today," no end in sight. pay shents wears thin for residents along the gulf coast coast northeast battering. the storms bring nasty weather to the northeast coast and manhattan mugger. he sends an elderly woman to the pavement as he tries to make off with her purse. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with overflowing frustration.

though the containment cap has been replaced on that gushing well in the gulf, residents are still struggling to hold onto hope that relief is somewhere in sight. from clean-up to claims, nothing seems to be going smoothly. meanwhile the debate over deepwater drilling drags on. nbc's jay gray has that story. >> reporter: with the containment cap now back in place, the every at the spill site is again gathering about 25,000 barrels of oil a day. but it's the effort along the shoreline that some say is lacking now. crews are working night and day to clean up the mess, but with dangerously hot temperatures, bp contractors are forced by federal work laws to take long breaks. >> no, i'm not satisfied with those workers. they work ten minutes out of an hour. we need machinery that will take it, that will sift it, put the sand back on, get the oil out of here. >> reporter: but that machinery doesn't always work either. also not working for some, the

claims process. bp's new point man in the gulf is promising changes. >> we're now going to start paying one to two months out in time to make sure the businesses can be sustained. we're going to err on the side of paying people up. >> reporter: a new orleans judge refused to step back from his injunction, blocking the president's six-month moratorium on work. >> the moratorium was right when it was imposed. the moratorium is right today. >> reporter: secretary ken k salazar is considering a stronger more zor yum. jay gray, nbc news, venice, louisiana on capitol hill republicans dealt a blow to president obama yesterday. the senate rejected a measure that would have extended unemployment benefits to million whose have been out of work long

term. with republicans fully united the vote came down to a vote of 57 to 41. democrats were just three short of the 60 needed to advance the measure meanwhile congress has approved a sweeping package of tough new sanctions against iran to try to force the country to halt its suspect nuclear program. in quick succession yesterday both the house and senate voted to impose unilateral penalties that targeted iran's guard and provide them with jet fuel. president obama is expected to sign the bill into law severe weather wreaked havoc on the northeast yesterday. it prompted the mayor of connecticut's largest city to declare a state of emergency. ferocious winds led to widespread damage in bridgeport, connecticut, where rescuers searched several buildings. the storm also toppled trees and power lines all throughout the area a where a public safety curfew is in effect.

remarkably no serious injuries have been reported. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. new york police are searching for a man who was caught on camera mugging an elderly woman. surveillance video shows the suspect grabbing the 85-year-old's purse before she falls to the grown and hits her head on a concrete fence. the attacker then helps the woman onto her feet before fleeing the scene three texas children are safe after being rescued from the middle of a creek. officials say the boys were floating down the river when they lost control of their boat. fortunately they were able to find a concrete barrier to stand on until rescuers could bring them back to shore in lake michigan historians are buzzing over the remains of a wooden steam ship. i went down in a fierce storm back in 1898 and was never seen again until explorers found it last week.

still, there's not much hope for finding a sunken treasure since the ship was transporting a cargo of corn when it disappeared. that's too bad and in ohio, proof bieber fever isn't just for teens. one local mom volunteereded to shave her head to get her daughters all-access passes to tomorrow's justin bieber concert. she said it was all worth it for her girls and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. bill, good morning. would you do that for your little guy? >> to see justin bieber? >> let's hope your little guy doesn't like justin bieber. how about that? >> yeah. i would not do it to save him. let's talk about what's going on in the tropics, lynn. there's some buzz building about what's going to happen in the gulf of mexico over the weekend and into next week. there's been a tropical wave that's ever so slowly been making its way through the

caribbean sea. there's a lot of bright red and a lot of thunderstorms but it's not organized at this point. it's going to head up to yucatan in about two days and the gulf of mexico in about three days from now. we'll track it but it doesn't look like anything imminent or anything horrible is going to happen. it's going to drift up to this general vicinity and then probably stall out into next week. we'll watch it. yesterday was an incredibly hot day. washington, d.c., 100 degrease. lynn already told you about the thunderstorms that popped up. there were a lot of nasty storms in the mid-atlantic yesterday. here are all the reports we had. all of them were for the most part in connecticut dow through the mid-atlantic. as far as today goes, it ee a pretty quiet day. pretty typical day with 90s through the south and 80s for much of the lower part of the country. that's a look at your friday forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. st. louis today, a nice typical day, 90 degrees. same for you in birmingham,

alabama, austin, texas, overall it's going to be dry for much of the country. watch out for severe weather in the dakotas and minnesota later today. lynn, we're going to chat about the weekend forecast when i come back a little later u.s. markets stuck in a rut, and speaking of stuck, where one man has been trapped while tuning in to the world cup. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, can tom take down the toys. tom cruise and cameron diaz try to knock toy store 3 off its pedestal wainer is finally named after three long days. you're watching "early today."

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. a part shall victory for jeffrey

skilling after the supreme court ruled that one of the charges against him that he deprived stockholders of his honest services was flawed. it will now be up to a federal appeals court to decide what effect this should have on his roughly 24-year sentence donors who contributed nearly $400,000 to a legal defense fund for former alaska governor sarah palin will be getting their money back. investigators said the fund was illegal because the fund was misleading. the investigator also said that palin acted in good faith and probably did not know she had violated any ethics rules an alleged drug lord extradited yesterday. coke was captured earlier this week after a month-long manhunt that led to violence, claiming 76 lives and a doomsday prediction from am eminent scientist who says that humans will probably

be extinct, a hundred years. the australian researcher who helped wipe out smallpox says overpopulation, environmental destruction, and climate change will lead to mankind's ultimate demise. and now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines on nsnbc.com. the a new report reports that americans are eating too much salt. while most adults should have less than a tea spoon researchers find that just 1 in 18 meet that goal. the major problem, restaurant and processed food, not that dash of salt sprinkled at dinnertime. and for more information on this and othe check out the health page at msnbc.com. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 10,152 after tumbling 145 points on thursday.

the s&p lost 18. the nasdaq fell 36. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei sank 190 points, while in hong kong the hang seng went down 42 anxious investors unloaded s&p stocks for a fourth straight session yesterday spooked by signs of a sluggish recovery. weakness out of the retail sector fueled fears that consumer spending lacks momentum to speed up a stalled economic recovery. nike and bed, bath, & beyond were among the day's biggest losers. mike kron tchnology slipped 6% aft . dell failed to convince shareholders it's making a turnaround in the wake of giving up its number two pc status. dell fell 6%.

the federal trade commission has given twitter a slap on the wrist to its privacy claims. the company is barred from, quote, misleading customers claiming context is confidential for the next 20 years after several high-profile security breaches back in 2009, including account of then president-elect barack obama. on the upside has breaux gained shares after the toy maker was in talks with a takeover firm, a report the company die denies. and blackberry maker research in motion swayed after a handful of shipments misset estimates finally one australian has a unique way to watch the world cup and get paid. adidas is shelling out thousands of dollars to keep the man inside a giant soccer ball for

at least 22 hour as day. his duties, eating, tweeting, and blogging and playing video games. doesn't sound like a bad deal well, who made out after some wheeling and dealing at the nba draft, plus italy says caou to its world cup bid. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead jo after a week of violent weather, today looks good, so does your weekend forecast. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports last night in new york it was a day that young nba hopefuls dream of as teams made their picks at the nba draft. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. the nba draft held yesterday in new york, the time where the lottery teams hope to find the one player to turn that around. that guy made him the first overall pick, no surprise, considering wall already has a $25 million shoe deal with reebok. hasn't played a single game. ohio state guard turner went. he won the award as college's basketball player of the year. the nets chose. the chicago bulls have reportedly agreed to trade curt

h1n1 rinne. that move gives the bulls enough salary cap room to get two agents. with media fans looking on the longest match in history ended at wimbledon. 78 to 68 in decisive set is. they say records are made to be broken. say this one may stand forever. it took over 11 hours and three days to complete. in fact, wimbledon officials gave a gift to each. not much time to celebrate. back on the court today for a second round match. and shocking news from the world cup as italy is out of the tournament, losing to slovakia by a pair of goals. the second coming in the 73rd minute. italy broke through with their first goal of the match. watch what happened in the net. he took a swipe at an italian player who flopped to the ground. oh, the drama.

slovakia won it, 3-2, italy and france, two finalists from four years ago are out. that's your early look at sports on "early today," have a great weekend. i'm fred roggin reigning chams noted them off the box office a. plus why a little girl was shell shocked by an airlines policy. you're watching "early today."

well, welcome back. let me take you through your weekend forecast. first things first. watch out in the dakotas especially around minneapolis and st. paul. strong storms for you. everyone else is looking nice. typical dry summer weather. even the southeast isn't bad. on saturday the strong summer storms possible near chicago. east coast not bad. a little hotter than we'd like. notice that dallas continues to be hot, too. a possibility of 101. so the heat returns in a big way by the end of the weekend. if you're watching us on wca wcau nbc 10 in philadelphia see what the view is like from a camel's back when you hitch a ride at the camel safari exhibit at the philadelphia zoo. and that's your "early today" event of the day, lynn. >> it feels like the desert never in the east coast. so it fits.

well, now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. two of hollywood's biggest stars will square off this weekend. in one corner adam sandler teams up with kevin james and chris rock, dabd spade, and rob sh rider in the man comedy grown ups. they play middle aged friends at a funeral reminiscing about their glory days. with lackluster appeal the film is expected to take in around $40 million. in the o'corner tom cruise reuniting with cameron diaz in the spy thriller knight and day. fox did move its opening to wednesday to get a leg up on the sand ler fill, but still cruise's return to the big screen is only expected to take in about 20 million bucks. unfortunately all that star power won't be enough to take on last weekend's box office champ. disney pixar's toy story 3 is expected to follow up its $110

million. bill, i saw it last weekend, it is well worth a trip. i understand why it's number one. >> you did? i want to see grown ups. i wantet it to be good. i don't want it to be bad. >> it's probably going to be fun but it's going to be toy story. this comes from milwaukee where a tiny turtle caused a ton of trouble. airline officials refused to let a 10-year-old girl bring her pet turtle bug. she felt forced to leave her friend behind and thought he was gone forever but after some serious digging the erline made things right, tracked down bug and reunited him with his very happy owner. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

the sky is falling. a local driver is stunned when a piece of concrete comes crashing down on her car. good morning, everyone. i'm eun yang. >> and i'm aaron gilchrist in for joe krebs this morning. that driver is telling her story in a news 4 exclusive. she was hit by falling debris while she was driving on the beltway near the little river turnpike. >> a big chunk of concrete and asphalt fell from an overpass and right onto her car. the alexandria woman says she is lucky to be alive and now she is calling for an investigation. news 4's darcy spencer reports.

>> it was just very, very scary. >> reporter: teresa ameri looks at photos she took of her honda crv after it was hit by flying concrete and asphalt wednesday night on the beltway. >> one was a round kind of piece and there was a big triangle with six inches on each side and then about that big. >> reporter: ameri was driving on the 495 near the little river turnpike overpass when her suv was hit by debris, creating a crater in her suv. workers were demolishing the bridge above her when she heard a boom, and her suv shook. >> i looked, and there were huge chunks of asphalt concrete, just huge pieces that fell onto my car. >> reporter: virginia department of transportation spokesperson says the incident is under investigation. engineers are trying to figure out where the debris came from. >> it's a serious incident to us, and we want to make sure we look into it to do