♪ this morning, on "early today," romney/huntsman tie. people cast their vote in today's republican presidential primary. and championship round. alabama's crimson tied shuts out louisiana state 21-0 for this year's college football title. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello. very good morning to you.

i'm veronica de la cruz. republicans are turning out for the first primary for the 2012 race for the white house after midnight in a tiny hamp village famed for casting the first primary votes in the nation. all nine residents showed up to cast their ballots and so far a time between republicans mitt romney and jon hunts san jose. we will find out if romney can fend off last attacks from his more conservative competitors. steve handelsman has more details. >> reporter: the night before the primary, romney rivaled ganged up to charge he got rich by killing jobs. >> mitt romney and them guys don't care who i am. >> reporter: backers of newt gingrich released a film alleging romney's capital profited by gutting companies and laying off workers. romney said some firings couldn't be helped. >> it breaks your heart to see people lose their jobs. i thought it was going to come

from the president and the democrats from left but instead coming from speaker gingrich. >> reporter: newt said better for romney to crumble before the nomination than after. >> i can stand the heat. now we will see if he has broad shoulders and he can stand the heat. >> reporter: attack number two came when romney called for private health care you can switch. >> i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. >> reporter: bad choice of words. jon huntsman pounced. >> governor romney enjoys firing people. i enjoy vaeticreating jobs. >> reporter: rick santorum, after nearly beating romney in iowa, he has failed to surge in new hampshire polls. ron paul is polling second but his supporters mainly want to spread the libertarian message. >> it's not about winning the republican nomination. >> reporter: romney is on track to do that. i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, manchester, new hampshire.

william daley is stepping down. the president said yesterday that daley wanted to return to his family in chicago after just one year on the job. after praising daley, the president named jack lu as his new chief of staff. he currently the white house budget director and has extensive relationship with congress. last night's bcs title game at the superdome in new orleans, here is nbc's fred roggin. >> good morning. alabama came into last night's bcs title game as the second ranked team in the nation laevent new orleans as national champs. with a combination of field goals and stifling defense, the crimson tied led from start to finish from lsu. tied a bowl record with five field goals and their defense did the rest. they shut out the tigers. alabama wins its second national title in three years. 21-0. we will have much more on the

bcs title game coming up in sports. for now, back to you. >> thank you very much, fred. here is a look at the stories making news early today in america. nothing stealthy about an atm heist inside a florida nail salon. a tree of robbery suspects broke in to use their car to smash in the door. they escaped with stolen property. no arrests have been made. security cameras are rolling at a new jersey store when a deer smashed through the glass doors of a goodwill store. after the animal regained its footing, quickly made an exit through the same way it came in. while most of the nation misses winter snowfall, cordova, alaska is buried under more than ten feet of the white stuff. officials have determined it a disaster area. the national guard has arrived to dig out homes and businesses. dozens of troops have a tough job ahead. 82 inches of snow fell in december and 56 inches have already accumulated in the first

eight days of january. yikes. now for a look at your national and region weather, here is meteorologist bill karins with a look at the forecast. we know alaska is cold and get snow. how unusual is this? >> they are having a brutal weather. three states in our country have more than average and everyone less. alaska and texas and "morning meeting" seeing a true winter and the rest of us happy to see a couple of snowflakes. here in the middle of winter, washington, d.c. and baltimore saw their first snowflakes of the winter season. i mean, that's just not something you hear about too on which. a couple of winters ago we got nailed down there with two or three feet of know. that was yesterday and didn't accumulate much. about a half-inch. the rainfall in houston yesterday, 40 rescues took place. this little band that you see here is a doppler estimated rainfall total the yellow and orange shows you 2 to 3 inches of rain through the downtown

southern side of houston and happened in about an hour. any time it rains that hard in houston you'll get flooded. mississippi coastline, a low. in between dallas and midland. midland, texas, yesterday, picked up 7 to 8 inches of snow and by their standards that is a big snowstorm. rain near appear leeb but the rain from wichita falls to the dallas area and downpoured around dallas/ft. worth. we like to get the rain like this in texas but don't want to see the flooding like yesterday in houston. today as our storm heads to the southeast on and off heavy rains in the forecast from lake charles and especially new orleans and any coastal areas of mississippi and alabama and backup to birmingham, montgomery and atlanta. then the rain will head to the east coast. that is a look at the forecast. washington, d.c. enjoy the nice

little warm trend. i really think this is one of the last significantly warm trends that is going to head through the ohio valley, great lakes and new england. much colder air coming this way as we go towards the upcoming weekend. kind of nice to talk about snow for once. it's been a while. >> no, it's not. we don't need to talk about snow. >> i like a little snow. >> i feel like we keep dodging a bullet. >> you buy the boots and the sled, you might as well use them, right? >> no. i'm a sunshine california girl. netflix flies and your early morning headlines are straight ahead. she suddenly is offered a part any actress would die for. coming up, the alabama crimson tide, our national champs. michael jordan got his number 23 from president obama? you're watching "early today."

very good morning to you. welcome back. i'm veronica de la cruz. here are your top headlines this morning. u.s. drug agents have gone going undercover in new mexico and helping laundry millions of dollars for a powerful drug trafficker they were targeting. "the new york times" said they worked with mexican authorities to smuggle cash and cocaine out of the country. a kosovo born man under arrest accused plotting terror attacks amp tampa, florida. they say sami osmakac calling the arrests bpaybacks for muslims. a man went in a cave and said they spent saturday night in the cave but no one has heard from them since. the obama administration has imposed a 20-year ban on mining.

a move to protect the national landmark of the grand canyon. a 3-year-old girl got quite a surprise to a trip to a zoo in new zealand. they were luckily separated by heavy glass but the little girl wasn't scared. she wants to go back to the zoo next month when she turns 4. too cute. now here is another look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc cocaine. nicotine may help tune up the brains of seniors suffering from mild memory loss. researchers found seniors considered a precursor to alzheimer's could boost their memory with a nicotine patch. for more information on this, check out the health page online at nbc.com.

now here is an early look at how wall street kicked off the day. dow opened at 12,392. the s&p was up two. nasdaq added two. taking a look at overseas trading this morning. tokyo, the nikkei up 31 points and hong kong, hang sang rose 138. stocks ended slightly higher in monday as investors waited on investors in europe. after the bell, alcoa beating revenue expectations despite lower prices. growing confidence is leading americans to take on more debt. november's consumer credit surged 10%. the biggest jump in a decade. google fell after motorola raising questions about google's acquisition of the company.

netfl n . inhibitex soared and others working on hepatitis c treatments followed. achillion rose 22%. brocade up. june fer slipped in late trade after cutting fourth quarter outlook. amazon.com will collect sales tax from indiana residents in 2014. what they call online retailers unfair price advantage. the "wall street journal" reports hosttess may apply for a chapter 11 bankruptcy.

a hotel was built in 360 hours and posted a video on youtube to prove it. president obama makes a surprising claim regarding basketball legend michael jordan. plus, more on the tide rolling and the humbling of the lsu tigers. your "early morning" sports headlines are straight ahead. after the amazing flooding rains in houston the system is heading to the southeast. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

a very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today" more on alabama's claim to being college football's top team in the nation. here is fred roggin with a look at your sports headlines irks as we told you earlier in the show, the alabama crimson tide dominated lsu to win the bcs title. off to new orleans. this a rematch of their game back in november. lsu won that one but this time all alabama. took an early lead on field goals. jeremy shelley hit three in the half and tied a bowl record with five in the game. tied at the break. alabama defense picked off jordan jefferson in the third. listen to this stat. the tigers offense crossed the 50 yard line just once the entire game and when they did, this happened on fourth and long.

the tide jefferson dominating performance by the nation's top ranked defense held lsu to 92 yards. a while looked like alabama would win on field goals but richardson ripped off a big run down the sideline 34 yards. only touchdown in the game and that sealed the victory. crimson tide rolled the tigers 21-0. second bcs title in three years. the dallas mavericks might not be playing like champs this season but honored like one yesterday at the white house. they celebrated first nba title with president obama. dick nowitzki gave the president a number 23 jersey. of course, the president is a bulls fan and joked where michael jordan got that number. >> i was 23 before jordan. >> you were? >> i was. he got the number from knee. he stole it. that's what happened. that is beautiful. >> that is your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. who is joining tv's late night comedy club and who says

he is not crazy any more? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. a brave boy gets to do something most little and big kids dream of. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this tuesday morning. forecast wise another umbrella day in many areas. dallas/ft. worth a cold chilly rain for you today. the thunderstorms will be out ahead of our storm system from

louisiana up through mississippi, alabama, and georgia. we're a little bit cooler in the northern plains but the cold air doesn't arrive until tomorrow and when we will see temperatures returning to winter-like. enjoy the mild air and heat while it lasts. if you're watching on wbla tv in maryland, swan fall, the beauty and grace. that is your "early today" event of the today. little did you know. >> speaking of weather, are you under the weather? you sound like you're getting sick. >> sounds a lot worse than it is. >> i hope you get better soon, bill. here is a look at the headlines in entertainment. russell brand do not include sitting at home feeling sorry for himself. he has signed to do a late night comedy on fx set to start later this year. he has a history are broadcast humor. he was forced to resign as a bbc radio host after making nasty prank phone calls. another host of fx show,

charlie sheen said he is not crazy any more. sheen passed off last year's torpedo truth period as an episode insisting he is a different person and now he says everything is a lot more mellow and focused and more rooted in reality. unable to land a film role even to play a porn star, reports say she is in early negotiations to play elizabeth taylor in a lifetime tv movie chronicling her relationship with richard burton whom she was married to twice. taylor died last year at the age of 79. she is now rolling in her grave. >> comeback, huh? maybe she will do a great job. >> you think so? lindsay lohan? >> who knows. charlie sheen is not crazy any more, breaking news. didn't you hear that? >> really? i didn't know that. wow.

>> whoa! >> different people have different opinion on that. >> you were just caught red-handed. i'll move on. come channel 3 in cleveland, one boy was guaranteed to have an absolute blast making his dreams come true. michael has battled nerve tissue cancer the past two years and the 7-year-old had one request when the make a wish foundation came calling. he wanted to blow up a building. this weekend, michael did just that. he pushed the button to implode an old grain mill and, in the process, lived out one of every little boy's fantasies and big boys, too. >> yeah, i'd want to do it. >> i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "early today" your first stop of the day on your nbc station.

4:28 is your time. 33 degrees. foggy out there. hard to see what's out in the nation's capital, but a chilly story. good morning to you, i'm eun yang. >> i'm angie goff in for joe krebs. welcome to "news4 today" on this tuesday, january 10. in the news, it's primary day in new hampshire. while polls open in less than two hours, the first votes have already been cast. the nine residents of the tiny village of dixville notch gathered just after midnight to fill out the first ballots. mitt romney and jon huntsman

tied with two votes each, followed by newt gingrich and ron paul receiving a vote apiece. president obama got three votes. the tiny town is known for predicting the gop nominee, but as this year's results show, republicans are still very much divided. and that division may be in part due to the attacks front-runner mitt romney is weathering from his more conservative rivals. romney has been pushing a job creation plan. fellow candidates say the former governor got rich by killing jobs. they cite bane capital, the investment firm romney founded, which they say profited by buying up companies and laying off workers. rivals pounced when romney used a bad choice of words to decide private health care people can switch. >> i like providing jobs to people -- >> governor romney enjoys firing people. i enjoy creating jobs. >> i can stand the heat. we'll see if he has broad shoulders and if he can stand the heat.