Hallie Jackson NOW - Feb. 1 | NBC News NOW

Overseas, it is the deadliest day yet in that ice storm that sweeps across the south killing eight people so far with such a dangerous journey. The gate board won't even let their drivers out onto the road where we live in Tennessee, where the storm is headed now, besides a look at a celebration of life for Tyree Nichols, he asked him to please stop and they did. . I asked my family will never be the same. An incredibly emotional service denouncing the police officers now accused of murdering Nichols and calling on our nation's leaders to do something now on police reform and with interest rates rising again, President Biden just sat down with the speaker of the House of Representatives, who has given us some kind of good vibes in the last few minutes about the whole thing.

We have more on the plural political crises the president faces, including new details about the search for classified documents at his beach house, plus Brittany Greiner hoping to land a new contract today, but that raises some unprecedented questions for the WNBA considering the concern for Griner's health and safety now, so what happens? what the league is going to do and Beyoncé announces her first new tour in seven years today, so could this be a Taylor Swift 2.0 Renaissance ticket mess for her? We'll talk about that later in the show. Hello, I'm Halle and here we go. in the air tonight with the deadliest day yet due to this ice storm sweeping through the south killing five people including a student, eight people dead in total and it's not over even at this point and you can see by what, look how sneaky and Some of these lines are slippery, which makes riding incredibly dangerous, which is a big concern right now, also in part because of things like what you're about to see downed trees in places that you wouldn't expect with 23 million people under winter alerts.

It's so dangerous on the road tonight that the gate board is stopping delivery service in parts of Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee, and then there are other power outages with more than 340,000 people in the dark across the country. Look at this, over 2,000 flights canceled almost 3,000 delayed our meteorologist Bill Karens is waiting to find out where this storm is going, but I want to be the first to protect Venegas, who is alive for us in Memphis, Tennessee, and my goodness, you're seeing how icy these roads can get. and exactly what this storm can do to a region that doesn't see this as often firsthand, uh, Hallie, a large region in the Mid-South has been affected.

You know, we saw the pictures from Texas to Oklahoma, Arkansas and here in Tennessee in In fact, this morning we had planned to go to an area of ​​the city where we could show some of the ice that we couldn't even get there, we decided to stay here in the center of Memphis because this whole area was basically an ice skating rink. a layer of ice this thick is the ice that has been covering the streets some of it has broken up they have been treating the streets with salts here in downtown Memphis but it is still dangerous there is still ice out there these are the icicles that are hanging off some of these buildings as the temperature here stays around freezing you know it's gotten a little warmer and some things have melted but it's still dangerous yesterday we saw rain we saw sleet we saw a little more rain today This is Here in Tennessee there is a lot of it in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, and when you have that thickness in the ice, we saw ice up to three quarters of an inch, that is the ice that can break branches, eventually more ice can break The trees, Hallie. and that's why there was this danger with the power grid and if the trees were going to affect that and we know that as of now we have this ice storm warning in effect overnight and into tomorrow Hallie and that was the big question, TRUE?

It's how this grid is going to hold up when you look at, for example, the state of Texas and when people in this region might take a break, that's another big question, right, so we didn't know what was going to happen again, it's the trees. the ones I know when things freeze when these trees freeze the thicker the ice the easier it is for them to just crumble. We saw it yesterday in Arkansas. I was walking by some small trees, I just touched one of them and the branches were falling apart, so the fear was that some of these falling trees could affect the power lines and then we have problems with the power grid, but so far, for the most part, that works in Texas, so the power is there, which is why a couple thousand people were without power at some point. point yesterday in Arkansas, but it was a little over six thousand, so in most of the region the power has been on for people who stayed home during the storm Hallie quad Venegas lives for us there at Memphis Squad , thank you. bring on Bill Karen now okay Bill so give us the 30,000 foot view from the radar here uh Austin it's all about Austin they've had by far the worst of this ice storm in Memphis, Little Rock, Dallas , Fort Worth, about 27 percent of the people in Austin are without power right now and that's where almost half of the power outages are in Texas, so that's the focus and fortunately temperatures are now rising above freezing in Austin, so much of the damage has already been done and now we'll wait to see how much power they can recover in the next few days, so additional issues I'll be focusing on primarily north of Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Abilene, it's been interesting today, even though Dallas has been in the 20s with freezing rain for five or six hours straight, the ice hasn't been accumulating, it hasn't been accumulating on branches or in the streets and that is because the sun's rays, even if it is cloudy, still penetrate. clouds, solar radiation and that has actually helped them melt things even though it's in the 20s that's great but the sun is about to set and we still have freezing rain so you're not out yet of danger, we still think that Dallas Fort Worth.

The area will have a significant amount of ice as we move through the overnight hours before it all comes to an end tomorrow, so the areas I'm targeting to have the highest chance of overnight power outages from Dallas south here just south of Abilene and we also have to Watch out for Little Rock, you still have a chance for some freezing rain there, so that's how it all plays out. As we move through the next two hours, the orange color is freezing rain and it will slowly come out tomorrow around 2 p.m. temperatures are above freezing the storm is over and then the big thaw starts and I say the melt will melt quickly too by the way it's Texas for Friday the 50th Saturday the 57th so by the time we get to Friday By the afternoon there shouldn't be any ice lice anywhere that Hallie left on Bill Karen.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that we're obviously going to talk again. I will know in the next few hours. I appreciate it now that the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates for the eighth consecutive meeting. The question now is where do they go from here to fight inflation in the final hours? Federal Reserve Chairman J. Powell is saying, "Hey, we can't get complacent here." The way this is today is a quarter of a percent, meaning rates are now the highest since the number one song in the country was Soulja Boy. I'm sure you remember that was in October 2007.

Now I hear the good

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is that this increase in interest rates was slower and smaller in part because inflation has slowed in recent months; It's still not where the FED wants all of this to be and this is painting a real picture of where the economy is and, really importantly, where the economy could be. go here at this point this means that any loans will still be a little expensive new mortgages new car loans credit cards private student loans plus the things you know are still expensive due to inflation things like groceries look I'm not paying 479 for an apple like you guys have lost your minds two of them want to guess how much 15 dollars understand how families are going to continue doing this yeah that's the reality for a lot of people in this country Brian Chung joins us now. expensive Brian I 479 for an apple, that's a lot of money for an apple, right, I feel like I understand that, I think a lot of people do, so Jay Powell says okay, well, we'll probably continue to increase interest increases, right?

TRUE? How is that going to help us all? Yes, did you summon Soldier Boy? By the way, no. I've never seen that with a fed. It's phenomenal. I love it. Welcome to this program, friend. I think a Timberland was a hit too. that year, but generally speaking, what we're talking about here is the Federal Reserve continuing to make borrowing costs more expensive and, depending on what you mean, trying to lower prices, the challenge is when you think about things like food, for example, a lot of that has to do with weather patterns, there's just not much the Federal Reserve can do, but what they hope to do with their interest rate increases is make things like, for example, mortgages more expensive, maybe that will cause people to go it alone in the real estate market like they have.

What has been done so far will keep credit card rates high, which means less spending on plastic. These are all things that, at least so far, have had a measurable impact on inflation when you consider that we were setting a pace of price increases of around 9.1 percent in the middle of last year it fell to 6, 5 percent according to the latest reading, but we are still very far from where the FED should be, which is two percent. The FED has reduced these interest rate increases, they will probably do so by a few. more from here, but they have been able to make them smaller because what they expect is that the impact of the interest rate increases they have made so far will take a few months to bleed.

Now they have that exit ramp, maybe. that gently brings them to that two percent goal, you know, part of when we talk about how when we talk about the economy, we're generally, we think about things that affect our budget, like our groceries. I think a lot of people think too. about things like rent or mortgage, for example, if you want to buy a house, what does this mean? You're talking to a real estate agent who isn't too concerned about that. Yeah, well, for what they're worth, the numbers in the real estate market certainly don't. It doesn't look good when you look at, for example, existing home sales that hit around 4 million in the month of December, that's the slowest annualized pace we've seen in many years, but I talked to a real estate agent in Atlanta which, by the way, is a hot market that you mentioned that people still want houses, but there are questions because of these high mortgage rates that are around six percent right now.

Listen. The demand has nothing to do with interest rates or anything like that. Demand is about household formation and so that's what you're seeing, hesitancy is what happened, but demand is still there, people who are able to buy are still there and here's a measure of the hesitation early last year, this time last year she was seeing 32 offers. 85,000 above what the homes were asking for at the end of last year, they were only getting maybe one or two strong offers, so it shows the hesitation at least in that market, it sure does. Brian Chung. I know there is no doubt on your part. the market or how to make the boy soldier, which we'll come back to later in the show, thank you, so listen, I've done it, thank you.

What Brian has presented is really the right backdrop for this great meeting today between President Biden and House. Spokesman Kevin McCarthy basically said, "Hey, let's talk economics, show me your budget, I'll show you mine, and then in the last few minutes, we got what I think is fair to characterize as surprisingly good vibes from Kevin McCarthy about this saying." There's still no agreement on what these two will do to avoid a financial crisis, but he thinks both sides will at least keep talking. Look. I thought it was a good meeting. We promised we'd continue the conversation.

We'll see if we can get there. I think that at the end of the day we can find common ground, so while this is happening, here is the political backdrop, not just this discussion about what is happening with the country's finances and whether we are going to pay our bills or not. Basically, but also the house you're looking at here. New details about the FBI's search of thepresident's house in Delaware Beach. They were searching for lost classified documents. We understand that the search was pre-planned. There was no court order and in the last hours. We've heard the president's personal attorney look at this saying that, in fact, no classified markings were found, no documents with classified markings were found in Rehoboth Beach, that's just one of the political battles and investigations that the president is facing right now, You see the rest. on your screen, including investigations into your son Hunter and, by the way, new articles of impeachment filed against your secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, Mike Memley is outside the White House, so ma'am, we love cubes here, let's take it in buckets and start with this classified documents issue the FBI is going to search the president's home in Rehoboth Beach it's a

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worthy event that's one thing that's true here's another thing that's true it's not exactly similar or the same as The FBI going and executing a search at Mar-A-Lago explains the key distinctions here because there are some, for example, when it comes to subpoenas, etc., at least based on what we know so far.

Yes, Hallie, this was a major development, no doubt, but it's not a surprise, one of the reasons we know. It was no surprise that we had our cameras there ready because we were expecting the FBI to search the president's beach house, since he has his home in Delaware and as we learned yesterday that they had their office here in Washington DC once again, the important distinction is that this is being done as the president's own lawyer, Bob Bauer, expressed it, with the full cooperation of the president, his assistants and his lawyers, so it is an important factor that we must establish here, but I also think it is important reference the key line in that statement because the lawyers go to see Attorney Hallie and when they say that no documents with classified markings were found, that is very different than saying that no classified material was found and it is very important to remember the report from our colleague Carole Lee, who we know from In the search of his home in Wilmington there were also multiple and the exact number is obviously something we're trying to pin down, but many notebooks that have the president's own writings, his own handwritten notes from his time as vice president, could contain classified information. those notebooks just because they don't have classified markings doesn't mean it's not classified information and that's why the continued searches of the president's house and other entities related to him are important because once a special prosecutor as we know, Mr.

Herr , is on the job today has his own strength in an investigation, he can follow leads wherever they lead and sometimes he takes them in unpredictable directions, so that's something that the administration, the White House and the president are grappling even as we We are getting some new details, based on multiple sources, that apparently the general counsel of the National Archives testified before the House oversight committee that they were told not to send out a press release about this about the role of the archives in all of this, so that's one What's a backdrop to this, then there's the other kind of piece of this that's unfolding at the Capitol today in the last 24 hours or so and it's the Republicans, I really think stepping on the accelerator they start what we've anticipated for a long time and that there are investigations into the president, the White House and his son and specifically they are trying to impeach their secretary of homeland security because of their concerns about the border, for example, there are some new reports about how the White House is trying to play defense here, well, it's interesting Of course, the White House continues to insist that they are going to cooperate with these Capitol investigations when they believe they are in good faith.

Now that's like an important distinction, there's a definition that will be subject to interpretation from all sides. Now, one item you list is the Hunter Biden investigation. There are some new reports about some allies of the president and some members of Hunter Biden's own legal team recognizing the need to perhaps raise some more money to pay for his legal defense. Now I want to make a distinction here between the president who supports this effort and the president's allies who support it because there may not necessarily be alignment when it comes to both the legal strategy here and the public relations strategy here, but this It's a potentially $10 million legal defense that could need to be mounted and you'll need to raise some money to do it and then very quickly we talked about this whole discussion about the debt ceiling.

Here's why this is important. Please don't get your eyes glazed over. Here's why this is important. Basically the opening of what is expected to be a month-long fight between House Republicans and the White House and yet here Kevin McCarthy appears on camera in just the last couple of minutes and I was like Oh, he's not angry. He, he's saying things that are not terrible, you know what I mean, not because but because it seems that there was, if not consensus, a path towards consensus. Here we have the rhetorical equivalent of Brian's excellent Soulja Boy. I mean, this was a surprise and the positive thing is that we didn't, that's a stretch, well, don't ask me to dance, but anyway it was notable to hear speaker McCarthy quite upbeat, he even suggested to Hallie that they could get to an agreement on a two-year budget now. that's something we haven't seen in a long time, yes, in this first meeting, Hallie is about taking a stand: the president has been clear in challenging Republicans to put some details on the table and I think Chairman McCarthy wants set the tone by saying, "hey, I think." we can come to an agreement here there is a long way to go Mike Mike Emily lives for us outside the White House member thank you, I appreciate it we want to take it live to Memphis Now with an emotional, difficult and moving scene there later today where people who knew and beloved Tyree Nichols joined those fighting for justice for him after his death to remember the life he lived to remember not the body camera video of the horrific beating at the hands of police, but images like the ones you are about to see Nichols, a son and a father, and how they described him today.

A beautiful soul. He left too soon. Family members described how losing him felt like a nightmare. I lost my faith. I cried. I screamed at God asking how he could allow this to happen. Tyree was a beautiful person and for this to happen to him is simply unimaginable, we cannot continue to allow these people to mistreat our children, so yes this was a moment to celebrate Nichol's life, but also a moment for a call to action. action with the presence of Vice President Kamala Harris, she promised that the white House will do whatever it takes, everything it can while seeing her there hugging the Nichols family to try to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

We demand that Congress pass the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. Joe Biden will sign it, he won't. negotiable this funeral will take place three weeks after Nichol's death, just a few days after some of the images of that meeting were made public with demonstrations from coast to coast again calling for accountability Antonio Hilton joins us now Antonio tell us how it has been Being there has been a very emotional day for many here, Halle, as people have been waiting for this moment to come together to celebrate his life, you know, for weeks and it was an interesting ceremony because it combined a celebration of his life. hearing so many tender moments, things we hadn't heard about Tyree before, very simple memories, you know, talking, people, talking about taking care of him, the snacks he liked to eat for him, watching Looney Tunes on TV when he was a kid, very simple details about his life, but A reminder of how universal this is and how often as these stories grow and become national and it becomes all about the horrible way the person died, there are actually so many things about his life, just these regular little moments that can become so easy to understand. forget and drown in the rest of what is happening here and so the ceremony set out to touch so much of who he was as a person loved by all the people here today, but you know like all the black churches, historic black churches in particular.

In places like Memphis they always give you a message, there is always a call to action and it was no different here today, everyone who spoke talked about the need for Tyree not to die in vain and how the next step must be legislative. action Community action here and how they are going to turn this moment into a push listen to some of what was said at the funeral how can you have the same department and then keep crime down on one side of town without beating the hell out of the people? but you can't do it on the other side of town and every time you kill one of some video, we will say that the legacy of Tyree Nichols is that we get equal justice quickly and we tell one of the moments when people were on their feet and applause today was when Senator, excuse me, Vice President Harris came forward and spoke forcefully and said that the Biden administration was committed to doing everything possible to get the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act passed, the People were clapping and applauding for that moment. and that's a good example of what the community is looking for now after his death there was another moment that I thought was noteworthy here when we heard from Tyree Nichols' family and you heard one of the family members talk about the lies and deceit after Nichols' death that they didn't quite know because his truth wasn't told in those moments after his horrible beating at the hands of these police officers until Days Later here and that's part of what I think has raised so many questions.

Here on police transparency, why was that initial press release so contradictory to what the footage later showed? Etc. We've been hearing that maybe more charges could come up, maybe more people could be charged, what's the status of the investigation into that Hallie? It looks like we find out more about the next stages of all of this. NBC News received the administrative files, the records of these five officers and discovered that four of them had a fairly extensive history of violations in the department ranging from not filing paperwork correctly to using force incidents to even a very ironic incident of one of the five officers driving recklessly during a call one night and causing a three-car accident.

I mean, it's the kind of thing you can't make up because when you remember that this whole story starts with an allegation that Tyree Nichols drove recklessly even though we have no evidence from that hearing that an officer involved participated in that, it raises questions. about the department, what people knew or didn't know and why these officers maybe weren't facing any kind of accountability before this, you know, if this could have been avoided, those are the questions we're hearing now in the alley Antonia Hilton, uh, thank you for being there for us on the ground after what I know has been a long and difficult day, I appreciate that it broke right when we were in the air tonight.

NBC News has learned that the FBI is now speaking with a Navy veteran related to Republican Congressman George Santos. This guy says Santos basically pocketed $3,000 that was on a GoFundMe. Account met for surgery on his dying service dog The veteran says he is giving the FBI everything he has, including text messages with Congressman Santos An FBI spokesman in New York declined to comment Santos has incidentally denied The accusations that join me now is Ali Vitale and Ali, I'm afraid I said that I think all the facts that we know like that is what we know at the moment, not much beyond that, but the interesting thing here is that it seems that We are confirming the involvement of the FBI at all, if this turns out to be true and with this Navy veteran telling us it is true that the FBI has contacted him it is something interesting it is quite interesting and it is another legal tangle this goes further beyond lies about where he went to college and lies about who he worked with and where he really is this was something illegal going on here we knew there were questions about what was going on within his campaign finances now these are a different set of finances through the GoFundMe account and this Navy veteran, but however, the FBI is now another entity that we can probably add to the list that is investigating George Santos now again.

This doesn't mean he's done anything wrong, but it certainly means people are investigating whether he's done anything wrong in this and all of those. Other regards, our producer who has been out there all day asked you about this. Noanswered none of those questions. He hasn't really responded much to anything outside of his office today, but nonetheless, it's against the backdrop of Santos leaving committees as he says all the dust around him settles, but he also says he's not going to resign from Congress even when we saw polls in his district that said a lot of people there, both Republicans and Democrats, don't want him serving and representing them Ali Vitale lives for us on the hill Ali thank you very much for coming here on the show the goat says he's gone to always how the football world is reacting to Tom Brady's retirement this year plus some good news about it radioactive pellet lost in Australia, we'll tell you where officials say they found it, the real radio and the active needle in a haystack who got it, we'll tell you where and our five unrelated things a day after Tom Brady said he was retiring Tom.

Brady today says that he will retire, the legendary NFL quarterback and announces on social networks that this time he will leave permanently and that he would not change anything. I won't be verbose. You only get a super emotional retirement essay and I used mine. until last year, thank you all for allowing me to live my absolute dream, many reactions from the football world today, former teammates and opponents posting photos, posting comments, from likes, congratulations to Simply the Goat Emoji, as you know, the biggest goat of all time and by far. of people think it's the goat, right?

Seven Super Bowl wins in 23 years, was the MVP in five of them, a very notable Super Bowl loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, in case you forgot, had three league MVPs, was the leader of all times in passes. yards and touchdowns for both the regular season and playoffs Sam Brock is following this from Miami. I'm not too small a person to notice that Tom Brady lost to the Eagles, let me tell you he's obviously still a good player, but this really, like he said last time, was real too and then he didn't, he's not retired here , like we should buy that, this is it for him, wait, are you an Eagles fan?

That's why you mentioned that, not him? I lost twice to the New York Giants. You know, it really depends on what your perspective is on this, but hell yeah, I also wonder what we're going to talk about now that Tom Brady is retiring. I'm really like he's trying to figure this out. I will say this, Hallie, you know in terms of what this means. It means moving on for Tom Brady, are you serious? It would be pretty difficult to argue that it's not because what are his paths to another championship? He's with the Bucks, they barely made the playoffs last time, we know he's looking for another ring. to San Francisco who already has a young quarterback now in Brock Purdy Miami where they told me they will keep Tua, there is no team out there, you can just leave Brady and an instant formula, he is ready to go to the Super Bowl .

I think that's part of it and it's also that he's 45 years old, he started last season as the oldest player in the NFL last year and ultimately I don't care how amazing the Magic Elixir you're using to become active at 45 playing as if you were 25, but eventually father time catches up with you. The ravages of time will turn us all grotesque eventually, but the point is that we are going to see Tom Brady again, he literally has a movie about him on the way. he's coming out tomorrow starring very famous people, he'll probably end up in the broadcast booth, won't he be a Tony Romo style announcer?

Yes, he could definitely be seen as an incredibly insightful and successful broadcaster. A 10-year, $375 million deal is already signed with Fox Sports, so yeah, that's definitely in the cards in terms of some of his other ventures. Hallie, you have a health and wellness business. He talked about the film industry. 80 for Brady. He really would. I'd love to know who the target audience for that movie is, but yes, that's also a topic that focuses on Tom Brady. He's going to be very busy, but a lot of people are going to really miss the fact that this guy who's done things that we've never seen Hallie before, won three Super Bowls when he was 20, two when he was 30, two when he was 40 years.

Every decade was a Hall of Fame career for this guy, there was no one else in professional sports you can think of from the peak of your career. head that has a resume like that, well when you put it like that, Sam Brock, thank you very much, I can't tell if we're going to get hate mail from Brady lovers or the fans, thank you, speaking of sports, let's get on with it because Brittany Greiner's return to the WNBA this summer could create an unprecedented new question for the league, one they haven't had to address before because remember, Greiner is a free agent, said she would return to the Phoenix Mercury and could sign a contract today, but after spending nearly 10 months behind bars in Russia and returning to the US in a dramatic prisoner exchange, but the US says she was wrongfully detained for driving Greiner to and from road games raises some safety concerns, there are some who say Grinder may need some special travel accommodations, like maybe charter flights, well the WNBA doesn't allow individual teams to charter charter flights, they all have to fly commercially, any changes to that would have to be approved by both the union and the league.

Kathy Park joins us now and Kathy the Number one thing, right, has to be you. Do you think Brittany Greiner's safety here, the issue of charter travel for the WNBA has been an issue for a while, talk to us about the dynamic here in the way the league is going to have to do it. Dealing with these questions, yes, it has been an issue for the WNBA for quite some time, but obviously with Brittany Greiner in the picture now this has changed the conversation, safety will be a priority and the WNB commissioner, as well as leadership. with Phoenix Mercury, if she is officially joining that team later this summer, they say they are already talking to security experts to ensure her safety, but Hallie, as you mentioned, all WNBA players are required to fly only on flights commercial. and if they have their bylaws with these flies, they have to get approval from the league and the union and if they break these protocols, they could receive a pretty hefty fine, but Brianna Stewart has them quite active on social media.

She is perhaps one of the most visible and high-profile players with the WNBA free class this year and said she is willing to offer her zero money to charter these flights and is also getting some traction from current players with a wnb. as former players, so we'll see if that's something they move forward with, so listen, the WNBA is a very different size league than, say, the NFL, very different size companies that we're going to contribute to the revenue that each made in 2021. but if you look here, the NFL, the NBA Major League Baseball, which I'd get into if I had a ton of money, they're all charter flights, except in some cases where the team owners have their own private jets. so, this feels like and again, the WMA doesn't make as much money, but this feels like another problem of um, things just aren't the same, right, things just aren't the same in this women's league as they are in these men's leagues.

Yeah, when you put all those numbers together, Hallie, you're comparing billions versus millions in revenue for the WNBA and when you look at the charter situation, the WNBA commissioner said, look, they can't move forward with charter flights because It will cost approximately 25 million dollars if they hire these players in the 12 teams, however, she is open to discussion, she said, look if the companies are willing to pay, it's all yours Kathy Park, thank you very much for that, it is I appreciate. Jump to the five things our team think you should know about tonight number one: The UK is experiencing its biggest strike in over a decade.

Today we are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who retired due to salary and pension issues. Teachers, train drivers, airport staff. First. First responders and this is not the end, there are more strikes to come, number two, officials in Australia, are you ready for this? They say they found that radioactive needle in a haystack, that little radioactive ball that you see there that disappeared in the Inland, the search area was 870 miles long, which is about the length of California. This team driving with special radiation detection equipment discovered it on the outskirts of a mining town and officials say it's all contained.

Hey, good for them, they did it. The third former governor of South Carolina. and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the expectation is that she will announce a presidential push later this month, according to sources familiar. Haley is sending out invitations for a special event on February 15th. If this happens, it would make her former president Trump's first official Republican primary opponent, unless of course anyone jumps on her with that number four, people in New York City will have to start asking plastic forks and spoons when things are handed to them, that's because Mayor Eric Adams signed a bill today that would ban plastic utensils on extra napkins. additional containers unless people specifically say they want them.

Officials say this is a necessary step toward a cleaner, greener city. It goes into effect this summer. Number five. A green comet is flying near Earth and tonight you may be able to see it with your own eyes. Without telescope. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to detect the comet, which is what scientists say. It will look like a small, diffuse glow. You'll need to be away from the bright lights in big cities, so go out into the woods and get some bonuses. tonight we're back, the College Board has eliminated its new AP African American Studies class, eliminating things Florida's governor had a problem with what's out and with the nonprofit saying why it's changing course on this course below, the curriculum for an African AP -American Studies course was changed after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis banned the class because he said it had a left-wing bias.

Well, the College Board no longer has the official curriculum today and there are big changes to the sections of the curriculum that were criticized by the DeSantis administration, for example, they removed the names of several black authors, removed topics such as the lives of blacks matter and black struggle in the 21st century, they added a theme called black conservatism. Ron Allen joins us now and Ron, the university, listen to the College Board said they were not going to bow to political pressure. They're saying these changes were going to happen before DeSantis stepped in to criticize them.

Help us understand what the College Board says about their rationale for making these. changes that align with what DeSantis and the governor's administration wanted to see, welcome to Black Heritage Month and the latest chapter in the nation's culture wars, which is why all of this is happening today, to some extent, the College board says this is a process that has been going on for several years and that's true and the final version won't be in classrooms across the country for another year or so, it will be rolled out more widely now, so who are producing this framework and what they are saying. is that this is the result of consultations with hundreds of African American history experts.

There are critics. There was an open letter in the middle that was written by hundreds of African American experts criticizing the proposal and Florida and the governor of Florida for their role in changing this. so it's a very emotive topic, basically the College Board is saying that they are focusing this curriculum on what they call core themes, not primary sources, not secondary sources, and contemporary themes and themes, which is part of the academic jargon for try to say that We're trying to focus on the basics and not on these contemporary Flashpoint issues. You know, you talk about several authors who are not required reading now.

They are authors who write about things like critical race theory, which you've heard so much about in recent days. The reparations movement on black lives matter on contemporary issues and rights and as you pointed out, yes, there is now a nod to conservative black conservative thought and these are people who are against things like affirmative action and they are against in favor of self-sufficiency and against the government. programs support safety net programs, etc., so this whole issue of African American studies is now firmly at the center of the country's political debate and, of course, all of this even more so because DeSantis is expected to run for president Of course, that is why there is so much in the spotlight politically and at this time it is also possible that even with these changes the Florida Department of Educationmay still decide not to allow this course to be offered like this, it is still a possibility on the table in Florida, yes, but remember that this is a national course, so there are school boards and school superintendents across the country that are looking at this and who will evaluate and refine it.

It will certainly be taught differently in Florida and Texas than in California. and New York as long as it is the final product and you know again that this is important because this is a course that many students take and an exam that they take that gives them college credit that gets them into some colleges and this is the first time that The College Board, this nonprofit that's kind of the big arbiter of all these things across the country, offers an African American studies course for advanced placement, there are several dozen other courses in the sciences and arts, and there's a A European history course, but not an African American history course, and of course, again, the bottom line is that this is putting this firmly at the center of the country's debate about this racial reckoning that we're going through on issues of race to simplify. there is a group of conservatives or people on one side who think that history should just be about the basics, names, dates, places, events and others who think it should be more progressive, more progressive, think about contemporary issues, which is happening in the country and that is where it begins. getting into trouble about what should be taught, how and by whom, Ron Allen, that's a great breakdown of this.

Thank you very much for your reports and for being here with us on the program. Thanks on Capitol Hill, today lawmakers are taking aim at all that covid. relief money that they say has resulted in fraud and a lot of money lost, by the way, that's your money, it's your taxpayer dollars that ended up going to things that basically weren't legitimate, but when lawmakers try to get to the bottom of it Deep inside the affair. for example, how much of their money was spent fraudulently, they don't really know that they couldn't access it, look, it will be a while until the full extent of the fraud is reached.

No, it's clearly in the tens of billions of dollars. I'm not surprised if it ultimately exceeds $100 billion, which is an incredible amount of money. Earlier this week we discovered that the government provided at least $5 billion in potentially fraudulent pandemic-related loans linked to nearly 70,000 questionable individuals. Social Security numbers are just one part of this. Tom Casella joins us now with more of this and Tom, this was interesting today because we heard from Witnesses, including one who said that basically some of the warning signs were there, yes, by the way, he was being conservative. the actual estimate is 500 billion dollars, it's a staggering amount of the five trillion dollars that was allocated for all these pandemic relief funds, a huge amount of money and you're right, it's your money, it's my money, this is money that was essentially being siphoned off. reminders to the audience to make sure there was food on the table for the families who didn't lose their jobs, didn't lose their homes, businesses stayed open, all of that and yet there was practically very little oversight and listening, this is not really Arguably, most government experts, the GAO, the Inspector General. everyone acknowledges that there was very little oversight because the emphasis was on getting the money out as quickly as possible so that we can save the country from essentially imploding, that's what it was like an emergency situation and they were like, do it, you've got it. to help people, but now we are paying the price because if you look at the amount of money there is, here is the thing that has gone to the Russian criminal syndicates.

Chinese state criminal syndicates. Nigerian criminal syndicates, not to mention you know people who were already worth several million dollars here in the states stealing money that was meant to keep businesses alive, literally buying an island in the Gulf of Mexico with that money, some guy just being convicted, I mean, the fraud is staggering on every level and unfortunately the chances of you and I getting the money back are very, very low. I have to say that there are some legislators who are trying to say that this is also a political thing, such as the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican James Comer, this is what he said.

He said we need to identify where this money went, how much ended up in the hands of scammers or ineligible participants, and what needs to be done to ensure it never happens again. He calls it the biggest theft of American taxpayer dollars. It makes sense, but it seems like there's a bipartisan push to get to the bottom of this because the point is not that you said we're probably not going to get that money back, but for the next emergency, for the next time, how can they prevent? Yeah, well, God forbid, we have another one, but you're right, there is little to no disagreement about the fact that a phenomenal amount of money was lost and the Republicans blame it on the Democrats who were in charge of Congress.

At the time they said they did not provide oversight, Democrats blame Republicans, especially Trump, who apparently told his specific offices that within his administration they do not cooperate with Congress to provide details about where all the information goes and everything the money. We're going to reduce the flow of data, so there's a lot of blame going back and forth. I'm not sure people at home care. I think most people at home say just don't do it again and get your money back. They can do it? Again, can you implement processes that prevent this from happening? That's what all the emphasis is on and I think today we have two independent Witnesses who are very credible and very good and who said we've warned about this for years, now is the time.

Implement steps to ensure we don't go through this again Tom Costello, you were always in charge. Thank you. I appreciate you being with us coming here on the show. More questions and a bigger reward for information about anything. It's happening at the Dallas Zoo, but there is good news. The missing monkeys we told you about were found. We'll tell you more about what we'll hear from the zoo tonight, plus a new video showing the lengths a canine cop would go to. to save his partner, where do you see it? What's next on the premises. NBC News covers hundreds of stories every day, and since you can't read, watch or listen to them, all of our Bureau teams have done it for you.

This is what they say. us is going down in your regions in a segment that we call our Western Bureau location that just reached us not long ago, police in Oregon announced that a man wanted for torturing and kidnapping a woman died after a confrontation last night. The accused attacker is reportedly still in critical condition. Officials said today they are also linking the man to two murders. This is the person they believed he was using dating apps, even after all this from our DC Office, one person died, three others were injured. After someone shot seemingly random people on a public bus and at a subway station in Washington, passengers board the suspected shooter on a train today.

He is now in the custody of our Southeast Office. Watch this video showing a Texas canine officer braving a tornado. last week to save his partner so here's the deal the dog was apparently inside the car in a kennel look at this when the storm started to pick up the officer runs out and grabs them there is like wind debris everywhere he told our Houston affiliate that couldn't I didn't see anything when he did this, but there was no way he was going to leave the Family behind, that's what he called it, don't leave the Family behind, that's just terrifying, unbelievable and amazing, that so much He, like the dog, were fine talking about animals that are fine.

You know, those two tamarind emperor monkeys that went missing from the Dallas Zoo, they're safely back home at the zoo, so great, here's what's maybe not so great, tons of questions about what happened to them, Speaking of little Bella and Finn, here they are. In this picture, the Dallas Zoo did a health check and says that although they lost a little weight, they are both in good shape, eating and drinking normally, how do you find them okay? They received a tip, so the police went to investigate. This abandoned house just south of Dallas where they found the animals right when we were on the air last night.

We didn't know what was happening when we were talking to Morgan Chesky, but the police department shared this image showing one of the monkeys inside. a closet placed in what looks like a section of chain link fence Morgan Chesky joins us now and great, we talked last night as if, unbeknownst to us, you and I were having this conversation on the air, the police were like going and finding Bella and Finn, all these questions about how they came about in the first place. What else do we know? Yes, this mystery is only half solved. In reality, all they gave the police was the address of their home south of Dallas, where they found an abandoned house with the monkeys in the closet, so, as you mentioned, other than losing a little weight, both Bella like Fit seem fine, but the detective or the spokesperson.

The police department I spoke to last night said detectives are absolutely looking ahead and they have this photo they released of a man seen at the zoo on Sunday, they are not calling him a suspect, they are not even calling him. a person of interest, but they want to talk to that man and ask him questions about Finn and Bella's disappearance and that's really all the police are saying right now, they gave the public credit to that informant for calling them and they're really waiting for the post that photo, someone else in the public can connect you to that individual in hopes of closing this case at least on this incident that occurred at the zoo involving the two monkeys.

Dude, well, you say this incident because there have been other incidents as well with enclosures being cut down Etc. um, you know, this is national news, like what's happening at the Dallas Zoo is national news, is there a sense of that things are going to be calmer at the zoo? Are you worried about security? and the security of other animals there are now absolutely brief, answer what has been interesting in talking to zoo officials and that they have increased security every time something happens, since January 13, when Nova, the clouded leopard originally It disappeared, fortunately it was returned.

That enclosure was discovered to have a cut along with several other enclosures, then you go to January 21 and you have his endangered vulture pin that was discovered dead and had lived in the zoo in harmony for over three decades so You can imagine the frustration and trauma the zoo staff are going through regarding these incidents. Ali, as to whether or not something will happen again, they're going to have to pull out all the stops, more cameras, more foot patrols, and hopefully more eyes for the public to try to do it. locate the person responsible here behind this disappearance of these two monkeys, that's for sure Morgan chesky Live for us there in Dallas Morgan it's a pleasure to see you, thank you still for coming here on the show Beyonce, have you heard about her first tour solo in years, but trying to get those tickets, people are worried that it will break their soul.

The souls of some of our employees on this show, like Taylor Swift, let's talk about what we know about this next potential ticket issue, maybe after a break. Ozzy Osbourne announces today he is retiring from road shows, the Grammy winner and founding member of Black Sabbath says he can sing very well, but the pain of a spinal injury has weakened him physically, this is how he describes it and also shares I know I couldn't handle it with the travel required, I would never have imagined my touring days would have ended this way. That rock and roll lifestyle wasn't always easy for Osborne.

His struggle with substance abuse has been well documented and in 2020 he shared that he had been diagnosed. Parkinson's disease still Osborne says that he is thinking of ways in which he can continue performing without having to travel, which is good news for his loyal fans. There is another music icon that is making a lot of headlines today because it is official as of today Queen Bee will be returning. On tour, she's back, she's going to tour and she's posting this photo on Instagram that simply says Renaissance World Tour 2023. This is the first time we'll see Beyonce on tour since 2016.

And it's all going to happen just a couple of days before . the Grammys where she is the most nominated artist this year with that album Renaissance just a couple of weeks ago Beyonce performed her first concert in more than four years at the inauguration of a luxury resort inDubai, you probably heard about it, it probably ended up on your page is for you because the critics were not happy with the serious human rights violations in Dubai, but for the fans there is a big question on their minds given this tour now, how Are they going to get tickets?

Will it be another entry for the Taylor Swift era tour? The Ticket Masters debacle website says Beyonce is using the same verified fan system that Swift used, but Ticketmaster says there's a less crowded ticket-buying experience. Will it work for Beyonce fans? Gem Oswald has all the answers, including the answer to that question, Jim is right, I mean no one really knows, but that's a real concern here, people are looking at what just happened with Taylor Swift, they're looking at Beyonce, who is a mega mega super superstar, will people be able to get it? the tickets they want, well not everyone because you know what you're probably talking about is a similar situation to what happened with Taylor Swift in the sense that you have 10,100 times more people trying to buy tickets than tickets than actually tickets. .

The difference here is that Live Nation Ticketmaster will release it in three installments. The biggest problem with Taylor Swift on sale is that they simply put too many tickets on the market at once and on top of that they broke records because they sold one and recorded two million tickets in one day, they also broke the internet so, that was a problem that I'm sure they learned from and, you know, Live Nation is aware that their reputation depends on this, so I would be surprised if there are going to be problems. I would be very surprised if there was a problem on the scale of Taylor Swift, I mean, I'm sure music is not a pun on many people's years here, we talked about that performance in Dubai with Got. some backlash, her fans defended her too, some of them for that, anything from her camp, I mean, it's that she's just going to get over it, no, yeah, I mean, it was said that she was paid 24 million dollars, Which I guess.

It was considered enough to overlook those things. You know. I'm reluctant to say a little more about it because yes, their fans are quite aggressive online, as I've found out in the past, but one thing that is notable is the fact that, as elaborate as the show was, there was a lake , there was an all-female orchestra, it ended with fireworks and she liked to get up on this platform like 50 feet in the air. She didn't play any Renaissance songs, so she might as well do it. I'm sorry, she was going to say: could she do that?

Maybe at the Grammys you're in California getting ready for the Grammys and you think we're going to see her play one of those songs. We're not sure yet, but yes. she's performing, she's almost certainly going to play a Renaissance song and I mean, that's what I was going to say: she's premiering the song at the Grammys, which seems like the next logical step in this release, um or she's saving it for the tour and also don't forget that there are two more parts of Renaissance because the album that came out last summer was only the first part, there's still a second part in the third part, we're not sure what they are, you know?

I mean, they're being very cryptic about it, uh, but it could be another album, it could be the tour, it could be. I'm thinking that at least one element will most likely be a full-length video treatment of some kind. Don't be surprised if it was almost a feature film, a gem from Jim Oswald, thank you very much for everything Beyoncé. Intel appreciates it because she does it for us at this time. We will have more of you here tomorrow at the same time and in the same place. continue right now thanks for watching our YouTube channel.

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