good thursday morning. coming up on "early today," zero percent contained. a wind-whipped wildfire in arizona threatens thousands of people. hundreds of homes as well. security breach. another cyberattack on a major u.s. company. 145 million customers at risk. free at last. a california woman escapes after allegedly being held captive for a decade. plus, president obama goes for a rare stroll. a historic bullfight canceled because of repeated gorings. and days after sending out wedding invitations, which pro golfer has a change of heart? it is thursday, may 22nd. "early today" starts right now.

good morning. i'm richard lui. it is being called another omen to a tough fire season ahead. a wildfire in arizona increased tenfold overnight. steep terrain and abundance of timber and high winds blowing the embers long distances and have made it exceptionally tough for teams on the ground. here's nbc's dan shanman. >> reporter: flames leap up the canyon walls, growing from 400 to more than 4,000 acres in less than 24 hours. >> the winds have continued to grow and pick up. and it is really pushing the fire quite a bit. >> reporter: those winds pushed the slide fire to the north and west. 100 homes, cabins and businesses are threaten ged. >> you need to grab that picture. >> reporter: this family scrambled to get out of harm's way. shelters are set up to help those forced from their homes. >> that's close to where we were. >> reporter: these newlyweds had to evacuate their campground

quickly, leaving all their belongings and gear to spend their honeymoon in a red cross shelter. >> i can't imagine it being someone's home. that's our camp gear, that's $300 worth of stuff we can replace. but their homes and stuff, they're all destroyed if the fire gets that far. >> reporter: stopping the fire's progress is the team's primary goal. resources are pouring in on the ground and the air. with no containment, authorities are warning as many as 3,000 residents from the fire's possible path to be ready to go at a moment's notice. >> get ready to evacuate. things will change very, very rapidly. >> reporter: in a fire season that's off to a fast start. dan sheneman, nbc news. just a little bit east of there, the threat of strong storms continues today for parts of colorado. at least six tornadoes were reported in the denver area wednesday. none of them caused serious damage. unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the hail. hail the size of ping-pong balls

severely damaged several homes. >> first it started off nice and rain and then it started coming down with pea-sized hail. >> 13 flights were canceled because of hail damage to several frontier airlines planes. nbc's bill karins will join us in a second with more. a military coup is under way in thailand this hour. thailand's army chief declaring the military is seizing control of the government and launching a coup. the concern now is that it will get bloody. just two days ago the army declared martial law nationwide in an attempt there to restore order after six months of street protests and unrest. thailand has a long history of coups. the last one was in 2006. ebay, the online auction site is telling its 145 million customers to change their passwords immediately after a massive data breach. nbc news national correspondent

peter alexander saying it could go down as the biggest in history. >> reporter: the database contained customer names, encrypted passwords, e-mails and home addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. it was discovered two weeks ago. ebay says there is no evidence that any financial information was accessed or compromised, however, we are taking every precaution to protect our customers. former federal prosecutor mark rash. >> the hacker only needs to find one way in and the defender has to defend against every possible attack. we play a game called whac-a-mole. they pop up, we knock them down. and -- >> reporter: how are we doing? are wee keeping up? >> we're not keeping up. the hackers always have the advantage. >> reporter: hackers could be looking to take advantage by selling data like e-mails and birth dates to criminals who can use them to try to steal your identity. ebay owns pay pal, but says those accounts were not affected. cybercrime experts say it is not enough to change your ebay password. if you use the same password on multiple site includesing

e-mail, you should change all of them. >> we're now racing to have people change their passwords before the bad guys can use them. >> reporter: another breach that could create problems for consumers. peter alexander, nbc news, washington. a missing woman allegedly held captive for a decade has been found. the 25-year-old californian vanished from her home as a teenager in 2004. then tuesday, she contacted authorities. she said he repeatedly assaulted her physically and sexually and forced him to marry him. police say this is the alleged captor here, charged with kidnap, rape, lewd acts with a minor and false imprisonment. officials say the missing woman was in touch with her sister on facebook, and that helped her gain the courage to come forward. president obama has deployed 80 u.s. troops to help search for nearly 300 kidnapped nigerian school girls. the troops are headed to

nigeria's neighbor, the country of chad. the president said the mission is mainly surveillance support through the use of drones. the girls were kidnapped by the militant group boko haram last month. president obama responded with outrage to the growing scandal at va hospitals and said those found guilty will be had held accountable. >> if these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and i will not tolerate it. period. >> president obama stood by his secretary of veterans affairs eric shinseki for now at least. he ordered shinseki to launch a full scale investigation into allegations some va health facilities have been cooking the books and keeping secret waiting lists. sometimes with deadly consequences. >> i said it to him today. i want to see, you know, what the results of these reports are and there is going to be accountability. >> let's move over to weather. our national forecast, nbc's

bill karins joining us. we have colorado to talk about. we have arizona to talk about. >> the fire. we had horrible flooding in ohio which we -- >> on top of that. >> i-70 was closed, kentucky had wind damage. the big picture for the severe weather reports yesterday. even southern, southeastern idaho had a report of a tornado. so pretty widespread with many different complexes of thunderstorms. kind of what you expect in our peak severe month of may. now, we still have that little -- little spinning wheel there over southern areas of nevada. that's going to spark off additional showers and storms and man a thunderstorm in the mountains of central and southern california, but not a lot of rainfall. of course any lightning strikes, if we get any storms, could spark additional wildfires. we have a forecast changing in the northwest. the frontal system will be trying to move on shore. today one of your last really gorgeous beautiful warm days. we're not going to see a lot of rain in the next 48 hours, but as you go through friday afternoon in seattle, the best chance to get some showers and looks like another shot of rain as we go into sunday.

so unfortunately, i think, for the northwest, this is the nicest, warmest day you have through the memorial day weekend. enjoy the 87 in medford. that looks really nice. that's your national forecast. such a great stretch of weather, a little disappointed when i saw through memorial day weekend in the northwest, doesn't look like a lot of sunshine. >> not for now. it look like it is warm, though. >> better than wearing your winter coat, i guess. your long johns. >> right about that. two u.s. states want to bring back the firing squad. plus, a spanish bullfight is called off for the first time in 35 years. ♪

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welcome back. two florida children playing in a pool on a sunny day. they grab the handrail to get out. watch as they then go motionless. new video showing the moment they were electrocuted a few weeks ago. a man quickly reacts, getting shocked himself. they're blaming a pool light with faulty wiring. the children are all okay. the governor of pennsylvania says he will not appeal this week's court decision to allow same sex marriage in the state. a court tuesday struck down the state's ban on same sex marriage. the governor opposes the ruling but says an appeal would be, quote, extremely unlikely to succeed. the supreme court halts the execution of a man in missouri. this is the second delay in as many days. justices want to lower court to look at that case again. the inmate argues a rare birth defect would mean extreme pain. lawmakers in wyoming and utah cite shortages of available

drugs for lethal injections. and one official insists here that firing squads would be preferable for inmates saying they would not have to feel the needle and wait for the drugs to work. and a bullfight in spain had to be shut down, all three matadors injured and no one was left to fight the bulls. the men are expected to recover. take you to health news now, a new study saying most women who get a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer do so out of fear, not necessity. researchers at the university of michigan medical school say 70% of healthy breasts removed as a preventative measure had very low risk of getting a tumor. "early today" is brought to you by vagisil, the experts in intimate health. let's get down to business with cnbc's sima modi. good morning. >> a big deal may be in the works to reshape the tobacco industry. reports say reynolds american, the maker of camel cigarettes,

is in talks to merge with lorillard, which makes newports. lorillard is the leader of the fast growing ecigarette market with a top selling blue brand. congressional aide says gm ceo mary barra briefed lawmakers on monday about tignition switc recall. carnival is spending $400 million to reduce air pollution from the diesel engines. they'll use scrubbers to cut sulfur dioxide emissions and plug into the electric grid rather than idle when in port. golfer rory mcilroy says i don't. those stories and all the rest of your sports highlights when we come back. [ male announcer ] coffee is about to change forever.

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this morning on "today"," seth macfarlane is back in the director's chair. he gives us a sneak peek at a million ways to die in the west. that's ahead on "today." to sports now, san antonio is the closest to the nba trophy. san antonio put on a clinic yesterday. fancy passes, monster dunks, nailing threes for an early lead. oklahoma city jabs back with one sweet alley-oop. there, that doesn't stop. danny green here with one of his

seven three-pointers. san antonio rushes 112-77. now 2-0 in the western conference finals. an alleged racist own, surreal season, so good, an l.a. restaurant congratulates the lakers on a great playoff run in the l.a. times. it's the clippers. not the lakers. they didn't do anything. they missed the playoffs in their worst season in history. not those guys. no mistakes for l.a.'s hockey team. down 2-0, los angeles scores an amazing five goals on just 30 sh shots. they beat chicago 6-2, now tied 1-1 in the western conference finals. folks in west liking that one. to the ballpark, bases loaded. tied in extra innings. watch the pitcher's left hand here. by the rules, he started and stopped the pitching motion which allows runners to advance. >> on a miscue by albuquerque, take another look yes, he did.

he flinched. he started and then stopped. >> his left hand moving, cleveland beats detroit 11-10. another gaffe. golfer rory mcilroy bogeys his budding nuptials to tennis star carolyn wozniacki. he calls off the wedding, he says he just was not ready. they are now splitsville. california chrome gets his first belmont workout after getting the green light on his nasal strips. winning belmont, as you probably know, will make him the first triple crown winner since 1978. that's good for more than the colt, though, when there is a triple crown contender, attendance and ratings are at least double when there is not. >> i considered letting sherman up here to the podium today. give him the mike, but we got to go in a little bit, so -- >> yeah, richard sherman, he

didn't mind president obama ribbing him. he laughed. he's making $57 million right now, maybe. the super bowl xlviii winners, the seahawks, got a tour of the oval office in the end. just ahead, another singing competition champ is crowned. plus the battle of the superheroes. new details on the upcoming superman versus batman film. huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know that game show hosts should only host game shows? samantha, do you take kevin as your lawfully wedded husband... or would you rather have a new caaaaaar!!!! say hello to the season's hottest convertible... ohhh....and say goodbye to samantha. [ male announcer ] geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more.

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welcome back. we had a great stretch of weather as we go throughout this week. even going back to last weekend in the northwest. looks like today is the end of that line. we'll see some clouds increasing today. still mild and beautiful. much of oregon and much of washington state and from here unfortunately we'll watch the weather pattern going back kind of more cloudy, gloomy, more ocean available moisture. friday, we'll start with a chance of showers. this is very light. friday afternoon. saturday doesn't look too bad. but on sunday, looks look a more significant frontal still will be coming in with more significant rain on sunday. this could linger into monday. temperatures take a dive without the sun. not just seattle. other airs are similar. won't be as rainy in portland, but we'll be be watching the temperatures and the clouds in the forecast. don't like that for memorial day weekend. >> they can leave their ac off this weekend. we have to -- you're telling me, leave it, like, turn it on. >> a lot of areas in the country will get toasty, right on schedule, heading into june. >> including new york for the first time.

thank you, bill karins. the winner of the 13th season of american idol is bill karins. no. caleb johnson. the 23-year-old rocker beat out runner-up gina irene. caleb is the third american idol winner from north carolina. give me a note. a los angeles judge has ordered casey kasem's wife to allow the radio icon's daughter to see him. the judge granted the daughter the right to make medical decisions on kasem's behalf. the growing rift between his children and wife had culminated in his temporary disappearance earlier. can i say that? x-men days of future past drops tonight. the film is expected to become the highest grossing movie this year, topping $100 million. the superman and batman crossover movie has an official title and logo. it is called batman v. superman, dawn of justice. the bat signal packed on a few

pounds since the dark knight trilogy. a little chubbier, huh? >> superman needs a good movie. it has been a while. >> it has been a while. you always got to like superman. calling all jedis. one lucky fan will win a role on star wars episode 7. j.j. abrams creating force for change. for as little as $10 in donations to unicef, you'll be entered to win a trip to london and role in the next chapter of the star wars saga. ten bucks. >> that's not bad. >> might do it, my friend. >> imagine if you were in it. >> love to do it. i got in line for star wars, i do miss that. i'm richard lui. this is "early today." we hope it is your first stop of the day here on nbc. [ julie ] the wrinkle cream graveyard. if it doesn't work fast... you're on to the next thing. clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair.

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leading the news from cnbc, french rail company orders 2,000 trains too wide for platforms. well, that's a $20 billion mistake, my friends. now officials are scrambling to renovate the flat forms which could cost upwards of $100 million. >> measure twice, cut once. >> these are trains. why don't you measure? you're right. in the washington post, committee okays end to door slot mail for millions. the house oversight and government reform committee says the move would save the u.s. postal service $2 billion annually. interesting, i guess they can hit more mailboxes and don't have to walk up. >> faster. ? stories we're keeping an eye on. people charged with sharing child pornography online. the group includes a police officer, an airline pilot, and a

rabbi. not a joke. officials call it one of the largest roundups of its kind in history. the bear is loose. so said the president, after his stroll on the national mall. the motorcade was waiting to take him to the interior of department but the president decided to hoof it all the way there. and can you spell back tracking. pat say jack said in a recent tweet, global warming alarmists were unpatriotic and racist. he's released a statement calling it all a joke. he also tweeted, quote, as most of you know, original tweet was intended to parody the name calling directed at climate skeptics hyperbole. one little goat is beating the odds by wheeling his way back to health. this is a favorite from all of our producers. back there with one of our producers and she could not stop looking at this little guy. frosty the snow goat born with a life threatening -- made his hind legs useless.

instead of letting the poor little guy suffer, volunteers kept frosty moving by giving him a set of wheels. they hope that moving around will help frosty beat the infection. yes you can google this and, yes, it is -- >> it will make you smile. >> it will make you smile for a long, long time. a look back on this day in 1992, after hosting the tonight show for nearly three decades, johnny carson signing of. >> i can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you and i hope i find something i want to do and i think you'll like and you'll be as gracious and inviting me into your home as i have been. i bid you a very heart felt good night. >> carson kind of like a third parent saying good night to you, right? everybody watched him. happy birthday to speedskater apolo ohno, 32. once upon a time star jennifer goodwin, 36. supermodel naomi campbell, 44. have a great day. thanks for watching "early today."

good morning to you, happy thursday. i'm scott mcgrew. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. let's check that forecast and say good morning to meteorologist christina loren. >> made it to thursday as we like to think about it around here. friday eve, maybe you have all three days off. temperatures are looking good and overcast out there and we'll see a nice, sunny day and warmer afternoon by three to five degrees. right now let's say good morning welcome in mike inouye. >> southbound 101 moving very smoothly and a very light volume of traffic underneath that