presidential delegation to the games. jim acosta is live in london. you got through the traffic. great to see you. >> i did, yes. s traffic is brutal here. london has done something interesting to move the traffic along. traffic is brutal here. london has done something interesting to move the traffic along.traffic is brutal here. london has done something interesting to move the traffic along. the basically shut down the lanes for everybody else. so if you're in a taxi, you're with everybody else so not easy to make the live shot. but, yes, mitt romney is waking up to pretty brew hutal headlin. i know you're a big beatles fan. or at least i think you are. nowhere man romney loses his way with gaffe about the games. that's one of the headlines here in the "times." this other one, i hope we can say this it on american television, who invited party pooper romney. that is the headline in the "daily mail."

so it just goes on and on like that. so a tough 24 hours for the gop contender. all of will started when he gave the interview when he said we don't know how the games will it turn out, some of the problems have been disconcerting. david cameron took issue, said some brutal things of his own and then romney came out of his meeting with cameron praising the preparations for the olympic games. so whatever the british word is for wood shed is, that might have been where romney was taken yesterday during his meeting with david cameron. but an interview with pierce who are begapiers morgan, he also td about how he thinks the games will be awho are piers morgan, he also talked about how he thinks the games will be a success. >> you've been criticized on the enthusiasm. are you feeling it? >> i'm delighted to see the kind of support that has been around the torch, for instance. i watched last night on bbc an entire program about the torch

being run across great britain and the kind of crowds i guess millions of people that turned out to seat torch. that's what you hope to see. >> and the word on the street here in london was not pretty. boris johnson, who is the mayor of london, was appearing at a rally yesterday of 60,000 londoners here to celebrate the opening of the owe him tick g o. and here's what he had to say about what romney said. >> i here there's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? yes, we are. >> oh, no. >> yeah. so needless to say, they're dubbing this romney shambles here in london. he'll have a chance to repair some of the damage tonight.

he'll be at the opening share monies and then heads off to israel tomorrow. >> the brits can't vote in our election. so it's not like he's losing votes in london. but i do not think that these were the headlines he was hoping for. this was supposed to be a lay up for mitt romney and when he's waking up to headlines like this, it must not make them too happy. jim, great to see you live in person. we'll talk to you again in a little bit. >> you bet. 5 past the hour. security obviously top priority in london right now with thousands of world class athletes and 100 heads of states on hand for the games. prime minister david cameron saying he is confident that the games will be successful and that they will be safe. there are 18,200 troops participating in the security. that's double the british presence in combat in afghanistan and fighter jets are on standby. the torch is making its final

approach toward the olympic stadium right now under heavy guard before the huge opening ceremonies scheduled tonight. amanda davies is live in london. i was listening to an interview where they said there is a no-fly zone over london and if you violate it, they will take you down. >> reporter: yes, welcome to the olympic park. this is what we've been waiting for for seven years and there's been seven years of an awful lot of planning for this. p but it has to be said we are day 70 of 70 of the torch relay, the final countdown. and the mood here really is one of excitement and pride and anticipation. but after the ringing of bells at 8 minutes past 12, big ben was striking and they were encouraging people to ring any bell they could. bicycle bells, door bells. we had a bell here on our balcony. just getting involved.

getting excited about what's to come here in london over the next couple of weeks. the torch relay set off from hampton court palace, fantastic setting with the olympic champion, olympic rower carrying the flame. and then went on to the royal barge that was used during the jubilee celebration, 16 rowers rowing the flame on a caldron down the thames for its final journey. it will then disappear into city hall in london the around lunchtime here and then well not see it again until the big party scheduled here tonight behind me at the olympic stadium. and as you would imagine, the papers are getting very excited. is this the front page of the guardian. time to find out who we are. this is the front page of the daily mirror, ring it on, for

get the 9.2 billion, talking about the negative things, but now the time to enjoy it, and then the sun, bond, beatles, the baked bean, brilliant. the big question everybody is asking is who is going to light t flame here in the stadium. and we know so little about the ceremony despite so many people being involved. >> we were hoping that you could shed some light on that little secret, so we'll continue checking in with you. thank you so much. amanda davies live for us. >> i can't wait to find out. we'll see it here on tape delay hours after it happens. it was a tuf night, people from connecticut to ohio cleaning up after strong storms knocked out power to hundreds of customers. a team will try to determine in f. a tornado struck in elmira. this thing was pretty rough last night.

>> reporter: it was. boy, the line of storms, guys, at one point around 6:00, 7:00 eastern time stretched all the way from hartford, connecticut back through dallas. so 1700, 1800 miles of almost destructive weather. elmira got hit the hardest. that's the only report of a tornado that we had. most were of damaging winds. but certainly a fair amount of lightning. across new york city, gotham got ugly clouds roll in just around sunset and all broke loose right over central park and the hudson. so everybody getting a piece of it in the tri-state area. thousands of lightning strikes to put a scare into you, as well. here's a look at the storm reports across the country yesterday. over 300 wind reports anywhere from 50 to over 70-mile-an-hour wind reports yesterday. let's look at what we can expect

as far as current radar. we will see storms refire today. here's where we expect to see the strongest storms. actually new york and boston, you may see some storms today, but the bulk of the heaviest action will likely be across the carolinas and the mid-atlantic, including the del mar have a. d.c. also will be in the line of fire.have a. d.c. also will be in the line of fire. this pretty strong storm system, guys, for late july comes through and at least breaks some of the heat that the eastern third of the country has been enduring. p so i suppose that's some of the good news, but some fireworks in the making, as well. we'll talk more about olympic park. olympics were here in atlanta back in 1996, so why not broadcast live outside the cnn studios today. >> it is fitting. thank you very much, rob. the tough storms last night, you slept right through them. >> i didn't hear a they think and i only knew they were coming because you warned me. thank you very much, rob. it's ten past the hour. attorneys for one of jerry sandusky's victims have released two voice mail recordings they

say the convicted predator left on their client's answering machine. cnn cannot endly verify the authenticity of the recordings. however, the attorneys for victim number two claim the calls were made less than two months before the former penn state assistant coach was arrested in 2011 on child sex abuse charges. listen. >> just calling to see, i don't know whether you had any interest in going to the penn state game this saturday. uh, if you could get back to me and let me know, i would appreciate it and when you get this message, uh, give me a call and i hope to talk to you later. thanks. i love you. >> attorneys for victim number two say they intend to file a civil suit against penn state. a spokesman for the university wouldn't comment on those voice mails, but did say the school is taking the case very seriously. the federal government is cracking down on the synthetic drug industry. 90 suspects in 30 states arrested yesterday as part of an

effort dubbed operation logjam. almost 5 million packets of fake pot and nearly 167,000 packages of bath salts were seized along with $36 million in cash. dea, fbi, i.c.e., and irs agents all took part in the raids. ford is recalling 421,000 escape crossover suvs in the united states. this is part of a worldwide recall totaling 485,000 vehicles. that recall affects 2001 through 2004 model escapes with a v 6 begin and cruise control. ford says it needs to fix a problem with the cruise control cable. the cable can get stuck when the gas pedal is pressed almost all the way down causing unintended acceleration. and it could even happen when the vehicle's cruise control feature is not engaged. the dr. convicted in michael jackson's death has offered an invitation to the singer's mother, katherine jackson. through his lawyers, murray has

invited mrs. jackson to visit him in jail to answer any questions she might have. in a statement he said he would be happy to meet with the mother of a man he calls a very dear departed friend. a representative for katherine jackson says he doubts she will take murray up on his offer. she's got a lot going on right now. >> yes, she does. a driver with a hair trigger. police in ft. lauderdale releasing will video that shows a driver, gets out of his bmw and starts shooting at the man who was driving the ford truck behind him. >> yeah, he got out and starts shooting at a guy tailgating. >> this was in broad daylight in a residential neighborhood. he gets back in his car, takes off. one bullet did pierce the truck. luckily no one was shot. police are now looking for that shooter. >> scary. you always worry about when you upset someone on the road what

could happen. they said she would never walk again, but they were wrong. check this out. coming up, a real life bionic woman who is giving hope to those with paralyzing injuries. ♪ why not try someplace different every morning? get two times the points on dining in restaurants with chase sapphire preferred. the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really. i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good. [ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months, no one needs to know how easy it was to get your new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering. to get your new volkswagen. this is new york state.

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going on in the papers around the country this morning. an early read on your local new as. we'll start in new jersey where one of two new jersey state troopers facing disciplinary action for escorting exotic cars on a high speed caravan has resigned. what happened here is the cops were escorting these classic cars almost speed racers, classic ferraris and other nice car, they were going 100 miles an hour down the garden state parkway, and it was filmed by a couple guys on youtube. probably not a good idea to lead these joy riders down the highway at 100 miles an hour. one of the people was brandon jacobs. football player for the giants. one of the cops resigned. it is a big scandal in jersey. let's move on. another chick-fil-a story. the mayor of san francisco has a message for chick-fil-a, he says keep out. he's joining boston and chicago.

this comes to us via the "los angeles times." chick-fil-a's president started all this by saying his atlanta-based chicken chain operates on biblical values and opposes same-sex marriage. he's taking a lot of heat and he's having a lot of problems. san francisco's mayor tweeting very disappointed which i can pi lay doesn't share san francisco's values and strong commitment to equality for everyone. so the closest chick-fil-a for san francisco is 40 miles away and i strongly recommend they not try to come any closer. >> i have a really nice story to tell you about from oklahoma city. you have to check out this woman in a bionic suit. this is 31-year-old sarah anderson, she was paralyzed from the waist down when she was in an accident with a drunk driver. but this bionic suit is helping her walk. one of 14 facilities in the

country there where this this works and you can see her walking with the help of this suit. >> can you you imagine that? that is incredible. for somebody who thinks they'll never walk again to be able to do that, that's just amazing. >> really terrific and we're very happy for her. 20 past the hour. for an expanded look at our top stories, head to cnn.com/early start. >> we want to get you up-to-date on the news all around the country and the world this morning. the opening ceremonies just hours away from london. 100 heads of state and 18,000 troops on hand for the start of the summer olympics. the queen is expected to kick things off and sir paul mccartney lined up to perform tonight. >> and rebel forces in syria's largest city taking heavy fire from government helicopter, gun ships overnight. fighting reportedly intense in damascus, as well. opposition observers say more

than 200 people were killed yesterday. more than 40,000 syrians have fled to turkey where they're living living in refugee camps. and nfl is launching a health program called nfl total wellness. it includes confidential mental health telephone hotline and a website will be available to players 24 hours a day. they're retired 300 plus pound, they need to stay healthy. facebook did better than expected in its first earnings report. doesn't necessarily mean good news about if you own some of it stock. we'll explain coming up. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more cash. [ russian accent ] 50% more rubles.

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we're minkd your business this morning. we want to check in on the markets. after a solid rally, u.s. stock futures are up just a bit this morning. at 8:30 a.m., we'll find out gdp numbers for the second quarter. economists surveyed say the economy grew at the slow rate of 1.4% and there is a lot of attention on this report because we're expecting revisions on gdp all the way back to president obama's first months in office. >> and facebook stock down to new lows overnight. even after the company earnings beat analyst estimates. but the numbers didn't impress investors. and executives did not layout

any predictions for future quarters. facebook stock down about 9% in pre-market trading. so we'll be watching that for you. >> and mortgage rates just keep dropping. new record lows announced again yesterday. the average 30 year fixed rate now less than 3.5%. 15 year at 2.8%. that's according to freddie mac. it is a great time to check into refinancing. get these loans if you qualify, that of course the hard part. and j.c. penney changing its pricing strategy yet again. starting this august, you'll see lower prices on a large amount of merchandise in the stores. instead of marking down prices one month at a time or just a few times. see about it works. >> all right. they are the coolest cities in the country and we're not talking about the weather. we're definitely not talking about the weather. our nation's capital is on the list. but it's not number one.

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it is the last leg for the olympic torch with the opening ceremonies just hours away. trouble with the tread. hundreds of thousands of truck and van tires on a recall list. a police officer caught on camera in a compromising position. it has already cost him his job. welcome back.

happy friday. >> we're happy you're with us this morning. 30 past the hour. game's on. the stadium is ready, the athletes are ready and in just a few hours, the summer games will officially begin. the royals greeted the torch yesterday. a billion people around the world expected to watch the $42 million spectacle and there will be british and rock royalty. we still don't know who will light that big flame. amanda davies is live in london. lots of speculation about. i was just talking to john, he says they're all a twitter over perhaps it being beckham. what do you know? >> reporter: well, i think i can tell you it's not going to be david beckham. i don't know. i did get to speak to him earlier this week and i got the impression he might not be the final person holding the flame. but he did certainly say to me that he thinks with a cheeky grin on his pace that there is a

flame involved with what he is doing. has to be said the rain has started to fall here in london. i know in beijing they fired clouds into the sky, didn't they. you could think that this rain here is part of an elaborate plan that danny boyle has concocted, but sadly i don't think that is the case. it is just sadly bad timing becauses's been the most glorious weather here in london for the last few days. but it is raining. there's a lot of names being bantered around for that final honor of lighting the flame in the stadium. a lot of people suggesting that they would like to see the queen have the honor. some people talking about steve redgrave, the five time olympic gold middlest. there was a bit of odds suggesting it might be sir roger bannister, the first man to run the four minute mile.

but i think danny boyle deserves the medal to have gotten us to this part. he's had two rehearsals in 60,000 people. but using that #save the surprise seems to have incredibly worked. >> it has. but it's nice because it builds all of the excitement. thank you very much. we'll check in with you again. >> and we're talking about early looks at what's going to happen. we have an early look at what some of our american athletes will be wearing tonight. we've been talking about the uniforms and see mock ups of them, but now some of the athletes actually wearing them and pretty famous ones, too. carmelo anthony on the right tweeted out this picture of himself and that's devon durant from the oklahoma city thunder. this is what they look like in their outfits. >> how do they look, what do you think? >> you know what i think . i'm not so hot on the berets.

but they of course look very nice. >> if they were wearing a baseball cap, you'd be happy with that? >> totally what's american about a beret? rob has a look at today's weather. some rough weather overovernigh. >> thumbs up or thumbs down for the beret? >> no, i totally agree. when's the last time you saw a beret in the american streets? on main street. maybe in new york or l.a., maybe. >> but i like the way they look. all right, guys. >> thank you, rob. >> they g. look good, but it's not american. let's talk about your olympic park here, 1996, olympics held in atlanta in this park. sadly you remember the bombing, that happened on this day 16 years ago. let's talk about the london p olympics and the weather forecast for today and the ceremonies tonight. not too shabby. but there's a slight chance for

seeing a shower or two. but i think those chances diminish as we get closer to evening. so a sprinkle or two this morning or this afternoon which is where they are right now, but london time tonight, 68 degrees, i think we'll be okay. maybe a spritz. i'm not sure that's how they say it over there, but here's the forecast for the next three days. typical london stuff. heat for the most part is gone. slight chance of seeing a shower or two. temperature it is in the 60s. state side as you mentioned, we had rough weather overnight. lots of damage in pennsylvania, indiana, connecticut, new jersey. mostly the storms will be sinking to the south as the two fronts combine and eject off toward the east. it will break some of the heat, as well. so the heelt breaking for the olympics and also in some cases here for the u.s. there's some of the damage there in elmira, new york. the only tornado reported

yesterday. we had 300 wind reports and that's what we thought would happen and there were damaging wind gusts, 60, 70 miles an hour knocking out power to at one point hundreds of thousands of people across parts of the northeast. guy, toss it back over to you. when i come across a beret, i will wear it in honor of today's ceremonies. >> i'm sending you one. >> i don't think i'll find one. 36 past the hour. mitt romney not exactly bringing home the gold for political correctness. the former massachusetts governor stepping on toes in london. questioning the uk's passion for the games and characterizing security for the olympics and disconcerting. prime minister david cameron pushing back insisting it is much easier to hold an olympics in the middle of nowhere, a dig at romney's role in the salt lake city games. romney softening his tone and emif a emif a fphasizing the positive s interview with piers morgan. >> you've been slightly criticized for knocking the

british enthusiasm. are you feeling it now? >> well, i'm delighted to see the kind of support that has been around the torch presence. i watched last might on bbc an entire program about the torch being run across great britain and the kind of crowds i guess millions of people that turned out to seat torch. that's what you hope to see. >> they also talked politics. romney says he is disturbed by what he sees as a growing tendency in america to resent success. >> there are people who are trying to attack success. and are trying to attack our success. that's not going to be successful. when you attack success, you have less of it thachbd's what we've seen in our economy over the last few years. dividing america based on who has money and who doesn't, who is successful, who is less successful, that is not the american way. >> after taking in the start of the london game, romney heads to israel and then poland next

week. slowly and painfully people in colorado are beginning to piece their lives back together one week after the aurora massacre. reverend jesse jackson was on hand yesterday comforting mourners at a memorial. he called the tragedy an act of domestic terrorism and called for a ban on assault weapons. yesterday it was also a time to mourn micayla medek. she was one of 12 killed in the shooting rampage and friends remembered her vibrant spirit. >> there's so much sadness and grieving. it is evident that we are all hurt willing. but it's because her physical presence is no longer with us. she's filled our hearts with nothing but love and although we cannot see her, she is with each of us. >> yesterday police took down the crime scene tape at the apartment complex with the

suspect james holmes lived and residents began moving back in. a police officer in melbourne, florida, has been fired and is facing seven misdemeanor charges after being caught on tape picking up prostitutes with his patrol car. and he wasn't arresting them either. police used dash cam video from the officer's own patrol car along with surveillance cameras to make their case. in this clip here, police say a known prostitute is seen emerging from the passenger's side of the officer's car while he gets out of the driver's side without his shirt on. can you see that there? he then proceeds to put his police uniform back on. >> interesting police work. with the camera in his own car, they caught some of this. >> part of the stupid criminal bio. >> absolutely. michelin is launching a recall on more than 840,000 bf goodrich and uniroyal tires because of faulty treads. they were manufactured between april 2010 up to this very

month. they were sold as replacements for commercial light trucks and full size heavy duty vans. the tread can separate causing rapid air loss. michelin says the problem has been spotted in less than 150 tires and that no deaths or injuries thankfully have been reported. so houston, we have a problem with just being too darn cool. can you remember it? the city of houston earned the top spot on forbes list of the coolest city to live. forbes saying the economy is booming down there with 50,000 americans flocking there for jobs. the median age of a resident, youthful 33. in second place, the nation's capital. number three, los angeles. number four, dallas. and seattle rounding out the top five. >> two cities in texas. >> moral of the story, move on texas. >> obviously written by someone from texas. it's like 130 degrees down there

and the humidity. but it's cool in its own way. the race for the white house is heating up and it's something like an olympic sprint. it's a golden opportunity for the winner, but there will is no silver medal for the loser. take a look at campaign 2012 through the eyes of an olympic geek, me, coming up. [ cellphone rings ] the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really. i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good. [ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months, no one needs to know how easy it was to get your new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering. ♪ to get your new volkswagen. you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem.

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imagine if mitt romney and president obama were running barefoot on the beach with all those british athletes. it doesn't sound realistic, but obama and romney are like modern day decathlites. they have to do it all. and only the gold medal counts. the 2012 games do not feature golf or jet skiing as official events. so neither president obama nor mitt romney will compete in london. but that doesn't mean they don't have their own games. no, they have the political olymp olympics. take the hurdles. mitt romney had on get over his foes just to get here. rick santorum ended up with the

silver. >> and well suspend our campaign effective today. >> reporter: pole vault. the latest "wall street journal" nbc poll showed the president vault to go a six point lead. synchronized diving. even without the speedos, both medal in precision reputation. >> middle class. >> create jobs. >> create jobs. >> while we're in the pool, a politician's least favorite event, the backstroke. former new hampshire governor john sununu just visited the podium after saying the president needed to learn how to be an american. check out his backstroke. >> frankly i made a mistake. i shouldn't have used those words and i apologize for using those words. >> weightlifting. mitt romney better have big arms to lift the bags of money his campaign has raked in. finally, if there's one olympic sport our leaders know all too well, it's gymnastics. not all of them can handle the

flips. but today's crop is adept at the verbal gymnastics. the con torsions, turns and, yes, the twists. >> he's been twisting my words around to suggest that i don't value small business. >> opposition people look for anything they can find to distort, twist and make negative. >> with all that twisting, let's got these guys on the balance beam. meanwhile, we can only hope they don't discover beach volleyball. america couldn't bear the outfits. >> beach volleyball is a very important sport. of course if you're wonder whog some of the real political athletes are out there, gary johnson running as a third party former governor of new mexico, he has run the iron man triathlon a few times. he's the real deal. my favorite political athlete of all time is ralph metcalf, a congressman from georgia in the '70s. he won the silver medal when jesse owens won the gold in 1936

and he actually gold medaled on the relay team. >> i didn't know that. >> so fantastic. >> that is very clever. i like that. ann romney said her issues a runner. i don't know if he officially runs. >> to stay fit. >> just for a little exercise. but anyway, thank you for you that. very nice. 48 past the hour. we'll get you up-to-date now. we have our top stories for you. the final countdown begins to the opening ceremonies in london. there are thousands of top athletes, hundreds head wills of state, 18,000 troops on hand for the start of the summer olympics. the queen is expected to kick things off and paul mccartney is lined up to perform. >> mitt romney is in london as the games get under way. some british papers blasting him this morning after he he told nbc new that's found london's last minute preparations disconcerting and he also questioned their enthusiasm. he did not repeat that last night with piers morgan.

>> it's fabulous. i've never been to an olympics before i was given the olympic job. i've done the same thing everyone else did, i've watched them on tv. but to be here and experience not just the athletes but also the volunteers who are working hard and excited. and then the whole community comes together. it's fabulous. >> feeling the enthusiasm thousand. david cameron also seemed to take a swipe at romney saying optica obstacles are inevitable when it's held in a busy city rather than in the middle of nowhere. romney helped with the 2002 olympics in salt lake city. and there is still no sign of two young iowa girls missing now for nearly two week. police in evans dale believe elizabeth collins and lyric morrissey were abducted. they think those little girls are still alive. elizabeth turns nine this weekend and her parents say they're going ahead with the

birthday party they planned with her before she vanished. protesters disrupting a chick-fil-a grand opening in california. demonstrators angry with the ceo saying he opposes same-sex marriage. a group of chick-fil-a fans have been camping out overnight for a chance to win free meals for a year. but the protest forced the company to change its plans and send those campers home. 50 past the hour. singer, dancer, fashion icon, add one more for lady gaga. >> i thought you were talking about me. >> we'll have all the details coming up. but if you're leaving the house right now, you can watch us anytime right on your desktop, mobile phone, just go to cnn.com/tv. just don't watch and walk. this happy couple used capital one venture miles

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53 past the hour. welcome back. we're taking a look at what is trending on the web this morning. mother monster has her first movie role. i guess she calls her fans little monsters, right? lady gaga has been cast in the machete sequel. she will play a character, she's in lingerie wearing a wolf in a movie poster. but she has pretty impressive cast members joining her. mel gibson, havecuba gooding, j oig, one of my favorites. charlie sheen rumored to be cast playing the president. >> sounds like a family film. five guys out west with a fantastic prediction. they used to get together at this lake in california starting in 1982 and they snapped a

photo. and what they did is every five years they would go back and they snap a photo in the same exact pose, same five guys. same pose. you can see how they age a little bit over the years. it's really amazing. they try to strike the same exact pose. get a little older, a little bigger. but they say they're going to do it every five years until they die. >> that's a great idea. nice tradition. very nice tradition. all right. coming up, this morning's top stories including the biggest event in the world. we are live ahead of today's opening ceremony of the london games. you are watching early start. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news.

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the final countdown. just hours away for the opening ceremonies for the london olympic games. >> the attacks that come by people who are trying to knock down by business career or my olympic experience or our success, those attacks will not be successful. >> mitt romney talking to piers morgan and trying to hang tough amid a rocky trip so far overseas. left powerless. tens of hows from the plains to new england waking up without lights after a round of strong storms that may have spawned at least one tornado. good morning to you. and welcome to early start. >> it is 6:00 a.m. in the east. also this morning, hundreds of thousands of suvs are being recalled morning for unintended acceleration. fand out if yours is on the list. that's just ahead. plus the doctor convicted in

michael jackson's death is reaching out to jackson's death reaching out to the late king of pop's mother. why he's doing that also coming up. we're talking politics, mitt romney is taking a beating in the british papers this morning. now this is all during a trip that was intended to charm the brits to show off his statesmanship and raise some cash along the way. romney is facing tough, tough headlines across the pond. one called him mitt the twit and rom in has been ney questioned british enthusiasm for the 2012 games which officially begin in a few hours. mitt romney and also first lady michelle obama will be on hand when the olympic torch is lit tonight. the first lady is leading the presidential delegation to the games. we sent jim acosta for the opening and he's excited to be there. he's on the carnaby street.

the headlines for mitt romney don't look very good. >> that's right, i think they would like to use the olympic torch to burn the headlines this morning. they have not been pretty. i've give you a sample. we'll hold this up, no nowhere man romney loses his way with gaffe about the games. all of this going back to the interview when he talked about not knowing how the games would turn out, problems that were disconcerting. that sparked a huge outrage across london. david cameron, the prime minister offered a sharp response to romney, drawing a contrast between putting the games here on in london versus what he called the middle of near, referring it appeared to be a reference to salt lake city where mitt romney was in charge of the olympics back in 2002. we should mention that mitt romney came out after his meeting with prime minister david cameron and praised the preparations here in london. then later on in an interview

with piers morgan, went further explaining he thought the games would be a big success. >> you've been slightly criticized for knocking the british enthusiasm, are you feeling it now? >> i'm delighted to see the kind of support that has been around the torch for instance. i watched last night on bbc an entire program about the torch being run across great britain and the kind of crowds millions of people turned out to see the torch. that's what you hope to see. >> and i don't know if you noticed in the interview, he didn't acknowledge the criticism that he's been receiving here in london. i also asked about this outside number 10 downing street, he also did not answer the criticism or respond to the criticism, only said he thought the games would work out well and the damage control may not be working on the streets of london. consider what happened yesterday at the big pre-olympics rally,

boris johnson, rlisten to what e had to say. >> there's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready and whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? yes, we are. >> reporter: so not exactly the kind of rally the romney campaign would like to see, whether in the united states or great britain. mitt romney and his wife ann are intended to attend the opening ceremonies, he mentioned the swimming competition so we'll see if he makes it to one of knows, the first lady michelle obama is here also. one side not doing quite as well as the other, john and zoraida. >> that is extraordinary coming from the like-minded politicians. security obviously top

priority in london right now with thousands of work class athletes and 100 heads of states on hand for the games, prime minister david cameron saying he's confident that the games will be successful and they will be safe. the torch making its final approach towards the olympic stadium right now under very heavy guard. they have double the british presence in combat in afghanistan and fighter jets are on stand by. dan rivers is live in london as we well. dan, i know there was a lot of controversy over the security. you have that security plus the additional 18,200 troops participating. do you feel that presence there? >> reporter: oh, absolutely. almost everywhere you go in central london there is a heavy police presence. there are private security guards. there is checkpoints, a lot of the main roads through central london are closed to everything

but official olympic traffic. we're outside one of hotels being used by olympic officials and gives an idea of what's going on here. you can see these are all the official bmws lined up here to take athletes and dignitaries. in addition to the troops that you mentioned, there's also 9,500 extra police on top of the 30,000 that normally police the capital. it gives you a sense of how many security officials are involved here. as you mentioned, the number of troops is twice the number we have deployed in afghanistan. some of the troops here have been into the games formula very last minute. they've been mobilized within the last 48 hours because these private security firm, g4s was unable to train and get the people contracted to here in

time. the word is the army have stepped in and dealing with it and everyone is saying that they hope they will be a safe and secure olympic games. >> we also understand there's a no fly zone over london as well. dan rivers live in london, thank you very much. it is six minutes past the hour. people from ohio to connecticut are cleaning up this morning after a round of strong and deadly storms knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers overnight, a team from the national weather service will be on the ground in elmira, new york, to try to determine if a tornado struck there. rob marciano is live in olympic park fittingly this morning and these storms were pretty bad. >> reporter: you know, it wasn't just elmira, new york, at one point it was a line from hartford connecticut back through dallas. so well over 1,000, 1600 or 1700 miles long of damaging storms. lightning show as well. if we have the video of new

york, very impressive, if you live in gotham, the skies turn dark at 6:00 p.m. and it broke loose after that. and lightning was ferocious across the hudson and central park and downtown, midtown, you got it. you saw it and felt it. tri-state area of new york city, new york, connecticut and new jersey, got a piece of this action. over 300 reports of winds that were damaging. here's a look at them with the past radar to give you an idea of the extent of the weather system that moved through northeast yesterday. one report of a tornado in elmira. we'll get that confirmed today and 300 reports of winds from the western great lakes into the northeast. here's the current radar, west of d.c. is leftovers, that's diminishing, but we have airport delays left over from last night and the storms we had this morning, a few delays at d.c., dulles, and also philadelphia.

an hour to 45-minute delays and those will be on the increase today. i don't expect it to be as widespread as yesterday but the ohio valley could see damaging winds and large hail today. that's the latest from here. this will help break some of the heat that's been building thankfully across the central u.s. >> that's good news from the bad storms, rob, thanks very much. lawyers representing one of jerry sandusky's victims that they say he left on their answering machine. the attorneys for victim number two, claim the calls were made less than two months before the former penn state assistant coach was arrested in 2011 on child sex abuse charges. listen. >> just calling to see, you know, whether you had any interest in going to the penn state game this saturday.

if you could get back to me and let me know, i would appreciate it. and when you get this message, give me a call and i hope to talk later. thanks, i love you. >> attorneys for victim number two confirmed they intend to file a civil suit against penn state. a spokesman for the university wouldn't comment on the voice mails but did say the school is taking the case very seriously. ford is recalling escape crossover suvs in the u.s., part of a worldwide torecall, 2001-24 model escapes with cruise control. the cable can get stuck when the gas pedal is pressed almost all the way down causing unintended acceleration and this can happen even when the cruise control feature is not engaged. the federal government is cracking down on synthetic

drugs, 90 suspects in 30 states arrested thursday, just part of an effort dubbed operation log jam. 5 million packets of fake pot and bath salts were seized along with $36 million in cash. dea and ice agents took parlt in thursday's raids. the doctor in michael jackson's death has offered an invitation to the singer's mother, katherine jackson to visit him in jail. he has invited mrs. jackson to come see him to quote, answer any questions she might have. in a statement murray said he would be happy to meet with the mother of the man he calls a very dear departed friend. a representative for katherine jackson says he doubts she will take murray up on this offer. cuba reaching out to the u.s. to begin talks, president castro declaring the table is set. if america wants to discuss democracy, freedom of speech or

human rights on the island nation, the cubans are now ready, even though he calls those issues, quote, invented, the united states maintains a five decades old trade embargo on cuba. >> this will be tough to pull off in an election season in the u.s. on the issue of politics, piers morgan had a terrific interview overnight in a beautiful location. piers morgan with mitt romney as romney tours london and the candidate has a lot to say about critics blasting him for his role at bain capital. s different

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♪ >> don't you love the music. >> i definitely do. >> welcome back to qu"early st " start," i'm zoraida sam bol in. >> and i'm john berman. >> a man accused of infecting people with hepatitis c was fired after testing positive for cocaine and marijuana. 33-year-old david quit could w was arrested. they call them a serial infector. he worked in arizona, georgia, kansas, maryland, michigan, new york and pennsylvania in the past five years. health officials in those states are trying to locate thousands of patients who may have come in contact with him. >> when it comes to diplomacy, mitt romney not exactly bringing home the gold. the former massachusetts governor stepping on toes out of the gate in london, publicly

questioning the u.k.'s passion for the game and characterizing security as disconcerting. prime minister david cameron pushed back saying it's easier to hold an olympics in the middle of nowhere, an apparent dig at the salt lake city games. romney says he doesn't understand why so many people are attacking him for being successful, especially during his days at bain capital. >> every investment was designed to try and help the business grow and become more successful. it killed us if something was not successful. we had lost money. investors money and became investors ultimately in our career, lost our own money in some of these cases but we wanted all of them to be successful. that's the nature of the free enterprise system, not everything you invest in will be successful. he heads to israel and

poland next week. piers morgan will join christine romans in for soledad o'brien live from london as the countdown to the olympic games opening ceremonies continues. it is now 17 minutes past the hour. we'll get you up to date on the top stories and they mostly involve the olympic ceremonies hours away. 18,000 troops on hand for the start of the games. the queen is expected to kick things off and sir paul mccartney lined up to perform tonight. police in maryland releasing a photo of a man who bound and kidnapped the mother of hall of fame baltimore or yell shortstop cal ripken jr. they are offering money for tips leading to his an arrest. he showed up at violet rip ken's home and forced her into the car and took off. the 74-year-old was found wednesday morning in the back seat of her own car with her

hands tied but she was not harmed. >> it is 17 minutes past the hour. this is one of your favorite stories of the day. >> it is, it kind of reminds me of you because i think would you do this. >> because you wear costumes. >> because of your relationship with your kids. >> it has to do with spider dad. >> are you going to be spiderman like me? >> yeah. >> cool, give me five. >> in dad wanted to do something great with his 3-year-old son oliver so he became spider dad. he surprised oliver with a matching costume and he said if he was a good boy that he would take him to the trampoline. father and son went to the trampoline dressed as spiderman and got the idea from the movie "big daddy" when adam sandler dressed up as scuba steve. >> would you do something like this with your kids? >> you know, you do almost

anything to make your kids smile. >> look at that look at the video he recreated afterwards. >> how old was the child? >> 3 years old. >> you'll have to keep doing it, at 3 i don't know it's a lasting memory. >> also setting the bar, really, really high. this is going to be hard to match. i would do it except for the tight clothing -- >> come on. >> you have to be a super hero with him. you can't do that if your jeans. >> hats off to that dad. >> facebook did better than expected in its first earnings report in the public company but that does not necessarily mean good news if you own some of its stock. we'll explain that coming up. for an expanded look at our top stories head to our blog, cnn.com/early start. sometimes, i feel like it's me against my hair.

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we are minding your business this morning. after a solid rally yesterday, u.s. stock futures are up a little bit this morning. at 8:30 a.m. eastern we'll find out gdp numbers for the second quarter. economists suffered by cnn money say the economy grew at the slow rate, 1.4%, lots of attention on this report because we're expecting revisions the gdp all the way back to president obama's first months in office. facebook stock down to new

lows overnight even after the earnings beat analyst expectations but the numbers did not impression investors. another concern, executives did not layout predictions for future quarters. facebook stock is down more than 9% in premarket straigtrading r now. jc penny changing its pricing strategy again. instead of marking prices one month at a time or a few times, we'll see how it works for them there. it is 24 minutes past the hour. the only thing we've been talking about off camera is the olympics, we're revery excited and we were talking about who our favorite olympians of all time are. i said my favorite olympian of all time was eric hiden, with the thighs like 90 inches thick. he's a big guy. i got to meet him when i was

covering the games in 2006. he's a hilarious guy. >> do we have the picture. >> he joked, it's great to meet you, i feel like a winner being near you. he says, between us we have five gold medals, it's true, he won five all himself. >> what is your favorite? >> he looks so different. i want to see the picture. it's cool you meet your favorite olympian, right. there it is. me talking to him, the tall athletic one, i'm the guy on the left. the things you keep throughout your career. you sent it out saying he was your boyfriend. >> yeah, he loves him, mean is jackie joyner kersey, i watched this woman and wanted to be here. she's a four-time gold medalist and superstar athlete. very focused and determined and i thought she was a wonderful role model for women but i

wanted her arms and legs. i would watch her and think, how do you look like that? she's a fierce woman. i got to meet her as well here when i joined "early start." she's very committed to youth and making sure they can become olympians if they so desire. i just love her and i have another one. >> i bet you do. >> michael phelps. >> who do you like about him? >> i don't know what magazine it was in. his wing span. that was just an amazing shot of him, an amazing athlete, super gifted, super determined. and you know, that's what you want for your kids, that super determination to achieve their goals in life. that's what i love about him. >> the guy is pretty good. now we asked you yesterday -- >> that guy is pretty good he says. >> he's okay at swimming. we want you to send us your favorites. you can write us on twitter at zoraida cnn or john s berman at early start cnn.

there was a big debate yesterday. so many people saying jackie joyner kersey. >> i absolutely love her. some people think she's the best female athlete ever. on facebook, jesse so wowens an katarina vitt and greg luganis. dangerous at any speed. a driver caught on camera getting trigger happy with a tailgator. that story is coming up. if you are leaving the house right now, can watch any time on your desk top or mobile phone, cnn.com/tv. why not try someplace different every morning? get two times the points on dining in restaurants with chase sapphire preferred.

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reach a person, not a prompt whenever you call chase sapphire. the olympic games just hours away now. >> i'm delighted to see the kind of support that has been around the torch for instance, i watched raft night on bbc an entire program about the torch being run across great britain and the kind of crowds i guess millions of people turned out. mitt romney is sitting down with piers morgan and softening his earlier comments about the olympics in london. a police officer caught on camera in a compromising position. it has already cost him his job. wait until you see this. >> wait until you hear the details of that one. >> we have made it to friday,

i'm john berman. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. it is games on, the athletes are ready and in just a few hours the 2012 summer games will officially begin. the royals greeted the torch at buckingham palace, a billion people around the world expected to watch the $42 million spectacle. there will be british royalty and rock royalty, along with 007 but we do not know who will light the big flame. for that we go to amanda davies live in london. >> reporter: we are desperately trying to find out who lights the flame. the latest person we heard from is the ioc president, the president of the international olympic committee. sadly he couldn't tell us either. but what he did say was that he is very excited that the games is here and about to begin.

i can say with pleasure, london is ready and we are eagerly waiting for the opening ceremony. we've had a few little tid bits of information that have been fed out in the last few days. we've seen fantastic light displays and firework displays but the secrets of what actually is going to take place in th stadium in a few hour's time do remain safe for the moment. it's interesting here though today because everybody is sew excited that the games is about to get under way. we're talking about this big party. for the athletes, this is just another day. the archery is going on and we know the swimmers have been practicing in the aquatic centre and they had a visit from the first lady, michelle obama, sporting a lovely red top and white jacket and sat down for breakfast with the team. she just kept saying, wow, wow, wow. she said i'm going to be saying

that a lot over the days but incredibly honored and beyond proud to be there involved with the team. >> well the excitement is palpable, we can feel it over here. amanda, thank you so much, live in london. >> reporter: it >> from the olympics to weather, let's go to rob marciano in atlanta park. >> reporter: last hour we talked about beret, john, my producer in the field in 1996 picked up -- dug this up. that was a hat from 1996. all right? and just like you pointed out, john, it is not a beret, it is a good old fashioned american baseball cap which we all encourage them to try for the next uniform. let's talk london olympics and the weather across the pond.

the satellite photograph highlighting more typical england weather rolling into the u.k., some clouds and spring manies and the forecast for today includes just that. we give it a slight chance of being wet tonight. i think it will be mostly dry for the evening opening ceremonies. and then the forecast for the days to come highlights more typical london weather which would be temperatures in the 60s and clouds, intermet ent crowds and slight chance for a shower. folks out there are going from their tank tops which they've been donning the past couple of days, to more typical attire. thunderstorms today but not nearly the rock and roll session we had last night mid-atlantic and ohio river valley will be the threat today as cooler weather comes into play. happy olympics, guys. >> rob marciano in beret free

atlanta. police in ft. lauderdale are releasing this video that shows a driver get out of his bmw and start shooting at the man driving the ford truck behind him. this was a residential neighborhood and happened last month. he was apparently angry at being followed too closely. he then gets back into his car and takes off. one bullet did pierce the truck but no one was shot. police are looking for that shooter. a police officer in melbourne, florida lost his job and facing seven misdemeanor charges after being caught on tape picking up prostitutes with his patrol car and he wasn't arresting them. they used dash cam from his own patrol car along with surveillance cameras to make their case. a known prostitute is seen emerging from the passenger side of the car while he gets out of the driver's side without his shirt on. not sure you can see it there

but crazy stuff. he then proceeds to put his police uniform back on. not advisable police work we have to say. >> not at all. mitt romney has had a tough visit to london. the candidate used his sit-down interview with piers morgan to unruffle feathers he ruffled. you'll hear more about that after of the break. n: there's a, take a right. do you have any idea where you're going ? wherever the wind takes me. this is so off course. nature can surprise you sometimes... next time, you drive. next time, signal your turn. ...that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you.

[romney singing]: oh beautiful, for spacious skies, i'm barack obama and i approve this message. for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain, america, america, god shed his grace on thee, and crowned thy good, with brotherhood...

mitt romney not exactly bringing home the gold for political correctness. questioning the u.k.'s passion for the game and character

sizing security for the olympic as doisconcerting. it's obvious the damage had already been done. if you listen to london's mayor. >> i hear there's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? yes, we are. >> slightly criticized for knocking the british enthusiasm, are you feeling it now? >> well, i'm delighted to see the kind of support that has been around the torch for instance, i watched last night on bbc an entire program about the torch being run across great britain and the kind of crowds i guess millions of people had turned out to see the torch. that's what you hope to see. >> slightly criticized? i think he was beat up over it. romney says he is disturbed by

what he sees as a growing tendency in america to resent success. >> there are people who are trying to attack success. and trying to attack our success, that's not going to be successful. when you attack success you have less of it and that's what we've seen in our economy over the last few years. dividing america based on who has money and who hasn't. that is not the american way. >> after taking in the start of the london games, romney heads to israel and poland next week. >> before he leaves the uk, mitt romney has another day in london and perhaps another chance. his first day did not result in the headlines he was hoping for. i'm not talking about over but over here, cameron versus romney, "time," romney stumbles in london, and wall street journal, a recap of romney's tough day in london. joining me now senior political

analyst ron brownstein. the brits can vote in this election. how does this hurt? >> as i understand diplomacy the point is not to go to new countries and insult people when you arrive there. what he wanted to do was in an demonstrate his fitness to represent america and be commander in chief and underscore his claim that obama has been weak on those fronts. instead, in very much of an unforced error, the background comment from the aide about a shared anglosax on heritage that plunged the controversy out of the bat. the headlines become questioning his fitness rather than underscoring his readiness. >> he does lose happy smiley headlines that he was guaranteed.

>> obama of course last summer had adoring crowds -- in 2008 which republicans tried to turn against him. it should get better for romney when he goaes to israel. netanyahu closer to republicans than democrats. this is a cloud that has made the whole trip at best, no way it's not going to be a negative. >> david cameron was not exactly an idealogical and boris johnson criticized him. last night he was on with piers morgan and they talked about the issue of gun control. let's listen in and then we'll talk about it. >> i think that the effort to continue to look for some law to somehow make violence go away is missing the point. the real point has to relate to individuals that are deranged and help them and find them and

keep them from carrying terrible acts. timothy mcveigh, how many people did he kill with fertilizer with products purchased legal little anywhere in the world. he was able to carry out vast mayhem, laws against the instruments will make violence go away was misguided. >> if he only passed laws that would make it go away, we wouldn't -- but the question really that the laws ought to be judged against whether they ameal yor ate a problem or move you in the right direction. the comments show how completely the gun control debate has been locked down. even the president has only cracked open the door a notch in his speech on wednesday in new orleans. it really traces back in the al gore election, democrats joined republicans in concluding this was not a winning issue.

polling has moved away from gun control since bill clinton left office. the country is still divided close to 50/50, from the point of view of president obama, the 50 open to gun control, the 50% who isn't has so many reasons to oppose him, it's unlikely he will convert them by silencing himself on this issue. >> at the end of the day does this weigh in in the general election? >> i don't either one will raise it. we've seen two thing happens since the 90s, republicans have moved towards monolivic opposition, i think 60 voted for the brady bill. it has been moving to a solid conservative orthodoxy and you see democrats back off on this issue but i think the evidence is clear that within the coalition, clearly the country is divided almost xablgtly in

half. but within the democratic coalition this is still clearly a majority position and it makes it interesting on issues like gay marriage and contraception fight in health care, -- reflecting views of coalition, this is a big exception. they are still gun shy. >> ron brownstein, thanks for being here, editorial director, always good to see you. >> we could talk to him for hours, couldn't we? appreciate it. let's get you up to date. the final countdown begins to the opening ceremonies in london. thousands of top athletes, 18,000 troops on hand for the start of the summer olympics. the queen is expected to kick things off and paul mccartney is lined up to perform as well. the national weather service working to confirm reports of a tornado touching down in elmira.

significant damage with trees and power lines down everywhere. severe weather raced across ohio, pennsylvania and new york and new england and tens of thousands of homes were without power last night. the battle for control of syria's largest city growing bloodier by the day. rebel forces in aleppo taking heavy gunfire overnight. fighting is reportedly intense in damascus as well. more than 200 people were killed in clashes with government troops yesterday. more than 40,000 syrians have now fled across the border to turkey where they are living in refugee camps. soledad o'brien is off today but we're lucky to have christine romans joining us on "starting point." >> breaking news on the state of our economy, we're awaiting the new gdp numbers. this could be a big market mover, important political number as well. also ahead, internationshtional

brouhaha the republican presidential candidate has offended the brits instead. after the company's president spoke out against gay marriage, we have chicago alderman on trying to ban the restaurant, he is opening mad at chick-fill-a. >> extreme fishing hosted by professional wrestler, eric young, stopping by live all ahead on "starting point." >> sounds like a great show. >> it will be, can't wait. >> extreme fishing. including the gs and is. [ engines revving ] because control is the ultimate expression of power. [ revving continues ] ♪

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welcome back, it is seven minutes before the hour. >> new developments in the child sex abuse cover-up that is rocking penn state. lawyers releasing two voice mails, jerry sandusky allegedly left on the answering machine of victim number two. jason carroll is with us. what can you tell us about this? >> this is a real interesting character in all of this case. the person identified as victim number two was not part of the criminal trial and did not testify so the jury never saw him. he was a bit of a mystery for a while and his story was one of the more powerful accounts of abuse. victim two alleges that in 2002 when he was about ten years old, jerry sandusky sexually assaulted him in a shower in penn state, mike mcqueary testified that he saw the assault. and now victim two has come forward and has turned over voice mails sandusky left less than two months before his

arrest last year. >> just calling to see you know, whether you had any interest no going to the penn state game this saturday. if you can get back to me and let me know, i'd appreciate it. when you get this message, give me a call and i hope to talk to you later. thanks, i love you. >> the law firm representing victim two says jerry sandusky's abuse of victim two and other children is a direct result of a conspiracy to conceal sandusky's conduct and the decisions by top penn state officials -- his defense team saying the statements that the individual gave to an fbi trained investigator who worked for the defense contradicted what he is now claiming. now should also tell you that penn state has come forward and they are saying they are taking this very seriously and not commenting beyond that. they are also saying that this is not over. and what we're probably going to

be looking at in the future is some sort of civil -- some sort of civil case against penn state. we'll have to wait and see what happens with all of this. >> jason carroll, we appreciate it. thank you so much. we have breaking news out of new orleans where there is a fire burning at a historic pie company. firefighters responding to a four-alarm fire there. we're getting pictures right now, hard to make out the fire itself. we're trying to pan down. looks like what you're see sg the water spraying on the fire -- >> you can also see the fire. >> that's the historic pie factory, opened in 1922 right in the heart of new orleans there, historic building on fire there this morning. those are live pictures of the scene. >> we're trying to get more details. we'll take a quick break and be right back. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy!

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xts "starting point" is next. >> we'll wrap it up always with best advice. today's best advice comes from former olympian kerri strug. >> my best advice, follow your dreams, it took 12 long years, a became an olympic gold medalist. it took perseverance and drive and i stayed true to following my dreams and i was able to succeed. >> that is great advice, endurns, perseverance. >> and always stick the landing like kerri strug. >> that's it for "early start."

"starting point" with christine romans starts right now. good friday morning, i'm christine romans in for soledad. our starting point, violent storms tear through the northeast, thousands without power after suspected tornadoes, high winds and heavy rain turned deadly overnight. this morning, more is on the way. mitt romney's diplomatic blunder, this morning it's damage control mode after offending the british on the eve of the olympics. >> i hear there's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? yes, we are. >> let the games begin. a packed show ahead, piers morgan will join us and soledad's day two interview with

chris paul. professional wrestler, eric young. "starting point" begins right now. our "starting point" this morning, the threat of dangerous storms this morning across almost a third of the country. at least two people are dead after one storm plowed through the midwest and northeast yesterday. fay a look at the lightning show over fork cinew york city. trying to determine whether a lightning strike caused aid fire that injured 40 people in brooklyn. within man was killed by falling debris when lightning struck a church steeple. reports of two unconfirmed tornado touchdowns and mess of power lines and downed trees in the path. from ohio to new york this morning and airlinesre playing catch up after 900 flights were canceled. another severe storm watch in effect today. let's get the very latest from

meteorologist rob marciano live in olympic park in atlanta. rough night for us up here. >> reporter: it was. not just for new york city, it was a massive storm system, christine. yesterday morning at this time we said the atmosphere was primed to explode and mother nature certainly took the cue yesterday afternoon. take a look at the radar from yesterday, i mean this damaging line of storms stretched from hartford all the way back through the ohio valley in through northern texas. 1700 miles of damaging storms over 300 wind reports that caused damage and one report of a tornado up there in elmira, new york, we don't expect to see that sort of action today but some folks will. leftover storms from last night across the delmarva and mid-atlantic and today that's where the main threat will be for severe storms. also across the ohio river valley, you'll seal a threat for is heing severe storms. basically we've knockedo