以下是視頻Nightly News Full Broadcast-Aug 27的字幕，可能有不精準的地方，歡迎大家指正~

Tonight, new details on what police call a hate fueled shooting at a Dollar General store in Florida. That video just released of the moments before the shooter's deadly attack. As the community comes together to mourn the three people killed, all of them black. The white gunman leaving behind what the sheriff has called a diary of a mad man.

To hate a group of people and decided he wanted to kill them.

New questions tonight about why he let some people go and how this fits into an awful trend. Hate crimes are on the rise. Tragedy in training. Three U.S. Marines killed when a military aircraft crashes during a drill in Australia. The aircraft has a history of accidents. A new hurricane threat heading toward Florida. A state of emergency declared. We're tracking the storm's path.

Another fire in Maui, but this time the sirens went off, warning residents. I've got to go. I have staff members that are in kind of polling. They need to be evacuated. And the great Loch Nash Monster Hunt, the biggest gathering of searchers in decades. Our correspondent takes the plunge.

This is NBC Nightly News with Kate Snow.

Good evening. The true horror of what happened Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida, is coming into sharper focus tonight. There's a prayer vigil underway as we come on the air, the community coming together, struggling to make any sense of what the sheriff called a shooting motivated by racial hatred. We learned the names today of the three lives lost. And police now say the suspect first went to a historically black university, but left after encountering campus security and then moved on to a dollar general store.

President Biden saying in a statement today, we must refuse to live in a country where black families going to the store live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin. Marissa Parra is in Jacksonville tonight. In Jacksonville tonight, a community grieves over lives tragically lost. This is tough. This is home. Angela Carr, Gerald, Deshawn Galion and a note.

Joseph La Guerra, known as A.J., shot and killed Saturday after a gunman opened fire at a Dollar General Store.

Pretty sad what happened. Really sad.

The FBI now investigating this as a racially driven hate crime.

He was a failure as an individual because he hates a group of people and decided he wanted to kill them.

The Jacksonville sheriff identified the gunman as 21 year old Ryan Christopher Paul Metzger, who penned writings detailing what he thought about the black race and what he planned to do. Today, Florida's governor calling the violence unacceptable.

Targeting people due to their race has no place in the state of Florida.

Authorities released these short clips capturing the shooter's rampage at the Dollar General Store. Here he is seen wearing a tactical vest armed with two guns, one of them hand-drawn with swastikas.

My Lord. Can he go to the dollar store?

His day of horror witnessed by shocked neighbors outside.

I heard, like, five shots.

Officials say, before driving to the Dollar General. The shooter stopped at Edward Waters University, a historically black university nearby. Police say this video shows what they believe is the gunman getting ready with his bulletproof vest at 12:57 p.m.. Authorities say the shooter leaves campus, drives to the dollar general and minutes later fires 11 rounds into a car outside.

The suspect's on video in the parking lot in front of the store shooting into a black Kia emerge, the first victim.

They say the gunman enters the store and continues firing, killing two others.

He led several people out of the store. Why? I don't know. Some of them were white. I do believe there was a couple that were that were not.

At 1:18 p.m.. The shooter texted his father to enter his room and what he found was almost 30 pages of writings and a suicide note on his laptop. Meanwhile, law enforcement say they arrived 11 minutes into the gunman's rampage right before he took his own life with his own gun. Where did those firearms come from? Were they legal guns and were they legally possessed?

They were 100% legal. And as we can as we as I stand here with you today, they were legally possessed.

The heartbreak in Jacksonville, the latest hate crime in the country from last year at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, a shooter motivated by white supremacist ideology killed ten people. Most of the victims also black. The latest FBI data showing a nearly 12% increase in hate crimes between 2020 and 2021. Tonight, where hate wrapped lives and shattered hearts, the community leans on love to piece them back together.

Marissa It's all really hard to process. Did the shooter have a past criminal history at all? The sheriff's office said they found one call, a domestic call to his house when he was a teenager and then one instance in 2017 where he was committed for psychiatric evaluation. But so far, no further details on that and no criminal record or history.

Kate. All right, Marissa, thank you. To the other big story tonight, three U.S. Marines have been killed after a crash during training exercises in Australia. The military now investigating the type of aircraft they were on has been involved in other deadly accidents before. Erin Gilchrist has the latest.

Tonight, a military aircraft similar to this one at the center of a deadly crash in Australia. The U.S. Marine Corps confirming three Marines are dead and five were seriously hurt after their MV 22 B Osprey crashed Sunday morning during a routine training exercise. The accident happened on Melville Island just off the northern coast of Australia.

This is regrettable incident. The Australian Defense Force are cooperating with our friends in the United States Defense Force to make sure that we provide every assistance possible.

The Marine Corps saying 23 personnel were being transported, participating in exercise predator's run. It's a multinational military training involving more than 2000 troops from five countries. Jeff Cassetti is a former accident investigator for the Navy and Marines. This is a very unique aircraft.

And it does have a higher accident rate than other types of aircraft used by the military for that very reason.

The tilt rotor Osprey is a widely used support aircraft in the Marine Corps. It can lift like a helicopter and tilt the engine housing to achieve speed like a plane. But it has a controversial history of problems. Mar 2022 Four Marines died in a training flight in Norway. The Marine Corps says pilot error caused the crash. June 20, 22 five more Marines died when their Osprey went down in California.

Investigators say the result of a catastrophic mechanical failure still, Gazette says the Osprey is an extremely useful life saving tool for the military. I think it's worth it to have these types of.

Aircraft out there, even though they do present additional hazards that need to be mitigated.

And Aaron's with me now. Aaron, do we know anything more tonight about the survivors of the crash?

Kate, the last word from the Marine Corps was that the five critically injured Marines were in serious condition at a Darwin hospital. The Australians added that there was a wide range of injuries among all 23 people on board. Kate.

Aaron, thank you. Florida has declared a state of emergency across much of its Gulf Coast as a tropical storm heads straight for it. Forecasters believe it could strengthen to a hurricane before landfall. Let's get right to meteorologist Angie Lassman. She's tracking the storm for us Angie. Kate, we've got new alerts of hurricane watches stretching from the panhandle down to parts of southwest Florida, expecting these hurricane conditions in the next couple of days.

Right now, tropical storm Azaylia with 40 mile per hour winds and moving northeast at just three miles per hour. But it is expected to pick up its pace in the coming days as it moves over those very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico eventually become a Category one hurricane down the line, a Category two hurricane spreading rain and into the state of Florida here as we get into Tuesday.

But landfall expected Wednesday into the overnight hours by the time we get into the later parts of the day. Now, the Carolinas are in the mix with some of this heavy rain working in. We're talking storm surge, strong winds, but the heavy rain anywhere from 2 to 6 inches when this is all said and done. But we could have amounts as high as ten inches as we get through the next couple of days.

Kate. This is going to be something worth watching for Florida and other parts of the Southeast. I know you'll stay on it, Angie. Thank you. Now to tensions rising in Hawaii after another fire broke out in Maui prompting evacuations. Sam Brock is there for us. And Sam, this time, warning sirens did sound right.

Yeah, that's right. The sirens were activated around 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon, perhaps a reflection of the lessons learned. I'm standing right now on a hillside where the brush fire swept through. Look at this. Look at the footprint and how close it came to homes. The reason that this earth I'm standing on is black right now is because the grass burned.

It came right up to the bushes as a charred tree. It was virtually on the doorstep of all of these homes. Now, this video shows plumes of smoke and flames as residents are fleeing under a go now valuation order that is about a mile and a half outside of Chinatown. This woman was being interviewed as sirens started blaring.

You've lost your jobs because your business is gone. So I guess an apology from the state. I've got to go. I have staff members that are in kind of polling. They need to be evacuated. So I must go and evacuate more staff right now. Okay. Thank you so much.

The evacuation order was ultimately lifted after about three and a half hours, but West Maui right now is bone dry and windy. I mean, this could go on for days or even weeks, Kate.

All right, Sam, thank you. Tonight, investigators in Louisiana say one of the rare wildfires tearing through that state was started on purpose. It's just one of more than 440 fires that have raged there this weekend. Another fire forced an entire town of a thousand people to evacuate. The brutal heat wave in the south helped fuel those fires. Russia confirmed today what many suspected.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Mercenary Group, did die in that plane crash last week. Investigators say they use genetic analysis to identify all ten people on board. The Kremlin has denied any ties to the crash. Tomorrow, former President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, will be in court for a pretrial hearing in Georgia. It will be the first time the public will hear some of the evidence against Mr. Meadows, Mr. Trump and their 17 alleged coconspirators.

Ryan Nobles now with a preview.

As former President Donald Trump remains defiant in the face of four criminal indictments.

We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong.

A high stakes hearing is set for Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday. Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff and one of 18 Trump associates charged in Fulton County for running what was akin to a criminal enterprise to conspire to steal the 2020 election. Requesting his case be moved to federal court.

Mark Meadows is essentially arguing that he fits within the federal criminal removal statute because he was acting at the behest of a federal official.

District Attorney Fani Willis issuing subpoenas for elections investigator Frances Watson and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to testify. Raffensperger is a Republican secretary of state who took this call from Trump in the wake of the 2020 vote.

I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.

The hearing will be the first opportunity to hear from some of these key witnesses in open court. If Meadows is successful moving the trial to a federal court, it could have an impact on other defendants, including Trump himself.

The jury pool will come from a larger geographic area. They may be able to drag in some of those suburban Trump voters. You'd also be taking the state prosecutors out of their home court advantage.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to try and use his arrest as a way to rally his base. His campaign announcing that they've raised more than $7 million since his mugshot was taken and released Kate.

Ryan Nobles, thank you. Still ahead tonight, why some schools are closing down just as students come back for the new year. Plus, we'll take you to Scotland for the biggest hunt for the Loch Ness monster in nearly 50 years. What did they find? We're back with the last thing parents want to hear just as classes start for the new year.

Schools closing down due to a COVID outbreak. But that is what's happening in some towns across the country. The rise in COVID cases even prompting some colleges and businesses to require masks once again. Emily Akita, with what you need to know. Across the country, kids are filing into classrooms. And with students back at a handful of schools. So is COVID.

Almost all the precautions, including regular testing, have been taken down at schools. We're also seeing kids with all sorts of other colds and coughs and viruses which make it very easy to pass a number of things, including COVID in Lee County, Kentucky. School attendance dipped by roughly 20% within the first two weeks, prompting the district to close for several days.

And Atlanta Morris Brown College announced a two week mask mandate because of an uptick in positive cases. And some hospitals in New York, Massachusetts and California are also bringing back mask requirements. CDC director Mandy Cohen has this warning for the months ahead. COVID is here and we need to make sure that we stay vigilant. The CDC data show hospitalizations have been on the rise since July, jumping more than 20% earlier this month.

Still, when you zoom out to consider what it was like during the height of the pandemic, health officials aren't sounding the alarm yet. They're closely watching a highly mutated emerging variant and hoping the next booster will help slow its spread. Those shots are expected out by the end of next month. And now with the flu and RSV also likely to ramp up this fall, doctors recommend having COVID tests at home to help tell the difference.

Experts believe COVID tests can detect all current strains. But before you go, pulling out an old kit stored away in your pantry, you're going to want to double check the expiration date. Doctors caution expired tests may not be as effective. Peace of mind to help protect yourself and others. Emily Ikeda, NBC News, New York. Up next, the great Loch Ness Monster Hunter.

Will some new modern techniques and a whole lot of hope find any answers? For 90 years now, the world has been fascinated by the possible existence of a Loch Ness monster. So this weekend, researchers and true believers and even curious tourists and reporters gathered in Scotland for the biggest Loch Ness monster hunt in half a century. Our Matt Bradley joined the hunt.

It's fascinated generations of curious minds. But this weekend, the Loch Ness monster is getting another close up. And this time I join the hunt for what's being called the biggest Nessie quest in 50 years. For this reason, in Scotland, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster is still kind of a big deal. But organizers are hoping that this weekend will excite a new generation of Nessie hunters.

It's about inspiration for a very selfish reason. I don't want the Loch Ness mystery or the interest in Loch Ness itself to diminish. It'll be hard for Nessie to hide from this high tech hunt. They're launching drones overhead, scouring the surface while also listening below. So we're dropping a hydrophone, which is an underwater microphone by 60 feet down below the depth.

So we're going to be doing some audio testing to find out what noises exist down there. And they're using sonar to map the lake, which has a depth of nearly 800 feet to see. Nessie herself decided to swim under the boat. Right now we are running again to see her on the street. Somewhere in all this dark water, there's a monster lurking and it's up to us to find it or find her.

The first time they launched it.

Ken Gerhard traveled from the U.S. for the hunt. He researches animals that live on the fringes of our known reality. But you've studied Bigfoot, Chupacabra, Mothman, all of these other fantastical ideas. Where does Nessie rank in terms of likelihood?

Oh, personally, I'm 90% convinced that Nessie exists. I've never had a sighting or an observation. But if you immerse yourself in the evidence, you have over a thousand good sightings that are very consistent, consistent descriptions.

Spoiler alert. Nobody found the monster this weekend. Not even me. And not for lack of trying. But. But maybe that's not what this is all about. Is this a fun myth? Yes. It's not real. But are you a believer or not a believer? In a world of high tech and hard facts, it's nice to know there's still a place for magic and mystery.

Someone's always going to say there's going to be something that makes you believe, that wants you to believe. And again, it's the same with every mess out there. It just takes one person to believe in. It just continues.

Matt Bradley, NBC News, Loch Ness, Scotland.

Matt Bradley really getting into that story when we come back. Riding waves to recovery. The surfing instructors in Maui helping kids who lost their homes to the wildfires.

There's good news tonight about finding solace in the sea and the surf mentors in Maui helping children there get onto the path to healing. Here's Steve Patterson.

Much has been said about the calm that comes. You got it. Just from feeling this sky. Kissed the sea. Fitting that in its darkest hour, this small stretch of sand in West Maui is where the community is starting to come back.

This is the first time all of the families in West Maui will have been in one place since the fire. So I just expect a lot of joy in Lahaina.

Tamara Conniff cofounded Mana Mentors, a skate and surf after school program until the wildfire took it all the way.

When you woke.

Up, Tamara's home was destroyed. She says she's lucky her and her three children made it out alive. But she soon noticed, not without scars.

My three and a half year old always wants to talk about the fire.

That's when she knew her life's work had to continue. Now, once again, an escape from Maui gets to be. Well, Maui kids again.

You just came from the water. How's it feel?

It's fun. Yeah.

Feel super nice. You know, I definitely like the ocean.

Like, changes things.

Uncle Bully puts you in the right spot.

Over the years, Lahaina legend Robert Carter, affectionately known as Uncle Bully, has taught most of these kids how to surf. Now he's teaching them how to heal.

Joy is one of the most powerful tools as far as medicine goes to helping people recover. They're great.

Go to, Morris says, as long as there's a little need for a slice of joy. She'll be ready with the boards.

Yeah, they don't know where they're going to live. They don't know when their kid's school is going to be ready. There's so many unknowns right now. That's one thing we want to give some certainty in a time where there is no certainty.

A wave of ocean therapy washing in just when it's needed most. Steve Patterson, NBC News.

Maui.

Love to see that, joy. That is nightly news for this Sunday night. Lester Holt will be back with you tomorrow. I'm Kate Snow for all of us here at NBC News, stay safe. Have a great night.

Thanks for watching our YouTube channel. Follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading.

The NBC News app.

以下是視頻Nightly News Full Broadcast-Aug 27的字幕，可能有不精準的地方，歡迎大家指正~

Tonight, new details on what police call a hate fueled shooting at a Dollar General store in Florida. That video just released of the moments before the shooter's deadly attack. As the community comes together to mourn the three people killed, all of them black. The white gunman leaving behind what the sheriff has called a diary of a mad man.

To hate a group of people and decided he wanted to kill them.

New questions tonight about why he let some people go and how this fits into an awful trend. Hate crimes are on the rise. Tragedy in training. Three U.S. Marines killed when a military aircraft crashes during a drill in Australia. The aircraft has a history of accidents. A new hurricane threat heading toward Florida. A state of emergency declared. We're tracking the storm's path.

Another fire in Maui, but this time the sirens went off, warning residents. I've got to go. I have staff members that are in kind of polling. They need to be evacuated. And the great Loch Nash Monster Hunt, the biggest gathering of searchers in decades. Our correspondent takes the plunge.

This is NBC Nightly News with Kate Snow.

Good evening. The true horror of what happened Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida, is coming into sharper focus tonight. There's a prayer vigil underway as we come on the air, the community coming together, struggling to make any sense of what the sheriff called a shooting motivated by racial hatred. We learned the names today of the three lives lost. And police now say the suspect first went to a historically black university, but left after encountering campus security and then moved on to a dollar general store.

President Biden saying in a statement today, we must refuse to live in a country where black families going to the store live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin. Marissa Parra is in Jacksonville tonight. In Jacksonville tonight, a community grieves over lives tragically lost. This is tough. This is home. Angela Carr, Gerald, Deshawn Galion and a note.

Joseph La Guerra, known as A.J., shot and killed Saturday after a gunman opened fire at a Dollar General Store.

Pretty sad what happened. Really sad.

The FBI now investigating this as a racially driven hate crime.

He was a failure as an individual because he hates a group of people and decided he wanted to kill them.

The Jacksonville sheriff identified the gunman as 21 year old Ryan Christopher Paul Metzger, who penned writings detailing what he thought about the black race and what he planned to do. Today, Florida's governor calling the violence unacceptable.

Targeting people due to their race has no place in the state of Florida.

Authorities released these short clips capturing the shooter's rampage at the Dollar General Store. Here he is seen wearing a tactical vest armed with two guns, one of them hand-drawn with swastikas.

My Lord. Can he go to the dollar store?

His day of horror witnessed by shocked neighbors outside.

I heard, like, five shots.

Officials say, before driving to the Dollar General. The shooter stopped at Edward Waters University, a historically black university nearby. Police say this video shows what they believe is the gunman getting ready with his bulletproof vest at 12:57 p.m.. Authorities say the shooter leaves campus, drives to the dollar general and minutes later fires 11 rounds into a car outside.

The suspect's on video in the parking lot in front of the store shooting into a black Kia emerge, the first victim.

They say the gunman enters the store and continues firing, killing two others.

He led several people out of the store. Why? I don't know. Some of them were white. I do believe there was a couple that were that were not.

At 1:18 p.m.. The shooter texted his father to enter his room and what he found was almost 30 pages of writings and a suicide note on his laptop. Meanwhile, law enforcement say they arrived 11 minutes into the gunman's rampage right before he took his own life with his own gun. Where did those firearms come from? Were they legal guns and were they legally possessed?

They were 100% legal. And as we can as we as I stand here with you today, they were legally possessed.

The heartbreak in Jacksonville, the latest hate crime in the country from last year at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, a shooter motivated by white supremacist ideology killed ten people. Most of the victims also black. The latest FBI data showing a nearly 12% increase in hate crimes between 2020 and 2021. Tonight, where hate wrapped lives and shattered hearts, the community leans on love to piece them back together.

Marissa It's all really hard to process. Did the shooter have a past criminal history at all? The sheriff's office said they found one call, a domestic call to his house when he was a teenager and then one instance in 2017 where he was committed for psychiatric evaluation. But so far, no further details on that and no criminal record or history.

Kate. All right, Marissa, thank you. To the other big story tonight, three U.S. Marines have been killed after a crash during training exercises in Australia. The military now investigating the type of aircraft they were on has been involved in other deadly accidents before. Erin Gilchrist has the latest.

Tonight, a military aircraft similar to this one at the center of a deadly crash in Australia. The U.S. Marine Corps confirming three Marines are dead and five were seriously hurt after their MV 22 B Osprey crashed Sunday morning during a routine training exercise. The accident happened on Melville Island just off the northern coast of Australia.

This is regrettable incident. The Australian Defense Force are cooperating with our friends in the United States Defense Force to make sure that we provide every assistance possible.

The Marine Corps saying 23 personnel were being transported, participating in exercise predator's run. It's a multinational military training involving more than 2000 troops from five countries. Jeff Cassetti is a former accident investigator for the Navy and Marines. This is a very unique aircraft.

And it does have a higher accident rate than other types of aircraft used by the military for that very reason.

The tilt rotor Osprey is a widely used support aircraft in the Marine Corps. It can lift like a helicopter and tilt the engine housing to achieve speed like a plane. But it has a controversial history of problems. Mar 2022 Four Marines died in a training flight in Norway. The Marine Corps says pilot error caused the crash. June 20, 22 five more Marines died when their Osprey went down in California.

Investigators say the result of a catastrophic mechanical failure still, Gazette says the Osprey is an extremely useful life saving tool for the military. I think it's worth it to have these types of.

Aircraft out there, even though they do present additional hazards that need to be mitigated.

And Aaron's with me now. Aaron, do we know anything more tonight about the survivors of the crash?

Kate, the last word from the Marine Corps was that the five critically injured Marines were in serious condition at a Darwin hospital. The Australians added that there was a wide range of injuries among all 23 people on board. Kate.

Aaron, thank you. Florida has declared a state of emergency across much of its Gulf Coast as a tropical storm heads straight for it. Forecasters believe it could strengthen to a hurricane before landfall. Let's get right to meteorologist Angie Lassman. She's tracking the storm for us Angie. Kate, we've got new alerts of hurricane watches stretching from the panhandle down to parts of southwest Florida, expecting these hurricane conditions in the next couple of days.

Right now, tropical storm Azaylia with 40 mile per hour winds and moving northeast at just three miles per hour. But it is expected to pick up its pace in the coming days as it moves over those very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico eventually become a Category one hurricane down the line, a Category two hurricane spreading rain and into the state of Florida here as we get into Tuesday.

But landfall expected Wednesday into the overnight hours by the time we get into the later parts of the day. Now, the Carolinas are in the mix with some of this heavy rain working in. We're talking storm surge, strong winds, but the heavy rain anywhere from 2 to 6 inches when this is all said and done. But we could have amounts as high as ten inches as we get through the next couple of days.

Kate. This is going to be something worth watching for Florida and other parts of the Southeast. I know you'll stay on it, Angie. Thank you. Now to tensions rising in Hawaii after another fire broke out in Maui prompting evacuations. Sam Brock is there for us. And Sam, this time, warning sirens did sound right.

Yeah, that's right. The sirens were activated around 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon, perhaps a reflection of the lessons learned. I'm standing right now on a hillside where the brush fire swept through. Look at this. Look at the footprint and how close it came to homes. The reason that this earth I'm standing on is black right now is because the grass burned.

It came right up to the bushes as a charred tree. It was virtually on the doorstep of all of these homes. Now, this video shows plumes of smoke and flames as residents are fleeing under a go now valuation order that is about a mile and a half outside of Chinatown. This woman was being interviewed as sirens started blaring.

You've lost your jobs because your business is gone. So I guess an apology from the state. I've got to go. I have staff members that are in kind of polling. They need to be evacuated. So I must go and evacuate more staff right now. Okay. Thank you so much.

The evacuation order was ultimately lifted after about three and a half hours, but West Maui right now is bone dry and windy. I mean, this could go on for days or even weeks, Kate.

All right, Sam, thank you. Tonight, investigators in Louisiana say one of the rare wildfires tearing through that state was started on purpose. It's just one of more than 440 fires that have raged there this weekend. Another fire forced an entire town of a thousand people to evacuate. The brutal heat wave in the south helped fuel those fires. Russia confirmed today what many suspected.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Mercenary Group, did die in that plane crash last week. Investigators say they use genetic analysis to identify all ten people on board. The Kremlin has denied any ties to the crash. Tomorrow, former President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, will be in court for a pretrial hearing in Georgia. It will be the first time the public will hear some of the evidence against Mr. Meadows, Mr. Trump and their 17 alleged coconspirators.

Ryan Nobles now with a preview.

As former President Donald Trump remains defiant in the face of four criminal indictments.

We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong.

A high stakes hearing is set for Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday. Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff and one of 18 Trump associates charged in Fulton County for running what was akin to a criminal enterprise to conspire to steal the 2020 election. Requesting his case be moved to federal court.

Mark Meadows is essentially arguing that he fits within the federal criminal removal statute because he was acting at the behest of a federal official.

District Attorney Fani Willis issuing subpoenas for elections investigator Frances Watson and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to testify. Raffensperger is a Republican secretary of state who took this call from Trump in the wake of the 2020 vote.

I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.

The hearing will be the first opportunity to hear from some of these key witnesses in open court. If Meadows is successful moving the trial to a federal court, it could have an impact on other defendants, including Trump himself.

The jury pool will come from a larger geographic area. They may be able to drag in some of those suburban Trump voters. You'd also be taking the state prosecutors out of their home court advantage.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to try and use his arrest as a way to rally his base. His campaign announcing that they've raised more than $7 million since his mugshot was taken and released Kate.

Ryan Nobles, thank you. Still ahead tonight, why some schools are closing down just as students come back for the new year. Plus, we'll take you to Scotland for the biggest hunt for the Loch Ness monster in nearly 50 years. What did they find? We're back with the last thing parents want to hear just as classes start for the new year.

Schools closing down due to a COVID outbreak. But that is what's happening in some towns across the country. The rise in COVID cases even prompting some colleges and businesses to require masks once again. Emily Akita, with what you need to know. Across the country, kids are filing into classrooms. And with students back at a handful of schools. So is COVID.

Almost all the precautions, including regular testing, have been taken down at schools. We're also seeing kids with all sorts of other colds and coughs and viruses which make it very easy to pass a number of things, including COVID in Lee County, Kentucky. School attendance dipped by roughly 20% within the first two weeks, prompting the district to close for several days.

And Atlanta Morris Brown College announced a two week mask mandate because of an uptick in positive cases. And some hospitals in New York, Massachusetts and California are also bringing back mask requirements. CDC director Mandy Cohen has this warning for the months ahead. COVID is here and we need to make sure that we stay vigilant. The CDC data show hospitalizations have been on the rise since July, jumping more than 20% earlier this month.

Still, when you zoom out to consider what it was like during the height of the pandemic, health officials aren't sounding the alarm yet. They're closely watching a highly mutated emerging variant and hoping the next booster will help slow its spread. Those shots are expected out by the end of next month. And now with the flu and RSV also likely to ramp up this fall, doctors recommend having COVID tests at home to help tell the difference.

Experts believe COVID tests can detect all current strains. But before you go, pulling out an old kit stored away in your pantry, you're going to want to double check the expiration date. Doctors caution expired tests may not be as effective. Peace of mind to help protect yourself and others. Emily Ikeda, NBC News, New York. Up next, the great Loch Ness Monster Hunter.

Will some new modern techniques and a whole lot of hope find any answers? For 90 years now, the world has been fascinated by the possible existence of a Loch Ness monster. So this weekend, researchers and true believers and even curious tourists and reporters gathered in Scotland for the biggest Loch Ness monster hunt in half a century. Our Matt Bradley joined the hunt.

It's fascinated generations of curious minds. But this weekend, the Loch Ness monster is getting another close up. And this time I join the hunt for what's being called the biggest Nessie quest in 50 years. For this reason, in Scotland, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster is still kind of a big deal. But organizers are hoping that this weekend will excite a new generation of Nessie hunters.

It's about inspiration for a very selfish reason. I don't want the Loch Ness mystery or the interest in Loch Ness itself to diminish. It'll be hard for Nessie to hide from this high tech hunt. They're launching drones overhead, scouring the surface while also listening below. So we're dropping a hydrophone, which is an underwater microphone by 60 feet down below the depth.

So we're going to be doing some audio testing to find out what noises exist down there. And they're using sonar to map the lake, which has a depth of nearly 800 feet to see. Nessie herself decided to swim under the boat. Right now we are running again to see her on the street. Somewhere in all this dark water, there's a monster lurking and it's up to us to find it or find her.

The first time they launched it.

Ken Gerhard traveled from the U.S. for the hunt. He researches animals that live on the fringes of our known reality. But you've studied Bigfoot, Chupacabra, Mothman, all of these other fantastical ideas. Where does Nessie rank in terms of likelihood?

Oh, personally, I'm 90% convinced that Nessie exists. I've never had a sighting or an observation. But if you immerse yourself in the evidence, you have over a thousand good sightings that are very consistent, consistent descriptions.

Spoiler alert. Nobody found the monster this weekend. Not even me. And not for lack of trying. But. But maybe that's not what this is all about. Is this a fun myth? Yes. It's not real. But are you a believer or not a believer? In a world of high tech and hard facts, it's nice to know there's still a place for magic and mystery.

Someone's always going to say there's going to be something that makes you believe, that wants you to believe. And again, it's the same with every mess out there. It just takes one person to believe in. It just continues.

Matt Bradley, NBC News, Loch Ness, Scotland.

Matt Bradley really getting into that story when we come back. Riding waves to recovery. The surfing instructors in Maui helping kids who lost their homes to the wildfires.

There's good news tonight about finding solace in the sea and the surf mentors in Maui helping children there get onto the path to healing. Here's Steve Patterson.

Much has been said about the calm that comes. You got it. Just from feeling this sky. Kissed the sea. Fitting that in its darkest hour, this small stretch of sand in West Maui is where the community is starting to come back.

This is the first time all of the families in West Maui will have been in one place since the fire. So I just expect a lot of joy in Lahaina.

Tamara Conniff cofounded Mana Mentors, a skate and surf after school program until the wildfire took it all the way.

When you woke.

Up, Tamara's home was destroyed. She says she's lucky her and her three children made it out alive. But she soon noticed, not without scars.

My three and a half year old always wants to talk about the fire.

That's when she knew her life's work had to continue. Now, once again, an escape from Maui gets to be. Well, Maui kids again.

You just came from the water. How's it feel?

It's fun. Yeah.

Feel super nice. You know, I definitely like the ocean.

Like, changes things.

Uncle Bully puts you in the right spot.

Over the years, Lahaina legend Robert Carter, affectionately known as Uncle Bully, has taught most of these kids how to surf. Now he's teaching them how to heal.

Joy is one of the most powerful tools as far as medicine goes to helping people recover. They're great.

Go to, Morris says, as long as there's a little need for a slice of joy. She'll be ready with the boards.

Yeah, they don't know where they're going to live. They don't know when their kid's school is going to be ready. There's so many unknowns right now. That's one thing we want to give some certainty in a time where there is no certainty.

A wave of ocean therapy washing in just when it's needed most. Steve Patterson, NBC News.

Maui.

Love to see that, joy. That is nightly news for this Sunday night. Lester Holt will be back with you tomorrow. I'm Kate Snow for all of us here at NBC News, stay safe. Have a great night.

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