four years by joseph c roberts. after two days of deliberation, a jury today found rachel's fiance, 42 year old joseph roberts, guilty of second degree murder. da pamela price explains dna evidence helps secure the guilty verdict. we have every optimistic hope that the court will impose the maximum sentence, in order to address the horrific crime that was visited upon this family and upon our community. rachel's body was found dismembered and wrapped in plastic near the bay farm shoreline in alameda. rachel howard, graduate and recent law school graduate, met roberts when they were both students at golden gate university law school. family and friends say there were years of warning signs about roberts and blame pleasanton police for not doing more sooner. what you didn't hear is that a year

before joseph murdered imani, he beat up family members. he beat up 75 year old grandmother and imani's mom was out. you didn't hear? is that 17 times the police came out and did barely anything? this is an injustice that should never have happened. do your job. we need different training and different outcomes, so we'll never have to be here again. roberts faces 15 years to life in prison. he's expected to be sentenced next month, and jones, nbc, bay area news. the city of oakland now has a police chief. chief floyd mitchell spent his first full day on the job today. new chief comes to oakland from lubbock, texas. he was police chief down there. he says his first order of business is getting up to speed on what's going on in the community. i'm looking forward to working with you and with the members of the community to make oakland safer. i've spent the last few days attending some lineups to meet my officers. i'm going to spend

the rest of this week attending different meetings to get brought up to speed on several different things going on within the oakland police department and within this community. oakland has not had a permanent police chief in 15 months since mayor sheng tao fired former chief lauren armstrong. we know it's tough to make it in the bay, terry, but a new report spells out exactly how much money you'll need to make to live comfortably in the largest cities in the bay area. nbc bay area's marianne favro is in san jose. with these new numbers in san francisco. the median rent in february was $3,276 a month. now a new report by consumer affairs spells out how much renters need to earn to live comfortably in the city. by the bay. san francisco tops the list in the bay area at $131,000, that's the minimum income. in order to live a comfortable lifestyle. after looking at median rents, the report also found you need to earn more than

$124,000 to live comfortably in san jose, 117,000 in fremont and about 99,000 in oakland. oakland is the only bay area city that does not require a six figure income in order to live comfortably. consumer affairs based, living comfortably on the federal government's affordability threshold that people not pay more than 30% of their income on rent. but in san jose, people we spoke with say the survey numbers seem a little low. i think at least 150,000 maybe to start living comfortably, i mean, just considering like how much we make and how much we have to spend just to be comfortable. i mean, just food and groceries, daycare, just just so many costs right now, but not as many costs as new york. at least not according to this survey. the analysis of the nation's 125 largest cities found the big apple required the highest income in the nation to live

comfortably, and the report found that california city, where you would need the highest income in order to live comfortably, was not san francisco or san jose, but irvine here in the bay area, some who aren't earning six figure salaries say they're still finding ways to make it in the bay. i kind of live okay, but that's because i live with my parents in san jose, marianne favro nbc bay area news san francisco could soon be the first city in the nation to extinguish a possible health hazard. it's blamed for threatening america's more than 1 million firefighters. we're talking about the protective pants and jackets first responders wear to keep safe during disasters. there are concerns some of the chemicals used to make the gear could cause cancer. our investigative unit first told you about the safety risks earlier this month. the risks are associated with so-called pfas chemicals. tomorrow, san francisco supervisors are expected to cast their second and final vote on

an ordinance it would force the city to phase out the clothing over the next two years, while alternative gear still is not widely available, the city hopes its ban will entice more manufacturers to increase the supply of safer equipment. san francisco estimates outfitting its entire fire department with new uniforms will cost about $10 million. you can catch our full investigation on our website, nbcbayarea.com. slash investigations. lawsuits against california are moving forward. the lawsuit stemmed from a deadly covid outbreak at san quentin prison during the pandemic. family of those who died at san quentin, as well as inmates and staff who were infected but survived, have filed four major lawsuits against the state. they say the prison moved inmates from chico to san quentin during a covid outbreak in the chico facility, sparking an outbreak at san quentin that killed 26 prisoners and a guard. prison officials appealed, seeking immunity from these lawsuits the one time lawd

fixer for former president trump, testified, died today in his ex-boss, new york hush-money trial. cohen is the key witness for the prosecution and expected to connect the many dots in this case. prosecutors say trump falsified business records to repay $130,000 to cohen for paying former adult film star stormy daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair. cohen says he was just following the orders of his boss. nbc's alice barr is tracking the story in washington. the first criminal trial of former president trump reaching a crescendo today with testimony from the prosecution's central witness, ex-trump attorney michael cohen. cohen, once mr. trump's fixer and

fierce defender, now the linchpin in the prosecution's case, laying out how he says that at trump's direction and for his benefit, cohen paid former adult film star stormy daniels to stay silent about an alleged affair with mr. trump, all clai this is a political witch hunt. cohen testified that mr. trump was very concerned about the impact the stormy daniels story would have with voters just weeks before the 2016 election, and on the heels of the infamous access hollywood tape, cohen saying that trump told him, quote, just take care of it, and that the former president said, quote, women will hate me. guys will think it's cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign. michael cohen is the first witness who really is able to put donald trump in the room over and over again, but michael cohen is also a problematic witness. he was convicted for campaign finance violations and lying to congress, and served time for federal charges related to the daniels payments. the

trump legal team argues cohen is obsessed with retribution against his former boss and cannot be believed. his testimony, though backed by evidence documenting how former president trump paid cohen back with invoices and checks labeled legal expenses, we paid a lawyer a legal expense, prosecutors say. those were actually hush money payments, an alleged cover up, they say, amounts to the crime of falsifying business records. michael cohen is expected to be on the stand for several days. the defense cross-examination is sure to be blistering. the prosecution says it could wrap up its case by the end of this week and hand over to the defense in washington. alice barr, nbc news. a dramatic ending to a police chase along the coast when a car plunged over a cliff. it happened on friday night in santa cruz. and we want to show you aftermath of the wreck. police say an officer tried to conduct a traffic stop

on a car at natural bridges state beach. that driver then took off. the officer chased the car. eventually the driver went off the road at west cliff drive, smashed into the rocks below, killing the driver instantly. chp is investigating to determine if drugs or alcohol played a factor. up next, it was supposed to be a rival for waymo and cruise, but tonight, a robo taxi company owned by amazon is facing a federal investigation. why? the feds are concerned about the safety of these self-driving taxis. also an announcement for the future of artificial intelligence made right here in the bay area. the new ai model, unveiled by sf based openai today, and we're seeing some quiet weather for now around the bay area but big thunderstorms there off to our east, drifting west as we head into the evening hours. will any of that hold together to bring showers around the bay area, plus additional chances for showers as we approach the weekend? a closer look in

and a bay area startup that's showing off what i can do, like we have never seen before. but what does this mean for your

jobs? and why were protesters outside the company's offices today? let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman for some answers. scott janelle and terry, we are, of course, talking about openai, which has a ton of funding from both microsoft and silicon valley vcs today. they showed off what they've been using that money for an update to a program called chatgpt, where the ai now wants to be your friend. and once upon a time, in a world not too different from ours. and that's how the story of gpt four begins, , with a phone that wans to be your friend, or at least help you with math. the first step is to get all the terms with x on one side and the constants on the other side. but even as openai rolled out the latest chat product at its headquarters, a.i. leaders safety now and later safety now, a group called pause. i protested outside, we're out

here asking for openai to be reined in until we know that what they're doing is safe and that they're doing it in a safe way, and it really shouldn't be us doing that. it should be our government leaders nervous about how eerily human the ai has become. it's going to be very, very, very close to the humans. and now we're going to look at your phone. your phone is not you know, a smartphone is basically, you know, a friend. engineering professor ahmed bonta says at least in the short term, technology that can do this in real time. cosa ci durborow mike? she wonders if whales could talk. what would they tell us is likely to take human jobs away? the tutors jobs will be at risk. you know, you can talk about that. jobs are really going to be at translators will be at risk at the same time, these things comes with a price. the question now is where does i go from

here? yes that is the biggest fear. it will take away jobs, but with new technology, new technology, usually there are new jobs, new job creation. is that the case? i think it will be the case. this is so new. janelle that right now we're seeing people getting freaked out because their jobs are likely to go away. companies are cutting back because they have ai instead. but and you're right, with every new technology , new jobs and new sets of jobs have been created, i expect that will be the case here some because we're going to need and look at these things. we're going to need to figure out how ethically to deal with this. so we're going to have a whole new category of jobs as to what humans will be able to do and what we will allow machines and robots to do in our place. i see him serving drinks and i see him walking across the floor. are they going to take our jobs? you know, there's my question. you know, hours in the aggregate, hey, maybe, but not you, terry. there's only one really. and i mean, there are there are some human things when it comes to translating a language or things like that, that, okay, a phone can do. but delivering the news.

terry. yeah, i'd like to think that we're going to need humans for that at least a little while. yeah. we do like to think that, yes, all right. okay. thanks, scott. you bet. thanks. all right. the self-driving cars owned by amazon could be facing some serious trouble. federal regulators have launched an investigation into the cars company is called zoox. it builds electric, driverless cars. it's a competitor of waymo . back in march, zoox said it was expanding its vehicle testing to a bigger area. then on two separate occasions, zoox cars braked unexpectedly. both times, they were rear ended by motorcyclists who suffered injuries. representatives from zoox have yet to comment for the first time in years, lake tahoe is expected to fill up. that is the word tonight from the nevada water outlook report, which came out earlier this month. it projects the lake will be full for the first time in five years. that's all thanks to two particularly wet winters and the snow melt that comes with them. when the lake is full, it means it can provide enough water for

the next three years. now that's good news, but if you're heading to lake tahoe this summer, you might have a hard time finding somewhere to sit on the beach because of full lake means higher water levels and less beach areas. yes yeah, i'm with you on that one, so we'll have to find a sandy spot. some of those beaches do get crowded in the summertime, but yeah, let's step outside right now. take a look at san rafael. traffic is moving over 101 and they got sunshine up there. but i was driving down here from close to there today, fog all the way across san francisco. definitely cooler ocean air conditioning on overdrive. you got the fog? the drizzle at times for the morning hours today, though likely the coolest day of the week, we'll begin to see temperatures rebound starting tomorrow. and i think by midweek some valley locations will see those highs approaching the mid and upper 80. as we begin to see another midweek warm up on the way. as we take you outside right now, san jose pretty comfortable 71 degrees. there's a breeze out of the northwest at 12mph. and as you head inland here is where we saw the biggest temperature drop of the day. now yesterday we had

low 80s around concord and walnut creek. right now, more comfortable 75 degrees, five degrees cooler than the same time yesterday. and there's a look at the low clouds that terry drove through earlier today. 63 right now at sfo winds out of the northwest at 18. and the clouds really filling in now around san francisco, 56 in the wind out of the west at 14mph. so the low clouds going for a ride though, head inland towards those east bay valleys and the carquinez strait for the morning, but bigger clouds to the east. these are sierra thunderstorms, mostly south of highway 50. the satellite radar view shows you the tremendous number of lightning strikes and hail generated by these storms. now, over the next two afternoons, we'll see this drift westward. but it doesn't look like it's going to hold together long enough to bring any showers out towards stockton and modesto. so there's today. then watch as we move forward through tomorrow. there go the storms again, building up, drifting westward. but at times it's bringing us some high clouds. so right now, no shower chances associated with those sierra

storms. however, you may have drizzle again for the morning commute. you can see all the low clouds inland for the morning and then mostly sunny skies as we head towards the afternoon tomorrow and inland temperatures trying to warm up once we get out of these low 50s for the morning lunchtime temperatures with sunshine inland looking pretty good. mid 70s around san jose. still hanging on to 60s closer to san francisco and san mateo now getting closer to 80 degrees tomorrow in fairfield. but moving forward wednesday and thursday likely to be the warmest days of the week. as you can see here out towards vacaville, upper 80s as we get into wednesday and thursday, san jose low 80s and a bit warmer. bayside from san francisco to oakland. you'll see temperatures in the 60s and 70s. then if you look closely, a little bit of cooling there friday as the sea breeze picks up and then perhaps some bigger changes as we head towards the weekend in terms of cooling and clouds. but maybe not so much in the way of showers. so right now, good news for those outdoor plans this weekend. you can see that cut off low to the south. that's going to bring in extra coastal

clouds and at times might fire up a few more sierra thunderstorms. so as that pattern evolves as we go through the weekend, right now just looks like coastal drizzle, there is the leading chance for seeing any rain as we head towards next weekend, though, we will begin to see temperatures cooling down as we head towards next saturday and sunday. it was a gorgeous weekend this past weekend looks like we'll go two for two and that 7-day forecast. warmest days of the week wednesday and thursday. pretty nice for those outdoor plans and comfortably cooler as we head into the weekend. if a few extra clouds saturday and sunday. beautiful forecast rob. thanks very much. thanks, rob. coming up, new coaches are joining the voice. the two big names in music that will soon take up a chair on the popular singing competition and the coaches they will be replacing

erupting there happened early this morning on a remote island northwest of indonesia. this comes after a smaller eruption on friday. this was the big one. people there are being asked to stay away from that volcano. indonesia sits on that pacific ring of fire. it's got 127 active volcanoes and a lot of earthquake activity. memorial day could be a very busy holiday for anyone traveling on the roads or using airports. triple a is predicting nearly 44 million people going to be traveling 50 miles or more during the holiday weekend. that's a 4% increase over last year, and it exceeds pre-pandemic levels for the first time. getting back to normal. more than 38 million people are expected to drive to their destination. that would make it the highest number for the memorial day holiday since triple a started keeping track 24 years ago, and hopefully gas

prices continue to fall through the memorial day weekend. state average down $0.07 from a week ago, according to triple a. anyway, here in the bay area, it's going to cost an average of 549 for a gallon of regular in san francisco, 538 in oakland, 534 in san jose. shop around a little bit. you can beat those by maybe $0.50 or more. a mixed bag on wall street as investors hit pause on a winning streak. waiting on key inflation data in the days ahead, the dow down 81 points today. the nasdaq up 47. the s&p down one point. the new season of the voice is coming with some soul and some swagger. the new coaches for season 26 of the popular singing competition are out. and guess who's moving in? michael buble and rap legend snoop dogg. they'll join reba mcentire and gwen stefani, the two artists will replace chance the rapper, john legend and the country duo dan and shay. season 26 will premiere on nbc bay area this fall. all right, snoop is

going to be so funny. yes, tonight, though, it's the semifinals for the latest season of the voice. nine singers will perform live. they're hoping america will vote them in for one of the five spots in next week's finale. and you can watch it beginning at 8 p.m. right here on nbc bay area. that's followed by deal or no deal island at 10 p.m, and then join us for nbc bay area news at 11. coming up, maybe this could be a belated mother's day gift. we'll show you the vivid yellow diamond expected to fetch $7 million at auction this week. maybe mom's got really expensive tastes. we're back in a moment

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about to hit the market. the big statement here, folks, don't get too excited. it could cost you more than $7 million right there. the yellow diamond jewelers say it's one of the largest in the world. it weighs just over 100 carats. wow. the diamond is the centerpiece of a

brooch made by cartier. tomorrow it's going to appear at auction for the first time in 30 years. at the auction house sotheby's in switzerland. there are very few diamonds of that size, of course, but to have one, a fancy, vivid yellow saturation is exceedingly rare. there are only a handful of diamonds that meet that qualification. janelle. you're interested? no, i actually am not. it's too big. i don't i don't want something. okay. diamond experts say it was likely mined more than 100 years ago in south africa. and don't forget, you can watch our newscast 24 seven on roku and other streaming platform jessica aguirre. joining us now with what's coming up at 530. if it was a ring, it might be a different story, but a brooch, it's every day we can get it. we can get it altered. yeah, i'll take it. i'll make it into a ring. okay. send it my way. that's fine. good all right. coming up now at 530, a heated confrontation on a bay area overpass. and what we're learning about the attack on pro-palestinian protesters on the peninsula and the chp investigation underway. they also he is facing a mound of

legal troubles, but it's not facing voters. the new poll numbers showing former president trump with a considerable edge over president biden in some key swing states, plus apple and google teaming up to bring an end to trackers stalking the new software update that could make it harder for criminals to track people with airtags. welcome back everyone. the news at 530 starts right now. thanks so much for joining us. i'm janelle wang and i'm jessica aguirre. tonight the chp is investigating after two pro-palestinian advocates say they were attacked while holding a banner over 101. they say that confrontation was caught on camera. nbc bay area's ian cull takes us through what happened next crime was committed