it's going to be interesting to see if all the other ambitious republicans and media figures out there line up with ted cruz on this, because they usually do when he gives them the opportunity. we'll see you again tomorrow night. when he gives them the opportunity to do so. "first look" is up next. good thursday morning. right now on "first look," a tense standoff at the scene of a mass shooting in texas. details ahead. president obama focuses on fixing the immigration problem. he says photo ops at the border won't help anyone and that congress must act on his plan. spoiler alert. donald sterling makes downright nasty comments about his wife in a court hearing over the sale of the clippers. plus, mother nature is sending us messages about who's really in charge out there. good morning, and thanks for joining us. i'm betty nguyen. we want to begin with breaking news overnight in texas. a three-hour-long standoff has ended after an alleged gunman surrendered to authorities. now they're trying to figure out what caused the man to snap,

killing four of his children and two adults at a suburban houston home. the man's 15-year-old daughter was also shot. she's in critical condition. dan schenamen has details. >> reporter: police found a grisly scene in a suburb of south texas after a domestic situation escalated to mass murder wednesday evening. officials say six are dead, including four children, shot to death at home. one female was injured but reportedly was able to tell authorities who shot the family and where the suspect was planning to go next. police were able to catch up with the suspect a few miles away from the shooting scene, trapping him in a cul-de-sac with no way to escape. >> i guess he was looking for a way out of the neighborhood or something and he went straight for that cul-de-sac. i guess he didn't know it was a cul-de-sac. i saw the cops trap him in there. >> reporter: after setting up a perimeter, authorities evacuated nearby homes and brought in a large contingency of police and s.w.a.t. officers. a s.w.a.t. vehicle ran into his car and a second armored vehicle

pinned him from the back. officials say he was armed and at times holding a gun to his head. after hours of talking to hostage negotiators, he surrendered to police. the standoff is over, but the investigation into why seven were shot, six killed, is just beginning. dan schenamen, nbc news. president obama is in texas this morning. he continues to call on lawmakers to prove his almost $4 billion request for border security funding. the president met with texas governor rick perry on wednesday. perry raised concerns and gave suggestions about how to handle the influx of unaccompanied minors entering the country. perry spoke with nbc's peter alexander about some of those suggestions. >> the president can send a message without even going to congress. he can pick up the phone to the dod and have 1,000 national guard troops temporarily assigned to the border, and the message gets sent to central america very quickly. >> i am joined now by nbc's tracie potts in washington, d.c. good morning to you, tracie. so, are any of governor perry's

suggestions actually being put into action? >> reporter: well, the president claims that they are, that some of them are already part of that emergency request that he's got sitting here on capitol hill. the two finally did get to sit down, and from what we're hearing, it sounds like they were pretty frank about their disagreements on how to handle this crisis at the border. president obama's in austin today raising money for democrats, speaking about the economy and fighting critics who say he should be at the border. >> he is shown playing pool in colorado, drinking a beer, and he can't even go 242 miles to the texas border? >> how can you have a humanitarian crisis, as the white house has called this, and not want to go see it for yourself? >> i'm not interested in photo ops. i'm interested in solving a problem. >> reporter: the president and governor rick perry had two short conversations in dallas. perry wants drones and 1,000

national guard troops at the border, plus policy changes to deport immigrants, including children, faster. in washington, lawmakers today will question homeland security, health and human services and the state department about the president's $3.7 billion request for emergency funds to deal with the flood of children from central america. >> i cannot vote for a profession which will then just perpetuate an unacceptable human crisis. >> reporter: in guatemala, homeland security secretary jeh johnson signed two agreements to help get immigrants out of the u.s. and back across the border. so, the president's still in texas today trying to deal with this. meantime, the governor of texas says what washington needs to do is poll back policies that makes it easy, the governor says, for immigrants caught coming into this country to disappear into society before they have to show up in court. betty? >> all right, tracie. thank you for that report. at least one city in texas

is trying to keep undocumented immigrants from entering their community. city council members in league city, texas, passed an ordinance banning the processing and detention of undocumented immigrants caught crossing the border illegally. when the ordinance passed, there was a round of applause at the city council meeting. opponents of the ordinance say it sends a message of hate. violence continues to surge in the mideast as rocket fire rages on between israel and the gaza strip. at least 75 people are believed dead following an israeli assault on the gaza strip. the israeli military says it is targeting hamas militants and locations. it already has thousands of troops along the gaza border. israeli leaders are now suggesting a ground invasion could quickly be approaching. and the tension is spreading elsewhere. in the capital of jordan, riot police arrested dozens of anti-israel protesters during a rally in support of gaza. hundreds of protesters gathered near the israeli embassy to condemn the israeli offensive on

the gaza strip. well, things, they are getting pretty nasty in the legal battle between l.a. clippers owners donald sterling and his wife, shelly. they're feuding over the $2 billion sale of the team. in court on wednesday, the 80-year-old sterling vowed to spend the rest of his life suing the nba. he also said his wife had deceived him and that he didn't authorize the sale of the team. at the end of the day's testimony, donald sterling was reportedly heard saying to his wife, "get away from me, you pig." wow. okay. well, the deal was made in the wake of sterling's racist remarks, as you know, that compelled the nba to remove him as an owner. now to sports and my friend, richard lui. good morning to you. >> good morning to you, betty. we are now one step closer to naming the world cup champion. in the final semi, argentina and netherlands, both scoreless in regulation and extra time. it came down to penalty kicks. argentina does not blink, goes 4-2 to advance to the final. close game. argentina's paolo zabaleta with

a selfie of his bloodied lip. >> look at that hair, too. >> but he won. star lionel messi posted himself after being called in for doping testing. he's waiting for that to happen. they face germany for the third time in the final on sunday. tour de france conditions are rough. chris froome crashed twice in stage five, look at that. now through, has withdrawn from the race altogether. student athletes, in my opinion, should be given a scholarship for life. >> ncaa president mark emmert in senate testimony also proposed seven changes for athletes, including scholarships for life. senators were skeptical. missouri senator claire mccaskill, for instance, telling him "i can't tell whether you're in charge or whether you're a minion." >> ow! that's some statement. the u.s. open tennis hitting a new record for prize money. >> how much? >> let me tell you, men's and women's singles winners now get $3 million, a 12% raise.

at $38 million, the total event prize money represents an increase of 65% in the last three years. want to play tennis this afternoon, betty? >> i need to learn, apparently. >> by the way, still lags behind wimbledon, which pays over $42 million. how would you like to own a piece of baseball history? saturday, 125 coveted items related to baseball great babe ruth will be auctioned off, from signed game balls to the 1919 promissory note -- >> that's cool. >> -- when ruth was sold to the yankees are up for grabs. the total could fetch about $10 million. and talk about an attention-getting ceremonial first pitch. look at this one. >> that's a pitch? what's she doing? >> well, you're not going to care about the pitch, yeah. a famed yoga instructor performed -- >> uh-oh. >> yeah, a little bit of strip tease, some exercises. >> what's going on there? >> yeah, i don't know. >> i'm confused. is that baseball? >> it is baseball. she also did some contortions. this is at a taiwanese baseball

game. still, i think her pitch was better than 50 cent's back in may, don't you think? >> she's kind of friendly, don't you think? >> she's got a couple of friend lees, i think. >> thank you for that video, i guess. >> yoga mat. well, the former super typhoon neoguri is still dumping heavy rain in japan and triggered a sudden landslide in the mountains of central japan. we'll try to get that video for you. but a 12-year-old boy was actually killed when his home was swept away. two other deaths in the region are blamed on the tropical storm. meteorologist raphael miranda from nbc 4 new york is here with today's forecast. hopefully, we're not going to experience anything like that typhoon. >> good morning, betty. good morning, everyone. we do have some storms of our own in the plains this morning -- >> but not like that, thank goodness. >> not typhoon category, but we have flash flooding concerns across kansas, strong to severe thunderstorms, in fact. as we look at the satellite and radar picture, you can see in the middle of your screen, torrential rain through southern and central kansas, continuing to move into oklahoma. later on today, the storms will

fire up again in the northern plains, dakota into nebraska, slight risk for severe thunderstorms. we could see large hail and also wind damage. now to some good news. we're going to dry things out in terms of the humidity here in the northeast. 83 degrees, more comfortable, beautiful in the midwest. now the southeast a little stormy, especially later on today, and also more of the same tomorrow. storms in chicago but still dry here in the northeast. so, a little break from the humidity. >> yeah, i saw some triple digits on that map. >> oh, southwest? >> it's that time of year. okay, raphael, thank you for that. stick around, because this next story is a cautionary tale. it involves a college student who became an overnight internet celebrity after mistakenly texting a nude photo to her father! understandably, he flips out, saying, "did you mean to send me this?" and "is this what you do at school"? she immediately took to twitter asking how to cancel a text message, saying she just send a nude to her dad. she soon found out that's not an

option. the next tweet "omg, my dad won't stop calling me. yeah, i'll bet she's mad. i'm so over this." here's what she had been dreading. her dad shows up at her doorstep to set her straight. got to love dear old dad. the positive to this, she followed up a few hundred instagram and twitter followers. but kids, don't try this at home. who cares about the followers? don't try this at home. chinese hackers hit american workers hard. also, would you wait six hours for a new theme park ride? plus, it gives "dust in the wind" a whole new meaning. you're watching "first look." vo: this is the summer.

the summer of this. the summer that summers from here on will be compared to. where memories will be forged into the sand. and then hung on a wall for years to come. get out there, with over 50,000 hotels at $150 dollars or less. expedia. find yours. definitely not routine. and that can take a lot of energy. introducing nature valley breakfast biscuits. four biscuits, 26 grams of whole grains that give you the energy to help keep you going. i love nature valley breakfast biscuits. carmax is the best place to start your car search.e, great for frank, who's quite particular... russian jazz funk? next to swedish hip hop.

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time now to get down to business, which is, apparently, beyond brisk at sister company universal studios orlando resort. the wait for harry potter fans at the new digon alley ride has been reported at over 355 minutes, or roughly 6 hours long. now to the battle over duke.

john wayne's family is suing duke university over the use of the name. the family wants to sell bourbon under the name duke, but the university claims not so fast, claiming using the name on the booze would diminish, dilute and tarnish the value of the name. carnival cruise lines is banning smoking on cabin balconies. if you are caught, you will get hit with a $250 cleaning fee. domino's pizza in england accidentally charged a college student $300,000 for a large pie, drinks and side dishes. oddly, though, his bank approved the charge, and then it whacked him with massive overdraft fees. the issue has since been resolved. finally, jimmy fallon is the king of late-night ratings. one reason? he lets his guests talk more than he does. a new study looked at time spent by hosts talking compared to their guests. according to the author of tv's greatest talk shows, fallon talks 37% of the time. craig ferguson 43%, jimmy kimmel 48%, seth meyers and david letterman 51%, and conan o'brien

53%. all right, other stories we're following. "the new york times" is reporting that chinese hackers targeted the files on tens of thousands of people applying for top-secret security clearances. senior officials say they snuffed it out before the process was complete with no word yet on how much personal info, if any, was stolen. a jury finds the l.a. dodgers negligent in the 2011 beating of a san francisco giants fan. they're partly liable for $18 million in damages. the court says there wasn't sufficient security at the stadium when two men attacked bryan stow after a game causing brain damage. former owner frank mccourt was absolved. the hits keep coming for bad boy pop icon justin bieber. he pled no contest to a vandalism charge for throwing eggs at his neighbor's house. he'll serve two years probation, pay more than $80,000 in damages and take an anger management course. so, what's it like to be in the middle of a dust storm. this time lapse puts you right

in the middle of one in arizona earlier this week. visibility is also non-existent. just watch the buildings in the distance. they will disappear on you. so, apparently, sarah palin has spoken more than enough for most americans. and is the border crisis equivalent to president bush's katrin katrina? we're right where you need us. at the next job, next adventure or at the next exit helping you explore super destinations and do everything under the sun. 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world. so wherever you want to be, whatever you want to do, chances are we're already there. save up to 25% and earn bonus points when you book at wyndhamrewards.com.

i just saw secretary of state john kerry visited the great wall of china yesterday while in the country for economic talks. yep, even the wall was like,

this guy goes on forever. >> now here's your "first look" at this morning's dish of "scrambled politics." a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows more than half of registered voters have had enough of sarah palin, but she's not the only political figure people are tired of. 54% say they've heard enough from palin. 51% of voters say they've heard enough from jesse jackson, and 45% say the same thing about former vice president dick cheney. san antonio mayor julian castro has officially joined president obama's cabinet. the senate has confirmed him to be secretary of the department of housing and urban development. castro delivered a well-received keynote address at the 2012 democratic national convention. the supreme court may soon weigh in on utah's gay marriage law. the state's attorney general plans to go to the high court to challenge an appellate ruling that declared utah's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. texas governor rick perry and democratic congressman henry q&aar are both comparing the border crisis with hurricane

katrina. perry said on fox news, "i think about the criticism that george w. bush received when he didn't go to new orleans during katrina. this is no different." also on fox, congressman cuellar said "i hope this doesn't become the katrina moment for president obama." well, former nsa contractor edward snowden is asking russian authorities to extend his stay in the country. his year-long permit to stay in russia has a political refugee is set to expire july 31st. political commentator ann coulter is criticizing chris mcdaniel for not backing down in his race against senator thad cochran. in an op ed piece in "the clarion ledger," coulter wrote, "even in cases of actual voter fraud, history shows that the contesting politicians get branded as sore losers and destroy their political careers." and that's your morning dish of "scrambled politics." all right, in washington, i am joined by syndicated columnist bob franken. hope you're feeling better today. good morning, bob.

>> i certainly couldn't feel worse than last week. >> well, that's an improvement. >> that poll, by the way, ask how many people were tired of hearing from ann coulter? >> i knew you were going to go there. let's go here. critics say president obama should have gone to the border to see the immigration crisis firsthand, some even comparing it to, as we saw there, george w. bush not traveling to louisiana after hurricane katrina. so, what's your reaction to that? >> well, first of all, it's political season right now, so just about anything that the president is going to do, he's going to get criticized for it. and of course, in this particular case, he's being criticized by some democrats from the region, as we know. his response is something that i would just love to keep on the record, which is that this is not theater. it's much more of a problem than that. theater his word. frankly, i come from the perspective that there are far too many photo ops, that everything is reduced to a photo op. so, in this particular case, i'm kind of sympathetic to the president. >> he said he's not interested in that photo op.

>> and he did get his photo op. that is to say that governor perry finally agreed to shake hands with him. >> right. but instead, the president says he's really focused on real issues and tackling this problem and how to get it done. is any progress being made in that area? >> well, it looks like some of the things that could appear to have been noncontroversial, which is to say to come up with money to try and speed up the process of adjudicating all these children who are coming across the border from central america would be something that would pass the congress quite easily. but of course, there is nothing that passes the congress quite easily, and already, some of the republicans are putting up a resistance to his getting the extra money. >> yeah, easy and congress doesn't seem to go together these days. >> nothing passes congress. >> thank you, bob. we appreciate you joining us. >> thank you. all right, "first buzz" is just ahead, and we are talking about stiff drought fines and striking images that would make anyone think twice. you got the bargain kind?

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all right, time now for "first buzz." i have richard and raphael with me today. you've got this really cool underwater video. >> yeah, beautiful scene, not so good for the turtle involved, but a couple guys were scuba diving off the gulf of mexico and they found a sea turtle that was snagged in some rope there, completely tangled up. they had one of those underwater cameras taking this beautiful footage. they were able to free the turtp and it waved good-bye and said thank you very much. and it was a happy day for the turtle. >> have you ever seen them swimming there? beautiful pictures. absolutely. >> and they just glide through the water. speaking of water, in california, they are dealing with a drought, three years in a

row now. >> yeah. >> it's really serious out there. now they are proposing really stiff fines. we're talking $500 a day for using a hose without a shutoff valve. that is really steep. also, out in sacramento, they're asking people, believe it or not, to tattle on their neighbors if they are, you know, going against the water restrictions. >> oh, boy. >> because folks aren't doing anything. the headlines locally are folks are not cutting down on water usage, even though -- >> despite. >> yeah, months long. what are you going to do? >> at ttattling on your neighbo we'll see if that works. and breast-feeding? >> let me show you these posters put together by students at an art school. these are college or young women with children, and they're saying, hey, look, we are ostracized in public when we breast-feed. we have to go into toilets, into bathrooms to breast-feed because people are looking at us in negative ways. so, yet, in 46 states, there are

laws that say this is legal to do in public. and the students have put this together, interesting, and they're not mothers, but they saw how their fellow friends who had children were going through this. >> got you. interesting. all right, thank you. thanks for watching today. "way too early" starts right now. ♪ i saw what's happening to these children. it is a powerful, powerful display of a human crisis that's occurring. that's one of the reasons the president needs to come and to see this himself. >> this isn't theater. this is a problem. i'm not interested in photo ops, i'm interested in solving a problem. >> how can you have a humanitarian crisis, as the white house has called this, and not want to go see it for yourself? >> they can't stay. they cannot stay. go to our consulate, go to our embassy, but we cannot, we cannot have this.

>> crisis at the border. president obama spending another day in texas while defending his decision not to visit the border. meantime, governor rick perry says he knows what the president can do right now, and it doesn't involve a photo op. and did the house speaker just put a lid on all the impeachment talk? john boehner's message to sarah palin and others who want the commander in chief kicked out of office. plus, breaking overnight, a tense standoff that began with six people being gunned down, including four children, finally brought to an end. this is "way too early." good morning. i'm luke russert in lovely -- good morning. i'm luke russert in lovely washington, d.c. fast off the gate here, thomas has the day off. welcome to "way too early." president obama is spending a second day in texas, ground zero for america's spiraling immigration situation. yesterday he pushed b