cuts. to get rid of some of these dumb and arbitrary cuts. they just want to fix the parts related to national defense. the stuff put in there specifically because it was supposed to be unpalatable to them. the plan would ease the cuts on the pentagon, but give the pentagon $2 million more than the president asked for. republicans think about this, would keep all the austerity for the programs that the democrats don't want to see cut. but the cuts that they don't like would be mostly reversed. that's how they're going to fix it. to review, the sequester was supposed to be the equal pain for both parties. bipartisan dumbness. bipartisan arbitrariness. that was the whole point. that was the design. today house republicans said the parts we do not like, we think we're going to undo them. all the rest of it, the reduction in funds for housing programs could force people in emergency shelters out on to the street. the reduction in wic funding that could leave three quarters

of a million low income women and children without benefits. when you're talking about wic, that means without infant formula. or 11% reduction in unemployment benefits for people not able to find a job. all of that will stay gone away. it's fine for all of that to have gone away. those cuts must be seen now as permanent. the things that the republicans will miss, they'll come back. house republicans today advancing a plan to undo the part of the sequester their party doesn't like, while keeping the part democrats do not like. which is just strategic genius. such a deal. why didn't i think of that. if every time i had to make a deal with somebody, the part they didn't like about it, they could undo afterwards and leave the part i didn't like in tact, i would make a lot more deals. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow morning on the "today" show and then again tomorrow night for this show.

biblical swarms of locusts are headed to israel, and this lady bear has them cheering on their feet. good morning. folks in the upper midwest are bracing for another clash with old man winter. nearly a foot of snow has fallen in the dakotas, now this late-winter storm is headed east where it is expected to cause a commuter's nightmare from minneapolis to chicago before

moving to the mid-atlantic states. jay gray is in the windy city where schools are already closed. jay, good morning. how is it looking out there? >> good morning to you. the wind picking up here. a bitter wind, still no snow. that's the good news, the maybe the morning commute will be spared, but there's little doubt that the afternoon commute will be a mess because the storm will begin moving through, dropping heavy, wet snow on this area. the winds are expected to increase as well, that's a concern as far as power lines and how they will be effected. look, this all started in the dakota with an intense snow in some areas, over a foot. that's an area used to severe weather, but they even had to close schools. that's when you know this storm has the attention of some hearty souls. yesterday we saw people stocking

up getting for what's to come. that's the latest from here, back to you. >> thank you very much, jay. bill karins will have much more on what to expect from the winter storm in a few moments. nearly after three months after the newtown, connecticut shooting, there appears to be movement on a firearms bill. it is part of a package of bills . state regulators are considering regulating assault weapons. inside the capitol, gabrielle giffords mark kelly urged background checks. the nra will sponsor

nascar's sprint cup race next month in texas. some tough talk from vice president biden towards iran and its suspected nuclear program. the vice president re-emphasized the administration's determination to keep iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. he made the comments while addressing a powerful pro israeli lobbying group monday in washington. >> big nations can't bluff. presidents of the united states cannot and do not bluff. and president barack obama is not bluffing. he is not bluffing. >> mr. biden added the u.s. is not looking for war, but added all options are on the table. israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu repeatedly called for the u.s. to keep iran from crossing a red line. police in california are conducting a criminal investigation of a senior living facility where an elderly woman died after the nurse declined to perform cpr.

the nurse refused to resuscitate the 87-year-old woman saying it was against the facility's policy. the 911 dispatcher begged the nurse to take action. in florida overwhelms are hoping to start stabilizing the big sinkhole where a man died on thursday. crews demolished the central florida home revealing a hole about 30 feet wide and 60 feet deep. the body of jeff bush is unlikely to be found and residents of two nearby homes that were evacuated may never be able to return. a second smaller sinkhole opened up in the same town less than two miles away, but officials say they're not connected. day four of the sequester and congress may be feeling the pinch. lawmakers were urged to cut their budget by 8%. the average budget of a member of congress stands at $1.4 million a year. the cuts are also effecting the

flying public. homeland security secretary janet napolitano says delays have been caused in at least two u.s. major airports. retired supreme court justice sandra day o'connor was the first woman to serve on the high court. last night in a rare exclusive interview, o'connor told rachel maddow public opinion does not effect the justices. >> the members of the court are human beings, they read the newspaper and probably watch a little of the news from time to time. they're not immune or restricted from being aware of what's going on around them. but i certainly think they are conscious about not letting that determine their decisions. they're not running a popularity contest. >> the supreme court is currently deciding on the defense of marriage act and

california's proposition 8. and ellen degeneres wrote a serious blog post in support of gay marriage but also questioned the legal use of the word briefs, writing "why would judges want all that underwear." and after a quick talk to some people i found out what a brief was. jeb bush talked to chuck todd about immigration and his position not to support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. you can see the entire interview at 9:00 a.m. joe scarborough discussed america's fiscal challenges with paul krugman and charlie rose, part of their conversation focused on cutting the national debt. >> we will eventually have to deal with health care costs, deal with the costs of the programs we want. but there's no urgency and no urgency means not this year, not

next year, not in the next five years or ten years. if we send the message we're willing to do the responsible things, willing to make the tough choices, willing to ask americans to sacrifice in the long run to keep the entitlement program solvent, i think that sends a strong message to the world markets. and that's your morning dish of scrambled politics. we turn now to the weather and bill karins joins us with details on this midwest storm. >> i'd like to fast forward to friday afternoon, when this whole storm is over with and everything begins to warm up across the country. that will be a rough three, four days. it's already starting this morning. heavy snow in and around minneapolis, working through iowa, northern illinois b to arrive in chicago. winter storms posted for virginia and west virginia. waiting to see what will happen on the 95 corridor. currently the white shows you where the snow is.

it shows you snow going from minneapolis down to rochester, near iowa, just barely clipping ames and des moines. that will spread into chicago during the rush hour where hundreds of flights are already canceled. today will be a mess. full-fledged snowstorm for chicago during the day today, especially 10:00 a.m. to this evening is the heaviest snow. later this afternoon that snow will develop and move through northern indiana, eventually into areas of ohio. wintry mix south of there, rain south of there from tennessee and kentucky. by the time we get to wednesday, the storm will redevelop and come off the coast of virginia. the heaviest snow during the wednesday daylight hours will be back from west virginia to virginia, from washington, d.c. west and north up to the hills, harrisburg, harrisonburg, charlottesville, that's the heaviest snow. during the day on wednesday, the winds will pick up on the coast, it will mostly be rain from new york city, philadelphia, d.c.

turning over to snow as the day goes on. the question is how quickly will it change over and what will the temperatures be as far as accumulations go. as of right now about four inches in chicago. maybe six, highest totals in indiana today. i'll look at the totals for new england and the mid-atlantic later in the show. it's a difficult forecast. a lot will depend on elevations. >> all right. coming up, an impostor sneaks into the vatican, a broke casey anthony lives off kindness and charity and martha stewart is back in court. and the white house is fighting for your rights as a cell phone customer. [ female announcer ] born from the sweet monk fruit,

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welcome back. here's some other stories making news this morning. in rome, catholic cardinals want answers on allegations of corruption and cronyism before the election of the next pope. but first, they might have to figure out how this man nearly snuck into a meeting by posing as a bishop. apparently, his phony robes gave

him away before he made it inside. the venezuelan government says hugo chavez's health is in a have very delicate state. the cancer stricken leader has a worsening respiratory function. casey anthony was back in a florida court monday for a bankruptcy hearing. the 26-year-old was acquitted in july 2011 of charges she murdered her toddler daughter. 12 former members of the florida a&m marching band are facing manslaughter charges this morning. it stems from hazing death of robert champion. all of the members could get 15 years in prison if convicted. arkansas governor mike beatty vetoed legislation restricting abortions. lawmakers trumped his previous veto making it now illegal to obtain an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. the woman who claimed that senator robert menendez paid her

for sex is now recanting. she says a loyal lawyer asked her to frame the democrat. and just in time for an eerie passover, the israeli government has issued a locust alert. that's right, locusts. it comes after millions of the bugs were seen swarming over the egyptian desert headed towards israel. interesting timing. well, moving to our business headlines. billionaire cell phone rights and the must-have car if you can afford it. martha stewart heads back to a new york city courtroom. she's in the middle of a battle between macy's and jcpenney. cell phone owners listen up the white house is supporting customer rights for people to be able to unlock their phones after their contracts have been completed. obama senior adviser r. david edelman wrote that the white house agrees with the 114,000 of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties.

could hess gas stations and those cool christmas trucks be a thing of the past? the company announced they're getting out of the gas station business and will focus on exploration and production. new york city mayor michael bloomberg is fails for his ban on smoking and large sugary drinks but his new campaign is being questioned as the meanest public service announcement ever. bloomberg's teen pregnancy prevention campaign shows a crying kid with the caption "i'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen." ouch. >> if you got a few extra bucks lamborghini has this $3.9 million carbon fiber super car. the front of the car is actually a giant wing. it basically will hold the car aerodynamically to the road as it reaches 220 miles per hour. and lamborghini is making three of the cars named the no-no. but if the car of your dream outside of your reach, how about the job of your dreams? tours of australia is running the best jobs campaign.

there have already been 30,000 applicants who have each uploaded a video. coming up, another hit and run. bad news for the new york yankees. and proof that the bible is still pretty popular. plus, harrison ford gets ready to take on ron burgundy. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. uisine salad additions. the perfect combination of grilled chicken plump edamame ripe pineapple crunchy broccoli colorful carrots all topped with a savory ginger vinaigrette and crispy noodles. for 300 delicious calories. all you have to do is bring your own lettuce. we'll dress it up. new lean cuisine salad additions. just byol. they're the hottest thing to hit the frozen aisle. nestle. good food, good life. in the middle of the night it can be frustrating. it's hard to turn off and go back to sleep. intermezzo is the first and only prescription sleep aid

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turning back to some of our top political stories, i'm joined by karen finney. thanks for being here this morning. >> good morning. >> let's start with this bipartisan gun proposal. do you think this has a changes of succeeding? >> it does have a chance of succeeding because gun trafficking has been one of the issues, part of the strategy, you know, separating this issue from some of the other more contentious issues. this is the one where there seems to be the most agreement. so that's why you'll see chairman leahy try to move this part forward. you'll see others trying to move the other pieces like background checks and assault weapons ban which is a bit tougher as well. >> now, moving on to the president's approval ratings. a recent gallup poll shows the president's approval rating is at 46%, down from a high of 58%. is he suffering now because of the sequester? >> it's likely that it is.

i think there was always the expectation that frankly at some point voters are just angry at washington and not distinguishing between parties. that being said, you know, support for the president's ideas remain high. it will be interesting to see as this continues to play out, we know from our own nbc news poll from last week that americans have said they will blame republicans. so we'll see if that continues, how that plays itself out. >> karen finney, thanks so much for getting up early with us. >> take care. here's your "first look" at some other news going on around america. we begin in iowa with the dramatic car theft caught on tape. the vehicle's owner made a costly mistake while she left her car running while she went into a store. while the unidentified thief sped off, she hit the driver and that woman suffered minor injuries and police are sill searching for that thief.

next to virginia where hidden cameras exposed a real estate agent's bizarre crime. police arrested the man after a video footage showed him stealing underwear for sale. they believe the underwear bandit may be responsible. and massachusetts governor deval patrick took a walk on the wild side. patrick joined on the annual black bear cub survey. he even kept cubs warm while they tagged the mama bear. number one in college basketball. for the first time ever washington state's gonzaga is now the nation's top ranked team after indiana lost to minnesota and fell to number two. the zags have been famous for some big wins in the ncaa tournament. and gonzaga is the 57th team to to be ranked number one since 1949 when the a.p. poll began. in women's college basketball, second-ranked notre dame's skylar diggins comes off with a

steal and puts in the layup. the irish beat the huskies 96-87 to win the regular season big east title. and senior brittney griner of top-ranked baylor made her 14th career dunk and first at home since her freshman year as she piled up 50 points, a big 12 record. the lady bears cruised to a 90-68 win over kansas state tufrning to the nba, milwaukee was down one point when j. redick drained a three-pointer to take the lead. the bucks went on to edge utah 109-108. new york's star carmelo anthony injured his ankle in the second quarter and will be checked out. the knicks fell behind but came back to win a 92-87 victory. and in baseball, another big injury for the yankees as general manager brian cashman broke his leg jumping out of a plane with the golden knights with the u.s. army as part

of a fund-raiser for the wounded warrior project. no word how long cashman may be on the injured list. now another look at the weather, bill karins is back. good morning again. >> i'm tweetiaking my snow foret and amounts. as far as the cities in the m midwest, 6 to 10, i lowered chicago a bit. about 4 to 8, still a significant storm. all during the day today. madison, wisconsin, they'll get it good today. lesser amounts fort wayne and the quad cities. milwaukee, much of the heavier snow shifted further to the south of you. let me talk about the d.c. area through new england. our latest commuter guidance is showing a rain event for jersey to maryland. once you get north and west of d.c. and baltimore, much heavier amounts. the forecast for d.c. is tricky, along with new england. a lot of the elevation dependent, rain wednesday turning to snow.

>> a lot of those cities in the midwest are used to that stuff. >> at this point they are, doesn't mean they want to see it. >> that's true. >> they want the green grass and crocuses. >> we all want that. just ahead, whitney houston's fbi file is released. 128 pages of fascinating details coming up next. capella university understands rough economic times have led to an increase in clinical depression. drug and alcohol abuse is up. and those dealing with grief don't have access to the professional help they need. when you see these issues, do you want to walk away or step up?

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it's time for entertainment news. the fbi has released 128 pages of information about late singer whitney houston. the files reveal everything from alleged extortion cases against houston and fan mail with a man who claimed he was truly in love with her.