last night in the "the tonight show," jimmy fallon, you might have seen this, he learned to fly. aparentally, they're about to do a live action version of "peter pan." last night, on "the tonight show," the actor who was playing alison williams, she went on "the tonight show" and hooked jimmy fallon into the peter pan flying harness. hooked him in delicately and then they hoisted him up into the air. so he got to fly. jimmy fallon took over "the tonight show" about ten months ago. and, with him as the host, "the tonight show" has become this very unpredictable show. it's more of like an old school viert show with singing and dancing and flying and skits and gymnastics.

it's great. it reminds you that these shows are driven by and a reflection of who the host is. it could really only be done by jimmy fallon. the host, he took over from at "the tonight show," jay leno, his style was 180 degrees different. jay leno's style was basically like unflappablety. a calmness. a calm, down to earth every man -- in which a lot of the joke with jay leno -- was about him not getting too riled up about anything. not being surprised. he's a man who never expressed shock. and that is why on rare occasions, mr. mello talked about politics, whatever he said about politics would reverberate. you didn't expect him to care so

much. it wasn't something he'd get excited about. so when he did get excited, he would just point something out in politics as remarkable or unflappable to him when someone noticed. just after the last election, jay leno, made a point about talking to newt gingrich about something that happened in the election and he brought this up. here are the gop committee chairs. every one is a middle-aged white guy. is there a diversity problem in the republican party? >> the fact is that pictures by definition are not helpful. >> this was the last election. this was 2012. in the 2012 election, republicans got beat.

they didn't lose so many seats that john boehner lost majority. as speaker, they got to pick their committee chairs. when it came time to pick their committee chairs, this is sort of the only job worth having in congress. it's the only way you do something of importance in congress is the chair of the committee. when it came time to give out those plum jobs, the republicans looked around at their 19 committee chairs that they had to fill. and they filled those 19 committee chairs with 19d guys. they even had to throw over some of their own republican women in e in order to make sure that they would have that all-male cast. ilianna had been chair of foreign o fairs, they threw her out. candiace miller argued openly to instead being chair of homeland security. she wanted it known that she wanted that chair.

but, no, instepd, they decided to give it to this guy. so they're initial announcement was 19 guys to fill those 19 chairs. now, i should mention in addition to being 19 guys, they are all white guys. after they made the niche announcemented of what they're doing after the 2012 election, they were a little bit embarrassed, i think, about even people like unflappable jay leno criticizing them over what they've done. sew they realized that they had to do something. they still did have two chairman ships that they had to fill. they were these last two committees that had open chairman ships after that initial, embarrassing announcement. they still had the house committee and the committee on etices.

if speaker boehner wanted to remedy that embarrassing appearance, what nut gingrich called this unhelpful picture. if john boehner was going to pick a woman, what he had to do was find a woman from one of those two committees. pick any woman from among a membership of those two remaining committees. you've got yourself a female chair. this, at the time, was the republican membership of those two committees. this is what john boehner had to choose from. tough choice. which of these gals is it going to be. >> you remember candiace miller? who wanted to be chair of that serious community? plainly, she can't run something like homeland security. instead, they moved her over.

the committee they picked for her was the house committee on administration. which is responsible for her -- not like the monitoring of the obama administration. so she's in charge of, like, the cafeteria and the bathrooms. administration. seriously. that's what they felt comfortable allowing a woman to be charge of but nothing else. they now get to name all of their committee chairs again. keeping in mind what happened last night. but, tonight, they made their announcement. behold life's witch pa jent. it's like a beneton ad, isn't it?

both a mike and a mile kal, as well as a mack, they decided to pick a bob and a rob this time. they got to keep their old jobs from the last congress. they've allowed candiace miller to stay in charge of the bathd rooms and the cafeteria. so, yeah, this is your republican party in washington. in all of its glory. it should be noted that this is the cross section of america. as i noeted earlier, daryl isa is half leb news. that issue is taken care of. they've decided to go with a simpler look. more consistent.

a more sort of homogonous, single thing. you put them all together with what we've got so far from the house and this is what they've decided to do. >> what else is a group of 25 white men and one white woman who's been put in charge of the kitchen part. but i don't think there is an analogous thing like that anymore in america.

not since they've let condoleezza rice into augusta. they can announce committee chairs whenever they want to. so we shall see when they do that. amazingly, tonight, even when the republicans haven't taken over the senate, they call the vote on the floor of the sthat to aut rise the keystone oil pipeline all the way across the united states from canada to the gulf of mexico. this is a decision the democrats make. they can spend this lame duck period in the senate however they want. they decided to spend it voting on the keystone pipe lyme. and the vote to aut rise fell short by one vote tonight in the senate. now what happens next here is a

foregone conclusion. the number of republicans will have increased by agt or nine. it has already passed in the house. it's going to go to president obama's desk, where, in all likelihood, president obama will veto it. so iert way, the pipeline is the same. the keystone pipeline is not going to get built. or at least it's not going to get built with congress forcing it to vote. they don't have any power in the congress doing this thing tonight. mary landri erksz u wanted them to do it to save her own senate seet on december 6th. i should know that the keystone

pipeline has nothing to do with louisiana. she's decided maybe that's the way she's going to win? maybe that's the theory. regardless of what happens, it's likely that mary is going to lose that runoff. it's roughly running 96 pnt. the latest polling heading into that runoff show, she's losing by double dijts. she has the exact same position on keystone that her opponent has anyway. the bill in the house is named for the guy she's running against. bill cassidy is the sponsor of it. it has her leading the fight.

it's hard to see why people would vote for her and against her opponent. i mean, nothing is certain until it happens. all democrats dead was burn up some precious time that they have left to get something done. how is this a constructive use of time by the democrats. it's what that i have did to predict the results of no prakt kal or political consequence what so ever. kpept to high light what the republicans enjoy having highlighted and also put a spot light to get something done for

one of their own members. was it fun for you, too? today, the top democrat in the senate talked about something that they were not doing in the lame duck period because, instead, they wanted to do stuff like this inane keystone vote. one of the things they could do, but they dded not to do, is confirm president obama's choice to replace eric holder as attorney general of the united states. the democrats clearly have enough votes to confirm her in the senate if they wanted to. there are no substantive objections that have been raised to current senate rules. they can confirm her with a majority vote of 51 senators. democrats have got that in change while they're still in control. they would not try to get that

done while they still have the power to do it. so what's the thinking there? why do keystone, which is like bad news, bad news and oops news, what's the thinking here? it's got to be one of two things. either they think there's no reason for democrats to spend any time trying to confirm loretta lynch because republicans will confirm her. they won't have any problem doing that. just leave it to mitch mcconnell. one of the things mitch mcconnell is looking forward to is a lot of high profile obama nominees. maybe they're thinking that. or, what they're thinking is mitch mcconnell and the republicans are not going to want to confirm loretta lynch for attorney general.

maybe, in fact, they are going to slow walk or out right oppose her nomination. they're going to find some way to demonize loretta lynch and drag her through the mud once they have the power to do so. if that happened, the republicans will not want to do that. they are very concerned about what black women think of them. republicans know that appearance matters. so republicans trust them to do the right thing because if there's no chance that they'd want to be that embarrassed on issues of race and jebt e gender. democrats, you are amazing. uf been astonishing for a long

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last year, in the city of west texas, there was a terrible explosion. >> get in the truck. get in the truck. oh, my lord.

>> the aftermath of that massive ammonia nigh trat plant left a crater in that town. hundreds of buildings were destroyed or damaged. that was last year, last april. and then this past may, this plant, this building near athens, texas, got a delivery, sort of a ramshackled building. as you can see, it's part cinder block, part wood. this building got a delivery of 70 tons of ammonia nitrate. 70 tons is significantly more. that wooden building has 70 tons of highly explosive fert liezer delivered one fine thursday afternoon last may.

and then, just hours after those 70 tons arrived, a fire broke out at that plant. and with the 70 tons stored in that building, the local fire department realized what they had on their hands and they evacwaited the entire town, fearing the worst. and amazingly, by the grace of god, that thing did not blow up. after those incidents in texas, those two incidents in txz, there's growing concern about what chemicals are being stored. it begs the question if texas knew what it was doing on stuff like this. texas state government actually moved to keep secret more information from the public about what kind of chemicals were stored where in the state of texas. people are obviously starting to get interested in that for obvious and terrifying reasons.

but the texas state government response to that was to decide to keep more stuff secret. to keep more away from public knowledge. >> you know where they are. you drive around. let's bear this down. if you're living in west texas, you know that there's some facility there and you have the right to ask the people in west texas, hey, what chemicals do you have in there? >> just drive around and ask. knock on the door and see what they tell you. that was texas attorney general greg abbot who was just elected governor of texas, explaining no longer it should post information about people in the state. just drive around and figure it out yourself. regulate yourself from any dangerously stored chemicals in your neighborhood that could explode. texas. if largest city, the fourth most populous city in the whole country is houston. about 25 miles east, you will find the city of la port texas.

and one of the businesses you will find there is this dupont chemical plantd. >> my son called me and said dad, there's been an accident at the plant. >> a horrifying phone call. two of his sons killed during a chemical leak at the dupont facility. >> gilbert soon lesh e learned that the leak killed four people and later a fifth. >> two of that man's three sons were killed. what killed and injured these people was a leak of a chemical that's used mostly in pesticide, but it's also used in jet fuel and plastzices. due pont manufacture rs the chemical at that plant. but when the leak happened and

four people died in quick succession, when the supervisor called 9-1-1, the plant supervisor sounded like he had no idea what was going on. what chemical might be involved or, crucially, what first responders might be in for when they responded. what you'll hear here is the 9-1-1 operator doing a pretty solid job here trying to figure out what's going on. but the plant supervisor just has no idea. >> a plant shift supervisor was not completely clear about the nature of the emergency on its hands.

>> how did this happen? is it chemical relate snd. >> i'm not certain. >> sir, i need to know what's going on. >> we have some injured people. i'm not sure if there's any chemical involved or not. >> curiously, though, while lacking a full understanding of the situation at hand, including the type of poison gas that had escaped. >> you really don't know what kind of chemical it is? >> no, ma'am. as soon as i find that out, i will let you know. >> the shift supervisor was still confident enough to declare the public was not at riszing. >> can you tell me is this any risk to the public? is it going to be possible to confirm? >> no, ma'am, it is not. >> no threat? >> no, ma'am. >> but i have no idea what this is. or what's happened. why don't you come on over. when firefighters did show up, they did not have the equipmented they would need to

get in there. the fire fighters were unable to recover the accident until hours after the death. fire fighters couldn't have gotten far enough into the building on the air packs. even if they could have, the cloeting they had was not enough to protect from such high levels of that chemical. even though the 9-1-1 call came in at 4:00 a.m. and that gas that was leaking killed four people almost sbantly and injured a fifth person, they could bt emp shut the leak off for more than two hours after that call came in. they could bt get to it. they weren't prepared for it. they didn't even know what it was. the medical examiner couldn't even get near the bodies until that afternoon. what was the plan for dealing with this stuff at this plant? why didn't the plant know what they were dealing with. how are the first responders

supposed to handle this leak if something that can kill you in one breath that even your air packs can't keep you safe from without the plant clueing them in on what they had and how they might suggest it be dealt with. in 200 9d e 9, the same plant was fined for a 7 hour long leak. they were fined for the leak and for waiting five days to report it. in 2012 and 2014, the plan was given a six-figure fine for the way it was managing itsds hazardous waste and itsds air commissions. they've been cited 50e times for leaks. 51 citations just from texas. and it's not like texas is known for being real sticklers on this stuff. the federal chemical safety board investigates stuff like this. they are on scene.

but as far as we know, we believe that that team still has not been able to enter the location where the leak happened on saturday morning because it is still too unsafe to get in there. what just happened in laport texas that killed these four people. and what happens next? joining us now is mark colette. thanks very much for being with us. i appreciate yur time. >> thanks. glad to be here. >> i should ask you about one of those last facts. do you know if investigators are still not able to get in to the siet of the leak because it's still too dangerous? >> they're not. we received word from the chemical safety board late tonight that they are, in facts, still not able to access this scene because of some residual material that they believe is still inside a vent line inside of that five story build e building where the accident occurred.

>> based on your reporting and what you learned from the emergency coordinator, it seems like firefighters wearing all the gear that they have, still couldn't get to the site safely. they couldn't get in for hours. do you know anything about how safe it was for them? and whether they could have been better prepared for this? >> they did make an initial entrance to the building wearing standard gear that they would take into any situation they were goirng to. part of the difficulty about this building with e from talking with emergency responders is that being a five-story building, not completely familiar with the lay out inside, there was a limited -- they could only get so far in the building on the air that they had before they would have

to turn back around. the chemical is very -- is very poe tent at 150 parts per million, which is a tiny amount. the amount inside a coke can that would reach that concentration is less than a single drop. at that concentration, it poses an immediate had ard to human life. they wanted to exercise every possible precaution and keep people out of there until they knew that they had the situation under control. >> more than 50 violations in the past five years. i mean, is this -- is this a facility that sticks out like a sore thumb? or is this par for the course for this area and this type of thing? >> we did talk to an investigator who works for the zrksz ierra club.

he did tell us that this particular plant is not high on their radar. he told us a lot of it is done from 2009 and 2014. many of those were low-level find. and what this jentle man who now works for the sierra club told us is that this is pretty par for the course. this facility was low on their radar, compared to some of the other facilities in the houston area. we have huge industrial complexes here. they felt due pont one one of the better processes. >> wow, that's remarkable, given what happened. it's also remarkable to think of grading on a curve and what priorities mean based on con e

context in a situation like this. thanks for helping us understand this. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> glad to be here. >> and we'll say the local press reporting on this, local tv stations, other papers, there's been the local coverage on this has been really, really good and really aggress ifr. txz has -- there's a lot to say about txz. but one thing texas has right now is really strong local reporters. and txz is lucky for it. we'll be right back.

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so how was your day today? unwhether he says you were this man, your day was definitely better than his. officially by proclamation of your governor, your day was better than this day was. goef nors of two states just declared states of emergency. one is understandable. the other one, though, is for something that the governor has made up. and that story is next. [ julie ] the wrinkle cream graveyard. if it doesn't work fast... you're on to the next thing. clinically proven

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this is now, o feshlly, an emergency. photos post in buffalo news show just how much snow lan e landed in a giant snow thump over the last 24 hours in buffalo and e and other parts of western new york. now, snow thump is not a technical term, but that's pretty much what it is when three feet of snowfalls, basically, all at once as it did in western new york in buffalo over the past 24 hours. first, it was the county executive in erie county. that state of emergency declaration included a driving ban. the county executive couldn't get to the county emergency

operations center to conduct the response and make announcements because the snow was too thick and coming down too fast. so he shelterred in place and made his announcement about the emergency. there was a driving ban put in place by those emergency declarations all over the hardest-hit parts of western new york. and then, tonight, governor qomo issued an emergency that included travel bans in whole towns and whole counties on three trafl of three major interstates. he's sending in 150 national guard troops plus humvees and bob cats to try to clear the road. keep in mind, in addition to these three or four or five feet, there could be another two feet on top of that over the next few days. already in this storm, there are four deaths. and they're already have people

who have no power. where there is emergency right now is in the state of missouri. lots of below freezing tempature rgs right? but, hey, it's noef. there's nothing going on in missouri right now like what's happening in western new york. >> i do hereby declare that a state of emergency exists in the state of mo moe. the oerder act valts the national guard. they don't just activate them in theory. they're act vating them in theory. in partings of missouri, school

has sent home separate packs of homework. they think this emergency will go so far as to shut down all the schools so they have pre-sent homework home with kids ahead of time. the state of missouri is in full freakout mode. up to and including not just deploying the national guard, but the state of emergency is in effect, right now, for the whole state, and it lasts for a whole month. and e if and when the state announces whether there will be a criminal indictment of the police officer who shot michael brown back in august. honestly, no one knows what's in part because no one knows what they're going to announce whether there's going to be an indictment. nobody is going to be charged in michael brown's death, surely, there will be protests in

ferguson, missouri and elsewhere, too. the protests that happened in the aftermath were sustained and at times violent. and the police response initially was to treat that police response, that governmental response, undoubtedly, made the situation worse, although it started off pretty bad to begin with. but, now, as local and state officials are anticipating, another possible round of protests, maybe, they're effectively gearing up again for more. new york is calling up its national guard to driver sfoe pla e plows and rescue stranded drivers. missouri is calling up its national guard because of the official, all caps, exclamation point an tis pagsz that the military is going to be what's needed to put down what they just know is going to be a violent, massive uprising. brace yourself. and, you know, who knows. maybe that kind of uprising will happen. i say who knows, because, really, nobody knows chlts

nobody knows what is going to happen with that grand juriened e until they make their decision. nor do we know what the response will be by protesters when that decision is announced. is the state of missouri engaging in a self fulfilling proef sill? are they upping the tension themselves in these acts of governance by bracing so publicly and in such a martial way against something that hant happened. his department came under fire. chief parks is noi a member of the la council. cheefr parks, thanks for being with us tonight. >> thank you for the invitation. >> when there is so much talk about possible unrest, anticipation of unrest, how do you kal clat whether that poses a riszing of a self fulfilling prove e prophesy.

i don't know if you can 5:00 ratly cam collate it. you can be on the wrong end of several decisions. if you choose not to be prepared and something does happen, the media and others will krit size you for failing to an tis pat if you basically come out prepared, bud, yet, deploy too prematurely, you can create some dynamics that you may not want to see and people may react negatively. so it's not a matter of are you declaring a state of emergency, it's more are you deploying people and if you need them, they do not all need to be visible, but well before the employment of resources. they should be looking at mutual aid with the local saint lewis police, saint lewis county police. and, again, you don't need to have all of your resources deployed on the first day. there's almost e lmts of how you deploy. but you certainly do not want a

24 hour period that it takes them to be act vated and deployed. you want to have those resources that may be available much quicker. i glesz you'd say antagonizing people so that they'd do things they wouldn't otherwise do. are there specific types of shows of force? or specific tactics that you e you should be extremely cautious about? or that authorities should only use as a measure of last resort because they do create a possibility in anticipation of escalation? >> i hope that during this

period while the grand jury was going on, that the police would be out working with the public, discussing the issues that they're cone fronted with. this has given them a pretty good amount of time to develop some relationships in the community. but i think as you move forward, you certainly do not want to be in your riot gear immediately. you do not want to stage visibly your vehicles. you do not want to stage, visibly, your armored vehicles. you want to be in your uniform early in the day, but certainly have access if this situation else clating quickly. and then you can else clat from there brick bringing in mr resources. but you also have to have a chain of congressman or unity of command so that there's not the confusion not familiar with the commands or the tactics and the training with each other. so you need to begin to look at where and how you would deploy

st. louis county ples if they're available. where would you deploy saint lewis municipal police. how would you deploy ferguson police in conjunction with that. these would be in an else clating scale and when do you bring certain equipment to make it visible? the one thing, when you have a show of force, you don't want to put yourself in a position of bluffing, because the community will generally call your bluff. and if you're not prepared to address the circumstances, you will often come out on the short end. >> chief parks, member now of the los angeles city council, former chief of police in los angeles. thanks for helping us understand tonight, sir. >> thank you for the invitation. >> all right. why i am extra psyched about a school board meeting in a small

town that i have absolutely nothing do coe do with. that story is next. stay with us.

>> as i said, we will be talking

that's a good one. we bought arizona biology.com in order to preserve pages of a high school biology textbook for students in gilbert, arizona. the school board voted to rip the piej pages out of their textbooks. we wanted to preserve them even

if the school board decided those pages should be burned at the stake. but now, the fate of the actual pages in the actual textbooks has just taken an interesting twist. we have an update on the whacky story that has surprised even me tonight. stay tuned.

>> this is a live stream of a school board meeting tonight in very, very conservative gilbert, arizona. a tea party majority on the school board voted to cut specific pages out of the honors biology textbooks and the ap biology textbooks. they wanted to have them ripped out because those pages mention that something called abortion exists. one of the school board members explained at the time the cheapest, least disruptive way to sofl the problem is to remove the page. another board member who swroeted for it said parents have already volunteered to rip

the pages out of the textbooks. we mentioned previously we already saved these pages in perpetuity. we posted them front and back at arizona honors biology.com. we did that because those pages have been slated for the shredder and we wanted to save them. so the school board voted to tear out part of the biology books. they ordered the superintendent to come back this way tonight, specifically, with a plan for how to do that. but in the meantime, the voters of gilbert threw out the tea board members of their school board. the new folks will take control in january. and that leaves this interesting question of what happens now. does the current tea party majority insist that the superintendent break out the scissors right away while they're still in control. what would the superintendent tell her bosses on the school board about this plan they demanded for carving up the textbooks? well, news. according to the spokesperson for the district, the superintendent, christina kishimoto told the board yesterday she will not be presenting any such plan

tonight. she said there's nothing wrong with the text books. and now we think the tea party majority on that school board may be caving. they posted a new agenda for tonight's meeting that calls for discussion and clarification about what they meant when they said they needed to redact the textbooks. based on our reporting, we believe the tea party majority is kind of caving on this right now in this live streamed meetding. or at least that they're having serious second thoughts about ripping up the biology books. when it came time for the superintendent to report on her plan for the biology book, the board instead took a five-minute recess they said to go get advice from their lawyer about whether or not she should give that testimony. the lawyer said the superintendent couldn't make that report, not tonight. so this is happening right now. there's no way to know for certain what this board will ultimately decide. it is in process as we speak. but this tea party majority is running out of time. and as i said, we do think they

could be caving. we'll let you know. we'll be watching the live stream obsessively. i know we're dorks but this is actually kind of a new level. that does it for us tonight. wa stream excessively. i know we're civic dorks, but this is a new level. good wednesday morning everybody. right now on "first look," six-foot snowdrifts slamming new york. temperatures 20 to 30 degrees below norm frl the gulf coast to the northeast. congress acts on two highly charged issues, the keystone pipeline and wiretapping. plus new details on the americans killed on the jerusalem terror strike. janice dickinson adds her name to the list of women accusing bill cosby of sexual assault. santa preps for cold weather by swimming with penguins. good morning and thanks for joining us today. i'm betty nguyen. there's dangerous weather with a tight grip