been covered, damaged now estimated at nearly $6 billion. a terrifying house explosion outside of pittsburgh. at least five people there are dead. multiple homes destroyed. the cause, unclear at this hour. plus, tragedy on board a migrant bus sent north by the governor of texas. how did a 3-year-old child die on the journey to chicago. and clean up on the campaign trail, rfk junior announces his support for a federal abortion ban after three months, and suddenly takes it back. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments. we begin with dana griffin on the ground in maui. what's the latest on recovery efforts there. >> reporter: chris, right now, there is an effort to try to search the town of lahaina has been decimated by these fires to try to find these missing people. we've heard from fema, they are asking people if you have been

impacted to apply for federal assistance. you can go to disasterassistance.gov and for people missing family members, there are still hundreds missing. they have set up a family assistance center at the community center, about 2 miles from where we are right now. we're at kings cathedral, another shelter where they have about 30 to 40 people still inside because so many people are actually starting to move to hotel rooms. they set aside 500 rooms for people most impacted. the sad things is not knowing for family members who are desperate to know what happened to their loved one. we have talked to people about what this whole ordeal has been like for them. take a listen to what one resident had to say? >> we have been to a lot of hotels inside lahaina, but none of them are there. so we have been to the police station. we called red cross, anywhere that we can find them, but nothing. no zero. >> so worried about everybody.

hopefully you're still alive. >> reporter: and that's a hope for so many family members. the sad part about it is there's so many bodies out there, the government is asking those loved ones to submit dna samples so they can try to quickly identify those bodies. the cause of the fire has not been determined. there's already a class action lawsuit in the works that has been filed against hawaiian electric. they claim that they may be responsible for the start of this fire. hawaiian electric has responded saying they do not comment on pending litigation, and they also note that the cause of the fire has not been determined. chris. >> the road ahead is long and very very difficult. dana griffin, thank you. nbc's emilie ikeda is following the devastating home explosion in southwest pennsylvania that left five dead, another in critical condition. what more do we know now, emily?

>> reporter: we're learning more about the victims of this devastating home explosion, including five people. two of them we're learning the identities, father and son, casey and keegen klontz, they were described as inseparable, loving, devoted, lovers of the outdoors. you can imagine the heartbreak in the community that continues to wash over this neighborhood after a deadly explosion leveled, completely shredding three homes behind me. also the force of the blast damaging at least another dozen homes on saturday morning when this blast happened. still, so many unanswered questions. you can see the damage stretches across the neighborhood. i spoke with one man who is recounting the harrowing morning on saturday. he heard this explosion. he thought it was a bomb, and then he stepped outside to what he described as a war zone. he actually helped pool one of his that i said from the rubble. he says that individual is now

in critical condition. here's more from him, take a listen. >> houses are just dilapidated, falling apart. if you imagine almost a bomb going off in front of your house. >> and it's not clear when gas will be restored in this community. but people's gas company says that in an initial review, they did not find any issues. its system had been working, operating as designed, they say, but the investigation into the cause of this deadly explosion could take months, officials say, if not years. for reference, there was a previous house explosion in plum borough here last year, and that injured a family of five. the cause in that explosion has yet to be determined. a long road ahead for this community. >> thank you for that. democratic lawmakers are calling for an end to texas's bussing of migrants after a 3-year-old died on the way to chicago. nbc's julia ainsley is with me.

>> this 3-year-old was one of 30,000 migrants governor abbott has sent across the state. this bus was destined to chicago. we understand this 3-year-old started exhibiting symptoms of a fever and had diarrhea and lost consciousness. texas says that the people on the bus, operators called 911, but that it was too late. this child was deceased, and so now we're learning also that the 3-year-old's parents, both mother and father were with him or her. we don't know the child's gender. we don't know when exactly the child started exhibiting symptoms, and we don't know the nationality. at this point, there's a lot texas is not saying. they do say, you know, every loss of life is a tragedy, but they pointed to the fact that in all of these buses, customs and border protection does an initial medical screening of anyone getting on these buses and that they didn't find any

problems with this child or anyone on the bus, and they said that investigators then went and checked the vitals of the people on the bus, and found they didn't have any problems. it's texas's way of saying read between the lines, it's not the fault of the bus. we know democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates say these conditions are squalid. people are traveling across the country, cities like chicago, new york, l.a., and they're not able to get off, take a shower, get maybe perhaps the hydration they need, and they're really worried about these conditions as these migrants sign up. sometimes not knowing just how far they'll be going, chris. >> julia ainsley, thank you for that. now to nbc's ali vitali. with the walk back from robert f. kennedy jr. with his stance on abortion rights. this started with a question you asked him, and he answered. tell us where this stands now, and what the whole picture tells us about abortion as a campaign

issue in '24. look, you and i have talked as recently as early last week from ohio about the salience of this issue, and how important it's been in moving metrics for voters across the country, since the supreme court overturned the roe v. wade precedent. in washington where i typically spend my time, that's been a focus of democratic lawmakers from the white house to the hill, seeking a way to codify the protections that were offered by roe at the federal level. they don't have the numbers in congress to do it. i did ask robert f. kennedy jr. who was a long shot and controversial candidate for democratic contender this cycle if he would move forward, trying to push those protections and codify them into federal law. i asked that question plainly, would you back federal protections for roe, this is what the exchange turned into. watch. >> i believe that a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life. >> you would cap it at 15 weeks?

>> yes. >> or 21 weeks. >> three months. >> so three months. you would sign a federal cap on that? >> yes, i would. >> reporter: so not unlimited access to abortion? >> once a child is viable outside the womb, i think then the state has an interest in protecting that child. >> reporter: so there's a few things here, chris. first, fetal viability is 24 weeks, initially he said three months, does that mean 15, 21 weeks, but certainly this stance puts him out of step with where the democratic party is at large, and makes him sound like the republican candidates i cover, than the democrats. in the immediate hours after that interview, we did hear from the kennedy campaign. in a statement they said that mr. kenly misunderstood a

question posed to him by an nbc reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit at the iowa state fair, and went on to say it's always a woman's right to choose, and he does not support legislation banning abortion. they chose the location of our interview, and you see in this exchange that we had repeated questions. it goes on even longer than what i showed you, and where in mr. kennedy is the one who makes the delineation about three months and we continued to press him from there. >> i like your optimism that you normally are in washington because we are going into an election year. always good to see you my friend. >> yeah. well, $5.6 billion is the starting estimate to rebuild the community turned ash by wildfires in maui. in 60 seconds, i'll talk to a spokesperson for the american red cross about the jaw dropping damage and the challenges of getting aid to that part of the island. hallenges of getting aid to that part of the island ♪ ♪ ♪♪

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right now as the devastation in maui unfolds, it's increasingly grim, we're hearing stories as search and rescue teams, residents there face the huge human loss after the ravaging wildfires. >> their friends are dead, dogs, animals is dead. there's dead people in the water. >> cell phones are ringing in bodies they're finding. >> when we pick up the remains and they fall apart. when you have 200 people running through the scene yesterday, i don't know how much more you want me to describe it. that's what you're stepping on. >> and now the people of lahaina have been told not even to drink running water because it may be contaminated, even after boiling, and it's not just the water. it's the air as well. the blaze produced toxic fumes as homes, cars and pipes burned, transforming rubber, metal and plastic into poisonous smoke.

hawaii's state toxicologist warns it could take weeks or months to clean up the pollutants. the mayor is warning lahaina is not safe. it's a hazardous area. joining me now the spokesperson for the american red cross, todd james. thank you for being with us. there isn't a private organization with more experience with these kinds of disaster than the red cross. when you look at this in the context of so many that you have responded to, what do you see as the scope of the challenges for maui right now? >> our hearts are breaking for everybody. chris, our hearts are broken for everybody that's been affected by this of course. it is a huge disaster. and it's going to be a very long recovery. you know, right now, it is still unfolding. they are still battling hot spots and folks that are having to leave their homes now as fires spring up. our focus continues to be -- on

the entire community. this has been such a traumatic event for them. >> update me if i don't have the latest numbers, but i read that you have more than 220 trained disaster workers helping now with more on the way. what do you see as the greatest need? one of our reporters just talked to someone who has been calling and calling and calling, looking for a place to live, including the red cross, and said there just isn't anywhere to go. what do you know about the status of trying to provide help and will you get more people in there? >> well, helping out on this operation so far, and definitely more on the way. we have also seen hundreds of local folks stepping up. they're being trained and helping us out in our efforts as we move forward. our focus will continue to be

right also, we have a shelter on oahu, and make sure they have access to meals, to information and resources from our partners in the community. that are going to be helping with the recovery and helping now with the response. so that's going to go on for as long as is needed. just to come and stay the night, we have a lot of people who have a place to stay, but during the day they'll come in for a meal, to charge their phone, to talk with people. counselors, disaster mental health team are doing an amazing job of working with -- >> we're going to try to get todd james back, but in the meantime, i want to thank him, and obviously the red cross for all they do and bring in presidential historian and professor of history at rice university, douglas brinkley, he is author of the book "silent

spring revolution" john f. kennedy, rachel carson, richard nixon, and the great environmental awakening. it's so good to have you here. i'm sorry we're talking about this, doug. you and i ran into each other last week and had a little conversation. look, you have written for years and years about conservation and about climate. so let me just ask you a big picture question to start. as someone who has lived in this world essentially, when you look at what's happening in hawaii, what do you see, doug? >> another wildfire in the hottest summer on record. we had fires ripping through europe, horrific ones this summer. western canada has been hit. last summer, a historic wildfires in california. we are living in the age of climate change, and our, you know -- the fact of the matter is the amount of drought, dry

weather, heat fueled this. so i feel that president biden needs to call hawaii a climate emergency. we're always careful not to -- and i wrote about hurricane katrina, and i didn't call it a climate emergency, but it's clear there's so much thing as climate denying. we have a national security global crisis due to co 2, fossil fuel emissions. the planet is heating up, and communities aren't really ready with evacuation plans, how to, you know, gear when these unexpected natural disaster hit your local communities simply because of the hot weather creates all sorts of problems. >> i know that you are in the majority opinion now, that climate deniers have largely been silenced, but here we had, again, a republican presidential candidate who was talking about climate change in iowa this weekend. i want to play that for you,

doug. >> you know, wherever you stand on climate change, i think most of the climate change agenda, i'm just going to say it, is a hoax. i'm going to call that what it is. >> a hoax, calling it, he says what it is. can that small number of deniers continue and are you worried they'll continue to have an impact on policy that, as you've pointed out, many people believe needs to change and fast? >> i do worry about that, that type of irresponsible comment, the hoax word is still being applied to this. in 1960, when john f. kennedy was president and running for president, "time" magazine picked their scientist as people of the year. suddenly now, with a group of hard right conservatives, they act like science doesn't matter. they can make up their own facts and data. they don't want to listen to the experts. no president has done a great

job in climate change. i've written about, in history, 1958, roger ravel, lyndon johnson talked about the problems of co 2 emissions. famously, daniel patrick moynahan wrote richard nixon a letter saying this is looking to be very real, guys, which means good-bye, miami, good-bye, new york, what happens to seattle is unknown, and every president has tried to deal with climate, but not enough. perhaps in 2000, if al gore, would have beat george w. bush, that he would have prioritized climate. but since then, everybody does something. i mean, joe biden, one-year anniversary, infrastructure, massive climate agenda, great for biden. it's really remarkable what he's done. nevertheless, the language that people have, as we're speaking, chris, in montana, just moments ago, a group of young americans won a case that they have a right to live with clean air and clean water, and that climate

change and fossil fuel emissions is damaging their life quality, so you're getting a youth movement growing. we're in a new wave now, i believe, triggered by all of the weird conditions of this summer, getting young people engaged where they are elevateding the climate issue to the very top of the political agenda. >> in fact, your book talks about the ways that the u.s. failed to act on climate change, the things that happened, that frankly are fascinating, and i recommend the book to folks. i do think a lot of people who want to do something are wary of the courts. it's interesting that you bring up montana, particularly in this political environment. is that the way forward? what is the way forward for individuals, doug, who feel like, if i have to wait for government to take action, i need to do something myself right now. >> the best question of all, they have to let their voices be heard. i mean, in the 1960s. it was the people's movement

that banned ddt, that gave us the clean air and water acts of that era, that gave us 50 years ago, the environmental protection agency, and you know, endangered species had passed the senate, 92-0. that washington's not there now. we are in a divide. you're either considered an environmentalist or you're part of the energy sector. and this is unfortunate, so states have to do things. you see gavin newsom stepping up in california. you see auto companies trying to find ways to get off fossil fuels quickly, people trying to do away with coal. you see a great uptick, good news is an uptick in solar and wind power throughout the country. i recently saw the biggest offshore wind power facility in rhode island, which is, you know, remarkable possibilities we have. meanwhile, we're in it now. this summer is truly the opening

salvo of climate change, and we have to have a wave of voices, young people have to show up at the ballot box and say, climate matters to us. we're inheriting the planet that our predecessors had abused due to hyper industrialization and a failure of political leadership to properly anticipate the need to get off of gasoline. >> douglas brinkley, truer word never spoken, and so great to have you on the program. thank you, i really do appreciate your time. >> thank you, chris. >> still ahead, the georgia d.a. versus donald trump. as fani willis presents her case to a grand jury, what the investigation could mean for the security of our elections and the workers who safeguard the ballots. plus, caught on camera, terrifying moments in michigan, two pilots of a plane eject just moments before it crashes at an air show.

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former president donald trump could see his fourth indictment this week in georgia from fulton county d.a. fani willis, now believed to be presenting her case to the grand jury. but how far could this investigation dig into the security of our elections and the people who work to make sure we all safely cast our ballots. gabriel sterling, a republican and top georgia elections official is sounding the alarm right now over the dangerous potential impact of sowing doubt about our elections system.

>> obviously at this point, you never know what's going to happen. my biggest concern for years now, and i've said this at elections conferences where we get professionals who run elections in this country is somebody will be motivated by this language at some point and do something stupid. it's not going to be an organized thing. it's not going to be a bunch of conspirators together, it's going to be one mentally unstable individual who's going to be radicalized through this process. that's my biggest concern. >> i want to bring in jane tim, former assistant d.a.,catherine christian, and susan del percio. great to have all of you together. you have been looking at insider threats more broadly. what have you found out? >> it's happening in coffee county, is not isolated. we have seen either trump reporters or as we have reported elsewhere, trump campaign

officials working with election officials who are going rogue to try and prove this fraud, fraud that didn't occur in the 2020 election but to this day, there are people out there who are still trying to prove it. when you see election officials, the people who are charged with guarding our elections system and making sure it runs seamlessly and giving access, unauthorized access to these hard drives, ballot tabulators, election equipment, that's when you see a genuine concern about the security of our elections. one expert in georgia, the votes switching, conspiracy theories could be made possible if you have enough people like this who are trying to get into these machines and doing bad things with them. georgia officials say this is practically impossible, it's a hypothetical risk, is how they put it, but nonetheless, it absolutely damages how people feel about our elections, public confidence, as well as, you know, of course there's always a chance, risk. >> could it also be legally damaging? could any of that fit into the case that the d.a., fani willis

is making? >> i think it will be, and i think if she does, as we believe she will, indict people for making threats against election workers, indict people for what happened in coffee county when they tampered with the voting machines, and they are held accountable, meaning they're convicted, i think that will be a big statement. you can't do this, you can't do it in georgia. you can't do it in any state in the united states. >> the question becomes and, we heard the interview with gabriel sterling, what's it going to take for the political rhetoric to stop because it's not stopping? >> it's not, but fortunately in 2022, we did not see the violence that i think a lot of people, myself included, were afraid of. so that's a little bit of hope. the other concern, though, is that all states used to buy into a federal program, if you will, that just provided data to the federal government, now less than half of the states are

participating in that. so that's also a reason to be concerned. but most of all, politically, the fact that it is an acceptable practice for -- and it's only on the republican side, it's not on both sides on this one, that republicans are saying that we want to challenge and do whatever necessary to recount the elections in our favor, that's a problem. >> so catherine, trump is already making comments about a witness in the case in georgia against former georgia lieutenant governor jeff duncan, and he has been expected to testify before the grand jury. trump says, quote, he shouldn't testify, he writes, he's a loser. is he allowed to do that? >> no, and it will be interesting to see if the d.a. adds a charge of witness tampering in the indictment that we assumed grand jury is going to vote because that to me is

not borderline. it actually, you can say that is witness tampering. >> so susan, we haven't seen any of this impact trump obviously among his supporters and we have talked about this ad nauseam, but will hurd did come on in the last hour, and it's interesting something he said, so let me play that. >> his supporters are going to support this, but, you know, who is that democrat or that independent that voted for joe biden in 2020 and then is going to vote for donald trump in 2024, based on all of this baggage? >> he called the georgia case probably the most dangerous for trump. do you think that's right based on the phone call? >> based on the phone call, yes, because it's the easiest to present, also, for the general public to have a real understanding of the exact witness tampering, not witness tampering, excuse me, election fraud because he tried to do it and it's on tape.

that does resonate with voters. >> we're getting new information in, and it's from catherine georgia, freelance journalist says he's heading to the fulton county courthouse right now to appear before the grand jury today. he had been told earlier that he was going to be called tomorrow. this is the quote to nbc, to our folks, i've just been called in early, i'm leaving for the courthouse in an hour. does that tell us anything? >> well, it could mean that she or the prosecutors, you know, sort of ran out of witnesses and for the day, and said you know what. >> so it's moving faster than they thought? >> yes, so let's bring them here today, and there could be an indictment today or they'll be doing more witnesses tomorrow. but it does mean it's moving faster than anticipated. >> is there anything that surprises you? >> no, it happens. you think you need an hour, you only need 10 minutes. >> susan del percio, jane, and

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there's a new court filing in the case against hunter biden, his attorneys claiming that it was prosecutors who reneged on the plea deal, a deal biden's lawyers say were quote, largely dictated by the government. but it appears neither side

could agree on what those terms were, exactly, leaving hunter biden facing much greater legal peril, and potentially some new political peril for president biden as he seeks reelection. nbc news correspondent for investigations tom winter joins me with the latest. also with me, once again, former assistant d.a. for the manhattan d.a.'s office and msnbc legal analyst, catherine christian. tom, i guess this came in late last night, late yesterday. what exactly does this filing say? >> two particular things, one as you just said, to the prosecutors that they were the ones that reneged on the deal. that's what hunter biden's attorneys say, and i think that's not overly surprising. at some point, they did come to an agreement, then things break down in court, and there's no desire to move forward. if you're prosecutors you, fight for your deal. we never saw that happen in this case. in court, we never saw at any

point them fighting to get this deal done. so it's not surprising that hunter biden's defense says, hey, they were the ones that pulled the plug on this. prosecutors have until noon tomorrow to respond to that, and to this idea of the pre-trial diversion agreement. typically a judge never sees that. that's just an agreement between federal prosecutors and a particular defendant, it's something that's supposed to be taken outside of the courts. hunter biden's team argues, look, they signed it, we signed it, how is it not in effect. you can expect federal prosecutors to address that in their filing as well. they will be ordered to, and the judge will determine whether or not that clears up the gun component of the case. those are the two things we learned today. >> what do you make of that, the gun component and the filing overall, catherine? >> i'm not taking sides but no competent defense attorneys would have allowed their client to plead guilty if they hadn't believed the investigation was over. it was a legitimate shock, i believe, during that plea

agreement proceeding when they were informed, this does not cover old charges. that would be incompetent. somewhere the communication broke down. in terms of that written pretrial diversion agreement, of course the defense wants that in place. >> explain to people what that means, for those of us who didn't go to law school. >> the prosecutor and defense agree for the gun charge, which is basically a felony, that you were a drug addict, you didn't disclose that when you filled out the application, and you were in possession of a firearm. they agreed that hunter biden would not have to plead guilty to that. he would enter into a pretrial diversion agreement, get drug treatment, alcohol treatment, go to a program, and within a year or two, we will dismiss the case, so the defense wants that in place. they want this gun charge dismissed. >> so david weiss, that's the special counsel, asked the delaware overseeing the tax case there to dismiss it saying that now that this is likely to go to

trial, it should be moved to california, where biden lived at the time of the alleged crime, what goes into that kind of decision. >> if there's no plea agreement, and if the pretrial diversion agreement the judge says, you know what, both sides signed it, but probation never signed it, it's everything is off the table, then it goes to trial, and it will either be in california where the crimes took place, where hunter biden lives, so everything goes back before -- the way it was before there was going to be a plea. >> basically that means the three of us will be sitting here and talking going forward. >> that's a guarantee, yes. absolutely. >> and the probation point is the key sticking point. did that last signature get on there and is that going to be a sticking point for the judge. >> tom winter, catherine christian, thank you so much for being on set with me. from crisis to catastrophe, schools are scrambling to deal with the shortage of teachers and bus drivers. in some areas, it's so bad

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parachutes and are safe, but when the plane hit the ground, it immediately burst into flames and barely missed an apartment building adjacent to interstate 94. no one was injured and emergency crews did rush to extinguish the flames. right now, a new sense of urgency over the teacher and bus driver shortage in the u.s. it is bad. an nbcnews.com headline may have put it best, we're going from crisis to catastrophe, the bus driver shortage has made things so hard in kentucky's largest school district, class had to be cancelled three days to work on the chaos that they saw in the first day of school. nbc's sam brock is reporting this part of the story for us. sam, how bad is it? >> reporter: of course this has been a problem for a long time, and now it feels like it's kind of reaching a fever push when it comes to a bus driver shortage in the country. i'll give you examples. wake county north carolina, administrators are asking parents to figure out a way to get kids to school. in chicago, where they needed

1,300 bus drivers, the school district there has roughly 650 which is to say they're about half short and are offering free public transit to qualifying families, the student and a companion. you have another situation in louisville, kentucky, where kids on the first day of school last week got home around 9:00 or 10:00 in some cases. the school was trying to come up with a more efficient route system because of the lack of people to use buses using ai. they have cancelled four of the first five days of school, at least through monday and tuesday of this week. what is being done, chris, to address this problem. certainly that's going to be many parents questions, as they voice their frustrations in school board meetings across the country. pay is part of it. if you're being offered $20 an hour to go to a restaurant, you can imagine how people will go to that one. many school districts are raising their hourly pay, 2 or $3 if not more. they're offering bonuses from 1,200 to $2,000, just to on board new employees, and then there's also a relaxing of some

requirements when it comes to trying to get licensing for those folks and just to get your commercial driver's license costs a lot of money too. many school districts are spending 1,500 to $2,000 per person just to get the cdl commercial driver's license for the drivers. they're trying to put their chips in the middle and incentivize as many people as possible to join the ranks of bus drivers nationwide. at the moment right now, from florida to kentucky to california, chicago, all over the country, this is a real issue for parents, as they try to figure out solutions on the fly. chris, let me send it back to you. >> sam, thank you for that. now let me bring in nbc news digital policy reporter, daniel petty piece who reported on how the nationwide shortage of teachers is being exacerbated by the pandemic and culture wars. like your kids getting home on a bus at 9:00 or 10:00 at night, your story talks about a middle school that does not have a single teacher appropriately certified for the subject they're teaching.

an administrator there said, quote, it's almost down to can you find a pulse and a heart beat. that will work. how did we get here? >> and school districts are desperate to find adults to staff the classrooms in some districts. if you have a college degree, even if you don't have a college degree but have a certain number of college credits. you don't need teaching experience or classroom time to walk into a classroom this fall and start teaching in some of these school districts, and i talked to administrators in more than a dozen districts in states like arizona, north carolina, you mentioned illinois, pennsylvania, they all said a similar thing where the number of job openings is just far exceeding the number of people applying. and part of that really stems from this post-pandemic burnout and a wave of early retirements that came during the pandemic combined with a shortage of people going into education. and largely, as you heard sam

mentioning with bus drivers, in many cases it comes down to pay. it is a tight labor market. people can make more money in other professions. they can switch jobs or if you're coming out of college with a lot of debt, teaching doesn't provide a lot of people that salary they're looking for to be able to pay off those loans and have a type of quality of life they would like, and when they're coming out of college, chris. >> so there's this data that comes out from the department of education, shows reading and math scores have plummeted since the pandemic, and it's hitting every region of the country. look, obviously there were emotional, educational issues through the pandemic, but then you add on a teacher shortage with these kids who are trying, essentially, to play catch up. what are you hearing from folks you talked to about that? >> school officials say that what this teacher shortage means for the kids is that class sizes are larger. they may have a long-term substitute. they may, as we were talking about a moment ago, have a teacher who's not qualified to be teaching in that subject area.

they may have a virtual instructor, some schools are going to have to go with far fewer counselor, fewer special education teachers and not be able to give kids that one on one individualized attention and support they need to recover some of that learning loss suffered in the pandemic, and when we think now, this is three years since many kids have been back to school. being able to catch up on that learning loss is getting further and further behind them, and that really has experts fearful for what this generation of kids has not only for the rest of their school years but even longer term in their life when it comes to catching up on those fundamental skills. >> really great reporting. people need to read this article. thanks for coming on the show, appreciate it. in a summer of extreme weather, the only thing as unbearable as the heat may be the electric bill, and coming up, a look at how every day americans are struggling to make ends meet as the temperatures climb. peratures climb. fast. setting trends is our business.

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today, 92 million people across this country are under heat alerts, and for many, staying safe by cranking up their ac is not an option they can afford. many low income households are struggling to pay the power bill. nbc's marissa power joins me from miami where the heat index could hit 109. tell me about the reporting, what folks are telling you about what they're doing if they can't

afford a high ac bill. >> reporter: i'll point out it has been several weeks of me showing up on the show talking about the heat in some capacity. folks struggling to stay cool. it's not just a matter of comfort. it's a matter of safety, whether it's indoors or outdoors. when it comes to how much that costs, the bottom line is that the national energy assistance director's association estimated that consumers are spending 12% more on their energy bills this summer than they did last summer. and so this is obviously something that's very difficult for people in lower income households, struggling to keep up with this demand here. we spoke to a mother daughter duo with what this means for them. listen for yourself. >> it's been a struggle. i have had to ask for help from

the program several times, just to get my bill paid. because i live on social security and a part-time job. so it's been a struggle and it goes up every year. >> i'm calling of these places to get help for my mom because she needs financial help, and there's only so much i can do. and so she hates it. you know. i hit it. but thank god for those community organizations that help seniors that need help. >> reporter: so the mother who you heard from first there, you know, she has secondary medical conditions, which make her more vulnerable to the heat. that is something that we see often, chris. and so when it comes to programs that are out there, she's already reached out to the low income home energy assistance program, and she's still struggling to keep up with the bills. so one thing we want to give some tips for people out there in terms of how to cut the costs down, even marginally, it could save you dollars and sense, closing shades, and blinds,

setting the water heater down and using the cold water setting when doing laundry. changing those air filters can really make a difference, chris. >> marissa parra, important information, thank you for that. that's going to do it for us this hour. joining us for "chris jansing reports" every weekday 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. our coverage continues now with "katy tur reports" ♪♪ good to be with you, i'm katy tur. is d.a. fani willis moving faster than initially expected. one of the witnesses being called to testify just posted on social media, quote, change of plans. i'm going to court today. they're moving faster than they thought. george chidi, a local journalist who uncovered the fake elector plot had said he was scheduled to testify tomorrow. does that mean we might something out today? we know the grand jury is meeting. we k