not be charged. well, angry san francisco parents are continuing to protest the removal of a school principal. parents of students at uloa rallied at the school today. they're upset over the removal of a long time principal. it followed a fight at the school in january. one of the kids used a racist word. later in a meeting with the kid, the principal used the word to explain that it is unacceptable. the district the principal's handling of it, so they fired her. but the parents didn't like being excluded from the decision. >> these are people wh are not part of ulloa. why do they get to make decisions and be engaged when the community and families are being left out? do we have a voice? >> the parents say for 20 years, the principal did great work and that should have been considered. their letter writing campaign collected 27,000 endorsements of her work. well, it was the first day of school for more than 100,000 students across the bay area today, including two of the largest school districts. kids returned to class this morning in san francisco, san jose, redwood city, napa valley, gilroy, and fremont. and for some students in fremont, their first day back was at a brand-new school. leila bringhurst elementary is near the warm springs in fremont. it holds roughly 1200 students. the school has traditional kindergarten through fifth grade. the superintendent was welcoming parents and students this morning. you see right there during the drop-off time, and he says this year the district is focusing on the mental health of its students. >> as we continue to recognize that our students have varying needs from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade, and their needs for social, emotional support as we continue to emerge from the pandemic. >> he says the district is bringing on additional counselors for kids as well as additional before and after school programs and wellness centers across high schools. and it was the first day back for students at san miguel elementary school in sunnyvale today. besides the excitement of the first day, some students say they're looking forward to some normalcy after two years of covid mask mandates and social distancing requirements at school. >> last year was kind of hard when you had to stay six feet apart when you're eating and everything. but now you can sit closer and talk easier, and you don't have to take your mask off and kind of yell. >> it's nice. we get to interact more now with all of our friends now. and it's sort of better. >> yeah, it's more interactions always wonderful. while masks are no longer required for the sunnyvale school district, they still strongly recommend it indoors. we have continuing coverage on everything you need to know as your children return to school. our website is a wonderful resource with important information including school start times and new protocols. that's at nbcbayarea.com. for the first time, employees at a san francisco starbucks have voted to unionize. in a vote held yesterday, all but two employees supported the call to organize a labor union. so the question now is what happens next? as nbc bay area sergio quintana explains, the workers say the pandemic is one of the reasons they actually decided to vote. >> reporter: this starbucks store in the castro used to be one of the busiest coffee shops in the neighborhood. but since the pandemic, lots of things have changed. >> for our store specifically, we actually had a store closure for four months. and during that time we did not feel supported by our leadership at all. >> reporter: when they returned to work, he claims the lack of support from the company continued, so they began looking to a growing group of employees across the country. employees from about 210 of the company's 9,000 coffee shops have now voted to unionize one at a time. and for the workers at this store, it's important that they are the first in san francisco to do so. >> we are actually the 15th in california. we're the first in san francisco. so that feels really good to be able to kind of the castro's queer identity on the map, on the forefront. >> reporter: so far the starbucks workers who voted to unionize the store say they've been getting plenty of support from the neighborhood. leading up to the vote, posters urging starbuck's ceo howard schultz to bargain with organized labor began popping up at windows in the other stores in the neighborhood. customers also seem supportive. mei ling ventured over from bernal heights to get her cup here today. >> it's good for the economy, for the people that live and work in the city. i'm so thrilled that they were able to pull this off. so i wanted to support them. >> i think it's about time to equalize a little bit the pay of the common people. >> reporter: this weekend, employees at the unionized starbucks store in santa cruz held a three-day strike supporting other stores' efforts to organize. we've reached out to starbucks by phone and email for a response to the union vote at the castro neighborhood store. we're still waiting for a reply. in san francisco, sergio quintana, nbc bay area news. >> sergio, thank you. south bay church is rejoicing tonight after a judge says it won't have to pay expensive fines for breaking covid restrictions. why the fight between the church and county isn't over just yet. and we have an update on the case of the stolen french bulldog. the happy ending when the beloved dog was reunited with his owner, next. and i'm tracking those thunderstorm chances. an update as we head into morrow's foreca morrow's foreca tost californians have a choice between two initiatives on sports betting. prop 27 generates hundreds of millions every year to permanently fund getting people off the streets a prop 26? not a dime to solve homelessness prop 27 has strong protections to prevent minors from betting. prop 26? no protections for minors. prop 27 helps every tribe, including disadvantaged tribes. prop 26? nothing for disadvantaged tribes vote yes on 27. welcome back. a major win for a san jose church that refused to follow county restrictions at the peak of the pandemic. cavalry chapel continued to hold in-person indoor services despite local and health orders requiring them to dramatically limit capacity. well, now an appellate court has sided with the church, dismissing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. but as nbc bay area's ian cull explains, this isn't the end of the court battle overture rights. >> cavalry chapel san jose gained national attention during the peak of the pandemic for ignoring local and state health orders on capacity limits, masking and social distancing. the county responded by hitting them with a number of fines. but this week the sixth court of appeals ruled in favor of the church. legal analyst dean johnson says the ruling was guided by precedent, guided by what most see as an increasingly conservative supreme court. >> the case is itself a ramification of what the supreme court has done. and it will have implications far beyond this single case. >> and this isn't the end of the fight. the county says in a statement the ruling does not affect its enforcement action against cavalry, saying the church didn't dispute numerous other violations during the height of the pandemic before vaccines were available. adding, "we will continue to hold cavalry accountable for putting our community's health and safety at risk, and we are proud of the county's proactive efforts throughout the pandemic to save lives." johnson, who has no direct connection to the case, says the debate over public health versus religious freedom is very likely to end up in the nation's highest court. >> the supreme court may ultimately have to face the argument that it has avoided literally for centuries, which is can we as a court sit and decide what is a valid religious claim and what is not a valid religious claim? >> the church tonight our request for an interview today. the they're still seeking other fines from the church, and tomorrow health officer dr. sarah cody will be deposed as part of that lawsuit. in san jose, ian cull, nbc bay area news. >> thank you. there is still no resolution to the contract stalemate involving striking kaiser mental health workers. workers have once again been out picketing all morning. it's now day three of the strike involving about 2,000 mental health workers in northern and central. they're demanding higher pay, increased staffing, and shorter wait times for patients. kaiser says it's making a fair offer to workers, and it hired nearly 200 clinicians since last year. this is so nice. joyful reunion in fremont tonight. frankie the french bulldog has been found and is back home with his owner. take a look here. these are pictures from that reunion today. oh, so cute! you might remember the 3-month-old frenchie was stolen earlier this month. it happened in a 7-eleven parking lot on fremont boulevard. he weighed eight pounds at that time, wasn't wearing a collar. the family offered a $700 reward for his return. no word yet on how police found frankie, but they say they are very happy to see him back home. >> what a cute face. >> i know. for a lot of people, pets is part of their family. >> their baby. >> yeah. >> they got their baby back. >> dog walks out today. >> it's kind of weird today. >> it is strange, yes. we've got the heat. we have the humidity. we had some isolated thunderstorms. there was even a little smoke filtering in from off to the north. so we're going to get you through all this. we'll let you know how things are trending as we head through the next couple of days. let's get to the microclimate tonight. i want to look at the radar right now. and we've had a lot of the heat and also the thunderstorm chances coming from the desert southwest from this area of high pressure. it's really kind of funneling things up here, especially over the sierra. you see how active it is right there over the past 30 to 45 minutes. the other thing that contributed to our chance of thunderstorms today is this very small system that has been moving up the coastline. right now it's pushing off to the north. and that's taking those thunderstorm chances with it. so at this point, as we head through this evening, we should begin to see those chances continuing lower. but of course we've got our eyes on the radar. trace amounts to .05. let me get you to the radar right now. there is a few spotty showers we're seeing up into the north bay. nothing big. no lightning. but right here through santa rosa down to rohnert park, i do expect a chance of showers as we head through the next 15 to 25 minutes. so far it's been lucky for us, which is good news. of course, our drought, things are so dry, any kind of lightning could spark fires. we're going keep a close eye on this radar. we need to come on for any kind of lightning that does spark. we will do that for you. now the other thing has been the heat. yesterday a hot 106 in livermore. today we got up into some mid-90s. things are beginning to drop off. 91 right now. but it's still going to be a slow drop as we have some of those clouds overhead, holding on to 80s at 8:00 p.m. eventually we're down into some 70s. now as we roll through tomorrow's forecast, i did want to show you the area of high pressure that's been producing the heat and those thunderstorm chances. it's going start to move more off towards the east. that's going allow that fog pattern to take hold a little more and help to bring us some more comfortable weather. so i think overall tomorrow should feel a little more like the bay area in our forecast. so as we head through tomorrow morning's forecast, you see the fog returning. that's areas of drizzle near the coastline that as we head through the afternoon, we get sunshine across the inland valleys. but we actually could hold on to some drizzle right here at the immediate coast. temperatures as we started off going to be a little cooler too. that will make it nicer for us. widespread 60s for much of the bay area, except for san francisco and the north bay. you'll be int the upper 50s. daytime highs for tomorrow's forecast. again, down from that big-time heat, just 85 in san jose. over to the east bay, how about 93 in concord. 77 hayward. peninsula, 75 and san mateo, san francisco 50s and 60s. 91 in napa. on my seven-day forecast, things will continue to look nice for us in san francisco three this weekend with the 60s. and the inland valleys, we're going to hold with this pattern of low and mid 90s the next couple of days. go down to some 80s on sunday. i think once we get this behind us, we do have some really nice california weather coming our way. >> i'm looking forward the that. >> thank you so much. coming up, despite being a popular store that many of us go to, target is trying to rebound from a bad year. the reason it lost so much, next. turns out target is taking a huge hit in its earnings. its quarterly profits falling nearly 90% compared to this time last year. the company started an aggressive plan to get rid of unwanted merchandise through steep markdowns, but it's weighing on the company's bottom line. the big box retailer missed wall street's expectations by a wide margin. however, the company says it is positioned for a rebound by the end of the year. stop the gun violence. that is the message at the center of a mural project touring the country right now. the artist kyle holbrooke has been traveling across the united states for his gun violence awareness tour. he is painting murals to encourage a stop to senseless murders. the tour is now making its way to san francisco and bernal heights. holbrooke is a pittsburgh native but painted works around san francisco including at haight and ashbury and the castro. fairfield's police chief is retiring at the end of the year after nearly 30 years in law enforcement. chief deanna cantrell made that decision after being diagnosed with breast cancer. interim city manager has selected captain dan marshall to take the helm as police chief upon chief cantrell's departure. in a video statement on the fairfield police department page, chief cantrell says this is her second bout with cancer. we of course wish her the very best. still to come, keeping the memory of olivia newton-john alive in the bay area. we'll show you how, next. californians have a choice between two initiatives on sports betting. prop 27 generates hundreds of millions every year to permanently fund getting people off the streets a prop 26? not a dime to solve homelessness prop 27 has strong protections to prevent minors from betting. prop 26? no protections for minors. prop 27 helps every tribe, including disadvantaged tribes. prop 26? nothing for disadvantaged tribes vote yes on 27. i'm mark and i live in vero beach, florida. my wife and i have three children. ruthann and i like to hike. we eat healthy. we exercise. i noticed i wasn't as sharp as i used to be. my wife introduced me to prevagen and so i said "yeah, i'll try it out." i noticed that i felt sharper, i felt like i was able to respond to things quicker. and i thought, yeah, it works for me. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. the san jose play house is dedicating its newest stage show to the late olivia newton-john. friday night is the big opening for xanadu, a stage musical based on the 1980 movie in which newton-john starred. it will be part of the up on the roof series of shows to be held on the roof in the second street of san carlos parking garage. the show is about a daughter of zeus who descends from mount olympus to help a struggling artist. i've never seen, but it looks really good. >> i haven't seen xanadu either. it looks very cool. >> very entertaining. what's going on at 5:30? >> right now at 5:30, is it president trump's party? the resounding defeat for a long-standing republican and her next possible move. >> but that pass would have required i accept that i embrace, that i perpetuate the big lie. >> plus, would he testify before the january 6th committee? former vice president mike pence sets the record straight. and fighting monkeypox in the bay area. the new plan of attack from local health leaders to try and contain the outbreak. the news at 5:30 starts right now. thanks for joining us. i'll audrey asistio. >> and i'm raj mathai. not just republicans, but trump republicans. there are strong indications that former president trump has a hold on this current republican party. congresswoman liz cheney lost by a landslide last night in wyoming to a candidate backed by mr. trump. cheney is the eighth house republican who voted to impeach the preside

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