Nightly News Full Broadcast - Feb. 15

Tonight, health concerns deepen after toxic train derailment Ohio residents fear harmful chemicals are still in the air, land and water a week after evacuation order was lifted after of that fire accident and the controlled burning of thousands of fish that appeared dead in local waters. let people use bottled water, but what does the evidence show and just tear up a shocking video of a Blackhawk helicopter crashing in Alabama? What we're also learning tonight is the shocking courtroom moment when a victim's brother rushed the Buffalo supermarket shooter before he was taken into custody. by officers the judge said the gunman deserved no mercy the sentence handed down the search for answers in the mass shooting at Michigan State University police have discovered a possible motive the dangerous winter storm on the move Millions on alert from Arizona to Michigan Al Roker is following It's our exclusive NBC News Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, his first set of interviews since the United States shot down those three mysterious objects in the sky.

If the United States had detected them earlier, we asked if there was an intelligence failure. This is on Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good night. and thank you for being with us, official assurances are always safe near the site of that toxic train derailment in Ohio, are not sitting well with many area residents tonight, not with the people experiencing physical symptoms and the thousands of fish dying in nearby streams, it has been nearly two weeks since the train jumped off the tracks in eastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania border, spilling tank cars carrying dangerous chemicals after a controlled burn intended to prevent a catastrophic explosion, officials said it was safe for evacuated residents to return, but tonight there is concern, skepticism and anger about what is really happening and what people are being told Ron Allen is covering for us tonight tonight Outrage is growing less than two weeks after a massive train derailment and controlled burn of dangerous chemicals caused a toxic plume of black smoke in East Palestine, Ohio.

It doesn't smell safe and I take my things and leave here the residents demand answers they complain of burning eyes nausea headaches and a pungent smell and they report dead animals officials confirm that 3,500 fish died from the chemicals they don't say I'm sure something is happening in the fish are floating in the creek State officials now suggest drinking bottled water after telling evacuated resonance it was safe to return home the governor was asked who approved that controlled burning of toxic chemicals to prevent an explosion if he'd return home if he lived near the crash site where crews are now working to remove soil and debris possibly contaminated by chemicals such as vinyl chloride that are suspected of causing cancer.

I think he would be drinking the bottled water and continuing to find out what the tests showed as far as the air would be alert and concerned, but I think he would probably be back at my house today. Officials say constant testing and monitoring of the air and water shows the environment is safe, we understand some of the community's anxieties we are going to be here until this issue is fixed. I still don't believe in those guarantees. Why not? I need proofs. Janet Hill, a breast cancer survivor, says she has a constant cough and sore throat and worries about her firefighter. son who spent days working at the accident site I'm worried about what's going to happen in 5 10 15 years Ron Allen joins me here in the studio the Norfolk Southern train operator faces some lawsuits yes, multiple class-action complaints that They demand compensation and health monitoring of residents The company says it has no comment on pending litigation, it has already provided more than a million dollars and other support for the community and they say they are not going anywhere, okay , Ron Allen, thank you just reporting tonight on the crash of a military helicopter. near Huntsville, Alabama, crashed near a highway, officials confirmed tonight that it was a Blackhawk helicopter, the crash was captured on a doorbell camera, it is unknown how many people were on board, officials confirmed that at At least two people died in a Buffalo courtroom. today family anger and emotion boil over as a white supremacist was sentenced to life in prison for a mass shooting at a supermarket rahema ellis has more my brother was one of the victims of this senseless courtroom massacre families of victims facing convicted racist gunman showing Grace I hate you I don't want you to die no but also pain you have destroyed many lives here so there was anger I will hurt you and a rage too overwhelming to bear this was the moment the 72 year old sister Catherine Massey stood up to not say anything about black people we are human we like our children to go to good schools we love our children we never go to any neighborhood and take people out her brother attacked the gunman the guards quickly subdued him while Peyton Gendron was removed from the courtroom for a few minutes.

Massey was a woman dedicated to family and community. She wrote about the need for gun safety a year before gun violence stole her life. Gendron, the white supremacist gunman, was convicted of killing 10 people. people in a hate crime targeting african americans in a buffalo supermarket today he apologized I didn't do anything terrible that day he shot and killed people because they were black the judge was unmoved there is no place for you or you are a hateful ignorant evil ideologies in a civilized society the gunman received 10 life sentences one for each of his victims now if convicted of federal hate crimes he could get the death penalty Lester is fine Rahim Alice thank you tributes and many unanswered questions tonight two days after that a man shot and killed three students and wounded five others at Michigan State University and as Maggie Vespa reports that police are hinting at a possible motive tonight amid a devastating loss, students at Michigan State University returning to the Student Union for the first time escorted by the FBI recover their belongings left behind while running for their lives Monday night when a lone gunman terrorized the campus claiming three lives, things were left there as they were that night, yeah , my bag and my coat here were exactly where I left them and all of my friends' things were exactly where they were.

He also left this as tributes pour in for the eight victims, five still in critical condition and three murdered. Arielle Anderson, who dreamed of becoming a surgeon, Brian Frazier, president of her fraternity chapter, and Alex Werner, a high school athlete known for his kindness and new tonight. possible clue to motive and what may have motivated the alleged shooter, Anthony McRae, 43, who investigators say took his own life after the rampage at Target MSU. It is being investigated that he may have applied for a position here. Yes, we are trying to establish any potential connectivity, can you tell us how that came to light?

I will just be part of the investigation itself and also part of that investigation into how he obtained the gun as well as mcrae's criminal history, including a guilty plea to a misdemeanor weapons offense in 2019. In the meantime, I want an education miles away. away, in the Michigan state capital, grief turns to anger, students demand stricter gun laws and background checks when enough is enough on campus, palpable fear, someone spray painting a rock, lets us defend ourselves and the students of Carry On Campus today by painting again. on top honoring the classmates they lost and tonight the vigils continue classes here are canceled for the week Leicester is fine Maggie Vespa thank you severe weather is a threat tonight and tomorrow for tens of millions of people living in the south Al Roker is tracking him.

We, what are we seeing? Well, Lester on the north side of the storm, 32 million people from Four Corners to Michigan under winter weather advisories, winter weather advisories, weather advisories and then to the south we have severe weather, especially tonight. observing 14 million people at risk of damaging winds, hail and dangerous tornadoes, in fact, EF2 tornadoes are strongest at night and these are twice as deadly as daytime ones, nor are tornadoes found anywhere from approximately one thousand miles from Cleveland to New Orleans. millions of people from two to four inches of rain, especially in the southern plains and northward.

Lester from Michigan to Iowa, between two and eight inches of snow. Alright, thank you very much for that, now let's get into that old South ad. Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the first major Republican to challenge former President Trump even after saying she would not run against him, spoke with Craig Melvin in an exclusive interview. You don't have to be 80 to get to Washington and we have to start getting on the ship we need new blood we need new leadership because we have some serious challenges NBC's Hallie Vitale was at Haley's formal announcement today Ellie focused on that generational argument yeah, that's exactly right Lester Haley's speech is that the Republican Party needs a new generation who will take over in 2024.

Now he never mentioned his former boss Trump by name, but when he talks about the party's losses in recent election cycles, he is undoubtedly chief among them, even advocating at one point for leaders over 75 to take charge. mandatory mental competency test that would apply to both President Biden and Trump himself, meanwhile, more than half a dozen Republican candidates waiting in the wings are expected to jump into this also minor race Ali Vitale thanks, you can watch Craig Melvin's exclusive Network with Nikki Haley tomorrow morning about today and new insights tonight about the shooting down of those high-altitude objects by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, discussing it in an exclusive interview with Courtney Cubey, Secretary of NBC defenseman Lloyd Austin sits down for his first interview since the US shot down a Chinese spy. balloon and then three other flying objects over North America.

Has anyone claimed ownership of the last three? No, they don't have the intelligence. The community now believes that those three objects were not hostile, but Austin defended the recommendation to remove them. Safety of the American people. Always on our minds is the decision he says was made because the objects threatened commercial aviation and they may have been collecting intelligence objects like these probably over US skies for years but going undetected It's something the American people have potentially been in danger of for years. and we just didn't know, we don't know if you know how often these things may or may not have appeared in our airspace.

We're learning a lot more about that, the fact that the US military didn't know that. This until recently was that an intelligence failure was a military failure, no, it's how you use your radars. They recently made some adjustments to their radars and opened up the aperture and are analyzing the data a little differently than we normally do. focused on things that move fast and uh and uh, so it's a little more difficult to collect objects that move slowly like a balloon. China today insists again that its balloon flew over the US accidentally and that in response to new US sanctions it will cite countermeasures against relevant US entities.

Austin acknowledged that recent tensions with China have stopped. Communications with your military counterpart when something happens somehow tends to shut down your military communication channels. I think that's dangerous, but it won't stop me from continuing to encourage them to open. Improve lines of communication. I think it's the right thing to do to determine whether the United States could end up shooting down more objects. Austin said the government needs more information about what the first three targets were. Lester accordion QB, thank you while we continue here. disturbing new claims tonight about conditions and staffing at a hospital run by the same company we first reported on last month our follow-up is next, it's a move that could save countless lives and the advisory panel of The FDA recommends that for the first time Narcan be available without a prescription, the nasal spray is designed to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

The US reported nearly 81,000 opioid overdose deaths in 2021. The FDA is expected to take afinal decision by March 29, an update now in a story we first brought to you last month, after we reported on allegations by HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital company in the US. , that he was putting profits before patients, a doctor at an HCA hospital contacted us with shocking claims from his own Cynthia McFadden with our impressive NBC News investigation tonight. Claims accusing HCA's ban at Point Hospital outside Tampa, Florida, of putting profits before patients, in her opinion, lives have been lost due to HCA's behavior.

Absolutely, that is a very serious accusation, it sure raises alarm bells. Dr. George Janakopoulos, who has been a neurosurgeon at the Level 2 Trauma Center for 29 years, elected chief of staff there ten times. I love Bayonet Point, it's my home, but since the pandemic, he says, the for-profit company HCA has been cutting staff and saving by, for example, laying off the anesthesiology team and replacing them with what he says are generally less competent people , leading to many mistakes, including one of his patients waking up during brain surgery, the patient with son's head pants, which is a very sharp instrument that is placed in the skull to hold the tombstone, keep the head firm and I was shaving my head when the patient tried to get up, so you can imagine it could have been tragic, so it's from the anesthesia that it sure is and the agency's meeting with hospital leadership in December 2021 for the doctors who were present says more More than a dozen surgeons expressed widespread concern.

I asked the question: do you think this hospital is safe? And the surgeons unanimously voted that it was not. Then I asked.Another question for him is the dangers of the hospital and again it was a unanimous vote that the hospital was dangerous. Neither the hospital nor HCA would agree to an interview, but told us they take quality issues very seriously and that the hospital is adequately staffed for patient safety. and that they are continually looking for ways to improve, but according to Dr. Jenna Coppolis and three other doctors who spoke to NBC News, things continued to get worse in January 2022, we had 18 near Ms. in the upper part of the river, which which means that these patients' lives got worse. put at risk by errors made in the operating room absolutely as far as ICU is concerned, state regulator documents show insufficient number of nurses, two doctors told us they believed such staffing issues led to man's unnecessary death who came in with a headache later. diagnosed as an aneurysm with no nursing supervision he died before it could be repaired when we looked at the notes there was absolutely not a single nursing note for 12 hours well that's negligence right?

It is beyond negligence, which should not happen and there is more to these photographs. Provided to NBC by doctors show a surprising lack of cleanliness from leaking ceilings, bloody and clogged sinks to many cockroach sightings, one of the cockroaches was alive crawling out of a tray that was presented to us by the sterile processing department. and the problems are not just a bayonet according to the most recent federal data 70 percent of the 37 hca-rated hospitals in Florida are rated below average it's not that HCA doesn't have money ahca has generated $16.4 billion in profits over the past three years and its CEO has received $78 million in compensation over that period.

I have no problem with a good business making a profit and thriving, but when patients are dying because of their policies, I have a big problem with that if anyone at home is right. Now about to be admitted to ban that point, what would you tell them? There are other options, go somewhere else Cynthia McFadden NBC News Hudson Florida and that's Nightly News for this Wednesday Thanks for watching I'm Lester Holt, please take care of yourself and Good evening, thanks for watching our YouTube channel. Follow today's top stories and breaking

news

by downloading the NBC News app.