14 making news in america this morning. twisters tear through massachusetts. rivers crest in the plains. residents keep fighting the relentless rising water. and two gop superstars on a collision course, so to speak. sarah palin's bus tour plans to overshadow the big announcement by mitt romney. good morning. the latest burst of violent weather hit western massachusetts, killing at least four people. >> lately, we've seen tornadoes barreling across the open plains. here, it rampaged through a busy city, spilling debris and

pulling water off the missouri river. we begin, now, with john hendren. >> reporter: it's asight. sight. far north of tornado alley, several deadly twisters swirled through massachusetts, a state that hasn't seen one since 200. >> this is historic. this is the first tornado that we ever had. >> reporter: several are dead. others, left stuck in their cars, trapped by downed power lines. >> the house is totally flattened. we ran down to the basement. and everything was shaking. >> reporter: tens of thousands were left without electricity. >> there's trees down everywhere. parts of roofs are even ripped off parts of buildings are down. >> reporter: massachusetts gets an average of two tornadoes a year.lethal twister was in 1995. >> last week, they said it was the end of the world. it didn't come last week. but it now. >> reporter: one sheered off

roofs in the town of monson. this is what's left of town hall. >> i went down into the cellar and just prayed. >> reporter: photos from the backyard and from the highway, as the twister pushed east. john hendren, abc news. >> senator john kerry called the springfield twister a 100-year event. he'll be touring the damage today. and sharyn alfonsi rushed to the region and took a late-night drive to show us the damage. >> reporter: just to give you an idea of what the tornado did, this is concrete cinder blocks. this is an auto body shop, but as you can see there's not a lot left it. the amazing thing is, there were people inside when the tornado struck. they said it was coming through town. they took cover. everybody inside okay. we can see all kinds of downed trees. we saw apartment buildings with the sides literally ripped off. the couch and the coffee table were still in perfect place. it's quite a scene.

and right now, the real focus is getting energy vehicles through the towns to do any search and rescue to get an idea of just exactly how big the tornado was. all you can hear are alarms going off. alarms going off. and people walking down the streets asking, are you okay? is everybody okay? >> our thanks to sharyn alfonsi. 14 another region not used to such weather, northern california. four twisters were reported yesterday, including this one that touched down in a rural area about 50 miles north of sacramento. there was no damage. that same area was hit by three tornadoes just last week. turning from tornadoes to flooding. thousands of people have left their homes in the dakotas this morning, as rivers in both states rise to dangerous levels. clayton sandell reports from the north dakota flood zone. >> reporter: near minot, north dakota, they're waging war against an old enemy. in 1 mabd, residents of about 20

flood-soaked houses used boats to collectbelongings. belonging. workers frantically fortified levees against the river, still rising. the mayor has ordered about 10,000 people to evacuate, one-quarter of the city's population. neighborhoods have become ghost towns. at this nursing home, elderly residents had to be evacuated. >> bye, neil. >> see you when you get back. >> reporter: in nebraska, iowa and south dakota, they're fighting the swollen missouri river. residents of dakota dunes are getting help from helicopters. and prison inmates. clayton sandell, abc news, minot, north dakota. as the waters rise, "good morning america" is there. we'll have live updates from the plains. a leading republican says he's ready to negotiate face-to-face with president obama over the debt crisis. house speaker john boehner made the offer after a less-than-productive meeting at the white house. a lawmaker from georgia summed

it up. >> frosty is the word. >> i'm a psychologist. let me say, it was good for them emotionally to talk. it's good group therapy. >> all right. well, the president should get a warmer reception when he meets with the democrats on the budget crisis. 14 the sarah p has tour has rolled into new england. and so, it's on a collision course with mitt romney. palin is planning a clam bake tonight on the new jersey seacoast. that is just hours after mitt romney makes his run official at a barbecue also in new hampshire. he becomes the sixth declared presidential candidate. and the japanese could have a new leader. the prime minister says he will consider resigning. he has been criticized for his lack of leadership after the earthquake and tsunami there. among the critics, the u.n., saying japan didn't do enough to prevent their reactors from the tsunami. and that lost plant has caused a power crisis. it's so severe, the

normally-buttoned-up japanese workers are going business casual. they're calling for a 15% cut in thunderstorm stat usage. >> all right. taking a look at this morning's weather, now, from around the nation. we have 70-mile-per-hour winds, hail and isolated tornadoes around atlanta, the carolinas, birmingham and knoxville. rain in the pacific northwest. several more inches of mountain snow in the cascades, northern rockies and sierra, nevada. and record heat from nevada to south carolina. a much cooler 78 here in new york. and 76 in boston. indianapolis climbs to 83. omaha, 87. 69 in sacramento. and 95 in albuquerque. and coming up, how overseas markets are reacting to the dow's worst day in a full year. and e-mail accounts of top u.s. government officials hacked. is another nation behind it?

we'll update our top story this morning. destruction by rare tornados in new england.

fears that the economic recovery is stalling are hurting the markets. the dow jones industrial average dropped 80 points yesterday, more than 2%. that was the biggest point drop in a year and worst percentage drop in ten months. the nasdaq lost 66 points. traders expect a gloomy jobs report friday, following bad news on housing earlier this week.

and all that bad news is also depressing overseas markets. tokyo's nikkei average lost more thhong kong'nts today. hong kong's hang seng is down more than 300. and in london, the ftse opened lower. google is blaming hackers in china for attacks on gmail. the online giant said the accounts of several hundred people were broken into, including those of some top u.s. officials and military personnel. google says the hackers phished for passwords. the fbi and homeland security are now looking into the attacks. u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner is going to get an earful from europe's top banking regulator. michel barnier says the obama administration too lax and shouldn't be allowing the huge bonuses for bankers. he also wants to make banking rules here and in europe harder to skirt regulations. summer is usually a good time to buy a car. but not this year. buyers have been snapping up fuel-efficient models. and japanese vehicles are in

short supply after the earthquake. so, there aren't too many incentives going on. things should be back to normal by the fall. it also looks like someone in new york is waking up as the country's new multimillionaire. one winning powerball ticket was sold. the jackpot, $200 million. was that you? you have to let me know if it was. >> it wasn't me. >> bummer. when we come back, a pro baseball team's plane makes an emergency landing. plus, tarnished image. what republican darling governor chris christie did to ignite new criticism. after sex assaults on some housekeepers, some posh hotels take extreme, new measures. through the body. thats my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia -- thought to be the result of overactive nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i learned lyrica can provide

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after their homes were destroyed. it's the first fatal twister in massachusetts in 16 years. now, for a look at morning road conditions. wet on i-20, from birmingham to columbia, south carolina. and on i-85 from atlanta to charlotte. rain drenches i-94, from bismarck to madison. and on 90 in minnesota and the dakotas. also wet on i-5, from seattle to portland. icy spots on i-80, 84 and 90 in the northern rockies. >> and if you're headed to the airport today, you could expect delays in atlanta, minneapolis and charlotte. well, the twitter scandal surrounding new york congressman anthony weiner doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. >> oh, dear. so far, weiner's failure to explain how lewd photos were sent from his twitter account are leaving us with more questions than answers. jonathan karl sat down with the congressman. >> reporter: tweeted from the account of one of congress' brightest democratic stars. and directed to the twitter name of this 20-year-old college student. but it was the congressman's response that created the

firestorm. >> answer the question. was it from you or not? >> sir, permit me -- do you want me to finish my answer? that will be reasonable. you do the questions. and i do the answers. and this guy interrupts me. >> reporter: at the end of that disastrous press conference, he insisted he wasn't going to talk about it anymore. but with a growing media circus outside of his office, congressman weiner, a little calmer, decided to talk some more. this whole thing would go away if you answer a couple of basic questions, right? did you send the tweet? is that a photograph of you? and why not call for an investigation? >> the answer is, i did not send that tweet. my system was hacked. i was pranked. it was a fairly common one. people make fun of my name all the time. the name, weiner, you kind of get that. >> reporter: is that a photograph of you? >> we're trying to find out where that photograph came from. and whether it was manipulated. whether part of it may have been part of something that was in my account.

>> reporter: you can't tell me definitively whether that's a photo of you or not a photo of you? >> i'm reluctant to say to you definitively anything about this. let's try to figure out who, how, how this prank went down. >> reporter: weiner hasn't reported it to law enforcement. >> it was a hoax. it was someone sending a picture of a wiener on weiner's account. it's one of the jokes i've been getting since i was 5 years old. this was a gag. this was a joke that someone committed on me to try to distract me. do we really want to have the taxpayers pay for a big investigation of that? i think not. let's let the chips fall where they may. i'm prepared to. >> reporter: wherever the chips fall, weiner hopes now he's done talking about it, for real. i'm jonathan karl in washington. new jersey's republican governor, chris christie, will have his say about a controversy how he went to his son's high school baseball game. christie flew to the game in a state helicopter. that has democrats calls christie a hypocrite because of the spending cuts he has called for. operating a helicopter costs $2,500 per hour. so far, christie is refusing calls to

reimburse taxpayers. a couple of posh, new york hotels at the center of two high-profile sex assault cases are promising to buy panic buttons for their maids. the wireless devices will be handed out at the hotels where dominique strauss-kahn and a prominent businessman are accused of assaulting two housekeepers. it was a white-knuckle landing for a charter plane forced to make an emergency landing in los angeles last night. onboard, the entire angels baseball team. there was a problem with the plane's hydraulics. many players tweeted their thanks when they were safely on the ground. the nba is losing one of its most unique and colorful characters, now that shaquille o'neal says he's retiring. 15-t video yesterday announcing he is calling it quits. o'neal was part of four championship teams. in true shaq style, he didn't tell his recent team, the celtics, about his plans, before

going public. also, game two of the nba finals is tonight. the miami heat are one game up against the dallas mavericks. it's right here on abc, 9:00 p.m. eastern. as for hockey, we'll get the highlights, now, from espn news. >> cole wright here with your espn news update. time to drop the puck on the stanley cup final. canucks, bruins, north of the border. let's check it out. end of the first period, both teams get in a bit of a scrum. alexandre burrows, being held back by the ref, takes a chop at patrice bergeron's finger. both awarded with a powerplay to begin the second. that's never what you want to do. patrice says, hey, mark recchi. check out my digit. not looking good. second period, scoreless game. milan lucic. upended by dan hamhuis. take another look at that. that would shake things up. hamhuis with a nasty hit on

lucic. it would be hamhuis that would leave the game. he's a golden gloves boxer. that kid is tough. third period, the game is scoreless. christian ehrhoff, but a big-time save by thomas. let's take another look at that one. oreskovich all alone on the break-away. and thomas, where he needed to be when he needed to be there. that's how you make things happen. now, under 30 seconds to go. jannik hansen to rafi torres. game one. i got plenty of stuff on dvr. it's wednesday night. let's hit the road. start the bus. light the lamp. torres scores with 18 seconds to go. perfect spot, back of the hammock. canucks, they go on to win game one by a score of 1-0. that will do it for your espn news update. don't forget, for the latest on the sports scene, tune into "the highlight express." >> hometown boy. gets me a little excited about that. >> canadian over here. the canucks, there you go. you could say a nascar in

florida got off to a flying start. >> this was thanks to driver brian vickers, who is also into skydiving. he jumped into the track from 5,000 feet up. >> he planned to do the jump last year. but heart problems and other illnesses forced the delay. he doesn't mind danger. >> talk about making an entrance. not bad. up next, the nation's top spellers are getting smarter and younger. how would your 8-year-old do on the stage? pain for over 100 years.lieg and today, we're re-inventing aspirin for pain relief. with new extra-strength bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles so it enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief right to the site of your tough pain. ♪ in fact, it's clinically proven to relieve pain twice as fast. new bayer advanced aspirin. extra strength pain relief, twice as fast.

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and now, a look ahead at the stories we'll be watching this thursday. rescue crews will be combing through tornado debris for any more victims of two tornadoes, which touched down in western massachusetts. about 8,000 national guard troops will also be on patrol this morning. at least four people were killed. more residents in the dakotas will be evacuating their homes today. the missouri and other rivers are rising. officials fear flooding in some areas could last until next month. two republican heavyweights, sarah palin and mitt romney are in new hampshire today. palin is hosting a clam bake as part of her bus tour. romney is officially announcing he will run for president. president obama meets with top democrats over the growing debt. a meeting with republicans yesterday did little to resolve the stalemate. the california couple

convicted of kidnapping 11-year-old jaycee dugard will be sentenced today. phillip and nancy garrido are expected to get life sentences. can you feel the tension? it's mounting. the scripps national spelling bee got under way today. 41 spellers remain. this year's spellers include an 8-year-old and 11-year-old, back for the fourth time. you know what word is commonly misspelled. misspelled. two "ss." >> the pressure is very high. >> it's hard to look away. coming up later on "good morning america," the latest on the casey anthony trial. plus, teeth bleaching has become big business. how white is too white? a new warning for people that could be putting their health at risk. the full story later on "good morning america." for some of you, local news is next. >> and one guy who got his stolen computer back in his own hands.

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next, is the victim coming to court? the big question as they appear to hear their sentences in the imprisonment of jaycee dugard. >> and the damage the national weather service is focusing on yuba city this morning. >> and tracking storms on live doppler. that record rain is on its way for the weekend. >> frr and finally this morning, the candid camera that landed one man behind bars. >> it all started with a stolen laptop.

one that found its way back to the rightful owner with a little help from a high-tech crime stopper. kgo's jonathan bloom explains. >> reporter: when joshua kaufman tweeted this photo of an oakland police officer handing him back his laptop, it was the end of a cat and mouse game that went on for three months. oakland police say that laptops are sell doll returned. in fact, this case was initially filed away, too. until police had another look and realized it was different. >> this victim had all of this information, including photographs and had trianglated using the software where he believes the computer was. >> reporter: that's right, heing in front of thes one, of computer. they were taken by a security program called hidden, that tracks stolen laptops and sends back photos from the built-in camera. screen shots and even the

computer's location. the man who invented the program says he came up with the idea when his own computer disappeared. >> and the police were unable to help me. there was nothing they could do to recover it. and so, we sat down, me and colleagues and put our heads together. and came up with ideas. >> rep paired with st photos, paired with screen shots containing personal information, can quickly lead police to a suspect. and in oakland, it didn't take long to track down the 7-year-old, who police say he admitted he knew the laptop was stollen property. >> within two hours, we're able to locate and recover the suspect. >> reporter: he's a limo driver. and they lured him to meet them in his town car. he left in a squad car. fantastic is that, though? >> technology that helps you save your technology. that's what's making news in america this morning. >> stay with us for "good morning america."