Morning News NOW Full Broadcast - March 8

Thank you, good

morning

, it is a pleasure to have you with us this Wednesday. I'm Joe Fryer in New York and I'm zinc lassimoire in Washington D.C. at Savannah Cellars right now on the Morning News. Now don't travel this

morning

. A renewed warning for Americans. traveling to high-risk regions as two survivors of a deadly kidnapping in Mexico return home to U.S. soil now the FBI is investigating what led to the violent kidnapping that left two Americans dead. Attacks on American citizens are unacceptable no matter where or under what. circumstances circumstances happen what we're learning about the victims and survivors plus how that deadly trip across the border is exposing too much the reality of cartel violence in Mexico shocking revelations from a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News newly revealed private conversations that appear to show owner Rupert Murdoch's concerns about former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election.

Also this morning there is a danger to children. A warning from health officials about an alarming rise in child deaths from drug poisoning, the single drug responsible for nearly half of those deaths. deaths and what parents need to know to keep their children safe finally breaking bias this International Women's Day we will explore the challenges women still face even in a modern industry and how one woman is working to make artificial intelligence be more inclusive. Don't wait to get to that one on this International Women's Day Joe, great to see you, great to see you on Tuesday and clay.

We begin this warning with the latest developments in the deadly kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico, two of those Americans Latavia Washington McGee and Eric. Williams is now back on US soil McGee was not injured in the attack Williams was shot in the leg They were rescued yesterday in Matamoros four days after a gunman opened fire on their vehicle They were kidnapped just after crossing the border from Texas Others two of the group are dead they have been identified by family members as shaeed woodard and zendell brown now the state where this happened the governor said an innocent mexican bystander was also killed in the attack and now this morning the families of the victims are speaking out about ordeal NBC

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correspondent Ellison Barber joins us from Lake City, South Carolina, which is where the victims are.

Ellison, good morning, what are the latest details we have on the rescue? Do we know at this point if this is a case of kidnapping for ransom? Authorities in Mexico say they believe this was a case of mistaken identity. The attorney general of the state where this happened in Maolipas, where the city of Matamoros is located, says this appears to be a situation where this group of Americans were crossing. to Mexico around 9:18 a.m. m., he says that two hours later his truck was attacked. They say after they were forced into the back of that van, they were taken to several different locations.

Authorities in Mexico say that was it. They believed that what was happening in each of those moves was that the kidnappers were trying to confuse the rescue efforts and create a bit of a distraction so they kept moving them until they found them again in this wooden cabin even though they are telling these While they are still investigating, they arrested a person who was supposedly guarding the area where they were being held, but in terms of the motivations behind what initially happened, they say it appears it was simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the location. mistaken.

This state of Mexico has a very high travel warning from the state department, it is on the do not travel list and the reason given by the state department is that they say there is a risk of high crime in this area and also Joe's kidnapping. Ellison, we also heard from family members of the victims this morning, what are they saying? Yes, our colleague Gabe Gutiérrez spoke with Eric Williams' wife. He was the one who was allegedly shot in the leg, according to Mexican authorities. He is recovering in the hospital. his wife confirmed that she spoke to him while he was on his way to surgery.

Here's more of what she told Gabe. I am very happy, family. The mayor of this city. Lake City confirmed that the four victims here had ties to this community. described as their hometown relatives told NBC News that they were all childhood friends and that one of the four was going to Mexico for an elective cosmetic procedure and the others, a cousin and friends went with them so they could share the driving responsibilities along the road. In some ways, this is a community that is watching this very closely and is certainly grieving and we hope that there will be a vigil later tonight.

Allison, I mean US Attorney General Merrick Garland, spoke yesterday and blamed the deaths on the drug cartels, let's hear that the cartels are responsible for the deaths. of Americans and we are fighting as hard as possible, the DEA and the FBI are doing everything they can to dismantle, disrupt and ultimately prosecute the leaders of the cartels and all the networks they depend on, and Allison, I want I mean, we know that the area is home to the notorious Gulf drug cartel, I mean do we have any idea if that group was after the kidney, so we don't know specifically what group was after him at this time ?

The Mexican authorities. US officials have said they believe this was carried out. It was discovered by a cartel group that you mentioned, one in particular that is well known, very well known in this area. The Sinaloa cartel also has activities that take place in this area. Mexican authorities have said they are still in the process of investigating this and trying to figure it out. exactly who played a role in this and arrest them and bring them to justice, but for now the only information we have about the alleged kidnappers or people linked to them is that Mexican authorities say they arrested a 24-year-old who was surveilling all four when they were recovered Joe, it's okay Allison, thank you very much and by staying at the border, the Biden administration is considering restarting a controversial policy that would allow border officials to detain migrants who enter the country illegally with their children.

The policy was lifted two years ago by the president. Biden and border officials have since been releasing families into the U.S. with ankle monitor systems and other trackable devices. The potential change comes as the Biden Administration prepares for the end of the Trump-era Title 42 policy, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. No decisions have been made as we prepare to lift the Title 42 Public Health Order. The Administration will continue to prioritize the safe, orderly and humane processing of migrants. Carol Lee, NBC News White House Correspondent, joins us. now for more information on this carol, good morning, so I think the most important question here is why the Bind Administration is considering this policy again even though they stopped implementing it two years ago.

Well, it all has to do with this lifting of Title 42 that is expected to happen on May 11. I've been trying to figure out how to deal with this because there's an expected influx of migrants at the border and that's a big problem for the administration, so what they're doing is restarting this controversial policy that started when President Biden ended up in At the beginning of his administration, he temporarily detained immigrants and their families at the border instead of releasing them into the United States, known as the family detention policy. Now, two sources familiar with the matter tell NBC News that the White House and Members of the Department of Homeland Security have been discussing this policy in recent days, having multiple meetings where they are discussing what it would look like, how it would work and things like that, although no decisions have been reported to have been made and Carol, what is in game here for both.

Administration, but beyond policy, the right people for migrants and migrant families crossing the border, yes, that's a great question because this is really going to change for migrants crossing the border and, while normally Under current policy, they would be temporarily released. to the US with ankle monitoring, this means that these families will be detained at the border, as has been the case in previous administrations, it is the policy that was started by the Obama administration in 2014, was continued by the Trump administration and then obviously it was reversed when President Biden took office and one of the reasons he said he was going to reverse those policies was because he wanted to have a more humane immigration policy, so for the president, what is the risk for him?

Politically, this is a big change. Members of his own party are not happy about this and the risk is that he will take a step like this and still not solve the problem. It's definitely a major change and it's something the White House addressed the possibility of this policy. Going back to yesterday's press conference, let's listen, we have been very clear about how we see how the president wants to move forward and he has been clear from the beginning of his administration in proposing comprehensive immigration reform and his focus has been on making sure that he expands legal avenues. for asylum seekers, limit illegal immigration, address root causes and also increase border security.

A lot of people have compared what the president is doing to extending what Trump did or being too Trump-like and I just want to make sure that that's not what's happening here, what we saw in this last administration, the administration before us. it was a destruction of the immigration system, so that's White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre, so explain to us how Biden's immigration goals stalled in Congress have been able to achieve what he set out to do at the beginning of her term and obviously this move, as she addressed, has compared Biden to former President Trump in some cases, so how are Democrats responding to that?

Well, to his first question, this president's immigration policy goals have gone nowhere in Congress. He presented a comprehensive immigration plan at the beginning of his administration. Democrats had control of the House and Senate. That policy went nowhere and is increasingly unlikely to go anywhere. now that the Republicans have controlled the chamber and we are heading into an election year, you know if the Democrats and immigration advocates, how they have reacted, look at the immigration advocates, they say this is Trump 2.0, this is a policy Terrible, this is not what President Biden does. said he would do it, you can see that the White House is very sensitive to being compared to former President Trump's immigration policies and at the same time you hear from the Democrats, the head of the national security committee, the top Democrat of the House, said Alarmed that the administration was even considering this policy and calling it cruel and harmful to children and, furthermore, that it does not work now, the White House is fueling this by not confirming or denying that what was discussed is happening from the Korean jump to here. the press secretary wouldn't do that and that's why this is still there and even though the administration says, according to our reporting, that no decisions have been made yet, there's a lot to watch from the White House Carol Lee, thank you very much, the billionaire owner of Fox News Rupert Murdoch says quote from network hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingram perhaps went too far in pushing false claims in 2020 election was stolen Comments were made in email to Fox News CEO , Suzanne Scott, were revealed in unsealed court documents from that $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the

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network brought by Dominion Voting Systems.

NBC News Senior Reporter Jane Chim. Jane Tim joins us now with more information on this, so Gene has even more explosive revelations in this latest trove of court documents that tell us a little more about this email. of Murdoch, what exactly did Joe say? These documents are eye-opening, the biggest, most expansive picture we've seen yet. This email arrived the day after Biden's inauguration and talks about a meeting with Republican senators and complains that they are throwing mud at him and asks one of his colleagues if it is indisputable that high-profile voices from Fox fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6 was an important opportunity to overturn the results.

This request fromhead of Fox Corporation was referred to an executive. who responded about seven hours later with 15 pages of examples that fuel that idea. This is where we're starting to see how much Fox executives knew and cared about their audience, but also whether or not they were telling the truth. Jane, another interesting thing that came out of this was a negative text message about former President Trump sent by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, what did that say? Are there any other revelations we are seeing in these open documents? You know, these texts are just shocking uh one of the things Carlson said talking about texting I hate him passionately is talking about President Trump I can't take any more of this he adds we're so close to being able to ignore Donald Trump this was, of course, on January 4th the messages I see in these documents around January 4th, January 5th, with executives all the way up to Rupert Murdoch suggesting that maybe we should say that Joe Biden won the election, maybe that would stop this stolen election myth.

Those are almost direct quotes from Murdoch's emails from January 5, 24 hours later. Of course, we know that Capital was raided by a mob and that myth is still alive, so Jane in the middle of this lawsuit what is the response of Fox News and Dominion to these latest Revelations. You know, Dominion says these exhibits speak for themselves. Fox, instead, is pointing out what they think Dominion is kind of cherry-picking and misleading based on the evidence, they say the context in these

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exhibits because, of course, we've seen some excerpts of these in the past. They say the

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exhibits tell the story and that Dominion is misusing their words.

You definitely see a bigger picture. these exhibits and maybe a look at what the fox's defense might be in this April trial, but it's definitely something eye-opening here. Joe, okay, Jane, Tim Jane, thank you very much to the Capitol for what is expected to be a very busy day. Federal Reserve. Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to testify before Congress for the second day in a row as inflation concerns persist, and he's not exactly offering good news when it comes to those interest rate hikes he's been teasing here now for reveal everything as congressmen. correspondent Julie Sirkin Julie, good morning, so what does Powell have to say about those interest rate increases?

Yes, the head of the US Central Bank, with a harsh warning to Congress, remember that he has already raised interest rates eight times in the last year alone and said that due to higher temperatures than expected economy and the rate of inflation still at around six and a half percent, that might have to happen again and at an accelerated pace, listen to what he said, although inflation has been moderating in recent months, the process to bring inflation back down to two percent. It has a long road ahead and is likely to be fraught with obstacles, as I mentioned, the latest economic data has been stronger than expected, suggesting that the final level of interest rates will likely be higher than previously anticipated.

If the totality of the data indicated that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes and would meet in late March to determine how much to raise interest rates. Of course, that was met with a bipartisan reaction from Republicans and Democrats to this because This could affect all sectors of the market and of course with Powell's comments, the investment markets have already been jumping on this, we have seen concern not only from the United States but also globally about his comments there because he suggested that while the FED raised interest rates, a quarter of a percentage point last month that could go up again by up to half a percentage point, of course, in As far as the lawmakers in the room are concerned and really Beyond the economy, let's talk a little bit about the political side of this, what was the response of lawmakers to Powell's warning about further potential interest rate hikes, well, you can imagine this happened before the Senate Banking Committee, even though Democrats control the Senate, there were some Republicans on the panel who suggested that maybe federal spending and energy, Biden's energy policies on that, especially to the light of the war that was fought in Ukraine. for Russia could contribute to this, but there were also Democrats, especially progressives, in the room.

I'm referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren, who talked about the job losses that these interest increases could bring and the fact that companies were still making profits despite these higher interest rate increases. that affects consumers and employees listen to that heated exchange, explain that the two million families that are going to be out of work are not going to be out of work, we are not targeting any of that, but I would say that even the fourth and a half percent unemployment is a lot better than most of the time in the last 75 years, in other words, you don't have a plan to stop a runaway train if it happens, you know, buddy, you're playing with people's lives. people, owl, will we be?

Back on the hill today before the House, of course, controlled by Republicans, so it won't be easy for him either as he prepares again to potentially raise interest rates as the economy continues to soar despite all these increases the agency has already implemented. Place and Julie briefly while we have them, I want to move on to another high-profile hearing we expect today. The acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to testify. What do we think we are going to hear? Yeah, well, Senator Ted Cruz it is. the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, where Billy Nolan, the acting FAA administrator, is expected to be present, and I mentioned Ted Cruz because last week the panel actually had before it the current FAA administrator Biden, the nominee for that position, Phil Washington and Cruz expressing concerns about his nomination, but look, today's hearing will focus on the safety reforms the FAA is implementing, particularly after two deadly Boeing crashes that left 400 people dead. in 2018 and 2019, so the FA is certainly in the hot seat a lot today on Capitol Hill. to watch in the sky and on the hill Julie Sirkin thanks it's time to check your Morning News Now weather forecast meteorologist Andrew Lassman joins us good morning Angie good morning guys we have a couple of systems we're tracking .

The next few days will impact the West Coast, the central parts of the United States, and eventually the East Coast, so let's start with exactly what's happening. You see the radar showing some rain basically stretching from Texas to Missouri and snow. from Missouri to Minnesota, this is where we expect the heaviest rain, some of these totals will end up at one or maybe two inches, so the risk again is for flash flooding throughout the day today. Yesterday we saw a similar story. We're going to see a similar setup today in Little Rock Texarkana Fort Smith in Wichita Falls, everyone included in that slight flash flood risk through this afternoon and into tonight, now let's talk about the winter advisories, we've got 15 million people under them and they extend into parts of the upper Midwest. and the Northern Plains and of course out west into California where we're tracking the next system to bring you large amounts of moisture over the next few days, but let's talk about what's happening here as we move through the next few days to that system that is going to impact. the central plains and has prompted those winter weather advisories for parts of the northern plains here's how it plays out we'll see a steady type of snow spread across the upper plains in the midwest here as we get there tomorrow we'll also see how heavy rain continues from the Tennessee Valley into parts of Texas and then as we get into Friday we'll prepare for some snow to hit the Great Lakes and eventually the Northeast as we move through the hours Saturday night, we will begin.

To see some rain, some snow in the Mid-Atlantic and all the way to the Northeast during our weekend, this is going to be something we're going to have to deal with. You can see there's a mix of rain and snow, especially in the inland areas of New England in the Northeast, but come Saturday night, that system pushes out to sea, we're left with just some windy conditions. Snowfall is possible in parts of the Upper Midwest, between six and up to nine inches, so we will be tracking. That additionally atmospheric river event is gearing up for people on the west coast, where we will see large amounts of rain, you may see some of that heavy rain and even the strong winds will lead us to structural issues once again.

We've seen this over and over again so far this winter and there's more heavy rain and snow possible in the Sierras and more of that melting could lead to flooding concerns for folks there, guys, all right, stay tuned. about Angie, thank you very much, coming soon to the Morning News. Now heading to his state with an eye on the White House, as we return to what could be Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' final State of the State address, speculation is growing that he could run for president and new developments in investigation into the origins of Coven 19. We'll tell you about the hearing scheduled for later today as the United States prepares to lift testing requirements for travelers in China next on the Morning News.

Now, welcome back, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is heralding the state as an example of American excellence saying quoting the bottom line Florida is number one that statement made at the beginning of his State of the State address just yesterday that solid delivery will come as DeSantis is expected to announce his run for president in May as the legislative session wraps up a new legislative session there that's as much about policy in the Sunshine State as it is about a national roadmap for Republicans Florida is the fastest growing state in the nation we are ranked number one in net migration we are ranked number one in the nation new business formations Florida has more people employed today than before the pandemic we are number one in law enforcement Recruiting and support Florida's crime rate is at its lowest level in 50 years, echoes Desantis' new book published last week that seeks to establish Florida under his leadership as an incubator of conservative policies and culture wars from the classrooms , we have expanded school options and protected parents' rights to vaccine mandates against greed, theater, so if you want to use it well, but this is ridiculous, we defy the experts who We opposed the elites, we ignored the rumors, we did it our way, Florida style.

The decline also points to President Biden's immigration policies. We have fought against illegal immigration in the state of Florida, from banning sanctuary cities to suing the Biden administration over its catch-and-release program. policies to transport illegal aliens to sanctuary jurisdictions and criticize gender affirming care and it is sad that we have to say this, but our children are not guinea pigs for scientific experimentation and we cannot allow people to make money by mutilating them all, key to Santa's priorities and will surely dominate the next 18 months of right-wing presidential politics as DeSantis is widely seen as former President Donald Trump's chief rival, but critics, even those in his own party, say he may be playing too much towards the extremes, it was definitely a red.

The speech about meat and this red meat is tremendously conservative. I think he's probably going too far to the right and further than he probably would need to right now for the general election because, frankly, he has a racist, anti-gay, anti-abortion agenda. It's not really going to play out well when it comes to independent suburban women, but the start of the Republican majority session is a stark reminder of why sources close to DeSantis promise he will focus first on his current job before setting his sights on the next. Not that that's stopped him from teasing what's to come.

Don't worry about the chattering class. Ignore all background noise. Keep the compass set to true north. We will stay strong. We will hold the line. We will not go back. And I can promise you this. They haven't seen anything yet, thank you all. God bless you. Our thanks to Ali Vitale for that report. NBC News has learned that the United States plans to eliminate Covid-19 testing requirements for travelers from China starting Friday, according to a sourcefamiliar. with the matter and this morning a House panel investigating the origins of the virus will hold its first hearing. NBC News foreign correspondent Josh Letterman joins us from Hong Kong with all of this, so Josh, what else can you tell us about this plan to eliminate testing requirements for travelers from China why now and what is it? the reaction in China to this measure.

When the United States imposed these restrictions, they cited the fact that they were concerned about the rising waves of cases of greed in China and, in particular, the lack of transparency on China's part. government about the data they were providing to the international community about their coveted cases, but now a person familiar with the matter confirms to NBC that the US is lifting those requirements or will soon because there is now data they have seen that shows that China's Covid-19 cases, deaths and all hospitalizations are declining, but of course the US is leaving open the possibility of re-implementing restrictions in the future, saying they continue to monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, China's government is responding by saying that any restrictions should always be moderate and science-based, and they hope this step will help facilitate additional travel between people from the two countries we mentioned a moment ago this morning. The House select subcommittee on the coveted pandemic is holding its first hearing on the origins of the virus. Can we hope to get out of that hole? This first hearing will include testimony from Dr. Robert Redfield, who, of course, chaired the CDC during the Trump administration during the beginning of Covid, and we expect this will largely focus on Republican lawmakers' criticism of the way that this has been handled particularly by the Biden Administration, we have already seen Republicans come out before this hearing with strong attacks against Dr.

Anthony Fauci, but here in China they are also watching this very closely, they say this is evidence of that certain parts of the US government have unreliably published that the origins of greed could have been a lab leak in China, are evidence of the United States politicizing the issue and trying to use Covid-19 to discredit China. Joe, yes, I'm referring to these US intelligence theories about origins. from Kobit, how does that actually play into the broader tensions between China and the United States and everything we're hearing from Beijing about those theories? Well, they say that all of this should be based on science, that research should not be based on politics and China. maintains that it has been transparent in providing information and offering to cooperate with international investigations, of course, the US, including FBI Director Ray, says China continues to obstruct investigations into Covenant origins, so the Disagreement is there, as you point out Joe.

This really reflects how this is influencing a broader sense of conflict between the two countries, as China's Foreign Minister said in his press conference yesterday that the United States is putting these two countries on an inevitable path towards conflict. okay headlines Josh Letterman in Hong Kong Josh, thank you very much, I'm continuing with the international news. Russian forces could be making gains in eastern Bhakt. NBC News foreign correspondent Ralph Sanchez joins us from Tel Aviv with this and other global headlines. RAF, good morning, Joe zinc Lee, good morning. Tomorrow, that's right, Ukrainian forces are vowing to keep fighting in the besieged city of Bakmut.

The Russian mercenary group Wagner claims to have taken control of the eastern half of the city, but Ukrainian troops remain in the west. Both sides suffer heavy casualties, but president zielinski says. The military leaders of him are united in their commitment to keep the city French protesters have been blocking oil refineries as they take to the streets against plans to raise the country's retirement age to 64. French citizens can currently retire at age 62, but Emanuel Macron says there is no choice but to raise that, as people now live longer, more than a million protesters came out to protest on Tuesday and Colombia has finally opened military service to women for the first time in 25 years.

The country already has mandatory military service for young men, but now. Women can voluntarily choose to serve Many of the first cohorts of female recruits say they see military service as a stepping stone to educational opportunities, so happy International Women's Day to those new Colombian troops and to all the other women in our lives, boys who run the world. apparently that's what we said, thank you, thank you and here comes Weight Watchers taking a major step when we return to the company's latest acquisition as it incorporates weight loss medications into its program and health officials warn about the dangers of hot tap water. can do to keep your family safe, this is Morning News.

Now we're back with a close call that the diet and fitness company is expanding into the booming weight loss drug market. NBC News correspondent Stephanie Goss has the lowdown on the weight loss old guard. is adding to the latest weight loss sensation my clothes fit differently my diet has changed ww International, formerly known as Weight Watchers, announced it will buy the company's sequence for $100 million subscription service helps customers overweight to access innovative new medications such as ozempic for diabetes and Govi ​​for obesity, the medications are made with sumaglitide, which reduces hunger and makes people feel fuller longer.

We can provide adequate information to the masses on the proper use of these medicines since their approval ozempic in 2017 and will become V in 2021. become tremendously popular. I have concerns about the off-label use of semaglitide. Medical professionals worry that they are being used by people who don't really need them, leading to shortages. I hope Weight Watchers puts up some guidelines on using cementide, so they should not recommend it to people who just want to lose 5 or 10 pounds. How will Weight Watchers prevent people who shouldn't be taking these medications from taking them first? The decision to take a medication will be based on each individual member. and your healthcare provider, our thanks to Stephanie Goss for that report.

Weight Watchers had been struggling with its subscription numbers, but this announcement that it will add the medications sent the stock up 79 on Tuesday and other medical news this morning was a warning about a danger to children. about something that many of us have in our medicine cabinets and new research about something that is on the minds of many people who go running, whether they increase the risk of developing joint problems. NBC News Medical Contributor Dr. Kavita Patel joins us now to talk about Good morning, Dr. Patel, our first study looks at the alarming rise in deaths from opioid poisoning in children.

Nearly half of all poisoning-related deaths in children five years old and younger were actually due to opioids. So why is this happening and what do parents need to know if kids are taking any type of medication that they shouldn't, yeah I think zinclin, this is a very common problem and researchers have been analyzing data since 2005 and it's been seen essentially a doubling of deaths from opioid poisoning, specifically as the leading cause in minors. out of five I think parents should always think especially about babies, who made up 42 percent of these deaths, so they are children under one year old.

Look at everything. That is why our doctor's orders today are very clear and we will try to emphasize them. locking them up and keeping them away is the best thing for everyone on any medication, whether you think it's dangerous or not, and then number two, always examine and scan, and this is what parents need to take note of, think about everything that present or back door, including people and pills or any items that may fall because babies will crawl, pick them up and probably put them in their mouths and also, another tip: keep the phone number of your center poisoning at hand and in many places. because unfortunately, in many cases, these could have potentially been added by calling a poison control center right away.

Some good advice. Alright, next we address a really important topic and that is information on the impact of scald burns from tap water. It's actually more common than you might think. I think children among the elderly are the ones who are especially at risk, so what can you tell us about that and what can we then do in our own homes to try to eliminate the risk from those birds? Yes, Joe, very quickly, so a skull burn is essentially a type of skin burn that usually comes from hot water or some type of water environment and you would think that tap water, how could it be heated? enough?

The United States is one of the few countries where there is simply voluntary regulation of our water heaters, so a safe temperature at Mass should be 120 degrees, but even at 120 degrees, if you are in that water for nine minutes, you can experience the burn and if the temperature exceeds even 10 degrees, Joe, it can take just a few seconds to If you suffer one of these burns, we typically see them in younger children and, unfortunately, in older adults, which brings us to the orders from today's doctor. Do a temperature check on your water heater. You can buy a thermometer for about 25 and do this number two, relax while. you fill this is a reference and I have to do this for my own children: at the end of filling a tub, run cold water which will help ensure that the faucet itself is not so hot and that the water in the tub be slightly cool, yes, there are such important tips and of course we have to talk about exercise.

There is good news for any runners who may be concerned about the impacts of the sport on their bodies. A new survey of long-distance runners from Northwestern Medicine looked at the long haul. hip or knee risks in marathon runners I know that is often a concern for them, what exactly did they find? Yeah, I think they looked at over 3,000 runners and I'm smiling because I don't know how many times I've taken patients who were runners and when they start having knee problems you might have to cut back on your running, but this study actually offers enough evidence to say otherwise: in fact, looking at over 3000 runners who ran long distances for different periods of time, they saw no significant increase or association with arthritis from running and I think the most important thing here is what they found which could help prevent any type of knee injury and that brings us to our final set of doctor's orders, check your shoes. about your shoes as something you should replace even if they look good you should think about changing your shoes depending on how many miles you run just to have the best support number two Dynamic warm up is key I know there is a lot of controversy How much do I stretch?

What I do? I never skip that stretch. Dynamic warm-ups can be just movements that help get your body going before you run, even just a few minutes before a long run, they can cover a very long distance and protect your joints and Think of your joints as active organs in Clay: They are constantly reforming and evolving, so you can change the dynamics of your knees, hips, and joints just by doing these simple exercises. You should always get that stretch right, don't skip the stretch. and relax after giving so much good advice yes ok Dr. Patel thank you very much thank you and a modern industry is emerging which still has a long way to go after the break on this International Women's Day let's explore growing technology. of AI and we will tell you the story of a woman working to make the industry more inclusive.

We return with the story of how an influential person became an identity thief during the pandemic. Danielle Miller financed her lavish lifestyle using the identity of Innocents. people to get tens of thousands of dollars in PPP loans now that she has pleaded guilty to a fraud scheme NBC News Now correspondent Valerie Castro has more on that story, the flashy, lavish lifestyle of an influencer from social media that helped put her behind bars Danielle Miller pleading guilty in $1.5 million fraud scheme accused of stealing the identities of more than 10 people across the country to obtain Covid-19 relief money , according to the US attorney's office in Boston,Prosecutors say Miller's social media post documented her expensive designer Birkin bags, which can cost six figures, private jet excursions and visits to fancy hotels, including the Beverly Hills Hotel in California, all financed with the money. stolen intended for covid PPP loans, it's probably easier to catch her because she's on social media flaunting the criminal complaint that describes a photo of Miller in front of a white Rolls-Royce, the distinctive hotel behind her, investigators used the photo to be linked to a fake Massachusetts driver's license, that license was used to open a fraudulent bank account that was ultimately funded with tens of thousands of dollars in pandemic-related funds.

Small business loans when you take money from the federal government is a serious crime, so it's a serious charge, a serious allegation where if we look at what he's charged with, it's pretty significant, the charges in this case are three counts of fraud electronic and two charges. of aggravated identity theft a possible combined sentence of more than 60 years, his attorney told NBC News Miller has accepted responsibility for his role in the accused crimes Miller, who has been free on $100,000 bail since his arrest in 2021, even documenting what some might say his least fashionable accessory is an ankle monitor, so this is an individual who actually flaunts what he's done and calls himself, you know, I'm a scammer , they are proud of this and are actually using it as another platform to define themselves, while the Miller cases, high-profile fraud related to the pandemic was and continues to be widespread.

The government's pandemic response accountability committee estimates losses at $1 billion and more. I have said that I would not be surprised if at the end of this exceeds 100 billion dollars in fraud it will certainly be tens of billions of dollars, the exact figure we do not yet know. Victims of scammers like Miller include taxpayers, those whose identities were stolen, and those who needed the money for nearly every penny spent. to an unemployment insurance program scammer it was not to someone who was unemployed and that is a true tragedy. Our thanks to Valerie Castro for that report last week the White House announced a $1.6 billion plan to combat fraud in the era of the pandemic. and recover the funds, the government accountability office says, since the start of the pandemic, more than a thousand people have been convicted of coveted related fraud.

That number is now expected to rise in our financial headlines. Google's annual developer conference will be open to the public. for the first time since the pandemic began cnbc's Savannah hannau joins us with that and other money news Savannah, good morning Hi Joe, just good morning to you, yes, Google's annual developer conference will return on May 10 and will be held in front of a limited in-person audience. in Mountain View, California, now Google hasn't held a conference that anyone can pay to attend since before the pandemic this year. These are the artificial intelligence products that Google is developing, including the company Bard's answer to GPT chat.

Now it wasn't a good first. impression from last month sharing false information on the James Webb Telescope Amazon says the NFL game airing on Black Friday this year will be free for everyone, even if you don't have Prime Amazon says the game will offer people a taste of the benefits that come with Prime Membership, connects as a boost for fans who may be on the fence about subscribing to Prime Video to access Thursday Night Football that Amazon is investing heavily in and encourage people to purchase on one of the days most important of the year with Airbnb. with Ted Lasso to give fans the chance to spend a night at the show's iconic Crown and Anchor Pub, the pub which is located in Richmond, South West London and is called the prince's head in real life.

Reservations open March 21 for three stays on October 23, 24, and 25. and is available to the first three people who can get a reservation which will cost 13 per night for groups of up to four people. I know it's a marketing move, but I love these little entertainment-related projects on Airbnb. It's great. I know it's great. I like it too, you get it, today is International Women's Day and we're taking a closer look at the discrimination women face in the tech industry according to a 2019 UNESCO study. It reports that only 12 percent of AI researchers are women, and the lack of women in AI has a profound impact on equity in technology design.

Join us now to discuss this is transformation and continuous improvement, AI Manager and Speaker, Sarika Hussein, thank you very much. to be with us, first of all, equitable design is very important, so what are some of the biases that we see in AI systems and how has that resulted in discrimination against women specifically? Yeah, when it comes to AI, basically, and the bias in the system uh then there's basically two or three things that uh the way it can be instilled um but on a human level when we talk about bias it's conscious and unconscious being conscious the effort.

Deliberate and unconscious is something unintentional but when it comes to artificial intelligence, it is a completely different game. We have, like the training data, basically the data that this AI model works with, and most of the data is captured from all the different devices, like the sensors of the CCTV cameras, and all that if you the devices they are not perfect, they do not capture the right information, so their data is corrupt, the second one is underrepresented and definitely calls for discrimination towards women, that is something that is introduced here, the reason is that in the real world we have underrepresented data and also when we build an AI model these data points are ingested and any historical mistakes we have made in the past definitely show up in your AI model, another is, when it comes to AI then we tend to settle for shortcuts because I understand that it is not easy to convert human behavior, which is completely subjective and abstract, into numbers.

It's hard, so when we do multiple iterations while building the model, we tend to settle on a stage that's earlier than expected and that's it. Again, one way to introduce amplification, okay, I'm sorry to interrupt Sarika, but to that end you're talking about underrepresented data and a lot of these problems in AI, how do we eliminate these kinds of purchasing biases in artificial intelligence? So to eliminate this, definitely, whenever you sign any AI model, you need to critically evaluate those models and see if they match your expectations and the other thing is the data which I already mentioned, use the right data. and a sufficient amount of data that the representation I mentioned cannot be used as is and more so nowadays we have to do things ethically and some positive news here like we now have standards so in 2022 we have now.

The ISO 23053 standards, which talk about frameworks for AI systems in machine learning, we have another one, 23 894, which talks about guidance for risk management, so basically those are some of the toolkits as well. that you already have and that hide a path through which you can actually eliminate. bias in the system, yes, build ethically and equitably, Sarika Hussein, thank you very much for being a man who beat the odds as we return to your extraordinary journey from being born blind and partially deaf to becoming one of the most successful violinists of his generation. watching Morning News Now, welcome back, a group of women at a retirement home are getting major recognition for their tribute to Rihanna's Super Bowl halftime show.

The women at Arcadia Senior Living in Bowling Green Kentucky went viral for recreating the dance to Rude Boy's remix of Rihanna's performance so after the video garnered over 31 million views, Rihanna herself sent a bouquet of roses whites to the house and included a card calling for the amazing dance, rapper Jay-Z, who produced the show, also sent one hundred red roses to show his love. for the recreation one of the directors of the house says that they were surprised to receive the beautiful gift and says that the stars of the viral video are loving all the fame and attention while we love them oh my god yes I was one of the 31 .

Millions of viewers and I can say that those grandmothers know exactly how to take Joe down, thanks and finally achieving an unlikely dream at this hour. Some say that Michael Cleveland is one of the most successful violinists of his generation. He has won a Grammy for Best. bluegrass album and dozens of awards, and he's been able to accomplish all of this without the chance to watch NBC News correspondent Sam Brock take us through his remarkable story by listening to Michael Cleveland play The Finish is seasoned Bluegrass full of passion and fury. The melodies of a lifelong love story feels like Bluegrass is in your bones It's all I ever wanted to do and something I was born in My grandparents were big fans of bluegrass music Michael was born blind and appeared in 80 of his left ear and a quarter of his right Despite his challenges, Michael's grandparents took him to shows throughout their hometown of Henryville, Indiana, starting at six months old and by three or four he was hooked on his player. eight tracks.

I'll take one of those speakers and lay it flat. on the floor and I put my right ear on that speaker and I go to sleep listening to Bluegrass behind the brilliance of this prodigy of bravery to learn how to find a good jam session I can participate in now, we put a crowd of 400 people from Phoenix to Fort Myers. Oh man, it's just pure adrenaline fueled by a family that just wanted to share their dreams. Do you think if your grandparents saw this today? I don't think they would be surprised, they would be very proud.

I hope so. Thanks Sam Brock. Irish Florida, what an incredible talent and shout out to the eight track player that's okay, he does it during this hour of the Morning News. Now the news continues thanks for watching our YouTube channel. Follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading NBC. news app