yet another u.s. soldier in this case in a leadership position in sexual assault prevention himself under investigation tonight for sexual assault. unbelievable. do you believe this week? good wednesday morning. right now on "first look," washington awash in controversy, surrounding the irs' targeting of conservative groups, the benghazi investigation, and the attorney general's remarks about the a.p. phone records subpoena. >> i have to say this is among if not the most serious leaks i've ever seen. it put the american people at risk. and that is not hyperbole. >> reaction from across the country to angelina jolie's revelation of a double mastectomy. the u.s. embassy employee

allegedly involved in russian espionage. accusations that tiger woods lied at the players championship. and can men ever really feel what women experience during childbirth? good morning. the irs scandal is getting more serious after a harsh report by the inspector-general. it finds one irs office used what it calls inappropriate criteria to single out groups for extra scrutiny. this morning, president obama is directing treasury secretary, jack loo, to find those responsible. >> reporter: good morning. here on capitol hill, the grilling is already under way to some degree. the acting head of the irs sat down with the senate finance chair. and what was described as a pretty tough meeting. that's one of three committees here that wants to investigate.

we now have the full report on the irs scandal. here's what's new. low-level irs employees made up rules that were unfair. their bosses weren't paying attention. so the rules stayed in place for a year and a half. >> we want to know exactly who knew what and when. how high up did it go? did the white house know about it? >> reporter: the extra scrutiny left some groups in limbo for three years. but even today, the irs is not agreeing to all the changes the report recommends to fix it. the bottom line is, it was wrong, president obama said in a statement last night. he's ordering the treasury secretary to put all those fixes in place quickly. and the attorney general's veginveg i investigating. >> reporter: there is a reason why the irs is tough on nonprofits. >> shadowy, political group s

masquerading as social welfare organizations. >> reporter: was it a mistake or politically-motivated. >> when the irs starts behaving like a rogue agent that considers itself above the law, we've entered dangerous territory. >> reporter: he and others want the acting head of the irs to resign. the irs is defending itself. not defending inappropriate actions. but the agency also says it wants to point out that the irs is legally required to make sure the nonprofits are not engaged in too much political activity. >> thanks so much. now, to the other crisis facing the obama administration involving the justice department and associated press. at issue is a 2012 a.p. report

revealing cia's role thwarting a terror plot. they call that article a serious leak. >> this is among, if not the most serious, it is within the top two or three, most serious leaks that i've ever seen. it put the american people at risk. and that is not hyperbole. it put the american people at risk. and trying to determine who is responsible for that, i think required very aggressive action. >> holder recused himself from the matter because of a conflict of interest. the white house maintains it had no prior knowledge of the a.p. investigation. for the second time in as many weeks, a military member in charge of protecting victims of sexual assault is facing allegations of it himself.

he is accused of forcing one soldier into prostitution. and for sexually assaulting at least two others. the sergeant first class has been suspended. and no charges have been filed. meanwhile, defense secretary chuck hagel is ordering all sexual assault personnel in all services to go through a new training and screening program. this, as a recent pentagon report revealed that unreported military sexual assaults are growing. now, to russia, where accusations of spy games. they are ordering 29-year-old u.s. diplomat brian fogle to leave the country. accusing him of trying to recruit a russian for the cia. they say they even found him with a spy tool kit including wigs, a map, cash, and a letter offering $1 million a year to his russian contact to, quote, discuss your experience,

expertise and corporation. u.s. officials say it won't set back russian relations. but a spokesman for vladimir putin says this incident does not help. if new regulations recording alcohol limits go into effect, you might want to rethink that second drink. the national transportation safety board has recommended lowering the legal blood alcohol from 0.08 to 0.05. that's the equivalent of two glasses of wine in an hour. the board says it doesn't expect the proposal to be popular. but it will reduce the 10,000 drunk driving deaths in the u.s. each year. and now, here's your "first look" at this morning's dish of "scrambled politics." a mere two months after the republican national committee rolled out a multimillion-dollar minority outreach, a major player is jumping ship. pablo pantoya he wrote the move

was to take a stand against a culture of intolerance. steve king is slamming president obama for reaching out to nba player jason collins, after he was the first american athlete to come out as gay. the tea party says that move moves to undermind and divide american culture. >> we have tim tebow, who will pray to god on the football field. meanwhile, we have a professional athlete that decides he's going to announce his sexuality. and he gets a personal call from the president of the united states to highlight the sexuality of a professional ballplayer. >> tennessee lawmaker wants a traffic camera taken down. and he promises it's not because it gave him a speeding ticket. republican john lundburg tells a local newspaper his citation has, quote, absolutely zero effect on his decision to sponsor the measure. a missouri reporter believes

he has been a target of the irs. larry connors writes on his facebook stage where he was hammered by the agency after a meeting with president obama. one of the seven candidates running for mayor in north miami is calling for an endorsement on high. >> i'm not nuts. let it be. when you have jesus on your side, you can't go wrong. >> okay. come november city leaders in washington, d.c. suburb will have a much wider constituency with just one decenting vote, the city council approved lowering the voting age for city elections down to 16. and remember this nasty collision with an outfield wall by nationals superstar bryce harper. his pursuit of a fly ball

sparked bipartisanship on capitol hill. two took to the senate floor to express admiration and hope for a speedy recovery. that's your morning dish of scrambled politics. it's been a week of extremes with record temperatures low and high being set all across the country. nebraska, iowa, minnesota and south dakota, all saw record highs with the most jaw-dropping in sioux city, iowa, where it hit an amazing 106 degrees. meanwhile, record lows were set in florida, north carolina and virginia. and for more on the weather, we're joined by bill karins. i wish i was in iowa. i love the heat. >> 106? >> i'd take 110. >> i was looking at twitter and people posting about how hot it is in the midwest. and i'm wearing my sweatshirt. it was chilly in the northeast. and unbelievably hot. it's never been this hot this early in the season in areas of iowa and southern minnesota.

it was 98 in minneapolis. 106 in sioux city. 103 in norfolk, nebraska. it snowed in these areas 12 days ago. and hot in chicago, too, at 91. 87 in dallas. you notice how much chillier it was in the northeast. it started to warm up a little bit in the northeast. 46 in boston. we have showers diving into the northeast later today. and rain in texas. that's a little bit of a change with the wet weather. we didn't have any wet weather yesterday. umbrellas for east texas and new england. temperatures have cooled off in the midwest. in the southeast, i'll take that. 83, sunny and low humidity in atlanta. >> i'll take anything but what we've got. they got snow over the winter. paid their dues. thanks so much, bill. america's deficit is dropping faster than expected. plus, o.j. simpson finally takes the stand today in court. and america's navy takes a major step forward, introducing pilotless drones to our mighty aircraft carriers. [ female announcer ] are you sensitive to dairy?

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now to some other stories making news this morning. the leaders of the independent panel on the attack in benghazi will publicly testify before congress. thomas pickering and former joint chiefs admiral, mike mullen, will answer questions from republicans who called their findings flawed. pickering says criticism of the accountability review board is unfounded. brad pitt calls partner angelina jolie's decision to undergo a double mastectomy heroic. she opted for the surgery after learning she processed a gene greatly increasing her risk of developing breast cancer. this year's federal budget deficit is forecast to fall to an estimated $642 billion. the congressional budget office cites higher tax revenues and better than expected payments from fannie mae and freddie mac. o.j. simpson is expected to testify in court today as he

bids for a new trial in his 2008 armed robbery and kidnapping case. he is saying his previous attorney caused bad legal advice. and the navy made history tuesday by launching an unmanned jet from an aircraft carrier. the stealth drone roared off "the uss george h.w. bush" and flew a series of maneuvers before landing at an air station in maryland. now for your first look at today's business headlines. we turn to jackie deangelis. good morning. >> good morning to you. stock futures lower this morning following yesterday's rally. that was spurred partly by bullish comments on cnbc by a top hedge understood manager. the dow posting its 18th-straight gain on a tuesday. 30% of the stocks in the s&p 500 hit all-time highs. meanwhile, walmart isn't signing on to a global agreement

over safety at factories in bangladesh. the retail giant says its own safety plans, including stepping up inspections at factories its uses will raise results. a government report showing that u.s. carriers earned $3.5 billion in fees for checking luggage last year. and another $2.6 billion to charge you for changing a reservation. both of which i've contributed to. very unpleasant. >> it's enough to make you want to drive. in other business news, a big day ahead for google's larry page. it was recently revealed that the google chief executive suffered a strain vocal cord condition brought on by a cold. last summer, page down with another cold that left him with limited movement in his second vocal cord. he reassures investors he's more than healthy enough. powerball's jackpot has grown to a whopping 360 million bucks.

get your tickets. the next drawing is tonight. if you win the millions, this described portal to the sublime could be yours. the abstract expressionist painting sold for a record $43.84 million. it's just two blue rectangles divided by a light blue line. the tale of tiger woods and whether he misrepresented the truth at the players championship. plus, prince harry wowing the crowds as royalty goes to harlem. with delicious pringles stix. ♪ ♪ everything pops with pringles stix. [ crunch ]

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it's time for the latest in sports from my friend richard. >> i want to start with two golfers who aren't close friends to start with. at saturday's players championship, sergio garcia's drive goes way off left. he says that tiger woods distracted him because the crowd made noise after woods started to prepare for his next shot too early. here's woods. >> the marshals said he already hit. so, i pulled the club. and was getting ready to play my shot. and then, i hear his comments afterwards. and not real surprising that he's complaining about something. >> well, hold on a second. the marshal gary anderson told us that. he didn't ask us nothing. we didn't say nothing. we're told not to talk to the players. he pitches. he swings. he slips. bat flies back six rows bat. a fan does a one-hander.

the crowd approve. prince harry played some baseball with elementary schoolkids in harlem. he got hitting points from mark teixeira. australian drag racer chris matheson was competing, at almost 230 miles per hour. he may have been knocked off the bike by the wind. rolling about 100 feet. he suffered a broken ankle. just that. and what the hair? this pittsburgh penguins fan -- yeah. i'm sorry. he trims his chest hair for last light's playoff game. what's missing in the let's go pens sculpture? the apostrophe. >> i wish i could unsee that. it's time to dig a little deeper into the top political stories of the day. joining me for our first look at politics, forest eckstein, a contributing editor at u.s. news

a and report. some would argue that for the first time the president is facing an irate press. what is the best way to handle this? >> not to play whack a mole. and honestly, lying to the american public. and it's been very transparent. they should take a step back and have a measured response on each one of the issues. right now, the irs issue is the hottest one. but the a.p. one is going to be popping up. and it's going to be very serious. taking on phone record could be a big problem for justice and the white house. >> that's one that the press is taking personally. >> in terms of the criticism the president has faced, it says he's often aloof and distant. has he curried enough favor in the past to give him support politically? >> he has not. he has not made friends in washington. he's been totally estranged from them. he has not done enough with democrats, including them to

camp david. doing other things. things that most presidents do that bill clinton was amazing at. to currying their favor to carry him through the monica lewinsky scandal. obama does not done that to get him through the very important issues. >> appreciate your time this morning. coming up, richard and bill are here with our first buzz, including one of the best videos we've seen in a long time. i'm so glad you called. thank you. we're not in london, are we? no. why? apparently my debit card is. what? i know. don't worry, we have cancelled your old card. great. thank you. in addition to us monitoring your accounts for unusual activity, you could also set up free account alerts. okay. [ female announcer ] at wells fargo we're working around the clock to help protect your money and financial information. here's your temporary card. welcome back. how was london? [ female announcer ] when people talk, great things happen.

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the effects of angelina jolie's announcement,

prostitution scandals galore and men going through labor. it's time for our first buzz. richard, you get to start with the serious story of the day. >> angelina jolie announcing the news overnight. big story yesterday. an interesting discussion. i'll have more at 10:00 a.m. what has happened in the past, there was the reality tv star, jay gooding from the u.k., after she announced she had cancer and passed away after. there's over 400,000 women that went for screening after that. that was a 12% rise in the u.k. they also saw, in terms of charity-giving, one charity saying triple the amount in terms of the amount of giving. interesting possibilities here in the u.s. >> awareness. >> it was interest upset, insurance companies. they costs a couple hundred dollars to get a couple thousand dollars. a lot of people are calling insurance companies up and giving them a hard time. >> bill, it's your turn. >> the prostitution update. it was a little crazy here yesterday.

we had a 21-year-old in orlando busted for soliciting a prostitute on a's honeymoon. or a senior center prostitution ring busted. a 76-year-old was running this. >> i say the 76-year-olds were crazier because they were doing it out of the senior center. aren't they supposed to be playing shuffle board? >> they were busted with drugs, too. my favorite story of the day. men going through labor. a hospital hooked them up to this contraption to simulate contractions. and i love it. >> it reminds me of steve carell. >> this is not staged. this is what the men were doing when they were going through contractions. and the best part of this is their wives watched without sympathy. >> these men are fools. it's not going to equal. well, i did this, too. you can't hold it over my head. >> a little bit of the sympathy. >> you guys are the superior

gender. >> we appreciate it. on behalf of all women. i say thank you. that's it for us. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. "way too early" starts right now. obama is being compared to president nixon. how does he feel about that? >> again, i don't have a reaction from president obama. people who make those comparisons need to check their history. >> you know the white house is in a bad spot when the mixon comparisons start playing. it's wednesday, may 15th. here's what you need to know. critics on the right and left reacting to the plan for dealing with the targeting of political groups of the irs, and the far-reaching probe into the associated press. also, spy games in russia. an american diplomat obtained in moscow. and what he's carrying.

who needs a compass. and the prince and the governor. chris christie has his royal moment with prince harry on the jersey shore. it is "way too early" for this. good morning, everyone. i'm brian shactman. we got to thinking how do these potential scandals stack up in history. what we need from you is a list. we want your top three political scandals. you did nothing in the caption contest yesterday. give me a list of your top three political scandals. i'll give you 15 minutes. you can take the humorous route. i'll tell you, clinton/lewinsky, the clubhouse leader. i'll show you my own in a little bit. just post