later -- after i cook, i'll put my dishes in the tub. >> would you pay $2,000 a month for 300 square feet? that's what new york city is hoping. we'll explain. it is sunday, july 15. good morning, everyone. i'm randi kaye. glad you're with us. we start this morning in egypt and the developments in the kidnapping of two americans. one is reverend michelle lewis, the reverend of the free pentecostal church of god in dorchester. his family says he was on a missionary trip when his tour bus was stopped in the sinai peninsula. his family as well as a member of his congregation spoke about the incident and their wishes for his safe return. >> we don't hear any more information than what we hear in the news and what you guys are hearing. we're in good spirits because we know the god that we serve is in control of the matter. the only concern that we have at the moment is that he is diabetic. the longer they hold him, i want to assume that it's not going to work in his favor. >> there's no words i can describe as of right now how we're feeling. it's that we want him returned to boston safely. >> the family also said that the woman taken with pastor louis is named lisa alphonse. muhammad fidel hami joins me from cairo. is there any movement in getting these folks released? >> i just got off the phone with the head of security. he told me that his phone is off the hook as he is trying to negotiate the release of the hostages with elderly -- with mediators between the authorities and the kidnappers. he is positive that the situation will be resolved shortly. and we are following the story very closely in order to see if there's any progress that we can bring to you. >> have they actually been in touch with the bedouin kidnappers do you know? >> yes, they've been in touch for the past two days since the incident happened on friday. and i got in contact with the kidnapper yesterday. he confirmed that the hostages are safe and unharmed. and he is actually considering them guests of his but vowed to kidnap other tourists if authorities do not release his uncle who he claims is free from drug charges. >> what can you tell me about the area where they are? have you confirmed that they're still in the area where they were abducted? >> yes, the authorities say they are still in sinai but where they were exactly abducted is unclear. however, in the past year and a half, there has been at least half a dozen kid naps in sinai, and none of the hostages were harmed. actually the last time bedouin kidnapped u.s. tourist, the authorities gave in to the bedouin demands and released the prisoners, and the hoage left unharmed. >> so for the family, how long should they expect something like this to go on? >> well, this is the first time that it takes about two days, but we are -- everybody and authority i've spoken to is confident that this will be resolved shortly. the bedouin usually reachome sort of deal with the authorities, and i think it might be resolved sooner than later. >> muhammad fadel fahmy, thank you very much for the update. be sure to stay with us on "early start weekend." in a few moments i'll speak with the family of reverend louis about their efforts to free him and what their mother who is also in egypt told them about what happened. staying in egypt now. a country secretary of state hillary clinton says is in a time of "htoric firsts" as it looks to form a government around its first democratically elected president, mohamed morsi. she is there this hour. aides to the secretary said clinton wanted to make the trip soon after morsi's swearing-in to show that the obama administration is eager to help rebuild a fragile economy. in remarks, clinton stressed the importance of the two nations working together on egypt's future. >> we believe america's shared strategic interests with egypt far outnumber our differences. and we know that egypt's future is up to the egyptian people, but we want to be a good partner. we want to support the democracy that has been achieved by the courage and sacrifice of the egyptian people. and to see a future of great potential be realized for the nearly 90 million people of egypt who are expecting that to occur. >> to the u.s. now. the family of the late penn state football coach, joe paterno, will still benefit from his contract. university officials made the announcement just a day after an internal review blasted paterno and other school officials for their handling of the child sex abuse scandal. paterno's amended contract was finalized in august last year. it totaled $5.5 million in payouts and benefits, including paying his wife $1,000 a month for the rest of her life. paterno's contract may they? place, but his like not on a famous mural has been changed. after he died, artists had placed a halo above his head on the gigantic painting. after the conviction of his top assistant, jerry sandusky, and the release of that internal report, that scathing report by former fbi director louis freeh, they removed the halo. florida will now have access to a department of homeland security data base on immigrants. it's part of florida's effort to clear illegal voters off their voter rolls. florida had sued the government for access to the data base. a while ago i spoke with florida governor rick scott about how big of a problem illegal voters had become. >> here's what we know so far -- we did -- because we couldn't get the homeland security data base, we used our own motor vehicle data base. we just looked at 2,600 names. we know over 100 people have registered to vote. they're non-u.s. citizens. we know over 50 have voted in our election. so we know people are registering to vote that are non-u.s. citizens, and we know they're voting. that's not right. it's a crime and impacts our races. sticking with florida, it's a key swing state in the upcoming election. check out this poll in florida. the mason/dixon poll has it a dead heat. a similar story across the country in swing states that explains the candidates' travel this week. paul steinhauser takes a look. >> reporter: good morning. a busy political week ahead on the campaign trail. no surprise, both president barack obama and republican challenger mitt romney reach out to voters in some crucial political battlegrounds. after fundraising money in mississippi and louisiana, mitt romney heads tuesday to pennsylvania, heading wednesday to ohio. both considered important swing states in the race for the white house. >> we will restore america's greatness. america's greatest days are ahead. we're the shining city on the hill. ohio's going to make the difference. ohio, i need you to help me become the next president of the united states. >> reporter: the presumptive republican nominee's stop in the buckeye state comes two days after president barack obama's visit there. the president campaigns in cincinnati monday. the visit will be mr. obama's eighth swing through ohio this year. >> i want to give tax breaks to companies that are investing right here. [ applause ] >> in ohio. in parma, ohio. in city, ohio. in the united states of america. [ applause ] >> reporter: the president fundraises in texas theext day, and thursday and friday he campaigns in florida. another very important battleground state. randi? >> thank you very much, paul. americans kidnapped in egypt. now the family of one of those victim s is speaking out here o "early start weekend." hear from them live. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. a safe return. that is the hope of my next guests who are awaiting news on the condition of pastor michel louis, kidnapped from egypt. young me are members of reverend louis' family including jane louis, youth paster at free pentecostal church of god where his father is the senior pastor. welcome to you. good morning. i'm so sorry that you as a family are dealing with this. gene, your father was on this annual mission trip including others and your mother. she was on the bus, from what i understand, when this kidnapping happened. what has she told you about that incident? >> this is true. what she told us is basically what we hear from the reports as the tour bus was in the area of the sinai peninsula and egypt. they were stopped by a couple of cars. and in the cars there were some gentlemen and some people that got on to the bus. and they detained both my father, reverend michel louis, and another member of another church that was also in -- part of the missionary group that was on their way to israel. >> did your mother understand what was happening at the time? was it obvious that this was a kidnapping? >> she says that, you know, everything happened at once. it was all of the sudden. and i just -- she even right now seems like a dream to her. a nightmare. >> what can you tell us about this other person that was abducted along with your father? >> all we can say is she was a member of another church that is very close -- that is in close fellowship with our church. their pastor is a very close friend of my father, pastor reverend michel louis. and that member does go to that church. >> i'm curious because there have been other kidnappings in this area. was your father aware of the risks? was he aware at all ofhat had been happening there? >> to tell you the truth, if we were aware -- because i read some of the comments that are being left in regards to the story. if we were aware, i want to believe we would use correct judgment not to enter that air. so we want to say that he was not aware of any issue of that amount in that area. >> right. the u.s. embassy has said that it is in close touch with local egyptian officials. have you heard anything at all from the u.s. government about th incident? and what would you like them to do at this point? >> sure. we've been in very good contact with mr. bill wrights who works in the office of senator scott brown. and he's -- he's been very efficient in giving us information from time to time, and we know just about as much as we know in the news in terms of they're doing a lot of negotiating, they're trying the best that they can. and we're waiting. >> how concerned are you about your father's health? >> we are concerned, but we're christians. and we believe in god,e're in good faith. we're resolved in our faith. we're -- we know that god is going to see him out of this situation. but at the same time, too, we're human. and we just want to see our father get home. we want to see the sister member get home also. and we also want to see the tour guide, too, because i -- i'm sure a lot of people are not speaking about him, too. we want to see everybody come home safely. he is diabetic. that's the only concern we might have. we have not spoken to him, i especially have not spoken to him since i dropped him off at the airport on tuesday. so we -- we would just like the release. and hopefully he's being treated very well where he is. >> as i mentioned, there have been several kidnappings of americans in egypt in recent months. but this is the first time that we've heard about a demand for a prisoner swap. that this isn't about money. does that worry you at all? does that concern you more? >> when i'm speaking to some of the officials that are speaking to me, we understand that it's a little bit different from the normal cases. and that's what puts a twist on everything. usually there's a window of 24 hours to 48 hours that this certain negotiations are resolved. and because they're not asking for money, this make it a little bit more complicated. and a lot of answers to our questions cannot be answered. but again, we are faithful people. we have a lot of people praying for our father. and the people with him. and we're praying also. and we're staying resolved in our faith. >> i'm sure this is a very difficult time for your family and for your congregation. jean louis, we hope your father gets home safely and gets home soon. thank you very much and to the family of reverend michel louis. >> we truly appreciate everyone that is praying for us and everybody that is wishing a safe return to not only my father but this member and the tour guide that is also with them. so we thank you guys very much. >> thank you. and thank you for coming on during this time. >> thank you. less than two weeks until the olympic games. and if you haven't heard of brittany viola, stick around. overcoming eating disorders and injuries. the 25-year-old's full story ahead. ♪ one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. ♪ good morning again. it is july which means one thing for film, comic book, and gaming fans around the world -- comic-con. more than 130,000 self-proclaimed geeks and nerds invaded san diego this week, creating their own alternative universe of heroes, villains, gods, and monsters. this isn't all fun and games. last year alone, attendees spent $75 million inside the convention center. here's a fun fact -- just 300 people showed up for the first comic-con in 1970. boy, have things changed. are you ready? the london olympic games kick off in less than 12 days and ten hours. one athlete looking to make a splash in london, brittany viola. the 25-year-old has fought injuries and an eating disorder on her journey to the big games. here's her story. brittany viola's olympic dream began 16 years ago. >> what really got my eyes focused on the olympics was in 1996 when the magnificent seven won the gold medal as a team in gymnastics. and i was a gymnast at the time. and i wanted to be those girls. >> though viola excelled, gymnastics had stopped being fun. when it was time to decide whether to move away from florida to ohio for more advanced olympic training, brittany said no. >> thought about, you know, renting a place up there. splitting our family up, going back and forth, which a lot of gymnast families end up doing, to find better training. and she broke down and started crying after the american cup. and she said, i don't want to live away from my family. and we had to sit down and talked about it as a family. we said, this is crazy. you know, we -- we're not going to break our family up and put her through something for an olympic dream. >> as that dream died, another was born. >> i was playing on diving boards at my high school, lake island preparatory school. the swim coach saw me doing front double flips, back double flips, all these old gymnastics moves that i used to do always to my feet. and he asked me if i wanted to join the dive team there. and i never knew it was a sport at the time. it was something that i was up for the challenge. >> most valuable diver. diver of the year. another most valuable diver. >> the violas are an athletic family. brittany's mom ran track in college. her dad is former world series mvp and cy young award winner frank viola. >> i think she's got my make-up internally. she's a perfectionist which i was. if she would do a school paper and make a mistake on the paper, instead of erasing and go on, she would start over again. the paper had to be pure. that's her mentality with diving. >> for brittany, diving was a good match. unlike gymnastics, she could stay in florida to train. still, making to london was no easy task as she had to overcome injury and an eating disorder. >> a lot of an eating disorder is believing in something that is not true. that is a complete lie. and for anyone who thinks that i look at myself in the mirror and say i need to change something in my body, i'm not beautiful, they'd think i'm crazy. and so just knowing something as simple as i'm beautifully and wonderfully made is a truth that i need to keep reminding myself and believe that over anything else that end terse my mind. >> what's -- that enters my mind. >> what's top of mind now is winning gold. >> i think i'd be like this, oh, my god. that's my little girl. look what she's achieved. >> pretty amazing story, right? for more, check out my blog at cnn.com/randi. and you can see that story and many others. going airborne in a lawn chair. all it took was a few hundred balloons. what could possibly go wrong? plenty. we'll tell you about. [ mrs. hutchison ] friday night has always been all fun and games here at the hutchison household. but one dark stormy evening... there were two things i could tell: she needed a good meal and a good family. so we gave her what our other cats love, purina cat chow complete. it's the best because it has something for all of our cats! and after a couplef weeks she was healthy, happy, and definitely part of the family. we're so lucky that lucy picked us. [ female announcer ] purina cat chow complete. always there for you. welcome back. thanks for starting your morning with us. i'm randi kaye. it is just about half past the hour, getting close there. we turn to syria, a place where the diplomats keep talking but the body count keeps rising. the head of a prominent opposition group is demanding that the u.s. and otr countries take action now and not worry about how it could affect the re-election of president obama. their demands come after another day of death and destruction. at least 73 people were killed saturday. that comes after the massacre on thursday with more than 200 killed. the u.n. says more than it 10,000 have died since the uprisings began last year. our reporter is in abu dhabi this morning. good morning. i know we've talked about the possibility that the government was moving chemical weapons around and that demands are growing for the replacement of u.n. envoy kofi annan. is there any end in sight to the killing? we're hearing today more people have been killed. >> good morning, randi. sadly, it really doesn't look like there's any end to the violence in sight any time soon. let's talk it the last few days. thursday there were report of the massacre and reports of more than 200 people killed. some reports say close to 300 people across the country killed. friday, reports that at least 80 people killed. yesterday, at least 73 people killed. today, reports from opposition activists that at least 14 people today have been killed. the bloodletting there seems unrelenting at this stage with report of shellg in various towns across the country. and this is happening all amidst the backdrop of all this diplatic activity. even reports today that kofi annan will travel to moscow tomorrow to meet with the russian foreign minister to try to find an end to this crisis. as of yet, it doesn't look like there's any end in sight. >> what about the u.n. inspectors at the site of the massacre in tremsa? observers were able to get in yesterday. have they reported anything from the site? >> well, that's right. the u.n. special mission in syria sent 11 vehicles to tremsen yesterday. they were able to speak to residents. reports are preliminary for that at this stage. earlier, we heard from the spokesperson for that mission. here's what she had to say. >> we can confirm that there was an operation on july 12, on thursday. attack appeared targeted to specific homes of activists as well as army defectors. our team observed homes which had pools of blood and blood spatters in rooms as well as empty bullet cases. th