the battle lines are drawn as congress argues over the establishment of a fact-finding commission to investigate the january 6th capitol riots. should today be the day a cease-fire is announced in the middle east? we are live in the region. disturbing video that was held from the public for two years about a deadly police encounter in louisiana that is just now coming to light. we are watching wicked weather in the south with more flooding in the forecast plus preview of the noaa 2021 season outlook. are you game enough to eat a mystery flavored pop tart?

"early today" starts right now. good morning, i'm phillip mena. >> glad you're with us i'm frances rivera growing animosity on capitol hill the house passed a vote for a bipartisan commission. our capitol hill correspondent tracie potts has more. top republicans are fighting to block the legislation. >> reporter: yeah, fighting being the key word there, frances. what democrats and republicans are really at each other over this idea of creating a commission, an independent commission to investigate what happened at the capitol on january 6th. we saw it in the house yesterday. now it's an uphill battle in the senate, which is already split 5050 there will be a vote republican leader mitch mcconnell says he will not support it, and we saw that same argument play out in the house where 35 republicans did vote with democrats for this

commission most of them are skeptical even though it's evenly divided, democrats and republicans, they are still skeptical about what's in the details. the other 90% of our friends on the other side of the aisle, holy cow incoherence. no idea what you're talking about. benghazi you guys chased the former secretary of state all over the country, spent millions of dollars. we have people scaling the capitol, hitting the capitol police with led pipes across the head and we can't get bipartisanship what else has to happen in this country? cops this is a slap and face to every rank and file cop in the united states if we're going to take on china, if we're going to rebuild the country, if we're going to reverse climate change we need two political parties that are both living in realityone of th. >> it's not clear what new facts

actually lay on top of existing efforts by law enforcement and congress the facts have come out and they'll continue to come out. >> reporter: and investigating the attacks, that's not the only thing that has the parties at odds republicans in the house want to get rid of the mask mandate on the house floor given the latest cdc guidance but house speaker nancy pelosi has said that about 1/4 of the house is not yet vaccinated she told republicans to get their people vaccinated. that came up for a vote. the vote failed. >> two of the biggest issues dividing congress. tracie, thank you. former president trump is lashing out at new york's attorney general after she announced a criminal investigation of the trump organization investigators are also reportedly zeroing in on allen weisselberg, a long-time trump aide and cfo of the trump

organization prosecutors are thought to be digging into his role as well as the finances to see if they can get some leverage to get wiseleberg to flip and cooperate with the investigation meanwhile, michael cohen spoke to msnbc's joy reid and he weighed in on the fallout. >> allen weisselberg knew every single dollar in -- not even dollar, to the penny every single penny in and every penny out went through allen weisselberg's desk and then reported before and after to donald j. trump. >> our kristin welker breaks down the investigation for us. >> reporter: new legal trouble for former president trump new york attorney general leticia james announcing we are now actively investigating the trump organization in a criminal capacity along with the manhattan da the original investigation was sparked by mr. trump's former attorney, michael cohen, who claimed mr. trump deliberately

provided incorrect valuations of assets in official documents the former president slamming the investigation by the democratic attorney general as a partisan vendetta. mr. trump's allies sending videos of james making anti-trump statements during her 2018 campaign. >> will you sue him for us >> we're going to definitely sue him. we're going to be a pain in the ass. >> this from a former trump corporation employee turned critic. >> he felt the laws were not for him and he felt people who followed them had no creative insights. >> reporter: james's office had no comment on those campaign videos. they face other hurdles including three lawsuits including his conduct on january 6th. disturbing new video has

been released to the deadly encounter with police in louisiana. 49-year-old ronald ga footage of that night been seen in public nbc's miguel almaguer has the report which may be tough to watch. >> reporter: in video obtained, released and edited by the associated press, the brutal and violent arrest and subsequent death of ronald green is captured on body camera. >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: after a dangerous high speed pursuit, louisiana state troopers pulled the 49-year-old black man from his vehicle. >> the taser >> reporter: green is seen being tased multiple times but much of what happened is off camera. >> i'm sorry >> reporter: during the graphic and disturbing video green is also repeatedly punched, put in a chokehold and dragged face

down through the dirt. after he was shackled he was left for 9 minutes without aid as they used hand sanitizer to clean their bloodied hands. >> the video is probably one of the most disturbing videos i've seen of police brutality it looks like what slave chasers did. >> reporter: louisiana state troopers tried to clean up the 2019 video outside of monroe first telling them he died with an impact from the crash the lsp says their investigation remains under review by federal and state authorities. >> you think your husband was murdered >> oh, yes they beat him with the purpose of letting him just die. >> reporter: two years after green's death his family says they want justice while some of the troopers involved remain on the job. miguel almaguer, nbc news.

let's turn now to the ongoing crisis in the middle east overnight the sky once again lit up over the gaza strip as israel continued its strikes against hamas targets but could these be some of the last blasts in this battle nbc's raffe sanchez joins us from beirut. is there any hope for a cease-fire any time soon >> reporter: good morning. both israeli and palestinians hoped they would wake up to a cease-fire this morning, to tell their children the fighting was over that was not to be in the last few minutes hamas has reportedly fired an anti-tank missile. one israeli soldier lightly injured. israel has beee have more than palestinian children dead inside gaza president biden did speak with

prime minister benjamin netanyahu yesterday. he said he wanted the de-escalation on the path to a cease-fire israel has been pretty consistent it does not want a cease-fire until it has degraded hamas's ability to stop these rockets. now we are -- in israel they are hoping that there will be a cease-fire announced in time for the start of chabot, the jewish day of rest tomorrow afternoon so there could be a quiet weekend in the holy land phillip? >> considering dozens of children are dead, we're all hoping for that. thanks. now for an update on the severe weather hitting across many states. overnight at least two tornadoes were confirmed in southern minnesota but there have not been any reports of damage or injury there are still serious concerns of flooding across the coast they have been overwhelmed by multiple days of rain.nde area d

there's more on the way. >> let's see about that with nbc meteorologist janessa webb who joins us now good morning >> reporter: hi. good morning good morning, everyone baton rouge, new orleans, finally getting a break. this has shifted more into southwestern louisiana cameron all the way to abbysville dealing with the feeder bans this morning they've been dealing with it for the last five hours. as people wake up, we are definitely going to be seeing more flooded streets across this area this will last into the start of the weekend and that's why excessive rain continues to be in place for lake charles into the houston area where some of these areas have already seen s inches of rain the better news, the severe weather risk has moved out of that area an

talking about near 90 degrees this afternoon 101 for phoenix and higher for flagstaff. now we do have a tropical disturbance. we'll talk about that in atlantic coming up. fast forwarding into your thursday the house has overwhelmingly passed an antiasian hate crime bill 62 republicans have voted for it president biden has pledged his support. support for the universal hip-hop museum it is set to open in 2024. america's terminator, arnold schwarzenegger is in talk with

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for 100% whiter teeth. its highly active peroxide droplets swipe on in seconds. better. faster. 100% whiter teeth. crestwhitesmile.com leading the news a new study from oxford university is pouring new information on how the brain is affected by alcohol. the study of 25,000 people in the u.k. found that even moderate drinking is linked to lower gray matter density. oxford university found that any alcohol consumption affects nearly every part of the brain and lower brain volume is found in those who drink more. the study still has to be peer reviewed. residents of nashville have to raise a glass indoors the city's indoor mask mandate which was in effect for nearly a year was lifted friday along with all capacity restrictions on bars and restaurants. now businesses are seeing a surge in customers nbc's cal perry has more.

>> reporter: francis, what a difference five days has made here in nashville. friday we saw a lifting on the mask mandate the bars have been packed. for people like bartenders across the city, it's literally been life changing listen. >> i think it's going to be wild i think it's going to be one of the busiest summers we've seen in a while people are ready to go out and have everything back to normal my favorite part about being a bartender is meeting new people, seeing different personalities, hearing their stories. it's just the best part about it we can finally get our lives back and our jobs back. >> reporter: one of the unintended consequences is now there is a labor shortage when it comes to bartenders and servers and other folks in the service industry the city is hoping video of people packing the bars will bring people back in the cities. >> what a concept, bellying up to a bar and sitting next to a stranger. >> forgot what that was like sometime soon.

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a virginia sheriff's deputy is being hailed a hero from lifting a car off a woman. body camera shows deputy holt

getting to the s after learning the driver's head was pinned, he was able to muster the strength for her just enough to free herself this isn't the first time he's been praised for his action. he was recognized before from saving two people from a burning house in march of 2020. >> deputy of the year it sounds like. a new mistery pop tart flavor is on the way and burger king is jumping into the chicken sandwich wars. what's going on with bitcoin steve sedgwick is following all of this for us good morning. >> reporter: good morning. it's more like what's not going on with bitcoin. if you like roller coasters, get involved in it if you don't want a thrill, steer clear. middle of april, $63,000 for bitcoin and it crashed yesterday, really crashed. we got to 30,000 per bitcoin then it's half now it is trading just shy of $40,000 for bitcoin.

a 33% rally from the lows having crashed below. just be careful. you want to play that one, make sure you enjoy roller coasters pop tarts have a mist ri flavor, mister e if you can guess what the mystery flavor is as well. so get your ideas in as well and use the qr code on the box to enter the competition. burger king, they're getting involved in the chicken sandwich wars and then we've got this, it's ch apostrophe king. they're trying to set themselves apart by hand breading their chicken, which is a step that takes training, time, new equipment. that's differ enentiating them. as long as you don't have to guess the flavor of chicken. >> everything sounds like

flavor. >> maybe that's the mystery flavor of the pop tart you never know thank you as always. janessa is tracking an elyar start to the hurricane season. >> and mouse rat gets parks and rec back fighting ingredients of the leading dryer sheet. simply toss into the dryer to bounce out hair & lint. look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet! pet hair is no match for bounce. it's available in fresh scent & unscented. with bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less. now you can make any morning of the week feel like the weekend. with jimmy dean simple scrambles. made fresh with two real eggs, sausage 'n cheese. and ready in seconds. why don't you put a sunday morning shine on tomorrow morning's breakfast. if you purchased or were enrolled in a blue cross or blue shield health insurance or administrative services plan between 2008 and 2020,

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natural erosion made it collapse so beautiful before. >> the evolution of the earth for you. darwin knows let's check back in with janessa tracking the tropics for us this morning. >> yeah, guys, this is very early. we have our first disturbance that's now been issued by the national hurricane center. just outside of bermuda. this will be our seventh straight year if this storm system becomes named later on friday evening into your saturday for the earliest named storms right now they are forecasting a potential of 50% development there is no threat to land, but we are still in may about 10 days before the official start to hurricane season. it will just grace ovewe could d winds. least 75 miles per hour and then it goes back out to sea still, very early in the season. >> tough start

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the surprising way to save water. ♪ once we all sang it back, you take an early leap there and you learn to fly ♪ ♪ bye-bye little sebastien ♪ >> parks and rec fans, mouse rat is back in a big way fictional band that rocked ponte, indiana, is finally releasing their debut album. he sang the hits of the show on the awesome album.

>> liking that song. first listen, wouldn't even know. >> rob lowe was digging it looks like. >> with the pandemic, students at a colorado elementary school have figured out a way to travel the world. their teacher got post cards and it's grown into something special. foster gains of kusa brings us the story. >> what's the cheapest souvenir you can buy anyplace >> a postcard. >> i'm brayden riley kids here call me miss riley and i teach fifth grade to 19 awesome kiddos. >> i live in queensland, australia, suburb of brisbon. >> how can i give my kids the world, because i really wish i could? i decided that they asked to go different places i said, okay, let me bring the world to them. >> i've got another postcard from japan pretty cool design. >> he mentioned japan but he's from india. >> tried to get post cards from places they're passionate about

or want to go to and want to live and work. >> i got a french pen pal. he speaks turkish and english and japanese. >> there's good people and kind people everywhere as shown by this project because so many people said, yeah, i'll send a postcard send me the address and send me the kids' name. >> i appreciate her stepping out. >> hello, miss campos's class. we have to share the love. we have to get post cards for every student. i definitely did not think it would be expanded to past this class, but i definitely am really glad my class made that comment saying, everybody should get one. >> thank you >> we gave you opportunities to have a piece of the world. these all came for you from internationally. i hope that they take away that they know they can go anywhere. >> hello >> hi, mom it's really, really awesome to

see their joy in it, the same joy i had giving it to them. >> thank you very much, fifth grade. >> thanks to photo journalist foster jaynes from kusa. so simple and very impactful. >> learning and

right now at 4:30, a harrowing situation unfolding on the streets of san francisco, a mountain lion seen prowling the city for days stopped in its tracks. we're going to take you inside the drama that quickly unfolded. "today in the bay" begins right now. and a good morning to you. thanks so much for joining us on this thursday morning. i'm marcus washington. >> and i'm laura garcia. more on that story in just a moment. first, we start this morning with a high wind alert. right now in the bay area overnight gusts so powerful they knocked trees down on the