this clearly is an act of terror, attempting to undermine our free press and leaders of this country through acts of violence. >> this morning a new look at the explosive devices mailed in waves to numerous targets. authorits are desperately searching for the sender and also making sure there are no more bombs in circulation. with just 12 days to the elections nbc news goes in depth over which political candidates are really working on your behalf when it comes to pre-existing conditions and your health care. a flood of reaction to megyn kelly's on-air apology for her comments about blackface that

set off a major backlash. a threatening message from a stranger leads a new jersey mom to thwart a potential school massacre hundreds of miles away. plus all of 2018's stock gains may have been wiped out but will that deter online shop dprerz lo dprerz from looking for the best holiday deals? i'm phillip mena. >> and i'm marlie hall. this morning federal and local authorities are investigating a series of pipe bombs mailed to several prominent democrats and critics of president trump. one of the devices was sent to cnn's new york offices, prompting an evacuation. officials say the packages were all nearly identical, made from pvc pipe, containing a timer, pyrotechnic powder, and likely shrapnel according to x-rays. >> lawmakers from all sides condemned the incident. new york mayor bill de blasio calling it an act of terror. vice president mike pence tweeting, "these cowardly actions are despicable and have

no place in this country." and president trump also weighing in from his rally in wisconsin last night. nbc's tracie potts has the latest from washington. hey, tracie. good morning. >> good morning. at this rally the president avoided partisan attacks and focused on the investigation of these pipe bombs and how and from whom they were sent. here's the president last night. >> any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself. the media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories. >> reporter: those packages were mailed to former president barack obama, to hillary clinton. she was not home. she was in florida at the time. to congresswoman maxine waters

and other high-profile democrats, many of whom have been publicly and frequently critical of president trump. the device to brennan as you noted went to cnn's headquarters, and it was evacuated. more on that later. mayor bill de blasio is calling this an act of terror. and of course authorities are investigating. and we are told taking a look at many of the places where those bombs were mailed, to new york, to washington, to florida. that authorities now have from some of those packages an important clue. they contain post-marks that postal inspectors can look at and get some sense of where the devices came from and start looking at cameras at those facilities. most of them were mailed to mail facilities and got nowhere near their intended targets. back to you. >> and for that we are very thankful. tracie, thank you. the devices also throwing a major media organization into chaos.

the package addressed to former cia director john brennan was sent to cnn's offices in new york, forcing an evacuation during live television. here's nbc's rehema ellis. >> reporter: an emergency inside cnn's new york headquarters. >> excuse me. that sounds like a fire alarm here. we'll keep you posted on that. >> reporter: alarms rang out live on the air. minutes later the time warner center evacuated as the bomb squad moved in. >> this clearly is an act of terror attempting to undermine our free press and leaders of this country through acts of violence. >> reporter: a chaotic scene outside as cnn anchors continued reporting. >> the lights shut off. we walked down six flights of stairs. we're out here. they're now moving us. >> reporter: anchor jim sciutto tweeting a photo of the package containing the live explosive device. the device was removed and taken to a secure location. >> i live down the block, and

it's frightening. this is not the first time this has happened. >> reporter: a close call with many questions still unanswered. rehema ellis, nbc news, new york. and as the fbi investigates who sent these devices, there is growing concern over the country's increasingly heated political rhetoric. >> george soros's son writing in a "new york times" op-ed he sees the bomb threats as a result of the new normal of political demonization that plagues u.s. -- or plagues us today. nbc's andrea mitchell takes a look at just how threatening some of the rhetoric has become in recent weeks. >> reporter: just this week another fiery speech attacking his favorite targets, democrats. >> democrat immigration policies allow poisonous drugs and ms-13 to pour into our country. >> reporter: going after hillary clinton and the media, especially cnn. >> if you want the fake news media to finally investigate -- [ crowd chanting "cnn sucks" ].

but if you want the fake news to finally investigate hillary clinton -- [ crowd chanting "lock her up" ] >> reporter: and last week praising a republican congressman for attacking a reporter. >> any guy that can do a body slam, he's my candidate. >> reporter: while there are no answers yet, president trump has the biggest megaphone and there are growing questions over how he's using it. cnn worldwide president jeff zucker saying there's a total and complete lack of understanding at the white house about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media. words matter. anger now spreading in all directions. a republican candidate in sacramento fighting off an anti-trump knife attacker. >> he's screaming "i'm going to kill you." >> reporter: senator ted cruz and his wife chased out of a d.c. restaurant. >> let my wife through. >> reporter: a republican dmnd pennsylvania tlaengt the democratic governor in a video. >> because i'm going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes. >> reporter: raising the question is politics becoming

dangerous? >> it's a time of deep divisions, and we have to do everything we can to bring our country together. >> reporter: republican congressman steve scalise almost dying after a political shooting targeting republicans in a softball practice last year, tweeting "we must agree that this is a dangerous path and it cannot become the new normal. andrea mitchell, nbc news. we're just 12 days left until the midterm elections. democrats and republicans are battling it out over health care, making claims about who's really working to protect people with pre-existing conditions. here's peter alexander with more. >> reporter: president trump touting his administration's progress against the opioid epidemic. >> seized more than 2.8 million pounds of illicit and deadly drugs. >> reporter: the rate of overdose deaths beginning to slow down. but it's another health care claim for the president under scrutiny. tweeting republicans will totally protect people with

pre-existing conditions. a line he's repeated in recent days. >> republicans will always protect americans with pre-existing conditions. we protect you. >> reporter: in fact, republicans and the trump administration are aggressively trying to undercut obamacare that guarantees protections to people with pre-existing conditions. but you wouldn't know it from watching these republican candidates' ads. >> earlier this year we learned our oldest has a rare chronic disease. pre-existing condition. we know what that's like. >> i support forcing insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions. >> in wisconsin pre-existing conditions are covered. and as long as i'm governor, they always will be. >> reporter: but theirs were among 20 states that signed onto a republican-backed federal lawsuit arguing obamacare including its popular pre-existi pre-existing condition provision is unconstitutional. republican congressional candidates embraced the issue as well. >> everyone agrees we're going to protect pre-existing conditions.

>> i'm fighting to protect pre-existing conditions. >> that's why i'm taking on both parties and fighting for those with pre-existing conditions. >> reporter: but all three of those republicans voted to repeal obamacare. in response 15 republican senators are now co-sponsoring a bill to prohibit insurers from turning away people with pre-existing conditions. but insurers could exclude treatments for them. phillip? >> peter, thank you. if you're just waking up this morning, the powerball jackpot climbed into top five territory after there were no winners in last night's drawing. the winning numbers are 3, 21, 45, 53, 56, plus the powerball 22. now, the estimated jackpot rolls to $750 million with a cash value of over 428 million. seven tickets did win the million-dollar consolation prize by matching all five numbers. but they failed to match the powerball. the next drawing is this saturday at 11:00 p.m. >> good luck.

meteorologists are calling it's strongest storm of 2018 as it slammed into a u.s. territory in the west pacific. the national weather service warned of devastating damage for the mariana islands, where super typhoon yutu brought category 5 intensity gusts with winds around 180 miles an hour. the storm has been described as one of the most intense hurricane strikes on record for the u.s. and he its territories. my goodness. >> bill karins is here. what else -- >> it goes down as the fifth strongest worldwide ever to make landfall. 180-mile-per-hour winds. we'll see what those pictures look like later on today. will probably be pretty ugly. let's talk this weekend forecast. nor'easter or the coastal storm. not a snowstorm. just a rain and wind event. saturday we wake up to very rainy conditions d.c. to new york. during the day it shifts all the way through the northeast. it will linger in areas of new england right through saturday evening. notice that south of about philadelphia saturday night at least it clears out. then on sunday the storm will kick to the north. minor coastal flooding. some minor power outages. not a huge impact nor'easter

he to a cold ports. star, a chilly morning. it's not going to warm up much this afternoon either. highs in the low 40s. we'll give you the rest of the weekend forecast coming up. >> all right. sounds good. thanks, bill. the red sox and dodgers faced off yet again. it was game 2 of the world series on a very chilly night in boston. once again the red sox would strike first. ian kinsler lining one to left. xander bogaerts in from second to score. and then in the fourth the first three dodger batters all reached base and l.a. took advantage. they scored on a sac fly. and then this two-out single from yasiel puig. they went up 2-1. it was their first lead of the series. didn't last long, though. bottom of the fifth with the bases loaded for the sox reliever ryan madsen walked in to tie the game there. a line drive from j.d. martinez

would score two more. the red sox win 4-2. they now have a 2-0 series lead. olay total effects. the power of 7 benefits all in one bottle. without costing $100, $200 or $400. enriched with vitamin b3 complex, for beautiful skin. olay. gplus - take an extra 20% off! sale this weekend! plus - get kohl's cash! save on cuddl duds tops sleepwear - $14.39 and bedding! plus - take an extra $10 off when you spend $50 or more!

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daddy. >> hey. >> daddy. >> hey, buddy. did you miss me? >> uh-huh. >> yeah? are you surprised to see me here? >> mm-hmm. >> a double dose of surprise. on the same day that one soldier surprises his son with a homecoming, the entire family gets to share the moment when they welcome a fourth. and the family says it was more than they could have hoped for. marco finley was overseas with his army national guard unit while his wife cassidy was back in iowa counting down the days to her due date. neither expected him to be home for the delivery but in a matter of moments everything changed for the best as they welcomed their new baby boy together. that's amazing. >> best day ever. leading the news, a mother in new jersey is being called a hero after stepping in to prevent a school shooting by

reporting a racist facebook message to police. nbc's ron mott picks up the story from there. >> reporter: colberly bull is a mother of three biracial children in new jersey. so when she got a facebook message from someone in kentucky she didn't know threatening her kids she was concerned. >> basically used the n word a lot. he hoped that my children -- something in the back of my mind was do not let this go. >> reporter: she called authorities and may have stond a school shooter in his tracks. police confronted 20-year-old dylan jarrell as he backed out of his driveway armed with a gun, kevlar vest, more than 200 rounds of ammunition and what police say was a detailed plan avenue tack to carry out shootings in two different school districts in kentucky. >> the commonwealth versus dylan jarrell. >> reporter: he pleaded not guilty to charges of making terroristic threats and harassing communications. in may kentucky state police says the fbi questioned him about threats to a school in tennessee. back on facebook new messages to

colberly bull from kentucky. "everyone needs to be vigilant and pay attention when something doesn't feel or sound right. thank you." "you are our superhero." >> you didn't know your mom was a superhero? >> well. i already knew that part. but i didn't know she would do something like this. >> it was that mama bear instinct. >> reporter: a potential tragedy avoided because one mom saw something and said something. ron mott, nbc news. just ahead, a flood of reaction to megyn kelly's on-air apology for her comments about blackface that set off a major backlash. you're watching "early today."

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and while things are very unpleasant here on planet earth, president trump says there's a good chance the space force could be up and running sometime next year. that's right. if all goes according to plan, donald trump will have created the first ever branch of the military that is completely imaginary. >> but everything else is all too real. now to a story that concerns this network. nbc's megyn kelly issuing an apology on her show after comments she made tuesday about blackface were met with major backlash. our morgan radford has the latest. >> and i want to begin with two words. i'm sorry. >> reporter: megyn kelly apologizing for her controversial remarks about race. during a panel discussion about halloween costumes. >> i learned that given the

history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country it is not okay for that to be part of any costume, halloween or otherwise. >> reporter: kelly's mea culpa coming after she defended the use of blackface. >> no, stupid. >> reporter: a once popular form of entertainment used to mock african-americans. >> but what is racist? because truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for halloween. like -- back when i was a kid that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character. >> reporter: her comments received fierce backlash among critics and colleagues. >> while she apologized to the staff, she owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country because this is a history going back to the 1830s, minstrel shows, to demean and denigrate a race wasn't right. >> reporter: in a prescheduled annual town hall nbc news chairman andy lack said, "i

condemn those remarks. there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them." two black panelists addressed the controversy on her show. >> for african-americans we know the history, and too many white americans don't know or won't accept it when the reality is it is american history, yours and mine. >> reporter: a lesson in history with the hope of progress. morgan radford, nbc news, new york. just ahead, happily ever after in the afterlife. the shocking secret at disney world. and a war for your wallet. how retailers are upping the ante ahead of the holiday season. that's because your home is filled with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. so, try febreze fabric refresher. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics and cleans them away as it dries. use febreze every time you tidy up to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. fabric refresher even works for clothes you want to wear another day. make febreze part of your clean routine

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could it already be snowmobile season? the first snow of the year. this is south oxford, maine. this was yesterday. slippery road conditions obviously. some beautiful scenery. there. look at that. the gorgeous leaves changing with the snow peak on the top of the mountain. yeah. not even halloween yet. some areas got as much as 12 inches of snow. certainly looks pretty except though when you see the accidents. all right. so let's get into the weekend forecast. this is not going to be a nor'easter with a lot of snow. only the highest of elevations will get some snow out of this one. but there's your rainy friday in the mid-atlantic, and then we take that up the coast on saturday. saturday's a rainy windy day, especially in new england. and then by the time we get to sunday we kind of clear that out. not a lot of other bad weather out there across the country. >> thank you, bill. just ahead, the happiest final resting place on earth. the shocking problem at disney world.

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a rout on wall street sends the dow and the s&p into the red for the year. the dow plummeted over 600 points, wiping out all of its gains since january. the sell-off hit the tech sector especially hard. the nasdaq falling over 300 points. the nasdaq is now down nearly 13% since its august high, which puts it firmly in correction territory. it's not all bad news, though, for investors. futures are pointing to a slight rebound at the open. let the shipping wars begin. it's not even halloween yet, but big name retailers like target and walmart are already rolling out big savings to win over customers this holiday season.

this year the brick and mortars are fighting harder than ever to gain a foothold against amazon online. nbc business correspondent jo ling kent has more. jo, good morning. >> good morning. it's expected to be run of the biggest retail seasons ever, with more than a trillion dollars up for grabs being spent both online and off. and now target is competing with walmart and amazon aggressively announcing new free two-day shipping for customers without any minimum purchase or membership starting next month. the move comes after walmart rolled out free two-day shipping for products from third parties on its website over the coming months. also touting free two-day shipping on any order $35 or more. and amazon now offering prime customers who pay $119 a year free one-day shipping for purchases of $35 and up. and experts say consumers will not be paying for the shipping through higher prices. >> when it comes to free shipping, it's not the customers

that'll end up paying the cost but the companies that provide the product. the prices that the customers pay have already been predetermined. >> reporter: that's good news for shoppers. according to a new survey, 88% say it's more important to have their packages ship for free than to get them fast. as major retailers compete to show customers how low they can go. and every single dollar is going to count this holiday season. online shopping and shopping in general is expected to be up about 4% according to the national retail federation. so there's a lot of money on the line. phillip? >> sure is, jo. thank you. many people want the happiest place on earth to be their final resting place according to the "wall street journal." former and current custodians for disney parks are reportedly spilling secrets about vacuuming up human ashes throughout the magic kingdom. while disney says this behavior is strictly prohibited, custodians tell the "wall street journal" they have found ashes on lawns, outside park gates, and most frequently all

throughout the haunted mansion. well, that just makes the mansion even more scary. >> if it was not haunted before, it is now. hope your thursday's off to a great start. i'm phillip mena. >> and i'm marlie hall. be sure to follow usanother sus

this one allegedly se breaking news at 4:30. another suspicious package. this one allegedly sent to property owned by actor robert de niro. this is video of that package being hauled away by the bomb squad. let's get right to it. the most recent package sent to lower manhattan building ucti, offices of de niro's tribecca films. >> a worker who saw the package called police at 4:00 this morning. he told police the package arrived a day or two ago. >> sources telling nbc the package has similar markings as pipe bombs