. this morning on "early today," scott free. the john edwards case ends in a mistrial as the jury deadlocks on most charges. bump in the road. horrifying moments in china as a car slams in a motorcycle carrying five passengers. and top dog, a california restaurant cooks up the world's most expensive weiner. captions paid for by nbc-universal television this h is "early today" for friday, june 1st, 2012. hello, good morning i'm lynn berry. today we begin with edwards walking. the judge in the john edwards campaign fraud trial declared a mistrial yesterday after deadlocked jurors were able to return a verdict on only one of

six counts against him. chris clacken reports. >> reporter: the stunning fall from grace of two time presidential candidate john edwards was cushioned thursday when a jury acquitted him on one of six campaign finance fraud charges. and deadlocked on the other five. >> thank goodness we live in a country that has the kind of system that we have and i think those jurors were an exemplar for what juries are supposed to do. >> reporter: the decision comes after nine days of deliberations and rutted in the judge declaring a mistrial on the remaining charges. charges that almost $1 million provided by do nors to hide edwards miss strel, rielle hunter, while he ran for president amounted to ill legal campaign contributions. attorneys argued it was a gift and on one count the jury agreed. for that edwards was contrite.

>> while i do not believe i did anything illegal, or ever thought i was doing anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong. and there is no one else responsible for my sins. >> reporter: the justice department can still choose to retry edwards but given how this turned out, legal experts say it's not likely. >> the government had to show he had criminal intent, they got all the rulings in their favor but couldn't get at conviction. >> reporter: edwards will care for his children, including the four-year-old daughter he had with hunter. chris clacken, nbc news. mitt romney has won the endorsement of former first lady nancy reagan. romney and his wife visited the 90-year-old at her home thursday. she has been recovering from a march fall outside her home that left her with fractured ribs. mrs. reagan said her husband ronald, would have liked

romney's "strong principles." president obama met yesterday with other former white house residents. steve handelsman explains. >> reporter: a picture of bipartisanship. president obama hosted both presidents bush, 41 and 43 and their wives at the white house. for the unveiling of george w. bush's portrait. >> behalf yourselves. >> he paid tribute to his dad. >> i am honored to be hanging near a man who gave me the greatest gift possible, unconditionable love. that would be number 41. >> reporter: president obama paid tribute to his predecessor. >> president bush understood that rescuing our economy was not just a democratic or republican issue. >> reporter: but the president's campaign team opened a new attack on the republican running to be president. mitt romney charges the new video, failed as massachusetts governor. >> governor romney's plan for

america is the same plan he sold to the people of massachusetts in 2002. >> reporter: top advisor david axelrod went to romney's home turf, boston. >> romney's economics didn't work then and won't work now. >> reporter: mitt romney made his own partisan play in california. showing up at the solar energy firm that went bankrupt after investors contributed to the obama campaign and got a half billion in obama stimulus funds. >> free enterprise to the president is taking money from the taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends. >> reporter: romney said when he left office in massachusetts, unemployment was 4.7%. >> i think 4.7% is a pretty good number. >> reporter: back to the battle, so much for warm, bipartisan nostalgia, steve handelsman, nbc news, washington. now here is an early look at other stories we're following today in america. in california a black bear got loose and had to be stunned

with a taser inside the hallway of an apartment complex in bakersfield. that was after the bear wandered across the playground of an elementary school while graduation ceremonies were being held on campus. students were rushed inside, animal control officers rounled up the bear who will be set free back in the wild. wisconsin a suspected drunk driver was caught ride his lawn mower in traffic, really, buddy? his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit, he said he didn't know you couldn't ride a lawn mower on the street. he has his bigger problems, this is his fourth dui charge. in california, it is the dog that will cost you more than a few hundred -- more than a few dollars, not a few hundred. the world's most expensive hot dog. served up with mousse cheese,

beats shipped all the way from chicago for the occasion. the bill? $145.49, that does not cover any antacid. for a look at the weather here is todd santos with the weather channel forecast. >> i'm hungry now. >> i'm glad we could help you out. something about the mousse cheese didn't do it for me. i'll stick to the 1.25 dog. >> same thing the burgers cost $200 they hide the burger. all right, let's get to the forecast. we are going to be dealing with thunderstorms potential across the east coast mid-atlantic specifically this afternoon. hail and wind threat showing up for d.c. and good stretch of eastern virginia, that is a look at the set up right now, showers and thunderstorms moving in through western portions of virginia or west virginia i should say. toward charlotte, north carolina, lightning going on across the area, moving up in the area. that is the system we're tracking you can see a spin of

low pressure south of the great lakes, in the afternoon some areas that start off with sunshine, southern new jersey, delaware bay, outer banks, will see the increasing threat for and severe storms, storm prediction center, this area in yellow, slight risk for severe weather, hail and wind producing thunderstorms, not out of the question for a few isolated tornadoes, make sure you have a way to get the warnings through this afternoon. that is a look at the region, let's check out the local forecast. baltimore, maryland getting in on chances for thunderstorms as we get toward the later afternoon hours. as i mentioned make sure you have a way to get the severe warnings during the day time. detroit, michigan getting on showers earlier on the day. clouds should limit temperatures to low 60s. so a little unsettled for at least a few areas as far as today we'll talk about the weekend coming up. todd, thanks so much. also the markets wobble, investors make on jobs numbers,

uncle sam makes a whopper of a mistake. business headlines are away. madonna takes aim at lady gaga. another day, another home run for the rockies carlos gonzalez, home sweet home for the thunder, and a marathon at the french open. you're watching "early today."

good morning, welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some top headlines this morning. a federal appeals court in boston has ruled the defense of marriage act uns con tunsal for denying federal benefits to married same sex couples. the 1996 law says the federal government can't recognize same sex marriage even in states where it's legal. the issue now appears to be headed for the u.s. supreme court. secretary of state hillary clinton is putting new pressure on russia to support international action in syria. during a visit to denmark she says russia's continuing support

of bashar al-assad even after last week's massacre, is contributing to a civil war. two new man-made elements on the periodic table now have names. element 114 is now ferovia named for the lab where it was created. element 116 is livermorium after the first location in california. travel and leisure readers have voted anchorage, alaska the worst dressed city. ouch. salt lake city second, followed by baltimore. in china, unbelievable video, a car crashed in a motorcycle that ran a red light, sending five passengers flying. fortunately, and unbelievably they all escaped with non-life threatening injuries. here is an early look how wall street will kick off the day. dow opens at 12,393 after falling 26 points yesterday. the s&p down 2. nasdaq lost 10. overseas trading this

morning in, tokyo the nikkei tumbled 102 points while in hong kong the hang seng dipped 71. investors are waiting for today's big report on employment. wall street yesterday closed out the worst month since september for the s&p 500. the dow and nasdaq had the largest monthly declines in two years. the government releases the may jobs report today with economists expecting that employers added roughly 150,000 jobs with the unemployment rate unchanged at 8.1%. during the first quarter homes in some stage of foreclosure accounted for one in four home sales. the latest report on manufacturing in china showed a 3% drop as the world's number two economy slowed more in may. microsoft is almost done with the much-anticipated overhaul of the windows

operating system releasing the final test version of windows #. exxon mobile will build a plant in texas, taking advantage of shale gas drilling. college student loan debt is piling up. with 3% increase in the first quart of the year to $900 billion. a waitress in cleveland got a surprise when her income tax refund arrived. instead of the $750 she expected, she got a check for more than $434,000. well, she did return it to the i.r.s., but will have to wait more than six weeks for her correct refund check. sounds like no-fair. the tigers avoid a sweep, rockies plus the astros. endurance grind in the french open tennis. the oklahoma city thunder slam back at home, the early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. we'll talk about the storm

chances for the afternoon and the look ahead to the weekend. you're watching "early today." [ female announcer ] with xfinity,

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plus more speed from america's fastest internet provider. so you can run more devices at the same time. ♪ feel a firework [ female announcer ] and best of all, it keeps getting better. no wonder more people choose xfinity over any other provider. ♪ love can be so mystical ♪ good morning if you're just waking up this is "early today." in sports last night in the nba's western finals the thunder snapped san antonio's winning streak blowing out the spurs.

here is mario solis with a look at sports headlines. good morning to you. so much for the spurs 20 game winning streak, the thunder have made it a series. game 3 in okc, the thunder come out flying. opened things up with 8-0 runs. spurs don't know what hit them. san antonio rallies but doesn't get in it. james hardin from downtown, oklahoma city up 13 at the break. they blow the game open in the second half, thabo sefolosha a difference maker knocking down 43-pointers finishing with 19 points. 102-82, the spurs first loss of the playoffs. hockey, a four time stanley cup champion, now he's hanging up the skates. after 20 seasons red wings niklas lidstrom will take a position with the front office. one other hockey note, game two of the stanley cup final

between the devils and kings is tomorrow at 8:00 h p.m. eastern. baseball, match up of two under achieving teams. boston jumps out to the lead. then all doid. young hits a home run, tigers win 7-3. after hit tleeg home runs on wednesday, carlo gonzalez back at it again yesterday, a three-run bomb to left, he has hit a homer in four straight at-bats the new team record. rockies beat the astros 11-5. a tough french open for the americans. andy roddick, venus and serena williams eliminated. now john isner is done. paul-henri mathieu pushed him to the limit in a 5 hour, 41 minute marathon. he wasn't fortunate yesterday. that is sports on "early today," i'm mario solis. "early today" sports is brought to you by ice blue aqua

velva, men get it. who is favored at the box office and anger over celebrity son's skcollege scholarship. these kids put us to shame. the national spelling bee winner, you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." still dealing with a chance of

showers and thunderstorms around d.c. area, may see showers earlier in the day as we get in the afternoon may see the better chance for hail-producing thunderstorms. certainly be ready for some of that. new york city better chance for showers, shows up later tonight, atlanta, through central and southern florida, chances for showers. chicago out of the way, late they are afternoon improvement. denver talking about temperatures in the lower 80s. start of the weekend looks better. watching us on wtmj 4 in milwaukee, in kenosha, game used mem blal from the golden years of baseball at home run reggie jackson the original 500 club at the kenosha public museum. that is the "early today" event. todd, thanks so much. an early look at headlines in entertainment, at the box office this weekend, a new film is sure to grab the top spot. not surprisingly the fairy tale epic, snow white and the huntsman is registering well with women, but chris hemsworth

and action film could pay off with the guys. men in black 3 and "the avengers" battle for second. tmz reports justin bieber suffered a concussion in paris after running a glass wall at a concert. kicking off the world tour in tel aviv, madonna took a shot at lady gaga. an on-going thing. she finished up her song "he express herself" gaga copied, many allege, shouting "she's not me." simmer down, madonna. outrage is spreading in cash-strapped california over sean "diddy" combs, justin being given a scholarship to play football at ucla. his estimated worth is close to half a billion dollars. this comes to us from

maryland where yesterday, we showed you the six-year-old girl's brave but unsuccessful performance of the scripps national spelling bee, now we have a winner. >> guetapens. >> g-u-e-t-a-p-e-n-s. >> she correctly spelled the word meaning ambush. beat out 300 others. nothing like making us feel stupid. i'm lynn berry this issert your first stop of the day on your nbc station.

>> good morning, everyone. right now we have dry conditions on this friday morning, but that's going to change as we head through the day today. let's start by looking at h.d. doppler. is out of d.c. showers moving north. the further we go into the dry time -- showers this morning, thunderstorms will develop late this afternoon and this evening and some of those could be strong or severe. high tefments between 78-83. your seven-day forecast coming up momentarily. >> thank you. 4:57, 67 degrees on tv hill.

coming up on tae -- >> grizzly details are coming out about the man accused of a harford county murder. i'm jennifer franciotti. details are next. >> help wanted. why customers aren't the only ones looking for signs of recovery in an uncertain job market. >> and how about your morning commute? looking pretty good hear.

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] >> good morning, and happy friday. i'm sarah caldwell. >> and i'm stan stovall. thank you for joining us for 11 news today. first day of june. how about that? >> i can't believe may 30 is over with. and how is the weather shaping