ellison barber in a state she knows well, georgia.is country have taken to the streets since george floyd's murder to push for police reform. so why then are we seeing bills targeting the protesters? we will dig into the wave of anti-protest measures making their way through the states. >>> fighting fire with fire literally. scientists in california say smaller fires may be key to preventing those massive, devastating wildfires. jacob ward gone an inside, up close look at a really fascinating process. he will join us next. struggling to manage my type 2 diabetes was knocking me out of my zone, but lowering my a1c with once-weekly ozempic® helped me get back in it. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic® ♪ my zone? lowering my a1c and losing some weight. now, back to the show. ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't share needles or pens, or reuse

peter hotez, mike memoli and ellison barber, thank you all for getting us started today. really appreciate it. >>> once again, we are going to take you to the white house for president biden's remarks as soon as they begin. also coming up, we will continue the conversation on outdoor mask wearing and latest vaccination efforts with new jersey governor phil murphy, who just loosened restrictions in his state. >>> but first, loyalty is now being put to the test as new nbc news polls show new trouble for the gop and its former leader. has trump's favorability rating sunk to new lows since biden took office? ffice? we didn't stop at storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it. so when it comes to your business, you know we'll stop at nothing. mommy, i won a medal. that's amazing! ♪ your radiance comes alive ♪ i got in! ♪ i don't need the rain ♪ celebrate all the moms in your life with sparkling gifts from pandora jewelry

with me is msnbc correspondent ellison barber.ounds terrifying. >> reporter: they say they now have about 20 pumps up and running and they expect to double the amount of money they are draining throughout the day today. yesterday they were draining about 22,000 gallons of wastewater every minute, and they say they are starting to double that now, now that they have increased the amount of pumps they have on the ground, and more of those are operational. but the bad news is a big one. they say that inspection drones early this morning captured signs and indications of a possible second breach. listen here. >> at approximately 2:00 a.m., an infrared drone identified a signature that could indicate a second breach that the engineering team evacuated the site. however, we'll tell you the army corps of engineers, new engineers at the environmental protection are back at the site and they are reassessing that. >> reporter: so officials have repeatedly said their primary concern in terms of safety is a collapse and catastrophic flooding,

nbc's ellison barber tracking that part in rock hill, south carolina ellison. >> reporter: shepard, one of the 911 calls that came in, a witness who had been outside his home mowing his lawn when he heard gunfire said he thought he heard at least 20 shots. police say the suspect here had and used two guns, a .45 caliber and a 9 millimeter they say both of them appear to have been legally obtained phillip adams forced entry into the lesslie home according to police and shot four inside. all members of the lesslie family, two of them children, both under the age of 10, and he also shot two people who were outside of the house, air-conditioning technicians who were there working on a job to fix something with this family's air-conditioning unit. one of those air-conditioning technicians was a man named james lewis. he did not survive a family member told the "associated press" the second technician is named robert shook. police say he is in very critical condition so far police have not been able to establish a motive. the sheriff says that there is nothing about this right now that makes

ellison barber is on the ground in palmetto, florida. hetic panic attacks over our friends and neighbors in manatee counties. what's going on? >> stephanie, there are a lot of concerns here and i will try to break down as much as i can the multiple layers of issues here. but to start right now, state and local officials seem optimistic when it comes to preventing a potential collapse of this damaged reservoir. they say they have gotten the water down in this damaged reservoir to about 3 million gallons. it's dropped by about a foot. in terms of training that water, which they're draining into the manatee port and tampa bay, they want to drain as much as that as possible to prevent a collapse. obviously, there are environmental questions be concerns about draining that water into the bay. but in terms of the progress they are making, draining it to prevent a collapse right now they seem optimistic in terms of that and honefully preventing a collapse be calf strofic flooding. the state's department of environmental protection says right now

ellison barber outside miami with reaction to the president's speech. we learned that president has tasked some key cabinet members, five of them, to try to sell this plan that he unveiled to the american public last night. what do you expect to see, not just today with the president on the road, but in the coming days ahead? >> well, it will be similar to what we saw after the president unveiled his covid relief bill and hit the road and then also the american jobs plan on infrastructure. this is something now we've seen the white house put a plan into motion essentially and they're going to try to do the same thing with the american families plan. expect to see the president, the first lady, vice president, other top cabinet officials and surrogates on the road like what you're going to see in georgia, tomorrow in philadelphia, monday in virginia because the president wants to get out of washington and talk to people directly about why he sees these as his top priorities. very much like what you saw with the american jobs plan, the homework assignment

ellison barber joins us with the latest. what is going on?hey, stephanie, yes, the evacuation zone is just over my shoulder and just 316, give or take, homes are inside this evacuation zone as well as a jail. anyone in those homes have been told to evacuate the areas as soon as possible. the big concern, as you mentioned, there could be a collapse. worst-case scenario warnings are 20-feet-tall walls of water. there are three ponds here. the south pond is the one leaking now. officials at this point are trying to drain as much water as possible to avoid a collapse. they're draining about 22,000 gallons of water of wastewater a minute, 32,000 gallons a day. they started with 480 million gallons of wastewater. they've gotten it down to about 300 million so far. the immediate concern is if there's a collapse, it could cause massive flooding, catastrophic damage to the homes in this area. the bigger long-term concern here is the environmental impacts it will have that could potential happen because this water is being drained into the port of mana

joining me is news correspondent, ellison barber. >> reporter: we heard from one of the county directorspublic safety that an infrared drone discovered signs of a second breach within the reservoir that has been leaking and causing so many problems. we found out late yesterday evening that once engineers were able to get on the ground and look at it they determined there's not a second breach, so that's good news. and officials seem optimistic about preventing a collapse and catastrophic flooding in neighborhoods around the plant. you can see and hear the cars driving by me now, and this is a change this afternoon where they have opened up part of the highway that was inside the evacuation zone and officials have now lowered the levels of the reservoir by a good foot, but the waste water they are draining is being pumped into tampa bay, and the waste water is not radioactive but is contaminated and has nutrients that are known to produce harmful algae. >> there's nutrients of nitrogen and some metals that are less of an immediate risk. all of the water is being discharged into tampa bay

nbc correspondent ellison barber is in palmetto, florida, this afternoon with the latest.what have you learned here from florida officials within the last few hours? >> yes, kasie, the biggest development this afternoon is news there could potentially be a second leak in this reservoir, which is known as the south pond. the initial leak, obviously, that led to this chain of events happened in the south pond. that seems to be where they're thinking the second leak is as well. there are three ponds, three reservoirs on the property. the one pond, south pond, started with 480 gallons of wastewater. as of last night, they dropped that down through controlled leaks to about 300 million gallons. this morning officials say that drones, inspector drones flying overhead, noticed signs of a possible second leak. their on the ground now trying to get a closer look to see if there's actually a second leak in this pond. the main priority has been just to get this water out. they're taking it and pumping it into the port of manatee and then into tampa bay, hopefully to prevent a collaps

i want to go live now to ellison barber in hard-hit michigan, where the j&j vaccine was having a realaccination rollout in rural areas. . ellison, johnson & johnson vaccine is paused. what are these communities doing now that one shot was really helpful in places that are hard to get to? >> yes, it really was. look, vaccine clinics like this one are still taking place in towns and most populated areas. you see this one is pretty busy right now. but this is not an option for everyone. if you look at this map, this gives you a sense of how spread out things are here. all of these dots represent offices that michigan help has throughout northeast michigan. we're up here in alpena. imagine if you live in kind of one of these other parts, these spaces, can you see looking at a 30, 40-plus minute drive to get a vaccine. the thing about the johnson & johnson vaccine is it's not as tricky as the pfizer and moderna vaccine. it could be kept at refrigerated temperatures. it is single dose, not two. so what michigan health started doing to get to the most vulnerable people in these rural, isolat

shepard. >> ellison barber live on the scene. and since march 16th, just over three weeks, at least seven mass killings by guns in america. today, president biden outlined a number of executive orders on guns. later in the newshour, the proposals to limit a certain type of weapons in flagging family weapons who should not own a firearm at all. >>> derek chauvin's knee was like a vice on george floyd's neck, making it harder to breathe than he were sucking air through a straw until tend when he could not breathe at all that is part of the extraordinary testimony today from dr. martin tobin, a lung and breathing expert with 45 years' experience. dr. tobin wrote what is dubbed the bible on ventilation and breathing. a 1,500-page textbook. prosecutors used him on two fronts to explain what happened to george floyd in the final moments and to attack the defense contention that drugs, especially fentanyl could have caused george floyd's death. the doctor watching the crime scene video and counting george floyd's breaths. >> one, two --

joining me now ellison barber in michigan where the johnson & johnson has been a major blow to rural ination efforts and also with us is vaccine expert dr. peter otez. ellison, tell me the story of where you are there in michigan. just how much the johnson & johnson pause impacts where you are. >> reporter: you can see behind me that vaccine clinics are still taking place in towns, in more populated cities and rural parts of michigan. look at this map to give you a sense of where we are. getting to a vaccination clinic like this is simply not an option for everyone. we are here. the dots on here, these represent offices of some sort within mid michigan health system. the lack of dots gives you a sense how rural this area is. what they realized within this medical center is they have people who were vulnerable, isolated and probably could not get into one of the area tosz -- areas to get a vaccine. when johnson & johnson available and it was a single dose, they realized they could pretty easily, comparatively easily take that vaccine directly to the most vulnerable patients in rural, i

joining me now is ellison barber, who is in miami, and anna palmer.up that pressure from the left and talk about one of the proposals that they are trying to put on the table about extending paid family leave, and it's something i often talked about on the show and it's something on my mind once again as i am two weeks out from my due date. what is he proposing and how is the administration handling it? >> yes, this is one of the proposals that democrats want joe biden to include in the overall infrastructure package that is much broader than just infrastructure, so building an economy for families, and he's the chairman of a very powerful committee. his word will have a lot of sway. the question is will joe biden in this speech do what neal wants, and it's that he wants to have 12 weeks for paid family leave, and there's a huge movement in terms of the grassroots and third parties also behind this as well. we don't have a clear signal yet whether or not joe biden will mention it yet, but it's a pressure point area where you can see him getting a big

and ellison barber's in miami, where she's been talking to voters to see how the president is doing asdo we know about the focus about tomorrow night's speech? >> steph, said president biden was first elected to the senate in 1972, he has witnessed eight presidents address congress. and now finally he's getting his turn at the lectern. we know from the white house that he's been deeply involved in the speechwriting process. he's been working with the writers and a deep message he wants to send. sources tell nbc news the president in this full process began weeks ago and one of the advisers most involved here is biden's longest-serving add vires, mike donlon. so something that's a major focus of the president. this all comes as he's approaching his 100th day in office and the white house said to not only look for him to tout his accomplishments over the past 100 days but also look forward. bun of the key pieces of forward-looking priority the white house said is this, $1.5 trillion investment in childcare spending that you and i were just talking about yesterday, he plans to lay that ou

ellison barber is in atlanta for us where the community bank is holding a massive food drive. major influx of families needing that food. tell us where you are too for this. >> reporter: chuck, we're in henry county. part of why this mass food distribution site event is taking place is because the atlanta community food bank says they started to realize, other smaller food banks, they're resources were taxed and having trouble getting enough food to people who needed it. they decided to put these big sites that can serve up to 2,000 households in a couple different pockets. this is in henry county, not too far outside of atlanta. a little farther from the metro area because they thought they could reach as many people possible right here. listen here. >> i think the misconception has always been there, prior to the pandemic, is that its specific types of people who need assistance. a lot of times what we found, now with the pandemic, is that it's anybody, it's somebody who may have had a full time job and have had hours cut. and so they're now working half of what they normall