about this over and over again at least not that much. i thought you might want to know about how to get tickets. that is very embarrassing. what you should never, ever do while on a ski lift. states of emergency were declared across the midwest as snow poured down thanks to a deadly winter storm now crawling

east. the storm is expected to hit the upper midwest this morning as it swirls north and east, packing an icy, wintry mix that's sure to make for treacherous travel. nbc's jay grey has a look at the impact from hard-hit kansas city. >> reporter: this time-lapse video shows kansas city being swallowed by the snow. white-out conditions starting what would be a long, messy day across the midwest. >> it's crazy. i wasn't expecting this today. maybe around christmas, but not now. >> reporter: the harsh winds and heavy snow certainly no gift for those forced to deal with with brutal conditions. >> it's a terrible day for me, buddy. >> reporter: terrible for just about everyone. snow in many places falling at more than two inches an hour, pile manager up too fast for shovels or plows to keep up. driving was next to impossible, even for some of the street crews. parts of i-70 were shut down because of the weather, and so were airports across the region.

>> i first walked in, i saw the line here and i said, this cannot be good. >> reporter: deicing quickly gave way to hundreds of canceled flights, travelers stranded, but this massive winter system still on the move. >> this storm is not done. as we head towards the end of the week and the weekend, we could see another substantial snow in new england. >> reporter: the next target for a storm that's already made a mess that more than 30 million people are dealing with across 20 states. jay grey, nbc news, kansas city. in south africa, it's looking like decision day for oscar pistorius. a judge is likely to rule today if the former olympic star will be released on bail pending a murder trial. he's back in court this hour for a fourth day of hearings after a week of new allegations and stunning twists. jim, good morning. what can we expect from today's hearing? >> reporter: good morning, mara.

we should learn later today, probably around 7:00 or 7:30 eastern, if oscar pistorius, the world famous double amputee sprinter the world knows as blade runner, will be freed on bail or not. now, not getting bail would clearly be an enormous blow to pistorius. he and his coach want to get back on the track and train and prepare properly for his trial. but also because the momentum has just seemed to be shifting so much in pistorius' favor of late. especially after yesterday's bombshell when we learned the lead investigator, the guy laying out the case against pistorius, is himself facing seven charges of attempted murder on another case. just an extraordinary twist. but the defense had already picked apart this investigator's case, forcing him to back down on many points. he even had to admit that pistorius' story is plausible that he shot and killed his

girlfriend by mistake thinking her to be an intruder. now, the prosecution has wrapped up their position already this morning, that pistorius killed steenkamp in cold blood, that he has a history of violence, and freeing him on bail would give him a chance to flee the country. the defense will now argue that pistorius is not about to the flee. he's just too well known to do that. we've also learned that pistorius has agreed to leave his passport with south african authorities. we'll keep you updated on all of that. >> so much drama here. jim, thanks so much for that. president obama is now working the phones to try and spur congress into action on a looming fiscal crisis. and it comes just one week until some $85 billion in across the board budget cuts kick in. the white house says mr. obama called house speaker john boehner and senate leader mitch mcconnell thursday. discussions were described as good, but neither side is reporting progress. hundreds of thousands of

americans are looking at layoffs and pay cuts if those cuts take effect. the stalemate has now taken to twitter. late thursday, john boehner's spokesman tweeted, quote, was it balanced when the president got $600 billion in revenue with no spending cuts just last month? well, carney replied saying in part, back in the real world, the president has signed more than $3.5 trillion in deficit reduction. now to a developing story in nevada where the man hunt continues for the driver of a black range rover sport involved in a deadly shootout. three people were killed, including rapper kenneth cherry jr. after an altercation thursday morning. police say the argument led to a car-to-car shooting spree and that several shots were fire from a black range rover and a maserati racing toward a red light. the maserati burst into flames,

killing a passenger. at least six others were injured. now here's your first look at this morning's dish of scrambled politics. it appears chuck hagel has the votes to be confirmed as the next secretary of defense. however h some now want president obama to withdraw the nomination. no defense secretary has ever been confirmed with more than 11 no votes. hey, mitt romney, look who's back and ruffling up policy feathers all over again. we're talking about bid bird, who now appears in a psa with michelle obama. this time they're promoting healthy eating. meanwhile, former first lady laura bush is requesting she be pulled from a psa featuring same-sex marriage. it features comments she said in 2010. the group respect for marriage coalition has dropped her from the spot and replaced her. vice president joe biden is the administration's point man on gun control, but he raised eyebrows earlier this week when he said his advice for home self-protection would be to fire a shotgun into the air. now several officials are coming

forward saying that move in delaware would be illegal unless you were in fear for your life. oops. treasury secretary nominee jack lew might have a funny looking signature, but that won't stop him from answering question. he's responded to more written questions from congress than all of the treasury nominees since 1995 combined. he answered 444 questions compared to 405 from the previous six nominees. and the grandson of former president jimmy carter is getting some thanks from president obama. james iv was the one who secretly revealed mitt romney's infamous 47% remarks. he said the president shook his hand and thanked him for his support. no official word from the white house. that's yo . now for a look at the weekend weather. bi bill karins is here. >> i'll start by saying sorry to the people who actually like february. it's time to end this.

we have a lot of travel issues out there, especially anywhere colored in in the white. winter weather advisories from the storm. the storm has significantly weakened, but it's still producing freezing rain, sleet, and snow. we can track it from north carolina back all the way into the northern plains up into wisconsin and minnesota. here's what it looks like on radar. as far as the snow goes, that's mostly confined to iowa, southern minnesota, almost all of central wisconsin, chicago. then we're still watching some freezing rain down through the ohio valley. watch out in ohio and indiana, especially. a little coating of ice overnight. now a wintry mess through areas of west virginia too. even down in areas of virginia. as i mentioned, widespread winter storm that has weakened since yesterday. i think the worst of it right now, a heavy burst of snow, southern michigan p the milwaukee area. that will be heading up to madison and green bay throughout your morning commute. later today to tomorrow, heavy rain will develop through the deep south. we could see 2 to 3 inches of rain in southern georgia.

eventually, that storm will come up the east coast. here's a snowstorm saturday into sunday. 6 to 12 inches portland to concord. you notice, boston, providence, new york city, lesser amounts than we were thinking yesterday. looks like to be more rain with really only boston having some minor shoveling. that's saturday night into sunday morning. >> thanks so much, bill. coming up after the break, brazen former chicago cop drew peterson skreems out in court during sentencing. and meet the country's number one deadbeat parent who owes over $1 million in child support. plus, stupid criminals strike again. this time they destroyed a store, but they screwed up in stealing the atm machine. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. ♪ just one bite opens a world of delight... ♪

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welcome back. here's some other stories making news this morning. former illinois cop drew peterson has been sentenced to 38 years in prison for the 2004 murder of his third wife

kathleen savio. in a rare courtroom outburst, he said, i did not kill kathleen. a crewless russian cruise ship is adrift in the atlantic ocean after cables snapped twice while it was being towed from canada to the dominican republic. the ghost ship has no power or lights, making it a threat to other vessels. the ship's owner is in talks with salvage companies to low ate and retrieve it. and meet the number one deadbeat dad in america. he pled guilty in u.s. district court to owing more than $1.2 million to three children from two failed marriages. and speaking of money, we'll see if stocks break their slump heading into the weekend. today, keep an eye on hewlett-packard. the struggling pc maker topped expectations last night. aig's stock also rallied after hours thanks to better than expected earnings. the tax code gave, and the tax code took away. fourth quarter earnings were up at walmart thanks to corporate tax credits.

but delayed refunds took a toll on its bottom line. a troubling two-year study finds a staggering third of seafood in grocery stores and restaurants is mislabeled. snapper and tuna were cited as the biggest culprits. united airlines says the dreamliners won't fly through at least june 5th. meanwhile, they say they found the cause of fuel leaks. americans who have a tv hooked up to the internet will now be counted by the neilson ratings company. neilson has vowed to include mobile viewing in the future. and a national survey conducted by a home appliance maker found more than 40% of americans fight about loading the dishwasher. 61% argue about whether or not dishes should be prerinsed while the appliance company has the answer. they say do not prerinse because the detergent needs to cling to food to avoid scratching your

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sequester going into effect. the same thing happened with the debt ceiling fight and the fiscal cliff. you cover congress. why does everything get dragged out to the very last second? >> well, i think you just answered your own question. we're dealing with congress, and congress loves to wait for the last minute. we saw that with the debt ceiling debate from a couple years ago. we saw that with the fiscal cliff issue where we actually went over the cliff for several hours before congress came in, you know, late at night and early in the morning and voted on a deal. this is going to go, once again, up to the wire -- down to the wire, and, you know, some people are even suggesting that the sequester will hit before congress actually acts. >> now, this week we heard that the president has his highest approval rating since 2009. it seems the worst congress looks, the better he looks. how could that affect gun control reforms and immigration

reform? >> there was an interesting poll that came out in "usa today" just yesterday showing that largely the american public agrees with the positions that the president has taken not only when it comes to the national debt but also gun control and immigration. so the president does have the upper hand heading into the debate on some of these issues. how each of these issues is all tied together is a little bit unclear. it's safe to say, i think, at this point that the republicans are still struggling with trying to find the right message in appealing to the american public and trying to win over the american public. >> all right. scott wong from politico. we appreciate your insight. thanks for being here. >> thank you. and now here's your first look at some of the other news going on around america. we start in indianapolis, where a brazen robbery attempt left the crooks empty handed. the heist got off to a slippery start and prying the atm free proved difficult. the robbers destroyed the store and fled the scene without a

single penny. serves them right. next so santa fe where some teenagers' horseplay turned dangerous. a snowball fight between some ski lift riders came to a scary finish when a 17-year-old boy slipped from his seat after holding on for dear life. he fell 40 feet. he suffered minor injuries and is reportedly doing okay. and a michigan man visited mississippi for a friend's funeral and came back with $7.2 million. on the way home, he stopped by his late friend's favorite casino to play the penny slots and hit it big. he believes his friend's spirit led him to that machine. from a high-flying weather man to surprises on the golf course, it's time to take a look back at the week that was. we kicked off the week celebrating presidents' day alongside the washington nationals mascots and paid homage to the presidents in other keezy wcheesy ways. the current president hit the golf course with tiger woods. the event was closed to the press, leaving lots of serious questions. >> folks, there are a lot of

holes in this story, specifically 18 of them. >> but we can assume it looked something like this. meanwhile, michelle obama revealed her new portrait. this guy thinks her new do is a slam dunk. a so-called houdini horse proved she's a talented escape artist. a nutty professor at columbia university got some online attention too. yet, nothing shook up the internet more than these -- ♪ we learned that driving in russia is terrifying thanks to dash cams that catch more than just meteors. here in the states, a dash cam caught some shocking moments of its own. luckily, no students were on the bus at the time. and while russia cleaned up its meteor mess, the skies in florida were still lighting up with space debris. and finally, this last one is for our own bill karins. we'd never make him fly a stunt plane, but this weather man wasn't so lucky.

>> a right, then a left. >> and speaking of bill karins, he's back for another look at the weather. would you be up for something like that? >> passing out? >> no, the plane stunts. >> i chickened out. i had a chance to with the blue angels. >> what's the latest on the weather? >> this weekend's forecast, the problems are mostly this morning in the midwest. wisconsin, minnesota and through the ohio valley, a lot of freezing rain out there and a little bit will be heading into virginia and north carolina. as we go throughout the day saturday, heavy rain develops through the southeast, especially the mid-atlantic coast. that heads north. it looks like at this point, areas such as philly, new york city, all rain for you. then saturday night into sunday, that'll be a snowstorm in interior new england. the travel trouble time, late saturday night, early sunday. >> all right. thanks so much, bill. straight ahead, this weekend's oscars. plus, the devine miss m. sticks her foot in her mouth. details coming up next. if you think running a restaurant is hard,

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well, hollywood is getting ready for their biggest night of the year, the oscars are on sunday. joining me now for more on that is todayshow.com pop consultant. we have a lot to get through. a lot of people thought seth macfarlane was an unusual choice. what can we expect? >> you're going to be seeing a lot of dancing this oscars. i think what people are bracing themselves for is how he's going to just skewer the celebrities in the crowd. that seems to be thanks to ricky gervais the new thing to do now. look for seth to do the same thick. he has a similar humor. >> always entertaining for viewers. almost as important as the

awards themselves is the fashion. what trends will we be seeing on the red carpet? >> personally, i miss the days when you just have fashion disasters walking down the red carpet. i think you're going to see more people striving toward super elegance. kind of the glamour of old hollywood as opposed to like five or six years ago, which were things that had no place being shown in public. >> and let's do some quick predictions. who do you think the big winners will be? are you expecting any upsets? >> i wish i could say i was expecting huge upsets. if you've seen any of the awards shows, you can probably skip the oscars. the only thing is "lincoln" getting best picture over "argo." i don't see anybody else winning it. ann hathaway is a pretty good bet as well. unfortunately, if you've caught any part of any previous awards show, you're probably good for sunday night and you can get extra sleep. >> all right, courtney. thanks. turning to other entertainment news, josh brolin and diane lane have decided to

call it quits after reportedly separates a few months ago. rapper wiz k had, alifa and amber rose became first-time parents yesterday. william shatner is calling on all trekkies. he summoned his 1.3 million twitter followers to sway the pluto moon-naming vote in the direction of vulcan. as of now, it's in the lead. bette midler found herself in hot water after tweeting an oscar pistorius joke, saying, looks like pistorius doesn't have a leg to stand on. finally, "the harlem shake" is number one on the billboard charts. how, you ask? they finally started counting youtube hits. i am from harlem. this is not the original harlem shake. it bothers me. >> it's bringing it back. >> it's completely different.

totally and completely different. i like this one, but it should be called something else. >> it's the youtube generation. >> well, i'm mara schiavocampo. stay tuned. "way too early" starts right now. . according to conservative news breitbart.com, hagel may have taken money from an organization called friends of hamas. what else is he hiding that hasn't happened? is he a member of the al qaeda kids club? what about the muslim brotherhood or the muslim sisterhood of the traveling pants? and what about non-islamic nonexistent groups? has chuck