this morning on "early today" head-shaker. the much-anticipated verdict in the casey anthony trial has many asking did she get away with murder? dirt devil. a massive cloud of dust barrels across arizona. hold your breath. rafters get tossed into the frigidaters in california. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello, and good morning. i'm lynn berry, and today we begin with a stunning verdict. after just 11 hours of deliberations, a florida jury

found casey anthony not guilty in the murder of her 2-year-old daughter caylee. an unexpected decision that left casual and close followers of the case in shock. nbc's kristen dahlgren is live in orlando for us this morning with much more on all this. kristen, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. yeah, casey anthony was only convicted on four misdemeanor counts of making false statements to police. she'll be sentenced on those tomorrow, but with time served could walk away a free woman after what is being called the most controversial verdict since o.j. simpson. >> as to the charge of first degree murder, verdict as to count one, we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty. >> reporter: casey anthony sobbed after hearing the verdict. not guilty on the three most serious charges related to her 2-year-old daughter caylee's death. after weeks of testimony the jury took less than 11 hours to decide, and while none who participated in deliberations spoke to the media, one

alternate offered his take. >> the prosecution didn't meet the burden of proof. we had a lot of reasonable doubt there. >> reporter: but outside the courtroom the jurors' unanimous decision was met with a shared shock and outrage. >> you got everything. how do you give her a verdict like that? >> we are just devastated. it's just unbelievable that somebody can get away with doing this to a little beautiful baby. >> reporter: for weeks millions watched the wall to wall coverage, transfixed by a mother facing the death penalty. anthony's defense included allegations her father molested her and helped cover up the fact that caylee drowned in the family pool. >> casey did not murder caylee. it's that simple. >> reporter: but she was convicted on four counts of providing false information to police. >> the defendant was telling

them she was alive, that she was somewhere else, she was asking for their help. >> reporter: on thursday the judge will sentence her on those charges. up to four years. with time served since she was arrested in 2008 casey anthony could soon walk free. >> reporter: now, casey anthony's parents didn't speak to the media as they were leaving court yesterday. they did release a statement saying in spite of casey anthony's baseless defense, they do think the jury made a fair decision based on the evidence. they then, lynn, asked for their privacy. >> kristen dahlgren, thank you. president obama stepped up his role in capitol hill stalled budget talks yesterday. he is calling on congress yool leaders to meet tomorrow at the white house where he wants lawmakers to hammer out a long-term deal to raise the nation's borrowing limit before the country's credit is tarnished.

tracie potts joins us with much more on that. >> reporter: long-term being the keyword there. the president made a rare appearance at the daily white house briefing to announce that meeting tomorrow and also say he doesn't think a short-term deal to prevent defaulting on the bills will work. he thinks they need to come up with something permanent, cutting almost $2.5 million from the budget, including $400 billion in tax increases for the rich and he says they need to do it in the next two weeks so that the markets aren't rattled. house speaker john boehner says he will go to this meeting, but he is already calling it in his words fruitless, saying there is no way a republican controlled house will pass any sort of tax increase at all. republicans criticizing the president saying we've shown a plan. where is your plan? you'll likely hear much more about this later today when the president holds his first ever twitter town hall meeting from

the white house. lynn. >> tracie potts, thank you. and now here's a look at other stories meganews early today in america. the dust in arizona took a while to settle on tuesday. a spectacular display of wind and dust swept across phoenix. phoenix dwarfing downtown skyscrapers and producing blinding conditions that led to airport delays as well as thousands of power outages. no serious injuries were reported. remarkable there. in ohio a horse had its own getaway plans this holiday weekend. the horse escaped from a nearby farm turning a stretch of highway into its own race track. the horse ran for hours until it tired itself out. it was then safely captured and returned to its owner. a group of california rafters survived a wild ride on the river last sunday. the raging rapids sent all seven people airborne, throwing them into the cold and rough water. they all survived holding on to

the overturned raft and palgts paddling to shore. finally, in san francisco one man's mad dash for a home run ball netted him the perfect souvenir along with a few bruises. the man leaped into the cove to get the ball, leaving the young fan with him a tale to tell. here's bill karins with the weather channel forecast. >> how impressive was the dust storm. >> it's surreal. it looks like a movie or something. >> i spent some early years in phoenix, and one of the coolest thing i ever saw was the dust storms that would roll through during the monsoon season. think of the cleanup that has to be done. it left a quarter inch of dust on everything in its path, and that's what people had to deal with this morning. incredible stuff there. on the radar you can see here's what it looked like as the thunderstorm rolled through, and it's the winds from the thunderstorm. often the thunderstorms die and send out a big gust of wind, and

then, of course, the sandy soil and dust just picks up and blows right through, and the phoenix area is where you saw those pictures from, but that was also widespread all through southern portions of arizona and now those thunderstorms producing flooding around lake havisu city. 102 in dallas. it was 104 in oklahoma city. this area has not caught a break. much of the country was very warm. how is this? we've now had in oklahoma city, 16 100 degree days this year. that's more than las vegas whose had 15. can you see dallas, san anthony, many areas, even austin at 21 are on this list. normally phoenix and tucson are. we expect that today. that's a look at the national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. today we'll call it 93 in philadelphia. many areas of the country are very warm. you notice there's going to be a lot of pop-up thunderstorms. very typical of summertime weather through the southeast. also around chicago a chance of

a storm today too with a high of 84. talk more about the thunderstorms a little later. >> all right, bill. thanks so much. more positive economic data. oil prices rise, and impressive honesty in austria. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. a high paid hollywood actor risks life and limb in iceland on an adventure show. coming up, disappointing news for tiger woods. derek jeter gets another step closer to 3,000 hits. the fans who voted now one big leaguer has to face the music. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." officials say a member of a terror group in somalia who was secretly interrogated for two months aboard a navy ship was brought to new york yesterday to face terrorism charges. in a case likely to reignite debate over the prosecution of

terror suspects, the man said to have provided interrogateors with valuable information is accused of providing money and weapons to terrorist groups. exxonmobil has been ordered to rebury the pipeline that spilled oil into the yellowstone river to better protect it from external damage. exxon and federal officials say oil has been spotted 25 miles downstream, although the department of transportation reports some found as far away as 240 miles. california lawmakers have proved a proved a bill that would make the state the first requiring public schools to include the contributions of gays and lesbians in social studies curriculum. governor jerry brown has not said whether he would sign it. and on day six of their north america tour prince william and wife catherine were out in the canadian wilderness. william also gave a shot at hockey, although he was not able to score. they couldn't let him score. he is the prince.

come on. zifshgs here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow closes at 12,569 after losing 12 points yesterday. the s&p was down a point, but the nasdaq added nine. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei gained 110 points, but in hong kong the hang seng fell 230. light, mostly flat trading on the nasdaq bareland eeked out a sixth day of straight gains. netflix hit a new high after it was expanding its on-line video service to 43 countries in latin america and the caribbean. over the last year netflix shares have tripled in value. moody investors service slashed portugal's credit rating into junk territory on risks the country will need another

bailout. on the data front new factory orders bounced back in may, boosted by demand for transportation equipment. oil futures surged 2% to settle at just under $97 a barrel after barclay's capital raised its forecast with the commodity in 2012. chevron rose 1%, the most of any stock on the dow, and marathon oil jumped more than 3% on the news. in deal news blood transfusion instrument company immucor rose 30% after agreeing to be taken private by tpg capital for nearly $2 billion. energy transfer increased its bid to buy pipeline company, southern union, agreeing to pay over $5 billion in cash or units in an attempt to thwart a rival offer by williams. finally, talk about honesty. two 15-year-olds on a school trip in austria found an envelope stuffed with over $14,000 in cash, and handed it

into lost and found. if the rightful owner doesn't show up in a year, they get to keep it. soupdz like a fair deal there. coming up, another setback for tiger, jeter's march towards 3,000 and the first lady takes in a ballgame for a good cause. plus, a nail biting ending between the jays and the red sox in boston. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. in weather more 100 degree heat, and thunderstorms will be widespread. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

if you are just waking up, this is "early today." in sports tiger woods fans waiting for his return to the golf course will have to wait a little longer. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. after years of dominating golf, tiger woods quickly becoming a forgotten man. he has not played in a tournament in months and announced yesterday that he will miss next week's british open because of nagging injuries. tiger can't get healthy, but albert pujols recovered from a broken wrist a month ahead of schedule, and he is expected to start tonight. the cards did just fine without him against the reds. matt holiday hit a pair of home runs, and st. louis won it 8-1. yankees derek jeter is two hits closer to 3,000. picked up a single on the slow roll over third. eerily similar to a play that

was ruled an error on monday. this went jeter's way. then in the second the two-run double wr in the gap. yanks beat the indians the-2. great finish between the red sox and blue jays. tying run at second. mcdaniels at left. encardinal hustles home. darnell nailed him. what a finish. sox won it 3-2. in washington where michelle obama was on hand to honor children of military families before the national cubs game. having the first lady at the park can make anybody nervous, and maybe that's what happened here. jeff baker, airmailed his toss to second. in came two on the error. the nationals could use mrs. obama at all their games. they won it 3-2. finally, many picked the miami heat to win the championship. mike napoli was one of them. last night he paid off his debt. listen to this. ♪ i'm too sexy for my shirt ♪ too sexy for my shirt ♪ so sexy it hurts >> napoli had to face the music. fans voted on his at-bat song,

and they picked "i'm too sexy." everybody got a kick out of it, and the verdict is still out to see if napoli is too sexy for his shirt. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. whose the highest paid actress in hollywood? it's a tie. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, the last thing most fighter pilots want to see themselves doing is opening a parachute. for one older veteran it was the right thing to do at the right time. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." today more or less the same as yesterday. a pop of thunderstorms many many different areas, including much of the southeast. d.c., only a slight chance of a storm today. chicago, same for you. just a slight chance. most areas will be missed instead of hit. it will be hot, though, in texas. not just today, but even into tomorrow. temperatures there will be soaring. if you are watching us on wr cnbc washington d.c., view a collection of iconic award-winning images dating back to world war ii at the pulitzer prize photographs gally at the museum. that's your early today event of the day. >> all right, bill. thanks so much. sfwlirchlgts now here's an early look at thunderstorm's headlines in entertainment. it looks like charlie sheen gets

the last laugh in his game of one upmanship. his producer is killing off sheen's character in the first episode. comedy central announced its newest roast target will be sheen himself, and coincidentally, probably not. the roast airs september 19th, the same night "two and a half men" premeerz with ashton kutcher. jake jillen hall climbs snowy mountains in ice land on "man versus wild." imagine how his agent let alone his mother felt about seeing him crawl on a rope between two mountains. no surprise for the list of top earners for actresses in 2010 is headed by angelina jolie with $30 million, but sarah jessica parker tying jolie for the top spot may be a surprise to some, but much of that income is actually linked to her line of fragrances, not movies. reese witherspoon ended up in a

tie for second with jennifer aniston. both earned $28 million for the year. this comes to us from knsd nbc 7 in san diego, california where a former fighter pilot celebrated his birthday by enjoying a view that, fortunately, he has never seen before. dean, a 30-year navy vet survived several dog fights in three wars, but he was in the doghouse after telling his wife he planned to celebrate his 90th birthday sky diving. with family watching, dean made the jump and executed a perfect landing. that got him a welcome reception from the mrs., which made it all worth it. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

>> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> good morning. the humidity has come back this morning. there's a slight chance we could see some rain in some neighborhoods. overall, it will be ok. partly cloudy skies. low to mid 70's. 79 downtown. a mix of sunshine and clouds. warm and humid. chance for a thunderstorm this afternoon. we come back and check the forecast going into the upcoming weekend. >> 4:57.

73 degrees on tv hill. coming up -- >> police are asking for the public's health after a violent fourth of july celebration. a live report is next. >> not guilty is the verdict in the casey anthony murder trial. we want to know you think about it. >> the debt showdown moves to the white house. i am kate amara in washington. >> an early-morning accident in the job or region. the job or region.

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. >> and i am stan stovall. thank you for joining us this morning. >> tony pann has a quick look at today's forecast. yesterday was nice. the sun felt good. the sun felt good.