the best thing in the world today. don't forget, you can watch me saturdays at 7:00 a.m. now it's time for the last word decision day. republican presidential hopefuls prepare to do battle in three states while one enjoys a new surge in the polls. under siege. more deadly violence in syria as the u.s. shuts down its embassy and withdrawals its staff. a stroller rolls onto train tracks. good morning. i'm lynn berry. thes stories and more straight ahead. this is first look on msnbc.

we begin with a santorum surge. despite back to back wins in florida and nevada, new poll numbers have gop frontrunner mitt romney suddenly taking rival rick is an or rum seriously. ahead of primaries and caucuses today in minnesota, missouri. brian mooar is in washington with all of this. >> reporter: rick santorum hoping to change the dynamics of this race in a single day and emerge as the conservative alternative. if this isn't judgment day for the santorum campaign it is close. he is running out of time and money. he is hoping for a strong showing, a breakout in minnesota and in missouri where there are no actual delegates at stake today, he is going head-to-head with mitt romney and wants voters to know he can be a viable candidate. newt gingrich did not make the ballot in missouri. ron paul focusing on the caucus states. in colorado, romney hoping for another big win to cement his

status as frontrunner. for newt gingrich and ron paul, this is a long slog for delegates who hope to get toward that nomination and a fight that is going to go on as long as they can make it. lynn? >> brian mooar for us in washington. thanks. it appears that improving economic conditions have bolstered president obama's chances against the current top two presidential contenders. a new "the washington post"/abc news survey finds for the first time if the election were held now president obama would beat mitt romney 51% to 45%. his margin widens against newt gingrich as the gop candidate with 54% of those surveyed to picking the president to 43% in favor of the former speaker of the house. president obama's campaign is now asking wealthy democratic donors to contribute to super pacs that support his re-election and a reversal of

his long-held position on super pac positions. while the president has raised the most money for the 2012 campaign he is facing a deep disadvantage in money raised by priorities usa action. as seen in this year's republican caucuses and primaries the so-called super pacs can spend unlimited amounts of cash and negative ads while shielding the candidates for direct responsibility. allies are trying to turn up the diplomatic president on the syrian government. the u.s. has closed its embassy. calling for the president to step down after the resolution was vetoed by russia. government troops opened fire with tanks and machine guns.

the u.n. says more than 5,400 syrians have died in the uprising against president assad. here is your first look at some other news going on around america today. a worker was injured after a cherry picker toppled in philadelphia landing right on the street there. he was aboard the basket when it came crashing down breaking his femur. his crew was doing work on the rectory of the cathedral when it came crashing down. no one on the ground was hurt. in florida one of the last times you'll see a space shuttle on the move. shuttle "atlantis" being rolled to another building where the orbiter will be renovated and parts removed as it prepares to go on permanent display at the visitors center beginning next year. finally in the every grades, an explosion of pythopythons.

wild life workers have being trained in python catching classes. instructors show them how to do so without harming the reptiles and the program will include first responders. now we turn to todd santos with your weather channel forecast. good morning. hopefully you don't have any flights booked to florida. >> i just got back seriously. so i'm glad we just found out about this now. want to take you to a few areas where we might see some travel issues on the roadways, some snowfall right now. kind of watching this system, it's not a big time snow producer across the central u.s., but it will be enough to scatter some snow showers outside the front range in california and back in through kansas, portions of southwest nebraska, tomorrow that disturbance will actually be pushing towards west virginia and southwest pennsylvania with chances for snow in there, as well. so there's a look at the set up. radar again, notice some of the showers moving in to the west

coast. that's one of the heavy areas again as far as the bay area of california, a better chance of showers that will shift to the south dourg the uring the day. this white is actually coming down in the form of snowfall, even a few patches in through north texas. traveling today on i-40 especially just north of the corridor, some of the local roads could see some travel issues. maybe a one to three inch setup. 34 in amarillo, so border line for snowfall there. but there are winter weather advisories. some actually go into effect over the next couple of hours and remain through the early half of the daytime tomorrow. coming up, we'll talk a little more about the system on the west coast with some of the heavier showers, also some of the heavy showers continuing in florida. and also coming up, more greek foot dragging.

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welcome back to "first look." here are some of the top stories this morning. iran is now facing tough new u.s. sanctions against its economy. the measures give american banks new powers to freeze assets, linked to the iranian government and encourage israel to give sanctions more time before any potential military action against iran's nuclear program. two rival factions have agreed on a new government. netanyahu could have peace with israel or hamas but not both.

janet wilson barger has been nominated by president obama to become the service's first woman four-star general. the senate will have to confirm her promotion. just how cold was it in russia's far eastern region monday? temperatures fell to minus 58 degrees fahrenheit as snow and cold kept people indoors as much as possible. it did warm up to minus 54 degrees by the middle of the day. surveillance camera video in melbourne shows a baby carriage rolling off the platform right onto the tracks at a train station. luckily, the mother jumped on to the tracks to rescue the baby unharmed before the next train arrived. now here is a look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,845 after losing 12,000 yesterday. s&p was down a fraction. the nasdaq lost three. taking a look at overseas trading this morning.

in tokyo, the nikkei fell 11 points. while in hong kong, the hang seng was down 10. stocks took a breather monday, as debt talks dragged on in greece. protesters stood in the rain as negotiations over a fresh cost-cutting package were postponed yesterday. german chancellor angela merkel and french president nicolas sarkozy insist cuts must be made by february 15th, before allowing another loan. overseas this morning, toyota reported a stronger than expected quarterly profit and raised its annual forecast. mining company xstrata and glencore agreed on an equal merger valued $90 billion. yesterday, boeing fell 7%. netflix was surprisingly higher despite news red box and coin star will launch a rival video streaming service.

humana dropped 5% after weaker than expected earnings. yum brands positive sales at pizza hut chains but taco bell had another struggling quarter. hasbro says rough sales hurt its revenue. disney weighs in with earnings later today as speculation swirls about a positive deal with univision to create an english speaking cable news channel for latinos. mcdonald's has apologized and pulled a radio ad that said eating its new chicken mcbites was less risky than petting a stray pit bull. finally, after eight rent-free months in a texas home, kevin robinson's luck has ran out. his website bragged about playing a 16 dollar fee. but bank of america was the new owner yesterday. there was one super bowl ad that got a lot of attention, pot just for its laughs, but for its

controversial political perspective. it featured clint eastwood talking about halftime of the big game. take a listen. >> it's halftime in america, too. people are out of work and they're hurting. they're all wondering what they're going to do to make a comeback and we're all scared because this isn't a game. >> in part the ad talked about the success of the government bailout of the u.s. auto industry. conservatives criticize the ad for being pro obama. last night on the ed show, michigan congressman gary peters talked to ed schultz stressing that the recovery of the auto industry was more important than politics. >> the investment in american workers has been successful, it's a great turn around. mr. rove apparently doesn't like facts. he's not a guy that ever lets facts get in the way of his opinion and we're seeing that once again that his opinion is trumping the fabts of the situation. president obama stepped up, made

what was an unpopular decision around the country, but was right for american workers not just in michigan, but all across our country. when you bet on american worker, you will win, you will win every time. and we have a situation as you you mentioned at the top of your program where because of the greed on wall street that brought our economy to its knees, we had a situation we almost lost a major manufacturing industry in our country, had we lost the auto have i, it also would have meant middle class americans across this country would have found their livelihood in danger. and you've got to make something in this country, you have to build something. that's what the american auto industry is. we need to stand up for manufacturing and make sure middle class families have the opportunity to earn a decent livelihood. >> the ed sew wehow week nights 8:00 eastern. coming up, the clippers win inoff time, the knicks finally come together, and take a guess who just went to disney world.

plus kobe bryant passes an old teammate and rival. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ female announcer ] investing for yourself isn't some optional pursuit. a privilege for the ultra-wealthy. it's a necessity. i find investments with e-trade's top 5 lists. quickly. easily. i use pre-defined screeners and insightful trading ideas to dig deeper. work smarter. not harder. i depend on myself the one person i do trust to take charge of my financial future.

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[ laughter ] ♪ welcome back to "first look". in sports, big win by the vastly improved philadelphia 76ers. overshadowed a big milestone for kobe bryant last night. here is mario so he he's. so he lease. hi there. good morning. kobe bryant leaped over shaquille o'neal on the all-time scoring list but even that

wasn't enough to knock off the sixers. kobe started the game just 24 points behind the big diesel, only fitting to reach the mark in his hometown of philadelphia. the black ma ma comes out firing. 14 points in the first quarter. then in the second, kobe makes history, drains a jumper to move past shaq and into fifth place on the all-time scoring list. he finished with 28. however, lou williams spoils kobe's big night and scoring 14 of his 24 down the stretch. the 76ers take the lead and beat the lakers 95-90. chris paul in orlando showing everyone why he is an all-star. 29 points and seven dimes. this one goes to overtime and when cp-iii ends the magic show and stops and pops for two. clippers rally from 15 down to win in ot. the knicks without amar'e stoudemire. who would pick up the slack against the jazz? how about jeremy lynn? that is right. the second-year player out of

harvard had a career high 28 points in his first-ever start. knicks pull out all of the stops and win 99-88. the nation's still buzzing over the giants come-from-behind win in super bowl xlvi. while the team awaits a victory parade in new york city, eli had a parade of his own at the happiest place on earth. he was hanging out with mickey mouse yesterday. eli was a grand marshal of a parade in disney world. the fifth player to make two trips to the kingdom after winning the super bowl. check out mickey. if the giants ever need a linebacker, he is ready to suit up. that's your first look at sports. for another look at the weather, here is todd santos. good morning once again. >> i can just picture mickey as line back person wild stuff. at least if you're headed down to -- check in with mickey day. may see a few isolated showers. but the bulk of the activity across the east coast of florida, a chance for showers

today and tomorrow isolated opportunities for thunderstorms. get out to the west coast, you see a lot of this rain pushing in to the higher elevations. some of that triggering a little light snow, mainly south of lake tahoe. a lot of this will be slowly transitioning south during the day, so not everything you see on the radar will get in to the sierra. so a note for skiers there. 21 in denver, 35 in kansas city. we'll still see a chance for some of that snow to accumulate. north texas, a one to three inch set up. across the northeast, 50s today with sunshine tomorrow especially into tomorrow evening, we'll start to see a chance for a few snowflakes to fly. maybe start as a light drizzle. and comments in support of her husband send this super model to the dog house.

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welcome back to "first look." it has been 60 years since queen elizabeth became her nation's monarch and monday the queen spent time with some of her younger subjects while thanking her people for their decades of support. our english broadcasting partner reports. >> reporter: a monarch who has serveded for so long chose the company of children to mark her accession day. they sang for her, selecting time warp from the okrocky horr

show. usually the queen marks the anniversary of her father's death in private, but you this year is special. in london, more than 100 guns fired a salute. in honor of the queen and the king who died on this day in 1952. george the vi had waved his daughter good-bye. a week later, she was at a game in kenya on a viewing platform in the trees when he died. the following day dressed now in black, she returned to heathrow as queen elizabeth ii. the king's body was carried away back to london. >> here was the people's tribute as game keeper, farmer and villagers escorted hair be loved squire, while thousands lining the roadside paid their simple homage. >> reporter: now with a new official royal photograph, jubilee celebrations are about

to begin. the diamond jubilee starts here. in the months ahead, the queen who is soon to turn 86, will embark on one of the most hectic periods of her 60 year reign. she dedicated herself a new to your service. a promise to these young well wishers that as that extraordinary reign continues, duties will not be relinquished. itv news. and time for your first look at entertainment news. last night in new york, jay-z added to his list of impressive career achievements. he performed on the famed stage of carnegie hall. the second hip-hop act to perform there. the associated press reports chris brown will perform at this year's grammys. the same event where his career almost ended three years ago when he assaulted then girlfriend rihanna. "e" reports demi moore has joined brook mueller in rehab at a utah clinic.

add randy travis to the mug shot gallery. he apologized for his public intoxication arrest on sunday after, quote, celebrating the super bowl. gisele bundchen in hot water for standing by her man new england quarterback tom brady. leaving the stadium on sunday night, she loudly complained to a friend about dropped passes saying, my husband can't throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. brady teammates reportedly feel mrs. tom broke the rules about not publicly criticizing fellow players. serious guy code being broken there. >> serious team code being broken. you didn't hear the players saysing that after missed kicks, that sort of thing. >> in her defense, apparently she was being taunted by some of the fans in the crowd. giving tomorrmy a hard time.

so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. i'm lynn berry. this is "first look." "way too early" is next. the united states closes its embassy in damascus. things insides that country get more brutal by the day after russia and china vetoed a u.n. resolution that would have stopped the blood shed inflicted pie the syrian government. the question is will the united states, germany, france and others put together a coalition to oust president as sad from power in syria some. president obama gives his campaign the green light and signals his donors to push their money into it a super pac, with his campaign manager saying we're not going to fight this thing with one hand tied behind our back. the question is just how much money will be spent in this presidential race. and two days later, we're still