your coast, that guy. thanks very much for joining us tonight. i had thought that we would be able to resolve this in a totally different direction by talking to the head of this agency. i have never been more freaked out about this story and those permits than i am now after talking to him. wow. those permits than i have been -- than i am now. last-ditch effort. budget negotiators pull an all-nighter with a threat of a government shutdown hours away. shaken and stirred. another powerful earthquake rocks an already rattled japan. and reptile revelation. new york's most famous and elusive snake gets a name. good morning. i'm paige hopkins. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is fir"first look" on msnb.

we begin this morning with decision day. the pressure is on for washington lawmakers to get a budget deal done before tonight's midnight deadline that will shut down the federal government. despite government calls for fiscal responsibility after days of failed negotiations, some of the main sticking points remain, the party stances on planned parenthood and the environment. for the very latest, let's go to tracie potts. good morning. >> reporter: paige, good morning. good morning, veveryone. no more extensions. that's the word from the white house today. president obama says he's not wildly optimistic that lawmakers can strike a budget deal and avoid a government shutdown tonight. after a second night of failed negotiations, president obama made it clear. >> i expect an answer in the morning. >> reporter: just hours from now, he will have to notify federal workers to stay home

monday. the hangup, we're told, are republican demands. >> thank you so much for being here. >> reporter: to limit abortions, cut funding for public radio and strip power from the environmental protection agency. >> the sad part about it, we keep never quite getting to the finish line. >> our colleagues are using the defense department as hostage. >> reporter: americans are starting to fear the real impact. >> they don't have, you know, average joe's interest in mind. >> they're not looking out for the little man. >> reporter: national parks would close, 70% of yosemite's income is from tourists. this resort is already talking layoffs. >> shutting down the park essentially shuts everybody down. >> reporter: at yellowstone, resident residents in the area may be affected. >> we're the water company. we're the sewer company. we're the road department. we're 911. >> reporter: as of of midnight tonight, they may also be

furloughed. they have passed a one-week extension but it's not clear that the senate would vote on that. the president said he would veto it. he says this time he wants a permanent deal. a democrat from illinois told host ed schultz what she thinks is really getting in the way of the stalled budget talks. >> this isn't just about money, even though they are acting as if it's about the budget and it's about the cuts. this is the social policies, the social agenda of the republicans. they want to defund planned parenthood which, by the way, has supported -- is supported by 53% to 43% of americans think it's a good idea to fund them. they want to defund the environmental protection agency, when it comes to having any jurisdiction over greenhouse gases. imagine. the environmental protection agency can't protect us.

and those are the kinds of ways that they want to legislate their agenda, pretending it's really just about the budget. they cannot take yes for an answer. as hard and terrible as the cuts that have been agreed to are, it's really not about those cuts. >> lean forward with ed schultz and the ed show 10:00 pm eastern only on msnbc, the place for politics. the same tragic stretch of japan's coastline, already battered by last month's quake was shook again yesterday. 7.1 earthquake, one person died after her ventilator stopped working. another person was reported as killed. workers at the fukushima plant

were evacuated, but have since resumed working. in a race that's taken on added significance as an unofficial referendum on republican policies in the state. conservative incumbent justice david processsser took a lead a one clerk said she initially failed to report some of the ballots. she said more than 14,000 were not included because of a human error. democrats crying foul point to the fact the very clerk who discovered the new votes once worked for a gop caucus under the republican candidate's control. she also has been criticized for her handling of past elections. liberal supporters had hoped joann clautenberg would win, stripping away nearly all collective bargaining rights for public workers. a horrific scene in brazil as a gunman opened fire on students and elementary school. a 23-year-old former student at

the school lined children up and shot them one by one at point-blank range, killing 12. horrible. before he could kill more, he was shot in the legs by police, then took his own life, shooting himself in the head. no motive is known. although, authorities say he left a rambling letter at the scene, indicating that he wanted to kill himself. here is your first look at some of the other news going around america today. two teenagers in upstate new york needed to be rescued from a frigid creek after one of of them mistakenly dropped her cell phone into it. the girls quickly realized retrieving the phone was a bad idea when rough waters left them stranded. a rescue crew found the girls clinging to an abutment before using a raft to bring them to shore. a police standoff in florida, the robot was sent into the home to survey the

situation, and was attacked by the naked man, who fired its ak-47 at it. he eventually surrendered to the robot, the only casualty. zoo keepers her not so amusing vanishing trick now has a name. 65,000 people voted on five names and 27% of the vote the egyptian cobra is now named mia. inspired by the phrase mising in action. we turn to bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning, bill. >> good morning, paige. very fitting. cleopatra what i was going to vote for but m.i.a. -- >> it's perfect. >> especially since it was gone for a week and randomly shows up. today is an interesting day. it was beautiful around areas like washington, d.c. and baltimore where it was kind of cloudy and gloomy in areas like philly and new york. we do the flip flop today. it won't be the prettiest day around the nation's capital. the setup around the country.

west coast, very chilly and raw. record highs from oklahoma to texas. we're great today in the southeast. another beautiful day at the masters. no problems there, with temperatures near 80 degrees. we have two scenarios here. high pressure to the north and we have high pressure to the south. in between is where we're watching this area of rain. and that's where our active jet stream is moving. as far as the rain goes, it just started falling. now it's hitting the ground in areas like baltimore. in d.c. itself, north of the belt way is where you're dealing with light rain. it's a narrow band. it won't hit everyone. it's right through maryland, frederick, up to hagerstown, continuing back into the ohio valley, is from pittsburgh northwards to cleveland, toledo, ft. wayne. even into the chicago area. if you're in the d.c. and baltimore area, you have to wait until this rain in chicago goes through your area later on tonight before you get any dry weather. it will be a pretty gloomy day

out there, slow commute. chance of severe weather later today south of indianapolis. from louisville to lexington to st. louis back to north of nashville, we could see stronger storms late today. hail and wind primarily, but maybe even a few isolated tornadoes. there's a look at your friday forecast. around new york city -- new york is kind of the northern cutoff. if you're north of new york, you'll be dry today. south of new york, you have a chance of rain late this afternoon. d.c., it looks like the rain will start earlier, especially for the friends north of you in the baltimore area. paige, as we mentioned, warmer air is on the way. the weekend forecast is coming up a little later on in the show. i think a lot of people are going to like it. >> can't wait for that. thank you, bill. retail sales rise, netflix stumbles and ladies fashion shoes. a look at your business headlines is straight ahead. coming up, tiger woods, phil mickleson? uh-uh. a child leads them all at the

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welcome back to "first look." i'm paige hopkins. in libya, a nato air strike has reportedly killed at least five rebel fighters, triggering fresh anger between rebels and the alliance. the nato commander is refusing to apologize, saying that they had evidence that tanks were being used to attack civilians. it wasn't aware that rebels were also using tanks. school bus accident injuring two people, air strikes on the gaza strip, killing five palestinians. liberals and conservatives tend to think very differently. now research shows their brains are actually physically different. a study found that liberals have more gray matter in the part of the brain with understanding complexity. brains of conservatives were

larger in the section relate d o processing fear. extraordinary cosmic blast in a distance galaxy has astronomers puzzled. they've never seen anything as bright and long lasting. the burst was probably caused by a star that was ripped apart after drifting too close to a massive black hole. beautiful. here is your first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,409 after falling 17 points yesterday. s&p lost two points and the nasdaq shed three. taking a look at overseas trading in tokyo, the nikkei gained 117 points while in hong kong the hang seng added 114. waves of fear across wall street, impact of another potential major impact in japan rattled investors early in the day. after a tsunami warning was

lifted, upbeat data helped to offset most of that panic. news that fewer americans filed for unemployment benefits. bed, bath and beyond helped to shake off global fears. shares soared 10%, thanks to its healthy earnings outfit. big box chain costco rose 4% on strong sales and the maker of wine, constellation brand shot up. kla tencor fell due to its significant sales presence in japan. news that netflix will pay nearly $1 million an episode to stream the series mad men was a flop with investors. shares fell 3% there. general electric, co-owner of this network unveiled plans to

spend $600 million to build the nation's largest solar panel factory. finally, for one french shoe maker, kicking up your heels is pretty serious business. iconic designer has filed suit against yves de laurent, saling up his claim on the scarlet soles. hockey rangers lose their grip and powering the bulls to an almost unis yoinsurmountablen the east. glowing. -smooth. -flawless. [ female announcer ] it's more than just one thing. now aveeno brings all five factors of radiance together with positively radiant spf 30. with active naturals soy, it's now proven

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welcome back to "first look." i'm paige hopkins. the most prestigious tournament in golf, they're all going after the prize, the green jacket. amidst the pageantry of augusta national, a 21-year-old rose to the top on day one. the kid would be nowhere without the legends who came before him. jack nicklaus got things started 25 years after his comeback victory. tiger woods is in search of his first major. he shot a one under par.

phil mickleson looked good early. he birdied the hole and stands at 2 under. the leaders are alvero kiro sbchlt and that 21-year-old man, mcelroy, the youngest ever to lead after day one in augusta. he is tied with kiros at 7 under. if rangers could win both, they could make the playoffs. they blew that last night, hosting atlanta. second period. thrashers scored two goals in a 15-minute span. they need to win saturday in a carolina loss to make the postseason. nba, top two teams battling to be number one. bulls hosting the celts. a great fake, then a scoop between two boston defenders. he had 30. bulls won it. baseball red sox nation continues to panic. boston, visiting the indians in the ninth. tying run aboard.

j.d. drew, liner off the pitcher. everybody was safe until pinch runner mcdonald overran second. that was the game's final out. boston lost 1-0. they fall 0-6, their worst start since 1945. that's a look at sports. have a great weekend. i'm fred rogin. here is nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. hi, bill. best thing about fridays is giving that weekend forecast. first thing is first, bring the umbrella with you, pittsburgh, most areas of pennsylvania, philadelphia, baltimore to d.c., where the rain will be early today. maybe later this afternoon, some of it could sneak into new york city, that's really the northern extent of of it. a lot of areas around new york city will probably be dry most of the day. new england looks good today. 57 in albany. cooler in boston. at least it will be sunny. through the day today, record heat. oklahoma and texas. some of that heat heads north through the weekend.

kansas city, st. louis will warm up. a lot warmer in the deep south with atlanta on saturday, easily 82. some areas to the south there in the mid 80s. florida up near 90, around orlando and thunderstorms possible, minneapolis to chicago. by the time we get to sunday, that warm air really surges to the north. warmest air of the year up around minneapolis. highs at least in the mid 70s. some areas could sneak near 80 around chicago. late in the day, thunderstorms will erupt. you could have a severe weather outbreak sunday afternoon in areas like chicago, st. louis. as far as new england goes, areas on saturday should be nice north of new york city. by sunday, it looks like that warm air moves to the north. with it, some clouds. d.c., maybe sunshine late. temperatures will be warmer. it's kind of a mixed bag out there this weekend, paige. the theme is warmer temperatures. >> that's all we want to hear, bill. thank you. can the easter bunny's wacky kid hold on to the top spot at the box office or will russell brand's remake of arthur serve up some stiff competition?

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welcome back to "first look." i'm page hopkins. last night on "late night with jimmy fallon," he offered up a little-known fact about president obama. >> in his speech yesterday, president obama reveal ed that p until a few years ago, he was still paying off his student lo loans. yeah. in response, china was like, oh, so you do know how to repay loans? this is interesting. a new study found that families with two daughters are the happiest. unless, of course, their dad currently has a 42% approval

rating. hey, did you hear about this? this is a totally weird story. new york lawmakers are deciding if corn should be the official state vegetable. yeah because when people come to new york, the first thought is, i've got it try the corn. i'm only here for three days. where do you get the best corn in new york? you got original joe's, original famous joe's, that's pretty good. go out to brooklyn, they got some good corn. it depends on what you like. >> he welcomes actress uma thurman and celebrity chef marcus samuelson. that's late night with jimmy fallon, 11:35. first look at your entertainment news. at the box office this weekend it aall boils down to russell brand versus russell brand. "hop," the combination live action/animation film about the easter bunny's son was way above expectations last weekend and

number one. most experts think it's going to take the top spot again with nearly $25 million. in "arthur," brand plays the lonely alcoholic millionaire made famous by dudley moore. the reviews have been poor. the only pg-13 comedy out there and should fight it out for second with 13 plus million. james franco and natalie portman "your highness," which will battle "arthur" for the second spot. also "hanna," cate blanchett. with competition and a little marketing, it only might break $10 million. bill, which one were you going to run out and see this weekend? >> i don't think i'm probably going to see any of them. i do want to see "hop" eventually. >> i do, too. it sounds like even parents would enjoy it. >> i'm going to jump on the band wagon. it's already done this well. a lot of good reviews.

>> and you're a fan of the easter bunny. >> yes. i like that. natalie portman, she does the "black swan" and now this? >> having a terrible year, right? i'm page hop kins. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. way too early with willie geist starts right now. after three meetings in just 24 hours, the president, speaker boehner and majority leader, harry reid once again failed to reach an agreement on the budget. with the clock ticking down to the deadline, could abortion really be the issue that leads to government shutdown. another massive aftershock, striking japan, shaking office buildings, triggering more tsunami alerts. the question is, can japan's nuclear reactor withstand another hit like this? finally, get out the brooms in cleveland. yeah, in cleveland, indians fans. red sox fall to new depths of misery, six games in the new season. the question is, can