In hand cuffs to surprise moments of tenderness. And santas little helpers, Stores Across the country expected to be packed today for whats likely to be the busiest shopping day of the year. It is Super Saturday. Millions of procrastinators wrapping up their christmas list. We are live as the last minute rush gets under way saturday, december 20th, 2014. Welcome to today this saturday morning. Im erica hill. Craig melvin with Sheinelle Jones and doing some last minute shopping. Of course you did. You totally would. You started . I started last night. I did. It felt so good. Everything was picked over. Once you start, you cant stop. One for me, one for them. There have been so many sales this year, i have to remind myself my things arent in the christmas budget. Good luck today. See you out there shopping. We want to get to todays top story, nasty weather expected coast to coast. You want to get your shopping done today, it is going to hit at the worst time possible as tens of millions hit the roads, the rails, the skies for christmas vacation. Dylan is following it closely for us. Theres a lot going on. Lets bring you to the maps. We have one big storm in the pacific northwest, thats going to transition to a big storm for Christmas Eve for the east coast. Right now, we have really heavy rain, not a good day from seattlo i of low pressure thats going to stream on moisture. Were looking at inches of rain likely, especially along the coast from seattle down to San Francisco where we could end up with four to six inches of rain. Also looking for mountain snow. Watch as this starts to mo move eastward. It will converge with another system and bring rain to the east coast. Here you see the higher elevations, not so much snow, snow would be above 6,000 feet, but looking at four to five inches of rain in higher elevations. Then transitions into a snowstorm for salt lake city, aspen, two feet of snow is possible. Monday night, here is severe storms on the gulf coast ahead of this cold front, rain elsewhere. This is a warmer storm. Were not going to see widespread White Christmas here, but were looking for heavy rain to start moving in. By Christmas Eve, heavy rain up and down the east coast. Strong storms from the carolinas to new england. We will see a wintry mix through the western great lakes transitioning over into snow. By christmas morning, all of this pulls away. It will still be windy. It is heavy rain and wind that will cause a lot of delays up and down the east coast, especially Christmas Eve. It is going to be a little messy, but not looking at a major snowstorm, but it is rain and wind. Craig . Thank you. President obama and his family arrived in hawaii a few hours ago for the start of their two and a half week vacation. But it was all business for the president friday in a wide ranging News Conference, he slammed Sony Pictures for cancelling release of the movie the interview in the wake of the hacking scandal. Kristin welker is traveling with the president. Kristin, good morning to you. Reporter good morning to you, craig. Thats right, president obama is kicking off his annual christmas vacation here in honolulu, but he did have strong words for Sony Pictures before he left after sony decided to pull its movie the interview. Thats a satire about killing the north Korean Leader, kim jongun. Sony made that decision after a series of Cyber Attacks and violence now attributed to north korea. Friday, president obama called sonys move a, quote, mistake. Take a listen. I wish they had spoken to me first. We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing sensorship here in the United States. Because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they dont like. Or news reports that they dont like. Reporter now, also on friday the fbi released a statement saying that it had confidence that the Cyber Attacks were coming from north korea in part because of digital fingerprints and also because this latest attack resembled other recent attacks that have been linked to north korea. President obama vowed to take action but didnt say specifically what he planned to do, craig. What kind of options are available for the administration . What could the president realistically do here . Reporter well, craig, the only indication that were getting right now about president obamas thinking is something that he said during that friday press conference. He said the u will, quote, respond proportionally at a time and place of its choosing. Intelligence officials signaled that they know who the attackers are, so the u. S. Has a range of options, everything from indicting the attackers to trying to destabilize the Computer Systems in question. Now, experts say the United States needs to be careful not to have an overreaction in part because north koreas leader is so unpredictable. It is expected that president obama will be briefed on a range of options while he vacations here in hawaii. Craig, back to you. Kristin welker traveling with the president. Thank you. Here is erica. Thanks. The ceo of Sony Pictures is firing back at president obamas comments, defending his companys decision to pull the movie from theaters. Sony is now looking at other ways to possibly release the movie to the public. Halle jackson has more on that for us. Good morning. Good morning, erica. Only a relative handful of people have actually watched the interview, but sony hopes anyone that wants to see the movie will get the opportunity to do so. The question is how. What started as a hollywood hack has grown far bigger than the big screen. This is the secretary of communication for north korea. Oh, my god. A real life drama with real consequences. Now the head of Sony Pictures is stepping into the spotlight, defending his studios decision not to release the comedy. Speaking with cnn. We have not caved. We have not given in. We have persevered and we have not backed down. Sony argues it had no choice but to pull the interview after major theater chains refused to screen it, triggering strong reaction from some of hollywoods biggest stars. We have to realize that this is a genuine emergency, this is the popularization of cyber war. George clooney calls it a new reality. Other alisters signed the petition. Says nobody stood up. Nobody took that stand. This is a moment you would expect the industry to rally around and support you. Even after sony executives received a message that appears to be from the cyber attackers, demanding the studio wipe all traces of the film off the internet, sony insists it wants the interview to go public. If it is not in theaters, theyre going to find another way. Now the job of sony is to figure out how it can get the film out there. The studio is looking at what video on demand platforms could be used to distribute it. To some celebrities, the more visibility, the better. Judd app a toy says it all started as a goofy movie, but now people will see it and see why it is not okay to control people. Turning the spotlight on the hackers themselves. Sony ceo predicts the studio will recover in six months to a year. The fallout now is significant not just financially with the loss of estimated 100 million, but remember, sony is also now facing four class action lawsuits. Erica . Halle jackson this morning, thank you. Editor with variety joins me. Nice to have you here. Nice to be here. There are so many angles to the story. The criticism sony is receiving, all the way up to the president and folks in hollywood, theres discussion and the president brought it up about the precedent this sets in terms of allowing outside forces to control whats released. Whats the conversation in hollywood about that . Are people now stepping back from plans . It is not just the president , we just dont know who the hackers are necessarily. We dont know if their demands will stop. They issued more demands saying they wanted everything pulled. I think theres a lot of fear in hollywood and uncertainty what to do moving forward and sense that maybe the movie should have been released and people should be able to see the movie. Dont want to let north korea dictate what we can and cant see. Sony is saying theyre trying to figure out how to release it. They changed their tune. Earlier they said they have no plans to release it. After the president s press conference, the ceo of sony went on tv saying theyre looking for different ways to release it. Since movie theaters arent going to show it, they have to figure out if theres another way, vod or netflix or Something Else to show it. The head of sony said we should have had more people rallying around, heard from george clooney, saying i tried to get people to petition to rally around. Even though they werent saying things publicly, whether out of fear, we dont know. Was there a rally privately in hollywood of heads of studios getting together and trying to figure out how to help or no . I think one of the things it has done, it shows how hollywood has become as a business. Sony tried to get other studios to come together and rally and publicly support it. And the other studios didnt come to their defense. Sony has been criticized for the way it handled it, including a report earlier this week that sony was criticized, seth rogan saying he pushed too much on a film. Can sony recover even from the pr standpoint . I think a long time to recover. Theyre deep wounds, based on emails, private exchanges, Jennifer Lawrence wasnt paid as much as male costars, know the ending of the new james bond movie, saw producer scott rude enemails about angelina jolie. A lot of people were dragged into this hack. It will take awhile for sony to untangle the mess. Also you hear about people that arent big names that were pulled in, a lot of them understandably fearful. When you look at it in the end, it is great pr for a film, even if it wasnt planned that way, and movie that people that have seen it say wasnt that great. I think in this case this has been baffling because it has been pulled. Good pr for a movie no one can see. Eventually if it comes out, people are curious to see the interview. Given the mess that emerged, given the fact that sony lost so much money, dont know how much money they lost, estimated they lost 75 million on the interview alone, it has been pretty catastrophic. Nice to have you here this morning. Thanks. There is new video thats just been released on the ray rice scandal. Sheinelle following that and more. We begin with never before seen images after ray rices attack in the new jersey casino. The tape was obtained exclusively by nbc news. It is a video ray rice thought to keep from reaching the light of day. Abc news won a court battle to get it. In it, you see the then Baltimore Ravens star being held by security. Moments after the infamous elevator accident in which he knocked out his then fiance. It eventually led to his suspension from the nfl before he won reinstatement last month. You see her at first seemingly wanting nothing to do with rice after the fight. She also received medical treatment. Then at one point with both in handcuffs as she was initially accused of assault, the couple is escorted into an elevator. Rice and palmer appear to kiss. Rices lawyer opposes release of the video, saying of his client this is a time of healing and he quite naturally doesnt want another media showing of what must have been the worst event of his life. The couple married following the Atlantic City episode. And in an exclusive interview on today she talked about how she went from rage to reconciliation. I just knew he hit me and i was completely over it. I was done. Didnt want to hear anything. In the back of my mind and in my heart, i knew that our relationship wouldnt be over because i know that this isnt us and it is not him. Big deal for me to always protect her. Thats why i say i take full responsibility. She can do no wrong. This is something as a man you have to own and, you know, we are horribly sorry. New trouble for the running back as he tries to rehabilitate his career. 18 time olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps dodged jail time in his case in baltimore. He pled guilty friday to dui after he was arrested in september. His second such arrest in ten years. He got a one year suspended sentence, but the judge warned if he slips up, the only option is jail. Phelps says he is now in recovery after a stint in rehab. Ill continue to grow from this. Continue on my path of recovery. Next couple years are going to be very challenging. I am very pleased and happy that i have the great supportive around me. Former linebacker ray lewis showed up to support phelps at sentencing. Now to california, a woman accused of mowing down four people with her car outside a church made a dramatic appearance. She was wheeled in court cuffed to a gurney and propped up with pillows. Pled going to manslaughter in the crash that killed four people, including a sixyearold boy. Five other children and eight adults hurt in the crash after a student Christmas Concert wednesday. A warning this morning about caramel apple and bacteria that could make you sick. Centers for Disease Control says theyre linked to four listeria deaths and more than two dozen hospitalizations nationwide. While the prepackaged apples are popular around halloween, have a shelf life more than a month, may still be on store shelves. And the must have present this Holiday Season, apparently drones dont bring joy to kangaroos. Look at this drone attempting to film them in australia. One decided it was getting too close for comfort and knocked the drone out of the air with a left hook, no less. Footage was rescued, this morning the drone is beyond repair. Sometimes enough is enough. Nothing to see here. The drone hovered for a second. The second time when it came back, kangaroo let him know who was boss. Dylan is back with a check of the rest of the countrys forecast. What are we looking at. A lot of people shopping today. The weather for most of the country looks good. You can see from the eastern twothirds of the country, High Pressure in control. Maybe a couple flurries in south dakota. It is really fairly quiet. Few sprinkles on the east coast, North Carolina. We have a storm system bringing heavy rain from seattle to San Francisco and s and a good saturday morning. Im meteorologist Michelle Grossman. Were looking at a cold day but dry. Also tomorrow a mixture of sun and clouds. Temperatures right around 40. 38 to 41. Winds out of the north at five to ten miles per hour. Then by sunday, another cold one. Another dry day. Winter starts at 6 03. Its going to feel like winter. Mixture of sun and clouds. Monday, late showers. 53 on tuesday, chance for rain. Then by wednesday, a rainy and windy day. We dry it out on christmas, a high of 47. Thats your latest forecast. Dylan, thanks. You heard of the phrase as american as apple pie and baseball. Not sure cuba has a slogan like that. Theres hope that new relations with the United States will help give new life to three institutions there, ballet, big cars, and baseball. Nbcs jacob rascon is there. Reporter hey there, craig. The political consequences of the u. S. , cuba relationship is is not what people want to talk about. They want to know how will changes improve my daily life in ways most americans take for granted. Life in cuba has not suddenly changed but if better life is a door, cubans believe they were just handed a key. The best. Reporter the promise of a new relationship between cuba and the u. S. Gives new meaning to field of dreams. 20 cubans already play major league ball. To join, they had to defect because of u. S. Sanctions. Cuban star wants to play for the yankees. The goal is always to play at the highest level, and the whole world knows the highest level is in the u. S. Cuban ballet is no different. Producing some of the worlds finest ballerinas, with similar american ambitions, and potentially a path. On the streets, the dream is more basic. All the people of havana seem to care about is how will the changes improve my daytoday life, from the food they eat to phones they carry to the cars they buy. Except if you own one of these. The iconic cuban symbol, the classic american car which some cubans want to stay exactly the same. Others may be persuaded by u. S. Car collectors in overdrive, willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps even more. No, no sell my car. Reporter and we should note that many we interviewed insisted we not ask the difficult political questions. Theres fear of retaliation. Other than that, the people in cuba seemed genuinely excited and only hope that promises of change are not empty. Craig . Jacob ras cone in havana, thank you. We have seen some over the top christmas decorations. One pub in england may take the cake when it comes to decorating. Give deck the halls a whole new meaning. Kelly kobe aa checks it out. Reporter it may look like any other country pub, but step inside. Fake snow, golden stars, giant snowflakes, a polar bear, five snow men. Make that six. Every nook and cranny covered in holiday cheer. Christmas forever for us really, the whole year really, because were thinking about it for months. Reporter and working on it for three weeks. 6,000 glass ornaments, hand tied with five miles of string, and 40,000 staples to hang them from the ceiling by the staff. Blisters from doing it with the staple gun and everything. Reporter youre kidding. No, glitter stuck on your face for weeks. Reporter they have been doing it over 20 years. Each year it gets bigger and boulder. There are 35,000 lights in the pub, over the top electricity bill to match. Over 6,000 a month to keep them turned on. Why spend so much time and money on santas and snowflakes . Just count the meals coming out of the kitchen. They have been booked solid since november. We can do 11 months trade in one month, that good. Just from the Christmas Lights . Just f