The lawsuit accusing robin thicke and Pharrell Williams of blurring the lines with a marvin gay classic goes to court with millions of dollars at stake today, tuesday, february 24th, 2015. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning and welcome to today on a Tuesday Morning. The gang is back from california, but i bet you miss that california weather. Not even that blurred lines video can warm up a day like this. It is, what, 7 degrees here in new york city . Laguardia set a record this morning. Records throughout this morning. Talk about a broken record. The weather has got covered on land and water beginning with Kerry Sanders in kentucky by what appears to be a not so warm fire. Do you see that near you . Good morning to you. Reporter well, good morning. We started at negative 7 degrees here this morning. Its now negative 2. But i think that this fire has less to do with it than the sun. Unfortunately for the south, it doesnt look like things are going to be warming up any time soon because of another blast of cold air that is forecast today. In texas, American Airlines flight slid off the runway during its landing. No one was injured. Investigators are looking at mondays sleet and ice as a possible cause of the accident. Today more snow in the forecast. It caused more than 100 accidents including this pile up new the texas, new mexico border involving 29 vehicles. Another disaster where a trucker lost control and the trailer dangling off of a bridge. Its like snow and freezing rain. Its just ice. Its like ball bearings underneath your feet. Reporter the numbing icy mix made dallas seem like a ghost town. In new england, heavy snow continues to cause roof top cave ins. With no snow today in massachusetts, many dealing with Public Transportation delays say that frigid temperatures alone are actually a warm welcome. Im grateful to be taking the train today. Reporter in florida, more than a dozen manatees escaped the cold waters by swimming into municipal drainage pipes where its warmer, but once in, they could not get out. We have to go in and get them. Reporter rescue workers have to work to extract the mammal, and some weigh several hundred pounds early this morning in all, 19 manatees were rescued. Some were scraped up. Interestingly, this month florida and hawaii are the only two states that have not seen snow. Oddly, alaska is interestingly without snow. In fact, to the point they had to cancel a sled race yesterday because of the lack of snow. Matt, i hope this campfire warms things up because nothing else is. There is that fire we were talking about. Thanks so much. Lets turn to dylan dreyer on board the icy hudson river. Dylan, good morning to you. Reporter its hard to hear. No surprise that water freezes at 32 degrees. We are so far below freezing for a period of time that ice is becoming a major issue on the hudson river. Take a look at how much ice has developed along this major waterway. We are surrounded by it. They use it to transport 70 of the northeast Home Heating Oil. Two to three cutters are out on the water every day, breaking through this ice. That is why we are on the u. S. Coast guard cutter willow doing just that. Its a delicate balance. The river tends to freeze and if you break up too much, it flows downstream and can clog the waterways in the new york harbor. Talking to some of the coast guards, they say this is one of the worst winters they have seen since 2004. February all across the northeast has been recordbreaking cold. We broke record lows yesterday morning. Were breaking more record lows this morning. And with this cold not expected to stop any time soon, cutters like this wont be stopping either. Matt . Dylan dreyer on the hudson river. Thanks very much. Al has bravely made his way out to the plaza. Good morning. Any relief in sight . Its crazy cold, and its going to continue. Rights now it feels like its 19 below below. Were looking at altoona, pennsylvania, 6 below. 8 above in philadelphia. Thats right now. You head out west, and chicago its a little warmer. Its minus 1 in ft. Wayne. Parkersburg at minus 7. This afternoon, temperatures moderate a theyre still anywhere from 10 to 30 degrees below normal. And then you get down into the south, were talking about temperatures that are into the 40s in texas where theyve had some icing. Atlanta, weve seen a ground stop at the airport because of icing conditions. But here comes more cold air. Ahead of the front, temperatures 10 degrees milder than behind the front. As we get into wednesday morning, look at this. Temperatures really start dropping again. Minneapolis, 4 below. Were looking at temperatures during the day on thursday into friday morning really plummet and really take a big nose dive. And weve got another storm system making its way from the south along the eastern seaboard. Boston may tonight, guys, break the 100inch mark on its way to an alltime snowy record. Wow. All right, al. Thank you so much. Now to the other big story were following this morning. The secretary of Veterans Affairs under fire and apologizing for claiming he served in the militarys special forces when he never did. Nbcs Jim Miklaszewski is at the pentagon for us. Reporter good morning. Robert mcdonald was hired to clean up Veterans Affairs. Now it appears hes talked his way into a mess of his own. Veterans Affairs SecretaryRobert Mcdonald is apologizing after falsely claiming that he was in the u. S. Special forces. Special forces . What years . Reporter the comment aired on cbs news last month while secretary mcdonald was speaking with a homeless man in los angeles. Mcdonald offered his apology after being contacted by the huffington post. I have no excuse, he said, i was special forces. Mcdonald was picked by president obama to fix an ailing va after Eric Shinseki resigned last may following reports of scandals at va hospitals across the country. He is, however, an army veteran, having served with the 82nd airborne. The white house is standing by mcdonald, issuing a statement. We take him at his word and expect that will not impact the important work hes doing to promote the health and well being of our nations veterans. This is the second time in two weeks that mcdonald has been forced to correct his own record. On meet the press february 15th, he discussed his efforts to repair the va. 900 people have been fired since i became secretary. Weve got 60 people that we fire who had have manipulated wait times. Turns out, only 20 were dismissed. A va official later told nbc news mcdonald misspoke. Now, any public statements these days about ones military service or battlefield exploits are coming under intense scrutiny after questionable claims about their own battlefield coverage from Nbcs Brian Williams and now fox news bill oriley. In talking to this homeless veteran, quote, i incorrectly stated i had been in special forces. That was inaccurate, and i apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement. Jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. Thank you. We have some breaking news right now. Several cars of a Los Angeles Bound metro link train have crashed after colliding with a vehicle. These are live pictures from oxnard, california. Tom costello, what can you tell us . The ntsb is monitoring the situation. This is about 80 miles northwest of los angeles in Ventura County. At about 5 45 a. M. Pacific time this morning, this l. A. Bound train, three cars can hit, were told, a utility truck of some sort. It was a fiery crash. The truck immediately engulfed in fire. Three of those train cars then derailed. Firefighters and paramedics have been on the scene ever since. They have now set up and have been working through the last few hours on this triage system. A colorcoated triage system. Red meaning the most serious, green of course the least serious. But you can see theres very little left of that utility truck on the tracks. Were told somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 people have been injured and treated by firefighters and medics on the scene. At this point, it looks like this was a single vehicle that was involved in this crash. Again, l. A. Bound metro link train derailing in oxnard, Ventura County. Firefighters and pa areraparamedi still on the scene. Quite an investigation under way. Back to you. Live pictures from our chopper knbc thank you so much, tom. Natalie is here with the other top stories of the morning. All right. Lets start first with a bizarre story out of connecticut where theyre investigating a bank robbery plot after the banks manager was found with a fake bomb strapped to his body. Nbcs betty nguyen is here with the details. Good morning, yes. No one is in custody and no one has been injured. What is really turning out to be a bizarre robbery attempt. Tense moments in bristol, connecticut, on monday where Police Say Two men Wearing Masks and gloves forced themselves into a Bank Managers home, strapping what later turned out to be a fake bomb on him. They then ordered him to drive to the credit union and empty its vault. The manager, who is also the chief Financial Officer of a chief Financial Credit Union in new britain, was taken away from the scene in an ambulance after bomb squad technicians removed the suspected explosive device he was wearing. Heavily armed federal, state, and local authorities responded to the scene using trucks as shields. We witnessed ourselves a very suspicious device. Those vehicles are large enough to withstand a blast somewhat, keep a vehicle. Back at the Bank Managers home, his mother was reportedly tied to her bed with what the suspects claim was an explosive placed underneath it. After an extensive investigation, both devices were determined to be fake. Authorities say theyre searching for more than one suspect and still determining if the bank manager was involved. Certainly were considering all possibilities, whether or not he was coerced, doing something against his will, or a suspect. This is an active investigation. Now, police say there have been no arrests yet. Authorities have not disclosed whether the suspects fled the scene with any money. Very kbibizarre. Sure is. Thank you. Today, alaska becomes the third state where it is legal to grow, own, and smoke marijuana. Alaska voters passed a ballot measure legalizing pot last november. Adults 21 and older will be able to possess up to one ounce and grow up to six plants at home. Buying and selling marijuana, however, is still illegal and so is smoking it in public. Witnesses say they were shocked that no one was killed when a boat veered off course and slammed into a busy restaurant. This happened late monday afternoon in florida. Seven people were reportedly on board that boat. Two were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. No one in the restaurant was hurt. Heavy fog in the area may be to blame. And look at this frightening Traffic Camera video out of boston. A man driving a pickup truck slams into a snowcovered barrier, went airborne, and then flew off the elevated highway and crashed down on to the road below. Amazingly, he survived that crash. Police say the driver is now facing drunk driving charges. And watch your step because we have some incredible video out of south korea. Two pedestrians and this frightening fall. The Security Camera there captured all of that. You can see two people just getting off the bus stopped on to the sidewalk and fell right through the pavement into a sink hole. Fortunately, both of them are okay. They were eventually rescued by firefighters. Lets swivel now over to al, take a look at weather. Thanks so much, natalie. Heres the deal. Out west your weather looks pretty spectacular. However, you see all this cloudiness . This is moisture. Subtropical moisture making its way across the south and into the southeast. Were seeing right now showers and some frozen precipitation, some snow develo so to the north of tucson tucson is at 65 degrees. To the north, you have some snow. A lot of this moisture has been making its way into the southeast. Thats why weve got all that activity. Weve been stuck in this pattern now for about the last two days. Going to continue for the next three or four. But in the meantime, gorgeous weather in seattle, sunshine and 56. Salt lake city looking good. Denver at 41 degrees. San jose, 66. But you follow that jet stream, and you will see moisture now streaming into texas, where theyve had some frozen precipitation, and its continuing right on into the southeast where weve been look at icing conditions. Weve had big problems. I20 in georgia has been closed because of numerous accidents. Schools in cobb county closed. Look for snow around the great lakes. Snow in the four corners. As we said, a gorgeous day out west. 7 16. Happy tuesday. Im meteorologist Christina Loren. Crystal clear at our local beaches. Beautiful shot from Half Moon Bay and temperatures will be comfortable. Well end up in the 60s but for now, temperatures are chilly enough for a heavy coat. 65 degrees later today in San Francisco. 66 in the tri valley and 67 degrees for us here in the south bay. As we head throughout wednesday, to thursday temperatures will continue to warm up, and then those numbers drop like a rock we bring in rain as we get into this weekend. Al, thank you very much. New research could be a game changer when it comes to children and peanut allergies. The findings suggest exposing infants to peanuts before the age of 1 can actually help prevent the sometimes lifethreatening condition. Dr. Natalie azar is an nbc news medical contributor. Good to see you. Good morning. A lot of parents probably just stopped what they were doing to listen to this. There are a lot of kids with peanut allergies. Why expose these atrisk infants so early . The longterm impact of peanut allergy can be quite significant. First of all, they develop very, very early. Children tend to not outgrow them. Theres no cure. Also, theres a significant burden to the Health Care System with doctor visits, emergency room visits, drug costs, not to mention the psychological impact. So were not talking about exposing these infants to peanuts themselves. Absolutely not. Were talking about products that contain some sort of peanut derivative. Correct. Really important takehome point, obviously. The study looked at infants between the i thinkages of 4 and 11 months. We would never recommend to give a peanut to those kids because of the choking hazard. But Peanut Butter mixed with banana is what they used in this study. But you dont want children to be exposed to peanut products. Whos most at risk . Children with exma. Also cows milk allergy and a Family History of peanut allergy. I think its important just to remind parents what the symptoms are and how you might know if your child has a peanut allergy. Correct. Typically its an allergic reaction. Itchy rash, hives, maybe nasal congestion, nausea. Obviously if they have tingling around the mouth, any shortness of breath, that could be a much more severe reaction. Obviously it would warrant intervention much sooner. Again, the headline here, perhaps expose these Young Children in infancy to peanut products. Correct. All right. Doctor, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Lets go back over to savannah. Thank you so much. All right, america. Tamron, the internet. Thats a hot place to be. Its the only warm place i think in this country right now. The bitter cold temperatures continue to blanket much of the country, as reported by mr. Roker. But social media, you guys have found some really fun images for us to share. Over the weekend, guys, it warmed up just long enough for an nbc news photographer to capture this pretty cool time lapse of the snow melting in boston. But of course, the cold would reenter the equation. I could look at this all day. This is pretty cool. As i mentioned, the cold would come back into our lives. This is out of indiana. It says it all. Brrr. From one of our viewers. Look at this. Were at the stop of winter. This is in massachusetts. A special request that is pretty interesting. Stop winter now, please. And i think this dog is perhaps the cutest thing on the internet right now. Over 150 views of this. You ask why. Heres why. And of all the names to have, elsa. Thats the dogs name. Keeping things in check. But listen, wrangle, come on out. Hes like, leave me alone. Look at his new toy. This is my favorite. For when theres whining around here. His pacifier. He loves that thing. All right. See you guys later. Well be back. Doesnt like you calling him a whiner. That was a lick, thank you. All right, tamron. Thank you. Coming up, the battle over blurred lines finally heading to trial today. Millions of dollars at stake. Did Pharrell Williams and robin thicke copy their hit song from a marvin gaye classic . Plus, rossen reports. An eye opener the wake of controversial policeinvolved shootings. Were going to take you inside the hightech simulator exploring when and why officers open fire. 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