this morning on "early today," riding a wave. president obama gets a post-convention boost, while mitt romney makes surprising comments on health care. house of cards. explosives reduces a texas tower to rubble within seconds. and cyber snare. why searching for this "harry potter" star online could be hazardous to your computer's potter" star online could be hazardous to your computer's health. potter" star could be hazardous to your computer's health. hello, and very good morning to you. i'm veronica de la cruz. a new poll finds president obama

enjoying a post convention bounce in popularity. according to a poll of likely voters, 40% favor president obama while 43% prefer his republican rival mitt romney. tracie potts has the latest from washington. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. rasmussen and gallup over the weekend show a 40% increase for president obama over mitt romney. not so surprising over the convention, but this was a surprise. the only thing more surprising than this is the fact that scott vanduzen a big fan president obama -- he said that mitt romney's tax plan doesn't add up. >> you already have deficits, $2

trillion in new defense spending and somehow you're going to close the deficit without racing taxes on middle class families. they did not take their arithmetic force. >> contrary to what the democrats are saying, i'm not going to increase the tax burden on middle income families. it would be absolutely wrong to do that. >> romney hits battle ground ohio today and wisconsin in a new tv ad. >> here in was son kon sin we're not better off under president obama. >> reporter: romney made news saying he would keep parts of what he called obama care. >> the marketplace calls for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like. >> while there are sharp differences over jobs and tax cuts. >> i don't believe that tax cuts will bring jobs back from overseas. >> reporter: one thing is clear, it's still a slow recovery. >> reporter: friday's job numbers seemed to bare that out, not nearly as many jobs created in august as economists expected. we did see the jobless rate go down.

but a lot of experts are saying that's because so many people have simply dropped out of the market and no longer are looking for work, veronica. >> tracie potts in washington. thank you. tragedy struck on the campaign trail sunday when a florida police officer on a motorcycle was killed while escorting the motorcade. the officer was struck and killed by a pickup truck while shutting down a portion of i-95 in jupiter sunday afternoon. so far no charges have been filed against the driver. while campaigning in palm beach county sunday the president said, quote, our thoughts and prayers are with the officer's family. more than 26,000 teachers and support staff in chicago plan to walk off the job after talked failed late last night. after months of negotiations the key issues remaining are pay, benefits and job security. the strike will affect at least

400,000 students. chicago mayor rahm emanuel says the strike is unnecessary and unfair to the city's schoolchildren. yesterday one of the bloodiest of the year in iraq left at least 92 people dead. a series of bombings and shootings left hundreds injured. in bagdad car bombs exploded in six districts hitting a restaurant and commercial area. since american troops left iraq there last year attacks have been increasing. tariq al hasheem many who escaped iraq in september is unlikely to return for exile in turkey. other stories making news early today in america. in texas hundreds of pounds of explosives did their job as an eight-story building came crashing down in just seconds. a former medical tower was imploded and will be replaced with a new medical building and

a parking garage, but only after they clean up all of that debris which, of course, is going to take weeks. as we approach the anniversary of the 9/11 attack, hundreds of comrades paid tribute to their lost members. they did it to honor those who climbed the 110-story world trade center buildings 11 years ago tomorrow. a much happier scene in new mexico where they carried out the annual burning of the zozobra, a 50-foot tall marionette to resemble the problems of the last year. now for a look at your national and regional weather. here is meteorologist todd santos with the weather channel forecast. i see you over there, making your notes where to go next year.

>> i wish i had actually burned some of these. there are problems here. >> your weather notes. your woes. >> the weather notes are actually great. for many folks across the country, it's looking like an absolutely beautiful day. even broke the streak in seattle. 200ths of an inch of rainfall from late last night to early this morning. at least a little rainfall. a few showers into portions of florida. southwest we have a disturbance that will likely spawn more shower activity, especially as you factor in daytime heating there. beyond that, a good two-thirds of the country dry and quiet. there is a look towards seattle. you see the moisture moving through the area, not a huge amount. but still it's noteworthy after an august where we didn't see any rainfall at all, at least through sea-tac airport. some of the flash flood watches include southern portions of california, nevada, southwestern utah and northwestern arizona. potential for locally heavy rainfall. you see some of the daytime

heating helps enhance some of the lifting in the atmosphere, you get better coverage rainfallwise. there's a look closer in at some of the showers mid 70s. there will be warmer spots including fresno with temperatures in the mid 90s. at least a few areas looking good today. again, we will track the chances for showers. we'll take a look out towards the next couple days. >> not too bad. an awesome way to start the week. kind of a cake monday weatherwise. wall street on stimulus watch, expectations for a new iphone and making a killing on coca-cola. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus hollywood suffers a historically bad weekend at the box office. coming up, a thrilling finish for serena williams.

rory mcilroy does it again. it's back, week one of the nfl. you're watching "early today."

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. a government report says financial records are missing for about $475 million worth of fuel for the afghan national army. the international coalition can't prove whether the fuel was used by afghan forces, lost, stolen, or diverted to insurgents. the afghan taliban is calling england's prince harry a high-value target and say they will try to arrest or kill him. harry arrived friday to start his second tour of duty as an apache helicopter pilot. in cuba power is slowly being restored to millions left in the dark by a massive power outage in havana and western parts of the country. no word on what caused the

electrical fire. actress emma watson, star of the harry potter series is being called the most dangerous celebrity to search for online. mcafee software says cyber criminals are using her as bait to steal personal information. users searching for her have a one-in-eight chance of landing on a malicious site. here a certainly look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow closed at 13,306 after adding 14 points on friday. the s&p gained five, the nasdaq was up a fraction. overseas in tokyo the nikkei was down two points, but in hong kong the hang seng rose 25. this week investors are betting on the fed to ep kite going. they're hoping the employment report will be a big motivator for the stimulus and boost the

economy. the federal reserve holds the policy meeting this week. elsewhere the government issues report on august sales on friday. word on the street is consumers appear to be spending more money on back to school items. wall street will receive two readings on inflation this weechblth both are expected to show prices are in check even though food and fuel prices have been on the rise. over the past two weeks gas prices shot up to an average $3.84 for a gallon of regular. expect plenty of buzz around apple. expectations are high for the release of the next generation iphone and possibly a smaller ipad. the government announced it's selling $18 billion in american international group stock. that should decrease its holdings below a majority stake for the first time since aig's $182 billion bailout in 2008. after a big response to its free haircut for kids program last month, jc penney says it plans

to make the offer permanent every sunday starting in november. finally, talk about a wise investment. a predecessor of suntrust bank took $100,000 worth of coca-cola stock in exchange for working on the company's ipo back in 1919. last week the bank cashed in those shares for nearly $2 billion, that's billion with a b, dollars. a stellar nfl rookie debut. a tennis woman's fourth consecutive title. a former colt reaches an nfl milestone in new colors. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. actually looking good for the final matches of the open today. we'll check out the forecast coming up. you're watching "early today."

and a very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, it's back to football, as most teams took to the gridiron yesterday for the first game of the nfl season. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. the wait is finally over. let's do it. the nfl is back. we'll start in denver, where mile-high stadium is now peyton's place. manning missed a year because of

neck surgery but didn't miss a beat against the steelers. toss to demarius thomas. and watch him go. 71 yards. peyton's first touchdown as a bronco. den ver woen 38-19. what a debut for robert griffin iii. the rookie looked like a seasoned vet. found pierre garcon across the middle. 88 yards to the house. griffin threw a pair of touchdowns and the skins upset the saints 40-32. andrew luck's debut didn't go as well. picked off three times. the bears are expecting big things out of jay cutler and brandon marshall. they got it. chicago beat indy 41-21. mark sanchez didn't throw a single touchdown in the preseason because apparently he was saving it for the bills. three touchdowns. in fact, the only thing that went wrong was on the sidelines. rex ryan levelled by scott chandler. popped right back up. jets were all smiles and why not? they won it 48-28. pats and titans. rob gronkowski picked up where he left off last season. new england up 21-3. but the celebration needs some work. not exactly the kind of spike he had in mind. the pats are happy he can hold

on to the ball when it counts. they won 34-13. alex smith connecting with vernon davis. touchdown niners. davis then showed off his hops, or lack thereof. the dunk over the goal post rejected. this is how you use a goal post, vernon. david acres 63 yards away. if it's good, it ties an nfl record. the ball hit the crossbar and went over. 63 yards and a lucky bounce. niners beat the packers 30-22. golf, rory mcilroy has done it again. won the bmw championship by two strokes, second straight win. u.s. open, serena williams put to the test and passed with flying colors. down two games in the final set, serena rallied, won the next four and captured her fourth u.s. open title. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. reports of a huge celebrity wedding involving two big stars this weekend. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, whoever said all is fair in love and war obviously

never met willy the cockatoo. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." a pretty desechbt day across much of the area, at least to start off. 83 in vegas. more humid than what you're used to. dew point in the low 60s. that will get up into the clouds. especially later this afternoon,

we'll see the chance for localized flash flooding. make sure you're safe driving around in salt lake city, chance of thunderstorms into wyoming. that may prompt fire concerns. keep a close eye there. red flag warnings in place. there's a look at tuesday, seattle, the sunday shining again. if you're watching us on kc 24 news in fresno, get an up close and underwater few of sea lions interacting with handlers and each other at the fresno chaffee zoo. >> i grew up in the bay area and loved watching the sea lions. this weekend was hollywood's worst. "the possession" took the top spot with $9.4 million. no film managed to crack the $10

million mark. the weekend after labor day is typically slow. this weekend's grosses were down a whopping 20% from last year. the only new movie to make the top ten was "the words" which earned way less than expected, $5 million for third place. that raises box office questions about this guy right here, bradley cooper, who notched his second straight flop. speaking of flop. the cold light of day which costs $20 million to make and had a long sit on the studio shelf before being released that earned $1.8 million for the 13th spot. finally according to "people" magazine, "green lantern" stars were married last night out of charleston, south carolina. this comes from wjar, nbc 10 news in providence, rhode island where in warwick there is a bird that may need to have its beak washed out with soap.

lilly the cockatoo has been uttering vulgar phrases. the pet's potty mouth has been documented in a police report. and the owner is now fighting a citation. >> did they let the bird out next to a preschool? . i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

one family in canada decided to mix farming with technology, yielding some a-mazing results. a corn maze has been named the large nest the world. it measures over 312,000 square feet. to prove the qr code worked. it rented a helicopter and filmed themselves scanning it. in germany, speed demons have taken farm equipment to a whole mu level. 80 teams from across europe competed in the two-day tractor pulling championships where high-powered tractor prototypes must tow a tractor down the track. they are made from old planes or dragster engines. boasting up to 10,000

horsepower. this weekend in wales, it was all about divers. in the eighth of nine events in this year's cliff diving series, hundreds of spectators watched daring contestantsiving into the blue lagoon from a platform over feet above the celtic sea. an american won this event while an english diver leads the overall series. that just turns my stomach. >> you can shoot people jumping off of something but it never looks that high. that actually looks really high. >> yeah, couldn't do it. i can't even do the high dive. no way. time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow here on nbc. fresh off a five-week vacation congressional lawmakers return to work on the hill. congress faces several deadlines, lawmakers are expected to focus on preventing a government shutdown when the budget year ends september 30th. ahead of tomorrow's 9/11 anniversary, leon panetta will privately tour the flight 93 national memorial in

shanksville, pennsylvania. vice president joe biden is scheduled to speak at the memorial on tuesday. finally, happy birthday to golf legend arnold palmer who turns 83 years old today. all day long you can stay on top of the latest developments on those stories and others as they break on msnbc. tonight, be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." finally, here is a look at what's coming up on the "today" show. from hantavirus, dr. oz has ways to protect your family from a deadly disease outbreak. actor tony danza shares lessons he learned after spending a year teaching. stay tuned for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day on your nbc station. have a terrific monday.