slide. mortgage mess. the justice department reportedly begins an investigation into the agency behind the u.s. credit downgrade. and hoodwinked. a gas station surveillance camera captures a bizarre altercation. good morning. i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. today we begin with ready for a vacation. as president obama wrapped up his campaign-style bus tour and prepared for some time off, he is facing more heated attacks from gop opponent rick perry and obama's lowest approval rating yet. a new gallop poll finds just 26% of americans surveyed approve of the way president obama handled the nation's economy.

nbc's brian mooar joins us from washington with more on all this. brian, good morning to you. >> reporter: we're learning the president wants to create jobs by building up infrastructure. he wants help for the long term unemployed, he wants to extend the unemployment tax, but perhaps poboldest of all, he's shooting for $4 trillion in budget cut, far more than the $1.5 trillion that the congressional super committee is shooting for before thanksgiving. but the president also want to the restorm entitform entitleme raise taxes on the rich. rick perry, the republican running to to try to take president obama's job, is on the campaign trail. yesterday in new hampshire. he toned down his message, but he did raise some eyebrows when he said that he does not believe in man made global warming.

>> i do believe that the issue has been lit sized. i think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data. so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. >> and as the president heads off to martha's vineyard, there's a sign they're welcoming him saying the president deserves a vacation. lynn. >> brian mooar for us in washington. thanks. the government is looking into whether standard & poor's improperly rated dozens of troubled mortgage securities in the run up to the financial crisis. during that time, s&p along with other ratings agencies tallied record profits. news of the probe comes in the weeks after s&p drew criticism from washington for slashing the nation's aaa credit rating. but the times points out the

investigation began before that decision was announced. a newly released study shows the disastrous affects this economy has had on american children. the numbers show one in five children in this country live in poverty. that's 14.7 million kids. the study also indicates juvenile poverty increased in 38 states from 2000 to 2009. mississippi had the highest level. 31% of children there are in poverty, while new hampshire had the lowest level at 11%. in joplin, missouri, the opening chapter of one community's comeback story began on the first day of school. three months after a tornado stole the lives of 160 people in the city, smashed 8,000 homes and businesses, and left eight job ly joplin schools in shambles, officials kept their program of opening schools on time. joplin's new high school is

located in an empty store at one of the local shopping malls. the students from one elementary school destroyed by the twister are attending class in an older school that had been closed down. and thanks to a donation from the united arab emirates, each and every high school student received a new laptop computer. good start there. now here's a look at other stories making news today in america. an unfortunate run-in with a driver at a california gas station landed one attendant in a hazardous working condition. the driver took off with the station employee on his hood. the employee held on for half a mile before falling off and suffering serious injuries. police are still searching for the driver. new york city drivers may be known for dicey parking, but this extreme example nearly ended badly for one sanitation worker. his truck dangled from the third floor of a repair shop after he crashed through a wall, leaving the driver trapped in the cab until he could be rescued by

firefighters. the crash is under investigation. one suspect tried to escape capture in ohio, and it came to a soggy ending. the sex offender attempted to speed away from arresting officers leading police on a high speed chase. eventually crashing into a private pool. no one was hurt in the accident or when police arrested the suspect near the scene. , and finally, this will make you feel good this morning. in missouri a delightful exchange between fans played out at the yankees-royals game. what's becoming sort of a trend. a lucky girl who got a foul ball. instead of keeping the memorandum babble souvenir for herself, she paid it forward by handing over the ball to a young boy standing nearby. he was just standing nearby. come on, bill, it's cute. and now the grumpy nbc meteorologist bill karins has your weather channel forecast. sglt kansas city people are mice. what can we say? >> the midwest has good hearts.

>> do you think someone at the yankee stadium would walk over and give kansas city the ball? >> they're only like ten-years on the old. >> at ten in new york city, they are already bitter. >> a weather guy who is bitter. >> it is 5:00 a.m. >> true. >> well, around the country, we saw a beautiful day yesterday. down to florida, showers and stores. let's talk about the weather pattern out there. the heat continues for many areas. summer kind of feels like it's begun to end in the great lakes and new england. ps have been rather cool as of late, but summer is continuing full blast down in texas especially 100 degree heat widespread, also our friends back here in colorado and new mexico. in the southeast, still warm in the 90s. humidity levels have been down a little bit. this is how we did yesterday. notice it was in the low 80s from chicago to minneapolis, boston was at 84, new york 86. still felt like summer in d.c., but that 104 in dallas sticks out like a sore thumb and we'll do it all over again. this morning it's not bad. we're mild, 75 in atlanta, 75 in

d.c., so it's another morning you can roll down the windows as you head out the door. we're still hot in texas and that will be the trend later this afternoon. not a lot of rain out there. we have just a few showers that a weak frontal system, areas along the pennsylvania turnpike have had a couple showers. interstate 80 and western new jersey, you'll get a shower or two. this is a more organized line, even lightning strikes with this. so that will be sliding on 76. possibly towards philly and trenton as we go throughout the peak of the morning rush hour p but those will be hit and his quick showers. forecast for today, temperatures in the hid 80s up and down the east coast. nothing too hot or cold. that will have down pours later this afternoon. continuing your wet and rainy trend, but that's actually good. it's been very dry in florida. we could use the extra rainfall. no such luck in areas of texas. 105 today in dallas. one of the best forecasts in the entire country today, if you're

wake up in chicago, gorgeous, 82, sunny, low humidity. fantastic day to be on the lake shore drive. >> no kidding. close our eyes and go to that happy place. bill, thanks so much. retailers are mixed, techs tumble, and what's the stitch with abercrombie & fitch? your first look at this morning's business headlines oig is straight ahead. coming up, ponzi schemes, nightclubs, and prostitutes. that's college football for you. you're watching "first look" on msnbc.

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welcome back to "first lo " look." here's some of the top stories making news this morning. despite selling ban ki-moon that military and police operations against protesters have ended, activists reported more blood shed overnight. since march, over 1800 civilians may have been killed in syria's uprising.

in libya rebels are closing in on tripoli from the west and south. they have also assaulted a coastal oil refinery in an effort to drive out muammar qadhafi's forces. he is now nearly cornered in his capital stronghold. in tampa authorities have arrested an expelled student who was allegedly behind a catastrophic plot to set off a bomb at his former high school next week. police say the 17-year-old was planning to cause more casualties than the columbine high school tragedy, a massacre that claimed 13 lives. health officials say two children and a young man in three states have died this summer from a brain eating amoeba that lives in the water. the illness is extremely rare, but almost always deadly. about 120 u.s. cases have been reported since it was identified in the 1960s.

last night on piers morgan tonight, christine o'donnell stormed off the set after refusing to answer questions from the host that weren't specifically with the subjects she wanted to talk about. the one time tea party darling balked at questions about witchcraft and sex but accused who a morgan of being rude and walked off after he questioned her about her stance on gay marriage. >> don't you think as a host if i say this is what i want to talk about, that's what we should address? >> not really, no politician. >> i'm being pulled away. we turned down another interview for this. >> where are you going? you're leavinleaving? >> i was supposed to be speaking at the republican women's club at 6:00 and i chose to be a little late for that not to be,

you know -- not to endure a rude talk show host, but to talk to you about -- >> i don't understand why -- >> to talk about the issues that i address in my book. have you read the book? >> yes, but she's are yous are in your book. that's my point. you do talk about them. >> all right. wi are we off, are we done? >> he says he sill wants to talk to you. >> well -- >> it would appear that the interview has just been ended. >> afterwards, morgan said o'donnell's book was good, but joked he now knew why it was titled troublemaker. let's make a switch now. let's take a first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,410 after going up four points. the s&p added a point, but the nasdaq fell 11. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei dipped 113 points, while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 272. worries about the weak economy

and mixed earnings made for another bumpy day on wall street wednesday. dell's disappointing outlook fanned fears about next quarter growth which spread to the broader tech sector. dell was the s&p's worst performer shedding 10%. fellow pc maker hewlett-packard was also hit, falling nearly 4%. the tech slide continued after hours with network management company netapp sliding as much as 14% after missing revenue expectations. elsewhere on the earnings front farm equipment maker deere was one of the biggest drags of industrial shares. abercrombie & fitch had disappointing news. its share dropped more than 8%. on the upside target ended the day 2% higher thanks to better than expected earnings. office supply retailer staples also weighed in with strong earnings thanks to demand overseas. traders also fretted rising inflation could keep the fed from offering another round of

stimulus after news that wholesale food prices ticked higher in july after dropping in june. meanwhile, oil was up nearly $1 a barrel thanks to an unexpectedly large drop in gasoline supplies. a federal judge has dismissed claims that pregnant women and new mothers were discriminated against at financial and media company bloomberg due to lack of evidence. and finally, what's being called a well played publicity stunt abercrombie & fitch has offered to pay "jersey shore" cast member the situation and his cast mates not to wear its clothing on air to protect its brand image. i thought they liked six packs. or at least in their ads they do. according to a greek study, blood injections especially of platelet rich blood seem to have relieve tennis elbow pain.

the treatment uses the patient's own blood best for healing the degeneration of tendons, made platelet rich by spinning it it in a centrifuge to vseparate th blood cells. for more information, check out the health page at msnbc.com. more college football scandal. the mets and the padres splash some leather, and the phillies march on. plus, you make the call. is it a home run or not? your first look at sports is straight ahead. think your kidse getting enough vegetables? maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com.

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welcome back to "first look." in sports, yet another top college football program finds itself tarnished with scandal. this time it's the university of miami. here's fred roggin. good morning. according to yahoo! sports, a university of miami booster gave over 70 athletes improper benefits for nearly a decade. convicted ponzi scheme artist nevi shapiro invited 272 athletes to nightclub outings, cars, and other gifts between 2002 and 2010. the ncaa is doing a full investigation and could throw the book at the university of miami. including the ultimate death penalty, shutting down the football program. and the plot thickens. paul d., the chairman of the

committee that focuses on unc for a lack of institutional control was the athletic director of miami while all of this going down. wilson valdez delivered an rbi off the wall, and the phils won it 9-2. red sox lost a golden opportunity to increase their lead in the east. butler, a home run off the top of the wall. yanks didn't think it went out. the royals were up 4-2. now we go to the ninth, and jorge passada struck out looking. royals won it 5-4. two great defensive plays come back on to the mound. gee was behind the back to make the grab. that's a gold glove caliber grab. one was hit high and deep, but not deep enough. kyle banks leaps on the wall taking away a sure homer. it took everything of the 6'6" frame to pull it in.

the mets won it 7-3. that's your first look at sports. i'm fred roggin. >> and thousand for another quick look at the weather, here once again is bill karins with the weather channel draft. >> not many people need an umbrella today, but if you're leaving right now out the door this philadelphia to trenton, there's a little tiny line of thunderstorms and showers spreading your way. probably be there in about maybe an hour or two hours to now. so just time that out if you're going to be outside, anywhere there trenton to philadelphia, those storming heading through reading and lancaster, harrisburg. a small area of showers and storms. so not a lot of people will get wet. that's the exception more than the rule. temperatures not bad. 60s and 70s this most areas. today's forecast about 20 to 30% chance of you seeing a shower or storm in your area. so you have a 70% chance of being dry all day. thunderstorms just a possibility out there. temperatures similar to yesterday, but administer clouds around today.

so if you're in new england in the mid-atlantic, still a pretty thighs day, just with an isolated pop up shower or storm. as far as tomorrow goes, the concentration of showers and storms will be much greater. so if you're doing any travels, new york airports a bigger concentration of storms adding it to the possibility of delays. showers down in florida, also kansas city and omaha, very hot in texas. and west coast, warm and sunny and dry. >> all right, bill, thanks so much. a long held record is set by the king of pop falls. plus the role this actor allegedly played could earn him an award for grossest performance. this one's bizarre. your first look at entertainment is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc.

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welcome back to "first look." time for entertainment news. five times could be a charm for bruce willis fans. producers are reportedly working on a fifth "die hard" film in which super cop john mcclain's adventures play out in russia. katy perry's single "last friday night" hit number one on the billboards, giving her album "teenage dream" five number ones, tying the record set by michael jackson's 1987 album "bad." actor richard gere not only plays guitar but he is an avid collector, but he is auctioning them off for as much as $1 million to support humanitarian causes. the gibson flying v alone is

expected to go for up to $90,000. and, finally, this ranks right up there in all-time celebrity hissy fits. according to passengers french actor gerrard de pardu allegedly inebriated apparently being denied into the bathroom unzipped and urinated in to the aisle. he was escorted off the plane, but no charges were filed. and they cleaned up the mess. but come on, it's just -- >> how do you not get charged for that? j and wh >> and what would be the charge be? urinating in the aisle? stay tuned, "way too early with willie geist" starts right now. his sweep through the midwest complete, president obama heads to martha's vineyard while the republican frontrunners stay out on the

rail attacking the president's record on creating jobs. the question is after president obama makes his planned job speech after labor day, what meaningful steps can he it take with a republican congress that's shown it doesn't want it dance with him. mean while in syria, president assad tells the united nations his crackdown on protesters is finished, that on the same day another nine people are killed in the streets of that country. the question is what more account international community do with assad beyond all the verbal threats. and former senatorial candidate and nonwitch christine owe donele was back on tv last night for a while any way. then she had to leave in the middle of the interview. the question is what made her walk out and why was she on it chlt tv in the first place? it's way too early for this. good morning, everyone. this is the show that has never