here's gadi schwartz >> reporter: in austin, texas, a protest and gunfire, as people run for cover.olice say a protestor with a rifle was shot and killed by a man driving through the crowd. and in colorado, this suv was fired at by somebody in the crowd. over the weekend, a total of five people shot at protests across the country while up and down the west coast, thousands showing solidarity with demonstrators in portland they're protestors armed with leaf blowers to push back tear gas. >> we're not just -- this is not a joke, it's real. >> reporter: and oregon's u.s. attorney says those officers won't back down until the violence starts. the portland mayor, tear gassed himself by authorities, insists the agents are only escalating tensions the president promising to send more agents to other cities. in seattle, at least 45 arrests as the local police declare a riot to defend an area of protestors occupied for weeks. agitators setting fire to the construction of a new youth detention facility across the nation, marches being overshadowed by escalating violence in oakland, a vir sfir

gadi schwartz, nbc news, los angeles. >>> up next one boy's inspiring shout out to the front lines. >>> before we go in our latest episode of "nightly news kids edition" a 12-year-old who is lifting spirits on the front lines by holding impromptu concerts outside his local hospital plus we'll meet an inspiring dance teacher and her students who are stepping in and stepping up despite the virus outbreak our new episode is streaming now. that is "nightly news." thank you for watching everyone i'm lester holt. please take care of yourself and each other. ♪ >> kelly: hey, what's up y'all? it's another beautiful day and our summer a staycation celebration. let's get started with a song by the cranberries when music was awesome. here is me and my band y'all with "linger." ♪ ♪ if you, if you could return ♪ don't let it burn ♪ don't let it fade ♪ i'm sure i'm not being rude ♪ but it's just your attitude ♪ it's tearing me apart ♪ is y day me ♪ ♪ i swore i would be true ♪ and fellow, so did you ♪ so why were you holding her hand? ♪ ♪ is at

gadi schwartz, nbc news, los angeles. >>> and we will be right back >>> finally, on this 4th of july weekend, a surprise connection going all the way back to the battle for independence here's kristen dahlgren. >> growing up independence day always felt a little different to karen bachelor. >> a little black girl come 4th of july i actually always thought i was a click short of being really american. >> reporter: chen she learned how deep her american roots ran, a revolutionary relative. >> a young man named william hood living on the frontier with his father and mother and the call came to be part of this new tipping point called the american revolution. >> reporter: ivanl found her patriot through old records. >> john redman, a free black man from virginia -- >> reporter: both women are now members of the daughters of the american revolution, a group for women who can prove a direct lineage to the revolutionary war. it began in the 1890s and has had more than a million members. karen broke the color barrier in 1977. >> when i first came in i was the only person i ever saw that look

gadi schwartz is tracking it all. >> reporter: in austin, texas, a protest and then gunfire as peopleor cover [ gunfire police say a protesters with a rifle was shot and killed by a man in a car driving through the crowd. >> suspect was detained and is cooperating with officers. >> reporter: in the aurora, colorado, this suv driving down an interstate fired at someone in the crowd. another protester was struck as well. over the weekend five people shot at protests across the country while up and down the west coast, thousands showing solidarity with demonstrators in portland their protesters armed with leaf blowers to push back tear gas, and mothers have clashed with the police force accused of being too heavy-handed. >> i'm not here for a game, a joke, it's real. >> reporter: oregon's u.s. attorney said those officers won't back down until the violence stops the portland mayor teargassed himself by federal authorities insist the agents are only escalating tensions. the president now promising to send more federal agents to other cities in seattle at least 45 arrests the local police

. >>> finally, more proof tonight that everyday heroes walk among us here's gadi schwartz with a story of two men in the right place with the exact right skills >> reporter: under a burning apartment in arizona, a sprint in a heart stopping catch. >> i just had tunnel vision on the boy and just made it. >> reporter: the man seen clutching the 3-year-old boy named jamison is phillip blanks, a former high school wide receiver and retired marine. >> we live close to the mountains. it was a miracle. >> reporter: he wasn't the only hero that day. another man heard the screams of his sister and thought of his own two kids. >> i started to kick the door in i kicked it in and once i got the door open, i just seen a lot of like smoke and heat. >> reporter: and you still went inside >> i just ran in there and i grabbed her by the arms and then i picked her up and she said, get me, get me i was like, i got you. >> reporter: tragically, the children's mother died in the fire trying to get her kids to safety. >> my goal is to be involved in both of their lives as much as possible when they said the

gadi schwartz, nbc news, napa. >>> back in a moment with a tough decision made by an nfl superstar who's also a doctor >>> tonight an nfl superstar is opting out of the season to focus on something bigger than football here's kevin tibbles. >> from the front line on the field to fighting on the front lines against a deadly opponent. >> i think that there's something a little bit bigger than football that's happening right now. maybshould. e, epor kansas chi he hail cana won th super boast buhe'so a or d wiit ts se outhelp savees at a lityhis princequeb. 'm shappy an epor pro sahe c bec dicadoctor. >>y're givers, take theyhumbeople thant elp you heal you epor qurbactrick mas sahe tiread srts >> he wants ake sure he's doing something to make the world a better place i believe that he is doing that. >> reporter: in announcing it on twitter, he said i cannot allow myself to potentially transmit the virus in our communities simply to play the sport that i love if i am to take risks, i will do it caring for patients the 29-year-old is a graduate of mcgill medical school in montreal and is taki

gadi schwartz with late details. >>> heartbreaking images from above as rescue teams recover a body during this six day of searching for naya rivera. >> we are confident the body we found is that of naya river a. >> reporter: her family desperately waited for word along the shores, her father rushing into the water, swimming into the lake where his daughter was last seen. >> the idea was that the boat started drifting and she mustered enough energy to get her son back onto the boat but not enough to save herself. >> her ex-husband in disbelief while authorities work to establish where she disappeared. surveillance video showing her and her 4-year-old son heading out for an afternoon boat trip on benz, the boy later discovered sleeping alone on the rented pontoon, telling deputies his mother had gone swimming but hadn't been habl to make it back friends and family grieve the irreplaceable lost of a daughter and loving mother, celebrated on screen for her smile and her unforgettable voice ♪ and i love you i love you i love you ♪ ♪ like never before >> gadi schwartz, nbc news, los angeles. >>

tomorrow is not promised gadi schwartz, nbc news. >>> all right.hen we come back in just a moment, how do you spell resilient? some super spelling kids will show us. >>> before we go, in our latest episode of "nightly news" kids edition, the national spelling bee was canceled this year because of the pandemic, but that didn't stop us from hosting our own virtual bee with these whiz kids. >> the word is the parenchyma it's the fundamental tissue of plants composed of thin walled cells able to divide. >> p-a-r-e-n c-h-y-m-a, parenchyma. >> that is absolutely right. i didn't even know that word existed. "nightly news" kids edition is streaming now on youtube and nbcnews.com. that's "nightly news" for us on this thursday i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thanks for watching good night take care of yourself and each other ♪ >> kelly: hey, what's up, y'all? it's another great day and our summer staycation and i have another great song to kick things off. here by the judds, me and my van y'all singing "why not me." ♪ ♪ you've been lookin' for lo

gadi schwartz, nbc news. >>> the governor of salt lake city has tee claideclared a sta emergency afteriolent protests broke out at the salt lake city county district attorney's office the demonstrations comes after the da ruled that officers were justified in using deadly force againsted a eed an armed robber suspect. demonstrators broke windows in the building and also poured red paint on the steps leading up to the office in a tweet, authorities said one officer was injured and some were sprayed with pepper spray they have declared protests unlawful. >>> a black lives matter protest in portland took a violent turn after a driver fired several gunshots into the air during a confrontation with demonstrators. an eyewitness says the driver had been circling the road wildly and threatened the group when the protesters asked the person to leave, the driver began to fire a pistol in the air, while driving off portland police said nobody was injured and an arrest has not been made. >>> senator tammy duckworth is keeping pressure on the trump administration asking if the dod is investigating

gadi schwartz with more. >> reporter: in austin, texas, a protest and then gunfire as people run for cover. police say a protester with a rifle was shot and killed by a man in a car driving through a crowd. >> the suspect was detained and is cooperating with officers. >> reporter: this suv was fired at by someone in the crowd. investigators say another protester was struck as well. over the weekend, a total of five people shot at protests across the country, while up and down the west coast, thousands showing solidarity to demonstrators in portland. mothering forming protective ranks have clashed with the federal police force accused of being too heavy handed. >> i'm here. it's real. we're going to get the police reform. >> reporter: but those officers won't back down until the violence stops. the portland mayor tear gassed himself insists the agents are only escalating tensions. the president now promising to send more forces to other cities. the local police once again declare a riot in an area previous lly ok you pated for weeks. across the nation mars that seem to begin peacefull

nbc's gadi schwartz is in california with more on this part of the story. gadi, higher education, not cheap. this is not what a lot of students signed up for. what options are on the table for schools when it comes to reopen and how are students reacting? >> reporter: craig, it feels like the school year is right around the corner. there's still this huge cloud of uncertainty over the lives of parents, over the lives of kids, in particular the l.a. unified school district, the second largest in the country, well over 500,000 students. the superintendent yesterday sending out a message saying the new year will include regular class schedules, daily attendance, daily live instruction and the possibility of a distance learning hybrid model. so many parents are asking what does that mean specifically? does that mean kids can stay at home if parents don't feel safe sending them back to school. does that mean parents can go back to working full time because the kids will be in school all day? the reality is they still don't know. at the university level, the plans

gadi schwartz is in los angeles. where do things stand? >> reporter: as we see the spike, we're looking at another round of wide scale inmate releases. they announced a program that allows for release up to 8,000 nonviolent offenders to prevent further spread of covid-19 in lockup, and that includes up to 4800 releases by end of july. so far, out of 110,000 prisoners incarcerated now, there have been 5800 cases, 31 deaths, including some on death row, at least three deaths on death row. the worst of the outbreaks now at san quentin, at a correctional facility in chino. so far the plan is to begin releases in phases, first to nonviolent inmates with less than 180 days on the sentence, and are high risk, then those with less than a year that are also high risk of covid-19, those serving time for violent crimes or domestic violence, sex offenders are not going to be eligible under new release programs, but the new plan comes after more than 10,000 state prisoners have already been released across the state. local counties like los angeles hav

gadi schwartz for us in los angeles this morning. gadi, thank you. >>> arizona expected to hit a grim milestone of 100,000 covid-19 cases as soon as today, and that would double what that state saw just two weeks ago. over the holiday weekend, the state saw its highest numbers yet for icu bed and ventilator usage, as well. nbc's steve patterson joins us from scottsdale, arizona, now. steve, good morning to you. what's the scene there in arizona? >> reporter: well, craig, you know, i'd like to be able to report to you that there's some big change in testing, but i can only report what the problem is, which is a crisis of capacity. the state, as you mentioned, was already in trouble when they had 50,000 cases over a short period. now, over the last two weeks, they've added 50,000 cases, which puts an incredible strain, as you mentioned, in the medical center. crisis levels in icus. crisis levels with regular hospital beds. crisis levels with ventilators. also, that strain filters down to testing capacity. last week, we saw an image, 3-m

with me from los angeles is nbc news correspondent gadi schwartz. hey, gadi.tate officials willing to consider any different measure to slow the spread of the virus given where we are right now? >> hey, chris. the drastic measures everybody here in california seems to be on the lookout for would be another full-on lockdown with only essential businesses open and so far that has not come up too much this week, as least as much as it was coming up last week. however the number of cases continues to climb, with the number of tests also climbing that are being conducted here in los angeles. we're watching the positivity rate, that's holding below 8% and threshold to watch there is about 10%. so while things are not great, they could be a lot worse. however, major problem here in los angeles county at least is an overwhelmed contact tracing system. we just saw "the l.a. times" report that major outbreaks are not being detected by that contact tracing system. right now the number of cases that are following through the cracks when it comes to that contact tracing sy

gadi schwartz, just outside dodger stadium. mentioned steve patterson standing by, scottsdale, arizona, does it feel like coronavirus is at all under control in that state? >> no, it does not, brian. 101,441 is the official up total. >> the arizona department of health says of that 100,000-plus, 62,000-plus is people 44 and younger. you can directly correlate that and health officials are with the state's reopening on may 16th. following that, there was a swell of cases week after week of an incline of cases going up. the mayor of phoenix has criticized the governor for closing down too late and opening up too soon. people on the ground here are suffering. specifically the health community, the health systems in this area. 89% full. icus, 84% beds full. ventilators have a problem as well. it was mentioned to me from a viewer on twitter, not just the capacity rate but also the staffing levels which are increasingly more thin as they try to concentrate phone these patients. the health system are looking for more people. banner he

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that is the most recent big headline there as we go to nbc's ga gadi schwartz there for us. >> reporter: that positivity rate, hospitalizations across the state are alarmingly high. they've not let up, despite the hope that things would be better by summer. the biggest question in the state is, what are schools going to look like in the fall? the largest school districts seem to be preparing parents for the likelihood that schools will continue to be held virtually, and elementary through high schools will remain closed, campuses may remain closed for the foreseeable future. here in los angeles, the public health director had a phone call with the county superintendents and told them, point blank, every single school district needs to have plans in place to continue distance learning for 100% of the time. so, that is obviously something that parents are watching out for every single day. at this point, they are hoping that that is just a contingencc. teachers' unions across the state are stressing the importance of educators and children need to come foo first. cta, biggest teachers' un

katy, back to you. >> gadi schwartz in los angeles.coming up we will speak with a health official in mississippi where coronavirus cases are starting to overload the hospital system in that state. , weeds are low down little scoundrels. draw the line with roundup. the sure shot wand extends with a protective shield to target weeds precisely and kill them right down to the root. roundup brand. trusted for over 40 years. my hands are everything to me. but i was diagnosed with dupuytren's contracture. and it got to the point where things i took for granted got tougher to do. thought surgery was my only option. turns out i was wrong. so when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. like you, my hands have a lot more to do. learn more at factsonhand.com today. like you, my hands have a lot more to do. about medicare and 65, ysupplemental insurance. medicare is great, but it doesn't cover everything - only about 80% of your part b medicare costs, which means you may have to pay for the rest. that's

gadi schwartz, nbc news. >> no time to think, just act wow. >>> that's "nightly news" for this wednesday lester holt. thank you for watching tonight. for all of us on nbc news, take care of yourself and each other >>> right now at 6:00, on the watch list. the governor is slowing things down in one bay area county after a major spike in cases. the news at 6:00 starts right now. good evening. thanks for being with us. i'm raj mathai. >> and i'm jessica aguirre. janelle wang is also with us. >> raj and jessica, the governor is slowing things down in terms of reopening businesses. but ramping things up when it comes to hospitals and preparing for the spike in cases. also ramping up, major league soccer. that's coming up later in the show. >>> restaurants and wineries in napa county are taking a step back. tomorrow, napa will be closing all indoor dining due to a spike in covid cases. napa was one of the three counties added to the watch list today. three other bay area counties already on the list. here's reaction from restaurants in napa, just trying to make sense of what happened today. >>

of southern california which is a hybrid model of virtual and in-person courses is in place is gadi schwartz reporter: yeah, that's right. this hybrid model continues to be in flex and that bauer we're basically seeing a microcosm of what we're seeing across the country. you have two things going on. you have the pandemic here in california continues to get worse. we have hospitalization rates up. we have a positivity rate of about 10%. and so you have got school administrators wanting to make sure that stint students don't the disease. and then you have the students wanting to get students back into the classroom and wanting to make sure that schools are open in the fall. so it is a balancing act here. and what we've seen at usc is this back and forth on how much student body should come back to the school, the campus itself. at first they were hoping to have a lot more students in the classroom. and then they changed their mind, they decided after seeing the spike is that a lot of those students, they were encouraging them to life off of camplive of reducing the amount of classes in person

nbc correspondent gadi schwartz joins us from l.a. gadi, there's been no statewide decision about schools in california, there's pushback from students at usc where you are, on tuition. >> reporter: there's pushback from students on tuition, they say it's not fair they're pairing full price for virtual learning. now there's even more pushback on students for what they see as a attack on international students. these students are not being issued visas if they are doing online learning and they could end up being deported. it's pretty confusing to see what's going on here at usc, a very deserted campus. over the last weeks the school has been struggling with what to do with the fall semester. they had an outbreak of covid-19. originally they tried to get students back into the classroom, then usc saw what was going on in california and decided most of the classes would be held online, encouraging the students to live off-campus. then we saw the announcement from immigration and customs enforcement that for those students coming to the u

here's gadi schwartz with more >> reporter: it started with that moon-lit swim and a summer of fear >e're going to need a bigger boat >> reporter: a bigger boat and as turned out a bigger box office the thriller chomping its way into history the first to bring in $100 million with steven spielberg at the helm "jaws" opened on an unheard of 450 screens. you know the term blockbuster we use? it literally described the lines around the block it was so big it gave us one of the first movie themed attractions here at universal studios, hollywood, and after all these years this is still one of the studio favorites. howdy, bruce that's right the shark was nicknamed bruce after spielberg's lawyer and there's more about jaws you should know about. who better than matt hooper played by richard dreyfus? >> this is a movie that was started without a script, without a cast, and without a shark. >> reporter: and when they finally did get the mechanical shark in the water -- >> that's a 20 footer. >> 25. 3 tons of him. >> reporter: the shark that we built never worked and what you'd hear every day i

joining me from los angeles is nbc correspondent gadi schwartz. talked to heads of the university system, the cal state university system and other school leaders, they've said that one of the thing that will allow their students to get back in the classroom is if there's enough testing. sounds like there's not enough testi testing. >> reporter: yeah, there's the pandemic and what we're hearing from the president obviously. here at usc, they have changed their mind several times. earlier they wanted students in classroom teaching. they wanted to have kids coming back to campus. then they decided to try students to live offcampus and most online learning, and now there's a looming battle with what to do with international students, whether they may have to transfer to a different institution. that's at play. on the local level you have lausd. california is getting worse and worse. we're seeing positivity rates up about 10%. and they're trying to try to figure out how to prevent kids from spreading coronavirus, which is going to be a herculean task.

a female camper got too close to the bison, she was gored gadi schwartz has been following the story 72-year-old woman who had to be air lifted to the hospital after being charged and gored by that bison. giving us a reminder of what to do and what not to do when approached by wild animals the attack happened here at this family campground in wyoming's yellowstone national park. a 72-year-old woman was gored after getting too close to a grazing bison like this one. >> she wanted to take a photo and she approached within ten feet of the bison at which time the bison felt threatened and charged at her >> reporter: the woman who hasn't been identified was air lifted to the hospital and has been released. hers was the second attack in yellowstone since the park reopened last month. while social distancing is encouraged between humans, rangers say too many visitors aren't taking the precautions with wildlife. >> oh, no. oh, no >> reporter: this video showing how aggressive bison can be. they're easily agitated and bis. she wa injure more people than any other animal at yellowstone. last s