Transcripts For CNNW Starting Point 20130529 : vimarsana.com

0 down overnight in the heartland. more tornadoes on the way today. wildfires, dust storms in the west, and after snow, just days ago, this. a massive east coast heat wave that starts today. we re tracking all of this this morning. nightmare in mexico. the american mom of seven jailed in mexico accused of smuggling drugs. she faces her accusers in court today. she could get ten years in prison. ten years. her family is fighting for her freedom. they join us live this morning. plus miracle baby. the video that shocked the world. a newborn rescued from a sewer pipe. this morning we have new pictures of the young boy, and new details on just how he ended up there to begin with. and it s bieber versus the pro bowler. the angry confrontation between the pop star and this ex-nfl star. it reportedly involves a ferrari, a high speed chase, and one fleeing from the other. can you guess who? all my favorite things. good morning, i m christine romans. and i m john berman. it is wednesday, may 29th. welcome to starting point. we re tracking a lot of extreme weather across the u.s. this morning. just take a look at this right now. this massive twister touching down in northern kansas overnight, homes damaged, power lines down, you have to take a look at this map. nearly the entire country under some form of severe weather today. we re talking wildfires out in the west. more twister forecast in the heartland. you know, here in the east, the first heat wave of the year, our indra peterson is tracking all of this wild weather. and it is everywhere from coast to coast. literally hard to pick one spot to talk about. we re going to start you off in the northeast where yesterday you saw temperatures drop down in the 60s, and now we re talking about 20, 25 degree temperature jump out there. look at the warm front cruising through. in addition to that, we re going to see a cold front slide just to the north of us and all of that is going to produce a slight risk for severe storms even in the new england area. wildfires on the west coast. unfortunately conditions are not going to be improving. winds gusting as high as 60 miles per hour and temperatures there also expected to soar into the weekend with the potential for some triple digit heat. big story today, though, remains that dry heat in the west, really banking up now to the warm, humid air coming out of the gulf. the key is the low has exited the rockies that did produce some rain and now that is going to produce that tornado risk today. so there is a moderate risk out there. unfortunately the bull s-eye for this involves three million people right again over wichita and oklahoma, really kansas and oklahoma there. the broader risk of this involves 60 million of us. everyone needs to pay attention. a tornado outbreak is possible today. i also want to show you this kind of looks like. show you real quickly what it already looks like. great video for you. this thing s monstrous. late tuesday, a new round of tornadoes ripped through the heartland. this massive twister tearing through kansas, leaving downed trees and power lines in its wake. in the middle of it all storm chaser sean casey reported live on cnn there. sean, i understand you re chasing a tornado right now. what s going on? see this is my first interview while looking at a tornado. so, we were hoping it s going to come up onto our road and we will drive right up to the southern half. reporter: just one day before casey s team captured this rare and frightening video inside a tornado in smith county, kansas. the potential for supercell thunderstorms, damaging winds, and hail threaten a number of states from texas to new england today. in the plains, strong, damaging tornadoes are possible. in areas like oklahoma, already littered with damage, meteorologists warn of high wind gusts kicking up and carrying dangerous debris across the area. meanwhile further north, severe storms blew in to michigan and pennsylvania overnight. damage was reported outside detroit and near erie, pennsylvania. and on the west coast, a different kind of weather danger. dry conditions fueling wildfires in santa barbara, california. scorching over 1800 acres in los padres national forest. in valencia, helicopters attacked the blaze from above as brushfires near magic mountain theme park burned 25 acres in less than an hour. and look at this. just to the east of the fires, this massive dust storm bringing traffic to a standstill. finally, in the northeast, weather whiplash. from snow just four days ago, to what could be a record-breaking heat wave. temperatures rising double digits across most of the region. i mean a lot of wacky weather out there. again i cannot stress enough this is the time of year we do have tornadoes in tornado alley. but days like these, the potential outbreak are the days where minutes can save lives. we know last week 16 minutes meant the difference between life and death. thanks so much, indra. new fallout over the benghazi talking points. late tuesday congressional committee subpoenaed ten current former state department officials. they want to see paperwork and they want to see communications from the state department s number two and the top aide to then-secretary of state hillary clinton. white house correspondent brianna keilar following these new developments for us this morning. brianna, the white house has already released 100 pages of e-mails about the developments in benghazi. what is it, what more is it that the oversight committee is looking for? well, in a word it is just more. that s it, christine. republicans still allege that the obama administration misled americans in the lead-up to the presidential election. as to the cause of the attack in benghazi, removing specific references to terror in those cia-authored talking points. and the committee wants to see more when it comes to those talking points and how the state department was involved in suggesting some of those changes. those obviously were used, those talking points used by u.n. ambassador susan rice in the days following the attacks where she said repeatedly publicly she referenced a spontaneous demonstration in benghazi, as the potential cause of it. i will tell you, though, christine, the state department officials there feel that they have been forthcoming. the white house feels this is straight up a fishing expedition. you heard president obama call it a side show. brianna keilar thank you so much. at the white house this morning. fire caused by a collision between a truck and a freight train full of chemicals fully under control this morning. federal officials are on the scene in baltimore where several of the derailed cars exploded and burst into flames yesterday. that blast was felt blocks away. as clouds of black and white smoke filled the area firefighters were able to rescue the trapped truck driver. railroad officials tell firefighters the burning substances were not toxic. we ve received word from csx that there s no toxic inhalants, which is really just a reassurance to the area that it s not an unsafe area. you don t have to evacuate. residents of about 70 homes in the area were told they could leave if they felt threatened but they were not forced to evacuate. several industrial buildings in the area were damaged. the arizona mother of seven, grandmother of two, accused of trying to smuggle 12 pounds of marijuana out of mexico, she will be back in court today trying to convince a judge to set her free. her family says yanira maldonado is not a drug smuggler and that she was arrested by authorities. she says the authorities were looking for bribe money. cnn s casey wian is following all these developments for us live in good 3 year, arizona. what s the latest, casey? good morning, john. it s a week ago that yanira maldonado was taken into custody in mexico. her family says wrongfully. mexican authorities say they found more than 12 pounds of marijuana under the seat that she was sitting in a bus coming back from her grandmother s funeral. well, she the family had hoped she would be out of jail as early as yesterday. there was a court hearing in mexico, where several witnesses, her husband, her husband s father, the woman that brought her to the bus station, among those testifying. court officials made it clear that she was not going to be released yesterday. very disappointing for the family. i spoke with her daughter, a very emotional anna soto, last night. to everyone because of this, that s who i m angry at. the people that put my mom in prison. without having evidence. now we re going to see what kind of evidence there is in this case, if any, when the mexican military personnel who apprehended yanira maldonado, they re expected to testify at that closed court hearing later today. in mexico. family believes the decision will be made by the judge before the end of the week. they hope it is in their mother s favor, because if the judge decides to hold her, our understanding from legal experts is she could be held in a mexican prison for up to four months before there s a trial. wow. four months. casey wian for us in arizona this morning. next hour we re going to speak with yanira s daughter anna soto. you just heard her emotional words there before. we will ask her how her mother is doing this morning. tea party favorite michele bachmann says she will not seek a fifth term in congress. bachmann made the announcement in a video posted this morning on youtube. and her website. our constitution allows for the decision of length of service in congress to be determined by the congresspeople themselves, or by the voters in the district. however, the law limits anypun from serving as president of the united states for more than eight years. and in my opinion, well eight years is also long enough for an individual to serve as a representative for a specific congressional district. bachmann says her closer than expected win in her last race, and a congressional ethics probe into her presidential run had nothing to do with her decision. the subject of politics an unlikely political marriage forged in the days after superstorm sandy and before the 2012 presidential election, it is renewed. president obama and governor chris christie resuming their bromance with a romantic tour of the jersey shore yesterday promoting a big summer comeback. seven months after the storm. a credit they say to cooperation between federal and state governments. christie, no coincidence, is up for re-election this year and is considered a potential republican presidential consender in 2016. so once he returned to washington the president hosted a white house reception for asian-american and pacific heritage month. listen to him joking with the guests, not to give you any ideas about that lipstick on his collar. i want to thank everybody who is here, the incredible warmth of the reception. a sign of the warmth is the lipstick on my collar. i have to say, i think i know the culprit. where is jessica sanchez? jessica, it wasn t jessica, it was her aunt. where is she? auntie, right there. look at this. look at this. i just want everybody to witness. so i do not want to be in trouble with michelle. that s why i m calling you out. right in front of everybody. quite an alibi there. by the way the president was referring to the aunt of singer jessica sanchez who was a runner-up on american idol. i feel for the president. i m one of the few men in america who often gets makeup on his collar. and it s my own makeup. i m always telling my wife, no, honey, it s just my makeup. really. ahead on starting point anthony weiner. the disgraced former congressman facing questions in his first debate in his run for mayor of new york. the question this morning, can he actually win this thing? and then this miracle baby. it captivated the world with its survival story from a sewer pipe. today we have new pictures of the newborn. and some new details about just how he ended up there. you re watching starting point.