>> let's go to ron allen, my colleague standing by near the scene there. hat is the latest from your vantage point? >> reporter: i think the big concern in the crowd out here is still whether or not anybody is missing and unaccounted for. i've spoken to a number of people who have been trying to reach people who live near the building in that neighborhood and have not been able to make contact as of yet. we, of course, worry for them, but again at this point we are not hearing reports at the scene of people missing. the fire seems to be out now. people have still out of their homes in the area, the area is cordoned off and most of the stores and homes in this area and apartment buildings have been evacuated, so people are still trying to figure out what's going on. there are still dozens upon dozens of fire and police apparatus here. i'm not sure exactly, but i would say anywhere from a four to eight square block area is cordoned off as they still get a handle on this. yes, the utilities are visible here. con ed and others are here, obviously, because the l

ron allen, nbc news. >>> still ahead, why it may stand a prayer of a chance, the >>> still ahead, whyt may stand a prayer of a chance, the my dad has aor afib.brillation, he has the most common kind... ...it's not caused by a heart valve problem. dad, it says your afib puts you at 5 times greater risk of a stroke. that's why i take my warfarin every day. but it looks like maybe we should ask your doctor about pradaxa. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate)... ...was proven superior to warfarin at reducing the risk of stroke. and unlike warfarin, with no regular blood tests or dietary restrictions. hey thanks for calling my doctor. sure. pradaxa is not for people with artificial heart valves. don't stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor. stopping increases your risk of stroke. ask your doctor if you need to stop pradaxa before surgery or a medical or dental procedure. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding or have had a heart valve replaced. seek immediate medical care for unexpected sign

back to you, ann. >> all right, ron allen, thank you for reporting on the story. >>> meanwhile, in san francisco tonight investigators are trying to determine if welding work was the cause of a huge fire that tore through an apartment complex under construction, completely engulfing it in flames yesterday afternoon. the smoke was seen for miles and nearby areas were evacuated as crews battled the flames for hours. two firefighters suffered minor injuries. >>> in a show of solidarity today, president obama met with ukraine's acting president at the white house during the ongoing tensions with russia. senator john mccain plans to lead a delegation of lawmakers to ukraine tomorrow. >>> tonight, we continue our special coverage on the syria children of war. more than 140,000 people have been killed so far since the war began there three years ago this week. at least 10,000 of them have been children with many more thousand wounded. and there is no end in sight. we have reports now from both sides of syria's border with bill neely in damascus and chief medical doctor nancy snyderman in leba

nbc's ron allen has our report. >> reporter: whatever set off the explosion was so powerful, more than 24 hours later the inferno was still not completely out. hundreds who live nearby are homeless. >> i thought i was going to die, i kept saying don't you die in this apartment. your kids need you. >> everything, my whole house is destroyed completely. >> reporter: now investigators look deep into new york's old underground infrastructure. one gas line under suspicion is 127 years old. beyond new york, the nation has some 100,000 miles of gas pipes 50 years old or more, according to researchers at duke university. they also found thousands of gas leaks in boston and washington, d.c. using a street level detection vehicle. at least a dozen leaks in d.c. were potentially explosive, according to their analysis. >> more surprising was the fact that when we went back four months later, 3/4 of those dangerous leaks had not been fixed. >> reporter: from this explosion in san francisco in 2010 to this one a year later in allentown, pennsylvania, gas incidents cause an average of 17 deaths every

nbc's ron allen has more. >> reporter: good evening, brian, the death toll now stands at four. and investigators are focusing on the top floor of the motel, completely destroyed. a number of people who escaped say they think the fire started in a lounge used by cigarette smokers, an inferno that started while dozens of hotel guests were asleep. the predawn blaze roared quickly through the wood-framed motel. the flames fanned by flames gusting from the beach a couple blocks away. a kayottchaotic scene, people banging on doors, screaming to wake people up. some jumped from the second floor. >> fire already coming through the roof. >> reporter: joe frysac was at the motel since december, the latest temporary home because of hurricane sandy, says he wanted to go back in to help. >> but the stairs were already covered in flames. and the second floor was covered in flames. >> got a subject on the west side trapped. >> reporter: rescuers spotted a woman standing in the shower, water running to protect herself. >> we had to break the window. there was fire overhead. we had to bring a h

nbc's ron allen has made his way to the scene and joins us now. n, where are you exactly, what are you seeing and hearing? >> reporter: well, chris, i'm about a block or so away. we started to see the smoke when we were a mile away, somewhat hazy day here, but it's, obviously, a huge scene out here of first responders, police, firefighters. i can see where they are still trying to put out the fire of the building. this is a very densely populated neighborhood. east harlem in new york, on the edge of east town manhattan. high-rise buildings, four or five stories tall and public housing buildings, so we're talking about a very densely populated area, where there are a lot of people. obviously, one of the big concerns now is whether any people were trapped in this building when the explosion happened and when the building collapsed. it's still unclear exactly what the building was. i can't see quite from my vantage point. we're still trying to make our way as close as we can to see what we can see. still unclear exactly what the building was, what was

nbc national investigative correspondent michael isikoff is here with me, and nbc's ron allen is live in trenton, ahead of the news conference. ron, i want to start with you. what are we expecting to hear from the governor later today? >> well, i think you've heard it all in the interview with abc and from his lawyers. i'm sure he's going to stick very close to those talking points essentially. this is a -- clearly a mobilized, thought-through defense taking place here on the part of the governor. there's a 2:30 press conference here. the last time we had a big press conference, it lasted two hours. he answered all the questions. he didn't go off-script, and this report that's been released by lawyers allied with him, he's going to stick to that very closely. it said that he is blameless. but the report raises so many unanswered questions. it never explains exactly why this whole episode happened. and as you pointed out, christie participated in the investigation, discussion with these lawyers, but what he said, what he was asked has not been revealed. i think the bottom line is that

joining me now, "washington post" editorial columnist ruth marcus and ron allen live in trenton.the governor is going to hold a news conference about 2:30 we're told. >> 2:30 on a friday afternoon, late in the day. and typical maneuver one would say by politicians who want a story to be buried somewhere. this will get a lot of attention and seems to be part of af concerted effort to or kes straight an aggressive defense, not even subtle. there's a big report done by a law firm you hire and do a big interview on network news and press conference before the big weekend out with a key gop bundler donor. and the report says essentially what you've been saying all along. it leaves christie blameless. some people will buy it and his critics will not. and we'll look to other investigations to be more investigative and some have said a complete whitewash of it. we don't know exactly what happened and why it happened with this all bridge gate affair. that's the big problem with all of this. we expect christie to come out at 2:30 eastern time. he is of course very good, very polished in th

. >> i wouldn't exactly say nbc's ron allen hit the jackpot, but he is on the road in atlantic city. [ laughter ] >> reporter: hit the jackpot, yeah! we're down here in casino alley. actually, the beach is just over in that direction. another block. you can look over there and you kind of just let your mind think about spring and summer and all that, but when you look in this direction, you see what we've got, just complete roads covered with snow. fortunately, it has stopped snowing here in the last hour or so. so, the maximum was about 7 inches or so in some areas. the forecast called for 8 to 11. i have to stop at a traffic light here, which is, of course, the rules. so, it wasn't as bad as thought. the other problem, of course, the weather, the temperature. it's down to about 20 degrees. we've been hovering around 20, 18 or so, so everything is iced over. this is the southern part of new jersey. up in the northern part of new jersey, there were still snow mounds. unfortunately, the storm went south, and the northern and central parts of the state escaped yet another blast of wint

. >> nbc's ron allen joins us live from the state capitol in trenton, new jersey. what are we to expect from this news conference at 2:30 eastern time today? >> reporter: right, tamron. 2:30 on a friday afternoon, it's a good time to do a press conference when you want to bury a story. politicians have traditionally done that, and this is being looked at with a lot of skepticism, seen as more public relations than investigation, if you will, and it's part of a process, apparently. there was this huge report that was produced the other day, as you pointed out, done by lawyers, hired by the governor. he did a big interview with diane sawyer on abc yesterday, and today, a press conference in a format he is very comfortable in. so it appears that christie is clearly trying to orchestrate a aggressive response to this continuing crisis, and he is expected to stick very close to the script. this is also coming a day before he's going to travel out to las vegas tomorrow for an event with a lot of other potential republican candidates for president in 2016 before a big don

police say 21-year-old was shot sure ron allen faces two counts of capital murder and 23 counts of aggravated assault. formal charges are still pending. police say two of the injured remaining critical condition. >>> in new york city the death toll rose to eight in the explosion that leveled two apartment buildings. search teams recovered the eighth body this evening at the site in harlem. at least four people are still unaccounted for since the blast yesterday morning. more than 60 others wereinjured. new york city officials say they believe a natural gas leak caused the explosion. utility crews have not yet been able to find the source of the leak. >>> developing out of philadelphia where the front end of u.s. air jet suddenly collapsed on the runway when the nose gear failed on take off. sure it's were deployed to a vacuum a 149 passengers and five crew maters. the airbus a320 was headed to fort lauderdale, florida at about 6:30 p.m. an airport spokeswoman said no serious injuries have been reported. >>> the mystery deepens on the missing malaysia airlines jetliner with the new report that

ron allen is live at the scene. any update on the recovery efforts here?porter: this is going to be an extended and precarious operation. he said there are a number of people missing. he wouldn't give us a firm number, but a lot of concern that there were still people trapped inside these two apartment buildings that collapsed where there were perhaps dozens of apartments and the call came in at 9:30 this morning or so, so there's a high probability that there were people inside. and the death toll -- the injury toll also could perhaps rise. the fire is not yet under control, the mayor said. they are trying to get that under control and do an extensive search of the buildings. people have been evacuated from nearby homes and businesses, so there's still a lot of confusion and people unaccounted for, according to the mayor, who would not put precise figures on it. you see up the street behind me, there's still smoke coming out where the buildings stood. it's several hours that they've been trying to get these flames under control. they'll try to make sure t

my colleague ron allen is checking the commute in atlantic city, new jersey, how's it looking on the ds there, ron? >> looking pretty bad. pretty bleak, chris. there's several inches of snow on the road and some plows going by, salt trucks, new jersey does seem to have enough of that this time around, but it's pretty bad out here. fortunately, a lot of people are staying at home. this is atlantic city, new jersey. as you look ahead of us, you can see this is usually boardwalks and beaches and all that sort of thing. it's nothing like that today. it's just a complete white situation down here. it's supposed to snow on until the early afternoon. the forecast called for as much as eight inches or so here. we're not sure how much they've gotten, probably a few inches on the ground already. schools are closed, businesses are closed here, and it's similar in delaware and philadelphia where the mayor closed schools late last night. so here, again, it's just amazing. i think this is the 17th or 18th storm that we've seen in new jersey. better up north, but down here in south jersey, it's real

nbc's ron allen joins me now from trenton, so, ron, i want to start by asking you what impact you're hearing this report will actually have on the state lawmakers investigation? >> reporter: well, those are good questions, joy and maybe we'll be able to put them to the governor. as for the state legislators who are looking into this, remember, they're democrats for the most part, at least the majority of them are, and so this is obviously a very political situation. one of the co-chairs of the committee says he doesn't see this report as being thorough of objective. he questions the fact that a number of key individuals were not questioned like bridget ann kelly or david winestein. they're already saying and being pretty dismissive of this report and that's the obstacle that the governor faces. this report and nothing else has ever found any smoking gun evidence that the governor did in fact authorize this or know about this. there's that moment where winestein had this conversation with christie that he doesn't remember, which of course sounds convenient when a politician says i don

nbc's ron allen. >>> from there to colorado.tax revenues from those sales have far exceeded expectations. let's bring in nbc affiliate kusa reporter brandon witterman joining me from denver. with a welcome to you, how have the marijuana sales in the last couple months been in general? >> reporter: well, in general, things have been just kind of picking up at sort of a normal growth pace. you've had more stores come online since day one, as you're aware. when things first got started at the beginning of the year, only a handfulful of stores. gradually, more have been getting their licenses and coming online, which is helping to meet the demand in this early stage of legalization. >> so there has been enough supply to meet the demand, because i know that first day when we were on the air covering it, i mean, literally the marijuana was flying off the shelves. there were concerns they wouldn't be able to supply. >> reporter: yeah. they're still doing all right. and because more stores are coming online to meet the demand, there's p

for "today," ron allen, nbc news. >> you were that kind of girl scout, right?do you know how easy it is to sell cookies? and i couldn't even do that. >> there were a bunch of them camped off the train when i got home. girl scout cookies! >> they know when it's that time of year. >> i'm already in 20 bucks or so -- >> because they don't buy one box. they buy like 25 boxes because of the guilt! >> it's true. and lester keeps 25 boxes in his office and tries to pawn them off on us. >> you actually eat them. i just give them out. >>> still to come, president obama setting the record straight on his fashion sense and his so-called mom jeans. that's after these messages. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] now your best accessory can be your smile. with colgate® optic white toothpaste. unlike the leading whitening toothpaste colgate® optic white goes beyond surface stains to deeply whiten teeth. it whitens over three shades. that's more than the leading express whitening strip. so the only accessory you need to look fabulous is your smile. colgate® optic white whitens more than

. >> reporter: i'm ron allen in atlantic city, new jersey, this is why there's a state of emergency. you can see the roads ahead of us are covered with snow and it's very slow going, 25 miles per hour, the temperatures also just 19. it's bitter cold outside. good day to take the day off if you can. back to you. >> all right, we are here with the weather channel's sam champion to take a closer look at everything going on right now. sam, tell us why this storm is so surprising and why it's attracting all this attention? >> it's the scope of this storm. for days it's been on the map and 40 states, maybe 200 million people under the storm from starting as a rain maker in california in a place that needed it to an ice maker in texas. today you're pulling into populated areas like washington and roanoke. if you look at the back end where the snow is right now, we've shut off in new york. that's good news and shut off in philly as well. we're getting a little snow in washington, d.c. and still going to get snow scattered -- >> little snow and still shut down the government. >> here's the de

for today, ron allen, nbc news, new york. >>> this next story seems like something out of the movies but it was all too real. a rookie detective in rhode island going deep under cover to bring down the new england mafia. it happened and two decades later he can finally tell his story. >> reporter: from whitety bulger to the mob wives, even after the sopranos, america's fast nation with the mob is alive and well. for steven o'donnell, growing up in a blue collar neighborhood in providence, rhode island, organized crime was a fact of life and he was top dog. >> i was fascinated with organized crime. >> reporter: fascinated but determined to stay on the right side of the law. he started as a maximum security prison guard learning the language of the mobsters. >> without question the work in the prison set me up for some type of success. >> reporter: on one faithful day in 1994 on the steps of the providence courthouse, o'donnell, now an undercover cop, found himself face to face with a mob hit man out on parole. >> you seized the moment. >> i saw him and hi to get rid of the warrants an

ron allen is live for us in boston this morning. ron, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, tamron. firefighters are still here at the scene dealing with hotspots. very noble and proud profession here in boston. a lot of heavy hearts for the two men who were lost, being remembered as heroes who raced into a massive inferno trying to save lives. 2:43 p.m., the heart of boston's fashionable back bay erupts in fire, eventually growing to a nine-alarm blaze. strong, gusting winds ripped the flames throughout the residential building. >> we just saw smoke coming out and some people jumping from the windows above. and then all of the firefighters coming. >> reporter: lieutenant eddie walsh, 43, a dad with three kids under 10, and michael kennedy, 33, a marine combat vet, were among the first to respond. they rushed into the basement. within minutes, a mayday call. numerous firefighters trapped. >> mayday, engine 33! engine 33 is a mayday. >> engine 33 has a mayday. engine 33 is a mayday in the basement. >> i've never seen a fire move th

nbc's ron allen is on the cnbc news line with us. ron, good morning. what can you tell us?hat happened here. the calls to the utility about a gas leak from some residents moments before this explosion happened, just after 9:00 this morning local time eastern time. now there are a number of buildings in the area that are evacuated. there are residents out on the streets trying to understand exactly what happened and making sure that the area is safe. there are still dozens upon dozens of firefighters and police here as well as there's a huge square block area that is cordoned off. this is a very, very densely populated neighborhood. and we think the building that exploded was -- where the explosion occurred was a residential building where people live. perhaps some commercial space, a church on the ground floor. so still a very -- very intense scene here as the fire officials and others try to figure out exactly where this gas leak may have come from and they're trying to make sure that it is not a problem that's going to continue in some way here. still an area that's cordo

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ron a couple of them. >> romney won five times in a row before he became the nominee. >> well, george allen won it once, e cpac straw poll was when ron paul got declared the winner in 2010 and half the room at cpac started cheering and half the room started booing, and then hear paul ryan, a divided party. nobody divides that gathering like ron paul. >> it's very interesting. last year, there was a panel on the failure of multiculturalism and the pursuit of diversity, fear mongering around the browning of america, this year health care after obamacare, practical guide for living when no one has insurance, runs out of doctors, fear mongering around obamacare, they seem to keep moving forward so gracefully. let's take a look, though, at what crystal has been doing in the last few minutes. wait. she's getting ready for the up against the clock tournament of champions? oh, my goodness. this thing starts on saturday, steve kornacki, crystal is ready. i didn't win like you did. but one small piece of advice, if you push the buzzer a lot, you can score points if you don't push the buzzer, you can't score any po

allen martin, kpix5. >> leland yee joins the list of state senators all accused of behaving badly. ron calderon is accused of taking bribes. tonight, reaction to yee's charges was fast and furious. >> and yet, this indictment is sickening. on behalf of my colleagues today, i want to call on senator yee to resign. >> we are offended because we are here everyday to do an honest day's work. >> that's shocking news to me. it is many years of public service. i don't know what has occurred there. >> just last week, the society for professional journalists gave yee an award for strengthening public transparencies and opening regard laws. >> the final person in this is keith jackson. tonight, he is being accused of being the middleman who brought all of these players to the table. parts of the criminal complaint read like a spy novel. you can read the whole thing page by page. the 137 pages of the affidavit. go to kpix.com. >>> switching gears, more showers right now. here's a live look outside. paul, what's the radar looking like? >> widespread rainfall is not going on, liz, but what is going

of nonincumbent midterm years, go back to 2006, george allen, the former virginia governor won the straw poll. in 1998, steve forbes won. in 2010, rone nominees the. but if someone outperforms expectations, they'll get some good buzz, that's for sure. >> i want to show a picture we teed up before the break. it shows a cpac session on minority outreach. huge room, totally empty. is that the story behind this photo? >> reporter: i don't think so. democrats tried to make hay of this when it happened. it was during a lunch break frankly. and really the room here is really big, it hasn't been full throughout the whole event. but there are big speeches here. people flood the room for big speeches and tend to leave during the panels. so i think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that this was an example of the party not caring about minority outreach. we just saw a presentation behind me from a republican pollster urging republicans to reach out to hispanic voters. this is a priority for the republican national committee. yes, they do have a brand problem with minorities, but i'm not sure this was an example. >> thank you for debunking t

. >> we had george allen, steve forbes, the list of people who have won cpac and gone nowhere. and ronarned to dismiss the ron paul victories because his supporters were outside the republican party but they could come to events like this, pack them and make noise. rand paul is a safier political figure than his fae. he's been a lot more strategic in how he's approached this. i wonder how representative you think -- how representative you think cpac is of the conservative movement at-large and does rand paul's showing in the straw poll mean more than ron paul's victories the last couple of years? >> that's the big question. if you look historically mitt romney won in '07 to '09 and then '10 to '11. he so romney did end up getting the nomination, so you could say that is sort of a bellwether. the paul name, i think the jury is still out whether rand paul's brand of let's fight the drones, whether this is relevant to the base. i think it's still a big question mark. >> and, josh, just watching this from afar, did you hear anything different, anything like, wow, this conservative movement

ron. more than 85% of all total arm strength in afghanistan is afghan. the nato coalition is down to below 50,000 troops. when general allen, he had 150,000 troops. he began downsizing, about 1/3 down. now we are down 2/3. more than 85% of fighting forces are now afghan. last year, they carried out 95% of all the operations. they either let them or carry them out themselves. this is an important point that is both sobering and tragic. took 4000 700 fatalities. the afghan army and police. 2013, twiceies in the number we suffered through the war. i know we deeply regret the sacrifice of our own men and women. it is worth noting the afghans suffered 4700 fatalities last .ear it is those lives that have been lost. it shows that the taliban is still strong. five years ago, i would have predicted it would not have been this strong. i hoped and thought we would have been in a better place in terms of having weakened the taliban. the good news is they are still fighting. they have taken those casualties and held together. they have continued to be able to recruit and take the fight to the enemy. last point, they have been able to

finally, ron insana wrote an op-ed piece for us on why he thinks the united states is going to be the superpower for the next coming decade. those are the hot ones for us. >> great stuff, alleneil young plays. >>> the slew of data out tomorrow, to the meeting next week, janet yellen's first, our panel will weigh in on what key numbers to watch out for. o latte or au lait? sunny or bubbly? cozy or cool? "meow" or "woof"? wheels or wheeeels? everything exactly the way you want it ...until boom, it's bedtime. your mattress isn't bliss: it's a battleground of thwarted desire. enter the all-new sleep number classic series. designed to let couples sleep together in individualized comfort. starting at just $699.99 for a queen mattress. he's the softy: his sleep number setting is 35. you're the rock: your setting is 60. that works. he's the night owl. his side's up while you're in dreamland. you're the early bird. up and at 'em. no problem, because you're in it together... keeping the love alive. and by the way - snoring? sleep number's even got an adjustment for that. crazy? only if sleeping peacefully with your soulmate is crazy. find your sleep number setting only at one of our 4

for "today," ron allen, nbc news, new york. >>> this next story seems like something out of the movies, but it was all too real. a rookie detective in rhode island going deep under cover to bring down the new england mafia. it really happened, and two decades later, he can finally tell his story. here's andrea canning. >> reporter: from whitey bulger to the mob wives -- >> don't, don't. >> did i get her in the face? >> reporter: even after "the sopranos" -- >> johnny's in jail. >> reporter: -- america's fascination with the mob is alive and well. for steven o'donnell, growing up in a blue-collar neighborhood in providence, rhode island, organized crime was a fact of life, and the patriarch of mob family was top dog. >> i was fascinated with organized crime. >> reporter: fascinated but determined to stay on the right side of the law. o'donnell started off as a maximum security prison guard, learning the language of the mobsters. >> without question, we work in the prison set me up for some type of success, because i could walk the walk, talk the talk. >> reporter: on one fateful day in