good news about the economy. america adding more than 1.7 million new jobs in the first three months of the year. we're breaking down what the president is saying about the steady growth. good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm marcus washington. it's the first friday of the month. the day the bureau of labor statistics gives us a snapshot of american workers. scott mcgrew, more people back to work. >> 431,000 added in the month of march. unemployment rate falls to 3.6%. people are returning to work. we've known for some time there

were lots of jobs out there, more jobs than there were workers. it looks like easing covid rates convinced more people to return to the office or the workplace. pay is up, too, up 5.6% since last year, which you would expect as people demand better pay since inflation. >> as more and more people get jobs, it will help ease the supply issues, it is good news to fight inflation, and it is good news for our economy from being on the mend to on the move. >> some other interesting tidbits about the jobs report. 1 in 10 americans still report working from home. i suspect this number is much higher in the bay area. women are coming back to the work force at a much faster rate. unemployment rate among women now 3.3%. and the biggest growth, i think you can guess, is in leisure and hospitality. also, marcus, interesting news

coming out of the white house this morning. it's been reported that jen psaki, the white house press secretary, will be hired at msnbc as an commentator. axios the first to report it. cnbc confirmed it. it says she will leave the white house in may. it's not unusual to see people move from press secretary to media and back. pierre salinger, george stephanopoulos also did the same in the past. government pay ain't great. >> we all know who she is. thanks. russian forces taking new hits overnight. russian officials are blaming the recent blast at an oil depot in a city on air strikes by two ukrainian helicopters. this is video that we're getting of that damage. that city near the russia/ukraine border. ukraine not confirming or denying responsibility. this marks the first time russia accused ukrainian forces of

launching an air strike on russian soil. no one was killed or hurt in the blast. a blow to humanitarian efforts. the red cross is being blocked from bringing aid during mariupol's evacuation effort. this despite a growing humanitarian crisis in the city which faced heavy shelling for more than a month. residents remain blocked access from food, water and they plan to try again tomorrow. mariupol's city council estimates $10 billion in damage to infrastructure since the invasion began. ukraine says that russian forces have looted appliances from the seized chernobyl nuclear plant. those troops have left that area amid significant radiation exposure. ukraine's state nuclear company says the exposure took place after russian forces dug trenches in the contaminated soil. and we are moving you forward this midday with a transportation project years in the making.

san francisco's first rapid transit corridor opens today on van ness avenue at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. what does all that money buy? this is where the transportation leaders just held a ribbon cutting ceremony. cierra? >> that's right. the ribbon is cut and traffic can go on the red lanes here, those lanes specifically for buses. this individual is not doing what they're supposed to do. they are for the buses to ease the traffic congestion here on this corridor. they're calling it the transit corridor. as you mentioned, it did come at quite the price tag, a couple hundred million dollars. how does this work and where does it go? we have a map on the screen for you. that project is highlighted in red. the rapid corridor will run along van ness from market to bay street. the corridor will relieve traffic congestion by creating

physically separated bus lanes but allow buses to travel without getting stuck in traffic. today, as you mentioned, city leaders, project leaders and some community leaders cut that ribbon. you can see right there, marking the completion of the project. speakers emphasized the work took longer than many anticipated or wanted it to causing headaches for local business owners as well as pedestrians and commuters, in all the project started back in 2016 with a couple years of planning before that and it came with a $346 million price tag. a job one commuter tells me was well worth the wait. >> i think this morning it feels like everyone wants something to celebrate and it's great to see the project be completed. it has taken a long time. it's been not easy on businesses on the corridor, not easy for residents when the bus is changing locations, there's construction. it's great to see a project be completed and i think it's going to be a really much improved

project for every-day riders who are traveling knot and south in the city. >> so you can see, this bus is exactly what's supposed to happen. those buses will be in the red lane. it will loosen up some of that stop and go for the cars around it. again, a 30% reduction in commute time. that's what sfmta is estimating. if you're in this area, that's what you'll see. a lot of years work coming to an end marking with that ribbon cutting today of the opening of that transit corridor. we're live in san francisco, cierra johnson, nbc bay area news. >> thanks. a live look outside now for you. look at this, the bay bridge as we get started with the weekend. it's friday. it seems like it will be a nice one. >> can you say that again? >> weekend forecast. the temperatures are starting to warm up a bit. it's almost lunchtime for a lot

of people at the office, we're in the upper 50s in napa. 56 in oakland. low 60s in livermore. vacaville already at 70 degrees. as we look at our high temperatures for this afternoon, it is going to reach into the low 70s. when you compare that to what we normally see on april 1st, the average high is 67 degrees in concord. the normal temperature is about 69. we'll reach about 76 in san francisco. right about normal, but slightly above for some other spots that warming trend continues in the forecast. we'll talk about that coming up. >> thank you. a live look in san francisco this midday. today marks six years since the disappearance of a young mother later found murdered in san francisco and her daughter who has never been found. right now the fbi and police are providing an update on this

case. they have just announced that that reward has increased for information in this case to $250,000. that is an increase from $100,000. so on april 8, 2016, police discovered the body of nicole fitz in a shallow grave in mclaren park. that was a week after she and her 2-year-old daughter arianna were last seen. that girl would now be 8 years old. we're providing updates on nbcbayarea.com. we'll have more coming up for you during the evening newscast. new at 11:00, after a year-long manhunt, an east bay man will be in court today. this is for allegedly making threats to tufts university in massachusetts. investigators say last year, sammy saltan of hayward called campus police claiming he was hiding in a woman's dorm room with a taser and gun. he told police he would use the taser if the woman found her hiding under his bed.

after an extensive search, police never found the caller. law enforcement familiar with his voice from an investigation in california recognized his voice on that call recording and he was arrested. if found guilty he could face five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. police in one east bay city are ramping up patrols after reports of a student being assaulted. one parent in albany tells police their child was assaulted while walking to school on wednesday. police have beefed up presence when children are going to school and heading home. that investigation is ongoing. we want to move you forward on rolling back covid restrictions. starting today, you no longer have to show proof of vaccination to attend a large event anywhere in the state. kris sanchez has more from the shark tank in san jose with what you can expect. >> the san jose sharks take on the dallas stars tomorrow and it may be faster getting into the

shark tank because you won't have to dig around for your vaccination card or your negative covid test. as of april 1st, vaccination and testing will be recommended but not required, that's for events with 1,000 or more people indoors or 10,000 or more outdoors. there are no capacity limitations related to covid. the s.a.p. center will keep in place many of the safety protocols like contactless purchasing, sanitizing stations, bringing in outside air into the venue. as a sports and entertainment venue, it was hard to compete with the chase center where covid restrictions eased sooner. after two years of changing guidelines, the sharks president is happy the rules are more consistent and hopeful they can sell out a hockey game. >> do i have to have a vaccine and a booster? do i have to do that digitally? a physical card? every venue had different rules. over time people said it's too

much trouble, i don't want to come anymore. >> under state guidelines, businesses and individual concert promoters or event promoters can enact their own rules, make sure you do keep your vaccination card handy just in case. in san jose, kris sanchez, nbc bay area news. new help for people trying to make it into the bay. starting this morning, some relief for rail commuters. caltrain will be discounting all fares by 50% for the month of april. that discount does not apply to the go pass. regular train service resumes monday. caltrain says the discount is to reward loyal riders and try to entice some of those new riders to the train service. the riders we spoke with this morning say they were not aware of the savings. >> 50% off. >> really, that's nice. >> does that help you? definitely. >> that's like $50, it helps with the monthly pass. >> with inflation, it's a big deal? >> yeah, especially with the

gas. >> the transit agency cut back on service last month. increasing autism awareness. the signal parents should monitor and the close meaning it has to our nbc bay area family. and testimony in the second theranos criminal fraud trial is back under way. what the former lab director is saying about his time working at the doomed company. the final episode of our streaming series "saving san francisco." we go to jail to talk one-on-one to a homeless man. hear james durgeon in his own words. you can watch the first five episodes by downloading our app on roku or on other streaming devices or go to nbcbayarea.com/savingsan francisco. episode six again is out on monday.

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happening now, authorities are expanding the search for a girl they say was abducted by her stepfather last summer. katuana whisenant was last seen in july with her stepfather, santos flores-roman. the fbi believes he drove off with her. chp put out an initial advisory for three counties. now, it is now expanded into the entire state. flores-roman does have family in santa rosa. this is the car he was driving. it's a 1993 silver toyota corolla. testimony resuming in the fraud trial for former theranos executive sunny balwani. the former lab director is back on the stand today. he says he was disillusioned by labor errors and left the company in 2014. he says he feels both elizabeth holmes and balwani took control

over what the lab did. since the trial started, two witnesses have testified, both are former employees who talked about mini values of the theranos blood testing technology and balwani's influence over staff including elizabeth holmes. she is awaiting sentencing after being convicted in january. new at 11:00, amazon workers in staten island in a wrehouse there, they have voted to join a union. this is the first time that's happened at one of the u.s. company's facilities. this represents a landmarked win for organized labor which has for years tried to organize the warehouse and delivery workers. by voting in the union, staten island workers stand to disrupt amazon's current labor model which is the backbone of its prime two-day shipping promise. want to take a live look for you right now. this is at palisades tahoe ski resort. no joke here, this is april 1st. it is only a matter of time

before ski season starts to melt away. so at the top of the hour, state water leaders began conducting the second to last sierra snow survey of the season. everyone bracing for meager numbers due to the historically dry season and as we wait, things are already heating up there. meteorologist car kari hall hasn talking about that. >> when you look at the numbers for the northern sierra, 28% of the normal amount. and this kind of takes into account that it is april. and that we have such low sierra snow. the statewide average is about 38% of the normal amount. that's what we expect for them to say as we've seen the driest conditions, the lowest snow pack we've had in the sierra in about the last 70 years. this is historic what we're seeing right now. as we take a live look outside, more sunshine across the south bay. we'll continue to see that sun into the rest of today.

warming up our temperatures, heading out to the farmer's market in downtown san jose, low 60s. we'll continue to warm up. we'll be at about 72 at 2:00 and eventually reaching the peak of those temperatures for 3:00 to 4:00 before it starts to go back down. as we look at our microclimates, highs reaching into the 70s today. nice and comfortable. then for tonight, we're seeing those lows in the mid to upper 40s for the microclimates. looking ahead, we'll see a strong area of high pressure building across the region. this will start to shift our way giving us much more of a northerly wind and hot temperatures. we're expecting some highs to reach near records going into wednesday and thursday. starting to wind down on saturday and then we may see that high pressure moving out of the way to allow for some rain to get closer and hopefully that's the case because we're going to deal with extremely warm conditions and the climate prediction center is saying that for the whole month of april, we may continue on with

above-normal temperatures like what we'll see next week. and then also below normal rainfall. so that's not the news we want to see after having such dry conditions the past few months. you want to make sure you're preparing now for the warm weather that's headed our way. turning up the air conditioning, maybe even cleaning out the pool. look at these highs for livermore next week. mid 70s to start to the upper 80s. there will be a couple spots hitting 90 degrees. yes, it's early april. we're not supposed to be that warm. looking at our seven-day forecast, highs in the upper 70s for the inland areas. slightly cooler as we look at our sunday forecast with some gusty winds and about 70 degrees on monday before we start that warming trend. there's going to be a huge difference in temperatures from the way we start the week to the way we end the week. san francisco's also going to have significant warming with some gusty winds on sunday and then by the middle of next week, we'll see highs in the upper 70s. we'll see if we hit 80 degrees

in san francisco by the end of next week. that's really unusual. >> i know, but this weekend weather, you can't complain about it too much. you may have noticed that kari and i and this morning all of us were wearing blue. this is to kick off autism awareness month. it's an important topic to talk about, that's because 1 in 27 boys are affected by autism. and 1 in 116 girls are impacted. here's what parents need to know. kids with show signs up to as early as 18 months. up to 40% are nonverbal, 70% have gastrointestinal problems. for many families this takes a toll financially. the average cost for special services is around $60,000 close a year. this hits close to home here, kari hall, you are dealing with this >> i have a 10-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. you see them there. she does have that tape on her face.

she had an ng tube, a feeding tube for a while. now she has the permanent g tube. so we just have been doing activities with them. they're doing magic sand. bella is working with her therapist, which is so important that you do get that diagnosis early. you get that early intervention and therapy, that helps them develop a way to communicate with you and express their feelings and let you know what they're going through. we didn't know she had severe acid reflux and that it was really hurting her to eat. so -- because she's nonverbal, we had to go through all of these tests and figure it out. now that we do things, working with her to try to get her comfortable with eating again. that's what we're doing there. it's really important that people get that diagnosis that early intervention and look out for those signs. you need to talk to the kids pediatrician about that. that's what parents need to know. some of the signs you may see, little to no eye contact in

toddlers as you're looking at them, they're looking around the room. they may have few or no words by two years, also no response when you call his or her name. they continue doing what they're doing, you may think do they have hearing problems? they do those tests and rule that out. you may notice your child is rocking, spinning, flapping hands. also they may be sensitive to smell, sounds, texture, touch. they may have problems with loud sounds, sensitive to that, if you notice them smelling a lot of stuff or doesn't want to be touched, those are kind of hyper sensitive in children with autism. you may see them repeating actions or rituals. >> early detection is so important. it's important for the parents because this is a learning process for parents as well. >> you need that community around you to give you resources and be that support system because it is really hard. but you want to make sure you have people around you who can help you out. >> i want to applaud you and

your family, your husband and mother for what you all do. you talk about how it's been and you make it look easy, i know it's hard. >> it's hard, but you have been our support system. it really helps so we've gotten good resources and a lot of information and that really helps out. >> all right. thanks for sharing. >> thank you. all right. happening now for you, part of the los angeles national forest is reopening today after a massive wildfire. so the bobcat fire burned through 115,000 acres last october. rangers closed most of the surrounding area. they are now reopening some 86,000 acres of land or 60% of that area. believe it or not, the bobcat fire is still not fully contained. we'll be right back.

i have a question for you and you, too. how much do you reveal to your stylist when you go? >> probably way too much. there was a woman in san rafael offering the option not to reveal anything at all. she's providing silent hair cuts. >> she said this idea when a few weeks ago, people still dealing with the pandemic, her clients can engage or opt not to talk at all. she said some people just need a

few minutes of silence. >> some of my clients i've known for 25 years, we are friends. so there is that desire to catch up. a couple of those clients have said i would like to catch up for five min asking for looks like now more people are saying, shh, i like it quiet. earlier this morning it was 50/50. now people are saying i would rather have the quiet time. >> when you have had the same hairstylist for a period of time, let's spend a few minutes catching up and then i want my brain to shut down. >> my barber knows i fall asleep. he understands what time we get up in the morning. >> yeah. hopefully you get some sleep this weekend. the weather will be beautiful out there. highs into the mid 60s for san

francisco. the hot temperatures are headed our way. >> summer trying to creep in early. thanks for joining us. next newscast is at 5:00. enjoy your weekend. announcer: from the jurassic... [ screaming ] ...to the animated. from the magical... to the delicious. from the most surprising... to the biggest whoas... and the most memorable awws. from making new friends... to our newest ride, the secret life of pets: off the leash. ♪♪ picture the best day ever at universal studios hollywood.

♪♪ right now on "california live," dani is showing us where to get the best french pastries in the valley. >> the french on the block. [ speaking foreign language ] >> what he said. then lisa takes us to a unique pop-up farmer's market created in los angeles. >> i'm bringing you to the prosperity market, which is not your average farmers market. and the organization helping rescue children from ukraine. >> our people are amazing. the ukrainians now are calling them the angels of hope. and i'm