today," a working holiday. the nation's ailing job force is front and center for president obama on this labor day. gathering the clues. a key piece of evidence surfaces in the gulf oil disaster. and good news and bad news. new hopes and new hurdles for and good news and bad news. new hopes and new hurdles for trapped chilean miners. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation, including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry. and today we begin with laboring

on labor day. as much of the nation takes the day off to celebrate this labor day, president obama will be working instead, talking up his plan to help put unemployed americans back to work. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more. tracy, good morning. >> lynn, good morning. traditionally labor day has been the day we celebrate american workers of the problem is, a lot of them, millions of them, are not working. president obama will deliver an increasingly difficult message urging them to hang on. this afternoon president obama spends labor day with union leaders in milwaukee. union leaders say what has traditionally been a day of celebration has become a day of frustration for many. >> 11 million people out of work, i have less to be thankful for than those on wall street doing quite well. >> reporter: unemployment creeped up to 9.6%.

jobs are being created but not nearly fast enough to ploy the millions left jobless in this recession. today and in cleveland on wednesday, the president will talk about the slow recovery and urge congress to approve $100 billion in tax breaks for small businesses. >> that's really what the bottom line is, small businesses are the engine of growth. government doesn't create the jobs. all we do is help train people for those jobs. >> reporter: the unemployment rate could have a big impact on november's elections. democrats are fighting to maintain control, hammered by republicans who blame them for joblessness in america. also this week, president obama holds a rare news conference, jobs and the economy expected to be the number one issue there. lynn. tracie potts in washington. tracie, thanks. in louisiana, investigators will begin examining a key piece of evidence in the government's attempt to get to the bottom of the gulf oil disaster. over the weekend, bp successfully retrieved its

failed blowout preventer and put in a new one. however this labor day, there's still more work to be done. frances coe has more. >> reporter: labor day will be the start of major work at the site of the nation's worst environmental disaster. >> we should be ready to move forward with the relief well sometime next week. >> reporter: the permanent plugging of the well comes as officials say the danger of another leak goes away. >> this well does not constitute a threat to the gulf of mexico at this point. >> reporter: sealing the well is just one task at hand. the other is the investigation which took a crucial step over the weekend. bp crews hoisted the failed blowout preventer, a 300-ton, 50 foot tall piece of evidence, now headed to a nasa facility in louisiana for analysis. >> knowing that we have this stack on surface and the investigation moving forward, everybody's going to understand what has taken place. >> reporter: bp's well site

leader says finding answers helps honor the 11 men who died. >> they deserve this. they deserve this to come up and we need to find out not only for them and their memories, but for the industry because i know that they would want it no other way. >> reporter: a hope for answers to the tragedy that's also shared by many along this battered gulf coast. frances coe, nbc news. here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. in maryland, a construction worker is in stable condition after he was trapped and partially buried in a collapsed trench for two hours. three others who managed to escape were only able to pull him up to his waist. fortunately firefighters arrived and worked quickly to free the man. in pennsylvania, a labor day picnic was cut short when an elevated deck gave way and crashed 22 feet to the ground injuring six adults and one child. officials are working to determine what caused the rear deck to collapse.

some speculate the age of the structure may be to blame. and it was an impressive showdown at the national buffalo wing festival in new york. champion eater joey chestnut headlined a chicken wing eating contest going up against five member teams to devour the most wings in seven minutes. in the end, the professional eater couldn't gobble up the competition but placed a respectable second eating just under three pounds. those things never get old, do they? now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's scott williams with the weather channel forecast. am i right, it doesn't get old? >> that is a lot to stomach this early in the morning. >> sorry. >> all right. well, lynn, we are talking about a tropical storm, believe it or not. our eighth named system of the 2010 system, tropical storm hermine. can you see now a lot of convection, a lot of thunderstorm activity in the southern gulf of mexico. the system is moving slowly toward the north. it will bring some heavy

rainfall into texas over the next couple of days. maximum sustained winds with hermine at 40 miles per hour. as we look at the radar, you can already see some of the rain starting to make its way into south texas. not the best of beach days along the texas coast. quiet conditions in the northeast, moving into new england, chilly to start. 64 in atlanta. denver checking in at 56 degrees. denver today 72 degrees. washington, d.c. a high of 84, 81, km forthable conditions in new york city. bostpacific northwest. all in all you can see cloud cover in portland, 67 for the high temperature. san diego, upper 60s with a mixture of sun and clouds."

that's a look at your regional weather. lynn. >> scott, thank you. well, the issues ahead this week on wall street. and a former hp big shot checks out the competition. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, the critics learn this weekend at the box office never underestimate the drawing power of the heavy weight hollywood star. red sox try to avoid a sweep, a bizarre ending for the rangers, and a tradition that has ruffled a few feathers. you're watching "early today." ot

>> good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. less than a week after the u.s. declared the end of combat operations in iraq, american troops opened fire on suicide bombers who assaulted a baghdad army base yesterday. the fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens more. most of them iraqi soldiers. guatemala is observing a national day of mourning today

after torrential rains caused landslides that killed at least 38 people over the weekend. authorities expect that death toll to rise as rescuers search for survivors under walls of mud and rock. new documents show that 33 miners trapped half a mile below the surface in chile may be rescued as early as november. that's likely little comfort for the men who yesterday marked exactly one month since they were caved in. adding to the miners troubles, there are reports the men have to send up a note designating who should get their $1600 salary for august and any donations since some relatives are engaged in bitter disputes over that money. the two-year-old indonesia boy who set off a global uproar thanks to smoking 40 cigarettes a day has undergone treatment and apparently kicked the habit. a psychologist helped the boy

quit through therapy focusing him on play instead of nicotine. his local school is also providing him with a free education and housing for the boy and his family to keep him away from bad influences. wall street is off today for the holiday, but here's an early look at how trading ended friday heading into the long weekend. the dow closed at 10,447 after gaining 127 points. the s&p rose 14 and the nasdaq added 33. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei jumped 187 while in hong kong, the hang seng climbed 384. investors saying so long to summer will get back to work on wall street tomorrow trying to figure out what direction the american economy is headed in. traders breathed a big sigh of relief friday after highly anticipated job figures showed the economy lost 54,000 jobs last month, much less than most

analysts expected. while unemployment rose to 9.6%, the private sector created 67,000 new jobs, which together with last week's upbeat manufacturing news justified at least a little modest optimism. jobs will take center stage again this week with the weekly report on first time jobless claims, which has fallen for two weeks in a row, and the job openings and labor turnover survey which shows what sectors of the economy are hiring. also center stage this week, president obama and his plans for jump-starting the economy. he's promised to unveil a new package of job creation measures designed to stimulate even more hiring. one feature expected, business tax credits. elsewhere, the fed's beige book is out wednesday. that's the federal reserve's monthly survey of economic conditions around the nation. that will be followed thursday by international trade figures for july.

reports say mark hurd, who was forced to resign as hewlett-packard ceo last month after an investigation into sexual harassment found he manipulated expenses, is in talks with rival oracle to take a top executive position there. and finally power to the people. a german court has ruled a company that fired a man for the theft of two cents worth of electricity has no grounds to and must reinstate him. the man lost his job after using the firm's power to charge his segway for an hour and a half. coming up, a hail mary that actually worked. the twins win on a rule book finish. and the sox take on the sox. plus the marlins snag a thrilling win against the braves. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. plus get your labor day forecast. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the boston red sox hosted the chicago white sox yesterday. and of course i have the sox on this one. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. last week the chicago white sox took a chance on manny ramirez. now they're riding a six game

win streak after sweeping the red sox. we go to boston. chicago down to its final out of the ninth. rbi single to center tied it at 5. moments later, sacks full and the white sox took the lead, went on to win it 7-5 for their first sweep at fenway in 19 years. rangers and twins. texas down two. sacks full in the ninth. vladimir guerrero, ground ball. hudson saw michael young wandering, got him to end the game. but here's the controversy. the umpire called him out because he touched his third base coach. he can't do that. it's called runner interference. ball game over. here's the replay. looked like he was right. a very slight touch, none the less, they made contact. rangers loss in a bizarre finish. to florida, a high fly to center. incredible grab. however, two runs tag on the play and tied the game at six. stayed that way until the tenth.

scott cousins had never had a major league hit until now. walkoff for the rookie. he'll remember that forever. marlins won it 7-6. another great finish, this time in college football. final play of the game, east carolina needing a touchdown for the win. davis threw up a prayer and it was answered. justin jones came down with the ball. east carolina beat tulsa on a 33 yard hail mary. 51-49. nfl news, after a seven month holdout, the jets have finally come to terms with darrelle revis. according to reports, he agreed to a four year, $46 million deal with the team. and finally that oregon ducks mascot, saturday was a busy day. every time oregon scores, he does pushups to equal their point total. how bad was it? oregon beat new mexico 72-0. do the math. 506 pushups. after the game he was asked how he felt. ducky was too exhausted, he couldn't even manage a quack. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. >> announcer: "early today" sports is brought to you by ice

blue aqua velva. men get it. who is on top and who is a flop at the box office this long holiday weekend? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, a vietnamese boy gets some much needed help in america and makes some friends while he's at it. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today."

i'm meteorologist scott williams. on this labor day we're tracking our eighth named storm of the 2010 season. its name is tropical storm hermine, 40 miles an hour storm. it will bring a lot of rainfall to the texas coast. you can already see the rain starting to spiral in. temperature wise, cool for pacific northwest, 48 in portland. san francisco checking in at 58. temperatures will rebound san francisco to 80 and portland 67. speaking of portland, the event of the day we're talking about, the labor day picnic taking place at the oaks amusement park. a lot of rides and fun and food. take the blankets and picnic baskets. that's your pacific advice of the day. now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. with one more day to go in the four day holiday weekend, the so-called experts are getting ready to eat some crow.

the george clooney thriller "the american," which experts wrote off after lukewarm reviews and a soft midweek opening is leading the pack right now with just under $13 million. by tomorrow, it should reach roughly $16 million for the four day holiday, which looks like it would be enough to claim the top spot. last weekend's winner, "takers," showed more stamina than expected. currently in second with $11.5 million, looking at a likely $14 million to finish out the holiday weekend. the revenge thriller "machete" went into the weekend as the experted favorite for the top spot is currently in third with just $11 million and will likely finish with around $14 million, as well. and finally the big holiday flop this year, "going the distance". currently fifth with less than $7 million. a lot of big movies out there this labor day weekend.

the numbers could change. today is a big movie day for a lot of folks. >> you have hope for drew barry more. >> the clooney is a surprise. a lot of people didn't think it would be number one. >> you put clooney on with his shirt off and it's gold. the experts will learn that. this comes to us from minnesota where one boy took his first step toward a normal life. with the assistance of a local church group, the 6-year-old from vietnam was fitted with his first prosthetic leg. he was born with a condition where the bone in one of his legs stopped growing. but now he's standing upright, looking forward to his first day of school and running with his friends. well, i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station.

you're not a true cowboy unless you can lasso. no problem for these folks in mexico. 69 cowboys set a head spinning world record for simultaneous lassoing. men, women and children from the u.s. and mexico joined in to throw rope for three minutes straight. the performance beat out the former texas champs by 26 people. get ready for this cute overload. japan debuted not one, but twin pandas over the weekend. zoo staffers carefully handed the yet to be named newborn brother and sister kept warm in a towel and incubator, the

cuddly pair weighed just under two pounds each. the one month olds are among 210 endangered giant panda species that live in captivity worldwide. they are cute. what's cuter than a dog? a cute dog dressed up and for that we go to the annual dog parade in poland. dozens of dachshunds showed off their best medieval battle dress to honor the 600th anniversary of the battle of grumw, ald. that brought out kings, soldiers and some we just have no idea what the costume is. so, scott, maybe i'll let you take a shot at it. did you see that guy there? the weird squirrely thing. >> i don't know what that was. a spider? they're weiner dogs. maybe they should have dressed up as hot dogs. >> it is labor day and all. it's a favorite. time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. it is labor day, which means government offices, u.s. post offices, and most banks are

closed for a federal holiday to honor american workers. in the bahamas, a new trial is scheduled to get under way for an ambulance driver and ex-politician accused of trying to extort $25 million from actor john travolta after the death of his son. a mistrial was declared in the case nearly one year ago. and thrill seeking tycoon sir richard branson is scheduled to attempt to become the oldest and fastest person to kite surf across the english channel from france to england. all day long, you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with nbc "nightly news." and, finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. the fall fight. will the weak economy cost democrats control of congress? a live report from the white house. and copy cat crime. two women have acid thrown in their faces. are these horrific incidents

related? now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just your first