developed electronically controlled air brakes where the brakes on every car fire simultaneously. and they began encouraging industry to do this. norfolk southern tried this early on and raved about it as a safety mechanism, even lobbied transportation officials saying if we put these brakes on a train you shouldn t have to inspect it at all, it s that safe. but when barack obama tried to make them mandatory in 2014 after a series of derailments, at least for the explosive cars, industry fought it. the chemical industry. the railroad industry. they lobbied it down. they fought against speed limits. it did exist on those explosive carcinogen tanker cars until the trump administration later in 2018 rolled it back altogether. and bill, tell us more about norfolk southern because they were bragging in their press releases about how many billions they made last year and yet i m really kind of unimpressed by their refusal to show up at the town hall and the paltry offerings they ve made to
couple days after they detonated all the tanker cars. and there was this plume that went up and everybody seen the photographs of this plume that went up. it stratified out at about 3,00. this guy in showed black stuff precipitating out of this dark cloud over his house it. reminds you of that nuclear winter stuff that you see when you watch these nuclear explosion programs and stuff. and i m saying wow, this really looks like a nuclear winter. pretty much, yeah. we nuked this town with chemicals and this is what they are getting. steve: we re showing the plume, that black plume the stuff goes up and comes down. what happens? you are worried there could be cancer causing 5, 10, 15 years. could impact ground water and well water there are fish dying in nearby water ways and
bret: last week s train dearradeedee railment. spew out gas five tanker cars causing many residents to complain of health problems. ohio republican senator j.d. vance tweets he is horrified by the crash and it images and offering assistance to constituents. a water utility as far as away as west virginia is taking precautions as health concerns mount. several class action lawsuits have already been filed against norfolk southern company more on the potential health implications a little later in the show. meantime, a collision between a train and a truck in texas has left the driver dead. the fire department in east montgomery county near houston says 16 cars derailed there but there is no danger to the public. bret: we have new exclusive video of border patrol agents capturing a mexican cartel drone flying in the u.s. airspace. we also take you behind the
the train derailment emergency in ohio. authorities release toxic chemicals from tanker cars. the race to recover that suspected chinese spy balloon shot down off the south carolina coast. the military saying the debris field is roughly 15 football fields by 15 football fields wide. what can the u.s. learn from the remnants? president biden on the eve of the state of the union address. our new reporting on last-minute changes to his speech. a day after she made grammy history, tickets to beyonce s new tour on sale. and the father, the daughter, and the bucket list in inspiring america. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening, and thank you for joining us. powerful and dangerous aftershocks have continued to rattle parts of turkey near the syria border where the death toll has climbed above 3,000
been on the rise across the country. bret? bret: so sad. alexis, thank you. up next the panel on senator manchin s interview about debt ceiling negotiations and a preview of the state of the union address tonight. first, here is what some of our fox affiliates around the country are covering. hundreds are patients are evacuated after a nine alarm transformer fire broke out this morning. the fire departments from a number of neighboring south shore communities were called in to battle that blaze as emergency crews swept the inside of the healthcare facility about 125 patients taken to safety. fox 8 in cleveland as residents of east palestine were waited to return to their homes. evacuated to officials deal with chemicals from the wreckage of a derailed train. flames and black smoke billowing into the sky monday evening when crews released and burned vinyl chloride from five derailed tanker cars. they were in danger of exploding. and this is a live look at philadelphia from our affilia