But how will the hackers respond . And following the money. A filmmaker gives a homeless man 100. Im starting to tear up. Then secretly records him just to see what hed do with it. Is what happened next the true meaning of christmas or too good to be true today, wednesday, december 24, 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 the show on this Christmas Eve morning. We have tamron in for savannah. Dylan for al, natalie plague herself and this video. I guess it depends on your perspective how much of a cynic you are. Some think its heart warming, others not so sure. I cant wait for people to see this and hear the reaction what people think about this. And to hear his story on how he became homeless i think sort of solidifies. Its a layered story. Were teasing it. Our thoughts with former president george h. W. Bush this morning, he was sent to a hospital in houston overnight suffering from shortness of breath. Lets find out how he is doing. Good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning. Former president bush was brought by ambulance from his houston home to Methodist Hospital last night, he is expected to stay at least until today, perhaps longer. According to his sponge time spokesman that mr. Bush is expected to be okay. We saw him last month. He was at his president ial library at texas a m university. And then two weeks later made a public appearance at houston texan game where he participated in the coin toss. The former president no stranger to Methodist Hospital. He spent almost two months here about two years ago hospitalized for a bronchitisrelated cough and fever. At 90 years old mr. Bush is the oldest living president. He does have a form of parkinsons disease and uses a scooter or wheelchair. President obama was made aware of mr. Bushs condition. He sends well wishes from his Vacation Home in hawaii to mr. Bush and to the president s family. Matt, back to you. We do the same. Thank you very much. Get well soon, mr. President. Absolutely. Now to the massive storm system that is causing thousands of flight delays and hundreds of cancellations. In the south its responsible for at least four deaths in mississippi when several tornados touched down. Jacob is in mississippi. Good morning. Reporter tamron, good morning. Columbia, mississippi was hit hardest of all. Behind me was a laundromat, store and five or six homes and all are gun. The city itself is only 6 1 2 square miles and the tornado went right through the middle. Severe storms battered the deep south overnight with heavy rain, winds with gusts up to 65 Miles Per Hour and dangerous golf ballsize hail. Tuesday afternoon the deadly storms crossed mississippi, a tornado cut a path of destruction through marian and jones county killing four people and injuring many more. Its tol totaled. I lost everything. Reporter some people were trapped and had to be rescued. Dozens were injured by flying debris. All the way up over 50 foot up in trees. Its really just a pretty grim sight. Reporter an ambulance flipped over on a car when the twister hit. The patient was put in another ambulance and rushed to the hospital. There was a heartstopping close call at a Daycare Center where 35 infants had to be evacuated to safety. The roof blown off of the building. Here on the other side toys flew across the other side. Luckily everyone here was safe. Reporter in louisiana, officials believe a tornado touched down twice uprooting tree, damaging homes and causing power outages. And in the florida panhandle, drenching rain caused flash floods, tallahassee residents saw as much as three inches an hour, the wettest day ever for the month of december. At least 50 people have been or are being treated at a hospital. The governor of mississippi has declared a state of emergency in two counties including this one and what is already the deadliest december tornado in the half century. Jacob, thank you. Lets go out to those people at the Holiday Season its a tough thing. Youre following these all week long. All week. Unfortunately were going to see another round of Severe Weather again. Were going to see delays at the airports, especially near atlanta where you can see heavy rain is falling but its lightning down through the panhandle of florida and Southeast Georgia which is an area well have to watch. I want to point out in seattle and portland we also have heavy rain, so those are two major hubs that will also experience some delays. Lets get to the tornado watch. It includes tallahassee up to charleston, south carolina, this is where we could see, again, isolated tornados, damaging wind gusts and a lot of rain. Tallahassee yesterday picked up 7 1 2 inches of rain. As we go through the day you cold sigh the heaviest rain along the carolinas through the midatlantic, well see pockets of heavier rain but its not going to be a downpour all day long. Across new england thats an area were going to see the rain continue to be more steady. On the back side where its cold enough for snow well see flakes in chicago, also across most of michigan throughout the day today. And then as we go into Christmas Morning, still lingering showers along eastern new england, but for the most part the storm will be pulling away. So again, i mention the rain because of that we have flash flood warnings and watches in effect all across parts of florida and into georgia, we have wind advisories infect back through the eastern great lakes. Winds could gust as high as 40 to 50 miles an hour. We could see flooding in the northeast. As much as 3 to 5 inches of rain possible east of tallahassee, weve got 1 to 3 inches through the carolinas and then up in new england, were looking at about 1 to 2 inches of rain. Enough to cause urban street flooding. These are Winter Weather advisories including chicago and st. Louis, up in traverse city, michigan, not a lot of snow because the ground is warm so its not going to accumulate but were looking at 1 to 3 inches of snow. We are seeing everything that Mother Nature can throw at us. Pretty much. A crazy map. Im out of breath now. Dylan, thank you. In other news the movie that no one expected to see in theaters will be released tomorrow on Christmas Day. Sony says the interview will be shown in hundreds of small theaters across the country even after the threat from hackers about what might happen if it was shown. Hallie jackson is in los angeles this morning. Good morning. Reporter good morning, tamron. This morning the films are arriving at theaters across the country after being shipped overnight, and even people who arent seth rogen fans say they will go to see the interview out of principle, given sonys reversal after pressure from as high up as president obama. Now some shows are selling out. On this Christmas Eve, some theater owners say they got the best gift any one could give. Were looking forward to it. I think its going to be quite the thing. Reporter the interview sonys controversial comedy featuring a plot to assassinate kim jongun hits the screen tomorrow and they are preparing for capacity crowds. Im glad they have seen the light. Reporter the decision to release the interview to more than 200 theaters willing to screen it is a stunning about face for a studio that just a week ago yanked the film from distribution when larger chains refused to show it. People have been hard on this movie yet now its going to be embraced. Its an event and i think a lot of people will want to see it. Reporter thats what the hackers who attacked sony apparently hope to avoid. A message believed to be from the attackers threatened retaliation if sony didnt keep the movie under wraps. The u. S. Government blames the hack on north korea which denies it. And while officials privately tell nbc the u. S. Has nothing to do with that possible cyber attack that shut down the internet in north korea this week, the state department is neither confirming nor denying a u. S. Role. I just dont think were going to get in the business of every time something happens 18 country like north korea saying yes or no either way. For now sony says its proud to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech and hollywood is applauding with james franco posting victory, and seth rogen sweeting what has become a rallying cry. Freedom free veils. So will this go out on video on demand . Maybe. Reports indicate sony could still be working on some of that contract youll issue. Norm little theaters push back releasing on the interneat and on the big screen. As one insider phrased it to me, this movie is the exception to all the rules. Guys. Hallie jackson, thank you. Unusual case to say the least. Now that the movie will be released we want to know if you are going to go see it . Head to our Todd Facebook page to answer that question. Meantime, there was a chaotic scene in missouri overnight. Natalies got that story. Right. Some violent protests again near st. Louis after a deadly shooting involving police. Now this happened in berkeley, missouri two miles from ferguson. More than 100 protesters including some active in the Michael Brown protest clashed with police at the scene. After 11 00 last night police say an officer approached two men standing near a gas station, they say one of the men pulled out handgun and pointed it at the officer. The officer fired several shots at the man, killing him. A distraught woman at the gas station identifies a man as her son, 18yearold antonio martin. Police say handgun was recovered at the scene. Nbc news confirmed isis has shot down a u. S. Led coalition fighter jet over syria. This is the First Coalition jet down since air strikes began in september. Now to disturbing details in the terrifying road rage pursuit over the weekend in california. Dramatic cell phone video showed Deirdre Orozco chasing two women in a white maza. She was arrested shortly after the incident. Turns out in and out this is her second traffic arrest in less than a week. Shes trying to hit us off the road. Its the video gone viral. She just hit our car. Shes pushing us off the road. Shes coming for us. Orozco tearizing women, claiming to be a sheriff before the women reach safety. Please help us. When she physically hit us was the worst part. Delaney was one of the passengers. I tried not to look at her. I wanted to look at her. Like leave me alone. Could have been worse. Were lucky she didnt have a gun. Orosco was booked into jail. According to police this was the second time in five days that she was arrested for a traffic incident. On december 17 she was jailed for a hitandrun and throwing large rocks through a glass window at the home of an acquaintance threatening to kill the people inside. She appeared before a judge on tuesday behaving erratically as prosecutors went over the case. She pleaded not guilty to multiple charges including reckless driving, obstructing an officer. Her bond was set at 25,000, when the prosecutor asked to raise bail to half a million, she interrupted. Put it at 100. Wishful thinking. Orosco has a hearing set for friday. The two women in the mazda were not seriously injured. Two boeing 737s clipped wings at new york citys Laguardia Airport on tuesday. A denverbound plane was taxiing out of the runway when it clipped an American Airlines flight waiting for a gate. Both planes were damaged in the accident and taken out of service for inspection and repairs. And incredible story of survival this morning involving a dog who apparently like his feline friends has more than one life. Take a look, this is boston terrier sammy. Look at those eyes. Hes recovering this morning after falling 15 stories from the balcony of a high rise in sacramento, california. So how did he do it . Turns out sammy, who is said to be losing his sight, fell straight into the hot tub below. Sammy did suffer from a cracked pelvis and broken ribs but he is expected to recover and he will be okay. Poor thing. One lucky dog. There is ha hot tub underneath. My gosh. Natalie, thank you. Time for a second hit with dylan. I dont know what you call it. Theres so much to talk about in the weather department. Weve got all kinds of storms. The big one for the risk of strong storms in the southeast along the coast of the carolinas, isolated tornados are possible. Rain into new england. Weve got snow through the western great lakes and gusty winds and a storm in the Pacific Northwest for good measure that will turn into a snowstorm for the rockies especially tomorrow into friday. Thats the weather across country. Your local forecast is coming up. Ust 30 seconds. I mix my russets with milk, butter, and cream cheese to make them super creamy. Mmmm. And yours . Sockittome spiral cut ham whoa you made this . Yep. I just take a sams choice Super Premium spiral cut ham from walmart, bake it flat side down, tent the foils so all the juices can mingle. Who are you . Ham man walmart has everything you need for christmas dinner at unbeatable prices, guaranteed by savings catcher. Walmart. Good Christmas Eve morning to you. Im meteorologist anthony slaughter. Watching the next storm set stoset to arrive today. Pushing towards eureka. Right now, the very dense dangerous fog out there across most of the bay area. The thickest across the south bay, where you cant make out the road. You can see lights but this is where the worst visibility across 87. Temperatures 50, near 60 with yin. Latest forecast. On this chris mav eve, it looks like santa is delivering the gift of a stronger economy to everyone. The best quarter of economic broet in more than a decade. Tuesday was a record breaking day on wall street as the dow closed above 18,000. For the first time ever, these milestones come as gas prices dropped and unemployment has dropped to the lowest point since the recession. Heres cnbcs host of mad money. I think we can say happy holidays. Strongest growth since 2003. The dow over 18,000 for the first time. What does this mean for the economy moving ahead . I think people are actually going to get raises next year. I think this is a moment where our economy is so much so much better than the rest of the world that youre going to see good times. Plain and simple. Its better. Whats driving those positive numbers . A lot of it is the gasoline prices that have come down so much that people just have a lot of extra money and theyre spending it. We are a spending economy. Theyre spending the money, but if you look at any of the analysis, people say they dont believe were in a full recovery. They dont feel it in their pocket immediately. Yes, i think thats true. It has not trickled down to the regular worker. Thats 2015s work. That will happen because housing will get better and retail is great. Remember, we are a big retail economy. This has been a good Holiday Season. It has been. So you have the gas prices down, unemployment down. Those numbers certainly encouraging, but the immediate sales for holiday and retail, will this be something well talk about at the beginning of january . Yes. I think more money in peoples pocket is making people feel for confident. They go online, they go to the department store. I think youre going to be presently surprised with how much was purchased. If you measure your happiness and satisfaction, is this an aplus going into 2015 . Its hard not to give it a solid a. These are just so good. 5 gross domestic product, much better hiring. We may be the Fastest Growing economy in the world 18 months from now. That is great news. Happy holidays. A little holiday cheer. Well take that. Thanks very much. Lots of people doing a little lastminute shopping. Carson is here and about to conduct an experiment. Are you going to shop today . Im done. All three of you are done . Yes. We were going to get to your fwigifts. We asked people are you shopping today on the facebook page. Move over there. Very good. About 20 of you are shopping today. Amazon prime now is being tested here. Its a new app from amazon being tested in the new york city area in certain zip codes that you can order stuff and get it within an hour. If this goes well this year, theyre going to roll this out next year nationwide. This is a gamechanger for you procrastinators. There happens to be four people that i havent gotten gifts for quite yet. This is it right here. You can see within an hour, you do have to pay that charge. Were going to go ahead and say okay to that. Let me just place my order and we are on the clock. It is 7 19. Lets see if we get it within an hour. All right. I hope it works. I think its great. They have no idea its coming to the today show. No. A regular order has been placed. Were going to track it on the ipad and see when it comes to the door. Very good. Thank you, carson. Coming up, is it a sign of the true meaning of the Holiday Season. What a homeless man did with the cash he was given. Also ahead a look back at the custody case that made headlines around the world several years ago. This morning, david and shawn will tell us how theyre doing five years later. First, on a wednesday morning. This is today on nbc. Still to come, are they going to make it . Carsons tracking our presents. Plus, the boys are back. We have a look at the trailer after your local news. Butter, x my russ, and cream cheese to make them super creamy. Mmmm. And yours . Sockittome spiral cut ham whoa you made this . Yep. I just take a sams choice Super Premium spiral cut ham from walmart, bake it flat side down, tent the foils so all the juices can mingle. Who are you . Ham man walmart has everything you need for christmas dinner at unbeatable prices, guaranteed by savings catcher. Walmart. Give a journey. Give a new perspective. Give a little joy. A book is a gift like no other. And barnes noble is like no other book store in the world. 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