thank you for watching. have a great night. hope to see you tomorrow. thank you! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ this morning on "early today," southern slug fest. things get heated between newt gingrich and mitt romney in last night's republican debate. bumper cars. winter weather gets the best of motorists in utah. and or bial outburst. how the strongest solar eruption since 2005 could affect you. 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 a fiery fight. with a week to go before the florida primary, the republican presidential candidates came out swinging in last night's debate here on nbc. romney accused gingrich of influence pedaling. steve handlesman reports from tampa. >> reporter: newt gingrich and mitt romney each with one primary win tried to finish one another off in florida. >> i think it's about leadership. the speaker was given an opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994. at the end of four years, he had to resign in disgrace. >> i think the american public deserves a discussion about how to beat barack obama. i think this is the worst kind of trivial politics. >> i'm here to point out things we all need to know. >> you ought to stop and look at the facts. >> reporter: ron paul is not contending florida. rick santorum polling a weak third here warned i'd could be active in cuba. in a state hard hit by the

houdsing crisis, freddie mac is a big issue. the federally backed lender blamed by some for the mortgage mess. newt gingrich worked for freddie, released his contract. >> you could have spoke out in way to say these guys are wrong, this needs to end. instead, you were being paid by them. you were making over $1 million at the same time people in florida were being hurt by millions of dollars. >> reporter: romney made millions in business. >> i'm proud of the fact i pay a lot of taxes. >> i'd like to bring everybody else down to mitt's rate. >> reporter: a moment of agreement in a night of combat. steve handlesman, nbc news. >> details now on the romney tax return. in 2010, romney paid about $3 million in federal tax on more than $21 million in income from his investments. charitable gifts reduced his tax rate to less than 14%. his estimate for 2011 shows romney will pay about $3.2 million with an effective tax

rate of more than 15%. newt gingrich released his contract with mortgage giant freddie mac for what were called, quote, consulting and related services. he was paid a total of $1.6 million for his years of work at freddie mac. tonight, the political spotlight shifts to president obama as he lays out his vision for the nation in his third state of the union address. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with a preview of tonight's speech. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. a critical speech for the president. effectively an argument here for a second term. he's expected to address the big topic, jobs and the economy, drawing distinctions between himself and republicans, what he wants to do, what congress has not done, chiding them for inaction. he's also expected to reflect on national security wins, the death of osama bin laden, the end of the iraq war, and the u.s. involvement in the arab spring. new proposals expected for

manufacturing, for housing, people trying to stay in their homes, and college. yes, saying again that wealthy people should pay more taxes. he will call it economic fair play instead of class warfare. among those attending tonight, congresswoman gabrielle giffords, who announced over the weekend she's retiring, that she's leaving congress, but she will attend tonight, we're told, after attending one last event in her district in tucson. lynn. >> tracie, thank you. nbc news will have live coverage of the president's state of the union address beginning tonight at 6:00 p.m. pacific time here on this nbc station. now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. just hours before last night's debate, presidential candidate rick santorum was glitter bombed during a stop in florida. the attacker yelled "stop the hate" as security dragged him out. he claimed to be part of the local occupy tampa movement,

angry with is santorum's views on gay rights. santorum also had glitter thrown at him over the weekend in south carolina. a dramatic rescue was caught on camera after a snowmobiler got caught in an avalanche in washington state. look closely. the victim was at the bottom of the little looking back up to see another snowmobiler who unknowingly caused the hill to give way, swallowing the victim below. other snowmobilers rushed to get the man quickly and dig him out. the victim is said to be okay. a slide of a different kind in san francisco where a rock slide caused boulders five feet wide to come crashing down, destroying a parked car. rain this weekend apparently caused part of telegraph hill to loosen. no one was hurt, luckily. in utah, when they say take it easy on the roads during bad weather, there's a reason. also, don't go down hills. this video shows drivers slipping and sliding and some cases crashing.

that's going to leave a mark. even four-wheel drive vehicles fell victim. brutal. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is nbc meteorologist bill karins. one of the few places we're seeing snow, right? >> we haven't had a lot of video of bad driving. >> they didn't know what to do. >> utah got a little bit yesterday. a little more in california today. remember, lynn, yesterday at this time we were talking about the tornados. that was the big story yesterday in alabama. these pictures that came in yesterday afternoon, pretty incredible. actually, the incredible thing is there were only two fatalities. when you think this hit in the middle of the night and all these houses are just toothpicks. 200 homes destroyed, over 100 injuries. they'll be cleaning up for days. yesterday we had about 12 tornados, a rare january tornado outbreak. the next storm system is coming down. this is the one that brought the snow to utah. it's now moving down through areas of arizona into new mexico. big rainmaker for texas. then we have a third storm that's both pushing onshore in british columbia. this one's going set the jet

stream up to push a ton of moisture into washington state, especially in the greater portland area. we have some rain and snow in the higher elevations. this is mostly going to be a high elevation snow event as the warm front comes through. it's going to get windy and the snow levels will rise during the day today. rainfall totals could be impressive. the mountains could see two to four inches. the lower elevations, one to two inches. it's also going to be very windy. a typical january potent storm moving through the pacific northwest. temperatures, as you can see, a lot more mild with this storm than the last couple we've been dealing. by the way, southern california, this is a miss areas of the puget sound under an advisory. so the wet weather continues in

the northwest. looks like they'll get a break friday and saturday. >> good news. in time for the weekend. thanks so much. apple prepares to weigh in. applying pressure on iran. and a new ring tone from an unlikely artist. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, a few years ago she dumped her prime time tv show for bigger and better things. now she's singing a different tune. coming up, the spurs need every second. the worst game in orlando magic history. and the stanley cup mvp snubs the president. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here's some of your top headlines this morning. a former cia officer has been arrested and is facing charges of illegally disclosing classified information. he allegedly leaked information to journalists about the identity of a covert officer and the capture of a terrorism suspect. the u.s. supreme court voted

unanimously against allowing police to use gps technology to track suspects without first getting a judge's approval. some of the justices cited constitutional and privacy problems. kentucky senator set off an alarm at a nashville airport monday. he was detained after refusing to allow a security officer to pat him down. paul eventually caught a later flight. and the sun may cause problems today. the strongest solar magnetic storm in six years could disrupt tv signals and power grids and astronauts on the international space station may need to shield themselves from increased solar radiation. and now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. a new study says that reading books and doing puzzles lowers your risk on alzheimer's disease. researchers found that mentally stimulating activities throughout adults' life is linked to fewer deposits of harmful proteins in the brain

which may slow progression of the disease. those findings were true for men and women of any educational level. for more information on this and other health stories, you can check out the health page at msnbc.com. and now here's an early look at how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,708 after losing 11 points. the s&p added a fraction. the nasdaq was down two. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei was up 19 points. in hong kong, the hang seng gained 167. fourth quarter earnings will start early and roll in all day. tech titan apple weighs in after the bell. earlier, chesapeake energy was among the biggest movers, rising

6%. the nation's second largest natural gas producer announced it will slash drilling by nearly half in response to prices that plunged last year. meanwhile, iran threatened to block shipments of crude from the persian gulf. this after an embargo was decided. the u.s. treasury department also moved against iran later in the day, sanctioning iran's third largest bank, one of tehran's few remaining channels of trade with the west. elsewhere overseas, greek bondholders were asked to keep interest rates low in order to speed a finalized bailout. back on the street, blackberry maker research if motion lost 8% after its new chief revealed he has no plans for drastic changes in the company. macy's has filed suit against martha stewart living claiming it violated an exclusive arrangement by agreeing to sell

the brand at rival jcpenney. incredibly, employees at disney theme parks will soon be allowed to grow beards and goatees for the first time ever. and if you just can't get enough of president obama's rendition of al green's "let's stay together" at the apollo last week, you're in luck. it's now a ring tone you can download from his website. you knew that was coming, didn't you? coming up, the red wings fly. orlando has no magic. and partisan political division from a hockey goalie? plus, the spurs and hornets battle down to the wire. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and we don't have tornados in the forecast, but we also don't have any snow storms. your fraforecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports after last night's nba matchup between the celtics and the magic, the big question is, is boston that good or is orlando that bad? here's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. after struggling the first month of the season, the boston celtics appear to be turning things around. last night they simply dominated the magic. the celtics held the magic to a franchise low in points and field goals.

paul pierce scored 19. orlando scored just 20 points in the entire half. celtics beat the magic by 31. great finish in new orleans. spurs up two, 13 seconds to play. jarrett jack threw up a wild layup. the game was tied. spurs got the ball with five seconds to play. plenty of time for tim duncan. running, hook, and nothing but net. he had 28. spurs beat the hornets 104-102. the timberwolves' kevin love had a field day against the rockets. 29 points and 12 boards. even that wasn't enough. the t-wolves fell apart in the fourth. minnesota needed more than love. houston won it 107-92. hockey, there's no doubt who the hottest team in the nhl is. the red wings beat the blues for their seventh straight win and 17th in a row at home. datsyuk scored his 14th of the season. red wings have the best mark in the league after a 3-1 win. and if it seems like every week there's another championship team at the white house, you're right.

dallas mavericks and st. louis cardinals visit the president earlier this month. yesterday was the boston bruins' turn. the stanley cup champs made the trip to washington, d.c. noticeably absent was the finals mvp tim thomas. the lone american on the championship roster snubbed the president, tweeted he believes the federal government has grown out of control, threatening the rights and liberties of the people and exercised his right as a citizen not to visit the white house. as far as the nhl is concerned, tim thomas is now in the dog house. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. well, the queen of soul says not so fast. and the latest on a controversial former couple. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, republican presidential candidates are attacked with shovels and a bulldozer in south carolina. we'll explain. you're watching "early today."

well, welcome back on this tuesday morning. if you're in the pacific northwest heading out the door, you need the umbrella. it will be rainy and windy. as far as southern california goes, you're just fine. arizona, nevada, much of your forecast is dry today. it's really the northwest today and even tomorrow. today will be the worst of it. tomorrow will be more showery type weather. if you're watching us on khnl, nbc 8 in beautiful honolulu, hawaii, explore the natural life form and qualities of each

hawaiian blossom at flowers and plants of hawaii at honolulu academy of arts. that's your pacific event of the day. >> all right, bill. thanks so much. here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. when it comes to wedding bells, aretha franklin has put hers on hold. she called off her summer wedding posting on facebook she and her groom-to-be were, quote, moving a little too fast. chris brown is shooting down rumors he and rihanna are back together, insisting he's dating an up-and-coming model. however, reports say rihanna and that model had to be physically separated at a nightclub. finally, katherine heigl, who ended her run on "grey's anatomy" a few years ago to pursue her movie career now wishes she hadn't. she told "the view" monday she approached the show about possibly returning. that's got to be a little bit of the tail between the legs.

you're pounding your chest. >> how are you supposed to know? jennifer aniston left. her movie career did okay. you never know how you're going to go. >> do we put that in quotes? i don't know. that's generous. >> she has done well. >> she has done well. >> she's done very well. >> let's clear that up. and this comes from wmbf news in myrtle beach, south carolina, where political mud slinging doesn't really involve mud, but it does involve sand. 100 women from a local democrat group showed up yesterday to tear down a giant sandcastle featuring the likeness of republican presidential candidates. they used pink shovels and a bulldozer to obliterate the work. republicans who paid for the sculpture leading up to the south carolina primary are not amused, but organizers said it was all meant in good fun. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

an art installation in london hopes to brighten up commuters' days. a large man made orange ball of light is helping with winter blues in trafalgar square. some are even taking a seat to soak in the rays. what's normally a dreary time of year, residents say the ball gives off heat that's welcomed in the dog days of winter. well, christmas may be long over, but in astonia, there's one thing left to do. light all the christmas trees in fire. you can send your dried up

decoration to this art project that's become something of a tradition. sculptors torched over a thousand trees. finally, in latvia, swimmers came from all over the world to take part in this year's winter swimming world championship. over the weekend more than 1,000 people raced in the bitter cold water. participants believe that winter swimming is healthy and helps maintain happiness. i don't get that. the russian team came out the big winners. they took home 87 medals. you know what makes me happy, bill? being warm. >> yeah, that comes from siberia. it's time for a look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day. in washington, lawmakers catch up on the can kick down the road. the conference charged with reaching a year long payroll tax cut agreement will meet for the first time. the 20 lawmakers responsible for accomplishing the tax will also deliberate extensions to unemployment benefits and the

reimbursement rate for physicians under medicare. 164 years ago saw mill operator james w. marshall discovered a golden nugget in northern california. the discovery that led to the gold rush of 1849. and happy birthday to musical legend neil dye monday, who turns 71. all day long, you can stay on top of the latest developments in those stories 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 bhorng on the "today" show. joe paterno's son sits down with matt lauer to talk about his father's final legacy, one day before he's laid to rest. and as the academy award nominations are announced, hear from some of this year's top oscar nominees. now keep it on this station for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just for first stop of

the day today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com