come on! melt your frozen heart! come on. best new thing in the world today. that does it for us tonight. kn. "first look" is up next. sketch comedy. an important endorsement is overshadowed as a major gaffe by one of his aids. breaking ranks. a marine ends up in hot water for criticizing the commander in chief. pecking order. a reporter is attacked while shooting a story. good morning, i'm veronica, day la cruz. this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin this morning with

damage control. instead of celebrating a solid win in illinois and endorsement, romney's camp is back pedalling after a top aid said his pitch would change once he's the nominee. steve handelsman has details. >> reporter: romney's win impressed. one of jeb bush, popular governor of florida. he said now is the time for republicans to unite behind romney. santorum tried spin. >> all the endorsers, the establishment, you know, who is comfortable with the status quo, go with romney. >> reporter: shifting to maryland. >> i want to get america right, again. >> reporter: one of his top aids said romney plans to erase the conservative focus like you shake an etch a sketch. >> he said turn it over and

shake it, then start all over. >> reporter: mocking romney as a fake conservative, which he rushed to deny. >> the issues i'm running on will be the same. i'm running as a conservative republican. >> gingrich joined the attack. >> here is romney's staff. they don't have the decency to wait until they get the nomination to sell us out. >> reporter: i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, washington. city commissioners in florida voted no confidence in their police chief over their investigation in the shooting death of a black teenager. three of five voted against the chief with one demanding he resign. the town city manager who has the actual authority to fire the chief said he would take the vote into consideration. in new york city hundreds

march telling the crowd his son did not deserve to die. the suspect in the killing of seven people in france including three children and a rabbi is holding french police into another day. they set off explosions to force the al qaeda sympathizer to surrender. francisco has more. >> reporter: during a day of negotiations and stalling, a o profile of the suspect emerged. 24-year-old mohammed merah is an algerian extract. he said he trained with al qaeda and returned to france to commit jihad. he's admitted to carrying out the killings in the area. he killed the three french soldiers to protest in afghanistan and killed three children and adult at a jewish school earlier this week in revenge for children killed in

palestine. a man call sbood the french network before the siege started. >> he said he wasn't scared. the only thing that could stop him was either prison or death and he would welcome both. >> reporter: a prosecutor said he planned more attacks and an end to the situation will come as relief. here is your first look at the other news going on around america. a security camera captured a home invasion in philadelphia. they were pulling into their drive way. one of the victims is seen crawling on the pavement. the robbers took cash and jewelry. a big scare for an ohio family after a 25 foot long boulder rolled down a hillside and crashed into their home smashing two cars along with it. fortunately, the family was in a different part of the home when it happened. in ohio a vacant house blew

up possibly due to a gas build up. it ripped off the entire front of the house. no one was injured. a new jersey neighborhood has become home to dozens of pigs. 26 in all. and they are all living inside an rv. many of the humans on the streets aren't hog wild, i guess you could say about it. police and animal control say there's no evidence the pigs are being mistreated. finally, a reporter in rhode island ran a fowl of a rooster who is no fan of the media. >> reporter: you can see the tire tracks where the -- oh, oh, oh. that is the first time that i have ever been attacked by a rooster at work. >> she says the angry bird pecked her three or four times despite being the smallest

rooster in the coop. now, we look at the national weather. instant replay. >> i want that for my ring tone, oh, oh, oh. that was good. national reaction. not staged. unbelievable weather continues. people are wearing shorts in areas that shouldn't be wearing them. up into canada is experiencing this heat wave. yesterday was the peak of the heat in chicago. 87 warm degrees. you were flirting with 90 degrees in the middle to end of march. crazy stuff. today will be cooler than that. detroit, your warmest temperature ever in march, 84 degrees. burlington, vermont, 81 degrees. there was a section that was cooler. we had fog and clouds in philadelphia, new york city and d.c. that's why your temperatures were down a bit. everyone else, incredible stuff. this morning, 65 to start the morning in atlanta. chicago, 63.

a difference in chicago is the wet weather and clouds move your way. the temperature will be lower. we had 11 tornadoes in mississippi and louisiana. most were weak tornadoes but still strong enough to destroy roofs on homes. the thunderstorms are moving up to mobile. they will shift into alabama during the day. in mississippi, definitely need the umbrella. periods of rain on and off. the storm system is lingering back here in texas. the reason the weather hasn't changed, it's been warm day after day. the pattern has been stalled out. the jet stream is taking the storms well through northern canada. the lingering storm in the country is sitting here. it's going to take until sunday to get through new england and off the east coast. it's a slow process. it's warm across the country. the rainfall forecast for the next 48 hours push ies into

indiana and the southeast. in atlanta, most of the day is dry. this afternoon is wet. veronica, the temperatures, if we get the sun out this afternoon could be in the mid-70s from d.c. to boston. enjoy it all over again. >> i am definitely celebrating. where is your spring outfit? >> tomorrow. >> all right. he said it. a strange new business name and owning elvis' blue suede shoes. the business headlines is straight ahead. coming up, a birthday wish comes through. unprecedented suspension by the nfl. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] say goodbye to "ho-hum,"

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welcome back to "first look." here are some of the top stories make i making news this morning. president obama is in oklahoma to talk about his energy policy. over the weekend, the president will be in south korea and visit

the zone between north and south. in northwest africa, soldiers in mali went on tv to say they seized power from the government. a curfew was in effect and intend to return power to a new democratically elected government. garystein is barring troops from activities. he started a facebook page called armed forces tea party to encourage other service members to exercise their free speech rights and would not follow unlawful orders from the president. former illinois governor rob blagojevich's hair may quickly go gray in prison. he's dyed his hair for years. he started a 14 year prison sentence where hair dye is not allowed. the dow opens at 13,124

after losing 45 points yesterday. the s&p was down two. the nasdaq was up one. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei gained 40 points. markets were mostly flat yesterday. a warning out of china could spark concerns on wall street. china's manufacturing macon tract for a fifth straight month in march. yesterday, investors got mixed reports on the housing markets, sales of existing homes dipped. overall, winter sales were the best in five years. hp was the biggest drag on the dow. meanwhile, baker hughes weighed down the s&p with a profit warning. green mountain perked up. they will make coffee packs for starbucks brewing system. hunger games will be a big box

office hit. safeway and super value agreed to stop selling ground beef made with pink slime due to complaints of the controversial filler. gm will continue making cars for another decade. kraft's new name for snack brands is getting mixed reviews. two employees meeting delicious world. finally, time is running out. if you want to get your hands on a few pieces of history. a white chiffon gown worn by princess di and elvis' blue suede shoes are for sale online. gas prices keep rising as the cost of oil goes up. last night on ""the ed show""

the cause is not supply and demand. if speculation were prohibited the price of oil would drob drastically. >> there's more supply available than three years ago when the price was $1.90 a gallon. there's less demand than 1997. we are not looking at a supply and demand problem. what we also know is that over 80%, repeat, over 80% of the oil futures market is not controlled by people who actually use the oil, airlines, et cetera, but wall street specklators like goldman sachs, morgan stanley. >> those trying to make a dollar. >> to make as much money as they can. now, there have been differing ideas of how much would change.

this is interesting. goldman sachs itself and goldman sachs may be the major specklator on the oil futures market. they estimated the price of a gallon of gas would go down by 56 cents. >> watch theed show on msnbc, the place for politics. the nfl comes down hard on the saints. the hawks win in overtime. plus, kobe bryant and the lakers get fancy dousing the mavericks. your "first look" at sports is straight ahead. you are woching "first look" on msnbc. erything - everything.

but why energy? we've got over 100 years worth. is it safe to get it? but what, so we should go broke with imports? look, i'm just saying. well, energy creates jobs. [announcer:] at conocophillips, we're helping power america's economy with cleaner, affordable natural gas. more jobs, less emissions. a good answer for everyone. we gotta be careful. it's cleaner. it's affordable.

look, if it's safe, i'm there. [announcer:] conocophillips. welcome back to "first look." in sports, the unlikely story of the quarterback, tim tebow took another twist yesterday with a self-described conservative christian ending up, in all places, new york city. here is fred. >> the nba and nhl playoffs are heating up. everybody is talking football. we're going to start with tim tebow. tebow is now a member of the new york jets. bronco has a pair of draft picks in return. he'll likely be used in an offense. huge news out of new orleans. roger ga dell dropped the hammer for the saints. greg williams indefinitely for

implementing a bounty system in 2009. the crush for crash prom targeted players. the team denied everything and tried to cover it up. they were suspended multiple games. the organization was fined 500,000 bucks. if roger is trying to send a message, it's been heard loud and clear. the knicks are ice cold, now red hot. they beat the sixers. the knicks put it all together, 82-79. great finish between the hawks and cavs. in ot, johnson, again. not a buzzer beater but just as important. 103-102, hawks won in ot. kobe bryant can still make plays like that. he played like an mvp last

night. he beat the lakers. finally, rangers captain celebrated his birthday in style. it's his 27th goal of the year which came on his 27th birthday. rangers win it 2-1 in ot. that's your first look at sports. now, another look at the weather. here is meteorologist bill karins. can't wait to see the spring outfit you are going to break out. >> an orange suit, i don't have orange. >> pink, maybe. >> i have to get more creative, i think. yesterday was a day you shake your head in areas of northern new england. sunny, perfect, beautiful. it felt like early june. mosquitos were out. 78 in boston. the low clouds and fog lingered

through much of the day in the mid-atlantic. today the same. dense fog advisory on i-95. careful driving in delaware, maryland, new jersey, long island and southern connecticut. the fog will slowly burn off. cooler with patchy drizzle in those areas. sunny this afternoon. a better chance of the sun coming out today than yesterday. the temperatures could be 84 today in hartford, connecticut. it's crazy record high there. the temperatures are cooling off a little bit with rain around chicago today and heavy rain around mississippi. itis hard to believe it's going to be mid-80s in southern new england. >> it's 82 in miami, but 84 in connecticut? >> it's going to be warmer in connecticut than miami. they are coming up here for spring break. >> do you have that map right, bill karins? just kidding. another hollywood baby on the way and who is hanging with

ashton kutcher? does it pay to be mean in showbizness. oh. let's go. from the crack, off the backboard. [ laughs ] dad! [ laughs ] whoo! oh! you're up! oh! oh! so close! now where were we? ok, this one's good for two. score! [ male announcer ] share what you love with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. they're gr-r-eat!

it's rumor that jersey shore star the situation checked himself into rehab. it always happens to the ones you totally expect. there's rumors going around that kim kardashian wants to adopt a child. you can tell orphans are nervous. oliver twist is like, i'm good on soup.

you turkey. it looks like tim tebow might be traded to the new york jets you guys. [ cheers and applause ] but, apparently some jets players are not happy about it. yeah. they are called wide receivers. no way. i i'm not going to receive the ball. we won't throw it. >> jimmy welcomes fergie and animal expert. that's "late night with jimmy fallon" on your local nbc station. you thought that was funny, didn't you, bill? let's go to entertainment news. access hollywood repofrting reese wither spoon is expecting her third child. she has a 12-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son with her ex.

elsewhere, rihanna paid a late-night visit to ashton kutcher's bachelor pad. donald trump not known for subtlety has been feuding with rosie o'donnell. he jumped in to kick her when she was down over being canceled. trump said i'm so glad she got fired by oprah. she's a bully. it's nice to see bullies go down. finally, the hype of "man men" after an 18-month hiatus reached fever pitch in wall street when they stopped by the new york stock exchange to ring the opening bell. >> i have never seen an episode. it seems like a show i would like. >> i have never seen it. i'm into "breaking bad." have you seen that? >> no.

>> it's a good one. stay tuned. way too early with willie geist starts right now. the florida state legislature who sponsored florida's stand your ground law says based on the evidence he's seen, it does not apply to the confrontation between zimmerman and martin. are police in sanford, florida any closer to making an arrest in this case? we'll have the report from florida. when you thought the primary race could pt get more bizarre, the campaigns and obama team spend the day talking about etch-a-sketch. what is the line? more than a one cycle misstep. tim tebow is coming to new york city to the jets. they just signed him to an extensive extension. the question is, how will tebow mania play ie