and rewriting history. researchers uncover a medieval bra that they saw centuries before it was believed to have even been invented. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry, and today we begin with drying up.

an unsettling new forecast predicts this historic drought stifling more than half the country will likely continue into fall. the bad news for food prices down the road, but as nbc's chris clackum reports, there may be a silver lining right now. >> reporter: contrary to what you may think or may have been told, it may be months before the worst drought in 50 years drives up food prices. in fact, meat prices are headed down. >> we would anticipate in the short term actually food prices for beef, poultry, pork may go down a bit. >> reporter: there's a lot of livestock being rushed to market because there's not enough corn or feed for them to eat, which means meat prices may eventually go up, just not right now. >> this beef today may be $4 a pound. it could easily be $5 or $6 a pound a year from now. >> reporter: however the u.s.

agricultural secretary is worrying about short-term gouging on grocery items. >> and we want to make sure people understand that now's not the time they should see higher food costs. if you're going to see higher food costs, you would likely see them in the later part of the year or first part of next year. >> reporter: he said in no way, shape, or form are increased food prices are related to the drought and if a retailer says otherwise, he should be rereported. good to news. in the race to the white house it rumbled on yesterday aspot campaigned in florida and mitt romney in massachusetts. they had plenty to say. nbc's brian mooar has the story from washington. >> reporter: in florida president obama was turning up the heat on mitt romney by reaching up to older and middle class voters in a critical battleground it's wrong to ask seniors to pay

more in medicare so millionaires and billionaires can pay less in taxes. >> reporter: blaming the president for not doing enough to help the economy. >> the job he's interested in protecting is his own. the job that should be protected is the job of men and women in this country who want to get jobs, who want to go back to work. who want to have rising incomes again. >> reporter: and as the candidates were hammering away at each other, their supporters were joining in. >> what is it in his tax returns that are so scary to mitt romney? >> reporter: democrats are pressuring romney to release more than just two years of tax returns. >> for the years he paid no taxes at all? what about his swiss bank ktd. >> reporter: romney's backers are blitzing nine battleground states with an ad accusing the president of distracting voters. >> family income falling. barack obama can't run on that record. >> reporter: the latest new york

times/cbs poll show the candidates locked in a statistical dead heat with the economy weighing down the president's numbers. brian mooar, nbc news, washington. else wra investigators in bull gary are still trying to decide who was behind the bombing that killed six israelis. they show what they think is the man who this triggered it. they show a long-haired man with a back pack. the bomber was carrying a fake american i.d. israeli president benjamin netanyahu say it's a global terror. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in mississippi other drivers could only walk in horror as someone started driving into oncoming traffic along a stretch of highway and this was the

result. a head-on collision with an suv. witnesses say the driver had been going the wrong way for miles until it finally crashed. amazingly and thankfully no one was killed. in utah, double trouble for police after a pair of suspects busted out of custody. first a man kicked out the window of a patrol car right behind the police station and then moments later a woman who was his alleged police managed to slip out of a holding cell. this is stealthy. she actually ran right by a police officer busy trying to find the first escapee. the woman was recaptured. the man is still on the loose. and finally in michigan, now's your chance to own scar face or at least his ride. legendary mob boss al capone's cadillac is up for auction. it's one of the first bulletproof cars made. it could fetch half a million bucks and capone would have

loved this irony. it's a classic car, so there's no tax on it. and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins who travels in bullet proof cars for all those screaming fans. happy friday there. >> it is. we're ready for another summer weekend, aren't we. >> let's do it. >> some areas are going to see a beautiful weekend. other areas, not so much. this morning, talk about a rough start to your morning. a lot of people having trouble sleeping around nashville. we've hat thunderstorms lingering over the western half of the city down interstate 40. all the lightning strikes here. probably hundreds of them. they're going to continue to shift here to the south. also we had a couple of stornls rolling down interstate 24. this is a shield of rain between nashville and knoxville. and don't expect anything even close to the heat that you've had lately today around d.c. to philadelphia. you had some thunderstorms last night. it's going to be a cloudy cool

day today. temperatures in the 70s in many areas, including new york city, who will see light off-and-on rain. now, the heat did go away from the great lakes to much of new england yesterday, but it's still brutally hot today, from dallas northward all the way through the northern plains. it's a very warm start with temperatures near 70 to 80 degrees, and this afternoon it's not going to be in the hundreds but close to it. look at denver. once again, you're back up in the triple digits. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. so the heat wave continues to bounce back and forth across the country. many areas along the earn seaboard are get a break. denver, northward toward topeka, still brutal. that's where the heat stays this weekend right through the middle of the country. >> bill, thanks so much.

earnings drive stocks higher. the pretty penny yahoo! is paying its new ceo and a clever way to warm up the market in home sales. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. and sure batman movie will run away at the box office this weekend but will it be a record breaker? coming up the dream teal roms, a gold medalist withdraws from the olympics and lebron withdraws a secret weapon. you're watching "early today." >> announcer: "early today" is brought to you by new preparation h totables.

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. at united nations ru sh and c china vee toted a security count resolution that would have forced syria to end its civil war and as the fighting in damascus intensified hundreds of syrians look for safety by crossing the board irinto

lebanon. defense secretary leon panetta has ordered pentagon officials to begin monitoring major u.s. news media for disclosures of classified information in an effort to stop the release of government secrets, this after a series of high-profile leaks. kate, the duchess of cambridge got a special preview of new england's athletes. she wore a dress by stella mccartney and an olympic ring-themed gold necklace. and a very modern looking linen bra dating back 600 years discovered in a medieval castle in as striae is the world's oldest. it is a surprise to fashion historians who were surprised and thought it dated back to only 100 years. here's an early look at how wall street is going to kick off the dau. the dow opens at 12, 943 after adding 34.

the s&p was up 3 and nasdaq up 23. taking a look at trading in tokyo, gained 25. and in hong kong the hang seng gain 2d 1. earnings pushed stocks higher and after the bell they continued. google rose thanks to a 42% surge in ad clicks which outweighed the ad prices. microsoft rose after strong corporate sales offset its first ever quarterly loss. a fourth quarter. ibm drove down industrials higher a day after raising its full year profit forecast. ebay shot up on stronger than expect earnings. wall greens soared after settling a drawn out pharmacy deal with expressed grips. but it wasn't all good news. morgan stanley delivered an unexpectedly soft report while a

jobs report and weak housing data. ford is telling owners of its brand-new 2013 escape to stop driving them. the suvs are being recalled with possible fuel line leaks that could cause a fire. documents show new yahoo! ceo marry sa mayer will receive up to $100 million in total compensation over the next five years. a startling new government study finds students borrowed far more than they could afford from 2004 to 2008 because of relaxed standards by private lenders. much in the same way the risky lending led to 2008's subprime mortgage meltdown. and finally one french realtor has found a creative way around the weak economy. the lottery. that's right. the agency sells tickets for 12 buck as piece and then draws a winner and hands over the keys.

why didn't we think of this. not a bad idea. the braves avoid the broom, twin blasts from one met, and golf's british open gets under way. plus, 2012's dream team gets fancy against their opponents from across the pond. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. the weekend forecast is all about rain in the southeast and the heat wave relentlessly in the central plains. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports a red sox slugger hit his third three-run homer in the last two nights, this time for a clutch walk-off victory. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. this week's series between the red sox and white sox has had just about everything, and now you can add a walk-off to the list. we've got a ball and the red sox couldn't get anything going in the ninth. two aboard for cody ross and he took addison reed deep, game-winning smash over the green monster. boston walked off with a 3-1 win. the mets' david wright was swinging a hot bat. r.a. dickey picked up. braves are the model of

efficiency. they only had three hits against the giants, two of them homers. the other an rbi triple. british open scott was your leader after the opening round. tied the course with a 6 under 64. tyinger starts the day three strokes behalf. rafael nadal has withdrawn from the olympics. he said he was not in condition to compete. team usa basketball red to go may not be as good as the 1992 dream team but they can play defense with the best of them. russell westbrook finished on the other end. the mernls up 19 at the half. anthony davis the latest at the team but he's fitting in nicely. usa won it by 14, 81-78. two more exhibitions before the olympics. finally when you think the dream team couldn't get any better, lebron james reveals his secret weapon. he spins, fakes, switches hands, and there it is, yes,

unstoppable. probably so. will he do it in a game? well, we can only hope. who needs agent 86 when you've about got agent number 6. just another reason why you'd never want to play lebron in game of horse. that's your early look at sports. i'm fred roggin. another family squabble breaks out and katy takes her acting job post tom. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus a woman's engamingment ring is a lifetime keepsake. soo how much trouble would you go through if you lost it? you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." let me take you through your weekend forecast starting with your friday. very wet day today, especially in the afternoon hours all the way from the mid-atlantic, d.c., richmond, raleigh, charlotte and new orleans but the heat continues really all the way from denver to dallas to kansas city. this is saturday's forecast, easily back up into the 100s. the rain still in the southeast on saturday. even sunday, the weather a personal doesn't change. i could be as hot as 106 in kansas city so i apologize. >> if you're watch u using on tmj in wisconsin, take a trip at adventure dinosaur at the milwaukee county zoo. and that's your "early today"

event of the day, lynn. >> all right. bill, thanks so much. and now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. at the box office this weekend, "the dark knight rises" is expected to join "the avengers" and "the hunger games." and as if all the hype wasn't enough there's strong vee views and the devoted froon chiez fans. that should drive christopher nolan's film close to $200 million for the weekend but most think it's not going beat the aveng avengers' opening record of $207 million. i don't know. i'd beg to differ. that's thanks largely to nolan's insistence that the film not be offered in 3-d. that translates into higher ticket prices. i wonder why he did that. elsewhere, the jackson feud over michael's will has erupted again. five of michael's disinherited siblings claim his will is fake

and fraudulent. and finally in her first career split actress katie holmes is going to appear in the broadway play debt account this fall. this comes to us from wgrt. love conquers all, even when it's all wet. a bride-to-be lost her engagement ring out in the waters of lake erie. well, dozens of friends searched with no luck but one of those friends happened to own an underwater metal detector. good thing to have. and after three days he said he just had a feeling about one particular spot. he reached down and made the find of a lifetime and now there's talk that he's going to become the best man at the wedding. i would imagine so. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station. hey, there's barely a line at space mountain.

you there ! i am looking for someone, hair black as night, skin white as snow ! yeah, yeah, i got that ! she is at the castle. dad ! honey ! but she's on the move. disney mobile magic, on verizon. you wouldn't happen to have an apple ? find characters, access wait times for the park you're in, and enjoy premium features when you download disney mobile magic, powered by verizon.

it is 4:28. we wrap up the week with quite a few clouds out there this morning. make some storms, as well. we should also note that we have seen a big break from the extreme heat around here, but that doesn't mean we're out of the woods just yet. good morning. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i'm erika gonzalez. welcome to "news4 today" today on this friday, july 20th. so another round of storms just hammers the d.c. area. >> the storms left thousands of people without power again and dozens of streets flooded. look at these pictures of a flooded rhode island avenue. this is at the height of the storm last night. one truck tried to drive-thru

that high water. it got stuck, as you might imagine. the water has sin receded. >> right now more than 17,000 people are without power in our area. pepco is working to restore power to 15,000 customers. most of them are in the d.c. area. dominion reports 650 outages. dge has about 2,000 out ans. >> while pepco works to restore the power it's anticipating answers today about a possible rate hike. the utility requested a 4% hike to be approved by the maryland public service commission, that would be about an extra $5.50 on ef every bill.