red flags. the fbi is now involved in police say. immediate concern is that of the children s welfare. they just don t know where they are. they don t think the police or the fbi will have much patience. ed: at the pentagon warning military personnel not to use those take-home dna kits. officials say this could be a security risk. that s life at the pentagon. speaking of last-minute gifts for christmas, and their advice is don t buy any dna kits or genetic testing. these genetic tests are largely unregulated. some of those unintended consequences are being diagnosed with an unattention medical
housing and urban development and the former mayor of san antonio. coming up next, reports that north korea is continuing with its production of new nuclear weapons, despite the freeze on testing nuclear missiles. plus, we have all seen them. many of us have used them. those at-home dna kits. the pentagon says they are targeting members of the military and are urging the personnel not to use them. we ll explain why. you are watching msnbc. you are watching msnbc and i recently had hi, ia heart attack. it changed my life. but i m a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it s for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. in a clinical study,
holiday shopping season right now. facing store closures across the industry, big names like target and amazon are rolling out new discounts extra early. both in store and online starting at midnight, target shoppers can get free shipping on hundreds of thousands of products with no minimum or membership amazon is pushing out new pre-black friday discounts at the same time on hundreds of items like fossil watches, 23 and me dna kits and smart tvs. not to be outdone, walmart has rolled out an early access sale with rare deals on ipads and other apple products while it s a good time to buy electronics, shopping experts say it may be best to wait until after the holidays for the real deals on furniture, bedding, and linen. online shopping is expected to jump 14% this year half of that coming from smartphones alone. one of the reasons that we re seeing people shopping online is it has been more convenient and a lot of us have a shopping mall
for it. good to see you. thank you. shepard: the justice department regulating how law enforcement officials use consumer dna test kits to solve criminal cases. the top investigator in california says the genealogy website helped him crack a decades old golden state killer case. the feds say there has to be a balance between solving crimes and protecting privacy. kristin fisher reporting live in washington. kristin? we re talking about the dna kits like ancestry and 23 and me where you swab the inside of your mouth, mail it in and get the dna. the kits have led to the rise of forensic genetic genealogy. it s a new technique that connects dna found at a crime scene with the dna of the victim or the suspect s distant relatives. they have created public profiles on those websites.
julie: a shocking investigation by the new york times. dozens of women who were donors have now discovered their doctor is actually their child s biological father. joining me now, melissa, reproductive attorney. how does this happen, first of all? well, most of these cases are going to be old. from the proliferation of at-home dna kits like 23andme that you can get online. in the past, fresh was much better than frozen and there were very small amounts of regulations around banks. you just went to your local fertility specialist, where it was maybe a small office. it was pretty easy for mixups to happen or for doctors to use