about a team of cops beating a team of members of congress. hi, marco rubio, hi congressman ben quayle, along with the former ringers from the nfl. even against that, cops win.nfl. even against that, cops win. first look is up next. he said, she said. herman cain's campaigns days. past sexual harassment claims. point of impact. video shows a deadly collision between a barge and tour boat. and battering ram. brazilian police go to extreme measures to stomp some suspected smugglers. i'm lynn berry. this is "first look" on msnbc.

we begin this morning with a campaign in crisis. gop front runner herman cain is firing back against a fire storm of controversy over accusations and denials of sexual harassment from his past. cain's camp is considering legal action against plit kro for reporting those claims while he compares his situation of another case. >> reporter: herman cain is linking his ordeal over sexual accusations to supreme court justice clarence thomas's in 1991. >>s that the d.c. culture. guilty until proven innocent. >> reporter: one of the three women who worked at the national restaurant association in the 1990s said cain made unwanted

sexual advances had her lawyer asked she be released from a confidentiality agreement. >> she had nothing to do with this becoming public and is anxious for it to go away. >> reporter: cain went on talk radio. >> give me a break. no touching was involved. the door to my office was open. my secretary was outside. this is why it was found to be baseless. >> reporter: the cain drama has topped republicans. >> this makes us look bad with women voters. this is causing a national distraction. it's causing people to look negatively at the party as a whole. >> reporter: the restaurant association indicates it might allow the release of a statement by a woman who accused herman cain of harassment. i'm steve handles, nbc news, washington. president obama's american jobs act received its third strike in the senate yesterday. one democrat and one independent joined all 47 republicans in

blocking the measure, which would have pumped $60 billion into the nation's crumbling infrastructure. republicans were opposed to raising taxes to pay for the plan, while democrats emphasize the jobs it would have created for struggling construction workers. >> the truth is democrats are more interested in building a campaign message than in building roads and bridges. the american people deserve a lot better. >> the goal is to do anything possible to drag down the economy. anything they can to focus attention negative live on the president of the united states. >> from a summit in france, president obama responded to the block calling republicans out of touch with americans. last night on the ed show, steve israel was asked if he agrees with harry reid's accusations that republicans are trying to drag down the economy just to cripple president

obama's reelection campaign. >> they have laid off teachers. they have laid off cops. they have laid off firefighters. every republican voted to lay off construction workers. all in the pursuit of laying off a president. it is a reckless political agenda. they are sabotaging the economy. what should make us angry is they are sabotaging the economy to protect their friends. their special interest buddies. they are willing to kick the middle class in the stomach to give a leg up to oil executive companies. so sabotaging the economy is one thing, but sabotaging to enrich special interest friends is even worse. if they really cared about the middle class, they would have given us one vote on our measure to deny those that $40 billion in tax subsidies to the richest oil companies on earth. they wouldn't have tried to end medicare for senior citizens. they don't care.

>> lean forward at 8:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. a panel subpoenaed to get e-mails. the committee voted 14-9 along party lines to approve the subpoena of west wing correspondents. democrats on the panel said it was unnecessary because the white house already produced tens of thousands of pages of documents related to the loan. officials say they are ready to invoke privilege to protect communications. here's a look at the other news today. video shows the horrific july 2010 collision that killed two tooirss on a duck boat distracted by a family emergency call on his cell phone. the driver of a 250-foot barge ran into the tour vessel sinking

the boat and sending people into the delaware river. the tug boat driver pled guilty to charges stemming from the crash and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. whale watchers in santa cruz got an encounter with a couple hump back whales. they were just a few feet away when the massive animals erupted. they lived to tell their amazing tail. a tussle between two bucks forced nebraska wildlife officials to come in. they became inseparated after their antlers became entangled.d officials stepped in to cut one of the ant lirs off. one new jersey man thought busting a move was the perfect way to pulmooff a shoplifting heist. probably not a good idea.

the suspect stuffed clothes in his pants, but confronted by security when he attempted to leave. he threw the clothes and made a quick get away. now for a look at your national weather. i don't know if he'd be more disapoint disapointed he got caught shoplifting or didn't get the clothes. >> he was stealing prices and the sign said great prices. $9.98. good morning. this weekend, we fall back. an extra hour of sleep. it does create other issues. if you don't like the earlier sunrise, that's what you're going to get. that's when we get to the earlier sunsets. it sets during the 4:00 hour in the north. it's a good time. saturday night you go to skbed

set the clocks back. as far as today weather wise, there's not a lot of bad weather. we have rain moving through eastern north carolina. cold front going through new england. it's dry. no wet weather there. a chilly day throughout the middle of the country. no big weather concerns. this is the quietest weather pattern we have seen in new england this year. that's pretty unbelievable. ever since our big storm last saturday, we haven't had a drop of precip. as far as the rainy weather goes, let's look at it. virginia beach up to richmond. back to roanoke. showers through the smokeys and knoxville area. we're clearing out. if you're in myrtle beach up to new burn and outer banks, you're going to have a little wet weather this morning. we'll clear it out this afternoon and this weekend will be dry for that region. it is a cold morning. the middle of the country is by far the coldest. it's 39 in san antonio.

it's 50 in boston. there's a warm air surging up the east coast, but cold air coming in behind the storm system. by the weekend, the cold air will move to everywhere on the eastern sea board. we can't complain. today's forecast is 52 in chicago. a peek at your weekend forecast keeps the sunshine with us. 71 in dallas. even into sunday, it's hard to find any fault with this weekend forecast. should be enjoyable for all. coming up, greece gets in line. optimism on jobs. how big a mistake would it take for you to fire your accountant. business headlines are straight ahead. [ male announcer ] nature valley

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look." i'm lynn berry. idaho is set to become the first state to require high school students to take online courses to graduate. supporters say the virtual classes will save money, while opponents claim teachers are being replaced with computers. the michigan senate has passed legislation requiring school districts to develop antibullying policies. but last-minute language in the bill is drawing fire. it protects statements of a sincerely-held religious belief or moral conviction. a man whose son killed himself after being bullied and for whom the bill is named says the added language will let anyone have their beliefs. president obama has reclaimed the top stop on forbes list of the world's most powerful people. vad mere putin came in second. the chinese president fell to third. and authorities in brazil have released video of officers

ramming their car into a small plane to stop it from taking off. it was carrying more than $100,000 worth of smuggled electronic goods. jury deliberations are set to begin in the trial of conrad murray. after lawyers from both sides made their final arguments to the jury. we get more now that nbc's stephanie stanton. >> reporter: the fate of dr. conrad murray now rests in the hands of the jury, who must decide if the doctor is criminally responsible in the death of pop star michael jackson. >> michael jackson trusted conrad murray. >> reporter: on thursday the prosecution presented its closing arguments to the jury. >> every single doctor that testified in this courtroom told you they would never do what conrad murray did. every single doctor. because they know it could lead to death. >> reporter: david walgren

hammered home that conrad murray is culpable. >> what point do you draw the line of conrad murray's for a grownup? >> reporter: the defense also got its plea, trying to convince the jury it was not dr. murray but michael jackson himself that caused his own death. >> or michael jackson went into his personal bathroom and swallowed lorazepam and dr. murray didn't know it. >> reporter: the jury will begin deliberations this morning, going over hundreds of exhibits and 22 days of testimony to decide conrad murray's fate. stephanie stanton, nbc news, los angeles. here's a first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,044 after climbing 208 points yesterday. the nasdaq spiked 57 points.

in tokyo, it rose 160 points. faced with expulsion from the european union and revolt in his own government, greece's prime minister backed off a national referendum on the debt crisis plan thursday. wall street breathed a big sigh of relief. stocks rallied after they gave up the referendum many feared could destabilize global markets. the european central bank cut interest rates. good job news fuelled the market. unemployment applications fell last week. a sign layoffs are easing. today the labor department releases the all-important monthly jobs report. with most analysts forecasting 100,000 added jobs.

equal come kellog's sank. est ta lauder beat expectations. and after the bell, starbucks rose on higher profits. group on's ipo is on after the company increased its offering to 35 million shared and raised the price. the world's daily deals leader is valued at $13 billion. while an airline trade group predicts passengers traveling this thanksgiving will fall about 2% thanks to flight cuts, there won't be many empty seats or any empty seats. how's this for job jury trial? the foreign minister is not going to fire the accountants who made a $75 billion bookkeeping blunder. back on the drama in the playoffs. .

the dangers of being a hockey referee and detroit is down in the dumps. plus it's not textbook shootout style, but it works. your first look at sports is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc.

welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. the nba should take notice. hockey is getting an awful lot

of attention these days. here's fred rogan. >> good morning. what in the world has happened to the red wings? they have fallen on hard times and have hit a new low. this is how the season has gone for the wings. lee shot the puck from a terrible angle. rough start for detroit. it only got worse. the wings turned it over in their own end. second of the night. red wings lost 4-1. a handful of shootouts last night. take another look. not only did he score, but he gave the goalie a face full of snow. rangers and duction. with the kind of move you only do in practice, slip the goalie. panthers a shootout in the final two minutes. the celebration short lived. a back hand goal. chicago won their third in a row

3-2. mls playoffs. this could have been david beckham's last game with the galaxy. he went up and came down hard. off the corner kick, beckham bends it. they beat the red bull 2-1 and advance to the western conference final. if you think you take a beating at work, you have not seen anything yet. watch the skruf l. the referee tried to break up a fight and not intentionally punched in the face. two players were done for the night, proving in hockey, even the referees can take a punch. that's your look at sports. now for another look at the weather, here's bill karens with your forecast. >> since we're coming out of sports, i thought it would be appropriate to mention that there's an lsu and alabama

football game. the college football game of the weekend this witness. we'll hear a lot more from joe later on. let's talk about this forecast. we're watching nice conditions. it's a little cloudy. cold front passing through. breezy. we'll see a nice day in the northeast. cooler than yesterday. it will be brisk with the wind. it will be dry. bundle up the kids this morning. warm and sunny on saturday through much of the country. no problems with the weather. should be enjoyable. we are seeing a little bit of snow in the rockies. . a lot of ski areas are opening. some of the new england resorts are coming online now. it's getting to be that time of year. it's been cold enough. we have had the early season snow. no big bad weather for this weekend. we're looking pretty good. coming up, who are hollywood's most overpaid actors? plus eddie murphy returning to the big screen. [ female announcer ] removing facial hair can be irritating.

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welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. comedy takes center stage at the box office. eddie murphy is expected to take top spot with "tower heist." experts say a $30 million opening is in the cards. the stoner comedy, "a very harold and kumar christmas" is

expected to take third spot. a big interest in the soccer community, "rise and shine." the hard to believe true story of an obscure american player who went to england and worked his way up to be a captain in the professional league. bill is going to go see it. finally, comparing salaries versus earnings, drew barrymore is hollywood's most overpaid actor. second place is eddie murphy. and third is will ferrell. what happened to him? >> let's get back to america's soccer community. i want to go to this movie and look around and be like i'm bill. can i be apart of your american so soccer movie? is. >> you're going to get it from joe later on this morning. he's a big soccer fan. he knows all about this.

i'm lynn berry. stay tuned. "way too early" is next. president obama holding a news conference this morning in france. breathe'ing a sigh of relief for the american economy a day after greece pulled back under pressure its plans to hold a referendum on the rescue of its economy. the question is has the president been wise to stay on the sideline through all this? back in washington, the senate was voting down the $60 billion infrastructure piece of the president's jobs bill. why are we going through voting on every part of the plan if they have no chance of passing? another twist in the herman cain story. can we just fast forward to the end of this movie? it's making