and good morning, everybody. this is your "wake-up call" for monday, december 5th. i'm christine romans, carol has the morning off. newt gingrich, the one to watch in the gop race in a new nbc marist pole leading the pack in iowa but mitt romney is still ahead in new hampshire. although his support has dropped from only a month ago, less than 30 days from the first gop nominating contest in january. he's taking some time off. atlanta megachurch pastor eddie long made that announcement yesterday. he says he needs time to work on family issues. long's wife of 21 years vanessa filed for divorce on thursday. last spring long settled a lawsuit piled by four young men who accused him of sexual coercion. the u.s. and pakistan mending diplomatic fences after that nato air strike that killed two dozen pakistani troops. president obama called pakistan's president yesterday making clear the incident was not a deliberate attack on pakistan. both presidents agreed to stay in touch. let's get a quick check of today's weather. rob marciano is in atlanta. good morning, rob. >> cold weatherout west in between a bit of a mess and that's going to cause flooding issues. here's a look at the map. what you can expect monday. it pours in from canada, the cold air and there's your frontal boundary. a slow mover. here's how the rain shakes out. bull's-eye for potentially heavy flood threatening weather will be across the mid-mississippi valley. memphis will be the center of attention with several inches of rain, maybe over half a foot in spots. ahead of it today, mild 63 in d.c., meanwhile, 42 in chicago. on the back end of this system want storm warnings posted and the santa ana winds are blowing again. >> all right, thanks, rob. newt gingrich picking up late breaking momentum in the gop presidential race. in a new nbc marist poll gingrich surged to the top in iowa. competitors are catching up. romney support dropped from 45% to 39% and gingrich has 23%. 24% there. less than 30 days from the first gop presidential nominating contest in january. all right. now that herman cain is out of the white house race, the battle is on for the remaining gop candidates like romney and gingrich. who will get cain's endorsement and where will his supporters go? here's paul steinhauser. >> i am suspending my presidential campaign. >> the ride is over for the cain train but herman cain promises he'll still make an impact. >> i will be making an endorsement in the near future. >> new front-runner gingrich was quick to compliment him. >> i think he deserves a great deal of credit. big ideas he had and had the clarity to say it in a way that many millions of americans found them very, very positive. >> many tea party activists liked him and two candidates with support from the grassroots movement hope cain voters come their way. >> they're going to go somewhere in the next week or so. that's going to happen so i'm optimistic we'll pick up some votes from there. >> herman cain supporters have been calling our office and coming over to our side. i think part is because people see that i'm the tea party candidate in the race. they saw herman cain as an outsider and i think they see that my voice will be the one that will be most reflective of his. >> he was slipping in the polls and went from 23% support in late october to just 8% in a new des moines register set of numbers. his supporters may go to a bunch of candidates but the one who may benefit the most is gingrich who is surging at the right time. without cain in the race gingrich now stands at 28% in a new marist poll in iowa with mitt romney and congressman ron paul each at 19%. >> all right. atlanta megachurch pastor eddie long is taking time off. his decision was told yesterday. he will work on his family. this only days after long's wife vanessa filed for divorce. he did not say how long he would stay on leave. >> i haven't stepped down but stepped up. we're not hiding nothing or anything like that. i'm going to take a little time off to work with my family. >> bishop long is no stranger to controversy. four young men sued him accusing him of using his influence to lure them into sexual relationships. a highly classified u.s. stealth drone may be in the hands of iran. officials say they downed a drone after it invaded its airspace along the afghanistan border. officials confirming yes, one of their drones is missing. now iran is vowing an aggressive response. here's pentagon correspondent barbara starr with more. >> iranian authorities say they shot down a highly classified u.s. unmanned spy plane over its territory along its eastern border with afghanistan. iran says the drone they shot down is an rq-170. one of the most secret drones in the u.s. military and intelligence arsenal. a stealth drone that can fly largely undetected gathering intelligence and targeting information. so far the u.s. using the nato alliance in afghanistan to issue a statement is only saying "the uav to which the iranians are referring may be a u.s. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western afghanistan late last week. the operators of the uav lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status." that according to the statement. now, u.s. officials tell cnn the flight crew operating the drone did report a loss of flight controls before the drone went down. but they're not saying it was shot down and they're not saying it's an rq-170. the key question is shot down or not do the iranians have their hands on classified intelligence technology. if the iranians do, the u.s. knows it's not getting any of that back. barbara starr, cnn, washington. the cash-strapped united states postal service announces a new cost-cutting plan. first class mail would no longer be delivered the next day. the agency wants to change its national standard from one to three days to two to five. it's lost more than $5 billion and faces a deadline to make another $5.5 billion payment to it's health care retirement fund in two weeks. democrats will unveil a payroll tax cut compromise plan today. senate majority leader harry reid will introduce the proposal which extends a cut in payroll taxes used to pay for social security. a compromise between the dueling planning. no word yet on the specifics of the plan but democrats say the hefty $200 billion price tag would be fully paid for. a fierce of standoff between occupy d.c. protesters and police, this after protesters refused to take down a wooden structure. police moving in with a cherry picker forcibly moving occupiers who decided to cling to it. athena jones. >> reporter: after more than nine hours and at times tense standoffs, it has come to an end with 31 arrests. it began when police ordered demonstrators to take down a structure they erected overnight. there were safety concerns with the structure and it hadn't gone through the proper permitting process. demonstrators refused to take the down. several occupying it itself and others climbing on to the roof while holding on to the rafters for several hours and led chants with the crowd of demonstrators who have been in this park occupying it since early october. this is a park that is only a few blocks from the white house. so the standoff lasted all day. you had demonstrators throwing food and water. demonstrators throwing food and water to the occupiers who were on the structure itself. ultimately the police used ray cherry picker, a giant inflatable cushion, two ladders, various ropes and harnesses in order to get the occupiers off of the structure. it was at times a dangerous operation because the structure itself, we saw it swaying a little bit. there were concern at one point that some of the rafters might break but ultimately 31 people arrested at this occupy d.c. camp here only a few blocks from the white house. back to you. >> all right, athena jones in washington. a celebration of the art, the kennedy center honors five stars an it happened in washington. this year's honorees are barbara cook, neil diamond, sunny rollins, and yo-yo ma. president obama was on hand to toast these individuals. >> in the most amazing thing about yo-yo ma is that everybody likes him. you got to give me some tips. it's remarkable. >> tip number one he stays out of politics. the president also thanked the honorees for sharing their talents with the world. okay, still to come this morning new developments involving a violent attack at a mcdonald's. that tape and see if you agree with a new decision in this case. also, facebook reveals more of its plans for next year and definitely won't involve -- it definitely involves absolutely adding more people to the payroll. thousands of them. plus developing this hour out of japan a radioactive water leak at fukushima plant. progresso. it fits! fantastic! 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[ giggles ] it is almost 15 minutes past the hour. newt gingrich turning to the top of the heap. the former gop house speaker now the man to beat in iowa. a new nbc poll shows gingrich leading with 26%. mitt romney trails far behind at 18%. and you can count cain out. herman cain suspended his campaign sunday. dogged by a 13-long affair. a grand jury decided against indicting a mcdonald's worker. two women attacked a cashier over a payment dispute in october. even going behind the counter. that's when another employee swung a metal object at the women. in money facebook is hiring thousands of new workers. they are gearing up to go public. they anticipate rapid growth and is expanding its team to keep up. in sports the drought is over. tiger woods has finally won. he won his first tournament in two years. he captured the chevron world challenge yesterday just narrowly beating out zach johnson. first check of today's weather and rob marciano is in atlanta. drought over for tiger. >> that one count count. that's just a fall tournament with 18 guys that all get paid to show up. hopefully a good year next year. good morning. we are looking at rain across the midsection that will be slow-moving, here it is and how it's going to move which is very slowly across the next 48 hours, memphis and the midsouth are going to be under the gun for a flood threat over the next 48 hours, two to six inches in some cases of rainfall. on the western edge, plunge of more cold air across the inner mountain west. near blizzard conditions across parts of new mexico and more of santa ana winds, gusts of 60 miles an hour. 11 in denver. 58 degrees in new york city. if you are traveling on this monday morning we'll run down where you can expect flight delays in 15 minutes. christine. >> thanks, rob. talk to you again soon. syria faces new sanctions from the arab league, deadline is passed for syria to allow observers to monitor the response to protests. on sunday alone 22 more demonstrators were killed. le leona is live with more. good morning. >> reporter: we're just waiting to hear from the arab league how they'll progress with their demands. if sanctions go through they're stringent, the types of things they include is a freeze on government assets. a travel ban, ban on weapons shipments, cutting off business with the syrian central bank and government, a very wide range of sanctions and it's in conjunction with similar conjunctions from turkey as well as u.s. and other sanctions in place. we're waiting to hear how they will progress and if they give them any more leeway. >> will these sanctions have any impact, do we know? >> reporter: that's the question that everyone wants 0 know. we are getting some rumblings from the syrian government. over the past weeks we heard from the oil minister who has been speaking saying that they've had to cut back on oil production because of the u.s. and eu sanctions on oil exports and actively looking for other buyers for their oil because more than 90% of their oil was previously exported to europe. now they have to find buyers for that. and that's key income for them. that's a hard cash that they're not getting at the moment, christine. >> all right. leone lakhani. a new leak was discovered at fukushima. 12,000 gallons of contaminated water gushing from a purification facility. the plant's operator says some of that may have leaked into the pacific ocean. sandbags have since been used to stop the leak. still ahead, a big week for leaders hoping to solve the debt crisis in europe. and they're talking about a new strategy now, details in a live report from paris. did you know one in every 11 people will steal at least one item when they walk into a store this holiday season. 1 in 11. come on. we'll take a look at the top stolen items. congratulations. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations. because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon. as investors determine how to bet on the markets. voefrs are worrying about the european debt crisis and what it will mean for the euro, the currency and u.s. biggest destination for u.s. manufacturing goods is the euro-zone. the knack rose under 1 point, the european union scrambling to overcome this debt crisis. french president nicolas sarkozy and the german president angela merkel will meet today to discuss a possible new eu treaty. the big question, can the euro be saved? cnn nina dos santos is live in paris and, nina, i even hate to say scrambling to try to fix because merkel herself said this is a marathon that will take years and we know it is a long process. markets captivated by every footstep in that marathon. >> yeah, marathon instead of a sprint. what we're seeing is a sprint toward the final hurdle to get some kind of legislative framework in place to make sure that the 17 countries inside the euro-zone so those are the seven out of the 27 within the entire european union that share the common currency, the euro. the legislation at the moment they're trying to hammer out is try to get those countries to rein in their budget. now what we've got is this crucial summit between nicolas sarkozy and angela merkel, the leaders of france and germany trying to hammer out a initial framework that they put forward late he on this week. this is a pivotal week for them because on wednesday of last week, we had a very senior crack from brussels say wean/have ten days to solve the crisis to save it. so this marks an initial really crucial week for the year. we've got timothy geithner arriving here in just a couple of days from now and that usual meeting where merkel and sarkozy probably put forward the framework they agree upon at a lunch that will take place in about an hour and 15, christine. >> it will mean the countries will have to rein in their budgets, but what about technically? technically these countries have to maybe agree to a new framework under which to operate if the euro is going to go forward? >> reporter: yeah, this is very legally complicated territory here, it's also fraught with difficulties. essentially the european union because these are their own sovereign entities governed by a treaty of framework. they've been revised before. what angela merkel and nicolas sarkozy really want to do here in paris today is to put forward some kind of framework by which they can change the treaties with minimal disruption, let's say, without having the individual nations having to vote on them and referendums. what they want to do make sure these countries are automatically peenalized if they overspend greece, portugal so they won't need to have to bail them out. this is fast becoming a more than $1 trillion problem as it heads and threatens to head into 2012 and point out these two will come out for re-election in the next year and a year and a half for each of them, so they have two constituency, they have to solve things for the euro-zone but have to sell any new plans that they'll propose today to their own electorate as well because campaigning will start soon. >> nina dos santos in lovely -- no, you're in paris this morning, thank you. 'tis the season for gift giving and gift stealing? 1 in every 11 people will steal one item when they walk into a store this holiday season. the top three items they take, number one, meat, no joke, filet mignon and other grade "a" cuts and jamison irish whiskey and number three, electric tools like toothbrushes and power tools. all right. it's going to be a brown christmas for many tree farmers in texas. their record-breaking drought dried up thousands of christmas trees and texas received less than 11 inches of rain. now the once green firs are wilted and dead. many are importing trees from other states. still ahead, megachurch pastor eddie long stepping away. the united postal service wants to do away with next day letters that you send. atlanta's megachurch pastor eddie long taking time off but says he's not stepping down. the surprise announcement only case after his wife files for divorce. and good morning, this is your "a.m. wake-up call" for monday, december 5th, i'm christine romans, carol has the morning off. four weeks from tomorrow, four weeks if tomorrow the first votes of the 2012 campaign will be cast by a real honest to goodness voters in the iowa caucuses. looks like newt gingrich is on top. in new hampshire whose primary is the next week, romney is on top but it's getting closer. and in politics a few weeks can be a lifetime. took a cherry picker and a forklift but a day-long standoff between police and occupy wall street protesters is over. they were clinging to wooden structures in a washington park. police used a cherry picker to get them down. and a forklift then to destroy the structure. 31 people were arrested. the u.s. and pakistan mending diplomatic fences after that nato air strike that killed 24 pakistani troops. president obama called pakistan's president yesterday making clear the incident was not a deliberate attack on pakistan. both presidents agreed to stay in touch. let's get a first check of today's weather. rob marciano back with us. >> in the way of rain and snow. here it is. across the northeast seeing rain stretch into the great lakes region. it's making slow progress eastward so i think d.c. to boston at least today will be dry. tonight another story. indianapolis back through parts of texas will see not only rain but snow. back side of this certainly going to be cold and blizzard-like conditions across parts of new mexico. santa ana blowing. 63 in los angeles, 58, mild out ahead of it in new york city. fog there this morning. delays in philly and cincinnati and cleveland, you saw rain, maybe slowing travel there. at the ar