a monster monday on capitol hill as congress looks into trump russian election connections, wiretapping, and a supreme court nominee faces his first day of grilling. north korea tests a new high-tech thrust rocket engine which some say could propel an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the u.s. midwest wildfires threatening lives with more than 1,000 homes evacuated, as melting snow causes massive flooding. a love action "beauty and the beast" set box office records. toddler twins tearing up the internet with hate-night high jinks. "early today" starts right now. >> hope you had a great weekend, everybody. >> great to be with you on a monday morning. today begins a critical week

for the trump administration. the heads of the fbi and nsa will be testifying before the house intelligence committee, investigating president trump's unsubstantiated wiretap claims as well as russia's attempts to interfere in the u.s. presidential election. lawmakers are eager to hear what evidence, if any, federal officials have discovered on these two dramatic issues. here's nbc's kelly o'donnell with the details. >> reporter: fbi director james comey will be the star witness as the house intelligence committee examines russia's reach into campaign 2017 and president trump's wiretap allegations. divergent assessments whether 9/11 in trump's circle was linked to russia's meddling. chairman devin nunez shoots that down. >> there's no evidence of collusion. >> reporter: but the top democrat, adam schiff, disagrees. >> there is circumstantial evidence of collusion. there is direct evidence i think of deception. >> reporter: no proof found to back up president trump's tweeted charge of surveillance

at trump tower. but the president's complaints about illegal leaks may have merit. chairman nunez says he thinks the public discloche assure that revealed calls between former national security adviser michael flynn and the russian ambassador violated the law. >> we know a law has been broken. and we need to get to the bottom of it. >> reporter: high stakes of a different kind as the republican plan to overhaul health care fuels town hall meetings. >> it's a better solution than the aca. >> reporter: criticism of the gop bill threaten to stall a top priority. house speaker paul ryan says thursday's house vote is time to deliver on years of campaign promises. >> when this vote comes up that's when it will be a binary choice, for the status quo or for repealing and replacing this law. >> yesterday speaker ryan said republicans are still working on changes to the bill, including increasing support for low-income people in their 50s and 60s. still more action on capitol hill. the senate hearings for judge

neil gorsuch's nomination to the supreme court will kick off today. at the hearing gorsuch is expected to give a speech stressing judicial independence. minority leader chuck schumer has not called for democrats to block the nomination. still, gorsuch can expect a tough grilling especially on why he did not publicly distance himself from president trump's recent attacks on the judiciary. a source has filled in nbc on gorsuch's preparations over the past several weeks. he met with 72 out of 100 senators and has been holding eight to ten-hour prep sessions with white house counsel and former clerks. in fact, all 39 of gorsuch's former clerks, both republican and democrat, have written to the senate in support of his nomination. to rising tensions between the united states and north korea after pyongyang tested a new high-thrust rocket engine that could power a long-range missile. on his flight back to washington from mar-a-lago the president

reacted saying north korea's leader kim jong-un was acting "very, very badly." nbc's matt bradley is watching development is from south korea, seoul. north korea raising the stakes in its latest test? >> that's right, frances, another troubling development that could allow north korean nuclear missiles to reach the united states. a new engine fueling a fresh round of north korean propaganda. an engine test should say could propel an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching u.s. soil. dictator kim jong-un promised to get the new weapon operational in this year's new year's speech. north korea has put on a provocative display of force, an unprecedented two nuclear tests last year. and it successfully fired four ballistic missiles off its coast just two weeks ago. korea watchers expect a new nuclear test any day.

fit happens, north korea's test results will almost certainly be different. the country now facing off against a new american administration. secretary of state rex tillerson warns that a u.s. preemptive strike is a very real possibility. >> let me be very clear. the policy of strategic patience has end. has ended. we're exploring a new range of diplomatic, security, and economic measures. all options are on the table. >> reporter: rising tensions led to an american missile defense system being moved into south korea this month. this weekend, china's government urged tillerson to take a more cautious approach. following the impeachment of south korean president park, elections in may will likely put a liberal president in pow history may want to pursue dialogue with the north. but the trump administration seems determined to confront them. >> right now four u.s. four-star generals think north korea either has the capability to hit the u.s. with a nuclear icbm or they have to assume, for planning purposes, they have that capability.

>> reporter: a frightening new moment, sabers now rattling on both sides of the pacific. in a fresh development today, the south korean defense ministry said that the new engine was meaningful progress toward a presumably intercontinental ballistic missile. but they caution that further analysis is going to be needed to really evaluate its capabilities. frances? >> we'll see what more we hear from that, matt bradley reporting from seoul, south korea, thank you. three u.s. soldiers were hurt sunday after an afghan soldier opened fire on them. a military spokesman said the afghan was killed in what he called an attack on the american in the helmand province. the afghan military said the soldier made a mistake and did not fire deliberately. several u.s. troops have been killed in so-called insider attacks in the last few years but better security measures have reduced the number of incidents. baltimore police are offering a $12,000 reward for information about the man caught on tape allegedly setting a fire

bomb that killed two people. police say 26-year-old antonio wright threw two molotov cocktails into a residence early saturday morning, sparking a fire that killed two teens and injured six others. police call the suspect a "psychopathic predator and number enemy number one." they believe the incident stemmed from a nonfatal shooting earlier in the week. thousands in colorado evacuated their homes after a raging wildfire swept through boulder county. officials have warned hundreds of additional families to be prepared to evacuate as well dependology the fire's movement. authorities believe it may have been caused by humans having ruled out lightning strikes from downed power lines. hundreds of firefighters are battling the blaze. with the help of fire retardant dropped from the skies officials said they have the fire 50% contained. further west, washington residents are evacuating for an entirely different reason as flooding submerges homes and roads turn into rivers. also in portland, three men survived uninjured after a

hillside collapsed onto their car. with more rain in the forecast, officials are warning the dangerous conditions could continue. >> a lot of rain, part of the first day of spring, so let's turn to bill karins now, see what more we can expect. some warming at least for a lot of sinus. >> the spring outlook is pretty mild. this map shows us where we're expecting the odds are favorable for warmer than normal spring conditions. that's pretty much the whole southern half of the country and then in the east. this is going to be welcomed in the northeast after a cold march. we've been very hot this weekend in the middle of the nation. as far as the precipitation, you think spring, you think of flooding. above-average precipitation possible up in the dakotas, along the gulf coast. nothing too spectacular. here's the spring flooding risk map. good news, after the war of winter, we don't have a lot of snowpack. there's not many areas that were of great concern, a few spots there. north dakota and good morning. a chilly start this morning.

temperatures in the 30s just below freezing right now. the lehigh valley at 31 degrees. but we're going to see a beautiful spring day. spring arrives this morning, into the 50s for new jersey and delaware. 40s for the lehigh valley and 53 in philadelphia. your neighborhood forecast just ahead at 4:30. just selection starts today in the trial against the university's former president over his rule in the jerry sandusky case. seasonal freebies to celebrate. free sweet treat today only. news and weather and traffic at 4:30. >> right after early today. donald trump's claim he owes big money to the united states.

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you're thinking that trump made an extra effort to smooth things over, you would be wrong. because watch what happened when the media in a photo op made a very routine request. >> handshake? handshake? handshake? handshake? >> oh, shake her hand, you weird, weird man! it is not often that you can genuinely say trump really should have touched that woman. look at it, he's just staring straight ahead. refusing to make eye contact. >> at first you're thinking, maybe he didn't hear? but then you see, she asked him, you see her face leaning in. are you going to shake my hand? >> she says it twice. leading the headlines today on nbcnews.com, germany rejects donald trump's claim it owes back sups of money to nato and the u.s. the president made the claim saturday just hours after that

meeting with german chancellor angela merkel in washington sunday. germany's defense minister released a statement saying, there is no debt account at nato. a new gallup daily poll finds president trump's job approval has sunk to a new all-time low, 37% approval versus 58% disapproval, an 8-point drop from two months ago. dramatic footage from china. a car driving through a railroad crossing, it was slammed by an oncoming train. the car was crushed and then tossed off the tracks. passengers in the vehicle died but the driver did survive. authorities say there was only a dim light at the crossing but no barriers or flashing red lights. the railway department is planning better safety features at that crossing. sad news for sports fans today. 60-year-old football legend dwight cart announced he was diagnosed with a.l.s. he's the author of the most

popular amazing six-yard touchdown reception, winning game 28-27 against the dallas cowboys in '82. clark says every one of his old 49ers teammates have reached out and offered their support. prince william and wife kate middleton wrapped up a trip to paris, the prince's first official visit since his mother princess diana died there nearly 20 years ago. the royal couple met with survivors of the 2015 attack at the bataclan concert hall, including one who had been shot seven times. will ask kate praised their courage, calling them very brave. the pair met with french president fran wau holland. prince william said the friendship between france and the uk will remain strong despite britain's decision to leave the european union. the hottest-trending video on the internet, twins and their wild midnight antics caught on camera. donald trump now taking construction bids to build his

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fast forwarding into monday, president trump travels to louisville, kentucky, for a campaign-style rally. he's expected to continue his pitch for the republicans' plan to repeal and replace obamacare. dairy queen is celebrating the first day of spring with its

annual free cone day. customers at participating locations can stop by and get a free small vanilla soft serve cone, in exchange dairy queen accepting donations to children's miracle network hospital. the "today" crew welcomes dylan dreyer back to the show after the bird of her first baby kelvin. lots of mama love with hoda and savannah and dylan and all of that. more trouble to tell you about. companies that they are beginning to see more of what president donald trump wants from his wall between the u.s. and melks mexico. louisa from london what do you have? >> hi, yes, pretty incredible some of the things that the government is presenting, guidelines to these companies that are bidding to build the wall. let me read out some of them for you. they want it to be physically imposing in terms of the height, around 30 feet is the preferred measure. although they would consider something less as well. 30 feet just to give you an idea what that is, taking the average

height of a living room in the u.s., it's approximately four living rooms on top of each other, that's the height of this massive wall. they want it solid reinforced concrete, anti-climb top. they're saying this massive was that needs to be aesthetically pleasing, meld into the surroundings. responses are due on march 29, nine days left. sax fifth avenue are in a bit of hot water. personal information of thousands of customers has been exposed. what makes this the a bit of a special case is that it wasn't hacked. it was made available on publicly accessible pages, e-mails, personal information like phone numbers, things like that. they are looking into that too. president of uber jeff jones has resigned after six months, the company has had a tough right of late, sexual harassment allegations, a filmed argument between the ceo and one of his drivers, now the ceo or the president i should say resigning of uber. back to you both, yasmine and

frances. >> i'm sure saks is going to be dealing with a lot of that fallout now with revealing the customers' identities. ahead, the record-setting weekend at the box office. plus these twins, look at this overnight party. it's taking the internet by storm. this is just part of it. we'll show the rest here on "early today." so i just switched to geico. what took you so long? i know, i saved a ton of money on car insurance. that's what i'm talking about! geico also gives you 24/7 access to licensed agents! booooyah. good game, you really crushed it. no son, geico crushed it. ♪ ♪ but grandma, we useo charmin ultra softsoft. so we don't have to wad to get clean. mmm, cushiony...and we can use less.

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the cubs will play. in this case identical toddler twins. watch this video, they were caught escaping their cribs for this all-night slumber party. you see them all over the place. the 2-year-old brothers skipped their bedtime for these late-night chats, gymnastics, piles of pillows. dad posted this video on facebook, it's been viewed more than 11 million times. i love it, as entertaining as kids are, half the fun is when you have the mop for and you're watching, they have no idea. then this is lovely, too much fun. >> my baby's just thrashing right now so i look forward to antics like this. this is exactly why i wanted a twin when i was a kid by the way. march madness quickly turned to march sadness for one young and passionate fan. saturday's game was a little too much to take for the son of north american's athletic director, watching his team take on gonzaga. john phillips sat courtside, took viewers along for his emotional roller coaster.

now he is an internet sensation. it reminds us all, i don't know if you remember, villanova's crying piccolo girl, 2015, who played through tears when the wildcats were knocked off by north carolina state. she showed up again when nova lost to wisconsin over the weekend as well. >> that's tough. now he's like, oh, i feel it. four years from now he's going to be like, why was i on video? if you found some time in between ncaa games it was a big weekend at the box office. the new live action "beauty and the beast" won the hearts of millions earning $170 million in the u.s., $350 million worldwide, breaking a number of records including the biggest start ever for a pg-rated film in north america and abroad, also the seventh-best domestic opening all-time, the best-ever march opening weekend. bright blue forever, that's why you'll stay in this drawer forever.

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sandusky scandal aftermath. jury selection begins in a trial against a former president. a toll plaza is shutting down its express easy pass lane for three weeks for upgrades. it's monday. just about 4:30. good morning. this is nbc 10 news today. i'm tracy davidson. >> it is monday but we're also in the final hours of winter. right now the spring countdown is on. here's a look at the clock. two hours we welcome the change of the season. the spring equinox reriefs arri

6:29 exactly. >> it's going to feel like spring as well as springtime. finally we're going to see some sunshine, a nice warmup into the 50s this hour. right now, one degree below freeze in the lehigh valley, 32 degrees in the suburbs and the 37 degrees in philadelphia, headed to the 40s and 50s. 40 degrees by 10:00. a little bit of a dry breeze coming in out of the northwest at 9 miles an hour. look at the afternoon temperatures, 53 in philadelphia, 50 for the sub bhu bu suburbs. i'll show you what it's going to look like in your neighborhood when spring arrives in morning when i come back in 10 minutes. first, jessica boyington has your first alert traffic.

>> route 130 southbound, all lanes closed because of this crash just around copper street. we have two northbound lanes that are compromised as well. we're seeing some delays there. here's the vine street expressway, center city just around the cameras at thisth street, no problems or delays in both directions. we'll end with this drive time here. no problems reported and it's a good time as well. in the green, eight minutes right now from the schuylkill to the 60s. one man is dead after his car crashed in philadelphia's winfield heights neighborhood. police say he hit a light pole around 2:30 this morning. and here are this morning's headlines, the stories we'll be following throughout the day. >> in harrisburg, the jury selection begins of former penn