this morning on "early today," open secrets. new details involving the secret service. straight shooter? ted nugent assails the obama administration at an nra convention. zblen sudden impact, horrifying momentss a car smashes into a florida grocery store. this is "early today" for wednesday, april 18th, 2012. hello and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation, including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with a growing sex scandal. u.s. government investigators are in columbia trying to piece together exactly what happened

there when as many as 20 alleged prostitutes were signed into the hotel rooms of president obama's secret service and advance military team. nbc's tracie potts has the latest for us from washington. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. they are looking in the backgrounds of the women, including interviewing them, making sure they had no ties with terror groups or foreign intelligence. we now know in addition to the 11 secret service agents involved, the military included soldiers, sailors and airmen. back here on capitol hill, lawmakers are concerned that maybe this isn't the first time it's happened because there were so many people involved. but others are reluctant to indict the agency overall until

the investigation is over. secret service director mark sullivan has been here on the hill. he'll be back this week to brief lawmakers, the white house spokesman says, the president has full confidence in director sullivan because he acted so quickly. lynn? >> tracie potts for us in washington. thanks so much. president obama says oil speculators are driving up the price of gasoline and he wants congress to approve a new plan to crack down on the practice. the president wants lawmakers to give more power to government regulators to stop price manipulation by oil market spekt laters. nbc's steve handelsman has more. >> reporter: it's an election year move by president obama. fuel prices are dropping a bit but still average close to $4. and republicans are still blaming the president. >> no matter how obama spins it, gas costs too much. >> reporter: the president in part blamed illegal pricing. >> speculators artificially

manipulate markets by buying up oil, creating the perception of a shortage and driving prices higher only to flip the oil for a quick profit. >> reporter: he wants tougher penalties, more oil cops on the beat and higher tech tools to track fuel prices and demanded congress go along. >> the emotimotion is not agree >> reporter: since three weeks ago republicans refused to cut taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies. >> here's a chance to make amends. >> reporter: republican house speaker john boehner accused the president of looking for a scapegoat. boehner endorsed mitt romney. >> i think mitt romney has a set of economic policies that can put americans back to work. >> reporter: in a backyard in pennsylvania, romney said new obama environment rules drive down domestic energy production. >> he wants oil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar. and yet as you point out, he makes it harder and harder to take advantage of the resources

that are actually below the ground. >> reporter: the president says he wants to make it harder for speculators to take advantage of u.s. drivers. i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, washington. the u.s. secret service is investigating rocker ted nugent after a violent rant against president obama. nugent called the president and his advisers, quote, evil and urged members of the national rifle association to, quote, chop their heads off in november. he also said, quote, if barack obama becomes the president in november again, i will either be dead or in jail by this time next year. nugent has endorsed republican candidate mitt romney whose spokesperson referred to the rant as, quote, offensive. now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. we want to warn you, this video is disturbing. it comes out of florida and it shows the moment when a woman plowed her car right into a supermarket. it was full of shoppers.

ait's maingly, though, no one was killed. you can see the vehicle making a direct hit on those customers and a baby stroller. other cameras caught the car going right past the check outline before coming to a stop. two people were seriously hurt. the 76-year-old at the wheel has been cited for careless driving. in new york, a dangerous new game is being played in the subway system. teenagers are jumping off the platform and right on to the track in what's being called subway chicken. not a good idea. in some cases they're making it out of harm's way with just seconds to spare. transit officials say those involved should not only be arrested, they should, quote, have their heads examined. probably true. in new jersey, a four-alarm fire led to flames and fireworks. power lines could be seen sparking after a three-story house burned. the embers also touched off fires in neighboring buildings. and finally, for all of you out west, seattle's space needle

is getting spruced up. the family of a man who helped build the iconic tower 50 years ago is helping to turn the roof back to its original color, which they called galaxy gold. the space needle debuted at the 1962 world fair. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's meteorologist bill karins. >> it was more like a burnt ciena. >> it did look a little orange. >> it was the only color i knew. we are watching showers rolling through the northwest, cold front along theoast trying to move onshore. it's weakened and it's goingo t die out a little bit. cooler air moves in, with it o showers on and off during the day today. really nothing that's too horrible out there. snow levels are very high. temperatures are actually pretty mild. you notice it's hit and miss. that will continue on and off during the day. some of the colder air is moving in.

the storm system is heading northward up towards alaska. this front is washing out here. along it, moisture and clouds. don't expect sunshine anytime soon here. northern california and southern portions of oregon. forecast down here, vegas to phoenix. things will change. this high pressure off the coast is going to build and get much stronger in the days ahead. you are going to see your first full-fledged heat of this late spring season. we have a chance in vegas of getting up near 100 on sunday. a little unknown fact, in vegas it's never hit 100 degrees in the month of april. you have a chance for that if not sunday, possibly there on monday. today in vegas, 88 te mixed in periods of clouds and showers. it looks like not only las vegas but phoenix, many areas of the

desert southwest, air conditioners will be turned on this weekend. >> absolutely. all right, bill, thanks so much. coming up, earnings season heats up. investors give executive pay a thumbs down. and one man's dirt is another man's spoil. the early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, kim kardashian may have millions of twitteren fans but can this hollywood glamour girl win over an entire town. kentucky gives new meaning to one and done. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today," i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. congress heard more testimony yesterday about excessive spending at the general services administration and lavish parties at a las vegas convention. new information shows that a gsa executive took expensive trips to california, hawaii and the

south pacific. north korea is threatening to retaliate if the united states does not stick to a plan to send food aid. the u.s. decided to cancel the food agreement because north korea broke it by going ahead with a rocket launch that failed last week. police in texas have a person of interest in custody after a woman was shot outside a houston area hospital and her 3-day-old baby boy was abducted. the infant was found and is unharmed. and scientists have discovered a new species in a cave in new mexico. the shrimp-like creature is blind, about a half inch long and almost transparent. one expert says the species may have been down there for millions of years. here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 13,115 after rising 194 points yesterday. the s&p rose 21 points, the nasdaq climbed 54. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo,

the nikkei surged 202 points while in hong kong, the hang seng nudged up 218. upbeat earnings and signs that the debt crisis may be easing helped stocks storm higher tuesday. wall street breathed a sigh of relief after an encouraging sale of spain's two-year bonds drove the country's borrowing cost out of bailout territory. overseas this morning, asian markets bounced back, fueled by europe's optimism and upbeat earnings from the likes of goldman sachs and johnson & johnson. back on the street, traders were impressed with coca-cola's quarterly profit. shares shot up 2%. big blue chip ibm traded lower after hours as hardware sales weighed down first quarter revenue. intel said chip sales were flat but forecast a pickup later in the year. signs of life at yahoo! fueled optimism for a turnaround at the struggling search engine under its newly installed ceo.

elsewhere after the bell, billionaire investor warren buffett revealed he's battling stage 1 prostate cancer. he says his prognosis is positive and he feels great. citigroup shareholders sent a powerful message about outsized pay at the bank's annual meeting. in an advisory vote, a 55% majority voted down multimillion dollar executive pay packages becoming the first shareholders to do so. meanwhile, a new report based on census data shows on average u.s. women earned 77% of what men took home in 2010. and finally, one lucky bidder has hit pay dirt. literally. soil from the spot where gandhi was assassinated in 1948 sold at auction yesterday for $16,000. coming up, the knicks top the celtics and the marlins slug the cubs.

plus the coyotes best the blackhawks in game three of the stanley cup playoff series. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. for once we have wet weather to talk about in the southeast. you certainly need it. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, last night the predators prevailed taking a two-game stanley cup series lead over the red wings. here's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. the red wings were nearly perfect at home during the regular season but the playoffs have been a different story. to detroit where the octopi were flying. erack pulled three defenders toward him. nashville won 3-1 and they can eliminate detroit with a win on friday. blackhawks and coyotes. scary moment in the first. torres leveled hossa. no call on the hit. torres left his feet and that should have been a penalty. hossa knocked unconscious. left on a stretcher, taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons. thankfully he'll be okay. every game in the series has gone to overtime. last night was no different. the coyotes win this one 3-2 in

o.t. panthers rally from three goals down against the devils. brian campbell with a goal and assist. florida leads the series after a victory. kentucky's entire starting lineup has declared for the nba draft. mvp anthony davis expected to go first overall. the knicks are trying to make the playoffs. carmelo anthony filled up the stat sheets, knicks win 118-110. look who's back. ozzie guillen returned after a five-game suspension. the marlins beat the cubs, 5-3. finally, the dodgers trying to start the season 10-1 for the first time since 1955 but it was not men the to be. the brewers have this walkoff double, two runs scored. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin.

"early today" sports is brought to you by new just for men autostop. gray is over. why did nicki minaj delete here twitter account? some say a trip to ikea can cost you your marriage. but for one couple in maryland, it's just the beginning. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early

today" on this wednesday. bring the up braem -- umbrella once again in the northwest. nice weather today in southern california from vegas all the way down into arizona. should be sunny and on the warm side. if anything, i was mentioning it will get really warm this upcoming weekend in the southwest. it looks like a new shot of rain with a new storm in the southwest on thursday. if you're watching us on ktzv news channel 21, in good old bend, oregon. learn about local produce from the farmer himself at "meet your farmer" that's your pacific event of the day, lynn. >> that sounds fun. thanks so much. here's an early look at this morning's headlines and entertainment. there are reports an alleged fling proved costly for simon cowell. the 52-year-old music mogul had his laptop and cash-filled wallet stolen during a romantic encounter in hollywood last

october. police used security footage to track down the woman who handed over the computer and the wallet minus the cash. >> wonder how much cash he had. >> probably a lot. police in southern california say they've arrested a security guard and recovered five vintage guitars stolen from tom petty and the heart breakers. a break in the case came when one of the instruments was pawned in hollywood. nicki minaj deactivated her twitter account after unreleased song clips were released to followers. could kim kardashian be setting her sights on a new political career? she said she plans to run for mayor of glendale, california, in five years, quote, because it's like our median town. >> glendale is happy. >> they're confused. this comes from wrc news 4 in washington, d.c.

newlyweds said i do at ikea. will and julie went and held their nuptials in the cafeteria of the furniture store. that's where the high school classmates ran into each other after 30 years. they rekindled their relationship over swedish meatballs. that tends to happen. needless to say, meatballs were on the menu for the reception. for the honeymoon, they're going to visit ikea in brooklyn. >> it's great. that's my favorite one. i get all my wife's gifts at ikea. that explains a lot. >> i'm not going to say anything about that. i'm lynn berry, this is "early today," your first stop of the day on your nbc stations.

one anker in chile won't let anything stop him from delivering the news, not even monday's magnitude 6.7 earthquake that rattled the set but not the anchor, apparently. he kept on reading, giving announcements and updates unaware that his mike had been turned off. >> we would have ran out of the building. >> yes. there was no significant damage done, however. japan's newest attraction isn't for those with weak stomachs. the tokyo sky tree is the world's tallest free-standing broadcast tower over 2,000 feet high. taking nearly four years and $800 million to complete, builders hope the tower and

surrounding shopping complex will help revitalize the district. one man looks to his favorite animal for workout inspiration. he's developed a style of running based on monkeys, dashing around on both his hands and feet. he actually hones his skill daily. it actually has gotten him into a record book for fastest time for running about the length of a football field in just 20 seconds. apparently you get more, you know -- >> traction? >> i guess so. >> the strides are longer. >> didn't they do that in a james bond movie? it was a trend thing they had going on? i'm trying, bill. >> i'm so impressed. it's time for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow doubt i day here on nbc. today marks the deadline for proposed settlements to be filed by bp and those claimed to have

been harmed by the company's 2010 oil spill. they agreed in principle to pay 7.8 billion for property and damages. today marks 100 days to the start of the 2012 olympic summer games in london which will be carried in the u.s. exclusively on the networks of nbc universal. all day long you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. tonight, be sure to watch brian williams on "nbc nightly news." madonna opens up about her career and her reaction to photos of her daughter smoking. and julie andrews talks about her new children's book and emily blunt previews her new romantic comedy, "the five-year engagement." keep it on this channel for continuing local news, sports, weather and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early

today," just the first stop of