wardrobe malfunction of nicki minaj. this is "way too early." hey, everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. it is monday, august 25th. welcome to "way too early." according to one person on twitter, the black is slimming on some. very nice. yes. that's why we wore gray. we have a very busy show to get to. we want to start off with our lead story. there is very good news. an american writer is freed after being kidnapped nearly two years ago in syria. cutter represented with this release of peter theo curtis. curtis's family says money did not change hands in this. the 45-year-old was being held captive by the nusra front. british officials say they have i.d.ed the islamist militant who beheaded james foley.

the suspect's name has yet to be released. foley's parents released a letter from their son which was memorized and transcribed by a fellow hostage who was litter released. he was with 17 other hostages. they used scraps from their cell to play games. they talked about movies, they talked about sports. overnight joint chiefs chairman martin dempsey said he would support direct action if they become a direct threat to the u.s. or europe, but the nation's top general said he does not believe either is the target of a current plot. several republicans, however, say the rise of isis needs to re-evaluate its strategy. >> one of the problems is it's gone unabated for nearly two years and that draws people from brittain to across europe, even the united states to go and join the fight. they see that as a winning ideology, a winning strategy and they want to be a part of it. that's what makes it so dangerous. they are one plane ticket away

from u.s. shores. >> they're not the j.v. team anymore. they're the most prominent terrorist organization in the world, but they're not the only one. they're in competition for the other jihadist group and the gold medal will be awarded to the one that can hit america. >> the president has to understand and when america hasn't, a lot of bad things happen. this is not lining the earthquake in san francisco. all of this could have been avoided like leaving a resit dual force behind in iraq. >> the biggest earthquake to shake the bay area in nearly 25 years has sent more than 200 people to the hospital, left thousands without power this morning. the 6.0 magnitude quake struck in the dead of night near napa around 3:20 in the morning sparking fires and crippling water main. a lot of it was captured on video. when the sun finally came up it revealed homes split and shaken

from their foundation and roads broken up. >> it was shaking very, very loud and seemed like it was going on and on like it wasn't real. >> climbing through the rubble, started shouting for my wife's name. one of the bedroom tvs missed the dog by six inches. >> the buildings facades have cracks. napa schools are closed. even the industry that helped make that region famous sustained blows. wineries found barrels tossed around warehouses and expensive bottles have been broken. seismologists say it's unlikely something bigger is coming behind it. it is sure to be an emotional day in ferguson as schools across the country will be open and loved ones, friends, and supporters will say a final

good-bye to michael brown. a funeral will be held for the unarmed teen shot and killed by a police officer two weeks ago. there will be two overflow rooms where the funeral will be streamed. yesterday about 100 family members and friends attended a briefrt viewing. brown's father is pleading for today to be free of protests. >> tomorrow all i want to see is my son being laid to rest. please, please take a day of silence so we can lay our son to rest. please. that's all i ask. >> so as protests remain largely peaceful in ferguson, demonstrators marched in the nation's capital to demand justice for brown and more money has now been raised through online fundraisers for darren wilson. that's the officer who shot brown and for the teen's family.

more money coming in for that officer. burger king is in talks to buy a canadian fast food chain. get this, if the deal comes through it will be the latest company to move its hears off u.s. soil. bk would go forth. it's talking to buy tim hortons. it will be based in canada according to multiple outlets. a number of high profile companies have sought mergers that would take their hears off shore, in large part because other countries have lower corporate tax rates. treasury secretary jack lu and president obama have criticized such moves with the president even branding companies who do so as renouncing their u.s. citizenship. so this brings us to our twitter question for you this morning. what do you think about this possible deal? should burger king be moving to canada? how do you think that's going to impact their business here in the states? tweet us your most creative

answers using #waytooearly. u.s. futures trading has resumed after a tech glitch led to a four hour delay. a new report says the majority of economists says the fed is doing the right thing to get the u.s. economy back on track. jeff gucut more joins us from london. >> it's interesting. that survey comes in the wake of the jackson hole meeting where janet yellen, the fed chief, talked a little bit about unemployment and the challenges around the job market but the net net was at this point no indication of a more hawkish fed so i think we might get a bit of an uplift because we didn't get much follow through buying. the s&p week, the nasdaq, finished in positive territory. some support coming from gas prices. the latest lundburg survey

indicating head lining oil prices being the lowest since january. the gas price, $3.42 is now the average for a gallon of regular. let's just move on to this story. this is quite serious stuff. sony confirming there was an outage on the play station network as a result of a denial of service attack from an outfit calling itself the looter squad. they phoned through a bomb threat to a plane being taken by john smedley, who is the head of the online entertainment division there. his plane diverted. we understand the fbi are now investigating this. back to you. >> that really is serious. jeff, along the same vein though but certainly in less serious criminal news. they're saying the gaming gender

gap. tell us how more girls are getting involved. >> it's fascinating. i think people have the idea of the kind of individual that stays at home in their bedroom working on their gaming late into the early hours. >> right. >> usually it's a guy, right? but now the suggestion is that the numbers are more or less even as many gals as guys are big gamers. part of the reason they're suggesting for that taking place is you don't just game now on the big console, you can use mobile devices and you can be just about anywhere doing it. and you know what, some of the games perhaps are less gender specific. a little more candy crush than medal of honor. >> we need to come up with a candy crush app and we can meld these together and retire. i think we could get in on this early. >> i think you have a cracking idea. that's something we should spend

our times putting our heads together. >> i'm good on monday. as the week trends go on, it's worse and worse. listen to this serious news. hip-hop star was shot early. the founder of deaf row records were all rushed to the hospital from the packed club in the hours before the mtv awards. justin bieber was said to be there no suspects have been named this. knight has been shot before at a party hosted by kanye west also before the vmas. whoa. still ahead on "way too early," two nfl rookies come face to face in cleveland. guess what michael sam does to johnny manziel. what did they tweet about the white house and they tweeted and apologized.

did you know jenn has returned from vacation. mike, can we show jenn? she was away forever. our favorite stage manager was away for vacation. not that we don't love alan because he leaves me mints. "way too early" will be back. >> the man called the lion of the senate, ted kennedy of massachusetts, the brother of president kennedy, the last surviving son of the political dynasty is dead tonight at the age of 77.

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okay. so it's time -- >> whew. >> whew! time now for sports. to the nfl preseason play and the cleveland browns hosting the st. louis rams, two of the most talked about rookies. we've got michael sam, johnny manziel go one on one when sam takes out manziel on the 20 yard

line. sam doesn't just sack manziel, he mocks him. see that, yeah? rams go ton beat cleveland 33-14. johnny had done that earlier. >> i think two or three players have mocked him doing that this preseason. not original. that's his second sack of the preseason so he's doing all right. >> set the internet on fire. pretty interesting. major league baseball, oakland, the angels hoping to regain the top spot. top of the second -- the afficionado. erick aybar. sending in not one but two runs in. later in the top of the third. 2-0 angels, josh hamilton deep right, bounce off the wall. see that bounce. pop back in there? but it's a home run. a's trying to come back but angels go on to win it 9-4. they take back the leader's spot and have the best record in baseball. so we take everybody to wrigley

field, bill. cubs hosting the orioles. bottom of the fifth. >> can't lose to the cubs. >> homered to center right. 1-0, cubs. >> they didn't lose to the cubs, did they? >> top of the second, cubs up 2-0. blast it's out of there but it's not enough for baltimore. they lose 2-1. the o's first road sweep this season. lost all the games this weekend. more bad news for the orioles. they report third baseman manny machado has to undergo knee surgery. bad swing brought him to his knees. >> house of cards. >> i know. he had knee surgery before for a complete tear. a partial a tear in his other knee. they think they can do this successful. >> only six games up on the spankies. >> they're doing okay. now to the little league

world championship. south korea versus chicago. jay wong doubling. south korea up. now bottom of the third, up 2-0. tre hon dras. this is where he ground to second. >> great play. >> get him out at first but a run scores, okay? so 2-1 now. in the fifth he homers to left center up 4-1. they ultimately go on to win it 8-4. congratulations to them. jamaican track star bolt broke another record. he ran the indoor 100 meter race in just 9.98 seconds. while that race proofs the foot injury he suffered this year didn't slow him down, it will sideline him. yesterday he pulled out of the last race of the year his coach said to be healthy and prepared for the 2015 season. >> he's in year seven.

seven or eight years of being the fastest man on the planet. that's the long duration. >> he's a fast guy. what's going on? looks like you are tracking major weather. >> it's over the turks and caicos islands. >> what did i say? >> the who what? >> the who's and whos? >> the turks and caicos. >> what did i say? >> what? >> you know, a little too much of the sauce this weekend. that's all right. s. >> who's at who's? >> doesn't matter. the storm is going to miss the u.s. and that's the important thing. yeah, we're very happy about that. i'll send myself angry tweets. we are looking good. it's amazing this system last week, it was 5050 that we were going to deal with a serious storm. it misses bermuda, misses areas of nova scotia and all the way through halifax. good to go. in the middle of the country is where all the meet is.

yesterday, hundreds widespread. yesterday, st. louis, central illinois, hot week. 99 two days in a row. we were gorgeous this weekend in the northeast. we've been the spoiled brats. everyone else is sweating it out. >> hurricane season extends through -- >> the next six weeks. we have to get through the next six weeks. that's the danger joan. appreciate it. "morning joe," we'll go live to the napa valley as they clean frup a magnitude 6.0. live report from ferguson, missouri. hours before the funeral of michael brown and we'll also talk about the use of force. and we'll huddle around the water cooler. another security breech at the brooklyn bridge. this one in broad daylight. that and the vmas. some almost total wardrobe malfunctions that i think are totally planned.

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we showed you the aftermath of the earthquake, the largest to hit california's bay area. if you want to sound smart today say despite the strength of sunday's shock it paled in comparison to previous earthquakes in the region. geologists say 1989 the lo

loma prieta earthquake had 30 times the energy. in 1906 it was 500 times larger in size. we're going to start off in the cooler with music's biggest night. while three were -- while there were a lot of great moments, truly beyonce owned the moment decked out in a stained glass leotard. she performed for 20 minutes. big melding of all of the biggest moves. on the stage was jay z and blue ivey watched. beyonce's family joined her on stage with mtv's equivalent to a lifetime achievement award. >> and the recipient of the michael jackson award and the greatest music entertainer,

beyonce. >> i've got nothing to say. i'm filled with so much gratitude. thank god for this moment. i love y'all so much. boo boo, i love you, mtv, i love you. >> i love to see her eyes light up when she looks at her daughter. what a moment. sweet, sweet, sweet. that's all coming up after those rumors of a potential divorce between the tum. that was just a lovely award. other highlights, nikcki minaj ending a possible janet jackson moment. she reemerged to perform. she had to hold on to her top and her lower regions. we don't know if this was intentional or not. look, the other two performers have stick mics and nicki has the mic mic.

i think it was planned. anyway, miley cyrus also making headlines, but not for twerking. she took home the award of the night. video award of the year, wrecking ball. she looks on as a young homeless man accepted the award on her behalf and really made a statement by capturing the attention of this audience. she was trying to bring attention to the million plus run aways and homeless youth. it did grip the audience and all those watching. that wasn't the only social issue. rapper common led a moment of silence. >> for the past two weeks the eyes of the nation have been on ferguson missouri. the people in ferguson and st. louis and communities across the country have used their voices to call for justice and change to let everyone know that each and every one of ours lives

matters. >> finally, the music world also paid tribute to the late great robin williams with a photo montage. a sky full of stars. that was one of the more touching moments. the u.s. and the u.k. have not always enjoyed the cozy interpolatio interpolations. since then we've all become probably the closest allies, that is until yesterday. the british embassy tweeting a photo of a cake with the caption, commemorating the 200th an versaillniversary of burninge house. one month after pranksters replaced the red, white and blue, someone was able to make it atop the bridge. a 24-year-old man climbed a cable beam. he was taken into custody on his

way down but not before snapping a couple of photos. he faces charges of trespassing and reckless endangerment. let's get responses to the twitter question. b.k. headquarters may move to canada. ju justine, what do you have? >> it's not a smart idea. i plan on boycotting burger king. 4 or 5 times a month. >> healthy supporter. >> he tweets it's a great way to ruin a favorite icon. tim hortons merger with wendys was a bust. >> we'll see. >> see how people re1307bd. ju justine, "morning joe" is just moments away. ld save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker?

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expedia. find yours. ♪searching with devotion ♪for a snack that isn't lame ♪but this... ♪takes my breath away let's get a check on the day ahead. vice president joe biden heads to chicago to head a series of fundraisers. he will help illinois governor pat quinn in his fight against bruce ronner and will raise

money for house democrats. the 66th primetime emmy awards are this evening. you can catch the whole event beginning on nbc at 8:00 p.m. that's going to do it on the that does it for "way too early." "morning joe" starts right now. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." michael brown's funeral is held today and his father is praying for calm and it's important as we move forward today after a brutal months there is calm. here is what the father had to say. >> all i want is peace. i want my son to be laid to rest. will you please, please take a day of silence so i can -- so we can lay our son to rest? please! that's all i ask. and thank you. >> just let him be. i mean, this has been s