home and office of michael jackson's personal physician, looking for evidence and answers. hazardous waste. experts now say the use of tanning, tanni beds is as deadly as taking arsenic. . and orbittal farewell. crews on the international space station said good-bye as the "endeavour" plans for its station said good-bye as the "endeavour" plans for its journey home. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm christina brown. today we begin with what the doctor ordered. authorities investigating the death of michael jackson are focused on the doctor who was apparently with the pop star when he died. armed with search warrants, police are trying to find out more about the physician behind the scenes in the live of the late pop star. nbc's jay gray reports.

>> reporter: as investigators gathered at his las vegas office, officers also visited dr. conrad murray's home in this gated community near the vegas strip. >> looking for documents. >> reporter: the search similar to one at a storage facility in houston last week. >> this d a's office in los angeles doesn't want another o.j. moment. they're working hard behind the scenes to make sure before the charges they have all the evidence because they have gotten burned before. >> reporter: charges that could include manslaughter. police sources tell nbc news murray did administer the powerful sedative propofol the morning jackson died. >> diprivan or propofol is a primary drug here involved in the death. it doesn't say that the drug by and of itself caused the death. >> reporter: dr. murray's lawyer continues to insist his client has done nothing wrong and issued a state which said, in part, we will not be commenting

on rumors, inyou endo. tends to shake out when all things are known and i'm sure that will happen here. there is apparently now a public video of jackson's private life in the days before his death. according to published reports, the pop star demand that the temperature in his bedroom remain very hot, stifling according to some, with gas fireplaces and the heating system set to their highest levels. the living quarters were said to be a mess with clothes scattered everywhere, and dozens on of pan written messages on post-it notes stuck to the walls. all pieces of a confusing puzzle investigators have been working on since his death. jay gray, nbc news, los angeles. judge sonia sotomayor is now one step closer to taking a seat on the nation's supreme court. in a 13 to 6 vote, the senate judiciary committee sent her to

the full senate. the vote fell along party lines with senator lindsey graham the only republican to offer his support. sotomayor is expected to be approved by the full senate next week. new research from the world health organization shows the dangers of tanning beds are more serious than previously believed. no longer deemed as probable carcinogens, sun beds and lamps now rank in the highest cancer risk category, right alongside cigarettes, asbestos and arse c arsenic. the risk of skin cancer jumped 75% when people begin tanning before the age of 30. now, here's a look at some other stories making news "early today" in america. in texas, a suspect arrested for drugs didn't help his case when authorities say he lifted some of the drugs off the floor. they claim meth powder on the

man's pants, he began collecting and licking the dust. he was sentenced to 16 years for drug possession and tampering with evidence. a day-long man hunt in pennsylvania ended when the suspect fell into the lap of police. authorities found the murder suspect hiding on top of an oil tank. he tried to escape down a ladder but slipped. you see him fall there. after catching himself, the man fell again all the way to the ground this time. police arrested him on the spot. the world's largest boot made some tracks in minnesota. take a look. the 16-foot high boot was made four years ago at a local shoe factory and was being moved to a retail store for display. hundreds turned out to watch the size, get this, 638 1/2 to move on down the street. a high school gymnastics team in kansas had a major win this summer when the 10 girls learned their gymnastics program

was being cut, they decided they were going to raise money by selling food and washing cars. in time for next year's season the team has pulled together the $11,000 needed to sustain their program. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning, bill. there's probably a lesson in there for all of us. >> $11,000 from a car wash. that's a lot of $5 car washes. >> you bet, right? >> congratulations to them. let's talk about this heat wave. this is almost mind-boggling heat wave the west is undergoing. we haven't had a heat wave throughout the mid atlantic, or the great lakes. phoenix 115. san antonio, another day in the 100s for you. look at the forecast for today for seattle. they're supposed to be 100 today and possibly again 100 on thursday. the all-time hottest temperature ever in seattle is 100 degrees, and yet they're probably going

to do it two days in a row. extremely rare event. in the east, it is muggy, it is warm. you'll feel it when you come out the door today. it feels like the tropics. area of rain all over the place already. once it heats up, it will rain in numerous locations. this is the cold front that will trigger all the storms in that humid air mass. we have a little bit of rain out there this morning. washington, d.c., light rain heading your way, moving up along interstate 81 and parallel to 95. here's the forecast today. i almost wish i could be more specific than this. there's just a chance of rain just about everywhere, the exception being up there in chicago. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. showers and storms will push "early today" through the detroit area. areas like grand rapids will clear out and we should see a nice afternoon. storms in the forecast hit and miss all day, pennsylvania, indiana and the ohio valley.

well, christina, bring that umbrella with you. make sure you have a ride home because it's going to be stormy. >> all right. thanks so much, bill. a rocky ride in asia, home sales looking up, and just how much is big ben worth? your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, they are two of the hottest faces in hollywood. only problem is reports say their marriage isn't so hot. brett favre finally makes a decision on his future. can mark buehrle really pitch a perfect second game in and run, run. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm christina brown. and here are some of your top headlines this morning. the space shuttle "endeavour" parted ways with the international space station yesterday, undock after spending 11 days together. today the space shuttle

"endeavour's" crew members will inspect the spacecraft and safe repair for a friday return to earth. venue sway hand president hugo chavez recalled his ambassador from colombia in the latest tension between the two countries. venezuela provided weapons to colombi colombian guerrillas. california governor arnold schwarzenegger signed a new state budget into law yesterday. before doing so, the governor used his veto power to slash another 600 plus million dollars in cuts. it's a move angered democrats now vowed to block the governor's agenda in his final days in office. and the london fire brigade has debuted a new set of robots

designed to help embattled blazes. the robotic firefighters are able to go into emergency situations too dangerous for human firefighters. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 9,096 after dropping 11 points tuesday. the s&p lost 2. but the nasdaq gained 7 points. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei rose 25 points. and in hong kong, the hang seng tumbled 479 points. investors are looking east where chinese markets are reeling after a new ipo hit the shanghai board. china's main index dropped nearly 8% after the offering. china state construction engineering entered the market. it recovered slightly. but as we just saw, the hang seng and most other asian markets still finished considerably down. we'll see what effect it has on

wall street this morning where stocks ended mostly flat on tuesday. the session focused mainly disappointing earnings reports, a signs an economic recovery is not written in stone. however, over the past two weeks, the dow had been up about 11%. stocks started to slide after a report from the conference board showed consumer confidence fell more than expected. it is seen as a big if for the nation's stores as they approach the important back-to-school shopping season. while consumer confidence may be slipping, one widely watched index indicates the real estate market is springing to life. home prices appear to be stabilizing and the month of may marks the first monthly increase since the summer of 2006. in a marriage of web giants, microsoft and yahoo! are expected to announce an alliance to challenge google holdover online advertising. yahoo! would likely use

microsoft's search engine bing with a bing message on yahoo!'s highly trafficked pages. fed chairman appears to have plenty in common with many americans slipping investments. according to financial disclosures, in 2008, bernanke saw his net worth fall by more than a quarter. his assets come in between $800,000 and $1.7 million. no matter how bad things get economically this is probably not the solution. police arrested a 28-year-old woman in georgia for operating an illegal strip club in her basement and garage. now, her roommate, however, has a different take. she actually says it was a surprise party to celebrate the newly renovated home. well, last night's key plays on the diamond and brett favre finally makes up his mind. plus, in the u.s., it's the fans who usually yell, the

umpire! but in china they appear to play by different rules. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and your wednesday weather, the northwest is stealing the show with a very impressive heat wave. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, it has been a summer full of what-ifs for fans of quarterback brett favre. well, finally, the 39-year-old has put an end to all the rumors and speculation. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. the brett favre saga is finally over. if you're a vikings fan you're either relieved or disappointed. after weeks of speculation, favre decided to stay retired and not join minnesota. 39-year-old quarterback said he doesn't want to deal with the grind of an entire season. vikings will have to go with jackson or rosenfold. coming up, a perfect game against tampa bay. how mark buehrle follow up such a feat? starting lefty is perfect through five in minnesota. it appears we'll see another special performance. however, buehrle's bid for a

second straight bid ends in the sixth. buehrle still set a major league mark by retiring 45 straight batters. as for a no-hitter it was broken up by the next batter. white sox lost to the twins, 5-3. a's visiting the red sox. papelbon blew his first game of the year. mark ellis scored the game. tied at seven. stayed that way until the 11th. single the opposite way. after trailing by 4, oakland rallied to win, 9-8. a wild thing to show you from china. a chase was on. truly a case of catch me if you can. as the fearful official ran from the stadium after ejecting three players from one team for separate red car incidents. security guards were even called in to prevent the player from following the ref into the parking lot.

chinese soccer association disqualified the team from national games for its crude behavior. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. she's notorious for nastiness. but how long can she get away for swearing like a sailor on live tv? your early morning headlines are straight ahead. sculptures so smooth and creamy you would swear they were like butter. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this very wet wednesday. it will rain in many locations today. rain in ohio, making its way to cleveland and clipping the pittsburgh area here. driving interstate 70, it's wet now and also across 80. as far as the forecast, i mentioned the chance of rain just about everywhere. not everyone is going to get soak, but there will be heavy downpours with storms from new york all the way to florida. if you're watching whdh 7 news, boston, massachusetts, explore deep water reefs and sandy sea floors while encounters lobsters, crabs and sea horses at the gulf of maine exhibit at the new england aquarium. that's your eastern event of the day. thanks so much, bill. now, here's an early look at this morning's headlines in

entertainment. scarlet johan san and ryan reynolds's battles have spilled over to their jobs. the two were departed for the comic-consci-fi convention. ryan, his new role as green lantern. ryan told scarlet she could go alone. she threatened to chuck her wedding ring but at least she got hollywood points for showing up. warner brothers said to be furious with reynolds for missing the chance to promote the green lantern at this very important gathering. elsewhere, aren't some things better left alone? is there a big hunger out there for 1959 surf movie gij et? miley cyrus is said to be on board, and reports zac efron will play her love interest into is joan rivers just too cranky for live tv? she dropped an f-bomb again and stormed off a local sacramento show yesterday morning. this comes from wcmh 4 in

columbus, ohio, where a century-old tradition took shape out of butter. since 1903 the ohio state fair commissioned a butter cow. this one pays contributory duty butte to the ones who make it possible, the dairy farmers. 1,800 pounds of farmer, a family of farmers, veterinarian and a prized cow standing ready for this year's fair. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> it is very tropical outside.

it feels very muggy. we may have some thunderstorms later on today. we are seeing some activity. some light rain on the eastern shore already. let me expand the view and you can see what is exactly behind all of that. there is some moisture that is infiltrating the mid-atlantic. it will be a wet day with intermittent showers this morning and possibly some strong storms this afternoon. same highest we had yesterday. high winds and hail is a possibility. let's see how warm we are. 78 degrees downtown. 75 degrees out of the airport. showers and storms, mostly cloudy skies, went out of the south. more on your forecast coming out in a little bit.

>> here is a look ahead to 11 news today. >> councilwoman holdin it indicted again today. we will have the details coming up. >> in washington, on health care reform, senate negotiators -- negotiators abandoned key elements of the president's plan. i will have the details coming up. >

fiber one. i'm looking for some fiber. this bar is an excellent source of fiber.

there's no fiber in this. tastes too good. there is fiber. [ chuckle ] no. i can't taste the fiber in this chocolate. they have 35% of your daily value. hmm. oh, samples. hmm. autobahn. wackenschdol. fiber one chewy bars. cardboard no. delicious yes. >> good wednesday morning. >> thank you for joining us for 11 news today. >> let's get a check of the forecast with sandra shop. it is feeling a lot like summer. >> the dewpoint are at 70 degrees right now. some of the hottest days we have seen this summer. another