vaccine to the agency at yesterday's hearing. she says that the committee was in no way pressured by politics. >> i can tell you that none of us even had politics in our minds as we moved through this process. the science is clean. the infrastructure is clean. everything that people have really put into place, i haven't heard one words about anything political. >> reporter: when the fda formally gives pfizer the green light, california will receive 327,000 doses of the pfizer vaccine in its first allocation. the bay area is expecting just over 80,000 of those doses, and they're expected to arrive starting tuesday. california could also get an additional 672,000 doses of the vaccine made by the company moderna within two weeks. that's assuming the fda gives that vaccine emergency approval as well.

now, it is important to note that both of those vaccines require two doses for each person, which are spaced out roughly three weeks apart. back to you. >> nush, thank you. red hot shipping system. but in this case it needs to be ice cold. fedex is giving us an inside look at its cold chain center in memphis. facilities like these will be critical in ensuring that the company can ship the pfizer vaccine, which has to be stored at negative 94 degrees fahrenheit. ups also working with the faa to make sure planes carrying the vaccine get priority takeoff and landing clearance. well, tonight we know how veterans will receive the coronavirus vaccine. the cdc identified 37 sites nationwide. here in the bay area, veterans will be able to go to the v.a. health care system in palo alto. all vaccine doses will be administered by the v.a.

the department will monitor vets and staff for any side effects. now, we have created a special "race for a vaccine" section on our website since there's just so much information. we're posting all of our stories there. go to nbcbayarea.com/vaccine. well, california's already high numbers, jessica, are growing even higher. it could be this way for several more weeks. >> the state confirmed over 35,000 new cases today, and that beats yesterday's record by more than 4,000. also today we had the highest death toll yet of the pandemic. 220 californians lost their lives to the coronavirus, and the state's positivity rate, it is at its highest level since april, standing at 9.7%. >> all of this means hospitals are filling up. you can see here the percent of icu beds still available in each county. right now, marin, san mateo, and santa clara counties have less than 15% each. contra costa and san francisco counties just over 20% still

available. >> right now five bay area counties are under a stay-at-home order. but sonoma county begins its stay-at-home order at midnight. nbc bay area's melissa colorado is in sonoma where businesses are getting ready to lock down. >> our family four generations ago founded one of the first wineries in california. >> reporter: christopher's roots run deep in the sonoma valley, but it's likely his ancestors never had to deal with a year like 2020, marred by wildfires and a pandemic. >> we haven't had any covid cases associated with us. it seems like kind of that fact has been ignored by policymakers unfortunately. >> reporter: tomorrow he will have to close off his wide-open outdoor dining area at his winery. >> which is a major bummer because as you can see, we've got the beautiful view. >> reporter: after sonoma county issued a new stay-at-home order citing an alarming spike in covid-19 cases in the last ten days. after today, no outdoor dining,

no wine tasting. grocery stores can hold 35% capacity. all other retail shops, 20% capacity. hotels are only allowed to take reservations from essential workers. >> i'm concerned for the well-being of my staff. >> their livelihood has disintegrated, and i think that's really sad. >> reporter: today's where looks like less california and more like england, which is fitting considering maya holland is back home from studying in london and enjoying a rare lunch with her dad. >> they're pretty much open back up aside from a few clubs and bars. >> reporter: health experts warn this will be a cold and brutal winter, but if history is any indication and the vaccine rollout is successful, a new roaring '20s might be in our future. >> the property is going to be primed and ready to go for an absolutely booming event season next year. >> reporter: in sonoma, melissa colorado, nbc bay area news. >> we wish him the best. now, governor newsom and health

care leaders are keeping a close eye on the hospital icu capacity. we mentioned the counties. take a look at the city by city breakdown. look at daly city now. icu beds full. no more. 100% capacity. in petaluma, you're looking at 88%. fremont, 80% capacity. you can look at oakland now, 62%. redwood city, 72%. and in the south bay, san jose, icu units are at 68% capacity. tomorrow marks a day of celebration for catholics all around the world, the lady of guadalupe feast day. this year, health and religious leaders in the south bay are just begging people to stay home because of the covid surge. >> this year we get to take that celebration into our homes to save lives. >> earlier today, santa clara county tweeted out this chart, which shows the surge in cases, daily covid cases, have tripled since the last spike in july. health leaders also say that hospitals are

disproportionately -- capacity. while most counties have opted to lock down, san mateo county is wide open. two schools of thought here. why are they jeopardizing people's health, or this allows businesses to stay in business. whatever the case, the peninsula might be flooded with visitors this weekend. here's nbc bay area's scott budman, who explains businesses are cheering but county leaders are worried. >> reporter: we found plenty of people dining out on a friday afternoon in san mateo county, but not everyone is happy about it. >> we really need to shut down. make no mistake about it. >> reporter: county supervisor david canepa says he's concerned that these streets will be filled with people from other counties this weekend getting in their last pre-lockdown meals. >> and now what we've done is we've created a regional center for people to come visit us, and that is not cool. >> reporter: and he's got a

point. captain's barbershop says it has seen a lot of out-of-towners lately. >> we've got a lot of people from different places, san jose, hayward, san francisco, some people from like -- a couple from like modesto. >> reporter: happy to find a place to get a haircut. but that probably won't last long as icu bed rates drop here as well. supervisor canepa says he's certain this county will also soon be on lockdown. in redwood city, scott budman, nbc bay area news. >> thank you, scott. just in, the supreme court has rejected what was perhaps president trump's last hope for overturning the election. now, it was always considered a long shot. legal scholars, though, scoffed at the demand by the state of texas that the high court reverse joe biden's victory in four other states, wing states pennsylvania, wisconsin, georgia, and michigan. the court dismissed the claim in two short sentences, saying essentially that texas has no reason to interfere. the president's legal team has lost all of its lawsuits so far.

so much needed rain is on the radar. let's take you outside and show you some of our traffic cameras across the bay area. we saw some light rain earlier today. plenty of gray skies out there and a lot more rain is in the forecast for us. chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is here. jeff, you said the rain was coming, and the rain has arrived. >> yeah, and it definitely feels good with our fire danger that's been so high the past couple of weeks. now, so far today we've seen trace amounts to about 0.05 inch. our mobile doppler radar, you can see it's all light showery activity here, a little bit over the north bay, the east bay, and also the peninsula. we'll get a closer look and put a track on this. it's moving to the south and off towards the east. that would keep some of these showers rolling into oakland, san leandro, and as we move more

to the south, not much over san jose. there's a chance some light showers could hold up into san jose as we roll through the next hour. what's on tap for us as we continue through tonight? i think by 11:30, the activity will get a little bit more consistent as a warm front approaches. so it will mainly be showery in nature but definitely good to get that ground wet and we need it. look at this. 66.79% of california in a drought. right now the severe drought is for all of the north bay, the east bay, the south bay, and parts of the peninsula. we'll talk more about that rain timeline and where we could see a half inch to three-quarters of an inch of rain. i'll be back with that in about ten minutes. >> see you then. thank you, jeff. another great way to keep track of the weather is right on your phone. download the nbc bay area app. we have an entire section devoted to the microclimate forecast, and you can get some real-time information for your neighborhood too to figure out what this rain's showing up. simple question here. have you thought about it,

leaving california? the bay area exodus continues. late today oracle announced it's leaving redwood city, right there redwood shores, for austin, texas. oracle, founded by larry ellison in 1977 is a legendary bay area tech company. our nbc bay area skyranger over oracle headquarters this afternoon. oracle says it's doing this to give its employees more flexibility on where they do their jobs. also presumably to save money. cost of living and doing business in texas, much cheaper than here in the bay area. oracle says it will still have offices here in the bay area among many other u.s. locations. well, oracle is not the only one. among the many companies relocating to the lone star state, h.p. enterprises going from san jose to spring, texas. that's just outside of houston. the company will move into a new state of the art building that's currently under construction. financial services company charles schaub going from san francisco to dallas.

the move comes after charles schwab acquired td ameritrade. mckesson also going to texas. they moved its headquarters last year from san francisco to irving, which is just outside of dallas. well, still ahead, a cipher sent by the zodiac killer finally cracked. how it was solved decades later and what it says. they're fighting to survive. struggling bay area restaurants make a list of things they need to happen to keep from going under permanently.

an eerie message from the

infamous zodiac killer is finally understood. the cipher tonight after 51 years after he sent it. the zodiac terrorized the bay area in the late '60s and early '70s and killed five people. police never caught him or identified him, but he craved publicity, so he taunted police and the "san francisco chronicle" in coded messages. you see him here. his first message was cracked within days, so he made more, complicated. cryptographer david orshack says on his youtube show that he and an international team have decoded the so-called 340 message using complex computer programs. they also contended with the zodiac's own errors in the code and his misspelling of the word "paradise." >> look at this piece. it looks like it says "paradise" but spelled backwards. he used that several word several times in his letters spelled the exact same way, including in the solution for the first cipher. so if you look, there are other

reversed words. >> it's fascinating to watch this. once transcribed, the message, bottom line, fails to identify zodiac as the detectives hoped, so they still don't know who he is. but the message says in short, he's not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send him to paradise, where he has slaves to work for him. he also claims he was not the caller on a local tv show back in 1969 claiming to be the zodiac killer. well, what's happening all around us, restaurants crumbling under the ongoing covid crisis and lockdown. the golden gate restaurant association of san francisco has, as a result, drafted a list of things it says restaurants need right now to survive this bleak winter. nbc bay area's christie smith shows us. >> we wanted our community to know that they have a voice too. >> reporter: tony marcel is direct over of operations and partner at wayfare tavern in san francisco. >> it's a scarier time than any

portion of the pandemic we've been in except maybe the start when we didn't know what was happening. >> reporter: he's one of thousands of restaurants working to navigate the ever-changing covid restrictions. >> we've gone as low in the beginning of the pandemic down to about 12 to 13. we've grown up to 40 to 45. and as of today with all of the recent slowdowns in dining and putting us back down to delivery and pickup mode, that we are down to that 13 to 15 people. >> reporter: outdoor dining is off the table, and he's offering regional delivery, shipping, and meal kits for the holidays. he thinks the city's goal is to keep people safe but believes they need to know exactly what san francisco's famed food scene is facing. >> we wanted a safe, socially distanced, personalized way for people to share their pain, suffering, and financial needs. >> reporter: laurie thomas is executive director of the golden gate restaurant association. her group has put out a call to action, a pre-written,

customizable email for restaurateurs and workers to send to city leaders. >> our immediate call to action is we just need help. we need more financial aid. we need relief of business fees and taxes that are like hanging over our head, and we need relief for our workers. >> reporter: in an email, a city representative told us they certainly understand that businesses are struggling and point out a number of steps that local government has taken to help, including deferral of unified license fees and a grant program for small businesses and restaurants. but some believe more needs to be done. >> there's a lot of fees associated with business in our city, and those have been deferred, but they're still due. >> reporter: not all restaurants are satisfied with simply sending a letter. while the restaurant association put their efforts online, another group showed up here calling for financial support for restaurant workers or reopening outdoor dining so they can get back to work. in san francisco, christie smith, nbc bay area news.

>> thank you, christie. so as we wait for the fda to green-light the covid vaccine, we are getting a look at what vaccination cards will look like. governor newsom tweeted this photo out today. everyone who gets vaccinated will get one of these after their first dose. experts say cards -- yes, even in this high tech world, paper cards are still the simplest way to keep track of who gets both of those shots. >> we're going back to the future. let's bring in our chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. happy friday to you, jeff. when's that rain coming? >> it's here. >> yes. it's so nice that it's friday. it feels really good. we can get into that weekend even though it's going to feel a lot different for us with our shelter at home orders that we all have. but this rainfall might give you the reset you need to, you know, to get through all this. let's go ahead and bring you into stormranger, our mobile doppler radar. we have it scanning. it's the only one in the bay area, and it is closer to the ground, so it's better able to

give us a more accurate view of what's happening out there. so, again, there's that live picture. we'll take you to the scan right now. you know stormranger is active when you can see the red sweep on my radar map. and currently we're seeing a few spotty showers over the north bay, the east bay, and also down through the san francisco peninsula. so let's put a track on some of these showers. over novato, we're seeing a little bit of that hit and miss action. this is moving off towards the south and east. this would continue to bring us some showers through san francisco into 5:49. san leandro into 6:11 tonight. we'll clear this track and put a track on some showers currently over alamo and danville. that's also moving towards the south and the east. this would be putting some showers over livermore at 6:03 tonight. off to the south, not much in san jose today. we've seen some trace amounts. we got a few more showers here that will likely make it down towards you as we head through the next hour. let me give the big expansive

view. this is going to explain a lot of what we're going to undergo. over the next 12 hours, we have the warm front moving through. that's more showery in nature. then we're going to see a little bit of a break as we head through a good part of saturday. then by sunday, the cole frond arrives and that will bring us our second round of rain, likely more consistent rain. that's where those totals are going to add up. i think that's going to help my timeline make sense to you. as we head through tonight, i told you that warm front starts to move in. that will bri bring us those moderate to light showers from the north bay down to the south bay right into the overnight hours. as we roll through tomorrow morning, the warm front will start to clear out. it's just more of some hit and miss activity for the morning and primarily for most of saturday, it's going to be dry for us. then as we head into sunday, that cold front is going to move on in, and that's when we could see some moderate, even a few heavier pockets of rain arrive by sunday morning right through the midday, and then as we roll through sunday afternoon, we'll start to see that system

beginning to exit. rainfall totals with this one, pretty good here. up into the north bay we're looking at a half with some of the higher elevations right around three-quarters of an inch in that yellow color. the higher elevations of the east bay a half to three-quarters of an inch. f for the peninsula, we'll be right around a quarter inch to 0.4 inch. so a decent storm considering how much rainfall we have not had lately. sierra snow over the summit, be ready for winter conditions if you're headed over the summit this weekend as we'll see about a foot of snow. ski resorts understa different operations with covid. be ready for winter conditions in your car. my extended forecast in san francisco, we also have some king tides sunday into tuesday at the san francisco and all of our coastal beaches. so some very high tides. waves 15 to 20 feet. then we'll get a few more showers as we roll into next thursday and friday. right here across the inland

valleys, we have more 50s to low 60s coming our way the next seven days. and those chances of rain as we talked about. this is exactly what we need. it's not going to solve all of our problems, of course, raj and jessica, with our drought in places. we're two to six inches behind for the rainfall season. i think it's a good signal for mother nature to sit back and try to relax and lower all of our blood pressure this weekend. we've all been through so much. i'm going to pick up a good book and something, you know, tasty to drink and do a little relaxing myself. >> all right. thank you. >> thanks jeff. up next here at 5:00, remember that teenager from san jose, the young artist who got a phone call from kamala harris, the vice president-elect? he just made the cover of "time" magazine. we're going to show you. ahead for us, a possible break in california's

decades-old zodiac serial killer case. code breakers claiming they've broken one of the killer's messages. also tonight's money-saving deadlines for shipping holiday gifts when we see you back here tonight.

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no tolerance for hate. that's the message from alameda city leaders. last night on the first night of hanukkah, someone destroyed the menorah outside of city hall. this morning the parks and rec department made a few quick fixes. you can see the menorah is standing again. giving back to those who give so much. today several nonprofits organizing a stocking drive for farm workers' families. dozens of cars dropped off more than 5,000 stockings filled with small toys, candy, and books. they left from half moon bay and delivered down in monterey county. organizers say farm workers are essential to all of us, and they felt it was essential to do something special for them. >> we'they're forgotten workers.

we immedianeed to support them. they're feeding us. and they're kids need to be taken care of as well. >> a caravan of low riders delivered about 1,500 stockings today. the rest of the stockings will be delivered next week. you won't believe this one. the national spotlight again shining on a san jose teen whose artwork is on the cover of "time" magazine. lebron james is times athlete of the year. tyler gordon of san jose painted that portrait. gordon got a lot of attention last month when time-lapse video of his painting of vice president-elect kamala harris went viral. he invited us to his home studio. you remember this. showed us how art helps him cope with partial deafness. "time" magazine also named gordon a finalist for kid of the year. >> he's kind of a rock star, jessica. >> 100% he's a rock star. how's this? paying a late fee on a book checked out of a north bay library 50 years later. >> eesh. >> how much do you think it will cost? we'll tell you next. this year, xfinity internet gives you more options

than a holiday dinner table. pick the speed that's right for you, with options faster than gig. and get reliable internet with top-notch coverage. plus, help keep your data safe and private with security included. no antlers on the table. how come you get to eat first? get started with this great offer, or ask about our fastest speed, 2 gig up and down. switch today.

great day on the lake! it is. lunch is cookin'! and i saved a bunch of money on my boat insurance with geico. fellas, can it get any better than this? whoa! my old hairstyle grew back. so did mine. [80's music] what? i was an 80's kid. it only gets better when you switch and save with geico.

okay. better late than never. >> yeah, as in really late. >> really late. >> tony goodman was in the first grade in 1972, and that's when he checked out this book "look out for pirates" from the

library in corte madera. he didn't return it. fast forward nearly 50 years. as a joke, one of goodman's paid the late fee. >> hope it was a good book. lester holt is next. we'll see you at 6:00. tonight the countdown with the covid vaccine on the brink of authorization. the fda saying it's rapidly working to finalize approval for pfizer's vaccine, the largest vaccination ever in american history. ramping up u.s. marshals protecting shipments how quickly vaccinations could begin and the major challenge keeping it ultra cold from the manufacturer to the arms of americans. the u.s. again shattering records, over 3,000 deaths and nearly 230,000 cases in a day new york city shutting down indoor dining and the cdc chief's dire