kong's hang seng with more than half a percent higher. new york mayor michael bloomberg putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to the gun-control debate. the billionaire mayor is rolling out a $12 million ad campaign ahead of key congressional votes. bloomberg has run ads in the past but the new push will urge senators to back legislation that would expand background checks for gun purchasers. the spots will run in more than a dozen states, but they will not be without dissent. nra leaders are prepared to counter that blitz just as some senators prepare to vote on gun-control measures. >> this is what the survivors want. this is what the public wants. this is what the 900 plus mayors that are in our organization want. they are the ones that have to deliver safety to the streets every single day. >> what's appalled me about this whole debate is how little it has to do with making people safe and how much it has to do with an agenda to attack the second amendment. senate majority leader harry reid says the senate will take up the gun bill when the chamber returns from recess next month.

secretary of state john kerry has just arrived for an unannounced visit to kabul, afghanistan, for talks with president hamid karzai. earlier secretary kerry was not mincing words when it comes to the ongoing civil war in syria. the secretary made some of his harshest comments to date on sunday during an unannounced trip to meet with iraqi leaders in baghdad. he told iraq's prime minister the country must take steps to stop iran from using iraqi airspace as a means to ship weapons to syria. however, after talks described as spirits, no breakthrough was achieved. >> anything that supports president assad is problematic and i made it very clear to the prime minister that the overflights from iran are in fact helping to sustain president assad. >> talks also focused on iraq's transition to democracy as it prepares for upcoming elections at a time when violence is on the rise.

back here in the u.s., we're watching a lot of weather. bill karins here with a look at the northeast. you say you're promising this will be the last time. >> it has to be, right? >> i hope you're right. >> ten inches of snow in denver, nine in condition can city. st. louis had 12 inches. this isn't your average snowstorm. st. louis is not a very snowy city. they got a foot of snow. it was the most snow they've had in one single storm going back since 1982. and here it was, the end of march. st. louis should typically be about 60 degrees. i think you get the gist. the storm is moving through the ohio valley, now hitting maryland, d.c. and maryland. we've picked up as much as three to four inches in some areas of maryland. that's pushing into philadelphia and new jersey. the storm will be gone by tomorrow. indianapolis and columbus, around six inches there. d.c. will probably end up with two to four. same with maryland. philadelphia and new york city, a little less. one to two inches.

big, huge airports get enough delays, it will ripple across the country. it's kind of calm in the west. there is a storm coming on shore over the next 24 hours in the west. but it's mostly just going to bring clouds. there's not a lot of rain with it. we'll keep the showers out of the forecast. temperatures not bad. upper 50s to low 60s from seattle to l.a., 67. not a bad spring day. that's a? mid-70s, huh? >> yeah. otherwise a day of superlatives in the east, right? >> i think i've been wearing my coat for, like, six months. >> exactly. it might be eight months the way things are going. are republicans considering

cashing in on the gay marriage issue? do you have the most ten critical job skills required this year? we'll tell you what they are. and important new guidelines about what you're feeding your babies and when. "early today" is back in two.

welcome back to "early today." stories making news this morning for you. the supreme court is gearing up to hear arguments on the legality of same-sex marriage. on tuesday, california will take up prop 8. on wednesday the federal defense of marriage act will be front and center. gop strategist karl rove signaled this weekend there could be a major shift in his party's outlook. >> can you next imagine the next presidential campaign, the republican candidate saying i'm flat out for gay marriage? >> i could. >> some prominent republicans have slowly been warming to the idea of same-sex marriage. reports this morning say the party is using that evolution as a fund-raising opportunity. american amanda knox who was acquitted of killing her british roommate while studying abroad.

but today a very anxious knox will find out if that acquittal stands. the italian supreme court is expected to announce whether the 25-year-old will have her guilty verdict reinstated or if a new trial will be set. two arrests in georgia after a 13-month-old baby was shot to death while sitting in his stroller. 17-year-old de'marquise elkins sign seen here and a 13-year-old boy are charged with first-degree murder. the co-owner of sky dive city near miami says the men became unaware of their altitude before it was too late. and the fbi is joining the search for a missing brown university student. the 22-year-old philosophy major has not been seen in more than one week. his cell phone, wallet and i.d. were found in the apartment he shared with other students. in health news for you, if you're up feeding your baby at this hour, you want to hear this one. there's a new study that says parents are feeding their babies

solid food too early. 40% of parents surveyed fed their children solid food at 4 months. the american academy of pediatrics recommends you wait until 6 months. early introduction of solid foods can increase your child's risk of obesity, diabetes and celiac disease. >> announcer: "early today" is brought to you by vagisil. bring yourself back. earlier we told you about the deal reached in cyprus to secure a bailout this morning. so far it's having a positive impact on stocks around the globe. in the u.s., gasoline prices dropped three cents in the past two weeks. according to the lundberg survey, billings, montana, has the lowest price. chicago has the highest at $4.10 a gallon. michael dell's bid to take back his own company and make it private may backfire on him. competeding bids from blackstone group and billionaire carl icahn are being evaluated.

if either is chosen, mr. dell could be out of a job. the biggest lottery payout in new jersey history. the one winning ticket to the $338 million powerball jackpot was sold in the garden state. but as of right now, the winner has not yet come forward. up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, no silly, it's good year's newest blimp. look closely. the three new iconic blimps being built in ohio are getting a high-tech makeover including an interior skeleton, three engines instead of two and rotating props will allow it to take off and land like helicopters. it can also hover longer at sporting events. cool. speaking of iconic, this diamond and sapphire ring was presented by napoleon bonaparte to his young fiancee, josephine. at the time it was valued at $20,000. over the weekend that ring sold for a whopping $949,000. london has known theater for hundreds of years. starting with successful william shakespeare. today the most successful have the names of matt stone and trey parker.

"the book of mormon" earned the highest one-day gross with an impressive $3.2 million. and "forbes" is out with the list of ten most critical job skills of 2012. sales and marketing, mathematics are there. don't forget computer skills, listening, decision-making and critical thinking. those round out the top five. the rain keeps tiger at bay that is until later today. but sergio garcia certainly had a shot for the highlight reel. and check out these shoppers at lowe's where wicked weather outside was trying to get inside. you're watching "early today."

now to some of the other stories that caught our eye this morning. in louisville, an underground explosion saturday sent 200-pound manhole covers flying seven stories into the air. traffic halted for more than five hours as flames shot out of the broken pavement. the blast was tied to a faulty underground cable and while plenty missed work, no injuries were reported. look at those pictures. dramatic video in orlando shows customers retreating into a lowe's home improvement store to avoid a fierce storm. employees scrambled to shut automatic doors as winds pushed carts and customers back inside. in california, talk about taking a wrong turn. a man lost control of his car this weekend and wound up on the

roof of his neighbor's house. neighbors rushed with a ladder to help him down. nobody in the car or house was injured. weird. to key west where the navy's blue angels performed what could be the last air show until fall. federal budget cuts could stop the performances. which have a big hand in naval recruiting. to sports now. 16 teams are still alive for march madness. florida gulf coast university is the first and only number 15 seed to make it to the sweet 16 round of the ncaa college basketball tournament. they knocked off seven seed san diego state. 81-71. fgcu advanced in only its second year of eligibility. the team celebrated by tossing the coach in the air as he said, hey, they're just trying to have fun. >> we don't take ourselves too seriously. we have a lot of guys on the team that are characters. no one knows who we are. we're fgcu. hopefully people by now are

learning those initials. >> number two seed duke dominated seventh seed creighton for a 66-50 victory. this is the fourth trip in five years to the round of 16. looking at the brackets now. in the east region on thursday, indiana hoosiers beat temple and they will face syracuse and marquette plays miami. in the west, number two seed ohio state will play arizona on thursday and wichita state faces lasalle. on friday in the midwest, top seed louisville plays oregon. and duke faces michigan state and in the south, kansas moved on to meet michigan on friday. and fgcu, as we were just talking about, they play florida. in the nba, the miami heat extended their winning streak to 26 with a 109-77 win over charlotte. a nascar crash at the auto club 400 in california. two cars were fighting for the lead. kyle busch passes them. denny hamlin hit the wall. busch got the victory there. play will resume at the arnold palmer invitational after a rain delay. tiger woods is in the lead by two strokes. an interesting fact here.

he's won 40 of 42 tournaments when he leads by two strokes going into the final round. we will be watching. and serge know garcia made the shot of the tournament by climbing a tree to knock his ball back onto the fairway. in oklahoma city, a sharpshooting fan made a half-court shot to win $20,000. thunder superstar kevin durant rushed on the court to hug that winner and both fell to the court in quite a celebration. what a shot. just ahead, robert redford could join forces with a superhero. we'll show you amazing images of a crazed great white shark breaking into a cage holding divers. you're watching "early today."

well, i mentioned the show? the midwest. now it's in the mid-atlantic. reagan national airport, everybody's got just about an inch of slushy, heavy, wet snow on the ground right now. major travel delays around the d.c. area, as you would expect. now, as far as what we're going to deal with on the west coast, nothing like this. we're actually finally not going to send any storm from the west coast across the country as snowstorms anymore either. we are looking at one little storm coming on shore over the next 24 hours with a lot of clouds. temperatures are moderate. we're not watching that cold air pour down from canada anymore either. your monday and tuesday forecasts look pretty good. no big rainstorms. just kind of quiet. we needed to settle down around the country. >> you said snow three times,

but it's all about the northeast, right. hopefully that goes away. it was a good weekend to be a caveman at the box office. "the croods" earned an estimated $44 million at the box office meaning wheel most likely see a sequel. olympus" has fallen" raked in $30 million making it the top action movie opening of 2013 so far. speaking of action movies, "captain american 2" may be adding the sundance kid to its roster. robert redford is currently in negotiations to join the cast of the upcoming comic book movie. he will not be captain america. he's rumored to be playing a good guy. ashley green's hollywood condo caught fire friday. while her and two others were able to get out safely, "e!" news reporting one of her dogs did not. they say a candle initially started the blaze there. slime was flowing at

nickelodeon's kids choice awards. the stars included sandra bullock, neil patrick harris, josh duhamel. also rapper pitbull got slimed. cbs issued an apology for a segment from "the amazing race." the segment was filmed vietnam at the site of a crashed american b-52 plane. veterans groups call it had a disgraceful slap in the face to war heroes. tilda swinton surprised visitors of new york's muse ym of modern art by becoming, well, art if you could call it that. the 52-year-old just sleeps in a clear glass box all day while puzzled museumgoers there ponder the meaning of the performance piece. this sounds like something you and i could, in this shift, we could all do that and make a lot of money. >> i got 12 straight hours. >> you do not. >> no, i wouldn't budge. i could do that. >> without even a sleeping pill, too. a newborn giraffe celebrated an extra-special milestone.

this tiny calf was welcomed in a big way at the leo zoo in connecticut. still just hours old in this video -- >> going to stand up? >> yep, the baby gets off to a wobbly start as she struggles to stand with helpful encouragement from mom. she's finally able to stand up on all fours although she still looks a little shaky. i'm richard lui. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

leading the way on nbcnews.com, off the trail but still in the spotlight.

michelle obama steps up policy agenda. the first lady has a sharp focus on second-term policy causes now that there are no more elections on the horizon. and "the wall street journal" has a feature entitled "investors pile into houses this time as landlords." housing is a smart place to invest your money. looks like a scene out of a movie. monuments in 152 countries around the world went dark this weekend. it was not part of some super villain's plot. it was a time dedicated to raising awareness about the impact of climate change around the world. divers in a sharkproof cage put that guarantee to the test when a great white shark came a little too close for comfort. wedging its head between the bars of the cage. it thrashed about for a few seconds before freeing itself and swim ago way. fortunately no divers were hurt. >> i would have passed out. >> i would have lost a beat or two in my heart. but the thing works.

what if sharks are small enough to get through? >> you poke it in the eyes. that's what you're supposed to do. >> that's the bill karins strategy. >> i watch all the survival shows. you poke it in the eye. >> something like that. time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll be following today. the trial of jodi arias resumes in phoenix, arizona. more testimony is expected on her amnesia diagnosis by a psychologist for the defense. and on this day in 1965, an historic civil rights march. the reverend martin luther king jr. led 25,000 marchers to the st state capitol to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks. happy birthday to aretha franklin. she turns 71. here's a look at what's coming up on the "today" show. former penn state assistant coach jerry sandusky speaks out from behind bars for the first time since being convicted of child abuse. and usher talks about joining

"the voice" ahead of tonight's season premiere. a shout-out to knbc and our friends at "today in l.a." last friday i was out there visiting, and they couldn't have been any more welcoming. great morning show and great morning team. thanks for the 70-degree weather. we need that. right, bill? keep it on this channel. i'm richard lui along with bill karins. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day on your nbc station. have a great monday.

. . . new this morning, the search for a swimmer who disappeared

off the coast of half moon bay continues. we'll have the latest details next. plus, people all over in the bay area getting ready to march against proposition 8 on the eve of the supreme court hearing on that issue. a couple of major changes for bay area commuters in the works. details on the new roadway that ll open today coming up. right now, we give you a live look at san francisco. that's a nice moon on this monday, march 25th. this is "today in the bay." good morning. it is 4:30 on this morning. i'm marla tallez in for jon kelley. >> i'm laura garcia cannon. let's check the forecast with christina loren. >> good morning, ladies. we have a great-looking day shaping up, specially when you consider rain chances start tomorrow. we have a chance for rain each and every day through easter

sunday. if you want to get outdoors without getting rained on, "today" is your day to do it. temperatures in the upper 40s. a couple of 30s. watch out for fog up in santa rosa. otherwise, we're doing queso far. spring break for some. last week, next week, and schools around the bay area roe kating th roetaiting that schedule. over the last ten minutes, crews moving around. no real slowing through the area. i will let you know about traffic breaks as i see them. we will go to the tri valley where we have slowing down on the eastbound 80. near the altamore pass. the coast guard will decide whether to resume the search for a missing 22-year-old man from