weakness out of europe is buy, okay? plain and simple. weakness out of europe means buy. i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer! i'll see you tomorrow! this morning on "early today," primary battle. republican presidential hopefuls vie for victory in two states and the district of columbia. norwegian nose dive. terrifying moments as two trucks slide off a snow-covered cliff. and the old college try, keucky topples kansas to claim and the old college try, keucky topples kansas to claim its 8th ncaa championship title. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning, i'm lynn berry. welcome to our viewers across the nation. today we begin with a triple threat.

republican frontrunner mitt romney is hoping to win big in today's triple-header, wisconsin, maryland and the nation's capital. but romney's rivals say even a clean sweep won't knock him out of the presidential race. tracie potts has more from washington. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. good morning, everyone. newt gingrich and rick santorum are promising to stay in the rate until the end. gingrich is $1.5 million in debt and sort of joked about that yesterday when asked, saying he'd be glad for anyone to support him to get him out of debt. rick santorum who has been the closest competitor to mitt romney has continually and again yesterday brought up the fact that he is facing, as he calls it a money machine. romney has poured twice as much money into the campaign as anyone else, but now he's turning his focus to president obama, attacking him yesterday on immigration wisconsin.

he's ahead on average by about seven points. he poured a lot of money into wisconsin. after today, a lot of analysts are thinking that he may be much closer to you will kag himself the presumptive nominee. >> tracie potts for us in washington. thank you. a controversial supreme court decision authorizing strip searches for anyone placed under arrest has critics crying foul. justice anthony kennedy sided with the high courts' conservatives in a 5-4 ruling against a new jersey man who was strip searched twice after being arrested for a fine he had already paid. critics call strip searching for offenses as minor as unpaid parking tickets or illegal u-turns, an unacceptable violation of privacy. justice kennedy cited timothy mcveigh, who was originally arrested for driving without a license plate. president obama took a swing at the supreme court over its historic consideration of a nation's new health care law.

speaking yesterday, the president ramped up his rhetoric issuing a rare direct challenge to the high court to uphold what many consider to be the signature achievement of his administration, referring to a public perception of judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint on the bench, the president expressed confidence the unelected group of nine would not overturn a, quote, constitutional law passed by a democratically elected congress. seven people are dead after a former student with a handgun went on a shooting rampage yesterday at a small christian university in oakland, california. the 43-year-old suspect randomly opened fire on students at oikos university, setting off mayhem on campus and later prompting an intense manhunt by authorities. about an hour after the shootings, the suspect calmly walked into a grocery store, five miles away, and told employees, i just shot some people. the "san francisco chronicle"

reports the former nursing student was involved in some kind of dispute with campus officials. shifting gears a bit, march madness came to a conclusion last night inside the superdome in new orleans with the wildcats of kentucky laying claim to the 2012 ncaa national basketball championship. here's nbc's fred roggin. >> good morning. they were the number one seed in the tournament and now the kentucky wildcats are national champs. let's go to new orleans. kansas and kentucky, wildcats set the tone early on with defense. anthony davis did everything but score. earned mvp honors of 16 boards and 6 blocks. lamm carried the offense, knocked down a pair of big threes in the second half. kentucky beat kansas, 67-59, their first title since 1998. much more on national title game coming up in sports. for now, back to you, lynn. >> fred, thanks so much.

overnight, on and around lexington, kentucky's campus, more than 50 people were arrested, most on charges of intoxication and disorderly conduct and several vehicles were set on fire. here's a look at other stories making news "early today" in america. a small plane crashed into a supermarket monday evening with shoppers inside. five people, including two aboard the plane, were hurt. a customer at the checkout line said the building shook badly and the ceiling collapsed. witnesses heard the plane's engine in distress just before the accident. in kentucky, surveillance video shows a driver who may have had a grudge with a diesel pump, driving right into it and then just taking off. but minutes later, the driver returned and aimed straight for the same pump. this time, after hitting it, the truck backed up and then took off. no word on who did it or why. finally in new york, ice cream, you scream.

but some parents are screaming against ice cream carts. parents in park slope brooklyn began complaining they don't want the treat being offered at a local playground. that's because it means fighting with their kids who naturally want the sweets. no word if the cold feelings will really lead to freezing out the vendors. and now for a look at the national and regional weather, here is bill karins. bill, that's actually your neck of the woods there, park slope. >> we can't figure out if parents can have ice cell ourselves without sharing with their kids. >> it's simple. one word, no. >> yeah. try that one with a 2-year-old. doesn't work so well. ooll g,d morning, everyone. rain is in the forecast today, frontg m ginov through the pacic thrthwest. iisthe same storm i showed yo i yesterday. still plaguing areas along the coastline of british columbia and ever so slowly it will drag

this front through the northwest. looks like a dry morning commute for olympia northwards. rain increasing along the coastal areas. le sweep on shore during the day today. timing appears to be sometime around the lunch hour to the evening drive home. in seattle, we stay gloomy. it won't pour every day, but we'll have showers in the forecast, but there may be a silver lining for easter weekend. may get two nice days in a rote. southwest temperatures pretty mild this morning in the 50s and should be a gorgeous afternoon there. that's a look at yourdry.

we'll just forget about the weather during the week and if the weekend's nice, who cares. >> selective memory. i use it all the time. bill, thanks so much. coming up, manufacturing churns. who's calling for avon and a ballad from buffett. your early morning business headlines are just ahead. he's pulled a lot of live stunts, but you won't believe what daniel craig has planned live for the london olympics. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry and here's some of your top headlines this morning. the head of the u.s. general services administration has resigned and two of her top deputies have been fired in the wake of a report that says a 2010 training conference at a las vegas resort cost taxpayers a staggering $822,000. among the lavish expenses,

$3,200 to hire a mind reader and $75,000 for a team building exercise to construct a bicycle. immigration and customs officials say they've rounded up more than 3,100 criminal and fugitive immigrants for deportation during a six-day nationwide sweep. colombia's main rebel group has freed ten military and police captives, some held for as many as 14 years. the country's president called the gesture insufficient to merit peace talks. video captured a tow truck and a stranded tractor-trailer sliding off an icy mountain road in western norway. the tow truck driver managed to jump out in time while the big-rig driver survived a 200-foot fall with multiple fractures. unreal. and a businessman said he bought a sketch for 5 bucks at a garage sale, only to discover it's an andy warhol original

worth more than $2 million. now here's an early look at wall street. the dow opens at 13,264, after adding 52 points yesterday. the s&p was up 10 points, the nasdaq gained 28. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei lost 59 points but in hong kong, the hang seng climbed 268. the best first quarter for stocks in more than a decade got a little better on monday. news of a strong quarterly rise in u.s. manufacturing and hiring in that sector overshadowed earlier worries over weak global economic reports. the s&p closed at its highest level since may 2008 and the dow closed at its highest level since january '07. however, some of that enthusiasm was offset by news that home building activity fell in february.

coty was rebuffed by avon after offering to buy the cosmetics company for $10 billion, avon shot up 17%. express scripts rose 2% after completing a $29.1 billion acquisition of medco health. this morning's "wall street journal" reports that the securities and exchange commission is looking into accounting practices at groupon after its revised quarterly report dragged its stock down 17%. global payments says it won't know for weeks how much the cybertheft of 1.5 million credit card holders will damage its bottom line. the world bank of canada has been charged by u.s. regulators for hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly illegals futures trades. ground beef processor afa foods filed for bankruptcy, citing a nationwide uproar over an ammonia treated meat filler dubbed pink slime by critics. warren buffett wowed the

crowd at the omaha press club over the weekend, former paper boy and current owner of "the world herald" sang i'm only a paper boy to the tune of "it's only a paper moon." jack of all trades there. can you hear the guy bragging about winning the office pool? not going to be bill, that's for sure. more on the kentucky wildcats' victory. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >> like lynn won herself. uh-huh. the forecast all about severe weather in the middle of the country, your forecast is coming up, you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, as we mentioned earlier, the kentucky wildcats are college basketball's national champions. here's nbc's fred roggin back with more. >> hello again. as i mentioned earlier, if you picked the number one seed in the tournament to win it all, you are feeling pretty good about your office pool right now. national title game between kansas and kentucky, things got off to a spirited start in new orleans. michael kidd-gilchrist went down hard. time and time again, kentucky's defense got points on the other end. anthony davis held scoreless in the first half but was filling

up the score sheet with blocks and rebounds. wildcats in total control, up 14 at the break. kansas hung around in the second. robinson with the charge and the dunk got them to within ten. kansas wasn't going away without a fight. they made one final run in the final minutes. elijah johnson stopped and popped from beyond the arc. that got them within seven. that's as close as they would get. kentucky caps off their remarkable season with a 67-59 win. it's the school's eighth title. anthony davis becomes just the fourth freshman to win mvp. >> it was a joy to win a national championship, especially as freshman with this team that we have. we had a great team. we all go out there and play hard. when the buzzer went off and we had more points, it was just a great moment. >> what a lesson for these young people, that if you share, give up some of yourself for everyone

around you, care more about the teammates than yourself, it's amazing what you can accomplish and it doesn't matter your age. that's the lesson in this. even though they were young, it didn't matter how young you are, it's how you play together. >> that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. "early today" sports is brought to you by just for men mustache and beard, keep your edge. who's getting married, who has a new baby and who's getting back together for a sequel? your early morning entertainment headlines are coming up. plus, you know it's good for you but you still come up with excuses why you can't. coming up, the end to all excuses. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. we're watching rain moving on shore in many areas of the pacific northwest. coastal areas actually getting it pretty good. it's a slow moving system. as far as southern california goes, you're fine today. l.a. about 80 degrees away in the coast and we soo warm it up significantly, even arizona into the mid-80s by tomorrow. if you're watching us on kget, nbc 17, bakersfield, california, from woodburning to glass cutting, unique techniques behind a stunning collection that's made-made. and that's your pacific event of the day. have you ever done glass blow something. >> i did not. but i love pottery.

>> it's pretty fact. >> fun facts about bill karen. here's an early look at this morning's headlines and entertainment. alec baldwin, who turns 54 today, is giving marriage another shot. the "30 rock" star who went through a bitter battle in his divorce with kim basinger popped the question to his 28-year-old yoga instructor. 57-year-old bruce willis welcomed a fourth child over the weekend, mable rey willis, his first with his wife of three years, emma. after 19 years, a sequel to "dumb and dumber." i can't believe it's been 19 years. neil patrick harris is fast becoming mr. tony. he will return to host june 2012's tony awards after earning raves in 2009 and 2011. "the hunger games" achieved a rare trifecta, number one film, album and book all at the same time. and finally, england's "sun" reports the queen personally

invited daniel craig inside buckingham palace to shoot a special film for the opening ceremonies of the london olympics. he'll be parachuted into the stadium that night. this comes to us from wsav news 3 on your side, in savannah, georgia where in nearby hilton head, south carolina, proof you've officially run out of excuses not to exercise. frank is 102 years old. he hits the gym on average 5 to 6 days a week, 2 hours a day. frank says if he stayed home, he'd just sit around and fall asleep. instead he says he feels like a million bucks. next month he turns 103. i feel guilty. i i'm lynn berry, this is "early today," your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

demons in el salvador are whipping so-called sinners into shape. the tradition is a showdown between good and evil during a devil whipping ceremony. actors take to the streets dressed as demons to lash people who gather from surrounding regions. one dutch company has invented a fly new ride, the personal air and land vehicle, or pal-v, is a car that flies. the vehicle gains lift from a retractor-like rotator on the top. only needing about 540-foot stretch of runway to take to the skies, the contraption is just as fast in the air as it is on the ground.

and finally, a new variation of soccer called bubble ball. it's similar to soccer except players wear giant inflatable plastic bubbles. why not? not do they face down and kick down, they knock down players as well and no one gets hurt. the outfits make for a funny show where participants fall down across the field. i love it. >> without getting hurt. it's almost like the whole sumo wrestling thing. >> there's a reason you cannot go wrong. >> a lot of times you want to boom and hit someone but you don't want to hurt them. >> now you have a way to do that. >> i think i'm going to order two of those suits. >> get it done. it will be a ratings bonanza. time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. the u.s. treasury department and regulators move one step closer to designating companies as too big to fail. the financial stability

oversight council will hold a meeting to finalize criteria single out nonbank financial companies, systematically and important to greater supervision. michelle obama will guest star on a two-part makeover episode of nbc's "the biggest loser," with a first-ever white house workout. you can watch it at 8:00, 7:00 central time on this nbc station. and happy birthday to doris day who turns 89. all day long, stay on top of those stories and others as they break on nbc. tonight, be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news". and sarah palin weighs in on the gop race as "today's" special guest host. and wilson phillips performs music from their new album, made of songs written by their parents, members of the beach boys and the mamas and the papas. keep it on this channel for continuing local news, sports, weather and more. i'm lynn berry, thanks for watching "early today," your

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