good monday morning to you. coming up on "early today," nasty weather from this mississippi twister to more rain and snow as we kick off a new week. the reward is now $1 million as police continue to hunt for the rogue cop. music's biggest night. the eye-popping outfits, memorable moment, and surprises. a preview of what the president plans to lay out in his state of the union. and steveny y isegal teams with sheriff joe arpaio. and steveny y isegal teams with sheriff joe arpaio. is that a good idea? captions paid for by nbc-universal television

go very good morning. nice to see you, i'm veronica de la cruz. parts of the gulf coast are waking up to untold damage after a wave of severe storms raked across the region sunday night. the brunt of the storms hit in and around hattiesburg, mississippi, where a long-track tornado ripped across part of the state. the twister traveled down one of the main streets, winding through the university of southern mississippi campus. the governor declared a state of emergency in seven counties reporting damage including downed trees, mangled buildings, and injuries to more than a dozen people. fortunately no death have been reported. nbc meteorologist bill karins will have the details on the threat of more severe weather and potential flash floods coming up in a few minutes. residents in southern california remain on edge this morning. day five in the manhunt for a former lapd officer suspected in three cold-blooded killings. l.a. authorities have upped the stakes in the search offering a record $1 million reward for information leading to the

arrest of christopher dorner. nbc has details. >> reporter: law enforcement sources say this is christopher dorner dumping a gun belt, a helmet, lapd uniform, and ammunition the morning after his first two murders. the surveillance video captured across the street from a san diego police station. >> the helmet was sitting right up top, and the magazine and the belt was hidden under the boxes. >> reporter: the former cop, now fugitive, accused of killing three and wounding two others, was fired from the lapd after making false complaints about his training officer. now the los angeles police chief says a week after the killing spree began, he'll reopen dorner's case. >> people think that maybe there is something to what he says. and i want to put that to rest. the only way i know so how to review what's been reviewed at multiple levels. >> reporter: the search for dorner in the mountains is one of the largest manhunts in state

history with investigators now saying they've discovered a cache of weapons and camping gear in his broken down truck. this as the tsa issued an emergency bulletin to regional airports warning the former navy reservist may have flight training. >> that was nbc's miguel almaguer reporting. president obama will be putting the final touches on his state of the union speech to be delivered tomorrow night. he's expected to explain his agenda for the next four years and lay the groundwork for the big budget battle with congress. brian mooar has a preview. >> reporter: the economy, jobs, and the middle class are expected to be center stage tuesday night as president obama delivers his fourth state of the union address. foreshadowing his second-term agenda, the president wig trying to take the high ground from republicans in the fight over budget cuts. >> they alleged rather ask more from the vast majority of americans and put our recovery at risk than close even a single tax loophole that benefits the

wealthy. >> reporter: the president and democrats are demanding what they see as a fair balance. >> so what we do need is more revenue and more cuts. what i would like to see is in the big, balanced, bold proposal. >> reporter: if there's no deal by march 1, deep, automatic spending cut kick in. >> these indistricriminate reductions do not make sense. tell hurt people. it's up to the president to act now. >> reporter: not everyone believes those across-the-board cuts, known as the sequester, could hurt the economy. >> the president's now cater walling about the sequester, so are many republicans. tea party people are saying the sequester's a pittance. >> our journey moves forward. >> reporter: on tuesday night, president obama will have his say from the nation's biggest bully pulpit. brian mooar, nbc news, washington. and a reminder, right here nbc news will have live coverage of the president's state of the union address tuesday night beginning at 9:00 eastern, 6:00

pacific, right here on nbc. drama on the high seas now. right now a carnival cruise ship is adrift in the gulf of mexico after fire broke out in its engine room sunday. the fire which was extinguished left the carnival "triumph" without propulsion and running on emergency power. none of the more than 4,000 passengers or crew was hurt. the ship towed to a port. a cable snapped during a safety drill on a ship in the canary islands. trapped crew, killing five. no passengers were hurt. okay, so it was an incredible weekend for weather. so -- incredible weekend. tons of snow. and -- >> yes. that made for tornadoes yesterday, and we continue today. a busy weather week. it start this morning. 15 tornado reports yesterday, mostly the mississippi area. a lot of these were most likely the same tornado that was seen

by different people, called a long-track tornado. sometimes looks like a wedge tornado. impressive. went to the east/northeast all the way into alabama with what we call the super-cell thunderstorms. this morning, we don't have a tornado threat but the flash flooding in the same areas hit by the tornado, really bad. numerous reports of water rescues ongoing. and storms continue to track. here's hattiesburg, thomasville. you see the lightning strikes, white flashes here. it looks like mississippi's getting better. still very heavy rainfall going north of monroeville, thomasville, toward montgomery shortly. northeast, winter weather advisories up in new england, freezing rain right now across pennsylvania. and that's going to head up all into the areas that don't have power. we've got this winter weather -- not a big storm, but the timing for the morning commute not good. you see the pink shading, now showing the freezing rain beginning in northern jersey outside of new york city. that's heading up into new england today. everyone in new england, be careful on the roads. a coating of ice before turning

to rain later today. also, oh, yeah, the blizzard's ending in the northern plains. an amazing monday. amazing week of weather. that's a look at your national forecast. here a look at the weather out your window. today in boston, at least temperatures will get warmer so a lot of the sidewalks and roads will begin to improve. the issue is that we're probably going to have up to a half an inch of rain. of course we have all that weight on the roofs. we're worried about roof collapse. word to the wise, everyone in new england, if you can get out there, clean the snow off your roofs today. the rain will soak up like a sponge. we don't want roof collapse. >> now we'll have ice on top of it all. >> yeah. >> thanks. a chopper shooting, a reality tv show crashes, proof of life on mars, and great news for investors. joe paterno's widow fights back with a new report by the former pennsylvania governor and attorney general. "early today" is back in two minutes.

welcome back. here are stories making news -- three people are dead after their helicopter crashed in northern los angeles county. it happened during the filming of a new military-themed reality show for the discovery channel. no word on what caused the crash. the death toll from a stampede during a religious festival in northern india is now up to 36. it happened when railway official announced a last-minute platform change at a train station triggering chaos among tens of thousands of pilgrims. in chile, authorities have regained control of a prison after inmates started overcrowding and rioting. at least one guard was held hostage. family members outside battled with police. no major injuries were reported. in lebanon, a heated debate on live tv turned violent when one guest hurled a glass of water at another during a discussion on syria. the tense scene was quickly taken off the air. both guests apologized after a commercial break. and for the first time, the mars rover "curiosity" has driven a hole into the rocky

surface of the red planet and is collected the powdered results for analysis. it's in an area that shows signs that it was once under water. it could potentially reveal evidence that life once existed on mars. on to your monday markets now. the dow opens at 13,992 this week after adding 48 points on friday. the s&p and nasdaq both saw gains. overseas, the nikkei and hang seng were on a holiday. this week traders will be looking to hold on to impressive gains racked up in the new year. the s&p 500 and nasdaq have posted six weeks of consecutive gains. that is the first new year, six-week winning streak in 42 years. markets may add to gains with another round of earnings ahead. this week investors will get an update on the cola wars with earnings from coca-cola and pepsi. wall street will get a status on the battle of conventional brands versus organic. with quarterly results from kraft's and annie's home grown. the health of travel and

leisure will be on deck as norwegian cruise lines delivers its bottom line. the past two weeks the price of gas shot up nearly a quarter, climbing toage average $3.-- an average $3.59 a gallon, the biggest single jump in two years. the "economist" released new rankings on the most expensive cities in the world. and tokyo and osaka came in first and second followed by sydney, australia, in third. as for american cities, l.a. and new york city are tied for number 27. over the weekend, boeing got a dreamliner test flight off the ground. the first since the government put the 787s in a holding pattern while it investigates battery-related fires. there is speculation swirling that apple is working on a spy-worthy watch. the gadget is said to feature curved glass to hug your wrist. as we hope you all know -- men -- valentine's day is this thursday. and the national retail federation predicts americans will spend more than $18 billion in total on presents for their moms, their wives, their

children, and get this, $815 million of that will be spent on fido. yes. speaking of l'amour, only the french could come one. this a web site offering business people and travelers easy access to short-term hotel rooms for intraday trysts or a quiet place to work. no need for credit card information. the web site touts la discretion. ooh, la, la. coming up, the "sports illustrated" cover model. the biggest night in the music industry. remembered more for the moments than the winners. we have got some doozies for you next.

now to some stories that caught our eye this morning. in florida, eight lucky ducklings are back with mom thanks to friendly firefighters. crews discovered the ducklings trapped in a sewer 15 feet below ground after they fell through cracks in the street. on to washington, d.c., where runners stripped down for a good cause. the annual cupid understandy run is held every february to benefit the children's tumor foundation. mascots for the washington nationals even stopped by to show support in their own skivvies. in iowa, one darling pig was spared from this weekend's sixth annual bacon festival in des moines. bonnie the pig was pardoned by the governor in a kickoff ceremony for the event and will

be sent to live on greener pastures. lucky bonnie. over to arizona now. sheriff joe arpaio and '80s action star steven segal along with students and officers took part in a controversial school shooting simulation. deputies dressed as gunmen fired blanks while students were ushered out of harm's way. segal joined in to help teach crews how to react and protect in school shooting scenarios. finally, in north dakota, one mass to the brings school spirit to a new level. a 15-year-old was born with a heart defect that nearly took his life over the summer. after a temporary loss of motor skills, lee returned to the court in full gear and was presented with the school's first-ever lifetime spirit award. in sports now, joe paterno's family fights back challenging the penn state report on the jerry sandusky child sex abuse scandal. the paterno family's report headed up by former pennsylvania governor dick thornburgh says the late coach did nothing wrong in his handling of the jerry sandusky case. former fbi director louis freeh

says he stands by his report. thornburgh, also a former u.s. attorney general, says the investigation was fundamentally flawed. >> there's no evidence that anybody's mr. paterno's investigation was asked to not report things or told to cover up things. and as i said, he was the one who reported the 1991 incident to the authorities. in college basketball, number four, duke, trailed boston college who made a comeback in the second half. the blue devils got a 62-61 win, making them the only top-five team not to lose this week. so they may go back to number one as the rankings get crazier as we get closer to march madness. number seven, arizona, came up against alan crabby who poured in 13 point. the unranked bears upset arizona 77-69. notre dame's casey murdoch got the chance to sink a half-court shot for big bucks. he made it on his second

attempt. he won $18,000. congratulations. and then bakersfield condors, a minor league hockey team, brought a real-live condor to the middle of the rink during the national anthem. the giant bird gets loose from its handler, struggles for freedom, and makes the temporary escape toward the locker rooms. ahead, over 100 million people thought supermodel -- saw supermodel coit upton's latest commercial. wait until you see her cover for the "sports illustrated" swimsuit edition.

welcome back on this monday morning. a very active weather week. it's going to end with a very, very cold, unwelcome blast of arctic air coming down from the north. it goes from the north pole all the way through the great lakes, down through the deep south. that's what we have to look forward to this upcoming weekend. until then, active weather pattern. a wintry mess will head up early this morning to new england, changing to rain during the day. we've got blowing and drifting of snow minneapolis through wisconsin. a few strong storms still left over in the deep south today. flash flooding's the biggest issue now as we go through southern portions of alabama. that rain's heading into georgia. then at least by the time we get to tomorrow, new england clears out. look at this -- we still continue with more rain down here in the deep south, the potential of thunderstorms. so it's almost like a spring weather pattern, but it's going to end very cold this weekend. >> all right.

thanks, bill. yikes, bundle up out there. there was a whole lot to see and hear at the grammys sunday night. there weren't too many surprises when it came to the awards. mumford and sons won album of the year. gote snagged record of the year, and fun took home song of the year and best new artist. and despite cbs dress code warnings, a few people wore exactly what they wanted to. rihanna went braless in bright red. katy perry wore this body-huggy gown. j. lo decided to show a little leg -- a whole lot of leg. carry underwood wore a strapless gown with a jaw-dropping $31 million diamond necklace around her neck. that necklace may have done it for her. a whopping 73% of respondents thought that carry was the best dressed at the grammy awards. >> she always looks fantastic. >> beautiful. beautiful. another notable win was frank ocean but not because of his album. ocean and chris brown brawled a few weeks ago and sunday night's win gave ocean the last laugh.

chris brown's loss to ocean topped off a pretty bad weekend for the singer as he also crashed his porsche in beverly hills saturday. brown told police he was trying to evade the paparazzi. okay. at the movies this weekend, "identity theft" won the top spot with an impressive $36 million. and what do you get when tom brady and giselle have a baby? this little girl, vivian lake in her first photo debut. congratulations. >> did you think she wouldn't be cute? giselle's baby. finally, "sports illustrated" has revealed this year's swimsuit cover. and for the second year in a row, kate upton is front and center. looks like she was ready for this weekend's blizzard i guess you could say, bill karins. we'll check with the weatherman on that one. >> no comment. >> no comment? i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

>> you're watching wbal-tv 11. live, local, late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. >> good morning. it is a wet start on this monday. give yourself some extra time. the temperatures are above freezing. 36 in edgewood. 41 degrees downtown. it will become mostly cloudy this afternoon. high temperature neared 55.

>> 37 degrees at the airport. >> the mayor would give the state of the city address this afternoon. >> president obama will deliver his state of the union address tomorrow. >> our biggest problem will be after we did get out. >> millions of people in new england have nowhere to go after the big time blizzard. >> we will update

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> you're watching wbal-tv 11. live, local, late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. 5:00 a.m. >> put