this is finals week in the l.a. unified school district. l.a. unified does not mean all the schools in what you would think would be that umbrella. there are certain communities like beverly hills, like burbank, like glendale that are not part of it. parochial schools were not at first a part of it. and from local media, we are understanding that many of them are choosing to go along with this and either send their students home or not open at all. as you see there are 640,000 students, k through 12, affected by this. this includes 187 public charter schools in the los angeles area. we have live pictures coming in and what appears to be a police roll call going on in the middle of a parking lot. we are joined on the telephone by member of congress brad sherman from california. he serves the san fernando valley area of southern california and congressman, what were you told and when were you told it? >> well, i have been in touch with various people involved in this at l.a. usd. i woke to find out that the schools would be closed and i have been

but l.a. usd, on the other hand, sees just enough in here of local references, it really got their attention. >> it did, yet there are clearly parts of the e-mail that are false. the writer claims to be a devout muslim. i might use the term extremist muslim. but the from line on the e-mail which i won't disclose but it contains a pornographic reference to a body part. that's not something that either the extremist or devout muslims would tend to do. the word allah is not capitalized in one circumstance. there are other typos in the e-mail but this is a place where you would expect a devout muslim to be careful. and there's certainly nothing in the e-mail that indicates that the author has any understanding of islam, no references to the koran, no allusions to events in the life of mohammad. another part that doesn't seem credible is that he claims that he has 32 accomplices and that he has nerve agent. there other parts of this e-mail that turn out to be accurate and that's why an abundance of

l.a. public schools shut down the entire school system right before school was to begin after receiving a threatening e-mail. sources say they deem the threat not to be credible >> decision making is a balancing act. the superintendant made this decision because of a credible threat. they evacuated the public and charter schools, calling it a credible threat of violence. a school board member received an e-mail from frankfurt, germany. the author claimed to be a muslim that teamed up with local jihadiist. we don't know if it is true. but the decision making is about to come under scrutiny. the new york city schools got the same one and said it was not real. and jihadiist using the name allah used a lower case a. they were contacted and said it was not credible. the congressman released the statement. we don't know if the e-mail is from a muslim or nonmuslim with an agenda. it is wide ranging specifics eñ it does not demonstrate that the author studied islam or understanding islam. that wil

l.a. unified school district says the schools will open when they are satisfied they are completely safe. l.a. police chief charlie beck said the threat in the email late last night was specific to all campuses in the l.a. school district. the imply threat involved explosives devices. a specific threat was shooting attack with the use of assault rifles and machine pistols as a result. we know 900 public schools, over 1000 if you include charter schools were closed. 640,000 students told to stay home. some of the students already had gone to school and had to be taken home after this announcement was made. they say the email to the l.a. school district came from an i.p. address that wept back to frankfurt, germany, but the police chief says he believes the origin was much closer and not in europe. as david just mentioned the new york superintendent of schools also received a very similar email. however, it was dismissed as a hoax. and that is exactly what new york police commissioner bill b

now the "l.a. times" is right now reporting that the threat involved backpacks and packages left at campuses. nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins me. we also have nbc's joe fryar who's in los angeles. pete, start with you here. obviously we heard the superintendent reference city police, local police. one would ask is the department of homeland security involved in this? would this require some federal involvement if the threat would require the closing of all public schools in los angeles. >> no, not necessarily. schools of course are notoriously among the most local of all government entities in america. they will undoubtedly ask for the fbi's help in trying to figure out where this communication came from. we understand it was an e-mail sent to a specific school board member. and it was the nature of the threat in the e-mail -- which we're not going to go into too much detail with our reporting for reaps i think are obvious. we don't want to encourage copycats here. but the fact that

now l.a. school districts get threats onning -- occasionally, but this one is considered a rare threat, so the school district is closed. as to the feeling in l.a. i wouldn't say it's any more than any other place in terms of fear of terrorism, but it is something that everybody is aware of, and something that everyone is keeping their eyes open. and if law enforcement says it is that specific, and the school district says it is that specific, they are going to do everything they can to keep everyone protected. >> dena thank you so much. we should also mention again that this was a specific threat against the l.a. unified school district. >> let's go now to bernard parks the former los angeles police chief. thanks for being with us. are your sources telling you something that we have not already heard? >> no, i think this is so recent that there -- generally, things are basically being dealt with as we speak, and so i think the things that probably are not made public, it's just how specific t

"the l.a. times" reports the threat involved explosive devices, pressure cookers, assault rifles, pistols. the person claimed to be a muslim extremiisextremist. they've been investigating this since 10:00 last night. can you confirm those things? >> i can confirm everything except the exact hour when they started investigating. >> you've read the e-mail. it's been characterized to us as one by the new york city police department as one that shows no knowledge of islam and no specifics that would lead people to believe this was an islamic extremist. from what you've read, what was your conclusion? >> well, there's no knowledge of islam reflected as there is in most isis and al qaeda pronouncements. it does use the word, allah, several times. in one case, not capitalizing the word allah. so you would expect that an extremist muslim or devout muslim would make that -- would be careful as they type the word allah. perhaps the most telling thing is that it's from a particular address and that addres

>> armstrong is betting south l.a. residents will want his version of fast food. >> show me something you could make in this restaurant that is affordable and something at home could make. >> i'll show you a simple kale salad that we did. all the greens we buy from the south central co-op, they supply us with you're kale, the collard greens we use. >> if only one available to south l.a. residents, 30% who live below the federal poverty level. >> what would this cost me to make? >> $2. >> so very affordable. anybody could make it. >> it's fresh ingredients, we massage the kale a little bit with the dressing, that breaks it down a little, makes it easier to digest. >> everything and everyone need to be pampered even the kale. >> he whips it up in less time than you would be in a drive-through. >> this tastes delicious. regardless of the taste, south l.a. residents ready to trade a whropper for a kale salad? >> you don't see a lot of people who are willing to put prom gran ats and kale together to make a salad. >> maybe.

l.a. didn't. if l.a.t acted and shut down the schools, is it likely that we would have heard about the credible -- would have heart about the threat in new york? would that have been kept quiet because it was deemed not credible? >> no. i you this we would have heard about it and i think l.a. -- you know, given what happened in san bernadino, and given the trauma they are going through right now, i have no objection to what they did. what you said before is absolutely correct. err on the side of safety. when you gain more expertise with this, you can make more sort of informed choices but i made a couple of times i made choices not to protect things and i just prayed that i was right that i was getting the right information from the police department. because god forbid you say no and a child gets killed, that's going to live wu the rest of your life. >> i have no problem with what l.a. did today. >> and it sure is a lot hindsight. that's the problem with this business. >> the pad people here are not the

they made a tough one in l.a. and an equally tough one in new york. >> i was disconcerted when i would hear some officials in l.a. today, this was a local decision, you know, we didn't necessarily -- it wasn't mandatory to deal with the federal officials. i guess why wasn't there more interaction with federal officials there, and should there have within? and your role on the homeland security committee, what do you want to look at in how this went down? >> well, i think one of the things that is beginning to ramp up and i think it's one of the things that hillary clinton is stressing in her campaign, we've got to amp up our capability here at home to go across agencies, to share information more efficiently, especially counterterrorism centers information. especially the work of the fbi and the intelligence community. this needs to be seamless. and it's true, the fbi doesn't respond to 911 calls, but they've got to be on speed dial, and the people who have the knowledge and the ability to find out immediately if

obvious obviously, l.a. is taking this very seriously, and bill bratton saying that it appears that the l.a. school officials were not coordinating with the school officials in the issuing of the closure, and e expected to hear from more officials from l.a. within the next hour and it is interesting to see what they have to say and whether they were simply proactive or as you mentioned, ashleigh, trying to get notice to parents immediately before they were able to take the students to work. >> yeah, you move quickly when it come ts to the kids. and we will hopefully get the answers boris sanchez, and evan perez and jonathan gilliam. i want to make note of the time, 12:33 eastern time, and we expect that the white house is going to go up live. it is usually a press briefing everyday, and it is standard operating procedure, but today, more than likely that podium is going to be peppered with a flurry of questions about what is happening, and not only in the l.a. unified school district thho over a terrorist th

and what is l.a.? l.a. filipino, vietnamese, thai, samoan, bangladeshi. everybody has left their mark, continues to shape the town, determine its character. k-town exists upside its latino neighbors and i guess it's natural that both choe and choi identity very much with mexican street culture. few things embody that particularly southern california latino street culture more than low riding. ♪ esteban is a photographer, chronicler of everything iconic at the crossroads of hip-hop, design, tattooing, fashion and low-riding. >> the old-timers, they used to cut the coils or put sandbags in their truck to make them lower. then around the '70s is when they got popular. >> why these particular models of cars? >> it's pretty much always been late '50s all the way through the '60s and the '70s. then the '80s came, they started bringing in the cadillacs and the regals. the most classic well-known car for low riding is probably the '64 impala. >> how many korean low riders are there? >> there's a few asian ones spri

in a normal circumstance, what happened in l.a.eing the only event that we are reporting on today, mr. bill bratton said nothing in new york. the same threat received here. that would have been the headline. the schoolchildren not allowed back in the school until the all clear was given. they clearly had heard what bratton had said it were focused on that. the superintendent starting out. the police chief charlie beck and others. yes, they were supportive of their superintendent. it was his decision. he has made this hall. it is different here in new york. bloomberg file for years. giuliani started this when he was the mayor. they have control of the school system. this woman named carly fiore not, we barely heard from her today. by the way, it used to be the school chancellor. back in the 90s. >> amazing. things calming down a bit. a lot of back and forth on this. i have former police chief with us right now. what do you make of this? >> what has happened is l.a. was driven by the school district. it may have been a little prematu

what they did in l.a. who's right? >> i know that there is a division in new york city police department that really studies this carefully and knows how to go through it and determine right off the bat whether or not it's a hoax or real. i spoke with john miller who runs the new york terrorism unit and they received this same thing at 7:00 a.m. this morning. they did an analysis on this and realized that in fact, it was a hoax. so, for nypd at least, going through the police department and the terrorism unit, they decided we're going to leave the schools open and they were going to go ahead and investigate this and see who was responsible for it. >> so, it begs the question, bob, do we have any sort of comingling of information between the two largest cities in the united states of america. if they knew that, do they have any sort of alerts they send out, hey f you receive this kind of an e-mail with a lower case a, it's a hoke. >> well, i think remember, bratton and miller set up the terrorism unit in los angeles. ye

l.a. school children immobilized today will head back to school tomorrow. >> the fbi has determined this is not a credible threat. something we couldn't have announced earlier in the day. >> reporter: the mayor stands by the superintendent's decision to close school for 650,000 children today after receiving an e-mail with bomb threats. new york got a similar e-mail from the same i.p. address, but made a different decision. l.a. overreacted. >> it is not something we are concerned with. what we would be concerned with is overreacting to it. we'll stay aware and stay involved. at all costs, cannot overreact. >> reporter: the writer claimed to be a high school student who was bullied with assault rifles and pistols. officials in l.a. defended the superintendent's decision saying they didn't know about the other e-mails. >> i think it's clear the information is quite different from theirs. >> reporter: the mayor said he did consult the school board. investigators did not make a recommendation

there are 640,000 students in l.a. unified schools, as well as adult education students, so you can just imagine what it will take to search all of the buildings needed to accommodate those people. he cited recent violent events near and far from l.a. for closing down the schools. >> i think the circumstances in neighboring san bernardino, i think what has happened in the nation, i think what happened internationally, i as superintendent am not going to take the chance with a life of a student. remember, we do get individual threats. we do evacuate schools. we do lockdown schools, et cetera, and do not release students until we notify parents. so what we were doing today is no different than what we always do, except that we are doing this in a mass way. >> he says the school district is working to notify all parents and officials asked everyone to work together. >> we need the cooperation of the whole of los angeles today. we need families and neighbors to work together with our schools and with our employees to make

l.a.'s ambitious plan to end homelessness among veterans. >> reporter: 57-year old lendell seay proudly shows off his tidy one-bedroom apartment, which overlooks the 5 freeway in east los angeles. the unit's bathroom is so big, he keeps his bike in it, and there's plenty of room for his collection of hats, many of which tout his military service. >> my primary job was in motor t, transportation. >> reporter: seay served in the marines for more than 21 years, including desert storm in iraq, before retiring in 1998. but despite his successful military career, after his fiancÉ passed away from a stroke in 2004, seay found himself in a downward spiral. >> and-- that's when the drinkin' and everything really, really kicked in. >> reporter: for you? >> yes. and i just-- just fell apart and lost everything. >> reporter: so you found yourself where? >> i found myself in the-- in the streets around culver city and santa monica. >> reporter: from one day to the next, you were homeless? >> yes. >> rep

in l.a. they have the experience of the mass shooting in san bernardino but this issue of bomb tlets and e-mail threats around public schools is really becoming a huge problem. it's going on all the time. and it's a constant challenge to school administrators. >> pete, what's so interesting today is you have one police department seeming to criticize another. bill bratton, superintendent of the new york police department saying, today, quote, i think it was a significant overreaction. speaking about his counterparts where he used to work, by the way, in los angeles. it is rare, isn't it, for someone to criticize someone else's decision? >> yes. i think it is. perhaps not rare for new yorkers to criticize others. >> maybe not for new yorkers. >> but, yes, it is. you're right, it is. but i think that was my guess is that was his way of trying to calm people in new york down and say why it is that they reached the decision that they reached. perhaps now they think there was a little excessive ex

he is the superintendent of l.a.ool district ramon cortines and it appears on early information, it was his call to shut down the schools in the l.a. unified district. let's listen to the police chief in los angeles, charlie beck. >> our best advice on moving forward. we were able to do that. the sprpuperintendent made a decision and we support his decision, as does the mayor. i would say this to people that are critical. it is very easy in hindsight to criticize the decision based on results that the decider could never have known. its is also very easy to criticize a decision when you no responsibility for the outcome of that decision. the school district safeguards three quarters of a million lives every day. when they make a decision, they have to take into account the safety of the children of los angeles. i think it's irresponsible to, based on facts that have yet to be determined, to criticize that decision at this point. all of us make tough choices. all of us have the same goal in mind. we want to keep our k

so the l.a.was on you now.com. >> i got a phone call from a representative of pepsi saying that they're going to be sending a team of people here and that i should expect to have a crystal pepsi. >> oh, man. >> this is his holy grail. he's been working on bringing crystal pepsi back for months. >> he's been working on this. the commercial just landed. 92. what could that mean? >> 1992. >> no. >> he's going back to the future. >> hey, frank. we're finally ready to relaunch crystal pepsi. >> crystal pepsi. i thought they shut that division down decades ago. >> we never shut down. >> what? >> ladies and gentlemen, crystal pepsi is coming back. in fact, he's already got it in his hands. there's a picture right here. boom. there is the l.a. beast himself with some crystal pepsi. and it's all to do with an app that's called pepsi past. you install it and basically what's going on is you connect it to your facebook. if you hang around with other people with the app, you start getting points. if you do a

threats to new york and l.a. trigger the sudden closure of hundreds of southern california schools now being called a hoax. did l.a. officials overreact? is this the new normal after san bernardino? >>> fight night in vegas. trump versus cruz. cruz versus rubio. and fireworks on the strip, as national security takes center stage. cancer. a new device that's prolonging lives. doctors calling it the most promising treatment for brain tumors in years. >>> weather whiplash. record snow in the record heat in the east. businesses hit hard. >>> and a major lawsuit over a hugely popular line of hair care products endorsed by celebrities, now hundreds of women say it severely damaged right now. >>> good evening, i'm kate snow. in for lester tonight. it's being called unprecedented, the massive shutdown of the second largest school district in the nation because of a credible serious threat of a large scale attack, or so it was first described. over 900 schools closed, searched room by room. hundreds of thousands of studen

. >> i don't have the l.a.ber. i told you it's about 115 plus just school threats in new york city. >> do we have an l.a. number comparable to that? >> no. one of the things that they did, i don't know if you recall that there was a spate of celebrity cases where people would call up and say that there was someone being held hostage at a celebrity's house or a shooting. and then s.w.a.t. teams would show up. well, one of the things that the lapd did and other law enforcement agencies have followed suit was to not publicize those cases. so in cases of bomb threats, unless it's a lot of people showing up, and then the news kind of follows that, they tend not to publicize those cases. in fact, one of the schools in manhattan beach, mira costa high school this week had three bomb threats. the last one, they closed schools. >> andrew and jonathan, thank you both for joining me today. really appreciate it. coming up, hillary clinton has an answer to ted cruz's carpet bombing plan. if yand you're talking toevere rheum

this move comes as the l.a. area is reeling with the aftermath of a deadly terror attack in san bernardino, california. former california governor gray davis getting in the chair, joining us exclusively to discuss the threat of terror and today's false alarm and what it means for the future. >>> terror no doubt on the agenda in the presidential debate in las vegas. senator ted cruz prepares to defend himself which weakens the nsa's former data collection program. the host states handicap the action in vegas. >>> the recent terror attacks in paris, san bernardino and elsewhere opening up a reluctant but new market. terrorism insurance. how does it work when the enemy is overseas and hidden among us? insurance industry legend hank greenberg with us exclusively live. >>> and the federal reserve now two hours into the most highly anticipated rate decision meeting in more than a decade. are the markets rallying for race? the dow jones industrials jumping 203 points right this hour, climbing as we speak. less than 24

l.a. police chief charlie beck said it might be a hoax and didn't want to take any chances. >> southern california has been through a lot in the recent weeks. should we risk putting our children through the same? reporter: that e-mail appeared to originate from germany. they suspect the origin >>> thank you, tim. the situation in los angeles and new york leading to questions about safety. marty walsh and police commissioner addressing concerns today. dan hausle continues our team coverage now. reporter: boston schools not named in the threat from new york to l.a. but boston was the target of a cyber attack today. city officials say the two aren't connected though and they say the schools are safe. boston school children head home after a full day of classes here. many parents aware of the threat in new york and l.a. >> it concerns me. >> boston schools stayed open. mayor walsh says there was never any threat to schools here. >> we have no reason to believe there's a threat towards boston,

more on the l.a. school shut down and the search of all l.a. schools after a credible threat.> this is a rare threat. we get threats all the time. >> why is this one, go ahead. i am just curious about this one in particular got this kind of response. >> the circumstances and the neighboring san bernardino. what has happened in the nation. what happened internationally. i, as superintendent, am not going to take the chance with the life of a student. remember, we do get individual threats. we do you back you a schools. we do lock down schools. we do not release students until we notify parents. what we are doing today is no different than what we always do except we are doing this in a mask way. >> all l.a. schools closed. 900 of them. all of them will be searched. 640,000 youngsters sent home. ashley: the associated press saying that this particular threat was e-mailed to a school board member and appeared to come from overseas. that may have given it a little bit more attention. the superintendent said that they get threats all the time. >> local media is calling this a credi

this is a big action on part of the l.a.ool district to completely shut down based on what we know of, at least one bomb threat. that affect you guys? you want tourists to come to new york and people say new york will be a big target. >> the world is a big target. we're seeing terrorism around the world. nobody is immune. it is the number one pressing issue facing our society. how do we create safe environments. new york city is the safest city in america. it is very safe. nowink people more often will look at if they travel or where they live, they will look at places that have a plan or program to protect us. , i have beenis talking about this on your show for several years, it is a class of civilizations and what i call an octagon of hate. there are so many countries and continents effected -- affected. even what we heard today about the school system, you have to stop and think about the sick mental thought pattern that goes on in the mind of somebody that wants to target young children. but from an economic perspective,

the l.a. schools chief made the decision and who officials say recommended against closing the schools. but there was a unanimous view about how serious the decision was. >> these are very high stakes. you know, we're not making a decision about the color of a car or where we're going to eat for dinner here. these are -- this is the safety of our children. there is no more important decision. >> reporter: how to respond in an era of terrorism, and when schools have been the scenes of mass shootings, has become a huge challenge. >> schools are experiencing threats locally, from students, non-students, as well as s.w.a.t.-ing threats that send shock waves of panic throughout schools. >> reporter: investigators say syed farook might have been considering attraction on schools. tonight the fbi is trying to figure out who sent the threats. they've been sent to an e-mail service provider in the u.s. that's been popular >> pete williams in washington tonight, thank you. >>> the candidates face off to

l.a. had two completely different reactions to two nearly identical threats? >> there was nothing credible about the threat. >> and back to baltimore. what today's deadlocked jury means for the first trial in the freddie gray case. "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. the fifth republican presidential debate. the final gop debate of the year is set to begin in about an hour at the venetian hotel in las vegas. there will be nine candidates on stage, front runner donald trump at center stage. four additional candidates participated in a separate debate earlier in the evening. outside, protesters amassed early in the day with signs opposing hateful rhetoric. inside, the candidates and the media prepare for the first gop debate since the terrorist attacks in paris and san bernardino that have at least as of now reshaped the presidential race. in a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll -- 40% of americans say national security should be the top priority for

take a listen to the l.a.. >> we are here because our first job is tone sure that people are safe in the city. it is very easy for people to jump to conclusions and been around long enough to know that what people think in the first few hours is not how it plays out in later hours. we see investigations unfold sometimes for a series of days. but decisions need to be made in a matter of minutes. >> now the new york mayor diblasio saying they received a similar threat but they found their threat to be uncredible. a senior law enforcement official told nbc news that it was a bad decision to shut down the school system here in los angeles and we told them not to do it. now earlier today here at walter reed junior high school in north hollywood, police walked in through the front door. other than that police investigation checking out the situation here, the school has been pretty much deserted. now the term abundance of caution has been used throughout the day to day by pretty much everyone involved in the decisio

threats to new york and l.a.rigger the sudden closure of hundreds of southern california schools now being called a hoax. did l.a. officials overreact? is this the new normal after san bernardino? >>> fight night in vegas. trump versus cruz. cruz versus rubio. and fireworks on the strip, as national security takes center stage. >>> targeting brain cancer. a new device that's prolonging lives. doctors calling it the most promising treatment for brain tumors in years. >>> weather whiplash. record snow in the west. record heat in the east. businesses hit hard. >>> and a major lawsuit over a hugely popular line of hair care products endorsed by celebrities, now hundreds of women say it severely damaged their hair.

the threat came less than two weeks after the attack in san bernardino less than 60 miles critics of l.a. include the city's former police chief, who now heads the new york city police department and had a very different response to a similar threat today. here's jeff pegues. >> reporter: the e-mail to members of the los angeles school board was long and rambling. it was sent last night and threatened an attack with assault rifles on every school with bombs hidden in backpacks in lockers. the writer claimed he was part of a cell of 32 comrades willing to die, and "there is nothing you can do to stop it." new york city received a similar e-mail threat, but unlike los angeles, kept its schools open. police commissioner bill bratton said the threat was a hoax. >> the language in the e-mail would lead us to believe that this is not a jihadist initiative, for example, that allah was not spelled with a capital "a." that would be incredible to "a." it is not something that we are concerned with. what we would be concerned with is over-reacting to it. >> reporter: los angeles police chief charli

while acknowledging a hoax was possible, l.a. police chief charlie beck said the threat was very specific, and warned against being too critical. (chief charlie beck, los angeles police) southern california has been through a lot in the recent weeks. should we risk putting our children through the same? i'm steve nannes reporting.> ((dave courvoisier)) > if a similar threat were made here, clark county district officials say they have a plan in place. ((denise valdez)) but just like in l.a., searching every school than 320- thousand students would be a monumental job. paul joncich talked to school officials about how they would do it: ((paul joncich)) > just think about the logistics. l.a. has about 900 schools....in a pretty dense area. there 336 schools in the clark county school district, but they are spaced out over an incredibly large area, 79- hundred square miles. ((paul joncich)) closing and searching all those campuses is too big of a job for ccsd police. so they would bring in additional law enforcement agencies. accord

l.a. school system closing due to a security threat. our sharon eperson has the latest over at hq. sharon. >> yes, carl. we are looking at the nation's largest second largest school system here. the los angeles unified sool system cancelling classes after receiving what it called a "credible threat to students' safety." the threat was received in an e-mail message. it was broadly targeted at many schools. not just one or two locations. l.a. school police chief speaking at a news conference today explained where the school district took this action. >> in an abundance of caution as superintendent cortinaz has indicated, we have chosen to close our schools today until we can be absolutely sure that our campuses are safe. >> now, police and school officials plan to search schools and continue to evaluate the threat. the school has more than 640,000 students. we're talking about 900 schools that cover some 720 square miles. it is the second largest school district in the nation. parents have b