the race for the white house, firing up earlier than ever. ready or not, the first debate is less than a week away. we're live with how president biden and donald trump are preparing for their first showdown. a sigh of relief as a

massive multi-state manhunt comes to aend. where police finally caught the suspect wanted for multiple murders across oklahoma and alabama. extreme conditions across the country. tropical storm alberto claiming at least four lives and flooding the texas coast and deadly wildfires burn out of control in new mexico. remembering a silver screen legend. a look back at the decades-spanning career of donald sutherland. and the dragon straight out of the "game of thrones" has taken over the empire state building. we'll hear from the brave crew who put it in place, 102 storeys above the ground. it's friday, june 21st. "early today" starts right now. good morning. thanks for ending your week with us. i'm frances rivera. we are less than one week away from the first presidential debate. the trump and biden campaigns

have begun their final preparations before this highly-anticipated showdown in georgia on thursday. alice, we know a little bit more about what this debate will look like, thanks to a coin toss. >> reporter: frances, this coin toss decided some key logistics, including where the candidates will stand and who is going to speak first. the biden campaign won the coin toss and decided the president will choose the podium on the right side of the stage, and the trump campaign decided that former president trump will get the last word during the closing statements. president biden left for camp david overnight. o intensive prep there for at least several days, possibly the whole week. >> the president is preparing to hold the former president accountable for what they're calling his extreme record and dangerous statements on the campaign trail. they tell nbc news, the president will most likely run through full-length mock debates led by former chief of staff ron klain. the trump campaign is taking a

less-structured approach to their prep. a senior adviser saying mr. trump has been holding informal policy sessions, speaking about issues like the economy with senator j.d. vance of ohio and talking about immigration with former white house saide steven miller. they have insisted that his rallies and interviews act act debate prep. but many of his interviews have been with friendly outlets. a hearing involving the classify do ed classified documents case begins, but he is not expected to attend. fewer migrants are crossing the u.s. border. border patrol reported about 118,000 encounters with immigrants crossing into the country illegally.

mexico played a major role in the dip, stopping as many as three times as it did a year ago. in arkansas, police caught up with a suspect after a manhunt that covered several states. stacy lee drake was arrested around 50 miles outside little rock, wanted for up to four murders in oklahoma and alabama. priya sridhar has the story. >> reporter: a convicted felon and suspected killer is in custody, after evading law enforcement in multiple states for weeks. >> if you look at his criminal history, he was continuously escalating his behavior. >> reporter: he was last seen on surveillance video tuesday outside of an arkansas motel six. arkansas state police who are leading the investigation say drake is connected to crimes across several states. in oklahoma, police say he's a person of interest in last week's murder and carjacking of phillip emerson. >> at least two people have been

shot. >> report >> reporter: he's also wanted in connection to a murder in alabama. they say he was there for a few weeks, using a fake name when he shot and killed russell andrews last month. his son russell jr. says he was beloved. >> very kind and passionate person. very selfless. >> reporter: drake has an extensive criminal history, spanning decades in multiple states that include convictions for robberies, carjackings and assaults. he's off the streets and behind bars. >> i can sleep better knowing he's not going to hurt anybody else. >> reporter: priya sridhar, nbc news. the los angeles district attorney says a usc student will not face charges for the fatal stabbing of a 27-year-old homeless man. it happened outside a furnts house where the student and his

two friends saw the man breaking into his car. lapd says the victim told them he had a gun. there was a confrontation, and the student stabbed the man who was pronounced dead at the scene. the d.a. says the student believed his life was in danger. no gun was found. a big announcement from the manhattan district attorney. the office is dropping charges against most of the protesters arrested at columbia university in april. the demonstrators were arrested after occupying hamilton hall on the manhattan campus. amid a wave of pro-mipalestinia protests. 31 out of 46 trespassing cases were dropped due to lack of evidence. the rest are due in court in july. it was travel chaos in the tri state area after both amtrak and new jersey transit trains in and out of new york city were halted for hours thursday. an overhead power outage at penn station caused mass cancellations, and a brush fire in sea secaucus secaucus caused

problems. delays continued for the rest of the day, frustrating commuters during a tough heat wave. the high temperatures forcing amtrak trains to travel slower, which will cause delays at least for the rest of the week. parts of texas still reeling from what was tropical storm alberto. the storm is blamed for at least four deaths in mexico. beach towns along southeastern texas were also left under water. sam brock is in surfside beach. >> really weird looking out your living room window and just seeing water. >> everywhere. >> we're waiting for high tide to go down to drive through. >> reporter: current status is trapped. >> yeah, yeah. we're just a little built stranded. >> massive wildfires continue to burn in new mexico. the whipping winds triggering a

dust storm near albuquerque, leaving nearly a dozen people injured. millions are still sweltering under a heat dome. in bangor, maine, the heat index climbing to 106. and the heat could climb even higher today. let's get right to michelle grossman with more on what we can expect and when we're going to finally get some relief, michelle. good morning. >> good morning, frances. i know, it keeps going on and on. we're going to see this lasting throughout the weekend and into next week. let's take a look at what's happening this morning. 64 million people from the great lakes to the ohio valley into the northeast, also parts of new england. northern new england getting a break today. that's good news. heat advisories, heat watches, heat warnings. we're going to see temperatures soaring once again into the 90s. record territory, well above normal for this time of year. and you factor in the humidity.

louisville, 98 degrees, with the humidity, it will feel like 102. 96 in washington, d.c. new york city feeling like 96 and we are looking at 97 in st. louis. we'll keep the heat in place tomorrow. baltimore, 100 degrees. hitting the triple digits, and 107 is what it's going to feel like, feeling like 99 in lexington tomorrow. and then sunday, d.c. also hitting the triple digit mark. we're going to cool down just a 0 degrees compared to the 106 heat index on wednesday. 105 in tucson.

that's your friday forecast. acting legend donald sutherland has passed away at age 88. in a career spanning decades, he appeared in hollywood blockbusters and international films. joe friar has this look back. >> reporter: donald sutherland could not be confined by a single genre. from drama. >> can't you see anything except in terms of how it affects you? >> reporter: to comedy. >> i'm not joking. this is my job. >> reporter: to thrillers. >> the one at elizabeth's place was duplicating her. >> i don't play nice or bad or good. i just play the fella. so i can find something in everybody to play. >> reporter: his big break came in 1967 with "the dirty dozen". >> i'd rather be a civilian, sir. >> reporter: he was hawkeye pierce in the movie "mash". >> i've seen you somewhere before. i dent don't know your name. >> reporter: and then opposite jane fonda. >> i've got terrific friends.

>> no thank you. >> reporter: later, he ventured into tv, winning an emmy for "citizen x", before introducing him self to a new audience on the big screen in "the hunger games." in the 2016 western "forsaken", he played father-son with his real-life son kieffer. >> he's someone i wanted to work with my whole career. >> reporter: kieffer called his dad one of the most important actors in the history of film. never daunted by a role, good, bad, or ugly. for ron howard, one of the most interesting, intelligent and engrossing film actoring of all time. a body of work that led to an an academy award in 2017, sealing his sweeping legacy. joe friar, nbc news. up next. how mlb is paying tribute to the

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it's everybody. >> reporter: so business is good. >> so business is good. >> reporter: americans' summer travel budgets are up. up 18% overall from last year, and travelers are hungry for experiences. >> my cell phone went off and just got thrown into the cabin. and it was just wonderful. >> reporter: below deck. >> i'll be cooking breakfast for about 26 people, including crew. and yeah. just another morning in paradise. >> reporter: chef grey whittaker serves it up. >> we're having a maple sausage that is from a small farm in iowa. >> reporter: what's it like? >> it's basically cooking all day long inside of a shaking box. >> reporter: you must love boats. >> prerequisites for the job, must love boats. >> reporter: for captain barnes, rising costs are a challenge he has to pass on to customers. >> i don't worry about our product. i worry about staffing, the cost

of materials. >> reporter: do customers balk at the prices? >> we haven't met customers that are reluctant to pay it, but we don't want to find that spot. >> reporter: to maintain crew, he has raised wages. even still, chef grey and others live aboard when they aren't sailing, housing costs out of reach. >> i couldn't find anything. phenomenally expensive. >> reporter: can you learn a lot about today's economy aboard a 115-foot wooden schooner, built when ulysses grant was president. finish the sentence. the american economy is -- >> seems to be just fine from where we're sitting. ♪ ♪ >> there's something about this experience, being outside, being in good company, sort of reminds people the important things. good company, good food. cool boats. >> reporter: a contrast on deck.

for so many, afrndbility a challenge. rockland, maine. >> what a cool experience. all right, just days after baseball lost one of igts towering figures, mlb gathered at rickwood field in alabama to honor willie mays and the pioneers of the negro league. black legends from ken griffey jr. to barry bonds were celebrated at the oldest ballpark in the country. the cardinals and giants wore throwback uniforms and played the first-ever major league game in alabama. st. louis broke a tie with san fran in the third and made their way to mlb history with their 6-5 win. we're witnessing the beginning of a dark universe, classic monsters come to life in the latest land for the new theme park. st land for the new theme park. white? to art class? that's risky. art has no rules, mom. huh. white with coffee?

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to a new world of gods and monsters. >> dark universe is inspired by all the universal films. in our world, all the universal stories have happened, and darkmoore is the result of that. >> on thursday, universal orlando shared an in-depth look at dark universe. it's one of the five areas of the upcoming theme park. it is said to feature a wolf man rollercoaster and more. epic universe, which is part of our parent company, nbc universal, opens next year. turning now to a hip-hop super star booked in miami beach. police say the rap heper was as to leave the miami beach arena after they responded to reports of a disturbance. he was taken into custody after

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sweltering city heat got a fire-breathing neighbor this week. just below the spire of the empire state building is a creature that could destroy the city if it wanted to. at least it did in westeros. the dragon perched above new york isn't real of course, but it's real impressive. >> how did they get it up there? a lot of bravery. but the design is pretty cool, though. >> reporter: that inflatable dragon is part of a clever ad campaign for the hbo series house of dragons. but how did they get it up there? meet james marksbury. >> the more i thought about it, there was a way. >> reporter: james and his team are master riggers, and they spent three months conceptualizing the installation, and then two nights putting the dragon in place. >> we spread the body around, using different hoists from different levels. and then we started tying it

wh back deflated. >> reporter: anyone who has been here has probably been to the observation deck, but the dragon is on the ice deck, the 104th floor. what is going through your mind? >> every single emotion can you think of, excitement. fear fear, just all these emotions. >> reporter: the dragon balloon was created off seidt . it's about 270 feet of fabric and 1500 pounds in total, and yeah, they had to rappel down to make sure it was secured to the building exactly as designed. >> rappelling down the side of this thing is like a massive bouncy house if you will. >> reporter: they this to check the weather and measure the wind every day, and even now, someone is always monitoring the dragon just in case bad weather moves

in. onlookers are amazed. and so is james. this project is the first of this magnitude at the empire state building, and now, also the place of perhaps the most special marriage proposal in the city. that's james asking his girlfriend to marry him. >> i told her i want to be with you the rest of my life and asked her if she would marry me. >> reporter: did she say yes? >> she said yes. >> reporter: a storybook ending >> reporter: a storybook ending and a job well flex alert! flex alert! a power outage is looming. that's just alert, he's always getting worked up about something. flex alerts notify us of preventable power outages. that way we always know when to help stop one. ok flex, just drop some knowledge on me again. oh, ok i will - i'll turn our thermostat to 78... i'll unplug the blender. the hair dryer. - my blankie? - yep! - let's talk about it! - nope. ooo, we can save the laundry til' the morning! oh, yes please! oh! little things like this help save our power and help save us from outages. with flex alerts, the power is ours.

a massive multi-state manhunt draws to an end. the race for the white house heats up. the first departbate less than week