this morning on "early today," bain. mitt romney goes on the defense about his time at bain capital. a stunning 8 karat diamond goes on display down under. and twice as cute. an adorable kitten is born in rhode island with two faces. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. and today we begin with romney's exit from bain capital. a political firestorm erupted thursday after the boston globe revealed security and exchange filings showing romney listed as

bain capital's ceo long after he was supposed to have left the company to run the olympics in 1999. it named romney as chief executive three years after he took the olympic job. the paper said documents filed through 2002 listed romney as, quote, sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer and president. during the period due to losses of investments as well as investigations of outsourcing have occurred. his campaign insists he was no longer at the firm and wasn't part of the decision-making. a bain statement yesterday said due to his sudden departure in 1999 it took time to transfer ownership to his successors which continued to show him listed in many filings. well they pounce odden the story calling it the, quote, big bain lie. obama campaign manager stephanie cutter charged the presumptive

republican nominee he may have even engaged illegal activity by misrepresenting his position to the s.e.c. he called it a new low for them. last night dick cheney held a big fund-raiser for mitt romney's can't pain. they collected more than $4 million at the dinner from cheney's house. he's not appeared with romney on the campaign trail but endorsed him last night, praising him as, quote, the only man who can make the right decisions in a foreign policy crisis. romney called cheney a great american leader but did not mention former president george w. bush. to penn state. that is the scathing conclusion of an eight-month inquiry into the school of handing of the jerry sandusky sex abuse scandal. >> reporter: former fbi director

louis freeh said it was fear of publicly that kept coach paterno from revealing jerry sandusky's contact with young boys. >> the most but powerfulman at penn state. >> reporter: they pored over 3 million documents some that showed that paterno contrary to his grand jury testimony did know about a 1998 police investigation into sandusky's contact with a young boy in the penn state locker room shower. they blasted spanier, curley and schultz for their actions. >> nobody even spoke to sandusky, not one of those four persons, including coach who was a few step as away from his office. there's no indication anybody spoke to him. >> reporter: throughout the investigation all have denied knowing the full extent of sandusky's actions. the board of trustees was singled out for its lack of

oversight. >> you should know our hearts remain heavy and we are deeply ashamed. >> reporter: on a penn state campus thursday, a dark day and disbelief. >> i'm disappointed that the leaders of our institution could let something like this happen. >> reporter: chris pa loan, nbc news. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in new jersey this is a frightening video of a car crash caused by somebody running a red light. he want into barrier and took out one of the traffic signals. police want you to see these images to drive home the risk of reckless behavior. amazingly there were no serious injuries but the driver was arrested for dui. in st. louis, this was the result after crews went to a neighborhood to check out a report of a gas odor. it was only when they started digging that a pipe collapse

causing a fireball shooting flames 40 feet in the air. no one was hurt thankfully. in california, surfing is never a bad idea even if you're a goat. that's right. it's even more fun for this mother and her billy goat to hit the waves together. the owner said he loved surfing so he figured his animals would too. why not. why does he have a goat as an animal anyway. in rhode island you are, in fact, seeing double. a two-headed kittens with born as the only part of a litter, four eyes, two noses, two mouths and one throat. they're not sure if they're dealing with one cat or twins. cute? freakish? and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. what say yu you? >> eesh.

i kind of feel bad for the cat. >> not quite the fuzzy feel good story. good morning, everyone. we're looking at a pretty warm forecast as we head right into the weekend. look at the temperatures this morning. this is a very mild morning. almost everyone is starting the morning in the 70s, so you can definitely leave the jacket at home and probably wear the t-shirt outside. 7 p to start your morning. same with dallas. one of the cooler spots, dallas. it's a very warm air mass that encircles the entire country. thankfully we're starting to see added moisture. the drought continues to spread across the country and continues to get worse in areas especially around arkansas and also around indiana and illinois. today we had some moisture that is creeping up. it's croce close to indiana but not quite. we're getting rain in kentucky, west virginia, and it will eventually move into southern ohio. you can see the shield of rain right now. this is areas of eastern kentucky barely missing lexington and charleston, west

virginia, is getting a good light rain, a good light soaking. southeast will have a chance of thunderstorms. dry once again. kansas city, st. louis, chicago right through new england, areas that have gotten very, very dry. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. boston will see temperatures along the shoreline around 806789 once you move away, you'll probably be in the upper 80s. areas in the ohio valley, cloudy and cooler today. lynn, the weekend forecast looks a lot like today. i think a lot of us will be okay with it. >> thanks so much. coming up texas instrument breaks the junk. wells fargo breaks the practices and one cup of joe for the morning road. plus, we'll tell you what film is set to end the quick reign of spider-man at the box office. coming up an impressive

start for the usa basketball and one olympic hope is done forone mem of the d.r.e.a.m. team. 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. syrian activists are reporting a new massacre of more than a hundred people yesterday in central hamas proshs. reports of more than 200 killed with a would-be most serious massacre. "the washington post" reports that michelle obama was allegedly the tar debt of a threat by a plev in the district of columbia. the officer said he would shoot the first lady and use his phone to retrieve a picture of the firearm he said he would use. secretary of state hillary clinton met with china's foreign minister yesterday urging talks on the south china sea. clinton proposed talks to calm tensions with southeast asia for

the conflicting claims over the strategic waterway. in france a search continues for climbers. an avalanche killed ne mountaineers, a dozen were injure and four are unaccounted for. and in australia an extremely rare pink diamond is now on display at the melbourne art museum. it's more than 8 carats and it's the lastest ever found in australia. the dow opens 1592,573 after falling 31 points yesterday. the s&p dipped 6. the nasdaq dropped 21. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei added 4 points while in hong kong the hang seng was up 67. a roller coaster thursday left stocks down for a sixth day with two big blue tips preventing the dow from falling harder. procter and game bbl rose on an

investor william ackman buying into the company. merck had a success ill trial of its new osteoporosis trial. infosys rose. on the plus side, texas industries broke a ten-quarter streak of losses posting a quarterly profit and surge 14g%. upbeat data didn't dent general gloom over sluggish earnings. initial state unemployment claims dropped to the lowest level in four years. falling oil costs sent june's import prices fall big the most in more than three years. moody's downgraded italy's bond grading by two notches just above junk status. more could be on the way. wells fargo will pay $175,000 to resolve allegations that it charged blacks and hispanics more fees during the housing boom. they found 34,000 time wells

fargo charged blacks and hispanics higher fees. but the bank which now funds one out of every three mortgages in the u.s. denied guilt insisted it was settling to avoid litigation. the smoking gun reports that zte is being investigated for selling banned equipment sales to iran and trying to cover it up. finally, we see them everywhere, right, but we probably haven't seen them here. next month a starbucks will open at a south carolina funeral home. well, the new kid gets his welcome, and a little road rash can't stop one cyclist at the tour de france. plus, despite losing another player on their roster, team usa remains unshaken. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. hey, the weekend forecast looks to be very warm once again, but some areas have a chance of rain. i'll tell you who. your forecast is coming up next.

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports last night in an olympic basketball tune-up, 2012 version of the dream team slammed the dominican republic. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. if last night's basketball game was any indication, you can give

the usa the gold medal right now. let's go to las vegas, first of two exhibition games before heading overseas. team usa got off to a slow start against the dominican republic, but then they found their stride. deron williams threw lebron james for the alley-oop. doesn't look like chemistry will be a problem for these two. kevin dur raublt, a three-point shooting machine in if first half. knocked down five beyond the arch. finished with 25 points. something tells me it's going to be a fun game to watch. behind the bounceback, a pass to williams. at times they looked more like the globetrotters than an olympic team. russell westbrook forced a turnover. look at the bench. a bunch of kids at the playground. the usa is ready for london. they won it big. the olympics are over before it started for the clippers' blake griffin. tore his meniscus yesterday. he'll have surgery and be out two months. anthony davis will take over for

him. here's a kid who knows a lot about the olympics. jason kidd. he's now a newest member of the knicks. he'll back up jeremy lin. they expect to re-sign lin in the next couple of days. >> per see veers, stage 11. that's pierre roland in the green and white jersey. he went down hard and he went down hard on the pavement. the other riders left him in the dust. roland was okay but has a lot to make up. he came back, all the way back, took the lead in the final climb and won the stage. down but never out, pierre rallies for an impressive win on the tour. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. well, who is definitely leaving "american idol"? and a top earning entertainer under 30 years old. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, a guinness record-breaking wedding like you've never seen before. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. here is your weekend forecast. we are seeing warm conditions just about everywhere. it's the middle of july. it's typically very warm. that's going to be the case again. thunderstorms in the southeast. as we head through your weekend, your saturday forecast, notice many areas in the 80s or 90s. a lot of areas have a chance of thunderstorms. the best chance, louisiana to

kentucky. and especially even as we go into sunday, those same locations will have a chance of storms. even watch out around new york city sunday afternoon. well if you're watching us on wbr-tv in knoxville, tennessee. get ready to catch critters at bug night at the iams nature center. and that's your "early today" event of the day, lynn. lightning bugs. everyone's caught them. >> one of my favorite child hood memories. >> i'll get you a tissue. and now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. steven tyler has announced and he did this yesterday he's kicking himself off "american idol." calling the show over-the-top fun, saying he loved every minute of it referring to it as his mistress. he said now he wants to concentrate from his band. he said, quote, i strayed from my first love air oh something and now i'm back. meanwhile on the "today" show in what washington calls, quote, her latest stop on her, quote, it's so hard wherever to

stop her "american idol" tour. she may also leave the show to do more film and show work. elsewhere taylor swift beat out justin bieber on foesh's ranging of highest paid under 30 years oil. she made $57 million to bieber's 55. is the biebs slining? say it aunt so. finally at the box office ice age:drift is the only new wide release. it's expected to take the top spot with at least $50 million. knocking that "spider-man" off the list pretty quickly. i was only there one weekend. >> did do as well as "avengers." "spider-man" opened during the middle of the week over the fourth of july. how many "ice ages" have you seen? zero. >> how about you? >> two.

>> it's not for kids? >> not really. i i'm really showing my lack of knowledge right now. this comes to us from wnbc new york where wedding vows came with a few bow wows. two dogs became husband and wife last night at a ceremony fit for man or beast. the bride wore classic white designer gown. her groom had something a little bit more colorful in mind. along with the "i do's" came an eye-popping bill. it set the new guinness world record of the most expensive ever. $1158,000. luckily for the newlyweds all the services were donated. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

a comfortable 73 degrees outside our studios at 4:28 in the morning. good morning. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i'm eun yang. welcome to this friday. new this morning. one person is killed in a motorcycle crash in mobt gory village. crash happened about 10:30 along east village avenue. the motorcycle driver lost control. the driver died on the scene. his name has not been released. police are trying to figure out the cause of the crash. d.c. major vincent gray has a full day of public events scheduled. three council members have said

the mayor should step down in light of his investigation in the 2010 election campaign. earlier this week gray aide pleaded gill toy to running a $56,000 shadow campaign. last night he acknowledged the probe whole accepting a leadership award at the national forum. he told the crowd he would get through this. he told news4 he has a job to do as mayor. >> reporter: are you not afraid that tomorrow is the day you could wake up and be pulled away in handcuffs? >> earlier this year two other aides pled gill toy to campaign conspiracy charges. eleanor holmes nor on the called the criminal activity deeply disturbing and says the mayor has an obligation to clear this matter up quickly. as the gray investigation continues a bill on president obama's desk will give d.c. more flexibility to schedule elections -- special elections. the senate passed ledge lace late yesterday. the bill would give the