NOW Tonight – Dec. 22 | NBC Records NOW

Good evening I'm zinc lassenwa from NBC News world headquarters in New York City here are some of the stories we're following on now tonight baby it's really really really cold outside more than 100 million people are impacted by this major winter storm with dangerously freezing temperatures and with bad weather comes canceled flights that's.

Hitting Travelers especially hard for the holidays I have a partner going out west to Colorado so I'm nervous about that one then staying safe with a triple demek still going strong we'll have tips on how to stay healthy during your holiday travels plus the January 6 report the house committee releases its final.

Report on the capitol riot we have a vital road map ensuring Justice is will be done and keep and that this won't happen again Justice for Jackson my conversation with the head of the EPA on the Water Crisis in Jackson Mississippi what's being done to make sure residents have safe water this winter.

But are you expecting this winter that some residents whether in Jackson or other cities in the country may not have access to consistent water we're preparing ourselves for that again there are this is an Antiquated system foreign let's start with what forecasters are.

Calling a quote once in a generation storm already wreaking havoc across the country right now over 100 million people are under some type of winter alert or advisory and we're seeing everything from snow to high winds to Bone chilling temperatures heavy rain ice and even coastal flooding snow is coming down in the Great Plains and the.

Midwest at least eight states have active blizzard warnings in fact our very own now tonight producer ruti is just outside Chicago and just before the start of the show she checked the snowfall for us take a look thank you guys that's about two inches.

Two inches and while she may have lost feeling in her fingers it seems that you may too and you could hear the wind howling behind her because it's not just the snow there are those freezing temperatures and folks in Chicago can expect wind chills 30 degrees below zero and NBC News estimates that more than 190 million people across 46 States will.

Feel wind chills below zero meanwhile high winds snow and ice are already disrupting holiday travel thousands of U.S flights have been canceled or delayed so let's dig into all this with NBC News correspondent Maggie Vespa in Chicago for us Maggie tonight you're outside I'm sorry I hope you're keeping warm I know temperatures are dropping.

Fast there this is what Chicagoans saw today from mid-20s to single digits in a matter of just hours and that's expected to go on into the negatives tonight and I know you chatted with some residents how are they handling the storm do they feel prepared I mean just like Rudy like we're all feeling the pain here in Chicago and by.

The way shout out to her that was fantastic uh it like physically is painful here as you pointed out our high today was actually 33 and now we're down to what is it seven three it's like three degrees here tomorrow overnight will be negative two for our overnight lows and a high again tomorrow just single digits so it's frigid the roads.

Are freezing kind of overnight as we speak people are slowing down in the interstates and stocking up on food we were at a local Jewel earlier people buying days if not weeks worth of groceries in some cases take a listen it's usually hard to tell like sound I feel like some Chicago snowstorms are really bad and then some don't feel as.

Bad so we just want to be safe who was canceled which doesn't Chicago so we knew I think that's another scare factor for us like they the weather's got to be pretty nut in order for them to cancel school so they did and we're reacting to that those are two teachers at a Chicago public school they got out at noon today.

Which again this is Chicago okay this is like a seasoned bunch and the idea of letting schools out early the teachers one teacher told me that the school got out of 12 30 she was in her car by 12 35 to get to the grocery store and get home and prepare people basically are hunkering down which is what officials want Sinclair absolutely and I mean we.

Heard from some officials earlier today Ted Berger the executive director of cook County's Department of Emergency Management was actually on MSNBC he shared some of his biggest concerns let's take a listen and we'll talk on the other side but we want to caution all of our residents and visitors to recognize that.

The story here isn't the snow it's sustained high winds we're anticipating 20 to 30 mile an hour winds sustained upwards of 50 to 55 mile per hour gusts throughout the storm event Maggie he said the story here is not the snow it's the sustained high winds we heard those winds behind our producer ruti so what's the concern there with.

The winds oh deaf I mean the concern here is the same as the concern across the country which is potential power outages we've already seen some outages stacking up in Portland Oregon thousands there without power after winds swept through as the storm made landfall out west and that sporadically it's not widespread but.

That is creeping Eastward and as you heard gusts in the 50 mile per hour range that could easily do it and this system as our meteorologists have told us is being followed by a huge blast of Arctic air so this is not an opportunity frankly a safe time for anyone to lose power so that is a huge concern as as those winds move through zinc clay.

Absolutely we're hoping people stay safe and get prepared NBC News correspondent Maggie Vespa thank you so much and now let's bring in our NBC News meteorologist Bill Karen is here to give us an update on the Storm Bill what do we need to know we're about to get into the peak of the storm you know so far it's been about the cold Arctic blast.

We've had a couple areas gets a little bit of snow Minneapolis had like six to eight inches most areas were less than that and now we're watching the cold it made it all the way down the South Texas today but now it's going to rush towards the east coast behind our storm system and that's what we're going to be anticipating in the next 36 hours how.

Does the big storm and the cold air and the winds combine so right now the wind chill the worst of it well we're at Sioux City I'm in one of the lowest locations all day at negative 37. we still got negative 50s in Montana by the way that's like three days in a row but look at San Antonio your wind chill is 11. Dallas you're negative five San.

Antonio was in the 60s earlier today so that's a huge shock to the system for people in you know South Texas and eventually that cold air is going to be heading into New Orleans later on today Chicago is now at negative 18. and that's going to sweep to the east coast so we have our two storms we have the one that's here that provided the rain.

For the east coast and then we have our one which is going to become our bomb cycle the two of them are going to kind of combine overnight this will become the dominant one the bomb Cyclone is just a term for a storm that rapidly intensifies we sometimes get these with nor'easters it's kind of rare for them to be in the Great Lakes but that's the.

Reason that we're going to see such the high winds and as the cold air rushes in all that rain that we had the last two days in areas of the Mid-Atlantic that's all going to freeze now hopefully the roads will dry out and the winds will dry the roads by then if not it'll be a flash freeze and that's when you get black ice on the sidewalks roads.

Everywhere and they don't get better until you treat them with salts that can take a while in the meantime you get tons of slip and falls and also accidents and the winds this is going to be one of the biggest issues tomorrow and then right through Saturday notice how everyone's 40s 40s 40 50 mile per hour winds 50 50. 40 to 60 mile per hour.

Winds you're going to get isolated power outages then all of a sudden your eyes Focus here on the Buffalo area Western New York wind gusts now predicted the 72 miles per hour I mean that's almost hurricane gusts so that's what gets your attention and that's where we expect the biggest power outages to be Western New York heading up into Northern New.

England and also tomorrow morning is going to get very windy off the ocean here around the southern portions of Long Island Connecticut Coastline also through Rhode Island Cape Cod back up in the Eastern Maine Down East Bay those are areas that could also see power outages along with the high elevations of Northern New England so snowfall.

We're not going to get a ton of snow out of this that's not this isn't a huge snowstorm but areas in Michigan had the best chance with a lake effect and then this area poor buffalo I already mentioned 72 mile per hour gusts your snow forecast is for 30 to 36 inches with 72 mile per hour winds I've never seen that before I can't do a picture of.

What it's going to look like there's just going to be snow piled up on the side of houses like eight feet high and then you know in the other guy's yard there would probably be nothing it'd probably be bare ground uh it's going to be quite the scene hopefully people hopefully won't be damaging uh hopefully you can just safely be in your house but.

There's the threat of people losing power we also have tomorrow morning flash flood potential at the high tide that could be issues and notice the flash flood warning there is going to be water rises because of the high winds even on Lake Erie waves up to 10 to 15 feet crashing where the Lake Ends it kind of Narrows and they're expecting.

Damage to houses and homes because of those large waves so I'm just how many things can you pile up in one area that are bad also the heavy rain we could deal with some areas of flooding from all that snowmelt and the rainfall tomorrow is going to be a rough day oh boy understatement of the year and I heard you say pile up I mean just the.

Combination of the wind and the snow it seems that's what's making this so potentially it's the dropping of the extreme temperatures and then you know on top of it the high winds you don't want to lose power when your wind chill is about to be negative 10 to negative 20. we don't I mean we don't want people spending their Christmas in warming.

Shelters but we may have to yeah so we hope people stay safe Phil Karen's keeping us posted thank you so much and the weather today is also disrupting a lot of travel plans this holiday weekend that includes flights within into or out of the United States today as of this evening we've seen around 10 000 flights already canceled or delayed.

And major delays are expected in airports tomorrow as well especially in Detroit Chicago New York and Boston all this travel is happening amid a rise in respiratory illnesses covid rates are up nearly 40 percent in the last two weeks this season there have been over 15 million reported cases of the flu too and RSV cases are still high in some.

Parts of the country to talk about this NBC News medical contributor Dr Vin Gupta joins us now so let's just jump in here Dr Gupta how can people stay safe while traveling this holiday weekend well good evening thank you for having me it it is goes back to if you're going to be on a plane train automobiles justifically.

Around those that you don't know just wear a high quality mask with a kn95 mask or one of those n95 Aura masks a-u-r-a for your for your viewers out there really high quality masks and protect you that the number the number two really critical thing especially for parents out there is making sure your kiddos are vaccinated against influenza.

And if they're eligible and most are six months uh six months older and up for the covet booster what's critical about influence in particular is you don't it diminishes their protection and their ability to fight off things like strep pneumonia or strep throat which we know is also making a Resurgence so it's really critical to Bone up defenses.

Where we can and Dr Gupta we are cutting out a bit but appearing you as we go on here I know that this triple demick is also hitting kids hard you talked about it right the importance of making sure they're vaccinating but also prevention when it comes to that masking is important but.

It's hard for parents with young kids to get them to keep it on their face any tips for keeping them safe during travel or even keeping that mask on you know I I really recommend the happy mask it's something that it's a triple layered mask can you hear me yes okay there's certain masks that are more.

Comfortable than others at the happy mask is a triple layer mask that's comfortable I would recommend if you have toddlers you can actually have uh there are covers for the face that could be helpful for Long Haul flights and again uh just in case you didn't hear me earlier influenza vaccination vital 46 of America of of kiddos have.

Gotten their flu vaccine that is too low if if your kid doesn't have that means they're more bacteria like strep hybrid and Dr Gupta briefly here what about during this holiday season how can people you know you've given some tips right wearing the mask getting vaccinated but what are your final tips.

For people who are going to be gathering with their families going into these large events you know I would recommend that especially if you're if you're meeting grandparents or a very young child like an infant uh go to covid.gov get your free allocation of covid-19 Rapid tests and make sure.

You test yourself on arrival if you're positive on one of those rapid tests you're likely contagious it's a quick and easy way and it's free to make sure that your your minimally a risk to those who might be medically high risk and lastly I will say really critical especially if you're medically high risk have a plan with your with your medical.

Provider make sure that they have placed a standing order for medications like Tamiflu and paxilvid that can come in really handy if you're testing positive for flu or coca-19 respectively so have a medical plan for medically high risk if you're not medically high risk and you're visiting those that are high risk test yourself.

So important and the two P's prevention and planning you you hit it right there NBC News medical contributor Dr Vin Gupta thank you so much and turning now to the Border crisis still no ruling from the Supreme Court on title 42. it's that trump-era public health policy used to turn back Asylum Seekers though a ruling could come at.

Any moment tonight for now the migrant policy remains in place under a stay ordered by Chief Justice John Roberts meanwhile in El Paso Texas temperatures are expected to drop below freezing tonight City officials and volunteers are worried about what that could mean for the thousands of Asylum Seekers who have and have not crossed the southern.

Border in recent days NBC News correspondent guard Venegas is in El Paso joining us live quad I could hear the noise behind you I can see a lot of people what is the situation at the border right now uh zinc clay so this is an area in downtown El Paso not the area where we spent the last few days where we shared.

A lot of images next to a bus station where a lot of migrants were sleeping on the sidewalk this is a separate area where hundreds were here throughout the day so what you're seeing behind me are groups uh that these are families that include children women and men they are the ones that are allowed to go into the shelter this is one of the shelters that.

Is helping the migrants have a place to sleep they're actually lined up right now and as you can see and down there they've opened the door so they will allow families to go in there now what I've been told by the other migrants that are here is that individual males are not allowed in because there isn't enough space and they have to sleep on.

The sidewalk as I'm looking here in every direction there's groups of individuals that are setting up on the sidewalk ready to sleep overnight most unaware that the temperature here is going to drop into the 20s the National Weather Service says it will be dangerously cold with the wind chill it going to feel even colder now there's.

One thing that we have to keep in mind about the Border as we've been speaking to the people that are here the Asylum Seekers they tell us there's other groups of migrants that are here without an asylum seeking process so a lot of the individuals we've seen sleeping on the streets these are migrants that tell us they did not turn themselves into.

Border patrol they crossed the border at different sections of the wall and made their way here they tell us they have not received any indications that shelters would be made available to them so that's sort of the question the city has mobilized to offer some type of shelter for a lot of the migrants that came through the wall and asked for.

Asylum that were processed by CBP and then released into the U.S with some type of document to continue that process in the immigration courts when we say Asylum Seekers we're referring to those migrants but there is a large number growing of other migrants that have entered the country in different parts of the Border undocumented and a.

Lot of them are sleeping on the street tonight so we don't know what's going to happen when the temperature drops into the 20s later tonight because it's going to be way too cold and they're sitting up to sleep here on the sidewalk that's what's happening here in El Paso meanwhile more migrants are in Qantas on the other side of the boroughs of the.

Border some lined up to seek Asylum and others just waiting on the Mexican side because they say they understand because of title 42 they don't think they have a chance to cross and seek Asylum but they also tell me they don't really understand what title 42 means they just know that if something were to change and title 42 is lifted or they think.

That's going to open up some type of opportunity for them to come into the United States so there's a lot of moving pieces here and misinformation that unfortunately makes its way to the migrants and guad that's an important distinction right it's not just impacting those who are already here those who are behind you but those who.

Are also migrating right now and I know that Texas National Guard troops have been in El Paso for a few days now in part to meet that demand how has that affected the situation and how is the city responding Shin clay so initially we were told the National Guard was going to be part of an exercise what we have seen is members.

Of the National Guard at the border they blocked off an area of the wall along with Texas State Troopers that was the area where the concertina wire was installed and they asked migrants in on the Mexican side to go to a different part of the wall if they wanted to seek Asylum now I spoke to someone from Texas DPS today from this is a State Trooper.

Who told me that is an exercise them setting up the wire them policing that part of the wall he indicated to me that that's part of an exercise that's all we know that's the only place where we have seen National Guard here in El Paso so far Sinclair is reporting from El Paso thank you so much stay warm and stay safe.

Well when it comes to January 6 we might have better luck weight for go no before we get that report but any moment we may get our hands on it we'll dive into what we do know about the hundreds of pages coming from the select committee when now tonight continues welcome back I'm zinc class and while we.

Are still waiting for that final January 6 committee report expected to be released before Congress wraps up this term the formal eight chapter report will be a culmination of an 18-month investigation its release was expected yesterday but get this due to printer issues and a skeleton Congressional staff the release was delayed to today.

And now it looks like we might not get it until tomorrow so in the meantime the committee did release a few transcripts of witness testimonies today including that of former White House Aid Cassidy Hutchinson the biggest takeaway from her attorney excuse me the her big the biggest takeaway there her attorney a former Trump White House Deputy Council.

Advised her to keep her answer short and sweet and not to answer questions on quote certain topics that attorney Stefan posantino did Issue a statement earlier today writing quote I represented Miss Hutchinson honorably ethically and fully consistent with her sole interests as she communicate them to me so let's break it all down with.

Our team of analysts Republican strategist and NBC News political analyst Brendan Buck is here along with NBC News legal analyst Danny savalos Danny let me start with you so what do you make of the committee's decision to release these testimonies specifically the Hutchinson testimony an attorney asking the witness to keep her answer.

Short and sweet what do you make of that as an attorney yourself is that misleading witness tampering or is it nothing at all I got to tell you in my view and I may be biased it's nothing at all and I only say that because I counsel Witnesses before depositions that exact same piece of advice only answer the question asked.

Don't volunteer additional information don't answer questions that weren't asked uh there is there is a truthful way to there are many truthful ways to answer a question one is you know the truth can be shorter or longer you can add on to it you can say oh by the way that reminds me of something else but then you're not answering the original.

Question so attorneys everywhere who are hearing this I would expect are thinking look you always tell Witnesses listen to the question only answer the question that's asked don't volunteer a lot of extra stuff now if you cross the line and you start telling the witness what to say that is a major difference and if that happened then that would be a.

Problem but simply telling a witness to keep it short not a problem yeah that's an important distinction and Brendan I want to bring you in here because there is about to be a change in the house when it comes to leadership in the new year when Republicans take control do you think the January 6 committee will cease to exist and would that hinder the.

Doj's work on this oh I think it's absolutely clear that the January 6 committee is going to end and they know that and I think that's why they're they're rushing right now at the 11th hour to get this report out because Republicans have no interest in getting to the bottom of this um and frankly I think the January 6.

Committee did get to the bottom of this I I will say I was a little skeptical that they would be able to unearth anything that we didn't really already know or see uh before our very eyes but they they clearly over performed and told an incredible story uh great storytelling great choreography great production which is why it's so.

Confounding that they haven't been able to to get it out yet um but look they they did their job Republicans coming in have said the only thing that they may do is actually try to investigate the committee itself not to get to the bottom of what happened on January 6 but to look into the process that they did it I think that would be a.

Terrible idea for House Republicans the best thing they can do is move on from this debacle um and and not remind people uh of the role that they played uh in what happened in January 6th so that's something we'll have to watch in the new year and I want to stay on the committee a bit Danny the committee did vote on.

Monday to recommend that the justice department pursue criminal charges against former president Donald Trump over his efforts to upend the 2020 election and his role in the January 6th attack and this is how chairman Benny Thompson framed it in one of our exclusive interviews today with him let's take a listen.

I am more comfortable with the fact that the special counsel has been uh actively engaged in pursuing and in all information available uh they have been in contact with our committee asking us to provide uh various transcripts and what have you in his remarks what will the special counsel and doj do next and how does.

Today's report fit into the larger scheme of things Danny Council will gladly take the evidence but at the same time the referral has no weight it doesn't Force Special counsel or doj to do anything and candidly I bet if you got them to speak uh honestly in without the mics on Folks at dojn in the special counsel's office would say in.

Some ways this referral is a bit of a distraction because they may be conducting their own investigation and maybe close to indicting without this imperative from the the January 6 committee at the same time you cannot uh dispute that the January 6th committee has come up with some very impressive evidence and they put it into a very.

Concise format but here's the thing doj and the special counsel's office they always have more investigative abilities than the January 6 committee exhibit a would be the difficulty the January 6th committee even had enforcing their subpoenas including against that guy you see right there in the picture they couldn't get a lot of folks to comply.

And certainly not right away doj has a lot more Tools in its Arsenal uh to get people to talk and to get documents and evidence so while they may welcome the evidence from January 6 committee they probably don't need it okay so we've talked evidence let's talk release Brendan what do you make up the timing of this report's release because it's.

Been delayed twice now do you think it's going to make the splash that the committee and Democrats wanted it to make especially at this time of year yeah obviously a huge error at the last minute but um I do want to say that I I don't know that the the final report really matters a whole lot again I think they've.

Already done their job I can't imagine that they held back too much that they didn't already release and I guess we'll see if there's any more Bombshells in there but I would imagine they've already done the uh put out what they did look Liz Cheney said one of her goals from this committee is to make sure that Donald Trump is never.

President again and that's where I think the the political job was actually carried out there is so much more baggage around Donald Trump right now I think because of this committee I think this committee played a role in Republicans not having a great midterm I think this committee is playing a role in Ron DeSantis now taking the lead.

Against Donald Trump in a lot of polls um so maybe there's more to come I do think that this is an unfortunate error at the end maybe they'll even wait until after Christmas this is about the worst time of the year you can release something and try to get attention for it but in some ways I don't know that the final report matters as much as the.

Months-long storytelling that they already did that's important insights from both of you Brendan Buck Danny savalos thank you very much and after the break more of tonight's top stories including the light after the darkness electricity returns to Northern California after Tuesday's deadly earthquake Congress making some.

Final steps to keeping the government funded over the holidays and the AI tool that has some worried about human creativity becoming obsolete thank you foreign now for some of the headlines we're watching on now tonight power has been.

Restored to just about everyone that lost electricity after a northern California earthquake PG e said that as Wednesday night service was restored to 71 000 customers a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Humboldt County early Tuesday officials say at least two people died while 17 have sustained injuries have you noticed eggs becoming.

More expensive egg prices are indeed soaring and bird flu is partly to blame this year's avian outbreak is the worst since records began leading to U.S egg prices doubling this year alone that's almost four dollars for just a dozen anything but excellent and Native and Indigenous communities are boycotting the Avatar sequel the movement sprang up.

After the first film in 2009. in a 2010 Guardian article James Cameron credited Native American history as the driving force behind the first film saying that if the the Lakota Sioux Tribe could see the future quote they would have fought a lot harder now those comments are drawing intense backlash on social media by some Native Americans and the NFL.

Sunday Ticket is headed to Google's YouTube The League announced that its package for the out of Market Sunday afternoon games would be distributed on YouTube TV and YouTube Prime Time channels it's a seven year deal that's valued at two billion dollars annually the streaming deal will start with the 2023 NFL season and looking for a.

Stocking stuffer well the Mega Millions jackpot has hit a whopping 510 million dollars no one has won the jackpot since October and officials say it's the second largest Mega Millions jackpot this year the next drawing is tomorrow night just in time for a Christmas miracle this week A house committee said they.

Would be releasing six years of Donald Trump's taxes and we still don't know when that will happen it also revealed that the IRS failed to audit Trump during his first two years in office despite a mandate to do so today in what appears to be a direct response to that announcement the house passed a bill that would now require the IRS to audit.

President's tax returns and to make that information public Congressman Richard Neal chair of the house Ways and Means Committee which obtained Trump's taxes said the bill quote will preserve the Integrity of the executive and our system of tax and ensure that no one in the country is above the law NBC News correspondent Von Hilliard joins me now.

To talk about this Vaughn what else do we know about this legislation and what is the house committee saying about the IRS audit process writing clay now there is a rule to be clear already on the books within the IRS but it was a procedural rule that required them to audit individuals who were serving in the White House the.

President of the United States but what has been revealed from this report that was released here this week by the house ways committee Ways and Means Committee is that that did not happen well Donald Trump was President over his four years in office and that is where you saw the the Democratic loud House of Representatives passed that measure here.

Today to codify it into federal statute making the IRS require it as a rule now it goes to the Senate but the issue here is that this Congress is done in less than two weeks and the Senate is headed out of town so we should not expect this to become a federal law because Republicans uh in the next Congress are going to be the ones in charge of the.

House and it would take 60 votes it would take only take Republican Senators to jump on board and sign us into law and we saw just five Republican house members willingly jump on to this bill in the house with the Democrats and to that end Vaughn what are Republicans saying about the bill yet this is the difficult part here and.

If you look at the five members that voted in the U.S house here with Democrats it was the likes of Liz Cheney Adam kinzinger Fred Upton Tom Rice all five of these individuals were folks who had actually voted to impeach Donald Trump in the aftermath of the January 6 Insurrection and perhaps not coincidentally each of those members.

Will not be serving and next House of Representatives so you know for the the difficult circumstances that Donald Trump has put himself into here uh the reality is is that he still has a Republican party of lawmakers still very loyal to him and of course Donald Trump was on the front lines of suggesting that he did not want to turn over his.

Tax returns and it's very much fighting that effort even taking it to the Supreme Court which of course did not rule in his favor which has led us to this week in the public disclosure of his tax filings and Vaughn you alluded to it right that ticking clock as Congress is about to stop convening is there any idea when we.

Can expect to see Trump's taxes we should expect them in a matter of days now the Democrats at least for 10 more days are in control of the U.S House of Representatives and therefore in control of this committee which voted to release his tax returns and so they have promised by Year's End that the public will receive those six years.

Worth of tax returns now it's important to note through this the IRS still has yet to finish their audits of not only the tax returns from its four years in office but even the tax returns from 2015 and 2016. and so uh there's a lot of question marks as to exactly what are inside of those tax returns they are complicated I know they're probably more.

Complicated than you're in zinc Clay they're absolutely more complicated than mine but that is what everybody's been looking for the last six years and the public is about to get them well I hope they're more complicated than mine I want a an easy process with that Von Hilliard thank you so much thanks my friend today the Senate passed.

A big old spending Bill around 1.7 trillion dollars and it's just ahead of tomorrow's deadline to avoid a government shutdown now it heads to the house where Congressman steny Hoyer the number two Democrat there says a vote will likely take place tomorrow morning Government funding expires tomorrow at midnight and lawmakers are trying to get.

Home before this winter storm hits their states also because its last minute must pass bill before the holidays lawmakers seem to pack as much as they can into it including military funding aid for Ukraine more money for disaster relief and funding aimed at overhauling the country's election laws in an attempt to prevent Another January 6th here to.

Break this all down as NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles thanks for being here it's been a busy week on the hill so Hoyer announced earlier today that the house will reconvene at 9 A.M tomorrow to vote on the spending package he did say that the house will pass a short-term bill in the meantime to keep the government open so talk to.

Us about that yeah that's really just a process part of this uh situations including the Senate has really put the finishing touches on this massive Omnibus spending package 1.7 trillion dollars and it's just a matter of timing uh for the house to pass it tomorrow morning uh but they have passed that kind of sidecar A.

Continuing resolution to just make sure that the timing between the Omnibus goes into place and when the spending package can be appropriated all work out it's basically just to assure that there will be no risk of the government shutting down and there was a few moments today where we were a little bit worried about that but ultimately negotiators came to.

An agreement and it looks like Congress is going to get this done uh before the government runs out of funding and before this big storm hits most of the country and of course right and those negotiations were not without amendments I know the Senate voted on 17 amendments to pass the Bill including an amendment to title 42 which we've been following.

All week so what were those amendments exactly and how are they gonna go down in the house chamber yeah so there were actually two different amendments about title 42 and that was really kind of the Crux of the hold up of the legislation in the Senate Mike Lee wanting a 50-vote threshold to pass title 42 to extend it basically over the length of the Omnibus.

Bill but if that bill were to pass on the Senate side if it came over here to the house it would likely be dead on arrival and blow up the entire spending package so Chuck Schumer the Senate Democratic leader negotiated another amendment which would extend title 42 putting that at a 60 vote threshold and basically what that did was allowed.

Senators to vote for one and not vote for the other uh both ended up failing so the title 42 aspect of this particular piece of legislation is off the table but there were amendments that did pass including one that would increase protections for pregnant women in the workplace allowing them opportunities for instance to pump.

Breast milk without feeling any sort of Retribution from their employer so that was an important amendment that passed you know a lot of different things in this bill that aren't expressly related to spending that were kind of put into this at the last minute many of them uh positive for many Americans across the country and you're talking about last.

Minute so I got to ask the key question here this spending bill will pass tomorrow right like there's no way we can go into next week or even the new year without it or is there a scenario where that happens well you never say never in Congress until the gavel comes down simply but I think we can feel pretty confident that.

This bill is going to pass the house you know one of the most interesting aspects about this and is unique to this kind of period time that we're in is that the house has a mechanism called proxy voting that they put into place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic that allows members to not physically be present in order to cast a vote so that.

Allowed hundreds of members of Congress to actually Escape Washington ahead of the storm but still be able to cast a vote in the affirmative on this bill tomorrow in fact there could be as many as 200 members of Congress that vote by proxy tomorrow so you know that that's really could have been the only complicating factor to all of this and.

And there's a a solution for that a solution we should have that probably won't be available to them in the new year but there's really a very minimal chance that this bill won't pass tomorrow all right fingers crossed Ryan Noble's on Capitol Hill thank you so much and now to crypto the Sam bankman freeze.

Saga continues but back on American soil he was released on a quarter of a million dollars bail today after a brief courtroom appearance here in New York following his extra extradition from the Bahamas where he was arrested earlier this month on a number of criminal charges including a scheme to defraud crypto investors this news comes after.

Learning last night the two of bankman Freed's former Executives at FTX pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and were cooperating with prosecutors NBC's Ron Allen has more it was a relatively brief hearing less than an hour or so the defense and prosecution had already agreed to a bail Arrangement and they had to convince the.

Judge of it and the judge went along with it and agreed to all this the 250 million dollar Bond the prosecutor says is the largest bail sum that they could knew of and in order to get that to happen uh bankman freed had to get his parents who live in Northern California to essentially co-sign and put their home up the value of their home up as as.

Collateral as Equity as interest to make this happen he's going to have to stay in their home too house arrest essentially and wear an electronic monitoring device and restrict his travel to Northern California the judge was convinced that he's not a Flight Risk saying that anywhere he goes he would be recognized and the attorneys.

Agreed that at this point his finances his resources are greatly diminished he's free but he still has these very serious charges hanging over his head fraud charges that can send them to prison for the rest of his life and his next court date is now January 3rd Ron Allen NBC News New York all right a new artificial intelligence.

Tool can write term papers software and legal documents all in a matter of just seconds but it's raising alarms about the value of human creativity and even threatening other Titans of tech like Google you may have already heard of it it's called chat GPT short for generative pre-trained Transformer don't say that 10 times fast it's developed by.

Open AI in the new chatbot has been surging in popularity on the internet but even a company's own CEO Sam Altman is cautioning users on Twitter he wrote it's a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now it's a preview of progress we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness to dig into this NBC News technology.

Correspondent Jake Ward is following it closely for us and joins us now so Jake can you give us a bit of chat GPT 101 what exactly is going on here how does it work and what's different about it compared to other chat Bots well zinc Lee essentially it's a free piece of software you access it through a web browser and you literally just type in.

Questions you know the kinds of things that you might want to know for a research project and you'll immediately figure out the power of this thing it'll immediately start kicking back at you these very legitimate sounding answers and then as you converse with it it begins to kick back more and more information it can do it in any style.

Any language you can think of and here's the important thing to understand is what it is essentially doing is it is taking a greatest hits understanding of everything that's been written on the web and then kind of mimicking that it's essentially an impersonation of human creativity and human language in such a way that you and I could not tell the.

Difference if we were sitting in front of it and here's the really crazy part you mentioned it can write term papers you can write legal documents it can write software you say write me an app that does X it'll kick it out to you in mere moments and the reason of course that the New York Times is now reporting that Google has declared this a code red.

Issue and is worried about is very existence in the face of this new technology is that it really could be a new way that we find information online Sinclair I mean so fascinating and speaking of fighting information online you mentioned Google talk about Google verse chat GPT how comparable are these two platforms and how my chat GPT.

Transformed the way we search on the internet well I think it's important to understand that even though this thing is a prototype that it's free at the moment you know it's really just in its sort of rickety early stages Google is already worried about it it is important to understand that it is entirely trained because all AI is trained on.

Past data it's all trained on pre-2021 data so it can't do anything around current events and so it's not a direct threat to let's say what you would Google up in terms of news coverage but if you're looking for you know a summary of why the sepoy mutiny of 1857 happened in India or of anything related to a historical time I mean you you really.

Can get it out of this and then if you say okay now do it as a knock knock joke or here now do it in French or here now do it in Excel spreadsheet bang it kicks it out to you right away it has all sorts of capabilities that Google and other search engines do not provide zinc clay and you said it it has a lot of capability these but it's not perfect.

And we've heard from the CEO of open AI Sam Altman he tweeted saying once a technological Revolution starts it cannot be stopped but it can be directed and we can continually figure out how to make the new world much better and Jake you've literally written a book about this cautioning about the dangers of rapidly evolving AI systems so do you.

See this almost as a reckless or irresponsible approach to put out this chatbot to the public when there is still so much more refining to be done even the maker is saying that you know I I it is I will say it is very challenging psychologically to have written a book that warns that we are not going to be able to tell the.

Difference between our own creativity and the mimicry of creativity that AI does and that that's going to mess our brains up in all kinds of ways and now see it happening in real time as I watch people all across social media experimenting with this thing speculating on how it's going to change their lives and whole Industries it is.

Very very scary it's important understand right for one thing people are using this thing to impersonate creativity and they're not telling you that that's what they're doing right we already have accounts from across the country of teachers reporting that students are turning in term papers that are uncannily excellent and they do not.

Get detected in the plagiarism systems that those sorts of software uh the software that teachers use so yes I'm worried about it the fact that this thing is free for anyone to use all of that very concerning but we just have to see where this technology is going to go is in clay well Jake if you're worried about it I'm worried about it so I know.

You'll keep us posted thank you so much up next a question for you what can you do when your tap water isn't safe to drink you can't shower you can't wash clothes and you probably can't brush your teeth either that's how many people in Jackson Mississippi have lived even when they believe their water is safe my report from the city reaching their.

Boiling point up next welcome back I'm zincline Samoa the Pearl River flooded in Mississippi in August and it overwhelmed the city of Jackson for weeks residents reported Brown water and low pressure from their faucets and today the city says the water is safe but many residents are.

Still wary and some continue to boil water at home for everyday tasks here's my report from Jackson and a sit-down conversation with the head of the EPA 35 year old Danica Samuel is a mom of six and lifelong resident of Jackson Mississippi a city plagued with a decades-long Water Crisis today water in the city is deemed safe to drink but.

Many residents still don't trust it you should see my mama do the same thing that I do now for my kids every morning we can stay as we were with teeth the Water Crisis triggering an NAACP complaint in September alleging racist policies by Governor Tate Reeves and the state of Mississippi claiming federal money was.

Allocated to smaller majority white communities instead of Jackson Governor Reeves previously said his administration is committed to ensuring all federal funds are made available on an objective and race neutral basis the Environmental Protection Agency now investigating if Mississippi violated the Civil Rights Act no city in the.

United States of America should have a fragile system that leaves 190 000 citizens without clean water to drink EPA administrator Michael Regan says the federal government has not adequately invested in communities why do you think that a city that's over 80 percent black is facing a decades-long Water Crisis environmental justice is a serious issue.

In this country which is why the president has made it a priority we know black brown tribal communities low-income communities have seen a lack of investment but also are on the front lines of the impacts of these lack of Investments and climate change Jackson was the first city Reagan visited following his 2021 appointment I saw.

Porta potties lined all along the school and I thought that was due to construction but that's what the students have been using for years because they've been dealing with low water pressure the White House says new bipartisan legislation will invest at least 50 billion dollars in the nation's infrastructure including expanding.

Access to clean drinking water it's my hope that the people of Jackson now get the type of relief that they've been looking for for decades Danica Samuel hopes that relief comes soon on my six kids to have a wonderful future I want this to go somewhere so my kids won't have to worry about unclean water it's in class and wamp NBC News Jackson.

And for more of my reporting on the Jackson Water Crisis check out our documentary boiling point a city's fight for clean water now on YouTube peacock and All NBC News platforms Vicki thank you so much for that important report and actually that does it for us this year 2022 take a deep breath you made it we made it and now tonight we'll be back.

Next year but until then we want to end with a thanks to the outstanding team behind the scenes who put this program together for you every single day on behalf of all of us here at now and tonight thank you for ending your year right happy happy happy holidays thank you.

thank you foreign thanks for watching our YouTube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the NBC News app

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