janet shamlian, nbc news, austin. >>> still ahead on this saturday night, it's as close to the royal wedding as most people will ever get. how the palace is cashing in on princess kate. ♪ tried to make me go to rehab, i said no, no, no ♪ >>> and coming up next, the talent and tragedy of amy winehouse, dead tonight at the age of 27. we'll be right back. er >>> you are looking at the scene right now outside the london home of singer amy winehouse where fans gather tonight as word spread of her unexplained death at the age of 27. winehouse was the first british singer to win five grammy awards. but her musical success was matched by her very public struggles with substance abuse. nbc's peter alexander has our report. ♪ >> reporter: with her mastery of soul and jazz, amy winehouse sure didn't sound like a white jewish woman who grew up in the suburbs of london. ♪ i tell you i was troubled >> reporter: in 2008 winehouse won five grammys, critics and fans loved her with that unmistakable black beehive hairdo and old-fashioned sailor tattoos. her career soared and her influence on other sin

janet shamlian shows us the effort to help them. >> you've got yours. here's yours. >> reporter: these are the orphans of the drought. wild fawns abandoned by mothers too dehydrated to produce milk. for every animal taken in by volunteers at the texas wildlife center, dozens, if not hundreds will die of thirst in the wild. >> we've never had anything this severe, the drought and the heat and the lack of food. >> reporter: even for some of the rescued, it may be too late. >> it's survival of the fittest an we're really seeing that right now in all species. >> reporter: texas is at the epicenter of a savage drought that was already bad back in february. and in the months since has grown and worsened, now affecting some 15 states. burning crops worth millions of dollars. baking cities. >> she's emaciated. >> reporter: and taking a large toll on wildlife. dry river beds and cracked earth are sending hawks and other rural predators into neighborhoods in search of food. it's even more dire for livestock. sale barns are overwhelmed, was are therers rush to sel

janet shamlian for nbc bay area news. >>> the mob boss will get a protection order against him.ft with armed escorts. he could not afford his own attorney and is entitled to a public defender since feds seized the $800,000 he had in his apartment. prosecutors said he had family members who could help them pay. he participated in 19 murders, spent 16 years on the run and was finally nabbed in santa monica last week. >>> in washington the justice department is opening a criminal investigation including officers with the cia. they're investigating the death of two terrorists in custody. at the same time the justice department is also closing inquiries into the treatment of nearly 100 other detainees over the last decade. in response to the announcement outgoing chief leon panetta says it's time to close that chap tur. >>> general david petraeus will take leon panetta's post. the man in charge of the u.s. operations in afghanistan is a west point graduate and a 37-year veteran of the u.s. army. the four-star general is also credited with turning around the war in iraq. >>> defense s

nbc's janet shamlian is in a rainy houston. sounds good, janet. >> reporter: good morning, lester. yeah, you know it's bad when you're cheering for the tropical storm to actually come ashore in your state. but don did nothing to alleviate the drought in texas. and you mentioned the showers we're having right now. these are very brief, and they're not making a dent in the drought, either. this is an epic drought. the last nine months have been the driest in the state's history. and right now, it would take something like 17 inches of rain just to get us back to normal. weeks on end of triple-digit temperatures. and in most areas, months without measurable rain has turned texas into a dust bowl. and it's spawning these tornado-like dust devils, amid the worst dry spell in decades. from space, nasa photos show a parched landscape. >> i have never in my 30 years in weather seen a drought like this one. >> reporter: this map shows the spread from texas, oklahoma and new mexico, now into southern colorado and kansas. >> dry, no rain. just no grass. need the rain bad. >> reporter: as crop

with us now, janet shamlian live in houston, texas, where it looks like the rain from earlier has dissipated> reporter: right. so 90-something, and we had some rain, so the humidity is like 1,000%, alex. but we were happy for that rain, because this is an epic drought, the driest nine months on record in the history of texas. right now it takes 17 inches of rain just to get us back to normal. weeks on end of triple-digit temperatures. and in most areas, months without measurable rain has turned texas into a dust bowl. and it's spawning dust devils, amid the worst dry spell in decades. >> i have never in my 30 years in weather seen a drought like this one. >> reporter: this map shows the spread from texas, oklahoma, and new mexico now into southern colorado and kansas. >> hard, dry, no rain. just -- no grass. need the rain bad. >> reporter: as crops burn and lakes dry up, economists say agricultural losses just in texas could top $8 billion. double last month's prediction. >> when drought affects here, we see it in prices of everything from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. >> reporter:

nbc's janet shamlian is there this morning. good morning to you. >> reporter: hi, matt. good morning to you. this soldier had everything ready to go -- a motel room full of gunpowder and ammunition, even instructions on how to make a bomb. authorities say his plan could have succeeded if p it weren't : for an alert citizen who saw something and said something. this is the motel where police arrested 21-year-old private first class on wednesday with room, explosives in hiscc1: officials say, to make at least two bombs. >> he's a very dangerous individual, and he's where he needs to be. >> reporter: it's all thanks to the alert owner of this gun store. federal officials say he tipped off police after abdur arrived : by taxi on tuesday, buying three boxes of shotgun ammunition and a magazine for a semiautomatic pistol. the clerk became suspicious when the soldier indicated he didn't know much about what he was buying. >> we rang him up. he pays cash for the purchase. put it in the bag. he grabs his bag and out the door he goes. he didn't even wait for a receipt or his chang