good morning. coming up on "early today," former new york governor mario cuomo aligned with the democratic party with the ability to electrify, impassion messages has died. we'll look at the impact of this incredible public servant. plus, a frigtden enfrightening message from bono on the future of his health. and football bowl in ameri and what a day it was. it is friday january 2nd. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm dara brown. condolences are pouring in for the family of mario cuomo. the democratic fire brand passed away last night of natural causes stemming from heart failure. this morning's "new york daily

news" cover, super mario, liberal lion dead at 82 as son sworn in for second term. just hours before his father apassed away andrew cuomo told the audience his second swearing in ceremony that his dad wasn't well enough to attend but was there in spirit. >> we stayed at my father's house to ring in the new year with him. i went through the speech with him. he said it was good. especially for a second termer saying -- he couldn't be here physically today. my father. but my father is in this room. he's in heart and mind of every person who is here. he's here. he's here. >> president obama called cuomo, quote, a determined champion of progressive values and unflinching voice for tolerance, inclusiveness, fairness dignity and opportunity. and he called governor cuomo to

extend his condolences. bill and hillary issued this quote, mario's life was the very embodiment of the american dream. and chris christie send his condolences saying our country and our region lost a giant. he was a strong eloquent leader who loved new york and its people. the progressive trail blaze wears cat tulted to ed tocatapulted to the national stage, criticizing ronald reagan over economic inequities. david ushery has more on the incredible political legacy he left behind. >> reporter: mario cuomo was born in queens the son of italian immigrants who came to ellis island with the dream of starting a new life for themselves in america. he attended ps 50 while his parents ran a grocery store. he started his career as a legal assistant for the new york state court of appeals. cuomo entered private practice in 1958. in 1977 he ran for mayor of new york city but lost to ed koch

in the primary. he declared his candidacy for governor in 1982 upon news that kerry would not seek re-election. he once between faced ed koch in a primary, but walked away victorious. with the help of his son andrew, he went on to defeat and win in the general election. >> we won because people people and the passion are still more important than money. >> reporter: cuomo was catapulted into the nation at spotlight two years into his first term delivering an electrifying keynote speech to the 1984 democratic national convention. >> there is despair, mr. president in the faces that you don't see, in the places you don't visit, in your shining city. >> reporter: the address launched him open the short list of front-runners for the democratic nomination in 88 and 92. >> he's kind of the italian stallion of democratic party

politics at the moment. he's an old-fashioned stem winding orwind ing orator. >> reporter: he wavered over the presidency so long he earned the nickname hamlet on the hudson. he debated whether to run or stay in new york to deal with the state's fiscal problem. >> it is my responsibility to deal with this extraordinarily severe problem. were it not, i would travel to new hampshire today and file my name as a candidate in the presidential primary. that was my hope. and i'm prepared for it. >> reporter: cuomo ran for a fourth term in 1994 in a nasty race. george pataki a little known state senator, narrowly defeated cuomo, dealing a major defeat to the democratic party and cuomo. >> we have enormous power here. we have a fantastic future

potentially. i surely made mistakes as governor. but i'm as proud as i can be of what we have accomplished together. >> reporter: cuomo re-entered private practice in 1995 as council of new york law firm. and remained a visible force in new york politics remaining by andrew's side. his other son chris is host of cnn's "new day." he lives behind his wife matilda and three daughters. >> they have not yet announced funeral plans and services. bono apparently all was not quiet on new year's day for the irish walker and humanitarian. early this morning he released a lengthy missive, a look back at 2014. his focus is on many aspects, but one item in particular stood out from his recent bicycle accident and still extensive injuries. he wrote, as mentioned in an a

to z style and as i write this it is not clear that i will ever play guitar again. and this is why. bolts in his elbow. he said he also broke his hand shoulder and face in the accident. it is a fascinating read found on youtube.com. breaking news overnight as california several people are dead after a murder/suicide that happened in modesto late thursday. police say the shooting started around 9:00 p.m. among the dead two men including the gunman and a woman. another woman is hospitalized in critical condition. all four were related. right now no word on a motive. now to the college football playoffs. and, boy, they had it all. first, the granddaddy of them all, the rose bowl florida state against number three oregon. >> ducks rush only three. winston has all day. trying to escape. back loses the football. ball comes out. it is scooped up by the jets and

streaking to the end zone! >> yeah. that's pretty much how the second half went. the ducks scored six touchdowns in the second half to blow out the seminoles 59-20. to the sugar bowl ohio state pulled all out the stops against top ranked alabama. >> 19 seconds left. in to round and pass coming up. spencer to the end zone. thomas -- >> did he get a foot down? >> yes, touchdown! >> a trick patss play by the buckeyes cut it at the half. they rallied from a deficit to beat alabama 30-25. so the national champion will be decided on january 12th at at&t stadium in dallas. oregon taking on ohio state. in west virginia traffic stop ends with a discovery of two bodies. the trouble started after two officers pulled over an suv with stolen plates. that's when a red pickup

following that car pulled over. the driver of the truck opened fire and shot both cops. one was hit in the ribs but was wearing a bulletproof vest. the other was grazed by a bullet. one officer fired back hitting the suv driver in his leg, but both vehicles took off. the pickup ended up going off a hill and that's when two bodies hidden in the truck were found. the suv driver later surrendered. police say the two suspects are father and son and the victims were from north carolina. now to another police shooting he said it was an accident. but she's in critical condition. the big question this morning how and why did a georgia police chief shoot his wife with his service weapon? that's what investigators in the atlanta suburb of peach tree city are asking. officials say chief william mccollom is being cooperative after shooting his wife margaret. he's on administrative leave at this point and no charges have been filed. now to airasia flight 8501. this morning, inside the search zone more heartache as more bodies are found.

according to the associated press, 30 bodies have been recovered for the uss sampson locating six. three new victims have been identified including a flight attend apt attendant. katy tur has more. >> reporter: the start of 2015 in surabaya was marked by the arrival of coffin. each victim given a number and ceremonial tribute by an honor guard. outside the crisis center family members waited for word. among them this man. he showed us what could be the last photo taken of his son. a snapshot from inside the cabin with him and his three friends, five minutes before takeoff. once they find the book of the wreckage where they believe the majority of the bodies will be, they say the priority will to be recover those bodies and then they're going to look for the black boxes. they do want to know what happened to the plane as quickly as they can. in surabaya indonesia, katy tur, nbc news.

nbc meteorologist bill karins is here with a look at our weekend weather. good morning, bill. >> everyone wants to know what happened to the warm winter in the west. rose parade was chilly yesterday morning. and the hearty folks that waited outside all night for that on the sidewalk. it is still a very cold air mass that is in place. yesterday, the high temperatures and not often that vegas and phoenix your high temperature for the day, only at mid-40s. that was the case yesterday in salt lake city with cold air, 24. how are we this morning? this is our last of the cold. it is going to start to warm up significantly after this. we're 40 in l.a. this morning. 29 in vegas. and down to 33 in phoenix. still very cold out there in the desert southwest, all the way to southern california. temperatures really haven't recovered. they already have started recovering throughout much of the rest of the nation. we held on to our cold air in the rockies and in southern cal. now, as far as today goes, bad weather goes not much sun is going to go to work pretty much clear. in the northwest, we could be looking at a little wet weather. we had clouds increasing and now

as we go throughout the next two days into the weekend, we'll watch wet weather occasionally. sunday it looks like in the northwest. that's y mountains, colder. so as we see, temperatures will be a slow warmup southern california mid-70s by sunday. >> not a bad forecast for the first weekend of the year. >> hopefully that's the only cold snap for the west. >> no more snow in san diego. now, headlines this morning, general motors starts the new year with new recalls. over 92,000 full size truck and suvs including the silverado avalanche and other models for ignition lock system failures. gm issued four recalls in the final days of 2014 bringing their worldwide recall total to

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the next story has everyone in the newsroom buzzing. for more than 50 years, an illinois man unknowingly lived his daily life with a huge chunk of metal in his arm. >> reporter: at a time of year when most are taking care of holiday business art and betty have been taking care of unfinished business. from back in 1963. >> it was a god awful accident and it was not very probable somebody would come through something like that they figured. >> reporter: art was driving on bald tires in his t-bird. he hydroplaned in the rain into a semi. >> i was recorded being dead by one of the radio stations. four or five ribs, hip busted

out in the back side. >> reporter: art spent eight weeks in a body cast and even had a tracheotomy to help him breathe easier. art and betty met six months later. >> he had this very bad limp. >> reporter: because of all of his injuries doctors didn't notice the metal turn signal from the t-bird was embedded into his arm. >> probably coming forward and it came in that way. >> reporter: 15 years ago, art felt there was something in his arm because of a metal detector. since it didn't bother hmm, his doctor said leave it alone. then it started to be a problem in early zes.december. doctors removed the rod the last day of 2014. >> it was amazing how corroded it was. it almost has all of the chrome off of it. >> reporter: now that it is out -- what are you going to do with it? >> i thought to make a key chain out of it. but as awful as it looks, i

don't know. >> amazing story. still ahead, proof birds can hold their liquor better than humans. plus the cotton bowl touchdown folks can't stop watching. sports is up next. huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know you that former pro football player ickey woods will celebrate almost anything? unh-uh. number 44... whoooo! forty-four, that's me! get some cold cuts... get some cold cuts... get some cold cuts! whooo! gimme some! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. whoo! forty-four ladies, that's me! whoo...gonna get some cold cuts today! ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪ ♪ but the fire is so delightful

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now to new year's day bowl games. number 18 wisconsin took on 19th ranked auburn in the outback bowl. wisconsin's melvin gordon ran for an outback bowl record of

251 yards and three touchdowns. but it all came down to a 45 yard field goal the tenth it overtime for auburn. the ball hits the upright and, oh no good. wisconsin takes it 34-31. in the cotton bowl baylor michigan state. the third quarter, baylor finds big man mcallen down the middle to score an 18-yard touchdown. check him out. a 6'7" guard who weighs 390. it will be a play to remember and that will give baylor a 31-21 lead. with 20 seconds left in the fourth michigan state rallies. conner cook fires one into the end zone for the tie and they'll get the extra point to edge out baylor 42-431. missouri versus minnesota. check out this top ten contender for a play of the day. >> moves in under pressure.

williams! to the end zone, touchdown! what a play! >> wow. check that out again. tight end max williams takes air and hurdles his defenders to get the go ahead score in the third. mississippi steps into high gear they down minnesota 33-17. >> up next how bad was it. the celeb instagram photo just yanked because it was so offensive. drew carey was speechless. watch what happens when price is right contestants bid on an iphone 6.

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now for some entertainment news yesterday on the price is right, these two contestants got a little confused while trying to guess the price of an iphone 6. >> $7,500. >> $7,500. $7,500. mark? >> what was hers? >> $7,500. >> $7,501. >> $7,501. hope the market people at apple are watching this. >> $1,969 or just $5,000 under their guesses. selena gomez was in hot water this week after she posted this picture where she's inside a mosque flashing her bare ankle. she was so heavily criticized because that's against religious code inside a mosque but she's

taken down the picture. great scott. if we all remember correctly, 2015 was the year marty mcfly travelled to the future, which is how close did 1989's back to the future movie get it. they guessed right about flat screen tvs, phone, but we don't have flying cars or self-lacing shoes or most importantly hover boards. taylor swift was feeling the holiday spirit after researching her fans online swift went out and not only bought them christmas presents but also hand delivered them. >> merry early christmas. >> oh my god. >> i'm dara brown. this is "early today." we hope it is just your first stop of the day on nbc. [ shutter clicks ] hi there! [ laughs ] -i'm flo! -i know! i'm going to get you your rental car.

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a grisly murder investigation in florida leads today's top stories. christian gomez was arrested after deputies say he decapitated his mother. according to investigators, gomez was angry because his mother was nagging him to put boxes away. he also told deputies he felt his mom favored his brother. also out of florida, fire crews were called to this home in wesley chapel after an suv slammed through the front door and burst into flames. the driver made it out of the car alive and reportedly told a neighbor he had fallen asleep at the wheel. no one inside the home was hurt. police believe there is at least $20,000 in damages. condolences continue to pour in following the death of former new york governor mario cuomo. the 82-year-old passed away last

night of natural causes stemming from heart failure. cuomo was catapulted to the national stage during his famous 1984 speech criticizing then president ronald reagan over economic inequalities. his son governor andrew cuomo released a statement saying in part, governor cuomo presented 11 consecutive balanced budgets, reduced taxes and implemented comprehensive governmental ethics and fiscal reforms. it also noted 2014 marked 60 years of marriage to first lady matilda raffa cuomo. and leading the news in new york's daily news birds do slur their song after drinking alcohol. this according to researchers at oregon health and science university. the study found zebra finch birds enjoyed drinking juice spiked with alcohol, adding that birds can handle alcohol much better than humans. that's an interesting study. this next video is astonishing.

check out these two climbers currently embarking on a climbing path called the devil's short cut. with nearly 300 meters of vertical wall the duo attempts to make the climb in one day, which they plan to showcase in three video installments. after some slips and falls, the third video should reveal if the duo makes it to the top. now it is time for a look ahead and a look back. wall street traderers are heading back to work today. will the markets go up or will they go down? markets dropped over the last few trading days of 2014. the dow closed below 18,000 and that came just after the dow topped the record mark for the first time a week earlier. and we want to wish a happy birthday to actor taye diggs who is 44 today. academy award winning actor cuba gooding jr. turns 47. and animal expert jack hanna, he turns 68 today. now, keep it here for more news weather and sports. i'm dara brown.

thanks for watching "early today." have a great one.