in politics or vice versa. this really is how russia started the olympic games today. on day one. holding our breath for day two. that does it for us tonight. see you again on monday. weekends with alex witt starts now. almost glitch free. the opening olympic ceremonies provide a spectacle in sochi. right now, key competitions are under way. we'll bring the latest in a live report. a security scare. the attempt to hijack a plane to sochi and what the flight crew did to stop that man in his steps. the e-mail the christie camp sent out about david wildstein. a home recipe. will yo be able to make coca-cola? that's in the money headlines.

good morning, everyone. welcome to weekends with alex witt. here is what's happening. the curtain is up, the games have begun. a russian themed opening ceremony paying homage to history, dance and culture. there was a glitch when one of the rings failed to materialize. that did not stop the audience from enjoying the nearly three-hour event. quick thinking by pilots on this jet liner that diverted a hijacking attempt. a man claiming to have a bomb demanded the pilots fly the plane to sochi. richard engel has more on the hijacking. >> reporter: as spectators filed in to the opening ceremony, few had any idea a hostage drama was under way. they were trying to divert a passenger plane their way. a turkish boeing 737 took off

from the ukraine for a short flight to istanbul. once in the air, a ukrainian man claimed he had a bomb. passengers took cell phone photographs that showed the hijacker in a red and white jersey. it may have been cool thinking by the pilots that averted a major crisis. the pilots stayed calm, pretending to cooperate saying they were heading to sochi continuing to istanbul. they turned off the in-flight system so the hijacker couldn't see where the plane was. over the black sea at night, it would have been hard to identify landmarks. when the plane entered turkish air space, the pilots tripped and alarm. two f-16 fighters scrambled escorting them to istanbul where it was surrounded by security.

>> this is textbook response by the flight crew to get to a safe place and the turkish authorities that even if it turned out to be nothing, they were prepared. >> reporter: the suspect, reportedly drunk was taken into custody. no bomb or weapon was found. turkish officials believe he was acting alone. >> that was richard engel reporting there. we will have more from chris jansing in a moment. a newborn went missing from his wisconsin home for over 30 hours and was found alive. the mother's half sister is facing kidnapping charges for the disappearance. the hackers who stole millions of target customers credit and debit information may have used a third party to get in. there's an investigation under way. they said in a statement

thursday it was the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack operation. suspended new york yankee alex rodriguez dropped his lawsuit friday. he was suspended from baseball for the 2014 season including the playoffs in connection with the biogenesis investigation that linked players to performance enhancing drugs. he will turn 39 in july and has every intention of returning to the field in 2015. let's go to the weather. heavy rain made for a treacherous evening commute. in portland, oregon, wintry weather had cars spinning their wheels. power crews in pennsylvania are working to restore power to residents left in the dark after the ice storm. temperatures today should be in the low to mid-50s.

colder in the mountains where the store we have mountain snow out west and much needed rain in california. a closer look from the snow to chicago and nashville. it's light, we are not looking to see accumulation from the system. by the time it moves eastward, a dusting in new york city and parts of new england. this is the bigger story, california has been so dry they need the rain and they are finally getting into the pattern called the pineapple express. it originates from hawaii and brings the moisture to california. we could see three to four inches of rainfall and more accumulation in the mountain ranges where we could end up

with up to two feet of snow possible. by the time it melts come summertime, it's the much needed water we need. we are going to see up to a foot or more of snow in the rockies, then transitions to an inch or three inches in the midwest with the lighter snow showers. 33 in washington, d.c. with a late daylight snow shower. 19 in chicago today. 47 in denver. san francisco stays rainy tomorrow. kansas city sees lighter snow. any of the snow across the northeast looks light. maybe a quick inch or two, but we'll see the rainshowers come to an end across the southeast. alex? >> thank you for that. more on the sochi games, we go to chris jansing with the latest on the games. so good to see you. let's talk about the reaction from the opening ceremony. >> reporter: it's different to see what you see and what we see

at the games. i read a lot of reviews, they were generally positive. standing outside the stadium, talking to nbc colleagues inside and athletes exiting, they were thrilled. a big part of the games being here is the excitement that things are getting underway. there is a great spectacle, you know, that you see every year. i think overall, obviously, when you are here and feeling that energy, it's positive. there were a couple controversies. one, the ring that didn't light. you probably saw that yesterday, one of the olympic rings didn't light. maybe not the worst thing. bigger than that, of course, is the person who lit the caldron. she is a big superstar here. three-time gold medal figure skating champion. she posted a picture that is considered racist about president and mrs. obama and

took it down friday. that caused controversy here and, of course, in the states. overall, i think the reaction has been positive, alex. >> she was unapologetic for that picture that went out. >> reporter: absolutely unapologetic. >> it adds to the dismay. there were concerns about empty seats inside the stadium. i was trying to scan early on i saw empty seats. when it went dark, it looked more full. what was it like there? >> there are empty seats because they are waiting for the delegations and the athletes to sit. it was packed. it was sold out. there had been questions raised about the games overall. this morning, at a press conference, officials said sales are satisfactory. what they are trying to do is sell more tickets to people already here, understanding, this isn't the easiest place to get to and so, i think, there

will be empty seats. we have seen some of them. as it has games get up and running, they seem to be confident there's not a lot of empty stands. >> you have to think safe for ice skating finals. there's not an empty seat. speaking of events, which events are under way today and what should we be watching for? >> reporter: ice skating. the team ice skating continues. watch for ashlee wagner. she is the one that was named to the team after coming in fourth at the nationals but had a really stellar record over the last couple years in international competitions. i was talking to brian yesterday, some folks from the ice skating community aren't sure. this is similar to the gymnastics team competition they have. we'll see how that goes. americans could medal in this, it's a possible. keep your eye on slope style,

the radical new sport. the molaler is competing today. an action packed first day of competition. >> thanks so much. have fun. we'll talk to you again. here is the first sochi olympic medal count, one gold for team usa, norway a silver and canada a bronze. the new wrinkle in the chris christie saga, why is it coming out now and who leaked it. back to the olympic games. what is it like in sochi? we are going to talk about the accommodations there. can you drink the water? one day we get this incredible call from cheerios saying "what about breakfast?" together we've created the family breakfast project to help families begin their day together over breakfast. together we've created the family breakfast project i asked my husband to pay our bill, and he forgot. you have the it card and it's your first time missing a payment, so there's no late fee. really? yep! so is your husband off the hook?

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to politics and new this morning, president obama is building on the call for year of

action focusing on areas he says will expand economic opportunity and help americans get into the middle class. >> number one, more new jobs. two, training folks with the skills to fill those jobs. number three, guaranteeing every child access to a world class education and four, making sure hard work pays off. >> president obama signed a bill friday during a quick visit to michigan state university hailing it as a symbol of bipartisan cooperation. they provide benefits to farmers and make cuts to the food stamp program. the recent memo from chris christie's office attacking david wildstein was not seen ahead of time by the governor. sources tell politico they did not run the document by the governor before sending it out. aaron blake is joining me and washington bureau chief, lynne

sweet. welcome to you both. good morning. >> good morning. >> lynne, another wrinkle in the chris christie story. is it possible the governor didn't know about the memo before it went out? >> yeah. no harm in giving him the benefit of the doubt. it's part of the drip, drip, drip of the ongoing investigation. >> it sure is. you think, aaron, if the govern didn't know and considering the tenure and the importance of this issue around his office, should he start firing people around him because this approach was panned in political circles? going after someone's high school record, really? >> it was juvenile. i don't mean that in any puny way. the fact is, this was kind of -- according to the politico report, it was an e-mail they put out to supporters every week. it's something that doesn't necessarily go to journalists. journalists were surprised the

information was thrown in there. i wonder, the staff, if they felt like they should throw this in without checking with somebody higher up, kind of what they were thinking as far as this goes, especially when you are in damage control mode and the messages you are putting out there are so important. you need to run these things by your bosses. i don't know if you go to the top or somebody just below the top. it suggests the operation is not cooperating in a way they should right now. >> as a tease here, i have office politics later. i spoke with dede myers. we talked about this issue. it was as if she had knowledge about what was going to come out about it. it's later on in the show for that. lynne, i'm going to talk about the president signing the farm bill friday during his visit to michigan state university. here is part of what he said. >> despite the name, the farm bill is not just about helping farmers. the secretary calls it a jobs

bill, an innovation bill, an infrastructure bill, a research bill, a conservation bill. it's like a swiss army knife. >> here is the downside to it. democrats have been critical of the farm bill because of the cuts to food stamps. it amounts to 1%. do you think it was the best compromise that could reached? >> yeah. there's nothing wrong with compromise. in this case, it did yield a bill. when you talk about symbols, the obama white house invited republicans to go to michigan state for the bill signing. none of them accepted the invitation. obama was flanked by democrats. it shows that the plus is they got a bill passed. the minus is republicans don't want to help at all advance obama's bipartisan story line. >> yeah. okay, aaron, based on that, based on the legislation and optics here, do you think this

farm bill is a sign there could be more compromise ahead on other issues, or not? >> certainly, the combination of this and the budget passed last year suggests congress is capable of doing bipartisan things in a way we haven't seen in recent years. the farm bill took four, almost five years to put together. this is a cull money nation of a very, very lengthy process. i hope congress could figure out something after four years of working on it. i'm not sure this is necessarily a great bipartisan moment, a great triumph for congress. great triumph for congress. i'm not sure it should give [ male announcer ] the new new york is open.

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our noon to 2:00 p.m. eastern hour. be sure to join me for a two-hour edition. up next, we take you to sochi and the women's olympic hockey.

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