right now on "america this morning," rolling back the rules, the major announcements expected today about the future of mask mandates. text messages revealed. what we're learning about the parents of the teenager charged in a shooting rampage at his high school killing four students. breaking from beijing, a stunning setback for one of the biggest american stars of the olympic winter games. overnight, the inferno tearing through this large apartment complex. also this morning, thousands of rare comic books stolen. the mystery now solved. and a wild celebration. what had these fans so excited, their coach even ripped off his shirt to party.

good wednesday morning, everyone. i'm mona kosar abdi. >> and i'm rhiannon ally in for andrew. we want to begin this morning with the pandemic and cities and states under growing pressure to lift mask mandates and other restrictions. >> big decisions are expected to be announced in new york and illinois today. in the meantime, the director of the cdc is standing by. the agency's mask mandate for schools. abc's em nguyen is here with the very latest. >> reporter: good morning, mona. lifting mask mandates, especially in schools, is getting pushback. the education secretary says prematurely easing restrictions in schools could lead to more issues for in-person learning. today new york's governor kathy hochul is set to drop the state's indoor mask mandate according to "the new york times." but she's expected to keep the mandate in place for new york schools at least for now. >> there's some concern about what might happen when students and staff are away from school

for the february break, but it's encouraging that it's apparent from our conversation that the state is looking at whether and how to make a change. >> reporter: massachusetts and illinois residents expected to hear more on the future of their covid restrictions today. connecticut, new jersey, delaware and oregon plan to end masking requirements in schools in the coming weeks, and in california no more masks in public places for those vaccinated starting tuesday. but 99% of u.s. counties are still seeing high transmission. and new infections are still averaging nearly 250,000 a day. health experts warn cases are still higher than the nation's previous surges. >> we still have hospitalization rates that are higher than they ever were during the peak of our delta wave and similarly for deaths still at 2,300 a day. >> reporter: cdc director, dr. rochelle walensky, cautioning the country isn't prepared to lift rules yet.

>> i don't think we're there right now. i know people are cautiously optimistic. >> reporter: meantime, ongoing protests in canada are impacting detroit drivers. the ambassador bridge is still partially shut down causing major slowdowns between the u.s. and canada and new cdc data showing a subvariant of omicron known as b.2 is more prevalent accounting for nearly 4% of new infections in the u.s. so far there's no evidence the b.2 variant makes the virus more severe, and omicron still accounts for the rest of the new cases the same way delta used to just two months ago, mona. >> em, thank you. a massive fire in oklahoma city overnight, flames quickly spread through this apartment complex that was under construction spreading from the roof and collapsing several parts of the building but we're told no one was living in the building just yet. and no injuries were reported. turning now to the standoff with russia and there appears to be some diplomatic confusion in the crisis over ukraine. french president emmanuel macron

says vladimir putin told him he would not initiate an escalation on ukraine's border, but the kremlin claims no such commitment was made. abc's terry moran is in ukraine where people there are preparing for war. >> reporter: from regular soldiers to veterans to police officers to hunters, all of those people would be mobilized if russia attacks. "the overall number that could be mobilized is as high as 2.5 million," he tells me. we need additional weapons and ammunition. >> putin is gathering more russian troops and firepower around ukraine including six warships in the black sea. we turn now to the investigation into the deadly school shooting near detroit last fall. text messages are now revealing what the suspect's parents were most concerned about before and during the shooting. here's abc's andrew dymburt. >> reporter: explosive text messages are now coming to light after the parents of the teen accused of murdering four students at his michigan high

school last november appeared in court. witnesses took the stand tuesday for a hearing involving james and jennifer crumbley who are accused of giving their son a gun and repeatedly ignoring warning signs. two witnesses say the morning before jennifer's son ethan allegedly carried out the shooting at oxford high, she told them that she felt like she had failed as a parent and even sent a text saying her son could not be left alone. >> she did talk to you about her son being weird. >> yes. >> and she did talk to you about the fact that he only had one friend. >> yes. >> reporter: more troubling texts show as news of the shooting broke, jennifer texted her boss, quote, i need my job, please don't judge me for what my son did. >> i was surprised by that text. >> why is that? >> i was surprised she was worried about her job at the time. i thought she would be more worried about what was going on. >> reporter: prosecutors also revealing pages of phone logs and other messages in an attempt to prove ethan's parents ignored their son when he showed signs of mental distress. witnesses say on the morning of

the shooting, ethan's mother showed people a disturbingly violent drawing ethan had sketched and the 911 call placed by his father james on the day of the tragedy was also placed in court he knows about the ongoing school shooting and that he thinks his son, quote, took the gun. >> there is an active shooter situation going on at the high school. my son goes to the high school. i have a missing gun at my house. i need an officer to come to my house right away. please. >> i am not going to be able to send anybody to your house right now. >> i understand that. i have a missing gun and my son is at the school. >> reporter: so far prosecutors have called three witnesses in this hearing involving ethan's parents but could call as many 30. andrew dymburt, abc news, new york. >> andrew, thank you. the husband of vice president kamala harris had to be rushed out of a high school in washington, d.c. after a bomb threat. it was called in minutes after doug emhoff arrived for a black

history month event. the school was evacuated but no explosives were found. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell is pushing back against his own party when it comes to january 6th. the republican national committee recently voted in favor of censuring liz cheney and adam kinzinger, the only republican members of the house committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol. the censure included language calling the capitol attack legitimate political discourse. but tuesday mcconnell made it clear the attack was not legitimate. >> it was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next. that's what it was. >> abc's rachel scott asked house minority leader kevin mccarthy whether he agreed with committee's language but he declined to answer. later mccarthy acknowledged anyone who broke into the

capitol was not engaged in legitimate political discourse. . we want to turn now to the breaking news from the winter games in beijing, a big disappointment for team usa but also some encouraging news. >> abc's alex presha has all the overnight headlines. alex. >> reporter: mona and rhiannon, the big news day five of these winter olympics, double trouble for team usa starting with skier mikaela shiffrin now out of her second straight event. this one arguably her best, the women's slalom. the 26-year-old's costly mistake coming just five seconds in on her first run stumbling and then missing one of the first few gates, visibly upset shiffrin collapsed alongside the course and sat for more than 20 minutes in frustration. afterwards she said the mistake made her second-guess the last 15 years. shiffrin entered hoping to make history in beijing, another gold would give her more than any other american alpine skier but she still has three events left. next, snowboarder shaun white completing his fifth and final olympics. his halfpipe competition off to a rocky start. the 35-year-old falling during

his first qualifying run. white looking stunned afterwards. then with his back against the wall, shaun white nailed his second run to advance to the finals. on the women's side his teammate, defending gold medalist, chloe kim, picked up where she left off, the 21-year-old hitting a cab 950 and switch backside 450 in her opening run and leading the women's halftime qualifier. the finals in that race will be wednesday night. and a final headline today. perhaps the most famous face during the beijing games, bing dwen dwen. suf virs of the giant panda are flying off the shelves and now there's a shortage. it's so serious that the chinese olympic committee is now reportedly racing to ramp up production to keep up with demand. but, guys, don't worry. we actually managed to get a couple so we're good. back to you. >> glad to see it, alex. thank you. so proud of all of our athletes. we have just learned team usa won its first gold of the beijing games. it came in the snowboard cross

event. all right, time now for a look at your wednesday weather. the only chances for snow today are in the northern rockies and around the great lakes. parts of western new york and pennsylvania could see snow or rain showers. an excessive heat watch is in effect from southern california from today through friday with temperatures expected to approach 90 degrees. the heat is expected to last through super bowl sunday. checking today's high temperatures, 50s in the pacific northwest. 30s around the great lakes. 40s in the northeast and mild in the plains. 45 in new york. coming up, a snowplow driver in trouble after damaging 55 cars. also ahead, a historic scam. the married couple busted in what authorities say was a multibillion dollar digital currency scheme. and later cookie chaos. why the girl scouts and their customers are running into more

problems this year. ev

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a snowplow driver in ohio has been fired for spraying snow and slush into oncoming traffic. 55 vehicles were damaged along interstate 80, and 12 people wre taken to the hospital. officials say the driver was grossly negligent. a new york couple is under arrest charged in connection with a record scam involving the digital currency bitcoin with a staggering $4 billion at stake. this morning the justice department announcing the largest single seizure of funds in the department's history, recovering billions of dollars and missing bitcoin. >> the message to criminals is clear. cryptocurrency is not a safe haven. >> reporter: investigators say hackers broke into an online

currency exchange back in 2016, stealing 120,000 bitcoin, which at the time was worth $71 million. but today it's worth a staggering $4.5 billion. >> the government is going after a couple of things here. they're showing that it is not anonymous, that they can track it. they can follow the money, and they can actually identify the money with the person who stole or is laundering the money. >> reporter: this morning, the couple are charged with laundering bitcoin tied to the hack, using thousands of small transactions and accounts set up with fake ids. lick ten stein, a u.s. and russian citizen, is described in a profile online as a tech entrepreneur. and according to morgan's social media profiles, she's a serial entrepreneur and a part-time rapper. ♪ this song is for the entrepreneurs and hackers ♪ >> reporter: in one of her songs, morgan calls herself the infamous crocodile of wall street. ♪ i'm many things ♪ ♪ aeporr: t tot

charged in connection with the hack itself, but the justice department says the investigation is ongoing. officials say they've seized $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin so far in this case. a republican congressman is apologizing to his democratic colleague for an altercation over a mask. ohio congresswoman joyce beatty says she asked kentucky representative hal rogers to wear a mask as they boarded a train inside the capitol complex. beatty says rogers swore at her and poked her in the back. rogers says his words were not acceptable. coming up, the former american idol star under arrest. some big changes coming to tiktok aimed at protecting

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and if you don't have the right home insurance coverage, you could be working out a way to pay for this yourself. get allstate and be better protected from mayhem for a whole lot less. ♪ that is former american idol contestant caleb kennedy, who is now charged in a deadly drunk driving incident. police in south carolina say the 17-year-old crashed his truck into a building, killing a man inside. >> peloton is tightening its financial belt, cutting 2,800 jobs. it's now hoping to save $800 million in annual expenses. peloton says on camera instructors won't be affected. some important news for parents this morning. tiktok is vowing to get tough and crack down on inappropriate content. abc's andrea fujii tells us how.

>> reporter: this morning, new guidelines are coming to the social media platform tiktok. the company announcing it will strengthen its policies to promote safety, security, and well-being. with more than 3 billion downloads, young people often use tiktok for entertainment, but it has a dark side. in december, schools across the country went on lockdown after tiktok videos threatening campus violence went viral. tiktok now vowing to work harder to ensure criminal activity doesn't slip through the cracks, saying, these updates clarify or expand upon the types of behavior and content we will remove from our platform or make ineligible for recommendation in the for you feed. >> it's very shocking and depending on the age of the user, it can be a very impressionable age, and that is where the real potential shock is. >> reporter: after revelations that content glorifying eating disorders and suicide hoaxes was available to youngsters on tiktok, the company made changes

last year. but now says it will be more strict in enforcing them. tiktok says it already removes dangerous information on eating disorders but will start to also remove the promotion of disordered eating. as to whether these changes can realistically improve what kids are seeing, experts say these updates are a good sign. >> it's very important for social media platforms to continually re-evaluate their community guidelines because life is ever changing. threats are ever changing. so re-evaluating them really makes the user safer. >> reporter: the guidelines are all the more important after a new survey found more than 75% of parents allow their kids as young as 5 to have their own social media accounts. mona, rhiannon. >> andrea, thank you. a major upset in college basketball. arkansas beat top ranked auburn 80-74 in overtime, ending the tigers' 19-game winning streak.

fans crowded onto the court, including the arkansas coach, who took off his shirt in celebration. >> what happened to the good old gatorade shower? is that only a football thing? coming up, some big news about adele. also ahead, thousands of rare comic books stolen. rare comic books stolen. the mystery now solved. i'm still drawn to what's next. even with higher stroke risk due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin that's a trail i want to take. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin. and has less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis has both. don't stop taking eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking, you may bruise more easily or take longer for bleeding to stop. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, or unusual bruising. it may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. the number one cardiologist-prescribed blood thinner.

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aisle once again. the girl scouts are running into more supply chain problems with their cookies. >> the most popular flavors may be really hard to find in some areas. the girl scouts have closed online ordering in southern california because supplies there are so low. they say supplies are extremely limited for samoas. we turn now to a suspect who didn't exactly bend over backwards to try to cover his tracks. >> todd peak is charged with stealing 5,000 rare comic books from florida state university. he was the head of security at the library where the collection was kept. court documents say he listed them for sale on social media. >> authorities say he also tried to sell the books to the owner of a local comic book shop, who of course told police. a big change this morning for former "jeopardy!" champion amy schneider. >> she quit her day job. schneider won more than $1 million on the show, making the decision to leave her software engineering job just a little easier. >> what's she going to do now? she's working on a book deal and

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votes to close schools. the long debate and the decision after the nearly eight hour school board meeting. kumasi: the man facing a murder charge in a deadly shooting on interstate 880 do in court and the emotional words from the victim's best friend as investigators get to possible motive. reggie: more states easing pandemic restrictions and the cdc director explains why she thinks the country is not prepared. kumasi: soak up the sun. drew is tracking possible record warmth. good morning. it is wednesday, february 9. reggie: we will start with meteorologist drew tuma. drew: today sets the stage for the warm weather and over the next three days records are possible each afternoon. the only issue we have is with fog in santa rosa. elsewhere, clear skies. temperature-wise, this is a correct reading.