breaking news tonight. air traffic shutdown at a major u.s. airplane because of drones suspected of close to planes as pilots were trying to land. d e have late details. a critical deadline at midnight, meaning a second missed paycheck for hundreds of thousands aof federal workend their families on friday. noand for many it's a full-blown financial emergency. >>the fallout tonight as the supreme court allows president brump's transgender milita to take effect. a surprise in a moscow courtroom in the case of an american accused by the russians of being a spy. what his lawyer says he was found with. was it a set a new turn in the video confrontation that sparked a nationwide uproar. the kentuck high school student at the center of controversy eaks exclusively to nbc news.

>> do you feel that you owe anybody an apology? do you see your n faults in any way? >> what he says about the momet the lincoln memorial. your money your american so desperate for life-savg medicine, the costs so high here and they're crossing into mexico to get it for thousands left. >> that year's supply i ofulin in the u.s. would be $1400. i bought it he for $104. >> why do we pay so much more here? and a hail mary from sais fans. the new court challenge after the blown call leaving a cloud over the super wl. >> this is "nbc nightly news" with lester hol >> good evening, everyone. there is breaking news from here in the new york area, one of the busiest corridors for traffic in the country. late today landing behut down at newark airporuse of drones suspected of getting way too close to planes trying to land. ron allen with late-breaking details now. ron, what can you tell

>> good evening, lester. this happened late this afternoon. just before 5:00 p.m. a southwest pilot reported drones around teterboro airport in new jersey. da out of an abe of caution, air traffic opped all arrivals at nearby newark airport less than 20 miles away and some of in the country.ce after a short delay, the faa has allowed traffic to resume, but ryhe bottleneck of planesg to take off and planes hoping to land at newark has created delays this evening. police are investigating. scare comes just a month after drones shut down london's gatwick airport for 36 hours. roughly one thousand flights were grounded and 140,000 passengers affected there. no suspect has been arrested in that case either. lester? >> all right. ron allen tonight, thank u. there is movement to report this evening in efforts to reopen the government. late today senate leaders agreeing to vote on competing republican democratic proposals. the chances for passage slim. meantime, affected tederal workers are poisedmiss their second paycheck this week, putting many in even deeper financial peril.

tom costello has more now on the growing impact. >> reporter: tonight the likelihood of a secondissed paycheck has many federal workers in crisis mode. >> my landlord has made it very clear that i have a week to pay or i'm going to be evicted. >> reporter: nick trujillo's situation even more ecarious than when we first met a week ago. called back to the irs but without pay and likely to miss a second $1100 paycheck. he pays $700 a month in rent foelf and his autistic son, , lus utiliti insurance, medicine, gas for the car and groceries. tonight heas just $350 left in the bank. >> i live paycheck to paycheck, like many other americans do. and right now it's di need. >> reporter: across the country, food banks are feeding more and more government workers. >> good morning. >> reporter: on capitol hill today, a group of coast guard families, including susan barassa. t re is a lot of

expenses in the coast guard, in the military life, and we're happy to do it, but we committed also to paycheck. >> reporter: at the nation's airports, nearly 2500 tsa officers failed to on show up to wor monday, most citing financial hardship. officers go without paychecks, the higher that absentee rate is expected to climb. >> the job itself is already a stressful situation. but we feel disrespected. it's demeaning. >> reporter: 32 days in, the shutdown is shutting down family finances. tom costello, nbc news, washington. let us turn now to the fallout this evening after a victory for president trump, the majority of the justices allowing the trump administration to go i a head with its plan to ban most transgendered people from military service. our pete willis has te details. >> reporter: it's a blow to more than 2,000 transgendered military personnel like lutenant colonel brie frahm, an air force rocket who came out when president obama dropped the ban on transgender service, a ban the supreme court y

tollowed president trump to bring back. >> it's a really face when you've been singled out as someone whose not wanted for something that has nothing to do withur bility to serve this country. >> reporter: president trump tweeted in 2017 that he wanted to ban transgender service, but in response to colawsuits, lower ts blocked enforcement of his ban. so the trump administration appealed, and today by a 5-4 vote, the supreme court allowed the gove to go ahead with the ban while the lower courts consider whether it's unconstitutional discrimination. out of 1.3 million active duty service members, roughly 2400 are transgendered. nounder the trump policy, most of them cannot remain, unless they serve in their biological sex and agree not to sk gender reassignment surgery. it will take a year or so for this case to come back here on appeal, and when it does, based on today's um action, the administration will likely win. lester? >> pete williams at supreme court, thank you. turning overseas now to a very different case in russia, whe an

american accused of espionage made his first court appearance.la hiers saying someone gave paul wheelan a thumb drive containing state t secrets, and t wheelan had no idea what he was receiving. nbc's bill neely has the story. >> reporter: in a bulletproof glass cage, paul wheelan, his first appearance since russia charged him with an unnamed act of espionage. guarded by masked police, the ex-marine from michigan was barely able to hear speak.r and didn't after five minutes, he was denied bail and turned to jail. but his russian lawyer now says wheelan was carrying state secrets when arrested. "he was given a thumb e drth a list of officials," he says "instead of his vacation pictures." he insisted whelan, echo had been in moscow for aber wedding, had no idea what was on the drive. tonight his twin brother outraged. .>> let my brother

the charges are false, and he needs to be back with his family. >> reporter: diplomats suspect whelan is being used as a pawn to secure the release of maria butina, a russian whose plead guilty in the u.s. to not registering as a foreign agent. tonight whelan is back in prison, the u.s. embassy calling for a fair trial.it ay be months before that trial begins, and it could take months. whelan faces up to 20 years in jail. lester? neely, thank you.l tonight the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani is doing damage control, again this time over what he told chuck todd on "meet the press" about negotiations for a trump tower in moscow. giuliani now trying to walk it back, an peter alexander has details. >> reporter: rudy giuliani asked by "the yorker" about his legacy, and whether he is not always being truthful when defending the president, said i'm afraid it will be on my gravestone, rudy giuliani, he lied for trump. somehow i don't think it will it. i don't think as a

lawyer i evesaid anything untrue. it comes after giuliani'satest starting assertion about the scuttled moscow tower project. michael cohen said discussions ended in june 2016. july on sunday suggesting they may have lasted longer. he president can remember having conversations with him about it. >> throughout 2016? >> yeah, probably up to -- it could be up to as far as october, november. >> reporter: then giuliani in "the new york times" quoting the president telling him the discussions were going on from the day i announceto the day i won. that's not what candidate trump said at the time. >> they said maybe donald trump is involved in projects an with the rus the answer is no, no. >> reporter: critics have attacked mr. trump for privately discussing the moscow project while publicly promoting warmer relations with russia. giuliani later saying his commts were hypothetical and not based on conversations i had with the president, and insisting "the times" deliberately misunderstood what he said. giuliani's contradictory comments have exasperated some of those close to the president. a senior administration official tonight telling nbc news he is, quote, not

helping. lester? >> peter alexander at the white thank you. taking a turn now to the confrontation h hat has become a flasint for race and politics in this country. tonight the high school student at the center of that controversial video was speaking exclusively to nbc news. this as his kentucky high school closed today due to security concerns. nbc's gabe gutierrez is there. >> reporter: nick sandnn, a kentucky student at the center of that viral video says he wasn't disrespectful when he appearedo confront native american veteran nathan philips. he sat down exclusively with "today's" savannah guthrie. >> do you feel you owe anybody an apology? ao you see your own fault way? >> as faas standing there, i had every right to do so. i don't -- my position s that i was not disrespectful to mr. philips. i respect him. i'd like to talk to him.

i mean, in hindsight i wish we could have walked away and avoided the whole thing. >> reporter: the covington catholic high school students, some wearing "make america great again" hats were in d.c. last week forarch for life. >> i was afraid. i felt threatened. because when we were ofhere and we were in fronhem, they surrounded us. >> reporter: but after more videos emerged, fe ers of the students say there was a rush to judgment. do you think the students did anything ong? >> no. >> reporter: a student whose parents didn't want his face shown told nbc affiliate wlwt the students were using school chants approved by school chaperons to drown out insults from another group of protesters, men identified as black hebrew israelites. but the chants continued when philips entered the picture, saying he was trying to intervene. hr >> there was native american people

there. one of them was jumping up and down. so our guys started jumping up and down and clapping, dancing l ith him. >> schants should be in school, and this wasn't school. >> reporter: today d ative americans protes covington, and even president trump weighed in, calling the students symbols of fake news a how evil it can be. but philips says the students should accept responsibility for their actions. >> the students should go through some kind of sensitivity training, cultural education of some kind. >> reporter: police here are on high alert after receiving threats against the students. the diocese had initially said they could face expulsion. now it says a third party investigation will begin this week. lester? >> all right, gabe gutierrez, thank you. and by the way, savannah went on the ask sandmann abo allegations he and his classmates instigated the confrontation with chance. also about the look on his face in the video. we'll have much more tomorrow morning on "today tonight there is word of a tentative deal in place between los angeles officials and the teachers union t that would e six-day teachers strike in the nation's second largest school district the union still needs

to vote on the agreement, which includes higher ersalaries and small class sizes. tonight we're tracking a new winter storm causing trouble on the roads in the midwest where a number of accidents arepo ed. many of us are getting some relief from the brutal cold finally, but that new storm out of the rockies and plains will bring more snow to the midwest tomorrow. and that storm is g fears of more avalanches after two in recent days in colorado and new mexico left three people dead. authorities now warning skiers to use extreme caution. agnbc's miguel almr has details. >> reporter: moving at speeds of over 100 miles an hour when an avalanche rumbles downhill, the torrent of snow is often possible to outrun. >> we saw the skier fighting, really, for his life as all the snowtarted moving underneath him. >> reporter: after two men were killed in a wave of cascading powder at a ski resort in taos, new mexico last week, another skier lost his life in an avalanche near aspen, colorado mond

while in the back country. across the u.s., eight have been killed in aval season.s >> it doesn't take a very large avalanche eso bury somebody. avalanan knock somebody off their feet, push them through the trees, push them over a cliff. >> reporter: though avalanches are rare, the odds of surviving one, like this man did in california, may be even more remote. the danger most critical after a storm, just like the one bringing blzard-like conditions to colorado tonight. miguel almaguer, nbc news. ri a lot of ans feeling the pinch of the soaring cost of prescription drugs, and a new study the cost of insulin for treating type 1 diabetes nearl doubled in five years. tonight, we follow a group of patients taking desperate measures as they travelo mexico to buy the life-saving drug for a fraction of the cost. gadi schwartz has another report in our series "your money, your life." putting three or four

days' worth of insulin into the cartridge. >> reporter: it's a.m. in los angeles, on a january morning, the month millions of americans likein r cressman dread, because their insurance deductible resets to zero. and for a type 1 diabetic looking for life-saving insulin, it is the most expensive me of the year. but this morning -- >> love you. >> reporter: robin is headed to the mexican border, where we meet a group that saw her post on instagram out insulin in tijuana costing a fraction of what it does in the u.s. >> you just crossed the rder. you just type in pharmacy into the google maps and off we go? >> and off we go. >> reporter: they've decided it's worth the risk to go to one of xico's most dangerous cities as insulin prices in the u.s. have more than doubled in recent years. >> i need two of those boxes to get me through about a year. that year's supply of insulin in the u.s. would be $1400. i bought it here for $104. >> wow. >> reporter: seeing these prices for the first time, laura

e avelokovic can't beli. >> when you're diabetic, it feels like you against the world and like every single person is stopping you from getting that medicine u need. i didn't think i would get emotional. it's just not fair. >> this is my american, and this is the exact same thing. it comes with five o these pens in it. >> reporter: wow. does this look sketchy? is a of this -- >> nope. this is the exact same box they would use. it just has spanish on instead of english. >> reporter: but insulin manufacturers warn americans not to buy insulin in mexico which doesn't have the same regulations protecting the supply ain. the drug companies also say they have programs to help patits, but this group says it's not enough. >> $45. and then in the united stateshis? >> $250. >> reporter: this is $250.? >> yes. >> reporter: she jus said there are people that come all the way from chicago because medicine is very expensive so they come here. >> reporter: drug

companies explain the dramatic price different health care systems, but these people aren't buying it. >> and it makes me feel really good. >> reporter: this makes you feel? >> this makes me feel like we're stealing om them, from the pharmaceuticals. >> reporter: so this is you sticking to i the pharmaceuticals? >> and it feels great. >> reporter: all in, the group spends less than $90for what they say in the u.s. would cost more than $8,500, insulin they need to survive at ic they can afford. gadi schwartz, nbc news, tijuana, mexico. also ahead for us, furious passengers eak out after being stranded on a frozen tarmac over 12 hours. then saints fans demand a do-over. could the nfl commissioner really do that? and the big first among today's oscar nominations. a fighter. always have been. when i found out i had age-related macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. my doctor and i came up with a plan. it includes preservision. only preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute

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ahhh!! treat your cough seriously with robitussin cf max. nothing lasts longer and treats more symptoms for your cough, cold and flu. robitussin. because it's never just a cough. ♪ ♪ rhythm is a dancer ♪ it's a soul companion ♪ you can feel it everywhere ♪ lift your hands and voices ♪ free your mind and join us ♪ you can feel it in the air ♪ oh sorry, we were running late. no problem, come on in. ♪ we're back now with that nightmare ge flight, passen trapped in the plane on a frozen tarmac for over 12 hours. united airlines now reviewing thci nt. our kristen dahlgren has this report. >> i think it's coming up on 16 hours since we landed in goose y.

>> reporter: goose bay. canada, not exactly where passengers on united flight 179 from on newark to ho thought they would end up. >> i'm not too sure w whre going get off this plane. >> reporter: thefl ight first diverted for a medical emergency, b once on the ground in frigid canada, a door froze. crews couldn't get i shut, and canadian customs wasn't ng staffed, lea passengers like devon walsh stuck on board. >> we were very frustred. there was an immense amount of cabin fever. >> reporter: finally a replacement plane arrived, returning to newark almost 24 hours after they first took off. united says passengers were given reimbursement, compensation, hotels, and meals. quote, our crew and operations did everything possible to assist customers during the delay. but walsh says she hasn't gotten nearly enough to cover her losses, and waiting is something she's done enough of.

>> bye-bye, united. eporter: kristen dahlgren, nbc news, new york. quite a story to tell. coming up, saints fans suing over that controversial no-call. to quitg cold turkey. so chantix can help you quit "slow turkey." along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix. you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in... behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life- threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. quit smoking "slow turkey."

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meet the n members of the baseball hall of fame. star yankees closer , mariano rivee first to ever get a unanimous vote, roy halladay, two- young award winner who died in a plane crash in 2017, edgar martinez, the mariners slugger, and pitcher m misina, getting in on his sixth year on the ballot. switching sports controversial no-call on the nfc championship, which the nfl admits was a mistake, but still has saints fans furious. some are now suing for a rematch against the rams. as stephanie gosk explains, there is a shot, a small one, that could happen. >> reporter: the saints are marching in, and they're mad as hell over this play. omplete. is i no flag. >> reporter: obvious pass interference says just about everyone except the one person who mattered in that

moment, the ref on the field. the saints lose the game. the fans lose their minds, buying billboards in atlanta where the super bowl will be played without them. "robbed" they say. >> it really hurts. i love my team. >> reporter: the saints owner asked tag to review the rules. >> but that should have been a penalty. >> reporter: and commit to fairness and integrity, but fans want more. a petition wit over half a million signatures calls for a rematch. so does a lawsuit filed today on behalf s son ticketholders, alleging emotional trau and nothing less than the loss of enjoyment of life. allow the nfl rules commissioner to overturn the results. so while they snack on no ref cookies in new orleans, there is actually a sliveof hope. ashy not throw the hail mary ps? stephanie gosk, nbc news. gi >> can you imane if that happened? up next, thegr ndbreaking first for this year's oscars i never count the wrinkles. and i don't add up the years.

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in our spotlight, the oscar nominations e out. the favorite and "roma" lead with ten each. and joe fryer tells us, this year includes some notable firsts. >> reporter: the best picture category is no longer comic book kryptonite, with "black panther" becoming the first superhero movie nominated for one top prize. the spanish film "roma" is the first netflix movie tapped for best picture. and for spike lee, a long overdue first. "the black klansman" filmmaker had never been nominated for best director until today. missing from that category, bradley cooper. me say he was affleck, reference to ben affleck who in 2013 was snubbed for

, each though his film "argo" won best picture. no worries. cooper did rack up three noms as actor, producer and writer for "a star is born." joe fryer, nbc news. >> good luck to the nominees. that's "nbc nightly

melites, , access. >> who knows what's going to happen. >> he is soassionate and such a visionary. >> yet no oscar directing nomination for bradley cooper. hat does this mean for a star is born's best picture? chances