Hallie Jackson NOW - March 7 | NBC News NOW

[Music] we are coming on the air with the state of our Union divided tonight as the president's walking into his State of the Union with grim approval ratings trailing in multiple polls this election year with millions of people watching as he tries to show he's best position to take on Donald Trump and get folks feeling better about where this country is headed we are live from the hill to the White House from the border to the Middle East covering every angle and we've also got some breaking n

ews tonight just as we came on the air a Federal grand jury charging an army Sergeant with selling sensitive military information to China our team's coming through the indictment now they're going to bring us the latest in just a sec plus the dramatic moments a father realized his own son may have killed his classmates at a school in Michigan his prosecutors are trying to prove that Dad could have prevented it from happening where that trial goes next coming up and you may notice something diff

erent on your commute home if you're in New York hundreds of National Guard members spread across the city's subway system after a string of high-profile crimes on trains there so might other places follow suit hey there I'm hiy and listen real talk even though you probably don't remember most of the State of the Union speeches you've watched if you've even watched them at all this year tonight it is different it might be a Difference Maker for President Biden as he fights for his political life

this year you're about to be looking live there it is the building he would like to keep calling home somewhere in there he's probably putting his proverbial red pen to paper with some of those last second ads or Cuts in just under four hours he's going to cruise the two mile path down Pennsylvania Avenue to Capitol Hill just blocks from where I'm standing you're about to see it live there where lawmakers on both sides will be listening carefully to see if the president's staying on message or

giving them ammo to use in this 2024 campaign expect President Biden to pitch you on his economic record on a day that the stock market is hitting a record high he's going to talk about democracy about Freedom as two Wars rage overseas we know climate is a big issue for him and voting access as well the backdrop polls showing the number one issue for a lot of Americans is immigration so watch for the president to try to flip the script and put Republicans on defense on the humanitarian crisis at

the border even as the GOP is accusing the president of failing to do his job on that so how will the president address immigration our team's sources say there's no plan to roll out some new executive action so then what another question how is he going to help with like a Vibe shift on the economy remember the numbers are looking better but people are not feeling better how can the president get them there and then some news we expect on the Israel Hamas War our sources say the president's go

ing to roll out a new plan to build a port in Gaza to let humanitarian help like food get to the civilians who so desperately need it but can that quiet the critics including inside his own party who want him to do more for a ceasefire and then the overarching question for President Biden tonight the big theme the thing no policy no executive action can change his age and all the worries that come with it from many Americans can the president use tonight to show this country that 81 is just a nu

mber and that the number they should be looking at is four as in that many more years in the white house we're going to tackle those questions with our team of reporters Christine Romans on the economy Julia anley along the border saho kapor on Capitol Hill but I want to start at the White House where Kelly O'Donnell has been working her sources for the last couple of weeks on this the president's going to have to try to answer the question that a lot of the millions of people watching tonight m

ay have Kelly what is your plan to make the next four years better and is it a better plan than Donald Trump's the numbers show he's got to find a way to do that very much on the minds of the people who've been working on this speech with the president and what you will hear tonight his effort to tell the story of his time in office why he was originally asked by voters to serve meaning what was life back uh in the Trump ER really like when you think about the times that we were in there with th

e pandemic with what happened on January 6th and many people point to the economy during the Trump years certainly the former president does well expect this president to talk about things like how inflation has come down how jobs are strong 15 million during his time in office laying out a lot of the economic factors that we talk about that show a resilience in our economy a strength compared to all the other big economic powers in the world and to try to sell that in a long form with the Ameri

can people watching tonight one of the things that his advisers believe very strongly is that many Americans have not been tuned in or they've been seeing things on their social media feeds that are short Snippets of Joe Biden and this is a chance to sort of be in the room with him for an extended period of time as he tells the story of where we've been where he wants to go and what his new policy ideas are and to put some meat on the bone of all of that in some Stark ways drawing a contrast wit

h the Republican vision of those in the house that he'll be addressing tonight as well as if not spoken in name certainly by inference uh referring to his predecessor and his current rival Donald Trump so a lot of that will play out age is certainly a consideration and one of the things we hear from advisers is that the president will want to talk about the fact that he argues his ideas are more about the future when compared to Donald Trump who is just a couple of years old younger rather so th

ey're within the same age group they would have been in high school together if that gives you a sense of it and that Donald Trump in their view has views that are behind the times in the middle of the 20th century 50 years back when it comes to things like abortion rights and voting rights so they will try and draw that contrast they rot tested it a bit on Seth Meyers The Late Night show and expect that in a more a more perhaps a polished form for the the state of the room tonight but that same

message uh will play out and then you know one of the things that you ref reference Kelly this new news because often times a president you know will make some news during a state of the union the idea of this construction of an emergency report in Gaza this has been an issue the president's handling of the Israel Hamas war that is not just a policy issue for him but a political one as well talk us through that they expect that the president will really try to demonstrate with this particular n

ew idea the American commitment to trying to help the people who have been uh suffering with famine with illness with death and violence and to acknowledge the extent and the pain of what Palestinians have been going through during the Israel Hamas War while also acknowledging that Israel has a right to defend itself that they want to get the hostages out that a temporary ceasefire has to happen so the president will argue for that but we'll also give some space some time and maybe even some exp

ectation of hearing from those in the room about how this issue is deeply important to many Americans and they expect that to be reflected in some of the guests who are attending tonight and in this new uh and significant policy this is American Service members creating and helping to build a port uh being on the water but closer and closer to the conflict a significant step they think with humanitarian Aid to focus on that to lean into that to answer an issue that is both one that is a current

event it is deeply uh you know contested right now with the war and one as you pointed out with political ramifications for it right as hopes for a ceasefire as well Kelly odonna live for us there in front of the White House Kell thank you let me bring in our NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans who is joining us here on said it is so nice to see in Washington in Washington because you've been talking with White House officials about the economic peace of President Biden's spe

ech tonight and it's coming on a day when in just the last hour we saw new records now with the S&P and the NASDAQ closing the highest that they've ever closed right talk to us about that because this is one of those things those numbers are up and we know that the markets are not the economy but inflation is moving in the right direction the unemployment numbers are moving in the right direction and yet a lot of Americans are like I don't feel good about it I mean all those Topline numbers I me

an should tell you this is a great economy but those aren't landing on the American Consumer and the American voter and I'll give you one number that I think is really important here the grocery bill grocery prices in the CPI up 25% since January 2020 I mean your grocery bill is 25% higher today than it was in before President Biden came in of office right so look that is a number that really bothers people and what you'll hear I think you've got you know 3.7% unemployment rate record high in th

e stock market an economy that is growing strongly defying defying expectations all around but the president tonight is going to try to say I feel your pain I know you feel like you're nickeled and dimed I get it I know the stock market is not your life in your kitchen table so the president's going to try to say there are two choices here and I'm the guy who's sitting around the kitchen table with you trying to figure out how to make things cost better for you where do you think he's going to b

e most on defense if you will or if we're talking highlights and low lights help us break it down that way well you know he's going to talk about tax fairness and that will be a big part of this thing tonight um he's going to talk about corporations corporate greed shrinkflation nickel and diming people all these fees so far I don't know that that message has landed really yet but they have really been pushing this like look we're going to try to find new ways especially in the housing market wi

th closing costs if you refinance a mortgage I think you're going to hear that tonight all these different ways he's saying I'm trying to save you a few bucks and it might sound granular but all taken together uh it's different than the message you're hearing on the other side which maybe he'll he'll nod to tonight which is about uh tax cuts for companies it's about you know not about the little guy it's about it's take it's about Health Care Health care costs drug prices you're going to hear a

lot about this tonight so then is your watching Christine give us a bit of a viewers guide because as a political reporter right I'm going to be looking tonight for of overall tone overall messaging any sort of unexpected moments as a business reporter what are you looking for what's your viewers guide is he going to be able to land the workingclass Joe Persona tonight and will he be able to connect with tax rates and raising taxes on stock BuyBacks will that land with the American voter and the

American people and I think that that's what the message that they're trying they're trying to send um but you know overall the economy is good overall the polls don't show anybody feels that way so that is this that is it's not even a a needle to thread it is a big old Grand Canyon um between right between the central tension it really is it really is so it'll be exciting night um come back to DC more I'm excited to have you here thank you Christine appreciative let's go now to our homeland se

curity correspondent Julia anley who is posted up in Texas now because Julia you heard Christine talk about how the president is looking to kind of go on offense on the economy he is also looking to do that on immigration to flip the script and point the finger at House Republicans to say it's your fault for not getting anything past to help this humanitarian crisis at the border even as the president has been under attack repeatedly from those same Republicans on this issue yeah you're absolute

ly right hie I mean here in the state of Texas immigration is not a new issue they've had people coming across the border obviously for decades but because of the incredible influx that we've seen over the past two years especially the record-breaking year last year with migrants coming illegally into the country so many of those going to cities like New York Denver Chicago Democratic strongholds and overwhelming the resources of some of those cities immigration is now becoming a top issue for m

ore and more voters even though the president has done a number of executive actions on that what we understand from his messaging tonight is that he will say that it is up to Republicans to take the next steps from our reporting from myself and from our White House colleagues we understand there was a lot of deliberation about the timing of further executive actions as you know they did not get that border security piece passed in the National Security Supplemental and that means that there won

't be enough money even going forward to maintain the status quo at the border there's a lot of debate in the White House of if they did if they took unilateral action before State of the Union or if the president even announced an executive action at during State of the Union would that somehow make them lose the narrative in other words would Republicans then be able to say look it was up to Biden all along he should have done this it's not on us so instead they've waited I think we may see so

me further action coming in the next month but for now he wants to pin this on Republicans they need more funding and there was an agreement really one of the most conservative immigration agreements that was reached in the Senate that we have seen in decades that would have vastly changed the way migrants can claim Asylum when they come into the country that was blocked because Republicans didn't think it went far enough I think we're going to hear him hit on that tonight and try to make the ca

se that he is not an open border president and the thing to look at if you're looking big picture is how far this President and really most Democrats have changed in their rhetoric on this issue since Trump left office what's interesting Julia folks are watching they might be looking at the bottom of the screen going well wait a second the house passed an immigration bill today explain that because this was a bill that was named after lak Riley who of course is that University of Georgia nursing

student killed uh in Athens Georgia the bill obviously honoring her we've even seen her parents invited by one Georgia Republican to the State of the Union they will not be there but there will be an empty seat in lak's honor explain that piece of it right well Lincoln obviously a tragedy her death but Republicans are really seizing on that because they say that she wouldn't have been killed if this person hadn't been allowed to come into the country and if the man who was suspected in her deat

h had not been released by NYPD and not turned over to ice for deportation so they're able to seize on that passing this Hardline Bill probably not likely to go very far but I think they'll continue to use her likeness uh to make those points to say that look there are real human consequences to this we should point out most data shows that US citizens per capita commit more crimes than people who are in the country without citizenship Julia Ana live first they're in Texas Julia thanks let's bri

ng you back now to Washington to the building that I can see out of the corner of my eye that is the capital saho kapor is there on what is going to be a big night in the middle of a big week okay talk to us about the unpredictability piece of it saho because there might be something that happens that we don't think was going to happen maybe somebody yells something maybe there is some sort of you know moment from Republican uh members here the house speaker is telling his colleagues to be respe

ctful saying decorum is the order of the day that's after heckling before talk us through what you're watching for tonight as it relates to the chamber itself yeah H speaker Mike Johnson of course this is going to be his first time on that day as at of State of the Union sitting right next to the president and he wants his members to essentially behave to avoid the kind of yelling and outbursts and heckling that uh we saw last year in the first year of this new uh house Republican majority membe

rs like Lauren bobert members like Marjorie Taylor green uh were doing that heckling interrupting the president and created kind of a a Ruckus in that situation Mike Johnson doesn't want that to happen the reason is very simple they're eight months away from an election and Johnson you know wants to Tamp down on this image of Republicans as the party of anger and chaos and try to appeal to voters that's generally how he sees it whether he actually has control over these members that's an entirel

y different question because these two members especially the two women that I just brought up they consider themselves Rebels who don't take orders from house Republican leadership at least not people who aren't you know uh former president Trump they don't see themselves as followers of uh leadership members so whether they listen to Mike Johnson remains to be seen the other thing that some Democrats are a little bit uh you know anxious about and at least bracing for the possibility of is some

protests are heckling from the left not that they necessarily have reason to believe that this will happen but we've seen Democratic events get repeatedly disrupted including uh at some point President Biden's uh events over protests about uh the war in in Gaza US policy toward Israel this is a situation where members can invite their own guests and the White House is not able to put the kind of tight lid on events that Biden has had uh recently so time will tell uh whether or not that pans out

the way they want him to the other piece of this right are the the guests who are in the audience every member gets to bring a guest including the speaker himself talk us through that yeah the speaker uh Mike Johnson has a long list of guests who represent the types of issues that Mike Johnson wants to highlight and he's using it specifically uh toward this end that includes parents of hostages in Israel a freed hostage in Israel trying to highlight his and his party's unequivocal support for I

srael in the midst of all of this a Jewish student at MIT trying to draw attention to the issue of anti-Semitism especially on college campuses two police officers attacked by undocumented immigrants a mom of a child killed by the MS13 gang again trying to create this Nexus of migrants and uh crime something that that conservatives have tried to draw a lot of attention to lately as well as a university president who opposes transgender athletes another popular issue with the right there's also t

he parents of imprisoned Wall Street Journal journalist uh Evan gershkovich which is an interesting tack for speaker Johnson because he's getting a lot of criticism for not doing enough to confront Russia because he's blocking USA to Ukraine which is one of the most important Tools in his toolbox right now hiie sou hore thank you very much it is obviously a lot there is going to be even more tonight as our special coverage of the State of the Union starts just a few hours from now just 3 hours f

rom now on NBC News Now however you're watching tune in you'll see myself my colleague Tom yamus many more of our colleagues and friends all across the country getting you ready for this big moment for the President 8 Eastern and then again at 9ine for the speech on NBC News Let's Take You Down South now to Nashville some breaking news from there where a US Army Sergeant has been indicted for allegedly selling sensitive military information to a co-conspirator in China let me have you listen to

what we just heard from prosecutors watch the defendant is charged with entering into a multi-year conspiracy to illegally exploit his access to National Defense information for his own Financial benefit he traded our National Defense information for cash I want to bring in Tom winter now for more and Tom I I want you to help us put it into the plainest and clearest English possible it sounds to me like this guy was accused of selling secrets to China is that right well that's exactly right hie

we want to be specific about the terms here apparently starting back in June of 2022 Corbin Schultz who was arrested by the FBI this morning at Fort Campbell started communicating after he was reached out by a conspirator based in Hong Kong now this individual is a foreign National says he lives in Hong Kong says he's a business consultant very interesting the way the indictment is worded they're not making that assertion reached out to Schultz and then apparently you're looking at a photo of hi

m here uh apparently started asking him for classified information secret information and Schultz is not charged with sharing any sort of classified or top secret information but he is charged with sharing National Defense information and what that might mean well we're talking about F-22 the fighter uh the Raptor fighter uh the manuals associated with that we're talking about sensitive military technology as it pertains to nuclear weapons as it pertains to uh defense uh capabilities of the us a

s it pertains to helicopters and exactly what the US's observations of it own military drills by China were including his thoughts on what the US might do if Taiwan would be attacked all of this type of information and H it was just three days ago you and I were sitting on set together talking about a separate case involving a member of the United States military about just how important this is for a foreign country to understand the us is thinking about that foreign country's capabilities or o

bservation so this is serious it's the third case we've talked about this week and it's something that we're definitely keeping in track on as far as a trend of this our own people sharing our own information Tom winter we're so glad to have you on this one for us thank you very much for bringing us that developing news tonight Court wrapping up tonight in just the last hour in Michigan with some intense moments the father of a school shooter realizing his son may have been the gunman in a secon

d of its kind trial I want you to listen to this dramatic moment told me that waster and then I home just to find out okay and I my that's James Crumbley they're in court today so I'm listening to that phone call play out with headphones because he has difficulty hearing the 47-year-old father is facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter these are the same charges that his wife Jennifer faced in her unprecedented trial just last month you'll remember the jury in that trial found her guilty

for the deaths of these four students Anna St Juliana Tate Mir Madison Baldwin Justin Schilling students killed in the 2021 shooting attack at Oxford High School their son is serving life in prison for that these parents son Maggie vesa is in Pontiac Michigan outside the courthouse and Maggie just to lay the stakes out here for people right I mean these are and we hadn't seen this before Jennifer crumley's trial a parent being held accountable for their child opening fire at their school the mot

her as we said found guilty now the father is on trial and opening statements today went pretty quickly walk us through it and how it how it was different from Jennifer's trial the mom's trial yeah hie it was really striking because as you point out this is still a major precedent being set legally right I mean this is only the second of its kind case however to some degree this does feel like a bit of a rinsed repeat from Jenifer crumley's case just a month ago so this did go pretty swiftly the

defense's opening statement uh James Crumbley attorney only speaking for 7 minutes total a lot of her defense was similar to what we heard in Jennifer's case the attorney saying that James Crumbley couldn't have known known what his teenage son was planning that he had no reason to think that his son was a danger the prosecution specifically in this case they have some delinting factors saying that specifically James Crumbley was the adult in the house in charge of securing the gun that is key

to their case and a different factor from Jennifer crumley's case and they also say that Ethan Crumbley asked his parents including his father for help and they declined to get him help instead buying him that gun and taking him to a shooting range here is some of what we heard in those opening statements today instead of receiving help or intervention of any kind James crumblyy instead began to take his son to the shooting range this nightmare these murders were preventable by him foreseeable b

y him when you're not aware of an immediate imminent danger why would you do anything different than what you normally do so again just a reminder a lot of what we're hearing in this case is similar to what we heard in Jennifer crumley's case but let's walk through the particulars of that one remember she faced the same charges for counts of involuntary manslaughter in her case the jury deliberated for just 11 hours effectively two days before convicting her on those counts we heard from 21 Witn

esses in that case including law enforcement officials co-workers of Jennifer Crumbley including her boss at the time who said she could have left work that morning to take her son home when they had that alarming meeting with school administrators and then also a lot of school staffers themselves a lot of those Witnesses on the witness list in this case as well one key point though the defense in that case only calling Jennifer herself to the stand and hie at this point we don't know if James C

rumbley is going to follow his wife's lead and take the stand his attorneys haven't really laid out their plans yet so we'll have to wait and see it's one of the big things that we're watching for will he take the stand in his own defense we've also seen now even just today Maggie more of a glimpse into some of the communications between the parents between the parents and their son I think right about um in in the days leading up to this explain that yeah exactly so we had a computer crimes ana

lyst on the stand today talking about him walking the jury through text messages that Ethan had sent one of his uh good friends at the time and these kids had exchanged thousands of text messages it was like kind of one of the only friends that he had and basically uh the crimes analyst saying that he had told his parents he texted his friend that he told his parents he wanted to get mental health help and he told his friend that his dad gave him pills and told him to quote suck it up so that se

emed to be a key point for the prosecution we should note the defense has not been able to cross-examined that witness yet we expect that tomorrow we also heard a lot of the same emotional testimony that we heard in Jennifer's case including from that teacher Molly Darnell who Ethan Crumbley shot in the arm she retold her story for this jury and here's part of how that went all right I apologize we're having some uh difficulty with that sound but suffice it to say an emotional morning once again

in this case right similar to what we heard in Jennifer crumley's case and again now we're waiting to see where the prosecution goes from here a lot of those same Witnesses expected with that key question hanging over the defense do you put the dad on the stand a tactic that did not seem to work in his wife's case last month Al Maggie vesa live for us there in Pontiac Maggie we're glad you're there bringing us that reporting thank you so the big storm is starting to ramp up set to slam the Sout

h creating all kinds of concerns with 10 million people in Alabama and Georgia under flood watches on the heels of a lot of rain just in these last 24 hours look at this leaving roads flooded here in Atlanta leaving cars stuck nine and and some ducks ducking N9 million people from Texas to Kansas are bracing for Hail a ton of wind maybe even tornadoes meteorologist Bill Karens is tracking it all for us the ducks like it it when it rains this much rain for folks in the South can can get to be pot

entially dangerous talk us through it yeah I never like it when we have a flood event forecasted right after we just had a flood we just saw the pictures there in the Atlanta area because you just know the ground saturated the rivers are up it just doesn't take as much rain as you typically think to get some extreme floodings we'll talk about that in a second because that's going to be tomorrow let's talk about the immediate threat happening now we have severe thunderstorm watches that have been

posted from Kansas all the way through Oklahoma City wiah Falls to San Angelo does not include the Dallas Fort Worth area these watches will go to about 9 or 10:00 we may get a tornado watch during the overnight hours in Central Texas we'll talk about that in a second but here's a close-up radar not a fun commute Dallas Fort Worth northward about Interstate 35 it is just pouring no flash flood warnings or anything there is one severe thunderstorm warning out here towards the south of Graham the

re's also another severe thunderstorm with large hail heading towards Blackwell so we're starting to see these storms ramping up getting a little stronger large hail is the concern in about the next four to 5 hours then during the overnight we'll start to introduce the chance of a few tornadoes so this is the area at risk the 9 million people pretty much the exact same spots where we have the watches but this is the area if we get any tornadoes would happen probably like 3:00 a.m. to maybe like

6:00 a.m. so like dead of the middle of the night towards the early morning and this is areas just south of Fort Worth and then tomorrow we take this threat through the southeast all from Dallas to areas of Alabama and then there's your flood watch that will be Friday evening H so again uh 3 days in a row going to be tracking severe weather and flash flooding through the South Bill Karens thank you very much appreciate that I know you'll be watching it all coming up more to get to here on the sh

ow including new details tonight on the biggest wildfire in Texas history what officials now say might have started it plus how the FDA is expanding its investigation into cinnamon products tainted with [Music] lead to some developing Health news today more kids ending up in emergency rooms why they're accidentally overdosing on melatonin turns out kids are finding their parents gummies that have melatonin in them they're taking them they think maybe like it's candy or something the cdc's out wi

th this new report saying ER visits for babies and for little kids who ingested melatonin went up 400% between 2009 and 2020 and the study specifically points to those gummies you see like similar to the ones here and to chewable tablets being appealing to little kids the study also points out melatonin supplements are not required to have child resistant caps did you know that NBC News medical fellow Dr OE Cal joins us now is the reason we're seeing a part of the reason such a spike in this is

because more and more people are taking melatonin generally in other words that these gummies are just in more households absolutely H I think I think that's a big part of it and I think you really kind of hit the nail on the head in the in the intro here these these supplements are are you know over half of these hospital or ER visits were from were from gummies and and to be fair these things are are becoming very appetizing to Children right they can't tell the difference between this or some

thing that looks like sour skittles for example um so if you're a parent who has this lying around you can see how your child might get into them and to hi to that point you brought up earlier um they're not required to have child resistant uh packaging or childproof tops you know those ones where you kind of have to push and then twist down to the side that I think some of us struggle with sometimes are not required here by by melatonin manufacturers so we can see a lot of kids getting into the

se and hi some numbers here about 36% of all cases involve 10 or more gummies um so you you know most come in about 5 milligram doses we're talking about 50 Mig of melatonin um and how you really shouldn't go more than 3 to six in a in a child's case here um is there anything parents can take you know because I I know just in as a parent myself um I know some parents and they do it on the advice of their pediatrician giving their kids small amounts of melatonin what would you recommend for both

kids and parents who have trouble sleeping so so a couple things hi first of all there's no FDA approved medication for insomnia for children um and really you know if if I were a parent if I were giving advice to a parent I would say you know you don't want somebody to form habit forming things in terms of you know feel like they need something to go to sleep especially at that young of an age so really what we recommend for children is behavioral modifications things like putting away the scre

ens an hour before bedtime turning off the blue light um setting a regular sleep schedule where you get up and go to bed at the same time and if you have to use melatonin it's not a sleeping pill hi it is something that you can use in short term to kind of get adjusted but it's not something you want to be dependent on especially at a young age Dr Ox all thank you so much appreciate it let's get over to the five things our theme things you should know about tonight number one newly released scan

s show The Man Behind last year's mass shooting in Maine suffered from traumatic brain injuries which may have influenced his actions in his last months he carried out a shooting in multiple locations last October killing 18 people was eventually found dead Days Later his family apologized for the attack saying they hoped releasing these findings might in their words help prevent future tragedies number two four service investigators in Texas just announcing power lines ignited the biggest wild

wild fire in the state's history we've talked about the SmokeHouse Creek Fire it's burned through more than a million Acres it's 74% contained these findings come just hours after a utility company EXL said one of its facilities may have been part of what started the fire they deny any negligence number three the FDA says ground cinnamon sold by some discount stores may be contaminated with a lot of lead there's a list of which brands are affected on the NBC News and FDA sites go look at it beca

use the agency says if you have any of them you can see some of them here throw them away and if you're like I just remember hearing about cinnamon and Lead that's right it was those cinnamon applesauce pouches tainted with lead that made a lot of news within the last couple of months number four if your dream restaurant is an Applebees and an IHOP Under One Roof pancakes and riblets together at last guess what great news for you it's happening apparently dual branded locations opening so-called

prototype locations are already open around the world they'll eventually come to the US the idea is to combine Applebees and IHOPs take advantage space cut cost since each chain is busy during different parts of the day although IHOP risk business you know post 11:00 p.m. from what I here number five 29-year-old Cole Brower just made history as the first American woman to race non-stop around the world by herself she was greeted by a cheering crowd of family and friends rating for her on Shore

today in Spain that sailing trip took 130 days covering 30,000 miles amazing when we come back in just the next few hours you know it we are now just what 3 and 1 half hours away from President Biden State of the Union we're about to go one-on-one with the Democratic minority whip a member of leadership on what she'd like to hear that's our newsmaker in just a [Music] minute NBC News covers hundreds of stories every day and because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them all our teams

in the bureaus have done it for you this is what they tell us is going down in their region as in a segment we call the local out of our Western Bureau remember you watch this live the armorer on the movie rust get sentenced just yesterday that's her mom right there she or excuse me get convicted she will now be sentenced soon after that conviction on involuntary manslaughter a jury found Hannah Gutierrez Reed guilty in that onset shooting death of the film's cinematographer Gutierrez Reed was

found not guilty of tampering with evidence but she does face up to 18 months in prison out of the Southern Bureau newly released video shows a pair of County Sheriff deputies in Florida racing to save two people trapped in a car underwater look at this body cam video One Deputy pulls somebody out and starts giving life-saving CPR it is just very intense to watch incredibly both people in the car survived thanks to those Heroes unbelievable also out of our Southern Bureau North Carolina metal re

cycling plant Up in Flames look at that smoke this is in Rocky Mount still burning even as of this afternoon after being reported last night you can see the Flames there you can see Cruz trying to put it out not clear yet if anybody was H with the state of the union now just about 3 hours away I want to bring in somebody who's going to be in the house chamber where President Biden will give his big speech one of the members of Democratic Leadership congresswoman Katherine Katherine Clark of Mass

achusetts congresswoman thank you so much for being I want to say back on the show but I think this is your first time on this show so welcome we're glad you're here oh it's good to be with you thank you for having me it's a big night it is a busy night and President Biden has a lot on the line here as you know an opportunity to get his message out to millions of Americans in what is a very busy week we're fresh off super Tuesday it's looking like him versus Donald Trump what does the president

need to say tonight what do you want to hear from him I think what we are going to hear from the president is that he is about the forward progress building on the progress he has already made all the work that he has done and standing strong in the contrast with Donald Trump who wants to take us backwards so I am excited I know also that it is going to be rooted in reproductive Freedom which is one of the highest contrasts um and I am so grateful to President Biden for his leadership when we ar

e really at a Crossroads in this country on are we going to go forward as a democracy are we going to proceed with equality for women you mentioned obviously the issue of Reproductive Rights we know that this is something that Democrats believe will be very mobilizing for voters come November and it relates to your guest tonight a woman from Texas talk us through the message that you're hoping to send with your guest especially when you look at some of the biggest issues to Americans more broadl

y it's economy it's immigration number one is not reproductive access that's not where it's been how do you see that playing into November oh a reproductive freedom is absolutely going to be a top issue for 2024 and I am so honored and privileged to have Amanda zarowski as my guest she is the lead plaintiff in the case against Texas and her story and my story are a classic example of pre-dbs and post-dbs when I had a miscarriage and needed a an abortion to prevent infection I got it I got it fro

m my doctor and I got the care I needed immediately then we go post STS and Amanda who was 6 months pregnant her water broke her her baby was not going to survive but instead of being able to access the care she needed she was told to go home and wait until infection set in and it did and she spent days in the ICU barely hanging on to her life and now her road to Motherhood continues to be through fertility treatment IVF and what she is terrified of is the Alabama decision because the extremists

in the Republican Party are not now only saying if and when women and families can have children but how and so her story resonates with Americans and American women across this country but especially for the 21 million women who are living in States that have beened this essential Healthcare and as you allude to obviously the controversial ruling in Alabama putting a spotlight on the issue of Reproductive Rights as Democrats are looking at what happened of course in the midterms to propel them

to a better than expected result because of that issue and yet congresswoman you know where President Biden's approval rating is it is 37% that is lower than former president Trump and his last state of the union lower than former president Obama in 2012 lower than former President Bush in 2004 lower than former President Clinton in 1996 is not good it's not where President Biden I assume would like it to be um what does he need to do to turn that around and do you have concerns that he is just

not going to be able to resonate with voters come the fall absolutely not uh I am enthusiastically endorsing President Biden because of what he has accomplished when we go from the American Rescue plan and pulling us out of the pandemic to the infrastructure law to the first gun violence prevention bill in 30 years to Bringing manufacturing back to our Shores through the chips and science act reducing the cost of Health Care capping insulin at $35 a month reducing premiums in the ACA and a hist

oric investment in building resiliency in our country to climate change but he knows the job is not done he knows that families are still struggling and the work and the vision that he has for the future for his second term is in line with what I hear from families all across this country and that is that we need to focus on those continue lowering costs whether it's child care or groceries or addressing our housing crisis that's what we're going to hear from the president tonight the other thin

g that we're going to hear from the president we know is that he is widely expected to announce a new Port uh off the coast of the Gaza Strip to bring more humanitarian help to the people who very much need it the civilians the innocent people in Gaza um the way that the president the White House has handled this war is something that progressives have been very upset over we've seen activists repeatedly confronting the president on this do you believe that could happen tonight you know I I thin

k that what we have heard from the president and the vice president over the last week is one that is exactly where the American people are we we stand with Israelis and our Ally in Israel but we also know that we have a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the president has started doing airdrops of humanitary and relief but we know that's not enough so building this peer being able to bring in the aid that is desperately needed um immediately is a critical step in addressing the the death and destr

uction that we are seeing in Gaza so the president continues to call for a ceasefire to be at that negotiating table to be pushing for peace in this region while meeting the needs of Gins and he is also at the same time setting the stage uh across the region for the day after and how we truly bring two-state solution and make sure that both Palestinians and Israelis have the security they deserve Democratic minority web congresswoman Katherine Clark thank you very much for being with us we're gl

ad to have you we appreciate your time on a busy night thank you you heard her talking about of course the Israel Hamas war and we know that's going to be front and center with more than a dozen family members of Hamas held hostages in the audience as guests of members of Congress and then of course what we talked about the plan that the president is expected to roll out about that new port on the coast so ships can get Aid directly to folks there all of it of course related to that humanitarian

crisis and on the heels of the US airdropping Food medicine and supplies into Gaza starting just a few days ago you see it there it's happening in partnership with Jordan our Richard Engel joined to the Jordanian Air Force for one of those missions he's got this report we just finished accompanying an aid drop that left from here in Jordan from this military base on this plane and dropped humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip This one went to Northern Gaza which is the hardest hit area wher

e the humanitarian crisis the hunger is at its most severe and let me tell you a little bit about what we saw and and how it works so this plane was able to hold roughly 25,000 meals these are these are supplies donated by the Jordanian government in this case but they're also supplies donated from from Charities from the United States from the UN and uh it's a very simple old-fashioned kind of mechanism the the pallets are attached to uh a big sled and on top of the pallets are parachutes and w

hen you get over Gaza the crew opens this back door and the pallets simply slide off and float down to to the to the people of Gaza now Gaza is not very far here from here but this took a tremendous amount of time time because every step of this process was coordinated with the Israeli military and as we were flying over and as even before we got to Israeli airs sprace the jordanians were talking to the Israelis deconflict it and then when we entered Gaza itself there wasn't a truce efforts to c

reate a truce and a ceasefire have been unsuccessful but they were DEC conflicting the military so that the plane wouldn't get shot down because the Israel don't want to shoot down a a Jordanian plane Jordan is a is an ally of of Israel has a peace treaty with Israel and there's a lot of attention and sensitivity about these missions right now so it was coordinated it took hours and it is very very slow uh eight agencies will tell you that this is all helpful the people of Gaza need assistance b

ut that this is really just a drop in a in in the bucket you can't meet the needs of the people of Gaza dropping boxes of food pallets of food one at a time it's helpful but not a solution our thanks to Richard Engle for that reporting coming up here on the show stepped up security along two of the biggest transit systems in the Northeast the crime prompting those unprecedented moves stay with [Music] us for the first day today we're seeing hundreds of National Guard troops patrolling the New Yo

rk City subway 700 50 in all plus 250 officers from the state and MTA look at that after a series of high-profile attacks the National Guard set to do things like random bag checks and at another Metro System a bit farther south police in Philadelphia are looking for the suspects accused of shooting 18 teenss getting on a public bus George siss is joining us now what's the latest in that investigation that happened as these teenagers were getting on board um this bus near Philly yeah how the inv

estigation very much underway police actually releasing some surveillance video capturing the harrowing moments before that hail of gunfire erupted and what you see is three suspects getting out of a blue Hyundai as described by police and they run up to this bus stop that is frequented by high schoolers here in the area and they just open fire police saying some 30 shots or so were fired so we learned today from police that that was a stolen car and they are looking for that person that fourth

person that driver in the vehicle and they are looking to see if this shooting may be connected to another shooting that happened earlier this week that also involved teenagers and so yes this halil of gunfire injuring those 18 teens bringing the full total of juveniles that were injured in this city to1 that is a staggering figure that has prompted a response not only from the ATF to be a part of this investigation but from the mayor the district attorney superintendent of the District of Phila

delphia here everyone weighing in saying that this violence is completely out of hand and they need to do something they're calling on parents even to do those bag checks to do checks of bedrooms for any of these weapons that may be circling these streets to prevent another shooting like this happen and again one of the people that was shot yesterday hiy about nine times uh from what police told us today they they're not sure if this team was targeted but given some of the likelihood and some of

the things that they are starting to connect they are exploring that possibility hiy George soise live for us there in Philly George thank you so [Music] much [Music] we are coming on the air with the state of our Union divided tonight with new excerpts just into our team of what President Biden is going to talk about in tonight's State of the Union his speech walking in with grim approval ratings trailing in multiple polls this election year with millions of people watching he's hoping to show

he's best position to take on Donald Trump and the country's biggest issues we're live from the hill to the White House from the border to the Middle East covering every angle plus some breaking news coming into us right as we were on the air a Federal grand jury charging an army Sergeant with selling sensitive military information to China our team's looking through the indictment they're going to have the latest in just a minute plus the dramatic moments a father realized his own son may have

opened fire on his classmates at a Michigan High School his prosecutors try to prove that that father could have prevented it from happening we'll talk about where that trial goes next coming up and you might notice something different on your commute home New Yorkers hundreds of National Guard members spread out across the city's subway system after a string of high-profile crimes on trains there so might other places follow suit then a new warning out tonight what's Behind These spike in acci

dental melatonin overdoses in little kids that's later on in the show hey there I'm hie and even though you probably don't remember most of the State of the Union speeches you've watched if you've even watched them at all this year tonight it is different it might be a Difference Maker for President Biden as he fights for his political life this year and breaking in just the last I'm looking at my clock just the last two minutes we are getting the first glimpse of what the president's going to s

ay tonight and one of the big headlines the president tackling the issue of his age head-on here's one excerpt that we are just getting tonight he says my he is expected to say my lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy a future based on the core values that have defined America honesty decency dignity equality the tldr he wants to show the country that 81 is just a number and that the number they should be looking at is four as in that many more years in the white house he's als

o making a reference to former president Trump I mean listen he's got to talk about the age we'll get to that in a second he's got to talk about the age thing because a lot of Americans have concerns to that about two three quarters of people think that the president's too old to be effective his opponent former president Trump wants people to think that even though they're only four years apart and as I just hinted at we see the president kind of referencing that saying now some other people my

age see a different story an American story of resentment revenge and retri bution that's not me words Donald Trump are not in there right it doesn't say the word Donald doesn't say the word Trump but the implication seems to be clear we know that President Biden is going to talk about some other key issues the economy climate change Etc but the backdrop poll's showing immigration as the top issue for a lot of Americans right now so watch for the president to try to flip the script and put Repu

blicans on defense on this humanitarian crisis at the border even as Republicans accuse the president of failing to do his job on that so what's he going to do how's he going to address it that's one of our big question questions tonight no plan to roll out some new executive action next question what about a Vibe check on the economy members the the numbers are looking better even with the markets hitting record highs today people are not feeling better so how can the president get them there a

nd then some news we do expect on the Israel Hamas War our sources say he's going to roll out a new plan to build a port in Gaza to let humanitarian help in but is that going to quiet the critics including in his own party who want him to do more for a ceasefire it's a lot big questions on a big night during a big week our team of reporters is all over it including Christine Romans on the economy Julia anley On the Border Julie cirin on Capitol Hill but let me start at the White House where our

Kelly O'Donnell is posted up looking at some of those Advanced excerpts that were just getting Kell bring us up to speed well this is a way for the White House to give a little taste of what the president will say tonight and then the main event is at 900 p.m. and they have given us also a selection that deals with one of the issues that Democrats and the White House definitely believe will drive voters and that is abortion rights we expect the president will say that clearly those bragging righ

ts about overturning roie Wade which is an inference to former president Trump there have no clue about the power of women in America if Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose I promise you says President Biden I will restore roie Wade as the law of the land again so implicit in that is the president is trying to say voters need to put Democrats at least in a majority in charge charge in a new Senate a new house uh with the next term and that if he is in office he would w

ork to restore those rights that will be a big theme they believe it applies not only to democratic women uh Independence and even uh Republicans especially women Republicans in the suburbs uh and Hy in the spirit of this night if you hear any of the external noise there is a ceasefire protest happening in the park behind me that is very much in tune with what happens on a state of the union night people with strong feelings about big issues come to this area of the White House come to the capit

al to let their voices be known and as you've indicated the president will certainly be talking about ways to bring humanitarian Aid to Gaza in his remarks tonight I've been told by sources that the Israel Gaza conflict will be a fair amount of the foreign policy that will be in tonight's address Kelly thanks we definitely hear those protests behind you and as you say it is a big night for that uh there's also this this interesting idea of you know I mentioned we're in a big week we're just 48 h

ours past Super Tuesday Kelly right typically the state of the union is the biggest thing in politics that week it's got a it's got some competition now and the Biden team is saying they raised something like1 and a. half million dollar after it became clear Nikki haly wasn't going to have a good night that it was going to be president VI Biden versus the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and they believe that some of the people who have supported Nikki Haley could be within reach for

president and he will try to extend that message I've also been told that tonight there will be rhetoric that will address some concerns and calling out of Republicans but in a way that is cautious not only because President Biden is someone who is sort of steeped in the tradition and the decorum of a night like this but also because he wants to be clear about choices without alienating Republicans who might be persuadable to come to his side over the months ahead and trying to uh talk about the

difference is between himself and Donald Trump as you indicated in some clips at the top but we don't expect his name to be used Donald Trump's name to be used yet everyone at the White House in terms of sources we've been talking said it's you know it's no surprise who the president will be referring to but it is a choice to not make it sound like a campaign speech even though it is many ways a kickoff to the campaign for President Biden who will uh most certainly wrap himself in campaign rhet

oric and activities in the days weeks to come Kelly odonnell uh thank you much uh we'll see you I'm sure a thousand times throughout the night thanks Kell we will also see our next correspondent Julie cirin about a thousand times because she is on the hill just a couple blocks from where I'm sitting the president's going to take that two- mile Journey Down Pennsylvania Avenue later on and then when he gets there he's going to be facing a chamber full of not just members of Congress but some of t

heir guests as well we know that he's faced heckling during the last state of the union he tried to use that it seems to his Advantage but you've got the house Speaker tonight telling his members hey let's let's focus on decorum tonight question is will they listen yeah that is the big question hie this is not only a night for President Biden but this is a chance for lawmakers up here to platform their issue and they're doing so by inviting the guests on various topics from abortion to IVF uh to

Big Tech to also uh the Israel and Hamas War I talked to Corey Bush the representative from Missouri who has been loud who has been outspoken and calling for a ceasefire and putting that pressure on the president and she tells me that protesting in the chamber is not off the table here's what she said to me today so one thing that I think people know about me is you know if I feel the need to speak out I I I speak out um but one thing that I am not um I'm not performative in the way to just be

able to speak out to say something um so I I I don't know I haven't heard what he's going to say so I I I don't know what my reaction is going to be now bush is standing there in on your screen as you see her with Dr intima Salama I had interviewed both of them she is a Palestinian dentist she's a graduate student from Missouri she told me she lost 35 members who are still in Gaza she said she feels guilty being here while they are over there and certainly she feels proud to be in that chamber t

onight so her voice is heard because you also have families of hostages including those being brought by Speaker Johnson himself trying to make their case and Salama and as well Corey bush had told me while that is important they want to hear from the president an immediate and a lasting ceasefire hle Julie cirin uh live for us there on Capital Jules thank you so much let me bring an NBC News senior business correspondent Christin Roman and Cho is just looking at another one of the excerpts from

President Biden's speech tonight and he's expected to talk about the economy and say that it needs to work from the middle out and the bottom up not from the top down which I think speaks to something that you've been hearing from some of the White House officials you've talked to today right here in Washington yeah and he's going to be positioning himself as whose side are are you on are you on the side of the big corporations right who are raising your prices or on the side of me who's trying

to lower your prices lower your cost and also make the tax code a little fairer so he's going to try to kind of frame himself as the person who's there right at the kitchen table with the American people and yet even with the numbers going in the right direction in large part I mean the S&P the NASDAQ hitting record highs today um inflation going in the right direction or at least starting to unemployment numbers down you see the market numbers there it's not like people are telling pollsters t

hey love how the economy is doing it's still a pain point for folks yeah it really is and I think that those inflation scars are deep and they are fresh interesting and when you look at grocery bills and I keep telling you this number because this number shocks me grocery prices since January 2020 are up 25% overall prices since January 2020 are up 19% so what people are paying when they buy stuff even though inflation is off of its peak and is moderating prices are still Rising though more slow

ly just oh sorry go ahead no but prices are rising more slowly and so people look at the price they pay and it makes them feel lousy about every other economic indicator it's also an interesting comparison January 2020 that was a different Universe from a supply chain perspective because that was just before the pandemic right and so even though inflation has been ticking down since some of those supply chain issues got worked out post pandemic it still hurts and that Vibe session that you and I

often talk about I mean favorite topic think about where we were four years ago think about four years ago right now was when the whole universe was shutting down because of Co March 2020 look at what we've lived through so when you talk about you know are you better off today than you were four years ago oh my gosh what people have lived through in the past four years has been just totally life-changing and maybe that's one of the reasons why the economy numbers get such terrible polling maybe

the economy numbers are kind of a vessel for just everything else people waiting for the next shoe to drop people concerned about what's happened over the past four years wondering if things are ever going to get really back to normal and just a little more risk averse and afraid than they were um you know four or five years ago so then biggest thing that you'll be watching for tonight what will it be how are you watching the speech you I'm really interested to see what he says about housing an

d housing affordability I think there will be some interesting nuggets about lowering prices for American families and making affordable housing more more available to regular people first-time home buyers or people who want to move out of their starter home so we'll be looking for that and you see all these other things he's going to tick through all the things that he's done one by one to just chip away at unfairness in pricing he'll probably call out corporations for not passing along St they

're still they're still in the covid era of passing on all their costs to Consumers consumers are stick and tired of that he going to try to be on the side of the consumer and say hey this isn't fair and we're using the levers of government the levers that we have to try to call these companies out and these industries out to make sure that there aren't hidden costs for you there aren't unfair fees and they've really been going after those a lot you know it sounds like nickel and daming but the

White House really thinks that people feel all of these costs and they need to show look we feel your pain Christine Romans uh we have coffee here for you we have dinner come back for our special coverage in just a couple of hours very good we look for you then thank you Chris it's good to see you let's get now to our homeland security correspondent Julia anley who is live for us in one of those critical border states of Texas President Biden has been under Fire from Republicans for this humanit

arian crisis along the border but he is hoping to flip the script on that and point to Congress and say wait a second you didn't actually do anything on the bill that we had in place that would have addressed this yeah hie I think we're going to hear more from the president tonight on immigration that we might have heard in previous state of the unions because as you pointed out at the top of the show immigration is becoming such a key issue for a lot of Voters the number one issue and for a lot

of those voters this wasn't even on their top five or 10 before you saw these numbers that have really risen in recent years part of that coming after the pandemic some of those restrictions loosened On the Border a lot of it has to do with what's going on globally there is a lot of poverty and civil unrest and political unrest in Central and South America we've seen more migrants come from countries like Venezuela that can't be deported all of that has put been put on the doorstep of the presi

dent who used to not really talk a lot lot about this issue right because for Republicans they know this can fire up their base to get to the polls but often times for Democrats it really didn't do them a lot of favors to talk about it but the president has done actually a lot of executive actions On the Border more so in his first term than president than president Trump did which is hard to think about but when you quantify them there have been so many some of them have allowed immigration is

immigration to prioritize who gets arrested and who is going to be detained others have actually made it a lot tougher for migrants to try to raise the bar on Asylum to try to encourage them to apply for lawful pathways on their way to the United States rather than crossing the border illegally but he continues to get pushed back because of the numbers at the border although they have actually dropped pretty precipitously since last year I think a big way that we've seen how this White House is

thinking about immigration and we'll see this tonight is the fact that the president did not announce an executive action on immigration between that border security piece of the National Security Supplemental being stripped out because Republicans blocked it and the State of the Union tonight he could have taken executive action but it was actually seen inside the White House that that could have them lose the narrative where Republicans could say look Biden had the power to do this all along w

hy did they need us to do something about this and so he hasn't acted we may see some new action he action a little bit of technical issues there with Julia eny's live shot as we dropped that audio but Julia I think we got the gist of most of what you were saying our thanks to her there in that critical border state of Texas more of course on the State of the Union later tonight as our special coverage continues at 8:00 Eastern but first here on this show we got to bring you some breaking news o

ut of Nashville Tennessee where an army Sergeant has been indicted for allegedly selling sensitive military information to a co-conspirator in China here's what prosecutors just said the defendant is charged with entering into a multi-year conspiracy to illegally exploit his access to National Defense information for his own Financial benefit he traded our National Defense information for cash I want to bring in Tom winter now for more and Tom I I want you to help us put it into the plainest and

clearest English possible it sounds to me like this guy was accused of selling secrets to China is that right well that's exactly right hie we want to be specific about the terms here apparently starting back in June of 2022 Cor Schultz who was arrested by the FBI this morning at Fort Campbell started communicating after he was reached out by a conspirator based in Hong Kong now this individual is a foreign National says he lives in Hong Kong says he's a business consultant very interesting the

way the indictment is worded they're not making that assertion reached out to Schultz and then apparently you're looking at a photo of him here uh apparently started asking him for classified information secret information and Schultz is not charged with sharing any sort of classified or top secret information but he is charged with sharing National Defense information and what that might mean well we're talking about F-22 the fighter uh the Raptor fighter uh the manuals associated with that we

're talking about sensitive military technology as it pertains to nuclear weapons is it pertains to uh defense uh capabilities of the US is it pertains to helicopters and exactly what the US's observations of its own military drills by China were including his thoughts on what the US do if Taiwan would be attacked all of this type of information and hi it was just three days ago you and I were sitting on set together talking about a separate case involving a member of the United States military

about just how important this is for a foreign country to understand the us is thinking about that foreign country's capabilities or observation so this is serious it's the third case we've talked about this week and it's something that we're definitely keeping a track on as far as a trend of this our own people sharing our own information Tom winter we're so glad to have you on this one for us thank you very much for bringing us that developing news tonight Court wrapping up tonight in just the

last hour in Michigan with some intense moments the father of a school shooter realizing his son may have been the gunman in a second of its kind trial I want you to listen to this dramatic moment and told me waster and I home find out and my I don't know I don't know [Music] that's James Crumbley they're in court today so I'm listening to that phone call play out with headphones because he has difficulty hearing the 47-year-old father is facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter these are

the same charges that his wife Jennifer faced in her unprecedented trial just last month you'll remember the jury in that trial found her guilty for the deaths of these four students Hana St Juliana Tate Mir Madison Baldwin Justin Schilling students killed in the 2021 shooting attack at Oxford High School their son is serving life in prison for that these parents son Maggie vesa is in Pontiac Michigan outside the court house and Maggie just to lay the stakes out here for people right I mean the

se are and we hadn't seen this before Jennifer crumley's trial a parent being held accountable for their child opening fire at their school the mother as we said found guilty now the father is on trial and opening statements today went pretty quickly walk us through it and how it diff how it was different from Jennifer's trial the mom's trial yeah hie it was really striking because as you point out this is still a major precedent being set legally right I mean this is only the second of its kind

case however to some degree this does feel like a bit of a rins and repeat from Jennifer crumley's case just a month ago so this did go pretty swiftly the defense's opening statement uh James crumley's Attorney only speaking for 7 minutes total a lot of her defense was similar to what we heard in Jennifer's case the attorney saying that James Crumbley couldn't have known what his teenage son was planning that he had no reason to think that his son was a danger the prosecution specifically in th

is case they have some delineating factors saying that specifically James Crumbley was the adult in the house in charge of securing the gun that is key to their case and a different factor from Jennifer crumley's case and they also say that Ethan Crumbley asked his parents including his father for help and they declined to get him help instead buying him that gun and taking him to a shooting range here is some of what we heard in those opening statements today instead of receiving help or interv

ention of any kind James crumblyy instead began to take his son to the shooting range this nightmare these murders were preventable by him foreseeable by him when you're not aware of an immediate imminent danger why would you do anything different than what you normally do so again just a reminder a lot of what we're hearing in this case is similar to what we heard in Jennifer crumley's case but let's walk through the particulars of that one remember she faced the same charges four counts of inv

oluntary manslaughter in her case the jury deliberated for just 11 hours effectively two days before convicting her on those counts we heard from 21 Witnesses in that case including law enforcement officials co-workers of Jennifer Crumbley including her boss at the time who said she could have left work that morning to take her son home when they had that alarming meeting with school administrators and then also a lot of school staffers themselves a lot of those Witnesses on the witness list in

this case as well one key point though the defense in that case only calling Jennifer herself to the stand and hi at this point we don't know if James Crumbley is going to follow his wife's lead and take the stand his attorneys haven't really laid out their plans yet so we'll have to wait and see Maggie vesa live for us there in Pontiac Maggie we're glad you're there bringing us that reporting thank you so the big storm is starting to ramp up set to slam the South creating all kinds of concerns

with 10 million people in Alabama and Georgia under flood watches on the heels of a lot of rain just in these last 24 hours look at this leaving roads flooded here in Atlanta leaving cars stuck nine and and some ducks ducking 9 million people from Texas to Kansas are bracing for Hail a ton of wind maybe even tornadoes meteorologist Bill Karn is tracking it all for us the ducks like it when it rains this much rain for folks in the South can can get to be potentially dangerous talk us through it y

eah I never like it when we have a flood event forecasted right after we just had a flood you just saw the pictures there in the Atlanta area because you just know the ground saturated the rivers are up it just doesn't take as much rain as you typically think to get some extreme floodings we'll talk about that in a second cuz that's going to be tomorrow let's talk about the immediate threat happening now we have severe thunderstorm watches that have been posted from Kansas all the way through Ok

lahoma City wit to Falls to San Angelo does not include the Dallas Fort Worth area these watches will go to about 9 or 10:00 we may get a tornado watch during the overnight hours in Central Texas we'll talk about that in a second but here's a close-up radar not a fun commute Dallas Fort Worth northward about Interstate 35 it is just pouring no flash flood warnings or anything there is one severe thunderstorm warning out here towards the south of Graham there's also another severe thunderstorm wi

th large hail heading towards Blackwell so we're starting to see these storms ramping up getting a little stronger large hail is the concern in about the next four to five hours than during the overnight we'll start to introduce the chance of a few tornadoes this is the area at risk the 9 million people pretty much the exact same spots where we have the watches but this is the area if we get any tornadoes would happen probably like 3:00 a.m. to maybe like 6:00 a.m. so like dead of The Middle of

the night towards the early morning and this is areas just south of Fort Worth and then tomorrow we take this threat through the southeast all from Dallas to areas of Alabama and then there's your flood watch that will be Friday evening hi so again uh three days in a row we're going to be tracking severe weather and flash flooding through the South Bill Karen thank you very much appreciate that I know you'll be watching it all coming up more to get to here on the show including new details tonig

ht on the biggest wildfire in Texas history what officials now say might have started it plus how the FDA is expanding its investigation into cinnamon products tainted with [Music] lead to some developing Health news today more kids ending up in emergency rooms why they're accidentally overdosing on melatonin turns out kids are finding their parents gummies that have melatonin in them they're taking them they think maybe like it's candy or something the cdc's out with this new report saying visi

ts for babies and for little kids who ingested melatonin went up 400% between 2009 and 2020 and the study specifically points to those gummies you see like similar to the ones here and to chewable tablets being appealing to little kids the study also points out melatonin supplements are not required to have child resistant caps did you know that NBC News medical fellow Dr OE Sall joins us now is the reason we're seeing or part of the reason such a spike in this is because more and more people ar

e taking melatonin in general generally in other words that these gummies are just in more households absolutely H I think I think that's a big part of it and I think you really kind of hit the nail on the head in the in the intro here these these supplements are are you know over half of these hospital or ER visits were from were from gummies and and to be fair these things are are becoming very appetizing to Children right they can't tell the difference between this or something that looks lik

e sour skittles for example um so if you're a parent who has this lying around you can see how your child might get into them and the hi to that point you brought up earlier um they're not required to have child resistant uh packaging or childproof tops you know those ones where you kind of have to push and then twist down to the side that I think some of us struggle with sometimes are not required here by by melatonin manufacturers so we can see a lot of kids getting into these and hi some numb

ers here about 36% of all cases involve 10 or more gummies um so you you know most come in about 5 milligram doses we're talking about 50 milligrams of melatonin um and how you really shouldn't go more than three to six in a in a child's case here um is there anything parents can take you know cuz I I know just in as a parent myself um I know some parents and they do it on the advice of their pediatrician giving their kids small amounts of melatonin what would you recommend for both kids and par

ents who have trouble sleeping so so a couple things hi first of all there's no FDA approved medication for insomnia for children um and really you know if if I were a parent if I were giving advice to a parent I would say you know you don't want somebody to form habit forming things in terms of you know feel like they need something to go to sleep especially at that young of an age so really what we recommend for children is behavioral modifications things like putting away the screens an hour

before bedtime turning off the blue light I'm setting a regular sleep schedule where you get up and go to bed at the same time and if you have to use melatonin it's not a sleeping pill how it is something that you can use in short term to kind of get adjusted but it's not something you want to be dependent on especially at a young age Dr o thank you so much appreciate it let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight number one newly released scans show The M

an Behind last year's mass shooting in Maine suffered from traumatic brain injuries which may have influenced his actions in his last months he carried out a shooting in multiple locations last October killing 18 people was eventually found dead Days Later his family apologized for the attack saying they hoped releasing these findings might in their words help prevent future tragedies number two Forest Service investigators in Texas just announcing power lines ignited the biggest wildfire in the

state's history we've talked about the SmokeHouse Creek Fire it's burned through more than a million Acres it's 74% contained these findings come just hours after a utility company EXL said one of its facilities may have been part of what started the fire they deny any negligence number three the FDA says ground cinnamon sold by some discount stores may be contaminated with a lot of lead there's a list of which brands are affected on the NBC News and FDA sites go look at it because the agency s

ays if you have any of them you can see some of them here throw them away and if you're like I just remember hearing about cinnamon and Lead that's right it was those cinnamon applesauce pouches tainted with lead that made a lot of news within the last couple of months number four if your dream restaurant is an Applebees and an IHOP Under One Roof pancakes and riblets together at last guess what great news for you it's happening apparently dual branded locations opening so-called prototype locat

ions are already open around the world they'll eventually come to the US the idea is to combine Applebees and IHOPs take advantage of space cut costs since each chain is busy during different parts of the day although IHOP risk business you know post 11:00 p.m. from what I hear number five 29-year-old Cole Brower just made history as the first American woman to race non-stop around the world by herself she was greeted by a cheering crowd of family and friends rating for her on Shore today in Spa

in that sailing trip took 130 days covering 30,000 miles amazing when we come back in just the next few hours you know it we are now just what 3 and 1 half hours away from President Biden State of the Union we're about to go one-on-one with the Democratic minority whip a member of leadership on what she'd like to hear that's our newsmaker in just a minute NBC News covers hundreds of stories every day and because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them all our teams in the bureaus have

done it for you this is what they tell us is going down in their region is in a segment we call the local out of our Western Bureau remember you watch this live the armorer on the movie rust get sentenced just yesterday that's her mom right there she or excuse me get convicted she will now be sentenced soon after that conviction on involuntary manslaughter a jury found Hannah Gutierrez Reed guilty in that onset shooting death of the film's cinematographer Gutierrez Reed was found not guilty of

tampering with evidence but she does face up to 18 months in prison out of the Southern Bureau newly released video shows a pair of County Sheriff deputies in Florida racing to save two people trapped in a car underwater look at this body cam video One Deputy pulls somebody out then starts giving life-saving CPR it is just very intense to watch incredibly both people in the car survived thanks to those Heroes unbelievable also out of our Southern Bureau North Carolina metal recycling plant Up in

Flames look at that smoke this is in Rocky Mount still burning even as of this afternoon after being reported last night you can see the Flames there you can see crw trying to put it out not clear yet if anybody was hurt with the state of the union now just about three hours away I want to bring in somebody who's going to be in the house chamber where President Biden will give his big speech one of the members of Democratic Leadership congresswoman Katherine Katherine Clark of Massachusetts con

gresswoman thank you so much for being and I want to say back on the show but I think this is your first time on this show so welcome we're glad you're here oh it's good to be with you thank you for having me it's a big night it is a busy night and President Biden has a lot on the line here as you know an opportunity to get his message out to millions of Americans and what is a very busy week we're fresh off super Tuesday it's looking like him versus Donald Trump what does the president need to

say tonight what do you want to hear from him I think what we are going to hear from the president is that he is about the forward W progress building on the progress he has already made all the work that he has done and standing strong in the contrast with Donald Trump who wants to take us backwards so I am excited I know also that it is going to be rooted in reproductive Freedom which is one of the highest contrasts um and I am so grateful to President Biden for his leadership when we are real

ly at a Crossroads in this country on are we going to go forward as a democracy are we going to proceed with equality for women you mentioned obviously the issue of Reproductive Rights we know that this is something that Democrats believe will be very mobilizing for voters come November and it relates to your guest tonight a woman from Texas talk us through the message that you're hoping to send with your guest especially when you look at some of the biggest issues to Americans more broadly it's

economy it's immigration number one is not reproductive access that's not where it's been how do you see that playing into November oh a reproductive freedom is absolutely going to be a top issue for 2024 and I am so honored and privileged to have Amanda zarowski as my guest she is the lead plaintiff in the case against Texas and her story and my story are a classic example of pre-dbs and post-dbs when I had a miscarriage and needed a an abortion to prevent infection I got it I got it from my d

octor and I got the care I needed immediately then we go post doobs and Amanda who was 6 months pregnant her water broke her her baby was not going to survive but instead of being able to access the care she needed she was told to go home and wait until infection set in and it did and she spent days in the ICU barely hanging on to her life and now her road to Motherhood continues to be through fertility treatment IVF and what she is terrified of is the Alabama decision because the extremists in

the Republican Party are not now only saying if and when women and families can have children but how and so her story resonates with Americans and American women across this country but especially for the 21 million women who are living in states that have banned this essential Healthcare and as you allude to obviously the controversial ruling in Alabama putting a spotlight on the issue of Reproductive Rights as Democrats are looking at what happened of course in the midterms to propel them to

a better than expected result because of that issue and yet congresswoman you know where President Biden's approval rating is it is 37% that is lower than former president Trump in his last state of the union lower than former president Obama in 2012 lower than former President Bush in 2004 lower than former President Clinton in 1996 it's not good it's not where President Biden I assume would like it to be um what does he need to do to turn that around and do you have concerns that he is just no

t going to be able to resonate with voters come the fall absolutely not uh I am enthusiastically endorsing President Biden because of what he has accomplished when we go from the American Rescue plan and pulling us out of the pandemic to the infrastructure law to the first gun violence prevention bill in 30 years to Bringing manufacturing back to our Shores through the chips and science act reducing the cost of Health Care capping insulin at $35 a month reducing premiums in the ACA and a histori

c investment in building resiliency in our country to climate change but he knows the job is not done he knows that families are still struggling and the work and the vision that he has for the future for his second term is in line with what I hear from families all across this country and that is that we need to focus on those continue lowering costs whether it's child care or groceries or addressing our housing crisis that's what we're going to hear from the president tonight the other thing t

hat we're going to hear from the president we know is that he is widely expected to announce a new Port uh off the coast of the Gaza Strip to bring more humanitarian help to the people who very much need it the civilians the innocent people in Gaza um the way that the president that the White House has handled this war is something that progressives have been very upset over we've seen activists repeatedly confronting the president on this do you believe that could happen tonight you know I I th

ink that what we have heard from the president and the vice president over the last week is one that is exactly where the American people are we stand with Israelis and our Ally in Israel but we also know that we have a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the president has started doing airdrops of humanity and relief but we know that's not enough so building this pier being able to bring in the aid that is desperately needed um immediately is a critical step in addressing the the death and destruct

ion that we are seeing in Gaza so the president continues to call for a ceasefire to be at that negotiating table to be pushing for peace in this region while meeting the needs of Gins and he is also at the same time setting the stage uh across the region for the day after and how we truly bring two-state solution and make sure that both Palestinians and Israelis have the security they deserve Democratic minority web congresswoman Katherine Clark thank you very much for being with us we're glad

to have you we appreciate your time on a busy night thank you you heard her talking about of course the Israel Hamas war and we know that's going to be front and center with more than a dozen family members of Hamas held hostages in the audience as guests of members of Congress and then of course what we talked about the plan that the president is expected to roll out about that new port on the coastline so ships can get Aid directly to folks there all of it of course related to that humanitaria

n crisis and on the heels of the US airdropping Food medicine and supplies into Gaza starting just a few days ago you see it there it's happening in partnership with Jordan our Richard Angel joined to the Jordanian Air Force for one of those missions he's got this report we just finished accompanying an aid drop that left from here in Jordan from this military base on this plane and dropped humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip This one went to Northern Gaza which is the hardest hit area whe

re the humanitarian crisis the hunger is at its most severe and let me tell you a little bit about what we saw and and how it works so this plane was able to hold roughly 25,000 meals these are these are supplies donated by the Jordanian government in this case but they're also supplies donated from from Charities from the United States from the UN and uh it's a very simple old-fashioned kind of mechanism the the pallets are attached to uh a big sled and on top of the pallets are parachutes and

when you get over Gaza the crew opens this back door and the pallet simply slide off and float down to to the to the people of Gaza now Gaza is not very far here from here but this took a tremendous amount of time because every step of this process was coordinated with the Israeli military and as we were flying over and as even before we got to Israeli airspray the jordanians were talking to the Israelis deconflict it and then when we entered Gaza itself there wasn't a truce efforts to create a

truce in a ceasefire have been unsuccessful but they were deconflict the military so that the plane wouldn't get shot down because the Israelis don't want to shoot down a a Jordanian plane Jordan is a is an ally of of Israel has a peace treaty with Israel and there's a lot of attention and sensitivity about these missions right now so it was coordinated it took hours and it is very very very slow uh eight agencies will tell you that this is all helpful the people of Gaza need assistance but that

this is really just a drop in a in in the bucket you can't meet the needs of the people of Gaza dropping boxes of food pallets of food one at a time it's helpful but not a solution our thanks to Richard angle for that reporting coming up here on the show stepped up security along two of the biggest transit systems in the Northeast the crime prompting those unprecedented moves stay with [Music] us for the first day today we're seeing hundreds of National Guard troops patrolling the New York City

subway 750 in all plus 250 officers from the state and MTA look at that after a series of high-profile attacks the National Guard set to do things like random bag checks and at another Metro System a bit further south police in Philadelphia are looking for the suspects accused of shooting 18 teens getting on a public bus George siss is joining us now what's the latest in that investigation that happened as these teenagers were getting on board um this bus near Philly yeah the investigation very

much underway police actually releasing some surveillance video capturing the harrowing moments before that hail of gunfire erupted and what you see is three suspects getting out of a blue Hyundai as described by police and they run up to this bus stop that is frequented by high schoolers here in the area and they just open fire police saying some 30 shots or so were fired so we learned today from police that that was a stolen car and they are looking for that person that fourth person that dri

ver in the vehicle and they are looking to see if this shooting may be connected to another shooting that happened earlier this week that also involved teenagers and so yes this halil of gunfire injuring those 18 te bringing the full total of juveniles that were injured in this city to 11 that is a staggering figure that has prompted a response not only from the ATF to be a part of this investigation but from the mayor the district attorney superintendent of the District of Philadelphia here eve

ryone weighing in saying that this violence is completely out of hand and they need to do something they're calling on parents even to do those bag checks to do checks of bedrooms for any of these weapons that may be circling these streets to prevent another shooting like this happen and again one of the people that was shot yesterday hiy about nine times uh from what police told us today they they're not sure if this team was targeted but given some of the likelihood and some of the things that

they are starting to connect they are exploring that possibility hie George so Le live for us there in Philly George thank you so much thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media