flames and floods, a raging wildfire tears through texas, while the south bails out from high waters. laboring on labor day, president obama hits detroit delivering a sneak peek of his jobs plan and challenging republicans. and colossal croc, a one-ton crocodile lurking in a creek in the philippines is captured.

good morning, everyone, i'm lynn berry, those stories and more are straight ahead, this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin this morning with a slow and stubborn storm, severe weather marked the unofficial end of summer for tens of thousands of people in texas and several states along the gulf coast. the remnants of tropical storm lee continued to fan flames in texas, and flood parts of the southeast. nbc's kurt gregory has more. >> reporter: texas firefighters are looking at another extreme day on the job. even with help from above monday in the form of firefighting helicopters, crews on the groundy outmatched. >> i have seen a number of big

fires in my life. this one is as mean-looking as i've ever seen. >> reporter: just outside of austin, more than 450 homes have been reduce dodd cinders. 500 families have been forced out of her homes. monica lost her home. >> i'm sitting and praying, hoping to god, because i don't know right now. >> reporter: in louisiana, the biggest problem is flooding. new orleans is still bailing out from tropical storm lee. the storm surge has most of nearby lafitte under water. >> it's very alarming how quick the water comes in now. >> reporter: lee has spawned at least 20 tornadoes, including one just outside of atlanta. the storm system expected to move northeast in the coming days. carrying the risk of more damage and flooding. kurt gregory, nbc news. elsewhere, the president is putting the pressure on republicans returning to capitol hill this week.

in a labor day speech yesterday, president obama previewed the economic proposal he'll present to congress on thursday, which he says will challenge republicans to put the country's economic needs over party politics. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more. >> reporter: getting this done is the tough part, and president obama is already getting lots of ideas from the business community. what's in that jobs plan president obama will announce thursday night? big business has some ideas. >> too many people think that business is bad. you know ha? corporations are made up of people. employees, shareholders, customers. >> reporter: the chamber of commerce promises six million new jobs if washington will spend money on roads and bridges, pass trade deals and give tax breaks on overseas income. >> this is real capital that belongs to american companies. >> get rid of the income tax,

shrink the size of government. you would have the jobs then. >> reporter: with union workers on labor day, president obama had tough talk for republicans returning to capitol hill today. >> the time for action is now. no more manufactured crises, no more games. now is not the time for the people you sent to washington to worry about their jobs. now is the time for them to worry about your jobs. >> reporter: but can washington deliver? and what will it cost. if the nation wants a stronger economy, some democrats say prepare to pay for it. >> it has to be a huge effort. a trillion dollars or more and i think the president has to fight for it. you cannot start out by anticipating what you you won't get. >> reporter: the fight gets under way this week. and in a new "washington post"/abc poll, more than 60% said they disapprove of the way president obama is handling the economy. lynn? >> tracie, thanks so much. to libya, where this morning there appears to be a

breakthrough for rebel forces seeking to advance peacefully into the pro gadhafi town of bani walid. after negotiations, bani walid's tribal elders have agreed to surrender the town without a fight. a peaceful hand overof the town would be seen as a big step for the fledgling national transitional council. elsewhere in africa, the united nations reports famine has now spread to a sixth area in somalia. it also says about 750,000 more people may die from famine in the next four months unless aid efforts are scaled up. our english broadcasting partner itn reports. >> reporter: these are images from a crisis which is spreading. images captured by itv news in the seven weeks since famine was declared. refugees on the move. but today people are fleeing in

even greater numbers. children suffering from starvation. but if anything, the suffering has grown since. the u.n. says the scope of the famine in somalia has expanded. it added the country's bay region to the area in crisis. meaning six regions are now officially famine areas, four million people are now affected by drought and starvation in the country, that's half the population. three-quarters of a million are at risk of dying. and yet, the grim set of new statistics suggests that the peak of this crisis has not yet been reached. >> i think what we're reporting is a continued deterioration in the situation in somalia. this is the most serious harvest failure that somalia has had in 17 years. >> reporter: there are other growing problems, too, like fresh outbreaks of measles,

affecting victims who is immune systems eroded by malnutrition. after all, it's some of the most dangerous, least-accessible places where famine's grip has tightened. but famines rarely happen in peaceful nations. rain this autumn won't be enough if violence continues. and although money might not be the only answer, the u.n. says much more of it is still needed. >> devastating to see what's happening there. here's your first look at other news going on around america today. dry conditions and unstable winds are expected to fuel a raging oregon wildfire. over 500 firefighters have their hands full with fighting the blaze, which has scorched over 4,000 acres. crews were making progress, but a shift? weather conditions will likely hamper efforts to put out the

fire. remnants of tropical storm lee is kicking up more than a little dust in alabama. strong winds dumped heaps of sand on one town close to the state's gulf shoreline, producing blinding conditions for drivers and folks on the street. the forecasters estimate windspeeds reached 45 miles per hour. and finally, one colorado dog can't take flight like one famous disney character, but his dumbo-like ears have landed him in the guinness world record book. with the ear span of over two feet, the coon hound is now a colossal celebrity. longest ears on a living dog. now for a look at your national and regional weather, let's look at nbc's todd santos with the weather channel forecast. >> how would you even know your dog's ears are beyond the average coon hound? they're already big enough?

we could go on forever. i want to take you to what's going on to something else that has a wide reach. it's what's left of what once was tropical storm lee. now the remnants have been kind of mixed up in a frontal boundary channeling the moisture northward. one piece of improvement is happening across the southeast, we're on the drier side of things, back towards new orleans, mississippi, yesterday, were drenched with rain. ten-plus-inch rain totals. now we're starting to see the areas where the potential for severe weather, north carolina, central south carolina and extending back into portions of virginia today. beyond that, you see all the rainfall, that's a 12-hour loop worth of radar. it's not incredibly heavy each hour. about when you have that many areas of rainfall, flash flood watches and flash flood warnings, in the watch areas we could see some potential for

flash flooding with some of the rainfall that will continue today and actually into tomorrow. some of the heaviest rain really coming down today. we'll take a closer look there for a moment. we want to look at hurricane katia. you see the higher, colder cloud tops in the center. there's a look at the system in relatively, kind of in relation to land. about 400 miles south of bermuda right now it's a category 3 storm, 125-mile-per-hour winds moving to the northwest. that's where we expect the system to be. through thursday morning, at this point we're seeing the swell reaching the north carolina coastline. the surf heights will build today and tomorrow and even through the mid-atlantic, rip current risks will be high. use your head if you're out towards the beaches. the model consensus, it's a high-confidence forecast of the system recurving, especially late thursday into friday, good news for some of the areas that were soaked by hurricane irene. a soaking forecast, especially across many of the big cities

into the mid-atlantic and the northeast. coming up, european stocks tumble, asian shares follow and things don't look much better for later this morning on wall street. your "first look" at this morning's business headlines is straight ahead. and jesus is loose in the big apple. red sox lose more than just a game and quite possibly the ugliest jerseys in college football. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula

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welcome back to "first look," i'm lynn berry, and here's some of the top news this morning. a senior al qaeda operative has been arrested, believed to have been tasked by osama bin laden to target u.s. economic interests around the world. the arrest was made in pakistan with the help of the u.s., a sign that relations are improving between the two nations following the bin laden raid. two others were also detained. police in italy say that they have detained a man who confessed to vandalizing an

historic foundation in rome, surveillance shows him entering the 350-year-old fountain, knocking off several chunks of sculpture, restoration is under way. and quite the catch in the philippines, a one-ton crocodile was captured after a three-week hunt for the giant beast. the 21-foot croc will be made the star of a future ecotourism park. look at the guy posing there, nice. here's your "first look" at how wall street will kick off the day after the long holiday weekend. the dow opens at 11,240, after dropping 250 points on friday. the s&p skid 30 points, the nasdaq sank 65. overseas trading, in tokyo the nikkei fell to a 193-point loss. but in hong kong, the hang seng gained 94. well it is back to work today on wall street, but all signs point ominously to a rough-and-tumble day.

wall street futures lost ground yesterday, hit hard after european stocks fell 4%, with financial shares there dropping to a two-year low. s&p 500 futures lost more than 2%, and nasdaq futures just under 2%. suggesting a sharp drop after this morning's opening bell. reacting to friday's crushing american jobs data, euro markets also slumped on renewed fears over dent. a service sector survey showed a slowdown across europe for a fifth straight month. bond yields in struggling euro zone countries rose sharply. yields on greek bonds are now above an almost unthinkable 18%. licking their own wounds after steep falls monday in early trade today in asia, markets were down across the board after the european selloff. gold rose in asia back towards a record high. on the other hand, oil continued its tumble. now at just above $84 a barrel. elsewhere, england's "financial times" reports banks in talks with prosecutors to

settle claims of improper mortgage practices, including bank of america, jp morgan chase and citigroup have been offered a deal calling for them to make multibillion-dollar payments. and finally, on sale for years, scenic south dakota has finally been sold. an anonymous out of stater bought the town, complete with a saloon, gas station and two empty jails. the asking price was just under $800,000. the nine people who live there hope the buyer likes it, maybe they'll move in. but only nine people live there and they have two jails. in health news, government researchers say a potentially fatal tick-borne infection is a growing threat to the u.s. blood supply. the rare disease normally occurs in the spring and summer in seven states. but this study found year-round cases showing up elsewhere. over 30 years, of the known

cases of the infection being caused by blood transfusions, nearly 800% occurred over the last ten years. and for more information on this and other health stories, you can check out the health page at msnbc.com. well coming up, the ugly new uniforms everyone is talking about, a player who talks to his equipment, and the blue jays fly away winners. plus who says all phillies big man ryan howard can do is hit? your "first look" at sports is straight ahead. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego.

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welcome back to "first look," i'm lynn berry, and in sports, they say the rich always get richer. and the talent-heavy new york yankees seem to have found themselves a power-hitting rookie. here's nbc's mario solis. >> good morning, imagine being a rookie and hitting your first career home run at yankee stadium, pretty cool, right? now imagine coming up two innings later and doing it again. that's just the kind of labor day the yankees jesus montero had. he belt his first career homer in the fifth. and then in the seventh inning he hits another one to the very same spot. two home runs and two curdle calls for the rookie. yankees hold on to win 11-10. rough day for the red sox, josh beckett tweaks his leg, doesn't make it through the third inning. day to day with a springed ankle. on to the 11th, scoreless, that's when brett lowrie says

enough is enough. walkoff home run. the white sox zach stewart was just one inning away from pitching a perfect game when danny valencia breaks it up in the eighth. but all is not lost. stewart strikes out nine. chicago wins, 4-00. philadelphia's cliff lee picking up his 16th win with a little help from his friends. foul ball down the line. that's a great grab and he also hit a home run. the phils beat the braves 9-00. the giants pablo sandoval had a good conversation with his bat. and the giants beat the padres. and finally, don't adjust your tv, those are possibly the ugliest or greatest jerseys in college football. whatever they are, they're good luck for maryland the. up two against miami. the hurricanes threatening in the fourth when cameron chisholm

ices in, and they beat the canes, 32-24. that's your "first look" at sports. now for a quick look at the weather, here's nbc's todd santos with the weather channel forecast. >> hopefully umbrellas ready to go across portions of the northeast. if you're traveling today, coming off the long weekend, you'll be dealing with a number of slowdowns in the northeast or mid-atlantic. with the persistent rainfall, low cloud ceilings. some of these areas here, north carolina, you see some spots actually without cloud cover, we're going to get a little sunshine in there. that will help the instability. could see some severe weather through portions of southern virginia, back through central north carolina, even north-central south carolina. make sure you have a way to get your warnings today, weather radio, text alerts from the weather channel, just so you know something is coming. >> check out the temperatures across the country. some of the coolest spots, up towards marquette. temperatures last check there in the lower 30s, so a cool start, but a beautiful afternoon up there. even through northern portions of lower michigan, back towards denver, an isolated

thunderstorm. back towards atlanta, up in the appalachians, that entire corridor with a better chance for showers and thunderstorms. dry as we work across your tuesday and wednesday. how does angelina jolie pass the day with the kids while brad pitt is off shooting a movie? mr. plus for the next time you're meeting up with her, we'll tell you exactly which flower never to give madonna. your "first look" at entertainment is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. about this flat haircolor! [ gigi ] try nice 'n easy anti-flat, always dimensional. in one simple step, get tones and highlights built into every shade with nice 'n easy.

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welcome back to "first look," i'm lynn berry, time for your first look at entertainment news. right now if you're a megacelebrity, which i'm sure many of you are, the place to

be, and be seen is the venice film festival. beyonce celebrated her 30th birthday there on a massive yacht called "the odessa." the expectant mother and husband jay-z played host to friends. madonna was also there, this time for business. about to promote her new movie "w.e." at a news conference when an admiring fan handed her a purple hydrangea. harmless, right? she thanked the fan but immediately stowed the flower under a table. making a face she told someone i absolutely loathe hydrangeas, apparently he didn't know that. apparently the jolie-pitt clan have reunited in london. they took the kids to see the smufrs, but "us weekly" said that angelina jolie did what any mother would do to keep the kids occupied while the husband was

away. she hired herself a local group of child entertainers that just came and did skits for the kids. >> is that what parents do? >> i guess that's what you do for birthdays. but that's not what you do for normal days. >> it's an every day tuesday when you bring in the carousel and the troupe of clowns. i don't know if you looked at the "odessa yacht." >> $250,000 a week to rent that yacht. happy birthday, beyonce. stay tuned, "way too early" with willie geist starts right now. president obama in a labor day dress rehearsal for thursday's address to congress, floating some ideas for job creation and talking tough with a little help from jimmy hoffa junior to republicans. the question is, will the president go big with his jobs plan and risk having it shot down by those congressional republicans. or will he try to meet them somewhere in the middle.