thousandser of voluntes are pouring into california to help the displaced residents left homeless by the raging wildfires. can they rebuild as we head into thanksodving? may bring us one step closer to the actual details of the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi along with recordings of the incident that president trump refuses to listen to. calling them very violent and very vicious. then to the home front and the busiest thanksgiving travel week in a decade. with over 54 million americans hitting the road going 50 miles or more home. me good news to bank on. to the budding new theme for couples tying the knot. right after the i dos and a

quick kiss the newlyweds spark up a fatty to their happy future. iged weddings are here and some say it's time. breathe it in deep. "early today" starts right now. morning.ay i am phillip mena. >> and i'm marlie hall. breaking news out of northern california this morning where the deadly camp fire continues to rip through butte county. cothlicating rains are o way, and it's threatening thousands who have been forced to evacuate from the wall of flames. authorities say the camp fire has now sprea s toe 150,000 acres of land and me than 1,000 people remain unaccounted for. >> neighbors are joining together with thr thoughts, ayers, and acts of kindness as the increased threat to a working-class community full ofs retiree continues throughout the day. a ndlelight vigil was held at one church in nearby chico for victims of this wildfire as crews there wked toward containment. nbc's scott cohn reports from the town of parase, california. scott? >> reporter: good morning, phillip. this crisis is now moving into a

new phase and perhaps the most difficult. this is the evergreen mobile home park in paradise, california, or what's left of it was a five-acre site with mobile homes and cabins. it's basically gone. you multiply this by thousands. some 10,000re struc destroyed in the town ofaradise. thakts f that accounts for about 80% of the housing stock. this is a town ope 26,000 le. most of those people displaced. some of them have gone to shelter shelters. others have gone to tent cities. zmaz another problem because later in the week the forecast calls for rain. i ra good for the firefighting effort. not so much for anything else. rain can bring mud. it's difficult for the people who ar now newlyhomeless. so the effort now is to g people to move indoors, to move into shelters, as people try t consider what will they do from here? this is not a wealthy community. a lot of people did not have adequate insurance. fd so they are going to be dealing with thi some time

to come. over the weekendev some of the uation orders were finally lifted, allowing people toome home to what's left of what their home was, trying to gather up whatever belongings there are 37 but at the sam time they're being told to watch out for human remains as they continue to tal lipp tly up the death to this fire, the mctt deste, the most deadly in california history. this effort to place people, to nd homes for people who are newly homeless, is going to go on for some time. the rebuilding effort is going to go on for som time. it could be years, though, before paradise, california can live up to its name. scott cohn, nbc news, paradise, california. >> all right, scott. thank you. people from around the country are reaching out to help the california wildfire victims. re than 5,000 people have joined the paradiseiredopt a family facebook group, which allows volunteers to make personal conneions with people in need of support. many helping hands have als t flockethe northern california area to hand out supplies and serve thousands of

meals a day. critics are raising a stink this morning over the president's latest insults. mr. trump targeted congressman adam schiff with either potty humor or a typo after the california democrat criticized the acting attorney general. schiff, who's expectedo head the house intelligence committee, said the democrats will challenge the legality of idthe prt's appointment of matthew whitaker. well, in a tweet the president fended the move by saying special counsel robert mueller was not approved by the senate. he also referred to the as little adam schiff, but he replaced the fs wh ts. the congressman clapped back tweeting "wow, mr. that's a good one. was that like your answers to mr. mueller's questions or did you write this one yourself?" schiff there referring to th major developments expected in the russia investigation. for more on all this let's go to nbc's tracie potts in d.c. tracie, the drama not on holiday just yet. the president expected somit his written answers to the mueller team this week.

>> reporter:tl ex phillip. written answers. and they're supposed to be submitted before thanksgiving. thens presidentring about collusion, which he's repeatedly said there was none. but not answering questions about possible obstruction of justice. his lawyers would n allow that. now, the president in an interview on fox said that he's done, that these questions were -- that he dictated them, at it wasn't lots of meetings with lawyers as was reported but a pretty simple process. but as for a sit-down interview, a face-to-face interview, not kely to happen. >> is that your final position, that there going to be no sit-down interview and nhing written or in person on obstruction? >> i would say probably. probably. i mean, i can change my mind, . but probab >> no -- >> i think we've wasted enough time on this witch and the answer is probably. we're finished. >> reporter: the question now, will his new acting attorney genel matt whitaker either try to shut down the investigation

or maybe keep the muell report private after the investigation is done? it's been 18 months. phillip. and we felt every bit of it. tracie, thank you. a growing chorus of is calling on the trump administration to take action this morning in the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggew nbc has confirmed the cia has concluded the crown prince himself ordered the hit. president trump has not yet said what he will do if that's true. for the latest in the investigation let's get to nbc's sarah harman in london. sarah, the president says a full report is on its way. >> reporter: marlie, good morning. that's exactly right. that report is expected today or tomorrow. but as you say, the cia has already concludedhe crown prince ordered the killing. president trump called that finding very premature. and let's not forget, there's also a tape of khashoggi's murder. a tape president trump says he's notoing to listen to. >> we have the .ta

i don't want to hear the tape. no reason for me to hear the tape. >> why don't you want to hear , sir? >> because it's a suffering tape. it's a terrible tape. i've been fully briefed on sit. thero reason for me to hear it. ple act, i said to the p should i they said you really shouldn't. there's no reason. i know exactly -- i know everything that went on in the tape without -- >> and what happened? >> it was very violent, very vicious, and terrible. >> reporter: turkey is now saying the saudis may have taken khashoggi's dismembered corpse out of the country in luggage. and all of this is making it increasingly difficult for president trump. he clearly wants to maintain a closelliance with the saudis and the crown prince specifically. but evidence i mounting thate murdered an innocent"washington poournalist in cold blood. marlie, phillip? >> disturbing details. sarah, thank you. another contentious chapter in florida's voting history is in the books this morning. republicans triumphed in both the governor's race as well as

the senate after a manual re unt. and following weeks of criticism broward county election chief brendanipes officially resigned from her position. several top republicans accused her of and she quickly became the face of florida's latest election wo. nbc's ali vital the drama and has the latest on the aftermath of tna contentious race. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, marlie. nearly two weeks after election day and finally have a senator from the state of florida and for the fir time since 2001 it's not senator bill nelson. he conceded yesterday to republican rick scott. people calle that call gracious in its concession. but here are some interesting seings he said in his concession speech. tor bill nelson says, "we have to move beyond a politics that aims not just to defeat but to destroy, where truth is treated as disposable, where falsehoods aboundnd the free press is assaulted as the enemy of the people." he goes on to say, "there's been a gathering darkness in our politics in recs.t ye

and it's hard not to see that as an indictment of donald trump, soone who has brought that particular brand of politics to the fore in recent dyears. t's interesting too because republicans in this state from the very beginning of this recount process have decried a process of rampant fraud. now, there's been no evidence of thhen rick scott said it at the governor's mansion or when marco rubio and other members of the florida delegation picked up th bat and ran with it throughout the course of this machine recount and then hand count. but t question here is that in all the chaos what can be doneb er in 2020 through all these legal fights?me there are ew rules sure to come from florida's legislature all with an eye to keeping 2020 asunchaotic as possible. back to you. >> let's hope.i vitali, thank you. >> we have started one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. bill, good morning. >> we'll talk snow once again. nothing like the wig one had last week. this one is going to be in central and southern portions of northern new england. today we watched a little bit of snow through ohio. 5:00 p.m. just a little narrow band that little blue stripe there in northern

pennsylvania, south don't expect a lost accumulation during the day but tonight as we go through the evening as that snug moves th northern new england and central new england, it will be actually snowing hard enough aug cold e to be sticking on the ground and the road. we'll be doing a little shoveling inreas of new hampshire and northern portion of massachusetts. that's it. it's not goi to be horrible. thanksgiving's going to be itco. on't be snowing in that area. that's a look at the big weather story of the day now here's a toser look at the day ahead. so you can see temperatures today. so even though we will see some snowflakes today in ohio andan in and pennsylvania, unless you're at a higher elevation it shouldn't be sticking to the roads in most cases. you want to talk about cold, gh th right behind this little storm frigid air in the northern plains. that's going to be the story of thanksgiving, is that cold, cold air comm g down fe north. >> got other things to be thankful for all right, bill, thanks. when it com to relationship goals, former first lady michelle obama and her husband are a top source of inspiration. take a look at this surprise

appearce during mrs. obama's "becoming" book tour. president obama en came bearing gifts. pink flowers. 44e th president compared his book tour cameo to jay-z coming on stage during a beyonce concert. esident obama proudly prades his wife for her successful book tour. >> those shelvese empty everywhere i saw her book. just ahead, where weddings loft legal weed industry seeing green. we'll tell you more when we come back. hing a ride. hing a ride. i felt this awful pain in my chest. i had a pe blood clot in my lung. i was scared. i had a dvt blood clot. having one really puts you in danger of having another. my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®. to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner that's... proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your body's

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♪ introducing the all-new corolla hatchback. toyota. let's go places. now to a new warning about a terrifying scam in which claim that someone you know has been kidnapped and is being held hostage in return for a ransom payment. happened last weeko the family of a famous olympic swimmer, and now the fbi has a warning to keep you from falling victim. nbc's rehema e his details. >> reporter: for rowdy and judy gaines it was a nightmare. r we were just in a state of shock. orter: they now know it was a scam. but when the three-time olympic gold medal swimmin champion and his wife got a call demanding

money, claiming their daughter madison was kidnapped, it seemed terribly real. >> sot popped uper face and her number. >> reporter: but it was a man with a >> he started shouting expletives and that he was going to shoot our daughter. >> rorter: crowdy started recording the call. what t worse,he whole family was being tricked. rowd and jud in florida but scammers also had daughter madison on the phone thousands of miles away. they used technology to dupe the family into thinking they were communicating th one another. i heard my dad yell out "madison, madison. let me talk to my dad." q >> andstioned madison, are you okay? she said, i'm okay but i need help. >> reporter: police finally got involv rowdy hung up the phone. it's an increasingly common racket. to protect yourself the fbi says hang up on threatening nellers. r use a loved one's name. try to reach the alleged kidnap victim immediately.

>> we were gteful thatur daughter was safe. and -- >> that's all that really mattered. >> that's all that really ma tered to us, wast she was safe. >> an the end that's that matters. >> reporter: relief and a lesson about how far some scammers will go. rehema ellis, nbc news. >> terrifying for those parents. >> let's see them a try that liam neeson, th>gh. >> just ahead, why you'll want to fill up more than just your stomach on this thanksgiving. and the perfect wedding. no longer a pipe dream for pot eenthusiasts. udding new industry that has couples buzzing. next. ok, i'm ready...

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thanksgiving, you'll be thankful to know that you'll be paying less at the pump the average price for regular gasoline has dropped 12 cents a gallon over the last twoek the national average is now $2.68. the average price is still 11 cents higher than it was a year ago. well, planning abe wedding n stressful with the flowers, cake, guest list and so much more. but now there's a new to think about. marijuana. while still illegal on a federal level, some couples ins sta where recreational use is allowed are adding pot to their pas, and it's a big business. here's nbc's gadischwartz. >> it is why we are here today. to celebrate their rlove. orter: to put it bluntly,

this is not your typical wedding. >> you may now smoke with the bride. >> reporter: but jeff and serena beleja have always shared a love of weed. >> did you guys smoke on your? first da >> of >> love at first toke? >> exactly. love at first toke. >> reporter: now they've invited family to join in on their wedd>>g day. e have like the most amazing setup. it's like having marijuana sommeliers. it's like a luxury experience. >> reporter: legal weed means big money. a projected $23ilon american market by 2022. add that to a wedding industry worth more than $70 billion annually and marijuana marriages seem like a match made in, well, california and colorado and oregon and seven other states that allow recreational pot. >> and there's another bar over here. >> reporter: it's a whole new business model lor thosee jamie lee mccormick, a wedding planner who calls him the flower daddy. >> so it's not just tha people smoke marijuana at a wedding like this. you're talking about decorating the wedding. >> absolutely.

there's can-bit in the flowers and at the altar and there's flower in thnd bouquet a the groom's bout>>niere. reporter: and it sparked up a whole host of weed wedding expos and catalogs for brides and grooms. takeannabis business owner jackie plummer. for her mainstream pot is a massive business rtunity. >> a lot of the times people e going to be stitting on the couch. it's really much more than that. >> what type of cannabis do you guys like? >> reporter: c herpany provides a weed bar, bud tenders who serve weed to guests andat even coord a ride home. an alternative jeff and serena see to alcohol. >> you see marijuana kind of as wine. ? yeah, of course. >> eporter: and some of the guests agree. >> i haven't had any alcohol yet. and iwo probably t. >> reporter: and as more states look to legalize an industry worth biions, the chances of seeing more weddings like this are getting pretty high. gadi schwartz, nbc news, los anles. >> i can imagine what they're going to do for the honeymoon. >> people drink at weddingse al time.

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to the big easy where the defeoing champ eagles ran i a buzz saw that is the new orleans saints. who dat? ll, that is 39-year-old drew brees. having an mvp season. threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns. saints annihilate philly. bu if you think the eagles had a bad day, wait until you see what happeood tor alex smith. the redskins quarterback commemorating a day that will live in infamy in d.c.th in most painful way possible, so gruesome we had to blurt it out. he had to be carted off the field. he had a broken tibia and fibula of his right leg. his dastating injury especially eerie because it came on the same date in 1985 as joe theismann broke his tibia and fibula on his right leg. endedtheismann's career. hopefully a different outcome for alex smith. texans winhe game 23-21. bill is up next whiz drecast. plus things't go quite as planned at a prerace nascar show. you're watching "early today."

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monday morning and the start of thanksgiving week isre >> we'll get a check on the morning commute in just a

moment. let's start with chuck bell and a check on the forecas and this warning about extra cold. >> wait until you see the thanksgiving forecast. it's going to be cold turkey for around re. temperatures into the 50s today. that's cold front number one. it will bring with ithe chance for a couple of showers around here. but probably so lat into the evening that it's not going to effect your daytime ans. best chance for a shower is around 8:00 or9: this evening. grab your coat on the way out the door. check on theest of the week and thanksgiving is coming up in a few. >>k taking a l at the roads here. we still have a closu there between beachdale and rock