president biden and judge ketanji brown jackson celebrate her senate confirmation to the supreme court ahead of today's white house aevent the humanitarian effort inside and outside you crane is growing more dire by the day two more black coaches join the brian flores discrimination lawsuit against the nfl over hiring rules they claim are only lip service. fighting billions in fraud we talk to the nation's top cop who is tracking down those who

ripped off america by stealing covid relief funds and we're live in augusta where tiger woods is set to tee off just after lurch time today for day two of the masters will he make the cut "early today" starts right now good morning i'm steven romo. >> glad you're with us i'm frances rivera a watershed moment in our nation's history the senate confirmed judge ketanji brown jackson yesterday with a 53-47 vote. when she takes the oath she'll be the first black woman to the serve on the supreme court nbc's peter alexander has more >> reporter: a shared embrace punct punctuating a moment securing her place as the first black woman on the supreme court >> this nomination is confirmed. >> reporter: now for the first

time the court will include two black justices and four women, though the conservative court's ideological balance will not change >> a day like today that is so historic and so important for so many reasons, and i do believe is a very important statement about who we are as a nation >> reporter: jackson's confirmation bipartisan with three senate republicans joining all 50 democrats after 99 votes were cast, a 16-minute delay. lawmakers growing restless waiting for republican rand paul to arrive late for president biden a legacy defining achievement that keeps a campaign promise >> i'm looking forward to making sure there's a black woman on the supreme court to make sure we in fact get -- >> reporter: her confirmation following at times contentious hearings with nearly every republican voting against her. >> if you're concerned about someone who uses their position to reinforce a progressive agenda, we should be concerned

>> reporter: jackson now getting a chance to fulfill that wish she made less than two months ago. >> i can only hope my life and my career, my love of the country and constitution will inspire future generations of americans. >> our thanks to peter alexander for that report. months after the peak of omicron there's new signs of a potential spring surge in the pandemic cases are already up nearly 3% in the past two weeks. the first big bump since late january. this week alone covid has coursed across capitol hill as well nbc's brie jackson joins us from december with the latest, and it was announcement after announcement about top officials who have tested positive >> reporter: yeah, that's right. good morning, steven and it's another setback as president biden pushes a return to normalcy. over the weekend two of his cabinet members reported infections just yesterday house speaker nancy pelosi tested positive but is asymptomatic. maine senator susan collins also tested positive hours after

voting to confirm judge jackson. rafael warnock, d.c. mayor bowser and connecticut governor greg lamont all tested positive. the study estimates without vaccines there would have been over 2 million more covid deaths infectious disease experts expect milder cases to be the trend moving forward >> so it's more contagious, not more serious i think it's going to continue to cause more cases, but i don't think except maybe here and there we'll see a very large increase in hospitalizations >> meanwhile the white house scored a victory after a federal appeals court upheld mr. biden's mandate for 3.5 million federal

workers. and the house passed a $55 billion relief bill for restaurants and small businesses hit hard by the pandemic at least 90,000 restaurants and bars have closed since the start of the pandemic. that legislation now heads to the senate where it faces an uphill battle for 60 votes >> we'll have to wait and see how that turns out now to russia's war on ukraine. there's growing fear of a large assault coming on eastern ukraine. ukrainian officials warning residents to evacuate to safer regions before it's too late the u.n. estimates at least 4.3 million people have fled to neighboring countries with more than half of them going into poland dasha, tell us how poland is handling this crisis >> reporter: yes, good morning, frances. we're already hearing from the polish border guard there's been an increase in people coming across the border today. as you mention, more than

2.5 million ukrainians, refugees here in poland right now and while we've seen enormous generosity from the polish people, the city -- cities like warsaw, cracow, they're starting to become overcrowded. there's a strain on social systems here, on schools and the cities are pleading for more help and more support they've seen donations flooding in from around the world, and they really need those donations and those relief efforts to continue here. and every time someone crosses the border, they bring a heart breaking story we have met so many refugees that have shared their experiences with us including two women, two sisters from bucha. they are both mothers. their stories are, frankly, hard to hear, but one of the most important things we can do right now is to listen >> translator: my child is

afraid and wants to hide every time she sees and hears something bad. i'm so sorry that my children know how it looks like and sounds like, the war >> translator: right now it's pretty scary there i'm not ready to go back there and other people are not because soldiers are going around the towns and picking up corpses >> reporter: they're looking to go to the u.k. they have accommodation there, family that's willing to take them in. but they are still waiting on a visa and as we've reported on, the b bureaucracies in all of these countries are overwhelmed right now because of the number of refugees traveling across the eu and while they aren't ready to return home yet, they're looking to stay somewhere else for a little bit, there are some refugees now looking to go back home to ukraine despite the risk

they tell us they just want to be home. >> hope their travels either way will be safe thank you, dasha now to the new secret service scandal rocking the capitol. the fbi says two washington, d.c. men were able to convince government officials they were department of homeland security employees. one of those agents who fell for the scam was in first lady jill biden's protective detail. the two are charged with impersonating agents and one of the men provided expensive benefits to those agents, things like iphones, apartments, and more in a statement the secret service said the four agents involved have pin placed on administrative leave and the agency will coordinate for this situation. former president trump's legal woes are piling up in new york the state's attorney general is seeking to hold the former president in contempt.

in a new court filing her office says mr. trump failed to comply with the judge's order to turn over subpoena documents. the a.g. is asking the judge to fine him $10,000 a day until he turns over the records in a statement mr. trump called the continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all-time well, it's been a week of weather extremes it is hopefully all behind us. let's bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins for a look at our friday hey, bill. >> hey, good morning at least our severe weather extremes are over with for the time being that will return looks like monday, tuesday next week. one spot in hudson valley got 4 inches of rain lot of flooding from rivers from this over achieving rainstorm last night and that's now pushing up over providence and maybe boston with a rumble of thunder or brief

downpour shifting up through portland, maine, new hampshire, vermont, and maine itself will see wet weather on and off through much of the day and it's going to be chilly, windy and hit and miss rain and snow showers tonight and maybe tomorrow up through areas of nortrn newhe e out in new york, philadelphia and d.c. today. in the central plains a wildfire risk the weekend forecast looks great for the end of the mattesers tournament >> can't wait to hear it thank you, bill. just ahead the fleecing of america. how crooks are ripping off billions in covid relief funds the nfl lawsuit got more

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leading the news, two more black coaches are joining the discrimination lawsuit against the nfl this morning head coach brian flores first filed the action lawsuit accusing the leagues and the teams of paying lip service to hiring rules >> reporter: pressure on the nfl is mounting as two more coaches join brian flores' bombshell lawsuit accusing the league and a growing list of teams of systemic discrimination. >> we filed the lawsuit because there needs to be a change >> reporter: a new complaint claiming he was unfairly and discriminatory fired after just one season of the arizona cardinals head coach while the general manager stayed on despite making, quote, poor personnel decisions.

the team called it untrue. nearly 50% of nfl players were plaque, but when the lawsuit was filed just one head coach was. the complaint says that's in part teams are conducting sham interviews only to comply with the ruiny rule, which requires every team to consider a diverse slate of candidates as was the case with ray horton who interviewed with the tennessee titans in 2016 >> i sat there knowing i was the head coach in '16 as they went through this fake hiring process. >> reporter: an allegation the titans deny. still some sports analysts say the nfl's hiring issues are obvious. >> if you have a coin and it flips up 500 times and it comes up heads 490 times, there's a problem with the coin. >> the nfl declined to comment this week but previously said it would fight the suit adding,

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now to what may be the biggest fraud in american history. scammers stealing billions of dollars in pandemic assistance our lester holt sat down with deputy attorney general lisa monaco who's busy tracking down those fraudsters >> even i was surprised at the sheer brazenness of some of these fraud efforts. >> reporter: deputy attorney general lisa monaco is the top cop charged with prosecuting perhaps the biggest fraud in american history, pandemic relief fraud >> there is something that is truly corrupt about somebody or an organization that would go

after and try and line their own pockets and take from people who -- can't think of something that's more corrupt. >> reporter: over the past year the department of justice has charged more than 1,000 people and seized back more than a billion dollars in cash and luxury items like homes, cars, even a valuable pokémon card they say thousands of cases are underway, though, that is likely just scratching the surface of the total amount of fraud suspected to have occurred the goal of holding people accountable is certainly laudable but at what cost. at the end of the day you're going to be collecting pennies, $100 here? >> look, i'll leave the predictions to the investigators and analysts at the end of the day, but our work is far from over >> reporter: law enforcement sources tell nbc news they believe the majority of those responsible and the stolep funds are overseas to the extent you've seen state

actors involved here, our adversaries try to destabilize us >> i can say this, lester, we've certainly seen transnational organized criminal groups getting into the business of this pandemic fraud. >> reporter: in an effort to determine the scale of the loss, president biden announced last month that the justice department would appoint a chief prosecutor for covid related fraud. >> what we'll be doing this next phase is focusing on large scale criminal organizations, transnational actors who took it upon themselves to exploit the relief packages. >> reporter: kevin chambers, a former accountant turned prosecutor, will be deploying strike teams to comb through data looking for a digital evidence trail one of the things i know you have seen is people celebrating their success on social media. look what i got away with, here's my wad of cash. >> it's infuriating. >> their mocking you

>> they're mocking the government they're boasting about their crimes but we've got the data so you may get on instagram and show-off your fancy watch, buying furniture for the ill-gotten vacation home, but the fact of the matter is at some point you can expect a knock on your door >> reporter: but with estimates of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars stolen the task is enormous and only expected to grow we're talking fraud in the hundreds of thousands if not millions can yo hu nd do you know you're successful given the fact you or no one else can give us a real number how much money was taken, how many perpetrators there were >> we are successful every time we're holding accountable somebody who's trying to profit on the pain of americans >> our thanks to lester holt for that report. up next, tiger makes it look easy at the masters. we're live in augusta. stay with us because every day matters.

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welcome back to "early today. we're watching that western heat continuing m mid to upper 90s the snow pack in the sierra has been melling like this 95 in l.a. and could be 95 in fresno both could be record highs and happens all over again tomorrow, interior sections, but fineinally the coast begins to cool off for the rest of the country your saturday still breezy with hit and miss showers it looks pretty good for the final round of the masters it should be nearly perfect with temperatures warming up near 70 degrees. so severe weather that holds off at least for another couple days >> all right, a lot of people watching the masters, so we're going to head to augusta ahead of the second day of it. so will tiger woods make the

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all eyes were on tiger woods in the opening round of the masters in his first competitive round of golf since his horrific car crash. woods shot a 1 under 71, tied for tenth and just four strokes behind the leader. our jay gray is live in augusta. jay, good morning. >> reporter: frances, good morning to you look, the masters is one of golf's four major championships reserved for just the best players in the game. this year 90 elite golfers were invited, but clearly the focus here is on just one.

thousands of fans or patrons as their called here, crowding the first tee in some areas 15 and 20 deep. >> now driving, tiger woods. >> reporter: reintroduced to the man who has so often dominated and defined golf the fluid swing, the focused glare, the fist pump at times you could almost forget 14 months ago after a horrible car crash tiger woods wondered if he would lose his right leg for most just being here would be enough but not for woods. >> i figured once the adrenaline kicks in, we get fired up and i get into my little world i should be able to handle business >> reporter: and business is good for the five time masters champion, putting together one of his best opening rounds ever here finishing 1 under par, not in the lead but not too far behind even with some mistakes. and there are still questions

whether he can walk 4 miles four days in a row on his surgically repaired legs. woods counting on -- >> uh, lots of ice >> reporter: -- in between rounds to keep him going woods' comeback is already nothing short of a miracle yeah, and look, after a morning start yesterday woods is scheduled to tee off at 1:40 this afternoon giving him a bit more time for some rehab on that leg and rest >> yeah, if the rest of us have half day fridays to tune in to watch with millions of others. pink floyd reunites all in support of ukraine ♪ >> that was the first original

music since 1994 from the legendary rock group "hey hey rise up" features vocals from a ukrainian singer who cut his u.s. tour short to return home to fight against russia's violent invasion. those eeprocds

breaking right now at 4:30, a deadly rocket attack in ukraine. the packed train station targeting -- targeted, rather, early morning by russian troops. the pleas from ukraine's president and the heartbreaking images coming into the newsroom. >> and history made on capitol hill. the celebration planned today for judge ketanji brown jackson as she is set to become the first black woman to serve on the nation's highest court. plus -- >> just coming out to play. be prepared and play hard and, you know, get wins.