houston hit hard by powerful storms. at least four people are dead andhundreds of thousands are without power. our team is tracking where the threat is heading next. a heated day in donald trump's hush money case. the defense accusing michael cohen of lying, catching him off

guard in cross examination over the payment to stormy daniels. how cohen responded to it all. kicking up controversy. the growing backlash by the star kicker of the kansas city chiefs. over 100,000 people calling on the chiefs to give him the boot. at long last, harmony on the hill. new legislation targeting hidden fees for concert-goers. and putting the a.i. in after life. how a man with terminal illness plans to live on in his family's memory for years to come. and the timberwolves make a meal of the nuggets, while the rangers skate into the eastern conference finals. all the action as playoff season heats up. it's friday, may 17th. "early today" starts right now. good morning, i'm frances rivera. breaking overnight, parts of the south battered by another round of deadly storms.

waterlogged texas facing torrential hail and flooding. at least four people are dead in houston. the mayor saying the city was blasted by hurricane-strength winds reaching up to 100 miles per hour. the gusts tearing windows off skyscrapers and damaging businesses. all non-essential workers have been asked to stay home today. and schools are closed across the city. the storm toppling trees and power lines, leaving more than a million without power at one point. hundreds of thousands are still in the dark across texas and louisiana, which was also struck by the severe weather. and the region is facing more dangerous weather this morning. michelle grossman is tracking the system and will join us in just a minute. let's turn now to texas, where governor greg abbott has issued a pardon to former u.s. army sargent, daniel perry. in july, gerrit foster was legally carrying a rifle when he approached an intersection where perry was parked. perry shot foster from his

vehicle, later claiming self-defense. governor abbott says this pardon is justified by texas' stand your ground law. and a review board unanimously voted in favor of a pardon. the district attorney in the case is calling the pardon a mockery of our legal system. let's turn now to donald trump's hush money trial and an intense day of cross examination for michael cohen. mr. trump's defense team confronted cohen about a history of lies. here's alice barr. >> reporter: in their second day of cross examination, defense lawyers for former president trump on a mission to discredit the prosecution's central witness, michael cohen. mr. trump's one-time lawyer and fixer. the trump team grilling cohen over his criminal record, his bias against the former president and his past admissions of lying under oath. seeking to show his critical testimony cannot be trusted. testimony that ties together documents and witnesses and puts

former president trump at the heart of a scheme to silence adult film star, stormy daniels about an alleged affair in the final days of the 2016 campaign. and then illegally hide cohen's reimbursement for the hush money payments. all allegations the former president denies. >> there's no case. there's no crime. it's a disgrace that it was allowed to happen. >> reporter: in sometimes-heated questioning, defense attorney todd blanche tried to poke holes in cohen's recollections of conversations with mr. trump about the alleged hush money scheme, blanche asserting over and over that was a lie. at one point, cohen said i believe i spoke to mr. trump about the stormy daniels matter during one key phone call. blanche shooting back, quote, we are not asking for your belief. this jury does not want to hear what you think happened. the defense also played clips from cohen's podcast, expressing his deep desire to see mr. trump

go to prison. >> but revenge is a dish best served cold. and you better believe i want this man to go down and rot for what he did to me and my family. >> reporter: more republican lawmakers watching on, pledging support for their party's presidential candidate. in washington, alice barr, nbc news. president biden asserted executive privilege to keep congress from getting recordings of his interview with the special counsel. special counsel robert hur referred to the president as a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. the written transcript is public, but house republicans want the audio recordings. attorney general merrick garland recommended shielding the tape. but the white house council said republicans want them to use for political purposes. news organizations, including nbc, are part of a lawsuit seeking release of the audio under the freedom of information act. new this morning, the

supreme court has protected an agency that protects consumers. the justices rejected a challenge brought by two trade groups that would have hobbled the consumer financial protection bureau. the trade groups had argued that the agency should have its funding approved by congress. the court decided it is constitutional for the agency to be funded directly by the federal reserve. the biden administration took another big step toward easing marijuana restrictions. the justice department will publish an official notice that opens a two-month period for the public to comment on the proposed change. if the rule goes into effect, marijuana will join a category that includes prescription drugs like ketamine or testosterone. there's growing backlash over a commencement speech given by the kicker for the kansas city chiefs. some saying it was sexist and homophobic and cutting on the team to cut him loose. here's liz kreutz. >> reporter: the nfl on defense after growing backlash over that

tr controversial graduation speech by harrison butker. >> i think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. >> reporter: in the speech at benedictine college, the super bowl champ criticizing lgbtq rights and ivf and abortion and surrogacy. >> some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world. but i would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. >> reporter: despite a standing ovation from the crowd, many slamming the speech as homophobic and sexist. >> getting married and having kids is not my ideal situation right now. it definitely made graduation feel a little less special. knowing i had to sit through that and get told i'm nothing but a homemaker. >> reporter: the nfl, which is coming off a year of record female viewership amid hype over taylor swichft's relationship wh

travis kelce now distancing themselves from butker. the league saying in a statement, but theker gave a sp in his personal capacity. his views are not that of the nfl. more than 100,000 people have signed a petition demanding that he be removed from the chiefs. so far the chiefs nor butker himself have commented. police are searching for the gunmen who terrified a south florida neighborhood. they unleash ed a barrage of gunfire in the street. a car was targeted with high-powered weapons. the car crash flooded into a fed everyone ran away. no one was injured. let's check on where the severe weather is heading next. michelle grossman is tracking the storms for us. good morning, michelle. >> good morning, frances. the south continues to be soaked. we are looking at the bull's eye

from louisiana to alabama. we're also looking at the chance tor for severe storms. we're going to see rounds of slow-moving storms and rain as we head throughout this friday. really heavy rain falling where you see the dakrker colors. we're going to see saturated grounds once again. any rain that does fall could become runoff. we do have flood watches where you see the green. lake charles, new orleans, mobile and even into the panhandle of florida under flood watches. 60 million people impacted. where you see the pink, that is the likeliest spot for seeing flash flooding. we're going to see rainfall rates of 2 inches per hour. montgomery, alabama could see that. and we're looking at the chance of 6 to 8 inches of rain through the next couple days through sunday. that rain extends into the northeast, because we're expecting some rain there as well into the carolinas and the southeast. this is a look at severe weather

threat. 7 million people are at risk for hail. winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour. the ground is saturated. any wind gusts could bring trees down and power hilines down. a few storms are possible from new orles toan gulf coast, eastern texas well. 83 in houston. all right, frances. that's your friday forecast. >> okay, michelle, thank you. have a great weekend. "early today" is back in a moment with a major milestone for wall street. how a man with terminal illness plans to live on through a.i. -- live on through a.i. -- ach day. good thing metamucil gummies are an easy way with the same amount of fiber as 2 cups of broccoli.

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if you couldn't send a text yesterday, you're not alone. but first, a major milestone on wall street. the dow topped 40,000 for the first time ever. we have details on the historic run. good morning, sylvia. >> good morning, frances. indeed, the dow hit the 40,000 threshold yesterday for the first time ever. now, optimism around artificial intelligence as well as better than expected corporate earnings have contributed to these levels. having said that, let's see what will happen to u.s. stocks this year. because there's still quite a lot of uncertainty about how many rate cuts we'll get from the federal reserve this year. now elsewhere, thousands of apple users actually reported having issues when using the i message app. the outage lasted for about an hour. but now things seem to be running smoothly and back to normal. perhaps just in time to make some weekend plans.

>> okay. sylvia, thanks so much. have a great weekend, too. many of us have keep sabs of loved ones who have passed like photos and home movies. but one man with weeks to live is leaving behind his voice and memories with the help of a.i. priya sridhar explains. >> reporter: closure for michael started about eight weeks ago. >> i posted on social media a message that it's now time for people to say good-bye. >> reporter: doctors told michael his colon cancer is terminal. but one phone call from an old colleague who works in a.i. changed his perspective on saying good-bye. >> and i spoke to him. i said michael, you know, i've been working on this thing called eterno. he's h he's like oh, what if i could be an a.i., and i didn't think it was possible. >> reporter: robert has spent a year developing the technology behind eterno. >> how do you really replicate

someone, and especially their emotional voice. >> reporter: he got to work capturing michael's voice and memories. >> a small phrase like hey, how are you today? or no kidding, that happened to you? and then stories about different part of my hilife, early part, middle part, late part. >> we capture that and make it into an a.i. >> reporter: the final product blew michael away. >> he was like, wow, hang on one second. let me get my wife. she'll be the real test to this. she came in and started to speak with this. >> hello annette. i'm so glad to have this opportunity to chat with you. you bring so much joy and happiness into my life, and i want you to know how much i appreciate you. your presence brightens up my day. >> we all cried. i've been in technology for 30 years, but i've never been in a place where like that humanity and technology and the emotion of it, and she was thinking, my god, it's him. >> reporter: for the

technologically-minded michael, who has always enjoyed his role as the family storyteller. >> this now gives me the opportunity to leave something behind. >> reporter: he's at peace knowing a part of his voice and memories can be passed on. >> we visited tahiti and bora bora, and it was such an incredible experience, the stunning over-water bungalows. we had the chance to relax, explore and create beautiful memories together. i still enjoy reminiscing about that trip and other special memories we shared. >> i feel closure, at least from the preparation, i've prepared everything i was able to prepare for, to be able to be passed on. >> reporter: priya sridhar, nbc news. still to come, the rise and fall of movie pass comes to hbo, and congress cracks down on costs for concerts. the new protections, right after this. new protections, right aftr this. until... i saw how easily it picked up my hair every time i dried it.

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we thought this could reinvigorate the movie-going business. >> i went to the movie theater, 428 times. >> movie pass doubled the re revenue. >> we were worth $80 million plus. >> it was touted as a savior of the movie-going experience. and now hbo is giving viewers a behind the scenes look at the rise and fall of movie pass. the film features interviews with key figures behind the movie theater subscription service. they promised unlimited access to movie tickets before its eventual collapse in 2019. it premieres on hbo and max on may 29. on wednesday, the house of representatives passed the ticket act that would require sellers for tickets of life events to post total costs,

including fees and provide rea refunds in the event of a cancellation. it follows years of out rage of companies like ticketmaster. it now heads to the senate, which is also considering a similar bill. baltimore is off to the races this weekend for the historic preakness at pim lico. the horse that won the kentucky derby by a nose is the favorite. after mystik dan, it's imagination, trained by bob baffert. he's trained musk, which was a favorite in this race but was ruled unable to run because of a fever. you can catch the 149th running of the preakness right here on nbc tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 eastern. when we come back, why the eu has meta under a microscope. and talk about a delicious debate. are these mexican food favorites considered sandwiches? hes? when your gut is out of balance, your body gives you signs. so if you're frustrated with occasional bloating...

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here's what's making headlines this friday morning. the eu is investigating meta's child protection measures under a new law. the european commission's saying in a statement that it's looking into whether facebook and instagram quote may stimulate behavioral addictions in children and create rabbit hole effects. sony music group is warning more than 700 companies against using its content to train a.i. they are sending formal letters prohibiting the mining of text or data without specific licensing agreements. detroit's population has grown for the first time in decades. small increases in cities previously seeing a population decline were also seen in the northeast and midwest. but the cities in the south showed the fastest growth. and an indiana judge has ruled that tacos and burritos are sandwiches. here's the back story.

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they return on sunday with nothing less than a western conference finals berth on the line. in hockey, it was looking like the carolina hurricanes had the rangers dead to rights, get out to a 2-0 lead in game six. but the blue shirts stage admir ak staged a miraculous late-stage rally and punched their tickets to the finals. an honor is being restored for a baseball legend. here's morgan chesky. >> reporter: this ballpark in wichita, kansas feels more empty than should. in january, thieves cut down a beloved statue of barrier-breaking all-star, jackie robinson. the league 42 baseball field founded for underserved city youth now robbed of their hero. >> sickened by what you saw. even in this state of disbelief. >> reporter: the bronze cleats left behind.

now on display at the negro league's baseball museum. >> you want to wave the white flag and throw your hands up and say okay, i give up. and the minute you're ready to do that, the good people step in, and they step up. >> reporter: donors raising more than $100,000, more than enough to rebuild the monument. now, a skilled team at art castings of colorado is hard at work. carefully painting and pouring. >> so this is part of jackie's jersey. >> reporter: all part of the process to rebuild the iconic dodger, using the original molds crafted by the late sculptor, kansas artist john parsons. his wife carol calling jackie his most important work. >> throughout the entire process, he was always talking with the robinson family? >> yes. >> he wanted to get jackie. >> oh, he wanted it right. and he had pictures of jackie robinson all over his shop. >> reporter: and come late summer, an identical statue will

be headed back home. >> it means a lot. he's a person you can look up to. >> after every game, i'm going to ask if i can take a picture by it. it's just more close to the dream. >> reporter: a baseball legend still daring others to dream. >> you can cut the statue down, but you cannot rid his spirit. >> reporter: morgan chesky, nbc news, richwichita, kansas. >> that does it for us. thanks for wrapping up the workweek with "early today." my name is caron and i'm from brooklyn. i work for the city of new york as a police administrator. i oversee approximately 20 people and my memory just has to be sharp. and i realized, my memory was just changing. i did my own research and i decided to give prevagen a try. my memory became much sharper. i remembered more! i've been taking prevagen for four years now. it's a life-changer.

prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. breaking overnight. savage storms break across texas and knocking out power to tens of thousands. our weather team is tracking that system as it pushes through the south. cross examination gets heated in donald trump's h