today will be able to tell their kids. late at night with a flash light under the chin on halloween. that does it for us tonight. back to the drawing board. president obama's jobs bill fails in the senate, but the president says it's not dead yet. october boost. gop front-runner mitt romney arrives at last night's presidential debate with a surprise endorsement. and punching holes. the prosecution delivers more damning testimony in the trial against michael jackson's doctor. hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc.

today we begin with defeated but not necessarily dead. last night senate lawmakers voted down president obama's $447 billion jobs bill even as the president was on the road trying to drum up support for it. the package of tax cuts and new spending failed in a 50-49 vote, falling short of the 60 needed to keep it alive. two democrats joined all republicans in blocking a vote on the bill. republicans opposed its spending to stimulate the economy and its tax on millionaires. after the vote, the president vowed to continue his fight. white house officials and congressional supporters say the plan will now be broken up into pieces to allow for separate future votes. last night al sharpton asked gene sperling if the president's jobs bill contains any proposals

aimed at helping americans who have a job but are still struggling. >> the president's proposal for cutting the payroll tax would mean that for a typical family making $50,000, they would get a $1500 tax cut. do you know what that means to the average family in terms of helping deal with rising food prices in terms of helping to deal with rising gas prices? it makes a huge difference. i don't understand how the republicans will vote no to this will spend next year explaining to people why they have $1500 less in their pockets because they had to say no to president obama. i don't know how they can explain to small businesses why there are much fewer customers buying their products and services, giving them the ability to hire more simply because they wanted to say no. i just have to be an optimist and believe that sanity will prevail and that it will not be acceptable for people to simply say no to president obama for

plig reasons. >> lean forward with reverend al sharpton weekdays at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. last night in a bloomberg television/washington post republican presidential debate, the candidates squared off in new hampshire over economic issues. with a surprise endorsement and 9-9-9 grabbing the spotlight. nbc's steve handelsman has more. >> reporter: mitt romney came to the debate far ahead in new hampshire polls and sounding assertive. >> you want to have someone who's smart, has experience, who knows how the financial services sector works, who knows how to protect american jobs. and i do. i've done it. >> reporter: like romney, herman cain's polls have surged, along with ron paul. on the strength of 9-9-9. >> 9% corporate business flat tax, 9% personal tax and 9% sales tax. >> reporter: it's the best known recovery plan. >> 9-9-9. jobs, jobs, jobs.

>> i don't need 9-9-9. we don't need any plan to pass congress. >> reporter: rick perry's polls have dived to fourth in new hampshire and iowa. the texas governor claimed cheaper oil and gas would put americans to work. >> clearly opening up a lot of the areas of our domestic energy area. that's the real key. >> reporter: it was perry versus romney on health care. >> romney care has driven the cost of small business insurance premiums up by 14% over the national average in massachusetts. >> we have less than 1% of our kids that are uninsured. you have a million kids uninsured in texas. >> reporter: earlier, romney got the endorsement of popular new jersey governor chris christie. again, romney looked like the gop front-runner. i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, washington.

>> later this morning don't miss herman cain who will be chuck todd's live guest on the daily rundown beginning at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. elsewhere the state department is warning america this morning for the potential terror attacks following yesterday's stunning announcement of an alleged assassination plot tied to iran. nbc's brian mooar reports. >> reporter: u.s. officials say they smashed an iranian plot with paid help from a mexican drug cartel. >> it reads like the pages of a hollywood script. the impact would have been very real. and many lives would have been lost. >> reporter: the justice department says a plan to kidnap saudi ambassador turned into an attempted murder for hire and the evidence points straight to tehran. >> the united states is going to hold iran for its action. they are charged with conspiracy

to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. >> reporter: secretary of state hillary clinton promised diplomatic action. >> and we will be consulting with our friends and partners around the world about how we can send a very strong message. >> reporter: one of the suspects was arrested last month at new york's jfk airport. 56-year-old, a u.s. citizen with an iranian passport, made an appearance in a manhattan court. the other is said to be a part of the quds force. they tried to enlist the help of a mexican cartel but the contact was an undercover source working for the u.s. government. brian mooar, nbc. a look at other stories making news in america.

a head-on collision killed three people and hospitalized 11 others with major injuries in illinois monday. the deadly crash occurred when an suv crossed over into oncoming traffic colliding with a van carrying retired and assisted living residents. the driver and two passengers died. a string of robberies in north carolina have been committed by a man wearing a famous crime fighters mask. police say in three alleged armed robberies, spider-man entered with a gun, demanded money and cigarettes, and then escaped on foot. a tennessee man made a startling discovery in his backyard. yep, that is a two-headed snake. the body is shared but both heads on the baby king snake have functioning brains. because of the snake's chances for survival in the wild slim it will be cared for by a nearby university. in tennessee, an odd couple is turning heads on their outside strolls. max the parrot can be seen hitching a ride on his house mate, norman, the german shepherd. the connection between the two

may have something to do with the fact that the parrot can actually call norman out by name. can i hitch a ride, norman? who knows. now let's check in with bill karins for the weather channel forecast. >> have you ever been in tennessee, smoky mountains? >> nashvegas, of course. >> if you're going to be heading up there this weekend, the leaves are starting to change up in the smoky mountains. it's moving south to the high elevations of the appalachians. lower elevations you'll probably have to wait a little closer to halloween. it is that time of year. and we have some rain out there, probably bringing down some of those leaves in a few spots. les watching thunderstorms around dallas/ft. worth. all the heavy rain yesterday was further to the south in the carolinas, georgia, now it's starting to shift northwards. so areas that were dry are now wet including the busy i-95

corridor. rain moving northward eventually up towards morning city. so that's the storm system on the east coast. thunderstorms plaguing the middle of the nation. if you're flying today, it's almost guaranteed there will be some airport delays with this many big cities getting wet weather and poor visibility. roanoke has some rain. washington, d.c., raining around the belt way especially on the west side. and that again is shifting northward northwards. as far as dallas goes, this beau line here, strong winds will be with these, too. we have had a lot of lightning reports. that will sweep through ft. worth in about the next 15 minutes or so. so stay inside until these storms blow through. dallas, you probably have about a half hour until the storms are right over the top of you. so the forecast today, it's an active weather day with showers and storms. nothing severe.

but if you're traveling, just one of those days that have a little patience. >> bill, thanks so much. coming up, alocoa starts the season with a thud, dollar thrifty is out of play and japan really wants your tweets and status updates. your first look at this morning's business headlines is straight ahead. coming up, the tigers roar back and another big name is leaving boston. you're watching first look on msnbc. it's new! ahhh-ahh-ahh!

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delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

welcome back to "first look." here's some of the top stories making news this morning. israel and hamas have announced a major prisoner swap deal. abducted israeli prisoner held since 2006 will be exchanged for about 1,000 palestinian prisoners detained by israel. the so-called underwear bomber accused of trying to blow up a detroit-bound plane on christmas went on trial yesterday. prosecutors say he performed a

religious ritual, washing and perfuming himself before then trying to set off his bomb. as a result of budget bickering between local agencies, yesterday the city council in topeka, kansas, repealed a local law that made domestic violence a crime, allowing some suspects to walk free. the move meant to force the state to prosecute and pay for such cases has outraged advocates for victims of domestic violence. at the trial of michael jackson's doctor, the defense was dealt a major blow yesterday. a medical examiner testified it's unreasonable to believe jackson gave himself a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol, which is the defense's main claim. he said it's more likely the doctor mistakenly gave him too much of the drug. and now your first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,416 after losing 16 points yesterday. but the s&p was up a fraction and the nasdaq added 16.

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei fell 34 points but in hong kong the hang seng gained 187. a rocky start to earning season could spook wall street's jittery investors later today. after the bell tuesday, aluminum maker alcoa reported profit that missed analyst's already lowered expectations. sending shares down 5% in late trade. elsewhere after the bell, slovakia, final nation needed to pass a european rescue package voted down that bailout. it is, however, expected to pass in a second vote. today traders will comb through minutes from the fed's latest meeting, looking for clues as to whether the central bank might roll out another round of quantitative easing stimulus. dollar thrifty has taken itself off the market after failing to find an acceptable buyer. "the wall street journal" reports hewlett-packard's newly

installed ceo meg whitman is rethinking spinning off part of the pc division. it has frozen 93,000 user profile after it detected a third party tried to access accounts. research in motion is under pressure from shareholders to sell or break up the blackberry maker as it struggles to compete with apple's iphone and google's android operating system. and finally, japan is hoping to offer free airfare to 10,000 intrepid visitors if lawmakers approve, there's only one catch. you would need to publicize your trip on social media websites. sounds like a pretty good deal. coming up, baseball's one-time boy wonder looks to end another curse. and all of last night's action on the ice. plus the tigers claw back at home in detroit in their american league championship

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it's the starbucks via® taste promise. look for it at starbucks stores and where you buy groceries. welcome back to "first look". in sports, last night in detroit's game three match-up with texas, the series could have gone blowout or game on. the tigers made it game on. here's nbc's fred roggin. >> good morning. monday it was the lions. last night the tigers gave the city of detroit another reason to smile.

game three of the alcs and rangers jumped out to an early lead and the tigers then responded. victor martinez tied it with a solo homer, gingerly ran around the bases, pulled an oblique muscle. check out the reaction in the dugout. he's not happy. tigers were feeling pretty good. in the fifth, two aboard for cabrera, doubled into the corner. in came austin jackson. cabrera's first rbi of the series gave detroit the 2-1 lead. belted a home run in the seventh, detroit was rocking as tigers jumped out to a four-run lead. held on to win it 5-2. detroit can even the series with another win tonight. game four is at 4:00 eastern. first manager terry francona now, gm theo epstein is leaving the red sox. according to sources, the cubs are on the verge of hiring epstein. deal expected to be finalized in the next few days. epstein brought a world series to boston. chicago has not won since 1908. nhl, penguins without sidney crosby. who thought matt cke would

pick up the slack? scored three goals in four games. scored 12 goals all last season. pens are getting it done without their star. finally to minnesota, keep an eye behind the net. big hit by chris neil. clayton stoner caught with his head down and never saw it coming. that sparked the senators down two. they rallied against the wild. tied and forced a shootout. ottawa came back to win their home opener 4-3. that's your first look at sports. i'm fred roggin. and now another look at the weather. >> our run of beautiful days has come to an end, but the weekend looks between. we just have to get through the next couple days. every now and then the grass needs a little bit of water. and in dallas, we need a lot of water. thunderstorms rolling through. the bright red is this line of thunderstorms going through with gusty winds.

so in dallas and ft. worth, stay inside for about the next half hour, 45 minutes. let this complex roll through and get out and then move on with your morning routine. but you don't want to be outside in the next half hour. we have light rain moving up now into philadelphia. all of pennsylvania breaking out into light rain back into ohio, west virginia, d.c. and baltimore, on and off showers overnight. so annu umbrella today. eventually bostoboston, hartfor eventually later today it will make it to you. tomorrow more of the same. i think the greatest concentrations of rain had been right around new jersey, new york city overnight tonight into early tomorrow morning and then up into new england on thursday. so as i mentioned, though, friday strong cold front goes through. should be a nice weekend for a lot of areas in the east. >> bill, thanks so much p.

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welcome back. last night on late night with jimmy fallon, he had news about an upcoming release from beyonce. >> be kron syonce just revealed baby is due in february, but you can get it on itunes a week early.

some major election news today. new jersey governor chris christie announced that he's endorsing mitt romney for president. draw. it's good news for romney. you always want chris christie on your side. unless you're in a canoe. then you want him on the other side. tv news, cher was in the audience at "dancing with the stars" to cheer on her son. when asked what it's like to see a loved one go through so many changes to their body, she said not bad. >> tonight he welcomes michael phelps and musical guest chavez. that's week nights at 12:35 on your local nbc station. now time for your first look at entertainment news. yesterday in new york city protesters got a surprise visit. by kanye west.

gold chains and all. he showed up on the front lines at operation wall street to lend ''''''moral support, but he was forced to retreat when excited crowds around him got unruly. english soul singer adele leads all performers for the 2011 american music awards with four nominations. all announced yesterday. followed by katy perry, lady gaga, lil wayne, rihanna, the band perry and taylor swift each got three. swift, the 21-year-old has been named billboard's woman of the year. in casting news, javier bardem confirmed he would play in 23rd yet untitled james bond movie. michael douglas will play liberace and his live-in lover will be played by matt damon.

>> some make up in that casting. >> it's range. they have to have those actors. >> yeah, they don't play themselves. >> thanks for the life lesson. i'm lynn berry. this is "first look." but stay tuned, "way too early with willie geist" starts right now. mitt romney at the head of the table and clearly at the front of the republican field during last night's economic debate in new hampshire as rick perry tried to remind viewers that he was there, too. the question is, with an endorsement from chris christie and a good showing at the debate, could romney possibly have had a better day? mark halperin joins us live to discuss the race. meanwhile the united states accuses iranian officials of planning an assassination inside the u.s. the question is what do we know about the alleged plot and how high up the iranian government may it go. we'll have a report. and hang wik williams jr. ts