join us for comple primetime coverage of the super tuesday results on your nbc news affiliate. as for us, we'll be back next we it's monday, february 29th. coming up on "early today." leo wins, "spotlight" shierchs, and chris rocks on. >> well, i'm here at the academy awards otherwise known as the white people's choice awards. and the political insults and miscue as the candidates sprint for votes ahead of tomorrow's super tuesday with 12 states voting. >> plus a major assist from an anonymous shopping cart guy. that and much more as we kick off a busy week ahead. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm dara brown.

the stars came out for the awards. "spotlight" won best picture wheel mad max, fur yore road and the revenant won big. it had plenty of controversy with the #oscarssowhite hanging over the festivities. jennifer jennifer jennifer jennifer is live. >> reporter: good morning. hollywood's biggest night did not disappoint, not with the glamour or the glitz or the controversy and with the ceremony there were some big surprises. >> spotlight. >> reporter: the title described the moment. spotlight gaggeret center of attention for best picture. >> this film gave a voice to survivors and this oscar amplifies that voice. >> reporter: best picture favorite ""the revenant"" still won big.

second year in a row and a first career oscar for leonardo dicaprio for best actor. >> i thank you all for this amazing award tonight. let us not take this planet for granted. >> reporter: best actress went to brie larson. >> thank you to the fans. thank you to the moviegoers. thank you for going to the theater and seeing our film. >> alicia for the danish girl while bridge of spies mark rye land pulled an upset for supporting actor beating out heavy favorite sylvester stallone. >> reporter: mad max fur rose. six for technical. demonstrators blocked the way protesters lack of diversity. >> otherwise known as the white

>> reporter: jikt also on host chris rock's mind when the spotlight was on the industry movie's best and the big winner last night may have actually been " the girl scouts. chris rock called out the girl scouts saying he missed cookie season. when they tallied it up, they dara. >> thank you. that was a great moment to watch everybody in the audience eating cookies as the show was going on. this morning the candidates prepare to make their final pitches to voters before tomorrow's 12 races. over the weekend it was a schoolyard fight between marco rubio and donald trump. >> that a guy with the worst fake tan in america is accusing

>> you're a choke and a liaring. >> donald trump likes to sue people. he should do that to his face. >> it's rubio. >> have you seen his hands? they're like this. you know what they say about men with small hands. you can't trust them. >> ted cruz, meanwhile, attacks trump on his tax returns. >> there have been multiple media reports about donald's business dealings with the mob, with the mafia. maybe his taxes show those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported. >> cruz has released a few returns and rubio released all returns dating back to 2010 over the weekend. trump's meg whitman telling nbc's

endorsement of dunld trump is an astonishing display. donald also nabbed his first senatorial backer. but his failure to strongly condemn a former ku klux klan david duke on cnn may hurt the donald. while he did reduke him back in august trump seemed to stumble sunday morning. i didn't even know he endorsed me. david duke endorsed me? all right. i disavow. give me a list of groups and i'll let you know. >> i'm just talking david duke and the ku klux klan. >> honestly, don't know david duke. >> the other candidates quickly pounced. >> we cannot be a party that nominates someone who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the ku klux klan. we cannot be a party that does that. >> we don't have any white for white supremacists in the united states of america. it just doesn't make any sense to me.

defensive with nbc's chuck todd on a retreat telling, quote, italian leader muse lee know. he said he likes italian quotes. we'll find out how he feel does in tomorrow with a slew of can contests. the latest nbc news "wall street journal" poll shows donald trump with a 17% lead. he also holds a healthy lead while rubio trails at 19%. in cruz's home state of texas. the senator manages to sflip the numbers at 39% to trump's 26%. if that turns into a surge of report. it remains to be seen in tomorrow's showdown. on the democratic side bernie sanders didn't mince words on saturday's south carolina results. >> yowl lost african-american voters 84/16, worse than any poll had shown.

>> well, we got decimated. that's what happened. among older african-americans, it was pathetic from our perspective. >> bernie sanders lost to clinton by a near 3/1 margin. adding urgency to tomorrow's super tuesday races for candidacy in colorado sanders tried out a new campaign last night. >> and you run on a platform calling for a full loaf, at worse you're going to get half a loaf. half a loaf, you're going get crumbs. american people today do not want, do not need crumbs. they need the whole loaf. >> clinton, meanwhile, looked past sanders during a speech in nashville. >> because ultimately we are all in this together, no matter what

insult one group of us or another group of us, i believe that america is great right now. what we need is to be whole. we need to be whole where all of us have a place. >> but she could face more questions as the state department plans to release a final batch of e-mails later today. despite his setback in south carolina, sanders vowed to continue fighting through super tuesday, picking up the support of former dnc vice chair who announced her separation from the committee. in tns the former secretary of state leads by 26 points and in texas clinton holds another 20-plus point lead, 59-38. it was a horrific scene at a ohio. a pastor was allegedly killed by

congregation while the choir was singing. he just walked to the pulpit when the shooting happened. his brother, 68-year-old daniel schooler was in custody and there was likely a domestic injury. there was no word on a motive. no one else was injured. in virginia a man accused of killing two people including a rookie accomplish on her first days on the job is expected in court today. 32-year-old staff army sergeant assigned tothe pentagon is accused of killing one and injuring two others who were responding to a domestic disturbance. after he surrendered they found his wife dead in their home. >> i just want to be clear, do we have officers involved in a shooting? >> we have three officers that have been shot. >> prince william county police department is in very deep mourning over the loss of

>> last night a vigil was held for the 28-year-old officer who was sworn into the police force just this past friday. thank you anonymous shopping cart guy after an unidentified guy used a cart to stop a suspect in his track two weeks ago. officers were able to tackle cody lynn city after he crashed on the ground. he ran into the store to try to get away from police. he was wanted for jaywalking and was arrested for disorderly conduct and parole violation. afterward you can see the shopper picking up his things and just continued shopping. >> in southern india there was an elephant who went on a rampage during a religious festival. you can see one pushing his trunk and throwing it in the air with ease as two rode on his back. it took two hours to bring the powerful pachyderm under control.

parade of decorated elephants. >> nbc meteorologist bill karins has your weather. >> how strong is that elephant? that's incredible stuff. this week the big story is going to be what's going to happen on tuesday and then into wednesday. are we going to see a very veer repeat of last week? thankfully it does not look like that now. your leap day weather today, the only nasty stuff still feeling like winter. that's where it's cold. a little bit of snow in the graiks but the rest of the country looks pretty good. let's get into what's going to happen late tonight. storm system comes out of the central rockies, redevelops. hail threats over oklahoma city, and ard more area. about 3 million people mostly in the state of oklahoma are at risk for some of those severe storms. then late tonight into tomorrow we watch the storms intense ify over arkansas.

by 5:00 p.m. that's where we see the storms over tennessee, alabama, and mississippi. those are some areas we're going to have to watch carefully. isolated tornado at worst but not a big outbreak. that's your national weather. now here's a closer look at your day ahead. so in areas of texas, we could see an isolated shower or storm today from houston up to shreveport but temperatures are looking very warm. i mentioned it still looks like winter in the north. look at duluth. only a high of 14. the good news, the super tuesday doesn't look like it's going to be a ruin for any voters. >> that sounds good. thank you, bill. there are some leap day sales for consumers to tell you about. plus find out what one senator is doing to make your northwest flight a more comfortable experience. you're watching "early today." you're watch you can help prevent blindness in undernourished children all

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harrison was standing on the shoulder of the new jersey turnpike after he was involved in a minor accident with another car. another car accidentally struck him. that driver initially stopped but then fled the scene. they found the driver and are determining appropriate charges. chuck schumer is leading the fight in the increasingly shrinking airline seats. it's dropped from 35 inches in the '70s to 16 irns today and passengers are like sardines. he wants the faa to establish seatline guidelines and introduce an amendment. it was a race to the top this weekend, well, of the rock that is. yesterday was the eighth annual climb to the top where nearly 1,800 people raced up the rockefeller center all 66 flights. the event raised nearly $99,000. now it's time for some business news.

the u.s. theme parks will adopt new seasonal ticket pricing. single day tickets will vary depending on whether it's value or peak time of year. prices will raise from 1g $05 to $104. head over to pizza hut. they're giving away free pizza to whoever has a february 29th birthday. just ahead, talk about a confident golfer. gary woodland loose his pants to save par. sports is up next.

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this morning on "today" the new trick hackers are using to get into your computer. it involves pop-up ads and even natalie morales fell victim to it. now to sports and a pantsless gary woodland. the boxer briefs clad golfer offered a solid shot out of the water into the greenside bunker. woodland went on very confidently to par the hole but it was adam scott who took the tournament by a single shot over his good friend sergio garcia. next to atlanta motor speedway. >> who didn't get a good restart of that. kevin harvick, he spun the tires when he went into third gear. >> look at the back straightaway. this will be the race. here they come. around to the line looking for

four cars involved in the back. >> that's jimmie johnson's 76th career victory tying dale earnhardt and dale earnhardt jr. finished the race in second. and the seahawks taking on the number five musketeers. the pirates got off to a fast start including 26 at the half. seton hall never let up even though xavier let up in the second half. the pirates, 96-81. next, ohio state played iowa on a cold streak losing three of their last four to a close one on the final buzzer but they managed to hold off the hawkeyes, 68-64. finally pittsburgh against duke. the blue devils fighting to catch the red home team but the panthers gave their ncaa tournament hopes a major duke by spanking duke, 76-62.

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>> this is 7news now. >> christa: good morning. ready the start another week? we're good to go. >> sarah: super tuesday just a day away, and massachusetts voters will be heading to the today both hillary clinton and bernie sanders are holding events in the state, and republican john kasich will also be meeting with supporters. >> christa: this morning worcester police trying to track down a driver accused of running over a couple, witnesses were able to get part of a license plate and a description of the car they say left the scene. >> sarah: breaking overnight, an american college student being held in north korea made his first public appearance in nearly two months. the tearful 21-year-old confessed to a hostile act in

it's not clear if this speech was coerced. >> christa: let's talk about our weather for today. if it's anything like this weekend, no complaints from me. >> sarah: let's send it over the chris lambert with more on your forecast. >> chris: guys, no complaints temperature-wise. this afternoon once again near 60 degrees. close to it yesterday afternoon. this go around, though, some more clouds around. even passing shower or two. but the rain shouldn't take up much of the day. 44 right now in boston. 39 in worcester. the wind is out of the south-southwest steady, 10 to 15mph. we'll contend with a breeze throughout the day. but we start off with clear skies. however, to the west of us, there is a cold front. that cold front has showers along it. back through upstate new york, down into pennsylvania. this is the line of showers that will work into new england. now, it looks a little ominous to the west now. i don't think all of those showers hold together, so they will be few and far between by the time they get into central and southern new england, however, we'll deal with a couple scattered showers beginning as early as noon.

once in a while a passing shower or two. more clouds around, a gusty wind, but temperatures also close to 60 degrees. then we'll dry out quickly this evening, clearing skies overnight tonight. tomorrow looks like a good day. mostly sunny skies. seasonably cool. that will put temperatures back into the lower to middle 40s and then by tuesday night, we start to track more showers in here and perhaps even starting off as a little wintry mix in northern worcester county before transitioning over to all rain in here on wednesday. so the rain chance best today between about noon and 5:00 p.m., and even at that,'d say about 30% to 40% of us wind up picking up on a shower. the theme here is to have warm air as we go into today and cooler air follows for tomorrow. light jacket weather today, "today in new england" starts right now. >> christa: a new hampshire native killed in the line of duty. how this falling officer will be honored today and what's next for the man accused of gunning her down.

the agency has cut the deficit. what they c do with that money that might impact your morning commute. >> christa: and a u.s. student detained in north korea for nearly two months now confessing to a crime. >> and the oscar go to... "spotlight." >> for original screenplay. >> sarah: waking up winners, the boston-based movie taking home top honors at the oscars. >> this is 7news "today in new england." >> sarah: good monday morning, everybody. thanks for waking up with us, i'm sarah french. >> christa: and i'm christa delcamp. i'm only speaking for myself, but in the quite firing on all cylinder. it's a classic monday. i think that the weekend weather has something to do with it. it was so intoxicating. it was so nice. >> sarah: it was beautiful, chris, absolutely gorgeous. >> chris: and it goes by way too fast. i can't believe monday morning is already here. we keep the nice weather in here. yesterday perfect outside, right? temperatures into the upper 50s with that sunshine.