a judicial bombshell. anthony kennedy announces his retirement from the high court. immediately igniting battles among special interests as president trump prepares to make his second pick for the supreme court. >> get ready for some wicked weather over the next few days, including scorching temperatures today and upwards of 210 million americans being affected on friday. >> bidding fairual to the controversial father of one of the most famous families in all of entertainment. >> staying safe asf ly firework season. the warnings that could save your life. >> and one more thing. do not try this at home. or on a freeway. ar good morning. i'm phillip mena. >> i'm melissa rehberger. a bombshell from the supreme court justice anthony kennedy

announcing he is retiring effective at the end of july. president trump now poise today appoint hisur farther to the ri. the news reverberated through the country with advocates for civil, lgbt and abortion rights among others, warning the vacancy puts progress at risk. the new york daily news perhaps capturing their sentiment with this front page. many democrats are already demanding any confirmation hearing be delayed until after the midterm elections, setting the stage for a heated political battle. nbc's blayne alexander brings us more. >> reporter: for years he was the critical swing vote on the supreme court. justice anthony kennedy announcing he is retiring.or pr fundamentally change the makeup of the highest land. >> a man who is displaying great vision. he displayed tremendous vision and tremendous heart, and he will be missed. >> reporter: president trump

praising kennedy while already making plans to choose his successor. >> and we will begin our search for a new justice of the united states supreme court that will begin immediately. >> reporter: this will be the second supreme court nominee for president trump. last year he picked justice neil gorsuch to replace conservative antonin scalia, a lateral change. but kennedy appointed by president reagan became known as a moderate conservative, siding with conservatives on the second amendment and voting rights, but also favoring gay rights and abortion rights. >> now, if you get somebody on the court instead who is much more inclined towards a conservative jurisprudence, some of that might pivot back in the other direction. >> reporter: moments after kennedy's resignation letter was released, republicans urging a quick confirmation for his replacement. >> we will vote to confirm justice kennedy's successor this fall. >> reporter: but democrats not in such a rush. >> this is the most important

supreme court vacancy for this country and at least a generation. >> reporter: an intense political battle brewing over the future of the nation's highest court. blayne alexander, nbc news, washington. >> in a blow to organized labor, the supreme court has ruled that government employees cannot be forced by states to contribute to a union they don't belong to. the ruling gets rid of the so-called fair share fees that nonunion members pay to unions who represent them in collective bargaining negotiations in more than 20 states. the 5-4 decision overturns a 41-year-old precedent. >> that 5-4 vote on unions is making people more nervous given justice kennedy's decision to retire. his announcement suddenly shined a light on some of the most divisive issues of the day viewed through a new lens. as nbc's stephanie gosk tells us, it will surely electrify this fall's elections. >> reporter: within an hour of the announcement, the national association forad was in danger.

>> i think if the trump administration and rams this justice through by any means necessary, women will suffer. >> reporter: while evangelicals who have been advocating against abortion since the controversial ruling was made more than 40 years ago, see the first real opening for their cause in a long time. >> this is a very, very big day. as a matter of fact, we would think it's a historic day for the culture of life. >> reporter: the head of the family research council which is antiabortion and against same-sex marriage posted this. justice kennedy's retirement will turbo charge the evangelical vote. for people who feel strongly about issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, affirmative action just to name a few, the news is nothing short of a tectonic shift. >> we believe we should go back to god's design which is one man, one woman marriage. >> reporter: it is greeted with

jubilation on one happened and outright fear on the other. >> this puts the lgbtq community in square shot of having a lot of our rights rolled back. >> reporter: while the legal defense fund, branch of the naacp took to twitter, predicting that a solidly conservative court would have an enormous impact on civil rights and undermine progress made toward greater racial justice and equality. some supreme court experts are calling kennedy's retirement the ultimate rally cry. and the cry is loudoun both sides. stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york. >> new charges this morning in that deadly attack in charlottesville, virginia when a car plowed into a crowd that was protesting against the white nationalist rally there in august and kille woman. the justice department has now charged the driver, james alex fields, jr., with dozens of federal hate crimes. he fashions life in prison if convicted. >> we turn now to terrifying moments aboard a jetblue flight at jfk's airport tuesday evening. it was supposed to fly to los

angeles, but just before take off, a s.w.a.t. team stormed the plane as it sat on the tarmac after high jacking alert from the cockpit. triggering panic among the passengers of course. nbc's tom costello tells us it was just a false alarm. >> reporter: the coded message from the jetblue pilot to air traffic control, high jacking in progress. >> copy? >> reporter: within minutes police had the plane surrounded. stunned passengers told to put their hands up. >> everybody had their hands up. made a pretty dominant presence. >> reporter: while the pilot assured the passengers it was a miscommunication, a heavily armed s.w.a.t. team boarded the plane to be sure. >> it was scary because it never happened to me before. >> reporter: one passenger taking to twitter, honestly thought we were going to die. i'm alive. it all started when jetblue lost

contact with the tower before take off. unable to communicate, the pilot meant to type in and transmit a four-digit code he was having radio problems. instead, he accidentally typed in the four-digit code for high jack. >> it's a key pad entry into a small rectangular box and it's a four-digit code. and the pilot just inadvertently entered one wrong digit. >> reporter: finally word it was all a false alarm. >> radio malfunction. >> reporter: no high jacking. a three-hour delay before the nightly flight to l.a. tom costello, nbc news, washington. >> all's well that ends well. it is a race against time as fresh flooding temporarily halted the search for 12 missing boys and their soccer coach. they have been trapped in an extensive cave complex in thailand for six days now. thai navy divers have been working their way through six miles of pitch black underground caverns. an onslaught of water level rises 6 inches every hour in

some areas. now a u.s. military team and british cave experts areoi gove efforts to find those young boys. as worried parents continue to wait. >> turning now to some extreme summer weather, clean-up is underway in eureka, kansas after a tornado touched down on tuesday injuring at least eight people. the twister wiped out ten homes and destroyed dozens of others, littering the streets with debris, downed trees and power lines. more than a thousand residents still remain without power. and a dangerous heat wave is expected to broil the central and eastern u.s. into the first week of july bringing temperatures topping well over the 90s and being stream humidity. oh, joy. >> yeah, that really is the big story of today. so many of the country, i see that map behind you ther t way. ood morning. a lot of heat, buddy. >> it's on. february when we were complaining about the big cold, we pronably would haveu. pickr right. let's get into the numbers for today. the hottest areas are g headed

kansas city. you have excessive heat warn ings. a lot of advisories. kansas city will feel like 110. denver hit 101, big deal for you. dallas near 101. by the time we get to friday afternoon we push the heat to chicago feeling like 101 and starts the slide to the east. nashville heading up towards 100. new orleans 104 it will feel like. as we head towards the upcoming weekend, it arrives on the east coast. look at detroit feeling like 107 on saturday. that's kind of gros. memphis 107 and by sundayt will pea ik heaviest rain is noh we'll talk more about the rain in the northeast that will cause problems with the morning

dozens of sky divers in california jumpeder from more than 16,000 feet in the air as they got into formation to spell out the word, peace. see that? >> beautiful. chick-fil-a employee in austin, texas is being hailed as a hero for saving a checking customer. surveillance video showed another customer tried to help until the employee springs into action and successfully administers the heim lick maneuver. >> if you're hungry here's an easy snack to grab and go. dunkin' donuts rolling out the donut fries starting july 2nd. churro-like fries with sin man and sugar. oh don't... it's early 90s sitcom star dave coulier... cut...it...out! [laughing] what year is it? as long as stuff gets lost in the couch,ks mey.

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revamps its breakfast menu. the fresh baked treats will come in three flavors. blue berry, lemon poppy, double chocolate for me for sure. >> sounds amazing, but when you hear muffin toppers, you eat enough of those you're going to start to get one for sure. won't take you long either. leading the news, the patriarch and manager of one of pop music's most famous families has died. joe jackson's young sons would become the jackson 5 and michael jackson and sister janet would go on to become global super stars in their own right. in all, nine jackson children joined the family business racking up 27 number one singles. michael and janet cut ties with their father with michael revealing his father's physical abuse. joe jackson was 89 years old. >> following a week of emotional protests, an east pittsburgh police officer has been charged with homicide in the shoot bein death of a teenager. he shot unarmed 17-year-old antoine rose, jr., three times

in the back last week as had he and another teenager ran away from a vehicle during a traffic stop. prosecutors said ross feld was never threatened during the incident and acted with no justification. according to court documents, ross feld turned himself in and was released after posting $250,000 bail rather. nbc's jay gray tells us more. >> reporter: a day after his funeral. >> it's sad, hurt, confused. >> reporter: an east pittsburgh police officer has been charged in the shooting death of 17-year-old antoine rose. >> the evidence supports third degree murder. there is no doubt about that in my mind. manslaughter, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter. we think we should have the right to argue murder in the first degree. >> reporter: officer michael mross feld on the job for just three weeks and formally sworn in just hours before the fatal shooting turned himself in wednesday morning. his attorney saying he looks forward to clearing his name. >> process is going to work. >> reporter: cell phone video shows rose gunned down as he was

running away from a traffic stop. >> you do not shoot somebody in the back if they are not a threat to you. >> reporter: the 17-year-old was a passenger in a car matching the description of a vehicle involved in an earlier shooting. two guns were found inside, but investigators now say rose was not involved in the initial attack and was unarmed when he was killed. >> he was a passenger in a car of the. he found him self in the wrong place at the wrong time and in no way justified his murder. >> reporter: his grieving family and their attorney say that charges are a positive step in the ongoing investigation, but not enough. >> this family is holding out for sentencing. >> reporter: that process begins with the first court hearing in the case set for early next week. jay gray, nbc news. >> tough story to hear there. want to take a turn now to a latest challenge that is really sweeping the internet. called #what the fluff.

>> what? what was that? what happened? the dog's owner holding up a blanket in front of him making sure the dog sees him there. after a few times the owner quickly runs away when the blanket hits the grounds this poor pooch is confused. >> that is exactly what this dog is thinking. i'm sorry, that is mean. >> if you start questioning the dog making question, the dog's understanding of object permanence, you're messing the wrong way because that dog is, wait till you leave, wait till you leave. i have some shoes, i can get some revenge on. >> that was existential. >> when we return, we have your world cup highlights as we head to the knockout round of 16. stay with us. can you actually love wearing powerful sunscreen? yes! neutrogena® ultra sheer. no other sunscreen works better or feels so good. clinically proven helioplex® provides unbeatable uva/uvb protection to help prevent early skin aging and skin cancer all with a clean light feel. for unbeatable protection. it's the one.

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♪ ♪ not bad at all. do you think they're ready for the big time? >> i hope they're not on the clock, though. >> these three ladies from the san antonio police department impressively lip synced child's song. issued to all police departments across texas, so far they have had a million hits. actually more. >> i'm glad. they're very talented. but like i said they're keeping an eye out, too. well done, though. all right. let's talk about the world cup. we are getting that much closer to the round of 16 and we are going to go first to the sweden/mexico game. they looked pretty much unstoppable in this match. they cruised to a 3-nil victory. they locked up their top spot in the group.

for mexico, this embarrassing loss meant they were out of the tournament the first two wins, unless, unless, the south koreans could come through for them and beat the defending champion germany. so, we go to that game which is happening simultaneously. the number one team in the world falls with that kick right there. the first time they are out of he final score there. 1938. both sweden and mexico advance. who will they play? let's go to group e. heir match against serbia. in easily ts out. penalty kick, look closely, the ball hit him, did you catch that? it hit the cross bar and ricochetted off of that, then hit the swiss goalie right in the head and right back into the net. >> that is a hard way to lose. despite the good bounce, costa rica gets the bounce. more world cup action later today. cannot wait. >> que the them from cops. when we come back, the rooftop runner who thought breaking into someone's home was a good way to evade philly's finest. >> what you going to do? it was tough getting out there on stage.

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bill karins. >> let's head into the weekend. we'll have thunderstorms to deal with. it's really the heat wave. as we go through friday right in the middle of the country, hot and humid weather arriving friday. you'll start to feel it. it's really saturday the hot stuff will be through the ohio valley, mid-atlantic. triple digit heat in texas. strong storms in areas of northern plains, then by sunday that's the peak day for the heat. many areas of the northeast and through the mid-atlantic states, the southeast a little warm, too. >> sounds good. >> thanks much. >> when we come back, the 4th of july fireworks warnings. as shocking as it sounds, many people still don't know not to do that. s because move free ulta is clinically proven to keep my jointsinchondroitin. which means i'm free to rock on with this gang. move free ultra. movement keeps us connected. are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool?

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>> reporter: what many consider good old-fashioned 4th of july fun can be extremely dangerous. clearly demonstrated by the consumer product safety commission's annual display of what can go wrong when using fireworks. >> you can see that i've lost a couple of fingers. >> reporter: michael spencer has had more than 11 surgeries on his hands and arms after a fireworks accident. >> i loaded the mortar into the tube and i heldad. and i listened to the fuse burn down. and i heard a very loud bang. >> reporter: m lucky. look at what could have happened. five people were killed last year by doing this exact thing, according to the cpsc. three others also died in fireworks related accidents in 2017. and nearly 13,000 were injured. most were caused by-products

often considered safe for kids. >> keep sparklers out of the hands of children. sparklers can burn up to 2000 degrees fahrenheit just like a blow torch. >> reporter: safety experts say kids should never handle any kind of fireworks. if you use consumer firecrackers, keep water close by inre and never try to relight duds. soak them in water and throw them away. better yet, leave edwards, nbc . >> well, 30s in thoht they caught their car thief, sta vehicle may appear to comply with depy' distracted, looking around for this. >> stop, keep on your knees. don't get in that car. stop! >> that's a get away car pulls up next to him. he dives right in the passenger side window and speeds away. police are still searching for the suspects who remain on the

loose. >> wow, johnny on the spot for that guy. hope they get him caught. california freeway was also shutdown. happened at the height of rush hour. wow, get that out. it all happened because of this guy. he was standing there shirtless on a freeway sign. chaos only ended when he did backflip from the sign onto an inflatable. authorities placed it on the ground after they failed to convinced him to come down. he was protesting pollution. it lasted 2 1/2 hours before they took him into custody. >> that is one way to make your point. >> i'm phillip mena. >> i'm melissa rehberger. we leaad lib live picture-- san

francisco good thursday morning to you. friday eve for a lot of people. taking a live look out in san francisco as we get started with a cool morning here. thank you so much for starting your morning with us. i'm marcus washington. mike will have a look at the traffic in a moment. kari, the cool start to the day.

going to heat up, for sure. >> for some parts of the bay area but not too bad today. and we are taking a live look outside in san jose with a clear start once again this morning. let's go to east san jose and evergreen will be in the mid-50s through much of the morning and then we'll see the temperatures quickly warming up. by noon, 70 degrees. we are heading into the low 80s today, some mid-80s inland. overall, pleasan