A close eye on. But first, pushing pause. The surge in cases has several bay area counties rethinking their reopening plans. Well, first it was San Francisco hitting the brakes. Now contra costa and alameda counties are following suit. Restaurant owners gearing up for Indoor Dining will have to wait as well as bars, barbers, and hair salons. Nbc bay areas cheryl hurd joins us from oakland with what another setback means for them. Reporter many people i talked to tonight really arent surprised that two counties are waiting before going into the next phase. Many are happy that Health Officers are being very careful during this surge. So what does it all mean . Well, it means that barbershops, salons, sporting events without fans, and Indoor Dining will have to wait. Yeah, it is disappointing. Reporter octavio diaz is the owner of agave uptown in down oakland. It is frustrating but we have to obey by the guidelines. I dont want to rush anything to open a restaurant. Reporter not only restaurants but gym owners were hoping to take their workouts indoors. Were definitely itching to get in there because theres equipment like the rig and things like that that we dont have access to outside. Reporter Contra Costa County was planning to let bars and gyms open on wednesday, but says its going to follow the advice of Governor Newsom and wait because of a surge in hospitalizations. Restaurants like postino in lafayette will have to keep serving customers outside. Outdoor dining has helped keep the doors open for owner perry tong but its not enough. Takeout doesnt really make it for us, and thats where my struggles are. Reporter cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. Thank you, cheryl. New at 11 00, Governor Newsom has signed a 202 billion budget with lots of cuts but also some extra spending. The budget takes effect wednesday. It includes more than 700 million the governor can use for emergency pandemic relief. It also gives the governor the power to withhold 2. 5 billion from cities and counties if they dont follow the rules to help slow the spread of the virus. Colleges took a big hit with hundreds of millions of dollars slashed from both the cal state and uc systems. The new budget agreement also cuts state workers pay by 10 and cancels raises they were supposed to get next month. State workers unions agreed to take the cuts instead of facing layoffs knowing the pandemic had caused the state to go deep into the red. Governor newsom added more counties to his watch list today. You can see the new additions in red here. Solano, merced, and orange and glen counties. Those 19 counties are considered high risk, so the governor has asked them to pause reopening more businesses. Three bay area counties are also on this list solano, contra costa, and santa clara counties. The governor says nearly threequarters of californians live in counties showing troubling trends with the virus. Were not out of this by any stretch of the imagination. We still are in phase one or first wave of this pandemic, and we have a lot more work to do. Despite increases in new infections and hospitalizations, the state is releasing new guidance for some Nursing Homes to allow visitors again. Now, in the past 24 hours, the bay area added more than 500 new cases. Contra costa county saw a surge, reporting 169 new infections. Santa clara county added 104. The biggest jump, though, is within the prison walls of san quentin, wherein mates are testing positive for covid19 at an alarming rate. More than 1,000 inmates have gotten the virus leaving the prison with little space to safely isolate people. Workers spent the day setting up airconditioned tents in the prison yard. That will be used to triage the inmates and help them maintain safer distancing. Tonight weve learned that 40 inmates have been transferred to hospitals across the bay area. Now the governor says hes considering using Seton Medical Center in daly city to house sick inmates. Stanford is getting creative in its attempt to restart campus live amid the pandemic. The university is inviting only freshmen, sophomores, and now transfer students to come to the campus for the fall quarter only. Juni School Officials say staggering attendance will allow for social distancing. Still the majority of courses will be taught online. Students have the option to take all of their classes remotely if they prefer. Positivity rate. That is the key indicator for Governor Newsom in the fight against covid19. Positivity rate is the percentage of people tested who have the virus. Here in california, that rate is rising. Nbc bay areas ian cull explains why that number is so critical and how it just got easier for people in the south bay to track the trend. Reporter it turns out the majority of people who go to covid19 testing sites dont have the riers. Thats still the case as many more are getting tested statewide. From less than just a few thousand in april to a Record Number yesterday, just shy of 100 in 6,000 tests were conducted yesterday. Reporter so naturally the total number of confirmed cases is up. Thats why state leaders are focusing more on the percentage of people testing positive, and unfortunately thats rising too. The governor says its gone up from 4. 5 to 5. 5 over two weeks. Hospitalizations have risen 43 . Intensive care admissions, up 37 . The reason we started to reopen our economy is we saw the Positivity Rate remain very, very stable. Number of hospitalizations and icus for many, many weeks, arguably a few months, was incredibly stable. Reporter but now all three indicators are climbing. Nationwide, covid is rising in 29 states, putting a strain on the health care system. In california, were not there yet. 4. 5 going to 5. 5, but in other states in the sunbelt, were talking about test Positivity Rates of around 14 to 15 . Reporter dr. Peter chin hong says the increase here makes him nervous, and the state must focus on being proactive to avoid what is happening in florida, texas, and arizona. With those states, youre getting to a place where we already know their hospital beds are being filled in. And i think what Governor Newsom is trying to do is nip it in the bud so we dont get to that place. Reporter to make it easier for people to track the key indicators, today Santa Clara County added graphs to its dashboard showing the test Positivity Rate and trends among hospitalizations and icu admissions so you can see from home if were headed in the right direction. In san jose, ian cull, nbc bay area news. As you just heard ian mention, the National Number of new infections is spiking as well. 29 states are seeing high levels of new cases. Some of them have more than 100 increase in infections in just the last two weeks. A lot of those hot spots, the increase means staking a step back. Arizonas governor capping gatherings at 50 people. Florida leaders are closing beaches this fourth of july weekend as is los angeles. Late today, l. A. County said it would do the same. The fourth of july will also look different here in the bay area. Even though the holiday is still days away, celebrations have already started. Many cities are dealing with illegal fireworks. And in cities where fireworks are legal, youll notice changes this holiday weekend. Heres nbc bay areas jean elle. Reporter most of the bay area has been seeing and hearing fireworks for weeks. You hear during the daytime or sometimes really late at night the explosion ones, the ones that set off a car alarm. Reporter they can be disturbing and dangerous. In San Francisco, the Fire Department says fireworks started this grass fire in mclaren park today. No one was hurt. All the meeting to order. Reporter on the peninsula, city leaders from menlo park, east palo alto, and palo alto held a special Virtual Meeting tonight to talk about how to get a handle on what feels like an explosion of illegal fireworks. We have over 200plus calls in the city of menlo park, and it has been hard to sleep at night. Reporter east palo altos police chief says enforcement is difficult. Officers have to see someone light the fuse to write a ticket. Hes beefing up patrols, focusing on citations and confiscation. We make it a citation when we can. Most of the time we cant because they see us coming, but its too late. Theyve already lit the devices off. So we go in and confiscate it and try and break up that firework display on that particular street. Reporter along the coast, safe and sane fireworks are legal in pacifica, but this year the city is banning them on beaches and in parking lots to help prevent people from gathering and spreading covid19. They think theyre going to come to pacifica to light off fireworks like they traditionally have. Theyre absolutely not going to be allowed to do that. There will be police patrolling. Reporter you can still buy fireworks here in pacifica. People who run these stands say sales are steady. I think people are excited to celebrate the 4th after having to inside so much. Reporter trevor picked up a package. He says he plans to use the fireworks at home and supports the beach ban. I have no problem with them doing that. Reporter jean elle, nbc bay area news. Police are searching for a fire bug tonight following a series of small fires in the east bay. Investigators have determined all four fires were arson. They were set along the iron horse trail in concord. No serious damage and no one was hurt. Officers took a person of interest in for question but released him. Well, ahead, a new development in the Corruption Scandal in San Francisco. We investigate how the former public works director was allowed to grant tens of millions of dollars in city contracts on his own. Plus making it clear where they stand on schooling. The big push by pediatricians to put kids back in the classroom. And were taking our time cooling down around the bay area tonight. As you can see, walnut creek still 70 degrees outside after a high of 88. Who could be looking at 90degree temperatures tomorrow in our forecast when we come right back. Devin, did you know geico is now offering an extra 15 percent credit on car and motorcycle policies . Ok . Thats 15 percent on top of what geico could already save you. So what are you waiting for . Dj khaled to be your motivational coach . Yo devin remember to brush in a circle motion. Thank you. Dj. Khaled. Tiny circles, devin. Do another one. Another one. Is this good . Put in that work, devin. Dont give up. Geico. Save an extra 15 when you switch by october 7th. More than 40 years after the Golden State Killer began his crime spree, a guilty plea today. 74yearold Joseph Deangelo pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 kidnapping charges for crimes committed across california between 1975 and 1986. Deangelo, who is a former police officer, also admitted to more than 50 rapes and robberies, some in three bay area counties. Todays plea was all part of a deal to avoid the death penalty. He is the reallife version of hannibal lecter. He is a cruel, intelligent, sadistic serial killer. He is pure sociopath. He is a master manipulator. The victims and their family members are expected to confront deangelo at a sentencing hearing in august. Four former Minneapolis Police officers charged with murdering george floyd appeared in court today. The judge came close to issuing a gag order but says hell move the trials of all four men if attorneys and officials dont stop talking about the case. The judge is also considering whether to allow the trials to be televised. Der chauvin, the officer who kneeled on floyds neck, appeared by Video Conference from jail. All four men face up to 40 years in prison if convicted. As protesters fill the streets across the country calling on efforts to defund the police, berkeleys mayor is prepared to do it. Mayor jesse aragon says he wants to slash more than 9 million from the Police Departments budget. If its, approved, berkeley pd will lose 12 of their departments budget. The mayor also wants to cut overtime spending from more than 2 million to just 600,000. To reinvest money from Police Department budgets into Mental Health and social services and housing. City council will vote on that budget tomorrow. A new report out tonight traces the roots of San Franciscos public Corruption Scandal to find out where things went wrong. Our Investigative Unit has been reporting on the story since it first broke in january. Tonight nbc bay areas Jaxon Van Derbeken digs into the citys findings on how the former public works director was given furthvirtually Unchecked Authority to approve hundreds of millions of dollars in city contracts. Its almost as though the law is designed to allow for really bad behavior. Reporter supervisor matt haney had been pressing for an independent investigation of city corruption, but now he says hes going to move forward now and introduce his own reforms in light of the First Official report into what went wrong at city hall. Turns out for nearly a decade, now ousted public works director Mohammed Nuru enjoyed near complete power over hundreds of millions of dollars in city contracts. Thenmayor ed lee gave him that authority back in 2011. And the City Attorney and comptrollers report found that thats how nuru established a pay to play system for private contractors and construction companies. So far, nuru and six other figures have been charged with bribery, fraud, and money laundering. So again and again we see not just bad actors, but we see a bad structure, a bad set of policies, a lack of oversight that is uniquely awful in department of public works, but in many cases extends across our entire city government. Reporter mayor london breed issued a Statement Today pledging to act on the findings and is already reasserting final say over public works contracts, stating, we need to continue to identify problematic issues that erode public trust across our city. We have work to do, but we will do that work. Haney says he will introduce the first reforms at tomorrows board of supervisors meeting. Jaxon van derbeken, nbc bay area news. If you have a story or our Investigative Unit, give us a call. 888996tips. You can also visit our website, nbcbayarea. Com investigations. Now to our making it in the bay series. Minority communities from coast to coast say there was an eviction crisis even before the covid pandemic, but now its worse. In a zoom call today, equality advocates from oregon to boston warned of an unexpected tidal wave of evictions in august when most eviction moratoriums expire. If Public Officials refuse to heed these lessons of the last recession, todays Public Health crisis definitely will become a catastrophe of evictions and forecloses. Advocates say not only do communities of color see a disproportionate share of evictions but theyre more likely to be affected by the coronavirus because many are front line workers. Artists today created a mural in palo alto that could literally stop traffic. Palo Alto City Council is paying the artist to pay the message black lives matter on the Pavement Outside the police station. The city commissioned 16 artists, one for each letter. The chalk outlines were finished today, and the paint goes down tomorrow morning. Lets bring in rob mayeda to talk to us about the next couple of days leading up to the 4th holiday. Yeah, and the weather living up to, id say, julylike expectations as we head towards the weekend. Right now, though, not really seeing much in the way of low clouds or any fog near San Francisco. Pretty view there downtown with the beacon atop the transamerica pyram pyramid. Weve got cool numbers in the upper 50s. Winds out of the west at 10 miles per hour. We dont think were going to get a lot of low clouds moving inland across the bay for the morning. Notice san jose 68 degrees. Santa clara valley out towards the trivalley and concord, upper 60s and low 70s here at 11 00. So the air conditioner may still be going for a while toward is midnight tonight. Temperatures in the low 80s tomorrow and about three to five degrees on to though high temperatures for tomorrow. Good news, though. The air quality still in the green north to south and off to the east in the inland east bay valleys, everybody in good air quality for tomorrow. Morning temperatures mostly in the mid50s. The good news here too is the fact that the red flag warning for the north bay hills has been allowed to expire. Those dry north winds have backed off. Tomorrow, the temperatures 2r50i try to climb up a little more around san jose south. 90 Degrees South san jose down towards morgan hill, right around the trivalley up towards concord and antioch. Probably some of the warmest temperatures well see tomorrow. Still 70s near oakland and hayward. Peninsula in the upper 70s to low 80s. Thanks to the winds still coming in off the ocean, even without a lot of low clouds, that should keep San Franciscos temperatures still in the upper 60s. For the north bay, numbers mostly in the 80s though if you head farther to the north, ukiah and clearlake still near 90 degrees. As we move forward, temperatures drop down a little bit. Youre seeing some of that on the sevenday forecast on the bottom of the screen. Thursday into friday, we m