good wednesday morning. coming up on "early today," deadline day. hours to go before the default deadline, the senate is back at the noon, with the aaa credit rating happening in the balance. it might be right versus left, but 51% of the public is right down the middle. fascinating new details about where we stand. extreme bullying. two teens charged with felony aggravated stalking after another girl jumped to her death. plus, an american hero recognized. oreos as addictive as cocaine? and train trouble for a woman trying to avoid police.

good morning. i'm richard lui. we are now less than 20 hours away from a key treasury deadline. if an agreement is not reached, the nation could default on its bills. >> my expectation is it does get solved. but we don't have a lot of time and so what i'm suggesting to the congressional leaders is let's not do any posturing, let's not try to save face. let's not worry about politics. do what's right. open the government and make sure we're paying our bills. >> all right. now, the house, tuesday, abandoned a last-ditch effort to pass its own legislation. >> there have been no decisions about what exactly we will do. but we're going to continue to work with our members on both sides of the aisle to try to make sure there is no issue of default and to get our government reopened. >> some placing the blame squarely on house speaker john

boehner. >> it's about the psychology of one man and whether he is willing to put at risk his speakership by cobbling together a deal that will get the votes of democrats and republicans. he has to make a decision whether he is going to abandon the tea party or collapse the global economy. >> leader nancy pelosi saying defaulting the government would be stupid. >> you can shut down government and that's a bad thing. and you can have a shutdown for 15 days, as it has been, and that's a bad thing. but you undermine the full faith and credit of the united states of americas that's a very hard thing to get back. >> right now any likelihood of a deal appears to be in the hands of the senate. majority leader harry reid says they are very close to reopening the government and lifting the debt ceiling. >> i'm confident we'll be able to reach a comprehensive agreement this week in time to avert a catastrophic default on the nation's bills. >> nbc's tracie potts is live in

washington, watching all of that swirling around the capitol. good morning to you, tracie. another blemish to our nation's economy in the works right now. tell us about that. >> if we go over this cliff and don't have enough cash on hand to pay our bills, one of the big credit ratings agencies, fitch, has said they will look at downgrading our aaa credit rating and that could make a huge impact on things like interest rates for ordinary americans. that's something we're watching very closely. you heard harry reid there and that the senate may come to some agreement. but in the house, those tea partiers who insist on dealing with health care not after the fact, not after people come back to work, not after we avoid this midnight deadline, but first. upfront.

they simply don't think it's fair they simply don't think it's working. richard? >> tracie potts, thank you so much. we'll continue to watch that on nbc news here. two girls are charged with cyber bullying that turned deadly. police say 12-year-old rebecca sedwick just couldn't take anymore. she tragically killed herself last month after nearly a year of ugly taunts, including one reading, quote, drink bleach and die. now two girls are charged as juveniles in connection with rebecca's suicide. the 12 and 14-year-old are facing felony aggravating stalking charges. they have been released to their parents under house arrest. a rapid fall from grace and now a guilty plea from bob filner. former san diego mayor pled guilty tuesday to a felony for putting a woman in a headlock, and two misdemeanors, one for kissing another one against her

will and another for grabbing the behind of a third woman. filner was driven from office in august after sexual allegations from at least 17 women. the 71-year-old previously said he was the victim of a lynch mob. under the plea deal, he will sentenced to plea months of home confinement and three years of probation. a fiery and deadly end for a suspect. he shot two cops before barricading himself inside his home. shortly after, he apparently ignited a fire inside that house before fatally shooting himself. those officers are expected to cover from their gunshot wounds. he is wanted for the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend and her brother. in newtown, connecticut, special restrictions have been put in place before demolition crews begin tearing down the site of that tragic school shooting. workers will be required to sign a contract to protect the families of the 26 people massacred inside the sandy hook

elementary school. it was drawn up to bar crews from taking photos and videos as well as discussing the work site. a new school will be built after the current structure is completely demolished. given all the gridlock in washington, it might seem like the country is heavily divided along party lines. but people are not as red and blue as you might think. that's according to a new study from nbc news and esquire magazine. nbc's chuck todd has more. >> reporter: a new nbc news/esquire survey finds we all could use a pair of 3d glasses. there is a growing center. 51% of the country actually falls in the middle lane of american politics. the hard left lane is just 21%. and the hard right lane is only slightly bigger at 28%. the center is as diverse as the country and basically fall into four categories. the minivan moderates are in the suburbs. pickup populists largely live in rural america. mba middle live on the coast,

while the most cynical apathetic group, dubbed whatever man centrists are largely under 40. culturally, this is a live and let live group. 52% are okay with legalizing marijuana, but 79% believe the government is spending too much money. >> so just where do you fall on the political spectrum? find out by taking our interactive quiz on nbcnews.com, just click the icon that says quiz where do you stand. >> interesting. i tried to be the whatever man. no matter what combination i did, i could not get it. >> you still have a couple of days. we're watching a warm weather pattern continuing. how about 80 degrees in downtown san francisco? beautiful. 87 in l.a. that was warm for you. we'll do it all over again today. the intermountain west is the chillier spots, obviously, blue shading showing 30s and 40s, salt lake city and boise. we're already off to a warm

start in phoenix, l.a. and san francisco. with full sun we'll warm it up in a hurry. trying to drive a frontal boundary. not a lot with it. may just keep the temperatures down a little bit. southwards, oregon, california, nevada. we should be staying very warm. forecast for today, again, 85 in l.a. but 76 in sacramento. phoenix and tucson, you're looking great, too. we continue with our great stretch. th 57 degrees in spokane. >> there's an october pattern change coming for much of the country. i'll let you know whether it

will affect the rest of the country. >> don't want to hear about it. bill karins, thanks. hero recognized by the nation's highest honor. plus the estate of martin luther king jr.

a utah woman is lucky to be alive. she was fleeing from police when she got hit not once, but twice by an oncoming train. though she did suffer some broken bone, she was not seriously injured. army captain william swenson was recognized for heroic actions in one of the deadliest fire fights in war in afghanistan. >> you can never allow a service member to be taken hostage. alive or dead. you bring them home. and that's what we did. >> that's bravery. harry belafonte is suing the estate of dr. martin luther king jr. at issue are three documents previously in his possession

including a speech dr. king never delivered in memphis. belafonte says the documents were given to him by king's wife, coretta. king's children say they were taken without permission and belong to the estate. and a rarely seen oar fish was caught off the coast of california. it took more than 15 people to haul in the 18-foot giant. the fish doesn't come up all that often. they typically dive more than 3,000 feet deep. now to cnbc's bertha coombs. good morning, bertha. >> good morning, richard. close to finalizing a plan to raise the debt ceiling, avoiding a possible default. markets fell sharply tuesday as two plans in the house failed and fitch put the u.s. credit rating on review for a possible downgrade. cnb has learned twitter will price its ipo on november 15th, listing on the new york stock exchange. filing shows that twitter is still not close to being

profitable. and nestle is moving in on hershey's turf, planning to roll out a butter finger peanut buttercup next year, challenging hershey's best-selling reese's brand. it's going to be the peanut buttercup wars. back to you. >> toe to toe, those two will be going. thank you, bertha. according to a study done at connecticut college, oreos may be as addictive as cocaine. the study looked at the pleasure center in the brains of rats and found they activated more neurons than exposure to cocaine or morphine. how about that? john edwards' former mistress is trying to drum up book sales. rielle hunter now says she, quote, behaved badly and is apologizing for her wrong and selfish behavior. editors at dealnews.com found the best toy deals were during the first two weeks of december.

sports is next. first, our trivia question, the u.s. defaulted on its debt for the first time during which war? the war of 1812, the civil war, world war i or world war ii? that answer when "early today" continues.

before the break, we asked

you, the u.s. defaulted on its debt for the first time during which war? the war of 1812, the civil war, world war i, or world war ii. the answer, the war of 1812 when the u.s. treasury couldn't afford to pay american troops. the only other time was in 1979 due to what the government called a back office glitch. in sports, the dodgers facing elimination in the national league championship. in game four last night, st. louis got a long two-run homer to left field. and shane robinson blasted a home run off the top of the wall. st. louis beat l.a. 4-2. game five is this afternoon in l.a.. in detroit, the power went out at comerica park and delayed the bottom half of the second inning of the tigers/red sox game for about 16 minutes. detroit batters had no power against boston's john lackey, who only gave up four hits. in the seventh inning, boston's mike napoli smashed a fast ball

for a homer in the 1-0 win. red sox lead the series 2-1. game four is tonight in detroit. lebron james says michael jordan is the greatest basketball player of all-time. but james told espn, quote, my goal is to be the best of all-time and that means maximizing everything i have. members of the washington capitals posed for photos wearing some silly hats and glass with rescue dogs for a charity calendar. it will raise money for a group that adopts dogs and cats from shelters and then places th them in homes in washington, maryland and verge yain. robert griffin iii and josh wilson put on wigs at an event supporting the fight against breast cancer. they seem pretty hear with their new dos. wonder if they'll wear those on sunday. and new extreme trick shots are back as the group shoots baskets from one white water raft to another. an amazing bank shot while moving on a zip line. as they always say, don't try that at home. just ahead, the donald just got more spread out.

plus catching fire is starting to create quite a buzz. you're watching "early today".

welcome back. we are still looking at a beautiful weather pattern over the west. things are going to change. not so much for the west along the coast. throughout next week, big changes in the middle of the country. intermountain west is who will feel it first. richard, it still looks like the pattern of the west, more of the same.

if not maybe warmer. but we have to watch out for santa ana winds. >> bill is catching his breath. he bolted in here like lightning right before that. >> that's good, like lightning. like a hurricane gust. >> we couldn't even see you. it was just a big blur. tina fey and amy poehler will be back to host both the 2014 and 2015 golden globes. in an interview, amy poeer talked about how preparing is similar to snl. >> we kind of treat it like the way we used to treat update. we get a lot of jokes, we read through them, we comb through the ones that are working, we write some of our own, we write, we talk about it. but you kind of can't do any of this stuff too early and you also can't overthink it. >> and they always have fun. >> congratulations to ivanka trump and her husband, jared kushner. they welcomed a baby boy yesterday. chris pine is the newest addition to the cast of "horrible bosses, too."

they will reprise their roles in the sequel. forbes has released their list of highest paid tv actors. ashton kutcher is again at the top spot with $24 million followed by jon cryer, ray romano, neil patrick harris, mark harmon and patrick dempsey. big fall from number one, though, you see? >> yeah. >> kutcher actually makes less than sofia vergara, who brought in $30 million last year. michelle has a new little love, an 8-year-old dog named pearl. hunger games has released their newest tease. this time katniss' relationships with peter. the rock 'n' roll hall of fame has announced their 2014 induction nominees which include linda ronstadt, kiss, hall of oats, ll cooljay just to name a

few. some from our time. and kim kardashian is officially off the market. her engagement ring went for $749,000. it's a bargain. just a fraction off its limited worth of $2 million. that's a big rock, though. >> do you like it? does it even look pretty? we're the wrong people to ask. >> i wouldn't buy it because it looks good but for the investment. if it's worth $2 million, my friend -- >> buy that puppy and sell it. >> that's going to make some money. this is "early today". we hope it's just your first stop of the day on nbc.

leading the news in the "new york times," iran presents nuclear plan to big powers. at geneva talks, iran's foreign minister outlined a proposal that would constrain his country's nuclear program in return for a right to enrich uranium and easing of sanctions. and an l.a.x. employee arrested in case. a 28-year-old baggage handler was booked for possession of a destructive device. there is no word on a motive. now to stories you might have missed. all eyes are on capitol hill, we're about 20 hours away from the debt ceiling deadline. if an agreement is not reached, the nation could default on its bills, potentially sending the economy into disarray. the house nixed its last ditch vote tuesday. the senate is set to be very

close to inking a deal. a once in a decade typhoon is hitting japan hard and is causing mudslides that buried people and homes. at least 14 people are dead with more than 50 missing. and a shocking admission from a federal appeals court judge in the landmark voter i.d. case. richard pozner says he was wrong to require people to show identification before they can vote. judge pozner says he wrote the majority of the opinion in 2007 crawford v. marion case in indiana where those requirements were affirmed. some incredible video to show you. a group of adrenalin junkies took to the forest. participants were hoisted 90 feet -- god i hate that stuff -- into the air. then they took a leap of faith after a few stylish flips. they swung through the foliage. >> looks like avatar.

where is that? >> oh, man t does look like avatar. and, again, no one was hurt. >> looks like fun. i'd love it. >> oh, man, i would freak out. democrat cory booker is running for the u.s. senate against republican steve lonegan. and on this day in 1987, rescuers freed baby jessica mcclure who was strapped in an abandoned well in texas for almost 59 hours as reported by nbc's connie chung. >> there she goes being rushed off to a waiting ambulance and off to the hospital. and happy birthday to john mayer who is 36. threes company's actress suzanne somers turns 67. and angela lansbury, star of "murder she wrote" is 88. and later this morning, jeff rossen reports on a scam artist who preyed on sandy hook families after the newtown shooting tragedy and brad pitt talks about his new film, 12 years as a slave.

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