i'm lynn berry. and we are going to begin with the crisis in the middle east. just a short time ago a bomb exploded aboard a bus in tel aviv across the street from israel's military headquarters. 16 people were injured. police say this was not a suicide attack. secretary of state hillary clinton is negotiating right this moment in an attempt to work out a truce to stop the violence in israel and gaza. nbc's chapman bell joins us on the phone now from tel aviv. chapman, good morning. what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning, lynn. at this point this bus attack is being described as a terrorist attack. it says it has all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack, but it is not a suicide bomber that police officials can confirm. it seems explosives were placed on a bus in tel aviv. this is the first bus blast in israel since 2004, the last one being on a bus in the southern israeli city of bare shea but near gaza. if this is connected to the current conflicted, there's no confirmation at this point tha

i'm lynn berry. there are stunning new details in the scandal that brought down cia chief general david petraeus. the news comes just days before four-star general john allen was to appear at a confirmation hearing for a new role, overseeing our military throughout europe. that nomination is now on hold at the order of the president. nbc's tracie potts is live on capitol hill this morning. tracie. >> reporter: good morning everyone. lawmakers here want some answers and they may get them from the cia and fbi. they have a closed-door briefing on all this coming up tomorrow, a scandal that now involves two decorated generals. >> reporter: kelley is a woman she claimed she felt harassed by anonymous e-mails traced to broadwell. it i uncovered an affair between petraeus and broadwell. petraeus resigned. broadwell talked about working with petraeus in afghanistan. the pentagon won't say what the relationship was between allen and kelley, but he's still on the job for now. in washington preparing for senate

i'm lynn berry. and the world is holding its breath this morning as tensions in the middle east reach a boiling point after days of fierce fighting between israel and gaza militants. an attempt at a brief cease fire was unsuccessful this morning and air raid sirens have gone off. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is not backing down. >> in the past 24 hours, israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate rocket and missile attacks on civilians. nbc's martin fletcher is in tel aviv where air raid sirens were heard this morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. following up on netanyahu's threat. overnight 30,000 reserves were given potential order to report for duty overnight 16,000 soldiers were told, reserve soldiers, were told to report to their units. they will be joining army units that massed on the border of gaza. armored personnel carriers, hundreds of thousands of troops ready for ground invasion. as you suggested in introduction, a show of force or the real thing? it's partly a s

i'm lynn berry. and today for the first time we expect to hear from president obama directly as his administration is rocked by scandals involving two of the men he counted on most, former cia director david petraeus and afghan war commander general john allen. the newest headlines in the investigation are creating even more of a tangled web. this morning's "wall street journal" reports general allen, who is now under investigation for e-mails between he and jill kelley of tampa florida, is telling associates that he received an e-mail traced back to paula broadwell, the petraeus biographer accused of sending harassing e-mails to jill kelley. according to the journal, allen says the broadwell e-mail was written under the pseudonym kelley patrol. it described kelley as a, quote, seductress, and warned the general about becoming entangled in a relationship with the married socialite. the journal also reports kelley tried this summer to get the fbi to drop the investigation that began with kelley's comp

i'm lynn berry. well, millions of votes have already been cast and the candidates will do some last-minute politicking early today. in the swing state of ohio, nearly 1.8 million absentee ballots have already been cast. that's up from 2008. in florida nearly 4.5 million people have voted early or by absentee coming very close to the number from last time. president obama voted early this year. he'll do some swing state interviews and then play in his traditional election day basketball game while awaiting the returns from chicago. mr. romney has added two last-minute campaign stops in ohio and pennsylvania after he votes in massachusetts. running mate paul ryan will vote in wisconsin before joining romney in boston. and vice president joe biden will vote in delaware before joining the president in chicago. nbc's tracie pots is in cincinnati, ohio. she has the details on the candidates' final frantic day of campaigning. tracie, good morning to you. >> reporter: we're at a polling place in ohio. alread

i'm lynn berry. and tonight is the night when someone could win the largest powerball jackpot in history. it's $500 million and counting. lottery officials say with brisk sales the estimated jackpot could rise again before tonight's drawing. and while the odds are stacked against you at 1 in 175 million, nbc's jay gray reports plenty of folks are lining up to pay $2 to dream. >> reporter: the rush for the right numbers is on this morning. >> good luck. >> thank you. >> reporter: millions looking to beat the odds and the deadline before tonight's powerball drawing. >> give me two separate powerballs. >> reporter: lottery officials say a billion tickets or more will be sold before the numbers are pulled tonight. >> people are crazy about powerball. it's now big money. >> reporter: the biggest money in powerball history, a jackpot of $500 million and growing. >> who knows? it might be your day. >> reporter: to be your day you'd have to beat 175 million to 1 odds. for comparison, you have a better chance

i'm lynn berry. a horrific week for the northeast and mid-atlantic states continues to unfold. 94 people are confirmed dead in the u.s. from sandy. minutes ago we learned the number of power outages has gone down to 3.5 million. at the height of the blackout, 8 million people had no power. some of the biggest cries for help are coming from new york's statin island where the superstorm has claimed at least 19 lives. among them, two little boys, brothers. a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. their bodies were found in a marsh on thursday. their mother's suv was washed out by rising waters during the hurricane. >>> people living on that island told nbc's ann curry support has been far too slow in coming. >> every single person on this block lost everything. >> we just want everyone to know that we are hurting down here and we need help immediately. >> fema teams did walk through staten island neighborhoods thursday trying to make sure victims signed up for federal help. homeland security chief janet napolitan

i'm lynn berry. folks in parts of the northwest are hunkering down for a weekend of potentially record breaking snow, wind and rain. the national weather service issued a number of severe warnings. get this. california's mt. shasta could see an incredible 18 feet of snow over the next several days. nbc's meteorologist bill karins has details for us. bill, what can you tell us? >> as far as the snow goes, that's at the highest of elevations where no one lives. the only areas that will get the snow is possibly to the south in the central cascades. it's really the rainfall that's the big concern, the amount that's going to go into these rivers basins. as they accumulate and it continues to rain over the weekend, we're going to have flooding concerns. this morning we're soaked right now. the heaviest rains have shifted into the mountains. it's still raining pretty good. san francisco to san jose, a continuous steady rain out there. the real downpours have moved towards yuba city. this storm system is one

i'm lynn berry. and today the focus is back to washington and whether the white house and congress can put aside campaign bitterness to reach a deal avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff. last night house speaker john boehner insisted he's optimistic about an agreement telling abc's diane sawyer he is, quote, the most reasonable responsible person in washington but he's also not backing off his stand on tax hikes. >> raising taxes on small business people is the wrong prescription given where our economy is. >> is it on the table to talk about -- >> i made clear yesterday that raising tax rates is unacceptable. and, frankly, it couldn't even pass the house. >> at issue here, a perfect economic storm that could have serious consequences. nbc's andrea mitchell breaks it down for you. >> reporter: the campaign was tough. victory is sweet. now comes the hard part. >> on january 21st, 2013, there's going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases. >> reporter: so what exactly is t

i'm lynn berry. and after weeks of controversy over the obama administration's handling of the u.s. consulate attack in benghazi, the woman in the middle of it all will go face to face with her toughest critics this morning. u.n. ambassador susan rice is heading to capitol hill for a closed door meeting with senators john mccain, lindsey graham and kelly ayotte. they were infuriated after rice called the assault that killed ambassador chris stevens and three other americans spontaneous and linked to a protest over a youtube video. she will be joined by acting cia director mike morell. the meeting could serve as a real test of whether rice will still be in for a fight over her potential nomination as secretary of state. >>> elsewhere on capitol hill today, it's back to the bargaining table for lawmakers facing a year-end fiscal cliff. yesterday the white house took a hard line insisting tax rates have to rise on the rich and warning that anymore delay on the deal could ruin consumer confidence and hur

i'm lynn berry. right now president obama is in headed home after attending a summit in southeast asia today. a fast-paced trip. it was escalating tensions in the middle east that required much of his attention. earlier this morning secretary of state hillary clinton departed for the region at the president's request. nbc's political director and chief white house kres spon dend chuck todd is traveling with the president. chuck, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. it's safe to say the events in gaza have overtaken or overshadowed what the president has been working on here in southeast asia. i can tell you this, last night the president was on the phone until 2:30 in the morning, first with egyptians president morsi and then israeli prime minister netanyahu. then back on the phone with morsi. the reason there, obviously talking to netanyahu trying to get a sense of what it would take to prevent him from doing the ground invasion into gaza. the talks with morsi are about, this is the

i'm lynn berry. and today one scandal will give way to another in washington. former cia director david petraeus is expected to testify in a closed-door senate intelligence committee hearing. general petraeus is not expected to discuss his personal indiscretions that ended his cia career last week. instead, he'll be discussing details on the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya, that resulted in the death of ambassador christopher stevens and three others. >>> also, the controversy over u.n. ambassador susan rice calling the assault spontaneous back in september has reached a boiling point. yesterday, president obama, in his first news conference since re-election, exploded at republican finger-pointing over rice. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador, who had nothing to do with benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had receive d, and t

i'm lynn berry.his is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. >>> we do have interesting numbers on the amount of cash spent on this president election. it was the most expensive in history. overall nearly a billion dollars were spent by the campaigns and outside groups or super pacs since the presidential campaign began in earnest in march. team romney outspent team obama by a whopping $182 million. the total amount of outside spending for radio and tv ads was also a record $435 million. $370 million of that went towards supporting mitt romney. according to the center for responsive politics, when all expenses are taken into account including mailers, staff and you timts, that total number will top $1 billion. unreal. so where most of this money was being spent? the swing states, of course. a whopping $197 million in ohio, $192 million in florida and $152 million in virginia. as you can see, ad spending really picked up after the conventions in early september. more

i'm lynn berry.hanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. have a good one. >>> we are following breaking news out of downtown palo alto where police tell us that a woman woke up to find a man inside her home. we'll have all the latest details coming up. >>> also apple moving into

i'm lynn berry. more misery for residents in the northeast this morning as a powerful nor'easter has battered areas already hard hit by hurricane sandy. with winds topping 60 miles per hour, the nor'easter dumped as much as a foot of snow in some parts, downing trees and power lines. as many as 1,700 flights have been canceled just in the past 24 hours, and according to the latest numbers, nearly 401,000 homes and businesses are still without electricity this morning after these two big storms. nbc's danielle leigh is in trenton, new jersey, for us this morning. danielle, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. we're waking up to a couple inches of snow here in trenton. behind me, a downed tree that possibly fell during the height of last night's storm. and for the hundreds of thousands of people still trying to recover from sandy, this was the last thing they needed. rain, snow, and wind at times over 60 miles an hour is drenching homes. entire communities already rearranged by hurrica

i'm lynn berry. the very latest on sandy. at least 74 people in the u.s. have died as a result of hurricane sandy. millions remain without power, and recovery isn't coming nearly fast enough. new jersey is just one of the places there are major gasoline shortages. people are waking up with canisters and walking up with canisters trying to get fuel. and further down the coast, take a look as cars are lined up for blocks, if not miles. some people waited more than an hour for a chance to fill up. >>> another big oil problem, a massive leak, a fuel leak at a tank facility. more than 300,000 gallons of diesel crude spilled into the water separating new jersey from staten island. containment booms are keeping the oil where it is. >>> in connecticut, these are such intense images. look at that as three mansions burned to the ground as wind gusts fueled the flames monday night. firefighters couldn't save the homes because of the intensity of the situation. >>> and back to new jersey, where at least 25% of h

i'm lynn berry. breaking news overnight in the scandal that brought down cia director david petraeus. this morning defense secretary leon panetta announced the man who succeeded david petraeus is under investigation himself. general john allen, the top u.s. and nato commander in afghan stand is accused of, quote, inappropriate communications with jill kelly. she started the investigation. a senior official traveling with allen says his communications with kelly are under review. the official says general allen disputes engaging in any wrongdoing in the matter. the fbi referred the matter to the department of defense for investigation on sunday. early this morning secretary panetta directed that the defense department inspector general investigate. meanwhile, last night fbi agents went to the home of biographer paula broadwell, the woman government officials say petraeus acknowledged having an affair with. a senior law enforcement official says the search was consensual, not a raid. meanwhile, they sa

i'm lynn berry. well, millions of votes have already been cast and the candidates will do some last-minute politicking early today. in the swing state of ohio, nearly 1.8 million absentee ballots have already been cast. that's up from 2008. in florida nearly 4 point. >> petros: 5 million peop-- 4.5 million people have voted. president obama voted early this year. he'll do some swing state interviews and then play in his traditional election day basketball game and then wait in chicago. mr. romney has added two last-minute campaign stops in ohio. paul ryan will vote and join him in boston. joe biden will vote in delaware before joining him in chicago. tracie pots has the details on the final frantic day of campaigning. tracie, good morning to you. >> reporter: hey, good morning. it may be a frantic day of voting too. this is one of the many polling places soon to open in ohio. take a look at the cincinnati inquirer. the headline, it's all up to us. ohio at the center of the political universe. while t

i'm lynn berry. and the world is holding its breath this morning as tensions in the middle east reach a boiling point. this, after days of fierce fighting between israel and gaza militants. an attempt at a brief cease fire was unsuccessful this morning as palestinians unleashed a fresh round of air a being at thats. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is not backing down. >> the past 24 hours israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate rocket and missile attacks on its civilians. >> nbc's martin fletcher is live for us in tel aviv. martin, what's the latest? >> reporter: lynn, good morning. following up on netanyahu's threat. last night 16,000 israeli reserve soldiers were called up. they've called up half of that number of 30,000. they're moving south of where the army is moving south of the border. they're moving down tanks, armored personnel carriers. among those reserve soldiers called up also included officers and soldiers who are experienced specialty is dealing with enemy civilian

good morning, everyone, i'm lynn berry. barack obama has been re-elected president, and just as many thought, it all came down to just one swing state, ohio. the front page of this morning's "usa today" reads obama triumphs. just after 11:00 p.m. eastern last night nbc news projected the president had won ohio and therefore clinched the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat former massachusetts governor mitt romney. now despite a bitter campaign between the two, mr. romney offered a concession and kind words as he accepted the results. >> i have just called president obama to congratulate him on his victory. his supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations. i wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady, and their daughters. this is a time of great challenges for america, and i pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation. >> and then it was the president's turn. he and his family walked out on stage early this morning to cries of four more years. >> tonight more than

i'm lynn berry. say what you will about the state of the economy, but americans didn't hold back on what turned out to be a record-breaking holiday weekend for retailers. and it's not over yet. cyber monday is officially in full swing and experts predict today will be the biggest online shopping day of the year to the tune of $1.5 billion. nbc's kristen dahlgren has more. >> reporter: from the moment doors opened thursday, before the thanksgiving dishes were even done, almost a quarter billion shoppers will have been online or in stores. >> i just prepare, put my speakers on and go for it. >> reporter: shopping started earlier than ever, and in spite of the employee protests, the early opening paid off. according to the national retail federation, more than 35 million shopped on thanksgiving, six million more than last year. black friday was big, too. 89 million braved the crowds in search of those hard-to-beat bargains, up from 86 million last year. >> the biggest wish list is -- >> uggs. >> reporte

i'm lynn berry. and the world is holding its breath this morning as tensions in the middle east reach a boiling point after days of fierce fighting between israel and gaza militants. an attempt at a brief cease-fire was unsuccessful this morning as palestinians unleashed a fresh round of air attacks. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is not backing down. >> in the past 24 hours israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate rocket and missile attacks on its civilians. >> nbc's martin fletcher is live for us in tel aviv with the very latest. martin, what's the latest? >> reporter: lynn, good morning. following up on netanyahu's threat, last night they are stressing they will do anything it takes to stop the palestinians from firing rockets into israel. overnight or last night rather 30,000 reserves were given a potential order to report for duty. overnight 16,000 soldiers were told, reserve soldiers were told to report to their units. they're going to join army units amassed on the border

i'm lynn berry, those stories and more on straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. >>> if you can believe it, more mystery for residents in the northeast as a powerful nor'easter batters airs yas already hit hard by hurricane sandy. this storm is packing winds of over 60 miles per hour and dumped as much as a foot of snow in some areas. there are already reports of downed trees and power lines and more than a thousand flights have been canceled. katherine craig is braving the elements for us this morning. katherine? >> reporter: good morning from staten island, already hard hit by sandy. everyone is dealing with these piles of debris, a huge mound covered with snow as well. you drive through certain neighborhoods on staten island and this is the scene. you have stranded cars covered be snow, power lines covered with snow as well. half a foot of snow fell onto parts of staten island. the rain started falling about 11:00 yesterday morning. we were here for that. the snow started falling shortly thereafter. it continued to fall through th

i'm lynn berry. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned.early" with willie geist starts right now. >>> i tell you what. you know, my mom used to have an expression. joe, out of everything bad, something good will come. i want to tell you what makes me so proud in moments of crisis. democrats and republicans always came together. i got to tell you, it was reassuring to be on those calls. i really mean this. it was reassuring. that's how it's supposed to work. we always work better in america when we work together and everyone's in on the deal. >> vice president joe biden yesterday in iowa. we begin this morning four days away from the presidential election and four days removed from sandy, one of the worst storms ever to hit this country. the death toll from that

i'm lynn berry and this is "first look." stay tuned.ay too early with willie geist" starts right now. >> how are you? are you okay? >> we're going to help you. we're going to get it all together. all right? i promise you. i promise you. you're going to be okay. you're safe, right? that's the most important. we're going to get this whole thing taken care of. i have my guy craig fugate. this is the owner of the marina right here. i want to make sure she knows that we're going to immediately make sure she gets the help she needs to get this all back together. all right?

good morning, i'm lynn berry we begin with the crisis in the mideast. secretary of state hillary clinton is negotiating right at this moment in an attempt to work out a truce to stop the violence in israel and gaza. we go live to amin live on the phone from gaza. what is the morning there? >> reporter: we have been out and about today in gaza, surveying some of the damage overnight from the israeli air strikes. from one site we visited it was completely reduced to rubble. israel claimed this was a hamas terrorist hub. locals say it was a government building that provides basic services for the residents in that area. we had a chance to visit one of the u.n. schools where thousands of palestinians now are being internally displaced. many of these people are leaving their homes on the eastern part of gaza, going to the u.n. schools and taking up refuge. the u.n. is struggling to cope with the influx of people. it's a dire situation for the residents of the hamas strip. all of this on the back drop of more talks. hillary clinton will be flying to cairo whe

i'm lynn berry. and today for the first time we expect to hear from president obama directly as his administration is rocked by scandals involving two of the men he counted on most, former cia director david petraeus and afghan war commander general john allen. well, the newest headlines in the investigation are creating even more of a tangled web. this morning "the wall street journal" reports general allen, who is now under investigation for e-mails between he and jill kelley of tampa, florida, is telling associates that he received an e-mail traced back to paula broadwell, the petraeus biographer accused of sending harassing e-mails to jill kelley. according to "the journal," allen says the broadwell e-mail was written under the pseudonym kelley patrol. it's describing kelley as a, quote, seductress, and warned the general about becoming entangled in a relationship with the married socialite. "the journal" also reports kelley tried this summer to get the fbi to drop the investigation that began wi

i'm lynn berry. this is a special edition of "first look" on msnbc. >>> millions of votes have already been cast and the candidates will do last minute politicking early today. in ohio 1.8 million absentee ballots have already been cast. that's up from 2008. in florida, nearly 4.5 million people have already voted early or by absentee coming very close to the number from last time. president obama voted early this year. he'll do swing state interviews and then will play his traditional election day basketball game while awaiting the returns from chicago. mr. romney has added to last-minute campaign stops in ohio and pennsylvania after he votes in massachusetts. running mate paul ryan will vote in wisconsin before joining romney in boston and vice president joe biden will vote in delaware before joining the president in ohio. we have details on the candidates' final frantic day of campaigning. tracy i poe tracie potts is wit >>> look at the cincinnati enquirer with the faceoff picture in the headline.

i'm lynn berry. more misery for residents of the northeast. a powerful nor'easter hits them. this storm is packing winds of over 60 miles per hour and has dumped as much as a foot of snow. there are already reports of downed trees and power lines. that means more than 1,000 flights have been canceled. nbc's danielle leigh is in trenton, new jersey. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. people are waking up to a couple inches of snow this morning, the first of the season. but for the hundreds of thousands still trying to recover from hurricane sandy, this was the last thing they needed. rain, snow and wind at times over 60 miles an hour is drenching homes. entire communities already rearranged by hurricane sandy. >> it's overwhelming. >> very sad. it's very sad to see us getting pounded again. >> reporter: waves lashed out on beaches nearly washed away in last week's superstorm leading to new fierce of flooding. from sea bright to queens, people are seeking shelter again. >> a warm shelter is available for free at hillcrest high school. >> reporter: even as crews rushed to fix powe

. >>> i'm lynn berry. with "first look" on msnbc. "way too early" starts right now. >>> there's no letup to the violence rocking israel and the gaza strip today as both sides continue their attacks with more and more civilians caught in the crossfire. major developments including a new push by the obama administration to try to put an end to the blood shed. good morning, i'm meek yeah brzezinski along with joe scarborough. a lot to get to including a foiled terror plot here at home. >>> the din

. >> i'm lynn berry. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned.illie geist's last episode of "way too early" starts right now. congratulations. we're going to miss being your opening act. take care. >>> sarah says good-bye for now. hard to believe a year ago we'd never heard of sarah palin. today, it's breaking news when she serves hot dogs. the question is, what is the next twist in this story? >>> president obama proposes some budweiser diplomacy. the question is, are the rest of us going to sit down and have a real conversation about race? probably not. >>> and bill gates has two problems. too much money. now he says too many friends. the question is, why is america's greatest nerd dumping his facebook friends? it's way too early for this. why is

i'm lynn berry and this is "1st look."too early" starts right now. >>> good morning. this is "way too early." thanks for being up with us. we have a lot of news to talk about on on this wednesday, november 28th, including new accusations from the senate's top republicans that president obama thinks he's still on the campaign trail and that's putting in to on jep arrested day compromise on the fiscal cliff. >> plus house republicans unveil the names of their committee leaders. why some critics say they're not heeding the lessons of the 2012 election. >> but first