this morning on "early today" -- urban discord. things heat up as some cities begin cracking down on occupy protesters. gadhafi's coup? a new report surfaces from libya with an alleged plot to overthrow the iraqi government. and there she blows. crews purposely blast a hole in and there she blows. crews purposely blast a hole in a nearly century-old dam. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with coast to coast chaos. recent flair ups between police and protesters hint cities

affected by the nationwide movement may have run out of patience with the protest. to new york last night, occupy wall street protesters marching in lower manhattan were met with police force and barricades after they broke off into groups and held up traffic. at least ten people were arrested. the new york protests say that they're marching in solidarity with marchers in oakland where protests turnt violent. jay gray has more. >> reporter: as the thick smoke of tear gas fills the night sky, it's clear tempers and tension surrounding the national occupy movement are growing. >> all we're trying to say, it's our right, freedom of speech. >> reporter: but after a series of arrests over the last couple of days in oakland, atlanta, albuquerque and other cities, police say the issue isn't freedom of speech. >> the decision to move was based on public health and safety due to defecation, fire

hazards, sexual assault incidents, violent behavior and denial of access of medical aid. >> reporter: but many of the protesters say seeing dozens taken away in shackles only renews their dedication to the movement. >> we're not going to back down. >> the only thing he we have to do is continue to march. that's all we can do to continue to change things. if we keep running away, nothing's going to happen. >> reporter: those on both sides agree. a lot's been happening. protest sites across the country over the last few days. jay gray, nbc news. elsewhere in washington, the divide between a bipartisan super committee charged with tackling the nation's soaring deficit looks mild in comparison to the occupy protests but simmering tensions could boil over if the two sides fail to agree before a thanksgiving deadline. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more on that and the president's latest plan to boost the economy. good morning.

>> reporter: lynn, good morning. good morning, everyone. part of the president's we can't wait agenda, as he's been on the road, is lowering payments for student debt and in denver yesterday he talked about his own personal experience, $120,000 that he and his wife owed after law school. he says it took them ten years of multiple monthly payments to pay it off while they were trying to save for college for the girls. what the president wants to do is speed up a cap on those payments to next year, 10% of your discretionary income, and allow borrowers to consolidate. meanwhile here on capitol hill, the deficit super committee seems to be at a standstill. aides say democrats want a plan that would cut double or more what they're supposed to be cutting, perhaps up to $3 trillion off the deficit, with health cuts, retirement cuts, new taxes. republicans have an alternate plan. they do not want new taxes. they say the democrats' plan is

unacceptable. lynn? >> tracie potts for us in washington, thanks. and now here's a look at some other stories making news "early today" in america. 700 pounds of dynamite ripped a hole through the condit dam shooting water and wildlife from northwestern lake toward the columbian river. the blast is the first step toward demolishing the 125-foot tall dam, which will lead to the creation of several miles of new habitat for fish up river. wednesday morning traffic was far from a treat for michigan drivers who were forced to drive through the muck after a truckload of pumpkins fell onto a busy stretch of highway. the truck accidentally spilled hundreds of pumpkins causing that messy commute. luckily, no one there was are injured. a unique homecoming took place in the water off california. they released a young female great white shark back into the wild. it's all part of a project where sharks spend months in captivity

before being released into the ocean where researchers can then monitor their behavior through a tracking device for over 180 days. and finally, a south dakota teen may have to do a little extra to get her license. after she plowed through the dmv office. the teen drove to the facility to take a written test but wound up taking a crash course when she mistakenly hit the gas instead of the brake. luckily, no one there was injured. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. bill, shouldn't you have to take the written test driving or take the -- >> you would think. >> she was driving to the -- >> did you pass your -- >> i d i did. >> you're proud of that. >> oh, yeah. started practicing a little early. good morning, everyone. yesterday we talked about the snow in colorado was the big weather story of the day. didn't disappoint. in the denver area we had a beautiful scene of about 3 to 6 inches of snow. beautiful if you're looking tat

from the helicopter shooting down. the leaves still on the trees made for a pretty scene. unfortunately, 140,000 people in colorado at one point were without power. the highest totals were up by golden, colorado, where we had up to a foot. it will meltly. but not this morning. it's 16 this morning in denver. very cold temperatures here where it snowed yesterday. some of that cold air will spill to the south today. we have a lot of rain on the map. umbrella day in much of new england, the mid-atlantic, down through the southern ohio valley, kentucky's going to get wet weather this morning and a lot of wet weather back here in oklahoma and in north texas. you can see all the yellow on this map. even some lightning indicated here on our radar through oklahoma right now. i mean, this is good. this is an area under a horrible drought but the cold air is spilling in behind it, too. notice snow out of amarillo toward albuquerque. the other rainy spot, kentucky through the new england. a lot of light rain out there this morning. bring the umbrellas from d.c. to philly to new york all the way through new england.

the dry spots today are going to be the southeast and it looks like the northern plains. denver, 42. just a little snow melt today. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. today in areas like milwaukee, showers out there. for the most part, we're going to watch the wet weather way from your area. washington, d.c., a beautiful day yesterday. temperatures will cool off today with some of that rain moving in and also the clouds. we are going to get a little snow tonight in new england, high elevations, maybe an inch or two but nothing for the cities. europe has a plan. research in motion has a problem. and something new you'll be seeing on your supermarket shelves. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, she's taken a lot of heat for attending the birthday party of an alleged war criminal. just wait until you hear how much she was paid to be there. coming up, could game six of the world series be rained out again. who let the dogs out? you're watching "early today." >.

welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. "the new york times" reports secret intelligence documents discovered by rebel fighters in libya link ousted leader moammar gadhafi to a plot by former members of saddam hussein baath party to overthrow the iraqi government. more than 200 iraqi suspects were arrested this week in connection with the alleged plot. the u.n. security council is set to vote on a resolution that would end u.n. authorization of nato's military operation in libya. yesterday nato postponed its decision on whether to leave the country after libya's interim leader expressed concerns over his government's ability to secure its borders. trying to tackle the same budget issues, now california governor jerry brown is proposing sweeping roll back to

public pension benefits. the plan calls for raising retirement age to 67 and requiring some employees to pay more toward retirement and health care. michael jackson's doctor, conrad murray, was moved to tears wednesday when fine former patients defended him in court, calling him a caring and thorough physician. and ruth madoff, wife of convict the ponzi schemer bernie madoff, says she and her husband tried to commit suicide after she was caught. she tells "60 minutes" despite swallowing sleeping pills and antianxiety drugs, they woke up the next morning. here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,869 after rising 162 points yesterday. the s&p gained 12 points. the nasdaq was up 12 points. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei jumped 178 points while in hong kong the hang seng zoomed 622.

well, literally took until the middle of the night but european officials meeting on the region's debt crisis in brussels finally are a plan. it strengthens the continent's rescue fund. reports say china will be a major investor. the region's banks will take a 50% loss on the face value of their greek debt. those banks will also be forced to raise cash holdings for emergencies. and italy, europe's teet heing too big to fail economy alerted the summit it will pass tough austerity and growth measures by november 15th. leaks of summit developments as well as economic data moved stocks steadily higher wednesday. demand for durable goods rose at the fastest pace in six months. new home sales were the strongest in five months. financials, including jpmorgan chase and u.s. bank corp led the way. nasdaq gains were held down by amazon.com slumping 12% after

its disappointing late tuesday forecast. boeing led the dow posting a larger than expected profit and raising its full year forecast. corning rose after beating earnings and revenue expectations. after the bell, visa was down after posting slower revenue due to higher costs. elsewhere, research in motion has been hit with class-action lawsuits in canada and the u.s. for the days' long service outage on blackberry devices earlier this month. in a close vote, the united autoworkers ratified a four-year labor pact with chrysler. finally, 1.4 billion white coke cans features the image of a mother polar bear and cubs will hit store shelves november 1st to draw attention to a campaign to protect polar bears and their habitats. the series gets soggy. big east college football. on the ice, the flyers clash with canadiens. plus, canine comedy on the

pitch in cocolombia. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and after our incredible snowstorm in colorado, that storm system has to move across the deep south. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this

is "early today." and in sports, as feared, mother nature was the only winner last night in st. louis. so, the cardinals and the texas rangers will try once again tonight to play game six of the world series. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. as expected, game six for the world series rained out yesterday. there was more wet weather on the horizon but it's expected to be dry and chilly. 50 degrees come game time tonight. which team benefits the most from an extra day off? the rangers' josh hamilton will take the time to nurse an ailing groin that's hampered him all series. on the cardinals side it gives their bull pen a chance to refocus. asking the managers, rescheduling game six doesn't mean a thing. >> at this time of the year, you get an extra day, doesn't mean a thing. >> so we just give them another day. to rest. so, it's not going to affect us one way or the other, really. we still have to go out and play good baseball.

>> game six is tonight. first pitch at 8 p.m. eastern. if the cards win, game seven will be tomorrow. no baseball in st. louis but plenty of hockey. blues gave canucks more than they could handle beating the western conference champs 3 high 0. canadiens got off to a rough start. scored five unanswered goals against the flyers. max in the right spot score aid couple of rebound goals. 5-1. pitt and uconn, this would be a marquee match-up. it was a basketball game. instead we'll settle for football. tino sunseri did it all. colombia did it all, who let the dog out? stopped play for five minutes. players, referee and security tried to corral the canine but no such luck. then again, you can't use your hands in soccer.

that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. bruce willis' latest action adventure and a supermodel's super baby diet. plus, some of us are clumsy, some are fast. how is your thumb speed? in a moment, the best of the best. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this thursday morning. good news from the tropics. rina has significantly weakened and no longer appears any significant damage will be done in cancun. going to have rainy, windy weather. that will probably be the worst of it. in south florida you're completely safe from that storm also. rainy weather today up through new england, kentucky, also rain from dallas up to oklahoma city. tomorrow, the wet weather for the most part will be down there in the southeast. atlanta will see a cool, rainy day. if you're watching us on wtvj in miami, florida, see charming keepsakes collected from over a century from the sunshine state in caribbean. souvenir maps and plates at history miami. that's your "early today" event of the day. >> thanks so much. and now here's an early look at this morning's headline in entertainment. sadly, the legal term for amy winehouse's cause of death may also have summed up the singer's too short life. death by misadventure. a coroner in london ruled

wednesday the singer died from acute alcohol poisoning, vodka, to be exact, when she resumed drinking after weeks of absi nens. on a lighter and happier note, bruce willis and wife emma hemming are expected. it will be their first child together. willis has three grown children with ex-wife demi moore. hilary swank's appearance at chechnya's president drew criticism and an apology from swank. radaronline revealed she was paid $1.5 million to attend. gisele bundchen watches what she eats, as you can see, and she got her 22-month-old son benjamin trained to think healthy from the start. she tells december issue of british "vogue," quote, when benjamin eats broccoli, he thinks it's dessert. we get if.

>> chicken and broccoli from the chinese place with grease on it. that's about it. >> we get it, you're perfect. you're a perfect mother. you look perfect. come on. come on. poor kid. when he actually has a piece of candy. and this comes to us from wnbc 4 new york in new york city where contestants let their thumbs do the talking to be crowned america's top textsters. 12 speedsters battled it out at the texting championship. the senior citizen was 22 years old. contestants faced off with various distractions and challenges, including blindfolds. a wisconsin 16-year-old's speed and accuracy won him the title and a cool 50 grand. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

4:28 is the time right now. we have 60 degrees here in the nation's capital. some rain around the region. a little drizzle overnight. good morning to you. >> welcome to news 4 today for this thursday, october 27th, 2011. new from overnight, prince georges county police are investigating a shooting near a liquor store. it happened around 11:15 last night in the 13700 block of brand brandiewine road. a man was shot. he is in stable condition but police have not relaced any

information on a possible suspect. we'll bring you updates as soon as they're available. also overnight, police are investigati investigating two men wearing masks and armed with a gun robbed a man before running into the direction of the elementary school. anyone with information is asked to call the d.c. police. right now, police in octoberland are keeping occupy wall street protesters outside of city hall. the city has decided to allow the protesters back into the plaza, but they will not but allowed to spend the time. police raided the encampment on tuesday. a iraq war veteran was critically injured in that demonstration when something hit him in the head. last night, occupy wall street demonstrators marched in washington. at one point,