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16-year-olds on this show. good morning, welcome to "early start" on this monday. i'm ashleigh banfield. >> happy to have you this morning. i'm zoraida sambolin. let's get started. tropical storm beryl making landfall in northeastern florida near jacksonville beach. it's packing a wallop, 70-mile-per-hour winds, torrential rain, more than 24,000 people without power this morning in the area. take a look at the pictures on your screen. that shows you the wind. the wind warnings, storm warnings all up along the atlantic coast from florida to georgia to the carolinas, putting a severe dent in a lot of the memorial day festivities. rob marciano has been pretty much up all night in the severe weather center watching all of this. things getting better tleels for now? >> well, the wind has died down but the rain is still coming. this event is far from over. at one point winds at 70 miles an hour, almost a hurricane. and some could argue that it was a minimal category 1 hurricane when it made landfall. here it is on the radar scope. just reading the latest from the national hurricane center, their 5:00 a.m. advisory, winds now down to 50 miles an hour. obviously when these things come onshore they lose strength. this their fuel source. the center of it is about 20 miles, 30 miles to the west of jacksonville, maybe about 80 miles east-southeast of valdosta, georgia. it aets headi it's heading westerly at 8 miles an hour. you can see your typical rotation and the thunderstorms wrachi in wrapping around this thing, much like a tropical system. impressive considering, what? it's memorial teday. we haven't even begun officially hurricane season, starting june 1. 50-mile-an-hour winds gusting to 70. here is the track, giving you an idea of what is left of beryl. we expect it to go down to a tropical depression but the moisture is the key. now, we badly need it so we'll take it, but, you know, it's going to take its sweet time getting offshore. so in areas that need the rain, namely north florida and south georgia, it's pretty dry, the ground, so the heavy rains that will come down, a lot of it will run off. so we'll see some flooding, but the castch of-22 is we need the rain. warnings from flagler beach to the savannah river for the next 12 hours at least. the threat for tornadoes is there as well, and the heavy rainfall is going to be the key here as we go through time. four to eight inches of rainfall in this area, flash flood watches have been posted. ironic considering this same area is in extreme drought. this thing is kind of giving it a nudge, but tropical storm beryl a memorial day tropical storm landfall, i'm not sure that's ever happened. we'll have to dig throughout the morning. that may be the interesting tidbit being carried forward on this holiday. >> you're certainly working overfierm us. we appreciate it. >> you got it. three minutes past the hour here. the united states is condemning a bloody massacre in syria. more than 100 people have been killed, including dozens of women and children. u.n. officials say, the u.n. security council blaming much of this weekend's violence on the syrian government. the government is blaming al qaeda-linked groups. officials say syria has not fully cooperated with cease-fire agreements. the u.n. human rights chief is calling for the crisis in syria to be referred to the international criminal court. a sobering warning on this memorial day weekend from defense secretary leon panetta. he says it will be, quote, disastrous if congress allows $500 billion in defense cuts to take effect in january as scheduled. those are the cuts that were triggered by congress' failure last year to reach a deficit reduction deal. the senate minority leader harry reid says he won't back down on the cuts. in a few hours, president obama will lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns at arlington national cemetery and kicking off a 13-year project to honor veterans of the vietnam war. he'll speak at the vietnam memorial wall and will announce plans to honor those who served in southeast asia from now until the 50th anniversary of the last u.s. troops pulling out of saigon. he has confessed to killing a little boy named etan patz 33 years ago. now a member of pedro hernandez' family is telling that he reported the suspect to police in camden, new jersey, back in the '80s and nothing came of it. the relative says hernandez admitted to killing a boy in new york and dumping the boy in the trash. hernandez is right now at a new york hospital on suicide watch awaiting a psychiatric examination to determine if he's competent to stand frierl murder. a boulder, colorado, couple is not going to face charges for shooting and wounding a 21-year-old female student who wandered into their home through an unlocked screen door. police say colorado university student zoe rip he elle had a blood alcohol level 0.2 when she entered the home. here's the 911 call moments after the man shot the woman. >> we were screaming at her. she kept coming in the bedroom. and we shot her. >> the 911 operator then instructs the homeowner to ask the wounded intruder a question, and it picks up from there. take a listen. >> do you have any weapons on you? what? why did you just walk into our house when we were screaming at you to get out? she seems kind of stoned or something. >> so colorado has a, quote, make my day law, like a stand your ground, like a castle law. it allows homeowners to use deadly force if an intruder enters their home uninvited and if they feel threatened. prosecutors are deciding if they're going to press charges against the intruder. dario franchitti captured the flag at the indy 500. winning the third time in the last five year s you can hear al about it when dario franchitti joins us live in the 7:00 hour. that is on "starting point". one young man and one big riddle. a centuries-old math problem put to rest by a 16-year-old. are you ready for this? sharia ray of germany solved a math problem first posed by sir isaac newton over 300 years ago. it makes it possible to determine the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to resistance. ray also closed another unsolved math problem first posed in the 19th century. an indian-born teenager who learned calculus at 6 says his school boy curiosity led him to those discoveries. an irish exchange student is found sthang strang elled in a japan hotel room. two american men are detained. we'll go live for it details on this murder mystery. are you still sleeping? 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[ yawning sound ] an international murder mystery is it unfolding this evening in tokyo, two american men being held by japanese police in connection with the strangling death of a 21-year-old irish exchange student. the suspects met the female at a nicki minaj concert. live from tokyo this morning, what do you know about these two americans? >> reporter: well, zoraida, we're learning a little more about their background. police here are zridescribing b men as entertainers. the 19-year-old suspect is a man that police describe as a musician. they are not releasing his name as of yet because under japanese law he's considered a minor. the 23-year-old is identified as james blackstone. he is a backup dancer and according to tokyo police it fairly well-known. they were at a nicki minaj concert when they mets two irish women, what the media is reporting. then toke know police tell us the four ended up at a tokyo city hotel, and it's at that hotel that all of this happened. someone inside the hotel reported hearing a loud noise early thursday morning. when hotel staff went to check, they found 21-year-old nicola furlong unconscious. tokyo police say she died of strangulation. authorities here trying to unravel what led to this woman's death. zoraida? >> thank you for that report. appreciate it key yawn law live for us in japan. the state department is trying to get the release of a u.s. citizen who was kidnapped in the west african nation of benin. consular assistance is being provided, still not clear where the unidentified american was abducted. denin is a country of about 9 million people. live right now, former british prime minister tony blair take a stand on the uk phone hacking scandal. blair is expected to face questions about his ties to news corporation founder rupert murdoch. the inquiry is investigating alleged ties between the british press and several government officials. former news corporation tabloid "news of the world" is accused of hacking the phones of several high-profile people including politicians, even a murder victim's phone. defense secretary leon panetta is defending the administration's plan to withdraw all u.s. troops from afghanistan by 2014 and also taking a swipe at mitt romney over his criticism of the president for making that plan public. >> without getting into the campaign rhetoric of what he's asserting, i think you've got 50 nations in nato that agree to a plan in afafghanistan. it's the lisbon agreement, an agreement that others, president bush, president obama, everyone has agreed is the direction we go in, in afghanistan. >> the defense secretary is also warning there will be, quote, disastrous consequences if congress doesn't reverse planned cuts of more than $500 billion from the defense budget early next year. six people hurt, including a firefighter and a police officer, following a massive house explosion. this was in the suburbs of milwaukee. fire officials still aren't saying what caused saturday's blast, but take a look at that. witnesses were stunned by the sheer force of it. >> oh, my god, this is -- i never in my life see something like this. whoa! >> very tall, very bright, engulfing everything around it. >> the injured police officer suffered smoke inhalation and the injured firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion. the men in black franchise is back. after a ten-year hiatus, ten years, can you believe that? ten years. how old are we? anyway, it was tops at the box office, "mib 3" bethrowning "the avengers" becoming number one. by the way, it took in $55 million this weekend to earn that title. "the avengers" fell to fourth place, only brought in $36.9 million, but it's the billion-dollar movie. "the avengers is" is not crying in its soup today. >> my kids saw it. haven't gotten reviews yet. look, ma, no hands. at first glance, this home run yesterday looks like your typical dinger. you can see he loses the bat. check this out. the spotlight shows the bat is actually out of frazier's hands when he makes contact with the ball. it is a hands-free home run. pretty amazing! >> i don't know a lot about baseball, but i figure that somewhere in the rule book that has to not count. >> oh, i think it counts. >> if you don't actually get the hit? you know what i mean? >> you did. you positioned that bat to hit that ball. >> i don't know. i'm thinking there's some conspiracy theorists out there going over the centuries-old rules of baseball. >> that's wild. >> it's kind of cool what an oops moment, letting go of the bat. go figure. oh, no, my pen, i can't go on. >> it's 16 minutes past 5:00. time for your "early morning" reads. we want to get you up to speed on the newspaper stories. this is a head scratcher. 17-year-old honors student is crying because she's getting thrown in jail for missing too many days of class. did i say she was an honor student? yes. apparently she's working two jobs to support her siblings because her parents left town. hour houston affiliate says that diane tran is now living with one of her employers. she says she's sometimes so exhausted from work that she misses school. but a judge said he wanted to make an example of her so he did. he ordered her to spend 24 hours in jail and pay a $100 fine. did i mention she was an honors student working two jobs trying to support -- >> that's an odd story. how do you make an example of that? >> give her a medal for heaven's sake. don't send her to jail. >> help her out. >> send the parents to jail. 19-year-old tech entrepreneur spends two months as a squatter at the aol building in fpalo alto. eric simmons was rending pace. when the program ended, simmons -- i think it's siem nz actually didn't have rent money so what did he do? he decided to stay. he ate free food, took showers at the employee gym and slept on the couch. aol employers thought he was just a really hard worker. eventually he was kicked out by security and an aol vice president said, quote, it was always our intention to facilitate entrepreneurialism in the palo alto office. we didn't expect it to work so well. >> eric simons, you have a job in the news business. that's what it takes, live, eat, work and breathe. >> they said, well, this is just one of ours. >> i think that's great. so a california family says that a mistake by a sheriff's deputy led to a fire at their home. it's really unbelievable how this plays out. "the daily mail" is reporting that san diego investigators were investigating a robbery and stormed the wrong house. number one, they arrest the wrong family inside. at the time they made this erroneous arrest, the husband is cooking dinner, right? the stove is on. husband says, would you let me turn the stove off? apparently they say no and they pull the it family outside. minutes later, fire breaks out, destroys the kitchen. it's like, yo, i told you! >> i have to turn off the stove. >> please! are you kidding me? >> i know. >> luckily, nobody was hurt, but the sheriff's department says -- and i love this -- we're investiga investigating. i bet you're investigating! >> that's odd. i guess they were all head-scratchers this morning. why do you not allow him to turn off the stove in. >> i suppose these kinds of things happen, but please if you're arresting someone, at least let the neighborhood be sa safe. 19 minutes past 5:00, for an expanded look at our stories, cnn.com/earlystart, place to go. lots of good stuff. also, want to let you know that helping veterans land a job on this memorial day is a critical part of why we are on this planet. so what are businesses doing right now to help those who put their lives on the line for our freedom? it's important, folks. make sure you tune in. you've got to see this. you're watching "early start." also, get a free flight. you know that comes with a private island? really? no. it comes with a hat. see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... 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[ slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums is important to any successful business. which is why at wells fargo, we work with you to get to know the unique aspects of your business. we can recommend financial solutions that can work for you that have helped millions of business owners save time, reduce expenses, and maximize cash flow. as the number one small business lender for nine years running... we're with you when you need us. so you can be there for your customers. wells fargo. together we'll go far. hi, welcome. it's 23 past 5:00. minding your business this morning, financial markets closed for memorial day so, if you're awake, it's just because you're normally awake at this hour. when trading resumes tomorrow, analysts say the debt crisis in europe and pesky uncertainty in greece is continuing to be the issues. meantime, stocks are coming off a strong week with the nasdaq rising more than 2%. not all bad. >> let's bring in christine romans looking at the job market for veterans today. boy, servicemen and women are having a really hard time. >> they are, but the unemployment rate is improving a bit so that's a good sign. there are companies, big companies that have big company relations pushes to hire veterans but there are also small and midsized companies doing the same thing because it's good for business. i want to introduce you to one company that has found that the battlefield and military experience is really good for them. it actually helps them grow their business. listen. >> reporter: for dave devonzo to find a job, all it took was a sign. >> i've been driving past that modern sign probably when i moved back here 12 years ago, 18 years before that. >> reporter: this billboard outside of philadelphia on i-95, modern group wants to hire people just like him, veterans. he retired from the navy in august after 29 years. >> it was a bit of a shock i think. i put my applications out, got little response. very little response. i saw the sign out front and i called the hr department, sent them my stuff, and the rest is history. >> reporter: that's what led him as a shop technician here. >> i will tell you this -- my first-ever job interview and i'm 47 years old happened at modern group. so it was a change. definitely a change. >> reporter: dozens of applications poured in to dave griffith, modern's president and ceo. >> you can imagine the visibility that sign gets. >> reporter: he's hired 27 veterans and reservists from all branches of the military. >> they're more disciplined, focused, sensitive to the customer. i think there's a great attention to detail for folks coming out of the military. >> he's shown me quite a few things. >> we've got to help each other out. we're all on the same team, inevitably it's our missi