Openly gay player, he gets in the game. Good morning, everyone. Great to see you this morning. Welcome to early start. Im john berman. And im Christine Romans. Its monday, im sorry, february 24th. Its 5 00 a. M. In the east, and a lot to get to this morning. Well begin with breaking news from ukraine, where an arrest warrant has been issued for the countrys ousted Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraines acting interior minister says hes wanted for the mass murder of peaceful citizens. This morning, his whereabouts are not known. It follows a weekend of political upheaval that saw yanukovych tossed out. A former rival freed from prison, and parliament appointing an acting president. Theres growing concern about possible intervention by russia. Cnns Nick Paton Walsh is live in kiev. Bring us up to speed, nick. Reporter well, christine, the mass murder youre referring to is, of course, the shooting dead of dozens of protesters here, mostly by police down a few days ago just from where im standing here. Now, they believe that yanukovych specifically ordered that, hence the arrest warrant. Were talking remarkably about a president that just as little as 72 hours ago was clinging on to power but is now a wanted man on the run in his own country. He tried to flee a few days ago, turned around at an airport. Now we understand he may have spent the night in a residence in the south. He is now thought to perhaps be somewhere neighboring russia, but it is not totally friendly turf because the mayor of the key town Just Announced hes joining the opposition. So as yanukovych continues to move around ukraine, the ground is increasingly shrinking beneath him. Many people here and in his lavish president ial residence where we were yesterday want to see him behind bars, but ukraine now facing more urgent task of getting itself back together again. Its new minister of finance just said we need 35 billion now to keep the country afloat, asking america and poland to help out with that. Plus, as you mentioned, were still waiting to hear from moscow, the big kind of force in the background here. Ukraines very powerful neighbor, whose economic pressure started some of this dispute in the first place. No major noise from them at all. Key warnings from american and european diplomats and officials that it would be a bad mistake to get involved in this crisis. No sign they will at the moment, but things moving so fast inside ukraine, its rapidly getting out of their influence and thats going to make Vladimir Putin very uncomfortable. Still, the focus today, people are still mourning behind me the deaths of those individuals and this call, a final arrest warrant now for Viktor Yanukovych. Hes far away from being the president here. Hes now frankly a criminal in the eyes of authorities here on the run. Back to you. No question, this political issue has caused a lot of economic damage, and its a country that already last year needed a 15 billion loan from the International Monetary fund. It wasnt able to keep up its end of the bargain and keep that money. Now they say 35 billion. Clearly, thats something people will feel and a lot of work to be done here. Nick paton walsh, thank you. Happening today, president obama speaks to the nations governors as they wrap up their annual winter meeting in washington, d. C. The president hosted them at a white house dinner sunday night. That gathering included several 2016 white house hopefuls. The president appealed to state leaders to work with him on the economy, education and health care in what he hopes will be a year of action. Meantime, the president s defense secretary, chuck hagel, will preview the new pentagon budget today, and it includes painful cuts that, among other things, will shrink the army to its lowest, smallest fighting force since before world war ii. Thats a big headline. It really is. Pentagon Officials Say the budget cuts will result in a military thats too small for any protracted foreign occupations. The hagel plan also calls for slashing military benefits, limiting pay raises, increasing Health Care Premiums and reducing housing allowances. He is also recommending a oneyear pay freeze for top military brass. The Obama Administration is still weighing its options for a continued military presence in afghanistan beyond this year. One of four options reportedly being considered by president obama will leave 3,000 troops behind based in kabul and the american installation of bagram. They have recommended 10,000 troops remain in afghanistan. Defense secretary hagel expected to brief his nato counterparts in brussels this week on what the u. S. Is currently thinking. In hot water for spying on german chancellor Angela Merkel, the u. S. Has reportedly turned its attention to other senior german officials. Thats according to the german newspaper which cites a highranking nsa employee. President obama ordered a halt to surveillance of merkels cell phone after revelations caused an uproar last year. Among the alleged new targets, the german interior minister, a top merkel confidante. The u. S. And south korea beginning joint military exercises today. This comes as families separated for decades on the Korean Peninsula are reuniting. The drills are taking place despite north koreas threat to cancel the crossborder reunions if the drills were not scrapped, but pyongyang ultimately agreed to go ahead with the reunions. Now the war games between the u. S. And south korea are said to involve some 10,000 south korean troops, about 5,000 american forces. All right, we are less than a month from spring. Ha ha, but it is still winter and much of the country getting yet another bittercold taste. Look at that arctic air in the midwest, another deep freeze. The eastern half of the countrys now starting to feel it. Indra petersons is tracking all this for us. Indra, its supposed to be spring almost it was warm yesterday. What happened some. I heard birds. You know, happy monday, right . Once again, cool air making its way in, that arctic plunge again diving down to the south, and thats what were going to be dealing with, these temperatures backing off each day. First, lets talk about the difference here. Lets talk about the temperatures we saw yesterday. This is what you guys are talking about, right . It was gorgeous. D. C. Was 64 degrees. Look at the south, almost near 70 yesterday. And now, here are the highs we are expecting today. Ouch this does not look good. Were talking about 30s and 40s out there. Another way to look at this. Lets talk about the temperatures whose highs will be just at the freezing mark. Monday, today, detroit, pittsburgh, were talking about just freezing highs. And then watch this cold air spread. By tomorrow, looking at spreading towards indianapolis. Even new york city, your high will be just 32 degrees. Then by wednesday, were really feeling the cold air making its way down even to the south. 31 degrees. Oh, yeah, it has been a tough season. Do want to point out, there is a chance for snow by the middle of the week on the east coast. Youll see a low making its way off the coastline as well as another wave crossing the lakes. With that, were looking for snow. D. C. By wednesday, 3 inches. New york city could see another 2 inches, so i hope you guys enjoyed it. We heard the birds. It was nice. I wore the tank top. It was all good. I was wearing a sweatshirt and shoveling icy snow off my trees and landscaping. It was horrible. You have to get it off before we get another few inches. Indra, thank you. Breaking overnight, a stretch of the Mississippi River closed to water traffic as crews work to clean up an oil spill. Coast guard Officials Say a barge ran into a tow boat between baton rouge and new orleans over the weekend. Public Drinking Water intakes on the river were closed as a precaution. Officials do not know how much oil was spilled. No one was hurt. All the barges have been secured. The worlds richest economies are getting together to pump trillions of dollars into the Global Economy, 2 trillion, to be exact, over the next five years. Thats the pledge this morning out of sydney, where representatives from the 19 richest nations and the eu are meeting. Its the g20 conference. The 2 trillion boost a big change from just a few years ago when it was austerity, remember, big spending cuts that were the theme of some of these big economies. Analysts say the plan is ambitious. Some are skeptical about exactly how it will work, but it comes as the u. S. And other economies are growing but not quickly enough. Still, the s p 500, look at this. The s p is in spitting distance of a record high, just 12 points shy. Stock futures up slightly at this moment. Overseas markets are mixed right now. All right, honest to goodness history made overnight. Mark your calendars. Jason collins became the first openly gay player to appear in an nba game, and in any game for the four major professional sports, mens sports. Collins signed a tenday contract with the Brooklyn Nets, and hours later took the court against the los angeles lakers. It was weird in that, you know, im usually like the background, one of the background players, and its weird, obviously, this. But at the same time, it is what it is, and its part of life. Most important thing is that the team got the win. Thats all that ive ever cared about. I dont care about scoring, i dont care about i care about my team winning and helping my teammates get open and making their job easier. Good for him, good for the lakers, good for the nba. Collins finished the game with two rebounds and a steal in the nets 108102 win over the lakers. All right, a sixhour rain delay couldnt stop Dale Earnhardt jr. From capturing his second daytona 500 championship. He led the final 18 laps, crossing the finish line under caution in prime time, nearly 11 hours after that race began. The victory snapped a 57race winless streak for earnhardt, who called winning the Great American race the greatest feeling you can have in the sport. And this ended so late. A lot of people watching the daytona 500 are still up right now. I was getting tweets from them, seriously, talking about juniors win. So, hello to all of you. Welcome to early start. 57 winless races. Its big. Its a big one. Hes a favorite. By the way, you may notice were on a new set here. What you dont know is its because Christine Romans trashed the old set, like keith moon from the who, just wrecked the place. We can never go back. All right, coming up for us, a big finale for winter games in sochi, closing out the most expensive olympics in history. Look at this, discount fireworks display. Were live with the latest from sochi. And then this, a poisonous gas fills a new york restaurant. One person killed, dozens more hospitalized. What were now learning this morning, next. [ female announcer ] neutrogena® pore refining cleanser. Alphahydroxy and exfoliating beads work to clean and tighten pores so they can look half their size. Pores. 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Now that were expecting, i like the fact i can go onto angies list and look for pediatricians. The Service Providers that ive found on angies list actually have blown me away. Find out why more than two million members count on angies list. Angies list reviews you can trust. Mayo . Corn dogs . You are so outta here aah [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of greattasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. Nutrition in charge™. Lactaid® is 100 real milk . Right. Real milk. But it wont cause me discomfort. Exactly, because its milk without the lactose. And it tastes . Its real milk come on, would i lie about this . [ female announcer ] lactaid. 100 real milk. No discomfort. Come on, would i lie about this . Welcome back to early start, everyone. The sochi olympics are now in the history books. The winter games ending much the same way they began, with a spectacular closing ceremony. Just look at that. As for the medal count, russia won the most, also the most gold. And you know what . Perhaps best of all, it is important to note that this was an olympics without any kind of security incident. We were so worried going in, and thankfully, nothing happened. Cnns ivan watson live in sochi. Its time for the cleanup, ivan. Reporter thats right. The games are, you know, some might say finally over. It was a big fireworks display last night, a dramatic closing ceremony. There were some russians at the end, their eyes were tearing up, there was some sadness there. At the end of this more than twoweek festival of sport here. And the russians took a moment even to poke some fun at themselves. They arranged at the beginning of the closing ceremony 4 1 2 rings on the stadium floor, poking fun at the big olympic ring fail during the opening ceremony, a long 2 1 2 weeks ago. And of course, they got the final hoorah, as you mentioned, the largest number of gold medals, the biggest overall medal count as well. Thats a big win for the russians, for the host country. And they even got the final ceremony getting to have first, second and thirdplace sweep in the 50kilometer mass start crosscountry race with their male athletes on the podium at the end. So, it was a sweet closing for the russian host city that was really celebrated here in sochi. And of course, now the long task of cleaning up begins. John . And of course, it will be very interesting to see what happens to this magical city, almost built from scratch for the olympics. Ivan watson in sochi. The 51 billion location now of the olympic games, which are done. Thanks, ivan. All right, american prosecutors will try to have an alleged mexican drug lord extradited to the united states. A spokesman for the u. S. Attorneys office in new york says authorities want to try Joaquin El Chapo guzman, head of the drug cartel. The notorious boss, known as shorty, was arrested saturday morning a raid on his beachside condo. Guzman is believed to be the head of a cocaine empire worth billions. He has avoided police for years using bribes, safe houses and homes connected with underground tunnels. A very big arrest. The u. S. Wants him extradited. And a lot of shock that it went down as easily, no shootout or dramatic event. This morning the Supreme Court will hear arguments on a Greenhouse Gas regulation case. The Environmental Protection agency is seeking to tighten emission standards for socalled stationary Greenhouse Gases like those emitted by power plants. The white house says they will stem the effects of climate change. The case is a consolidation of six separate appeals on the regulations, seen as a major test of executive authority. This morning gas lines are slowly returning to service at a long island mall where a Carbon Monoxide leak killed one person and wounded 27 others. This happened at a popular seafood restaurant. A store manager, 55yearold steven nelson, found dead in the restaurants basement. First responders say they quickly became lightheaded when they walked in the restaurant. Immediately, they evacuated the restaurant and two others. They just told us to get out of the building and that there were people who were passing t out. We were eating dinner. The place was jammed. And then just very calmly, the wait staff came and told us that we have to evacuate the building. Now, the town code does not require Carbon Monoxide detectors, but authorities are blaming a faulty water heater flue and the store has been cited for having defective equipment. As of sunday night, another employee was still hospitalized in stable condition. Opening statements today in the trial of kerry kennedy, the daughter of robert kennedy, charged with driving under the influence after a 2012 collision with a tractortrailer in new york. Prosecutors claim kennedy knew her judgment was impaired by a sleeping pill. The defense says she must have taken the pill accidentally. The charge carries up to a year in jail, but without a prior record, kennedy will likely not see any jail time if convicted. Federal officials are investigating a possible norovirus outbreak after passengers and crew members fell ill on the Holland American ship. It just ended a voyage on saturday when Officials Say over 100 passengers and crew members suffered from vomiting and diarrhea. This came months after two cruise ships had passengers fall ill with the norovirus. California officials are investigating a mysterious poliolike illness thats affected children, causing paralysis in limbs. Officials have been tracking the illness since the first known case in 2012, when a doctor requested polio testing for a child with severe paralysis. That raised concern because polio has been eradicated in the u. S. And the child had not traveled overseas. It seems there is a shortage of beliebers in the buck head neighborhood of atlanta. Pop star Justin Bieber is eyeing a home in the affluent community, but neighbors there are saying, please stay out, biebs. They have organized a protest and even started a F