these animals. but really cool. all right. hey, don't forget you can watch our newscast 24/7 on roku and other streaming platforms. and raj mathai. joining us now with what's coming up now at 530. here's what we're working on a protest actually led to a celebration. funding gets restored to a san francisco health clinic, a well known one. the major change that brought the money back. also, it took hours to get a san francisco fire under control. the reason this building presented a unique challenge to firefighters, plus a gender gap within the san jose fire department. we investigate what two former firefighters call a sexist culture. the news at 530 starts right now. thanks for joining us. i'm gia vang and i'm raj mathai. for more than 100 years, san francisco city clinic has been providing locals with an array of women's health and sexual health services. today, members of the lgbtq community planned to hold a demonstration

there. this was in response to the mayor's office saying it would cut funding for planned improvements at this aging facility, but tonight, that didn't happen. it's actually a celebration. let's bring in nbc's sergio quintana in san francisco with the very latest sergio. yeah, raj, this was a demonstration that started about 5:00 or so. and as you mentioned, it was originally supposed to be a protest over the mayor's decision. there. you can see right now there are a few people here, but let's go ahead and show you some video of that demonstration as it started about 5:00 this afternoon, about 40 or 50 people turned out for this demonstration that then turned into a rally. the concern was that the city clinic bond money was left off of a city bond for voters to decide in november, but this afternoon, according to the mayor's office, it's back on the bond. for decades, the san francisco city clinic has been housed in a former firehouse in the city's south of market district. but as the facility ages, their ability

to help anyone who needs it has been eroding. the facility needs money to renovate and was banking on being included in an upcoming bond issue, but we're told they'd be cut from it today. all that changed when the mayor's office announced that a new evaluation from the city comptroller has put the clinic back on. the november bond city clinic is in which means it will be part of the bond the voters consider in november, as well as improvements to the laguna honda, to general hospital, to chinatown health clinic. to be clear, city funding for the existing clinic and its operations are not at risk, just the funds needed to improve it. the site serves about 80 patients a day for a variety of sexual health issues, including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy counseling and some medications. at no cost to the patient. if you have insurance through medi-cal, we send a bill to medi-cal, but otherwise the services are provided at no charge to you. but concerns over funding for the clinic began brewing earlier this week, when capital outlay projects were first detailed. jeffrey kwong is president of the san francisco

harvey milk lgbtq democratic club. he's critical of the mayor's initial decision to leave the city clinic off the bond issue. this project was slated to be on the november 2024 bond, but the mayor in the 11th hour decided to pull it out and put in her own pet projects. we think it's her political move since she's running for reelection. according to city documents, the department of public health has been considering whether to move the aging city clinic to 333 valencia street. that's where women's health clinic is currently housed. but if voters approve the bond issue, it will move to a city owned building or a site will be purchased to suit the clinic's needs. now, again, a celebration from this group. they say that this is a big win. now, if voters do approve the bond in november, it will not increase taxes for residents of the city reporting live in san francisco. i'm sergio quintana, nbc bay area news. sergio. thank you. firefighters in san francisco are trying to figure out what sparked a big fire. the flames broke out around 830 this

morning on jackson street near leavenworth that is in the city's nob hill neighborhood. you can see the flames coming out of the roof right there. the building has both homes and businesses inside to crews several hours to put out the flames. we don't know how many times this building has been redesigned, rebuilt, built over. so firefighters have to spend time going through every possible void space searching for any lingering fire. we do not want this fire to rekindle and restart. another challenge posted to san francisco firefighters is the narrow streets on nob hill, and no one was hurt in this fire. but nearby muni busses, they were temporarily delayed and rerouted . also tonight, a story from our investigative unit looking into a severe gender gap within the san jose fire department. the department has so few women that a civil grand jury actually issued a scathing report on the disparity in san jose. two women who used to work for san jose fire. now tell us they endured a sexist fraternity like

atmosphere. let's bring in investigative reporter hilda gutierrez. hilda. like most fire departments across the country, there aren't many women in the ranks of san jose firefighters. fewer than 4% female firefighters tell us the low numbers are the result of a pervasive frat house culture in the fire service, in a stigma that women can't do the job. share this video is from a child sex trafficking sting in sacramento county. among those arrested, san jose fire department captain spencer parker, now facing charges for attempted lewd acts with a 13 year old girl. san jose fire department taking a lot of heat tonight, and you may have seen this video from 2022 showing a dancer stepping out of a san jose fire truck in a bikini and walking into the pink poodle adult entertainment club. the clip made national headlines and led to the demotion of a san

jose fire captain last year, after the crew admitted to giving the woman a ride around the block. yeah the pink poodle incident that, that doesn't seem out of the ordinary for san jose. as the city grappled with the fallout from the pink poodle, cassie lossberg was grappling with something much darker from her own time as a san jose firefighter. he came around the truck and he stuck his hands in my pants and pinned me up against the opera at a store. and he was a very large man and a supervisor at that time, i felt frozen. former d1 athlete and u.s. marine corps veteran cassie lotsberg says she left her dream job with san jose fire last year following a civil lawsuit against the department that alleges she was sexually assaulted and harassed by male firefighters. when another firefighter gets your number off of staffing and asks you if

you're single or sends you, photos on snapchat, or invites you over to their home when their wife isn't there, that creates fear, that creates lack of safety, and that directly affects performance, lotsberg says the recent scandals and her own nightmares stem from a firehouse culture dominated by men, where women are treated as inferior. and she's not the only one who believes that. i'm very hopeful for cassie, you know, and i'm proud that she's standing up to say, no, not okay . in the back. patricia tapia now trains the next generation of firefighters at the silicon valley career technical education center. very nicely done. good job, she used to be a battalion chief for the san jose fire department, overseeing hundreds of men and women who wore the uniform for the city. she was one of the first women in the department when she joined up back in the 80s.

firefighting was in her blood. my father's a firefighter and my uncle. but tapia says her career in the department was marred with sexism, harassment and retaliation. she settled her first gender discrimination lawsuit back in 2012, after she and another female fire captain were passed over for open battalion chief positions. she came out number one, i came out number eight. it was nine positions they skipped us both. you've performed the way they want you to and checked all the boxes and for no reason they say no. in 2017, she won a second lawsuit against the city, also alleging gender discrimination as well as harassment and retaliation. when she spoke up about it, a jury awarded her $800,000 and she left the department the next year. then, in 2020, the santa clara county civil grand jury released this scathing report about the lack of women in south bay fire departments. and tapia feel vindicated. the report found that san jose had 665

firefighters, but only 16 females. that was down from 35 a decade earlier. the grand jury blamed the low numbers on a lack of effort to recruit women. poor fitting gear for female firefighters in a work environment that makes it challenging for women to report discrimination and harassment. it also found some fire stations lack separate bathrooms, dorms and locker rooms for women, which is still the case today. an immediate response to the report was to address the facilities and the uniform and personal protective equipment. san jose fire chief robert sapien says the agency has made some changes since then, like installing dividers and shared sleeping areas and pumping money into recruitment. he also touts the department's women's boot camp, which introduces potential recruits to the fire service. the department has hired more women since the grand jury report, but there still are only 24 women across the entire agency, less than 4% of its firefighters. compare that with

15% in san francisco, the highest in the country, or even the san jose police department, where women make up 13% of sworn officers. how do you feel about that percentage? i think we need to do much better. we've had attrition where our number, when our number was up in the 40s, we've had attrition since then and in the meantime, in those decades between then and now, we didn't do a great job in recruiting women. and i don't think that's necessarily because the department was unwilling to do so. i think we just haven't overcome the challenges that are present in that process. the department told the grand jury it would draft plans by june of 2021 to address problems with work environment, gear and accommodations. but the investigative unit confirmed the department never finished those reports. critics like tapia say the department continues to fall short, as evidenced by the pink poodle incident in lossberg's pending lawsuit. do you think that events like that could be

discouraging to women who are thinking about joining the department? certainly public image and perception of the organization is critical to our recruitment process. it's critical to the confidence that our community has in our organization. despite their own experiences, tapia and lotsberg say young girls should still chase their dreams of becoming firefighters. they just hope the culture will be different by the time they get there. there are good firefighters, but there is a culture that deserves to be looked at and deserves to have accountability, and that accountability will create change. there's a place for us in the fire service. there is a place for women in the fire service. we're now serving other bay area fire departments to see what their numbers look like, and recently spoke to san francisco's fire chief to learn the secrets of their success recruiting women. we'll have all that for you soon. in a follow up report with the investigative unit, i'm hilda gutierrez. hilda, thank you. if you have a

tip for hilda gutierrez or anyone else in our investigative unit, give us a call. you see the numbers on your screen. eight, eight, 8996 tips. or you can simply visit our website nbcbayarea.com. slash investigator hans raj a viewer says her ac was doa blowing hot air and the repair people they were blowing smoke. i'm consumer investigator chris chmura. nbc bay area responds next. i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. rain on the way for this weekend. updated timing and to

the first time in a while, and many of those ac units aren't working or are on the fritz. maybe a woman in the east bay needed our consumer investigator, chris chmura to help her beat the heat, and something about the home warranty. this is that time of year where people are like, oh, have you cranked it up yet? not yet. yeah. not yet. i heard the

neighbors on the other day. we haven't turned ours on yet. too expensive. right? well, an and concord has an air conditioner. it has one job. make cold air. it wasn't. that's why i'm talking about it here and has a home warranty. so she called first american home warranty over there. a tech checked out the ac and promised to return with the part. guess what happened next? nothing for two months. so an contacted us. we contacted first american home warranty. it sent a different repair company to replace an entire ac unit that is a $2,600 value. we contacted first american for comment, but we didn't receive a response. okay, if you have a home warranty gripe, don't do battle alone. i got a phone number here. this is a hotline to the california department of insurance. it regulates home warranty companies and investigates consumer complaints. you know who else takes consumer complaints? we do scan the qr code we're going to put up on screen right now to fill out our consumer complaint form online. got some ac weather in the future? i think i was just going to say maybe, you know, mid end

of month long range forecast is maybe trying to bring in, mid upper 80s, maybe a little hotter. so the rainfall that we have in the weekend forecast, it could be our last blast of that kind of weather, at least the way we see it right now. and we are talking about widespread rain chances and totals that could go up over a half inch for parts of the bay area we'll get you all those timing and totals. let's take it out right now to a look at the temperatures today, how they're coming in so far compared to the averages. we did get up to 78 here in santa rosa. we know a few other locations besides the official spot. did read in the low 80s when you're out driving around in your car. nonetheless, above average 79 here in concord, livermore 77 and san jose at 75. so as we roll through tomorrow, high pressure, that's going to keep it dry for one more day. so enjoy it outside tomorrow. get outside, soak up the sun and also those warmer temperatures because that next storm system already lining up as we head through tomorrow morning's forecast, we're going to begin on the dry side. no need for the

umbrella just yet. we're down here to 53 through the south bay over to the east bay. have you at 55 and looking good in the north bay at 53. temperatures for the afternoon tomorrow, going back up to the upper 70s and low 80s. that's going to put us to 80 in santa rosa, 79. martinez 79 here in san jose. so rainfall gets here by the time we get to saturday, everything shows us dropping in. and not only is it going to get that rainfall going, daytime highs just in the 50s and 60s once that gets here this weekend. so on and off. wind gusts 15 to 30 overall wind doesn't look extremely bad. sierra snow could be 18in and higher at some of the highest elevations, with snow levels down to about 4000ft. so let's roll it into the timeline on this. i really think the bulk of this starts on saturday morning early, when a lot of us still may be sleeping 4 or 5 and 6:00 over marin, napa , sonoma counties moves down to the peninsula and east bay at 8:00 in the morning, and then we'd see it down here into the south bay at 11 a.m, with likely

rain chances continuing still up into the north bay by that point. and then we would see this kick on out of here as we head through saturday afternoon and evening. so that's how we get in on some of these higher totals for this time of year. this is way out of whack for us, a quarter to maybe three quarters of an inch. i think most of us are quarter to half inch. some of the higher elevations could get about three quarters of an inch. best thing about this though, if you've got allergy problems, it's going to help it out. pine, oak, cedar and sycamore in the high category. so at least for a couple days, we'd see that sink to the low. and that's going to be a pretty good to get that on the 7-day forecast here. we dried out on sunday. we're down to 62 in san francisco. and we'll go from that 79 tomorrow to 59 on saturday. and then we're back up to some warmer weather by next week. so hang tight weekends on the way and so is our rain. that's just that's just not fair. a 20 degree drop, i know, but it's friday tomorrow . not fair is kind of how i feel about saturday too. i'm with you on that. thank you jeff. yeah.

well up next, a family affair at the giants game. we're going to show you the

of a win today. they got one. they had to get one really cool story today about a family and a legendary grandfather. father, let's take you to fenway park in boston. that's the family of giants outfielder mike yastrzemski. watching closely

mom and grandma. his grandfather is red sox legend and hall of famer carl yastrzemski. mike given his family something to cheer about. third inning a solo home run. giants had a one nothing lead. and yep, mom and grandma are fired up right there in the stands. the game was tied at one into the seventh inning. we go. and that's when thairo estrada, you see, to see him coming up in just a moment, he knocks in the go ahead run with an rbi triple tyler estrada right here in the seventh inning. giants win this game 3 to 1 to avoid the sweep. after the game, manager bob melvin talked about meeting carl yastrzemski and then seeing mike hit a home run. i was just, you know, awestruck. so i didn't have a ton to say to him other than watching our games and stuff like that. and it's just a pleasure to meet you. so like i said, i was saying earlier today, there are some cool days in baseball and i've had a lot of them. this was one of them. yeah, a couple generations there of yaz at fenway park, fenway park, the giants are now headed

to philly for a four game series beginning tomorrow. all right. tiger woods is ready to play in another major golf tournament. he has accepted a special exemption to play in the us open next month. the 15 time major champion has won the prestigious us open three times. this is the first time woods hasn't qualified for a major championship since he was an amateur back in 1996. the 48 year old woods hasn't won the us open since 2008. up next on a mission to clean up the senne river before the paris olympics. how a massive storage basin is supposed to help. we'll take you norman, bad news... i never graduated from med school. what? but the good news is... xfinity mobile just got even better! now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. i gotta get this deal... that's like $20 a month per unlimited line...

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illegal to swim in that river because of pollution. but for the olympics, the organizers want triathletes to swim in the river. and today, french leaders said they created a huge water storage basin that will prevent waste water from entering the river, and then that dirty water will be treated during the olympics. the water will be tested every day to see if the quality is up to standards. and if it's not, organizers may delay events well. the ioc, unveiling its largest refugee olympic team. the 36 athletes are from 11 different countries, including syria, sudan, iran and afghanistan. they'll compete in 12 different sports. this special team hopes to send a message of hope to more than the

100 million displaced people around the world. this is the third time a refugee team has competed in the olympics, and the first time under its own emblem. new video of a tornado in the texas panhandle. this was last night in donley county. take a look at this. that's about 60 miles east of amarillo. the tornado dissipated before reaching the city. some people reported seeing golf ball sized hail. we'll get ready for a new super nintendo world. it's a new attraction coming to universal orlando. they're building an epic universe. that's what they're calling it. it will have five worlds. one of them will be dedicated to the mario brothers and their super nintendo world. guests will be able to enter the world through a green pipe experience. mario kart and eat at the toadstool cafe. the universal universe is set to open next year. all right, just about 6:00 audrey asistio joining us now with what's coming up next, raj, right now at six, an alarming and disturbing report out of concord. a woman says she

dropped her daughter off at a salon for an appointment, where she says her daughter was raped. tonight we talked to police who say they are looking for more victims. also a wild and dangerous ride for an ambulance in the north bay after a man being treated by the emts in that ambulance the ambulance and led police on this chase. also what's one of the biggest cinco de mayo celebrations in the bay area parades and festivals set to take over the streets of san jose. what police are doing to prevent the traffic gridlock that happened last year? the news at six starts right now. good evening and thanks for being with us on this thursday. i'm raj mathai and i'm audrey asistio we begin tonight with a disturbing story out of the east bay. a popular hairstylist is behind bars tonight, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage client during a hair appointment . and investigators believe he may have more victims. nbc bay area's jodi hernandez reports.

you're looking at the hairstylist, concord. police say sexually assaulted a young client. police arrested 41 year old chea vu at his concord hair salon this morning on charges of rape, unlawful sex and lewd acts on a child. it was a minor who was alone in the hair salon when the suspect sexually assaulted her. investigators tell nbc bay area the alleged crimes happened in 2021, when a mother dropped off her 14 year old daughter at the she hair salon for a three hour appointment. there's a day in the salon that he works completely by himself, and that's when the suspected assaults occurred. none of them were suspected to have occurred when there was any other workers there. she's coworkers say they simply don't believe it. they say the pittsburgh father just isn't capable of what he's being charged with. they didn't want to appear on camera and asked us to alter their voices as i stand behind him. 100, 1,000. he's a

very good person and he's very wonderful with his clients. and i don't see him being like that. and he's been nothing but nice, genuine. his family is amazing. he has a daughter and a son, and they're beautiful. cheese coworkers are questioning why it took so long for the girl to come forward. it's ridiculous. after all this time. why is it happening now when something like that happens, it should be brought to somebody's attention right away. police say victims of trauma often don't come forward right away. they say their investigation has uncovered more potential victims who aren't minors. we were able to find through our investigatory means, ways to get ahold of some of clients, some of the clients of this hair salon who came and talked to us and told us their story as to what happened inside of this hair salon. and we're continuing to investigate their accusations against the subject. police are asking anyone who may have been victimized