zz h zoraida sambolin has the day off. >> that is awesome. it's caught on camera. i'm ashleigh banfield. it's nice to have you with us every morning. it's 5:00 a.m. on the east coast. let's get started with this. go vote for someone else. how about that for a campaign pitch. fighting words for mitt romney after a pretty rough reception at the naacp convention. it was a tough sell to begin with though anyway. governor romney's really trying to convince african-americans that they'd be better served with him in the white house than with president obama. president obama has about 95ish percent support among african-americans. he misstepped when he referred to the president's health carrey forms as obama care. >> i'm going to eliminate every non-essential expensive program i can find, that includes obama care, and i'm going to work to reform and save -- >> yeah, those are the sound of boos. you might say ouch or maybe not. romney is getting beat up by naacp. listen to the president of the washington, d.c., branch describe that chorus of boos. >> he literally came to our house and attacked the issues that are important to us on our turf. >> and there you have it. that was the wrapup, at least from that presidency. shannon travis is live from washington, d.c., this morning. shannon, it really looks like mitt romney's just not backing down at all from this, and there are all sorts of people weighing in on all sorts of different reasons for why he may have gone to the naacp annual conference. wrap it up for me to start with whether this is going to have a residual effect in the negative or in the positive. >> reporter: well, we're still trying to weigh that, ashleigh. when i was watching it, it felt like one of those reality tv shows where the candidate on stage either lives or dyes by boos or applause. he was booed when he mentioned obama care which was a little surprising, because the people at naacp, it's not surprising that he is opposed to obama care. he got booed when he said he was a better president for african-americans than president obama is. last night at a fundraiser in montana governor romney basically played up the fact that he was booed. i'm going to read you this quote from a report that we have. i'm quoting here. this is governor romney, quote, when i mention i am going to get rid of obama care, they weren't happy. that's okay, he says, i want people to know what i stand for and if i don't stand for what they want, go vote for someone else, but i hope people understand this, your friends who like obama care, you remind them of this. if they want more stuff from government, tell them to go vote for the other guy, more free stuff. but don't forget, nothing is really free. it has to be paid for by people in the private sector. so to your question about whether this will have residual effect, you know what, in the african-american community given the fact that the polls, 2008 exit polls show that 95% of voters voted for obama versus mccain and that currently in a current gallup poll that about 87% of african-americans support president obama versus 5% for romney probably won't hurt him any more than it already is with african-americans, but in terms of conservatives, this could shore up romney's conservative bona fide that he went into the political lions den and took on some supporters of obama. >> the conspiracy theorists were out in force within moments saying he wasn't there to talk to people this the auditorium, he was there to talk to the people outside of the auditorium, the supreme conservatives. here's where that didn't wash with me. it kind of is at odds with what you just showed us, that comment that he made at the fundraising event last night. one of his surrogates, this is not to suggest for a minute, shannon, that the surrogates are always on the same page and follow the memo, but one named tara wall was on tv talking about the thunderous, her words, the thunderous applause that governor romney got at the naacp con fence. when pushed she had to back down a little bit and say, maybe not thunderous applause, applause in general. it looked as though she was trying to play up this reception at the naacp, whereas, what you're suggesting is mitt romney said never expected to do well. >> you have to wonder what conference tara wall was at yesterday when she said he got thunderous applause. there were moments of applause for governor romney to be sure. there were some points of agreement that he expressed right there and that those in attendance applauded him for. it wasn't thunderous, but there were moments of applause. on the other hand, again, this is something that yesterday after governor romney got booed, i saw on the twitterverse and blogosphere they said, good for you, governor romney, for going into this political lions den and taking on some of these issues. governor romney himself is saying, i'm going to say the same message wherever i go. so this is a pretty -- he feels like this is a pretty winning issue for him. >> all right. shannon travis, good to see you. thank you so much for that this morning live for us. by the way, we're also learning some final details about a medical condition that caused illinois congressman jesse jackson jr. to virtually disappear from capital hill. his office is releasing a statement that says, jackson is being treated for a, quote, mood disorder, end quote, at a residential facility. the statement quotes jackson's doctor saying that the congressman is responding well to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery. florida state attorney plans to release fbi reports today stating whether race played a role. that includes 30 people from the sanford police department and friends of the shooting suspect, george zimmerman. we're expecting details between zimmerman and the fired police chief, bill lee. drama in a detroit backyard. firefighters are helping to dig out a man who's buried right up to his chest in about eight feet of dirt. rescuers digging the holes with shovels, buckets, even using their bare hands desperately trying to get him out. police say the trench collapsed during an illegal operation to lay down a sewer pipe. the men doing the work were apparently off the street. >> illegal means unpermitted. >> hired off the street. >> just as gas prices are ticking up, now $3.38, up .10% -- i guess that's .10 of a cent. the average price is down 73 cents from the record which was $4.11. that was back in july of 2008. the highest gas prices right now are in hawaii. $4.21. lowest gas prices are in south carolina, just $3.04 a gallon. 5:08. people in the south are on guard today for serious storms and the potential for flash flooding. rob marciano is watching it from our severe weather center. rob, can anybody get a break from awful heat, nasty storms that knock out their power or fires? >> we've seen a bit of both across the northeast. you would argue it's better than the record breaking heat we saw the past two weeks. this is an area showing the last 48 hours of rainfall. it's kind of peppered the southeast all the way from houston, dallas, back through atlanta and in some cases in the last 24 hours four to six inches across parts of carolina, six to ten across texas. they're seeing flash flood watch and warning posted for the rest of the day today. another line of thunderstorms starting to pop through houston. if you're traveling through houston, be aware there could be some delays at the airports there. as they begin to fire up, as they're already doing, two plus inches of rainfall per hour, a good possibility. this happens in july. they hit the brakes as soon as they get to the gulf of mexico. steamy down to the south. along the front is where you'll see thunderstorms pop up and some of them will be torrential rainfall like we saw again for the third night in a row. thunder and lightening. north of that, not too bad. south and west, record breaking temperatures across the southwest yesterday. it will be a little bit cooler today. 90 degrees in albuquerque. 88 degrees and 90 expected. >> i'll take the 80. this is what ashleigh was talking about. a woman fishing off a dock in south carolina. reeling it in. another one comes along. take a look. >> oh. >> oh [ bleep ]. oh, jesus christ. it's all mine. it's all mine. get it. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> it's a shark. >> it's a shark. >> a shark! it's a big [ bleep ] shark. >> go, baby. keep reeling. keep reeling. >> i love when you can fill in the beeps. bam, shark bait. they were about to land it obviously when a huge bull shark, there it goes, swooped in and stole the little fishy. >> that is some serious video right there. >> i love the video. i love the audio almost as much get the shark. >> the beeps, you know what's behind those beeps. >> yeah. so we've got a lot more ahead. it's 10 past 5:00 on the east coast. we're waiting down now a couple of hours until a new report is expected out on the jerry sandusky sex abuse trial and the case in general and the coach and his higher ups. a ler from the late coach joe paterno has also surfaced about all of this. find out what he said about the scandal and what he did not say about the scandal coming up. ♪ express yourself [ female announcer ] why not try coffee-mate? with over 25 delicious flavors for a fraction of the cost of the coffee house. add your flavor, with coffee-mate, from nestle. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. 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[ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. brave knights! as you can clearly see from this attractive graph that our sales have increased by... sorry, my liege. honestly. our sales have increased by 20%. what is this mystical device i see before me? it's an ultrabook. he signed the purchase order. with an ultrabook, everything else seems old fashioned. introducing the ultra sleek, ultra responsive ultrabook. a whole new class of computers powered by intel. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go. chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. in less than four hours we're going to know more about just how much penn state knew about the jerry sandusky child abuse scandal while it was going on. at 9:00 a.m. former fbi chief louis free will release a report saying what university officials did or did not do when accusations against jerry sandusky arose. it will take a look at the university's culture and the relationship between the football program and the administration. the free report is coming a day after an op ed was released from the late head football coach, joe paterno, who defended the integrity of penn state, his program, and his players saying, quote, this is not a football scandal. susan candiotti is live in philadelphia. susan, is the paterno family worried that free's report may show that joe paterno and others knew that jerry sandusky was abusing children and more importantly that they covered it up? >> reporter: well, ali, of course we don't know for sure what's going to be in the free report, but certainly it's a possibility that the paterno family would be worried about this. we can tell you this, the paterno family is not at all happy that the free investigators did not allow them to get an advance look at that report saying that paterno didn't ever get a chance to defend themselves. here's one reason why the paterno family might be worried. cnn had purported e-mails that were leaked to us involving an exchange among penn state officials, and in one of those e-mails they discuss a plan after that 2001 show incident to notify jerry sandusky and, among other things, to notify outside authorities, child welfare. but in another e-mail there's a reference from the athletic director that he spoke to joe paterno and then the director changes his mind about contacting child welfare authorities. now the paterno family just yesterday issued this statement that reads in part, joe paterno did not cover up for jerry sandusky. joe paterno did not know jerry sandusky was a pedophile. joe paterno did not act in any way to prevent a proper investigation of jerry sandusky. to claim otherwise is a distortion of the truth. so, ali, we'll see how the free report may address all of this. >> one of the big problems, it's interesting, it apparently didn't really aect university's fundraising last year, but also denying any knowledge of the sex abuse is former penn state president graham spanier. you reported on some leaked e-mails that says the other from spanier. quote, the only down side from us is if the message isn't, quote, heard and acted upon and then we become vulnerable for not having reported it, but that can be assessed down the road. what is that supposed to mean? >> well, >>. >> reporter: well, ali, people have said we're down the road. let's see if the free report addresses that. prosecutors said no outside authorities were notified after the 2001 shower incident so did any procedures that penn state may have had in place completely collapse and not work. we do know that some people who will be here today are victims' attorneys. they will be listening very closely to this free report because it might provide them ammunition for expected lawsuits against penn state. >> susan candiotti following this case very closely. those attorneys, ashleigh, are going to be very interested in this op ed that joe paterno wrote before he died. i must say, as i read it, i found myself getting angriernd angrier and angrier that he wrote this entire thing about the great culture of penn state and the great culture of their football program and don't taint the football program by calling this a football scandal. that was top of his mind before he died, that you're going to ruin the reputation of the football program, not that there were victims. >> not a mention, 700 plus words and not a mention of the kids who were raped. >> yeah. >> the kids. >> all about don't wreck the reputation. don't call this a football scandal. >> listen, that's what lawyers look for. it's called evidence. i guarantee you, ali, there will be civil lawsuits. it's 18 minutes past 5:00. time to get you upto date on the top stories. christine romans doing that job for us. >> good morning, you two. vice president biden will represent the white house today at the naacp convention in houston. the administration insist scheduling conflicts prevented the president from being there even though his calendar appears open. mitt romney was roundly booed at the convention yesterday when he told the crowd he'd eliminate obama care if he wins the presidency. the car can see what you can't. new crash warning equipment installed in cars showing some promise. a new study by the insurance industry says that accident reports were down 14% in cars that were equipped with the technology that automatically brakes when a rear end crash is imminent and also in cars with headlights that can swivel, that are on a swivel, that can see around curves. the systems were installed on new ak cure ra, mercedes benz and volvo cars. pluto's new moon. the hubble space telescope have shown a fifth moon. it's being called p-5. it appears as small white dots. last year they discovered pluto's fourth moon. a nasa spacecraft is expected to arrive in 2015. so put it on the calendar. >> that fourth moon didn't get a chance to be named before a fifth moon showed up. >> i'm glad there were no hubble telescope when i was a kid. it was hard for me to remember them. now they all have extra moons, and a planet. >> i'm giving pluto its due. p-5, baby. i'm not letting it go. >> we're going to name the fourth moon. >> it is 20 1/2 minutes after the hour this morning. we're getting an early read on your local news that's going national. a connecticut group home employee has been put on leave without pay after she was caught on tape kicking and beating and dragging a disabled and defenseless adult by the hair, by the way. we want to warn you the video we're about to show you is tough to watch. the caretaker caught kicking the woman in the gut, whipping her with a belt and dragging her by the hair. the victim suffers from an int at the lek actual disorder. that's tough to watch. >> that's by the hair, ali. she grabbed her by the hair and pulled her. >> the state said they didn't find any other signs of abuse. they're trying to find out who shot the video. that person could face charges too. it's unclear whether this was a good samaritan shooting it or someone was shooting it as part of the video. >> what's amazing is whoever did shoot that video dropped off three different copies. >> one to the tv station, one to the agency where this happened. so they're taking action on it. it is tough video to watc >> mipictures don't lie. the apple is no longer green enough. with very few exceptions, san francisco's 50 city departments say they're no longer going to be allowed to buy apple laptops, desktop computers ormon tors. they say the tech giant withdrew from an international electronics green certification program. they say apple is at odds with the city and its purchasing policy that mandates every product has to meet strict environmental standards. i never thought i'd hear the day that apple isn't green enough for san francisco. more signs that the economy is slowing instead of growing. there are storm clouds on the economic horizon. we're going to tell you what it would mean for you. you're watching "early start." 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