bbby. there's always a bull market somewhere, i'm jim cramer, see you monday! this morning on "early today," common ground? the president and his likely republican opponent agree on at least one issue. high seas blast. the u.s. coast guard scuttles an abandoned japanese ghost ship. and martian mystery explained. stunning video shows a massive dust devil swirling across the stunning video shows a massive dust devil swirling across the red planet. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >> announcer: this is "early today" for friday, april 6th, 2012. >> hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry, and today we begin with jobs and politics.

as president obama signed a new law he hopes will "help put americans back to work," his republican rivals were polishing their pitch to american voters and planning their next steps in the race for the white house. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more on that. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. let's start in d.c. where the president signed that small business jobs act yesterday which he says will do a couple of things for business. it first of all helps startups get more money from different sources but also helps businesses go public. president obama says when they go public they have more resources and can expand and hire more workers. this is something the white house and republicans worked on jointly and now they'll push for tax breaks for small businesses. turning now to the campaign trail and the masters, if i were a member of augusta, mitt romney says, i'd let women in. also, the white house spokesman said that the president's personal opinion is the same in terms of the all male membership there. meantime, rick santorum has been talking to conservatives.

he had a meeting yesterday with a conservative group talking about how to help his ailing campaign and how they might try to encourage newt gingrich to drop out. lynn? >> all right, tracie potts there for us in washington, thank you. meanwhile the obama administration responded to an unusual request by an republican-appointed appeals court judge. while attorney general eric holder assured the judge that the president respects the supreme court's power to rule on the constitutionality of the nation's laws, he also pointed out that judges have traditionally granted deference to acts of congress, presuming its laws comply with the constitution. in a direct and unusual challenge, judge jerry smith took issue with comments the president made earlier in the week asking for clarification as to whether the president questioned the high court's power to invalidate acts of congress. well, the u.s. coast guard sank that ghost ship that was traveling across the pacific ocean after last year's tsunami in japan.

the 164-foot-long fishing vessel caught on fire after coast guard guns fired on it off the coast of alaska. the coast guard said they sank the ship because it posed an imminent threat to navigation in the busy shipping lanes of the pacific. yesterday as the head coach of nfl's new orleans saint, and other team officials appealed harsh league penalties levied against them for the team's bounty system, shocking new evidence surfaced of saints players being encouraged to injure others. an audio recording of former saints defensive coordinator gregg williams was released by a documentary filmmaker. in a profanity-laced pregame speech, williams specifically encourages players to target the knee of one player who suffered a recent injury and the head of another who recently suffered a concussion. now, williams, now the st. louis rams defensive coordinator, has

been suspend ed indefinitely by the league and is not appealing. now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in new hampshire video shows a man attacking and robbing a woman, snatching her purse right outside a walmart. the suspect shouldn't have even been on the streets to begin with. he was mistakenly released from prison last friday. since then police think he was involved in at least three robberies before being recaptured. in st. louis, an underground steam pipe burst, sending scalding clouds shooting into the air. the heat was so intense, it caused the pavement to crumble. it also left downtown buildings without heat. there's no word on why it happened. this only happens in hollywood, right, or at least beverly hills. a pair of hikers got lost and had to call for help. it turns out they were in no danger. in fact, they were in the lap of luxury. they had stumbled

into the backyard of movie director tyler perry. not really that bad. hopefully they got to lay out in the sun. in kentucky the search is on for the bride who's missing her wedding dress. it was found on a farm a few days after last month's devastating tornado. the hanger was still on it. the man who discovered it thought it might be a curtain, but he later realized it was a gown. he has gotten in touch with the woman who is trying to help people find belongings lost in the twister. let's hope he does. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's bill karins. >> would you claim the dress after someone called it a curtain? it was an older dress. >> just happy to have it back. >> maybe someone had it in their closet for a long time. drier weather in the northwest but the tail end gets iffy. first things first, montana, western montana, northern idaho, not fun. temperatures are cold in a late to middle of the spring storm system coming through with snow

and we're actually going to see the snow really increasing over the last two hours and it'll continue to spread on 94 up 15. bute, bozeman, those areas have a chance to get 6 to 12 inches of snow. incredible stuff. as far as west coast, high pressure trying to build in. instability showers left over here in a few spots right along the coastline of washington state but we're not seeing anything too bad. hy high pressure is going to keep it cool. what has my interest for the weekend is the storm that's off the coast, you could see it spinning here. you can see a little perception, a little break and here's the next storm system as it moves its way in. highlight it here, two days away, looks like saturday night into sunday is when this storm will move on to the west coast so we're thinking unfortunately for easter sunday morning damp weather from northern california up the coast. today looks like a pretty good day. if you get hit by a shower, consider yourself unlucky.

66. arizona, cooler, temperature only 55. i'll give you the exact details on the weekend coming up. >> thanks, bill. also coming up, expectations on jobs. warm weather equals sunny sales. and a run on encyclopedias? your early morning business headlines straight ahead. plus, 13 years after "american pie" will interest in their high school reunion knock "the hunger games" off its perch? coming up, the the nhl playoff picture gets a little clearer. the magic self-destruct. and the longest opening day baseball game ever. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome

back to "early today." i'm lynn berry and here are some of your top headlines this morning. more than 2,000 syrian refugees flooded across the border into turkey last night claim iing government forces are bombarding at least a dozen northern towns and villages. france's foreign minister was the latest to express doubt about a u.n.-sponsored peace plan saying he thought president assad was "cheating us." viktor bout, the russian known as the merchant of death, was sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday in new york. he was convicted of trying to sell weapons to u.s. agents posing as colombian guerillas. a small town in wyoming has been sold at auction to a pair of vietnamese businessmen for $900,000. the town of buford has a gas station, a three-bedroom house and some other buildings on about ten acres of land. quite a steal. england's queen elizabeth handed out what's called maundy money to some of her subjects including a coin marking her 60

years on the throne. buckingham palace says the holy week tradition dates all the way back to the 13th century. and nasa has released some amazing images of a gigantic dust storm on the planet mars. a camera in orbit around the red planet captured the dust devil with a plume that goes up 12 miles into the light atmosphere of mars. now here's an early look at how wall street finished up the day after trade on thursday. the dow closed at 13,060 after losing 14 points yesterday. the s&p was down a fraction. the nasdaq was up 12. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei lost 79 points. while in hong kong the hang seng fell 197. with the markets closed today for the good friday and passover holidays, investors will have to wait until monday to react to the latest jobs report. when the labor department releases the march data, economists are expecting that

the economy added more than 200,000 jobs last month. the unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 8.3%. facebook has decided to be listed on the tech-heavy nasdaq for its initial public offering under the stock symbol fb. samsung, the world's top technology company, reports booming sales of its galaxy smartphone as it posted a record quarterly profit of $5.5 billion. the warm weather was good for retailers with sales at the gap up 8% last month and target sales increasing more than 7%. as jcpenney stores try to turn its business around, the company is laying off 900 workers in texas and pennsylvania. odwalla is recalling its chocolate protein monster beverage because four customers who have peanut allergies experience severe reactions after drinking it even though it's not supposed to contain peanuts. after encyclopedia

britannica said it was stopping its print edition, sales have skyrocketed and almost all of the last edition have been sold. and robotic technology is being used to automatically transport and park vehicles in very tight spaces in germany. that's an understatement. volkswagen's theme park called car town features storage towers that hold 800 vehicles. and a lot of people actually just turn out to take a ride themselves or watch the machinery moving the cars around because it is pretty cool. well, coming up, the opening round of the masters. magic wobble and lose. two more stanley cup playoff spots are set. plus, the longest opening day baseball game in major league history. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. in weather it's all about the easter egg hunt forecast that's coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports, spring is here, and baseball is officially back. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning, spring is in the air and, of course, that means baseball. we will start with the first pitching gem of the season. the phillies' roy halladay kept the pirates guessing for eight

shutout innings, allowed two hits and struck out five. phillies won it 1-0 in pittsburgh. tigers and red sox, top of the ninth. that's when austin jackson poked a single past third and down the line for the game winner. tigers won it, 3-2. cubs haven't won a world series in 104 years, and this is not the way they want to start a new season. tied with the nationals in this the ninth, ian desmond slapped an rbi single to right, in came the go-ahead run, nats won 2-1 at wrigley. how about some extra innings. the blue jays rallied in the ninth against the indians. juan encarnacion tied the game at 4. then in the 16th, j.p. arencibia put toronto on top for good. three-run shot. blue jays won the longest opening day game in history 7-4 in 16 innings. golf, lee westwood leads the masters. the first round of the masters, tiger woods is five strokes back. nba, derrick rose sat out his 12th straight game. and the bulls didn't miss a beat luol deng led a balanced attack against the celts. chicago increased their lead in

the east with a 93-86 win. the magic are falling apart right before our eyes. yesterday afternoon head coach stan van gundy told reporters dwight howard wanted him fired. then the magic were torched by the knicks. new york won it 96-80. magic are reeling, they've dropped five in a row. hock circumstance the capitals know all about firing their coach. they made a midseason change and now they're playoff bound. alex ovechkin scored his 37th of the year. despite the loss, panthers are also in. their first playoff appearance in 12 years. that's your early look at sports on "early today." have a terrific weekend. i'm fred roggin. our new entertainment power couple? that's straight ahead. plus traditional adversaries if not downright enemies. once in a while cats and dogs

really do get along. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this good friday. a few sprinkles and showers in the northwest. today is actually a pretty decent day with the exception of montana. cold conditions in the northern rockies. the southwest is cool still in vegas, only 68 degrees for you. tomorrow you'll warm up on your saturday. saturday is a nice day pretty much everywhere. by the time we get to easter

sunday we'll add rain to the forecast along the coastal areas especially. not too heavy of a rain but can say good-bye to sunshine. if you're watching us on nbc in san diego -- is that the bunny you made? fernando fox stole the easter egg. help us find it. that's at benito bunny's great easter egg hunt. >> thanks so much. here's your early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. the experts are divided over what's shaping up to be quite a contest at the box office this weekend. the two-time defending champ "the hunger games" has the edge with most experts picking it to finish number one once again with somewhere between $25 million and $30 million. but the opener "american reunion," remember that, the franchise that started with

"american pie," the last of these raunchy comedies opened nine years ago to $33 million. some experts see it finishing in the $25 million range, others have it over $30 million to finish on top. let's see about that. 15 years after its original opening "titanic 3d" could battle for the top spot once again, that is, if the others falter. it's expected to take in $20 million to $25 million. and finally -- could it be true -- >> let's hope so. >> burning question is kim kardashian and kanye west dating. they were apparently seen on public dates on wednesday night and then thursday at lunch. in a new single out yesterday west admits he fell for kardashian long ago. >> wrote love songs about them. three weeks -- will they last longer or less than three weeks. >> i would say longer because it depends on how long he needs his single to be at number one. no judgments. no judgments. your call? >> i'll go four weeks on the

dot. >> that's safe. >> mark it today. this comes to us from wbir 10 news in knoxville, tennessee. in nearby sevierville, man's best friend has become a loving parent to wayward cats. an animal shelter took in three orphaned newborn kittens that needed to be bottle fed but the shelter decided -- oh, a little experiment. they tried having a nursing mother dog take on the kittens. it worked. she nursed them, and then there was another one brought in days later, nursed that one too and now they're all one, big happy family. it works for them. >> and the puppy was cute. >> are you saying we could get along? if we had a mom here. >> a mom to support both of us. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," your first stop of the day.

city dwellers in santa domingo won't have to travel far for fun in the sun. sand, palm trees and pools all came to them as the country's first artificial beach opened to the public. unfortunately, due to rocky shorelines and polluted water, nearby oceanfront locations are no longer an option. the beach is going to be available through easter sunday. looks like fun. well, one easter bunny in germany will go under the radar this year. that's because he doesn't actually look the part. meet pinocchio. he's a rabbit born with no ears, and he's kind of adorable. he resembles more of an oversized guinea pig. the 9-month-old rabbit was born to normal-eared parents. >> poor guy. >> i know. the owners decided on the name

pinocchio since his lack of ears makes his nose look bigger. and in australia the bunny isn't the main attraction this easter. the bilby is a rare australian animal that resembles a rabbit but it's actually a marsupial. there's fewer than 600 remaining in the wild. their habitat is being eaten away by rabbits which are not even native to the continent. chocolate stores are now displaying easter bilbies in their windows, hoping a new tradition catches on. i don't know. if i were a kid i'd be terrified of the bilby. >> you don't want the chocolate rat in your easter basket? >> no, i would prefer not, a chocolate rat. a look at early stories we'll follow throughout the day on nbc. china's top military newspaper told troops today to ignore internet buzz swirling over the last few weeks of a foiled coup in beijing. the front page commentary left no doubt the ruling communist party wants to combat rumors that might undermine the authority of president hu

jintao. on this day in 1896, the first modern olympic games formally opened in athens, greece. winners of the first game were given a silver medal, an olive branch and a diploma. it wasn't until 1904 that the interest decisional medals were awarded. happy birthday to actor billy dee williams who turns 75. all day long you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." and finally here's a look at what's coming up later on the "today" show. exclusive a live interview with the columnist who sparked international outrage claiming women hate her because she's beautiful. and kim kardashian will be live in studio to talk about her ongoing divorce and whether she is now dating kanye west. and 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.

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