p last word >> i couldn't have ship or the blender, best new thing in the world today. here we go again. republican presidential candidate herman cain now facing a new allegation of a long-term affair. grumpy old men? a fight breaks out between two retirement football rivals at odds for nearly 50 years. and winning streak. three money managers from one of the country's wealthiest towns claim a staggering lottery jackpot. good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry. those stories and more, straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. and we begin this morning with another cain controversy. republican presidential

candidate herman cain is once again on defense, denying an atlanta woman's claims that she had a 13-year affair with the former businessman. cain's lawyer calls it an alleged consensual conduct. cain himself says it never happened. nbc's tracie potts joins us live from washington with more on this. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. and a little different this time. this time, cain was on the airwaves, on tv, talking about this, refuting this allegation, really before the woman ever went public. ginger white tells atlanta's fox 5 herman cain flew her all over the country, put her up in expensive hotels, and she's got phone records to prove a 13-year affair. >> it was pretty simple it was uncomplicated, and i was aware that he was married. >> reporter: cain admits he knew white for years but denies any affair. >> was this an affair? >> no it was not. >> there was no sex? >> no.

>> none? >> no. >> reporter: what complicates things is this statement from cain's attorney, saying "this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged, consensual conduct between adults. >> what happens, consensual conduct between adults is no one's business, as you said, is the closest you'll get to an admission. >> reporter: asked about the allegation, newt gingrich, who's admitted his own infidelity, steered clear. >> no comments. >> reporter: gingrich got a key endorsement sunday from new hampshire's largest newspaper. >> it was a big boost over the weekend, and he's going to ride it well, as long as he doesn't trip up and get caught into, you know, the arguments about the past. >> reporter: then, there's mitt romney, riding high in new hampshire but not on top in iowa, only five weeks away. and in iowa, gingrich is up 13% over romney right now in the latest big poll. cain is in third place at this point. lynn? >> all right, tracie there for us in washington, thanks so much. elsewhere, barney frank, a

key lawmaker on financial issues and longtime liberal voice on capitol hill, has announced plans to retire from congress at the end of next year. the 71-year-old massachusetts democrat says he doesn't have the energy to run for re-election in a newly drawn congressional district, and there are other things he wants to do. first elected to the house in 1980, he was the first member of congress to publicly acknowledge he was gay back in 1987. well, a united nations investigation has concluded syrian forces have committed crimes against humanity, including the killing and torture of hundreds of children. the report found at least 256 children were killed by government forces between mid-march and early november, some tortured to death, including a 2-year-old girl reportedly shot so she wouldn't grow up to be a demonstrator. it also reports government forces were given shoot-to-kill orders to crush demonstrations. the results of the inquiry add

to mounting pressure on syria's president, bashar al assad, to end his crackdown on protests and enact democratic reforms. meanwhile, for the first time in two years, several rockets were fired tuesday from lebanon into northern israel. two buildings were damaged, but there were no reported casualties. the israeli military says it returned fire across the border. a 34-day war was fought in 2006 between israel and iranian-backed hezbollah guerrillas based in lebanon. while the israeli/lebanese border has been largely quiet in recent years, some have worried about a possible spillover of tensions from the months-long revolt in syria against president assad. and here's your "first look" at some other news going on around america today. no, santa didn't get the date wrong. rescuers were called to a rooftop in texas after a man locked himself out of his house and then he got stuck trying to get in through the chimney. firefighters used a rope to hoist him out after the man's

wife, who was waiting outside, eventually called 911. one kentucky man is lucky to be alive this morning after powerful storms knocked a massive tree right into his mobile home monday. the homeowner says the tree landed just two feet away from where he was sitting in his living room at the time. farther south, nasty weather is making it look a lot like winter in parts of tennessee. snow piled up outside of memphis, making for treacherous travel. and wa winter weather advisory s still in effect throughout areas this morning. finally, there was no snow in washington, d.c., yesterday, but the arrival of the capitol tree makes it look a lot like christmas there. the 65-foot-tall, 118-year-old sierra white fur traveled all the way from california. the annual tree-lighting ceremony will take place one week from today. yes, it is that time of year, as much as we try to fight it. and now, for a look at your national weather, we turn to meteorologist todd santos. not to be a total grinch, todd,

it's just that i need little bit more easing in, a few more months. >> come on, in new york, you can't ignore it, especially when they start showing up here. >> yeah, especially when they start playing christmas music about a month ago in the bode s bodegas. how's the weather look? >> bring it on. hey, the season already really feeling like the holidays, especially if you're talking about western tennessee, northern mississippi. again, not without precedent to see snow this time of year, but over the climate records say the last 100, 120 years, many of these areas have seen snow in november maybe only three or four times, even just beyond a trace. again, we'll call it anomalous snowfall for this time of year, but on the map, notice areas to the north dealing with rain, maybe light snow here and there showing up through portions of lower michigan. i want to take you down into this region, considering we are dealing with some winter storm warnings, the area in pink, winter weather advisories in the white, some of that extending back towards the southern appalachians. many of these start to drop by around midday today, but a few areas, actually, some kids have

school off, a couple counties outside memphis. notice the heavier snowfall, especially where the blue is showing up on the map. i have seen at least a few reports starting to stream in, at least some of the reports one to almost three inches of snow just southwest of jackson, tennessee there. was one public report there, so not an official number, but came in at five inches. so something to keep in mind. traveling i-55, i-40 as well, could be a little dicey. once you get back down to the south through at least northern portions of alabama, kind of some snow here and there and a few flakes towards atlanta, but at this time, coming in quiet. the accumulations are misleading. we'll talk about the numbers you will actually see, but when that falls on the roads, some of the temperatures are not even down towards freezing, so close. may see some slushy accumulation here and there on the roadways. that would be one of the concerns as far as travel, at least related to travel. talk about the rest of this. again, see some of the heavy rain channeling up into the appalachians, starting to see a break through western north carolina and southwestern virginia, but in some cases, we've had upwards of four inches of rain there. to the north today we'll have a

few areas of potential flooding. those areas in red are flash flood warnings. many of those areas get a little break, but runoff could still cause problems, so be careful travelwise there. later, we'll look closer at the west coast with new showers and a new system moving into the pacific northwest. >> todd, thank you so much. also coming up, holiday sales boost stock, a big social network going public and a debt paid and a conscience cleared. your "first look" at this morning's business headlines is straight ahead. coming up, a homecoming for urban meyer and the saints make it look easy in the big easy. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest.

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welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry and here are some of the top stories making news this morning. the "associated press" is reporting this weekend's deadly nato air strike that killed 24 pakistani soldiers could have been a case of mistaken identity. u.s. officials say a military report suggests taliban forces may have fired shots at afghan

forces to provoke a cross-border firefight. tmz reports the mother of conrad murray, the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of michael jackson, has appealed to a judge to go easy on him at his sentencing later today. the 58-year-old faces up to four years in prison. a legendary comic book stolen in 2000 is expected to fetch a record-breaking $1.5 million or more. the pristine 1938 first-ever edition of "superman" resurfaced in a storage unit earlier this year and was identified by three distinct printing defects. the same book formally held the record when it was last sold for $150,000. and three financial executives from greenwich, connecticut, have claimed this month's $254 million powerball jackpot. that's the largest in the state history. at a news conference monday, they said they chose the lump

sum payment and that a significant portion of it will go to charity. well, here's your first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,523 after spiking 291 points yesterday. the s&p surged 33 points and the nasdaq skyrocketed 85. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei jumped 190 points, while in hong kong, the hang seng climbed 218. well, strong holiday shopping and efforts by european leaders to get tough on finances lifted wall street monday after seven straight days of down. record sales over thanksgiving weekend boosted big retailers, including macy's and best buy. a report on november's expected increase in consumer confidence comes out today. trade was also fueled by a push from france and germany for tougher budget control over eurozone members. bank stocks rose sharply, led by citigroup and morgan stanley, as investors worried less about european vulnerability. after the bell, fitch ratings

revised its outlook to negative on the usa aa credit rating after the super committee failure. however, analysts don't expect it to hit trade hard today because the street was expecting it. elsewhere, the "wall street journal" reports facebook will look to raise as much as $10 billion in an ipo between april and june of next year. aol's ceo says the company won't be buying any of yahoo's assets and plans to stay independent. americans bought slightly more new homes in october, but the average sales price fell to a low for the year. using unusually harsh language, a judge struck down a $285 million settlement between citigroup and the securities and exchange commission over toxic mortgage securities. he set a july trial date, calling the settlement neither fair nor reasonable nor adequate. and finally, this is a feel-good story for the holidays. a seattle sears manager says an

elderly man came in and repaid, with interest, cash that he says that he stole from the register back in the 1940s. the money will now be used to help needy families during the holidays, so that's great there. well, senate democrats are pushing payroll tax cuts they say will benefit about 160 million workers with an average $1,300 in additional take-home pay. the cost, they say, would be offset by a surtax on income over $1 million. last night, on "the ed show," senator charles schumer, a democrat from new york, told host ed schultz he thinks no taxes for any reason republicans in congress have boxed themselves in by opposing a bill that would help so many. >> they're in a box and they're in a box for two reasons. the first reason is that many of them have supported this very payroll tax cut in the past. in fact, when the president was putting together a jobs program, he tried to have a mixture of things that democrats had supported and republicans had

supported, and this is one that republicans have supported, and even recently, people like marco rubio and mike simpson, and you would maybe not believe this, but newt gingrich, have said nice things about the payroll tax cut. the second is this -- the republicans have just been three months, both in the super committee and fighting our jobs bills on the floor, saying you cannot raise taxes on incomes over $1 million. well, they don't want to raise taxes on incomes over $1 million, the wealthiest 1% amongst us, and they want to raise taxes or are willing to raise taxes on the middle class, the average working family, the person in the suburbs making $100,000? gee whiz, that is such a loser politically that i believe that if we keep the heat on and keep focusing on this issue, which i'm trying to get us to do, they will fold. >> "the ed show" weeknights at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc, the place for politics. well, in health news this morning, a new study suggests

snacking between breakfast and lunch may damage dieting more than snacking at any other time of the day. is that a secret? i guess so. women in a weight loss study who ate a midmorning snack lost an average of 7% of their body weight over a year, whereas women who didn't lost 11%. researchers think the time period usually invites less healthy eating choices. it's all the donuts. well, for more information on this and other health stories, check out the health page at msnbc.com. well, the buckeyes find their man, a top-ranked overtime thriller in college hoops, and two old foes go at it once again. you've got to see this one. plus, the new orleans saints made the new york giants look like munchkins on "monday night football." your first look at sports is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. it's 4g, so you can do more faster. so, kathryn, post more youtube videos of your baby acting adorable. baby. on it. matt, ignore me and keep updating your fantasy team. huh? jeff, play a game. turbo-boosting now, sir. dennis, check in everywhere you go on foursquare. that's mayor dennis... of the water cooler.

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so i get claritin clear for strong, non-drowsy relief of all my allergies like dust mold pets and pollen. looks good. thanks. i live claritin clear. welcome back, everybody. i'm lynn berry and let's get a check of sports for you. last night on "monday night football," while the new orleans saints strengthened their status as a team on the road to the nfl playoffs, for the new york giants, desperation is setting in. here's nbc's fred roggin. >> good morning. sometimes, drew brees and the saints make it look oh, so easy. let's go to new orleans. drew brees put on a clinic against the giants. three touchdown passes in the first half alone. brees not only did it with his arm, he did it with his legs. called his own number and ran in from eight yards out. new orleans literally running away with it up 28-10 in the third. brees finished with five

touchdowns and the giants were sent packing 49-24. college football, as expected, ohio state officially hired urban meyer as new head coach, a homecoming of sorts for meyer, born and raised in ohio. he signed a six-year deal with the buckeyes. steven stam poe scored 45 goals last year and he gave the lightning the lead. minnesota scored two minutes later and added a couple more. wild won it 3-1. how about overtime basketball? 19 vanderbilt, 11 xavier. vandie up two in the final seconds. mark lyons tied it at 66 and they're off to o.t. xavier kept it going in the extra frame. xavier escaped nashville with an 82-70 overtime win. finally, here's proof that old grudges never die, no matter how old they may be. that is 73-year-old football legend joe cab at a cfl event,

offering an olive branch to 74-year-old angelo mosco. angelo viciously attacked a teammate years ago and he wasn't happy. he took angelo down with one punch! he tumbled to the floor. fortunately, he was okay. plenty of fight left in these two, and after seeing that, there's no question, joe capped him. that's your first look at sports. i'm fred roggin. >> somewhere, jerry springer is off on the sidelines laughing at that one. let's get a check of your weather with meteorologist todd santos. todd, how's it going? thanks, lynn. much better for me. i haven't gotten punched on the neck. >> we'll work on making that not happen this week. i mentioned the radar across the west coast quiet for the most part, but the system from the northwest will slowly spread snow over the higher elevations over the next 24 to 48 hours. eventually wednesday into thursday we get some of that back down through say western wyoming. cold across a few areas of the country, including dallas, 36

degrees at this hour. forecast for today at least getting up to 58, so that cool blast taking hold across the central u.s. 47 with some of the showers up towards seattle. still mild across a good portion of the northeast, though keep in mind with some of the heavy rain showers, could deal with delays there. travelwise, back towards chicago it's more say the windy side of things today, winds out of the north to northeast, gusting 45, even 50 miles per hour. for wednesday, improvement across a few areas. temperatures cool down little bit in the northeast, not an extreme cooldown. you'll notice it really more in the early morning temperatures. dallas, a warm-up middle of the week, 60 degrees showing up there. for today, fairbanks, can't say too much about a warm-up with negative 11 and a few showers moving in through the aleutian islands and back towards the hawaiian island chain. a beautiful day. and lynn, i'll leave you with that one. >> thank you. that sounds lovely. todd, thank you. batman calls it quits while the catwoman finds her man. and we'll tell you how royal sister-in-law pippa middleton is about to earn a king's ransom. your "first look" at

entertainment is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc.

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welcome back. i'm lynn berry and let's get a check of your entertainment news. her sister may have been the one to marry into royalty, but pippa middleton is about to earn a royal-size salary. england's "telegraph" reports pippa, who became an instant celebrity alongside sister kate at her wedding to prince william, has landed a book deal with a $600,000 advance. pippa's guide to party planning will be out for next year's holidays. actress anne hathaway, who's played a princess, is getting married. hathaway is 29 and is engaged to

a jewelry designer and actor who she's been dating since a messy split with her ex, convicted of defrauding millions claiming to be a consultant to the vatican. christian bale, healthaway's co-star in "the dark knight rises" told a newspaper had i "bateman" movie will be his last. finally, katy perry as marilyn monroe? harvey weinstein hints in his new monroe movie, "my week with marilyn" is a hit, he wants to have perry star as her on broadway. michelle williams was phenomenal in that movie. i still haven't gotten over the fact that pippa is going to do a party planning book. >> tell me you couldn't come up with a party planning book. >> we sort of discussed this could be an easy thing -- have enough booze. >> music, good music keeps it going. >> exactly. >> simple. those two things could do it alone. >> $600,000, i'll split it with you. >> thanks. >> this is "first look" on

msnbc. but stay tuned. "way too early with willie geist" starts now. newt gingrich unloads on mitt romney in a radio interview, pushing the charge also being made, by the way, by the obama campaign that romney stands for nothing. all this while herman cain was busy responding to claims from a woman who says she and the cain train had a 13-year affair. the question is, do people care anymore about herman cain's allege alleg alleged events? and a nato strike killed 2,000 pakistani soldiers. the question is, was this as some suggest a case of mistaken identity? we'll have the latest. and drew brees spends a monday night toying with the new york giants defense in new orleans. the question is, with the undefeated packers coming to town, how big are the giants' problems? it's "way too early" for this.