derailment in new york, the speed, the engine and now attention seems to be squarely on the driver. and the hardest working newsman at it again, from a north carolina newscast to a north of the border curling match, ron burgundy takes his polyester to canada. this is "way too early." >> look at this. >> there it is. ♪ >> pretty good form out of will ferrell up there on the ice. good balance, good follow-through. good morning, everybody. brian shactman here, tuesday, december 3rd. we have a pretty shocking route on "monday night football." we'll have highlights in sports. and a selfie from one of the most infamous evil-doers in cinematic history. we'll have details and you can get involved with the twitter question. but we begin with the new york trail derailment. this morning, investigators are turning their attention to the engineer as new revelations of

just how fast the train was going when it derailed. the onboard data recorder revealed the train was going 82 miles per hour when it took that fateful curve. it should have been traveling at just 30 miles per hour. engine power was cut back just six seconds before the crash, and the brakes were applied just moments later, but the engineer telling investigators they didn't work. it's important to note here, they had worked at the nine stops before the crash. investigators also looking at the engineer's cell phone. it's believed the driver of that deadly crash in spain last january was on his cell phone when that accident occurred. the death toll in the bronx stands at four. dozens have been treated for broken bones, lacerations and severe spinal cord injuries. meanwhile, outgoing mayor michael bloomberg is facing some questions over how he has handled this incident. the "wall street journal" reports he was golfing in bermuda at the time of the crash and didn't leave the course until at least 1:00 p.m. local

time. yesterday he visited victims in the hospital and said he was briefed about 30 minutes after the accident. the "new york daily news" quotes the mayor as saying "what can i do? i'm not a professional firefighter or a police officer. nothing i can do. all i can do is make sure that the right people from new york city, our police commissioner, fire commissioner and emergency management commissioner are there." well, after nearly two months of battling negative headlines, the white house is looking to turn the page on obama care. today the president will kick off a new three-week campaign to refocus the public's attention to the positive aspects of the health care law. senior administration officials tell politico the white house will target different benefits of the law each day leading up to the december 23rd deadline to receive coverage by the beginning of the new year. roughly 100,000 people signed up for health insurance through the federal exchange last month. of course, up from the under 27,000 who successfully signed up for coverage in the month of

october. meanwhile, the white house picked up a key legal victory yesterday as the supreme court said it would not hear a case challenging the law's employer mandate. however, a new poll shows one key group president obama was hoping would sign up for coverage, the so-called young invincibles, is the least informed about the law. gallup finds just 63% of adults under the age of 30 say they are familiar with the law. that's at least nine points lower than any other group, suggesting the white house, well, they've got a little bit of work to do. let's move to news overseas. syrian president bashar al assad repeatedly denied it, but the united nations says there is mounting evidence he had a role in carrying out war crimes in that country's civil war. >> that the facts point to the commission of very serious crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity. they point to the fact that the evidence indicates a responsibility at the highest

level of government, including the head of state. >> this is the first time the human rights office implicated assad directly, although the commissioner says she was only highlighting what the investigators believe. officials also say there is evidence opposition forces carried out war crimes, albeit on a smaller scale. talks aimed at ending that civil war in syria scheduled to begin next month in geneva, switzerland. it is decision day for the city of detroit. in just a few hours, a judge will rule if the motor city should get the green light to proceed about its chapter 9 bankruptcy filing. okay, here's the deal. if the judge rules detroit is eligible for bankruptcy, the city can proceed with a restructuring plan to tackle that $18 billion debt. if the judge rejects the filing, detroit can appeal or try to negotiate it directly with creditors. if approved, detroit would become the largest public bankruptcy in u.s. history. tensions behind presidential politics appear to be playing out between the governors of

neighboring states. rumors have been bubbling that chris christie met with a local new york republican about possibly running against incumbent democrat andrew cuomo for new york governor, but in a recent phone call with the press, cuomo reportedly downplayed the report, saying, "i can tell you this, i spoke to governor christie this morning, who told me the exact opposite, and i'll leave it at that." the comments put christie in a pretty tight spot with his own party. you see, he's in charge of the republican governors association, which tries to get republicans elected. yesterday, christie tried to set the record straight. >> mr. astorino hasn't told me or anyone else he's running for governor. i'm not supporting somebody who doesn't say -- who won't say whether they're running or not. so, i think it's much ado about nothing, and my guess is that it's some people, irresponsible folks who are trying to urge mr. astorino to run to try to create an image that, you know, i'm urging him to run. i'm not urging him to do

anything. he came and asked for time, specifically asked for time with me and mary pat for he and his wife to meet with the two of us to talk about the impact this has on their family. they have young children like we do, and that's what the whole conversation was about. when we have a republican nominee for governor of new york, then i'll support the republican nominee for governor of new york. >> christie and cuomo, of course, both considered potential 2016 contenders for president. well, we have some dramatic, new video from a security camera near the scene of that car crash that killed actor paul walker and a friend. the tv show "omg insider" posted the video online. you can see the smoke on the right-hand side as the porsche crashed into a tree. it rapidly goes up in flames. nbc news has learned the car was traveling 40 to 45 miles per hour and that drag racing was not involved. hundreds of mourners have been visiting the crash site to pay their respects, including co-star vin diesel late last

night. >> all of you have showed up to show my brother love at this hard time, and the family gets to see all of you show the love that you've shown paul. it's going to stay with me forever. i just wanted to say thank you, thank you for coming down here and showing that angel up in heaven how much you appreciated him. >> nbc news has also obtained this photo of walker standing next to the porsche that he was in when he died, taken just moments before the accident. new data is debunking the myth that you can be both overweight and healthy at the same time. according to a team of canadian researchers, having an unhealthy metabolic state will lead to deteriorating health, including an increase of cardiovascular death and heart attack. the research team reviewed a number of studies dating back to as far as the 1950s. this, of course, flies in the face of one study earlier this year that went as far to suggest

overweight people may end up living longer than those at a normal weight. this new research finds there is no such thing as healthy obesity, saying individuals deem metabolically healthy but technically obese could have their risk of death, heart attack and stroke increase by as much as 24%. now to business, where later today we see how the auto industry performed last month. yesterday on wall street, well, we kicked off the week in negative territory, although off the lows of the session. the holiday shopping season not off to as good a start as many had expected, but still, year to date, gains on the dow, 22%, the s&p 26%, and a tech-heavy nasdaq up 34%. we get a treat today! cnbc's hampton pearson, big week for him. he's got the labor report at the end of the week. hamp, how are you, bud? >> i'm well, and it's nice to join you in your special space at this hour of the day, and first of all, getting right to the business numbers. first of all, we'll talk about, you know, the number of banks in the u.s. has dropped

dramatically, below 7,000, the lowest level since the government began keeping track during the great depression. now, the "wall street journal" is reporting the sluggish economy, historically low interest rates and tougher regulations have all taken their toll on the sector. the fdic says the decline from a peak of more than 18,000 has come almost entirely from smaller banks. most left the industry between 1984 and 2011 as a result of mergers or failures. the drop comes as total bank deposits have grown to $9.6 trillion this year. well, it turns out, the cloud isn't free, at least not anymore. "the new york times" reports google will announce today pricing plans for companies, big and small, that use its servers for web processing and online data storage. amazon dominates the cloud business with big customers such as netflix, but google has been gaining with a client list that includes the popular social media site snapchat. flat-screen tvs and ipads are nice. brian, i wanted to get back to

you to talk about our favorite retail yes, walmart. sorry about that. >> yeah, no, listen, we saw the fights at the walmart on black friday, so -- >> oh, it's amazing. >> the most popular black friday item was? >> you're not going to believe it. as we were about to say, flat-screen tvs and ipads are nice, but they weren't even close to being the hottest thing at walmart on black friday. the absolute must-have item, towels. walmart sold 2.8 million towels on thanksgiving and black friday versus about 2 million tvs and 1.4 million tablets. shoppers can could get them in a bundle deal, a towel and a wash cloth, six-pack for $1.74 or a single towel for just 29 cents. so, once again, we know when push comes to shove who the real walmart shoppers are. >> when push comes to shove, you want your 29-cent towel. hamp, thank you very much. let's go to twitter now. we have groundbreaking news for

you. "star wars" is on instagram. now, its very first photo? a selfie by darth vader himself, perfect for a caption contest, folks. the hashtag is #waytooearly. we'll have the best ones later in the program. i have my entry in there as well. still ahead, russell wilson faced one of his childhood heroes in drew brees. we have the battle between super bowl hopefuls. plus, stephen colbert is pretty excited about amazon's plan for drone deliveries and he knows exactly why that is a flawless plan. that and a check on weather when "way too early" comes right back. ♪ ♪ killer gas leaking from a union carbide pesticide plan has killed as many as 500 people, maybe more. >> a city of nearly 500,000 is

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all right, so, it looked like a top-notch matchup on "monday night football," seahawks and the saints. this one wasn't close, though. new orleans trailing 3-0 in the first, drew brees out of the trouble, in trouble, knocked out of his hands, caught by michael bennet, who takes it 22 yards to the house. 10-0 seahawks. you can make your prediction right now, mike. go ahead. >> seahawks are going to be in the super bowl. >> are they going to win the super bowl, though? >> well, i don't know if they're going to win the super bowl. just that they're going to be in the super bowl. >> all right, listen, russell wilson was wonderful, three touchdown passes. they are 11- 1. the bar stool guys are pondering the super bowl. this mike tomlin on the field story not going away. there is now a new angle of the steelers coach nearly stepping into the path for jacoby jones.

take a look closely. you can see him actually moving a little closer before he jumps out of the way as he moves to the sidelines. it's subtle, but it looks like a timed dance move, and he -- >> eh, a little over nothing. >> our producer's hot on this story, thinks he totally did it on purpose. you're saying no. no? >> i'm saying fine him and get on with it. >> move on. barnacle doesn't like the story. but clearly, it seems like he was watching himself because he jumped out right in time. let's get to hoops, because this is awesome. last-second thriller. uconn taking on florida, 12 seconds left. >> they have to make some type of play off a ball string. >> 8 seconds left to go. >> there's the switch. >> in trouble with 5 seconds to go. lost the dribble, found it again, leans in. that's no good. back tap, for the win! he got it! >> that is awesome. you know, they said kendall walker was pretty clutch, but i

think this napper kid is pretty solid. >> what conference are they in? >> now? i think they're still in the big east? >> what is the big east? >> i don't even know. >> i just know jim calhoun retired, they're doing okay. tim duncan and the spurs, yep, they're old, not barnacle old, but they -- >> almost. >> carroll is guarding him. out to ginobili. timmy, for the win, got it! tim duncan! >> it's the american athletic conference, mike, by the way, for uconn. duncan with the game-winner against the hawks. spurs improve to 15-3. all right, people still buzzing about the alabama/auburn game. obviously, fans were expecting something dramatic to happen, so they had cameras rolling in living rooms all across the country. a lot of the reactions were incredible. here's a couple that stood out. >> go! go! oh, my god, go! touchdown! whoo! whoo! whoo!

>> go, go! you can run it out! you can run it out! oh, my god! oh, my god! oh, my god! oh, my god! oh! oh, my god! we did it again, boy! we did it again! whoo! >> did we have a camera on joe? >> no. joe punched the camera and then flushed out -- >> do you believe both of those? >> the first one i don't believe. the second one i think is legitimate, daughter in the chair, son on the couch? i watched the whole thing. i think three or four might have been staged, but the second one was definitely legitimate. >> i also heard they found ashes on the film. somebody dumped the ashes. >> it's a big rivalry. the forecast for today, big storm in the middle of the

country, traveling the northern plains, northern rockies, even the central rockies, the storm is headed your way. then thursday, friday, dallas, oklahoma city going to get very dicey. this is what it ookz like now. be careful of the fog, dallas, memphis, all the way to little rock. that will exit and then the cold blast will really encompass much of the middle of the nation. east coast stays pretty warm much of this week, and then the snow will pile up. even denver could see maybe 6 to 12 inches of snow starting tonight into tomorrow. you can see, brian, look at the map. we're 46 today in denver. their high tomorrow is 10. >> wow. >> and it will be snowing hard. so, those are some of the airports to avoid. all this mess comes to the east coast mostly as rain friday, saturday. >> all right. always comes to us on the weekend. bill, thank you very much. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," inside the train derailment that left four commuters dead. the engineer now the center of the investigation and why he says he was going more than 50 miles per hour faster than he was supposed to be going. and when we come back here, we will huddle around the cooler. ron burgundy took to the ice in

canada for some curling wisdom for our neighbors to the north. that's good form right there. a little to the right. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ stacy's mom has got it goin' on ♪ ♪ stacy's mom has got it goin' on ♪ ♪ stacy's mom has got it goin' on ♪ [ male announcer ] the beautifully practical and practically beautiful cadillac srx. get the best offers of the season now. lease this 2014 srx for around $369 a month with premium care maintenance included. ♪ not financially. so we switched to the bargain detergent but i found myself using three times more than they say to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. that's my tide. what's yours? mmm! this is delicious katie. it's not bad for canned soup, right? pfft! [ laughs ]

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♪ at the top of the show, we talked about detroit's bankruptcy filing, and if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends, the city currently has just 9,700 workers. it has 21,000 retirees drawing benefits. the city, by the way, owes its

pension fund an estimated $3.5 billion. all right, let's go to "the cooler." mr. lewis, good morning, sir. >> good morning, brian. now, as ron burgundy continues his worldwide tour to promote "anchor man 2," the living legend couldn't resist joining the olympic trials for curling, and he certainly learned a thing or two. >> feeling of electricity here in the building. >> well, there is, because this is all about the olympics, and by next sunday, we'll know the two olympic teams that will represent -- >> two olympic teams. >> yes. >> one men's. >> one men's team, one women's team and an alternate team? >> no. that's it. >> no. >> that's it. >> eight human beings representing canada in sochi. >> in curling. >> in curling. this is it. >> this is it. this is all about this, this one throw. >> right here? >> he's really got a handle on the sport there. and after the broadcast, burgundy showed off some of his vast knowledge of canadian history. >> what is the word winnipeg

mean? >> well, it's of course latin in its roots, and it means the small tundra bunny who lives inside the hole on the hill. >> i think he actually has a dual citizenship. he might actually be canadian. yahoo!'s list of most searched terms of 2013 is out and miley cyrus is dominating. didn't expect anything less. the controversial pop star was not only the most searched term of the year, she also was the motivation behind the most asked question. that would be, what is twerking? now, kim kardashian and kate upton round out yahoo!'s top three. if you're wondering what topped last year's list, that would be election. i guess the country is in a little bit of a different mood this year. now, in the late nights where stephen colbert is excited about amazon's plan to use drones to make deliveries. >> folks, these amazon drones are a great idea and guaranteed to be safe, thanks to all the

drone testing we've done overseas. i mean, worst-case scenario, a few homes get carpet gifted with some collateral generosity, but don't take my word for how simple it is when there is this carefully produced short film from amazon. there is the drone picking up the package and flying out of the warehouse, navigating through the parts of america with no trees, phone lines or buildings, then landing on your doorstep while your family cowers inside until after the semiautomaticon mouse blade-wielding octocopter leaves. finally, jimmy kimmel as back and is all about black friday shopping, more specifically, the local news coverage of black friday shopping. >> normally, you know, people can't wait to get on the local news. they're jumping up and down in the background. sometimes the reporters have to yell at them or chase them away. that was not the case on black friday. >> let's see who we can talk to. sir? sir, come back! come back here, sir. i can't believe he kept walking away. hi, you guys! come over here!

no, no, no, come over here! [ laughter ] rats! well, hi, maybe you'll come talk to us. wait, excuse me, can i talk to you really quick? you are the greatest shopper i've ever seen! oh, my gosh! when did you start? >> i don't speak english. >> go find somebody. >> you know, listen, i've covered my share of black fridays in local news. i think the lesson there is always do those on tape. >> yeah. >> not on live tv. >> lewis, thank you very much. >> i think that's good advice. >> absolutely is. still ahead, darth vader posting a selfie on instagram. your best tweets for that caption. i like the music. we'll be right back. "morning joe" also just moments away. where's lewis? going to run somewhere? what are you doing? i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store.

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storm trooper behind him. now this girl has some captions for you. >> bill had a good one -- "the ability to take a selfie is insignificant against the power" -- >> come on, do it in the voice. >> what's the voice? >> the to the power of the force. >> do it in the voice. >> may the force be with you. >> steve said, move, i'm instagram, your father is cool. >> "morning joe" starts right now, natalie. ♪ of course thanksgiving, as always, reminded me of what i'm most grateful for that poor people still can't get health insurance. because the obama care website remains a disaster even though now the administration's website gurus are bragging that healthercare.gov is working more than 90% of the time. that's good enough for government