match the kochs ad for ad? the response in that senate race in alaska is the first sign that the democrats might actually have an effective counterattack planned. can they do this everywhere? at. can they do this everywhere, because the kochs are playing everywhere. that is 2014. sflimplts good wednesday morning. right now on "first look" mystery deepens. did the missing malaysian jetliner change course midflight? authorities haven't ruled out any possible cause for its disappearance. obama care, congressional turn on the health care issue. senate versus cia. each side is shoring up defenses which might be a breach of our constitution. it could force besss to pay workers overtime. a massachusetts restaurant turned ugly. find out what started the brawl. good morning to you. i'm francis rivera.

into thin air. more than five days now, and still more questions than answers on what happened to that missing malaysian jetliner. authorities admit they don't know which way the plane was going when it vanished with 239 people on board. the malaysian military now says its radar has tracked the plane as it doubled back over the malaysian mainland and a small island in the strait of malaca. officials say mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage or terrorism are all still causes of the disappearance. >> the authorities in malaysia and the united states and other countries are pulling all that's possible to see whether tourism played any role in the disappearance of the aircraft. this really is quite disturbing. malaysia airlines says its focus is to care for the passengers' families who are still desperately waiting for answers. they're providing them with meals, lodging, and medical

support at no cost. "we have 115 family members in kuala lumpur. something that is expected to have rippling affects across the nation. alex sig about 3,400 votes in a special congressional election. both parties poured more than $11 million into the race. the gop going into november's midterms. at the center of the election was the affordable care act. his democratic opponent did not. on tuesday the administration revealed 4.2 million americans had signed up for health plans. open enrollment ends march 31st. brand new poll numbers out this morning. how rough the midterms could be for democrats. according to the nbc news-wall street journal poll president obama's approval rating stands at 41%. that's done nearly ten points from a year ago.

his numbers are bleeding over. one-third of americans say their numbers this november will be based on opposition to president obama's policies. those numbers aren't good for anyone. >> no, they're not. especially for the democrats or the president. this is a bad poll for them. however, we need to put it in perspective. at the same time in his presidency, president bush's numbers were even lower. 37% approval rating. what really stands out here for president obama is how many democrats appear to have turned on him. 20% of democrats disapproving of the president of their party. that's a record high for president obama. now, taking a look at some of the other results from our overnight poll. who should control congress? republicans now have a very slight 1% edge on that machine, but it's all split when you take into account the margin of error. what about congress? our polls are showing over and over people are really frustrated with washington.

should we just simply wipe them out and replace every single member of congress? 54%, more than half of those polled, said absolutely yes. francis. >> all right. tracie, thank you. sfwlimplts now to dramatic allegation from one of the senate's top lawmakers. dianne feinstein openly accusing the cia of spying on congress. tensions are boiling over. >> cia director john brennan under fire accused of spying on senate investigators talking exclusively to nbc news. >> i'm not trying to block anything, and the matter is being dealt with in the appropriate way. >> john brennan's word -- >> in a scathing speech senate intelligence chair dianne feinstein accused brennan's skai of secretly tracking the senate's investigation into one of the worst abuses in recent cia history. the detention and interrogation under george w. bush widely viewed as torture. >> i have grave concerns that

the cia's search may well have violated the separation of powers, principles embodied in the united states constitution. feinstein's charge that the cia hacked secure computers the senate was using, tried to hide the smoking gun of brennan's own policies. brennan oversaw the cia secret prisons and the controversial investigations of terrorism suspects under george w. bush. yet, the council on foreign relations, brennan denies he has interfered with the senate investigation. >> if it is proved that the cia did do this, would you feel that you had to step down some. >> if i did something wrong, i will go to the president, and i will explain to him exactly what i did and what the findings were, and he is the one who can ask me to stay or to go. >> brennan's counter charge in this letter to the senate obtained by nbc says the senate staff improperly took documents from the cia. brennan wrote, "it is imperative to learn whether a breach or

vulnerability exists." "the senate says it was only trying to safeguard proof of cia abuses, fearing the cia would destroy the evidence." >> cia's brennan says the president has great confidence in him. had might make you grateful for the security cameras out there. thanks to eight surveillance cameras in a las vegas puppy store there's immediate evidence of a january incident involving two people, one said to be the owner, sneaking in and setting it on fire. the video clearly shows one suspect dousing the store with gasoline and even the puppies' cages before setting it ablaze. luckily the sprinklers saved all the 27 puppies and preserved the video for prosecutors. now to the latest in sports this morning. the player at the heart of miami dolphins bullying scandal jonathan martin, he is getting a fresh start. he has been traded the san francisco 49ers. he tweeted he feels blessed and it also reunionitis him with jim harbough. four more teams are

guaranteed a spot in the men's ncaa tournament. now st. mary's 88-77 victory. p month long air as i understand rela. gonzaga defeated brigham young for its 17th consecutive tournament berth. the university of wisconsin secured their bid with a 69-63 win over wright state. to the nba we go where tempers flared between houston and oklahoma city. kevin durant brought 42 points to the rockets as he leads his team to a 106-98 win. this has been the spring training blooper reel. something for you to watch over and over. it's yankees. you saw the third baseman following a routine infield fly pop. instead of a catch face plants it. you know, not trepg over his own feet. finally, what better way to show team camaraderie than a

dance-off after practice? utah university football players dropped their pads and chal ebbinged each other to bust a move. all the classics come out there. maybe an overbite or two. we'll see which of the sweet moves will make it to the end zone celebration. some maybe not. on to the huge mramz that were happening in oklahoma. >> oklahoma city. >> because of that that. you have the dry conditions that are really, really tough over there. >> these are the pictures. this is the same storm that was responsible for the snow this morning in chicago. just windy conditions out ahead of it. it's so dry. >> no injuries reported? >> by the way, it was mentioned chicago, 60 degrees two days ago, and this is chicago this morning. traffic will be moving slowly near white-out conditions. it is getting colder by the minute, and the roads, you can see they are snow-covered. bad in chicago. it's started to get bad in detroit.

later today buffalo is under a blizzard warning. i believe this is like the first blizzard warning of the season for buffalo. then all of northern new england is going to get hit. i-95 is spared for the most part, but you can see the chicago area, 31 degrees. the whitest snow, the blue is the heavy snow. all of northern indiana now covered in snow, and that is now closing in on the detroit area right to the peak of your morning commute. when we talk about this late winter storm through the midwest and great lakes, temperatures in chicago, 25 degrees. up many northern new england, they're getting ready for -- could get a foot and a half of snow. this is the kind of storm that the ski resorts could keep them open because of mid-april. this is probably one of the beggest storms of the season, and here it is. >> winter saying no i'm not done yet. >> tomorrow is going to be january cold. be prepared for that. >> thank you. the mega church robbed a 600 -- how can the president end

up sitting between the ferns right there? late-breaking news about actor chris pine and a run-in with the law.

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good morning. the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan has reportedly opened a criminal probe with the recall of nearly 1.6 million cars worldwide. reuters says prosecutors are examining whether gm is liable for not properly disclosing problems with some of its cars, which have been linked to 13 deaths and prompted a recall last month. in other news, president obama is expected to order a rule change thursday requiring employers to pay overtime to more salaried workers. currently companies don't have to pay overtime to employees who make more than $24,000 a year or about $455 a week. lastly, starbucks will now let customers leave tips with et cetera global payment app. you can give a tip of between 50 cents and $2.

starbucks says roughly 10% of all purchases are made with the device. francis. >> thank you so much. stories making news this morning. president obama was in new york city tuesday for some heavy duty fundraisers, but found a little time to get shopping in. he stopped by the gap to buy sweaters for his daughters, athletic wear for his wife. before he got shopping done, president obama made digital waves by appearing on zach galfanakais. it helped drive traffic to health care.gov. it directly sent over 32,000 people to the health care marketplace. he stopped by the last word with lawrence o'donnell last night and talked about the image of the presidency and if doing the skit damaged it in any way. >> i just feel that question is continually asked any time a president does any kind of comedy thing, be it slow jamming

the news or laugh in or saturday night live, and i think it's time to stop asking that question. i mean, what is great about the administration is they knew they had to reach an audience that isn't watching sunday morning shows. they had to reach an audience that's watching internet videos. they really embrace that. things turned ugly really fast at a massachusetts restaurant. one man started throwing punches at another when he thought he saw him looking at his girlfriend. then a third man pulled a gun from his waist band. two people were shot in the brawl. the european union thinks their cheese is better than our cheese. the e.u. wants to ban the use of european names like feta and parmesan on cheese made in the united states. apparently american cheese is considered an inferior product and is cutting the european sales. governor chris christie's good friend tesla and is congressman darryl issa -- and g.

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so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list. we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com now, here's your first look at this morning's dish in scrambled politics. florida, florida, florida. the special election dominated news, but there's something you might have missed m sunshine state. on tuesday a senate panel overwhelmingly approved a bill to let school employees, including teachers, carry guns. it overcame local opposition from parent groups, school boards, and the state teachers union. congress did tuesday what many of us considered a no-brainer. do you want to fund political conventions or pediatric medical

research? thankfully lawmakers went with the latter, redirecting millions of taxpayer dollars on research towards childhood cancer and other diseases. today republicans in the house are poised pass a bill making it easier to be the president of the united states. democrats say it is a -- one the senate is sure to ignore. congress manning darryl issa is ignoring rumors that he will resign from congress. rumors swirled he will quit unless he was granted a waiver to continue as -- it would make sense for him to stay on through the end of president obama's term, but this morning his office says the rumors are just that. they're rumors. chelsea clinton spoke at the south by southwest kmplgs in austin. she focused on technology in undeveloped nations and also what she has told her parents about technology. >> i definitely taught my parents how to text and how to

charge their phones, which was i remember a very mysterious thing for them at the beginning. >> the president is getting some new wheels. well, the next one anyway. the department of homeland security is currently taking bids for a new slate of presidential limos. gm has been making the cars for the past three decades. the new cars will be ready and delivered by the time the next president takes office in 2017. tesla boss is slamming new jersey governor chris christie in the state's dmv. new jersey is the third state to block tesla from selling their hot new electric cars directly to customers. the garden state along with texas and arizona require a third party auto dealership. customers would have to go out of state to buy a tesla. new york mayor -- literally sitting with them on the steps of city hall so he tried to work a little to the reporter. that is your morning dish of scrambled politics. >> joining us me for your first

look at politics is len sweet, washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times". lynn, thanks for being with us. >> thank you. good morning. >> let's start with this. really a major victory republicans fight to control the congress. a meg wra phone for their message. the nice disapproves of obama care and the president's leadership. for the democrats the loss there is just a blow to morale. >> yes. it will be emboldening democrats. obama care had been in play anyway. this will -- this was a road test for using this issue as a way of attacking democrats, and they are ready to see if this was the best test they could have done. >> definitely helps with this recent nbc news-wall street journal poll who shows the president's approval ratings. they get to an all-time low of 41%. >> well, that's interesting. these polls sometimes very --

his favorability is split evenly on it. what it does show, though, is that even obama is at a low point even if he sometimes goes up a bit and like the one in florida, though there may have been multiple reasons to contributing to it. still, don't count the perception that his favorables are dispraut. we have to bring up the president's appearance on "hangover" star's zach's star. >> beneath the office of the president here, a smart move to indicatetory younger americans who will see it as cool, hip, relatable now. >> i saw it, and i think obama is still able to play the role of a parent to the stoner zach character that he played on there, and, you know, obama is the only one allowed to talk about health.gov, the obama care

website, and we have the government that got many, many hits off of it. >> it got the traffic moving. that's what they intended. thank you for your perspective this morning. sfwlirchgts just ahead, late-breaking news on actor chris pine. next. ♪ ♪ glass on floors. daily chores. for the little mishaps you feel use neosporin to help you heal. it kills germs so you heal four days faster. neosporin. use with band-aid brand bandages.

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president obama will welcome ukraine's new prime minister to the white house today. this as the house passed a resolution late tuesday condemning russia's actions against its neighbor. the european union could be ready to propose new sanctions on russia by monday. attorneys for a general

charged with sexual assault are seeking to renegotiate a plea deal. a military judge dismissed the jury on tuesday. he determined political concerns improperly influenced brigadier jeffrey sinclair's case. he found the appearance of unlawful command influence in the decision to reject a plea bargain in january. with the pope's one-year an verse re as pontiff approaching, take a look at how he is viewed on twitter. positive comments outweigh the negative 5-1. in entertainment breaking news overnight. actor chris pine has been arrested for drunk driving in new zealand. the 33-year-old has been in the south pacific country filming had his latest movie z for zach rya. according to police and court officials, peen was stopped during a routine drunk driving operation and was then charged with dui. taylor swift has been named billboard's top music maker in 2014. kenny chesney takes the number two spot with $33 moil and justin timberlake is on that

list along with bon jovi, the rolling stones. they rounded out the top five. and the muppets roll odd to the red carpet tuesday for the premier of muppets most wanted. kermit and miss piggy were kind of cozy, as they always are, while tina fey represented the non-muppet part of the cast. speaking of the "30 rock" star, fey sees a reunion. she bumped into lindsay lohan. she said, hey, we should do something, collaborate. now they're trying to organize a televised ten-year reunion special. creators are concerned that president obama has gotten an early jump on season four with early screeners. he gets to see it before anybody else. isn't that nice to be president? a new report from san diego state university says of the top 100 films of 2013 only 15% were women. the report wendt on to say that only 30% of all speaking characters were females. they're going, hmm, kind of

surprising considering it was the year of sandra bullock and cate blanchett. those are the numbers. thank you so much for being with us this morning. i'm francis rivera. this is "first look on msnbc." we'll leave you with this live picture from chicago where drivers are making a morning commute in white-out conditions. "way too early" starts right now. >> i've always supported the government spying programs, but apparently unchecked eavesdropping on our own citizens comes at a terrible price. the price. >> the federal government is now suing sprint over the cost of bugging people's phones. a lawsuit filed monday claims sprint over billed the fbi and other agencies by $21 million for installing and maintaining wiretaps. classic phone company trick. >> you think you've got an all inclusive plan. then they hit you with the line maintenance charge. >> i'm giving a tip of the hat to the u.s. department of

justice for publicly suing sprint over their top secret wiretapping program. i mean -- >> so wiretapping is expensive, but it could have much higher costs for the cia. diane finestein says this, and how the haefd the spy agency has responded. also, brand new polls out this morning, and it's not good news for the president and its party. with wha the new numbers could mean for the midterm election. zishgts what really happened in the justin bieber deposition? seth myers has the part you didn't hear and may change your opinion of the pop star. this is "way too early." good morning. i'm bill karens in for my superhero friend, thomas roberts. welcome to "way too early." the show that's not shy. let's get to our top story. the search for flight 370, it enters now day five.