i'm raj mathai. next on "nbc bay area news tonight," more problems for united airlines, and this time it involves a former coach for the giants. his actions on a team charter that's drawing attention from the faa. also, tesla is recalling its cybertrucks after complaints

that the accelerator can get stuck. it's the latest in a string of bad news for the company. plus, here they come. a pair of pandas headed to san francisco. >> we have some cute, cuddly, black and white beauties coming to our city. >> mayor breed making the big announcement in china. and we're talking to the cal student who's about to make history in berkeley. >> there's so much at stake in this election. >> we'll tell you what sets her apart. good evening. this is "nbc bay area news tonight." i'm raj mathai. a lot happening as we head into this weekend. we start with another problem for united airlines. this time it involves a well-known former coach for the giants. the faa is now launching an investigation. let's show you what happened here. take a look. a video here appears to show hensley mulens in the cockpit of a united charter.

this is mid-flight. mulens was the giants' hitting coach for their three world series titles. he's now with the colorado rockies. he actually posted this video himself, but it's since been deleted. he's sitting in the cockpit, playfully chatting. this was the team flight from denver to toronto. according to united airlines, mulens cockpit visit happened at an altitude while the autopilot was engaged. the caption on the post thanks the united flight crew for the experience. the faa says only certain people are allowed into the cockpit. now, united releasing a statement to us, calling the video, quote, deeply disturbing. the statement also says as a clear violation of our safety and operational policies, we've reported the incident to the faa and have withheld the pilots from service while we conduct an investigation. united is already faing increased scrutiny from the faa over a series of recent mishaps.

that includes that wheel falling off of a united flight right after taking off from sfo. we want to update you on a developing situation about our ferry service in the bay. a serious structural issue found at the sausalito pier. it's prompted ferry service between sausalito and san francisco halted until further notice. now, our skyranger was overhead the pier late today. officials won't say exactly what the problem is, only that it will be closed until it can be fixed. golden gate ferry will be providing bus service until then. this pier is heavily used by locals, tourists, and people heading to the giants games. right now it's out of service. also this evening, more drama and more controversy surrounding that high-profile congressional race. this is to replace retiring congresswoman anna eshoo. in addition to the recount, which is happening right now, we're also learning of new allegations of campaign finance

violations and uncounted ballots. here's nbc's ian cull. >> reporter: late today, there are accusations flying as the recount for the 16th congressional race churns along with many political watchers around the country waiting to see if evan low or joe simitian or both will face sam liccardo in a november runoff. today a south bay attorney says he's taking legal action. max zarzana, the president of the santa clara county government attorneys association, says he filed a new complaint with the federal election commission accusing sam liccardo of violating campaign finance law, writing, in an apparent attempt to skirt contribution limits and avoid negative public attention by personally calling for a recount, mr. liccardo and the other respondents appear to have orchestrated a scheme to use a newly formed super pac to illegally pay for a recount. it's not clear yet or if the fec will respond or investigate the complaint. jonathan padilla, the tech ceo and former liccardo staffer who called for the recount,

responded in part, this complaint is the definition of frivolous. it's based on nothing but conjecture and wishful thinking. also today, padilla posted on "x" that 20 ballots were, quote, improperly excluded from the count. voting officials tell us there are also a number of challenges from the campaign attorneys. the registrar adding some of the ballots in question are provisional, cast by people who registered the day of the election. >> no, they were mott improperly excluded. the processes we have in place are to make sure that every vote counts. again, the observers have their reasons for challenging these things, and we're trying to determine whether or not these are valid challenges. >> reporter: while all of this is happening today, representative anna eshoo issued a statement calling for financial transparency in the recount, saying, after learning the recently formed super pac count the vote is paying for it, quote, what i do not have confidence in is where the money deposited in this super pac is

coming from. is it one generous donor? are there several donors, and if so, how much have they contributed? are they special interests? and if so, what's their financial interest in our congressional district? we asked sam liccardo's campaign directly if the former san jose mayor believes voters have the right to know who is paying for the recount. his campaign manager responded yes. so i asked if they know who was financially backing the super pac paying for it, and he said no. meanwhile, padilla says the super pac will disclose its donor list by july 15th in accordance with fec rules. the recount is expected to conclude by next friday. ian cull, nbc bay area news. another political story that we are watching, a uc berkeley student making history after a special election. she's about to become the youngest person elected to the city council. she joins us in about five minutes. okay. this is big news. panda diplomacy. a pair of pandas coming here to

the san francisco zoo on loan from china. this rarely happens. only a handful of other zoos in the united states have been able to host the pandas long-term. >> i have some really exciting news. we have some cute, cuddly, black and white beauties coming to our city. >> she's fired up. mayor breed making the announcement during her multi-city tour through china. in beijing, she actually signed a letter of intent with the chinese officials there that outlines the plans to bring the pandas to the san francisco zoo sometime mention year. now, we've actually had the pandas here before. you got to turn back the clock 40 years. the san francisco zoo hosted pandas in 1984 and 1985 as part of a traveling exhibit. as for today's announcement, people are thrilled. >> that's exciting. we want more animals in the zoo, so i think that will be very exciting and fun for this guy

especially. >> it's an opportunity for everyone to see something different. you know, obviously the animals that we see, it's pretty exciting. but seeing something different, it just, you know, it gives us another reason to make another trip. >> worth noting, this is also a political win of sorts for mayor breed, who is running for re-election. she told us she actually asked chinese president xi jinping during his visit for the apec summit last november about the pandas. another mayor, though, was also instrumental in this moment of bringing pandas to san francisco, and that's the late mayor ed lee. his former deputy chief of staff tells us that back in 2017, lee sent a team of people to china's panda research center as part of a campaign to bring the pandas to the bay. you're looking at photos of that trip. mayor lee, who was a child of immigrants from china, saw the pandas as an opportunity to strengthen ties between china and san francisco. >> it just adds so much more to his legacy. i think it's such a strong

legacy. he died, you know, abruptly, and he was in the midst of a lot of programs, initiatives, that were going to change the lives of a lot of san franciscans. you know, it's sad to see that end, and it's great that mayor breed has kind of carried on, you know, his legacy. >> how do you feel like mayor lee would feel right now? >> i think he'd just be very proud of us, proud of us, proud of mayor breed, and proud of all the san franciscans. >> yeah, this is certainly part of mayor breed's -- or mayor lee's legacy, excuse me. by the way, those stuffed pandas he's holding in that video, he got them on his trip back in 2017 as a way to remind himself that someday the pandas would be back in san francisco. another story getting a lot of attention, tesla and its new futuristic cybertruck, there's a problem here. tesla is recalling nearly 4,000 of those cybertrucks, all of

them, because of a malfunction with the accelerator pedal. >> sliding up and the way this was still hooked onto the pedal, it held the accelerator down 100%. >> you don't want that. this is a video that went viral on tiktok. apparently illustrating the problem. you can see that pad for the accelerator, the pedal comes off. tesla says if dislodged, the pedal can then become trapped, and that can cause the cybertruck to just accelerate unintentionally. this is just the latest in a string of bad news for tesla. on monday, the company announced it would be laying off 10% of its employees and its stock price has fallen about 40% this year alone. let's bring in our business and tech reporter, scott budman. especially around here, i see a lot of these driving around town now. >> we're starting to see them out in the wild, raj. >> is this bad luck or mismanagement or problems at the fremont facility? >> it's hard to say exactly what it is, but it's a whole bunch of things that have gone wrong. even if the past few weeks with

tesla, they missed their sales numbers by quite a bit. you can blame that on whatever. but the fact is there's competition. people aren't buying as many evs. bottom line, less money coming in to tesla. so they announced 10% layoffs. that's a lot of people. >> that's common with all the companies. >> we're seeing some trimming certainly. this is just bad news. there's nothing that you can blame except yourself when you're a company that has a faulty product. the cybertruck is their new, shiny thing out there. like you said, we're starting to see them. people are very excited that there's a new ev, and this truck, and it's kind of exciting to get a new release. the fact that you have to bring them in, it's early. that's the good news. there are only about 4,000 out there. it won't take long to get this fixed. the bad news is it's a bump in the road, and they're trying to get more of these out there. >> is the cybertruck part of tesla's problems in the sense it's slowing down perhaps production of the other things, or is this just independent? >> it's pretty independent in that it's got its own line, but it is slow.

we've come to expect that from tesla cars through the years, raj. they're expected to be a certain date. that date gets pushed back. now the excitement around the bay area is that you're seeing these. this is one we just saw on the road the other day. that's great. new cars, new money, new excitement, new electric vehicles on the road. tesla's earnings come out next week, and that's going to be closely watched by a lot of people. earnings every quarter are watched closely by investors. but in tesla's case, it's a little extra. also people want to know how many cybertrucks are out there, how many are coming in the next few months, and what may be on the horizon to sort of give this company a boost after suffering through a lower stock price, lower sales, and a lower delivery number. >> elon musk has a lot on his plate. it's remarkable really that he can run so many different companies, so many different high-profile companies at that. >> right. that's some of the criticism he gets is that perhaps he's not focusing enough on these cars. after all, tesla -- and its earned its valuation as a tech

company. i get that. but ultimately, it runs and goes on how many cars it sells. and if that slows down, they've got to kick-start the company somehow. >> thank you for your insight. >> up next, a cal student about to make history on the berkeley city council. so why did she run? she's going to join us in just a minute. 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.

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welcome back to "nbc bay area news tonight." this is not a class project. it's not an internship.

it's the real deal. a student at cal is making history by being elected onto the berkeley city council. >> i'm cecilia lunaparra, and i'm running for berkeley city council on april 16th to be your voice in city hall. >> yeah, this is the campaign video for the 22-year-old cecilia lunaparra. she's a senior at uc berkeley majoring in urban studies. she just declared victory in a special election for the berkeley council seat. that election happened tuesday. she's the first undergrad to be on the city council, at least when it's all official. lunaparra leading james chang with about 60% of the vote. now, turnout, we should say, was low. less than 500al votes. so why the low voter turnout? wrl ll, district 7 covers the cal campus and the surrounding area where a lot of students live. there are less than 3,000 people registered to vote in this district. joining us tonight is cecilia lunaparra. cecilia, nice to see you. i suppose in a little while,

i'll be calling you councilwoman lunaparra. congratulations. how do you feel? >> thank you so much. yeah, we're -- i'm so excited. i am so mostly thankful for all the support that we've gotten over the past couple of months for the united student front that we've been able to push for. >> how is the reaction from your family and friends? were they fired up, or were they like, why are you doing this? >> no. they've been so sweet and so kind and so excited. this is a really exciting moment. >> so why jump into politics? what's your goal here? >> yeah. so it's mostly about my love and appreciation and passion for this specific space. berkeley's district 7 is an incredibly unique jurisdiction. it is 95% students, most of whom are undergraduates, and the median age is only 19 years old. and i just so strongly believe

that students and young people deserve a say in the way that our local government is run. >> yeah, it's actually kind of surprising. i'm thinking about it here. cal has been such a big part of the berkeley community for decades, and you are the first undergrad to actually serve on the city council seat. are you able -- is your goal now to actually get more of the students to enroll and register here in terms of voting? >> yeah, absolutely. yeah. so historically it's also a very low turnout district. this special election actually turned out more voters in district 7 than the primary in march, which is, you know, pretty significant for a local special election in the middle of students' midterm exams. and a majority of our votes were first-time berkeley voters, people that we reregistered to vote here in berkeley. so that was really inspiring, really exciting to get to do. and i'm excited to continue to do that, especially just getting students involved in the decision-making process. >> from your point of view being

an undergrad at uc berkeley, what's one or two of the biggest -- or most pressing concerns that you have in the community that you want to bring to the city council? >> yeah, absolutely. housing is definitely one of the biggest. there is a lack of housing supply as well as a lack of tenant protections and accessibility to these tenant protections. that is something i really want to kind of work to build the bridges between the student community and the local government. and additionally, safety at large. you know, part of this has to do with traffic safety especially. >> sure. >> and the way that our cities aren't investing in the infrastructure, street infrastructure, that is designed to protect the people that actually use the streets. >> again, congratulations. when i interview you in 10 or 15 years, where are you going to somebody what's the next stop for you? >> i actually want to be a high school history teacher in the future. this is mostly i care so much about the space and want to be a

representative for my community. but in the future, i want to be a public high school history teacher and a rank and file union member. >> we'll be watching you and tracking you. thanks for your time. congratulations. we'll see you don the road. >> thank you for the invitation. a live look now in san francisco as we head into the weekend. it looks glorious. jeff is goi to join us ngno hi, i'm todd. i'm a veteran of 23 years. i served three overseas tours. i love to give back to the community. i offer what i can when i can. i started noticing my memory was slipping. i saw a prevagen commercial and i did some research on it. i started taking prevagen about three years ago. i feel clearer in my thoughts, my memory has improved and generally just more on point.

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okay. this is always a beautiful event. the 57th annual cherry blossom

festival in san francisco. it's this weekend. thousands of people will flock to japantown for a celebration of japanese and japanese american culture. we love this one. and sundayre going to be livestreaming the crry blossom parade. our own traffic reporter from our morning newscast, mike inouye is the parade's emcee. you can watch it on roku and other streaming platforms and at nbcbayarea.com. jeff is with us. that's going to be awesome saturday and sunday in japantown. >> it's going to be so good with mike as the emcee. japantown in san francisco, that is a destination. and the forecast going to come in with some sunny skies for that. we have high pressure just offshore, so the storm track is going to be very close here. rain in washington and oregon. but for us, we're going to stay dry. let me show you more on that in your microclimate forecast. as we roll it into your saturday morning, here is that fog we expect. also the chance of some drizzle right here at the coastline. then as we head through the

afternoon, not only sunshine throughout our inland valleys and near the bay, but the coastline also expected to get in on some sun. i think that's going to be the big difference tomorrow. that's going to make it so nice outside. we'll start it off with temps here in the 50s and through the afternoon, we're in the 70s. a little bit above average and definitely very comfortable. 78 up towards santa rosa. 77 martinez. 72 in oakland. 75 palo alto. upper 70s san jose right on down to morgan hill. now, beyond this, we are seeing the chance of maybe a few showers next week, but really not until next thursday and friday. the timing has been pushed back by about a day on this, and totals overall, over those two days, only looking at a quarter inch and/or less. we'll keep close tabs on that. on the seven-day forecast, upper 70s to 80 this weekend. we'll drop it down to some 60s next week. but the big focus right now, that weekend. we've only had four weekends this year of back-to-back sunshine, so this will make the fifth and much deserved. >> we love that.

thank you, jeff. happy friday to you. coming up in prime time here on nbc, at 8:00, celebrities team up with everyday contestants on "password." at 9:00, a two-hour all-new episode of "dateline." then at 11:00, our 11:00 news live and local. that's going to do it for us at 7:00. for everyone here at nbc bay area, including our director, michelle garcia, thanks for joining us. we hope you enjoy your weekend, and we hope to see you back at 11:00. ♪♪ ♪ california live ♪

imagine winding roads leading you past rolling vineyards and stopping for impromptu tastings at charming wineries, boutique shopping, hiking, kayaking, exploring the rugged coastline, and the peaceful redwoods. there's something for every adventure. sonoma county is an easy, spontaneous spring getaway. and with farm fresh food and wine, this area is a foodie's paradise. i'm here in the heart of sonoma county's wine country. and as a chef, this is the most amazing place to be when it comes to food and culinary. we've got the bounty of everything. you've got fish at the coast. you've got all your artisan cheese, the best of the best produce right here at our fingertips. as a chef, it doesn't take a lot to manipulate these already

amazing ingredients and get it to the plate. ♪♪ >> and you can raise a glass and celebrate sonoma wine month. >> fallcrest vineyard is the perfect name for this winery. we have been here for 27 years. what we found was we're about 12 to 14 miles from the coast. arguably one of the best places in the entire world to grow the pinot noir grape. the house and the winery have very similar southern french influences. what we really want is for people to come and feel like they're at home. they can come in, sit on the patio, look at the amazing view, and have a glass of wine. >> and don't miss miramar estate, also dog friendly, where you can check out sculptures of resident springer spaniels chico and bonita and enjoy a glass of wine paired with tapas. >> not only is april wine month but we've got so many amazing activities coming up.

we've got blossoms, bees, and barnyard babies, the jazz festival coming up, the farm trails. there is so much to do. and if you're an outdoorsy kind of type like myself, there is amazing hikes all throughout -- at the coast, at the redwoods. i mean what other region do you get the river, the redwoods, and the coast all right here? and in april, we also have earth day. so you can spend your days out hiking. you can go to safari west for an amazing excursion, see some of their brand-new babies. ♪♪ >> petaluma and sonoma county is great for shopping. we've got lots of great antique stores. we've got antique. we've got consignment. we've got new. we've got makers on this street, jewelry makers, bag makers, clothing makers all within downtown petaluma. this store is called estuary because we're right on the river. the idea was it was a california lifestyle store. a majority of the items you'll

find in the store are made in california. >> you can pamper yourself at one of sonoma's luxurious spas or wellness centers. take a yoga class or even go for a forest bath. >> you don't need a whole lot of planning. you can book a flight from southern california right here into sonoma county and be here by sunset. it's a quick, easy getaway. it's a road trip. you can even come to road trip, which is my new restaurant opening very soon. >> with restful accommodations and fun around every corner, you really can recharge here. >> i love sonoma county because it is the best of everything. it's got culture. it's got funk. it's got the most incredible wines. i may be biased, but honestly the produce, the food, everything about it is right here in our backyard. from redwoods to the coast to the river, there's no other place to be. i'm happy to call this home, and i would love to welcome everybody just to experience

this slice of heaven here in sonoma county. tonight on "access hollywood." ♪ >> it's the most vulnerable we've seen taylor be. >> the tortured is finally here,