we'll have all the reporting but still somewhat friendly interviews, all the numbers starting at 6:00 p.m. eastern. and ending when the cows come home or slightly thereafter. again, it starts at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night. we will see you then.thereafter. starts at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night see you then. "first look" is up next. super showdown, today republican presidential candidates battle it out for 424 delegates in 11 states. major flare up, the sun unleashes a powerful solar eruption, one of the largest observed in recent years. all through the night, one of the world's most famous races grinds on. good morning i'm lynn berry, those stories and more straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc.

morning, with super tuesday, republicans in 11 states will make their selection for gop presidential candidate and primaries in caucuses from coast to coast. the stakes are especially high in ohio where the race between mitt romney and rick santorum has been incredibly close. nbc's tracie potts joins us, good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. we're in columbus, where they will certify the primary results. this is the place to be. the place to watch today because no republican has ever been elected president without winning this state. so today's primary is a key proving ground for november. both top candidates, mitt romney and rick santorum, spent their last full day of campaigning in ohio. >> we have been all over the state, from a to z, all right? akron to zainesville.

>> reporter: despite a poll showing an unthenthusiastic candidate, romney insists he is winning voters. >> it's gut check time. who wants it the most. what do you say? >> reporter: rick santorum has a two point edge. a virtual tie. he focused on the flip-flop on contraception coverage. >> he will be the weakest candidate we could possibly put forward on the most important issue of today. >> reporter: santorum is also leading polls in tennessee. newt gingrich hopes to win delegates there and says romney must. >> he'll figure out to win the south or won't get nominated. >> reporter: he's running ads promising $2.50 gas. >> the gingrich plan puts money

back in your pocket. >> reporter: ron paul is focusing on north dakota -- >> i suspect we'll do exceptionally well. >> reporter: where are all the candidates tonight? mitt romney going home to massachusetts, newt gingrich will be in georgia, ron paul in north dakota, and rick santorum right here in ohio. lynn? thanks so much. all day long msnbc is the place for all your super tuesday results. prime time coverage begins at 5:00 p.m. with a special edition of "hardball" and continues live at 6:00 p.m., chris will be joined by al sharpton, ed schultz and rachel maddow.

mr. obama told benjamin netanyahu yesterday before using any military options, he wants to give sanction more time to work in iran. netanyahu speaking at the conference said israel can't wait much longer, to prevent the nation from developing a nuclear weapon. on the senate floor yesterday, former republican presidential candidate john mccain called for u.s. air strikes against government troops in area. mccain argued the u.s. has a moral and strategic obligation to force out syrian president bashar assad to end his brutal crack down that killed 7500 of his people. mccain said the united states should lead an internationalest to protect key population efforts through air strikes on assad's forces. first look at some of the other news going on around america, in california tensions ran high last night as dozens of protesters were arrested after

refusing to leave the state capitol rotunda. demonstrators were angry over budget cuts in the college and university system along with steep hikes in tuition and fewer classes. officers say they gave the protesters several chances to leave before moving in. in did yuluth, minnesota, w supremacists were speaking to speak out against an anti-racism campaign but due to the count he protesters they didn't get to speak. an x-ray shows how lucky a 3-year-old oregon girl was. she is recovering after swallowing 37 tiny magnets. took surgery to remove all them. the toy magnets are known as bucky balls, only meant for use by adults. she is doing fine, so that is good. a beautiful scene as the

iditarod race continues day and night. more than half the competitors have competed some 200 miles of mushing, but they still have a long way to go before making it on. some push through the night than camping. for a look at national weather, we turn to msnbc meterologist bill karins, good morning. >> they always look so happy. >> do they? >> they do. >> they're like how did i get stuck with this. >> they get steak dinners on that race. >> there you go. >> steak dinners, strap me up. it's a cold morning, i think this will be about it for many of us. windchills 5 in boston, so as far as today goes, this may just be, i don't want to jinx it, the last day it feels like winter throughout the eastern half of the country, through new england, back up to the great lakes.

we have warmer air heading our way and now you get in the middle of march you can notice more daylight we have, we add 3:00 a day, sun angle getting higher. when you throw on the heavy jacket, gloves and scarf, it may be the last time you bundle up like this. 18 in new york, 19 hartford cities have windchills in the low teens. single digits in many burbs. snow in areas of virginia and kentucky on the ground. as far as stormy weather goes, as far as voting goes, no issues. will be warm and windy through the middle of the country, no rain, no snow. areas out in the rockies have a little bit of snow to deal with and windy conditions in area of nevada, they are done with their primary voting. montana is probably some of the worst weather this morning. in the last 24 hours, this is how much the temperature has changed, kansas city gone up 26 degrees, from this time yesterday. while it's much colder at areas

of the east, that is why you feel it this morning. all this warm air in the middle of the country is heading east. april warmth returns to kansas city, oklahoma city, all of texas should be beautiful. going to be windy but in the 70s, feeling nice. denver, 68. even after a cold start, with the sunshine in march you will get in the 40s in many areas of the east, 30s where there is snow on the ground in new england, the reward day begins on wednesday, that is when we quickly jump into the mid 60s from atlanta through raleigh, charlotte, all the way up in areas of new york city. lynn, thunderstorms in the midwest, those will be generic variety storms, no tornado outbreaks with this next storm system in the heartland. >> that is good news. >> they need it. >> thanks so much. coming up, china wants to slow down, yahoo weighs layoffs and rush limbaugh continues to feel the heat. your "first look" at business headlines is straight ahead. coming up sweet revenge for

the bulls and trio of teams punch their tickets to the first dance. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. ok, guys-- what's next ? chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it.

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welcome back to "first look" i'm lynn berry. eric holder pointed to the circumstances behind the killing of american born al qaeda operative an war al-awlaki as legal justification for killing abroad. the cleric killed five months ago was planning to go kill americans and a terrorist threat. hundreds of people were detained in moscow yesterday over vladimir putin's election victory. he won 63% of the vote on sunday. the opposition groups claim there was ballot fraud. 15 month old tornado victim angel babcock was buried next to her parents and siblings yesterday in new pekin, indiana.

prince harry is on the island jaf mof jamaica, celebra the diamond jubilee of his grandmother. a major solar flare erupted from the surface of the sun putting on an incredible light show, the most powerful type of storm sending plasma and charge particles in space toward earth. beautiful. here is the "first look" how wall street kicks off the day. the dow opens at 12,962 after losing 14 points yesterday. the s & p down 5 points, nasdaq fell 25. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei lost 60 points, the hang seng lost a whopping 4.59. worries about chinas with growth is taking a toll on global markets. news the second largest economy is looking to slow growth for

the first time in eight years weighed in markets yesterday. yesterday, commodities stocks were the biggest losers. caterpillar fell 2%. copper and gold tumbled 4. alpha natural resources dropped 6% as lower natural gas prices added to growth concerns in china. meanwhile, a contraction in european business activity added to caution, despite readings showing the u.s. service sector expanded at anue

last month. aol is one of two more companies joining the advertising exodus from rush limbaugh's conservative talk show. limbaugh has apologized for calling law student sandra fluke a "slut and prostitute" for her testimony advocating birth control. two radio stations reportedly dropped his show. as if it wasn't bad enough, peter gabriel pulled his music from limbaugh's program after learning his 1986 hit "sledgehammer" was played during the rant last week. what is black, white and 100 years old today? that's right, lift a glass of milk to the oreo cookie. on this day in 1912, the national biscuit company made the first sale of the now iconic cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie. good excuse for you to indulge. last night on the "the

rachel maddow show" show, connie schultz said rush limbaugh's apology hasn't done anything to do anything on the attack. >> i watched ms. fluke's testimony live, our oldest daughter is exactly her age, just almost exactly, she is in law school. we have three other young women, two daughters and a daughter-in-law, mother of our only grandchild of reproductive age. rush limbaugh does not understand when he unleashed when he said those words because he went after my girl, the girls of mothers across the country regardless of politics. and that is what he has completely under estimated as have candidates, what is the down side to saying you don't ask women, young women to post video. he asked for video, rachel. of this young woman. he called her a slut because she wanted to be responsible about birth control. they have no idea what has been

unleashed but they are about to find out. there is no going back on this one. each night, rachel maddow takes on the biggest stories of the day. don't miss "the rachel maddow show" weeknights at 9:00 eastern right here on msnbc, the place for politics. the bulls get payback against the pacers and three teams secure their bids for march madness. overtime thrill near a fierce west coast college basketball rivalry. your "first look" at sports straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional. cfp. let's make a plan.

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welcome back to "first look" i'm lynn berry. in sports the thunder notched a 13 straight home court victory last night after narrowly escaping the mavericks. here is fred roggin. >> if it seems like your team is playing every night, they are playing because of the schedule. dirk nowitzki called it brutal. the world champs didn't want to begin the stretch like this. westbrook and durant too much for the mavs, thunder won it 95-91. last time the pacers won in chicago they celebrated, the bulls exacted revenged, outscored by 20, the pacers never record, 92-72. no secret the clippers are

the most improved team of the league, they have dropped five of the last eight. the timberwolves kevin love played like a man among boys, clips had a chance to tie the game with two seconds left, chris paul missed a free throw. >> college hoops, bcu heading back to the big dance beat drexel in the caa championship game. dragones had a chance to tie but couldn't get the three to bull. bcu punching their ticket to the tourney. gonzaga and st. mary, only one team could win the west coast conference. harris pulled up and tied the game to force overtime. st. mary's took the lead, they won the wcc, 78-74. overtime there, double overtime, davidson and western carolina, clint mann put the wildcats up two. they won 93-91 win in double

o-t. i'm fred roggin. now we check back with bill karins in hawaii. >> it's 11:00 news news in hawaii, first, lynn, all the tornadoes we had, another piece of incredible video, you get the home videos people are now just putting online, more and more of those over the last 24 hours. this was up-close-and-personal, this is an ef-4 tornado, winds up to 180, 190 miles per hour, reported at one point to have picked up asphalt off a highway, broke it, smashed it and tossed it in a field. this is what they were dealing with, you understand the shakey video, fearful scenes, the tornado isn't even nearby. the worst weather by far in anywhere the lower 48 or alaska or hawaii is in the pacific, flash flooding overnight, severe thunderstorm watch, by hawaii standards, a nasty day.

as we head through the overnight hours the heavy rain threat will continue and flooding. the showers and storms right over pearl harbor, honolulu area and oahu. hawaii's forecast, not one of the better days, a lot of clouds, rain, upper 70s to low 80s. we'll take that. as far as temperatures go in new england, chilly morning, with the sunshine, feel better this afternoon, winds this morning are definitely on the bitter side. as far as midwest goes, big warm-up underway, 72 today in kansas city and areas that had the tornadoes, remember it was snowing yesterday morning, today all going to melt in a warm-up in the 50s and 60s, by tomorrow some areas in the 60s and 70s. tomorrow's forecast looks great, warm it up on the east coast to april-like temperatures. for all the voting in swing states we're watching, ohio, tennessee, no weather issues at all. who is playing a legendary

strongman on the big screen and who is angry with twitter. >> last week we heard about the baby rumors, first look at entertainment straight ahead. you're watching "first look" only on msnbc. this is $100,000.

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>> welcome back to "first look" time for entertainmen news. last week it was the pregnancy rumors, now as bill has been waiting for here is the reveal. >> is it? >> no, "people" reports snooki is getting married, she was seen out yesterday wearing a large

diamond ring that people reports boyfriend jionni picked out. >> i'm not washiwatching the we. >> the host of the bachelor says he approached tim tebow about staring on the show and the quarterback seemed interested. >> the women would line up for blocks. >> wow, that is a bold statement. >> they love him. >> dwayne johnson, aka "the rock" signed up to start shooting in the fall playing who else, hercules. on the verge of turning 40, elizabeth berkeley is expecting her first child. that is random news for the day. miley cyrus, who received a barrage of hate tweets and death threats is asking twitter to take stems. nick lachey is asking for guesses on whether their baby is a boy or girl.

>> he'll want a boy. he love sports, been waiting for a child for a while. he want as boy. >> that what is bill says. i'm lynn berry, this is "first look" "way too early with willie geist" -- i say girl. >> all right. it's super tuesday, the day that could reshape the long race for the republican nomination with voting in 11 states. the question are, where does the campaign go if mitt romney wins the competition in ohio and what happens if he loses it to rick santorum? we will talk live in a second to john heilman. israeli lee prime minister benjamin netanyahu says the world can't wait much longer to stop iran's nuclear program, this as the president says we have your back. the question is where is this thing headed and how deeply will the u.s. be involved? and they're back, virginia commonwealth university one of the great cinderella