shot in the arm. republican front-runner newt gingrich lands a key endorsement on the road to the white house. showdown in l.a. wall street protesters defy a deadline to evade their encampment. and royal rescue. england's prince william makes a daring save at sea. good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. and we are going to begin this morning with that key endorsement. as gop presidential candidates look to make the most of their

remaining time on the campaign trail, former house speaker newt gingrich has the support of new hampshire's "union leader" newspaper. that's the largest in the first primary state. nbc's brian moore join us from washington with this story. brian, good morning to you. >> hi, lynn. that endorsement includes a up? for former massachusetts governor, mitt romney, who has been able to raise lots of cash. but is still struggling to get conservatives excited. newt gingrich isn't the greatest candidate. but he's better than mitt romney. that's the bottom line of an editorial endorsement by new hampshire's "union leader" newspaper. >> romney is a very play-it-safe candidate. >> reporter: that highlights romney's lingering inability to connect with conservatives. >> do you want a bona fide conservative like newt gingrich, who led you to revolution in 1994?

or do you want a middle-of-the-road candidate like romney. >> reporter: gingrich is the latest to top the gop field. michele bachmann is shrugging off the endorsement. >> the main endorsement i'm looking for is here in iowa, on january 3rd in the caucuses. >> reporter: herman cain is struggling. >> false accusation and confusion about some of my positions has contributed to it. >> reporter: jon huntsman is hoping for his turn. >> i'm getting whiplash watching people go up and down. >> reporter: 30 days until the iowa caucuses. and republican voters are still shopping around. and gingrich's new front-runner status will bring in more campaign cash. but also more scrutiny. lynn? >> thanks, brian. after a long thanksgiving weekend of eating, shopping and traveling, the holiday season is officially in full swing. that means serious business for the nation's retailers looking to follow up on record black friday sales by bringing in more

bargain-hunters online for cyber monday. nbc's francis reports. >> reporter: after another thanksgiving of crowded airports, highways and shopping mall. an statemented 42 million americans traveled this thanksgiving. sunday was more of the same. large crowds and long lines. travelers, once again braving the hassles and shakes of holiday congestion. it wasn't just the airports that were jammed. store owners were smiling after retail sales broke records over the holiday weekend. the national retail federation says stores did an estimated $52 billion in online and in-store sales. an increase of $7 billion from last year. spending all that money, an estimated 226 million shoppers, who visited stores and websites over black friday weekend. next up for retailers, cyber

monday, where later today, online shoppers will once again be looking for those online bargains. according to shop.org's holiday survey, eight out of ten retailers are expected to have special deals on super monday. elsewhere, for the second time this month, allegation of sexual child abuse have rocked one of the nation's most respected collegiate athletic programs, with the fires of syracuse university's long-time assistant basketball coach bernie fine. the university's announcement comes less than two weeks after two stepbrothers went public with accusations that they had been molested by fine back when they were ball boys on the team. syracuse police searched fine's home on friday after a third accuser came forward with similar allegations. in a newly-released phone conversation, secretly recorded in 2002, the former coach's wife discussed knowledge of the abuse with her husband's initial accuser and admitted there may

be more victims. fine has called the accusations against him, quote, blatantly false. officials in los angeles and philadelphia had been given orders to shut down occupy wall street camp notice those cities. but police have yet to enforce those orders. the lapd informed occupy l.a. protesters about the city's health and eviction plan before monday's deadline. however, the protesters have remained. and police are not confronting them. meanwhile, a deadline set for occupy philadelphia demonstrates to leave the site where they have been camped for nearly two months, passed sunday without arrests or removals. a $15 million construction project is due to start near that protest camp. nasa's latest mars rover lifted off over the weekend. the curiosity rover, the most sophisticated rover ever built, will hunt for signs once life

existed on the red pan et. >> propulsion. >> go. >> hydraulics. >> go. >> reporter: detectors were radioactive plutonium were in place, just in case. the 19-story atlas 5 rocket shedded a coating of frost and headed for the clouds and for mars. the launch is two years late. the delay alone costing $2 million. the plutonium detectors ready in case of an accident would not be needed. >> and we have first pair and second pair. both sets of srps have jetsonned from the vehicle. we have reenabled guidance. >> reporter: on the way to space, a camera caught the nose cone, no longer needed by the mars rover carried by the

rocket. >> we do this a lot. but it never changes. it's very exciting. >> reporter: it will be the most capable rover sent to another planet. nuclear-powered, ten feet long, it's supposed to lost two years and could last longer. scientists hope it gives the first confirmation of the building blocks of life outside on earth. it will look for complex, carbon-based molecules, the find you and i are made of. but mars is still a long way off. a 345 million-mile journey. >> we have spacecraft separation. >> reporter: the pod carrying the mars rover separated from the rocket's upper stage. it's on its way. landing is august 6th, with $2.5 billion and a lot of dreams on the line. >> that was dan billa reporting. for a look at your national weather, let's look in with meteorologist todd santos. >> good to see you.

good morning. 354 million miles, a little longer than most of us traveled for the holiday. want to talk about travel. a number of us getting on the roads, heading into the skies today. we'll be dealing with a chances for showers in the east. you see the cold front extending from the canadian border. north of the border, we see a little bit of snowfall. but for the most part, we're dealing with rain. the milder side of things, temperature-wise, across the east coast. you have that high pressure still entrenched. that's going to keep areas around new york, boston, on the dry, quiet side of things. still warm. but down to the south, it's this area of low pressure that's taking over. and notice that some of the cooler air, we're dealing with cooler temperatures back through texas. we're going to wrap some of that up in there. and a cool pocket aloft maybe able to get some snow going, especially later on tonight. maybe in the evening hours. around jackson, back towards memphis. jackson looks to be the bull's eye for the three to five inch

range, as far as snowfall is concerned. some of that getting back towards huntsville. once you get to knoxville, maybe a few flakes tomorrow morning. for the most part, dealing with rain. and we will be dealing with heavy rain chances. in some cases, we need to see the rain. we badly need it. i mentioned the temperature differences. it doesn't take too much to find the front there. back towards denver, 43 degrees. a few mild spots towards billings. we have a front around the mountains. with isolated rain showers in northern california. that front fizzling out. we have to wait until midweek to see our next chance of real snow, wyoming, and towards the mountains of montana. head back to the southeast. a few of the area airports, from atlanta, back the birmingham,

toward cincinnati, a few sot spots to look out for. and down in florida, chances for showers today. by tomorrow, improvement across much of the southeast. maybe a snowflake in and around the southeast. early tomorrow morning around atlanta. better chances in western tennessee and northern alabama. we'll look at some of the watches out for snow potential. >> thanks to much. wall street readies for another week. euro leaders look to get tough. and the high cost of a pear tree. your first look at this morning's business headlines is straight ahead. coming up, another game. another tebow comeback. and a touchdown celebration gone bad. you're watching "first look." nyquil: you know i relieve coughs, sneezing, fevers?

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welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. here's some of the top headlines making news this morning. a crisis is brewing between islamabad and the nation.

a nato air strike killed two dozen pakistani soldiers. afghan is denying claims that fire came from its posts. they're blocking convoys into pakistan and demanding that the u.s. vacate a drone base on its soil. the arab league has approved sweeping economic sanctions on syria, aimed at punishing the regime of president bashar al assad, on protesters. explosives along a gas pipeline in egypt this morning that carries fuel to israel and jordan. it's the eighth attack on the pipeline since egypt's uprising. and comes just hours before the first parliamentary elections since the ousting of leader hosni mubarak. and prince william came to the rescue of a cargo ship.

the ship was carrying eight russian crew members. two were pulled from a life raft. one body was recovered. and five are still missing. now, here's your first look at how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,231 after losing 25 points on friday. the s&p 500 was down 3 points. the nasdaq fell 18. looking at overseas trading this morning. in tokyo, the nikkei claimed 127 points. in hong kong, the hang seng jumped 348. this week, the band yields will determine the direction of wall street stocks. last week, percentage-wise, the dow and s&p 500 had the worst thanksgiving week since the great depression. with another round of european bond options this week, traders hope to see bond yields fall or at least settle. asian stocks started off the week well, climbing on optimism on the strong start to u.s. holiday shopping. asian markets were encouraged by

reports that germany's chancellor merkel and france's president sarkozy, are forcing legal changes to get nations using the euro to comply with budget discipline. belgium, the latest casualty suffered the credit downgrading. if traders take their eyes off of europe this week, it will be for data. consumer confidence will be released tomorrow. wednesday, u.s. manufacturing data is due. followed thursday, by factory readings from europe and china. on jobs, private employment numbers are out wednesday, followed thursday by last week's jobless claims. and friday comes the really big one, october's monthly report. elsewhere, iraq reached a $17 billion deal this weekend with royal dutch shell and mitsubishi to capture natural gas from its oil fields. for the first time ever, if you bought all 164 items on the

12 days of christmas, it would cost you $7,000. seven swans a swimming, up 12.5% last year. brady passes on the eagles. the steelers hold out against the chiefs. and tebow does it again. plus, will a tasteless touchdown celebration by a buffalo bills receiver lead to trouble with the league? brad, where we going? just a second. just, just one second. ♪ what are you looking at? don't look up there. why are you looking up? ♪ get outta the car. get outta the car. ♪ are you ok? the... get in the car. get in the car! [ male announcer ] the epa estimated 42 mpg highway chevy cruze eco. from spending time together, to spending your lives together, chevy runs deep.

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in sports, the one thing you can't argue with is winning. whether you like him or not, tim tebow has been winning. here's nbc's fred roggin. >> everybody has an opinion on the broncos tim tebow. love him or hate him, he keeps finding a way to win. connected with eric decker in the end zone. and denver trailed, 10-7. in the fourth, tebow got the broncos in field goal range. right down the middle. we're on to overtime. after san diego missed a 52-yarder, parader came out and nailed a chip shot for the victory. tebow, 5-1, as a starter. in buffalo, stevie jackson scored a touchdown against the jets. it's what he did after the catch that has everybody talking. he pretended to shoot himself in the leg as part of his touchdown celebration. he was mocking jets receiver plaxico burress who shot himself in 2008. but the jets would have the last

laugh. mark sanchez, hit santonio holmes with a minute to play. jets knock off the bills. to philly, eagles jumped out to a ten-point lead. then, patriots decided to show up. tom brady and company rattled off 21-straight. pats win 38-20. chiefs and steelers. ben roethlisberger threw just one touchdown. that proved to be enough. weslye saunders from two yards out. pittsburgh rided out a victory in kansas city, 13-9. finally, the chargers have dropped six-straight. here's something more enbarsing than that. there's charger kicker, nick novak. no bathrooms around. he took a knee and relieved himself next to the water station. and everyone on national television got to see. that's your first look at sports. i'm fred roggin. >> way to keep it classy. for another look at the weather, here's meteorologist todd santos. >> mom would be proud. can i keep it classier than

that. want the talk about the snowfall. i want to mention the winter weather advisories. those are the areas in white on the map. northern mississippi, this far south. in the northern, you'll be dealing with rain showers. this is where we find some of the snow. a chance towards bowling green, kentucky. jackson, tennessee, to say tupelo, mississippi. the best chances for three to five inches of snow. the winter storm watches go into effect later this evening. go until midday tomorrow. and there's a chance for snow towards nashville. more on the spectator amount of flakes. some of the areas travel-wise could be dicey. if it doesn't stick to the roadways, better chances that the elevated surfaces, your deck railing and your front yard. a few areas of snow, where you want to see it. the rockies, a quiet setup for today. you see higher elevation snow over the last couple hours through northwestern montana. a few light showers outside

boise, extending downward near mt. shasta. the snow really holds up a until wednesday of thex week. i showed the temperatures a little while earlier. you see the cold column of air, 31 degrees. compare that to what we had this time yesterday. notice that area of purple is where you're talk temperatures quite a bit cooler. out the door, san antonio towards new orleans, yesterday, you didn't need a jacket. today, maybe not such a bad thing to bring with you. you talk about temperatures across the same area, rebounding in the 60s. 54 in new orleans. cool by your standards. and extending down into florida. make sure you have an umbrella with you through the afternoon. and we have showers in the northeast. coming up, we have your roundup of the top films at the holiday box office. and controversy swirling around stoner comments by teen star, miley cyrus. everyone have their new blackberry from at&t?

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welcome back, everybody. chalk up a second win of the weekend for vampire romance. "breaking down" took over $62 million-plus. including overseas earnings, it stands just short of $500 million. and debuting in second was the family flick "the muppets," with just under 30 milli$30 million three-day weekend.

"happy feet 2" finished third, with $13.5 million. the animated comedy xwt arthur christmas" was fourth. and "hugo" debuted fifth, with just over $11 million. finally, in a video of miley cyrus celebrating her 19th birthday recently, cyrus is heard saying, quote, you know you're a stoner when your friends make you a bob marley cake. you know you smoke way too much weed. a rep for cyrus says the cake was a joke. and her friends are jumping on the bandwagon, too. kelly osbourne threw a party for her. this was private. a friend was filming it with a cell phone. they want to find out who leaked the video. >> and what's the joke about the bob marley cake. i would love a bob marley cake. what does that say about me? >> it's not start rumors, todd.

i'm lynn berry. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. way too early starts right now. pakistan seethes after a nato air strike killed 24 of its soldiers along the afghan border. with the government there calling the attack unprovoked. after the united states bin laden raid earlier this year and now this, the question is, how much more can your important relationship with pakistan take? we'll have a live report in a minute. in presidential politics, newt gingrich, spending another week near the top of the polls. picks up the endorsement of a key newspaper in new hampshire, a month and a half ahead of the state's primary. the question is, with thanksgiving behind us, will the real gop field take shape? and buffalo bills wide receiver stevie johnson, with the dumbest touchdown celebration in recent memory. mimics jets' wide receiver plaxico bury shooting himself in