right now on Morning News Now a special Council Showdown shaping up in Washington over an investigation into President Biden this morning special counsel Robert her set to testify before Congress about the president's handling of classified documents and her's decision not to file charges as well as his scathing assessment of President Biden as a quote well meaning elderly man with a poor memory we have Team coverage ahead of today's testimony and how it could impact the 2024 election also today
it's primary day in four states this morning voters in Georgia Hawaii Mississippi and Washington State heading to the polls as President Biden and former president Trump look ahead to an all but official 2020 rematch I heard a very angry man who's losing badly in the polls who's willing to weaponized government like has never taken place in this country my predecessor failed the most B B of any Duty president owes the American people a duty to care we'll have the latest from the campaign Trail
plus cash credit or buy now pay later more young people using the popular payment plans for everyday purchases but could it come at a bigger cost we will break down the fine print and totes trending move over Stanley Cups there's a new hot ticket item in town we'll break down the bizarre frenzy over mini tote bags from Trader jokes this is true this is all I shopped there I had no idea people are saying I went to seven stores they're collecting all the colors huh I'll keep an eye out for that go
od morning good to have you with usy off you should I'm Joe Pryer and I'm Savannah salers we're gonna get started in Washington where today the investigation into President Biden's handling of classified documents is said to be back in the spotlight the former special counsel who investigated Biden Robert her is set to testify before a congressional committee her special counsel report which was released last month said that President Biden quote willfully retained and shared highly classified i
nformation when he left his post as vice president but her found there was not enough evidence to bring charges against him the report also delivered a stinging assessment of the state of President Biden's memory saying he was unable to recall details during his interviews with investigators President Biden responded saying quote I'm well-meaning and I'm an elderly man and I know what the hell I am doing we have full team coverage of today's testimony with NBC News Congressional correspondent Ju
lie cirin and NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent kend delanian thank you both Julie let's start with you this is going to be the first time Robert her addresses the public since that report was released last month what are we expecting to hear yeah and what a hot seat to be in for the first time he's going to address this publicly before the house Judiciary Committee this is the same committee that has launched the impeachment investigation the inquiry into the president Jim Jordan
the chair of the committee is certainly going to press uh Robert Hurst specifically what you just laid out in the intro on Biden's mental Fitness on his Acuity uh that elderly that well-meaning elderly man phrase was of course taken directly from that 388 page report and certainly Republicans are going to use this time to press him on that why he included that in the report and why he didn't charge the president because again there is also a special counsel investigation charges of which the for
mer president is expected to face this week in Florida uh but Democrats are expected to point to the very key differences between President Biden's case and between the case with the former president this is something we know Democrats are going to push her on her also included in his report why those two cases were so different so certainly we expect both of those things to come up but again we don't expect her himself to stray too far outside of this uh report that he delivered uh last month g
uys K the White House has been critical of the characterization of the president and his memory in this report which said quote openly obvious VI ly and blatantly violated a justice department policies did hers characterization of Biden go beyond what we would normally see in a report like this no because reports like this Savannah are almost always confidential they're declination reports written in private so they include a lot of derogatory information about the person uh who is not being cha
rged because it's the results of an investigation look we have Rob her's opening statement now and in that opening statement he defends his use his characterizations of President Biden's memory in that 5H hour interview because he says it was crucial that Biden's memory and his mental state was crucial to Rob Hurst decision not to charge him despite significant evidence that President Biden had willfully retained classified information including a tape recording where he said I found all the cla
ssified material uh he was referring to a house in Virginia back in 2017 and so her said it was entirely proper to do that he needed to do that in fact to justify to his boss the Attorney General why he was was in charging Mr Biden because this is a crime of willfulness you have to know that you're retaining classified information and President Biden told Rob her in the interview that he didn't remember ever saying that on tape or finding those classified documents back in 2017 can you mention t
he Attorney General Merck Garland he made the decision to have former special counsel Robert her handle this document's investigation what is the justice department saying about the report's characterization of the president well so the justice department when when President Biden's lawyers objected before the report came out they objected to this language the justice department referred it to the top career official of doj in other words the top person who is not appointed by the president and
that person looked at it his name is Bradley windimer and said this is entirely proper I'm sorry Mr Biden and your lawyers but um this characterization of the of Mr Biden's memory in this report was necessary to explain the decision not to charge him it was not gratuitous it was not outside the bounds of doj policy uh and Merck Garland and his people while not involved in that decision they tend to agree and they say that Democrats who say they should have edited that out or somehow you know cha
nged the report uh our misunderstanding what a scandal that would have been that would have looked like political interference from their point of view guys Julie Where Do We Go From Here does today's hearing Mark kind of like The Unofficial end of this investigation or will we keep hearing about this well remember this isn't happening in a vacuum the Republicans have been investigating the president they've been uh pursuing this impeachment inquiry that is growing less and less Popular by the w
eek and and of course this her report the special counsel report is not necessarily the basis by which their investigation is uh continuing here but it's certainly something they're going to use as a Lynch pin to keep it going because again they have been unable to provide any evidence of any wrongdoing any foreign interference that they claim the president had had uh with his son with his friends with his brother and so certainly this special counsel report is a moment that they're going to try
to use and one they're trying to milk ahead of the election again as I mentioned you also have the former president facing charges this week in Florida for his handling of the special counsel uh special documents case classified documents case excuse me and certainly this is a moment in which Republicans are going to try to use they're going to try to capitalize and again they are still demanding documents and the full transcript of the uh interview and the video portion of the interview as wel
l so we anticipate that after today they will continue on all right Julie cin and Ken Delany with a preview of today's testimony thank you both now let's get to the race for the White House today is primary day in several States as former president Trump looks to officially lock up the Republican nomination for a third straight time Trump is less than 150 delegates from clinching the nomination today we're going to see nominating contests in Georgia Hawaii Mississippi and Washington State and th
ose States could put him over the top the former president became the presumptive nominee after a strong showing last week on super Tuesday forcing Nikki Haley to drop out of the race NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns joins us with the very latest Dasha good morning so we're not really expected to see much drama today at the polls but How likely is it that Trump does officially clinch the GOP nomination tonight reach that threshold hey guys good morning so the magic number is 1215 that's how ma
ny delegates he needs to officially become the nominee right now he has 1,076 so a little early morning math for you here he needs 13 39 more there are 161 up for grabs tonight so there's a high possibility he does get there tonight but of course it ain't over until our decision desk makes the call Dasha tackling math early in the morning we appreciate that so the Trump campaign is pretty much taking over the Republican National Committee at least four senior staffers were fired yesterday accord
ing to two sources familiar with the matter what's going on here what can you tell us about this yeah at least four fired potentially as many as 60 employees in imped so the RNC met in Houston last week to install a new pair of leaders selected specifically by the former president chairman Michael Watley who previously led the North Carolina Republican party and of course there's been a lot of talk about this former president Trump's daughter-in-law Laura Trump as co-chair and Chris LV who's ess
entially a a trump co- campaign manager stepped into the role of Chief Operating Officer at the RNC so this is a full-on remaking of the the RNC in Trump's image there's going to be guys very little daylight now between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee Dasha we also have some news uh involving one of the legal cases with the former president we want to ask you about so his attorneys have asked the judge presiding over the New York hush money case to delay this trial until
after the Supreme Court issues that ruling on presidential immunity what's the Trump team arguing here and what do we think so far right so this is kind of a long shot 11th Hour bid here and it came as a bit of a surprise because it came after the deadline for pre-trial motions had passed but basically the Trump team is arguing that some of the evidence that'll be used against him in this in this case pertains to quote official acts that should be kept out of trial because remember his presiden
tial immunity argument pertains to official acts he took as president so his lawyers argue that they should be immune from prosecution they specifically referen certain tweets and public comments from 2018 that he made about Michael Cohen and some business records that Trump signed off on uh relating to those hush money payments so his lawyers are asking for the trial to be delayed until after the Supreme Court issues its ruling on the scope of presidential immunity um arguments in that case are
scheduled for April 25th and then one more case to talk about Trump expected to attend a hearing on Thursday in the federal criminal case involving his handling of classified documents that's the case in Florida his attorneys want to get that one thrown out what can we expect there yeah oh my gosh you're reminding me it's going to be a really busy week Joe uh yeah judge Canon said that Thursday's hearing is expected to take all day Trump's legal team and prosecutors from special Council Jack Sm
ith's office are expected to argue their positions on whether some or all of the charges against Trump should be thrown out because of the presidential records act before the case actually goes to trial the special Council though has urged Canon to reject Trump's claims that the uh that his presidential records can quote be transformed into personal records upon being removed from the White House guys all right Dasha Burns thank you so much New Jersey Democratic senator Bob Menendez and his wife
have pleaded not guilty to new federal obstruction charges the two new charges brought by prosecutors relate to alleged attempts by Menendez and his wife naen to cover up illegal bribes these charges bring the total number of federal charges against the senator to 18 the couple is accused of taking bribes of gold bars cash and a luxury car in return for the Senator's help with projects pursued by three New Jersey businessmen Menendez has denied any wrongdoing and called the indictment I quote f
lagrant abuse of power that trial is set to begin in May an aid ship carrying 200 tons of food for gaza's starving population has finally set sail from Cypress yeah the ship had been delayed and could take up to two days to arrive the UN says Gaza is on the brink of famine relief organizations are resorting to air drops and now sea transport to deliver Aid amid accusations from the UN and Aid agencies that Israel is blocking Aid trucks from getting into The besieged Enclave speaking yesterday th
e UN Secretary General again urged Israel to allow more life-saving Aid into Gaza my strongest appeal today is to honor the spirit of Ramadan by silencing the guns and removing all obstacles to ensure the delivery of life-saving AIDS at the speed and massive scale required International humanitarian law lies in tet and the threatened Israeli assault on Rafa could plummet the people of Gaza into an even deeper circle of hell NBC News International correspondent Raph Sanchez joins us now from Tel
Aviv s raap this a ship finally on its way to Gaza clearly though it's going to take some time to actually get there so what can you tell us about this shipment any other efforts to get Aid there faster so Joe this is a Spanish ship it's called The Open Arms it's charity vessel it finally set sail from Cypress today for what as you said is going to be a painfully slow Voyage to Gaza this ship traveling about 3 m an hour partly because you have the ship but then behind it you have this enormous b
arge that is carrying a lot of the food much of it supplied by the US charity World Central Kitchen it is going to take take about 3 days before it reaches the Coast of Gaza and it remains very unclear what happens then how do you actually get the food off of the ship onto the coast and get it safely distributed to people who need it in terms of alternative Roots the Israeli government has said it is opening a new ground Crossing this will be near kibutz Berry one of the kibuts overrun by Hamas
on October 7th that will get food directly into Northern Gaza where it is most badly needed the timings on when that Crossing is going to be open remain unclear and then finally there is that longer term us effort to build a temporary Pier off the coast of Gaza to really ramp up humanitarian aid but us officials held NBC news that could take at least two months R we know Ramadan started yesterday many Palestinian Muslims will be heading to the alaxa mosque that's in Jerusalem and it's one of the
holiest Islamic sites but we do understand that Israel is imposing restrictions on Palestinian visitors you told us a little bit about this yesterday but give us the latest about that and and the regional reaction to those decisions yeah so we're getting a broader sense of these restrictions now for Palestinians coming from the occupied West Bank it is a very limited group of people who are going to go to the alaxa mosque men over the age of 50 women over the age of 50 and children under the ag
e of 10 so put that differently if you're a Palestinian in the West Bank and you are between the ages of 10 and 50 you are not going to be allowed to go to this holy site during the month of Ramadan for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship there are no formal restrictions by age we saw when we were in Jerusalem yesterday that young men were having trouble getting into the mosque they were being turned away at certain points by Israeli forces and the Israeli government says it reserves the right
to restrict the numbers going up to the mosque for safety reasons you can fit about 300, thousand people up there but but then you have the potential for crushes for stampedes for accidents the Israeli government says it's not going to allow that guys Raph we also talked yesterday about President Biden's comments on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that he was hurting Israel more than helping it now the US's own annual intelligence assessments is netanyahu's viability as a leader might b
e in Jeopardy what are we learning here yeah Joe this is really interesting this is some political analysis inside of this annual unclassified threat assessment that the US intelligence committee Community releases to Congress and it basically said netanyahu's political prospects are Bleak and that is an assessment that is backed up by the polls here uh a small minority of Israelis want Netanyahu to continue in office on the other side of this war a majority of Israelis want elections early for
a new government and this an analysis also suggested that you could see a more moderate Israeli government replacing this farri current government under Netanyahu that also appears to be backed up by polls here which suggests that Benny gance who's the leader of one of the Centrist parties that's actually joins the war cabinet is the favorite to be Israel's next prime minister guys all right Raph thank you so much this morning police are aware of the death of a former Boeing Employee turned whis
tleblower 62-year-old John Barnett was found dead on Friday in what the Charleston County coroner's office described as an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound now authorities have ruled out Foul Play Barnett work for boing for 32 years as a quality manager before retiring in 2017 since his retirement he's been outspoken about safety concern to the company he filed a whistleblower complaint against Boeing in 2017 raising concerns about the company's production standards he also filed a retaliat
ion lawsuit against Boeing that was set for trial this June his death comes amid a series of recent dangerous incidents involving Boeing planes the justice department just launched a criminal investigation into the company following that midair blowout of a 737 Maxin plane in January let's get you over to weather there's a new storm bringing winter alerg to the Northwest this morning Al Angie lman is tracking the latest for us hey Angie good morning hey there guys good morning to you you got tha
t right we've got another Storm Out West that's going to bring us some rain some snow and then eventually down the line we could see be see we could be seeing some severe storms from this let's start with what's happening right now there's your satellite and radar you can see there's some snow falling across portions of the Rockies we've got some rain working through San Francisco Seattle it's a soggy morning in some of those spots and we've got winter alerts up for basically those same regions
you can see the winter storm watches in blue across the Rockies we've got winter weather advises and uh winter storm warnings as well these are going to stay in effect here for the next day or so and you can see why the system will work a little farther to the east it'll bring the potential for some uh some more snow through that region as the day goes on but also across cross parts of the Rockies and then it really ramps up for tomorrow and not only do we see additional snow for again the Rocki
es but we'll also see the potential for some of these stronger storms to develop in the midsection of the country we're going to see also Heavy Rain be a possibility with this but when it comes to the stronger storms the hail the tornadoes those are going to all be on the table I'll show you that here closer in a moment when when we look at the snowfall totals anywhere from a 6 in to about a foot maybe a foot and a half as possible especially as you get up into those higher elevations but this i
s going to be some heavy wet snow accompanied by some strong wind gust that means travel likely going to be difficult in this region through the next couple of days this goes through Thursday uh so we'll be dealing with of course the snow falling in that region here at least for the next two days now the severe weather that I mentioned this is tomorrow this is a look at the bullseye for the greatest chance that we could see some of those stronger storms developing looks like Kansas City to Conco
rdia in that Bullseye we'll see the potential the largest potential is going to be for the for Hail to inches in size or higher that's hen egg size but we could also see some of those strong wind gusts 60 m per hour or greater and we're not going to rule out a couple of tornadoes as we look ahead to Thursday another day of severe threat and this time we've got 18 million people at risk of this some strong wind gust that's look that looks like what we'll be watching for the greatest potential to
see but hail and of course tornadoes not um not out of the question then either we've got Dallas Little Rock Springfield De Moine all included in that and this system will continue working to the east here as the days go on one other note today we do have low humidity and some strong winds across parts of the Southern Plains so that fire weather that we've talked a lot about over the past couple of weeks it continues to be an issue we'll have an elevated risk of that here from Witchita to Amaril
lo and down through El Paso here as we get through the day today guys uh Lots going on we've also got some spring L temperatures that we're going to track here through the next couple of days across parts of the country um and the roller coaster ride continues yeah I'm going to enjoy the next few days here in the Northeast 60s I know break out the shorts and t-shirts and I'm impressed by your bird egg size knowledge hen egg size specific I love it thanks Google it much more to come here on morni
ng news now later this hour a troubling Trend more teens going to the doctor for issues related to mental health we're going to explore the issue and what you can do to offer support uh first those stepping down Haiti's prime minister resigning following weeks of unrest in the threat of Civil War the latest of Vel Ms when we come back welcome back we have new details on President Biden's 2025 budget proposal including what it allocates for border security the budget includes a $4.7 billion emerg
ency fund for border security that money will help the Department of Homeland Security ramp up operations if there's a migrant surge The Proposal is expected to face an uphill battle from congressional Republicans who are opposing the president's entire budget plan for more we are joined by NBC News home security correspondent Julia anley Julia always great to have you with us so walk us through President Biden's wish list for the southern border what is the White House asking for well they're a
sking for basically what would be like a break glass fund where they want to be able to tap into reserves of about $4.9 billion do in order to accommodate if there's a major surge at the border now they don't have exact numbers but they want to be able to allocate more resources more people more Transportation more detention space to certain parts the Border if they see surges that would be similar to what we saw in Del Rio Texas and Eagle Pass late last year it's similar to what we saw uh in El
Paso at the end of title 42 where there were migrants hundreds of migrants sleeping on the streets even in airports it's to be able to accommodate for big surges um they also want to be able to give more money to the court system so that anyone who crosses the Border gets to find out very quickly in a matter of months rather than years whether or not they stay here that's been a big problem so far there's a 2.9 Million case backlog they want to be able to cut down that backlog with more immigra
tion judges they also have more money for uh the number of border patrol officers as who can scan for fenel at the border as well as new technology to stop fenal and border patrol agents who would be doing the actual apprehension and then they have enough money not to expand the number of ice detention beds but to at least maintain the 34,000 beds they already have this is not just a norm noral budget request because it comes after they've been asking for money twice already because they say the
y're really in dire shape here so Julia big picture bid Administration wants 13.6 billion dollar for border security Republicans are saying no what are Republicans big concerns about the Border how do they want it secured well they do have a bill there was this bill called hr2 that was extremely conservative didn't give any money for anything really for Asylum protection and and really would have kind of obliterated a lot of the the international Norms that the US has been complying with through
out the past you know basically since World War II uh that has been their wish list and they although there was a bipartisan proposal in the Senate it didn't get through because of course of former president Trump basically signaled to Republicans that that was too weak and really since then we've seen Republicans in a complete standoff over this issue where they're really not able to not only negotiate law but give money because they think that until Biden can control the Border why should they
give more money to that policy the only problem is that's a pretty cyclical argument because if they don't get more money it's pretty hard to maintain control quickly Julia if this budget proposal cannot get the approval of Republicans on the hill can anything get done through something like executive action well they can't get money through executive action Savannah but they certainly could take some steps we understand that the White House and DHS are still reviewing a number of options inclu
ding some that would expedite deportation and sort of a last in first out policy to try to deter more migration across the border those people would be prioritize for deportation also they could try to find new ways to raise the bar on Asylum but as we've seen time and time again I mean Biden's taken hundreds of steps of executive action steps on the border and not all of them have really stuck because in the end of the day if they don't have the resources to execute it these things fall flat al
l right Julia thank you so much hai's prime minister is stepping down he made the announcement this morning in a short speech posted to Facebook speaking a day after Caribbean leaders met to discuss the unrest in Haiti Ariel HRI said that he will resign once a transitional Council and replacement prime minister have been appointed HRI had been under pressure to step down amid an unprecedented wave of Gang Related violence and unrest that threatened to drag Haiti into a Civil War the situation is
so bad that HRI has been unable to return to Haiti and remain stranded in Puerto Rico C more International headlines now starting in India where the government is not implementing a controversial citizenship law that excludes Muslims NBC's Claudia lavanga joined us from Rome with that in other world news claudo good morning Joseph good morning that's right on Monday India said they will introduce a new citizenship bill that will exclude Muslim immigrants now the new rule provides a fast track t
o citizenship to for immigrants from Afghanistan Bangladesh and Pakistan who belong to persecuted religious minorities including Hindus Buddhists and Christians but not Muslims now the bill originally passed by India's parliament in 2019 was heavily protested by opposition parties who claim it's unconstitutional let's now go to Ukraine where the Vatican zvoy has been summoned after the pope on Monday said in an interview the country should have the courage to raise the White Flag against Russia
Ukraine's foreign Ministry said and I quote that the pope will have to will be expected to talk about the need to immediately join join forces to ensure the victory of good over evil as well as appeals to the attacker not the victim a Vatican spokesperson on Monday later said the pope didn't mean to advise Ukraine to surrender but was talking about stopping the fighting through negotiations and today the Vatican Secretary of State reinforced that message by saying that the first condition for ne
gotiations in Ukraine is that Russia holds its aggression and let's end this stour of the world in Peru where a dog was saved from a swollen River a video posted on social media shows agents springing into action to save the scared dog one of the agents tied a rope around her waist and fearless fearlessly stepped into the river and to get the dog back on dry land in the end both the dog and the Agents got out of that well let's call it hairy situation back to you guys oh I'm glad to see it clao
thank you so much well coming up a settlement reached in the legal battle over a controversial Florida law that critics called that don't say gay law will break down the agreement between Ed education officials and civil rights attorneys and what it means for classrooms across the state plus it's being called popcorn brain but could the struggle to focus be caused by your smartphone we're going to break down the possible link and how you can fight it our weekly check-in is next on Morning News [
Music] Now welcome back students and teachers in Florida classrooms will once again be able to speak freely about sexual orientation and gender identity this comes as part of a lawsuit settlement between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys who had challenged what critics have called the states don't say gay laws signed two years ago by Governor Ronda santz NBC News correspondent Antonia Hilton's been following this for us she joins us now with more let's talk about the terms o
f the settlement uh critics say don't say gay I guess you can say gay now I mean what are the restrictions here well Joe this is going to be a huge change because it is going to pave the way for students and teachers to once again talk about lgbtq issues to have clubs like the gay straight Alliance or in some cases for teachers who are lgbtq themselves to put photographs of their family members their kids or Pride pins and flags back onto their desks this may sound small but this is actually a h
uge cultural change for these schools we have seen in recent years that teachers have been fleeing Florida school districts that they have talked about a major chilling effect from this law that has made lgbtq students feel marginalized by their classmates and made Educators who identify as lgbtq feel as though they need to leave the profession in many instances and so to pave the way for these discussions to come back could create a completely different classroom environment the one thing thoug
h that's important to understand as part of this settlement is that this means that the lawsuit brought by these civil rights groups and families will be dropped but the core function of the law to keep from there being instruction around sex and gender sexual orientation that part of the law is still in place but what I hear from teachers they never really were talking about these issues in the first place and so they feel this is a huge win for them and for the culture and inclusion in the cla
ssroom so this law it's actual name is parental rights and Education Act Governor Dan santis had signed this back into law in 2022 and was a big proponent of it have we heard anything from his office since this yes so this is the part that might be confusing for some folks his office has released a statement and they're saying this is a win for them too and that's because of what I just said about the Law's core function still being intact so there will be no instruction time that about sexual o
rientation or gender identity issues but you can have clubs kids can still talk about it teachers can still wear a t-shirt or hang a photo up in their classroom that shows who they are and and where they come from and that is the piece that actually mattered most to many of the families and so that's why you see both sides calling this a win uh desantis's Team says that this is a sign uh you know that their law is still going forward and that they're still you know uh going to keep Florida class
rooms safe but on the other side advocate kids feel like what safety means is inclusion and for them they feel like they've won on that front and and this is a law that had started with younger kids but it is K through 12 now right is that right so so what does the future hold you've kind of spelled it out but what can we expect to see movie well I think there's sort of two pieces to the Future here guys so on the one hand people are going to start opening these clubs back up like the gay straig
ht Alliance you may see teachers start to talk more openly again about their Identity or put symbols back up in the classroom and many of the educators are excited about that possibility but they're also very concerned about the fact that laws like this one in Florida but also in many other states around the country right now that they have had a very long-term impact that over the last two to three years dozens of teachers have been leaving districts and I mean dozens at the district level not
at the state level we're talking hundreds at the state level that there are teachers who have decided to go back into the closet and no longer talk about who they are and that just one change one new settlement might not change the culture that quickly and so we could still be looking at years of impact just from this one bill it's an important thing to note here because coming out and being out is a process and it can take time and something like this can have a long-term impact that's right al
l right anony I appreciate your reporting on this thank you so much really good to see you thank you now it's time for our weekly mental health check- in this week we're taking a look at how over stimulation from things like phone alerts can actually impact our brains plus a simple but effective thing you can try to feel literally grounded lying on the floor joing us now to help break this down as licensed marriage and family therapist friend of the show Dr George James Dr James good morning gre
at to have you with us so this first study looks at how teens and young adults are actually seeing doctors more for mental health issues we have some numbers here there was a new study it was published in the American Medical Association Journal Network open the portion of all outpatient visits by adolescence and young adults that are actually related to mental health it's increased sharply it's up to about one in six visits tell us the story behind these figures and what your reaction is to tho
se numbers yeah good morning uh Savannah and Joe what we've seen is that for Young Folks 13 to 24 that uh they are going and and sharing more mental health issues and and that's because we've done a lot of great work to reduce physical ailments drunk driving and so forth but there's also increased mental pressure that our young folks are feeling so we really need to encourage them of how to deal with their Stress and Anxiety by helping them to breathe to talk about it to do the things that might
help them to decrease that so that they're not so overwhelmed and that they don't feel the pressure and be so overwhelmed with these visits uh when they go to the doctor let's talk about something we tease it's about cell phone use and social media how it could impact our attention span if you find that you can't seem to quiet your brain that you're constantly coming up with new thoughts you may have a case what one researcher is calling popcorn brain so Dr James what is popcorn brain and how m
ight we be able to actually refocus our attention spans and this is one of those things that I'm like I'm so glad that it's out there cuz I thought it was just me me popcorn brain is where uh these thoughts are constantly entering your mind like you think you're trying to focus on one thing and then pop here is another thought and part of the belief is that we've had so much over stimulation multitasking notifications and every time that happens on our SM smartphone or social media there's a par
t of there's a a small level of dopamine that's released that rewards us and makes us feel like it's good and we keep doing it but it's actually unhealthy so we want to have a quiet time we want to meditate reduce distraction maybe listen to Lyric free music get moving and these things can help you to kind of get your brain back and your focus back instead of having the popcorn brain lyric free music that's a good idea go to bed at night yeah yeah I like that um let's finish with lying on the fl
oor because there's this hashtag floor time and unsurprisingly like it seems like most hashtags do on Tik Tok it has millions of views people say this makes them feel more grounded and relaxed what's this about does it work well well there's no actual study that will say if it works or not but what we're using is what people are sharing and what people are saying is that it helps them to feel grounded right like being on the floor can help people to align their posture to feel more relaxed to ev
en be able to feel more calm one of the things is that we would say like what about going to the bed but when we're in bed our minds and brains keep working and thinking about the day versus on the floor It's A disruption to that and sometimes people can feel more calm and relaxed when they do it so try it and see if it works and go from there it's kind of like the corpse pose in yoga which is how you end your practice usually so there you go look at that learn something new about Jo every day D
r George James thank you so much coming up you've heard of buy now pay later for Big Ticket items well now more young people are using it for things like groceries when we return more on the spending Trend and what you should know before you sign up stay with us because morning news now will be right back we are back with the payment method that is now more popular than credit cards for younger Generations buy now pay later has always been a popular way to splurge on big items like vacations con
cert tickets or holiday shopping but now it's becoming a common way for Gen Z and Millennials to pay for items like groceries contacts shoes for more we are joined by Investopedia Editor in Chief Caleb silver Caleb that just to you so according to Lexus Nexus Risk Solutions consumers younger than 35 make up 53% % of these people who are using these buy now pay later users only just 35% of traditional credit card holders that were in that same age range what makes this such a preferable option fo
r young people just for those everyday items that Joe just listed yeah it's a lot more convenient especially given credit cards and given those high aprs and apys on credit cards these days with are north north of 20% by now pay later really doesn't charge any interest unless you miss payments so you see a lot of people a lot of younger people moving to buy now pay later for the groceries for air travel which is up, 1400% just in the last couple of years these are really expensive items so when
you do buy now pay later you pay 25% down typically and then installments of 25% until you pay it off it's a fast easy way to pay for something you may not have the credit for or may not have the money in the bank for right now while you're waiting for your paycheck so we're seeing this with Jen Z and Millennials older Generations tend to be more financially stable so is this something you expect we're just going to see with younger Generations could it spread even more yeah you could see this s
preading through generations because of again those High credit card fees are deterring some people for making the purchases they want today but you're starting to see it used more for those everyday items for toothpaste for contact lenses again for travel so it is convenient you could see it getting to higher Generations although older people are a little bit more credit averse the thing about buying out pay later is you're not building credit when you use it you're not getting any rewards poin
ts when you use it you're just buying what you want right now and then making those payments later if you miss those payments though you're going to get late fees you're going to get interest payments on top of that and that could ultimately hurt your credit Caleb some analysts where the growth and popularity of these Services could ultimately kind of lead to more risky spending maybe build some of those habits in is that something to be concerned about yeah because uh you're paying for somethin
g you really don't have the money for so you're extending yourself and if you're not managing your finances and making the plan to pay that off in time it will hurt you down the road they will come with a credit agency or the debt collector to get that money that could hurt your payments your interest and your credit rating down the road so yeah you could see people letting loose on this and not being able to control their spend and that's kind of the thing you have to watch out for if you're us
ing these services but they have grown in popularity since the pandemic began and they're probably going to get even more popular down the road all right Caleb silver thank you so much speaking of spending money while it appears that inflation is starting to cool for many grocery Bills remain high and it's costing family Le hundreds of extra dollarss NBC News correspondent Sam Brock has more on where customers are now looking for lower prices with the competition for grocery Shoppers cooking yea
rs of inflation has taken its toll on family budgets how important is price when it comes to where you shop ah extremely important you know like the dayto day you have your constraints get quality of food and price well food prices have finally started to Plateau one study shows they're up 25% since the start of the the pandemic and some items remain stubbornly expensive it's that beef it's that pork it's that chicken you know and then also the dairy category with customers seeking out lower pri
ces on items like milk discount grocery store Aldi just announced plans for 800 new locations and the milk here really is more affordable this entire thing is about $3 a gallon but it's also the sourdough bread and the chips even the croissants 90 plus% of these products are private brands which is one way they're keeping the price down other price sensitive chains are also expanding from Costco adding two dozen Us stores in 2024 to Walmart bulking up over the next 5 years could it put downward
pressure on some of the other major grossing retailers to lower their prices too absolutely the big stores have already had this competition in mind but if you're a very small two or three store location all these is probably your biggest threat consumers just hoping all these conditions lead to a subtraction on their bills Sam Brock NBC News Miami more financial news now Airbnb is making some big changes to try and protect its guest privacy CNBC Savanah hanau joins us with that in other money n
ews savan good morning Hey Joe good morning yes so Airbnb is Banning the use of indoor security cameras by host by the end of next month the company says it's seeking to simplify its security policy while also prioritizing the privacy of guests Airbnb had allowed the use of indoor cameras in common areas as long as the location was disclosed in the listing under the new policy hosts can still use doorbell cameras and noise decel monitors which are only allowed in common spaces and must be disclo
sed most automated Driving Systems aren't good at making sure drivers are paying attention a new study from the Insurance Institute on highway safety finds they don't issue strong enough warnings or take other actions to make drivers behave only one of the 14 systems tested performed well enough to get an overall acceptable rating that would be teammate in Lexus LS GM's super cruise and Nissan's propilot assists were rated marginal While others from Tesla BMW Ford Genesis mercedesbenz and Volvo
were rid for and expect to start paying more for your avocado toast Growers saw selling prices jump about 20% in the 3 months ending in January one of the industry's top Growers Mission Produce is predicting prices for avocados will be slightly higher this spring compared to the first quarter and up to 10 up 10 to 15% from a year ago and that's largely due to the shift and timing of the Harvest in Peru which accounts for about a tenth of the avocado sold here in the US yikes do we eat avocado to
ast my God I love avocado anything okay I enjoy avocados I've just never done the toast thing before so all right I I don't do the toast uh a lot um I just really like just to mash avocado and put it on top of everything I eat yeah I agree all right savan thank you so much you got it coming up move over Stanley Cup it's time to secure the bag that's right a bag from Trader Joe's that costs just under three bucks is now selling online for hundreds more we're going to unpack the trend next on morn
ing Morning News [Music] Now welcome back this year's Academy Awards definitely rolled out the red carpet for big ratings skyrocketing to a 4-year high but was it exactly enough to keep viewers tuned in well let's start with the numbers no secret that Co rocked Hollywood over the last few years since then the Oscars has struggled for eyes while on Sunday though staggering 19.5 million people watch that's even up from last year's 18.8 million and for you mathematicians out there there it's a 34%
increase from the pandemic numbers so why the Boost well it was an early bird special this year starting at 7 p.m. instead of its usual 8:00 and of course didn't hurt that a treasure Trove of Blockbuster titles were celebrated including Barbie and Oppenheimer loyal Shoppers at Trader Joe's know there's a lot to celebrate about the Beloved grocery store but thanks to Tik Tock consumers are now packing the aisles just to get their hands on the Trader Joe's miniature tote bag bag it's the latest it
em launched into the retail Spotlight after trending on social media the canvas bag goes for $2.99 it comes in four colors but if you want to get your hands on one you better hurry because it's already selling out in a lot of stores joining us now for more on this is New York Times internet culture reporter Madison Malone ker Madison huh what's going on here why do people want a bag they are $2.99 they're adorable they're large enough for a novel a sandwich a water bottle and not much else and I
think it's a really satisfying gamified experience for Trader Joe's Mega fans to hunt down all four of these colorful totes so I mean tote bags I guess are having a moment since covid began walk us through what makes that tote bag just in general appealing to geny and what other brands saw success with tote bags we all know we're in a moment where goods and services cost more than they ever have and the humble tote bag however uh remains at a modest price at least a Trader Joe's you mentioned t
his one is $2.99 there are a number of tote bags we've seen go viral in recent years the classic LL Bean tote bag the boat and tote which is perhaps what people picture when you think of the genre uh had a moment in 2022 where fans started embroidering ironic phrases on the bags think things like emotional baggage or Prada more recently and more expensive we saw an influencer Emily Maro sell a tote bag for $120 which drew a lot of criticism and also sold out almost immediately expensive or inexp
ensive people can't seem to get enough tote bags so this makes sense now I didn't know about this trend but I do shop at Trader Joe's I was there the other day there was like a man standing in front of me and he was looking at a bag that I guess wasn't this tote bag and he was on the phone was I mean it it's obviously there are people who are out on the hunt for these things this is a reminiscent for a lot of folks of the Stanley Cup craze on social media which we were talking about just a few m
onths ago is there a reason these products are are putting people in a frenzy cuz they seem kind of random I mean is there anything they have in common I think this is particularly in the instance of the tow bag an incredibly affordable Goods Stanley Cups go for a fair bit more but are still not when we talk about a luxury good terribly expensive on the whole additionally they're dropped in a limited run these tote bags are going to sell out at your Trader Joe's and if you don't hustle on over r
ight now and get one you might not ever get one and can you live with that can can you do Madison do you have one I I I do not have one I am still rocking my old school fullsize sh Jo tote bag I've had it for years it's gross it'll probably outlive me but then maybe other people will follow suit and and they'll want your big one when they realize that they can't get the miniature uh bag what do we have any are there any other trends like this that are sort of on the horizon bubbling up right now
that we can see coming I mean I I think stores would love to create this trend I would have to imagine because it gives them so much advertising gets people into their stores oh that's the kiss of death for a brand you cannot manufacture this sort of moment Trader Joe's got incredibly lucky here I'm sure there are some folks in a room right now who are very thrilled that their budget product has become such a viral sensation but the moment you try to court a shopper for a viral moment particula
rly on Tik Tok they can smell it it won't work go try that's good advice it backfires so it has to be organic is Trader Joe's saying anything about this Trader Joe is thrilled about what they're seeing obviously uh they very much condone the reselling of these tote bags at online retailers like eBay or depop at significantly higher prices and they may or may not have more tote bags coming down the road stay tuned all right that's that's a good one to wait for all right Madison Malone ker fun con
versation thanks for joining us this morning appreciate it that is going to do it for this hour of morning news now but stay with us the news continues right now [Music] good morning thanks for being with us this Tuesday I'm Savannah sers and I'm Joe frier right now on morning news now we're expecting a bitter battle on Capitol Hill this morning the special counsel in that classified documents probed targeting President Biden due to testify before Congress today at issue his scathing report that
showed no wrongdoing on the president's part but it did call into question his mental Fitness and age we're going to take you to Washington we're also following that deadly crisis in Haiti the embattled Caribbean nation's prime minister now stepping down after threats of gang retaliation if he remained in office more on what the future holds as the country descends into chaos also this morning the latest numbers on inflation in America How It's all affecting your wallet and is there relief in s
ight plus how it could influence the Federal Reserve stance on interest rat R and the lead up to its meeting next week and later in the hour an in-depth look at teens and their phones we've got some pretty surprising new research on the benefits of unplugging what parents should know about their family's Time online we begin in Washington where former special counsel Robert Herr is set to testify to Congress the focus his investigation of President Biden's handling of classified documents daatin
g back to his vice presidency now the report cleared the president of any criminal charge es but it raised questions about his memory the president blasted the report insisting his memory is just fine all this is setting the stage for what's likely to be a bitter partisan clash between House Republicans and Democrats NBC News white house chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander joins us now with more on what we can expect Peter Good morning Joe good morning to you the special Council Robe
rt her is going to step into the spotlight today and is certain to face some tough questions among them why at the same time that he made it very clear that President Biden he believed should should not be facing any any criminal charges he also declared his assessment as it related to the president's memory comments that the White House has said specifically were gratuitous and this morning NBC News has now attained a copy of what special counsel her is going to say in his opening statement tod
ay I want to read through part of it where he will say among other things he did not sanitize his explanation or disparage the president unfairly adding that he explained to the attorney general his decision and his reasons for it as he was required to do this morning after a year of public silence special Council Robert her will testify before Congress her a former US attorney appointed by then president Trump has faced Fierce backlash following his report about President Biden's handling of cl
assified material saying he found evidence the president willfully retained documents but not enough evidence to prove his case to a jury citing among other reasons that President Biden would come across as a sympathetic well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory the president quickly doing damage control I'm well meaning and I'm an elderly man and I know what the hell I'm doing following his feisty State of the Union President Biden is still trying to dispel voter concerns about his ability to
serve a second term I'm not a young guy that's no secret but here's the deal I understand how to get things done for the American people Mr Trump seized on the report last month crooked Joe got off scott free I don't know if you call it Scott free they said he was a mental Basket Case in fact her did not say that still House Republicans today are likely to accuse her of giving President Biden a pass and to press him for additional observations about what her called Joe Biden's diminished facult
ies house Democrats are likely to zero in on her's conclusion that no criminal charges were warranted and they'll also underscore her's distinction between President Biden who cooperated with the investigation and Mr Trump who Pro prosecutors say repeatedly refused to return classified documents and obstructed the investigation into his conduct he's now facing 40 criminal charges overnight a key witness in Mr Trump's indictment speaking out on CNN describing moving those classified documents at
maral Lago they were the boxes that were in the indictment the white Banker boxes that's what I remember loading and did you have any idea at the time that there was potentially US national security secrets in those boxes no clue no I had no clue a lawyer for Mr Trump declined comment to CNN and as for this morning's testimony we are now at NBC News getting our first opportunity to see some of that transcript between special Council Robert her and President Biden it has been reviewed by NBC News
and among other things the president often appear to be thinking out loud in response to specific questions and at other points recalled in detail specific events from his time as vice president there was one other key episode where the president had said that he was asked or was angry that he had been asked specifically about his son Bo Biden and his death but after reviewing the transcript it is clear that the president himself first brought up the topic of Bo Biden's death during the course
of that conversation Joe back to you all right Peter thank you so much NBC News reviewed the full transcript from special Council hers interview with the President White House correspondent Mike memy joins us now with more on that Mike what else did we learn about her's questioning of the president well Joe it's so interesting yesterday I had the opportunity over three hours to read all 260 pages of this transcript and it really presents a much Fuller a much more nuanced picture of that conversa
tion over the two days than what we initially got from that report from special counsel Robert her of course her's assessment that the president was a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory was certainly what got gathered all the headlines when you begin to read the transcript it actually opens with her acknowledging as he begins to question Biden that he was going to be asking him about very detailed issues about a period of over 15 years ago Biden tried to lighten the tension in the room
with a joke saying well I'm a young man so that shouldn't be a problem what you read over the course of these 260 pages is an often rather boring I have to say Back in Forth about why President Biden where President Biden how different boxes of documents that he had accumulated over his years as vice president was moved from one location to another Biden often said he didn't recall some of the specifics of those but the bottom line was that he insisted that he never at any point uh willingly ret
ained classified information that should not have been in his possession so Mike we know her brought up the subject of Bo Biden's passing in his report a sensitive subject he suggested the president did not recall quote even within several years when his son Bo died that of course angered the president he quickly responded right after the report was released um after reading the full transcript do we know what led her to that conclusion yeah the the full context around this exchange is so import
ant to read Because what her is trying to establish it's roughly halfway through the first day of this interview about how Biden would have retained certain documents related to the issues he was working on once he left the White House as vice president in 2017 special counsel Robert her he list some of the initiatives Biden was working on including writing his book Biden immediately then talks about the death of his son which was the focus of that book that he wrote but he referred to 2017 as a
period in which his son Bo was either deployed overseas in Iraq as a member of the National Guard or dying as he was diagnosed with cancer now we know that Bo Biden was actually uh diagnosed in early of 2013 he died in 2015 so it does bear out our reporting in the past that this was Biden's raising of Bose's death and the timeline at the issue all right Mike thank you so much appreciate it this morning an aid ship carrying 200 tons of food is finally left Cypress for Gaza after multiple delays
the UN says the war torn Palestinian Enclave is on the brink of famine and blames Israel for restricting and blocking much needed aid from getting in NBC News Chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel joins us now from Cypress Richard good morning good morning Gaza is not only the most dangerous place in the world the most dangerous war zone it is also the most cut off but uh short time ago an aid ship left this port here in Cyprus heading for Gaza bringing much needed relief Spanish owned ship
named Open Arms finally set out this morning to cross the Eastern Mediterranean to bring food to the Gaza Strip where hunger is spreading the US BAS charity running the mission the world Central Kitchen hopes this will pave the way for a new Maritime Aid Corridor we hope that this is going to be the first of many boats going to gasa we ate because we at the kitchen have been there and understand that we need to have as many ways to bring Aid to the people of gasa in Cyprus we were given exclusiv
e access to the command center coordinating the mission each step has to be uh cautiously prepared and uh executed it's only about 200 M from Cypress to Gaza but because the vessel is towing a barge loaded with rice flour beans and canned Meat and Fish it will travel about 3 m an hour the journey is expected to take 3 days and getting to Gaza is only part of the challenge then there's distribution with so much desperation The Limited Aid trucks Israel is allowed into Gaza have often been overrun
and air drops which have a limited capacity have turned deadly last week medical officials say five people were crushed by Falling pallets of food so this time the world's Central Kitchen is using Gau and labor to build a pier to receive the barge President Biden has urged Israel not to use food as a weapon to pressure Hamas and called a planned Israeli invasion of the city of Rafa in southern Gaza a red line because more than a million Palestinians are Sheltering there Israel says Hamas is hid
ing among them it is a red line but I'm never going to leave Israel the defense of Israel is still critical so there's no red line I'm going to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu responded seeming to dismiss President Biden's opposition Hamas we can't leave a quarter of the Hamas Terror Army in place uh they're there in Rafa for the people of Israel that's a red line we can't let Kamas survived and caught in the middle are more t
han 100 hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas and of course the Palestinian people who are now trying to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan Joe all right Richard thank you so much overnight Haiti's embattled prime minister announced plans to step down with the Caribbean Nation plunged into turmoil and racked by gang violence prime minister Ariel HRI had been under pressure to resign NBC News correspondent Marissa par has the latest this morning Haiti descending further into chaos after ov
er a week of some of the worst violence the country has seen the prime minister of Haiti overnight announcing his plans for resignation releasing this video statement urging calm for the people of Haiti saying he and his team will resign after the transitional conso is created the resignation coming the same day leaders of the Caribbean Nations held an emergency meeting over the crisis in Jamaica US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin flew down to meet with the leaders saying earlier Monday that
Haitians cannot wait any longer for a path to security stability and democracy what we've seen in recent days again should remind us that the already challenging and difficult security situation is now deteriorated even further instability has worsened in Haiti since the 2021 assassination of then prime minister Jovan El Moise and Dariel enre then came into Power bestselling author Mitch album runs an orphanage in Haiti and spoke to today in 2021 when 17 members of a missionary group were abduct
ed by members of a Haitian gang there's not a lot of Hope because you're right the government is collapsed the police uh you can't trust one of the most notorious gang leaders is a former police officer but last week gangs that usually fight each other banded together attacking the presidential Palace the airports even the prisons releasing ing thousands of prisoners all right Marissa para thank you for that report warmer weather is in the forecast for parts of the country so let's get a check o
n your Morning News Now weather with Angie lman Angie good morning good morning hey there Joe we've got a lot going on on the west coast when it comes to unsettled weather but the rest of the country looks absolutely delightful we've got plenty of sunshine for parts of the Plains we look out towards the east coast it's sunny and it's milder and we're even dealing with a couple of spots that could see some potential record highs through the day today any guess where those are well if you said the
Upper Midwest parts of the Great Lakes you got that one right we've got 73° for our afternoon temperature in Chicago today we should be almost 30 degrees cooler than that for this time of year we've got 75 for St Louis Minneapolis even close to 30 degrees above normal to heading to the upper 60s Grand Island ends up into the low 70s and it's stretched across parts of the South too leic is going to be near 80 by later this afternoon it's not just today tomorrow too we keep the warmth going feeli
ng very spring L not quite as warm in places like Chicago for tomorrow but still pretty good for this time of year 54 degre Lexington will still be into the 70s and the East Coast gets in on the action as well we've got upper 60s from New York to Pittsburgh Richmond and Charlotte sitting into those mid 70s for tomorrow's forecast now if you're looking for some cooler air maybe you don't like the late summertime temperatures early uh or late uh spring time temperatures or early summertime temps w
e are going to get back to normal here before you know it we've really got to just get through Friday before things start to moderate out we see our temperatures dropping back into the mid-50s for places like Cleveland on Friday and on Saturday upper 60s Hold Steady in Morgantown but ending up into the upper 50s by Saturday New York City 67 for Thursday that's going to be one of our higher temperatures through the next couple of days then we kind of taper off by Friday into the mid-60s and we ar
e back to the upper 50s by the time Saturday rolls around so plenty of warm weather to enjoy over the next couple of days shorts t-shirt are going to be good to go for a lot of folks we also are going to watch for the potential for some fire uh weather to develop here this the bullseye for that it's going to be a Paso to Witchita we've got low humidity we've got Gusty winds so we'll be watching that area here over the next day or so and Out West I mentioned it we've got another storm system that
we're tracking rain snow those are the two impacts that are on the table through the day today and you can see the winter alerts that stretch across that region over the next couple of days we're going to see plenty of snow across parts of the Rockies the Sierra will pick up some and some of that rain closer to the coast across portions of the Northwest by the time we get into tomorrow though Joe we'll watch for the potential for some strong storms they could bring us some hail some tornadoes s
ome Gusty winds and that'll be in the middle of the country we'll watch that too here uh over the next two days who doesn't like the early spring Town listen there as a meteorologist people will complain about whatever weather I tell them it's going to be can't make every somebody out there I'm happy this week you'll find them on Twitter probably all right thanks Angie appreciate it welcome back after a series of recent dangerous incidents involving Boeing airplanes this morning we're learning t
hat a former employee turned whistleblower against the Aerospace company was found dead just months before his retaliation lawsuit was set to go to trial authorities have ruled out foul play NBC News senior correspondent Tom Costello has more so we are following two major headlines today for Boeing scathing new details coming out overnight that the company failed dozens of FAA Audits and mechanics reportedly used everyday household items to help in the complex door fitting process and this all c
omes amid the sudden death of a former outspoken whistleblower this morning police in Charleston South Carolina tell NBC news they are aware of the death of a former Boeing Employee turned whistleblower 62-year-old John Barnett found dead on Friday from what the coroner calls an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound so this is my uh retirement plaque Barnett retired from Boeing in 2017 after working as a quality manager for more than 30 years since his departure he has taken legal action against
the company claiming he was retaliated against for raising safety issues internally issues that Boeing denied at the time back in 2019 Barnett sat down with today describing a halfhazard safety culture at Boeing from day one it's just all been about schedule and hurry up and just get it done push your planes out we're behind schedule you you know we don't have time to to worry about issues that y'all bring up in 2017 the FAA released a review upholding many of Barnett's concerns with regards to
his sudden death the company released a statement writing we are said and by Mr Barnett's passing and our thoughts are with his family and friends production standards at Boeing are under intense scrutiny following a series of troubling incidents involving Boeing planes the latest on Monday when a 787 from the South American Airline Lancer apparently dropped abruptly mid-flight from Sydney to ockland injuring at least 50 passengers and crew members the airline says it's unclear what caused the
strong movement on the flight NBC News has also confirmed the justice department has launched a criminal investigation into Boeing following the blowout door plug on a 787 max9 in January the NTSB determined the plane left the Boeing plant without critical bolts that hold the plug in place place a scathing new FAA audit also found Boeing failed to comply with its own quality control procedures we're working with Boeing and uh demanding that they come up with a very detailed plan within the next
90 days uh to fix the quality issues that are out there meanwhile we are learning more details about the FAA audit that we mentioned there according to a slide presentation reviewed by the New York Times the company failed 33 out of 89 audits carried out by the FAA over 6 weeks that is a very large number NBC News has not reviewed those slides Spirit Aeros systems which makes the fuselage for the plane also failed several Audits and in one case Auditors saw mechanics using a hotel key card to ch
eck a door seal other mechanics seing applying liquid soap to a door seal as part of the fit up process uh Boeing tells NBC news we continue to implement immediate changes and develop a comprehensive action plan to strengthen and they say strengthen quality and safety and build the confidence of our customers and their passengers they have some work to do back to you all right Tom thank you Scott Peterson is returning to court today nearly 20 years after he was convicted of murdering his wife an
d unborn child he's seeking a retrial with the Los Angeles Innocence Project taking on his case and saying new evidence could lead to his exoneration NBC News correspondent Liz CZ joins us from outside the courthouse in Redwood City Liz good morning Hey Joe good morning yes Scott Peterson is expected to appear in court virtually via Zoom but yes his attorneys with the LA Innocence Project will be here in person for the first time and despite investigators saying there is overwhelming evidence sh
owing that Scott Peterson is guilty including a jury that convicted him of that his new attorneys are saying there is new evidence that supports his longstanding claim of Innocence this morning convicted killer Scott Peterson set to appear virtually in court as he makes yet another attempt to get his case retried the status hearing comes just weeks after the Los Angeles Innocence Project announced they were representing the now 51-year-old Peterson is currently serving a life sentence without pa
role for the 2002 murders of his pregnant wife Lacy and their unborn child at the time adesto police said Peterson dumped them from his fishing boat into the San Francisco Bay where months later their bodies washed up but the LA Innocence Project is now pointing to a different Theory arguing Lacy may have been killed by burglars who broke into the home across the street from the Petersons journalist Mike gudel has spent years looking into lingering questions he also has about the case speaking o
ut to dayline but when did you begin to think that they really made a big mistake in this Cas you know it wasn't really Scott it was um looking into uh you know all the tips it all ultimately came down to the burglary across the street another big part of the new Theory a burned out orange van containing a bloody mattress said to have been found in Modesto the morning after Lacy disappeared the LA Innocence Project wants to do testing on a sample of that mattress that's believed to be in police
custody to determine if there's any of Lacy's DNA to this day former Modesto fire investigator Brian spolski who responded to that vanfire questions why that didn't happen during the trial I had figured when the court started when the trial all started up that somebody would reach out to me a former lead investigator in the Orin case John buer tells us he never even knew about it you're saying that when the Innocence Project came out that was the first you had ever learned about this orange van
yeah I'd never heard about it before that I'm just confused that it never came to light still he stands by the conviction I'm completely confident that we got the right right guy and as far as any evidence that comes forward test it let's see where it leads and just a reminder some of the circumstantial evidence against Scott Peterson includes him lying about a mistress going fishing alone on Christmas Eve the day that Lacy disappeared buying that fishing gear just weeks before and investigators
say his odd behavior after she disappeared including dying his hair and carrying thousands of dollars in cash now Scott Peterson's family is expected to be here at court today to support him as for Lacy's family they have said nothing since the Innocence Project took on this case the LA Innocence Project took it on Joe all right Liz thank you so much I'm here to help us understand what's next is NBC News legal analyst Danny saal Danny good morning as always so now with this new development what
does this mean next for the case and what do you expect to hear today the only thing that's really happening today is this is a status conference I suspect nothing substantive will go on this may just be the court saying okay folks what do we have here and where do we need to go procedurally and this motion is not going to result today in Scott Peterson walking out of prison it's not even going to result in him getting a new trial today instead the motion is very specific they want to retest DN
A evidence and they have a high burden to meet to get that relief because uh they have to show a reasonable probability that it might have affected the outcome of the trial but also under the law in this situation the DNA was already tested in 2019 so they have another hurdle where they have to show that hey that testing in 2019 it wasn't good enough or we can do it better and when we do it better it might point to another bad guy instead of Scott Peterson that's quite a lot to have to show the
original investigators are still confidence he's guilty this was a conviction based on circumstantial evidence which is common as Liz mentioned so just how great how strong would any new evidence have to be to get to this point of having a new trial or even being exonerated well let's take the best example for Scott Peterson it might be that the DNA evidence match say Lacy Peterson's DNA or her unborn son Connor that would be uh to say that would be a bombshell in this case could it result in a
new trial likely but they are so far from that all you really have is evidence that there was a mattress or some cloth and some other items that may have had DNA and they may have had human blood on them uh human blood is quite a far cry from being the victim's blood in this case but of course they raise a lot of really interesting issues about the burglary that happened across the street around the same time that also is key the state says it happened two days later if it happened two days late
r it's impossible that it had anything to do with Lacy's uh disappearance because by then people were already investigating she couldn't have disappeared after the date she disappeared so a lot of issues raised fascinating theories to the extent this is truly newly discovered that warrants a new trial that is really difficult to show I know from firsthand experience I feel like a lot of people I mean I'm wondering there's this van burned out bloody Mattress near the area the morning after and it
's only just now entering the conversation when it comes to this particular case and now it's been more than 20 years what do you make of that and what could come of testing that how could that impact this it's not you're right in that it's just now but it's just now in appell terms and by that I mean you it's amazing how glacially slow things work so for example the DNA that they want retested that was tested in 2019 and it was discovered I believe in 2015 or 2016 so they've known about that DN
A just to give you an idea how slowly things go when you're working your way through the Appel at courts so one of the other possibilities that because this uh vanfire was likely an arson without a death it was investigated it seems by the fire department and not the police department and the fire department and the police department don't always communicate even though you might think a van found a mile away in arson possible blood stains around the time of the Lacy Peterson disappearance shoul
d they have spoken to each other maybe but we'll see Danny savalos thank you very much coming up in important discussion on the relationship team have with their phones after the break I've got some pretty eye- openening new research on how it feels to unplug every now and then plus what parents should know about their teens Time online and their own I'll bring you that story next this is Morning News Now welcome back this morning we're taking a closer look at teenagers and smartphones and it lo
oks like today's teens spend more time online than ever before the Pew Research Center did a deep dive on how teens and parents approach screen time the report looks at what emotions teens associate with their devices the impact smartphones have on them and the very real challenges parents face racing kids in an increasingly digital age this morning a new reason for parents to encourage their teens to unplug a new report finding nearly three4 of American teenagers say they feel happy or peaceful
when they don't have their phones with them 17-year-old Malik Harris says he sees SE the benefits of disconnecting I'm not just sitting there strolling scrolling and doing whatever wasting time um I get more active with the people around me I can kind of just relax and be in the moment despite those positive feelings when they put the phone down Most teens are not limiting their screen time with 38% admitting they spend too much time on their phones I can be sitting on my phone for what felt li
ke 20 minutes and 4 hours passed by the brand new report from Pew Research Center also shedding light on Dynamics surrounding smartphones the agreement was when I hand you this phone I'm going to be looking at it each month Tess Connelly says she keeps tabs on what her 15-year-old son Casey is looking at on social media and she is not alone half of the parents surveyed say they look through their teens's phone with half also saying they restrict teens screen time when you first heard that Mom wo
uld be taking a peek in there what did you think I wasn't the happiest about it but I was also like I just got a phone pH and I can kind of get where she's coming from According to the lead author of the study Monica Anderson cell phone usage is a frequent source of tension for families part of the reason teens aren't the only ones glued to their devices adults are too teens were more likely to report their parents being distracted than parents themselves reporting parents painted a little bit o
f a Rosier picture compared to what teens had to say do you think your mom realizes when she's on your phone or if she's distracted in a conversation I don't think she thinks it's as I think she thinks it's less than it definitely is because I think it's a good bit what do you say Mom okay it's probably true well she admits it right experts do have some tips so families can look for ways to help their teens limit screen time do easy things like at the dinner table or before bedtime Tess that Mom
you just said there she actually had a really good idea that they've implemented in their family the teens themselves can be part of making an actual contract that they even signed it and everything that way the teen's able to have input and some agency over the rules and feel a little bit better about it parents can of course try to set a good example that is a really important one about how you use your devices and when you use your devices also talk to your kids about how they feel see if th
ey are feeling happy or peaceful when they are away from their phones well Monica Anderson director of internet and Technology research for Pew Research Center as well as the lead author on this report joins us now for more Monica thank you so much for being live with us this morning so as we discussed I was so struck by how high the percentage of teens who said they felt happy or peaceful when they didn't have that device near them was walk us through how you conducted that part of the survey I
know you asked about several emotions yeah sure and thanks so much for having me so one of the things that we wanted to do with this report is to really understand what are some of the emotions that teens might have when they don't have their phone so we asked teens a range of emotions ranging from those are the more positive side like peaceful and happy uh to feeling anxious and lonely and by far teenss were more likely to say when they don't have their phone uh they feel peaceful or they feel
happy uh about three qus of teens said this is that a good lesson sort of to to take away from this to parents maybe reinforcing that like hey remember how you felt when you when you weren't um on your phone maybe you can duplicate that more yeah I mean one of the things that we definitely see in this study is that experiences of both parents and teens aren't monolithic uh so as we see there's some teens who already admit to spending too much time on social media and smartphones and we also see
that parents think that this is a top priority for them to keep on top of it was pretty revealing um well was sort of at the end of that piece of tape that we played right before this that parents and teens think pretty differently about parents screen time right give us more details on those numbers and where this disparity was one of the unique things with this study is that we were able to survey pairs of parents and teens so we developed sets of questions to understand kind of from the Teen
perspective as well as from the parents perspective and one thing we wanted to get a baseline understanding of was whether or not parents owned device distractions ever impact their ability to communicate with their teen and we actually see some differences from parents and teens so when we ask parents how often are they distracted by their phone when their kid is trying to have a conversation with them about a third of parents said that this happens at least sometimes when we ask teens to asse
ss their parents those numbers are in even higher um at about half real quick what do you think is the biggest takeaway for families here I think one of the things that we've seen in the study uh and in focus groups is that you know a lot of parents may be struggling with keeping up with their screen time and our survey shows that if you are a parent that has challenges and keeping up with how much time your teen is on their phone uh you're not alone more than four and 10 parents say that this i
s something that's hard for them to do Monica Anderson thank you so much we appreciate you joining us live this morning yeah thanks so much for having me you got it coming up we've got some new economic data out this morning we're going to bring you the latest read on inflation after the break and how it could affect the Federal Reserve stance on interest rates ahead of its meeting next week that's next on morning news [Music] now we're back with some breaking economic data yeah new February num
bers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show inflation Rose 0.4% month-to Monon than 3.2% over the year joining us now to pour through these breaking numbers NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans and our business and data correspondent Brian Chung good morning to both of you Brian walk us through the numbers how they compare with previous months yeah good morning guys we are still on inflation watch and the number that we got this morning showed that prices increased by 3.2% b
etween February of this year and February of last year so on a year-over-year basis that's a faster pace of inflation that we had seen in the January to January period where it was about 3.1% so we're going to continue to watch it now in terms of the contributors to the inflation if we break it down to food energy and shelter these are monthly figures that you're looking at January to February prices for food interestingly went sideways didn't increase or decrease during the month Energy prices
though did increase gasoline prices people have been feeling that at the pump over the last month and then shelter this is the biggest cost for most Americans just putting a roof over your head mortgages and rent that increasing by 4/10 of a percent that's a slower Pace than the 6/10 of a percent so worth noting there again because that's such a big EXP for most households Christine give us your reaction here and this this in line with what we thought what do we think about our it's a little hot
ter than we would have liked to have seen we saw January was 3.1% this is 3.2% that means inflation ticked up and so it what it tells us is this last mile of inflation fighting is proving to be a little bumpy more difficult uh and what does it mean for your grocery bill your grocery bill is up 25% since the beginning of 2020 so this is why people are so concerned about affordability we've got the key inflation rate here is off that terrible 99.1% of the middle of 2020 3% is a lot better 3.2% her
e in the month is a lot better but that Improvement rapid improvement from last year seems to be slowing here so it's got big implications for the FED Brian you gave us food energy shelter any other categories you're looking at there yeah well let's break down the the prices themselves for many things that people buy on a daily basis so if we look at things like eggs gasoline milk and bread here are the prices that we saw compared to a year ago and we saw that eggs $3 a dozen it was not near the
uh extravagan that we had last year when egg prices really spiked across the board likely due to bird flu milk prices also decreased compared to last year it was over $4 it's uh now just under $4 $394 for a gallon of whole milk bread prices though however did go up it's about $21 according to the report this morning but gasoline this is the big expenditure for a lot of people especially ahead of spring break uh we did see prices go up on a monthly basis but compared to this time last year it's
about 3 and2 bucks $349 so that's cheaper than the 362 that we had last year so ACR the some of these staples are getting cheaper but again to Christine's point it's been going sideways as the last few months and again when you compare prices overall compared to about three or four years ago those price levels are still up absolutely Christine you just said it big implications for the FED that meeting's in about a week what do we expect yeah I don't think the fed's going to be able to move inter
est rates everyone's waiting for their fed to cut interest rates right after all of those rapid rate increases that we feel in our credit cards in our car loans you know Home Loans oh yeah uh so I don't think you're going to see the FED cut rates for sure next week and then the big question is what happens in June right now maybe a 50 or 60% chance of a a rate cut in June but not if you keep seeing hot inflation numbers you can't cut interest rates when you have inflation that is still too high
in an economy that is still too strong you'd be throwing gasoline onto the fire that would be inflationary again right so you don't cut rates in such a strong economy with with inflation that is still kind of surprising a little bit on the upside of course interest rates are key for people who want to bu a home there's also renters Brian you touched on that already but what could all this mean for people who are renting yeah well I mean one interesting threat is that this is government dat that
we're talking about and there's reason to believe that it lags considerably behind what's actually happening in the economy so I want to show you this chart right here this blue line shows the yearly rate of shelter inflation according to the government data which we're looking at right now this green line is the Zillow rent Index this is actually looking at what's posted online which could be interpreted as a more real-time measure of the yearly rate of inflation it did Peak at around 6 15% in
2022 but you can see that the peak that was measured by CPI shelter didn't happen until the beginning part of 2023 so uh some economists are saying that there could be a lag between the government data and other real-time measures of data by about 6 to 12 months we'll have to see if maybe that bleeds through other inflation reports and helps actually bring that headline number down perhaps So Christine with this report of mine but also with what you mentioned you're expecting from the FED coming
up in a week or so what should people be thinking when it comes to their wallets I think High interest rates are the enemy of the family budget and so a lot of people are in kind of a bind right here their grocery bills are 25% higher than they were a few years ago 20% plus on a credit card you've got to pay down debt you got to pay down high interest debt youve got to really be careful about where you're taking on debt because we're not going to see rate cuts um in the very near term here and
you know we want to see those rate Cuts so it'll lower that debt burden for people but be be super careful of of of especially High interest credit card debt that would be my advice to everyone here all right Christine Brian thank you both appre appreciate it thank you well today marks equal pay dat the date symbolizes how far into the year women must work if they want to earn what men earned in the previous year equal payday began nearly 20 years ago as a public awareness campaign but campaigne
rs say frustratingly little has changed since then let's bring in Vivian too for more on this she is the author of Rich AF the winning money mindset that will change your life Vivian good morning we always love to have you on the show so let's talk through this this date it's been set at March 12th but for some groups of women it's actually a lot later than this meaning that they will still not be making the same as a man until later into the year why has progress on this issue been so slow you
know I think there's so many factors impacting why we haven't made larger strides towards this but one of the largest being there's still this inherent bias against women in the office in particular when it comes to women with families because women shoulder so much of the burden at home the expectation is that they can't both be the best employee and the best parent at the same time so they're oftentimes seen as the least hirable population population women also face Vivan What's called the mot
herhood penalty okay this is a tough one explain to us what that is and how it continues to make this such a difficult thing to tackle how it further the pay gap between men and women yeah when it comes to the motherhood penalty ENT it's that women again are seen who have families as the least hirable population what's really interesting though there's actually an alternative phrase called the fatherhood bonus so fathers who have families are likely the most hirable and the most paid then come s
ingle men then come single women and then comes mothers with families and it's so funny because the fathers who have these families are seen as more capable better leaders when in fact it's the moms actually do doing all of this multitasking working in the office and also being those team players and leaders and diplomats at home okay does that just not make you want to scream Vivian you're being very composed while you're talking about that and it's just so wild um let's talk strategy here what
can women do at work not that it should be on women by the way but not only to learn from what their counterparts are making but to be smart and how they negotiate raises and benefits and then I think also importantly if I may if you can answer what can men do what can they do to help support the women around them definitely so first and foremost I always recommend that folks ask for a 10 to 15% raise every single year especially women and one of the easiest things you can do is create a brag b
ook in your inbox folder and anytime something good happens to you someone Praises you at work you're congratulated forward that email to that special folder and that way by midyear review or end of year review you'll literally have a laundry list of all of your accomplishments this is also something you know unfortunately that we do have to say during interviews you are not legally allowed to be discriminated against for being a mom so I certainly wouldn't offer that information up if you can a
void it as for your partner as well as your company um Partners need to frankly just take a more Equitable share of domestic labor at home right now women do two and a half times as much unpaid work at home and they would have a much easier time juggling those careers and those families if their Partners could pick up some of that slack and finally I would say corporations actually need to offer things like Equitable leave and flexible working arrangements so that the best of the best of their e
mployees can actually do their best wherever they're working from Vivian to you are fantastic really important information and we love when you join us thank you so much thank you for having me coming up the roots of an American Dream after the break to California families with a unique generational Bond forged over a storied house will explain next we are back with rumors of a country song cover that's got the Beehive buzzing just look at these two icons over my shoulder Beyonce's highly antici
pated country album act two comes out in a few weeks and word is one of the tracks could be her rendition of Dolly Parton's 1973 classic Jolene that's coming from the queen of country herself Dolly Parton told the Knoxville News Sentinel that she thinks Beyonce recorded a cover of Jolene for the new album though nothing has been confirmed from Beyonce and her team yet Parton added that she loves Beyonce and is excited to hear the track I know somebody else who loves Dolly Parton exactly I I can
already hear it now I can kind of see the vibe and I think it's going to be awesome all right finally this hour a story about home ownership in the American dream first reported by our partners at NBC Asian-American and NBC News digital a Chinese American family is giving back many years after a black couple rented a house to them no one else would NBC News correspondent elen Lopez shares their story The Historic Hotel the cornado anchors the Oceanside California town that shares its name it's s
till here it's still here and it's still fabulous a lasting symbol of a bygone era catering to the wealthy and the well-known it was built in the late 1800s by thousands of workers among them Gus Thompson volunteer Garder Kemp's great grandfather he started businesses of his own and even my great-grandmother Emma had a Cafe and Bakery Gus Thompson Was Born Into Slavery enduring a life in the Jim Crow South for decades before moving West later becoming a Pioneer in California at a time when the s
tate's black population was less than 1% and about three blocks from the resort he helped build Gus and his wife Emma lived here in this home with their three kids this is unbelievable this has been here since the 18 the late 1800s correct 1895 to be exact for years Coronado resident Kevin Ashley has been tracing the Thompson footsteps curating an exhibit about the city's hidden black history and just the idea that there was a thriving African-American Community between 1890 and 1920 was that sh
ocking to you hugely shocking next to the Thompson's home stands a small apartment building it was once G's stable where she would welcome people in that no one else would the library stable was the only place for several decades where an African-American could rent a bed to sleep in cornado their old original house they usually rent out immigrants one of them Chinese American Gardener Lloyd dong he was having trouble there wasn't a lot available his son Ron was just a todler at the time gets to
Gus Thompson's delvery stables and he finds out that the house next door is not being used by Gus anymore the Thompsons rented the main house to the dogs one they eventually bought an act that then defied the exclusionary housing practices and gave the dogs a foothold to start building their own American dream so the Thompsons really gave them a chance that they wouldn't have had otherwise absolutely it's a chance the dogs have never forgotten it and the favor their family is about to return th
at stsu has received a new $5 million gift in support of our black resource C which will now be they said we're going to sell the property and we're going to give our proceeds to the black Resource Center of San Diego State University in the name of gusan Emma Tompson what was your reaction to that tears tears 100% the roots of an American dream so deep it turns strangers into family now those same roots are still giving for decades to come paying it forward shall we say is just the icing on the
cake it's just it's a beautiful story and uh maybe it's one that the world needs to hear and more than ever and more than ever thanks to Ellen Lopez for that story that's going to do it for this hour of morning news now but the news continues right now thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media
Comments
Two tier justice system!
I hope they investigate the whistleblower incident. Check his phone, emails, etc. His death is too convenient for Boeing.
Do we really believe the Boeing whistleblower really just off’ed himself, does anyone really believe this?
It’s a symbol of pretentiousness that’s why the bags are so popular.
When I hear grocery issues such as milk prices the cheap milk most likely has little protein in it. 10 grams of protein is what is preferred. Stuff like beef well illegal immigration was used on farms to keep prices down. These businesses now have to pay legitimate wages which increases the price of food.
Wonder if Trump is going to call GA again for the votes he needs????
Anyone else would have been in prison by now.
Use a darker color on the board can't see the numbers
They should change their name to Morning government state media 😂
Occasional absent minded is an acceptable human behavior, being unapologetically criminal minded like individuals who incited others to commit criminal acts on their behalf like Chales Manson and the former president is not acceptable. Thank you for playing.
Why should I care about "your" weather report?
At 59:57 the reporter stated an error of crisis in Jamaica instead of Haiti.
Bill Russell been dead since July 2022, but the message still is relevant today!
Thats not what he said! Watch the testimony yourselves! These people twist everything!
Stop buying meat, bread, unhealthy snacks, cakes, donuts, cookies, ice cream, etc. Save money and drop those extra pounds.
Buy things whenever you saved up the money for any of them. Or else you will be trapped. You’ll be in debt and will be poorer and poorer :-)
6:48 - I Love Julie...
Every time I hear Biden say he is proud of his sons, I get choked up. My brother wanted our father to say that at least once, but never heard it. He died last year trying to get the million dollars our father wanted for the family business. I asked him why he never said he was proud of such a hard working son. He said he didn't want to lie to him.
Lame
These Trumpers act like they're still in college or High school 😢. Vote 💙