♪ this morning on "early today," set in granite. gop presidential candidate mitt romney celebrates a victory in the new hampshire primary. re-occupation. wall street demonstrators return to new york city's zuccotti park after a two-month ban. and bottom's up. the government releases surprising new numbers on american binge drinking. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello. very good morning to you. welcome to our viewers across the nation, including the pacific time zone.

i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with another romney victory. as predicted, he finished first in the new hampshire republican primary, dealing a blow to conservatives to hoped to break his momentum. now it looks like the rest of the field, including last night's runners up, need to work fast to catch up. tracy potts has more from new hampshire. good morning to you. >> reporter: veronica, good morning. all of these candidates now say they're moving on to south carolina. in fact, some are already there this morning. now only one can claim victory in two states. >> thank you, new hampshire. >> reporter: mitt romney scored a decisive victory. today, he heads to south carolina focused on president obama. >> we're asking the good people of south carolina to join the citizens of new hampshire and make 2012 the year he runs out of time. [ cheers and applause ] >> he certainly had a clear-cut victory, but we're nibbling at his heels.

>> reporter: ron paul ran strong among independents and young voters here. jon huntsman calls his third place finish a solid, comfortable position. >> we proved the point that this state wants its candidates to earn it the old fashioned way. that's on the ground, handshake by handshake. >> reporter: newt gingrich failed to break into the top three after hammering away at romney but says the conservative south will be different. >> we can create a majority that will shock the country and a majority that will begin to put us back on the right track. it is doable. >> reporter: rick santorum could not replicate his iowa success here in the granite state. >> a lot of folks here and spending a lot of time here and a lot of money. we knew it would be tough. >> reporter: he spent zero in new hampshire, but has already committed to a million to get his message out down south. compare that to the nearly $3.5 million gingrich plans to spend or the $6 million that romney's political action committee

already spent. >> tracy, thank you. the obama administration is rejecting claims by syria's president that the deadly violence in his country is the fault of demonstrators. after tuesday's speech, the state department said assad information placing responsibility on everybody but himself and that his comments only confirm the need for assad to step down. meanwhile, a senior u.n. official told the security council tuesday the level of violence in syria actually went up since arab league monitors arrived there. some 400 people are believed to have been killed in just the last three weeks. scientists working on iran's nuclear program was killed today. an iranian news agency says a motorcyclist drove up and attached the bomb to the scientist's car using magnets. the agency says the victim worked at a uranium enrichment facility. it's the same type of attack that's killed two other iran yan signingtists. iran has blamed the u.s. and israel for those bombings.

both countries deny involvement. here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. a coalition of civil and human rights activists joined for the firing of teachers at a georgia school over outrageously worded homework assignments. accusations of racism have been levied against the teachers for basing math questions on slavery and slave beatings. a bus passenger's confrontation with police on a california bus turned violent. moments after a woman refused officers' request to get off the bus, she began cursing at them and was then struck. an l.a. county sheriff's department official says the incident is being investigated. a wave of vandalism threw a monkey wrench into roanoke's track pickup service. official were forced to cancel collection on tuesday. garbage pickup will resume today. and finally a california pre-teen's attempt to keep her

sister out of her room helped police nab a thief. the tween set up her web cam to record her sibling but instead captured a former real estate agent stealing items during the family's open house. police have arrested the suspect. oops. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's bill karins with the weather channel forecast. in this day and age, you have got to think twice. you can't get away with anything. everybody has a cell phone. >> he should get his real estate license taken away too. >> absolutely. >> who's going to trust him after that? >> not me. >> exactly. well, our friends in alaska, we're at it again. another three feet of snow. we had the video yesterday. we showed 12 feet of snow in cordova. yesterday, another three feet on top of that. the national guard was there are there shoveling. the highway is open going in and out of town. what a winter it's been already. hopefully they'll get a little bit of a break there. that storm system is now is moving out. it will bring areas like juneau

some rainy, icy weather during the day today. looks like a little leftover snow on the backside. the heart of the storm moved through during the day yesterday. it actually brought some milder air to our friends in fairbanks too. i think they went 10 or 11 straight days without breaking zero. now they'll see a high temperature today maybe in the double digits. we'll see how it goes. juneau is where it will be icy and rainy from the storm that hit yesterday. as far as the west goes, all the lower 48, looking pretty quiet. cold front sneaking its way through central california bringing some cooler air down through areas like utah. we have a little bit of a storm system trying to move up to british columbia. with high pressure anchored over the top of washington state and northern idaho, we'll see dry weather there. not bad. a little cooler though. you'll notice boise to vegas temperatures cooler. there's no troublesome weather. we don't look for any on the way

cia little bit of freezing drize in oregon. doesn't look to be too problematic. looking at a nice forecast into the weekend too. the eastern u.s., much colder. the west is going to stay mild. >> very nice. you know, i know you have a honolulu, hawaii, you have all those places on the map. we have to add mexico city, dominican republic. we're getting tweets from these places. you have to expand your map. >> i'll work on my spanish too. wall street protesters are back. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, hear what brad pitt has to say about the possibility of his kids one day being actors. coming up, the raiders make a surpriseding move. the mayor of pittsburgh has tebow mania. you're watching "early today."

good morning to you. welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. secretary of state hillary clinton slammed iran tuesday citing their, quote, blatant disregard for their responsibilities and growing isolation regarding tehran. the u.s. rescued iranians in the persian gulf for a second time this week. a cargo boat was taking on water tuesday. the victims were given food and medical attention before being turned over to the coast guard. a surprised development at the birthplace of the occupy wall street movement. metal barricades have been removed from zuccotti park in new york. police warn they are still not allowed to camp there. oklahoma's ban on islamic sharia law is likely

unconstitutional. that's the aruling of a federal appeals court. the case now returns to liar court. and sobering numbers from the government when it comes to binge drinking. college drinkers have an average of nine alcoholic beverages when they get drunk. one in six adults say they have binged on booze at least once in the last month. here's a look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. a 20-year study suggests light weekly marijuana use does not harm the lungs. the data suggested that heavier pot smokers may experience a decline in lung function, but there weren't enough heavy users in the study to drop firm conclusions. you can always head to the web and check out the health page at msnbc.com. now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off

the day. the dow opens at 12,462 after adding 69 points yesterday. the s&p rose 11. the nasdaq jumped 55. in tokyo, the nikkei was up 25 points. the hang seng gained 147. strong earnings outlook from alcoa helped stocks climb on tuesday. investors hoped for a strong earning season and were lifted by alcoa's prediction of aluminum demand. china's copper imports helped drive the sector higher. cat pill ler rose 3%. banks also got a boost. on the downside, tiffany and co. plunged 10%. elsewhere, orange juice surged 10% on some news brazilian imports contain a harmful

fungicide. meanwhile, a criminal watchdog agency in europe says the mafia has now become the largest lender. back here at home, it was a good year for the federal reserve thanks to its investments. the fed paid $77 billion to the government in 2011. the second highest amount ever. kodak is hoping pat tent suits against am l and hd corporation will help speed its turn around. several of the nation's biggest banks are reportedly under investigation about whether they overcharged customers on paying their home insurance. finally, the occupy wall street movement has left its mark on 2011 in more than one way. the american dialect society named occupiers its word of the year. kobe throws them up. the wizards finally win. and a big college hoops upset. plus, pittsburgh's mayor

experiences the agony of defeat. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. of course, we have the rain moving up the east coast and the cold is coming. the forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the washington wizards won a game for the first

time in nearly nine months. here's fred roggin with a look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. i hope you're sitting down. what i'm about to say may shock you. after starting the season with eight straight losses, the washington wizards have finally won a game. the stars were aligned in d.c. as the wizards put an end to the worst start in franchise history. john wall to javale mcgee. wiz up 12 at the half. knocked down the three and finished with 15. they beat the raptors 93-78. now to los angeles where kobe bryant was up to his old tricks against the suns. 17 in the first quarter and finished with 48. that's the most points by a player this season. he may be 33, but kobe's still got game. the lakers beat phoenix 99-83. college hoops. ohio state was upsetted. nailed a three pointer late in the game for the lead. moments later with a man all

over him, he threw up a rainbow and drained. brandon paul carried illinois to the win. football, the raiders surprisingly fired head coach hue jackson. then again, is anything the raiders do really a prize? jackson 8-8 in one season with the club. the gm says he wants to bring in his own guy. tim tebow has plenty of job security. after upsetting the steelers in the playoffs, they're now two wins away from the super bowl. his game-winning touchdown in overtime triggered nearly 10,000 tweets a second. that broke the old twitter record set by beyonce when she announced her pregnancy. finally, the pittsburgh mayor also had a case of tebow mania. paid off a bet with the mayor of denver by wearing a tebow jersey and tebowing with the pittsburgh skyline behind him. like it or not, the tebow phenomenon is everywhere. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. justin bieber talks like a kid about being a grownup.

your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, they're known as man's best friend, but some, even the tiniest, qualify more than others. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this wednesday morning. some cooler air has moved into areas of nevada and also to california. temperatures still pretty nice though. there's no moisture with this cold front. 62 in vegas today. the cooler air is really mostly in the inner mountain west.

the pacific northwest, not bad. maybe some early morning fog with temperatures in the low 40s. it's a dry forecast. the storm pattern is not going to change it doesn't look like until this weekend or the beginning of next week. that's when we'll finally start to have chances of some rain and snow for the mountains of the west. until thenthen, it remains very. if you're watching on ktuu channel 2 in anchorage, alaska, hear about exciting research on polar bears and get a chance to meet a few of them on "unexplored ice" at the alaska zoo. >> oh, come on. are you scared? >> no handshakes. >> they're so cute. >> when they're little. >> maybe not the friendliest, right? here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. odds makers somewhere probably already taking bets brad pitt and angelina's kids will be actors. dad has one condition. pitt generally wants them to do whatever makes them happy, and

he's fine with them being actors, but he says not until they're 18. the l.a. times reporting the new investigation into the 1981 death of natalie wood has found no cause to suggest it was anything but an accident. the case has not been closed, but a top sheriff's department official says it's highly unlikely any new ground will be broken. justin bieber tells "v" magazine he's not a kid anymore. he told the magazine he will never sing about things like sex, drugs, and swearing. >> i say that every day. i'm not a kid anymore. >> i thought you were talking about sex, drugs, and swearing. finally, lindsay lohan found a new way to get in trouble. the irs is filing a lien against lohan claiming she never paid her income tax for 2009. she can't stay out of trouble. >> i think she got paid more than that for the "playboy" shoot. hopefully she can pay that off and be done with it.

>> hopefully. i heard she got this new tattoo. "live with no regrets" on her hand. any tattoos? >> none i want to talk about. >> oh, really? i'm going to bookmark that for later on. this comes from wcau in philadelphia, pennsylvania, where working like a dog has garnered one pint-sized pooch a huge honor. the guinness world book of records has named lucy the smallest working dog in the world. weighing a little over two pounds, the tiny terrier works as a therapy dog. she's lifted the spirits of patients and troubled youth, proving the biggest inspiration can come in the tiniest package. she's just adorable. i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "early today." just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

chefs are determines to show the world that brussels has more than french fries and mussles. they set a new record for the most white chef hats thrown in the air at the same time. it's the start of ban event to make it a destination. a small city made entirely of ice has been built in a moscow park. it was build as part of a winter youth architectural festival being held in moscow. about 100 art students, architects, and designers put the city together. frost city includes a chapel, a

cinema, a one-room hotel, and even a jail for naughty children. and at a hotel made of ice in romania, they expect to take in about 500 guests from now until april. the hotel is over 6,000 feet above sea level and can only be reached by cable car. tucked inside a mountainside, the hotel is rebuilt each year. it has ten guest rooms, fur-lined blankets and sleeping bags to help weather the below-freezing temperatures. see, that is one hotel that would have to pay me to be a guest. >> remember two or three years ago, it was cool to have the ice bars. you know, it would be a bar with all ice. you have to wear your jackets. but to sleep overnight? >> yeah, not so much. not so much. especially not for me. it is time now for a look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. treasury secretary tim geithner continues his trip to china. he'll meet today with chinese leaders and make the case for tougher sanctions on iran.

in michigan, the state supreme court will hear arguments from two detroit emergency dispatchers being sued after treating a 911 call from a 5-year-old boy as a prank. it turned out the boy was calling because his mother was dying of a heart attack. and it is naomi judd's birthday. she turns 66 years old today. very happy birthday. all day long, you can stay on top of the latest developments on those stories and others. tonight, be sure to watch brian williams on nbc "nightly news." today, mitt romney goes one on one with matt lauer. and the latest details on a bizarre bank robbery attempt involving a frightened 73-year-old grandmother and a fake ankle bomb. now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports, and much more. i'm veronica de la cruz. thank you so much for watching earler, just your first stop of

the day today on your nbc station. have a great wednesday. see you back here tomorrow. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com