tonight on one of the busiest travel days of the year, tens of millions underwi er weather alerts in a big part of the country. roads closed, hundreds of flights cancelled, and it's going to get worse. chaotic scenes as hundreds of migrants in mexico rush towards the u.s. border. the american officials respond by closing a busy border crossing. a family's plea for answers and justice. >> release the video, all video, body cam, mall video. >> after a police officer shoots and killed a 21-year-old man in alabama, and police admit he was likely the wrong man. e the extreme diet that has people counting every calorie and could be adding years to their lives.

and an unlikely friendship between a spent decades in prison for a murder he did not commit and the man who helped him get out. >> "nbc nightly news" with kate snow. >> good evening. across a good section of the middle of the country, it is not easy going tonight for people trying to get home after the holiday. 15 million americans under blizzard warnings from kansas through iowa and mize mirksz all the way up to chicago, with eout conditions reported. there's still more snow expected overnight as the storm makes its way north and east, disrupting travel across the great lakes and rtheast tomorrow. no surprise it has all led to flight cancellations and delays we begin tonight with matt bradley in chicago. >> reporter: the massive storm hit more than 50 million americans are headed home after the ks thving holiday. wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour, feet of snow. >> it was real bad, and at some point

there was no visibility, huge buses stuck on the roads. >> reporter: all ars and lming cancelling and delaying hundreds of flights. kansas, one of the hardest hit areas, declared a state of emergency. >> it is very bad conditions. in my 19 years as a trooper this might be the top five worst i've ever seencross in area. >> reporter: mill and her brother eric shared their view of whiteout conditions on twit gler this is so scarey. >> this is ridiculous. >> reporter: they sought shelter in this gas station until the storm passed. y u can't see anything. you couldn't even see not even a foot in front of you. it felt like were you in a hurricane but with snow. >> reporter: the national weather service put chicago under a blizzard warning tonight. at o'hare airport vetera travelers cut thanksgiving short to avoid delays. >> are you worried about the tral lays because of the impending snow storm? >> yes. >> reporter: did you make any tral changes? >> i did. i was supposed to go home tomorrow but i ahanged it to today, and tlines were really great because you could change ou wiany fee.

>> reporter: a shortened thanksgiving served with an early taste o winter. well, here in chicago, that blizzard warning is a promise of things to come. there's no snow yet but there's plenty of wind, and folks here are expecting to start the workweek with a few inches of snow on the ground, and all the problems that that entails. kate in is. >> matt bradley, thank you. let's bring in nbc meteorologist dylan dreierho has been tracking this storm. >> good evening, kate. this is a powerful and strong storm. heavy snow is expected to move in overnight and winds to cost to 30 to 40 miles perur hich will lead to whiteout conditions as well, and visibility will be greatly reduced on thero rand we could see some residual flights lays late tonight and no tomorrow morning. most of the east coast 'sill see heavy rain, but nother round of he have rain that could lead to brief flooding. central anhern new england, we'll see colder air she will lead to some snow. we're looking at i would say a widespread of r to six inches snow with that little

strip of red there nortest of chicago including davenport up to six to eight inches of sw and central and northern new england and higher elevations woe could ncnd up with six to eights of snow as well. kait? >> thanks. u.s. authorities closed the busy border crossing between tijuana, mexico and san ysidro. tonight the homeland curity security said some of the migrants tried to breach the fence and threw projectiles at customs and border protection nogents. mess vowing to deport many of those involved. hans nichols was there when it happened. >> reporter: drastic measures, the u.s. has shut down a maj point of entry with mexico after hundreds of migrants desperate for entrance rushed the wall between tijuana and san diego today. jorge said he and many others are worried president donald trump s will make ttay in

mexico while they want et to the u.s. >> we don't want to the live in cages. >> reporter: others are from us trade by living in camps and makeshift shelters. >> the migrants a fed up andear toweding to the san ysidro point entry and pl sundayer in person and file for asylum before it's too laid. >> reporter: but many broke through the police line crossing under the bridge over a river filled with raw sewa. on the other side of the rder boll,ying i snome supf the migrants. >> they are not criminals. these are people who are seeking to protect their lives and to rebuild theirhoods. >> reporter: others protesting the military might at the border. does it feel like a war zone? >> it does and i feel like it's jus intimidation. >> reporter: tonight the migrants are shuttered out ofti s now and having nowhere else to go. hans nichols, nbc ws, tijuana,mexico. in alabama, an emotional plea for justice today from the

family of a young man who was shot and killed at a mall on thanksgiving by a police officer. the police say he was likely the wrong man, and familyembers called his killing an assassination. we get more from nbc's tammy lightner and onarning that this story ins video that may be found disturbing. >> release the video. >> reporter: a family demanding answers. >> my n is gone. i can't get him back, buyou -- but you vilify my son like he's a straight criminal. >> reporter: distraught and confused overpolice ngshooting and kil the young man. >> we weren't contact. i had to on facebook and see a video of him shot, bleeding. e >> reporter 21 yearly shot dead thanksgiving night b a uniformed police officer working security at an alabama mall. police initially sfingering bradford a a suspect saying he shot an 18-yr-old man and a 12-year-old girl during a fight and was seen pointing a gun. the next day hoover police admitted they

shot the wrong person saying in part new ge evidence now ss that while mr. bradford may have been involved in some aspect of the altercation, h likely did not fire the rounds that injured the 18-year-old victim. this information indicates th there is at least one gunman still at large. >> no justice. >> reporter: amid protestshe officer involved is now on administrative leave. bradford's father shis son had a concealed handgun license, but hoover police and the alabama law enforcement agency now leading the investigation have released little information about the shooting or the suspects still at large. leaving this derief-stricken family to w >> no family should have to ever go through this. >> reporter: when they will get answers. tommy leitner, nbc news. president trump 18 ll hit the campaign trail one last time tomorrow in support of the republican senate id cae in mississippi's still un cide election. nbc's kelly o'donnell reports on what's at stake.

>> the last act of ss018's mid-term drama. missiippi's senate runoff tuesday. >> mississippi is at a crossroads. >> reporter: gedemocratic chall mike espy. >> i want tonight senator of the future. >> reporter: taking on republican incumbent cindi hyde smith. >> i want to be the senator that you'reve proud that you supported. >> reporter: scorn quickly followed after used public hanging as a punch line. heaping salt on historic wounds of racial violence. >> the ways of the old south need to stay in the past. >> repoer: democrats emboldened by their national house takeover see an . nlikely southern openi >> how embarrassing is cindi hyde-smith. >> espy says he can reach beyond party and race. >> we want black votes but we can't win wit black votes alone. i know that. >> reporter: while hyde-smith tried to reparrot damage. >> any time i've said

anything that somebody got offended i wan to apologize. >> reporter: under fire to give back corporate donations d hold on to her base. >> really i think it's a lot of political mu d-slinging for lack of a better term. >> reporter: president trump who won the 18 points -- >> i think she's going to win. ay>> reporter: tod tweeted more support calling her an outstanding person needed in d.c. motivating voter turnout is everything. for democrats espy he could becomeirst black senator from there in nearly 140 years. for republicans, president trump heads there tomorrow headlining two mpaign rallies putting his own political capital on the line. kait? >> kelly o'donnell tonight, thanks, kelly. >> reporter: there is new tension tonight a between russ ukraine after ukraine's navy said russian special forces seized three of its ships in the black sea. this latest crisis started when russia accused the ukrainian ships of entering its waters illegally. raine said russian

forces opened fire on the ships wounding two crew members before seizing them. a milestone today in greitain's plan to leave the european union as the eu overwhelmingly n' approved brit plan for a divorce in less than 40 minutes, but even though the f europe voted to go along, brexit is still not a done deal. reports. anof >> reporter: the terms of britain's split from europe got a grn light in brussels today. the treaty requires the uk to pay $50 ll n to the eu, allow citizens in newly divided zones to live and work where they are and keep northern ireland's bothered open, butth is just the first step. now comes the hard part. s theresa may has to get this brexit deal through a skeptical british parliament, a deal in which all sides find something to dislike. >> this is not what

the people of th united kingdom voted for. reporter: brexitiers slammed the deal for not completely break with the eu and those who want to remain say it in isolates brioo much. >> it's the best possible and only possible deal. p> reporter: theresa may'liament will vote before christmas loafing a stark choice, her plan or thehaos of the unknown. the fate of bris britain and imay's political career hanging in the balance. >> two and a half weeks after it began the camp fire in northern california has been finally been fiontained. the e killed more than 85 people and destroyed more than 18,000 structures including homes and businesses. 24 officials s9 people are still unaccounted for after califor deadliest and most destructive fire. and in texas last t niat, had to be the wildest college football game of the season with lsu leading, texas&m was able to tie it up in

the lasnds so it went into the ime, not just once but a total o seven overtimes, tying a division record. texas a&m finally wrong it 74-72, making it the highest scoring game in league history. still to come, fans say it's the key to the longer life, the extreme diet where every calorie literally counts. also, our investation of a medical device for back pain that tens of thousand of patients back pain that tens of thousand of patients receive every yea

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as the gluttony of thanksgiving wears off, you might want to consider theength to which some people are going to keep off the pounds. they believe a calorie-restricted diet is the key to living long,er healthier lives. kathy park looks at the science behind t. >> reporter: at this dinner party in san francisco, the guests believe eating less helps you live longer. >> some people have more hunger and some people have less, and you do also get used to it after you've been doing this for a peri of time. >> reporter: michael ray calls himself a calorie restriction practitioners, devoted to the diet for 19 years. take me back when you initially got started, what was it like for you? >> amazing when i first got started because you got this just complete you'vic rush out of doing it. >> it takes cutting calories to the extreme. in some cases up to 50% less than the recommended 2,800 a

day for active men and 2,200 for women. >> it'sust a matter of making the math work. ep >>orter: but does it add up? >> aging is inevitable, but how we age is not inevitable. >> reporter: university of wisconsin researcher dr. rosln ander says long-term landmark studies was ie nkeys show cal restriction can extend life and delay disease ke diabetes and cancer. >> the interesting thingke about m is that they age in a very similar way to humans. >> reporter: almost 30 years aft the 1989 study, many of the animals have passed their average life expectsy. >> you can see even by looking at them their skin tone, muscle tone, luxurious hair, th really are more healthful than the control animals. >> reporter: at 48 michael says he's in amazing health, but some medical experts believe the practice also servesp side effects like dizziness and exsglaufgs we are the study. we are the people doing this experiment, and we don't have the evidence to say it's going to be would work. >> reporter: back at

dipper, they are planning every meal withrecision. >> so it's basically rice and beans. >> reporter: looks like a big power bar. >> reporter: cooking e each calorie count now so they see the gains in life later. kathy park, nbc news, san francisco. >> let's bring in our medical correspondent dr. john torres. how could this dt prevent aging. >> the premise is over time con limiting calories slows down your metabolism, your body ore s the energy efficient and that means less work, less stress and ultimately less damage to yourselves. >> reporter: could it be a quick fix for ulost of us who overid on thanksgiving? >> absolutely not. this is a radical approach and reducing your calorieinke could prevent muscle or bone density loss so it requires medical guidance and supervision. best to ask your doctor about how to workff all that people are managing their type 2 diabetes with fitness... ...friends and farxiga, the pill that starts with "f." farxiga, along with diet and exercise,

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> now to our nbc news investigation of medical dices in partnership with the international consortium. tonight we look at devices designed to control back pain aving to of take opioid drugs that can be addictive, the devices are called spinal cord stimulators and about 60,000 americans have them implanted every year, but are they safe, and this verybe en sufficiently tested? here's nbc'stephanie gosk. >> r porter: a career as a hollywood sturnt man left corbiy with debilitating chronic pain. >> i had to keep a flafrk of jack diels and pact of oxy to keep me going. >> reporter: but today he can tend tois horses thanks to a device called a spinal cord stimulator.

>> it saved my life, literally. >> reporter: the device ismplanted under the skin, send a mild electrical current to the spinal cord to relieve chronic pain. spinal cord stimulators are being touted by the medical device as a safe non-opioid option for sotients. >> they kept pushing it, you know what i mean. >> reporter: jim taft had high hopes when he met representatives from a company that manufacturers the device at a doctor's visit. >> you're going to see a dramatic decrease in ic your pain me. i was like that's great. >> reporter: but it didn't work out that way, he says. >> it was a sen tion of being electrocuted. it was very painful. >> reporter: and he says it left him worse off than before. >> i walked with a s, cane before t i was able to go do things, and now i'm stuck in a bed. >> reporter: an nbc news invtion in partnership with the associated press found more than 80,000 spinal cord stimulator injury reports filed with thedaver the last decade, the third

highest of any medical dece category on the market. the reports include ,device malfunctions, shoc infections and in rare cases paralysis.ca ades say the approval process for devices should be much more rigorous. >> i think most americans assume if the fda approves it, it's proven to work, but that's not always the case. it's nots the case, and too often with medical devices we dth't know w it works or not. >> the fda says injury reports are not a reliable source of data and conclusionsab t a device's safety or role in at verse event cannot be he drawn from t data alone and in a spinal cord stimulators go through the most rigorous device proval process. in terms human testing fda approval for jim taft's device was based on one clinical study in which 26 patients h device implanted hand included a review of existing studies

rl involving n1,000 patients with similar devices. >> there isn't a much really good information in the dical literature to tell us which patients in partir the device is likely to be helpful in. >> reporter: boston scientific manufactured taft's device and nbc news that technology has been used for over 40 years and has s helped hundr thousands of people according to its internal quality assessment over 59% of e injury reports were temporary or reversible but that's co comfort for jim taft. >> hi know what i know now about it, i wouldn have one put in. >> reporter: stephanie gosk, nbc news, shington. >> as our team was report on medical devices, the fda issued a statement last week announcing new goals for mical device safety and promising to better monitor concerns that emerge oncice is on the market. our series, it by the way, this week on "today" and "nightly news."

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steve patterson, it was result of an unlikely friendship that developed over the years. >> this is my favorite place in the house right here. ep >>rter: for craig this, moment has been decades in the making. what's it like to your own house? >> i feel very blessed to be where i am because of where i was. >> reporter: in 1978, he was arrested for the murders of his ndex-girlfriend r wick and her son. >> i was anger. i was they send me to fulsome prison. >> reporter: he didn't have any hope until this detective took a look at his >> i never thought he did it. i started going through the murder book and there were a ton of red flags. >> reporter: in 2017 craig was pardon for the crimes. >> he said you're a free man. have you no conviction. you're going home and i just bawel like a baby. >> the two men now great friends consider each other family and mike's helping craig .adjust to life out of

prison he's gotten a driver's license, a car, a bank account and he's even lening how to use a smartphone. >> your point of reference now i still in the '70s because, my gosh, he missed so much in between. >> the little bird on this one and big bird on that one >> yeah. >> reporter: on thursday craig hosted thanksgiving for the first time in his new home. >> hot mess coming through. >> to mere's a house and a home. the shome what you make of it, the blessings you give others when they are in your home. >> thank you lord god for all the bless national here. >> reporter: thankful and finally free to build a new life. steve patterson, nbc news, carlsbad, california. >> that's "nbc nightly news" for this sunday. lester holt will be back hereomrow. i'm kate snow. for all of us here at nbc news, hope you had

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