this morning on "early today" -- urban discord. things heat up as some cities begin cracking down on occupy protesters. gadhafi's coup? a new report surfaces from libya with an alleged plot to overthrow the iraqi government. and there she blows. crews purposely blast a hole in a nearly century-old dam. 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 coast to coast chaos. receipt flare-ups between police and protesters angry over corporate greed hit cities affected by the nationwide movement may have run out of patience with the protests.

to new york last night, occupy wall street protesters marching in lower manhattan were met with police force and barricades after they broke off into groups and held up traffic. at least ten people were arrested. the new york protesters say they were marched in solidarity with marchers in oakland where clashes turned violent on wednesday. nbc's jay gray has more. >> reporter: as the thick smoke of tear gas fills the night sky, it's clear tempers and tension surrounding the national occupy movement are growing. >> all we're trying to say, it's our right, freedom of speech. >> reporter: but after a series of arrests over the last couple of days in oakland, atlanta, albuquerque and other cities, police say the issue isn't freedom of speech. >> the decision to move was based on public health and safety due to defecation, fire hazards, sexual assault incidents, violent behavior and denial of access of medical aid. >> reporter: but many of the protesters say seeing dozens taken away in shackles only

serves to renew their dedication to the movement. >> we're not going to back down. we have no reason to back down. >> the only thing we have to do is continue to march. that's all we can do to continue to change things. if we keep running away, nothing's going to happen. >> reporter: those on both sides agree. a lot's been happening. protest sites across the country over the last few days. jay gray, nbc news. elsewhere in washington, the divide between a bipartisan super committee charged with tackling the nation's soaring deficit looks mild in comparison to the occupy protests but simmering tensions could boil over if the two sides fail to agree before a thanksgiving deadline. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more on that and the president's latest plan to boost the economy. good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. good morning, everyone. part of the president's we can't

wait agenda, he's cutting student loans. he says he and his wife michelle obama after law school of $120,000, it took them a whole decade of multiple payments to pay it while while trying to save for college for their daughters. his plan is to speed up a cap on payments, move that up to next year, capping it at 10% of discretionary income, consolidating payments, allowing borrowering to consolidate at a lower interest rate. meantime the super deficit committee is looking for ways to save money on our deficit. aides say democrats want to cut much more than they have to, up to $3 trillion, including health and retirement cuts and tax increases. republicans have an alternate plan, they say they won't go for tax increases at all. >> tracie, thank you. and now here's a look at some other stories making news

"early today" in america. 700 pounds of dynamite ripped a hole through the condit dam shooting water and wildlife from northwestern lake toward the columbian river. the blast is the first step toward demolishing the 125-foot tall dam, which will lead to the creation of several miles of new habitat for fish up river. wednesday morning traffic was far from a treat for michigan drivers who were forced to drive through the muck after a truckload of pumpkins fell onto a busy stretch of highway. the truck accidentally spilled hundreds of pumpkins causing that messy commute. no injuries were reported. a unique homecoming took place in the water off california. aquarium staffers released a young great white shark back into the wild. it's all part of a project where sharks spend months in captivity before being released into the ocean where researchers can then monitor their behavior through a tracking device for over 180 days. and finally, a south dakota teen may have to do a little

extra to get her license. after she plowed through the dmv office. the teen drove to the facility to take a written test but wound up taking a crash course when she mistakenly hit the gas instead of the brake. luckily, no one was injured. just a tough lesson there. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. one i would never want to learn. >> i wonder if they would label them the gas pedal and the brake. >> maybe the parents should do that first. enter interesting. >> in colorado the snow fell yesterday. at one point 100,000 people were without power due to downed tree limbs. the leaves and trees still at their peak, but when the tree limbs come down we have the

issues occur. this was the first snowstorm for the rockies. now we'll wait and see what november has in store for us. no more snow coming our way in the west going throughout the end of october. high pressure moved in and a very cold high pressure system bringing in the cold air down to new mexico at this hour. and we have some snow down here, too. albuquerque to interstate 40, we have seen snow overnight. amarillo, texas, has been getting some. that's a lot of cold air when texas is getting snow this time of the year and rain out ahead of that for oklahoma city and later for dallas. high pressure is building down the coast here. it is a gorgeous day today. medford, 70, no argument there. boise, 54 and cool. much of california looks great today with 70 and a few spots i

but tomorrow in the northwest is when we'll introduce the rain drops. not a big storm for the northwest tomorrow but not as sunny. thanks so much, bill. europe has a plan, research in motion has a problem, and something new you'll be seeing on your supermarket shelves. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, she's taken a lot of heat for attending the birthday party of an alleged war criminal. just wait until you hear how much she was paid to be there. coming up, could game six of the world series be rained out again? and who let the dogs out? you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. "the new york times" reports secret intelligence documents discovered by rebel fighters in libya link ousted leader moammar

gadhafi to a plot by former members of saddam hussein's baath party to overthrow the iraqi government. more than 200 iraqi suspects were arrested this week in connection with the alleged plot. the u.n. security council is set to vote on a resolution that would end u.n. authorization of nato's military operation in libya. yesterday nato postponed its decision on whether to leave the country after libya's interim leader expressed concerns over his government's ability to secure its borders. trying to tackle the same budget issues plaguing states across the country, now california governor jerry brown is proposing sweeping rollbacks to public employee pension benefits. the plan calls for raising retirement age to 67 and requiring some employees to pay more toward retirement and health care. michael jackson's doctor, conrad murray, was moved to

tears in his manslaughter trial wednesday when five former patients defended him in court, calling him a caring and thorough physician. and ruth madoff, wife of the convicted ponzi schemer bernie madoff, says she and her husband tried to commit suicide after she was caught. she tells "60 minutes" despite swallowing sleeping pills and antianxiety drugs, they woke up the next morning. here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,869 after rising 162 points yesterday. the s&p gained 12 points. the nasdaq was up 12. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei jumped 178 points while in hong kong the hang seng zoomed 622. well, it literally took into the middle of the night but european officials meeting on the region's debt crisis in brussels finally have a plan.

it strengthens the continent's rescue fund. reports say china will be a major investor. the region's banks will take a 50% loss on the face value of their greek debt. those banks will also be forced to raise cash holdings for emergencies. in italy, europe's teetering on too big to fail economy alerted the summit it will pass tough austerity and growth measures by november 15th. leaks of summit developments as well as economic data moved stocks steadily higher wednesday. demand for durable goods rose at the fastest pace in six months. new home sales were the strongest in five months. financials, including jpmorgan chase and u.s. bank corp led the way. nasdaq gains were held down by amazon.com slumping 12% after its disappointing late tuesday forecast. boeing led the dow posting a larger than expected profit and raising its full year forecast. corning rose after beating earnings and revenue expectations. after the bell, visa was down after posting slower revenue due

to high costs. elsewhere, research in motion has been hit with class-action lawsuits in canada and the u.s. for the days' long service outage on blackberry devices earlier this month. in a close vote, the united autoworkers ratified a four-year labor pact with chrysler. finally, 1.4 billion white coke cans featuring the image of the mother polar bear and her two cubs hits store shelves november 1st to draw attention to a campaign to protect polar bears and their habitats. the series gets soggy. big east college football. and on the ice, the flyers clash with the canadiens. plus, canine comedy on the pitch in colombia. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. we have rainy and cool conditions from the rockies all the way to the east coast. the exception? beautiful weather on the west coast. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports, as feared, mother nature was the only winner last night in st. louis. so, the cardinals and the texas rangers will try once again tonight to play game six of the world series. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. as expected, game six for the world series rained out yesterday.

there was more wet weather on the horizon but it's expected to be dry and chilly. 50 degrees come game time at 8:00 eastern tonight. which team benefits the most from an extra day off? the rangers' josh hamilton will take the time to nurse an ailing groin that's hampered him all series. on the cardinals side it gives their unraveling bull pen a chance to refocus. asking the managers, rescheduling game six doesn't mean a thing. >> at this time of the year, you get an extra day, all good, same for their club. it doesn't add anything to our competitive chances nor theirs. >> so we just give them another day to rest. so, it's not going to affect us one way or the other, really. we still have to go out and play good baseball. >> game six is tonight. first pitch at 8:00 p.m. eastern. if the cards win, game seven will be tomorrow. no baseball in st. louis but plenty of hockey. the blues gave the canucks more than they could handing beating the western conference champs

3-0. the canadiens have gotten off to a rough start. maybe this will turn the tide. scored five unanswered goals against the flyers. max in the right spot scored a pair of rebound goals. canadiens win 5-1. pitt and uconn, this would be a marquee match-up if it was a basketball game. instead we'll settle for football. tino sunseri did it all for panthers. he got a pair of touchdowns and ran for another. final to columbia where the question was, who let the dog out? stopped play for five minutes. players, referee and security tried to corral the canine but no such luck. then again, you can't use your hands in soccer. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. bruce willis' latest action adventure and a supermodel's super baby diet. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, some of us are clumsy, some of us are fast. how is your thumb speed? in a moment, the best of the best. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this thursday morning. high pressure means clear skies and beautiful fall weather for many people. a cool morning, especially in the inner mountain west. the temperature today for a high, only 54. boise, salt lake city, 52. nice day for you in phoenix, 79 and sunny. this is the time of year you have been waiting all summer long for. l.a. looks good, california is

nice. the northwest today, partly cloudy. tomorrow, we bring in a little bit of moisture with some clouds. not a huge storm system but we'll have to break out the umbrellas once again. if you are watching us on king 5 news in seattle, washington, in nearby tacoma trace the history of african-american flyers at black wings american dreams of flight at the washington state history museum. that's your pacific event of the day. >> bill, thank you so much. and now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. sadly, the legal term for amy winehouse's cause of death may also have summed up the singer's too short life. death by misadventure. a coroner in london ruled wednesday the singer died from acute alcohol poisoning, vodka, to be exact, when she resumed drinking after weeks of abstinence. elsewhere, on a much happier note, bruce willis and wife emma hemming are expecting their

first child together. willis has three grown children with ex-wife demi moore. hilary swank's appearance at chechnya's president birthday drew criticism and an apology from swank. radaronline revealed she was paid $1.5 million to attend. and finally gisele bundchen is reminding us she's perfect. she watches what he seats, as you can see, and she got her 22-month-old son benjamin trained to think healthy from the start. she tells the december issue of british "vogue," quote, when benjamin eats broccoli, he thinks it's dessert. >> that's great. >> poor benjamin. we have to just send him some brownies. he's 2. >> fry the broccoli a little for him. >> that sounds like something i would like. and this comes to us from wnbc 4 new york, in new york

city, where contestants let their thumbs do the talking to be crowned america's top texter. 12 speedsters battled it out at the texting championship. the senior citizen was 22 years old. contestants faced off with various distractions and challenges, including blindfolds. a wisconsin 16-year-old's speed and accuracy won him the title and a cool 50 grand. omg. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

something is lighting the pavement on fire in nigeria and it's not the heat. it's the heels of a traffic cop, entertaining the rush hour crowd. the idea is to brighten people's view of police officers, so he dances to songs in his head, a favorite being michael jackson's "thriller." he feels some cops take themselves too seriously. he is not one of them, of course. well, appropriate for halloween, a castle in romania is being used in an unexpected way. popular for resembling count dracula in the classic novel, it's becoming a popular wedding venue. one couple even had someone dress as the count in attendance. the couple picked the castle for its history and ties to literature. and finally, watch out, parrots, you have some competition. >> i love you. i love you. >> very cute. this mina bird can mimic human

speech and can even sing a few bars. it greets house guests saying things like, "hi pretty lady" and tells its owner to pick up the phone when it hears the ring tone. borderline cute, could get annoying. >> you think he could learn, bill is the best, is that possible? >> you've tried to train me to say that and i won't, so i don't know if you'd have any luck with him. it's time for an early look at some stories we're follow throughout date on nbc. at the state department secretary of state hillary clinton will be joined by former secretaries kissinger, albright and powell marking the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic reception rooms. it's where the secretary of state hosts visiting dignitaries and showcases american art dating back centuries. religious leaders gather in washington, shopping for a week's worth of groceries on the average food stamp allotment. with the program's budget at risk, the food stamp challenge is part of the religious community's effort to draw attention to hunger and poverty in america.

and actor/comedian john cleese turns 72. all day long you can stay on top of the latest developments of those storys and others as they break on msnbc. 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. a report on ruth madoff's revelation that she and her husband, convicted ponzi schemer, bernie madoff, attempted suicide after the scandal broke. and aerosmith's steven tyler sets the record straight on rumors surrounding his recent hotel room fall. and 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