Robberies. We break down the spike in crimes and what leaders are planning to do about it. Expanding a crackdown on illegal dumping. Technology one city is considering using to catch people in the act. And spring is set to arrive in hours. Meteorologist kari hall is tracking the seasonal outlook. This is today in the bay. Good Tuesday Morning to you. 6 00. Thanks for joining us. Im laura garcia. And im marcus washington. Well get a look at whats going on with the weather in just a bit with you. First, we want to talk about whats going on trafficwise. Tough morning. We continue to follow this alert for the east bay. Theres been a deadly crash, folks. Thats the sad news that starts this morning over in oakland. The live look from a caltrans camera does show you that westbound, the flashing lights continue to be there, the crews cant clear the scene until the coroner does the final report. I havent seen the coroner arrive, although according to typical operations they should be getting there about now. We see three vehicles total reported for this crash, but the flashing lights are visible. Theres the berkeley curve and its visible as youre approaching the berkeley curve, causing more slowing. Im going to show you the opposite angle. Theres a crash, backup, slowing for 24, the build and visible slowdown for the distraction off the berkeley curve. Outside of that portion of the east bay, approaching the maze off of west 580, Everything Else is clear. I would advise folks to choose 880 for the time being. At least it is quiet with weather, temperatures in the low to mid50s as you head out the door. Its still going to be well above our normal high temperature, headed for 70 in santa rosa, concord 75 with the high today, and some 60s in San Francisco and oakland, while san jose will reach a high of 72 degrees. Well talk about a cooldown and when rain comes back in the full microclimate forecast. Well, developing this morning, in the south bay, san jose leaders will debate new cannabis regulations and it comes as dispenary owners say the city falls short on protecting them from crime. Today in the bays kris sanchez joins us from the newsroom. This is a Sticking Point from cannabis providers. They are legitimate businesses and say they should be protected as such. The citys legitimate and licensed cannabis businesses say they are being targeted by criminals and theyre not getting the other protection that other businesses get, which they say their fees pay for. This video is a glaring example. If you have a moment to take a look at your screen, youll see burglars loading stolen goods from the exotic dispensary into an suv, you see several sjpd patrol cars arrive, but the officers dont interact with the thieves. The thieves just drive away. A San Jose Police spokesperson says that Department Policy does not allow officers to try to stop or arrest the suspects on the spot for burglary unless there is a threat to the community or officers. A san jose spotlight reporter who broke this story with this video told us about the impact of these kinds of crimes. Some say that they are getting close to closing, weve already seen two dispensaries in san jose close their doors. Thats two out of 16, and a lot of them are struggling. Reporter there are only 16 permitted businesses in san jose. Each of them pay more than 139,000 per year in fees. Oaklands more than 200 businesses pay between 500 and about 17,000 a year. San franciscos 100 businesses pay 5,000 per activity or permit. Now, because of the cost of regulation, the licensed dispensaries say their prices are higher, which is driving customers back into the illegal pot market, defeating the purpose of having legitimate businesses in the city. Today the discussion will center on whether to align city policies with the state, which could bring down the age for purchasing Medicinal Marijuana down to 18 instead of 21, it could also loosen san joses requirements for i. D. Verification and secure storage of the marijuana. State requirements also require businesses to be monitored by an Alarm Company and require Video Surveillance to be stored longer, which could add even more to the business cost. Aligning with the state is the discussion today, next month the discussion will center on whether the San Jose Police should be in charge of regulating retailers in the future. We have reached out to the organization that represents the legal dispensaries and well let you know what they have to say when they answer. Thank you. Well, a live look in oakland this morning. This is where leaders today will vote on a plan to expand the recent crackdown on illegal dumping. This started with a Pilot Program two years ago involving ten cameras installed in some of those hot spots. Council members will consider a new resolution providing up to 750,000 to expand and extend the program for three more years. City council will also vote on the proposal to clear abandoned vehicles from city streets. City Council MemberRebecca Kaplan is behind the measure. President ial primaries take place across five states add, arizona, florida, illinois, kansas and ohio. Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have already secured enough delegates to become their partys presumptive nominees. But the contest could provide a bellwether of voters when it comes to key issues ahead of november. I think Border Security probably is the most important issue for me. Not for the families coming across, im worried about the other people that might be up to no good coming across. President biden starts a threeday Campaign Swing through nevada today and plans to deliver a speech focused on landlords rent gouging tenants. Congress has reached a tentative deal to avoid a government shutdown. We have a live look at the capitol where congressional leaders struck a deal late last night to fund homeland security. This was considered the last major Sticking Point to avoid shutdown. Funding is set to expire saturday if a final agreement is not in place. At t land lines could soon become a thing of the past. The company is considering removing its land line service. So the California PublicUtilities Commission is Holding Public meetings to get Customer Feedback on the plan. There will be two more virtual hearings happening today. First is at 2 00 this afternoon and the second is at 6 00 p. M. While customers have already gotten rid of those land lines, others are still attached. Companies like ooma are offering internetbased land lines as an alternative and say theyre seeing a boost in interest. The people that have home phones really value the concept of a home phone, even though most families at this point, most households no longer have land lines. Ooma offers both business and home phone services. Baseball season suddenly got a whole lot more interesting for giants fans. The team just signed the leagues top free agent pitcher. Sources confirm to nbc sports bay area blake snell has agreed to a twoyear 62 million deal, with an optout after this season. Hes a twotime cy young award winner, coveted by teams including the dodgers and yankees. Snell suddenly becomes the top prize in the teams list of offseason acquisitions. It started with korean star lee, and Onetime World series mvp jorge soler. The giants open the season march 28th in san diego. Lets take a live look right now in san jose. Today marks the end, the official end of winter, anyway. Lets check in with meteorologist kari hall here as were welcoming spring. Today is the official start of the vernal equinox, aka spring, at exactly 8 06 p. M. Why 8 06 . Well, that will mark the time when the day to night line called the terminator intersects both of the earths poles and the sun rays strike the earth perpendicular to the equator. From this point on, the tilt of the earth will allow for more sunshine in the Northern Hemisphere and the minutes of daylight increase from now into the first day of summer. Bring it on. Were looking over here toward the traffic flow, which is really jammed up over in the east bay. Look at all the slower drive right here. Jokes are jamming folks are jamming up coming off the warren freeway. The approach to the maze itself. The distraction shows up on the eastshore freeway as well. Well show you again the distraction from the berkeley curve. Folks are able to see flashing lights for westbound 580, the crash that happened, the deadly crash that blocks two lanes, two out of three approaching the bay bridge coming out of the maze. Another angle, for the last few minutes, they had traffic completely stopped. I believe the chp on scene were doing something and they wanted to make sure all traffic had stopped for a second. Im watching for the coroner investigation to arrive. The investigators has not yet arrived. It typically happens about 90 minutes after the crash is declared and that happened about 4 30. They cannot clear the vehicles, i dont think they can clear the vehicles until that report is filed. They need to leave everything in place. And then once the coroner declares the scene investigated as far as the data thats gathered, they can clear the vehicles. We dont know the timeline and were going to track the continued backup coming into the maze, westbound 580. The berkeley curve does move smoothly, but slowly, past the scene. Thank you, mike. It is 6 10 right now. So california nearly set to raise minimum wage for fast food workers. But now theres some new exceptions here. So today in the bay, were going to look at the blowback from groups being shut out with the new law set to take effect next month. And were keeping an eye on the futures this morning, all in the red. What will the day hold . Well keep track. And growing demand for electric vehicle charging stations as well. San franciscos plan to bring charges to ev owners. And a twoforone phenomenal. The out of the world surprise some stargazers may be able to spot next month during theolar eclips se. Next. Next. Stop. We got it . No. Keep going. Again. [ gasps ] next. If you dont pick one, i. Am i keeping you from your job . Next. Stop do we finally have it . Lets go back to the beginning. Are you. Your electric future. Customized. The fullyelectric audi q4 etron. Get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer. You can make money the hard way as a bullfighter or a human cannonball. Or save money the easy way, with xfinity mobile. Existing customers can get a free line of our most popular unlimited plan for a year not only will you save hundreds but youll also be joining millions who have connected to americas most reliable 5g network. Sure is a lot safer than becoming a stuntman for money. Get a free line of unlimited intro for a year when you buy one unlimited line. Visit xfinitymobile. Com today to learn more. Another one in the books. But were just getting started. Everything going well . Oh yeah. Lets take a look at this knee. Because its the work behind the scenes, that truly matters. [ physical Therapy Staff discusses results ] for your mind. For your body. And for the community. Team for all that is me, for all that is you. Kaiser permanente. Folks, were still tracking this deadly crash. The Traffic Alert at the berkeley curve and the maze area. The flashing lights are visible for folks coming out of berkeley and emeryville. That is impeding flow as folks travel toward the bay bridge toll plaza. And as we take a look at our day planner for morgan hill, our temperatures start out in the low 50s. It will be a gorgeous day, but each day it gets slightly cooler. Well talk about the return of rain in our microclimate forecast coming up. 6 14 right now. Wall street is set for a flat open as investors shift their focus to the start of the Federal Reserve policy meeting today. Theyre also digesting news from the bank of japan overnight, which raised Interest Rates for the First Time Since 2007. The fed will announce its decision tomorrow afternoon. Its not expected to make any changes at this meeting, but chairman Jerome Powell could offer insight into when they may start to cut rates. In focus today, data on housing and building permits. Now to a live look at the State Capitol in sacramento. State lawmakers have approved new exemptions for a new labor law aimed at increasing the minimum wage for fast food workers to 20 an hour. The pay raise is expected to start next month. But the legislation approved yesterday says restaurants in airports, hotels, convention centers, arenas, museums, casinos and College Campuses dont have to adhere to the new rules. Supporters say many of those locations already have collective bargaining agreements, which include higher pay and benefit for their workers. The exemptions will automatically go into effect once the governor signs the increase into law. Happening today, more electric car chargers are coming to San Francisco. This is all part of a new Pilot Program from city leaders. Theyre expected to announce the Program Later today. Workers will install curbside charging stations across the city. This is meant to meet increasing demands for chargers. We dont know exactly where they will install the chargers just yet. Todays event starts at 9 30. And liftoff, falcon 9, go starlink, go spacex. The liftoff for the latest falcon 9 rocket from space x. The launch hit up the sky last night in vanderberg base on the central coast. The trail could be seen across much of Southern California. Speaking of whats happening in the sky, the falcon 9 rocket is carrying the starlink satellites into orbit for Global Internet services and its the 26th successful launch this year. Trending this morning for those stargazers out there, the devil comet lighting up the nighttime sky. Thats the nickname because Scientists Say it leaves the trail of gas in the shape of devil horns and its bright enough for people to see through a telescope at night. Next month it will be able to be seen with the naked eye right about the time the Solar Eclipse happens. Thats not scary at all. The comet was first discovered in 1812 by a french astronomer. It takes 71 years to orbit the sun. Like a batman symbol. Or a cat. Why do we have to say the devil . Batman is coming to save us. Lets hope so. [ laughter ] i dressed for spring today, even though it doesnt start until 8 00 tonight. Its still the first day. Were going to celebrate all day long. Were excited. I even posted pictures of my little flowers in my garden. I dont know. I think its the warm weather thats really helped. And were seeing temperatures in the 70s again today, up to 72 in milpitas and san jose, 75 in gilroy this afternoon. And well see some low 70s for the east bay as well, antioch 74, and mid60s in oakland today. Upper 60s for redwood city, while daily city will reach a high of 62. Well see 62 in San Francisco and the mission district. Our north bay temperatures, anywhere from 58 near the coast to 75 in ukiah, in napa today 71 degrees. Nice and mild for now, but eventually well see cold fronts and some rain coming into the bay area. So the storms are still well out in the pacific, but as High Pressure has kept it warm and dry starts to break down and move off to the east, that will allow for these low pressure systems and these cold fronts to start to come in as we go into the weekend. So were going to see a big change from the way we start the week to the way we end the week, off and on showers throughout the weekend, and even more sierra snow. A couple of systems will be passing by through next week. So lets check in on that snow, we mentioned that we do have some in the forecast. And we are right at normal for the central sierra around lake tahoe. The northern sierra is doing the best at 115 of the normal amount, and were approaching the april 1st snowpack measurement that is so important because we know that the Sierra Snowpack provides onethird of the states water supply. We will see some snow for this upcoming weekend. Its mainly from tahoe city to 9 inches, all the way up to 25 inches of expected snow for kingvale, maybe a little higher for those upper elevations and areas farther to the north. So were going to see rain, the sierra sees snow. But overall its going to feel like winter. Were going from a high today of 75 on this first day of spring to the first full day of spring tomorrow, and 71, and then only low 60s for the weekend. Mike, youve been watching that crash. Whats the update on the commute . Unfortunately, we have no update on the crash situation itself. We still have vehicles blocking two of three lanes west 580 heading toward the bay bridge. The backup over here, the impact on the commute is that folks on the berkeley curve off the eastshore freeway are distracted by all the flashing lights. So they are slowing a bit. And then over at the bay bridge toll plaza, let me take a look at the other camera at the toll plaza, this is interesting. The traffic all jammed up on 580 and 24 coming into the maze, results in the feeder off of the maze, not a big deal. All the traffic you see on this shot is coming off of 880 as folks are flowing out of oakland. Even though that is the case at the bay bridge, i would say use 880 instead of 580. 880 feeding in off of the curve and off of grand avenue, where theres more surface street traffic, thats moving smoothly, even though theres a bit of a backup for those particular lanes. Off the berkeley curve, theres the distraction because you see the slowing, and also 24 and 580 westbound bogged down because of all