it for you right here at "mad money." i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow. today," all eyes on isaac. florida's gulf coast watches and waits as tropical storm isaac churns in the caribbean. game over. lance armstrong gives up his fight against doping allegations and loses seven tour de france titles. and fresco fiasco. a spanish woman's attempt at art and fresco fiasco. a spanish woman's attempt at art restoration go horribly wrong. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and very good morning to you. welcome to our viewers across the nation including the pacific time zone. i'm veronica de la cruz.

today we begin with a storm threat. the possibility of a direct impact has florida officials urging residents to prepare now. nbc's curt gregory has the latest. >> reporter: wind and rain in puerto rico. a glancing blow from tropical storm isaac as the system meanders across the caribbean. warnings are in effect for the dominican republic and in haiti where aid groups are mobilizing to assist the thousands of people still struggling in make-shift shelters 2 1/2 years after an earthquake destroyed the capitol city. >> the next 24 hours will be very critical of course for the population of haiti and the international red cross is extremely concerned. >> reporter: concern is spreading throughout florida as well. the latest projection map shows the state feeling the storm's force as early as sunday. in cape coral firemen wasted no time in securing a storm curtain around city hall. >> to protect the glass and any debris that comes up against it.

>> reporter: and along florida's gulf coast. >> i'd rather be early than late. >> reporter: preparations for isaac are under way. just as the final touches are added to tampa's big party. >> we're ready for this storm if it were to come. we don't think it will. so we really are now more focused on putting on a great event for the republican national convention. >> reporter: convention organizers say contingency plans are in place if tropical storm isaac strengthens and threatens the bay. >> the next couple days, especially this weekend, we'll find out when it comes off the coast of cuba what happens. >> reporter: but those plans depend on what isaac may do. curt gregory, nbc news. nbc meteorologist bill karins has been tracking the storm for us this morning. bill, what's the latest? >> the latest on isaac, it's trying to reorganize. after that maybe it could intensify. it's been a mess of a storm over the last three to four days. it looks very impressive. a large storm with a ton of rain

especially on the south side of it. eventually it is all heading up towards the united states. the latest forecast from the hurricane center does have the storm going across haiti, then across cuba possibly for 24 to 36 hours. the storm won't get any more intense. it won't be until sunday and monday that the storm will get over the warm waters in the florida straits, key west and ft. myers, then possibly near tampa or as far west as new orleans. that's the area of concern right now. anywhere from the west coast of florida over towards louisiana. that area will most likely have to deal with possibly a hurricane as we go throughout monday and tuesday. people wondering about the republican national convention in tampa. monday will probably be the worst weather. tuesday, improving. >> thanks for that, bill. in part, because of the threat that bill was just mentioning, delegates will begin the roll call vote to nominate mitt romney on monday. and that is days earlier than was scheduled and earlier than

it has been done at previous conventions. party officials are also worried about several hundred delegates who are pledged to vote for ron paul during the role call voting. paul has not released his delegates to support romney or anyone else for that matter. championship cyclist lance armstrong will be stripped of his title today. they will ban him from cycling for life and take away his seven titles in the tour de france. armstrong who required last year said yesterday he would stop fighting ongoing doping allegations and what he called, quote, an unconstitutional witch hunt. he could also lose a bronze olympic medal he won in the 2000 games he won in australia. a look at other stories happening in america. a massachusetts woman and her child were nearly killed in front of dozens of subway riders. the woman fell on to the tracks with her 4-year-old son after she accidentally walked off the platform.

a bystander immediately helped the two before the train arri d arrived. she told official alzheimer's she was rushing towards the train but didn't realize it was on the other side of the station. the waters of virgin beach have become a battle zone. more than 200 surfers are read why to catch some waves at the 50th annual east coast surfing championships. this is the oldest surfing competition and is steep with competition. surfers from all over the world have arrived at their shot for the $155,000 grand prize. finally the san diego zoo received some great news on thursday. a baby panda cub born july 29th passed its first physical exam with flying colors. the next step is finding out the sex of the animal which will be determined during follow-up exams. and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins. why are you laughing? >> very cute little panda.

>> it's so cute. >> we don't know the sex of yet. >> what? >> many things aren't as obvious as they should be. >> we'll have to stay tuned. follow-up exam will give us the answer. hold your horses, bill. >> i'll check your twitter account all weekend. good morning, everyone. as far as the weather goes in the west, it's a very quiet day. yesterday not much happening either. temperatures cool. look at that, only 88 in vegas in the middle of summer. that's almost like a fall-type day. the big rains, storm winds blew in cooler air. phoenix had a rather enjoyable 94 degrees. it's probably going to be short lived. i'm sure we'll heat things up shortly. enjoy that. temperatures across the region were a bit below average in most areas. we're not looking at anything out there too dramatic. clear skies in many spots. there's the storms that brought clouds to the vegas area. rain in colorado. that's the same storm that drenched vegas. we'll bring beneficial rains to the central southwest. as far as the forecast goes for

today, pretty nice day. near 100 in vegas. getting a little warmer today. phoenix at 102, partly cloudy. most sunshine the inner mountain west. northwest even warming up after a cool little stretch. back up near 80 degrees. enjoy what should be a pretty nice friday. that's a looit 100 today. we're watching some spots getting significantly warmer in the northwest. weekend forecast coming up. >> doesn't look too bad. >> the west is great. investors throw down on the fed. gold fetches a pretty penny and the parking spot of your dreams. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, can the "expendables 2" knock out the competition once again at the box office. coming up, a slug fest at boston, adrian beltre is red hot, and olympian gabby douglas like you've never seen before.

you're watching "early today."

very good morning to you. welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. the fbi and u.s. capitol police are investigating rape threats against missouri congressman todd akin, his family and staff. he sparked controversy by saying that relatively few pregnancies happened from, quote, what he called legitimate rape. republican mitt romney said his energy plan would make the u.s. independent from foreign oil by 2020 and create 3 million jobs. the obama campaign calls it a, quote, backward plan that would reward big oil companies. a norwegian court has ruled confessed killer anders breivik was sane when he mur kerd people last year.

he will spend a minimum of 21 years in prison for his crime called the heinous attack a political statement against muslim integration. nasa has released a high resolution of the landing of the curiosity rover on the planet mars earlier this month. it shows the final moments before the touch down of the spacecraft to record a landing on another planet. and in spain, a century old art fresco of christ was in need of repair. so an amateur art restorer in her 80s took it upon herself to fix it, and she didn't do a very good job. now professionals will try to repair the damage that was done. now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 13,057 after tumbling 115 points. the s&p dropped 11, the nasdaq dropped 20. overseas trading, in tokyo, the nikkei dropped 107. in hong kong the hang seng plunged 252.

investors banking on help from the feds seemed a little less uncertain thursday. uncertainty about the likelihood of more stimulus after james bullard, the president of the fed's st. louis bank, told our sister network cnbc that the minutes from the central bank's july 31st meeting were stale because the economy had picked up since then. investors dumped stocks and oil betting on gold instead. the precious metal was at 1065 an ounce. new data showed first time unemployment claims ticked slightly higher underscoring the uneven job market. global economic woes showed china's manufacturing at a 9% low. hewlett-packard lost more than 8% thanks to weak quarterly results and a disappointing forecast. meanwhile, big lots weighed down. the s&p tumbling nearly 21% on a sharp drop in quarterly profits. as the u.s. jury debates apple and samsung's big patent,

they ruled that both companies infringed on each other's patents. the court ordered a ban on some iphones, ipads, and galaxy smart pads. facebook announced it will release an overhauled iphone app after users complained it was slow. finally, say good-bye to your average parking spot. one high rise in singapore is taking luxury to a whole new level. a special elevator delivers your car to your apartment so that you can park right next to your living room. yup, units start at around $8 million. sorry, the lamborghini is not included. a first win for his first nfl start and the little league world series championship match-up is set plus an olympic gold medal gymnast tries her hand at another sport. your early morning headlines are straight ahead. i'll have your weekend's

forecast. another look at isaac's forecast path. that's coming up. you're watching "early today."

very good morning to you, if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, several teams punched some extra time on the clock in yesterday's major league match-ups. here's fred roggin with a look at all your sports headlines.

good morning, a handful of great finishes around the business. we'll start in boston. a slug fest in boston. morales put the angels on top in the tenth. nobody pitched but the angels won it 14-13 in ten. reds and phils also needed extras. cinci intentionally loaded the bases in the 11th. john mayberry made them pay. rbi single. phils, 4-3 win. alex avila was the hero. in came the winning run. get out the brooms. tigers swept the jays, 3-2 in 11. adrian beltre is the hottest player in baseball. he hit another yesterday. a triple shy of the cycle. rangers beat the twins 10-6. olympic gold medallist gabby douglas threw out the first pitch. there were no highlights of the game. mets lost fifth straight, 1-0.

jake locker was named the titans starting quarterback this week. he threw a pair of touchdowns against the cards. titans like what they see, they won it 33-27. packers don't have a premiere back. who needs one when you have aaron rodgers. he ran in two touchdowns. he had more yards on the ground than all five of the packer running backs. they beat cinci, 21-13. joe flacco hooked up with boldin. baltimore ran away with it 48-17. finally, congratulate shuns from the little leaguers from petalu petaluma, california. they beat texas. smith broke the game wide open with a grand slam. california won it 11-1. they'll play tennessee for the title tomorrow. that's your early look at sports today. i'm fred roggin. all signs point to a lackluster weekend at the box office. plus, waterproof makeup, $50. wet suit and bow tie, $100.

a unique wedding experience you'll never forget, priceless. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." nice, quiet weekend forecast in many areas of the western united states. of course, we still have those big fires burning out there. firefighters still have their hands full. the drought conditions continue to worsen. temperatures in the 70s and 80s

in the northwest. as we go into saturday, not a lot of changes. clouds, it's a chance of smoke being in the air from all the fires around there in idaho. also temperatures going to continue to be very warm. looks like salt lake city in the the 90s all weekend long. if you're watching us on knbc 4, by long beach, come nose to nose with some of the ocean's legendary predators at shark lagoon at the aquarium of the pacific. that's your pacific event of the day. did you ever go in a shark cage? would you ever do that? >> maybe. yeah, why not? >> i'll set it up for you. >> the touch tank at the aquarium. >> right? here's an early look at today's headlines in entertainment news. several new releases will be no match for last weekend's champ, "the expendables 2." joseph gordon levitt is a new york city bicycle messenger being chased by a crooked cop.

it's received decent reviews. it will open with $9 million. >> does it look good? >> if you're into that chase. >> this is a road trip comedy. it's called "hit and run." it's received poor word of mouth reviews from people who have seen it. it's expected to tai bu at about $8 million. "dukes of hazard" rip off maybe. the wild card this weekend could be the anti-barack obama documentary called," 2016." it debuts nationwide and is expected to rake in about $4 million. finally, the horror film, "the aparation" it is debaying in 8 million theaters. it may not make it past $2 million. >> one review said this will be

the most dismal weekend at the box office. >> i want to see will ferrell's movie. >> reviews are mixed. this comes to us from california where one couple's wedding plans took their nup actuals to new heights. they made a splash using water power jet packs making a memorable entrance. adding to the wedding jitters without tipping themselves head first into the water. everything went off without a hitch, thank goodness. after landing they added some traditional aspects to their ceremony before taking off to tackle their next big adventure as husband and wife. congratulations. i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "early today." just your next stop of the day on your nbc station.

a u knowing bow a constrictor has become a major attractive in poland. hydra has two heads. feeding time can be stressful for hydra's handlers. they have to put two mice in the bow a's tank at the same time to avoid a food fight. yikes! in china, love is in the air, or, rather, in the water. as part of china's valentine's day if he is tifts, seven couples were chosen to compete in an underwater competition at an ocean park. the couple that could kiss the longest won souveniers and a year long pass to that park.

sleeping beauties were chosen to lay sleeping for three days. men kissed them trying to wake them. participants had to sign a contract agreeing to marry if the beauty awakened during the kiss. organizers even passed out breath minlts. thank goodness that isn't how we really do things. >> what man would sign a contract that you have to marry the person if they wake? >> all things. >> who came up with that? >> i don't know. >> i wonder how many people lined up for that? probably not many. it is time now for an early look at some of the stories that we're going to follow on nbc. as isaac swirls off the gulf coast, we're reminded it was 20 years ago today that hurricane andrew roared ashore south florida. it devastated miami dade county destroying 28,000 homes killing 15 people. neptune takes center stage in the sky tonight. the most distant planet from the earth will be exactly opposite the sun reaching its highest

point in the sky at midnight. it is the one day a year when the planet is visible all night long. finally, happy birthday to nbc's own david gregory. the "meet the press" anchor turns 42 years old today. happy birthday. 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." here's a look at what's coming up on "the today show." jeff ross sen investigates popular websites and gives tips on how to avoid online scams when booking your next vacation. and rock band train performs a full half hour of music live on the plaza. keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. i'm veronica de la cruz. thanks for watching "early today." just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. have a terrific weekend. today on your nbc station. have a terrific weekend. we'll see you back here monday.

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