i promise to try to find for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow! this morning on early today, eye on the prize. illinois is up for grabs and the results could shake up the presidential race. rapid melt. time lapse video captured the spring thaw of the lake in minnesota. and center stage. one of the most high-profile women in the world makes big debut. hello and good morning. today we begin with a big swing state in the republican race for the white house, all eyes are on illinois. voters head to the polls in that state's primary today where a convincing victory for front

runner mitt romney will make it very difficult for his rivals to keep running. tracie potts joins us from washington with more on this. >> reporter: good morning. rick santorum is hoping to do well in illinois but it's going to be an uphill battle for him. mean time mitt romney even though he is the front-runner at this point is not taking the land of lincoln for granted. >> thespian cakes are something else. i'll tell you. >> reporter: mitt romney in his third day campaigning in illinois the land of reindian and obama. >> i'm looking for the nod here. >> reporter: romney is up by nine points. santorum is the underdog. he's ineligible because he filed paper work too late. >> i don't care what the unemployment rate will be. doesn't matter to me. my campaign doesn't hinge on unemployment rates. >> i do care about the unemployment rate. it bothers me. >> reporter: santorum clarified. >> of course i care about the

unemployment rate. but i'm saying my candidacy doesn't hinge on whether the unemployment rate goes up or down. >> reporter: but it's the numbers that mitt romney hopes to solidify him for a win. >> a loss in illinois or a narrow win by romney will certainly give a lot of doubts about the strength of his candidacy. >> reporter: no question romney has pulled ahead at least in terms of the official delegate count. nbc's latest tally 443. elsewhere nbc news retained the republican party proposed new budget which will be unveiled later today. in at any time gop will propose massive tax reform by consolidating the six current tax be brackets into just two, 10% and 25%. it would also repeal the

alternate minimum tax' reduce the corporate tax rate. the budget promises to decrease loopholes in tax subsidies and it didn't specific who would qualify for which of the two tax brackets. the justice department and fbi have opened an investigation into the shooting of a black teenager in florida last month. unarmed 17-year-old trayvon martin was killed by a neighborhood watch captain george simmerman. zimmerman was told by police not pursue martin who was walking home at the time. on another tape martin can be heard begging for his life. more than 435,000 people have signed an online petition calling for zimmerman's arrest. and now for a look at some other stories making news, early today in america, several boats went up in flames at a yacht club in san diego. three vessels were destroyed and

a fourth damaged. it happened in mission bay. no word on what caused the fire. surveillance video shows a thief smashing his way into cases at a jewelry tore. the higher end items were loblgd up and secured he and two other burglars got their hands on less expensive jewels using a bin to collect the stolen goods. police are hoping blood drops will help find the suspects. finally this is pretty cool. take a look at this time lapse video as another day of warm weather felted a minnesota lake for the season. looks surreal. it happened monday which was the last full day of winter. at least on the calendar. it took 90 minutes for the ice to completely disappear. hundreds of record high temperatures have been shattered this year in and around the twin cities. and now for a look at your

national and regional weather here's bill karins an expert on all of this. >> on everything? >> no, no, i take that back. >> so sweet of you. >> good morning. yesterday we talked about texas and we were concerned about severe weather outbreaks, the flooding has been the bigger story. we did have some tornadoes yesterday. no devastating ones. there was this beautiful picture, beautiful because it didn't do a lot of damage in the denton, grapevine area. it's reaching down the ground. looks like a confirmed tornado. close to ground level. what we're dealing with right now the worse of it is through the heart of texas. a lot of thunderstorm activity. over the last hour we've had 19,000 lightning strikes here. people from laredo northward to outside of dallas. long line of storms, very slow moving. we had a lot of flash flooding problems out there this morning. anywhere here from the border of

arkansas, all these red boxes are flash flood warnings. austin san antonio area two to three inches of rain in san antonio over the last three or four hours that's why we have these flash flood warning there in austin too. slow moving storms and we're expecting hefty rival total taos. it will move towards little rock and up here through ozark. we'll watch out for your flash flooding today. that big plume of moisture going to the north. if you're not in the rain you're in the warmth. enjoy it on the east coast. here's the weather outside your window. areas like north carolina today maybe an isolated pop up shower or storm but the incredible warmth continues. many areas and the carolinas will be in the 80s today. areas of southern new england will be in the 70s. well certainly happy it's finally spring. that winter was brutal. >> i know wasn't it tough? >> make you feel better.

>> haven't even put my sweaters away. >> i feel oily from the sunscreen i had on yesterday. >> how long will we go with this. coming up apple keeps shining. oil keeps climbing, and a new number two in burgers. your early morning business lines are straight ahead. plus we'll tell you about ashton kutchner's new out of this world plan. >> coming up bad news for the north carolina tar heels the devils and rangers duke it out. and peyton manning trades in his colt for a bronco. you're watching "today".

good morning. welcome back to "early today." police in france are conducting a massive man hunt for a person who shot and killed three person and a teacher yesterday at a jewish school in southwest france.

authorities say the same gun was used in two other shootings. local police who don't normally carry weapons have been issued guns. his client remembered very little about killing of 16 afghan civilians. she, too, wants to know what happened. and it's reported that bails' owes $1.5 million from a 2003 arbitration that found him guilty of security fraud. kate middleton has made her first public speech. >> first of all, i'd like to say thieving. thank you for not only accepting me as a patron, thank you also for inviting me. >> kate says she was sorry that prince william could not be there. and in eastern china, a 2300 foot long highway bridge was demolished by more than a ton of

explosives. they're going to start building a new highway system. here's an early look at one of your top headlines on msnbc.com. doctors are warning that the dangers of unregulated synthetic marijuana which is made from plants and herbs. teens up able to speak and hallucinating, about 11% tried pot last year. poison control centers handled almost 7,000 calls about it. you can check out the health page at msnbc.com. >> >> and, now, here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 13,239. the nasdaq at 23. in tokyo, the nikkei added 12 points. but in hong kong, 227.

apple investors got the long-awaited news that the world's most profitable company will soon begin sharing its wealth. tim cook revealed apple will begin paying a dividend of $2.65 a share. later this year inaddition to a $2 billion stock buy back program. meanwhile, a down ground sent sprint nexttel spiraling 5%. elsewhere, a healthy analyst upgrade gave u.s. steel a 6% boost. the price of oil continued to climb bubbling up more than a dollar per barrel to settle above $108. on the economic front, news that was unchanged in march failed to

trigger much market movement. ups climbed 3% on news of its deal to buy europe's second largest express mail company. elsewhere, amazon is buying robot maker kiva systems for $775 million. the new york mets owners and the trustee for bernard madof victims have settled out of court for $680 million. the mets had been accused of knowingly profiting from madof's pondj scheme. and what better way to welcome spring than free fried food? yes, that's right. outback steak house is gich giving away blooming onions today to help you bloom into spring. coming up, injury threatens the tar heels tournament. a milestone night in chicago and

the celtics hold off the hawks. plus, a battle royal from the opening face-off sparks the ranger's division-clinching victory. early morning headlines straight ahead. >> as far as the weather goes, flash flooding is a big story. your forecast is right around the corner. you're watching early today. ♪

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>> good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the nfl's most coveted agent ever, peyton manning, will be making his new home in the mile high city. >> good morning, peyton manning is back on the horse. the former colt's quarterback has told his agents to negotiate a deal with the denver broncos. the move marks the end of teebow mania. they're expected to trade tim teebow once the final deal is finalized. kendall marshal broke a small bone in his wrist sunday and the tar heel haves not completely ruled him out from playing against ohio on friday. now, chicago, where the bulls simply embarrassed the magic. 56 for the entire game. all of this without the mvp, derek rose.

a game-high 24. bulls ran all over the magic, 58-59. from a blow out to a nail biter, under 26 to play. hawks and celtics cut the lead to one. last chance for the hawks leaving a three for the tie. jeff king, not even close chatty ends the game with an air ball. celtics held onto win 79-76. the red wings did everything they could to rattle ovechkin. a hard hit at the blue line, but that just got alex going. responded with a pair of goals. capitols got a much-needed win 5-3. the rangers and devils don't like each other. as soon as the puck hit the ice, so did the gloves. three separate fights in the first three seconds of the game. 40 minutes in penalties. rangers drew first blood on the score board as well. jumped out to an early lead and won it 4-2.

they're the first team in the east to clinch a playoff spot. that's your early look at sports on "early today." >> an award-winner record setter and a big bomb on the silver screen, your early morning headlines are straight ahead. kids can wind up in courtrooms on field trips, but it's not often that they're asked to participate. you're watching "early today."

well coll back to early today. we showed you all the heavy rain in texas. the temperatures have just been earlier. it is 70 degrees to start your morning in chicago. that's ridiculous. as far as what we're going to deal with this afternoon, 83 in chicago on the first day of spring. everyone in the east is warm and everyone in the rockies still feels like winter. if you're watching us on wmctv action news five in memphis, tennessee, see the hat, shoes, accessories and everything in between. that's your early today. >> all right, thanks so much. and now here's an early look at this morning's headlines and entertainment. in damage control mode, disney announced what we all already knew. the unusual step of publicly

detailing its total losses, including marketing, $200 million. that's going do hurt. oprah winfrey's struggling tv network is laying off a fifth of its workers and restructuring with officers from its partner, discovery, taking over two jobs. sean penn will receive an award from nobel peace prize winners for his relief work in haiti. char lyrics e sheen's x has pleaded guilty to a cocaine charge under a deal that will wipe her record clean if she serves a year of trouble-free pro bags. james cameron plans to set a record riding his submersible, what he calls a vertical torpedo, nearly 7 miles down into the western pacific. finally, richard branson says he's booked his 500th customer to fly into space.

asthot kutcher dropped $200,000 to go to space. >> i want to do a lot of test players. >> and news comes to us at whdh 7 news in boston where one potential juror had a really good excuse to avoid doing his civic duty. jacob is only 9 years old. but that didn't stop him from getting a summons. his first reaction was to ask what exactly is jury duty? it turns out the census messed up jacob's birthday. this kind of thing happens once or twice a year and jacob's family can vouch for that. jacob also had a summons when he was only two years old. well, i'm lynn barry and this is "early today" your first stop of the day on your nbc station.

>> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> good morning. we're starting out on the warm side. temperatures are around 60 degrees. we have some light rain in some neighborhoods. heavier showers in howard county. you might see some of that under way to work this morning. 64 downtown. clouds and a chance for a shower or a fender sure. high temperature between 70 and 75 -- a shower or eight thundershower. >> 62 degrees on tv hill. the funeral procession begins in

just a few minutes for major robert marchanti. >> the city's property-tax could soon be coming down. i will explain. >> the proper tax is a high topic. the budget remains at a stalemate in annapolis. >> the funeral procession may cause some delays this morning. we will update you on an

[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 morning. i'm mindy basara. >> and i'm stan stovall. thank you for joining us this morning. >> it is the first official day of spring be " spring is about four hours old. >> you're wearing the appropriate colors. appropriate colors.