look, i'm never, ever going to tell people not to take a profit, especially after fedex cuts its profit forecast tonight. makes a passionate case for her husband's second term. crash course. a car slams into a restaurant on its very first day of business. and out of this world. nasa gives kids a chance to name a piece of cosmic history. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning i'm lynn berry. and today we begin with cheerleader in chief. at the democratic national convention in charlotte last night first lady michelle obama

delivered an impassioned speech designed to both sway wavering voters and light a fighter under the party's base. nbc's tracie potts joins us live from charlotte. she has more on this. good morning to you. >> lynn, good morning to you. a bit of backstory. aides say the ideas she talked about last night were her own, that she knew exactly what she wanted to say in this speech. it was a fiery kick-off to this convention, and there's more to come tonight. democrats bring in their heavyweight tonight, former president bill clinton, the only person more popular in a recent gallup poll, michelle obama. she brought democrats to their feet last night with a rousing speech about decisions based on family values. >> in the end, for barack, these issues aren't political. they're personal because barack knows what it means when a

family struggles. >> a message aimed at women. >> he believes that women are more capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care. he didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically, no. that's not how he was raised. he cared that it was the right thing to do. >> not once did she mention mitt romney, but plenty of others did. >> so here's what we're going to say to mitt romney in november. we're going to say no! >> if mitt was santa claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves. >> the woman who fought to make sure women don't earn nearly a quarter less than men. >> maybe 23 cents doesn't sound like a lot to someone with a swift bank account, a cayman island advancement. >> romney under attack as democrats prepare to nominate their president today. now, critics say that this first

day of the democrats' convention focused mostly on social issues, thoeft you just heard about, and not what the poll show voters care most about, the economy and the national debt. lynn? >> tracie potts for us in charlotte. trac tracie, thank you. ahead of last night's convention a new abc/"washington post" poll shows his popularity is at a new low. 40% have a favorable view of the president. that's down 7%. with 49% viewing the president unfavorably, it's first time his popularity has dipped in negative territory since february. that same poll showed 43% with a favorable view toward gop presidential nominee mitt romney up 5% since last week's republican cob vengs. elsewhere "the new york times" is reporting iraq is supplying equipment. those arms are being delivered

in planes flying over iraqi air b.a.s.e. they pressured them to not allow flights but they did resume in july. border grounds are controlled by syrian rebels. despite its claim iraq and the u.s. have a strategic partnership iraq's tolerance of iran using their airspace starkly points out the limits of their limits there. vice president biden made a phone call to discuss the syrian crisis and a source told the times mr. biden registered concern over the iranian flights. >> well, now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in there surveillance video shows a car plowing into a restaurant after it was accidentally put in reverse. the good news, nobody was inside at the time, and the two people in the car only suffered minor injuries. the bad news, it happened just a half an hour before that restaurant was going to open for

its first day of business. bad luck there. well, in massachusetts, more car trouble. an elderly driver was backing into his garage when he hit the gas instead of the break and it landed him right in his next door-neighbor's pool after crashing through the fence. he is said to be okay. in ohio a fast-footed black bear stayed one step ahead of police and firefighters after wandering into an apartment complex. authorities tried everything they could think of to bag the bear, including blasting a water hose, but nothing worked until the bear finally took off on its own and escaped. and finally in massachusetts it's never hard to find a good bowl of seafood stew, but probably not like this one. students at the university of massachusetts cooked up a guinness record for the word's largest batch. more than 6,500 pounds of seafood, bacon, potatoes and vegetables helped put the stew

and the students over the top. and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins. he has your weather channel forecast. you know what we call that in massachusetts, bill. >> breakfast. >> chowder. >> bacon, huh? they throw bacon on everything. >> bacon is delicious. why wouldn't we, especially pounds and pounds of it. >> yes, with seafood. never had that before. well, good morning, everyone. humidity is just oppressive in areas of the etern half of the country and high humidity today is going to yield a good chance of showers and thunderstorms in many areas out there, so keep that in mind. i just wanted to show you the forecast map for today because you literally from kansas city to chicago, everywhere to the east the humidity is so high we're going to watch a chance for those storms. we're watching dew points in the 750s. it measures the amount of moisture in the air. 70s is oppressive. 60s is uncomfortable.

the dew point in new orleans is ridiculous. downpours are now heading for boston over the next two hours. we had numerous strong thunderstorms last night and now we're dealing with strong storms in cedar rapids. once again you could deal with periods of heavy rain throughout the morning. we had a little bit of rain down here near oklahoma, just outside oklahoma city. oklahoma is one of the driest states out there in the entire country right now. finally tropical storm leslie is continuing to spin to bermuda. everyone on the east coast, becareful at the beaches. large waves and rip currents. but the surfers, they love it. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. we mentioned the forecast map at the top. just even has a chance of showers and storms including the democratic national convention there in charlotte. last night a pretty good thunderstorm dumped about an inch of rain. they could have something simpler later on today. well, uncomfortable to say the least. bad hair day. bad hair day weather.

>> so i heard when folks got in this morning. everyone complained. well, bill, thank so much. big buzz over apple, facebook falls once again, and something very hard to picture, a vegetarian mcdonald's. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead, plus miley cyrus finds another way to say i'm no longer a kid star. i'm a grown-up. coming up, a new number one in college football, the chase in the a.l. east is over, and andy roddick is all wet. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. the department of defense says a book by a former navy s.e.a.l. does contain classified information about the mission that killed osama bin laden, but the pentagon is still considering whether criminal charges will be filed against the author. in canada, a gunman was arrested after allegedly firing

shots that killed one person at a political victory rally. it happened at a separatist party in quebec returned to party after nine years. the party's leader will become the first woman premier of quebec. and in brazil, a fire in a slum in sal pal lowe destroyed nearly 200 shanties leaving nearly a thousand people homeless. four people were burned, but there were no deaths. a federal judge in massachusetts has ruled that state prison officials must pay for a transgender inmate's sex change surgery. the decision says the operation, which could cost $20,000 of taxpayers' money, is the only way to treat her, quote, serious medical need. students around the world can enter a contest to name an astroid that could one day destroy the earth. the astroid is the target of a 2016 nasa mission and it's given one chance in over a thousand of

hitting the planet, perhaps in the year 2182. good thing we won't be around. and now here's an early look at how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dow closed at 13,035 after falling 54 points yesterday. the s&p was down a point, but the nasdaq gains 8. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei sank 95 points while in hong kong the hang seng plunged 284. well, tuesday started with down economic data and ended with apple riding to the rescue. august manufacturing fell for the third straight month and the sector hired the fewest workers since late 2009. in addition july construction spending fell the most in a year. ironically that data was partially welcomed by traders rooting for the fed to launch further stimulus to boost the recovery. income, gold hit a nearly six-month high on heightened stimulus expectations. on the bright side, august

car and truck sales were up 20% over a year ago. honda and toyota led the way compared with quakes from a year ago. general motors, ford, and chrysler each reported more than 10% increases. apple led a late rally after distributing invitations to a september 12 san francisco event, widely expected to be the release of the iphone 5. netflix tumbled on amazon.com's licensing epics for prime instant video just day after epics exclusive streaming agreement with netflix ended. facebook hit a new all-time low having lost more than half its ipo price of nearly $38. watch fedex. they cut their quarterly forecast blaming the weak global economy and keep an eye on 3m which dropped its acquisition of avery denison's consumer acquisition due to the government antitrust suit.

finally mcdonald's is going vegetarian? well, sort of. it's going to open a vegetarian outlet in india next year near the golden temple in a sikh holy temple where meat is forbidden. coming up a college oops, a top round dog and a showdown gets washed out. plus the baltimore orioles slug their way into first place. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. in the eastern half of the u.s. is just so humid you know there's going to be thunderstorm this afternoon. i'll tell you who coming up in your forecast. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports, the yankees lost again last night, removing new york's long exclusive grip on first place. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. in mid-july the yanks had a ten-game lead in the a.l. east and today that lead is gone. the yanks have been reeling since the all-star break and the rays handed them their seventh loss. the pinstripes are falling apart at the seams. tampa won it 5-2. orioles made a statement in

toronto. mark reynolds made a three-run shot, his fifth in five games. baltimore grab add share in the east with a commanding 12-0 win. then you have nationals. they're more concerned about shutting down stephen strasburg in first place. adam laroche with a pair of home runs and the nats beat the cubs, 11-5. speaking of home runs, m v.p. candidate miguel cabrera ripped his 14th of the season but it was all for naught. the tiger losing to the white sox increase their chance in the a.l. central? hmmle. they committed more runs in a in week. chicago leads the central by game. thumbs up to the pirates. thumbs down to jose altuve. i got it, i got it. i don't got it. no way, jose. in came two. when it rains, it poors. houston lost their league-leading 94th game. college football after

robbing michigan on saturday takes over for the spot in the a.l. post. u.s. open, andy roddick came out paug against eighth ranked martin del potro. the argentinian came roaring back, tied it at six. then the heavens opened, the second rain of the match. all they could do is laugh. they'd continue today. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. well, snooki's baby is a cover boy, and tomorrow night's headache over viewing choices is cured. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, no, it's not halloween. no, these guys aren't nuts. they're actually doing something heroic. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this wednesday morning. a soaking rain going through northern new england. it's ending in areas of vermont and new hampshire this morning. boston is about to get wet. many areas of the eastern half of the country are very mao mid this hour. as the cold front pushes through we'll have a strong chance of storms for chicago and much of indiana and possibly later tonight toward ohio. if you're watching us on first coast news in jacksonville, florida, come meet the largest most complete tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered at a t. rex

named sue at the museum of science and history. and that's your "early today" event of the day, lynn. >> sounds terrifying. all right, bill, thanks so much. and now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. lorenzo dominic lavalle bet northern at this point as snooki's baby has made his national magazine cover's debut. inside lorenzo's 24-year-old mom tells people when she got pregnant everything got changed saying, quote, the party is long gone. i am a new person. miley cyrus continues to push the grown-up envelope. a photographer she worked with has posted tasteful shots on line with her nude in the bakts tub. "live with kelly and michael" appeared tuesday as her co-host michael trahan made his debut. he said, quote, i almost lost all my tough points. i almost cried. if good news, for those of

you who can't decide whether you want to watch taylor swift sing her new song or watch barack obama accept his democratic nomination. they play add good citizen and moved up the time so now you can watch both. well this comes from kgw news channel 8 in portland oregon where in near bisalem they're masked men on a mission twochl men dressed up as superheroes to lead a crusade against the very real problem of homelessness. they go around providing basic need to those who need food and socks. they know dressing as larger than life heroes might make them silly but that's the point. they want to gain trust of those whose lives they're trying to save. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

4:28. it's a point of dispute this morning but there is a breeze out there as we look live over the nation's capital. what type of breeze that may be. we'll have to talk about. stormy weather could be on the way today. breaking news out of canada. after someone starts shooting during a campaign victory rally. we must work like never before. and we must once again come together. >> a night of praise for first lady michelle obama at the democratic national convention as she urges america to keep moving forward with with her husband.

good morning. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i'm eun yang. welcome to "news4 today." a figure skating coach who competed in the 1988 olympics in calgary is behind bars in maryland. we have details on the sex abuse allegations that landed him in trouble. 50-year-old teaches at the gardens ice house in laurel. his are not releasing details but the charges stem from an incident in lake placid last september. it is a mecca for figure skating training and competitions. news4 spoke exclusively to his wife and his lawyer. they say his students support their coach and the charges will be fought. >> there's a forceable touching charge, first degree sexual offense charge, third degree sexual offense charge. >> they could not believe those allegations and they fully support, they're going to be behind us. >> he will be held in the howard county jail until his