The team player and knowing ive got his back and hes got mine. Thats what i reflect. Thats what i what motivates me. President obama will award the medal of honor to Clint Romesha on monday at the white house. He will also be honored at the pentagon on tuesday, after which he will come back here to minot, north dakota, and continue with his new job. Meanwhile, the war in afghanistan continues. More than 60,000 American Service members are right now in that country fighting that war. Im jake tapper for cnn in minot, north dakota. New developments in the allout man hunt for a suspected cop killer. Right now police keting a california indian reservation. And bracing for a snow making monster. A blizzard taking aim right now at the entire northeast. Major cities like boston, right here in new york, smash dab in its path. Thousands of flights have already been canceled. Good morning. Welcome to early start this morning. Im Christine Romans. John berman is off today. Thanks for joining us, everyone. Im Zoraida Sambolin. It is friday, february 8th. It is 5 00 a. M. Here in the east. Lets get started. Millions of people bracing for what could be a blizzard for the ages. Take a look at the monster storm thats about to bury boston and bring misery to millions in the northeast. Forecasters are using words like epic, historic to describe this massive storm. Youre looking at live pictures from new york now. The big apple is also preparing for dangerous winds and up to a foot of snow, perhaps even more. A lot of schools are doing early dismissal today. Right now 23 Million People are under a blizzard warning. Cnn meteorologist chad myers says he cant remember seeing a number that high. Air travel is already a mess. Nearly 3,000 flights scheduled for today and tomorrow have already been canceled. In boston there are fears todays storm could be worse than these images. This, folk, the 1978 blizzard that killed 100 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The forecasts there calling for up to 34 inches of snow today. We have got you covered, though. Jennifer delgado is tracking the storm from the cnn Weather Center in atlanta. Lets begin live in boston, where bottled water and shovels are really hard to come by. But you are smiling. Good morning to you. Reporter im smiling because this is really kind of the calm before the storm right now. Just keep in mind, this is an area that hasnt seen much snow yet this season. In fact, were 15 inches below normal in boston. Generally a mild winter. As soon as word broke of this epic storm on the way, we saw the mad rush. The airports were packed. We tried to make our way to the hotel. It was gridlock. People were making a mad rush to get their supplies or get out of the city. Right now, very calm, as you can see. Temperatures, below freezing, just at 31 degrees. Currently seeing winds light, about 15 miles per hour. Not a big deal. Visibility, thats going to be the key factor. I can show you the customs tower here. You can see that very clear. Throughout the day, we are expecting to see this visibility drop. Were talking about two to three inch her pour snowfall rates pick up today by about 2 00 and 5 00 in the evening. That snowfall is expected to continue all the way through saturday evening. Thats tough enough as it is. The strong winds expected to blow. With the blizzard warning in effect, were talking about 35mileanhour winds with gusts up to 75. Overall, i want to tell you, people here dont seem to be that concerned. Lets take a listen to what the mayor had to say. Its a very serious storm. We have many staff who are going to be out there. Several departments will be called on to deal with the emergency. Were used to these types of storms. We also want to remind everyone to use common sense. Stay off the streets of our city. Basically, stay home. Reporter this is what i love to hear. Residents here are very confident. No one seems to be that concerned. They have a lot of confidence in the city and things are going to be okay. Definitely youve done a really good job of warning everyone, so they have that as well. Were going to continue to check in with you live in boston for us. All right. Lets get to meteorologist Jennifer Delgado. Shes tracking the storm from atlanta. Good morning. Good morning. Youre right. Were watching two storms because theyre going to merge later today. Were talk a whopper of a snowstorm. As we show you on the radar, notice whats happening. Theres our one system come in from the ohio valley and the oh one towards the south. Notice a lot of lightning with that system off the coast of north carolina. That is showing you the instability, the convection. Once we get this going later today, were going to see snowfall totals blowing up. Right now were mainly looking at rain. Even through parts of northern virginia, we are looking at light snow as well as snow flurries. So what is going to happen throughout the day . As we time this for you, for new york throughout the morning, really through the afternoon, youre going to see rain out there. As we go into late day, we will see that changing over to snow. For boston, youre going to start your snow around 8 00 a. M. Of course, its going to increase, especially as we go late in the afternoon as well as into the overnight hours. Were talking about a whiteout, blizzard conditions. Thats why everybody is saying dont get on the roadways. As we track this for you at 10 00, notice, again, conditions really go downhill. For new york city, were talking 12 to 18 inches of snowfall. In some parts, were talking even more, like boston. Potentially 2 1 2 to 3 feet of snowfall. Heres a look at whats going to be happening today. Again, keep in mind for boston, portland, all these areas, were looking at the heaviest snowfall totals, especially along the coastal regions. Right now we have a blizzard warning that goes into effect at 6 00 a. M. Definitely a serious and dangerous storm that we are tracking today. Of course, well continue to follow that and have Team Coverage. All right, jennifer. Thanks. You know, you have ski slopes up in vermont. There are people who are happy about this. If you can get out and get back in. They want this snow. All right. Thanks, jennifer. Six minutes past the hour. Now to the man hunt in Southern California for a former cop whos declared war on the Los Angeles Police department. We have a possible Major Development overnight. Word that the suspect may have been spotted near the Barona Indian reservation. Thats in lakeside, california. This man right here, is suspected of killing three people, including a Police Officer and former Police Officials daughter. In a rambling online manifesto, he vowed to target other cops and their families. Authorities tracked him to an area around the Big Bear Lake ski resort in san bernardino, california. After an allnight search, a possible Big Development. Cnns casey wine is following this for us. What do you know . Reporter well, good morning. Law enforcement throughout Southern California on high alert. They are trying to both protect potential you hear this one Police Vehicle behind me. We dont know if it has anything to do with the search for this suspect, but we are seeing a lot of activity right at this Police Station here in hollywood. Just starting right now. Probably about eight vehicles leaving here in a very, very rapid manner over the last minute or so. The man hunt for Christopher Dorner stretching across nine Southern California counties, from the Mexican Border to Big Bear Lake, a ski resort nearly 200 miles away. A possible break in the hunt for Christopher Dorner as authorities find his truck burning on a remote road in Big Bear Lake, california. Police fanned out, rifles drawn, as they searched nearby woods and go door to door. Well keep working on it until were either able to locate the suspect or determine hes no longer in the big bear valley. Reporter dorner, a former los angeles cop, has threatened to hurt l. A. Police officers and their families. Police say in retribution for being fired in 2008. He allegedly laid out his plan in an online manifesto saying, quote, i never had the opportunity to have a family of my own, im terminating yours. Dorner also attempted to contact cnn. A yellow postit note that reads, i never lied. An apparent reference to his firing. Also, a coin wrapped in duct tape, which was inscribed with thanks but no thanks. Chances are he would have received it from me. It would have the custom i have of when somebody was activated into the military heading overseas. Reporter cnn is cooperating with authorities. Police say it began sunday in irvine when dorner killed two people, monica quan, the daughter of a former lapd captain and her fiance. Three days later in san diego, police say dorner attempted to hijack a boat. Then he fired at Police Officers in corona, who were assigned to protect someone connected to dorners threats. One officer was hurt. Later in riverside, two officers are fired upon in what police call a cowardly ambush. One seriously hurt, the other killed. Dorners manifesto states, the attacks will stop when the Department States the truth about my innocence publicly. Hes told us what he intends to do, and so far hes done it. Reporter leaving the community on edge, wondering when the violence will stop. Several Police Departments have ordered their officers to travel in pairs in their patrol cars until dorner is found. Zoraida. Such a scary situation. Also for the residents out there. Theyre on a virtual lockdown, arent they . Reporter thats right. Police are conducting a doortodoor search overnight throughout the community of Big Bear Lakes, trying to find dorner. So far, no luck. They have ordered residents to stay inside. They also closed for at least part of the day yesterday, the ski lifts at the big bear resort. We dont know if thats going to continue today or not. And what about the schools . Were those on lockdown as well . Opening today . Do you know anything about that . Reporter i dont have any information on that. Well try to get it for you and maybe have it next hour. Yeah, i would imagine a lot of parents are worried this morning. Casey wian live if morning. Thank you. As casey mentioned, the suspect reached out personally to cnns Anderson Cooper. Later this hour, anderson takes a closer look at his 11page manifesto, which was posted on facebook. In our next hour at 6 40 eastern, well talk with David Klinger hes a professor of criminal justice at the university of missouri in st. Louis. Hes also a former lapd Police Officer. See if he can shed light on the situation. The white house turned down a proposal to arm syrian rebels. Defense secretary leon panetta and joint chiefs chairman Martin Dempsey testified about it at a Senate Committee yesterday saying they backed the plan but the white house would not budge, showing a clear rift in washington in syrian policy. A u. S. Official familiar with the deliberations said the issue is dead, at least for now. John brennan, the president s pick to be the next cia director getting drilled at his confirmation hearing. He was pressed the targeted killing of terror suspects, including u. S. Citizens. I think theres a misimpression on the part of some American People who believe that we take strikes to punish terrorists for past transgressio transgressions. Nothing could be further from the truth. We only take actions as a last resort to save lives when theres no other alternative. The brennan hearing was interrupted several times by protesters. At one point, senator Diane Feinstein stopped the proceedings and actually had the room cleared. All right. Too close for comfort. Scientists at nasa say a giant asteroid, about half the size of a football field, is headed our way. They predict it will pass very close to earth on february 15th. No closer than about 17,100 miles. Its one of many large Space Objects barrelling toward us at the very moment. Experts say all of them, inclauinclud including this one, will have very limited, lowimpact probability. Very good. Fun to watch, probably wont hit. I bet a lot of people will weigh in on this next story. Should you get paid for all the extra time you spend checking work emails when you are outside of work . A chicago Police Officer has filed a lawsuit against the city asking them to pay up for all the extra hours he says hes frequently required to work when hes offduty. This is actually happening from home on his departmentissued blackberry. Thats what he wants to be reimbursed for. Heres what the officers attorney told our chicago affiliate. If they have halfhour phone call outside of work hours to a superior about a search warrant theyre going to work on the next day, thats something that needs to be paid for. The lawsuit is not silly. The lawsuit seeks to enforce the law. Okay. So the city says that it has work policies and procedures in place allowing Police Officers to request overtime. They say, at best, this is a union grievance, not a federal lawsuit. And this is something that unionized work forces, whether its news rooms or police department, have really grappled with. A lot of people are tied 24 7 on the phone, conference calls, meetings well, across the board it happens. Apparently they have a way to deal with it. Itll be interesting what the outcome is. I know. Especially since i was on this last night. A florida kid has three parents named on his birth certificate. How that happened, coming up. Plus, a highprofile movie critic under fire this morning. Did he cross the line calling the star there, the woman, a hippo . Stouffers is proud to make americas favorite lasagna. With handlayered pasta, tomatoes, and real mozzarella cheese. But what makes us even prouder. Is what our real dinners can do for your family. Stouffers. Lets fix dinner. No they dont. Hey son. Have fun tonight. Back against the wall aint nothin to me aint nothin to me [ crowd murmurs ] hey [ howls ] good afternoon. Chase sapphire. push button tone [ howls ] this is stacy from springfield. Oh whoa. Hello . Yes. I didnt realize id be talking to an actual person. You dont need to press 0, im here. Reach a person, not a prompt whenever you call chase sapphire. Why should saturday night have all the fun . Get two times the points on dining in restaurants, with chase sapphire preferred. Good morning, new york city. Right now it is 35 degrees. When all the snow comes, if it stays 35 degrees, of course it wont stick. But its going to get a little colder. 37, i think, later. Tonight we should have a lot of snow. Im looking forward to it. Im trying to find hills close to home so we can go tobogg tobogganing. My kids have them lined up. Lets hope everything goes well. Welcome back to early start. Lets get you up to date. A winter storm of historic proportions is bearing down on the northeast. 23 Million People from new jersey to maine are under blizzard warnings right now. Boston is the problem here. It could be buried under three feet of snow by tomorrow. New yorkers are bracing for a foot or more with the entire northeast region facing dangerous winds that could top 70 miles an hour. The winds are going to be a real problem. A possible sighting overnight of an excop whos declared war on the Los Angeles Police department. Authorities say they got a call that 33yearold Christopher Dorner was seen near the Barona Indian reservation in lakeside, california. Hes suspected of killing three people, including an officer. He vowed to target other cops and their families in a long online letter. A Duke University fraternity has been suspended after throwing an asianthemed party. Many consider it racist and insensitive. Asianamerican students at yoouft university were outraged after pictures emerged. The invitations for the party used language mocking many asian accents. Did veteran film critic rex reed go too far in his critique of the new comedy identity thief . He referred to the films star, melissa mccarthy, as tractor sized and a hippo. The observer website exploded with fiery comments saying reed crossed the line criticizing mccarthys appearance instead of the movie. Identify thief opens today. Almost 20 minutes after the hour. Time for your early reads, your local news making National Headlines this morning. In the miami herald, a circuit judge has approved a private adoption, allowing three people, a gay man and married lesbian couple, to be listed on the birth certificate of their 21monthold daughter. They tried unsuccessfully at clinics until asking their friend to help. So three people on a birth certificate. You know whats interesting about that story . It took two years. Theyre all smiling with the judge. At the end of the day, they were able to figure it out before the courts had to get involved. In the new york observer, ann of green gables gets a makeover and die hard fans are angered. The 11yearold appears as an attractive blond. This is how everybody feels. Readers have gone ballistic on amazon. One fan says she was so disgusted she couldnt eat. Another reviewer could eat but said shes so upset she couldnt keep her food down. Somebodyaid this is kind of like depicting Martin Luther king as a white man. They were outraged over this. Well, red hair to blond, but stil