to one. god bless you, staten island, for whatever you've done wrong in your life. you never did anything to deserve congressional representation like this. i'm sorry. that does it for us tonight. good morning. right now on "first look." >> look at that! >> i'm just north of crawford on 45. got a wedge tornado in front of us on 45 right now. >> over 50 tornadoes continue their path of deadly destruction with more severe weather in store for today. nba d-day. the clippers sponsors continue to fall out as embattled owner donald sterling faces the commissioner's decision. president obama is returning from asia as he tries to put the financial screws to asia. backlash growing for the father who pushed his kid too far and a big honor for nbc's

own tom brokaw. good morning to you. i'm francis rivera on this tuesday. a second wave of tornadoes have killed at least two people in alabama and causing serious damage in mississippi. the pictures tell the story. areas like tupelo, mississippi, have been left devastated by severe weather. constance lambert returned to her home thankful to find her dog alive after one twister. the same storm system killed at least 16 people in arkansas, oklahoma, and iowa on sunday. sarah has a closer look at the devastation. good morning, sarah. >> reporter: francis, good morning. a long night for emergency crews here who are still on scene. and as the sun comes up, we're going to get a better picture of the new damage. relentless and powerful. a night of dangerous tornadoes following several days of deadly storms.

alabama, mississippi, and louisiana were all hit hard. arkansas especially seems to have suffered. multiple fatalities and a trail of twisted metal and broken glass in addition to flattened homes. >> we saw damage to structures in a way that i don't think i've seen before in terms of just the sheer force. >> reporter: shawn riddle and his family survived by taking shelter in the closet helpless as the storm tore their home apart. >> you could hear it. and all of a sudden there was just stuff pounding, just hitting you. >> reporter: homeowners dug through rubble looking for sentimental items and in some cases beloved pets. this happy reunion caught on camera. a sunny spot among days filled with violent weather and destruction. thousands without power right now as crews work to repair downed lines and in the case

behi behind me, a gas leak. >> thank you this morning. bill kairns has been tracking the severe weather threat. another intense day for a lot of people. >> yesterday afternoon from 8:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon, it was one tornado after another we were tracking going through one town to another. and we'd wait to see how bad the damage was. we'll see more pictures throughout the day today. the target area, mississippi and narn alabama. 69 tornado reports. again, i mean, it was just widespread damage across the region. we still do have active tornado watches now heading into areas of georgia, and extreme southeast portions of alabama. tornado watches continue up in the mountainous areas of north carolina. we haven't had a lot of tornadoes. usually activity settles down. we still have strong storms that have slowed down. we got a lot of flash flooding problems. and those storms continue up

here and across into areas of alabama. from alabama into georgia this morning. again, the tornado threat will probably diminish as we go throughout the next couple hours. as we go through the afternoon, we're going to do it again. we have 76 million people under the threat of severe weather today. it's this moderate risk in red where it's the focus for the best chance of tornadoes. here's a closer view of that. we're going from birmingham to tuscaloosa and then almost towards montgomery. this is moderate risk. if we see lots of sunshine, it could go to high risk. we should expect a repeat of what we've seen the last two afternoons. these are the same people that did this yesterday. >> the irony the sun could come out, and it's worse. now to new fallout for the owners of the nba's los angeles clippers donald sterling after an audio of him going on a racial rant, several sponsors

are dropping the clippers. today the commissioner will make an announcement about the investigation. joe fryer has more. >> reporter: in the midst of the playoffs, players and fans are calling for the nba to take swift action against donald sterling, the owner accused of making racist remarks. >> they need to come out and erase sterling from the clippers. they need to say this man will not be part of this team. they need to suspend him immediately and indefinitely. >> reporter: but one says it's a complex situation. >> the owners wouldn't want to show a pres deputy that the commissioner has a power to fire them for something said in private. >> reporter: the recordings have not been verified by nbc news. >> yeah, it bothers me that you want to broadcast that you're

associating with black people. >> reporter: sterling was upset stiviano posted this picture of her posing with magic johnson who in the wake of this controversy has expressed interest in buying the clippers. companies are ending or suspending their sponsorships to the team. kia motors say they're offensive and reprehensible. >> i think it has the potential to hurt the nba's image. i hope they act quickly in dealing with this. >> reporter: president obama also weighed in from asia. >> when ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, just let them talk. >> reporter: before their playoff loss sunday, clippers players made a silent statement revealing shirts that were inside out hiding their team logo. >> from that point on, how could your mind really be on this game? >> reporter: in a statement the clippers president says it's not clear if the recordings have

been altered adding the remarks of who sterling is. sterling was about to receive a lifetime achievement award from naacp's chapter for his charitable contributions. that won't happen now. >> there is a personal, economic, and social price that mr. sterling must pay. >> and that was joe fryer. a barrage of new u.s. sanctions in russia over the crisis in ukraine take aim at seven russian government officials and 17 companies with ties to president vladimir putin. president obama says these new sanctions are meant to change the president's calculus. meanwhile putin has not pulled his troops back from ukraine's border and pro-russian separatists seized a police headquarters and government administration building in this town. critics are calling this latest round of sanctions inadequate. secretary of state john kerry is apologizing for a statement he made last week.

he warned israel could become an apartheid state. the comment has been getting backlash from politicians who called for an apology. kerry defends his record as a supporter of israel. saying if he would go back, he wouldn't have used the word apartheid. he also lashed out at criticism calling it partisan political attacks. now time to turn to sports with richard lui this morning. it's nice to talk about the nba without the scandal here and a rivalry instead. >> for a second, francis. good morning to you. yeah, this is an nba rivalry that keeps getting better every game. dallas is who we're talking about. down by 20 in the game, but they surged to tie in the fourth quarter. san antonio holding on hitting threes, grabbing a key rebound. san antonio ties the series at two. 93-89 win there. the collapse continues. so bad, my friends, fans are booing their own team.

atlanta trailing by 30 points. so before tipoff, miami players mimicked the l.a. clippers protest. they wore warm-ups inside out to protest donald sterling's alleged racist comments from there bosh and wade combine for 62. the 109-98 victory makes the miami the first team in the semifinals. >> it was purely a football decision. i just said that earlier. it had nothing to do with anything that was written in the newspaper or anything off-field behaviors. desean came to practice every day. >> there you hear it. eagles coach chip kelly clearing up why he cut desean jackson. reporters alleged street gang ties was the reason. not true as you heard from kelly. jackson signing with rival washington redskins.

fans with flares are the norm at european soccer matches nowadays. watch security dealings on the left side with the fan climbing a fence. they pepper spray him. watch this. he explodes into flames for a second. he did not suffer any major injuries. and we have a new beer mile record. four laps in 4:57 seconds and four beers. you can find the rules at beer mile.com just in case you want to know. >> one of the rules is you have to run in a straight line after four beers. >> to take the can and crush it against your forehead. >> all right. cheers to that. thank you. grim day for the congressman who used to fight corruption. plus they're not pretty, but they're fast. building homes with a 3d printer. detiles when "first look" returns. ♪

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in business with courtney

reagan. courtney, good morning. >> good morning to you. netflix strikes a deal with verizon. it's the second deal the company has reached to pay for access to broad band networks. they also signed with comcast. you have to pay more to stow your bags in the overhead bin on your next flight. these range from $20 for frequent fliers to $50 for those who don't pay before getting to the gate. most passengers will be $25 if they check in online and $35 at the airport. tune into cnbc tonight for the cnbc 25. it's the definitive list of rebels and icons who made the biggest impact in business over the last 25 years. >> thank you. time for stories making news this morning. congressman michael grimm made national attention when he threatened this new york one reporter. >> let me be clear to you.

if you ever do that to me again -- no, no. you're not a man. you're not man enough. i'll break you in half like a little boy. >> now the republican congressman has been charged with tax evasion. grimm denies the claim. an outrageous new video. they stand on top of the skate board half pipe. and the father appears to push his son down the ramp. the florida department of children and families is investigating the incident. a construction company in china is putting three new printers to good use by creating houses made from cement and construction waste. the company says their giant printers can finish up to ten houses in one day minus the windows and roofs. all for under $5,000. and today marks the opening of the west coast home for nbc news. the brokaw news center.

tom brokaw told "nightly news" brian williams it takes a lot to impress his family. >> this is very gratifying. and for the first time in a long time, my family's actually excited about my public recognition. they are mostly like, okay, dad. >> now they're impressed. still to come, the kissing congressman goes away and a big letdown for one candidate pushing erectile dysfunction and the rest of a randy edition of politics.

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first your tuesday edition of scrambled politics. to do more to combat sexual assault on campus with recommendations that include transparency and reporting of incidents and better protection for victims. the white house will also launch a federal website not alone.gov to help victims find resources and report crimes. a new "washington post"/abc news poll found president obama's approval rating fell to 41% down from 46% earlier this year. new on msnbc.com this morning, hawaii is the third to hike its minimum wage to $10.10. to raise to $10.10 within the next four years. sarah palin is doubling down on the comments she made on water boarding at the nra annual meeting. quote, if i was in charge, they would know water boarding is how we baptize terrorists.

on facebook she writes, quote, actions to stop terrorists who utterly annihilate america, darn right i'd do whatever it takes to foil their murderous jihadist plots including water boarding. mccallister announced he would not seek re-election. the married louisiana republican was caught on video kissing one of his aides. and remember this campaigner? >> if you have a boehner lasting longer than 23 years, seek immediate medical attention. winteregg. >> well, he lost his job as professor at a small christian university in ohio over that electile dysfunction ad. that's your morning dish of scrambled politics. and we're here to dig deeper in politics this morning.

>> did you see electile? >> yes. >> i was just checking there. >> i've been known to say worse. let's start this morning with john kerry who said the jewish state could become an apartheid state if it doesn't reach a deal with the palestinians. he's back peddling apologies here. saying i would not allow my commitment to be twisted by anybody. i want to be crystal year. and second, i've been around long enough to know that the power of words to create a misimpression, and if i could rewind the tape, i would have chosen a different word. >> it's damaging, but john kerry has been around a long time and he ought to know that there are some only jis that are tricky. don't compare things to slavery, to the nazis, or to south african apartheid. if you avoid that, you will save yourself a whole lot of

problems. >> but even a few members of his own party saying, listen. you should have stayed away from that. then you have ted cruz saying you need to step down because of what you said. >> come on. that's ridiculous. he's not going to step down. there's no genuine pressure for him to step down. but you ought to avoid that. there are a few analogies you shouldn't make. >> with for you impressed with the explanation of how he went about it. >> this is how we apologize in politics today. we say if i had to do it over again, but my heart was in the right place. >> all right. let's talk about the bad boys of house republicans. kind of sounds like a reality show. michael grimm, federal charges related to his restaurants. vance mccallister in the dark kissing the aide. should john boehner be really worried and other gop leadership in general? >> just keep the distance from

these idiots. these are the worst. again, i don't know it means the entire caucus is corrupt. but these guys are all embarrassments. so if you're the leader, what you want to do is quietly hustle them off the stage as easily as you can. >> quietly hustle them off if we're talking about it right now? >> the problem is they don't want to leave. in the old days in the era of shame, people were so embarrassed. you'd never see them again. but grimm in staten island yesterday, he's like i ain't leaving. i'm going to be around forever. i'm going to fight. >> it's the reality show bad boys of house republicans. >> we could make money off this. >> right? me and you, ellis. produce our own show. thank you. first buzz is ahead with something out of the jetsons. she loves a lot of the same things you do.

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welcome back. starting off with google, when you want to find out something you type in google. google is going to be the one to bring us possibly the first self-driving car here. >> i don't know about that. >> for the past three years -- this is street legal in nevada, by the way. >> everything's legal there. >> they have logged 700,000 miles on freeways without any accidents. and now they've improved the software. they're recognizing pedestrian traffic, cross guards and signals by bicycles. bill, just for you, by 2020 they say this thing's going to be out on the roads. >> how much? >> of course that comes later. >> i predict it will be right next to my hover board.

bill can barely drive as it is. >> you know, this was serious lol on the newsroom last night. we were laughing out loud talking to fallon. >> you're talking about robinson cano. $240 million, ten years, ex-yankee comes back to play the yanks today. and they thought they'd do a little prank with him, see what fans would say to robby cano in the picture of him. take a look. >> here's the catch, the fans thought they were just booing a card board cutout of robinson cano. they didn't realize the real robinson cano was standing behind it. >> boo! you suck! that was it. >> that was awesome. maybe try again. >> should i try it again? >> yeah. >> boo, robinson. you should have stayed here. in new york. not in seattle. >> try and do it one more time. >> boo. stay in seattle. hey. how are you?

>> that's my favorite one. >> that is so new york. >> the people make pipt. >> the hey, sort of undo all the bad stuff. >> they're booing big and then he comes out and they're like good to see you. >> i'm francis rivera. "way too early" with thomas roberts is now. ♪ donald sterling has yet to explain why he is not to blame for this racist statements. but another billionaire donald is more than happy to suggest -- more than happy to suggest sterling is not the only one at fault here. >> he got set up by a flippant girlfriend. she was baiting him and she's a terrible human being and she's called the girlfriend from hell. >> that's why i recommend to all my wealthy old friends that they

only date trump brand gold digging girlfriends. i promise the highest quality gold digging you can buy. >> facing the consequences. the nba is set to make a decision regarding donald sterling as the alleged audiotape of him making remarks continuing to create shock waves. pro-russian militants step up their resistance in ukraine after the u.s. and its europe allies impose stiffer sanctions on some of president putin's inner circle. scenes of destruction. we're getting our first chance to truly survey the damage as tornadoes tear through the country's midsection. this is "way too early." ♪ good morning. i'm mika brzezinski in for thomas roberts. it's tuesday, april 29th. welcome to "way too early." we begin w