it is just crossing we just wrangled pete williams to phone in with the live we port to explain this. it is breaking from the justice department tonight, it concerns isis. we're getting pete now, we'll be back in just a second, please stay with us. ♪ there's confidence. then there's trusting your vehicle maintenance to ford service confidence. our expertise, technology, and high quality parts mean your peace of mind. now you can get the works, a multi-point inspection with a synthetic blend oil change tire rotation, brake inspection and more. $29.95 or less. winter is hard on your face. the start of sneeze season. and the wind-blown watery eyes. that's why puffs plus lotion is gentle on sensitive skin. so you can always put your best face forward. a face in need deserves puffs indeed. and try puffs softpack today. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours, but aleve can last 12 hours... and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? aleve, proven better on pain. >>> so as promised there breaking news tonigh

it is just crossing, we just wrangled pete williams to phone in with the live we port to explain this is breaking from the justice department tonight, it concerns isis. we're getting pete now, we'll be back in just a second, please stay with us. [ narrator ] mama sherman and the legion of super fans. wow! [ narrator ] on a mission to get richard to his campbell's chunky soup. it's new chunky beer-n-cheese with beef and bacon soup. i love it. and mama loves you. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i love my meta health bars. because when nutritious tastes this delicious i don't miss the other stuff. meta health bars help promote heart health. experience the meta effect with our multi-health wellness line. ♪ ♪ >>> so as promised there breaking news tonight. the justice department has charged six individuals living in the united states with providing material support to the isis terrorist group. five of the individuals apparently have been arrested, and a sixth is believed to be at large. this is just in, breaking news, here to help me understand this is pete williams. thank you for joining us, what is going on wit

pete williams, nbc news washington. >> turning office where isis has spread its wave of terror to a new front libya. releasing a chilling video of christians executed in a mass beheading. now isis is threatening to go even further. we get more from our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell. >> reporter: 21 coptic christians marched along the waterfront before being beheaded. among thousands of egyptian migrants unable to find houses. egypt scrambled f-16s to retaliate. the first time it's taken military action against the terror group. back home in their impoverished village, calling isis bumpers, monsters. and the horror galvanized protesters in cairo as italy, the last western power in tripoli evacuated its citizens. and pope francis mourned the latest victims. he said their only words were jesus, help me. they were killed simply for the fact they were christians. but in libya now gripped by civil war, isis is taking root. >> there's only one message that comes from them, which is convert to our ways, do things our ways or we're going to kill you. >> reporter: the threa

let's get the very latest from pete williams. what do we know about these two men, pete? >> reporter: well three in all, two who planned to fly to syria the fbi said, that they bought airline tickets, one arrested at kennedy airport on a flight -- trying to board a flight to turkey that the fbi said would take him to syria. another had a ticket to go in just a couple of weeks. it appears the fbi -- these are the three people who are arrested. the one at the top, the 24-year-old, the fbi said it appears that they got on to him first because federal agents say he posted a message on a islamic sympathetic jihadist website in the uzbekhi language why which he talked about trying to go to syria to support isis and if he couldn't get there he would do anything, if ordered to do so including killing the president. the fbi talked to him and kept talking to him and put him under surveillance. he was not too concerned because according to court documents, just a few weeks later he was in communication with the person who ran an islamic -- or an isis rather, website overseas and the

. >>> we'll speak with nbc justice correspondent pete williams in our next half hour.he fbi is addressing these types of breaches and what they're doing to prevent hacks. >>> the lincoln memorial's reflecting pool going to go dry. it's a good thing though. the national park service is in the process of draining it for its annual cleaning and maintenance. the work will take 30 to 60 days. >>> the pope's first visit to the u.s. will also be a first for lawmakers up on capitol hill. today house speaker john boehner confirmed pope francis will be the first leader of the holy see to address a joint meeting of congress. that visit is scheduled for september 24th. pope francis will also stop in philadelphia and new york during his fall trip. today pope francis made a virtual appearance in several countries, and he called himself a dinosaur when it comes to using technology. that comment came during a google hangout chat. yeah he does those now too. he answered questions from kids with special needs living in brazil india, spain and here in the u.s. the children showed the pop

nbc justice correspondent pete williams has reported on civil rights issues for years. introduced as the doma slayer. pete, explain the legal standards. does the current federal ruling appear to compel these federal probate judges or just allow them to issue the marriage licenses? >> the latest wrinkle is there will be a hearing tomorrow on that very question. this is the summons that's been issued. look closely at it. it's directed to one of the probate judges in mobile county. it says a lawsuit has been filed against you. so this is the latest tactic that the lawyers for the same-sex couples are using to try to settle this question. here is the legal point. the judge herself, who ordered the state to stop its ban on same-sex marriage the judge herself said in a clarifying ruling, it's true my ruling does not directly compel the probate judges to do anything. they're in the judicial branch. her ruling was addressed to the executive branch specifically the attorney general. the point being, however, is that while ray moore, the alabama supreme court justice that you're l

pete williams in our d.c. newsroom tonight. pete, thanks. >>> for the first time today federal investigators were able to meet with the engineer of that commuter train that crashed into an suv north of new york city tuesday night. despite being stationed at the front of the train car, he survived this accident in which six people were killed including the driver of that suv, a 49-year-old mother of three. nbc's tom costello is at the medical center where the injured are being treated tonight. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. we've got an unrelated medevac chopper coming in for a landing, but on the train accident we have five patients still here at the hospital one of them in critical condition. meanwhile, witnesses have told the ntsb that seconds before the arm came down on ellen brody's car, traffic was inching, inching through the railroad intersection, the crossing. working through the bitter cold, salvage crews were able to clear and repair the tracks of the burned-out metro north train. the blackened remains take

he pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge and could face up to 15 years in prison. >> pete williams in washington. of course the world has witnessed the evil and savagery of isis regarding absolutely no regard for human life or civilization. but now the terror group is showing little respect to human history. destroying irreplaceable artifacts a lot like the taliban did before 9/11 and they are doing it all across the middle east. nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent richard engel brings us more. >> reporter: add cultural genocide to isis's growing list of crimes. the group which has killed terrorized and uprooted hundreds of thousands of people in iraq and syria is now destroying their heritage too. we were ordered by our prophet to take down false idols and destroy them said this isis member in a video released by the group which includes music and slow motion sequences then the men go to work. ran sacking mosul's museum and nearby nearby archeaology site. >> see these pieces being smashed like that is heartbreaking. >> reporter: this archeaologist has worked in and studied the

lester. >> pete williams tonight, thanks. >>> german chancellor angela merkel visited the white house today to push for more time to reach a deal to ease tensions between ukraine and russia. president obama's under pressure from republicans and some democrats in congress to provide military assistance to ukraine. while he publicly backed diplomatic avenues, the president did hold on to the prospect of sending arms. >>> days after isis told the world that american hostage kayla mueller was killed in a jordanian air strike, the terrorist group has offered her family and her country no proof of its claims. what it has offered is yet another propaganda video featuring yet another hostage under duress. the report tonight from our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. >> reporter: kayla mueller's home town of prescott arizona, is closing ranks around her family. >> these are our kids. kayla is, you know, our young person. >> reporter: her parents' vigil continues waiting for her captors to answer their latest appeal three days ago. so far silence. nothing since isis claimed k

we have the latest with pete williams. >> prosecutors say this is a part of an alarming trend, people in the u.s. that are radicalized by social media and are willing to join with isis fighters over seas or to the stay here and commit acts of jihad. at new york's kennedy airport, agents arrested a brooklyn man that was headed overseas to join isis fighters. authorities say if the henmen could not get there, they were talking about staging attacks, perhaps planting a bomb in coney island or tri-ing to on kill the president or the police. >> it was made clear that if they were not able to go that they would seek to acquire weapons here handguns machine guns, and seek to attack very specifically police officers. >> the fbi said that the case began last august when juraboev asked on a uzbek website if he could shoot obama to strike fear in the hearts of infadels he admitted to fbi agents in august and kept on planning. he e-mailed a isis supporter saying i need to sneak out of here with caution. he was under close watch meeting with someone he did not know was undercover. >> they make us

we have the latest with pete williams. >> prosecutors say this is a part of an alarming trend, peoplet are radicalized by social media and are willing to join with isis fighters over seas or to the stay here and commit acts of jihad. at new york's kennedy airport, agents arrested a brooklyn man that was headed overseas to join isis fighters. authorities say if the henmen could not get there, they were talking about staging attacks, p

nbc's pete williams thanks so much. you bet. >>> three al jazeera jou arrested with a drone in a paris park today could be held for 24 hours. al jazee tweeted its journas were filming a report o recent mystery drones. on monday and tuesday nights drones were spotted over major paris landmarks, including the eiffel and the u.s. embassy. the mysterious flights have baffled pole and heightened tension in the city struggling to come to terms after last month's terror attacks. >>> there's a new effort to protect the u. from cyber attacks. toy the white house announced the formation of a cyber threat intell integration center. its goal is to connect the dots between hac attacks overseas incidents that affect u.s. interest. the center will adhere to all polici and laws to protect privacy and civil liberties. >>> a new coating of snow tomorr morning is bad news for some neighborhoods. untreated roads and sidewalks are provi a challenge for pedests a tra collecto. kristi joins us with i a look at the frustrating conditio out the

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams with what they were allegedly willing to do. >> reporter: at new york's kennedy airport fbi agents arrest add brooklyn man they said was headed overseas to join isis fighters. they accuse him of plotting with another brooklyn man to get to syria through turkey. authorities say if the men couldn't get there, they talked of staging attacks here. perhaps planting a bomb at coney island or even trying to kill president obama or the police. >> it was made quite plain, based on their own statements that if they were not able to go that they would seek to acquire weapons here handguns machine guns and seek to attack very specifically police officers. >> reporter: the fbi says the case began last august when he asked on a uzbeki website if he would be a martyr if he would shoot obama to strike fear in the hearts of infidels. investigators say even after he admitted posting that message when fbi agents questioned him in august he kept right on planning. the fbi said he e-mailed an isis supporter overseas about his parents saying i need to sneak out of h

we get our report tonight from our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: gay marriage came today to the heart of the deep south. same-sex couples began getting licenses in alabama after a federal judge two weeks ago struck down a state ban on gay marriage there. justices ant anyone scalia and judge clarence thomas said today the supreme court should have granted alabama's request to put that ruling on hold out of respect for the state until the court rules on gay marriage nationwide in a few months. the failure to grant alabama's request thomas said may well be seen as a signal the court's intended resolution of that question of gay marriage nationwide. roughly two-thirds of alabama counties today refused to grant the marriage licenses. >> i'm sorry. >> reporter: after roy moore, chief justice of the alabama supreme court, urged local officials to ignore the federal court ruling. in 2003 he defied a federal court order to remove a ten commandments monument from the state supreme court building. he was removed from office but re-elected three years ago. the supreme court tak

for those reasons they say it goes too far. >> pete williams thanks as always. do appreciate your time. meanwhile, winter won't stop. five states are under states of emergency today after a rare snowstorm struck the south, hundreds of thousands are without power right now in tennessee, in georgia and the carolinas. >> wow, storm even led to that close call you see there. that was a very close call for a news crew covering the snow in virginia. today in washington, d.c. winter's wickedness shut down federal offices but led to a really cool snowball fight. dylan dreyer with more from our frozen capital. >> reporter: washington, d.c. has seen one of the biggest snowstorms we've had so far this season. there's four inches on the ground and that is enough to shut down schools for today and federal offices, the crews want to get people off the streets to get things back up and running as quickly as possible. as you know, this is part of a bigger storm system. this one affecting the south and hitting hard nashville, tennessee, this is the biggest ice storm they have se

we'll look at the question of the role of judges in this fight with the fabulous pete williams who hasthis case for us. pete, looking forward to it. natural gas producer... and we could soon become number one in oil. because hydraulic fracturing technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. supporting millions of new jobs. billions in tax revenue... and a new century of american energy security. the new energy superpower? it's red, white and blue. log on to learn more. there's only one egg that just tastes better. fresher. more flavorful. delicious. only one egg with better nutrition... like more vitamins d, e, and omega 3s. and 25% less saturated fat. only one egg good enough for my family. because why have ordinary when you can have the best. eggland's best. the only egg that gives you so much more: better taste. better nutrition. better eggs. hey matt, what's up? i'm just looking over the company bills. is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow, that

are pretty high then it's likely that other judges in alabama will begin to fall in place. >> pete williamseloping stories. thanks very much, pete. >> you bet. >> up next wisconsin governor scott walker brushes away questions on issues including evolution while overseas in london. >> for me i'm going to punt on that one as well. >> no. >> really? >> our first team says it exposes walker's weakness on foreign policy. nbc's senior political editor mark murray is up next and a new measles warning. tens of thousands of commuters in northern california are being told they have been exposed to the virus. it is one of the stories we are following around the "newsnation." ♪ ♪ detect hidden threats... ♪ ♪ see the whole picture... ♪ ♪ process critical information and put it in the hands of our defenders. reaching constantly evolving threats before they reach us. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. i don't know what hey, girl. is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now? it kinda is. it's as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. cue the horns... just harness t

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us now. pete, let's first talk about what's happening on the ground in alabama where you have the majority of probate judges refusing to give the licenses. >> right most judges that are refusing are in less populated parts of rural alabama. in big cities probate judges responsible for issuing marriage licenses in alabama are issuing them. lawyers for some same sex couples are going to the same federal judge who originally struck down the state's ban, and asking the judge to hold one of the probate judges in mobile county in contempt or find he is violating the order, order him to issue licenses. if the judge grants that then i think other judges will start to fall in line to realize that they do have to obey the federal court rulings. on the u.s. supreme court question, it was interesting to see this from justice thomas. he thought given the u.s. supreme court decided to hear this case in april, deciding in june, as matter of respect for the states he and justice psychological ee a thought the

i wish you the best of luck and i hope somebody finds you a tie. >> thank you so much pete williams, noted. >> over to missouri police are investigating a shooting spree that ended with nine people dead. a gunman went door to door in the small community of tyrone shooting and killing before turning the gun on himself. the gunman's body was found in a car. at this point there's little information on the victims or on the motive. we'll keep you posted on that. we've got some sad news to report out of hollywood. the associated press now reporting leonard nimoy who took us on a journey to the stars with william shatner in the sci-fi master "star trek" has died. the cause was end stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease according to his son. he's known as mr. spock on the tv show from '66 to '69. half alien, half human and an individual pension for living long and prospering. he was accompanied by that hand sign, the vulcan salute and we give that to him today. 83 years old and much loved. up next massive, is this elephant massive? or maybe you think the country of china is massive. tr

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us with this breaking story. pete? >> andrea good day. federal authorities arrested one of them at jfk airport this morning, who they say was going to fly to turkey and then try to get to syria. all three are charged with providing material support to a terror group or conspiracy to do it namely isis. this appears, andrea from our first look at the court documents that we've just obtained here is that the feds became aware of this in august of last year when one of the men, who's a 24-year-old resident of brooklyn a lawful permanent resident from uzbekistan, wrote on a website about his willingness to carry out terror attacks, including even shooting the president if he was ordered to do so. the fbi apparently interviewed him in august of last year and he said yes, if isil ordered him to shoot the president of the united states, he would do it. and he said apparently to the fbi, according to the court document, it wouldn't matter whether the order came from al baghdadi the head of ayeisis or anybody else in the organiz

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is here in new york with the answer to that question. all right, pete. let's break this down. the idea of designated as a hate crime, is it conceivable here and would it accomplish anything? >> well, without prejudging where the evidence will go it may or may not turn out to be a hate crime, it may or may not turn out to be kalea killed motivated by anti-religious or eight husband anti-muslim sentiment. if it is a hate crime, they do come up with that evidence the point here is it would not make much of a difference legally in north carolina. the suspect here is charged with first-degree murder. that north carolina is a state that has the death penalty. north carolina has a hate crime law, but it doesn't apply to situations like this. in other words it would not be if he were convicted, it would not be a factor that the jury would consider in deciding whether or not to seek the death penalty instead of life in prison. it's not what they call an aggravating factor. it wouldn't come into play. it could be a bit of evidence offered to the ju

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joining me right now is pete williams. seems so brazen, pete, what you read, stuff on social media, openly talking about what their plans were? >> very brazen. not clear how well-thought out it was or just sort of popping off something. they talked about putting a bomb on coney island, shooting police officers, shooting people at the fbi, shooting the president. they didn't have any guns. they didn't have any explosives. it's certainly very worrisome talk and, interestingly, chris, we assume that the fbi has a pretty good handle on people that are spouting off about these things in the u.s. but apparently what got this started was a post on a uzbeki language website which one of these men was asking for a dear abby jihad advice. he said, i'm in the u.s., i may not be able to get out of the country. if i were to kill the president here, would that constitute martyrism for me and would that qualify as jihad? when the fbi found out about this, they sent two agents to his house in brooklyn, to his apartment in brooklyn he said

nbc news correspondent pete williams is here. pete, it looked confusing in the morning. help us out. >> that's right. there are only about a third of these judges are actually issuing the marriage licenses after the state supreme court justice said they have to obey the alabama constitution. now, he's certainly right. they to. they also have to obey the federal constitution. and a couple of weeks ago, a federal judge says under the u.s. constitution, the state cannot ban same-sex marriages. already lawyers for same-sex couples tried to hold, get the federal court to hold those judges in contempt of court. the court said no, but did indicate that it's -- these judges who refuse to issue these licenses can now be sued. >> okay. so if you're ted olson right now or ted boutrous, are you pretty happy the direction this seems to be pointing where the court's headed this summer? >> yes. and for two reasons. first, the supreme court today declined the state of alabama's request to put a hold on that ruling until the supreme court decides this same-sex marriage question for the e

. >> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us from washington. so explain this decision. was the view on the merits of the president's executive orders or on some other tangential issue. >> not on the merits but this tangential issue that is important at the moment. the judge said he will decide later when the schedule will work out for the actual challenge to the law on constitutional or statutory grounds. but in the meantime he said he is blocking the government -- he is issuing an injunction blocking the government from enforcing it. that is the ruling that the administration said it will appeal. what the judge said here is if i don't block it and it is later found to be illegal, then all of the people will have come forward and getting the benefits and risk deportation because dhs will have all of their information. that is him expressing the view that some advocates have expressed. the judge said the government has gone beyond its statutory authority. it is one thing to not enforce the immigration laws and another thing to affirmatively give

nbc's pete williams in washington.bet. >>> up next, details on a massive $100 billion civilian bank tax scandal uncovered by a whistle-blower. >>> and the city of brotherly, home will be home to the 2016 democratic national convention. more ahead. ♪ ♪ the bold nissan rogue, with intuitive all-wheel drive. because winter needs a hero. now get 0% financing or up to $1,000 back on the 2015 nissan rogue. nissan. innovation that excites. push your enterprise and you can move the world. ♪ ♪ but to get from the old way to the new you'll need the right it infrastructure. from a partner who knows how to make your enterprise more agile, borderless and secure. hp helps business move on all the possibilities of today. and stay ready for everything that is still to come. how much money do you have in your pocket right now? i have $40 $21. could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for

nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins us with the latest. pete, let's dig deeper into the judge's decision here and what he said. >> the government defended this program saying it is a matter of in essence prosecutorial discretion. there's no way the government can deport send out, or find all of the 5 million or so people here illegally, so it is going to concentrate on the worst of the worst, will in essence let others stay. the judge says that goes beyond discretion. that is ab did i indication of the law, that's directly against congress' wishes. it would be one thing to simply turn your back on people here illegally, but the government goes much further he says and actually gives them benefits like social security numbers and work permits and that he says the government can't do. the judge also says that he is doing this granting this order now, blocking enforcement of the law, and it is well to remember he hasn't yet ruled on whether that law is constitutional or legal. all he is saying is that there's likelihood that the challengers wi

justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. there's plenty of precedent, especially in alabama, for this kind of defiance of the u.s. supreme court. tell me about the decision yesterday to allow same-sex marriages to proceed. there were two dissents and that's unusual. >> i think there really -- what's happening in alabama is they are defying the federal court order down there. the supreme court basically stayed out of this fight. but in doing so andrea you're right, they did appear to say, at least the two conservatives said the fight is over base he canally. they said by refusing to grant this request to put a stay on this issue until the supreme court resolved it in a matter of months, by refusing to do that that shows a lack of respect for the state. what's the rush they said. and justice thomas writing for the two dissenters said the court seems to signal that that's what it's going to do in june uphold this issue of marriage for same sex couples. you could well say if the court were going to stop marriage in june it would

pete williams joins me with details. tell us why this is so potentially serious?ite of what happened with target where it was credit card numbers that were taken. here there were no credit card data taken, apparently. and no medical information but what the hackers did get their hands on is names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, employment information, possibly even income data and you're right, those are the building blocks of identity theft. so the company is now in the process of trying to figure out precisely how many of these records were actually compromised. and then it's going to be in the process of e-mailing and writing a letter to all customers to let them know. it has put up a website that has sort of quick questions, these are the 16 states in which anthem operates including big ones, new york and california. and it has a website anthem facts.com in which the company president who says by the way that his personal information was apparently compromised. people can look and get some quick answers to

joined now by nbc news justice correspondent pete williams from d.c. always good to see you, sir.to the fifth circuit court of appeals, under the normal course what you would expect is the government would say, put this ruling on ice and let us put the order into effect. the state of texas and other people and other states that were involved in this lawsuit would respond and then the court would rule whether it would give an emergency ruling based solely on the govern's appeal we'll have to wait and see but it could be a matter of days. >> the first phase of this the application process, i understand was expected to start tomorrow. that's on hold now, correct? >> absolutely. the judge has put it on hold and said the government cannot enforce the executive order and that's why the government wants to move quickly on this. >> moving forward with the appeal pete is there -- is there precedent to suggest that the court -- the next court would side with the government or side with the

justice correspondent and supreme court wiseman pete williams is here with me. what do we expect from this hearing? >> it would be very surprising if this judge does not grant the request to order this probate judge in mobile county to grant the marriage licenses. it's the same judge who just recently a couple of weeks ago said the federal constitution bars the state of alabama from denying marriage licenses to these couples. she did say that she couldn't find judges in contempt of court because they weren't under her order. that's the whole point of today. the defendant is now the one -- one of the defendants in the case is this county court judge. he comes under her jurisdiction. i would be very surprised if she doesn't order him to grant licenses. the whole point here the judges in alabama don't have any choice here because it's the federal constitution that compels them to issue licenses and it's supreme court over the state constitution. >> there's another big story we're following today in the justice world, fbi director james comy doing something unusual,

justice correspondent and supreme court wiseman pete williams is here with me.

joining me from washington nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. what happens if this judge says no to the federal government's request. >> then they go to the court of appeals what they've asked the judge himself is to put a hold on his own ruling and what they say is first of all, judge, your ruling applies nationwide. it's just one state, even though 26 states sued the judge said one state had the right to sue and that was texas. so they say other states want this program to go forward. so at least limit your ruling just to texas. secondly, they say remember that texas argument here was that if this new policy went through and deportation was stayed for three years for this large number of people, texas would have to issue a whole bunch of new drivers licenses and that's where it got the right to sue here. the government says well that's texas's choice the way texas state law works. we the justice department don't think texas has to issue driver's licenses to these folks. for all of these reasons they ask the judge to put a hold on his own rulin

nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins me now.heir argument for the change of venue. they've already done jury selection so -- >> jury selection is in process now, chosen about 51 of the 70 jurors according to the latest reports from the court. andrea three times the trial judge has said no to a change of venue. the defense argues that there's been such saturation coverage that the entire city was victimized and that they say based on what the potential jurors are saying in questionnaires, there seems to be a majority who think he's guilty and nearly half who can't set that aside and make an impartial judgment. it didn't appear today they were going to get the change of venue. the court seemed to be 2-1 against it and there's nothing that happened today during the oral argument that would indicate it's anything but a 2-1 against. nonetheless, this is the furthest the defense lawyers have gotten in the previous times the trial judge and appeals court has turned them down solely based on written motions. at least today they got to m

let's get the very latest from pete williams. what do we know about these two men, pete?rter: well three in all, two who planned to fly to syria the fbi said, that they bought airline tickets, one arrested at kennedy airport on a flight -- trying to board a flight to turkey that the fbi said would take him to syria. another had a ticket to go in just a couple of weeks. it appears the fbi -- these are the three people who are arrested. the one at the

pete williams joins us live with details.ere. >> reporter: that's right the university says it's a relatively recent federal law that has led to the change in its admission policy. the school is no longer admitting students from iran for some graduate science and engineering programs. >> it is 100% not okay. it's basically racism. >> reporter: the university says it's following a 2012 federal law that blocks iranian nationals from getting a visa to study in the u.s. if they juan to work in the nuclear or energy fields. part of sanctions to prevent iran from developing a nuclear weapon. >> they're prejudging the people that want to study science and assuming they're going to use it for something negative and that's not okay. it's limiting. >> reporter: opponents are making their views known on a facebook page with more than 3,000 followers. the university is standing by its decision saying in a statement "we recognize that our adherence to federal law may create difficulties for our students from iran and regard this as unfort

we get the latest from our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: at new york's kennedy airport fbi arrested a brooklyn man headed overseas to join isis fighters. they accuse him of plotting with another brooklyn man, juraboev to get to syria through turkey. authorities say, if the men couldn't get there they talked of staging attacks here perhaps planting a obama at coney island or killing president obama or the police. >> it was quite plain based on the raw statements that if they were not able to go that they would seek to acquire weapons here. handguns, machine gun, and seek to attack very specifically police officers. >> reporter: the fbi says the case began last august when jurabeov asked whether he koug e could be a martyr if he were to shoot obama to strike fear in the hearts of infidels. even after he admitted posting that message, when fbi agents questioned him at his apartment in august, he kept right on planning. the fbi says he e-mailed an isis supporter overseas about his parents saying, i need to sneak out of here with extreme caution without being noticed by them

. >> that was pete williams reporting for us. it's unlikely that the supreme court would allow alabama to grant the marriage licenses. the high court taking up the issue this spring. and we'll have a ruling by june. >>> turning overseas to a rift between the u.s. and germany on how to end the ongoing conflict between russia and ukraine. leaders must quote, try again and again to end the fighting through diplomacy. just hours earlier, angela merkel stood side-by-side with president obama. both leaders are holding out hope that peace talks will be successful. but president obama says he is open to sending arms to ukraine, putting him at odds with chancellor merkel. >> if diplomacy fails, i asked my team to look at all options. what other means can we put in place to change mr. putin's calculus. and the possibility of lethal defensive weapons is one of those options that's being examined. i have not made a decision about that. >> and bloomberg reports that secretary kerry said he is in favor of sending arms to ukrainian forces. >>>

and you can also find pete williams' behind the scenes take on the supreme court justice known as the “notorious rbg.” that's at pbs.org/washingtonweek. keep up with developments with me and judy woodruff on the pbs newshour, and we'll see you here, next week on "washington week." good night. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] corporate funding for washington week is provided by: corporate funding is also provided by: boeing. prudential. additional funding provide by newman's own foundation. provided by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >>> next on "kqed newsroom," the cell phone tracking device more bay area police departments are buying. plus, what your cell phone battery might reveal about you. also, the trial that's the talk of silicon valley. ♪ >>> good evening and welcome to "newsroom." i'm thuy vu. tonight we're going to talk about how law enforcement and hackers can track your cell phone. later in

our justice correspondent pete williams is monitoring the latest from our washington newsroom. pete, good evening. >> reporter: lester, good evening. the latest is federal authorities are questioning a man in norfolk, virginia tonight to see if he played a role in raising money for the plan to travel to syria. no charges yet officials say as they continue their investigation. in the brooklyn neighborhood where the men charged with supporting isis lived and worked, a community leader says he'd tried to talk one of them habivoev out of becoming radicalized. >> we had an argument with the gentleman about understanding of the way he understands islam. >> reporter: u.s. officials say the brooklyn men were lured by isis propaganda and that two of them bought plane tickets to get to syria. intelligence agencies say as many as 20,000 people from 90 countries have traveled to syria to fight, many to join isis. they say 180 americans have either gone or tried to. 20 from the u.s. have been stopped in the past year and a half ranging in age from 15 to 63. isis now has social media feeds i

the report tonight from nbc's pete williams. >> reporter: with passions still high a day after an emotional funeral in north carolina for three young muslims murdered on tuesday, muslim leaders led a prayer session on capitol hill and worked the halls pushing for a hate crime investigation. >> all numbers show that american muslims are perceived in a negative light more than any other discriminated or oppressed minority in america. >> reporter: as the fbi said it will look at the evidence, stopping short of launching a formal investigation with local police in charge, president obama said in a statement that no one in the u.s. "should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship." investigators say it appears that craig stephen hicks, the man charged with the murders, acted out of anger over long-running disputes over parking spaces and noise at the apartment complex where he and the victims lived. all three shot in the head. deah barakat, a dental student, his wife of less than two months yusor abu salha and her sister razan, an architecture student. in

pete williams talked to him about multiple things. what did he have to say? justice department said they wouldn't open a federal civil rights investigation in the trayvon martin case and asked him about that law and whether he thinks it is too strict. >> as you apply the civil rights law, as your statement said one of the highest standards in the law, is it the right standard or should the law be changed? >> i am actually going to be talking about that over the next couple weeks before i go but i'll preview what i am going to say. i think we need to change the law. i think the standard is too high that there is a better way in which we can have federal involvement in these kinds of matters to allow the federal government to be a better back stop in examining these cases, so i think yeah there probably needs to be a change with regard to the required standard of proof. >> the standard of intent is too high? >> i think it is. you know and i am going to have some specific proposals that we will share with the american people and with congress. >> so we will hear