the challengers argue they do not and that only congress does. on the other hand this chart is why the biden administration is pushing so hard to get more people vaccinated even if it means those mandates. omicron is driving up cases and now hospitalizations are picking up as well. the cdc director warned today that we have not reached the peak quite yet. >> hospitalizations and deaths, although we're now starting to see the number of hospitalizations rise as well. the way it has peaked in other countries, in south africa it has come down rapidly as well, but i don't believe we've seen a peak yet here in the united states. >> omicron's rapid spread has now prompted a critique from doctors who advised the president during the transition. they're calling for an entirely new domestic strategy to address what they are calling our new normal, a virus that will never truly go away. a sentiment that was dismissed by the president today when he took questions at the white house. >> no, i don't think covid is here to stay. having covid in the environment here and in the world is probably here to stay. covid as we're dealing with it now is not here to stay. we're going to be able to control this. the new normal is not going to be what it is now, it's going to be better. >> let's begin with those arguments at the supreme court. joining me now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams and university of baltimore law professor and author of "how to read the constitution and why," kim whaley. pete, the arguments today lasted three hours and 40 minutes. what can we suss out from how the justices were asking questions? >> it's pretty clear that the majority of the court is going to rule that the obama administration cannot for now enforce this osha requirement. the issue before the court was not really the legality of it. it was a somewhat more technical question of whether the lower court orders that wanted to put a stop on it should be sustained, in other words whether the supreme court is going to block enforcement. that's really the question. and i think the answer is yes. the majority of the supreme court's conservatives seem to be concerned about sort of three things. number one, the fact that this is such a broad mandate, it's not targeted to any individual industries, it doesn't make a differentiation between someplace that has workers all spread out and some places where it has assembly line workers standing shoulder to shoulder. secondly, that covid is not strictly a workplace hazard, that seemed to bother some of the conservatives. osha certainly can control workplace hazards. but these conservatives said covid is everywhere, it's not limited to the workplace. then the question of whether congress gave osha the authority to do this was a central question and a lot of the conservatives seemed to say no, that for something this sweeping, affecting this many people, it would have to have an action by congress. obviously the administration is supporting this, they say it is a workplace hazard, osha has that authority. it's less clear, katy, what the supreme court will do on the second one, the health requirement that would cover about 17 million workers. the court may be more willing to allow that one to go into effect nationwide. it's blocked in about half the states now. and there's a big difference here. there's an entirely different regime of statutes. justice elena kagan said today, certainly the one thing hhs can say to people who employ health care workers is, you're not allowed to kill your patients. and there is also a strange legal aspect to this. the people that are suing in the osha cases are the employers who would have to do this. the people that are suing in the hhs cases are primarily not hospitals and nursing homes, they're states and other groups that are opposed to it. so there's a legal complication there. so my guess here is that the court will say they can't enforce the osha requirement but they can enforce the hhs requirement. it's less clear about hhs. it's pretty clear about osha. >> i know you said obama administration, but i know, pete, you meant biden administration. >> i'm sorry, yes. >> i know our viewers know that as well but just in case, let's clear that up. >> thank you. >> kim, let's talk about the two cases kim was just laying out. i wonder if the biden administration tried to narrow down the scope of who needs to get this testing, if they said meat packing industry where people are working side by side and other industries like that, those are the ones that are required to get that testing, do they -- would they then have a better chance with this supreme court? if we're working under the assumption that they're probably not going to overrule this block on osha? >> i'm not so sure about that, katy. this is really a massive power struggle, not so much about whether vaccines are okay or even mandates, but who has that power. and i think it goes beyond whether it should be congress. i think there are some people on this court who would believe, conservatives, that even congress doesn't have that power. and there is discussion floating around about the states' police power. i think there is some notion that only states can do this, and the progressives, more progressive justices, justice breyer, justice sotomayor, justice kagan, are saying, wait a minute, people are dying. justice breyer said something like, are we really serious that it's good for the american people to block a vaccine mandate in this moment? i think these justices, we'll see moving forward a pulling back of federal authority to regulate the economy and vaccines i think are just the step today. that is, the argument is there's nothing allowing agencies under the president to regulate vaccines. but even congress arguably can't do that, there was discussion that the commerce clause doesn't give the power. justice sotomayor floated the spending clause. so again, i think we might be in a world where some of these justices just think government shouldn't be able to do this at the federal level, period. >> kim, how would that maybe expand to other requirements that we have across the united states? is there anything else that you're thinking of? >> sure. you know, this goes back to something called the nondelegation doctrine, that last reared its head in fdr's new deal. and conservatives, when fdr started creating all kinds of agencies to regulate the economy in the wake of the stock market crash, saying listen, we need more government intervention, the argument was only congress can make laws, and the supreme court started striking down agency authority to regulate. they call these regulations, they function at laws. agencies do everything from manage nuclear waste facilities to aviation to import/export controls, food and drug. all kind of things, all walks of life, a lot more regulations are out there than acts of congress. since fdr, since that sort of -- that phase of striking down statutes ended when fdr basically threatened to pack the court, things we're hearing about now, right, the supreme court has been hands-off and said, as long as congress kind of gives some guidelines to agencies, they can pass regulations. that's why this discussion today about the vaccine is a little kind of academic in a way, because the court for decades has now justified massive authority in agencies to regulate. and if the court pulls back on that, which i think these conservatives could do, we could see potential chaos in our economy and in our everyday lives because we have a dysfunctional congress that's probably not going to pick up the mantle of legislation in the kind of rigorous way that agencies do and that we all enjoy, frankly. sometimes they go too far, but i don't think people understand how much we depend on them for rules guiding our lives. >> and pete, one final question. what's the timeline on when we're going to get these two decisions? >> good question. normally speaking, if this was a normal case, it would take months, but this is not. it came on the emergency docket. the supreme court had this extremely rare friday session. and so they're going to act pretty quickly. and one of the things that came up today was, would the court issue a temporary stay on the enforcement of this, temporary block enforcement just to give the court more time to consider this. so a couple of days, for example. it wouldn't be a decision on who is right or wrong here, it would just say, time out, hold the phone until we can decide what to do. justice alito suggested that's what the court should do. so there are two possibilities here. one is that a majority agrees with him and the court maybe later today, maybe over the weekend, maybe monday, says temporarily we're going to block this and then a couple of days later we get a ruling on whether the biden administration can enforce it or not. so, quick action. >> pete williams, kim whaley, we'll expect quick action, as pete was saying. a stunning new prediction out of florida this afternoon, scientists at the university of florida project that at the end of this wave, 80% of people in florida will have been infected with covid. 80%. right now, florida is reporting around 56,000 new cases every single day. nbc news correspondent sam brock has an exclusive look inside florida's largest testing lab. right now it is one of the busiest in the country. >> reporter: the united states is looking at a staggering level of covid infection right now, at least ten days of running. it took the u.s. six months to register the first 4 million cases. it's taken seven days for the latest 4 million, just to give you a sense of the astronomical level of infection. what this testing facility is doing is nothing short of remarkable, 40 to 50,000 pcr tests in this country. the demand has skyrocketed. they're telling me the positivity right now is 30 to 35%. at the beginning of december it was 2 or 3%. there is also conversations going on right now about the latest guidance from the dissatisfaction when it comes to quarantining and then advising but not requiring a negative test to return to work after five days. the american medical association right now with some harsh words for the cdc, saying that it is both confounding and counterproductive, confusing, to set the standard for america. the cdc defending its actions right now, saying it's getting widespread approval from lab settings all over the country as they try to navigate this very tricky terrain. in miami-dade, sam brock, nbc news. thank you, sam brock. dr. vin gupta, thank you very much for being here. last year you were talking about how this virus affects the lungs. you posted a picture on twitter with one set of lungs looking very clear, a noninfected with covid set of lungs, and then an infected set of lungs that look pretty bad, the lungs that might need a ventilator. you were arguing the vaccine would result in the first set of lungs if you contracted covid. a year later, what have we found? >> well, katy, good afternoon, happy new year. it's interesting, because i believe that the messaging now has widely embraced exactly what myself and my other pulmonary icu colleagues across the country were saying at the time, that vaccines against contagious respiratory viruses keep people away from ventilators. in lung physiology, in lung medicine, we're used to graphic imagery to help people stop smoking. we're looking at something similar here. that basic messaging is being embraced by the biden administration, by the former advisers yesterday with the op-eds. when we look at it in the icu community, we say we've been talking about this for the last year, this simple message. i'm glad, better late than never. >> when do you think we'll see the peak of this wave? just talking about those florida numbers, 80% of floridians at the end of this wave could be infected. i think any layman following this right now would rightly wonder if that would mean there would be herd immunity. >> it depends on how we define that. i will say that for all your viewers out there, the institute for health metrics is estimating that daily infections right now, there's the difference between what we're confirming through actual tests and what is out there. the number is 2.6 million cases day over day, is what is being estimated to be occurring right now. the number is going to peak probably by the third, fourth week of january. we believe daily deaths will peak first week of january, 2,000 daily deaths, not too different than last year at this time. yet, here's the hopeful part, he found march is when we expect things to really start to subside. we expect 76% of the country will be fully vaccinated amongst eligible individuals by the end of march. the remainder, given those astronomical omicron numbers, will get light at the end of the tunnel. >> everybody will be having a happy spring. just to repeat what you were saying, 2.6 million cases estimated every single day because frankly not everyone is getting tested and not everyone has the access to get a test and some people are asymptomatic who wouldn't think to get a test right now. dr. vin gupta, thank you so much for joining us. we always appreciate the clarity of your responses to our questions. thank you, sir. still ahead, we could soon learn the fate of three men convicted in the killing of ahmaud arbery. the latest on the sentencing hearing happening right now. also ahead, joe biden finally delivers the january 6th speech democrats hoped to hear months ago. new reporting from the white house about why that speech at this moment. later, the man who has been hailed as hollywood's first black movie star has died at the end of 94. a look back at the trailblazing career of sidney portier. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. i'm jonathan lawson 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prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. and there you have it. woah. wireless on the most reliable network nationwide. wow. big deal. we get unlimited for just 30 bucks. sweet, but mine has 5g included. relax people. my wireless is crushing it. that's because you all have xfinity mobile with your internet. it's wireless so good, it keeps one-upping itself. take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes it easy to switch and save hundreds. not only did they lynch my son in broad daylight, but they killed him while he was doing what he loved more than anything, running. >> that was marcus arbery, ahmaud arbery's father. this morning he gave a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing for the three men convicted of killing his son. that hearing is still under way at a courtroom in georgia. travis mcmichael, gregory mcmichael, and william roddy bryan chased and murdered arbery. joining me now is nbc news correspondent catie beck and former federal prosecutor paul butler. catie, what was it like in court today? >> katy, there has been a lot of emotional testimony from arbery's mother and father, describing the great loss of their son and saying they are there to be the voice he could not be for himself, making very clear they feel the mcmichaels targeted him because they didn't like how he looked in their community and they never gave him a fair shot at surviving the encounter. there has been some argument from the lawyers of the defendants that that amount of prison time doesn't fit the crime. both sides are making stark arguments for and against the parole possibility. this judge, who has heard all the arguments so far in this case, will be the one to ultimately decide whether or not they will have that eligibility for parole. but that only comes after serving 30 years of this mandatory life sentence. now, arbery's mother was very clear this morning. she spoke before she went into court and spoke again in the courtroom about how she does not think there has been any remorse on behalf of these three defendants and therefore they deserve no leniency. here is what she had to say before the judge. >> they chose to target my son because they didn't want him in their community. they chose to treat him differently than other people who frequently visited their community. and when they couldn't sufficiently scare him or intimidate him, they killed him. >> now, katy, keep in mind this is not the final chapter for these three defendants. they are set to face a federal hate crime trial. that is going to start in the next month. >> paul, let's talk about the sentencing. as katy was saying, the judge has full discretion here for maybe even parole or the option of parole, at least after 30 years. the argument from their lawyers that they can grow and change while they are in prison, how do you expect that to play? >> so katy, the defense asked for parole, saying that after 30 years in prison, these men would deserve an opportunity for redemption and that life without parole should be reserved for the worst of the worst. but the prosecution is asking the judge to sentence all three defendants to life without parole, meaning that they would die in prison, because they acted as armed vigilantes, the prosecutors said, who took the law into their own hands. >> what is your expectation from the judge, though? i mean, we have all of them with a mandatory life sentence. but travis mcmichael was the one who was guilty of an extra charge, of malice murder. >> so the judge may choose to sentence travis mcmichael, who was the actual shooter, more severely than the other two defendants. all three men are now convicted murderers. but only travis was convicted of malice murder, the most serious crime. and travis mcmichael also took the stand in his own defense. if the judge thinks he lied during his testimony, that could be a factor in sentencing. the judge will also look for the defendants to express remorse for their crimes and empathy to mr. arbery's family. but katy, sometimes that's difficult for defendants when they are appealing their convictions, as all three defendants have said they plan to do in this case. >> what about jackie johnson, the former georgia district attorney? she's facing criminal charges as well for violating her oath of office by obstructing a police officer in connection with the investigation. what could happen to her? >> this is one of the rare cases in which not only are police officers implicated, as we've seen in high profile cases. in this case a prosecutor has been charged with abuse of office, reportedly and allegedly she tried to aid some of the defendants who knew her after this crime, and she didn't herself prosecute them. so that's an important legal development. and apart from the criminal trial, this case has brought about other important legal reform in georgia. there's a new state hate crime law. and georgia's citizens arrest law has been revised. the original law, which was passed during slavery, was designed to help white citizens apprehend runaway enslaved people. so katy, criminal trials are about bringing individual wrongdoers to justice. but these kinds of legal reforms actually have more of an impact for racial justice. >> they can be long standing and they can be very wide berth, even though they're just about an individual in the moment. paul butler and catie beck, i appreciate it. coming up, why president biden finally went after donald trump, although he didn't do it by name. and government buildings set on fire in kazakhstan, thousands of people protesting in the streets. troops ordered to fire without warning. what exactly is happening out there? your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire healthier starts when excuses end. what? it's too windy. right now at cvs, get $10 in extrabucks rewards when you spend $30 on select wellness support products. with this offer, there's no room for excuses. at fidelity, your dedicated advisor will help you create a comprehensive wealth plan for your full financial picture. with the right balance of risk and reward. so you can enjoy more of...this. this is the planning effect. it is an important moment for joe biden, one year into his presidency. on thursday he gave the speech many democrats had been yearning for, a sharp condemnation of donald trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the violence his lies inspired. biden laid blame for the insurrection at trump's feet without even uttering his name. >> you can't love your country only when you win. you can't obey the law only when it's convenient. you can't be patriotic when you embrace an enable lies. >> "the washington post" reports that speech does not mark a shift in biden's strategy on how to handle his predecessor. instead, the president's aides and allies told "the post" biden felt he had no choice but to directly address trump's culpability in the capitol insurrection on january 6th and the threat he poses to democracy. next week biden will do something else his party is pushing for. he'll put the bully pulpit of the presidency behind the push for new voting rights legislation when he travels to atlanta on thursday with vice president kamala harris. joining me now is pbs news hour chief washington correspondent and msnbc political contributor geoff bennett, and the man who so capably filled this seat while i was on maternity leave. and ashley parker, welcome to both of you. ashley, the speech from biden yesterday was sharper than we've heard from biden in the past. there are a lot of folks out there who say this was the best speech of his presidency. what is the white house's strategy for that speech and why aren't they going to continue on that line going forward? >> well, this was a moment where they felt president biden had to directly, clearly, impressively and forcefully confront former president trump's role in the january 6th insurrection. and it is, you're right, the debate has been roiling the party. the white house on the whole, especially led by biden, ron klain, mike donnellon, sort of generally say they don't want to elevate trump. it was very clear who the president was speaking about even though he never uttered the word "trump." he said "the former president" 16 times. there was think doubt. but generally biden wants to show democracy in action by, he would argue, showing democracy in action, passing legislation. but this was a moment, an elevated anniversary. it was a time when they knew he would have a ton of media attention on him. and if there was ever a moment to deliver this speech, they decided that yesterday was that moment. >> so geoff, even as biden gave that speech, there are trump loyalists being appointed to positions all around the country, positions where they could sway things in the election if they were so pressured. there are also a number of people who were there at the capitol, insurrectionists, who are running for office in various places. i wonder, does the white house feel at some point in the future, coming up toward 2022 or 2024, if they're going to need to deploy that same sort of rhetoric, that same sort of forcefulness again to remind folks of just what happened on january 6th and in their words, the threat to democracy that all of that still poses? >> i think it's fair to have that expectation based on my conversations with white house officials. don't expect president biden to engage rhetorically with donald trump the way that he did yesterday. but when it comes to the specific issue, then certainly i think that will be the case. you heard senator tim kaine on this network last hour say that he expects the senate to pass voting rights legislation by mlk day which is a fairly ambitious timeline. in order for that to happen, this is going to be a messaging battle on the part of elected democrats both in the white house and on capitol hill. and that messaging battle starts with the sort of frank language we heard from president biden yesterday. president biden so often describes this moment as a battle for the soul of the nation. and so the determination was made that in order to unify the country, to explain what's really at stake, it calls for a top to bottom calling out, a direct condemnation of the forces that seek to divide us. yesterday that force that seeks to divide us by name was donald trump even though as you rightly mention, president biden didn't mention donald trump by name, certainly didn't have to. when it comes to donald trump the man, don't expect president biden to engage with him. but when it comes to the issue of voting rights and what's at stake for the democracy, the expectation from the white house is you can expect to see more of that. >> forgive me, guys, i don't usually play fox news clips on this show but there was a remarkable moment yesterday between tucker carlson and ted cruz. ted cruz had said some pretty frank statements about the insurrection. and then tucker carlson went after him. i'm going to play the initial comments and then the exchange with tucker. let's listen. >> we are approaching a solemn anniversary this week. and it is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the capitol where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage. >> the way i expressed things yesterday was sloppy and dumb. >> i don't buy that. whoa, whoa. you were a supreme court contender. you take words as seriously as any man who served in the senate. you repeated that phrase, i do not believe you used that accidentally. i just don't. >> so tucker, as a result of my sloppy phrasing it's caused a lot of people to misunderstand what i meant. >> i mean, i don't really know what to say to that. he said it was a violent terrorist attack. it was at the very least a violent attack on the capitol. i went through a litany of the deadly and dangerous weapons that federal prosecutors say the rioters used from flag poles to riot shields, pick axes, bear spray, et cetera. i just think that's really telling, ashley, the way that ted cruz had to try to back up and apologize for stating the truth. >> senator cruz sort of has an outsize appetite for self flagellation. former trump and his false and bogus claims about election fraud, and, i would add, the whitewashing, the concerted effort to whitewash the violence of january 6th, have overtaken the republican party, for people who want to stay in good standing with the former president, with some of those fox news hosts who we now know were advising the former president quite regularly, and with the base. and that's what you were seeing senator cruz do. he had deviated from what has now become accepted orthodoxy. he very clearly believed he was paying a political price and scrambling to try to walk it back. >> incredible. ashley parker, thank you so much. geoff bennett, thank you, and thank you for sitting in this seat and allowing me to have the time with my growing family, i appreciate it. also congratulations on the new job, it is amazing. and we are so excited for you and also excited that you stuck around to help us out here as well. thank you, guys. >> thank you, katy, appreciate it. turning to kazakhstan, in the face of growing unrest that country's president is warning protesters to surrender or be, quote, destroyed. demonstrations began peaceful a few days ago but snowballed quickly into the most serious unrest the nation has faced in decades. russia and allies sent troops to kazakhstan to help regain control and yesterday the country's president ordered those troops to, quote, fire without warning. joining me now from london is nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley. matt, help us understand what's going on out there. >> reporter: yeah, katy, it sounds as though the warning from the president may have had the intended effect because as of today he's been saying that calm has been restored to the streets of the commercial capital and the country's capital. it sounds as though things have been calming down, whether it was because of the shoot to kill order or because of the menacing introduction of thousands of russia troops as part of the umbrella group of ex-soviet states sent in at the president's request to try to restore security. so the situation there seems to be at a bit of an impasse right now. the next couple of days are going to tell us if these protests are going to continue despite the threats from the government. katy? >> matt, thank you very much. next, breaking down the good and the bad from today's confusing jobs report. also ahead, a winter wallop. say it ain't snow. i brought in ensure max protein, with 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(excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and nutrients to support immune health. today's jobs report gave us a bunch of mixed messages. the good news is the labor market seems to be recovering. the not-so-good news is that that recovery is not happening as quickly as anyone would have hoped. just under 200,000 jobs were created in december. that is half of what economists predicted. the unemployment rate did continue to drop. but the narrowing pool of workers likely played a big role in that movement. joining me is the host of npr's "full disclosure" podcast. how should we be looking at this jobs report? >> katy, you can just picture larry david in "curb your enthusiasm," one of those, eh? what are you going to say? you were expecting more than 420,000 jobs, we get a buck 99. having said all that, we're coming out of a ridiculous, unprecedented crisis in modern economic history where we've derailed the entire economy overnight, in a matter of a few days in march of 2020. coming out of that won't be the same as coming out of a garden variety recession or even a great recession like we saw in '08 and '09. >> part of the reason we're seeing people leave their jobs is they're taking other jobs that are better paying jobs. so it should be applauded, not that people are quitting or leaving the workforce but that they're finding work that gives them benefits, work that pays them more, work that works for their life more. is that true? >> no doubt that workers have seen more leverage right now than we've seen in a long time. i think the number of jobs created last year was a record going back to 1940, about 6.5 million jobs, again, coming out of the crater of 2020. but yes, wage power is up there. pricing power in terms of what you can command for your services. but having said that, we're still about 3 million jobs shy of where we were in february of 2020 and there is an "x" factor. i don't understand what people are using to tide themselves over. if you're using the child tax credit or what's left of extraordinary unemployment benefits, that's lapsed for several months now. even if you're having a great rethink and great reconsideration of everything, you still have to pay the bills. and overwhelmingly, millions of people are still holding out. >> there are a lot of women specifically out there, i think a couple of million women who can't go back into the labor force because they can't find childcare or they can't find affordable childcare, so that's an issue. i was reading today there's a pretty large number of people who are starting their own businesses, and that's not being taken into account as rapidly in these jobs numbers from the labor department. >> yeah, that's possible. coming out of these declines, these big economic slowdowns or these crashes, these financial crises, is a great time for creative destruction, for new things to be created. if you have nothing to lose, if you're terrified of losing your job, if you don't want to go back to working that hourly grind or your best option is an amazon or a starbucks, you're kind of saying to yourself, maybe this is my time to make that leap of faith. and there are people doing it right now. certainly money, if you can get it, doesn't seem to cost much. the fed has been at near zero policy for the longest time. >> that could change, though. roben farzad, thank you so much for joining us, good to have you. parts of the northeast saw their first major snowstorm of the season overnight. certainly we did here in new york, we woke up to snow here and connecticut got up to 8 inches in some areas. in massachusetts, the snow was falling at a rate of 2 inches per hour. mother nature isn't done yet. now an arctic blast is on the way. joining me now from boston is nbc news correspondent kathy park. kathy, i love the snow. i hate hearing the words "arctic blast." >> reporter: yeah, me too, especially when you have to stand out in it, right? >> i get it. >> reporter: here in boston the conditions are actually getting a little better. the snow is starting to taper off. but earlier this morning, as you mentioned, the snow was really coming down hard. 1 to 2 inches per hour. but as you know, it's pretty cold out here. so anything that falls, it's sticking and it's accumulating, and the crews here really had their work cut out for them. this is atlantic avenue behind me here that you're looking at. not a lot of traffic. as you know, we're living in covid so a lot of people are probably working from home, probably had the day off. a lot of kids don't have school today. boston public schools canceled school because of the inclement weather. but kind of going back to the cleanup effort, i mean, they had 2,500 pieces of equipment scattered throughout the state today. boston knows what they're doing when it comes to a snowstorm. they were able to get ahead of the storm. they were able to clear the roads pretty quickly. but as you mentioned, the big chill is on the way. and it feels like it's already here. and the temperature is expected to drop into the teens later on tonight. so all of the snow that is melting will likely refreeze during the overnight hours. so we'll probably be dealing with another round of slick conditions in the morning. but, you know, just kind of looking around here, people are enjoying this snow day. they're taking it all in. we saw some kids bringing out the sleds and enjoying themselves. it was a break for them to kind of enjoy what has turned out to be a nice, cold day. >> listen, when the temperatures drop, just be careful about getting on the roads because the roads can freeze over and you can get into some issues there. other than that, do enjoy the snow. kathy, i will say, i spent a little over a year in the new york bureau covering what was known then as the polar vortex, where i would frequently go to places where the temperatures had a feel or a real, actual temperature of negative 40 degrees. so i understand your pain. and i hope someone's going to bring you a hot chocolate. somebody out there in boston, bring kathy park a hot chocolate. kathy, thank you very much. >> reporter: i'll take two. >> bring it for the crew, don't forget about the crew. up next, a beloved legend who paved the way for a generation of black stars. parodontax active gum repair kills plaque bacteria at the gum line to help keep the gum sealed tight. parodontax active gum repair toothpaste hi, i'm debra. i'm from colorado. i've been married to my high school sweetheart for 35 years. i'm a mother of four-- always busy. i was starting to feel a little foggy. just didn't feel like things were as sharp as i knew they once were. i heard about prevagen breaking news. let's listen to the sentencing. >> we're here to determine what an appropriate sentence is quite separate from the notoriety of the case and any other outside influence that may exist, and so the court is going to be very careful in having considered the evidence that's appropriate in this case to consider in the superior court. with that all being said, let me start with this statement. as we all now know, based upon the verdict that was rendered in this court in september, ahmaud arbery was murdered. it's a tragedy. it's a tragedy on many, many levels. on february 23rd of 2020, almost two years ago, a resident of glenn county, a graduate of brunswick high, a son, a brother, a young man with dreams was gunned down in this community. as we understand it, he left his home apparently to go for a run and he ended up running for his life. he entered the english home at approximately 1:04 p.m. and left that home at about 1:08 on that day. at 1:14, greg mcmichael calls 911 to let them know there's a black male running down the street, and within moments ahmaud arbery is shot and killed. the three men that are now before this court chased him in a residential neighborhood in a pickup truck with shotguns and a reinvolver. the state mentioned this today about the time period, but i do want to put that time period in context, and the only way i can think to do so may be a little theatrical, but i think it's appropriate. i want to give you all a concept of time. what i'm going to do is sit silently for one minute. and that one minute represents a fraction of the time that ahmaud arbery was running in scintilla shores. that's approximately a minute. again, the chase that occurred in scintilla shores occurred over about a five-minute period. and when i thought about this, i thought from a lot of different angles, and i kept coming back to the terror that must have been through the mind of the young man running through scintilla shores. the jury heard the evidence and returned a verdict, and what a difficult job they had under the circumstances. without any comment on the verdict itself, i think all counsel will agree and accept that this was a very difficult case to even get a jury impanelled on, and there are issues out there with regard to the jury that were brought up in the press and elsewhere, but i want to give credit to those members of the panel not because of their verdict but just because of the fact they were will going through the process they went through with the state, with the defense, and with this court. we're here today to sentence the defendants, and discharging the duty, this court is required to consider all mitigating and aggravating circumstances. this court has considered the circumstances including but not limited to all aspects of the crimes charged, the past criminal record or lack thereof of the defendants. i've also considered any lawful evidence which tends to show the motive of the defendants, their lack of remorse, their general moral character, and any predisposition to commit other crimes. now, i think in this case the record speaks for itself. and the defendants' own words guides the court through sentencing. i went back through my notes and other resources to pull some of the quotes that we have in this case. i'll start with greg mcmichael. in my opinion, greg mcmichael very early on in this tried to establish a narrative. he made comments like ahmaud arbery was trapped like a rat, stop or i'll blow your -- and i won't repeat it again -- head off. he effectively admitted he wasn't sure what ahmaud arbery had done wrong. quote, i don't think the guy has actually stolen anything out there, but if he did, it's northwesterly the process. but he keeps going back over and over again to this damn house. getting back to the narrative, he told travis, you have no choice. he told another guy, he ain't no shuffler, this guy is an asshole. he commented he wanted him, ahmaud arbery, to know we weren't playing. if i could have got an shot of the guy, i would have shot him. travis mcmichael claims he was in shock, but it's interesting because he talks about his concern for his child and his own well-being. part of this was while the victim was actually laying there in the street, commented this was the worst day in my life. i think it's been touched on here today. there were other individuals that were impacted. i look at the video of this incident -- when i say the video, i think everybody knows what i'm talking about. but there was one part of it that struck me as absolutely chilling. it was the enhanced video provided by the gpi. there's a frame where it looks like he was 20, 30 yards out. it's the frame of travis mcmichael lifting the shotgun to fire at ahmaud arbery, and you watch that with context. i want to say context, after hearing evidence in this case, thinking about a young man who had been running at that point for almost five minutes, and it is a chilling, truly disturbing scene. and we got there because travis mcmichael's father saw ahmaud arbery hauling down the street and calls out, let's go. at that point travis mcmichael, despite whatever may have been going on in his life at that time, with regard to family or otherwise, just goes, grab as shotgun and goes because he assumes that it is the right thing to do. ahmaud arbery was then hunted down and shot. and he was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands. mr. bryan, he joined in after calling out, do y'all got him, claimed he didn't know what was going on, but honestly wanted to know who the individual who was running through the neighborhood who he didn't know had been caught in some way. said, quote, i'd figured he'd done something wrong but i didn't know for sure. that wasn't exactly the quote. there are two quotes. didn't know for sure. i thought he would get away. and this is the part that is disturbing to me with roddie bryan. if the guy had stopped, this never would have happened. all of these quotes give context, i think, to the video that we saw during the case. wanda cooper-jones this morning made a statement that i think when you look at the statements and you see the videos is very true, and that is, she said, when they could not scare or intimidate him, they killed him. there's been discussion about remorse, and i agree with counsel that it is dangerous for defendants who have multiple prosecutions against them to make statements of remorse, but remorse isn't something that is simply a statement of regret. remorse, i think, can be determined by looking at somebody's reaction to difficult circumstances and the reality of the situation that they're in. again, it doesn't require an apology. quite honestly, sometimes apologies are made simply to get past problems. remorse is something that's felt and