i don't know exactly who secretary kerry is planning on sending over there, who the scientists are going to be who go over there and how they're going to be received in uganda, but this is a new one in the annals of the diplomacy. good wednesday morning. right now on "first look," new direction. development and flesh clues overnight in the search for flight 370. redrawing borders. vladimir put continues reignites the cold war. death defying. police officers narrowly missed by a pick up. plus, two big winners in the mega millions jackpot. the 15 highest paying companies in america and honoring the best of america. good morning and thanks for joining us. i'm betty nguyen. there's evidence malaysia flight 370's u-turn was premeditated it was programmed before the system went down. it's one of several developments

this morning including new radar data from thailand. let's get to duncan live in london. duncan, good morning to you. was that u-turn manually programmed from the cockpit. >> good morning, betty. it certainly looks that way. investigators searching for flight 370 believe someone turned the plane west. nbc news has learned the program might have been programmed into the on board computer 12 minutes before the program said good night to air traffic control. sources say the plane's u-turn manually programmed into the computer was transmitted by the acars data system to ground at 1:07 a.m. that indicates the u-turn was premeditated, programs before acars went down and before the trans ponders went dead. the question is, why would they do that?

some pilots would do that in event of an emergency. the searches at the homes of the plane's captain and co-pilot have not turned up anything suspicious. 11 days since 370 went missing and a search continues across an area roughly two-thirds the size of the united states. it is quite the mystery. thank you for that. also overseas, more tough talk from vladimir putin. and the mood in moscow is both celebratory and defiant. thousands gathered in red square to welcome crimea back to russia and president putin was right there calling the u.s. unprofessional and irresponsible. tracie potts is talking about it this morning. >> reporter: how do you figure out what putin is going to do? is he going beyond crimea? account u.s. stop him? it's no game.

we are seeing deadly violence and our allies in that region are worried. with crimea now almost firmly in it's hand, is russia unstoppable? experts say other former soviet nations should worry. >> tomorrow, they might say i think that's next. >> there's no question that if we have a rupture in our relationship with russia there's going to be costs elsewhere in the world. >> reporter: calling russia's annexation of crimea a land grab, vice president biden assured the balance particular regions the u.s. will step up air controls. >> our commitment is absolutely unwaivering and unshakable. >> the crimea conflict has turned deadly. the first ukrainian soldier was killed. the u.s. hopes economic sanctions will stop a defiant president putin from pushing further into ukraine. the u.s. insists sanctions

affect more than just 11 people's bank accounts. >> it affects the ability of the united states parties to do business with those people. >> reporter: but is it enough? >> it cannot stop there. we have to stop russian banks from doing business outside of russia. >> reporter: and back in washington, there's a political cost for the president now focused on what's happening outside the u.s. >> every day, every morning that he's working on a foreign policy issue, no matter how pressing, is a moment that he's not focussing on the economy in the minds of people. >> reporter: in the mind of people, but this could actually affect our economy because we're working with our nato allies because we have close economic ties to russia. so if this crisis spills over and has a ripple effect on the european economy, you can bet we're going to see some shaking of the dollar so to speak in our markets here. >> goodness. thank you, tracie, for that. in seattle federal

investigators are trying to figure out what went wrong in a deadly and horrific tv news helicopter crash. the chopper smashed into a street yesterday morning a few hundred yards from the space needle. it hit three cars setting them on fire and spewed burning fuel down that street. experienced pilot gary pfitzner was on board. they were pronounced dead at the scene. >> he was one of the nicest men ever and so loved and respected. because he was a -- he was a great photographer but he was just a great person. >> a third man was seriously injured. he was on fire when he escaped from his car. the helicopter was actually a temporary replacement while the station's own chopper was in the shop. seatt seattle's mayor says among other things the city will look at helipad rules as it investigates. to a lighter note now, there's at least two multiple millionaires this morning.

a pair of winning tickets from last night's drawing were sold in florida and maryland. the lucky players will split the $400 million jackpot. the lottery's third largest. there were eight tickets matching the five numbers worth $1 million. here's the numbers, 11, 19, 24, 33, 51 and the megaball 7. friday's jackpot resets to a mere $15 million. now to another good fortune story but in a different way if you will. you have to see this new video. investigating an accident right there on i-80 in iowa on friday. nothing out of the ordinary until that pickup came flying by. troopers were right there. a driver failed to slow down and rear ended that pickup truck that you saw. thankfully no one was hurt. police released this video as a chilling reminder to slow down

at the scene of an accident. let's get the latest in sports from my friend, frances rivera. good morning. >> good morning, betty. let's talk about the zen master returning to new york. the introduction of new team president, phil jackson. more championship rings than fingers, fans are hoping jackson will transform the woefully mismanaged knicks. this is jackson's second stint with the team. he played with them in '72-73. that was their last title run. the field of 68 is now set at 64. the men's ncaa tournament. north carolina state outplayed xavier 74-69 earning a shot to play fifth seed st. louis. mount st. mary's was beat. it sets up a david versus goliath match-up when they play number one seed, florida. talk about a buzz kill. this is what we're talking

about. that swarm of bees caused a seven-minute delay during the yankees/red sox game. they sprayed repellent. >> that's a tough job. >> hoping to sting creatures away. it can get dicey with yankees and red sox anyway. the woeful cleveland cavaliers are getting a little bit of high deck help. cleveland began to rally up the faithful. look at that. that's a 3-d video extravaganza they set up. >> that's on the court? >> yeah, on the court. really unique. the experience is created with the use of 16 hd projectors. >> that is cool. >> very cool. finally, a lithuanian man, that's big d. look what he does. he entered the record book by dead lifting this. all those tires. that's 1155. 1155! nails it at the 2014 arnold strong man classic. >> i always get nervous when they go for that dead lift.

>> a little bit of ben gay at the end of the day. >> i'm afraid the bar is going to break there's so much weight on it. >> right. >> thank you. nbc's dylan dreyer is here with our wednesday forecast. looking kind of blue, aren't we? >> clearly we were feeling the same way, aren't we? >> exactly. we need spring to get here. >> yes, tomorrow will get the pink back and the yellow back. it is the first day of spring tomorrow. tomorrow we are ending off rightfully with some snow with parts of minneapolis, northern wisconsin. just to the south of that in chicago it's all rain. temperatures warmer down that way. we have about 5 to 7 inches of snow already on the ground in eastern minnesota and northern wisconsin. there are still winter weather advisories in effect because we could end up with another 1 to 3 inches with lighter snow showers tomorrow morning. tomorrow it moves over into northern new england. extreme northern new england could end up with 6 to 12 inches of snow. some of the ski resorts in central new england, 3 to 6 inches. a lot of ski resorts staying

open this year because they can. it's cold enough. they've got the snow. clearly they'll get more tomorrow. it will still feel like winter tomorrow for sure. >> don't let the calendar fool you. >> i know. thank you. can president obama turn his ncaa brackets into millions more people. and a slippery slope here. i've been there.

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time for some business with cnbc's courtney reagan. good morning. >> good morning. amazon will reportedly roll out a video service. it will be able to stream content as well as pc video games. it will be available on amazon and best buy and staples stores. starbucks is expected to unveil new features for its mobile app at a shareholder

meter. this includes a shake to pay and ability to order ahead. the app will let you leave a virtual tip for your barista. pandora will raise the monthly fee to $4.99 starting in may. the fee hike just for new customers, at least for now. pandora is also getting rid of annual subscriptions. >> apparently blue is contagious around here. thank you, courtney. 24/7 wall street.com has compiled a list of the 15 highest paying companies in america. among them apple at number 14, yahoo! at 13 and twitter at 12. auto desk in the $125,000 a year range. that's followed by visa, linked-in, a number of consulting company and at the top apogee medical with a median salary of $220,000. now you know. some stories making news this morning, the national security agency has built a

phone tapping system that can record 100% of the foreign calls. mi mystic can record these calls and it's deployed in at least one country. 24 recipients are given the medal of honor. they fought for a country that didn't always see them as equal. >> the ceremony reminds us of one of the enduring qualities that makes america great, that makes us exceptional. no nation is perfect, but here in america we confront our imperfections and face sometimes a sometimes painful past. >> the honor res are black, hispanic and jewish veterans from as far back as world war ii. the government determined they were passed over because of prejudice. diners were helped to the freshest fish they've ever seen

at the t-rex restaurant. workers were able to save all the marine life thank goodness. bill nair politicians, equal pay for women and senator ted cruz reveals the biggest lie in politics. scrambled is next. og5u,qcf;u #h [ giggles ] again! [ mom ] when we're having this much fun, why quit? and new bounty has no quit in it either. it's 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand, and then stays strong, so you can use less. watch how one sheet of new bounty keeps working, while their two sheets just quit. [ bubbles, baby giggling ] again! [ mom ] why use more, when you can use less. new bounty. the no-quit picker-upper. feeding your lawn need not be so difficult neighbors. get a load of this bad boy. whoa. this snap spreader system from scotts is snap-crackin' simple -- just snap, lock, and go. [ scott ] feed your lawn. feed it!

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rahmer nearly won last night. the 57-year-old first time candidate has already poured $6 million of his own fortune into the race. he now faces incumbent pat quinn in the fall. a candidate the gop views as vulnerable. the battle over equal pay continues to spill over in the texas gubernatorial race. and as women battle to try and close the pay gap, it looks like their biggest enemy is themselves. here's what the executive director of the texas republican party had to say about an equal pay bill. >> men are better negotiators and i would encourage women instead of pursuing the courts for action to become better negotiators. >> well, democratic gubernatorial candidate win any davis is trying to link her opponents to those comments. greg abbott says state law prohibits discrimination and additional measures are not needsed. senator ted cruz back in iowa last night stoking the 2016 rumors. and he broke news revealing the

single biggest lie in politics, something democrats will surely dispute. >> let me tell you the single biggest lie in all of politics is that republicans are the party of the rich. the rich do just fine with big government. big business does great with big government. >> members of the congressional black caucus want the obama administration to review some foreign aid. 41 lawmakers sent a letter to president obama urging him to reconsider aid to countries with laws criminalizing homosexuality. oprah bringing her star power and money to virginia. the media mogul will host a fund-raiser next month for democratic congressional candidate lavern chapman. chapman calls her a good friend and has a passion for empowering women and girls for leadership. the white house pastry chef is hanging up his whisk.

the first lady is the reason. mrs. obama's crusade begins sugary and fatty foods has inspired him to start teaching. he calls his decision bitter sweet. president obama will be announcing his march madness bracket on espn as he does every year. this time, however, the president is expected to also make a push for the affordable care act. the 16 sweetest reasons to get covered campaign is designed to get young people to sign up for obamacare before the march 31st deadline. that is your morning dish of politics. how sweet it is. speaking of sweet, lynn sweet is a washington bureau chief for the chicago sun times. good morning, lynn. >> good morning. >> so developments in ukraine, let's talk about that. they have moved rather quickly, yet legislation to punish russia and provide aid to ukraine is still stalled in congress. so what does this say, lynn, about the u.s.'s ability to act

around whether there's really any bite behind this bark? >> well, there is the stall in congress has to do with how that deal is structured in the world international monetary fund. there are other things that the u.s. is doing with its european allies, including besides sanctions some measures, you know, for example, that russia may be kicked out of what is now called the g-8 group of industrial nations. that's just one thing that comes to mind right now that could be in the works. >> well, russian president vladimir putin, we're seeing video of him there. he's been racheting up the rhetoric calling the u.s. unprofessional and irresponsible. is he trying to bully the u.s. into more of a war of words? >> that might be for home consumption among his own constituents back in russia to

justify what he's doing. of course, the western powers and the u.s. and its allies absolutely dispute that. it's not true and this referendum or the u.s. would call it the so-called referendum, russian sponsored, is not seen by the u.s. and its allies as any kind of legitimate vote. so some of what putin is saying, as i said, is probably for home consumption more than to convince the international community that he has done something that's right. >> he is definitely speaking his mind and so have you today, lynn. as always we appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, frances rivera and dylan dreyer will be here for "first buzz." including it is good to be king, or the future king's doctor. we'll explain. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job.

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even joe biden now is weighing in. today biden said that russia's recent actions in the ukraine have left it alone and naked in front of the rest of the world. incidentally, alone and naked is also putin's preferred style of hunting. >> oh, you can't unsee that unfortunately. let's go to "first buzz" and speaking of pictures, dylan is here. you have a selfie to tell us about. >> yeah, it's lake michigan -- lake superior. let me take a selfie. it was lake superior taking the selfie and posting it on twitter. have we jumped the shark at this point when the great lakes are getting in on the action. >> that's crazy. >> i thought that was cute. speaking of selfie, this one takes the cake. so this student in milan, italy,

is trying to take a selfie with a statue from the 19th century and what does he do? he breaks it. breaks the leg right off. that was before -- hey, this is a family show but there you go. there's the leg after. there's no word on whether he actually got to snap that ambitious selfie before. >> that's priceless. >> before he may have fallen before. who climbs up on a 19th century statue. didn't your mama tell you better. >> there was no rope around it. >> apparently not. >> still. >> all right. well, there's a new knight in town apparently. >> you know, when it is. when it comes to royals it's a big deal when somebody is knighted. this knight has no armor. he actually has scrubs and a stethoscope because it's a doctor. this is actually the obgyn who delivered prince william and kate middleton's son george. this is sir marcus studdleman,

obgyn. >> you can't fit that on a business card. >> she was so sick early on. >> he delivered prince william as well. there you go. thanks for watching, everybody. we appreciate it. "way too early" with thomas roberts starts right now. stay tuned. things have gotten very tense now between the u.s. and russia. in fact, during his speech today vladimir putin criticized the u.s. for thinking that it's always right. we're always thinking that we're right. then he went back to organizing an election where you can't vote no. >> yeah, right or wrong, vladimir putin keeps being a man of his word. and if his latest words are any indication, he is full throttle ahead on a russian pride power play. day 12 in the missing malaysian plane. and again xors, get this, break out your millennium

falcons. the original "star wars" gang is reuniting for a reboot. will you will leah slay you with her hair? this is "way too early." come on, we all remember the buns. she's going to slay you with her hair this time around. hi, everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts, wednesday march 19th. welcome to "way too early." the show that completely understands everything chewbacca has ever said. speaking of hair, one of my fraternity brothers, his nickname in college was chewbacca. that was when we were 19 so imagine his back now at 41. i'm just sayin'. so we move on to our top stories this morning. very serious because we now know whoever changed the flight plan on board the missing jet in asia had extensive knowledge about the plane's computer and tracking equipment. what we don't know is who did it and why. also, where that flight is today. sources telling nbc news t