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with alex witt." the latest on the storm, right now, nearly 100 cars trapped on new york's long island expre expressw expressway. no word on when they will be rescued. a car accident killed a 74-year-old pedestrian in new york state. most warned others to stay off the roads. >> it just took us ten minutes to drive three blocks. that's how bad it is. >> we've seen a couple accidents. seen a lot of people getting stuck. >> it's pretty bad out here if you don't have 4-wheel drive, you shouldn't be on the road. >> it has knocked out power to customers, mainly in massachusetts. rhode island has the second most outages. frustrated flyers waking up in airports. logan airport is closed. so far, airlines canceled 5,300 flights through today. the massive storm as seen from space. noaa released this photo before the storm ens phied and grew even larger. let's get the latest from the forecast and snow totals from nbc meteorologist bill karins who had a long night. good morning to you. >> good morning, alex. would

welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." office politics, congressional medal of honor recipient colonel jack jacobs, also a msnbc military analyst familiar to many of you. on monday president obama is awarding another congressional medal of honor. it is the highest award bestowed on military personnel. and it got me thinking about what someone must do to be given such an honor. so i asked colonel jack. while he was typically modest about his experience, his is a story of bravery and selflessness in the face of mortal danger. >> well, if you ask any recipient about his action he won't talk about it. he'll tell you about everybody else's action. i think most recipients are like that. because most people who get recognized for combat action, whether it's medal of honor or anything else, all would rather talk about the other people who were brave on that day. but in a nutshell, i was an adviser to a vietnam ease infantry battalion. we had lost contact with the enemy about three days earlier. got some information about where the

welcome to "weekends with alex witt." first five stories trending at this hour. child hostage standoff. it is now in its fifth day. >>> turkey embassy bombing. new information about the bomber's past. >>> first pet remembered. >>> groundhog's accuracy rate. >>> super bowl by the numbers. we have details on all those stories throughout the hour. but first -- >>> today we are learning more about a suspected kidnapper in alabama as the hostage standoff is in its fifth day now. this is the man police say is holding a 5-year-old little boy captive in an underground bunker. jimmy lee dikes is a navy veteran. neighbors say he has deep mistrust of the government. we'll go right now to the scene in midland city, alabama, gabe guttierez, a tough few days. another emotional day ahead, i suspect. >> reporter: that's right. this afternoon mourners are preparing to remember that slain bus driver. police appear willing to wait this one out. as police towed the school bus from the crime scene friday, investigators released the first picture of the man they say is responsible. 65

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welcome to "weekends with alex witt." here are the top stories. the shocking death of an american sniper. details on that. >>> the missing new york woman turns up overseas. another new picture around the globe, a big boom in the big easy for the super bowl. we'll have those stories throughout the hour. first -- in a new interview airing today on tele-mundo, president obama is sharing his time line for passing immigration reform. >> the senators themselves have said that they would like to see legislation done by march. that they would like to present that not only to the fellow members of the senate, but also the american people. i think that's a reasonable time line. the important point here is that we have been working on this for a long time. we know what the issues are. i have a bill drafted. we have language. >> also new today, outgoing defense secretary leon panetta is offering a sobering deadline that triggers automatic across the board cuts. >> let me tell you, if sequester happens, it is going to damage the readiness of the united states

that is a wrap of this hour of "weekends with alex witt." me for a two-hour edition this afternoon. [ record scratch ] what?! it's not bad for you. it just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal -- heart-healthy, whole grain oats. you can't go wrong loving it. heart-healthy, whole grain oats. to the best vacation sp(all) the gulf! it doesn't matter which of our great states folks visit. mississippi, alabama, louisiana or florida, they're gonna love it. shaul, your alabama hospitality is incredible. thanks, karen. love your mississippi outdoors. i vote for your florida beaches, dawn. bill, this louisiana seafood is delicious. we're having such a great year on the gulf, we've decided to put aside our rivalry. now is the perfect time to visit anyone of our states. the beaches and waters couldn't be more beautiful. take a boat ride, go fishing or just lay in the sun. we've got coastline to explore and wildlife to photograph. and there's world class dining with our world famous seafood. so for a great vacation this year,

welcome to "weekends with alex witt." first five stories trending at this hour, sequester blame game. pistorius, what's his next move. nuclear waste leak in the u.s. new fighter jets already grounded. and yahoo!'s new ban that's rubbing some employees the wrong way. we have details on all those stories throughout this hour. but first. >>> new today, president obama take aim at congressional republicans with just six days until the painful across the board budget cuts take effect, if no deal can be reached to avert the sequester. >> are republicans in congress really willing to let these cuts fall on our kid' schools and mental health care just to protect tax loopholes for corporate jet owners? are they really willing to slash military health care and the border patrol just because they refuse to eliminate tax breaks for big oil companies? are they seriously prepared to inflict more pain on the middle class because they refuse to ask anything more of those at the very top? >> meantime, republicans are defending their recor

. >>> welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." are questioning nearly a dozen people in connection with the murder of an american tourist. they found her body in istanbul last night. she vanished nearly two weeks. there's questions on who is responsible for her death. richard engel is in iz stan bull with more. >> reporter: there's mystery surrounding the case. the 33-year-old mother of two came to this country last month for a two-week holiday. this was her first time outside the united states. she was planning on taking this vacation to pursue her hobby of photography with one of her girlfriends. the girlfriend backed out at the last minute and she decided to go ahead with the trip. everything was going normally. she was in contact with her family. no indication anything was going wrong. on january 21st, the day she was supposed to go home, she never got on the flight. her relatives, obviously, became very concerned for the next two weeks, no word. she was missing. the police in this country set up an entire unit to try to find

you're a dog family. >>> welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." time now for headlines at the half hour. a horse meat scandal in europe continues to grow. since disturbing dna test results were disclosed last month, horse meat has been m masquerading as beef. >>> facebook has been hacked. its systems were targeted in a sophisticated attack after a few employees visited an infected site which installed malware and then a bug on their computers. but facebook says none of its millions of users' information was compromised. >>> president obama is working on his golf game this weekend in florida. the president will be getting a lesson from butch harman. the president returns to washington monday. the presidents day holiday. >>> to alabama now and two big new items on that carnival cruise ship nightmare. new video from inside that ship. we'll check out these pictures shot by a passenger showing folks sleeping on the ship's deck and standing in a long line for food. meantime, a woman from texas wasted no time at all filing a lawsuit against the cruise li

"weekends with alex witt" starts now. >>> six days and counting, sextise seeking the truth on the massive budget cuts set to take place in less than a week. >>> what does a butcher shop have to do with impending budget cuss? >>> brace yourself, again. parts of the northeast will get hit by a snowstorm. >>> oscar predictions. who will get the biggest awards? one expert will tell you. >>> let's get to what's happening out there. president obama taking aim at congressional republicans with six days until the painful, across the board budget cuts if no deal can be made. >> are republicans letting cuts to fall on our kids' schools and mental health care to protect corporate loopholes. are they willing to slash military health care and border patrol because they refuse to eliminate tax breaks for big oil companies. are they seriously prepared to inflict more pain on the middle class because they refuse to ask anything more of those at the very top? >> republicans are putting the blame squarely on president obama. this week's republican address. >> republicans in congress right now will provide

00 for premiere of the brand new documentary "hubris: the selling of the iraq war" "weekends with alex witt" starts now. >>> the president gets personal. president obama talks publicly about something he rarely mentions. >>> getting personal on capitol hill, the fight over chuck hagel. we'll explain. >>> what happened? theories on the meteorite that exploded over russia, and another incident you may not have heard about. >>> a new twist today in the cruise ship nightmare. welcome to "weekends with alex wit." what's happening out there. new word from president obama, taking on the gop on the right. and the president arrived in florida last night for the weekend, but not before his weekend address. time to finish the job by cutting the deficit $4 billion. >> you can make bigger cuts to education and job training and social security benefits. senior citizens and working families to bear the burden of deficit reduction, while the wealthiest are asked to do nothing more. >> that won't work, we can't cut our way to prosperity. >> republicans aren't holding back, criticizing the president over the

northrop grumman. >>> welcome back to "week ends with alex witt." your fast five headlines.opher dorner killed himself with a single gunshot to the head. the sheriff reiterated at a news conference, deputies did not intentionally burn down the cabin. >>> facebook says its computer system has been hacked. no user information has been stolen. it traces it back to a website visited by some employees. >>> a tank holding radioactive liquid is leaking at the shuttered hanford nuclear site. there are no high radioactive levels at the washington site. >>> and bus drivers have ended a month-lock strike without getting the job protection they were seeking. >>> another fireball in the sky. in the upper right-hand corner. what folks saw in the bay area of california last night. an astronomer in oakland said it was unrelated to yesterday's passing asteroid and just a sporadic meteor. >>> in his new weekly address out today, president obama spoke about the state of the union proposal to raise the minimum wage. >> how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living? no one should w

>>> welcome back to "weekends with alex witt."s time for headlines as we approach the half hour. six storage tanks are leaking radioactive waste at a nuclear facility in washington state. the first leak at the hanford nuclear reservation was revealed last week. the waste is left over from decades of nuclear weapons production. the department of energy says monitors have not detected any significant increase in radiation levels. >>> the pentagon is grounding its entire fleet of f 35 fighter jets after cracked engine blade was found in the air force version of that jet. the navy and marine corps versions will stay on the ground until engineer can figure out how the crack got there. >>> farmers in kansas are rejoicing after a storm left a foot of snow. they've been dealing with a drought for years. the snow is beneficial but won't be quite enough to put water back in parched pond, lakes and rivers. >>> daryl hannah on why her arrest was worth it coming up. my husband and i can't stop eating 'em! what's...that... on your head? can cur

i'm alex witt. the storm is blamed for ten deaths across the region, including an 11-year-old boston boy who died from carbon monoxide poisoning. he was just trying to keep warm inside a car with a blocked wind pipe. hundreds of abandoned cars are blocking snow plows rushing to clear the roads ahead of the work week. nbc's ron mot is there for us in boston. we begin with nbc's michelle franzen, who's live at laguardia airport. let's get to the travel problems with you, michelle. are they improving? >> reporter: they are improving, alex. this is probably one of the best days since the storm blew in here and buried areas of snow. we're at laguardia. people filing through here most of the day. a handful of cancellations here at the airport. overall, just fewer than 600 airports around the country. that is a far cry from the last few days. air travel as well as road travel frozen in time. the monster storm blizzard literally stopped vehicles in their tracks. >> snow all over the place. >> reporter: alon

welcome to "weekends with alex witt." here are the top stories.details on that. >>> the missing new york woman

and now we want to check in with alex witt, and what is going on?th north korea today. i will talk to bill richardson who just visited that country, and what did he learn with testing in regard to the nuclear w weapon. >> and what you might expect from the aftermath of what happened. >>> and you will hear from the uncle of oscar how president ob fulfilling his promise in a bigger way than most people give him credit for. back to you. >> thank you, alex. >>> after the break, we're going to talk about a 101-year-old who is running four hours a day. our foot soldier of the week is the determined tornado and he's next. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. with command strips from 3m. stick it to eliminate odors anywhere. like this trashcan. in like a flower field. aw man! [ scream

welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's 1:00 here in the east. 10:00 a.m. out west.hat's happening. we begin with president obama and a new push for gun control legislation taking a personal tone the president kicked off a short vacation in florida but not before taking the gun fight to his adopted home of chicago. kristen welker is with us in palm city, florida. what was so unique about the president's trip to chicago? >> reporter: you know it's interesting. president obama spent the week touting the proposals he had put forth in his state of the union address. friday's speech was the longest and it was personal. president obama went back to his hometown of chicago and called for an end to the violation. >> last year, there were 443 murders with a firearm on the streets of this city. so that's the equivalent of a newtown every four months. >> reporter: mr. obama met with a group of at-risk male teens just before taking the stage. and in an uncharacteristic moment talked about the similarities between them. >> i had issues, too, when i was their age. i just had an en

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first it's time for a preview with weekends with alex witt. >> thank you so much.lethal sniper in texas is now dead. someone shot him, why? >>> drawing the line in sand that could hit all americans hard in a matter of weeks. >>> this teen plays a prominent role. we'llics plain that. how far is too far? super bowl ads are selling something. it doesn't seem like the product that is highlighted. what looks best? what do you think? >> i don't know if i can stand that. >> it is what it is. >> thank you, alex. up next, i am here in new york and football and beyonce are in my hometown in new orleans. i'm sad but i'm going to talk about what hosting the super bowl means to me. officemax is celebrating our new collaboration with go daddy! with an online package including: domain name, website builder with five pages and basic email just $49.99! that's up to 76 percent below online providers and only at officemax stores! living with moderate to semeans living with pain.is it could also mean living with joint damage. humira, adalimumab, can help treat more than just the pain.

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. >>> welcome back to "weekends with alex witt."at injured 28 spectators at daytona speedway is raising concerns about safety at the nascar events. it happened saturday when a pack of drivers plowed into each other coming out of that final turn. that car goes flying right into the fence. nbc's janet shamlian joins me from daytona with the latest on today's race. we know that is under way. we can hear something happening, janet. good day to you. >> reporter: hi, alex. yeah. we just started a couple minutes ago and it gets loud about every 60 seconds. not quite yet. the focus is on safety today. here we go. >> there it is, right on cue. >> reporter: what i can tell you is nascar officials say they're looking at this. the speedway says it worked overnight to replace that retaining wall and the crash fence that actually prevented the engine from going into the crowd. but nonetheless, as you mentioned, we have something like 30-plus injuries, two people critical but stable, one of them a child. a lot of questions today is what they're do

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