good monday morning. right now on "first look," brink of disaster. russian occupation, a determined vladimir putin, obama searching for a diplomatic solution. >> this is an act of aggression that is completely trumped up. it's really 19th century behavior in the 21st century. >> russia ignoring warnings of the g 7 suspended plans for the upcoming summit. in like a lion. snow and ice storms along with more record cold in parts of the u.s. has much of america saying, enough already. oscar, oscar. hollywood's biggest night, the high fashion, diamonds galore,

memorable speeches and ellen's memorable speeches and along with this selfie that caused all kinds of problems for twitter. wave runner. rough seas and a rogue wave crashes through moby dick's restaurant at brunch. good morning. it's nice to see you. i'm veronica de la cruz. tensions escalate in ukraine and around the world following the advance of russian troops over the weekend. we'll go live to moscow. first at home, we begin with the big excitement from the star-studded academy awards. who won big and who went home empty handed. we report from hollywood. >> "12 years a slave." >> reporter: the historical drama won top oscars. the first time a film from a black director won best picture. >> i dedicate this award to all the people who have endured slavery and 21 million people who still suffer slavery today. >> reporter: the break outstar,

lupita nyong'o. >> it doesn't escape me that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in others. >> cate blanchett. >> matthew mcconaughey took the prize for best actor. the "dallas buyers club" paid tribute. >> i know he's up there with a big pot of gumbo, lemon meringue pie, and he has a cold can of miller light. >> this is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to aids. >> "gravity". >> gravity. >> the space epic "gravity" missed out on best picture but it had seven awards for best

director. and now to the weather, snow, wind and record cold continues. check out this nasa satellite photo from late sunday. this morning the storm is moving into the mid-atlantic and northeast carrying up to a foot of snow for some places. chris pallone is live for us in philadelphia with the details. chris, good morning to you. what is it looking like now? >> reporter: well, we still have snow, veronica, and now the wind is starting to pick up so it is absolutely frigid out here outside of independence hall in philadelphia. you know, this has been a really rough winter in this area as it has been in much of the u.s. if the city of philadelphia gets six inches of snow today, it will be the second snowiest winter on hand. this is all part of that storm system that started out in california as heavy rain. it moved through the midwest and the south as an ice storm causing power outages and then

now moving into the mid-atlantic, it could dump three to six inches of snow in philadelphia. in southern new jersey and philadelphia. that's the story here, veronica. >> the never-ending winter is right. thanks, chris. nbc meteorologist bill karins with more on that. never-ending winter. >> people don't want to ask me about the snow, they want to know when it will warm up. they want to know when it will be all over. >> tomorrow maybe? >> there's no end in the next ten days. below average temperatures. we may not get snowstorms. as far as the worst travel this morning, i imagine a lot of schools canceled in areas of western tennessee, memphis area. a lot of power outages with the ice. kentucky got hit by snow and sleet last night. it started to end there at lexington and louisville. you have shoveling to do. snowing hard now in west virginia. the areas of pink is where the sleet is. washington, d.c., is now going from sleet to snow. you're going to get moderate to heavy snow right during the day.

charlottesville, virginia, changing over, too. snow from philadelphia to atlantic city. new york city had a little coating of snow. you're almost done. you don't expect much more than this. you're pretty much finished with the storm. that's good for new york city. as far as central jersey down to central virginia is the target area where the worst of the travel will be out there. it's still very cold in the midwest where we had the snow and sleet yesterday. even dallas has a wind chill of 1. negative 16 in chicago. much of the country we're still suffering from this. the snow exits today. we're cold right through the rest of the week. >> bill, just bringing the good news this morning. >> yeah, right. >> thank you for that. shifting overseas now to the big international story. the tug of war in ukraine. this is the scene in crimea. they control the peninsula. president obama, and nato say russia is violating international law but can they do anything about it?

nbc's jim aceda live in moscow. >> reporter: veronica, secretary kerry will go to kiev no doubt to try to calm the waters so that kiev does nothing that might unintentionally intense situation. it's true that the west has mobilized against russian president's vladimir putin's military takeover of crimea. that's firmly in his hands. it's unclear what the west can do about it. not attending the g 8 summit in june in sochi, for instance, is only symbolic, it's not really more than a meeting. economic sanctions sound good on paper perhaps and look good but in fact the u.s. has little economic leverage over russia. the e.u. sanctions might have teeth but europe is truly reluctant to go there. they're worried about putin's reaction like shutting offer europe's supply of natural gas. neither the u.s. nor nato are

contemplating any military action against the russian nuclear power. so while the west has few effective option, putin, meanwhile, says that he has the right to launch his troops and tanks even further into ukraine if russian interests and lives there are threatened by what he calls ultranationalists. so the next few days certainly veronica will be tense, will be nail biters but will see over the three or four days whether he steps forward or steps back. back to you. >> jim, we appreciate the update. thank you for that. you want to pay close attention to this next story. we want to watch this. they don't call this surf and turf for nothing. brunch goers at moby dick's restaurant in santa barbara got more than they bargained for when the wave crashed into the pier and the restaurant. water flooded the dining room. there was broken glass and all the screaming you can hear in the background, amazingly no one was injured.

some scary moments right there. now to some sports with frances rivera. did you see that? >> yeah, a whole big wave coming at you. definitely scary. college hoops, number 3 arizona clinched the pac-12 regular season title with their 79-66 win over stanford. in the second, arizona star freshman aaron gordon drives into the paint. how gorgeous is that? that beautiful lay-up. ohio state was devastated in the last seconds of the first half. will shehehy nails it. indiana wins 72-64. wichita state wrapped up an undefeated season saturday beating missouri state 68-45 for a 31-0 regular season record. to the honda classic, tiger woods back problems caused him

to withdraw. then rory mcilroy faultered on sunday. watch this. goes down and, plop, hit that ball right into the water. >> such a bummer. >> yeah, leading to a double bogey. russell henley came out victorious. he got a birdie on the 18th hole beating out russell knox, palmer and rory mcilroy. he was awarded $1.08 million. >> nice. >> for the ladies, the lpga, paula cramer nailed a 75 foot putt to win the hsbc tournament. she ended a four year winless streak winning her last lpga title in 2000. >> great reaction. in nascar, an incredible fete. kevin harvick held off dale earnhardt jr. and became the all time winner with five victories.

the four-legged race. the eiditarod. the warm temperatures had many concerned for the race. smoke on. the red bull air race. they flew about 230 miles per hour. they weave in and out in between those large pylons there in abu dhabi. unbelievable. >> that is. >> it's one thing for the twists and turns. another thing to do the whole weaving. >> going back to the eye didita you know there's something wrong when it's warmer there than here. the blade runner murder trial for the death of reeva steenkamp has just begun. [bell rings]

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good morning and welcome back. time now to get down to business with cnbc's courtney reagan. good morning. >> reporter: good morning.

consumers may have to play more for slacks of beef. meat packers paid record prices jumping 10%. futures are at their most costly in more than two years. why? it's all thanks to the weather. the youth full unemployed may want to go west to seek out their next job. ihs global insight revealed seven of ten states with the fastest job growth will be in the west thanks to housing, technology and tourism strength. walt disney is taking a stand. the company will cut funding to the boy scouts of america in 2015 because of a policy that bans gay adult leaders among its troops. it is expected to be one of the most watched murder trials in history. former olympic star oscar pistorius is accused of killing his model girlfriend. south afrikaans are dubbing it the trial of the century. chapman bell is live outside the courthouse for us. chapman, good morning. >> reporter: good morning,

veronica. not guilty, milady. that's his response to the murder charge. his response to the judge here in court. they also leveled a few other charges, firearms charges against him that were previous to the shooting of reeva steenkamp. pistorius also pleaded not guilty to all of these charges. the prosecution, it seems, is beginning with trying to portray pistorius as a reckless with guns, a cowboy, if you will, showing that this is not the only time that he has discharged a firearm in an inappropriate way. court got off to a late start here today, about an hour and a half. the judge said it was due to some hiccups but now proceedings are in process. veronica? >> chapman, thank you. some other stories making news this morning. now 29 people were stabbed to death at a chinese train station saturday in what's being described as a, quote,premedita

attack. four of the ten attackers were shot dead. over 130 people were wounded in the attack. police arrested dozens of college-aged protestors on sunday. they're rallying against the keystone xl pipeline calling for president obama to reject the controversial project. could california lose its competitive edge by legalizing marijuana. governor jerry brown's take in scrambled politics. it's all next. we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is. but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is. so i tri ed dependll do our best to help you connect to what is. so i it really made the difference between a morning around the house and getting a little exercise. hi-ya!

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march. here is your first look at today's scrambled politics. sarah palin says she isn't the type to say i told you so but she told us so. the former gop vice presidential nominee said she predicted the current situation in ukraine back in 2008 even writing on her facebook page, quote, yes, i could see this one from alaska. politics is bound to make it into last night's academy awards, but it came so soon. the first award of the evening. best supporting actor jared leto used his speech to speak to protesters. >> to all the dreamers out there watching this tonight in the places like ukraine and venezuela, i want to say, we are here. and as you struggle to -- 20 make your dreams happen, to live the impossible, we're thinking of you. votes scheduled for today on

capitol hill will have to wake. it's forcing congress to take a snow day. normal legislative activity will resume tomorrow. the elements didn't stop chicago mayor rob emmanuel and jimmy fallon to jump into the lake. governor jerry brown is lowering expectations that california will soon go the way of colorado and washington when it comes to legalizing pot. he worries the state could lose its competitive edge if too many people are getting stoned. >> there is a tendency to go to extremes, and all of a sudden if there's advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? world's pretty dangerous, very competitive. i think we need to stay alert if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together. >> there you have it. that's going to do it for your morning dish of scrambled

politics. it is time now for your first look at politics with washington post david knack uemu uemura. david, what do you make of the u.s.'s handling of the situation so far? >> veronica, it's a tough test for president obama. somewhat unexpected. it's sort of caught the u.s. off guard by their aggressive action in crimea. president obama and the white house stressed over and over in several conference calls and statements that they're using all diplomatic avenues and looking at all economic possibilities to put the pressure on russia and isolate them. that will take time to put the pinch on, freeze russian assets, withdraw from the g 8 summit. which is supposed to be in sochi. that will take time.

right now they're trying to figure out how to get russia to make a withdrawal, figure out how to replace russian troops with some sort of international forces or protect russian interests there. it's something the president doesn't have a lot of good military options. >> let's talk about leverage. does the u.s. have any leverage here in negotiations at all? >> not really. the problem is this is not something that happened overnight. relationship with the obama white house and the putin administration in wirussia is a an all time low. if anything, the relations have gotten worse. diplomatic channels are almost at a stand still. the president tried to call putin and talk to him for an hour and a half but it hasn't made any difference. there's a sense that putin doesn't care what the west thinks. he thinks they can't challenge him militarily. any sanctions won't be strong

enough to put the pressure on. right now it's not clear what the white house plan is going zbloord david nakamura with the washington post. >> thanks, veronica. >> bill karins and frances riff vieira coming up with first buzz. we'll talk about some of last night's most bizarre oscar moments straight ahead. ♪ ♪ still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day? when i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories.

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good morning and welcome back. time now for first buzz. we're talking about an oscar oops. we're going to start with this oscar oops. john travolta last night, he -- yeah, she made a big one. it was a big ouch. he went and introduced ide idena menzol. this is how it came out.

>> please welcome the wickedly talented, one and only, ide idel dezene. >> she is best known as playing the wicked witch on broadway. she plays elsa in "frozen." she goes on to absolutely kill it, but poor john travolta this morning, that was such an oops moment. it was such an ouch moment. >> it was amazing for her performing. you're waiting for your intros, this is the big moment and they trash your name and then she has to go on. she nailed it though. >> but what i love is somebody went out and set up a fake twitter account. it's adela dezine who says thank you jorn trumolto and trashes his name. >> now he knows her name. >> no one will let him either. >> did you like ellen in general?

>> i loved her. i thought she was fantastic. >> she's great with ad lib moments. making fun of jennifer lawrence for tripping two years in a row. the pizza delivery was the top of everyone's list. a lot of people were asking, who is this pizza delivery guy? he's actually a pizza delivery guy from down the block. a place called big mamas and papas. >> with the red hat and stuff it looked a little over the top. >> right. >> he actually delivered pizza to her ellen degeneres show. >> hey, call my agent. >> it was all real. it was pretty priceless. >> there's a whole food bank. you know these stars detox, cleanse, star of thrv themselve >> this may have been the good luck charm that made "frozen" win. that was kristin bell's clutch.

when you sing on the red carpet just so you know, there's a burrito in my clutch. keeping it real. pizza, burrito. >> they get messy after a while. >> kind of gross. >> soggy. >> i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "first look" on msnbc. "way too early" starts right now. and the oscar goes to -- "12 years a slave." brad pitt, jeremy kleiner, steve mcqueen [ applause ] >> it was a huge night for "12 years a slave" taking the top prize at the oscars and ellen taking a megawatt taj star

selfie. our caption is up to you today. who is getting socked by the worst of it. and then secretary of state john kerry heading to ukraine after more of putin's army moves in on crimea. at what point is russia's military intimidation an official declaration of war? this is "way too early." hey there, everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. it is monday, march the 3rd, 2014. welcome to "way too early." the show that would have won best new short feature if we had been nominated. we always have next year. we start off with weather. winter showing no signs of slowing down. new jersey in a state of emergency right now as places like atlantic city could get more than a foot of snow today. the federal government in d.c. has closed its offices and congress is closing business for