good issue for them to use against president obama. i do not think they are right but i'm looking forward to them trying to mahe high court controversy. protests swirl as the supreme court considers the legality of a landmark health care law. oops, he did it again. president obama explains private comments picked up on an open mic. unhinged. a runaway vessel gives house boat a whole new meaning. good morning to you. those stories and much more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin this morning with the heart of the matter after it

was essentially a warm up, day two in the president's health care reform law will dig into its components requiring every american to get health care or pay a penalty. >> the obama showdown. chief justice, john roberts. >> mandate is a command. >> no disagreement on that. >> the bill the president signed requires almost all americans to buy health insurance by 2014 or pay a fine. 26 states sudden. >> coming in to federal court to challenge this unprecedented obligation to buy a good or service that consumers don't want. >> a new survey finds two-thirds of americans want obama health care struck down. >> if we went on the individual mandate obamacare in totality will fall totally practically

speaking. >> the imposition of government rule over people's lives. >> obama supporters rallied saying his plan imposes fairness. >> we are rich and prosperous nation. it's only morally right a minimal level of health care should be right and not a function of income or which eyes you have. >> all eyes will be on justin anthony kennedy. he could be the swing vote. outside the supreme court rick santorum said health care is not a right because rights are given by your creator and health care reform could force you to do things which you believe are against the teachings of your faith. >> i think this party has moved so far to the right that you

have even a so-called moderate by the standards of this crowd like mitt romney being against planned parenthood, wants to defun planned parenthood, want to end title x, title x that helps many poor women get basic health care let alone birth control. they sort of have gone off the rails. the biggest thing is and i know you talked about it a lot is the blunt amendment. that was an amendment that passed with every single republican in the senate, 45 of the voting for it except for olympia snowe who is fleeing and essentially allowed employers to get rid of all health care for women and for men, in that matter. good-bye to mammograms, cont contracepti contraception, pap smears whatever it is. >> you won't want to miss out on

rachel maddow's unique take on politics weeking nights at 9:00 eastern on msnbc the place for politics. later this morning you won't want to miss rachel on the "today" show talking about her new book which is out in stores today. we'll talk more about her book later. as faern of trparents of trn and supporters call for an investigation into the shooting. jay gray has more. >> reporter: a month after he was shot and killed trayvon martin's parents addressed sanford city commissioners. >> we're not asking for eye for eye, we're asking for justice. >> reporter: the community watch volunteer has been in hiding but friends are coming to george

zimmerman's defense. they said martin confronted zimmerman. >> the bottom line is there was a life and death struggle in that instance, and someone was going to die. >> reporter: adding to the confusion and emotion, sanford was with his father after being suspended from his school. >> they killed my son and now trying to kim his reputation. >> reporter: what will not die is the outrage over the shooting. martin's parents will travel to washington for a congressional forum and a protest continuing what they call their search for justice for their son. in sanford, florida, jay gray, nbc news. >> president obama wraps up his visit to south korea and heads home today after trying to clear up a controversy that started with an open microphone at the nuclear security summit in south korea president obama's conversation with russian's president was picked up on an open mic.

the president said we'll have more room to negotiate after the 2012 election. today after joking about the microphones being on president explained since arms control is a complex issue he thought somebody shouldn't be surprised you should start something so complex before u.s. elections. republican mitt romney called the president's comments a troubling development. he called the russians our number one enemy. here is your "first look" at other news. in new mexico video has been made public after someone stole a school bus. there were no kids on board but plenty of danger as state police chased the driver for more than 150 miles. a police car camera shows the bus swerving back and forth as officers tried to ram the back

end. they were able to do so bringing the chase to an end. >> in detroit frightening moments for a man stabbed while on his cell phone. surveillance video from a gas station shows the woman slashing the back of the man's neck and continuing to follow the victim while he tried to get help. the man survived despite an eight inch wound. the woman is still on the loose. finally forget about rough waters. a boat slammed right into a house in florida. a neighbor says it was being towed by a truck when it broke loose and headed straight for house to. fortunately the family living there wasn't home at the time. can say that again. yikes. time for a look at the national weather. we turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins. can you imagine coming home from that? >> can you imagine getting the phone call from your neighbor. hey, herb, what's going on? a boat just crashed into your

house. >> excuse me, a what? >> good morning, everyone. winter has returned. it's brief, it won't feel nice this morning. the wind doesn't feel good. didn't feel good yesterday. this is a quick change. this morning you need the winter coats. bundle the kids up with hats and gloves. temperatures have dropped about 20 degrees compared to this time yesterday and even as much as 25 lower right now than yesterday in albany. how bad are the temperatures in the worst of it is definitely in northern new england, but everyone here is now below freezing. this white line is the freeze line. we had a hard freeze overnight through all of new england, most of michigan, pennsylvania, new york state and even now down here in areas of new jersey. all the flowers are out, the buds are on the trees, the magnolias have bloomed. hopefully the hardier stuff survived. wind chill, this is what gets

you. not only is it cold but winnie, especially all of maine. you're in the single digits and negative numbers. burlington is now at 9, albany to prove incidents, boston, hartford, a cold winter morning and hopefully we won't have another one like this until maybe november or december of the end of this year. middle of the country just the opposite. cold blast has literally, it's confined just in new england and mid-atlantic. already warm conditions are in the middle of the country and that will continue. we have thunderstorms this morning all the way up in northern minnesota. you can see the lightning strike pop up here near international falls. this is an indication of the warmer air surging through the heartland and minneapolis a little line of storms is about to head through. some lining strikes and that will be over. it's 65 in kansas city. the warm air is still middle of the country. the cold stuff is definitely there in new england. this is march. late march the sun angles high enough you'll warm up for a decent day after that cold

weather. the middle of the country is just fine. colorado dry once again. we had a bad fire there with one fatality. ten houses burned down. >> bill, thank you for staying on top of that. big ben now on jobs and why nimble fingers and big business go together. your "first look" at business headlines is straight ahead. >> the knicks lose two of their stars. tebow takes new york. when is a tie really a loss. you're watching "first look" on nbc. [ male announcer ] for making cupcakes

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. welcome back to "first look." here are some of the top stories making news this morning. americans support for the war in afghanistan has dropped sharply. a "new york times"/cbs news poll says 60% says the u.s. should

flono longer be fighting in afghanistan. a wildfire has killed one person, destroyed an unknown number of homes and forced evacuation of 900 houses. the blaze which forced the closing of some roads in the area is believed to have been ignited by embers left over from a controlled burn last week. dominique strauss-kahn is facing charges he was head of a prostitution ring. he's denying the charges. a year after japan's earthquake and tsunami, 150-foot long fishing boat has drifted across the pacific ocean and is about 100 miles off the coast of canada. the ghost ship is the first piece of tsunami debris to reach north america. and now here's your "first look" at how wall street will open. the dow will open at 13,241 after climbing 160 point.

the nasdaq speck 54. taking a look at overseas trading in tookia the nikkei surged 236 points, while in hong kong the hang seng leaped 378. looking ahead this morning we'll get home price data and a report on consumer confidence. stocks recovered last week's losses in monday's bounce back but they are on track for the best first quarter for stocks in 14 years. some credit for that went to fed chairman ben bernanke who said until proving job market is a welcomed development and said the fed's policy should help reduce long term unemployment. china's industrial company suffered a rare drop in profit of more than 5% in the first two months of this year. apple chief executive is in china to meet government officials in beijing as apple gets ready to expand its market there for the ipad and iphone.

boeing delivered two dream liners to japan airlines after a delay of almost three years because of production problems. platform was evacuated as a gas leak was discovered. aig still owes money but taxpayers will make a $10 million profit. home sales fell 5% as the housing market struggles to recover. many large corporations are now using video game technology to trainman gears and executives. so between games and smart phones next generation ever business leaders may have some very fast finger reflections or it just might be an excuse to play more individual rodwims. the nuggets are off the bulls. el salvador shoots down u.s. hopes for olympic glory. the pacers and the heat handing miami their second double digit loss. your "first look" at sports is

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to those who say... sweetie? yea [worker 1:] we need to produce our own energy. [announcer:] and, to those who say... [worker 2:] we need environmental protection. [announcer:] conocophillips says, you're right. find out how natural gas answers both at powerincooperation.com. welcome back to "first look." in sports missing players the new york knicks managed a big win last night increasing their lead for the nba's eastern conference. good morning. just when it appeared that the knicks were turning around their season they suffered a huge loss.

stoudemire out with a bad back. knicks are banged up but managed to beat milwaukee. bulls short-handed, derek rose sat out his seventh game in a row. the nuggets shot 50%. lawson had a season high 28 and denver won it 108-91. the heat lost their congame in as many days. time winding down in the first half. george threw up a prayer and it was answered. everything went right for the pacers. they won it 105-90. pistons and wizards, you know why those seats in the front row are so expensive. they come with a free gatorade bath. knight doused everybody and everything in sight. it was the wizards who were washed up. rodney stuckey drained the game winner with less than a second to play. nfl it's not too often a back up quarterback has a nationally televised news conference but then again not every quarterback

is tim tebow. he was introduced as a member of the jets and in true tebow fashion he said all the right things. >> i'm so honored and humble to be a jet. i'm thankful that they wanted me. i'm so excited about meeting my teammates. i had a pleasure to meet quite a few already. i'm looking towards my future as jet. >> when is a tie a loss? when it comes to olympic qualifying. el salvador scored the game tying score. the tie eliminates them from olympic competition. instead of heading to london they will be watching the games from home. that's your "first look" at sports, i'm fred roggin. >> bill, cold? it's cold out there. >> one of those mornings as a weather person you take a little bit of abuse. >> absolutely. it's all your fault. >> i mean our bodies aren't used to it.

typically in march we wouldn't complain with weather like this. the within are still howling especially cape cod, boston, po portsmouth, maine. wind chills in the teens. i know southeast suburbs it will be in the single digits and if you're up there in new hampshire or maine very cold, negative wind chills and even d.c. wind chill 28. won't feel good at the bus stop. as far as today goes at least it will be sunny. if you're in the sun not shade temperature getting into the 50s. rest of the country is still holding on to the warmth. kansas city, chicago, st. louis, late day thunderstorms traveling at the airports there maybe a minor chance of delays late today. otherwise the southeast looks fantastic after a cool start a beautiful afternoon. the worst weather in the nation over the next couple of days if you live anywhere out there in oregon, northern california those coastal areas will get a lot of heavy rain. you could get five to ten inches

ever rain and flooding concerns. notice that as much as we'll complain in the east today we're still holding on to beautiful weather in the middle of the country. chicago looks fantastic. >> we had it good for a little too long. >> it was a shock to the system to go backwards. >> winter all over again. thanks, bill. who would you cast to play this former first lady the actress that was chosen has a vastly different political view than her husband's. was it payback for his nasty moments on stage. your "first look" at entertainment is straight ahead. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss.

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essentially i thought over the past 30 or 40 years we made a bunch of decisions to make going to war less hassle. so you can get around a congress that didn't want you to, you can get around a public that you didn't want to explain it to. you could get around how much it cost. you could call-up private contractors. these nice little work arounds in terms of making war bother people, we can wage war in ways that don't bother us. >> that was msnbc rachel maddow speaking with david letterman and her new book "drift" which is out in stores today. it is time now for your "first look" at entertainment news. good news for you ladies out there, you know who are fans of liam from the "hunger games." you still have a shot. speculation said he proposed to

miley cyrus. but cyrus is shooting down those rumors, i'm not engaged, i've worn this same ring on this finger since november. >> she didn't say she doesn't want the ring. elsewhere early bobby brown was arrested in california for suspicion of dui after he was pulled after failed a field sobriety test. a 29-year-old woman was charged with agra evacuated burglary after breaking into simon cowell's home. he described it as something out of a horror movie. finally casting news. jane fonda will play first lady nancy reagan about a long time white house butler. who played bill karins in the

story of karen cairns? >> somebody that doesn't want to get paid a lot. >> send us a tweet. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned because "way too early with willie geist" starts right now. today is the day at the supreme court when the men and women in the black robes will hear arguments for and against the individual mandate at the core of president obama's affordable health care act. the question is can americans be come foeld buy health insurance even if they don't want it. a "new york times" poll tells the story of an american public increasingly exhausted by the steady stream of bad news out of afghanistan. now seven in ten saying we should not be fighting there any more. the question is will public opinion for the president's hand in expediting the withdrawal where it's been sfo iv 1/2 years. tim tebow meets the new york press, introduced as the jets new back up quarterback. the question is, how long can