What theyre calling a careless stunt. And all dogs go to heaven. What pope francis said that has all tails wagging today, friday, december 12th, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning. Welcome to today on a friday morning. Our tails are wagging because of this story out of st. Peters square where the pope had an encounter with a young boy who was heartbroken over the loss of his dog. He kind of reversed catholic dogma when he said, in fact, all gods creatures can go to heaven. This is Dylan Dreyers dog, boscoe, in the orange room. Very happy about this. Survey says yes. Real good one to start this morning. Lets start with our top story out west, fierce storm leading to deaths and this mudslide that triggered evacuations in camarillo overnight. Miguel almaguer has been tracking this story. Good morning to you. Reporter very dicey and fluid situation outside los angeles. Sbrok mudslide has hit this community. First responders are going door to door to check on local residents. Now this storm is slamming not just this community, but this entire region. From San Francisco to los angeles, pounding rain, devastating wind and severe flooding, one of the wettest, most destructive storms in recent memory. Rising water led to evacuations. Ive never seen anything like this. The wind and rain, ripping down power lines. In San Francisco, a transformer explosion. A quarter million homes and businesses lost power. In san jose, a roof collapsed at a grocery store. One shopper left injured. This morning, fears in Southern California that hills ravaged by wildfires are now ripe for mudslide mudslides. Once the rain comes and the mud starts to flow, theres nothing residents can do. Reporter heavy snow was in the forecast for the sierras, up to three feet expected. Some prepared for the worst but found off and on in the floods, this man kayaking home. Winds so powerful, another surfed lake tahoe. But for many this morning, the threat is real and this monster storm is far from over. With rocks and mud still flowing in this community, there is good news. There doesnt appear to be any injury so far. Certainly a preview of what is expected to come later today. Savannah . Miguel almaguer in camarillo, california. Thank you very much. Al . You have more on this. Yes. The bad news is were nowhere near done. We get what we call training effects coming in here. Straemg out of the pacific, it will be a real mess, just continue to bring more showers and thunderstorms. Flash flood warnings for much of los angeles and ventura counties. Flash flood watches as well. This system pushes in, powerful frontal system. The good news, if there is any, there seems to be a 20 knockdown of the drought thats been going on. And when you look at these numbers, you can see why. Were talking rainfall again over the next 46 to 48 hours, were talking about anywhere from two to four inches of rain, especially in some of the reservoir regions. And in the sierra, we could be looking at another four feet of snow. Now the bad news is, this system is moving to the east and it is going to be affecting probably about 70 of the country as we go into the weekend. Wow, a fierce one. Al, thank you. Thank you very much. In the wake of this weeks damning torture report, the cias director is now vowing that the agency is done using socalled enhanced interrogation techniques. Nbcs Andrea Mitchell is in washington with more on that story. Hi, andrea. Hi, matt. Good morning. John brennan acknowledged mistakes but also forcefully rebutted some of the key conclusions of that Senate Torture report and refused to do what president obama has done, called what happened torture. The secretive cia opened its doors to reporters and cameras for its first Live Press Conference as john brennan tried to turn the page on that explosive Senate Torture report. My fervent hope is that we can put aside this debate and move forward to focus on issues that are relevant to our Current National security challenges. Reporter calling the period after 9 11 a difficult time, brennan said cia did a lot of things right to keep the country safe. He admitted some of the tactics in the agencys Interrogation Program were abhorrent, were they ever to use such brutal tactics, what he calls etis, ever again. Waterboarding, near drowning, slamming people against the wall. We are not contemplating at all getting back into that Program Using any of the etis. Reporter he rebutted the statement that these techniques did not lead to find terrorists like osama bin laden. It was useful and was used in the ultimate operation to go against bin laden. Reporter Senate Intelligence chair Dianne Feinstein offered a realtime rebuttal, tweeting in part, study shows it is knowable. Cia had info before torture. Read the report. Later feinstein issued a statement mostly praising brennan, saying he showed that cia leadership is prepared to prevent this from ever happening again, which is all important. But theres already been damage done. The cia director acknowledged what the president has also said, that Foreign Intelligence Services and other allies are concerned about this report. Some democrats have called for brennan to be fired but the president is defending him. While brennan seeks to return the agency to its clandestine roots. I think theres enough transparency over the last few days. I think its over the top. It gave the adversaries a chance to accuse the u. S. Of hipocrisy. China staterun media saying we advise them to reflect on and correct their own problems. Matt . Andrea mitchell, thank you very much. The fallout is growing this morning from that massive hack of sony. It has exposed embarrassing emails from hollywood executives and last night led to one very unusual premiere. Joe friar is in los angeles for us. Joe, good morning. Good morning, savannah. The impact could be felt last night at the premiere for the interview, the controversial comedy that could be the subject of this attack. The theater marquise talked about a huge premiere but no reporters, no interviews for a movie called the interview. Billy bush attended the screening. There were more security here tonight than there were fans. Sony was trying to not celebrate, not make it a spectacle. Reporter the massive sony cyber attack has exposed Social Security numbers, salaries for execs, and an email exchange between producer scott ruden and amy pascale, wondering what movies president obama might like, should i ask him if he liked django . Rudin writes 12 years. Pascal writes or the butler. I think the culture of hollywood will change by this. I think people are thinking twice of what theyre putting in emails. Reporter both rudin and pascal issued apologies. I made a series of remarks that were meant only to be funny but in the cold light of day, they are thoughtless and insensitive. Pascal says im so disappointed in myself that i would have had a lapse in my thinking. Of all the things i thought would be said about me, this is the last one. Federal investigators are still trying to identify the hackers who call themselves guardians of peace. Whoever did this is definitely personal and theyre seeing a victim. Theyve already beaten up sony and theyre kicking again and again and again. And we dont know when thats going to stop. The interview will be released on christmas. This remains an unpredictable environment. No one knows what, if any, information will come out next. Sony will address its employees athe a town hall meeting monday. Savannah . Joe friar in los angeles. Thank you. This has corporations all across the country and probably all around the world rethinking their email policies. Individuals as well. People writing emails may be doing a little soul searching as well. Definitely a wakeup call. Lawmakers narrowly avoided shutting down the government. Quite a night in washington, d. C. Again. Its up to the senate to pass a huge 1. 1 trillion spending bill to keep the government running. The measure passed the house thursday after a day of arm twisting. Capitol hill correspondent Kelly Odonnell with the very latest. Good morning. Good morning, tamron. The drama this time came from liberal democrats who nearly scuttled the deal with hours before the deadline. The president got on the phone, the chief of staff from the white house was here. By the narrowest of margins, the house did pass a Government Spending bill that keeps the federal agencies and departments running for a year. Now, democrats had objected to a rollback of financial provisions that would help big wall street banks take some highrisk investment with his taxpayer ensured deposits. In the end, compromise, even ugly compromise, carried the night. And so this was passed. Its now up to the senate to follow through. The house also gave them a little wiggle room with extra deadline until saturday. Tamron . Kelly, thank you very much. Also at capitol hill thursd thursday, a powerful without words. Congressional staffers and members of congress walked out of their offices and stood on the Capitol Steps to protest the grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and eric garner case. Make sure all americans are treated equally before the law. Tens of thousands of gallons of oil in bangladesh, threatening dolphin species and other aquatic life. It was carrying more than 92,000 gallons of furnace oil when it was hit by a cargo vessel. Officials are now scrambling to try to minimize that damage. Injured Carolina Panthers quarterback cam newton says returning to football is not something he is worried about right now. First appearance since an awful car crash tuesday that left him with broken bones in his back. Was looking at the situation at hand. You know, im lucky to be standing in front of you guys right now. Newton said the crash taught him sport sincere not everything because it can be gone in an instant. United Airline Passengers are finally on the ground in sydney, australia this morning. Take a listen to this. This is after a nightmare marathon journey. The flight was en route from San Francisco to sydney, but was diverted because there was debris on the runway in sydney. Because the flight crew ran out of flying hours, they were stuck there for more than seven hours while they waited for another set of pilots. It gets better. Really, it gets worse. They were allowed to stretch their legs on the tarmac. What . But could not go any further because customs and immigration facilities were not able to process them. In all, the trip took 20 hours. But for those who originally started out in new york, 30hour journey. Wow i would have been calm. Yeah, you would have. Not cranky. You would have been flying the plane. Get out of my way. Remember those people who pushed the plane . I would have been doing that. Exactly. 7 13 now. Thank you, tamron. Lets turn to al. Really dangerous situation in Southern California, multiple land slides in ventura county. All offduty Emergency Management personnel have been brought on duty. Because of the volatility of this system, there may be funnel clouds reported or even a weak tornado. This is a very dangerous situation, which we will continue to track for you. Well get to your local forecast thanks. [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable Global Commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. Great job. mandarin cut it out. See you tomorrow. Good morning, im meteorologist bill henley. Dry start and breaks in the clouds with us and see the temperatures climb into the upper 30s to low 40s. Still a bit of a breeze blowing. 15 Miles Per Hour will make it feel chillier. Warmer over the weekend, after a cold start 44 with partly sunny skies and lots of sunshine, sunday a high of 47 and then into the 50s for monday with bright sunshine. Its clouds returning on tuesday that will keep us at 50 degrees cooler wednesday and thursday. Have a great day. And thats your latest weather. Al, thank you very much. Tragic fire on a cruise ship that killed three workers. No passengers were injured in the incident. That cruise is coming to an end this morning. Wtvjs julia bagg in miami has the latest on this. Julia, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. Passengers have arrived here in miami. We have been speaking with them. They are clearly shaken. Some of them tell us they heard explosions before they saw smoke. It smelled like the bottom of a volcano, sulphur, from the fire. Reporter tense moments aboard the oceanic insig nichni after a fire killed three workers. The signal went. I went up on the deck and saw enormous amount of jet black smoke. Reporter it was docked at st. Lucia when the fire began, extinguished but not before all 650 passengers were evacuated from the ship. Oceania cruises said we are deeply saddened by the tragic events that occurred this morning on insignia. We have extended our heartfelt condolences to the families involved and offer them our full support. It departed from san juan and was scheduled to arrive in miami december 17th. They are now waiting for flights to return home. Oceania people did everything they possibly could to make us as comfortable as possible. They were really quite outstanding. Reporter the cause of the fire is not yet known. The insignia underwent an multiMillion Dollar renovation earlier this year. Matt . Julia bagg from wtvj, thank you very much. Dylan came in from the cold. Yea the pope is making news with what he said about all gods creatures. He is answering that ageold question, do all dogs go to heaven . He was consoling a little boy whose dog had just died and he said one day we will see our animals again in eternity of christ. Paradise is open to all of gods creatures. Catholic theology says dogs have no souls and they cant go to heaven. My dog, bosco, seems to be or just because i have a treat. She really has no idea whats going on. But make sure you tell your dogs when you go home. Jewels, pepper, and may love. And the happiest dog of all could be this one. And my dog is slowly running away. So im going to go. Shes sniffing. Shes judging the whole studio here. All right, dylan. Come here, bosco. Boscos making a break for it go, bosco, go al has bacon in his pocket. Thats right. Ive got some mutton here for you thank you. Mark wahlberg is stopping by studio 1a to talk about his movie and a 26yearold assault conviction. Why supermodel Beverly Johnson says she was compelled to finally come forward and detail her encounter with the comedian. First on a friday morning, this is today on nbc. Coming up on trending, would you like to have a dislike button on facebook . Mark zuckerberg is weighing in on that this morning. Plus ice bucket, selfies and so much more, pop Denver International is one of the busiest airports in the country. We operate just like a city, and that takes a lot of energy. We use natural gas throughout the airport for heating the entire terminal, generating electricity onsite, and fueling hundreds of vehicles. Were very focused on reducing our environmental impact. And natural gas is a big part of that commitment. Came out of the cupboard. Literally. Can this mess be conquered by a little bit of dawn ultra . Yes. One bottle has the grease cleaning power of two bottles of this bargain brand. Dawn, its amazing what a drop can do. New and improved i cant believe its not butter 100 taste, 0 artificial preservatives. Made with a blend of delicious oils, purified water, and just a pinch of salt. Two, please. New and improved i cant believe its not butter. Its time to believe. I hear youre quite the expert at waking people up in the morning. Let me show you how grandma does it. Youre daddy made this when he was a little boy. This is your dad in my house, where he had his first christmas. Thanks for making the coffee. Well look whos up. Im really glad youre here, mom. Me too. Look whos here me too. Is a really big deal. U with aches, fever and chills theres no such thing as a little flu. So why treat it like its a little cold . Theres something that works differently than overthecounter remedies. Attack the flu virus at its source with prescription tamiflu. And call your doctor right away. Tamiflu is fda approved to treat the flu in people 2 weeks and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. Before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if youre pregnant, nursing, have Serious Health conditions, or take other medicines. If you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior, stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. Children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. The most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. Ask your doctor about tamiflu and attack the flu virus at its source. Its the curly hair you tried to fight it. Hide it. Change it. Not anymore. Professional strength frizz ease. Our powerful spray gives you smooth, frizzfree curls that are ready for anything. Frizz ease. Only from john frieda. Good morning, im vai sikhema. First alert forecast from meteorologist bill henley. Not ideal, but better than the last couple of days, right . No rain, no snow. Still have cloudy skies and see them in the pocono mountains. Nothing falling from them. Goes for the rest of the area, too. The radar is clear. It is chilly outside. 36 degrees and above freezing in philadelphia, but the wind is blowing. So, feels like 31 degrees. 27 the wind chill in allentown. Clouds will be breaking for some sunshine as we head towards the noontime hour and then 40 this afternoon. And a final farewell will beginitant for joyce craig the first philadelphia firefighter killed in the line of duty. Joyce craig fire company in lawn crest engine 64 remains draped in black bunting this morning. An 11year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department and mother of two. She lost her life early Tuesday Morning while fighting a house fire in west oak