contests just in the month of january, which would be just like 2008 but way more boring. do it later, you guys. come on. testimony at the trial of michael jackson's doctor reveals more on the dramatic final moments of the pop star's life. bursts of lava light up the sky. and cat got your tongue? a massachusetts feline with two heads makes the guinness book of world records. that's going to leave a mark. good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look." and we begin this morning

with chilling testimony. for a third day, emotions ran high in a los angeles courtroom where michael jackson's personal physician stands accused of voluntary manslaughter in the late pop star's death. yesterday, jurors heard more details about the crucial moments surrounding jackson's death. nbc's stephanie stanton has more. >> reporter: after three days of emotional testimony, jackson family members left the courthouse surrounded by supportive fans. meanwhile, inside the courtroom compelling testimony from a key witness for the prosecution. >> he was laying on his back. >> reporter: the security guard recalled the critical minutes in jackson's bedroom, all while jackson's children watched. he says he was asked to call 911. >> we have a gentleman here that needs help. >> reporter: but not before he said conrad murray told him to held collect drug viles and an

i.v. bag in the room. >> he said get that bag, remove that bag and put it in the blue bag. >> reporter: later, jackson's personal chef testified about that fateful day. >> it was a very devastating day. >> reporter: she said she was preparing jackson's lunch when dr. murray came running down the stairs in a panic. >> he was shouting. >> what did he shout? >> get help. get security. get prince. >> reporter: she was also questioned about several paid interviews she did after jackson's delath. >> were you paid for that interview? >> yes. >> how much? >> $1,000. on the political front after a week full of will he or won't he about a presidential bid, this morning, it appears chris christie is adding more fuel to the fire. according to new york's wnbc, christie is no longer ruling out

a run for president after months of adamant denies. sources tell the station the first-term governor is reconsidering his stance after what he feels was a strong outpouring of support. meanwhile, herman cain, a republican hoping to take on president obama in 2012, is gaining momentum and also some attention for a recent comment. last night on "the last word" with lauren o'donnell, lawrence asked for a response to cain's comment that african-americans have been brainwashed into voting for democrats. >> first, it's important to say that insulting voters isn't quite the winning strategy to win them over to your platform. more importantly, what we do know is that african-americans do vote for democratic candidates on issues that they believe are important to them. african-american voters tend to be economically liberal but

socially conservative, so he's actually right. black voters to agree with the republican party on some issues, but for them economics trumps culture. arguably, the opposite is true for many white working class voters. so on issue after issue, let's take the minimum wage. blacks are highly supportive of the minimum wage. when herman cain was head of the gnarl restaurant association, he led a campaign to prevent raising the minimum wage under the clinton administration. on those issues, african-americans strongly disagree with him and the republican party. >> lean forward with "the last word" as lawrence o'donnell takes on the day's most compelling stories. it airs 8:00 p.m. eastern weeknights on msnbc. elsewhere, facebook is in hot water. this time with congress over potential privacy violations. co-chairs of a bipartisan

congressional caucus have asked the federal trade commission to launch an inquiry after it was recently discovered that facebook was using cookie software to track users' online activity. facebook says it has since fixed the problem, adding in a statement yesterday that it, quote, did not store or use any information it should not have. still, congress is concerned the practice raises privacy concerns. the satirical newspaper "the onion" set off a fire storm of controversy yesterday after a series of tweets sent out alleging gunfire and hostage taking on capitol hill. capitol police are investigating the paper for making false reports after enough twitter users were alarmed by the post yesterday morning. on its website, the story plus a doctored photo.

the more abbreviated headlines on twitter as a terror plot uncovered by the fbi left some thinking the story was true. here's a look at other stories going on today. the life of a florida child was saved by a grown up of bystanders after he was run over by a car. the boy became trapped after getting out of his grandmother's car and falling in front of an oncoming vehicle. the makeshift rescue crew freed the boy by lifting the car and pulling him from underneath. he is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries. a pit bull puppy is expected to make a miraculous recovery after surviving a bizarre experience in an alabama garden. blue's owners rushed him to the vet after he swol lowed a garden flag pole. surgeons were able to remove the pole and patch up the adorable canine without causing damage to other organs. and finally, attention target shoppers. michele obama doing her part to

spur the economy dressed incognito in a baseball cap and shades shopping in a capitol area store. the white house did not release any details on what the first lady purchased but did say she often slips out to run regular errands. just like everybody else. now for a look at your national weather, we turn to nbc meteorologist dominica davis. >> good morning. we have some weather changes on the way. and say it ain't snow. maybe a few snow flakes coming in to parts of the northeast. we'll get to that in a second. let's get to the tropics. three named storms right now. one in the pacific. the other two in the atlantic. one is a hurricane. that's ophelia. so that's the one we're watching. it was upgraded to a hurricane overnight. it is south of bermuda. category 2 right now at the 5:00 update. ophelia is going to track out to the open waters, which is good

news. so no threat to the u.s. actually, none of the storms in the tropics are a threat to the u.s. that is certainly good news there. but for us, for the rest of us on the east coast, we are dealing with another cold front. you can see it clearly here. that is moving out of the midwest and off to the northeast. for the northeast, we have one more front to go. this will knock out that hot, sticky air. already seeing a dip in the humidi humidity. as this front moves through, it will be a little less potent than yesterday. yesterday, we had storms through the i-95 corridor. we won't see that much today. could have a scattered shower here or there. for the most part, it's dry. we'll just have the clouds around. it's warm once again. once that front pushes through, we will see a big dip in the temperatures. you can already notice that cool air. there's the leading edge moving through the midwest. so it's 60 today in chicago. 62 in minneapolis. still looking at 70s up and down the east coast. as that front pushes through saturday, notice a big dip in the temperatures. we could have a few morning showers. other than that, it's going to

be fairly quiet along the east coast. down to the south, they'll get in on some cooler than normal air. new orleans on saturday, only 78 degrees. orlando, about 80. still warm in san antonio, 91. today, they could see a little shower action. that's a look at your forecast. >> thank you. bank of america getting booed. china stocks get the red hot drop. and a familiar restaurant chain may be no more. your first look at this morning's business headlines is straight ahead. coming up, an upset in college football, and baseball's postseason is finally here. you're watching "fist look" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] heard this one?

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look." i'm lynn berry. here are some of the top stories making news this morning. in california, a man has been rescued six days after his car plunged 200 feet down a cliff off a winding road. the man who was found by his own

children suffered broken bones. his injuries are not life threatening. the 67-year-old's car landed next to another that had crashed. it's unclear when it happened, but a badly decomposed body was reportedly found in that vehicle. in chile, police clashed with protesters angry about the nation's education system. demonstrations have been taking place since june. students are demanding the government provide free education. yesterday, china launched an un-manned rocket carrying the nation's first space lab. the lab will be a testing ground for china to dock with spacecraft later this year, paving the way for a permanent space station by around 2020. sicily's mount etna is blowing once again. the volcano shot ash and lava into the air. it temporarily shut down a nearby airport. and this will leave you shaking your head. here's a face or faces only a

mother could love. frank and louie the cat was born with two faces, two mouths, two noses, and three eyes. the massachusetts cat has made it into the guinness world record book as the longest surviving member of a group of felines named for a roman god with two faces. i just can't believe there's more than one of those out there. well, here's your first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,153 after rising 143 points yesterday. the s&p was up nine points. the nasdaq lost ten. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei was down a fraction while in hong kong, the hang seng dropped 418. stocks mostly rose thursday. a day of high volume and one that introduced yet another overseas uncertainty factor.

the dow and s&p 500 posted healthy gains, but the nasdaq was knocked lower by a selloff of chinese stocks. big teches also pressured the nasdaq. amazon was off 3% following a sharp rise wednesday. apple fell hard on end of quarter profit taking. other big techs and internets were hit. yahoo lost over 5%. netflix sank 11. also, companies vulnerable to an economic downturn turned down. tiffany fell almost 7% while coach sank six. there were gainers and good news. first time unemployment applications hit a five-month low last week. the government raised its estimate of economic growth for

april to june. and a triumph for merkel. travelers, bank of america, and other financials led the dow higher. but watch bank of america today. america's largest bank is weathering an uproar of its plans to charge debit card users $5 a month if you use the card to pay for purchases. finally, the ultimate casualty of an unfriendly economy. "the wall street journal" reports friendlies is preparing for possible bankruptcy and a potential sale. well, in health news this morning, cornel researchers who turned to twitter for realtime little filtered behavior and thoughts found a pretty consistent pattern. people who wake up tend to be in a good mood earliest in the morning and happiest on weekends. on average, a positive attitude peaks early in the morning. i guess that's good news for us.

then it starts to dip mid-morning. the positive vibes start rising once again in the evening and peak again near midnight. for more nfrgs on this, you can che out the health page on msnbc.com. well, baseball playoffs and the first casualty among managers who didn't get their team there. plus, south florida is cracked in an upset. your first look at sports is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ echoing ] hurt! hey, wha-- [ camera clicks ] oh, state farm bank's pocket agent. it lets you deposit checks right from your phone. you just shoot, send, done! boom. give it up! [ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state.

welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. in sports, eight months after pitchers and catchers reported to spring training, baseball's playoffs begin today. here's nbc's fred rogan. >> good morning. the baseball world still abuzz over the incredible finish to the regular season. today, we turn our attention to the postseason as the playoffs begin in the american league. the rays may be considered a team of destiny after coming from seven runs down wednesday to win the a.l. wild card. they'll try to carry that momentum all the way to texas where they'll take on the rangers tonight. the yankees have the best record in the league, but the tigers have arguably the best pitcher in baseball. detroit will send justin ver lander ver lander to the hill for tonight's game. >> i have a ton of confidence in cc. this is a guy who's been doing it for a long time. he's been doing it in the postseason for us as well. he's a guy that gives you a ton of innings, but he gives you

quality innings. i have a ton of belief. you know he's not going to panic. if he gets in a tough situation, he's going to continue to make his pitches. >> should be a good old-fashioned pitcher's dual. rangers and rays kick off the postseason from texas at 5:00 eastern. shock waves from the red sox september collapse are still being felt in boston. according to sources, manager terry francona will meet with red sox management today and likely leave the team. despite the general manager's confidence in francona, his future in boston is in serious doubt. finally, a big upset in pittsburgh. the panthers ran over and around south florida. 226 yards on the ground, 42 through the air. another 35 on special teams and two touchdowns. add all that up, a pittsburgh blowout. that's your first look at sports. have a great weekend. and now for another quick look at the weather, here's

domenica davis. she has your weekend weather forecast. our favorite one. domenica, good morning. >> good morning, lynn. yes, we have warm air once again. this is our last day of warm air across the east coast. we've had those above-normal temperatures. get ready for a cool down. a significant cool down at that. 70s once again. more cloud cover today. that skoefcold front is sitting through the middle part of the country. chicago, minneapolis have all dipped down into the 60s. that chill progresses eastward as we head into the weekend. yes, in parts of west virginia and pennsylvania in the mountains, we could even see our first snow flakes of the season. how about that, lynn? >> i don't know. i'm not prepared. >> nobody is. >> i haven't done the switch of the wardrobe yesterday. i don't even have the sweaters. thanks, domenica. well, another entry in hollywood's weird baby names.

plus, can an r-rated comedy drama about cancer win it all this weekend at box office? your first look at entertainment is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. montrose, california. ♪ in here, anarchy meets order. working with at&t, doctors set up a broadband solution to handle data and a mobility app to stay connected with their business. so they can run the office... even when they're not in the office.

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look." i'm lynn berry. last night on "late night" with jimmy fallon, jimmy took a poke at facebook's founder. >> you hear about this facebook founder mark zuckerberg recently went hunting and killed a bison. it's weird because the bison's last words were, "i hate the new facebook layout."

a recent study found that women inherit their sense of style from their mothers, which explains why i saw chelsea clinton shopping at men's warehouse. oh, she'll laugh. big economic news here. global investors are predicting that europe's debt crisis could lead to a devastating, catastrophic meltdown. as experts call that, doing it red sox style. [ cheers and applause ] that was awful. what happened? only red sox fans, right? >> on jimmy tonight, "homeland" claire dane. well, it's time now for your first look at entertainment news. at the box office this weekend, can hollywood's september surprise finish the month on top?

"the lion king" will likely take in around $15 million this weekend for its third straight win. the r-rated debut "50/50" about best friends dealing with cancer looks to be top challenger. also expected to take in about $15 million. but don't count out brad pitt's baseball saga "moneyball," which topped the charts all week. but this week's playoffs could keep potential fans at home. well, the wild card will be the mystery thriller "dream house" starring daniel craig. experts predict very widely. some seeing it challenging for the top spot. others see it in the low teen millions. finally, the opening of latest r-rated anna faris comedy "what's your number?" has a shot at cracking the top five with around $10 million. and lastly, mike myers and wife kelly tisdale have welcomed

their first child into the world which they named spike. in the world of hollywood names, not so bad. >> absolutely. >> well, i'm lynn berry. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. "way too early" with willie geist starts right now. >> welcome to a special edition of "way too early." we're live this morning if fr the middle school of the bronx charter school for excellence in the morris park section of the bronx. home to the soon-to-be world champion new york yankees. we'll hope the playoffs tonight about five miles from where we're sitting. good morning. i'm willie geist. we're here at a public charter school that has cracked the code. their combine test scores last year made this school the single highest performing charter school in the state of new york. we'll look into how they've done it. one of the reasons i can tell