i'm raj mathai. next on "nbc bay area news tonight," tensions boiling over on college campuses across the country. >> free, free palestine! >> how universities, including uc berkeley and cal poly are responding to the pro-palestinian rallies. also, deep cuts at tesla. we're learning just how many people are being laid off here

in the bay area. plus, if you pay, it's a great perk to skip those airport security lines, but one california lawmaker is trying to get rid of services like clear. and we're going to introduce you to an army of volunteers trying an old-school method to get people to vote. is it working? good evening. this is "nbc bay area news tonight." i'm raj mathai. a lot happening at this hour. we want to start with some breaking news. the senate vote to possibly ban tiktok. this is a big deal that could impact millions of people. about 20 minutes ago, senators passed a bill that would force tiktok's parent company to sell if that chinese company doesn't sell, tiktok would be banned in the u.s. >> the yeas are 79. the nays are 18.

the amendment is agreed to. >> overwhelmingly the bill passed by the senate, 79-18. both california senators, by the way, padilla and butler, voted in favor. so here's the deal. the potential ban is part actually of a massive emergency aid package, which includes $95 billion in aid for ukraine and israel. but this is going to be the headline of this funding package. it gives tiktok's parent company, chinese-based bytedance, nine months to sell the social media app or be banned. the bill has already passed in the house, so what happens now? it heads to the desk of president biden, who has already said that he will sign this. we will continue to monitor this breaking story and bring you the very latest at 11:00. our other big story tonight, also developing at this hour, the protests at college campuses across the country. are they going too far? this is all about the israel-hamas war. passionate demonstrators at uc

berkeley, cal poly humboldt, and columbia. you hear them, and you see them. this is the scene in new york city. in the past 24 hours, nypd has moved in to secure campuses both at columbia and across town at nyu. all in-person classes at columbia have been moved online for the rest of the semester. at nyu, barriers are up now. many students say the line between free speech and threats of violence is becoming blurred. >> it's just students trying to speak their mind and stand up for what's right, and i think it is a little bit of an overreaction. >> they literally have signs, like, anarchy and violence and resistance is the way to do it. so i think it makes sense why they're putting up boards. >> free, free palestine! >> and back here at home,

classes are also going remote at cal poly humboldt. what you're looking at is last night pro-palestinian protesters occupying buildings. the police were called in. at last check, some of those protesters are still inside those buildings. again, that's cal poly humboldt in northern california. an encampment at uc berkeley is growing tonight as students pressure the university to cut ties with israel. dozens of tents in front of sproul hall where students and others are camping out for a second straight night. >> over $2 billion of our tuition money goes to funding contracts for weapons of arms manufacturers like black rock, lockheed martin, and many more. >> nbc's pete suratos joins us from the cal campus. such a rich history, as you know, of student protests at cal dating back to the 1960s. is it peaceful where you are tonight? is it peaceful on campus? >> reporter: yeah, definitely

peaceful so far, raj. this is day two, as you guys mentioned, of this encampment here in front of sproul hall. in fact, we're on the balcony across the way to give our viewers a bird's-eye view of what we're talking about. students say it has doubled in size since yesterday. i counted roughly about 50 tents out here in front of sproul hall. as i mentioned, a peaceful protest so far. and on the ground, this group of pro-palestinian students are demanding that uc berkeley sever all ties with israeli institutions and also that the university divest from companies supporting israel. so that's some of the signage that you're seeing there as we're seeing some of these students gather in front of sproul hall. this is similar to some of the other protests we've seen at other universities and some of those protesters also seen in the state as we just mentioned. but as we were just discussing the vibe here, it is definitely peaceful so far as we are on day two of this encampment in front of sproul hall. >> pete, what's the timeline? another couple of days? are they just going to continue

through the semester? do we know? >> reporter: yeah. no timeline so far. they're saying they want to wait here until some of those demands that i mentioned are met. but we did speak to a uc berkeley spokesperson who says they are committed to free speech, but they also want to make sure that classes aren't impacted. we are in the last few weeks of the semester with finals fast approaching. we'll see if any action is eventually taken by the university on this in the coming days, raj. >> pete suratos from the cal campus. uc berkeley one of the many campuses across the country with these student protests. pete, thank you. another story that we are tracking, tesla making deep job cuts in the bay area. last week, the company announcing it would be laying off 10% of its workforce. tonight we know some of the details here. more than 2,700 people here will lose their jobs beginning in june. here's the breakdown. nearly 2,300 jobs will be cut from about a dozen sites in

fremont. the biggest cuts coming from the fremont factory -- excuse me -- coming from the factory on fremont boulevard. another 486 people will be laid off in palo alto. these cuts come as tesla is seeing a decline in sales. today the company announced about a 10% drop in the first quarter of this year. tesla also announcing it's cutting the price of a lot of its cars, the model y, model x, and model s reduced by $2,000. another story tonight, the recount in that high-stakes congressional race. we should have the final results by the end of the week. that's what we're hearing. this is for district 16, the race to replace retiring congresswoman anna eshoo. the original count ended in a tie for second place between joe simitian and evan low. recounts are now under way in both santa clara and san mateo counties. district 16 covers both counties. election officials tell us they're making steady progress, and, yes, they're on track to finish by thursday or friday.

>> district spans both counties, both san mateo and santa clara counties. so in order for the results to be certified with new numbers, the secretary of state would need to receive recount results from both of us. >> with any degree of luck, we'll complete the scanning tomorrow, and we should have the numbers within the next day or so. >> the secretary of state could certify the recount results as early as friday afternoon depending on when the office receives final results from both counties. well, here's something catching our attention. it's about clear. that's the service at the airport that allows you to skip the long security line for a price. lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban clear and other express line services here in california. the bill is sponsored by state senator josh newman from orange county. if passed, the bill would require third-party vendors like clear to create their own separate lines with separate tsa

screeners. those services allow people to upload their biometric data to speed up the i.d. check with tsa. clear has kiosks at all three major bay area airports. we spoke today with passengers in san jose who really don't have a problem with clear. >> travel is hard enough, and so having this ability to skip a line is helpful. >> for the most part, you just plan ahead. it's more in the strategy of how you get on the airline. >> okay. is this actually a problem or a big deal over nothing? let's bring in our resident travel expert, our consumer investigator chris chmura. if i want to pay $200, we'll say, the membership for clear, then if i don't want to pay it, let me not pay it, and i'll just wait in the normal line. is that the bottom line here? >> i just watched a transportation committee hearing. the bill did just advance. the sponsor called it inequitable and wrong. he says clear is inequitable and

wrong. he's complaining that we have a private for-profit company that is essentially allowing -- his words -- rich people to cut the line. earlier in the day i asked his office for copies of complaints from constituents about this. >> sure. >> they don't have any. they have zero. instead, his press secretary that the sponsor, the senator, has been at the airport, and he's heard people complaining about, air quotes, rich people cutting the lines. >> how much is an annual pass to clear? >> it varies. so if you look at the clear website, it's about $189 for an individual. but the reality is a lot of people have this by virtue of a credit card, like a travel-related credit card. >> sure. >> or a frequent flyer program. the way it works is you don't just skip the line. you don't get to bypass security. you have to share information in advance, essentially biometric information. so that's a fingerprint or a retina scan. so you share that in advance. you give it to them, and then the day you travel, you get to use one of those kiosks at the airport where it

cross-references that biometric information with your travel plans to verify you're a real traveler, you're actually going somewhere, and then you get to go to the back of the screening line but, yes, the front of the i.d. check line. the people in the other line didn't share that information in advance, and that's why it's taking longer to to verify who they are. >> $200 is $200, but it's really not necessarily a line in the sand for rich people or not. >> i would agree. >> so let's just say if this bill passes, then what? we just don't have those services anymore like clear? >> so the bill, as written, says one thing. and what the senator's office is saying is something else. but essentially, so this is an equity argument, right? well, this is what they're saying. to establish equity in airports, they need to create a separate lane just for clear. not just for the i.d. check but also the metal detector, also the -- what's the other thing? the conveyor belt. >> yeah, sure. >> so i don't get that. but the bill has support.

the letter on the left is from the tsa workers union. the letter on the right is from a flight attendants union, saying that the bill would restore equal access. i would be remiss if i didn't point out a contradiction here. the flight attendants work for a private for-profit company at the airport, which the government owns, and flight attendants frequently cut the line. we'll keep an eye on that. >> really quick, sjc, oakland, sfo, are they on board? do they like having services like clear, or are they not saying? >> they do. no, they're against this. they're against this bill. clear pays rent to have those kiosks. >> so they're making some money. >> that rent keeps the airport afloat. airports are not for profit. they are government-owned. that helps to keep them afloat. if the airports lose that revenue, it's going to have to come from somewhere else. it's going to be interesting to see how this works. there's also a huge jurisdiction question. here we have the state government dealing with local governments, but also the tsa.

>> let's see how it all shakes down. >> the red tape dealers are going to make a fortune. there's another service at many airports like seattle, denver, and phoenix that allows you to actually make a reservation with tsa. chris looked into how that works. you can find his how-to video at nbcbayarea.com, also on our nbc bay area youtube channel under the "how to" playlist. up next, the push to bring pandas to san francisco. it's in full swing. we have more details about what it takes to actually get them here. also, sending out postcards. why one woman in the south bay is trying to convince thousands of others to vote.

welcome back to "nbc bay area news tonight." no business after midnight. that's the proposal from san francisco mayor london breed to hopefully disrupt nighttime drug markets in the tenderloin. the proposed legislation would prohibit certain corner stores from operating between midnight and 5:00 a.m. the hope is to reduce late-night crowds at businesses where people gather to deal and use drugs, socialize, and snack overnight. the legislation would only apply to corner stores, liquor stores, and smoke shops that sell packaged food or tobacco products in the area. it would not apply to restaurants or bars. if approved, businesses who

violate this rule could be fined up to $1,000 per hour. it still needs to be voted on by the board of supervisors. well, this comes as no surprise. getting pandas to the san francisco zoo, this project is going to take a lot of planning and a whole lot of money. today mayor breed posted this video showing her visit to see a panda in person at the shanghai wildlife park. there she is. there are the pandas. she made the announcement about san francisco's incoming pandas during her trip to china last week. tonight she's back in town, and we learned more details. engineers recently visited the san francisco zoo to consult on the design for the panda enclosure. next month, more representatives from china will arrive to finalize the details, which could include when the pandas arrive. as for the cost for all this, well, the plan is to launch a big fund-raising campaign because all the money for the pandas must be private dollars and not from taxpayer funds.

the halls of congress aren't the only places where democracy happens. there's a home in mountain view that may be giving congress a run for its money. we're talking about the home of maria guentzel. in the run june to the 2016 election, she started to worry about our democracy, so she decided to take action. she started handwriting postcards urging people to vote. she used her project management skills to get others to join in. since 2019, maria and her army of volunteers have managed to send out more than 400,000 postcards and letters across the country. >> i don't have delusions that this will transform this person's life, but they see a postcard coming in, handwritten from a person, and will hopefully make this stop and think. make them think, oh, voting is important or registering is important. somebody took the time to do this. >> i agree with her 100%. let's bring in nbc's garvin thomas. you interviewed mariya for your

bay area proud series. is there a back story here? >> fascinating back story. mariya was born in the soviet union when it was still in the soviet union, emigrated to the united states as a teenager. bu with her family's experience, obviously she knows what lifen a totalitarian regime is li. and honestly as things are changing in this country, she saw, as she said it, kind of bells started to go off. people were saying things and doing things that made her uncomfortable about the direction things were heading, and she's like, i got to do something. she said even though we were raised in the soviet union, her parents very involved in civic responsibility. she quoted john lewis. democracy isn't a noun. it's a verb. >> when i get something handwritten it stands out. what does she write on them, and who is she sending them to? >> well, what she does is she has contacts with political organizations across the country. they will send her a list. they'll say, hey, we have an

election coming up. this is the election. this is the cause. here's a list of voters' names. here's a list of voters' addresses. would you write them, asking them to register, to vote, to get friends out to canvass. she's following what they have asked her to do. >> yeah. >> and so, you know, she'll do that. she'll get other people to do it. as you said, 400,000. >> we're watching her write and the volunteers. is it something like, dear raj, dear garvin. >> exactly. >> it's personalized. >> there's dear robert right off the front. you want to know s it working? >> that's the million dollar question. >> i'm going to ask you. when you get a text message on your phone from somebody campaigning, delete it. >> right away. >> you get an email from somebody from a campaign. delete. you get a postcard handwritten. >> i'm reading the whole thing. >> you're taking a moment. you're reading it. you may not agree with the political message that's in there, if there is one, but you're just going to take the time. you're going to read. you're going to think about the

stuff. to answer your question, yes, mariya has a political point of view, and most of her postcards are sent from that direction. if somebody from the other side gets one of these and they vote, even if they vote opposite what she would, she considers that a win. that's the whole point, getting people to vote, having democracy, you know, help fix what's ailing the country. >> and it's what we can do that's right in front of us. we appreciate what she's doing. i love handwritten notes. thank you, mariya. we love it. let's take you outside now. a live look at one of our traffic cams in walnut creek. our chief meteorologist, jeff tnieri, is going

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welcome back. it felt more like february 23rd than april 23rd. how you doing, jeff? >> man. i was thinking about this weekend. >> it was so hot over the weekend. >> i know. 80s, sunshine, all of that is gone now. we have this cooler system moving off towards the south. not only the cooler temperatures but the clouds. let's roll it into tomorrow's forecast and show you how things will be shaping up for us. 7:00 in the morning, here we go. more of the cloud cover. chance of some drizzle at the coastline. it really looks like at this point we'll hang on to this cloud cover as we head through tomorrow afternoon. more of a mostly cloudy to partly sunny sky. could get in on some sun breaks as we head through the afternoon. a huge departure from where

we've been this past weekend. we'll start it off with temperatures in the 50s. then through the afternoon, this is it for daytime highs. we're going to cool it off a few more degrees. only 64 in santa rosa. 65 martinez. 68 livermore. upper 50s, low 60s at the coastline. we'll add in the chance of a few showers by friday from this storm system. it's really developing over the land, so it's having a hard time picking up moisture. nonetheless, some spotty chances of showers on friday. trace amounts to a quarter inch. closer to that quarter inch around some of the higher elevations of the south bay. also watch out for some sierra snow if you're headed that way on friday. just a dusting here of about one to three inches. okay. seven-day forecast. by this weekend, we'll clear it out. we'll get some sunshine. temperatures in the low to mid-70s. looks dry as we head from saturday right through next tuesday. we'll also have to watch out for some wind here once we get into thursday and friday's forecast. but weekend, not too bad. >> i like that sunny weekend. thank you, jeff.

as we wrap up, mario lopez just getting started with "access hollywood." >> so tonight we're going to begin with a serious alec baldwin confrontation at a new york coffee spot where after being relentlessly harassed verbally for nearly a full minute, seems he's had enough, appearing to knock the phone out of the woman's hand. so how will this incident impact his upcoming "rust" involuntary manslaughter trial? "access" is going to break it all down. then we've got luke bryan's interesting analysis of his onstage slip gone viral as his fellow idol judges a little too happy to chime in. and from that fall, we go to the fall guy co-stars, ryan gosling and emily blunt, who are just as funny in our interview as in the film. but ryan had to actually rescue emily during an on-set emergency. that story and a whole lot more just moments away on "access hollywood.." >> mario, thank you. after mario, here's what's coming up in prime time on nbc bay area. back-to-back episodes of lopez versus lopez begins at 8:00. the weakest link at 9:00. and password at 10:00.

and here's what we're working on for our 11:00 news. gas prices you probably have noticed shooting way up again. but there are a few stations like one on the peninsula that's charging $7 for a gallon of regular. so why is gas so high in certain spots? we're getting some answers at 11:00. that's going to do it for us at 7:00. for everyone here at nbc bay area, including eddie duran from our control room, thanks for joining us. we hope you enjoy your evening.

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tonight on "access hollywood" -- >> why did you kill that lady? >> call the police. >> alec baldwin's coffee shop altercation. will the incident affect his upcoming "rust" trial?