meaning of the word fact from the dark and airless hole you stuffed it into, then it is not okay to make this stuff up. you are truly terrible. fact checking has to count for something and politifact, you are ruining it for everyone.>> . first on "first look," how did neighbors realize something strange was going on inside that find where three women were held captive. that story has cap cured the nation. i am happy they found their daughters and they're alive and safe. >> tensions will be running high in washington today as we examine the death of four u.s. diplomats in benghazi begin. plus a political comeback for disgraced senator mark sanford, stocks soared to an all time high.

why is that man clinging to the car for good life? >> good morning, we begin in the case of three ohio women held captive for a decade. in 2004, investigators visited the home where the women were being held after calls from neighbors about suspicious behavior, but they never went inside. today, investigators are trying to figure out what happened inside those doors. more relatives are anxiously awaiting their arrival home. >> distraught and happy, i told her i missed her and wow, it's so great. >> doctors and therapists are quick to say they have a long road ahead. we spoke with kelly wallace. >> these families have to wrap their arms around these young

women and make sure they get all the help and support they need to go on and lead healthy, normal lives. >> meanwhile the three brothers at the center of the investigation remain in police custody and charges could be filed as early as today. nbc's ron allen has the latest. >> reporter: the three brothers are ariel castro, 52, pedro castro, 54 and onil castro, 50. it is ariel the neighborhood knew the best. he often gave rides in his all terrain vehicle. the three women were all last seen in a five-block radius and held in castro's find about 3 miles away. the castro brother's uncle held a store. >> they might have been living two different lives. >> some thought the find was vacant, a place ariel checked on from time to time. a few were concerned. >> he wouldn't open no windows,

no doors, only the attic window. >> i have had family members call the police. they've knocked down the door, nothing. >> police say they answered calls twice on the street, once before the women disappeared and if 2004 to question arrial castro about a child mistakenly left behind on his school bus. no charges were filed. >> what we have sheer a psychopath and possibly three. usually we have a ring leader when there is more than one, that would be the one who owns the find. >> it turns out the castros have ties to one of the women rescued. gina dejesus. ariel's daughter appeared in this ep seed of the most wanted and said she was the last to see gina alive. my mom said, no, i can't go over her find. so i told her i couldn't. she said, well, okay, i'll talk to you later and she slumped.

>>p college student wrote the d student's disappearance in 2004. pedro castro was near the sne s. he told reporters the search was quote a waste of money. amanda berry's 6-year-old child wassals taken from the home. authorities say the victims were repeatedly rained and cleveland station wkyc reports as many as five pregnancy os kurd among the women during their time in captivity. mark sanford the former south carolina governor predicts 54% of the vote in a congressional election defeating elizabeth colbert busch. he held that same seat in 2005 to 2001. sanford's political career ended after an extra marital affair

with an argentinian woman came to life. the two are now engaejd. on wall street the dow jones industrial average made history on tuesday t. dow rallied 87 points yesterday to close above 15,000 for the first time in its 117-year history. we'll have much more on that just ahead in business. two capitol hill now where some congressional republicans are calling new testimony into the obama administration's handling of the deadly attacks on the u.s. consulate in benghazi a damming indictment. nbc's tracy potts joins us from washington. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. that testimony coming from gregory hicks. he was the no. 2 diplomat in libya when a consulate was set up and attacked last fall. two ambassadors were killed. now in this testimony, we have a preview of what he's going to say today. hicks said there were special

operations force, four available in tripoli. he asked for them and the military denied him. the state department saying those forces were needed to protect the embassy in tripoli. he also says he wanted jets scrambled overhead in benghazi to try to deter the attackers, but the military says that also was not possible because it would have taken them five hours to get there. they didn't have a midair refueler tank available. nevertheless, it is expected to be explosive testimony today. those lawmakers digging into whether the panel that investigated benghazi have as the panel chairs would say unfettered access to everyone who needed to testify. they're questioning whether or not people who had testimony on this were held back. we'll hear more on that today. >> all right, nbc news' tracy potts live in washington. thank you so much. president obama said the costs would be severe if they didn't intervene into the civil war but the answers won't come

easy. >> my job is to constantly measure our very real and legitimate humanitarian and national security interests in syria. >> it has intensified, recently, israeli confirmed, carrying out airstrikes. the government believes the government of bashir a.m. assad probably used chemical weapons against his people. an estimated 70,000 people have been killed so far in that bloody conflict. choice words from the pentagon as the military releases sexual assault on the military. >> sexual assault an outrage. it is a crime. that is true for society, at large, and if it's happening inside our military, then whoever carries it out is betraying the uniform that they're wearing. >> the numbers came just one day after an air force officer in charge of preventing sexual assault was charged with sexual battery. the pentagon estimates

unreported sexual assaults last year skyrocketed from 19 to 26 tough. . the number of reported assaults rose 6%, more than 3300, all resulting in more than 232 convictions. now, here's your first look at this morning's dish of scrambled politics. the tables were turned on bill clinton tuesday when talk of a woman president was not about hillary. he got into a humorous exchange. >> her leadership is unmatched, her work for the poor family, so i have to ask it, mr. gates, when is melinda jumping into politics? >> i don't think melinda is going to run for president she hasn't mentioned it to me. >> she hasn't mentioned it to me, either. >> when it comes to trust, more persons put their faith in clint eastwood than the leader of the

free world. the readers ranked him no. 13th the most trusted people in the nation, president obama came in no. 65. he says one thing can you count on him is dance moves. he thanked his daughters for making him hip. >> and, of course, around the world, people are being swept up by korean culture the korean wave and as i mentioned to you, my daughters have taught me a pretty good gangnam style. senator leahy has added an amendment. the proposal would allow gay americans to sponsor their foreign born partners. the first state has become the 11th to sign same-sex marriage. they had final approval from the state senate. couples can begin marrying july

1st. secretary jack lew will not be doing the old change, he has changed his loopty loop style. one you can take to the bank. speaking of whacky signatures, we have been joined by bill kierein with the weather. >> could we replicate that? is it the same all the time? >> the new one? >> no, the old one. we have rain, overall, it's a quiet forecast morning. if we have travel delays. the airport could have problems this morning along with the roads and the morning commute. so heavy rain has come off the ocean. we'll try to move up along the jersey shore towards new york city during the peak and light rain around pittsburgh. this is the same storm system that brought rain yesterday to virginia and carolina. showers are still in d.c.

as far as the forecast today, a lot more clouds than new england. the humidity is up a bit. we could spark a shower or a thunderstorm. the other concern is in the middle of the country, a chance of severe storms. i will tell you who is most at risk of getting tornadoes and large hail a little later. coming up, surpriseding new statistics on gun-related crimes in homicides that will add fire to the gun control debate. plus, the bizarre disspite that led to this man being dragged by the car and why police want to talk to the driver. "first look" is back in 30. . i'm so glad you called. thank you.

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some stories making news this morning, gun crimes have plunged since its peak in the '90s. gun statistics show they fell 39% between 1993 and 2011. the suspect in the colorado movie theater shooting plans to enter an insanity plea. james homes is accused of

killing dozens last summer. the obama administration is planning to back the overhaul laws. a proposal would make it easier to wiretap suspects who communicate online as opposed to traditional phone services. finally, cellphone video from april shows a man clinging to a woman's car after she took off from the scene of a hit-and-run. she hit the gas and drove an as she climbed through the windshield. police are looking for that run-away driver. we have your wednesday morning headlines. seema, good morning. >> good morning t. dow is sitting at a record high closing above the 1500 mark for the first time yesterday. the dow first closed in 2012. it took the year hit 14,000. three months ago from 14 to 15,000 t. dow has campaigned nearly 15% this year.

in other news, yahoo is seeking a way out of its search with microsoft. the ceo marissa miers wants to end the contract. yahoo isn't interested. their revenues have done worse under the deal it was going at alone. target is test agnew program on using facebook accounts. people will be able to select discounts kwaun online but can only redome them in target stores, not on the web. paur ra. >> so you have to actually go into the store. new this morning, toikt reporting its quarterly profit nearly doubled. coca-cola is spend $2 billion to juice the florida citrus business to the tune of 25,000 acres. in the process, they will add 4,100 jobs. a new study shows taxpayers employ more low-wage workers

than mcdonald's and walmart combined. they pay about $12 an hour or less. that may be why the nonprofit organization mars one says in less than two weeks, a staggering 78,000 people have applied to become red colony residents in 2003. meanwhile, moms are taking a pay cut. they report the market value is $58,862 down from just over $60,000 last year. and speaking of mom, how about giving her the biggest diamond rio brriolette, this stunner is expected to catch $12 million later this month. straight ahead, governor chris christie talks about his battle with the bulg bulge when "first look" returns.

comforts us as we grow old. .

you think i need this? he said to me, if you came in here with cancer and i told you that i have a 40-minute surgery that gave you a 90% chance of cure, would you sign up? and it just really crystallized for me, i said, yeah, i would. he said, then why wouldn't you do that to cure obestity. >> governor chris christie speaking about his decision to choose lap-band surgery.

well, it's time now to dig a little deeper on some of our top political stories. joining me from our d.c. bureau, morris. you heard governor chris christie had lap-band surgery. he said it was for his family. that's a factor. how do you think much of it had to do with his constant cruelty of his weight. >> there is two sides. politically, it will be a positive for him if the surgery works. it humanizes him in that story. the other side, rex ryan, the jet's football coach got surgery. the last time i checked, rexy is not running for office. i would view this as one that does not hurt him politically at all. turning to another

confirmation, governor mark sanford, he left office in disgrace. yet he still won, what do you make of all that? >> well, this was an interesting combination of republicans supporting him. you had moran paul, ron paul from the tea party. you had senator lindsey graham from south carolina a moderate conservative, even though they disagree on immigration, for example. this was an outpouring of support by mark sanford. he's bucked leadership in the past. honestly, it's a pleasant surprise for me and good for mark sanford and shows american politics is all about comebacks. we have seen that time and time again in american history. >> lastly, we reported about the latest reader's di guest poll showing clint eastwood is more trust worthy than president obama? >> sandra bull sloc in the top

five. i think americans love their tv stars who were in the '90s before clint eastwood's time. i think it's less of a testament of how bad he has been, which i think he has been and more americans trust their tv or their movies. >> i can't disagree with tom hanks being no. one. boris, thanks for get bill karins is back again. >> good morning, i mentioned the chance of storms tonight. we had a quiet may as far as tornadoes have gone. we had a few today, especially in kansas, oklahoma maybe down here in areas of texas, this area of yellow, we call eight slight risk of severe storms. these are very calm. again, it's been so quiet that any storms will kind of be a little different. as far as what we will deal with again later they could roll towards minneapolis, dallas, you are fine during day lite hours. it won't be until later in the hours, i think the worst of it

will be around new york city this morning. if you are flying anywhere in your connecting flights, it could be a mess. >> lucky us. thanks, bill. just ahead, huge numbers. watch nbc's telecast of the kentucky derby. plus a timor of two toms. can you guess what? coming up. in her new volkswagen... before her passat had passed 30 different inspection tests, .

golf with the president, senator chambliss, shot a hole in one. he started immediately bragging, like, how does that feel? obama is like, i don't know, like winning two elections in a

row? >> well, who's named the least trusted movie star? it shouldn't come as much of a surprise, according to a reader's di gest poll, kristen stewart was named the least trusted and tom cruise and tom hanks named the most trusted. a brand-new elvis exhibit is opening in graceland, this time with hawaii. he has guitars, pendants and a diamond-studded belt. >> and hawaiian shirts. the "office" has been supersized. >> are you a fan? >> i am. i'm devastated. >> are you lying. you are so full of it. the kentucky derby made the eventt the second large it tune in since 1989. an justin bieber was pulled over in dubai for speeding in a white lamborghini. officials say the beebes racked

up a number of speeding fines. >> poor beebes, can he afford it? what happens if you get tickets in dubai, will my insurance go up? >> stay tuned, "way too early" starts right now. these girls, these women are so strong, stronger than i am. i will tell you that much. and they all have a positive attitude and this is what we need from everyone. we need to still be a family, neighborhood with neighborhood. we need to watch out for all kids, really. watch who your neighbor is, because you never know. >> we have new details on the almost surreal story of survival. three women escape after being held prisoner for years in a cleveland, ohio home.

now we know just how close police were to ending it back in 2004ment we'll have a live report coming up. good morning, everyone, i'm brian shactman. thanks for being with us. congressman sanford or should i say congress-elect sanford, we'll hear from the newly elected representative from south carolina as he writes the next chapter of his comeback story. speaking of comeback, the memphis gridslys trying to find a way to stop kevin durant. not exactly a household name. first, back to our top story on this wednesday. we are learning new details about the kidnaping of the three young women held captive in a cleveland home. police were literally on the doorstep of making the discovery in 2004. they showed up at the scene after suspect ariel castro a school bus driver left behind a passenger.