it could happen as early as tomorrow morning ande'll keep following the trial after that. i've made it all the way through the trial without once calling him governor f bomb. "first look" is up next. bloody crackdown. syrian troops fire on civilians and round up protesters as u.s. warns americans to get out. head over heels. dramatic video shows a horrific motorcycle accident in dallas. royal guard. massive security measures are put in place as england prepares for prince william's big day. good morning, everyone, i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on mns.

we begin this morning with syria's revolt. witnesses say the syrian army has been firing on civilians in a deadly eruption of violence that has caused panic in the streets. it's all taking place in southern syria where the country's antigovernment uprising began about five week ago. there are conflicting reports on the death toll but according to the associated press, at least 11 people have died. soldiers have been going house to house rounding up suspected protesters. the crackdown is aimed at crushing a wave of dissent that has rattled the once uncontested rule of president assad. in response washington has begun drawing up sanctions against assad and his supporters. meanwhile the u.s. state department is urging americans to leave syria. and back here at home, severe strong storms are reeking havoc up and down the already swollen ohio and mississippi river valleys. so far 1,000 homes have been ee vak the wayed in a missouri town

while in downtown st. louis the banks of the mississippi continue to rise. arkansas officials confirm add at least five people are dead after more than a dozen reported tornadoes knocked out power and toppled trees throughout the region last night. heavy rain pelted parts of the midwest from northeast texas all the way to kentucky, where firefighters just outside of louisville rescued a man confined to a wheelchair from a flooded home. nbc meteorologist bill karins will have much more coming up in a few minutes. first, yet another air traffic controller has been fired for falling asleep on the job. the federal aviation administration says a third controller, this one working in seattle, has been fired for dozing off on two separate days. since march, fife cases of napping controllers have surfaced along with one who missed calls while watching a dvd. officials have rolled out new rules aimed at preventing such

incidents. well, there are just three more days until england's royal wedding. with the streets of london now buzzing with activity, as you can imagine, officials are beefing up security. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washingt washington with all the royal weddings. >> reporter: authorities work to keep this city safe. police are checking traffic lights and storm drains 5,000 officers will patrol on foot, horseback and by boat friday. today, residents continue streaming 300 miles of bunting for thousands of street parties planned across the country. we caught up with this south carolina family planning their own celebration. >> i told the people at work to look for me in "people" magazine instead of where's waldo, it's where's melissa? >> reporter: one of the biggest parties will be at trafalgar square, blocks from the church.

the city is bringing in huge screens to rue the ceremony and live muk. they're encourage commoners to wear their finest. you can bet thousands will show up here. speaking of bets, this man is taking them right outside the church. >> we're taking bets on prince philip to fall asleep, whether prince william will wear spectacles and will kate will jilt him at the altar. >> reporter: shops are betting on a $1 billion spending spree. there are pez dispensers, dolls, legos and some the royal family might consider just plain odd. there are some questions about some of the people on the guest les. they'll demonstrate near westminster abbey to none straight some heads of state who have been invited from

autocratic regimes. >> tracie potts in washington -- or lon dorngs i'm sorry about that. our live team coverage begins on friday morning at 3 a.m. eastern time. our special wedding coverage will be hosted by "morning joe' joe's" joe scarborough, mika brzezinski. starting bright and early at 3 a.m. set your alarms. your "first look" although other news. one iraq war veteran probably had better days in baghdad compared to his recent experience on a dallas highway. the 25-year-old was tossed from his motorcycle when an suv hit him from the rear. he lost his spleen, fractured his ribs and broke four vertebrae. he's amazed to be alive. the suv driver received three traffic citations. a team of at least 75 firefighters battled flames after a raging fire erupted in jacksonville. heavy smoke blanketed the

downtown area before the blaze was put out. happien of the firefighter' success quickly turned somber after they learned the community center would have to be destroyed. a man trapped in a tree. the tree trimmer apparently trapped himself 30 feet in the air when his foot became stuck between two branches. it took the rescue team 30 minutes to get him down and he was then taken to the hospital for minor injuries. and finally in chicago, a couple of thieves netted a big score when they pulled off the ultimate hair heist. that's right, hair. celebrities like jessica simpson and beyonce have turned fake hair into aa hot commodity. the suspects stole $90,000 worth of hair extension and so far the bizarre crime has police stumped and us as well. for a look at national weather we turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins.

all you can do is shake your head. >> you never know if it's real. >> it's worth 90,000 bucks. they don't care. >> we don't look great out there weather $wise. yesterday began a three-day tornado outbreak and severe weather outbreak. the storms we saw yesterday were mostly confined to northeast texas, arkansas, and into the memphis area right through paducah, kentucky. in all, mid-30 range of tornadoes, about 339 reports of severe, five fatalities, numerous injuries and a lot of clean-up to be done. there's still a lot of people unaccounted for in a couple of these small towns in arkansas. that is where the worst was. who's seeing is he rear weather right now? a line of strong storms that still exists from pine mruf into areas of extreme northern mississippi. with those storms you could get lightning, maybe wind damage. we also have storms with a lot of lightning strikes down in southern louisiana just outside the houston area. i'm sure this has woken up to

some folks and sent a couple dogs under the bed. this line will move through jackson, mississippi, over the next hour or two. flash flooding. this is the big story. the tornadoes are bad. the flooding will be with us for probably a week or so. flash flooding with thunderstorms south of little rock in northern mississippi and this area hasn't even rained in six hours. we still have flash flooding problems in illinois. right on the border of illinois and missouri. now, today the severe weather outbreak is likely in this area of red. once again we'll target poor arkansas, who's been hit so hard the last couple of days. eventually those storms will travel to memphis. this will be late, afternoon ov -- an overnight event late tonight through overnight hours. late tomorrow morning i'll probably be talking about tornadoes in the ground and very active weather that's going to be a rare overnight tornado event. by the time we get to wednesday, all that severe weather shifts into areas of tennessee, kentucky, and alabama.

lynn, this is going to be historic flooding and tornadoes and we have a little bit of g. the poor people in the middle of the country. >> uft fnfortunate for that, bi silver rides up and down and and why online game junkies are going nuts. the spurs are pushed to the brink. the nfl lockout is over for now. you're watching "first look" on msnbc.

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welcome back to "first look," i'm lynn berry. the law firm the house of representatives hired to defend a statute prohibiting the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages has quit the case. the firm blamed pressure prosecute gay rights groups. john boehner hired the outside

counsel after the justice department announced they would no longer defend the court in court. they filed a motion looking to reinstate the law because the judge disdisclose he disclosed he is gay. in the ukraine memorial services were held to mark the 25 th anniversary of chernobyl nuclear disaster. reactor number four exploded in 1986 spewing a cloud of radioactive fallout over northern europe. the death toll stand at 31. apple's ipad may have only hit shelves last year but video surfaced showing the tablet being predicted all the way back in 1994. this is footage that reveals a prototype of the online newspaper predicted by "knight rier." the worldwide web was still in

infancy, the device appears remarkably similar to the current tablets. i bet they're regretting that. now a first look at how wall street will kick off the day. dow opens at 12479 after dipping 46 points yesterday. the s&p shed two point. the nasdaq rose five. taking a look at overseas trading, in tokyo the nikkei sank 1 13 points while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 130. fears of rising commodity costs has suddenly gripped wall street and will continue to do so throughout this busy week of earnings report. kimberly-clark fell almost 3% after lowering full-year outlook due to rising cost of pulp and other goods. reporting this week, procter & gamble, the consumer giant announced the price hike yesterday due to, you guessed it, the rising cost of pulp, oil and gas. the day also saw a silver selloff.

after the metal neared record highs lifts the dollar and pushing oil lower. energy and material companies ranked among monday's worst performers. auto supplier johnson controls fell almost 3% after announcing third quarter results would be hit by a drop in production following japan's massive earthquake. that tragedy also sent toyota's production in japan plummeting a staggering 62% in march since the lowest level since 1976 when toyota began keeping figures. ford announced this week due to the parts shortages, it will idle plants in taiwan, china and south africa. canadian-based barrick gold outbid a chinese government with $7.7 billion in cash to buy equinox and copper mine. after the bell netflix fell hard after issuing a

disappointing second quarter outlook. if you know any online gamers and they seem touchy, be kind. for a fifth straight day playstation network remain down after being infiltrated by hackers last week. a lot of 15-year-old kids have a lot of time on their hands. a judge halt's football lockout. thuner can't seal the deal and san antonio wonders what hit them. tampa bay breaks out of the clutches of the penguins forcing a final and deciding game. your first look at sports is straight ahead. ordinary chicken into luscious, delicious, and scrumptious. with recipes from campbellskitchen.com, and campbell's cream of chicken soup. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ we all have one. that perfect spot. a special place we go to smooth out the ripples of the day. it might be off a dock or on a boat. upstream or in the middle of nowhere.

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welcome back to qult first look," i'm lynn berry. in sport the spurs finished the regular season 15 games ahead of their divisional rivals the memphis grizzlies. that doesn't mean anything in the postseason. here's nbc's fred roggin. good morning. before the nba playoffs started the grizzlies made it clear they wanted to play the top-seeded spurs. now we know why. game four in memphis, lone highlight for spurs, ginobili cost to coast, pretty dish to parker for the bucket. spurs up by two at the break but the rest of the game was all grizzlies. mike conley and darrell arthur led a balanced attack. grizzlies won it and now just a win away from shocking everybody and winning the series. mavericks with a 3-2 lead in their series against the trail blazers and pulled away in the third. nowitzki with 11 of 25 in the

quarter. mavs blew a big game in lead four and not in this one. game six is thursday. the nuggets got in the win column. thunder had a chance to die it at the buzzer but westbrook couldn't hit the long three. denver avoided the sweep with the 104-101 win. nfl players yesterday, u.s. district court judge issued an immediate end to the lockout. owners are expected to appeal the ruling. this is one of many steps to get players back on the field in time for the season. lightning forced game seven with a win against penguins. downing gave tampa the lead early in the third. moments later ryan malone, some insurance, a slap shot on the breakaway, kind of unorthodox but it works. lightning won it 4-2. sharks eliminated kings. tied 3-3 in overtime, thornton spun off the defenseman to score

the game winner. san jose advanced with third overtime win of the series 4-3. that's your "first look" at sports. i'm fred roggin. for another look at the weather here's bill karins with your weather channel forecast. >> we have the tornado threat the next two days. after that the weather pattern slows down. then all the water collects and then we'll deal with historic flooding on two of our biggest rivers in our country, the ohio river and the mississippi river. many areas in the ohio river from the louisville area down to paducah, kentucky, your cresting will happen as we approach and go into upcoming weekend. the mississippi river, it takes a long time for this water to go down. we'll see near record levels on the mississippi river. these records go back 120 years and we'll come close to those going back to the great floods of 1937 and 1927. we're talking almost 80 years since we've seen the mississippi river with levels this high. this will take a week or two until all that water guest gets down into the gulf. as far as the forecast goes

today, we have the severe storms. if you're joining us from the east coast and waking up with us, it will be a warm day. not so much in new england but look at the forecast. we'll have clear skies, warm air is heading to the north. areas like d.c. once again easily into the 80s. we're calling 81 for you. philly, 84. summertime humidity, too, it will feel sticky. chance of thunderstorms to the north of new york city, connecticut, massachusetts. the forecast for the southeast, we also have showers and storms in the forecast for you but it's going to be hot first, though. temperatures getting up into near 90 in florida today. a break from the rain in kansas city. showers and cool weather, minneapolis to chicago. by the time we get to wednesday, all those thunderstorms will roll to the east. we got tornadoes and then we'll see historic flooding, levels we haven't seen before. >> that's so unfortunate. i know you'll be covering it. we'll stay in touch with you throughout the morning on that. thank you. well, johnny depp plans a special big screen appearance. plus, apparently undeterred

by her recent lengthy jail sentence, lindsay lohan makes a plan to be seen in tinseltown and all different kind of places. at 190 miles per hour, the wind will literally lift ordinary windshield wipers off the glass. so, did we build a slower car? or design wipers that could handle anything? what do you think? the cadillac cts-v, the world's fastest production sedan. we don't just make luxury cars, we make cadillacs

turn right up ahead. you never update me. so, now i just have to wing it. i meant turn left up ahead. recalculating. turn right now! [ horn honks, tires screech ] [ laughs ] [ crash! ] and your fifteen-minute insurance might not pay for all this. so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. recalculating. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate. it's got a calculator. thanks, dad. this is the neighborhood. you get elm street and you get main street. thank you. and that's just the first quarter. so you want a slide in your office ? or monkey bars, either one.

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welcome back to "first look." last night on late night with jimmy fallon, jimmy was back on the air after a two-year vacation. >> we're live, we've been off for two weeks. it was nice just sleeping in every day. yeah, i was at my second job as an air traffic controller. hey, president obama hosted the

annual white house easter egg roll today. yeah it was a little awkward, though. donald trump showed up and demanded to see each egg's birth certificate. i don't know where this egg came from. jewish people spent the last week observing passover. knicks spent the day observing, it's over. tonight jimmy welcomes "today's" very own matt lauer, icarly amanda cosgrove and twisted sister "late night with jimmy fallon" on your local nbc station. your first look at enter stainment news. out on appeal, lindsay lohan is do everything from late night television appearances to planning on hanging out in the morgue. that's right. lohan free on $75,000 bail took time out monday to tape an interview for "the tonight show with jay leno" that will air later on tone.

meanwhile, radar online reports since lohan's parole violation sentence of 120 days in jail also includes 480 hours of community service, she's spl planning on doing janitorial services at the los angeles county morgue. entertainment weekly reports johnny depp will do a cameo in the big screen version of "21 jump street," the '80s tv show where depp got his start. "people" reports mtv reality star kristin kav kristin cavala engaged. and she took to twitter account to rage about a pleasant near run-in with paris hilton calling her the worst driver ever, almost hit me, ran a stop sign. she concluded her profane anti-hilton tirade by saying, you should apologize to humanity. now i'm done. this is why you don't do

twitter. the real headline is johnny depp back at "21 jump street," that was like -- >> i'm sorry. >> -- i'm a favorite. >> i didn't hear anything after morgue and community service for lindsay lohan. stay tuned, willie geist is next. good morning again from trafalgar square in central london where the temperature has dropped but your excitement in the royal wedding is rising, right? at 10:30 a.m. local time it has to be said again. it actually is not "way too early" for this. ♪ welcome to "way too early" live all week from london where we are developing the early signs of royal wedding fever. we can't stop thinking about the dress, the ring, and the fact that posh spice will be there.