exit from bain capital. a political firestorm erupted thursday after "the boston globe" revealed securities and exchange commission filings showing romney listed as bain capital's ceo long after he was supposed to have left the company to run the winter olympics in 1999. the globe identifies nine s.e.c. filings naming romney as bain's chief executive three years after he took the olympic job. the paper said documents filed through 2002 list romney as, quote, sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president. and during the period in dispute, many of the job loses due to bain decisions and investments as will as allegations of outsourcing occurred. romney's campaign insists as of yesterday he was no longer at the firm and wasn't part of the decision-making. a bain statement yesterday explains that due to romney's sudden departure in 1999, it

took time to transfer ownership to his successors, which led romney to continue to be listed in various positions in the s.e.c. filings. well, the obama campaign pounced on the story, calling it the, quote, big bain lie. obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter charged the presumptive republican gop nominee that he may have even engaged in illegal activity by misrepresenting his position at bain to the s.e.c. a romney spokesman called the insinuation a, quote, new low for the obama campaign. elsewhere last night in wyoming former dick cheney held a big fund-raiser for mitt romney's campaign. they collected more than $4 million from the dinner at cheney's house. cheney has not appeared with romney on the campaign trail but endorsed him last night, praising romney as, quote, the only man who can make the right decisions in a foreign policy crisis. romney called cheney a great american leader but did not mention former president george w. bush. to penn state where officials, quote, concealed critical facts instead of

protecting young boys. that is the scathing conclusion of an eight-month inquiry into the school's handing of the jerry sandusky sex abuse scandal. nbc's chris pollone has details. >> reporter: former fbi director louis freeh said it was fear of bad publicity which kept penn state leaders, including coach joe paterno, from revealing details to law enforcement and the public about jerry sandusky's contact with young boys. >> the most powerful men at penn state failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who sandusky victimized. >> reporter: freeh's team poured over more than 3 million documents, some that showed that paterno, contrary to his grand jury testimony, did know about a 1998 police investigation into sandusky's contact with a young boy in the penn state locker room shower. freeh blasted former president graham spanier, athletic director tim curley, vice president gary schultz, and paterno for their inactions. >> nobody even spoke to sandusky, not one of those four

persons, including the coach who was a few steps away from his office. there's no indication anybody spoke to him. >> reporter: throughout the investigation all have denied knowing the full extent of sandusky's actions. the penn state board of trustees was singled out for its lack of oversight. >> you should know that our hearts remain heavy, and we are deeply ashamed. >> reporter: on the penn state campus thursday, a dark day and disbelief. >> i'm disappointed that the leaders of our institution could let something like this happen. >> reporter: chris pollone, nbc news. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in new jersey a frightening video of a car crash caused by someone running a red light. you can see that car going airborne after smashing right into a barrier and taking out one of the traffic signals. now, police want you to see these images to drive home the risk of reckless behavior. amazingly there were no serious injuries, but the driver was arrested for dui.

wow. in st. louis, this was the result after crews went to a neighborhood to check out the report of a gas odor. it was only when they started digging that a pipe collapsed, causing a fireball shooting flames 40 feet in the air. no one was hurt thankfully. in california, surfing is never a bad idea even if you're a goat. it was even more fun for this mother and her billy goat to hit the waves together. the owner said he loved surfing so he figured his animals would too. and, finally, in rhode island, you are, in fact, seeing double. a two-headed kitten was born as the only part of a litter with four eyes, two noses and two mouths feeding into one throat. the local spca has never seen anything like it. i bet you haven't either. it's not clear whether they're dealing with one cat or conjoined twins. and now for a look at your national and regional weather,

here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. that will haunt you all day. >> i'll speak for everyone that has just seen that video and say we all could have done without it. >> i totally disagree. i think it's freakishly adorable. >> when i go to bed tonight -- >> the other half who might be saying double the cuteness. >> the other half, the other 1% maybe? >> possibly .5%. >> friday the 13th video brought to you by lynn. good morning, everyone. timely i get to use my storm tracker radar in southern california of all polices. areas of heavy rain moving through locations that don't get a lot of wet weather this time of year. los angeles, you look like you're dry going south on i-5. we are getting some rain here. we have some lightening strikes by high land and yuka valley. interstate 40 if you're heading up towards vegas, you'll be dodging some storms. all the green showing rain.

this is where some thunderstorms were. for the most part they were in the desert area. they may sneak up to the north and out to tucson, a pretty good area of rain. it's kind of unusual. thankfully some clouds are preding north. we could use cloud cover because the heat has been incredible. this wasn't a misprint in boise, 108 yesterday. your all-time record high ever recorded is 111. you're only three degrees away from that. pretty incredible stuff. a little cooler. mid to upper 90s. a chance of showers and storms in areas of th northwest. we could see portland today, beautiful mid 80s. weekend forecast coming up. >> thanks, bill.

all right. also coming up, texas industries breaks the jinx, wells fargo pays the heavy price for heavy practice, and one last cup of joe for the road. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus. we'll tell you what new film is set to end the quick reign of "spider-man" at the box office. coming up, an impressive start for the usa basketball, and one olympic hope is over for one member of the dream team. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. syrian activists are reporting a new massacre of more than a hundred people yesterday in central hamas province. "the new york times" says there are reports of more than 200 killed, which would be the worst massacre during the syrian uprising. "the washington post" reports first lady michelle obama was allegedly the target of a threat by a police officer in the district of columbia. the officer allegedly said he

would shoot the first lady and then use his phone to retrieve a picture of the firearm he said he would use. secretary of state hillary clinton met with china's foreign minister yesterday urging talks on the south china sea. clinton proposed talks to calm tensions with southeast asia for the conflicting claims over the strategic waterway. in france a search for missing climbers on mont blanc after an avalanche killed nine mountaineers, a dozen were injured, and four are unaccounted for. and in australia an extremely rare pink diamond is now on display at the melbourne museum. the argyle pink jubilee is more than 8 carats, and it's the largest ever found in australia. and now here's an early look at how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,573 after falling 31 points yesterday. the s&p dipped 6. the nasdaq dropped 21. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo

the nikkei added 4 points while in hong kong the hang seng was up 67. a roller coaster thursday left stocks down for a sixth day with two big blue chips preventing the dow from falling harder. procter & gamble rose on a report activist investor william ackman is buying into the company. merck also rose 4% after a successful trial of its new osteoporosis drug. tech struggles continued after infosys warned of sluggish sales, plunging 11%. on the plus side, texas industries broke a ten-quarter streak of losses, posting a quarterly profit and surging 14%. upbeat data didn't dent general gloom over sluggish earnings. initial state unemployment claims dropped to the lowest level in four years. falling oil costs sent june's import prices falling by the most in more than three years. moody's downgraded italy's bond rating by two notches, just

above junk status, warning further downgrades could be on the way. wells fargo will pay $175 million to resolve allegations that it charged blacks and hispanics higher rates and fees on mortgages during the housing boom. a government investigation found 34,000 times wells fargo charged blacks and hispanics higher fees and rates compared to similar white borrowers. but the bank, which now funds one out of every three mortgages in the u.s., denied guilt, insisting it was settling, quote, solely for the purpose of avoiding contested litigation. the smoking gun reports the fbi is investigating the chinese company zte for selling banned computer equipment sales to iran and alleged attempts to cover it up. and, finally, we see them everywhere, right, but we probably haven't seen them here. next month a starbucks will open at a south carolina funeral home. well, the new kid gets his welcome, and a little road rash can't stop one cyclist at the tour de france.

plus, despite losing another player on their roster, team usa remains unshaken. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. hey, the weekend forecast looks to be very warm once again, but some areas have a chance of rain. i'll tell you who coming up. your forecast is coming up next.

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports last night in an olympic basketball tune-up, 2012's version of the dream team slammed the dominican republic. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. if last night's basketball game was any indication, you can give the usa the gold medal right now. let's go to las vegas, first of two exhibition games before heading overseas. team usa got off to a slow start against the dominican republic, but then they found their stride. deron williams threw lebron james for the alley-oop. it doesn't look like chemistry will be a problem for these two. kevin durant, a three-point shooting machine in the first half. knocked down five from beyond the arch. finished with a game-high 25 points. something tells me it's going to be a fun game to watch. now check out the inbounds pass by lebron. behind the bounceback, a pass to williams. at times they looked more like the globetrotters than an olympic team. but unlike the globetrotters, these guys play defense. russell westbrook forced the turnover. andre iguoadala with the dunk.

and look at the bench. like a bunch of kids at the playground. the usa is ready for london. they won it big, 113-59. the olympics are over before it started for the clippers' blake griffin. tore the meniscus in his left knee yesterday. he'll have surgery next week and be out two months. the hornets' anthony davis will take griffin's spot on the roster. here's a guy who knows all about olympic basketball. jason kidd. won two gold medals with team usa. he's now the newest member of the knicks. he'll back up jeremy lin at the point guard position. new york is expected to re-sign lin in the next couple of days. finally, a story of perseverance in stage 11 of the tour de france. that is pierre rolland in the green and black jersey. riding in the front of the pack until -- look out -- he went down hard and he went down hard on the pavement. the other riders left him in the dust. rolland was okay and had a lot of ground to make up, but lesson be learned. don't ever count rolland out. he came back, all the way back, took the lead in the final climb and won the stage. down but never out, pierre rallied for an impressive win on the tour. that's your early look at sports

on "early today." i'm fred roggin. well, who is definitely leaving "american idol?" and a top earning entertainer under 30 years old. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, a guinness record-breaking wedding like you've never seen before. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." as i mentioned earlier, rain in unusual places. possibly flash flooding and in orange county, california, we have light rain coming down. as we head towards the morning hours, maybe tucson too. we don't typically see a lot of wet weather there. over the weekend we'll have showers over the intermountain west. if you're watching us on ksbw action news 8, explore the many ways that love manifests itself in our everyday lives. like when lynn and i see each other every morning. all you need is love at the santa cruz museum of art and history. that's your pacific event of the day. can you turn anything i say into a song? >> i'll try. i'll try. i'll spare the viewers. and now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. steven tyler has announced -- and he did this yesterday -- he's kicking himself off "american idol," calling the

show over-the-top fun, saying he loved every minute of it, referring to "idol" as his mistress. tyler said he now wants to concentrate on his band saying, quote, i strayed from my first love, aerosmith, and now i'm back. meanwhile yesterday on the "today" show in what the washington post called, quote, her latest stop on her, quote, it's so hard to decide whether to return to "american idol" tour, jennifer lopez said she may leave the show to do more music. and film work. elsewhere 22-year-old taylor swift beat out teen heartthrob justin bieber on forbes' ranking on the highest paid celebrities under 30 years old. swift earned $57 million to bieber's $55 million. >> get those two together. >> can you imagine when she turns 30? and, finally, at the box office, "ice age: continental drift," the fourth installment of the popular animated series, is the only new wide release. it's expected to take the top spot with at least $50 million.

knocking that "spider-man" off the list pretty quickly. >> if you have kids, that's a no brainer. >> maybe so. this comes to us from wnbc new york where wedding vows and a few bow-wows were included. two dogs became husband and wife last night at a ceremony fit for man or beast. there's the groom. the bride wore a classic white designer gown. her groom had something a little more colorful in mind. wow with the hair. and along with those "i do's" came an eye-popping bill. it set a new guinness world record for the most expensive pet wedding ever. $158,000. luckily all the services were donated. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station. stop of the da

your nbc station. stop of the da your nbc station. stop of the da your nbc station. stop of the da your nbc station.

a bit of a surprise. for the second time in ten days, a road divider has collapsed like a row of dominos. it's almost a mile long and its a fence that just toppled over in 30 seconds, causing police to rush out and prop it back up. and while a new divider is in the works, the town hopes the strong winds don't keep knocking the current one over. well, some lucky fans got to take home items owned by their favorite celebrities from clothing worn by the late king of pop and eric clapton's electric guitar to signed photos and historical collectibles.

over 800 pieces of celebrity memorabilia were auctioned off in argentina. they were auctioned off to a single collector who decided to make a stockpile. must be nice. it's that time of year again when more than 125,000 comic enthusiasts flocked to san diego for the comic-con festival, one of the biggest pop culture conventions in the country. many fans were dressed in costume and got a chance to meet their favorite actors and even preview some unreleased material. about the only time a grown man can dress up as a teenage mutant ninja turtle. >> let's say we had to go and we had to dress up. i'll give you a second to think about this. i would dress up as aquaman. aquaman was my hero. what would you be? >> wonder woman. >> wonder woman? >> wonder woman. >> that's so obvious. it's so obvious. it's time for now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day on nbc. in virginia the 2012 national governors association kicks off

its annual meeting in colonial williamsburg. today's opening session will focus on nebraska's governor and nga chair dave heineman's initiative, growing state economies. in washington first lady michelle obama welcomes winners of the smithsonian's cooper-hewitt national design award to the white house. they recognize extraordinary contributions in ten categories including fashion, interior, and landscape design. and happy birthday to actor harrison ford. he turns 70 years old today. all day long you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and more as they break on msnbc. and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." and, finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. in a "today" exclusive savannah talk with former president bill clinton about the economy and the upcoming election, and the country act zac brown band rocks the plaza as part of the summer concert series. and now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports, and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early

today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station. the day, today on your nbc station. have a great weekend. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

>> reporter: closing statements could begin later this morning in a hayward courtroom where hans reiser is being sued by his own children for the murder of their mother. i'll tell you what's expected coming up. >> the city of los angeles waking up to a calmer situation out on the streets after police in riot gear had to break up a crowd of protesters. we'll explain what happened. >> a security breach and a big one at yahoo!. it's more widespread than thought hitting other companies as well. >> we'll hit you up with a live shot. that is the golden gate bridge in san francisco