Transcripts For CNNW EarlyStart 20130531 : vimarsana.com

0 verdict. until then, we ll always have the memories of the cold day in the ikea parking lot and one stylish little monkey. little darwin. that does it for us. early start begins right now. breaking news this morning. free just minutes ago, the american grandmother accused of smuggling drugs in mexico released from jail. this this is a huge development. we are live on the scene. tornadoes, wildfires and a sizzling heat wave across the country. what s in store for you today? and chilling new video this morning of the boston terror suspects just days before the bombs went off. and the king bee is crowned. the winning word that won it all for this very smart new york eighth grader. that s one way to put it. good morning, everyone. welcome to early start . i m john berman. i m christine romans. it s friday. let s say it one more time, it s friday. it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. breaking news. this has been unfolding all night before our eyes. the arizona mother of seven, the grandmother, in fact, who spent a week behind bars in mexico accused of smuggling drugs, she has been released. authorities in the area arrested maldonado after finding 12 pounds of drugs under her bus seat last week, but new evidence apparently convinced a judge to let this woman go free. now, we just heard from her in a statement made in after she was released. first, i have to thank god that now i m free now. and i m very grateful that i m fr free, for my family, my children. and i really thank all of the people and you guys, the media, who really, really, through you, was through my situation was extended to the whole world. and i thank you for that. the witnesses say exactly what s happening. the video was very important evidence because, while the witnesses say the declaration f of the extension of gary, it was tape recorded. and they re not lying. so exactly what happened in the station what you just heard was her attorney talking about the video that helped exonerate maldonado. this was video of her getting on the bus with nothing that could have been 12 pounds of pot. a purse, two blankets and a bottle of water. the question it still raises now that she is free is what is going on that someone could just end up more than a week in jail on the word of someone who says they were smuggling drugs. it is still a very, very scary situation for travelers. it is terrifying. you can see on her face the relief. you can hear it in her voice, but i m sure as these days pass, you know, the fury that she must feel will come to the surface. we ll hear much more about that and will be following this all morning. stay with us on this developing story. the other developing story is relentless, the wide swath of america bracing for flooding and tornadoes possible again today. one tore through arkansas yesterday ripping roofs away. there were four minor injuries there. our meteorologist is following this all for us. all week. it is so hard to believe it is literally the story through today and tomorrow the east coast is still the story, the remaining heat. turbulent tornadoes touching down in tulsa and curbing, oklahoma, thursday night. look at that wall cloud, dude. that s coming straight at us. look at that mesocyclone. reporter: both just north of the city of moore devastated by a tornado last week. and over in arkansas, this tornado swirling into a waterspout over lake washita. further north in wichita, kansas, rain is the issue. floodwaters rising past the headlights of cars leaving some stranded and others just looking for a place to keep dry. well, the county fire responded very quickly. you can see the number of fire trucks out there. and then there s the heat out west. firefighters battling a raging wildfire near santa clarita, california, that has scorched at least 400 acres of land. this firefight still very, very active, and probably will be for some time. reporter: in the east, the first signs of summer in new york s central park. from the splashes to the scoops to the first slathers of sunblock, the heat wave has officially arrived. i guess i wasn t so smart so i need to go get ice cream. it melted. melted ice cream, a welcomed sight after the late season memorial snowstorm had places like vermont measuring snow in feet. syracuse and binghamton weathered the late flurries and broke 40-year-old records. it was freezing like three days ago. all seasons in one week. unfortunately with all the wacky weather we have a clash of the systems right in the middle of the country. look at the instability still out there. severe thunderstorms, a lot of lightning and the threat will still be with us with the setup remaining. look at all the rainfall. tulsa is nearly escaping a large tornado, heavy rainfall right in their area. and today again, that threat sets up the same. we still have the moist air up against the dry air. a little bit of a difference, the jet stream is not lining up perfectly today, but regardless, look at the swath. once again, bull s-eyeing near oklahoma city and moore with the swath today sending even farther to the east. so the great lakes region down through the texas panhandle will be affected. so what are we dealing with once again? here we are looking at temperatures in the east. definitely not as big of a story in the country. it is so hot and humid, what a change from a few days ago. there is a little bit of relief in sight, that s the good news. with the heat wave in the east, not temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s. to the west, look at the difference with the 70s and 60s. the cold air will eventually move in. what does that mean? we ll see a little bit of a chill going to the weekend and thunderstorms to the northeast by the end of the week. so a little bit of good news with a lot of tough weather out there. a beautiful weekend in chicago. i don t live in chicago. glass half full. nice for them. great for them. also developing this story, a possible break into the information into letters laced with poison sent to president obama and most recently mayor michael bloomberg and his gun control lobbying group. cnn s ed lavendera is live with those details this morning. good morning. reporter: good morning, christine. this could be an unlikely place for this story to kind of begin unfolding here, but fbi agents spent the night staked out at the house you see behind me here in this small town, population 4500, of new boston, texas, tucked away in the northeast corner of the state. law enforcement officials are questioning a man at this new boston, texas, oklahoma. about threatening letters believed to contain ricin sent to president obama, new york city mayor michael bloomberg and a gun control group. it kind of hits home more when it can be somebody right down the street. reporter: the three suspicious letters were post marked in shreveport, louisiana. the ones addressed to the president and mayor bloomberg never reached them, both were intercepted where letters are screened. white house spokesman jay carney emphasized in the past when other threatening letters were september to the president. the mail is screamed. the mail sent here is screamed and these tests are taken at remote sites to mitigate the risk to them and the general population. reporter: the fbi is testing the letter sent to president obama and meanwhile the new york city department says the preliminary testing on the bloomberg letter came back positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison made from beans. it was opened by its director, and that letter contained a whitish, orange substance. the letters contained an ominous message, you have to kill me and my family before you get my guns, it read. anyone who wants to come to my house will be shot in the face. the right to bear arms is my constitutional, god-given right and i will exercise that right till the day i die. what s in this letter is nothing compared to what i ve got planned for you. is the gun control group really behind these threats? it could be somebody on the other side blaming the people who believe in gun rights. reporter: this latest round of threats has many wondering if ricin is becoming the weapon of choice for intimidation. rice up is probably one of the worst ways to try and kill somebody. so i don t see it as a real threat in the sense of an actual capability to kill but rather to intimidate and attract publicity. so far, christine, the fbi has not made any official comments as to what it is doing currently this investigation, but several neighbors in this neighborhood say late yesterday they saw several fbi agents coming and going from the house and removing electronic equipment. and they continue to be staked out here today. this is a situation we ll continue to watch up fold throughout the day today. ed, thank you so much. also, new this morning, chilling images. cnn s obtained a video that shows the boston bombing suspects working out at a gym, this is just 72 hours before the bombs went off. security cameras at the y crew mixed martial arts center show the tsarnaev brothers arriving with a friend before 2:45 p.m. on friday, april 12th. the manager says tamerlan seen wearing a hat there looked different. he shaved off his beard he had for a while. that could have been a sign of things to come. shaving the beard may be a way to blend in, not to attract scrutiny from security services in carrying out the boston attacks. we have seen, in part, terrorism cases, past plots, western middletons shave their beards off before plotting attacks. before they get started, tamerlan is seen in an argument with the manager about taking off his shoes, which is a policy in the gym. then they begin their workout. we ll have much more on this later this hour on early start. he s the king to be. this eighth grader won the scripps spelling national bee last night. he was cool, calm and collected throughout. his whipping world, knaidel, a yiddish word for dumpling. knaidel. k-n-a-i-d-e-l, knaidel. he is a national scripps beacon test tant. this was his final shot at the win, a pressure player, this man. he says he s happy to be retiring on a good note. and this was german he derived words that tripped him up the last couple of times. so we wonder if he buckled down and studied those. everyone knows about the problems he s had with the german words the last few years. it was sort of like the curse of the bambino affecting this young champ. coming up, is this an international incident in the making. an american woman killed in syria. reports say she was fighting with the rebels. and new clues on the world s great mysteries. the disappearance of amelia earheart. is this image from the ocean, not this one, but what we are not showing you right now is a greater mystery, the greater image we are not showing you that could be the missing piece of the puzzle. it s not a candy bar. 130 calories 7 grams of protein the new fir one caramel nut protein bar.