it's friday, march 11th, and coming up on "early today." whiplash. for the first time republicans squared off in what was a civil exchange of ideas and policies. before that, the scene was anything bus civil. what's happening at trump rallies. introducing you to an isis turncoat providing critical data. plus, dames behind this incredible scene in an ohio town. preparing a final good-bye to nancy reagan and a night to remember at the white house. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm danielle serino. a rare civil meeting between gop candidates in miami, unlike past

debates. this focused more on policy than name-calling. is a civility of the night was not lost on front-runner donald trump. >> i would say this -- we're all in this together. we're going to come up with solutions. we're going to find the answers to things, and so far i cannot believe how civil it's been up here. >> trump and ted cruz were quick to frame this as a two-man race and cruz backed this up. >> to be the republican nominee you've got to 1,237 dell guiega >> that's not a fair assessment. these things are changing all the time. i'm going to be fortunate enough to win ohio and it's going to be a whole new ball game. >> all eyes on tuesday's primaries with kasich's home state of ohio and marco rubio's home in florida both in play along with north carolina, illinois and missouri.

a total of 358 delegates are up for grabs. later today ben carson is expected to endorse trump and after the debate trump spoke about what it means to him. >> a great guy. respected by everybody. liked by everybody. i was just it was just a very wonderful thing to have it. meanwhile, a vicious punch left charges against a supporter and new allegations by trump the campaign manager from a reporter claiming she was physically manhandled. the trump cavern denies it. we have details. >> reporter: stunning new video showing a trump reporter sucker punches jones in the face, he was disrupting a trump rally in north carolina last night. jones yelling at the jeers crowd before bean blindsided. >> get outta here. go home to mom. >> sheriff's dep ted-of-ty the

walking right by the attack, instead going after jones. >> hit me dead in my eye. >> reporter: this 78-year-old was urn repettant speaking to "inside edition". >> knocking the hell out of that big mouth. he deserved it. the next time we see him we might have to kill him. >> reporter: he was arrested, charged with assault. the trump campaign tells nbc news the incident was unfortunate and they have no control over behavior and takes significant measures to keep these safe. the kind of behavior trump encouraged when interrupting massive rallies. >> who's protesting? anybody? get out of here. i'd like to punch him in the face. i love the old days. what they used to do to guys like that in a place like this? they'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks. just knock the hell -- i promise you, i will pay for the legal fees. i promise. >> reporter: new allegations hitting closer to home for the campaign. trump's campaign manager cory

lewin dowendowski accused of ro up a reporter. she says he nearly pulled her down by the arm following tuesday night's campaign rally. questioning whether the accusation is parter a larger pattern of her exaggerating incidents. >> that was peter alexander reporting. a "washington post" reporter says he witnessed the whole incident and supports trump's version of the story. late last night michelle fields was tweeted, you are totally delusional. i never touched you. as a matter of fact, i've never even met you. after the debate trump stood by his manager and addressed that punch. >> i don't know anything about it. i just heard about it a little while ago for the first time. i can tell you, cory is an

incredible guy, i don't think he would do anything like that. >> 78 years old. just got to see a little clip. he threw a punch. i don't know if he hit, but he was -- he's an impassioned person and didn't like what he was seeing. one of those things. certainly we don't condone it and don't like it. meanwhile, hillary clinton has gone unnoticed. >> in the last weeks, i've been getting messages from a lot of the leaders that i know from around the world, and their message basically is, what is happening? >> on the rachel maddow show, influential democratic senator elizabeth warren echoed those sentiments. >> okay, so, look. what's the problem with the two guys at the top now with donald trump and with ted cruz? these are both people who basically deny the legitimacy of

their opponents. they go on the attack. they demean millions of americans and that's what identifies them as extremists and why republicans -- man, republicans in the senate are breaking apart over this. >> the president and first lady host a canadian prime minister justin trudeau and his wife at the white house last night. for a state dinner. dressed to the nines, the obama's greeted counterparts and then dined with 200 other guests in the east room including michael j. fox and others. actors mike myers and "snl" creator lorne michaels. later, president obama toasted the friendship between the neighbors while the prime minister said, we are more than friends. >> we're more like siblings, really. we have shared parentage, though we took different paths in our later years. we became the stay-at-home type.

you grew to be a little more -- rebellious. >> now to those raging floods in the south. at least five people died and states of emergency declared in louisiana and mississippi. thousands of families have been evacuated as the relentless rain is overwhelming cities and towns. more than 20 inches in some areas. in monroe, louisiana, fish were spotted swimming along sidewalks and the heavy rainfall forced officials to open floodgates at a dam in northern louisiana. your weekend forecast is just ahead. to a massive explosion caught on camera just outside of's cleveland. at least one propane tank went up in a huge blast. check that out. it caught fire at a construction site. first responders happened to have been in the area at the time, and amazingly no one was hurt. some restaurants and businesses in the area had to be shut down. firefighters are still investigating. turning overseas where a trove of purported secret files

appears to reveal identities of thousands of isis fighters and data if norms similar to job applications stolen from isis. richard engel has more. >> reporter: isis is fiercely protective of its secrets, and defectors, if caught, are generally executed. so this apparent leak may be a sign isis is starting to lose control. the german federal police has already said that the documents appear genuine, but it's an enormous and unprecedented trove of information, which experts are still sifting through. >> i think they probably are authentic, these documents, because they contain a great deal of detail that can be verified. >> reporter: in are there are thousands of these forms carrying the isis seal and list detailed information about isis recruits. in a preliminary review of the documents, which date back to 2013 and '14, we identified six that name americans. including one douglas mcarthur

mccain from san diego, nbc news first reported was killed two years ago. the name on the form is not a perfect match, but his date of birth and hometown are. >> who vouched for these people? who the recruiters were? to me that seems to be the single most important significant thing in these files. >> reporter: this syrian man says all this information was on a memory stick he stole from a senior isis commander and then smuggled out of syria. i put it in my baby's diaper, he said, because i knew they wouldn't search there. he said he joined isis early on, and so was a trusted member of the group's internal security service, but grew disillusioned. i saw rape. i saw them butchering children in front of their mothers, he said. some analyst raised doubts about the authenticity of the documents, but two security

experts told us they appear genuine. former first lady nancy reagan will be laid to rest today at the reagan presidential library. thousands more paid their last respects to mrs. reagan on the second day of public mourning thursday before today's private funeral, held outside the reagan library, and she'll be buried next to her husband president ronald reagan at the memorial site. nancy's two children are expected to speak at the funeral along with james baker who served in president reagan's administration and nbc news special correspondent tom brokaw. you can watch special coverage of nancy reagan's funeral beginning at 10:00 a.m. pacific time on msnbc. nbc meteorologist bill karins is here with more on the historic rain devastating parts of the south. they can't get a break. >> three days in a row, same time, tracking tremendous rain. new orleans just went through it, too. flooding is very bad. water rescues and flash flood

emergencies issued. jackson, mississippi, flash flood warning, to. 14 million affected and could get three to six inches and another round tomorrow. west coast, rain in the san francisco area northward and some of this will shift inland and then we'll deal with this mess in the middle of the pacific as we go through the weekend. stormy weather patterns continue here. looks like enhanced radar in the yellow about to come onshore into the bay area. that's going to be wet morning for you and lasting through your morning commute. further south, timing has it a little later. there are flood watches in effect here for most of the areas in northern california. that rain should go through l.a. this afternoon, into this evening's rush hour. maybe a half inch of rain if we're lucky. mountainous areas get feet of snow throughout the weekend, too. above 7,000 feet. for this morning, rain in san francisco. l.a., watch out forng towards

the south, where vain the heaviest this morning. so at least we're getting rain in southern california with the first storm, but the weekend storm looks mostly to the north. >> they're getting hit pretty badly. certainly not like what's happening in the south. >> it's manageableants exactly. thanks, bill. the search is on for two escaped prisoners in new mexico, plus, legends meet for the last time. you are watching "early today." (baseball on tv in background) with heart failure, danger is always on the rise. symptoms worsen because your heart isn't pumping well. (water filling room) about 50 percent of people die (dog whimpering) within 5 years of getting diagnosed. but there's something you can do. talk to your doctor about heart failure treatment options. because the more you know, the more likely you are... (dog whimpering)

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department of water and power to make sure the firefighters had enough water pressure to continue to battle the blaze. there have been, though, no reported injuries. a convicted murderer and another inmate escaped a prison transport van in new mexico, last accounted for around 8:30 p.m. local time on wednesday. an official told the a.p. it appears the officer in charge of transport didn't check on them in between stops. early thursday they were spotted there on motel surveillance video in albuquerque. and north korean state television released images of kim joon un as a missile launch. we don't know when the pictures were taken but they did fire two ballistic missiles thursday morning and that kim ordered more nuclear weapons test. march 21st, apple's next big product rollout including the i fone sc with a bigger ipad. let us loop you in, referencing

new band colors for the apple watch. digiorno pizza, stouffer's lasagna and lean cuisine recalling nearly 3 million boxes of frozen foods. customers complaints of pieces of glass in the food. nestle usa owns the brand and haven't received reports of people injured. just ahead, big upsets in college hoops. plus, steph curry, eat your heart out. how's this for a long shot? ♪ ♪ you can help prevent blindness in undernourished children all over the world. when you get your vitamins at walgreens, you help give life-changing vitamins to kids across the globe. get vitamins here. change lives everywhere. walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. is caringing

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daylight saving time begins this weekend. early sunday clocks jump from 1:59 to 3:00 a.m. yeah. doctors warn you're more likely to catch a flu due to lack of sleep, and new studies also show you could be at a higher risk of stroke and heart attacks. it's time get to you you all caught up on today's sports headlines. for that, frances rivera. >> happy friday, danielle. let's begin with the end of an era. nba legends kobe bryant and lebron james facing off for the last time against each other. starting with a master dunk from the home team and yep, kobe's turn. outside the arc, as he does it, nails that three pointer. cavs coasted to about even victory. miss seeing these legends facing off.

in sledcollege hoops, illin shocking iowa 68-66. notre dame dominated duke in the acc quarter finals. the fighting irish have taken five of the last six meetings edging out the 19th ranked blue devils 84-79 in overtime. look at this. that's the second shot on par 4 12th hole at the valpar championship. watch. it bounces. where's the ball? it's gone. it goes, the eagle has landed right in the hole, nicely done. and you think that was good, how about this -- maybe the shot of the day, "the" shot of the day, harlem globetrotter, 300 feet up. where does it go? swish. nails it, right in. so -- you think steph could do that? ah -- yeah. probably. danielle, that's sports. back to you now. >> i don't know. i thought that golf shot was pretty impressive. just ahead, the hottest movie trailer burning up the internet. plus the only thing more surprising than who shot this music video is what it was

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the video shot with an iphone 6s over the course of two days. paul mccartney announced upcoming tour dates. 101 tour kicks off in california in april. ends in berlin. and adam levine and victoria secret angel are expecting a baby. they married in 2014. and "10 cloverfield lane," and the brothers grimsby stars funny march saudi arabn sacha c i'm danielle serino, and this is "early today." does the smell of a freshly bound presentation fill you with optimism?

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leading the news today, in the "new york times," wounded warrior board ousts two to executives after lavish spending and irregularities by them. the ceo repepped into the crowd costing nearly $1 million. and on nbcnews.com, mikhail lesin died of blunt force trauma, found in a washington, d.c. hotel room last year and the report says he suffered blunt force injuries to his neck, torso, arms and legs. russian media reported that

lesin suffered a heart attack. according to the cdc, there are now almost 200 cases of the zika virus in the u.s., all linked to travel abroad. the news coming after french doctors say the virus may be responsible for complications leading to meningitis and encephalitis. health officials asked congress for nealy $2 billion to fight the viruses spread from latin america to the u.s. an ohio woman received a long overdue gift for her 93rd birthday. a diploma. an emotional woman expelled from high school revealing to a teacher that she was married. and thes u.s. is back on top. a wisconsin grand souche took top prize at the world cheese championship beating out 3,000 other entrants. first time a cheese won since 1988. >> take that, swiss. >> yeah, right.

for a look back. five years ago today a magnitude 9.4 earth gquake and tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people and damaged the fukushima dai-ichi power station. here's how it was covered by nbc news. >> reporter: the tsunami hit with incredible force. the sludge sweeping away everything in its path. this wall of water and mud, some 30 feet high, washed across the low-lying coastal areas. entire towns swept away. thick and brown, strewn with debris. fast-moving, farmland quickly disappeared. entire major roads, bridges and homes, gone in a matter of minutes. >> memorial services were held across japan today with a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. local time, the same time the massive earthquake struck. now, remember, you can keep it right here for more news, weather and sports. i'm danielle serino, thanks for

watching "early today" and for spending part of your friday with us. have a great weekend. you're waking up to the rainwin.

on this friday you're waking up to the rain, wind and another round of storms pounding the bay area. this as we take a live look outside from san rafael. rob is watching a sweeping pattern moving a lot faster than yesterday. plus, rising anxiety with rising creeks and rivers. lots of the bay area under a flood watch. this is only the beginning. how long will it last and how will it impact your morning commute? gear up, "today in the bay" starts right now. a good friday morning, thank you for joining us. i'm sam brock. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. let's see when it's really coming in rob mayeda in for kari this