good monday morning. right now on "early today," at least one person dead and hundreds of reports of storms and tornadoes tearing through the nation's midsection. the obama administration goes on the defensive after a tough week. not backing down on the controversies. more than 100,000 people in the northeast brace for what could be a commuting nightmare. a winner who is at this supermarket now about $60 million richer. yahoo!'s billion-dollar attempt to court a younger, hipper crowd. the moon takes the biggest hit ever recorded. "early today" starts right now. >> announcer: this is "early today" for monday, may 20th. good morning. i'm richard lui.

powerful storms just tore through the nation's heartland overnight and at least one fatality. oklahoma was one of the hardest hit where a state of emergency has been declared. more now from nbc's jay gray in oklahoma city. >> reporter: violent weather ripped across much of the midwest over the weekend. storms lining up and lighting up the radar. spawning dozens of tornadoes. the most vicious hit sunday was in shawnee, oklahoma. where a twister splintered this neighborhood several blocks, completely wiped away. the trail of debris stretches across several states now. homes and businesses ripped apart. >> no sooner had we gotten in the basement than we saw heavy wind and heavy rain and after it subsided, we came out and saw that we sustained quite a bit of damage. >> reporter: snapped power lines and stripped trees just outside of oklahoma city two 18-wheelers were pushed on their sides.

one left dangling along the railing of an overpass. >> a bunch of dust, stuff flying around. it was pretty big. i thought they'd be a little smaller, but this was pretty big. >> reporter: just like tens of millions across the midwest who continue to be on edge with forecasters warning severe conditions could continue for the next few days here. jay gray, nbc news, oklahoma city. >> more from nbc's bill karins in just a little bit on this severe weather outbreak. stick around for that. president obama wants to get back on message, but republicans have different plans. suddenly a lot to talk about. nbc's danielle leigh is in washington. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. president obama would like to move past last week's controversies, but with trouble brewing on three fronts and republicans increasingly suspicious, that won't be easy. republicans talking about a series of scandals forcing the white house to focus on damage control. >> there is a culture of intimidation.

the irs is just the most recent example. >> reporter: at a democratic fund-raiser sunday, president obama tried to shift the focus. >> despite sometimes the doom and gloom of what you hear emanating out of washington, you should be optimistic about this country. >> reporter: a senior white house adviser also appeared on five morning talk shows, calling accusations of mismanagement offensive and absurd. >> there is no question that we want to -- that republicans are trying to make political hay here. >> reporter: on capitol hill, two more hearings this week will examine the irs targeting of conservative political groups. >> we need to find out who made those decisions, hold them to account and see how high up the chain it went. >> reporter: republicans are continuing to dig into the administration's handling of the terrorist attack in benghazi. others are criticizing the justice department's seizure of journalists' phone records as part of a national security leak investigation. >> i know what the message being sent is is that if you talk to the press, we're going to go

after you. >> reporter: the a.p. says it's losing sources because of the seizure. another consequence the white house contends with this week. despite the controversies, the latest poll released yesterday shows the president's approval rating is largely unchanged. 53% of americans say they approve of the president. reporting live in washington, i'm danielle leigh. richard, back to you. >> they're concerned about 2014, no doubt, the democrats are. thank you so much. a widespread dose of commuter chaos could be in store for tens of thousands traveling across the nation's busiest rail line. this as workers rebuild 2,000 feet of damaged track between two trains in southwest connecticut. in connecticut alone about 125,000 passengers travel per day through that area where the derailment occurred. now, if those train commuters decide to take to the roads, officials say they would literally encounter a parking lot. commuters are urged to carpool or work from home, if possible. friday's collision injured more than 70 people, 9 of them

remain in hospital right now. one critically. the ntsb is investigating what went wrong. a little extra light is shining on the sunshine state this morning, shall we say. that's because someone in florida walked into a publix supermarket, bought the single winning ticket for the highest powerball jackpot in history worth a whopping $590 million. all eyes are on zephyr hills, the town just outside tampa where that ticket was sold. grab for ticket. the winning numbers were 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52. with a powerball of 11. the lucky winner with claim his or her ticket as soon as this morning. so stay tuned. bill karins, 1 in 175 million are the odds. >> i was only off by about five numbers. >> i was off by six. >> i had one of the six. it was bad. these tornadoes -- >> oh, bad, yeah. >> yeah. it's amazing they only lost one life in the past three days. we had about 50 tornadoes in total. and this was just yesterday alone.

each of these dots represents a severe weather report. the red ones are tornado reports, 24 of those. notice they were clustered just to the west side of des moines near wichita and just outside oklahoma city to the east side of town. that's where one of the worst of them were. so what's going on happen today? this area of yellow is at a slight risk. it's huge. goes all the way from central tax tax through dallas-ft. worth through the great lakes. i mean, the area of red is where we had the best chance of seeing the tornadoes today. so it's almost the same spots as yesterday. the tornadoes will form about 4:00 to 6:00 late this afternoon oklahoma city to wichita falls and track northeast, those supercells that could produce tornadoes at any time will arrive later this evening into areas of southern missouri and arkansas. so again, another tornado outbreak. i think today will probably be the last day of the conditions that we've been seeing. and that storm, by the way, is located in the upper right-hand corner of your screen over top of the dakotas. because that storm has been where it is and hasn't moved much, we had a pretty great weekend in many areas of the west. one more nice day for you today.

beautiful day. look at southern portions of oregon. 85 degrees. san francisco, that's a great day. 74 and sunny. even l.a. is looking nice. same with vegas. and phoenix, a little warmer at 98. enjoy it. looks like rain on the way for the northwest tomorrow. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look a very low. >> easy day for the be graphics folks. >> as richard likes to say, it's a day off for the weather people. >> not a day off. you guys always work hard. >> no, we'll admit it. there's some days where it's 24 hours on. >> fingers crossed for our friends in the midsection of the country. >> it will be bad tonight. >> bill karins watching that for us. tragedy striking during an fbi training exercise. roaring to life. and a california restaurant

that puts into its dishes what most people want to keep out.

welcome back to "early today." a deadly day in iraq. more than 150 wounded in a wave of bombings in shiite neighborhoods of baghdad. and in the southern city of basra. hours ago reports say north korea has fired its fifth missile in just three days. the south korean government says the north fired a short-range projectile missile into waters off its eastern coast around 11:00 this morning local time. it follows four recent launches including three on saturday. the north says it's exercisingity right to test rockets as part of regular military drills. video captured a deadly hot air balloon crash in central turkey going down right there. after it collided with another sightseeing balloon. one brazilian tourist was killed, and 24 others hurt. the fbi is looking into the deaths of two of its agents over the weekend. this happened during a training exercise. both were members of the elite

hostage rescue team based in quantico, virginia. he was a guest at president obama's first address to congress after being praised for his bravery is actually behind bars this morning. richard decoatsworth is accused of raping two women at gunpoint after making them use drugs. he's being held on $60 million bail. alaska's pavlov volcano sent steam and ash nearly 0,000 feet into the sky on sunday. officials say it's not enough to raise the aviation threat for airlines. and nasa says it's the largest lunar explosion they've ever seen. equal to five tons of dynamite. a meteor slamming slew the surface of the moon back in march and lit up the sky so bright that it was visible to the naked eye. now to business and cnbc's seema mody. good morning. >> futures are lower right now aftermarkets remained in rally mode on friday with the dow and the s&p 500 both closing at new

record highs. yahoo!'s board has agreed to buy tumblr for about a billion dollars in cash. the company has been seeking to play catch-up in the social media and mobile device space. and finally, the wedding's off, but it's too late to cancel the arrangements. that's where bridalbrokerage.com steps in. it arranges swaps helping couples who call it off to sell their packages to couples looking to save money. they can save thousands while the couple that canceled can at least recoup some of the costs. richard, back to you. >> interesting, seema. wedding arbitrage. more business for you now's. it was the first big ipo in years. one year later it's being called the facebook flop, down 38%. the chairman and ceo of jpmorgan chase, jamie dimon, under pressure. facing tuesday's big vote by shareholders on whether he'll keep both titles. if not, he might decide to quit. flights of dreamliners by united airlines resume today. it's the first time since

battery problems in january forced the planes to be grounded. gas prices got your eye on those? at the pump they are jumping 11 cents in the last two weeks because of refinery outages. the lundberg survey says the national average price per gallon is $3.66. a week before memorial day, folks are getting ready for the start of summer vacation. but there's one survey that says three out of four of us will have to work at least one hour per day during their holidays. at this restaurant in spain, if you work an hour serving food or cleaning the kitchen, you get a free meal. 25% of people in spain are unemployed, so the work-to-eat deal, big help for many. and a california asian fusion restaurant has insects on its menu. there's actually people in there eating these things. scorpions on shrimp toast, stirfry crickets. customers say they're tasty and similar to crab, shrimp or lobster. i don't think so. beck's final bow. and rg3 shows off his wedding

gift hall. plus a golfer's shot gives new meaning to the word "relief." you're watching "early today."

a drizzly morning in new york. game one of the nba western conference finals. it was the tony parker show with 20 points. spurs teammate leonard tallied 18 there, blowing out the grizzlies 105-83.

nhl eastern conference semis. down to the wire in double overtime. colin greening scores the game-winning goal. the pens lead 2-1. in chicago, pitcher travis wood connects there and the fans going, i got it. no, no, you didn't get it. homer into the parking lot. cubs fan reaches for the ball. there goes the cup of beer. she not happy. he misses that. they both are out like the homer out of the park. david beckham final career home game was saturday. his team psg wins that. and something you don't see often, an emotional beckham. crying after he finishes that game. a lot of people going to miss him. the spanish league final. renaldo kicks gabby in the face in the final minute, gets a straight red card for that one. a sideline tussle ensues. punches thrown. an object thrown from the stands. hits athletico's goalkeeper in the head in what was a headache of a finish. and the world match play championship, misfires into a hazard near some restroom

facilities. officials confer about that. they rule the ball must be dropped inside the -- open the door -- the toilet. much to his relief, he was able to make par. but that hole ended up -- yeah, down the toilet. jose bautista was presented with an award. the gold card allows him to see any baseball game with one guest at any time now or in the future. that's over 8,000 games. over the next 50 years if he does it. redskins quarterback robert griffin iii is tying the knot. fans found his wedding registry online. the $21 million man tweeted this photo. rg3 thanking fans for making a dent in his list of 203 items. "early today" sports is brought to you by new just for men auto stop. gray is over. just ahead, a freak accident at last night's "billboard music awards." plus, stefan's touching last hurrah on "snl." you're watching "early today."

1y50

welcome back. another great day in many areas of the west. usually when there's a huge storm in the middle of the country with severe weather, usually the east and west coast are doesn't. especially from oregon to nevada. many areas of california, though it is going to be in the low 80s and 90s in interior sections. now, tomorrow it switches. the storm in the middle of the country moves out. a new storm comes in where we'll see rain moving in for seattle.

enjoy today. i mentioned earlier at the top of the show, the really nasty weather that came, one of those tornadoes headed for wichita, kansas, and our nbc station. look what happened when the tornado was right outside their window. >> this storm bears down on the city of wichita. it appears that is time for all of us to get to shelter. get to shelter right now. ryan newton, now, ryan. >> now! >> everybody down below. let's go! >> that was ksn in wichita. and literally, you know, their job is to be on the air and try to save as many lives as possible. but at a certain point, they had to try to save their own lives. thankfully and very luckily, the tornado lifted right before it got to the station and just barely went over the roof. it skipped over them. >> were they watching the radar or just looking out the window? >> they had a spotter that was outside and ran in and told them, you've got to get under now. >> like i said, they were saving others' lives. an amazing video that was live.

in entertainment news, "star trek" was in first place at the box office. did you catch that? >> i didn't. >> looks like a good one. earning 84 million and "ironman 3" was pushed into second place. good-bye to "snl" this weekend but the farewell was hard for seth meyers and the beloved stefan. >> god, no. stefan! >> anderson cooper right there, hilarious. turns around, "i'll give you some a.c. 360." >> i think some gremlins got in there, too. robert pattinson and kristen stewart have called it quits

again. sources are saying it's likely the pair will reunite sooner rather than later. probably for the next -- >> damaged goods. it's done. >> for the next sequel. during last night's billboard awards, miguel landing on two fans, jumping off the platform to finish off his performance. both women below going, no, i don't like that. i think he missed his spot there. >> he played it cool. he must not have known how far that jump was. in rehearsal, i bet it was a lot easier. >> oh, those poor girls. they ended up leaving shortly thereafter, i guess. >> i imagine so. he just did a leg split on top of their heads. >> i hope they're okay. i'm richard lui. you're watching "early today" just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

in this morning's "washington post," more than 20% of children have mental disorders. the cdc doing a study, saying the rate is increasing and only 21% of affected children are getting treatment. in "the l.a. times," suburbs overtake cities as home of majority of poor. according to the brookings institution, the surge of poverty in suburbs have left many social service agencies unprepared. topping our news, powerball fever. all eyes on zephyr hills, florida, just outside tampa where someone bought the ticket for the highest powerball jackpot in history, an estimated $590 million. the lucky person can claim his or her ticket as soon as this morning. i would not waste any time doing that myself. a bigger payday is $1.1 billion. "the wall street journal" says

yahoo! is expected to announce today to buy the popular blogging site tumblr. we'll see if that pays off. >> where do they get all the money from? >> $4 billion after doing some sales. a lot of cash. we can't keep our eyes off this video of a meteor slamming into the surface of the moon. it happened back in march but this is our first look of what happened. nasa says it's the largest lunar explosion they have ever seen equal to 5 tons of dynamite and visible to the human eye. the moon's still there, though. in hungary, the dirtier, the better. nearly 2,000 vehicles took a muddy plunge for this year's off-road mud race trucks. bikes and suvs all took turns chugging through pools of mud and dirt some getting stuck and tradition started in the late '80s and i guess folks are jumping in after a hot day, right? many of the spectators got just as dirty as their cars. not good for the induction system. >> you ever do any four-wheeling? >> i have but not like that. >> some of that's extreme. >> that's crazy. looks like a lot of fun.

time for a look ahead. president obama welcomes the president of myanmar to the white house today. they're set to discuss developing democracy and economic opportunity in the country. convicted murderer jodi arias returns to court today, expected to testify on her own behalf as the jury decides whether to give her the death penalty or life in prison for killing her former boyfriend. and happy birthday to nascar driver tony stewart who is 42. cher turns 67. and singer joe cocker is 69. joe cocker, haven't heard that name in a while. here's what's coming up on "today. live in hawaii. rough work, right? with "today's great american adventure." and hawaii native jack johnson shows off his slice of paradise and the importance of music to island life. if only we had gotten that call. we would have been there. keep it here for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. i'm richard lui with bill karins. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc

station. have a great monday.

. . breaking news, a shooting on the peninsula kills a teen and wounds two more. we'll have the details next. we also have new video out of the midwest of the cleanup following a string of tornadoes there. we will have the latest details on the rescue efforts coming up. the new worries on the bay bridge that have experts thinking a major quake could turn deadly. >> new details about the bay area woman accused of setting a hillside fire, putting several homes out there in danger. >> welcome to monday morning as we take a live look outside at the illuminated bay bridge, monday, may 20th. this is "today in the bay."