top trends online right now. nearly 89,000 mentions in the start of lent just today. we have a lot happening this hour. first up reports of a horrific new attack by isis to iraqi politicians. burning iraqis alive in the town of al baghdadi. this hasn't been independently verified. the town is near the al assad airbase where 300 u.s. marines are currently training iraqi troops. these reports come just weeks after a jordanian pilot was shown being burned alive in an isis video. also following developments on this from london with our team there, keir simmons. keir what do we know about the victims of this attack? >> ronan, we understand from reports unconfirmed that they are members of iraqi security services. it is one of the, a colonel there, member of the police force, who is saying that they

appear to come from a compound of security personnel, and local officials that isis has attacked near this town which is a crucial place, there is an important base there for example and it has been fighting around this area for some time an area where there's a large number of sunni muslims living in that area so isis has been in this region of iraq for some time and then across iraq over in erbil overnight we had fighting between isis and kurdish forces that continued for hours, close combat there. senior iraqi official said tens of isis fighters were killed and some of their vehicles were destroyed, and local sources told nbc news that isis launched several waves of attacks before being repelled by reinforcements and air strikes. ronan, you remember that erbil is a crucial city. there are u.s. official there is.

isis tried to push towards that city last august and didn't weren't successful but it just goes to show that isis is still seems despite the air strikes confident enough to try and push towards erbil again. >> keir thank you for that nbc's keir simmons in london. in syria defense officials are confirming the u.s. will begin equipping rebel fighters in the country. the goal to train and arm syrian rebels to defend themselves against isis adding in syrian military forces. powder keg there. jim miklaszewski is following this. it's an important step here in the relationship of something that's been much debated on the hill. what triggered this change now? >> well essentially the fact is that the moderate rebels supported in part by the united states just doesn't have the fire power to take on al nusra, isis obviously, and the syria government.

so some of the training is soon to begin but the weapons they're talking about for the first tranche, which would be defensive in nature only some pickup trucks some small arms, some machine guns maybe even some mortars, but at this point, those decisions have not -- they've been made to deliver these weapons but there's no immediate timetable to do that and there's also some talk about even coordinating operations on the ground with these moderate rebels with u.s. aircraft in the air to launch air strikes against isis or al nusra targets in syria, but that is some ways away, and there are some legal issues that have to be resolved there before that happens. ronan? >> nbc's jim miklaszewski, interesting step there, still a lot of pitfalls we'll be watching. breaking news out of southern california reports of an explosion at an exxon refinery in torrance california. you're looking at live aerials

from our station in l.a. knbc. we're going to bring you more details as they come in. we're hearing no air quality problems there but people are being told to stay away from the area. and in paris, new evidence of coordination between last month's deadly terrorist attacks on "charlie hebdo" and a kosher grocery store. according to sources inside the investigation of the attacks one of the kouachi brothers cherif made with ahmed i-kule balcoulibaly the night before at tacks and the investigation suggests coulibaly was the leader planning the attacks, that's new information. ironically one of the three not under surveillance. back here at home, jeb suburb giving his first speech on foreign policy today, that's a much watched moment given his presidential ambitions. the former governor is speaking at this hour at the chicago council on global affairs and attempted to put distance

between himself and his brother and father and their presidential legacies. following this in chicago is casey. how critical was it for a step to lay out a plan independent of his family particularly with so much intervention in a region his family is known for intervening in? >> ronan it's pretty clear that jeb bush is very aware of the fact that he is potentially the third in line as a bush president, and he just told the crowd here for the record i love my father i love my brother, and he said "but i am my own man." he's clearly trying to set himself off on a course that's different from the past. obviously everyone remembers that the way that george w. bush left office was as someone with an unpopularity rating of about 61%, which is very very high. now of course he's sort of his legacy has been burnished over time. the rating is not as bad as it used to be but the question will

be where does jeb bush differentiate himself policy wise, both from his father and his brother, but also have the president. does he come down as being more hawkish than president obama on say fighting isis in that region that his brother obviously had so much of an impact and we're waiting to hear from him on whether he thinks the current authorization for use of military force that the president has sent up to the hill is something that he can get on board with. we haven't heard whether or not he thinks we should put ground troops to fight isis in the middle east. i think there are still a lot of questions to be answered even though he wants to make this broad declaration, i am my own person and i am different. >> of course still a lot of questions about the behind the scenes operations of his team exactly who is involved. we've heard names floated that were members of his father's administration, his brother's administration but still a lot of clarity yet to come. i know you'll be watching there. thanks kasie, for the update. as of minutes ago oregon has

a brand new governor kate brown finally took her oath of office at the top of this hour. she was next in line of succession and her predecessor, democratic govern john kitsoffer left following revelations his fiance may have benefited from the relationship steering lucrative contracts businesses she advised. corruption, the one truly bipartisan cause. the arctic tundra formerly known as boston is still wicked cold. the city hit its second coldest temperatures on record today and taking an economic toll that is serious. boston spent more on snow and ice than ever before, an timted $35 million, double what the city had planned. owe fishes are still bracing for more costs related to repairing the city's infrastructure. it believes at this point it's going to talk a month to get the mass transit rail system in the city known as the "t" back up to speed. following in boston is adam reese.

it's not just the government. this is impacting people's lives as well day-to-day right? >> reporter: across the board, ronan. it certainly is. it's disrupting people's lives but it's also costing a lot of money, the governor says it cost the state about $1 billion in lost revenue and local businesses say they're getting hit on the bottom line as well. >> the snow has definitely affected business negatively. we have had to close down for a couple of days. >> it's been very difficult with the snow people are not able to come in. business has been really off. >> it's making people not go to restaurants, not come out and shop for running shoes and running apparel. think about that. you might now also what you were paying for in a pair of shoes you might now have to pay for a roof repair. >> reporter: one woman told me she spent $1600 already this season on snow removal and roof

raking, so there's certainly people making some green off of this white and the good news s the parking ban as of 6:00 tonight, people will be able to come downtown, park their cars shop and most importantly, spend some money. ronan? >> msnbc's adam reese freezing his face off for us in boston. thank you, adam, always appreciate it. we have breaking news from the university of massachusetts amherst. controversial admissions policy banning iranian nationals from some graduate programs in the energy sector just been reversed. moments ago, this is just coming in that the school told us "the university of massachusetts amherst as of this announcement the will accept iranian students into science and engineering programs developing individualized studies, it follows consultation with the state department and outside counsel." we'll have a lot more on this later in the show. it ignited a firestorm and two important voices from on that campus on what led up to the

change. up next, as the world turns, the real life daytime drama of europe's real life greek tragedy. the clock is ticking now to hold that country back from the economic brink but some hard-nosed and colorful person als have threatened to stubborn negotiations. that's all next. look, jamie, maybe we weren't the lowest rate this time. but when you show people their progressive direct rate and our competitors' rates you can't win them all. the important part is, you helped them save. thanks, flo. okay, let's go get you an ice cream cone, champ. with sprinkles? sprinkles are for winners. i understand. they're still after me. get to the terminal across town. are all the green lights you? no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51.

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today's as the world turns is the making of a literal greek drama. greece's bailout from the eu is about to end february 28th and today the clock is ticking. the greek and european officials negotiating right now as we speak whether to extend an eu bailout. greece wants a new relationship

without austerity measures mandated under the current bailout. europe on the other hand wants to keep strings firmly attached. that's pitted greece against our leading lady in the drama, the powerful german chancellor angela merkel. she's open to compromise but stubbornly insistent on firm conditions because she sold greece's bailouts to a skeptical german public on assurances they'd get their money back and the trusted finance minister a seasoned politician and yet another eurozone pragmatist. he's shown a take it or leave it approach. our leading man greek prime minister is just 40 years old but rose to the top of greece's radical leftist party amidst that country's economic troubles. he's against the austerity measures and this week he called the eurozone's bailout plan

blackmail. greek finance minister academic economist with movie star good looks according to some in our newsroom n his first government post and self-declared erratic marxist, some say he's compromising talks. he enrolled into one important negotiation late monday. the germans were not amused and they are running the show. professor at international finance and international affairs at george washington university, one of the leading voices on this, thank you, professor, for being here. tell me about the clash of personalities in these negotiations. what's at stake for each side? >> well i think at this point, saying that the greeks have anything to bargain with is ludicrous. they have one option to extend the bailout with all the conditions of austerity attached attached. there is no other deal on the table. it's not just angela merkel

it's mario draghi from the european central bank which is a powerful player in all of this. >> on the eu side ministers said the greeks don't understand the dangers fully of refusing their offer to roll over that $240 billion euro credit deal. >> you're right. >> what are the dangers? >> well the danger is that they're coming in as an idealistic government and we've been here before over the last five years. they're promising the greek people things that he cannot deliver, the new prime minister. all can he deliver is an extension on the bailout with austerity measures to continue for a decade onwards. so they are again promising things they cannot dlir. it's a populist movement. >> is part of this bluster for the benefit of his domestic audience on the greek side? >> we are hoping that's what it is. however, having said that you know how do you then go back to your own domestic position and say i couldn't deliver on anything other than an extension

because we've got 7 billion euro due in maturing bonds in six months. >> the "shpiegel" said "officials in berlin and brussels no longer subscribe to the so-called dom know theory which held that a greek collapse would be replaced by others. it's followed by the chain theory. which holds that the entire chain would become stronger if if the weakest link is eliminated." >> you hit the nail on its head. the new prime minister is living in the past. the germans are quiet on a greek exit right now. not good for them as all they're saying we hope it doesn't happen but there are no longer calls we have to keep the eurozone intact and this time the markets will not have a railroad effect in terms of tumbling because now we know this is a greek problem, not a eurozone problem. >> professor, isn't there a lot at stake or angela merkel doesn't she have a big failure

on her hands if she doesn't see this through? >> the failure will be larger if the greeks walk away with more concessions. it's not just merkel's call. it's mario draghi's call and the european central bank who has taken a hard line against the greeks. >> and the u.s. also weighed in treasury secretary jok lew called him personally and urged him to be more destructive to find out a path through the debt talks. what's at stake for the u.s.? >> every time there's some market uncertainty in europe especially for the greeks it rolls over into our markets and that hurts in u.s. investors and so from our standpoint we really just want this problem solved. the greeks just have to basically step up take the deal, and then going to have to accept the fact that some hard times are going to roll forward. >> and what's the next big landmark in this? i understand saturday a week from this saturday this week is the deadline where the money just stops flowing right? >> that's right. it's the end of february but the bigger deadline is this friday when the greeks have to

come back and put a proposal forward. if that proposal contains anything other than an extension of a bailout it will be rejected. it's called the emergency liquidity assistance which is about 65 billion euro they're getting. if that stops and they're dead in the water. >> certainly a greek drama, hopefully not a greek tragedy. professor rehman appreciate your incents. >> thank you. just ahead, charlie brown would be proud. >> my choice for the best in show is the beagle. >> for our daily spike, up next running with the big dogs to the westminster dog show. stay with us. would you be willing to give up sharing your moments? sacrifice streaming all night long? is it okay to drop a connection, when you need it most?

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exxon refinery in torrance california. you can see just how dramatic that destruction is caused by the blast. what you're looking at are aerial images from nbc's los angeles affiliate knbc that got helicopters on the scene. so far we've learned there were two minor injuries everyone has been accounted for, no deaths reported. we'll keep an eye on the story and bring you any new footage or developments as they come in. there is one major question looming over the news cycle today. who let the dogs out? who? who? who? who? well the westminster kennel club did. that's the top online story in today's daily spike. it's been a dog eat dog standoff amongst the world's most prestigious dogs. since monday when the annual competition ticked off, they've wracked up over 99,000 mentions across twitter. as almost 3,000 canines from 192 different breeds duked it out and the winner in the end, one

miss p. 15 inches long canadian beagle. she's a big trend unto herself. just crossed 141,000 loops. there it is. she looks like she is getting posture. her name has over 10,000 social media mentions so clearly some of you do know a lot about dog shows and actually her win makes history. she's only the second beagle ever to win that show. you shatter that glass ceiling, miss p. credit to the handlers, they dropped up to $100,000 on their dogs this year and you know they can get a little intense. >> what do you see in front of me, you see a big, blue ribbon right here in front of you. you grab it, you get it. >> she's not listening to you. she's freaking out. >> we want you busy bee. >> i need to trim her whiskers. it's in the crate. it's in the crate!

>> that's also trending "best in show" the cat dwoir title and 20,000 mentions across twitter, facebook and instagram. just ahead the white house's summit on combating extremism is in full swing. we'll talk to two minnesota owe fushls in attendance there, one of them with an unusual proposal for fighting radicalization in his own chunt. don't go away. ring ring!... progresso! it's ok that your soup tastes like my homemade. it's our slow simmered vegetables and tender white meat chicken. apology accepted. i'm watching you soup people. make it progresso or make it yourself so,as my personal financial psychic, i'm sure you know what this meeting is about. yes, a raise. i'm letting you go. i knew that. you see, this is my amerivest managed... balances. no. portfolio. and if doesn't perform well for two consecutive gold. quarters. quarters...yup. then amerivest gives me back their advisory... stocks. fees. fees. fees for those quarters. yeah. so, i'm confident i'm in good hands.

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bounty. the long lasting picker upper let me talk to you about retirement. a 401(k) is the most sound way to go. let's talk asset allocation. sure. you seem knowledgeable professional. i'm actually a dj. [ dance music plays ] woman: [laughs] no way! that really is you? if they're not a cfp pro you just don't know. cfp -- work with the highest standard. welcome back. this afternoon the president will speak to law enforcement and community and business leaders at the a major white house counterterrorism spops, summit he's turning to leaders from los angeles, boston and minneapolis to look at city level models for combating extremist id yogzs. joining me two men from the cities minneapolis, andrew

lugar and thank you to both of you for being here. i'll start with you, abdi. i spent some time on reporting on this radical recruitment in minnesota specifically as the wonderful somali-american community trying to gird itself against the seduction by radical elements that happens at mosques and online. what should the rest of the country know how this can hit your ordinary american community? >> thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to msnbc this afternoon. in terms of the east african somali population and the city of minneapolis and the state of minnesota, we have had a bad run back in 2008 some youths left the states and went back to fight with al shabab. since then the lessons we've learned since then have contributed to changing the environment and right now we

have a much better situation, much better environment for our community and for our state. >> so mr. lugar, what can the rest of the country learn from the models we've seen in your state? >> well, what we're doing is building a model that works with the community and comes at the request of the community. when i became u.s. attorney and i learned about things that we are having with rekrumtment for isil, i went out into the community and asked what can the federal government what can my office do and the answer was that we should be investing in the community. we should be helping the community turn around some of the root causes of the kind of redicalization that's been going on and so that's the effort that we're taking. i had a number of meetings with community leaders and one of them a 20-year-old young man said mr. luger, we're tired of talking. we need action and action is what we're taking together. >> here's what president obama wrote just this morning in an op-ed in the "l.a. times." "we know from experience that

the best way to protect people especially young people from falling into the grip of violent extremists is the support of their family friends, teachers and faith leaders." are you seeing that successfully come together in minneapolis, abd sni. >> yes we are. the somali-american community is a community based on families and strong family ties and the shock that we've had from some of our youths leaving has created a mobilization of the community to address the situation, to make sure that our children are safe that our city is safe and our country is safe. we are americans first. because we're immigrants there are issues former generations have created, but right now the environment in minneapolis is much better. the community is working with law enforcement and with the doj's office and with our attorney andy luger. i think this is the model that we need. the community needs to be at the table. we need to you know be at the

head. they need to bring solutions and not just to criticize and to make issues that don't exist. i think this is the thing about this event. we were leading, imams were leading, the youth council was leading, the organizations were leading and i, the first elected somali-american official was there to discuss the issues that affects my community, my neighborhood, my children and my family. >> andrew you described this as a daily battle against this kind of terrorism and terrorist recruitment in the twin cities. what have you learned from that daily battle? >> well one thing is early intervention as council member warsame said early intervention by families and relatives and religious leaders. i've met with a number of relatives of those who traveled to somalia for al shabab and syria for isil and the reaction is, we need to know where to go when we see this kind of change coming. we need a safe place to go.

we need to know who to call and we need to be able to handle it as a community on our own before it becomes a law enforcement issue and i'm supportive of that. >> abdi mentioned al shabab you mentioned the hard times in recent years, about 22 young somali men have left minnesota just since 2007 to join al shabab specifically. what is the lure of shah bab in tick shaba versus the other groups? >> it was more nationalistic than religious. as you can remember it was the intervention of the filipino army into somalia that triggered a nationalistic outcry in the somali world that kind of encouraged some of these networks to set up to be set up in minneapolis and recruit some of our youth and i think that has gone that appeal is no longer there and i think the community's educated about the issue. some of these youths are left were actually raised in minnesota. they didn't know somalia and they have romanticized ideal of

somalia. the fact their experience, a lot of them were killed some of them went to jail and i think that experience has galvanized the community in such a way that it is no longer appealing to go to al shabab and isis lunatic fringe cult is not appealing to the somalis in minnesota, and across the country, but we do need to address the issue of inclusion. we need to address the issue of unemployment. we need to address the issue of integration into communities, this working class is fairly poor and i think that is the social economic issues that we need to tackle in order to make sure our children are safe but again there's another thing we need to talk about which is the somali-american community we have a lot of police officers in the streets of minneapolis that served the city of minneapolis. we have marines that have served our country and fought in the theaters of war.

that's the story that doesn't come across why you have 20 youths leaving and joining, you have hundreds of individuals working for the government working with the government and protecting this country and that's the imable of the somali-americans i would like to convey to the larger community. >> it's a community that's really come together against this threat and hopefully that's a model that can be exported. andrew luger, abdi warsame, thank you for your time. catch the president's remarks on this subject this afternoon live on msnbc at 4:15 p.m. eastern with my colleague alex wagner. rvelgt we've been talking about isis and boko haram recruiting fighters on twitter. there's something you can do for this week's call to action sign the counter extremism project's petition. find it on our website, join their effort to hold social media companies responsible for swiftly shutting down accounts that spread content aimed at

radicalizing and recruiting youth. tweet us #ronation. there are free speech questions about some of the content but the gray areas don't excuse a lack of enforcement against explicit direct calls. more can be done and if you think that's the case you can help lend your voice. we'll keep track of your responses and share some of them throughout this show and others. up next another big story we've been tracking today, umass amherst reversing course moments ago changing a controversial policy that had iranian students up in arms. we'll tell you about the latest break in the story with two voices from that campus after this. there's a gap out there. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe the gap will close when healthcare changes. when frustration and paperwork decrease. when healthcare becomes simpler. so let's do it. let's simplify healthcare. let's close the gap between people

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iranian nationals from certain graduate programs. the skeel towed us it will accept iranian students into science and engineering programs developing individualized study plans to meet the requirements of federal sanctions, law and address the impact on students. the decision to revise the university's approach follows consultation with the state department and outside council. the school had banned iranians from certain graduate programs in science and engineering citing a law from 2012 blocking internationals from getting a study in the u.s. if they plan to work in the nuclear energy field. one of the students at the school merged as an early voice wrote an op-ed in the school paper a key part of the conversation and of course he is also a member of the persian student association and we have with us graduate admissions chair professor emory berger.

are you happy with the reversal today? >> yes, i'm very happy definitely. it needs to be more action. >> what more action do you want to see? >> i believe the administration should hold themselves accountable to the strategic plan they had last semester. >> you wrote an op-ed in the paper, "umass has fallen victim to national bigotry toward the middle east and possibly set a precedent for other universities to follow." do you think that outcry you spear-headed in the op-ed and other campuses shown affected the university's decision today? >> i'm sorry? >> do you think that the outrage that you showed in that op-ed and the outrage expressed by others on campus was an important part of the university's reasoning? >> i believe so yes. muslim middle east and terrorism has been tangible into the media, not very recently and i believe that there is a national bug tree that we've

fallen victim to it and the administration needs to hold itself accountable to that. >> professor berger as a graduate admissions chair, not in this specific department, you were outspoken and tweeted your department would be admitting and welcoming iranian applicants to your computer science classes. were there other teachers who joined in the proittest? what was the feeling like on camp us? >> i can only speak to the faculty members in my department in computer science, and there was a feeling of university outrage and surprise. people were taken aback, there was widespread upset. i think the sentiment among my colleagues was pretty much universal shock and a sense of just this is an appalling decision. >> here's what the sanction law says the secretary of state shall deny a visa to and shall exclude from the united states any alien who is a citizen of iran that the secretary of state determines seeks to enter the

united states to participate in course work at institutions of higher education to prepare the alien for a career in the energy sector of iran or in nuclear science or nuclear engineers or a related field in iran." professor berger do you think it's a good compromise that the university will develop these individualized study programs or do you think there needs to be a broader change to that federal sanctions law? >> so i can't really speak to the federal law itself. while i have my own reservations about it that's not really my domain. i remain concerned about these individual plans. this is a very vague statement. i really don't know what the implications would be. from my perspective this sounds like something could be intrusive. i don't think the university should be in a position of policing or enforcing law, unless they're directed to do so. the university is not the federal government. >> the state department had

gotten in touch with us before the decision u.s. law does not prohibit qualified iranian nationals from coming to the united states for education in science and engineering. do you think professor, they just misread the law? what do you think was behind this policy? >> so i actually don't understand or don't know all the details of the back story. from what i understand there was an incident that occurred where somebody was denied a visa and really in my opinion seems they overreacted. the claim was made this was intended to protect students but i find that claim to be a bit bizarre, given that really our role it to welcome students and admit the breast and brightest, not to stop them from coming in some misguided attempt to "protect them." >> alisina, you intimated you thought there was some bigotry? >> yes, i believe it was a failed attempt to protect the university's image and protecting the students the

administration should not have gone through the trouble of the policy and having individualized plans so why go through all the damage? >> and what comes next in this consideration on campus with yourself and other peers who have been important voices on this? there was supposed to be another meeting this evening. what are you and your colleagues going to be calling for next and will that still be happening? >> i'll only speak on behalf of my colleagues on behalf of myself i believe there should be discussion that wasn't consulted before and there wasn't any student consultation on the individualized study plans, there wasn't student consultation on the policy that was enacted on february 6th, and i believe there should have been this meeting probably a few weeks ago before this was effective february 1th and consult students and faculty. this does affect student life and it's ridiculous. >> that was the reaction of many on catch us and many following around the country. obviously on about-face just now

at this hour. we'll follow closely to see what comes next and how other academic institutions react. alisina and professor emery at umass amherst thank you. what caused the fire train derailment in west virginia earlier this week? we'll look at the angle of the story you probably haven't heard before, a proposal that will reduce the number of staff on those monster trains whether that proposal could threaten more security questions. stay with us. assistant disappear mr.clean came up with a product that makes dirt virtually disappear. he called it the magic eraser. it cleans like magic. even baked on dirt disappears right before your eyes. mr.clean's magic eraser. you just got a big bump in miles. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. sound good? great. because you're not you you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a

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the fire finally burned out but the accident site is still smoking in boomer west virginia. after a train derailed monday. 19 tanker cars slamming into each other igniting in a huge explosion you see there. even burned down houses near the accident. despite early reporting no oil ended up in the river, although upstream from two public water untakes, causing a great deal of concern as residents begin to get water and

>> reporter: hi, ronan. it is a betterly cold day here in boomer west virginia and that may help things across the river. you can see that is the accident site. yes, there is still smoke coming off some of the cars but we aren't seeing the flames we did earlier today. the cold weather will be a help because it should help cool down the site. an once the site is cool enough investigators from both the federal and state governments will go in and try to figure out just what caused this accident. they are going to be looking at a couple of things. one question is the weather. it was snowing here very heavily on monday afternoon when the trains derailed. another question they'll be looking at how fast was the train going. was it going too fast for conditions? and the third thing they are looking at are those tankers. there are new tankers that were on those trains tankers that

were supposed to do a better job of with standing an accident. but 19 of those tankers burned in that crash. so investigators will be taking a very close look at that because we are seeing more and more oil being transported by rail across this country because of fracking. in many places where the fracking is going on particularly in north dakota there are not enough pipelines to carry the oil to the refineries, so instead the oil is put on trains and that is where you are seeing more accidents. ronan, back to you. >> anne thompson reporting from west virginia. and new concerns across the country and feeling this is happening across the country. the number of train cars spiking, up to 435,000 in 2013

from 9500 in 2009. over night a coal train derailed outside of home -- omaha, nebraska ran but bnsf. and this isn't a report you are thrilled to be hearing if you live by a railroad. and host of msnbc shift change. and that was operated by a two-person crew an engineer and conductor. they decoupled the train from the engine and the wreck before this kent down and walked away unharmed and you have some reporting on how that practice could change. >> correct. right now every freight change has two people on board. the engineer and the conductor. like in a cockpit.

planes can fly themselves but we have two people on there. same on a rail war. but talking about tank cars engineers are trying to cut the number of workers in the cab so there is only one person. two summers ago in canada massive explosion and you talk about a dynamite explosion took out a town near the border of maine and it had gone from two people in the cab to one. the guy got out and set the brakes and didn't set enough of them and the train rolled away with no one inside. >> and would this have played out differently with having two people on the train. >> i think it would. the conductor and engineer working together that mitigated it. when the car is derailed the engineer could stay in the locomotive and drive it and the conductor can get down and decouple the jar. you think you can flip a switch and technology would run everything on the train but out there on the railroad it is still 1850 and you need a human

being to pull the switches and decouple the cars. >> what could people do if they don't like that move in the industry and they want to see two staff members protecting the trains. >> unfortunately for them there is a trong protest movement and it is getting stronger and it will see it exploding as strong as the trains exploding and the sierra club and 50.org are joining forces and having conferences this spring and are calling for a summer of action again the trains and the industry side to in their view curtail the reasonable safety expectations. >> and you've been researching this from inside of the ranks on both sides and you went to conductor school? >> i went to conductor school and left my hat in the car. and it was a fantastic experience. but these conductors are incredibly sen char. they are responsible for the safety of the cargo. >> and the conductors --

>> they would be eliminated. end of the line for conductors. they check the speed and take care of the cars. they safeguard the cars. >> it is a change that could have an impact for those in the train community and for the people that live near the railways. >> important detail. >> this is not the time to invest in that. tony, thank you. you can read more about his investigation on nbc.com and watch his show greenhouse at shift.msnbc. and thank you for joining me. thank you for taking the time. my colleague joid is up next. what have you got up? >> coming up next on "the reid report," the president will speak live from the white house. and we ask wesley clark on his strategy against isis.

and as web wush wades into foreign policy with his speech in chicago, jeff corn aki will weigh in on his ghost from president's past. and a story out of this world. a man who signed up and is ready to move to mars. that is all next on "the reid report." ring ring!... progresso! it's ok that your soup tastes like my homemade. it's our slow simmered vegetables and tender white meat chicken. apology accepted. i'm watching you soup people. make it progresso or make it yourself there's nothing more romantic than

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hey amanda sorry to bother you, but i gotta take a sick day. vo: moms don't take sick days, moms take dayquil. vo: the non drowsy coughing, aching, fever, sore throat, stuffy head power through your day medicine. good afternoon, everyone and welcome to "the reid report," i'm joy reid. and major developments to report on the fight against isis. a couple of hours from now the president will give a speech from the white house terror summit which is focused on how the west can undercut the isis ability to recruit jihadist fighters. and at any moment we expect the pentagon ho told a live brief -- to hold a live briefing on an attack by isis on tuesday. u.s. backed kurdish forces known as the peshmerga pushed back the assault on irbil. this follows several days of egyptian aircraft pounding

suspected targets in libya, in retaliation for a video released this weekend showing the beheading of 21 individuals the terrorist groups said were egyptian christians. and two unconfirmed allegations by iraqi officials. two local iraqi officials say isis has burned alive several dozen iraqi soldiers in a town near the air base where u.s. sources trained iraqi forces. and it is said on that online isis is selling human organs. and nbc news has not confirmed