samoa's logistical ambition, choosing to killriday, i got to say that's kind of weird. "first look" is up next. slugging it out. with the iowa caucuses less than a week ago, newt gingrich takes off the gloves. scare tactics. iran threatens to block oil exports in the face of western sanctions. and cranky croc. an australian crocodile takes a bite out of a lawn mower. very good morning to you. i'm veronica de la cruz. those stories and more straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin this morning with

no more mr. nice guy. republican presidential campaign newt gingrich lambasted two of his top gop rivals tuesday despite earlier claims he would stick to a positive campaign. nbc's brian mooar joins us from washington with the very latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the candidates are sprinting toward the starting line. >> what's going to happen in this process? >> reporter: with six days to go before the iowa caucuses, the gop presidential campaign is getting personal. mitt romney mocked newt gingrich's failure to get on the primary b ballot in the homestae of virginia. >> more like lucille ball at the chocolate factory. you know, you've got to get it organized. >> so, our campaign is going to stay positive. >> reporter: gingrich insists he's going to be positive, his supporters have launched attacks on romney, asking whether a moderate can be trusted, and a new text message campaign calling romney's once pro-choice views. rick perry portraying the other

candidates as washington insiders is campaigning with the ultimate outsider, controversial sheriff joe arpaio. rick santorum's campaign is finally gaining momentum and michele bachmann is desperately trying to get momentum back. knowing that even with less than a week left, a lot can happen. romney is struggling in iowa but he's doing well in his homestate of new hampshire where the first in the nation primary now is just 13 days away. veronica? >> brian mooar in washington, thank you. also a night on "the rachel m maddow show" she asked if you could remember a time in politics when the outcome was as uncertain as the iowa caucuses? >> we had times when we were not sure who would win, but not on this scale. the polls are pretty much out of

date now. i suspect pollsters went back into the field after christmas to give us a sense of where the race is. no. it's a great race. media people can't figure it out. pollsters have to dig deep into the electorate to find likely caucus-goers. it's 3 million people, about 600,000 republicans. and down here below that, 120,000 likely caucus-goers. they can be hard to find. secondly, there's lots of new people. ron paul is attracting new people. some polling shows about a third of likely caucus-goers say they are first time caucus-goers. those people are hard to find what it means is that this is difficult, impossible to predict and it's great. we'll have a real race in a week. >> don't miss rachel maddow, weeknights at 9:00 p.m. on

msnbc, the place for politics. the democrats' hopes for maintaining senate majority took a blow yesterday when nebraska senator ben nelson announced he's decided not to run for re-election in 2012. he made the announcement in a youtube video in which he explained he wanted to spend more time with his family. he faced a tough re-election battle against a large group of republican challengers. a funeral procession for north korean leader kim jong-il has begun in pyongyang. tens of thousands of north koreans lined snow-covered streets today as the late leader's son and successor kim jong-un led the hearse carrying his body. with outside monitors now in syria, demonstrators made sure their voices would be heard. amateur video shows tens of thousands taking to the streets reportedly calling for the

execution of president bashar al assad. critics debated whether government tanks pulling back was just an attempt to mislead monitors. >> reporter: government security forces appear to fire tear gas at the crowds trying to stop them from heading to the city's main square for a mass demonstration. footage we cannot independently verify. even so, 70,000 protesters seem to have risked their lives to attend the rally against president assad. we want the president executed, they chant. spurred on by the arrival of arab league peace observers, who have come here to see if the regime is keeping its promise and ending its military crackdown of anti-government demonstrators. here they appear to be besieged by local residents on the streets. eager to show them the pools of blood spilled in the violent clashes with government forces. while the government itself

appeared to be pulling out its tanks and armored vehicles. >> if the observers come up with a strong report and then the arab league takes that to the u.n. we are pushing for a u.n. security resolution, and we are hoping allies like russia and china will see the events as they are. >> reporter: but there's already been nine months of fighting in syria, and activists allege the violence is continuing indiscriminately. rebels claim this 12-year-old boy was the victim of a live round, information that is impossible to verify. and further reports suggest 15 people have been killed across the country just today. there is still much skepticism over what these peace observers can really achieve here. >> upping the ante in its high-stakes battle with western powers, iran has threatened to cut off oil exports from middle east if the west imposes sanctions on oil shipments.

a top official was quoted by state media threatens too close the strait of hormuz to western traffic if they continue their plots against iran. as state department spokesman dismissed the threats as, quote, bluster. here is your "first look" at some other news going on around america today. michigan police were recently involved in a high speed pursuit of one of their own suv cruisers. wa wearing only his underwear, a suspect hopped behind the wheel after escaping from a backseat. it ended with the suspect crashing into vehicles at a roadblock. no injuries were reported. a lawyer for a group of single mothers in hawaii calling their theft inside a toy store a desperate act in tough economic times. a surveillance camera captured the women stealing $1,000 worth of christmas gifts for their children. they have since returned the merchandise and plan to surrender by the week's end. spreading holiday cheer landed one boston transportation employee in hot water.

on christmas, he programmed a station message board and its robotic voice to recite the lyrics to "deck the halls." grinch-like officials reportedly considered firing the employee but only handed down a written warning. and finally, new york city preps to welcome in the new year. they are in full swing. take a look at this. they installed 300 waterford crystals on the ball that will descend in times square. beautiful. now for a look at the national weather. we turn to bill karins with the weather. you have never seen the ball drop. >> you can do it this year by yourself. not me. >> i will stand out there by yourself. >> you need to get there three, four hours early, and stand there jammed in like sardines. >> all by my lonesome. >> good morning. hopefullyjoying your moment. yesterday on the east coast it

was a rough one. about 30,000 people were without power in connecticut last night. that storm is gone, but it will still be a blustery and breezy day throughout all of the east. that's a big storm system that is leaving. typically we would be talking about huge snowstorm for this time of year, but temperatures were way warm, temperatures as high as 50 in bangor, maine. it will be a dry day today. the exception is near the great lakes. enough cold air out there that we are kicking off the lake-effect snow machine a bit. everyone east of the rockies will be dry. the exceptions, especially all lake erie. the white is the snow. erie, you're dry, as we get into the greater buffalo area, we could expect a couple inches today. just a bit near watertown, new york. also near pittsburgh to altoona, a couple streamers of snow.

the windchill is not miserable, but it's cooler than it has been. windchill 15 in chicago. minneapolis at 16. the cold air is just north of the border now. international falls has a windchill of minus 12. like detroit and northern michigan, you will probably be one of the coldest spots in the country. as far as the forecast goes into detroit. today is the coldest day. a high of 28. a couple chances of rain and snow showers in detroit as the temperatures warm up. everyone from texas to florida, another beautiful december day for you. just up there in the northern portions of the great lakes will be very cold. >> i want to be in miami, 72 degrees. that looks good. sears stumbles, oil bubbles, and putting your foot in your mouth on facebook. eight is great for the pats and niners. celtics can't stand the heat. the lakers get back on track. you're watching "first look" on

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welcome back to "first look." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. the 58-year-old president of argentina fernandez has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and will take a leave of absence to undergo surgery next month. the type of cancer she has is thought to be highly survivable. a political shakeup in moscow. one of prime minister's putin's long-time deputies has been removed from his role over seeing the country's domestic political agenda. putin is facing the biggest opposition after 12 years in power. a third baby has gotten sick from a bacterial infection that killed a missouri infant. however the baby in this latest case did not consume the formula enfamil which has been the subject of a probe. a legendary show business figure died, cheetah the chimpanzee, tarzan's sidekick

in the movies of the 1930s passed away on christmas eve at a florida sanctuary at the age of 80. in australia, it's crocodile versus lawnmower, and by the looks of it, the crocodile wins. the mower was no competition for the appetite of 18 elvis. elvis also got in trouble a few years ago after climbing on board fishing boats. oh, my goodness. here's your "first look" at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,291 after losing 2 points yesterday. the s&p was up a fraction and nasdaq added six. looking at overseas trading, in tokyo the nikkei lost 16 points while in hong kong the hang seng fell 110. stocks ended flat on light volume tuesday, a typical trading day between christmas and new year's. one big mover was sears after planning to close 100 to 120 sears and kmart stores and dire fourth quarter earnings

warnings. they plunged to a new 52-week low. whirlpool which depended on sears tumbled almost 9%. bad housing news. bad housing news. october single family home prices fell more than expected with atlanta and las vegas prices falling to their lowest since the housing crisis began. that helped take the shine off a jump in consumer confidence to the highest level since april. growing consumer confidence combined with tensions with iran sent the price of oil above $101 a barrel. endeavor international rose 24% on a deal to buy conoco phillips on three international sea oil fields. international gained 5% on the government opening the door to online gambling. elsewhere, italy's ten-year bond yield hit the crisis 7% level tuesday. after the chinese yuan hit an all-time high against the dollar, the treasury department refused to label china a currency manipulator, angering trade groups which accuse beijing of holding its currency down for trade advantage. a federal judge dismissed charges of bp's subsidiary

violated probation after an oil spill on alaska's north slope. and finally, a mexican anti-poverty official has been fired. he posted a facebook comment saying poor people smell bad. the boilermakers boil. the red wings beat the blues. which teams dominated nfl pro bowl straight leg raising shuns? the shamrocks wilt against miami's heat. you're watching "first look" on msnbc.

welcome back to "first look." in sports, nba teams take note, the miami heat are coming out of the gate of the start season firing on all seasons. here is mario solis. >> good morning. the nba season is just three days old but the miami heat are in midseason form. south beach. celtics paul pierce sitting out his second straight game and boston could have used him. miami hits the ground running. lebron hits it into another year and flies back rondo for the jam. heat up 15 at the break. to the third dwyane wade joins the fun, lobs it up for james and he throws it down. lebron with 26. wade finishing with 24. heat beat the celts 115-107. it took three games but the lakers finally got in the win column. check out men of world peace, looks like that ron artest guy when he was 25. kobe nursing a sore wrist but

gets it down with a game high 26. lakers turn down the jazz. to hockey, the blues were cruising up on the red wings when in the blink of an eye, detroit scores two goals in 53 seconds. they score three unanswered to beat the blues 3-2. after playing in the conference finals last year, the lightning have been struggling this season. maybe this will help turn things around. stamkos scores two against the flyers now tied for the league lead with 22. tampa wins 5-1. nfl, the 49ers and patriots will send eight players each to this year's pro bowl game. fan favorite and hype machine tim tebow is an alternate. finally, it wouldn't be late december without bowl games. off to north carolina for the belt bowl. nc state and louisville. glennen airs it out to graham. a 67-yard strike. wolfpack up 11. they hold on to win 31-24. to motown for the little caesar bowl. purdue against western michigan. the kickoff from the 1 yard line and off to the races. 99 yards to the house. pizza for everyone.

perdue wins 37-32. that's your "first look" at sports. i'm mario solis. now for another quick look at the weather. here's bill karins with the weather channel forecast. the little caesars bowl, pizza pizza. >> i love all the names of the football games. >> what is it looking like outside? >> it's a little windy, most of the power has been returned. now we will settle back into a typical december weather pattern. colder air is work its way back through the great lakes. it will be a chilly day today. detroit, cleveland, syracuse, rochester, buffalo, some snow out there. appalachians finally getting some snow for once. as far as the wind gusts go, the strongest winds by pittsburgh and buffalo. wind gusts in the big cities today about 30, 35 miles per hour. it will be a breezy day. temperatures will hover around

the low 40s. if anything, the temperatures will probably be dropping during the day. buffalo, your high today only 25. windchills in the teens. as far as the rest of the country goes, still chilly up in the northern great lakes. minneapolis and chicago, this time of year, mid 30s, upper 30s. kansas city, gorgeous. 51 degrees. no problems in texas or florida all the stormy weather the rest of this week will be in the pacific northwest. a couple storms one after another, and the cascades will get some significant snow and some areas in the northern rockies and idaho in montana. as far as tomorrow's forecast, kansas city, 57. dallas at 64. just unusually warm weather it will continue it looks like until the new year. veronica, it does look like it will change about the beginning of next week. some of the coldest air finally arrives. >> no i want to be in honolulu where it's 80 degrees.

your year-end celebrity naughty and nice list, and an internet prank runs out of control. and wait until you hear the price mel gibson will be paying to split with his long-time wife.

welcome back to "first look." it is time for some entertainment news. sadly, a little more than two weeks after her wedding, sinead o'connor ended her fourth marriage. she blames pressures placed on her husband by, quote, certain people in her life. she exchanged vows last month in

a pink cadillac at the little white chapel in las vegas. "people" announced a cover featuring taylor lautner was 100% fake. lady gaga, justin bieber and george clooney topped dosomething.org's list of the top most 20 giving stars, and peta named kim kardashian one of the grinches of the year for continuing to wear fur. and in his finalized divorce settlement, not only does mel gibson have to pay his former wife half of his current fortune, $425 million, but she also gets half of his future residuals forever. ouch. and i've heard she's already worth $22 million herself. >> now she's worth a quarter billion. >> she's going to be living high on the hog. i guess that's california law,

right? >> they were together a long time. >> i'm veronica de le cruz. stay tuned, because "way too early" with willie geist starts right now. six days until the voting begins in iowa, and mitt romney and newt gingrich which dropped all that negative campaigning, the question is who will emerge at the top of the field? we'll have the latest from iowa. back in washington, ben nelson of nebraska announces he will not seek re-election, almost assuring his seat will go to a republican. and a surreal scene in the streets of pyongyang, north carolina, or was it a sound stage in burbank? where thousands gather for some choreographed mourning of the late kim jong-il. the qust