making news in america this morning. >> there will be more homecomings like this once the president's afghan troops decision is put in effect. will it be enough to appease either side. thousands in one town forced to leave. a river is just inches from overtaking the city. police led on a high-speed chase by a 7-year-old still in his pajamas. good morning. there was a solemn reminder overnight of the human cost of the war in afghanistan. >> the bodies of four service members were returned home in a dignified transfer at dover air force base. they are the latest of more than

1,500 troops lost. >> hours from now the president is expected to announce he'll bring home 12,000 troops. >> john hendren has a preview of the speech. >> reporter: yes, indeed, peggy. a new poll finds most americans feel the war in afghanistan is not worth fighting. and that may be on president obama's mind when he makes his historic announcement tonight. it's the beginning of the end of the longest war in u.s. history. >> there are concerns among the american people who are tired of a decade of war. >eporter: tonight after 10 years in afghanistan president obama outlines his plan for a troop withdrawal, one that means more scenes like this. >> most amazing feeling in the world. you feel like rock stars. >> reporter: it's been a decade of human sacrifice, more than 12,000 wounded and on capitol hill the debate has been furious with some calling for a major

drawdown. >> i believe it is time for us to rebuild america, not afghanistan. >> reporter: others echoing some military leaders say too fashion too dangerous. >> i'm leased he went to afghanistan once. i would suggest that he consult with the people who know best that since 2009 when the surge began, we have had success on the ground in afghanistan. >> i did not see an improvement. i have deterioration. i saw a corrupt leadership and i saw nothing good coming of it. >> reporter: when president obama took office there were just 34,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan. there are now nearly 100,000. we will hear tonight that the end is in sight. the president plans to announce he will pull out 30,000 troops by the end of next year with about 5,000 due out sometime this summer and another 5,000 by next spring. daniel and peggy? >> greato see those.

john hendren, thank you. tune in t tight for live coverage of the president's speech beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern. the incoming defense secretary starts his job with a major vote of confidence. the senate on tuesday unanimo unanimously approved the nomination of leon panetta. he replaces robert gates who retires at the end of the month. >> more staffers quit newt gingrich's campaign. his top two fund-raising advisers have resigned amid word that the former housepeaker's campaign is over $1 million in debt. earlier, 16 top aides quit and learned he had a second line of credit with tiffany's, this time up to $1 million. talk of that marred the first case of his campaign. jon huntsman takes his new presidential campaign to south carolina and florida today and jumped in the race officially yesterday. promising to run a civil campaign and also kept his word on that by hardly criticizing president obama when announcing his run.

d tells our jonathan karl that he doesn't belilie voters will care about his religion. >> i don't think people see it through a religious prism but see any of the candidates and ask what are they going to do for the country? >> he is a former governor of utah and speaks chinese, also used to be president obama's ambassador to china. george stephanopoulos interviews him coming up on "good morning america." one final gop presidential candidate to mention, congresswoman michele bachmann. today she is announcing details of her launch set to take place next monday in iowa. a family of four from south florida was among the 44 victims of that russian plane crash. the father, a software engineer was traveling with his wife and two daughters when it went down in planes. all in duel/u.s. russian citizenships. bad weather conditions may have also contributed to the crash. mark kelly is ending his nasa career to be closer to his wife. wlieth on his facebook page he

said gabrielle is working hard every day. i want to be by her side. they plan to write a memoirerinn together covering everything from their courtship, careers and january assassination acement on giffords. thousands in minot, north dakota, face a 6:00 p.m. deadline to evacuate water and residents are being told to get out earlier because roads are ee riding. water is expected to reach the top of the city's levees within the next two days in the worst flooding to hit there in four decades. thunderstorms and 81-mile-an-hour winds disrupted travel in chicago last night. more than 300 flights canceled at o'hare airport and joe biden had trouble getting out of town. while the rough weather disrupted commuter train service four trains got stuck keeping passengers stranded for hours. thousands of homes and businesses lost power. the wildfires tearing through the southwest are expected to burn for as long as a month more. summer rains won't begin in

arizona for at least a few weeks. that means the potential of new fires before mother nature brings relief. rain in florida will reduce the threat there this week. >> we had such tough weather. taking a look at this day's weather from all the country crews battling fires face dry temperatures. severe weather moves into the ohio valley bringing the possibility of strong winds and even tornadoes. a rainy morning in new york city. >> temperatures across the northern plains are up to 15 degrees cooler than usual. fargo is just 60. seasonable in the northwest with seattle and portland in the 70s. dallas will climb to 97 with new orleans and miami in the low 90s. coming up, the search for eight alligators loose in florida. >> also, it could be a bombshell day in the casey anthony murder trial with a possible surprise witness. and that doughnut lover's cream, krispy kreme adding something to its menu that it's never served before.

>> getting hungry. aúaúaúaú

overseas markets are getting a boost after a big vote in greece. the greek prime minister survived a no confidence vote early in morning calling for major budget cuts in hoping of winning a big bailout package. without it its crisis could cause a global economic meltdown. tokyo's nikkei average gained 161 points today. hong kong's hang seng is higher. in london the ftse opened slightly lower.

on waltz the dow gained 109 and the nasdaq composite picked up 57. jpmorgan chase is paying more than $150 million to settle civil fraud charges. the company was accused of misleading buyers of complex mortgage investments just before the 2008 mortgage collapse. the settlement total is less than what they typically earn in one week. home sales have hit a low point for the year sinking nearly 4% last month. analysts say the depressed housing market is dragging down the entire economy. the number of first time buyers was especially low a bad sign for economic progress. new safety measures is making its way into ford vehicle, inflatable seat belts are already available no the ford explorer and adding it to the flex and two l lcoln vehicles. they look like re more padding a have more padding and inflate in a crash preventing neck and chest injuries. we're hearing that apple has a new iphone 5 coming out in

september. bloomberg reports that the phone will come with a new putterful chip already included in the ipad 2 so it can process more data more quickly. if you lovekrispy kreme doughnuts, you're in for a shock adding things like yogurt, oatmeal and fruit juice. it's known for selling delicious thugy fattening doughnuts and it's needed to keep sales growing. no word on expanding waistlines. >> i'll stick with the de nut. that's what i want. coming up next, new developments in the nfl talks. >> and then the new outdoor danger. ticks spreading a potentially deadly disease this summer. catch that kid. a 7-year-old leads police on a high-speed chase all the while in tears. at bayer, we've been relieving pain for over 100 years.

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plains states are still kleeing up from storms like these. dozens of tornadoes were reported on monday night and out of them came incredible survival stories. a pair of workers in nebraska saw a twister coming right at them and with seconds to spare they jumped into a hole benite a windmill. they said it was the longest 90 seconds of their lives. >> looking at morning road condition, i-95 from richmond to boston could be wet and wet on i-94 in the midwest and from san antonio to mobile. expect rain on i-40 from little rock to asheville, income. flying today, airport delays are possible in chicago, detroit, minneapolis, also memphis, also atlanta, new york city, philadelphia and d.c. there could be a major bombshell as the casey anthony trial today, prosecutors are bot looking into a tip about a possible new witness in the case. a woman named april wallen who lived in the same jail dorm with anthony for five days. her life story apparently

stounds a lot like anthony's defense but caylee accidentally sdrouned in her pool. they're going to ask what she shared with casey or other inmates. few nervous neighbors in citrus country after 17 gators escaped from a farm. most of them have been found but 8 are still on the loose. the farm's owner was cited for keeping wildlife in an unsafe condition and he's agreed to give up his gator license. >> sounds like a goodd idea. to michigan where a child's idea quickly turned into a very dangerous situation. the child, a 7-year-old boy, had to be stopped by police while driving a car. rebecca triltch hashe details. >> reporter: a few county drivers noticed something odd. >> i passed a 5-year-old, 6-year-old car flying down the road. >> i thought no way. it's probably somebody else. >> reporter: but the chief and deputy quickly learned the driver they were chasing could

barely see over the dashboard. he was 7 years old. >> i was in fear he would hit somebody or get hurt. >> reporter: along the country road there were close calls. >> he was traveling about 50 miles an hour in a 5 azone and he had driven off on the shoulder a couple of times. >> you can see the cloud of dust and that car is sliding when he's doing that. >> reporter: at one point the chief says the boy sped up. that's when they decided to try to slow him down by boxing him in. >> when i went past him, he was crying and i was just trying to get around him as fast as i could. >> reporter: the maneuver worked but the scary situation wasn't over just yet. >> the car lunged forward so my interaction with him shifted from trying to get him to unlock the door to get his foot back on the brake. >> reporter: he was in his pajamas this. is the explanation he gave. >> trying to get to my gad. >> 7 years old is pretty young to master an automobile and as you see from the video, you know, he's got a lot to learn about driving.

>> once again that was rebecca t triltsch. the department of services is now investigates. health experts are warning people in the northeast and midwest to be careful about tick bites. the black-legged deer tick is spreading a potentially fatal disease similar to malaria. when it comes to smoothing crow's feet perhaps botox is not best. a new study finds another brand of the botulism toxin was more effective. dermatologists and patients favored dysport over botox 67%% of the time. word is that representatives of the nfl and its players union are in a meeting for talks today and tomorrow. those discussions follow a big meeting of league owners in chicago yesterday. overall there is new optimism that the ongoing lockout could be nearing an end. training camps are scheduled to open in late july. venus williams takes centre

court for a second match. her little sister made an emotional appearance. details from espn news. >> good morning, i'm don bell with your espn news update.ith h at wimbledon. defending champion serena williams returning from a long layoff taking on aravane rezai. in the first round and take a look at the movements by serena. remember, she missed nearly a year with a foot injury and blood clots and she's moving pretty well. serena crosscourt forehand. later on in the first, serena up 3-2. approves the threat on the cross then volleys to the open court and wins the first set, 6-3. second set, rezai up 5-3. approaches the net, hits the forehand winner so she wins the second set, 6-3. third set serena, 5-1, match point serves, gets the big ace, wins the match 6-3, 6-3, 3-1 and

then she began to cry into a towel. to the bigs. nationals hosting the mariners. why are we showing you this? we have drama in the bottom of the ninth. nats down by 4. hairton jr. drives in jayson werth. two batters later, danny espinoza, hair ston and many then wilson raras, get up and get gone. a walkoff home run to left. the nationals win in dramatic fashion, 6-5 is your final score. that is your espn news update. i'm don bell. >> well, it was a record-setting night at the ballpark in arlington, texas, former president george w. bush among the 33,000 plus crowd all who donned sunglass at the same time setting a world record for

wearing sunglasses in the dark. i think there might be a song about that. this young penguin turned up on a beach in new zealand. >> the thing is he is likely to just have endured a 2,000-mile journey. scientists say he must have gotten disoriented and just kept swimming. >> for now they'll let nature take its course in hopes that the pepeion inwill swim back home. clearly his gps was malfunctioning. >> which can happen. i think they need to air-lift that penguin. up next the fashion icon who could be on the way to prison. also some star power today on capitol hill. attention for a good cause. [ female announcer ] you use the healing power of touch every day. ♪ now the healing power of touch just got more powerful. introducing precise from the makers of tylenol.

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deadline to leave their homes. it's a critical day in new york in the fight for gay marriage. a bill could come to a vote today in the state legislators as lawmakers look to adjourn the session. it is one vote away from passing. former dior designer john galliano goes on trial in paris charged with racially insulting people at a cafe there. fashion world and cost him his job. he faces six months in prison. and some star sightings on capitol hill today. actress mary tyler moore shares her battle with type 1 diabetes and actor kevin kline will testify along with kids from across the country who have the disease. coming up later on "good morning america," a government program spent millions of your tax dollars sending people to study highway signs. our brian ross exposed the story and now top officials put a stop to it. the details comingp on "gma." >> all right. for some of you, your local news is next. >> for everyone else, a presidential touch calming a very unhappy baby.

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next at abc7 news at 4:30 -- paying more to park. the vote that will cost everybody more to use the san jose city gar ravenlgs. plus, this man was allowed to fly. picture raising new questions about u.s. airways decision to remove a football player from a flight for refusing to pull up his pants. mike has a look at the forecast. >> let the cooling begin. still hot in some areas. i'll tell you how well, the first lady's beginning the second full day of her stay, and she's addressing some young women leaders in soweto in south africa.

well, yesterday, nelson mandela invited the first lady, mrs. obama, and her daughters to his home. >> that's right, and our dana hughes is covering the first lady's visit. >> reporter: first lady michelle obama kicked off her south africa tour with a visit to the foundation dedicated to man known as the father of the nation, nelson mandela, but the highlight of the day was an unannounced private meeting with him in his home in a suburb in johannesburg. it was the first time mrs. obama and her family met the global icon. in 2005 then senator obama met mandela in a washington, d.c. hotel. a candid cell phone photo of the meeting between what would become america's first black president and south africa's first black president still hangs in mandela's home office. it was a playful mrs. obama at a local community center where she and her daughters took part reading "the cat in the hat" to preschoolers. >> well, what should we do? well, what would you do if your mother asked you?

>> no, no, make that cat go away. tell the cat in the hat you do not want to play. >> reporter: showing her lighter side, the first lady and her family let the children lead them with song and had everyone dancing. dana hughes, abc news, johannesburg. >> you know, due to nelson mandela's ailing health, they weren't sure if the meeting would happen or not. it just sort of happened at the spur of the moment there. they were able to get together. >> i'm sure unforgettable. that picture is something the first daughters will never forget. >> it wasn't going so well here. >> and the president said, i'll take it. >> the baby stops crying. they're calling him the official baby whisperer. >> my favorite part is michelle's face and the president's face, i got this. >> she's just shocked. what? >> he has two daughters. does this frustrate you with the husband? >> he can come by any time to help me out. >> that's the news in america this morning. >> stay with us for "good morning america." have a wonderful wsd