. this morning as we're coming on the air, two major developments on the covid front. first at least half of the nation's repeat hospitalizations are all coming from six states plus a judge blocks presidt biden's vaccine for local contractors. we are learning what was said in the fallout from the biden-putin two-hour video call. talk show nick cannon's tragic loss. what happened that led to the death of his five-month-old son? our tom costello, gift card

scams. how you can protect yourself and your family this holiday season? and the biggest moments from last night's peoples choice awards "early today" starts right now. >> i'm phillip mena. >> i'm frances rivera. six states are getting hit especially hard. according to hhs data, michigan, ohio, indiana, pennsylvania, new york and illinois currently make up 60% of all new covid hospitalizations the largest is in michigan, where the numbers jumped 70% since november 10k9. three out of four patients are unvaccinated nbc news' sam brock has more. >> reporter: just as it felt like you were making progress on cutting down on the number of cases of covid-19, new figures right now show the united states is over 100,000 new infections per day with concerns that the omicron variant could add fuel

to that fire florida is potentially a cautionary tale here as of mount june, there were a few cases of the delta variant detected by early august, hospitals were flooded. right now marx other cities tomcat avoid that fate new york city specifically coming out with a swing mandate. mayor bill de blasio calling for mandatory vaccine for private workers in hearnperson, up to 1 million. they want to get in front of an issue that could explode certainly, we seen legal battles play out for mandatory vaccines for teachers and healthcare workers. we are learning about an outbreak on a cruise ship that left the state of louisiana. tonight some 17 cases tied to a norwegian cruise lines saying there were a handful of asymptomatic cases and one of the crew members from south

africa had the omicron variant at this point in time roughly a third of the stas one case of t. in miami, sam brock, nbc news. a group of mexican nationals are in custody this morning. accused of kidnapping nine people, murdering six of them, including three u.s. citizens. according to u.s. attorney's office nor central california, the group was based in tiajuana and will face charges in mexico. the ring leader, edmond garcia hernandez, investigators say they would lure victims under false pretences, hold them at gunpoint, demanding a ransom from relatives no word whether they will face charges here in the u.s. president biden and president putin had a more than two-hour meeting, the pair's first call since judgment mr. biden warning the u.s. would seek strong economic measures among other consequences if russia invades ukraine

jay grey joins us from washington >> reporter: good morning to you, the white house is calling them high impact economic measures that could be put in place including possible sanctions on blanks and energy companies and defense firms. there is consideration of can selling the nordstream 2, the gap line project between russia and northern europe. finally exclusion from the global electronic payment known as swift all of this of course comes as russian troops continue to build along the ukraine border 90,000 troops in all at this point including heavy artillery as well as snipers there the ukraine is trying to get into nato and even those for that measure say it's a long way off. still, that is something that president putin does not want to see at all he says he wants no further

expansion to the east by nato. he is also saying that he refuses to see any troop brildup, any weapon buildup anywhere near the russian border it is a high stakes diplomatic game of chicken and frances and philip, the world is watching to see if it's the white house or kremlin that moves next. >> intense developments on that world stage. jay, thanks for breaking it down for us despite those warnings from president biden, there are no science along the boarder with ukraine. russian troops are able to back down richard engle is there. >> reporter: ukraine announced russia is reenforcing its positions near the boarder with heavy artillery and snipers, while the kremlin gave its readout of the call between president's putin and biden. russia accused ukraine of invoking the crisis and says he wants legal guarantees that nato

won't expand to the east and offensive weapons won't be positioned near russia's border. the ukrainian government wants to join nato, but membership remains far off. ukraine's former defense minister told us president biden should not accept putin's ultimatum. >> negotiations can happen at the gun point. because what russia is trying to do they're trying to create the situation when some concessions are made, that's not negotiations that's almost like a robbery. >> reporter: a former supreme allied commander of nato says, president biden's next move is to confront putin are critical >> if we permit him again to cross the border of a sovereign state if anger and conquer it, the international system will be set back decades. >> reporter: while the u.s. and russia have both agried to more talks no, dates have been set and no troops have been pulled back from the border in the meantime, ukraine said it

desperately needs more weapons and more u.s. military >> richard, thank you. overnight a flurry of critical legislation to keep the country up and running democrats went at it alone, passing a bill to allow them to raise the debt ceiling with a simple majority vote lawmakers came together for another key vote the house overwhelmingly passed a $768 billion defense bill. biden will sell the bipartisan infrastructure bill. he is headed to kansas city to tout improvements to transportation mplgs a top witness in the capitol riot probe is no longer cooperating mark meadows was due for a deposition he backed out yesterday citing executive privilege. he is on track to face criminal contempt charges

long-time trump defender roger stone will invoke the fifth amendment right. stop was in d.c. in the days leading up to the capitol riot to quote lead a march to the capitol. tv host nick cannon is mourning the loss of his youngest child he shares the news on a talk show that his five-month-old son zen died of brain cancer. >> reporter: nick cannon, actor and tv personality on his talk show delivering difficult news. >> this is the pick of the day. >> reporter: cannon announcing his five-month-old son zen died of a chance russ brain tumor over the weekend >> i know a lot of people out there are experiencing the pain and grief i am experiencing right now. >> reporter: it happened when cannon and the baby's mother brought zen to the doctor to check his sinuses. >> conversations cancer of the

brain and tumor began to grow a lot faster and so we knew that time was --. >> reporter: connone says as a result his son also developed hydrocephalous a buildup of too much fluid on the brain. the most common reason for brain surgery in children. on zen's last weekend, his parents took the baby to the beach, new york for a show cannon called this episode a celebration of life for zen. >> this is a special show dedicated to my beautiful son. >> reporter: anne thompson, nbc news, new york the state of emergency remains inesque for hawaii after monday's storm while heavy rains have tapered off, flash flooding led to power outages and other damages. first responders raced to over 90 calls across the island to help with flooded homes and water rescues. that included five boys ages 9

tho 10 saved from a stream by the honolulu fire department no deaths were reported extreme weather in hawaii, snow in the northeast. let's bring in michelle grossman in for janessa good morning >> good morning, finally some snow, maybe flurries for some of us the first flakes of the season we have seeing some blue, the last six hours that's developing snow so what we have here is a two-part system. we have anal interpreta clip tore the north it doesn't have moisture with it to the south a coastal low that will strengthen throughout today into tomorrow morning. that will bring a chance for those showers. most of that moisture is well into the ocean to the south. most of the big cities, new york city, philadelphia, washington, will miss out. they still could see winter weather. it will bring more snow to the great lakes.

most of that snow will be to the north, mainly in the st this in warming in the central and southern plains, temperatures into the 80s in some spots in texas. that warmth is going to head on east to the northeast, mount atlantic some spots, new york city could be int mid-60s d.c. into the lower 70 we'll talk about that coming up. >> i can't wait to hear about it and make our plans from it thanks, michelle it's national brownie day. a massachusetts cannabis company is hitting new highs for the holiday. merrymen unveiled what happened is thought to be the world's largest pot brownie.

it is baked to perfection with thc. it was sold to a medical marijuana patient, one patient in massachusetts for an undisclosed price. we can safely assume it was and he or she is very, very high >> we're having one big party with her friends very high as well, too >> man we got the biggest moment in last night's 2020 people's choice awards. om then how to protect yourself fr gift card scams this holiday season we are back in 60 seconds. definitely after meatloaf. like clockwork. do it! run your dishwasher with cascade platinum and save water. did you know an energy star certified dishwasher uses less than four gallons per cycle? while a running sink uses that, every two minutes. that means even small loads can save water. so why not do it? run your dishwasher every night with cascade platinum. the surprising way to save water. these are the faces of listerine. the face of millions of germs zapped in seconds. the face of clean.

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work of film, shouting out her two young kids kim kardashian is the official icon of 2021. the mogul praised her exkanye west for introducing her to the fashion world and blake shenlt gave a -- shots it's all i know how to be ♪ >> well, blake shelton gave an unforgivable performance of his new song come back as a country boy, accepting his award for country artist of the year dwayne the rock johnson was voted overall male movie star of the year and crowned the people's champion. plus he had a big surprise for one lucky fan. >> there is somebody here tonight president trump make a wish she has no idea i am doing this. her name is shoshana [ applause ] shoshana, can you stand up

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live from the plaza, it's ed sheeran. super fans get ready for the "today show" performance you don't want to miss a new scam alert just in time for the holiday shopping season federal regulators say gift card fraud is surging to tens of thousands already victimized tom costello on how to save yourself. >> reporter: the federal trade

commission barns it's the season for a surge in gift card scams in just the first nine months of this grier, the ftc reports nearly 40,000 people were scammed, losing $148 million almost surely an undercount. here's how it works. scammers e-mail or call unsuspecting victims posing as a love interest, company representative or a government agent. telling the victim they owe money and must pay now or they'll be arrested or bank accounts frozen. he tells them to buy gift cards at a local store, read the card number to the scammer over the foevenl target gift cards were the most preferred by scammers, $2500 the median amount lost by consumers. gift cards from google play, apple, ebay and walmart. >> ecards are for gifts, not for making a payment if someone says they need to make a payment using a gift card, it's a scam. >> reporter: in idaho, julie got

an e-mail claiming there was a charge and providing number to call back. when she did, the scammer told her to stay on the phone, photo the store and buy a $3500 gift card to fix the problem. thankfully, the local store clerk recognized the scam and refused to sell her the card. >> i think she noticed, i was on the phone, had it up to my ear i think she noticed i was probably looking a little panicked she knew the science and caught on right away. >> reporter: red flag say fraud experts, unsolicited calls or e-mails saying you owe money if they tell to you buy gift cards and read back the numbers, it's a scam. social security and irs will never call asking for personal information or money >> all right some words of advice and common sense from tom costello, tom, thank you. next the winter heat wave hitting just in time for the

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new from vicks. in today's top stories, opening statements will begin in the trial of kim potter. she is charged with first and second degree manslaughter for fatally shooting daunte wright her defense argues she made a mistake, prosecutors claim she acted recklessly the trial of jesse smollett is one step closer to wrapping up after six days of testimony and nearly nine hours on the stand, himself, smollett's fate will soon be in the hands of a

injury both sides have rested their case the former "empire" actor faces two counts of disorderly conduct. closing arguments are scheduled to begin today in the federal trial on josh duggar in the 19 kids and counting is accused of receiving and possession child pornography the defense rested the first was a computer expert grilled by the prosecution in cross examination. deliberations could begin's early as today if convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on each count. the kellogg company announced a majority of its u.s. workers rejected a proposed five-year contracti and they would be begin hiring perm 90s replacements they walked off job in december saying they routinely work more than 80 hours a week the company says no deal has been reached, that i have to focus on moving

forward. the president of the chapter union said they would hold the line for a fair contract can the cure for alzheimer's be the cure for unforgettable nights there is a study from the k4r cleveland clinic saying it could help people from aging they had a 69% lower chance of being diagnosed over the next six years. they are planning a new trial to test the clinical benefits of the new viagra drug in early alzheimer's patients so more unforgettable nights for men, women, all of the above. >> wouldn't that be something arc medical break through for sure sometimes you have to enown up to your wrongs. someone left an apology, a christmas tree in southern

couple was stolen from a call center by five people. 211 allows people to call about any help they need the tree was returned with a sincere apology note, we're truly sorry. we wish we could

right now at 4:30, returning to face a judge. the scott peterson case is once again gripping the bay area and the nation, and the impact that could have on the push for a new trial. ahead, the advice doctors say you should follow before your upcoming family get together. this is "today in the bay." we're broadcasting to your television and streaming live on nbcbayarea.com. the gang is back together. good morning. i am laura garcia. >> i