based on what you know, or you can guess. >> reporter: john source berg thinks restrictions consistently fell too soon with previous surges. he would suggest more patients. >> after all, we plateau at roughly 50%, versus where we started from, we will be in high case counts, still. >> in the next couple of weeks we will be releasing that endemic plan. how we live with the virus, how we address and live with the surges. >> reporter: governor newsom is using the word endemic, but timing may be the most important question here. that is something even the experts do not quite agree on. >> in terms of when do we start relaxing things? i think when we are much more confident and safe in our environment. that is hopefully, pretty soon. >> we will get to that point with covid-19. it is just a matter of when, not if. >> reporter: you heard the governor say the endemic plan is coming soon. california now set to be mask free, two weeks from today.

wilson walker, kpix 5. this evening, the governor thinking the states surgeon general after she announced her resignation. dr. nadine burke harris became california's first surgeon general, back in 2019. governor newsom appointed harris for her work in pediatrics. she founded a clinic in sentences goes bayview hunters point area. gove nrnburke harris's expertis leadership in championing equity, early childhood development have been instrumental, advancing the health and well-being of californians. no word on who would be her replacement. i'm allen martin. in roughly 2 decades, more than a 600,000 people in the u.s. and canada have died of an opioid overdose. the pandemic has pushed that crisis to disturbing heights. now, a reporter is calling for immediate action and sweeping reforms for a problem affecting every corner of the bay area. >> reporter: think about the

opioid crisis in sentences goes tenderloin may come to mind, but make no mistake, the rising tide of addiction and overdose deaths is found everywhere. >> we might have overdose calls to traditional family homes and apartments. >> reporter: these days, counterfeit pills full of fentanyl are plentiful and lethal. during the pandemic, east bay welder tom terry died from an accidental overdose. >> he ended up taking fentanyl. >> reporter: so, too, did 14- year-old valentina, from concord. >> we did not know this is really happening. >> reporter: another casualty, jeffrey cho, from clayton. in september, he told a gathering about his efforts to remain clean and sober. on january 2nd, he overdosed and died. >> i think that this is an absolute crisis. >> reporter: dr. keith humphries is an addiction and public policy expert at stanford. >> our overdose death rate in

2020 went up over one third. and that has never happened in american history. >> reporter: dr. humphreys chairs a 17 member opioid commission. the team is calling for sweeping reforms. targets include the medical community, the prison system and the regulation of from cynical industries. >> relations are week. >> reporter: prescription opioid makers are allowed to conduct lavish marketing campaigns from texas. >> let's not make it adaptable. we shouldn't pay for that. >> reporter: the next step, getting stakeholders involved, and quickly, just ask mom april romero of san ramon. >> i will tell you this problem exist in every community. >> reporter: in 2009, her son, joey, died of a drug overdose. the problem has gotten no better. another proposed reform, ending the incarceration for illicit possession of opioids or drug paraphernalia intended for personal use. liz? >> the overdose death of acclaimed actor michael k williams left the entertainment world in shock. recent arrest have prosecutors one step closer to justice. in new york, for men are being

charged with possession and distribution of the sentinel laced heroine which led to the passing of the famed actor, last september. hopes are the arrest will lead to more convictions as the u.s. continues to battle an opioid crisis that led to a 30% spike in overdoses just last year. still ahead, a bombshell lawsuit against the nfl. a former coach accusing the league of racism in its hiring practices. the text message he is using in evidence. >> reporter: the

68 years old. i do motivational speaking in addition to the substitute teaching. i honestly feel that that's my calling-- to give back to younger people. i think most adults will start realizing

that they don't recall things as quickly as they used to or they don't remember things as vividly as they once did. i've been taking prevagen for about three years now. people say to me periodically, "man, you've got a memory like an elephant." it's really, really helped me tremendously. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. a api community leaders gather this morning in support of the chinese apology resolution approved by san

francisco board of supervisors. the apology resolution focuses on historical harm from previous policies. community members say discrimination has not disappeared. they are asking for budget investments from the city. >> we want this to take inventory for our historic wrongs and to continue a path, our city must do its part to support the types of policies intended to fundamentally shift the narrative. >> there is no sentences go without the contributions of the chinese community. >> reporter: census is home to the largest and oldest chinatown in the united it's. former nfl head coach now accusing the league and several teams of racism. former miami dolphins head coach ryan florez was fired last month and now he claims the nfl has created a broken hiring system. bradley blackburn has the latest from new york. >> reporter: ryan florez says he is suing the nfl because of

his time for change. >> we are at a fork in the road right now. you know, we are either going to keep it the way it is, or we will go in another direction. >> reporter: the former dolphins head coach appeared today with his lawyers on cbs mornings.'s lawsuit claims the nfl has failed to create a fair hiring process. today, the league has three head coaches of color, including one black man. florez believes minorities are not giving a fair shot. >> in a lot of cases they're not as qualified, more qualified or quite frankly, better than their white counterparts. >> reporter: he response the nfl says diversity is core to everything we do and there are few issues on which our clubs and internal leaderships spend more time. we will defend against these claims, which are without merit. florez says he received a text message last month from patriots head coach bill belichick three days before he was interviewing for the giants head coaching position. belichick offered congratulations, but he thought he was testing brian gable who eventually got the giants job.

>> how did that make you feel, knowing you're walking into an interview where a decision might already have been made? >> a range of emotions. humiliation. disbelief. >> reporter: in a statement, the giants said florez was in the conversation to be our next head coach until the 11th hour, ultimately, we hired the individual felt was most qualified to be our next head coach. florez also accuses the dolphins of offering him $100,000 for every game he lost during his first season, to position the team for a high draft pick. >> to attack the integrity of the game, that is what i felt was happening in that instance. i would not stand for it. >> reporter: the dolphins say it is incorrect to imply the team acted in a manner inconsistent with the integrity of the game. florez says he is still hoping to coach in the nfl. bradley blackburn, cbs news, new york. the accusations date back

as far as 2019, where the lawsuit also states that florez had been required to meet for a sham interview with the broncos. broncos general manager at the time, john elway, along with president ellis and others showed up one hour late for the interview. two years after dropping her team name for its racial connotation, the washington football team and officially has a new name. the commanders. for years, the team faced backlash over its use of native american references in their marketing. the team will keep their same burgundy and gold colors from the glory days. the television show, the view, has suspended whoopi goldberg following her remarks about the holocaust. the show so she will be suspended for two weeks and on monday's episode she made controversial remark about the holocaust, saying, quote, it was not about race. marks came during a discussion about the school board banning a book about death camps. a children's book. goldberg has since apologized for her remarks.

coming up, how a bay area director is touching military veterans lives with the gift of music. new to cover tonight starting with the major winter storm bearing down on 110 million americans. we are talking about ice, sleet, and snow, as the national weather service warns it could make travel nearly impossible. plus, we have seen ghost guns, weapons that could be assembled

some pretty colors this evening. a san francisco man who has taught opera and directed opera centers around the world is now using his skills to help heal a hurting pegylation. >> sharon chen introduces us to this week's jefferson award winner. sharon? >> reporter: yeah. rick harrell harnesses the power of music to serve those who have served our country. >> reporter: music can bring freedom and healing. rick harrell knows it first hand. >> excellent shades there. >> reporter: the opera director was looking for a change from

teaching conservatory students. when, the thought of serving military veterans struck a chord in 2013. >> i started heros forces. essentially doing music therapy with veterans. >> reporter: is a san francisco- based nonprofit gives a free guitar, singing, and poetry workshops for veterans facing challenges like post traumatic stress disorder. >> they find that it is wonderful for direction. it is very helpful for anxiety. >> let me move this so you can see the guitar. >> reporter: a few dozen veterans attend heros forces weekly guitar classes. they started on site. first at the va menlo park, then in san francisco and county jails. the pandemic switch to virtual classes now reaches veterans nationwide. music instructor larry chon helped instruct and teach the sessions. >> it's the way they express their stories, their personalities, themselves.

>> reporter: gray has lived with ptsd more than 50 years. >> the emotion, it's not analytical to me, it's from my heart and my soul. >> reporter: for iraq war veteran robert kaplan, writing songs and supports his substance abuse recovery. >> he just extends his once to people. i've always felt very safe and welcome around him. >> reporter: participants pick their own guitar for free. most of them new or refurbished a donated by griffin strings instruments in palo alto. >> pick up the tempo a bit more. >> reporter: rickett can recite a string of stories about how he resources changes lives. like a man in a sightreading psychiatric icu who was convinced he would die that day, then rick shared his favorite tunes. >> he got out of bed to come make music. if you can touch lives like that, why not? >> reporter: for touching military veterans lives with the gift of music, this week's

jefferson award in the bay area goes to rick harrell. >> reporter: rick also volunteers teaching senior citizens free singing lessons, over zoom. not bad. >> unbelievable. talk about taking a difficult situation, all of us have to do things differently, and still touching people's lives. unbelievable. what an inspiration. thank you. we heard about rick because someone told us about him. if you want to nominate someone for a bay area jefferson award, by the online form of our website, kpix.com/0. a store manager in philadelphia crediting his dog for saving his life. new security video shows the moments two robbers rush into a corner store and pointed guns at the store manager and a clerk. then the dog named bullet jumped on the suspect, and took out a gun and fired. that suspect took off and the second suspect fired back at the clerk.

>> he will surely go before he shoots him. >> he saved her life. >> he saved my life and her life. >> reporter: police say the clerk was struck four times and is now recovering in the hospital. keep bundling up, plug the tony phil saw his shadow this morning, which means six more weeks of winter. according to phil's website, the famous groundhog has been predicting the seasons since 1887. legend has it, if he sees his shadow, we can expect cold temperatures to continue. if he does not, and early spring is on the way. take heart, the national centers for environmental information tracked phil's predictions the last 10 years and found that he is about 40% right. that's being pretty generous. here in the bay area, we are calling a first alert weather event, because of the strong wind and for the record, paul hagan is right 100% of the time.

>> don't write those checks for me, everybody is wrong once in a while. we knew that strong wind would be with us today and shadow or not, we still can get some rain around the bay area. we didn't have any of that in the forecast. the good news is, the gusty wind is easing off, especially over the next couple of hours. if the sun is down you will notice the wind diminishing minute by minute. wasn't clouds and sunshine tomorrow, not nearly as breezy. one part of the forecast which continues to be consistent is dry weather. expect that to stick around through the middle of the month. offshore wind will continue on for parts of the bay area the advisory continues until midnight for the northbay mountains, the east bay hills and the diablo range and the santa cruz mountains, the wind advisories continue until midnight. for the northbay valleys, the east bay valleys, the densely populated did parts of the bay area that have been under this advisory, off the board already at 9:00 this evening and the wind will relax before then. the wind out of the north, 15

to 25 miles per hour for the strongest sustained wind, gust still potentially up to 40 miles per hour, we are mostly talking about 30 to 35 mile per hour gusts. still some possibility of downed trees and power outages over the next few hours before we are out of the woods. in terms of our fire danger index, we topped out about halfway up our 0 to 10 scale this afternoon, which is elevated for this time of year. in january and february, we really shouldn't see these numbers above two or three, but now that the wind is dying down and temperatures will drop off tonight, those numbers are really going to fall off as we had through the early morning hours on thursday and even warming into the low to mid 60s, the highest values we will see our around a one or two. a much better perspective on the fire weather conditions as we head into the rest of the work week and weekend without gusty wind to fan the flames. the lighter wind is definite

good news for the pebble beach program which starts tomorrow. heading down the coast to take that in, looks pretty good. the wind will still be noticeable him along the coast but not nearly as strong but partly cloudy conditions tomorrow with clouds and sunshine on friday. temperatures in the low to mid 60s along the coast. high temperature today also made it into the low to mid 60's around the bay area. 61 for san francisco and pacifica. a beautiful sunset as we look to treasure island. current temperatures a mix of 50s and 60s, holding onto 63 degrees in hayward and santa rosa. cool spot on the coast, right now in half moon bay. these temperatures aren't bad at all for early february. we are going to drop off tonight. temperatures dropping into the mid and upper 30s inland, low 30s in some of the northbay valleys even close to freezing around santa rosa. low-end mid-40s around the bay and along the coast. temperatures are bouncing back tomorrow. a ripple in the atmosphere, helping to break the windy

pattern, unfortunately, clouds will not be substantial enough to drop a chance of showers on us. high temperatures in seven cisco topping out in the low 60s which is still above average. we will be about 2 to 4 degrees above normal throughout the day. wind speeds at the bottom of these bars, less than 10 miles per hour for sustained wind. the strongest gusts will be around 15 miles per hour. barely even noticeable compared to where it has been for the past couple of days. conquered into the low 60s on thursday afternoon and san jose is back up into the middle portion of the 60s tomorrow with a more substantial warming trend kicking in over the weekend and early next week. high temperatures tomorrow through the west rest of the map. everybody in the low and mid 60s, still a well stirred air mass. the warming trend will be most noticeable away from the water, even around the bay, temperatures will warm up 3 to 4 degrees over the next several days. into the middle portion of the 60 for seven cisco and oakland. monday, tuesday, wednesday,

temperatures inland in the northbay, parts of the east bay not quite that one but still well above normal and low 60s along the coast with no rain in sight. the rest of the evening coming up at 6:00. thanks. i'm allen martin. coming up all new at 6:00, thousands of homes sitting empty in one bay area city. could a plan to tax landlords help ease the housing crisis? another month, another lawsuit filed against tesla. this one says the company allowed racism to fester at their factory. >> on its face, the conduct is shocking and the response, equally so. we really want to bring dignity and respect for our client and all of the many black workers at tesla. >> i'm max sit around in since cisco, b.a.r.t. announces a major change to improve the rider experience which involves bathrooms. >> it is something that customers have demanded. >> this action, today, is symbolic. >> the news at 6:00 cummings up

in five minutes. >> thank you, allen. still ahead here at 5:00 it is a belo

a popular santa cruz county train finds itself in the middle of a heated policy battle. >> the roaring camp beach train runs to the boardwalk in santa cruz. as devin fehely explains, some

people feel the rail line could be in danger. >> reporter: everyone seems to love roaring camp's iconic beach train. on that, there is near universal agreement. but, how best to preserve it, and who should be responsible for paying for maintenance and upkeep of this rail line in its entirety, remains a matter of intense debate. the beloved beach train carries 250,000 people per year from the mountains to the beach and boardwalk and back. >> the people who have been here seen the roaring train come down all their lives. you know? they go up there and they have music and food. it's really good for business. >> reporter: the regional transportation commission is considering a plan to stop using the rail line traveled by the beach train for what is known as freight. for things like lumber or agriculture, or other goods. the beach train's owners, in an open letter to the condition commission and community say

that is a poorly conceived and shortsighted move, which may someday imperil their operations. >> of the federal government protects that line as a freight line, serve freight is not the main piece of our business, it is not what we are known for, it is what protects the line from further issues in the future, we are not looking at tomorrow, we are looking at the long-term. >> reporter: what is the commission considering this plan in the first place? as you might suspect it comes down to money, maintaining tracks, trestles, and bridges, is expensive. parts of the line have fallen into disrepair because of disuse. and it could cost as much as $60 million to bring it up to code. >> they are cut off from the main line right now. with the off service line we cannot fund the repairs that are needed and we need to find a way to address both parties concerns. >> reporter: the transportation commission says the plant will not impact the beach train. roaring camp's owners say they are not reassured, but cannot shake the feeling they are being railroaded. >> there in exigent inaction is

an excuse, which is a ridiculous argument. >> reporter: supporter saying they are encouraging the public to turn out, hoping to stop something long before it ever threatens to shut down their beloved train. in santa cruz, devin fehely, kpix 5. right now on kpix 5, streaming on cbs news bay area, we are tracking the wind danger across the bay area. downed trees and power outages, the strong gusts are keeping cruise busy. our cameras have been shaking throughout the day with those wind gusts. we will show you the highest recorded so far and what is coming up in first look. a former employee sues tesla. she says the company failed to address racist abuse directed towards her. have a vacant property? you could be forced to pay up. then you pushed to solve the

housing crisis. good evening, i'm allen martin. >> i'm elizabeth cook. the bay area starts getting hit with strong wind right now. gale force gust on san francisco bay, high wind slamming bay area mountains and hills. we have a lot to cover on this first alert weather event. let's get to paul heggen. >> good news is the wind is already dying down but we did see gusts in the 35 to 45 mile- per-hour range, gusts close to 60 on top of the peaks. now the strongest sustained wind, knapp and fairfield around 15 miles per hour. the highest gust at the moment, even for higher elevations are in the 35 to 45 mile-per-hour range. wind is already backing off, a process that will continue over the next few hours. the wind advisory and brown shaded areas through the valleys expires at 9:00 this evening. the wind is already coming down.

for er