sentencing day. president trump's one-time campaign chairman paul manafort will be sentenced to prison today, but that's not all. use your common sense. how stupid would it be for me to -- with my crazy past and what i've been through oh, right now i just think i need to be a monster and hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement. y'all quit playing. quit playing. >> robert. >> i didn't do this stuff. this is not me. >> first the outburst, now r kelly is cooling his heels in a chicago jail at this very moment. arrested again nor not paying

over $161,000 in back child support. the man with all the answers announces he's facing the biggest challenge of his life. >> this week i was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. now normally the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but i'm going to fight this and i'm going to keep working. >> and with this basket lebron james just surpassed the great michael jordan on the nba's all-time scoring list. and what in the world? they say there's an app for everything, but one to help you wag your tail? yup. ear"early today" starts right n >> i'm phillip mena. >> i'm frances rivera. after a bizarre and explosive interview on cbs, singer r kelly is behind bars again this time for failing to pay child support. he owes $161,000.

the woman claimed she had sex with kelly in a detroit hotel in 2001 when she was just 13 years old. detroit police are now investigating. stephanie gosk brings us up to speed. >> reporter: r kelly is in prison for failing to pay child support as a swirl of action from his interview with cbs news. >> i'm a man. i make mistakes but i'm not a devil and by no means am i a monster. >> reporter: three-time grammy winner lashing out angrily when asked about allegations of sexual misconduct. >> i didn't do this stuff. this is not me. i'm fighting for my [ bleep ] life. y'all killing me with this [ bleep ]. i am going to fight this. [ bleep ]. >> robert. >> i am. y'all trying to kill me. you killing me, man.

>> reporter: rumors of sexual abuse and relationships with teenage girls have followed r kelly for more than a decade. >> have you ever had sex with anyone -- >> no. >> -- under the age of 17. >> no. >> never? >> no. >> have you broken any laws when it comes to women? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: last month r kelly pleaded not guilty to ten charges of sexual abuse involving four women, three of them minors. his arrest came soon after the release of a docu series, "surviving r kelly." seven women why interviewed accusing him of some form of sexual misconduct. >> what i saw on tv this morning about the way he acted when he got upset, i can only imagine what he does behind closed doors. >> joyce lynn savage says she wants to live with r. kelly. she calls her family for the first time in two years. >> i'm very happy. >> how will we know you're happy

when we don't hear from you in two years? >> i have to go now. >> i love you, joyce lynn. >> i have to go now. >> that was stephanie gosk reporting. former trump campaign chairman paul manafort will learn his fate today. a federal judge is scheduled to sentence him from a trial that stole the spotlight back in august. manafort was found guilty on a slew of charges and now faces up to 24 years in prison as well as millions of dollars in fines. for the latest let's get to nbc's tracie potts joining from us d.c. this morning. tracie, there is more trouble in store for man no for the next week. >> reporter: exactly. this week he is looking at a maximum of 24 years in the virginia trial. he pleaded guilty in washington. that sentencing is next week. manafort could be looking at another ten years either consecutively or concurrently, that's up to the judge.

these are separate charges none of them related to the trump campaign. this could amount to a life sentence if he gets the max and consecutive terms. we will begin to find out the resolution to that today. remember he cut a deal but lost it after being accused of witness tampering and lying. meantime, the mueller probe, the russia probe continues. you're looking here at the president and you can see there ivanka trump, his daughter, the white house now refusing to turn over documents about ivanka trump and her husband jared kushner and how they got security clearances. so we'll continue to watch that but also the big news today that came out of this mueller probe, what is going to be the sentence for former campaign chair paul manafort as he looks at more than two dozen years behind bars. >> at 69 years old, that is quite a while. tracy, thank you. another explosive day of

testimony on capitol hill for president trump's former attorney. michael cohen spent eight hours behind closed doors in his fourth day before congress in just over a week. cohen reportedly handed over documents to the house intelligence committee that he says supports the claim that the president's legal team tweaked his statements to congress in which he lied. nbc's kristen welker has more. >> reporter: michael cohen was supposed to report to prison. instead with his sentence delayed, he was behind closed doors testifying again in front of congress. >> i'm here to cooperate and will continue to cooperate so thank you all very much. according to a source familiar with the matter, cohen giving lawyers new documents aimed at backing up his explosive claim last week that the president's lawyers made changes to his previous testimony about that scrapped trump tower project in moscow. >> there were changes made, additions. jay sepalo for one. there were several changes that were made including how we were

going to handle that message, the message of course being the length of time that the trump tower prospect stayed and remained alive. >> reporter: nbc news has not reviewed the alleged documents. cohen has pleaded guilty and lying to congress. the president's attorney jay sekulow firing back saying testimony that attorneys edited or changed his statement to congress to alter the trump tower moscow negotiations is completely false. >> reporter: the white house is pointing us back to its previous comment on cohen's testimony saying it is, quote, laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like cohen at his word. >> kristin, thanks. a devastating diagnosis revealed late wednesday by jeopardy host alex trebek. he is battling stage four pancreatic cancer. we get the latest from nbc's

anne thompson. ♪ ♪ >> this is "jeopardy." >> reporter: on "jeopardy" he is the man with all answers, but 78-year-old alex trebek sharing devastating news with his millions of fans. >> now just like 50,000 other people in the united states each year, this week i was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. >> reporter: this means the cancer has spread to other parts of trebek's body. only 3% of people with this diagnosis live more than five years. >> i'm going to fight this and i'm going to keep working. i plan too beat the low survival statistic rates. pat sajak tweets he would never bet against trebek and trebek himself says he's counting on three more years, the number left on his contract.

anne thompson, nbc news. big changes for facebook. the tech giant which popularized public sharing announced wednesday it is shifting towards private communication after a series of skantd dals involving user's personal data. mark zuckerberg said it will have a new platform to encrypt messages. facebook lost 50 million users last year. with over a dozen democratic candidates expected to run in 2020, who will get the nod is anyone's guess at this point but we do know one thing, fox news will not be hosting any of the party's primary debates citing a new report on the cozy relationship between fox and the white house, the chairman of the democratic committee said they're not in a position to do that. a homeless veteran and a new jersey woman pleaded guilty in federal court after scamming more than 400,000 from donors on

go fund me. their scam went viral in 2017 after johnny bobbitt jr. posed as a homeless man to give this couple their last $20 so she could buy gas for their car. now they could face serious jail time. bobbitt is looking at 100 years and mcclure is facing up to 20 years in prison. >> duped a lot of people there. >> that's 10 years there. it is thursday. let's see how it's looking outside. good morning, michelle grossman. >> thursday, friday eve, whichever way you want to look at t. another day for freeze warnings in the south. it's kind of getting a little old. going to be another cold day for many of us. east chill in place. today and also friday before we start to rebound by the weekend. 28 degrees in chicago. that is 14 degrees below where ng at the teens.

13 in bismarck and 20s in parts of the midwest. so by this weekend we're going to be looking at some snow. we're also looking at possibility of severe weather again in the south. something we'll watch closely. >> thank you, michelle. >> you're welcome. when his career is over, lebron james may not have more titles than michael jordan, but he will have more points. lebron just scored his highest number of points. he trails kareem, yoib bryant. the white house flood and

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trump held a meeting of the american work force policy advisory board today with the ceo of apple, tim cook, one of the most famous business men of all the world and guess what he called tim cook? >> tim, you're expanding all over and doing things that i really wanted you to do right from the beginning. i used to say, tim, you've got to start doing it over here and you really have. you've really put a big investment in our country. we appreciate it very much tim apple. >> oh, what do you expect at this point, right? let's get to some other news. leading the news, celebrity chef mario batali has ended his 20 year business relationship. in a statement on wednesday he said he reached an agreement with batali and the hospitality group to no longer have any stake in the group.

they bought batali's shares. it has 20 restaurants and was stripped of his name entirely. a stunning and personally deep revelation. nbc's kasie hunt has the story. >> i stayed silent for many years. >> senator martha mcsally made the emotional and personal revelation during a hearing of survivors of sexual assault in the military. >> like you i am also a military sexual assault survivor. i was preyed upon and raped by a superior officer. >> mcsally was the first person to fly eye fighter jet in combat. i didn't report being sexually assaulted. i didn't trust the system at the time. i blame myself. i was ashamed and confused.

>> later she says she tried to come forward to her superiors. >> like many victims, i felt the system was raping me all over again. >> nearly 7,000 service members reported being assaulted in 2017 but advocates believe there are many who aren't coming forward. >> i am grateful for her courage. it took enormous courage to speak that truth. >> the air force apologizing to mcsally saying they're appalled by what happened to her and insisting they're committed to eliminating sexual assault from the ranks. >> that was kasie hunt reporting. just ahead, a stop at a wendy's drive through takes a wild turn, and be then the credits roll on another blockbuster store leaving only one left in the whole world. where you can still check out a movie next.

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want to hear the most annoying sound in the world? people who are squawking like see gulls in the french port city last weekend for the sixth annual seagull annual championships. they take place in france every year. on the sidelines of their annual carnival. this competition attracts a lot of people. a lot of competitors. they all show up every single year to watch that go down. >> aren't you curious what compels people to feel like they are gonna join a seagull competition. >> probably some alcohol. >> a whole lot of that, too, i think it would take.

it is a big week for idris elba. he is going to replace will smith in the "suicide squad" sequel. smith left the project because of scheduling conflicts. the sequel has an august 2021 release date but first elba hosts this weekend with musical guests khalid. >> you have 915 in the house with khalid and maybe idris elba will do an r kelly. before there were streaming services like netflix and hulu, it was all about blockbuster and the blockbuster card. it became one of the largest retailers in the world. it had 9,000 stores in the world. the second to the last blockbuster in australia will close. bend, oregon, has the last blockbuster store.

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a consumer alert to tell you about involving birth control pills. they're voluntarily recalling some of the pills because they may be packaged in the wrong order or may have an empty blister packet. for details on the affected lot numbers head to our facebook page at nbc early today or call the number on your screen. in today's top stories, a secret government watch list comes to light with journalists, lawyers, and dozens of others all targets of intense inspection at the u.s./mexico border. according to documents obtained by knsv, they're part of the

migrant caravan. some 5,000 immigrants made their way to the border. as coverage grew, so did the government watch list. the list included 10 journalists, a u.s. attorney and others listed as organizers and instigators. customs and boird drder protect person said this is part of an investigation after violence broke out. this year is already on track to be a big one for store closings. the most recent set of announcements come from charlotte russe and family dollar. charlotte russe will shut down all of its stores and that going out of business sales start today at all of its remaining stores. additionally, family dollar's parent company, dollar tree, plans to close 390 stores this year while renovating 1,000

other locations. its renovated family dollar locations will sell alcohol and include a $1 merchandise section. police are looking for a woman who pulled a gun on a worker at a drive through restaurant. it happened in henry county, georgia, at wendy's. surveillance camera caught this. she throws something out of the window, grabs a gun and points it at the cashier before driving off. police officers posted this video in hopes of catching a woman. >> hangry right there at the wendy's drive through. there's an app, digitail, was launched to control the speed and movement of a tail if you want to do such a thing. the founder and his wife have engineered thousands of tails.

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ad lib live picture of golden gate bridge. a much needed change this welcome to thursday morning. taking a live look outside. golden gate bridge. much needed change this morning from yesterday. the hard hitting rain is gone, spotty showers to greet us this morning. good morning. thank you for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm marcus washington. let's get to the weather outside. looking nice. i like this. >> i do, too. we don't have a whole lot going on. we do need a little rain and here and there. green lighting of storm ranger. we're not going to see this having a major impact. going through the tri-valley, parts of the east ba