welcome to our viewers across the nation including the pacific time zone. i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with a war of words. the race to the white house is getting feisty with president obama not letting up on his attacks. romney's team has been out in force defending their candidate. brian mooar joins us live from washington. brian, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, veronica. if mitt romney is waiting for an apology, it might be a while. from president obama, no apologies for the sharp new attacks on republican mitt romney and his leadership time at bain capital. >> no, we won't be apologizing. >> reporter: an obama campaign spokesman took the fight to a whole new level when she claimed romney was lying to the nation when he left bain or committed a felony in filing false documents with government regulators. >> he's claiming i wasn't there at the time except he filed an s.e.c. listing that says he was the ceo, chairman, and president

of the company. >> by starting negative, by going extremely tough -- >> reporter: in a new ad team romney is blasting the president for going negative. >> whatever happened to hoping change? >> this is not the candidate of hope and change. this is a candidate who is hoping to change the subject. >> reporter: romney's campaign wants to shift the conversation back to the economy. >> the president is the outsourcer in chief with our taxpayers' dollars. >> reporter: but for now mitt romney is on defense, forced to explain the business background that's the heart of his resume. and the romney campaign is reportedly trying to shift back to offense this week painting president obama as a typical washington insider. veronica? >> brian mooar in washington. brian, thank you. a new report about the severe drought plaguing the country is to show it's the 10th largest. today's report from the national climatic data center is expected to put 2012 in 10th place since

1895. the parched conditions could get worse. 65% of the contiguous states are affected and many of the worst droughts peeked in july and august. secretary of state hillary clinton is in israel today saying changes going on in the middle east have given the u.s. and israel an opportunity to advance their share in gold. clinton met with shimon perez in j inner jerusalem says we must act together. in egypt, secretary clinton also met with the head of egypt's military urging him to work with a newly elected gompt. however, he vowed not to let the muslim brotherhood to capture everything. meanwhile, egypt is working to free two americans kidnapped in the sinai desert friday being

held hostage hoping to exchange them for an egyptian prisoner. a boston pastor and another tour group prisoner are reportedly being treated well. here's some o other stories making news in america. in illinois, it wasn't a fraternity prank. a 40-year-old dorm mi tori was blown up this weekend on the campus of western illinois university. it housed more than 20,000 students in its lifetime. it's only second to come crashing down from the implosion. in central oregon it was all systems go for the launch of a pair of lawn chairs strapped to more than 350 balloons filled with heelly up. a pair of pilots hoped to break the guinness book of records by traveling some 500 miles to montana but bad weather forced them to touch down after 30 miles. they'll take their record breaking attempt to iraq in november. in california, victory was sweet for the winners of an ice cream eating contest.

dozens of sweet tooth come pet tors tried to scoop their challengers. in the women's division there was a tie. they shoveled down their serving in just 1:23. finally in texas, the biggest problem for a skunk is usually its odor, but this little guy somehow got a bottle stuck to his face and wandered around for a few minutes with a container going along for the ride. animal control showed up later. they removed that bottle. the skunk seems to be doing fine. just a little confused. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's bill karins with the weather channel forecast. he has no idea where he was and what was going on. >> didn't care either. >> lights were off. >> not afraid of much. lucky he didn't get sprayed. have you ever had any run-ins with skunks or your pets. >> no, knock on wood.

>> tomato soup bath only works a little bit. >> doesn't work? >> masks it. we are dealing with a unique weather pattern in the pacific northwest. what we call an upper level low. a storm system that's well above the ground and it's actually -- you can kind of pick up the spin. look at the direction the radar is kind of going. the green on the map shows you where the rain is. you notice you can see it right in here just south of olympia right now. it's actually retrograde. kind of sliding backwards. on the back front side of the storm we have enough lift here we're getting showers and thunderstorms. kind of rare to see this on storm tracker radar. this is spokane washington, interstate 90 seeing thunderstorms. these are all lightening strikes for this little batch that's headed north. if you're heading up to odessa, ritzville, it's exiting. east side of ward. you may hear a rumble of thunder. kind of rare for this time of morning. shouldn't cause too many problems. we have the tropical flow --

monsoonal flow, excuse me. numerous showers and storms in the areas of arizona. that looks like it's dried out. we're warm in many other areas. interior california, still very warm. cooled off slightly in vegas. phoenix right there about 99. a little bit below average. that's a loo90s. yuma, arizona, 101. probably a little bit below average. showers continue in the northwest for much of the week. looks like that's the cool spot once again. >> i don't understand how they're below average. 95 for vegas? >> typically this time of year 100. >> really? dry heat on top of that. big ben rocks the hill, pump prices fall and an exciting new difference this morning on the internet. your early morning business headlines next. plus, cool, cute cartoon

critters bust open the box office this weekend. a slug fest in the broncos. steven strasburg does it all and is jeremy lin's knicks career over? you're watching "early today." "early today" is brought to you by preparation h totables.

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. there could be prosecutions for war crimes. the united nations observers have been gathering details on a reported massacre in hama province which may have been aimed at ak 2i6 vices and army defectors. the dismissal of the top army leader. a shakeup for kim jong-un. the leader of the 1.2 million

men army was relieved of all of his posts due to illness. in china eight people have died and one is still missing after flash floods from heavy rain. roads and buildings in low lying areas were covered by raging water. in japan at least 28 people were killed by severe flooding and mud slides that forced 250,000 people from their homes. many are returning but thousands are still cut off by blocked roads. in england cooling towers at a former coal fired power plant. they came down in a matter of moments. and the bastille day parade, they had jets in the sky overhead and a less than perfect parachute performance. the new french president visited one parachuter after ininjuring a knee after straying off course. the dow opens at 12,777

after zoonling 203 points friday. the s&p spiked 22. the nasdaq jumped 42. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei added 4 points. in hong kong the hang seng gained 28. wall street will spend this week wondering what has been all summer. when will more stimulus come from the feds. investors will look for clues when ben bernanke presents his policy report. the imf shows its report today. in earnings the last four big banks report this week, citigroup, goldman sachs, bank of america and morgan stanley. investors will also watch for struggling yahoo tomorrow. without a ceo since may after a resume scandal the company suffered a massive hack earlier this month exposing log-in information for half a million users. finishing off the week

reporting friday general electric considered a bell weather of the economy. as for data, retail sales figures are due out today. that and the consumer price index up tomorrow should give a gauge of current consumer karma. weekly jobless claims will bring employment back into focus on thursday. this week ipos are slated for palo alto network, guitar maker fender and durota therapeutics. palo alto is expected to attract the most interest. the average price of a gallon of regular gas dropped about 7 cents over the past three weeks. finally, there's a big change on the web this morning. comcast, the owner of this network, has acquired microsoft 50% stake in the site msnbc.com. it is now nbc news.com. one man does it all for the nationals and one man is posing problems for the new york knicks. plus, one yankee slugger loses his grip.

your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. the intense summer heat has left the mountain west at least for in our. the forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, there was no power shortage yesterday in the final game of the angels/yankees

weekend match-up. here's bill sue ward with an early look at all of your headlines. >> a very good morning to you. if you like home runs yesterday's angels/yankees game was for you. eric ibar hit a solo shot. albert pujols hit one of his very own back to back jacks. bottom of the inning, a rod, see ya. 14th of the year. tied it at 2. that's three home runs before the fans were settled in their seats. mark trumbo didn't win the home run derby last week but he buried the yanks with this bomb in the ninth inning. the teams combined for eight home runs. angels win a slugfest, 10-8. nats and marlins, we know steven strasburg can pitch, but he can also hit. rbi single in the fifth. fanned seven over six innings. strasburg picks up his tenth win. nba, interesting weekend for the knicks.

acquired raymond fell ton. jason kidd was arrested for driving while intoxicated after crashing his suv into a telephone pole. the knicks will not be resigning fan favorite jeremy lin. he inked a 3 year $23 million deal with the rockets. the knicks have until tuesday to meet the offer. and finally back to new york where the knicks' biggest fan made the catch of the day. yankees mark teixeira taking a swing. look out. bat goes flying into the crowd. a lucky fan made the grab and definitely doing the right thing by being in the perfect spot. and that is spike lee. he even showed off his swing. by the looks of that hat, spike may want to stick to directing. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm bill seward. madonna embroiled in french politics. a self-appointed candidate for "american idol" judge and katie

says no to three. plus we'll introduce you to one of a kind mayor of this alaskan town. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. we are watching showers and storms as we mentioned. interstate 90 into the east or the west side of spokane. we'll also be watching a chance of some isolated showers today boise to salt lake city. not many. down to vegas, phoenix area,

tucson, l.a., san diego, i think you'll have a dry day today. sneak peak of tuesday. storm or two around medford. looking at a pretty drying trend out in many areas of the west. well, if you're watching us on knsd, san diego, california, arrow dynamics to air, traffic control. learn about the wonders of flight and how things fly at the san diego air and space museum. that's your pacific event of the day. >> good one. >> i know. big, heavy airplanes. >> how do things fly, bill? can you answer that? >> all has to do with lift. >> all right. now here's a look at our headlines in entertainment news. "the amazing spider-man" has done something no other spider-man movie has done. it finished second in the second weekend. it's taken in over 35 million. "ice age, continental drift" it hit 46 million. it out earned spider-man with 335 million in the bank.

at least we're not talking about "ted". >> there will be an "ice age 4, 5". >> you're probably right. a judge on "american idol", aretha franklin. she has one condition. she wants heidi label. >> they want more rariah carey. >> it will cost a lot of money. france's party will sue madonna. she ha a swat stick ka on her forehead. madonna might work for "american idol." >> i don't know. >> not after these shenanigans. "us weekly" reports katie holmes has enrolled tz suri in an all girls school. she fell in love with a cute puppy in a manhattan pet store. holmes was forced to say no to her daughter. most mothers aren't followed by paparazzi. suri stormed out of the store bursting into tears.

at some point that will be you. >> yeah. 16 to in some cases 20-year commitment depending on what kind of breed you're getting. >> but they're so worth it. >> the kids say they'll take care of it, they never do. >> they never do. that's the trick. this comes to us from kte, channel 2 news in anchorage, alaska. the long-time mayor took power away from the people. they think he is purrfect for the job. he has held the top spot for 15 years. he's a cat. he won a write-in vote in a place with less than 900 residents. he's also a hit among tourists. through it all he has remained one cool cat who made it in politics without having to claw his way to the top. i'm veronica de la cruz. this is your early look at today, just your first stop on your nbc station.

well, team work seemed to be the theme at one festival in japan. men carrying heavy floats went down streets in a tradition with origins dating back to the 13th century. legend has it townspeople once carried a buddhist priest on their shoulders who sprinkled purified water to ward off an epidemic. today the men splashed by enthusiastic people. >> check this out, 1001 volunteers september a new begin net world record for the largest ever human mattress domino rally. from the tipping of the first mattress to the last, the chain

reaction took about 10 minutes to complete beating the previous record of 850 set in new orleans this past february. almost painful. my goodness. for one competition in england, it is all in the toes. vying for a world toe wrestling championship. they interlocked toes trying to force each other's digits to the floor. a referee owe fish yates including a prematch inspection for proper hygiene. the competition began in 1976 when local pub gears tried to think of a sport in which the english could win. i hate to say it, bill, but i think i could probably win that. >> long toes? >> i have monkey toes. >> are they like claws? >> yes, they are. cat's out of the bag. i can't believe i said that. >> interesting. happy i know that now for some strange reason. >> thanks, bill. it is time now for an early look at stories that we'll follow on nbc. there will be a bankruptcy hearing for solyndra.

the solar energy firm that went belly up after the federal government loaned the firm 1/2 billion dollars. they're the subject of several investigations. the olympic village opened for london's 2012 olympics with residential apartments, shops, restaurants and facilities for roughly 17,000 athletes and team officials. and very hatchy birthday to funny man will ferrell who turns 45 today. you can stay tuned. tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news" and finally here's a look at what's coming up on "the today show." in a today exclusive, a mom with a flesh eating skin disease opens up to savannah about her ongoing recovery. and hear a live report on what killed the 36-year-old son of sylvester stallone. now keep it on this channel

for continuing local news, weather, sports and much more. i'm veronica de la cruz. thank you for watching "early today." just your first stop today on your nbc station. have a terrific

>> reporter: new this morning, demonstrators plan a protest in san francisco this morning that could disrupt muni service. coming up in a live report, i'll tell you what's behind it. >> a wild fire burning in placer county has doubled in size with containment still a long way away. how bay area firefighters are helping the effort. >> and not backing down. president obama's campaign calling mitt romney a liar in a new attack on his business record. why the president says he will not apologize. >> and giving you a live look at