here in new york and we begin this morning with the shootings in atlanta. a terrifying escalation of the anti-asian violence seen throughout the country and a reminder of the threat of violence women live with daily. robert aaron long charged with murder after he confessed to killing eight people, six asian women. >> authorities say long a 21-year-old white man told detectives he would go to massage parlours in the past, he blamed his sexual addiction. the cherokee county sheriff suggested long was, quote, attempting to take out that temptation. other officials and community leaders saying that narrative misses the mark. >> in this particular case where the victims were asian women we see the intersections of the racism, xenophobia and gender-based violence. you know, we've also seen historically where news outlets and the police frame the story around the perpetrator and now we're hearing about the suspect in custody and we are hearing stories about how he was religious, he suffers from a sex addiction, it's humanizing and centering him versus humanizing and centering the victims of the crime. >> note here sex is also a protected class under georgia's new hate crime law so wait to see if anything happens there. but the issue of hate runs deeper. even adds recently as yesterday an asian man and woman were assaulted in separate attacks that san francisco police say were unprovoked. they believe the same suspect is behind them. the department sin creasing patrols in predominantly asian neighborhoods. in atlanta eight families are preparing for funerals. the lone badly injured survivor of this shooting spree is hernandez ortiz. here is his nine-year-old daughter. >> i don't really know what to do. i try to calm myself down. when we called over there they told us that he was very lucky. he is a really good dad, i don't want him to go. >> president biden says the attacks on asian-americans are unamerican and must stop. he and vice president harris will be in atlanta tomorrow. to the coronavirus pandemic now. the cdc says nearly one in eight americans are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus, but the number of americans reported dead each day still staggering. a key model projects more than 596,000 deaths from covid by july 1st. look at this, the projected death rate could drop from 1,100, that's where we are now, to about 113 deaths a day by july 1st. and if more people would just wear masks, that number would drop to 51. >> that's right. we're seeing rapid declines in masking and the faster spread of variants. together that that could lead to an increase putting the death toll near that of the spanish flu. nevada is expanding vaccine eligibility to all adults 16 and older following other states. cnn has reporters covering the pandemic from coast to coast. >> reporter: i'm alexandra field in new york. president joe biden has called on all states to make all adults eligible for vaccines starting on may 1st, but a number of states are moving ahead of schedule. iowa, the latest state to announce they will make all adults eligible for vaccines starting on april 5th. the same debt set by both connecticut and michigan. ohio moving forward even more quickly, starting on march 29th. all of those states following the lead of the only two states in the nation that are already making vaccines available to anyone age 16 or older. those are mississippi and alaska. i'm adrienne broaddus in michigan. starting next week ford field will become a mass vaccination site. right now state health officials here in michigan are concerned about the rise in covid cases. the state has seen an increase of more than 50% of new covid cases. also, michigan has reported cases of that uk variant throughout the state. >> reporter: i'm jean casarez in new york. new jersey governor phil murphy is announcing effective friday at 6:00 a.m. jim niece yums, restaurants, arcades, health clubs and personal care businesses can all open up to 50% capacity. now, if you're having a function outdoors you can increase your capacity to 25 people and indoor function can be increased to 50 people. but remember you still have to wear your mask and you have to socially distance. i'm nick watt in los angeles. disneyland has been closed for over a year, but the company just announced those doors will be opening again april 30th. of course, limited numbers, masks will be mandatory and here is the bad news, for now because of state health restrictions disneyland will be open only to california residents. >> thanks to all of our correspondents for those updates. overnight in seoul secretary of state tony blinken meeting with south korea about regional concerns. he is getting ready for a meeting tomorrow a face-to-face with china. paula hancocks is live for us this morning in seoul. what more is the secretary of state saying? >> reporter: well, lawyer ration the secretary of state along with everyone he met was saying that clearly north korea is one of the number one issues they have to deal with whilst in this region, but of course china was something they were talking about as well. they are talking about north korea first of all they did say that they have to work together to try to stop the nuclear and missile program and we also heard secretary blinken talk about the human rights issues in north korea which you really haven't heard much of over the past four years. did he have a balancing act, he was criticizing china but at the same time acknowledging that the u.s. needs china to deal with north korea. >> beijing has an interest, a clear self-interest, in helping to pursue the denuclearization of the dprk because it is a source of instability, it's a source of danger and obviously a threat to us and our partners, but china has a real interest in helping to deal with this. it also has an obligation under the u.n. security council resolutions to implement fully the sanctions that the international community has agreed were. >> reporter: so the key now is the meeting in alaska where secretary blinken will meet his chinese counterpart, the highest level talks between u.s. and china since president biden took office. we've already heard from the chinese ambassador to the u.s. saying he doesn't have a high expectation, but they will be meeting three times early afternoon, after dinner and then the next morning. so they will have plenty of time to talk about the many issues that they have to hammer out. laura? >> all right. paula hancocks in seoul for us this morning. thanks so much. a man with a semi-automatic rifle arrested outside vice president harris' official residence. no one was inside the home at the time. harris and her husband have not moved in yet. there are ongoing renovations there. 31-year-old paul murray of san antonio is now facing multiple firearms charges. severe weather battering the deep south, millions bracing for a tornado threat. >> oh, boy. home just -- heavy damage to home just now. you're clearly someone who takes care of yourself. so why wait to screen for colon cancer? because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'll do it. good plan. at jackson hewitt, we offer safe and easy ways to file with a skilled tax pro. securely drop off your documents, have them picked up, or upload them, and work with a tax pro online from home. safe and easy ways to file that work around you. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hi sabrina! >>hi jen! so this aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin? 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in part of course it is a protest at what's been said and that the sanctions that have come down and the sanctions that are poised to come down from the united states towards russia because of its behavior around the world, but it's also an expression of concern that this relationship that has been so tetchy for the past several years is spiraling out of control. the russians are regrouping to see what they can do to get the sanctions lifted and to prevent more sanctions from coming their way. >> thanks, matthew. well, the u.s. intel community says violent domestic extremism poses an elevated threat to the united states this year. the intel community's first point report on domestic terrorism concludes that bogus claims of election fraud will almost certainly trigger more violence. we get more now from cnn's alex marquardt. >> reporter: good morning, laura and christine. this is a remarkable report in several ways it is short, just four pages long, it goes right to the point. it says that there is a bigger chance of deadly attacks from domestic violent extremists this year, 2021, because of everything that's going on. these are extremists, they are already motivated by racial bias and by grievances against the government for overreach and this year those factors they say are being exacerbated by things like the january 6th insurrection which they view as a motivator for these extremists, covid-19 conditions, conspiracy theories and policy changes that they say will spur some domestic violent extremists to try to engage in violence this year. now, among the different types of domestic violent extremists the report singles out two as most likely to carry out deadly attacks this year. they say in the report that racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and militia violent extremists have the most violent threats. with racially motivated extremists most lick i l. toy have attacks and mill sla extremists targeting law enforcement. so racists, white extremists and those belonging to militias are among the biggest threat and more likely to be lone wolves. lone wolves are harder to track, all of thieves extremists the problem is according to the report is that they have easy access to guns. all of this that we're hearing in the report echos what we've heard from the fbi director chris wray who called the january 6 attack domestic terrorism. he has said that domestic terrorism has been metastasizing around the country for a long time and it's not going away anytime soon. >> alex, thank you so much for that. okay. a little more time for you to file your taxes. we will tell you what the new deadline is next. want to brain better? 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(doorbell) (giggle) oh, they're excellent. i had so many beignets i thought i was going to hurl. do ya think they bought it? oh yeah. welcome back. new overnight a tornado watch from western georgia to the gulf coast, the national weather service also issuing this rare high risk warning in the southeast amid severe storms and the potential for tornadoes. storms have already hit parts of alabama and mississippi and torn the roof off one house. >> two minutes, three minutes after the actual impact i still sat there shaking, holding my dog, just, you know, hoping that it was over and i got out and looked up and there was no roof over me anymore. >> yikes. lightning struck at the university of alabama football complex, you are hear it and a parking deck on campus had to be used as a storm shelter. look at all those people packed in still during a pandemic. the high level threat covers 3 million people in all about 45 million people under a severe weather threat. here is our meteorologist bad dram. >> we are talking about nearly 100 reports of severe weather. 50 plus related to strong wind gust, but over 20 related to tornadoes, much of it coming down across alabama and mississippi on wednesday afternoon and evening. notice that energy shifts off towards the southeast, parts of the carolinas, eastern georgia, northern half of the state of florida get in on the action. wintry weather on the backside around wichita, areas of missouri as well getting in maybe 1 to 3 inches of snowfall before it's all said and done. when it comes to severe weather, area indicated in red is a level 4, that is a moderate risk, including wilmington for some widespread damaging winds, could see large hail and possibilities to see scattered large tornado. temperatures in the middle 70s in charleston, atlanta shy of 70 degrees, in areas around kansas city west we can do right around 47 degrees. >> thank you. "early start" continues right now. ♪ good morning, everyone. this is "early start," i'm laura jarrett. >> i'm christine romans. it's exactly 30 minutes past the hour this thursday morning. we begin in atlanta. the atlanta spa killings are not an isolated event. a restaurant spray painted with the message can you think kung blue in texas. that was all before that rampage at the three metro atlanta massage parlours that left eight dead, including six asian-american women. then hours later a travel agency employee in california was nearly blinded. >> somebody pushed me from the back and start hitting me. and i lose consciousness, when i wake up i'm all bloodied up. >> the rise of hate and attacks jolting a community already on edge after months of dealing with all the vitriol about the origins of the pandemic. >> for any elected official who still wants to use ethnic identifiers in describing in virus, i urge you to please stop. you are hurting the asian-american community. >> there are asian-americans telling their parents not to leave their homes. there are parents of kids who are texting me saying there's no way i'm letting my kid play outside even when it's nice out, they don't want them to get bullied and harassed. >> the asian-americans are just as american as anyone else. this kind of hatred and violence has to stop. >> we can't stop speaking out, we can't stop fighting and we can't lose hope. if we lose hope that's the end of it. >> all this as robert aaron long is charged with murder after police say he confessed to killing eight people in the extra attacks. police say he may have frequented some of the massage parlours in the past. he could now face hate crime charges under a new georgia hate crime law where sex is a protected category. community leaders say enough. >> so there's been a lot of concern with the asian-american community, particularly given the surge in violence and discrimination we've seen over this past year, a lot being driven by racist political rhetoric. this is a reminder in which we need to do everything that we possibly can to protect the most vulnerable among us. >> a korean-american congressman sums it up movingly in this tweet. gun violence, health care, overdose, hatred, racism and other causes, we have grown accustomed to so much death in our communities. my five-year-old boy talks about people we lost in the last year with too much normalcy, we should fight for every life. president joe biden and vice president kamala harris are going to atlanta tomorrow. their trip was already scheduled to promote the coronavirus relief package, but now they will mourn the victims of tuesday's deadly shootings. >> i know that asian-americans are in very -- very concerned because as you know i've been speaking about brutality against asian-americans for the last couple months and i think it is very, very troubling. >> a large crowd gathered in downtown washington last night at a rally for the victims, people marched in chinatown and lit candles mourning the eight lives that were lost. one year into the pandemic a renewed focus on something that never worked well enough, testing. federal government is funneling $10 billion to states to help fund surveillance testing in k through 12 schools across the country. it's part of the administration's push to help reopen schools safely. education secretary miguel cardona says the idea is to get back to normal as much and as soon as possible. >> while i anticipate that our fall season will look more like what it was before covid, i really want to focus right now on the spring. my focus right now is getting as many schools open, k-8 -- pre-k-8 schools in the first 100 days but also trying to get high schools open so we can get all students back in safely and engaging with their friends and learning in the classroom where they learn best. a cnn analysis of federal data shows in at least 34 states it's older children 12 to 17 that have higher covid positive test rates than any other anyone group, but most of them are still too young to be vaccinated. researchers now say the safest way to reopen universities is through frequent widespread covid testing of everyone on campus combined with strong prevention measures. this morning the european medicines agency will announce its decision on the safety of astrazeneca's covid vaccine. most european countries stopped using it in recent days because of a few dozen reports of blood clots. 17 million doses have already been administered so a few dozen blood clot reports, 17 million doses. the biden administration has a stockpile of tens of millions of doses even though that vaccine is not yet a sprofd in the u.s. the white house is considering sending some of that stockpile to mexico and canada. despite the concerns in europe canada has not paused its astrazeneca vaccine rollout. senate democrats introducing a sweeping election bill that would curb republican efforts to restrict voting access but the reality across the country it's more complicated. cnn's daniella diaz is live on capitol hill with more for us. good morning. what is this new bill? how is it going to work? explain it for us. >> reporter: laura, senate democrats are introducing this sweeping election and voter rights package in the senate which is similar to the one that was passed in the house earlier this month. it passed by the senate this would counter any republican-led efforts at the state level to restrict voter access. this legislation would specifically prohibit any restrictions on mail-in voting and it would also call for states to use independent redistricting commissions to create congressional district boundaries. it also includes efforts that will help prevent foreign interference in elections. democrats and republicans are incredibly divided on this issue. democrats say that this legislation would help create transparency and accountability in elections, but republicans say that this would limit their political speech and it's just a power grab by democrats. it faces a very steep uphill climb in the senate because democrats need republicans to support this legislation for it to pass for them to be able to break this filibuster, get 60 votes for this legislation to pass. so it's a very uphill climb for democrats in the senate for this legislation. but this comes after there have been dozens of republican-led state legislatures across the state who have introduced legislation that would restrict voter access in their states. specifically this week there was a bill introduced in georgia that would create new obstacles for mail-in voting as well as other rules for voting, which comes after this contentious senate runoff that took place in january where two democrats won seats that were previously held by republicans. it's unclear whether this legislation will even pass the senate, laura. >> it's amazing how everything comes back to the filibuster, doesn't it? maybe this could put pressure, i think the idea is that this could put pressure on some of those more moderate democrats to rethink how they've positioned themselves on the filibuster when it comes to this issue in particular. thanks so much. president biden as a candidate promised higher taxes on the rich. it should be no surprise to anyone that he's prepared to do it. >> anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant tax increase. >> biden said those who make less than 400 grand won't pay a single penny more in taxes. a tax hike could help fund his ambitious infrastructure package. you know, biden also said the gop is criticizing tax breaks in his stimulus plan because those tax breaks benefit the bottom 60% of americans. >> they don't like it because, in fact, their idea of a tax cut is to give the trump tax cut where 83% went to the top 1% of the people in america. >> so it's true, 70% of biden's tax benefits go to low and middle income americans, that's according to the tax policy center, while nearly half of president trump's 2017 tax cuts they benefited the top 5%. in fact, the stimulus -- top 50%, rather. the stimulus relief will be the largest ever single year tax break in history, larger than trump's tax cuts or even president reagan's 1981 tax cuts. the catch, most of the breaks in biden's package only last a year. laura, i think it's so interesting that this package that just passed, this is the big tax relief for working americans. president trump's tax relief was for companies and for higher earning -- and the middle class tax cut of president trump's expires in 2025. >> it shows you how the messaging is so important, right? everyone thought that trump's tax cuts were where it was at but it shows you the reality. >> a democrat the big tax cutter. allies of new york governor andrew cuomo tried to damage the credibility of lindsey boylan days after she became the first woman to accuse him of sexual harassment. according to the "new york times" they did it by writing an open letter that they hoped former staff members would sign to support him. the "times" reports governor cuomo was involved in crafting the letter, which called boylan's allegations politically motivated and disclosed personnel complaints filed against her. the cuomo administration would not comment to the "times" citing the ongoing investigation. we will be right back. 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means to an end for my business. >> reporter: like 100 million other americans, they're eligible for stimulus checks as part of president joe biden's covid relief package. they could get up to $8,400 for their family which they say will go straight into their wellness studio that's been surviving month to month, the checks will give them one more. >> it's keeping our dream alive. >> reporter: in arkansas nicki martin's check arrived just in time. >> it has kept a roof over my head and kept my lights on. >> reporter: martin just finished months of aggressive chemo treatment when the pandemic started. >> i didn't get to celebrate being cancer-free for very long before this hit. >> reporter: without a job she filed for disability checks and is still waiting, making her ineligible for unemployment, but when that $1,400 in stimulus hit her bank account, she breathed a sigh of relief. >> i just immediately got online and paid every bill i had and got caught up for the first time in months. >> reporter: and madeline out of work for the last year has spent much of it here, applying to hundreds of jobs. >> i've had to move from where i lived before in new jersey to my parents' house in the bronx. >> reporter: she lost her job in hospitality when the industry was crushed by the pandemic, with work hard to come by she's found herself in debt and receiving a stimulus check, both for the first time. >> when you think about $1,400 does that seem like a lot? >> not in comparison to the debt i've had to incur. >> do you see a way out of the debt in the near future? >> i think the only way out really is to get a job. >> reporter: for many americans stimulus checks will make a difference, but for ashley and kyle who put their house up for c collateral to ensure their business it's not enough. >> any extra income goes straight to the business so we don't lose this house. it's kind of the last thing we have. so it's really scary thinking about me -- there's like -- >> reporter: thoughts of the future too many to bear, personally one so uncertain. vanessa yurkevich, cnn, new york. >> heartbreaking stories and just repeat that on the hundreds of thousands if not millions of times in this country. all right. to mississippi now, the boil water notice has finally been lifted for tens of thousands of residents in jackson, mississippi. a severe winter storm crippled the water system more than a month ago. the green light from the mississippi health department now after two days of clean samples. the judge in the derek chauvin murder trial dismissing two jurors who said they couldn't be impartial after hearing about the $27 million settlement reached with the family of george floyd. chauvin a former minneapolis police officer is charged with murder and manslaughter in floyd's death. jury selection resumes this morning. let's take a look at markets around the world right now. asian shares closed for the day and closed with a gain and looks like european shares have opened slightly higher, although a better performance in frankfurt. on wall street futures are narrowly mixed, it was big record high days wednesday with the dow crossing 33,000 for the first time in history. federal reserve kept rates super low and vowed to keep buying up billions of dollars in bonds each month essentially stimulus critical oxygen for the recovery. the fed chief also said any increase inflation, that big worry in the bond market, well, that is going to be temporary. today expect the labor department to say another 700,000 americans filed for first time jobless claims last week, that's the lowest since the pandemic began and exactly 52 weeks exactly after the coronavirus began upending the u.s. economy. the world's demand for gasoline has peaked and likely won't return to pre-pandemic levels that's a forecast from the international energy agency. it says greater fuel efficiency and a shift toward electric cars will weigh on gas use in the years ahead. more car makers are betting their future on electric vehicles like general motors who plans to stop selling gas-powered cars by 2035. this global chip shortage is causing toyota and honda to temporarily shut down u.s. plants. both blamed a lack of crucial supplies particularly semi-conductors. honda cited port blockages and severe weather for the disruption. the crunch has caused big problems for auto makers about you now it's hitting other industries around the world, too. samsung the largest smartphone maker said the shortage would hurt its business into next quarter. the pandemic also transforming the workforce. ford will let its 30,000 office workers work from home indefinitely, factory workers will of course continue to work in-person. sad news this morning, a boston sports legend has died. dick hoyt was a boston marathoner who ran while pushing his son rick in a wheelchair. together they finished the marathon 32 times, they raised more than a million dollars for charity and launched a nonprofit to help people with disabilities. dick hoyt was 80 years old. the wait is almost over, march madness tips off this evening. a year after being canceled due to the pandemic. andy scholes joins us from indianapolis with this morning's "bleacher report." hey, andy. >> good morning, christine. this is going to be a tournament unlike we have ever seen before, all of the teams are here in indianapolis and the hotels where they are staying are on lockdown as the ncaa is trying to do everything it can to make sure that covid doesn't stop the big dance. march madness is back. but for the teams involved, it's a much different experience. instead of games taking place across the country, all 68 teams competing in this year's tournament are staying in four different hotels in indianapolis. teams are using the sky walks which have been closed off to the public to get to the convention center to practice. >> we're just fortunate to be out here and play, because like last year, the team wasn't able to play, but, yeah, i haven't been outside since sunday. so, you know, i don't know what the air feels like outside anymore. >> team members and ncaa officials are being tested daily for covid-19. players are also wearing devices that track who they have been in close proximity with to aid contact tracing if necessary. it's not a bubble like the nba had, instead, the ncaa is calling it a controlled environment. >> teams have been very cooperative. things are going quite well right now but no one is letting their guard down, no one is making any assumptions about the lack of challenges going forward, but so far so good. >> the games are taking place at six different sites across indiana. there won't be bands or cheerleaders this year, but fans are being allowed to attend the games at a reduced capacity. lucas oil stadium where the final four will be held normally holds 70,000, but will only host 25% capacity, about 17,500 fans at games throughout the tournament. >> go ramblers. and amen. >> amen. >> the one special fan is making her return to march madness, loyola university chicago team chaplain sister jean will be at the team's game friday. the 101-year-old is fully vaccinated and ready to root on the ramblers. >> i'm so happy i'm going. i just -- i just waited for the day that they would say yes. >> sister jean is excited, but unfortunately we have had our first player test positive for covid, oklahoma confirming that guard deaf i don't know harman is going to miss at least the team's first two games after testing positive but luckily for the sooners no other players are in contact tracing. the first four gets the action started tonight, laura. still plenty of time to fill out the brackets and you can play with us at cnn, go to cnn.com/brackets just make sure to get those in before the first round starts tomorrow at about 12:15 eastern. laura, have you filled yours out yet, done your research, know who you are picking? >> no, full disclosure i need to get on that. have fun out there. finally this morning, who needs a hug machine when you can have the real thing? during the pandemic's peak rose's family built a make shift hug machine so they could literally keep in touch. now nine months later nothing comes between a fully vaccinated rose and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. >> this is what it's all about, right here. i'm 86 years old and haven't felt better. >> the family making up for lost time with plenty of sleepovers at grandma's. i bet the parents are very relieved to have grandma back in action. >> do you know what, i predict we have lost control of the grandmas and grandpas of the world, right? they're going to be able to spoil their grandkids and we can't say anything about it because they've missed that year. thanks for joining us, i'm christine romans. >> i'm laura jarrett. 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