it is monday, september 21st. coming up on "early today," more political controversy for the presidential candidates as donald trump appears to be slipping and hillary clinton faces extreme odds. pope francis wowed cubans, then stopped for a meeting with the former dictator, fel castro. four people were plucked from this burning yacht off the coast of texas. a huge night for television, as the stars came out for the prime time emmys. a lone star loss for the cowboys as romo joins dez on the bench. much more. "early today" starts right now. good morning, i'm milissa rehberger. a busy weekend on the 2016 campaign trail has experts asking, who is in the lead here?

the top two democratic candidates spent time in new hampshire. judging from the crowds, you wouldn't know hillary clinton was the front runner. she spoke in front of 600 people at the university of new hampshire on friday. two days later at the exact same university, bernie sanders drew a crowd of five times larger. about 3,000 people, according to the "washington post." a spokesman for dr. jill biden said she was, quote, be on board if her husband decides to run for president. tracy potts is live in washington with new republican poll numbers. good morning. are we seeing surging from last week's debate? >> i can tell you that donald trump is dropping. carly fiorina is surging. it looks like her bid to get on that debate stage, number 11, paid off. >> reporter: the first big poll after last week's debate shows carly fiorina surging from 3% to 15%, in second place behind

donald trump. >> as people come to know me and they understand who i am and what i've done and, most importantly, what i will do, they tend to support me. >> reporter: fiorina replaces ben carson as number two. muslim groups are calling on carson to drop out of the race after he said this. >> i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation. i absolutely would not agree with that. >> he said that on his own. that was startling. >> reporter: it came days after trump failed to correct a supporter who called president obama muslim. he's not. trump's rely seemed to support getting rid of muslims in america. >> the fact is, there is a problem with some, and it's a very severe problem. >> he is fueling a level of paranoia and prejudice. >> now, look at those numbers again. nbc did a separate poll, taking a look at the positive numbers after the debate minus the negative numbers. what's the balance?

the highest is for carly fiorina, 34%. the closest was marco rubio with 8%. >> thank you. this morning, donald trump is live on the "today" show. hear his reaction to the new poll numbers and what is next for his campaign. pope francis continues his historic tour through cuban this morning but, right now, everybody is talking about this meeting between the pope and cu cuba's former leader, fidel castro. the two met at castro's home for 40 minutes. a papal spokesperson said it was informal and friendly. prior to that, pope francis held the largest mass ever at havana's square. at least 200,000 people were in attendance. the pope will arrive in washington, d.c. on tuesday. a professor from the university of notre dame has come up with a play list for that occasion. many of the songs are hymns, but there are a few that reference cities where the pope will be traveling. like "streets of philadelphia" by bruce springsteen and "empire state of mind" by alicia keys.

there was a touch of the familiar on television's biggest night. we have the night's top winners and highlights from the 67th prime time emmy awards. >> viola davis. >> reporter: historic win at the emmy awards sunday night. viola davis was the first african-american to win best actress in a drama for her role on "how to get away with murder." >> the only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. >> reporter: jon hamm's last chance to win best actor for "mad men" paid off. he crawled on stage to get his hands on the award. >> this is impossible. >> jeffrey tambor. >> reporter: he dedicated his award to the community. >> thank you for letting us be part of the change. >> reporter: there was no change in the best actress race. >> julia louis dreyfus.

>> reporter: the star of the presidential comedy won for the fourth time, but the show won for the first time. nbc "the voice" won best competition series. amy schumer was best sketch series. jon stewart said farewell after winning the best talk series. >> thank you very much, and you'll never see me again. >> reporter: it was tracy morgan's return to the stage that produced a poignent moment. morgan presented the night's final award, best drama. >> "game of thrones. ". >> reporter: it's the first time the saga won the honor. it captured three other awards on the night. nbc news. in parts of california this morning, more than 10,000 firefighters are still battling

at least ten active wildfires. according to fire officials, one of the fires in monterrey county has turned deadly. the fire broke out on saturday. one person had died. at least ten homes have been damaged or destroyed. >> i'm pretty upset because i know nine or ten homes have burnt, probably on our street. >> meanwhile, two of the biggest wild fires in northern california history destroyed more than 1,000 homes. together, the fires have consumed 140,000 acres. over the next two years, the united states is expected to significantly increase the number of worldwide refugees that it takes in. during a news conference on sunday, secretary of state john kerry and germany's foreign minister discussed the syrians fleeing their civil war. the u.s. will accept 85,000 refugees from around the world last year, up from 70,000. the total would rise to 100,000 in 2017.

>> as soon as we have an opportunity to try and up that, we're welcome because america has always welcomed bringing more people in, in these kind of circumstances. >> according to kerry, the migrants would be screened by the department of homeland security and resettled around the u.s. we could be facing another potential government shut down one week from this wednesday. that is the threat from some republicans in congress if they don't get their way on planned parenthood. on friday, the house voted to block the organization's funds for one year. the senate will hold a procedural vote tomorrow, but the bill may still be doomed. democrats have enough votes to block it and the president promised a veto if needed. mitch mcconnell has come out against a government shutdown on september 30th, but there was growing pressure from the conservative wing. sometimes, being on the international space station has its perks. commander scott kelly tweeted this photo of the crew during

movie night. what did they see? "the martian," starring matt damon. it's not in theaters until october 2nd. no word on whether kelly gave it a thumbs up or thumbs down. now to weather and nbc meteorologist. good morning. >> would you want to watch a movie about space while you're in space? >> probably not. >> something back home. good morning, everyone. hope you had a wonderful weekend. it almost appears like a tropical storm is heading up through the baja of california and to the southern portions of arizona. we'll get soaking rains out of this. the green is the radar and the white is the clouds. we're picking up some of that now approaching areas of southern arizona. new mexico now, too. anywhere from phoenix and albuquerque, portions of california have chance for significant rains. flash flood threat here, everywhere in the green. possibility of widespread one to

two inches. someone could get up to four inches of rain, and that's where you have the problems with flash flooding. be careful on the roads, as the water comes downstream quickly. today, desert southwest, you're getting a soaking. southern california, it was hot for the emmys on the red carpet yesterday country. fresno to sacramento, a chance of hitting 100. very warm start to our week. >> bill, thank you. arizona sniper investigation, we'll have details. plus, an inferno turns boaters into lifesavers. you're watching "early today." lf

sea monster in the water hazard here. i believe that's a "kraken", bruce. it looks like he's going to go with a nine iron. that may not be enough club... well he's definitely going to lose a stroke on this hole. if you're a golf commentator, you whisper. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. this golf course is electric... does your makeup remover every kiss-proof,ff? cry-proof, stay-proof look? neutrogena® makeup remover does. it erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. need any more proof than that? neutrogena.

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harrowing scene off the coast of texas. a yacht carrying four people caught fire saturday evening. lucky for them, good samaritans were close by. nbc's janet reports. >> reporter: horrifying moments, a cell phone video captures a boat engulfed in flames off the coast of galveston. >> the vessel was in flames by the time we arrived on scene. >> reporter: a college student was captaining a boat nearby. he raced over to the nearby vessel. >> i was praying to god. please don't blow up. >> reporter: on board and among the flames, four people, including a child, unsure of what to do. >> we were screaming, throw the kid. throw the kid. get him in the water, because that was my priority. to get him safe and on my boat. >> reporter: the 6-year-old in a life jacket picked up first, then his mom was rescued. a second charter captain, michael, also sped to the burning boat and rescued the father. >> you take an oath as a captain

you're going to help somebody if their lives are in danger, so take that pretty seriously. >> reporter: the captain rescued by a third boat, had a few bumps and bruises. >> it's always a big deal to see someone with a fire on a boat, so i knew we had to get them off quick. >> reporter: with the coast guard on the scene, everyone was race. what triggered the fire, still unknown. nbc news, houston. 21-year-old leslie merritt is accused of 4 of the 11 freeway shootings in arizona. the weapon he owned was linked to the shootings, but he told the judge, quote, i'm the wrong guy, and his father believes the shootings are not in his character. >> my son would honestly, literally, take the shirt off his back and give it to someone if he felt they were in need. >> he claims he hasn't an access to a weapon because he pawned off his gun two months ago. his bail is set at $1 million.

let's get down to business w with cnbc's landon. good morning. >> hey, good morning to you. the markets look to rebound this week after stocks suffered their worst day in two weeks on friday. the fed's decision to leave interest rates on hold is fueling fears about the global economy. look for data today on existing home sales. apple is removing popular apps in china from the app store after hackers got developers to use fake software to create the progr programs. cyber security firms say there's no evidence yet that personal data was stolen. apple hasn't said what steps to take to determine if their apps are affected. if you planned on spending sunday on the couch watching your netflix shows, you were out of luck. amaz amazon's servers in the cloud suffered an outage for five hours yesterday morning. affecting net flick and amazon video, tinder and others. amazon says issues at the cloud facility in virginia are to blame. back to you. >> thank you.

just ahead, a new world number one in golf. plus, a rematch of last year's chaotic nfc championship game. who came out on top? sports is next. ur face with covergirl makeup. there's a finish, a shade and a formula for every face out there. clean oil control shine-free and fresh. trublend flawlessly blendable. simply ageless age-defying, full coverage. embrace your covergirl face try the award-winning foundation lines of easy breezy beautiful covergirl. now find your perfect makeup in just 30 seconds. try the embrace your face makeup finder at covergirl.com look more like a tissue box... you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin®. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. muddle no more™ .

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this morning on "today," a new special series, do you believe, as the u.s. gets ready for the pope's historic visit. "today" has an in-depth look at the modern american catholic.

for the latest in sports, i'll send it over to betty. good morning. >> the seahawks descended on lambeau field. aaron rodgers connected with james joan fnes for a 29 yard strike. second half, down ten, third and goal. seahawks wilson hits fred jackson over the middle, but in the end, the hometown packers, they won the rematch from last season's nfc title game, 27-17. big injury though. dallas cowboys romo suffered his second broken collarbone in six seasons, but dallas was able to hang on for the victory. eagles demarco murray managed two yards on 13 carries against his former team. jameis winston powered tampa bay over the saints. he threw one td and no interceptions in his second nfl start. johnny football came up big. on the second play of the game,

he tosses this 60 yarder to benjamin to strike first. the browns down the titans. in the battle of the heavyweights, brady passes for 466 yards and three touchdowns. the bills battled, but they came up short. 40-32. baseball now, the rangers lead in the american league west is down to 1 1/2 games. they were blanked by hernandez and the mariners, 9-2. the al east-leading blue jays blew a 3-0 lead against the red sox, who rallied for a 4-3 win. the yanks beating the mets, the gap is 2 1/2 games. arguably the world's hottest golfer got even better. jason day headed into day four of the bmw championship with a six-stroke lead. the fedex cup strokes leader easily won his victory. vaulted him past jordan spieth and rory mcilroy and into the number one spot in the world

rankings. good to be number one. >> thank you. just ahead, who will be playing donald trump on snl this season? plus, going, going, gone. caught on camera, flight attendant falling asleep on the job. we have the video coming up on "early today." flu shot more than a flu shot? when it helps give a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need in a developing country. thanks to customers like you, walgreens "get a shot. give a shot." program has helped provide seven million vaccines. make your flu shot make a world of difference. walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. you tuck here... you tuck there. if you're a toe tucker... because of toenail fungus, ask your doctor now about prescription kerydin. used daily, kerydin drops may kill the fungus at the site of infection and get to the root of your toe tucking. kerydin may cause irritation at the treated site.

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which means a whole lot of women going to get pregnant at the after party. >> tracy morgan made an emotional return to the emmys last night. he presented the award for best drama series. morgan thanked his wife and doctors for making his recovery possible. although, bill murray won the award for best supporting actor in a limited series for his role, and first emmy since 1977. bindi irwin says she and her dancing partner will dance to a song that reminds her of her late father. brian williams married in wyoming. nbc announced that taran killam will portray donald trump in the upcoming season of "saturday night live." it starts october 3rd with host miley cyrus. "maze runner," brought in more

than $30 million. "black mass" fallollowed with m than $23 million. "the visit" saw $11 million. lionel richie joined jimmy fall t -- fallon to recreate a scene. ♪ hello, is it me you're looking for ♪ ♪ i can see it in your eyes, i can see it in your smile ♪ >> i'm milissa rehberger. this is "early today." we hope it's the first stop of your day on nbc. coughing...sniffling... and wishing you could stay in bed all day.

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leading the news, "new york times," drug goes from $13.50 a tablet to $750 overnight. it has been around for 62 years. it is widely used to treat a common parasite that attacks people with aids, cancer or who are pregnant. the company raised the price by 5,000% after purchasing the rights to the drug. the company defended the hike, saying it'll use the proceeds for research. the "washington post" lady snake gives birth after being alone for eight years, doesn't need men. second year in a row the yellow-bellied water snake had a so-called virgin birth. it's common in insects, birds

and reptiles. president obama paid tribute to white house staffer jake brewer. he was struck and killed by a car during a charity bike ride on saturday. the 34-year-old brewer was the husband of a journalist, mary catherine. mr. obama said, quote, simply put, jake was one of the best, armed with a brilliant mind, a big heart, jake devoted his life to empowering people. a couple charged in the death of a toddler known as baby doe is scheduled to appear in court this morning. in june, a woman discovered the body of a child on a boston beach. after a nationwide effort to identify the little girl, we learned that her name was bella bond. her mother and her father -- mother's boyfriend are facing charges. disturbing video shows the moment a southwest airlines flight attendant appears to fall asleep while giving instructions to passengers.

the flight attendant gets up and walks off camera a short time later. the airline says he may have been affected by, quote, new medication. they say he was removed from duty for the remainder of that day. move over, jimmy fallon. now everyone has a chance to impersonate the donald. a halloween costume maker is -- i can't believe it -- a sexy donald trump costume for women. it includes a blazer, tie, white collar shirt and tiny shorts. >> what is sexy besides the short? >> it costs like $70, too. you'll have to buy the making america great again hat separately. a sexy donald trump. celebrating birthdays. luke wilsowilson, is 44. faith hill is 48. one of the funniest men alive, bill murray turns 65. i'm milissa rehberger.

thank you for watching

the valley fire numbers are growing. the fire is nearly 76,000 acres. the latest live. what is flying at cars? >> rocks and bottles being hurdled at drivers overnight. a bay area school shut its doors opening allegations that its student aide molested a student. "today in the bay" starts right now. and a very good now monday morning to you. thank you so much for joining us, i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm scott mcgrew in for sam brock. >> i walked out the door at 3:30, 77 degrees. >> it's still very warm across the bay. you know it's another hot day when we start out at 70