Doing. The real fight of the century. Romney holyfield. Down goes holyfield. The onetime president ial candidate sending the former heavyweight champ to the mat sort of at a boxing match all for a good cause today, saturday, may 16th, 2015. Announcer from nbc news this is today with lester holt and erica hill live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Welcome to today on this saturday morning. Im erica hill. Im john roberts. Wasnt that amazing to see holyfield and romney in the ring . There was no contest there. I think for 68 mitt romney looks great. Holyfield is 52. We also saw in the intro ann romney dancing in ahead of her house what a good sport. It raised more than 1 million to help doctors operate on people in other countries with blindness. Twitter said if thats 68 i need to get to a gym. A Surprising New turn in the investigation of that deadly amtrak derailment. Was the train hit by an object shortly before it crashed . And could that have impaired the engineer . The fbi is now on the case. Nbcs tom costello is in philadelphia where the train passed through. Tom, good morning. Thomas good morning to you. At least one and perhaps two other trains traveling through that regional area at exactly the same time were hit by projectiles. The question was the engineer on train 188, who by the way was treated for a head injury after the accident was he hit by a projectile and then incapacitated just as the train was speeding up . This morning new questions about the change of events tuesday night. Minutes before amtrak train 188 derailed a pennsylvania regionalregion al septa train was shot at damaging the windshield. We have seen damage to the lefthand lower portion of the amtrak windshield that we have asked the fbi to come in and look at for us. Reporter was amtrak 188 also hit with a projectile before it crashed . Thats what an assistant conductor told investigators she thought she heard engineer Brandon Bostian say on the radio. He reported that he does not have any recollection of anything past north philadelphia. Reporter bostian said he wasnt sick or tired. Its still not clear why the train kept speeding up. 16 seconds before the crash, 100 miles per hour. Then 106 when bostian slammed on the emergency brakes. One of bostians Close Friends for 20 years says he was watching coverage of the crash and then called bostian and spoke to him from the e. R. He was in shock. He didnt understand. Memory was very fuzzy. He was having a hard time remembering things. Reporter meanwhile in new york on friday Funeral Services for the youngest victim 20yearold navalal Academy Midshipman justin zemser. A freakish accident and theres questions about why but its about celebrating justins wife. Reporter later today a funeral for Laura Finamore on her way home. Also the ntsb is hoping to reassembling the train to put it together to continue to look for forensic clues and amtrak hopes to restart service on the northeast line between philly and new york on tuesday. Thomas and erica, back to you . Tom costello thank you. Jim hall joins us now. As you heard toms reporting, the fbi now involved as were hearing about this fracture pattern on the lefthand side of the front window. Does that indicate to you that the source came from someone targeting in train and now that the fbi is involved are we looking at completely a criminal investigation . Well in any case none of that negates a need for a positive train control system which is designed to override any type of human error regardless of what the human error is. When we talk about human error in this and were still waiting to find out exactly what happened behind the controls of this locomotive bostian has been very open with investigators. Hearing from this assistant engineer she claims she heard over the radio bostian report something striking. How important is it that the event recorders may have capture ed this radio transmissions and fbi can check. Hopefully all of that will be developed as part of the investigation and with the fbis forensic ability theyll also be able to look more closely at the windshield to determine whether it was a foreign object or as a result of the accident the damage that is seen. Bostian says hes well versed with this route and he wasnt fatigued or tired or distracted. Do you think in your opinion that a projectile may have distracted him especially since we know that the train now accelerated and continued to accelerate toward that curve . All of the things that occurred in that cab are still on the table until the investigation progressed to where investigators can determine to the best of their ability what did occur. Former ntsb chairman jim hall. Sir, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. This morning boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is waking up with a death sentencing hanging over his head. On friday a federal jury voteded to give him the ultimate punishment for his role in the attack. Nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams is in boston. Pete good morning. Reporter good morning to you. Heres the big headline in the boston globe. Public Opinion Survey showed the majority of people here in boston including families of some of the victims opposed Death Penalty for tsarnaev but theres widespread agreement here about one thing. Theyre glad its over. The jury voted unanimously to impose the Death Penalty for the victims killed by the bomb he placed near the marathon finish line. 8yearold Martin Richard and a chinese graduate. The jury rejected a plea from his lawyers for a sentence of life in prison arguing that his brother, tamerlan was the driving force behind their crime scene. Whether you agree with the Death Penalty or dont, the message is sent that theyre not going to blow up our marathon theyre not going to blow up our city. Reporter a woman permanently injured from the marathon bombing said she agreed with the jurys decision. It had to be agonizing for them but i still believe it was the right thing. Reporter and liz whose sons each lost limbs asked if the verdict brings closure . Theres no winner today. I feel justice for my family. Reporter it wont be over for decades. Defense lawyers said nothing after the verdict, the law requires an immediate appeal with more likely to follow. One issue, the defense request to move the trial out of boston. If youre not going to move this you might as well say you never have to move a trial with overwhelming evidence of prejudice. Reporter for now tsarnaev will remain at a federal prison in massachusetts and be back in the boston courthouse in a few months for formal sentencing when hell have the opportunity to speak. Though some bombing victims supported the Death Penalty, others opposed it including the family of 8yearold Martin Richard who said a life sentence would have ended the appeals letting the memory of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev fade quickly. Erica . Pete williams for us this morning. Pete thank you. Heather abbott lost part of her leg in the bombing and also testified at the trial. Heather, good morning. Good morning. You posted on facebook yesterday that the verdict doesnt bring you peace and in fact makes you sad. What is it about it that makes you sad this morning . I think when i heard the verdict i was driving home from giving a commencement speech at the Southern Connecticut State University and i couldnt help but think that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in the same position as those students that i met that day and had such a Bright Future ahead of him, and i think its very sad he chose this path and gave up all those opportunities. Of course im reminded of the deaths that he caused and those opportunities others had to give up without a choice. You have become close with a number of the other bombing victims and survivors. Have you spoken to them since you first heard this yesterday and what was their reaction . I was in touch with some of them yesterday. There was just a sort of sense of support letting us know that were there for each other, and i think that most of us are happy that the verdict is finally in and closer to being over but unfortunately i dont think theres really a sense of closure here for me at least. I know you testified. You were hoping that would bring you a sense of closure. Not a lot of emotion as we saw throughout the trial from tsarnaev. Were you hoping you would see more emotion from him . Is that one of the reasons you decided to testify . I think it was. I think, you know i have been looking for answers as to why since the trial started. I think i hoped that maybe seeing him that close and being able to tell my story to the jury and attending some of the trial might answer some of those questions but unfortunately it didnt. I dont think it brought any closure. I think that when i reflect back now, closure happens when i decided to move on with my life and i dont think ill get much more beyond that. One of the ways you decided to move on is to work with other limb loss victims in helping them. How is that helping your recovery and your healing at this point . It has been tremendous for my healing. Just to make some sense of what happened and try to do something good with it has helped me heal and helped me be able to move forward and have a reason to continue to stay motivated i think. A lot of people appreciative of the work you do now. Heather abbott appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. In other news, democratic president ial contender Hillary Clinton is facing new scrutiny over her finances. Newly released forms indicate she and her husband, bill have made 30 million over the last 15 months. Kristen welker has details for us. Reporter Hillary Clinton released her Financial Disclosure forms on friday and they showed that she and former president bill clinton raked in close to 25 million for delivering about 100 paid speeches since january of 2014. Hillary clinton also earned 5 million in royalties from her book hard choices. The disclosure puts the clintons in the top 1 of income earners. That could complicate her message of being champion of the working and middle class. Clintons have faced criticism in the past for seeming out of touch. Last year Hillary Clinton said that she and her family were dead broke when she left the white house. A claim that didnt ring true for a lot of americans. Republicans wasted no time lashing out. In a Statement Released late last night, the chairman of the Republican NationalCommittee Said the clintons claim that staggering amounts of income from paid speaking fees that raise ethical questions and potential conflicts of interest is simply to pay our bills shows how out of touch they have become. Hillary clinton released the information in keeping with rules of federal election commission. Clinton will be back on the road next week making a second trip to iowa since announcing her candidacy. Thomas and erica, back to you. Appreciate it. Time for a look at this mornings other top stories. A major overnight development in the fight against isis in iraq. Washington is keeping a close eye on the situation. Vice President Joe Biden calling iraqs Prime Minister friday promising to send major firepower to the scene. Overnight a key government district in ramadi fell into the hands of isis with militants raising their black flag over the local government headquarters. The governor calls the situation dire as the u. S. Military is launching what it calls painful air strikes to support troops on the ground. Officials in nepal say overnight eight bodies all eight bodies were recovered in that crash of a u. S. Marine helicopter. The chopper carrying two nepalese soldiers and six marines was on an earthquake relief mission. U. S. Investigators are on the scene. Authorities in kentucky are investigating a terrifying incident friday when a young child was dragged by a school bus. It was all caught on camera. A girl was stepping off the bus when her backpack got stuck in the doors as they closed. The bus driver pulled away dragging the girl 100 feet before another car sped up and got the drivers attention. I dont see how he didnt know that the girl was dragging. I couldnt believe it. Her bouncing around in that door all of the way down the street. It was bad. Police say the girls injuries are not life threatening. Frightening moments at last nights reds giants game in cincinnati. One of the firework smokestacks at the ballpark caught fire spewing dark smoke as the game carried on. Fans were evacuated as firefighters put out the flames to applause. A big night in the nba. Golden state warriors led by steph curry won their third street game beating advancing to the western conference finals and what looked like a dramatic buzzer beater thinking he tied the game and saved the season but the refs thought otherwise and the hawks walked away with a 9491 victory advancing to the eastern conference. Thats as tough one. Hawks have come a long way. When thomas and i lived in atlanta, you couldnt pay people to go to those games. It was terrible. The butt of all of the jokes. Nice to see how far theyve come. Dylan, can you explain . I was supposed to be in the ring with holyfield and then this happened and mitt romney stepped in. They raised more money with him in the ring. Im okay. Hi a fractured bone. I slipped on ice ironically. Go figure. Look at the weather going on across the country. This is in nebraska western nebraska yesterday. Hail the size of eggs. We also had 70mileperhour winds and torrential downpours. Look at those supercell clouds. Those are really incredible cloud formations. They do produce serious weather. Were starting off today with stronger storms especially right through parts of oklahoma up into kansas and now these storms arent severe right now. They could become more severe later on today. Heres the setup, upper level low, a dip in the jet stream and gulf moisture will combine and produce a round of strong storms later on today especially in red. South central nebraska most of kansas and stretching down into most of oklahoma we do have a threat of seeing long track tornadoes meaning tornadoes that stay on the ground for an extended period of time. Thats the threat for today. Tomorrow were looking at this yellow area from st. Louis up to minneapolis into the western great lakes. We could also see some stronger storms hail damaging wind gusts and also flash flood watches. Texas and oklahoma have had a lot of rain recently and any additional rain could lead to flash flooding and we could hey, good saturday morning to you. Im meteorologist anthony slaughter. Starting off cloudy this morning. Few areas of drizzle especially along the coastline. Temperatures not too cold this morning. 50s and 40s for the most part. Later this afternoon temperatures are going up just a little bit from where they were yesterday. 60s across the board. 70s for the north bay. 72 San Francisco, 68 meanwhile in the south bay. Well let you know if theres any rain headed our way coming up. You did a great job getting back to the chair. Were trying to help her. Its weird pointing with this thing. You have to keep it up. Its really awkward. Shes not seeking attention. Shes not. I swear. Want to auction it off . That will be great. Well sign it later. Coming up next a look back at the weeks biggest headlines. The second huge earthquake in nepal to the death of music legend b. B. King. Those stories and more but first this is today on nbc. Back now on a saturday morning with the download and a quick recap of the weeks top stories. Jeb bush under fire about his changing comments about the iraq war to that big suspension of tom brady but we begin with the deadly amtrak crash in philadelphia. Tragedy on the tracks as an amtrak train derailed in philadelphia killing eight. The train was traveling in excess of 100 miles an hour. How do we get out . People are panicked. Smoke was starting to fill the car. I landed on my head. At the center of the investigation engineer Brandon Bostian. His Attorney Says absolutely no recollection of the incident or anything unusual. Overseas another earthquake strikes nepal. The country still attempting to recover from last months disaster. A 7. 3 quake lasted more than a minute rattling already damaged buildings and sending up clouds of dust. This one just seemed like it would never stop. There are reports of landslides buildings down and once again bodies. In the middle of the disaster zone a massive search for a missing helicopter carrying six American Marines and two nepalese soldiers. The helicopter was delivering relief supplies to earthquake victims. Three days after its disappearance, the scattered wreckage of that huey helicopter has now been found on the side of the mountain where it crashed. There are no signs of survivors. The next chapter in deflate gate as the nfl hands down punishments to Quarterback Tom Brady and his team the new england patriots. The league announced a fourgame suspension for brady. Patriots will lose the firstround draft pick in 2016 and fourth round draft pick in 2017 and face a 1 million fine. Tom brady is not breaking down just yet. He filed an appeal and hearing his appeal will be nfl commissioner Roger Goodell. In politics jeb bush under fire for his comments on the iraq war. Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion . I would have. So would have Hillary Clinton. Just to remind everybody. Bush tried to walk back his remarks. I interpreted the question wrong. Knowing what you know now what you have done i would not have engaged and gone into iraq. Music world saying goodbye to the undisputed king of blues. B. B. King died at his home in los angeles at 89. B. B. Had his first number one record in 1951. King referred to his black gibson guitars as lucile. Its a good friend with you. What he could do with lucile amazed blues