in vermont, the armed and dangerous suspect on the loose after the suspicious death of a woman along a trail near a college. police pleading to the public for help. the surprise new jobs report. 336,000 added in september, nearly double expectations, but does it raise the odds of more interest rate hikes the investigation into a major concern over the nation's 911 network. why help may not arrive in time if you text 911 instead of call and simone biles breaking her own record to make gymnastics history >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt good evening, and welcome. president biden tonight facing blowback from his own party over his administration's intent to build new wall sections along the texas/mexico border the president insisting he has not changed his opposition to the wall, but that his hands are tied to stop the expenditure given the project was funded before he became president meantime, officials in texas along the nearly 20-mile section to be built are dubious over how far additional wall will go toward impeding the sustained flow of migrants illegally entering the country. tonight, pressure growing on the biden administration to come up with a lasting policy solution to address the crisis that's impacting the border and cities far beyond tonight morgan chesky is in texas with the latest. >> reporter: tonight, on the border, the ongoing surge in illegal crossings averaging more than 9,000 a day in just the last week, border officials tell nbc news, and now new fallout after that broken campaign pledge from president biden funding nearly 20 miles of new border wall in starr county, texas, the president again today defending the decision. >> i was told that i had no choice. i can't say i don't like it, i'm not going to do it. >> reporter: the money allocated by congress during the trump administration. mr. biden saying he tried to get lawmakers to change it, but they refused, and the law required the wall money to be spent. now he's facing bipartisan criticism including from key democrats upset over the new wall >> i think it's a terrible idea. i think it's a broken promise. >> reporter: after then candidate biden said this during the campaign. >> there will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration >> reporter: while republicans say biden border policies are encouraging the migrant surge, reactions tonight here in starr county where the additional wall would go up. >> we need more than 20 miles make it 40 or 60. >> reporter: this county judge says he's still not been told where exactly the wall would go >> we have a lot of questions, and personally a lot of things that i don't agree with >> the rio grande valley needs a solution. >> yes. >> but you don't believe the wall is the answer >> exactly. >> reporter: the move comes as so many keep making the dangerous trek north at a border shelter, we met gracia from venezuela and rosa from ecuador, who say they were robbed in mexico and frightened but want to work hard here for their families a dream shared by so many others that today while visiting mexico city, new york city's mayor, eric adams, shared what is the sobering reality, he says, with new york city's resources stretched thin by 120,000 migrants. >> we want to give a real picture of what's happening in new york city we are at capacity >> morgan, you mentioned this wall funding had to be spent by law, but why now? >> reporter: lester, the white house says they were required to act on this by the end of the fiscal year, september 30th, so essentially they ran out of time to debate this very issue. in the meantime, there is still no firm timetable on when the proposed new section of wall will be going up here. lester >> morgan chesky at the border tonight, thank you. the showdown over who will be the next house speaker is heading for a pivotal week with two high-profile republicans pushing for the job, and former president trump now endorsing one of them garrett haake now with the latest on that >> reporter: tonight, the race for the speaker's gavel intensifying with former president trump weighing in declaring conservative firebrand jim jordan has his, quote, complete and total endorsement. >> he is a great guy he's been very successful, very respected. he's doing a fantastic job right now, and he's been with me all the time, i mean, literally from as i was announcing that i was running, he was endorsing me, and there's something nice about that. >> reporter: some house republicans had pushed for trump to run for speaker with jordan facing off against the house gop's current number two, steve scalise. >> i've got a long proven record of someone who knows how to unify republicans. >> reporter: republicans hoping to select a speaker next wednesday. >> this time next week do you think this is settled? >> look, i think it's going to take a little bit of time. is it possible to get there on wednesday sure is it likely no. >> reporter: but many are also pushing for rules changes, so the small handful of republicans who joined with democrats to remove speaker kevin mccarthy cannot do it again. >> matt gaetz and those hard-liners, they're a real problem, and i don't think the pyromaniacs are going to be satisfied after they've burned down one house. i think they're going to have an itching to go burn down a couple more >> reporter: and with weeks until the government faces another shutdown, president biden saying he's willing to work with whoever emerges from the chaos. >> whomever the house speaker is, i'm going to try to work with. they control half the congress. >> reporter: and tonight kevin mccarthy says he plans to stay in congress despite losing the speakership and run for re-election next year. lester. >> all right, garrett, thanks. the risk of flooding a big concern tonight from the leftovers of tropical storm philippe and a flood watch just issued for new york city, as well. bill karins is following it for us. take us through it. >> good evening, lester seven days after historic flooding in new york city, the threat has returned. this time it's this huge ocean storm that absorbed and collided with this cold front. this is going to be saturday morning over in new york city it's going to be a narrow band just like last time, and where it sets up as flash flooding for possibly 16 million including the five boroughs, the hudson valley and a little sliver of connecticut. here's the timing on everything, saturday morning for new york city. by the afternoon it clears out, then it's going to be moving towards boston and all through new hampshire and vermont. as we head through saturday night, we'll watch the heaviest will pivot through northern new england and sunday things improve. a lot of heavy rain heading for northern new england where we could see flash flooding in the adirondacks and up through vermont and portions of maine. saturday is a bad day. >> bill karins, thank you for that. in philadelphia tonight, police have issued an arrest warrant for a suspect in the killing of a journalist and social justice advocate earlier this week. anne thompson has late details. >> reporter: tonight, philadelphia police are looking for this man, 19-year-old robert edmond davis wanted for the murder of journalist josh kruger the 39-year-old kruger was shot seven times inside his home early monday police say the two men knew each other. >> we believe that mr. kruger was trying to help mr. davis, and they were acquaintances. he was just trying to help him just get through life. >> reporter: kruger's friend kendall stevens shaken by the blood on his front steps. >> we're not going to let this slide we're going to find out who did this to him. he was killed in cold blood. >> reporter: among the evidence, authorities say, davis caught on camera in the area of kruger's home. >> we have video of the incident prior to the murder. >> reporter: but police declined to specify what that is in columns published in a variety of philadelphia outlets, kruger wrote passionately about homelessness, addiction, and lgbtq issues, all issues he lived. >> i have two big stories out right now. >> reporter: along with his writing, kruger also served as the city of philadelphia's spokesperson for five years. last night kruger's colleagues and loved ones mourned him at a memorial service >> i could not believe it after everything to be taken so cruelly. >> reporter: friends left trying to finish kruger's story, a life ended too soon anne thompson, nbc news and another urgent search under way tonight in vermont police looking for an armed and dangerous suspect after a woman was found dead along a popular hiking trail kristen dahlgren is there. kristen, what's the latest >> reporter: good evening, lester. a manhunt under way tonight along this remote but popular rail trail after what police are calling a suspicious death a woman's body was found here on thursday afternoon after a witness described hearing gunshots at this point state police say the woman is not a student at nearby vermont state university at castleton. the college is currently on fall break, but any students or faculty that are remaining are currently under a shelter in place police and search teams have been canvassing the area looking for what they describe as a white male, 5'10" with brown hair he is considered armed and dangerous. they are also asking any local residents or businesses to comb through their surveillance video for anything unusual they say at this point they do not know who the suspect is or any connection he might have to the victim lester >> all right, kristen dahlgren, thanks. markets rallied today with the major indexes all up after the latest report on jobs the economy adding 336,000 jobs last month, almost double what economists had predicted. so what does this mean for the fed and rate hikes? tom costello joins us. tom, what should we know >> reporter: yeah, lester, this was a blockbuster september jobs report. many employers continue to hire, suggesting a recession is not on the horizon. the unemployment rate remains at 3.8%, close to that 54-year low. president biden today said americans are enjoying the benefits. >> i think that the american people are smart as hell and know what their interests are. i think they know they're better off financially than they were before. it's a fact. >> reporter: yeah, the july and august jobs numbers were also revised up more jobs added. hourly wages have increased moderately the fed's interest rate hikes do appear to be having the effect. inflation is trending down, but the fed wanted to see fewer jobs created as a sign inflation is truly cooling, so will it continue to hike rates next month or hit pause? the higher rates have helped push 30-year fixed mortgage rates to 7.84%, the highest in 23 years, and that has slowed the housing market lester. >> all right, tom costello, thanks ahead, what do you do when the big company in town shuts its doors? inside one small town's fight for survival right after this you heard about today's robust job numbers, but not all americans are feeling that momentum with some towns facing a daunting challenge as the business that kept them going for decades pulls up stakes. brian cheung went to one such town in missouri. >> reporter: the sun is about to rise over the tyson chicken plant in noel, missouri, population, 2,100. down the road at the cliffside cafe, one of the few restaurants in this town, workers past and present gather >> can i get a large coffee, please >> to go or for here >> for here, please. >> reporter: jimmy lassiter just wrapped up her overnight shift, a job she's held for 11 years. >> i would really like to keep coming by here because i want to support the local businesses, and with the plant closing, they're going to lose a lot of business. >> reporter: in a few weeks, the tyson plant will close for good. the town says a third of its population works there. >> this closure is going to affect us, but we've been through covid. we've been through floods we're going to get through this. >> reporter: for jimmy, 1 of the 1,500 people losing their jobs at the plant, it's the end of an era. four generations of her family worked there, and without a job, she may not meet her car payments. >> i don't want to lose this car. >> reporter: without a car, jimmy says she can't commute to places where manufacturing may be growing and there's few other opportunities if she stays here >> a lot of the bigger towns, you know, people are like, well, why don't you just go to mcdonald's? where is a mcdonald's? >> reporter: this plant has been a fixture in noel for over 50 years. tyson bought it in the 1990s, but now it says it has to close this and five other plants to improve performance. this as it's opening up new facilities in kentucky and virginia. tyson tells nbc news it has offered a thousand dollars to those who stay on through the plant's closing, made plans to relocate about 250 workers to other facilities, and host job fairs to help the rest in noel, mayor terry lance has fielded interest from one company to take over the plant. he's worried that without any takers, people, especially the town's somali immigrant population, will start to leave. >> i'm afraid we're going to end up losing close to 100% of the african population >> reporter: set on the elk river, noel is a summer tourist stop known for fishing and kayaking mayor lance says tourism should be the town's big bet >> do you think that it's time for this town to move past the plant? >> i do, yeah. i mean, it's hard to lose that big an employer, especially for a town this small, but i've always felt like tourism was the right future for this town. >> reporter: jimmy is now bracing for change. >> if you end up leaving noel, do you think that's it, or would you ever come back >> i don't think that i would. i think that once -- if i were to leave and move over near my children, i don't think i would come back. >> why >> there's not really anything here. >> reporter: a cautionary tale of a small town's reliance on a single big employer brian cheung, nbc news, noel, missouri. coming up, it's a 911 lifeline, texting your emergency instead of calling, but there's a serious problem with the system, next with the freestyle libre 2 system know your glucose level and where it's headed without fingersticks. manage your diabetes with more confidence and lower your a1c. it's covered by medicare for those who qualify. ask your doctor about the freestyle libre 2 system. in some life-and-death situations, it's dangerous to call 911, and texting is the safer option in other cases, texting is the only option, but candice nguyen of our nbc bay area station in california reveals a major problem with our emergency texting system >> i was teaching, and the pain was making me literally bend over. >> reporter: in 2015 college math professor william wong had a life-threatening emergency with his gallbladder. being deaf, calling for help wasn't an option >> he texted me to call 911 for him, but i was not near my phone at that time. >> so, i decided to drive myself to the emergency room the doctor said that if it had ruptured, i could have died. >> reporter: since then texts to 911 has been seen as a solution to these life-and-death situations when a person can't call. in 2021 emergency dispatchers received more than 400,000 911 texts, but there's still a major problem. >> a lot of people don't realize that when they send a text message to 911, 911 does not necessarily know exactly where they're located. >> without knowing the location, nothing else can happen. >> reporter: mark fletcher specializes in location data >> from my home in new jersey, i sent a test text message to 911. they had no location at all i had to tell them where i was. >> fletcher says when you call 911, there's constant data flowing between your phone and a cell tower helping that tower locate you, but when you text, the data is a snapshot in comparison your text first gets forwarded to a separate entity called a text control center, which then tries to communicate with your cell phone carrier to then try and establish your location. this problem doesn't just impact the deaf community. there are emergencies where calling 911 can be dangerous, and texting is the safer option for instance, in a domestic violence situation or an abduction where the victim has no idea where they are brian ferguson is the spokesperson for the agency in charge of california's text to 911 rollout. >> we understand that being vulnerable or being disabled, being older, maybe speaking english as a second language, that shouldn't change your ability to receive services in a time of crisis. >> reporter: in our interview, ferguson wasn't aware of the geolocation issues, but in a follow-up email said, it is accurate that with current technology text to 911 does not offer the same level of location accuracy as in voice calls. >> the deaf community is yelling, no, this doesn't work you need to fix this. >> reporter: wong's daughter, gabriella, is working on a solution her app, access sos, locates a user through wi-fi or phone data and then streamlines that information in a text to an emergency dispatcher the app now in use in three cities, already helping to save lives. >> my wife and i are so grateful for her, and our community so needs this >> reporter: a need now heard loud and clear. candice nguyen, nbc news, fremont, california. coming up, simone biles becomes the most decorated gymnast ever. and later, her fight earned her the nobel peace prize and landed her in jail next yet another record for gymnast simone biles, who won the all-around gold medal at the world championships for the sixth time today rebeca andrade of brazil took silver, and biles' teammate, shilese jones, won the bronze it was the first time three black women have shared the all-around podium at the worlds. finally, this year's nobel peace prize awarded to an iranian activist jailed for her human rights work. andrea mitchell now with her defiant message. >> reporter: tonight the nobel peace prize shining worldwide attention on longtime activist narges mohammadi for fighting against the oppression of iranian women >> her brave struggle has come with tremendous personal cost. >> reporter: currently in prison, mohammadi releasing a statement that the nobel peace prize will make her more resilient and determined. president biden in a statement celebrating mohammadi's remarkable courage adding, she has endured repeated arrests, persecution and torture. mohammadi has been a leading voice in the unprecedented protest sparked by the death last year of mahsa amini arrested for not fully covering her hair what effect do you think this could have on the regime and on the crackdown against the women protesters? >> it's crucial that the international community stand in solidarity with the iranian people, and this is extremely symbolic and hopefully helps us highlight the iranian people's aspiration for secular democracy. >> reporter: iran's president raisi blamed the protests on the u.s. and others. >> translator: some european countries and the u.s. were making use of this incident as a project against the republic of iran. >> reporter: just this week, 16-year-old armita geravand was hospitalized human rights groups say she's in a coma after being attacked on a subway by police for leaving her hair uncovered, fresh evidence for why narges mohammadi has been making this her life's work. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. that's "nightly news" for this friday. thank you for watching i'm lester holt. please take care of yourself and each other. good night right now on "nbc bay area news tonight," our october heat isn't going away just yet. we're tracking how hot it's going to get this weekend and when we finally will cool down. also, the blue angels putting on quite a show with crowds of people