military presence along the border. and the madness is upon us. four overtime games. some major upsets. and one incredible buzzer beater. this is "way too early." good morning, i'm mika brezinski in for thomas roberts. this is "way too early." planes are back in the air this morning looking for possible pieces of debris from the missing jet in the southern indian ocean. it's been 14 days since the malaysian plane last communicated with air traffic control. these satellite images gave officials a renewed sense of hope that the mystery surrounding flight 370 would be solved. crews are currently looking for two objects about 14 miles apart. one is 79 feet long. the other about 16 feet long.

but yesterday poor weather conditions, including strong winds, heavy cloud coverage, and rain made it too difficult to locate any of that debris. so today the search continues as officials still consider their best lead to be this. three australian p-3 orions, a p-8. the chinese are sending three warships to assist in the search. tony abbott defended his decision to release the satellite images out of respect to the families of the missing. >> we owe it to the families and the friends and the loved ones of the almost 240 people on flight mh-370 to do everything we can to try to resolve what is as yet an extraordinary riddle. we owe it to them to do everything we can to resolve this and because of the understand annual state of anxiety and apprehension that

they're in, we also owe it to them to give them information as soon as it's there. >> nbc's keir simmons joins us from malaysia with more on this story and how the families are doing. keir. >> reporter: hey there, mika. families that woke up yesterday with news that some kind of debris had spotted off the coast of australia, now waking up today and being told that they are simply going to have to wait again. two weeks after flight 370 disappeared they have had this agonizing wait throughout that two weeks, and now they must wait again to see what that flotilla of ships and aircraft off the coast of australia discover, whether they even find the debris and whether, indeed, it is connected to flight 370. who knows how long that will take. and they are frustrated. they had a meeting with officials last night, lasted two hours. they came out saying that they had learned nothing new.

they had many questions. they didn't feel as if they were getting many up-to-date answers. those that we have spoken to say they do not plan to travel to australia yet until they get some definite news from there, but at that meeting last night, mika, they were given forms asking them whether or not they wanted to be updated about any urgent news. so two weeks into this they're being given forms and asked whether they want that. pretty extraordinary. mika? >> keir simmons, thank you. a full look at this story for three hours on "morning joe" straight ahead starting at 6:00 eastern time. the united states and russia are going back and forth swapping sanctions as tensions rise between the two countries over the crisis in ukraine. president obama yesterday issued new sanctions aimed at the inner circle of russian president vladimir putin. the president warned russia that it risked further isolation and more sanctions. he also admitted the sanctions could impact not only russia's economy but the world's as well.

the sanctions target a top bank and 20 russians including putin's chief of staff, his banker and a childhood friend who is also his judo partner. president putin fired back issues sanctions for white house aids including lawmakers and house speaker john boehner to name a few. senator harry reed and senator mccain. senator mccain seemed a little bit faced by this in a tweet, i guess this means my spring break in siberia is off, gazbgazprom k is lost and secret bank account in moscow is frozen. russia's assault on crimea continued yesterday. they stormed three ukrainian warships there. witnesses reported shots were fired but no one was hurt. and at this hour ukrainian forces in eastern ukraine are bulking up near the border to

prevent additional advances by russia. this is not going well as the crisis continued to unfold in ukraine. president obama is pushing back against critics who say he isn't paying enough attention. he has faced some backlash for appearing on the comedy web series "between two ferns." i think that was a week ago. and late night talk shows to try to push obamacare. they say it isn't presidential. one critic said abraham lincoln would never have done so. yesterday president obama said that's kind of not the case. >> if you read back on lincoln, he loved telling the occasional bawdy joke and, you know, being out among regular folks. and, you know, one of the hardest things about being president is being in this bubble that is artificial, and unless you make a conscious effort, you start sounding like some washington stiff.

>> if you want to get young people signed up, you're going to have to talk to them, and that is the president's signature policy. obama also made an appearance yesterday by satellite on ellen's talk show. they both showed off some of their dance moves. the president talked about the upcoming obamacare deadline and also compared washington based shows like "house of cards" and "scandal" to real life washington. >> life in washington is a little more boring than displayed on the screen. >> i hope so. >> yeah. yeah. you know, the truth of the matter is, most -- if you follow me, most of my day is sitting in a room listening to a bunch of folks in gray suits talking about a whole bunch of stuff that wouldn't make very good television. >> oh, well that's what i do and we make great television. [ applause ] >> i have to tell you though, ellen, there is not much dancing

in the situation room as a general rule. turning to 2016 politics. since news broke of the george washington bridge scandal governor chris christie has hosted five open-ended town hall meetings. not once was he asked about it. it happened in front of a packed house in fleming ton, new jersey. one man asked why the firing of bridgette ann kelly seemed to be more about her lie than the bridge closures herself. >> don't take from the fact that i fired her because she lied. if she had told me the truth she would have got fired, too, because of what she did, but i never had the chance to hear the truth, and the offense, the offense first and foremost is not being honest with the person you're working for. the secondary offense was, if she had been honest and told me, yeah, she would have been fired anyway. i don't approve of what happened. i didn't approve of what happened. and i'm doing everything i can

right now to make sure that something like that never happens again. >> governor christie will field questions on sandy relief money next tuesday when he's scheduled to host a town hall in the shoreline town of bellmawr, new jersey. expect fireworks there. a new ruling could bring renewed focus on how the military handles its sexual misconduct cases. brigadier general will avoid jail after being accused of intimidating and sexually assaulting a junior officer. he pleaded guilty to adultery, soliciting explicit pictures from female officers, disobeying a commander, possessioning pornography in a come bad zone and misusing his government credit card. instead of jail the judge ordered sinclair to pay a $20,000 fine and more than $4,000 in res city tags for fraud. while his rank was not reduced, sinclair immediately said he was retiring. many were outraged by this

sentence including democratic senator kiers stin gillibrand of new york. she said this shows a dire need from the independence of the chain of command. her bill to take away authority to prosecute sexual assault cases was defeated earlier this month in the senate. let's move to afghanistan. afghan officials say nine people were gunned down by the taliban in a hotel used by staff at the united nations in kabul. at least four of the victims are said to be foreigners. local police believe gunmen snuck into the building before opening fire in a res straumt. the attackers were killed by security forces. yesterday's assault raises questions about the election there next month which insurgent groups have vowed to disrupt. they've never had a democratic transfer of power. several candidates are vying to replace outgoing president hamid karzai. investors are hoping for another day of gains on wall street today.

all three indexes had significant gains, including more than 100 point jump for the dot. cnbc's jeff cutmore has the latest. russian sanctions having any impact on this. >> yeah, fascinating. no, they're not impacting the general market tone. we are positive in the european start, mika. you'll probably get a positive open in the states. where they are hurting is in the russian exchange, which is up around 3% at the moment, and on some individual stocks connected with russians who have had sanctions imposed against them. novatech which is a big private gas company was up 12% early on in the session today. switching gears, focus back on the banking sector in the u.s. 30 banks tested. 29 passed. only zion bank coin, salt lake city, failed, the fed saying the banks are in much better shape than they were five years ago, mika. >> what about this other story that we have here, online home

rental company air b and b got a $10 billion valuation. is it a real threat to the hotel industry? i hear great things about it. i've also heard some interesting stories on the other side of this. >> yeah. you and i are in the wrong business. we should be setting up some kind of digital sharing economy website because the latest round of funding values them at $10 billion, which is phenomenal when you think the hyatt group is valued at 8 billion and it has revenues in excess of 4 billion. right now airbnb, lots of investors seem to want to buy in in financing this business. is it a threat to the established hotel industry? not at this point i wouldn't have thought so but it's worth keeping an eye on. look at google. yahoo!. who knew? back to you. >> another case, the guys around

us, i think they're 30, jeff. all right. it geoff cutmore, thank you. what a day from march madness. we'll show you the round of 64. it may be -- this is another story, not sports. the most incredible moment in "wheel of fortune" history. the impossible solution to this problem. do you guys know what this is? can you tell what this is, this puzzle? it's crazy. that story and a check on weather when "way too early" comes right back. what is that? ♪ ♪ the athletes did not applaud the president when he walked into the east room. it was clear most of them didn't want to hear what he had to say. but in an emotional appeal, mr. carter stressed that despite his admiration for them, he was determined to keep the national interest paramount.

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to sports now. you trust me? the first full day of tournament action did not disappoint. four games went into o.t. and there were a few major upsets and one incredible buzzer beater. here's a look at some of the best moments. >> needs to stop. duprey. the bucket by the little floater. they advance to the round of 32 as they pull the upset. >> back outside. nice. nice. nice. and one. uconn outlasts st. joe's. >> jabers getting! they are headed to the land of 32. >> they get it back to him. he'll try again. got it! san diego state and steve fisher survive and advance.

>> hancock lets him go by. the three-pointer is good. >> how cold blooded is that? >> they'll march on to defend their title. >> lee for three. desmond lee adds to nc state's lead. >> see what st. louis does here. he's going to the hole. he's fouled. he has tied it up! what a comeback for the pelicans. >> taylor, three seconds. jumper. off for three. at the horn! texas is moving on! >> he guards it. it's in the hands of kraft. behind the backup. >> are you kidding? >> eight seconds to go. kraft defensively. sanford. >> 3.8. sanford, kraft all the way. no!

unbelievable. the kiss to be remembered in dayton. >> that's not a kiss i remember. are your brackets busted already. i'm in fifth place. is that bad, jenn? it's bad? darryn revell tweets for the first 12 games only .37% of espn's brackets are perfect. let's keep at it. i think mine will come around. to football now where carolina panthers are still upset about the team's decision to release long time wide receiver steve smith last week. >> the panthers said that they didn't even want him on the team anymore so they fired him. >> why did they fire him, daddy? >> because they said he was too old to play. >> why was he too old? >> i don't know. but now -- so now we -- we won't have steve smith. we can't cheer for steve smith anymore on the team. >> now we have to cheer for cam

newton. my favorite! >> who are we going to cheer for on sunday's now? >> nobody! >> oh, my god. maybe that's questionable parenting, i don't know, but it worked out in the end for the little guy yesterday. little gavin met with his hero in times square after smith tracked him down through twitter. let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist veronica johnson. you have three kids. would you do that to your son? >> no. my kids were little before we recorded every little thing like that and put it out there. >> okay. >> at least gavin has a new fan, right? >> true. >> take it away. a lot of folks big fans of today's weather on our second day of spring here. but, but, hold on. the arctic wagons are still circling up to the north. one system around fargo producing rain showers around duluth and minneapolis, minnesota. that's the cold air that's going to start dropping in arriving to the east by the beginning of next week, around tuesday. we could be looking at snow for

a lot of big cities through the east. billings at 29 degrees for a high. minneapolis, 28, kansas city tomorrow. >> it's good to have you on board here. coming up on the top of the hour on "morning joe," in depth coverage. we have correspond dents in australia and malaysia. we're talking to experts to hit on angles from all across the country. when we come back here, we're going to huddle around the water cooler. jimmy fallon says the president is lonely while michelle is overseas. he knows how he's dealing with it. that's a tease. "way too early" will be right back. ♪ ♪ i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn.

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okay. we want to go to louis now. louis, you know why i love the "wheel of fortune"? >> why, mika? >> because when i did the noon newscast at channel 3 in hartford, that show was before and it was top. >> you got a strong lead in. right now i'm getting a strong lead in. i don't need vanna white, all i need is mika brzezinski. >> let's start with my favorite game show, the "wheel of fortune." this might be the greatest puzzle solver of all time. >> stopped all of a sudden, didn't you.

two consonants and a vowel. >> h, m, d. >> and a vowel. >> o. >> okay. >> oh, no. >> vanna. vanna. hello, vanna. wow. well, this looks tough to me. it's a thing. you're a very good puzzle solver, but i don't know. you have ten seconds. keep talking. maybe the right thing will pop out. good luck. new baby buggy. new baby -- new -- >> that's it. >> oh! >> that is unbelievable. where was vanna white there? i was missing her. that contestant walks away with $45,000, mika. getting the pat down to make sure he didn't have the answers on him. congressman john lewis, mika, he's known for his contributions to the civil rights movement where he stood

beside martin luther king jr. during the march on washington. he's getting some attention for his dancing skills. ♪ ♪ >> i'm happy. i'm happy. >> there you go. there you go. >> break it down. >> it's my song. >> congressman got some rhythm there. i love it. i love it. now in the second video, the 74-year-old had this message for congress, quote, be happy, everybody. that's what the government is supposed to do. i think it is a very good message for washington, mika. now, let's check in with the late night with jimmy fallon who's a little worried about president obama now that the first lady is out of the country. >> you can kind of tell obama's lonely just by the tweets that he's been sending out. last night he tweeted, hey, michelle obama, having eight pancakes, you better stop me #real talk #lonely talk. an hour later he wrote, laying

on the floor in the oval office. oval is a funny word, o-val. #legalizeit. the weird one. somebody should start a tinder but just for friends hague just kidding. that's a good idea actually. then he tweeted, just peed in all 35 bathrooms, #dehydrated. starting to get weird there. just texted putin. you up? #best frenemies. >> i feel him, mika. i know how crazy i get when i'm away from the woman in my life. >> wow. okay. that's actually pretty good. i like the woman in your life, and for that reason i'm going to invite you on the set of "morning joe." >> yes. >> this morning to do sports, but you can't mess up. >> i will try my best not to. >> okay. >> promise. >> because i'm very good at it. >> i know you are. you and thomas are really good.

so is john capehart. >> if you do it, come on the set. don't be nervous, don't mess it up and this is all for claire. >> i'm nervous now. >> good. come on over. we're all over the missing plane. the latest from australia and malaysia. we'll look at the insight into why it will be an incredible task to recover the plane if it is in the southern portion of the indian ocean. "morning joe" is just moments away. 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

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♪ . >> ts it is extremely part of the indian ocean and 3,000 kilometers southwest of perth and about the most inaccessible spot you can imagine on the face of the earth but if there is anything down there, we will find it. >> breaking news. crews are up in the air looking for those two objects spotted by satellite over the indian ocean. could it be missing flight 370? choppy waters, two and a half miles deep, nasty weather in the skies, and it's all happening in