also tonight, concern over this. and now the warning about what we could soon see here in the u.s. when the uk variant likely becomes the dominant strain here by march. and what dr. anthony fauci is now saying tonight about the importance of getting that shot, if the u.s. has any hope of stopping these variants and keeping them from changing to get around the vaccines. tonight, the meeting at the white house. president biden and ten republican senators discussing the president's $1.9 trillion covid relief plan. he wants $1,400 checks for most americans, money for vaccinations. help for small businesses. what the republicans are now proposing. so, will this be bipartisan or will democrats go it alone? former president trump's impeachment trial. a week before his senate trial begins, the former president's legal team, we learned over the weekend, leaving. tonight, two new lawyers instead. so, what's behind this? jon karl with what he's learned tonight. the disturbing video. police body camera showing officers handcuffing and pepper spraying a 9-year-old girl. what we've now learned about the officers. legendary singer tony bennett and his personal battle against alzheimer's revealed. what his family is saying tonight. and the high school football team and their championship in the segregated south, erased from the history books. tonight, what someone watching right here has now done. good evening and it's great to have you us with here as we start a new week together. and we begin tonight with that powerful and dangerous nor'easter still slamming the east at this hour, promoting gh conditions, coastal flooding tonight. and this continues right into the night. take a look, and this is slow moving. more than two feet of snow in some places. more than a foot of snow in new york's central park. 17 states tonight from georgia up through maine under winter weather alerts. this is still going tomorrow. whiteout conditions here in new york city. square there hidden by one of - the heaviest snowfalls in years. in new jersey tonight, hazardous driving, cars stuck in several inches of snow right there on the highway. a fire truck upside down in virginia. we learned of four firefighters injured. and then the rescues tonight. these images from stamford, connecticut. a truck into the water. first responders jumping in, lifting two people into a ladder truck. hundreds of flights canceled up and down the coast. only snowplows on the runway at new york's jfk airport. there are many roads closed tonight. train service halted. even some new york city subways now shut down. of course, the midwest got slammed, then this hit here and it will keep going for many more hours to come. meteorologist rob marciano leading us off from just outside philadelphia tonight. >> reporter: tonight, the northeast getting walloped by the biggest nor'easter in years. near blizzard conditions and howling winds blinding drivers. states of emergency up and down the coast. >> if you must be out, please, god, be careful, but if you don't need to be out, do not go out. >> reporter: in stamford, connecticut, a dramatic rescue after a truck slid off the roadway and into a pond. first responders using a ladder truck, diving into the water, pulling two people out. one rushed away on a stretcher into a waiting ambulance, the other able to walk away. and this storm is hitting just as life-saving covid vaccinations are ramping up. so sites in new york, new jersey and this one near philadelphia are now shut down. >> that's the empire state building. >> reporter: new york city streets nearly impassible, even above ground subway service suspended. wabc's mike marza. >> and when you put your face right into it, it does feel like needles stabbing you right into the face. brooklyn getting hammered by this snowstorm right now. >>ter: iqunswie hr cstet of si hundreds of flights canceled. our gio benitez at jfk airport. >> we are feeling some very strong wind gusts here at jfk airport. and you can just see that runway packed with snow. nearly every flight canceled today here in the new york area. more canceled tomorrow. and that also may affect cargo flights carrying vaccines. >> reporter: in pennsylvania, conditions not any better. >> it's been pretty bad. drtingt this poi ow, thros rioars ng the long-a oening of in-person classes. outside richmond, virginia, sunday, this fire truck overturning, injuring four firefighters. the storm plowing across the midwest this weekend. snow again in chicago. lake michigan covered in ice. neighbors banding together to help this stuck amazon delivery truck. in the buckeye state, people trying everything to get some traction. traffic backed up for hours there after a fatal wreck. and if that's not all bad enough, power outages, the number of them continues to grow. we had a lot of sleet mixing in with the snow near the philly area. that's weighing down tree limbs. and high winds near the coast, especially across new england, that's going to continue through the overnight, as will the threat for more in the way of po power outages. david? >> yeah, rob, we won't be fooled by how pictureesque that looks behind you. rob, thank you. and as you heard rob point out there, this nor'easter is slow-moving, churning overnight and even into tomorrow. so, let's get right to chief meteorologist ginger zee here in new york city tonight to time this all out for us. hi, ginger. >> reporter: hi, david. yes, it is the storm that never ends. or at least seemingly so. if you see behind me, the bright lights of times square, this is the first time we've been able to see those. i could barely see the first traffic light here along seventh avenue for much of today. and that's the problem. blowing snow, i-, i-. i want to take you through what's going to happen, because this is now officially our biggest snowstorm in more than five years. i think we could make it into the top ten snowstorms in new york city. but you see that radar and the movement of the futurecast. you take it until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, it is still snowing. remember, low pressure system right up along the coast, they rotate counterclockwise. it's going to grab cold air and keep shoving those wraparound snow showers all the way through tuesday night. we really can't say we're done with this until wednesday. and of course, when all is said and done, it's not just going to be windy, but you could see an additional 6 to 12 inches on top of the up to 30 some people have already seen in this storm, david. gher we'lbe wching you tdrsgain tomorrow ccinations.> an monsterf a stori at least nine states shutting down some vaccination sites. and tonight, what some are now warning about what we could potentially see here in the u.s. when the uk variant likely becomes the dominant strain by march or early april. and now that we've started february, we now know that january was the deadliest month yet. 95,000 lives lost. more than 442,000 lives lost since this pandemic began. today, boston's fenway park, one of those new vaccination sites, urging people with appointments to try to come in before the storm arrived, determined to move forward with the shots. and abc's eva pilgrim from boston tonight. >> reporter: tonight, with blizzard conditions bearing down on boston -- >> you're all set. you can come right in. >> reporter: -- a scramble to squeeze in appointments at this new mass vaccination site at fenway park. >> i live out in the suburbs, and the snow is coming, and so we just came in with the hope that they'd be open and ready. >> reporter: vaccines prepared conc stand forng newor o danot sa o there today. vcinatie cancel eye >> reporter: just the latest challenge in the push to ramp up vaccinations. the country now averaging 1.3 million shots a day. dr. fauci today on the importance of americans getting vaccinated to fight against the new variants. >> viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate. and if you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations. >> reporter: variants now in 35 states, threatening to reverse a decrease in cases and hospitalizations. >> the fact is that the surge that is likely to occur with this new variant from england is going to happen in the next 6 to 14 weeks. and if we see that happen, we are going to see something like we have not seen yet in this country. >> reporter: 35-year-old a.j. jackson in alabama never traveled, but is in the hospital with the uk variant. the father of two girls fighting for his life. >> he is comfortable, dependent on the dialysis machine. the ecmo machine is supporting his heart. >> reporter: communities of color disproportionately impacted by the virus, and now getting vaccinated at a lower rate. the cdc releasing new data, showing 60% of those vaccinated in the first month were white, compared to 11.5% hispanic/latino, 5.4% black and 6% asian. and tonight, with many testing sites turning to vaccinations, a new tool coming to pharmacies. an at-home covid test that is 95% accurate and can be used without a prescription. >> after you take the swab, you put the sample into a digital analyzer, which will send a result to your smartphone in t midnight tonight, a new cdc rule will go into place. all travelers will be required to wear a mask on public transportation like airplanes, trains and ride shares. and that mask mandate will also extend to their waiting areas. david? >> all right, eva pilgrim, where the snow is coming down at fenway park tonight. eva, thank you. of course, thousands of vaccinations put on hold because of this nor'easter. tonight, though, the meeting at the white house still moving forward. president biden and ten republican senators, nine in person, one dialing in by phone. president biden has proposed his $1.9 trillion covid relief plan. $1,400 checks for most americans, money for vaccinations and for small businesses. those ten republican senators with their own plan. so, here's our senior white houscoenryruce tonih ll amicans suffering and deatready too itlo cidelbi -for. >> reporter: -- president biden today invited ten republican senators to the oval office to hear them out. the republicans bringing with them their own plan for a relief package. and there is some common ground. like biden, the republicans are calling for $160 billion for vaccines and testing and help for small businesses. but while biden wants $1,400 direct payments to most americans, republicans want to limit the checks to $1,000 and send them only to lower income americans. the biggest difference, the overall price tag. biden's plan is nearly $2 trillion dollars. the republican plan? just $600 billion. >> it was a very good exchange of views. what we did agree to do is to follow up and talk further. >> reporter: the president and democrats are urging republicans to go big. >> the risk of doing too little is far greater than the risk of doing too much. >> reporter: but republicans insist the bill is just too sweeping. and say now is the time for biden to fulfill his promise of unity. >> if we can't find common ground on this issue, covid-19 response, it really sets the stage for the inability to find common ground on many other things. >> reporter: but even the president has seemed to acknowledge a bipartisan bill may not be possible. >> i support passing covid relief with support from republicans if we can get it. but the covid relief has to pass. there's no if, and or buts. thank you. >> reporter: so, today, we asked the white house. should we take that as a sign that the president recognizes he may have to be abandoning his hopes for bipartisanship? >> i think it's hardly an abandoning of bipartisanship. we'll see what comes out of this meeting today, and if there are good ideas to put forward, we'll put forward them. >> all right, so, let's get right to mary live at the white house tonight. and mary, even before this meeting this evening, the white house sending the republican senators a message of sorts that they ill need to go bigger? >> reporter: david, the white house is hammering this point, insisting the real risk here is in going too small, not too big. but the president is adamant he can get republicans onboard here. so, the big question now is just how far is biden willing to go to achieve that bipartisanship? the republican proposal is less than a third of the cost of biden's plan. seems pretty clear that is not going to fly here. david? >> mary bruce tonight, following this meeting. mary, thank you. now to former president trump and his impeachment trial set to begin in the senate a week from tomorrow. and we learned over the weekend that the former president parted ways with his legal team and now with just a week to go, two new lawyers stepping in to defend him. let's bring in our chief washington correspondent jonathan karl tonight. and jon, what have you learned about why these lawyers left and what do we know about the two new ones? >> reporter: well, david, the old legal team, which had been on the job for barely a week, left in part because trump had told them that he wanted to use the impeachment trial to make the case, the thoroughly discredited case, that the election was stolen from him. and they thought that would be a big mistake. the new team, which consists of just two lawyers, neither of them all that prominent or with any experience in anything like an impeachment trial, include david schoen, who had represented roger stone and has told people that he believes the conspiracy theory that jeffrey epstein was murdered in prison. the other, bruce castor jr., is a former prosecutor who was roundly criticized for his decision declining to prosecute bill cosby. and david, although they have been on the job for now a day, just one day, i am told they will have their first legal filing tomorrow, a brief to the united states senate, by noon, as required, responding to the article of impeachment. >> all right, by noon tomorrow. jon karl, great to have you here tonight. overseas tonight, a violent crackdown across russia after protests by supporters of jailed opposition leader alexei navalny. more than 5,400 people detained. the most during a single demonstration since vladimir putin came to power. navalny is in court tomorrow. he could be ordered to serve up to 3 1/2 years behind bars after being nearly poisoned to death. and in southeast asia, a major setback to democracy in myanmar. the military seizing power, in an apparent coup, detaining the head of government, aung san suu kyi. the military declaring a one-year state of emergency, claiming voter fraud in parliamentary elections that saw aung san suu kyi's party expand their lead. tonight, president joe biden is now threatening new sanctions. when we come back here tonight, disturbing video showing police handcuff and pepper spray a 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family sharing his condition, telling "aarp magazine" he can still perform. his wife susan saying when he sings, he's the old tony. now 94, bennett was diagnosed in 2016. in fact, a new album with lady gaga is still due out this spring. bennett on twitter saying, "life is a gift, even with alzheimer's." and actor dustin diamond from "saved by the bell" has died. three weeks after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, we learned today diamond has died. he was just 44 years old. when we come back here tonight, the high school football team, their championship erased from history no longer. rheumatoid arthritis. te to severe and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill can dramatically improve symptoms... that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system attacks your joints. rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious infections and blood clots, sometimes fatal, have 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just about kind of finally righting a wrong? or what did it feel like for you? >> the wrong was that we was not recognized by the school, by the board of education, by the city of perry. >> reporter: perry was deeply divided back then. i know, because i grew up there, a child of segregation. lawrence clarington remembering how the division denied him a special honor >> i've been crying all morning. thought this day would never come. >> reporter: lawrence and his teammates won the state championship in 1969, a first t the victory for the all-black school, only a footnote in the local paper. no ceremony, no championship rings. the students later integrating into perry high, the town's white school, wiping away years of history. >> the trophies and everything that was in that school was thrown away. >> reporter: 50 years after that big win, houston high finally celebrated by the city of perry. finally getting those championship rings. a special moment for my family, too. lawrence is my brother-in-law. he met his first love, my sister, that very year. >> this occasion is more than about winning a championship. it's more than about getting rings. >> reporter: the night of our report, marilyn velde was watching in louisville, kentucky. she called lawrence and said his team brought her back to her own childhood, to the kindness she remembered from her parents, evangeline and kent wheeler, asking if she could personally pay for every one of their championship rings and their trophies. and so they gathered again, with marilyn at the podium. >> it's such an honor for me to be here in front of all of you all. >> ame telling a story. i started crying, i thought, how in the world could this happen to anybody? but it did. i got to say, hey, david muir, thank you for doing the abc story. >> reporter: now, the team proudly wearing those championship rings, holding their trophies. >> it was a good day. it was a blessing that you can hardly imagine. >> reporter: a special honor for these teammates five decades in the making. >> deborah, thank you. overdue. good night. california dreaming. it's our new series on the golden state. s slowed. but it in other states. tonight a look and why. i'm spencer christian. it's raining again, and it's going to get heavier and windier. i'll have the accuweather forecast coming up. a milestone in san francisco. the first community vaccination hub in the neighborhood. with the majority of covid-19 cases have been reported. abc 7 news at 6:00 starts right now. >> announcer: building a better bay area, for a safe and secure future. this is abc 7 news. welcome to the neighborhood. san francisco opens a new vaccination hub, and it's for th tnk i'm ama daetz. critical to ending the pandemic. it's why we're on vaccine watch and why we have a team on vaccine monitoring the distribution. to monitor the distribution. and make sure the people who need the vaccines the most get them. abc 7 news reporter luz pena is part of this team. she joins us now live from the newsroom with a milestone met in san francisco today. luz. >> reporter: dion, it's a monumental day for this community. latinos are the demographic with the highest number of covid-19 cases not only in san francisco but statewide, and this hub means the city is listening. their plan is to vaccinate 120 people a day and then work their way up from there. the mission district is san francisco's covid-19 hot spot. today the city's first vaccination hub opened, giving this community hope. >> it has arrived and it is such an amazing moment for community, especially a community who is o .>>orter: bng to this point wasn't easy. it actually started across the street where for months ucsf and the latino task force tested thousands of