i'm ali velshi joining you from birmingham, ael al, one of the birthplaces of the civil rights movement. we pay tribute to this historic city during black history month. it was here that black protesters endured the force of water cannons and felt the wrath of police attack dogs because they wanted equal rights under the law. it was in this city that martin luther king jr. had his famous letter from birmingham yale in 1963 imploring african-americans to stand up and take action rather than waiting for whites to change unjust laws, something kwhilts were never likely to do on their own. today birmingham has been dubbed one of thecoolest cities in america. it has a thriving business district. but these streets were once soaked with the blood and tears of those who gave part of themselves in sacrifice for a better life for others, selfless

acts that should never be forgotten. that is why we are in birmingham here today. i want to first take a look at the top headlines. while power has been restored for most texas residents, many communities are dealing with water shortages and property damage from the storm. now comes another nightmare situation brought about by the crisis, sky-high power bills. the recent weather has caused a huge spike in demand for fouer fouer. one customer received a bill for $10,000 for a three-bedroom house. this of course after sitting in the dark for days. plus news this weekend from the insurrectionist former presidents who hasn't appeared in public since leaving office on january the 20th. now word comes that the sore loser is expected to speak at

the conservative political action conference in orlando, florida, next week. the full lineup hasn't been announced, but trump is expected to close out the meeting on the 28th. cpac is a largely far-right wing gathering. new investigation into the capitol riot, "the washington post" first reported this weekend that federal investigators are circling some high-profile conservative figures including roger stone and alex jones as part of the investigation into the capitol riot. we're investigating potential ties between those physically attacking the capitol and individuals who may have influenced them, such as stone and others.

stone called for 1 million marchers and told his viewers on january 1st roger stone spent substantial time with president trump days apg and i'm told big things are afoot and trump has major actions up his sleeve. the sources cautioned what they're learning about stones and jones might be more about the rioters than leading to charges against those two men. the new york sometimes said that the fbi has video and other information suggesting that days leading up to the assault, roger stone associated with men who broke the law. that has given investigators a window to examine communications to see whether mr. stone knew of any plans to breach the complex.

"the new york times" has also identified six members of the oath keerms founded by former military and law enforcement personnel who guarded mr. stone and were later seen inside the capitol after a pro-trump mob took the bidding by force. prosecutors have charged two of those men with conspiring to attack congress. so both roger stone and alex jones have previously denied involvement in or prior knowledge of the attack on the capitol. let's discuss this more. joining me now is democratic representative stacy plaskett of the u.s. virgin islands. she recently served as a house impeachment manager in the case against the former president and is a new heb of the house ways and means committee. thank you for being here. all of this new information that we are getting shouldn't have fundamentally changed the presentation that you and your fellow house managers presented. you gave detailed information using video, using maps, using graphics, and talking about what

people had already said. that said, now that the senate didn't convict the former president of the united states, does this information and information you have suggest there could be some other way of pursuing those involved in the braesm on the capitol? >> good to see you, ali. i'm glad you're in birmingham, lifting up the story of what's happened there. i'm glad everyone is seeing light on how climate change is affecting our country. as for what this new report is showing with regard to roger stone and other allies of the president, i think it's solidifying that, in fact, the president was, in fact, not only an instigator but a planler of the attack on january 6th. i think it leads to other law enforcement agencies having additional support of what the

president's involvement was. i'm really looking at what's happening in the district of columbia, with their law enforcement agencies and attorneys general looking into the incitement of violence by the president and his allies. i'm hopeful as speaker pelosi is putting together her commission that is going to look at the issues that not only the security issues related to january 6th but what were the insidious motivations behind the attack on our capitol. >> interesting developments in the new charges that were laid against members of the oath keepers, a conspiracy theorist group involved with the insurrection. but what almost alarm med more was the word from the capitol police about the number of capitol police who have been suspended from their job or who are under investigation for a role in accommodating or supporting or turning a blind eye to what was happening on january 6th. this is alarming because in many

cases we saw capitol police as absolute heroes. one-loss their life in the moment. two others took their lives afterwards. we saw their heroic acts. yet there seem to be some in their ranks who may not be prioritizing the safety of the people in the capitol. >> well, ali, my father was a new york city police officer for 30 years, and he says that a thing a good cop hates the most is a bad cop. we know there were tremendous police officers that fought or four, five hours against these rioters, some who gave their lives, some who will be permanently maimed from the attack on january 6th. and of course there are those individuals among those ranks who there are questions about what their involvement was, their accommodation, as you called it. of course we in congress are dealing with that as well. are there members of congress who were instigators, who were supporters, encouragers of the

riots. and we are going to have to in all instances root out the enemy within. >> representative plaskett, you and your fellow impeachment managers gave your all. not sure what more you could have done to convince more senators to vote for conviction. you have a busy and big domestic policy agenda. when you're talking to your stilts or others, when they say what happens now as it relates to the former president and these insurrectionists vis-a-vis the work that you have done in terms of this koointd bill, the $1.9 trillion bill, minimum wage, employment assistance, how do you see what it looks like for the democratic caucus? >> i think the democratic congress has to go big and go large. we are facing so many issues left by president trump. his approach to how heflsz dealing with the pandemic has

left us in a very dismal place. we have lost 1.4 million jobs here in the american economy, the countless lives that were lost as well as small businesses and others that have had to close. so that's why we're grateful that president biden is not only being very disciplined about the health issues related to tu pandemic, rolling out its tremendous efforts that we're also doing in the virgin islands for vaccine case and testing, but more importantly, how are we going to jump start our economy? we are going to pass this covid pandemic bill. i'm working on the budget committee as will, and we have a huge mark-up coming this week working on that. but afterwards we're going to build back better. we're going to work on infrastructure. the new democratic coalition is working with president biden and his group and the democratic caucus as a whole to how do we create jobs, how do we sum port our infrastructure, jump-start

the economy so we can be the innovators and be the greatest economic force in the world. >> how i will enjoy talking about infrastructure and climate and things like that in the coming years. >> it's going to be something. >> good to see you. thank you very much. stacey plaskett of the united states virgin islands. joining me now is a staff writer at the new yorker and an msnbc contributor before i talk about this historic moment and where i am in birmingham, i want to ask you about the news overnight about roger stone and alex joan. this is starting to piece together as more of a conspiracy than a spontaneous happening on january 6th at the congress. >> sure. this was the concern all along even back to the russia investigation and the first impeachment and the various kinds of concerns around this

group, which is basically for insurrection we're getting the old band back together. the belief was they were opportunitying with impunity, especially given donald trump's propensity for handing out pardons like candy on halloween. so there was no reason for anyone in this group or inner circle to believe there would be any consequences and they were emboldened to proceed with an even worse set of conspiracies. >> yelle, you tweeted a couple days ago with respect to texas, you said amazing for mobilizing an emergency for a state that dint vote for him. state's republican leaders, their senators, at least one of their united states senators and their governors spent more time gaslighting and misleading people as to what the real problem was in the state of texas rather than dealing with

getting people power and water. >> on one level it's astounding but it should not be because it's an extension of the anti-government things we've heard for so long. not interested in government or in governing. what ted cruz did in his kind of amazing holiday getaway adventure was not really surprising. it was more consistent than it was anything else. i think the outrage was incredible that he would abandon his constituents in an hour of need. but that doesn't contradict what we've seen from the right t in the trump era and before. >> jelani, i'm here doing what i love doing best, talking to people from across america. in birmingham, it's a remarkable story because it's a city with rich history, rich industrial

city, but every piece of birmingham's history has another side to the coin, a side that generally built the city on the backs of black labor, people who were arrested for often insignificant things and leased by the state to the iron mills and the iron works of this city. this city was built by black people. it was a center for the civil rights movement. and in 2021, and you realize they were doing the same things in the '50s and '60s they're fighting for today. >> my entire maternal side of my family is from birmingham. >> oh. >> i'm very familiar with the history both as a hiss attorney and my personal history. i have to tell you, we have this narrative about the forgotten coal miner and the working-class people of the country.

and that's important something we should think about. but one big block of that is those african-american coal miners in and arnold birmingham and part of the labor story we don't tell. we don't talk about the extraordinary level of violence even by the standards of civil rights movement in order to suppress the movement for black people's rights, even preceding dr. king. that's important ground you're on. howl at me offline. i'll hook you up with my family and get you some cornbread and southern food. this is always the priority, jelani. i appreciate that. i will do that. i'm in front of the 16th street baptist church, known to most americans, known here as the center of the civil rights movement but was known after that bombing that killed four girls. and bombing was a very, very big thing. this is the church. the bombing was on the right side of it toward the back. killed four girls, injured

others. i'll speak to one of the survivors of that bombing. but this city was nicknamed bombingham for a while because the dynamite that was used in mines was used to silence black people. black people bought a house in a kwhitd neighborhood and they couldn't be stopped from doing so, they'd bomb the house. >> that's right. that's a very important point you made because people think the term bombingham came after the church bombing. no. that name was established well before that because there was so much violence and such a propensity to use bombing as a means of suppressing political dissent or the movement for equal rights and freedom that it had gotten that name well before, decades before. so that's really kind of a crucial part of the story we don't talk about.

the other thing about birmingham is the tremendous crossroads of industrialism and southern racism. the only other place you saw that at the same time at the same level was atlanta. that's really the only place you can go to and get that story. >> yep. well, we will be spending the next few hours here telling a lot of that story, jelani. i didn't know your association. i'm glad to know of it. it is a great town with a rich history. jelani cobb is an msnbc contributor. civil rights in america did not happen without birmingham, alabama. it was central to the fight for equality. this church standing behind me was one of the catalysts that grabbed the nation's attention. coming up i eel speak to a survivor of the deadly bombing at the 16th street church. and i had conversations with locals and asked them what message they have for president biden. here's the reverend thomas

wilder. >> mr. president i think the very first thing that needs to happen is restoring sanity and truthfulness and trust in government. i think the biggest temptation you're going to face is to swing from one side to the other. i would encourage you to try to judge from the middle, restore dignity and integrity in the office.

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the events in birmingham and elsewhere have so increased, the cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them. it is a time to act in the congress, in your state and local legislative body, and above all, in all of our daily lives. >> that was president john f. kennedy in a speech to the american people on june 11th, 1963. it was considered a watershed moment in the civil rights movement and marked the beginning of the end of a long struggle for equal rights. but his words came years after some dark and difficult times

and three months before one of the greatest tragedies of the civil rights movement. protesters had begun to pressure birmingham's business leaders to open employment to blacks and end segregation in public institutions, stores, schools, and restaurants. when local leaders and business leaders resisted the boycott, members of the southern christian leadership conference got involved and the 16th street baptist church became the headquarters for a movement called project c. the c stood for confrontation. project c was an elaborate pran to use sit-ins, marches and other nonviolent protests to provoke mass arrests that would draw attention to birmingham's civil rights abuses. the plan worked, creating national public outrage that helped bring the end to segregated counters and drinking fountains around birmingham. a job improvement plan for blacks was created monopoly many jailed zurg the demonstrations were released.

these changes, however, brought increased violence with attacks from angry segregationists. on september 13th of 1963, 19 sticks of dynamite exploded at a basement window behind me at the church. the explosion killed four girls who had been in the church business. annie may collins, carol robinson, age 14, cynthia wesley, age 14, and denise mccare, aged 11. 22 other victims suffered injuries. nearly 58 years later, the 16th street baptist church stands as in quiet defiance of everything it has expeernlszed. the wounds in birmingham are old but like america, they are still healing. coats and kills bacteria to relieve diarrhea. see, pepto® diarrhea gets to the source, killing the bad bacteria. so, make sure to have pepto® diarrhea on hand. ♪ ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin.

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stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. all right. this is 16th street in alabama,

birmingham, alabama, in front of the 16th street baptist church. this is the site of one of the most horrific attacks on black lives during the entire civil rights movement and in american history. on september t 15th, 1963, four little girls were murdered in cold blood when sticks of dynamite were placed here. 19 sticks of dynamite were planted by white supremacists and they exploded. there used to be steps here and they exploded and the black went through that window. the church has been used as a meeting place for civil rights leads rs like martin luther king jr. and served as a staging area for the birmingham campaign for black equality. hundreds of churchgoers were in the church upstairs. they were readying themselves for the 11:00 a.m. sunday service when the bomb went offer. now, bombingses of black-owned property in birmingham had become common because, in fact, it acquired the name bombingham. this is the first one that ended in death.

four kills were here, cynthia wesley, carol robert zone, denise mcnair, and addie mae collins. those four girls are immortalized in statues that are in the park right across the road from where i am. the statues of the young girls stand there for all to see. that is why this is a pilgrimage spot for people looking at the history of the civil rights movement. the brutal attack had become a new rallying cry in the fight for civil rights. the blacks were seen around the country as a moral attack as a foundation in the united states. its helped p the passage of the civil rights act a year later. the reverend dr. carol mckinstry was there that day. she survived a second bombing at her home. her book is "while the world

watched." doctor, than you for joining me. reverend, thank you for joining me. you were here that day. tell us a bit about what happened that day. if you look at the church now, there's no evidence that there was violence here, no evidence of the damage that was done. what was that day like? >> good morning, and welcome to birmingham. on september 15th, 1963, it was a regular morning, typical morning. the sun was somewhat overcast. i arrived at church about 9:30. at that point we had approximately, according to the fbi records, we had about 80 people that were there for sunday school. and i served as the secretary of the sunday school so my job was simply collecting the attendance

records and the financial records and creating a report to be handed in later after sunday school was over. so it was a normal morning. children were in their sunday school a classes. adults were upstairs. children were downstairs. and about t 10:15, i left my sunday school class and began collecting the written reports that were being done so that i could create a summary report for the end of sunday school. and as i collected those reports downstairs, i passed the bathroom where the girls were. we had to pass the bathroom in those days to get upstairs from that direction. so i did pass the bathroom. my friends were there. we were all excited. it was youth sunday, youth day. we each had a role to play

during sunday school, whether it was usher or choir or something, but i did not linger at the door. i said good morning. i was carrying the records and the money that i had collected from downstairs, and i spoke to them, they were prepping as girls do, and then they headed upstairs. i headed upstairs. and when i reached the top of the stairs, the church office, which was located at the top of the stairs in 1963, the phone was ringing. so i stepped inside and answered the phone. i worked for mrs. shorter was the church clerk. i worked for her on sundays. but she had stepped out. so i answered the phone. the caller on the other end said, "three minutes." and as quickly as he said that, he hung up. without really thinking about it, i took about 15 steps from that church office out into the sanctuary and right at the

beginning of the row where is the pews start t is where i was when the bomb exploded. so it exploded about i would say maybe more like 15 seconds after the phone call. >> what do you believe that phone call was? was it a warning? was it a threat? was it meant to say get out or was it just somebody gloating about the fact that a bomb was about to go off? >> you know, all indications are now that they knew the bomb was planted there. i think it was someone that was gloating about t that. the records indicate that mr. shorter had already received phone calls that morning. and unknown to us as young people, as children, unknown to us was that the chsm had been getting threatening calls over a period of months. and this was not something they shared with the young people

probably because they didn't want to frighten us, but, you know, it was revealed that she had received several calls that morning before sunday school actually started. >> birmingham was a place of violence, no question about it. there had been several bombings before that. you were victim of the fire hoses put on young protesters, dogs set upon protesters. this was bigger violence. this was worse violence. was it at the moment a very clear turning point in the effort? did you realize that day something is different and this will never be the statement again as a result of that bombing? >> you know, i absolutely did think that. i was in a home with my parents an four brothers, and i had always felt t very she felt e -- sheltered, very protected, wherever i went or travels. in that moment in the bombing of

the church i just knew that life would never be the same for me because i realized that my father, my brothers were powerless to protect me. and i began to really understand what people were willing to do in the name of what they believed in or that what they thought was right or, you know, whatever explanation they would give for what they had done. but it was definitely a turning point for me in terms of looking at humanity. >> in this moment of civil rights that we are going through right now, in the social justice movement, we're blessed to have people like you who are carrying this nation's troubled history with them. reverend dr. carol mckinstry a survivor of the 16th street baptist church in birmingham. "while the world watched: a birmingham survivor comes of age

during the civil rights movement. is her book. i had the opportunity to speak with a group of black birmingham residents about their experiences during the pandemic and whether they are willing to get vaccinated. that's up next. dr. jacqueline stuart has a message to the biden administration about helping those trying to secure food during the pandemic. >> we must put our country back to work, put our country back to work so that people can field their families. it's hard to even think about, corona is hard to think about that. vaccines is hard to think about if we're hungry.

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the coronavirus pandemic has made this past year one for the record books. two months ago when the first covid vaccine was introduced, people would assume there would be those running to get the vaccine. not the case. historically speaking, black people more than any other race have a deep distrust when it comes to the medical profession and for good reason. as a well-established record of racial bias and medicine and to this day african-americans face a litany of disparities ind to . poor access, the quality of care, and the health outcomes

worse. life expectancy is substantially lower for black americans. then there's the history of outright abuse of black people like we saw with the infamous tuskegee experiment which took place in this very state. 600 black men were promised free health care for a condition called bad blood but they were duped into becoming subjects in a federally run study observing the effects of syphilis. instead of being treated all of the men including the one who is had the disease were continually given placebos and essentially left to die. the secret program ran for decades until its existence was leaked to the community in 1962. the study was unethical, amemorial, and disgusting. if you're black person in america, it's impossible to ignore to this day. while this experiment may be the highest form of medical malpractice against african-american, it's not the only one. this weekend i hosted a candid

wide-ranging discussion with six birmingham residents from different walks of life. we discussed the covid-19 vaccine and whether getting it is a risk they are willing to take. watch. >> doses of the vaccine started to process back in december. and i basically did a risk-benefit analysis to determine if it was the right thing for me. i did it for my family and the personnel and the citizens i serve. i think there's still a lot of skepticism in the community, but we need to have formal discussion and more public education surrounding the importance of getting the vaccine because we won't be able to social distance our way out of this pandemic. we won't get past the pandemic until we have about 70% to 75% of the country vaccinated. i think that needs to be highlighted more as a topic of importance to the country as a whole. >> was there any part of your decision to vaccinate that was also about being a role model in the black community? >> absolutely. i knew as a leader of the largest department in the state of alabama i had to be one of

the leaders or somebody that would go out and do it first so people could see if the fire cheech trusts the science, maybe i should consider it. >> i honestly and still weighing my options. i feel like i've been careful throughout the year. i don't have to go around a whole lot of people if i don't choose to. i don't preach do it or don't do it. i've been trying to keep myself as informed as possible. there is a lot of mistrust. having a simple conversation like this where if the then administration had been able to communicate with some of the health officials that are paid and put in their positions, had that went a little differently, i think a lot of people would have trusted it a little more. but the quickness of it and the information that we're getting now is just, like, i'm listening to people here, listening to people who have done it, but there's not one that sits down and says this is what your options are coming from, you know, we developed this vaccine, uav has one as well, but more

information be pushed out to not just the black community but to everyone to tell them what the pros and cons are of taking a vaccine that you will be injected into your body that could kill you or not. but you need to know to make a decision. >> i am extremely skeptical of it. i haven't done enough research maybe, and maybe my mind will be swayed about that. but, you know, it does worry me because, like danny was saying, we did develop it pretty quickly. and for all that we know, not to raise any further skepticism, but we don't know what could happen year from now or what could happen in the near future. and there's scary. i mean, the virus itself is scary because it's the unknown, but all of is just very uncharted territory. i do agree that we should heavenly weigh our options. >> i definitely plan on being

vaccinated but i get why people would not. i think it's how they market to our community. black people in general, people of color in general have a history where the government has used us as their guinea pigs. >> right here in this state. >> absolutely. and i think until there's some ownership on that part, people would say that was in the past, you need to move forward. when you go to a doctor, they ask you about your parents' history and that because they want the full picture of your health. that's true when we talk about the vaccine, we have to talk about what has happened in the past. there needs to be some acknowledgment of that. you can't tell me you want to give me a vaccine and call it warp speed. black people not going for that. why would we do do something like warp speed? >> slow and steady. >> warp speed isn't it. the way the government labels things is intention nam. when you talk about the loan forgiveness. that is not a loan. but it's a loan because black

people in business don't want debt and we want apply because we don't like the word loan. these words are intentional. they need a new marketing department to help market to people of color. >> i immunize children every day, and as a result of the immunizations that the children get, i can see the difference in disease processes, even since i've been in practice, i've seen immunizations developed and i've seen those diseases eliminated as a result of those immunizations. so i'm all for immunizing. >> what do you recommend that this administration does to address katrina's comments, daniel's comments to say, let's start from scratch, how do we convince people whether they should or shouldn't take the vaccine? >> public safety is always an issue. and the more public safety announcements that are out there, the more explanations of

the process, the more statistics on the disease versus the immunization i think people will become more comfortable with the process. >> to get people comfortable, leadership has to be trustworthy. give me the facts. whether i like them or whether i don't, if i can look at you in the face and feel at least 80%, 90% sure you're telling me the truth, we can deal with whatever we have to deal with. but if i as a leader come up with terms -- and i'm not speaking dispairingly about anybody -- fake news, alternative facts. when i was a kid, that was called a lie and that's what you got your butt beat for. my congregation, i've been there

32 years, we try to deal with truth. what is the truth? now, the truth may be ugly, but if we know the truth, we can go forward. and i think the biden/harris administration needs to establish credibility in terms of people trusting government. >> while science and a responsible administration have taken over the fight against covid, there is more to be done to avoid a dismal spring. what some experts are saying needs to happen, next. still fresh unstopables in-wash scent booster downy unstopables

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administration and the supra is that correct prospect of getting out of this pandemic is bigger than it ever has been. there's also been a steep decline in covid cases in resent weeks which is great, and the country seems to be on the right track but now is the time to get complacent on this. doctors argue even more is to be done and now is the time for decisive and definitive actions. states will understand the rules and americans will know when to expect public health interventions up to full lockdowns. joining me is one of the authors of that piece, a member of the now dissolved biden/harris transmission, and the author of "which country has the best health care", and he's a co-host of mine, for some weeks we

hosted a show on the science and medicine of covid and the vaccines that were coming. zeke, good to see you again. you are seeing something important, because when we contrast where we are now to just a week ago, we were told in march that this will be over by last easter, and the fact is nobody in this country, parents, workers, businesses could plan because they didn't know what was coming. you're saying we should actually have thresholds such like me can determine, if this goes this way we are going to have a shutdown and if this goes this way we will be able to reopen restaurants. >> yeah, i think it's really important for americans to know what to expect. one of the problems of the trump administration is we had no idea what was actually going to happen and we saw this even coming out in the last phase, they were not telling states how

many vaccines they were getting. telling the country what to expect when we actually have to be more restrictive, when we can loosen up is very important, when we should open schools and when we shouldn't. you know, some of the numbers i look at is what is the number of new cases we have per 100,000 people, is that trend going up? is that trend coming down? we really need to be below 10. we have very few states below 10, and those are some of the factors that need to be communicated to people for predictability and we all need to plan our life. >> last year, last spring and last summer you and i were talking about whether or not there was chance of getting proper schooling or kids back to college in september in-person, and that has not happened in most places and we're hoping it happens this year and we are hearing we may not achieve herd

immunity by the summer or by the end of the year, and what is being driven for what has to happen for us to overcome the disease? >> it has to be driven by what has to happen. you can't plan on the basis of your utopia, this is what i would like to have happen and that's what i am going to behave on, that doesn't make any sense. literally since the start i have been saying, plan things out, and november 2021 is probably the key turning point and could be a few months earlier or later, and that's about when we will have enough vaccines out to people. schooling is different from slightly younger kids. i know there's disagreement, and most of the data shows we don't have a lot of transmission in schools and it's because you can enforce masking and hand washing and social distancing and it turns out it's safer for

teachers as well as students than going out in the regular community, and that's an important fact. i do think, and i have said this to lots of people, we should put teachers at the top of the immunization lists, because that's getting the economy working, and you can't open up schools if you are on the upward slope of lots of cases happening, and we should open schools before indoor dining, in my opinion. >> your argument about the dining and other businesses, if we are going to shut things down the government has to have financial compensations and we are working at getting better at that and have not mastered that yet. a former obama white house health adviser and author. in our next hour we will speak to the mayor about the

past, present and future of birmingham and will have part two of my candid conversation with birmingham locals, and later this morning disaster relief in texas and covid relief on capitol hill, and that is at 10:00 a.m. eastern only on msnbc. velshi across america live from birmingham is back live after a quick break. eaten healthier. shingles doesn't care. i logged 10,000 steps today. shingles doesn't care. i get as much fresh air as possible. good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but no matter how healthy you feel your immune system declines as you age, increasing your risk for getting shingles. so what can protect you? shingrix protects. for the first time ever, you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective.

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good morning. it's sunday, february 21st. i am al ali velshi. we pay tribute to the people and their struggle in this historic city during black history months. first, let's take a look at some of the days's top headlines. president biden calling on gop lawmakers as the house prepares to take up the bill and cast a vote by the end of the week. the plan is to leave the senate enough time to work out the unresolved $15 an hour minimum wage. also on the capitol hill docket this coming week is the senate confirmation hearing for merrick garland. that gets under way