this morning on "early today," paying tribute. president obama appeals for unity and healing at a memorial for the victims of the tucson shooting. snowed under, the northeast gets walloped by its third major winter storm of the season. and one year later, haitians pause to remember the hundreds of thousands killed by last pause to remember the hundreds of thousands killed by last your's devastating earthquake. 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 the long journey to recovery. healing began last night in arizona with the moving memorial service honoring those who lost their lives in saturday's mass shooting and those being hailed as heroes. president obama led the emotional ceremony with welcome news that congresswoman gabrielle giffords took an important first step on her own road to recovery. nbc's jay gray reports. ♪ >> reporter: they say there's a strength and comfort that comes in numbers. more than 26,000 gathered on the university of arizona campus, spilling out of the mccale center and into the stadium next door, each looking for that strength, along with hope and healing. >> there is nothing i can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts.

but know this, the hope of a nation are here tonight. >> reporter: this is a community that desperately needed a reason to cheer, and they did. they cheered for the wounded, the handful who were there, some still with i.v. poles or in wheelchairs. they cheered for heroes like interns daniel hernandez who was there when shots rang out. and they cheered as the president shared the latest on gabby's condition. >> gabby opened her eyes. so i can tell you she knows we are here. she knows we love her. and she knows that we are rooting for her. >> reporter: it was also a memorial to the six who were lost, each remembered for their lives and their acts. one of the most emotional points when the president stressed that little 9-year-old christina green could not die in vain. >> i want to live up to her expectations. i want our democracy to be as good as christina imagined it.

i want america to be as good as she imagined it. >> expectations that the president urged rose above the political dialogue that came to frame the debate in our country. >> it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we're talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. >> reporter: wounds that may be slowly beginning to heal. jay gray, nbc news, tucson. it is only the second week of january, but this morning, the northeast is cleaning up from yet another major winter storm that dumped more than two feet of snow in some areas. nbc's kurt gregory reports. >> reporter: mother nature's latest punch lands in new england. another big dig under way for residents from new york to maine. >> how has it been shoveling so

far? >> back breaking. >> reporter: heavy snow toppling power lines. more than 100,000 people lose power in massachusetts. >> it's cold, and i have lots of blankets. >> reporter: whiteout conditions in boston. yet logan international airport stays open. one runway operating in the blizzard. connecticut also buried by the storm. more than two feet on the ground in new fairfield and danbury. >> we need a mac daddy snow blower, and we don't have that one, so it's kind of a pain. >> reporter: the near record snow causing a partial collapse of an apartment building roof and providing a winter holiday for kids all over new england. the new york area spared this time. nine inches fell in the big apple, but plow crews were up to the task. and if winter misery loves company, then the northeast has plenty of it. there's measurable snow on the ground in 49 of our 50 states. kurt gregory, nbc news.

now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. in massachusetts, amateur video showed just how severely wednesday's snowstorm affected the northeast when a power line caught fire and then exploded. yesterday's storm caused a wave of power outages with exploding transformers and downed power lines. thousands were left in the dark. in california, a cliff tumbled down to the beach leaving some homes in danger of collapse. city engineers say the slide is part of an ongoing erosion problem that's a natural occurrence worsened by recent rains. residents on private property are working with officials to get permits to stabilize the wall. and in texas, there are laws against drinking and driving, but drinking and riding? a cowboy clad in leather chaps and his partner, one on a horse and the other on a donkey, were taken in for public intoxication.

police say the men were stopped in the middle of traffic inviting pedestrians to take pictures and pet the animals. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is nbc meteorologist bill karins. he has your weather forecast. >> harmless fun. >> unless you're intoxicated, which is illegal. >> you should be arrested for riding on a donkey in the mid of the streets anyway. we won't go there. let's talk about what happened with our business snowstorm and let's get a wider perspective of just how cold -- this is just what my grandfather would call an old-fashioned winter, cold and snowy about everywhere. this map shows the snow. the snow is in the deeper in the blues. high elevations, the pinks in the cascades and sierra. southern georgia through alabama, mississippi, northern louisiana. a little bit of snow in texas, new mexico has some snow, even areas in arizona. in other words, 71% of the

country is covered with some snow. florida is the only one that does not -- does not have snow. of course, we have volcanos in hawaii. that's why they have a little bit of snow, too. we have a new storm system that's been bringing rain in the northwest. it's been a little bit warmer so we haven't dealt as much with snow. all the green on the map, a thump of rain this morning. this will start to taper off with showers later this afternoon. high elevation snow th is the desert southwest in california. tucson, 69 degrees and sunny. much of the areas in southern california, nice, too. well, lynn, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, rain will continue in the northwest. i don't have a lot of good news for those people. >> all right. bill, thank you so much.

the fed's mood brightens. a late christmas present for autoworkers and a cashier's mistake pays off big for one lot to winner. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, being a reality tv star never went to her head, but being a novelist might be a different story. also, the war of words continues between the patriots and the jets, and the biggest upset of the year in college basketball. 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. it was a day of mourning in haiti where residents commemorated the first anniversary of their devastating earthquake with memorials, prayer vigils and a minute of silence yesterday. former president bill clinton joined the country's president to lay the cornerstone for a new national tax office. officials dramatically revised

the death toll from the quake upwards to more than 316,000 killed. previous estimates put that figure at around 250,000. rescuers in brazil are searching for dozens missing after flash floods and mudslides tore through towns outside rio de janeiro. authorities say the death toll is likely to rise as they reach remote areas. sarah palin has lashed out at her critics, posting a video on facebook where she says it is blood libel to accuse her of helping to create a political climate that led to the tucson shooting. however, the former alaska governor sparked new controversy by invehicoking a phrase from t past laced with anti-semitism. last year was the wettest on record and it showed 2005 was the hottest since recordkeeping

began back in 1880. >> and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,755. adding 83 points yesterday. the s&p rose 11 points. the nasdaq was up 20. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei gained 76 points, while in hong kong the hang seng added 113. who knows how long it will last, but wall street's recent rally made a comeback yesterday. worries about european debt died down after portugal pulled off a better than expected bond auction. meanwhile, high hopes for bank stocks and bigger dividends set banks higher. the fed said the economy is slowly moving in the right direction. its latest beige book survey found improvement in factory production, consumer spending, and even hiring at the end of 2010. grain prices shot up after the government predicted corn and soybeans will be in short supply

this year, fueling fears about rising food prices. nvidia soared thanks to big bets on its mobile chip technology. elsewhere, defend contractor itt shot up 16% on news it will split into three separate companies. oregon's attorney general is suing johnson & johnson over a so-called phantom recall of motrin back in 2008. the company is accused of delaying a formal recall by quietly pulling defective pills off store shelves before notifying consumers. good news in detroit. according to the "new york times," ford and gm are about to hand out what could be the largest profit-sharing checks in a decade to their hourly workers. and finally, for one kentucky woman, it pays to be polite. she didn't argue when she was accidentally charged double for a lotto ticket that quadrupled your jackpot if you win. and it was one lucky mistake. instead of $250,000, she raked

in $1 million. why doesn't that happen to us? coming up, the nfl playoffs trash talking heats up. the clippers dug the heat. and duke goes down. orlando three-pointers in the final minute force overtime against the hornets, but did the magic end there? your early morning sports headlines are just ahead. in weather, cold air dominates the eastern half of the country and the storm system continues in the northwest. your thursday forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, it's still early in the college basketball season, but the mighty have already fallen. here's nbc's mario solis with an early look at all your sports headlines. hi there, good morning. the top-ranked blue devils had rattled off 25 straight wins going back to last season, but the duke streak finally came to an end last night in florida. taking on florida state, the seminoles were up by 4 after the first and derwin kitchen adding to it in the second. he had a game high 22. duke couldn't get over the hump. chris singleton drilled the three-pointer, florida state pulled off a huge upset, beating the number one team in the country, 66-61. to the nba, magic and

hornets pick it up late in the fourth. turkoglu from beyond the arc, that ties it and forces overtime. hornets blow the lead, but not the game. marcus thornton stops and pops for the lead. hornets win in o.t., 92-89. suns and nets, needing overtime. phoenix rallies in the fourth and keeps it going in o.t. gave the suns a lead. carter is there for the putback. suns win, 118-109. to los angeles, clippers had a lead. lebron james drills down the two. but that's as close as they get. surprise, surprise, the clippers beat the heat, 111-105. to the nfl, rex ryan has made it clear that jets and patriots hate each other. but now the verbal war has gotten personal. here's the back page of wednesday's ""new york daily news"." the jets antonio cromartie bleep tom brady and added he's a bleep hole, end quote. yesterday he held his ground while brady took it in stride.

>> i've been called worse. i'm sure there's a long list of people that feel that way. >> i said what i had to say. in my opinion, that's not going to change about brady. at the end of the day, it's going to be what it's going to be. i hate him, he hates me. they hate the jets. who cares. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm mario solis. >> narrator: nicole kidman admits she tried it, but says she'll never do it again. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, we'll bring you a story that may change your mind when it comes to taking a bite out of that fast food chicken. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. a very wet morning in areas of the pacific northwest. storm systems moving onshore. temperatures will be warmer today but a good bit of rain early. during the afternoon, dry from sacramento, san francisco, san jose, l.a., san diego, tucson and phoenix. as we go into friday, another storm. we have three days in a row with storms coming onshore here, progressive weather pattern with one storm after the other in the northwest. if you're watching us on kenv channel 10 elko, nevada, glimpse of the history and heritage of american cowboy through photography. visit "cowboys" at the northeastern nevada museum.

that's your pacific event of the day. dominated by horses and chaps. i like it. all right. thank you. now here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. nicole kidman finally admitted what many suspected, despite repeated denials. the 43-year-old told a german magazine to stay wrinkle free, in addition to a good diet and working out, she tried botox. but kidman didn't like the way her face looked afterwards adding, quote, now i don't use it any more and i can move my forehead again. let that be a lesson. after a monday disturbance at an l.a. hotel and an interview with dr. phil set to air today, ted williams, the golden voice homeless man who became an overnight sensation, headed to rehab for alcohol and drug dependency. "weekly" reports kate hudson and boyfriend matthew bellamy are expecting a baby. yesterday, on "today," kevin james confirmed he and his wife are expecting a third child.

finally, will becoming a novelist ruin snooki in? first she toned down her poofy hair. now she's dropping hints she would like to ditch her famous nickname. she told the associated press, quote, i miss people calling me nicole. this comes to us from wect, nbc news 6 in wilmington, north carolina, where one lone crusader seems to be protesting one fast food restaurant's menu selection. every day this chicken stands guard staring down customers who show up for the lunchtime rush. it struts back and fot outside while its battered friends are deep fried inside. some customers aren't bothered while others have begun to question their menu choice. regardless, they all admire the animal's courage. so do we. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

it is the universe like you've never seen it before. these are the most precise, never before seen digital color images ever captured courtesy of a telescope in new mexico. scientists have been putting together more than a trillion pixels to show a million galaxies in a 3d map. researchers hope this leads to new scientific discoveries. a zoo in sweden has a new attraction luring visitors. the country welcomed their first anteater born in captivity. the little guy will spend months on his mother's back nearly camouflaged, and he may look small now, but eventually he'll

grow a two-foot long tongue, which is going to come in handy since anteaters don't have any teeth and use their tongue to scoop up food. some believe it's beauty, not brains, that count on a job search in paris. a government employment agency offers tax paid makeovers to unemployed french women. the women work with a group of artists and stylists and say if they're more physically attractive to employers and they hope this will invigorate the job market as in nearly 1 in 10 french workers are unemployed. bill, i don't know, it just seems like it's 1950, like women put bows in their hair. >> lynn, it is necessary. you should see what i did. my makeover was incredible for this interview. i did the fudd facial and everything. >> you don't need them bill, look at that. come on. time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. in arizona, there will be a funeral for the youngest victim of the shooting tragedy in tucson. services will be held for

9-year-old christina green who was born on the day of the 9/11 attacks. the largest flag recovered from ground zero will be displayed at her funeral in her honor. in california, the nation's first museum devoted to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders will open. and congratulations to colin firth, he will be receiving the 429th star on the hollywood walk of fame. 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 latest from tucson as congresswoman giffords opens her eyes for the very first time since saturday's shooting. and find out why the history channel canceled a highly anticipated mini series about the kennedys. 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. the day today on your nbc station. have a good one.