Stay Tuned NOW with Gadi Schwartz - Feb. 20 | NBC News NOW

hold the back left back back all kinds of new video today coming in showing the effects of what three days of straight rain can do to California more than 35 million people remain under flood alerts tonight I'm Gotti Schwarz this is stay tuned [Music] now and this storm plus all the rain that's come down in recent weeks is leading to a whole lot of problems up and down the state from the border of Oregon down to the border of Mexico there have already been more than 30 reports of mud flows here

in La alone and some homes in areas like Ranchos Palos veres are being red tagged because of landslides which means right now they're unsafe to occupy this roof was at one point flat it is now sort of caving in the property has sunk about 2 to 3 ft now let's go ahead and show you the street the pavement if my photographer can pan down here you can see that a portion of the street is covered with plastic this is where crews are working on repairs they've been filling in multiple cracks all that E

arth moving in real time and then that there are the high winds that we've been seeing those have been knocking down trees and sending some crashing down into cars and then there's Rising floodwaters that we've also been seen that are a very dangerous threat crews in Paso roadways had to rescue at least two people from fast moving water using a helicopter meanwhile in Alama County a state road here has just slipped away forcing officials to shut down part of it and there's still at least one mor

e day of this storm now to add a little bit of a perspective here La has already seen 75% of its annual rainfall just this month alone which has currently been wetter than Seattle New Orleans and Miami and NBC News correspondent priia strether joins us now priia we've been seeing homes get red taged all day because of of landslides and and we're not even through the storm yet right yeah that's right actually Rancho Palos veres which is a Coastal Community not too far from here residents there ar

e reporting that their roofs are caving in and their foundations are sagging so many homes there have been red tagged the mayor said that typically the Land There moves a matter of inches over a year but in the past few days we've actually seen the ground there move several feet so there's actually several hundreds of acres of land that are uh susceptible to a landslide right now so the residents there are just on pins and needles watching and waiting to see what's going to happen but the reason

that we're so uh susceptible to landslides and mudslides right now is because of those backtack atmospheric Rivers known as the Pineapple Express that slammed into California just two weeks ago because of that the ground is already saturated so officials are warning that that if you were in a neighborhood where the mudslides occurred to beware and just make sure that you're uh not experiencing any of those symptoms like the the roof sagging or the foundation sinking that could mean another Land

slide is on the way yeah how do you know when a mud slide is is about to start are there warning signs yeah so sometimes it can be something as simple as cracks in your walls and they also say to look outside at utility po and even utility lines if you see them sagging um if you look at trees on a Hillside and you see that they're starting to get bent over they're a little bit crooked that could also be a sign another one they stay to look out for is if you see any pipes that have are draining i

ncorrectly or there are holes in utility lines uh or utility pipes I should say that could be another indication to look out for but officials are watching these areas very closely and so they are warning residents in advance if they think that one neighborhood might be especially prone to a landslide or a Mudslide Gotti yeah so many precarious images coming in and we've seen everything from drizzles to what looks like fullon tropical downpours throughout the day how much more rain are we expect

ing here so this is very much still an active situation despite the fact that we're experiencing a little bit of a lull right now forecasters are saying we should anticipate another half an inch to 2 in overnight until tomorrow morning 35 million Californians remain under a flood watch that's everywhere from Santa Barbara down to San Diego County and specifically San Diego and also many areas along the coast are also under a high surf advisory which means that the ocean could see anywhere from 5

to 9 fet of waves so uh the weather is still coming and everyone is kind of bracing themselves preparing for the worst but also hoping for the best Gotti so much water in and we're still not done Pria thanks so much for joining us as we mentioned communities across California are starting to feel the effects of landslides from all these recent storms one Chapel in Southern California that is now closed indefinitely has been forcing cancellations of all kinds of events through at least October o

f next year and that's all because the ground is Shifting beneath those buildings NBC News correspondent Liz CZ has more up and down California's Coast a trail of Destruction as another storm tears across the state massive Boulders falling on the famous Pacific Coast Highway blocking traffic fast rising Waters trapping drivers leading to dramatic rescues Los Angeles has seen nearly as much rain this month than it typically does all year more than Seattle New Orleans and Miami the delu and storm

after storm hitting California taking a toll on the Region's infrastructure and some of the areas already eroding coastlines this neighborhood in the coastal city of Rancho Palace veres is in an active Landslide area officials say for years it only moved inches a year but now it started moving feet it started with a crack and then it started to sink and now all this sinking has just been got gotten worse and worse water main Seer continue to break the city is asking for help I feel very sorry fo

r this part of our neighborhood nearby the historic wayfair's Chapel now closing indefinitely due to the shifting land more than 175 weddings here cancelled our structures are heaving uh foundations are cracking literally everything on our property is being affected by the ground that is moving from falling trees to thousands of potholes to the multimillion doll Cliffside homes still teetering on the edge tonight much of California feeling the brunt of Mother Nature's force and this Relentless w

inter weather Liz CS NBC News Los Angeles and as we come up on the two-year anniversary of the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine the Biden Administration is looking at another round of sanctions aimed at disrupting Russia's defense and Industrial bases now all of this coming right on the heels of that suspicious death of Putin's biggest critic Russian opposition leader alexe navali who authorities there say died Friday in a remote prison now the US has not officially been able to independent

ly verify his cause of death but uh some Western officials including President Joe Biden have been blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin the Kremlin of course denying having anything to do with it meanwhile Republicans in the house are holding up a vote on a bill that would send billions more in US Aid to Ukraine as Ukraine's military says a shortage of ammo was one of the main reasons they just lost one of their strongholds today former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFall urged lawmakers

to stop sitting on the bill we don't need an autopsy to know that Putin killed naali right now speaker Johnson has the ability to make history and to do the right thing uh when they come back from their holiday if they put the bill on the floor for 60 billion new dollars in aid for Ukraine that is a would be a direct response to the assassination of Alexa noval NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez joins us now Gabe Biden is trying to make good on this line in the sand he drew

way back when he said there would be severe consequences should something happened to navali but hasn't the US already leveled a bunch of sanctions like what's the difference this time yeah that's exactly right Gotti well as you mentioned what's different this time is that now we're after naval's death and that really seems to be an escalation here and the US really feels pressured to respond at this point but again Gotti another thing that's Weighing on the minds of us officials this is 2year

anniversary on Saturday we're also told that President Biden is set to address G7 leaders virtually on Saturday to discuss this 2-year anniversary and to discuss how Western leaders need to continue to push harder against Russia as this war in Ukraine drags on Gotti yeah when we talk about pushing harder I mean do sanctions matter if Putin doesn't comply and that is a great question Gotti because as you said the US has imposed sanctions on Russia before and the idea was to hurt Russia's economy

and it it did a bit in the beginning but Russia's economy has been largely unscathed during these several years of war so the White House is uh planning what it calls major sanctions that will'll announce on Friday to push for transparency regarding the van death gu and Gabe we seem to be seeing more and more reporting about Ukraine's military reporting a lack of morale forces that are outmanned out gunned what's the latest on the foreign aid Bill well you mentioned uh something that the Ukraine

's foreign minister actually said today he said that a major uh Ukrainian stronghold in eastern Ukraine had fallen in part because they ran out of ammunition and had to retreat and so that is also Weighing on the minds of us lawmakers here uh President Biden the Biden Administration as well as Congressional Democrats are really trying to push hard on House Republicans who are holding up this uh tens of billions of dollars in US in US Aid to Ukraine and a big question right now is whether Preside

nt Biden will meet face to phas with house Speaker Mike Johnson right now the bill is being held up and the president said last week that he was happy to meet with Johnson if the house Speaker had anything to say but Gotti at this point there is no meeting in the books just yet Gotti Hees we really appreciate you watching this for us thank you so much and turning now to Israel in Gaza today the UN Security Council there well we heard a lot of back and forth over the difference between immediate

ceasefire versus temporary ceasefire and that may sound like a a technicality but those words turned out to be the difference in a veto from the US because this morning the US shot down a resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire claiming it would put hostage negotiations at risk instead they are looking to get their own version of the resolution passed calling for a temporary ceasefire the release of hostages all while urging Israel to avoid storming Rafa this as a delegation of America

n lawmakers headed to the Rafa Border in Egypt we are very serious about number one getting a negotiated ceasefire in the war and number two improving the flow of humanitarian Aid which at the current level is unacceptable and is an absolute catastrophe no doubt about it and the humanitarian crisis there is only expected to get worse with the UN warning the number of preventable child deaths May Skyrocket soon NBC News foreign correspondent Molly Hunter has more those against tonight the US once

again standing by Israel vetoing a widely supported un Security Council resolution which calls for an immediate ceasefire proceeding with a vote today was wishful and irresponsible instead proposing a rival draft which calls for a temporary ceas as part of Hostage negotiations but the Diplomatic wrangling has failed to stop the war for gaza's most vulnerable the UN estimates there are 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza with nearly 180 babies born every day our team meets 30-year-old Sama haaj in Raf

a she's 8 months pregnant with no prenatal care no vitamins no fruits and vegetables she says no clean water she's worried her baby is already seriously harmed arm I'm worried she says I will give birth right here in a tent it's no place for a baby but nearby Miriam alul rocks 15-day old rzan Miriam walked out of the hospital just two hours after birth I hoped I would die she says they've killed our motherhood in the occupied West Bank we speak with Dr niib Salama who says the biggest risk is wh

ere labor starts and with extreme shortages of antibiotics and pain medications infections are almost inevitable how dangerous in your assessment is it to be pregnant in Gaza today you're going always to be concerned about your pregnancy to provide yourself and your baby with the best medical service back at the Emira maternity hospital in Rafa it doesn't stop four babies to an incubator and these are the lucky ones Molly Hunter and BC news Jerusalem four babies to the incubator don't go anywher

e we are just getting started we've got an update to that devastating story we told you about yesterday about that missing 11-year-old girl in Texas plus there is still so much we don't know about dementia and even how to treat it but now robots are starting to step in to help families and a patient who had a neuralink chip implanted in their brain looks like they can control a computer mouse just by thinking we've got those incredible details in tonight's future of everything so stay [Music] tu

ned hey welcome back and here are some of the headlines we're watching tonight today prosecutors announced new murder charges in the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chief's Victory Parade last week and on top of the second deegree murder charges the men are also facing weapons charges two miners have already been charged and investigators say it might have happened because of some sort of Confrontation over how the men were looking at each other and Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that Frozen e

mbryos are considered quote children in other words fertilized eggs by law in the state of Alabama are people it's the firstof its kind decision and will allow a pair of wrongful debt lawsuits against an Alabama Fertility clinic to move forward and Capital One says it wants to buy discover for more than $35 billion it's a deal that if it goes through will combine two of the largest credit card companies in the United States but it still needs to win an uphill fight with Regulators who seem conce

rned that a deal this big would give Financial giants like Capital One more leverage to set higher rates and lawmakers in the house are putting together a bipartisan task force on artificial intelligence house Speaker Mike Johnson and minority leader hakeim jeffre say they are launching this AI task force so Congress can help figure out better guard rails to protect against potential threats and a massive fight broke out during a handshake line at a college basketball game in Texas it happened y

esterday today no word on what sparked this but you can see players from both teams duking it out while coaches try to break it up afterwards the teams issued a joint statement saying they were sorry and now some tragic breaking news out of Texas police say they have found the remains of an 11-year-old girl who went missing on her way to school the body of Audrey Cunningham has been found in a river 10 miles from where she was last seen now Audrey was reported missing last Thursday when she didn

't come back home from school investigators later found she never even got on a bus that morning police say their main suspect is a man by the name of Don Steven McDougall a close friend of the family and allegedly the last person to see her alive he's been arrested on an unrelated assault charge and remains in jail tonight NBC News correspondent Morgan chesky joins us from Dallas Morgan let's start with McDougall what's his connection to this investigation yeah God he striking details of being

released by authorities over the last 24 hours or so because they said that the man that they initially called a person of interest in this investigation that was taken into custody last Friday that being the 42-year-old McDougall was living in a trailer behind the very home where that 11-year-old girl Ardrey Cunningham lived with her family as you mentioned he was a friend of the family even known on certain instances to take Cunningham to the Bus drop off or even take her to school uh and that

is certainly one of the most disturbing details of all is that he was a known uh entity to this family who has been beside themselves over the last 5 days or so trying to find out where their daughter was we do know that the 42-year-old Gotti has a lengthy criminal history one investigator calling him a career criminal one of those charges in particular is indecency with a child and yet he was allowed to live in close proximity to where this family was we do know that since was taken into custo

dy on Friday Gotti he had been speaking and communicating with investigators they say at some points even potentially somewhat Cooperative but as it stands tonight with the discovery of that young girl's body in the Trinity River a paperwork is being filed to charge him with capital murder on top of that aggravated assault charge that he was initially brought in for Last Friday Gody and 10 miles away from where she was last seeing I mean that's a huge search area so do we know how police found h

er body and and do we know how she died we are awaiting a full autopsy report on the specific cause of death here and you're right 10 miles is a vast expanse particularly even more so in pulk County incredibly rural area about an hour hour and a half north of Houston here we do know that volunteers and authorities worked for the majority of the weekend canvasing the area around Lake Livingston that is a massive Lake sonar equipment was even brought in uh but the investigation LED authorities tod

ay to the Trinity River uh which is adjacent to the lake and got they were able to work with local water authorities to actually lower the level of that River at least temporarily uh and that is where they made that tragic discovery of that girl's body again the cause of death uh is still under investigation but I want you to hear what the sheriff had to say uh regarding some of these latebreaking developments take a listen there was some points uh where he did give information cuz there were se

veral places that he said that he had went so it wasn't it wasn't a location where he said he took her but there was a a incident where he said these were locations where he had gone and you can see authorities that were sharing McDougall had been at least appearing to be forthright in some of the locations he had been a big question yest yesterday got when we last spoke was the path of that navy blue Chevy Suburban that he was seen driving uh we do know of course at least one location where it

went uh tragically and that was that Riverbank still much more to come here as investigators continue to build their case but they do have enough they're confident they do to charge that 42-year-old with capital murder tonight and as of right now Gotti they do believe he is the only person tied uh in the death of Little Audrey Cunningham got our prayers go out to Audrey's family Morgan chesky thanks so much and Nikki Haley and Donald Trump are stumping in South Carolina just four days from the p

residential primary there in a state of the race speech today Haley vowed to keep her campaign going regardless of this weekend's results take a listen South Carolina will vote on Saturday but on Sunday I'll still be running for president I'm I'm not going anywhere I'm campaigning every day until the last person votes NBC News correspondent Ali Vitali has more hey Gotti welcome back and you know I got to tell you not much has changed in this Republican primary since the last time I gave you an u

pdate on it yes there's less candidates it's Nikki Haley versus Donald Trump but Trump remains dominant here on the ground in South Carolina with days until voters go to the polls for Nikki Haley today's remarks was just as much about showing that she is not going anywhere as it was about asking South Carolina voters to give her their support she's in bad need of it especially when you look at the fact that polls show Trump up roughly 30 points over the former two-term South Carolina governor st

ill Haley not just saying she's going to stay in through South Carolina but already planning her travel schedule in the upcoming States Michigan votes just a few days days after the pal Meadow State here then she'll be there on Monday and then of course traveling to States beyond that vote on super Tuesday places like Texas and Virginia as well as Colorado and Utah really spanning out across the map and trying to get her message out in these waning weeks of campaigning for Haley the realities ar

e still there though the polling shows Trump far ahead in a lot of these states and because of the delegate rules that play here it's entirely possible that she's not going to see a big delegate Hall in a lot of these states if she sees any delegates at all that's because some of these states have win or take all rules it means the math for Haley is just as difficult as the polling landscape but she has been clear she wants to continue to provide the Trump alternative to voters and she's clearly

going to do just that at least for the next few weeks Gotti Ali Vali thanks so much now remember all those accusations about President Biden and his son hunter that alleged a scheme involving millions of dollars in bribes that led to a republican impeachment inquiry into the president well in a possible big blow to that case the FBI has arrested a former Federal informant for giving the fed's false and derogatory information about the president and his son just a few hours ago that former infor

mant Alexander smrnov appeared in a Las Vegas Federal courtroom facing charges for allegedly lying about President Biden and his son Hunter's connection to a Ukrainian Energy company and he was just released from jail they also said today that smrnov is quote actively pedaling new lies that could impact us elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November now if convicted smrnov could face 25 years in prison but his lawyers are saying smrnov is Presumed Innocent now let's b

ring in NBC Justice reporter Ryan Riley Ryan so what do we know about what happened in court today and and why was he released yeah well prosecutors sort of laid it out all on the table here because they really gave a lot of information about what exact kind of work he was doing for the FBI the type of things that might make some people upset possibly some people that he was informing to the FBI on so it's not something that I think they've released very lightly but they are making a strong argu

ment for his continued uh detention the judge here the federal Magistrate Judge uh decided that that detention was unnecessary uh and ordered him released and just a few minutes ago in fact we got in video of him leaving with his face covered he's leaving the federal courthouse there and we really don't have any images of this individual and there's a lot of mystery uh behind him but as you said uh this was what sort of all kicked that off so if you've ever read a headline had anything to do wit

h uh $5 million bribes to Joe Biden and his son this is where all that originated and the FEDS say it's just garbage it was made up it was nonsense it was made up back in 2020 at that point the under the justice department which was at that point under the control of Donald Trump appointees made the decision not to pursue it because it wasn't reliable but then Republican sort of brought all this again back up and made a big deal out of it last summer to try to basically generate bad headlines ag

ainst uh the president um and his son and somewhat succeeded in in doing so especially I think on Fox News um and now lo and behold we have this situation where there were a lot of headlines that never should have been written because all of this information uh was based upon nonsense and what the federal authorities say is that this individual had these long-standing ties to Russians and Russian uh intelligence officials so it's this other suggestion that you know the Russians are really pushin

g uh to anything that's derogatory towards Biden because they really want president Donald Trump back in office Scotty so what else do we know about this informant I mean it's very rare that we see an informant named uh we know the FBI has been working with him since like 2010 so who is this guy and and how did he make himself so important to the FBI well we know that he is an American citizen he has Israeli he also has an Israeli passport or at least did until today he's surrendering it now und

er the conditions uh of release but he's about 43 he started working with the FBI uh in 2010 so if you you know do the math there he was a roughly 30 when he started working with them um and you know I don't we don't really know what initially kicked this relationship off but uh at least what the FBI had represented up until recently is he was this very valuable asset in fact what federal prosecutors had said in one of these charging documents uh in one of these documents arguing to hold him is

that he had had a planned trip that was supposed to start last week in which the FB I thought he was going to be meeting with all of these fed with all these officials from around the country foreign intelligence officials uh in fact so you know I think it's kind of up in the air right now how much of that was true and how much of that was a story because we really you know he obviously lied about this one thing according to Federal Authority so how much of his story was really true what was he

actually telling his FBI Handler I think that's all something that you can maybe expect a triple out trickle out when this case ultimately uh goes to trial Gotti I mean so much of this is sounding almost like a double agent novel do we know what the connection was that he had to Russia so what the the connection that they've sort of laid out is that he was supposed to meet with these this Russian uh intelligence official and actually their allegations that this one Russian intelligence official

was in charge of a hit squad basically that was going out to kill people overseas so that's obviously some really valuable intelligence if that was true uh that the FBI would place a lot of value on and that's why they of wanted to keep him protected previously and that's why you know over the summer there was a lot of back and forth about this and that seems to be what the FBI told told Congress that this person was a really high valued asset and they didn't want to burn uh him because he was p

roviding such valuable information but you know obviously that lie that he planted back in in 2020 during the presidential campaign you got to wonder how many other lies were out there and what exactly he was telling uh the truth about here yeah so much Intrigue there Ryan Riley Thanks so much for your reporting and coming up a popular mom influencer was just sentenced today for child abuse we've got those details but first you got to see this if you get hungry on the slopes you don't even have

to take your skis off to get some food check out this McDonald's on the mountain AKA mki but you got to go to Sweden to check it out this spot's been open since 1996 but it has gained a ton of popularity lately on social media that skith through has hot chocolate and a warm Swedish cinnamon bun to keep you warm so uh you know check it out we'll be right [Music] back hey welcome back and here are some of the stories we're following out here in the west a United plane headed from San Francisco to

Boston cut its flight short in Denver today after one of its wings that you can see right there started coming apart in midair now that video shows part of the Wings panel was shredded that plane was able to land safely and now now the FAA says they're looking into it because of all this recent rain we've been getting here in the west coast Death Valley the driest place in the country now has this temporary Lake the badwater Basin which lies at the bottom part of Death Valley has gotten almost 5

in of rain in the last 6 months that's enough to kayak there that area usually sees only about 2 Ines of rain for the entire year officials said the Shallow Lake could be around through April the police in San Diego had to issue a reminder after this video went viral of a man walking across the street wearing his Apple Vision Pro now this happened just steps away from police as they were arresting someone you can see the man's point of view it looks like he was using a virtual menu to listen to

some music police there warned users to continue crossing the street the oldfashioned way by looking both ways before you do it in the real world and a once popular YouTube family vlogger Ruby Frankie was sentenced to four four consecutive prison terms today on child abuse charges the mom of six and her business partner jod hilden Brandt were both sentenced today and face up to 30 years in prison under Utah law the two were arrested in August after one of Frankie's Sons escaped hilden Brand's h

ome covered in wounds bound with duct tape and one of Frankie's daughters was found in similar condition they pleaded guilty back in December to four counts of second deegree aggravated child abuse and she spoke in court today addressing her kids I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong I would do anything in this world for you I took from you all that was soft and safe and good NBC News correspondent Valerie Castro has more I Gotti Ruby Frankie sentenc today in co

urt was a minimum of four years and a maximum of 30 years that was the range handed down by the judge last year she pleaded guilty to several counts of child abuse including holding a child's head underwater kicking a child while wearing boots and putting her hands over a child's mouth and nose to restrict their breathing she was also accused of restraining a child with duct tape she had a popular YouTube channel called Eight passengers that documented the life with her husband and their six chi

ldren she posted videos there of her family and her parenting style but it drew a lot of criticism from viewers who felt that parenting style was incredibly hard today in court she did take uh responsibility and accountability for her actions apologizing to her children take a listen to what she had to say to her kids I took from you all that was soft and safe and good I took from you your mother how terrifying this must have been for you I will never stop crying for hurting your tender Souls yo

u are so precious to me I'm sorry Frankie Ruby's business partner jod hilderbrandt who collaborated with her on some of those videos she also pleaded guilty to similar charges last year she was also sentenced today that range of 4 to 30 years at this point the Utah Board of Pardon and parole will ultimately decide how many years each of the women will serve Gotti valer Castro thanks so much and now to an update on that deadly school shooting at the University of Colorado Police revealing the sus

pected murder was a student at that University and roommates with one of the two victims NBC News correspondent Emily aada has the latest the accused G in a college campus shooting making his first court appearance virtually today sir what is your name for the record Mr Jordan 25-year-old Nicholas Jordan is facing two counts of first-degree murder after he allegedly shot and killed two young people last week at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs where he was a student UCCS Alpine Villag

e for gunshot victims police revealing the shooting happened in a dorm room the suspect shared with one of the victims 24-year-old Samuel knop 26-year-old cely Montgomery who did not attend UCCS was also killed the community walking in the victim's honor Monday just hours after officers tracked down and arrested Jordan several miles from campus with a gun prosecutors say in the car he was carrying on his day as it was a normal day and I think that was a benefit to us investigators say they belie

ve this was a targeted attack but have not said what they think motivated the devastating shooting when I found out I like collaps to the ground and Senior Hayden Gillespie lived with Sam knop last year describing the loss of his dear friend seen here playing guitar as unimaginable me and Sam are going to graduate together this semester so it's just tough to to go through it without him emada thanks so much now what if we told you that in 2024 America there's a town that has segregation laws sti

ll on the books or at least it did until just a few hours ago Florida's Boon Beach just abolished three Century old laws that created two District zones in that City a black district and a white district one law even made it illegal for adults of A different race to even step foot in that District usually after dark NBC News correspondent Sam Brock joins us now from Buon Beach where the city just wrapped up a meeting there Sam why did it take a century to get rid of these mandates no one Gotti c

an provide a good answer to that question first of all great to see you congratulations on your enlarging family or growing family I should say it's always a pleasure Gotti um as far as the question is concerned though you have the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which negated or invalidated ordinances like these like the three that were on the books here in Boon Beach but speaking to Commissioners it's Preposterous to them to try to Fathom how they didn't discover this previously so the reality is the

y had some researchers that were looking at at some older laws but also on top of that a Unity project specifically designed to help communities like these gain a greater sense of diversity and connectivity that people weren't living in neighborhoods generally by race if you look at the background in the demographics of Bo and Beach 50% white 35% African-American and then about 15% or so that's Latino so it's pretty diverse Gotti but just to talk about the history here and how this might have af

fected uh certain communities in populations they're obviously very frustrated that this could have existed go back to 1924 as you said a white District a black district and then nine years later another ordinance that's passed that says it's illegal for any race to go to the other side at night 18 and older what are the punishments for that imprisonment potentially and a $25 fine then which would be about $600 now but I spoke with the only African-American commissioner that's in this government

on on the city commission about what it means to him because he lived through it this was his life when he was a young child is's in his 80s now here's what he told me some of my friends didn't always make it I I like I said I was pretty fast and I knew the the shortcuts to get out of get out of H's way but um they got kicked around a bit my ancestors okay they got caught in the wrong place the wrong time and they were actually hung from an oak tree right there on us one less than a century ago

obviously um but it is a constant reminder Gotti of the importance of addressing even if it's just symbolically how these laws of discrimination need to be wiped from the record books yeah some of my friends didn't make it I mean The Echoes from the past that are terrifying I got to ask I mean it sounds like they didn't know that these were on the books how possible is it that there are a lot of other communities where these are also on the books obviously not enforced uh they aren't being impl

emented but still a part of history that hasn't been erased it's a great question and the reality is there's likely many uh when I spoke with that commissioner uh Mr May uh what he said was that you probably have in the neighborhood of double digit cities that still have something like this he is aware of a few he didn't want to out them but the idea in all of this is that Boon Beach will then become a model for other localities to look and see do we still have these records in effect even if th

ey're not obviously being utilized but like are still there on our records and what does it mean to keep them in place because you talk about this conversation really also within the prism of these vestiges of slavery statues for example example honoring Confederate leaders that were taken down in States like Virginia and Louisiana and Texas and Florida you these conversations were were very painful right and it forced us to confront visual signs of our past and now here you have laws that are o

bviously inflammatory that are still in existence and the whole point is they want to burn them in fact this community is going to be hosting an event on Saturday where there's going to be a March over these previously segregated areas Gotti and then they're burning the physical copies of the ordinances really to close the chapter history that it encompassed and you can't burn him if you don't find him first Sam Brock thank you so much for your powerful reporting there and still to come we are l

earning more tonight about that US military helicopter that killed eight people in Japan and now the entire fre fleet has been grounded we've got those details so stay tuned hey welcome back let's take a quick look around the world the Haiti former first lady has been accused in taking part in the assassination of her husband former president of Haiti jovenel Moise Martine Moise along with 50 other people were indicted today in the 2021 killing three other high-profile political figures were als

o accused including the country's former prime minister and an ex-chief of police over, 1600 South Korean doctors watched off the job today protesting the government's plan to admit more students to medical schools there the doctors who are mostly residents say the plan will cut their salaries and negatively impact their national health insurance plan the walk out has caused significant delays to surgical procedures and treatment and a Russian American who lives here in Los Angeles has been deta

ined in Russia authorities say 33-year-old zenya kolina is being held on charges of treason alleging she supported Ukraine by donating 50 bucks to the country's war effort if convicted she could face up to 20 years in prison and a former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez is facing drug trafficking charges after getting extradited to New York City herandez is accused of pocketing millions and bribes from cocaine traffickers and he's fled not guilty but if he's convicted he could be loo

king at 40 Years to Life Behind Bars and a deadly crash involving these US military aircraft has investigators looking into the possibility that a faulty gearbox could be the cause now last November eight Airmen died when their hybrid plane helicopter crashed into Japanese Waters it was a fourth fatal crash of its kind involving the Osprey helicopter now the US military has grounded all Osprey Aircraft since and NBC's Pentagon correspondent Courtney QB has more Gotti defense officials tell NBC n

ews that investigators are zeroing in on the cause the likely cause of a deadly crash involving the US military aircraft known as the ospre now it occurred in November off the coast of Japan killing eight US service members and now investigators are looking specifically at the prop rotor gearbox now that's a large box on the top of the aircraft that connects the engine to the prop rotor and they're looking at the possibility that it may have had some sort of small metal pieces or shavings inside

that gearbox that may have impacted the aircraft's ability to continue to fly now there have been four deadly crashes involving the Osprey in the last 2 years but this one in November caused the US military to ground the entire fleet of us Ospreys Now NBC News has learned that some Marine Corps Ospreys actually have flown in cases since the December grounding when the military has decided that there were operational imperatives or needs to fly them on a Case by case basis they have flown in in

place in locations including J jibuti and okanawa in that time but now defense officials say that as they are zeroing in on the likely cause of this crash or the possible C cause of this crash at least these aircraft may be flying again in a matter of weeks but what's critical to know here Gotti is while while they have decided or that it's likely the gearbox was involved they have not yet figured out what caused this problem in the gearbox that Still Remains a mystery Gotti Courtney Courtney QB

thanks so much and before we go it is time for the future of everything we know that dealing with a family member with dementia can be absolutely heartbreaking but now scientists are trying to develop some robots to help during the difficult caretaking process and we're going to explain a little bit more coming when we come back stay [Music] tuned here you can see uh sake was one of other monkeys uh typing on a keyboard but now he's this is telepathic typing so to be clear this is the he is's n

ot actually using a keyboard he's moving the cursor with his mind yeah that was a very weird moment two years ago when Elon Musk surprised the world with that video of a monkey named sake who could control a cursor and seem to be able to type on a computer using its mind now the monkey was is one of the first test subjects of monks company uh musk company neurolink which aims to bridge the gap between humans medicine and artificial intelligence by sticking a chip the size of a coin inside your b

rain and if you're going to go stick something in your brain you you you wanted to not be giant uh you want to be tiny this um I think has a very good purpose uh which is to cure important diseases um and ultimately to help secure Humanity's uh future as a civilization relative to AI so now sake isn't alone apparently humans can do it too because late last night musk announced that a patient implanted with the brain technology can do the same control a computer mouse just by thinking now this co

mes almost a month after the company announced they implanted a chip in a human for the very first time and joining us now is futurist legal ethicist and the author of battle for your brain Nita farahani uh Nita I mean the title of your book has never been more fitting than maybe this story that we're about to talk about what do we know about this patient and and how are they doing yeah I mean unfortunately we don't know that much uh thanks to the way in which we've been learning updates which i

s primarily Elon Musk posting them on X telling us first that the first patient had been successfully implanted in January and now that uh a patient has recovered fully he says um and they were able to detect neuronal activity which is already a big deal uh and that the patient was able to move the mouse around much like you just saw with sake moving the mouse around basically by thinking up down left and right so a limited number of controls but you know controls for probably somebody who is li

kely paraplegic or has ALS because that's what the company was approved for by the FDA to move forward with for clinical trials I love how you know normally we'd expect to see this in some sort of scientific journal or like this big announcement and these seem to be just random asides talking to friends on X uh it's pretty wild I got to say though wild it's led to a lot of commentary of people being like this is not how clinical trials should happen right I mean exactly and and let's see some re

ceipts let's see some you know examples let's kind of see what's going on there uh not just like voice only spaces but whatever fingers crossed we see some of that pretty soon um yeah when I watch Sci-Fi though like this is obvious like oh yeah that must be super easy but when it comes to the real world how does this even work like from from a a cerebral uh perspective like what are we doing in there yeah so I mean I should say that while musk is much better at getting a lot of news coverage of

it he's certainly not the first of the companies who have succeeded in getting a neural implant through a clinical trial into a patient um nor the first to have somebody communicate with the outside world but basically What's happen is you know as we think as we do anything neurons are firing in our brain those give off tiny electrical discharges uh and they can be picked up by electrodes uh that detect that electrical activity and the benefit of implanted neurotechnologies it can go more deeply

into the brain it can have many more electrodes that can pick up that electrical activity and then help to decode and decipher it um for somebody who's healthy you move the mouse around just by moving your hand around so the neuron are communicating with your arm going down you know your wrist to your hands to be able to enable you to move or somebody who's paraplegic they don't have that option so being able to get the signal out of their brain using a device that can detect it and then wirele

ssly communicate with uh the external device like a mouse is a pretty extraordinary feat it's just not the first to Market to have neuralink do that it is a wild wild time and we appreciate you joining us for for breaking all that down Nita thank you so much good to see you and while Elon Musk may be using robots to implant chips into brains robots are also being used to help dementia patients live better lives now we want to show you QT this is a twoot tall kind of funky little robot there with

a rectangular face it blinks it's got two black ovals the smile appears on the screen and behind that screen lies a bunch of microphones a 3D camera facial facial recognition some data recording capabilities and it's all built by a company in Luxembourg and developed by scientists from Indiana University uh now patients who have interacted with QT so far well they've got some mixed feelings it's not perfect sometimes it pauses too long when listening to patients or or may interrupt them when it

should listen but it is a work in progress and it's something we could see a lot more of so joining us now is NBC News medical fellow Dr OE s Dr s this this isn't necessarily new but what sets QT apart from other robots that we've seen try to help dementia patients hey got I think QT is walking the line for me between between creepy and cute but let's let's talk about what this this technology is Gotti so QT is is a like you said it's a twoot tall robot developed actually previously for for peo

ple with Autism and now they're trying to see if it can if it can help those with dementia and I think got you know that that article you had on the screen really summed it up that writer who had spent some time both her her parents had form of memory loss and dementia and you know she summed it up quite nicely saying this isn't going to fix my parents dementia uh but for a brief moment this provided Solace that you know we we won't be alone in this fight and I think that's really hitting the na

il on the head is that dementia for can be extremely isolating both for patients and their caregivers and to have another tool like this um that can actually communicate quite fluently with people um is really providing hope I think got to people who really really need it when frankly there isn't a lot out there now dementia is such a multi-layered condition with with different types different stages how does this robot work through something so complicated you know I spoke to the researchers no

t too long ago got and what they told me is they're really focusing on something called ekai it's a Japanese term actually Gotti that roughly translates to to searching for meaning or purpose in life and you know we talk a lot about robots and interacting with future and we see this all in in Sci-Fi movies but they're really focusing on trying to humanize us as much as possible and they're trying to focus these these robots on picking up subtle cues focusing really Gotti on what makes these pati

ents click what makes what makes them smile what makes their memories light up essentially and and really by focusing on that by making it as human as possible no matter what kind of dementia you have uh we're hoping to see some benefit wow so ancient Eastern philosophy there into modern technology uh what does this mean for for the way we think of using robots in the future especially when it comes to helping patients with different diseases outside of of dementia and and autism you know the th

e one I'm really excited for God he actually was it's only a few weeks old but it's it's an app developed by Cedar Sinai and it's kind of it's very similar to what we just talked about and it it's trying to address the mental health shortage um so it uses virtual reality was actually developed for for Apple Vision Pro and it uses AI it uses VR to create virtual therapists um therapists who are frankly got it people can't access one right now there was a survey just just a month ago from the APA

the American Psychological Association 60% or a majority of psychologists have no openings right now so I think by by you know on this note of having you know open AI or having excuse me artificial intelligence provide um that resource to fill in the gap for for mental health providers I think is something that I'm really excited about and and just as well for this as well that makes so much sense especially I mean La the the running joke is if you want to go to a therapist and you don't have on

e already it's going to take like a year to two to find one that's got an opening on their schedule Dr Sall thank you so much for joining us anytime and that does it for us tonight I'm Gotti Schwarz we'll see you tomorrow but until then stay tuned [Music] [Music] [Music] now thanks for watching stay updated about break news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media