saying after the bombshell meghan and harry interview. f.b.i. manhunt-- new security footage of the person suspected of placing pipe bombs in the nation's capital ahead of the capitol riot-- the $100,000 reward. covid relief plan: could the ne tax credit help 10 million children currently living in poverty? george floyd murder trial: jury selection begins in the trial of ex minneapolis police officer derek chauvin. pandemic prediction: we speak to a harvard epidemiologist who predicted the severity of the coronavirus outbreak. his projection tonight for the rest of the crisis. and we'll introduce you to officer l.c. buckshot smith-- still on the beat at 91 years old. you won't want to miss this one. this is the "cbs evening news" with norah o'donnell, reporting from the nation's capital. >> o'donnell: good evening to our viewers in the west, and thank you for joining us. we are going to begin with some new warnings and some signs of progress in the fight against coronavirus. just hours before texas will fully reopen its businesses and end its statewide mask mandate, tonight there are concerns that one of those highly contagious variants of the virus is spreading rapidly in that state. houston's health department says new tests of the city's waste water shows ongoing and uncontrolled community spread of the u.k. variant. that news comes as more states are joining texas loosening restrictions as the rate of new infections continues to decline nationwide. tonight, the number of hospitalizations for the virus have dropped, too, down to a level not seen since october. and as we come on the air, more than 32 million americans have now been fully vaccinated, as states expand who is eligible to get a shot. meantime, here in washington, the u.s. house is expected to pass that nearly $2 trillion covid relief bill as soon as tomorrow morning, clearing the final hurdle before president biden signs it into law. we'll have more on just how soon you could be getting a $1,400 stimulus check from the government in just a moment. we've got lot of a new reporting for you and your family tonight. our team of correspondents is standing by. cbs' jonathan vigliotti is going to lead off our coverage in los angeles. good evening, jonathan. >> reporter: good evening, norah. here in california, nearly one in five people have received at least one dose of the vaccine at sites like this one. the c.d.c. is prioritizing overweight and obese people because they are more likely to get significantly sick. meanwhile, there is a lot of concern tonight some states are reopening too fast. tonight, there may be trouble in texas, the state set to reopen tomorrow, all businesses, including restaurants, able to operate at 100% capacity. >> no more six people in the store, waiting in a line outside. so silly. done. >> reporter: but it comes as the houston health department issues this warning: the highly contagious u.k. variant has been found at 31 of the city's 39 wastewater treatment plants. >> there is a fairly large amount of the u.k. variant in our community, and it is spreading. >> reporter: texas ranks 47th out of 50 for vaccinations in percent of population that's received at least one dose. >> i worry we're in for the perfect storm. we're lifting restrictions, the b117 variant's here in a big way, and we're lagging behind on vaccinations. none of that is good news. >> reporter: it sounds like what you're saying is it's dangerous at this point. >> i don't quite understand the urgency to lift restrictions. >> reporter: businesses and schools in texas are still allowed to require masks, but one school district outside of houston has already voted to make them optional. >> it just doesn't make sense to cover our faces and not be able to breathe. >> reporter: here in california, just two months ago, l.a. hospitals were at a breaking point, with patients in the hallways and no i.c.u. beds. now, l.a. county no hospitalizations are down 86%, and average new cases have plummeted 92%. masks are still mandatory in the golden state. ( coughing ) this uber driver, who asked his passengers to comply, was assaulted and coughed on in san francisco. police are investigating. but tonight, there is optimism for better days ahead as the vaccine rolls out and sleeves roll up. >> it's been a year, and it's just nice to see light at the end of the tunnel. >> reporter: and the c.d.c. is confirming women make up nearly 80% of those who are experiencing side effects from the vaccine. most of those cases are mild. and, norah, it's important to point out, doctors stressing tonight everyone still needs to get vaccinated. >> o'donnell: it's a good point. jonathan vigliotti, thank you. and tonight, britain's queen elizabeth has broken her silence on the allegations of racism within the palace made by her grandson, prince harry, and his wife, meghan. the statement was carefully worded on an issue that has rattled the royal family.ya cbs' holly williams reports from london. >> reporter: buckingham palace has finally responded nearly two days after harry and meghan's incendiary interview aired in the u.s. the issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning, said the palace, a direct reference to meghan's damaging allegation that at least one royal family member raised concerns about what color their son's skin would be.ou were to >> if he were too brown, that that would be a problem? are you saying that? >> i wasn't able to follow up with why, but if that's the assumption you're making, i think that feels like a pretty safe one. >> reporter: oprah said harry told her it wasn't the queen or her husband, prince philip. while some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously, said the statement, and will be addressed by the family privately. but this is no normal family, and it's no longer a private matter. over 12 million people watched the interview when it aired on television here last night in a country of around 70 million. the tabloid papers, as usual, lambasted meghan and harry today, but others in this multicultural nation have told us the racism they described is widespread. >> i think it's really unfair the way she was treated, but it represents how a lot of black people are treated. >> reporter: will the palace's attempt at damage control be enough? >> they probably hope that it will give the public some reassurance that they're not just going to brush it under the carpet. >> reporter: the queen's statement is just 61 words in response to a two-hour-long interview and some extraordinary accusations. one of many still-unanswered questions is who in the royal family is alleged to have made the comments about skin color. norah. >> o'donnell: the queen saying she is saddened. holly williams, thank you. now to breaking news from the f.b.i., which has just released new video of a suspect wanted for placing two pipe bombs not far from the capitol the night before it was stormed by that angry mob. cbs' jeff pegues is outside republican headquarters, where one of the pipe bombs was found. and, jeff, what are we learning? >> reporter: well, norah, investigators believe the suspect planted those two viable pipe bombs on january 5. now, check out this new security camera video which shows the suspect, who is hooded, walking in the alley behind republican committee headquarters, also on a neighborhood street as a man walks by. you can also see the individual sitting on a bench near democratic committee headquarters where one of the devices was found. now, investigators are hoping that all this new video leads to tips, and they're offering a $100,000 reward for information. norah. >> o'donnell: jeff pegues, thank you. tonight, house democrats are just hours away from pushing through one of the largest direct-cash infusions to americans. the nearly $2 trillion covid relief bill is the first item on tomorrow's agenda. cbs' kris van cleave has more on who's getting the money. >> reporter: sarah mealey is among the roughly 40% of americans who say they're still feeling the financial impact of the coronavirus. not able to work for months, mealey was only able to make about $20,000 cleaning homes in texas last year. she spent her savings trying to weather the pandemic. >> things are tight right now. >> reporter: mealey, a single mother, and her nine-year-old, are poised to get $1,400 stimulus checks and see their child tax credit grow by about $1,000. >> it will definitely help me, at least for the next 2-4 months, for sure, in a very big way. >> reporter: tonight, the 600+ page covid relief bill is back in the house and it is expected to pass tomorrow morning. >> i'm so excited. i just can't hide it. >> reporter: likely without any republican support. >> we are going to be saddled with a burden, a spending burden and a tax burden that is really indefensible. >> reporter: democrats say the child tax credit, up to $3,600 per child, will help lift nearly 10 million children above or closer to the poverty line. for sarah mealey, it could be a bit of breathing room. but the credit disappears from the tax code after this year. >> getting something out of the code is oftentimes harder than getting something in the code. what we did is unlikely to go away. >> reporter: renewing that tax credit will face congress just as it's entering an election year. now, as for those stimulus checks, the white house says they should go out by the end of the month, but unlike the trump administration, they will not bear the president's name. norah. >> o'donnell: kris van cleave, thank you. today, the highly anticipated murder trial of fired minneapolis officer derek chauvin began with jury selection. it won't be an easy process finding impartial jurors in a city deeply impacted by the image of george floyd's last the moments. cbs' jamie yuccas reports tonight from minneapolis. >> you have been summoned as potential jurors. >> reporter: jury selection started a day late, so lawyers wasted little time. >> i want to make sure that what you would apply would be the minneapolis police departments' standards versus your personal experience being trained in jujitsu. you would do that? >> i would do that. >> reporter: the dismissal of minority potential jurors drew an objection from the prosecution. >> for the record, the defense has made its challenge now on its second person of color in the jury pool. >> reporter: the streets were calmer after hundreds marched around the courthouse monday. but in a city that has seen violence surge since george floyd's death, including a 14- year-old who was killed last night, many young people feel trapped between the violence and the police that patrol the community. >> i feel like i'm hunted. >> reporter: 17-year-old marcus hunter lives with that threat every day. when you go to bed, what do you hear in the neighborhood? >> constant gunfire. >> reporter: have you felt targeted by police in the past? >> yes. >> reporter: in what way? >> every encounter that i've had with the police has been unpleasant. >> reporter: he's written two editorials for the "minneapolis star tribune" trying to explain how he sees what's happening and what's at stake in the trial downtown. >> i compare a lot of myself to george floyd and michael brown and trayvon martin and those who have died to police brutality. to me it means-- it means change. >> reporter: there were three jurors selected today, including a woman related to a rural minnesota police officer. jury selection will continue tomorrow, despite prosecutors saying that the judge doesn't have jurisdiction over the case as they await a ruling on a lesser murder charge. norah. >> o'donnell: jamie yuccas, thank you. tonight, we're revisiting some of the predictions that were made a year ago,just before the covid outbreak forced the nation to lock down. we spoke then to a professor of epidemiology at harvard. cbs' jim axelrod revisits the health expert again tonight. talk about his projections for the next year. >> reporter: if the images from a year ago shocked, stunned, and brought the country to its >> reporter: if the images from a year ago shocked, stunned, and brought the country to its knees, then harvard epidemiologist marc lipsitch has a new picture to paint about covid. >> it won't be gone, but i think we'll be in a much more normal place in the fall. >> reporter: a striking contrast to the dire projection he made this time last year. >> 200 million adults, 40%, becoming infected. >> reporter: 80 million people. >> a lot of people, yes. >> reporter: turns out he was right. the c.d.c. estimates at least 83.1 million americans have been infected so far. how did the united states do compared to the rest of the developed world? >> it's on the worst end. >> reporter: compare the u.s. to pacific rim countries that took unified, intense control measures early, and didn't argue about masks, distancing, and testing. and the lesson there is that aggressive, early action will reduce the intensity of the spread? >> i think that's the lesson, and i think that action requires national, very focused leadership. we really do hold our own fate in our hands. >> reporter: not that he's sounding the all-clear, not with variants lurking. >> i think the variants are concerning. it appears that immunity to severe disease probably is more robust than immunity to infection. and so, the hope is that vaccines will still be good at protecting us against severe disease and death. if the vaccines really are as protective against transmission as we hope, it's going to be like flu, but it's not something that changes our lives as a society. >> reporter: which, after the last year, is the kind of projection we can live with much more easily. jim axelrod, cbs news, cambridge. >> o'donnell: and some sad news to report. we learned today that former cbs news correspondent and anchor roger mudd has died of kidney failure. he reported on some of the biggest stories of his time and oftenfilled in for walter cronkite, right here on the "cbs evening news." mudd was in the anchor chair for the 1963 march on washington. >> here at the lincoln memorial, the sight is almost something no washingtonian has beheld before. >> o'donnell: mudd also interviewed senator robert f. kennedy in 1968, just minutes before he was shot by an assassin. 11 years later, mudd's simple question to senator ted kennedy, "why do you want to be president?," caught the candidate off guard and may have cost the youngest kennedyd and may have cost the brother the democratic nomination.emocratic mudd later went on to anchor and report at nbc news and pbs before retiring in 2004. roger mudd, a giant of journalism, was 93 years old. and there is still much more news ahead on tonight's "cbs evening news." flooding in paradise-- more than a foot of rain swamps parts of the hawaiian islands. and why younger smokers are being urged to get scanned for lung cancer. and the fearless girl statue pays tribute to women who have shattered the glass ceiling. s no way. more exercise. more water. and more fiber is the only way to manage it. is it? 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