yeah...uhhh... [children laughing] doug? [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has easy-to-use tools and some of the lowest prices. get e*trade and start trading today. good morning. i'm chris jansing in for craig melvin other at msnbc headquarters in new york. right now an escalation in eastern europe. a western intelligence official tells nbc news that russia could have the forces it needs to launch a full invasion in the next two to three weeks. these new details coming from nbc's richard england who will join me live with ukraine ahead. the supreme court deals a massive blow to voting rights advocates letting alabama proceed with a congressional map that a lower court says

disenfranchises black voters why. it could have ramifications across the country. and 15 boxes of trump white house presidential records handed over to the national archives because taking and keeping them is a violation of federal law. the expanding questions it's raising this morning about the last administration's preservation of records. also this hour. we'll preview a rare show of bipartisanship expected in the house today. lawmakers are set to vote on a bill to reform the u.s. postal service. i'll talk about what it will mean for yo with the only member of congress who is a former postal worker michigan member brenda lawrence, and i'll ask her about the controversial postmaster general louis dejoy. more on the standoff over russia. nbc's foreign correspondent richard engel is in ukraine and i'm joined by the chief white house correspondent for the "new york times" and msnbc political analyst and the former supreme allied commander at nato and

msnbc's chief international security and diplomacy analyst. richard, you've learned these new details on momentum of russia's military buildups. give us the details. >> reporter: so i received a lengthy briefing from a senior western intelligence official, and we discussed a range of options, what intelligence officials are looking at, what they are seeing and how they are analyzing this information, and i would love to hear the admiral's take on it since he was actually in this position commanding nato and having to deal with this very similar kind of scenario in years past, but what this intelligence official told me, who has access to realtime information, is that russia is still increasing its forces, that it will have enough force in place in the next two to three weeks to carry out a full-scale invasion of ukraine should vladimir putin decide,

that it is putin's decision alone and that the intelligence estimate is that ukranian forces will fight back, that the ukranian people have changed since 2014 when this country broke away from russia's sphere of influence and will fight for their democracy, will fight for their independence but that in a matter of days the ukranian military may be forced to go underground and form a resistance movement but that vladimir putin may not be aware of the -- of the changes because he's not the kind of leader who would necessarily take advice, take outside counsel. he believes that he understands the situation better than anyone else, and his advisers are not necessarily authorized to challenge his opinion. there is the potential, this official said, for a maximal invasion, that russia could do it in the next two to three weeks but that russia is also leery of occupying and pacifying a country as large as ukraine,

that that could take two to three years, that russia would be forced to send in reserve troops, and that there is a potential minimal option and to watch february 14th, the date for -- a tentative date for a vote in the russian duma on recognizing an enclave in ukraine which is controlled by pro-russian separatists, that if that vote goes ahead and russia decides to officially recognize this separatist enclave, then putin, russia, could decide to move into an area in ukraine it already effectively controls, moving in under the guise of being peacekeepers which fits the russian narrative that these pro-russian ukranians are being attacked and besieged and having their human rights bowsed by the ukranian government, so a range of options, but with a particular focus on the troop buildup which is now most intense to the north in belarus

and in the south in crimea, and on this potential for a minimalist option if the russian government decides to recognize a pocket that it already has. >> so admiral, given what we know which is these options that are available, the buildup but also what we don't know which is always what vladimir putin might be thinking, what's your take on what you're hearing? >> i think rich has got it about right. i think we should run him to be the next supreme allied leader of nato. i think it's a 25% chance of a full-on maximal blitzkreig go-to kyiv regime change. i think it's about a 50% chance of a minimalist approach, focused on the southeast of the country, creating a land bridge that kind of runs from russia proper down to crimea which, of course, putin already annexed.

i think here's the good news. i think there's still a 25% chance that this can work out diplomatically. i was somewhat encouraged by president macron's visit yesterday. you've seen the photos of him and putin talking at that gondola-sized table in the kremlin, but the good news is they were at a table together no matter how big it is, and i think there might be a path down the so-called normandy format, and, of course, another good point from my perspective was that yesterday chancellor schultz, yeah, there's the gondola table. chancellor schultz of germany in the white house having i think a good conversation by and large with president biden keeping that alliance unity as the best path that we have, frankly, towards a diplomatic settlement here. >> what would have to be a part that have package to appease vladimir putin, to say to him that he could come out of this

diplomatically and still save face without an invasion? >> yeah. this is the gut question. in a sense putin has kind of painted himself into a diplomatic corner and that's unfortunate as we try and resolve this, but i think what macron was talking to him about is kind of a package that would give him some face-saving agreements on the size of conventional forces in europe, perhaps where they are located, maybe restore some confidence-building measures, and i think part of the package would have to be a ukranian decision to say that ukraine would not move forward with nato membership. that will be extremely controversial and in direct opposition to what president zelensky will be. that will be a big stumbling block. >> the u.s. said, quote, they would bring an end to the nord stream 2 pipeline if there is a russian invasion.

explain where that leaves us. >> right. this is a pipeline from russia to germany for natural gas, germany and most of europe depends to a large extent on russia for its energy. that's why keeping european allies it's such a tricky challenge because they depend on russia in a way that we don't, you know, for their heating and fuel and russia depends on russia as a customer and it can't easily switch its sales to some other part of the world in the way that it, you know, would make up for that lost income, so, in fact, both sides have, you know, something at stake here. that pipeline, which has been controversial for years, were not brought into action of service, that would be a big blow for germany terms of its energy needs and in terms of russia for its energy sales, and that's why you heard president biden make that point yesterday, that an invasion or an incursion into ukraine would automatically, you know, put an end to that pipeline. what you didn't hear is the

german chancellor saying that along the way. you could hear the chancellor say it, not quite as strongly as president biden did, but there's no way germany could go forward with that kind of a deal with russia if there was a major land war in europe for the first time since world war ii. >> is that how you see it because to quote schulz he said we're absolutely united, we're together, but did you take that to mean that we are united on the pipeline? >> i think we're pretty close. certainly the germans hope that it doesn't come to that, and i always say that nato is like a bicycle with 30 people, 30 nations who are pedaling. some are pedaling real fast up towards the front of the bike, u.s., united kingdom, some are on the middle of the bike, maybe france and some are on the back of the bike, and that would be germany because exactly as peter says they are so intertwined economically. one good thing to remember about

this is that europe's energy overall, only 20% of that is natural gas, so they are still going have a lot of energy, and of that 20% let's say putin shuts off those taps. it's a manageable reduction, although it will be difficult and painful as the winter unfolds. bottom line, my assessment, i think if putin invades there is not going to be anything but air whistling through that nord stream 2 pipeline for a long, long time. peter, i know you're talking to the folks on the ground all the time at the white house. is there a sense on the ground that diplomacy could still sfwhork are they more optimistic than the admiral at 25%? >> i think the white house is being pretty sanguine about it. i don't think they are very confident about diplomacy. i actually think that the numbers that they would put on a

full-scale invasion may be a little higher, that they are feeling pretty uncertain that there's anything other than a full-scale invasion on putin's list of options here. obviously there's a limited incursion possibility, but they are increasingly worried that he would go for the full-scale approach here, because if he's going to be penalized by the outside world and impose these crippling sanctions on it, he might as well go all the way. that's the thinking anyway. whether that's the case we don't really know because the truth is only one person knows and that's vladimir putin. what's inside of his mind at the best intelligence agency? they can use the pest information that they have but at the end it's one person's decision and so many reasons not to go into ukraine besides what the west would do. as richard said from the ground, the idea of occupying another country, a country of fellow slavs, not muslims like in chechnya, so it's a racist country at times and there might

not be much compuyction about dwelling chechens, but under the circumstances there's much more to consider. >> you'll be joining us a little later in the hour. thanks, peter. coming up, more and more states are quickly moving to drop mask restriction, states run by democrats. is it too soon and what will it mean for classrooms? plus, 15 boxes of trump white house requested for mar-a-lago requested by the national archives. what was in the boxes and the questions they raised about what else could be at the former president's home. first though the new supreme court ruling in alabama. the court just restored a congressional map that a lower court says disenfranchises black voters. what it could mean for other states next. voters what it could mean for other states next.

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this morning we're following a supreme court decision that could have major implications for voting rights here in the u.s. the court cleared the way on monday for alabama to use a new congressional map that critics say disenfranchises black voters. the decision overturns a lower court ruling that said the map violates the voting rights act. the new map has just one majority black district in a state where more than a quarter of the population is black. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us now with the latest. so in practical terms, pete. what does this mean for voters in alabama, and how could it impact other states? >> reporter: well, in practical terms it means alabama will continue to have that same district map outline for the elections coming up this year, the ones that the republican legislature drew after taking into account shifts in the state's population. traditionally the last several years, alabama has had a single black district. it will again for the coming

election. there won't be a second district in which black voters could constitute a majority and the lower court said that it met all the tests for having a second district, that there was a large resignation of african-american voters, tend to vote cohesively, but they are chopped up in different areas and can't elect candidate of their choice and for that reason a three-judge panel, including two appointed by presume, saying that state should create that second district. that's the laydown of how the court voted on this. the court also agreed though to hear alabama's challenge to that lower court ruling, and that's where could be trouble for the future of the voting rights act in terms of creating more districts in which minority voters have the right to choose the candidates of their choice. now that doesn't mean it's going to stop this kind of redistricting in other states and to create more minority

majority districts because some of the challenges involve state laws, not federal law. that's why what the supreme court has done here is important. >> pete williams, appreciate it. >> you bet. today, former alabama senator doug jones officially becomes his role as the supreme court nomination adviser to president biden. the senator will act as a so-called sherpa for the nominee working with top officials to advise on the nomination and confirmation process and being there for that nominee. the white house told nbc last week they have narrowed the search down to less than 12 candidates. up next, unmasking america as covid cases fall. california joins the list of states easing restrictions. what those new rules look like. plus a state of emergency across our border in ottawa, canada. it's closing in on two full weeks of this so-called freedom convoy of truckers demanding an end to covid restrictions and mandates, and it threatens to

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that's the sound of bells tolling monday at the national cathedral in washington, d.c. remembering the 900,000 lives lost in the u.s. to covid-19. lawmakers also held a moment of silence on the steps of the capitol. now as devastating as those numbers are, there may be hope on the horizon with u.s. cases continuing to drop, and more states are starting to loosen their covid protocols. from oregon to new jersey, five democratic governors have now announced plans to end mask mandates in schools, andicle's governor is lifting the state's indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people next tuesday. nbc has this report from los angeles for us this morning. california's statewide mandate sending, but as i understand it los angeles county is keeping its mask requirement in place. walk us through this myriad of plans. >> reporter: chris, that's correct. the governor made the

announcement for the statewide mask mandate taking that away like you mentioned february 15th. he also said we have seen a decrease of 65% in cases in california, so that's the reason why they have made this decision, but yet california is a large state. if you look at the whole map. you know, we have 58 counties. you have three main sections, a section in the north which is san francisco. then you have central california with the which is the capital region and then you have l.a. county, orange county and san diego county. los angeles public health officials have already said they will keep this mask mandate in place, that because of the high transmissibility that they are still seeing in los angeles county, yet across the state a lot of people have reacted in a very positive way after hearing that the governor announced the end of the mask mandate. this is what people had to say. >> i know that people have certain health conditions and we also want to be respectful with those with underlining

conditions with family members and i understand that so i'm sensitive it that. >> i'm vaccinated and i just know that i'll be safe and keep my distance from people. >> should have been lifted a long time ago. >> i can't wait. excited for life to return back to normal and take the mask off and not have to worry about it. >> reporter: now when it comes to schools, they did announce that the mask mandate will remain in schools k-12, but public state officials will be meeting with members of the community and leaders of the schools to try to make a decision moving for a. now this mask mandate will end on the 15th so there's still about another week for each county to decide how they will move forward, places like you mentioned like los angeles keeping that mask mandate, but then you have other places like san francisco, for example, where they have an 80% vaccination rate, 80% of people fully vaccinated. they have decided not to keep a mask mandate and then there's places like orange county in san diego where they don't have a mask mandate so people there

will be happy to enter the indoor places without a mask. again, that's for people that are fully vaccinated in california. >> gaud venegas, thanks for report. >> the city's police chief calls a protest a siege and threat to the democracy. for 12 days now canadian truck drivers opposed to vaccine mandates have converged on the capital city shutting down many areas. the prime minister justin trudeau has said that this amounts to a blockade of economy and people's everyday lives and has to stop, but here's texas senator ted cruz weighing in. >> let me say the canadian truckers are heroes. they are patriots and they are marching for your freedom and for my freedom. those truck drivers, god bless them. they are defending canada, but

they are defending america as well. >> i want to go live to ottawa where nbc is covering the protests. what are they trying to go accomplish? >> reporter: they want to see an end to covid-19 mandates and restrictions. if i walk around this way you can kind of get a sense this. fellow is accusing us of being live, you don't want to see an end to vaccine mandates? that's not true? >> as i was saying, protesters here are wanting to see an end to covid-19 vaccines and mandates, and can you see that there's a lot of anti-media hostility in this area, in this environment, but you can see there are thousands of truckers here. the last estimate by local police chief is that there are at least 1,000 truckers in this area speaking with truckers who are willing to talk with us. they want to berate us like you

she gentleman is here instead of explaining to us why they are here and some people have spoken to us saying this initially started because they specificallyish use with the vaccine mandate requirement for cross-country travel for truckers. since then it has expanded beyond that hand most of the people we've spoken to here they want to see an end to all of the covid-19 restrictions. that means no masks, no vaccines, no indoor dining restrictions, no lockdowns, and they say they will stay out here until they see a change, an a lot of their focus on their frustration has been towards prime minister justin trudeau. listen to what we heard from one of the protesters earlier today and also a resident who lives in the city of ottawa. >> why does he keep going? he reese always repeating himself in what did he do last night? he said whatever he said before. >> both sides have to talk. i think the idea of a mediator

is a great idea because they are completely at a stalemate right now. >> reporter: so one of the big issues for local residents has been the noise. until just really in the last 24 house, a lot of people have been demonstrating by honking their horns. that's something that the judge cave gave an injunction for ten days saying they could no longer do that. some people are kind of opting to rev their engines and make noise and make their voices heard. this is just one section of an area where there's cars, truckers, protesters. it really goes blocks and blocks past parliament. in terms of when this will end, some local residents in ottawa previously protested outside of the police station staying they needed to do more no get some of these people out. police, the city manager, they said they have had difficulty getting any local towing company with capability to come in here and move some of the trucks out

so the prime minister, he has said that this is in his view a fringe group of canadians, and the people here say they believe this is about freedom, and they say they plan to stay here as long as possible. as you mentioned at the beginning, they are getting support from conservative lawmakers back in the united states. >> you and your crew stay safe there. appreciate you being there to give us that report. thank you. remember this hurricane map that president trump notoriously drew on with a sharpie or letters from north korean dictator kim jong-un that president trump described as beautiful. we're learning they are some of the presidential records in 15 boxes that trump had to return to the national archives. why? next, and why president trump is not allowed to keep those records. the newquestions it's always raising about the former president's preservation of documents. president's preservation of documents.

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this morning we're learning new details about the 15 boxes of white house documents that former president trump had to turn over to the national archives after improperly taking them to emlaggo. the boxes had items from some of the most talked about moments of the trump administration. according to "the washington post," they included the quote beautiful letters from north korean leader kim jongun, and then there's the map of hurricane dorian that trump blew on with a sharpie according to the "new york times" trying to misrepresent the path of the storm this. all comes as a number of republican senators are pushing back against the rnc's decision to censure fellow republican members liz cheney and adam kinzinger for being part of the investigation into trump and january 6th. leanne caldwell joins us and peter baker with the "new york times" is back with me. i want to get to all that have in just a second. leanne, one of the questions about january 6th was what did

jim jordan know? did he talk to the president? when did he talk to the president? he was vague. he said he couldn't recall. you just spoke to him and at least gave some new information that is now confirming what has been report in fact in the january 6th committee's records. >> reporter: yeah, chris. it seems like the committee has a pretty good outline what have happened on january 6th based on the white house sent from the national archives and it came out last week that jim jordan spoke with the former president on the morning of january 6th. now jim jordan had said previously he spoke with the president that day. he insinuated that it was in the afternoon. well, i just asked jim jordan about that phone call, and he said that he spoke to the president more than once, and so you can assume that he spoke on the morning which is what we

reported last week and then also in the afternoon as well. so there were two separate phone calls that jim jordan had with the former president, and so last week we weren't sure if there was just one. this is a little bit more clarity of what congressman jordan's role was and who he spoke to and when he spoke to the former president on that day, chris. >> one of the things that the committee wants to get to the bottom of. peter, help us get to the bottom of these 15 boxes of documents. look, we had already known that the president wasn't exactly meticulous about doing what you're supposed to do under the presidential records act, but what do we know about these 15 boxes, and what the heck were they doing in mar-a-lago? >> right, exactly. first of all, take us back to the last days of the trump presidency. remember what was happening in that era. he was not anxious to leave the white house. he was trying to find any way to hold on to power. he was refusing to concede defeat so in the final days basically the staff and he, you

know, only finally belatedly conceding the fact that he would have to move out and pack things up and leave. there was a chaotic situation. he left with 15 boxes we now know of things he should not have left with, things that belonged to the united states government and to the people of the united states and the archives according to the presidential records act. anything a president, you know, does in office basically belongs to the people for whom he he's serving and is supposed to be left with the archives. that's very clear. not a very murky situation, but he decided to leave with these items anyway which is real fascinating are the items that he chose to take with him. the items meant something to him. the letters from kim jong-un which he constantly referred to as love letters. he's shown these letters. pretty per functry, not all that special but he thought they were special and the idea that have map, that he wanted to keep the map that showed the path of hurricane dorian as he wanted to

portray it because he had been caught out predicting something that wouldn't happen in terms of where it would hit in alabama. it's fascinating he would want to keep that. why in all of his four years in office is that something he wanted to keep? no one can say but it's telling in its own right. >> we could speculate but we won't. potentially as you and i were talking about a potential invasion of ukraine, why does this matter? why does this law exist and why should we care? >> well, it does matter. the law exists because congress and the president of the united states at the time believed that maintaining a credible history during a presidency is important, and it's not simple police up to a president to decide what counts and what doesn't. there's not discretion for the president to say i'm going to keep this. it's how we reconstruct and understand decisions made in the trust public and let's also remember, of course, that this is something that president trump himself used as a

political opponent against his weapon in 2016 against hillary clinton, accused her repeatedly of, you know, violating the law by deleting e-mails that she considered to be personal, and he said well you shouldn't be allowed to do that. you should go to jail there. not only did he keep documents and items that didn't belong to him in violation of the law, it looks like, and we've actually known this for years, he ripped up documents repeatedly throughout the time in office which you're not supposed to do, leaving his aide to try to piece them together with tape and maintain them as the law requires. >> we've all seen the tape, walking to marine one, saying nancy pelosi broke the law because she ripped up my state of the union speech so obviously he knew something about the presidential records act. great to see you and thanks for your reporting, a great it. >> ballot box backlash.

voters in wisconsin might lose the drop boxes to vote. plus, with the post office almost under constant fire for delivery delays and big budget deficits could help be on the way? i'll talk about it with congresswoman brenda lawrence, the only member of congress who was a postal carrier. the only member of congress who was a postal carrier maged hair the strength it needs. even with repeated combing hair treated with dove shows 97% less breakage. strong hair with new dove breakage remedy. number one beauty brand not tested on animals. hi, i'm debra. i'm from colorado. strong hair with new dove breakage remedy. i've been married to my high school sweetheart for 35 years. i'm a mother of four-- always busy. i was starting to feel a little foggy. just didn't feel like things were as sharp as i knew they once were. i heard about prevagen and then i started taking it about two years now. started noticing things a little sharper, a little clearer. i feel like it's kept me on my game. i'm able to remember things.

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fights over election rules are heating up across the country with allies of former president trump pushing new bills that could make it harder to vote or even overturn the results of an election, but not all republicans are on board. in a surprise move in arizona, republican house speaker rusty bauers effectively killed a bill that would have let lawmakers reject the results of an election. another major front in these fights, the use of ballot drop boxes that significant numbers of black voters relied on during the pandemic. in wisconsin, conservatives are trying to crack down on the drop boxes. nbc michelle brewster is here in part of our ongoing county-to-county story. this would be the last election

where the drop poxes are allowed to be used t.el what you're trg hearing. >> these are drop boxes used in more than 40 states across the country. super easy. have a mail-in ballot, fill out your vote and then you put it in a drop box like this. these are outside of libraries. they have tamp everyone proofch, and the problem is here in the state of wisconsin are saying they are not authorized by the election law and that made its way all the way up to the supreme court, and next week's election is the last time that voters will be able to use a ballot box like the one behind me. i spoke to the election commissioner, the executive director of the milwaukee elections commission about the

impact that ruling could v.listen to what she told me. >> we saw the increase in an septemberee voting during the pandemic where there was a lot of uncertainty with the mail as well, and so voters became accustomed to using the drop box. they get their ballot. they can drop it off at any one of our is a 15 boxes, at libraries, city hall. our voters have really become accustomed. 50% of our by-mail voters were using drop boxes and then there's the politics involved. they started a proses that would have allowed drop boxes in cities and all across the state of condition condition but trump called those keemts lynn o. again, official officials

asking -- because of the discourse and the comments from the president, any efforts to update the law have since been abandoned so it real comes down to what the court says when they officially hear this case in what could be a couple of weeks or perhaps a couple of monies. >> i know you'll stay on top of that for us, thank you. meanwhile we expect to see something on capitol hill that's become quite a rarity in congress, a bipartisan vote. the house is set to vote on the postal service reform act. it aims to help the usps save about $50 billion over the next decade without significantly rolling back service, and it hats support of democrats, republicans, the white house, even the postal workers union. with me now is brenda lawrence, a member of the house oversight committee and reform committee. only postal congress who worked in congress.

>> you've worked inside and outside. if you're going to save $50 billion over ten years. one of the things has to be true, either, service has to suffer or the >> as the only member of congress who literally walked the streets, supervised, managed and retired as a manager, the fiscal stability of the postal service has been a concern for decades. and we have seen how important the postal service is during the pandemic, where everything shut down, you still got your mail delivered. and the thing a lot of people don't recognize is the last mile concept of the postal service. so, fedex, ups, amazon, they don't have the responsibility of going five miles down a road to

a single house to deliver. but by constitution, we are choired to kwaegs required to deliver mail six days a week to every home in america. is so, when we talk about the bottom line and the postal service to be financially stable, this bill will do that and the other thing is the transparency part of it. where we're requiring a dashboard that can be accessible to the public. one of the highest volume of calls during the pandemic was about mail delivery. people rely on it and there's an expectation. i know what public service looks like because i began my public service as a letter carrier, going to every door delivering mail, getting to know the customers. this is bipartisan and this divisive, you know, partisan environment.

so, this shows, not only is it important to the public, it's important to congress. >> for full disclosure, my brother michael worked for the postal service for decades and it used to drive him insane that everybody thought the postal service was so bad because he worked very hard as i'm sure you did. i know when i was in line talking to voters and then talking to people who were putting their absentee ballot in a drop box, they said they didn't trust the postal service, that's why they brought it physically because they didn't trust it was going to get there in time for their voetto be counted. you know the impression a lot of people have of the posting service. how do you win back the skeptics who are, frankly concerned the postal service is broken and will never be fixed? >> unfortunately, the postal service was used as a tool to

talk about absentee ballots, the mail-in process and became a political line to say the postal service was broken. and then we had a post master general who the public perceived as being a tool of the president who will carry his will. we are working hard today to stabilize the postal service, to increase transparency, and we have had 75 post master generals and we will have more. so, the post master general at this time was part of that whole distrust thing. but we, today, are focusing on stabilizing the postal service, which, by the way, few people understand it is required by the constitution. and it does not take tax-payer dollars. all the money that runs the post office comes from your purchase of stamps. >> you've been a vocal critic of post master general dujoy.

do you think it's time for a change in leadership? >> one thing i'm very excited about is when president biden was elected to office, he was able to appoint the board of governors. the board of governors control the overall decisions and operations of the postal service. so, that was a step in the right direction. and so, dejoy, at the time, president trump had not even appointed a majority. so, the post master general didn't have the checks and balances that they have now. and like i said, time will tell. unfortunately, this post master general does not have the support of the people. however, we now have a board of governors that will be the checks and balances and have the ability to remove or to keep him and keep him in check. >> congresswoman, brenda lawrence, a big day for you.

an issue you're very closely tied to. thank you for taking your time. >> and the post office delivered the package. today congress delivered the package. >> you were waiting to get that line in. >> i was. and >> i was an trelegy for copd. [coughing] ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on by... ♪

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. we have been watching a court hearing in michigan for the parents of the 17-year-old accused of killing four students at his michigan high school in november. his parents have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. just moments ago the prosecution called jennifer's boss, andrew smith, to the stand. who testified he was texting ethan's mother on the day of the shooting and one was about her son. and read, quote, he must be the shooter. meantime, students are set to walk out of clastoday to protest the police killing of amir lock. about an hour from now they will start their march to the governor's evidence. police executed a no-knock warrant. locke was not named on the warrant. police did release body cam images, they say, show locke with a gun.

they'll soon debate a measure banning no-knock warrants in the wake of this latest shooting. and rearau mitchell reports starts right now. ♪ good day. this is andrea mitchell reports in washington. as democratic led states, where covid cases are dropping, are starting to move towards unmasking school children. calls to lift statewide mandates over the next month and california ending an indoor mask requirement for vaccinated people. the u.s. olympic team stepping up their game in beijing. the star turned from figure skating fenom, nathan chen. the 22-year-old salt lake city native with a