to get coffee and newspapers. knows one regret as his time as vice president is he did not start enough wars. cheney's book says he aurnged for bombing syria in 2007. mr. cheney's first interview about his book will air sunday on "dateline" nbc, on the "today" show on wednesday and "morning joe" on thursday. will dick cheney ever be on this show, will he? i very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very hope so some day. now it's time for "the ed show." good night. "first look" is up next. state of emergency, hurricane irene makes a bee line for the north carolina coast. occupational hazard. a car explodes in a los angeles firefighter's space. and a diamond discovery. the girl's best friend just got a whole lot bigger with this latest planetary find. good morning. i'm lynn berry.

those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin this morning with a perfect storm. that is how hurricane irene is being described as she churns towards the east coast, threatening up to 65 million people from north carolina to new england. irene is now a category two storm and a massive scramble is now underway to try and escape its path. for the very latest on the storm, let's get right to nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, you've been tracking this. she's huge. >> yeah. we just got the new information from the hurricane center about three minutes ago. we're trying to digest that information it did go from a category three to a category two. it only dropped about five miles per hour. i know it's no longer considered a major hurricane, but the

forecast has it going back up to major hurricane before making landfall in eastern north carolina. those temporary fluxes in the storm. the eye roughly 200 miles east of flagler county of florida. it's not heading towards georgia at all. it's going to skirt the coastline of south carolina before making landfall. let's get to some of the latest. this is the storm system. this is a huge storm. more than anything else. i don't care about the center, how intense it is in the middle. the tropical storm-force wind field is enormous. and almost everyone on the eastern seaboard will feel tropical force winds. category two storm. the orange coloring is the tropical storm wind field. look at how huge that is.

it dwarfs the state of florida. this will head due northward. as i get into the red area, that's the hurricane force winds. as far as the watches and warnings goes. these just changed. i'm looking at them with you for the first time. the areas in red are the hurricane warnings. we have hurricane warnings from sandy hook, new jersey, down to cape may. the entire state of delaware, along the virginia coastline and hurricane warnings all extended as they have been in the past along the north carolina coast. we have hurricane watches in effect for new york city, long island, coastal connecticut, rhode island, all the way back to boston we have a hurricane watch including all of cape cod. it gives you an idea of how enormous the effects will be. my first glance at this new information is they shifted it ever so slightly, maybe 20 miles to the east.

that brings changes to the forecast no longer is it going over the top of new york city, now landfall is over the middle of long island. it's no longer going over new jersey, it's just off the coast of new jersey. so that would keep some of the strongest storm surge off the new jersey coastline. the track is still wobbling here and. there it's supposed to make category three early saturday. wilmington, this forecast looks better for you. >> thank you very much. across the east coast, residents are bracing for irene, especially in north carolina, that's where president obama has already declared a state of emergency. nbc's kristen dahlgren has more from the outer banks of north carolina. >> reporter: good morning. this is likely to be one of the first areas on the u.s. mainland to feel the effects and the national weather service is already -- some of those

increased waves from hurricane irene are hitting the north carolina coastline. they say six to nine-foot swells coming in now, that suspected to get much worse tlhrough today. we could feel tropical storm-force winds later tonight and conditions continuing to deteriorate as the storm moves closer and getting worse going into saturday. there have already been mandatory evacuations for tourists. that's been expanded for residents here. that begins later on today. residents being encouraged to get out. as we go up the coast, we expect more evacuation orders, even in new jersey. meanwhile, far north irene is causing a major change of plans in the nation's capital. earlier this week, it was the rare earthquake effecting

things. brian mooar has the latest on that from washington. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. here in the nation's capital, we are worried about what will happen and disappointed in what won't. the national cathedral here in washington d.c. damaged by that quake a couple of days ago now has barriers around it to protect people as those high winds come in. there's a lot of worry that there could be more damage, more falling rocks and people are really being warned to stay away from it. now, what won't happen? a lot of disappointment. the martin luther king memorial was supposed to be unveiled and officially dedicated on sunday. organizers had expected a quarter million people, but that will have to be canceled, delayed until sometime in september or october. lynn? >> brian mooar for us from washington. thank you so much. now here's your "first look" at other news going on in america today. newly released video shows that a dramatic car explosion did

little to stop one of lo los angeles' bravest from getting the job done. despite the firefighter's close proximity to the fiery blast, he emerged unscathed and apparently unrattled. his composure was intact. he stepped up to the plate. he stepped into the rear of the burning vehicle, and he continued to hose it down until the fire was out. there was some major disorder inside a cleveland misdemeanor court hearing. a defendant hurled his backpack at a judge after she told him she would give him more time to get a lawyer. with the help of a public defender, court officers rushed in to put down the defendant. he is under arrest and expected to face assault charges. and, finally, lightning strikes lit up the early morning sky over fort wayne. thursday's severe thunderstorms produced a parade of lightning as well as high winds and heavy rain. officials say the widespread storm left downed trees and thousands without power. and now for a look at your

national weather, we turn once again to bill karins. he has your weather channel forecast. thanks. i got a chance to read the discussion from the national hurricane center, they said it made the slightest of shifts to the east. they reduced the intensity a bit, but other than that not much has changed. it's about 36 hours of destructi destruction. 36 hours between the rain, winds and flooding will effect people. 36 hours from saturday morning, sunday during the day, and pretty much through sunday evening is when the destruction will be over with. this path takes it over the outer banks barely and then along the coastline of maryland, delaware and new jersey and the next landfall over long island. long island will probably be a category one before it gets there. as far as the computer models

go, if anything, they shifted just slightly east. that's why the hurricane center did the same. the western most computer mod hall it going over the chesapeake, the righter most over long island and cape cod. as far as the forecast goes, hurricane force winds will be hitting the coast of north carolina tomorrow. about 24 hours from now is when the destruction will begin. stocks stumble, gold rises and the car most likely to be stolen. your business headlines straight ahead. coming up, jim thome is heading home. your fantasy football approach, and a record for the yanks.

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welcome back to "first look" i'm lynn berry. here's some of the top stories making news this morning. a new associated president gfk poll shows that americans

are not happy with congress in the wake of the debt ceiling standoff. overall approval has dropped to 12%. that's down from 21% in june. house speaker john boehner's rating fell to 29%, his lowest level, while unfavorable views of the tea party climbed ten points since november. as libya's moammar gadhafi remains on the run, we are now getting a first look inside his compound. it contains an underground network of tunnels he may have used to escape. rebels also found a photo album with pictures of former secretary of state condoleezza rice, whom he once welcomed into his home and showered with gifts. two dozen suspected drug cartel members burst into a north mexican casino on thursday dousing it with gasoline and starting a fire. 53 people were killed. new video has surfaced of a suspected meteorite flying over the andies mountains in peru

ten days ago. an australian astronomer believed to have discovered a once massive star that's been transformed into a planet made of diamond. it orbits a pulser, and it's in a remote corner of our galaxy. now here's your "first look" at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,149 after tumbling 170 points yesterday. the s&p fell 18 points. the nasdaq dropped 48. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei added 25 points, but in hong kong the hang seng was down 169. wall street shifted into reverse thursday veering into steep losses after a strong three-day rally. stocks rose earlier this week largely on expectations of another round of stimulus from the fed. later today fed chief ben bernanke will be speaking at a wyoming conference. that same conference he unveiled

plans for the fed buying billions in bonds last year, the stimulus plan known as quantitative easing. thursday on worries shares may dramatically drop in the aftermath of no move today by the fed chief, the doubters took over fleeing stocks for the safety of cash. stocks had opened higher on warren buffett's berkshire hathaway taking a $5 billion stake in the struggling bank of america. boa gained over 9%, accounting for almost 10% of the day's total volume. on the first day of trade since apple co-founder steve jobs' resignation, shares fell only slightly. a sharp drop thursday on germany's dax. at one point by as much as 5% increased jitters and selling on wall street. new jobs numbers also fuelled selling. u.s. jobless claims rose last week to their highest point in five weeks, but that was largely inflated by formally striking workers at verizon. after two days of sharp declines, gold rose more than

1%. elsewhere delta plans to spend billions buying 100 boeing 737 jets to upgrade its fleet. finally, the gas-guzzling favorite of the rich and famous is also apparently the favorite of thieves. a new study finds the cadillac escalade is the most likely vehicle to be targeted by crooks. coming up, preseason football heats up. the red sox live off the long ball, and the u.s. final is set in little league baseball. plus, the new york yankees do something that has never been done before in the entire history of baseball. your "first look" at sports is straight ahead.

welcome back to "first look," i'm lynn berry. despite all the things the yankees have accomplished over the years, yesterday they did something new. here's nbc's fred roggin. good morning. the yankees are known as the bronx bombers, and yesterday they certainly lived up to their name. let's go to new york. they were down 7-1 to the as and suddenly caught fire. cano, martin, and granderson all hit grand slams. first time a team has ever hit three grand slams in a game. the yanks won big. real big. 22-9. after struggling all season in texas, the red sox have finally turned a corner, and adrian gonzalez is the reason why. hit two home runs against the rangers, he's now hit five in the last three games. boston won it 6-0. quick baseball note. a week after hitting home run

number 600, jim thome going back to where it all began. the twins traded him to the cleveland indians. expected in the line-up against the royals. i think you'll like this. mike vick called his number from eight yards out. or maybe you'll draft cam newton. he played well in the preseason. didn't throw a touchdown, but he did bowl over a defender on his way to the end zone. they lost 24-13. if are you in the market for a defensive player, you can't go wrong with the redskins deangelo hall. picked off joe flacco, should have been tackled a couple of times. he stayed on his feet and scampered 52 yards for a touchdown. ravens won it, though. finally back to baseball. california punched its ticket to the u.s. little league world series final with its win over pennsylvania. danner from huntington beach with a home run in the third. california won 2-0. they'll play montana tomorrow. hats off to the youngsters of clinton county, pennsylvania.

they broke attendance records every time they hit the field and leave an indelible mark on the world of little league world series. that's your "first look" at sports. have a great weekend. i'm fred roggin. now let's get another look at the weather with bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning once again. >> good morning. we have the new information at the top of the hour from the hurricane center. let me break down the times of the new forecast. when you're looking at this, the orange color is the tropical storm-force winds, a huge wind field. the hurricane force winds will be in the red darker shading. as we go throughout saturday morning, the time line has been sped up again. we're talking 10:00 a.m. landfall around atlantic beach, north carolina. now towards the outer banks. that's when the worst pictures and our reporters out there on the coast will see the highest storm surge. then we take the storm northwards, virginia beach northward, 8:00 p.m. saturday evening. by saturday evening, early

morning, you better be done with your plans. the storm then goes northwards, ocean city, maryland, the worst for you, overnight mid night until 2:00 a.m. sunday. jersey shore, you will wake up early sunday to hurricane force winds. in new york city, around 10:00 a.m. on sunday is the worst for you. the forecast path hasn't changed much, but we're talking about two to three hours earlier for the worst of the winds up and down the east coast. >> all right. thank you very much. with movie going audiences expected to be dramatically cut as a result of the weekend storm, the question is will it help staying number one at the box office or will the latest r-rated comedy pull off an upset? kim and james are what you might call overly protective.

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welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. this weekend one woman's wedding day could be wiped out by the monstrous storm actually bearing her name. jeff sapperstone from hartford has her story. >> reporter: when you think about a back drop for a wedding, this is not a bad spot at all. irene rios and her fiance planned to tie the knot on sunday overlooking long island sound. >> our house number is 28, we met on the 28th, we were getting married on the 28th. >> reporter: an ideal day, at least in their mind. unfortunately hurricane irene has her sights set on this

irene. >> it can't be what are the odds? >> it looked like hurricane irene wanted to come to irene's wedding. >> reporter: the odds are more likely irene will strike somewhere on the shoreline. >> i'm really disappointed. it was bothering me for the last few days. i've been watching the weather like crazy. >> hurricane threat to connecticut -- >> reporter: irene reached out to brad feil. >> brad was very kind. i so appreciate him getting back to us. he said we will all be effected but the severity is not known at this time. >> reporter: so the backup plan is to move the ceremony and all 120 guests indoors to the conference center, that is if there are no evacuations. >> it's sort of got us on the edge of our seats. >> reporter: this couple has been planning for this day for over a year. guests are coming from all over the country. we're just hoping one doesn't show. >> an uninvited guest. irene is uninvited to irene's

wedding. >> more brides worry about rain, not really hurricanes. at least they can have a few laughs about it. hopefully it works out for them. well, it's time for your "first look" at entertainment news. a big storm we have been talking about all morning and a debut movie cancelling each other out should keep last weekend's box office winner on top once again this weekend. after debut says in second two weeks ago "the help" had the rare experience of moving up to take the top spot. the experts think this weekend's smaller audiences will focus on this film and the newer films will keep each other in check. $15 million should keep "the help" on top. our idiot brother boasts a cast of paul rudd, elizabeth banks, zoe, and emily mortimer. this is the year of r-rated comedy, but the experts only see it fighting for second. ditto with the new horror entry "don't be afraid of the dark."

the experts don't see the combination of katie holmes and horror equalling number one. finally, zoe did star in "avatar" the highest grossing movie of all time, but experts don't think columbiana will will play out so well. i'm lynn berry, this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned, "way too early" with willie geist starts right now. hurricane irene tears through the bahamas heading for the eastern seaboard. a massive category three storm with winds whipping up to 130 miles per hour. the question is how much damage will this monster cause when it makes landfall. and residents all along the coast brace for the onslaught. commuters in new york and washington get ready for a weekend of pure gridlock. the question is am i going to get home? no, re