lester >> blayne alexander, thank you. correspondent laura jarrett joins me now what is the legal standard for a conflict of interest here >> lester, the real question is whether she financially benefitted from this relationship it's unclear if the judge thinks she actually did but if he in fact disqualifies her from this case, lester, then her entire office is removed from the case and it doesn't mean it goes away completely another prosecutor could take it up, but could dramatically reshape the charges against the former president. >> a lot of parts moving tonight with regard to donald trump and cases, including the case in new york, the hush money case. he was in court trying to get that thrown out today. >> yes and the judge in that case did not go for it jury selection will start next month in that case in what will be the first ever prosecution of a former president the case that first made donald trump a criminal defendant now the first to go to trial. a judge in manhattan today rejecting mr. trump's bid to toss the

blayne alexander was there. >> reporter: in the georgia election interference case against former president trump -- >> all rise. >> reporter: -- this fulton county hearing could determine the future of that case. for a second straight day, judge scott mcafee heard evidence on allegations that d.a. fani willis financially benefited from a personal relationship with special prosecutor nathan wade, who she hired on the case. now, trump and several co-defendants are trying to have her removed. >> it is a lie it is a lie. >> reporter: after more than two hours of surprise, fiery testimony yesterday, today, the state declined to call willis for cross-examination. >> i have one daughter, fani willis. >> reporter: on the stand, willis' father, john floyd, pressed on what he knew about her relationship with wade at issue, when that relationship began, before or after she hired him. wade and willis said it was after >> did you ever meet mr. wade in the year 2019 >> absolutely not. >> how about in the year 2020? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: also a focus, the issue of cash, which became central yes

custody this evening in the homicide of a former student on the university of georgia campus blayne alexander is there and has late details. >> reporter: after a terrifying 24 hours in the bustling college town of athens, georgia, tonight police have announced a suspect is in custody in what university officials say is the murder of 22-year-old laken riley. >> we are obtaining arrest warrants for jose antonio ibarra, 26 years of age. he lives here in athens, but is not a u.s. citizen he has been charged with the following, malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery. >> reporter: police say a friend of riley's called 911 thursday afternoon saying riley went for a morning run and never came back. officers searched the area and within minutes found her body in an area around lake herrick near the school's intramural fields. >> he did not know her at all i think this was a crime of opportunity >> reporter: here in athens, the homicide has rocked two different campuses riley was a junior at augusta university's college of nursing where she was on the dean's list. she had recently transferred

a new study finds they are recovering, but the impact could be long-lasting here's blayne alexander. >> reporter: it was a troubling trademark of the pandemic, students learning through computer screens with growing concern over just how much they would be set back. tonight, in the first of its kind study, experts are now examining just how quickly students are recovering looking at test scores across 30 states for third through eighth graders comparing scores from 2019 to 2022 with those from 2023. they found while many students have made gains, they are still far behind prepandemic scores in math, which took the hardest hit, students have made up about a third of that regression, and in reading, 25% >> it suggests we're on our way to a full recovery we're certainly not there yet, but i think we've made up a lot more ground in one year than many people would have predicted certainly more than we've ever made historically in one year. >> reporter: but the numbers also show the education gap between wealthy and low-income districts only widened with the pandemic. >> my worry is that t

our blayne alexander digs into the recovery effort. >> reporter: it was a troubling trademark of theudents learning through computer screens with growing concern over just how much they would be setback in the first of its kind study, experts are discovering how quickly quickly students are recovering, comparing scores from 2019 to 2022 with those from 2023. while many students have made gains, they are still far behind pre-pandemic scores. in math, which took the hardest hit, students have made up about a third of that regression and in reading 25%. >> suggests we're on our way to a full recovery. we're certainly not there yet, but i think we've made up a lot more ground in one year than many people would have predicted. certainly more than we've ever made historically in one year. >> reporter: but the numbers also show the education gap between wealthy and low income districts only widened with the pandemic >> my worry is that the educational legacy of the pandemic will be a persistent widening of equality >> reporter: a $122 billion federal relief package to help fund programs is

blayne alexander, nbc news. >>> and up next for us tonight, team usa finally gets olympic gold.them after a moment two years in the making. s close to this place in the morning. i'm so glad i can still come here. you see, i was diagnosed with obstructive hcm. and there were some days i was so short of breath. i thought i'd have to settle for never stepping foot on this trail again. i became great at making excuses. but i have people who count on me so i talked to my cardiologist. i said there must be more we can do for my symptoms. he told me about a medication called camzyos. he said camzyos works by targeting what's causing my obstructive hcm. so he prescribed it and i'm really glad he did. camzyos is used to treat adults with symptomatic obstructive hcm. camzyos may improve your symptoms and your ability to be active. camzyos may cause serious side effects, including heart failure that can lead to death. a risk that's increased if you develop a serious infection or irregular heartbeat or when taking certain other medicines. so do not stop, start or change medicines or the dos

lester. >> all right, blayne alexander, thank you for that. >>> and developing this evening, american fighter aircraft intercepting another high-altitude balloon over the western united states. pentagon correspondent courtney kube is following this. what do we know, courtney? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, lester. norad scrambling ghter jets out the unidentified balloon over utah today. to does not appear to be threat, but they cannot say who it belongs to or where it came from flying at around 45,000 feet, officials say it is not a threat to aviation and is not maneuverable. but the incident illustrates the lasting unease after china flew a high-altitude spy balloon over the u.s. last year. the u.s. military shot down that balloon off the east coast then unidentified balloons in the following days. lester. >> all right, >>> in south carolina, saturday, nikki haley faces potentially her home state as donald trump looks to broaden his appeal on the wathe nomination. garrett haake explains. >> we're going to win this. we're going to win this bigger than ever before. >> reporter: donal

nbc's blayne alexander gives us a taste in our "sunday spotlight." >> reporter: even before the doors>> reporter: here in alabama it's one of the hottest lunch spots in town, but what you won't see, menus, prices, or a single dollar exchanging hands. this restaurant operates on donations only. >> i just wanted to do something to show people that money does not make the world go around. >> reporter: it's the brainchild of lisa mcmillan and her husband. they serve up hot meals from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. brewton's population barely tops 5,000. countywide more than 17% of people are food insecure. lisa has spent much of her life trying to change that. >> everybody should have the right to be able to go in a restaurant and have a meal and not worry about paying. >> reporter: she shared her dream with freddie, and the two were all in. together, they took half of their retirement fund to bring drexell and honeybee's to life. six years later, this is the daily lunch rush. >> how do you decide what's on the menu? >> it depends on what's on sale at the grocery store. >> reporter: every meal is hom

blayne alexander is following this for us. i understand there's a new motion responding to former president trump trying to kick fani willis off of his election interference case and, in fact, get the charges dismissed all together. tell us what's in this? >> reporter: so, chris, we have actually seen a flurry of filings over the past 48 hours in fulton county. let me start with the former prosecutors and ethics experts. there are 17 people who of their own will, i'm told, filed a brief, filed a motion, basically saying that they want to stand up for fani willis, that there's no georgia law that says that she should be disqualified from this case, that the charges should be dismissed. however, all of this goes back to these allegations that she is financially benefitting from a personal relationship with nathan wade, her lead prosecutor, special prosecutor in all of this. you see him right there on the screen. she acknowledged that she is having a personal relationship with him but says there are no grounds for disqualificatio

we've got nbc news correspondent blayne alexander live in atlanta, nbc news correspondent rehema ellis live for us in new york city, and nbc news investigative correspondent tom winter right here in studio. i want to start in georgia. for our viewers who haven't been following every twist and turn in this case, what are the allegations against the fulton county d.a.? >> reporter: well, the allegations are that she financially benefitted from a personal relationship with nathan wade, who was the special prosecutor she hired to work on the trump case. i want to start quickly with breaking news, just within the past five minutes d.a. fani willis walked into the courtroom and said she wants to testify. she dropped her opposition to the subpoena that had been issued. she walked in in a dramatic fashion in the middle of a back and forth. you see her right there, marching confidently up to the stand. this came just a few second after the attorney for michael roman, who has been leading all of this, called willis to the stand. willis' attorney stood up and said that's not necessary. there was

here's blayne alexander. >> reporter: tonight, a defiant district attorney, fani willis, is breaking her silence. in a 176-page filing, she acknowledges a personal relationship with nathan wade, the special prosecutor she appointed to lead the georgia election case against former president donald trump, but willis denies any financial benefit or conflict of interest writing, while the allegations are salacious and garnered the media attention they were designed to obtain, they do not provide any basis for her to be removed from the case that's what trump co-defendant, michael roman, has asked for accusing willis of financially benefitting from a romantic relationship saying, wade used money he earned from the d.a.'s office to pay for vacations together, but in her response, willis today provided her own receipts saying travel was evenly split between the two and arguing wade made more money than the other special prosecutors only because he did much more work the filing included a sworn affidavit from wade, who said while the two were professional associates and friends when he was h

let's get right to it with nbc news correspondent blayne alexander. walk us through what this means, what was revealed today, and why it's so important. >> reporter: well, zinhle, this is a very long filing and we've been waiting a long time to hear what d.a. fani willis had to say. we're making our way through this filing in response to this allegation, but basically the top line is what you said. they are saying that, yes, even though there was a relationship, it doesn't have any bearing on the case, and certainly doesn't constitute any wrongdoing that would have her or nathan wade removed from the prosecution of this case. i think there's one section that really kind of speaks to this. i want to read it for you, if i can. basically willis writes, the affidavit also clarifies that although d.a. willis and special prosecutor wade have been professional associates and friends since 2019, there was no personal relationship between them in november 2021, at the time of special prosecutor wade's appointment, and defendants offer no support for their insi

. >>> let's turn to nbc's blayne alexander in atlanta where the hearing on fulton county fani willis is getting underway. what's the issue here? >> reporter: all of this is looking ahead to what is expected to be a very pivotal hearing on thursday. that would be really the first time that judge scott mcafee is going to hear the back and forth of these allegations, basically saying that fani willis and her team should be disqualified from prosecuting this case because they say that she's financially benefitting from a personal relationship with nathan wade. up until this point, chris, the only way we've seen this play out is with a flurry of motions and filings back and forth, subpoenas and such, but now it's going before a judge. what's at issue today is whether or not fani willis, nathan wade, and members of willis's staff will have to take the stand and testify under oath on thursday. they have been subpoenaed by ashley merchant, the attorney for michael roman, the trump codefendant who launched the motion that set this into play. willis is saying a hearing on thursday would be not

nbc's blayne alexander is reporting from the courthouse in atlanta. with us, kristy greenberg, a former federal prosecutor. blayne, what exactly did willis have to say in this response that we have been waiting to hear? >> reporter: we have been waiting a long time to hear this, chris, and i've got to say that i'm still making my way through this. we're talk about 176 pages. that's how long the response is. that includes a number of exhibits. i just got it just a few minutes ago. we do know that just as i'm kind of thumbing through here, i'm looking at some of the exhibits, and they include things that kind of point to the accolades of nathan wade, for instance, some of his credentials. we also see a couple of receipts in here. i also see what appears to be some of the notes that we know she's received, some of the hate mail, some of the threatening words with racist language in it. all of that is attached as exhibits, and so all of this really kind of points to the fact, though, that fani willis is mounting what we expected to be and what we now see

. >> blayne alexander is in athens for us with the latest good morning. >> reporter: police are callinghey do believe that foul play was involved we just learned this victim was actually a student at uga until last spring. she was still active in the sorority here, and she just transferred to a nearby school today classes are canceled as students here are left grieving and afraid this morning, at the university of georgia, the quiet calm of a college campus is shattered, replaced with an active police investigation after officials found the body of a young woman on campus thursday morning. >> this is a tragic day. >> reporter: police say a concerned individual called 911 after her friend went out for a morning run near uga and never returned officials began searching and found her within minutes in an area around lake herrick near the school's intramural fields. >> the student was not breathing and had visible injuries. >> reporter: police have not released the victim's name, but she was a student at the school's college of nursing campus in athens in a letter to students, he expressed

blayne alexander has more. >> reporter: fani willis is breaking her silence. in the filing, she acknowledges a personal relationship with nathan wade. the special prosecutor to lead the georgia election case against former president trump. willis denies any financial benefit for conflict of interest writing, the allegations are salacious, they were designed to obtain, they do not provide basis to be removed from the base. accusing willis of benefitting from the relationship saying wade used money he earned from the d.a.'s office to pay for vacations together. in her response, willis provided her receipts saying travel was split between the two. writing, both are professionals with substantial income and arguing wade made more money than the other prosecutors because he did more work. the filing included a sworn affidavit from wade who said the two were professional associates and friends when hired on the case, they later developed a personal relationship. in a response of his own, michael roman said he has witnesses to tell the relationship began before wade'

blayne alexander sat down with them exclusively and she is going to share that cool conversation comingrch. lots of sun in the plains and she found fame on "stranger things." we can't wait to catch up with her. >> mr. roker, a check of the weather? >> let's look ahead to your first weekend, as we get into march. lots of sun in the plains and the northeast, but heavy rain down through the southeast, the storm really brings it on home for our friends out west and on saturday, more heavy snow into the rockies record highs great lakes more like spring down through texas. wet along the eastern seaboard sunday, sunday the eastern third of the country pretty good with the exception of florida, but widespread snow out west, record highs up into the upper midwest and the ohio river valley >>> good thursday morning. i'm cinthia pimentel. we are in store for a wet next couple of days. today it will be spotty at times. it's also going to turn cooler over the next couple of days. we're also going to see snow levels drop for around the bay area hill tops. >>> i love the fact that you've got michigan

blayne alexander, nbc news. >>> if you missed it, it's time to start filing your taxes, folks.to pay more to do it. up to 8% more. that's if you decide to use an accountant or an online software. brian chung is here to break it down. brian, why are these costs going up? >> i crunched the numbers on how much it will cost you to crunch the numbers to go up this year. the numbers you see on the screen ahead of you, are the costs off of the survey done for tax professionals on how much it will cost you to hire one. it will be more expensive than two years ago. and for tax software, h&r block is raising prices on their diy software, between $5 and $10, depending on what offering you have to buy. it costs money to develop. it can cost a pretty penny to figure out your tax refunds this year. >> what options are there if someone is able to save money? >> there are options depending on what kind of filer you are. the government for the first year, is trying a direct file, where the irs provides their own website. it will only be for select types of filers. basically invitation only. for

nbc's blayne alexander has the latest. >> reporter: after the 24 hours in the college town of athens, georgia, police announced a suspect is in custody in what university officials say is the murder of 22-year-old laiken real i. >> jose riveira. he has been charged with malice murder and felony murder and an aggravated battery. >> reporter: riley went for a mong run and never came back. officers searched the area and within minutes found her body in an area around the lake near the fields. >> he did not know her at all. i think this was a crime of opportunity. >> reporter: here in athens, the homicide rocked two campuses. she was a junior at the college of nursing where she was on the dean's list. she transferred from the university of georgia. she remained active with the sorority. classes were canceled on friday. >> everybody thinks they are safe. you never know. >> reporter: the uga senior lives right by the fields where she was found. >> that is concerning and scary just because that did happen close by. >> reporter: police say this is the first homicide on uga's campus in at leas

. >> let's go to the courthouse, blayne alexander has been listening to the entirety of this hearing.help us make sense of what's happening right now, blayne. >> what stands out to me we are an hour into this hearing, and we have yet to hear any significant testimony. terrence bradley on the stand, as expected there's been this lengthy back and forth over attorney/client privilege and what he can and can't divulge about conversations with nathan wade. terrence bradley represented him for a short period of time in his divorce and what ashleigh merchant, the attorney for michael roman who set all of this into motion, what she is trying to establish from bradley is when the personal relationship between nathan wade and d.a. fani willis began. that's going to be something that's going to be a running theme throughout this entire thing. what they're trying to allege in their motion to dismiss is basically that the relationship began before wade started working for the trump case, and also trying to point to the fact that they say nathan wade lied on his affidavit when he said that the rela

. >> let's bring in blayne alexander live in front of the courthouse in atlanta, where moments ago aase. what's the latest there? >> reporter: good morning to you. this really is a pivotal moment in the georgia case. court just got under way about two minutes ago. i've been calling this the rubber hits the road moment. we're all familiar with the allegations that one of trump's codefendants is alleging that d.a. fani willis is financially benefitting from a personal relationship with special prosecutor nathan wade. but up until this point, we've seen this play out in a flurry of filings and motions back and forth. today is the day the judge is going to actually hear evidence in this case. the judge will decide whether or not fani willis says on this case and proceeds as plans or if there is grounds for her to be disqualified. we know that at least one witness is expected to take the stand. terrance bradley is a former law partner of nathan wade. we expect him to take the stand. it's important to point out that fani willis and nathan wade have both been subpoenaed as well as members o