Headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news, reporting tonight Kristen Welker. We begin tonight with tragedy in texas. A hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people caught fire and crashed in central texas. Its believed to be the largest loss of life in history due to a hot air balloon accident. Its all unfolding about 30 miles south of austin in an area popular for and sky diving. Tonight the governor is asking for prayers. Charles hadlock has our report. Reporter the charred remains of the hot air balloon are all thats left after an Early Morning ride through the sky turned tragic. The balloon was carrying at least 16 people. There are no survivors. The crash site is near high power lines. Nearby. It wasnt like an explosion. It just went up. Reporter wylie says she sees balloons in the area all the time, but never imagined Something Like this. The way it went up nobody stood a chance. Reporter it was owned the heart of texas air balloon rides. Victim specialists, weather exper
Meant to this state. You know what she did for her constituents. And i am in awe of her courage and her commitment to continue to serve people by standing up and speaking out against the gun lobby in favor of common sense gun safety measures. And by her side, a man who has served our country with such distinction, and i am pleased to call him a friend, not only because of that service he has gibb but because of what hes continuing to do by gabbys side, speaking out, over and over again. And as they both said, like many people in arizona and many people around our country, theyve been gun owners for a long time. And you know what . Theres a right in our country to be a gun owner. What we are advocating, what we are standing up for and speaking out for are common sense gun reform measures. And i also want to just recognize a couple that i met just before coming in. Lonnie and Sandy Phillips who are here. They lost their daughter jessie in the Aurora Movie Theater massacre. And theyve bee
[indiscernible] on the next washington journal, representative Marsha Blackburn on the president s trip to cuba. Her work on the selected Investigative Community on infant lives in womens history month. Then more on the president s cuba trip with congas men gerald connolly, member of the Foreign Affairs and government reform committees. He will talk about the new. Emocrat coalition s livegton journal every morning at 7 00 a. M. On cspan. You can join the conversation with your comments and calls and on twitter. Jack lew testifies today on the state of the International Financial system. We bring you live coverage of his remarks before the House Financial Services committee starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan3. I am a history buff. I do enjoy seeing the fabric of our country and things how they work and how they are made. I love American History tv. I have no idea they did history. Its something i really enjoy. With this American History tv, it gives you that perspective. Im a cspa
Mixed precipitation moving from south to north into the area. Temperatures are in the upper 20s and lower 30s on a relatively warm january morning. Weve got a light wind from the south between 5 and 15 miles per hour. Heres the dayplanner where were headed for a high of 37. Jessica rae tonya couch. The mother of ethan couch, known as the affluenza teen. Will be returned to texas to face a felony count against her. A Los Angeles County judge approved an extradition waiver for her. Tonya signed the extradition waiver and has been turned over to the la county sheriffs department. She and her son were detained in puerto vallarta, mexico last week. Ethan is still being held in mexico city. Jessica rae the armed activists who have seized a Federal Building in oregon are vowing they will not back down. They say they will only leave if the government relinquishes control of federal land. Group maintains they want peace. They have also made it clear. If provoked theyre not afraid to use force.
Through the afternoon. The roads may be a bit slick in the afternoon and evening when you are coming home from work depending on how much slush wants to stay on the roads so be careful driving home later today. If anyone sees snow accumulation it should remain fairly low with maybe a couple isolated areas north of i80 seeing around an inch or so. Highs will stay just above freezing today in the mid 30s, and this evening lows should fall to around 33 here in the metro, so im not worried about icy roads. Thursday still looks warm enough across most of iowa to see mainly rain showers, a few of which could come in the morning, but primarily falling through the afternoon. Friday is going to be more of a wintry mix to light snow day lasting into saturday morning. Temperatures are going to be falling dramatically saturday from the morning into sunday where the coldest air of the year is expected to slam home. We are going to stay very cold throughout the remainder of next week with only one o