this morning on "early today" executive proposal. new details on president obama's plan to promote job creation as his approval ratings continue to decline. mortgage mess. the justice department reportedly begins an investigation into the agency behind the u.s. credit downgrade. and hoodwinke a gas station surveillance camera captures a bizarre altercation. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello, and good morning. welcome to the viewers across the nation, including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry, and today we begin with ready for a vacation.

as president obama wrapped up his campaign-style bus tour and prepared for some time off, he is facing more heated attacks from gop opponent rick perry and his lowest approval rating yet. a new gallop poll finds just 26% of americans surveyed approve of the way president obama handled the nation's economy. nbc's brian mooar is joining us from washington with more on all of this. brian, good morning. >> reporter: hi, lynn. yesterday while the president was wrapping up the bus tour, we got details about the economic recovery plan he's unveiling in september. the president wants to create jobs through building up infrastructure and he wants to offer long-term help for the unemployed. he also wants to extend tax cuts, but the boldest move of all, he wants to cut $4 trillion in spending. that's far more than than the

$1.5 trillion the congressional committee is shooting for. the president also wants taxes for the rich. meanwhile, gop presidential candidate rick perry is out on the campaign trail today. he's toned down his rhetoric, but he's also raised some eyebrows in saying that he doesn't believe in manmade global warming. >> i do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. i think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they would have dollars rolling in to their projects. >> as the president heads out to martha's vineyard today, there are already signs welcoming saying the president deserves a vacation. >> brian mooar there for us in washington. thank you. according to this morning's "new york times" the justice department has launched an inquiry into the nation's largest credit rating agency. the government is looking into

whether standard & poor's improperly rated dozens of troubled mortgage securities in the run-up to the financial crisis. during that time s&p, along with other ratings agencies, tallied record profits. news of the probe comes in the weeks after s&p drew criticism from washington for slashing the nation's triple-a credit rating, but "the times" points out the investigation began before that decision was made. a newly released study shows the disastrous affects this economy has had on america's children. the numbers show one in five children in this country live in poverty. that's 14.7 million kids. the study also indicates juvenile poverty increase in 38 states from 2000 to 2009. mississippi had the highest level. 31% of children there are in poverty, while new hampshire had the lowest level at 11%. now here's a look at other stories making news early today

in america. an attendance dispute over payment with a driver at a california gas station landed him in a hazardous working condition. the driver took off with the station employee on the front of his car. the employee held on for half a mile before falling off and suffering serious injuries. police are still searching for the driver. new york city drivers may be known for dicey parking, but this extreme example nearly ended badly for one sanitation worker. his truck dangled from the third floor of a repair shop after he crashed through a wall, leaving the driver trapped in the cab until he could be rescued by firefighters. the crash is under investigation. one suspect tried to escape capture in ohio, and it came to a soggy ending. the sex offender attempted to speed away from an arresting officer leading police on a high-speed chase eventually crashing into a private pool.

no one was hurt in the accident or when police arrested the suspect near the scene. and finally, in missouri, a delightful exchange played out between fans at a yankees/royals game. a lucky girl who got a foul ball. instead of keeping the memorable souvenir for herself, she handed it forward to a young boy standing nearby in a yankees shirt. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins, who has your weather channel forecast. >> little girls have a reputation for being nice, right? >> yes, they had to dig it in a little farther for us east coasters. >> what's the matter with you? you gave me the ball. oh, well. good morning. around the country temperatures are very warm. there's not a lot of active weather, no hurricanes to talk about. we have pretty much a persistent forecast. what you saw yesterday, there's

a good chance you will see it again today. unfortunately, for texas, extremely hot. right now at this hour, look at phoenix, arizona. the temperature hasn't dropped off that much and humidity levels have been higher than you have liked recently. 99 degrees. a hot day today in arizona. phoenix could hit 110. even by your standards that's hot. 72 in denver. you are also going to see a0-degree day. the only cool spot is continuing along the coast from seattle down to san francisco. now in l.a., 64. vegas, still holding on to the warmth, 89 for you. going throughout the day, lots of sunshine is expected with not a lot of clouds. a weak front went through the northern portions of the rockies. northern idaho through washington state, that hasn't had much of an effect. in this little heat low, it will continue to pump the heat and moisture in. a chance of showers in arizona and also there in new mexico. l.a. today, not bad, 85. away from the water, you are on the hot side. that's a look at the national forecast. here's a look at the weather outside your window. sunshine and warm temperatures is the story out there.

as i mentioned, a few storms are possible in tucson, arizona, but that will be the exception. much of the country including the west will be dry today. i think friday will be one of the warmest days in some of the areas, so we'll talk about that. >> thank you so much. well, tech stumbles, and what's the stitch with ambercrombie & fitch. plus, he could earn an award for grossest performance. coming up, ponzi schemes, nightclubs, and prostitutes. that's college football for you. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are your top headlines this morning. despite syrian president bashar

al-assad claiming that military and police operations against protestors have ended, activists report more bloodshed overnight. since march over 1,800 civilians have been killed in syria's uprising according to witnesses. in libya rebels are closing in on tripoli from the west and south. they have also assaulted a coastal oil refinery in an effort to drive out muammar qadhafi's forces. he is now nearly cornered in his capital stronghold. in tampa authorities have arrested an expelled student who was allegedly behind a catastrophic plot to set off a bomb at his former high school next week. police say the 17-year-old was planning to cause more casualties than the columbine high school tragedy, a massacre that claimed 13 lives. health officials say two children and a young man in three states have died this summer from a brain-eating ameba

that lives in water. the illness is extremely rare, but almost always deadly. about 120 u.s. cases have been reported since the ameba was identified in the 1960s. and now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. according to a greek study where other treatment methods for the dreaded tennis elbow have failed, blood injections, especially of platelet-rich blood, seemed to relieve pain. the treatment found most effective, uses the patient's own blood, best for healing the degeneration of tendons. and it is made platelet-rich by putting it in a centrifuge. you can check out stories like this on msnbc.com. >> early today health is brought to you by vagisil. bring yourself back. now here's a look at how wall street will kick off the

day. the dow opens at 11,410 after going up four points. the s&p added a point, but the nasdaq fell 11. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei dipped 113 points, while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 272. worries about the weak economy and mixed earnings made for another bumpy day on wall street wednesday. dell's disappointing outlook fanned fears about next quarter's growth which spread to the broader tech sector. dell was the s&p's worst performer shedding 10%. fellow pc maker hewlett-packard was also hit, falling nearly 4%. the tech slide continued after hours with network management company netapp citing as much as 14% after missing revenue expectations. elsewhere on the earnings front farm equipment maker deere was one of the biggest drags on industrial stocks. abercrombie & fitch had

disappointed news after the back to school shopping season. its share dropped more than 8%. on the up side, target ended the day 2% higher thanks to better than expected earnings. office supply retailer staples also weighed in with strong earnings thanks to demand overseas. traders also fretted rising inflation could keep the fed from offering another round of stimulus after news that wholesale food prices ticked higher in july after dropping in june. meanwhile, oil was up nearly $1 a barrel thanks to an unexpectedly large drop in gasoline supplies. a federal judge has dismissed claims that pregnant women and new mothers were discriminated against at media company bloomberg due to lack of evidence. and finally, what's being called a well-played publicity stunt ambercrombie & pitch has offered to pay "jersey shore" cast member the situation and

his cast meats not to wear its clothes on air to protect its brand image. well, more college football scandal. the mets and the padres splash some leather, and the phillies march on. plus, you make the call. is it a home run or not? your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. the yankees say there's no way that was a home run. well, as far as your forecast goes, if you are paying attention this summer, the heat wave continues in the deep south. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you are just waking up, this is "early today." in sports this morning yet another top college football program finds itself tarnished with scandal. this time it's the university of miami. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. this is a story that has rocked the college football world. according to yahoo sports, a university of miami booster gave over 70 athletes improper benefits. certainly improper benefits for nearly a decade. convicted ponzi scheme artist nevi shapiro tweeted 72 athletes tonight club outings, cars and other gifts between 2002 and 2010. the ncaa is doing a full investigation and could throw the book at the university of miami. including the ultimate death penalty, shutting down the football program. and the plot thickens. paul d., the chairman of the

infractions committee that imposed sanctions on unc for a lack of institutional control was the athletic director of miami while all of this was going down. wilson valdez delivered an rbi off if wall opening the flood gates, and the fims won it 9-2. red sox lost a golden opportunity to increase their rating in the east. butler, a home run off the top of the wall. yanks didn't think it went out. the umpire thought differently. the royals were up 4-2. now to the ninth, and jorge posada struck out looking. the royals won it 5-4. two great defensive plays in the padres game come back to the mound. mcgee was behind the bag to make that grab. that's a gold glove caliber grab. one was hit high and deep, but not deep enough.

kyle banks leaps on the wall taking away a sure homer. it took everything of the 6'6" frame to pull it in. the mets won it 7-3. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. a long-held record set by the king of pop falls. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, after this kind of destruction, it will take years to recover, but with a lot of hard work, it only took a few months to start getting the lives of the community's kids back on track. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this thursday. here's a look at your forecast. if you are just joining us, good morning. 91 in boise. many areas of washington state are okay. we are sit waiting for a nice warm front to get you in on the end of the summer, but we have not hit 90 degrees in portland. that's only going back 120 years. many areas of the midwest are looking warmer. if you are watching us on kc-24 in fresno, california, see photos of theette earth's wildest corner taken by a photographer named gordon. that's your pacific event of the day. >> thank you so much.

now here's an early look at your headlines in entertainment. five times could be a charm for bruce willis fans. producers are reportedly working on a fifth-"die hard" film which super cop john mcclain's adventures play out russia. and katy perry's single "last friday night" hit number one on the billboards, giving her album "teenager dream" five number ones, tying the record set by michael jackson's 1982 album "bad." actor richard gere not only plays get ark but he is an avid collector, but he is auctioning them off for as much as $1 million to support humanitarian causes. the gibson flying v alone is expected to go for up to $90,000. and, finally, this ranks right up there in all-time celebrity hissy fits. you'll be shaking your heads with this one. according passengers french actor gerrard de pardu apparently anearbiryuated

apparently being denied into the bathroom and urinated in the aisle. he was escorted off the plane, but no charges were filed. i can't explain that. well, this comes to us from joplin, missouri, where the opening chapter of one community's comeback story began on the first day of school. three months after a tornado devastated their entire town, officials kept their promise of opening schools on time. a dedicated group of teachers and administrators celebrated their long-shot victory by throwing hugs around. returning students just starting the school year gives joplin students a lifetime lesson on rising from adversity. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

when a fish is called a snake head, better to proceed with caution, but folks in china learned the hard way that when provoked, this slithery creature can be vicious. teasing the snake head fish proves painful for those that tested the water. a restaurant owner who purchased the fish says it's attracted plenty of curious customers, but best to look instead of touch. well, you see a lot of things in a typical newscast. this is probably not one of them. during an interview on britain's channel 4 news, a peculiar thing happened. in the background something flies across the screen. the internet is abuzz of what the flying object is. a bird?

a plane? a ufo? we're not going to break any news on that here. we'll let you be the judge. finally, it's never okay to drink and drive, but it's especially bad when you are driving your drinks. one australian man has been charged with drunk driving on a motorized cooler. that's right. cops say he bought the contraption on-line and then took it for a test drive after raiding the beers inside with friends. police say he was three times over the legal limit. that alone should be illegal to make a cooler full of beer motorized. >> especially if you are below the legal age. >> exactly. >> it's time for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. this morning the crew of the final space shuttle mission will be in new york to pay a visit to the intrepid sea, air, and space museum. it completed its last trip on atlantis in july ending the shuttle program.

it is the anniversary of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote on this day in 1920. tennessee gave the 19th amendment the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. and happy birthday to robert redford. today the actor and director turns 75. all day long you can stay on top of the latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc, and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news". finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. new details about an insurance policy taken out on missing american robyn gardner shortly before her trip to aruba. and oscar-nominated actress ann hathaway talks to matt lauer about upcoming roles, including "batman." 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.

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