china is not our friend, and they are becoming a more dangerous lauren: it ises thursday, marc. president trump grounding all boeing 737 max planes. the safety concerns that led to the about-face. plus, how boeing is dealing with the fallout. one school says it's ready to take action in the college cheating scandal rocking the country. what's next for the parents and their kids. 2020 democratic presidential candidate elizabeth warren p wan getting support for her push to break up tech. should silicon valley be

worried? cheryl: here is how your money is moving at 5:00 a.m. stocks firmly higher yesterday, the s&p, nasdaq recording a third straight day of gains, boeing snapping a seven-day skid. today we're looking at higher numbers, dow up 38 in the premarket, s&p up 4 and-a-half, nasdaq you up 21. to europe, all eyes on the next vote in britain's parliament as they look to possibly extend britain's exit from the e.u. to june 30th. in asia, markets are mixed, a warning from the president on the trade talks shaking investors over there. lauren: for the markets, the s&p and nasdaq, we're at the highs of the year, believe it or not. welcome to "fbn: a.m." this thursday morning. i'm lauren simonetti. cheryl: starting off with a little bit of good news. i'm cheryl casone. lauren: air travelers today bracing for -- i don't know if this is good news -- flight

cancellations reason bookings following president trump's ordered grounding of the boeing 737 max 8 and 9 jets. cheryl: the president saying the faa found new data indicating last sunday's deadly crash in ethiopia in some ways resembled another crash five months ago involving the same plane model. >> boeing is an incredible p company. they're working very, very hard right now and hopefully they'll very quickly come up with the answer but until they do, the planes are grounded. the safety of the american people and all people is our paramount concer concern concer. cheryl: three u.s. airplanes fly a total of 70 max 8 planes. united averaging about 40 flights. southwest airlines says a 5% of their you daily flights use a max 8. lauren: so it's just a small

number of the thousands of jets flown each day by u.s. carriers but it comes with a significant cost. let's discuss that with seth kaplan from airlines weekly. seth, why this sudden reversal from the faa? >> at some point there wasn't much of a decision left to make because these planes were effectively grounded anyway, the vast majority of them, around the world. this has been unusual, as you know, lauren. in the past the faa has taken a lead and other countries have followed. here, kind of the opposite. the cost of grounding them wasn't that high. u.s. airlines that were allowed to fly them weren't allowed to fly them for, for example, over canada. lauren: passengers started to panic. how does boeing save its reputation. >> the best course of action is

generally to get in front of the story, especially when there's a known wrong. unfortunately, boeing didn't do that for about the first 48 hours until president trump made the speech last night. when that happens, a lot of times there's fear mongering. what we're trying to do is get ahead of the fear mongering and explain the true causes and the timeframe to fix them. lauren: the dallas morning news did an investigation and they found in their research that anonymously five pilots complained about the plane system in question and one of them actually quoted inadequate and almost criminally insufficient, that's how they described this plane. what do you make of that? >> yeah, this is like putting together a puzzle here and a few days ago you could kind of squint and say well, maybe there's similarities, maybe i know what i'm looking at here in terms of what more clearly caused the lion air crash and

what might have caused this crash here, still obviously in the early days. but as you get those additional data points, yes, this is a system. interestingly, by the way, a plane, this new 737 max, that's kind of updated the tried and true 737, in some ways not a radical departure. you might have criticized it for not being a clean sheet all new aircraft and then in this one way boeing seems to have maybe over-innovated. the system was designed to prevent things that caused previous crashes, instead seems to have rather clearly played a role in the lion air crash and as time goes on poe tone sl -- potentially played a role in this crash too. lauren: how do you make people feel comfort. >> it's putting a time line on the fix and being transparent. and get in front of all of the lawsuits. lauren: i've seen so many

numbers thrown out for the exact cost of his for boeing. fitch is concerned, they're not making a move on the credit rating. there's but 590 maxes to be delivered this year, at a value of $30 billion. other people say it might be a $1 billion cost. what do you make it. >> we saw boeing off the lows yesterday. when the planes were finally grounded in the us, boeing up 2%, and that tells you that all the bad news seems to have been priced in here. the problem is that boeing continues to manufacture planes as we speak, that it can't p deliver. it took 5,000 orders, a very successful program in that regard. boeing gets paid most of what it's going to get paid when it delivers the planes. let's watch what happens next, definitely billions of dollars of cost to boeing, that's clear. lauren: thank you so much for joining us this morning. cheryl: these upgrades are going to be a million to

2 million per jet, folks. shares of boeing, the stock is down 10% this week and we should look at it in the premarket right now. the stock is down about half a percent right now. how long is the company going to need to recover from this, from a share perspective? david nelson, bell point asset management is here. this is going to be expensive, these upgrades, 1 to $2 million per jet for the software upgrades, david. >> relatively small amount, cheryl, from what i can seem all of this seems to point to the mcas system, a system designed not to work at all except for certain conditions. those conditions might be an increased angle of attack on a take-off, would force the nose lower. what's coming out here, what i find disturbing, some of what we're learning about international travel. forbes is reporting the copilot of the jet had just 200 hours of flight time. as a commercial pilot, that's

insane. that's little more than a trainee. it probably speaks to why american and southwest let it fly here because they had a lot more confidence in their pilots. cheryl: i think that's the point there. the associated press reported that several pilots said they've had some kind of minor issues with the max 8, in particular, but it didn't cause anything catastrophic. i think that point is well taken. you're a commercial pilot. you look at the similarities between the lion air crash and ethiopian airlines crash, clear skies, right after takeoff, and pilots are saying they can't control the aircraft. boeing is being criticized for not stepping up quicker to get the upgrade out there to pilots and now you've got the pilots association saying where is the culpableity on boeing's port. >> it may go to the faa as well. one of the things in question is the type rating of the aircraft.

it's a derivative of a 737. by definition, that would mean less training needed for pilots to transition from one aircraft to the next. that's going to come into question. why was that decision made? was it done just for cost, to sell more planes? we don't know the answer to that we don't know the answer to this event. we don't have the black boxes at this point. cheryl: that's heading up to europe. the investigations are ongoing. from a business side for boeing, this is a work horse jet, the 737, criticism they might have upgraded what was a good working plane too much. at the same time, their revenue, $100 billion for the first time last year and that was on the max orders. they've got airbus on their heels. we've got to bring in the competition here. what does that mean? >> i'm not that concerned about airbus. they've fallen behind. they put all their efforts in the airbus 380, a super jumbo jet that nobody wants. i think it's going to take them quite a number of years to calf

up to boeing on this. boeing has a lot of orders on this plane. unless we find something catastrophic on the design of this aircraft, i'm not concerned. cheryl: it's a very popular plane, a workhorse of the industry. david, thank you for being here. lauren: more fallout now from the college admissions cheating scandal that is rocking the nation. the university of southern california now says it will review current students involved in the -- it's the biggest scandal for college admissions in u.s. history. any student who has not already been admit offed t added to thes part of the scheme is denied. lori loughlin and her husband are accused of paying to get their two daughters into usc. felicity huffman is scheduled to face a boston judge on march 29th. no word on whether they children

will be called as witnesses p. we'll have more on the story later in the show. cheryl: we've got other headlines making news this morning for you right now. a california jury ordered johnson & johnson to pay $29 million to a woman who alleged that asbestos in the company's talcum powder based products caused mess they'll yo. shares of j&j dropped after that news. huawei set to appear in court to face a 13 count indictment, accused of committing bank and wire fraud and violating sanctions against iran. the justice department said huawei misled a global bank about its involvement with subsidiaries in order to conduct business in iran. huawei is the world's biggest telecommunications equipment

maker and a key part of the chinese economy. soft bank reportedly they talks to invest a billion dollars or more in uber self-driving unit. another unnamed automaker is also involved in late stage talks. fiat chrysler issued a recall, 863,000 cars, after they failed to meet federal emissions standards. well, paul manafort slapped with new charges right after being sentenced to seven and-a-half years behind bars. the former trump campaign manager just indicted for mortgage fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying records. the charges filed here in new york. this announcement coming less than an hour after a federal judge sentenced him to 43 months in prison for illegally lobbying in ukraine. last week, manafort sentenced to 47 months for fraud. and this, gambino crime family

boss frank caly has been shot dead outside of his home in staten island, new york. he was gunned down while his wife and kids were inside his brick mansions, described as an old school boss, he became the de facto godfather of the gambinos in 2015. that's what's happening now staten island. lauren: my hometown. coming up, has theresa may lost control of brexit. the u.k. headed for another dramatic night as it looks to extend the deadline. what's next for the deal and the prime minister. and, the latest hopeful expected to throw their hat in the ring this morning. who is it? you're watching "fbn: a.m." ♪ we had a revolution. ♪ ech. it's screening technology that helps you find a stock based on what's trending

or an investing goal. it's real-time insights and information, in your own customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology, for smarter trading decisions. and it's only from fidelity. open an account with no minimums today. to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪ means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. does this sound dismal? it isn't. ♪ ♪ it's the most wonderful life on earth. ♪ ♪

termites, we're on the move.24/7. it's the most wonderful life on earth. roger. hey rick, all good? oh yeah, we're good. we're good. termites never stop trying to get in, we never stop working to keep them out. terminix. defenders of home. (bird chirping) lots to do, hope you fuelled up. sure did.

that storm sure ripped through. yep, we gotta fix that fence and herd the cattle back in. let's get at it. (whistle) (dog barking) (♪) lauren: more drama over britain's battle for its

political and economic future, parliament voting last flight to reject a no deal brexit. there will be another today, asking the e.u. to delay brexit until the end of june. let's bring in james carfano. he joins us now. james, good morning to you. >> good to be with you. [ laughter ] you sa--lauren: you say there d chance there will be a hard deal, no deal brexit and that could happen on march 29th. why is that? >> what parliament passed was an advisory ruling. the first thing that happened is every e.u. country has to agree to an extension. we saw the e.u. president come out and say let's have a long extension and at the end of that bring contain can stay in the e.u. that's not what the british people want. even if everybody in the e.u. agrees to a deal and they go back to britain, then the british have to pass a law to put that in place before the 29th and whatever the extension period, at the end of

that, why are we in a different place than we are now? lauren: it gives me a headache, quite frankly, and it's been going on for two years now. let's just say that the e.u. says okay, britain, we'll give you more time, we'll grant you a three month extension. what are the chances they can actually get a deal in place that everybody agrees on by juny survive this? >> well, i think it's a fair question. could parliament put implementing legislation in place by the 29t 29 of the montf techs u. gave them something -- if the e.u. gave them something. nobody thinks theresa may will be the prime minister for long, not even theresa may. everybody thinks she will be gone by september. the conservatives will have a new prime minister. the brexit drama, when she does leave, the brexit drama could be done. i think this is like y2k.

if there were a hard brexit, on the 30th, the sun would rise and it would pave the way for britain to move forward faster, give confidence to the markets, the united states would come in strongly and support them. the british economy is doing fine. foreign investments between the united states and britain have been increasing in the last two years. i think we make too much of this. lauren: so in a nutshell, rip off the band-aid, leave and you'll be fine, britain, is your argument? >> i think everybody will be better off, including the european union. there will be a strong link to the united states. there will be a free trade agreement that will help the u.s. and the u.k. and will force europeans to get more competitive. lauren: james, thank you. cheryl: well, despite the turmoil in britain, a 6-year-old girl there writing a pretty touching letter to the head of the european council, donald tusk. sophie wrote this.

dear mr. tusk. i live in britain. i know we live in the e.u. but i think we should be friends. he wrote a letter saying we'll always be friends with a little friend. they say sometimes it takes a time to put everything in perspective. what a terrible waste brexit is. let's get the political comment at the end. lauren: still ahead, travel booking sites are trying to ease nervous fliers after the latest boeing crash. the new way travelers will be able to filter their flight searches, just ahead. facebook under fire once again, why it's facing a criminal investigation. tracee carrasco making her way into the studio with details on "fbn: a.m.." ♪ peopl ♪ ♪

(butcher) we both know you're not just looking for pork chops. you're searching for something more... ...red-blooded. right this way. you thirst for adrenaline, you hunger for raw power. well, you've come to the right place. the road is yours, dig in.

we're finally going on the trip i've been promising. because with expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. ♪ so even when she outgrows her costume, we'll never outgrow the memory of our adventure together. unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. only when you book with expedia. that we're playing "four on four" with a barbershop quartet? [quartet singing] bum bum bum bum... pass the ball... pass the rock.. ...we're open just pass the ball! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. yea. [quartet singing] shoot the j! shoot, shoot, shoot the jaaaaaay...

believe it! geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. believe it! geico could save you fall of you.ent how you live, what you love. that's what inspired us to create america's most advanced internet. internet that puts you in charge. that protects what's important. it handles everything, and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome.

cheryl: more fallout from boeing as online booking sites want to make it easier for fliers to know what kind of plane they're getting on. lauren: tracee carrasco has that story. so what are they doing now, tracee? tracee: kayak and trip advisor are going to be rolling out new filters that will allow passengers booking flights on their websites to know a what kind of plane they're getting on. kayak saying they've been getting a lot of requests for this, especially since the accident, the 737 max 8 plane. they want to know what they're flying on. usually when you book with the airline itself online or by phone, you'll find out what you're flying but when you book through some of these flights you don't exactly know. they want to know. and this comes as we're hearing united, american, southwest, they're all having to rebook

these passengers, flying other boeing planes to put these passengers on. american saying unless the flight is canceled, you're not going to get a refund. i think that's the practice for all of the airlines. cheryl: emotions are running high. people are scared. we're getting reports that families of the crash victims were meeting with ethiopian victims and they are so frustrated. people want answers about this. lauren: that might be one of the reasons why the faa was waiting for more information before they did ground the fleet of maxes. we have a lot also going on with facebook this morning. can you break it down for us? tracee: they had that massive outage with facebook, what's app, instagram, last forge about 14 hours. that's about the tip of the iceberg. grand jury in new york has subpoenaed records from at least two major smartphone makers because of their relationships

with facebook and getting some of that important information of facebook users to those smartphone makers, not just the smartphone makers but about 150 other companies including amazon, apple, microsoft, sony, they also had these types of partnership deals with facebook as well. facebook saying they stopped these deals about two years ago, they're starting to, saying they're cooperating with this investigation. but a criminal investigation here. lauren: stock to watch today. tracee carrasco, thank you. cheryl: we of course are watching a lot of breaking news this morning. first to this, president trump has issued a new warning for beijing. what it means for a possible u.s.-china trade deal or lack thereof. and turning up the heat on big tech, just talking about it, how regulating the industry is taking center stage in the 2020 race for the white house. you're watching "fbn: a.m.." ♪ the connection is made.

♪

lauren: good thursday morning. let's get you caught up on global market action. u.s. stocks higher for the fourth day in a row, dow futures tacking on 35, s&p up 3, nasdaq up 17 and-a-half. in europe, u.k. lawmakers rejecting a no deal brexit. they're ready to vote on a detoday. the ftse gaining 25 minutes to london. in asia, a mixed performance. the shanghai composite down 1.2%, industrial output so far this year in beijing at a 17-year low. cheryl. cheryl: let's talk about what's going on with china. treasury secretary steven mnuchin is actually set to testify on the 2020 budget request before congress today. but he's expected to be asked a lot about these ongoing china trade talks. president trump did comment yesterday. he said that china very much wants to make a deal. >> somebody said i'm in a rush. i'm not in a rush at all right

now. we're getting billions and billions of dollars of tariffs paid into our coffers. i'm not in a rush whatsoever. cheryl: john layfield joins us this morning. that's interesting, from an investment perspective, that can be nerve-racking. what does he mean, i'm in no rush. he also mentioned that he is -- that he thinks the chinese are paying attention to the fact that he walked away from the north koreans and he's willing to walk away from this. >> i think that is a problem. i think the chinese have seen that. they want to save face. i think that's very important to the chinese. the chinese, is a very proud nation, as any nation should be. they have to consider themselves winners in the trade war, the same as the americans do. that lends itself to not having a deal done he very soon. when the president talks about the tariffs, collecting so much money, that's a tax on the american people. the president's done a great job

on taxes, cutting regulation but i don't think he understands global trade. cheryl: let's move to something else about trade, and that's gary cohn. he gave an interview in new york. here's what he said. he said i was losing the war on tariffs every day with the president. i knew i wasn't convincing him i was right. i was not going to take a 74-year-old man who has believed something since he was 30 and convince him that i was right and he also said he believes that peter navarro is the only phd holding economist in the world who believes in the effectiveness of tariffs. what do you make of gary cohn's comments. >> i think history agrees with gary cohn. i don't know any free market person september for maybe peter nova rono vairnavarro thinks the a good idea.

tariffs have never worked. the republicans used to be the free traders. i don't understand why we think this is a good idea. i know we have to deal with the chinese. i don't think this is the way to deal with the chinese. cheryl: interesting. again, xi-jinping is under a lot of pressure from his own government. they're trying to protect their interests including this made in china 2025 initiative. let's talk about the other big market sorry, that's boeing. the stock is down half a percent this morning. we've seen billions of market cap lost on boeing and worries about the aircraft flying and now it's grounded in the u.s. that has been a bit of a drag on the dow. do you see this as a long-term problem for the market? >> not for the market, no. i do see it as a long-term problem for boing. the short-term -- for boeing. this appears to be a software glitch. it appears to be a stall mechanism that maybe or may not

be associated with the lion air crash in indonesia back in october. i think boeing will correct this. we're down 95% in air traffic fatalities in the last 20 years and a lot of that has to do with boeing. right now, boning is the one that's hurting from this and it's very interesting to note that the chinese, the caac, they're the first ones to report this the day after the ethiopian crash and imply there could be a link to the indonesia lion air, so conspiracy theorists might say they're promoting a competitor to the boeing 737. cheryl: that issue has been brought up already. i always say you're going to die from a bee sting before you'll die in a plane crash, that's the stats anyway. lauren: all perspective. boeing isn't the only thing that is causing flight cancellations this morning. a bomb cyclone slamming the central u.s., grounding several flights.

denver international airport closed all of their runways. cheryl: a bomb cyclone, we haven't seen that in a while. janice: this is historic. we had wind gusts in excess of 103 miles per hour. it dropped 33 mill bars in less than 23 hours, that's what the criteria is for the bombojennies. the great plains blizzard of 2019 will be in the meteorology books. yesterday afternoon we saw 100-mile wind gusts, at denver airport, 80-mile-an-hour wind gusts. dealing with 50s and 60s. it is beginning to weaken a little bit. still blizzard concerns, still flooding concerns, over a foot of snow and the potential for severe storms. we had tornadoes yesterday, the threat again today across the ohio valley and mississippi river valley. in terms of meteorology, ladies,

it doesn't get better than this. people need to be heeding the warnings as well. lauren: i feel your passion. janice: oh, my gosh, incredible. lauren: thank you very much. cheryl: still want to have a chat with that groundhog. all right. well, the fight over president trump's national emergency declaration is coming to a head today. the senate will consider blocking it and if they do the president is vowing to veto. lauren: it would be his first ever. griff jenkins is live in our nation's capital. >> reporter: the republican led senate is about to issue a stinging rebuke of the president's border declaration. the president is warning senators on both sides of the aisle they're making a big mistake voting against him and he found his veto pen. >> anybody going against border security, drug trafficking, human trafficking, that's a bad vote. we'll see whether or not i have to do the veto. it will be i think all very successful regardless of how it

all works out. >> reporter: yesterday vice president pence toured customs and border protection's training facility in harpers ferry, west virginia, sending a message to republican senators. some are feeling the pressure, telling the washington of post, if you see anybody that's got blood dripping out of their ear, they may be changing, as it stands, five republican senators are signaling they will vote with the democrats to block the president. susan collins, lisa murkowski, rand paul and tom lee. there is a proposal to allow the emergency to go through, while putting limits on future presidents' use of emergency declarations. that was shot down. chuck schumer is bringing the pressure too. >> you ought to stand up to fear, do the right thing no matter who this the white house. our republican friends know the right thing to do. they should not be afraid to do

it. >> reporter: here's where it stands. it takes four defections to block. they've got one to spare. you never know until it's over. if it does pass and the president vetoes, it's clear there are not enough votes in the senate to override a veto. lauren, cheryl. cheryl: griff jenkins, thank you very much. appreciate it, sir. lauren: let's get to other headlines this morning. beto o'rourke is expected to officially announce his 2020 bid for president as early as today. he told a texas tv station that he is indeed running. he also appeared on the cover, check this out, of vanity fair, saying he was born to run for president. well, former starbucks ceo howard schultz is still seriously considering a run for president as an independent. he was on your world yesterday. >> i'm thinking of running a outside of the two party system because the system is broken. how much evidence do we need with the $22 trillion debt and immigration program that we can't get fixed, healthcare crisis and education crisis, how

much do we need to see in terms of the revenge politics every single day that is em beli emblc of both parties at the extremes, they might elect an independent person. lauren: he says he plans to release his own economic agenda soon. the federal reserve issued a rare response to wells fargo's ceo, tim sloan's pay hike. his pay rose to $18.4 million last year, that's a 5% increase. did you get a 5% increase? the fed saying it does not approve pay packages of the institutions that it regulates but that it, quote, expects boards of directors to hold managemenmanagement accountable. wells has continued to apologize and testify about customer abuses. and finally, you've got to check this out. stunning video from texas shows texas winds, these strong winds

blowing over that tractor-trailer and it wasn't the only one. there have been reports of wind speeds up to 70 miles an hour causing multiple trucks to blow over. unfortunately, we do not know the condition of this driver. cheryl: how fast was that truck going? that's incredible. lauren: how fast were those winds at the same time, 70 miles an hour. cheryl: wow. let's take a look at how the winds are blowing on this thursday for your markets. futures actually higher right now, dow pointing up by 43 in the premarket, s&p up 4 and a quarter, nasdaq up 18 and three quarters. coming up next, elon musk set to unveil a new tesla for the masses today. but is it all just smoke and mirrors? speaking of smoke, toyota designing a new anti-theft system that will smoke out car crooks. you're watching "fbn: a.m.." ♪ that girl is poison. ♪

voya helps them to and through retirement... dealing with today's expenses ...while helping plan, invest and protect for the future. so they'll be okay? i think they'll be fine. voya. helping you to and through retirement.

lauren: tesla is about to unveil its model y suv tonight in los angeles. will it be enough to put the company on the road to sustained profitability? lieu basineste joins us now. good morning, lou. >> good morning, lauren. lauren: why the model y rollout now? is this a distraction from the problems we frequent tri talk aboufrequently talkabout that f.

>> it's a shiny new object. look over here. don't pay attention to the circus that are the daily operations at tesla. i would say that's what it's about and about avoiding liquidation. lauren: how shiny is the model y? elon musk tweeting it's about 10% bigger than the model 3 and will cost about 10% more and have slightly less range for the same battery. >> pretty shiny. i think the key question is when is it going to be available? he does this routinely, rolls out the shiny new object and no one can get it forever. lauren: and where are they going to make it? senator ted cruz, and rupert murdoch are seeing eye to eye with of all people democratic presidential candidate elizabeth warren when it comes to breaking up big tech companies. they say we're at that point, it's necessary. what do you say? >> look, the fact that these

parties are on the same line of thought here proves to me it's political theater, it's not a practical solution. we've been talking about tech regulation here on this show probably for the last 12 months. i think everyone agrees that it's necessary. this, though, just makes no sense. it makes for great headlines. breaking up the tech industry into a million pieces makes a mess. it does not solve the problem one bit. lauren: what does solve the problem? obviously there's a problem if you have bipartisan agreement essentially that these companies have gotten too big and too powerful. >> too big, too powerful. i think it's their access to data. it's all about private civil how do we establish sensible privacy regulations that give us, the consumers, control over what google and facebook know about us, not an easy problem to solve. definitely a complicated issue. but hitting the easy button to break up the tech sector makes it much more difficult to regulate, in my opinion. lauren: lou, thank you very much. >> thanks, lauren.

cheryl: let's take a look at u.s. futures on your thursday. dow pointing higher by 42, s&p up 4 and a quarter, nasdaq up 19 and-a-half. for the dow, we're seeing pressure on boeing this morning. coming up next, a harsh lesson in the college admissions scan l dale, what is next for the parents involved and their kids. you're watching "fbn: a.m.." ♪ baby, i'm sorry. ♪ i'm not sorry. ♪ baby, i'm sorry. ♪ i'm not sorry.

♪ ♪ dear tech, let's talk. we have a pretty good relationship. you've done a lot of good for the world. and when we work together, we get a lot done. dear tech, we're showing girls that stem isn't just a boy's club. we're using blockchain to help reduce poverty. we're developing new solutions with the help of quantum technology. let's do it all. together. let's expect more from technology. let's put smart to work. ♪ ♪ want more from your entejust say teach me more. into your xfinity voice remote to discover all sorts of tips and tricks in x1. can i find my wifi password? just ask. [ ding ] show me my wifi password. hey now! [ ding ] you can even troubleshoot, learn new voice commands and much more. clean my daughter's room. [ ding ] oh, it won't do that. welp, someone should.

just say "teach me more" into your voice remote and see how you can have an even better x1 experience. simple. easy. awesome.

cheryl: as the elite college admissions cheating scandal unraveled, usc is looking at current students involved in the scheme. so much to go through, emily. first off, it's just the

numbers, the sheer numbers of what these parents were paying, $6.5 million, highest amount to guarantee admission that was paid. 15 to 75 grand paid just for the test of these 33 parents that were charged. the breadth of this must be astonishing to you. >> it really is. the amount of the universities -- everything about this is staggering. especially even the competitiveness, even without this. stanford had the most competitive incoming freshman class they ever had. that accepted 4%. of the rejected, 8,000 had perfect acts and 4.0s. it's so daunting for any other child that's even not bribing the system. cheryl: all the schools, by the way, this is the elite of the elite, ucla, usc, yale, harvard. at the same time, if you look at how some of these parents structured their deals, i'm wondering what the legal implication is, he' especially r

lori loughlin, looks like they took the tax break, felicity hoffman, they took a tax break when they made the donation on behalf of their children for the illegal enterprise. what's the fallout for that? ggo exactly. at the moment, she is charged along with lori laughlin, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, a potential penalty of 20 years. that's why it's valuable to federal prosecutors, because of the severe penalty. it's really a huge leverage tool for negotiating plea deals and also for the deterrent factor of how seriously the government takes bribery. cheryl: i use the actress as one of the examples of the irs pullback. of the writeoff. at the same time, several of these individuals, look like they were doing the same thing. i want to ask you as far as the kids go, is the repercussions

for students that were rejected in the time frame from usc, ucla, do you think we'll have a class action lawsuit on behalf of the students? what happens with that. >> we might see them try. i will say that obviously no university is implicated specifically in this so the charge would be negligence. they would say you should have known about this corrupt scheme. i think it would be highly unlikely. unlike successful them in getting a money tri award or getting in. i think it would behoove them to appeal through the university, build a bridge, don't burn it, and that way they can go in within the university, work directly with them. the best revenge would be, however, success on their own at a dir different university. cheryl: i'm guessing the lawyers are circling.

thank you for being here this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. have a great day. lauren: coming up, toyota is making a big stink about car theft. how it plans to stop criminals dead in their tracks. and speaking of stink, a mexican fast food chain wants to make you smell like a french try. tracee carrasco has that story next on "fbn: a.m." cheryl: is she bringing french fries? lauren: i don't know. ♪ if our love is sanity, why are you my clarity. from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity. you need decision tech. (bird chirping) lots to do, hope you fuelled up. sure did. that storm sure ripped through. yep, we gotta fix that fence

and herd the cattle back in. let's get at it. (whistle) (dog barking) (♪) . .

lauren: rhianna for you this morning. toyota to unveil feature for unwanted thieves. tracee: filed patent for a system that can fill up with

vehicle with custom smell that you pick out or mobilizing teargas, that's what it's being gassed that would deter crooks, teargas would fill up the car if someone tries to break in and has pressurized canister that would filter through ventilation system, toyota is working on. they haven't said what vehicles and if it would come to market. cheryl: interesting, let's talk about this, tacos always smell good. del taco, what else got customers flocking to del taco? tracee: del taco amazing in the west coast, colorado, oregon, washington, famous from crinkled fries and the smell of them, you don't have to just eat them but smell them because they have

released a wrinkle-fried smoke. the soap was so popular and sold out within minutes on del taco's website, $4 for the french fries soap. lauren: i feel like they are channeling kfc. cheryl: needs to be promoted in my opinion. these things are catching on and goes viral. millennials love this stuff when they get on twitter and instagram. tracee: creative. lauren: mornings with maria starts now. maria: hey there ladies, happy thursday, good morning, i'm maria bartiromo, it is thursday march 14th, top stories right now before 6:00 a.m. on the east coast. facebook reportedly facing a criminal investigation now after central of the probe, social media giant data deal with other

technology companies comes after a major outage at facebook, instagram and whatsapp last night. grounded now, president trump is keeping all boeing 737 max jets in the u.s. parked as new reports indicate similarity to last year's lion air accident. caused the president to ground the planes. hurricane forced winds to central united states, more than a thousand flights canceled at denver airport this morning, 70 million americans and posting $1 million of bond for her alleged role of college emission scandal, very latest, the scam was uncovered by accident, mornings with maria begins right now. ♪

♪ maria: markets this morning are higher, futures indicating a gain at the start of the morning, s&p also high 4 and a half, nasdaq up 17 and a quarter points. looks like we will see firmer opening this morning once market is open. facebook is under fire again this morning, the company reportedly facing a criminal investigation of controversial data-sharing deal after outage hit instagram, whatsapp across the globe.