today," crisis compounded. a burning oil platform sinks off the coast of louisiana, raising fears of an environmental disaster. fiery debut. the air force launches a top-secret mini shuttle. and extraordinary tale. why a german shepherd in alaska is being hailed as a hero. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with lost at sea. things are looking grim for 11 men still missing after a burning oil rig in the gulf of

mexico exploded and then sank. now the coast guard is gearing up to combat a potentially catastrophic oil spill. nbc's jay gray has the latest. >> reporter: while choppers and coast guard cutters continue to search the waters off the louisiana gulf coast, officials now admit, hope is waning that any of the 11 missing oil rig workers survived. >> they may have been onboard the rig and not able to evacu e evacuate. >> reporter: as the rescue effort seems to slowly slip toward recovery, there's a new concern. after burning for more than 35 hours, the platform collapsed and sank below the water's surface. these pictures show the dramatic scene unfolding and now officials are worrying about the potential for an environmental disaster. >> 700,000 gallons of diesel is either still intact below the surface or it's gone up with the explosion. >> reporter: teams are rushing in to start the clean-up, but already there's a sheen of crude oil mix a mile by five miles

wide floating on top of the water. as both the rescue and clean-up efforts continue around the clock, there are more than 100 families thankful their loved ones survived. >> you know, i was like is he alive or is he dead or is he in the hospital, and they told me he was alive. he was safe. i was overjoyed. i can't describe it. it was the most fantastic feeling in the world. >> reporter: feelings surely tempered by the knowledge that 11 of their friends may never make it home. jay gray, nbc news, belle chasse, louisiana. well, president obama took his message of financial reform to the source yesterday, making his case on wall street that the risky practices that led to the economic crisis must be stopped, this as negotiations for a bipartisan deal on the financial reform in the senate could spill into the weekend. majority leader harry reid announced yesterday democrats will move forward regardless of a procedure move on monday.

nbc's steve handelsman has more on the president's tough talk on wall street. >> reporter: in new york near where the nation's banking system nearly failed, president obama demanded new financial regulations to prevent future meltdowns. >> the goal is to make certain the taxpayers are never again on the hook because a firm is deemed too big to fail. >> reporter: but before mr. obama could end his speech, house republicans made the charge. >> the bill that we have in front of us will actually provide permanent bailouts. >> reporter: and john boehner warned of -- >> -- a government takeover of the entire private sector. >> reporter: to democrats that sounds like the last big fight that they almost lost. >> bottom line, on the health care bill, we allowed too many lies to get out there without rebuttal. >> reporter: the obama plan would force obscure financial instruments like derivatives out in the open. some on wall street want more

regulation from congress. >> if they can set politics aside and stop the blame game, that they will, in fact, coming up with something that is constructive. >> reporter: i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, capitol hill. meanwhile during the very time when the very economy was collapsing, some of the employees at the agency in charge of regulating it were allegedly surfing pornographic websites. according to a memo obtained by the "associated press" the general of the security exchange commission conducted 33 probes of employees looking at explicit images of pictures over the last five years. 17 of those investigated are senior-level employees, and one senior attorney at s.e.c. headquarters in washington spent up to eight hour as day accessing internet porn. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in florida an unmanned rocket carrying a miniature spas

shuttle blasted off into space last night on a top military mission. they're using it to test military equipment in space without having anyone on board. while they didn't say how long it would last it can stay in orbit for up to nine months. in new york a man is in custody and police are searching for two others accused of attacking a man in a fast food restaurant. authorities say the incident was not random and that the victim and suspects know each other. also in new york, a 78-year-old man is blaming his toyota for a crash that left him and his wife on top of two unoccupied cars. now, the driver says his accelerator stuck causing his car to slam into two curbs and then land on top of two other vehicles. toyota, however, suggests driver error is to blame. investigators are now trying to determine the cause. and alaska state troopers will present an award to buddy the german shepherd for his

heroic actions. dash cam video shows the canine guide police to his owner's property which was engulfed in flame. thanks to his help the owner only suffered minor burns. and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. that really is a buddy, huh? >> absolutely incredible. i love it. >> we've had so many stories where these pets are like super pets. >> that was the proof in the pudding. that was fantastic. >> absolutely. >> let's talk about the severe weather. yesterday was a dangerous day in colorado, kansas, and northern texas. that was day one of what's going be a four-day severe weather outbreak with the same slow-moving storm. 34 reports of tornados yesterday, overall 100 severe weather reports and you see where the worst of it was. today that line of storms has weakened but it's still moving through oklahoma and texas and it's knocking on the door or moving right over the top of oklahoma city and the dallas area. this is where the worst weather is. to the north of it a lot of rain

today, illinois, iowa, especially around kansas and st. louis, but the severe storms will be further to the south. you can see there's that line of strong storms approaching interstate 35. dallas/ft. worth and oklahoma city. take your time. that's where the "washington post" of it will be today. heading for oklahoma and watch out for arkansas and louisiana. nice on the east coast. that's a look at the weather. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. well, really the dangerous storms today, moderate risk of severe weather is going to be from arkansas down into louisiana. that will be the best chance of seeing tornadic thunderstorms. today will be a large severe weather outbreak that will last into this evening. lynn, we'll talk about the weekend forecast and where the storms are headed when we head back. microsoft stumbles, amazon trips up. your early morning business

headlines is ahead. jennifer lopez, will she fly or flop this weekend. round one of the draft, chicago bullies the calves and the yankees do something they haven't done in 42 years. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. last night the state of texas carried out its sixth execution of 2010. 31-year-old william jay berkeley died by lethal injection for the murder of 18-year-old sophia martinez back in 2000. an appeal by berkeley's attorneys was turned by down by the supreme court yesterday. the justice department will appeal a federal judge's ruling that a national day of prayer is unconstitution unconstitutional. the judge likened the day to, quote, encouraging citizens to magic.

leading a pentagon prayer service calling islam, quote, evil. and in missouri, a convenience store clerk has 258 million reasons to smile. the 29-year-old is the state's largest ever power bow jackpot winner. so the big question, what does he plan to do with his winnings? go to disney world and get his teeth fixed. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 11,134 after adding nine points yesterday. the s&p nudged up two points. and the nasdaq went up 14 points. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei dipped 34 points while in hong kong the hang seng lost 210 points. stocks will start off in rocky territory later this morning, thanks to two big quarterly reports that came in last night after the bell. a 35% jump in microsoft's north

carolina wasn't enough to satisfy investors looking for a bigger boost to recover from business spending. as a result microsoft dove in after hours trade. also after the bell amazon.com issued a frt quarterly revenue and forecast that disappointed investors sending its shares plummeting. in regular session, starbucks, san disk and hershey's were big gainers. starbucks shot up 7%, scan disk surged 12% and hershey rose. earlier in the day, this kept markets lower. data ya pointing to recovery helped stocks rebound. sales of preevgsyly occupied homes grew. more than expected. not surprisingly the dow's home construction indeggs rose more than 4%. >> the government reported new claims for unemployment benefits fell by $24,000.

and the government also said excluding volatile food and energy costs, wholesale prices rose only 0.1%. us airways has broken off talks with united airlines. us airways didn't say why it ended talk with united. tent tcenturytel says it's qwest communications in a stock swap worth $10.6 billion. finally, 70% of italians say they would give ip their job to see their team win the world cup soccer competition. 93% of english respondents would give up food while the south koreans were ready to sacrifice their love live. okay. who picked who in the nfl draft?

triple overtime in the stanley cup playoffs and a triple play if there baseball. plus, the chicago bulls say not so fast, lebron. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >> a dangerous storm in the middle of the country will continue the chance of tonigrna this afternoon. 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, no doubt about the most surprising and controversial pick in the first round of the nfl draft last night in new york. the denver broncos' choice of quarterback tim tebow. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. it was a business day in the world of sports. we'll begin in new york with the nfl draft. >> with the first pick of 2010 nfl draft the st. louis rams select sam bradford, quarterback, oklahoma. >> not bad when you consider that bradford missed most of last season with a separated shoulder. defensive tacker, ndamukongs is suh was selected. and everybody wanted to know where quarterback tim tebow would land. how about denver. denver selected him 25th

overall. lakers and thunder pick it up in the fourth. durant and russell combine for 22 of their final 23. oklahoma city won their first ever playoff. game four's tomorrow night. to chicago, the bulls made a win over the cavs. he made lebron james look like another player. bynum got the tough layup. the bulls held on for a 108-106 win. nhl, the flyers the last team to make the playoffs. now they're the first team to advance to the second round. phillies scored three minutes in. in pittsburgh it took three overtimes but somebody finally won game five between the penguins and senators. that's your game winner. senators survived to play another game. they won it 4-3 in triple overtime. pens lead the series, 3-2. curt suzuki grounded one to alleex rodriguez.

he started a 5-4-3 triple play. one swing, three outs, but all for naught. the a's won it 4-2. that's your early look at sports on "early today." have a great weekend. i'm fred roggin. will a hold over box champ come back to surprise everything this weekend? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. >> from the country, they may not have much but they're totally free. watching the hillbilly. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. today's going to be a dangerous day of severe weather in the middle of the country. the moderate risk is the real big concern with the possibility of strong tornadoes. much of arkansas, louisiana, and then tonight spreading into mississippi. but watch out everywhere in the middle of the country for strong storms. that includes kansas, st. louis, dallas early this morning, oklahoma city as i speak. east coast is fantastic today but then these storms move to the southeast with dangerous weather on saturday and then the east coast on sunday. well if you're watching us on wvtm nbc 13 in birmingham, blaem, have lunch with one of the tallest mammals on the planet at the giraffe feeding event at the birmingham zoo. that's your "early today" event of the day, lynn. i've fed giraffes. it's a lot of fun. their slimy long tongues.

>> it sounds fun, bill. don't oversell it. >> it's worth it. well, now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. this weekend's box office champ, jennifer lopez. they provided lopez with her more successful film roles and that's what she's got here with the "backup plan" of course after being artificially insim nated does she fall in love. if they show up, backup plan has a shot at number one. $15 million could be number one. "kickass" will contend if jennifer lopez falls flat coming in somewhere at $10 million. it could be a champ who sneaks. "how to train a dragon" could win. i mean i em not seeing the movie but this "how to train a dragon

kwets won't go away. >> i want to start a facebook of banning j.lo or jennifer aniston for any more. >> cheesy romantic movies. i know. they converge every year to celebrate the zany outlandish culture of what they call the hillbilly. while they have a tough time finding what is a hillbilly, they know it's about good food, creative costumes and to-tapping melodies, bluegrass to be exact. more importantly those who head over to the hoedown raise thousands of dollars for a children's local hospital. all for a good cause there. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

>> a very happy friday to you. 4:57. let's take a look at the weather. we have a front the past through last night. there is some shower activity on the eastern shore. enjoy it today. it will be a nice one. high pressure is in control. temperature will go up to about 70 degrees. 59 in annapolis. plenty of sun later today. more on the weekend forecast coming up.

>> 4:57, 54 degrees. >> police beefed up patrols in the wake of two murders. details next. >> wall street reform. fight is on. that story coming up. >> we are looking at a smooth ride around the area.

ro ♪ my subaru saved my life. i won't ever forget that. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> good morning. happy friday. >> i'm mindy basara. >> and i'm stan stovall. good morning, everybody. it looks like a good forecast today. >> starting late on saturday through next week, we will see intermittent showers. today will be great, a high near 70. it i