interview with joshua cook. he tells me why he murdered both his participants and we talk about the shootings in aurora and newtown. that's all for tonight. "anderson cooper" starts right now. i'm susan hendricks. anderson will be back in a moment. but first breaking news in oklahoma. a tornado has touched down in the tulsa suburb of broken arrow. tornado warnings and watches have been in effect all evening through much of the southern plains and also mid-mississippi river valley. cnn's chad myers and tom saider will join me now. chad, you're storm chasing in oklahoma and have been there for a day now, what are you seeing and seeing now? >> reporter: although the storms die off in the evening hours, the storms tonight seem to have held a lot of punch. we just rolled through the valley, a string of hail, an awful lot of hail, probably up to nickel size, but often broken

arrow, a large and dangerous tornado on the ground moving to the east. that's over the creek turnpike and then to the east. so not toward the city of tulsa, but to the east of tulsa through the eastern suburbs and then out toward east of that area into a much less populated area. but this is a large, extremely dangerous tornado on the ground right now that has moved through broken arrow and part of the suburb and now moved over the turnpike and points east. >> chad, i understand you used to work in that area, from your perspective, how bad is this and how close are you to that tornado? >> reporter: we are still, even if we started, we are two hours south of this area near oklahoma city. oklahoma takes a long time to travel through. we left oklahoma yesterday and traveled 480 miles chasing other tornadoes across the state. so that area will eventually

move into the area. this is a large tornado on the ground. probably the storm chasers had a good look at it right now. the national weather service knows where it is. if you are east of broken arrow, you need to be taking cover right now. this is extremely dangerous situation for you. in your home, away from the windows, the closet, something small. stay in your basement if you do. yo people in oklahoma near the tulsa area, certainly some of the older homes have the basements. that's where you want to be right now. tulsa, you're in the clear from the east of you and moving away, but this is for broken arrow and points east. >> all right, chad, standby here as i go to tom saider to tell us about the tornado near tulsa and where it is going now. tom? >> susan, just has chad mentioned tulsa is in the clear and it is moving to the east a good 25 miles per hour. it is mainly for eastern tulsa county and wagner county. however, those living in

cherokee county where it is a little less populated, that's a concern if they live in that area because it is moving eastward. the tornado warning in effect for just another ten minutes, but visual reports say multiple explosions of the transformers, typically yes, that could be in the creek turnpike, that dives down right through this area. and you'll be able to see that from tulsa that, of course, it is i-44. but again, we've also had reports of a cone-shaped tornado, not a wedge, the larger, wider tornadoes like in moore, oklahoma, but it's a multiple vortex which means there could be more than one. again, we are watching as it moves east as a good 25, 30 miles an hour. and as chad mentioned, east from cherokee to wagner county. we'll watch this closely. any reports of damage or injuries, we'll give you the very latest when we hear from authorities there. >> tom, thank you so much. the last few weeks seem to be relentless with the number of strength in thunderstorms, and

tornadoes, has it been more intense when you look at moore and the two schools that were leveled. has this been worse than you have seen in the past, chad? >> reporter: typically in a year we get 1,000 tornadoes. 999 of them are not f-5, ef-5. one sometimes can be. most of the time we get one or two per year out in ef-5, out in farmland, range land, we get pictures on tv and sthom, but what happened this time was the ef-4 and eventually to the ef-5 damage in moore, but it moved through a populated area. we always know that populated areas are just as likely to pick up tornado damage as the isolated areas away from the city. but if you look at a google map, there are just more farmland areas. not as many big cities, if you look at google earth, i would say 99% of oklahoma is not a city. but when you move a very large tornado into a populated area,

you are going to get damage. and, yes, this was an unusual season for stuff like this to happen in the city. now, moore was hit three times. by an ef-4 or greater. we had a '99 storm, a 2003 storm and now a 2013 storm. all of those produced damage. about 200 miles per hour. the f-5 number, that means the entire house is gone. all that's left is foundation or the slab that's on the ground. all the wood, all the insides, refrigerator moved away from the house. it's gone. it hasn't moved through the city yet, it doesn't happen often, but it happens once in a while. towns do get in the way. >> yeah, we saw the aftermath of that. we're looking at live tower cam pictures. our chad myers, i know you're storm chasing. please stay safe down there, thanks so much, tom saider, as well. now, to a late, new development in the investigation of the threatening letter sent to

president obama and michael bloomberg. according to a source familiar with the investigation, law enforcement is questioning a person in texas about those letters. two that were sent to mayor bloomberg and his gun control group tested positive for ricin. and then, in the last 24 hours, another suspicious letter was intercepted. that one was addressed to president obama. debra fayer is joining me now with the latest. authorities are questioning a man in relation to those letters. what can you tell us? >> reporter: this is what we are learning right now, that is they are interviewing a man who lives about a hundred miles from shreveport, louisiana, which is where all three letters were post marked from. we're not naming the town, but we know it was about a hundred miles from the border. it would have been easy for a person to make the drive and postmark those letters. we are told he is being interviewed right now. >> so, deb, this latest letter to president obama, there is a link, is that true, between that and two others delivered to

mayor bloomberg and his gun control group? what more can you tell us in terms of if they're related or not? >> reporter: all three letters were post marked from the same place, shreveport, louisiana. but also, his gun control group were written by the same person because they contained the same language, the same threat. the writer says, "you will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. anyone wants to come to my house will be shot in the face. the right to bear arms is my constitutional, god-given right. and i will exercise that right until the day i die." then the person actually goes one step farther in referring to the ricin-tainted envelopes, he says, what's in this letter is nothing compared to what i've got planned for you. so, clearly, the joint terrorism task force is taking this extremely seriously. not only because there was the presence of ricin, traces of ricin, but because there's an additional threat on top of that. >> ricin can be deadly if it's

inhaled or ingested, so they are taking this seriously. one of the targets, the director of mayors against illegal guns, personally opened the letter. what do we know about his condition now? >> reporter: well, we are told mark glaze came into work and he is okay. he came into work on sunday and he was outdoors, fortunately, opening a stack of mail. between the warning and the substance, he knew that something was wrong and so he walked away. the facts that this was not a sort of small space and it was not enclosed, that may have helped in terms of any dissemination. he's not commenting, clearly, because this is an ongoing investigation. but as for president obama and mayor bloomberg, they are never in any danger because their mail is opened away, in an off-site facility. >> we keep hearing "traces" of ricin. what does that mean? >> what it really means is that it does not appear that this ricin was weaponized, which means it is not completely lethal.

it's sort of an orangish, pink color and oily. and a source says that, for example, if you crush the caster beans, the things that ricin comes from, what you would get is traces of ricin along with the beans, the material from the beans. therefore, it looks like it wasn't as lethal because it wasn't actually weaponized. it was just contained in the plant from which it comes. >> deb, thanks so much for the latest on that breaking news. stay with us. we'll be right back. be or your? [ female announcer ] now there's new neutrogena® naturals acne cleanser. acne medicine from the wintergreen leaf treats breakouts. no parabens or harsh sulfates. for naturally clear skin. [ female announcer ] neutrogena® naturals.

well, tonight, the clock is ticking for an arizona mother,

locked in a mexican jail accused of smuggling 12 pounds of marijuana on a bus. under mexican law by tomorrow evening, the judge handling the case against maldanado must dissolve the case. maldanodo and her husband were returning home last week from a funeral when she was arrested. now in an exclusive interview with cnn from jail, she insists she is innocent. >> it's a lie, what they're saying. we came from phoenix, we got a phone call from my brother saying that my aunt passed away and we were on the way to a church activity when that happened. so when we come back, i told my husband i need to go, i grew up with my aunt and my grandma, so i felt that i needed to be there with them at this time of

sorrow, and i'm very honest person, and i work hard and, you know, i never have like a lot of money but i'm a decent person and i always bring whatever, you know, i earn to the home. i never associate with people who does drugs or deals with that or any illicit. i used to tell people come to mexico, it's not true what they're saying. i go every year to visit my family. i come, i drive myself, nothing happens. it's good. people would say, no, you're crazy, you're this, you're that, and look what's happening to me now. i cannot say that anymore. >> key piece of evidence was presented today in court. a videotape which showed maldonado and her husband actually boarding the bus. rafael romo was in the courtroom, he saw the video. he joins us now tonight. so you were one of the few journalists who actually saw the security video from the

checkpoint. what does it show? >> reporter: anderson, this was probably the most important and dramatic day for the defense. the video shows the maldonados, both gary and yanira, boarding a bus. they're only carrying two blankets, two bottles of water and a purse. and the defense is saying that it is impossible that they would have been able to hide more than 12 pounds of marijuana and go unnoticed. so from the defense perspective, this is the nail in the coffin. they say, the defense attorney, i spoke with him today and he says the prosecution's case is crumbling and he says he's 100% sure that the judge is going to rule in their favor tomorrow. >> and you spoke to gary, the husband, outside the courthouse, and you asked him i know if he regrets the last minute trip the couple made. what did he tell you?

>> reporter: well, i spoke with gary and i asked him a question based on the conversation, the interview i had with yanira the day before, she was telling me that as a couple, they made the decision to travel by bus into mexico because they thought it would be safer to do so. but today, the husband, gary, said that that was probably a mistake and that's something that he regrets. >> i just regret the decision coming here, looking back. it was to visit family and go to a funeral so i was going to go and support our family on this side. that's why i decided to go but i didn't want to take the vehicle because we found out about the funeral late at night. i was like, we're too tired to drive our own vehicle and i've already done the bus trip once, and i felt comfortable that the bus company would get us there safe and back. >> so she's going to learn her fate by tomorrow night, correct? >> reporter: that's correct. by law, the federal judge in

charge of the case has until tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. to issue a ruling and she really only has two options. she either has to charge her with trafficking or she has to let her go. so a lot can happen in the next 24 hours and the family told me that they feel cautiously optimistic that freedom is near, anderson. >> you never know what's going to happen in a foreign court. we'll continue to follow it. appreciate it. for more, go to cnn.com. just ahead, what you need to know about a world virus the world health organization is now calling its greatest concern. also ahead, a murder that's really unthinkable. hard to wrap your head around. a 16-year-old girl whose closest friends are actually charged with killing her. why they say they killed her is stunning. one has pleaded guilty. we'll talk about that ahead.

tonight, there's growing concern over a new virus that global health officials are scrambling to try to learn more about. it's a new type of corona virus. the first cases started showing up last year in the middle east. it is now spreading. today, a spokesman at the world health organization told cnn the number of cases has risen to at least 50. that's of they know about. of those 50, 30 have died. on its face, it's a high mortality rate. this week the director general of the world health organization, dr. margaret chan, used pretty alarming language. she said, i quote, the novel corona virus is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself. the novel corona virus is a threat to the entire world. chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins me now. sanjay, i keep hearing this virus referred to as sars-like which is obviously a scary thought. what exactly is it, do we know?

>> this type of virus called a corona virus, there's all sorts of different viruses in the family. this is known as middle eastern respiratory virus. it's got a specific name to it and it's in the same family as sars but also the same family as the common cold. we know it's much more serious than the common cold, but it doesn't appear to be spreading the way that sars did. if people remember specifically what was happening. it also really does appear to be linked to the middle east. >> but it can be transmitted person to person, because that's worrying. >> yeah. right. and sars was easily transmitted from person to person. the common cold can be easily transmitted. this can be transmitted, but not easily. that's a very important point. it is that thing that doctors are going to be paying the closest attention to, does this become more easily transmissible. >> but is it spread through somebody coughing and somebody picking up a spore or something? how is it actually spread, is it known? >> yeah. so this is a particular virus and they don't know for sure. you know, when you talk about

airborne transmission, for example, someone coughing and then someone else inhaling some of those viral particles, that's the most common way, but they're not 100% sure on this. that's i think a little bit of what you're hearing from the w.h.o. they need to figure out more about this novel virus. they just simply don't know enough about it. >> at least 30 people have died already so it's got a high fatality rate. do they have any idea how to actually treat it? >> there is no particular treatment because, you know, there's not an antiviral given how new this is and there's not a vaccine. let me say something important about this number of 30 people who have died. what you really want to know in terms of figuring out the fatality rate is how many people are really infected. they know about 50 people showed up to the hospital, so does that mean 30 out of 50 people, or are there many, many more people out in the community who just had mild illness, they never really got sick and as a result, they never went to the doctor, to the hospital, and it may be 30 out

of a much larger number in terms of that fatality. >> i find these viruses just so fascinating, how they pop up in a certain geographic region for sometimes reasons that we can't figure out initially. i know the world health organization has alerted people to the threat of it. they haven't issued any travel advisories. is there something travelers can do to protect themselves from it? >> i think the basics do apply but let me just say, you and i have traveled around the world looking specifically at the origin of some of these diseases with nathan wolf, who is a hunter of pathogens. sometimes they can just suddenly make a jump from animals to humans. we're not entirely sure why. they think this may be coming from bats, for example. they haven't confirmed that but that's often what happens, and why those sudden jumps occur, you know, is a little bit of a mystery. but it's a very good point. i think as far as protecting yourself, if you've traveled to the middle east, you come back, you have a cold that's not getting better, getting worse, in fact, you probably need to get that checked out. if you come in contact with people who have that kind of illness. but then again, the simple

washing of the hands, being very conscious about not touching 100 times -- couple hundred times a day your hands to your mouth and your eyes, those things do make a difference here. >> all right. sanjay gupta, thanks. let's get caught up on some of the other stories we're following. susan hendricks is here with the "360" bulletin. one of the suspects in the hijacking death of a british soldier, hacking, that is, is charged with murder in a london court. the 22-year-old man is one of at least eight people accused in that case. a brazilian courtroom, outrage from victim's families after a decision to grant bail to the four defendants facing trial for a deadly nightclub fire. 242 people were killed last january in a botched pyrotechnic show. in california, a not guilty plea from a disneyland employee accused in dry ice bombs at the park. christian barns is facing felony possession of a destructive device. mickey's toontown was shut down for two hours while authorities investigated that incident. up next, a heartbreaking story in west virginia. a 16-year-old girl had dreams of becoming a lawyer, was murdered.

why she was killed and who is accused of doing it is shocking. we'll tell you the details ahead. we are also in china for an update on the newborn boy rescued from the sewage pipe. he's captured the world's teens. we'll tell you where he is now and how his mother's story holds up.

welcome back. in crime and punishment tonight, a murder case in west virginia that has stunned a community. the victim was a 16-year-old girl full of dreams that any teenaged girl has but they were snuffed out in a crime depraved that defies logic. we will explore their actions in just a few moments with one of the top criminal profilers in the country. first, randi kaye on the gruesome end to a beautiful young life. >> reporter: skyler was a straight a student, tenth grader at university high school in star city, west virginia. she loved spending time with her dog and played the flute in the band. skyler's father says she had dreams of going to law school. >> she wanted to be a lawyer. and to hear her argue, she could have been a very good lawyer. >> reporter: skyler's story took a tragic turn july 6 last year, when she disappeared. >> she got home at 10:00.

she got home from work, came in and said i love you, mom, i love you, dad, and she went to her room and we never seen her again. >> reporter: skyler's father realized the next day something was wrong, when he found skyler's bed empty. when she first disappeared, what did you think had happened? >> she had run away. if she had run away, she would have took her cell phone charger and hair curler and all the other stuff kids take. that's pure hell because you don't know where your baby is, you don't know what has happened. >> reporter: an open window in skyler's bedroom offered a clue. >> here's the one she went out of that evening. she used that black stool over there and put it at the bottom of the window, left the window open about that much when she crawled out. >> reporter: investigators pulled the security camera video from skyler's apartment building and saw her jumping into a car parked near her window. that seems to make sense, considering skyler's best friend, a 16-year-old classmate,

had told skyler's father that she and another girl and skyler had gone joyriding that night. trouble is, that girl said they picked up skyler around 11:00 p.m. the security camera video shows skyler getting into the car much later than that, around 12:30 a.m. that timeline only added to the intrigue. s for months, investigators tried to piece together clues. friends of skyler's rallied together to comfort the family. they hung missing posters. there were hundreds of leads, but nothing panned out. then in january, six months after skyler disappeared, a stunning admission. 16-year-old rachel shope, seen here in this picture from "the examiner" smiling along with her friend skyler, admitted she killed her, but she said she did not do it alone. rachel told investigators she and another classmate who is 16 lured skyler out of her bedroom that night and into their car. she said they then drove her

here, to this spot in rural pennsylvania, about 30 minutes away, and then just as they planned, the two girls attacked her, stabbing skyler to death. rachel shope told investigators they were going to bury skyler but when they couldn't, they left her body here on the side of the road and covered it in branches. the other girl's name hasn't been made public since she's charged as a juvenile but skyler's father says she is the same girl who told him she picked up his daughter for a joyride. investigators searched that girl's car after rachel shope's confession and found skyler's blood. what was your daughter's friendship like with these two girls? how close were they? >> inseparable. they were together all the time, especially the one that hasn't been named yet. she had just got back from vacation with her a week before this. she had been best friends with her since she was 8 years old. i mean, it's sick. >> reporter: and remember those friends who helped and comforted

the family? it's almost beyond comprehension but dave neese says one of them was the unnamed alleged killer. >> she was finding out from us every week exactly what the cops knew because they were telling us what they knew, of course we were telling her because we thought she was so upset and missed skyler so much, and to find out she murdered her, it makes me sick. >> reporter: it's not just their behavior that's so troubling. rachel actually left for church camp the day after the murder. her family issued a statement to skyler's parents. it reads in part, we are at a loss for words to comfort your pain. we were shocked to learn of our daughter's involvement in skyler's death. we know her actions are unforgiveable and inexcusable. so why did they do it? why kill skyler? the reason rachel's given is simple and sickening. >> because they didn't want to be friends with her anymore. which is sick. if you don't want to be friends

with somebody, leave them alone. don't murder them. >> reporter: what do you want to say to these two girls? >> rot in hell. how's that. that's exactly what i want them to do. i want them to go through that pain and agony my daughter went through. i want them to have no life because skyler doesn't have one. >> it's such a disturbing story. what is next for these two teenaged suspects? >> reporter: anderson, 16-year-old rachel had been charged with first degree murder but after leading authorities to skyler's body in the woods, she cut a plea deal. she pled guilty earlier this month to second degree murder but she still could get 40 years in prison, anderson. now, the other girl, the other suspect who hasn't been named, she is still charged as a juvenile with first degree murder although a judge could charge her as an adult. we're waiting on that decision. there is no word that a plea deal is in the works for her. >> so sickening. appreciate it. we're joined by mary ellen o'toole, retired senior profiler for the fbi.

and author of "dangerous instincts." what do you make of this case? how unusual is it that the accused killers, one of whom has pled guilty are not just teenagers but teenaged girls? >> well, it is unusual. it's unusual because of their age. certainly when you see this kind of violence, it's most often perpetrated by males. but also, what's so stunning is that this homicide is so cold and calculated and then you have these girls that have inserted themselves into the investigation, presumably to monitor what's going on and maybe also for the thrill of it. so all of those three things combined is really pretty unusual. >> inserting themselves in the investigation and into the search with the family, consoling the family and stuff. >> that's very manipulative behavior. it's very callous behavior. from my perspective, with my experience, it's really strongly suggesting individuals who have a profound lack of empathy for

the victim's family and the victim and a lack of guilt for what they've done. >> also, the reason these girls allegedly killed skyler makes no sense, that they didn't want to be friends to her anymore. do you buy that? >> i don't buy that. i surely don't buy that. i think eventually as time goes on, we'll find out more exactly their reasons behind it. not that we'll ever hear it and say finally, okay, sure, that makes sense, but i think the reason will have something more to do with one of the girls, there's probably a leader and a follower, there has been some kind of humiliation or perceived put-down but something more than we just didn't want to be friends. no, i don't buy that at all. >> something more than what they say, but nevertheless, insignificant and ridiculous. >> insignificance, minimal, ridiculous. it will never, ever measure up to being any type of justification for this act. never. >> are there -- i mean, people

who commit crimes like this, are there warning signs? clearly parents watching this kind of thing are going to freak out about this kind of crime, about kids being capable of this. >> sure. let me just again hallmark what really leaps out to me, and there's a stunning lack of empathy for what supposedly was a best friend. there's a callousness there despite the fact that this community is so upset about their missing skyler, these two young women are able to maintain this secret for almost a half a year. so those kinds of behaviors didn't just happen at the time of the homicide. they pre-existed this homicide and i think there's one more thing as well. to handle your issues with someone in this way, in other words, you're mad, you're jealous, you're upset, but then to overreact to the point where murder is the option, that ability to overreact i think pre-existed these crimes as well.

>> mary ellen o'toole, appreciate your expertise. thanks. up next, breaking news. live pictures here, a wildfire burning dangerously close to transmission lines in southern california. we'll take you there. also ahead, the father of a friend of one of the boston bombers shot and killed by an fbi agent is speaking out about his son's death in an exclusive interview. why he says what he's heard about his son's death from the fbi and officials makes no sense. plus new information about the mother of the so-called miracle baby rescued from a sewer pipe in china and where the baby is tonight. matt's brakes didn't sound right... ...so i brought my car to mike at meineke...

...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. we are following a story riveting people all over the world. a newborn baby boy in china who was rescued from that toilet pipe. the baby has been released from the hospital and now with his maternal grandparents, we are told. his mother has not been charged with any crime. police are calling it an accident. they say she's 22 and single, and was embarrassed to be pregnant. the story as it stands now is that the baby just slid out when she was on the toilet and she tried to get the baby out with a stick, and then flushed the toilet to clear away the blood. that's the story she's apparently told authorities. obviously there is still an awful lot of questions about that.

they said the baby is out of the hospital now. the mother is said to be being treated. david mckenzie joins us from china, where this took place. he joins me now live. so explain this, what is the latest on why the mom has not been charged? >> reporter: well, the police are saying that they believe the mother's story, anderson, that this was really just an awful mistake, according to police, even according to neighbors we spoke to in this alleyway near this apartment building where this all unfolded. the neighbors saying this could have been a lot to do with the shame that this mother felt. they say she was pregnant out of wedlock, broke up with her boyfriend around six months ago, she was young, confused, she was hiding that pregnancy from her parents and then when it all unfolded, she didn't quite know what to do. according to police and neighbors, she went to the landlady, they called the police. still unanswered questions, but

it seems like this might be a case of a frightened young girl who felt ashamed. >> you are actually at the place where they tried to cut the baby out of the pipe, correct? >> reporter: that's right. and it's pretty extraordinary. this building behind me is where it all happened. the police and the firefighters went in there, they grabbed the sewage pipe, hacked it away, then brought it on to the street over here where i'm standing. someone was reaching in, trying to get at that child, wedged tightly inside that pvc pipe. they couldn't get it here. they took it to the hospital and managed to pry it open with pliers and take it out. pretty remarkable that this child, this newborn, afterbirth still attached, being stuck there for two hours, has made this recovery but hospital officials assuring us that he made a full recovery and in line with policy to release him to the mother's parents. >> do we have any idea what happens now? what happens, what's going to happen? are they going to be reunited? will she be allowed to keep the

baby? >> reporter: the mother now is in hospital according to authorities. they say that she will be able to keep the baby and if she's able to, the grandparents of the child right now taking care of it. a lot of this is a lot about the privacy of the parents and the grandparents, as it would be anywhere in the world, really, with this kind of story. they've asked for the police that they respect their privacy. here in china, as it is in other places, the shame attached with a single parent in this kind of situation and with these kind of dramatic pictures that went across the world and here in china. i think a lot of it plays into that shame and the fact that they don't want to tell their story further, even though this is a remarkable story of recovery and survival. it's also a story potentially of this confused young woman who felt she had very few options. >> has this been getting a lot of coverage in china? if so, what's been kind of the

reaction there? >> reporter: well, initially it didn't get a lot of coverage. i think one thing to bear in mind is that abandoned children happen quite often tragically here in china. 100,000 children get abandoned every year here according to state media. so this does happen but people are a little bit jaded about it. people were touched by this extraordinary footage of this child being taken out. i think for the same reasons that we found the story fascinating and uplifting in many ways. the chinese felt as well. it's been getting coverage in state media and local media as well. a little bit of soul-searching as well about the taboos in china and what pushed this woman to take these steps. >> yeah. still seems like a lot we don't know. david mckenzie, thank you very much. we may never know. there's a lot more happening tonight. susan hendricks is back with the

"360" bulletin. >> the tornado that touched down in the tulsa suburb of broken arrow, tom saider is joining me now with the latest. tom? >> so far, susan, we've got very good news. here's tulsa, the suburb, just of the southeast, broken arrow. there were visual reports of power flashes and transformers blowing. now we can give you the information that we have multiple buildings with structural damage. the good news this was an industrial park. if this tornado, which was one of the larger ones of the day, would have just touched down one or two miles sooner, it could have been disastrous. broken arrow is home to 1,000 people. on a larger scale, two victims in burton county struck by lightning, that was in montgomery county, a home is destroyed by a tornado, but no one was there. they've been cleaning up with

rescue reports of water rescues in the state of kansas and coffeeville. east of wisconsin, as well, they have been dropped from illinois and missouri. still heavy wind and rain are damaging there. still a slight risk of oklahoma city. little rock, st. louis and chicago and green bay, susan, we had 14 tornadoes on monday, 29 on tuesday, 26 wednesday and a preliminary report of 15 today and we're going to do it again tomorrow. what a week. >> unbelievable, the month started out slow. and, of course, it's caught up, amazing. here are some of the other tom, thanks so much. here are some of the other stories we are following tonight. a fast-burning wildfire north of santa clarita, california. it has burned 400 acres so far and prompted mandatory evacuations. officials are running power away from the transmission lines that are near the blaze. more than 300 firefighters are working to contain that fire. a u.s. official insists that he was armed with a long object during a fatal confrontation with an fbi agent. he was being questioned about a

triple murder in boston and also his relationship with boston bomber tamerlan tsarnaev. in an exclusive interview with cnn's bill black, his father claimed his killing makes no sense. >> my son was definitely unarmed. he couldn't do anything because even two men could easily handle him. toronto's mayor won't quit over the accusation of smoking crack. inhaling from a glass crack pipe. and tonight, a 13-year-old from bayside hills, new york. he won the scripps national spelling bee. here was his winning moment. >> knaidel, k-n-a-i-d-e-l.

knaidel. >> and the crowd erupts. in case you're wondering, knaidel is a german word. nothing like the traveling crowds a few years ago. the slow recovery is being blamed to this, but adding to the problem may be this. many americans can't leave their jobs for even a few days and others won't. tom foreman has this week's american journey. >> as beaches resorts and theme parks race for the summer rush, they can count a quarter of americans out of the mix. that's how many receive no paid vacation in the study by the center of economic and policy research. and the lower your wages, the less likely time off is in your plans according to john schmidt. >> many americans get vacations. >> we do, but we get a lot less than everybody else. the average american gets less than the minimum required

vacation in every other country that we looked at. >> they looked at places like japan with ten days, germany with 24, and france with 30. what's more, a study last year found more than half of americans who do get vacation time don't use all of it. often for fear of appearing lazy or being laid off. >> i think what it is is that we have a much higher level of job and security in this country than in the rest of the world. >> it has not always been this way. the growth of the car culture in the 1950s fueled the idea that regular folks, not just the rich, should get away from the grind now and then. >> how would you feel if you were me? >> and for several decades, the family vacation was as american as, well, america. >> a vacation on a farm. have you ever thought of this? >> certainly, some believe the country's work ethic is precisely what made the economy great. and now would be the worst time

for vacation fever to sweep in. but others? >> so are you going to take a vacation? >> i am going to take a few weeks off in july. >> others suggest rebuilding the economy might need to start with more folks recharging their batteries. tom foreman, cnn, washington. tom, thanks so much. stay with us, anderson is up next with "the ridiculist."

time now for the "ridiculist." tonight, i am so pleased to report that the canadian justice system is finally taking on a very important case. as far as i'm concerned, it's really the trial of the century. ladies and gentlemen, today the ikea monkey trial began in ontario. you must remember the ikea monkey. i know i simply cannot forget him. darwin was wandering around an ikea parking lot back in december, wearing a diaper and a little shearling coat. he was confiscated by toronto animal services. it's illegal to keep monkeys as pets in toronto. since then he's been at a primate sanctuary and his owner has been desperate to get him back. >> he's my son. >> remember this happened in the beginning of december. she missed christmas with her monkey son. also new year's eve which is right around the time i fell in love with the ikea monkey and wanted to get him on our new year's special with kathy griffin. we tried to get the monkey from ikea because i'm obsessed with that monkey.

>> you're obsessed with a monkey from ikea? >> you must have seen the monkey that got loose in ikea in the shearling coat. >> yes. i'm sorry. is that considered a big booking for this show? >> some people just don't get it. but look, how can you not love this little guy? look at him. they brush their teeth together. there's also a video of her changing his diaper. it's a bit graphic. you can look it up on youtube. i don't really want to show it to you. if you want to learn everything you always wanted to know about monkey poop but were afraid to ask. in court today, the owner says she loves darwin like a son and he often slept in her bed. at a protest several months ago, oh, yeah, they had a protest, she talked about what she hoped to get from the legal battle. >> i'm hoping the judge looks at it and says you know what, give her back her monkey, it isn't right for you to confiscate her little baby. >> is this a bedazzled butterfly on her whatever it was she was wearing on her head? anyway, the people at the primate sanctuary where darwin is living say he's doing very well, doesn't miss his mom at all and is in fact bonding with a baboon named sweet pea. >> certainly we don't see any

signs of him missing anyone. he is having fun, he is playing around, he has new things to do and he's really taken a liking to sweet pea. >> should a little monkey like that be hanging around with a big baboon named sweet pea? sounds like a prison film. any way, the trial is expected to last about four days and i think hln should do wall-to-wall coverage on this. where is nancy grace on this? nancy, get on the case. although maybe we need to send cnn's fed rick who had access to justin bieber's monkey. >> it's now quarantined at this animal shelter in munich. he seemed a little shy with my giant fingers stroke his tiny head but those taking care of him say he's doing just fine. >> i don't really know how to say monkey in german. anyway, i got to be honest, i don't hope that woman gets her monkey back. i really don't think people should have monkeys as pets. i don't think it's right. even though i would like to have a monkey as a pet. it's just not appropriate. anyway, we'll be watching for a

verdict. until then, we'll always have the memories of the cold day in the ikea parking lot and one stylish little monkey. little darwin. that does it for us. "early start" begins right now. breaking news this morning. free just minutes ago, the american grandmother accused of smuggling drugs in mexico released from jail. this this is a huge development. we are live on the scene. tornadoes, wildfires and a sizzling heat wave across the country. what's in store for you today? and chilling new video this morning of the boston terror suspects just days before the bombs went off. and the king bee is crowned. the winning word that won it all for this very smart new york eighth grader. >> that's one way to put it. good morning, everyone. welcome to "early start". i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. it's fr