happy friday, everyone. i'm joy reid. we have a busy hour on "the reid report." we'll take you to pennsylvania where eric frein makes his first appearance in court. in maine a judge rejects the bid to force nurse kaci hickox to stay indoors. we're following developments out of kansas where investigators are trying to figure out what caused thursday's deadly plane crash. days before the mid-term, president obama is on the road in rhode island making a pitch to women. let's go to maine where the woman between the fight of liberty and public fears just got a reprieve. a court order restricting her to

go from public places and coming within three feet of other people. critics alarmed by hickox's defind have launched an online petition to have her nursing license revoked. you are looking at live pictures now from outside of the house where it's possible that hickox may speak to reporters. stephanie gosk is with us. let's talk to her really quickly. do we have any advanced word on what ms. hickox will say? >> reporter: we don't know. certainly this is a victory for her camp. there are certainly restriction as cording to this order. this order is pending a hearing that will be coming up, which could potentially reverse it. but for now, these restrictions on her leaving and going out in public as well as this idea that she could only go out and be, as far as three feet from people. the judge determined that is unnecessary. the only restrictions that are

necessary for her right now is this direct active monitoring which includes a health official checking her at least once a day, as well as checking in with state officials if she plans to travel. that's so this direct monitoring can continue to take place. what's a little unclear, according to one of her lawyers that we just spoke to, what that travel means. does that mean leaving the stated, the town, your house? there are things they're looking to clarify. certainly this is -- this is far less restrictive than what the state was originally seeking. certainly what the health officials here in the state were saying very early on in the week, which is they wanted to restrict her completely inside of her house, threatening arrest if she left. >> wow. we will continue to follow this one. nbc's stephanie gosk in maine. thank you very much. now to pennsylvania where the seven-week man hupt for an accused cop killer is over. 31-year-old eric frein was arrested last night by u.s.

marshals outside the hangar of an abandoned airfield in the pocono mountains. he made his first court appearance where he was formally charged with nine counts, including first-degree murder, in the ambush of a police barracks that injured one state trooper and killed another. >> the families of this matter of corporal bryon dickson and corporal douglass have had a loss. today we find some comfort as a community that we are taking these next steps toward justice. >> sarah doloff is live in blooming grove, pennsylvania. i understand one of the beneficiaries is halloween, which is back on for that community. >> reporter: that is correct, joy. halloween had been canceled out of concern for the safety of the community. and today the news that it is back on and eric frein is behind

bars. this following seven weeks of a community being on edge. a pipe bomb found in the woods of this mysterious figure in black with his face covered in mud cited several times after all of this, this arrest went down completely peacefully with no shots fired. in fact, law enforcement describes eric frein's surrender as rather meek. they say he obeyed law enforcement commands and put his hands up in the air. one atf agent telling me almost that he expected this was coming. that he knew the end was near. he was taken into custody in the handcuffs belonging to the man he's accused of killing. he was also taken in that corporal's patrol car to jail. it is a fitting end, those say, who knew that trooper and who have been working to capture frein. they've been going 48 days. but they say they were prepared to go as long as it took. >> we were pretty confident he

was in this search zone. it was just a matter of getting to him safely. this is an individual who murdered a police officer, a state trooper, severely injured another. and you've got this individual running around in dense woods with a scope rifle and explosives. it's extremely dangerous for our officers to try to pursue him. there was never any hesitation on anybody's part. we knew we were going to take him into custody. >> reporter: and this morning eric frein arraigned in court on charges ranges from first-degree murder and weapons of mass destruction. prosecutors do plan to seek the death penalty. in the community, a huge sigh of relief. people trying to get back to normal after having schools canceled, halloween briefly canceled. the hunting portion called off. there was a huge outpouring of gratitude to the men and women of law enforcement who spent so many days, so many hours tracking this man down. in fact, right in front of the

state police barracks where the shooting occurred, someone hung a huge bed sheet where they spray painted the words, way to go psp. way to go, pen state police. >> thank you very much. over to kansas where officials say it could be days before crews can recover the bodies inside of an unstable flight simulator after a plane crashed into wichita's mid-continent airport. ron mott has the latest. >> reporter: the twin-engine turboprop slammed into the building minutes after takeoff. inside pilots practicing maneuvers in flight simulators. mark goldstein tried turning back to the runway. >> he didn't have much time. from the time he hit the power to time he hit the building was 30 seconds. >> reporter: they say it was flying, struggling to climb,

leaving him, the only one aboard, struggling to maintain control. aircraft traffic transmissions captured his dilemma pep called the tower soon after getting airborne. >> i just lost left engine. >> reporter: a few seconds of silence and then this. lana johnson said she saw something go down but was initially uncertain exactly what. >> it was windy and i just heard a big, loud noise. i didn't know what it was. then i could see smoke coming up from around the side of the building. >> reporter: hours after the crash, smoke still billowed from the building which officials say will be inspected before wreckage and bodies can safely be removed. >> until such time as we can render the building safe, we'll take all the precautions necessary to ensure none of our firefighters are hurt. >> that was nbc's ron mott reporting from wichita, kansas sflu let. let's go to the campaign trail where president obama is

in rhode island making his midterm pitch, focusing on women and economy. >> we need to make sure that women get an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell is live at the white house. why rhode island? >>. >> reporter: well, it is a blue, blue state with an important governor's race. what we've seen from the president is his effectiveness on the campaign trail has been more in the competitions for the state house, not for the people who would ultimately be working down the street here in washington on capitol hill. the president's also been effective on the fund-raising side of this. but being in maine and rhode island, those are places where the president has a big base of support and can make those economic arguments, which have more that one purpose. certainly for the local crowd and also trying to send that message across the country for voters who are thinking about which way will they go on tuesday? and the president trying to direct their attention to pocketbook issues and trying to make the case that democratic

candidates would be more likely to support things like an increase in the minimum wage and more attempts to make the playing field more level for women in the workforce. going for some of his best arguments, you might say, where he has a comfortable ground under his feet to make that political pitch at a time when the election season has not been kind to the president. he has not been invited many places. so, trying to end on a big note in a place that is friendly turf and then, of course, as you know, joy, the day will end with a little holiday fun like many american dads passing out candy and treats to some children invited to the white house today. so, that's sort of the holiday thing. if there's an october surprise to be had, it is, what is the president passing out later tonight. >> that would be a cool place to trick-or-treat for a kid. kelly o'donnell at the white house, thank you. a reid alert on the river of lava menacing the hawaiian town of pahoa. the molten rocks is threatening to split the town in two as it

makes its slow advance to the main road that makes its way -- right through the town. more than 80 national guard troops are on the ground and helping to guide the nearly 1,000 residents to safety. we've got more developments in maine. let's go back to kaci hickox as she's speaking out. >> and even more humbled by the support that we have received from the town of ft. kent, the state of maine, across the u.s. and even across the globe. i know that ebola is a scary disease. i've seen it face to face. and i know we are nowhere near winning this battle. we will only win this battle as we continue this discussion as we gain a better collective perception of ebola and public health. as we overcome the fear. and most importantly, as we end the outbreak that is still ongoing in west africa today.

to my fellow health care workers in africa, both national and international staff risking their lives to fight this disease today, my thoughts, prayers and gratitude remain with you. it has been a privilege to work with you. and i know that as a global community, we can end ebola. thank you very much. >> reporter: kaci, the state says your roommate in sierra leone has ebola. is this true? >> this is incorrect information. i guess it happens sometimes, there's incorrect information. i don't want to focus on that. i want to focus on the fact that we have a really good decision that offers human treatment to health care workers coming back after working to fight this terrible disease. >> reporter: kaci, the judge asked you be sensitive to the fears in the community. what does that mean to you? >> you know, i completely understand that and i am

sensitive. this is one of the reasons i'm saying this battle isn't over. we still need to continue this discussion. we still need to continue educating ourselves. and i don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. i think so far ted and i have shown a lot of respect to this community. we care about the community. you know, i'm a nurse and a public health worker. i don't want to make people uncomfortable. >> reporter: how was pizza? >> it was amazing. in fact, i just had another piece this morning. [ inaudible ] >> i'm taking things minute by minute. tonight i'm going to convince ted to make me my favorite japanese meal and watch a scary movie bays uts halloween. >> reporter: are you satisfied by the decision of the judge today? >> i'm very satisfied by the decision. you know, the three points that he is still recommending that i abide by are three points that i will leave as part of this good compromise we can make.

i have been compliant with the direct active monitoring that the cdc recommends. i will continue to be compliant. and, yeah, it's just a good day. >> reporter: they say you haven't been acting smart, riling people up. >> you know, i don't really have a comment for governor page. not right now. >> reporter: when will you go back to west africa? >> we will see. i hope so. i love working overseas. it's been a large part of my life since 2006. there's just probably never going to be a time in my life i wouldn't say i would go back. >> reporter: do you have any plans to go into town or anything like that? >> like i said, i'm taking things minute by minute. thank you, though. >> reporter: are you accepting trick-or-treaters? >> well, we don't have any candy currently because we haven't been shopping for a while. thank you all so much. i really appreciate it. and happy halloween. >> reporter: thank you for your patience. >> thank you. >> okay, that was nurse kaci

hickox giving a quick news conference outside of her home in a remote part of maine. she said she's satisfied with the judge's order which essentially ruled against the state of maine and the governor, for whom she had no comment. she is free to move about. she can move her home. however, she is following cdc guidelines about self-monitoring and she said we need to continue to fight this outbreak in afr a africa. she says she knows ebola is a scary disease. sensitive to the community and its concerns. she added at the end there, she doesn't have any candy for anybody thinking about trick-or treating but a very healthy looking kaci hickox. very happy with that judge's ruling in her favor. of course, we'll stay with this story. we will be back. meanwhile, four days before election day, an estimated 14 million americans have already cast their ballots under early voting laws. that's up about 15% -- that's 15% of the total vote from the 2010 midterms. in states like colorado and florida, up to 50% of their 2010

turnout have already cast their votes. for democrats, that means if they can win enough close senate races to retain the majority, their party's success driving up those early vote totals will probably be the reason why. michael mcdonald leads the united states election project and also teaches political science at the university of florida. thank you for being here. talk about the impact that early voting laws have had on turnout. we don't really have any election day now. we have like an election month. >> correct. in states that have early voting laws -- the ak dpemic literature is mixed but we find one to two percentage points greater turnout in states that have early voting. that effect may be greater in state and local elections. >> in what states has this been most pronounced? i know it varies a lot. dh states have early voting. here we don't. ohio got it early. it made a huge difference in the turnout. are there states where it's been

more pronounced? >> there are lots of different flavors of early voting across the country. we have states like over other, washington and colorado that run all-mail ballot elections. they cast their votes by mail instead of going to voting polls. voters can drop off those ballots on election day and colorado in addition has early polling locations where voters can vote as well. then other states that have various types of mail balloting laws that are permissive. for example, minnesota just recently went to no-fault absentee voting. florida with sort of a permanent absentee ballot status new for this election. there are different flavors for this mail ballot. then in-person voting where states will set up special polling places for voters to go in person and vote early rather than vote by mail. >> let's just go through a few of the states where we have pronounced early voting. in ohio as of, i guess, last

tuesday, 414,964 absentee ballots by mail, 81,000 in person, almost 1,000 military. north carolina, 879,000, 779,200, which is 30% of the 2010 turnout, which means this year will exceed the early 2010 vote. is this equal among both parties? is it a phenomenon that's more pronounced among one party or another? >> we've already seen states like north carolina, georgia, louisiana and iowa surpass their 2010 raw vote numbers. and that should be relatively good news for democrats because it likely means we're going to see not only high early vote but also high election day vote. and if you look under the hood and look at some of the numbers we do have available in states like north carolina and georgia,

we can see that the people who are showing up above what we had in 2010 are people who didn't vote in 2010. and they look more democratic. they're more registered democrats. in north carolina, more minorities in georgia who showed up and didn't participate in the 2010 election. they say this is everywhere but we can definitely verify in georgia and north carolina. >> and there are several states in addition to the state that the -- the two states you mentioned, north carolina and georgia, colorado and iowa seem to be the same thing. up to 20% of the early sloeters so far, according to a piece in the new york tooimsz today. democrats are really pushing hard on in-person early voting. republicans tend to do more absent absentee. so far among early voters 39% of those showing up are democrats. 30% are republicans in north carolina, colorado and iowa. do they tend to make up that difference on election day?

>> generally in the early vote we see a lot of democrats vote earlier, especially places that have dual early voting mode where you have in-person and mail balloting. democrats really rack up numbers in that in-person early voting period. and then what we see then is a much different election day. that will also likely be true in places like iowa as well. for colorado, it's an all-mail ballot election so we don't know what to expect since this is the first time colorado has run an election like this. but republicans so far have been turning out at much higher rates than democrats. we'll have to see over the next couple days because the way in which these patterns typically work out is you're going to see more democrats get in the mix later. it may be that democrats are going to be able to overcome this advantage republicans have built up in colorado. >> the one thing we have seen is

attempts to roll it back in some states where it's been prevalent and ohio comes to mind there. have restrictions on early voting resulted in early voting turnout particularly among minority voters. >> the big test case on this right now is north carolina. and the number of days were restricted by a week in north carolina. also we have a number of hours expanded during this last week of the election. and as far as we can tell, north carolina's going to exceed it's 2010 numbers by quite a bit. so, it looks as though the shuffling around of the hours hasn't had a big detrimental effect on voter turnout. in ohio, we have to get through a lot ofvoting because they have mail ballots and they can postmark them and we'll count them after the election. that happens in alaska, too, by the way. we have to wait for some states

to get all their ballots in before we can determine. >> a long pre-election run-up and maybe a long post-election, too. thank you for being here. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. now three things to know on this friday. matt bissonnette, the former navy s.e.a.l. who wrote a firsthand account of the raid that killed osama bin laden under the pen name mark owen is being investigated for possibly disclosing classified -- bissonnette expects the profits from the book will be paid to the department of defense for this rule violation. jesse jr., the main suspect in the death of hannah graham appeared in court with a separate sexual assault case. his lawyer requested a mental evaluation for matthews,

insanity, but was denied. the judge said he should represent matthews in all three cases and judge said, no, and assigned him co-counsels. the president of burkina faso assumed power. yesterday protesters set parliament on fire as the former president and ruling party tried to push through a bill that would have allowed him to run for re-election after 27 years in power. so guys -- it's just you and your honey. the setting is perfect. you know what? plenty of guys have this issue, not just getting an erection, but keeping it. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and you only take it when you need it. good to know, right? if ed is stopping what you started... ask you doctor about viagra. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex.

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it's time for "we the tweeple," top trending hashtags are candy. you can't stop tweeting about scary word in four words. you condense the scariest thing you can think of into five words. a few of our team favorites, hey, we need to talk.

i can't find the spider! i brought my acoustic guitar. this one showing government types like to get in on the fun. health.gov tweeted the scariest thing is not having health insurance. and which candy rules each of our 50 states. arizona loves twizzlers. in the great northwest you're getting stuck with candy corns. sorry. in new york the top trend is lollipops. hopefully with gum in those because those are the best. while many of you grown folks will be dressing up this halloween night, the hall day really is for kids. well, actually it's for the parents of kids who dress them up in hilarious outfits. like the parents of these adorable kiddies dressed up as famous people. here's baby chuck todd. baby rand paul. and the winner of halloween, by a mile, baby notorious r.b.g., ruth bader ginsburg.

she wins halloween, so don't even try her. no, actually, go ahead and try. also, happy halloween. you can join the conversation with fellow reid report fans on facebook, instagram and twitter. starbucks is planning to make it easier to get your morning joe. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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it's a fresh approach on education-- superintendent of public instruction tom torlakson's blueprint for great schools. torlakson's blueprint outlines how investing in our schools will reduce class sizes, bring back music and art, and provide a well-rounded education. and torlakson's plan calls for more parental involvement. spending decisions about our education dollars should be made by parents and teachers, not by politicians. tell tom torlakson to keep fighting for a plan that invests in our public schools.

fighting for a plan that has the power to captivate. ♪ that's why shakira uses... crest 3d white with whitelock technology. removing up to ninety percent of surface stains, and locking out future stains. so your smile always steals the show. and to get even faster whitening, use this collection ...for a whiter smile in just 2 days. crest 3d white. life opens up with a whiter smile. we're following breaking news now out of california where virgin galactic has reported a problem during a test flight of spaceship. nbc's tom costello is following the latest. >> this is very bad news indeed.

virgin galactic spaceship 2 is down in the mojave desert. it was on a training test flight testing a new engine, we believe, when wide reports, widespread reports from out of the region, including people we've talked to on the ground say that the vehicle broke up and at some point there were two parachutes spotted. there are two pilots on board this vehicle, on board the spaceship. two parachutes spotted. at the moment two debris fields are known in that specific area. spaceship 2, the parent company is, of course, richard brandon's virgin galactic. they say it experience the an in-flight anomaly. this is the vehicle i profiled back in january on msnbc and "nbc nightly news." it is a vehicle that drops, that's the vehicle in the middle there, it drops from this plane with two wings. that is called white knight. spaceship 2 drops as this plane

gets to altitude and then takes off with a rocket that is supposed to get the folks on board up to right at orbit or just below orbit. a suborbit, if you will. and then it kind of lingers there for a while, gives people a sense of zero "g" before falling back to earth and actually gliding back to the mojave dessert. this anomaly, whatever happened, was apparently dropping from its mother ship, the plane, and on the rocket, on the boost, up into low earth orbit. this is also, you may recall, the vehicle that ultimately they hope will take paying customers up into space. and already they've had a very large number of people willing to pay as much as $250,000 per ride in order to get on one of these vehicles, on the "spaceship 2 "and go all the way and experience the weightlessness, if you will, the zero "g."

we've had high-profile celebrities putting down the money to because they want to be first to take the ride up into space. no paying attentions. two pilots on board. the chief pilot, we do not know his condition, but the chief pilot is dave mckay. i spent some time with him back in january. he used to be the chief pilot at virgin airlines. we dope know his condition. we don't know the condition of anybody else. this is very bad news for virgin galactic and the entire effort to allow paying passengers to take this suborbital trip. back to you. >> i'm sure you'll stay on top of the story. thanks very much. all right, everybody, with just four days to go now until election day and just a few more hours until halloween is in full swing, we've pulled together a spooktacular reid friends to discuss the scariesiest campaig headlines out there. tara dell, a democratic

strategist and liz winstead is co-founder of "the daily show." because we have our pal liz here, i have to start with a comedi comedian, jon stewart, who you know very well, had a few comments. he had thoughts about the idea of texas potentially turning blue. let's listen. >> democrats salivating about the thought of turning texas red. >> i thought texas would be blue in 2012. >> really? texas is going blue. listen to me, texas has been a conservative state since dinosaurs roamed it 6,000 years ago. at least that date's according to the texas state high school textbooks. >> and this comes, liz, as you have a new poll showing wendy davis is trailing greg abbott by substantial margins, 32 to 47.

you have an organization lady parts justice really trying to push on these issues of reproductive justice. why do you suppose wendy davis, who came to fame on those very issues, is doing so poorly? >> you know, i don't -- i think part of it is redistricting is redistricting. and texas, i think, can turn blue. let's not forget that 20 years ago texas had a female governor, who was an admitted alcoholic and divorcee and progressive. i don't think the dinosaurs were walking the earth back then. i do think with texas, the media has a lot to do with it. i think there is so much going on with the way that reproductive justice has become an issue that's big, but in a state as big as texas, there are so many other issues. >> as a democratic strategist, tear remarks how would you advise democrats with a state such a large majority population

that so undervotes its population share and they can't seem to move the needle. >> you're absolutely right. that's a great point. this is an ongoing problem for the democratic party that needs to be addressed. we need to get in there early, much earlier in these campaigns, organizing, on the ground. we're running a robust ground operation right now, but this ground operation needed to start a lot sooner. we needed our candidates to announce and be on the ground and knocking on doors and doing those things much sooner. a little inside baseball here with voter files and things like that that a lot of folks don't know about, but a lot of times the party doesn't maintain the list. so, every year, every election cycle we're recreating lists of people who are attracted to our party and who have signed up to be volunteers or supporters in some way, shape or form. those lists aren't being passed on and maintained and cultivated. >> you have to reinvent the wheel. there's an element of a woman running, she was very judged.

we shouldn't say this is over up. never know what will happen in an election. i don't believe polls are be all and end all by any stretch of the imagination. do you feel there's a way in which wendy davis has been judged as a person in a different way than other candidates because she's a woman? >> oh, absolutely. it's been a hugely personalized campaign and this happens to women all the time. she's handled it as well as possible. people can criticize decisions about being a -- her abortions, when she did, how she did it. she couldn't do it right for this culture and for this particular time. i applaud her for her candor. i like jon stewart but i don't like the idea he mocked texas for turning blue. it will turn blue in my lifetime. i don't mean when we're old and gray, i mean probably in the next two or three cycles because the demographic factors are on the side of democrats. if you don't run, you can't win. and this year we will look back and we will say, texas democrats

may progress. >> and speaking of demographics, let's look at a state like louisiana. mary landrieu, who's -- well, she's always embattled. know is predicting doom and gloom for mary landrieu. she somehow pulls it off. she had thoughts of running in louisiana as a particular thing and she talked about women and issues of race. i want to let you listen to what she said. take a listen. >> to be very honest with you and the south hasn't always been the friendliest place for african-americans. it's been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader. it's not always been a good place for women to present ourselves. it's more of a conservative place. so, weave had to work a little harder on that. you know, but the people trust me, i believe. really, they do, to trust me to do the right thing for the state. >> and what an appropriate time to bring in jimmy williams, msnbc contributor and appropriately a man of the south. those comments were taken as controversial, jimmy, but you

and i both know they're fundamentally true, right? why would it be controversial for mary landrieu to say something as obvious as race plays a factor in the difficulty of president obama, you know, getting traction in a place like louisiana? >> let me ask you this, i'll turn the question back on the questioner. if an african-american man were not sitting in the white house right now, do you think we'd actually be having this problem? i'm willing to bet the answer is no, we would not. and that confronts, that is a very realistic and upfront way of saying that race does play into each of these races, whether they be in the midwest, the south or the northeast for that matter. we just saw two black children, 11 and 13, beaten up on a playground in the bronx. racism isn't just a southern thing. it's all over this country. and race does play into this, no doubt. >> joan, you wrote a book called "what's the matter with white people" where you tackle the white part of that argument, how white voters' insecurities about

economics and other things have played into these racial issues. it isn't just in the south. >> it's not just in the south. i wouldn't say everyone who opposes the president from the right or left has a racial anamous behind it. there are people with perfectly legitimate reasons. have you to look at the south and say why did barack obama get 40% less of the white vote got than al gore got in 230 -- 2000? why does he struggle so hard? one of my pet peeves about election coverage now is reporters find it completely acceptable to say, well, you know, they're linking the president with mary landrieu because he's not popular with the voters. excuse me, he's very popular with black voters, latino voters, asian-american voters. there's one group he's not popular with and it's white voters. but you're the racist somehow if you say that mary landrieu is in trouble because she stated the truth very carefully, i might add. >> the black vote is her be all, end all at this point, right? >> right. at this point. i wish she would have pointed

that out particularly with the black audience. it's true, unfortunately. with we've gotten to the point if you say anything about race, make any legitimate criticism about racism in this country, the right has created a situation where you are then -- you are then lambasted and turned -- and demonized and turned into the racist yourself. >> you're the real bizarre. >> i want to end it with liz. do you think wemeomen will comet in substantial numbers in this cycle? if so, what will be driving that? >> i think we will. i think what will drive it if we do it correct is reconnecting reproductive issues, as women know is the exact same issue. every time a republican says, why do you keep hammering home reproductive justice issues instead of talking about the economy, every woman says, are you an idiot? they are exactly the same thing. one leads to another. >> our super duper panel, we'll have to have you back. thank you all.

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to help their customers get what they want and need. banking. loyalty. analytics. synchrony financial. engage with us. for more than a month, one of new york city's bravest has truly become the poster child for courage. meet brooke, a new york city third generation firefighter for international equality so what has gone viral. it has landed her front and center giving her a chance to challenge perception what it mean to be transgendered in a particularly male field. brooke joins me now. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> what was your motivation for getting involved in the voice

campaign? >> i guess just my own persons with coming out and being trans, and sort of the search for fining a sense of stability in your life as a transperson, a transwoman. that's difficult with a lot of the stigmas you face in society. and, you know, that certainly wasn't lessened any by working in a male-dominated sort of environment. >> male-dominated environment, i think that isn't even the half of it. we're talking about this very macho profession, fire fighting. walk us through the process of walking through your colleagues, your supervisors, about your plan to transition? >> goodness. it's really difficult. i got on the fire department in 2008. i was fresh out of college. i had sort of -- i knew that my gender identity was sort of in flux at time and i was sort of trying to figure out how -- how that was going to manifest in my life.

and getting on the fire department just sort of took all of my focus at the time. so, it wasn't until i was on the fire department for like a year and a half, two years, that i really decided that i -- i needed to be true to myself and transition. so i went down and spoke with someone at headquarters and i let them know. you know, this is something that i need to do in my personal life. what's the best way to handle this? and so we figured -- at the time i was going to go offline for a while. >> you worked desk duty? >> yeah. i actually worked in recruitment headquarters, which was great placement because we were sort of through the learning process for myself and the department through my transition, it was also wonderful to be able to utilize just sort of my own personal background and my own experience to do some recruitment for the fire department in, you know, nontraditional settings. so, it was really wonderful. i got to do a lot of recruitment

with the lbgt community, which is very important to me. which is a big part in why i'm active in this campaign right now. there's such a pervasive attitude in society that fire fighting is, you know, for straight, white men. 40 women on the fire department right now in a force of over 10,000. that's not even 1%. >> not even close. >> it's not -- it's barely half of 1%. and i really think that has less to do with women and their ability to do this job. and it has more to do with society's attitude on firefighters and who should be firefighters. and i think that is intimidating to a lot of women and a lot of lbgtq identified people. so a lot of times you discount yourself from things simply because the world around you gives off this impression that

you internalize. >> that you wouldn't -- >> that i can't do that. >> what's been amazing is the fire department in new york, the fdny, new york fire department, has been supportive of you. they tweeted out their unwavering support of you. to raise awareness about lbgtq rights. you talk about the huge advancements we've had in the lgb part -- or the lg part of that equation. for transgender people there hasn't been as much advancement. why do you think -- >> this is sort of the first time in history and it's to use a word laverne cox uses a lot, it's revolutionary. this is the time in history where it's really the first time that transpeople have had mainstream attention that they have been able to tell their own stories. that we as transpeople have been able to stand up and say, this is what trans is like. these are our lives. this is the difference it's making. i think it makes a difference

when it comes from the people facing the issues rather than people talking at you or about you. it's a different thing to come out and say, this is me and this is -- this is issues i face on a daily basis and see how that affects people. so, it's staggering the rates, you know, that transpeople -- there was a 2011 study that says transpeople are at double the rate of unemployment. when you look at transpeople of color, it goes up to four times the national rate of unemployment. you're talking about statistics, 90% of transpeople face discrimination or harassment on the job. and that almost half of transpeople are at some point or another either going to commit suicide, attempt to commit suicide it or contemplate it. those are unreal statistics. >> it takes people like you who are so strong in coming out and as you said, putting a face and a voice to an issue that's so

important. brooke, it is really great to have you here. thank you. and quoting laverne cox is always, always appropriate on my show. >> role model for my life. >> indeed. thank you for being here. >> take good care. we're continuing to follow breaking news outs of california where a passenger spaceship being developed by virgin galactic crashed during test flight at mojave air. two pilots were aboard the spaceship and their status is not known at this time. it's not clear. we are continuing to follow it. the statement we have here is that during the test the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle. the white knight 2 aircraft. status of the pilots is unknown at this time. and i believe we do now have nbc space analyst james oberg.

what do you know about the status of the two pilots? >> reporter: rumors are still coming in. people are still hearing on the police radio and that hasn't been confirmed but the news isn't too encouraging about the pilots. >> what is "spaceship 2". >> reporter: it's to call passengers, space tourists, up into space 100 kilometers, about 65 miles up. they're paying $200,000 per ticket. it's several years behind schedule. they've been having engine problems in the past. some serious problems. this was a new kind of engine. the first time they were going to light this new engine in flight. and now this very, very tragic result. >> and i'm going to interrupt you quickly. we're getting california highway patrol, one pilot dead, one injured in this crash. there's a lot of discussion about this white knight 2 carrier aircraft which was flying along with the spaceship

2 rocket. is the white knight 2, is that a traditional aircraft? we're looking at pictures which i assume are white knight 2 and spaceship aboard it? >> no, they're both very special kinds of aircraft. original design was white knight 1 and spaceship 1, ten years ago they flew that vehicle, won a prize, a cash prize to get the first commercial -- into space. but the white knight 2 is a carrier. it's -- it carries underneath its belly the rocket plane itself, which is dropped at high altitude and then makes a straight up flight to the edge of space. and the idea, obviously, of space tourism was to find a new use for this technology that had really been military, had been national. there have been more than one successful space tour it's flight? we remember the famous first one. have there been any after that? >> well, the so-called space tourists have bought very

expensive tickets to orbit. it's much harder to get into orbit around the earth, 100 times harder and 100 times more expensive. people have bought tickets but only six or eight people. sara brightman is going to ride a russian rocket a year from now up to the international space station as a space tourist. but getting up and down was supposed to be the easier way of doing it. there are short flights. you only spend five or ten minutes weightlessness but you look back and can see the earth, see the horizon. it was a terrific experience. and it will be. because there are a number of companies working on this kind of hardware. virgin galactic was the most famous and most well advertised and seemed to be the most far along until today. >> i have to ask you to hold on for a minute. i want to quickly go to tom costello for the latest updates. are you hearing what we're hearing, one dead and one injured in this crash? >> we have been hearing that was a distinct possibility. we've talked to people on the

ground who say there is significant debris on the ground. one witness told us they thought that there was one person sdeegsed. we don't know the names and we wouldn't report them anyway at this point. we do know, as you probably know, this particular vehicle generally has two pilots on bothered, two test pilots. let's underscore this. this is a test vehicle. the vehicle they have been trying to get a good engine on. and they were trying to get to the point they could eventually take paying customers up into space. some very high-profile names had signed up to be -- to pay something like $250,000 for a ride into space, which would allow them really only about four minutes or so in suborbit. not true orbit. we're not going to the international space station. this is simply a matter of getting up and just above the earth's atmosphere, allowing participants to float free for a few minutes. then the vehicle would float back down to earth. back down to a landing strip in the mojave desert.

the breakup occurred -- the plane drops, spaceship 2 drops from the plane. then a rocket fires. right there. the rocket is about to fire. this is file video. this is where we believe the incident may have occurred. for some reason, there was an anomaly. something went terribly wrong and the vehicle exploded or came apart at altitude. there are reports of parachutes down in the desert. you do have to wonder whether at this extreme altitude where this vehicle may have come apart at, whether anybody would have been able to survive a parachute drop from that altitude. you've got very limited oxygen up there. you've got high speed that the vehicle's already traveling at. a lot of concern there as you might expect. this is richard branson's program, as you know. richard branson brought in -- or, rather, assumed the entire

project after we saw them win the "x" prize. they won the "x" prize with this vehicle. the whole notion they could bring people into suborbit, richard branson brought it, saw a commercial opportunity, that's why we've had test flights for the better part of a year and a half or so. >> thank you. i want to bring in anthony roman, commercial pilot. let's pick up on the point tom made. could someone in theory survive a parachute jump from the altitude at which this separation would have taken place? do we have tony? >> can you ask that question again? >> tom costello asked an interesting question whether a parachute jump in suborbit where this plane was flying is survivable? >> i highly doubt it.

in suborbit you're approximately 70,000, 75,000 feet up. this particular spacecraft is known to re-enter the earth as atmosphere by folding itself in half and coming down in a falling leaf formation. as opposed to having any heat shield. it's very unlikely unless they had space suits that they would actually survive a jump like that. >> how much of a setback is it for this technology n your view, for this spectacular and tragic accident to have happened? >> well, all spacecraft are considered experimental technology and highly risky. it's well accepted they will have a significantly higher accident ratio than certified aircraft. so, the risk is accepted as part

of the pioneer spirit, as part of the exploration spirit. so, i don't think it's going to be a huge setback in terms of the technology whether or not the investigators and board of director of virgin galactic will be affected by this in an adverse way. as it affects the business model is a whole other question. >> i want to thank anthony roman and james and tom costello. virgin galactic aircraft called spaceship two suffered an in-flight anomaly resulting in the loss of the aircraft. the aircraft suffered a serious anomaly, according to the company, resulting in the loss of the vehicle. we were hearing reports one dead, one injured. that is not confirmed by nbc news at this point. that's per the california highway patrol.

spaceship two cockpit, this is a test flight, two pilots on board. these type of test flights are equipped with parachutes. after the anomaly chutes were reportedly seen in the desert. "the cycle" is up next. we continue to follow that breaking news. the california highway patrol reporting at least one person dead and one serious injury after a test run of virgin galactic spaceship two resulted in a crash in the mojave desert. nbc's tom costello is following the very latest for us. tom, what do you have? >> well, this is a real setback for virgin galactic and, of course, a tragedy for the people involved, the families involved. virgin galactic spaceship two was on a test flight. they are in a series -- they are conducting a series of test flights. ultimately to the run-up, their goal of putting paying passengers on this vehicle that would take them to suborbit. not orbit, but