hoed on to control of the united states senate for the remainder of barack obama's presidency. you see why i love state politic? of barack obama's presidency. right now on first look. government control of the fda wants to rein in the growing popularity of ecigarettes. that's just the beginning. and president obama threatens to act in days, but admits it will require others to help. and dynamic due owe leap from the tallest building and add 500 feet for good measure. and the latest technology previewed earlier this morning from president obama. and breaking news overseas, three americans are dead following an attack by a rogue cop at a children's hospital in kabul. it happened at cure hospital.

at least one of the victims was a doctor. this is the second time this month that a member of the afghan security forces turned a gun on foreign civilians. and now to president obama's attempt to pivot to asia. he's in japan for the first stop of the four-nation tour aiming to reassure allies to support them. and he and abe turned to ukraine and potential new sanctions for russia. >> we have been preparing for the prospect we're going to have to engage in further sanctions. those are teed up. it requires some technical work and coordination with other countries. >> making the president's pivot to asia more difficult, sergey lavrov tells russian television that the u.s. is running the show in ukraine. we will get to peter alexander

who's traveling with the president in japan. how is this complicating president obama's trip? >> reporter: it's obviously clear that the crisis in ukraine followed president obama on the trip to asia. the desire was to focus the pivot, the effort to refocus attention on this region of the world. but the president indicated by the remarks today he's playing close attention to vladimir putin in that region. he says it's going to be days, not weeks, where if he doesn't follow up with the commitment to deescalate the situation he will have new sanctions. he has new pessimism, doubting putin will back off in terms of that crisis. this is critical in terms of the way the asian nations are watching here. they're keeping a close eye on the way the u.s. counters russian aggression, and how they

will face bereligion rans in the region. and earlier today the president went and saw a remote controlled robot that kicked a soccer ball to him. he was pretty amused by that. and had a prerecorded greeting from the commander of the international space station as well. he will be in south korea today, the desire is to put pressure on north korea with repeated nuclear threats across the region. back to you. >> reporting from tokyo, japan. now to sweeping regulations for ecigarettes. the food and drug administration is set to announce historic restrictions for the popular cigarettes. it will also apply to pipe tobacco and cigars. it would ban sales to minors and require manufacturers to disclose ingredients.

it would not restrict online sales or advertising. and now to the search for victims in the south korea ferry singing. 171 bodies are found and 131 people are missing more than a week after the ferry sank with high school students onboard. we have more on how this tragedy happened. >> reporter: divers began searching the deepest part of the ship on the seabed. a ship they believe was faulty, dangerous and badly controlled by a negligent crew. they didn't know it was severely overloaded. it had a cargo load three times heavier than the maximum recommended. shipping containers seen here in the sea. it had a faulty steering system reported two weeks earlier. so when they steered to the right, heavy cargo shifted

unbalancing the ship. it never recovered, sinking fast. i tried to get the ship upright, but the equipment wouldn't work. he and six others have been charged with negligence. four more are being questioned. prosecutors say the company lied about the weight of the cargo on the ship, and they're investigating whether the company also bribed government safety inspectors to give the ship the all-clear. the passengers paid for what prosecutors say was criminal negligence with their lives. the number of bodies brought ashore has now passed 150. victim 142, a girl, was recovered almost to the minute exactly one week after the ship made its final turn. each new rival, a parent's nightmare. bill neely, nbc news, south korea. high quality pictures of a piece of sheet metal have brought up more questions about

the missing malaysian airliner. it is unlikely they are parts of the plane. we have the latest. >> reporter: a beach goer found a piece of sheet metal three and a half hours south of perth, australia. they don't have concrete evidence as to what happened to the plane. only clues. the four sets of pings the ocean shield heard. but they are ten missions in and unable to find anything of the plane. by the end of this week, it should be finished mapping out the area around the strongest signal, ping number two. after that, move on to more sophisticated technology. particularly the u.s. navy's orion submarine. but for all of the technology, this is just an educated guess. a series of mathematical equations and trial and error that have led them to this point.

it's likely to cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars when this is all said and done. in perth, australia, katie, nbc news. >> staggering number. thank you. now take a look at the spectacular video. two men from the soul fliers team base jump off the world's tallest building. they even added a 500-foot platform to get there. it's 2716 feet, more than nine football fields up. they trained for this feat by traveling to the swiss al s to get used to the air. when what you might do, thinking about it, right, richard? >> twice the height of the empire state building. no thank you. i'm getting a nosebleed. you may remember this, two weeks

ago, pineda spotted with a foreign substance on his hand. playing boston again it happened, this time on his neck. this time he gets caught and ejected. pineda confirming it was pine tar to grip the ball. that is illegal and puts him in line far suspension. sox beat the yanks 5-1. and dallas stops a ten-game losing street to san antonio. five players in double figures and hard-nose defense led to a win over san antonio. dallas ties the series at one. houston, we have a problem. it's the portland trailblazers. lamarcus aldrin gives them the win and a 2-0 series lead. >> being able to be back in the pool and being able to just go to the pool and be back at north baltimore and swim with the group we have now, it's incredible. >> the unretired famous michael fell s planning to make another

splash in the 2016 winter games. he makes the comeback tonight. all eyes on him. and the nfl schedule, 2014. the seattle sea hawks hosting the green bay packers. and philadelphia, detroit, keep your calendar open here. the first saturday regular season game since 2005 feature san francisco, san diego and philadelphia, washington. and a tweet from dolphin santos saving his mom's life. he has raised over $35,000 in one week. >> less than a week. amazing. >> go get them. finally, a good butt kicking. waiting for thugs arrested during the thai new year. they are sentenced to fight a professional fighter as

punishment. hope they're in shape. >> it's like picking up trash on the side of the road. fighting a professional fighter for the thugs arrested. a little bit extreme. >> yes, i would not break the law if that was the case. >> i think that is probably the point. let's talk about this. we have new images of the big hailstorm. >> not too many tornados, but the hail damaged. one area was oklahoma. this is carl, oklahoma. you can see the hail. they're driving through it, this is golf-ball sized, and reports of baseball-sized hail. much fell from kansas to nebraska all the way through north texas. but zero tornados again. we've had very few tornados period as we head through this tornado season. hopefully continue that today. we have a threat of more severe weather. heavy rain from kansas city up to minneapolis. chicago has a cold, chilly rain for you. later today, the severe weather threat areas, st. louis to

memphis to little rock. and isolated tornados, but heavy rain and gusty winds are guaranteed. if you were in new england yesterday, it was raw and chilly. but dry through the mid-atlantic. it's the middle of the country with the stormy weather. >> thank you very much. a new shark attack on a beach, and the wedding gift most couples want. and a close one with a train caught on camera. good job! still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day?

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time to get down to business this morning. parents, this is for you. about 800,000 sudden infant video monitors are recalled because the rechargeable battery can rupture, posing a burn hazard. and weddings are booming again. 67 million americans are attending weddings. that's up 75% from 2012. the best gift, 55% of couples say cash, it's still king.

disney says star wars vii will cost $200 million to complete. casting is almost complete. it will open december 18, 2015. and we are learning more about why a former commanding officer in the blue angels was relieved of duty. he allowed and in some cases encouraged sexually explicit humor and inappropriate comments in his stint with the elite fliers. and a man was walking into the water at cocoa beach when a shark took a big old bite out of his leg. he is expected to survive, though. a witness described the bloody scene. >> it was only a few meters, or feet, from where i was standing. he had a big wound on his upper foot and it was just gushing with blood.

watch here, you will agree. this could have been much worse. strolling across the tracks. that czech man barely escapes getting hit by an oncoming train. his shoe was flying, but he only had minor injuries and will face a fine worth about $125. republicans on tiger skin rugs, chris christie on fat jokes and onesies for hillary. scrambling politics is next. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again.

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all right. time now for the first look at this morning's dish in scrambles politics. thinking about redecorating? check out this photo from ted cruz. quote, did a little shopping for the office with mike lee in houston today. and president obama held a presser today, and chuck todd noticed that, look, it was behind a few ferns. of course, bringing to mind his zach galifianakis between two ferns appearance to promote the affordable health care act. and who is herman cain? that's what the jeopardy contestants were wondering. >> this pizza magnate and 2012 presidential candidate was at morehouse college. quickly, you have forgotten. herman cain. >> cricket, cricket, chirp,

chirp. new jersey governor chris christie weighed in on the late show, letterman, i'm going to miss your fat jokes. wait, no i'm not. #colbert nation. and jeb bush said he is thinking about running for president according to to cnbc. and asked the crowd, would you call and tell my mom, according to politico. referencing her comments last april that she's fine having only one son as the commander in chief. and ruling out bid for president, john thune said i'm not running for president, but a lot of my clolleagues are. and if you are serious, get going quickly. and hillary clinton took the stage at the university of connecticut and used the opportunity to congratulate the ncaa champs. >> it's pretty remarkable. winning one championship means -- you got a great team,

right? winning two in the same year for the second time in ten years means you have a great program and a great university. >> and the university's president had a special gift for the former secretary of state. take a look at that. >> we heard a rumor that you're going to be a grandmother. >> two of them. two. and that is your morning dish on scrambles politics. all right, in washington now, joined by syndicated columnist, bob fran ken. thanks for being with us. >> first, we shouldn't let pass the possible sign when hillary clinton was talking about two championships. was that a clue that she's going to run because, you know, that would be two clintons in the white house. >> we will see. that chrrystal ball. look ahead. >> i'm a specialist in

uninformed speculation. >> we have the crystal ball. 2015 and who decides who controls the senate. african-americans can because of these key reasons. the huge influence in key 2014 senate states, and the fact that black voters are among the biggest midterm dropoff voters and the track record in louisiana. will they determine the senate in 2015? >> the interesting question here, and one the democrats are very worried about, is there a low turnout, the traditional low turnout in a midterm election. you have president obama talking about that. and now we have an indication why. >> when it talks about challenging president obama, you know, there's the conventional way, seen in politics. then there's, you know, kurt clawson's way. after winning the gop nomination for the vacant house seat in florida, he reissued the challenge to the president on

the new health care law. first i'm going to challenge you on the basketball court. time to man up and accept the three-point challenge. my house or yours. kind of sounds familiar, right? that first challenge during the super bowl. does he need to find new material now? >> we need to point out he's a former purdue basketball player. maybe the president's going to have to get out there and try shooting a few three-pointers again. as for the focus on health care, there are some indications, they're very slight, but some indications that maybe the republicans are overplaying their hand a little bit by focusing so much on that one issue. that health care reform, after its horrible start, is starting to get traction a little bit. in which case the republicans may have to find another issue. perhaps something like questioning where the president was born or something like that. what do you think? >> you would think they would start looking into that yesterday. all right. bob, thank you so much for being with us. >> thanks.

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all right. welcome back. first buzz this morning here. all right, if you're having some catchup with your eggs and breakfast this morning, bill has just the thing for you. >> i did this the other day, great at a timers to the, squeezed the ketchup bottle, and the water, and ruined my at a timers to the. two high school students in kansas city used a 3-d printer with a lid and has a mushroom on it, sucks up the ketchup and not

the water on top. this they're trying to get a patent for. >> what does it do? >> you know, how you get the water? >> it doesn't allow you you have the water if you forget to shake it. >> i was happy with the upside down container. >> they need to get the patent in a hurry. >> richard, you have the thing when it comes to the headache of boarding planes. >> business week, they are asking, what is the most deficient way to get on a plane. you can't stand spending that time. is it the back to front? no, that's the slowest. second possibility, random boarding is better than back to front. the most efficient is to do the windows first, no luggage, then windows with luggage and work your way in. >> split up people. what if i'm traveling with bill? >> kids still go first, those

who need assistance ta. >> and traveling with a service dog. a doggy bathroom. >> inside? >> isn't that cool for the service dogs? but look how nice it is. you don't have to go outside security for your doggy. i'm francis rivera and this is first look on msnbc. chris christie's visiting a middle school and took questions from students at the school. one kid stood up and asked the question. he was about to ask christie what his favorite sport to play is. until he remembered he was talking -- >> what is your favorite sport that you like -- like that you like to watch? >> chris christie, the way he's walking up to him. that -- i like to,and he's like is meat ball a sport. >> the late shows love chris christie jokes, but what he's

saying about colorado and can any bus is no joke. and escalating pushing back pro-russian militants in the east. and a hot game between the sox and the yankees, one pitcher was sweating pine tar. that's not sweat. that is cheating. this is way too early. >> something there on his neck, and check it out. hey, everybody, i'm thomas roberts. it's thursday, april 24th. welcome to way too early. we will do whatever is necessary to plait at peak levels. what is on the back of the tie? on the neck? you have to be smarter about it. we are going to talk about that up in sports. we have breaking news out of