don't ignore it. remember discipline, that's your only friend in a tough time. i promise i'd try to find it here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. see you next time. this morning on "early today" -- in the bag? today mitt romney looks to lock up his position as the republican presidential nominee. making it rain. debris falls from the sky as an air canada jet makes an emergency landing in toronto. burger heaven. which cities sizzle when it comes to one of america's which cities sizzle when it comes to one of america's favorite meals? 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 make it official mitt romney is expected to lock up his party's nomination in today's texas gop primary.

later he'll team up with donald trump to raise funds in las vegas. yesterday president obama and romney spent memorial day on the campaign trail and nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more on all of this. good morning. >> good morning. he won't get the official nod from the party for another three months but after today after the texas primary, mitt romney can feel pretty confident going into that republican convention that he will be the one to take on president obama in the fall. >> reporter: texas is expected to put mitt romney over the top today giving him the 1,144 delegates he'll need to win the republican nomination. >> a big day tomorrow. look forward to the good news. >> reporter: he'll make his case from battleground colorado today then las vegas at a fundraiser with donald trump. romney brushed off concerns about associating with trump who is still questioning president obama's birth certificate. >> i don't agree with all the people who support me. my guess is they don't agree

with everything i believe in, but i need to get 50.1% or more and i'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people. >> reporter: romney spent memorial day with john mccain while president obama paid tribute at arlington national sem me tare and the vietnam memorial in washington. >> you are true heroes. and you will never be forgotten. but let us never use patriotism as a political sword. patriots can support a war, patriots can oppose a war and whatever our view let us always stand united in support of our troops. who we've placed in harm's way. >> reporter: veterans make up 13% of the vote. with polls tightening in swing states both candidates are pushing hard for their support. looking forward to that primary today, texas has 152 delegates at stake, lynn, but only 58 are needed. romney only needs 58 to secure that nomination. >> tracie pots in washington,

thanks so much. elsewhere, violence flared in egypt monday in the wake of the country's first elections since the ouster of hosni mubarak. an angry mob set fire to the campaign headquarters of hosni mubarak last prime minister. just hours after it was announced he would face the muslim brotherhood's candidate in a runoff election next month. several thousand protesters took to the streets to demonstrate, some to protest the election's winners while others protested against their candidate losing. yesterday in canada drivers near toronto suddenly experienced pieces of debris falling from the sky. the debris apparently came from an air canada jet after it had one engine fail on takeoff for a flight to japan. police say the chunks of metal broke windows and caused small damage to some cars, but caused no injuries on the ground an none of the passengers on the plane were injured either. the jet with more than 300 people aboard circled back around and made a safe landing on only one engine.

now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in texas, a man who was barricaded for hours in the cab of a crane high above southern methodist university claiming to have a gun is dead. he either fell or jumped after being holed up for at least 14 hours 150 feet in the air. police did try to move toward him early this morning. they say he sprayed a liquid at officers and climbed out of the cab and dangled just before he fell. in california, this is heart-stopping video gone virm. it shows an 80-year-old woman's near fatal plunge after a skydiving accident. she slipped from the harness connecting her to the parachuting instructor. amazingly her partner did and was able to hang on to her and later this morning she's going to sit down with nbc's matt lauer for an exclusive live interview on "today" right here on this nbc station.

also in california, humans weren't the only ones who had a chance to relax this holiday weekend. a bear made its way into a los angeles area swimming pool and just decided to chill out there. those home at the time had the presence of mind to both stay inside and grab their video camera. in utah, a family of kittens was found alive after being trapped for nearly two weeks in cement. construction workers had poured the foundation for a garage floor while building a new house. then they started hearing meows. they didn't know where it was coming from. they ripped out the walls to try to check for the little guys. they finally cracked open the pavement, found the kittens and saved them. now for a look at your national and regional weather here's nbc meteorologist todd santos with your weather channel forecast. good morning to you. >> good morning. love that story. >> i know. warm and fuzzy. >> some other intervention makes the nine lives thing work out. >> true. >> great stuff. start off the morning, want to

talk about what's going on here across the country considering a lot of us starting off with a short week following memorial day and looking at at least the satellite and radar together you notice a few things together going on through the central u.s., showers and thunderstorms along a frontal boundary that's traveling eastward. moving and traveling towards detroit or towards the northeast, could run into some issues as far as thunderstorms especially later on this afternoon. dealing with tropical depression beryl as well, maximum sustained winds at 30 miles per hour, tracking off through wednesday, may become a tropical storm off the outer banks as we get towards wednesday. something to keep in mind traveling there. here across the west this one disturbance moving towards western portions of montana with showers, maybe some thunderstorms through northern wyoming. quiet aside from some fog around the bay area this morning. 52 in san francisco. by later this afternoon, phoenix getting back to the triple digits, salt lake full

sunshine, yuma, arizona, in the triple digits. so fairly quiet across a good stretch of the west but we will talk about the next disturbance moving into the pacific northwest tomorrow. >> thanks so much. coming up, euro fear grinds on. a big law firm goes belly up, and easily the creepiest elvis auction that's ever been held. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. after what it took to get back on stage after giving birth, guess what beyonce wants more than anything else. a strikeout sale for a white sox lefty, celtics get closer to retirement in miami and a special memorial day moment. you're watching "early today." ia

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry and here's some of your top headlines this morning.

french president francois hollande says the syrian ambassador is being expelled in reaction to the syrian government's alleged role in the recent massacre of more than 100 people in the village of houla. united nations probe has shown that children were among those executed in that attack. u.n. envoy kofi annan who said he was horrified by those killings, met with syrian president bashar al assad about them today. italian television is reporting at least 11 people are dead after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked that country's central and northern regions. blue fin tuna, carrying radioactive contamination that leaked from japan's crippled nuclear plant have arrived on the shores of the united states. the levels of radioactive cesium were ten times higher than the amount measured in tuna off the california coast in previous years. researchers have captured a stunning image of a newly created molecule.

they're calling olimisean. it got its name because the five linked rings resembles the olympic symbol. and "travel and leisure" magazine has a new survey of cities in the u.s. with the best burgers. the number one city is providence, rhode island. philadelphia ranked second, chicago came in third. now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. a new study finds the rate of kidney stones in the u.s. has almost doubled over the last 16 years. in 1994 one in 20 people had kidney stones. between 2007 and 2010 the rate jumped to one in 11. researchers say kidney stones are more likely for people with obesity, diabetes or gout but can be prevented by eating a healthy balanced diet. for more information on this and other health stories check out the health page at msnbc.com. "early today" health is brought to you by vagisil cream.

now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow closed ahead of the holiday weekend on friday at 12,454. after falling 74 points. the s&p lost two, the nasdaq down one. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei gained 63 points and in hong kong the hang seng rose 254. after the long holiday weekend europe's ongoing debt saga will take center stage once again. fears spain can't afford to bail out its largest real estate lender weighed on asian markets this morning after sending spanish bonds to record highs monday. the price of copper slipped on fears europe's debt crisis may dampen the region's metal demand. greece handed $22 billion to its four biggest banks reinstating their access to european bank central funding. as greece's currency hangs in the balance, a new europol,

including greece, finds a majority of citizens say the euro has not been good for them they do not want to go back to their own currencies. in the wake of a phone hacking scandal that rocked rupert murdoch's news corp. england's former prime minister tony blair told the inquiry mur doc, quote, wielded substantial power but denied cozying up to him in exchange for political support. "the wall street journal" reports the u.s. justice department is investigating whether executives at bp lied to congress in how much oil leaked in the 2010 gulf oil disaster. dewey and he buff filed for chapter 11 protection marking the biggest collapse of a law firm in u.s. history. a chance of a lifetime for die-hard fans of the king. elvis presley's original crypt at the forest hill cemetery in memphis will go to the highest bidder at auction next month. elvis was interred there two months and later reburied at his graceland home. >> the angels walk off, the cubs

snap back, smooth sailing against the rays, and a memorial day surprise for one family at a big league game in atlanta. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >> with memorial day in the books we'll take a look at your travel forecast for the middle of your week. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up this is "early today." in sports last night in the nba playoffs the miami heat went and took their first tilt in their battle with the boston celtics for eastern supremacy. here's bill seward with a look at all your sports headlines. hi, everybody. game one of the eastern conference finals started with a healthy dose of lebron and ended in a blow-out. to miami, james hit the court running, flies past a pair of celtics for the lay-up. heat with an early lead. moments later, mario chalmers up top to lebron for the alley-oop. james with 11 of miami's 21 points in the first quarter. celtics made it a game in the second. paul pierce three ball corner pocket, boston rallies to tie the game at the half. but that's as close as they would get simply too much lebron for the ageing celtics. finished with a game high 32 and 13 boards. miami opens the series with a 93-79 win. game two is tomorrow.

baseball, yankees and angels tied in the ninth, a jumbo for he trumbo. walk-off homer, halos win their seventh in a row, 9-8. to chicago, the wind blowing out at wrigley and that was good news for the cubbies. four homers against the padres, snap an 11-game losing streak with a win. cubs were hit about and the white sox chris sale was punching them out striking out 15 over 7 1/3. he was a strike shy of a team record set all the back in 1954. they beat the rays 2-1. finally yesterday was a memorial day that one family will never forget. the atlanta braves invited the family of master sergeant david sims to turner field. between innings they watched a recorded message from sims who was deployed in afghanistan. big set up. sims gave his family the shock of their lives by walking out of the stands. his wife and four kids immediately maul him. the crowd gave the family a

stand ovation. a terrific moment to cap off memorial day weekend. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm bill seward. >> >> doesn't get better than that. who is engaged, who got married and black is back in fashion at the box office. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus spent the holiday weekend reflecting on the single greatest loss of life at pearl harbor and the drama over its memorial. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." really a beautiful day across a good stretch of the western u.s., at least west of the rockies. once you head into the northern rockies, billings, montana, may deal with showers, isolated thunderstorms today. northern wyoming, quiet in seattle throughout the day and tomorrow night we start -- tomorrow afternoon and evening we -- night really we get the better chances for the showers. should i say increase into the overnight hours. and if you're watching us on knbc in los angeles, california, experience the photographer's stunning ability to shape identities at portraits of renown at the j. paul getty museum. >> todd, thanks so much. here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. it is official. the alien hunters has taken out the super heroes at the box office. "men in black iii" earned $70 million over the four-day holiday weekend, not quite what was expected but one of the

year's best openings. "the avengers" took second, and is very close to knocking "the dark knight" out of third place on the all-time money list. three years after getting engaged at a same-sex marriage rally, cynthia nixon and christine marinoni married. kyra nightly is engaged. justin timberlake and jessica biel celebrated their engagement in california. rumors say they're planning a supper ceremony. saturday night, at her atlantic city concert she told her audience since giving birth she runs on the trade mill, ate lettuce and lost 60 punz. that would work. she did finish off the night promising i'm going to get chocolate wasted, giving herself a little bit of a cheat day. everyone has to have a cheat day. >> if all you're eating is lettuce.

beyonce. >> 60 pounds, though, way to go. this comes from khnl hawaii in honolulu where a moving tribute to a ship that went down in 1941 at pearl harbor reached a milestone. this weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the "uss arizona" memorial. it took years to raise the money to build the memorial erected above her hull. still resting where she exploded and sank, claiming over 1100 lives of officers and crewmen. criticized at first as some by too abstract and modern today it draw nearly 2 million visitors a year. >> i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station.

in india one lucky leopard was rescued from a sticky situation. forest officials saved the animal after it fell into a reservoir while looking for some drinking water. they tried unsuccessfully to extend a net to the frightened leopard but they succeed with a leopard. he eventually climbed his way out and ran back into the forest. first an octopus, then an elephant, folks are placing their bets on a ferret who they tasked with predicting the results of european soccer matches in ukraine. the rodent chooses from plates of food, bearing the flags of competing national teams. no pressure or anything, but they named the little guy fred the psychic. he's going to get his shot to prove it starting next week. speaking of soccer athletes

in estonia are combining their love for the sport and a favorite pastime of bumper cars. it works like this, rather than making goals by using their feet the players use really old cars, they bump the ball around and sometimes each other and try to get the ball in the net. as fun as it looks it is something you do not want to try at home unless you have a lot of money and insurance then maybe you think that would be okay. >> if you just had a big yard. they didn't even wear helmets. did you see that. >> it looks like something you want to do as a kid but as a grown up it doesn't make sense. it's time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll be following through the day. in new york the u.s. marine corps and other service members and the police department will take part in the annual world trade center run. along the route which ends at ground zero the marine corps band will perform. former myanmar political prisser and -- prisoner and newly

elected member of parliament aung san suu kyi, travels to thailand to attend an economic forum. her first trip outside of myanmar since 1988. it's part of her tour to meet with world leaders. and actress annette bening turns 54. all day long you can stay on top of the latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc and watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." finally here's a look at what's coming up on later this morning on the "today" show. don't miss the "today" exclusive interview, telling the story behind the incredible video of a skydiving trip gone wrong. that we showed you earlier. oscar-winning actress charlize therrien live talking about playing the evil queen in "snow white and the huntsmen." 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.