morning on "early today," super showdown. today, republican presidential candidates battle it out for 424 delegates in 11 states. major flare-up. the sun unleashes a powerful solar eruption. one of the largest observed in recent years. and all through the night. one of the world's most famous races grinds on. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello. good morning. i'm lynn berry. today, we begin with super tuesday. republicans in 11 states will make their select slun for a gop

presidential candidates in primaries and caucuses from coast-to-coast today. the stakes are high in ohio where the race between santorum and romney has been incredibly close. tracie potts join us from columbus. >> reporter: good morning, everyone. columbus is key. this is where they will eventually certify tonight's primaries from the results of ohio. ohio is a very important state because no republican has ever been elected without winning this state. so today's primary is a key proving ground for november. ♪ >> reporter: both top candidates mitt romney and rick santorum, spent their last full day of campaigning in ohio. >> we have been all over the state from a to z, all right? akron to zanesville. >> i just don't think the republicans have a viable candidate. >> reporter: romney insists he

is winning last-minute voters here. >> i keep hearing people tell me they were undecided and now they have decided to join with us. >> reporter: it's gut-check time! who wants it the most? what do you say? >> reporter: rick santorum has a two-point edge in ohio, a virtual tie. last night, he focuses on romney's flip-flop on contraception coverage. >> he will be the weakest candidate we could possibly put forward on the most important issue of today. >> reporter: santorum is also leading polls in tennessee. newt gingrich hopes to win delegates there and says romney must. he is running ads in super tuesday states promising $2.50 gas. >> the gingrich 250 plan stops the great gas holdup and puts money back in your pocket. >> reporter: ron paul is focused on today's caucus states, alaska, north dakota, and idaho.

so where are the candidates tonight? romney is at home in massachusetts. gingrich is at home in georgia. ron paul will be in north dakota and santorum will be right here in ohio. lynn? >> tracie potts for us in columbus, thanks very much. nbc news will have super super tuesday coverage tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern and 8:00 p.m. in the west on this nbc station. president obama and israeli's prime minister don't completely agree on how to handle the standoff on israeli's nuclear program. president obama wants to give sanctions more time to work. netanyahu speaking to the apec conference said israel can't afford to wait much longer emphasizing israel to attack that nation to prevent that nation from developing a nuclear weapon. on the floor yesterday, john

mccain called for u.s. air strikes against government troops in syria. mccain argued the u.s. has a moral and strategic obligation to force out syrian president bashar al sad and end his brutal cracown on the opposition that has killed more than 7,500 of assad's own people. mccain says the united states should have an effort to stop them from air strikes on assad's forces. here is a look at some of the other stories making news early today in america. in california, tensions ran high last night as dozens of protesters were arrested after refusing to leave the state capital rotunda. demonstrators were angry over budget cuts in the university system along with steep spikes in tuition. organizers said they gave protesters several chances to leave before moving in. in duluth, minnesota, a group of white supremacists

confronted on the steps of city hall. they planned to speak out again by a campaign launched by city groups but they didn't get their chance to speak. x-ray shows just how lucky a 3-year-old oregon girl was. she's is recovering after swallowing 37 tiny magnets. it took surgery to remove all of them. the toy magnets are known as bucky balls and only used by adults. yeah, bill knows. early beautiful scene as the iditarod dog sled race continues day and night. more than half of the competitors have competed more than 200 miles of mushing but still a long way to go before making it to gnome. some decided to keep pushing on instead of camping for the night at checkpoints. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is meteorologist bill karins with a look at the forecast.

>> feel they can do that in the great lakes and northeast this morning. feel like they could take the dogs out and mush. it's a cold morning. temperatures are about as chilly as they get for this time of year, especially areas that haven't had much of a winter. grab the hat and gloves and bundle the kids this morning. boston 6 this morning and 20s from minneapolis to chicago. it's going to get warmer in the days ahead. i think this is really it. this is probably the last really, really cold morning we are going to see. who knows. maybe of the winter season. 9 in albany and northern portions of vermont in the negative numbers this morning. snow brought snow yesterday to virginia and brought the winds back up through the north and a little tiny cold blast has come down. the good news it's only here for today. that's it. the warm-up is going to begin through middle of the country. snow in utah and mountainous areas of idaho and a tyny storm that will stay there. the big story is the huge warm-up. already 28 degrees we have warmed up in the last 24 hours

in kansas city. that is going to lead to the april warmth finally returning here to the middle of the country. in the east, sunshine after a cold that's a look at the national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. washington, d.c. after a chilly start, sunny today. atlanta, georgia, game for you. the southeast has a chilly morning. temperatures below average for many areas of the east will you this will be hit. tuesday through thursday, the warm-up begins. what a nice warm-up it's going to be, lynn. you know. you already peaked at the forecast. >> did you see my big smile? the last cold day of winter which is not even that cold. we'll take it. coming up, china wants to slow down. yahoo! waves layoffs and rush limbaugh continues to feel the heat. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. last week, you heard the baby rumors. wait until you hear the latest. coming up, sweet revenge for the bulls and a try owe of teams punch their tickets to the big dance.

you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back. i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. u.s. attorney general eric holder pointed to the circumstances behind the killing of american born al qaeda anwar awlaki. holder said the cleric who was killed five months ago in yemen was planning to kill americans and a terrorist threat. hundreds of people detained in moscow yesterday after vladimir putin's presidential election. putin won more than 63% of the vote on sunday. opposition groups claim there was props. 15-month-old tornado victim

angel babcock was buried next to her family yesterday. she was among the 40 people killed last week. england's prince harry is on the caribbean island of jamaica where he inspectored the defense force honor guard. it is part of his overseas tour of the jubilee of his grandmother queen elizabeth. a solar flare from the surface of the sun putting on an incredible light shoate. it sent an explosion of plasma and charged particles in space and toward planet earth. now here is an "early" look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. new doctors' guidelines say most americans and adults should get regularly screened for colon cancer between 50 and 75 but for people at higher risk because of a close relative that had the disease, doctors recommend starting screening at age 40. patients and doctors can choose between a colonoscopy or other tests, depending on the time between screenings.

for more information on this and other health stories, check out the health page at msnbc.com. now here is an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,962 after losing 14 points yesterday. the s&p was down five points. the nasdaq fell 25. taking a look at overseas trading this morning. in tokyo, the nikkei lost 60 points. while in hong kong, the hang seng lost a whopping 459. worries about economic growth is taking a toll on global markets. news that the world's second largest economy is looking to slow its growth for the first eight years, weighed on markets overseas again this morning. yesterday, materials and commodity stocks the biggest loser. caterpillar fell 2% and alcoa

tumbled and gold tumbled nearly 4. alpha resources dropped 6% as they added to growth concerns in china. a added to investors' caution sgied readings show the u.s. service sector expanded at a faster pace in february and factor orders declined less than expected last month. speculation about slowing ipad sales dragged apple shares 2% lower. apple is expected to launch the ipad 3 this week. reports of thousands of layoffs in the work at yahoo! weighed down shares of the struggling search engine. shares tumbled 8% for us airways. aol is one of two more companies to join the advertising exodus from rush limbaugh's conservative talk radio show. limbaugh has apologized for calling law student sandra

fluke, a, quote, slut op two radio stations have reportedly dropped his show. singer peter gabriel pulled his music from his show. coming up, the bulls get payback against the pacers. plus, an overtime thriller in a fierce west coast college basketball rivalry. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. now that we're at march, i'm willing to say this is probably the last cold morning we will see in areas of the east. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the oklahoma city thunder notched a 13-state home court victory last night after narrowly escaping the dallas mavericks. here is fred roggin with an early look at all of your sports headlines. good morning. if it seems like your favorite nba team is playing every night, you're probably right. teams are playing more back-to-back games because of the condensed schedule. dirk nowitzki called it brutal five games and six nights in oklahoma city we go. the world champs didn't want to begin their stretch like this.

russell westbrook and kevin durant too much for the cavs cavs. oklahoma city wins it. bulls didn't forget that game and exacted their revenge last night and outscored indiana by 20 in the third. chicago wins it. no secret the clippers the most improved team in the league but starting to look like the clippers of old and dropped five of their last eight. the timberwolves kevin love, played like a man among boys. 39 points. clips had a chance to tie the game two seconds left but chris paul missed a free throw. timberwolves win it. college hoops last year, cinderella heading back to the big dance and beat drexel in the championship game. dragons had a chance to tie but couldn't get the three to fall at the buzzer. b byu punching their ticket to the tournament. only one team could win the west coast conference.

final seconds. harris pulled up to tie the game and force overtime. st. mary's took the lead in the extra frame and won the wcc 78-74. overtime there? how about double overtime here? davidson and western carolina. wildcats up two with a minute left and earned an automatic bid to the tournament with a win in double o.t. >> that is your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. who is having babies? and who is angry are twitter? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, when it comes to losing weight, many are motivated by how they are going to look in their summer bathing suit, with you coming up, we will show you a group of folks in texas with a much less conventional weight loss motivator. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." very cold morning out there. especially areas of new england and northern great lakes. and even portions of the mid-atlantic. it's going to warm up with a good deal of sunshine today and hopefully this is it for the cold weather. a big warm-up in the middle of the nation but snow in areas of utah the next two days. tomorrow, we bring out more rain and maybe strorms into the central plains but no tornado outbreaks. just your garden variety rain and thunderstorms. if you're watching us on wnbcu-10 in pennsylvania, see flowers sculpted from glass at the liberty in bloom national museum. that is your "early today" event

of the today. here is an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. last week, it was pregnancy rumors. now, "people" reported snooki is having a baby and getting married. how about that, bill? snooki was seen out yesterday wearing a large diamond ring that reports boyfriend johnny picked on her himself. the host of "the bachelor" says he approached tim tebow about starring on the show and said the quarterback seemed interesting. now you've got something to say. former wwe superstar twaduane johnson also known as the rock has signed up to play herk lease. elizabeth berkeley is expecting her first child. miley cyrus is now calling on twitter to take steps against cyberbullying and monitor abuse. speaking of twitter after nick lachey announced live with kelly

monday he and the former vanessa were expecting their first child. >> that is going to be a good-looking kid is all i can say. >> that's true. from nbc 5 news in dallas/ft. worth a nearby flower mound, members of a church are turning not to divine intervention but twine intervention. the church has adopted a pig to go on a diet. for a pig, avery needed to shed some weight of her own. the pot belly is 100 pounds lighter but you can't really tell there and has moved her human friends to follow a diet program to help them lose weight. a collective 600 pounds so far. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. ♪

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the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. ♪ zip up the big kept and kaep your head dunn. a frigid, windy start it your cause morning. 4:28. aa your cause morning. 4:28. aim aaronaa i'm aaron gillcyst. >> i'm eun yang. by the end of the day the republican race for president could be more clear. there are more than 400 delegates up for grabs in 11 states including virginia. the prize is ohio. the buckeye state is the biggest single prize, 63 delegates up for grabs there.

it appears mitt romney and rick santorum in a showdown in ohio. the latest polls show a dead heat. santorum is campaigning largely on social issues while romney is focusing on the economy. >> other people in this race have debated about the economy. they've read about the economy. they've talked about it in subcommittee meetings, but i've been in it. i've worked in business. i understand what it takes to get a business successful and to thrive. i understand how it is government gets in the way. >> someone who's got a principled record. someone who's willing to go out and talk about all the issues that are confronting this country. all of the issues, not just how we're going to manage the economy better. this country is more than just the economy. >> rick santorum will not be eligible for at least nine of  ohio's delegates because his campaign did not meet filing requirements in some districts. mitt romney expected to cruise to an easy victory in virginia's presidential primary. that's because he and ron