ellison barber continues our coverage how are these families being updated? >> reporter: well, they're getting at least two updates every day, and families of the missing were able to visit the site where the south tower collapsed yesterday as well as today i spoke to the mayor of miami dade county earlier, and she said that moment gave families of the missing an opportunity to feel close to their loved ones and also to see just how hard rescuers are working to try and find any signs of life. rapp rapid dna tests are being given on site. for others, it's harder and harder to hold onto hope, especially at minutes and days keep on moving one man whose parents were initially among the missing and lived in that south tower, sergio lozano says he had his dna taken. that's how officials told him that his parents were among the dead his mom's name is gladys she was 79, his father antonio was 83 they'd been married for nearly six decades, 59 years and were originally from cuba sergio lives a block away from his parents and actually heard the south tower collapse that

we have reporters covering all angles ellison barber and valerie castro of their loved ones first to cnbc's valerie castro val lee? valerie >> reporter: shep, the investigation into how exactly this happened will be long and methodical right now a team from the national institute of standards and technology is on their way here, and they will begin that process. these are experts who investigated things like the aftermath of 9/11 and tornado in joplin, missouri they will carefully identify and preserve any materials that may show what happened many issues were raised in 2018 when the building was assessed by an engineer pictures from the report captured what described abundant cracking cracking in the beams s and wal. and failure to replace waterproofing would cause problems a structural engineer said given the building stood for some 40 years, it's likely decay rather than design led to the collapse. >> if it's a design issue, usually that condition or the issue will surface within two years, five years after the original construction. doesn't mean it can't extend later, but it woul

joining me now from surfside, florida, is ellison barber, and you have been talking to the search andescue team including a member of the miami-dade rescue team, and it is tough and excrutiating work, and what are they telling you? >> yes, the miami-dade are some of the best. they have responded to a explosion in haiti, and they have responded to help after a building collapsed in barbados, and they have experience of dealing with the catastrophes at this level, but when i spoke to rescuers as part of task force 1, and never seen anything like this h and one of the rescuers say this is tactically, emotionally and physically draining. >> the family is screaming out to loved ones, and a lot of them told me that it is really hard for them to hear. they feel it, and they feel it on the pile. we are human, too, but we are able to put it a aside a little bit while we are working, because we want to get this job done, and this is what we do. we are going to even if save the people, and the family to have even if it is some small effect of them to have to remember them by. >> reporter: 147 pe

ellison barber is outside one of the schools welcoming students back.e and why it means so much. >> reporter: yeah. we were at an elementary school all morning. the line, it just seemed like it would never end. people kept coming, parents kept coming bringing their children. some showing up last minute hoping they could enroll their students in the summer school program. the superintendent sees this as an indication that parents, despite the craziness of the last year, that parents are determined to make sure their children don't miss a beat academically. this is not like a normal summer school program. it's not just for students who struggled or who need to make up a credit. it's open to anyone who was enrolled in the school system last year. the goal is to help bridge any gaps that may have come by nature of, again, the craziness of last year, bouncing between virtual learning to in-person. students who didn't have great access to wi-fi. to make sure this is as accessible as it can be to as many students as possible, they are also running buses, which

nbc's ellison barber is in one of those states. a, which has the second lowest rate in the country, second only to mississippi. ellison has been talking to folks. 29.4% of alabama fully vaccinated. where you are, dead last in the state. the vaccinate rate 14.5%. what are people telling you about why they are or are not getting the shot? >> reporter: yeah, you look at those numbers and it's staggering. the least vaccinated county in one of the least vaccinated states in the country. people we have spoken to who have opted not to get a vaccine, they have given us different reasons for why they have made that decision from skepticism to just outright conspiracy theories. we met one man who was hesitant, on the fence about whether or not he was going to get a vaccine. then his mother contracted covid-19 and passed away. that changed everything for him. antonio is the oldest child of catherine brundage. people loved her and the food she made here. >> she was a family person, real family oriented. she did love people. >> reporter: when sh

ellison barber joins me from missouri. it was detected last month. ellison, what are you hearing from people there about these growing concerns over this new variant? >> reporter: they are worried. the university of missouri is working with the state's health department to test wastewater from facilities just like this one all across the state. what they are able to do when they pull this wastewater sewage is not only identify whether or not covid-19 is in the sewage but they can identify which variants are prevalent. what they tell us they are seeing is not only is the delta variant here in this state, but they say it is spreading incredibly fast, especially in rural areas where there are lower rates of vaccination. listen to more of what we heard. >> with missouri, it's amazing. we are not talking about one continuous city. this is small, individual communities. >> in november, when we weren't dealing with the variant income our community, we had maybe one or two members of a household testing positive. now we have seen

before the collapse, and his last words to them were telling them good night and good-bye shep >> ellison barber on scene, ellison, thank you. >>> florida fire marshal jimmy pa testosterone, than-- patron. i heard you say earlier today it's the largest non-hurricane deployment ever in florida can you tell us what progress they're making now to save anyone who might still be alive? >> sure, so the men and women of all the task forces here, it's actually a unified international effort we have got, you know, search and rescue experts from mexico and also israel embedded with the crews that are working right now. they're working 12-hour shifts from midnight to noon, noon to midnight, about 80 men and women at a time. so the amount of work that they'ring e doing is enormous. it's also painfully delicate also because of the unstable environment they're working in and effort to save lives because of the potential lives being below the rubble. >> jimmy authorities have been telling us every day, they did while i was there, they did over the weekend, that the searchers have every single thing they need,

i'm joined by msnbc correspondent ellison barber in surfside, florida. latest that we know. >> reporter: hey, joy, yeah, this is the second press conference today that started with news that no one wanted to hear, that they had found another body in the rubble. the death toll here is now 11. we do not know the names of all of the victims but we know the names of some of them. we know the names of eight people who lost their lives when this condo collapsed early thursday morning. they are stacy fang, antonio and gladys lizano, manuel la font, anna ortiz and her son, christina and leon. they are parents, grandparents, precious lives that were stolen in the middle of the night and 150 people are still unaccounted for. officials, rescuers say they have not given up hope that they can find some survivor. they say there are crevices where potentially someone could be alive but it is day five now. family members were able to visit the rubble yesterday and today. some of them still have hope that their loved ones can be found. others say they're not so sure as t

nbc's ellison barber has been speaking to heartbroken families waiting for any word >> reporter: they are understandably in a lot of pain. they are worried they are exhausted physically and emotionally it's been six days of this we spoke to the brother and father of nicole langesfeld. she lived on the eighth floor of the south tower with her husband, luis. they were on the eighth floor of that tower that collapsed. they are two of the 149 people still unaccounted for. nicole's family says that if you get to meet her, it is hard not to like her. it is impossible to forget her and, as for luis, nicole's brother martin told me that he could not imagine in any world a better brother-in-law, a better person to love his sister. luis and nicole just got married in january nicole's family told us they want people to know they're not giving up hope they believe in miracles and right now they say they need you to believe in miracles, too. they also wanted to give a message and to thank the rescuers and to ask them to please not give up >> please, block by block, sand, anything, keep pushing it,

ellison barber is at a wastewater facility in missouri where the delta variant was first detected lastllison, there's such a direct correlation between being vaccinated and being vulnerable to this variant. >> reporter: yeah. that's what officials are warning residents of. let me show you a graph to give you a sense of what they are seeing in this community. this is a graph that shows the rate or the detection of covid-19 in the wastewater at the treatment facility. you can see at one point, mid to the end of april, they had no cases here on april 11th. then you see it stayed low. then about may 11th you start to see it spike. all of this, they say that is the delta variant that's detect detected at wastewater here. experts say it has been spreading across the state. particularly in north central and southwest missouri. listen to what the ceo of one hospital told us. >> a month ago, we had one admission a day. now we are averaging 18. we went from 14 patients in-house to 73 covid positive patients in less than a month. it appears to be the delta variant. our health department is lookin

geoff. >> it is one heartbreaking story after another, ellison barber and antonio hylton, thank you. and tina paul, listening to the reports, how are you doing, and the folks that you represent in surfside doing okay? >> okay. because i have to keep going, and looking after my residents. and some of the folks are not doing okay, because of the grief and the heartbreak, and just about everybody knows somebody in the building. the residents are deployed and the town invasion in that we live here still, and people need to go to work, and take their children to camp and doctors and workers need to get into town, and the traffic has been unbearable for the residents who leave town and takes them over two hours to get home, and it is a trip that would normally take about 15 or 20 minutes. so, on top of the grief, they are not able to live their lives as residents. >> sorry to cut you off, and one of the big questions is how this happened and the major of surfside told the reporters that the process is under way to make the documents pertaining to the building and the building integrity ava

ellison barber, thank you. really, really interesting stuff.t science has been able to accomplish in the last year for us to help track these different variants. >> and different ways to search it out. >> yes. probably my least favorite way. >> yeah, if i was doing that report i would be thankful that the allergies are kicking in now and i am stuffed up because, oy, great for ellison. >>> how about this for an ultimatum? return to the office or else. it turns out many are actually saying i'm good. peace. >> coming up on "the cross connection," kareem abdul-jabbar joining tiffany cross to talk about his new documentary "fight the power." a look at the protest movements that have shaped this country. that's today on "the cross connection" at 10:00 a.m. >> and one-on-one on the court. who has tiffany? >> i do. >> yeah, no way. ♪ it's grilled cheese time. ♪ ♪ yeah, it's time for grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ after we make grilled cheese, ♪ ♪ then we're eating grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ because it's time. ♪ ♪ yeah. ♪ ♪ time for grilled cheese. ♪ i just heard somethi

. >> ellison barber with that fantastic look. we have dr. ashish jha, school of public health. good to see you again. in a recent piece for the "washington post," you called it a triple threat. explain what you mean by that. why is it a triple threat? >> thanks, eamon, for having me back. any time you want to look at the variant, you want to look at lee characteristics. you ask the question, is it more contagious? the delta variant is way more contagious. the second question, is it more deadly if you catch it? the answer is it probably is more deadly. and the third question, does it cause more breakthrough infections? what we're learning about the delta variant, if you're fully vaccinated, you're actually pretty protected. even if you're just partially protected, say, one shot of the pfizer vaccine, you may get it. this is the most powerful variant we've seen. >> you heard and what the president was saying was america probably won't meet the president's goal of 70% getting vaccinated by july 4th. despite everything we know for speeding up vaccines to get everybody off the fence

that's compared to just 9% last year nbc's ellison barber is there tonight. son. >> hey, shep, this is a first for montgomery public schools, who, of course, had summer school programs for years but this is the first time they opened those programs to all students, whether a student made an f or made straight as they're calling this program launch into learning classes started today, and the students came out in droves. >> if you are a student who was virtual most of the year or not, you're going to have some learning loss because you just were not there with your teacher, who's able to keep you on track. >> when you have the gap in between, regardless of who you are, it's going to hurt you a little bit. >> bad mommy to take us back to the regular school. >> today is a good day all around. >> yes, ma'am, for everybody >> the superintendent of the school district said it doesn't matter how good of a student your child was, that because of the chaos last year, it has led to learning gaps for most students they're hoping this program will help most students get b

. >> ellison barber, i understand you're in a place where only about 30% of people are vaccinated and the delta variant was detected there in a pretty noteworthy way. tell us about that. >> reporter: yeah, it was detected in the wastewater here. they showed us the data for lynn county and at the end of april, they had no covid cases here, at least none detected in the wastewater. but then in early mid-may, that changed. they started to see cases detected and it is the delta variant. they know that because machines like this is the first step in sort of tracking it. university of missouri is working with the state health department to pull water samples from all over the state, and then they send it to the lab over in columbia where scientists at university break it down. not only can they detect if covid-19 is in a community through wastewater, they can also see which variants are prevalent and what they say not only is the delta variant prevalent in this state, but it is particularly prevalent and spreading really, really fast in small, rural communities where they have very low vacc

in brookfield here's nbc's ellison barber >> the delta variant showed up in wastewater in branson, missouri, on may 10th. branson is about four hours away from here. within a week it was detected in the wastewater right here in brookfield it's been spreading across the state ever since listen to what the president of one local hospital told us >> it's coming you're at risk you're a sitting duck if you're not vaccinated we want you to vaccinate because more hospitals are filling. >> reporter: the university of missouri is working with the state's health department to detect and track covid-19 in wastewater facilities all across the state. not only can scientists detect covid-19 in waste waters and by default in specific communities but they can also identify exact variants scientists studying this tell us what the data shows them in this state right now is that not only is the delta variant prevalent but it is spreading incredibly fast, particularly in smaller rural communities where less people are vaccinated. right here in lynn county, only 1/3 of residents are fully vaccinated shepherd. >

. >> ellison barber, thank you.e'll speak about congresswoman escobar's meeting with vice president harris when she visited the border last week. you're watching "amman mohyeldin reports." ♪ when i was young ♪ no-no-no-no-no please please no. ♪ i never needed anyone. ♪ front desk. yes, hello... i'm so... please hold. ♪ those days are done. ♪ i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪ go with us and find millions of flexible options. all in our app. expedia. it matters who you travel with. >>> nbc news has learned the manhattan district attorney is expected to file criminal charges against the trump organization as soon as tomorrow afternoon. that's according to two representatives from the organization. jennifer wiles berks former daughter-in-law of longtime trump organization cfo alan weisselberg was asked about the charges today. watch. >> do you believe that the former president himself holds any liability here? >> absolutely, absolutely. i believe they will get the indictment. >> against him? >> yes, yes. >> nbc news inves

so, ellison, barber, thanks for covering this. >>> the justice department and democrats are on the hunt data from democrats. one of the targets of trump's doj, democratic congressman eric swalwell talked to my colleague, chris hayes, about his fear if those involved don't face consequences. watch this. >> my fear is that he may not have been successful this time in locking up his perceived enemies but a more corrupt or donald trump in the white house again may not be as patient and may just skip the department of justice and its processes and just order his lieutenants to lock up his political opponents. >> all right, so joining me now is my friend, denny, nbc news little analyst. thanks for joining us on this. so, you wrote an op-ed in the "daily beast" saying the most important question is if, in fact, republicans were targeted. why? >> because that's the only one -- the question that matters from a moral perspective. it may not matter so much from a legal perspective because it's long been the case that as long as there is objective evidence of a crime, police and law enforcement and

let's bring into our coverage nbc news correspondent ellison barber live for us in surfside, florida.r: hey, nicolle. there are already at least three lawsuits related to this, all of those filed against the condo association. now a grand jury is expected to take a look at it in addition to the investigations taking place on the ground to try and figure out exactly how this building collapsed. again in addition to search and rescue efforts, which are still under way. i spoke to a member of the miami-dade urban search and rescue team, also known as florida task force 1, just to get a sense of where they are and what they're up against. for the rescuers, this is challenging not only tactically, logistically and physically, but also emotionally. and for many of them, it is especially difficult on the emotional level because this is not just another disaster. this is their home. this is their community. and many of them have ties to the people impacted by this as well. listen to some of what one of the rescuers with the miami-dade urban search and rescue team told us earlier today. >> the

. >> nbc's ellison barber covering the most extraordinary stories and tragedies that i have ever coveredhouse" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. k break. don't go anywhere. now, he uses therabreath healthy gums oral rinse with clinically-proven ingredients and his gum problems have vanished. (crowd applauding) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer. ♪ ♪ i feel free to bare my skin yeah, that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand nothing on my skin, ♪ ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ achieve clearer skin with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way it's my moment ♪ ♪ so i just gotta say... ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you