sneaking it in class.te >> repor a coalition of supporters plans to lobby lawmakers to pass the gislation this year. hale says it's backed by young people who haveeen their classmates struggle. >> their peers who are becoming cted to these products and just can't quit no matter how much they want to.or >> repr: supporters say it's failed in years passed when there wa oppositiorom the

this is why, julie, that gislators, most of whom are men, by the way, shouldn't be telling a woman what she shod and shouldn't be doing with her body. >> i'm really interestedo hear more about it, to try to find out, why did this come out now? who is actually in the picture? what was the reason for this to suddenly get all kinds of attention? is it really tied to what went on down in the legislature this week? >> reporter: chuck todd is nbc's political director and moderator of "meethe press." >> in this environment, in this state, justin fairfax just sitting as the lieutenant governor, w ust walked out on a commemative ceremony for robert e. lee a few weeks back. the meetings of the democratic party are going to struggle to find a wayo stand behind him. >> colleagues to presidential a candidat reacting. virginia democratic senator mark warner and tim kaine called t photo shocking and offensive and said northam should listen to the people he' hurt. they stopped short of calling for his resignation. california democratic senator kamala harris, who is running for president, tweeted,e lead

. >> reporter: the a lot of appetite for some sort of gislation on the hil but lawmakers still need to agree on what exactlyt like. ylan mui in washington. >>> the fda today outlined a mber of measures to combat the opioid crisis. the measures iacludeging the pills in small amounts, such as for a day or two following rgery, and reducing the dosage amounts. it is also calling for new steps to promote non-addictive pain medicines. the fda has criticized for not having done enough to stem the epidemic and even enabling it by approving powerful pain kil rs for widespread use. >>> it is time to loo at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. caterpillar was downgraded from sell to buy a ubs. the analyst cites concerns over slowing global construction demand. the price target is $125. the stock fell more than 2% to $137.98. >>> foot locker was downgraded to hold from buy at pivotal research. the analyst cites tough comparisons in the coming quarters along with the stock's valuation. the price target is $64. the shares fell 1.5% to $58.89. >>> still ahead, why wall street's attention is turni

next week will be the markup of historic gislation, h.r. 8, the biparisan background check bill. now, more than ever, we nee to insist that our cleaguesn the other side of the aisle stand up to the gun lobby and stand up tjoin in the fight to end gun violence. six of the deadlst mass shootis in our nation's entire history happened i theast decade. a dede in which congress did thing to reduce preventable gun deaths. we cannot continue and should not continue to igne e demands of mothes, grandmothers, of pents, nurses, teachers, emergency room physicians who are concerned abou vlent gun deaths and cldren being killed in their schools anin their communiti. we need to be lead he rsers. not cords, afraid of losi an a-rating. our children deserv courage, thy deserve theourage of this congress. r children deserve leaders who wl fight to ensure at familiesre safe at movie theats and ccerts. i will note boughand i will not beilent by the gun lobby by the president the mid-term elections mad clea that thewanthe safety of our children and our falies first. we must end the insidious buying o

. >> reporter: w reached out to the members of congress who introduced last year's gislation to fix the in the law. and confirmed they will try again this year. as for tom's plight, virginia senator mark warner sent us a statement saying in part the fair and reasonable approach here would be to close this loople and i'm hopeful we can work on a bipartisan basis in congress to do th. jody flesher news4 i team. >>> the adoptee rights campaign offers resources for people in this situation, to find out more, including a state by state breakdown of international adoptees without citizenship, visit our nbc washington app. >>> back to breaking news now southeast d.c. at least four people injured in a series of shootings in e past two hours. sources tell news4 one of the victims may be a young girl. she was injured right here along pennsylvania avenue near minnesota avenue. we can see shattered gss at a bus stop here. check for updates in our washington app and jackien bense will have a full report coming up on news4 at 11:00. >>> doug is back now with more about our weather. you're just thell

sneaking it in class.te >> repor a coalition of supporters plans to lobby lawmakers to pass the gislationyear. hale says it's backed by young people who haveeen their classmates struggle. >> their peers who are becoming cted to these products and just can't quit no matter how much they want to.or >> repr: supporters say it's failed in years passed when there wa oppositiorom the tobacco industry and stores that sell cigarettes and vape pens. the coalitions hoping the is it statistics wist b support for the bill. >>> reminder that nbc 4 and telemundo 44 are working for you. hocal nonprofits have until friday february 1 to apply for grants of $5,000. we have a total of $225,000 to grant this year. it's going to be shared by few different organizations here in the washington area. to get more information about the process, go to nbcwashington.com/project innovation. >>> back to our weather mess. let's check in with doug and amelia, they're tracking conditions from storm center 4. >> it doesn't get sasurier. thishe weather that as a meteorologist, it's one, hard to forecast, and two,tee i do.

upon receipt of the race data, the general assembly enacted gislation that restricted, unalienable rights, that restricted voting and registration in five different ways. all of which disproportionately affected african-americans. they went on to sarkse this is the fourth circuit, i didn't say this, the federal court said it. said their response to claims that intentional racial discrimination animated its action, the state offered only meager justifications. although the new provisions target -- this is what the court said. although the new provisions target african-americans with almost surgical precision. they constitute inept remedies for the problems assertively justifying them and in fact impose cures for problems that did not even exist. they went on to say, thus, the asserted justifications cannot and do not fulfill the state's true motivation, end of quote. the reason why that quote means so much to me is that one year ago today on my mother's dying bed, 92 years old, former sharecropper, her last words were do not let them take our otes away from us. they had seen people harmed,