this morning on "early today" -- shot in the arm. republican front runner newt gingrich lands a key endorsement on the road to white house. showdown in l.a. wall street protesters defy a midnight deadline to vacate their encampment. >> and royal rescue. prince william helps make a >> and royal rescue. prince william helps make a daring rescue at sea. captions pd 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 a big endorsement. as gop presidential candidates look to make the most of their remaining time on the campaign trail, former house speaker newt

gingrich has landed the support of new hampshire union newspaper, the largest in the first primary state. nbc's brian mooar joins us from washington with that story. good morning to you. >> reporter: mitt romney has had no trouble raising money, but he is still struggling to get conservatives exciting. newt gingrich isn't the greatest candidate but he's better than mitt romney, that is the bottom line of an editorial endorsement by new hampshire's "union leader" newspaper. >> if you were to balance it between romney and gingrich, romney is a play it safe candidate. >> reporter: that highlights romney's inability to connect with conservatives. >> do you want a bona fide conservative like gingrich or a middle of the road candidate like a mitt romney. >> reporter: gingrich is just the latest to top the gop field. michele bachmann is shrugging off the endorsement.

>> the main endorsement is the one i'm looking forward to is here in iowa. >> reporter: herman cain is struggling to regain momentum. >> obviously, false accusations and confusion about some of my positions has contributed to it. >> reporter: jon huntsman is hoping for his turn. >> i'm getting whiplash watching these people go up and down. >> reporter: 36 days until the iowa caucuses and republican voters are still shopping around. gingrich's new-found front-runner status will bring in more campaign cash and more scrutiny. >> thank you. after a long thanksgiving weekend of eating, shopping and travel, the holiday season is officially in full swing and that means serious business for the nation's retailers look fog follow up record black friday sales by bringing you more bargain hunters online for cyber monday. nbc's reports. >> reporter: americans are returning to their daily routine after another thanksgiving of

crowded airports and shopping malls. 42.5 million americans traveled over thanksgiving, up 4% from last year. from atlanta's hartsfield international to kansas city. sunday was the same, long lines and large crowds. travelers braving the hassles and headaches of holiday congestion. and it wasn't just the airports that were jammed. store owners were smiling after retail sales broke records over the holiday weekend. the national retail federation says stores did an estimated $52 billion in online and in-store sales. an increase of $7 billion from last year. spending that money, 226 million shoppers who visited stores and websites over black friday weekend. next up for retailers, cyber monday, where later today online shoppers will once again be looking for those online bargains. according to shop.org's holiday

survey, 8 out of 10 retailers are expected to have special deals on cyber monday. nbc news. for the second time this month, allegations of sexual child abuse have rocked one of the nation's most respected collegiate athletic programs with the firing of syracuse long-time assistant basketball coach, bernie fine. the announcement comes less than two weeks after two step brothers went public with accusations that they had been molested by fine back when they were ball boys on the team. syracuse police searched fine's home on friday after a third accuser came forward with similar accusations inspect a newly released phone conversation secretly recorded in 2002 the former coach's wife discussed knowledge of the abuse with her husband's initial accuser and admitted there may be more victims. fine has called the accusations against him, quote, patently false. elsewhere, officials in los angeles and philadelphia have given orders to shut down

anti-wall street camps in those cities but so far police have yet to enforce the orders. the lapd informed occupy l.a. protesters of the eviction plan. however, those protesters have remained and police are not confronting them. meanwhile, a deadline for occupy philadelphia demonstrators have they have been camped for nearly two months passed sunday without any arrests or removals. the $50 million construction project is expected to start near that camp. nasa's rover lifted off over the weekend. the curiosity, biggest explorer ever built, will hunt for signs of life that may have existed on the red planet. the large size of the car and weighing one ton, it has a laser beam for zapping martian rocks and a tool kit for analyzing their contents. it will take 8 1/2 months for

the rover to reach mars and begin its search. seems straight out of the jetsons. now for a look at your national and regional weather, good to have you here, todd. did you have a good thanksgiving? >> yes i did. >> the west coast was going through some weather at the time. >> there are a few areas today dealing with showers. notice, though, the real messy spot there if you are traveling across the east. some of the best chances for showers and probably some of the best chances for airline delays. showing mild conditions especially out to eastern portions of montana. billings back down through casper. much of what you are seeing coming down in the form of light showers that will start to fade out in the daytime.

last check, we had about a half mile of visibility, likely to promote airline delays. so keep that in mind travel-wise. there is a look at some of the milder numbers. should be up in about the lower 50s by this afternoon. much of the southwest looking quiet weather wise. clouds up towards seattle. as we get to the middle of the week, we will start to see are with showers earlier in the day but should see clearing as we work our way into the afternoon. travel wise, still a big day for a few areas. >> thank you so much.

coming up, wall street readies for another week. euro leaders look to get tough. and the high cost of a partridge in a pear tree. early morning business headlin s straight ahead. plus, controversy swirls around stoner comments by teen star miley cyrus. coming up, another game, another tebow comeback and a touchdown celebration gone bad. 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. a diplomatic crisis is brewing between islamabad and washington after a nato air strike near the border of afghanistan and pakistan killed two dozen pakistani soldiers. pakistan is denying afghan military claims that gunfire came from its border posts, sparking the incident. pakistan is blocking supply convoys into afghanistan and

demanding the u.s. vacate a drone base on its soil. in an unprecedented move against a member nation, the arab league has approved sweeping economic sanctions on the syria, aimed at punishing the regime of president bashar al assad for its bloody crackdown on protesters. attackers set off explosives along a gas pipeline in egypt this morning that carries fuel to neighboring israel and jordan. it's the eighth attack on the pipeline since the uprising and comes hours before the first parliamentary elections since ds the ousting of former leader, hosni mubarak. and prince william, heir to the english throne and royal air force member, co-piloted a helicopter that came to the rescue of a cargo ship hit by a massive wave in the irish sea. the ship was carrying eight russian crew members. two were pulled from a life craft. one body was recovered, and five are still missing. now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day.

the dow opens at 11,231 after losing 25 points on friday. the s&p was down 3 points. the nasdaq fell 18. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei climbed 127 points. while in hong kong, the hang seng jumped 348. analysts think this week the direction of european bond yield will determine the direction of wall street stocks. on euro yield angst last week, cnbc reports percentage-wise both the dow and s&p 500 had their worst thanksgiving week since the great depression. with another round of european bond auctions this week they hope to see them fall or settle. asian stocks started well, climbing the optimism to the strong start to u.s. holiday shopping. asian markets were also encouraged by reports germany's chancellor angela merkel and france's president sarkozy are

studying legal changes to force nations using the euro to comply with strict budget discipline. belgium, the latest debt crisis casualty, suffered a credit rating downgrade. if traders take their eye off this week it will be for data. today brings new home sales and prices and consumer confidence released tomorrow. wednesday u.s. manufacturing, data is due, the follow ing thursday with factory readings from china and europe. on jobs, private employment numbers are out thursday. friday comes the really big one, october's monthly report. elsewhere, iraq reached $17 billion deal with royal dutch shell and mitsubishi to capture natural gas from its oil fields. and finally, for the first time ever, if you bought all the 364 items from the 12 days of christmas, it would cost you more than $100,000. seven swans a swimming were particularly painful, up 12.5%

from last year. coming up, brady passes on the eagles. the steelers hold out against the chiefs. and tebow does it again. plus, will a tasteless touchdown celebration by a buffalo bill receiver lead to trouble with the league? your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and if you held your big travel day off until today, we'll take a closer look and what you can expect coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the one thing you can't argue with is winning. whether you like him or not, tim tebow has been winning. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. everybody has their own opinion on the broncos' tim tebow, love him or hate him, he keeps finding a way to win. let's go broncos and chargers. san diego led all game but tebow led, connecting with eric decker in the end zone and denver trails 10-7. now to the fourth, tebow got broncos into field goal range and matt prater finished off the drive, right down the middle. we're down to overtime. the overtime, the chip shot for victory and broncos won 16-13, tebow is 5-1 as starter. buffalo bills' jackson scored against the jets, but

what he did after the catch has everybody talking. he pretended to shoot himself in the leg as part of the touchdown celebration. of course, he was mocking plaxico burress who shot himself back in 2008. but the jets would have the last laugh. mark sanchez hit santonio holmes for the go ahead touchdown with a minute to play. jets knocked off the bills with a 28-24 win. philly, eagles jumped out to an lead. brady rattled off 21 straight, with another three touchdowns to wes welker. pats win 28-30. chiefs and steelers, pittsburgh rounded out a victory in kansas city 38-9. the chargers have dropped six straight but here's something even more embarrassing than that. charger kicker nick novak. no bathrooms around, so he took a knee and he relieved himself next to the water station, and everyone, on national television

got to see. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. >> just a tiny towel? i don't get it. we have your roundup of the top films at the holiday box office coming up. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. he'll be playing on the roof until the new year, hoping to fill his restaurant. you're watching "early today."

welcome back.

taking a close look at a few areas in the southwest, cooler temperatures than average but at least there is some sunshine. a few light showers. temperatures getting up to just about the mid 50s. as we get into tomorrow, may see a few showers. real misture pushing into british columbia. our next chance shows up into wednesday. if you are watching us in sacramento, california, the story of native americans as the last indians in north america at the california museum. that's your pacific event of the day. here's an early look at this morning headlines in entertainment. second straight weekend of vampire romance "breaking down" took in $4 million over the

took in $4 million over the three-day weekend and $62 million plus over the five-day thanksgiving period. two days out, including overseas earnings, stands just short of half billion dollars. in second was "the muppets" with $42 million with the five day holiday. "happy feet two" finished third. with a three day total of almost 13.5 million. "arthur christmas" opened fourth with just under $13 million. finally, "hugo" debuted fifth with just over $11 million. elsewhere in a video of miley cyrus celebrating her 19th birthday recently, cyrus is heard saying, quote, you know you're a stoner when your friends make you a bob marley cake. you know you smoke way too much weed. well, that's caused a little firestorm. a rep for cyrus claims the cake was a joke and cyrus was just being sarcastic. this was actually a private party. it had to have been a friend

that leaked this video. she has a lot of young people that admire her. this is getting a lot of attention. >> what about admiring bob marley? >> the second part is probably a little bit more of the attention grabber. the cake? not so much. >> i love it. this comes to us from kxan news in austin, texas, where one restaurant owner is using his guitar to drum up business at his struggling eatery. he hopes his guitar solos are good enough to make people stop and get a bite to eat. after no money left for advertising after renovations and he's worried he'll go out of business, he went up on the roof early friday morning competent plans to stay there until new year's day. he hopes for his own it's a wonderful life type of happy ending. we hope that for him as well. i'm lynn berry, this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

if you thought the rockefeller christmas tree center was a sight, this holiday spectacle will really you have in awe. rio's holiday season commenced with the lighting of the world's largest floating christmas tree. it stands over 278 feet tall and weighs more than 597 tons. it's illuminated by about 3.3 million bulbs. in germany, one man is gearing up to spread a little holiday cheer. an artist known for his mobile designs has created a holiday bicycle in inspired by the season's traditional candle arch. the structure is made up of 12 aluminum ladders and 3,000 lights calling himself father christmas, he hopes the scene

will bring smiles to kids' faces. finally, forget fetching a ball. one dog in china actually fetches groceries. the dog carries a basket, shopping list and money to the local store to pick up supplies. his owner says the dog was trained to do the job himself after frequent shopping trips together. the pooch is paid well for his work with some of his favorite treats, sausage and ice cream. now, todd, you have a dog yourself. >> i do. the problem is you can't call them and say, i forgot to put this on the list, can you grab this, too? >> don't forget the milk. apparently he has a list so when people are at the store they look at it, help the guy out. it's not like, i'm want cheerios. time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. there will be a court hearing for the man who allegedly fired an assault rifle at the white

house on november 11th. he's charged with attempting to assassinate the president. one round cracked a window in the first family's living quarters, though the president and first lady were away at the time. this year's capitol christmas tree is expected to arrive in washington after a 4500-mile tour from california. the 118-year-old tree will be decorated with thousands of handmade ornaments and l.e.d. lights before being lit december 6th. and singer, songwriter and film composure randy newman turns 678. all day long you can stay on top of the latest developments as they break on msnbc. tonight watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. everything you need to know on how to score the best deals this cyber monday. and grammy-winning singer michael buble performs live. 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. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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