this morning on "early today," the scandal thickens. the secret service investigates new allegations of misconduct on presidential trips. shaken and stirred, dramatic winds force dramatic plane landings in spain. and prickly pooch. a happy ending for a puppy that got stuck in a cactus. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and a very good morning to you. welcome to our viewers across the nation including the pacific time zone. i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with secret service secrets. the white house is looking into new reports of another incident of misconduct. allegations concerning a presidential trip last year to el salvador. nbc's tracie potts joins us with more.

tracie, gong to you. >> reporter: veronica, good morning. the allegations come from a seattle tv station that traveled to el salvador, interviewed a foreign contractor who worked with agents and a strip club owner who said while protecting the president, some took women back to their rooms and bragged that they did this all the tile. now the state department is looking into whether some of their employees may have been involved. here on capitol hill, lawmakers say there are no records indicating any such thing from that trip, but the state department says they will take a look whether their rules were violated. these new allegations come after secretary of homeland security janet napolitano told lawmakers there was no indication that what happened in colombia had of happened before. in el salvador where they were protecting the president, other agencies were also named like the dea, drug enforcement administration.

the dea issued a statement saying they're unaware of any such behavior but will check out any credible information. >> tracie potts in washington. tracie, vaunk. thank you. yesterday was a tense day at the trial of john edwards as defense attorneys continued their assault on the lead witness, a former aide to the one-time senator and presidential candidate. incomes's jay gray reports from greensboro, north carolina. >> reporter: andrew young returned to the federal courthouse and the hot seat as john edwards defense team continued their aggressive cross-examination of the state's star witness. >> the main goal of questioning andrew young for the defense is to show he's not credible. >> reporter: the focus continues to be on inconsistencies between young's testimony and his tell-all book he has written. >> at the times questioning was scattered. at the time the defense confused the judge. >> reporter: there was no confusing the image of young painted by the defense. >> to make him out to be a scam

artist. the person who intentionally and on his own essentially tried to defraud the heiress bunny mellon, take her money and put it in his pocket instead of passing it on to rielle hunter. >> reporter: initially, young testified that the plan to solicit money from edwards' wealthy friends was to cove up rielle's pregnancy. abbe lowell pushed the point the first check came more than a month before young was aware of rielle was carrying his child. >> the defense tried to say at the time andrew young was soliciting money from bunny mellon he didn't know, couldn't know, rielle hunter was pregnant. >> reporter: it strikes to the core of this case. who knew what and when and if any of it was illegal. jay gray, greensboro, north carolina, for nbc news. george zimmerman the man accused of murder in the death of an unarmed florida teenager raised more than $200,000 for his defense fund. his lawyer said donors contributed through a website and plans to inform the judge overseeing the case at a hearing today.

zimmerman released on bail is now in hiding due to concerns for his safety. two out of three guns are recovered by mexican authorities after a crime there came from the united states. 68,000 weapons over the past five years including many used by violent drug cartels were traced back to the u.s. mexico says the u.s. needs to do more to stop the flood of assault weapons and guns that have killed more than 47,000 people south of the border. now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. in florida a pair of elderly sisters about to board a bus were attacked by a purse snatcher. you can see one victim had her wheelchair knocked over during the assault. after the horrific images were made public, the teenager believed to be involved was turned in to police by his own father. in texas, another heartless crime. somebody snatched a donation jar from the front counter of a restaurant. is it was there to raise money

for cancer victims. the thief made off with $250 and remains on the loose. the university of rhode island was invaded by zombies. but unlike those in the movies, these zombies were helping to save lives. students were testing a way to give out medication quickly in the case of an infectious disease outbreak. so they decided to have fun by makinging up a disease, pretending to be zombies. in arizona one puppy ended up looking like a porcupine after a nasty run-in with a cactus. a good samaritan found the dog sunday and pulled enough needles off the yorky terrier noix fill most of a five-gallon bucket. the humane society nursed cactus jack back to health and he is now adopted. so, happy ending. now for a lock at your national and rishinal weather, here's bill karins with the weather channel forecast.

who wouldn't want to adopt a cute pup? >> he looked good in the after photo. good morning, everyone. here's what we're looking at. a storm system kicking through the inner mountain west it's just about gone. that's good. now we're watching really only areas of montana up through the dakotas and colorado deal wig a storm that went through california and the west as we went through it the last couple of day. cool air in its wake. watching that blowing down through areas of idaho, nevada and northern utah as the front kicks through. as the weekend sets up, another storm moving into the northwest. already showers. this area of high pressure, the ridge is going to build in. that's like a blocking pattern that kind of stops these storms. this storm will weaken significantly, heads to the northwest. still clouds and showers. for the most part a dry weekend. you can see the showers in the last 24 hours and even coverage of those. kind of drying up a little bit. they're struggling to make it past the shoreline. i don't think we'll see a lot in the way of rain today. i mentioned the cold air behind that system. 42 in boise.

42 in salt lake city. definitely a capitol hill in the air this morning and even this morning, we struggle with clouds to get out of the 50s in the northwe northwest. 60s and dry and feels like the beginning of spring. that's a look at your at least suny. not a lot of rain in phoenix. 70s in phoenix. a little cooler than people would like heading into the weekend, but at least it will be dry. >> take me through the colors on the map. the green is -- >> the rain. white is snow. >> all right. where's the sun? i just want yellow. that's it. give me lots of yellow. >> yeah. we all like that. >> thanks, bill. and amazon zooms and something brought to the theater the night that lincoln died goes on the auction block.

your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, a couple that can't seem to get themselves off the aisle knocked off competition this weekend at the box sofs. coming up, cleveland browns make a big move and game seven into double overtime in the stanley cup playoffs. you're watching "early today."

a very good morning to you. welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of the top headlines this morning. health insurance policyholders and thousands of employers will share rebates totaling $1.3 billion. the law requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of premiums on medical care and quality improvement or return the difference. about 9,000 u.s. marines are being moved often the japanese island of okinawa in an

agreement that will reduce the military footprint in japan and ease tensions with local residents. texas has execute add man convicted of a 2002 fatal shooting, robbery, abduction and rape. bianca adams apologized before receiving a lethal injection. 48 workers for philadelphia's transit agency have hit the jackpot in wednesday's $172 million powerball drawing. they each stand to collect $2.5 million before taxes. if they choose that lump sum payout. and extremely high winds in northern spain sent planes swaying, testing the skills of pilots and frightening passengers. some pilots had to abort their landings, while other flights were re-routed. pretty scary stuff. now here's an early look how wall streak kicks off the day -- the dow opens at 13,204. the s&p up 9, nasdaq added 20.

nikkei lost 40, the hong kong, hang seng, down 68. wall street will focus on more earnings reports and new data on the health of the economy. the commerce department's first look at gross domestic product for the first quarter is expected to show a slight drop as the u.s. recovery sends more mixed signals. the number of new unemployment claims last week rose to 280,000. a little worse than expected. the latest housing numbers were better with pending sales of previously owned houses up 4% a two-year high. in earnings reports yesterday, amazon.com blew past expectations sparked by the kindle fire. amazon rose after the bell. south korea posted a record profit on the strength of galaxy smartphone which is actually outsell apple's iphones. starbucks were up in the u.s. but felt short in the europe in and middle east. spain's credit rating was cut by

standard & poor's for the second time two notches with the outlook on the country's long term rating now negative. the price of crude oil is back over $104 a barrel today as we approach the start of the summer driving season, and a part of the american history is going on the auction block. the opera glasses used by president abraham lincoln the night he was assassinated will be up for bid monday in los angeles. the binoculars may be the last object used by president lincoln before he was shot in april of 1865. they are expected to bring in at least half a million dollars. well, the rangers oust the senators. the rays sting the angel, and the first round of the nfl draft. plus -- the devils send home the panthers in double overtime. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. in the weekend forecast, keeping it relatively dry on the west coast. a few showers to talk about. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

a very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports it was quite a night last night to end the first round of hockey's stanley cup playoffs with two deciding game seven match-ups. here's nbc's from with an early look at all your sports headlines.

good morning. the first round of the stanley cup playoffs were so good the panthers and devils didn't want it to end. game seven in florida, that is what i call a game face. panthers down two, clawed their way back. marcel goc scored the equalizer. under four minutes of play. florida rallied and forced overtime. stayed that way through the first o.t. then in double overtime, add a.m. henrique ended it. the rookie with the biggest goal of his career. devils win in double o.t. they play the flyers. to new york -- nobody expected the top-seeded rangers to be in a game seven, but they made the most of it. second period, derek stepan to marc staal. new york won it 1-0. adding to the lead. all alone and not going to miss that. 2-0 rangers. they held ton beat the senators 2-1 and have the capitals next. after months of anticipation the indianapolis colts finally made it official. they selected stanford quarterback andrew luck first overall in the draft. he will try to fill the void left by peyton manning.

at number two, the redskins selected robert griffin iii. he was dressed for the occasion. hoping they'll knock their socks off in washington. trent richardson, the browns traded up to select the running back from alabama. speaking of the draft, the charlotte bobcats are the odds on favorite to win the nba lottery. they finished with the 23rd straight loss and worst winning percentage in league history. the knicks put them out of their misery, 104-84. and finally, three weeks into the season, albert pujols has not hit a home run. perhaps he can learn from brandon allen, walk-off homer in the ninth. nothing has been going right for the angels so far. the rays won it 4-3. that is your early look at sports on "early today." have a great weekend. i'm fred roggin. box office hold on? your early morning headlines are

straight ahead. plus -- these ivories aren't about to be tickled. they are about to get hammered. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this friday morning. we're pretty much done with the big storms in the west. just showers left over in the northwest today. cooler everywhere. we'll get into the 80s in vegas. 81 today. we'll see 91 by saturday in phoenix. after a cool day or two you're

getting back into the heat. also a slight chance of showers in seattle, but a pretty dry weekend. not looking at wild wet weather out there. same forecast for sunday. everyone warming it up this weekend. well if you're watching us on khnl in honolulu, hawaii, come dressed as your favorite caped crusader or evil genius for an evening of comic fun at after dark heroes and villains at the museum of art. >> who's your favorite? >> go with batman? >> do you? >> i don't know if i could put the tights on. >> can i go -- yeah. you don't? maybe for halloween, bill. all right. now an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment news -- several films should spice up the battle at the box office. jason segel and emily blunt star in the "five year engagement." targeting females, losing audience to last weekend's top two film, both date movies, but most experts see it finishing on top with $18 million to $20 million.

last weekend's champ "think like a man" is expected to take in around $15 million in second, but, then again, the experts underrated this one last weekend. >> the zac efron "the lucky one" will likely struggle to passeds 10 million. the pirates -- "band of misfits" from the studio that gave us "wallace and grommet," without much family comp tis this weekend it could climb above $10 million. also debuting and expected to fight for about $10 million "the raven" starring john cusack is poet edgar allan poe. jason statham's latest action effort, "safe." this comes to us from boston, in cambridge a piano played its last note ending its life with a bang. and a piano off the roof of their dorm. there it goes!

yikes. it crashed right on top of another piano six stories below. this is part of a tradition 40 years, the last day students can drop classes without having them show up on transcripts. don't feel too bad for these instruments, because only broken pianos are used for these big sendoffs. still, it just doesn't feel right with me. i don't care if they're broken or not. >> can you play? >> i can't. but i'm a music lover and just don't think -- >> never tickled the ivories yourself? >> haven't. and if i did, i probably wouldn't be good at it. all right. i'm veronica de la cruz, this is "early today" just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

one cyclist in canada is helping the environment one ride at a time. in order to lighten his carbon trademark, the biker has a new product, bamboo. the bike sports wheels, seats mechanics but the new frame is lighter than steel, aluminum and even carbon fiber make riding a pleasure. one black sheep in austria has con founded mother nature to the surprise of experts, the black female sheep has given birth to four little white lambs. now, not only is the color unusual, but it's extremely rare for a sheep to give birth to triplets and almost unheard of to have quadruplets. happily, all four of the baby lambs are healthy and strong and really, really cute. one of the world's most popular couples yesterday a baby stole their spotlight. england's prince william

wife kate doted over a 3-week-old baby boy at a charity event held in honor of soldiers. >> exactly. william cradled the child and brushed off jokes by onlookers who teased the couple about practicing for parenthood. he does look awfully happy, bill. >> god help them once they actually do conceive and have a child. it is going to be mayhem. >> i feel bad for them the pressure is on. everybody is waiting. time for early look at some of the stories we'll follow through the day right here on nbc. >> yonathan melaku, a former u.s. marine, will be sentenced after firing shots at the pentagon back in october and november of last year. he has agreed to serve a 25 year prison term. weather permitting nasa managers will oversee the ferrying of the space shuttle "enterprise" from dulles airport to new york city's john f. kennedy airport

enroute to the new home the intrepid sea, air and space museum. and finally, actor jack klugman turns 90 years old today. happy birthday. all day long find the latest developments on these and other stories on msnbc. tonight watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." here is a look at what is coming up later this morning on "the today show." a mom used facebook to punish her daughter tells her side of the story in a "today" exclusive. and hear about a video causing an uproar. it involves a scramble for a baseball that ended in tears for a 3-year-old texas rangers fan. now keep on it this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and much more, i'm veronica de la cruz, thank you so much for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. have a terrific weekend. we'll see you back here on monday. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com