of sexual abuse. and a lot of shouting and pleading the fifth from capitol hill. why did daryl issa storm away from an irs hearing? and why is this lopsided photo here? katy didn't want to kiss the girl. break out your cherry chap stick. this is "way too early." hey, everybody, good morning, i'm thomas roberts. it is thursday, march 6th. welcome, we will only reveal three digits of the s.a.t. score but aced learner's permit. true story. and the top story on the house. propping up ukraine's fragile government with badly-needed funding. and eyeing sanctions on russia to punish them. and secretary of state john kerry is going with the diplomatic issues trying to get both to the table.

moscow is refusing to recognize the leadership in kiev and insisting the armed groups are there for self-defense. a u.n. envoy was threatened in crimea and told to leave. they're now stepping up training for poland's air force, sending a half dozen fighter jets. hillary clinton discussed comments, comparing the move to the nazis before world war ii. >> what i said yesterday is that the claims by president putin and other russians that they had to go into crimea and maybe further into eastern ukraine because they had to protect the russian minorities. and that is reminiscent of claims that were made back in the 1930s. >> and finally, an anchor on the u.s. network r.t., or russia today quit her job on air

accusing the kremlin-funded station of whitewashing president putin's actions. and many americans are fed up with washington politics, in a hearing on the irs targeting of conservative and tea party groups, daryl issa began by grilling irs official lois learner. for 11 minutes, and she pled the fifth, refusing to cooperate. and this happened. >> i have in expectation that miss learner will cooperate. >> chairman, i have a statement. i have a procedural question, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, you cannot run a committee like this. you just cannot do this. this is -- we're better than that as a country. we're better than that as a committee. may i ask my question, make my statement. >> you are free to leave, we have adjourned, but the gentleman may ask his question. >> mr. chairman, i have one procedural question, and goes to

trying to get the information you just asked. >> what is your question. >> let me say what i have to say. i have listened to you for 15 or 20 minutes. let me say what i have to say. i have one procedural question. >> miss learner, you are released. >> but i would like to use my time to make brief points. for the past year, the central republican accusation -- >> we're adjourned, close it down. >> with the white house -- before our committee is not a single document -- >> thank you. >> if you will sit down and allow me to ask a question, i am a member of the congress of the united states of america. i am tired of this. i do have a question. >> all right, so with that, issa ended the hearing, walking out while his democratic colleague continued to talk into the silent microphone. reporters caught up to issa after the hearing who offered

this explanation. >> mr. chairman. >> shut down? why would you say shut it down? >> because he was talking into a mic in an adjourned meeting. the fact is mr. cummings came to make a point of his objections to the process we have been going through. he was slandering me at the moment that the mics did go off by claiming that this had not been a real investigation. >> after she established she was pleading the fifth, you still asked several questions, yet you did not give your democratic colleague that same opportunity. >> he was not intending to ask questions. >> he didn't have a chance to ask. >> mr. cummings said he had questions to ask, instead making an opening statement even after the committee had been adjourned. therefore we adjourned. >> we are going to hear from the other side of things with the congressman joining morning joe to give his side of the story. people who like their plan can keep it a little longer.

americans, health insurance policies that don't meet obamacare guidelines can be extended through 2017. it affects up to 1.5 million people and allows extra time to meet the criteria. open enrollment is november 15th, 11 days after the midterm elections. republicans criticized the announcements. >> headline pretty much says it all. new obamacare delay to help midterm democrats. and the subheading says move will avoid cancellation wave before election day. which leads you to believe that all these delays are simply about politics, nothing more and nothing less. >> also yesterday, the republican-controlled house voted in favor of a one-year delay for the penalty. and it is the 50th time they have voted to change obamacare. and moving to stop a pick.

they rejected the civil rights is division of the justice department, he worked for the naacp's legal defense fund. he was criticized on working on the appeal for a man who killed a police officer in philadelphia. president obama said it was based on unfair character attacks. and he said in part, quote, the fact the nomination was defeated solely on his legal representation of a defendant runs contrary to our system of justice. and those who voted against him denied the american people an outstanding publicer servant. and this was the first time the senate rejected one of president obama's nominees since the filibuster rules were changed in november. recent comments by pope francis about the church's sexual abuse scandal has some catholics outraged. >> reporter: in a front page

interview published in italy's biggest newspapers, the pope said they acted with transparency and responsibility. still, the catholic kurchurch c under fire. they blasted him for failing to take concrete actions to protect children. >> it's heartbreaking for us to see the true colors of pope francis, and it seems to be that he wants the same reckless and private ways of coping to continue. >> so while pope francis has been seen in progressive in his views, he makes it clear that the interview that the basic teachings of the church are not up for review. the oscar pistorius murder trial is now in the fourth day as prosecutors start to question the olympian's character. a boxer who is friends with the man known as the blade runner testifying yesterday in south africa describing an incident at a restaurant where he fired a gun by accident and then asked

another friend to take the blame. i don't know what happened, how the gun went off, but he did apologize and said i'm so sorry, it's a mistake. is everybody okay? i do remember oscar saying please to darren, just say it was you. i don't want any attention around me. just say it was you. and then once that was said, the people from the restaurant came to the table and then that's when darren said it was him. >> now the defense claims that the friend offered to say he was responsible, and pistorius was not aware it had bullets in it. and a pregnant mom driving a minivan into the ocean with her three kids inside. they went to save the children from 3 to 10 years old. one of the children said their mom was trying to kill them. she's undergoing a mental evaluation. and there was trouble at home before the incident at the ocean. >> what is she doing?

>> she's talking about jesus and that there are demons in my house. and that i'm trying to control her, but i'm trying to keep them safe. >> so police stopped that mom in her van after her sister called the police but had no cause to detain her. the three children are currently in state custody. on a different note, listen up, there are changes for students prepping for s.a.t.s. in the spring of 2018, they will take a new test. goes back to the 1600 scale and makes the written essay optional. the grading scale jumped to 2400 in 2005 with a mandatory essay. the updated s.a.t. will be more aligned with the work of high school students, including new volunte vocab words. 1.5 million took the test last year. it gives me sweats thinking

about it. how would you improve the s.a.t.? question will put the best answers up. and for the good ones, maybe give you my score. and weekly unemployment data is out, the markets were unchanged. we are live in london this morning. jeff, good afternoon. >> reporter: yeah, hey, good morning to you. interesting to hear you talking about s.a.t.s. and i'm being in test conditions. that's where janet yellen, the new head of the fed, finds herself. the markets are seeing whether she will pass the test. she is expressing tru ining fru with growth. and we have seen downgrading of the growth estimates, and unemployment is too high and inflation still too low. so she is making a commitment to markets here that she will continue to do whatever is necessary to get growth back into the u.s. economy. whether that translates into a

slowdown of this tapering program remains to be seen here. but markets are watching these comments closely. fascinating story for you in the grocery space here. safeway, the number two store in the states is the bidding target of ser rebrus right now. and kroger is making an approach at this stage. it's possible in the 9 billion $40 a share could go up. but you know what, as a consumer, watch this one closely here. because quite often when private equity gets involved, we see debt and prices go up here. so it may translate into higher prices in the store. that's speculation at this stage. but watch this bidding battle closely. it could affect what you're paying for bread and beans in the stores. >> let's talk about bread and beans related to travel. the airline outlook for the spring.

it has been a brutal winter. is that going to affect costs? >> reporter: this is an interesting one. there's a piece on this on the cnbc website. he thinks a bounce back for the airlines. looking at stronger passenger loads for the spring here. but it's been difficult through this very bad period of weather, and we know something like, look at the numbers, 78,000 flights cancelled as a result of these poor weather conditions. you know what, a lot of that represents some damage to the profits of the airlines. so the airline sector will want to see that money coming back into the coffers. i wouldn't be surprised if we have fuller planes and see ticket prices going up through 2014. back to you. >> thank you, sir. much appreciated. still ahead, duke is looking to solidify its position heading into march madness. but could a trip to un-ranked wake forest knock them off?

and "12 years a slave" is the best picture. but at least a couple of the people didn't take their roles seriously. and we will be back on the thursday edition. don't go away. >> as commander in chief, i can report to you our armed forces fought with honor and valor, and as president, i can report to the nation aggression is defeated, the war is over. [ male announcer ] this one goes out to all the allergy muddlers.

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minutes. he finishes with 20 points. wake forest, upset, 82-72. and the warriors beat up on the celtics. but it was who was in the stands who gave them something to cheer for. they got on their feet when a tupac look alike is spotted in the stands. oh, yeah, there he is. that was another kid. the rapper has been dead since 1996, but rumors he is alive are strong, and stronger now that we've seen this. and the soccer, the u.s. men's national team's friendly against the ukraine. it was forced 600 miles south to cyprus. and ukraine scores first in the 12th minute. the shot is blocked, and then a second shot, and ukraine in the 67th minute. and that would be the final score. ukraine wins it, 2-0. and sticking with soccer,

south africa lost in the friendly yesterday. but this little kid celebrated. just when a security guard scoops him up, namar comes to the rescue, carries him back and had a little fun. made that kid's day, and then taking pictures. and a check of the weather. >> nice moment. >> nice moment right there. the guys making that kid's day. >> there was a funny picture and a teenage boy tried to do the same thing, security tackled him. there's an age restriction. >> cuteness card was revoked. the tyke had it. >> there's no cuteness to this morning in the northeast. this is it. it has to be it. we can't do too many more mornings like this. it's frigid, minus 6 in caribou. and 18 in new york, and the wind chill is even worse.

one thing that's good, the warmth spreading across the country. the 24-hour temperature map change shows the northern plains warms up, so eventually has to sweep across the country. that will happen this weekend. starts bad weather, if you're traveling in the southeast, rain to deal with and a possibility of thunderstorms. airport delays are possible. tampa, orlando and miami with thunderstorms. they're sweeping across the gulf. they will be over the fell peninsula this afternoon. maybe a few tornados along with damaging wind gusts. areas of orlando southward. it feels good to be talking about thunderstorms and rain and warmth instead of snow and ice. >> i like miami, look at that, 84. >> yeah. just dodge those storm this is afternoon. >> thanks so much. appreciate it. coming up at the top of the hour, new poll numbers from the washington post show it might be an uphill battle for two of the gop front runners. how the negatives outweigh the positives. and we will huddle around

the water cooler. katy perry roaring about the kiss with miley cyrus and how she didn't want to go further. this is heisman mouth, where one party is shut off to the other party. they're doing it with their lips. anyway, we're back after this.

all right, so just a little

bit earlier, we talked about the exciting changing coming to the s.a.t. to want sound smart, tell your friends in 1986, 58% of college admission test takers took the s.a.t. then only 49%, losing the majority to the a.c.t. did you take the a.c.t. or sa.t.? >> i didn't do well on the a.c.t. >> combined we could get into college. >> politics were part of the academy award this is year. >> 12 years a slave wins best picture, that's the first possibility. possibility number two, you're all racists. >> turns out it wasn't racism, but the subject matter. reports say at least two voters picked "12 years a slave" as

best picture despite never seeing it. they never saw the movie because they thought it would be too upsetting. why vote for it? the social relevance. in case you're wondering, there's more than 6,000 members of the academy of arts and sciences. it's only two people. a small amount. the star-studded selfie is the most retweeted, but not the coolest. check out this danish pilot in an f-16 fighter jet. on the left side you can see the missile as it's being launched. they timed the picture perfectly. it's an unbelievable picture. by the way, the high-tech helmet allows them to guide the weapons by pointing their heads. it's cool. >> did you post your selfie yesterday that you took with bill and sam champion? >> no, i did not post that yet. i didn't to want make you jealous. >> better not do it. i told you the story of that picture. i don't think bill would appreciate that.

>> keep bill. >> she told us that she kissed a girl and liked it, but apparently that doesn't go for miley cyrus. ♪ now we're finally learning more about the rejection at a concert in l.a. last month. she's on a promotional tour in australia where she explained exactly what happened. >> when milely cyrus went in for the kiss, did you see what i saw, her tilt her head and want more? >> yes. i saw that. and that's when i walked away. that tongue is infamous. >> you don't know where it's been. >> you slide down it every night. >> now katy perry talking about miley's -- she's talking about miley's huge tongue slide she uses as part of the performance. i don't know what you call that, but that's some trademark.

>> it's called art, louis. >> yes, art, leave it at that. and stephen colbert, a supporter of big business and their overwhelming generosity. >> take chevron, after a fatal gas explosion in pennsylvania, they did the right thing. >> trying to make amends for the deadly gas fire that took a week to put out. they handed occupy coupons. >> the coupe upon is for a large miss w pizza and a two liter from the local pizza shop. >> free pizza. of course, that's for a gas well fire, if the drinking water causes neurological damage, that's crazy bread. >> i'm holding out for that. >> how about stuffed crust? >> yes. >> that as well. how would you improve the s.a.t.? your best and most creative tweets. time to get happy in the control

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improve the s.a.t. nerdy natalie has the answers. >> insert a section of 80s theme song trivia. and michael said extra points if you can if you can announce the name of oscar performers. >> you could put a john travolta section on there. >> these are borrowed glasses although you did pretty well on the s.a.t. >> i did pretty well. >> that is it for "way too early."" "morning joe" starts now. thanks, gang. >> if the fda will propose larger boulder type for calories and for the first time consumers would know if foods had added sugars. >> calories are going to be really prominent. at a glance you can see the calories big and bold. >> nice try but the labels are not big and bold for americans to read through their eye fat. food labels only need to tell me three