Way today, wednesday, april 16th, 2014. From nbc news, this is today. With matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on wednesday morning. Im savannah guthrie. Im carson daly alongside Natalie Morales and dylan dreyer. Matt and al are off. Some v. I. P. S joining us in the studio, including some secret service. Its bigger than natalies normal security detail. Weve got Michael Bloomberg here and the second lady of the United States, dr. Jill biden. Both have some news to announce this morning, so well check in with them separately a bit ahead. But we want to get right to our top story, and its breaking news coming out of south korea this morning. Rescuers are scrambling to locate survivors from that ferry disaster amid fears that the death toll could rise drastically. Cnbcs eunice yoon has the latest. Eunice, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, savannah. This could be south koreas worst peacetime disaster in 20 years. Out of the 459 people onboard, four are dead, 164 have been rescued, 291 are missing. They were aboard the sewol, which is a 480foot long vessel that has the capacity to carry 900 people. Tourists fighting for thr lives. A trip to an island known as south koreas hawaii was never supposed to end this way. Their ferry carrying hundreds of passengers, many of them students on a fourday field trip, set sail tuesday from a port city near seoul. As it neared jeju island today, something went tragically wrong. Eyewitnesss say they heard a loud bang before the ferry lost control. This survivor saying the ship was tilted more than 45 degrees. It was very tense. The ship sent out a distress call, but there was confusion onboard. The student saying, the ferry started to list, so we asked if we should escape now, but the announcement kept telling us to stay still. Minutes later, rescuers including a u. S. Navy ship arrived with helicopters, racing against time, lifting passengers to safety one by one. Back on shore, parents clearly overwrought. Desperate for more information about their children. The u. S. Navy is on the scene helping south korea find the hundreds still missing. Savannah . Eunice yoon in beijing for us, thank you. Meantime, were learning more this morning about a security scare on the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings. A man taken into custody for carrying a rice cooker in a backpack. Today a Court Hearing is scheduled tied to last years attack. Nbcs ron mott is at the federal courthouse in boston. Ron, good morning. Reporter hey, carson, good morning to you. Dzhokhar tsarnaev is not expected to appear in court here later this morning, but as you mentioned last night, an eerie scene over at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Two blasts, but unlike last year, these were controlled by police. With boylston street cordoned off yet again last night on the oneyear anniversary of twin bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon finish line get back reporter a Police Bomb Squad blew up a second suspicious backpack of the evening, this one said to belong to a man arrested by authorities charged with disorderly conduct. According to police, the man was carrying a rice cooker in the bag. When the backpack was dropped on the ground, thats when we made calls for the bomb squad to come in and they did their job. Reporter officials also intentionally detonated another unattended backpack near the finish line determined to have been inadvertently left behind by a media organization. Tensions followed an emotionalfilled day of services honoring 260 survivors and First Responders and the four People Killed last year, including a College Police officer shot to death, which touched off a chase in a gun battle with the two bombing suspects. Tamerlan tsarnaev died in the shootout. His brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured and is awaiting trial scheduled to start this fall. Federal prosecutors say they will pursue the Death Penalty if hes convicted. For now, that trial is expected to be held here in downtown boston. In the meantime, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held in a federal medical prison outside the city limits, held without bail, carson. All right, ron mott in boston this morning, thank you. Easter is in four days, but you would not know it to step outside. An unusual cold snap has it feeling more like christmas, actually, from louisiana all the way to maine, and some cities are even dealing with, dylan, that fourletter word, snow. Its not my fault, i swear. I had nothing to do with it. But even in new york, we saw the snow coming down. Even on the plaza, we saw a good amount of snow. Enough to coat certain things, not so much the ground, but a lot of cars were covered with the snow this morning. And just to see it fall from the sky, it just hurts considering how warm it was just a couple of days ago when we were close to 80 degrees. But yep, there it is. And thats typical april for you. You get these periods where its just cold enough to produce a little bit of snow, and weve got freeze warnings all across the south, even back through atlanta, into montgomery, alabama. Frost advisories even into little rock, arkansas. We are looking for temperatures close to record lows this morning. Toledo, ohio. The record low is 20 degrees. Were at 19 right now. Washington, d. C. , its 34. New york city, were at the Freezing Point right now. And it hurts extra much this morning because its about 20 to 35, almost 40 degrees colder than it was this time yesterday morning. And highs this afternoon will stay about 10 to 15 degrees below average. We will start to see temperatures warm up a little bit more once we get into easter, so even though it has a christmassy feel right now, easter is almost here and 60s return, too. All right, dylan, thank you so much. Now to stunning new video that surfaced showing a very large gathering of al qaeda militants, more than 100 of them meeting in yemen. Among them, the number two leader in the organization. Lets bring in richard engel, nbcs chief foreign correspondent. Was this a big missed opportunity by the u. S. . It may have been. U. S. Officials will not say if they were monitoring this gathering in realtime. But it does show that al qaeda militants in yemen are incredibly bold. And i think this should be a wakeup call that they can get together in such large numbers out in the open with the number two al qaeda member and not worry that there could be an air strike or a drone attack. Whats also disturbing is that these large gatherings are taking place regularly. This one was in yemen, but in syria. I think we should definitely be worried about syria. It has become, in my opinion, more dangerous than afghanistan was before 9 11. All right, richard engel, thank you very much. Meantime, natalie is following a big story on the new developments for malaysia 370. Unfortunately, theres been no signs of malaysia air flight 370 after the robotic sub searched the ocean floor for the second day. Nbcs katy tur is in perth, australia, with the latest. Katy, good morning. Reporter good morning, natalie. No luck with the first try and now no luck with the second try as well. On monday, only six hours into what should have been a 16hour scan, bluefin21 aborted its mission. Today it aborted it once again. Citing technical issues. In both cases, they were able to download the data they had on the bluefin21. They did not find anything on the data. Its scanning for a third time, this time still focusing on the area where they have the best leads, the area where theyve triangulated and are most hopeful where those black boxes actually are. As for expectations, experts say this is normal. Its a trial and error period. This is an unknown part of the world and it is still a learning process. Natalie . All right, katy tur in perth, australia, thank you so much. Major developments in ukraine today. A half dozen Armored Vehicles were cheered on arrival in the eastern city of luhansk, some flying russian flags. The vehicles appear to have fallen into the hands of prorussian forces. They appear to have come from the airport where Ukrainian Forces confronted protesters on tuesday. Pop star miley cyrus is waking up in a hospital bed this morning after her publicist said the singer had a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics. Miley tweeted this picture, saying mr. Octopussy and some amazing doctors are taking good care of me. Cyrus cancelled her concert on tuesday night due to the sudden illness. It is her second missed show in a week. Miley also cancelled her show in charlotte last week after coming down with the flu. A wild ride on the streets of savannah, georgia, this week. Take a look when this out of control horsedrawn carriage barrels through the city. The dramatic moments caught on surveillance camera. The driver and five passengers were onboard when the horse got spooked and he just took off running. The carriage plowed into several cars and scared pedestrians. Everyone jumped off, though, when the horse slowed down. No one was seriously hurt and eventually the horse ran into an alley and then just came to a stop. So good ending there. It is 7 10 right now. Youre up to date. All right, nat, thank you very much. We would never shoot the messenger. Dylan is afraid of us when she tells us its snowing. She should be. Well, its almost done. Its kind of moving out of the northeast. New england will be over with the snow shortly. But theres another storm system moving into the Northern Plains. This one could actually bring up to a foot of snow in parts of central and northern minnesota and northern wisconsin. But that is still fairly typical for this time of year. Well take a look at your local forecast coming up in just 30 seconds. [ male announcer ] fresh, local milk, real cream, and no preservatives. From the farm to our fridge in just six days. Philadelphia® cream cheese. So rich, creamy, and delicious. Only philadelphia®. 7 11 you made it to wednesday. Today is going to be nice. Mostly clear across the bay area. Same hazy sky here and no fog to report. We are looking good to hit the 70s today. Shy of 70 degrees in San Francisco. 79 for the south bay. Peninsula is at 78 degrees. Well look at your forecast. All right, dylan, thank you so much. In the wake of the Tragic School shooting in newtown, connecticut, president obama vowed to tighten gun laws in america, but so far, he has been unable to accomplish that goal. Now former new york city mayor Michael Bloomberg is forming a new group Just Announced this morning to gain support for stricter gun control. Were going to have an exclusive live interview with him in a moment, but first, heres nbcs White House Correspondent peter alexander. Reporter the headlines are hauntingly familiar. Just this week, three dead in a kansas city suburb. Another tragic shooting at ft. Hood. Reporter for the second time in five years, a shooting spree at this military base in texas. They joined communities already scarred into our memories. Tucson, aurora, and newtown, where a 20yearold with a history of Mental Health issues used his mothers guns to kill 20 children and six adults at sandy hook elementary. These neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. Reporter president obama pushed to tighten gun laws here with savannah one year ago. These families are in the midst of their grief. Its right now. Do you feel personally responsible to them . I feel personally responsible the same way i hope every parent out there feels responsible for all our kids. Every once in a while, we are confronted with an issue that should transcend politics. Reporter despite the president ial efforts there will be order in the senate. Reporter the senate blocked a measure to crack down on access to guns. Former new york city mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it his mission and dedicated his money to support candidates who back stronger gun restrictions. Now his latest move, 50 million, in part for those candidates, and a new organization, every town for gun safety, which brings together the work of several groups, including his mayors against illegal guns. The nra declined to comment, but steadfastly opposes tighter restrictions on guns. Insisting that wouldnt be an effective tool at preventing mass killings. Instead of lobbying and expensive tv ads, bloombergs new group will focus on outreach, specifically to women and mothers with powerful online videos. Trying to change the fierce gun debate in ways even tragedy has not. For today, peter alexander, nbc news, washington. And mayor Michael Bloomberg is with us now exclusively. He is the chairman of every town for gun safety. And shannon watts, the founder of moms demand action, part of this new initiative. Good morning to both of you. Mr. Mayor, ill start with a you had a major president ial go nowhere. Same thing. But you know this is a political heavy lift. Youre putting 50 million into the effort. 31,000 americans either get key . You know, in many ways, this is about emotion. As i said before, you know, the gun lobby has done a good job over the last 30 years of making a local minority afraid people will take their guns away. As a mother, im afraid someones going to take my children away. I believe at the end of the day, that emotion will carry it. Mr. Mayor, youve been pretty in frightening lawmakers who times this morning saying we have to make them afraid of us. Absolutely. People will vote for whatever they think is in their own selfinterest to get elected and reelected. Weve got to convince them that simple background checks to make people with psychiatric problems weve got to make them public wants. The publics going to vote that way. Is it a matter of simply outspending the nra, which by the way this sum would . Well, i dont know whos of people who use illegal guns if you want to know how tough this is, go to one of the funerals and you look at the parents, look in their eyes and youll see what real tragedy is and why we really have to do something. And yet we see this cycle over and over again. Weve seen so many of these tragedies. If you look at the polling right now, people do get angry around these big tragic events. But it is not a priority for most americans. They put gun control near the bottom of the list when asked to rank what issues matter most to youve got 49 of americans right now who favor stricter gun laws. But thats down almost 10 since newtown, shannon. We are going to go out and educate moms and women and americans over the next several months before the midterms. Were committing to get at least one million americans to vote on this issue. Right now, women vote on abortion, health care, and jobs. We want that to be gun violence prevention, gun violence prevention. And it isnt gun control. This is making sure that everybody agrees that people should not be allowed to buy a gun, criminals, minors and people with psychiatric problems. Make sure they cant buy guns. Nobodys going to take anybodys gun away. Nobodys going to keep you from hunting or target practice or protecting yourself. Its just making sure that a handful of people who we all agree shouldnt have guns dont get their hands on them. This all begs the question, we know youre not afraid to get into the political fray. We know youre not afraid to put a little money behind the effort. People do wonder perennially about every four years actually whether you would consider a run for president. No is the answer. Plain and simple. Im going to spend the rest of my life trying to make a better world for myself, for my kids, for my grandchildren, and for you and shannon. Do you think there is a time that this may be a time for a Third Party Candidate . Do you think the twoparty system is failing americans on issues like this . They may be failing americans, but this is a twoparty country and i think its unlikely that you would ever have a Third Party Candidate that could win, so what we have to do is convince those in both the parties who are running that this is what the American Public wants, and when they get through their primaries and they come to a general election, theyre going to have to be right on guns and were going to do everything we can, shannon and i and all the people that we represent to make sure that we reward those who are protecting lives and make sure that those who are trying to keep people from being protected lose elections. Thank you so much for being here. Do you miss being mayor . No. Okay. I wont say whether the feeling is mutual. I have no idea. Former new york city mayor Michael Bloomberg and shannon watts, thank you for being here. We want to send it over to the orange room. Tamron has a very special guest in this morning, dr. Jill biden. Absolutely, savannah. The star power continues. Dr. Jill biden in the orange room. Good to see you, good morning. Thank you, good morning. We are here to celebrate and mark a major occasion, the third anniversary of joining forces initiative. Its so interesting that so often i wanted to show you this. We see these images. Isnt it beautiful . Of the men and women who return home. Theyre embraced by their children. For you, this is professional and personal. Youre an educator and youre a military mom. Thats right. Michelle obama and i started the joining forces initiative to encourage all americans to support and honor our military families. And so thats what were here for today. Absolutely. So im going to scroll through. Im going to tell our audience a little bit about what youre talking about today. This is an example. Tell me about the initiative here. This is the g. I. Bill comparison tool. For all of our veterans coming back in the next five years, well have over a million men and women transitioning back into civilian life. So they came up with this tool to help our veterans so that they can put in how many years of service theyve had. Right. And where they are now. And they can put in their school and they can find out just what theyre how much they qualify for, what they can get. I just want to show here, university of ari