[ cheers and applause ] this morning on "early today." senate stalemate. partisan skirmishes continue. coastal chaos. wild wind and massive waves batter scotland. and the fur flies. why an animal rights group is handing out the things they're why an animal rights group is handing out the things they're most against. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. today we begin with running out of time. what has begun an all-too familiar scene on capitol hill, republicans and democrats are deadlocked over key legislation.

this time if congress can't compromise on how to pay for payroll tax cuts that expire december 31st, tens of millions of americans will see smaller paychecks next year. nbc's brian mooar reports. >> reporter: a sharply divided senate shot down competing attempts at payroll tax cuts. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> reporter: republicans refused to raise taxes on millionaires. democrats wouldn't agree to slash federal jobs. and if congress doesn't extend the tax cut and unemployment insurance, president obama is threatening to keep lawmakers in town through the holidays. >> we are going to stay here as long as it takes to make sure that the american people's taxes don't go up on january 1st. >> reporter: the president is refusing to bow to republicans in the last big showdown of a politically toxic year. >> they think we should do a payroll tax but the question is, what price will they extract from the president in order to get it done? and i just want to make clear.

this is not about me. >> reporter: republicans are pressuring the president to sign off on building the keystone oil pipeline from canada. >> at a time when the american people are still asking the question, where are the jobs, i think this is a bipartisan proposal a president ought to endorse. >> reporter: before blocking the payroll tax cut bill, senate republicans held up the nomination of the president's choice to be a new financial watch dog for consumers. >> so, i just want to send a message to the senate. we are not giving up on this. we'll keep going at it. >> reporter: the president and republicans winding down this year the way they started it -- at odds. brian mooar, nbc news, washington. elsewhere, jon corzine, former ceo of mf global faced a house committee investigating one of the largest bankruptcies in u.s. history and gave the first public defense of his leadership in the failed company thursday. corzine, the one-time new jersey senator and the first former senator to be subpoenaed to testify before congress in over

100 years did offer questions and answers to all of those questions and never invoked his fifth amendment rights, despite the fact his testimony can be used against him in the future. corzine testified he doesn't know what happened to the missing customer money, didn't monitor movement of specific funds and blamed the firm's failure on bad decisions by his predecessor. well, overseas now where iran has released new video it claims is a high-tech u.s. drone that crashed last week. the video aired on iranian state tv and shows iranian military officials examining the alleged drone which appears surprisingly intact. it shows no damage and some experts, who noted a significant difference in the position of the drone's wings, believe it may be a mock-up. u.s. officials have acknowledged the loss of the advanced drone that was involved in a cia reconnaissance mission. the pentagon has, however, declined to comment on the iranian video.

a community is still healing from the single deadliest shooting rampage in u.s. history. now police in virginia are investigating a tragedy near virginia tech campus that left two dead yesterday. the university said it was just after noon yesterday when derek krous pulled over a driver in a campus parking lot. witnesses told police another man walked up and shot the officer, then ran toward a nearby building. by the time police found him, the gunman had apparently shot himself to death. the officer and father of five did not survive. difficult story there. well, now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. a store clerk and customer lived through a terrifying ordeal inside a florida gas station. three masked robbery suspects entered waving guns and demanding money. the suspects held guns to the heads of robbery victims throughout. the crooks escaped on foot after emptying the cash register. no arrests have been made.

a massive beehive have residents in one florida community have resident feeling like prisoners in their own neighborhood. thousands of bees have taken up residence at a foreclosed property. neighbors are helpless since the city refuses to step in. although the dwelling is empty, officials say removing the beehive is the homeowners' responsibility. and finally, a fur coat giveaway in cincinnati is turning heads. that's because, listen to this, peta, people for the ethical treatment of animals, gave over 100 furs to homeless men and women. the animal rights group, most known for slashing paint on fur, decided to give donated animal coats to the needy. keeping with tradition, peta splattered white paint on the coats to remove their monetary value. here is nbc meteorologist bill karins with your weather channel forecast. that's an interesting idea. what are you going to do, throw them away? so you put them to good use.

>> it's wisntertime. if they're homeless and outside, anything to keep them warm. >> speaking of freezing -- >> that's the only story out there. we don't have any big snowstorms to deal with. but temperature are cold and it takes a little while for your body to get used to the colder air. it's moved to the south. pretty much covering the country. no big storms on the weather map. we have a little snow ahead of this little front moving through chicago and through the ohio valley. it's a very light, fluffy snow but very cold air coming down out of canada. bitterly cold air mass. the rest of the country is cool. up in the northern plains to the great lakes, that's where it's cold. the light on the map is light snow. chicago, by the way, this was your first snow reported this year. not this year, this winter season, i should say. it's very late in the year for that. but we're only going to get a quarter to half an inch at most. watch the sidewalk. lower michigan, northern indiana, eastern iowa, that's where the light, fluffy snow

fell. it's 9 right now in minneapolis. temperatures are cool everywhere else, as low as 38 in atlanta. 34 in dallas. denver at 16. you get the idea. it's a very chilly friday everywhere. we don't are a lot of troublesome travel weather even that light snow will be a big deal in the lower great lakes. today, 14 in minneapolis. one of the coldest spots in the country. that's a look at your national forecast. here's a look at the weather outside your window. well, from the northeast down through the areas in the southeast, decent warm-up after a chilly start. boston back up to 50 degrees. that won't last, though. colder air will arrive for the weekend. salt lake city today, 35 and sunny. getting ready for ski season out there. this weekend, as i mentioned, traveling, anyone to holiday parties, no issues. well, stocks tumble, unemployment improves and coke's secret formula comes out of hiding. sort of. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, she's sang about

kissing a girl but we'll ask you what girl she asked for a lock of hair. coming up, the deal that was, the deal that wasn't, and one washed up fan. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky was released on $250,000 bail thursday after spending a night in jail on new sexual abuse charges. in a statement sandusky's wife defended her husband saying the accusers are making up their story. a new government study says texting while driving continues to grow at an alarming rate. about half of american drives between 21 and 24 say they've typed messages or e-mailed while driving with many believing it's dangerous but only when others do it. nasa's inspector general

says the space agency has lost or misplaced more than 500 pieces of lunar rocks and other space samples since 1970. the report says nasa needs to keep better track of what it loans to researchers and museums. a culinary crisis is spreading in norway after the popularity of a fat, rich diet fad has eaten up the country's stockpiles of butter. we're serious. bad weather and poor harvest are also being blamed. butter is sold on norway's top auction website for roughly four times the normal asking price. just bizarre. and severe winds slam scotland thursday, closing bridges and schools, shutting down travel and leaving thousands without power. wind gusts of up to 150 miles per hour were recorded in one area. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,997 after skidding 198 points yesterday. the s&p sank 26 points. the nasdaq tumbled 52.

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, neat kay dropped 127 128 points while in hong kong the hang seng plunged 521. well, disappointing news out of europe's financial summit sent stocks into a nose dive thursday. shares fell early after the european central bank president said there was no plan for large-scale purchasing of european government bonds. recent remarks led markets to believe the bank would buy bonds if no one else did. the effects were immediate, both here and abroad. the yield on italy's ten-year bond soared half a percentage point. spain's ten year yield rose 0.3. before the closing bell, foreblow, germany rejected key measures to add power to the european bailout fund. the dollar and u.s. treasuries rose on a thift to safe assets. financials, which have thrived of late, were hit hardest. morgan stanley particularly exposed to europe tumbled.

jpmorgan chase slid the worse of any stock on the dow. euro anxiety had investors overlooking good news at home. unemployment claims dropped and wholesale companies increased inventory to expectation of stronger sales. on the downside, household wealth fell for a second straight quarter. mcdonald's, the dow's only gainer, rose on strong same story global revenue. costco fell on disappointing earnings. watch texas instruments today. after hours, ti cut quarterly outlook. wells fargo is paying $148 million to settle claims it overcharged on state and local government investments. and finally, coca-cola moved its secret formula for the first time since 1925, from a bank vault to a new exhibit at the company's downtown atlanta museum. but the 1886 formula itself remains hidden from view. so, you're out of luck there. coming up, albert says so long to st. louis.

the nba says no way. and a very embarrassing moment at baseball's winter meetings. plus, big ben takes a licking but comes back to lead the steelers to a victory. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and the weekend forecast is looking great. chillier than we'd like but overall no travel trouble. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, quite simply the los angeles angels spent more money in a day than any team has in the history of baseball. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. albert pujols made a decision and he's heading west. agreed to a ten year, $254 million deal with the angels. angels definitely the dark horse in the pujols race but when the marlins dropped out and cards offered him $220 million, the angels upped the ante to $254 and pujols couldn't turn that down. they also signed the best free agent pitcher on the market, lefty c.j. wilson, five years, $77.5 million to cap off a monster day in anaheim. nba lakers had a trade in place for the hornets' chris paul then commissioner stern stepped in and said, not so fast. the deal involved three teams, sending paul to lakers, gasol to

rockets and rockets would get lamar odom, skoe low and draft picks. after an uproar from nba owners, stern vetoed the deal. hornets are owned by the league. i'm sure we are not heard the last of them. no trade in the nfl but steelers did lose ben roethlisberger for a while. already playing with a broken thumb, now he left the game with a high ankle sprain. he called it the worst pain he'd ever felt. but in true roth business lerger style he rubbed dirt on it and returned in the second half. he threw two touchdowns. antonio brown here and he did the rest. 79 yards down the sideline. steelers won it 14-3, thanks to a gutsy performance by their quarterback. finally back to baseball where angels weren't the only ones making a big splash. keeping an eye to the right of the mlb tv set, a man took a spill into a reflecting pool. all we know is that his name is steve. i'm not sure what his friend are

calling him. perhaps scuba steve after this. thankfully he was just fine. just a little washed up. that's your early look at sports on "early today." have a great weekend. i'm fred roggin. >> i hate it when that happens. coming up, two new films at the box office this weekend. which one will finish on top? your early morning entertain mentd headlines are straight ahead. plus, it may look like your average middle school mascot but there's actually something very special about this one. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this friday morning to "eay today." let me take you through your weekend forecast. there's really no big rain storms or snowstorms to worry about. a decently mild day today for the east coast. all the cold air is bottled up here in the northern plains but then it's going to begin to escape and head to areas of the eastern seaboard. we'll do a slow warm-up. saturday, still very cold but by the time we get to sunday we'll get back to areas of freezing in chicago, minneapolis, all of the northern plains. if you're watching us on wtlv nbc 12 in jacksonville, florida, enjoy a charity event showcasing deliciously created gingerbread houses at gingerbread extravaganza. they smell so good at jacksonville historical society. >> love it. well, now here's an early look at this morning headlines in entertainment. there's a hodgepodge of hollywood heavy weights that will find themselves atop the box office chart this weekend.

despite truly awful reviews the star-studded ensemble comedy "new year's eve" is set to open with $20 million featuring sarah jessica parker, halle berry, ashton kutcher and even robert de niro. jonah hill brings r-rated comedy back to the box office in "the sitter" expected to take second in teen millions. katy perry who hosts this weekend's "snl" admits to be a little stalkerish to kristin wig. last time she was on snl she tweeted she wanted wig's hair and she sent her one tied up in a blue bow. finally, the color-matching company the pantone color institute announced thursday the shade of orange they're calling tangerine tango will be 2012's

top fashion color of the year. and fashionista bill will have to take note. >> tango -- >> you have one of those ties actually, ang orange -- >> i'm learning burnt sinea -- >> you learned that? i didn't think you were paying attention. this comes from local 6 in paducah, kentucky, a homecoming soldier added school spirit. sergeant returned from iraq early. his daughters had no clue so he and his wife devised a plan to break the news. dressed as a lion mascot he showed up at the school pep rally. he revealed himself and the girls, as you can imagine, were very excited, ran from the stands to welcome home their dad for the home days. very sweet there. congratulations to them. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. [ female announcer ] at verizonfios.com,

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4:28 is our time. it's 38 degrees outside. another winterlike day this morning. good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. >> i'm pat lawson muse siting in for eun yang on this friday, december 9th. and this morning on the news, the virginia tech community is once again coming together and coming to grips with another tragic shooting on cal pus. this time the victim was a campus police officer shot and killed during a routine traffic stop. investigators say a separate man who wasn't affiliated with the

stopped car was the gunman. he was found a short time later shot to death in a separate parking lot. it's still not clear if he killed himself or he had been wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the campus police officer. the virginia tech campus was locked down for hours yesterday as police made sure the gunman wasn't still on the loose. even after the lockdown, students say they are still shocked and unsettled by what happened. >> it's heart breaking. we're all just distraught about it all. we've had several encounters with the police officers, and they've always been polite and nice to us and try to help us. so when one of them goes down, it's really hard. >> final exams which were scheduled for today at virginia tech have been postponed. police have not released the name of the suspected gunman. >> we're learning more about the victim. his name is derek crouse, an army veteran and