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today, friday, march 7, 2025. curbing doge. president trump places new limits on elon musk and his department of government efficiency. who he says should be in charge of making those sweeping staffing cuts. on the hunt. the nation's unemployment rate appears to be ticking up, but the new numbers may not paint the full picture. we'll break down what they mean. out with a bang. spacex's starship rocket explodes just minutes after liftoff, and not for the first time. what ceo elon musk is saying. and it's giving retirement. are you a gen z'er who's already thinking about giving up work? people in their 20s are doing just that, so stick around. we will explain. but we're not going anywhere. we are still very much working. so, we are going to begin this hour with the fast-moving effort by the trump administration to make cuts to the federal government. president trump is trying to make it clear that he and the cabinet secretaries are in charge of cutting staff, not elon musk.

the president said he wants his administration to use a scalpel, not a hatchet approach to down-sizing the government. here's what the president said after meeting with his cabinet and musk just yesterday. >> i don't want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut. i want the cabinet members to keep the good people and the people that aren't doing a good job, that are unreliable, don't show up to work, et cetera, those people can be cut. if they can cut, it's better, and if they don't cut, then elon will do the cutting. >> leading us off this hour, nbc news senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. kelly, this does feel like a bit of a tone shift. why might the president have made those comments yesterday, and are there any firm or new guardrails on what elon musk can or cannot do? >> reporter: well, clearly, the relationship between the president and elon musk has been a huge topic for the weeks that this administration has been in office, and trying to assess what is the nature of their

partnership, what are the rules and guardrails as you indicated for how musk is able to carry out his plans to reduce the size of government and to shrink the federal workforce. what the president is saying here is that it reflects that he is hearing from cabinet members and members of congress and perhaps a wider american public in the different ways that people have been speaking out about their concerns about sudden job losses, especially among veterans, questions about areas where key personnel have been cut and in some cases, restored. and so, the message he is sending is that the first line of cutting, which they still believe needs to be done, should come from cabinet officials who are all confirmed by the senate, are in charge of their various departments. and then the president has indicated if they can't get to sufficient numbers, then the doge team, led by musk, would go in and do further cuts. but it's clear that there is some tension between these cabinet officials and the team from doge. >> and kelly, we know the president is also hosting a summit today on cryptocurrency

at the white house. we know he and the first lady have been into that. what's on the agenda right now? >> reporter: that will be coming up shortly, and we expect that what the white house is trying to do is to shine a light on this. this was an industry that was influential during the campaign season, supporting the president, so you often see examples of him taking actions and highlighting different areas where he believes he's got a relationship already. so, that's certainly a part of it. they're talking about a bitcoin reserve, also, which would have the government hold in a reserve for security bitcoin that has been confiscated through various criminal activities, and there's talk that they want to roll back some of the regulations that came during the biden administration with respect to the crypto industry. >> kelly o'donnell, thanks so much. president trump is also highlighting the february jobs report that was released earlier today. 151,000 jobs were added last month, according to the bureau of labor statistics.

and while that is a solid number, it's lower than what some economists predicted. the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%, and here's what the president said in the oval office earlier today. >> i think the labor market's going to be fantastic, t it's going to have high-paying manufacturing jobs as opposed to government jobs. we're here for just a little over four weeks, and these are fantastic numbers. >> nbc news business and data correspondent brian cheung joins us now. brian, we heard the president mention government jobs and we have been talking a lot about mass layoffs, so is this report really giving us insight into those newer cuts? >> let's unpack the headline number by mentioning the unloimt rate looks pretty good, about in line with what we have been seeing in the past few months, kind of going sideways and that 151,000 jobs number, again, how many were added in february, that was a little bit below what economists were expecting. they were expecting about 170,000. but of course, the next natural question is the industry

breakdown. we can go into this in a second, but you ask about the government. i want to remind everyone that this report did tell us that we got -- we lost, rather, 10,000 federal government jobs in the month. but as a percentage of the overall workforce, you can see there are 3 million federal employees, according to the government. that's not really that big of a dent there and also doesn't match up with what we heard from the white house, which is that they said 75,000 federal workers accepted the offer for a buyout. there are questions over whether or not if someone got a buyout, if they would be classified as being out of work, because maybe that means they're on the payroll through the end of the year. either way, this doesn't match of february.he jobs data is as maybe this just won't show up until the next report. but nonetheless, the overall picture of the federal workforce, it's only 1.5%. 3 million as a result of the overall workforce, it's not all that much. but again, we haven't really seen the full impact of this either at the federal employee level or at the wholesale, you know, government -- or u.s. employment levels. >> right.

and brian, that's just one industry. we've also been hearing the term stagflation pop up. can you break down what that is? >> stagflation is the term that's used by economists to describe an economy where you have high inflation, high unemployment, and you also have slow economic growth. now, this jobs report doesn't necessarily tell us that we're in stagflation because if you look at the overall unemployment rate, we're basically just hovering around here, which is in line with what we had seen in the latter parts of the biden administration. but of course, the trump administration just began and some of these concerns about stagflation, which could be the result of tariffs, because tariffs could make prices go higher. that means that recipe for stagflation, again, the higher prices, that could be a result of that. we'll have to see in the months to come, zinhle. >> brian cheung with our money, thanks so much. and we are also following the dramatic spacex rocket explosion. it happened last night just minutes after liftoff from texas. the starship mega rocket did not have anyone on board, but it caused a major airline disruption, triggering temporary ground stops at airports across florida. the faa said that there were 171

departure delays and 28 flights diverted, and if that sounds familiar, it's because this has happened before. during the last test flight, back in january. and it's just the latest setback for the company owned by elon musk. joining us now, nbc news correspondent marissa para. what do we know about what caused the explosion, and is there any threat to the public in the air or on the ground? because those images were quite striking. >> well, definitely scary for a lot of people, especially those who did not know what it was as they were watching it. zinhle, those are questions that are going to be analyzed by investigators, but early indications suggest that this was a failure of the upper stage vehicle. we know watching the live stream, we could see the failure of some of those engines. this is what spacex confirmed in their statement that they posted shortly after this incident. they said because of the loss of the engines, the vehicle subsequently lost orientation. they call that attitude in space talk, if you will. and then, they lost

communication. that is when we expect that that was the moment right before you're seeing right now on your screen as the vehicle broke apart into several pieces, causing quite the show. and not to be confused with what we saw in january, because we had the seventh test flight in january, and then last night was the eighth test flight. and in january, there was a mishap that also led to similar images to what you were seeing on your screen, debris, pieces of it falling all across the turks and caicos. residents tell me they are still picking up the pieces and finding them along the beaches there. after that seventh test flight, we know the faa had grounded starship, said they were going to launch an investigation, and spacex said they were going to bolster the upper stage vehicle to try to make sure that this didn't happen. it did. and of course, that is something they're going to study and analyze. i want to take you to elon musk, who posted on his own social media platform, in part, among the many things he said, "acknowledging rockets are hard." he's right. they are. and i will acknowledge that they

did have a major feat of engineering, that super heavy booster, the booster that's caught in the chop stick arms, zinhle, they were able to pull that off. they did it once again for a third time, which is a massive accomplishment here, but definitely something that everyone's paying attention to. but when it comes to threat, zinhle, to answer your earlier question, no injuries reported. no significant damage reported. ground stops at four airports left airplanes on the ground for about 45 minutes, but that ground stop was lifted. planes were able to go backback the air, zinhle. >> marissa, you're killing it. lots of details. rockets are hard. living is hard. being in space is hard for those two astronauts who have been on the international space station for months. has this impacted them at all? >> the good news is not t at al. totally different rockets. so, as of right now, spacex still set to have their crew ten launch, so butch and suni would be slated to return home about a week after that. so, there will be a lot of fanfare, lot of eyes on that,

and that is still the good news here expected to be on schedule. be right here, telling you how it went. >> marissa parra, thanks so much. and now to an update to a story we brought you yesterday. a privately built lunar lander named athena touched down on the moon yesterday but did not stick the landing. intuitive machines, which developed that lander, said athena's mission was over after laing on its side in a crater. it was the second attempt for the company, with the first mission also ending in a sideways landing. instagram is working on a new feature, and delta is developing a more fuel-efficient way to fly. pippa stevens joins us with today's cnbc money minute. >> instagram is working on a community chat feature that would allow users to organize groups of up to 250 in the app. according to engadget, the feature will allow users to form chats around a specific topic and control who can join, much like discord. the spokesperson for instagram

said the feature is an internal prototype and it's unclear when or if the feature will launch to the public. and delta says it's designing the future of air travel. it's partnering with california-based jet zero on the plane that it says will help reduce emissions and fuel costs. delta is hoping to have a prototype in the skies by 2027. finally, a major change is coming to professional women's tennis. the women's tennis association announced thursday, it's launching paid maternity leave funded by the saudi arabian public investment fund. as part of the program, more than 300 players will be eligible to receive up to a year of paid benefits and have access to grants for fertility treatments. women's tennis is one of the last professional sports to offer these benefits. zinhle? >> that's some good news, especially with international women's day. pippa stooechz stevens, thanks so much. later this hour, it's real-life happy feet. we'll introduce you to marley, the painting penguin, going viral for her masterpieces.

plus, growing concern over the nation's measles outbreak, what we're learning about the latest deadly case. that's next on "nbc news daily." i told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms... ...with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms after trying humira, rinvoq works differently. rinvoq is a once-daily pill from the makers of humira that can rapidly relieve joint pain, stiffness, and swelling as fast as 2 weeks for some. and even at the 3-year mark, many people felt this relief. rinvoq can stop joint damage. and in psa, can leave skin clear or almost clear. rinvoq can lower ability to fight infections. before treatment, test for tb and do bloodwork. serious infections, blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin; serious allergic reactions; gi tears; death; heart attack; and stroke occurred. cv event risk increases in age 50 plus with a heart disease risk factor. tell your doctor if you've had these events, infection, hep b or c, smoked, are pregnant or planning.

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(♪♪) voltaren... for long lasting arthritis pain relief. (♪♪) welcome back. an nbc news exclusive this hour. u.s. immigration agents have a new target for their arrests. undocumented migrant families and their children. that's according to three sources familiar with the

planning. the operation is zeroing in on adults and minors who entered the country together illegally and have orders of deportation. the sources say immigration and customs enforcement or i.c.e. is now working on getting warrants to enter home and start making arrests. joining us now, nbc news senior homeland security correspondent julia ainsley, who's behind this exclusive reporting. julia, if we step back, president trump previously said on the campaign trail that he wanted to target migrants who were in the u.s. illegally and had criminal histories, but now, many of these undocumented families with children do not have criminal history, so it sounds like anybody could be arrested. >> yeah, i mean, this is a completely different demographic than the people that trump was singling out on the campaign trail where he was looking at places he said that had been overrun, in his words, by criminal gangs. he looked at people who had been murdered by people who he said were in the country illegally. now, he's talking about targeting families, not because

they have any kind of criminal records but because they're part of families. they're also trying to find unaccompanied children, people who crossed the border as minors without parents, and trying to figure out where those people are and get em court dates so they can be deported. this is a divergence generally from that campaign promise but also from policy, which has generally been to go after criminals, people considered public safety and national security threats, and if, in the course of those operations, you find non-criminals who are also in the country illegally, they might be picked up simply by where they are in proximity to the operation. but this is different, because in this case, they are actually targeting families, including those who have no record besides being in the country illegally. >> and julia, how does this new approach to undocumented migrant families differ from what former president biden did when in office? >> well, it's completely different from biden, because biden did not detain migrant families. he actually ended that policy. but it's even different from the first trump administration and

the obama administration. obama actually began detaining migrant families in 2014 when there was a surge in families crossing the border. they detained them after they crossed the border, and then they were released with court orders to appear in court to see if they could stay here. now, trump will be taking migrants from the interior of the country, families with kids in school, uprooting them, holding them in detention before they're deported. so, even though they're using this same facilities, the way these families are coming into these places and then out when they're deported is completely different. >> julia ainsley, thanks so much. health officials say a second death could now be linked to the measles virus as cases continue to climb. according to the new mexico department of health and unvaccinated adult tested positive for measles after they died. however, they are still determining the official cause of death. we also learned today the total number of cases in new mexico has now reached 30, while nearby texas has nearly confirmed 200 cases. nbc news correspondent emilie

ikeda is following these developments for us. emilie, walk us through what we should understand about these new cases and also remind us of symptoms to watch out for. >> you'll hear experts talk about how this is considered one of the most contagious diseases in the entire world. what they mean by that is they say if an infected person is in a room with ten unvaccinated people, nine out of the ten people will contract the virus. so, that's where a lot of this concern is, and where it starts to explain why we're seeing the numbers rise so quickly. as you mentioned, earlier today, we're hearing the numbers actually tripled in one county in eastern new mexico. then in west texas, really, the epicenter of this outbreak, that number has risen to 19 measles cases in just the last month or so. we saw the first measles-related death out of that state in over a ecade and there may be a second one that happened in new mexico. it's importanto note that officials will point out that two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective, which is part of the reason why it is so highly

encouraged. symptoms related to measles typically develop one to two weeks after making contact, and so a of high fever, cough, runny nose, red, watery eyes -- tiny white spots inside the mouth and of course you'll see in those pictures, -- lead to hospitalization. that speaks to the seriousness. >> incredible. up ahead, a death row inmate set to be executed tonight and the method is his choice. we'll explain. if you have heart failure or chronic kidney disease, farxiga can help you keep living life, because there are places you'd like to be. (♪♪) serious side effects include increased ketones in blood or urine and bacterial infection between the anus and genitals, both which may be fatal, severe allergic reactions,

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headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. ask your doctor or pharmacacist about shingrix today. fast forward on nbc news daily. vta workers are planning to strike on monday. that's if wage negotiations are not settled over this weekend. commuters should expect it to impact travel times. whether you take vta in the south bay or not. nbc bay area's kris sanchez is in san jose with what you need to know ahead of monday. the union hand-delivered their notice that they plan to walk off the job as of monday morning. so if you use vta, you need to plan ahead. if you drive to where you're going, you can expect more traffic. if you use rideshares, there probably will be more demand as well. the vta operators strike officially begins at 1201 monday

morning. 1500 bus and train operators could be off the job during the work stoppage. their union, amalgamated transit uni local 265, is scheduled to gather later today. now the two sides are at an impasse over wages. vta is offering 9% ov three years, and the union is asking for 18% over the same period. the vta says it's a good offer, but the union says pay is not the only thing that matters to its members. this is a very competitive offer. it continues to keep our front line workers as the second highest paid of transportation agencies in the bay area. them having unilateral authority on deciding if a, you know, a grievance holds merit or not. i mean, we can't have that, right? that's the resolution process is the base of the entire agreement. if we don't have that, then the entire agreement is meaningless. the atu local two, six, five has been around for more than 100 years. this will be the first time it's gone on strike in its

history. by the way, one thing both sides seem to agree on is that they feel very bad that the public is now stuck in the middle. if nothing happens. over the weekend in the south bay. kris sanchez, nbc bay area news. thank you chris. north bay police say officers found the vandal who damaged a rohnert park elementary school so badly that administrators had to cancel classes. the break-in happened early monday morning at john reed elementary. the vandal damaged 20 classrooms. reed elementary hasn't given any specific details on the damage, but it caused the superintendent to cancel classes for all 400 students. detectives arrested 18 year old david beach. he is now facing felony vandalism and grand theft charges. the athletic program at san francisco state is facing some major cuts. university leaders announced it is getting rid of men's soccer and baseball teams, along with women's indoor track and field. the sports department says it's because of a budget shortfall and declining enrollment. the cuts are scheduled to take effect july 1st. it's read across america

week, and today, congressman sam liccardo is celebrating with meadows elementary school in san jose. he read the giving tree by shel silverstein to a class of third grade students this morning. read across america week kicked off on sunday. the celebration promotes the power of reading, and it honors the birthday of the iconic children's author, doctor seuss. this year's theme highlights the importance of reading to help children discover perspectives and worlds. more sunshine today and a bit more warmth. here's meteorologist kari hall with what to expect. we started our friday morning with chilly temperatures and even frosty in some of the inland valleys, but we are headed for the mid 60s today. it's going to be mostly sunny and a comfortable day with a light jacket as we go into this afternoon, but then temperatures drop very quickly tonight as we make it back down to the upper 30s. and then for tomorrow, we're looking at highs that will be slightly warmer than what we are going to see today, up to 64 degrees in

novato, as well as napa and 66 degrees for oakland and martinez, up to 69 degrees in san jose. by sunday, we're also looking at more of the same temperatures and still pretty clear. but then as we get ready for the new workweek, we are going to see more clouds rolling in a storm system just to our south, and cooler temperatures will continue through the middle of the week. so we'll take a look at all of that and our next storm system coming up in the next 30 minutes. thanks, kari. well, just about an hour ago, we learned oakland native and founding member of the music group toni. toni. toni has died. the family of d'wayne wiggins said he passed away this morning following a battle with bladder cancer. toni. toni. toni first rose to fame back in the late 80s. the group achieved some of its greatest success with hits it never rains in southern california and anniversary. wiggins had just recently got married. he was 64 years old. we

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has hatched. the eaglets have not been named yet but the nonprofit overseeing the eagle nest camera says they will welcome name suggestions from the public. the organization will then let third graders vote on the name finalists. the birds will be with their parents for 10 to 14 weeks before leaving the nest, and our big congratulations to those new parents, jackie and shadow. a maryland judge has reduced the sentence of adnan syed to time served. the 43-year-old was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for the murder of his former high school girlfriend in 1999. in 2014, the hit podcast, "serial," raised questions about syed's conviction. afr years of appeals, syed was released from prison in 2022. he has maintained his innocence. after his release, a lawyer for the lee family stated, "we hope that one day mr. syed can take responsibility for his crimes and express sincere remorse." he now faces five years of

supervised release. in paris, train services were suspended for several hours while crews disposed of an unexploded bomb from world war ii. the bomb was discovered overnight by construction workers replacing a bridge. police had to secure a perimeter of 1,500 feet to keep everyone at a safe distance. hundreds of thousands of travelers were affected by this delay, and according to france's interior ministry, millions of bombs have been disposed of since the war ended in 1945 but rarely in such a populated location. south carolina's execution chambers are equipped for three different types of death. death row inmate brad sigmund chose to be executed today by firing squad today and it's a case reigniting national dialogue about the death penalty as the first excuse by firing squad in 15 years. >> reporter: a metal chair, a hood over his head and a target

over his heart. that is how death row inmate brad sigmund is set to be executed by firing squad. >> brad is aware of what the firing squad will do to him. he knows it's going to break his bones. he knows it's going to destroy his organs. but the alternative is potentially an excruciating 20-minute death. >> reporter: sigmund was convicted of first-degree murder for killing his exgirlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in 2002. sigmund's lawyer says he believes the firing squad offers fewer unknowns than lethal injection. >> the protocol contains none of the information about the drugs that you would want to know before making the choice. it doesn't tell you what their expiration date is. it doesn't tell you their potency, how they're stored. that's the information that brad has asked for repeatedly, and that's the information that the state refuses to provide. >> reporter: according to south carolina's department of corrections, the state's last three executions by lethal

injection lasted more than 20 minutes. but the state says the condemned were unconscious for most of that time. sigmund's lawyer say a state autopsy revealed excruciating conditions. two of the inmate's lungs filling with liquid, an experience critics say is akin to water boarding. the state says it's followed its protocols precisely. >> what we know from the firing squad is that a death by firing squad happens almost immediately. it doesn't mean it's not going to be painful. but lethal injection is absolutely painful, as we're now coming to realize. just takes longer. >> reporter: some legal experts say secrecy laws like south carolina's and common among death penalty states, hide issues with lethal injection. one of the reasons brad sigmund says that he's choosing execution by firing squad is that he feels he does not have enough information from the state about their lethal injection protocol. how does that work?

>> i would not assume that the states know what they're doing. the states are using secrecy to hide what lethal injection is from a to z. they can't get the drugs that they need to inject. they can't get the qualified medical personnel that they need. and all too often, they can't access the prisoner's vein. the closer we look, the more we know about these execution protocols, the more problematic they are. >> reporter: south carolina could not obtain lethal injection drugs for years until it shielded its suppliers with a secrecy law in 2023. >> drug manufacturers do not furnish south carolina with the lethal drugs because we had no shield law. once they said that, the only alternative was the electric chair. >> reporter: attorney hart was the state senator who introduced the bill to legalize the firing squad in 2021. >> they'd have this choice, which i thought was more humane until we could get a shield law. >> reporter: south carolina is not the only state turning to

alternative methods to kill. later this month, louisiana will gas a prisoner with nitrogen, a method first tested by alabama last year. the firing squad is legal in four other states with arizona now considering the same. all as multiple civil rights groups continue to oppose the death penalty altogether, and on friday, just three media witnesses are expected to be in the room. >> suddenly, the curtain opens, and mr. gardner was already sitting in the chair, and he's got this white square on his chest like a target. >> reporter: the firing squad was last used in the united states 15 years ago in utah to execute ronnie lee gardner. reporter jennifer dobner was there. >> we heard boom, boom, not just one single report. and like the target on his chest kind of blew up. the fabric kind of blew up. and then it was really quiet after that. and the medical examiner came out about two minutes later and

pronounced him dead. >> reporter: and that's the fate that awaits brad sigmund. and be sure to watch more of my reporting tonight on "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. turning overseas, president trump is threatening new sanctions against russia over that country's bombardment of ukraine. but earlier today, mr. trump seemed to give some mixed messaging, telling reporters he's finding it "more difficult to work with ukraine on a peace deal." the comments came hours after ukraine endured what president zelelenskyy called a "massive attack" on its energy infrastructure overnight, carried out by russian missiles and drones. nbc news international correspondent kelly cobiella joins us now. so, kelly, president trump has prior threatened "large-scale sanctions" against russia, but he also spoke about the war in the oval office earlier today. so, talk to us about what he is saying. >> reporter: yeah, so, those comments about sanctions came in a truth social post earlier today. he said, in that post, that

based on the fact that russia is, in his words, absolutely pounding ukraine on the battlefield, that he was strongly considering large-scale sanctions and tariffs on russia until a ceasefire and final settlement agreement on peace is reached. but he was then asked by report ers today in the oval office if he thinks russia wants peace. take a listen to what he had to say. >> i find that in terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with russia, which is surprising, because they have all the cards. i mean -- and they're bombing the hell out of them right now. and i put a statement in, a very strong statement, can't do that. >> reporter: he was there referring to his earlier truth social post. that russian attack on ukraine involved nearly 70 missiles and 200 drones targeting energy and gas infrastructure across the country. and ukraine did say that the pause in military intelligence help from the u.s. made it tougher for the country to defend itself.

>> and kelly, briefly, u.s. and ukraine will hold peace talks in saudi arabia next week. what do we know so far about those meetings? >> reporter: yeah, so, senior trump administration officials, including the secretary of state, the middle east envoy, steve witkoff, and national security advisor mike wallace, all planning to meet with the ukrainians in saudi arabia. the goal, to pin down a framework for peace, for a peace agreement, and initial ceasefire. there are a couple of different conflicting ideas on the part of the ukrainians and the russians about how this should go. ukraine wants the first step to be a halt to the kinds of attacks that happened last night on the part of russia, calling for a truce covering the air and sea. the kremlin wants to go back to this 2022 draft agreement that was drafted in istanbul as the starting point, and the ukrainians have said, repeatedly, that is a nonstarter. >> kelly cobiella, thanks so much. now to a bit of a palate cleanser. have you heard about the new

artist everyone is talking about? she's 21. she was struggling until she went viral on social media. she's a penguin. marley, the artist penguin, and if you doubt her abilities, prepare to be amazed. george solis paints the picture worth a thousand waddles. >> wow! so beautiful! >> reporter: when it comes to art, it really doesn't get more black and white than this. >> wow. i think that's it. good girl. >> reporter: that's a penguin whimsically waddling over a canvas and loving every second of it. meet marley, the 21-year-old northern rock hopper penguin, who for two decades, that be creating these festive footprint masterpieces to little fanfare. until this video on tiktok of her painting and being praised went super viral recently. amassing 60 million views in more than 32,000 comments, like, why was i not informed that

penguin penguin art assistant was a career option? my favorite, i would skip paying my rent for this partwork. i've done a lot of zoom interviews in my career, but interviewing a penguin has to be a first. hi. nice to meet you. as you may have guessed, marley is less of a talker and more of a squawker, but fortunately, her assistant, penguin biologist jamie, fills us in. they have other penguins that do this. what makes marley so unique? >> marley's penalty is one in a million. she has the most social butterfly attitude that i have ever seen in my whole life. >> reporter: teaching marley to paint, as well as a few other penguins, was a step-by-step process, an idea born from watching the already social by nature rock hoppers appearing to beinterested in their own footprints. from there, it was a matter of making sure they were comfortable with the tools, and the rest is art history. the aquarium at moody gardens is home to more than 100 penguins,

including rock hoppers, all named after rock stars. >> so beautiful. >> reporter: but it's marley, named after bob, who steals the show, jamming with each piece she stamps. about 200 pieces now. >> i think her looking at the paintings and just having that interactions with the guests really makes her stand out. >> reporter: marley is also an ambassador for her species. northern rock hoppers are endangered with an estimated 480,000 left in the wild. her newfound stardom also helping raise money towards animal conservation. demand for marley's artwork has skyrocketed, selling for $50 a pop online. what category would you put her art in? >> honestly, i think it's its own genre. i think penguin art needs to be its own thing. >> oh, whatever genre it is, george, i want it. that is so fun. and up ahead, a growing number of young adults say they are retiring. you heard that right. well, at least for a few months. what's behind the emerging trend? but first, time for day's daily

snapshot and a colorful look at the final frontier. you are looking at the veil nebula. it is the remains of a star that was roughly 20 times as massive as our sun, which exploded about 10,000 years ago. this stunning image was captured by the famed hubble space telescope. scientists are going to compare this image to ones taken of the nub la 30 years ago to track how it has moved over time. the cosmic ballet goes on. more "nbc newsaily" right d

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in today's mental health check, we are at the beach talking about retirement. well, micro-retirement, to be exact. it's a new way gen z workers say they're combatting burnout in the workforce. instead of waiting until they're in their 60s, they're taking time off nonow to resand pursue their passions. >> i am in a micro-retirement right now. i actually took off six months ago from a corporate job, and i just started interviewing again. i plan on taking six months to a year off, and i have never felt better. i've never felt healthier. i've never felt more rested. >> joining us now is leadership and career coach. thanks for being with us. > thanks much for having me. >> this is a new term. how does it work? what is it? how does it combat burnout? >> so, as we were talking about, it's a bit of a rebrand on a

sabbatical, and it can be really helpful in terms of burnout because it allows us to get ahead of it. so much of us are hard rj chaing in our careers, waiting for burnout to happen. it allows us to mitigate some of that mental fatigue we're also feeling that can be so burdensome, which is, again, really helpful. it allows us to realign around our careers. >> like a moment to pause and reflect. i imagine for a lot of people at home, though, they might go, wait a minute, what are you doing if you don't have that paycheck? how do you do micro-retirement in a way that's financially sustainable or is it? >> that's a great question. obviously, there's a financial impact. there's loss of income. so, we need to plan for that. and so, i'm a big advocate for making sure that you have your savings, your emergency fund, about six to 12 months there, and even thinking about what you're going to do for health insurance, and even having a reintegrion fund for when you are ready to start looking for a job again, giving yourself some wiggle room. >> reintegration as in when you go back to work. >> exactly. >> really interesting.

i imagine, though, people don't just go up to their boss and say, i would love to micro-retire. how do you go about doing that? >> well, everything's a negotiation. you can always go to your employer and say you need a sabbatical for whatever reason. you might also leave your current employment and be looking for a new job and delay that start date so that you can have that micro-retirement. >> how can someone go about planning for micro-retirement? i will say, after covid, i have a lot of friends pause and do this sort of reset. so, what if someone out there wants to plan? >> there's a financial aspect, which is a really big piece, and also planning for your career. you want to be strategic around it. is this a moment in your career that actually makes sense? because if it's a high-earning time or a moment of lift, you may not want to take micro-retirement. but if you're in a rut, it could be the perfect time. think about what that re-entry is going to be lilike. we want to be strategic. be prepared for the fact that you need to position the gap well and there may be an impact of stepping out.

you may be less relevant when you re-enter. >> i love that, but also, it could be an additive time, depending on what you choose to do with it. for folks who maybe say that sounds cool but i just can't afford it right now, i've tried to plan and it doesn't work, how can they still make a work-life balance? >> i actually love the phrasing, work-life agility, versus balance, because balance implies stasis, like we're static. but with agility, we can jockeying between work and our life outside of work, and if we want to be in our careers for more than just a season, which most of us need to be, right, we need to be in it for the long haul, we need to focus on endurance, which requires pacing, rest, and recovery. we need to focus on those three areas. >> i love that. like it ebbs and flows. maybe there's a month where you are working more or a year where you're doing a little less. >> exactly. >> really good. this also, though, feels like a difference in generations. we're seeing a lot of booms sort of come back to the workforce, whereas now gen z is talking about leaving. what's that about? >> absolutely. they have different perspectives on retirement for sure. we see gen z is focused on

micro-retirement. boomers wanted to retire at 65, but many of them haven't been able to. actually, i was reading a recent study, and they found that millennials and gen z actually are better set up for retirement than gen x and boomers, which was surprising to me. and a lot of it has to do with the way that our benefits have shifted and are paid out right now. there's actually a bigger savings gap for gen x and boomers than there is for millennials and gen z, interestingly. >> really fascinating. thank you for explaining this trend for us. always good to have you. thanks for being with us. we got a lot more news ahead right here on the beach and sewhere. you're watching "nbc news daily." have you always had trouble with your weight? me too. discover the power of wegovy®. with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. and i'm keeping the weight off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only weight-management medicine

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with 4 powerful pain- fighting ingredients that start working on contact to target tough pain at the source. for up to 8 hours of powerful relief. advil targeted relief. protesters across the nation and here in the bay area are standing up for science. the group behind this movement is planning major protests in 30 cities across the country today. these protests are in response to efforts from the trump administration to cut hundreds of millions of dollars used for medical research into diseases like alzheimer's, cancer and heart disease. we spoke to a researcher at uc berkeley who tells us these cuts will cripple a nationwide system of scientific research that is already under duress. right wing media, you know, fox and their allies have have really painted what the government is doing as cutting waste. and that is that cocouldn't b further from the

truth. everything that is being cut is being cut very indiscriminately and witut any regard for how for the long term impact. a rally is scheduled for 1 to 3:00 this afternoon at civic center plaza. there are also events scheduled at uc berkeley, santa clara university and uc santa cruz, also in the cities of palo alto and sonoma. it is going to be a sunny weekend in the bay area. here's meteorologist kari hall with our extended forecast. happy friday. we're looking at sunshine today and temperatures reaching into the upper 60s. it will be cold again tonight with overnight lows down to the upper 30s. and then a nice recovery again tomorrow. as that sunshine continues through the weekend. it will be great for getting outside, but just plan accordingly with what you'll wear as our temperatures will warm up and cool down quickly.. th, looking ahead to next week, more clouds move in on monday with the storm system just to our south, and we'll be in the low 60s for high

temperatures and getting even cooler as the next storm system arrives on wednesday. it continues to bring us some heavy rain through thursday, but in the meantime, we're taking a break from any rain chances and looking at some pleasant weather in san francisco, as well as the valleys. thanks, kari,

morning and one contra costa county city. hundreds of people waited in line for the grand opening of a costco in brentwood. some were actually waiting in line all night, hoping to score some good deals on bourbon. a costco in this area has been in the works for 5 to 10 years. according to the company, the store is over 150,000ft■!s, making it the largest one in contra costa county. the mayor of brentwood says it's bringing in about 200 new jobs to the community, and will provide about $1 million in tax revenue for the city. shoppers are excited about the economic boost, too. i'm just excited to see this open and i'm actually really excited for the

community. i think it's going to be great for the city of brentwood. it's going to be great for even my community. the city of oakley. the commercial just explosion that's going to happen from this store opening. i don't think everybody realizes it. it's going to be amazing. the grand opening comes just a few months after a brand new costco opened in pleasanton. tomorrow night to mark international women's day, the san jose sharks will host a women of teal celebration at sap. it will include a mix of in-game events and fan activities, reflecting women's impact in the sports world and beyond. donations are also being collected for next door solutions, a domestic violence agency in santa clara county. team executive heather vaughn also showed us tomorrow's unique fan giveaway a beanie with a custom designed crest by local artist amanda valenzuela. it has three sharks and it makes up a w to represent the women of teal, so all fans in attendance will receive that. and then we've got

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it's really an amazing product. i'm craig melvin. and this is dateline daytime on nbc. she was everything to me. she was so sweet to everybody. state troopers said bonnie had died in a hiking accident.