much as we can about the flight of mh-370. >> more suspicious objects have been spotted in the chaotic and wild indian ocean. russian troops continue taking over sensitive military water ports in crimea. and it is called march madness for a good reason. brackets have been busted, top teams go down. restart your heart for the sweet 16. this is "way too early." hey, everybody. happy monday. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. it is monday, march the 24th. welcome to "way too early" where you can bust our brackets but not our spirit. it's good to have you with us. we start off with serious news. hard to believe it's been 17 days since flight 370 went missing. now we have new data about the

search crews zeroing in on a remote area of the southern indian ocean. they've spotted objects floating until choppy seas. the chinese plane reported seeing two large objects and several small white fragments scattered across several kilometers. follow satellite images that gave hope the mystery of flight 370 might be solved. on saturday the chinese released a new satellite image of an object 72 feet long. the immidge was taken on march the 18th. that's ten days after the pilots of flight 370 last spoke with air traffic controllers. then on sunday the french announced they also had satellite images that showed, quote, potential objects related to the ongoing search. joining us from perth australia nbc news correspondent ian williams. ian, bring us up to date on the latest details. >> reporter: good morning,

thomas. well, today was the largest number of aircraft deployed so far in what is day five of the search out of perth. ten out in the search area, two of them chinese military aircraft. it was one of these chinese aircraft that spotted from 33,000 feet on its way back to base this latest debris. now the description they gave was of two large square shaped objects. they were white. floating in the water. and a large number of smaller white objects spread over an area of several kilometers. now the chinese relayed the details and the coordinates back to the australians who are coordinating this and they let various shipsz know, its own ice breaker which is cruising towards the area expected to arrive tomorrow. then the u.s.p-8 aircraft was asked to go look for themselves. they saw nothing. they couldn't see these objects

that the chinese had seen even though they allowed for the potential drift. today, this afternoon, the chinese foreign ministry in beijing said it was too early to confirm that these objects were connected to flight 370. they did confirm that photographs have been taken, that those photographs are now being examined and that more information will be released once they've got a better idea of precisely what they've seen. they're pretty sure they've seen something but it's much too early to say just how big a potential break through this might be, thomas. >> nbc's ian williams reporting for us. ian, thank you. appreciate it. president obama has arrived in the netherlands this morning while the soviet union is deepening in turmoil. the g-7 has called a last-minute meeting for today which the president will be attending. at the same time "the wall street journal" says russia may

be evading eavesdropping technology. sunday mitt romney thumped the president for being naive about the seriousness of russia's intentions. >> we really need to understand that russia has very different interests than ours. this is not fantasy land, this is reality where they are a geopolitical adversary. they're not our enemy but they are certainly an adversary on the world stage. joining us now chief foreign correspondent richard engel. let's talk about the latest issue of what the reports are, troops going into these water ports in crimea. >> reporter: russia flatly says it has no intention of invading, no intention of crossing the border but it is being vague about what those troops are dogmas beinged in 20, 30 thourks or more with attack helicopters, with supply lines. they had originally said that they were doing military exercises but a lot of u.s.

officials aren't very convinced and are worried that they're being so well equipped. still, the situation is developing in crimea itself. the crimean peninsula which was taken over, formally annexed, but there's this issue of what would happen to the ukrainian military bases that were on the peninsula. the military bases that never put up a fight to try and prevent the russian takeover because they were out manned, but they still remained on the basis. and one by one these bases have been stormed, taken over. the ukrainian personnel inside removed. there have been three similar operations to this in the last 48 hours. the latest one happening overnight here, a naval base right on the crimean coast, of course, russian troops went in, used stun grenades, arrested the ukrainian soldiers. finally today the ukrainian acting president has said enough is enough and has ordered the

remaining troops in crimea to leave the peninsula. >> richard engel reporting for us from the ukraine. thank you. the nsa's domestic snooping has shaken confidence for many americans that the privacy of their e-mails and secure. in a "meet the press" interview with andrea mitchell president jimmy carter revealed that he is one of those americans. >> that has been extremely liberalized and i think abused by our own intelligence agencies. as a matter of fact, you know, i have felt that my own communications were probably monitored and when i want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, i type or write the letter mymyself, put in the post office and mail it. >> old-fashioned snail mail. >> i believe if i send an e-mail it will be monitored. coming up later on "morning joe," the former president will join us on the set to talk about that issue and many more. we ask you to join us for that. rescue crews are racing

against the clock after deadly mud slides. the death toll is up to 8. sadly, crews are saying it's growing more unlikely that survivors will be found. more than a dozen people are missing. mud slides took out dozens of homes and blocked the highway with 20 feet of mud. state officials are still coming to grips with what they've seen. >> the devastation is just unrelenting and awesome. there really is no stick standing in the path of the slide. >> and this is before and after. just take a look at this photo giving the idea about the impact of this mud slide. authorities think that heavy rainfall made the ground unstable. and another recovery operation is underway in texas as crews try to clean up a major oil spill in galveston bay. the huge shipping channel is shut down and dozens of boats have nowhere to go. close to 170,000 gallons of oil leaked after a cargo ship collided with a barge on saturday. the barge was carrying nearly 1 million gallons of fuel.

officials say there is no timetable for the channel to open. dozens of boats use that channel on a daily basis. today happens to mark 25 years since the exxon valdez oil spill. 11 million gallons of oil were leaked during that disaster. we shift our focus to talk about business news. investors look to rebound after closing in negative territory. cnbc's geoff cutmore joins us. >> it will be an interesting week. we have an interesting difference in the market as to when the fed is actually going to start rate tightening. the national association of business economists have come out and about 1/3 of those in that survey of just under 50 said they thought we could get an interest rate height from the fed as early as this year. i have to say that sits somewhat at odds with what the wall street analyst community are saying. they're not looking for any change until 2015 and the latter

half of 2015. so a by the of a schism in this view of what the fed's going to do. of course, that is always important for how the markets behave. so we'll be watching just to see how this settles down in trade this week. one other story that i think is fascinating here, apple is in talks with comcast, parents of cnbc, of course, and the nbc group, and they are talking about ways they can use the apple set top box to stream faster tv product. ultimately this is about getting around the congestion on the web and maybe this is a new template for how video businesses could in future try to get faster streaming of their product across to customers. back to you, thomas. >> all about getting the content quicker. let's talk about that and what's going on with slate because we get this report from "the new york times" that the website slate planning to exeperiment

with the pay wall. it's going to be called slate plus. why do they think this will work for them? >> this is interesting. i think back in the day slate actually did try a proper pay wall and it didn't really work, so what they've offered now is something that looks more like a subscription model. $5 per month, $50 for a year and they say that gets you special access to the writers and some content that you will not see for free on the website right now. so the web pretty much stays free but if you subscribe, if you are a loyal follow lower, maybe you'll be encouraged to pay this $5 a month to get what they're describing as special features and special access to the writers. back to you. >> thank you, sir. appreciate it. have you heard this story, we have atlanta falcon wide receiver and duke fan roddy white stirring up a bit of a debate on twitter. a fan had tweeted white that mercer was going to beat the blue devils on friday to which roddy white applied, if mercer wins, i will give you season

wins. mercer pulled off the season upset. he says he's only giving him one set of tickets and did not have to pay in full. jen is upset. you say that's what? that's wrong. we want to know how you think roddy white should settle up. tweet us at #waytooearly. total confusion on "way too early" in the closing seconds of the carolina/iowa state game and one team is walking away with a major win. jimmy kimmel sat down with not one, not two, but three clintons over the weekend. the tough question that had hillary looking to change the subject. that story and more when "way too early" comes back. ♪ ♪ an oil tanker smashed into a reef near valdez, alaska, today

causing the worst oil spill since the alaska oil pipeline opened 12 years ago. the exxon valdez was filled with more than 1 million barrels of oil on its way to california. [ male announcer ] this is jim. a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but now, with once-a-day xarelto jim's on the move. jim's doctor recommended xarelto.

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♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good. it's all about the early upsets. we are talking sports now. many are calling it the most unpredictable weekend. the number one seeds all faired pretty well until wichita state met up with a talented kentucky team. less than 5 minutes to go. the 3 was buried to put the shockers up 5. the wildcats would push back. james young drives and drops in the runner to retake the lead. one last chance for wichita state. fred van vleet with the chance to play hero off the back there. no. kentucky advancing. wichita's push for perfection is over. 78-76 is the final. east. number sixth seed north carolina

takes on iowa state. crazy ending. less than ten seconds on the clock. the cyclones deandre king puts in for a tough lay-up here, right? okay. less than two seconds remain on the clock. the tar heels push it up the clock and try to call a time-out. it's too late. the clock operator started the clock late. no time left. iowa state punches its ticket to the sweet 16, 85-83 the final. the south region, number two seed kansas taking on stand fortd. with less than 6 minutes to play, jayhawks down by 2. off the backboard but perry ellis throws it down. the ball game. now josh eustice there for the tip to give stanford a 4 point lead. a chance to tie. off the market. another favorite goes down. stanford winning, 60-57. only four points for andrew wiggins. luckily for the faint of heart, not every game went down

to the wire. mercer could not keep the magic going. look over here, thomas, look over here. okay. tennessee made quick work of the bears. ucla handled austin. baylor jumped all over creighton ending doug mcdermott's season. arizona took on gonzaga. just so you know at home, words bigger over there, bigger words. important to me in that area of sports. anyway, let's get a check on your weather. bill karins. >> how are you doing, thomas? >> i'm all right. words are bigger over there. i'm going to take a twitter picture. >> with a big word in both? >> yes. we like big word. >> i said i wasn't coming back until it warmed up. >> you lied. >> then i lied, a lot. yeah, it's another frigid morning. we're talking about this snowstorm coming affecting areas of new england. we just went under a blizzard

watch in cape cod. it's not going to be pretty there. this morning wind chills are 4 in boston, 16 in d.c. yesterday was chilly, but it's a lot worse today than it was on sunday. it's cold from all of the northern half of the country. if you're colored in, that's where the freeze line is. look at international falls, minus 23. it's almost april and it's negative 23. that's ridiculous. as far as this next storm, it will track down quickly and blow up into a huge nor'easter. it will be a big huge storm, huge waves, everything. most of the snow is going to be off the coast. cape cod will get hit a little bit. doesn't look like boston should get too bad. maybe our friends in maine, too. a lot of the big cities in the northeast will avoid anything huge or significant. may get a little nuisance type snow, an inch or two, but that will be about it. as far as the forecast goes for this monday, very cold in the northeast and then we'll watch that storm coming on tuesday. looks like a glancing blow i like to say. >> speaking of glancing blows.

>> yes. >> hide from mika. if she sees you, you won't get just a glancing blow. >> it won't be just like every day? >> i think it will be extra chilly. >> i'll bring her flowers. >> "morning joe," new evidence of what may be flight 370 in the indian ocean. we'll put the new pieces together and talk about what happens next. when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler. go pro cameras are getting us shots like we've never seen? what is this? yeah, try to figure this one out. what is it? say it again. this may -- that's may with a q just so you know. do you spell may with a q? no, you don't. that's why i mess up. anyway, we're back after this. c. blend of punk and funk. her trublend?

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at the top of the show we talked about the devastating mud slide in arlington, washington, which has already claimed the lives of eight people. if you want to sound smart today tell your friends that arlington has had the sixth wettest march since 1922. that's accumulating more than seven inches of rain making it also worse when it comes to these matters. it faced a dry spell from october to january. that combo can saturate the ground where it cannot hold anymore water creating the

instability that leads to those mud slides. time to huddle around the water cooler for a monday morning. we get an update on the political popularity of the clinton family. altogether, louis? can they have a selfie to break ellen's oscar selfie? >> they did but it didn't come close. bill, hillary and chelsea sat down with jimmy kimmel this weekend. during a q&a session a member of the audience pressed the first lady about the future. >> miss clinton if you don't represent women in america as future president, who will? >> look, i am -- i am very much concerned about the direction of our country, and it's not just who runs for office but what they do when they get there and how we bring people together, and particularly empower young people so that we can tackle some of these hard decisions

we've just been talking about so -- >> she wants an answer. >> well, i'm getting to it. i'm getting to it. i'm getting to it. i'm obviously thinking about all kinds of decisions and will -- >> do you think you and the president will have another child, anymore children? >> well, no, but i wouldn't mind one of those grandchildren that i hear so much about. but, you know what -- >> shameless. shameless. unapologetic pressure in public and private. >> should you wind up back in the white house, will chelsea get her old room back or will you convert that to a home gym. >> diverting all the pressure to chelsea. i like that. kimmel couldn't help taking a selfie with the clinton family. it's been retweeted 83 million times. >> it's a wee shy. let's go to the box office.

"muppets most rated" is talking about miss piggy as a feminist icon. miss piggy leans in. the muppet is confident, driven, and fights for what she wants. sounds like mika brzezinski. she is unapologetic and is outspoken and doesn't care what you think about it. >> that's right. >> miss piggy has been showing off that type of spirit for a long time, thomas. take a look -- >> you play the role of a plus size model. that's why i bring up the karate. you play a vogue style model. >> no, i am an editor of the plus size division. it's different. it's different. >> okay. would you describe your body as plus size? >> if by plus you mean i have an extra fabulous gorgeous give me

some of that figure, then, yes. i mean, fat, no! >> miss piggy is all that and a bag of chips. >> that's right. i wouldn't mess with her. you have some incredible video from florida. a maintenance worker at ever glades outpost has lowered his camera into the crocodile habitat. the crock didn't appreciate the invasion. he likes his privacy. he went after the intruder with three bites and later destroyed the camera and got some unreal footage. the worker had to coax the gator to the other side of the enclosure and that looked like chubs from "happy gilmore." >> the go pro cameras are tough. >> they don't break, which is great. so even when you have a crock chewing on it, it still survived. >> louis, thank you, my man. still ahead on "way too early," how should roddy white settle his bet on twitter?

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earlier in the show we asked you how roddy white should settle a bet for the twitter bet he lost. duke, mercer. what did we get? >> two good ones. give fan a season ticket while wearing a mercer jersey. >> nice. >> and then karen marshall says, roddy white is a loser in more ways than one. he could afford it and -- >> we will see how roddy settles on this bet. great job, gang, for a job on "way too early." "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ it is a very important humanitarian exercise. we owe it to the almost 240 people on board the plane and we owe it to the grieving families and we owe