firms say one thing and do another. we're watching the story for you and will have more details as the details come in. the rest of the day's top stories, right to brooke baldwin with an update on headlines. >> welcome back from the beach. good to see you. good morning, everyone. about 700,000 people waking up to another day without power. look at the map. you see 11 states and talk about the nation's capital. it has been six days since powerful storms fueled by extreme heat zapped trees and knocked down power lines and take a look at this picture. this is washington's massive power outage. this is from space taken from a nasa satellite showing extensive power outages and swinging westward to west virginia, it has led to a food crisis. the red cross expects to provide 25,000 meals today. 22 people have now died in the storms and the dangerous heat. major progress in the battle against the most destructive wildfire in colorado's history. the wald owe canyon fire is now 90% contained. that's a bigs improvement. the fire scorched nearly 18,000 acres and destroyed 350 homes and the fire fighting season is far from over with 45 large fires still burning across the country. we'll go to rob covering these in and around colorado springs. good morning. >> good morning. moisture starting to increase so that's good news and maybe thunderstorms that will dump rain but parts of utah and the western u.s. is still enduring fires. heavier thunderstorms moving through cleveland. intense complex that rolled through detroit last night. severe thunderstorms that could dump hail and certainly some gusty winds and nothing like what we saw nearly a week ago. we still had 700,000 people without power. this is where you will see the bulk of the action as far as severe weather goes. south of that it is hot and even more humid and that's where we have the heat advisories and warnings. you get 12 to 20 states affected. big cities like chicago, st. louis, excessive heat warnings that includes philadelphia as well and dangerous heat continues and continue to set records and st. louis 105 degrees again. chicago got to 102. that's the second time this year they have broken the 100-degree mark and haven't done 100 degrees since 2005. we'll continue that streak in chicago. you may very well get it again today. off to a running start. 86 degrees right now in st. louis. that's without the sun and obviously that will cook things up in a hurry. 100 in d.c. and 91 in new york city. the cooler air doesn't come until we get towards the latter half of the weekend and the beginning of next week. >> it is warm already. thank you so much. a tragic fourth of july evening on a long island sound in new york and at least two people are dead after a boat carrying 27 people capsized. coast guard officials say 25 passengers were rescued by midnight. one is in critical condition. witnesses say none of the passengers was wearing life vests. what better way to celebrate the nation's birthday than with a perfect display of rockets red glare set to music. take a look. thousands of people lining up on manhattan's west side to watch the annual macy's fourth of july spectacular, some 40,000 fireworks lit up the hudson river. here is my favorite. you can call this a fireworks fail. an entire fourth of july fireworks show, boom, exploding all at once. this was san diego. people in san diego were a little confused last night. they call it the big bay boom kind of went bust because all the fireworks that were part of this whole elaborate 17-minute show, oops, accidently went off all at the same time. five minutes before the show was even supposed to start, so thousands of people told see you, we're done, go home. event producers are investigating that glitch. soledad, can you imagine? they're thinking it looks like a finale and it is really the beginning and it is over. >> that's awesome. >> i love it. >> wow. all right. that's it. five minutes. go. done. mitt romney is now saying that the health care law mandate is a tax after all and not a penalty. it could present new problems for his campaigning because he is contradicting his top strategist. here is what he told dana bash campaigning in new hampshire. listen. >> the supreme court has the final word, isn't that the highest court in the land and they said it was a tax. it is a tax. of course. if that's what they said. >> earlier this week his top advisor said that romney actually greed with president obama that the mandate was not a tax. romney's new message falls in line with republican attacks against the president promising voters he wouldn't raise taxes. allison stewart is the former president secretary and former communications director for congressman michele bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign and republican strategist and joins us this morning. nice to see you. i know you're not representing the campaign. as a republican strategist, i am confused. is it clear whether mitt romney thinks this health care mandate is a tax or a penalty? what does he personally believe? can you tell? >> what he made really clear yesterday in the interview with another network was that while he agrees with the dissent, that this was unconstitutional, that at the end of the day the final word came from the majority of the supreme court this is constitutional as a tax. like it or not, the final word is in. the verdict is in. it is a tax. he made it quite clear he agreed with the dissent, but he understands that the final word is this is a tax which is different than what we heard from the president when he was arguing for passage of this and he promised repeatedly the american people this was not a tax. several times he said that. yet he said to the solicitor general before the supreme court arguing that it is a tax, so i think the american people need to question president obama, is this a tax or is it not? governor romney made it clear the final word is in from the supreme court and this is a tax. >> you said the first half is he agrees with the dissent and the dissent says it is not a tax. he is going to defer to what the supreme court now ruled and he actually believes it is not a tax, that's what the dissent believes, right? >> what he said is the time word is in. like it or not, the supreme court ruled and the majority says this is a tax and that's what the american people have to accept. >> all of that is not the same thing. forgive me for interrupting. it is not the same thing as saying i believe it is a tax. he said he believes it is not a tax, the dissent says we believe it is not a tax. what it sounds like and in fact you're just agreeing with the way i was reading this, so i just want to confirm it, sounds like you're saying that mitt romney is even though he believes it is not a tax he is going to go along with what the supreme court has ruled because of course the supreme court makes the final decision. is that correct? >> exactly what he said was that while he agrees with the dissent, the final word from the court is that this is a tax which is in line with what majority of republicans believe and the important vote as the i understand pends nearly 60% do believe it is a tax. as i said, the president has spoken out of both sides of his mouth on this issue and it is the question the american people need to ask it is in terms of how much it will cost. it costs a tremendous amount more than what he promised. there is a tremendous promise gap from the president. >> and i think you definitely had both sides speaking out of both sides of their mouths on this one. the wall street journal said this. i will read a little to you. it says the campaign, talking about the romney campaign, the campaign looks confused in addition to being politically dumb. this latest mistake is of a piece with campaigns staff and strategy that are slowly squandering historic opportunity. mr. obama is being hurt by an economic recovery that has weakened for the third time in three years and mr. romney hasn't been able to take advantage and if anything he is losing ground. confused and politically dumb is what they're calling it in the wall street journal. do you agree with that? >> no, i don't simply because if you look at the polling data he is neck and neck with the president and what we're seeing here is that the important issue here is what governor romney made quite clear yesterday, his position on this is that like it or not, the board is in no disagreement in terms of what we have the power to do at this point is the supreme court has ruled this is a tax and we must move forward with that. he has always promised that when he is elected president on day one he will repeal and replace obama care and that will begin with the waivers to all 50 states and working with both sides of congress in order to come to an agreement on obviously repealing and replacing it and putting in its place free reforms on health care which is what the american people want. >> i will argue with you and say i don't think anybody made it clear and now it is confuse and had contradictory but moving on to what was done in the state of massachusetts. here is what mitt romney said to cbs news about the difference between what happened with the health care law that the supreme court of the looking at and what he did in his state of massachusetts. listen. >> actually, the chief justice in his opinion made it very clear at the state level the states have the power to put in place mandates. they don't need to require them to be called taxes in order for them to be constitutional and as a result massachusetts mandate was a mandate, was a penalty, was ascribed that way by the legislature and by me. >> massachusetts is different he is saying than what has happened here nationally. he is saying that he completely supports making people pay a penalty for not having insurance if you're not personally responsible and you will pay for it. you're compelled to buy insurance. is that a correct reading of that? >> the important distinction here is what he quoted from the argument from chief justice roberts is that states have the policing power in order to issue mandates or penalties when it comes to health care. there is not the same kind of power on the federal level and what the governor issued in massachusetts was a plan that worked for massachusetts. it is not a one-size-fits-all plan for the entire country and he made that quite clear. it worked in massachusetts and it is not something that he has argued for on the national level and that's the clear distinction. states have the policing power in order to do this where as chief justice roberts made it clear that's not the way it works in terms of commerce on the national level. >> isn't mandated health care even at the state level something that republicans as a whole would be against, right? if you have to, you compel people to buy insurance and penalize those who do not in a state, isn't that against what republicans believe a government mandate for health care? >> republicans wanting more than anything is we want free market reforms. we want to get government out of in between the patient and their doctors. that's the kind of plan that governor romney wants to implement nationwide. that's what will work across the country. it was different for massachusetts as opposed to the country and that's what he is saying time and time again. >> i am sorry. forgive me for continuing to interrupt. this is very complicated. what was done in massachusetts was inserting the government, right? wasn't that a government insertion as a middle person into the free market of health care, correct? >> as he said, there is a tremendous need for health care reforms in massachusetts and he put in place what worked in massachusetts. it is not something that would work across the country. >> why not? >> what he said -- >> why not? >> what we need it free market reforms across the country. >> why would that not work across the united states. >> it is not a one-size-fits-all plan. it worked in massachusetts. there are different needs in every state across the country. what he has said is we need free market reforms. we need to allow people to buy insurance across state lines, and he has already agreed and promised the american people what he plans to do will not only bring costs down and increase the choice and the quality of health care as opposed to the president who promised that health care costs would come down and quality would go up where that is certainly not been the case. he promised that costs would go down about $2500 per person and we're already seeing it is 5,000 more per person as a result and the congressional budget office said it will cost about 800,000 jobs. this is not only bad for quality of health care but bad for the economy. >> after this was done there two tweets from two well known business leaders, tweeting this. hope mitt romney is listening to murdoch advice on campaign staff playing in a league with chicago politicians and no room for amateurs and the murdoch treat was tough chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires real pros. doubtful. what do you make of those tweets from these top business leaders? >> all you have to do it look at the polls. >> what do you make of the tweets? >> everyone is entitled to their own opinion and they can certainly say whatever theyment and everyone wants to play arm chair quarterback. see it in every campaign i have ever worked with, people outside of the campaign think they understand how to run a campaign better than the next person. at the end of the day the proof is in the pudding. governor romney is running neck and neck with the president in many polls and most importantly 73% of americans say the economy and jobs is the number one issue in this campaign and trust that governor romney has a better solution and ideas in order to turn the economy around and create jobs and also doing very well in independents and those are the people that will help decide this election. things are doing well and the team he has in place is obviously doing well to put him in that position at this stage of the game. >> always nice to have you. thanks for being with us. >> thank you, have a great day. >> likewise. still ahead, ben labolt is obama's press secretary and he will join us later this morning and in 20 minutes we'll talk about lobbyists in washington. jack abramoff, remember his scandal, he will join us live, a former lobbyist and spent more than three years in federal prison for a corruption scandal. he believes the health care ruling will open the floodgates for more taxes straight ahead. ahead this morning on "starting point" the nba's long time director of security won't get to guard the u.s. women's team in london. she says it has to do with a basketball coach and her allegations of sexual harassment against him and get real this morning, a lifeguard fired for doing his job and saving a drowning man but he was outside of the ropes. ♪ [ male announcer ] four seats, 4-wheel drive, fully independent suspension. the gator xuv 550 s4. own the off-road. the gator xuv 550 s4. nno matter what you do. when you're living with moderate to severe crohn's disease, there are times it feels like your life... revolves around your symptoms. if you're tired of going around in circles, it may be time to ask your gastroenterologist about humira. because with humira, remission is possible. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications... but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. if you're tired of going around in circles, get headed in a new direction. ask your gastroenterologist about humira today. remission is possible. the wall street journal reports that apple is preparing to release a mini ipad by november. that screen reportedly just under 8 inches. a little bigger than an iphone. checking the u.s. markets, futures pointing to flat open and we'll find out in the european central bank decided to lower interest rates to boost the eurozone. it could move markets but investors are waiting to see ahead of the big u.s. jobs report set to be released before the opening bell tomorrow morning. surveys expect 80,000 jobs added to the u.s. economy in june, not enough to bring down unemployment. >> thank you very much. there are accusations of sexual harassment swirling around the usa women's olympic basketball team and its head coach. a lawsuit has been filed by the nba's long time director of security. her name is kelly hardwick. she claims the legendary coach forced her out of her job after he tried to force himself on her. i spoke with hardwick about her story. kelly hardwick was at the top of her game, a security director for the nba, she traveled to the playoffs, met celebrity athletes and got her dream assignment guarding the women's team at the olympic games. that's kelly posing next to the great wall of china, 2008 beijing. >> do you love your job. >> i absolutely love my job. >> what do you love about it? >> fascinating people. traveling. just experiences that i would not otherwise be able to have had. >> those days may be over. the nba has taken away her olympic security duties. she believes it is because she complained that team usa coach gina oriema tried to force himself on her during a trip to russia. >> i am putting my key in the door and he put his hand on my left arm and kind of startled me so i guess simultaneously to him touching me i turned around and when i turned around he leaned in to kiss me. >> did he kiss you. >> no, no. i was able to put my hand over his face and push him back and screamed a couple of things, profanity lading things and he better back up or he was going to get hurt. >> this former police officer who spoke exclusively to cnn is not the only one accusing the nba of ignoring allegations of sexual harassment. former nba security director warren glover says he complained to his nba bosses years ago on behalf of three female employees. >> my complaint was that there was a series of employees, female employees, who complained on a number of occasions of sexual harassment by supervisors and other employees and no beings awas taken after it was reported. subsequently as a result of this i was terminated. >> glover filed an employment discrimination suit. in court papers the nba denies they discriminated against him. >> the nba is part of a culture in america. it is no different than any other corporation. >> some corporations treat women well. >> some do and some don't. these allegations and these two complaints deal with different aspects of that problem. the problem is discrimination in the workplace against women. >> in the hardwick case usa basketball said this about her allegations. while it is the policy of usa basketball not to comment on pending litigation, i assure you that we will defend against the claims strenuously, they said. usa basketball has a lot of information to communicate, and we will do so in the near future through the legal process. he is legendary for leading the uconn huskies to seven national c