the games begin, but with some controversy. mitt romney causes a stir when he criticizes london's readiness to host the olympics. severe storms. a powerful weather system blasted the plains to the northeast, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands. and penn state suit. a man who says he was the boy molested by jerry sandusky in a locker room shower plans to sue molested by jerry sandusky in a locker room shower plans to sue the university. captioning funded by cbs this is the "cbs morning news" for friday, july 27, 2012. good morning everybody. good to be with you. i'm terrell brown. the opening ceremony for the summer olympics in london is just hours away. and this morning the olympic flame is on board the royal barge making the final leg of

its 8 thouz,000 mile journey. >> mitt romney is in london. his first steps on the international stage as the presumptive gop presidential nominee. but romney stubbed his toe. british officials are taking romney to task for comments he made about olympic preparedness. susan mcginnis is in washington with more. good morning to you. >> good morning terrell. romney's trip was largely benign. he met with top leaders in britain and made very few and very sweeping general comment, that is, until he made this olympic-sized blunder. before the lights go on at the olympic stadium for today's opening ceremonies, the u.s. team will start the day with a breakfast, with first lady michelle obama. when mitt romney wakes up, this is the headline that will greet him in today's papers. "ready, set, go! whatever mitt romney says." romney has upset many in london with a couple of gaffs, one where he questioned whether britain is prepared for the games.

>> mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? [ cheering ] >> another blunder. romney publicly revealed a secret meeting with the head of britain's intelligence agency, mi-6. >> i appreciated the insights and perspective of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of mi-6. >> the slip-up overshadowed a day of meetings with top british leaders including a meeting with prime minister david cameron who publicly criticized romney for his comments about britain's preparedness for the games. romney will have a chance to make up for his mistakes when he heads to israel tomorrow. just ahead of that trip, president obama will make a move to strengthen ties between the two countries. >> everybody in? >> the president will sign a bill today giving israel more access to u.s. military equipment. the white house says the bill deepens our security cooperation with israel. romney criticized president obama earlier this week for hurting america's relationship

with israel. >> president obama is fond of lecturing israel's leaders. >> romney will attend fundraisers and meet with israeli leaders on saturday and sunday. >> this will be romney's fourth trip to israel. the president was last there as a presidential candidate in july of '08. susan mcginnis in washington. thank you so much. from record-setting heat to freak storms. to a historic drought, it's been a summer of extreme weather. a line of fast-moving and powerful storms stretched all the way from the texas/mexico border to new england knocking out power to more than 200,000 people and grounding hundreds of flights. shocks of lightning lit up the sky over new york city as the storm sped eastward. the system did its worst damage in el myra, new york, docking down trees and power lines and shredding the roof off a nearby barn. the national weather service is

looking into the possibility that a tornado touched down. in cleveland, four workers were hurt when high winds knocked around the scaffolding they were working on. they were ten stories up when the storm blew through. they were forced to smash the building's windows to get to safety. thursday's storm bore striking similarities to the one that battered the midwest and mid-atlantic late last month. >> the fast-moving storm, it was a large cold front that traveled eastward and that's what we saw earlier today. the phenomenon is called a derecho. it's pretty rare to see something like this. >> the storm ended a dry spell in northeastern ohio. in akron, the rush of water into storm sewers blew manhole covers out of place. the system had little effect on the record setting drought. in fact, it's getting worse. last week, 13% of the country was experiencing extreme or exceptional drought conditions. according to the latest report, it's now up to 20%. >> for the farm to recover from a year like this, with a loss of

income, it takes a long time to rebuild that income base so they can support other operations like ourselves. >> the drought has been so harsh, farmers say much of this summer's soybean and corn crop has been lost. it appears the disaster is far from over. >> what we need to eradicate this drought or loosen its grip is a very large pattern change. that's not likely to occur in the summer months. we have to wait until the fall, maybe into the winter until some substantial precipitation starts falling in these drought areas. >> here's the thing. more thunderstorms are in the forecast for the east today. if there's any silver lining to the hot and dry weather, in the midwest, it's this. drought-like conditions help to prevent tornados from forming. both mitt romney and president obama have been talking about gun control following the colorado theater shooting. the white house says the president will not push for stricter gun laws this year. instead the president will focus on how to better enforce

existing laws, it's a position that romney holds. earlier this week, mr. obama suggested he might press for additional restrictions on firearms. both the house and the senate passed a resolution honoring the colorado shooting victims and recognizing those who selflessly aided and protected others. one hero, john larimer was honored yesterday. his body arrived in illinois yesterday. he was killed as he shielded his girlfriend during the colorado massacre. to new developments in the penn state child sex abuse scandal. a key witness, one of the young boys has come forward and is threatening to sue the university. ines ferre reports. >> jerry sandusky's conviction on dozens of child sex abuse charges was based on the testimony of eight young men. each testified how the former penn state assistant coach offered friendship and football tickets in exchange for physical contact and in some cases sex. missing from the witness stand was victim number 2, the young boy whom fellow coach michael mcqueary whom he saw being raped

by sandusky. in a penn state shower in 2001. he was never named. attorneys representing a man who says he was that boy say they'll sue the school. in a statement, they say our client suffered extensive sexual abuse over many years both before and after the 2001 incident. as proof, the firm released portions of two voice messages they say sandusky left for the client just last september, less than two months before his arrest. >> probably ought to just go forward. i would be very firm and express my feelings up front. but you know, there is nothing really to hide. >> the attorneys say sandusky kept trying to control their client right up until his arrest, offering football ticket as other witnesses testified and telling the young man that he loved him. >> just calling to see, you know, whether you had any interest in going to the penn state game this saturday. i hope to talk to you later. thanks. i love you. >> penn state has not commented

on the potential lawsuit. sandusky faces life in prison. ines ferre, for cbs news. back overseas, syrian government forces are bombarding rebel positions in syria's largest city, aleppo. the united states said yesterday that syrian forces were "lining up for a massacre in the city." the state department says it has credible reports that fixed wing aircraft are moving in on aleppo. but the u.s. again ruled out military intervention. opposition activists say 34 people were killed in aleppo yesterday. take a quick break on a friday morning. coming up on the morning news, facebook gets unfriended by some investors after their first earnings report comes out.

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i feel more confident about having these acidic foods in my diet. i really care about these things, and i want to be doing what's best for my body and for my teeth. consider the journey of today's athletes. their training depends on technology. and when it takes a battery, there are athletes everywhere who trust duracell. they rely on copper to go for the gold. duracell. trusted everywhere. and soon...even more reason to trust duracell. duralock power preserve. it locks in power for up to 10 years in storage. guaranteed. duralock. coming soon to every duracell battery. police in a new york city suburb are looking for a dognapper. the surveillance video was taken earlier this month showing the suspect prying open a cage and stuffing a pomeranian down his pants. poor pup. that puppy, by the way, worth about a thousand bucks. the pet store owner thinks the

suspect has sold the pooch. eva peron was immortalized in evita. the broadway musical. argentina commemorated the former first lady with a bank note, which is about 21 u.s. dollars. she's the first woman to appear on any argentine money. it was revealed on the 60th anniversary of her death. peron died of cancer when she was 33 years old. cbs "moneywatch" time on a friday. twitter goes down again. j.c. penney's is bringing back a word shoppers love to hear. ashley too. she's here in new york with that and more. ash, good morning. >> good morning terrell. >> asian stocks closed higher this morning after the european central bank promised to save the euro. the nikkei gained almost a percent and a half and the hang seng jumped more than 2%. facebook's first earnings report. since it went public was like the initial stock offering, a dud. the social media company reported stronger than expected revenue but weaker profits. investors bailed sending the

stock tumbling from after-hours trading. most other stocks on wall street rose. the dow finished at 12,887 up 212 points. the nasdaq gained 39. treasury secretary timothy geithner was on the hot seat yesterday. he told the senate banking committee the federal bank waited four years to penalize barclays bank because it was complex. geithner was president of the new york set at that time. bark lays bank was fined $453 million for man incompetent lating the libor. that rate affects trillions of dollars, including mortgages and consumer loans. if you couldn't tweet yesterday, you certainly weren't alone. twitter was down or just slow across much of the world for several hours. the company said the outage was caused by a double system failure. it was the second time in just over a month that twitter has gone down. more problems for the ford escape.

the company is recalling 485,000 of the popular suvs because the gas pedal can get stuck. the recall affect suvs made from 2001 to 2004 that have three liter v-6 engines with cruise control. it's caused at least one death, nine injuries and 13 crashes. just last week, ford recalled more than 20,000 2013 models of the escape. and j.c. penney is revising its pricing strategy again. business declined after the store ended its frequent sale six months ago in favor of a stable lower price policy. now j.c. penney will eliminate only one of the sales and bring back the word clearance to keep customers satisfied. terrell, when you buy something on clearance, you feel okay about it. >> i was about to say, why go shopping if you can't get a clearance sale. it kind of makes everything -- not that i know anything about this, by the way. >> you're such a shopper. >> ashley morrison here in new york. ashley, have a good weekend.

coming up next, your friday morning weather. in sports, the long wait is finally over. fans can't wait to cheer on their favorite football team. finally over. fans can't wait to cheer on their favorite football team. into john stamos for five seconds. honey! i think i'm getting burned! heh! eat. ♪ tastes pretty good, huh? ♪ best yogurt ever. yeah! [ men grunting ] open! [ male announcer ] dannon oikos berry flavors beat chobani 2 to 1 in a national taste test. oikos greek yogurt. possibly the best yogurt in the world.

here's a look at the forecast in some cities around the country. afternoon thunderstorms in new york, 89 degrees. mostly sunny in miami, 92. sun in chicago, 82 degrees. partly sunny skies in dallas, 100. partly cloudy skies, 76 in los angeles. let's check your national forecast. the cold front will bring

scattered thunderstorms over much of the northeast today. it could bring hail, heavy rain and tornado to some places. most of the midwest is expected to be dry. severe storms are possible in the ohio valley. the south will remain hot and humid with scattered thunderstorms. most of the west will be seasonably hot and dry. in sports, the olympic torch will complete it's 70-day, 8,000-mile journey. yesterday it stopped by buckingham palace, much to the delight of prince william, kate and prince harry. it will finish its journey tonight lighting the caldron during the olympic ceremonies. >> to baseball now. looks like the new york mets have a new ace. matt harvey was dazzling in his start. struck out 11 and also had two hits against arizona. he's the first pitcher since 1900 to strike out more than ten and collect a pair of hits in his first game. the mets mow down the diamondbacks 3-1. here's something you don't see often. the perfect bunt. laying it down just right. the blue jays travis snyder lays it down against oakland.

bad throw lets two runs score. in the eighth. kelly johnson strokes one off the wall for an rbi double. toronto rolls past the as 10-4. are you ready for some football? you better be. training camps are already open. hundreds of loyal patriots fans rushed through the gates yesterday to see their favorite players. the pats hope to make it to the super bowl again and actually win this time. speaking of super bowl, fans in denver got their first look at the guy they hope gets them a ring. there he is. peyton manning. when we come back on a friday morning, an olympic controversy 40 years after 11 israeli athletes and coaches were killed at the munich games, a call to protest today's olympic opening ceremonies. ceremonies. i don't want healthy skin for a day.

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here's a look at the forecast in some cities around the country. in d.c., thunder showers, 96 degrees, afternoon thunderstorms in atlanta, 94. mostly sunny skies in st. louis, 94 degrees. afternoon thunderstorms in denver, 92. and seattle, low clouds, 71

degrees. top stories now. a powerful and fast-moving storm system moving from the plains into the northeast. hundreds of thousands lost power when severe winds knocked down trees and power lines much the storm also grounded hundreds of flights. and the summer olympics officially open later today. the flame was carried down the river thames on a barge. mitt romney angered british officials by suggesting that london was not ready for the games. 40 years ago. palestinian terrorist killed members of the israeli team in munich. a moment of silence was denied. victims' families haven't given up. bigad shaban reports. >> the widows of two israeli athletes killed at the '72 olympics in munich are calling on spectators to protest during opening ceremonies. >> get up and silently stand for a minute quietly.

>> their husbands were among the 11 athletes and coaches killed 40 years ago after terrorists took them hostage from their olympic dorms. family members presented a petition with more than 100,000 signatures on it asking for a minute of silence during the opening ceremonies. but international olympic chief denied the request. he held a tribute to the munich victims earlier this week at the olympic village. one of several commemorations planned. >> we'll mark it in three different ways this year. on the 25th, on the 30th anniversary. we will continue to mark this. as the president said, we will never forget what happened. we can't. >> that doesn't satisfy the widows who believe the appropriate time to honor them is when the world is watching. they believe this wouldn't be an issue if the victims weren't israelis. >> it's discrimination. they came from the wrong country with the wrong religion. otherwise, they would have done it like they three years ago at the opening ceremony in

vancouver. where rightly so, they remember the georgian luger who was killed in a training accident. >> members of congress agree. they held a moment of silence in front of the capitol. bigad shaban, cbs news, london. despite the refusal of officials to remember the israeli athletes, nbc sports anchor, bob costas plans his own on-air commemoration. people traveled by plane and rail to see the olympic games but one man claims to have done it by rickshaw. the 57-year-old farmer left china two years ago and traveled thousands of miles through 16 countries. some have questioned the story. his cart is filled with pictures of him posing in front of different landmarks, but it's unclear how he was able to cross so many borders. he wants to support the olympic athletes and hopes to get a ticket to tonight's opening ceremony. somebody please give him a ticket and a shower. maybe a mani-pedi too. coming up on "cbs this

morning," more on mitt romney's olympic size missteps in london. i'm terrell brown. this is the "cbs morning news." ,,,,,,,,,, 3q

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4 minutes before 5:00 on this friday morning, the morning after some thunderstorms. marty is in the first warning weather center. >> let's show you we still have some scattered shower activity about. if you look out to the west there's a brit -- bit more trying to come our way. temperatures in the mid 70s. we'll be talking about the possibility of more thunderstorms later on. don, take it away. >> thank you. a code red heat alert being extended. emergency cooling centers will be open in the city. . >> a new peace sign which can be seen from the jfx is going up. the old one was destroyed in last month's storm. >> the oriels will host 100 children for a clinic. >> the manhunt underway for vie

ripken's kidnapping. wjz is live with the latest. >> new developments in the jerry sandusky child sex abuse case as voice messages from the former penn state assistant coach are released. >> the push for a plan. in the wake of that devastating storm of last month the governor's deadline to fix power problems. >> more news, first warning weather and your first traffic report of the week's end in a couple of minutes. when it comes to getting my family to eat breakfast, i need all the help i can get. i tell them, "come straight to the table." i say, "it's breakfast time, not playtime." "there's fruit, milk and i'm putting a little nutella on your whole-wheat toast." funny, that last part gets through. [ male announcer ] serving nutella is quick and easy. its great taste comes from a unique combination of simple ingredients like hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa. okay, plates in the sink, grab your backpacks -- [ male announcer ] nutella.

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