guests, julie bowen, this morning on "early today," debate face-off. republican presidential contenders go on the attack in a tense campaign match-up. on the loose. dangerous animals escape from a wild animal preserve in ohio. and close encounter. a colorado cat gets into a staring contest with a rious a colorado cat gets into a staring contest with a rious mountain lion. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. and today we begin with a fiery

debate. gop presidential candidates went head-to-head last night in las vegas for the fifth and final round of a six-week string of high-stakes match-ups. mitt romney and rick perry shared a heat exchange over illegal immigrants while herman cain's 9-9-9 tax plan came under attack. >> reporter: herman cain and his 9% sales tax plan that helped catapult him to the top tier of the republicans running for president drew intense fire at the cnn debate in las vegas. >> 84% of americans would pay more taxes under his plan. >> that simply is not true. >> go to new hampshire where they don't have a sales tax and you are fixing to give them one. >> the state tax is an apple. we are replacing the current tax code with oranges. >> i'm going to be getting a bushel basket that has oranges and apples because i'm paying both taxes. >> reporter: mitt romney, still the front-runner, got attacked

by rick perry over immigration. >> because you hired illegals in your home and you knew about it for a year. >> governor romney -- >> rick -- >> i don't think i've ever hired an illegal in my life, so i'm afraid -- i'm looking forward to finding your fookts that -- >> i'll tell you what the facts are -- >> rick, again, i'm speaking -- >> you had -- >> let me finish with what i have to say. >> romney says in 2007 his lawn care kcompany hired illegal workers. >> when that was pointed out we let them go. >> and you -- >> reporter: a fiery exchange on an old issue in a debate mostly about new plans to get americans back to work. i'm steve handelsman, numbers, washington. and some of last night's criticism aimed at herman cain's 9-9-9 tax plan came on the heels of a new independent study that find 84% of u.s. households would see their taxes go up

under that plan. the tax policy center estimates families with an income between $10,000 and $20,000 a year would be hardest hit with a 950% increase in taxes. while most households making more than $1 million would have their tax cut in half. cain's plan would have a plat tax on business, income and national sales tax. president obama will wrap up a three-day campaign-style bus tour through battleground states of north carolina and virginia, where he's been promoting his jobs legislation. in north carolina yesterday, the president made an appeal for bipartisanship, telling a crowd that he would work with gop lawmakers on any serious plan they put forward to help get americans back to work. today first lady michelle obama will accompany the president as he speaks about the importance of hiring veterans. residents in east central ohio have been told to stay

indoors and some schools have been canceled after wild animals escaped from an i an exotic animal farm. police in muskingum say the owner was found dead and that the cages were left open. authorities haven't said which animals are on the loose but the facility housed lions, cheetahs, bears and tigers. 25 animals, including wolves that had been on the run, have so far been shot and killed. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. officials in texas discovered widespread damage in the wake of monday's massive dust storm. on tuesday crews worked to restore power and clear city streets of remnants from the 18,000-foot high dust cloud. meteorologists believe the storm was a rare occurrence and don't expect another one to hit in the near future. traffic on rhode island's jamestown bridge came to a screeching halt after a cow fell

off a truck. state and local police spent over an hour trying to round up the runaway cow before corralling it in a wooded area where it had to be euthanized. and in boulder, colorado, a house cat refused to back down from a much bigger distant relative in his backyard. look at that face-off. separated by only a glass door, zeus lived up to his name, staring down the mountain lion for several minutes, until the largest animal left. finally, a florida infant is drawing attention for entering the world with a little more bite than most babies. the baby's parents discovered two tiny teeth after bringing her home from the hospital. expert say it's rare for newborns to have teeth but it doesn't cause a problem unless they come loose. a little smile, too. now for a look at your national and regional weather here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with weather channel

forecast. a little face-off there. >> the problem is for the mom. >> absolutely, yeah. minor details there. >> best of luck. good morning, everyone, today's the day we'll see the worst weather out there for travel delays, windy conditions and also rain heading up the eastern seaboard. overnight three tornadoes in florida. in sunrise, florida, they even had damage to some roofs. as far as the tornado threat goes, it's pretty minimal. i'll show you the regard radar in south florida in a second. a low that was in the gulf has now weakened and is redeveloping up into south carolina, combining with another storm. that low is going to track itself back up to the great lakes. there's a shot of moisture up ahead of that, heading up right along the mid-atlantic coast and bringing heavy rain to new england today. first thing's first into florida where we've had the threat of tornadoes overnight, right now we're not looking at anything too bad. miami, just a couple showers heading your way now back towards naples a thunderstorm. i have been tracking this line of storm from the bottom of your screen. it's over the open water. that should track through the

homestead area. we'll watch that in about an hour from now. further up the coast, it looks like the heaviest rain is going to stay offshore. not affecting d.c., baltimore and philadelphia but when we take this area of heavy rain northward, it will go into connecticut, rhode island and it looks like up towards boston as we go throughout the day. the heaviest rains will be along the coast. cape cod should get a lot of rain, boston, possibility of up to 2 inches and we reduced the total for some of the biggest cities as the massive rain a little farther off the coast. the forecast today, airport delays are possible anywhere on the east coast, middle of the country you look fantastic after a chilly morning. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. chance of thunderstorms today in areas on the eastern seaboard. you're not going to see severe weather type thunderstorms but we could see downpours with this tropical moisture, watching temperatures very chilly back in the great lakes. also going to be chilly fort

world series, which will be beginning. >> game one. all right, bill. apple shares take a beating. b of a loses its title. and a christmas wish list for the fabulously wealthy. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. big day for actress lindsay lohan, could she be read headed back to jail? the raiders pull off a stunning trade and one manager makes a world series guarantee. 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. thousands jammed the streets of an israeli town to welcome home a soldier that was held by palestinian militants for over five years. his father says his son is healthy but will need time to rofr from physical and psychological wound. he was freed in exchange for more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners. in new york, occupy wall street demonstrators marched

against the nypd, accusing police of using excessive force when arresting protesters. a law enforcement source says the handling of protest incidents and being investigated. u.s. immigration and customs enforce many says the government deported a record number of people in the last year. nearly 400,000 were forced to leave. about 55% had felony or misdemeanor convictions. social security recipients will be getting a raise in january. their first bump in benefits since 2009. the cost of living increase is expected to be about 3.5%. and just as the world series gets under way, four democratic senators are asking the major league baseball players union to ban chewing tobacco during the upcoming series. they say the smokeless tobacco sets a bad example for all those young fans who see the players as role models. now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,577 after

adding 180 points yesterday. the s&p rose 24 points. the nasdaq gained 42. taking a look at overseas trading this morning n tokyo, the nikkei was up 30 points. while in hong kong, the hang seng climbed 232. backstage the late day rally thanks to another pendulum swing in the euro crisis debt watch. a report germany and france agreed to pump $2 tril yoe into a eurozone rescue fund lifted hopes a solution could come soon. spain suffered its latest credit downgrade. earnings will likely be the focus again today. apple shares fell in late trade after a rare earnings miss. elsewhere after hours shares of intel shot up thanks to better than expected earnings. results from united health group, coca-cola and johnson and johnson did little to lift the mood early on the street but a surprising rise in optimism from the nation's home builder gave

d.r. horton and linar a healthy boost. yahoo was done most of the day on so-so earnings but picked up steam in late trade on hopes of a future buyout. goldman sachs delivered its second quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. the end of an era for bank of america. despite an earnings win it lost the title of the nation's biggest bank to jpmorgan chase. ford's new four-year labor contract with united autoworkers is a go, according to a posting on the local louisville union's facebook page. the cash-strapped u.s. postal service is upping the price of first-class stamp by a penny next year. to 45 cents. samsung and google have launched their latest iphone rival, the android-driven galaxy nexus smartphone. and nothing says excess like the neiman marcus christmas book. among this year's fantasy, a

$75,000, a $250,000 speed boat and a custom made ferrari for a cool 400 grand. would that fit under the tree? i don't think so. coming up, the rangers and cardinals get ready for game one. the oakland raiders make a hail mary trade. plus, scary moments on the ice when bruins' defenseman joe corvo goes down hard. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. today's going to not worst travel day of the week. we'll have windy conditions in the east along with areas of heavy rain. 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 cardinals and the rangers meet in st. louis tonight as the quest for baseball's ultimate prize gets under way. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. game one of the world series between the texas rangers and st. louis cardinals is tonight. cards' manager tony la russa is no stranger to championship and he didn't hesitate to make a guarantee. >> if there's one guarantee i can make, i guarantee our club is not going to change its attitude about competing. in the world series. i mean, the rangers are going to get the best we've got. we'll have the exact same

approach, dot best we can and see if you're good enough or not. >> maybe not the guarantee we expected, but we do know this, chris carpenter and c.j. wilson probables. game one tonight at 5 p.m. eastern. the raiders acquired carson palmer from the bengals trading a first and second round pick. if oakland makes the afc, he becomes a first rounder. would you expect anything else from the raiders. hockey, it's official. bruins are suffering from a stanley cup hangover. they lost again last night. pick anyone with a bomb. the capitals off to their best start in franchise history. alexander see mon gave them the lead. proof you don't need to be drafted to play in the nhl. scored his first goal in his first nhl game with the flyers. former ivy league player of the year studied economics at brown. no econ degree needed. that goal is money. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin.

>> announcer: "early today" sports is brought to you by just for men mustache and beard. keep your edge. willie wonka's little helpers celebrate a milestone. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. you'll meet a group of athletes who bring new meaning to the word limitless.

welcome back on this

wednesday. we have a chance of thunderstorms rolling through south florida this morning. we're also watching a batch of rain heading up the east coast right along the chesapeake. that will move into new england throughout the day. those are your travel trouble spots. i also want to give everyone a heads up for tomorrow because this storm system will move up to the great lakes, become a pretty powerful storm and will bring very windy conditions to areas especially from chicago right through indiana to southern end of lake michigan. you could have some huge waves to deal with and lake shore flooding. if you're watching us on wbal tv 11 in baltimore, maryland, learn about the chesapeake bay's most important residents that follow the blue crab. that's at maryland science center. that's your "early today" event of the day, lynn. i could take down 20 to -- >> those are yummy. thanks. here's an early look at today's headlines in entertainment. decision day for lindsay lohan who's headed back to court. according to reports, prosecutors will ask a judge to send the actress to jail for

violating the terms of her probation. this after lohan was booted from a women's center where she was doing community service for a necklace theft conviction. there are reports 25-year-old actor shia labeouf got into a violent altercation outside a vancouver bar last week. internet video has been circulating of a man resembling labeouf on the ground being repeatedly punched in the head by a drunken man. this is go you don't see every day. a little frightening, especially if you're like me, oompa-loompa hit the streets of new york to celebrate the an verse of the classic film "willie wonka and the chocolate factory". and pat triswaysy has been immortalized in wax at madame tussaud's. the late actor's widow was on hand for the unveiling. and finally, an interview clip of what appears to be harry

bellefonte sleeping during a live television interview has gone viral. a rep for the 84-year-old actor says his ear piece wasn't working, so he took it out and he was just meditating. bill does that all the time. you just can't see him off camera. this comes to us from wrc news 4 in washington, d.c. where a team of haitian earthquake survivors provided special motivation for a group of american heroes. as a way of saying thank you for u.s. earthquake assistance, the haitian amp tee soccer team put on a clinic for military service members who lost limbs in battle. using the game they love, team members preached encouragement, hoping their success stories will inspire america's wounded warriors on their long road to recovery. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

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this is the wednesday we've been waiting for, some of us dreading. we are going to get wet today, folks. it is wednesday, october 19th. i'm jim handly, in today for joe krebs. >> and i'm eun yang. welcome to "news 4 today" for this wednesday, october 19th, 2011. this morning we are learning new details about the man behind bars accused of killing his stepdaughter. 42-year-old david hang was

arrested yesterday. he's accused of killing 12-year-old jessica nguyen. she was found stabbed to death inside her gaithersburg home back in may. news 4 has learned that hang is a driver for the montgomery county ride-on bus system. investigators tell us hang had a lot of secrets. he was married to four women in montgomery county. he and jessica's mother were in the process of getting a divorce. neighbors tell us they're relieved that this case is closed. >> the fact that they've made an arrest is a little reassuring. i know a lot of people who didn't lock their doors before are locking their doors now. >> it feels good someone is behind bars now. >> hang is charged with first degree murder. police are calling a news conference at 11:00 this morning to release new information about the arrest. we'll be there. look for it on "news 4 midday" and our website, nbcwashington.com. also in montgomery county, the search for a missing boy has come to a sad end. investigators believe they f