coming up on "early today," it is an unusual weather phenomenon. thundersnow. take a listen. the relentless arctic invasion isn't going anywhere and the new cold outbreak begins on sunday. half a world away, president obama ready for political battle at home on immigration, keystone pipeline a pollution. president residents of ferg missouri, are getting ready for the michael brown grand jury to issue a decision. and roekerthon continues. it is friday, november 14th. "early today" starts right now. good morning.

i'm dara brown. getting out of that warm bed this morning will not be easy. it is bone chilling outside. right now, five weeks from winter, a deep freeze is bearing down on two-thirds of the u.s. and then there is the snow. a record-breaking eight inches in south bend, indiana, looks gorgeous on tv. slick roads caused several accidents. in nearby ohio, a rare sight and sound. that noise, thundersnow. it is rare, but strikes when temps are just right, even in colder seasons. a rancher had to bring in a calf to protect it from the frigid weather. many in the northeast might need a blanket soon too. if you haven't left the house since last night, the cold arrived on your front doorstep. bill karins will join us in a few minutes with our forecast. new this morning, the president taking on a big domestic issue on his overseas trip to asia, the topic, the fate of the keystone xl pipeline project.

>> we should judge this pipeline based on whether or not it accelerates climate change or whether it helps the american people with their energy costs and their gas prices. >> nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker is in myanmar. kristen, the president's tone is not a good sign for republicans. >> dara, good morning. even here in myanmar, president obama can't escape the battle back at home. during a joint press conference with pro democracy leader aung san suu kyi, president obama made some of the strongest comments to date about the controversial keystone xl pipeline. republicans have vowed to pass legislation which would green light the pipeline. president obama today said he wants to wait for a state department review to play out, but he also pushed back against the notion that the pipeline would be a big jobs creator or that it would lower gas prices. take a listen to what he had to say.

>> understand what this project is, it is providing the ability of canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the gulf where it will be sold everywhere else. >> president obama also doubled down on his promise to pass immigration reform without congress before the first of the year, even with republicans who are poised to take over congress, vowing to fight him tooth and nail on that. now, mr. obama was here to talk about this country's democracy. a lot say efforts to go to a democratic society has largely stalled. there is criticism of aung san suu kyi with some saying she hasn't spoken out forcefully enough. president obama reiterated his support for her and also reminded everyone that democracy is messy and it takes time. his next stop on this trip is brisbane, australia, where he will attend a global economic summit. dara, back to you.

>> kristen welker reporting, thanks so much. an immigration showdown is brewing. president obama is ready to go it alone. his plan could happen by next week. and the president says he will flex his executive powers to get it done. if it happens, 5 million illegal immigrants with kids born in the u.s. can stay. this morning, the president had a warning for riled up republicans. >> i indicated to speaker boehner several months ago that if, in fact, congress failed to act, i would use all the lawful authority that i possess to try to make the system work better. that's going to happen. >> we're going to fight the president tooth and nail, if he continues down this path. >> also under the president's plan, border security would be increased. a stunning new report could reignite the debate over gun control. the brady center found more than 1.7 million children live in homes with unlocked and loaded guns. the report comes on the heels of yet another gun accident, just

last night, involving two small children. they were left home alone with an unlocked and loaded gun. according to the brady center, nearly 20,000 children were shot in 2011. 2700 of them died. firearms are the second leading cause of death among children and teens. the advocacy group identified eight states with the highest death rates. coincidentally they are all states that the brady center found to have loose gun laws. a new head shaking report finally answers a major question. how did an armed intruder get into the white house last september. peter alexander has more. >> everybody out right now. >> reporter: this is home video of fence jumper omar gonzalez running across the white house north lawn in september. a damming review by the department of homeland security blames the secret service for a series of performance, organizational, tactical and other failures. the report found the secret service's alarm systems and radios failed to work properly and many of the officers on duty

didn't see gonzalez with the knife as he scaled the fence. among the failures, the inaction of a secret service officer with an attack dog who did not hear the radio because his ear piece was out. that officer was talking on the cell phone and only saw gonzalez after witnessing another officer running toward him. >> the secret service is designed with such redundancy that we can accept a couple of human errors, but not as many as seemed to happen in this incident. >> reporter: gonzalez overpowered a uniformed secret service officer, unaware he had broken first line of security because the alarm box was muted at the request of the white house ushers office. he barreled past the guard, turned left and ran into the east room. he ran the entire length of the white house to the other end of the east room, before he was tackled by a heavily armed counterassault agent near the doorway to the green room. congress' reaction was swift. >> i just would like to see it cleaned out to go back to the organization that we all admired

and respected so much. >> that was nbc's peter alexander reporting. geologists are monitoring those two sinkholes that opened up in florida this week. big worries both sinkholes are connected. the entire area remains taped off. one is in a driveway. it swallowed an entire car. woman that lives in that house is not allowed back in her home and only has what she could carry. she described the gaping hole under her home. >> just like a scoop of ice cream, like it sunk down. this is a shock. "today's" al roker is still at it this morning. take a look. rokerthon is finally winding down. he should be wrapping up within the next hour. when it is all said and done, he'll have talked weather for 34 hours straight. he can take a five-minute break for every hour he completes, and

it is all meant to benefit the uso. nbc meteorologist bill karins is here with your frigid end of the week forecast. >> it is very impressive. it is. it is still cold and we did have the icy mess we dealt with yesterday, but hats off to al for going through and doing this. didn't have to do it. and heard he raised about $50,000 for the uso, so good for him. as far as weather, portland, wasn't as bad as expected. that's the bottom line. supposed to get three to seven inches of snow. forecast drops three to five and then icy weather. some had the day off from school and work and no complaints. today, we're still dealing with that storm system. it sunk to the south here, just outside of salem, highway 180, we had reports of the highway is closed because of downed trees and ice storm warnings. just for another couple of hours in this region. and still some snow around the bend area. so, again, the storm system happened, it just wasn't as bad in portland as expected. the whole arctic outbreak, portland is one area that didn't

get it as bad as everyone else got it worse. pocatello, still snow heading your way. still going to watch the snow during the day today, higher terrain of colorado. as we go throughout the weekend, that will spill out into nebraska and into the plains. as far as the temperatures go, it is still very cold. windchills 23 in seattle. spokane, still at 5. today, 42 and sunny in seattle and sunny weekend ahead for most in the northwest. but oregon and through wyoming. california you're looking at cloudy. so the weekend sees -- it is still cold and chilly in west, but we're not going to see any more ice and snow. >> good, that will be a nice break for the weekend, thank you so much, bill. the grand jury is set to announce their decision in the ferguson michael brown case. a rare dangerous hammerhead

shark stalks a couple of kayakers. and the tallest of the tall and the shortest of the short up next.

stories making news this friday morning. these aren't real fights taking place in a ferguson, missouri, church basement, they're learning tactics to defend themselves in case they get into confrontations with police. both sides are preparing for possible riots after a grand jury announcement which could happen any day now. meanwhile, lawyers for michael brown's family are firing back at missouri governor jay nixon. they say he issued a one-sided warning during protests. >> law enforcement should have been equally condemned by the governor for this conduct at the same time he was admonishing the demonstrators. a strong message of zero tolerance should have been conveyed to all. >> i know it's hard for all of us, but just stay peaceful.

>> a personal plea for michael brown's father. he and michael's mother just returned from testifying in geneva before the u.n. committee for torture. a nebraska hospital who successfully treated two americans for ebola. a hospital spokesperson says they have no confirmation but the patient is set to be a surgeon who was working in sierra leone. new video shows north korean leader kim jong-un out and about. he is walking with a cane but well enough to board a fighter jet. it was during an army drill. the korean radio station says it was shot sometime between august and last month. it is a sight most kayakers don't want to see, shark fins. this is a hammerhead shark. two kayakers recorded their two-mile long encounter with the 13 foot shark in the waters off of palm beach, florida. it circled them at least 30 times before finally giving up. a historic meeting during a

milestone anniversary. the world's tallest man and the world's shortest man met for first time to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the guinness world records. turkey's sultan koson is 8'3" and nepal's chandra bahadur dangi stands barely 2 feet tall at 21 1/2 inches. just ahead, thursday night football broadcast and jeopardy. the rest of your sports highlights to kick your friday you're watching "early today" only on nbc.

this morning on "today," jeff rossen reports on the danger behind drowsy driving. how getting behind the wheel without enough sleep can put yourself and others at risk. right now let's get to the sports with my friend betty nguyen. >> was thursday night football in jeopardy? a bizarre theft occurred. a multimillion dollar tv production truck was stolen from the parking lot of a miami hotel tuesday night. luckily, though, police were able to track down thewheeler w equipment inside. the cab is still missing. ryan tannehill threw for two late touchdowns. that helped the dolphins break a three-game losing streak with the 22-9 win over the bills. to the hard court, the

mavericks notched the biggest win ever last night with a 123-70 victory over the winless 76ers. that is a whopping 53-point smackdo smackdown. >> yes, yes, yes! when it counts, yes! >> it is a buzzer beater finish in memphis. the grizzlies came from 26 points down to beat the kings 111-110. bulls derrick rose took a spill during the final minutes of the win over the raptors. he slipped and fell on the drive. out for the rest of the game to nurse a sore left hamstring. he'll be evaluated back in chicago. a day after winning the cy young award, clayton kershaw takes the mvp award as well. dang el angels outfielder mt

wins the mvp, the fifth youngest winner and youngest to win a unanimous vote. check out the first ever world cup of indoor skydiving. this weekend in austin, teens will compete in team duo and single events. a panel of judges will score their formations and the top three teams will be awarded medals. "early today" is brought to you by just for men mustache and beard, just you and the look you want. >> that skydiving competition looked like a lot of fun. back to you. >> we'll have to try that some time, betty. bono reveals just how scared he was when his plane lost a rear door in midflight. and millions have read it. now a look at 50 shays of grey, the movie. you're watching "early today."

at the box office this weekend, jim carrey and jeff daniels reunite for "dumb and dumber to." it's expected to earn $35 million. >> i'm worried it's going to bomb. >> we'll see. people are going to go. the movie starring danny glover should gross $12 million. so fans eager for the 50 shades of grey movie got a look at a new trailer last night but they will have to wait until valentine's day to see the whole thing. after the rear hatch of his plane opened mid flight wednesday causing the luggage to

fall out, u2's front man bono had this to say about the accident. >> yeah, it was a bit scary, really. yeah, we were about 25 minutes from the -- from the airport and there was a kind of bang and we were told we hit turbulence and maybe the landing gear was coming down or something. buddy valastro, the star of "the cake boss" was arraigned thursday. he was arrested on dwi charges. "nightly news" anchorman brian williams was inducted into the new jersey hall of fame. he was introduced by jersey's own bruce springsteen. he had this to say about the boss. >> if i had known back then that i would have hang time, friendship time with this man, i could have saved so much money in beer looking for him. >> what a sense of humor. >> and instead of plugging his own movie, rose water, jon

stewart asked john oliver to come by and lead the discussion. >> you're talking about right now? >> i would appreciate that if you do it now. it makes more sense if someone else is leading the conversation. i feel the best person to do that would be yourself. >> i'll take one more spin in the nonpremium cable host chair. >> is that scripted? i need to know. if that is off the cuff and he came up with that, that's genius. >> those are two people you want to sit down and have a beer with, absolutely. >> i would -- i wouldn't argue. >> make it happen, bill. >> the four of them. >> i'm dara brown. this is "early today." we hope it is just your first stop of the day on nbc.

leading the news from nbc connecticut, two naval civilian officers hurt confronting a knife wielding man at groton base. the first was stabbed in the leg and the second was caught in a spray of bullets. they were both taken to the hospital and the suspect was taken into custody uninjured. cell phones targeted in secret u.s. spy plane. the report says the justice department is scooping up data from thousands of cell phones through fake cell phone towers deployed on airplanes. it is snagging a large number of innocent americans. some other stories we are following for you. an advisory panel at the fda is recommending that the u.s. ease the ban on blood donations from gay men.

the new recommendations would allow gay men to give blood after a year of abstinence. right now, men who had sex with other men are barred from donating. a window on the 68th floor of the world trade center has been replaced. firefighters had to cut through the glass on wednesday to rescue window washers. the two men were left hanging when a cable on their washing scaffolding snapped. a tiger is believed to be on the loose near disney land, paris. the animal was spotted about five miles from the amusement park, but there are no tigers in paris. nearby residents have been urged to stay inside while authorities search for the tiger. the theme park and nearby wild cat preserve have not reported any missing cats. and an italian artist is taking the old saying, needle in a haystack quite literally. at an art gallery in paris, he's sifting through a huge pile of hay trying to find a hidden needle. he thinks it will take about 48 hours give or take a few. some of the past stunts include

spending 24 hours in a locked room with a cow. and sawing off tree branches while perched on top. >> that could take longer than 48 hours. he's going to poke himself in the hand when he finds it. >> is that considered performance art? i'm not sure. >> would you go and watch it? stop by? would you be impressed. >> that's like watching paint dry. i'm not sure i would do that. today we'll hear from those two window washers rescued from the 69th floor of one world trade center. they'll talk about the dramatic rescue operation. on this day in 199, revealed that milli vanilli didn't do any of the singing on their grammy winning album. it was a heart breaker. happy birthday to josh duhamel, 42. former secretary of state condoleezza rice is 60. britain's prince charles is 66 today. i'm dara brown here with bill karins. thank you for watching. have a great one and have a

wonderful weekend.