billions. >> and their are retirement and everything. >> yes. >> we will see you this evening on the nbc bay a area news. >> good evening. on this saturday night, deadly mix, a area news. ions in >> good evening. area news. >> good evening. dangerous winter storm causing crippling freezing rain and ice. at least three dead. thousands without power. twist of fate. 18 years after she was stolen from the hospital where she was born, a young woman meets her biological parents. the woman who raised her now behind bars. war of words. the blistering response from the president-elect after a prominent congressman say he is doesn't see donald trump as a legitimate president. >> merchandise mecca. the place where all the holiday returns end up. scrap heap to some. gold mine to others. close encounter with biggest animals on the planet. beyond the spectacular pictures, how drones may help the whales survive.

nightly news begins now. this is "nbc nightly news". good evening, we begin tonight with a deadly and dangerous ice storm that is paralyzing much of the central united states causing chaos from oklahoma to kansas and nebraska. morgan radford reports it could be one of the worst ice storms in a decade. >> cars sliding off ice covered asphalt, spinning out of control. hunk of mangled metal and flashing light where 20 cars crashed in wichita, kansas. >> be careful guys. >> accident. >> deadly ice storm killing three so far. leaving millions under weather alerts and thousands without power. tens of thousands more worried the electricity and heat will be knocked out by

shattered power lines. >> we want to be able to respond to what happens now and the end of the event. >> in missouri salting the stadium. the playoff showdown between the kansas city chiefs and pittsburgh steelers pushed back seven hours because of the storm. meanwhile in kansas, thousands of bundled up boy scouts on their annual camping trip. get ready to put their skills to the test. >> i will pull the plug and send people home if it looks like we need to evacuate. >> reporter: 200 kansas national guard troops on standby as residents prepare for half an inch of ice overnight and into tomorrow. >> i don't want to have to leave when it gets too cold. >> sidewalks were very, very slick. >> when you know the weather is bad, what do you do. >> be cautious. >> in oklahoma, police say a truck was driving too fast on wet roads when it mowed through a fence and slammed into this building.

>> i'm blake mccoy in st. louis, missouri, where you can see a decent coating of ice on the trees here. a lot of this is melted throughout the day. will refreeze overnight. also potential for more freezing rain. >> reporter: slippery streets and power linings covered in ice across the state. residents smashing their way out. preparing for more ice on the way. the full brunt of this storm is expected to hit here tonight in kansas. this as hundreds of national guard troops are already patrolling key streets and ready to help first responders, jose? >> thank you. dangerous ice situation is going to be a factor through the weekend and into the start of the workweek. just take a look at radar right now. in the last three hours, really seeing ice storm now intensify. portions here in the panhandle of texas and oklahoma. really making its way through kansas. look at the totals we're expected to see by the time this is over with on monday.

still have time here. could see an inch of ice. that's enough to take down power lines. three if not four times that amount. >> it's not just snow and ice, you talked about texas word that some southern states are in for wet weather as well. >> absolutely. now adding another element. talking about the stationary front and moisture from the north. now the low is expected to make its way through the east. see the system intensify. by the time through sunday evening talking about the system intensifying where we could add a severe weather element even threat for isolated tornados. >> thank you very much. in south carolina late this afternoon a reunion took place between a young woman stolen as a baby at the florida hospital where she was born and her natural parents. bittersweet moment 18 years in the making. gadi schwartz has the latest. >> reporter: for 18 years, craig aiken didn't even have a picture of his daughter. only artist rendering from a nationwide search. his baby kamiyah

mobley was stolen from a hospital hours after she was born. >> never gave up hope. always thought i would find her. >> today a private reunion. >> first meeting was beautiful. wonderful. >> for so long praying her daughter was alive. having cake on her birthday, making public pleas. >> i want you to bring my child back. that's all i'm asking from you. that's all i want. >> investigators say it was a dna match that confirmed the teenagers own recent suspicions she might have been kidnapped. police arresting a woman named gloria williams that raised kamiyah as her own. that newborn, now a teenager found living with williams in south carolina. described williams as well respected in the community. >> this woman has taken care of her. mothered her, nurtured her. that's all the biological mother would have been. >> 200 miles south in jacksonville florida, kamiyah's grandmother is overjoyed. >> i haven't seen her since that day she was taken from the

hospital so i just got a big hug for her. that's all. just let me hold you a few minutes. >> aiken says it was difficult to see images of the teenager at a court hearing for williams crying. >> i saw her telling her mom she loved her, but that was the mom she knew. >> she said she understands how confusing it must be, but wants kamiyah to know she has been loved and missed by her real family who never gave up hope. six days before he becomes president, donald trump issued strong counterattack today. says he doesn't see mr. trump as a, quote, legitimate president. congressman is john lewis of georgia. leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. get more on this tonight from kelly o'donnell. >> reporter: on the move in washington, d.c. hundreds march for civil rights to remember doctor martin luther king and to

challenge the incoming trump administration. while in new york, more protests. today, the protest of one legendary civil rights figure, democratic congressman john lewis provoked the president elect. >> i think the russians participated and helped this man get elected. >> lewis went further, a striking statement from a senior elected official. >> i don't see this president elect as a legitimate president. >> you do not consider him a legitimate president. >> no. >> trump fired back on twitter. that lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district. in the atlanta area the trump labeled in horrible shape and falling apart, but trump also accused lewis of being all talk, talk, talk. no action. a charge that seemed to ignore lewis's history, beaten and jailed in the struggle for civil rights. that irony caught fire on twitter. nebraska republican ben sass wrote, john

lewis and his talk, have changed the world. a flood of response followed from hashtag, i stand with john lewis to house democrats using the issue to raise campaign funds, but in six days, trump will take the oath of office as our president. >> the very least, he should be accepted as the president, whether there's disagreements over his policy, over his opinions, that's fine. >> on the eve of the king holiday, some martin luther king soften the charge lewis made. >> is congressman was saying this does not feel like a legitimate president. i can't accept it in my emotions, but realistically, in congress, i'm going to have to work with this president-elect who becomes president on january 20th. >> reporter: all members of congress are invited to the inauguration, congressman lewis and a number of other democrats will boycott this saturday. with all the concerns from both parties over russian hacking, senate intelligence

committee has launched a bipartisan investigation into the hacking and what effects it may have. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you so much. you can see so much more of the interview tomorrow morning on "meet the press." one of the key issues donald trump campaign got and continues to push is keeping jobs in this country. many jobs are changing drastically, especially in manufacturing where the way things are made would be unrecognizable to those making them just a generation ago. anne thompson reports tonight on the challenges this presents. >> reporter: research engineer spends days in a driving simulator. >> put the vehicle into drive. >> reporter: watching people interact with technology. fifth generation ford employee with a job his great great grand father who worked the blast furnace couldn't imagine. >> we are a mobility company. that entails new

things like the research i do today. >> technology is changing the products we make and how they are manufactured. this week, president obama said those changes will only benefit some workers. >> the next wave of economic dislocations won't come from overseas. it will come from relentless pace of out a lot of mild class job obsolete. >> we are on the verge of robotics revolution. 10% of manufacturing tasks handled by robots today n a decade, 25%. >> will robotics help manufacturing stay in this country. >> absolutely because it will lower the cost. >> by lower cost, won't it also cost jobs. >> it will cost jobs and that's what happens. >> remember the carrier plant that agreed to keep jobs at the urging of president elect trump. the ceo told jim cramer the money they promised to invest will go to automation. >> there will be fewer

jobs. >> at the truck plant where ford makes f 150 manufacturing vice president says about 30% of line is robotics. doing the repetitive heavy lifting. >> how does that change the human jobs on the line. >> it makes them better. allowing our people to do what's most important, use innovation. >> 1,000 workers hired here doing jobs required 4 months of training. smarter more efficient work force building products to move america forward. anne thompson, nbc news, dear born, michigan. big changes announced by obama administration this week. reversing a policy when cubans fleeing the island were accepted by this country once they stepped foot on the island. tammy leitner has more. >> for decades, cubans have fled the island and u.s. has welcomed them with open arms, but those days are over. this week the obama administration ended a

policy dubbed wet foot dry foot which gave cubans who successfully reached shores automatic residency and fast track to citizenship. >> it's unfortunate. for the cubans who are trying to escape the regime. >> the surprise decision sending shock waves throughout cuba. >> translator: everyone is depressed, says claudia gonzalez. we don't know what's going to happen to the destiny of all the cubans en route to arrive there. >> the family sold everything they own to get the money to flee cuba. arrived in the u.s. one day before the border closed. one of the last families lucky enough to stay. >> translator: i thank god we made it and even more so for my daughter. >> from here on out, all cubans without claims will be turned away. deported. a change that's been long overdue critics say. arguing the policy encouraged illegal smuggling or

took advantage of the u.s. government aide to send dollars back to communist island. for others, it's a new policy of lost dreams. >> translator: our parents, our brothers, cousins, we have the hope they would come one day, but now with these laws, no one knows. now thousands are expected to be stranded throughout latin america. stopped on their dangerous journey. >> reporter: the policy change another step in repairing relations with cuba. critics concerned this is yet another concession to castro regime without anything in return. tammy leitner, nbc news, miami. >> still ahead tonight, how your returns may be someone else's bargains. take you inside the world of stuff that gets sent back. out of this world. why today's blastoff was so important.

we're back with a question you may have wondered about. where do all the unwanted gifts from the holiday end up once they've been sent back to the store. for some they turn into happy returns. here's janet shamlian. >> reporter: it's a mecca of merchandise. brimming with toaster ovens, televisions and toys. look at all these ipads. >> drones, hoverboards. ipads, tablets. >> anything you can imagine is coming back right now. >> every item in this las vegas warehouse the size of two football fields, someone returned to a seller like amazon, walmart, or home

depot. if the box is open or anything is less than perfect, those companies offload them here. liquidity services where unwanted wares get a second chance. >> all of this is just the start. there are three even larger warehouses across the country. every day, more than 20 truckloads of goods arrive. more than 100,000 items in all. all of them are returns being refurbished and ready to be resold. as e-commerce and free shipping grows. return rates are sky rocketing. 25% of online purchases go back. 40% of clothing and shoes. >> january is peak season. we'll see as much as 50% increase in volume coming back for the next eight weeks or so. >> reporter: every item scanned. packages with similar items, like pet supplies or gaming systems, then auctioned on liquidation.com. for four boxes, jason bid $160. >> we got a wireless home protection system

here. >> reporter: he'll resell it all individually on e bay. >> i'll make $500 off of this. >> reporter: it's a peak end of buying. televisions, so many electronics and occasional item more challenging to explain. >> trap stick for flies. what will you do with this. >> i have no idea. sell it if i can. >> online buying boomerang, turning rejects into revenue. janet shamlian, nbc news, las vegas. when we come back, marijuana goes mainstream, what the new study says and doesn't say about the drug.

marijuana is now legal in 28 states and washington, d.c. for either recreation or medical use, and legal sales are now in the billions each year. with that in mind, a new report out this week highlights how little we still know about the drug. harry smith tonight on the growing questions. >> reporter: marijuana, a harmless intoxicant or a dangerous drug? we asked some people in denver this week why they use it. >> calms anxiety. >> to help me sleep at night. >> i have severe arthritis in my hips and knees been using it for eight years to help me with that. >> national academy of science, engineering and medicine looked at what they think is valid research on marijuana going back to 1999. here are just a few of the important conclusions. first, on the negative side. marijuana and driving and increased risk of crashes.

marijuana and pregnancy, it can lower your baby's birth weight. marijuana and mental illness, it can trigger psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia. on the positive side, marijuana they found is effective in treating chronic pain. can increase appetite during chemotherapy. marijuana is helpful with pain and muscle spasms for people with ms. plenty more scientists don't know. the research simply hasn't been done. >> we could find so little evidence for so many of the questions that we wanted to address. the studies were either not there or they were very weak. >> the deterrent, marijuana is still a schedule one drug. research is highly restricted. how restricted? >> only one university that produces research grade marijuana and that's university of mississippi. >> and dea maintains marijuana is dangerous as cocaine or heroin. which makes research really tough. >> we are way behind

in terms of where we ought to be to deal with public health issues and individual health issues that 60% of americans think it should be legalized. >> it might be nice to know a little more about it. harry smith, nbc news. new york. >> key moment today for this country's commercial space business at vandenberg air force base. spacex launched falcon nine rocket. this time is successfully landed on a barge. similar rocket exploded on launch pad in florida. about 70 launches more than $10 billion planned. up next, whale of a tale you will not want to miss.

finally tonight, anyone who has gotten close to a whale knows how thrilling the experience can be. a fascinating effort to gain new insights into the creatures. researchers are using drones to swoop down on migrating whales not just for photographs, but to capture dna samples. here's nbc tom costello. >> reporter: the images are breathtaking. low pass over a pod of hump back whales cruising off alaska. slowly the camera moves closer and then this. the biggest animal on the planet exhales all of it blowing right

into the face of a drone hovering just 12 feet above. >> it's that stuff that's coming out that's full of this priceless information, you know, on whale biology. >> reporter: that priceless data is what the dishes are collecting. live biological samples from deep inside a whales lungs. >> dna, micro that makes your whole body work. we've got stress hormones, pregnancy hormones. >> all in the dish >> not just alaskan humpbacks. the whale probably thinks the drone is a bird. for perspective, this boat is 13 feet long. a gray whale is 50 feet long. a blue whale 100 feet. perspective best captured by a drone. like this view of a mother nursing calf. at oregon state university, scott

baker is now adding dna samples to a catalog of 3,000 whales. analyzing age, health, and any sign of environmental threat. >> not just about learning about the population now, but about understanding it over the next ten, 20, 50 years. >> while some whale populations are slowly recovering from near extinction, others are still in danger. more information could help save them. >> i think we sort of hit the lottery here. it's almost like the invention of the microscope for biologist. >> scientific jackpot to save a giant of the seas. tom costello, nbc news. gloucester, massachusetts. that's nbc nightly news for this saturday. programming note, starting monday, special nightly news series, across america leading up to inauguration of donald trump next friday. i'm jose diaz balart reporting from new york. thank you for the privilege of your time. good night.

>>. it's a new year, a new president and a whole host of new issues. just what are the expectations and realities for the next four years t. if it's governing like we've never seen before and if it's sunday then you better believe it's meet the press. >> protest erupt as two controversial figures appear on a campus. >> the news at 6 starts right now. thank you for joining us.

>> the controversial appearance planned for last night had to be cancelled because of rowdy protesters. >> was scheduled to speak alongside martin shkreli, by more than 700%. he held his own protest on campus today. >> it's a public campus. they can't stop us from doing what we want. >> the clash is certainly not over yet. >> next month new to speak at berkeley. christy? >> reporter: it's quiet tonight but those students who are here say they are well aware of what occurred last night at uc davis and they have some very strong opinions about mylo and the fact that he is expected to come here the at uc berkeley on february 1st. he's expected tope