have a great weekend. see you next week. ♪ [ cheers and applause ] this morning on "early today," regaining momentum. a rousing win for mitt romney and a stinging loss for newt gingrich in last night's florida primary. moments to spare. dramatic police dash cam video captures a daring fire rescue in new jersey. and gorillas in the mist. an eco-tourist has a nerve-racking encounter in the ugandan jungle. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hell low and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation, including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry.

as expected, mitt romney sailed to victory last night in florida. he bested newt gingrich by 14 percentage points in the win-or-take-all state. meanwhile, romney's camp confirms he'll begin secret service protection tomorrow at their request. tracie potts joins us with more. good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. good morning, everyone. this was romney's night. he won florida hands down. gingrich kept saying the polls were going his way, but he wasn't able to pull it out. though, he insists this will be a two-man race until the very end. >> i want to thank you tonight for this great victory. >> reporter: mitt romney now has three times as many delegates as newt gingrich and starting tomorrow secret service protection too after a decisive win in florida. he won women, seniors, and hispanics. 46% of the vote after bombarding florida with ads targeting gingrich. >> a competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us.

ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for america. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: gingrich is the only candidate who did not call to congratulate romney. he came in a distant second but insists he'll compete in upcoming caucus dates. >> we are going to contest every place, and we are going to win, and we will be in tampa as the nominee in august. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: overnight, federal reports revealed who's funding these campaigns. wall street is backing romney. his pac earned $30 million last year. gingrich's pac got a $10 million donation from one casino owner, five time what is they raised earlier. that money will likely fuel more negative ads. >> the american public does not want to see two or three candidates get into a mud wrestle match where everybody walks away dirty. >> reporter: now it's on to nevada this weekend where ron paul says he's got the best chance of winning. >> if enthusiasm wins elections, we win hands down.

>> reporter: well, it's going to take more than that. it's going to take money and organization, especially in those caucus dates. rick santorum thinks he's got it. in fact, he's gotten a ad ready to go. lynn. >> tracie, thanks so much. as tracie just briefly mentioned, the latest numbers are out from the federal election commission on campaign fund raising. among the republicans, mitt romney raised $24 million in the fourth quarter. ron paul was second. newt gingrich, third. rick santorum. harold simmons pumped $8.5 million into three republican super pacs last fall. $7 million of that went to former bush white house political aid carl roeg and his super pac. on the democratic side, president obama raised a whopping $68 million in the fourth quarter. meanwhile, democratic party super pacs raised a

comparatively paltry total for all of 2011. in a special congressional election in oregon last night, the democrats held on to a house seat. suzanne bonamici, a former state senator, won the vote in portland and some of the suburbs. she will replace david yu, who resigned last year after a woman accused him of making an unwanted sexual advance. well, now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. dramatic video from new jersey shows police officers saving a man trapped in a burning car monday night. the officers were shocked to find anyone inside when they spotted a 57-year-old man passed out in the driver's seat. his door was stuck but one officer was able to brave the flames and free the man. he's now at home recovering. in new york a five-story building gave new meaning to the term high rise. police raided a massive marijuana growing operation with hundreds of plants in an elaborate growing system. sources say each floor of the building was used for a

different stage of the growing process. and finally, it's not a bird, not a plane, and contrary to what you think you're seeing, those are not people flying around h those are actually radio-controlled planes shaped to look like humans soaring across the new york city skyline. they were flown as a publicity stunt for a new movie. apparently it worked. the video has gotten more than a million hit on youtube. unreal. looks real. i think that's why. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins. he has your weather channel forecast. good morning. >> how much could that cost? look at the advertising they're getting. >> priceless. >> yep, give them a promotion. or her. pat on the back. super lynn. good morning, everyone. we had a rainstorm moving through last night. i say rainstorm because it wasn't snowing in many areas, even in the cascades. snow levels were very high with this warm pattern we have across the country. you can see all the white. that's the clouds. the green is the rain.

most of the heavy rain has ended now in california and also in most of oregon. the rain was pretty much steady though from portland northwards up into washington state. it doesn't look like high pressure is going to allow too much of this moisture to the southern west. the green map is on the rain. pretty steady. it's going to be a damp morning commute. it will improve as we go throughout the day. it's going to take a little bit for the final backside and the cold front to clear through. then we'll get some drier air in for the second half of the day. the wetter portion of your forecast is this morning. all that moisture will make its way to spokane throughout the day. in seattle, tell you what, once this rain is gone, it may be zrie for a while. may be nice for a while too. upper 40s possible this weekend with sunshine. i think we have a very enjoyable forecast coming once we get past the damp weather this morning. that's a look atwarm, but nothiy

either. pacific air dominates. it's not just seattle. looks like many areas of the west will enjoy a beautiful weekend. >> nice. thank you. well, facebook is going public. not your information. it is stock that's going public. plus, it may be the biggest head shaker of all when it comes to super pac money. you're not going to believe how much stephen colbert has raised. coming up, carmelo anthony returns and the spectacle of super bowl media day. you're watching "early today." ou

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here's some of your top headlines this morning. the director of national intelligence told congress tuesday that iran is prepared to

launch terrorist attacks inside the united states. they're reacting to u.s. pressure to stop iran's nuclear program. the taliban in afghanistan is getting direct assistance from pakistani security services. this according to a secret nato report on detainee interviews seen by the bbc. pakistan's foreign ministry called the accusations, quote, frivolous. the world's largest breast cancer organization susan g. komen for the cure is cutting off financing for planned parenthood. the breast cancer organization says new rules prevent it from funding any group under investigation, and a republican-led probe in the house disqualified planned parenthood. prince william is deploying to the faulkland islands today for raf search and rescue helicopter duty. in response, the foreign ministry of argentina said it

was disappointed that the prince would arrive on their soil. amazing video has emerged from uganda of an american tourist encountered by a group of gorillas that seem to like him. the endangered animals gathered around for a very close look at him and then went on their way. lucky for the tourist. now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. researchers have found a way to translate actual words from a person's brain. scientists use sensors to record a patient's brain waves while words were read to them. later, a computer was able to pinpoint portions of the brain waves that matched those same words. needless to say, the potential benefits of decoding the thoughts of people who cannot speak could be huge. 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 will kick off

the day. the dow opens at 12,632 after losing 20 points yesterday. the s&p was down a fraction, but the nasdaq added a point. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei was up 7 points. in hong kong, the hang seng lost 57. well, the long awaited ipo filing from facebook is sure to have investors buzzing today. cnbc confirmed facebook will file initial paperwork this morning for a $5 billion initial public offering. the company is looking at evaluation between 75 and $100 billion, which would make it one of the largest public companies in the world. markets were mixed tuesday due to an unexpected drop in home prices and consumer confidence. but the dow and the s&p still notched their best january gains in 15 years. disappointing after the bell revenue from amazon will be a factor today. earlier, exxonmobil dipped 2% after its profit narrowly beat expectations.

the same day pfizer beat earnings estimates, the drug maker announced a recall of about 1 million packets of birth control pills that may not contain enough contraceptive to prevent pregnancy. transportation stocks dipped as u.p.s. slipped despite delivering a stronger than expected quarterly profit. disgraced former royal bank of scotland ceo fred goodwin has been stripped of his knighthood after leading the bank into near collapse during the financial crisis. and finally, it appears siri, the virtual voice of the iphone 4s, doesn't understand scottish broeg. when asked, how's the weather today? she mistakenly hears, how's the weather on labor day? coming up, malkin carries the penguins. carmelo reappears for the knicks. and another upset in college basketball. plus, the annual overkill

craziness and cliche that is super bowl media day. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. now that we're into february, will winter ever show up? doesn't look like it tomorrow. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

god morning. if you're just waking up, this

is "early today." in sports, this was supposed to be the year the new york knicks finally put all the pieces together. instead, up until last night, they've been falling to pieces. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. the knicks need something to turn their season around. maybe they got it last night. carmelo anthony returned after missing a couple of games with nagging injuries. playing the lowly pistons, just what the doctor ordered. he had a game high 25. the knicks won it. now to memphis. nuggets and grizlies down to the wire. o.j. mayo tied the game with 30 seconds to play and forced overtime. in the o.t., it was mayo again. the grizzlies end a four-game skid with a win. college hoops tough night for number ten michigan state. they lost their leading scorer with a knee injury. brandon paul had a game high 18. illinois pulled off the upset. hockey, caps and lightning needed overtime.

martin st. louis got a goal. stamkos was there to pop in the rebound. tampa won it 4-3 in o.t. now to pittsburgh. the pen begins rally from three goals down. six seconds to play. thanks to a wild bounce and a little luck, james neil's shot off malkin's arm and in. they'll take it. malkin then scored the winner in the shootout. penguins turned it on late. finally, what do you get when you combine 100 players, several coaches, and nearly 1,000 media members? it's the madness of super bowl media day. reporters from around the world converged on lucas oil stadium in indianapolis. naturally, there was more style than substance. as always, plenty of cliches. >> you know, the team that's going to win sunday is the team that plays the best. >> this is a dream come true. >> what happened in the last game of the season doesn't matter. it's about what we do on sunday, what we do in this game. >> this is what you work all year for. >> and that's how the ball

bounces. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. well, adele prepares to sing again, and michelle obama gets jay leno to do something he hasn't done for decades. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, the veteran who's convinced the government is determined to kill him off, at least on paper. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." a storm moving in overnight has brought a lot of heavy rain into areas of oregon and washington state. a little bit in northern california. it continues this morning. as we go throughout the day, things will begin to clear up, especially from the big cities on i-5. the interior west will get more of the wet weather toward boise and spokane. tomorrow's forecast looks nice out there as that storm moves through the inner mountain west. if you're watching on king 5 news in seattle, sea sculptures that reflect on the cycle of creation and destruction at compound at the henry art gallery. that's your pacific event of the day. >> all right, bill. thanks so much. now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. when it comes to a ban on performing for the sake of her voice, adele will make an exception for the grammys. nominated for six grammys, adele had surgery on her vocal cords last year, but she will sing on february 12th show. elsewhere, as showbiz mixes

with politics, the president of haiti named after sean penn ambassador at large for the 2010 perk. on last night's "tonight show," michelle obama convinced jay leno who said he hasn't eaten a vegetable since 1969 to eat a veggie pizza. i say that counts. among the other super pacs revealing funding yesterday, comedian stephen colbert disclosed his americans for a better tomorrow raised just over a staggering $1 million. colbert, who has used his pac mainly to highlight campaign finance law absurdity, has yet to say what he intends to do with the money. in a letter to the federal election commission, he said, quote, how do you like me now? chew on that. >> i say he goes to vegas and just put it all on black. >> of course you do. i say donate it to charity. that says a lot. doesn't it, bill? >> double it and give charity

more. this comes from orlando, florida, where in nearby palm bay, a man is trying to get the government to stop declaring him dead. jerry says he's a former army drill sergeant, but for the fourth time the v.a. has cut off his benefits, insisting he and his family are no longer eligible because he's deceased. he says that's not only false, it could cost him plenty after receiving a bill to pay back the veteran's benefits. the v.a. says it's looking into it. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

well, if you aren't sure you can compete in the london olympics, there may be a way to participate. over the next two months, officials are holding auditions to fill 5,000 volunteer positions for the opening and closing ceremonies. organizers say they're looking for dancers, actors, and all-around performers for various roles. of course, you can see the ceremonies this summer right here on nbc. one pup in london is definitely earning his treats. ozzie is a 3-year-old border collie mix. he can can perform many tricks. look at that, balancing on a park bench. even jumping on his owner's back on cue. frisbee retrieval is a piece of

cake. in canada, the dig "don't quit your day job" does not apply to one man. that's because this zamboni driver has a voice that could melt the ice beneath him. sparking the interest of co-workers, they decided to make a video of him singing on the machine and put it online. with any luck t will create enough luck to get him off the truck andn on to the stage. i know it's a little bit of a tease. you can't hear him. but he has a fantastic voice. a little garth brooks thing going on. >> i think i would sound good on a loud truck. as long as the engine was roaring. >> good point. time for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day. the north america aerospace command prepared for the super bowl this upcoming weekend. flights will be trained to respond to air space violations in the skies around the stadium. in washington, the girl scouts celebrate their 100th

anniversary. in observance, scouts will meet with some top public policymakers, including the house democratic leader nancy pelosi, to discuss their new "to get her there" campaign, a cause dedicated to girl's leadership issues in america. and black history month, celebrated since 1976, begins. all day long, stay on top of the latest developments on 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 morning on the "today" show. after a big win over newt gingrich in yesterday's florida primary, presidential candidate mitt romney sits down with matt lauer. and brad pitt will be live in studio with his "moneyball" co-star and cooscar nominee jon hill. 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.

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