it is early. good morning to you on this thursday. i'm natasha curry. robin meade is on assignment today. >> to the people. >> power. >> a new battle brewing in arizona. this time, it's not the state's tough new immigration law, but a controversial ban on ethnic studies classes that's causing protests. plus, south carolina governor mark sanford did some campaigning in florida, not for votes but for his lover's heart. and do you have a hard time rooting for the home team? you might not be alone. a new ranking list of most miserable sports cities.

there is backlash to arizona's controversial new law banning ethnic studies. tuesday, governor jan brewer signed a ban against classes in public schools that, quote, promote resentment of other racial groups. >> power. >> to the people. >> power. >> students in tucson protested a visit from the state's school superintendent. he pushed the ban, saying some ethnic studies classes segregates students by race and advocate the overthrow of the government, but students disagree. >> i think it's really important that we don't just have one narrative, but we have a counternarrative as well where we can have multiple studies and choose from our beliefs. >> because we're not a racist class. we're with everybody. everybody can take these classes. to prove it, there's all nationalities in our classes. >> arizona's governor signed that bill behind closed doors tuesday, but she released this statement. she says students in arizona should be taught to value each other as individuals and not be

taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people. in less than ten minutes, we'll break down what's being taught in the classes that prompted this law and also hear from people on both sides of the debate. check this out. fire fighters are hoping to have a wildfire here contained this morning in california. look at those flames. this has been burning near homes in san bernadino county. the fire got bigger yesterday but crews think calmer winds will help. 32 homes were evacuated for a while. kabc says it came within 100 feet of some other brand new homes, but we haven't heard of any injuries or damage. we are getting the best look yet at that cloud of oil gushing into the gulf of mexico. you're looking at new video right here from bp. that dark stream is the oil. now so far, more than 4 million gallons have spilled into the gulf. the lighter stream you see, that's natural gas, which has been spewing out nonstop since the disaster began with that oil rig explosion three weeks ago. something else. president obama is asking

for an extra $118 million for relief efforts there in the gulf. he announced yesterday he wants oil companies to put more money into a fund for spills and cleanups. people are seeing tar balls on the shoreline from louisiana to alabama and florida's governor fears his state is next. >> we continue to hope and pray that this thing doesn't impact us directly. it has not directly impacted the state of florida as yet. thank god for that. that's truly a blessing. but, you know, common sense dictates that as long as we continue to have over 200,000 gallons of oil spewing into the gulf of mexico, sooner or later, we're going to be directly impacted. we're also starting to get a clearer picture, too, of what actually happened on that oil rig back on april 20th to cause one of the worst environmental disasters in u.s. history. that's coming up. we want to warn you you may find this video for the next story disturbing.

it shows a police officer yelling racial signatures at a latino man and kicking him in the head. a second officer stops on the guy's leg. this happened last month, the video surfaced on youtube. last week one officer made an emotional apology. listen. >> i chose words as part of my conversations with that young man that were offensive and unprofessional. my comments that night do not reflect who i am or what i am. as a person, nor as a member of the seattle police department. >> the man was released once police realized he wasn't the suspect they were looking for. now the fbi is investigating whether the incident was a hate crime. the two officers are on administrative leave during this investigation. south carolina governor mark sanford, you remember him, he now confirms reports that he spent last weekend in florida with his lover from argentina. he didn't mention the woman by

name, but sanford admitted he was trying to, you know, rekindle the love affair that wrecked his marriage and nearly cost him his office. the affair was discovered last june when sanford disappeared for a few days. he told his staff he was hiking the appalachian trail. >> oh, man. >> hear bob over there. >> i'm just saying, please tell me he drove there. that's all i ask. tell me he drove there. anyway, go ahead. >> oh, my goodness. >> you got a story. go ahead. talking about flood victims in tennessee, it's serious there right now. they're going to get more than comic relief than comedian jerry signfield. he is planning to donate the proceeds from his show in nashville to help him. his performance tomorrow night will be a few blocks from flood damage. he joins music celebrities who have offered help. really doing good there. not just making, you know, jokes like you normally would do on the side, but yeah, doing some great stuff with the other celebrities. >> that's awesome. he's fantastic in the show too.

>> yes, he is. >> what's going on. tennessee is dry, which is good news. i want to show you the line of thundershowers firing by the cold front from iowa down to texas. it's an active cold front. you have a jet stream that's pumping in the moisture ahead of that frontal boundary. severe thunderstorm watches, all the yellow boxes. mostly right now around eastern parts of oklahoma and severe thunderstorm warnings first part of the day because of the gusty winds. look at the shape of the rain as it moves on by. little bit of a bow echo, gusty winds, winds to 60 miles per hour first part of the day. up the line a little farther outside of kansas city the heavy rain sliding into central missouri, into chicago too. chicago metro, loud start first part of the day. rain showers, thunderstorms all morning long. be be prepared for long delays at o'hare and midway. look at kalamazoo, showers and thunderstorms over you in lower michigan, moves into detroit later on. the heavy rain into minnesota and wisconsin with the severe weather threat for the ohio valley. more on that in a bit. who has the best weather for the

day today. talking all about the bad weather over the last couple days. today best weather, is going to charlotte, north carolina. for a high of 88 degrees, mostly sunny. currently 63, so congratulates, charlotte, you have the best weather in the country. >> cozy. yeah. thanks so much, bob. new information about a test that promised to reveal your genetic secrets but you know what, you're going to have to go a different route if you want that information now. plus, a woman says that she sees something very special in this door. do you see it? she does. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time... time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief,

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miss you very much and i'm very grateful for the service that you're doing to our country. i miss you and i love you, and i want you to be home safe. >> maybe you have somebody in the service and you want to salute them. go to cnn.com/robin. what do we want? education. >> when do we want it? >> now. >> this is the scene in tucson, arizona, yesterday. students protesting a controversial ban on some ethnic studies classes in arizona. correspondent richard liu, this law was targeted at classes in their school district, right? >> that's correct. good morning to you, natasha. the state school superintendent tom horne there, has spent the past bunch of years trying to get rid of tucson's mexican-american studies program. he says here it teaches latino students they are an oppressed minority and points also to one history book as example, this one you see here on the screen called "occupied america a history of chicanos."

in an interview last night horne said that material is counter productive. >> one of our important functions to teach kids from different backgrounds to treat each other as individuals and not to infuse them with ethnic shuv nism about a race and teach them narrowly about the background and culture of the race they happened to be born into, but to teach them about all different cultures and races and traditions and not divide them up by race. i think that's really backwards. >> to be clear about this law, it still allows ethnic studies as long as they are not designed primarily for students of one ethnicity. here, natasha, and does not advocate resentment toward people of another race. >> okay. kind of hard to prove resentment, too, in that whole thing. but in this case, though, the tucson school district, they would argue really, its classes don't violate any of those provisions. do they plan to keep teaching then? >> the president of the school district says she has no intention of ending her ethnic studies programs, despite that law, which also includes african-american and native american curriculum.

the classes cover things like the role of hispanics in the vietnam war and latino authors as well. the director of the mexican-american studies program says students perform better if they say people, if they rather see people who look like them in their books and some students agree with that. >> because of these classes, i could look myself in the mirror and not be ashamed of my curly hair. i was not ashamed for being darker than most people. these classes have done so much for me. >> all right. now tucson's school district is 56% hispanic, to give you a sense of that area, and about 3% of them are enrolled in ethnic study classes. if you would like to read the law for yourself because it's got some nuances to it certainly, check out the important website section of cnn.com/robin. we also have a link there to -- for you to let us know what you think about this happening in arizona and the law itself. we want to hear from you. let us know. >> richard, that's interesting, you said that 56% of those students were enrolled in those

classes -- was it 3% -- >> 3%, that's right. a large majority do not participate necessarily in those classes that are in question right now. >> so interesting. all right. richard, we'll talk to you more about this later on in the morning. appreciate it. new this morning, tens of thousands of americans are still losing their homes every month because they cannot pay their mortgages but there are signs that the crisis is beginning to level off here. jennifer westhovan is here with more on that. hey, jen. >> thanks narcs tasha. i'm watching the housing market so closely for everyone because in many ways that's what tipped us into recession. it would be nice to see when we might be coming out of it. for the first time in five years, foreclosures dropped compared to a year ago. that is a big milestone. now i am not by any means saying we're all better or it's healed, not at all. families are still losing homes at an alarming rate. 92,000 homes last month. wow. i mean, banks are ending up with all these homes, families don't have a place to go.

things are really out of whack. but still, it was slightly lower than the year before. all right. forget about buying genetic test kits. walgreens says you may remember we were talking about this story yesterday, how you could buy these kits maybe, but walgreens now says they're going to hold off until the federal government has all its questions answered. the kits would let you take like a q-tip, swab your mouth, send it and find out if you're at risk for certain diseases like alzheimer's. the company that makes them say they are talking to the fda to get those questions answered. back to you. >> all right. thank you. talk to you more about it. yesterday's daily winner for the up to speed with robin meade contest is -- linda b. from jacksonville, florida. linda gets an autographed photo and "morning express" bath robe. the grand prize is a trip for two to the nascar race in sonoma, california. listen for the nascar word of the day in 30 minutes, type it in at cnn.com/robin.

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start u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan by next july will be met, but he did stress that there's going to be some hard fighting ahead. he met with afghan president hamid karzai? washington. relations between the two countries have been strained lately, but mr. obama downplayed that. >> we are not suddenly as of july 2011 finished with afghan. in fact, to the contrary, part of what i've tried to emphasize to president karzai and the afghan people, but also to the american people, is this is a long-term partnership. >> today president karzai and secretary of state hillary clinton will discuss the situation in afghanistan and it's going to be on tv. he will also be section 60 at arlington national cemetery where troops from the afghan war are buried. a baptist minister who is one of the country's most prominent anti-gay rights activist is defending himselves against allegations he hired a gay escort. george rekers has resigned from

a group that offers therapy for people struggling with homosexually after a male escort says rekers hired him as a traveling companion through a site called rentboy.com. rekers says he will hire a lawyer to fight, quote, false media reports. it can be frustrating being a sports fan, you know, especially in some cities. we have a new list where the fans may be the most miserable. rafer weigel has that. hey, rafer. >> your former city is number one. >> seattle! >> which i totally agree with, but some of the other ones on this list i have an issue with. this is "forbes" magazine put out the top ten most miserable sports cities in america factor the city teams. seattle, hard to argue with them being number one. sonics moved to oklahoma city. you were upset about that. >> right. sass zach left. >> the mariners and seahawks never won a title. >> you won a world series in '95, but the hawks, braves,

falcons, thrashers and flames have one championship in a combined 147 seasons. that's a long time. phoenix number three, their hockey team is bankrupt, the suns and cardinals have gotten close to winning it all and did not. buffalo number four, should be higher, followed by san diego at five and cleveland, which, by the way will be number one tonight if the cavs lose is number six. and they are rioting in montreal after the canadians swept -- kept their cinderella run alive. they barely made it into the playoffs and they shocked the stanley cup champion pittsburgh penguins to get to the conference finals. now the game was in pittsburgh, but fans in montreal are acting like they have never been there before. look at this rioters looting downtown businesses, throwing bottles at cops. 25 people were arrested. so what happens if they win it all? i shutter to think. the most rowdy horse race in the country may get more out of control. the preakness which is saturday has a new slogan, get your preek on. >> i like it.

>> it encourages fans to get crazy. for 20 bucks you get a beer mug with unlimited refills! let me point something out, this is the race where in 1999 a fan got so drunk he ran on to the track and tried to punch two horses. by the way, super saver, the kentucky derby winner, the favorite at 5 to 2. that's sports, natasha. >> the free beer, i mean -- >> it's going to be insane. >> got you. thanks, rafer. we are getting a rare look at what michael jackson's kids are doing these days and it's all because of youtube. plus, some people are getting angry with bp over the oil spill. [ woman ] can't anything help these itchy allergy eyes?

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to the people. >> power. >> students in arizona here are protesting a controversial new law. the governor has banned ethnic studies programs in public schools that promote resentment of other ethnic groups. the state's school superintendent says the classes se gre gait students by race. but students say the classes are open to everyone. . part of disneyland was evacuated because of a suspicious ice chest. yesterday about 1,000 people were told to leave tomorrow land for about 90 minutes in anaheim. the ice chest was in an area not accessible to the public, but a bomb squad said that chest turned out to be harmless. the space shuttle "atlantis"

is set to blast off for the last time tomorrow morning. only two more shuttle missions before nasa ends the equipment. it is bringing equipment for the international space station along with memorabilia from its 25 years in service. those are some of the headlines we're following this thursday morning. i'm natasha curry. robin is on assignment today. hawaiian officials can ignore all the requests for president obama's birth certifica certificate. the governor signed a law aimed at the so-called birthers who want to see proof that the president was born in the u.s. hawaii still gets 10 to 20 requests every week. hawaiian officials have said they have proof he was born in the u.s. the wing tips of two jets collided on the tarmac of a tennessee airport. both planes were full of passengers. the good news is that nobody was hurt. now some passengers said they didn't even realize the planes had hit each other. a jet was damaged when it bumped

a united express jet. neither plane flew after the incident. michael jackson's kids have been posting videos of themselves on youtube. it's one of the most popular stories right now on cnn.com. >> we have something to show you. ♪ >> that's blanket there showing off his light saber skills. the video were on youtube for two weeks before older members of the jackson clan realized it. when that tornado in oklahoma here hit two truckers, they could do nothing but just hang on for dear life. new sound this morning from a man and his son-in-law who say the storm tossed their 18-wheeler like a toy. >> next thing i know, the mirror snapped. >> it took out the driver's side window. >> antennas were gone. >> blew out the windshield. sucked all the paperwork outside of the tractor trailer. >> i was praying a whole lot.

>> that is really something else, they're lucky to be alive, bob. >> unbelievable. it's amazing to see that kind of footage when you have it that close. >> yeah. >> i'm glad they survived. >> might have more tornadoes possibly. >> yeah. we probably will. this time it's going to be shifted to the east a little farther. yesterday we had six tornado reports both in kansas and oklahoma. those two states. but right now we're still watching the weather fire up pretty quickly this morning. a couple severe thunderstorm watches, the spots in yellow, oklahoma city radar picture picks up the one nice band as it rolls down i-40. severe thunderstorm warnings and it's all because of the gusty winds, winds about 60 miles per hour, mainly out ahead of those thunderstorms with the outflow boundaries. showers stretching from central parts of missouri, more rain around chicago, and chicagoland just swallowed with heavy downpours. that's there the entire morning. we're going to get delays at o'hare and probably midway too. you can see the rain stretching around kalamazoo, heavy at times, for the entire day off

and on. back across the west, see the rain stretching through wisconsin, northern parts of michigan, up, into minnesota, light snow showers around south dakota. flood warnings, all the areas shaded in bright green, two to five inches of rain in the last 12 hours, through chicago. severe thunderstorms, good possibility, it's going to be this afternoon too. we're talking about the ohio valley, stretching all the way back to missouri. a slight chance of a tornado or two, isolated tornado from central ohio, indiana and illinois that's going to be later this afternoon. video also coming from california. yeah, it's early but the wildfire season is just about starting. look at this one that's burning in california's san bernadino county. 300 acres have burned out of fires. officials say the good news today is that the winds will be dead. i agree with them, not a lot of wind today in southern california. early to see this kind of stuff. still dry out there, unfortunately. >> i'm glad to hear about those winds, because that really is something else, the flames kicking up. thank you very much, bob. all right. are you ready?

here comes your chance to win a trip to sonoma and the nascar race. here's brad keselowski with our nascar word of the day. >> this is brad keselowski, nascar driver. the word of the day is drafting. >> all right. drafting. and that's when two or more cars run nose to tail almost touching while racing. you don't do that on the road, do you? here's what you do, go to cnn.com/robin, type in drafting, and you are entered to win the daily prize of a "morning express with robin meade" robe and a pick and the grand prize for a trip for two for the nascar race in june. we are learning more about what may have caused the catastrophic oil spill in the gulf. we'll tell you about a possible defect in the oil rig's safety system. also ahead, a teenager had the chance to thank a complete stranger for giving him a kidney. but someone else's life was also saved thanks to an incredible coincidence. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time...

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american-style shopping malls for four of the larger cities by the end ftsd year. check this out. a scary bus crash was caught on tape in wisconsin. police say a garbage truck ran through a yield sign and collided with the transit bus on monday. look at the people flying here. check out the security video. you can see a dad holding on to his daughter as the impact throws them over a railing. that passengers were treated at the scene. the garbage truck driver was taken to a hospital. an 18-year-old in san diego has a new kidney thanks to a complete stranger and his life wasn't the only one saved in all of this. mary beth came from pittsburgh to donate her kidney to him. ben street had been waiting a whole year to get one. the two had an emotional meeting after the surgery. >> it's full circle, i guess, you know. it's just the generosity that people have, you know, to not know someone, yet to give so much to someone. >> she said, really not supposed to tell you this, but your recipient is an 18-year-old.

and that just -- that was the best. >> and listen to this, the teen's mother donated one of her kidneys to the woman's sister-in-law. all four surgeries happened at the exact same time. what a coincidence. so could it be true that the highest gas prices of the summer are nearly behind us? you're hoping, right? gas prices might actually be headed down from here. okay. jennifer westhovan looking out for you. what's the scoop? >> this is the time when they usually -- >> yeah. >> take off. this would be very different, natasha. some energy experts predict gas prices are going to fall after memorial day, just a few weeks away. prices this morning are at about $2.89 across the country, according to aaa, and you know some say we've probably seen the peak at just under $3 a gallon for self-serve regular. the reason -- yeah, we all love the fruits. we all love the results, the

reasons, though, aren't so great. the reason is, there's so much fear about the world economy right now, but still lower gas prices, a big help for many families at a time when people are still struggling to get jobs. microsoft is putting office on-line for free. that is a first. it means that you could access your word or excel documents on the web. so anywhere you've got the internet, home, work, the road. workers could share documents and presentations. they wouldn't have to save out and keep e-mailing them back and forth between a lot of different people. you may be thinking don't they have that already? there are other companies like google, for example, that have been doing that, but they don't have anywhere near the number of users that microsoft office has. about half a billion people, natasha, use microsoft office around the world. back to you. >> yeah. it's extremely common. jennifer, thank you. a teenager has climbed the highest mountains but his antics on the street may have landed him in some hot water.

plus, tiger woods is going back to rehab. but it's not for what you think. ♪ as scientists continue their struggle to find methods of identifying the surrogates. this latest wave of the inhabitants seem to disappear into the populace with... ♪ [ beeps ] navigation. ♪ emergency room. who's going to the emergency room? all of us. [ gps voice ] your route is being calculated. [ male announcer ] it has everything. so you can do anything. ♪ [ male announcer ] visine®-a is clinically proven to relieve all your worst eye allergy symptoms. it goes right where you need it, relieving allergy eyes in minutes. visine®-a. the most complete allergy eye drop. it will with natural instincts. it's clinically proven. 80% of women agreed that natural instincts

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♪ the little boy who is the only survivor of a deadly plane crash is doing a whole lot better this morning. doctors in libya say that the dutch boy had surgery on his legs and he is resting. there's a picture of him there for a second. he was onboard a plane that crashed here while trying to land in tripoli yesterday. the crash killed 103 people. amazing he survived. president obama says that he is confident that a deadline to start u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan by next july will be met, but he did stress that there's going to be some hard fighting ahead. he met with afghan president hamid karzai in washington. relations between the two countries have been strained lately, but mr. obama downplayed that. >> we are not suddenly, as of july 2011, finished with afghanistan. in fact, to the contrary, part of what i've tried to emphasize to president karzai and the

afghan people, but also to the american people, is this is a long-term partnership. >> today, president karzai and secretary of state hillary clinton will discuss the situation in afghanistan and it will be on television and he will visit section 60 at arlington national cemetery where troops from the afghan war are now buried. a young adventurer may have taken his thrill seeking way too far. 18-year-old mountain climber johnny strange is accused of street surfing on california's pacific coast highway yesterday. a bus passenger took this picture of him and turned it over to police. look at that. prosecutors are deciding what charges to file right now. strange climbed mount everybodiest last year and the youngest person to reach the highest peaks on all seven -- peeks on all seven continents. you've seen pampered pets and carriers, but check out a cat with a private elevator. look at this thing. this austrian kitty needed a way to get from the second floor to

the garden, so his owner built the elevator. that's a posh lifestyle there. it even has sensors so only the cat can use it. no free loading raccoons, no chihuahuas. a link to this on our website, c cnn.com/robin. >> surprisingly he's single. >> i love cats, but i'm sorry, no married man would be allowed to do that. >> bob, that cat is something else. >> yeah. i'm thinking the same thing. single, probably has about a half dozen, maybe 80 more cats in his house too. >> 80 can smell up the place. >> let me show you what's happening. if you are traveling our first delay, it's early, o'hare, in a ground stop for the next 45 minutes. the heavy rain overhead, the thunderstorms and that's going to train over the city for at least the next cupp hours. i think that's going to get extended. here's what we have, chicago one hour or more, o'hare with the ground stop currently. detroit, the rain heads towards you, heavy at times, an hour or

more, and then more severe thunderstorms possible that includes cleveland. watch for an hour -- half hour to an hour for. full details on the radar and it's a glow of activity in a couple minutes. >> all right, bob. thanks so much. at two different oil spill hearings, hundreds of miles apart, officials laid out a long checklist of what likely went wrong. in louisiana, the coast guard and federal regulators gave their perspective and in washington, house members put on pressure on the oil executives. now many questions focused on how warning signs were missed or ignored because offshore rigs are barely regulated. >> transocean, one of the world's largest operator of drilling rigs, says it has to reason to believe that the rigs fail-safe device called a blowout preventer, was not fully operational. but we have learned from cameron, the manufacturer of the blowout preventer, that the device had a leak in a crucial

hydraulic system and a defective leak configured ram. >> bp hopes to take a big step towards stopping that leak today. a small containment box is being put on top of the well. however, the oil company doesn't actually know how or whether if it's going to work, i should say. it's already tried a larger box and that failed. you see the oil gushing in the black cloud. something else. a plan got behind the wheel of his car, but he knew that he was just too drunk to be driving so he pulled over and he called 911 on himself. that's new for you in the next half hour. tiger woods says that he's going to need rehab for his neck. rafer weigel has that. >> and the saga continues, natasha. he does say that he expects to make a full recovery, but unfortunately, this is not going to quiet suspicions that a lot of people worry or wonder, tiger may not be as hurt as some might think. he says an mri shows all he's

going to need to repair his injury, soft tissue massages, medication and rest. when is he going to come back? when he's ready. the next major, the u.s. open, in june, i have no doubt he will be playing in that. state trooper with ben roethlisberger the night he was accused of sexual assault is fighting for his part-time job back as ben's bodyguard. are you kidding me? state police told ed joiner even though ben was not convicted he could not moonlight for him anymore. but he was kept on the force. joiner filed a union gre vens saying i get to stay out with him still. the union says they will fight to defend joiner. after testing positive for a banned substance houston line backer brian curbing will keep his rookie of the year award. he tested positive one time, to be fair, for a female fertility drug sometimes used to offset steroid use. they had a revote, lot of writers changed their vote, but a lot of them did not, and he won vote and he won again saying they didn't want to set a precedent.

sports writers, you told millions of kids it's okay to cheat and nothing will happen to you. how about a how-feel story? the tennessee titans rolled up their sleeves and helped victims of the awful flooding in nashville. look at that bad shape the homes are in. a lot of guys were shocked to see the extent of the damage. and residents said they were grateful for the team's help. all new sports in the next half hour. >> great to see them rolling up their sleeves and helping out. it is the end of the road for another american idol contestant. the person who is in the top three after the nationwide vote is -- crystal. >> yes, big mike was sent packing last night. that leaves crystal, lee and

tracy in the top three. next week they'll take "idol" on the road for home visits. ♪ >> veteran chris daughtry made a guest appearance last night. idol winner fantasia and bon jovi also performed last night. 10 downing street, with this week's change of in prime minister, it's been a busy place. how quickly the big power shift happens. what did we make better ? communities. industry. energy. her. this. lives. how ? by bringing together... information. ... people ... ... machines ... ... systems ... ideas...

verizon helps businesses worldwide... including fortune 500 companies... find and achieve... better. better. better. better. and while it can never be fully answered, it helps to have a financial partner like northern trust. by gaining a keen understanding of your financial needs, we're able to tailor a plan using a full suite... of sophisticated investment strategies and solutions. so whatever's around the corner can be faced with confidence. ♪ northern trust. look ahead with us at northerntrust.com.

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are you awake yet? i'm natasha curry in for robin meade. the protests are getting louder in arizona. a new ban on ethnic studies classes is creating more controversy in a state already debating a tough immigration law. why they say they hurt kids. it's scary to be in your house when a tornado hit. hear from two people who rode out a twister in a truck. die-hard facebook fans got their wish of having betty white

host "saturday night live." now they want more. there is backlash to arizona's new law banning ethnic studies. january brewer signed a ban against public schools that promote racial resentment against other groups. students in tucson protested a visit from the state school superintendent. told our sister network cnn some classes segregate students by race. >> what's wrong with it, it divides students by race. one of the principle ideas of the american public school system, we bring kids together and teach each other to treat as individuals. not what race was he born into. >> but students say their ethnic studies classes are important to their education. >> i think it's really important

that we don't just have one narrative but a counter narrative as well. >> we're not a racist class. we want -- we're with everybody. everybody can take these classes. to prove it, there's all nationalities in our classes. >> arizona governor signed the bill on tuesday but released this statement saying students in arizona should be taught to value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people. in less than ten minutes, we'll break down what is being taught in those classes. we are getting the best look yet at the cloud of oil gushing into the gulf of mexico. you're looking at new video from bp, the dark stream there is the oil. so far more than 4 million gallons have spilled into the gulf. the lighter stream you see is natural gas which has been

spewing out nonstop since the disaster began with the oil rig explosion three weeks ago. we have new details about what may have caused the oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and led to the massive spill. it came out at a house hearing yesterday. documents describe bad wiring and leak in the blowout preventer. even a dead battery may have played a role in it all. this proves there needs to be more regulation. >> bp is largely making it up as they go. they are engaging in a series of elaborate and risky science experiments at the bottom of the ocean. we expected a lot more sophistication when it came to dealing with something of this magnitude. bp executive says they don't want to draw any conclusions yet until they get all of the facts. part of disney land was evacuated because of a suspicious ice chest.

yesterday about 1,000 people were told to leave tomorrowland in anaheim. the ice chest was in an area not accessible to the public. the bomb squad said is turned out to be harmless. president obama is confident a deadline to start troop july will be met, he did stress there will be hard fighting ahead. he met with hamid karzai in washington. relations between the two countries have been strained lately but mr. obama downplayed that. >> we are not suddenly as of july 2011 finished with afghanistan. in fact, to the contrary, part of what i've tried to emphasize to president ckarzai is this isa long-term partnership. today president karzai and hillary clinton will discuss the situation in afghanistan and it will be on tv. he'll also visit section 60 at

arlington, where troops from the afghan war are buried. when that tornado in oklahoma hit, two truckers could do absolute hi nothing but hang on and hope. we have new sound from a man and his son-in-law who say the storm tossed their 18-wheeler around like a toy. >> the next thing i know, the mirror snapped. it took out the driver's side window. blew out the windshield. took the paperwork out of the tractor-trailer. >> is praying, a whole lot. >> i cannot believe they are alive. bob, you're lucky if you make it through something like that. >> i'm glad they survived. two tornadoes in almost the same area yesterday. six all together yesterday but this morning that's a loud start. it's basically stemming from a low around iowa. ahead of it, it's warm and hot when you get to the southeast and very humid. look at the showers and

thunderstorms arriving out of the gulf. if you live anywhere around the deep southeast, it's going to be warm. in atlanta, traveling down here for the day. it looks good trying to connect to a flight. i don't think you'll see many delays when it comes to the weather. partly cloudy skies and temperatures near 90 from about charlotte down through northern parts of florida. let me show you the warm air and cold air colliding. it gets into detroit too. zero in towards the radar. you can see the highway getting by highway 40. we do have one severe thunderstorm warning. looks like there's also a little tornado warning right there with the purple. probably more like a gust nad do. thunderstorms going through central parts of missouri. and that gets into chicago. o'hare has a delay because of the flashing lightning overhead. heavy downpours here for the entire day. it's headed for the northern

parts of michigan. flash flood watches and warnings are out there. pulling into areas like the rest the midwest and great lakes. look at the flood warnings, areas shaded in bright green. look at the threat for today. it shifts to the east and includes ohio and indiana. talk about that for the afternoon in a couple of minutes. bob, really active, again. >> mid-may the peak of tornado season. >> already. thank you. there's new information about a test that promised to reveal your genetic secret. but you're going of to have to wait to go a different route if you want that information now. plus, do you have a hard time routing for the home team? you might not be alone. a new list ranking the most miserable sports cities. [ male announcer ] this is your canvas.

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time for today's is a salute to the troops. >> i would like to send my salute to my boyfriend aaron serving in iraq. i want you to know i miss you very much and i'm very grateful for the service you're doing to our country. i miss you and of love you and i want you to be home safe. >> maybe you have somebody in the service and want to salute them. go to cnn.com/robin. this is the scene in tucson, arizona. students protesting a controversial ban on ethnic studies classes. this law was targeted at classes in their school district, correct? >> the superintendent there has spent years on this actually trying to get rid of tucson's mexican-american studies program. he says it teaches latino students they are an o pressed

minority and points to one history book, called "occupied america." in an interview with anderson cooper last night, horn said that type of material is counterproductive. >> one of our important functions is to teach kids to treat each other as individuals and not to infuse them with ethnic chof nix and treat them about the background and culture of the race they were born into and teach them about different cultures and races and different traditions and not divide them up by race. i think that's really backwards. >> now, this law still allows ethnic studies classes as long as they are not designed primarily for students of one specific ethnicity and they do not advocate resentment toward people of another group or ethnicity as well, natasha. >> the tucson school district

would argue they do not violate those provisions. do they plan to keep teaching them? >> the president of the school district has no intention of ending her studies of the program which include african-american and native-american curriculum. they have titles like the role of hispanics in the vietnam war. the director of the mexican-american studies program says students perform better if they study people who look like them and some students agree with that. >> because of these classes, i could look myself in the mirror and not be ashamed my curly hair. these classes mean so much to -- >> now about 3% of students in the tucson school district are enrolled in ethnic studies classes. if you would like to read the law for yourself, it's about four pages long. go to cnn.com/robin and you can also tell us what you think about what's happening there in arizona with the ethnic studies law that has just come out.

that's also on our website. >> very controversial. and so many different aspects the whole argument. yesterday's daily winner of the up to speed with robin meade contest is linda b. jackson. linda b. from jacksonville, florida. gets an autographed photo and bathrobe. listen for the nascar word of the day. type it in at cnn.com/robin. tens of thousands of americans are losing their homes every month because they cannot pay their mortgages. but there are signs that the crisis is beginning to level off here. jennifer has more. >> this is the fist seen we've seen in five years that foreclosures are getting better. they dropped in the last month. not by any means they are still

losing their homes. 92,000 homes last month but things do look better here. since the housing market is what got us into this mess. it's nice to see us coming out of it a little bit, any way. home dna tests we told you about yesterday will not be at sale at wall greens as well. they want the store to wait until the kit is proven to work. walgreens will hold off selling them. you can find if you're at risk for some diseases like alzheimer'. if you're traveling this morning, let's find out how you need to plan. what's going on? >> around the great lakes down to texas, chicago, o'hare, ground stop for the next 15 minutes because the line of thunder showers directly

overhead. you can see the hours coming in. another band of thunderstorms coming in in 15 to 30 minutes. you'll see the delays for the entire morning into the day. chicago anticipating an hour or month midway and o'hare. to the east we're talking about detroit, watch for an hour delay because of norms and heavy rain. more thunder showers later this afternoon. cleveland setting up with more delays around st. louis and minneapolis. dallas thunderstorms coming your way late this afternoon. more on that in about a half hour. a man drinking and driving called 911 on himself. wait until you hear why he did it in. that's a low price! wow! that's a low price! wow! that's a low price! i'm sorry. did you say something about a low price? wow!

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are both relevant and highly marketable. devry university. discover education working at devry.edu. firefighters hope to have a wildfire contained in california. this thing has been burning near homes and the fire got bigger yesterday. they think calmer winds today will help out. 32 homes were evacuated and it came within 100 feet of other brand-new homes. we haven't heard of any injury or damage. we do want to warn you the next video you may find disturbing. a second officer stomped on the guy's leg. this happened last month. the video surfaced on youtube last week. one officer made an emotional

apology here. >> i chose words, part of my conversation this that young man that were offensive and unprofessional. my comments that night do not reflect who i am or what i am. as a person nor as a member of the seattle police department. >> the manwise rew -- was released when police realized he wasn't the suspect they were looking for. the two officers are on administrative leave during the investigation. do you feel it? it can be frustrating being a sports fan, especially if you're from seattle or other cities. a new list where the fans may be the most miserable. >> being from the seattle area, you'll be probably -- i don't know if you'll be happy to know you're number one. this is from forbes, they put

out the top 10 most miserable cities, getting close but not winning. basketball team moved and the mariners and seahawks have never won a title. atlanta at number two. i don't know. you have a combined -- one championship and 147 seasons amongst five proteams. i'd kill for that. phoenix is number three. the suns have gotten close to winning it all but haven't. their baseball team won in 2001. buffalo is number four. four super bowls and no wins. and cleveland, last won a championship in 1964 they are number six -- no. if the cavs lose tonight, they are number one, no question. a shocking upset of the stanley cup champion penguins to get to the conference finals. what is not as impressive, the

game was in pittsburgh but fans in montreal were acting crazy, threw bottles at police and 35 were arrested. what's going to happen if they win it out. the preakness, which is saturday, has a new slogan, get your preek on and encouraging fans to come and get crazy. for $20 you get a beer mug with unlimited refills. a fan got so drunk in 1999, a man tried to punch two horses. 20 buksz bucks, it must be one big beer mug. >> it's endless. the oil companies and lawmakers are disagreeing on these things, a woman says she seize something interesting in this door. do you? [ whistling ]

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is -- crystal. >> big mike was sent packing last night the that leaves crystal, lee and casey in the top three. next week they'll take "idol" on the road as they make hometown visits. ♪

>> they are back. single bon jovi made a guest appearance on the show so did fantasia and chris daughtry. a woman in ohio says she can see the image of jesus on her door. do you believe her? look for yourself. she lived in the house for 13 years. she was shocked when that image appeared earlier this month. >> there's the chin. i see a nose and eyes. i see the forehead, there's hair here and then it looks like what is like a scarf. >> i see a cute baby, that's about it. she said she's used to people who saw jesus's image in things like toast. she doesn't care if people believe her story or not. mark sanford did campaigning in florida, not for votes but for his lover's heart. @@@@@@@@@@

students in arizona are protesting a controversial new law. the governor has banned ethnic studies programs in public schools that promote resentment of other ethnic groups. the classes seg regate students by race but students say they are open to everyone. vice president joe biden says his son is doing better after having a stroke but will probably need to rest for another four weeks. doctors say he is expected to make a full recovery. the space shuttle "atlantis"

is bringing equipment for the international space station along with memorabilia from the 25 years in service. i'm natasha curry. the little boy who is the only survivor of a deadly plane crash is doing better. doctors in libya say the dutch boy had surgery on his leg and is resting right now. he was on board a plane that crashed here while trying to land in tripoli. look at the wreckage here. it's everywhere. the crash killed 103 people. okay, along with the controversy over the new ethnic studies bill, arizona is getting more flak for its tough immigration law. it allows police to check people's immigration substitute us when they are stopped or arrested if they suspect that they are here illegally. in response, the l.a. city council voted to stop doing

business with arizona. richard, what's included in the boycott? >> there's thee parts of the resolution that have to be signed by the mayor. no l.a. employees can travel on official business unless there are special circumstances. l.a. will not sign any new contracts with arizona companies as well and it will review the 5 $8 million it has in existing conditions with arizona to see which ones can be canceled in this. >> so l.a.'s historic community turned out in droves. no everyone is opposed to the immigration law, right? >> no a look at the national poll from the pugh research center, a majority of citizens approve the stamp on regulations. some council members say they got hate mail for the support of

the boycott but it didn't change their mind. >> i think there are times in the history of our nation when the popular opinion might have been against some of the things that we've done. we know in the end they were the right things to do. >> the city will not be able to cancel all of the contracts with arizona. l.a.'s airport brings in $22 million each year from u.s. airways and mesa air. we would like to get views from folks watching right now. go to cnn.com/robin and hit the facebook button or send an e-mail. it's ahot topic. officials laid out a longcheck list of what likely went wrong. federal regulators gave their perspective and in washington they put pressure on oil executives. focused on how warning signs were missed or ignored because offshore rigs

are barely regulated. >> transocean, one of the world's largest operator of drilling rigs says it has no reason to believe that the rig' fail-safe device called a blowout preventer was not fully operational. we have learned from the manufacturer that the device had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system and a defectively configured ram. >> bp hopes to take a big step towards stopping the leak today. a small containment box is being put on top of the well. they do not know if it will actually work. the larger box failed. the wing tips of two jets suddenly collided on the tarmac at a tennessee airport. both planes were full of passengers but no one was hurt. some passengers didn't he'll realize they hit each other. the air jet was damaged when a

united express jet was bumped. neither plane flew after the incident. >> this is another lucky thing happening, bob. >> little frightening. >> they didn't even feel a thing. amazing. >> good morning, lots of action this morning. we have a cold front that's active. this weather brought to you by zyrtec. iowa down to texas, hot and humid and a lot of rain showers and a couple of severe thunderstorm warnings edging into northwest arkansas. the active weather is located here right now. a couple of thunderstorms warnings popping up because of the gusty winds. you can see the shape, little bow echo because the winds are pushing the rain out ahead of it. when you see a feature like that on the radar it usually means winds of 60 miles per hour or more. that's what you have up there. lake michigan getting covered with heavy downpours and lower parts of wisconsin and northern areas of chicago.

getting around illinois too. the rain is edging in areas by lower parts of michigan with the rain is in there right now. let me show you the tower cam. you will see the rain steady and it will last the entire day. high today in the low 60s. right now in the mid-40s. you'll get delays at the airports, not just because of the cloud but because of the heavy wind and rain. detroit, tough start i know. back to the west, you can see the rain around minneapolis. later today with the rain in place, flooding is going to be a kerp. you have flash flood watches and warnings. all of areas shaded in bright green. last five hours, 2 to 5 inches of rain. that gets into chicago too. flood warnings all around the great lakes and midwest later today. a little daytime heating the cold front comes in and energy out ahead of that. severe thunderstorms are possible. isolated tornadoes are back in the picture today.

that's central ohio and indiana and illinois. that will be mid to late afternoon for you. more on that in about a half hour. >> thanks, bob. a teacher has been fired for how she disciplined a student in a disturbing confrontation. it was caught on tape. you will see it and hear the teacher give her side. ♪ [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time. time for new zyrtec® liquid gels. they work fast. so i can get relief from the pollen that used to make me sneeze, my eyes water. with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that's the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. it works on my worst symptoms so i'm ready by the time we get to the first hole. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®.

communities. industry. energy.

her. this. lives. how ? by bringing together... information. ... people ... ... machines ... ... systems ... ideas... verizon helps businesses worldwide... including fortune 500 companies... find and achieve... better. better. better. better. did you hear this yet? mark sanford confirms reports that he spent last weekend in florida with his lover from argentina. he didn't mention the woman by

name. he admitted he was trying to rekindle the love affair that wrecked his marriage and nearly cost him his office. >> everybody in this room knows exactly who i was with over the weekend. that is no mystery to anybody, even what i said last summer. the purpose was obviously to see if something could be restarted on that front. given the raermg enormous geographic gulf between us. time will tell. i don't know if it will or won't. what i do know is this, the obsession with one's personal life needs to come to an end. >> the affair was discovered last june when sanford disappeared for a few days. he told his staff he was hiking the appalachian trail. his ex-wife will be on dr. phil's show today to talk about the affair. >> maybe they could honeymoon there? >> in argentina? >> no, the appalachian trail. >> that's a good idea, jen.

clever. could it be true that the highest gas prices of the summer are nearly behind us? gas prices might be headed down from here for real. right? >> i mean, if this is true, some experts are predicting this will be welcome news for a lot of families right now. this is usually the time when you see gas prices start to ramp up for the summer. but instead, they may be going down. prices this morning are at $2.89 across the country. some energy experts say they've likely peaked for the summer just under $3 a gallon for self-serve regular. the effects are great. the reason isn't so good. i should tell you why. there's so much nervousness about the world economy. you've seen the pictures about the debt crisis in europe. it still could be a huge help for many families at the time when a lot of people are struggling to get jobs. how would you like to be able to work on a lot of your documents for free wherever you

want? microsoft is putting office online and free for the first time. it means you could have word or excel documents or could access them on the web. anywhere you get the internet, home, on the road. it also means you can share documents if you want to. that's a big deal for workers, you can share documents and presentation s instead of e-mailing them. this doesn't seem so new, don't people do that? companies like google have been doing it but they don't have anywhere near the number of users of microsoft office, almost half a billion people around the world use their products. it could be cheap and easy for a lot of people. >> there you go, jen. thanks so much. first it was "saturday night live," now facebook fans want betty white to host the oscars. they started a petition and the facebook page has 60,000 likes. die-hard betty fans are saying

go betty, go. after facebookers rallied for her appearance, an oscar spokesperson says they will select the host, not facebook. then ratings come into play too. here comes your chance to win a chance to sonoma and the nascar race. here's our nascar word of the day. >> this is brad kesselowskikese. the world is drafting. >> that's when two or more cars run nose to tail almost touching while racing. go to cnn.com/robin and type in drafting then you're entered to win the prize a robin meade robe and a grand prize for a trip to two to sonoma for the nascar race in june. a man is being honored for a job he says is too easy.

what? how his work may have saved hundreds of lives and maybe his own. tiger woods, he's headed back to rehab, but not for what you think. re's a new generation of sun protection... ...that outlasts their energy. [ female announcer ] introducing the strongest protection yet from aveeno -- new continuous protection with spf 100. we've combined natural soy and antioxidant vitamins with spf 100, in an active naturals® formula that provides 3 times better sunburn protection than ordinary sunscreens. [ female announcer ] sun protection works stronger... so you can play longer. new continuous protection. and try aveeno baby -- the #1 dermatologist recommended baby sunblock. only from aveeno. that's the beauty of nature & science.

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we do want to warn you, you may find this video disturbing. a teacher at an alternative school is under fire getting physical with a 13-year-old student. it happened two weeks ago caught on cell phone video. the confrontation, look at this, include hitting, kicking and pulling the student on the floor while classmates watched. this is a teacher. this teacher in the blue shirt was fired monday when the video surfaced. she says she was punishing the boy for laughing at a learning impaired classmate. the teen's mother says that never happened. she filed a complaint with police and seeking a lawyer's advice. the principal did send a letter to parents saying that we are horrified at the actions of the teacher. there is no excuse for a teacher to behave in that way with a child. the school has terminated the

teacher and made an apology to student and his mother and the school will investigate whether other teachers witnessed this incident and did not come forward to report it. they could be facing disciplinary action as well. compelling video there. michael jackson's kids have been posting videos of themselves on youtube? one of the most popular stories right now on cnn.com. >> we have something to show you -- >> remember blanket. that is blanket there showing off his lightsaber skills. the videos were on youtube for two weeks before older members of the jackson family realized it. seem like normal kids, right? blanket got out. tiger woods says he will need rehab for his neck. rafer weigel has that. >> tiger dropped out of a recent tournament because of this injury. a lot of people thought it must be serious, he would be the u.s.

open on a broken leg two years ago. turns out an mri revealed no major damage. he says he'll need massages and medication and rest and will come back when he's physically ready. when is that? we don't know. the next major is the u.s. open in june. >> needs massage, right? >> yes. a state trooper who was with ben roethlisberger the night he was accused of sexual assault is fighting for his part-time job back as ben's bodyguard. state police told ed joyner, you can't moonlight for him any more because he keeps getting in trouble but kept him on the force. he filed a union grievance and they will fight for him to get the job back. after testing positive for a banned substance, brian cushing will keep his rookie of the year award. he tested positive for a female fertility drug. some changed their votes and

others did not saying we didn't want to set a precedent. many were shocked by this. so con grats, sports writers, you just told millions of kids that it is okay to cheat and nothing will happen to you. now to good football players. i don't think he's a bad guy shouldn't have kept the award. the true champions are the tennessee titans who rolled up their sleeves and helped victims of the flooding in nashville. many were shocked to see the extent of the damage. it's pretty bad. residents say they were very grateful for the help. that's a lot of hard labor they are doing there for a great cause. thanks so much, rafer. you know what, there are a lot of copy cats out there. one young singer has lady gaga down cold ♪ ♪ i'll follow you until you love me ♪ ♪ paparazzi

♪ >> that gave me goose bumps. putting on quite a performance at his sixth grade talent show. this video has more than 7 million hits in two weeks. we have a link to it on our website cnn.com/robin. i wonder how long it will be before someone snags him and signs him, bob. >> the youtube people are more compelled than the people behind him. >> the bottom, too. >> the one right underneath his chin. they're like, next. >> i thought it was g kid. we have some delays, chicago,

rain overhead and right now o'hare is in a groundstop for the next 40 minutes because of the thunderstorms. chicago metros an hour or more and already seen it pop up early and then we'll see the delays pop up there shortly, could be an hour or more for you, too. cleveland showers, thunderstorms, same with st. louis. under the gun this afternoon. more on that in about a half hour. natasha. >> thank you, bob, see you then. over your lifetime you will probably spend about two years in the bathroom. if you can find one. new for you in 20 minutes, the potty parity bill that could make it easier for you to find a place when you just have to go. wow, is this... fiber one honey clusters? yes.

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natasha curry in for robin meade, she is on assignment this morning. hope you're having a good morning so far. you know what, there is a new battle brewing in arizona, this time it's not the state's tough new immigration law but a controversial ban on ethnic study classes that is causing protest here. scary enough to be in your own house when a tornado hits, but hear from two people who road out a twister in a truck. south carolina governor mark sanford is talking about his lover from argentina but also had a message for the media. oh, yeah. there is backlash at arizona's controversial new law banning ethnic studies.

tuesday governor jan brewer signed against classes in public school that promote resentment of other racial groups. >> power! >> now, students in tucson protested a visit from the school superintendent. some ethnic study classes segregate students by race. >> what's wrong with it is that it divides students up by race and i believe that one of the principal ideas of the american public school system is we bring kids together and we teach them to treat each other as individuals. what does he know? what is his character or his and not what race was he born into. >> some teachers think the law doesn't protect students, it hurts them. >> i think it's an attack on the mexican american communities and communities of arizona. i think it is ridiculous.

completely outlandish, horrendous and dibiical. >> arizona's governor signed that bill behind closed doors but students should be taught to value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent other races or classes of people. in less than ten minutes we'll break down what is being taught in these classes that prompted this law and you'll hear from people on both sides of the debate. we're getting the best look yet at that cloud of oil that is gushing into the gulf of mexico. you're looking at new video from bp. in the background there. that is the oil. so far more than 4 million gallons have spilled into the gulf and the stream that you see, that's natural gas that has been spewing out nonstop since the explosion began three weeks ago. president obama is asking for an extra $118 million for relief efforts in the gulf. he also announced yesterday that

he wants oil companies to put more money into a fund for spills and cleanups. people are seeing tar balls on the shoreline from louisiana to alabama. florida's governor fears what this could do to tourism. >> one of the things that we want to do is be able to market to states north of florida that our beaches are still clean, that our hotels are still open and the restaurants are doing well and we want people to come on down and help our tourist industry. it's important to get that message out. >> we're starting to get a clearer picture of what actually happened on that oil rig to cause one of the worst environmental oil disasters in history. president obama says that he is confident that a deadline to start u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan by next july will be met, but he did stress there will be hard fighting ahead. he met with har midkarzai in washington here. relations between the two countries have been strained

lately, but mr. obama downplayed that. >> we are not suddenly, as of july, 2011, finished with afghanistan. in fact, to the contrary part of what i tried to emphasize to president karzai and the afghan people and also to the american people is that this is a long-term partnership. >> today president karzai and secretary of state hillary clinton will discuss the situation in afghanistan and it will be on tv. the president will also visit section 60 where troops from the afghan war are buried. now, when that tornado in oklahoma here hit two truckers, they could do nothing but just hang on. new sound this morning from a guy and his son-in-law who said the storm tossed their 18-wheeler around like a toy. >> next thing i know the mirror snapped. >> it took out the driver side window. >> antennas were gone. >> sucked all the paperwork out of the tractor trailer. >> i was praying a whole lot.

>> wow. yeah. he's really lucky it be alive. >> those winds really kicking up, bob. >> i'm glad they survived. that is unbelievable. >> there you are. >> what's going on, natasha? good morning to you. busy start so far. let me show you what's going on. here's your cold front. start dying down shortly and refire back into central indiana and under the clouds check out the rain, heavy at times stretching from the red river near dallas, not quite there all the way up to oklahoma, arkansas. all these red boxes, these orange boxes right here. reasons why, gusty winds and large hail. not a tornado threat right now, but later today we'll see them refire around chicago. pull the picture up to the east a little farther, lightning just dancing near detroit with heavy downpours right by 96 getting in towards grand rapids and

kalamazoo and all moving up to the north getting into the u.p., also. that's where it looks like it is the heaviest right now. northern parts of michigan and the u.p. and also scattered showers around minnesota. that is where it will be, basically, for the next couple hours. we have all out there from yesterday's rain and this morning's downpour, that's what you have. severe weather erupts right in this region. travel over to the east, live to new york city. looks pretty good right nowadaytime highs back into the low 70s and look at this not until after midnight tonight. that's what it looks like here. that's the east coast, what about the west coast? it's early in the year but a wildfire burning in san bernardino county was still going early this morning. 300 acres have burned, but fire officials expect the blaze to be contained possibly by this morning. the reason why, the winds have died down significantly. it's still dry, but the wind will not be a factor today.

>> thank goodness with those dry conditions. it's actually pretty, even though it's just awful. we toldia bout dna test kits that you could buy at drugstores. they could tell you if you're at risk for certain genetic diseases. you know what, the plans have changed. or maybe our new savory shrimp jambalaya. seafood lunches starting at just $6.99 at red lobster.

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time for today's salute to the troops. >> hi, robin. i would like to send my salute to my boyfriend first lieutenant aaron raymar who is currently serving in iraq. aaron, i want you to know that i miss you very much and i'm very grateful for the service that you're doing for our country. i miss you and i love you and i want you to be home safe. >> maybe you have somebody in the service and you want to salute them, go to cnn.com/robin. this was the scene in tucson, arizona, yesterday. students protesting a

controversial ban on ethnic study classes there. correspondent richard lui, this law was targeted at classes in their school district, right? >> yes. the state school superintendent tom horn, you know, he spent the past couple years trying to get rid of tucson's mexican american studies program saying it teaches latino students they are an oppressed minority and points to one history book as an example of that. it's called "occupied america." and in an interview with cnn's anderson cooper last night, horn said that kind of material is counterproductive. >> one of our important functions is to teach kids, kids from different backgrounds to teach each other as individuals and not to infuse them with ethnic chauvinism about a particular race and teach their narrowly about the background and culture of the race they happen to be born into, but teach them about all different cultures and races and different traditions and not divide them up by race. i think that's really backwards. >> some more information about

this law for you, natasha. still allows ethnic studies as long as they're not designed for students of one specific ethnicity and does not have resentment towards people of another ethnicity, as well. >> the tucson school district would argue that their classes don't violate any of those, so they plan on continuing to teach those classes? >> the president of the school district saying she has no intention of ending her ethnic study programs which include african-american and native-american classes. so, let's go to the director of the mexican american studies program. students perform better who study people who look like them and some students agree with that. >> because of these classes i can look myself in the mirror and not be ashamed for my curly hair and being darker than most people. these classes have done so much for me. >> now about 3% of students in

the tucson school districts are enrolled in ethnic study classes so far. if you'd like to read the law yourself or let us know what you think about this story, go to cnn.com/robin. >> a lot of opinions on both sides, richard, thank you. yesterday's daily winner for the up to speed with robin meade contest is -- can we get a drum roll -- all right. linda b. from jacksonville, florida. go, linda. she gets an autographed photo and morning express bathrobe. the grand prize is a trip for two to sonoma, california. lissen for the word of the day in about 30 minutes. type it in at cnn.com/robin. happening today, president oobama visits buffalo and a group of unemployed new yorkers. they have a message for him. jennifer westhoven is here with more on that. >> not having a job has become the new normal for millions of americans. and they're not happy about it.

they're very frustrated. one man, jeff baker, decided it was time for the 15 million out of work americans to have a voice. so he created a group in buffalo, new york. >> together, young and old -- >> we can be heard. >> it's simple, just say it. >> i need a job. >> hey, i need a freakin' job. >> they bought a billboard in buffalo with the same message. so, president obama may see it. he is visiting there today. >> very clever. >> yeah. the home dna test we were telling you about yesterday are not going to be for sale at walgreen's the fda wants them to wait until it's proven that the kits work. walgrown's will hold off selling them. you can send in the swab and find out if you're at risk for some diseases, genetic diseases. they are talking to the fda. >> okay.

if it is approved, that could be really interesting. good for people who don't have health insurance, you know what i mean? >> what you might be at risk for, diabetes, so you can take steps beforehand. >> right, thank you, jen. do you have a hard time rooting for your home team? you might not be alone. a new ranking of the most miserable sports cities. ♪ [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time. time for new zyrtec® liquid gels. they work fast. so i can get relief from the pollen that used to make me sneeze, my eyes water. with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that's the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. it works on my worst symptoms so i'm ready by the time we get to the first hole. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®.

call 1-800-451-9894 or visit adhdactionguide.com for tips designed to help you at work and home. part of disneyland was evacuated because of a suspicious ice chest. yesterday about 1,000 people were told to leave tomorrowland for about 90 minutes in anaheim.

the ice chest was in an area that wasn't accessible to the public but the chest turneditute be harmless. . it could be frustrating being a sports fan, especially in some cities. a new list where fans may be the most miserable. are you miserable? rafer weigel has more on this story. >> you agree about it because you're from seattle. let the debate begin because i don't agree with it. top ten most miserable sports cities are based on heartbreak and getting close and then not winning. seattle, natasha's former town, is at the top. okay, their basketball team left for oklahoma city, kevin durant is becoming a superstar there and the mariners and seahawks have never won a title. >> seahawks came close. >> atlanta, number two. five teams, have only one championship in 147 combined seasons. phoenix at number three, i don't know.

the suns and cardinals have gotten close, they never won it all but their baseball won a championship in 2001. buffalo, they have at number four, they've gotten to the super bowl four times and never won it. cleveland, which has not won a championship since 1964. no city has suffered more than the city of cleveland. they will back me up on that. they are rioting in canada, not any more. the canadians continue their cinderella run with an amazing upset of the stanley cup champion penguins to get to the final. well, this is not amazing. the game is in pittsburgh and the fans of montreal started looting businesses and throwing bottles at police. 25 were arrested. imagine what will happen if they win it all. speaking of bad behavior, the rowdiest race could get worse, encouraging fans to come and go nuts. for one, for $20 you can get a

beer mug and refill it unlimited refills. this is the same race where back in 1999 a guy got so hammered that he ran on to the track and tried to punch two horses as they ran by. >> not cool. >> this is a recipe for disaster. >> like they need a big cage. separate the fans from the horses. stay back. >> they have it. all new sports in the next half hour. >> thanks, rafer. a baptist minister who is one of the country's most prominent anti-guy rights activist is defending himself against allegations that he hired a gay escort. george reker has resigned from a group that offers therapy for people struggling with homosexuality. after an escort said he hired h him. you don't have to be a math major to know the cost of college is going through the roof, but there are schools that give you a bigger bang for your buck.

cnn's tom foreman shows you one example in today's "building up america." >> just how daunting the cost can be. look at some of the most expensive schools in this country. each one has a total price tag well over $50,000 annually, but that's not the way it has to be. right now i'm driving to a school where it's very different. the university of virginia consistently appears near the top of those lists of the best values in college education. >> you can spend a whole lot more for an education. >> exactly. >> but do you think you'll get a much better education? >> no, no. i feel like the university of virginia is a wonderful intersection. so, i get -- >> wonderful intersection of what? >> between cost and value. i get the best of both worlds. >> directing traffic at that intersection is leonard. >> we budget very carefully. we know what we can afford.

we know we can't be everything for everyone. each office here from those providing food services to student entertainment is held strictry responsible for its spending. if they run over, they must make up the difference on their own, no passing the buck to students. >> i think, you know, the saying that you get the most bang for your buck is definitely applicable here. >> that is why this school is at or near the top of all those value lists. helping students build up their future on terms they can afford. tom foreman, cnn, sharletsville. it's rollback time here at walmart.

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students in arizona are protesting a controversial new law. the governor has banned ethnic studies programs in public schools that promote resentment of oother ethnic groups. the state's school superintendent says the classes segregate students by race. but the students say the classes are open to everyone. the space shuttle "atlantis" is scheduled to blast off for the last time tomorrow afternoon. only two more shuttle missions before they end the program. bringing memorabilia from its 25 years in service. actor sean penn will get

anger management counseling, do 300 hours of community service and spend three years on probation. this is part of a plea deal to settle charges from an attack on a paparazzi photographer last fall. penn spent almost a month in jail for assaulting a photographer in 1987. those are your headlines this morning, welcome back. i'm natasha curry in for robin meade. she is on assignment today. along with the controversy over its new ethnic studies bill, arizona is getting more flack for its tough immigration law. it allows police to check people's immigration status when they're stopped or arrested if they suspect they're here illegally. in response, the l.a. city council voted to stop doing business with arizona. correspondent richard lui, what's included in this boycott here? >> three parts to the resolution, which still has to be signed by the mayor. in it it says no city employees will travel to arizona on official business unless there are "special circumstances" that are in the city's interest.

also in this, l.a. will not sign any new contracts with arizona companies and it will review the $58 million that it has in existing contracts with arizona to see which ones can be canceled. those are the three parts that we found. >> so, richard, l.a.'s hispanic community has turned out in droves to thank the city council for the decision, but not everyone for immigration law. >> interesting data for you now. what it shows here, natasha, a variety of u.s. citizens approve on american's stance on immigration. six out of ten approve it and some l.a. city council members are saying they still have hate mail for their support of the boycott but didn't change their minds in the end. >> i think there are times in the history of our nation when the popular opinion might have been against some of the things that we've done. but we know in the end, they were the right things to do. >> she admits the city will not be able to cancel all its

contracts with arizona, l.a.'s airport it brings in $22 million each year from usairways and mesa air and give you a sense of what's at stake right now based on this potential law. we're taking your comments on our facebook page. we've got a couple for you. there's dorian who says, i think that the state's laws are becoming more unorthodox and ridiculo ridiculous. but we have john who says, if they don't like what's going on in arizona, move. plenty of people will take their place who do like it. and then there's matthew, as you can see on your screen right there, extreme measures are only caused by extreme circumstance. if you'd like to comment, we are reading them and we'll share them with you throughout the next couple hours right here on "morning express with robin meade." >> the debate is really getting heated here, richard. thank you. you may find this video really disturbing here. it shows the seattle police officer yelling racial slurs at a latino man and kicking him in

the head. the second officer stomps on the guy's leg. this happened last month and then the video surfaced on youtube. last week one officer made this emotional apology. >> i chose words as part of my conversations with that young man that were offensive and unprofessional. my comments that night do not reflect who i am or what i am. as a person nor as a member of the seattle police department. >> now, the man was released once police realized that he wasn't the suspect they were looking for. now, the fbi is investigating whether the incident was a hate crime. the two officers are on administrative leave during the investigation. south carolina governor mark sanford confirms reports that he did spend last week in florida with his lover from argentina. he didn't mention the woman by

name but sanford admitted he was trying to rekindle the love affair that wrecked his marriage and nearly cost him his office. >> as a matter of record, everybody knows exactly who i was with over the weekend. that is no mystery to everybody given what i said last summer and the purpose was to see if something could be restarted on that front given the rather enormous geographic gulf between us and time will tell. i don't know if it will or won't. but what i do know is this. the obsession with one's personal life needs to come to an end. >> the affair was discovered last june when sanford disappeared for a couple days. his ex-wife will be on "dr. phil show" to talk about the affair. the wingtips of two jets tipped. both planes full of passengers but no one was hurt. some passengers said they didn't even realize the planes had hit each other. an allegiant jet was damaged

when it bumped a united express jet. neither plane flew after the incident. someone messed up here. check out this road sign in sparks, nevada. specifically the word yield. yeah, it is misspelled. i before e except -- i'm joking. so, yeah, there's another sign down the road with the same misspelling. a construction company doing work in the area has already fixed them. i before e except after c. yeah, some mistakes. i always love the road sign mistakes, bob. >> got to love it. good morning, natasha. this weather brought to you by multi-grain cheerios. let me show you the big set up for today. more rough weather. brand-new severe thunderstorm watch. seattle watch box pops up northern illinois and brand-new one just popped up two second ago and that's following that squall line and heading right out of kansas through missouri. we'll zoom in to this area and nice line of showers and thunderstorms here. we have brand-new tornado and

that just popped up, too. brand-new tornado warning and you can see that purple box all moving to the northeast at 60 miles per hour. that's that squall line and brand-new tornado warning out there, too. up the line a little further, chicago thinning out a little bit and those rain showers are out there. let me give you a couple tour cams and atlanta nice. traveling down to the southeast, looks pretty good. lots of warm temperatures, about upper 80s to near 90 today but on the flip side, get to the north a little farther and rain showers and thunderstorms possible around chicago. you already had one heavy round go by early this morning and another one will go through later this afternoon. back to the maps, that's what it looks like in chicago. you pull the picture out to the east a little farther. rain in central parts of michigan and lightning flashing right here and we'll see more showers and more thunderstorms arrive. that will be later this afternoon for the ohio valley. back to the west, look at the rain around minsota and wisconsin stretching into the u.p. of michigan and most of the

heavy rain across central michigan but the flood warnings all out there. we have flood warnings and flash flood warnings, too. severe weather threat today ohio, illinois and indiana. getting good weather here, how about charlotte, north carolina. daytime highs today 88 degrees or so. humidity will be up there, but not too bad. nice, pleasant start. charlotte, north carolina, best weather in the country today. full details on all those warnings popping up in just about a half hour. natasha? >> charlotte has great weather but messy in other spots. we'll talk to you soon, bob. gas prices are expected to stay under 3 bucks a gallon this summer. find out what can keep prices down. ♪ hey bets, can i borrow a quarter? sure, still not dry? i'm trying to shrink them. i lost weight and now some clothes are too big.

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rescuers off the coast of california freed a whale. look at it here. it was tangled in ropes and 150 pounds of fishing net, poor thing. the whale was named lily and biologists said that she looked old, sick and ready to die. now after she was freed, she start to swim and headed north. that is a good sign she will recover. let's hope so. talk about being honest. a canadian man said he actually pulled his car over and called 911 to report himself for drunk driving. then, he waited for the cops to come and arrest him. here's why he says he fessed up. >> i traveled about 100, 150 feet down the road and then it hit me that i'm going to kill somebody if i go any further. i'm literally going to kill

somebody. so, i pulled over to the side of the road and i called 911. >> yeah, he could have called a cab but he pleaded guilty. the judge gave him the minimum penalty, $1,000 fine and suspended license for one year. glad he didn't hurt anybody, though. could it be true that the highest gas prices of the summer are nearly behind us? gas prices might actually be headed down from here, for real. what's going on? jennifer westhoven looking out for you on this. >> wouldn't that be great? >> especially for a lot of families and some energy experts say gas prices could fall after memorial day in just a few weeks. instead of rising as they usually do as the summer gets under way. prices $2.89 across country, that's according to aaa and the peak could be behind us. just under $3 for a gallon of self-serve regular. now, the reason why isn't so

good. we'll injithe benefits, but the reasons not great. so much fear about the world economy, the debt crisis that we have been seeing in greece and fear it could spread to more in europe but that could be a big help for a lot of families. all right, time to take charge of your career. maybe you've been cleaning your house or your yard, but take some time to spring clean your career, as well. so, the first one is easy, right? your resume. clean it up. a career coach tells "forbes" that an employer hires you to solve his problems. so, if you want to be the best person for the job, show that you can solve other people's problems. the next thing is, clean up your online reputations. so, if you have a facebook account or something like that, either make sure your boss can't see your personal life or, by managing your privacy settings or clean up your profile so they can see it.

spruce up your skills. learn something new like excel or powerpoint or even work on your public speaking. >> but the online profile, that's a good point there, jen. there might be a glitch, so people could see the pictures you post online anyway. be careful, right? >> right. there is an amazing survival story we want to tell you about this morning. it all has to do with this boy. it's amazing. when you pursue an mba at devry university's... keller graduate school of management, you'll have a professor with you every step of the way. whether you take classes on campus, online, or both, you get the same attention, the same curriculum, and the same quality. 85 locations nationwide and online. discover how to grow the business of you... at keller.edu.

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we have new details on what may have caused the oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers. documents describe bad wiring and a leak in the so-called blowout preventer. now, even a dead battery may have played a role. some house members say this proves there needs to be more regulation. >> bp is largely making it up as they go. they are engaging in a series of elaborate and risky science experiments at the bottom of the ocean. we expected a lot more sophistication when it came to dealing with something of this magnitude. >> a bp executive says they don't want to draw any conclusions just yet until they get all the facts. the oil company hopes to take a big step towards stopping the leak today. a small containment box is being put on top of the well, however,

bp doesn't actually know if it will work. meanwhile, 210,000 gallons a day of oil spewing out of that thing, at least. it's already tried a larger box, though, bp has, and that failed. the boy who is the only survivor of a deadly plane crash is doing much better this morning. doctors in libya say that the dutch boy had surgery. he had surgery on his legs and he is resting now. he has been through a lot. he was onboard a plane here that crashed while trying to land in tripoli yesterday. the crash killed 103 people. again, he was the only one who survived. amazing. here comes your trance to win a trip to sonoma and the nascar race. here's brad kozlowski with our nascar word of the day. >> the word of the day is drafting. >> oh, yes, it is. drafting is when two or more cars run nose to tail. here's what you do go to

cnn.com/robin and type in drafting and you are entered to win the daily prize of a robin express robin meade bathrobe and a signed pic and a trip to sonoma in june. tiger woods says he will need rehab. what? for his neck we're talking about. rafer weigel has that. >> it's not significant news, but it's still going to add to the drama, natasha. tiger dropped out of a recent tournament because of this injury and people were thinking, it has to be a serious injury. this guy won the u.s. open on a broken leg two years ago. no major damage. he will need massages, medication and rest and will come back when he's physically ready. a lot of people say were you really that hurt then. the next major tournament is the u.s. oep on in june. no way he will miss that. a state trooper that was with ben roethlisberger the

night he was accused of sexual assault. you can't moonlight for him any more because he seem toz get into trouble and they kept joiner on the force. it wasn't enough for filed a un the union says they'll fight for him. another page out of the "are you kidding me" file. s after testing positive for a banned substance, brian curbing will still keep the rookie of the year award. the positive test got him suspended four games without pay. the nfl thought it was very serious and some writers said, yeah, this is serious and changed the vote but others didn't. so they did not want to set a precedent and cushing won again. congratulations. you told millions of kids it is okay to cheat and nothing will happen. true champions are tennessee titans who personally helped victims of the awful flooding in nashville. look at the houses and the guys get hard at work here. a bus load of players gutted several homes and a lot of them said they were shocked to see

how badly damaged the homes were and the residents were very grateful for the help. >> they have a lot of muscles so i bet they won't be sore. >> more sports in the next half hour. >> thanks. singer bon jovi rocked the house last night. check it out. ♪ who's going to save you he made a guest appearance on last night's "american idol." the show hit a sour note, though, for big mike. he was eliminated. that leaves crystal, lee and casey in the top three. well, maybe it was the fees or the hours but whatever's making you unhappy with your bank, don't jump ship until you hear our tips for picking a new bank. while i, sneezing, itching eyes kept you from our favorite stream. the one that runs through a field where pollen floats through the air. but now, with the strength of 24-hour zyrtec® to relieve my worst allergy symptoms, indoors and outdoors... let's go before the fish stop biting.

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good morning. i'm natasha curry in for robin meade, she is on assignment this morning. she'll be back tomorrow but we're so glad you could join us. here's what's coming up this morning on "morning express." >> power. >> to the people. >> the protests here are getting louder in arizona. a new ban on ethnic studies classes creating new controversy in the state already debating a tough immigration law. why the governor says the classes hurt kids. plus, south carolina governor mark sanford spent sometime with his lover. only this time, he is not making up a hiking trip to cover it all up. he is dishing about it.

there is backlash to arizona's controversial new law banning ethnic studies. tuesday, governor jan brewer signed a ban against classes in public schools that, quote, promote resentment of other racial groups. >> power. >> to the people. >> power. >> students in tucson protested a visit of the state's superintendent. tom horn told our sister network cnn that some ethnic studies classes segregate students by race. >> what's wrong with it is divides students up by race and i believe one of the principle ideas of the american public school system is bring kids together and teach them to treat each other as an individual. what can he do? what's the character or hers? not the race he was born into. >> some teachers say they think the law doesn't protect students, it hurts them. >> i think it is an attack on the mexican american communities

and all ethnic communities within the cities and communities of arizona. i think it is ridiculous. completely outlandish. horrendous. and diabolical. >> arizona's governor signed that bill behind closed doors tuesday but she released this statement saying, students in arizona should be taught to value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people. arizona's governor is also dealing with new fallout of the tough immigration law she signed. a major city could stop doing tens of millions of dollars in business with the state. we'll talk more about that later on. right now, we have the best look yet at the cloud of oil gushing into the gulf of mexico. you are looking at new video of bp. see the dark stream in the back? that is oil. the black stuff. so far, more than 4 million gallons have spilled into the gulf. the lighter stream you see there

is natural gas which is also been spewing out nonstop since the disaster began with the explosion three weeks ago. president obama is asking for an extra $118 million for relief efforts in the gulf. he also announced yesterday he wants oil companies to put more money into a fund for spills and cleanups. people are seeing tar balls on the shoreline from louisiana to alabama. well, president obama says that he's confident a deadline to start u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan by next july will be met. but he stressed there's going to be some hard fighting ahead. he met with afghan president hamid karzai in washington. relations between the two countries have been strained lately but mr. obama down played that. >> we are not suddenly as of july 2011 finished with afghanistan. in fact, to the contrary. part of what i have tried to emphasize to president karzai and the afghan people but also to the american people is this

is a long-term partnership. >> now, today, president karzai and secretary of state hillary clinton will discuss the situation in afghanistan and it will be on tv. he will also visit section 60 at arlington national cemetery where troops from the afghan war are buried. it seems more women in the u.s. just aren't very concerned about getting pregnant. a new study says one out of four is not trying to get pregnant and not trying to prevent it either. a researcher at the university of nebraska says because of the study, doctors should treat women as if they'll likely conceive and stress things like getting more follic acid and cutting back on alcohol. so women just don't seem to care as much. very interesting, bob. what do you think? >> you don't want the know what i think. hey, that's why i got married. >> within of those. all right. during the commercial. good morning. >> yeah. more tornado warnings. goes until 8:30 a.m. central time. christian, douglas, greenstone and webster county.

this whole complex, see a little bit of a notch trying to get a hook. moving to the east at about 50 miles per hour. so doppler indicated tornado early all rolling over to the east ahead of a bigger squall line up to the north and west and showers heavy over the last few hours, north of chicago, rolling in lower parts of michigan and one severe thunderstorm warning out of central illinois. all that action rolling eastward and there for the entire day. heaviest rain around detroit, up to the north. look at the line of thunderstorms from grand rapids into sterling heights where it's for the morning. drives up to the north over the next couple of hours. more rain, heavy at times, wisconsin, parts of minnesota, flood warnings, we had them all around. flood advisories, too. just south of kansas city, flash flood warnings. later this afternoon, daytime heating in the squall in place that all rolls into the ohio valley. places like ohio, illinois, indiana, even st. louis could get severe thunderstorms. live to st. louis.

here's what it looks like. daytime highs back into the low 80s in spots. see lot of clouds, severe thunderstorms are possible later this afternoon. most of that rolls in late, i'd say mid afternoon to the evening hours. natasha? >> thanks for the heads up. really stormy there. there's new information right now about a test that promised to reveal your genetic secrets but you will have to do a different route if you want that information now. plus, do you have a hard time rooting for your home team? you might not be alone. a new ranking lists the most miserable sports cities. time for today's salute to the troops. join me here. >> hi, robin. i would like to send my salute to my boyfriend first lieutenant aaron raymore serving in iraq. aaron, i want you to know that i misyou very much and i'm very grateful for the service that you're doing to our country. i miss you and i love you and i want you to be home safe.

>> maybe you have somebody in the service and you want to salute them. go to cnn.com/robin. ♪

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and at holiday inn express, you always can. holiday inn express. stay you. and stay rewarded with the hit it big promotion-- earn up to $500 dollars at over 300 retailers. yesterday's daily winner for the "up to speed with robin meade" contest is linda b. of jacksonville, florida. linda gets an autographed photo and morning express bathrobe. the grand prize is a trip for two to sonoma, california. lissen for the word of the day in about 30 minutes. type it in at cnn.com/robin. get this. south carolina governor mark sanford confirms reports that he did spend last weekend in florida with his lover from argentina. the one he called the soul mate. he didn't mention her by name exactly but sanford admitted he was trying to rekindle the love affair that wrecked his marriage

and nearly cost him his office. >> as a matter of record, everybody in this room knows exactly who i was with over the weekend. that is no mystery to anybody given what i said last summer. and, you know, the purpose was obviously to see if something could be restarted on that front. given the rather enormous geographic gulf between us and time will tell. i don't know if it will or won't. but i do know is this. the obsession with one's personal life needs to come to an end. >> the affair discovered last june when sanford disappeared for a few days telling his staff he was hiking the appalachian trail. his ex-wife jenny sanford here, she is on "the dr. phil show" today to talk about the affair. new this morning, tens of thousands of americans are still losing their homes every month because they just can't pay their mortgages but there are signs that the crisis is beginning to level off. so some bittersweet news here. jennifer west hoefb is here with

more on that. >> this is the first time in five years that we have seen this number get a little bit better. it is not healed but the number of monthly foreclosures dropped if you look at april this year to april last year according to realty track. we haven't seen that in so long. so again, not that it's all better, not at all, but maybe we're starting to stop getting worse. last month, 92,000 families still lost their homes to banks in foreclosure proceedings. but perhaps this is a sign that the tide may be turning a little bit. the home dna test we told you about yesterday, they won't be for sale at walgreens, as wf. they need to wait a while until it's proven that the kits actually work. walxwreens said it will hold off. the kit claimed to take a swab inside of your cheek, send it in and find out if you're at risk for certain genetic diseases like alzheimer's. pathway genomics said they're

talking to the fda. can't find some snazzy clothes that fit? you're not alone. an illinois woman found a stylish way to the fashion emergency. stephanie elam has her story in our "small business success." >> this woman was frustrated by fashion. >> i kept looking for something creative and that it had to fit my body type. there was nothing like that for me. so i just started, like, wrapping fabrics and actually sewing on my kitchen table. >> reporter: the positive response to her designs gave her confidence and a business idea. in 2005, she opened a boutique in oak park, illinois. >> i just sort of jumped in and started. i sell women's clothing, accessories, my forte is generous clothing. >> takara fit women age 35 and up. >> i have a lot of women that come in and say, i just want to look special for my husband.

i'm great with color and getting people to be more adventurous and working with multiple fabrics. >> reporter: that spirit has led to success. takara opened up a shoe store in 2009. >> i started talking to customers about what their thoughts were of a shoe store here in downtown oak park. everyone thought it was a great idea and just done quite well. hey, maybe you think i'm being bold and let loose. i have a small business as great as hers. we would love to see your success story. take a video i-report and go to cnn.com/robin and uproad it with tips and if we like it, you could be next on "morning express." facebook die hards got their wish of having betty white host "saturday night live" and now they want more. more betty. [ female announcer ] breathe right asks... [ woman ] could i ask you to strip on the street?

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at la quinta inns and suites! with thousandsnew oms d lots of new lobbies they're even better than before! book rooms at lq.com right-o! wake up on the bright side at la quinta inns and suites la quinta! along with the controversy over the new ethnic studies bill, arizona is getting more flack for the tough immigration law. it allows police to check people's immigration status when they're stopped or arrested if they suspect they're here illegally. in response, the l.a. city council voted yesterday to stop doing business with arizona. correspondent richard liu, when's included here? >> we looked at this.

there are three parts of the resolution to be signed by the mayor. in it it says no l.a. city employees able to travel to arizona on official business unless there are, quote, special circumstances that in are in the city's interest. also in this, l.a. will not sign any new contracts with arizona companies. and it will review the $58 million it has in existing contracts with arizona to see which ones can be canceled. those are the three parts we found. >> okay. so richard, l.a.'s hispanic community really turned out in droves to thank the city council for the decision but not everyone is opposed to the law, right? >> i have interesting data for you. there's a new national poll from the pew research center and found a majority of citizens approves of the stance on immigration. six out of ten approve it. and some l.a. city council members said they got hate mail for the support of the boycott and didn't change their minds in the end.

>> i think there are times in the history of our nation when the popular opinion might have been against some of the things we have done but we know in the end they were the right things to do. >> she admits the city will not be able to cancel all of the contracts with arizona. l.a.'s airport brings in $22 million each year. gives you a sense of what's at stake right now. >> richard, thank you so much. it can be really frustrating being a sports fan sometimes, especially in some cities. we have a new list where the fans may be the most absolutely miserable. rafer weigel has that. >> it is creating quite a debate, natasha. "forbes" magazine top ten most miserable cities based on heart break. number one, seattle at the top. now, their basketball team did leave for oklahoma city and that's kevin durant is a super star there. that's got to hurt. the mariners and sea hawks never won a title. i don't know, atlanta at number

two? five teams have only one championship in 147 combined seasons. okay. but you won a world series in 1995. phoenix at number three? suns and cardinals have gotten close. never won it all. the baseball team won a title in 2001. buffalo is number four. no, they got to be higher. four times they have been to the super bowl and haven't won it. cleveland, they haven't won a championship since '64. number six. no city suffered more than cleveland. and they're rioting in canada. the canadiens continued their cinderella run with amazing upset of the penguins to get to the conference finals. amazing because they barely got to the playoffs, montreal did. this is not impressive. the game in pittsburgh. look at the fans in montreal treating the city like dirt. throwing bottles at cops. 25 people were arrested. i shudder to think what will happen if they win the stanley cup. hip hop met baseball in

detroit. mega stars jay-z and eminem stopped by. >> are they buddies? >> yes. the tigers were hosting the yankees and put the differences aside. eminem is big tigers' fan. jay-z, yankees fan and there to promote a dual concert to both play one at comerica park and one at yankee stadium. how will they share the stage? they're like, we'll work this out, somehow. they're big stars. >> love jay-z there. cool. thanks so much. first "saturday night live." now facebook fans want betty white to host the oscars. they started a petition and a facebook page with over 65,000 likes. die hard betty fans are saying, go betty, go. last weekend, white hosted nbc's "saturday night live" here at facebook-ers rallied for the appearance but oscar spokesperson said they will select the host, not facebook folks. we've learned that a wildfire in california is now

contained. it's been burning near homes in san bernardino county. look at this. 32 homes evacuated for a while and affiliate kabc says it came within 100 feet of brand-new homes. we haven't heard of injuries or damage yet. rescuers off the coast of california freed a whale tangled in ropes and 150 pounds of fishing net. look at the poor thing. the whale was named lily and biologists said she looked sick, old and ready to die. rescuers said swimming north is a good sign. before the oil spill, were there any warning signs? the oil companies and angry lawmakers disan i gree and pole dancing, it is not just for women anymore. why more men are getting into it. than many other allergy medications. hoo? omnaris. [ men ] omnaris -- to the nose! [ man ] did you know nasal symptoms like congestion can be caused by allergic inflammation? omnaris relieves your symptoms by fighting inflammation.

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the new york stock exchange just opened for business. looks like stocks could be pretty quiet today. investors are starting to worry less about the debt crisis in europe. we'll check in with jen on the markets in just a few minutes here. power. >> to the people. >> power. >> students in arizona are protesting a controversial new law. the governor has banned ethnic studies programs in public school that is promote resentment of other ethnic groups. the state's school superintendent said the classes segregate students by race but students say the classes are open to everyone. vice president joe biden says his son is doing better after a stroke and will probably

need to rest for another four weeks. bo biden went to the hospital on tuesday. doctors say he is expected to make a full recovery. the space shuttle is scheduled to blast off for one last time tomorrow afternoon. after that, there are only two more shuttle missions before nasa ends the program. the "atlantis" is bringing equipment and memorabilia from the 25 years in service. welcome back. natasha curry the boy who's the only survivor of a plane crash is doing better this morning. doctors in libya say that the dutch boy had surgery on the legs and resting. he was on board a plane that crashed right here while trying to land in tripoli yesterday. here's the mess from it. the crash killed 103 people. okay. we want to warn you. you may find the video for the next story disturbing. it shows a seattle police

officer yelling at a latino man and kicking him in the head. look at this. second officer stomps on the guy's leg. this happened last month. video sur surfaced on youtube last week. one officer made an emotional apology. >> i chose words as part of my conversations with that young man that were offensive and unprofessional. my comments that night do not reflect who i am or what i am. as a person nor as a member of the seattle police department. >> the man was released once police realized that he wasn't the suspect they were looking for. and now the fbi's investigating whether the incident was a hate crime. the two officers are on administrative leave during this investigation. a 18-year-old in san diego has a brand-new kidney thanks to a complete stranger and his life wasn't the only one saved in

this all. mary beth bobbit came from pittsburgh to donate the kidney. ben street was waiting a year to get one. they had an emotional meeting after the surgery. >> it's full circle, i guess, you know. it's just a generosity that people have, you know, to not know someone yet to give so much to someone. >> she said, really not supposed to tell you this but your recipient is a 18-year-old. and that just -- that was the best. >> now listen to this. the teen's mother donated one of her kidneys to bobich's sister-in-law and all four surgeries happened at the same time. wow. get this. listen up here. guys are adding pole dancing to their workout routine. check it out. an i didn't mean in south beach, florida, is offering classes here. watch out for that. trainers say women made it look easy but this is a tough

workout. >> pole takes a ton of core strength and upper body strength, and also leg strength because you're gripping the pole with your legs, your arms. >> it turned out to be a little bit harder and then i was sore, my arms and legs. >> watch out for pole burn, huh? oh. he fell. the teachers say it takes a couple classes, you know, before the guys start to catch on. watch out. yeah. the ladies got to dance. the guys are learning. what do you think, bob? kind of scared to ask. >> what do you think i think? >> i think you might need a cup for that. >> no way in heck to find me doing that. you can't squeeze a pole like that. >> that's dangerous. that's an accident waiting to happen. >> holy cow. fell right on his back and a reason why. anyway, let me show you what's going on. we have a tornado warning for the mansfield area of illinois into norwood. living here, it is a purple box. tail end of the thunderstorm complex as it rolls to the east at about 60 miles per hour. orange box, severe thunderstorm warning.

not a lot of lightning with this. just a lot of wind and rain and a tornado warning for next 11 minutes. that's what you're looking at right now. rain showers, thunderstorms around chicago. a batch away. another one this morning. that rain is now getting into northern parts of michigan out of detroit and then wrapping back around to wisconsin, parts of minnesota, too. look at the steady stream of rain. it is heavy at times, inch and a half to two inches per hour. flood warnings, this is what it looks like. the regions around here, chicago flood warning down to kansas city. and shortly st. louis, you get the rough weather, too. severe thunderstorms are a possibility. especially in spots where we put in red. speaking of severe weather, monday, that big tornado outbreak day. look at this i-report out of norman, oklahoma. perfectly-shaped funnel cloud. the tornado touching the ground. unbelievable shots right there. so that was the worst weather on monday. when's the best weather in the country today? go with charlotte, north carolina. how about 88 degrees?

right now, it's 73, light winds, lots of sunshine. feeling almost like july. i'd say. you have got the best weather in the country, charlotte. my old stomping ground. kind of miss it, especially this time of year. >> glad you're here in atlanta. stay with us here, bob. >> absolutely. >> thanks so much. all right. turning now to wall street. you ready? where investors are turning their attention away from the financial troubles in europe to the economy here at home. jennifer westhoven is here with the market watch. >> thank you, natasha. the dow is at this point pretty much where it was before that whole flash crash fiasco. that's a good sign. lower in the early going. dow off 60 points. there's the dow, 10,830. gold also down a little bit from yesterday's record. one thing happening this morning, one hot stock, apple. bloomberg is reporting that walmart says it may start to sell the ipad in some of the stores this year.

that's interesting. stocks did start to look weaker after the jobs report this morning. claims did tick down slightly for the week. that's a good sign that the number of people going in not quite as many as in the latest week but persistently high number there and why you see stocks down a little bit. now, not having a job has become the frustrating new normal for millions of americans. well, one man jeff baker decided it was time for people like him to get a voice for the 15 million out of work americans he created a group in buffalo, new york. here's their name. >> together. young and old. >> we can be heard. >> it's simple. just say it. >> i need a freaking job. >> hey. i need a freaking job. >> i need a freaking job. >> i guess it wasn't filmed up in the northeast then. >> that is the name of the group. you know, they're -- they have a

bi bi billboard there in buffalo. my mother would not approve of the name of that group. >> that's funny. i love it. all right, jen, thanks so much. okay. so it's easy to find out what's in your food or your drinks but the ingredients in the cologne are a mystery. that could be making you sick. plus, a man who was driving and drinking called 911 on himself. wait until you hear why he says he did it. ale announcer ] the offer letter. if you're going to college, or back to college, that's your bullseye. it is for devry university students. in fact, each year thousands of our graduates find themselves right where they want to be -- employed in their field of study. and all those offer letters up there? that's just from last year. devry university. discover education working at devry.edu. too these cheap props aren't

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here comes your chance to win a trip to sonoma and the nascar race. here's brad keslowski with your word of the day. go. >> this is brad keselowski,

nascar driver. the word of the day is drafting. >> drafting is when two or more cars run nose to tail almost touching while racing. so here's what you have got to do. go to cnn.com/robin. type in drafting and then entered to win the daily prize of a morning express with robin meade robe and a signed pic and grand prize of a trip for two to sonoma for the race in june. pretty cool. this just in. several people hurt in a train derailment in north carolina. you are seeing pictures of this. amtrak said the piedmont went off the track an hour ago. you see firefighters spraying foam on it. it had 36 passengers on board. one coach car caught fire in the accident. so this is the response because of that. and around seven people reported minor injuries so we'll stay on this for you. keep it here for that. if you are going to be a chauffeur for your kids 24/7 you might as well be happy with the car you're driving. right?

there's a new list out of the top family cars. richard, that's one of the stories you are working on, right? >> yeah. coming up in 20 minutes, natasha, based on gas mileage, safety and even the cool factor. not air conditioning here. some family cars have a cool factor. i bet you didn't know that. we'll have the complete list coming up. and then this. makes me wonder why i spend so much time studying in college. i didn't study that much. a dream job, a man that paid to play video games. >> what? >> that's right. gets the cash to play the video games. >> love it. should be interesting. thanks so much. hey, your perfume or cologne might be made with chemicals that could make you sick and the maker doesn't have to warn you about it. they looked at 17 popular perfumes and found an average of 14 chemicals that can cause reactions. the chief scientist for a perfume group says that the chemicals are sensitive at only very high doses. hey, hollywood stars are in

france for the cannes film festival but not as many as in years past. the cast of "robin hood" hit the red carpet. the 12-day film extravaganza is paired down this year. 19 movies are in the competition. and emerging filmmakers of asia, eastern europe and elsewhere dominate the field. is your bank making the grade? well, if it isn't, hln money expert clark howard has a way for you to find a new one that you're satisfied with. >> are you happy with your bank? well, it turns out according to a survey by jd power most of us can't stand the bank we're with. in fact, a very small percent of people say they're not planning to change banks in 2010. two out of three is the number that said they're going to change. banking, that is a gigantic number because people look at changing banks or going from a

bank to a credit union as a hassle and a half. but it turns out that being with a bank you're with might be a lot more than a hassle and a half. so if you're thinking of changing, jd power's survey shows you which banks are doing a good job and which ones are doing a lousy job. overwhelmingly, the ones getting the lowest ratings around the country are the very largest banks in the country. that is no surprise to me. so as you look for a new place to bank, look at that credit union, look at small, local community banks. you want to see the list of which banks jd power rated high and low? go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> and clark will teach you how to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him noon eastern saturday and sunday right here on hln. right now, it is messy with the forecast today. just the weather is something else. bob, what's the latest on air travel? affecting things right now?

>> yeah. o'hare two-hour delay for arriving flights for the entire day. heavy rain, low clouds and rain back for you, as well. detroit, you have a half hour to 45-minute delay, as well. because of the rain and thunderstorms. that's there, too. calling for chicago number one. hour or more. detroit, also. cleveland, you get the rain later this afternoon. st. louis, you'll get it again later this morning into early afternoon. half hour to hour-long delays possible. >> bob, thank you very much. tiger woods, he's going back to rehab but it is not what you think. folks, he wants a massage. hey -- who's our best presentation guy? carl. i thought you said carl was our best presentation guy. [ worker ] well, he is. last week he told my team about fedex office print online for our presentations. we upload it to fedex office, then they print, bind, and ship it. the presentation looks good, right? yes, but -- you didn't actually bring carl with you. good morning! but i digress. [ male announcer ] we understand. you need presentations done right. and right now save 20% on all online printing purchases.

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welcome to progressive. nice calculator. i'm just trying to save money on my car insurance. you know, with progressive, you get the option to name your price. is that even possible? uh, absolutely. trade? and i still get great service? more like super great. oh, you have a message. "hello." calculator humor. i'll be here all week. i will -- that was my schedule. the freedom to name your price. now, that's progressive. call or click today. breaking news right now. we have an update on the investigation of the times square car bombing attempt. a law enforcement source says that search warrants were executed in boston, new york and new jersey. the fbi says two people are in custody right now but only for possible immigration violations.

not because they're believed to pose a threat. now, a pakistani-born american faisal shahzad is charged in the attack. investigators are trying to figure out if anyone else was involved. a lot of you are commenting about our top story today on arizona banning ethnic studies programs in public schools. here's what you are saying. kenneth says, i think we need more unification and less diversification. kimberly made her voice heard on facebook saying, i love what arizona is doing with their new immigration laws. more states need to follow. tell us what you think at cnn.com/robin. now, get this. the wing tips of two jets collided on the tarmac at a tennessee airport here. both planes were full of passengers. no one was hurt, though. some passengers said that they didn't even realize that the planes had hit each other. the alley janet air jet was damaged bumping a united express jet. neither plane flew after the accident but amazing that people didn't even know it happened.

all right. tiger woods says he is going to need rehab. for his neck. rafer weigel has that for you. >> he dropped out of a recent injury because of the neck injury and everybody thought it must be very, very serious. tiger woods won the u.s. open on a broken leg two years ago. the neck must be really bad. an mri revealed there was no major damage. now, tiger says he is just going to need soft tissue massages, medication and rest. and then he'll come back when he's physically ready. s when that? he didn't say. next major tournament is the u.s. open in june. that may be the only time to see him. a state trooper who was with ben roethlisberger the night he was accused of sexual assault is fighting for the part time job as ben's bodyguard. he was told he can't moonlight for him. they kept joyner on the force and file grieve vance.

i say keep well enough alone. after testing positive for a banned substance, houston line backer cushing will keep the rookie of the year award. the positive test was viewed so serious by the nfl award after test. it could cost him $2.5 million. the ap thought it was serious, but the writers didn't feel the same way. some changed their vote, but not enough. they said they didn't want to set a precedent. i say congrats to the sports writers because you just told millions of kids it's okay to cheat and nothing will happen. >> it was four days. ben roethlisberger was suspended four, too. >> four games, exactly. our true champions are the tennessee titans who rolled up their sleeves to personally help victims of the flooding in nashville. look at these guys going to work here. a busload of players gutted homes. a lot of them were shocked to see how badly damaged the homes were and the residents say they

were grateful for the help. >> they can get it done quickly with all that muscle. >> look at them! >> they have been through so much. thank you. everybody cooped newspaper a hospital for months. some young survivors of the earthquake in haiti are getting a chance to just be kids again. miami children's hospital foundation sent 17 children on an all expenses paid trip to universal studios in orlando. look at the smiles. the hospital says they lifted their spirits and put smiles on their faces. down to the final three on "american idol." find out who went home. plus, a woman said she sees something special in this door. okay. do you see it? ♪ ♪ go ahead, get started ♪ this'll never last ♪ not with the wind in your hair like that ♪ ♪ no, no, 'cause i could never see how someone ♪ ♪ as soft and sweet as you could ever be with me ♪

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