this morning on "early today," the race debate. a former u.s. president says much of the opposition barack obama faces is due to racism. on the mend. some welcomed news from the fed chief on where we stand in the battle against the recession. and bang up job. police in los angeles force an and bang up job. police in los angeles force an ending to a high-speed chase. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm christina brown. today we begin with carter's

contenti. the nation's already intense current political landscape is treading new ground this morning with charges from former president jimmy carter that much of the backlash against president obama is based on race. it comes amid confrontations over a proposed health care overhaul which has seen debate played out not only in congress but rallies and protests across the nation. carter discussed what he sees as a heightened climate of parental coinciding with the election of the nation's fist african-american president. >> i think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward president barack obama is based on the fact that he is a black man. that he's african-american. i live in the south and i've seen the south come a long way. and i've sen the rest of the

country share the south's attitude toward minority groups, particularly african-americans. that racism still exists. and i think it's a bubble up to the surface because of a belief among many white people, not just in the south but around the country, that african-americans are not qualified to lead this great country. it's an abominable circumstance and griefs me and concerns me deeply. >> continuing that point, the former president is also weighing in on congressman joe wilson, claiming his recent outbursdirected at the president was an act, quote, based on racism. the south carolina republican who yelled, you lie, during the president's address to congress last week, blamed the eruption on his heightened emotion over the health care debate.

president carter, said, it was rooted in fear office a black president. on tuesday, wilson was reprim d reprimanded by the house. the vote came largely along party lines, although the resolution signals a breach in the chamber's rules of conduct. it carries no formal penalty. in a development heightin the more grisly nature of carrying out the death penalty, ohio has issued a rare temporary reprieve for a death row inmate after complications arose during the actual process of his execution. 53-year-old broom was given a week long reprieve yesterday after officials struggled to find a usable vein for his lethal injection. the process took more than two hours with the inmate even trying to help. the state will likely attempt the execution again following his connection for the 1984 rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl. now here's a look at some other stories making news "early today" in america.

a police pursuit in los angeles ended in a series of collisions. take a look at these. after slowing the suspect with spike strips, police officers rammed their patrol cars into the stolen vehicle. sparks flew from the tires as the determined car jacker still tried to escape. police, however, final lly surrounded and arrested the suspect. ? florida, a young boy is very lucky to be alive after a terrifying burglary attempt. the 13-year-old awoke with the woman knocking on the door posing as his relative. fortunately, the boy had actually moved ay from then trance and was not hurt. the thieves, however, ran off after at shooting. five men were plucked from the ocean off the coast of florida. their 21-foot boat began taking on water. a coast guard team happened to be training nearby and fortunately was able to quickly rescue all five people on board.

elsewhere in florida, the pilot of a small plane couldn't catch his own flight. you see the man started the propeller by hand but then forgot to tie the plane down beforehand. guess, what it took off. the runaway crash traveled almost a mile before slamming into an airport building. the plane was totalled but fortunately no one was injured. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist raphael miranda with the weather channel forecast. good morning, raphael. even if he had good weather for the takeoff it didn't matter. >> didn't matter there. take a look at the satellite and radar picture. low pressure still anchored there. heavy rain a possibility. once again, watch out for flash flooding in the northeast. the big story a cooldown. a little bit of a fall scene out there. heavy rain in the southeast, arkansas, eastern tx, all the way across the gulf. watch out for strong thunderstorms later this

afternoon. in the northeast, a quiet start for your day. it will staal out just to the south of new york city. keep lots of clouds and a few showers in the forecast. not looking for a whole lot of heavy rain on 95 but grab your umbrella just in case. 58 in boston. 50s in detroit. we'll warm things up only into the 60s across new england. 60 your high in new york city with occasional showers. tallahassee, temperatures in the 80s. that's a look at your wednesday forecast. now here's a look at the weather where you live. in burlington, vermont, feeling that fall chill out there, 62 degrees with a mix of sun and clouds. lots of clouds, a shower in hartford. temperatures in the 60s. strong storms in the southeast, including ft. myers, florida, coming in with 91 degrees. back to you, christina. >> all right. thanks so much, raphael. g.e. jumps, alcoa zooms, and big ben says it's over.

your early morning sports headlines straight ahead. plus, it's one thing if lindsay lohan wants to party her life away but her choice for a wingman. cliff lee does it again and a rumble in the bronx. you're watching "early today."

good morning. and welcome back to "early today." i'm christina brown. and here are some of your top headlights this morning. vice president joe biden arrived to a visit in iraq. insurgents shot several mortars into the heavily fortified green zone, killing two people. biden was safe in an undisclosed location. admiral mike mullen said the war in afghanistan is procedural going to require additional troops and time. at a hearing on his nomination

to serve a second term as top military officer, he said more would be need indeed part because, quote, we very badly underresource afghanistan for the better part of four or five years. a new report shows a nasty feud between the fbi and the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives. the dispute is over both agenci agencies's jurisdiction claims and investigations of explosives incident. among the findings in the report obtained by the associated press, the two agencyings have been racing each other to crime scenes, failing to share information and refusing to train together. in china, passengers on a bus managed to safely keep before the vehicle burst into flames and rolled out of control down a highway in china. one police officer suffered minor injuries trying to stop that bus. now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines are msnbc.com. ever feel like certain foods made it hard to summon up your

will power? fat from certain foods such as ice cream and burgers heads straight to the brain. once there, the fat triggers the brain to send messages to the body to ignore appetite suppressing signals. for more information on this and other health stories, check out the health page at msnbc.com. and now he's an early look how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens 9,683 after climbing 56 points on tuesday. the s&p nudged up 3. and the nasdaq rose 10 points. taking a look at overseas trading in tokyo, the nikkei nudged up 53 points while in hong kong the hang seng leaped 536 points. wall street got an update on the state of the economy tuesday. for the most part, the news was good. perhaps the most reliable economic report of the day came from fed chief ben bernanke

speaking on the collapse of lehman brothers. he said the recession is, quote, very likely over. howeve he also warned the recession's greatest scar, unemployment for millions of americans will take some time to heal. new stock market highs for the year were fueled in part by surprising gain in august retail sales. the 2.7% jump beat expectations even factoring out car sales from the cash for clunkers program. but it wasn't all good news for the retail sector. best buy shares fell 5% after reporting disappointing quarterly profits. and the same was true of kroger. shares of the grocery chain were down 7% tuesday following quarterly profits below analysts's estimates. alcoa shot up 8% tuesday,

boosted by an increase in the producer price index that sparked a surge in the price of raw materials. g.e., the parent company of this network, got an analyst upgrade that sent shares 4% higher. adobe, the software maker, announced after the bell it will by omniture in a bid worth $8 billion. adobe fell 3% in after hours trading while shares of omniture jumped 25%. finally, one missouri man is saving a load on truck payments by driving one he made entirely from spare parts. the patchwork pickup has floorboards made of license plates and an old bed pan is now an air cleaner. his creation gets some strange looks but he says not having a car payment, well, it's worth it. walk-off winners, record-setting homers, and a complete game gem. plus, most bench-clearing brawls turn out harmless. this was not one of them. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. we've got a cooldown in the northeast and heavy rain continues in the south. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good wednesday morning. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm barbara harrison. straight ahead on "news4 today," the government continues sending out warnings about the swine flu. what they're now saying about a vaccine and how soon it will be available. >> cost-cutting measures in effect across the commonwealth. why drivers won't have access to along a major interstate. a new way to test how healthy you ar good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, everyone knows about the new york yankees/boston red sox rivalry. from the looks of next year's schedule major league baseball is banking on it.

here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. major league baseball announced the yankees will open and close next season against the red sox. the fifth time in the last 50 years the relatives will begin and end the season against each other. this morning the yanks and blue jays. big lead in the eighth. mark hit aaron hill in the back. then in the bottom of the inning, jessie carlton threw behind jorge posada. words were exchanged. cooler heads prevailed. that was until poe sad da scored on a routine double. there goes the neighborhood. both benches cleared. look at number 27. joe girardi, 44-year-old right in the middle of it. no real punches thrown. just a bunch of pushing and shoving. when it was all said and done, carlton had a lump on the side of his head. red sox and angels. m

matsuzaki pitched six scoreless innings. the angels were done in by a throwing error. justin pedroia laid it down. alex gonzalez scored. 1-0, sox. that's a new record. red sox pick up their sixth straight victory. 4 147b. 4-1. phillies and nationals. cliff lee has been on fire since joining the phils. 92-mile-per-hour fastball to end it. lee's sixth game of the year. phils head off the nationals, 5-0. dodgers and pirates needed extra. in the 13th, andre ethier ended it with one swing of the bat, walk-off homer. eelth ethier's sixth of the year. dodgers won in dramatic fashion. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. hear what's got jessica simpson singing the blues. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, what could be bad about an event involving truckloads of apple pie. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." we're dealing with some cooler temperatures across the northeast. yesterday we had temperatures close to 80 degrees in major cities. today we're stuck in the 60s. also dealing with the rain threat. mainly light showers in d.c. and new york city. temperatures there in the upper 60s. 61 for your high in boston.

across the southeast, the rain will be the big story today. also tomorrow you can see heavy thunderstorms in jacksonville, tallahassee. more 60s in the northeast. and if you're watching wwbt in nbc 12 in richmond, virginia, experience interactive illusions that baffle your brain at light visions eyesight to starlight at the science museum of virginia. and that's your eastern event of the day. christina. >> all right. thanks so much. now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. celebrity whining may see like it's at an all-time high. but in jessica simpson's case, it's hard not to sympathize a little bit. her country music career has tanked. her long-time boyfriend dallas cowboy quarterback tony romo broke up with her on her birthday. now simpson launched a twitter campaign to help locate her dog

daisy. it seems right before her eyes daisy was snatched away by a coyoty. okay. laugh at lindsay lohan's partying ways. now she's regularly bringing her 15-year-old sister ali along with her to los angeles nightclubs. in fact, one witness claimed, quote, both of them were smoking like chimneys and dancing around. well, not all celebrities are awful. at the premiere of his new film in toronto, ricky gervais praised jennifer garner as so inherently good she'll only say things like darn and dang when she's angry. garner's favorite swear word, according to him is rats. that's the worst, rats. >> i can do a lot worse than that, i think. good for her for some restraint. >> you and me both. well, this comes from topeka, kansas, where in nearby fort riley, volunteers are

turning apples into scholarships. for more than 25 years, people have pitched in for the annual apple day festival. hundreds work all week just to bake nearly 2,000 pies. that sounds good. 10,000 apples and 800 pounds of sugar go into these pies. what comes out, that's even sweeter. it's college scholarships. i guess you could actually call it as american as apple pie. now that sounds and tastes good. >> my mouth is watering just watching that. very good cause, too. >> apple pie, anyone? it's not too early to have a bite, right? >> bring on the ice cream. >> of course. that too. can't do without it. well, i'm christina brown, and this is "early today," just your first su good wednesday morning,

folks. it is september 16th, 2009. i'm craig melvin sitting in for joe krebs this morning. the u.s. capitol all ag glow out there in the early morning light. i'm barbara harrison. tom kierein is here to talk about the weather to start us off. good morning. a little patchy fog on this wednesday morning. a little more humid overnight. on radar we've had a few overnight showers that are lling to the east of us on the eastern shore near cambridge, getting light rain right now as well as northeastern maryland. over the last six hours, quite a bit of cloudiness moving through. it's going to be a mostly cloudy morning. we'll have our temperatures right now in the 60s near 70 through much of the morning. a little sun in and out. quite a bit of cloud dints. a small chance of a little light rain this afternoon. highs reaching the mid 70s. sunrise at 6:51. sunset at 7:14. more on the weekend forecast in

just a few minutes. we'll check traffic to see if there's any out there. >> jerry edwards just walked in. >> i've been here for hours. >> i'm kidding. good morning, jerry. >> doing great. good morning to you. good morning everyone. let's see how we're doing as wednesday morning gets under way. interstate 66 so far so good, from manassas all the way in. no hang-ups, near the 123 interchange doing all right. the wilson bridge was up for a while in the overnight hours. back down now. traffic moving along nicely. barbara and craig, back to you. take a look at some of the stop stories today. interstate drivers in virginia have one less place to pull over and stretch their legs. starting today the welcome center on i-66 in manassas will be closed, one of 19 centers slated to close over the next six years. v dot officials say the closures will save the commonwealth about $9 million. children's national medical center set to announce a major

pediatric initiative. the hospital is receiving a $150 million dation from the government of abu dhabi. one of the largest donations ever made to a u.s. pediatric hospital. full details at a news conference later. police have executed search warrants on the person of interest in the slaying of the yale university student, annie le. identified as a lab technician named raymond clark. police say the 24-year-old man worked in the same building where le's body was found. president obama has a busy day that begins with hosting a foreign dig tear at the white house, canadian president stephen harper. and next meeting with the olympic bid committee. here is something we talked about yesterday morning. the author of "the davinci code" has set his latest novel in the d.c. area, music to the ears of

d.c. tourist industry. >> local officials hope dan brown's new book will bring visitors to the city. >> reporter: a dream come true for d.c. tourism officials. one of the hottest novels of the year is set in the nation's capital. already copies of "the lost symbol" are flying off shelves. >> i love dan brown. i think he has interesting st e stories. >> i like to read books set in d.c. >> reporter: it stars robert lang den as its code-breaking hero. early action starts in the capitol rotunda under a patient of george washington as god-like. the founding father was also a mason, the world's largest fraternity. in the past characterized as steeped in secrecy. local masonic leaders say that's a myth, but they'll take their 15 minutes of fame. >> everyone i've been talking to has been finding it to be interesting. there are some chuckles going

on. and we're the flavor of the day at least for this week. by next week people will move on and go to something else. >> reporter: d.c. tourism officials hope readers of the book will move on and become visitors to the city, already set up a website telling fans of "the lost symbol" where they can find the local sites written about on a book, a way to cash in on a new waive of tourists. >> at the end of the day we'll have folks internationally and domestically wanting to come to washington, d.c. and experience some of the things they saw in the book or read in the book about washington. >> that was jane can watt tres reporting. tom kierein says he understands there's a part of the book where the streets of d.c. are empty because the redski are in the play-offs. clearly a work of fiction. >> stay with us. "news4 today" continues at 5:00 a.m. person of interest. the investigation continues into the brutal murder of a yal