this morning on "early today," power play. for the first time since 2008, the president and the first lady team up on the campaign trail. security breach. the pentagon braces for a massive leak of as many as half a million secret iraq war files. and shock and awe, the navy's famous blue angels wow the crowd at a georgia air show. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning to you. welcome to our viewers across the nation including the pick time zone. i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with tag team. with midterm elections nearly two weeks away the president

partnered with the first lady to help pump up democrats on the campaign trail over the weekend. candidates are neck and neck in the polls in several states. pulling out all the stops and spending big bucks to get the word out. nbc's tracie potts is live for us this morning in washington with the details. tracie, good morning to you. >> reporter: veronica, good morning. good morning, everyone. getting a popular obama democrat out there seems to be limiting collateral damage on election day. >> can we do this? >> yes, we can! >> reporter: democrats pulled out their wild card. michelle obama. >> this is a serious moment for our country. there is so much at stake. >> their first joint campaign appearance since 2008. a rally of 35,000 in ohio with their party senate nominee is trailing by double digits. >> let's be honest. this is a difficult election.

this is hard. >> reporter: the president's message, republicans look out for big business. we look out for you. >> that's the choice in this election. that's what we're fighting for. >> reporter: those choices are already being made in states like nevada where early voting started this weekend. >> it's going to be about job, spending an debt. pretty much that simple. >> the rejection of an agenda that stairs people. the health care bill, financial regulation, all this spending is not what people expected from this president. >> reporter: republicans riding the wave of uncertainty. democrats trying to capture the spirit and success of 2008. but there's a new associated press poll out, a quarter of those who voted for president obama two years ago say they'll vote republican this time. veronica? >> tracie potts in washington. tracie, thank you. in europe, officials are on high alert due to fresh intelligence of a potential terror plot by al qaeda. france's interior ministry said in the last few days saudi intelligence services have alerted them to a new threat in

europe, particularly in france. in recent weeks there have been similar warnings, including from western security officials concerned al qaeda may be planning a strike similar to the 2008 mumbai attack. the pentagon is reportedly bracing for a massive release of intelligence files related to the error -- the iraq war by the whistle-blower website wikileaks perhaps today. the pentagon says it has a 120-member team ready to review up to a half million documents expected sometime today. although the timing of any release is still unclear. if the reports prove true, the new leak would far eclipse wikileaks previous publication of 70,000 afghan war documents in july. now here's a look at some other stories making news "early today" in america. in new york, over 800 first responders and over 100 actors participated in a full-scale emergency preparedness exercise focused on first aid and triage response in a scenario where two car bombs go off. the goal of the exercise is to

improve the city's response procedures in the event of a real emergency. in georgia, the normally off-limits dobbins air reserve base welcomed tens of thousands of people from the local community to see airmen perform death defying tricks at the atlanta air show. but it was the blue devils who but it was the blue angels who left a lasting impression, closing out the show with their trade mark stunts and precision. cool. also in georgia, what started as curiosity has turned into a labor of love for ellie the dog. although ellie has never been a mom, her maternal instincts kicked in when she found an abandoned kitten outside her home. now the two are inseparable. ellie's owners decided she could keep her kitten, which they have now named angela. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. it's just video that makes you smile. >> makes you nervous, too. i know you trust the dog. obviously like a mom, loves the

kitten. just makes you nervous. you're not used to seeing that. auk about california, nevada, arizona, probably seeing the most active weather throughout the country going through much of this week. cutoff low, storm system spinning over the southwest will continue to be in during much of this week. rest of country looks relatively quiet. a weak system moving ease. big system in the northwest. british columbia that will stay there. in other words, you get a cutoff low, the weather won't be changing anytime soon. we're looking at rain showers. lightning strikes overnight in southern nevada and northern arizona. this is where the cutoff low is here just outside of san francisco. this just means a piece of the jet treem will sit here and spin until something makes it move. as of now, at least the next three days. radar, see if there's anymore lightning strikes. as are now, not many. a couple. white flashes just north of flagstaff, also close to the grand canyon.

rain showers will be leer today. especially northern arizona and as we look down further towards the south, l.a.'s okay for now. you have a chance of showers later on. temperatures are going to be rather cool. especially for the north. high pressure, chilly temperatures from boise to billings. this afternoon's forecast, damp weather, chance of showers on and off. vague l.a., everywhere in between. phoenix for the most part dry. flagstaff wet and pacific northwest, nice. that's sacramento, san francisco, you should be just fine. >> that's a look at your monday forecast. talk more about that wet tuesday forecast coming up. >> rain in vegas? that hardly ever happens. >> i guess they can use it. just a little unusual.

>> they can, but, sorry, mom. raising charity, and a nasty battle with viewers out in the cold. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, sure they're a bunch of thrills, junkie kooks who love to blow things up, but they're also number one at the box office. the phillies get even. a new number one in college football and a big return for big ben. you're waging "early today."

good morning, and welcome back to "early today," i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning -- palestinian president mahmoud abbas is offering an olive branch to israel saying they're willing to end all historic claims against the jewish state once they get their own state as part of a peace deal. that declaration has been a long-standing israeli demand. negotiations for peace were relaunched last month but stalled over israel's refusal to extend a building freeze in the west bank.

and debates in germany is heating up after the chance letter, angela merkel, said her country's attempts to build a multicultural society has "utterly failed." merkel called on immigrants who live in germany to do more to integrate, including learning german and adopting christian values. a super typhoon made landfall in northern philippines today, becoming the strongest cyclone to hit the country in years. thousands of people have fled the storm as it makes its way towards china and vietnam. and a new ranking shows charitable donations in the united states dropped by 11% last year. the worst decline in the 20 years the rankings have been tallied. in all the 400 institutions in the survey raised a total of $68.6 billion last year. and now here is an early look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. new guidelines being issued today by the american heart

association switching the steps for cpr telling rescuers to start with hard, fast chest presses before giving mouth to mouth. in 2008 the group recommended the untrained or those unwilling to do rescue breaths could do hands-only cpr until paramedics arrived. now the group says everyone who uses standard cpr should begin with chest compressions. for more information on this and other health stories you can always head to the web and check out our health page online at msnbc.com. "early today" health is brought to you vagisil wash with odor block. the confident clean. now here's another look at how wall street kicks off the day. the dow opens at 11:062 after falling 31 points on friday. the s&p edged up two points and the nasdaq gained 33. taking a look at overseas trading this morning in tokyo the nikkei lost one point while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 288. investors give away a wealth of information with an onslaught

of corporate earnings leading the way. more than a fifth of the s&p 500 will report this week including ruts from some of the nation's biggest banks. currently in the hot seat over a nationwide mortgage mess. quarterly data from ibm, boeing and verizon are on tap, too. also on deck this week, the federal reserve releases its monthly survey of economic conditions around the u.s. in its updated beige book survey. there's likely to be more talk of quantitative easing after fed chief ben bernanke hinted on friday that more help for the economy is on the way. overseas this morning, australian miners rio tinto and bhp billiton scrapped plans for a $116 billion joint venture. the world's second and third largest iron miners bowed to opposition from antitrust regulators on three continents. back in the states, speculation that ford is beginning to drastically reduce its 11% stake in mazda to 3% or less. new stands on luxury sales show not everyone is strapped for cash these days. u.s. sales shot up 12%. but the biggest spenders were in

china where top dollar purchases soared 30%. millions of customers of new york-based cablevision spent the weekend not watching fox, including the nfl, and baseball playoffs. as a payment dispute between fox parent newscorp and cablevision enters its third day. keep an eye on shares of apple today. the tech titan is out with its quarterly results today after the bell. and finally, 71-year-old gene epstein is hoping to tackle unemployment one job at a time. through his web site hire just one he's offering to donate $1,000 in charity for the first 250 businesses to put an unemployed person back to work. well, the phillies fight back. everything is okay for oklahoma. but there is big trouble in the big "d." plus, peyton manning and the colts looked good under the lights last night in our nation's capital, but did they achieve a victory? your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. as we head into the second half of october, the mild air continues. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

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as ceo, she laid off 30,000 workers and shipped jobs to china. china. india. russia. poland. i know precisely why those jobs go. [ male announcer ] because fiorina shipped them there. to shanghai instead of san jose. bangalore instead of burbank. proudly stamping her products "made in china." 30,000 workers gone while fiorina took $100 million for herself. carly fiorina. outsourcing jobs. out for herself. [ barbara boxer ] i'm barbara boxer, and i approved this message. well, good morning. if you're just waking up this is "early today." in sports, the philadelphia phillies got back on the right track last night in a quest to return to a third straight world series. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines.

good morning. a busy day in sports. we'll start with game two of the national league championship series in philly. giants off to a rough start in the first. jonathan sanchez walked jimmy rollins. in came one. 1-0 philadelphia. fast forward to the seventh -- 3-1 phils. it's rollins again with the sacks full. this time rips the double off the wall that scored three. the phils were up 6-1. phillies evened up the series with a 6-1 win. college football, first bcs standings of the season are out and the oklahoma sooners are the number one team in the country. oregon is number two, followed by boise state, auburn and tcu. in the nfl it was called a panic bowl and after this one the cowboys pushed the panic button. returned the second half kickoff 95 yards for a score. vikings won it 24-21. what's happened to the cowboys? they're 1-4. pittsburgh's ben roethlisberger made his return

after a four-game suspension and threw three touchdowns. not too shabby for a guy who's not played in over nine months. then again, it was against the browns. steelers won it 28-10. dion branch making everybody forget about randy moss. nine grabs. this game decided in overtime. pats win it with a 35-yard field goal. new england rallied from ten down to win it 23-20. not a green bay 16 seconds left in the fourth. aaron rodgers punched it in from a yard out to force overtime. that is your ball game. pulling off the upset 23-20. colts and redskins, joseph addai rumbled and stumbled into the end zone to give indy the lead. peyton manning also threw three touchdowns. colts win it. 27-24. now tim tebow will return this one the rest of his life. scored his first touchdown against the jets. ladainian tomlinson knows a thing or two about touchdowns. he gave new york the lead late in the fourth. jets won it 24-20. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. she claims she doesn't have the power to fight mel gibson but you won't believe the legal

team oksana grigorieva has put together. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus delayed for more than six decades. a world war ii hero finally gets his recognition. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. hope had you a wonderful weekend. weather pattern interesting in southwe

southwestareas that tonight typically get rainfall in the forecast. l.a. 6 cloudy showers. upper level low spins in northern arizona, southern nevada and areas of california. the southern half of the state, a chance to get in wet weather today. notice how beautiful in the pacific northwest. medford to portland sunny, 60s and 70s. tuesday, cutoff lows not moving. very slow to leave and that's why the rain chances exist here down in areas typically dry on tuesday. well if you're watching us on ktvz news channel bend, oregon's if you ever wanted an up close look at butterflies explore indoor tropical paradise and make your way to the butterflies exhibit at the high desert mu zoseum. that's your pacific event of the day, veronica. >> definitely very nice. >> here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. for the third straight time, johnny knoxville and friends are box office gold.

the latest big screen collection of crazy stunts and pranks opened with a whopping $50 million setting a record for the biggest-ever october opening. and talk about those profit margins. the film cost a modest $19 million to make. wow. "any other weekend" the akd comedy "red" starring bruce willis, morgan freeman and helen mirren might have earned the top spot, opening with $22.5 million, instead, they settled for a distant second. elsewhere, a georgia woman is suing tyra banks for $3 million after she said her 15-year-old daughter appeared without her permission on an episode of banks' talk show about teen sex addicts. and finally, tmz reports oksana grigorieva has hired a total of 39 lawyers for her legal battle with mel gibson. with at least 18 of those submitting more than $1 million bills. to the court, all asking the judge to make gibson pay the tab. wow. >> that's a lot of money going

out the door. >> my goodness. $18 million apiece? sorry. >> i think we have sow see a jacka scht s now. how crazy is that? this comes to us from wnbc news 4 new york where it was better late than never for one world war ii vet. 95-year-old george voinovich, a former wartime intelligence officer, was awarded the bronze star for orchestrating the largest aires cue of americans behind enemy lines in any war, rescuing over 500 downed pilots and airmen shot down over nazi occupied serbia. the mission, dubbed operation halyard, remains classified for decades, preventing voinovich from receiving the honor he so justly deserved. that's great. i'm veronica de la cruz, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

former prime minister ariel sharon is sparking controversy yet again. but this time at his art exhibition. the debate is over a life-size sculpture by an israeli artist of the comatose sharon lying in a hospital bed. the controversial political figure, long reviled in the arab world, suffered a massive stroke in 2006 and has since been in a medically induced coma. the super bowl is still a ways off but the scooper bowl just ended. at the eighth annual pooper-scooper convention in california, attendees put their scooping skills to the test. dozens of fake -- fake -- dog droppings were placed outside

the event. contestants had to scoop up the most in two minutes to win the official title faster pooper scooper in the nation. hmm. well, one group of hungry hopefuls in mexico will have a guinness world record all wrapped up. they set the world record for the largest enchilada. the key to breaking the record was a special machine created by a local shop that made a tortilla that wouldn't break. weighing in at nearly 3,000 pounds, the town could enjoy the whole enchilada, i guess you could say. i like enchiladas -- >> i don't know. it's a good time. >> time. >> now for a look at some of the stories we're follow iing right here on nbc -- in connecticut, the penalty phase begins in the trial of a man convicted of murdering a woman and her two daughters in a brutal home invasion in 2007. steven hayes could face the death penalty.

in washington, d.c., the nation's future doctors will be attending the white house science fair. the event coincides with the science and engineering festival which will host events throughout the week. and a big day for america's biggest state. it is alaska day. an official state holiday marking the u.s. taking possession of alaska from russia in 1867. and 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. what you need to know if you're traveling abroad after officials warn of a potential terror attack in europe. and a look at best and worst political campaign ads of 2010. now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and much more. i'm veronica de la cruz. thank you so much for watching "early today." just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station. have a terrific monday. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com