good morning. coming up on "early today," ukraine in crisis. new leaders take over after a weekend of turmoil and triumph for protesters. now that the olympics are over, expect to hear more from russia's leader. prices at the pump are up because of violence in places like ukraine and venezuela. good-bye public life. actor alec baldwin leaving the public life he's led for 30 years saying, quote, i'm done with it. the u.s. army prepares for major shrinkage. dale earnhardt jr. with a late night win at the daytona 500. and jason collins makes pro sports history. it is monday, february 24th. "early today" starts right now.

good morning. i'm frances rivera. after days of deadly violence, ukraine is ready to move on to its next chapter. ousted president viktor yanukovych is on the run while a new government forms in kiev. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel reports from the capital. >> reporter: sunday mass at kiev's st. michael cathedral was dedicated to the nearly 100 protesters who died to oust ukraine's president. the cathedral became a field hospital this week when riot police opened fire on demonstrators. >> medic! >> reporter: and just as fast as the government was overturned for that massacre. a new government is now being formed. in a series of rapid fire votes, parliament today made its speaker interim president and issued an arrest warrant for viktor yanukovych. security camera footage appears to show the moment yanukovych fled kiev two nights ago with

suitcases, realizing perhaps it might be a one-way trip. by night fall, independence square, once filled with bonfires and molotov cocktails, glowed with candles. >> these people who stayed here, they're heroes to me. >> reporter: by the memorial's soft light, ukrainians sang their national anthem. rosaries hung on barricades protesters built to stop police bullets. >> i have so much pain in my heart for everything going on here. >> reporter: peace is holding, but the protesters aren't convinced the revolution is over. by staying here at any price, these protesters managed to change the political balance of power in europe and central asia. but they're not ready to disperse yet. they want to keep the pressure on and oversee this country's transition of power. the challenges ahead may already be emerging. to the east by the russian border, there were marches in support of yanukovych.

and moscow. and with the disappearance of yanukovych, protesters took control of his enormous country estate. it has its own golf course, zoo and car museum. today defense secretary chuck hagel is expected to propose deep cut s to the u.s. military. new york times report the plan includes shrinking the u.s. army to its smallest size since before world war ii. secretary hagel also plans to eliminate the entire fleet of air force a-10 thunderbolt 2 attack jets because of their limited capability. the plans will be laid out in hagel's first defense budget which according to "the wall street journal" also includes limits on military pay raises, higher fees for military health care benefits, and less generous military housing allowances. officials tell the journal the cuts will save billions of dollars needed to protect other critical areas of defense spending. a call for a year of action -- president obama making another call at the white house.

in a nod to governors in the audience, possibly eyeing to replace him, come 2015. >> tonight we want to make sure that all of you make yourselves at home, to which i'm sure some of you are thinking, that's been the plan all along. >> all right. got to take note of the seating arrangement. vice president joe biden flanked by massachusetts governor democrat deval patrick and republican governor scott walker of wisconsin. first lady michelle obama between two republican governors, nikki haley of south carolina and mike pence of indiana, all slotted as potential candidates for president in 2016. earlier republican and democratic governors alike suggested obamacare is here to stay. they say a full repeal of the law would be complicated, if not impossible. after a decade of frustration, dale earnhardt jr. finally won his second daytona 500. there was a six-hour and 22-minute rain delay on sunday.

the race resumed after 8:00 p.m. eastern and earnhardt took the lead and got a second victory in the great american race. he radioed his crew to say, this is better than the first one. he finished second in three of the last four races at daytona where his father was killed in 2001. it was earnhardt's first win in 56 races. jason collins has become the first openly gay player to play in any of america's four biggest professional sports. collins signed a ten-day contract to play for the brooklyn nets. he was applauded in los angeles when he checked into the game against the lakers. the 7 footer did not score, but played strong defense as the nets beat l.a. 101-93. collins said he was just too busy trying to learn plays to worry about making history. alec baldwin says he is leaving public life for good. he said in part that he, quote,

loathed and despises the media in a way he did not think possible, and that this would be the last time he ever talked about his personal life. at least in an american publication. baldwin said he's ready to move out of new york city, back to los angeles. he says in l.a. he can live behind a gate, drive a car, interact minimally with the public and he denies ever using a homophobic slur in a confrontation with a photographer. baldwin, who had a short lived program on msnbc, parted ways with network through a mutual agreement back in november. usually it is opposite. people come to new york because they think they won't get bothered. bill karins has your monday morning forecast. good morning to you. >> welcome. >> thank you very much. >> if he wants to disappear, i understand leaving new york but don't go to l.a. there is a lot of places in north dakota, you know, they won't follow you there. >> nebraska too. >> as far as the west coast, the drought is the big story over the last couple of months, the

last year. we have a little more rain heading our way this week, a little bit of a weather pattern change. this will be the second really significant storm that will move into the region. the first one did add a little to the snow pack, will do so again with this. you see it spinning underneath the weather channel logo. rain showers continue. dreary weather pattern in the pacific northwest. we'll get rid of that blue h on the map, that's the dry air and replace it with the warm moisture that will come in off the pacific and that's an increase of our rain chances in central california. so far month to date we had about 2 1/2 inches in san francisco. we had much more than that in the pacific northwest. the worst of the drought is california, nevada, into areas of southern california. and this next storm system will bring some rain as we go throughout wednesday, thursday. then it looks like another shot over the week geend and we have estimates that southern california could get significant rain by the weekend this is exactly what we needed. hopefully it will deliver. today, we're dry with anticipation of wet days ahead.

>> so exciting. we get the dry days not far away. we need it now. we'll get a little bit. >> southern california, drought, they have been hit so hard. ready for a break. thank you so much. what is going on, ukraine is directly affecting your wallet here. i'll explain. faster speeds and better quality ahead for netflix users. he was once on forbes' billionaires list. this morning, new details on the capture of the world's most notorious drug kingpins. you're watching "early today." what you wear to bed is your business.

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saturday to announce the capture of notorious cartel leader joaquin el chapo guzman. the cartel leader evaded authorities for years using underground tunnels and had a $5 million bounty on his head. after the passing of a controversial religious freedom bill in arizona last week, all eyes turned to governor jan brewer. when asked if she'll sign the bill into law, she said she just needs time to explore it. gay rights activists and trekkie george takei wrote on his blog that he will call for a boycott of the state if brewer signs the bill into law. investigators learned a faulty water heater pipe is to blame for the deadly carbon monoxide leak at a new york restaurant. the leak caused the death of a legal seafoods manager and sent more than two dozen to the hospital. the pentagon is testing a new way to keep soldiers awake on the job. instead of coffee and energy drinks, small electric shocks

are being sent to the brain and apparently it's testing well. and russia poked fun at itself during the olympics closing ceremonies on sunday. it re-created the olympic ring malfunction at the beginning of the games by having the dancers delay the formation of the fifth ring. keeping that sense of humor in tact. new numbers that could be contributing to a dangerous trend in prescription narcotics and unintentional overdoses. a study from harvard medical school finds one in three medicare patients are prescribed painkillers from more than one doctor, unaware the patients are already being prescribed the drugs. the study found patients receiving painkillers from multiple doctors were three times more likely to end up in the hospital. "early today" health is brought to you by vagisil. the experts in intimate health. time now to get to business with cnbc's morgan brennan. morgan, good monday morning to you. >> thanks, frances.

netflix strikes a deal with comcast, parent of nbc universal, to get a direct broad bad connection for its streaming movies and tv shows. this will give netflix customers faster speeds for streaming content and could lead to similar deals with other cable providers. a new survey shows gas prices rising nearly 12 cents in the past two weeks to a national average $36.41 a gallon. the spike comes as oil prices rise in response to the violent unrest in ukraine, venezuela and south sudan. meanwhile, a network router is to blame for more than 3 hour outage of the popular mobile messaging service on saturday. the glitch comes just days after facebook announced it was buying what's app for $16 billion. back to you, frances. >> didn't know an expensive glitch would be part of the deal. the final olympic medal tally. and highlights from the nfl combine in indianapolis. and in minneapolis, the end of an era for a minnesota vikings fan. [ female announce ] what if getting ready every morning

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even more reason for you to catch the "today" show this morning. they're kicking off a special series called "love your selfie" to promote body image, positive body image. today is no makeup monday. with that, "today" show anchors stripping off all their makeup for the show. brave anchors there. >> i would not do that.

>> no. >> that's for your benefit at home, right? now, let's get the latest in sports from richard lui. richard, good morning. >> olympics are over. 17 days. i got to say, i'm shedding a tear like the olympic bear did. the sochi winter olympics history, the russians winning the final medal count with 33. the u.s. second with 28. norway, canada and netherlands rounding out the top five there. what a year it has been. in the nba, miami playing without lebron james who was out of action because he broke his nose on thursday. but evidently likes to twirl. the rest of the heat picked up the slack and beat chicago 93-97 there. college ball, number 20 michigan against number 13 michigan state. the wolverines staged a come back in the second half and won 79-70. big blue number one in the big ten. creighton in the big east face-off with unranked seton hall, trailing by a point as time is running out. that was ugly. seton hall missing a three-pointer. creighton hung on, 72-71.

southern methodist playing number 21 connecticut. and smu and coach larry brown pulling off a 64-55 upset win over youconn. nfl combine, degrree archer look at him go in the 40 yard dash. he won it 42.28 seconds. they're fast now. .4 behind the record set by johnson of the tennessee titans. dynamite used to bring down part of the last piece of the metrodome stadium. they'll take it apart by april. the new stadium will be built by 2016. the way we have been watching that metrodome being taken down it will probably be finished by 2016. >> 2016. >> talking about tearing down that stadium. >> love the gusto in reading the win from your alma mater there. >> michigan, i'm an old faithful

on that one. >> deep down. richard, thank you. still ahead, an anchorman 2 release rereleased with different jokes. and seth meyers gets ready to make late night history. details next. you're watching "early today." ♪ [ girl ] roses are red. violets are blue. splenda® is sweet. and so are you. [ female announcer ] just about anywhere you use sugar, you can use splenda® no calorie sweetener. ♪ splenda® lets you experience the joy of sugar without all the calories. it's a very good reason to enjoy something sweet with the ones you love. think sugar, say splenda™ [ coughing ] [ crying ] sorry. [ male announcer ] new robitussin dm max nighttime. fast, powerful cough relief that helps you sleep like a baby. robitussin nighttime. don't suffer the coughequences.

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welcome back on this monday morning. hope you had a wonderful weekend. weather was pretty nice in many locations. though still a little damp on

and off in the northwest. gloomy with a lot of clouds streaming in. look at how cold it is in montana. the rest of the eastern half of the country dealing with the cold. we're going to be watching the wet weather increasing. so far, tuesday, still looks look a dry day. 62 in san francisco. 68, l.a. everything still nice and mild. not until wednesday we start to see the first effects of this. and into thursday and friday, temperatures aren't too chilly. that's when the rain chances will be with us. we have increased our snow pack over the last couple of storms and will continue to do so. still well behind, frances, but it is a start. >> we'll take it. thank you very much, bill. new comers no match for the lego movie at the box office. the animated movie pulled in $31 million at the box office, making it the top movie three weeks in a row. meanwhile, disaster film pompeii was obliterated, destroyed, blind sided, you know all the puns you hear, cliche. ron burgundy headed back to the theaters this friday for a second helping. anchorman 2, this time, with 753 new jokes and a racier r rating.

will ferrell said it had so many jokes in the original, that they hired a second editor to make a whole separate film. how is that? the plug has officially been pulled on piers morgan's cnn talk show. it was the replacement for "larry king live". katy perry kissed a girl at miley cyrus' concert and liked it. miley seemed to enjoy the smooch too as thousands of fans tweeted, instagramed, shared the moment. little love fest on twitter going back and forth. miley has been kind of shocked, if that's even possible. late night with seth meyers premieres tonight and seth isn't all that nervous. his first guest goes way back. "snl" pal amy poehler. >> that will be a nice comfort level for me. she's one of my oldest friends in showbiz and that will be nice. if that's a bad interview, i would just tune out because i'm not good at the job. >> he's not going to be able to do anything. remember that billboard that

proclaimed the loser of the usa versus canada hockey game, had to keep justin bieber. apparently, you know, it hurt the pop star's feelings as tweeted about it on friday. the people of an upscale atlanta neighborhood want to make sure bieber stays off their lawn and out of their community. the biebs is reportedly considering buying a mansion in the buckhead area and the residents there are planning a protest for this -- >> don't want a lamborghini racing in the middle of the night. >> they're passing on that. i'm curious how the teeny bops around the neighborhood will be coming together. >> are they still chasing him? are they over him? 142,000 retweets of that thing you read. >> they're out there. maybe they're one of them. i'm frances rivera. this is "early today." we hope it is just first stop of the day on nbc. [ male announcer ] new gain flings! smell so amazing, they're like music to your nose. ♪ your love ♪

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leading the news in the new york times, trial for kerry kennedy will focus on sleeping aid. the daughter of rfk and former wife of new york governor andrew cuomo is accused of causing an accident while driving under the influence of meds. her trial is scheduled to begin today. in usa today, e-mails revealed general's attempt to ban marine newspaper. e-mails show general george amos tried to ban the marine corps times from all marine bases days before the paper published allegations he had abused his authority. and stories you may have missed. the woman believed to be the oldest survivor of the holocaust died. she played piano in concentration camps to keep up spirits and said music saved her

life. alice herz-sommers was 110 years old. a murder suspect who fled to israel in the 90s has been killed in prison. special forces fatally shot 34-year-old samuel sheinbein after he seized a guard's weapon, shot three guards and barricaded himself inside the compound. he was sentenced to 24 years in prison for a gruesome maryland murder in 1997. and can you spell e-p-i-c. that's what this spelling bee is being called in jackson county. the competition had to shut down after 66 rounds. why? because of two remaining adversaries. they used up all the words. no more. the 11 and 13-year-old will face off again march 8th. so the winner goes to the national spelling bee. we were talking about this all morning. we're stumped. what do we do? where do we go? dictionary, open, pick one. >> it should be the parents. they're nervous watching their kid having to spell this word.

then by the 66th word, are the parents like -- >> come on. let's wrap this up, kids. >> let's get this moving. i know. we'll see. rematch seems like. thank you, bill. now a look ahead and a look back. the supreme court will hear arguments in a important global warm case today. the high court justices will decide if the epa can limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants without action from congress. and on this day in 1991, the first gulf war ground attacks in the iraqi occupied kuwait as reported by tom brokaw on nbc news. >> in the predawn darkness, the second marine division moved across the desert with great speed to iraq, toward the border with little opposition. then the iraqis attacked. the shells were conventional. no one was injured. >> truly brings you back. and birthdays today for boxing champ floyd may weather jr., 37, eddie murray, 58, and actor

emotional tribute to a bay area firefighter killed off duty. investigators looking into the tractor crash that led to his death. >> helping the homeless t controversial proposal in the south bay that would put the homeless in hotels for free. >> let's take a live look outside for this monday morning, the beautiful bay bridge starting out our work week. we expect another gorgeous day across the bay area. but that's all going to change in a matter of days. it's monday, february 24th, this is "today in the bay." well, good morning. 4:30 on a monday morning. i'm scott mcgrew. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. let's check that forecast, good monday morning to