>> she said it again! these kids today with their perfect grades and their text messaging and their extremely mild cursing. if this is our future, then nobody's getting diplomas because we're all going to hell in a hand basket. doh, i said it, too. that's all. that's all. "early start" begins now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com he is still in the running. congressmanned to akin defies his own party and refuses to leave the senate race despite the firestorm of his legitimate rape comments. is he creating a rift within the gop. florida could be in for a soaking. tropical storm isaac is growing strength in the atlantic. now there's concern it could become a hurricane. a hurricane just in time for the republican national conntion. what happens in vegas does not stay in vegas. guess who that is?

new pictures of prince harry naked in sin city. >> good morning! wake up! welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans in today. >> i'm john berman. zoraida is off today. 5:00 a.m. in the east. despite those pictures of prince harry we are starting with politics. a lot of news in politics right now. the defiant candidate. missouri republican todd akin rejecting calls from leaders, mitt romney on down, to drop out of the senate race. akin for his part believes he is the man to unseat democratic incumbent claire mccaskill despite the up roar about his comments about rape and abortion. ksdk caught up with akin last night at the airport in st. louis. >> reporter: were you upset with how the republican party did not back you during all this? does it bother you that they kind of bailed on you? >> it's been exciting days.

we're doing the best we can. >> reporter: do you still think you can win the race? >> i believe so. >> akin also says he believes he can help mitt romney take missouri in november. cnn political director mark preston the live from tampa. mark, the question is what now for akin? what now for mitt romney? what now for the republican party? what happens? he's in. >> reporter: he is in, john. you know, republicans are waking up again for another day of todd akin. something they don't want to be talking about. less than a week before the republican national convention. here in tampa where republicans are starting to gather to talk about the party and to talk about the future, they're very frustrated about what todd akin is going to do. we've seen mitt romney come out and ask for todd akin to leave the race. we've seen the chairman of the republican party come out and ask todd akin to leave the race. as you say, he is defiant. there are some people now saying that he's looking for a soft landing. he's looking for some way out of the race where he could get out

and not have to worry, perhaps, about getting a job down the line. but, again, this is all speculation. fact is right now, todd akin, john, has closed quarters. his camp is very closed. he's keeping a very closed council. it's certainly no longer republican leaders. the fact of the matter is the republican party is off message right now and they're all pointing fingers at todd akin. >> he may be looking for a soft landing. the fact is he's eating up oxygen day after day after day on the abortion issue. turning to the president shlg campaign there's a fresh new poll, horse race poll from nbc and "the wall street journal." it also gets to a question we were talking about. medicare and the political war over medicare. what does the poll tell us about that? >> reporter: let's take a quick look at the horse race. as you said the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll shows president obama holds a very slim lead right now over mitt romney right now by four percentage points. this is pretty much where the race has been up to this point. let's look at the -- when it

comes to medicare, who do americans prefer? would they rather have president obama's plan or would they rather have mitt romney's plan? if you look at that right now, president obama right now is way out in front of mitt romney. very important certainly in a state where i'm standing right now in florida, john. >> all right, mark preston, you are there in tampa waiting for the convention and perhaps waiting for a hurricane that might be on the way. thanks, mark. so far it's a tropical storm. its name is isaac. it could become a hurricane by thursday. some weather models showing isaac is making its way toward florida which could mean big problems for the republican national convention in tampa next week. about 50,000 people are expected to visit the sin city -- or the city -- sorry, i'm thinking about the harry story. that city during the convention. it's been 90 years since a major hurricane directly hit tampa. organizers aren't taking any chances. they're keeping an eye on this storm's path. let's get to rob marciano for the latest forecast. i might be the first person to

ever call tampa sin city. >> listen, you know, i'm sure conventions on both sides of the aisle may very well call it that behind closed doors. who knows. i'm sure it's a good time. the fresh advisory out. it's getting better organized. see it here on the satellite picture. winds up to 45 miles an hour heading to the leeward islands. let's talk first of all about the potential tracks of our computer model. we have several of them obviously. here's a handful of them. a good agreement of them coming towards the northern islands, the greater antilles of the caribbean. the more they go over hispaniola and cuba, bad for them. it knocks out the strength of these things. generally speaking heading towards florida. there are a few that bring it into the gulf of mexico. that would put tampa in play. there's a number of going to bring them east side of florida. if we get into the gulf of mexico tampa becomes an issue. a few years ago i talked to a professor down in tampa about

the possibility of hurricanes getting into that city and what it would do if it would get into the bay. >> if tampa takes a direct hit from a hurricane, much of the city will be under water. >> if the wrong storm comes here from the wrong direction at the wrong speed and makes land fall at the wrong place, there could be a disaster here. >> reporter: local professor bob weissburg has developed sophisticated computer models to simulate what a direct hit would do. from the gulf hurricane winds would push a surge of water up the long, shallow bay. at the northern most point where the water is piled highest lies the city of tampa. the convention center itself is in the primary evacuation zones. if even a category 1 or 2 storm would head that way. that's why they're nervous. but as of last night, we gave it about a 1% chance of that actually happening. so the chances, obviously, are minimal. even this morning i think those chances might even be lower

because of it's siting towards the eastern side. category 1 status. we skim the islands of hispaniola and eastern cuba. then south florida is in the cross hairs as we get towards days four and five. note the large margin op ef err as we get towards the latter days. >> we will be watching. moving on, a washington state man arrested for allegedly making threats against president obama will appear in court today. investigators say 31-year-old anton caluori sent aloarming e-mails to the fbi. he came to the door with a shotgun when investigators rived. agents found two weapons. investigators say he also made comments about explosives so they did a sweep. no explosives were found. investigators would not specify what was in those e-mails. >> hey, guys.

who's going to florida with me? any of you going to be in florida? >> yeah. >> well, i'm the speaker at the convention. i'm going to be down there. good to see you guys. thanks for covering it. >> vice president joe biden plans to be in tampa during the republican national convention. he has events planned in tampa and in other cities early next week. a strong bench of obama campaign surrogates will also be in the tampa area. both the obama and romney camps are aggressively bracketing. surrogates are holding events that coincide with opponents' o vents. federal investigators trying to find the cause of a freight train derailment in nd m.marylao killed two young women in the wrong place at the wrong time. 19-year-old friends elizabeth nass and rose mayr were sitting on the edge of the bridge when a passing train jumped the tracks. moments before the women had tweeted photos of themselves.

>> police in lincoln, nebraska, say a woman who claims she was the victim of a violent hate crime made the whole thing up. charlie rogers said she was attacked in her home last month by three men who carved homophobic slurs into her skin. authorities say dna evidence didn't match her version of events. rogers was arrested and charged with lying to police. she pleaded not guilty. the death toll rising in the west nile virus scare in dallas. authorities say an 11th victim, a woman in her 80s, died from this virus. it's spread, of course, by mosquitos. in texas they're really concerned about this. the mayor also in that town saying aerial spraying of pesticides seems to be working. officials are now focused on spraying on the ground and removing standing water. there have been about 700 cases of west nile reported nationwide. about a quarter of them in dallas county. the nasa rover curiosity gets its learner's permit this morning. it's about to take its first test drive on mars.

nasa sent up commands to the rover overnight to drive forward, turn and back up. here you can kind of see the test wiggle in a series of pictures. in all it should go about ten feet total. we should see some tracks on the surface of mars. the entire two-year mission hinges on the success of this short trip. but no pressure. prince harry is learning this morning what happens in vegas -- >> good lord. >> ends up on the web. now confirming to cnn photos posted on tmz of a nude prince harry are prince harry. they show the third in line to the british throne naked playing a game of drunk strip pool with an unidentified naked woman in a vegas hotel suite. a private hotel suite. he's covering up. >> must be a great morning in buckingham palace today. the queen must be having a jolly good time. >> do you think his brother's like, wow, he gets all the fun. no. he's going back to work. he's in the military.

>> he's working at something. >> he's going back to work. he plays hard in between. ten minutes after the hour right now. a group of muslims saying they feel vindicated by new findings about the nypd surveillance program and and umpire goes from calling strikes to saving lives. your early reads, they're coming up next. stay with us. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart.

the wheels of progress. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. until i got a job in the big apple. becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti. but he had purina cat chow indoor. he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed to stay healthy indoors. and after a couple of weeks, i knew we were finally home! [ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. and for a delicious way to help maintain a healthy weight, try new purina cat chow healthy weight.

and for a delicious way to help maintain a healthy weight, well another great thing about all this walking i've been doing is that it's given me time to reflect on some of life's biggest questions. like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call, why wouldn't you make that call? see, the only thing i can think of is that you can't get any... bars. ah, that's better. it's a beautiful view. i wonder if i can see mt. rushmore from here. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. welcome back to "early start," everyone. 15 minutes after the hour. i'm john berman.

>> i'm kristine rochristine rom zoraida today. it says pause for animation. >> it told us to. >> an early read on local news making national headlines. from the record in new jersey, new jersey muslims saying they feel vindicated after learning nypd spying in their communities led to no leads or terror arrests. the ap reported -- there's the animation. that's what we paused for. we really did know what we were doing. conducting surveillance on mosques, schools, businesses in muslim communities. the program was launched after the attacks of 9/11. in a deposition of a civil rights case the commanding officer of the nypd intel unit said six years of surveillance in new york and new jersey yielded no terrorism leads according to the paper. >> this has been a big controversy in new jersey. i think the people there will be relieved and what vindicated. >> vindicated but irritated. big sports news overnight about an umpire. learning cpr may be the best call he ever made. from azcentral.com and the arizona republic.

we're talking about major league ump jim joyce. this the day after he performed cpr to help save a woman's life at chase field in arizona. the -- she had a seizure monday night. she went into shock and stopped breathing in the tunnel before joyce walked up near her and started performing cpr. he kept on doing it until the paramedics arrived. she's doing just fine. jim joyce is a name a lot of people will know, remember a couple years ago there was an umpire who blew a call in the ninth inning and this pitcher, armando galarraga lost a perfect game? that was jim joyce. there was tears after, soul searching. this guy's always in the news. this time something marvelous. >> right place, right time, he had those skills. for an expanded look at our top stories head to our blog. 16 minutes after the hour. we want to get you up to date on all the top stories. he is in it to win it.

we're talking about congressman todd akin defying calls from the republican leadership to drop out of the missouri senate race. akin says he's apologized for controversial comments on rape and abortion and hasn't done anything ethically or morally wrong, he says. and he believes he's still the gop's best chance to unseat democrat claire mccaskill in november. avoiding a conflict on the convention floor. cnn the first to report there's a deal between the mitt romney and ron paul campaigns. a deal that will seat more ron paul delegates at the convention that could support an organized effort by paul supporters to try to bring monday's opening session to a grinding halt. also in a symbolic gesture newt gingrich released all his delegates to romney. john berman will be live at the rnc all next week. revenge for the russian rockers. computer hackers attacking the website of the moscow court that tried and convicted three members of a female punk rock band last week. they were sentenced to two years

in prison for a song ridiculing president vladimir putin and the russian orthodox church. there are reports a russian offshoot of the group anonymous is claiming responsibility. nasa space scientists in maryland may have a clue to the prehistoric past right at their feet. a dinosaur tracker says he believes he found a footprint on the goddard space flight center campus. the plant eater roamed suburben washington, d.c. about 110 million years ago. >> over the 110 million years you think they'd see the footprint? hey, look, it's here. >> you've got to always know what you're looking for. 18 minutes after the hour. coming up, the drought could affect food prices much worse than we thought. and your steak wk , it may be t next victim. you're watching "early start." plaque quickly starts to grow back. but new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste can help. it not only reduces plaque... it's also clinically proven... to help keep plaque from coming back.

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i am jocelyn taylor. i'm committed to making a difference in people's lives, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. welcome back. minding your business this morning, u.s. stock futures are trading lower this morning. you know, the s&p 500 is near a four-year high. s&p 500 stocks are up about 7% in just the past three months. much of those gains have been fueled by speculation in the world central banks will act to boost the largest economies. so far they haven't really done that. we'll have to see if markets are disappointed. corn and soybean futures back up near record highs. they're finding crops in worse shape than expected because of that drought in the midwest. for all you steak lovers out there, because of the drought, the spike in corn prices, you're going to be seeing more

expensive meat next year. farmers are culling their herds, slaughtering their cattle before maturity because they can't afford the high cost of feed. food costs have been pushed up from these higher corn prices. quite frankly some of these -- you know, some of these animals are stressed. to get a prime steak, farmers feed and fatten up the cattle for a few extra months with a high calorie corn diet. that extra feed time is declining. it's all because of the drought. a new study shows generation y workers, 19 to 30 years old, more likely to be in low paying jobs even with a college degree. there are jobs that don't necessarily require a college degree. most common, merchandise displayer, clothing sale representative, cell phone sales representative. according to pay scale. all the broader data show that college pay is, of course, under normal conditions. right now with a weak jobs market even college grads are having trouble finding jobs qua >> there are studies that show

if you graduate college at a recession or just after a recession you never catch up to others. 23 minutes after the hour. swimmer diana nyad is back on dry land this morning in florida after failing in her fourth attempt at an endurance test really like no other. swimming more than 100 mimes from havana, cuba, to the florida keys. this time it was storms and stings, jelly fish stings, that forced her out of the water. she's finally ready to let her decades old dream go. >> i'm proud. i stand here proud. tall and proud. i think it's like anything. when you retire or let go of something extreme, it's hard to come down. >> she tried. later on "starting point" 7:15 eastern time, soledad will talk with diana nyad. they're in charge of watching over your children.

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he won't back down. congressman todd akin defies calls to leave his senate race from his own party. will his legitimate rape controversy affect the presidtial election? a meat plant shut down after shocking videoreveals inhumane treatment of animals. it turns out they provided beef to a popular fast food chain and the national school lunch program. it was supposed to be taking

care of kids, but three day care workers are now accused of running a fight club, a fight club with toddlers. >> welcome back to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans in for zoraida. his deadline came and went. republican congressman todd akin is still running for the senate in missouri despite incredible pressure from the highest ranks of his own party to drop out. he launched an online campaign soliciting cam tpaign donations. akin has faced intense criticism from republican leaders over remarks he made this weekend about abortion. and, quote, legitimate rape. the five-term missouri congressman spoke to affiliate kdsk in st. louis last night. >> were you upset with how the republican party did not back you during all this? does it bother you that they kind of bailed on you?

>> it's been exciting days. we do the best we can. >> and do you still think you can win the race? >> i believe so. >> with me now is cnn contributor and republican strategist anna navarro. this story now into its third day, i guess. what do you think, what do you want the gop leadership to do now? is there something they can -- they pulled their support. he's still running. >> you know, i don't think there's anything more that the gop leadership can do. this is what it means to live in the united states where we have democratic elections, where we had a primary. if we were in communist china or communist cuba, christine, we could have purged him already and erased him from the lists. but we're not. we're in the united states. this is the kind of democracy that we live in. you know, if he wants to continue this, he shall. and he will, as he seems to be

doing. he still has -- the deadline was yesterday, ec deadline yesterday at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. there's still time for him to change his mind, a few more days until barack obama becomes the nominee and the ballot becomes solidified. maybe he comes to his senses then. but if he doesn't, look, we're just going to have to deal with that. we're going to have to look at other races. that money that was allocated for his race can go to other races that perhaps can be more competitive and help win back the senate. >> ana, tell me about the rift. the rift in the gop, i guess, in the gop over abortion that this might expose. you look at, for example, the gop platform on the abortion issue. quote, we support a human life amendment to the constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the 14th amendment's protections apply to unborn children. that's the gop platform. you've got senator scott brown weighing in. there are people of goodwill on both sides of the abortion issue. we need to send a message to voters that there is room in the

republican party for differing perspectives. then mitt romney himself has a different view on the abortion issue than his own running mate. of course, on todd akin. listen. >> with regards to my own view, i've made it very clear, i'm pro-life. but i believe there should be exceptions in the case of rape and incest. >> so this perceived rift on the abortion front in the party taking all the attention away from the economy, too. tell me first about that rift. is there one there? >> you know, i'm not sure that it's a rift as much as it is diversity of thought. i think that exists in every party and on many social issue. that's what social issues, the nature of social issues is that some people are pro-choice. some people are pro-life. some people are progay rights. some people are not. some people are proimmigration reform. some people are not. i think that happens both in the democrat and republican party. i think it's also changing. you know the republican platform, it doesn't even agree

with mitt romney's agenda and mitt romney's platform on some of the abortion language. so it just goes to show you, look, we shouldn't -- i don't think we should give that much importance to the platform and the platform committee. in all due respect to them. i know they take it very seriously and it's a lot of days of being locked nup a room discussing a lot of minutia and policy. i'm not sure many republicans or many people in america are reading the republican platform committee. you know, it's a bunch of people locked up in a room. >> but is it taking attention -- is it taking away attention from what was perceived to be a strength for mitt romney which was the economy? >> oh, absolutely. i think we need to get back to substance and policy and deficit and fiscal policy as soon as possible. and i think this platform committee issue did not come at a good time, on the heels of the akin issue. so, yes, you know, we need to put this away. we need to go back to the fiscal issues. mitt romney had, for the first

time in this campaign, began to play offense. he was actually playing it well. so we need to get back to that place. it was a good spot for him. instead of having to play defense on these social issues. it's a great distraction. it serves barack obama very well. so i say, you know, it's time to put a kabosh on this. >> thanks for dropping by. cnn contributor, republican strategist, thank you. it's amazing to me that it's been now into the third day that we're still talking about todd akin. that one person, one person could defy all the choreography of a presidential campaign. >> this is key real estate. key calendar real estate in the runup to the republican convention. something that had been choreographed by the romney campaign really for weeks and months now. have they said anything else the last two days? america opportunity know. >> we haven't been talking about swing state unemployment rates. cnn is gearing up for the special coverage of the republican national convention. this sunday night cnn's coverage kicks off at 8:00 p.m. eastern

with a profile of the presumptive presidential nominee. monday morning both "early start" and "starting point" will broadcast our shows live from tampa. monday night join us again for live coverage of the rnc from tampa beginning at 7:00 p.m. eastern. we want to get you up to date on the rest of the top stories. an iraqi born terrorist suspect living in kentucky bleeds guiply to supporting al qaeda in iraq including trying to send explosives from the u.s. to iraq. he faces 25 years to life in prison when he's sentenced in december. federal health inspectors shutting down a california plant that supplied meat to the popular in-and-out burger chain and the national school lunch program. the action coming in response to undercover video that officials say showed evidence of egregious, inhumane handling and treatment of livestock. in a statement the central valley meat company said it was cooperating fully with the usda investigation and called the allegations disturbing and surprising.

>> disturbing and surprising. good words for the next story. three delaware day care workers accused of encouraging a toddler fight club out on bail. cell phone video watching and encouraging two 3-year-olds to fight. one child says, he's pinching me. a day care worker responds, no pinching, only punching. parents, as you might imagine, are appalled. >> i'm more or less mad that nobody stepped in as an adult to break the fight up. but i don't really know what happened without seeing the video myself. >> our affiliates have reached out to the day care center for comment but have not yet received a response. to be young and in love. and in cuffs? >> "50 shades of grey," right? >> san antonio police say a man proposed to his shoplifting girlfriend after both were arrested in connection with a dollar store robbery.

they say shawn fox was in a getaway car when he noticed store managers trying to stop his girlfriend leaving. police say that's when he went inside. >> i ain't robbed nobody. they tried to hurt my girl. >> i was an innocent bystander. >> in case you're wondering, after fox popped the question, woods, who says she's an innocent bystander, said yes. >> now, that is romance. true love. 37 minutes after the hour. right now, a storm is brewing ahead of the republican national convention. for once, we're not talking about politics. florida now preparing for a possible hurricane next week. details in a live report, coming up. of buttons in your car. now count the number of buttons on yr tablet. isn't it time the automobile advanced? introducing cue in the all-new cadillac xts.

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good morning. washington, d.c. still a little dark there. it's 68, mostly cloudy. later, though, it will be 87 and part lly cloudy in the nation's capital. 5:41 in the east. >> a storm is growing in the atlantic. you better believe it's one florida is keeping an eye on. tropical storm isaac could become a category 1 hurricane by thursday. and it could turn north toward the sunshine state. if that happens, this could be a serious issue for the republican national convention in tampa next week. 50,000 people are expected in that city during the event. so organizers are keeping a close watch.

so we want to get the latest on this storm. straight to rob marciano in atlanta. >> this far out, john, to get to tampa, that would be day six or seven. odds are minuscule for it to make a direct hit. but if it were to, i mean, that city is as vulnerable as new orleans when it comes to getting a storm surge. very concerned about that. but we're talking about odds of about 1% at this point this far out. but there is a chance. westerly movement at 18 miles an hour right now. just to the east of the leeward islands. tropical storm warnings posted for the northern leeward ilands. u.s. virgin islands, mihispanio and puerto rico. it's likely going to interact with the northern caribbean islands. that will knock down the intensity. not good news for hispaniola and cuba. the last day of the forecast period here, south florida under the gun, including miami. but note the cone of uncertainty

or the margin of vary here. either side of this a couple hundred miles. could get into the gulf of mexico. some of our computer models say that. that would make tampa in play. it could miss florida and head up the east coast to the carolinas. a tough forecast. each one of these lines indicates one computer. this is just a handful. we have several others as well. they're in pretty good agreement to bring it across these islands. that'll keep the intensity of the wind down. obviously the rain is going to be a factor here. at the very least, tampa may get some rain out of this. forecast warnings and watches that are posted for the islands that i mentioned. also, we've got another system out here that has a 90% chance of becoming our next tropical storm. and it's almost doing that but it's way out there. by the way, florida has been getting hammered with rainfall the past couple days. it will do it again today. stalled front down there. an ongoing flow off the ocean is going to keep things rather moist. in preparations for the convention, they'll be getting a

decent amount of rain right now. we'll keep an eye on isaac as well. >> thanks so much, rob. a look at the top stories. a missouri senate candidate todd akin says he's pressing on alone if necessary after rejecting numerous calls from republicans to drop out of that race. akin believes he can still unseat democratic incumbent claire mccaskill despite the political firestorm over his comments about legitimate rape and abortion. a lost piece of history uncovered in a dusty tattic in chattanooga, tennessee. a reel to reel tape containing an interview with dr. martin luther king jr. was recorded in december of 1960, three years before dr. king's i have a dream speech. listen as he talks about the progress of the civil rights movement. >> what effect are the sit-ins having on the progress of the southern negro and his struggle for equality? >> i think a tremendous effect. i am convinced that when the history books are written in

future years, historians will have to record this movement as one of the greatest epics of our heritage. >> wow. that is crystal clear audio. the man who discovered the king interview says his father had interviewed dr. king for a book on racism. but the book was never finished. a controlled blast at the site of a new york subway demolition project goes wrong, jolting nerves, shattering windows and sending smoke and debris up into the street. no injuries reported. city officials are inspecting surrounding buildings for structural issues. a source told a local station a protective covering meant to trap debris wasn't positioned properly. our big other story today, prince harry learning that what happens in vegas ends up on the web. clarence house now confirming to cnn that photos posted on tmz of a nude prince harry are, indeed, prince harry. tmz said they show harry naked, playing a game of drunk strip pool with an unidentified naked woman in a vegas hotel suite.

a private hotel suite. he's covering up in one of the photos. dan rivers is live in london with the latest. certainly embarrassing, i would assume for -- what is the reaction from the royal family this morning, shall i ask? >> well, there's been no reaction from clarence house, which speaks on behalf of the princes other than to confirm it is prince harry. there was a lot of kind of speculation this morning on twitter here that these may have been spoof, fake photos with a lookalike. clarence house telling us they are genuine but making no further comments. clearly pretty embarrassing for the royal family. just the contrast between prince harry's behavior and his brother, prince william, who's a search and rescue pilot who's on duty in wales. reports that he was just last week out saving a young girl in trouble in wales. then his brother pictured naked

in l.a. clearly having a bit of a party. prince harry had his first kind of outing, really, taking place with the queen at the closing ceremony at the olympic games. he looked kind of slightly shell shocked there. very nervous looking prince harry appearing at the closing ceremony. now obviously he's gone away with his friends, letting off some steam by the looks of things. there's been also stories around of him having a kind of, you know, playful swimming race with ryan lochte as well. having some fun. but looks like this may have just gone a bit too far. >> he was wearing slightly more clothing in that swimming race with ryan lochte. that made all of the american tabloids as well. you know, while we're having a little fun with the headline this morning, some of us, you know, it does say something about the security, of course, of the third in line to the throne, i would say. >> it does, yeah. i mean, you know, how these pick

sch picktures were allowed to get out, there's been a sort of convention when he's been out socially that, you know, phones will be checked or taken off people if they're worried they can't be trusted. >> clearly someone had a pocket. someone was still clothed. there was a phone in someone's pocket. >> exactly. there's also a serious point here as well. the british papers here haven't really -- haven't -- well, they've talked about it. but they haven't published the photos. because they're all very worried in the wake of all the phone hacking scandal here. you know, this is the last thing they want to be seen to be doing is to be going out on a limb and publishing these photos. they were taken, we gather, in a private hotel suite. and the agreement here is that, you know, that they're not allowed to publish photos of the royals in this manner when they're clearly in private circumstances. none of the uk papers have published them whereas they've gone round the world on the internet, of course. >> it's interesting harry seems so private in his public duties. i don't know. dan rivers, thankso much.

it makes me wonder, too, what is worse? the pictures of him in the nazi uniform or the pictures of him with nothing on? >> i didn't realize what dan was saying. british papers haven't published the photos yet. interesting. shame, shame, fido. there's a new website that lets you publicly shame your misbehaving pet. if you're leaving the house right now watch us any time on your desktop, mobile phone. go to cnn.com/tv. ll somewhere a, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. ♪

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welcome back at 52 minutes after the hour. i'm here with john berman taking a look at what's trending on the web this morning. to the batmobile. >> that's right. what is trending on the web. legendary british sports car maker mcclaren automotive.

they say it took three years to build. sleek lines. commissioned by an anonymous millionaire. there are a lot of anonymous millionaires out there. we know who really -- we think we know who you are. bruce wayne, right? inspiration from the vehicle was drawn from classic cars from the '50s and '70s. we're told the designer even used a grand piano and photos of audrey hepburn to capture classic elegant. you can see audrey hepburn's face in the fender. >> if that doesn't say the 1%, i don't know what does. the tumbler blog called dog shaming. of pet owners posting pictures of their dogs looking all embarrassed along with notes about what they did wrong. one saying i bit the groomer. now i'm banned. another, i ate $20. my favorite, of course, this one. my favorite pastime is shoving -- that one's disgusting. >> trust me. there's a lot worse. this is the cleanest stuff we could find on this. there's naughty, naughty dog

postings on this. 53 minutes after the hour right now. mitt romney said go. todd akin said no. now the late night guys, they're weighing in. >> i just read that a hurricane could threaten next week's republican national convention in tampa. it could really hurt republicans, which explains its name, hurricane todd akin. >> i just heard now that mitt romney has asked todd akin to step down. i thought, oh, that's too bad. todd akin was the guy to lead the republican party into the 16th century. >> todd akin, he's the republican senate candidate from missouri. he's under fire for his controversial comments that women who are legitimately raped are less likely to get pregnant. the fwood news, candidates who are legitimately that stupid are less likely to get elected. >> coming up on "early start," congressman akin refuses to

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not backing down. congressman todd akin, the man who used those words "legitimate rape" still in the race for senate this morning despite losing support from millions and from the republican party itself. a damper on the party? the gop watching tropical storm isaac this morning. that storm may be in line for florida just in time for the convention. and prince harry in las vegas in the buff. a giant face palm for the royal

family this morning. in case you're wondering what a face palm is, this is a face palm. >> good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine roman. >> i'm john berman. zoraida is off today. embattled missouri candidate todd akin not giving up the fight. akin defying calls from top republicans including mitt romney to drop out of the race. he will forge ahead with his senate campaign. akin says gop brass, they overreacted by abandoning him after his comments about legitimate rape. cnn's political director mark preston live in tampa where the convention is planned, at least, for next week. mark, what now? akin is still in. can he win this race? are republicans going to back him at all if it does look like he's going to win? >> reporter: he's lost all support right now from the republican establishment. we've heard from the republican national committee and also the senate republicans who run their campaign efforts, they are pulling all their money out of the missouri race if todd akin stays in. in fact, john, they think if todd akin stays in they will

lose that race. quite frankly they think it will jeopardyize any hope of them taking back the senate from democrats. big, big deal on capitol hill. for the presidential race, it is a huge implications. we've heard from mitt romney aside. as has just about every republican. as you said, todd akin right now, is staying in. he could have got out before 5:00 last night, which would have been a clean out for him. however, he decided to stay in. it has infuriated republicans all across the country. and has infuriated republicans who are starting to come here to tampa for next week's convention. >> high stakes for the entire republican party here. what we were talking about before the todd akin thing broke on sunday was paul ryan and how paul ryan had changed this race or may have changed the race. there was a new poll, a fresh new poll out, which takes a look at that and gives us some answers to that question, mark. >> yeah, there's new numbers out from the nbc/"wall street journal." the first number we've seen from them shows that the horse race between mitt romney and barack obama is within striking

distance. barack obama is only up right now four points, as we're heading into the final stretch of this race. but as you said, paul ryan, was he going to be a game changer in this race when he was announced by mitt romney? it does not appear so. john, let's take a look at these numbers about paul ryan in the race. are voters more likely to vote for mitt romney because of paul ryan being on the ticket? only 22% say they would. 23% say they are less likely, john, to vote for that ticket. and look at this number, 54% say that it doesn't matter that paul ryan is on the ticket. which just goes to show you, in many ways we put so much emphasis on the vice presidential pick but it really comes down to the principles, john. as you know, this is going to be a race between barack obama and mitt romney. the vice presidential candidates on either side will certainly color in the lines but this is between romney and obama. >> normally those numbers for the vice presidential pick, by

the way, a little more positive. a little less of an impact than we usually see from paul ryan. gaining power in the mid-atlantic, it could become a hurricane by tomorrow. some weather models show isaac is making its way toward florida, which could mean big problems for the republican national convention in tampa next week. about 50,000 people are expected to visit the city during the convention. it's been 90 years since a major hurricane directly hit tampa. but organizers aren't taking any chances, and they are keeping an eye on the storm's path. so is rob marciano. he's got the latest for us. it's a slim chance but with that many people at such a big event, clearly they're watching it. >> you get that many people pouring into tampa, and where the convention center is is at a pretty low elevation. it would be one of the first places to be evacuated if that were to happen. chances are pretty low. right now we've got them about 1% chance of happening. d so, roll the dice, if you may. moving 18 miles an hour, winds of 45 miles an hour. so it's gaining some strength here. it's about 250 miles east of the

northern leeward islands and there have been tropical storm warnings that have been posted for those islands. now, just from the national hurricane center, they've posted hurricane watches for the island -- the u.s. vinchen islands, puerto rico and the island of hispaniola. it looks like the track is going to bring it across the northern caribbean. you mention computer models, if we only had one that was 100% right, we'd be in business. i might be out of a job. but here's several of them. and you can see, as they get across hispaniola they begin to diverge. some bring them into the gulf of mexico, then tampa would be more in play. a number are bringing them towards south florida and then potentially east of there, as well. here's the official forecast track from the national hurricane center as mentioned, category 1 status as it approaches puerto rico, and then getting across hispaniola, western cuba, as we get towards sunday night into monday it approaches south florida. note the margin of error here pretty wide. could go either side. right now, miami certainly

getting a little bit nervous and will be making preparations if that forecast continues to hold. another system out there in the atlantic, and either way, florida has been getting hammered with heavy rain the past couple of days. flood watches have been posted or watches and warnings with more rain expected, including tampa, today. high temperature 85 degrees. >> both of those conventions in the southeast during -- rob, during hurricane season. interesting. >> yeah. yeah, i mean charlotte is out of the evacuation zone but certainly could be impacted if a storm were to head towards the carolinas. >> there you go. thanks so much. >> let's get the rest of the top stories right now. washington state man arrested for allegedly making threats against president obama will appear in court today. investigators say 31-year-old anton caluori sent alarming e-mails to the fbi. according to the secret service, caluori came to the door with a shotgun when investigators arrived at his suburban seattle apartment. agents found two weapons. investigators say he also made comments about explosives so they did a sweep. no explosives were found.

investigators would not specify what was in those e-mails. hey guys, who's going to florida with me? are you going to be in florida? >> yeah. >> well i'm the speaker at the convention. it's good to see you guys. thanks for covering it. >> love joe biden's hume he. vice president joe biden plans to be in tampa during the republican national convention. no he's not the convention speaker. he has events planned in tampa and other cities early next week. obama surrogates will be in the tampa area. both the obama and romney camps aggressively bargaining. federal investigators trying to determine the cause of a freight train derailment in maryland who killed two young women who were tragically in the wrong place before they died. elizabeth nass and rose mayr were sitting on the edge of a

bridge when a passing csx train jumped the tracks. moments before the women had tweeted photos of themselves. one showed feet dangling over the bridge with a competition levitating. another tweet said drinking on top of the ellicott city sign with rose. boats and barges are moving again on the mighty mississippi. the ghost guard says an 11 mile stretch of the river has been reopened near greenville, mississippi. low water levels had forced a closure to cope vessels from running aground. drought levels had near record lows which tied up traffic on one of the nation's key shipping routes. the nasa rover curiosity getting its learner's permit. it's about to take its test drive on mars. it will drive forward, turn and back up. here you can see it. there you go. we'll take a look at some photos. you can see it test wiggle. a series of pictures there, impressive. in all she'll go about ten feet. we should see some tracks on the surface of mars which will be pretty cool. the entire two-year mission

hinges on the success of this short test trip. the pressure is on. nothing hinges on this. it is such a story. prince harry in the buff. clarence house confirms to cnn that photos posted on tmz of a naked prince harry are, indeed, prince harry. tmz says he's playing a game of drunk strip pool with an unidentified naked woman in a vegas hotel suite. we'll have a live report from outside buckingham palace just ahead. >> wonder what the rules are in drunk strip -- >> i was going to ask, the last time you played? >> i don't even know the rules. >> next on "early start" what's missing in this mac and cheese? subtle turn there from prince harry. boston market is cutting back on a tasty ingredient. everyone has it on their kitchen table but not boston market. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat.

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a huge legal battle to tell you about this morning. the tattent war between apple and samsung is now in the hands of a california jury. at stake, billions of dollars, and a competitive edge if the jury sides with apple, the consequences could be severe for samsung and really affect all of our phones everywhere. samsung may be forced to pull its smartphones and tablets off the market and completely redesign them. silicon valley, of course, has been following this case from the beginning in san jose, california. dan, this jury here of nine regular people hearing a lot of very technological arguments. they have to reach a unanimous verdict. >> it's a really high bar. even in these civil cases, you should see this verdict form. it's 20 pages. they have 700 questions to answer. so, this is going to be tough for them to reach a unanimous verdict. but what it sort of boils down

this case. this is about the two biggest smart in phone makers in the world, apple versus samsung. apple is accusing samsung of ripping off the iphone and the ipad for that matter. i want to show you an exhibit that was used during the trial. this was presented by apple. apple saying this is a powerful example showing that samsung copied the iphone. when you look at the phones side by side, the iphone on one side, and a samsung device on the other, they say, you know, it kind of looks the same in terms of its style, its design. apple also claiming that samsung ripped off some of its technology patents. you know this rubber banding effect when you get to the end of something on your iphone, they say samsung copied that, as well. apple ceo tim cook, he did not testify in this case, but he was asked about it not too long ago in a technology conference. take a look. >> from our point of view, it's important that apple not be the developer for the world.

we can't take all of our energy and all of our care and finish the painting and have someone else put their name on it. >> well, what does samsung say about all this? well, they say that this is not about copying. this is about competition. and that it's perfectly okay to derive inspiration from other companies. that is their principle argument here. and they also use analogies like if you go into a best buy and you see all those televisions on the wall. they all pretty much look the same. because, they say, you know, the form follows the factor. you know, when rim came out with the blackberry you had those plastic keys on there. every smartphone maker came out with a similar device. they say it's the same now when it comes tohese modern smartphones. >> this has got to be bigger than just samsung. the android people, google, they

have to be looking at this case, too, wondering if there's just huge ramifications. >> well, it's interesting. all these samsung phones run the google operating system, so one would think what's bad for samsung is also bad for google. and that somehow these devices were pulled from the shelves and you had to make changes there could be some impact with the software. so no question google is watching this very closely, as well. >> dan simon in san jose, california. very interesting case. thanks very much. it's 14 minutes after the hour, john. let's get you up to date on the headlines. hanging tough for now, congressman todd akin defying calls from the republican leadership to drop out of the missouri senate race. akin says he has apologized for controversial comments on race and abortion, and hasn't done anything ethically or morally wrong and akin believes he's still the gop's best chance to unseat missouri democrat claire mccaskill in november. a 70-year-old lyneham pyre preparing for the u.s. open tennis tournament arrested and

charged with killing her 80-year-old husband in california back in april. this is the victim, alan goodman. prosecutors say his wife lois beat him with a coffee mug in l.a. back in april, then stabbed him with broken shards. she's now awaiting extradition to l.a. revenge for the russian rockers. hackers attacking the website of a moscow court tried and convicted three members of a female punk rock band last week. they were sentenced for two years in prison for assault, ridiculing vladimir putin and the russian orthodox church. they got support from the likes of madonna and paul mccartney. there are reports a russian offshoot of the group is naming responsibility. a quadruple amputee makes history by swimming across four intercontinental channels. philippe finished the last leg of his swim friday overcoming extreme conditions to cross the bering strait, the channel between alaska and russia.

the 44-year-old who had never swum before is only the second person to swim the bering strait. he lost all four limbs after being severely electrocuted in 1994. hold the salt. the boston market chain announcing plans to remove salt shakers from tables at all 476 locations nationwide. they're also reducing sodium levels by 20%, on three signature menu items over the next six months. the company says it plans to have 15% less salt in all its dishes in the future. >> so interesting. a lot of different food companies are trying to do that because it saves them a lot of money. they're trying to see how much of that stuff they can take out before we notice. changing the production isn't but once you get less input in that's good. >> 16 minutes after the hour. another story christine talks about a lot, a college degree doesn't always mean big bucks anymore. the struggle for generation "y" next. and for a look at all of our top

stories, whether you're generation "y," "v," "x," "q," go to cnn.com/earlystart. ntgome abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

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minding your business this morning. a new study shows generation "y" workers, people 19 to 30 years old, more likely to be in low-paying jobs, even if you have a college degree. and these are jobs that don't require a college degree. the most common, merchandise displayer, clothing sales

representative, and cell phone sales representative. this is according to a survey by pay scale and millennial branding. their study also found these employees prefer working for technology companies because of the higher salaries, more flexibilities, satisfaction. so jen-y wants to work for tech companies but they're not working for tech, the big jobs are not necessarily in tech. topping the list in this arena where they want to work, software, blogging, social media, i'm going to tweet out a link to this. >> is there money in blogging? >> some people must be. but the tech arena is where this is really interesting and exciting developments for people. it requires skills, though. it requires tech skills. it requires a stem education. you probably heard me rattle on about stem, science, technology, engineering and math. but if you're in gen-y, there's a lot of complaints i have a lot of education, i don't have a job. >> the devil's advocate question, you can't get a job at a college, why bother going to

college? >> you've got to go to college. the one thing you know about your money, college still pays. you might feel like you can't afford to go to college but you can't afford not to. you look at some of the highest paid, most satisfying jobs, they do dequire a college degree. it's hard to hear that when you're in the middle of what still feels like a recession. it's just the truth. you've got to figure out how to pay for it. i say this the day after we did the party school list. you know. i mean, i feel like, don't -- >> right. you're going to pay that much you should be studying. 22 minutes after the hour right now. oh, to be a fly on the wall at buckingham palace this morning. palace officials now confirming to cnn that photos posted on tmz are, in fact, of a naked prince harry. matthew chance is live from buckingham palace with the latest. matthew, this cannot be a happy buckingham palace this morning. >> no. in fact, the clarence house, which is prince harry's home here in london and the official residence of his father, prince

charles, has confirmed to cnn as you mentioned these photographs are genuine. they're pretty salacious, aren't they? you've seen them on this website, tmz. and we have them, as well, showing prince charles in a very compromising position. in what appears to be the privacy of his hotel suite in las vegas. of course it's well known that prince harry over the past few days or so has been vacationing in vegas. he's been pictured repeatedly in the british press, and in the media around the world, lying by the pool, talking to other guests as he relaxes after his official engagements, during the olympics here in london. but this obviously steps over a certain line. it must have been, it seems, somebody in his party, inside that hotel suite, that took these photographs and sold them, essentially, to the press. and so that's something that's interesting. but, you know, it's also an

issue of, i suppose, the judgment of prince harry. i mean he's been in compromising situations like this in the past. a few years ago, for instance, he was pictured at a party wearing a nazi uniform. he's also been apologizing in the past for using abusive terms for his comrades in the armed forces. and that was another scandal. he was also accused of underage drinking, and drug taking, as well. so this is a prince, this is a member of the royal family that's really no stranger to controversy. this is yet another example of that. >> so, matthew, you know, it's hard not to look at these pictures which are surprising and not snicker a little bit, to be honest here. but is it more than just an embarrassment? this was in the privacy of a hotel room. are there ramifications that go beyond just a simple laugh in the morning? >> i'm not sure there are any serious implications beyond the sort of embarrassment, but again that lack of judgment being shown by prince harry.

i mean, it isn't just the photograph of a naked harry. he doesn't appear to be engaged in any kind of act that's against the law. and he's a 27-year-old single man. and so, in a sense, this is what happens in his own private time. in fact that barrier's been stepped over. i think it's quite interesting. it's also very interesting here in britain. we have a very ferocious tabloid press but none of the tabloids in this country have chosen to run those photographs. and of course, when we're talking about a briton post-levinson inquiry, post the national inquiry into the invasions of privacy that have been undertaken by various aspects of the british press, into the lives of royals and other public figures, the decision at the moment in britain amongst many of the tabloid newspapers appears to be not to run these photographs. >> all right. matthew chance in london. that is fairly stunning. not in the london tabloids at all this morning. thanks, matthew. the storm now is growing in the atlantic, and republicans, they're keeping an eye on it. could isaac put a soaking on

tampa during the republican national convention? we will ask the city's mayor if it's ready, next. if you're leaving the house, you can watch us any time on your desk top or mobile phone go to cnn.com/tv. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil,

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a headache for republicans. congressman todd akin, the man who used those words "legitimate rain." he is still in the race for senate this morning. democrats now trying to tie him to mitt romney and paul ryan. a peace of lost history found. martin luther king, in his own words. just ahead. >> amazing stuff. >> cool. >> welcome back to "early start" i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans in for zoraida this morning. tropical storm isaac picking up steam in the atlantic, and it could become a hurricane tomorrow. on some projections, florida is right in its path. if it makes landfall next week, it's possible, possible, it could take a serious toll on the republican national convention in tampa. some 50,000 people, of course, expected to be in that city during the event. let's get to rob marciano with the very latest. clearly everyone watching this storm. >> when you talk about a forecast that far out, when it comes to hurricanes, you're talking about some serious margin of error. yesterday when we spoke about this we said that the chances of this thing making a direct hit

on tampa this far out, likely less than 1%. i think we've doubled those odds. maybe 2%. okay? so roll the dice there. check some of my favorite sites out at vegas, nobody taking odds on that just yet. but nonetheless, westerly moving at 18 miles an hour. winds at 45. gaining a little bit of strength. leeward islands of the caribbean, the greater antilles, they're under the gun here. these lines represent individual computer models that take this forecast out several days. you can see, pretty good agreement across northern caribbean islands. then we start to see a bit of a spread which is fairly typical. the problem is some of these bring it into the gulf of mexico. most bring it to the southern tip of florida. and a few of them also bring them to the east side of florida. a huge margin of error there. because when you're talking about it hitting a peninsula like florida, if you're off by 50 or 100 miles that's going to be a big difference as far as the weather is concerned. forecast track from the national hurricane center. we average them out, a little

bit of climatology, a little bet of meteorological know-how and this is how they get the track. the shaded area is the margin of error. the closer you get towards floorer the margin of error begins to increase. watching very carefully. either way a lot of rain has been falling on tampa. that will continue today as they set up the convention. >> all right, thanks, rob. keep your eye on it. cnn, of course, is gearing up for special coverage of the republican national convention this sunday night cnn's coverage kicks off at 8:00 p.m. eastern with a profile of the presumptive presidential nominee. then monday morning, both "early start," and "starting point" will broadcast live from tampa. >> all right. so are republicans ready? is this city of tampa ready? that's the question we're all asking this morning. joining us now from tampa is that city's mayor bob buckhorn. hello mayor buckhorn. you know, you have 50,000 republicans coming to the convention right now. 2,200 delegates. 15,000 members of the news media. you're expecting 150 million dollars in revenue from the

republican convention. after hearing all those numbers and seeing that forecast, how nervous are you? >> i'm not really nervous at all. i feel like an athlete. you know, we've trained hard. we've been training for a year and a half. i just want the bell to go off and i just want to get in the game. >> so you're training. what are the precautions you take for this kind of thing? what are the contingen jis? >> well, we've been preparing for a long time. we've studied the reports of all the other major cities that hosted conventions, g- s, g-20s, world trade organizations. our security apparatus is in place. we've been working hard in terms of logistics anded transportation efforts. there's going to be 400 buses that will move delegations from all over the bay area. i think we're as well equipped and as well-prepared as any city could be, bearing in mind that we're a midsize american market hosting a major, major international event. >> let me read you a quote that sounds a lot when you first hear it. in a worst case category 4 hurricane the convention center could be immersed in 20 feet of water.

even a category 1 hurricane would be enough to spoil the convention. that's from meteorologists at the weather underground. you know some of these buildings where the conventions are being held are right in the middle of the evacuation zone. >> they are indeed. and that's one of the things that as floridians we live with on a daily basis. we're prepared for it. we train for it. we have contingency plan after contingency plan. it is our reality flazians. we have a beautiful city here on the water. obviously there are some sorts of stances that involve weather that we can't predict that we can't control. but we are ready in the event that it happens. i don't think it's going to be a factor in this particular convention. but we are prepared in the event that it is. >> i hate to keep hammering you with the worst case scenario. but you keep saying contingency. if i does hit on one of these days with big speeches happening with all these people there, are you prepared to call it off, and say it shouldn't be happening in tampa this night and move it somewhere else, maybe? >> well, absolutely we're prepared to call it off. i mean, human safety and human life trumps politics.

i think the rnc recognizes that. the organizers, certainly governor romney recognizes that. whatever we do will be based on getting people out of harm's way. politics will take second place. and you know, all of us recognize that. the rnc recognized it when they picked tampa as the host city. when it's all said and done, in the event that there's a storm that looks like it's coming this way, that looks like it may impact this community, our job and my job will be to make sure that the safety of the delegates, the delegations, the visitors, the guests, as well as my residents are first and foremost. we will move into evacuation moid. the only additional difference will be that there's a few more people here. >> all right, mayor bob buckhorn in tampa. we are rooting for you. just a 2% chance right now. thanks very much for joining us. it's 35 minutes past the hour. let's get you up to date on the rest of your top stories. the u.n.'s humanitarian chief will give us an update on syria today. last week she provided a dire

account. more than 1 million people uprooted, 1 million more in need of urgent aid. syria's deputy prime minister says any discussion of president bashar al assad's resignation will only happen after a dialogue with syrian rebels. that's what he told russian state tv yesterday during a visit to moscow. a network of opposition activists says 230 people were killed across the country just yesterday. lost piece of history uncovered in a dusty attic in chattanooga, tennessee. a reel-to-reel tape containing interview with dr. martin luther king jr. this was recorded in december of 1960, about three years before dr. king's "i have a dream" speech. listen as he talks about the progress of the civil rights movement. >> what effect are the citizens having on the progress of the southern negro in his struggle for equality? >> i think a tremendous effect. i am convinced that when the history books are written in future years, historians will have to record this movement as

one of the greatest epics of our heritage. >> such clarity in that reporting. so amazing to hear the voice. the man who discovered the king interview says his father had interviewed dr. king for a book on racism, but his book was never finished. >> to know while he was making history that he was? sometimes i think people in the public eye don't necessarily know how history books will record them. clearly he was right. he won't go. congressman akin staying in his race, despite his legitimate rape comment controversy. will he hurt his own party in the november election? at usaa, we believe honor is not exclusive to the military, and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. with our award winning apps

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welcome back to "early start." 40 minutes after the hour.

i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. republican congressman todd akin still set on unseeding incumbent claire mccaskill, senator from missouri, defying calls from party leadership to abandon ship after inflammatory comments about abortion over the weekend. akin at the st. louis airport last night. >> were you upset with how the republican did not back you during all of this? does it bother you that they kind of bailed on you? >> it's been exciting days. we're doing the best we can. >> and do you still think you can win the race? >> i believe so. >> akin had until 6: last night to withdraw from te race without needing a court order. while he's indicated no plans to drop out, the congressman is expected to face even more pressure leading up to the republican convention next week. republican strategist margaret

hoover is with us now. clearly with a week before the convention this is not what the republican party wanted to be talking about. >> we can say very diplomatically that this is an unhelpful distraction. this is not what the republicans want to be talking about. we understand the democrats want to exploit a double digit lead with women over republicans. this simply shifts it back to that focus and away from what republicans and mitt romney want to be talking about which is jobs, jobs, jobs, the economy, the debt crisis, the deficit, medicare reform, saving and securitying medicare and medicaid for future generations. none of that is on the front of anybody's mind when you have the ak akin plan. they're trying to make this a national issue so it will be an issue in the front of voters minds. it's end pent voters and women voters. >> it comes as the republican party came up with their party platform in tampa and i want to show you the language of this. it says the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. we support a human life amendment to the constitution and we endorse legislation to

make clear that the four teenth amendment protection is applied to unborn children. this does not have an exception for rape or incest. which, is different than the presumptive republican nominee. >> than the top of the republican ticket. >> let's listen to what mitt romney says about this. >> with regards to my own view, i made it very clear, i'm pro-life. but i believe there should be exceptions in the case of rape and incest. >> the question is, romney repudiated akin, said he should drop from the race. but is this a moment for him, should he do more, stand up and say we should include exceptions for rape and incest in the republican party platform? should he say this from the convention floor? >> it would have been really timely if he said it two days ago. but they voted on the platform yesterday. he's in line. 67% of republicans don't agree with this language. 67% of republicans agree with mitt romney that there should be an exception for rape and incest. what you have to keep in mind is that the people who show up, who

participate in the party platform process, are the most conservative, and the most ideologically entrenched in both parties, democrats and republicans. these are the people who are the least flexible on any of their ideological views and they're most wedded to their positions. they don't republican the majority of the republican party and you can make a very strong argument as a pro-choice republican that they alienate women and independents from the party. you can also ask, how important is the party platform? sure it's a road map in terms of what the party believes, where it goes. but it's sort of like the budgeting process. in budgeting you very rarely get the appropriators to stick tightly to the budget. it's a road map. >> which brings me to paul ryan. paul ryan, his voting record on these issues probably looks a lot more like todd akin's than it does for what his -- who he wants to be his boss at this point. >> well, you have, christine i'm glad you mention it. you have 227 republican legislators that actually were proponents of hr-3 which used this language forcible rape.

the president's language trumps all the debates, rape is rape. people come out and say that pretty uniformly which is making the 225 legislatolegislators, y also the subject of a divide. and not helpful again, for a debate going into this. look, i've been working on this language for a long time. a lot of people before me have been working on this. this is a party of the party platform since 1984. they had two convention fights to get language put into the platform to say that we accept and respect the party has the multiplicity of views on this -- >> is there room in the republican party for republican women to have a lot of different views on abortion? >> there is room in the party. i am a pro-choice republican. there is not room amongst the party apparatus in the party platform and that's something we're working on our side to try to reflect a larger and more diverse set of views. >> thank you so much for talking about this. a lot to talk about in day three. >> and it's 45 minutes past the

hour. let's get you up to date on the mornings top stories. a washington state man arrested for making threats against president obama is due to appear in court today. authorities say 31-year-old anton caluori sent alarming e-mails to the fbi. the secret service agents went to the suspect's home in suburban washington he was armed with a shotgun. he also made comments about explosives but none were found. investigators are not saying exactly what was in those e-mails he sent check out this on a building in downtown tampa near the site of the republican national convention. it's the face from the movie "v for vendetta" with the number 99 painted in red. the man who discovered it said he's concerned that it's the work of an anarchist group and he continues the 99 to the occupy movement. crews painted over the graffiti. prince harry in the buff. palace officials tell cnn that photos posted on tmz of a naked prince harry are, in fact, prince harry. tmz says he's playing a game of drunk strip pool with an unidentified naked woman in a

private vegas hotel room. >> there you go. >> soledad o'brien -- >> why am i coming out of that story? >> soledad o'brien. >> it's kind of how we do it here. lots going on this morning. we're going to continue to talk on "starting point" about what's happening in politics, as we talk about congressman todd akin. as you guys have been talking about all morning. in the race. what does it all mean? we're going to talk to mark mckinnon presidential campaign adviser to john mccain. tom davis, former chair of the national republican campaign committee. he'll be our guestas well. steven laws is the conference super pac created by karl rove called american cross roads he'll weigh in on what this all means for the national race. martin frost is a former chairman of the democratic national campaign committee. he's going to talk to us about that, as well. if akin decides to stay in the race. also tropical storm isaac churning in the atlantic. the good news, it's only a tropical storm. the bad news could be a hurricane by the time it hits tampa, if it hits tampa. while we're all there for the

republican convention. we're going to talk this morning with tampa's mayor about what his big worries are today. and then diana nyad. jelly fish stings, lightning storms, sharks. we're going to talk about how it all went. what was the worst. and today is her 63rd birthday. you know, she's very philosophical about why she took this journey. going to check in on how she's feeling about it now that she did not reach the goal that she was hoping to reach. sapp attack. the name of warren sapp's new book. i know very little about football but the book is great. it is hilariously funny. he's going to stop by the studios this morning to talk with us about his life story. and his new book, which is really, really enjoyable. all that and much more right at the top of the hour. >> can't wait. and he can dance. 48 minutes after the hour right now. coming up a shocking new report, white supremacists may be using the army and marines to train for future race war. what is the military going to do about this? we'll talk about it next.

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welcome back, everyone. a new article suggests white supremacists could be using the american military as a training ground. reuters reports white supremacists, neo-nazis and skinhead groups are encouraging followers to enlist and acquire military skills for future battles. taking out more media -- in wisconsin where former army soldier killed six people at a sikh temple. daniel prada wrote the article on this. i guess what is so surprising to people is the idea that there is a conservative, organized effort to get into the military for this training. >> yes.

they call it rahowa or the racial holy war. where they encourage followers to get in, get training and get out for what they see as the coming race war. there is some skepticism about this. there could be a degree of bluster or fantasy, but this is their stated goal, and as the case in wisconsin shows all it takes is one lone wolf to follow through on that. >> is this something the military is concerned about? >> yes, they are. the military has issued three separate directives since 1986. each one more strict than the other. attempting to root out racism or white supremacism within the ranks. they see its abad for morale, bad for the army, and in the case of the u.s. army, where 40% of the troops are minorities, not good for morale. >> what kind of concrete steps can they take among the officer corps to keep this kind of thing from fomenting there? >> that's actually one of the measures that civil rights groups are encouraging the army to take, is to have a more

comprehensive approach, starting from recruiting and all the way through. giving the commanders more awareness in order to act. in fact, the latest directive came out in 2009, did just that. it encourages commanders to be more alert. to intervene. >> one of the things you wrote about in your article is giving some kind of training to identify tattoos that may be a concern. >> yes. a lot of the white supremacists have a number of tattoos that they wear. stemming from nordic or celtic culture, and the military is trained in how to spot these tattoos, and keep in mind, in fact, one of the coaching methods that they've been giving to their people is -- who are trying to get in, is not to get tattooed just yet. to cover them up so they can get past the screeners. >> daniel trot to from reuters thank you very much. it is a very interesting article. >> thank you. >> christine? >> all right, john. today's best advice is coming up. we're going to hear from one of the actresses in the new movie

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welcome back, everyone. 58 minutes after the hour. right now as always, wrap it up with best advice. >> one of the actresses in the new whitney houston movie "sparkle." she was here the other day, and we asked her her best advice. listen. >> best piece of advice i've ever gotten from my mom. she told me to love the lord with all my heart and he would take me far. and look where i am. hey, it's the best! take you far. >> she's adorable. >> she was here just the other day telling us she's got a new reality show about food coming

up. she is a hoot and an amazing gospel singer. >> and more advice from your mother. >> listen to mom. >> that is "early start" for this morning. i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans in for zoraida. soledad starts right now. >> welcome, everybody. our "starting point" this morning. he's staying in. congressman todd akin defies calls to resign. he's going to stay in the missouri senate race. will his bed endanger republican chances to regain the white house? on the move this morning, tropical storm isaac. churning toward the caribbean right now, threatening to swamp florida during the republican national convention. and vegas hangover. today the palace is confirming that naked pictures of prince harry at a wild las vegas party are actually genuine. we're going to take you to london live this morning. have a packed show ahead. endurance swimmer diana nyad will join us, nfl superstar warren sapp is our guest. tampa mayor bob