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another school shooting. this one at an elementary school, leaves two kindergartners critically injured. in new york city, the ceo of a major health insurer is gunned down in what police say was a targeted attack. the search for the gunman as police offer a reward for any information leading to the suspect. donald trump's pentagon pick vowing to stay the course amid scrutiny for sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse allegations. we're live from d.c. with pete hegseth's latest response and donald trump's newest pick for top government jobs. the supreme court takes up a landmark case on transgender care for minors. how the justices may be leaning in the coming ruling. and an abandoned dog who went viral in the lead up to hurricane milton gets his happy ending. it's thursday, december 5th. "early today" starts right now. good morning, i'm frances rivera. we begin with breaking news out

of california. two kindergartners are critically injured after a school shooting. the shooting happened near palermo yesterday afternoon. after the alleged gunman met with the school principal about enrolling a student. >> shortly after concluding that meeting, the principal heard shots being fired. heard screams. and that's when they determined or found that the two students had been shot. we have received some information that he may have targeted this school because of its affiliation th the seventh day adventist church. >> police say the shooter was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. in new york city, police are on the hunt for the gunman who fatally shot united health care ceo brian thompson. and a warning, some of the images you are about to see may be disturbing. he is seen walking to a conference when a gunman shoots

from behind. police continue to track several good leads. three senior law enforcement officials tell nbc news. our chris pollone has more. >> reporter: video obtained by nbc news shows the unitedhealth care ceo walking alone when a shooter gunned him down from behind. >> he ignores numerous other pedestrians. approaches the victim from behind and shoots him in the back. >> the shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot. >> reporter: the nypd commissioner calls it a brazen, targeted attack. >> this does not appear to be a random act of violence. >> reporter: the health care executive, brian thompson, was headed to an investor conference at the hotel around 6:40 in the morning when he was shot. the attacker, dressed in all black, was wearing a distinctive gray backpack during the shooting. he ran across the street and jumped on an ebike, last seen entering central park a few blocks away. >> he was shot, you know.

and when i look, the guy with the gun was like the black gun, and i saw him after he st him, he run across the street this way. >> reporter: police found three bullet casings and a cell phone at the scene. in a brief interview, thompson's wife said her husband had recently received threats but didn't elaborate. as they race to find a killer, they say the general public is safe. >> every indication is this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack. >> reporter: brian thompson was 50 years old. there's a $10,000 reward for information which helps capture his killer. chris pollone, nbc news. pennsylvania officials say the search for a grandmother who fell into a sinkhole has gone from a rescue mission to a recovery effort.

64-year-old elizabeth pollard went missing on monday when she went looking for her cat pepper. the sinkhole opened above a decades-old mine shaft believed to be 30 feet deep. police say there are diminishing oxygen levels and no signs of life near the shaft. they found her car near the site with her 5-year-old granddaughter inside unharmed. pete hegseth spent wednesday on capitol hill meeting with republican senators whose votes he needs. the war veteran and former fox news host is facing a tough confirmation hearing, if he even gets that far. increasing concerns about alleged sexual misconduct, binge drinking and other conduct are giving lawmakers pause. let's turn to brie jackson. what is hegseth saying? >> reporter: good morning, frances. hegseth is strike ago defiant tone. he's still denying all the allegations against him. and yesterday he published an op ed in the "wall street journal"

headlined, i've faced fire before, i won't back down. deriding what he calls a quote, press show trial based on anonymous accusations. he also did a wide ranging interview on megyn kelly's podcast. when asked about supposed alcohol abuse, hegseth told her that he intended to be completely drink-free during his tenure as defense secretary. >> when you call me 24/7, you're getting fully-dialed in pete, just like you always did in iraq and afghanistan. there won't be a drop of alcohol on my lips while i'm doing it. >> reporter: hegseth also insisted he still has donald trump's support and says the president-elect told him this sn the phone yesterday. >> pete, i've got your back. it's a fight. they're coming after you. get after it. >> reporter: but amid the controversy, mr. trump is said to be looking around for other candidates.

according to sources f familiar with decision making, he's considering names such as senator joni ernst, florida governor ron desantis and florida congressman mike waltz. the uncertainty led josh hawley to tell reporters, quote, it's not 100% clear to me who he wants as secretary of defense right now. amid all of this, mr. trump has rolled out new names for top jobs, among them, peter navarro who will return as a trade advisor. navarro spent four months in prison for contempt of congress for defying a subpoena related to the january 6 investigation. mr. trump has also picked former georgia senator kelly loeffler to head up the small business administration. she's a trump ally who has supported his false claims of election fraud. >> brie, thanks. political crisis in france. the french government toppled yesterday after far left and far right lawmakers came together to pass a no-confidence measure

against prime minister barnier. and, his cabinet, now barnier must tender his resignation to french president macron. it is the first time a prime minister has been ousted like this since 1962. what a turn around from a couple months ago. >> reporter: that's absolutely, that's right. only three months ago, the french prime minister was appointed by macron, and three months later he's ousted, making essentially his government the shortest lived in french history. that didn't really come as much of a surprise. because, since he was appointed in september by macron, barnier had to deal not only with a very fractured, divided government where there was no real majority, very difficult to govern, but with widespread discontent about several issues, migration, rising inflation, but, in the end, it was the budget deficit that did it for

barnier. i propos billions of dollars in spending cuts, billions of dollars in tax increases, and that united, essentially, the usually-divided opposition parties from the left and from the right against barnier. now, as you mentioned, barnier will have to tender his resignation to the president, to president macron leading to up inevitably a political crisis in france. but not only for the government, also for the president, because the president can choose a successor but cannot dissolve parliament until next year. whoever he chooses can be ousted as well by the opposition. and, if he cannot find a candidate that has the approval and support of the majority, then president macron himself will face also calls to resign, frances. >> could be very tumultuous for france, claudio, thank you. the woman who evaded security at new york's jfk airport and boarded the flight to paris as a stow away returned to jfk yesterday and was taken

into custody. now the russian national is expected in brooklyn federal court today. a senior law enforcement person tells nbc, dali could face charges tied to the incident. some festive flurries were in the air as the iconic christmas tree in rockefeller center was officially lit. >> >> four! three! two! one! ♪ joy to the world ♪ >> some 50,000 colorful lights cover every inch of this 74-foot norway spruce. it will be lit from 5:00 a.m. through midnight every day from now until mid january. and on christmas eve, the tree will be lit for 24 hours. then the rain came much lalater. thank goodness for all those people there. let's turn to nbc meteorologist angie lassman who is tracking winter warnings. what are we looking at? >> good morning, frances. we've got them across the northeast and the midwest. there's 19 million people included in these. so waking up to chilly

temperatures and potentially snowy conditions and a little wet weather. let's time that out for you. that system is a clipper system. it's going to be out of here pretty quick. but that doesn't mean it won't be impactful. we'll see squalls of snow, strong winds. then we see that sticking around as we get into tomorrow with the snow bands popping up just east and downwind of those lakes. so more additional snow for folks there. highest amounts, about a foot in some of these spots, downwind of the lakes. but we could see an inch to three inches across these regions. 62 million people under wind alerts, maybe downed power lines, downed trees will be a possibility. notice these peak wind gusts as we get through the day. 48 miles per hour in new york city. chicago into the 30s. so, again, a gusty and chilly

mostly sunny skies in new york. rain in the forecast for boston. snowshowers for buffalo and scranton. the mega millions jackpot keeps owing even bigger. the big prize is now at $579 million after no one won tuesday's drawing, this is the tenth largest in its history. the cash option is worth $276 million. the jackpot has been building since september 13th with over 14 million smaller prizes won so far. the next drawing is tomorrow at 11:00 p.m. eastern. coming up, the supreme court takes up a historic case on transgender care, plus new eligibility policies for transgender golfers. we're back in 60 seconds. back i.

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a potential landmark case before the supreme court concerning transgender rights and one state's law regarding trans care. how the justices signaled they may rule. >> reporter: the so-called culture wars colliding with the supreme court. >> i'm not against trans, trans rights. i'm against it on minors. >> reporter: as the justices consider whether states can restrict gender affirming care for kids and teens. and the feeling so far, support for letting it continue. >> the constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor. >> reporter: at issue, a tennessee law that banned puberty blockers andormone

therapy for trans youth but allows treatments for other reasons. that's why they argue it discriminates on the basis of sex. >> one of the articulated purposes of this law is essentially to encourage gender conformity and to discourage anything other than gender conformity. sounds to me like we want boys to be boys, and we want girls to be girls. >> reporter: but others pointing to places in europe, putting restrictions on gender-affirming care. >> the countries that have been at the forefront of this are pumping the brakes on this kind of treatment because of concerns about the risks. >> reporter: the biden administration pushing back, pointing to how the treatments have saved lives, atlas mcginnis and his mom courtney traveling from delaware just to be at court. >> as a parent you just automatically go through, how am i going to make sure that my child gets the care that they need. >> reporter: what would you want the justices to know about you if you could give them a message?

>> i'm human. i'm just the same as any other kid, other than the fact that i identify differently. >> reporter: any impact would stretch far beyond tennessee. more than 20 other states have similar laws in place. part of an intense debate nationally over trans rights. any decision probably won't come until closer to the end of the court's term in june. >> our thanks to hallie for that report. still to come, the playing field changes in two major sports. the nfl unveils new changes to its drug policies, while the governing bodies of golf enact new rules for transgender golfers. more after this. der golfers. more after this. can keep coming back. start to break away from uc with tremfya... with rapid relief at 4 weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation. at one year, many people experienced remission... and some saw 100% visible healing of their intestinal lining. serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections may occur.

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well, first of all, i have to say the obvious. stay off the weed! >> sorry. bad news for stephen a. smith. marijuana is closer than ever to being legal for football

players. pro football talk reported wednesday that the nfl is relaxing its substance abuse policy. the new rules had raise the league's limit for thc concentration to 350 nanograms per millimeter up from 150. the fines levied on players for positive tests will also be reduced with the penalty for the first violation dropping to $15,000. ultimately. the controversy, everybody has this opinions on this. >> yeah. >> but a matter of what they're doing on the field and how this affects them. >> and we've seen changes with state legislation and such in recent years. so we'll see how that turns out. turning to more rule changes in sports, this time for golf. on wednesday, the usga and lpga announced new eligibility policies involving transgender golfers. the new rules say trans women players must establish that they have not experienced male puberty and meet testosterone requirements. the lpga says the changes came

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ending for one pooch who went viral after being found abandoned ahead of hurricane milton. valerie castro tells us the good news. >> reporter: as hurricane milton barrelled towards florida in october, this video of an abandoned dog left tied to a fence along i-75 went viral. >> it's okay, buddy. >> reporter: a florida highway patrol trooper rescuing the bull terrier from chest-high floodwaters. the dog ended up in the care of the leon county humane society, naming him trooper. >> i was, like, he's with us, and we get to decide what happens with him, and we get to make sure that he's going to have a happy life and happy ending. >> reporter: the shelter says in the first week more than 500 inquiries were made from people hoping to give trooper that happy ending and a new home. but one in particular stood out above the rest. >> they sent an e-mail to us within the first week of us having him before we were even, like, accepting applications on him or thinking about getting

him adopted out. >> reporter: the e-mail came from frank and carla spina, dog lovers familiar with the breed, who had also recently said good-bye to their own beloved bull terrier diesel. >> diesel left a hole in our hearts the size of a baseball. and we were really sick over it. and, when we, i think when we saw trooper together, we realized that diesel was signaling us, hey, guys, you need to move on. you need to go get trooper and move on and take care of him now. >> reporter: the day came for the couple to meet trooper, and it couldn't have gone any better. >> literally, the moment they walked in, you could see that trooper was totally cool with them. >> reporter: one potential hiccup, trooper's fear of men after abused by a previous owner, but frank didn't phase him. >> i had told them, i already know what's going to happen. i've been doing this 33 years. we're going to be best buddies in five minutes. and it took about three minutes. >> reporter: another wag of the

tail came when it was time to meet their other dog, dallas. >> they were a match made in heaven. >> reporter: trooper now settling in at home. >> come on in, buddy. there he is! there he is. >> reporter: a perfect fit with his new family. when you look back at that video where he's terrified and growling and, you know, water up to his chest, and to see how far he's come, how do you feel, knowing that you have been able to give him a second chance? >> i want to say this without crying. it's amazing. it feels really good. >> he needed somebody to love him. he's great. as you can see, he's great. >> reporter: valerie castro, nbc news. >> they were all meant to be together. thanks so much for being with me and watching "early today." i'm frances rivera. have a great thursday.