Big winners, powerball players set to flip a jackpot for more than half Million Dollars, leaving the rest of us with 564 million reasons to be bummed out today, thursday, february 12th, 2015. Narrator from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on a thursday morning. So people people are shocked and saddened about bob simon. So many of us looked up to him as a squornlist. It is a terrible story. Our top story this morning. The tragic accident that has stunned our industry and people all across the country. Bob simon killed in a car crash right here in new york city. And this morning he is being remembered as one of the most respected people in this field. Willie is here with more on that. Willie, good morning to you. Had this was a gut punch when the news crossed. Bob simon admired by those who only knew his work. Some say he may have been commuting home last night. A tragic end to the life devoted to covering some of the most important stories for the past 50 years. This morning fans and loved ones are paying tribute to beloved cbs newsman bob simon. Im bob simon. According to police, a town car simon was riding in hit another car, stopped at a red light on manhattans west side highway, spinning into the center divider. Both simon and the driver had to be cut out of the car. Simon was pronounced dead on arrival at a nearby hospital. A tearyeyed scott pelley reported the news of simons death on wednesday night. Our 60 minutes colleague bob simon was killed this evening. Reporter Anderson Cooper who worked with simon at 60 minutes called simon a warrior poet. Bob was over the last five decades, one of the best, in my opinion, the best at telling a story, writing a story and making it simply unforgettable. Reporter bob simon was a native new yorker, a fulbright scholar and a fixture on cbs news for nearly half a century. Simon and his team were captured by iraqi forces while reporting during the gulf war in 1991 and held for 40 days. This is a story that could have ended another way but its had a happy ending. Reporter over the course of his career, simon received a number of honors, including 27 emmys. His latest report airing on 60 minutes just this past sunday. Overnight, fans and colleagues sharing their grief online. Katie couric tweeting, heartbreaking news about bob simon of 60 minutes a brilliant reporter, someone i admired deeply. Late night host seth myers tweeting, gutted to hear the news about bob simon. An absolute master of his craft. Bob simon was 73yearsold. Simon is survived by his wife francois and daughter tanya, a producer at 60 minutes herself. Our hearts go out to both of them and all our friends in the cbs news family. Jeff fager is a longtime producer and called bob simon a rt reporters reporter and pointing to the obvious added tragedy that hes survived so much out in the field only to lose his life on the west side highway in manhattan. If you were walking by a tv and you saw him start to introduce a story, you sat down and got comfortable because you knew it was going to be perfectly told. Yeah, he was a master at it for sure. Willie, thank you so much. Lets go to washington where congress is debating president obamas formal request to authorize u. S. Military force in the war against isis. We are learning more about a request to save the life of Kayla Mueller while she was being held captive by the terror group. Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander has all the white house developments. Peter, good morning to you. Reporter is asavannah, good morning to you. Well have the new details in just a moment. First for a little context here. This is the first time in more than a Decade Congress is reconsidering the extent of the president s powers to target terrorists. President obama warned yesterday if left unchecked, isis could threaten the u. S. Homeland as well as americans abroad. Resolve from the president as the nation collectively mourns the death of 26yearold american aide worker Kayla Mueller. We are going to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group. Reporter and new revelations this morning. Nbc news Andrea Mitchell confirms they asked the white house for another prisoner in exchange for kayla. The white house has a policy of not negotiating with Terrorists Department approve the trade. In addition, kaylas syrian boyfriend omar, who was with her when she was captured in 2013 later tried to rescue kayla, by going back into syria claiming he was her husband. That attempt failed. Now, president obama is pushing congress for the power he insists he needs to defeat isis. Isil is on the defensive. Isil is going to lose. Reporter with this proposal in the hands of lawmakers, the president wants a green light for a limited threeyear military campaign. Promising that hes not signing the u. S. Up for what he calls enduring offensive Ground Combat operations like afghanistan or iraq. I am convinced the United States should not get dragged back into another prolonged ground war in the middle east. Reporter but Congress Remains divided. Republicans worry the proposal may be too limiting. My biggest concern is this authorization doesnt enhance the president s ability to defeat and destroy isis but rather restricts that. Reporter and democrats fear it gives the president power to go too far. The challenge is defining what is the combat troop operations so that you dont have an openended check. Reporter Deputy National security advisor ben rhodes. Were united. We dont need Ground Forces like we had in iraq and afghanistan, but were determined to get the job done with our military and coalition partners. Reporter as for Kayla Mueller, at the urging of kaylas family last night the white house publicly denied reports that kayla was married off to an isis commander during her time in captivity. Officials here in a rare statement said those reports are quote speculative and unproven at this time. Matt, savannah. Peter alexander at the white house, thank you. Police in North Carolina are investigating the motives of the murders of three young muslims in chapel hill. Were they triggered over hate or a dispute over Parking Spaces . Nbcs mark potter has the latest on this. Mark, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt, the killings have sparked a huge outpouring of grief. Victims were highly regarded and their murders seem so senseless reporter at the university of North Carolina, an emotional vigil wednesday night. A huge crowd of mourners remembering the three young lives cut short. The victims were all muslims raised in america. 23yearold deah barakat. A university of North Carolina dental student. His new wife. Also planning on dental school. And her 19yearold sister, razon, a dental student. Shootings occurred tuesday in a quiet condo complex. 46yearold Craig Stephen hicks, a neighbor, turned himself into police and was charged with firstdegree murder. The father, devastated, insists the killings were religiously motivated. We are hoping to get justice here, but in anyway you look at it, its just a hate crime. Reporter but police and the suspects wife say the murders were sparked by a dispute over a parking space at the condo. I cant say with my absolute belief that this incident had nothing to do with religion or faith. Reporter now this case has drawn international attention. Even though the Authorities Say it was sparked by a dispute over Parking Spaces, the victims families say they just dont believe that. And now the chapel hill mayor says the investigation into that motive will continue. Back to you guys. Mark potter in chapel hill, thank you. Lets turn to natalie. A major announcement from the russian president this morning. Probably a breakthrough after marathon talks. Russian president Vladimir Putin says ukrainian troops and russian backed separatists have agreed to a ceasefire. Bill neely is in london with the latest. Good morning. Reporter good morning, natalie, after 16 hours of negotiations that were called extremely difficult, there is a deal and doubts about it. The deal seems unlikely, the key points are a ceasefire from sunday morning, heavy weapons to be pulled out of Eastern Ukraine in two weeks and a commitment no more than that for all foreign troops to be withdrawn. However, germany warning this morning that this is not a comprehensive solution. Its not a breakthrough. And there is a lot of work still to be done. There are issues unresolved, for example, how exactly is ukraine to get control again of its International Border and remember, this is a rehashed version of a deal six months ago that wasnt worth the paper it was written on and collapsed very quickly. So no one also is really sure. Is this enough for Vladimir Putin . What is his end game . So there is a deal many thought would be unlikely. The big question is, will it stick . It certainly is the big question. Bill neely in london, thank you. Now to a story we have been following for three years. The captain of the cruise ship that crashed off the italian coast killing 32 people sentenced to 16 years in prison. But some families of the victims say that is not enough. Nbcs katie kur is in italy with the latest. Good morning. Reporter good morning, he wont have to go to prison immediately. He will be able to stay free throughout his appeals process. That can take more years. Now this trial from the start was surreal to say the least, held in a local theater instead of a courtroom, the child theatrics inside only matching the venue. Standing on the stage of a local theater a panel of three judges literally held the high ground as they delivered the captains fate. 16 years in prison, ten for multiple counts of manslaughter, five for causing a ship wreck and one for abandoning ship in the plush red velvet seats below the prosecution and defense but no skatino. The captain who broke down during a hastily thrown together final plea to court was a noshow for sentencing. The concordia went aground and capsized in january, 2012, killing 32 people. It took two years for salvagers to upright and haul away the ghostly cruise liner and twothirds of that time for the trial of the man at its helm. I remember moments of it. They come to me in flashes. Survivors were not satisfied. Somebody that is sorry doesnt leave the ship and go look for dry socks while people are dying on the ship. Reporter this woman tried to get her own apology. Even if it tack two minutes of his small life for asking me how i feel . Reporter ultimately, skatino was as unconvincing to his judges as he was to his passengers. Now, skatino maintained from the start he actually fell into the lifeboat when the ship suddenly lifted to its side. Costa concordia is being fined 30,000 euros for each of the passengers that sued. That is well into the millions. As for the theater, Authorities Say they were trying to accommodate what they thought would be record crowds. It remained largely empty throughout, natalie. A strange venue. Katie, thank you. Officials in Northern California are warning train commuters that they may have been exposed to the measles. Public Health Officials say someone was diagnosed with the disease after riding Bay Area Rapid transit three days last week. Up to 50,000 people may have been exposed. The highly contagious virus has infected more than 100 people in california since december. A Dramatic Police chase in dallas. Police had been chasing the robbery suspect when he tried to squeeze between two vehicles, that were stopped at a red light, but the car violently rammed into them. A mother and her boyfriend jumped out of one of those vehicles, ran over to the car and roughed up the suspect. The woman says she was worried about her son who was also in the car. She and her boyfriend held the suspect down until police arrived. And it is a dream come true for a few lucky People Holding the Winning Ticket for wednesday nights huge lottery jack the pot. Three tickets were a perfect match. Theyll split the 564 million jackpot. The tickets were sold in North Carolina, texas and puerto rico. This is the first time a jackpot winner has been sold outside the continental states and just because you didnt win the jackpot doesnt mean you didnt win a smaller prize, so here are the numbers for you once again, 11, 13, 25, 39, 54 with a powerball number 19. It sounds like a career highlight. Reading the numbers. I was expecting them to roll out. Mark is over here taking a ticket out of his wallet. When was the last time you were in texas, North Carolina, or puerto rico . I have a smaller prize. 73 winners did win a Million Dollars, they matched the numbers, not the powerball. If you got that, call me. Thank you. Its another day of snow in parts of the northeast. We are about to dip into the temperatures here . Thats right. Right behind that this weekend, something our friends in new england do not want to hear, another major storm developing. Right now, we got this clipper coming across light snow from chicago into the northeast. It pushes fairly quickly off the secondary system developed. We are looking boston one to two inches. Cape cod two to four. The arctic air is the big story. By tomorrow morning, it will be 4 below in buffalo. Detroit 3 below. Cincinnati, 13. Roanoke into the teens tomorrow. It moderates, i should say by saturday morning it moderates a bit. Heres the system we are worried about, a secondary storm will develop along the coast saturday evening tapping into atlantic moisture. A heavy area of snow. So potential blizzard for new england going into sunday. Winds of 55 miles per hour. Dangerous cold and wind chills. The european model calling much of main, picking up two feet of snow. Boston another foot to a foot and a half. The american model backs off of that a bit. But its still a fair amount of snow, folks. And because of all the snow of roofs, there are big, big worries of roof collapse in residential and businesses all throughout the region. Thats whats going on. We will get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Why do you have that Insurance Company . With Liberty Mutual new car replacement, well replace the full value of your car. See Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. 7 16. You made it to thursday getting a gorgeous sunrise over point ray, beautiful sunrise over pleasanton. And looking good on mt. Hamilton too, overlooking the santa clara valley. Starting out mostly clear, temperatures right now are in the 40s and low 50s. Were going to end up at lunchtime in the mid to upper 60s. Beautiful day coming your way and highs today way warmer than average. 5 to 10 degrees above. 71 degrees in San Francisco today, 73 in the tri valley and 75 degrees right in the south bay. Well have your valentines day forecast. And thats your latest weather. All right, al. Thank you very mu. Blink, you might blink and miss it. Netflix house of card was briefly up yesterday. Briefly. Some were wondering if this is a marketing ploy. Season three, savannah mentioned of the awardwinning house of cards appeared on netflix wednesday more than two weeks before it was supposed to be released. So this sent social media into a tailspin much like that awkward spin i just made as we are ready to bin him watch on all things related to the house of cards. Okay. So the viewing stations all set up i guess, people were sending out messages saying this is not a drill. Let me swipe to some of the things here this is funny, erin from buzzfeed heres what she had to say, house of cards season 3 is up on netflix and a a completely unrelated note ill be home sick from work tomorrow t. Episodes were removed from the streaming site in less than 30 minutes. Netflix sent out a Statement Due to a Technical Glitch some underwood fans got a sneak peek. He will be back on february 27th. So house of cards confirming the news as well. This is walk. Theres always a leak. All 13 episodes will launch february 27th. So thats the official date. Again, 30 minutes is up and people went bananas. So we ask you today, was this a marketing stunt or a glitch . Heres what you had to say on today. Com survey. 85 believe it was a marking stunt i wish them what will they get out of it . They got two minutes from us. Well done. Well played my man. Well played. Crafty. Tamron thank you very much. Coming up, amy pascal speaks up for the First Time Since she describes it getting fired from sony. What she is saying about the controversial emails and hacking about the president and Angelina Jolie. Plus the widow of american sniper chris kyle in tears on the witness stand while the defense uses kyles own words to strengthen its case. We will be live with the latest our vision for partnering with more farmers, growers manufacturers is that eventually organic and natural will be the norm. For raleys that means a lot more organic and natural options on the shelf. And for our consumers, that means having a lot more affordable and readily available, Healthy Products to feed their families. Sustainability is about making a difference in our community. Its about being happy, healthy and well for man