this morning on "early today," enough is enough. president obama plans to go face to face with lawmakers to tell them exactly what he wants for health care. no surrender. firefighters make headway against a major california wildfire, but the beast continues to roar back. and what sarah wanted. scathing details are revealed about what plan former governor sarah palin had to deal with her about what plan former governor sarah palin had to deal with her daughter's pregnancy.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm christina brown. today we begin with spelling it out. for months, president obama has pushed for an overhaul of the nation's health care system while relying on congress to hammer out the details. but now with public support slipping and washington stuck in grid lock, the president is planning a major address to lay out exactly what he wants. nbc's steve handelsman reports. the summer health care fight has hammered the president's public approval down to about 50%. but barack obama is planning a september comeback. in his state of the union style speech to a joint session of congress on september 9th, the president's considering detailing what he wants in a health care bill. that's what critics called for. >> i think the president's ae'

introduction of the bill would trump everything. >> reporter: government insurance. last month he waffled. >> the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it. >> ready for health care reform? >> reporter: unions and others on the left warn democrats not to back down, that only a government insurance option can drive down private insurance prices. >> if you want to break the strangle hold, have a public auction so you can break 94% of control over the insurance market and actually make this a system that works for everybody. >> reporter: republicans say no way. >> i think as long as we can walk away from the public option we can have a reasonable debate about all these other issues. >> reporter: will president obama demand it? all eyes on him and the public insurance option next wednesday night. i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, washington. members of the late senator ted kennedy's family and his publisher are criticizing the

"new york times" this morning for publishing excerpts of the senator's memoirs ahead of the official publication date. set to hit store shelves later this month, true compass will finish just before kennedy's death. in it kennedy addresses his life in public service, including the achievements and struggles that define his legacy. chappaquiddick a horrible tragedy. he described a 1969 accident that killed a political campaign worker and many think ended his chances of ever becoming president. his personal battles with alcohol abuse and later against brain cancer. well, firefighters battling the raging blaze north of los angeles made modest progress yesterday, but they are not out of the woods yet. fire officials report they have contained 28% of the wildfire up from 22% on tuesday. the massive fire has already

charred nearly 219 square miles and destroyed 64 homes in its path. investigators searched for clues as to where the fire started more than a week ago. initial findings indicate that the blaze was started by somebody, but at this point they say it's unclear whether it was srpoe.ac purpose. now here's a look at some other stories making news "early today" in america. a tractor trailer erupted into flames on a bridge in alabama. the massive blazing gulfed the cab stopping traffic for hours on the interstate. sheicials say the fire started n the truck's brakes locked up and caused the tires to ignite. filming for a new television show made for a bizarre sight in colorado. a two-time big rig was hoisted up and dangled above a house. crews then dropped the house repeatedly onto the roof of the house. oducers were using the truck

to simulate the damage 19 inches of snow would cause. two daring brothers in ohio got a disappointing ego check from police. while illegally repelling down the face of a dam, one brother was stranded by the water. rescue crews used a harness. they were cited for criminal trespass. one major fish tale in michigan has given a 9-year-old major bragging rights. the young boy reeled in a 22 pound trout. it qualified him for the title of master angler. not bad for just a few years of fishing experience. >> now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning, bill. that fish is a third of the size of the boy. >> yeah. i didn't realize the lake trout can get that big. that's very, very impressive.

let's talk about how impressive it's been. everybody knows from ohio valley, mid atlantic to the northeast, this has been a splendid four to five-day period of weather. some of the best weather we've seen. in the southeast, i's been flies, but we have more clouds down there. we haven't had quite as clear skwis as in the north. we are seeing one problem area continuing florida. flood watches for jacksonville area. yesterday four inches of rain. we could see easily if we get more rain today ponding of wate and minor flooding. an area of low pressure in a front that stalled off the coast. not a lot of rain in many areas, just cloudy and murky. heaviest rain will be afternoon thunderstorms in daytona beach, melbourne, back over to tampa. temperatures this morning are mild. this afternoon it's going to feel like a late summer day. 70s and 80s many locations. really not many people need to bring their umbrella with them this morning.

that's your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. we're going to continue with sunshine in concord, new hampshire, 81. cincinnati, ohio, also 81. baltimore, sun and clouds along the virginia coastline, maryland, delaware. more clouds today than the last couple. christina, we'll take a look at what's left of tropical storm erica when i come back. >> thanks so much, bill. pfizer fouls up, bank stocks trip up and the price of gold shoots up. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, tv producers are giving her time to make a movie, but are they hoping the door slams shut behind her? brad penny cashes in, white sox rally, and theht a a lihtht onhe a.l.ild card. u're w watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm christina brown sdpmpt here are some of your top headlines this morning. nasa officials are monitoring a massive piece of space junk that is threatening to hit the international space station. as of last night, a debris, a piece of european rocket, was expected to pass within two miles of the orbiting outpost. astronauts probably won't have to dodge the junk or delay today's space walk. rescuers in indonesia are digging through rubble. so far the quake has killed at least 46 peoplend damaged thousands of buildings. convicted killer susan atkins will spend her last days in jail after being paroled in

jail wednesday. she admitted to stabbing sharon tate 40 years ago and is battling terminal brain cancer and actually slept through much of her hearing in california. lvi johnston, the father of sarah palin's grandchild, said at one point the former vice presidential candidate wanted to adopt his child to people would not know her then 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. johnston also claims palin resigned as alaska's governor to make money writing or as a tv host and she is not a hockey mom or an outdoors woman. now here's an early look how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens 9,280 after losing 29 points on wednesday. s&p fell 3 points, nasdaq dropped 1 point. taking a look at overseas trading, in tokyo, the nikkei fell 65 points, and in hong kong the hang seng lost 239 points.

the september slump continued on wednesday as investors remained cautious about the state of the economy, especially the job market. a private sector report on employment released yesterday showed job losses were down for august but not as much as wall street expected. the industry report is seen as the 2k3w069's official tally for numbers due out tomorrow. walmart kept up its recent trend to favorable economic reports. the labor department reported heightened worker productivity, paired with labor costs due to cost cutting and salary caps. s&p continued a fourth day of losses. suntrust slid 7% while regents financial fell 6%. if you've been thinking of it but haven't cashed in your old gold jewelry, now may be the best time.

gold futures to their highest level in three months. pc maker dell gave the nasdaq a boost. its stock was up 1% in wednesday's trading. wireless international jumped 7.5% on speculation at&t might be interested in acquiring its wireless services. pfizer, world's biggest drug maker agreed wednesday to plead guilty to a criminal charge relating to promotion of its now withdrawn pain medicine. the company will pay a record $2.3 billion to settle allegations it improperly marketed 13 other medicines. fally, one colorado man found a way to capitalize on the growing national debt. his creation is the big calculator. it boasts a 16-digit display, large muff to type out t entire national debt. well, red-h results from baseball's pennant races and a

player returns to the game after open heart surge. plus, the white sox took the twins up against the wall. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. the national weather is quiet on this thursday, but the summer heat continues in all areas of the west. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. on and i'm barbara rris ight d day," a murderst day,a murder s ru a" anhe t ri run and authorities nee .he lp help. what happened and how this man escaped police custody. >> plus, controversy is brewing surrounding the washington redskins. the shocking allegations and why thousands of fans were denied game tickets. >> and are you a parent and sick of changing dirty diapers? now there's a unique new

good morning. if yore just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, defending champions usually have their sights set on returning to the world series. but right now for tampa bay they're just focused on avoiding complete collapse. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. tampa bay rays have not been playing like the defending a.l. champs that they are. but not night they made up much needed ground in the a.l. carlos pena came to score the go-ahead run. evan longoria crushed a home run over the left field wall. rays beat the red sox 8-5. five games out of the wild card in the a.l. beckham made things interesting with a solo shot to cut the lead in half. sox down 2-1. nathan has only blown four.

back-to-back homers for chicago tied the game at two. that was it for nathan. ramirez lined a single to left. and he was safe. white sox rallied to beat the twins, 4-2. they say a penny is worthless but not this one. pitched eight scoreless innings against the phils. uribe provided the offense. san francisco won it 4-0. colorado also won. so the rockies remain one game up in the wild card. great story here. after moon made his return to baseball against the cubs after missing five months because of open heart surgery. knocked down the line drive. scrambleded. tossed to first to get the out. nice play. derrek lee put chicago up in the fourth with a two-run homer. cubs beat the astros, 2-0. check this out. double play from the

angels/mariners game. johnson grounder to second. bobble. flipped to ibar for one. good play all around. ibar with serious hang time but not enough. mariners won the game, 3-0. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. rumors run rampant over the breakup of a super band. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, talk about bucking the trend. we'll show you what might be the world's most unhealthy treat. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. we're going to continue to watch tropical storm ericy. it's a very disorganized system. it should be approaching the virgin islands in puerto rico the next 24 hours. this system is not in a very favorable environment to strengthen. it should remain a very weak storm, but will still provide heavy rain for the island areas. the moisture could work its way to the bahamas or florida but that shouldn't be anymore than five or six days from now. if you're watching nbc 4, of course our nation's capital, explore the hidden life ofants and why they are the best farmers, warriors and builders at the smithsonian national museum of natural history.

that's your eastern event of the day. now here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. katherine heigl won't have to worry about the long hours on the set of grey's anatomy nor a while. she's been granted a five-episode hiatus to shoot the romantic comedy, life as we know it. but heigl might want to be concerned about speculation that abc and gre ye's producers accommodated her hoping she would go away for good. madonna shattered her own 2006 world record taking in 408 million big ones and playing to more than 3.5 million fans at 85 shows. on the other hand, the rolling stones have not released a new album since 2005 and haven't toured since 2007. a spokeswoman insists the

68-year-old is still on board. well, police in virginia say chris brown's six months of ommunity labor, which is part of his sentence for assaulting ex-girlfriend rihanna will consist of removing graffiti, picking up trash, but also washing cars. well, this comes to us from kxas nbc 5 in dallas, ft. worth where one addition to this year's state fair is anything but heart healthy. a local resident will debut his recipe for fried butter. the cholesterol-spiking treat is made of seasoned butter slices apped in dough and deep fried. food judges apparently unconcerned about the example they're setting say, hey, fried butter is among eight dishes contending for best edible addition to the state fair. well, i'm christina brown. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day toda

our time right now is 4:54, we have 63 degrees outside. another beautiful fall-like day here in nation's capital. september the 3rd, 2009. good morning. welcome to "news 4 today." i'm joe krebs. >> and i'm barbara harrison. we have tom kierein with us right now to tell us what we can expect from our weather today. another chilly start. >> it is. in 40s again in 40s again in aununsinnd around washington, e snebybsars tubnid iurhe m and upper 50s. 63 now in washington, highs torerehing the upper 70s with som cinlo ts udnds out. partly cloudy nidfr ,ay, into the low 80s. nstleril voty humid. as we get io vabay l dor weekend, saturdayul d shobed be mostly sunny, highs-8id m0s. morninowlo ls.wsid0 6 partly cloudy on sunday nooshgs the low 80s. here aat lk oo l0abor day. shouldey ptlarlo cudy with highs near 80. looks like we'll stay dry through mid-week next week. so a really nice weather patt n pattern. i'm back with frequent updates

throughout the morning. >> okay. see new a few minutes. thank you, tom. >> let's get a first look at the roadways. here's jerry edwards and the news 4 traffic network. jerry? >> hi, jerry. good morning. >> good morning. and lots of overnight road work and some of it's still going on. american legion bridge, both directions, between the american legion bridge and river road. should be picking that up hopefully shortly. elsewhere, the wilson bridge we're doing okay. southeast and northeast off to an uneventful start. back to you. >> thank you, jerry. >> jerry, thanks very much. >> here's a look at some of the op stories happening today. on for a ader suspect who walked out of l h laococal hospital.al edhent twa ior fhe murder of or 63-year-old clarence rankin. silver pee w indn spring. dillon wasnt s tspring. dillon was shot in the leg ng nc ient and w nc at was stoeay ef lhehe p siceay he left the hospital befor tyhe were able to issue an arrest rrant. >> more than two months after his death, michael jackson will finally be laid to rest today.

a private burial service will be held at forest lawn memorial park in glendale, california. authorities have labeled jackson's death a homicide but no charges have been filed. >> firefighters battling that huge blaze north of los angeles are continuing to make progress this morning, but they still have a long way to go. containment of the so-called station fire is now 28%. so far, the fire has destroyed 64 homes and burned more than 200 square miles. >> well, the redskins take the field tonight for their final preseason game of the season. it's in florida against the jacksonville jaguars. it is the last chance for the young players to show the coaches what they have. the game begins at 7:30 right here on nbc 4. well, a georgia man is accused of slapping a toddler repeatedly in the face in a walmart store because she was crying. >> now that man is behind bars. paul crowley has the story. >> what would you do if a stranger came and touched you?

>> we will go get ou mommy and daddy and scream. >> reporter: like many parents, stephanie russell is teaching her children to be wary of strangers, but what if a stranger began slapping one of them right in front of her? >> i would be horrified. i don't know what i would do. but i would be terrified. >> reporter: that's exactly what 61-year-old roger svens is accused of doing to a perfect stranger's child. county police say he repeatly slapped a girl inside this walmart on monday, simply because the child was crying.y according to the police report, the child's mother says stevens told her, "if you don't shut that baby up, i will shut her up for you." she says he then grabbed her daughter and slapped her four or five times on the face until the child screamed. >> through testimony of the -- of the mother and also possible marks on the child, it was determined that there was enough probable cause to arrest the child. >> reporter: walmart security cameras apparently didn't catch the attack. the arresting officer says stevens admitted slapping the child and said he apologized to

the mother. but this mning a magistrate court judge ordered him kept in jail with no bond on a felony child cruelty charge. meanwhile, other mothers who shop at that walmart with their children were appalled. >> no, very disrespectful, for one. who are you? i don't even know you and you're trying to discipline my child? no, that is -- he deserves to be jail right where he's supposed to be. >> stevens has a dui conviction from ten years ago. he served one year probation. the county police say they haven't found anything else in his background that might help explain what happened with that child. >> stay with us, everyone. "news 4 today" begins right now at 5 clock a.m.