breaking overnight a suspect is in custody after eight people were shot dead at an atlanta area massage parlors. covid vaccine and kids moderna is testing kids 6 months old as the push for normalcy grinds on. today's deadline for a vote to recall california's governor is gaini ing steam. if you are in the market to refinance a home, stick around. today is the day to get your irish up as we kick off your st.

patrick's day. "early today" starts right now good morning, i'm phillip mena. >> glad you're with us i'm frances rivera. a suspect is in custody after a shooting spree left eight people dead at two spas within a 30 mile radius. 6 of the 8 victims are confirmed to be asian women. the shootings come at a time when hate crimes target asian-americans. dan sheneman has the latest. >> reporter: police were called to a robbery in progress the scene, a massage parlor in northeast atlanta. >> we were able to come upon the scene where individuals were shot inside the location while at that location we received another call across the street at shots fired responded to that to find another individual shot in that location. >> reporter: all of the victims, police say, are women. nearby workers startled by

gunfire. >> we heard numerous gunshots coming from across the street. they wouldn't let us out. >> reporter: north of atlanta in cherokee county another massage parlor is another shooting scene. >> our deputies were out to the location located two people deceased inside and three others shot two other victims died authorities have a man in custody 21-year-old robert aaron long. >> wehad good information abou his vehicle. we want to understand they were comparing the images of the suspect and his vehicle and tag information and all of that with what they have down there. that's how we came to the conclusion he was a suspect in atlanta. >> police have not commented on a possible motive. dan sheneman, nbc news a short while ago nba star lebron james tweeted his condolences to the families and victims of the entire asian community calling the suspect a coward. president biden is marking st. patrick's day with

diplomacy. he will be holding a virtual bilateral meeting with the prime minister of ireland. yesterday he hit the road to promote the covid relief bill talking about the benefits of businesses in philadelphia suburb tracie potts joins us. good morning, the president is going all out to sell this bill. >> reporter: right, phillip. the president and his wife dr. jill biden in new hampshire talking about the money for schools in the american rescue plan, $128 billion to help schools reopen yesterday as you noted, it was the president in the outside philadelphia area with a small business there focusing on the money in this plan for small businesses, the paycheck protection program, and other loans to help those business owners get back on their feet. now as you mentioned, there's billions of dollars in this bill, nearly 2 trillion, and republicans have argued that it not only balloons the deficit but that most of that money does

not go toward pandemic relief. in an interview with abc president biden weighed in on that and talked about how to win republican support >> republican voters want that $1500 because they're in trouble. republican voters want to be able to choose between being able to send their -- go to work and send their kid to a day care that they can afford republican voters want to be able to take care of a child care tax credit. i mean, these are -- it's not like every republican voter is a billionaire. >> now one person who has no problems getting the support of republican voters is former president trump. he is facing growing calls to recommend the covid vaccine to his supporters, and in an interview he did just that >> i would recommend it and i would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted

for me frankly but, you know, we have our freedoms and we have to live by that and i agree with that also, but it's a great vaccine. it's a safe vaccine and it's something that works >> reporter: the polls show that republicans are the most skeptical group when it comes to getting this vaccine according to an npr/pbs marist poll of trump supporters don't want to get the vaccine. the biden administration is gearing up for a billion dollar campaign to get the shot. >> that's what it's going to take to get us back to our normal lives tracie, thank you. dr. anthony fauci visited washington national cathedrals hoping to get faith. two dozen clergy members got their shots. dr. fauci debunked some vaccine

myths. >> neither bill gates or i put a chip into the virus. there are things as ridiculous as that being distributed. >> sister jean at 101 will get to cheer her team on in person for the first time friday. much younger people can get vaccinated now that moderna is testing it. >> reporter: eager for normalcy in classrooms, playgrounds and with parents moderna's vaccine trial will include children aged 6 months to 12 years. rachel guthrie has enrolled two of her three kids 26789-year-old charlotte and 3-year-old ollie. >> as a nurse i think it's important to do our part as a

community to try and create a herd immunity and that is why we've chosen as a family to go ahead with this opportunity for these children to be vaccinated at such an early time. >> dr. steve plunkton is one of the early investigators. >> we want to make sure it's safe for the kids and what doses are effective for the kids. >> reporter: just like adults, each child in the n.i.h. study will receive two shots with various doses, some with placebos, then monitored closely for a year. >> reporter: moderna is testing the vaccine in 12 to 17-year-olds pfizer and j&j plan to test their vaccines in younger children kids 16 and older can get the pfizer shot. meanwhile, a dozen european countries are pausing the astrazeneca vaccine rollout after a small number of patients developed blood clots. though european medical regulators report no evidence of a vaccine connection and they've not seen more patients with blood clots than they typically see in the general population.

the u.k. and canada are standing by the vaccine as many researchers say pausing the rollout is unwarranted. >> by not immediately seeing whether this was a problem, they've scared people. once you scare people, it's hard to unscare them. >> reporter: though not yet approved, astrazeneca's vaccine is critical in the global fight against covid. tom costello, nbc news, washington. california governor gavin newsom says he's worried about his job. today is the deadline for recall organizers to submit signatures to force an election to remove him from office. the move comes over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. nbc's jacob ward has more on the sixth attempt to recall the governor jacob, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, phillip. supporters of the recall effort are upset with the governor's handling of the pandemic, professionally and personally. his family had a large male at a

time when they were forbidden in the state. it takes a small fraction of the voters in california to actually trigger a recall, about 12% of them, but it takes more than half of the voters to pull someone out of office. it's important to consider more than 50 recall efforts have taken place in california in its history and only one has ever succeeded. >> that was the 2003 effort to recall gray davis which brought arnold schwarzenegger into power. will this happen to governor newsom well, another thing to consider here is timing it will take until at least september before this recall vote could actually take place, and by that point will we be back to normal life in california will people even recall what they were upset about? well, here's another thing to consider september is fire season in california, and governor gray davis was recalled over wildfire related blackouts. you know, it is really a question of what has happened lately when the vote is counted. and if the state faces another

natural disaster at that point, that could be bad news for the governor phillip. >> thanks for breaking that down for us, jake. the mieg grant surge at the southern border is proving an early test for the new administration's immigration policy authorities are on pace to encounter more border crossers than in the last 20 years. >> reporter: the migrant surge at the border is growing according to data obtained by nbc news, the border patrol is detaining a record 4200 unaccompanied migrant children as of sunday, a drastic jump of more than 1,000 in a week. of those nearly 3,000 children have been held beyond the legal limit of 72 hours all in jail-like facilities not designed for kids. this from the homeland security secretary. >> we are critically sending an important message that now is not the time to come to the border. >> reporter: officials would not grant nbc news access to see the

conditions for ourselves attorneys for some of the children said kids as young as 1 sometimes go days without bathing, rarely see the sun and the sound of crying is constant. this guatemalan mother was recently reunited with her 4-year-old daughter in the u.s she said the child crossed the border with her aunt, officials separated the family expelling the aunt leaving the 4-year-old for days at a border patrol facility for days in texas the mother whose identity we are concealing speaking to nbc's dasha burns. >> can you tell me about your daughter >> translator: she cries and is scared but before she wasn't like that. she is very happy. >> reporter: the border patrol said it can't comment on specific cases but any child without a parent is considered unaccompanied and must be transferred to hhs without the adult relative meanwhile, republicans say president biden everybody couraged this by reversing

trump's policies. >> it's getting worse because of biden's policies what president trump was doing was working. >> our thanks for that report. nbc meteorologist janessa webb is busy tracking weather that could impact millions of people good morning, janessa. >> good morning, everyone. we have a dangerous setup that has been heightened from the storm rediction center a high risk from across alabama. 29 million people across the deep south and lower mississippi valley going to be dealing with some long track tornadoes. the problem with this tornado scene that we're going to see is it will be nocturnal for tonight starting around 6 p.m. 2 inch hail that we could see in the area with damaging wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour. this track

afternoon. big-time storms by later on tonight. orlando, you are clear, 88 more severe weather expected for thursday afternoon we'll talk about that coming up. >> a big chunk of the country being affected there thanks, janessa. time now for today's quick hits matthew mcconaughey. who he is, what he's doing, what he's not doing >> take a look at that i want to know. this one timer in the second period washington capitals superstar alex ovechkin passed phil esposito. 718 goals. 13 shy of tying marcel dion.

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most people will get famous on ticktock for their dance moves or for singing coming up on "today," meet the texas beekeeper who has millions of fans buzzing about her. a little bit of everything on ticktock these days. >> if you are in the market for a home, this is for you. nbc news jo ling kent has a report of why mortgage rates are rising. >> reporter: after nearly a year of historically low mortgage rates, the cost of buying or refinancing a home is on the rise again the interest rate on the average 30 year fixed jumped to 3.05% moving up for the fourth week in a row. the uptick is driven by more vaccines, optimism in the jobs

market and new stimulus checks on the way, but if you haven't already acted, is it too late? >> absolutely not. if you look at the past 30 or 40 years, rates are still better than 99% of the time. >> when should you choose not to refinance? >> if you paid $3,000 as a refinancing fee and your refinance saves you $100 a month, that means it would take you 30 months to break even on that refinance if you're not planning on staying in your house for that amount of time, then probably you should consider not refinancing. >> reporter: the best advice, use an online mortgage calculator to estimate what you might get. compare rates at 3 to 5 lenders and add up those closing costs like insurance, taxes and appraisal fees remember, everyone's situation is different the rate you get depends on your income, credit score and how much of your home you've already paid off. >> great reminders thanks to jo for this report. right after this break janessa will have more on

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squliek many other businesses, lobster men found themselves in a pinch when this pandemic began, but there was a trend that took off while everyone was stuck at home that helped this industry claw its way back cnbc's jane wells has that story. >> go ahead and grab it by the surface. >> here we go. >> reporter: covid shell shocked the lobster industry, at least first. >> it was terrifying i mean, restaurants were closing. cruise ships had canceled. >> reporter: but not only have they clawed their way out, prices are now above average going from $4 a pound wholesale

last march to around $10 now. >> business is surprisingly good. >> reporter: he runs greenhead lobster in stonington, maine, processes 10 million pounds a year he credits the home chef movement with saving the industry people started buying lobsters at the grocery store >> we think this home consumer eating quality foods, preparing yourself at home is a trend is going to continue. >> mark murrow of get main lobster runs a direct to consumer business. >> went from an average monday would be 75 boxes to today we're shipping 600 boxes one of the first things we got was a forklift and who knew that a forklift would save you that much time. >> reporter: another reason prices are high is low supply. federal relief payments eased the pressure to fish and

everyone dumped their inventory when covid first hit >> nobody held lobsters. nobody kept inventory whether it was frozen or live nobody -- there's really nothing to buy right now it's very scarce fishing. >> reporter: but perhaps the best news of all, for the first time in forever, you can sell u.s. lobster in the e.u. and china tariff free. you can go to france i don't get to yet but there is a dark cloud on the horizon. there is a lawsuit which could force the industry to change the way it fishes in order to protect an endangered whale. here in stonington they've never seen a whale and they've been doing sustainability before it was a word in stonington, i'm jane wells. >> time to dip up and get cracking. >> a lot of people went out and started cooking for themselves most butchers will steam your lobster for free for you. >> yeah, but it's tough to figure out the live ones, how to

get them in the pot of boiling water. once you have that done, you're okay. >> i always feel sad buddy, i choose you. thanks for starting your st. patrick's day with us. i'm phillip mena. >> i'm .

pretty shocking for the public safety and also for the community here. >> right now, 4:30. was it a hate crime? that's what many are asking after eight people are killed following attacks on asian massage parlors in the atlanta area. how community leaders here at home are responding. >> plus the luck of the irish with orange in san mateo county. the plans in place as it becomes the first bay area county to slide into the orange tier. and will it be here for one year or four? the debate is finally seemingly over whether it comes