we re in for joe, mika and willie. making headlines this morning, the death toll in new york state rises after that epic winter storm. we re going to go live to buffalo where a driving ban remains in effect amid efforts to clear the roads. southwest airlines continues to struggle to recover from the storm. thousands more flights expected to be canceled today as transportation secretary pete buttigieg calls for accountability. plus, title 42 stays in place for now. the covid era policy that allows officials to turn away migrants at the border. we ll break down what this means for the crisis at the southern border. as we begin our fourth hour, we have a lot to get to. we ll start with the rising death toll in western new york. officials warning it s not over yet as they have to clean out. in erie county there s reported three additional deaths yesterday and that brings the total to 31 lives lost. buffalo, that s still under a driving ban this morning because work crew
uses to assess what charges it might pursue. the one charge that looks like it s dead on the money here, almost as though the statute was written with trump s activity around the 2020 election in mind, is interference with an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, which is congress meeting to certify the result of the election of january 6th. that doesn t require the use of violence or force like a seditious conspiracy charge. it doesn t have the first amendment problem that might be implicit in charging trump with events surrounding his speech on january 6th. what it requires is the proof of this extension course of conduct to interfere with january 6th and that s what we see with trump. there s this funnel of activity that starts with lawsuits and as the lawsuits don t pan out, we see ongoing efforts the report documents more than 200 efforts to reach out to state