this morning on "early today," senate hopeful richard murdock makes a controversial statement about race and god's intentions that mitt romney quickly distances himself from. sprint for the white house. the candidates hit the swing states hard as polls begin to shift. gentleman and the need for speed. driving 85 miles per hour in the u.s. starting today. it's perfect legal. u.s. starting today. it's perfect legal. we'll tell you where. captions paid for by nbc-universal television well, good morning. i'm lynn berry. the romney campaign could be waking up to a brand new political headache as yet another republican candidate makes explosive comments about rape two months after the

controversy over todd akin's legitimate rape remark. this time it was during a u.s. senate debate in indiana last night. richard murdock and his opponents were asked about abortion when murdock said this. >> i believe that life begins at conception. the only exception i have for -- to have an abortion is in that case of the life of the mother. i just -- i struggled with it myself for a long time, but i came to realize life is that gift from god and i think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that god intended to happen. >> and after the debate murdock told a news conference he was only trying to explain his view that god creates life. >> does that -- are you trying to suggest that somehow i think god ordained or preordained rape? no, i don't believe that. anyone who would suggest that, that's a sick and twisted -- no. no. that's not even close to what i said. >> all right. this all matters to the romney team because those comments come just one day after the murdock

campaign began running a new ad featuring governor romney. >> there's so much at stake. i hope you'll join me in supporting richard murdock for u.s. senate. >> late last night the romney campaign issued this statement reading governor romney disagrees with richard murdock's comments and they do not reflect his views. dnc debbie wasserman schultz slammed the results as outrageous and demeaning. elsewhere, for the first time since the party conventions in august governor romney has a slight lead over president obama. the latest washington post abc poll of likely voters showed romney ahead of the president 49% to 48%. that was only after rounding off the decimal points and since the numbers are within the margin of error, the two candidates are in a virtual tie. well, the time to press the flesh is getting short for the candidates as they try to lock in every last vote before november 6th. nbc's tracie pots has the details for us from washington.

tracie, good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. they're doing it by crisscrossing this country hitting the battleground states. let's talk about governor romney. he is in nevada and iowa today. he'll be in ohio, a couple of stops there tomorrow after last night rallying with his running mate, paul ryan, in a huge rally in colorado. in addition to that washington post abc poll there is a virtual tie in the latest reuters poll. he's only one point behind. essentially a tie. and he says that president obama is slipping because he's promoting the same ideas, nothing new for the next four years. meantime, the obama biden team in dayton, ohio, late last night at a rally. the president showing off yesterday a new booklet that he says details his plan for the next four years, one that he says where the math adds up. he's got a huge campaign schedule over the next three days in eight states including iowa, colorado, and california,

an appearance on jay leno tonight. tracie, thanks so much. elsewhere, the white house and the state department were advised that an islamic militant group was behind the benghazi attack just two hours after that assault began. this information is according to a result by the reuters news agency. they managed to obtain e-mails that described the attack as it was still underway. the white house and the state department have not commented yet on those e-mails. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. we're going to begin with a deadly shark attack in southern california. a 39-year-old man was killed while surfing in the waters off surf beach. the victim was -- had a massive bite wound on his upper torso and was pronounced dead at the scene. this is the second fatal attack in two years at surf beach which does not have any shark warning signs posted. officials are investigating to determine what kind of shark was involved. now over to texas where the fast and the furious can get

their fix on the nation's speed iest roadway. starting today driving 85 miles per hour on parts of highway 130 is perfectly legal. the new 40 mile toll road makes the trip between austin and san antonio a lot faster but safety experts predict an increase in crashes and deaths. finally, officials at the san diego zoo are looking for a little help. the public is being asked to name this giant panda cub born 12 weeks ago. the list of potential names have been whittled down from 7,000 to 6. here they are. get out your pen and paper. miracle, rain drop. big ocean or big sea, little gift, brave son or water dragon. online voting is open until october 30th. all right. now for a look at your wednesday weather, we go to nbc meteorologist bill karins because he's tracking that big storm. bill. >> it will soon be hurricane sandy if it isn't already out there. an eye has gun to form and jamaica will get hit by a

hurricane later today. the storm has intensified overnight over the warm waters in the caribbean. worst case scenario for jamaica, possibly a category 2 landfall during the day today. that's not what they wanted to hear. where is the storm heading? it looks like we're not going to see a direct landfall anywhere in the florida peninsula or along the southeast coast line. it should be somewhere on friday weakening to a tropical storm over the central bahamas and then paralleling the southeast coast and heading more or less in between north carolina and bermuda. at this point usually these storms hook out to sea. not this one. this one's going to be blocked by an area of high pressure here. it has to return somewhere either to the north towards the maritimes or possibly hooking all the way back and getting captured by the jet stream into new england as a huge nor'easter. that will be monday, tuesday of next week. as for today, really no issues out there across the country. the weather looks okay and warm. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window.

north carolina, one of the beautiful spots today. raleigh at 82 degrees. probably one of the warmest air magss we'll see for a while. big plunge of cold air from canada will be coming down starting tonight and tomorrow in the northern plains. one thing, the potential is there for a really high impact nor'easter type storm early next week. >> unfortunately, bill. thanks so much. well, disturbing new details about the murder of a 12-year-old little girl and the fallout from a massive solar flair. your early morning headlines are straight ahead. plus the obama blueprint for hunting terrorists. it's called the disposition matrix. details straight ahead. you're watching "early today."

rio de janei stories making news this morning. today's washington post reports the obama administration is developing a new way of pursuing terrorists. the disposition matrix contains terror suspects names laid out against resources available to

track them down. it's designed to map out ways to reach suspects beyond the reach of unmanned drones. colorado's secretary of state says 300 more suspected non-citizens have been found on the state's voter rolls. the names were among the more than 3900 people who have received letters in august questioning their citizenship. a former cia officer faces 2 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking the name of a covert officer to a reporter. in 2007 john quiriaco was the first official to go public about the government's use of water boarding as an interrogation technique. police in jurges have said two boys have been arrested for luring a girl and strangling her. the strangulated body of autumn pasquale was found stuffed in a recycling bin. the suspect's mother helped

crack the page after posting on her son's facebook account. nasa says the sun unleashed an intense solar flair which caused a brief radio blackout. you may have heard the expression there's nothing cleaner than a dog's mouth. not so much apparently. a new study finds more than 70% of dogs' mouths contain disease causing bacteria that can lead to gum disease and other ailments in humans. all right. in health, massachusetts officials have revealed that the pharmacy believed to be responsible for the meningitis outbreak had serious health and safety violations. inspectors found that the new england compounding center shipped medicine before getting back the results of its sterilization testing. visible fungus was also found in steroids made by the company. the cdc has confirmed 308 cases of meningitis in 17 states and 23 deaths. the state has permanently revoked the facility's license.

>> announcer: early today health is brought to you by vagisil ph balanced wash. and here's how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dow closed at 13,102 after sinking 243 points tuesday. the s&p dropped 20. the nasdaq fell 26. taking a look at overseas trading today, in tokyo the nikkei was down 59 points but in hong kong the hang seng gained 66. corporate caution hit wall street hard tuesday and could sink stocks again today after the bell dow chemical released earnings two days early and said it's slashing 2400 jobs and closing about 20 manufacturing plants to help save precious cash. on the upside, facebook's revenue jumped 32% sending shares higher in late trade. apple finally unveiled its ipad mini yesterday. the new hand held will start at $329. well, if you've swiped your credit card at barnes & noble recently, you may want to change

your pin number. the company says a security breech in its pin pads last month may have compromised customers' information. a new study finds the gender pay gap is still dogging women, including recent college grads who now earn on average 82% of their male peers. kip linkers has ranked yales as the number one value. rice and princeton rounded out the top three. be careful driving. new figures from the insurance information institute show deer collisions on the rise. claims are up almost 8% in the last four years costing over $4 billion in damage. new york city's central park just got its biggest donation ever. $100 million from hedge fund billionaire john paulson. barney's is under fire for its electric holiday ad campaign featuring a very skinny mini mouse. critics are upset the usually

round mouse is runway thin in a short film where she fantasizes she's in a paris fashion show. and the national retail federation estimates americans will spend $370 million bucks on costumes this halloween, unreal, for their pets. the topics, pumpkins, devils, and hot dogs. coming up, eva longoria splits from her jet setting man, ozzie's millions, and is the world's fastest human making a challenge that even he can't deliver on? sports headlines are straight ahead. this warm air is not here to stay. starting tomorrow the cold plunge from canada begins. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

well, in sports, very exciting. the world series begins tonight. the giants worked out on their home field yesterday and the tigers got their chance in the batting cage at the at&t park. the pitching match-up features two former cy young award winners. justin verlander for detroit and barry zito for the giants. >> a lot of the circumstances swirling around, you know, they should not be a factor. sometimes they are, but it's my job to focus on what's important. >> just being able to take it in a little more, having experience under my belt and having been in some situations like this allows me not to be so wide eyed and be

able to be a little bit calmer and just kind of take things in. >> game one starts tonight 8:00 p.m. eastern time. the miami marlins have a hot new stadium, a franchise record $93 million payroll and now a job opening for a new manager. yesterday they fired ozzie guillen after one season. the reason, a terrible record and because of his early comments admiring fidel castro which didn't sit well with fans. the marlins still owe him over 7 million bucks. let's go over to the nba where lebron james takes matters into his own hands as the heat win their third straight preseason game, 98-92. in chicago the bulls got off to a good start for a 94-89 win over the oklahoma city thunder. and finally the world's fastest man, you know that guy, olympic champion sprinter usain bolt. he did his trademark lightening

bolt pose high above rio de janeiro in brazil. the home of the next summer olympic games. he's sure to do well. coming up, a halloween fright comes early for unsuspecting families in england, plus, the third presidential debate with an auto tune twist that is sure to make you laugh. you're watching "early today."

well, welcome back. we are watching temperatures

that are very warm across the country this morning. you don't even need your jackets in many spots. mid 80s in the midwest. 80s in the carolinas to d.c. then we get ready for the cold air as it begins to plunge through the country. it will start up here in montana and it will sweep across the map. ahead of it we will see showers and storms in areas like kansas and chicago as we go throughout your thursday. the rest of the country looks pretty dry. we'll wait to see what happens with sandy and its effects on the east coast come monday and tuesday. bill, thanks so much. for some entertainment news. if you haven't already figured it out it is good to be the child of an a list celebrity. brad and angelina jolie's kids are joining them in the cast of milificent. the sleeping beauty spinoff marks the first onscreen roll for all three kids. 37-year-old eva longoria and

25-year-old mark sanchez are history after just three months. a source close to the actress tells the "new york daily news" their age difference and her hollywood lifestyle were to blame. >> and his bad playing. >> oh, come on. >> i'm a jets fan. i'm allowed. >> families expecting to see madagascar 3 at a theater in england got an unexpected fright when pair a normal activity 4 started playing. theater owners blame a technical error. one mom said the first two minutes which had a corps flung at the camera it scarred her kids for life. >> it comes up. one to two minutes, you wonder how many people ran for the exits, cover their eyes. >> i couldn't get through the previews. the poor kids. >> you are kind of a kid. >> i know. >> at heart. >> immature. if you missed the third and final presidential debate on monday, there's a new edited version of the contest that has gone viral.

it comes from the gregory brothers who added a little humor and auto tune to the foreign policy discussion. >> against china for violating trade rules. we are going to insist that china plays by the same rules ♪ ♪ they're hacking into our computers, counterfeiting our goods ♪ china is a potential partner ♪ ♪ we want to trade with them, but you need to play by the rules ♪ we need to get a turntable in here. can we auto tune. >> i'm not familiar with the term auto tune. >> what rock have you been under? >> i need a bouncing ball to translate. >> you need a vh 1 bubble. >> thank you. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station.

>> you are watching wbal tv 11. live. local. late-breaking. 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. >> good morning. another quiet start. another loudoun day to day. a few clouds but we do not expect trouble in the morning to meet. 57 at the airport. a 20% chance in for a light rain shower or sprinkle. most of you will not see any rain. partly cloudy with highs in the upper 70 tulsa. the average high temperature is 64. >> thank you. the time is 4:56. 57 degrees at the airport.

coming up, a busy overnight for baltimore city police. details on two shooting investigating. >> police look for a sexual assault suspect. the telmex. -- details are next. >> expanded gambling in maryland. but the message is and what the opposition is staying -- saying. >> a look at the area roads. we will update you on any problems

>> you are watching wbal tv 11. live. local. late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5 am. >> good morning. i'm mindy basara. >> and i'm ashkenazy acquisition corp. stan stovall. corp. stan stovall. - i'm