good monday morning. coming up on "early today," syria, wiretapping, computer hacking, just a few of president obama's major issues that he'll address at this all-important g-8 summit. former vice president dick cheney said nsa snooping could have prevented 9/11 attacks on america. and that is not all. the government is using your drer's license photo for more than you want. plus, a rose rubs out lefty at the open. jay-z is getting his cuts for free. a major recall. and we have a new miss usa. "early today" starts right now. >> announcer: this is "early today" for monday, june 17th. good morning, everybody. i'm betty ngyuen.

the leaders of the g-8 nations begin a crucial two-day summit in northern ireland. discussions on the civil war in syria are expected to dominate the agenda as well as economic issues like tax and trade. nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd is in belfast where the president landed this morning. good morning, chuck. >> reporter: well, betty, the president finished up the first part of his northern ireland agenda. the theme of the president's speech was basically buck up. telling this new generation of students in northern ireland to take advantage of the fact that their parents took the risk of making peace and that was their job to help northern ireland become a greater part of the uk society, build a better autonomy. here's a little taste of the president's message. >> all of you, every single young person here today, possess something the generation before yours did not. and that is an example to

follow. when those who took a chance on peace got started, they didn't have a successful model to emulate. they didn't know how it would work, but they took a chance. and so far it has succeeded. md the first steps are the hardest and requires the most courage. and the rest now is up to you. >> reporter: this later afternoon, the president begins g -- the g-8 summit. there the issue of syria. and what to do and how to arm the opposition is going to be topic a in these meetings of the eight world -- the eight largest economies in the world, or eight of the nine largest economies in the world if you will. what's interesting here is there's a split. you have the old g-7, the western powers on one side of the syria issue and russia on the other. president obama and the russian leader vladimir putin have their own one on one meeting later this afternoon. it's likely it's going to have a cold war-like tension to it. if you think about what happened

between vladimir putin, david cameron, the prime minister of the uk, the meeting they had yesterday, that didn't seem to go so well when the issue of syria came up. it's hard to believe that it's going to go any better when the two presidents of the u.s. and russia meet for what is expected to be a lengthy and perhaps tension-filled bilateral meeting. >> thank you, chuck. one topic sure to come up at the g-8 summit are those newly disclosed nsa surveillance programs. the man at the center of the leak edward snowden still in hiding as officials say he could reveal more top secret documents. former vice president dick cheney is joining a chorus of past and present u.s. leaders in calling for snowden's prosecution. he says the 29-year-old contractor is a criminal and a traitor. mr. cheney defended the program saying they prevented numerous terrorist attacks and could have stopped 9/11. >> i think it's one of the worst occasions in my memory of somebody with access to

classified information doing enormous damage to the national security interests of the united states. now over the weekend, the white house chief of staff denis mcdonough said officials are still looking for edward snowden. he was last known to be in hong kong. the white house has repeatedly said snowden has exaggerated his access to sensitive information. in what could be another blow to privacy, your face could be among the 120 million that state officials are troving through in criminal investigations. "the washington post" reports police are increasingly using state photo i.d. databases designed to prevent fraud but is instead being used to identify accomplices, bystanders in criminal investigations. the only legal requirement is for searches to be conducted. the post reports these type of searches blur the boundaries between criminal and noncriminal databases.

and it depends on where you live. 26 states have the technology and allow the search. 11 states and the capital also have it but generally don't allow the search. 13 states don't have the technology at all. a demographic death spiral is how one top gop senator describes the republican party. lindsey graham helped write the bipartisan immigration bill. he said passing that reform is the only way for his party to reclaim the white house in 2016. >> the only way we can get back in good graces with the hispanic community in my view is to pass comprehensive immigration reform. if you don't do that it doesn't really matter who we run in my view. >> marco rubio says the bill is about 95% ready to go, but still needs improvements as far as the border security plan. >> the vast majority of conservative republicans are prepared to support immigration reform but only if we can ensure we're not going to have another

wave of illegal immigration in the future. >> the senate last week voted to begin formal debate on the proposal. in part it would give an estimated 11 million undocumented workers in the u.s. a pathway to citizenship. rain is still working to quell the flames in colorado's worst ever wildfire. the black forest fire is now 65% contained. that is a far cry from nearly 0% late last week. firefighters worked sunday to put out hot spots and aided by a lot of rain which was another bit of good news. and the concern at this point, the possibility of wind spreading the remaining flames to dry grass and trees. the 22-square-mile fire killed two people, destroyed nearly 500 homes and forced at least 38,000 people to evacuate. crews hope to have it fully under control by thursday. an historic 113th u.s. open golf tournament. on the 10th hole, phil mickelson hit from 76 yards out in the rough and sank an eagle 2 on his

birthday. but he finished tied for second extending his runner-up record at the u.s. open to six. justin rose made some clutch shots for a two-stroke victory. the first englishman to win the open in 43 years. and you got to check this out. shawn stephani. his tee shot on the par 3 17th landed on a hill, bounced on to the green and then rolled and rolled and it keeps on going. the crowd, check this out, once it goes in right there. come on. you can do it. you can do it. there it goes. the crowd just goes crazy that this went in. he celebrated. it's the first ever ace at the merion course and the only, get this, 43rd hole in one in open history. now what are the odds of that? >> on that hole? that was like 220 yards. bounced off the side of the hill. >> that guy better buy a lottery

ticket. >> he used his luck up. >> hopefully everyone had a wonderful weekend. the weather cooperated in most cases. we still have this pesky upper level low off the northwest that's going to keep an onshore flow for all of the west coast. this is our water vapor imagery. a different view of the atmosphere. it shows you the spin under the weather channel logo there. that red is extremely dry air over the desert area. that's why we're not dealing with any moisture there. in washington state, a few showers spinning around the upper low. yakima, showers about 12 hours ago. now it's relatively clear. relatively dry. a slight chance of a shower today or maybe even isolated storm. but most areas are not going to see a lot of wet weather today. temperatures will be in the 70s in the northwest and areas of california. coastal areas will be cooler. once you get inland those clouds will burn off and you'll get sunshine this afternoon. pretty normal temperatures out there. maybe phoenix is hotter than normal. besides that, typical summertime weather as we go through the middle and now heading through the end of june. the

morning clouds. but afternoon sun for you also. and that big storm i just showed you will be slowly moving over the northern rockies over the next couple of days. but that really is nothing too exciting really. >> slow moving storm. all right. thank you, bill. jay-z's billion giveaway. martha stewart focusing on her bottom line. and meet the man who will close gitmo. plus, teaching robots to beat humans. today air hockey. tomorrow, who knows. "early today" is back in two.

a man described as a moderate conservative claimed a victory over the weekend in iran's presidential election. hassan rouhani took just over half the votes to succeed mah d

mahmoud ahmadinejad. he won backing from reformists for campaigning on personal rights, gender equality and artistic freedoms. the obama administration is expected to put a washington lawyer in charge of shutting down the u.s. prison at guantanamo bay. cliff sloan, also a top confidante of secretary of state john kerry, will be named a new diplomatic envoy. reports this morning, a former top irs official admitted early involvement in reviewing as many as 30 applications for tax-exempt status. some of those requests went more than a year without action. however, she provided no evidence that senior agency officials ordered agents to target certain groups. and the chinese dissident who fled to the american embassy in beijing last year and provoked a diplomatic crisis now says new york university is kicking him out. ching gaung chen says he's being forced out over concerns his activism is harming the university's relationship with

china. jay-z is teaming up with samsung in a deal that will give away 1 million copies of his 12th and latest album "magna carta holy grail." he announced the freebie during a three-minute commercial that aired during left night's game five nba finals. but the promo is good only for owners of galaxy mobile phones. focusing on the bottom line now, martha stewart's company is in the midst of a met forever sis of sorts. stewart is working harder than ever on the details of all her companies' designs including releasing a redesigned july/august issue of "martha stewart living" for ipads. that's today ahead of hitting newsstands next week. and do not park that suv inside. general motors is expanding a recall to 480,000 midsize suvs. here's the reason. a circuit board in the driver's door can short and spark a fire. the models include 2006, 2007 chevy trail blazers, gmc envoys,

buick rainiers, saab 97s and isuzu ascenders. get this. harley-davidson's faithful riders celebrated the bikemaker's 110th anniversary, at all places, the vatican. pope francis actually was there to bless the estimated 500,000 harley owners who descended on st. peter's square. and the unbeatable air hockey opponent. researchers at cheeba university in japan have developed a robot that uses two high-speed cameras to track the puck and its opponent at, get this, 500 frames per second. yeah. good luck beating that bot. up next, did russian president putin steal patriot owners kraft's super bowl ring. plus sibling rivalry and how bullying can be a life changer.

in sports, game five in the nba finals. the spurs danny green owned the new record for three-point shoot schotts. he was on fire with 25 in the finals so far. green finished with 24 points as san antonio beat miami, 114-104 and take a three games to two lead in the series. well, a russian spokesman denies that president vladimir putin stole a super bowl ring

from new england patriots owner robert kraft in 2005. kraft said last week that he was pressured by the white house back then to say he gave the ring as a gift to the russian people. the russian spokesman called kraft's comments weird. so do we. check this out. at the college world series, the big sign on top of the dugout is misspelled. you see it right there? college has three ls instead of two. yeah, oops, guys. and a company -- a comedy of errors on a throw by mets third baseman david wright that sails over third base and daniel murphy's head and then a throw to home plate goes wild and two cubs runners score but new york's kirk neuwenhuis blasts a walk-off home run for the winner over chicago. i love this story. a 91-year-old weight lifter set a new world record. and get this. just a year after surgery that included implanting a pacemaker. he lifted an amazing 187.5

pounds. congratulations to him. and sports commentator dick vitale sent out a congratulations tweet about kim kardashian and kanye west's baby girl using one of his famous catch phrases for players, diaper dandy and saying this precious little one will be able to afford college. "early today" sports is brought to you by touch of gray. get rid some of gray. never all. just ahead -- "man of steel" sets records. and "curb your enthusiasm's" jeff garlin has a run-in with the law. details next.

welcome back. the most interesting weather in all of the united states is actually taking place in alaska. they are in the midst of a heat wave. it's going to last all week. probably until at least friday or saturday. a blocking ridge of high pressure, that's this big blue "h" here is going to sit over the interior section. we were 90 degrees yesterday in areas like mcgrath. today 87 degrees and sunny in fairbanks. and it goes all the way down to nome this week. pretty crazy stuff by alaska terms. >> nice. thank you bill. in the latest superman movie leaped over box office expectations in a single bound. "man of steel" earned $113 million in its opening weekend. plus an additional $12 million from thursday screenings. the biggest june opening ever.

kim kardashian and kanye west welcomed a baby girl on saturday. kardashian is being hush-hush about the baby and this may be why. howard bragman, vice chairman of reputation.com, estimates, get this, bill, the first photos will fetch, quote, seven to eight figures for baby pictures. >> give it to charity. >> they should give it to charity. l.a. police say "curb your enthusiasm" actor jeff garlin was arrested for vandalism thursday after allegedly smashing in the windows of a person's car during a dispute. a former girlfriend of mick jagger is auctioning off a lock of his famous mane. expected to bring in $3,000. the woman's grandmother somehow procured it without her knowledge in the '60s. >> either cool or disturbing. >> very disturbing, i think. 25-year-old erin brady from connecticut won the title of miss usa in las vegas last night. but perhaps it was this moment

during miss utah's q&a that will be best remembered. >> i think we can relate this back to education and how we are continuing to try to strive to figure out how to create jobs right now. that is the biggest problem. and i think especially the men are seen as the leaders of this. so we need to try to figure out how to create education better so that we can solve this problem. thank you. >> thank you, utah. thank you, sweetheart. >> all right, yes, thank you. i'm betty ngyuen. this is "early today." we hope it's just your first stop of the day on nbc.

leading the news in "usa today," bullying by siblings just as damaging research finds. the national survey of children's exposure to violence finds that bullying by a sibling can be just as damaging as bullying by a classmate, neighbor or peer. and in "the washington post" republicans trying to use health care laws to derail obama's immigration reform efforts. this would be by denying publicly funded care to illegal immigrants. topping our news -- new overnight, president obama has arrived in belfast, northern ireland, in advance of the g-8 two-day summit. syria's civil war is expected to headline the agenda. the president will speak throughout the morning. colorado's worst ever forest fire is now 65% contained. and one witness describes it as haunting and right out of a horror movie, saying all he saw

were skeletons of vehicles and ash everywhere. the obama administration is expected to name cliff sloan in charge of shutting down the u.s. prison at guantanamo bay. officials say sloan who is also a top confidante of secretary of state john kerry will be named a new diplomatic envoy. so duct tape is used to fix just about everything, even the international space station and at a festival in ohio, our favorite fix it is honored in a very special way. for the past ten years, the duct tape capital of the world, avon, ohio, hosts a weekend-long festival honoring everything that a handyman could ever want in a secret weapon. that being duck tape. and they build sculptures out of it. hold fashion shows made from it and have a duct tape parade. you can use it for just about everything. >> has it ever saved you? >> no, but i'm sure mcguyver has it in his handy duty tool kit and a stick of gum and that's

all you need to save the world. >> time now for a look ahead and a look back. rutgers university's new athletic director starts work today. despite controversy over her appointment, julie hermann begins running the school's athletic programs. this is the 50th anniversary of a landmark legal decision. on this day in 1963, the supreme court ruled that reciting the lord's prayer and reading the bible in public schools was unconstitutional. we want to say happy birthday to tennis star venus williams who is 33. barry manilow turns 70 and former house speaker newt gingrich is also 70. here's what's coming up on the "today" show. sesame street goes behind bars at a famous new york city jail in a new episode about parents in prison. we want to keep it here for more weather, news and sports. thanks for watching "early today." enjoy your monday.

new details after a homicide in a normally quiet south bay city. what police just told us next. also after months of back and forth, the trial of accused several killer joseph naso finally getting under way. the bizarre rescue of a woman trapped in a storm drain. how she ended up 15 feet down and what her friends are telling us. right now, a live look outside. i think you're all probably familiar with that bridge by now. that's the bay bridge live in san francisco early morning on this monday, june 17. this is "today in the bay." it is