[ cheers and applause ] this morning on "early today" day of reckoning. news corp. chief rupert murdoch prepares to be grilled in england's phone hacking scandal. swept away. tragedy strikes a family of five at a popular picnic spot in india. and howling haboob. a giant wall of dust rolls through phoenix for a second a giant wall of dust rolls through phoenix for a second time in nearly two weeks. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello, and good morning. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with london calling.

news corp. chief rupert murdoch and his son along with former chief executive rebekah brooks will face tough questioning this morning before lawmakers. just hours from now, this is the development in the growing phone hacking scandal that seems to be changing by the hour. nbc's jim maceda is live for us in london right outside parliament with all the details. jim, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. well, all eyes will be on a that building behind me, the parliament, and a small room inside that parliament building just big enough for about 40 or so spectators, but there will be overflow rooms with lots of television screens. this is must-see tv today for all of britain and elsewhere. as one politician here put it, the three musketeers of the murdoch media empire and that phone hacking scandal will appear later today. now, they'll be grilled by ten members of a select committee on

culture, sport and media. it doesn't sound very threatening. these hearings will only last for an hour. for rupert and his son james murdoch and another hour for rebekah brooks, who was the chief executive of murdoch's british holdings until she resigned last week. for the second hour. now, members of parliament will try to get the murdochs and brooks to commit themselves to say things on record that could be used against them later. what brooks and the murdochs, on the other hand, will do, is to be contrite. that's the new buzz word, apologize, apologize, apologize. there are biographers and media experts saying this could only hurt them today, this hearing will not help murdoch nor brooks nor the murdoch empire. lynn, back to you.

>> jim maceda in london for us. jim, thanks so much. well, back here at home on capitol hill the back and forth battle over the nation's budget crisis will reach the house floor today when republicans vote on a plan calling for steep spending cuts in return for raising the debt ceiling. well, democrats say the measure will never pass the senate, and president obama has vowed to veto the bill. still, the president is saying he is seeing progress. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. republicans are calling this bill cut, cap and balance. essentially they want to cut the deficit, cap what the federal government is spending and then move toward a balanced budget amendment. an amendment to the constitution. democrats say those cuts hurt too heavily medicare and social security. it is expected to pass the house, not expected to pass the senate. will not get the president's signature. so that, democrats are saying is dead in the water there are a couple of republican plans on the table, including oklahoma's tom coburn, who is suggesting

cutting $9 trillion from the deficit over the next decade, almost four times as much as democrats and republicans have been negotiating. he would also raise taxes, something that his party is against. mitch mcconnell has a different idea, he says let's let president obama deal with this debt ceiling himself and force democrats to go along. lynn? >> tracie potts in washington. well, now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. ammonia vapors from a leak in nebraska sent fire crews scrambling yesterday. hazmat and emergency response teams quickly suited up to neutralize the hazardous chemical and keep it from harming locals. authorities believe the leak stems from a faulty release valve on a storage caning. a veterinarian's life-saving heroics were caught on camera when a bald eagle under anesthesia stopped breathing. the vet treated the bird, leapt

into action, giving the animal mouth-to-beak resuscitation until it could breathe on its own. despite the successful resuscitation, the vet says it has a long road to recovery. in colorado, a horse's owners gave them a rude awakening when she fell through a well window into their basement. it took hours for rescue crews to figure out an exit plan for the horse. they finally dug a hole to pull the sedated horse from the basement safely. and finally, in arizona it looks like a scene from the movie, but this was no movie magic. for a second time in a month a massive dust storm called a haboob, as we learned from bill, swept across the phoenix area with the 3,000 foot high wall of dust turning the sky brown. delaying flights and creating dangerous driving situations for folks there. well, now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill

karins with the weather channel forecast. bill, good morning to you. >> good morning, i know the last one was historic. this one was messy. >> it still looked pretty bad. >> it just covered everything with dirt. it didn't knock power out or everything. 40-mile-per-hour winds through phoenix. a lot of people trying to get the dirt out of their pool and off their cars this morning. the big weather story around the nation is the heat wave. right now we have 20 different states either under a heat warning or heat advisory. most of it is in the midwest, especially the northern plains, it will be heading to the east coast eventually. we still remain rather cool in areas of the northwest. but we have warmed up significantly, phoenix at 112, the heat in the deserts and through the intermountain west. even in california, temperatures are on their way up. but with the temperature dip and the upper-level low still lingering, we'll still be cool with showers in oregon and washington state. the green on the map is light

showers around bend and now the showers are heading up to the mountains. light showers on interstate 5 between medford and eugene. not a lot of wet weather, but it's kind of cool and cloudy. temperatures today, they'll be lucky in medford to get up to 83. we're still warm today, phoenix and vegas. l.a. is more like it, a nice day, 82 and in upper 60s to low 70s in most areas. >> we're going to see a weather pattern shift over the next couple of days. i think we're going to see it warm up in the west, finally. >> bill, thanks so much. >> gold shines, stocks stumble and how to get a $300,000 home for just $16, your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, imagine how you would

react if you caught a movie at your local theater and found these two sitting next to you? coming up, a bizarre goal, women's soccer sets a new record. and if you can't stand the heat, don't go golfing. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here's some of your top headlines this morning. u.s. astronauts have bid a final farewell to colleagues aboard the international space station. "atlantis" separated from the station this morning and is scheduled to return to earth on thursday, marking the end of nasa's shuttle program. a rare meeting was held between u.s. officials and representatives of libyan leader muammar qadhafi at an undisclosed location this past weekend. according to the state department, diplomats delivered a simple message that qadhafi must step down. beginning next month philadelphia will begin handing

out $120 tickets to pedestrians who walk and text without watching where they're going. it's part of the program that targets bad behavior by people in cars, on bikes, and on foot. some disturbing pictures here as a picnic turned tragic for a family of five in india when a flash flood swept them over a waterfall. this is amateur video, showing the family members clinging to a rock before being overcome by the torrent. three were found dead, and two remain missing. and beachgoers in northeastern china were greeted by a sea of green as a blanket of algae washed up along the coastline. while it is harmless to swimmers, it is known to consume large quantity of oxygen and

choke marine life. >> now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,385 after falling 94 points yesterday. the s&p dipped ten points. the nasdaq sank 24. taking a look at overseas trading this morning. in tokyo the nikkei stumbled to an 84-point loss, while in hong kong the hang seng added 97. with five days to go before the debt ceiling deadline and no agreement, stocks fell monday and wall street's so-called fear index spiked almost 8%. gold rose for a tenth straight day hitting another record at over $1,600 an ounce for the first time. also, casting fear over financials. wall street's assessment of banks' stress test in europe, which were found to be rose-colored and unrealistic. bank of america hit another new 52-week low. down almost 3%. citigroup lost almost 2%.

allstate dropped 5% after the president of its struggling home and auto unit announced an immediate departure with no explanation. as troubles deepened for rupert murdoch's news corp., it's down now 15% for the month. netflix, which recent ly jacked up rates, fell on an analyst downgrade over expectation that is are too high. in earnings halliburton edged up pennies a share after reporting a 54% jump in profits. sales of transformers action figures lifted hasbro's earnings, but not enough to beat estimates. the stocks sank almost 5%. after the bell ibm posted an 8% jump in year-to-year quarterly profits. cisco is laying off 6,500 workers to lower expenses. by $1 billion. thanks to a little known law, a texas man is in possession of a $300,000 house after paying just a $16 fee.

the owner walked away from the foreclosed home. the bank holding the mortgage went bust, and in three years the man can petition the court for outright ownership. well, the yankees come back. the red sox rally late, and america's world cup women set a record off the field. plus, speaking of soccer, we'll show you the rarest of goal scoring styles. your "early morning" sports headlines are straight ahead. the historic heat wave continues, and if you are lucky, you'll get a downpour this afternoon. your forecast coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if are you just waking up, this is "early today." last night divisional rivals, new york and tampa bay, had added in a back-and-forth seesaw battle. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. a night after playing a 16 inning marathon with the red sox, the rays went down to the wire against the yankees. no rest for the weary. rays just out to an early lead. evan longoria out to an early pair. tampa led 3-1 after one. they couldn't hold on. yank would tie it, and then in the ninth alex torres walked in the go-ahead run. yanks beat the rays 5-4. red sox scored just one run in the six-hour game with tampa

and exploded for eight in the eighth last night against the orioles. fresh off the dl, carl crawford made an immediate impact. picked up an rbi and a couple runs scored. red sox may be running on empty, but they had plenty in the tank to beat the os 15-10. now cubs and phillies. halliday's first start didn't go so well. ramirez gave chicago an early lead with a solo shot to left. not only did the cubs get to halliday, but so did the heat. hall day couldn't finish the fifth and left the game with heat exhaustion. cubs won it 6-1. the nationals brian zimmerman tied in the seventh with a home run and gave washington the lead in the ninth with an rbi single. all the day's work for zimmerman and the nats rally to win it 5-2. u.s. soccer team captured the hearts of a nation. don't believe me? check out twitter. the social networking site had a record 7,200 world cup related tweets per second during the final against japan. that eclipsed the old mark set during the royal wedding and the death of osama bin laden. the women lost the world cup on penalty kicks.

many things would be different if they tried this. a player from the united arab emirates scored by kicking the ball with his heel. he ran up and beat the goalie with a backwards boot. never seen that before. by the looks of it, neither had the goalie. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. >> early today sports is brought to you by touch of gray, get rid of some gray, never all. are fathers as brave as mothers in the delivery room? your entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, if you ever felt tight, crowded, and just want to get away from it all. you're not going to want to miss the story we have coming up. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this tuesday morning, showers are rolling through some of the mountainous areas and heading up into oregon state and also into the coastal areas near washington. just a few showers, nothing that's going to cause you any problems today. san francisco, looks all right. warmer in l.a. and especially interior california, definitely warmer. tomorrow we'll get you to 85 rks it's like a big deal this summer. if you are watching us on see how artists express their views on outculture through areas artistic style at urban art. that's your pacific event of the

day. now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. for old pro betty white, business is going to have to come before pleasure. white says she is flattered and appreciates the offer, but she can't go on a date to the ball because at that time she'll be shooting her tv show. lions gate confirms it's closed a deal with charlie sheen to star in "anger management" a sitcom loosely based on the 2003 adam sandler, jack nicholson movie. sheen has a significant ownership stake in the show. however, no network has signed up yet. giving birth recently to her son, flynn, miranda kerr wanted a natural childbirth. with no drugs. when asked on australian tv if she ever wavered, she said looking over in pain at husband orlando bloom, he is the one that shouted give me the epidural. finally, newlyweds prince william and the duchess of cambridge apparently meant it

when they say they want to live normal lives. people.com reports last weekend they went to a regular public multiplex theater in wales to see "bridesmaids" and apparently twitter was all abuzz. and have some jujubees. and this comes to us from beauford, wyoming, where one man has turned the nation's smallest town into a big-time tourist attraction. in the tiny wyoming town it's don's way or the highway. literally. he is the sole resident of buford, a town that sits just off interstate 80. thousands have made a pit stop with a population of just one and they quickly learned don wears many hats. you can tune in to this morning's "today show" to get a closer look at what life is like for the resident who runs the town. everything about the town. >> i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

one man in australia is walking to a city far, far away to offer a new hope to kids in need. dressed as a storm trooper, the force is with this man who plans to walk over 2,500 miles by december to raise money for a children's charity. he needs to cover about 24 miles a day to reach his goal. in addition to the heavy suit, he pushes a cart with food and supplies for the trip. public transportation can be a drag. that is, unless you hitch a ride with this guy. to create a more comfortable environment for commuters, a bus driver in china dressed up his ride. he decorated everything from the dashboard to his handrails to offer passengers a place to relax and unwind.

the tricked out ride won't cost you any extra. the driver paid out of his own pocket. ladies, how do hundreds of shoes for the price of one sound? great, right? that's the idea behind one design student's modular shoe in israel. with 16 different components, when mixed together you get 256 variations. from high heels to everyday flats. her collection is eco friendly and is even a website for customers to virtually try out different combinations. the trick is i don't know how good they would actually look with something. >> they weren't walking in them. >> exactly. >> but they look kind of cool. creativity. >> lady gaga would be into it in a second. >> it's time for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. former dog fighter and nfl quarterback michael vick joins the humane society of the u.s. in a news conference to support legislation that will penalize those who finance or bring children to dog fights and cock fights.

tornadoes and storms took a heavy toll this spring, and today members of a senate subcommittee examine the response and recovery efforts across all levels of government. and the center for science and the public interest announces the winners of the 2011 xtreme eating awards. dubious honors which are meant to call attention to chain restaurants' culinary extremism. all day long can you stay on top of the latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news". finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. members of the u.s. women's soccer team tell ann about their roller coaster journey, and they're about to enter their eighth and final season. the cast of "entourage" on hbo is live in studio. now keep it here for news, weather, sports, and more. i'm lynn berry.

thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day on your nbc station. today," just your first stop of the day on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com