develing overnight, flash floods overtaking california neighborhood where wildfir devastated the region just two weeks ago. this morning the fallout. >> facing world leaders front and center at the20 in argentina, while back at home robert mueller's legal wagons are circling the white house. >> forget your passport and id. the future is now for a handful of travelers who only need to show the face to check in at airport security gates. >> the little g wlse letter to an nba star changed the way busine is done. >> can you name dog breeds? buckle up. "early today" starts right now. good friday morning. i'mhillip mena.

>> i'm frances rivera. developing overnight, heavy california as of already scarred by wildfires. a water rescue team saved a man clinging to a tree in aising l.a. river in southern california. that's where offials warn of ash flooding and power outages. the butte county sheriff's ofce issued evacuation areas for some areas of paradise california. that's the northern town recently devastated by the camp fire. the heavy rainfall increases the risk of mudslides like these on en here which shutdown highwayna 38 in the sanrdino mountains. according to local reports, the occupants of the vehicles were not injured. >> let's get over to nbc meteorologist bill karins tracking the storms for us this morning. good morning. >> good morning. coast to coast, hitting california hard yesterday, todao g into the southern plains, we have life-threatening weather that's going to head to us in arkansas, louisiana and also through hemississippi, through overnight hours, even into saturday this stormuss going to problems with life-threatening weather on the gulf coast. it's ato multifaceted

because we're still getting snow in the sierras. the snow and storm heads to the northern plains. blizzard conditions so coast to coast. >> lot to track. bill, thank you. more explosive developments to tell you about in the russia probe. former trump personal attorney michael cohen pleading guilty to lying to congress about a project to build a trump tower owmonth mo cohen admitting he lied about exactly when discussions for that project ended to protect then candidate trump during his 2016 campaign. what's more, two u.s. law enforcement officials tell buzzfeed newsohen and a russian official discussed plans to give president vladimir putin a $50 million penthouse in that proposed tower. democratic members of the house intelligence committee tell buzzfeed they will investigate once the party takes control come january.lt cohen's g plea is the 7th to come out of robert mueller's investigation, and after the plea president trump said his former fixer is a, quote, weak person who is aiming for a reduced sentence. nbc's pete williams starts off our coverage.

>> reporter: michael cohen was rt pleading ral c guilty to an explosive new s charge,ing that he lied to congress when he told house and senateas investigators lt year about discussions between the trump organization and the russian government over plans to build a tmp tower in moscow. cohen said he lied when he told congress that the drulings with ia ended in january 2016, before the presidential campaign was heating up. in fact,dm heted they continued for at least another six months, and he briefed trump family members. he also liedheo congress w said he was not in touch witan y russian officials about the project and had no plans to travel there. cohen now says he e-mailed dmitry peskov one of vladimir putin's closest aides trying to get the run's help with the project and talked on the phone with one of peskov's aides for 20 minutes. cohen said he did talk to trumps campaign officbout going to russia and even suggested mr. trump could go there to pursue the project after becoming the republican party's

nominee for esident in mid july. cohen said the deal was j abandonee 14th, which is the same day the washington post reported thas russi hacked into democratic computers. in court, cohen said he made these misstatements to be consistent with mr. trump's political messaging and out of loyalty to donald trump. in a court filing, special counsel robert mueller said cohen alsoied toongress, quote, in hopes of limiting the ongoing russia iestigations. >> obviously this is very significant plea and statement. it means that when the president was representing during the campaign that he had n business interests in russia, that that wasn't true. >> reporter: other than cohen's lies to congress, the charges don't allege any other illegal conduct. there was nothing illegal about the trump organization trying to get a project going in moscow. legal experts say the charges suggest that mueller wanted cohen's testimony in court to build a case against others in the trump orbit. >> additional charges down the road, if any, couldncde

lying to congress as mr. cohen admitted to, but it cou be her charges as well. it could be people involved in transactions that innd of themselves were illegal. we don't know yet. >> reporter: mueller's team has now found there was at least some outreyh the trump organization to vladimir putin for business reasons. t no question, was that conduit use for anything else? pete nilliams, nbcs, washington. >> reporter: i'm kristin welker. president trump unleashing a new arsenal of attacks against michael cohen. >> he's a weak person and not a very smart person. what he's trying to do is end -- and it's very simple. he's got himself a big prison sentence and he's trying to get a much lesser prison sennce by making up this story. >> reporter:nohen has bee a frequent target of the president since july when the former fixer, who once said he'd take a bullet for mr. trump, started cooperating with the special counsel after pleading guilty to violating campaign finance laws,

stemming from that hush money payment to stormy daniels. >> it turned out h wasn't a good lawyer. >> reporter: the president's attorney rudy giuliani telling c news president trump's written answers to mueller about ower in build a trump russia were consistent with what cohen said. it all comes as the president is been intensifying attacks against mueller. tweeting before the cohen news broke, the probe is an illegal joseph mccarthy-style witch-hunt, and asking, did y ever see an investigation more in search of a crime? still, the charges putting a new spotlight on mr. trump's business dealings wh russia, which he dismissed during the campaign. >> i will tell you right now, zero, i have nothing to do with russr:. >> reporncluding to lester last year. >> i have nothing to do with russia. i have no investments in russia. none whatsoever.ro i don't haverty in russia. >> reporter: the president saying nothing's changed. >> i didn't do the project. i decided not to do the project. there would be nothing wrong if i did do it. i was running my business while

i was campaigning. there was a good chance that i wouldn't have won. in which case i would have gone why into the business a should i lose lots of opportunities? >> reporter: and in yet another shot at mueller, giulii today accused him of playing politics, saying he, quote, once again les a charge just as the president is leaving for a meeting with world saying mueller did the same thing before president apartments summit with putin in helsinki. phillip? >> kristen welker, thank you. >> reporter: president tru has arrived in buenos aires for the g20 summit. he was scheduled for eight bilateral meetings but canceled the sit-down with vladimir putin ahead of arriving. one leader who may be confronting putin on ukraine, british prime minister theresa may.ar nbc's harman has the latest from london.

good morning. >> reporter: frances, good morning.p it is shapingo be a busy day in buenos aires. first who president trump weets with a he avoids. as you said, he abruptly canceled hish meeting w russian president putin over russia's seizure of ukrainian vessels and sailors. he is set to meet with chinese president xi jinping tomorrow to talk trade and. north kor two hot button issues. the u.s. and china are the world's two biggest economies 4r0kd in a trade war. the outcome of this has the potentia c tom tensions or seriously spook global investors. e other thing to watch is how the saudi crown prince mohammed biman is received. his government has admitted to killing "washington post" journalist jamal khashoggi. and british prime minisyr theresa aid she'll confront the crown prince not only over khashoggi's brutal murder, but also over the saudi-led war in yemen which has killed thousands of civilians and left 14 million

people at risk of starvation. frances, phillip? >> sara thank you >> breaking overnight, tragedy striking tucson after a u.s. marshal was shot and killed whileerving a felony warrant outside a suspect's home. this is the first u.s. marshal to be killed in the line of duty in tucson in 66 years. right n n authorities are releasing the marshal's name, but the suspecwas arrested ter an hour standoff at his house. and after hearing the news, arizona govern doug ducey tweeted his w condolencting in part, my deepest condolences and prayers go out to the famil and arizona law enforcement. >> breaking overnight, three people were killed and eight othersnjured when a truck crashed on the interstate near the mexican border. he would not yield for the border patrol and spike strips were used. >> shortly after the spike strip, the vehicle eed up going up an embankment, dirt rock embankment, verysteep. the vehicle went probably 20, 25 feet up the embankment and subsequently rolled over.

he wheel whoehind is believed to be a u.s. citizen is now into border patrol c. >> just in time for the holiday travel rush we are getting a glimpse of what some call the next generation of air travel. an entire airport terminal in atlanta is the first to go biometric. it turns your face into your boarding pass. nbc's tom costello got a first look at this new travel tech. >> and your flight is one othe first departures using facial recognition technology from curb to gate. >> reporter: at the busiest airport the world, terminal f check in is as simple as look, smile and click. delta's outbound international passengers no longer have to scan a ticket. you walk up to the computer, it recognizes your face from your passport photo already on file and checks you in. no need for a pass board or ticket. the camera recognizes your face again. by early nex y year,r face will be your boarding pass.

for tsa. same processin for board the flight. facial recognition. and i'm on the plane. >> nobody wants to stand in line any extra time, so anything that's going to speed it up is hing to be great. >> reporter:eland security already uses the cameras for international passengers, scanning their faces. >> how far apart your eyes, your ears, your chin, your mouth. >> reporter: boasting 98% accuracy, now bell thdelta is b facial recognition to the entire process. >> you don't have to wait to fumble your i.d. t saves you wait time at the airport. >> reporter: maybe domestic flights within two years, but in atlanta -- >> super easy. >> reporter: the future. is he tom costello, nbc news, atlanta >> inow we're talking about, what if you lose weight, what if you get work done. >> so many variables. anything to get us through those lines more quicker, we will embrace. >> speaking of airport, you could have delays in dallas with the thunderstorms popping up this afterno around 4:00 p.m. but the tornado threat, the

worst of it, texarkana and p shreveport attention to your local nbc station this evening as we deal with tornadoes on thed at that time. that's a look at the big weather story of the day. now here's a closer look at your day ahead. in the southeast, you can tell the elements are in place. temperatures into the 70s, humidity coming in off the gulf. torm going to get that system that was in california yesterday kicking through this afternoon. to the north of this, a gnificant snowstorm especially in areas of nebraska and south dakota. the rest of the weekend forecast, this storm is going coast to coast, gets to the east coast. by the weekend. >> everybody is getting something. bill, thank you. in today's quick hits, netflix axes another marvel show s they did the character will live on in future projects for marvel. the company had aeady pulled the plug on luke cage and iron fist. ai the federal reserve is expected to interest rates in december according to the previous meeting. stocks spiked on wednesday after investors believed fed powell

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his icy water rescue will warm your heart. an ohio family's dog fell through ahu chilled pondday morning. a firefighter tied himself to a rope and swam out to pull the pooch to safety. how great is that? another dog also lucky to be alive in florida after it got stuck in a manhole. officers say the pooch broke loose from its walker, crossed the highway and jumped into the water. he made its way through a drainage pipe and the owner had to go down and lure him to safety. >> i thought it was a trainer. dogs are photo genetic. a company searched different

dogs and found french bulldogs are the most popular with 39.2 million posts. pugs came in second 29.3 million posts. and then chihuahuas barked in at ith 27.6 million. i kind of agree with all that. the french bulll b you wdogs. >> pugs and chihuahua, all the cute dogs, tse? >> the scrunched up faces, i get it. >> it is not even december yet. it will be tomorrow, though. the holiday grinches are already out there hard at work. the last thing you want to see for thosee waiting gifts that you ordersed to show up on your doorstep, yeah. check this out. so nbc's kristen dahlgren has the h videoere, the postal carrier who logged that package not once, but twice. >> reporter: the simon family couldn't believe it when they watched their christmas package delivered a viair meal as an under handed heave all caught on

surveillance tape. >> i was angry, i was shock, in sbelief. >> reporter: not only does the carrier throw the package, she picks it up and a minute later throws it again, harder. inside the box, clearly marked handle with care. >> itse was a h truck for our grandson. >> reporter: the simons say it's happened before. >> this is the third time. enough is enour:. >> reporhe post office is now investigating, adding, this is clearly unaeptable behavior that does not reflect the efforts of the thousands of professional dedicatedcarriers. the postal worker apparently claiming the dog and kids weret e, but the simons say that's not true. >> there was no dogsr kidney where. >> reporter: on the tape you can see mrs. simon giving a piece of her mind to that mail carrier who just might make santa's naughty list this year. kristen dahlgren, nbc news. >> she's not going d to the 6 feet. she's just not going to do it. >> there's lot of pressure on the postal workers to get your gifts wherever you order from like uthat. on't know how the sausage

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good morning. it is friday. that's not the only goodnews.

we're looking at a break in other temperatures. >> but we begin with storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell. >> last fridayyas the o friday out of the last six weeks and it didn't have rain was freezing cold. so no surprise that it's tgif and here come the rain chances again. unusual to see even thunderstorms in southern west virginia here in the predawn hours. we're not going to get any rain today, but we're also not going to get much of anything in the suhine. a few sprinkles overnight and i couldn't rule out theas onal pellet or two as temperatures are down in the mid 30