>> he was very sure of himself, to the point of a little bit smug. in montana, where you have a lot . this morning on "early today," riding a wave. president obama gets a post-convention boost, while both candidates spar over the economy. house of cards. explosives reduces a texas tower to rubble within seconds. and cyber snare. why searching for this "harry potter" star could be hazardous to your computer's health. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello, and very good morning to you. i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with still riding high. days after the democrats' convention ended, a new poll

saying president obama enjoying a post-convention boost in popular. 47% favor president obama while 43% prefer his republican rival mitt romney. nbc's brian miller reports. >> reporter: the president of the united states may be considered the most powerful man on earth, but scott van doozen is no slouch. the florida pizza shop owner is a registered republican but a fan of the president, and clearly a really big fan. >> man, are you a power lifter or what? >> reporter: mitt romney opted for a slightly quieter photo on, going to church with his wife ann on a day when the focus was on the economy. >> this is a president that has not been able to deliver on his promises. >> when our opponent goes around saying that the nation is in decline, he doesn't know what he's talking about. >> reporter: the president defended his own economic record

while attacking romney's. >> they couldn't answer questions about how they pay for $5 trillion of new tax cuts and $2 trillion of new defense spending without raising taxes on the middle class. that's not bold leadershipe lea. >> i'm bringing down deductions at the high end so the revenues stay the same. >> reporter: another sunday on the campaign trail. obama and romney, two guys with one goal in common, beating the other guy. sadly, tragedy struck on the campaign trail sunday when a florida police officer on a motorcycle was killed while escorting the president's motorcade. president obama beach county authorities said the officer was struck and killed by a pickup truck while shutting down a portion of i-95 in jupiter sunday afternoon. so far, no charges have been filed against the driver. high campaigning in palm

beach county sunday, the president said "our thoughts and prayers are with the officer's family." teachers in chicago will be on picket lines this morning for the first time in 25 years. more than 26,000 teachers and support staff who work for the nation's third largest school district plan to walk off the job after talks failed late last night. after months of negotiations, the key issues remaining are pay, benefits, and job security. the strike will affect at least 400,000 students. chicago mayor rahm emanuel says the strike is unnecessary and unfair to the city's school children. yesterday, one of the bloodiest of the year in iraq left at least 92 people dead. a series of bombings and shootings hit more than a dozen cities and left hundreds injured. in baghdad, car bombings exploded in six districts, hitting a restaurant and commercial area. since american troops left iraq last year, attacks there have been increasing.

the ruling is to give their president the death penalty. he is unlikely to return from exile in turkey. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in texas, hundreds of pounds of explosives did their job as an eight-story building came crashing down in just seconds. a former medical tower was imploded and will be replaced with a new medical building and a parking garage. but only after they clean up all that debris, which apparently is going to take weeks. also in texas, hundreds of firefighters paid tribute to their comrades lost in the twin towers. they climbed the stairs of a 55-story building and they did so twice to honor those who rushed into and climbed the 110-story world trade center buildings 11 years ago tomorrow. finally, a much happier scene in new mexico where they

carried out the annual burning of the zazobra, known as old man gloom. it was fueled in part by notes people write detailing their woes in the hopes that they will literally burn away. now for a look at your national and regional weather. here's meteorologist todd santos with the weather channel forecast. isn't that just the biggest burning man rip-off? >> a little bit maybe. it's, of course, different, but interesting. i like the concept behind it. >> so you're going to go next year? >> maybe. >> we'll see you there. >> at least some of the other kind of wild things that we have have -- we actually have some video of one of the tornados this weekend in the new york city area. if we take a quick look at that, this is in the breezy point area. this started as a motor spout. moved on shore as a tornado. winds up to 70 miles per hour. that path width was about 50

yards wide. big thing with a lot of this activity that we saw of the two tornados in the new york city area, there were no injuries with that. so that was a very big thing to mention there. so at least wanted to talk about that system. of course, the frontal boundary off the coastline now much quieter. an area across a good stretch of the country this morning. once you head across the mid-atlantic, high pressure and control, warm conditions, though this morning it is a little bit cool for many of these areas, especially across the great lakes. breathe it in. it's going to feel real good across the area. a little taste of fall. we will warm up in the middle of the week. the trail will continue to trigger some traces for rain. some light rain later. this is leslie, tropical storm moving off towards the north-northeast. will likely be an issue towards newfoundland, st. johns area, and at that point, good chance of making landfall as a category 1. right now the winds at 60 miles

per hour. there's a look at the temperature across the country, cool for a number of areas, including chicago. let's check out your local forecast. baltimore, maryland, coming in at 7 degree7 degrees. miami's forecast, daytime highs around 90. so at least a couple things to watch here, veronica. leslie at this point with the exception of newfoundland, not a worry here. >> you did say the "f" word. fall. which i don't want to hear about. >> i love fall. >> you do? >> i live in the south. >> i'm hanging on to summer. wall street on stimulus watch. expectations for a new iphone. and making a killing on coca-cola. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, hollywood suffered a historically bad weekend at the box office. coming up, a thrilling finish for serena williams. rory mcilroy does it again, and

it's back, week one of the nfl. you're watching "early today."

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. a government report says financial records are missing for about $475 million worth of fuel for the afghan national army. the international coalition can't prove whether the fuel was used by afghan forces lost, stolen, or diverted to insurgents. the afghan taliban is calling england's prince harry a high-value target and say they will try to arrest or kill him. harry arrived friday to start his second tour of duty as an apache helicopter pilot. in syria, government forces bombed the city of aleppo with explosions, damaging several buildings. a car bombing killed at least 17 people as rebels targeted the barracks of government soldiers.

in cuba, millions remain in the dark after a massive power outage in havana in western parts of the country. no word on what caused the electrical failure. actress emma watson, star of the "harry potter" series is being called the most dangerous celebrity to search for online. mcafee software says cyber criminals are using her as bait to steal personal information. users searching for her have a one in eight chance of landing on a malicious site. and now here's a look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow closed at 13,306 after adding 14 points friday. the s&p gained five. the nasdaq was up a fraction. taking a look at overseas trading. in tokyo, the nikkei was down two points, but in hong kong, the hang seng rose 25. last year stocks had their

best five-day stretch since june. experts believe a third round of stimulus will boost the economy. the federal reserve holds its two-day policy meeting this week. elsewhere, the government issues its report on august retail sales friday. word on the street is consumers appear to be spending more money on back-to-school items. wall street will also receive two readings on inflation this week. both are expected to show prices are in check, even though food and fuel prices have been on the rise. over the past two weeks, gas prices shot up another eight cents to an average $3.84 for a gallon of regular. expect plenty of buzz around apple ahead of its big event on wednesday. expectations are high for the release of its next generation iphone and possibly a smaller ipad. the government announced it's selling $18 billion in american international group stock. that should decrease its holdings below a majority stake for the first time since aig's $182 billion bailout in 2008.

after a big response to its free haircut for kids program last month, jcpenney says it plans to make it permanent every day starting in october. a predecessor of sun trust bank took $100,000 worth of coca-cola stock in exchange for work on the company's ipo back in 1919. and last week, the bank cashed in those shares for nearly $2 billion -- yes, that's billion, with a b, dollars. wow. a stellar nfl rookie bay bu, a tennis pro notches her fourth u.s. open title, and a second consecutive golf title for one youngster. plus, a former colt reaches an nfl milestone in new colors. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. we're actually looking good for the final matches of the open today. how about the rest of your week? you're watching "early today."

and a very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, it's back to football, as most teams took to gridiron yesterday for their first game of the nfl season. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports

headlines. >> good morning. the wait is finally over. let's do it. the nfl is back. we'll start in denver, where mile-high stadium is now peyton's place. he didn't miss a beat against the steelers. toss to demarius thomas. and watch him go. peyton's first touchdown as a bron bronco. what a debut for robert griffin iii. the rookie looked like a seasoned vet. found pierre garcon across the middle. griffin threw a pair of touchdowns and the skins upset the saints 40-32. andrew luck's debut didn't go as well. picked off three times. the bears are expecting big things out of jay cutler and brandon marshall. they got it. chicago beat indy 41-21. mark sanchez didn't throw a single touchdown in the preseason because apparently he was saving it for the bills. three touchdowns. the only thing that went wrong was on the sidelines. rex ryan levelled by scott chandler. popped right back up. jets were all smiles and why not? they won it 48-28.

pats and titans. rob gronkowski picked up where he left off last season. new england up 21-3. but the celebration needs some work. not exactly the kind of spike he had in mind. the pats are happy he can hold on to the ball when it counts. alex smith connecting with vernon davis. touchdown niners. davis then showed off his hops, or lack thereof. the dunk over the goal post rejected. this is how you use a goal post, vernon. david acres 63 yards away. if it's good, it ties an nfl record. the ball hit the crossbar and went over. 63 yards and a lucky bounce. niners beat the packers 30-22. golf, rory mcilroy has done it again. won the bmw, second straight win. serena williams put to the test and passed with flying colors. down two games in the final set, serena rallied, won the next four and captured her fourth u.s. open title. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin.

reports of a huge celebrity wedding involving two big stars this weekend. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, whoever said all is fair in love and war obviously never met willy the cockatoo.

welcome back to "early today." we're really handing out sunshine today like oprah was handing out cars for a while.

from new york, back toward chicago, kansas city, beautiful conditions. minneapolis 8 today. denver 89. better chance for showers central southern florida and in the southwest. i don't want to mislead minneapolis. much cooler temperatures as you get to wednesday, but at least for tuesday, still hanging on to 90s. if you're watching us on action news 5 in memphis, tennessee, come see photographs of the king in his younger more innocent days at elvis at 21 photographs at the pink palace family of muse museums. >> his younger, more innocent days. >> yeah, i like that. now a look at this morning's headlines. this weekend's was hollywood's worst at the box office since the dark days following the 9/11 attacks. the fright flick "the possession" took the top spot with only $9.5 million. the first time since '08 no film managed to mark the $10 million mark.

the weekend after labor day is typically slow, but this weekend's grosses were down -- get this, todd -- a whopping 20% from last year. the only new movie to make money was "the words." it raises box office questions about bradley cooper who notched his second straight flop. speak of flop "the cold light of day" had a long sit on the studio shelf before finally being released earned just $1 million. bad weekend at the box office. according to "people" magazine, ryan reynolds and blake lively were married last night on a plantation outside of charleston, south carolina. wasn't he just married to somebody? >> i don't keep track -- you better keep track of this. >> no, i don't. i think he was married, like to scarlett johansson not that long ago, right? >> he's doing all right. not to be that guy.

but i like the idea of getting married near charleston. we'll take it there. >> way to dig yourself out of that hole. this now comes to us from wjar nbc 10 news in providence, rhode island, where there is a bird that may need to have its beak washed out with soap. that's because willy the cockatoo has been uttering vulgar phrases over and over again. i love this story, todd. willy's owner allegedly trained this bird to use profanity to harass her ex-husband and his girlfriend who live next door, and the pet's potty mouth has even been documented in a police report, and the owner is now fighting a citation. i guess that's one way to get back your ex. i'm veronica de la cruz. this serl eais "early today," jr first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

welcome to autumn. as promised, almost a chill in the air. what you can see from the weekend weather just ahead. a powerful line of storms strikes our region. here's billy cundiff, and the redskins have scored 40. >> living up to the hype. redskins fans are waking up with a smile on our faces after rg3 helps guide the team to an impressive first win. good morning, everybody. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i like how you said our faces, including you. >> i think pretty much everybody's excited for this.

>> i'm eun yang. welcome to "news 4 today" for this monday, september 10th, 2012. the power is just about back on for those people who lost their power due to weekend storms. after saturday's powerful storms, on millwood lane, a partial tree fell. on 38th street another large tree was uprooted. it brought down power lines and smashed two cars. >> one of the telephone poles here crashed into a brand new car. he just bought it. and the other new car was just visiting the people who live there. their car was totalled. >> it's the second time that one of these trees fall, and evidently, they take out quite a number of electricity poles. i have to say i was quite impressed with the fact that the crews were out here the next day. >> no one was hurt. people in falls church, virginia, can have their