cap of electrodes. i for one welcome our new robot hybrid overlords. best new moment of geek in the world today. until tomorrow, check out my n . "first look" starts now. document drop. hundreds of pieces of newly released evidence sheds new light on the trayvon martin killing. once bitten, a north carolina man has a scary encounter with an alligator. and last dance, legendary disco queen donna summer loses her battle with cancer. good morning, everyone, i'm lynn berry. those stories and more straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. we're going to begin this

morning with the evidence. the state of florida has released nearly 200 pages of documents they will use in the trial of george zimmerman for the shooting death of trayvon martin most of it unseen by the public until now. nbc's kurt gregory has that story. >> reporter: more than 180 pages of documents, witness statements and photographs were released late thursday by special prosecutor angela corey's office. evidence the state says supports their charges against george zimmerman. among the pages, never before seen photos of injuries allegedly sustained by the 28-year-old zimmerman during his confrontation with trayvon martin. and images of the scene where the shooting took place, on february 26th. zimmerman is charged with second degree murder, but has pleaded not guilty under florida's stand your ground law. also within the documents are reports from investigators including one that describes an interview with martin's father, tracy martin, two days after his son's death. the investigator reported "i

asked mr. martin if the voice calling for help was that of his son. mr. martin clearly, emotionally impacted by the recording quietly responded no." martin's mother, sabrina fulton, insisted the screams audible on recorded 911 calls are that of her son. also among the documents, the medical examiner's report, which states the teenager was killed by a gunshot to the heart. toxicology tests performed found that martin had thc, the active ingredient of marijuana, in his bloodstream. >> whether or not he smoked a joint a week before it does not matter. this was an unarmed teenager in a place he had every right to be, who was confronted by a man with a 9 millimeter gun. >> reporter: pages upon pages of evidence in a case that has held the nation's attention for months. curt gregory, nbc news. the fate of john edwards now rests in the hands of a jury, which will begin deliberations today.

in closing arguments yesterday, prosecutors said the former presidential candidate broke campaign laws to cover up on affair. the defense argued that while edwards' actions may have been morally wrong, they weren't criminal. nbc's jay gray reports from greensboro, north carolina. >> reporter: the final round in this high-stakes high-profile case was an epic legal battle. >> it was like a great title tight. this isn't a game or a sport but it felt like ali versus frazier. >> reporter: the first punch thrown by prosecutors who said john edwards planted the "seeds of destruction" before he announced his bid for the white house in december of 2006, with his wife and mistress both in the crowd. the government's lawyers led by robert higdon painted a picture of a greedy, ego-driven politician who, quote, clearly knew the law and decided to violate it in order to salvage his campaign. >> it didn't focus on the criminal intent in any direct way bit higdon made clear that edwards should have known, had

to have known, that these type of moneys, hundreds of thousands of dollars would violate the $2300 limit. >> reporter: next the defense got their turn with the jury. >> really took it to the government head-on. said their entire case relied on andrew young and that the government had a legal standard they couldn't meet. they never were able to show that john edwards knew he was violating the law. >> reporter: attorney abbe lowell called it the most important day in edwards' life and said, quote, please let this sad chapter end and stop with your vird of not guilty. he stressed that edwards may have been a bad husband and lied to his family, but, quote, as many or moral wrongs, he has not committed a legal one. after lengthy and strict instructions from the judge, the focus shifts to the jury. jay gray nbc news, greensboro, north carolina. elsewhere, both wall street and main street are going to be watching this morning when the worldwide social network, that got its start in a harvard dorm room, becomes a publicly traded company. thanks to pricing its stock at $38 a share, before even

selling a share, facebook has already reached record status as the biggest initial public offering in history by an internet company. the deal will raise the social networking giant around $16 billion in proceeds, and value the company at more than $100 billion. of course we'll have much more coming up in business. but first your "first look" at some of the other news going on around america today. in north carolina, an alligator attacked a man who was trying to capture the represent tief along the side of a highway. amazingly the victim was bit in the arm but only suffered minor injuries. he works for an aquarium and was called to the scene after a driver spotted the gator, which was eventually caught. in rhode island, could be a breakthrough for those who are paralyzed. researchers at brown university have just released this video and it shows a robotic arm responding to basic commands given only through a person's thoughts. the robot was able to give the

paraplegic patient a bottle to sip from. a device was attached to the woman's brain allowing a computer to decode messages from her mind, and then send them to the robot. a florida couple had a different kind of self-serve at a gas station. all right here's what happened, a mom-to-be was in labor, dad couldn't make it to the hospital in time, so guess what happened? he pulled into the pumps, ran to the passenger side, and that's right he delivered his own son. the fire department did show up moments later. they cut the umbilical cord. everyone is doing just fine. dad is still recovering. he's having scotch right now. now for a lock at your national weather we turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> probably bought one of those lotto tickets, just got a big gulp, twinkie. >> well deserved. >> yeah. congratulations to them. good morning, everyone. weekend forecast, this is as easy as it gets for me. we're not really looking at

anything bad. we had no tornadoes again yesterday. we did have some nasty storms down in georgia and south carolina and north florida, but this is an area of the country that's in a drought so we actually needed the wet weather. and i tell you what, the middle of this may has been just very, very quiet. remember last year, about this time, was when we had the horrible storm go through joplin and now right here, only 71 tornadoes so far this month. typically in the month of may we get about 257. this is usually our peak month of the year for tornadoes. i don't see many this weekend, either. this is just a great setup. there's a dry air mass across the country. the humidity levels are very low out there. so enjoy it while it lasts. you know that summer is right around the corner. the hot, the humid weather. this will probably be one of those last stretches of really low humidity in almost all areas. the exception, florida not going to be dry all weekend long, especially down by miami. but this front tried to push all the way down to the gulf. so it's very rare this time of year that even southern portions of georgia have low humidity. you'll enjoy that at least today and tomorrow.

warm air already returning in the middle of the country. that's where we'll have a few showers and storms. also, right along the coastline of north carolina and south carolina, we still have some showers by wilmington, and a little thunderstorm just off the coast near charleston. some of these could brush the coastal areas. not the best of beach days in the carolinas today or tomorrow. may improve a little bit by sunday. so your friday forecast, ideal, beautiful afternoon once again in new england, just like yesterday. southeast not bad at all. few thunderstorms down in florida. midwest, warming up, 82 in chicago. minneapolis up to 87. and giving you a little peek to what we're looking at this weekend. saturday looks to be great once again, getting a little bit warmer on the eastern seaboard. that's almost a day you want to spend near the water. 82 in new york, 80 in d.c. chicago 85 on saturday. so, it's just warm just about everywhere. a few thunderstorms out there and wrapping up your weekend forecast, i mean, once again just the central plains is the only issues out there, lynn. >> wrap it up. we get it. >> people like to hear -- people

like to hear good news every now and then. >> really? i know nothing about that. all right, bill, thank you. coming up, big ipo, sharpening the ax at hp, and the shocking price paid for a manhattan penthouse that isn't even built yet. your "first look" at business headlines is straight ahead. coming up, the los angeles kings are a win away from the stanley cup finals and frustration boils over for the miami heat. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. i should be arrested for crimes against potted plant-kind.

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welcome back to "first look" i'm lynn berry. here are some of the top stories making news this morning. newly released video from syrian activists shows the aftermath of a roadside bomb attack on a convoy of united nations cease fire monitors in syria. for their safety the team was forced to spend the night with rebel forces. the observers were unhurt, and later safely evacuated. singer donna summer whose hit included "last dance" has

died at the age of 63 of cancer. in the 1970s era of glitter and platform shoes, summer was known as the queen of disco. queen sofia of spain will not be attending a lunch to celebrate the diamond jubby of england's queen elizabeth. the snub was ordered by the spanish government in response to a recent trip by prince edward to gibraltar, territory which has been disputed by the two countries for many years. in canada, officials say a suspected thief now in prison stole a $20,000 diamond from a jewelry store, and then swallowed it. now prison guards are waiting patiently for nature to take its course. a little too much information there for you. now here's your "first look" at how wall street is going to kick off the day. dow opens at 12,442 after plunging 156 points yesterday. the s&p sank 19 points, nasdaq tumbled 60. overseas trading, in tokyo the

nikkei lost 265 points. in hong kong the hang seng skidded 249. the big question on investors' minds this morning, will it live up to the hype? facebook begins trading on the nasdaq around 11:00 a.m. this morning under the ticker symbol fb. after becoming the world's largest internet ipo there is no doubt facebook stock will pop, but the question is how much? and for how long? will it be able to buck the recent downward trend? broader markets will be under pressure after asian stocks plunged to the lowest level in six months this morning. a downgrade to greece's credit rating and an escalating banking crisis in spain are adding to concerns of a eurozone breakup. in addition to europe's debt worries, weak earnings from caterpillar and gamestop were the biggest drags on the dow and s&p. meanwhile the tech-heavy nasdaq was weighed down by losses in apple and qualcomm.

walmart impressed investors with its best first quarter results in three years. improving sales at gap helped the struggling retailer overcome rising costs. tough times at hewlett-packard have the company planning to cut between 25,000 and 30,000 jobs from its workforce to fund more than a billion dollars in savings. verizon wireless customers are in an uproar over its decision to force customers who were grandfathered in to unlimited data plans to switch to more expensive data sharing plans. and finally, just when you thought it couldn't get worse, a new record for real estate in manhattan. an anonymous buyer has shelled out more than $90 million for a penthouse, it's not even built yet, it's still under construction. that's pretty impressive. last night on the ed show, author and nobel laureate of economics paul krugman talked about recovering from what he

says is a depression. he told ed that emerging from the economic downturn is simple and had nothing to do with the kind of cutbacks suggested by presumptive republican presidential nominee mitt romney. take a listen. >> first and foremost, we need more, not less government spending for the time being. we can talk about cutbacks later on, but when you're in a depression, which is what we're in, when you're in a state where the economy is way below capacity, when the biggest problem is, in fact, just not enough jobs out there, now is the time for the government to be spending more. that's a time for the government to be adding to public investment, not slashing it. it's a time to be hiring more schoolteachers, not laying them off. so that's the answer. it's actually amazingly simple. we could, if we could only, you know, if we would only do the right thing, we'd be out of this faster than anyone imagined. >> lean forward with "the ed show" weeknights on msnbc. health news for you this morning, new research has mapped

the genetic codes of 21 breast cancers. for the first time scientists have been able to catalog the dna mutations that build up in breast cells over time and identify patterns that increase the growth of tumors. the hope is the research will allow breast cancer to be detected earlier and treated more effectively in future. for more information on this and other health stories, you can check out the health page at msnbc.com. the heat go stone cold, the spurs clobber the clippers, unbelievable juggling act by a pittsburgh pirate. the surprising los angeles kings find themselves on the brink of playing for the cup. your "first look" at sports is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories.

welcome back to "first look" i'm lynn berry. in sports last night in indianapolis, it became quite clear a big underdog story may be brewing in the nba playoffs. here's nbc's fred roggin. good morning, the miami heat already playing without chris bosh and dwyane wade disappeared. game three between the pacers and heat, forgettable for wade, scoreless in the first half, finished with five points. frustration boiled over in the third. wade and coach got into it on the bench. while miami was losing its cool, indy was busy winning the game. roy hibbert, 19 points, 18 boards, do you think the heat are missing chris bosh? i'd say so. indy blew out miami 94-75. they lead the series two games to one. now to san antonio, game two

spurs and clippers looked like game one. everybody in the white jersey contributed. five different players scored in double digits. tony parker led the way with 22. celebrated his 30th birthday with a victory. spurs dominated 105-88 they lead the series two games to none. hockey, l.a. one win away from the first stanley cup final since 1993. phoenix up one in the second. a move straight out of the break away handbook, faked out the goalie, put the puck between his legs. his fifth of the playoffs tied it at one. stayed that way until the third. the rookie dwight king has been on a tear lately. kept it going last night, fourth goal in the last three games, kings won it 2-1. they can sweep the coyotes on sunday, game four is on nbc. baseball, the pirates andrew mckitchen did it all against the nationals. belted a home run that gave pittsburgh a 1-0 lead. in the fifth came up big with the glove. adam laroche, mccutchen made a leaping grab. check it out again, he bobbled

the ball in the air, crashed into the wall and held on to make the grab. the sixth, andrew again, another solo shot. two home runs and catch of the night, doesn't get much better than that. pirates won it 5-3. that's your "first look" at sports, i'm fred roggin. now for another look at the weather here once again is nbc meteorologist bill karins. why are we going back to you? >> i honestly -- >> really? don't you get breakfast or something? >> unless the weather forecast has death, destruction or devastation in it you're just not interested. >> i guess so. >> you just don't want to sit there and glaze over and look at the bright sun? >> go ahead. >> here we go. leaving areas of new england this morning, you do want to bring a jacket, a light jacket and even with the kids as they head off to school because temperatures are in the 40s. they'll carry it home later today as it will be another day just like yesterday, chilly start, beautiful afternoon. we're going about 75 throughout much of this region. near 78 in pittsburgh. about good as it gets for a

friday. southeast looks fine. montana, a little bit of light rain. but it looks very nice in so many spots. as we go through the weekend, the only troublesome weather is going to be in the central plains with some isolated storms. really not much of a problem out there. i don't think we'll have much severe weather, either. as we go into sunday that cold front will drag toward chicago with a chance of a late afternoon shower or storm really late in the day. kansas city, too, a slight chance of rainy weather. and you know, lynn, for once, much of the country just like honolulu. sunny and very nice. >> so we don't have to be jealous of them. >> i'm sure the death, destruction and devastation will return sooner or later. >> oh, yeah. i'll be in charge of that. hand that right over. coming up the lowdown on the new films at the weekend box office. will the stars and special effects of "battleship" or the crazy comedy of "the dictator" have what it takes to knock "the avengers" out of the top spot? your "first look" at entertainment is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc.

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welcome back to "first look." little entertainment news for you. look for more records to fall this weekend at the box office as surprise, surprise, "the avengers" rings up yet another number one finish. >> decker has a movie. >> unfortunately that's not enough. after earning $50 to $55 million by sunday, the 17th day of release, "the avengers" should reach $450 million total, of course that would be a record. >> are you seeing it for a third time? >> i'm seeing it for the second time this weekend. i fell asleep at the beginning the first time. "battleship" stars liam neeson and a slew of young stars

including rihanna, but for all the hype and its $200 million overseas earnings, "battleship" is not going to challenge "the avengers." most experts see it taking in a robust but second place, $35 million to $45 million. most other weekends the comedy "what to expect when you're expecting" might also have finished on top. it will attract -- >> read the book. >> not just women are going to be interested in the comic book heroes and special effects so it should earn about $15 million to $20 million. finally, sacha baron cohen "the dictator" is expected to do respectable bus like his previous "bruno" but not blockbuster business like "borat." it should take in $15 million to $20 million. despite the many publicity stunts he's been attempting to create some buzz with. >> master of pr. >> yes. >> apparently it's not going to work so well. you really don't think "the avengers" is going to take the

top spot? go i'm just over it. >> were you over it like three weeks ago when we started talking about it? >> that with be unmainstream of me. >> i'm lynn berry. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tubed, with the with the with willie geist starts right now. facebook stock starts trading publicly about 5 1/2 hours from right now, with the company that was an idea in a dorm room eight years ago, now valued at $104 billion. that's more than mcdonald's and many, many other iconic american companies. the question is, could facebook possibly be worth that kind of money? we'll talk live to andrew ross sorkin in a minute. meanwhile the reverend jeremiah wright returns four years later to presidential politics as mitt romney denounces a proposal from an outside group to bring president obama's one-time spiritual leader into this campaign. the question is, should romly be held responsible for the rejected ideas of a thi