newly appointed proprieor of that material as the new speaker of the house. that s despite the fact that he pointedly refused a lawful congressional subpoena from the 1/6 select committee last year. now in defending his decision to share 41,000 hours of previously unreleased footage exclusively with far-right insurrection-friendly personality tucker carlson, mccarthy is showing americans he either does not understand or does not care about the potential risk that decision presents. speaking with the washington post, mccarthy suggests this, that the public fury over the selective release isn t really about egregious security concerns. in fact, it s about jealous, he insisted on the part of the media at the heart of the outrage. hang on. it gets better. today politico is first to report that house republicans, many of whom have framed the 1/6 insurrection as the defendants in those criminal cases as victims of a political attack are now moving to provide those defendants acce
organizations experienced in dealing with exactly this kind of material. the timeline here, the waste removal was paused over the weekend following complaints from texas and michigan officials who said they didn t know the waste would come to their jurisdictions. why didn t they know what was coming their way? i don t know all the details of the environmental cleanup process. what i know is that there are ways that are set up for states to communicate with each other about this. and there is often a private sector role as contractors who have that extremely rigorous epa certifica certif certify step up to do that challenging work. this is both in responding to disasters like this and in routine operations. it happens a lot, which is why it is regulated so tightly, so carefully and closely. and epa has taken over the process originally led by norfolk southern to make sure that it s going to be handled well. of course, every situation, politics playing a role in this. som
program, a ruling that will impact millions of people, one of the court s most influential cases this term with implications beyond the student loan issue. the plaintiffs which include six republican-led states, two borrowers who do not qualify for this program, are challenging the legality of the plan which would cancel up to $20,000 in debt for some borrowers. so just to give you an idea of the scope here, outstanding student loan debt in this country is more than $1.7 trillion. the vast majority of that, we re talking more than 90%, is from federal student loans and those are the ones that would be eligible for some forgiveness under biden s plan. so far 16 million borrowers had been approved for that relief. when the legal challenges put the plan on hold, officials estimate the program could cost some $400 billion. education secretary miguel cardona speaking with cnn this morning talked about why the administration is so focused on this and why the administration believ
i m lindsey reiser, we ve got a jam-packed hour ahead. right now, 50 million americans are waking up to winter alerts, including heavy snow, ice, even some tornadoes. a fast moving storm system tearing across the great lakes into new england, dumping heavy snow and complicating the morning commute for many. new york city is seeing its first steady snowfall of the year. take a look at this, the normally bustling bridge in the daylight hours eerily empty covered in a soft bed of snow. illinois dealing with its own severe weather. two tornadoes touching down, setting off terrifying sirens. we re tracking all of it for you this morning. plus, growing frustration in east palestine ahead of the epa administrate s third trip to the town since that toxic train derailment. federal officials knocking on more than 500 doors in town checking on residents, some of whom have been diagnosed with health conditions like bronchitis. others are fearful of getting sick in the future. i m sca
cities and towns, this after severe storms ripped across oklahoma and parts of the central u.s. this morning, more than 50,000 without power in the region. at least nine tornadoes touching down in oklahoma and kansas. wind gusts equivalent to a category 3 hurricane about 120 miles an hour battering texas. ahead, the latest on the storm s and what s to come. plus, at least two people are dead, three others wounded after a drone attack in ukraine. this as the u.s. is now warning that china will face penalties if beijing provides russia with drones and ammunition, as u.s. intelligence indicates, to aid russia s ongoing invasion of ukraine. we do begin this hour with the latest on those severe storms and tornadoes. cnn s senior national correspondent, ed lavendera is in norman, oklahoma. cnn meteorologist chad myers standing by with the latest forecast. we want to begin with you, ed. some pictures there, just alarming. tell us what you re seeing on the ground. reporter: wel