juneteenth, commemorating the emancipation of enslaved african americans, and as we do, the consensus among legal scholars is that the supreme court will soon be ending affirmative action, at least in the context of college administrations. does that mean that it achieved its purpose or that we re abandoning the underlying premise? a pair of cases have been argued. we will soon know the results. one involves harvard, the other the university of north carolina. the conventional wisdom is that race conscious administrations will end. currently race is permitted to be a factor in the administrations calculus, meaning one factor among many to be considered as schools seek to create a diverse student body for everybody s benefit. quotas on the other hand, are unconstitutional. that s the bottom line after the supreme court has taken up several major cases involving affirmative action over the years. and one of those cases was in 2003, it was grutter versus bollinger, involved the
new york. we have a lot of news to get to on this busy friday morning including a seismic development in the special counsel investigation into former president donald trump. his vice president, mike pence, appearing before the grand jury probing his former boss s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a source familiar with the matter. this morning, new reaction including this from a member of congress who investigated the capitol attack. i think that the vice president has a lot of information. i have no doubt really that he answered the questions openly, honestly, and fully. plus, russia unleashing on ukraine overnight with the worst strikes in weeks. the death toll still climbing at this hour. we re on the ground in that war-torn country with a live report. and later, extreme weather, the iconic yosemite national park closing over fears a massive snow melt could lead to unprecedented floods. intense flooding also suspected to have caused this train dera
hackers out number cyber personnel, at least 50 to one. and inching toward disaster, growing concerns across the midwest as people watch flood waters inch closer and closer to their homes and businesses. our nbc news reporters are following all the latest developments for you. we re going to begin with major flooding tormenting the midwest now as the national weather service says we are still days away from the mississippi river cresting. let s go to maggie vespa, joining us from davenport, iowa. we can see evidence of the mess behind you, maggie. the usda is reporting that barge traffic, that has been halted across the upper mississippi river for likely weeks, and this flooding is only expected to get worse, so how are folks there preparing? reporter: first and foremost, what you highlighted, that is a rare move. it s unclear at this point how and or if that might trickle down to consumers but definitely something to watch and something officials say to be worried about. a
predawn attack. the target, an apartment building hundreds of miles from the front lines. and abortion rights advocates score victories in the unlikeliest of places, attempts to impose new bans fall short in a pair of red states. are they one-offs or warning signs for the republican party? we start with federal prosecutors poring over hours of new testimony from vice president mike pence. one of the few people with firsthand knowledge about former president trump s efforts to block certification of the 2020 election. pence s testimony came less than a day after a judge rejected trump s last ditch effort to block it. i want to bring in nbc s ryan reilly who s been covering all of the developments for us. also nbc s vaughn hillyard with the former president and his supporters in manchester, new hampshire, brendan buck who served as an aide to republican house speakers paul ryan and john boehner, and an msnbc political analyst, and carol lamb is a federal former rather for
including pennsylvania, where he is campaigning this weekend. but this is not the only advantage trump has. all of the anti-israel protests arrested during the columbia university takeover just got a free pass all thanks to the manhattan da alvin bragg. there is public outrage over this story and we ll bring you details. also we ll put a smile on your face with this kid. he looks young but he s headed to college in the fall. there s definitely a friday energy in this building. he s 12. he s going to college, to nyu. i can t wait to talk to him. we are not 12 years old, but you are watching fox and friends first. all of that coming up over the next hour. first we start with this. another absolutely tragic consequence of our broken immigration laws. two venezuelan nationals who crossed the border illegally are charged with murder of a 12-year-old girl in texas. horrific. the police say that 12-year-old was strangled to death by these two migrants from srepbz way t