welcome to wednesday, may 6. breaking news on "early today," just this past hour a new report details how the co-pilot who crashed germanwings flight 2545 in the alps rehearsed his descent on the previous flight. first, the flight of the century, now floyd mayweather and manny pacquiao are slapped with multimillion dollar lawsuits. today the federal government is giving rare approval for large heavy-duty drones to enter our airspace. plus a bizarre, beautiful day accident as a tree falls on kids in a playground. still recovering from a major bike accident bono and his u2 bandmates rock grand central station. that and much more as "early today" starts right now. good morning, everyone i'm alex witt. we start with breaking news.

brand-new findings in the case of the plane that crashed into the alps in late march. french investigators now say the co-pilot andreas lubitz practiced a crash maneuver on the previous flight that same day. that's according to a preliminary report released in the last few hours. it says the 27-year-old co-pilot set the altitude dial on the airbus a320 to 100 feet five times while alone in the cockpit on the dusseldorf. it was a $100 million spectacle, the fight of the century. but now manny pacquiao and floyd mayweather are slapped with separate lawsuits. first, boxer manny pacquiao is hit with a $5 million class action suit for failing to disclose his shoulder injury before the big bout. if you paid any money for the fight, either a ticket, a bet or pay-per-view, it was filed on your behalf over what it called fraud and conspiracy.

basically the plaintiffs say viewers didn't get what they paid for. the injury apparently happened during training, the pac-man said it didn't start bothering him until some time during this fourth round. floyd mayweather has his own legal fight, too with his ex-girlfriend the mother of his three children. it's for $20 million according to court documents obtained by e! online. she says he lied about beating her and defamed her in an interview with yahoo!'s katie couric when he said, quote, did i restrain a woman on drugs? yes, i did. even with all that, mayweather told espn he would be willing to fight manny pacquiao again after recovery. drones are becoming increasingly popular in everyday life. today the head of the federal aviation administration is expected to unveil two new initiatives concerning the unmanned aircrafts. by one estimate the united states could see 1 million unmanned flights a day the next 20 years. the government is eager to encourage innovation while still safeguarding the skies. nbc's tracie potts is live in washington.

good morning, tracie. what can we expect from the faa's announcement today? >> reporter: two separate announcements at that drone conference in atlanta. that are likely to follow up on what they're already working on the proposed rules for drones under 55 pounds. those came out, the proposeal in february. since then, alex, they've had more than 4,500 comments just in the last couple of months about these rules. the business community, the drone industry they're very eager to see these rules in place. reerlts and surveyors and journalists like us, even restaurants and delivery services who want to use these drones. but as you said there are safety concerns. we saw one crash on the white house lawn when it got out of line of sight of its operator. that's one of the proposed rules that they have to keep it in line of sight. and there are also concerns about commercial aircraft. what happens if they get too close to a plane in the air? there are also rules that are dealing with that. so the faa is hashing it out.

but before that we're expecting to get these new proposals coming out of that conference in atlanta later today. >> boy, i don't know a million drones a day, pretty incredible. thank you, tracie potts from washington. a new twist in the freddie gray death investigation. wbal is reporting that a baltimore officer charged believes the arrest was legal. that officer is edward nero. he says the knife gray had on him was barred under city law. prosecutors claim it wasn't. nero wants the state's attorney's office to produce the knife. so far it's been kept out of sight. tu loretta lynch was in baltimore. she met with gray's family. the city's mayor, also police. and here's what she told officers. >> i know that there are difficulties. i know that we have struggles, and we are here to help you work through those struggles. but to all of you who are on the front lines, i just want to say thank you. >> and this sunday in baltimore which also happens to be mother's day, pop icon prince will perform a concert he's

calling rally for peace. a portion of the proceeds will benefit baltimore-based youth charities. prince is urging attendees to wear the color gray in honor of freddie gray. near boston a park scare caught on camera. a massive tree falling on top of a group of children. it happened at a park in chelsea, massachusetts. two boys ages 8 and 2 were sent to the hospital. the youngest suffering a fractured skull. the other scratches and three stitches to his head. >> a tree fell on us. >> everybody was shaking, screaming. the kids was crying. >> you can imagine, right? no word on why that 35 had much foot tree fell. as a precaution the park was closed until an inspection of the other trees is completed. a quick-thinking mom figured out an ingenious way to get help when she and her kids were being held hostage in her home. she used a pizza-ordering app to alert the authorities. it happened monday in highland county, florida. and wfla's peter bernard has the details. >> we've never seen that before.

>> reporter: during the monday afternoon shift at the avon park pizza hut -- >> the order comes through, and she had edited her ticket. so on the bottom it said "hostage, help." and on the top, it said "get 911, help." >> reporter: using the restaurant's cell phone app, the victim ordered a small hand-tossed classic pizza with pepperoni with two secret messages added. did you think someone was playing a prank on you? >> no no because i've been here 28 years, and i've never, never seen nothing like that come through. >> reporter: so they called 911. highlands county deputies went to the pizza place and the address on the order. they tell me ethan nickerson held his girlfriend and three children hostage inside the home for most of the day while sharpening a large hunting knife. >> if i'm standing here with a knife in my hand and sharpening it and plooking at you and making the statement that i'm going to kill you, you know and i've already done some violence to you, you know how are you going to take that message? >> reporter: when deputies arrived, nickerson's girlfriend

ran to them with a baby in her arms. nickerson wouldn't come out. >> his first words were of course, i'm not coming out because i know i'm going to jail. >> reporter: but after some negotiations, he did come out. summoning 911 through a pizza-ordering app is a first for this agency. >> i don't know if i ever would have thought of that. i mean it's just something she did so naturally. the boyfriend never knew about it until he saw us coming around the corner. >> reporter: the mother and her kids are safe. the father is in jail. >> that was peter bernard reporting. a bizarre discovery in the colorado river had authorities searching for human remains according to an arizona sheriff's department. a snorkeler spotted skeletons in the water so alerted authorities while a diver went in with a camera and found that they were actually two fake skeletons sitting in lawn chairs. both skeletons are seen wearing sunglasses. sheriffs said they were relieved to find plastic versions instead of the real thing. check out this huge funnel cloud as it becomes a tornado in western texas when the twister

touched down. roger hill who shot the video could not believe what he was seeing. >> holy crap, look at this thing! >> yeah i get that, right? the tornado passed several homes but none were struck by it. have you ever seen a tornado? >> i have. i did a little storm chasing when i was in kansas. roger, he storm chases a lot. he may have been playing to the camera a little bit. i mean, it's not like the first tornado he ever saw. >> we need to introduce you. bill karins, everybody. >> hey. yeah i'll take you tornado chasing with me sometime. >> i would love to. >> you would do it? >> mm-hmm. >> it's a long time in a car together, i'll warn you. exactly. good morning, everyone. showers and storms are continuing in the middle of the country. this is where all the problems are going to be as we go throughout the next couple days. that's where they are this morning. we had a couple tornado warnings. we haven't had any damage reported. so that's the good news out of this area of the country. and as we continue throughout the next couple days there's a slight risk of storms today and tomorrow. but, again, it's nothing that's

all that horrible. large hail damaging wind. a few tornadoes are possible. about 3 million people at risk. and we could even see hail as big as baseball size. oklahoma city wichita falls, the biggest cities included today. tomorrow, dodge city woodward amarillo and lubbock. we're avoiding a lot of the highly populated areas. so hopefully the storms remain over the rural areas out in the open fields. rainfall totals could be impressive. upwards of six to seven inches in the middle of the country. then there's the question what's going to happen off the southeast coast. this could possibly become subtropical storm ana over the next couple days. that would be an early start to our hurricane season. i think it's going to have very little impacts there in the caro today. a nice day in seattle. we could have a subtropical storm, could have a tornado.

stuff to cover. >> yeah lots to cover. things keeping you busy. irish rockers u2 go underground and undercover. plus which presidential candidates do america's millionaires prefer? there's a startling new poll on that. and is that traditional thanksgiving turkey dinner in jeopardy? details next. little miss puffytail thinks every time someone enters this room. for while the people who come in here can use quilted northern, a toilet paper that works so well they can completely forget their experience... ...little miss puffytail can never forget. she can dream. dream for the sweet, sweet swing of a careless elbow. quilted northern. designed to be forgotten.

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now that's clean. ♪ nexium 24hr. it's the purple pill. the #1 prescribed acid blocking brand. available without a prescription for frequent heartburn. get complete protection. nexium level protectiontm. officials are going all out to head off a major threat in california. catastrophic drought. a state board has approved mandatory and emergency drought rules for cities and agencies to save water cutting usage between 8 and 36%. and this morning, the u.s. forest service says drought has killed 12.5 million trees, about one for every three people living in california. it's early may, but farmers are worried that there could be a turkey shortage come thanksgiving. right now over 21 million turkeys have been put down because of bird flu in the worst-ever u.s. outbreak. minnesota, the nation's top turkey producer, has been

hardest hit. in new york subway performers are pretty common but not like this. that band playing u2 songs, that's actually u2 in grand central station. it's one of the first performances since bono had that awful cycling accident. jimmy fallon was there, too, so it may have something to do with the band's big appearance on "the tonight show" this friday. and a new self-driving heavy freight truck is hitting the open road in nevada. it's called the freightliner inspiration. it's supposed to cut down on accidents. this is another instance when "the simpsons" accurately predicted the future, this from 1999. ♪ >> hey, look, nobody's driving. >> what? >> relax, everybody. the navitron auto-drive system is driving the truck for me. but keep it a big secret. it's a big scam, okay? >> noh! let's get down to business with

cnbc's landon dowdy. >> alex good morning to you. hillary clinton is seen as the favorite among the wealthy to win the white house in 2016. the new cnbc millionaires survey shows clinton would edge out former florida governor jeb bush and beat out a broader group of candidates including senator elizabeth warren. millionaires don't always predict winners, though. in 2012 they favored mitt romney. and jetblue will start offering a daily flight between new york and havana. it's the first major u.s. airline to offer service since travel ee strikzs srestrictions were eased. and pizza hut will start testing an uber-like delivery service in the dallas area. it will let customers track their delivery drivers from the time they order until the time the pizza is on their doorstep. pizza hut is hoping to go national but it won't say when. back over to you. it sounds crazy, a couple facing 15 years in prison for having sex. plus tiger's admission in

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this morning on "today," one month down, 11 to go. savannah checks in with astronaut scott kelly aboard the international space station and his identical twin mark kelly to find out how things are going with nasa's first ever study of twins. in sports nail-biters in

canada as the ducks take on the flames. in the third period ducks lead 3-2 with about 6:00 left, flames rookie sam bennett gets the goal to tie the game. wait. the ref says no goal. ducks still have the lead. with under 20 seconds to play, flames able to sneak one past the goalie and force overtime. mikael backlund from 50 feet out finds the back of the net and the go-ahead goal. flames hand the ducks the first loss of the play-offs 4-3. carlos perez made his mlb debut last night for the l.a. angels. bottom of the ninth and the game is tied. perez knocks it out of the park there to give the angels a 5-4 victory over the seattle mariners. perez's first walk-off home run. not bad, right, for his first day on the job. tiger woods coming off a brutal weekend. woods just split from a three-year relationship with olympian lindsey vonn as well as sunday marking the ninth anniversary of his father's passing.

this is what he had to say about this weekend. >> this three-day window is hard. i haven't slept. it's been -- these three days, march 3 -- sorry, may 3rd through the 5th, today, is brutal on me. and with obviously what happened on sunday, it just adds to it. >> woods is in florida gearing up for the players championship this weekend, his first tournament since the masters after injuring his wrist. a special night at the sports emmys last night. ernie johnson won the award for best studio host. check out what he did with his award. >> as for this, there's only one place it belongs and that's on the mantle at stuart scott's house. if the girls could come up, please, this is not for me. we love stuart scott. this is your emmy. >> incredibly thoughtful. johnson giving the award to the late stuart scott who passed away in january battling cancer.

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now for entertainment news, ellen albertini known to many as the rapping granny from "the wedding singer" has died. though she didn't get into acting till her 70s, she made a name for herself as a hilarious if not child-friendly grandma. albertini was 101. on "the price is right," a contestant in a wheelchair bid on a showcase that had some in the audience cringing. >> welcome to the show. nice to see you. what's going on? >> i'm so excited right now. >> you thought you'd never get up here. you were close a couple times. here she is. george, what have you got for her? >> a couple of prizes. we've got a treadmill and a new sauna! >> happily she did win the showcase, but responding to criticism, cbs and freemantel media said every member of the audience has a chance to be selected to play. prizes are determined in advance of the show and are not decided based on contestants. >> she's going to sell it and

have fun with the money elsewhere. >> maybe swap it out. it's kind of a unique situation. also jimmy fallon poking fun at nbc's summer plans. >> some tv news here. nbc has adopted netflix's strategy for its latest summer tv series, "aquarius." that seems ridiculous. i can't imagine nbc ever using the netflix format. how could it work? skip to the next episode. i love netflix. i just don't see that whoing for nbc. this is pretty interesting. >> i have a confession. i've never used netflix. >> what? >> never, ever. >> i just started a short time ago, but i'm now a pro. i'll teach you. it's all good. i'm alex witt, and this is "early today." >> does it have lessons? >> sometimes, yeah. what do you got? restrained driver in a motor vehicle. sir, can you hear me? two, three. just hold the bag. we need a portable x-ray, please! [ nurse ] i'm a nurse.

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leading the news in "the miami herald," couple found guilty of having sex on florida beach. it took jurors only 15 minutes to hand down the verdict after they were shown video of the couple allegedly in the act and heard witnesses testify that a 3-year-old girl saw them. the two face up to 15 years in prison and will have to register as sex offenders. on nbc.com, frank freshwater, a convict who escaped prison, arrested after 56 years. an ohio cold case unit managed to track down the 79-year-old in florida where he's been living under an alias. he escaped in 1959 from an ohio prison where he had been doing time for a probation violation that resulted in a manslaughter conviction. hillary clinton was in las vegas for cinco de mayo. she spoke with a group of undocumented students about her

immigration reform policy. one plan, to expand president obama's executive order to allow their parents to stay in the u.s. as well. during the roundtable discussion, clinton also contrasted her efforts against her republican opponents. >> today not a single republican candidate announced or potential is clearly and consistently supporting a path to citizenship, not one. when they talk about legal status, that is code for second-class status. meanwhile at the white house, president obama also advocated for immigration reform while acknowledging the mexican holiday and called out opposition to reform. >> it's so challenging when you know the right thing to do and there are folks blocking your way and obstacles in your path. but i just want to remind everybody that progress is not always a straight line. >> speaking of progress, a

relationship between cuba and the u.s. seems to be improving even more. the u.s. government just approved the first ferry service in decades to the caribbean nation. the ferries will run between florida and havana. talk about a smashing good time, u.k. residents had off for a national holiday on monday, and some decided to celebrate by oh sure yeah holding a car-jumping competition, right? one mechanic jumped his car pulling a camper behind him. what is going on there? then came back he wanted to land on the camper's roof, but he ended up bursting through and clearing the entire line of cars. >> now that's a holiday. >> okay. celebrating birthdays, speaking of holidays, actor george clooney turns 53. tony blair turns 62 and willie mays is 84. thanks for watching "early today." i'm alex witt. have a great day on this wednesday.

newsroom on the germanwings plane crash. investigators say the pilot rehearsed the crash on a previous flight. headline name in the race for the white house. stopping by the bay area. how the visit might affect your commute. plus not an accident. how police say a pool full of rescued sea lions got burned. a live look outside this morning. the golden gate bridge. it is wednesday, may 6th. you are watching "today in the bay." >> from nbc bay area this is "today in the bay." >> good wednesday morning. it's 4:30. i'm sam brock. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. lots to get to this morning. we're halfway through our workweek, christina. >> halfway there.