Scared and challenging him t a personal dual. I would like to invite donald right now to engae in a one on one debate with me any time between now and the iowa caucuses. With five days to go, with a trumpfree debate make a difference . Super controversy. The nfl ivvestigating broncos quarterback Peyton Manning over. Allegations that a performanceenhancing drug was shipped to his home. How will the scandal impact the super bowl and denvers biggest star . Honoring ab. Acting legend abe vigoda, roles in the godfather. It was always business. I always liked him. Bar Barney Miller. He dies at the age of 94. Well say goodbye to a friend toeday, wednesday, january 27th, 2016. Announcer from nbc news, and savannah guthhie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plazed good mornin everyone. Welcome to today on a wednesday morning. Abe, abe, abe. Abe vigoda has died. 94 t years old. Amazing actor in movies like that, the godfather. Bfoarney miller. That face, who could forget that face and that sense of humor . What about that big heart . So many times he came to stud e owe 1a o of our favorhee guadesou. You dont kiss anyone on the head, matt. Well look back shortly. Our top story, one protester in oregon shot dead, eight others arrested at the fbi and police look to end the siege at a wildlife refuge. Joe fryer has the tory. Good morning. 25 days into this occupation, authorities decided it nas time tudrned violent. The confrontation turned out not at the wildlife rveuge but a highway 50 miles away. Me members of the Antigovernment Group were driving to a community meeting. Reporter along a rural highway, the fbi and Oregon State Police stopped the cupying vehicles to arrest members of the group when Authorities Say hots wore fired. Though they would not elaborate on two fire ed who fired. Lavoy finicum was shot, who was a spokesperson. There are things more important than your life, and freedom is one of them rorter nbc spoke by phone with finicums daughter. I want to know why. Ir know my dad. He would never put someones lirfe in jenpardy. He would only defend his life. Reporter another was injured, treated at the hospital and turned over to the fbi. In all, eight antigovernment including the groups leader, bundy and his brother. 59 tyearold cox was also arrested. We saw her making soup shortly after the occupation began. We are setting ourselves up to help them reclaim their land back. I have to go again. Reporter another arrest happened in arizona, where john had returned home. He posted a video on facebook, hugging his kids before turning himself in. The armed protesters took control of the wildlife refuge on january 2nd. Theyre calling for local control of the fedd eral land and demanding freedom for two oregon ranchers convicted of lighting firesown government land. Many county residenyo wanted the group to leave, but authorities made no forceful attempt to stop the occupation until now. Some armed militants remain at the refuge. The occupation isnt over those arrested face felony charges of conspiracy to impede officers. Thank you. R another major story this morning. Donald trumps decision to pull out of tomorrow nights republic h president ial debate, which comes just days before the iog wa caucuses. We have complete coverage, beginning with nba National Correspondent peter alexander. Good morning. Matt, good morning. Were live this morning from iwa. Barely 100 hours out from caucus day. Th, of course, is farm cosuntry, which is fitting given the fact that donald trump is locked in a high stakes game of chicken wih oth fox news and ted cruz. Reporter taking a page out of his art of the deal play book, donald trump is walking away from the table. Abruptly announcing hell skip tomorrow nights republican debate. Lets see how much money fox is going to make on the debate without me, okay . Lets see. Reporter a trump aide telling nbc news its not under consideration is and his word is bond. Rival ted cruz immediately one, 90minute debate du , and hit the billionaire for backing out. Donald is a fragile soul. If someone did that, didnt show up at the interview, you know what youd say . Youre fired. Reporter trumps latest fox news feud escalated after the network criticized trump and he again slammed megyn kelly for being unfair. Th weir dispute dating back to the last debate when they went head head on her questions about women. Kelly responded to the air last night. Trump has rep tedly brought up that exchange as evidence as alleged bias. It was a tough but fair disagree. Reporter the network fired back overnight, with a statement charging Trumps Campaign manager with threatening kelly. We cantive into ter ter ter terrorizateons with a employees. Touting the endorsement, with another evangelical packing cruz. Iowans are urged to vote for anyone but trump. Trumps past comments on meet the press. Im pro choice. In 1999, you said you were pro choice in all respects. What did i say . Read the full statement. Are you a trustworthy. Very trustworthy. More than you because you didnt read the question. Im prochoice. I hate the why didnt you say, when you asked the question before, that i hate the concept of abortion . Do. M you apologize . I do you apologize . Do i apologize for reading your words . For not reading my words. Im very pro choice. Do you apologize for not reading my words . Of course, we never for skipping thursday nights debate, you decide if its a bluff or mistake. Donald trump isnt letting up. Again this morning on twitter, calling megyn kelly a lightweight reporter. He plans to hold a simultaneous event on thursday to support veterans and wounded ware ed ed warriors. Thank you, peter. Lets turn to michael, who is in des moines this morning. Good morning to you. Good morning. Its always been an article of faith in republican campaigns that you tiptoe around fox news or dont antagonize fox news. Thats the republican electorate. Is donald trump smart or will he live to regret this one . I think hes on track to dominate the news. Weve moved from the silly season here to tension city. Days to go before the voting. Fox news put out a very provocative, confrontational statement. They showed donald trump one finger, and donald trump showed them one finger and then punched he has thrown the debate into chaos in the closing days in iowa. He is showing strength, which is his brand, and hes got some endorsements and other tricks up his sleeve to do what hes done the whole campaign, dominate. Lets talk about this. You talked about the punch and counter punch. This seems to have set trump off. A fox news spokeswoman gave this statement, we learned from a back channel the ayatollah and putin plan to treat donald trump unfairly when he becomes president , and trump has his own secret plan to replace the cabinet with twitter followers to see if he should even go to the meetings. What was the strategy there . Was that smart of fox, to spoke the bear . No. Journalistically and tactically, it wasnt a good move. A News Organization sponsoring a debate should treat all participants with respect and let their journalism speak for itself. Fox decided to continue to go they have a right to have megyn kelly be a moderator. Trump can decide whether to participate. But putting out that provocative statement, they gave him not just an excuse but, i think, a genuine ational to say, im not going to show up by an organization thats tnunting me. Ted cruz wasted no3time. The jumped in and said, look, ill challenge you, donald, to a one on one debate with no moderator, seemingly taking away the obstacles. How can trump duck that . Well, its going to be an interesting question, to see whether cruz keeps that up and if it becomes an issue. Ted cruz mus win iowa more than dosnald trump. The s tkes are higher for him. Trump leads in the other 49t. States effectively trump, i dont think, will do a one on o ne debate with cruz. Make no mistak right now, ump has arlot of momentum going on in iowa. Orga conization. Troump is trying hard to win. Cruz has to stop him. Im not sure fighting about debate it is the way to stop donald trump. Mark in des moines, thank you. For the democrats, Bernie Sanders heads to the white house today for a sit down with president obama. The preedent remained neutral for months but this week in an terview, he heaped praise on hillary clinton, saying she was, quote, more experienced than any nonvice president has ever been seeking the office. We will be live next monday for complete coverage of the caucuses. Dangerous situation in california. Showed you this vides on tuesday. Costal erosion leaving several apartment buildings teetering on the edge of a cli. Incredibly, some residents are fighting to stay in their homes. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez is there. Good morning. Matt, good morning. City officials plan to be out here twice a day to inspect this land. There are 20 Apartment Units here, and a few of are refusing to budge. Reporter its the cliff cliffhanger thats drawn worldwide attention. Is morning, residents insist its safe. Where else can you live along the coast for 1500 a month . Its a poor mans malibu. Reporter mark isnt ready to say goodbye to the view, so he ficled an appeal, challen ng the evacuation order. If youre not living on the edge, youre taking up too much space. Reporter michelle has lived in pacteica five yearth i love it here. Im not willing to leave. Reporter shes among the few still spending tor night re, ig noring the yellow signs. To say, oh, we have to get out, why . If it falls, its not going to fall in ten seconds. Plenty of time to get out the front door. Reporter the erosion blamed on a ferocious el nino. Strong storms pacifica has battled before. City coudcil members approved an emergency declaraeion, allowing them to ask for state and rendsidents are allowed in the units toapack during the day, but police saybtheres no deadline for them to finish moving out. Do you feel safe here . At this point right now, yes, do. Reporter still, he says hes complying with the evacvation evacuation order. Packing up his closet and guring out whats next for him and his dog. Things happen for a reason, but i thi f theyre making more out of that than they need to be. This area has dealt with this before. Two other apartment buildings nearby were evacuated in 2010 and sat unoccupied since then. More rain is expected here later this week. Matt . Gabe gutierrez, thank you very much. There are new developments on the toxic water crisi in int, michigan. The mayor says it could cost 1. 5 billion to fix tow leadcontaminated water system th ere. Nbc news learned from water officials there are curreotly no umbers say they havent done any work since the october announcement tha the water watasnt safe. Also on tuesday, Health Care Workers conducted hundreds of checks on children for lead exposure. The testing is offered to children 6 years of age and younger. By the way, Rachel Maddow will host a town hall with the retsidents tonight at 9 00. Two Major Airlines said theyll offer refunds to passengers with tickets to the affected regions of zika. American airlines policy is restrictive. It says the airline will offer refund to pregnant women if th tey have a doctors note saying theyre unable to travel to five specific cities in central and south america. The zika wirus has been linked to birth defects in brazil and thought to be spreadifg to other regions of the world. Thekaase of the affluenza 18yearold ethan couch has officially dropped his bid to stay in mexico, which means he could be sent back to texas in the next 48 hours. Couch and his mother, as you rememb , f d to mexico late last year after a video surfaced which appeared to show him around alcohol at a party. That would have been a violation of his probation. They were later arrested in mexico. His mother remains free on bond. There is big news from the tech world this morning. Apple bracing for its biggest sales, decoine in 13 years. The tech giant said revenue could fall 8 this quarter mpared to a yilr earlier. Analysts say the latest Iphone Models arent providing the boost apple needs to match the massive sales growth i enjoyed last year. Apples ceo cook pointsato Global Economic uncertainty saying, quote, were seeing extreme conditions, unlike t anything weve experienced before. Al joins us. Youve been not as busy as weve been, but were watching florida which has seen a lot of rain thanks to thme el nino jet. Continues today. Morevy showers and thunderstorms. There is a risakof stolos from campa tampa to the keys. We could be looking at tornadoes, amaging winds and spotty hail as the front slides south. Were looking for somewhere from about an inch to three to four inches of rain, especially in federa central florida. Rest of the country, showers in thd. Pacific northwest. Also, a storm could be coming on shore that could be a snow maker. Wet weather through the southeost atd lakeeffect snow showers around the great lakes. Forecast coming up day with a perfectly balanced mug of. Ive got this. Pmom to be on top of your mom game. Vnailed it thanks so much. You need a balanced coffee you good girl. Mccaf\ coffees brew a smooth blend. For a taste thats not too strong, but nevel weak. So you can savor every sip knowing you are matriarch supreme. Mommys not a napkin honey. Mccaf\. Available where you buy groceries. Good morning, low 40s in astoria. 44 in jersey city. Well north and west, upper 30s to around 40. Everybody above the freezing mark for this hour. Nodsthing freezing on the roadways. A little light rain exiting eastern long island across the twin forks and off the jersey shore. Thats it for the rain. In fact, the clouds will thin out for sunshine in the afternoon. 43 the high. Colder, 20s tonight. Near 40 thursday, friday, saturday. A couple of flurries friday. Warming, 44 sunday, upper 40s with wet weather by monday. Thats your latest weather. Little sad news for us. Sad news for television fans, our friend actor abe vigoda has died. The 94yearold was best known for his roles in the godfather and on television in Barney Miller. He was special to us, lighting up the studio whenever he dropped by. Reporter he was the character actor with the unforgettably expressive face, that made him look world weary and wise, to a career that spanned almost 70 years on stage, screen and television. You cant do that it. It screws up my arrangements. Reporter when you saw the face in the godfather, you knew he was going to get whacked. I always liked him. I know. You loved me. Reporter it was the face that defined the character of the detective with the dry sense of humor on Barney Miller. Emergency, youd be the first one i would call. You should call me first. Thank you so much. Reporter babe was abe was a good friend on today. When they projected what i might look like in the future. The similarities are striking. Reporter there was the face again. Abe vigoda, ladies and gentlemen. Reporter he would always play along. What did you think when you heard about this comparison thing . I was excited. Okay. Is that your excited face . There it is. Reporter he even laughed at the reports that he had died, started by a People Magazine reporter in 1982. She said that were sorry that the late abe vigoda is not in fact, i must be dead. Look at this. He looks like my grandson. We adored him. Thank you, abe. You know, one of the things i always remember about Barney Miller the Television Show is theyd have jokes where the punch line was a look by abe vigoda. I marvelled at him. We loved him. What a great sense of humor. So gracious. Just adorable. I can see why everybody will miss him so much. 94 years young. Our condolences to his family. Peyton manning facing an nfl investigation over Human Growth Hormone claims. What the league is saying about that this morning. The oprah effect. A tweet about losing weight on Weight Watchers that made her richer. 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See how good youll feel with the new Weight Watchers beyond the Scale Program join for free now good morning, everyone. 7 26, 43 degrees out. Looking at the queensboro bridge. Wednesday morning, im Rodriguez Rodriguez darlene rodriguez. The nypd releasing photos of the suspect that slashed a 29yearold woman in the hand last night at the southbound 3 train. The Victim Told Police the man said, ill chop you up on this train, before hitting her with an object wrapped in a cloth. Lets look at the commute. Lauren skala. Thanks. Tone 10 to 15minute delays. The worst of the ac rcidents on the road 287 soutntound. An accident before exit 5. Thonen we have northbound before exit the exit. Heading to queens, an accident on the l. I. E. By queens boulevard and one on the throgs neck heading to the its a great start. Clouds breaking up shortly. 43, may bounce back to the low 40s this morning. More melting, but cooler than yesterday. Tonight could a refreeze happens. Low of about 29 in the city. Well see lower 20s north and west under a clear sky. Feels more like january again. The sevenday forecast, its relatively quiet. No storms over the next several days. Tomorrow right through friday. 39, maybe snow flurries in spots. Mid 40s by sunday. Upper 40s by monday with rain. For groundhog day, still in the middle 40s. Thank you. Coming up on the tosh, more im gonna stand by you back now at 7 30 on this wednesday morning,