i'm raj mathai. next on nbc bay area news tonight, pg&e angering a whole lot of people. it's pushing to raise your power bill by more than 20%. >> we're continuing to see rate payers take responsibility for bad decisions by this utility, and we want accountability. >> we're talking to the former mayor of san jose who is now leading the charge against these pg&e rate hikes. also, criminals using

license plate covers. they're illegal, but you can still get them online. what san francisco leaders are now doing to stop that. and a former a's executive trying to stop the team from leaving oakland. it invol sent to other major baseball team owners. and it's happening this week. the official kickoff to the holiday season in the city. we'll take you to union square. >> good evening. this is nbc bay area news tonight. i'm raj mathai. we're going get to those stories in just a moment. the fight to keep the a's in oakland and the fight against pg&e. again, those stories in just a minute. let's get now to all the stories that we're working on right now. we want to get you some of the headlines that we're watching. we've learned that in antioch, information about a developing situation at hobby lobby in antioch. in the last hour we learned it was a customer who sprayed an employee with a pepper spray-like substance following a

verbal altercation. this unfolded around 2:30 this afternoon. hazmat crews were called to the store after a report that some kind of substance was released inside, and customers started to feel sick. 60 people were inside. in fact, almost 70 were. the store was evacuateded. paramedics took three people to the hospital with skin irritation and breathing problems. at this hour, police are looking for man who sprayed the employee. police say he was wearing a pink beanie and left in a white car that hobby lobby has since reopened in antioch. concerns about the toxins in the water now after a series of boats caught fire in the bay. this happened early this morning at oyster point marina in south san francisco. you can see all that smoke there. it could be seen for miles during the morning commute. the fire scorched three boats, four people had to be rescued. firefighters say one person they pulled from the chilly water was hospitalized with minor

injuries. soon after, crews put out oil containment booms around those blackened boats. >> they're currently deploying environmental protections, in this case an oil boom to mitigate or reduce any contaminants that are going to be flowing out into the bay. >> the cause of the fire is still under investigation. our making it in the bay report tonight. new records for the silicon valley housing market. according to joint venture silicon valley, the average price for a home in the silicon valley jumped by 7% last year to an average of $1.5 million. now if you break out a single family homes, the average is $1.9 million. many families telling joint venture they're thinking of leaving the area for somewhere with a lower cost of living. but that's not slowing down the pace of home sales. the hottest city within the silicon valley is santa clara. prices have jumped 17% this past year. well, here is a hot topic. our pg&e bills could go up in a

big way. state regulators were set to vote tomorrow on a request from pg&e to raise your power bill. however we have just learned within the hour that that vote might be tabled buzz of all the pushback. but even if that happens, the vote would happen in two weeks from now. the numbers keep fluctuating here. pg&e's initial request was for a 26% increase. that's a big deal. the latest proposal is now about a 12% increase. either way, that's double-digits. this could translate to an increase of between 20 to 50 bucks for the average monthly bill. >> hey, hey, ho ho, rates have got to go. >> today ahead of the vote, whether it's tomorrow or in a couple of weeks, the coalition group against the hike known as fair california called on the california puc to turn down pg&e's request. this group argues another increase now on top of a recent 38% increase is just unfair and

unnecessary. in a series of commercial, pg&e says it's trying to avoid sparking wildfires by burying more power lines in fire-prone areas. but critics argue it would be faster and cheaper to insulate the overhead power lines rather than bury them. joining us now is former san jose mayor sam liccardo, who now leads fair california. that's a coalition pushing for more accountability from utilities like pg&e. mr. mayor, it's been a while. nice to have you back on the program. i know you're teaching part time, teaching law at stanford, and also working for this coalition. what does fair california want? what is the bottom line here? >> thanks, raj. it's great to see you again. fair california is standing for the proposition that we want accountability. we want pg&e to be accountable for how it spends rate payer dollars, and we want the puc, the public utilities commission to enforce that accountability, to ensure that every dollar is spent for safety and for service and not for executive

compensation and lobbyists and a lot of tv commercials that we're inundated with every time we watch a football game. >> i think i speak for a lot of people here, sam. i don't want to see another huge pg&e rate increase in my bill. i think they're suggesting between 20 and 25%. that seems so excessive. what are the numbers here? >> yeah, so the initial request from pg&e was 26% rate increase over four years. that on top of what has been a roughly 38% increase over the last three years. so keep in mind how high inflation has been over the last three years. that's three times the rate of inflation that pg&e's rates have increased for struggling renters, for small businesses or simply trying to make payroll. you can imagine a lot of folks are hurting as a result, and we want the halt the rapid increases. >> you talk about can't and executive compensation. the ceo recently made $51

million i believe in one tax year. it's almost offensive that they would ask for such a dramatic increase. >> yeah. and, you know, at the time in 2021, pg&e's ceo was the highest paid ceo of any utility in the country. and by the way, they lost $88 million, net operating losses this year. it's hard to justify and understand. it would be hard to justify under any circumstances. but the problem is we're continuing to see rate payers bear responsibility for bad decisions made by this utility. and we want accountability. and we've got a generate case coming up, and we want puc to hear our voice. >> so we can complain about it all we want. what's going happen tomorrow? are we going to see this double-digit rate increase or somewhere in between? >> that's a good question. there are three proposals on the table. we're pushing for actually a deferral. and we have heard recently that there may in fact be one in the works. we'll find out in the hours ahead.

but what we want the puc to do is first not grant any rate increase that will fund things like executive compensation. and we want transparency around where pg&e is getting the money to pay for these tv commercials for, lobbying, for the political contributions, all the other spending that's happening here. we want to make sure it's not coming from rate payers. and if it is, we want to know how much it is that they're spending of rate payer money. >> i get it. a lot of people do support pg&e burying power lines, and that's going to cost money. is there a common ground? can we do that with pg&e but not raise our rates so much? >> pg&e would like us to believe that we need very large rate increases to pay for the undergrounding, to pay for safety. and they're pitting safety, our safety against affordability. and i think that's a false choice. i think there is a lot of spending that's happening in that company that could be better directed. and if we had accountability, we'd be able to understand

exactly the choice that needs to be made. and we'd see those dollars better spent on safety. >> all right. you keep us posted what happens tomorrow. final question for you, you are no longer the mayor of san jose politically live speaking. what's next for you? i know you're not done. >> well, i got to go back to class next week and teach. no the meantime, i'm staying busy. but i'll continue to stay involved in efforts like this where my passion aligns with the community. >> would you consider a run for congress, the u.s. congress? >> i'm not looking at anything like that. you won't see me doing that next year, i can assure you that. >> former mayor sam liccardo of sage, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> one more note. pg&e did not respond to our question for comment, which also included an invitation to be on this program. the company did issue an update on the undergrounding project. pg&e says to far it's buried 450 miles of electric cable during the past three years, which is less than 5% of its ultimate goal of 10,000 miles of cable.

another big decision is looming. this is about the future of the oakland a's. major league baseball owners are expected to vote on the a's proposed move to vegas in a couple of weeks from now. will the a's get the green light to move to las vegas? a former a's executive is urging the baseball owners to reject the plan. andy dolich's career spans five decades. he spent 15 years in the a's front office, has been an executive with the 49ers. dolich recently sent a letter to the 29 league owners who will vote on the a's move to build that new stadium in vegas. the plan needs approval from 75% of the owners to go through. dolich says the a's in las vegas would be a mistake. he says the move would hurt the league's diversity, and that vegas would benefit more by adding a new team and not by moving the a's. he also blames team owner john fisher for the a's issues in oad,rom fan attendance to their dismal record. in the letter that dich wrote,

published today by the east bay times, andy dolich writes the athletics franchise became an essential part of the hearts, minds, souls and philanthropic programs of the community. dolich argues the move doesn't make sense economically. las vegas is a much smaller market than the bay area in population, tv market size,nd in per capita income. you can see the numbers there. and that vegas should be considered for an expansion team instead of relocating our team. joining us now is former a's executive andy dolich. andy, nice to have you back on the program. andy, the owners know this. they know that vegas is a smaller market, and that john fisher does not have a good track record of running this team. why would they allow this move any way? >> net asset value appreciation. each team will probably add millions and millions of dollars to their bottom line. fisher bought for 180. he could probably sell today, although he is not going to

sell, it's worth a billion two. and if he has construction in the ground in vegas in the next two years, it could be $2.5 billion. this is a privately owned team, but it's owned by the public, as i said, hearts, minds and souls. there is still a lot of hurdles. let's just say the major league baseball owners approved coming up in mid-november. where is the rest of the billions of dollars? and i don't just mean the rest of the domed ballpark, which i think will be doomed. you then have -- how are you going replenish the talent that you've traded away? how you going to build an organization? how you going to sell? none of that is known at this time. and i don't even think they have working drawings. this is usually a nine inning game. and under john fisher, it's been 18 years of frustration. and you're taking one of the great properties in baseball. you've destroyed it by design, and now what's going to happen? >> andy, like you, my heart and soul goes into this franchise. i've been rooting for this team

for more than 40 years. you mentioned right off the top of your statement, there it's about money. money talks. if that's the case, then major league baseball owners, they like to make money. would they listen to your letter, or from the fans or anyone? >> well, not surprisingly, raj, how many return calls did i get from major league baseball? and let's not lose sight of the fact of the great reverse boycott movement, which probably totals 20% of the a's attendance last year. jorge leon and the sell movement. save oakland sports and what they've done, and thousands of other people who are mad as hell. the question is what is the mayor of oakland doing other than handing a 30 page document to the commissioner months ago and said hey, we worked really hard on howard terminal. all you would have had to have done a few years ago is knock the coliseum down. you could have had a much more affordable stadium and brought that a's fan base back. if you started to send on

players. how is it going to be if you're not in a new stadium until 2028, and you have one of the worst records in baseball, you draw nobody, and potentially you're going to play three or four years in an outdoor ballpark in las vegas, where the temperature at first pitch is 114, but it feels like 123. how is that going to work? >> it's so messy all around. andy, raider, warriors to a certain degree, and now possibly the as i. how much blame should the city of oakland get here? >> there is three essential elements. the elected officials of oakland and alameda county. let's not forget they sold half of the coliseum to the a's for an almost free price of $85 million. commissioner rob manfred who believes this is going to be a positive for baseball, was going to charge $500 million in relo and then that just disappeared, a and the elected officials of

oakland. they still have legislative and legal clout, and they're not using it. first and foremost, as you know, raj, i'm not an attorney, but they have an imminent domain case that they can build against the as i owning half of the coliseum. what do they immediate to own that property for if they're going to be in neonville in two years or so? >> it's a sad story all around. final question for you. if that vote happens in a couple of weeks, what's the results going to be? are they going to approve the move? >> i think they will, because the fluid that flows through the veins of sports is green, and everybody is going to make more of it. but still many hurdles. the nevada state teachers lawsuit against the state legislature, where is the money coming from to finish the stadium and build the franchise. what oakland might do as a ninth inning last opportunity to go after baseball and john fisher. there are still several more chapters to be written in

goodbye oakland before the third team says goodbye. >> this fight is not over. i do believe that i did speak with john fisher a come of months ago. he told me he wouldn't sell. we will find out. andy dolich, thanks for your time and your perspective. have a good evening. >> thank you. let's move on now. it is november 1, which is now holiday season. and time to dust off your ice skates. the union square skating rink is now officially open. a big celebration tonight. scott wiener was there, the state senator, along with a few skating performers. in fact, one of our reporters, ginger saab getting to test out the ice this morning on our morning show. it's a cashless rink. if you want to skate you have to visit union square ice rink.com for tickets. and yep, go to union square. that's the push from the city leader, for locals and tourists for this holiday season. up next, stop selling license plate covers. that's the message that san francisco city leaders are sending to online retailers like amazon. and some rare d.c. comics

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welcome back to nbc bay area news tonight. san francisco city attorney has a message for companies selling illegal license plate covers online. he is saying cease and desist. police say criminals use these license plate covers to hide the identity of cars used in thefts, sideshows and other crimes. others obscure their license

plates to avoid paying bridge tolls or fastrak tolls. the city attorney sent letters to amazon, walmart, ebay and etsy. he is giving them 30 days to drop 30 partner venders to prohibit sales. the police chief says it's still a problem. >> these types of devices, anybody can purchase them through the internet, anybody. and we have to make it harder for people to do things to defeat the laws of our state, to the ability for people to commit crimes eeasily in our city. and that is another step in that direction. >> one step at a time. let's move on now and take you outside. jeff ranieri is going to join us next to talk about our weekend forecast coming up. here is a

welcome back. this might be the holy grail for people who like comic books, and people who love comic books, every single dc comic book issue from 1934 to 2014 is about to be auctioned off in berkeley next week. the collection includes 4300 books from the dc university collection. they're being auctioned off by berkeley based pba galleries. the collection will be sold during several auctions. pretty amazing.

the sale will include the first ever appearance of batman, which is actually in a detective comic's book from 1939. >> there is a lot of people that are going to be excited about this. >> oh, my gosh. >> old school comic. >> jeff ranieri is with us. did you read comics as a kid? >> i did. i can remember a time when i tried collecting them, but it didn't end up happening. >> it's like baseball cards. you have to be really into it. >> you have to have the cases to keep them in that mint condition. that's going to be awesome. our weather forecast is going to have some changes here as we roll through this upcoming weekend. we're going to be talking about some colder temperatures, even the possibility of some rain. let me get you a closer view of that. right now in your microclimate forecast. we're going start it off here with tomorrow morning. and i do see more of those chilly forces and 50s coming on back. we'll see some high clouds streaming across. overall a nice start for the morning and through the afternoon. we're going to keep more of those warm temperatures. so plenty of 70s here across the bay area. 78 santa rosa. 77 martinez. 74 oakland, and upper 70s, low

80s san jose to morgan hill right there at the coastline temperatures in the 60s. okay. so tomorrow pretty much dry for us. may get a spotty shower up towards santa rosa by 10:00 p.m. tomorrow night. but otherwise, it looks like friday, saturday, sunday, even into early next week, we're willing to see some spotty rain chances. really, the big idea i want all of you to understand is if the storm track moves just a couple of hundred miles to the south, our rain chances are going to increase dramatically. the way it looks now, we're just going to see some on and off chances here. beginning on friday night, spotty chance of rain. as we head through saturday evening, another chance of scattered rain in the forecast. even into sunday evening. and we're going to see another possibility here by monday afternoon. and then we could get into a little bit more in the way of widespread rain once we hit tuesday. right now friday through sunday, trace amounts to about a quarter inch. then by monday and tuesday next week, we could get into an additional quarter to half inch. but look at that rain up towards

eureka. two plus inches. if this were to adjust a little to the south, which is possible, our rain chances would go up dramatically. look at the pacific northwest, 2 to 8 inches there. a dynamic forecast here from friday through next tuesday. right now on and off chances. we'll continue to monitor that evolving forecast. as we wrap up, mario lopez just getting started with "access hollywood." >> on tonight's "access," marta kauffman shares her shock and grief over the loss of matthew perry. and he was doing so well when marta just talked to him two weeks earlier. but two years ago, it was different story at the "friends" reunion. >> i was concerned about him. you know, knowing that he had been through everything he had been through. and every time he had surgery, they're giving him opioids for pain. and the cycle starts over again. >> we'll explain more of what

perry was going through at that reunion. and just days aftermath you's death, hollywood has been hit with another stunning loss. general hospital's tyler christopher, only 50 years old, passed after a cardiac event. and besides their similarity in age, there are many other eerie parallels tyler and matthew share, and it's all moments away on "access hollywood." back to you. >> thank you. that's going to do it for us at 7:00. for everyone here at nbc bay area, including our associate director eddie duran, thanks for joining us. we hope you enjoy your evening. we hope to see you back at 11:00.

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