this morning on "early today" -- shot in the arm. newt gingrich lands a key endorsement on the road to white house. showdown in l.a. wall street protest rz defy a midnight deadline to vacate their encampment. royal save. prince william helps make a royal save. prince william helps make a da rescue at sea. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with a big endorsement. as gop presidential candidates look to make the most of their remaining time on the campaign trail, former house speaker newt gingrich has landed the support of new hampshire union

newspaper, the largest in the first primary state. nbc's brian mooar joins us from washington with that story. good morning to you. >> reporter: that endorsement includes a snub from mitt romney, who's been able to raise lots of cash but is still struggling to get conservatives excited. newt gingrich isn't the greatest candidate but he's better than mitt romney, that is the bottom line of an editorial endorsement by new hampshire's "union leader" newspaper. >> if you were to balance it between romney and gingrich, romney is a play it safe candidate. >> reporter: that highlights romney's inability to connect with conservatives. >> do you want a bona fide conservative like gingrich or a middle of the road candidate like a mitt romney. >> reporter: gingrich is just the latest to top the gop field. michele bachmann is shrugging off the endorsement. >> the main endorsement is the one i'm looking forward to is

here in iowa. >> reporter: herman cain is struggling to regain momentum. >> obviously, false accusations and confusion about some of my positions has contributed to it. >> reporter: jon huntsman is hoping for his turn. >> i'm getting whiplash watching these people go up and down. >> reporter: 36 days until the iowa caucuses and republican voters are still shopping around. gingrich's new-found front-runner status will bring in more campaign cash and more scrutiny. >> thank you. after a long thanksgiving weekend of eating, shopping and travel, the holiday season is officially in full swing and that means serious business for the nation's retailers look fog follow up record black friday sales by bringing you more bargain hunters online for cyber monday. nbc's frreports. >> reporter: americans are returning to their daily routine after another thanksgiving of

crowded airports and shopping malls. 42.5 million americans traveled over thanks gifshgs up 4% from last year. from atlanta's hartsfield international to kansas city. sunday was the same, long lines and large crowds. travelers braving the hassles and headaches of holiday congestion. and it wasn't just the airports that were jammed. store owners were smiling after retail sales broke records over the holiday weekend. the national retail federation says stores did an estimated $52 billion in online and in-store sales. an increase of 7$7 billion from last year. spending that money, 226 million shoppers who visited stores and websites over black friday weekend. next up for retailers, cyber monday, where later today online shoppers will once again be looking for those online bargains. according to shop.org's holiday survey, 8 out of 10 retailers

are expected to have special deals on cyber monday. nbc news. for the second time this month, allegations of sexual child abuse have rocked one of the nation's most respected collegia collegiate athletic programs with the firing of syracuse long-time assistant basketball coach, bernie fine. the announcement comes less than two weeks after two step brothers went public with accusations that they had been molested by fine back when they were ball boys on the team. syracuse police searched fine's home on friday after a third accuser came guard with similar accusations inspect a newly released phone conversation secretly recorded in 2002 the former coach's wife discussed knowledge of the abuse with her husband's initial accuser and admitted there may be more victims. fine has called the accusations against him, quote, patently false. elsewhere, officials in los angeles and philadelphia have given orders to shut down

anti-wall street camps in those cities but so far police have yet to enforce the orders. the lapd informed occupy l.a. protesters of the eviction plan. however, those protesters have remained and police are not confronting them. 3450e7b whi meanwhile, a deadline for occupy philadelphia demonstrators have they have been camped for nearly two months passed sunday without any arrests or removals. the $50 million construction project is expected to start near that camp. nasa's rover lifted off over the weekend. the curiosity, biggest explorer ever built, will hunt for signs of life that may have existed on the red planet. the large size of the car and weighing one ton, it has a laser beam for zapping martian rocks

and a tool kit for analyzing their contents. it will take 8 1/2 months for the rover to reach mars and begin its search. seems straight out of the jetsons. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's meteorologist todd santos with your weather channel forecast. welcome back. now a married man. congratulations. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. talking about that rover thing, super cool to see that blast off this weekend. a lot of folks want to talk about what's going on if you are blasting off travelwise in the skies. we'll be dealing with a few areas with potential delays. watch yesterday as some of the rain slowly made its way toward atlanta, just gragz the northwestern side of town. here it is now in atlanta, back towards birmingham and a good stretch of showers extending up through the ohio valley and into the northeast. all of that falling in the form of rainfall. we'll see a chance for snow to mix in. we'll talk about some of the snowfall amounts. we could even see some better numbers back through western portions of tennessee, that cool air in place, a pocket of cool

air, especially at the higher level in the atmosphere. you saw mild conditions especially back toward new york city dealing with quiet conditions there, back towards d.c. and boston. maybe a few flakes mixing in earlier today. jackson, tennessee, by tomorrow morning may see upwards of 3 to 5 inches of snowfall. and there's a look at the big temperature contrast to start off your day. let's check out your local forecast. yeah, as i mentioned, new york on the dry side but a good portion through the carolinas, charlotte to orlando, chance of showers. new orleans, just plain cold. this morning, big changes there temperaturewise. many of us cooling down significantly compared to yesterday. we'll talk more about the forecast today, temperaturewise through texas. >> thanks so much. coming up, wall street readies for another week. euro leaders look to get tough. and the high cost of a partridge

in a pare tree. plus, controversy swirls around stoner comments by teen star miley cyrus. coming up, another game, another tebow comeback and a touchdown celebration gone bad. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. a diplomatic crisis in brewing between islamabad and washington after a nato air strike near the border of afghanistan and pakistan killed two dozen pakistani soldiers. pakistan is denying afghan military claims that gunfire came from its border posts, sparking the incident. pakistan is blocking supply convoys into afghanistan and demanding the u.s. vacate a drone base on its soil.

in an unprecedented move against a member nation, the arab league has approved sweeping economic sanctions on the syria, aimed at punishing the regime of president bashar al assad for its bloody crackdown on protesters. attackers set off explosives along a gas pipeline in egypt this morning that carries fuel to neighboring israel and yore dan. it's the eighth attack on the pipeline since the uprising and comes hours before the first parliamentary elections since the ousting of hosni mubarak. and prince william, heir to the english throne and royal air force member, co-piloted a helicopter that came to the rescue of a cargo ship hit by a massive wave in the irish sea. the ship was carrying eight russian crew members. two were pulled from a life craft. one body was recovered, and five are still missing. now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,231 after

losing 25 points on friday. the s&p was down 3 points. the nasdaq fell 18. taking a look at overseas trading this morning n tokyo the nikkei climbed 127 points. while in hong kong, the hang seng jumped 348. analysts think this week the direction of european bond yield will determine the direction of wall street stocks. on euro yield angst last week, cnbc reports percentagewise both the dow and s&p 500 had their worst thanksgiving week since the great depression. with another round of european bond objections this weauctions hope to see them fall or settle. asian stocks started well, climbing the optimism to the strong start to u.s. holiday 1407ing. asian markets were also encouraged by reports germany's chancellor angela merkel and france's president sarkozy are studying legal changes to force

nations using the euro to comply with strict budget discipline. belgium, the latest debt crisis casualty, suffered a credit rating downgrade. if traders take their eye off this week it will be for data. today brings new home sales and prices and consumer confidence released tomorrow. wednesday u.s. manufacturing, thursday with factory readings from china and europe. on jobs, private employment numbers are out thursday. friday comes the really big one, october's monthly report. elsewhere, iraq reached $17 billion deal with royal dutch shell and mitsubishi to capture natural gas from its oil fields. and finally, for the first time ever, if you bought all the 364 items from the 12 days of christmas, it would cost you more than $100,000. seven swans a swimming were particularly painful, up 12.5% from last year.

coming up, brady passes on the eagles. the steelers hold out against the chiefs. and tebow does it again. plus, will a tasteless touchdown celebration by a buffalo bill receiver lead to trouble with the league? your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and if you held your big travel day off until today, we'll take a closer look and what you can expect coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the one thing you can't argue with is winning. whether you like them or not, tim tebow has been winning. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. everybody has their own opinion on the broncos' tim tebow, love him or hate him, he keeps fining a way to win. san diego led all game but tebow led, connecting with eric decker. now to the fourth, tebow got broncos into field goal range and matt prater finished off the overtime. the overtime, the chip shot for victory and broncos won 16-13, tebow is 5-1 as starter. buffalo, bills jackson scored against the jets but what

he did after the catch has everybody talking. he pretended to shoot himself in the leg as part of the touchdown celebration. he was mocking plaxico burress who shot himself back in 2008 but the jets would have the last laugh. mark sanchez hit holmes for the go ahead touchdown with a minute to play. jets knocked off the bills with a 28-24 win. philly, eagles jumped out to an lead. brady rattled off 21 straight, with another three touchdowns to wes welker. pats win 28-30. chiefs and steelers, ro pittsburgh rounded out a victory in kansas city 38-9. the chargers have dropped six straight but here's something even more embarrassing than that. charger kicker nick novak. no bathrooms around sew took a knee and he relieved himself next to the water station, and everyone, on national television got to see. that's your early look at sports

on "early today." i'm fred roggin. >> just a tiny towel? i don't get it. we have your roundup of the top films at the holiday box office coming up. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. he'll be playing on the roof until the new yi year, hoping to fill his restaurant. you're watching "early today." e fill his restaurant. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. on this monday, travelwise

across much of the northeast looking fairly good. we'll see clouds setting up and later on in the day, atlanta dealing with some showers. same story down birmingham. dry in chicago. cool back up through the mountains. billings a few snowflakes. snow sets in late tonight and early tomorrow morning across western tennessee, mississippi, alabama, north georgia. may see slick spots out there. be careful on the roadways and showers moving to the northeast at that point. if you're watching us on wbla tv in baltimore, maryland, see the city's largest display of toy and model locomotives at holiday festival of train and toys at baltimore railroad museum. >> thanks so much. here's an early look at this morning headlines in entertainment. second straight weekend of vampire romance "breaking down" took in $41 million over the three-day weekend and $62 million plus over the five-day thanksgiving period. two days out, including overseas

earnings, stands just short of $500 million. in second was "the muppets" with $42 million with the five day holiday. "happy feet two" finished third. and the animated come day "arthur christmas" opened fourth with just under $13 million. finally, "hugo" debuted fifth with just over $11 million. elsewhere in a video of miley cyrus celebrating her 19th birthday recently, cyrus is heard saying, quote, you know you're a stoner when your friends make you a bob marley cake. you know you smoke way too much weed. well, that's caused a little firestorm. a rep for cyrus claims the cake was a joke and cyrus was just being sarcastic. this was actually a private party. someone was filming her saying this on a cell phone camera. supposed to be her friends. this is now out there and major

damage control trying to contain this. >> nothing is private at that age. honestly, i love the way people put stuff on social media but maybe you do it to throw folks off the trail. >> not a smart idea. this comes to us from kxan news in austin, texas, where one restaurant owner is using his guitar to drum up business at his struggling eatery. he hopes his guitar solos are good enough to make people stop and get a bite to eat. after no money left for advertising after renovations and he's worried he'll go out of business, he went up on the roof early friday morning competent plans to stay there until new year's day. he hopes for his own it's a wonderful life type of happy ending. we hope that for him as well. i'm lynn berry, 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. >> good morning. hope everybody had a great holiday weekend. it was mild. we will be near that neighborhood again. 47 at the airport. 53 in parkton. increasing clouds as we have throughout the day. high temperatures in the mid 60's. we will come back and check the forecast for the rest of the work week. >> 52 degrees on tv hill. millions of americans will log on line for some holiday gifts. >> --

on thursday will lay him to rest. >> dozens joint a heartbroken mother. from one of the survivors -- hear from one of the survivors. >> 8 middle river neighborhood is vandalized -- a middle river neighborhood is vandalized. >>

[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. >> good monday morning. i'm mindy basara. >> and i'm stan stovall. thank you for joining us this morning. >> it felt like spring. >> 70 degrees.