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new york. we have a lot of news to get to on this busy friday morning including a seismic development in the special counsel investigation into former president donald trump. his vice president, mike pence, appearing before the grand jury probing his former boss's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a source familiar with the matter. this morning, new reaction including this from a member of congress who investigated the capitol attack. >> i think that the vice president has a lot of information. i have no doubt really that he answered the questions openly, honestly, and fully. plus, russia unleashing on ukraine overnight with the worst strikes in weeks. the death toll still climbing at this hour. we're on the ground in that war-torn country with a live report. and later, extreme weather, the iconic yosemite national park closing over fears a

massive snow melt could lead to unprecedented floods. intense flooding also suspected to have caused this train derailment in wisconsin, where the weather's heading next and what you need to know. we're going to begin with the story that's still gripping the headlines this morning. former vice president mike pence's appearance before a grand jury in our nation's capital. and joining us to discuss the developments is nbc news justice correspondent ken dilanian. vaughn hillyard is live in manchester, new hampshire, elise jordan, msnbc political analyst, and michael zeldin, former federal prosecutor, former special counsel to robert mueller. it's so great to see all of you. this is a huge development, ken. what do we know about what pence might have said behind those closed doors? >> good morning, we believe former vice president pence was inside that federal courthouse in washington, d.c., for more than seven hours. and while we don't know exactly what was said, we know the basic contours of what he experienced

on january 6th because a lot of other people have talked about it and testified about it, but there are some things that only pence can speak to including his private conversations with donald trump that day, and that makes him an absolutely crucial witness in the doj's special counsel investigation of whether trump broke the law in trying to overturn the election. pence was the central focus, we all recall, of trump's efforts to stop congress are from certifying joe biden's electoral college victory that day, the day rioters breached the capitol. when pence refused to go along with trump's scheme, trump tweeted about it and the rioters began calling for pence to be hanged. pence can add to that picture. let's not forget that pence's secret service detail had to whisk him into hiding while the rioters rampaged through the capitol, but he insisted on staying in place and finishing the job, which they ultimately did. this would have been riveting testimony for those grand jurors.

>> trump did not want this to happen. he tried hard through the legal challenges to block pence's testimony. and this now coming a day after that last appeal failed. you've been traveling with the former president as he campaigns in new hampshire. we heard from him after this broke. what did he have to say? >> reporter: right, ana, the timing of all of this was something to watch in realtime. while mike pence was in that d.c. courthouse, donald trump was taking the campaign trail stage here in manchester, new hampshire. this is notable, for donald trump while these investigations, while these grand jury proceedings are moving forward, he is making his case to take back the white house again. i want to let you hear what he told our colleague, john allen, when he was asked about mike pence's testimony as he headed into a diner after that campaign speech last night. take a listen. >> mr. president, what do you think about mike pence testifying today? >> i don't know what he said, but i have a lot of confidence in him.

>> reporter: and now let's be clear here, inside of that diner after he answered that question from our john allen, he was greeted by one january 6th defendant, a woman who served 180 days in jail. he called her a terrific woman inside of that diner. he embraced her, signed a backpack that she said she had on the capitol grounds of january 6th that very day. i talked to that particular woman last year outside of another trump event. she told me that she believes the members of congress who certified joe biden's victory, 2020 victory, should be executed, executed in her words. this is a woman who donald trump last night suggested was a terrific woman. he has suggested he would fully pardon january 6th defendants if he were to enter the white house again here. so while the special counsel's investigation rolls forward, donald trump continues to call the 2020 election rigged as he did last night and continues to make january 6th defendants

martyrs, and himself a martyr here as he looks to try to take joe biden on and clear this republican field, ana. >> we heard trump kind of brush off this idea that pence testified saying i have confidence in him. should trump be worried? >> he should be worried because, you know, what prosecutors -- i'm sorry -- >> go ahead. >> what he should be worried about is that pence can help prove his knowledge and intent. that's what prosecutors need in prosecutions of this sort, and pence had direct communications with the former president, and so he can offer information about his state of mind, what his level of knowledge was about the illegality of what he was trying to do. he also has information that relates to his communications with eastman and the others in the trump orbit who were planning the big lie, the green bay sweep, all of these things that we've heard a lot of

evidence of collaterally, pence was at the center of this, and he can offer, therefore, a view that nobody else has who has testified to date. so he's a critical piece of this hub and spoke conspiracy that the prosecutors are looking at. >> elise, we already know some of what pence may have testified about because of what he wrote in his book about how trump was working with lawyer john eastman to pressure his vice president into helping overturn the 2020 election. pence said, reportedly, that he told trump he couldn't do what he was asking. he writes, trump would not let it go and that on the morning of january 6th, trump told pence, quote, you'll go down as a wimp if you do that, i made a big mistake five years ago. this is already in the public record, elise. just how important was it to get pence's testimony? >> ana, thanks for having me on your news show and congratulations. mike pence was at the center of

this. he has the most important eyewitness account given that he was the largest figure that donald trump was trying to persuade to overturn the election. and so i don't want to speculate about what he is going to present new information that we don't know, but whenever we have heard directly from participants who were there that day on january 6th and who saw and heard what donald trump was ordering and what he was thinking, it has been pretty explosive. so i think that we just -- who knows how he is going to navigate the fine line between still being loyal to donald trump and also just keeping his vow to the constitution. >> michael, let's talk time line here. for context, the last time a special counsel was looking into trump it was robert mueller, and that investigation and from his appointment to the final report, that lasted nearly two years. jack smith, this special counsel, was only appointed in

mid-november. it's just been months now, so go back to your hub and spoke analogy here. if they've just interviewed the hub, where do you think the investigation goes from here? do you think we'll see a charging decision soon? >> i don't know that for sure, anna, but we have had a lot of interviews with the spokes. these are the people who carried out little aspects of the conspiracy to defraud. now we have the testimony of pence. we have to see what the testimony of mark meadows looks like because those two guys are the ones who have the most knowledge of trump's knowledge and trump's intent, and plus each of these guys can corroborate the testimony of marc short, the chief of staff or mark jacobs, one of the counsel in the vice president's office. so this is corroborative and new, and so i would expect that if we're in a baseball game analogy, he's somewhere in the

seventh inning of this investigation, and i think perhaps even a little bit further along in the mar-a-lago investigation. so stay tuned i guess. >> yeah, you mentioned the mar-a-lago. let's not forget all the other investigations as well because trump was just criminally charged in new york regarding the hush money payments. there's also the fulton county election probe down in georgia where we expect a charging decision this summer, and currently the e. jean carroll rape and defamation case that's ongoing right now, that trial underway already. what do you make of how trump's been handling all his legal entanglements, elise? >> you know, he politically has gotten a bump. the -- what happened in new york state has been really a benefit for him. you look at how he energized reporters. he revamped his message of if they can do this to me, they can do that to you. that really resonated with his most hardcore supporters. so you might have had a few people, a few trump supporters

who are considering defecting to ron desantis. if anything, what we've seen in the polling after alvin bragg, it's been really positive for donald trump. you know, i really see this -- that case in particular as doing nothing but bolster his standing. >> elise jordan, ken dilanian, vaughn hillyard, michael zeldin, i really appreciate all your voices. thanks for being with us. when we're back in just 60 seconds, russia unleashing its worst air strikes in weeks on ukraine. an apartment building hit while people were sleeping. this morning the death toll is rising. is it the beginning of a new offensive? plus flood waters in the midwest unrelenting, even being blamed for a train derailment, and the dangerous weather is not done yet. also, the emotional faceoff between e. jean carroll and donald trump's defense attorney in the former president's civil rape trial. we'll break down those charged moments in the courtroom. and a new game changing drug for obesity, but is it too good

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with flexible multi-cloud services that enable digital innovation and enterprise control, vmware helps you keep your cloud options open. we're back with some breaking news this morning on the war in ukraine where the death toll is still climbing after russia broke weeks of relative calm with a new wave of air strikes. >> okay. so there you heard the siren ringing out in kyiv for the first time in 51 days where we're told missiles and drones were shot down. but this video that you're seeing here is actually from the

city of uman where missiles hit a residential apartment building while people were sleeping. at least 19 civilians are now dead including three children. search and rescue efforts are ongoing at this hour. i'm going to bring in nbc news correspondent ellison barber live for us from ukraine. also joining us right now is michael allen, former member of the national security council, former special assistant to president george w. bush. he's also managing director of beacon global strategies. so great to have both of you here with us. let me start with you, ellison, and the latest reporting. what's happening there right now? >> reporter: ana, you played that sound of air raid sirens, it's something if you spent time in ukraine in the last year plus, you're very familiar with it. but as you said, it's something in a lot of cities people have not heard for quite a while. this is the largest missile attack russia has launched on the country in about two month thes. this is an area where there are

just active, frantic efforts to try and find any survivors left behind in the rubble. this apartment building, this is where that missile hit this morning. you can still see some of the smoke billowing up from the basement. speaking with the spokesperson for the services and the search and rescue teams that are here on the ground, they say right now the plan is to stay hyperfocused on trying to clear out the basement and see if there are any survivors or if they need to recover any additional bodies. then they're going to try to make their way up to the higher floors, the floors up near the top, three of those floors just almost instantly collapsed as well as the basement area. we were speaking to one woman who told us her daughter and grandchildren lived in this apartment of the building, and she said the majority of the apartments were set up in a way where this side that's all gone, those were in a lot of instances bedrooms. this happened at about 4:30 a.m.

that means a lot of people were sleeping. over here, walk a little around some of the cars because there's a lot of movement, again, as people come here to try to get information on the other side of the building to try and recover what belongings they can. back in this area, there is humanitarian aid set up for survivors of this strike. there are also horrifically a lot of people here waiting, trying to find out if their family members have survived. some people over there have already gotten word that some of their family members did not, and now they're waiting to find out about others. rescuers on the ground, they tell us that they are still hopeful despite all of this destruction, despite so much of this building looking like it's something that would be impossible to survive. they're still hopeful they might find survivors. russia is claiming they worked hard getting military structures, in the last few days when they've struck different areas, they've said they were targeting areas where there was

some reserve deployments that ukrainian military officials were using. having been on the scene, having spoken to quite a few people this this area, you can look with us again all around here, all of this, ana, everything you see, these are apartment buildings. it is hard to imagine that there was anything here that is -- it's hard to imagine there's any truth to what russia is saying at this point. everyone we have spoken to, we have seen children, families, young and old who lived in this building or knew someone who lived in this building, and now people are on the scene waiting really all around just desperate for any sort of answer, praying for good news, even as the death toll just continues to climb. ana. >> it is so heartbreaking to see those images. what are you hearing from people there about this sort of renewed violence after relative calm in that area specifically? >> reporter: you know, it's startling, one thing in kyiv is you'll get the sense when you're there sometimes is you have

these moments of what feels like absolute normalcy. when you talk to people who live in these cities further from the front lines, they will tell you they know it's a temporary feeling because something like this can happen at any moment. that's the constant fear in ukraine for people who don't live right along the eastern front is that russia has spent so much time targeting other cities by air, by missiles that they know that sometimes it feels like they're just random and that it can happen anywhere. remember in the winter, and our team was here in november as russia had started their very aggressive air assault on energy infrastructure in ukraine, and it was just constant air raid sirens then. that slowed. there was a bit of relief, a bit of normalcy. most people will tell you they know it's temporary, this is a reminder of how quickly things can change in this country, even if you think you are far enough from the are front lines. ana. >> ellison, thank you so much for that reporting. again, it's just hard to fathom

what it's like to live there right now, i want you to go get safe. we'll say good-bye. let me bring in michael here. as we looked at those images, michael, and heard her reporting, what do you think is going on? is this a new offensive for the spring? >> well, first, i think it's a reminder of the barbarity are of the russians. i do see this as part of the coming ukrainian offensive directed at russia. the ukrainians have been hitting fuel depots and critical supply nodes within russian-held territory, and i think the russians are trying to hit back, show that they still have some fight. what's coming soon is this absolutely critical spring offensive where ukraine desperately needs to make a lot of progress, especially in the south of ukraine. >> i just want to hit a few of the other headlines that have come up out of ukraine in recent days. you have the city of bakhmut

where fighting continues, that's to the east. the attacks on a ukrainian museum. where do you see things when it comes to this battle? is there one side winning the war? >> so the battle in bakhmut is pretty much the only big battle that has been occurring for the last few months. mostly because the ukrainians have been waiting for their armor, their other weaponry to arrive from the west. and the training for the soldiers to be complete. i think they're about ready to go and broaden the battlefield tremendously. bakhmut has been a bit of a puric victory, i think, for the ukrainians. they have worn down the russians, but they also have lost tremendous loss of life throughout that process, and i think it's time for a different phase of the war where the ukrainians can make more dramatic progress to bolster their prospects in the west where people need to be able to

have the confidence that if they spend additional money on ukrainian armaments, it's going after a good cause. >> obviously people want to see peace, want to see this resolved, and we understand that president zelenskyy had a phone call with china's leader, xi, this week. zelenskyy calling it a long and meaningful call. she's been trying to position himself as maybe a peace broker in this situation. do you see that being realistic, especially given china's relationship with russia? >> i don't see it as a realistic opportunity for china to get in and play a role in eventual peace talks. i know they want to. i know they want to be a player like the united states. they want people to ask over time, not just what does washington think about an issue, they want people to say what does beijing think about a particular issue. so i think that's their game, but i also know that the intense diplomacy towards the chinese right now is do not send lethal weaponry to the russians. they've come up to the line

several times. we the united states have publicized the intelligence that they were thinking of doing it and reportedly they backed off so far. so that's a huge objective of zelenskyy and president biden, hey, china, don't send lethal weaponry to the russians. >> it's all very interesting, very concerning. thank you, michael allen for helping us make sense of it. great to have you here. hope you have a great weekend. we're also following breaking news out of alaska this morning where three u.s. soldiers are dead and a fourth injured after two army attack helicopters collided in midair. the army's 11th airborne division said the two apache helicopters were returning from a training flight when they crashed 200 miles north of anchorage. the army is withholding the names of the dead until their family is notified and an investigation into the cause of this crash is underway. up next on "ana cabrera reports," a rare closure of yosemite national park starting today due to a looming threat of

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millions across the country are being impacted by severe spring weather that's only

expected to continue into the weekend. flooding along the mississippi river has led to evacuations, and it's suspected of causing that train derailment there in wisconsin. our maggie vespa is live from davenport, iowa, with the very latest on the ground there. maggie, how are people coping with all the flood waters where you are? >> reporter: yeah, so ana, basically the waters here are still rising, and they're not expected to peak until monday. so people basically, we've been hearing the phrase sitting ducks a lot. a lot of nervousness, a lot of anxiety. people are used to floods. this is a riverside community obviously obviously, but typically the river is hundreds of yards that way. it's ominous watching the water move up as slowly and consistently as it has been. this is a story of widespread flooding up and down the mississippi. farther north in places like lacrosse, wisconsin, water has already crested. now it's a question of when will it start to recede. that remains to be seen.

all of this happening up and down the mississippi river as down south a veryernt story plays out with twisters causing some serious damage. this morning severe weather wreaking havoc across multiple states. in the midwest, the swollen mississippi river is continuing to rise. in desoto, wisconsin, investigators are combing through the wreckage of this train derailment trying to determine if flood waters caused several cars to spill off the tracks near the river. people in lacrosse, wisconsin, forced to flee flooded homes with river levels cresting there. a gas company near davenport, iowa, cutting service to more than 100 homes. >> if the forecast is as bad as they think, how high would it go? >> this is 21, 6, i believe, right here. >> reporter: down south the story is tornados with at least seven report twisters, six of them in florida alone.

one striking outside of tallahassee. this shows the damage in one neighborhood, the severe weather snapping trees and stripping the roofs from home after home. this week's multiday stretch of relentless back-to-back thunderstorms unloading dangerous winds, hail, and lightning, and dangerous storms will continue to pummel the southern plains to the west, 22 million facing yet another day of severe weather. but this morning, some good news in texas, two young brothers in fort worth recovering after getting hit by a lightning strike. >> i died last night and came back to life. >> reporter: across the country, millions still on high alert this morning as the severe spring weather marches on. we're so glad those two kids in texas are recovering, as we said. we want to be clear, back out here on the mississippi, the water continuing to rise here in davenport, iowa.

people continuing to watch it as it moves up from the river, again, typically hundreds of yards that way, across the railroad tracks, across a park, and now up along this downtown street where we're standing right now. this is normally just a section of downtown. you can see the traffic lights behind me. this is now all completely submerged. there are wider issues coming from this as well. kind of speaking to the historic nature of these floods, the sda announcing all barge traffic has been halted in the northern section of the mississippi river because of these rising flood waters, basically just another factor as this slow motion disaster, as our team is calling it, continues to play out. >> i know you've been there for days, maggie. i can't believe that flood water is all across the street with the river so far away. and that boy, i can't get over, i died last night and now i'm alive. hit by lightning. starting tonight, yosemite national park will close over

fears that a massive snow melt could lead to a major flood risk. california's sierra nevada region, which includes yosemite valley saw unprecedented snowfall this winter season. in some areas 300% more than usual, and with the temperatures climbing a big melt is already underway. joining us now is yosemite fire park ranger, nancy phillipe. tell us about the conditions there right now and your biggest fear. >> sure, good morning, ana. of course things are constantly being assessed. we've got crews out, we keep saying we're all hands on deck since we've been experiencing this winter storm, and going through the valley yesterday, which is the part that we're closing as a section of yosemite valley tonight at 10:00 p.m., there is some just localized flooding, a little bit of water on the roads, a couple of campground sites impacted. safety is, of course, our biggest concern, and that is why we are putting that temporary closure in effect tonight.

just want to make sure that we don't have anyone stuck on the side of the valley if there is that extreme flooding that we potentially may see. >> i understand the region as we mentioned, experienced snow levels 300% above normal. >> yeah. >> so paint the picture of the potential impact this big melt could have. what kind of, you know, ecological damage do you anticipate? >> well, hopefully not too much. there's been a lot of research done. we had the large flood in december 1996 into 1997, so there was a park closure for the -- what we refer to as the 100-year flood then. a lot of stuies were done then, and we can are refer back to what areas were impacted severely so that we can take action now. we also did have another park closure due to flooding in 2017. so we're really taking our lessons learned from those times and are feeling positive with the plan that we have in place.

it's unusual to see sandbags out in yosemite valley, but they're there, and we're taking as much action as we can based on those other incidents. >> good luck to you and all involved in those efforts. thank you so much, nancy, for joining us. have a great weekend. up next here on "ana cabrera reports," charged testimony in the civil rape trial against donald trump. the emotional exchanges that unfolded in the courtroom as trump's attorney questioned trump's accuser on the stand. plus, federal regulators set to unveil a report next hour about the collapse of that silicon valley bank. what it could reveal about what (dog barking) we love our pets. but we don't always love their hair. which is why we made bounce pet hair and lint guard with three times the pet hair fighting ingredients. just one sheet helps remove pet hair from your clothes! looking good starts in the i'm still tasting what's next. even with higher stroke risk due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem.

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a dramatic courtroom scene during the cross examination of e. jean carroll who is suing former president trump in a civil rape case. trump's attorney, joe tacopina

was questioning carroll on the stand about why she didn't scream for help. carroll responding, quote, i'm not a screamer. i was in a panic fighting. you can't beat me up for not screaming. now, tacopina also challenged carroll about not reporting the alleged assault until years later. the fact that a tacopina called, quote, odd, but carroll and even the most updated statistics argue that is not odd at all. in fact, less than a third of all sexual assaults are ever reported according to the rape abuse and incest national network. let's talk about this with katie phang, msnbc legal contributor and host of the katie phang show. this is a civil case. not a criminal case. the defense seems to be that the accuser doesn't have concrete evidence. she didn't report it until decades later and is only looking to promote a memoir of hers now. that's what they're claiming. what do you make of this strategy? >> it's the old stereotypes, and it's disappointing. you would think in the 21st

century we would have evolved enough to be able to say there is a no one size fits all response to the sexual assault experience for a victim. it didn't work for somebody like harvey weinstein, right? it didn't work for bill cosby. it didn't work for other people like r. kelly. in this instance, though, to your point, ana, it's a civil case and kind of what i wanted to remind people is it's not just the sexual assault rape offense. it's actually also defamation, but unfortunately for e. jean carroll, i think what's hard for a juror is to say to prove the defamation, you have to prove the underlying rape, and i think a lot of people kind of operate when you're a juror in this mind-set that it's a criminal charge, even though it's a different burden of proof. so i think that's the real uphill battle for e. gene at this point, despite being attacked by big joe tacopina, it's going to be difficult for her to be able to overcome these old stereotypes because

unfortunately they have juice. >> it's an old playbook, a defense we see again and again in cases of sexual assault. isn't that because it's an effective one? but i also wonder is there a risk of alienating the jury here? >> people are looking at the jury makeup. it's important to note the composition of it, it's six men and three women. a lot of people have scratched their head and said don't you want to have more women. i've said this before. women can be more judgmental than men sometimes when it comes to looking and viewing and judging women. because of that, if you have a male jury, they may perceive this as being, again, an old tired stereotype that's been overcome because of their relationships that they've had with their own partners, with sisters, with daughters, with other family members and other friends and so there is a risk that donald trump alienates members of the jury by having this be this attack on e. jean carroll's credibility because she delayed in reporting it. >> and tacopina is trying to attack that credibility in part because like you said, the defamation piece, and so it's

who do you believe because she's saying she was defamed with trump saying she was a liar. and yet, it seems, you know, his strategy in the courtroom, her lawyer, tacopina is different than what we're seeing outside the courtroom online with the barrage of attacks trump himself is going for. they're very personal. does that play into the equation at all? >> so the jurors have been instructed, ana, to not read anything in the news, to not follow anything on social media, to not talk about the case until they actually enter the jury room to deliberate. we all know that donald trump has been attacking e. jean carroll on truth social, his social media platform. unfortunately for donald trump, though, it created a drama a few days ago when judge kaplan, said to defense counsel for donald trump cut it out. tell him to stop because he might be flirting with an additional offense of obstruction of justice by trying to intimidate the outcome and maybe influence the outcome of this trial. isn't it telling that donald trump doesn't have the courage to come into court to defend

himself. he's not required to but i do think it's telling that he won't come in and do it. i think it's partially because we have yet to hear from two additional accusers of donald trump who will be presented by e. jean carroll's legal team who said they had similar experiences with donald trump. >> before i let you go, i just want to make this point, i think this is so important given i've done a lot of stories about sexual abuse. i've talked to survivors. i've talked with the experts and so just some stats and context here, when it comes to sexual assault, and this is according to r.a.i.n.n. they looked at reporting from 2005 to 2010 and they found that roughly 70% of cases were not reported. 20% of people feared retaliation. 13% believed the police wouldn't do anything to help. 8% believed it wasn't important enough to report. just something to keep in mind as we see where this trial goes and how the jury ends up ultimately ruling here. thank you so much, katie phang for joining us. i appreciate your time.

happy friday. >> thank you. >> you can catch her every saturday and sunday on the katie phang show right here on msnbc starting at 8:00 a.m. eastern. two conservative states, two more strict abortion ban bills, and both rejected. we're talking about south carolina and nebraska. nebraska's bill to ban most abortions after six weeks fell short of making it out of the state legislature by just one vote yesterday. and the south carolina senate rejected a similar bill. that chamber only has five female members, three of whom are republicans, and all of them spoke out forcibly against the proposal, nationwide, of course, the battle for and against abortion access is ongoing. at least 13 states ban abortion with very limited exceptions. let's turn to the economy now. it has been six weeks since the collapse of two banks, silicon valley bank and signature bank, that rattled global markets, and today the federal reserve and the fdic are both expected to

release reports on those banks and their findings into exactly what happened. joining us now is nbc news business and data reporter brian cheung. so brian, just bigger picture here as we await these reports, what will you be watching for that might be an indicator to the health of the banking industry at large, and then the potential impact on everyday americans? >> yeah, ana, the spectacular collapse of those two firms six weeks ago really underscored how did regulators miss that? how were they not aware of the issues that were happening at those two firms. those two reported we're expected to get later today will tell us whether or not regulators left some stones unturned in the supervisory and also regulatory process for those two banks, and americans are going to be wondering, well, how can the regulators fix that so we don't have another issue like that going forward. all of this is coming at a time in a week where we're watching first republic, another top 30 bank in the united states, that could be at risk of falling to

the same fate as those two other banks. when we talk about the banking system, americans' deposits are safe up to $250,000 per depositor at fdic insured banks. we're still feeling the jitters from those massive failures. >> let's turn to some good news on the economy. we need some good news today. we could call it excellent news. we're talking wholesale egg prices finally dropping. we all reported on them when they were skyrocketing, so we all like to hear this. are we just talking about eggs or could we actually see more broadly grocery prices start falling? >> phenomenal pun there first of all. >> i can't take credit for it. it was my producer, way to go . >> that's wholesale price, that's not what you pay at the store. that's what the suppliers will charge the grocery stores. what it does tell us is that's a leading indicator that egg prices could continue to fall, which is very welcome news when

you consider that egg prices hit a record high at $4.82 a dozen in january. that tells us it's going to get a lot cheaper for us to buy those eggs at the store. as you mentioned it could point to other types of goods getting cheaper as well. into some of the things we buy in terms of baked goods at the store, maybe those will get cheaper as well. that does tell well for the inflationary story, which is that prices are slowing in terms of how much higher they're going, which is positive news. >> fingers crossed, thank you so much. brian cheung have a great weekend. up next here on "ana cabrera reports" a new twist in the killing of four idaho university students. one of the survivors set to be interviewed by the suspect's legal team. what she saw that night and how the testimony could impact the case. and on the fast track, a new drug could soon be widely available for weight loss. is this the answer so many have been waiting for or just a short-term solution? (vo) with verizon, you can now get a private 5g network.

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we're back with new developments in the legal battle surroundings grisly murder of four university of idaho college students. one of the surviing roommates has agreed to speak to attorneys for the defense. nbc news correspondent erin mclaughlin has more. >> that's right, bryan kohberger has been charged in the murders of those four students. he has yet to enter a plea ahead of a preliminary hearing in june, his legal team issued a subpoena for one of the two roommates who survived the attack arguing she has information that may help clear kohberger's name. that roommate, bethany funke had fought the subpoena but is now agreeing to be interviewed two roommates survived the stabbing attack inside this house last november. it left four other students dead. bethany funk was one of the survivors, and now she's agreeing to be interviewed by

the defense in the murder case. attorneys for the suspect brian kohberger issuing a subpoena for funk to testify. kohberger's legal team claiming funk has exculpatory information that may help exonerate him. an investigator for the defense writing, miss funk's information is unique to her experiences and cannot be provided by another witness. funk's attorney fought back, filing a motion to quash the subpoena, writing, even if funk possesses exculpatory evidence, which remains unknown, there is no place or reason to present it at a preliminary hearing. but new court documents made public show she has now agreed to an interview with the idaho-based defense counsel. funk will testify in reno, nevada, where she's from, instead of taking the stand in the idaho court where kohberger's preliminary hearing is set to begin in late june. ahead of the hearing, the prosecution expanding its team as they look to bolster their case against kohberger. two deputies from the idaho

attorney general's office jeff nigh and ingrid batea have been appointed to assist in the prosecution. kohberger was arrested in late december. charged with the stabbing murders of the four students. according to charging documents, their other surviving roommate saw a male figure with bushy eyebrows, a mask and black clothing in the home that night. funk's account of that night is not included in those documents. prosecutors allege dna evidence, video surveillance and cell phone records led them to kohberger, who is pursuing a ph.d. at nearby washington state university. he has yet to enter a plea, but has said through a former attorney he believes he'll be exonerated. and there was more legal drama in march when prosecutors disclosed that one of the officers on the case had been the subject of an internal affairs investigation. we don't know if that's related to this case or another one, but experts say it could be used by the defense to discredit the

investigation. back to you. >> erin mclaughlin with that reporting, thank you. just ahead, a game changer for weight loss? the new diabetes drug that had life changing results for some people dealing with obesity. >> even though i'm a smaller person now, i feel that i'm more physical. permission to dig in? granted. breyers carbsmart is so rich, so creamy,

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a new drug is being billed as a potential game changer in the fight against obesity. two studies have now found that mounjaro medication used to treat type 2 diabetes is also effective in helping patients with weight loss. it is not yet approved to treat obesity, but drugmaker eli lilly is pushing for fda approval for that as early as the end of the year. nbc's erin mclaughlin spoke with one study participant who said this drug changed her life.

>> reporter: for almost a year, jennifer huber to be taking the drug to treat her type 2 diabetes. >> i get emotional. i'm down about 60 pounds, which that was not part of the plan. >> reporter: did this drug change your life? >> it changed my life. even though i'm a smaller person now, i feel that i'm more physical. >> lots to discuss with nbc medical contributor dr. vin gupta. eli lilly says their study shows participants lost nearly 16% of their weight over an 18-month trial. i think a lot of people are look at this and maybe thinking, is this too good to be true. >> well, ana, moments like this, thank you for having me, highlighting this important topic, this is a transformational moment for public health and medicine more broadly. rarely do we have moments where we can change the course of a chronic epidemic, like the obesity epidemic.

40% of american adults qualify as being obese based on the current guidelines. mounjaro is a big deal, a second hopefully tool to combat obesity. we have seen rates amongst those that are just overweight without being diabetic at the same time lose almost 20% of their starting weight on average 52 pounds, that's better than the results with wegovy. this is a really transformational moment for public health. >> but what do you tell people who think, well, it sounds good, but isn't this just a quick fix for a long-term problem? >> that's a great point. so there is a lot of key gaps here. number one, how long do you need to take these medications? we don't know yet. it is once weekly in the majority of cases for these types of medications, it is an injection. we don't know, ana, if you have to take it life-long or shed the weight you want to shed and does it stay off if you stop the medication? we're still trying to learn more here. what we have seen is anecdotal reports that once people lose the weight that they would like

to lose, they're able to keep it off because lifestyle changes really start to kick in. you look good, you feel good, there is some residual impact from being on that medication and that progress sustains itself. but we have to see whether or not this continues over time. side effects are actually pretty benign. just nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, in a very small group of patients here, largely very well -- >> how does it work? is it different than some of the other drugs we talked about recently like ozempic? >> very similar to that. it convinces your body that you're full, even if you haven't eaten a full meal. it basically acts -- it causes your body and your brain centers that control your appetite to say, you're full. and so in afterwards you don't eat as much when you're due for a meal, so you're taking in less calories, your body thinks it is full. >> worldwide, obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. you talked about what a problem this is here in the states. it is estimated to account for

more than 20% of all annual healthcare expenditures. given that, should drugs like this have more access and more insurance coverage as they hit the market? we have about 30 seconds, just so you know. >> quickly i'll say there is a gap between opportunity and access as you point out. right now most insurance companies are not covering for this. this is all out of pocket for the vast majority of people that qualify. if you're type 2 diabetic, have a conversation with your provider about this medication. right now there is a big gap between access, affordability and those who can benefit from this drug. >> thank you so much, dr. vin gupta, with all that great information. it is really interesting. hope it is the breakthrough that you are expecting it may be. thanks again. that's going to do it for us on this busy week. appreciate you being here. i'll see you back on monday, same time, same place. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. and good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose