the fec started looking into whether or not in that same year an endorsement from an iowa anti-gay group cost rick santorum's campaign a million dollars. iowa gets a lot of benefit out of going first when we pick a president. good thursday morning. right now on "first look," three americans are waking up this morning winners of the $448 million powerball. a massive and frightening wildfire continues to plow through parts of california forcing more evacuations. edward snowden has single-handedly sparked a new chapter in the cold war with russians. plus, lingerie for the wealthiest 1%. the house of horrors is no more. and how did a shark end up on a new york city subway? they hit the jackpot. lottery officials say three people won powerball's third

biggest pot ever, two tickets in new jersey and one in minnesota matched all six numbers beating the $1- 1-175 million odds. here are the numbers. 5, 25, 30, 58, 59, and 32. the jackpot was originally $425 million. but at the drawing, officials said it spiked to a whopping $448 million. but that lump sum is sliced almost in half, the three winners split about $258 million before taxes. wednesday's wind fall comes three months after the biggest powerball jackpot in history, that $590 million in florida. a fast moving wildfire in california has already destroyed close to 6,000 acres. fire officials say the blaze grew in size from 2500 acres to 5,000 in just one hour. mountain side homes have been

engulfed in the flames. dozens of families have had to evacuate. close to 500 firefighters were on the scene. as of late wednesday, the flames were 0% contained. two firefighters and one civilian have been injured in the fires. turning now to washington and the talks. president obama canceled next month's planned meeting with vladimir putin. while it's not a complete return to the cold war, there is a chill in the air between the u.s. and russia. tracie potts joins us live now from washington with details. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, they're filling that chill here on capitol hill. interestingly though, republicans and democrats are supporting the president but republican house speaker john boehner, he says this is proof that relationship between the u.s. and rush why has collapsed. >> and first impression they got -- >> reporter: secretary of state john kerry and chuck hagel are set to meet their russian

counterparts in russia tomorrow even though preb canceled his moscow summit with russian president vladimir putin. >> we were not at the point in our progress on a number of these issues where a summit at the presidential level was the most constructive step. >> reporter: there are disagreements over arms control and human rights. but the last straw was russia giving whistle-blower richard snowden asylum for a year. president obama said this relationship has been on thin ice for years. >> they slipped back in the cold war and the cold war mentality. and what i consistently say to them and what i say to president putin is that's the past. >> reporter: analysts say russia's putin isn't happy either. >> it's sort of the rodney dangerfield of europe, they can't get no respect. i think president putin says, no, we're going to be respected. >> reporter: president obama will still travel to the g-20 summit in st. petersburg, russia, next month.

he replacing that stop in moscow to a stop in sweden. president obama eluded to a bigger international crisis while at camp pendleton. the commander in achieve arrived to the cheers of 3,000 marines and sailors who vowed to fight across the board budget cuts and crimes in the military must end. he talked about that recent terror threat in the middle east. >> we don't get terrorized. we're going to keep standing up for our interests. we're going to keep standing up to the security of our citizens. and like generations before us, united states of america's going to remain the greatest force for freedom that the world has ever known. >> after a two-day swing out west, the president is back in washington today. and as you heard from the president at camp pendleton, he mentioned that terror plot that closed numerous u.s. embassies. this morning authorities in yemen say they thwarted an al qaeda plot aimed directly at foreign embassies.

intelligence officials say the plan was to fire missiles at embassies inside the capital. it also included attacking naval forces in the red sea. the u.s. embassy in yemen remains closed today and the country is on high alert. president obama says the united states wants to help the millions of displaced syrian refugees. he's pledging an additional $1$5 million in humanitarian and food aid. that brings the total to more than $1 billion since the two-year war began. the u.n. said last month nearly seven million syrians require urgent humanitarian aid. and these images show the toll the civil war is taking on syria's largest city. these before and after images show hundreds of damaged or destroyed homes and more than 1,000 roadblocks. and now it's time for your first look at this morning's dish of scrambled politics. the pentagon could reverse plans to extend benefits to

partners of gay military members. benefit will be available to married same-sex couples but no final decisions have been made. after laying out new plans for the housing market, president obama is toying with the idea of refinancing his own house. i'm talking about his home in chicago, of course, not the white house where he still owes up to a million dollars. >> our home back in chicago, not the white house which as i said, that's a rental, our home in chicago, you know, my mortgage interest rate, i would probably benefit from refinance right now. i would save some money. when you're president you have to be more careful about the transactions. so we haven't refinanced. the president says his current home is a rental but it's an expensive one with 16 bedrooms, 35 bathrooms and a prime d.c. address. the real estate website values the white house at $319 million if buying isn't your thing, you can rent it for a cool $2

million a month. 35 bathrooms may be too many. every magazine is shrugging off the threatened boycott we are trayvon issue. they say it would be devastating to lose all zero of the tea party readers. congressman john lewis is comparing edwards snowden to civil disowe bead ent leaders like gandy. in an interview, he said he believes snowden is appealing to a higher law when he leaked nsa documents. paula deen home state republicans don't think so, even with her use of the n word and accusations of racism, she is still held to a higher standard than the reverend dr. mort inluther king jr. the queen of southern cooking has a 73% favorability rating while mlk has a 59% favorable opinion. that's compounding. and speaking of dr. king, later this month marks the 50th anniversary of his i have a

dream speech. president obama will mark the occasion with remarks on the steps of the lincoln memorial. and that's your morning dish of scrambled politics. now for a look at the weather, here is bill karins with the national forecast. good morning, bill. >> i wish i was around for that. >> for? >> 50 years ago. >> a little history. look at our new history today. >> okay. >> that's a very positive way to think about it. as far as the weather, missouri just got nailed again with incredible flooding. we had a big fire in areas of california that we showed you. en into ohio we had severe storms. we're doing it all over again. this radar is just lit up. the yellow is heavy rain. reds, torrential rains. these are thunderstorms moving from oklahoma city northward to witch that. i-35 is not advised to travel out of right now if you don't have to. i-44 is next. we're starting to watch the heavy rain shifting to the east a little bit. these are areas that got hit hard yesterday. the heat wave continues in texas. that's the other big story. it was 105 yesterday in dallas.

that eight days in a row of 100-degree heat. when will the heat wave end? no time soon. 100 right through the upcoming weekend. no rain in sight. and speaking of rain, we had a little bit overnight in areas of the northeast. we'll have additional rain as we go throughout the day to day. not all day. airports have hit and miss delays with showers and storms. >> the summer thunderstorms really are strong. >> especially northeast, the humidity is up. jackie robinson defaced, the ft. hood shooter working toward his own execution, plus, the best and worst performance in small cars when it comes to the crash tests. [ male announcer ] running out of steam?

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welcome back. now to other stories making headlines this morning, the house in cleveland where aerial castro held three women captive for more than ten years was demolished wednesday. this time last video shows workers tearing down that house of horrors even google did their part by wiping the house off their virtual map.

police continue their search for the two california children missing since sunday. amber alerts have been issued in oregon and washington as authorities widen the search for james lee dimaggio. they suspected he abducted the children after killing their mother. he was believed to be heading towards the canadian border in a blue 2013 nissan versa. absolutely shocking video out of china. one person is dead after a bus full of passengered was rear ended by a semitrailer. the impact was so severe the bus driver flew out the side window. the ft. hood trial took another turn wednesday when court was dismissed before any testimony even began. an attorney told the judge he believes the defendant is actually trying to work towards the death penalty. hass an agreed with the notion. jackie robinson statue in new york was vandalized with a racial slur on wednesday. workers began to remove the vandalism as police scan

surveillance cameras for leads. and it was not a viral marketing strategy for shark week. subway riders in new york discovered a dead four foot long sand shark aboard the n train. no one knows where it came from. turning now to our first look at business, we turn to cnbc bertha combs. good morning. >> snakes on a train? toyota is recalling tacoma pickup trucks to fix a seat belt issue. the recall affects models made between 2004 and 2011. no injuries have been reported. and the salsburger family says "the new york times" is not for sale. that deck lar a comes after the graham family decided this week to sell "the washington post" to amazon founder jeff bezos. and facebook is trying to become like twitter. the social networking site is

testing a trending topics feature with a small group of users on the mobile website. i don't know about you but i haven't seen any yet. i guess i'm not part of the elite group. >> we're still waiting for our invite on that. now to some sexy lingerie for the 1%. new designs by a designer are made with 24 karat gold thread. prices range from $1500 to $6,000. and speaking of underwear, former victoria secret lingerie model left the runway because being an underwear model conflicted with her religious beliefs. now they combined her fashion sense and faith to launch a christian inspired clothing line called god inspired fashion. new crash tests out just this morning by the insurance institute for highway safety found the honda civic to be the best performer among small cars and the kia forte are the worst.

just ahead, my girl beyonce drops a bombshell on insta gram. we'll show it to you next. then darth vader and a-rod in sports. with local businesses and the seaside heights business improvement district to restore the historic boardwalk, welcoming beach lovers back with a refreshed and revitalized place to get out, get moving, and have some fun in the sun. it's part of our goal to inspire more than three million people to rediscover the joy of being active this summer. see the difference all of us can make... together.

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red hot deal days are back. (alarm beeping) stop for no one. what? it's red hot deal days. get $100 off the samsung galaxy note ii with features like pop-up play. lets you use any app while watching video. or use the s pen for hand-written notes. just $199.99. hurry in, sale ends august 11th. getting the best back to school deals. that's powerful. verizon. because all these whole grains aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter. healthy never tasted so sweet. it's time for sports. betty has all the latest. >> good morning. let's start with baseball. the new york yankees lose a tough one just 12 hours after a-rod's appeal is filed by the players association.

in chicago, andre delaza hit a triple to helped rally the sox to a 6-awin. the yankees have lost 14 of their last 20 games. >> mark sanchez cannot catch a break. first coach rex ryan asked fans to be nice earlier this week. if only our bosses would all say just be nice, right? and now sanchez is getting flack because he'll be starting for the jets preseason opener against detroit lions on friday. so sanchez takes a high road after getting this very rude tweet which reads f-you, hope you tear your acl on friday. my goodness. what people say on twitter really just shocks me. sanchez responded with a tweet saying, thanks for your support, man, #classy. to pittsburgh now, a very special night for andrew mccutchen. not only did his mother sing the national anthem, yes, he got his 16th home run of the season.

>> did it more mom. >> he did. >> you know it, momma looked very proud. >> great. now to big plays in the little league. jacob garza and his corpus christi team won a spot on the little league world series. garza was pitch perfect and did not give up a hit during the game. then get this, mara, he hit a home run that gave his corpus christi texas team a 6-0 lead over new mexico. >> kid's on fire. >> glaugs to them. >> and gangem style danceoff that went intergalactic -- they're still doing it. they're still having star wars night. fans dress as darth vader and storm troopers showing the force is strong with the wielding light sabers. they're saying detroit bankrupt. yeah. finally check out the rowdy fans

at the detroit tigers and cleveland indians game. let's go tigers cheers could not overcome chance of detroit's bankrupt. what a low blow. but detroit, they did get the last laugh. winning the game in the 14th inning, 6-5. they came out on top. >> last laugh indeed. and now it's time for our first look at politics on this thursday morning. we go back to our top political stories. joining us as he does every thursday, bob franken. bob, good morning. >> good morning. >> let's start with this news about obama not attending the meeting with putin in september. are we seeing beginnings of a new cold war here? >> it's a real shame because the last one went so well. i was so looking forward to another of the jovial photo ops. but it seems to me that cold war is sort of sneaking up on us just a little bit although just about all the parties would deny it. let us not forget that president putin is a project of the kgb.

so there is still a lot of sentiment in russia, some hard feelings between the two countries. so, yes, i think we have to be very careful about that. >> and turning now to domestic politics. a new poll in new hampshire potential 2016 candidates say that support for marco rubio is down and chris christie is way up. >> i think chris christie is the flavor of the week. maybe we should stop an poender that for a little bit. marco rubio has a problem with many republicans, particularly the more conservative ones because he's perceived as cooperating with the democrats on immigration which is one of the very volatile issues to the republican base and one of the big problems for the gop. >> and in that same poll among liberals, hillary clinton was the run away favorite with 62% support. at this point is it a given she's the 2016 democratic nominee or is there any possibility of a dork horse coming out? >> first of all, she might have something to do with it.

we have to take her at her word. but she is not yet a candidate. but there are some dark horses also in the democratic party. it's an awful long time until 2016. certainly it's hillary clinton's to lose if she decides she wants to get foot contest. >> all right. bob franken, thanks so much as always. we appreciate your time. thank you. >> coming up, we'll have "first buzz" will we'll tell you about all the stories that we're talking about today. it could be a sign of damage. [ female announcer ] get a healthier clean with neutrogena® ultra gentle cleanser. unlike ordinary cleansers that can over-penetrate and damage skin's healthy barrier our breakthrough formula cleans gently without the damage, yet removes dirt, oil, even eye makeup. so clean really is healthy. [ female announcer ] ultra gentle cleanser. neutrogena®. #1 dermatologist recommended skincare. n♪utrogena®.

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time now for "first buzz." i'm joined by betty and bill. at the top of the show we talked about powerball. >> yeah. >> you have a little more

information about the jackpot. >> i didn't realize it now. it's up to 43 states. only seven states don't participate in the powerball. and last night the winner from minnesota and then two winning tickets sold in new jersey. before last night, new jersey had only three winners in previous history. these are the states that sold the most. i was shocked that pennsylvania -- i know, they had 16 winners. now california just joined powerball recently in april. so that's why they're not on the list. i was surprised that, yeah, some states seem luckier than others. >> i wonder if it has to do with how long they've been powerball states. >> powerball started in 1992. >> because if you just, like you said, california, if you just joined, you would have fewer. maybe there is a notion of a lucky state. >> and we're getting higher numbers with the powerball win, too, quicker than -- three months ago -- >> they increase the it to $2. when they have rollovers, the prize is better. >> i'm not complaining, i just want to win. >> i have big beyonce news.

you're very excited about this. >> i'm going to warn you be you're one story away from a beyonce intervention. >> you get this one and that is it. >> overnight she shocked the world by posting these photos of herself with a brand new pixie hair cut. >> i think she looks beautiful. >> she looks gorgeous. i love the cut with her face. >> okay, so you getting this cut now? >> she won't do extensions ever again? >> my idea is she'll put on the big stage hair for the performance. that is the cut i wanted when i was going short. >> we'll see what you look like tomorrow. >> i'm going to be talking about a mummy, a real actual mummy. a little kid in germany, 10-year-old boy, found one in his grandma's attic. here's a picture of it. can you imagine playing in grandma's attic and seeing a mummy. his father says that essentially his father traveled through north africa in the 1950s.

so this may be ligit. this could be the real deal. they're going to check it out and see. >> as if we needed another reason to stay out of grandma's attic. scary enough as it is. all right. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. "way too early" starts right now. ♪ if the president really wanted to hurt putin, he would have said he was coming and then just stood him up. trust me, that hurts a lot more. or if you want to be passive-aggressive, the president could have said, let's meet some place that is not technically in russia like, i don't know, moscow airport. >> obama blows off putin, looks like the next claw in this cat fight is up to vladdier. i know it's ridiculous to talk about new hampshire polling. but one candidate might want to pay attention to his popularity in the granite state. we have the numbers or lack thereof on florida senator