Moves in. Melissa colorado has more on the demand for heat lamps and fire pits and whether it will be enough to encourage foodies to dine out in the cold. Reporter downtown walnut creek transferred into rows and rows of restaurant patios. Take main street. On some weekends, theres more tables and chairs set out than parked cars. How will the restaurants adjust in the winter . Theyll be bracing for rain, wind and hail. So right now its beautiful weather. We enjoy the weather. But the rainy season reporter the owner, eric zang knows his restaurant in walnut creek, cant rely on sunny skies forever. Everybody worry about the winter, our rainy season. How can we do it . How can we survive . Reporter many restaurants, especially along the bay are already stocking up on electric and gas heaters says the owner of alfresco heating in novato. Theres been this before. Eric can says propane heaters are flying off the shelves because theyre portable and dont need to be plugged in. Alfrescos outdoor heaters can start at 500 bucks and go up to 1500 each. But a heat lamp or a fire pit may not be enough to convince people like Darlene Connors of walnut creek to eat a fivecourse meal in the cold. I might have coffee. Or a glass of wine. Im not for sure that i would dine. I dont like cold food. Marin, napa and santa cruz counties are allowing limited indoor dining. But thats not the case for restaurants in the east bay. Eric zang is praying that contra st a countys covid19 infection rate plummet to the point that Health Officials allow m tohi welcome some of its customers inside. Everybody worry about that. No good solution because if its the rainy season, nobody can sit outside. Reporter melissa colorado, nbc bay area news. Are we in for a cool fall or will fire season keep things warmer than usual . Jeff ranieri is here. Jeff, weve had a lot of fire this season. We know its been warm. What can we expect heading into fall . Well, going over the data, we do look to have potentially some above average temperatures as we head through october, november, december. Good news on that front. But look, weve also got to get the rainfall in here. We are in a bit of a drought here across california. And we need that wet weather. As we get a look right now, we can see how we usually trend this time of the year in september. Our rainfall averages arent that great. Once we hit october, we start to see things rise and definitely increased rain chances november, december, january and into february. So how do things play out on the Climate Outlook map. You can see to the north of us, pacific northwest, above average rainfall chances there. To the south, way, way south and east over texas, drier weather and potentially some drier weather for southern california. For us, near average for the rainfall chances. That could bring us near 3 4 of an inch in october. December over 2 inches, 2 inches in noechlt temperatures with a developing la nina could be above average as mentioned. Not typically as cold as we would see. Then let me get things down to the granular level here. The next two weeks, were looking at hot 100s returning sunday, monday, tuesday. October rain chances, a 60 possibility. As we hit the 18th through the 31st, we could see rainfall developing with what im looking at in the longrange model and la nina, that has now developed. A moderate event, 50 of the time this overall brings us above average rain. I think temperatures overall, that might be good for the restaurants and rainfall, well, we need it. Right now, weve got good signs of potentially rain coming down the rolled. Well have more looks at the weather in about 15 minutes i. Thank you very much, jeff. Rob mayeda interviewed a fire center meteorologist today and had a lot to say about the record breaking fire season and what we can expect this fall. Check it out on the website on nbcbayarea. Com. Search for 22 fire season. Not just businesses, but schools are starting to reopen campuses. This all comes as Governor Newsom released encouraging news today about the coronavirus. Raj mathai joins us with the latest numbers. Raj, i went to that news conference. Good news there. You were listening in, so was i. Weve been doing this for, what, six months now. This stands out in a good way. The numbers are encouraging. But word of caution here, things can change pretty quickly. Weve lived through that as well. Heres what we know today. Beginning today, campuses are eligible to reopen. If your school applied for a waiver and that waiver was approved, inclassroom learning can begin. Supplies for prek, kindergarten through 6th grade. Many private schools have already reopened campus. My sons element ril school, thats a green light. We expect him to return to campus maybe the next couple of weeks once the school reconfigures its classrooms and safety protocols. As for the statewide covid cases. The Positivity Rate in the past week alone is down to 2. 8 , which is the lowest its been. Theres been a significant increase in the number of people getting tested. We are committed to increasing testing in the state of california. Were not retreating from our testing responsibilities, quite the contrary. We are of the term opinion that the sooner we are able to move forward to increase the availability and the timeliness of teststate of california, we will have moreac swiftly to not only reopen different sectors of our economy more fully but also reopen our schools in a more Sustainable Way as well. The impact here. This is pretty easy to see. Tomorrow, Solano County will go from the purple tier to the red tier. Thats good news for businesses. Napa, marin, San Francisco and santa clara counties are already in the red tier, which is less restrictive. San mateo and alameda counties not quite there yet. Heres a glimpse of that red tier. Youre wondering what is it . Among the businesses that can reopen indoors, hair and nail salons, indoor museums, movie theaters, malls and gyms all at a reduced capacity. Things are trending in the right direction. As for school, were going through this. We have an Elementary School son. We had a survey. Are you comfortable with sending your child back to school. Thats something you have to decide. Do you want the increased risk or have the kid going back to the campus. Weve decided back an campus is best for us. Everybody has to i sent isabella back to college. She tested positive. The risk versus the reward. It all depends which family. Thats a big decision to make. Thanks so much, raj. A trio of crimes against an Armenian School and church. Tonight, San FranciscoPolice Investigators say two are investigated as hate crimes. The most recent attack happened when police were called to the Community Center in kzb Armenian School on reports of gunshot. They found a bullet hole in one of the school signs. Its six days after a suspicious fire at an armenian chush and office that manages that school. It was the target ever heavy vandalism in july. The walls were painted with its troubling. Not shocking, unfortunately. There have been decades of vi vitri vitriol. Nobody was hurt in the attacks. Cleanup is underway at a homeless encampment along Union Pacific railroad tracks. Its become blight and hazardous. Lots of Illegal Dumping and graffiti. Garbage for stretches for what appears to be a couple of hundred yards. The cleanup expected to take more than a week. The family of a mentally ill walnut creek man shot and killed by police say they will keep pushing for change after receiving a 4 million settlement from the city. Today the parents spoke for the First Time Since the settle am. They believe much more needs to change in how we handle someone experiencing a Mental Health crisis. Miles lost his life that day. He had goals, he had plans. His family says theyre more determined than ever to make sure nobody else suffered the fate their son did. The 23yearold was shot and killed by police while suffering a Mental Health breakdown last year. His family called 911 for help. But instead of approaching him with understanding, police shot him with bean bag rounds. Then opened fire as the family says he tried to run past them. We want to have people trained to come and take care of our children and take care of our loved ones with compassion and care. Not with guns. The halls want the Mental HealthCrisis Response team created and they say police need more training on how to deal with people who are in crisis. They say they have been in conversation with Walnut Creek Police for two years about their sons condition. But it didnt change officers approach. All we care about from the day he died and until the day we die is having a better system in place. The officers who killed miles hallow owe. A Community Rallied behind the family in calling for change. Its collaborating with other cities on possible nonpolice responses and committed money to better train police. In a statement, they say they hope those efforts will demonstrate its desire to improve the understanding of and interactions with people facing challenges. And will help bring closure for the hall family. But the halls say the settlement does not bring closure or justice. They say the mentally ill should not be treated as criminals. This could have been your child. Okay . Were living the American Dream here in walnut creek. It wasnt. Its not been the American Dream. Its been a nightmare. In walnut creek, jodi hernandez. Nbc bay area news. Up next, spared from closure for now. The schools that can thank the pandemic for staying open. Emergency action at the edd. Im consumer investigator chris chmura. We have a scathing look at how the Unemployment Office is failing workers. Thats next. Hitting the brakes to fix a battered system. Californias Employment Development department will not accept new unemployment claims for the next two weeks. The goal is to give the department a chance to catch up on a backlog of claims and solve what an audit calls widespread fraud. A new report shows as many as 600,000 californians are still waiting to receive unemployment payments. Another 1 million say their payments stopped for no reason. The Department Plans to unveil new tools meant to make it easier to file and manage unemployment claims. The system called id me. This will process about 90 automatically of all of the new applications. Youll have requirements under this automated system, i. T. System to do selfies, provide information that could substantially, not exclusively, but substantially mitigate fraud. The Department Says a twoweek pause will help and it could take months to work through the backlog. Our Consumer Team has been taking calls and holding the Unemployment Office accountable for the last several months during this pandemic. Lets join chris chmura. Problems with the edd. Lots of people complaining. Delays, mismanagement, fraud. Look at these envelopes from the unemployment department. They were september to one address in brentwood. There are 51 here. This is likely the work of scammers. In stacks of unexpected letters like these, some with debit or benefit cards inside, criminals are clogging up the edd application route and getting their handson Unemployment Benefits at the same time theres a backlog of 600,000 unprocessed applications. Many unemployed workers who deserve and need benefits right now cant get approved and cant get through by phone. I would call like 200 times just because, like, sometimes when you call they wouldnt, like let you into the phone tree. So its like thanks for calling. Theres too many callers and that would be the end. Lawmakers fumed and ordered an emergency audit. Governor newsom dispatched his strike team. Lets look at some of the weaknesses identified. The edd mainframe screen. A puzzling mix of 80s and 90s technology struggling to keep up in 2020. The auditor said that has to be updated. On top of that, 1. 4 million claims were flagged for manual handling which slows down payments. The strike team said more claims should be approved automatically. Even worse, auditors found that edd agents arent allowed to communicate with you by email due to security concerns. The strike team said the edd team can use email securely. Many new phone agents were hired to answer an onslaught of calls. Basically to reset peoples passwords. The auditors insisted edd should reassign them to back end clerical work to r status of peoples claims the strike team says it bluntly. Neither the claimants nor the Call Center Operators understand the status of claims. The recommendation is clearer language, fewer letters and an easy to decipher online claims tracker. So now, the edd is doing its twoweek long reset. The breather is designed to expand the number of claims that can be automatically processed without staff intervention and to reduce its backlog. So what about all of these envelopes . The strike team said there is evidence that california may in fact be the victim of significant organized fraud. So a new Identity Verification system is in the works. It and other reforms will take longer than a twoweek reset. The governor made a longterm commitment and we are too. Well make sure the state follows through on its promises to you. Janelle . Thanks so much, chris. Heres something you dont hear often. Saved by covid. Thats exactly what happened to a handful of schools slated to close. Because were in the middle of a pandemic, the Franklin Community district decided to pump the brakes and keep them open a little longer. Nbc bay area as Damian Trujillo examines the potential School Silver lining. The hiatus is only temporary, but for many families this is a huge sigh of relief. Lows its rumored on the list of schools preparing to close doors forever. The enrollment is rapidly. Theres a lot of dpifrn factors driving students to other places. Theyre moving out of the area in general. The economy and high cost of living are big reasons. In the last decade, the district has lost almost half its student body. So the plan has been to follow the lead of other districts and perhaps close some schools. It was to begin this school year, but the pandemic may have saved those schools for now. This process requires transparency and having people participate in that process is important and doing that virtual just didnt make it accessible to our community. There will be no talk of closures for at least another year. A big relief for many parents. Translator she loves her school because of security and teachers. For one more year there will be no lists, no worries about closing schools. One less thing to worry about thanks to the pandemic. In san jose, Damian Trujillo, nbc bay area news. Lets bring in chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. Here we are one more day closer to fall. It doesnt feel that way. Kbryeah. Were in for a roller coaster ride. Were going to be comfortable here as we move through tomorrow. Then we do have so much hotter weather ahead. Lets bring you outside of that live Sky Camera Network and our air quality. You can see on the dashboard ive created, six different sky cameras. We have much improved conditions outside. San jose, San Francisco, tiburon, lafayette, morgan hill, all in that club with the blue skies. Air quality returning to good levels in San Francisco while the rest of the bay area remains in the moderate. Better news tomorrow. The way im seeing it now, the jet stream, the storm track, its 20 to 30,000 feet up into the atmosphere. Its that Conveyor Belt of changes we monitor. Its going to be just to the north of us. Thats going to help us stirrup the air and continue to push smoke off towards the east. So tomorrow, the air quality gets even better as were looking at moderate air quality for the north bay and good for the rest of ve temperatures as move through the forecast, dont really change a lot tomorrow. Were going to be looking pretty good here. 81 in san jose. 79 palo alto. 67 San Francisco. Go out to concord, were at 86. But things are going to change. Look at our temperature trend in livermore. Once we hit sunday and monday, some hot 100s return. Well take a look at my full sevenday forecast and talk about the beginning of fall a little bit more here. Ill see you all in about 25 minutes with that update. Not happy to see those 100s. Hopefully, this will be the last round of that coming our way. Okay. Thank you, jeff. Still to come, lurking in a peninsula neighborhood. The Mountain Lion hiding while Children Play nearby. How one man got the kids out of harms way. Prop 19 helps californias most vulnerable. It provides property tax fairness for disabled homeowners like cynde, stuck living with a broken elevator. Nineteen helps wildfire victims, like ellie, one of 24,000 whove lost their homes to fire. And seniors like pam who need to move closer to family or medical care, without a tax penalty. Prop 19 limits taxes on our most vulnerable. Yes on 19. The lasting effects of wildfires on wildlife. Want to show you video from a man on mason drive where a Mountain Lion was spotted crouching in a front patio watching a couple of children on bikes. Initially the man was going to take video of the big cat but decided to shoot away after the lion jumped over the fence into a driveway still looking at the kids. I w