when the facts of why it is scandalous as it was said to be, that story is not nearly as interesting. sometimes it is just interesting letting people know how that stuff turned out to be the truth. . good wednesday morning. right now on "first look," outrage over the senseless murder of a baseball player and the three oklahoma teens charged in this horrific killing. a cool-headed school assistant helps prevent what could have been a shooting massacre. an incredible scene in michigan caught on tape and the driver is expected to recover. plus, beau biden at one of the country's major cancer hospitals. a harrowing tourist accident in new york city as dr. oz assists and a massive fire in the motor city. good morning. i'm mara schiavocampo. it was a harrowing day for students and parents in an

atlanta suburb after a run-in with a gunman. students were evacuated from an elementary school in decatur after a man with an ak-47 walked in tuesday, ordered a employee to call a local tv station and opened fire. thankfully, no one was injured. kurt gregory has more. >> reporter: just after lunchtime, a terrifying scene. reports of gunfire at ronald mcnair discovery learning academy near atlanta. the children were escorted to the back of the school grounds for safety as dozens of law enforcement agents scoured the campus. >> i never thought something like that would happen in my neighborhood, period. >> reporter: police say a 20-year-old michael brandon hill carrying an ak-47 and other weapons slipped past a buzzer security system and into the school by following someone who was authorized to be there. >> he didn't get any further than the front office. he barricaded himself with a

couple office employees. >> reporter: as police arrived, the gunman left the office firing at least half a dozen rounds at responding officers. >> the officers were able to return fire. when they saw him in -- alone. >> reporter: when police fired back, the suspect dropped to the ground and surrendered. >> my husband called and said, hey, the baby is -- there's a gunman at his school. and i'm like, what? >> reporter: hundreds of parents scrambled to a nearby walmart parking lot waiting for hours to be reunited with their children. >> we are so blessed and pleased that all of our children are safe, all of our employees are safe. >> reporter: safe and back in the arms of loved ones, kurt gregory, nbc news. vice president joe biden's son remains at a hospital after undergoing testing on tuesday. beau experienced weakness and disorientation last week setting off a string of doctor's visits

in chicago, philadelphia and now houston. it's not clear what he's being tested for. this is not his first health scare. in 2010 he spent a week in the hospital after suffering a mild stroke. tuesday, beau tweeted this caption with his wife and a tweet that said touched by all your well wishes. will share update when we have it. family members remain by his side in houston. in just hours, army private bradley manning will learn his fate. the man behind the largest leak of classified documents in history could spend the rest of his life in prison. melissa mollet joins us live from washington. >> good morning, mara. this hearing in just about five hours. 10:00 this morning bradley manning will know how much of his life he will spend in a military prison. of course he has already been behind bars for about 3 1/2 years. the 25-year-old former intelligence analyst was convicted in july of leaking hundreds of thousands of

classified documents to we canky leaks. his case of course considered the largest leak of classified documents in history. he's been found guilty of 20 criminal charges, now facing up to 90 years in jail. as i mentioned, he's already served 3 1/2 years. prosecutors asking the u.s. army colonel to sentence manning to 60 years in jail. his attorney asking for leniency, about 25 years instead. manning has said he's sorry for his actions and for hurting the united states. >> all right, melissa mollet, thanks so much. turning to a chilling revelation in an oklahoma shooting, prosecutors say three teenagers targeted, shot and killed 22-year-old christopher lane simply because they were bored. the australian college baseball player was randomly shot while jogging. 15-year-old james edwards jr. and 16-year-old chancey luna are charged with murder. michael jones was charged with accessory. they are all being charged as adults.

lane was visiting his girlfriend and her family in the town of duncan, oklahoma. he was out for a run when he was shot once in the back. his father in australia says that murder was pointless. out west, wildfires are still burning in 11 states. firefighters in idaho are working to contain the massive beaver creek fire. it's 12 days old and it's burned 158 square miles and forced thousands of evacuations. the cost to put out the flames now tops $1 billion. it remains just 10% contained. and in northern california near yosemite, crews are fighting at least four big fires, the largest of which is near the shirley peak ski area. no homes or structures have been damaged there. now time for a look at scrambled politics. ted cruz of texas will remain a canadian citizen for eight more months before he can officially cut ties with the country where he was born. at a town hall meeting last night about defunding obamacare, cruz praised former south

carolina senator jim demint for being as nearly as action stars or super heros are. >> kids all over the world wear super man pajamas. super man wears chuck norris pajamas. and let me tell you, chuck norris wears jim demint pajamas. >> texas governor rick perry also wanted to kill the affordable care act, but politico reports his aides are in talks to accept an estimated $100 million through the health law. republican senator lamar alexander is now facing a primary challenger in his bid for re-election. his on poe nent is joe carr whose campaign banner misspelled the last word with an extra t. they later fixed it. north carolina state senator is resigning to protest the state's new voter i.d. law. she'll help citizens get photo

i.d.s. january gone take says nancy reagan wants to see the butler. fonda says she'll get her a dvd. and president obama honors the 1972 miami dolphins. only time ever to have an a undefeated season. david letterman joked about it being 40 years late. >> wondering, waiting, not getting a call. trying to think, it might be nice to go to the white house. you know, we'll just hillary clinton what that's like. honestly. and that is your morning's dish of scrambled politics. the city of detroit can't catch a break. firefighters from 20 different companies came together to try and fight a blaze. the entire industrial yard has been destroyed by the fire and it still has not been contained as of late last night. for more on weather conditions around the country i'm joined by meteorologist bill karins. >> that town has been very dry. it's been warm, but not hot.

and we're starting to get the fires and this is the peak of the fire season. and it's interesting, we've only had about half as much acreage burn this year as last year. as bad as the pictures have been. so let's show what you we're dealing with. this is a quiet period of weather across the country.you dealing with. this is a quiet period of weather across the country. usually we have about 1200 tornados year to date by thousand. we've only had 716. of course it only takes one really bad one like whore, o are oik, okay la and you think it's been a horrible season. the only disaster was the moore, oklahoma tornado. we had had 11 last year. so typically we average about five a year. we'll have to waet and sit and the rest of the hurricane season pans out. and it is off to a slow start. typically we get our first hurricane august 10th. as far as the weather goes,

yesterday record high in denver at 99. much of the country has warmed up. it feels like summer. and can you believe 90 in new york, 90 this chicago is not really a big deal. it's summertime. 9 fir the first time in a month that we've hit 90. >> people are welcoming summer bag. >> people are like thank you for bringing summer back. >> i'm glad it's making a comeback. does the nsa really know how much of our information has been compromised? plus an incredible rescue by a firefighter all caught on camera.

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the white house could be closer to a decision on whether to suspend u.s. aid to egypt. today, the military's crackdown is continuing with the news of more arrests of people linked to the muslim brotherhood. nbc's yusef gamalmaldin is live with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, mara. what we understood from the spokesperson of the white house is that the president met with his national security team to discuss egypt's relations.

but also made it clear that no aid had been cut, and that everything was under review. also commenting on some of the arrests that had taken place specifically. the top and a half the muslim brotherhood saying it's not in line with the standard the united states would hope to uphold in protecting basic human rights. now, in the last few hours, more arrests have taken place. a senior preacher linked to the muslim brotherhood was detained. we're also following developments in the case of a possible release of the former president mubarak. that decision could come out later on this afternoon. sources have told nbc news no press coverage will be permitted and it will take place in the prison. that's the update from here. back to you. >> yousef, thanks so much for that. turning to other stories making news this morning, more than two months after edward snowden leaked top secret documents, the national security agency still doesn't know the

full september extent of what h. the national security agency still doesn't know the full extent of what he took. sources tell nbc news the agency is, quote, overwhelmed by the amount of damage that snowden has done. a short yet unbelievable video clip shows a truck crashing through a guardrail and down a ravine in central michigan. you can see the truck and its trailer launch off the road. amazingly, the driver is expected to recover from his injuries. tuesday in new york city, a taxi jumped a curb and hit a 23-year-old woman severing one of her legs below the knee. tv's dr. oz happened to be at the scene. a good samaritan saved the woman's life with a tourniquet. >> there was a dog leash and a belt. they saved her life. between the two of them, we were able to stop the bleeding. water with dangerously high levels of radiation is leaking from japan's crippled fukushima nuclear plant. the plant, damaged in japan's 2011 earth and tsunami is leaving water so contaminated officials say it's enough to give someone a five-year dose of

radiation in just one hour. and a daring rescue in china. right before a woman was about to jump from a seven-story window sill, a firefighter was able to drag the woman to safety. and the dress worn by the duchess of cambridge sold out just two hours after this official photo was released. it retails for about $72. now for your first look at business, we turn to courtney reagan. good morning. >> good morning to you. bank of america is closing drive-through teller lanes at several branches because not enough people are using them. customers will still be able to use drive up a it tm machines. analysts say its each more expensive to operate a bank lobby. sony will launch the playstation 4 in the u.s. on november 15th. the ps 4 costs $399, $100 less

than the new xbox 1. sony says it already has 1 million pre-orders worldwide. and twitter has a fast growing vine. its video sharing app now has more than 40 million registered users just seven months after its launch. they loop together six second video clips. i'm actually surprised about how much folks can videotape in six seconds. >> thank, courtney. straight ahead, richard lui will be here with your sports highlights. s, courtney. straight ahead, richard lui will be here with your sports highlights. [ sneezing ] she may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec®. powerful allergy relief for adults and kids six years and older. zyrtec®. love the air.

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are you in good hands? richard lui has all the sports headlines. >> good wednesday morning to you. remember that alex rodriguez pitch to the ribs? boston red sox pitcher ryan dempster for that gets suspended for five games, gets a $2,500 fine for the pitch. yankees manager joe gerardi gets his due, too. he was fined $5,000 for that argument with the umpire. no argument about this. the yankees top toronto in a double header. cano gets his 200th career home run. yankees still five back from the

wild card slot. and a leaping attempt to stop a homer. but what happens here? no, he loses the ball and where is my glove? what happened to that? there it is. hate when that happens. the number one collegiate skeet shooter in america. the 18-year-old got the first perfect score in the history of the national skeet shooting association collegiate world championship. he also broke two world records along the way. >> good for him. >> yeah, well done. are you ready for august 31? >> ucla. >> so michigan for me. college football season starts. here is one t-shirt. alabama's fans getting this sought. read it. tebow cried. cam lied. tree died. lsu tried. te'o's fake girlfriend died. roll tide. it's college football. reigning champs open against virginia tech. and a throw-in laufrns a

series of passes in this game and ends with a perfect goal and win 2-nil in that. and before we go, this is amazing here. >> unbelievable. >> wind surfing? you have to go to tasmania to see this. not for the weak. look at that air they're getting. 50-mile-per-hour winds. i'm thinking those waves, what do you think, 10-footers? >> it's hard to tell. but they're huge and they're getting so much air. it really is not for the faint of heart. >> all the wind is what's happen. they wore impact vests and helmets. >> it looks like a lot of fun if you're able to do it. i'm sure it's a thrill. >> you and me, no. time for our first look at this morning's political stories. and joining me is managing editor for the goldie taylor project, the one and only goldie taylor. according to a recent poll, the

majority of americans think obama should cut off aid to egypt and 50% say his response has not been tough enough. so what political calculations is the white house facing in trying to manage the crisis? >> it isn't quite so simple. i was one of those people who remained very concerned about sending is.5 billion effectively to pay the general in egypt. but if f. we do cut off that aid, we lose all of it. at the end of the day, if we do cut off the aid, the people in the middle east are willing to cover that money. so the general loses nothing and we lose every positioning that we have in the region. >> turning now to domestic politics, we've been hearing a lot about ted cruz's citizenship and his eligibility to run for president. if he does make a run in 2016, how does that affect the whole gop field, does it move everyone a little bit to the right to try to keep up with him? >> i really think that it does. i don't believe that his

citizenship at birth in canada will be any fact for him. he is a native born american citizen. soil is not the issue. but his politics are so far to the right, his political machine is so strong, his fund-raising prowess so very, very strong. he's going to drag much of the field, including people like governor chris christie, further to the right and we'll wind up with a gop candidate who really does tow the party line and is the answer to the gop. >> we'll leave it there. thanks so much for your time this morning. coming up, bill karins and richard lui will be here for first buzz, all the stories we're talking about this morning. it starts with something little, like taking a first step. and then another. and another. and if you do it. and your friends do it. and their friends do it... soon we'll be walking our way to awareness, support

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time now for first buzz. i'm joined by richard lui and bill karins. so overnight, we had quite a sight. >> the blue moon. >> are you going to sing for us? >> it's setting in some areas, too. >> you went out there yourself. and the blue moon as you both know is really not blue. >> i know nothing about a blue moon. >> the deal is the reason why they call it a blue moon is because it is the second full moon of the month, but that's the new definition. the original definite thiion be the '40s was if it were to be the third of four full moons in a season. >> it's pretty. >> i won't go any further. just it's a beautiful moon.

a new sleep study is out. it found that for people who suffer from insomnia, sleep may have more of an impact on exercise than exerce has on sleep. conventional wisdom is that if you exercise, you sleep better. but they found it took four months who people who started an exercise routine to seat benefits in their sleep. but if you don't sleep well, the effect on your exercise rue team is immediate. you won't gets a good of a workout, it won't be as long either. >> i'm taking notes here. >> when you're sleepy, you don't want to worg out as hard. >> so still no good answer. >> i guess eventually it will pay off. >> that link isn't there that we thought. >> and bill, what you got? >> helium. you go to a birthday party, you want the candle, cake, presents. there is a helium shortage out there and in eight reyears, the could be a depletion.

think about the balloons at the parade. i'll tell you on this. the u.s. produces 75% of helium. the price has tripled in the last year. half the world's helium is just outside of amarillo, texas. if you have no helium at your daughter's party, we'll see how that goes. stay tuned. "way too early" starts now. georgia tech is proud of its many traditions, but the one i find most exciting is -- our tradition of excellence. our mission as students is not to follow in the foot steps of the astronauts, nobel prize lawyer i can't teya lawyer, but to exceed their foot steps, crush the shoulders of giants. we are all such innovative people, so i'm telling you, if you want to change the world, you're at georgia tech. you can do that. >> welcome to college. go out there and