today we begin with courting cain. now that herman cain's presidential campaign has collapsed, his one-time republican rivals are competing for his support. cain's camp denies reports he will back newt gingerich later today in what could be a big endorsement in an already volatile race. brian moore reports. >> reporter: herman cain won't be the next president, but he may have an opportunity to play kingmaker. >> i am not going to be silenced and i am not going away. >> reporter: the now former presidential hopeful says he will be endorsing one of his republican rivals in coming days. the iowa caucus is now less than a month away and the battle for his supporters are heating up. >> they saw herman cain as an outsider. >> politico.com reports cain is leaning towards newt gingerich.

gingerich already had a strong lead in iowa. 26%. well ahead of mitt romney and ron paul. and gingerich edges up to 28% with cain out of the picture. while cain is out, he says he still wants to be a voice. >> he might have a big impact, but, you know, you have to have the money and the campaign and the ability to get your voice out. >> reporter: cain's fall already reshaping the 2012 race for the white house. brian moore, nbc news, washington. as many as a dozen people are recuperating after rev alary turn theed into instructace at the football game between oklahoma state and its rival, the university of oklahoma. francis koe reports. >> reporter: on saturday, the rival football game between the university of oklahoma and oklahoma state turned into just that, bedlam. thousands of osu fans poured on

to the field to celebrate the win that guaranteed the cowboy tess big 12 championship. >> all the event staff tried to line up and stop us. there was no way they were going to. >> i've never been packed into one area and getting pushed and shoved and all over the place. people were so excite approximated. >> reporter: but it's all the excitement, as many as a dozen people were injured. one person fell over a wall, plunging 15 feet on to concrete. >> he wouldn't wake up. people were surrounding him and trying to get people off of him. >> reporter: the most seriously injured were air lifted to an oklahoma city hospital. while others, some suffering from broken bones were hauled away by ambulances. >> i was scared that this guy just died and i had a lot of things going through my head and i was terrified and kind of wanted to cry in the middle of all the excitement. >> reporter: revalry marched by a celebration gone out of control. in the nation's capital,

more than two dozen d.c. protesters were arrested after refusing to take down what u.s. park police called an unsafe wooden structure. >> a park, defiant protesters ignored a warning to dismantle the barn-like structure built without a permit. by sunday afternoon, officers on horseback had taped off the area. a total of 31 people were taken into custody, including six protesters who had to be removed with a cherry picker. now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. a historic massachusetts home older than the united states itself is in shambles after an out of control vehicle ripped right through it. the car crashed through a wall of the 258-year-old house before coming to a stop inside the living room. police say the driver will likely be charged. the home was built 23 years before the united states dethe clard independence. a florida highway was briefly transformed into a land

b strip. engine trouble forced a pilot to make an emergency landing on interstate 95. fortunately no injuries were reported. the pilot was able to guide the small plane in without collide, any vehicles. and tis the season for a good run. thousands of st. nicks hit the ground running for the santa hustle. each runner was given a hat, beard and t-shirt for the event. all the proceeds were dow noted to a homeless charity. a band of swashbuckling pirate im person ators showed off their prowess and acting skills at the national walk the plank national championship. competitors were judged on their pleas for mercy, plank walking style and costumes. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning. it looks like a lot of people are trying to live out their childhood fantasies there. >> that's where i was.

i was actually off all last week and that's what i was doing, walking the plank with the pirates. >> i thought i saw you. >> everyone on the east coast is wondering what's going on. northern new england is wondering where their snow is. all the cold air is locked up in the middle of the country. it's not a fun morning if you're in colorado or new mexico, even west texas. we have a ton of heavy rain this weekend that continues this morning through arkansas, tennessee, up through areas of kentucky. we're starting to see a changeover from some of that rain to snow in west texas. here is the setup. another mild morning for the eastern seaboard of i-95. another rainey morning for you from the mississippi valley, tennessee valley, up into the ohio valley. and then just bitterly cold air has escaped canada and rushing down through areas of colorado. as far as the rain/snow goes, here is the transition, from midland, you're cold enough for snow. abilene, you're getting snow. we have winter storm warnings

for many areas of new mexico and it's plenty cold in albuquerque where you're watching the snowflakes fly this morning. minus 6 in denver. everywhere in white is in the negative numbers. from the northern rockies to the northern plains, it feels like the milths of winter. but the rest of the east coast feels like late or middle fall. here is your forecast for today. notice the warm air. 60s in d.c. but that rainey weather from dallas, maybe even thunderstorms out ahead of it from houston and new orleans, arkansas is getting drenched along with tennessee and kentucky and that's where we're going to have some flooding issues. that's a look at your national forecast. now here is a look at the weather outside your window. today in new orleans, chance of a storm or two. still very unusuallily warm. new york city, 59 degrees. charlotte, north carolina, same for you at 59. look at pueblo, colorado, blowing snow and a cold 16 degrees. it's just been ridiculously warm

in some portions of the country. it's going to come to an end very soon. all eyes on europe this week, stocks to watch on wall street and even for italian politics, things are pretty confused. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, they're cute, they're cuddly and this weekend they fizzled at the box office. coming up, the bcs title game is set. tiger finally wins and a coach ices his own kicker. you're watching "early today."

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." here are some of your top headlines this morning. pentagon officials are denying claims by iran that it shot down a u.s. spy drone, which is now in possession of iran's armed forces. u.s. officials admit the military lost remote control of the drone as it flew a surveillance mission along the

iran/afghanistan border. newly released satellite images show an irany military base was nearly flattened three weeks ago. the accidental blast is a major setback for iran's most advanced long range missile program. russian voters have dealt vladimir putin's party a heavy blow by cutting its parliamentary majority in an election that indicates growing unease with his political domination. a former miss usa has been arrested on a drunken driving charge near detroit. an attorney for rima fakih whose reign ended in june says she'll take full responsibility and wants to apologize to everybody she let down. police in japan say a 14-car chain reaction crash smashed eight ferraris and three

lamborghinis. the luxury car officianods were traveling well beyond the speed limb. >> and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,019 after falling less than a point on friday. the s&p was down a fraction, but the nasdaq gapd just over one. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei gained just over 50 points. most traders can't remember the last time they saw a week like this one. the biggest single factor driving news this week will be events in europe. european and eu leaders will meet friday. wall street and the rest of the world hope a powerful plan emerges. wall street doesn't necessarily expect a new fully written treaty, but a firm blueprint come out of the summit is seen as a must. today, german chancellor angela merkel meets french

president nicholas sarkozy will meet in advance of the summit. representing american interests, u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner will be meeting with officials throughout europe ahead of the summit. thursday, the european central bank is widely expected to cut rates by 0.25%. back here at home, friday's job numbers were stellar. unemployment finally fell below the stub born 9% mark, dipping to 8.6%. watch western digital today. shares spiked friday on company expectations of better quarterly sales. keep an eye out for s.a.p. over the weekend, it announced its buying success factors for $3.4 billion, the latest move in an escalating rivalry between s.a.p. and oracle. finally, how confusing are things in italy? a canadian professor who left italy 28 years ago was mistakenly named next junior minister for agriculture.

who plays who for all the marbles in college basketball, a huge free agent deal in baseball and the packers are beaten. plus, for the first time in two years, tiger woods faces victory. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. we have a lot of rain and cold air in the middle of the country. where is that heading next? your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, it's not perfect, but until they think of something better, the bcs rankings decide who plays for college football's national championship. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. the final bcs rankings are out. lsu remains number one, taking on second ranked alabama in the bcs title game. oklahoma state, stanford and oregon round out the top five. the packers remain perfect, but the giants didn't go down without a fight. trailing by eight. under two minutes to play. manning gets the two-point conversion and the game was died. aaron rodgers drove the packers down the field. mason crosby nailed the game winner. packers improve to 12-0 with a 38-35 win. tim tebow did it again, rallied the broncos against the vieks, punched in a two-point conversion to tie the game in the fourth. tebow has doubters, but you

can't knock his record. he is 6-1 as a starter. broncos won it, 35-32. jason garrett iced his own kicker. he was worried the cowboys wouldn't get the play off in time so he called the time-out as dan bailey kicked a 49 yarder for a win. the field goal was wiped out. bailey had to do it all over again. you know what happened? he missed. on to overtime, steven hawkings caught the pass, zigzagged, there's the game winning score. arizona shocked dallas with a 19-13 win in over time. cam newton has another win to his record. panthers won it, 38-19. a quick baseball note, miami marlins have signed jose reyes to a monster six year $111 deal. reyes won the national batting title last year. finally, nearly two years after his life took a turn for

the worst, tiger woods finally won a tournament to beat zach johnson by a stroke. tiger's first win in 26 tournaments. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. who is doing super bowl's halftime show and who may be doing time for what they got caught doing this weekend? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, if you believe hard enough, santa can make all dreams come true, right? we have proof, coming up. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this monday morning. hope you had a wonderful weekend. a lot of active weather out there today. east coast, you're just fine, you're warm, you're mild. in the middle of the country, cold air plunging down from montana through new mexico and colorado. very warm in colorado. chilly in areas like kansas up through minneapolis today. rainey through dallas, houston, up through areas of kentucky, tennessee and into the ohio valley. as we look towards tomorrow, cold air continues in the middle of the country. all that rain will slowly slide to the east coast. if you're watching us on wxla tv news channel 8, beautiful tampa, florida, spend the evening admiring christmas trees, drinking crieder at the henry plant museum. that's your "early today" event of the day. of course they'll be wearing shorts, it's 80 degrees in tampa. you can get into the mood, anyway. now here's a look at this

morning's headlines in entertainment. it was quiet at the notoriously slow post thanksgiving box office, but much too quiet for one particular film. "the muppets" had been expected to finish on top, but it only managed $11 million and second place. that left the door wide open for the twilight saga, "breaking dawn part one" to remain the number one film for the third straight weekend with just under $17 million. elsewhere, it's official. madonna will perform at halftime in february's super bowl in indianapolis. brooke muller had a bad weekend. sheen's ex was arrested for assaulting a woman in a colorado bar and then police reportedly found cocaine in her purse. she posted an $11,000 bond. finally, last night, all washington showed up for the kennedy center honors. paying trip utah to meryl

streep. what a star-studded event. >> and all squeaky clean people, unlike most of the people we report on every morning for entertainment. and this comes to us from wpxi, pittsburgh, pennsylvania where one boy visited the expert on making christmas wishes come true. chris went to see santa claus about the number one gift on his christmas list. he asked for his father to come home from afghanistan. moments later, the 5-year-old got just what he wanted. >> santa is great. >> after nine months away, sergeant surbeck and his son had an unforgettable holiday to remember. >> he'll always remember that. >> definitely. this is "early today" just your first stop of the day on your nbc station. [ male announcer ] for andy, tracking his spending with citibank

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[ beep ] hi. dave here. [ male announcer ] for dave, using citibank's online bill pay is as easy as setting up voicemail. hi, it's dave. [ male announcer ] actually, it's easier. hi, it's dave. i'm out of the office. [ male announcer ] online bill pay. easier banking. standard at citibank. 4:28 is the time. 49 degrees in the nation's capital on this monday morning. good morning to you. i'm joe krebs >> and i'm eun yang. it is monday, december 25th, 2011. a heads up today for students and parents in charles county, maryland. thomas l. higdon elementary and

piccowaxen middle school are both closed. they have lost electricity. a tense standoff between occupy d.c. and police ends behind bars. this all starred over a 15-foot wood shelter protesters had built there. tracee wilkins is live down at mcpherson square now with the very latest. tracee, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, joe. things had been pretty quiet here with occupy d.c. that all changed yesterday. it's quiet again this morning. take a look behind my shoulder. you can see there's not much going on here now. here's what it looked like last night. this was the scene sunday night as park police pulled protesters off one by one from atop a wooden structure. they resurrected in the middle of mcpherson square. park police tied a rope around each of the protesters and then forced them inside a cherry picker. the confrontation between d.c. protesters and park police came shortly after security officials condemned the structure, deeming it unsafe.

protest leaders say they built the wooden structure for homeless people. by the end of sunday night, 15 people were charged with crossing a police line. 16 people were charged with disobeying an official order. half a dozen were taken off of the structure with a cherry picturer, including one of the protesters who was charged with urinating off of a structure, indecent exposure, and also resisting arrest. hear now from park police. >> park police and the national park service firmly support people's rights to assemble and to seek redress from their government. in this instance, it's a life safety issue, the structural integrity of the structure put up. >> reporter: the structure has been taken down at this time. as i said, it's really quiet here this morning now. there's definitely a higher police presence here. i'm tracee wilkins live in northwest. back to you in the studio. >> we'll continue to watch that all morning long. thank you. almost 4:31 w.