From portland, oregon. Gabe, this pan demme sick getting worse nationwide, where you are, iowa hit a record high for the number of deaths in a single day with a 41 test Positivity Rate. We hear a lo of numbers. The statistics are staggering and some doctors sound close to their breaking point. How are they coping . Reporter hey there, hallie. Youre right. 41 Positivity Rate here in iowa. The White House CoronavirusTask Force Report puts iowa and its neighboring states in the red zone throughout the country, warning of an unyielding and exponential spread of the virus. At this hospital the icu is full here, so are the icus at several other hospitals in des moines and we spoke with a doctor here who is frustrated that more people havent adhered to Public Safety guidelines, Public Health guidelines in the last few months. Take a listen to her message. I think its incredibly frustrating. I think theres a sense that no one is listening to us and it really does feel at times as if were on the field, were fighting fires and yet people continue to set fires. It feels like its even worse than its ever been as opposed to getting better. Reporter so the situation here in iowa is growing more dire. The governor here enacted a mask mandate, a limited mask mandate several days ago, after being relet the record further reflect tant to do so for months. There are some critics in iowa that said the mask mandate does not go far enough. It requires people to wear a mask within six feet of someone else, for more than 15 minutes and some critics here say that doesnt go far enough and its too little too late. So lets go, gabe, from the midwest now to the east coast here, because yazmin, in new york city the biggest Public School system is closing for inperson learning because the covid rates are getting so high in the city. There is a lot of disagreement to say the least over whether that is the right step and i think speaks to this discussion over Remote Learning that so many parents around the country are dealing with. Talk about the disruptions in new york, the expectations for how long this pause on inperson learning could last. Reporter hi, yes. Look at the school behind me. Usually this is bustling with kid, even though theyre partially remote, partially inperson. Yesterday they shut down schools across the city, 1. 1 million kid are all remote from home. Its really anybodys guess when theyll get back to school. The mayor is saying its definitely through the thanksgiving holiday. They want to institute a new testing policy where parents and kids are getting tested and completely sterilize the schools across the city. If they get kids back into the school its in a safe environment. Parents and teachers ive about been speaking to are worried thinking kids will fall behind because of the closure of schools. Businesses arent shutting down. The Positivity Rate is 3 and the Positivity Rate inside schools is 0. 2 . A lot of sounding the alarm saying businesses should be shutting down, not necessarily schools protesting in front of city hall a little bit later today and many of them are placing the blame and garrett can probably speak to this more later, placing the blame on the federal government and why republicans and democrats cant get their act together to bring relief to so Many Americans across the country so then the businesses can shut down, they can bridge the gap through some closures and schools can stay open in new york or bridgport, connecticut or pittsburgh. A dozen schools are shut down today or will be shutting down to go all remote because of these spiking Positivity Rates across the country. And yazmin, those are some of the biggest cities around the country. You teed us up for garrett on capitol hill. Covid relief seems to be a nonstarter at this point but washington is not immune to the number of rising cases specifically where you are on the hill, the number of lawmakers testing positive, keeps going up and up and up with concern and frustration and impact frankly on the political agenda. Ive got no senators, they left town late last night because one of their oldest members, Chuck Grassley tested positive for the virus. We had another republican senator in quarantine after exposu exposure. The two positive cases alone were enough to make it difficult for the senate to handle its basic business. On the house side, weve had Seven Members test positive in the last week. Think just rolled out testing and one of the members got his test at the testing site here on capitol hill. It would not shock me in the slightest if we saw more positive cases roll out over the next couple of days with the house in town, folks getting tested but on the covid relief front theres been no progress, none. On tuesday night Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi sent a letter to Mitch Mcconnell almost literally engraved invitation to rejoin some kind of talks, some kind of negotiations on this process. Weve heard no response from connells office. The senate home through thanksgiving, people around the country looking for relief, have to wait at least a little longer. There are so many people looking for relief. Anton antonia, you know that very well where you are. Were learning that 742,000 americans filed for Unemployment Benefits last week, becoming a desperate situation. Youre covering whats going on places to help people put food on the table in oregon. How bad is it out there . Reporter thats right. Here in oregon a new freeze on business went into effect yesterday and its hitting people in the hospitality and Food Services industries, particularly hard. Thousands of people are now trying to get on unemployment and here in portland, the freeze is expected to last at least a month, at least. It could be extended longer than that. I spoke to a Program Manager of the food bank behind me here. She told me throughout the pandemic theyve seen about a thousand percent increase in need and they expect these lines to get longer as now right ahead of the holidays, tons of people are losing their jobs and losing their income. I spoke to other administrators of other food banks in the state and they tell me the longer we go without a federal aid package available, the more people in communities like this one suffer. Take a listen to this. I think weve seen the results of inadequate federal response over the last six to eight months of the virus. Numbers in march we made significant price in the fight to end hunger in oregon, one in 12 people. That is nothing compared to the doubling of Food Insecurity, the doubling of hunger weve seen in the months in. Reporter you just heard jason at the Oregon Food Bank there is a that prior to the pandemic, oregonians experiencing Food Insecurity here was one in 11 or one in 12. That has doubled. Their Research Shows we are about now at one in five people in the state are experiencing Food Insecurity. Back to you, hallie. Antonia hilton, thank you. Weve heard from our reporters on the ground. Now to some officials handling the pandemic response, specifically in the state of south dakota. If it were a country, by the way, it would be in the top ten, the top three countries with the highest average number of cases per capita over the last couple of weeks in the world. I want to bring in the mayor of sioux falls, Paul Tenhaken. Thank you for being with us early this morning on a busy time for you. You bet, hallie. So your state is already reporting a 28 increase in covid cases in the last couple of weeks, a 68 increase in deaths. Can you talk about what you are bracing for now in the days ahead, specifically as we head into thanksgiving and the holidays there in sioux falls . Well, its tough. Based on your previous correspondence, just gave the reports, the covid spread is hitting across the country and south dakota, were getting hit hard right now and so what were trying to do right now is ensure that Health Care Capacity stays manageable. We, a lot of people dont realize this, but we have Large Health Care systems in sioux falls and so they have adjusting their kind of icu volumes to prepare for that, but the Positivity Rate and the spread that were seeing in this community has been challenging. So what weve had to do is initially rely strongly on the personal freedom approach, which our state has kind of taken and now we had to step that up, most recently our City Council Approved a mask mandate in our community to try to curb some of the spread a little bit, but continues to be a challenge here in south dakota to manage through this. A challenge is certainly a fair way to describe it, mr. Mayor, and i have to ask you about that mask mandate. I understand it goes into effect this saturday, this coming weekend in sioux falls. Interestingly, that is a break with whats happening statewide with the governor, who has gotten a lot of attention especially where i am in washington opposing a mask mandate. Have you spoken with her about this . Are there any concerns in your view about the mixed messaging from the people coming from the local government versus state government, versus frankly the federal government . Well, every state has taken a little bit different approach to this. Every city has taken a different approach. My responsibility as the city of sioux falls, the largest city in the state but i am a purple city in a red state. Were 50 rs, 50 ds. I have to make decisions i feel are best for this community. Its masks do slow the spread of the virus. What we havent seen is data that shows that mask mandates really do that. So i think thats some of the pushback that you see on mandates, people question the efficacy if they help curb the spread. We know masks work but mandates dont seem to always work so i think thats why theres been reluctance across the country. In sioux falls we implemented that and it will go into effect saturday as you said, just this week because of that reluctance. At this point well do whatever we can to try and get a handle on whats happening right now. I guess that get to the point i think im personally really interested in, around this country. You are as you say i think you phrase it as a purple city in a red state. There are people in sioux falls who are looking to leaders to help them make decisions and theyre looking to for example the state leadership in a red state who is saying there is no mask mandate necessary. Theyre getting a different message from you and from your folks there in local government in sioux falls. Are you worried about the mixed messaging . How do you deal with that . Its challenging. Theres mixed messaging all over the country from clinicians to elected officials to local leaders like myself so our mask mandate for instance goes into effect and will enforce masks in all Retail Businesses but no penalty to it. Meaning, you have the people who are totally against mandates and we say listen, dont abide. Theres no penalty. You have the people who dont feel thats far enough and theyre on this side but 60 , 70 of your population lives in the middle and theyre just going to do the right thing. This is the ordinance. Well do this. Theres no effect on me personally. So if this is one thing i can do, im going to do it so thats the approach i guess were taking in sioux falls for the next several weeks. Do you blame the president for some of that mixed messaging . I wonder you talked about elected officials having a responsibility here to get a clear and consistent message out. We heard that largely from Public Health officials, less so frankly from the white house. I have quite honestly been a little frustrated with the message from the top because as we all know, message from the top trickles down. Because there hasnt been a lot of consistency in that messaging it left us at the local level, city councils, commissions, all taking different approaches. We have kind of patchwork legislation that were passing, so it does put a lot of pressure on us as local leaders to try and do the right thing. Mayor Paul Tenhaken i appreciate your time and per spec think of this morning. Coming up, we are live with a key member of the biden covid Advisory Board who says this whole transition delay means her team has their hands tied behind their backs. Looking ahead to a News Conference in a couple hours from the president s legal team as our sources tell us when exactly they think his legal fight will end and what some allies think about his prospects. Spoiler, its not good but it is heated in wisconsin with drama at a marathon emergency hearing overnight ahead of a partial recount set to start there soon. Were live on the ground with why one board member will not water what she calls a plant of bologna, next. Lanning and advice to help you prepare for the future, without sacrificing whats most important to you today. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident that the only direction youre moving is forward. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident vicks vapopatch. Easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. 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Even before a single ballot has been retallied, wisconsins partial recount is already off to a rough and very combative start with what felt like a partisan brawl in the States Election commission made up of three republicans and three democrats. What was expected to be a pretty routine local government meeting instead stretched nearly six hours about rules for the recount, and about President Trumps unsubstantiated baseless claims of fraud in their counties. I think thats absurd. I think its factually bizarre and excuse me, what i think we ought not be doing is watering that plant of baloney. This is ridiculous. All you and dean keep talking about is evil democrats are going to do something nasty so these honest hardworking republicans arent going to be able to see whats going on and im tired of that. Wisconsin is just one of many legal fights for the president s team and my colleagues and i are reporting this morning, hes expected to keep up those fights for now, probably well into december even as his allies nudge him to acknowledge and accept his loss in the president ial race and start making plans for what happens after the white house. Thats according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. One Senior Administration official telling our team at nbc news those close to the president know the legal challenges are continuing but understand theyre futile. The Trump Campaign and republicans filed 30 lawsuits, no big wins so far. 19 suits dismissed, denied, settled or withdrawn and during the commercial break we learned of one more with the Trump Campaign withdrawing its lawsuit in michigan because they say theyve gotten the results theyd wanted. Let me go to nbcs shaquille brucer in milwaukee. Take us into the partial recount set to begin in a day from now but boy, did that overnight meeting that lasted well into the wee hours of the morning foreshadow what this will feel like moving forward. Thats right, hallie. Last nights meeting of the Wisconsin Elections commission is that it was supposed to be a fairly routine meeting to authorize the recount in the state. It was a meeting put on the calendar only in the instance of the candidate filing for a recount. We know that President Trump paid the 3 million and requested a recount, he filed that recount petition so they had this meeting to authorize the recount and set out that recount order, an official document that tells counties to start the process. Well, they got there eventually but took about six hours to get that unanimous agreement to send out the recount order. You saw much of the disagreement over the recount manual that goes out to clerks, they were trying to update it to account for the coronavirus, to set clear guidelines how clerks should handle that, when you saw sparks fly between the democratic members on the panel and the republican members, they really went back and forth with it. I watched plenty of those meetings and the level of sarcasm with the meeting last night was pretty high bar that they set last night. What happens at this point . Well we know that Milwaukee County says they will not start their recount process until tomorrow but today, were seeing them prepare for that. Were in front of the Milwaukee County courthouse. We just saw on the other side of the building several moving trucks come up, theyre going to be moving balloting material, the votes taken from elect