divisions on capitol hill, two rival plans now appear to be in the works. for more, we go to nbc's tracie potts in washington. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the bottom line this morning, still no deal here in washington. ever so close to this deadline for default. republicans, democrats, the white house, all working overtime this weekend to try to come to some agreement. president obama had top democrats at the white house working on their backup plan. john boehner, the house speaker, meeting with conservative republicans last night telling them that they need to be ready to compromise and deal with some changes from what they originally wanted. there are two different versions here. democrats looking to, in fact, insisting that we deal with all of these cuts through 2013. republicans saying they want to do it step by step, which could mean more negotiations before the 2012 elections. the big concern this morning, will the markets be spooked by all of this just over a week from the deadline? we're already seeing lower asian markets. and in an interesting twist, the high-level english official says that it's, in his words, the right wing nutters who are causing more of a threat to the world economy than problems in europe. amara? >> tracie potts in washington, thank you. the man accused in the massacre and bomb attack in norway is asking for an open court hearing so he can explain himself according to his lawyer. anders breivik is due to be arraigned today. this as a shaken nation mourns the 93 victims who died. emma murphy from our english broadcast partner itv reports. >> reporter: in a country struggling to comprehend the events of the past days, there are few rituals to bring comfort. but hour after hour in the driving rain, the people of norway have lit candles and laid flowers in memory of their dead. they seek solace together, but it is a terrible shared pain. some of those who were injured in the ireland attack joined with norway's king and queen at services to try and understand the massacre brought on this country. it was the worst peacetime attack norway has ever seen. prime minister stoltenberg whose friends have lost children struggled to contain his obvious distress. on the verge of tears, he told a stunned nation, every single one of those we have lost is a tragedy in itself. together, it is a national tragedy. and this is the man who says he caused such heartbreak -- anders behring breivik, a right wing extremist who admits the youth camp and the oslo bombing. that bombing targeted the heart of government, but it wasn't those in power who died. exactly how many were killed is still unclear. norway's death toll is already horrifyingly high. but there is a fear that it will rise again. many of the buildings behind me are still too unsafe to search and may contain more bodies. anders breivik says he acted alone. a one-man campaign that has left an entire nation questioning how they can move forward from here. emma murphy, itv news, oslo. now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. wedding bells rang throughout new york on sunday from the big apple to niagara falls. same-sex couples took the plunge taking advantage of landmark legislation that permits gays and lesbians to marry in the state. the first day of legalized same-sex marriages did have a few protests, but they fizzled quickly as scores of gay and lesbian couples said i do. new york is the sixth and largest state to allow same-sex marriage. hundreds turned out at california's imperial beach to watch a group of artists playing in the sand. each craftsman attempted to carve their place among elite sand sculptors, churning out amazing works of art. this year, 32 teams competed for a $21,000 grand prize. and finally in florida, several men did their best impersonation of ernest hemingway. the annual look alike contest at the hemingway days festival pitted over 100 clones of the famous writer against one another. the winner, a 63-year-old biomedical engineer said along with his looks, he shared hemingway's fondness for sport fishing and writing. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's bill kairns with the weather channel forecast. >> the key west memories, huh? >> it's amazing how many of them look just like ernest hemingway. >> if you go down there for a nice party weekend, can draw a crowd, right? a good place to spend a weekend. >> hopefully your weekend was all right. it was too hot in too many places. we still have a heat wave ongoing. it's just not gripping the whole country like it was when we left you on friday. now it's settled back down to where the drought is the worst into the middle of the country. still heat advisories and warnings from st. louis to tulsa back up south of kansas city. about eight states now have either advisories or warnings. compare that to 26 states when we went into the weekend. it's this very warm morning. still in the 80s. that's the thing about this heat wave. at night we're not cooling it off. you wake up and it's still stifling. still humid. heat index of 89 in d.c. 85 in nashville. we're not getting a lot of relief. but it won't be that peak heat during the late afternoon that we had over the weekend. today for a high, 82 in new york. compare that in the 90s for the last week straight. 84 in pittsburgh. that's where the relief is. still very hot from d.c. through the carolinas. look how hot in the west and midwest. oklahoma to dallas, easily above 100. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. along with the heat there will be typical afternoon thunderstorms. some of those storms we could see some downpours, especially as we go through the appalachians, through pennsylvania and central new york. still arriving in some of the big cities of the east also later today. the heat wave, this week, amara, starts in the middle of the country and will expand by the end of the week. >> here we go again. bill, thank you. how no debt deal is affecting markets. what ipo to look for on wall street this week. and what not to do when you think you've been sold a lemon. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, was it might or magic this weekend at the box office? a first at the tour de france. plus three now hall of famers and three walk-offs. you're watching "early today." good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm amara sohn. here are some of your top headlines this morning. according to "the washington post," a military-led investigation has concluded that u.s. taxpayer money has been indirectly funneled to the taliban. the report which focuses on a more than $2 billion transportation contract says there have been cases of money laundering and kickbacks given to afghan officials and police. secretary of state hillary clinton says a senior north korean official will visit the u.s. this week to discuss the possible resumption of long-stalled talks on ending pyongyang's nuclear program. sources say congressman david wu will not run for re-election but won't resign despite allegations the oregon democrat had an unwanted sexual encounter with a teenage girl. house democratic leader nancy pelosi is seeking an ethics investigation into the accusation. and astronomers have found the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected. the water is equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the earth's oceans. it surrounds a huge black hole more than 12 billion light years away. now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. a new study suggests many uninformed voters cast their ballots based on candidates' looks, especially frequent tv watchers. analyzing a broad previous study, researchers found among those least knowledgeable, a ten-point increase in a candidate's appearance yielded a much higher percentage boost in support from those who watched the most television. for more information on this and other health stories, check out the health page at msnbc.com. >> announcer: "early today" health is brought to you by vagisil cream. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,681 after falling 43 points on friday. the s&p gained 1 point, and the nasdaq rose 24. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei lost 82 points while in hong kong, the hang seng dipped 151. sign posts in the week ahead will point to where the economy may be headed for the foreseeable future. number one will be the debt ceiling deal or the lack of one. look for volatility on wall street to pick up the longer the stalemate lasts. in fact, already in overnight asian trade without a weekend deal, the euro gained against the dollar. the dollar fell to a four-month low against the yen. wall street futures fell, and gold hit a new all-time high. the most important data this week will be a first reading of u.s. growth for the second quarter expected to show the economy grew at the same meager rate as it did in the first quarter at 1.9%. sunday, treasury secretary timothy geithner was lowering expectations while stressing optimism things will pick up. still, one fund manager pointed out the ominous fact that since 1960, every time year on year growth has fallen under 2%, where we are so far for 2011, the economy has gone into recession. earnings will again be in focus. today we'll hear from netflix. tuesday, amazon. automakers ford and chrysler and u.p.s. thursday, exxonmobil. this week is loaded with 12 ipos. dunkin brands group will be the biggest. the average price of a gas jumped nearly 9 cents a gallon over the past two weeks. and finally, a massachusetts man angry the car dealer who sold him a lemon wouldn't take it back intentionally crashed into seven cars at the dealership causing an estimated $20,000 damage. the state consumer affairs office suggested he should have called their hot line. a bit too late, don't you think? a cyclist from down under comes up big. who is new in baseball's hall of fame? and almost every possible way to win in a walk-off. plus, the san diego outfielder makes about as good a catch as you'll ever see. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. a record-breaking heat wave is ending in the east. but the middle of the country, no relief for you. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." good morning. if you are just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, will there or won't there be a football season? here's nbc's mario solis with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> hi there. good morning. kwith every day, hour and minute, we get closer to an nfl season. the latest news coming yesterday with the players approving the owners' cba proposal. the only thing left is an official vote, and the nfl will be up and running later this week. baseball last week, roy halladay had to leave a game because of heat exhaustion. yesterday he was scorching hot, striking out eight over eight innings. but the play of the game was turned in by the padres' chris d'onofrio. the bomb to center and d'onofrio defusing it. takes away the sure home run from ibanez. unfortunately, not enough. phillies win, 5-3. reds and braves tied at three in the ninth. first batter and first pitch of the inning gone. drew stubbs ending it with the walk-off solo shot. lucky home run 13 for stubbs. reds win. cubs and astros tied at four in the tenth. marlon byrd with a fly ball to right. hunter pence, i got it, i got it, i don't got it. loses it in the sun. byrd is safe at third. that would come back to haunt the 'stros. a single down the line. in comes byrd. cubs walk off with the 5-4 win. from one walk-off to another, cubs and pirates. winning run on third. the deep fly ball. he delivers. sac fly scores xavier paul. effective. pirates win, 4-3. the baseball hall of fame inducted three new members. 12-time all-star and twice a world champ, roberto alomar, pitcher bert blyleven who is fifth all-time in strikeouts and the general manager of three world series winners, pat gillick. three new members there. a new member to the list of champions at the tour de france. australia's cadel evans became the first aussie to win the tour de france. brothers andy and fred schleck took second and third. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm mario solis. after a record-breaking weekend, a big falloff for "harry potter." your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, brutal, oppressive, almost inescapable heat in texas where it's been the worst. one group has found a way to beat that heat and find their center. you are watching "early today." welcome back. hope you had an enjoyable weekend. the heat wave, a little break for some areas today. but not all. the northern plains, still on the cooler side. 85 minneapolis. now we consider that cool after the heat wave. but that's not bad. same for you chicago. thunderstorms will be possible, cooling you off in d.c. hopefully later today. also the heat continues. dallas will have its 24th 100-degree day in a row today. one of the longest streaks in history. we're watching on wvit nbc connecticut, good old hartford, connecticut. dive into connecticut's river's past and find out why it's important to the ecosystem. that's your "early today" event of the day. >> all right, bill. thank you for that. here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. with "harry potter's" magic fading, "captain america: the first avenger" muscled its way to the top at the box office this weekend. "captain america" opened number one stronger than expected with over $65 million and a 64% male audience. was a fifth of five superhero movies opening this summer. all debuted in the top spot. "harry potter and the deathly hallows: part 2," the eighth and final installment in the boy wizard franchise dropped to the second spot with slightly less than expected, just over $48 million. its audience dropped a whopping 72% from its record-setting opening last weekend. the weekend's other big release, the romantic comedy "friends with benefits" starring justin timber like and mila kuniz, opened third also with slightly less than expected at $18.5 million. earlier this year, "no strings attached" an extremely similar romantic comedy starring ashton kutcher and natalie portman debuted with just under $20 million. "no strings attached"? what about true love or till death do us part? >> those would make $5 million. that's why they don't do those anymore. this comes from austin, texas, where on ladybird lake, some are using a unique exercise craze to help beat the heat. it's quite a change-up from the standard river row in paddleboard yoga. the group glides into the water hoisting their bodies and executing challenging moves balancing the board on water all while working your core. it isn't an easy task but once mastered, participants say they're able to calm, cool down and be at peace. i'm amara sohn. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. [captioning made possible by constellation energy group] and great news. the heat has broken at least the worst of it but it is humid. a cold front moving toward the area will kick off a instance of showers and storms. we have some thunderstorms on the eastern shore along the virginia side. some of it could hit near ocean city. the front will come through the ohio valley giving us more showers and storms but a big change in temperatures. we will have more details in the forecast. >> it is now 4:57. new york ouples in finally allowed to wed legally. how it is heating up in maryland. >> we have new information in the case of a missing seven-month-old boy in baltimore city. >> fiscal frustration over the debt limit. talks blow up again. i will explain coming up. >> we are tracking an early morning accident in hempstead. we will check for problems on the other roads. that is cat [captioning made possible by constellation energy group] >> good morning. happy monday. i'm mindy basara. we made it through the weekend. it was hard. >> i don't know how. >> will it cool off today? >> we are talking about a big change. it may not feel that way right now. it is humid and warm but changes are on the way. it is 70 --9