morning, lindsey reiser picks up the coverage right now it s 10:00 a.m. in new york, i m lindsey reiser right now the tensions that have been simmering in tennessee for the last week or even longer are boiling over this morning. protests are gaining steam inside and outside the state house despite the rain against republican efforts to do something that s only been done three times in that state since the civil war expel some of their fellow members specifically these three democrats are under fire for participating in fiery gun reform protests on the house floor last week. today they ll have a chance to defend themselves, but with a republican super majority can they survive the vote. we re live where that high stakes session is getting underway. major escalations in the mounting legal battles faceing former president trump former vice president mike pence saying he will not fight an order to testify in the federal probe. sources say the new york judge in the hush mone
millions of americans are still staring down the threat of severe storms after tornados and thunderstorms devastated parts of the south and midwest yesterday. in missouri at least five people are dead, several injured, after a tornado with winds topping 100 miles an hour tore through bollinger county and then in kentucky, thousands of people lost power after strong winds knocked over power lines in illinois, the national weather service says one twister lasted more than 20 minutes and covered roughly 18 miles nbc s maggie vespa is live from hard-hit glenallen, missouri also with us, nbc meteorologist michelle grossman. maggie, what damage are you seeing, and what are the next steps for people there reporter: it feels like we ve been saying this so much in different communities across the country. the devastation here in glenallen is absolutely gutting. it takes your breath away.
steve, begin with you. speaking of a prominent ceo in the midwest yesterday and he is predicting a bear market. and the rationale he gave me is because his heating bill has doubled when he compared to this year from a year ago. and the reason he mentions that not because he is thinking about himself. he is loaded. but he is thinking about millions and millions of middle class americans who will in all likelihood see a similar bill to them. how do you see this going and how do you analyze that, steve? well, there is no question inflation is raging right now. 7% increase for consumer prices, almost 10% increases for producer prices. those are pretty bad numbers. the worst numbers we ve had since the very early 1980s. it is causing real hardship, no question about it. by the way i ll do a little nod to fuhrman. jays an has been sounding the
hearing the word tornado in december. reporter: nearly 20 tornados touched down on wednesday in minnesota, iowa and nebraska. across the great plains and the midwest yesterday, a record was set for a single day in the u.s. at least 55 reports of hurricane-force thunderstorm wind gusts of over 75 miles an hour. that s according to the national weather service s storm prediction center. certainly the last week of severe weather, the tornados last friday and the windstorm and tornados yesterday are very unusual for december. the winds on wednesday, that s just something we haven t seen this time of year ever. reporter: about 400 reports of severe wind came in from across those regions on wednesday. the alerts impacting at least 80 million americans. high winds whipped up fires in the southern plains and the southwestern u.s. the fires breaking out were being fanned by 100-mile-per-hour winds. one fire grew to 200 acres in less than two hours. reporter: much of this is due
it s an all hands on deck type of thing. we ve talked to business owners, even people who lost their homes. they said this is a terrible situation but we re gonna get through it together. dana: ashley, we appreciate you coming on and thank you. reporter: dana, thank you. dana: for more on the areas under threat the next few days, rick is in the weather center. the devastation is really hard to take. it is hard to take. it s been such an active period. we re in one of those. 134 reports of tornados since saturday. eventually those numbers will probably come down a little bit. obviously, a really active stretch here. hitting the exact same spot over and over with a lot of rain and flooding concerns. the batch of storms moved through the midwest yesterday, is moving toward the northeast. severe thunderstorm watch in effect for the big cities across