nbc's anne thompson has more on scientists' race to get to the bottom of it. >> reporter: on a frigid can see why the finger lakes are central new york's environmental heart. not immune to the bird flu. here on cayuga lake, cornell university's dr. bloodgood tests for blood flu. >> swirl it around. that's great. >> reporter: i got to help with the swabbing. back in the lab, initial tests show three of the four ducks have the highly contagious virus. >> we have foundnd many different positive species ranging from waterfowl to raptors, eagles and hawks. >> reporter: since 2022, this strain of the virus has been detected in wild birds in all 50 states. ththere are ports of birds falling out of the sky and washing up on beaches. what mammals have tested positive for bird flu? >> in new york state, it's primarily been red fox. we have seen a skunk and a possum, a bobcat. >> reporter: does that suggest the flu is mutating? >> it could, yes. >> reporter: a mutation caused this die off of elephant seals on the coast of argentina in 2023. >> the beaches are still covered with bones. >> reporte

anne thompson with the verdicts just in tonight. >> reporter: these three men tonight found guilty of a robbery and murder scheme that terrorized new york city's gay bars for more than a year. jayqwan hamilton, robert demaio and jab barroso convicted of murder, drugging and robbing intoxicated gay men. two were killed. 25-year-old julio ramirez and 33-year-old john umberger. umberger's mother linda clary was in court for the verdicts. >> we are heartbroken because nothing is going to bring john back. but we are so grateful to god that hopefully no one else will be hurt by these men. >> reporter: clary's been on a two-year odyssey for justice that took her from her home in georgia to new york many times. we spoke in april 2023. >> i can't help but think how lucky john was to have you as his mom. >> i was lucky to have him as my son. >> reporter: prosecutors said the three men gave their victims drugs, including fentanyl and cocaine, stole their phones, and then sometimes using facial recognition technology, drained their accounts. in a statement, new york's district attorney alvin brag

ann thompson has more. >> reporter: even on a frigid winter morning, you can see why the finger lakesimmune to the bird flu. here on this lake, masked and glove, cornell's university's dr. jenny will looks for bird flu. >> you just swirl it around. >> reporter: i got to help with swabbing. in dr. bloodgood's lab 3 of the 4 ducks have the highly contagious virus. >> we have found many different species ranging from water fowl. >> reporter: since the outbreak began this strain has been detected in birds in all 50 states. there have been reports of birds falling out of the sky. >> what mammals have tested positive for bird flu? >> in new york state it's been red fox. we've seen a skunk and possum, a bobcat. >> does that suggest the flu is mutating? >> it could, yes. >> reporter: a mutation caused this die off of elephant seals on the argentinian coast in 2023. >> the beaches are still covered with bones. >> reporter: uc davis scientist said the mutated virus spread killing 17,000 of his top ocean predators. she estimated it will take the species 10 to 70 years to recover. >> so the bird

let's get details from our friend anne thompson. >> reporter: whether it's sunnyside up, scrambled, orboiled, eggs these days are in a bit of a pickle. egg prices are soaring. the average price for a dozen eggs more than $5, that's about 50% more than what it cost a year ago according to research. which means your parents are shelling out a few extra dollars at the store, and maybe even when you go out for breakfast. the waffle house just announced it's temporarily charging an extra 50 cents per egg due to the unprecedented rise in egg prices. but why? the biggest reason -- bird flu. >> unfortunately there have been so many birds that have either been infected or have had to be killed so that we can avoid infection across the united states. bird flu is a virus. it's actually a type of flu virus, but it's different than the flu that we've been talking about. and it's really easy to get in birds. >> reporter: sadly, tens of millions of birds have beeeen killed since 2022. the outbreak impacting the supply and causing prices to rise. >> birds can pass the flu to each other very easily. 's

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there's a shot of ann thompson and me with andrea.. >> her legacy is so real. i remember meeting her and being struck how kind she is given her veteran status. she's a down to earth woman. okay? oh, yeah. this janelle wang in the nbc bay area newsroom. we have a little bit of a breaking news. did you feel some shaking? especially if you are in the south bay? a 3.4 magnitude earthquake just hit a few minutes ago. it was centered near san martin. that is in santa clara county, just south of morgan hill. you can see that red dot there. so south santa clara county, a 3.4 magnitude earthquake hit at exactly 12:35 p.m. today, just east a few miles east of san martin. this is our seismograph here in the nbc bay area newsroom. we are not receiving any calls of any injuries or damage or any reports of the earthquake of anybody feeling it right now. but if you felt it, a 3.4 magnitude earthquake just hit at 12:35 p.m. just east of san martin, which is in santa clara county, just south of morgan hill. we're going to be tracking this and we will

nbc's anne thompson is following this for us, and this study suggests it could revolutionize how foodris, it's. >> certainly good news for. >> those 800,000. >> children in america who suffer. >> from mild. >> peanut allergies. >> and their families because, as you know, i mean, currently, the typical advice is. just to. >> avoid peanuts. and that's. >> really hard when you're a. >> kid, you. >> want to go. >> to. >> birthday parties. >> and outings. >> so what. >> the researchers at. >> mount sinai. >> hospital did is. they took a group of 73. >> kids. >> divided them in. >> half. >> and about half. >> of. >> those kids. >> they fed. >> peanut butter to them every. >> day. >> starting with a very little bit. >> an eighth. >> of. a teaspoon. gave them to. >> that for eight weeks. >> and then they. >> kept building. up over a period of 18 months. all the way to a tablespoon of peanut. >> butter a day. >> and what they found were that none of those. kids who had mild. peanut allergies. had severe. reactions to eating that peanut butter. in fact, they built up tolerance. and that's good