this morning on "early today," mission accomplished. the world celebrates as all 33 chilean miners are finally brought home. delaware duel, senate candidates go head to head with just weeks until the midterm election. and space smashup, the hubble telescope captures what scientists believe is the first images of an asteroid scientists believe is the first images of an asteroid collision. captions paid for by nbc-universal television is & hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. today, we begin with a flawless ascent to freedom.

all of chile's 33 miners are finally where they should be this morning, aboveground, celebrating life with their friends and family. after weeks of planning, drilling and testing, rescuers last night finished lifting the men from the depths of the mine that easily could have been their tomb. and as nbc's kerry sanders reports, chile's joy was shared around the world. >> reporter: it's over. all 33 of the miners have been rescued. it took 22 hours, 34 minutes and 56 seconds, more than 1,000 engineering minds to figure out how to get down to those men. 2,040 feet in the earth, they pulled it off. and now, this country and the world celebrates. >> an inspiring experience, i'm sure, not only for the chileans, for the whole world. >> reporter: the last man up, luis urzua. he is the leader who in the

first 17 days when the men were cut off from the outside world told them they should conserve the two days of food they had and ration it to be two smoonfuls of food per man, peaches and tuna. that kept them alive. they made contact with the surface. a team of american drillers came in. they made it down to the men. the fenix capsule was tested, retested, and wow, it worked. in the end, the ride up was taking less than 10 minutes. and now this country celebrates because the impossible is possible. lynn. >> kerry sanders, thank you. back here in the states, the senate battle in delaware took center stage last night as republican candidate and tea party favorite christine o'donnell faced off with democrat chris coons in a heated debate at the university of delaware. tracie potts joins us from

washington now with some of the highlights. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. this is certainly a race to watch. the two sparred over the economy, health care. o'donnell ended up backing off some of her more controversial social views from earlier on evolution and gays in the military. coons, by the way, was forred to defend his record in delaware on raising taxes. this race may be most remembered for her i am not a witch advertisement. last night, christine o'donnell did some name calling of her own based on a newspaper article that coons wrote in college. >> they jokingly called me a birdied marxist. if you take five minutes and read the article, it's clear on the face of it it's a joke. >> you wrote the article saying you learned your beliefs from an articulate marxist professor and that is what made you a democrat. that should send chills up the spine of every delaware voter. >> reporter: the other tea party race to watch is out in nevada.

tonight, a race between sharron angle and harry reid. they are running neck and neck in the polls. democrats plan to sink $2 million in ads supporting reid. sharron angle will have sarah palin coming in for her. >> tracie potts there for us in washington, thank you. now here is a look at other stories making news early today in america. in kentucky, cleanup crews were called in on a wreck that is sure to leave a mark. a tractor-trailer carrying 30,000 pounds of ink overturned, spilling its blue and yellow cargo all over the highway there. it's not clear what caused the accident, but fortunately the driver wasn't hurt. in florida, low tide at a local beach left a 1,000 pound manatee and her calf stuck on the shore. biologists couldn't rescue the cows from the water, so they stayed with them until the high tide carried them away. and in new york, fashion week may be over, but cats and

dogs at the american kennel club proved they could be just as hip. there was the cleopatra kitty, the mad hatter, even a shih tzu with a snooki puss. 200 dog and cat breeds will appear at a meet the breed showcase that's open to the public. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. bill, good morning. no competition is complete without a snooki puss. >> that will away popular halloween costume, i'm sure. maybe i should go with the situation. >> oh, bill, i'm not saying anything. >> let's move on, lynn, and chat about this storm approaching new england and especially the mid-atlantic today. this is going to be not a classic nor'easter that you'd see in the middle of winter, but northern new england will get a strong, gusty wind out of this,

especially tomorrow. as of now, the middle of the country is clear. we're watching the hurricane near the western tip of cuba. that's going to slowly dissipate over the next couple of days. not really affecting southern florida, just a little bit of rain. we are going to watch a more significant rain event sliding through the mid-atlantic today. here is the timing of it. the green is the rain and the yellow is the heavier rain. this morning, we go through the d.c. area into the tail end of the rush hour. by about 1:00, we should see the rain from baltimore to d.c., probably about its heaviest. then as we go through the afternoon, it moves through philly. new york to d.c., it looks like 7:00 to 8:00 tonight. overnight, a lot of that rainfall will be up there snoern new england. at as i mentioned right now, there is not a lot of it out there. so the middle of the country, gorgeous, lots of sunshine. d.c. nardz up to southern new england bring the umbrella for today. that's a look at your thursday

forecast. now here is a look at the weather outside your window. sunny and great weather from texas into areas of missouri. miami, everyone is watching paula, of course. the storm itself should not affect you. lynn, we'll talk more about the friday forecast, coming up. >> all right, bill. thanks so much. stocks spike, intel takes a hit and how to blow $671,000 in one night. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, former "dynasty" star joan collins proves she still likes a good cat fight. sydney crosby try toes rally the penguins, the million dolrlr finally earns his pay and the cavs can't let go of lebron.

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. defense secretary robert gates is warning that an abrupt end to the military don't ask, don't tell policy would have, quote, enormous consequences for the nation's troops. his comments came a day after a federal judge ordered the pentagon to stop enforcing its ban on gays and lesbians serving open in the military. gates says the question of whether to repeal the law should be decided by congress and only after the pentagon completes its study on the issue in december. a bomb blast has killed three coalition troops in western afghanistan today. no word on whether any of them are americans. at least 37 nato service members have been killed this month. federal authorities say they've taken down an ar me nian/american organization that carried out one of the

largest medicare scams in history, allegedly billing medicare for $360 million in treatments that were never given. prosecutors charged 73 people across the country, mostly in new york and los angeles. and nasa's hubble space telescope has captured what scientists believe are the first images of a collision between two asteroids. the images, taken earlier this year, show a bizarre x-shaped object that astronomers have never seen before. >> and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,096 after adding 75 points yesterday. the s&p rose 8 points and the nasdaq gained 23. taking a look at overseas trading this morning in tokyo, the nikkei climbed 180 points while in hong kong, the hang seng surged 394. stocks hit fresh five-month highs once again wednesday fueled by better than expected earnings and a sinking u.s. dollar. overseas this morning, the dollar dropped to a ten-month low after singapore unexpectedly tightened policy to give its currency more flexibilities.

back on the street, industrials and materials led the day's gains while commodities spiked in response to record growth. caterpillar shares added 1% while freeport mcmoern rose gold and copper prices higher. despite strong earnings that lifted the tech sector, intel shares slid nearly 3%. elsewhere on the dow, jp morgan chase beat the streets' earnings estimates. shares were pushed lower by the firm's weak revenue. the number of home foreclosures topped 100,000 for the first time ever last month. however, that number will likely drop going forward after all 50 states launched a joint investigation of the mortgage industry yesterday in response to widespread reports of lax foreclosure filing procedures nationwide. yahoo! shares shot up more than 5% yesterday after "the wall street journal" reported that aol and several private equity firms are in the early stages of a possible bid to buy the website.

and finally, studies show money doesn't always buy happiness, but it could find one very expensive slumber party. the mandarin oriental in tokyo is marking its 5th birthday by offering the entire hotel, all nine restaurants, spas, 178 rooms and suites and a cocktail reception for 500 of your closest friends all for the low, low price of $671,000 big ones. farve's streak is in jeopardy. alexander the great and federer delivers again. plus, pittsburgh's sid the kid crosby finally lights the lamps. but was it enough to bring a victory to the penguins? your early morning sports headlines are just ahead. all eyes are on a developing storm system that's going to hit new england hard with gusty winds and heavy rain. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the bulk of the major action was in limbo last night. so hockey enjoyed a rare moment when the focus was on the ice. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. with the baseball playoffs off until tomorrow and the nba

ramping up with preseason games, the nhl took center stage last night. starting in pittsburgh, penguins and maple leafs pick it up in the second. behind the net to clark mccar thursday for the goal. second in the game, and the leafs were up, 4-2. sydney crosby tried to rally his penguins for his first of the season, but it wasn't enough. maple leafs won it, 4-3. caps and the islanders. alexander ovechkin got the cap, a laser from the top of the circle sided at one. washington took the lead late in the third. ovechkin unloaded another rocket. nicholas baxtrim redirected past the kop gollies. the caps won it, 2-1. the $100 million man scored a perfect time to score his first of the year. devils beat the sabers, 1-0. a quick football note, brett farve's ironman streak of starting a record 289 games may be in jeopardy. latest problem?

tendinitis elbow. farve will rest his arm as much as possible before sunday's game. tennis. it would have to be something special to show a highlight from the masters. john eisner with a shot over roger fedder's head. ei he raised back and hit the ball between his legs. he may not be number one in the world any more, but no one is better at this trick shot. federer won it in straight sets. finally, the cleveland cavaliers may be in a bit of denial that lebron left the team. to prove it, look no further than the team's 2011 calendar. that's the king himself on the cover. actually, they were credited before lebron bolted from the heat, but the team is still trying to sell them for 15 bucks. no one is buying them. get this, the calendars were printed by a company called perfect timing. talk about horrible timing for the cavs. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. david arquette apologizes for spilling the beans on his divorce. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, we'll tell you about a

student who gets an a plus for taking a stand against bullying. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. if you're heading out the door, cleveland to erie, down around pittsburgh and south of pittsburgh, a little light rain for you this morning.

forecast, all that rain will head to the east coast today. it will build in intensity, too, sxshl once that storm intensifies off the coast. southern new england is going to get heavy rain. during the day today, it's more or less d.c. to baltimore, whack into areas around philadelphia and new york city. tonight, new england will have a rainey start to friday and a very windy end. the storm really intensifies in the gulf of maine. if you're watching us on wect news 6 wilmington, north carolina, where can you find rides, games and lots of food? at the columbus county agricultural fair, of course, at the columbus county fairgrounds in nearby whiteville. that's your "early today" event of the day. >> bill, thank you. now here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. game blogger perez hilton is vowing to stop outing celebrities on his website. he tells ellen degeneres that

the recent string of gay suicides have inspired him to rethink his writing, including any materials that could be deemed as bullying. actor david arquette says he regrets his racy overshare on the howard stern show. in a tuesday interview, arquette opened up about his split with wife courtney cox and he gave some details about their sex life, or according to him, lack thereof and revealed a post separation fwling a cocktail waitress. the actor apologized in a tweet wednesday saying he shared too much. so what is courtney saying about all this? a source close to the couple tells "people" magazine that, quote, nothing surprises her at this point. meanwhile, former "dynasty" diva joan collins is pulling out the claws with another former friend. the 77-year-old star tells the daily mail that with the exception of angelina jolie, hollywood is devoid of any beautiful actresses. she says, quote, jennifer anniston is cute, but i wouldn't call her beautiful.

kind of below the belt to jennifer anniston. angelina jolie already took her husband. >> you had to bring that up, too, lynn? that's nice. >> a little one-two punch this morning. and this comes to us from kc 24 news in fresno, california. where one boy is taking to the streets for a very brave fight. marco, a seventh grader and a victim of bullying is staging a protest outside his school of what he calls a serious and potentially deadly issue. school officials say the students involved in the bullying have apologized, but marco says that isn't enough and he's going to continue to stand up for himself and speak out for those who are afraid to. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

>> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today in hd. >> good morning, everyone. we do expect some rain to move in today. let's look at the hd doppler. most of the rain is in the mountains. we have a few hours before the rain hits the baltimore area. rain is likely later this morning. dry early and it will be chilly. we will check the forecast as we

head into the weekend. >> thank you. 47 degrees on tv hill. here's a look ahead to 11 news today. >> a lawsuit accuses several attorneys of unfairly placing families in danger of foreclosure. >> all 33 miners are waking up to their families this morning. the dramatic day of rescue. thee're taking a look at area roads. there is an accident with some lane closures. su

woman 1 sync: i knew what bob ehrlich did as governor. man 1 sync: raised my property taxes 60 percent. woman 2 sync: let utilities hike our rates 72 percent. woman 1 sync: but i didn't know what he's done since he got fired as governor. man 2: ehrlich's raked in millions. man 3: he worked for a wall street bank that took 10 billion dollars from the bailout. woman 3: 10 billion of our money. woman 4: our money. woman 5 sync: and he worked for another bank that collapsed. man 4: costing tax payers 17 million. anncr: tell bob ehrlich big banks don't need help. middle class marylanders do.

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today in hd. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. >> and i am stan stovall. thank you for joining us this morning. >> tony pann has a quick look at today's forecast. i had to upgrade to a