this is of national significance on how it will affect women's health, lives, for generations to come. this is the national story. sto. "first look" is up next. good thursday morning. right now, on "first look," george zimmerman will not testify and soon his fate will be in the hands of 6 female jurors. mudslides from connecticut and dust storms in the west. country superstar randy travis suffers a stroke and is just out of surgery. plus, states fighting back against puppy mills. and a hit and run driver's frightening encounter with a stroller. good morning. the defense in the trial of george zimmerman rested its case late yesterday.

the judge anticipates closing arguments starting today. we're outside the courthouse in sanford, florida. sarah, good morning. >> good morning, a lot of big developments in court yesterday, but the main headline, george zimmerman will not testify. >> the defense will call robert zimmerman sr., your honor. >> reporter: after four days of testimony, attorneys for george zimmerman wrapped up their case with zimmerman's father. one last witness, testifying about screams on the 911 call. >> i told you absolutely it's my son, george. >> i'm asking your client's questions. please mr. west. >> reporter: it was a day sprinkled with heated exchanges between the defense and the judge nelson. specifically when the judge asked zimmerman he if he was going to be taking the stand.

>> as to his decision to whether or not testify. >> your objection is overruled. >> reporter: zimmerman told the judge that he had not yet decided. later on. >> and what is your decision, sir? >> after consulting with counsel not to testify your honor. >> reporter: the jury has heard zimmerman's terms of events. still, his attorneys say that he struggled with his decision not to testify. >> i they that he really wanted to be interact with his jury and say this is what i did. >> reporter: after excusing the jury for the day the judge laid out her schedule. closing arguments beginning today at 1:00 and the case tentatively handed off to the jury by friday afternoon and then, the wait for a verdict. both the defense and the prosecution estimate they will

need three hours each for closing arguments. mara back to you. >> all right, sarah in sanford, florida. new this morning in the crash of asiana flight 214. we're hearing voices in moments just after the can crash. wednesday, officials released 911 calls made by passengers desperate for help. >> there is a woman out here who is on the street, on the runway, who is pretty much burned very severely on the head and we don't know what to do. we've been on the ground 20 minutes now a half-hour. >> for the first time we also heard from flight attendants aboard that airliner, one saying that the crew is working to recover from the accident while numerous remain hospitalized. a plea of not guilty from accused boston bomber tsarnaev.

yesterday's eight-minute arraignment marked his first public appearance since his mid-april capture. the mother of two men who each lost a right leg in the bombings said afterwards she felt sick to her stomach. tsarnaev faces 30 federal charges. prosecutors said that he orchestrated the bombings with his older brother who was killed in a gun battle with police. tsarnaev could face the death penalty. country star randy travis is in critical condition after suffering a stroke on wednesday. the singer was initially hospitalized on sunday for congestive heart failure. the bailor medical center posted on its website that he underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain last night. a disturbing hit and run and it's all caught on camera.

take a look at this. it happened in a michigan parking lot. a mini van backs into a baby in a stroller and drives off with the stroller and the baby in toe. the driver drives off again. police are still looking for the person behind that wheel. and now here's your first look at this morning's dish of scrambled politics. republicans still don't have a consensus on how to reform immigration after a meeting kansas republican tim huelskamp had this to say about beefed-up security border. >> we don't trust him. >> not only is the congressman not apologizing for those remarks he even tweeted them to make sure everyone heard. this is a head scratcher. eliot spitzer isn't even on the ballot yet, and guess what, a

new poll has the former governor leading his closest opponent by ten points. across the hudson river, new jersey governor christie has opened a wider lead against barbara buono. the republican you incumbent is ahead 61% to 29%. secretary of state john kerry became emotional wednesday while thanking colleagues for the outpouring of well wishes for his wife teresa. >> she's doing better. and she's doing better under observation and we hope improving. i want to thank everybody for the remarkable outpouring of good wishes that's been really -- very special. >> kerry then returned to his

wife's side in a boston hospital where his condition after seizure-like symptoms has been upgraded. if you want to be a member of the people's house you better bring your wallet. new survey congressional members spend on average $1.6 million. adjusted for inflation that's up from $753,000 in 1996. president george w. bush will join president obama at the white house to honor service volunteers for his charitable organization. george lucas was there wednesday receiving the national humidities medal. president obama trying to be nice when he was reminiscing about his special effects. >> special effects always look like they do today. but it used to be, you would see like the string on the little

model spaceships. >> that's your morning's dish of scrambled politics. extreme weather is hitting residents across the u.s. we begin in arizona where a major dust storm struck just south of phoenix. next, we go to eastern connecticut where residents there saw a tornado touch down, thankfully, no reported injuries or structural damage. and in colorado, a giant mud slide due to flash flooding in the central part of the state, 20 cars ended up stranded on the interstate. for more on the weather, meteorologist bill karins is here. it's amazing that no one was hurt in that. >> that one could have been worse. >> as far as yesterday went, it's amazing that we didn't have any fatalities with all of the bad weather that happened across the country. look at this map, each dot

represents where wind damage was reported. only a couple of tornadoes out there. including that one there, alleged tornado in connecticut. as far as now, lot of those storms, this time of the year happen during the afternoon and the evening. through the state of alabama, we got a lot of lightning strikes right now, almost 3,000 in the last hour, and there are storms rolling down. they went through birmingham and now they're heading toward montgomery. chantal did die out yesterday, lot of that moisture and rain will move into areas near the southeastern united states. that's really of no threat or concern. the thursday forecast, have your umbrellas ready. thunderstorms at any time. still very hot in the areas of texas, still above 100. >> i'm so tired of hearing you say rain.

>> seattle is nice this time of year. >> go figure. republicans at odds over immigration and america's most expensive colleges. plus, amajor buzz kill is coming to colorado's pot smokers, we'll explain coming up next. (cat purring) mornings are a special time for the two of you... and you can make them even more special... with fancy feast mornings. mornings are delicious protein-rich entrées...

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welcome back. some stories making news this morning -- authorities in quebec confirm they have now recovered 20 bodies from the wrack aj of the deadly train derailment. a first for the navy, they have officially landed a fighter-sized drone on an aircraft carrier for the first time. the experimental aircraft is not cheap, it cost $1.4 billion. america plans to follow on f-16 fighter jets to egypt, the jets which part of an annual aid package are said to arrive in

the coming weeks. the san diego city council has voted to ban the retail sale of dogs, cats and rabbits, part of an effort to cut down on quote, puppy mills where animals are mass produced and kept in inhuman conditions. for your first look at business, we turn to cnbc's courtney regan. >> futures are slightly higher. interest rates will likely stay low for a long time, he said that the fed still needs the fed's help. growth is being held back by higher taxes and budget cuts. get ready for sticker shock at the gus pump retail gas prices should follow the jump in the wholesale market. ford has cut the price on the 2014 electric focus model.

the vehicle should be in show room in the next few weeks mara, back to you. >> thanks so much, courtney. while congress tries to battle restoring lower interest rates on student loans, business insider has compiled the list of the most expensive colleges. the top three are all over $61,000 per year. new york university tops the list. followed by harvey mud college and bard college. and it may be a little bit of buzz kill in colorado for marijuana smokers, the state will consider how much to tax recently legalize bot pot. voters will cast ballots on november. turning next to london where the royal baby frenzy is reaching a fever pitch, you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of virtually

all your important legal matters in just minutes. protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. a developing story in london, there are live pictures of six environmental protesters attempting to climb the chard. they're refusing to come down. it's 1,116 feet tall, the tallest building in western europe. also in london, where we eagerly await for news of the arrival of the prince or

princess. nbc's martin fletcher is live in london. martin, tell us about all of the hype. >> reporter: well, mara, there's a lot of it that's for sure. couple of hundred cameras and photographers here already. waiting for that iconic photograph on the steps behind me when the baby is born with the duke and duchess holding their new baby. as for the people there's been less excitement. that will explode i suppose when the baby is born. they'll find out this way. prince william will phone himself his grandmother the queen of england, his father, prince charles, to give them the news. and the family of kate middleton. as for the people of england, a medical bulletin will come down these steps, in a car, to buckingham palace, it will did

displayed on easel. at that point, the interest will explode. there are $100 million of royal baby items already for sale in the shops. as to when it's to happen, it's expected saturday. no one really knows. on the weekend, prince william is scheduled to play a game of polo. polo for the prince or a new baby? >> he better not be on that polo field. he better be by her side. "first look" at politics. bob franken joins us. >> i love this segway. >> from royal baby to this segment. it's all royal. let's talk about immigration reform. one of the political incentives to get this done is to preserve the hispanic votes. >> we have in the house of

representatives a dynamic that's different from the senate and certainly different from the national party n the house, you have people who are elected from districts that have been manipulated to be very noninclusive. that is to say almost a potential a hot bed of intolerance. any number of members, where you have people whose districts don't want them to give any sort of slack whatsoever to immigrants coming into the united states. >> harry reid recently said that he feels sorry for speaker boehner, when it comes to the speaker of house, has he lost control? >> i think the expression, the common egs prxpression is hurti cats. as so often is the case, immigration as we just discussed is a particularly tough and a very, very delicate subject, i should also point out that john

boehner has been doing this a long time and sometimes has a meeting like this to let people have their catharsis and over a period of time he's slowly gradually moves to a result that he wants. >> to switch gears, to politicians and their sex scandals. in new york, we have anthony weiner and eliot spitzer doing very well in their respective races. what does this tell us? >> i think what it means, in order to be really successful, a politician has to go through a sex scandal, what other conclusion can you draw? you have eliot spitzer who is now shooting up in the polls as he's running for city comptroller. anthony weiner running for mayor and we know the story of mark sanford, and any number of politicians over time. i think to be serious about it, i think what happens, the

politicians have something very valuable after they gone this kind of thing and it's name recognition. >> i appreciate your time this morning. bob franken. >> thank you. coming up, we'll have first buzz, all of the stories that caught our eyes today. thanks. today, we'd like people to come together on something that concerns all of us. obesity. and as the nation's leading beverage company, we can play an important role. that includes continually providing more options. giving people easy ways to help make informed choices. and offering portion controlled versions of our most popular drinks. it also means working with our industry to voluntarily change what's offered in schools. but beating obesity will take continued action by all of us, based on one simple common sense fact... all calories count. and if you eat and drink more calories than you burn off, you'll gain weight.

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it's time now for first buzz, all of the stories that we're talking about this morning. i'm joined by paige and bill. a driver got caught in a mud slide. >> just outside of colorado springs, it literally on the side of the highway, with this mud flow just took over his

vehicle, it sent him off the road and then he went for the wild ride, i mean, this lasted for a couple hundred yards, he kept his cool, we had to bleep out some of it. >> that is so scary, because you really lose control of his car. >> he's lucky, it's only takes about 3 to 5 inches of water to move your vehicle. >> he didn't get hurt? >> right. >> you have a lighter story. >> a cautionary tale for parents. a 14-month-old little girl was playing with her dad's smartphone, she caught into his ebay app, ended up buying a car, 1962 heley sprint. the father said, we're going to work on it together. i'm going to give it to her 16th

birthday. >> i hope she bid well. >> exactly. there's this woolly mammoth on display in japan, this is kind of amazing. we have a picture of it. this is one of the well preserved. its body and its fur still intact. it's 39,000 years old. it was preserve in ice in siberia, russia. now it's on display in japan. lot of people want to see it. it's always amazing to see things that old. like, seeing the mummies in egypt. >> i had no idea that there was one that well preserved. >> i'm mara schiavocampo.

stay tuned. "way too early" starts right now. the flight crew told the flight attendant not to initiate an evacuation. they were communicating with the tower about the emergency. the lead, or the cabin manager, made announcement, over the p.a. for people to stay in their seats. and to not evacuate. >> new revelations from the investigation into the crash of asiana flight 214. we'll hear from the 911 calls of the first witnesses to see it happen and tell you why one pilots who said he couldn't see during the landing. discouraging report on

health in america, how where you live can significantly impact how healthy you live. and justin bieber is causing trouble again. and how it got him access to former president bill clinton. this is "way too early." all right, so the bieber story you won't believe. hi, everybody, i'm thomas roberts. our top story this morning, this dramatic recording that's now revealed inside asiana flight 214, just moments after last weekend's crash in san francisco. take a listen. >> we just got in a plane crash, and there a bunch of people who still need help and there's not enough medics out here. there is a woman out here on the street on the runway who is pretty much burned very severely on the head and we don't know what to do. >> were you on the