good monday morning. right now on "first look" for you, ukraine in crisis. new leaders take over after a weekend of turmoil and triumph for protesters. now that the olympics are over expect to hear more from russia's president. gas pains. prices in the pump are up because of violence in places like the ukraine and venezuela. good-bye, public live. alec baldwin says, quote, i'm done with it. plus, the u.s. army prepares for shrinkage. dale earnhardt jr. wins the daytona 500. i'm richard lui. after days of crisis ukraine is ready to move on.

yoused president viktori yaian could he vich is on the run. >> richard engel reports. >> reporter: sunday mass at saint michael's cathedral was dedicated to the nearly 100 protesters who died to oust ukraine's president. the cathedral became a field hospital this week. when riot police opened fire on demonstrators. >> medics. >> and just as fast as the government was overturned for that massacre, a new government is now being formed in a series of rapid fire votes, parliament today made its speaker interim president and issued an arrest warrant for viktor yanukovych. it shows him fleeing with suitcases realizing, perhaps, it might be a one-way trip. by night fall independence square once filled with bon

fires and mali to have cocktails are here. >> by memorial's soft light ukrainians sang their national anthem rose sarris hung on barricades. >> i have so much pain in my heart for everything that's going on here. >> reporter: peace is holding, but the protesters aren't convinced the revolution is over. by staying here at any price, these protesters managed to change the political balance of power in europe and central asia, but they're not ready to disperse yet. they want to keep the pressure on and oversee this country's transition of power. the challenges ahead may already be emerging. to the east by the russian border there were marches in support of yanukovych. >> nbc's richard engel reporting. with the disappearance of

yanukovych, protesters were taking over his house and golf course. today defense secretary chuck hagel is expected to report deep cuts. they include shrinking the u.s. i can't recally to the smallest size since before world war ii. secretary hagel plans to shrink the limit of attack jets. the plans will be laid out in hagel's first defense budget which according to the watt street journal includes limits on military pay raises and less generous military housing allowances. officials tell the journal the cuts will save billions of dollars needed to protect the millions of military spending. after decades of frustration. dale earnhardt jr. won his second daytona 500. there was a 6:22 rain delay. when it resumed after 8:00 p.m. eastern. earnhardt took the lead and got his second victory. he radioed to his crew saying,

hey, this is better than the first one. he finished second in three of the last four races from daytona where his father was killed in 2001. it was his first win in 56 race joos jason collins has become the first openly gay player to play in any of america's four biggest sports. signs a 10-day contract to play for the brooklyn nets. he was applauded in los angeles when he checked into the game against the lakers. the 7 footer did not score but played strong defense as the nets beat l.a. 101-93. collins saying he was plainly too busy trying to learn plays to worry about making history. more sports in just a second. alec baldwin says he is leaving public life for good. the 55-year-old actor's thoughts appearing in a 5,000 word essay for new york magazine online saying in part that he, quote, loathes and despises the media in a way he did not think possible and that this will be the last time he ever talked about his personal life, at least in an american

publication. baldwin saying he's ready to move out of new york city and back to los angeles. he says in l.a. he can live behind a gate, drive a car and interact minimally with the public. he denies ever using a homophobic slur. baldwin had a short lived program on msnbc parted ways through a mutual agreement back in november. let's get the latest on sports with francis rivera. after 17 days, it is over. >> the sochi winter olympics are history. the russians won the final medal count with 33, united states second with 28. norway, canada rounded it out. the rest of the heat picked up the slack and beat chicago 93-79. in college baseball number 20 michigan against number 13 michigan state. richard, this is just for you. >> i'll take it.

>> the wolverines staged a comeback in the second half. >> hello. >> knocked out the spartans, 79-70. >> go, blue. >> number one creighton in a big face-off against seton hall. seton hall missed a three-pointer. creighton hung on with a 72-71 victory. southern methodist took on connecticut. they pulled off a 64-55 upset win over uconn. to the nfl combine we go. running back dree archer came close to setting a new record. he ran 4. 2'8" second8 seconds. nand minnesota, 84 charges of dynamite. that's all it took to bring down part of the last piece of a concrete structure on the vikings metrodome. there it goes. they will finish taking down what's left by april. >> april?

>> yeah. the new stadium for the vikings built by 2016. i don't think that took a month to tear down. >> then some. >> thank you so much. bill karins joining us now. seems like it's been going on. >> the roof went down a few months ago. >> brand new stadium. let's talk weather. a lot of cold stuff coming back. >> it's a tease. it warms up. still february. we can all deal with this. thankfully, no huge snowstorms coming across the country. i hope you bottled up yesterday in d.c., 64 degrees. that will easily be the warmest temperature you'll see in one week, maybe even until mid march. this cold that we'll get into will be around for a while. it is now moving through the fargo area minneapolis. wind chill in chicago, 1. that cold air will bleed and spill throughout the midwest and throughout the day. over the next five days, this is a map that shows the predicted

snows over the next five days. we get some snow in california which is great. snow in the northern rockies. not a lot of snow throughout the middle or eastern paf of the country. that's good. now as far as today's highs go, i've circled billings. it should 4b 2. it will be 10 degrees in billings. very cold air mass. 30 degrees below average. minneapolis, chicago, the cold air will continue. it's a brutal winter. tomorrow will be four degrees in minneapolis. >> i appreciate when you're bringing up billings. >> we'll be 20s. 20s and 30s is wetter than single digits. what's going on over in ukraine is directing affecting your wallet right here in the um u.s., i'll explain why. faster speeds. he was once on forbes billionaire's list.

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now for your "first look" at business, we'll turn over to cnbc's morgan brennan. >> netflix strikes a deal with comcast to get a direct feed for its streaming videos. this will give you a faster streaming content feed. meanwhile, a new survey shows gas prices rising nearly 12 cents in the past two weeks to a national average of $3.41 a gallon. this comes as oil prices rise in response to the violent unrest in ukraine, ven nez wlal and south sudan. whatsapp has a glitch on

saturday. it came days after they said they were buying whatsapp on $16 million. >> morgan brennan, thank you so much. some stories making news this morning. regular programming saturday was announced. the cartel leader guzman was evading authorities for five years. investigators have learned a faulty water heater pipe is to blame for the deadly carbon monoxide leak. a legal sea foods manager died and more than 2 dozen went to the hospital. the pentagon wants to keep people awake on the job. small electric shocks are being sent to the brain. 700 penn state 1250u dents raising a record 13.3 trillion dollars during the annual 46

hour dance marathon. the money will provide support for pediatric cancer patients. and russia poked fun at its self during the olympic closing ceremonies. it re-created the olympic ring malfunction by having the dancers delay the formation there of the fifth ring. startling new numbers for prescription narcotics. a study finds one in three medicare patients are prescribed painkillers from more than one doctor unaware that their patients are already being prescribed a drug by somebody else. the study found patients receiving painkillers from multiple doctors were three times more likely to end up in the hospital. new jersey's embattled governor chris christie was conspicuously missing at last night's white house dinner for governors. that's interesting. the congressman who went undercover as a ups delivery

man. your first look at scrambled politics is next. all-you-can-eat is a hotel policy that allows you to eat all that you can. the hotel gym is short for gymnasium. the hotel pool is usually filled with water. and the best dot com for booking hotels, is hotels.com. it's on the internet, but you probably knew that. or maybe not, i don't really know you. bellman: welcome back, captain obvious. captain obvious: yes i am. all those words are spelled correctly.

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>> perhaps. seating arrangements of note, by the way. vice president biden planked by massachusetts governor duval patrick and scott walker of wisconsin. first lady michelle obama between nikki haley and mike pence. all cited as 2016 candidates. chris christie home celebrating his daughter's 18th birthday. they said obamacare is here to stay. protests in arizona amid the passing of a controversial bill. opponents are calling it the right to krim nate, bill. businesses could deny service to gays and lesbians. jan brewer, will the republican sign the bill into law? >> the bill is in the middle and

i don't have to make a decision until next friday so i have plenty of time. >> do you have a comment on the bill? >> i don't. i don't. i need to explore it. shops against that bill taking matters into their own hands. rocco's little chicago pits zer residential rea, we reserve the rise to not serve arizona legislators. the nation of islam leader harpooned the u.s. judicial system. he says it's biased. a commentary who delivers, steve horseford wants to connect with his constituents. he went undercover as a ups driver in las vegas. they caught him in the act there. he told them it's easy to lose touch in washington so he wanted to gain a from-the-ground perspective of a worker in his district. that's your morning dish of scrambled politics.

the famed you 2 spy planes could be no longer. they want to moth ball them according to the "new york times." our first look at politics, washington post reporter, david nakamura. good morning to you, david. "the new york times" called them the pre-world war ii lemps thvet would be below those levels. the army says 130,000 lower than post 9/11 peaks. will this keep us ready? >> that's the question. this is the first chance we get to see of secretary hagel's vision. the reason president obama picked him as defense secretary. they share the idea as the wars are winding down, afghanistan and iraq, not only does the army need to get smaller but the military has to get leaner and sort of change its mission, not have the long, extended ground campaigns, occupations but be able to defend the country and the nature of changing threats but be more lean and agile going

forward. this is going to the part where the u.s. needs to get its debt spending under control. >> yeah. >> this is a way to do that that won't be easy. >> david, just some of the items that are being reported out of that article as mentioning, one, your salary freezes for general and flag officers. military pay at a 1% rise. they're going to cut commissary subsidi subsidies. you know what this means? we'll get a lot of flak from both sides. congress members saying what about the bases in our state and how it's going to affect employment? >> absolutely. it's an election year. this never goes over easy. part of the reason that the military was eyed in the initial idea of having a sequester was because it makes it tough for either side to deal with. so in an election year you'll have people, veterans groups are lobbying against this now that it's leaked out. you have thousands and thousands of troops and their fanl lis and how to deal with that. people overseas. won't be easy for either side,

especial especially a lot of districts. >> both sides will take a hit is what you're saying. would they work then to overcome this sequester reality? >> they would. they might get -- you know, to look at it in a broader way, there may be ways to deal with finding money elsewhere, putting it towards this budget, giving hagel more flexibility. part of the point of the sequester was to make the military deal with tough spending cuts. it might not be easy this year, people are looking at out years and deeper cuts. something the military got used to. >> there's a lot from over here early on for many people not to like. david knack cue meuer ra from the washington post, have a good monday. coming up, bill karins and francis rivera will be here for first buzz. miley cyrus's on stage make jewemakeout session with who? ree times zoom, and a twenty-megapixel sensor.

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can you spell epic. that's what the spelling bee is being called in missouri. they had to shut down after 66 rounds. i would have been asleep. >> in the audience? >> no. up on stage. the remaining two adversaries, they're so strong they used up all the words on the list. the 11 and 13-year-olds will face off again march 8th and the winner goes to the national spelling bee. i have to talk to the two of you, francis rivera, bill karins. they should both go. >> if possible. >> if i made it to the 12th word i would say, i'm done. i've already succeeded.

>> 12 words? i'd be happy with four or five. >> first buzz. we can talk about the spelling be. francis rivera, welcome. >> we're talking about this, the madonna brittany kiss. so ten years ago. done. know why? these two ladies right here, miley cyrus, katy perry. with her new blunt bangs. miley cyrus is having a bangers concert. she gets off the stage. she goes right to katy perry. katy perry pops her a nice smooch right there. >> the only thing that matters to me. they're saying it wasn't preplanned. do you believe it? >> i think it's preplanned. >> i think it's preplanned. ingenius. >> when they pull away, miley's face was like and they they had a twitter love fest? >> do you think it was not planned? >> they are not holding back. >> both of them don't usually hold back. >> is this a kissed a girl and she liked it reference?

>> let's move on to perhaps what might be an epic forgiveness. >> 56 years after stealing chocolate milk a plan in oklahoma who wants to remain anonymous sent a letter to the elementary school principal. he asked for forgiveness. at the time he had six children, they didn't have a dime. that's why he stole the chocolate milk. he said i'd like you to use the enclosed money for any child or children you know who could use a treat or their lunch paid for. >> $100. >> 100 bucks after 56 years after stealing the chocolate milk. i've run out of hundred dollar bills. >> you'd be one poor guy. an australian selling his beard for $1 million. this on buzz feed. one guy here according to what buzz feed is saying, jimmy niggles has been growing his beard here since seeing a good friend, wes bonnie, pass away of

skin cancer. >> 1 million. >> great cause. >> whatever he gets for it. >> thanks, guys. i'm richard lui. this is first look on msnbc. "way too early" with thomas roberts starts right now. stick around. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ and the beat goes on. j.t. and fallon were the night to wrap up one of the great

historical challenges. we say good-bye to the games in sochi. no russian athletes will go missing. ukraine's acting government asks for an arrest warrant for its ousted president, viktori n yanukovych. this is "way too early." hello, and welcome to "way too early" brought to you by scarborough country and the society of academics. i'm tomorrow mass roberts. it's monday, february 24th. that was my best movie phone impression. i call that number a lot. we have movie phone news coming up for you later in the show. we want to start out with a serious note in the ukraine where lawmakers are avoiding possible turmoil and civil war. the country's acting