protesters out of the cal gallery. we'll keep you updated. we're following new developments this morning after yesterday's bomb shell that vladimir putin was personally involved in the hacking campaign to interfere with the 2016 election. president obama is promising to take action. plus -- >> some people say mr. trump. now they say mr. president-elect. can you believe it? can you believe this? just call me donald, folks, just call me donald. >> donald trump returns to pennsylvania to thank the voters he said pushed him across the finish line. he also had a message for african-americans who did not vote. and dylann roof, the young white supremacist who killed nine black parishioners in

charleston found guilty. the question is, will he get the death penalty or life in prison? well, good morning to you. it's friday, december 16th, i'm wynn wynn alongside louis burgdorf. the fallout continues from the revelation from top intelligence sources that the russian president had a hand in trying to tilt the elections in donald trump's favor. now, yesterday the white house suggested without offering direct proof that vladimir putin was involved and president obama went even further, saying that the u.s. will respond. >> i think there's no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections, that we need to take action, and we will at a time and place of our own

choosing. some of it may be explicit and publicized, some of it may not be. but mr. putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because i spoke to him directly about it. >> it is just a fact. you all have it on tape that the republican nominee for president was encouraging russia to hack his opponent, because he believed that would help his campaign. i would recognize the defense from the trump campaign is that he was joking. i don't think anybody at the white house thinks it's funny that an adversary of the united states engaged in malicious cyber activity to destabilize our democracy. nobody at the white house thought it was a joke. >> i had a great conversation with president obama. and i said to him -- no, no, no.

although this foolish guy, josh earnest, i don't know if he's talking to president obama. you know, having the right press secretary is so important, because he is so bad, the way he delivers a message. he can deliver a positive message and it sounds bad. he could say, ladies and gentlemen, today we have totally defeated isis and it wouldn't sound good, okay? all right? i have a feeling they won't be saying it, but i know we will be saying it. but the president's very positive, but he's not positive, and i mean, maybe he's getting his orders from somebody else. does that make sense? could that be possible? >> an ongoing question the administration has faced, why didn't they act more directly if they believed russia was meddling in the elections? donald trump tweeted, "if russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house

wait so long to act? why did they only complain after hillary lost?" multiple officials tell nbc news the obama administration didn't want to appear to be interfering and thought hillary clinton was going to win and a potential cyber war with russia was not worth it. meanwhile, "the wall street journal" reports russian hackers tried to penetrate the computer networks of the rnc using the same approach that got them into the dnc system, siting officials that have been briefed on the attempted intrusion the hackers didn't get through security. reportedly targeting the e-mail account of a single staffer who no longer worked for the republicans. cbs news reports that last year russian hackers were able to seize the e-mail system used by the joint chiefs of staff. martin dempsey told cbs within an hour hackers had seized control of the unclassified system and the assault took weeks to replace the hardware and software.

dempsey was alerted to the attack by admiral mike rogers. at one time a leading candidate for director of national intelligence. louis? betty, with a little more than a month before he takes office, donald trump continued his thank you tour last night in hersh hershey, pennsylvania, having the air of a homecoming. trump held 14 rallies in pennsylvania after clinching the nomination and he became the first republican to carry the state since 1988. trump spent most of his nearly hour-long speech talking about his election win, the media, and his endorsements. >> we are just doing great in pennsylvania. in fact, i won it twice, right? i won it twice. because i won it, and then we had this scam operation, let's ask for a recount, we won it again. we won wisconsin, we won michigan. i love it. i hope somebody else asks for a recount, because i love winning. we'll win it three, four, five times. my message tonight is for all

americans, from all parties, all beliefs, all walks of life. whether you are african-american, hispanic-american, or asian-american, or whatever the hell you are. remember that we are all americans. yesterday it took jurors in south carolina less than two and a half hours to find charleston church gunman dylann roof guilty of all 33 counts against him. now that same jury made up of nine white members and three black members will decide if he's sentenced to life in prison or death. nbc's gabe gutierrez reports. >> reporter: fuelled by racism, he walked into their sanctuary and opened fire. the jury found dylann roof guilty of 33 federal counts, including hate crimes. >> i knew it was going to be guilty, guilty, guilty. >> reporter: felicia sanders,

one of just three survivors that awful night, who testified during the trial how she watched roof take her 21-year-old son. >> not too many mothers see their son come in and leave the world, so that was very painful for me. >> reporter: prosecutor nathan williams raised his voice in anger, calling roof a man of immense hatred and tremendous cowardace. these nine people exemplified a goodness that was greater than his message of hate, he said. the defense conceded the horror of the rampage, but his attorney tried to bring up his client's mental state. >> he's still in here, i'm afraid. he's still in here. >> reporter: this chilling 911 call was among the evidence, including racially inflammatory writings and potential hit lists of other churches. >> i wanted to do everything i had to do and make sure he gets a conviction. >> reporter: and she did. where dylann roof failed to start the race war he wanted,

felicia sanders succeeded in honoring her son's memory. >> i wear a smile, and the reason i wear the smile, if you look at the pictures of all nine, they all wore a beautiful smile. >> that was nbc's gabe gutierrez reporting. the sentencing phase of the trial begins january 3rd. yesterday roof told the judge he plans to represent himself. also in south carolina yesterday, president-elect donald trump's pick to lead the justice department, senator jeff sessions, quote, slipped into town yesterday, invited a by a senate colleague, attended meetings with local leaders and criminal justice professionals who questioned the attorney general nominee on the case against michael slager, whose trial for shooting a black man resulted in a mistrial. sessions did not give a definitive answer on whether he pursued civil rights charges against slager.

democrats are expected to grill him on the issue during his upcoming nomination hearings. senator tim scott tells the post and courier he's not auditioning his colleague, just doing his homework. i want to know what's in his heart, not what he allegedly said back in 1986. betty, reports this morning that evacuations in aleppo have been halted, thousands of people began evacuations yesterday via government buses and ambulances. each convoy carrying about 1,000 civilians and rebel fighters with some estimates saying it could take several days to evacuate all those wishing to leave. some of the wounded have been taken to turkey for treatment, while others are being taken to idlib, which is under rebel control. in a video released yesterday by his office, assad said, "the liberation of aleppo was a historic moment, bigger than the word congratulations." he compared it to the birth of

christ and revelations of the prophet mohammed. chuck hagel says it was a mistake by the obama administration to issue ultimatums on syria and not follow through. >> when the president of the united states says something to the world, that's a big deal, and then not fulfill the commitment that he made, your allies lose confidence and trust in your leadership and your word. your adversaries are watching this very clearly. i'll leave it to history to decide whether the president's position on this and what he ultimately decided was the right thing or not. we've also got to recognize that we can't fix it, nato's not going to fix it, it has to come from the middle east, the leaders there. >> last night the president-elect talked about how he would address the crisis. >> i will suspend immigration and refugee admissions from

regions where they could not be safely processed or better. and we'll build safe zones in syria. when i look at what's going on in syria, it's so sad. it's so sad. and we've got to help people. and we have the gulf states. they have nothing but money. we don't have money. we owe $20 trillion. i will get the gulf states to give us lots of money, and we'll build and help build safe zones in syria so people can have a chance. so they can have a chance. incoming north carolina governor rory cooper is threatening to sue the state's republican-controlled legislature after lawmakers look to reduce his power before he takes office, requiring senate confirmation for any cabinet appointments and eliminate his power to pick certain university system trustees. cooper called the effort unprecedented.

>> most people might think that this is a partisan power grab. but it is really more ominous. if i believe that laws passed by the legislature hurt working families and are unconstitutional, they will see me in court. and they don't have a very good track record there. >> cooper won november's election by just over 10,000 votes. outgoing gop governor pat mccrory conceded last week, nearly a month after voters passed their ballots. texas executions are occurring at their lowest rate in decades. capital punishment is at its lowest rate in 20 years, and death sentences are lower than they have been in 30 years. this year three people in the state were sentenced to death and seven were executed. those numbers are slightly higher than most other states, but it appears to be a signal

that the opinion and practice are changing. the texas numbers mirror a nationwide decline in executions. 20 people were executed across the united states in 2016, the lowest number since 1991. betty? still ahead, long time nbc broadcaster has passed away after a years-long battle with cancer. we'll share some of the heartfelt remembrances. plus, the winter weather takes a dangerous turn. nbc meteorologist bill karins joins us next for a look at what to expect this weekend. get ready, it's going to be cold. we'll be right back. there is no typical day.

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welcome back, everyone, on this friday. the winter storm that has coated the pacific northwest with snow and ice has been sweeping east across the country. parts of the midwest and the

great lakes region are seeing lake effect snow and frigid temperatures right now. in western pennsylvania, whiteout conditions are being blamed for a massive, look at this, 59-car pileup yesterday. according to a department of transportation official, 22 tractor-trailers and 37 cars were involved in that crash. all right, let's get a check on the weather now with bill karins. if that's just a taste of what's to come, let's stop this winter now. >> i don't know. actually, we're watching our first coast-to-coast storm. we had the snow go from the west coast to the east coast, but in oregon and california, they are dealing with rain and snow, depending on where you are. in oregon, for them, they had two to three inches, even at the low elevations. just like areas of the east, first winter driving skills are a little lacking and roads are really difficult. so let's get into the forecast. we're still dealing with our first arctic blast, second will come after the snowstorm on saturday and sunday. just about done with the first one, 17 million people in a wind

chill advisory or wind chill warnings, the worst is by far northern portions of new england from boston northwards is where it really feels bitterly cold this morning. again, improvement during the day today. as far as the winter storm warnings and watches go, everywhere in the red is a winter storm warning. from the mountains in california, right through yellow stone, the rockies, the plains, rapid city, minneapolis, quad cities, milwaukee, and everywhere in the white is what we call a winter weather advisory, that's everywhere here from new england, d.c., philly, new york, boston, and back through the midwest. you get the general impression, this is a big, huge storm as far as the size of it. it's not that intense, so here's the snowfall forecast over the next couple of days. this is today for the most part in the rockies. then the snow comes out this afternoon into areas through the dakotas. watch out, we're going to get snow mixed in with freezing rain around topeka, kansas city, even oklahoma city. that's why you're under a winter weather advisory.

in all, 99 million people under winter weather advisories. that's like one out of every three people in the country, and as far as chicago goes, here's snow during the evening rush hour and also watching the snow in areas of the northeast, louis, late tonight. when you wake up saturday morning, you'll see snow on the ground from philly, new york, to new england. >> thanks, bill. extremely sad news to report this morning, legendary reporter craig sager has died at the age of 65. sager known as much for his colorful suits as exceptional sideline reporting, had battled acute high loyd leukemia. he worked for turner sports for the last 26 years and was able to work his first finals game last year. steve kerr led fans in a moment of joy honoring sager before the game last night. and the milwaukee bucks took the court wearing colorful sager strong shirts, which are helping raise money to find a cure. vice president joe biden working

on the president's cancer program tweeted sager died as he lived, with courage, passion, perseverance, fearless, and hopeful, a real hero. he was presented with a jimmy v. perseverance award at this year's espys and in his acceptance speech said his terminal diagnosis didn't get his spirits down, but gave him the greatest appreciation for life itself and he would continue to be full of love and full of fun. craig sager, a true legend, dead at 65. when we come back, we'll have more in sports. what are you doing right now?

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welcome back. time now for sports. the start of week 14 in the nfl, no, that's not a glare on your television screen, those are the seattle seahawks hosting the rams. 10-3 at the break, seattle turns it into a romping in the second half, a short reception by doug baldwin in the third quarter and a big 57-yard connection with tyler lockett in the fourth. the seahawks wrap up the nfc west, their third division title in four seasons with a 24-3 win. while the defense kept the rams out of the end zone, they also put a hurting on one of l.a.'s biggest offensive weapons, jared goff. the quarterback took a vicious hit from richard sherman at the end of a 15-yard run in the fourth quarter. goff exited the game and has been placed in concussion

protocol. that looked rough. the patriots have claimed michael floyd off waivers, one day after he was cut by the cardinals following his dui arrest early monday morning. floyd played in 13 games for arizona this season, catching 33 passes for a career low 446 yards. all right, in college football, the minnesota golden gophers are boycotting all football activities to protest the university's decision to indefinitely suspend ten members of the team in connection with an alleged sexual assault incident in september. minnesota suspended them based on standards for conduct after being -- after their internal investigation there. according to the local newspaper, "the star tribune," the team is threatening to boycott the holiday bowl against washington state after refusing to practice yesterday, the team appeared wearing their maroon game jerseys for a statement delivered by senior wide receiver. >> we, the united gopher

football team, issue this statement to take back the reputation and integrity of our program and our brothers that have faced unjust investigation without due process. effective immediately, we will boycott all football activities. the boycott will remain in effect until due process is followed and the suspensions for all ten players are lifted. >> the university president and athletic director responded in a statement they'd keep an open dialogue. turning now to the nfl and some hard hitting action on the ice where cody eakin plows into the rangers' henrik lundqvist, knocking off the goalie's mask in the first period. eakin received a major penalty for that one, while lundqvist, who was back after missing four games with a groin injury, left the ice before returning to help new york shutout dallas 2-0, but that was a tough hit there. finally, a blowout of epic

proportions on the college court last night. in waco, texas, the baylor lady bears decimated the eagles 140-32, beginning the game with 21 unanswered points and in the fourth quarter outscored wynn tlop 29-0. the margin of victory is the largest in women's division one history, betty. >> are you kidding me? annihilated them. way to go, lady bears. still ahead, facebook is cracking down on fake news. we're taking a look at what the site is doing to battle made-up stories. plus, yahoo! is facing more scrutiny after its latest hack of verizon, which previously greed to purchase yahoo! could now be looking to negotiate a new deal. we'll be right back. to do the best for your pet, you should know more about the food you choose. with beyond, you have a natural pet food that goes beyond telling ingredients to showing where they come from. beyond assuming the source is safe...

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welcome back. i'm louis burgdorf, alongside betty nguyen. it's the bottom of the hour, let's start with the morning's top stories. we're following breaking news overnight out of washington state, where a police officer has been shot and the suspect is now in custody following a standoff. our nbc affiliate king 5 is reporting mount vernon officers were responding to a call of a man shot yesterday evening, when a suspect opened fire on them. one officer, a 30-year-old veteran of the force, was hit in the head and taken to an area hospital. he is now in serious but stable condition following surgery there. officials say three people are now in custody, including the

primary suspect, who they say is a 44-year-old man with a lengthy and violent history. and a south carolina jury will decide between life in prison or death for dylann roof after two hours and 20 minutes of deliberations, jurors return with a guilty verdict on all 33 counts. prosecutors say dylann roof's motive was to start a race war. yesterday, he told the judge he will represent himself at the sentencing phase, which begins january the 3rd. and late last night, the obama administration announced that it is extending the deadline to enroll in obamacare. the department of health and human services said the final day heading into december 15th were some of the busiest days for healthcare.gov. customers have until midnight on monday to sign up for coverage that takes effect on new year's day. betty? with 35 days until

inauguration, donald trump continues his thank you tour, speaking to an audience of 10,000 people in hershey, pennsylvania, trump won pennsylvania by 39,000 votes, becoming the first republican to carry the state since back in 1988. the president-elect spent most of his nearly hour-long speech sharing his perspective on election night, the media, and his victory. >> i love pends, but we didn't even need you guys. isn't that terrible? because they waited so damn long. they took all of your glory away, right? we won in a landslide. this was a landslide victory. it was an amazing evening, and the people on espn, sports people, they said it was the single greatest event they've ever seen. they've seen football and baseball and boxing, and they said it was the greatest. you know, it's hard to get a big crowd after an election.

if somebody else, a normal person, came after an election, even after a victory, you'd have 15 people. people would say we had enough, we're not going, and this place is packed. there's something different about a crowd before the election, like when i was here a few weeks ago, and after the election. before the election, they are brutal. they are so crazed. you're like crazed people. and that's good, i like that. and now -- no, and now you're laid back. hey. hey. onward, mr. trump, onward. >> well, a group of capitol hill democrats are getting behind a bill that would require president-elect donald trump to remove potential business contracts, a effort to force trump to divest from assets that

could form a conflict and form a blind trust. trump postponed a news conference that promised to announce a new business structure that had been scheduled yesterday, but last night "the wall street journal" reported he would likely maintain holdings in the u.s. and abroad. >> they will not divest. a lot of people say liquidate the assets, it's the only way to do it, and what they decided right now, it could still change, hence the cancelled press conference, if they sell them, halfway through these hundreds of millions of dollars per property on the market, it would be a fire sale, we'd lose tons of money. now they are thinking these assets could bring lots of money, foreign entities, sovereign wealth funds would want to buy and pay lots of money to try to get curried favor with the trump administration, so as one senior person involved in the trump organization told me, we can't win at this point if we try to liquidate. >> langley also reported that trump's adult children will no

longer attend government meetings as they have been doing, but trump's children are drawing new scrutiny of the children mixing money, business, and access this morning. eric trump's charity foundation is currently auctions off a one-on-one coffee meeting with ivanka to benefit st. jude's children's hospital, telling new york times he bid $60,000 to get the ear of the administration. they are considering cancelling the bidding. betty, the fallout continues from the revelation that the russian president had a hand in trying to tilt the election in donald trump's favor. yesterday, the white house suggested without offering direct proof that vladimir putin was involved, and president obama went even further saying that the u.s. will respond. nbc's cynthia mcfadden has more. >> reporter: president-elect donald trump seems to be pivoting a bit after our nbc news exclusive report that vladimir putin personally

directed a russian clan december tine operation to interfere in the u.s. election, tweeting, "if russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to act? why did they only complain after hillary lost?" this a far cry from what he's been saying for months. >> anything that goes wrong, they blame russia. russia did it. they have no idea. also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. they don't even know it's russia. who knows? personally, it could be russia. i don't really think it is, but who knows? i don't know either. they don't know and i don't know. >> i wonder whether the tweet that president-elect sent out is the beginning of his pivot, the beginning of his acknowledgment of the intelligence russia has been hacking our institutions. >> reporter: retired admiral, former commander of nato, met with the president-elect last week. >> i think it is a legitimate question, and i think given the stakes at the national level, the question deserves an answer.

>> reporter: nbc's andrea mitchell pushed hard to get that answer from the white house. >> i think it was a powerful thing to have the intelligence community and verify russian meddling in our election, approved by the highest levels of their government. >> reporter: the statement he's referring to is a one-page release that outlined the intelligence assessment that russia's senior most officials were interfering in the u.s. election. no direct mention of putin, though a month earlier at the g-20 summit in china, president obama privately confronted putin, the white house confirmed. so should the administration come out bolder and sooner with the hard intelligence they possessed as donald trump suggested? should they have pushed congress to enact sanctions against the russians, making the public understand this was serious? >> in retrospect, it certainly seems as though it was a mistake not to call the russians sooner and respond to them in a very forceful way. >> reporter: high level

intelligence sources tell nbc news the administration didn't take such actions because they didn't want to appear to interfere in the election. and they thought hillary clinton was going to win, and they didn't think it was worth the potential risk of getting into a cyber tit for tat. last friday, president obama asked for a full review. as for the russians, mr. putin's spokesperson called the idea he was personally involved in the covert operation, quote, laughable nonsense. >> that was cynthia fc mcfadden reporting. last night hillary clinton -- she responded to the reports russia responded by saying she was proud as secretary of state to have stood up to the russian president after the 2000 russian elections. she also told her supporters that they can't lose heart and they, too, are going to have to stand up for democracy in this country and abroad. now, clinton's chairman is out with a new piece in the "the

washington post" unambiguously headlined "something is deeply broken at the fbi," writing in part, comparing to the fbi's massive response to the seemingly lackadaisical response to the real russian plot to subvert a national election shows something is deeply broken at the fbi. here's the senate minority leader harry reid talking about the bureau's director, james comey. >> i said he should resign a long time ago, but, obviously, he's basking in the glow of the election. that's how he wanted it to turn out, so unless he gets a quirk of conscience. donald trump is considering appointing cnbc senior contributor larry kudlow to chair the white house council of economic advisers, according to a trump adviser. economist steven moore said yesterday kudlow would be appointed to the post, quote, within the next 48 hours. moore later walked back his comments saying he jumped the

gun, but added kudlow is on the short list for the post, and kudlow has declined kudlow. kudlow formerly advised trump during the campaign, a known supporter of deep tax cuts, he shares trump's desire to slash tax rates, but disagrees on trade and protectionism. the post of kudlow would be another unorthodoxed choice by trump. according to "the wall street journal," kudlow lacks a graduate or undergraduate degree in economics and would just be the second chair without a doctorate. donald trump will nominate a high profile attorney, david freeman, as ambassador to israel. freeman has served as principal adviser on israel. some of his positions are already proving controversial. in the news release, freeman advocates relocating the u.s. embassy to jerusalem, a move

trump has also backed and would almost certainly enflame tensions in the holy city and the middle east. he's a supporter of building settlements in the west bank. this summer he compared members of j street, a jewish lobbyist association in washington, d.c., this way, saying, "they are far worst than kapos, jews who turned in fellow jews in the nazi death camps. who knows what any of us would have done under those circumstances to save a loved one, but j street? they are just smug advocates of israel's destruction, it's hard to imagine anyone worse." for their part, j street plans to fight his nomination. let's take a look at some of the top business headlines. $5 billion sale to verizon may reportedly be in jeopardy following the revelations of another record setting data breach. bloomberg is looking at the potential damage following the latest breaches. the company is also weighing whether it may request a price

cut or possible exit from the deal. yahoo! on wednesday revealed another massive data breach, this one in august of 2013, which impacted more than a billion user accounts. that comes after the company revealed a separate attack in 2014. yahoo stock fell more than 6% yesterday on the news. general motors will begin testing self driving chevy bolt on the roads in michigan. so far gm has been testing a fleet of around 40 autonomous vehicles in san francisco and scottsdale, arizona. the automaker is also working with lyft to develop self-driving bolts that would be used for ride sharing. testing for those is expected to begin in the years ahead. betty, facebook announced a major crackdown on so-called fake news. the social media giant has been under pressure since the election to do something about what hillary clinton went so far as to call an epidemic. nbc news has the details. >> talking about fake news.

>> those fake news stories. >> fake political news. >> the impact of fake news. >> reporter: facebook wants to put fake news out of business with your help. after months of public pressure, the social media giant announcing new preliminary measures to weed out stories that are intentionally false and spread for financial gain. to make it easier for its 1.8 billion users to report a hoax, they can click the upper right-hand corner of a post to flag content. if enough people mark it, the story will then be reviewed by facebook researchers and passed on to independent journalists to fact check. if determined false, the piece will be marked disputed on facebook, demoted in your news feed, and the creator would be banned from promoting it on facebook's advertising platform. >> facebook will cut off some sites from economic benefit. >> reporter: marco runs a fake news site. he says his articles are satire. >> if you look at that site and think that's a real news story, you know, i think that's on you.

>> reporter: he welcomes facebook's new measures and does not think it hurts his right to free speech. >> facebook is a private company. they can decide for ideological or business reasons if they want their news platform to be used for this stuff. that's totally legitimate, not censorship. >> reporter: facebook said, we cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves and it's targeting the worst of the worst. >> fake news is not as simple as it's false. right now they are trying to fact check the things that are apparently and obviously false and not give them money. that's an easy first step. there's a lot more work to do. >> reporter: a controversial experiment, facebook asking users to police fake news, trusting them to call it when they see it. >> ceo mark zuckerberg, who initially dismissed claims the fake news influenced the election says he recognizes his company has a greater responsibility. betty? still ahead, all olympics all the time?

we'll have more on the plan to launch year round coverage. plus, winter storm warnings stretching from idaho to michigan, and the northeast is not far off. bill karins has more on the snowstorm and the dangerous cold blast that will follow. we're back in a moment. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian,

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like they say, bill, baby, it's cold outside. >> baby, it's cold outside. >> oh, my goodness, it's supposed to be this cold, i guess, but i don't think a lot of us are ready for it just yet. >> it was a little shock to the system, but it's in and out, though, in areas of the northeast. i think last night was worse than this morning. the exception is in the northern parts of burlington at negative 22 right now. by any standards that's extremely cold. caribou at 29, boston at negative 15.

kids going out to the busstop in this weather, not fun. d.c. at 8, that's bearable. let's talk about what's next, this is the winter storm that's going to go across the country. we have winter storm warnings in the red pretty much all the way from the rockies and towards pittsburgh, but the heart is going to be the midwest. everywhere in white is under winter weather advisory, but we have 99 million people under winter weather advisories. that's one of the largest numbers i've seen. this isn't an intense storm, just very large and it's going to move quickly. as far as the forecast goes, again, snow totals aren't blockbuster. everywhere here in the blue is three inches. the darker blue is six. see the bulk of the snow is south dakota, southern minnesota, wisconsin, from chicago to milwaukee, especially milwaukee, then from rapid city over to areas towards detroit, and then late tonight, early tomorrow morning, the snow will move through the northeast. then we'll watch the next cold outbreak beginning. it's starting today in montana, billings with a high of 2, then

the cold pours to the south and southeast. minneapolis goes to 8. watch what happens in chicago. from 26 on saturday, your high temperature in chicago on sunday is expected to be somewhere close to zero. that would be it. actually, the forecast high is negative 1 right now. that would be the coldest day in december in 33 years in chicago. betty, the cold is the rule, followed by the snow. >> oh, negative temperatures already? >> for a high, that's really cold. >> all right, bill, thank you. at least we've been warned. dolly parton is delivering on her promise to help families affected by the tennessee wildfires. the star held a telethon earlier this week and we're told it raised nearly $9 million so far. the wildfire spared most of dollywood theme park, but she pledged to provide $1,000 each month for up to six months to help families rebuild. yesterday those who qualified for the fund lined up to receive the first round of aid. >> dolly, thank you so much.

this check goes to our resort that we've been staying at, because they've been helping us, and i owe them $900, and today that's where this is going. it's carried us through since the fire, and i think everybody in this community and i think what everybody has done is pull together and made this place so much tighter, and we're going to rebuild, and it's going to get stronger and get better. >> those fires killed 14 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. yesterday president obama signed a disaster declaration for the hard-hit county. >> bettly, dolly parton has done a tremendous service to the community. fans of the olympic games no longer have to wait two years to root for their country. comcast, nbc universal, the parent company of this network, announced it's teaming up to launch an olympic television channel in the second half of next year. the network, which will be

called the olympic channel, home of team usa, will feature olympic events and eventually regional programming with a focus on u.s. athletes. very cool. still ahead, here's a serious turn for you, thousands more syrians are trying to leave war-torn eastern aleppo, but there are reports of multiple explosions where those evacuations are supposed to take place. we'll have the latest. this holiday, the real gift isn't what's inside the box... it's what's inside the person who opens it. give your loved ones ancestrydna, the simple dna test that can tell them where they came from -by revealing their ethnic mix. it's a gift as original as they are. order now at ancestrydna.com. trust number one doctor recommended dulcolax constipated? use dulcolax tablets for gentle overnight relief suppositories for relief in minutes and stool softeners for comfortable relief

of hard stools. dulcolax, designed for dependable relief generosity is its oyou can handle being a mom for half an hour. i'm in all the way. is that understood? i don't know what she's up to, but it's not good. can't the world be my noodles and butter?

get your mind out of the gutter. mornings are for coffee and contemplation. that was a really profound observation. you got a mean case of the detox blues. don't start a war you know you're going to lose. finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. on xfinity x1. turning now back to aleppo, syria, where there are reports of multiple explosions heard at

a location where evacuations were taking place. nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley joins us live from london with more. matt, what are you hearing about this? >> well, good morning, betty. it does seem that evacuations have paused, at least for the moment. it's been nearly 24 hours since buses filled with injured fighters and civilians first started pulling people out of the last besiege ed slivers of east aleppo, but they have suspended evacuations after rebel forces began firing on some of the evacuation convoys. in that brief window, some 3,000 to 8,000 people were able to get out of east aleppo, but officials from the u.n. and other aid agencies say tens of thousands, mostly civilian s ma remain in there and some workers for aid organizations said they were heart broken this morning having to turn away women and children who had been waiting for hours to board some of these convoys and leave for the northern rebel-held province of

idlib. was controlled by rebels until a massive offensive to retake the city began. the government has whittled down rebel-held bits of aleppo to a tiny fraction of its size and the city is now on the verge of finally falling to government forces. betty? >> such a desperate situation there, all right, nbc's matt bradley, thank you. when we come back, a bloloot the stories happening in the day ahead. constipated? trust number one doctor recommended dulcolax use dulcolax tablets for gentle overnight relief

suppositories for relief in minutes and stool softeners for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax, designed for dependable relief same nose. same toughness. and since he's had moderate alzheimer's disease, the same never quit attitude. that's why i asked his doctor about once-a-day namzaric. (avo) namzaric is approved for moderate to severe alzheimer's disease in patients who are taking donepezil. it may improve cognition and overall function, and may slow the worsening of symptoms for a while.

namzaric does not change the underlying disease progression. don't take if allergic to memantine, donepezil, piperidine or any of the ingredients in namzaric. tell the doctor about any conditions including heart, lung, bladder, kidney or liver problems, seizures, stomach ulcers, or procedures with anesthesia. serious side effects may occur, including muscle problems if given anesthesia; slow heartbeat, fainting, more stomach acid which may lead to ulcers and bleeding; nausea, vomiting, difficulty urinating, seizures, and worsening of lung problems. most common side effects are headache, diarrhea, dizziness loss of appetite, and bruising. (man) dad and i shared a lot of moments. now we're making the most of each one. (avo) ask about namzaric today.

before we toss it over to "morning joe," let's get a check on the stories you'll be hearing about in the day ahead. president-elect trump will take his thank you tour to orlando today, where he'll also be doing some fundraising. vice president-elect pence and florida's governor and attorney general will also join him. meanwhile, president obama is set to hold a final year end news conference of his administration. the president is expected to discuss plans for his final month in office before he and the first family leave for their annual christmas vacation in hawaii. >> that sounds nice, doesn't it? and the public get their chance to pay respects to john glenn. his body lies in repose in the rotunda of the ohio state house starting today. glenn died last week at the age

of 95. a public memorial will be held tomorrow afternoon. and that does it for us on this friday. i'm louis burgdorf, alongside betty nguyen. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ ♪ merry christmas >> so people say, mr. trump, now they say, mr. president-elect, can you believe it? can you believe this? just call me donald, folks. just call me donald. my message tonight is for all americans, from all parties, all beliefs, all walks of life, whether you are african-american, hispanic-american or asian-american or whatever the hell you are, -- remember that we are all