both the obama and romney campaign will focus on florida's aging voters at an aarp convention today. nbc's brian mooar joins us from washington with those details. brian, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. today the message pivots from immigration to medicare, from latinos to the aarp. the presidential campaigns are reaching out to older americans today, a day after the focus was on hispanic voters in the key battleground state of florida. at a candidate's forum on the univision spanish tv network, president obama expressed frustration he hasn't done more on a key issue for latinos, immigration reform. >> and the most important lesson i've learned is that you can't change washington from the inside, you can only change it from the outside. >> reporter: republican mitt romney pounced on that explanation. >> the president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. his surrender was, yes, we can. his slogan now is, no, i can't. this is time for a new president. >> reporter: but romney's tone has suddenly shifted. >> it's time to put the politics aside. >> reporter: that change follows a rough few weeks now showing in the latest nbc news wall street journal marist poll. the president now leading romney by 8 points in iowa and 5 points in colorado and wisconsin. and wisconsin, republican vp candidate paul ryan's home state, is one of the battle grounds the republicans need to keep in place. >> all right. brian mooar there for us in washington. brian, thank you. meanwhile, with just seven days to go before election day, the romney campaign is stumbling. former minnesota governor tim pawlenty has resigned as romney co-chair to become one of washington's top lobbyist. he will become head of the financial services roundtable on november 1st politico reports he'll earn $1.8 million a year. as a condition for his employment, pawlenty reportedly agreed not to run for office or accept any position in a potential romney administration. well, every year nbc news hosts week long meetings and discussions that include experts from around the country on ways to improve education in america. this year's education nation begins on sunday and nbc's danielle leigh has a preview from washington. >> reporter: new york city's public library will soon host the nation's leaders in education, government, business, philanthropy and media. >> thank you all for coming. >> reporter: more than 300 people all brought together by nbc to seek solutions to the biggest issues facing america's education system. >> we just think at nbc that we can shine a spotlight on what's working and share the results. >> reporter: for the summit's third year nbc spread out across the country from california to illinois, this time to find stories of innovation in the classroom. >> it's good for a news division to stand for something and we think education is a broad subject matter that doesn't get nearly enough attention by the traditional news media. >> reporter: nbc news journalists will highlight the programs that work. >> we are talking to teachers. discussions on ways to expand them to other struggling communities. >> as a country we want to be able to scale solutions, but this is a start. >> reporter: with the presidential election just weeks away, this year's education nation has taken on an even bigger role. >> we're so excited that we're going to have both president obama and governor romney participate in education nation. it's only fiing. >> reporter: fitting to attend a summit aimed at securing and shaping our nation's educational future. danielle leigh, nbc news. and we're going to have continuing coverage of education nation all across the platforms of nbc news beginning this sunday and continuing all next week. you can take part by visiting educationnation.com. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. a would-be robber in florida learned never bring a knife to a beer fight. convenience store workers stopped the knife-wielding suspect from stealing cash by hurling beer cans at him. they hit the robber with a few cold ones before he dropped the knife and cash on his way out of the store. police later arrested the man on robbery and battery charges. pretty scary stuff. twisted metal is all that remains after an oregon school bus collided with a commercial truck. a group of students had just been let off the bus only minutes before that crash happened. it took firefighters 20 minutes to remove the school bus driver before he was transported to a nearby hospital. and finally, who says kids could care less about politics? at age 18 aziz is running to become the mayor of california's 15th largest city. he's been interested in politics since he was 8 and worked on political campaigns since he was 14. despite no previous elected experience, aziz says he knows how to fix all of fremont's problems. well, now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is nbc's meteorologist dylan dreyer, she has your weather channel forecast. good morning. happy friday. >> happy friday is right. fridays so so nice, especially when the weather cooperates. we are looking at a few showers across the country. but for the most part, the west is seeing lots of sunshine. we could use some rain out that way. it has been extremely dry and with the wildfires out there, we are still dealing with a lot of smoke in the air. in general with high pressure still in control, there's just not a whole lot of rain in sight. no coastal storms trying to move onshore either. there's a cold front moving into the missouri and arkansas area, but to the west of that, high pressure is still in control, and that means not a whole lot of anything. it is going to be hot through vegas and into phoenix. we'll see temperatures well above 100 degrees. again, that high pressure producing more of an offshore wind, keeping things extremely hot. already 81 in phoenix. elsewhere in the 50s, 56 in seattle, 58 in portland and northern california is in the 50s as well. we are going to see temperatures today top out in the 60s and lower 70s in most temperatures 105 today in yuma, arizona. that's the latest check on your weather. >> dylan, thanks so much. coming up, oracle swings and misses. big corporations dodging taxes. at least one thing about the iphone 5 that is not fantastic. your early morning business headlines is straight ahead. plus paris hilton is back in the news for some not-so-nice things she had to say about gay men. two teams punch their ticket to the postseason. the giants dominate in carolina and tiger goes head-to-head with rory. 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. hundreds of pakistani protestors fought with police in islamabad thursday demonstrating against an anti-islamic film which they say denigrates the prophet muhammed. larger crowds are expected today. the american embassy in pakistan is running tv ads trying to reduce anti-american anger. in syria at least 54 people were killed when a jet fighter blew up a gas station during heavy fighting between the government and rebel forces. in cleveland, ohio, 16 amish men and women have been convicted of hate crimes for a series of haircutting and beard cutting attacks. a federal jury found the leader of a breakaway group and his followers guilty of last fall's attempt to shame other members of their community. "the new york post" reports brian kato kaelin, a key witness in the trial of o.j. simpson for murdering his wife nicole now says, quote, the statute of limitations has now passed so i can now say, yes, he did it, however, in another interview with tmz kaelin denied the statute of limitations comment and said he only thinks simpson committed the killing of his wife and friend ron goldman. and in china one very lucky woman could be seen dangling from the guardrail of a balcony eight floors high. lucky because she had fallen from a tenth floor balcony. firefighters got to her with a rope and she was safely lowered down a ladder to the ground. and now here's an early look at how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dow closed at 13,596 after adding 18 points yesterday. the s&p was down a fraction. the nasdaq lost 6. taking a look at overseas trading this morning. in tokyo, the nikkei gained 23 points while in hong kong the hang seng climbed 144. well, a fresh batch of unwelcome data dragged the markets thursday. weak manufacturing and employment numbers served as sobering news for investors on the heels of disappointing economic reports overseas. after the bell oracle traded lower on soft quarterly revenue. transportation stocks followed railroad norfolk southern lower after its earnings caution. on the first day of trade, online real estate site trulia soared 41% from its initial offering price of $17. walmart has pulled amazon's kindle off shelves as competition heats up between big box stores and the online retailer. a senate panel investigating the corporate tax code says microsoft and hewlett-packard used offshore units and tax loop holes to shield billions of dollars in profits from u.s. taxes. both companies say their strategies are legal. a new chemical analysis finds virtually all tar balls washing up in alabama since hurricane isaac are directly linked to the bp oil spill. the trustee paying claims for bernard madoff's $17 billion ponzi scheme says so far $2.5 billion has been returned to victims. apparently undeterred by widespread complaints about apple's new map app, customers snapped up the first iphone 5s overseas this morning. and finally, at this year's mad science mecca, two japanese researchers received the 2012 ignoble prize for their speech jamming device which echoes your voice back to you with a slight delay. only slightly annoying. well, coming up, the giants crush the panthers, tigers tied for the lead and two major league teams clinch playoff spots. plus, a grand slam blasts the yankees into a one-game first place lead. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and we're going to see more showers across the great lakes region. sunshine everywhere else. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." have you heard of the new dialing procedure for the 408 and 669 area codes? no, what is it? starting october 20, 2012, if you have a 408 or 669 number, you'll need to dial 1 plus the area code plus the phone number for all calls. o.k., but what if i have an 408 number and i'm calling a 408 number? you'll still need to dial 1 plus the area code plus the phone number. so when in doubt, dial it out! good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports, last night the new york giants didn't let a few injuries keep them down routing the carolina panthers. here's nbc's mario solis with an early look at all your sports headlines. hi there. good morning. some great baseball games to show you, but we begin with the nfl where the giants hit the field in carolina without three of their offensive starters and they didn't miss a beat. check out eli manning, very first drive of the game takes the giants 80 yards down the field and then hooks up with martellus bennett for the 14-yard touchdown. manning finishing with 288 yards and a touchdown on the night. also a big night for rookie running back andre brown rushing for 113 yards and two touchdowns. giants roll 36-7 over the panthers. now to baseball where the yankees had a chance to take a one game lead in the a.l. east over the orioles who had the day off. let's go to the bronx. yanks hosting the blue jays, and ichiro stays hot after his seven-hit performance on wednesday. in the second he rips a solo shot off of aaron laffey to pull new york within a run of toronto. then in the fourth, nick swisher puts this game out of reach blasting a grand slam off of brad lincoln. his 21st homer of the season. yankees score 7 in the inning and win it 10-7. they now lead baltimore by a full game in the east. in chicago the reds became the first team in baseball to clinch a playoff spot. rookie henry rodriguez breaks the game open in the seventh inning with his two-run double. the first two rbis of his career. reds beat the cubs, 5-3. in washington, the amazing turnaround story for the nationals continues. they also clinched a playoff spot beating the dodgers 4-1. for the first time since fdr was president, there will be postseason baseball in our nation's capital. and in golf, first round of the tour championship in atlanta, everyone trying to beat rory mcilroy, and tiger woods is in a good position to do just that shooting a 4 under par 66 to tie for the lead on thursday. he'll start today's second round three shots ahead of mcilroy. that's an early look at sports on "early today." i'm mario solis. well, which singer was busted at the border with drugs? and which new film will finish atop at the box office this weekend? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, another big day for the couple all of america roots for. you're watching "early today." dry weather continues in the west with lots of sunshine. temperatures cool in casper, wyoming at 40 degrees. we'll see temps warm up, 81 in billings, phoenix, 103. still looking for smoky conditions interior oregon and washington state because of area wildfires. as we start off your weekend, a little foggy in seattle, 65. elsewhere lots of sunshine and pretty warm, too. if you're watching us on kgw news channel 8 in portland, oregon, see why the columbia river bar is among the passages. that's your pacific event of the day. i guess apparently in that area 200 large ships have sunk. >> really? thank you. fun fact. now here's an early look at today's headlines in entertainment. there is at least one texas border crossing that musicians might want to try and avoid. singer fiona apple spent wednesday night in jail in the same border town that busted willie nelson and snoop dogg on drug charges. small amounts of hashish and marijuana were found on her bus. well, paris hilton is in damage control after radar online released a 50-second clip of a recording reportedly made by a new york cab driver in which hilton calls gay men, quote, disgusting and further says, again quoting, most of them probably have aids. well, at the box office this weekend the horror film "house at the end of the street" should top a crowded but ho hum field with roughly $18 million. "trouble with the curve" with clint eastwood and amy adams should open at about $15 million. "dread 3d" based on the same english comic as the 1995 sylvester stallone vehicle should debut with around 12 million. and, finally, "end of watch" with jake gyllenhaal as an l.a. cop should open with also about 12 million. this comes to us from kvoa news 4 in tucson, arizona, where nasa altered a flight plan to honor the last commander of the space shuttle "endeavour." with the spacecraft being home to its final home, nasa made a detour over mark kelly's home city, to honor a request made by his wife, gabby giffords. he wanted her to see the shuttle one last time. there they are in awe of it. officials approved the request as a way of thanking the couple for their commitment to the space agency. great story there. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. well, chefs in china better watch their back. they have some steep competition there. a college cafeteria has employed a robot chef to more efficiently whip up a popular chinese dish. the machine can make noodles three times as fast as a human can and costs half as much as a real chef's salary. the robot even comes outfitted with a chef's uniform and sunglasses. so he looks extra cool. well, in canada, blowing bubbles was taken to a whole new level. busting a guinness world record, a bubble artist created this soap bubble large enough to hold 181 people. the group had to, of course, stand very still, and using a special contraption to make a giant bubble, it only lasted just enough to capture the record. and finally, one fashion show in london was star studded, kind of. katy perry, elton john, and queen elizabeth appear to have attended the event. only catch, they're fakes. a spoof photographer set up a faux fashion show in which the celebrity look-alikes are the observers. it's a satire on celebrity culture in the fashion world where who's watching is just as important as who's on display. look at the queen there. she's too important to stand up. she gets to stay seated. >> even though they're fake, i still feel like that's pretty intimidating for the models. i mean, they looked legit. >> they did look legit, that's true. like the wax figures. >> well, time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day on nbc. the house ethics committee will hold a hearing in the case of congresswoman maxine waters. the california democrat disputes allegations she tried to steer u.s. bailout money to a bank where her husband owns stock. the hearing indicates the committee is nearing a conclusion in its investigation. waters maintains she's innocent. the so-called fifth or extra page of the u.s. constitution will go on display at the national archives for the very first time today. the showing, which lasts through monday, is time to celebrate the document's 225th anniversary next week. and happy birthday to actor bill murray. he turns 62 today. all day long you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and more as they break on msnbc. and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." and, finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. after disappearing with a convicted murderer for over a decade, bobby parker speaks publicly for the first time. and actress maggie gyllenhaal will be live on the plaza to talk about her new movie "won't back down." and now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports, and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station. have a good one.