today at the aim of 56, a man who shortened profound lit distance between people and the power of technology. that does it for us tonight. remembering a visionary -- people around the world mourn the loss of apple co-founder, steve jobs. havoc in houston, a train and a dump truck collide, sending passengers flying. and autumn blast -- old man winter begins rearing its ugly head in parts of the nation. good morning, everyone, i'm lynn berry, those stories and more are straight ahead, this is "first look" on msnbc. and we begin this morning

with the loss of steve jobs. it was news many people learned on the very devices he will be remembered for, that changed the way we communicate. the tech visionary died yesterday at the age of 56, surrounded by his family. apple fans paid tribute to its iconic co-founder outside the company's headquarters in california last night. as similar memorials popped up outside apple stores across the country. nbc's george lewis looks back on his life and legacy. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: he was the father of the iphone, the ipod and the apple mac computer. turning electronic gadgets into objects of desire. >> i think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful. >> reporter: as he was fond of saying -- wait, there's more. >> today, apple is going to reinvent the phone. >> reporter: and people did wait, in long lines, for the first iphones in 2007.

three years later, they lined up for the ipad. >> design, plus function equals a lifestyle. >> reporter: in 1976, jobs co-founded am computer and within a few years was worth $180 million. in a few years he was showing off his pride and joy, the macintosh. as critics hailed the mac, jobs was on the losing end of a power struggle in his company. he went into computer animation, acquiring pixar studios and striking pay dirt with movie, starting with "toy story." jobs came back to apple in 1996 and began reinventing the mac, dressing it up in a variety of colors. concerns about the health of steve jobs began in 2004, when

he underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. in april 2009, he underwent a liver transplant. five months later, back on the job at apple, he expressed his gratitude. >> i now have the liver of a mid 20s person. who died in a car crash. and was generous enough to donate their organs. and i wouldn't be here without such generosity. >> reporter: but in early 2011, he announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence for medical reasons. in 2005, he offered this bit of advice for stanford grads. >> your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. >> reporter: steve jobs, whose own inner voice created some of the most innovative things.

>> last night on the rachel maddow show, tech blogger talked about how the impacts steve jobs made on our society and why his death is being felt so deeply. >> i think for a lot of us who were born in the '70s, the same decade that apple was formed, the same decade that jobs' division for dem democraticizing technology, his passing marks the end of an era, the end of a shared experience that helped to form all of our lives. if you think about the way that this man saw design, he said it himself, design isn't just the way something looks and feels, design is how it works. and so much of what he

contributed to technology was about seeing technology as an extension of the human mind. and as a way to extend our capabilities to communicate, to connect, to perceive the world more richly. it's really sad day to see him pass. >> well the rachel maddow show airs week nights at 9:00 p.m. sarah palin has ended months of speculation about her presidential aspirations at least for now. in a statement yesterday, palin said she will not make a run for the white house in 2012. nbc's tracie potts has more from washington, good morning. >> reporter: hi, lynn, good morning, everyone, her announcement came in the for of a web video and a written statement, where sarah palin said the main factor in deciding not to run for president was the

impact of a campaign on her family. and in that web video, she said that you don't need a title to make a difference. now, analysts say this isn't really a big surprise, that she had not laid the groundwork for a national campaign, her popularity had been sinking in the polls. the big question now, what other candidates will it wednesday fit. some analysts say romney may have benefitted if she got in the race, to split the conservative vote. another big question, who will the tea party now support. also saying no to a presidential run, florida senator marco rubio, a republican who is seen as an up-and-rising star, asked at a forum yesterday, if he would take a vice presidential slot, he said no. lynn? >> tracie, thanks. now here's your first look at other news today. it was a rough start for morning commuters in houston on their light rail system.

a metro train cramped into a dump truck, causing passengers to be thrown from their seats. over a dozen riders and the truck driver were treated at area hospitals. a marine towing company came to rescue just in the nick of time in the waters off of miami. a boater sent out a distress call after high surf caused his boat to begin singing. it's been half a century since the public fell in love with the film holly golightly in rbc breakfast at tiffanys." and cold weather uploaded as much as ten inches of snow in the sierra region. wednesday's snowfall is one of the area's earliest on record and according to the national weather service, it's quite unusual for the fall season, i should say so.

bill's got something to say about this, let's check in with your forecast. >> it's a little early, but happens this time of year. this is a pattern we'll see through much of the fall. the west going to be stormy, early-mountain snows in the cascades and sierras and through the rockies, too. while the eastern half of the country going to be warm. it is a cold start from new york city to boston. temperatures there much of new england is in the 30s and 40s this morning. the southeast is okay. look how warm we are, minneapolis is starting the morning at 60. that's how warm you should be in the middle of the day. ahead of our big storm in the west, we're very mild. the storm produced a foot of snow. if you're familiar with mammoth mountain, one of the biggest resorts there, even portions of southern california got nail and lake tahoe picked up ten inches of snow. the rockies will get hit today, and the wasatch range and the colorado rockies. now the eastern half of the

country, as advertised, very quiet, big area of high pressure, cool mornings. beautiful, warm afternoons, nothing like what they're seeing in the west. the travel trouble spot is salt lake city, in utah, 43 degrees with heavy rain last hour. not a pretty picture to walk out the door to. next 48 hours, if you're watching us in florida, you're the only spot on the east coast that has to worry about wet weather and rain, especially the east coast of florida, jacksonville, daytona beach, west palm into miami will see wet weather. especially into tomorrow and the beginning of your weekend, it's going to be stormy. forecast? gorgeous day today, coat to work, carry it home later on. 70 degrees in new york and also d.c. 58 in boston. a little cooler there, chicago is perfect. and minneapolis, lynn, 81 degrees, they're still wearing shorts and the mosquitos are still flying. asian markets rally, yahoo surges and remembering a true

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welcome back to "first look," i'm lynn berry, here's some of the top stories making news this morning. u.s. labor unions have joined demonstrators in the occupy wall street protests in new york city. police say some were pepper-sprayed yesterday for charging police officers. herman caine blasted the activists, calling them unamerican. researchers in new york say they've used cloning techniques to create human embryos and produce viable stem-cells. the breakthrough could be a step to the goal of creating stem-cells to treat major diseases because they wouldn't be rejected by patients' immune

systems. nasa says its keppler space telescope has found a three-planet system floating around a star similar to our sun. one of the planets is being described as a superearth, twice the size of our own planet. and one of europe's healthiest aristocrats, spain's 85-year-old duchess of alba has married a civil servant 25 years her senior. she had to win her children's approval by dividing her $4.6 billion fortune among them. money will buy that. here's your first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 10,939 after rising 131 points yesterday. the s&p grew 20 and the nasdaq grew 55. in tokyo, the nikkei added 139 points. while in hong kong, the hang seng went up 922.

as europe struggles to contain the debt crisis, stocks are likely to continue their wild swings. for now, the sentiment on the street is hopeful. overnight, markets across asia rallied on the heels of wall street's second straight day of gains. investors around the world are betting europe's leaders will step up efforts to stabilize the union's ailing economies. back home, encouraging news on service sector growth gave stocks an added boost. payroll processor adp said private companies added 91,000 jobs last month, driving some optimism ahead of friday's monthly jobs report. on the street, energy and materials company led the broader market higher, while an analyst upgrade drove walt disney to the top of the dow's leaderboard. seed maker monsanto shot up, thanks to earnings. yahoo shares jumped 10%, after "reuters" reported that microsoft could make a play to

buy them. blackberry maker, research in motion. rose 10% on speculation that it could soon come up for sale. as the world mourns the loss of apple's legendary leader, steve jobs, you can email your personal thoughts and condolences to rememberingsteve@apple.com. coming up, some on-court action for you despite the nba lockout. plus, deja vu, another squirrel tries to get in on the postseason in st. louis. "first look" at sports is straight ahead. an airline has planes and people. and the planes can seem the same. so, it comes down to the people. because: bad weather, the price of oil those are every airline's reality. and solutions will not come from 500 tons of metal and a paintjob. they'll come from people. delta people. who made us the biggest airline in the world. and then decided that wasn't enough.

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welcome back to "first look." in sports, it's a neck-and-neck fight in the national league division series, with a pair of deciding games now on the line up. sheer's nbc's fred roggin. >> the national league playoffs are as even as they get. the diamondbacks and cardinals both won. diamondbacks held serve, winning both games in arizona, ryan roshts started game four with a bang. grand slam to left. the next hitter was chris young, he took randy wolf deep, a solo shot. before the fans were settled in their seats, the diamondbacks were up 5-1 after one. from that point it was a see-saw battle. colin cowgill, rbi single, that was it for wolf. chris young, the finishing touch, second home run of the game, diamondbacks have found their stride, forcing a game

five. a squirrel was on the loose in st. louis. darted across home plate after a pitch. oswalt wanted the pitch back. the squirrel wanted to find a tree and climb it. david freese drove in two from a double in the fourth. st. louis up 3-2, he scored another pair with a home run in the sixth. freese looked like albert pujols, four rbi and a home run, cards won game three. yankees and tigers wrap up their series tonight. ivan nova and doug fist are the problemals, first pitch from the bronx is 8:00 p.m. eastern. finally, there's no nba season, so how about the wnba. minnesota links and the atlanta dream. time winding down in the second quarter, angle mccotry drilled the three. atlanta up eight at the half. no lead is safe when you're playing the best team in the league. the chance of mvp, simone augustus took over, she had 36.

links won 101-95. they can win their first wnba title tomorrow night. for another quick look at weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins, he has your weather channel forecast. >> around the country, we had active weather out west, we've been advertising what is going to be an incredibly beautiful weekend in many areas. everything is clear, it's cold, look at hartford, at 37 degrees. probably some frosty spots out there, especially up in new england. maybe even some frozing spots, so away from the cities you're dealing with a cold morning. but then we'll warm it up, we could be in the 80s in new england for the upcoming weekend. today, 60s in most cases, could sneak into the 70s. let me show you the forecast, new york city, we go from the 60s to saturday, 77. and low 80s possible sunday into

monday. and in new york city, not alone, many areas it's very similar, look at detroit, temperatures for you, through the upcoming weekend, 70s and sunshine galore throughout the next couple of days. another example is st. louis, you're going to be in the mid 0s the next three days, by sunday and monday, you go from 80 to 77. one spot we want to get the rain, it looks like we'll get some, texas, oklahoma and kansas, rain is in your extended forecast. we don't want it over the weekend, but it's been so dry and the drought has been so devastating, we'll take it whenever we can get it. finally some rain heading to areas that needed it. we talked about the drought and some people are saying it's going to go through next year. >> a little bit of relief there, all right. bill, thanks so much. and who topped forbes list of highest-paid women in entertainment. plus actress jennifer aniston puts the pesky pregnancy rumors to rest. your "first look" at entertainment is straight ahead. ? ♪

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welcome back to "first look," i'm lynn berry. last night on late night with jimmy falun. jimmy congratulated donald trump on his family's latest addition. >> donald trump just welcomed his fourth grandchild, that's very cool, good for him. you could tell twaus trump's grandchild because as soon as it came out, it demanded to see its own birth certificate. he was like, i don't believe it, prove it, show it to me. today first lady michelle obama made a surprise visit to the secret service headquarters. michelle was like, you guys are great. but since i was able to surprise

you -- you're fired. i just saw this, researchers in the uk have developed a vegetable called super broccoli. designed to fight heart disease. not to be outdone, researchers in america have developed a way to stuff an oreo inside another oreo. >> and then fry it well tonight jimmy welcomes "real steel" actor, and musical guest, jeff the brotherhood. late night with jimmy fallon. well time for your "first look" at entertainment news, when it comes to getting pregnant, actress jennifer aniston says there's no rush. the 42-year-old tells "elle" magazine, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. if it doesn't happen, no sweat.

aniston has been plagued by pregnancy rumors since she started dating actor justin thorough. forbes estimates that oprah winfrey earned $290 million over the past year. maintaining her place at the top of the list of entertainment's highest-earning women. "little monsters" helped propel lady gaga into second place with $ 90 million. and former "real housewives" star bethany frankel came in third with $55 million. >> i watch her show, too. >> way to admit that, bill. and finally, there's a new muppet in town. meet lilly, a 7-year-old who comes from a family who struggles to have enough food. "sesame street" is debuting the character for an upcoming muppets special on hunger in america. it's bringing attention to issues. >> and new characters are a big

deal on sesa"sesame street." >> i'm not going to end the show without you explaining yourself watching bethany frankel. >> it's my fault. >> this is "first look" on msnbc. willie geist is next. i'd like to show you macintosh in person. insanely great. >> well, today i'm incredibly pleased to introduce i-mac. >> the mac os is still the best thing in the world. this this is our store, it's an amazing ipod. this how tiny it is. you ever wonder what this pocket's for? i've always wondered that. well now