all in one. did you really need the caps lock? get tough on cold and flu symptoms. mucinex cold and flu all-in-one. this morning new details surrounding the 21-year-old suspected gunman who called 911 to say he had fired shots. five people are now dead and police are looking for a motive. stopped in his tracks. the president stops his statef the union after speaker pelosi denies access to the traditional house chambers. could this be the beginning of cracks in the wall separating the two? day 34 of the government shutdown, and angry federal workers are becoming more vocal as the senate prepares to vote on two key bills today.

a story involving the big hollywood director for the oscar-nominated "bohemian rhapsody," accused in an expose of sexual misconduct with underaged boys. and rapper meek mill teams up with jay-z and billionaire bob kraft and a few other heavyweights to reform our criminal justice system. "early today" starts right now. good thursday morning. i'm phillip mena. >> i'm frances rivera. snow and freezing rain made for dangerous driving conditions across the midwest wednesday. police in fort wayne, indiana kept busy responding to crashes. two of the incidents involved semi trucks. one semi got partially stuck on a railroad track because of the ice and was struck by a train. fortunately there, were no injuries. but this isn't the end of the rough winter weather. nbc meteorologist bill karins is here with our frigid forecast. good morning, bill. >> it's amazing because we're going from cold to warm back to cold and we've got these rainstorms and know snow and ice in the middle of it. the problem is going tonight flash flooding. 54 million people at risk of

this. this includes boston, hartford, providence, new york city, philadelphia, baltimore, washington, d.c. a lot of our major cities. the problem is the ground is still frozeownfrom our last cold outbreak and we have a torrential amount of rain from north florida all the way into the southeast through the mid-atlantic and now arriving into the northeast. snow and icy weather, a little bit in areas of maine and a little bit on the back side of the storm in areas of ohio. as far as the rainfall forecast is going to go, we think that some areas could potentially get one to two inches of rain, mostly from philadelphia to new york. some areas of connecticut get up to two inches of rain. in some places we've got snow melt plus frozen ground and heavy rain. it's going to be a lost problems on the roads. >> lots to deal with in the dead of winter. bill, thank you. a suspected gunman is in custody after a tense standoff way s.w.a.t. team in sebring, florida. police say the suspect opened fire inside a suntrust bank killing all five people who were inside at the time. we're joined by nbc's kerry sand oresers, who is in florida. kerry? >> reporter: phillip, this morning the victims' families here are dealing with heartache

and loss. it's presumed the alleged gunman entered the bank here to rob it. terror in a florida bank as an armed man opened fire, take hostages and lives inside a suntrust bank in sebring. >> we're sorry to learn that we have at least five victims, people who were senselessly murdered as the result of his act in this bank. >> the suspect, who is still alive, 21-year-old zephen xaifer. according to police, he called 911 himself at 12:36 this afternoon to report the shooting while still barricaded inside the bank. deputies rushed to the scene. a s.w.a.t. team moved in quickly storming the bank after authorities say negotiations were unsuccessful. they say xaver eventually surrendered. >> he needs to face swift and exacting justice. >> reporter: the victims have not been publicly identified. a massive law enforcement investigation is under way. the fbi working closely with local authorities. suntrust bank says we are

working with officials and dedicating ourselves to fully addressing the needs of all the individuals and families involved. >> we've suffered significant loss at the hands of a senseless criminal doing a senseless crime. >> reporter: the alleged gunman now in custody could be in court later today. phillip? >> all right. kerry, thank you. as we head into the 34th day of the government shutdown, a surprising move by president trump. he is dropping out of the state of the union battle with nancy pelosi, deciding not to deliver his speech whiletweeted last ni looks forward to giving the address in the near future. nancy pelosi responded by tweeting "i hope by saying near future you mean you will support the house-passed package to end the shutdown that the senate will vote on tomorrow." we go now to tracy potts in washington, d.c. and tracy, it seems like the president -- he con stooed pelosi on the address. does that mean we might get a little closer toned the shutdown? >> not necessarily. this was sort of a power play on

both sides. and while it seems to be a long war when it comes to the shutdown, nancy pelosi is clearly won this battle. the president conceded after she sent a follow-up letter making it clear that schett would not authorize his visit. in other words, she has that power on capitol hill to prevent him from appearing before the house chamber. so pelosi making it clear the president would not be welcome. there have been questions about whether the white house was looking for another venue so the president could still make his speech on the same day. but now president trump has tweeted not only would he not come to capitol hill, he couldn't without pelosi saying it was okay. but he also says he would not seek an alternate venue because as the president put it there is no venue that can compete with the history, the tradition and the importance of the house chamber. frances? >> we'll see where that goes. tracy, another thing we're watching today, the senate is expected to vote on two

competing bills to reopen the government. still little or no chance that's going to pass? >> no. no chance that either one of them is going to pass. you've got the republican trump plan that exchanges protections for immigrants for border wall funding and then the democrats' plan is to open the government now and we'll talk about negotiating border security over the next two weeks. but neither plan has enough support to pass today. >> tracie potts for us. thank you. now to a dire warning from air travel unions that could affect millions of flyers. union leaders representing air traffic controllers, pilots, and flight attendants released a joint statement saying the government shutdown has reached a critical level. we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play nor predict the point at which the entire system will break. >> those agencies are calling this risk unprecedented. so far about 800,000 federal workers are on track to miss their second paycheck during the shutdown. this includes tsa agents, air traffic control officers there.

tsa cutouts have reached a record high of 10%, forcing a number of airports to close checkpoints because of lack of staffing. >> we're learning more about how americans feel about this government shutdown as the stalemate drags on a new poll finds that president trups approval rating has dropped to a year-long low. 34% approve of the president's job performance. that's down from 42% last month and close to a record low of 32% in october 2017. 65% call the shutdown a major problem and 60% say president trump bears a great deal of responsibility. about a third of americans place the same amount of blame on congressional democrats and republicans. more drama for president trump today with michael cohen backing out of his upcoming congressional hearings. cohen announced he will not testify publicly on february 7th, citing attacks from the president against his family. democrats are accusing the president of intimidating a witness. hallie jackson has the latest. >> reporter: michael cohen doesn't want to talk to congress as he'd planned in two weeks. but he may have to if lawmakers

subpoena him. cohen postponed his testimony out of fear for his family, threatened he says by president trump. the response? >> i would say he's been threatened by the truth. he's only been threatened by the truth. >> reporter: a source close to cohen says he's especially concerned about the safety of his father-in-law and wife after references like these by the president online and on camera. >> his father-in-law's a very rich guy. i hear. >> he should give information maybe on his father-in-law because that's the one that people want to look at. >> did he make a deal to keep his wife out of trouble? >> reporter: msnbc contributor donny deutsch is a friend of cohen's. >> he was panicked. he's like he's going after my father-in-law. are my children next? >> reporter: cohen's adviser hinting this might happen last week. >> family is out of bounds. there's only one person in the country, one president in our history that would threaten family as a tactic to make fear of somebody he calls a rat for telling the truth.

and that's president trump. >> reporter: the house oversight and intelligence committees led by democrats called efforts to intimidate witnesses textbook mob tactics "that we condemn in the strongest terms." but they added cohen not appearing at all was never an option. >> i have not decided exactly how we'll go about it, but i promise you we will hear from him. >> reporter: remember, cohen heads to prison, frances, in a matter of weeks here, early march. so even if congress were to issue a subpoena to make him testify, it's not clear whether cohen would be allowed to do that in person. frances, back to you. >> hallie jackson for us. hallie, thank you. >> a relationship as volatile as the weather nowadays. bill karins back with us. >> it's a good word for it. a little whiplash we call this in the winter season here. one warm day. appreciate it. this could be the warmest day. the next big chill already on its way down through the northern plains. so today about 15 to 20 degrees warmer than it should be from boston to d.c., new york, raleigh, everyone down there toward the southeast too.

and then there's the cold back behind it. the cold will be on its march through the great lakes as we go through friday. the wind chill values will just be brutal, horrendous. the temperature itself not great either. chicago negative 3 for your high. high as we go throughout friday, excuse me, in the morning low the high will be 3. the high around 4 degrees. as we go through the weekend we don't moderate either. it stays very cold. look at chicago. only high of 11 on saturday. 13 on sunday. not quite as bad in areas of the east. the coldest day in the northeast will be on saturday. warms up on sunday. and then there will be another big shot of cold air following this one next week. you'll hear a lot aut that in bo florida, you're going to be dodging that heavy rain this morning on the i-40 corridor from tampa all the way up through orlando. take a look at the complete

weekend forecast coming up. >> we're getting closer to it. bill, thank you. congratulations are in order for country superstar carrie underwood and her husband mike fisher. 2w09 announced the birth of their second child on social media yesterday. carrie shared a series of photos from the hospital of her and the family welcoming the newborn in. jacob brian fisher. in the post carrie said that the baby was born early monday morning, adding that his mom, dad, and baby brother could not be happier. >> congratulations to them. >> it's going to be a great family. good-looking family. talented as well. >> they've got it all. a guilty plea for aeblec baldwin. find out what the judge sentenced him to. plus a hollywood honcho accused of misconduct with underaged boys. pill that helped keep people alive and out of the hospital. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema,

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once that is completed, the misdemeanor attempted assault charge will be dropped. baldwin has always denied that he threw any punches during the incident. now to a disturbing story involving a big hollywood name. bryan singer, director of the oscar-nominated film "bohemian rhapsody," is accused in a new expose of sexual misconduct with underaged boys. nbc's stephanie gosk has more on the allegations and tsinger's denial. ♪ we will, we will rock you >> reporter: "bohemian rhapsody," a movie chronicling the '70s band queen, is rack up accolades. but now that success may be overshadowed. at least six men accuse the film's director, bryan singer, of sexual misconduct spanning two decades. all of them underage at the time. the latest accusations revealed in a new report in "the atlantic" after a year-long investigation and interviews with 50 sources. many describe regular hollywood parties where teenage boys were

allegedly given alcohol and drugs and encouraged to have sex with older men. >> several of the sources we talked to described that when bryan singer would throw a party it would look like a high school kegger. >> reporter: the 53-year-old was fired from "bohemian rhapsody" with less than three weeks of filming to go after failing to show up to the set and then asking for production to be put on hold, according to the magazine. soon afterward cesar sanchez guzman filed a lawsuit alleging the director raped him on a yacht in 2003 when he was 17. sanchez guzman games singer said if he told anyone no one would believe him. now "the atlantic" reports that four more men are coming forward for the first time. three of them anonymously. alleging they engaged in sex acts with singer as minors. singer categorically denies all the allegations and calls the article a homophobic smear piece, writing in part, "this story rehashes claims from bogus

lawsuits filed by a disreputable cast of individuals." singer, who has never been charged with a crime, calls the new report conveniently timed to take advantage of his latest box office hit. stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york. still ahead, meet the newest members of the westminster kennel club. plus how about taking this type of taxi to work this morning? it's not going to be too long now. you're watching "early today." those travel sites but there was always a catch. like somehow you wind up getting less. but now that i book at hilton.com, and i get all these great perks. i got to select my room from the floor plan... very nice... i know, i'm good at picking stuff. free wi-fi... laptop by the pool is a bold choice... and the price match guarantee. how do you know all of this? are you like some magical hilton fairy? it's just here on the hilton app. just available to the public, so... book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25% off that stay. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you you'll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day.ou? complicated relationship with milk?

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in today's quick hits, boeing is now one step closer to air taxi travel. on wednesday the company completed its first successful test run of an autonomous passenger air vehicle. the self-flying prototype took off and flew vertically, and the next move will be horizontal flights. a big oops by the university of south florida st. petersburg. overt weekend the admissions mistakenly blasted an e-mail to around 430 students telling them hey, congratulations, you've been accepted. about an hour later the students got a follow-up saying "please disregard the previous e-mail," that it was due to a system error. yikes. >> yeah, right? two new breeds are going to be debuting at westminster dog show next month. the nederlandse kooikerhondjes and the grand basset griffon vendeens. those are the two. oh, my god. you know those have got to be some high maintenance dogs with names like that. >> yeah. they should win alone just by

the person being able to say those names. >> i was so nervous before i had to read that. >> you got it. take a turn now to this bombshell discovery made in the sexual assault case at a nursing stilt in arizona. police have arrested 36-year-old nathan sutherland. he's a nurse at the hacienda health care facility. for allegedly impregnating an incapacitated woman there at the center. nbc's morgan chessky has the latest. >> the baby's turning blue! >> reporter: it's the frantic 911 call in an appalling crime. >> one of our patients just had a baby and we had no idea she was pregnant. >> reporter: phoenix police now say it has a suspect. >> we owe this arrest to the victim. we owe this arrest to the newest member of the community, that innocent baby. >> reporter: nearly a month after an incapacitated woman gave birth at hacienda health care, police say a dna test now ties the newborn to nathan sutherland, a male nurse who cared for the victim. now arrested for sexual assault and vulnerable adult abuse. >> this is a crime that requires

mandatory prison. >> reporter: sutherland faced a judge in phoenix, where the state accused him of preying upon a woman with who capacity to resist or even cry out. the woman's own pregnancy unknown to staff until she went into labor december 29th. >> the baby, i am told, is doing good. i would just say we can't always choose how we come into this life but what we can choose to do as a community is love this child. >> reporter: the family isn't commenting on the arrest. but sutherland's ordered to have zero contact with the victim or her family, including the very child police say he's the father of. morgan chessky, nbc news. just ahead, new accusations at the el chapo trial involving his wife. plus rapper meek mill throws his fame behind a new criminal justice reform initiative. you're watching "early today" on a thursday. but we also know how tough it is to keep up with your medication. that's why we're introducing a new and easy way... ...to refill, prepay and skip the line...

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or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. yeah! now let's get into that weekend outlook. there's going to be a theme. the theme's going to be cold. we're not going to talk about snowstorms. this is just a very cold air mass that's going to come down from canada. usually those are dry. as we go through friday, blowing and the drifting of snow possible in areas of the northern great lakes. we will see some snow and winds, southern chill out there. and as we go through the weekend lake effect snow is what you would expect when you have these arctic outbreaks. little bit of rain in south florida and also south texas but that's about it. even into sunday it's very kind of quiet. we're just going to be tracking a lot of cold. >> here's one great thing about that cold. we're going to show you it's going to make a true believer of a winter wonderland. to severet clearer. and stay clearer.

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some big names are coming together in an effort to reform america's criminal justice system. rappers jay-z and meek mill joined patriots owner robert kraft, 76ers co-owner mike rubin, and others for the announcement of the reform alliance. the goal is to highlight individual cases that embody the most egregious problems in the criminal justice system. this comes nearly nine months after meek mill's own celebrated release from a pennsylvania prison, vowing to be a voice for the voiceless. there's no shortage of drama in the el chapo trial. the new witness implicating the drug kingpin's wife in his infamous 2015 prison escape. an ex-cartel member told the jury that emma coronel was essentially a messenger helping

her husband trade messages with his sons and others who coordinated his breakout. plans included things like smuggling a phone with a gps to guzman so plotters could identify his coordinates when he was tunneling into the jail. that's where he was held. cartel members also bought property adjacent to the prison so on the day of the breakout guzman used a motorcycle to race to the exit of the tunnel. coronel has declined to comment. the defense has el chapo on the list of witnesses but there's no word yet on whether he will in fact take the stand. this past week the cold may have had a lot of us shivering, but it has also helped create a super cool winter wonderland in minnesota. nbc's kevin tibbles takes us there. >> reporter: when temperatures plummet, crystal castles come to life. >> i thought it was amazing. so bright. >> and colorful. >> so big. >> reporter: intricate columns of ice built with meticulous care bring a little warmth to our winter. are you the ice man?

>> i'm the ice -- yeah. i'm the ice man. >> reporter: brent christensen takes ice sculpting toyotas frigid extreme. >> these are built really with just a drop of watter freezing one at a time. a slow process. if you watch it it's pretty boring. but when you come back in the morning you see some pretty dramatic things. >> reporter: as many as 10,000 homemade icicles are planted every day. >> one at a time? >> one at a time. >> reporter: the sprayed water adheres and freezes and a frozen wonder is born. by day breathtaking in its natural icy blue. by night when all lit up a marvel. and before these 25 million-pound structures melt -- >> good-bye, cruel world. >> reporter: -- time to have some fun. >> i was impressed. >> reporter: so who says you can't embrace winter? kevin tibbles, nbc news, excelsior, minnesota. >> that makes it all better. it's got to be bittersweet when it starts to warm up a little bit knowing summer's around the

corner and the warm-up, all that's going to melt way. >> kevin got it exactly right. it is a marvel, especially with the lighting like that. >> it is. thanks for starting your thursday with us. i'm frances rivera. >> i'm phillip mena. >> i'm phillip mena. don't fort to checkge how's your cough? i'm good. i took 12-hour mucinex and sent it far away. hey buddy, have you seen a nice woman with a cough? woahhh! mucinex dm releases fast and lasts 12-hours, not 4. send coughs far away all day.

ad lib live picture - sf skyline. good thursday morning, january 24th. a live look at san francisco. this is one of my favorite shots. i always say that because it's so beautiful on this clear morning for us. >> this is one of my favorite shots. >> this is the best shot. >> maybe 6:30 a little better. let's get to the forecast. >> it is cool. we've had some chilly starts to the day. a live look outside in palo alto. looking at highway 101. as you step out only mid-40s. we'll stay there at 5:00 then see things warming up. south bay, look at this,