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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's choice to head the CIA faces a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing just hours after lawmakers are expected to receive a classified report providing the rationale for drone strikes targeting Americans working with al-Qaida overseas.

The White House counterterrorism chief, John Brennan, is Obama's nominee to run the nation's spy agency. He helped manage the deadly drone program.

Brennan's confirmation hearing today sets the stage for a public airing of some of the most controversial programs in the covert war on al-Qaida, from the deadly drone strikes to the CIA's use of interrogation techniques like waterboarding during the George W. Bush administration.

The Senate committee's chairman, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said the secret legal opinion about drone strikes would be provided to her committee by this morning.

BOSTON (AP) - A major winter storm heading toward New England could dump as much as 2 feet of snow on the region.

The National Weather Service says the storm is expected to begin Friday morning and continue into Saturday night as it moves past New England and upstate New York.

A blizzard watch for parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island says travel may become nearly impossible because of high winds and blowing snow. A coastal flood watch is in effect for some shore communities.

Operators of some ski areas in Massachusetts are excited by the prospect of the first major snowstorm they've seen since October 2011. Christopher Kitchin, inside operations manager at Nashoba Valley Ski Area in Westford, Mass., says people are eager to go skiing, snow-tubing and snowboarding.

Tonight is the fifth anniversary of the horrific Kirkwood City Hall shootings.

On February 7th, 2008, disgruntled Kirkwood resident Charles "Cookie" Thornton gunned down six public servants during a city council meeting before being shot and killed by police.

Two police officers, two council members and the city's public works director also died that night. Several months later, Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda died from his injuries.

Thornton, a Meecham Park resident, had reportedly been upset because his company was denied the contract on a development in his neighborhood. Thornton had accused city leaders of bias in the racially divided city.

Since the shootings, several community groups have worked to try to bridge the divide.

There are no plans for a formal commemoration at tonight's city council meeting. Instead, Mayor Arthur McDonnell says they'll take a moment to remember the fallen at the end of the meeting.