immy fallon" happeap this morning on "early today" -- moving ahead. president obama's tax cut deal with republicans passes its first major test in the senate. midwest mess. whiteouts and treacherous driving conditions leave scores of indiana drivers stranded. and end of an era. an injury derailed minnesota quarterback brett farve and his record streak. 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. today we begin with advancing the deal. senate lawmakers rallied a rare show of bipartisan support

yesterday with an overwhelming majority agreeing to advance the president's proposed tax cut compromise. final approval in the senate could come as early as today, but once the measure moves to the house, its fate is much less certain. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more on this. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. good morning, everyone. the vote was 83-15, and overwhelming number supporting the bill in the senate. rarely to you see that number of yes votes particularly with both democrats and republicans. it was a test vote but could foreshadow in a vote we'll see could be as early as today. both sites held their nose voting for this bill speshlgsly democrats really spaking issue with this 35% estate tax, 20 points higher had this deal not be in place. in many cases members on both

sides say they to get this move forward. they're deal wig a january 1st deadline. now, after a final vote in the senate this moves to the house where there are more democrats opposed. we understand that they will, some of them vote no, but they won't block this. in the end we could see debate by the end of the week. lynn? >> tracie potts in washington. tracie, thanks so much. and as the president's tax plan moves forward, a federal judge in virginia has dealt a major blow to his health care overhaul, calling part of the new law unconstitutional. the republican judge ruled that congress overstepped its authority by requiring americans to buy health insurance. however, since the plan's minimum coverage requirement isn't scheduled to take effect until 2014, the law will remain in effect until further plans play out. the white house is predicting what many consider to be the hallmark of the obama presidency would be upheld if it makes its way to the supreme court citing two prior cases which have been

upheld in lower courts. the death of ambassador richard holbrooke, widely considered one of the most brilliant diplomats of his generation leave as void in washington this morning. he died after undergoing heart surgery. throughout a government career that spanned nearly five decades, holbrooke worked for every democratic president since the late 1960s and oversaw the negotiations that ended the war in bosnia. most recently he worked as the obama administration's special envoy in afghanistan and pakistan serving as what the president calls a true giant of american foreign policy. richard holbrooke was 69 years old. wintry weather is taking aim at the nation's east coast this morning after blasting heavy snow and high wind all across the northwest. in northern indiana, more than 100 vehicles were stuck on highways for hours yesterday as a slow-moving storm blocked snowplow drivers' efforts to free them.

at least 16 deaths have been linked to the storm, which dumped nearly two feet of snow in parts of minnesota and wisconsin before moving into michigan and indiana. last night, the biting temperatures stretched further east with snow in parts of ohio, pennsylvania, and new york. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america -- a missouri man returning after a weekend away found his home as frozen as an icicle. apparently a water main break shot water into the air and then on to his house, and everything around it. add a blast of frigid air and the property literally became encased in ice. though he thawed his front lock with a blowtorch, he says there's no damage on the inside. in fact, the heat, thankfully, works just fine. a washington state woman is lucky to be alive after her suv plunged into a pond. police say the woman was apparently reversing when she

went off the road and into the icy water. rescuers say she was cold and weak, but she's expected to be okay. in california, it took more than 20 seaworld workers to rescue a beached sperm whale. rescuers treated the animal which had cut itself on the rocky surf. a few hours later, they muscled the 3,000 pound whale back into the ocean. experts say the animal was either sick or lost. and pastry chefs at a florida hotel baked a giant 12-foot-long, 8-foot-fall gingerbread house. well, it's not really a house. it's actually a high rise, complete with its own circus. the sweet work of art will be on display in the hotel's lobby until the end of the year. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is nbc meteorologist bill karins hoop been very busy tracking your weather forecast. >> busy, but no time to do anything like that. i'd build you a gingerbread house. >> i'm just trying to get my

christmas cookies done. a 12-foot gingerbread house is not happening. >> we showed you horrible pictures of flooding in the pacific northwest. then all the arctic air in the east, and the problem this morning down here in florida, a lot of our citrus comes from florida. especially this time of the year, and they're at 21, windchill in orlando. miami a windchill of 28. you don't see it that often. a lot of damage to the agriculture in florida. as far as looking in the west a huge storm system coming up into british columbia bringing in gulfy winds, high elevation snows and rain once again. just a series of storms lately have been hitting the west coast. especially north of san francisco. that's the case this morning. rain is now about to end in the san francisco area. especially northern california and all wait up to the pacific northwest. quick radar tour, the white shows snow in the cascades. definitely rain in portland. seattle a tiny break currently, but your morning drive down into state 5 especially from eugene southward to medford as a front comes on to you, you'll see

heavier rain. south of san francisco, you have increasing clouds. at least it will be sunny and still warm. the best weather in the country still is l.a. into phoenix. tahoe, mixture of rain and snow. ski resorts, tops of the mountains, all snow. wednesday forecast coming up, lynn. >> all right, bill. thanks. also coming up, acquisition teed up on the street. a tax deal you may not have heard of and the airlines made how much this jeer your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus it was supposed to be gwyneth paltrow's special day, but lindsay lohan and her mom had to get involved and get snarly. coming up -- .orts

spor . you're watching "early today."

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning -- despite overwhelming criticism and candidates already lined up against him, republican national committee chairmanen michael steele announced last night he will run for re-election. the surprise move ensures a nasty battle over the direction of the party just as the republicans assume control of the house next month. it's been more than a month since the midterms, but alaska's joe miller isn't giving up his fight for a u.s. senate seat. yesterday the tea party-backed candidate filed an appeal at the supreme court, three days after a rival for apparent winner lisa murkowski can be counted, even if they're misspelled. jailed financier bernard

madoff says he will not attend his son's funeral out of consideration for his family's privacy. 46-year-old mark madoff committed suicide on saturday. the second anniversary of his father's arrest of the biggest ponzi scheme in u.s. history. and small consolation, but the statement that likely caused delaware senate candidate christine o'donnell the election did earn her the top spot on yale university's annual list of most notable quote for 2010 for declares, "i'm not a witch." o'donnell shares the honor with bp's tony hayward who infamously claimed, "i'd like my life back" during this summer's golf oil disaster. and now here's an early look at how wall street kicked off the day. the dow opens at 11,428 after climbing 18 points. the s&p was up a fraction and the nasdaq fell 12 points. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei added 22 points.

while in hong kong, the hang seng rose 113. on wall street, trading was flat, slow and uncertain monday starting off the final full week of business before christmas. both the dow and the s&p benefited from china's conservative move to slow growth, increasing the amount of extra capital top banks must hold instead of the more severe option of raising interest rates. that helped oil companies like chevron and mining related companies like caterpillar drive the dow higher. the nasdaq saw an eight-day winning streak end, but apple closed slightly higher, up 53% for the year. one spot on wall street was red hot. mergers and acquisitions. general electric, the current owner of this network, rose after confirming it would buy british oil field services company wellstream holdings for $1.3 billion. dell fell almost 4% after sweetening its cash offer for the network storage company compellent.

scientific instruments maker thermo fisher will acquire dionex for $2.1 billion. keep an eye on yahoo! today. reports say the internet portal will lay off about 600 employees, about 5% of its workforce, as early as today. elsewhere, moody's warned due to the increased debt it would bring on if president barack b bp tax and unemployment benefits become law, it may cut the united states aaa bond rating. data released monday by the government shows u.s. airlines packaged $473 billion in fees this year. finally a forensic scientist helped one man recover 200,000 japanese dollars he dropped into his factory's shredding machine last month. she pieced together the remains of 200 $1,000 notes.

whew. coming up, favre finally sits one out -- cliff lee has some brotherly love and the heat are on fire. plus, last night, the texans made a frantic comeback against one of the nfl's best only to fall short in overtime. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. in weather, this arctic invasion is hitting its peak today. i'll bring you the warm-up forecast. that's coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, for the first time in more than 18 years brett favre did not start in an nfl game last night. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. the streak is over and maybe his career. brett favre was inactive against the giants because of a shoulder injury that snapped his consecutive streak of starts at 297. put that in perspective. the last time favre didn't start was back in 1972. probably glad he didn't play. bradshaw ripped off a touchdown run in the third quarter, new york won it 21-3. houston/ravens. matt shaw found andre johnson

who made an incredible grab in the end zone. texans got it. houston rallied into overtime. but the texans came up short. schaub intercepted and returned it for a touchdown. ravens won it, 34-28. new york jets have come down hard on their strength and conditioning coach. they suspended him for the season without pay and fined him 25 grand after he intentionally tripped a dolphins player on sunday. cliff lee has reached an agreement with the philadelphia phillies. hi joins ray halladay to form one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. basketball heat and hornets, dwyane wade scored a franchise record 20 in the second quarter and finished with 32. the shot of the night from lebron james. shot clock winding down, he lost the ball, had to heave it up from behind the backboard and he drained it. heat won it 96-94. and finally, the lakers met

with president obama yesterday. usually teams visit the white house, but this year a little different. the champs joined the president at a local boys & girls club to celebrate athletic achievement. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. so how did kate gosselin get along with sarah palin when they were out in the wilderness shooting reality tv? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, toys at christmastime aren't that unusual. but the man who made them and the children they're going to are very special, indeed. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. here's 9 radar out of northern california shows rain moving in. eureka, crescent city, mostly rain. a little snow in the tahoe area at highest elevation. san francisco you're next. rain moving in during the early morning hour. staying dry but clouds increase in vegas. los angeles, santa barbara, south waward oceanside down to areas of san diego today is sunny. tomorrow actually looks okay too. as far as what we're looking at here, you're watching kget, nbc 17 bakersfield, california. see more than 2 million lights and dazzling displays and ride on the candy cane express. bring the whole family to holiday lights at the california living museum. that's your pick event of the day. lynn i love those lights. go by the house, all decked out. >> i know. it is so much fun. bill, thank you so much.

now here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. at 38, gwyneth paltrow has proven it's never too late to re-invent yourself. the oscar winner who recently resurrected we are career as a country music singer was honored monday with a star on the hollywood walk of fame. paltrow got rave reviews recently doing comedy on "glee" playing a spanish teacher quizzing her students asked her students how many times lindsay lohan has been in rehab. but dina lohan complains to radar online that her daughter, lindsay was actually watching from the betty ford center and was devastated. she told the website, "gwyneth went way overboard and it was unnecessary." finally, on sarah palin's reality show, kate gosselin and sarah palin had "no chemistry together" and they never spoke to one another off camera.

she's rechbltly said to have gotten a $10,000 haircut. she hated the food, camping accommodations and left before sundown. this comes to us from wds news in louisiana, where though he's no st. nick, what one man did was nothing short of saintly. sam and his wife traveled from missouri to new orleans to deliver 1,000 toys to the children of families affected by the oil spill. the war vet and cancer survivor have been traveling all across the country delivering his handcrafted toys for 20 years now, and he doesn't plan on slowing down. he says the hobby and, no doubt, a child's thankful smile, keep him from growing old. i see why. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

visitors at one nature reserve are seeing double, or are they? rare, siamese twin turtles are turning heads in turkey. the turtles share four legs and a shell, but they have two separate heads that sometimes compete with each other. they were brought to the reserve for very special care. one christmas tree in northern israel is certainly green, just not the way you would think. it's made from over 5,000 recycled bottles. after the parts of the region there were destroyed by forest fires, it became actually very difficult to get real trees, thus the alternative. and to top it off, the eco friendly structure is using

l.e.d. lights to save energy. in venezuela, barbies experience the ultimate game of dress up. fashion designers entered their cherished dolls into a national beauty pageant. they go above and beyond to accessorize their dolls with decorative jewelry and hair styles. elaborate hairstyles. the one crowned the most beautiful goes on to represent the country in a worldwide barbie miss universe contest, which, bill, i find a little creepy. am i the only one? >> it is slightly creepy. who's the favorite? >> i don't even know. it boggles my mind. >> you have to go with thailand or something like that. a lot of the dolls are made in indonesia. so -- >> miss barbie universe pageant. hmm. leer's a look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc -- lawyers for julian assange will make a second attempt to

convince a london court to release their client on bail. assange ignited worldwide controversy after released hundreds of thousands of u.s. classify government doubts online. in chicago, rahm emanuel will testify at a hearing determining if he's eligible to run for mayor. his candidacy has been challenged on the grounds he hasn't been a chicago resident for the last year. and the nominees for the 68th annual golden globe awards will be announced in los angeles this morning. 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. how you can look like fashionable princess to be kate middleton for less. and today carries the announcement of the golden globe nominations live as host ricky gervais breaks it down with matt and meredith. 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 stop of the day today on your nbc

station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com