smith's death is rippling through the sports world and the mystery surrounding it is gripping the crescent city. gabe gutierrez, nbc news, new orleans. >>> now to a tragedy at sea in florida where a fishing trip turned deadly when the boat carrying four people began to sink. among those killed, a sheriff's deputy and his young son. a sole survivor found by the coast guard during a frantic search. we get more from nbc's miguel almaguer. >> reporter: a search team in the air spotted robert stewart strands on an inlet early this morning. the 45-year-old fisherman alone, appeared exhausted as he signaled rescuers. >> the survivor relates to us that he clung to the boat throughout the night. >> reporter: stewart was the sole survivor of a fishing trip that began sunday in the waters off stewart, florida, and ended in tragedy. >> they went fishing sometime this morning and the boat swamped immediately. >> reporter: with stewart air lifted to safety, the sheriff's office says they have recovered the bodies of the three other boaters, including a father and son, fernandez and jaden jones, who was just

smith's death is rippling through the sports world and the mystery is gripping the crescent city. >>gutierrez reporting. new orleans coach sean payton has sparked controversy about a bigger picture. telling "usa today" in a phone interview, quote, i hate guns. 200 years from now they're going to look back and say what was that madness about? he goes on -- the idea that we need them to fend off intruders, people are more apt to draw them in other situations that's some silly stuff we are hanging on to. i'm not an extreme liberal, i find myself leaning to the right on some issues, but on this issue i can't wrap my brain around it. >>> turning now to the nba where in salt lake city, the mavericks clinched the number seven spot in the playoffs after a 101-92 win over the jazz. it will be the mavs' third straight trip to the playoffs and the team's 15th postseason appearance in the last 16 seasons. >>> meanwhile, in cleveland, the cavalier clinched the eastern conference's top seed after the win over the atlanta hawks. james scored 34 points wrapping up the best field goal percentage over

. >> new orleans, the crescent city, is a cultural and historical gem, worth preserving ... so when the mr go channel was built in the late 1950s many peope were already saying: mr go must go! mr go is what locals call the mississippi river gulf outlet. once dubbed the surge superhighway -it's a 76-mile artificial chanel built for commercial shipping. dr john lopez is a member of the mr go must go coalition. he's also a coastal biologist who consulted for the army corps of engineers. >> tell me about mr go why was it created? >> well it was like a lot of federal projects. it was based on some sort of cost benefit that they projected by increased commercial use navigation on the channel. now that might seem kind of ironic because it's built right adjacent to the mississippi river. they saw some advantage but in reality it didn't pan out. the use of the channel was very small. >> and because mr go cut right through precious wetlands...that act as a flood buffer---there were immediate community concerns. >> there were people...even before...some locals who were heroically trying

fellow travellers in the crescent city have heard the mouthfulle you would have gotten if the jazz weren't that sweet, the sun not that strong and my daughter not as fabulous as she is during a great weekend in new orleans, one of the most terrific cities on earth. roland in new jersey. >> caller: i have a question concerning ford stock. i own stord ford and it's been a lack luster performer. i'm thinking of buying gm stock since there is more upside. >> i have thought long and hard about the car issue. when i saw the tesla numbers, okay, the preorders. when i think about uber, i come back and say these are seismic shifts that will continue to affect autos. i don't want to recommend ford or gm here now. lou in michigan. lou. >> caller: boo-yah, jim. >> boo-yah. >> caller: for a long-term cloud play -- one to two years -- what do you like better -- salesforce with a lot of arg or a slow and steady eddie like microsoft? >> that's tough. microsoft is inexpensive on this year's earnings and will do well. it's a terrific cloud play. salesforce has tremendous momentum here. microsoft is for the

and this could produce as much as two to almost three inches of rain at the highest right around crescent city. and then central and southern california actually looking pretty nice. >>> so some areas are returning to normal in the west. >> but i like that, looking pretty nice. you hended on a high note. >> we're trying. >>> the penalties for texting while driving are about to get a whole lot more serious. >>> plus, president obama forgiving billions in student loans. find out who benefits. you're watching "early today." e*trade is all about seizing opportunity. and i'd like to... cut. so i'm gonna take this opportunity to direct. thank you, we'll call you. evening, film noir, smoke, atmosphere... bob... you're a young farmhand and e*trade is your cow. milk it. e*trade is all about seizing opportunity. people can forget their quiltbathroom experience. well but sir froggy can never forget. "what's worse", he thinks... "that my arms can never relax or my eyes can never look away?" ♪ mari♪ upbeat music plays west scent from gain. everytime she sniffs... this happens. still there... still still th

mendocino, lake county, napa and solano county are in the mix for some thunderstorm activity. crescent city has rain. this is just off parts of the mendocino coast. it looks like it is headed toward fort bragg and will start to work its way inland. 40s and 50s for temperatures. much warmer than yesterday because we have breeze and cloud cover. 52 and mill valley. 49 in windsor. 51 in nevada. napa wins west at 13. the breeze has picked up. of westerly and southerly component. 43 in ukiah. 32 and truckee. there are some flurries being reported in south lake tahoe. some rain around lovelock you can see that going just past reno. our system has a ways to go but it will set the stage for son in the morning and this has to swing through. it looks like it will clip lake county and over toward sacramento. it will be close enough that i have to mention this for the afternoon. a mixed bag of sun and clouds. windy at time. showers in the afternoon. possible thunderstorms as well. it will be cooler for most of today. 50s and 60s for temperatures. tomorrow we will start to rebound a little bit. clearing

the system went into the north and brought a little bit of rain up to a crescent city and gave us a more fog. this will play into the weather on thursday. high pressure will come in. tuesday wednesday will be our big warm-up. the projections are near record- setting by wednesday. then we will get a southerly surge comes screaming up the coast. tuesday and wednesday look to be warm. a good warm-up as we head toward wednesday. i think it will still be okay on thursday. we will have patchy fog and 70s inland. some 60s by the beaches. tomorrow i think everybody will jump up into the 70s. it will be a day where we start to begin to warm up. the biggest warm-up will be on wednesday. on wednesday we could drop 15 or 20 degrees. a little rain could be flirting with us on the weekend. >>> they had their 69th win of the year last night. home state has to win four of its last five games to break the chicago wolves record for most wins in a single season. if they don't lose another game, the first chance would be able to break the record would be against the san antonio spurs on sunday. take a look

the oregon coast and is producing rain there. that is an intense line going through eureka and crescent city. this is starting to punch the mendocino coast. fort bragg is right there. is could be some brief heavy rain. most of it is to the north. there is some clipping the sierra. orgies and 50s on thames. 40s and 50s on thames. atherton at 50 to send karlis at 52 and menlo park is sleeping in. wins west at 15. breezes are there. a couple flurries were reported in south lake tahoe. some rain around fallon and lovelock. >> have you ever driven across nevada? >> i have. it's not very exciting. >> that's where the aliens are going to land. >>> up to the north you can see the system. if the locates tracking over us then everyone is in line for shower activity. this is favorable for areas inland. here is futurecast which is more of a broadbrush. south bay by 11:00. by morgan hill at noon, that is a good boomer there. we will watch the north bay and see how things develop in lake county, napa county, i know it's a slow process. maybe into contra costa later on. that would be at four clock today. the

there's where we have the rainfall right there from crescent city back through eureka also some rain d snow around the happy camp area as well as the trinity alps, a little bit of activity now moving towards cloverdale so you could hear some raindrops on your rooftops. our rooftop onlooking east, partly cloudy conditions. cloudy, cool, breezy today, spotty scattered showers. and a chance of a thunderstorm continues with small hail this afternoon. temperature-wise 45 degrees in santa rosa, early hour, san jose to the south to napa to the north and east bay numbers also stacking up in the 50s. we do have some winds that have been increasing around oakland at 14 backing through alameda. otherwise winds now at the delta into the fairfield area up to 20. these winds are going to be a problem late day northwest 20 to 30 miles per hour around the coast, also the higher elevations. pretty much ten to 10 miles per hour around the metropolitan area. this is right now an area of low pressure that's sagging to the south and trying to move to the east and as it does so it's falling apart very rapi

the north of us. did get a little rain crescent city. h pressure is going to nose in and that breeze will turn north and then go northeast and then we will warm it up. so patchy low cloud deck in the morning. 60s and 70s there. mainly 60s by the water. 70s inland. low-to-mid. a few of them pushing 77. that would be around vacaville. 67 downtown oakland. 72 san jose. santa clara 71. fremont's in there as well. 60s on the coast. then 60s to very low 70s on the peninsula. tomorrow i think we start off clear. if there is any fog, it won't last long. into wednesday could have a serious drop by thursday, and then friday cooler and cloudy. maybe some light rain. >> is it doing it because gasia's back? >> i don't know. we had nice weather last week. >> thank you. >>> time is 8:18. state regulators may soon lift water use restrictions in some parts of california. today the state will release conservation numbers for the month of february. the water resources control board is expected to talk about where water restrictions can be lifted. the recent

all the way up into crescent city, which had 30s. yesterday the wind was howling on the peninsula.good morning, steve. good morning. currently 46 and clear skies. yesterday's wind peak 42 miles per hour in daly city. sfo had up to 54 miles per hour yesterday. today sunny and breezy. cold tomorrow and sunny. rain on wednesday. not a lot. .10-inch could fall. san francisco 63. 48 today. religious is 64/50. below on both. 89 1926 the record high. 42. you can see everything coming right down out of the northwest. clouds over the ocean. cold air moving over the ocean. big time thunderstorms erupted. blow it up. yesterday around san joaquin valley. sierra, felt like winter up there. guess what? things are picking up again. there is another little low kind of rotating that. i will show you that in just a second. not only there, but around las vegas it's an active pattern. this is a strong low. wait until that ejects over to the rockies and plains. it will be a huge severe weather maker. 40s and 30s on the terms. 45 morgan hill. 46 santa cruz. 41 boulder creek. 44 campbell. saratoga 44. no

city. crystal clear and cold with the crescent moon. wasn't it glorious this morning. but what is visible is the finger of fog and low clouds that worked its way into the city. this is the transamerica pyramid. we're looking south towards the peninsula here. we have a low condensed deck of clouds stacking, causing issues around the golden gate bridge with fog. 46 santa rosa to 55 in san francisco. morning concord, you're in the mid-50s. hs' what to expect. thin, low, overcast for openers. sunny and bright later, and breezy. northwest winds at 10 to 20. highs of 92, possibly 95 degrees by wednesday. that forecast coming up. right now let's get you started with the setup. high pressure is there over the desert southwest, lifting north, expanding east. that's when our temperatures will soar. right now in the 40s going up to 62 in monterey bay. it's 43 in truckee. lots of skiing and boarding to be had, especially at squaw valley. low 60s in eureka. about three to five degrees above average today. 60s average in the sunset district. 70s around the peninsula. 74 san jose. 76