good morning. i'm natasha curry. robin meade is going to be back from assignment tomorrow. ♪ if you just smile >> that is jermaine jackson singing one of michael jackson's songs. it was an emotional day yesterday afternoon. another question, what about his burial. plus a former skating champ is accused of being part of a drug team. we're talking about a former u.s. olympic team member here. the man celebrated as the greatest entertainer of all time had a farewell ceremony fit for a king.

♪ >> jackson's brother's each wearinging a single white glove brought his casket into l.a. staples center and as the world watched celebrities like brooke shields gave us a glimpse of what jackson was like as a man. >> both of us needed to be adults very early, but when we were together, we were two little kids having fun. ♪ we are the world ♪ we are the children ♪ we are the ones who make a brighter day ♪ >> the entire jackson family came on stainch for a performance of "we are the world." organizers say that wasn't planned.

neither were the heart-wrenching words of jackson's 11-year-old daughter paris. >> ever since i was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. and i just wanted to say i love him so much. >> jackson's brother jermaine has said he would like his brother to be buried at neverland ranch but the family would need special permission from state and local permission to do that. his grandmother is buried at a cemetery in hollywood hills. a memorial was held there yesterday but the burial is being kept secret for now. >> there is new information. sources say when jackson was found his arms were riddled with marks and his veins had collapsed. those are characteristics found

in intraconvenience drug users. he was extremely thin. drugs may have played in his death. the exact cause of death has not been determined yet. a man accused of holding his ex-wife hostage for ten hours demand add priest to give her her last rights. they were going through a ugly divorce. police through canisters of tear gas in the house. then it caught fire forcing the 60-year-old ad executive to surrender. the wife was able to escape. >> the house burned for some 30 to ho minutes. >> lawyers in the divorce case say the husband was irrational, menacing, and bizarre. his own lawyer thought he might be dangerous to himself. police say the man will probably be charged with kidnapping and arson. president obama and the first lady just landed in rome less than two hours ago.

here they are. they're on their way to the g-8 summit in l'aquill'aquila. they're looking for more talk about iran as well and a rocky world economy. on friday president obama will have an aud yebs with the pope. a former u.s. skating chain champion is facing drug charges. larry has more on this. >> nicole was a teenaged skating star, won the u.s. title back in 1995 but she was arrested in her home last week on a conspiracy to deliver meth. police have been following the drug ring for a year. she faces up to ten years in prison if she's convicted. >> thanks so much, larry. you'd call it a joint operation to secure california's

budget woes. it says if the state legalized pot and tacked it, it could bring in more than a billion dollars. in the ad a retired state worker says california is ignoring people who want to pay their fair share of taxes. a georgia man thought that his jaguar was in the shop. that is, until he got a ticket in the mail. turns out the repair shop owner took it home and didn't pay a highway toll. he had agreed, the owner of the car, to keep it at the shop until the guy paid the bill -- i should say the shop owner agreed to keep the car there until he could pay the bill. the shop owner said he wanted to make sure the jag was still running properly. >> i'm not running out sporting around in his car. i've got my own. >> he paid the ticket. the man says if he does not get the car and pay the bill soon he's going to start charging a storage fee.

he wanted to make sure it was working, bob. >> in atlanta there's only one toll road. it's 50 cents. man, oh, man. that's a funny story all the way around. good morning, natasha. three things i'm watching. one is a low across the northeast. another is a frontal boundary along the deep south. that one has a lot of activity around it. showers and thunderstorms too. we're following one around iowa in toward basically northern missouri. it's a dying thunderstorm complex from last night. still a little lightning with that in nebraska. look at the leading edge of the wind. that's the outsloep boundary there being picked up by the kansas city radar. sweeps past the city and falls apart later today. beginning to pick um again around southern florida, back on in toward northern parts of the panhandle and jacksonville. showers and thunderstorms right

there. severe weather, that's a possibility once again this afternoon. main threat today is going to be gusty winds. you're going to find that to be the case along with heavy rain. flash floods out there and more storm possible in new england. let me take you to yonkers, new york. golf ball-sized hail falling around the region. flooding in basements. kind of rough. we won't see it today. it should be to the north. we'll get more of the forecast in a half hour. >> you have to be careful. that could knock your teeth out. well, have you noticed that your morning commute seems to be getting a little less hectic lately? there is a reason if this. how the economy may be having a positive effect on rush hour traffic.

nine minutes past the hour. violence at home forces the

china president to leave the summit. he rushed back from italy that president obama is attending today. this video shows people protesting their relatives being detained for the weekend demonstrations in china. at least 156 people have died in violent protests involving an ethnic muslim group and police. how hard do you think it would be to sneak bombs in federal buildings? according to investigators, not very. this video shows them smumling bomb materials through x-ray machines. undercover agents tried this at ten federal buildings. each time they succeeded. each time they managed to assemble the bombs in offices. they say they're already taking steps to improve security. mtv "the real world" is

getting a big dose of reality. >> every everybody out here is trying to have fun. >> new for you in 20 minutes. what is making the show so difficult to shoot. we're seeing some new signs that banks aren't in the mood to lend, even though the government has taken some huge steps, too, to bolster the money market. and money is expert jennifer westhoven is here. what's going on? >> thanks. so many americans can't get it right now at times when they might need it. but banks pulling back severely when it comes to credit cards. they're afraid. they don't want to take on more risks. they're already in trouble. the latest data shows the banks issued 9.2 million cards the t first of the year. that sounds like a lot. but it's down 40% from last

year. some of the people getting credit are those with stronger scores and they're getting a lot less. so the credit limit is coming down by hundreds of dollars. the fear is the economy is going to take a long time to recover. we had three months of gains in the stocks but things are starting to cool off. there are a lot more fears about the jobless rate. it's down to 8163. that's its lowest level since april. you may remember we got down to 85, 8600 and things were looking better. but let's hope the dow pulls the 8,000 mark. there is a silver lining here in all this bad economy stuff. in many surveys we've seen over the years, americans say one of their number one pet peaves is traffic every day. well, the bad economy making for a little bit better traffic anyway. for the first time since they started measuring, you are

spending less time stuck in traffic for two years in a row. now, it is still -- can you believe this, natasha -- almost 36 hours you waste every year. that's the stuck part. that's not commuting. that's sitting there. it's almost a full workweek. the traffic institution says that. that's stopped because of the gas price and housing. >> that makes sense. well, a woman was about to give birth but she thought her husband was in iraq. >> i hear someone you want to see is running down the hall and he came running into the delivery room. >> what? wait till you hear the emotional reaction to his daughter's birth.

♪ as friends, thousands of them and family members and fans gathered at l.a. staples s s ce, millions followed it online. this could turn out to be the

biggest celebrity send-off ever. how big was it? >> good morning, natasha. it certainly was big. queen latifah read a maya angelou poem. take a listen. >> today in tokyo, bee neath the eiffel tower, in ghana's black star square, in johannesburg, in pittsburgh, in birmingham, ba , alabama, and in birmingham, england. >> i was watching cnn.com, facebook comments, boy, i hope i don't get caught. they held gatherings in theaters and parks. as many as 1 billion people tuned in on tv. now, at some points web traffic worldwide was 31% above normal.

facebook said itself jackson page got 7 million hits. >> obviously so many people watching. what kind of reaction are you hearing? >> many fans say the most moving moment is when jackson's daughter took the stage at the end. >> it was really sad. it was kind of the las hurrah, but listening to her speak, everybody started crying. as soon as marlon said, say hi to my twin brother -- i'm choking up now. >> a common reaction there. our viewers are writing in with their reaction.

thomas writes -- now we want to know how you feel. share your moments with us. cnn.com/robin. we are blogging about that a. what we're going to do is read your comments and have them on areolater. natasha. >> thank you so much. a soldier in iraq rushed home for a special delivery. staff sergeant got to see his daughter's birth on sunday. now, his wife did not know he was coming. he described his thrilling reaction. >> definitely an experience. i was really glad to be there for my wife because she's been doing it by herself for the last two kids. >> you can hear his voice but you kept see his face because he'sops and goes

back to iraq soon. larry smith has more on mcnair. >> the stadium in nashville will be open today and tomorrow for fans to say good-bye. now, the tennessee medical examiner says last weekend's scene was most likely a murder/suicide. he was shot four times with a gun purchased by his girlfriend sahel ka szemi. those attending the memorial will be allowed to sign a guest book. manny ramirez got ejected in his first road game. ramirez getting boot for throwing his equipment after he was called out on strikes in the fifth inning. >> somebody get willie harris an

ice pack. the second baseman. oh, got to watch out for those bad hops. harris. lot to colorado. washington is 24-57. >> he didn't fall down. he kind of got hit with the ball. >> he's trying to get happiey >> some of the websites still are not back up. the associated press said the unusually strong attack hit websites for the treasury department, secret service, ftc, and the transportation department. u.s. officials won't discuss the attack but one internet company called it a massive outage. let's check in with meteorologist bob van dillen for a look at air traffic. what's going on.

>> i'm still sparring with larry. if you are traveling out there, it's early. if you look at the entire picture, the volume is getting up there. 1800 jets in the air. this time i think the severe weather is mainly across northern new england. here's what we're calling for with the delays. probably an hour or more along boston. also showers and thunderstorms developing near tlachbl more delays because of storms in new york city. orlando, chicago, light showers. in san francisco, patchy morning fog. 30 minutes to one-hour delay. just a heads up. the high today is 100. tomorrow, 101. so hot temperatures back in tchlks more on that in a bit. natasha. >> thank you, bob. well, michael jackson and

lionel richie teamed up to sing "we are the world," but here it's lionel. dddddddddd

there is still no word on where michael jackson will be buried. his brother jermaine says he would like him to be buried at neverland ranch but the family would need special permission from the state and local officials to do that. a private service was held at forest lawn in hollywood hills but these pictures are at the staples center where the memorial was held. an undercover agent said they could easily sneak bombing into ten federal buildings. it even includes a photo of a guard asleep at his post. federal protective service has said it has taken steps to protect security. google has taken over for

its own operating system. you can use the new web browser. the company says it will work best with netbooks. this is a cheaper and less powerful laptop but you won't get your hands on u it until next year. there will be a new fda commissioner to keep the food you eat safe. they'll also release new safety standards to help prevent contamination of tomatoes, mellmelo melomelo melons, and leafy greens. these are some of the headlines we're following for you this morning. welcome backham. i'm natasha curry. robin meade will be back tomorrow. michael jackson's three children now know exactly how much the world loved their father. paris, prince, and blanket attended the memorial service. they sat next to their

grandmother who now has custody of them. reverend al sharpton had a message for jackson's three kids. >> i want the three children to know it's not strange about your daddy. it's strange what he had to deal with. >> people who did not have tickets to the memorial mostly listened eed at home. the lapd had originally planned for a crowd as large as one million. jo there is new information this morning about the condition of jackson's body when he died. sources tell cnn when jackson was found, his arms were riddled with marks and his veins, and his lungs had collapsed. both are characteristics found in intravenous drug use. he was extremely thin. the exact cause of death has not been determined yesterday. los angeles is more than a half million dollar in debt

already, so how's the city going to pay for yesterday's memorial for michael jackson? correspondent richard lui, they're asking for some help, right? >> yes, they are. good morning to you, natasha. the city set up a web page asking jackson fans to donate money to help with the expenses. the site has been down for several hours this morning so perhaps the folks are trying to help out the city. we still don't know the exact price tag for the memorial. they're estimating security cost anywhere between 2 and $4 million. three-forties of the offers were on hand. that compares the 2,000 cops deployed for the l.a. lakers last month. >> now, richard, what about the investigation into michael jackson's death? where are things standing with that? >> it could be some years. this is a copy of it. what you'll notice on it in this section right about here, the certificate does not give a

cause of death for jackson. instead it says deferred. meanwhile the coroner says it has at least part of jackson's brain. investigators will run a series of testing on i. they need to wait a couple of weeks before they can do that and then return it to the family once they're complete with the brain, doing studies with it. they say holding on to samples of the brain, that's not necessarily uncommon, natasha. >> very interesting information. see you soon. several large banks have stopped accepting the ious the state of california shorthanding out but people need cash, so they're selling the ious to brokers. affiliates are saying some are making 80 cents on the dollar. they say it doesn't matter. they're worried everyone won't play fair. >> landlords don't want ious.

they want money. >> vul chers are going to come out and try to take advantage of the situation. >> california has promised to pay those off in october. former white house adviser karl rove was questioned yesterday by lawyers for the house judiciary committee. it's investigating the firings of the nine u.s. attorneys under the bush administration. many believe the firings were politically motivated. rover was first subpoenaed in 2007. the mtv "the real world" was interrupt interrupted. some are twittering, blogging, and facebooking the cast's every move. >> it's the first time they've had to deal with twitter and

it's not good for the real world people. people nearby say it's becoming a nuisance with lights on and security guards and tour buses. people can't get enough of seeing it. >> tell me e about it. i didn't know the real world was going on. >> how many seasons? >> good for them. showers are developing when you get in toward nebraska, portions of kansas but the dying con flicks we had over the night are pushing south. there's going to be rain outside chicago. here's wait looks like. a couple of lightning strikes coming in. it's all dripping down to the south and east. look at the kansas city radar picture. you can see the complex picture north of you. this weak band is actually the outflow boundary. that's the wind that pushed on through. gusty winds across the northern parts of missouri. as for the deep southeast, more shower, more developing in the

gulf of mexico. now pressing in toward the northern parts of florida. also getting to near jacksonville. look at the lightning flashing up here. severe thunderstorms are here. along with the thunderstorms, heavy rain. we have flash flood watches, hilton head. one to three inches of rain on top of the two to five you saw yesterday. northeast, unsettled. we'll get to that in a little bit. >> thank you. here's some stories we're watching out today in your "morning express" planner. at 10:00 a.m. there'll be a launch of the inaugurational tour of the don't ask, don't tell policy. also the tennessee titan as will open their stadium to fans of quarterback steve mcnair shot over the weekend. fans will be able to sign a book to be given to the family and at 10:30 vice president bind is expected to give a talk on health care.

a woman held hostage by her ex-husband. what happened when s.w.a.t. teams surrounded the house, cut off power and started firing tear gas.

a man accused of hold his ex-wife hostage for ten hours escaped his house after it caught fire. the couple has been going through an ugly divorce for years now but the woman was able to escape. the local police sent about 40 to 50 canisters of tear gas into the house. lawyers say he was irrational, menacing, and bizarre. he will probably be charged with

kidnapping and arson. a video caught a man smashing a virgin mary statue. he says he's been driving around looking for the rest of the statue. the italian-made statue is said to be worth about $3 million. >> this could be good news for american drivers it. >> could. it's not that prices got that much out of hand. it was a fast run-up but they're cooling off begun. that spring run-up that we saw seems like it's history barring some kind of a hurricane. they ran all the way up the high. since then, the main ingredient in gas and oil has been dropping sharply ever since. last night it went down to $62 a barrel. that is boding well for your gas prices.

aaa says national average down a bit. we want to know what you're seeing. a come days ago ben wrote in you're probably paying $2.45. so these guys are all paying pretty cheap prices. spotsylvania, virginia, $2.35. and conny who wrote in from oklahoma, just $2.33. gas prices, you should see them coming down. in a state where you're paying more than that, you're probably seeing them come down a bit. the oil prices are also giving airlines breathing room. if you need to fly somewhere, that is some good news in a bad economy. southwest started cutting prices yesterday with a 48-hour sale. get this. 30, 60, and $90 flights. now, it only lasts until midnight tonight, but many of the major airlines followed. so some analysts say it's a

great time. maybe -- take another look. maybe you can afford a vacation this year. natasha. >> that's fantastic. 30, 60 bucks for a flight. i'm digging it. this is what led a texas woman toby vent something new. a spy belt. here's stephanie elam with this small business success. >> i was out on a run one day and i had my key tucked in my bra top, thought there's got to be beater way. >> there was. after her run she went home and made her first thigh belt. >> it's a discreet beld. she wore her spy belt to the jim and sol of her clients wanted one. soon she was selling enough to quit her job and start her business. >> it because leap of faith. why not. it works for me, for my clients. >> apparently it works for

others. the company sells about 2500 spy belts a week. she jumped at the unit to share her success story with the help of a cnn i-report. >> it's inspiring to see real stories and seeing real stories just made me want to share my story as well. >> like a mini fanny pack but hip. pretty cool. we would like to see your success story. go to cnn.com/robin to upload a video. you could be featured on "morning express." well, lance armstrong is trying to go from retirement to an eighth tour de france title. he's so close. he's just a breath away from the lead.

♪ when i when i ♪ have you ♪ a powerful performance from the 12-year-old of the britain's tv show "britain's got talent." michael had invited him to perform at his comeback performance in london. >> another says it has a serious concerns about her. the american bar association rated sonya sotomayor to be qualified but the nra has serious concerns. >>ly be leaving right after this

press discussion. >> any minute now we're expecting president obama to show up for a power lunch with world leaders in italy. here he is speaking with the italian president just less than an hour ago. now next will be the kick offfor the g-8 summit in l'aquila. friday mr. obama will have an audience with the pope. now, we told you about the owner of a barbecue restaurant who was forced the take down his scantly-clad manchin. the zoning board is now giving him the green light. there she is. the owner called her barbiecue and has boosted business. not everyone is happy. some people in town say she looks like a hooker. hookers and barbecue, what's going on. >> can't argue with the results. that's the way to go.

i'm just saying. good morning to you. let me show you what's happening right now. no delays going out to the airport but that's going change. mainly affecting you around boston with a slight chance of a thunderstorm around new york city. so that could catch you. so far about 2,000 airplanes up. volume getting going early. delays, you're going to fine it around boston. atlanta, too, showers and storms here. one-hour delay. new york city metro. orlando, metro, chicago, light rain. less than an hour. more weather in just about 20 minutes. >> i think you just woke me up, bob. you're funny. >> there you go. >> see you soon. seven-time tour de france champion lance armstrong is doing better than expected in this race. why is larry disappointed? >> i get lance and bob gets the busted man e kin.

>> he blew it. tuesday's stage was a time try. was a disaster. these are professional riders, so where are you going? four of these nine riders going off the road. later armstrong's team takes off, he'll seem to let up just a bit. watch right here. he's the last guy coming up on the outside, fifth guy in. he's .22 seconds off the lead. if he pushed in the second, he would be in the lead and wearing the yellow jersey. they're investigating the bbc for possible violation of anti-trust laws. the university of utah was shut out of the game despite being undefeated. a house subcommittee hearing earlier this year, they asked

the bcs to change to a hearing system. a baseball fan settled his lawsuit after he was kicked out of the game for leaving his seat during the song. he'll receive 10 grand and the new york civil liberties union will get ten bucks. the bulls will run every morning for a week with excited fans. it's a party with an element of danger. >> what about the bulls? they don't care. they just want to knock people over. you could call it a joint operation to cure southern california's budget woes. take a look at a new ad. it says if the state legalized pot and taxed it, it could bring in more than $1 billion.

some stores run christmas in july sales to drum up extra business. but when these red buckets go out this time of year, it means people are in desperate need. >> oh, you are hot! check this out. >> that is not our ages, it's the weight we've lost, right?

hey, good morning. i'm natasha curry. robin meade is back from assignment tomorrow. >> although our hearts are aching, we need to look up where he is undoubtedly perched in a crescent moon, and we need to smile. >> that was brooke shields, an old friend of michael jackson's, and her emotional goodbyes to the king of pop. now the question is, where is he going to be buried? president obama is in italy for the gh summit. he has some very tough subjects to tackle in a very short time. plus -- >> someone you want to see is

running down the hall and he came running in the room. >> this woman got a huge surprise, and you need to hear who made it by her side just in the nick of time. we still don't know where michael jackson's resting place will be, but the mansell bratd as the greatest entertainer of all time had a touching service. >> his brother marlon jackson spoke for the family, saying he hoped michael would find peace in death. >> michael wore the same shoes wherever we went, but i guess that was his way of trying to experience what we take for granted. we would never, never understand what he endured, not being able

to walk across the street without a crowd gathering around him, being judged, ridiculed. how much pain can one take? maybe now, michael, they will leave you alone. ♪ we are the world we are the children. ♪ we are the ones to make a brighter day ♪ so let's start living. >> michael jackson's family came on stage after they started singing "we are the world." that wasn't planned, and neither was the heart-wrenching speech from 11-year-old daughter, paris. >> since i was born, daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine. and i just wanted to say i love

him so much. >> jackson's brother jermaine has said he would like his brother to be buried at neverland ranch, but the family would need special permission from state and local officials to do that. jackson's grandmother is buried at fort mount cemetary at hollywood hills, and a service was held there yesterday, but his family is keeping his final resting place a secret for now. we are learning more about the condition of jackson's body when he died. sources tell cnn when jackson was found, his body was riddleed with marks and his veins had collapsed. both are characteristics of intravenous drug users. investigators are focusing on the fact that drugs may have played a role in his death. it has not been determined. you're seeing president obama speaking with the italian president here. this was about an hour ago. next will be the kickoff for the

gh summit where leaders have three days to agree on a new climate change resolution and mr. obama is going to have an audience with the pope. a man accused of holding his ex-wife hostage for ten hours demanded a priest to give her her last rights. the couple has been going through an ugly divorce for years. local media reported that the police finally tossed in 40 to 50 canisters of tear gas into the house. then it caught fire here, forcing the 60-year-old ad executive to surrender. a woman was able to escape. the husband was irrational and bizarre. he will probably be charged with kidnapping and arson. a cyber attack that started on july 4 shut down several government web sites and some of

them still aren't back up. an unusually strong attack hit web sites for the treasury department, secret service, ntc and the transportation department. u.s. officials won't discuss the attack, but one internet company called it a massive outage. a former u.s. figure skating champion is facing drug charges and could be in prison up to ten years if convicted. larry smith has more details for us this morning, larry. >> hi, natasha. this is getting a lot of hits this morning. she was arrested at her home in florida last week on a conspiracy to deliver meth. bobeck is considered to be part of a drug ring that police have been following for a year. she faces up to ten years in prison, as you mentioned, if convicted. todd rowe was questioned by lawyers and the house judiciary

committee. it's questioning firings of house lawyers under the bush administration. rowe was first subpoenaed in 2007, but the white house refused to let him testify, citing executive privilege. let's check in with meteorologist bob van dillen to see how this wednesday forecast is. do we have some good news? >> yeah, we do, but the heat is back in texas. it's still overhead with some showers out there through georgia and the gulf coast. a little bit of light rain coming in towards nebraska. it was heavier last night. look at the showers and thunderstorms still around omaha and lower parts of iowa, trying to stretch on in towards missouri. you can see a dying thunderstorm really didn't make it, just a whiff of a thunderstorm did about an hour ago. san antonio, down towards brownsville and corpus christi,

105 and it will feel like 114. look at it beginning to slam towards areas of panama city, now moving toward jacksonville, too. you can see the radar picking it up pretty well. a little bit of lightning out there this morning. later on today with a little daytime heating with the clouds. hilton head area stretching in towards panama city back in towards mobile. that's one area we have to watch today. also, flash flood watches are out. an additional 1.3 inches of rain out there. let me show you video we got out of yonkers, new york. golf ball-size hail. it looks like snow piling up

here. we're watching for that now in northern new england. it broke some windows and flooded some bamsements, too. >> all right, bob, thanks. have you noticed your morning commute has become a little more hectic? there is a reason for this. how the economy may have a positive effect on rush hour traffic.

♪ when there are clouds in the sky ♪ you'll get by. >> as thousands of family, friends and fans gathered yesterday at l.a. staples center to say goodbye to michael jackson, millions around the world followed the service on television and on line, and correspondent richard lui, there was talk this could turn out to be the biggest celebrity memorial ever. how big was it? >> because of songs being sung by jermaine there, including

"smile," latifah reading a poem as well shows how big it was as well. >> as far as the eifel tower, in birmingham, alabama and birmingham, england, we are missing michael jackson. >> now, around the world, as convene latifah was intimating there, people stopped working to watch. they gathered in theaters, they were in parks, they held their own private gatherings. by some estimates, as many as 1 billion people tuned in on tv. that's almost one in seven. it was on line as well. traffic worldwide was 30% above normal. facebook, for instance, saying its jackson page got nearly 7 million hits and the big part also was what was happening on cnn. >> i went through a drive-through and people were talking about it and had it on a

tv there. we were also blogging yesterday on cnn.com/robin. what are people saying about how that went? >> lots of memorable moments of what people were saying. without a doubt, the most touching tribute for myself was usher doing "gone too soon." i cried like a baby, says ben. >> like a comet blazing across the evening sky ♪ ♪ gone too soon >> usher did cry at the end of that song. a blogger named dawn also said, wow, watches the memorial and i am so glad i did. what a fitting tribute. it was class i and heart

touching and i shed more than a few tears. take a look at cnn.com/robin for our bloggers. >> his friend elizabeth taylor was not there. it was just too much to share with millions of people, now we hear a billion, possibly. thanks. a couple was returning to their hotel after a movie when this happened, a vicious attack. the two are okay, but new for you in 30 minutes. how they were able to initially distract the couple. a soldier in iraq rushed home for a special delivery. he got to see his daughter's birth on sunday at fort campbell, kentucky. his wife didn't even know that he was coming, and he described his thrilling reaction. >> it is awesome just seeing her come out and see her cry. definitely an experience. i was really glad i could just be there for my wife, because she's been doing it by herself

with the last two kids. >> we can't show you his face because he is in special ops and goes back to iraq soon. we are seeing signs that the government is taking some hits. what's going on with this, because a lot of people, they want some money. >> the days of easy credit are over, natasha. banks are severely pulling back. a lot of people thought after the housing crisis, credit cards would be the next big crisis out there because people would run up their credit and not be able to pay it back, leaving those companies in a lot of trouble. the latest data showed banks issued 30% fewer new cards in the last three months, 9.8 million. some might think, good, banks are getting it together, things will be more stable and america shouldn't be overborrowing, but you have to keep in mind that a healthy economy is a balancing

act because it's responsible lending. credit is how people grow, go to school and buy new homes. if you have too much of a transaction, that can be a problem, so we're keeping an eye on that. fear has been growing that the economic recovery will take a long time, that more americans may lose their jobs before this recession is over. last night the dow fell 2%, taking it to the low 800 level. you can thank the economy for one thing. less sitting in traffic? it is a silver lining, but for the first time since they started marrying congestion, you are spending less time stuck in traffic for two years in a row now. it's still almost 36 hours a year that you're wasting in traffic. in so many studies, people say their number one daily pet peeve

says it's sitting in traffic. it has gotten better in some subcommittees, although you are seeing a city where it's gotten worse. >> we don't see that with our hours. come 3:30 in the morning, all we see are the drunks. just us and the drunks coming in. it's true. you have to watch out. not going to slow you down early, but later today we have that cool pocket of air across the southeast. could slow you down later this afternoon in boston. we're talking 2500 airplanes up now, volume continues to grow. boston, showers and thunderstorms. atlanta, watch for an hour delay here this afternoon. more delays due to storms in florida, and that's going to be around orlando, tampa. new york could slow down to half hour to an hour, chicago, 30-minute delay because of patchy fog. a guy left his jaguar at a repair shop and didn't have enough money to pay the bill.

the mechanic drove the jag home. you'll hear why the mechanic was doing the guy a favor.

18 minutes past the hour. michael jackson never forgot one of his closest friends, ryan white. that's what ryan white's mom says. he was a teenager that got aids from a blood transfusion back in

the 1980s. you're seeing ryan white's mother at jackson's funeral. his mother -- michael jackson at ryan white's funeral. >> he called me and said, i just thought i'd call and wish you a happy mother's day. people don't know those kind of moments from michael. she agreed to testify for him at his child molestation trial, but was never called to the stand. two of l.a.'s biggest sports stars were among the mourners at the memorial yesterday. rafer has more of that. >> johnson, as he took to the stage, talked about playing games and shooting fireworks with the jackson family during his early days with the lakers and recalled the evening that he went to michael's house --

that's kobe there and there is magic -- he went to jackson's house to discuss a role in one of his music videos. >> the chef brought me out the grilled chicken, but he brought michael out a bucket of kentucky fried chicken. and i went crazy, like, wait a minute, michael, you eat kentucky fried chicken? that made my day. that was the greatest moment of my life. >> one of the light moments among the smiles and tears. the tennessee titans will open their stadium today and tomorrow for a two-day memorial for steve mcnair. he was found dead saturday as a victim of what is most likely a homicide suicide. he was shot four times while his 24-year-old girlfriend died of a single shot to the head.

kazimi had bought the gun just two days earlier. what a rough night for manny ramirez. he is being booed there. ramirez got the boot after throwing his equipment when he was called out on strike. ramirez is just four days into his return from a 50-day drug suspension. >> interesting. thank you, larry. we told you about the owner of that barbecue restaurant who was forced to take down his scantily clad mannequin. the board is now giving him the green light to display his signs. there she is. the owner calls her barbecue and says she has boosted business by 40%. people in town are divided. >> first time i saw barbie, driving past barbie, i thought i had a hooker standing on the corner. i couldn't believe what i saw. i had to take a second look.

>> what i saw around the pool was much more revealing than what i'm seeing standing next to me right now. >> now, the owner says he's going to change the mannequin's outfit each week -- each season, i should say.

there is still no word on where michael jackson will be buried. his brother jermaine has said he would like his brother to be buried at neverland ranch, but the family would need special permission from the state and local officials to do that. a private memorial here for michael was held at forest lawn cemetary in hollywood hills yesterday. now, undercover agents said they easily snuck bombs into a federal building yesterday. it even includes a photo of a guard asleep at its post. the federal service has taken steps to ensure its security. keeping foods you eat safe. the fda will also release new

safety standards to help prevent contamination of tomatoes, me n melons and leafy greens. you may use a web browser. they'll work with the cheaper, more powerful laptops, but you won't get your hands on it until next year. i'm natasha curry. robin meade will be back from assignment on thursday. michael's three children now know exactly how much the world loved their father. they surprised everyone by attending the public memorial service yesterday. they sat next to their grandmother, katherine jackson, who right now has custody of them. several speakers, including the reverend al sharpton, had

messages for his three kids. >> i want his three children to know, there wasn't nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with. but he dealt with it. >> people who did not have tickets to the memorial mostly listened at home. more than 5,000 people gathered outside staples center in los angeles. they had originally planned for a large crowd, as large as a million people. we are learning about the condition of jackson's body when he died. when he was found, his arms were riddleed with marks and his veins had collapsed. both are characteristics of intravenous drug users. the exact cause of death has not been determined yet. los angeles is already more than half a billion dollars in debt, so how is the city going to pay for yesterday's memorial for michael jackson? correspondent richard lui is joining us, and they're asking for help, right, richard?

>> yeah, from you. they set up a web page asking jackson fans to help with the expenses. i don't know if you're a fan or not, but they're asking for anyone to help on the web site. the site has been up and down for several hours this morning. you might be having trouble with capacity, perhaps. we still don't know an exact price tag for yesterday's memorial. security cost anywhere from 2 to $4 million. a third of l.a.'s officers on hand yesterday. that compares to about 2,000 cops deployed for the l.a. lakers championship, natasha. that celebration happened just last month. >> a lot of people thought they could just catch it on tv. >> right. >> what about the reason for his death? what's going on with that? >> that's still ongoing. public health officials issued jackson's death certificate yesterday. it says here, "deferred." one of the reasons, possibly, is the coroner still has a part of

jackson's brain. investigators will run a series of tests on that part of his brain and return it to the family when it's complete. that will perhaps reach a conclusion. by the way, natasha, it's not uncommon, so it's not strange, necessarily. >> it will be interesting to see what did happen. thanks a lot, richard. a supreme court nominee is getting the nod by one group while others say they have their concerns about her. they have found sonia sotomayor well qualified to be a justice, but the national rifle association has their concerns based on her rulings on weapons rights. the senate judiciary committee will have hearings on monday on sotomayor's nomination. we'll have word for you on a violent attack at a hotel. the couple had just come back from a movie when they were assaulted. you can see one of the men taking the husband's wallet here. the victims are okay. police say it looked like the suspects jammed the key slot to

the room so they could attack the couple at the door. freaky. here's some stories we're watching out for today in your morning express calendar. patrick murphy will announce an appeal of the company's don't ask, don't tell policy. also at 10:00 a.m. eastern, there will be a tribute for steve mcnair. fans will be able to sign a book to be gichb to tven to the late family. and at 10:30, vice president biden is scheduled to give what's called a health care announcement. it's bob time! >> i tell you. you're looking at showers developing right now, thunderstorms, too. we have a belt of energy coming down as the planes and a little bit of heating going on later today. you'll see this develop around the northern sections, but right now it's relegated to iowa, into wisconsin and getting into

indiana, too. we have one complex overhead for the last hour and a half. heavy rain here, and it's all drifting down toward the south, and the heat is going to come back into play for you. right now you have a thunderstorm in tulsa, oklahoma. it could produce some thunderstorms now. temperatures 101 to 106. we have heat advisories in san antonio, austin, parts that far red river valley, including areas of oklahoma. mcgowin, texas. miami, florida, 95 degrees. today it's going to be 95 once again. v vero beach, you tied a record. it's sliding eastward to a front up north. now picking up when you get to jacksonville, some decent downpours here. later today we're going to see more energy when the sun heats

up the ground. watching severe weather developing late this afternoon, so gusty winds. also with the rain, you're going to see one to three inches, especially in places where we have green. >> a quick question, does more heat in the air make a plane bounce more, can you get more turbulence? >> you can get more turbulence. heat rises, so yeah, you get more bumps. >> i felt that in atlanta. sdp >> not fun. >> uh-huh. if you're flying somewhere soon, now would be a great time to buy a ticket. airlines are offering some deals that experts say you will not see again this year.

new this morning, you are seeing president obama here arriving just minutes ago for a power lunch with world leaders in italy. this is a kickoff with the gh summit near rome. world leaders have three days to agree on a new climate change resolution and talk as well about the iran and iraq economy. friday president obama will have an audience with the pope. the real world is turning into a big drama in d.c. a local news reporter trying to interview an onlooker about the show was interrupted by a real world camera man. some people are twittering their every move. >> it's the first time i think real world has had to deal with twitter, and it's not good for the real world people. >> well, people living nearby the house say it's becoming a nuisance with camera lights on

all the time, security guards and tour bus drive-bys. the repair shop owner took a jaguar home and didn't pay a highway toll. he agreed to keep the car at the shop until the guy could pay the bill. the shop owner said, hey, he just wanted to make sure the jag was running properly. he drove it 87 miles, though. he says that's from test drives and the trip home. >> i'm not out sporting around in this car styling. i've got one of my own. >> i don't think a dealership would drive my car home. >> the shop owner did get a ticket. he said he could have gotten permission before he drove the car home. but he says if the man doesn't get his car soon, he's going to charge a storage fee.

jennifer westhoven is joining us now, and you say this could be great news for american drivers. >> you've already seen gas prices cooling off a little bit. maybe they'll cool off more, because that spring run at the gas prices, it seems like history. gas prices all the way up to about $2.69. . since then, oil has been dropping ever since, so gas prices could go even lower. aaa says the average price right now, $2.59. we'll be watchinghat one. meanwhile, the federal government reacting to the violent swing in oil prices. it's looking at new rules to curb speculators. the commodity futures trading commission wants to limit trading by investors. i'm not talking about airlines or oil companies who actually buy, sell and use the oil. i'm talking about hedge funds,

people using it in the market, and you may remember that when oil went all the way up to 150, there was a lot of talks about how speculators were driving that. with oil and gas prices falling, that is helping the airlines. they are responding with some great deals. that could be some good news in a bad economy. you actually may be able to afford a vacation this summer. southwest started off the price cuts yesterday. it's got fares for 30, 60 and $90. short hops, sometimes $30. many of the major airlines followed suit. united, continental, for example. it may be worth looking at those fares again. >> i remember we had air wars a couple months ago for summer prices. now we've got $30. can't beat that. lance armstrong is trying to go from retirement to an eighth

tour de france title. he is so close. just a breath away from the lead.

a congresswoman wants to honor michael jackson on capitol

hill. at yesterday's memorial, democrat sheila jackson ray said she would get a resolution passed to honor the late singer. but republican congressman king says he's going to do everything he can to stop her. he posted a youtube video calling michael jackson a pervert. seven-time tour de france winner lance armstrong is doing better than expected in this race, so why is he disappointed? he's doing pretty well. >> he had a perfect chance, perfect chance to be in the lead, but he blew it. let me show you what happened. tuesday's stage was a time trial, but watch this, four of the nine riders going off the road. where you going? hello. it's this way. later, armstrong's team takes off. once lance gets to the finish here, he's on the outside.

just kind of reaching around, just reaches over doing whatever. he's .22 seconds off the lead. having pushed off there at the finish, he would be the leader and wearing the leader's yellow jersey. but he's not. utah senator orren hatch urging the bcc to investigate for anti-trust laws. they were shut out of january's games despite being undefeated. in a house subcommittee hearing earlier this year, one legislator asked the bcs to be changed to a playoff system. hey, it's officially okay to go to the bathroom during it is singing of "god bless america." in case you're wondering, now you know. a man has settled his lawsuit after being kicked out of the game for leaving his seat during the song. it's that time of year on

your calendar. the running of the bulls in spain. that's considered a good run. none were by the bulls. they will run every morning for a week with a crowd of fans in sa sangria. get out of the way. >> man. i don't understand -- it's fun to watch, but i would not run in front of those bulls for anything. all right, bob van dillen here now with an air travel update. how is it looking, bob? >> one delay right now, atl because of the low clouds hanging in there right now. it's grounded until about 8:15, just a half hour. there's some thunderstorms up across north of georgia. we'll see these back around the region, so more delays for you later today. so morning, low clouds,

afternoon storms for atlanta. boston as well, they'll have severe thunderstorms possibly. orlando, tampa, same thing. chicago, light showers, and san francisco, patchy, light fog. more of that coming up in just a bit. instead of paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a flight across the country, why not just pay $9? hln money expert clark howard, though, has the scoop on a new airline that could really help your savings take off. >> when i was in ireland, i took a flight within europe, flying back to england for -- are you ready for this? -- the equivalent of $1.70. think about that, getting on an airplane and paying $1.70 to do it. i was on a no-frills line called pioneer. now someone in america wants to

use an imitation. it's to be called jet america tf smaller communities that don't have a lot of jet service right now. but this idea, i believe, has legs. the right operator in the united states can offer ultracheap, no frills services. no reason because this has become a big deal in europe with jet and ryan air. it's not the idea, it's who operates it. good luck. i'm clark howard for more good luck for your wallet go to my website cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> teach you how to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him at noon eastern saturday and sunday right here on hln. several large banks have stopped accepting those ious that california is handing out because it can't pay its bills but people need cash so they're selling the ious to brokers.

ktvu reports that some are making 80 cents on the dollar but people say it doesn't matter, be they need money. the state says it's perfectly legal to sell the ious but worry not everyone will play fairly. >> landlords are not going to accept ious you know. they want money. >> the vultures are going to, you know, come out of their nests and descend and try to take advantage of the situation. >> california has issued 70,000 ious so far. it has promised to pay those off in october. al franken is now a senator from minnesota. he was sworn in yesterday ending a long post election battle. he is on the senate judiciary committee which will oversee the hearings for supreme court nominee sonia sotomayor. he is the 60th members of the democratic party caucus. democrats have now a potential filibuster-proof majority. some stores like to run christmas in july sales to drum

up extra business. but when these red buckets go out at this time of year it means people are in desperate need.

[ music ] >> welcome to comcast local edition, i'm donna richardson, and my guest this hour is christine bergmark who is the executive director of the southern maryland agricultural development commission. welcome, christine, it's good to have you here. >> thank you for having me. >> that's a big mouthful, and i know that you're working on an extremely exciting program, bi-local challenge. >> it is an initial that we launched two years ago, and essentially what it is is the last full week of july we ask everyone across the state of maryland and beyond to take a pledge, and the pledge is eat something or drink from a farm every day during that week.

>> oh. so where do we get the information about where to find the farms or how do we sign up for this pledge? >> well, there's a website. it's www.by-local-challenge.com that website will give you all sorts of information why to buy local and where to buy local and it connects you to other statewide initiatives that are going on at the same time. if you go to the website, we've added a count. people used to say, where do i sign up? normally you have to go buy, eat something from a local farm. this year we decided to add a counter to the website. when you are' counted, you can receive a certificate with your name on it that you can put up in your office or your home or wherever. >> which is very, very important. it's reduces your carbon foot print because you're driving hopefully a shorter distance, you have access to local

products that are available, and also it helps the farmers. >> well, and in fact, our theme this year is healthy plate, healthy planet. all kinds of benefits to buying local, benefits for you, healthy, nutrition, it's fresh, and preserving our farms survive, we keep clean water, we keep clean air, we reduce the carbon footprints from things traveling 1500 miles, and it tastes good. >> exactly. now for those people who may not cook, how can they be a part of this? >> yeah, sometimes people say, well, i hate to cook. that's okay. you can go to a store or to a restaurant that features local farm products, and there are more and more restaurants every year, some of them are on our website, and you can click throughout to find out who they are,. >> what kind of items can we acquire localfully. >> during the last week of july,

there is so much product available. there's sweet corn, blackberries, all kinds of tomatoes and melons are in season, and of course, there's always wine, cheese, eggs, meatss. >> so we do have a wide variety of things we can get. say that i go and i go to a local farmer's market and purchase something, what is a vegetable that i'm not quite familiar with, how did i find a recipe. >> excellent question. there are recipes on our website. people can post their own recipes of their own events and own blogs by why they buy local. some of the things i wanted to mention is the economic benefits. we talked about the planet, we talked about the fact that it tastes good, and it's fun, but there's also the benefit of

supporting our farms, and if every household in the state mucofmaryland were to buy just 2 worth of products for 8 weeks, basically the summer season that, would put $200 million straight back into the pockets of our farmers. that would do a lot to keep our farmers thriving. >> which is so important. i know we have less than 30 seconds, but you have some partners that you wouldn't typically think of who have now joined in. >> yes. hospitals are joining in this year. fact, they're looking to do a competition to see how many people they can get involved. >> have you exciting. christine, thank you very much for coming in today. >> thank you. >> my guest today has been christine bergmark with the southern agricultural commission. if you're interested in what comcast is doing in your area, go to on demand and click get local. for comcast local edition, i'm donna richardson. [ music ]

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new windex outdoor all-in-one. a streak-free shine in half the time. s.c. johnson, a family company. happy hump day. good morning. i'm natasha curry in for robin meade who will be back from assignment tomorrow. it's wednesday, in case you forget. ♪ if you just smile >> family and friends celebrated the life and career of michael jackson and along with fans as well, but now the question is, where will the king of pop be buried? plus, new video shows people sneaking bomb parts into federal buildings but that's not all that some undercover agents were able to pull off. a soldier rushed home from iraq for a special delivery. all to see someone he'd never met before. we still don't know where michael jackson's final resting place will be, but the man celebrated as the greatest

entertainer of all time had a farewell ceremony fit for a king. ♪ no more crying we are going to see the king ♪ >> jackson's brothers each wearing a single white glove brought his casket into l.a.'s staples center and then joined jackson's friends in celebrating the impact of his life and career and what it had on the world. >> the more i think and talk about michael jackson, i feel the king of pop is not big enough for him. i think he is simply, i think he is simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived. >> thank you, michael, for all the smiles that you placed in many people's hearts and i thank you for everything that you've done for others across this globe in the lord's name and i

have one request, michael, one request, i would like for you to give our brother, my twin brother, brandon, a hug for me. i love you, michael, i'll miss you. ♪ never die in my heart i feel you are ♪ >> the entire jackson family was on stage during a performance of "heal the world." organizers say that wasn't planned and neither were the heart wrenching words of jackson's 11-year-old daughter paris. >> ever since i was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. and i just want to say i love him so much.

>> jackson's brother jermaine has said that he would like his brother to be buried at neverland ranch but the family would need special permission from state and local officials to do that. his grandmother is buried at forest lawn cemetery in hollywood hills. a private memorial for michael was held there yesterday, but his family is keeping his final resting place a secret for now. and jackson's dermatologist says the singer was happy, dancing and muscular just three days before he died but sources tell cnn the singer was very thin when he collapsed and when jackson was found his arms were riddled with marks and his veins had collapsed. both are characteristics found in intervenes you drug users but the exact cause of jackson's death has not been determined yetp with president obama is having a power lunch with those in italy. arrived just minutes ago for the g-8 kickoff event in l'aquila, near rome. now world leaders have three

days to agree on a new climate change resolution and also look for more about iran from them talking about that and iraqi world economy. friday, mr. obama will have an audience with the pope. a man accused of holding his ex-wife hostage for ten hours demanded a priest to give her her last rites. the couple has been going through an ugly divorce for years and local media report police threw about 40 to 50 canisters of tear gas into their house. then it caught fire, forcing the 60-year-old ad executive to surrender. the woman was able to escape the house. >> he was on the phone for an extended period of time, surprisingly the house burned for some 30 to 40 minutes. >> lawyers in the divorce say the husband was irrational, menacing and bizarre. his own lawyer thought that he might be a danger to himself. police say the man probably will be charged with kidnapping and arson. undercover agents easily

snuck bombs into some federal buildings. that's from a government accountability office report coming out today. this video shows agents smuggling bomb materials through x-ray machines. they tried this at ten federal buildings and each time they succeeded. then, they managed to assemble the bombs inside and carry them to different offices. these are federal buildings we're talking about. the federal protective service says it's taken steps to improve security. football fans in tennessee will have two days to pay their respects to former star quarterback steve mcnair and larry smith is joining us with more on that. >> natasha, good morning, an emotional couple days to be sure today and tomorrow as the titans open their stadium in downtown nashville to say good-bye to the slain star. the tennessee medical examiner says the former nfl most valuable player was most likely the victim of a murder/suicide. he was shot four times with a gun purchased by his 20-year-old girlfriend sahel kaz my.

he was married with four sons. video from his playing days will run on the stadium's scoreboard throughout the two days and those attending the memorial will be allowed to sign a guest book. >> thank you so much. alaska governor sarah palin faces a new ethics complaint filed days after she announced her resignation plans. it acknowledges she is violating [ inaudible ] in juno. palin said complaints against her are costly. her office says alaska spent nearly $2 million dealing with those complaints. palin faced 15 other complaints but most of them were dismissed. all right. let's get to meteorologist bob van dillen to see if we have more storms and heat in store today. >> we have both, natasha. across the midwest and the plains states, thunderstorms driving out of owe ma had nebraska, towards northern

missouri, another batch towards kansas and a third one moving in towards indiana. see what it looks like here, indianapolis, light rain brushing you towards the south. light showers towards bloomington, illinois too. even chicago light rain for the forecast in the morning. you have it right now. down to the south farther, tulsa, one thunderstorm clear down to your south. notice towards your north, another train of thunderstorms out of wichita, that drives southward too. you're going to get more of that action this morning. as for the region around omaha, as that radar spin around, one thunderstorm complex to your south. right now it's no big deal. definitely not severe. how about the heat? we talked about that as well. heat advisories for a good chunk of southern texas. san antonio, austin, your temperatures 101 to 106. going to feel like 114 closer to the coast with all that relative humidity in the air. watch for that. also, right around the western part of the red river temperatures there going to be about 100 degrees too. s that about 100 even today. showers, thunderstorms developing around the gulf and stretching in towards northern

florida. this is a pat than we have seen -- pattern that we have seen repeated for the last four days. more showers out of panama city, towards jacksonville, coming to shore now. more coming towards eastern parts of florida. you're going to see at lot of rain and severe weather over the next couple days. severe thunderstorms are possible in the areas we put in red. hail makers, that's a possibility, but more likely seeing gusty winds out of that. flash flood watches for charleston towards hilton head. here's the reason why. computer models thinking about three to four inches of rain will fall here. check it out. heavy rain around the coast and the yellow shaded area around charleston, hilton head, getting towards savannah, see about three to four inches of rain over the next two days or so. that's one thing we're going to have to be watching. heavy rain for the gulf coast, lower part of the empire coast too. speaking of some rough weather, let me show you video from last night in yonkers, new york, north of the bronx. see what it looks like here. looks like snow falling down. golf ball size hail reported

around yonkers, broke out windows, flooded out basements with hefty rain. most of the strong thunderstorms should be relegated north of the hudson valley to areas like boston this afternoon. yonkers, getting slammed. >> yeah. feeling bad for that person whose house that is. >> the guy, when interviewed, he was colorful and very angry. >> yeah. i would be too. mother nature! >> i don't blame him. >> thanks, bob. some government websites fell victim to a cyber attack last weekend and it is not over yet. plus, do you feel your commute is getting shorter at all? the economy may have something to do with it.

♪ 11 minutes past the hour. a cyber attack that started on july 4th, shut down several government websites. some of them still aren't completely back up either. the associated press says the unusually strong attack hit websites with a treasury

department, secret service, the ftc and the transportation department. u.s. officials won't discuss the attack but one internet company called it a massive outage. former white house advisor karl rove was questioned by lawyers for the house judiciary committee. it's investigating the firings of nine u.s. attorneys under the bush administration. many believe the firings were politically motivated. rove was first subpoenaed in 2007, but the bush white house refused to let him testify citing executive privilege. the lone survivor of a fireworks explosion that killed four people says it happened without much warning. he and his woe co-workers were setting up a fireworks display on north carolina's island and he says it was another work day for him. >> getting ready to put them together, right before the fuses

give, and by the time that happened, only thing i heard was a big boom and i -- >> poor guy. ho hollands has burns on 20% of his body n fair condition. officials have ruled the explosion accidental. hope he feels better. keep seeing headlines about americans getting sick from salmonella and other outbreaks associated with your food. jennifer westhovan is looking out for you. sounds like something is being done to keep us safe. >> well, we'll be watching this. this is a presidential working group. we have had so many headlines. it's clear that nation's safety system has failed a lot of people. the white house promising a sweeping overhaul of the system, the cdc says 76 million people get sick every rear from their food and 5,000 of those people die. so to make your eggs safer the agriculture department will have new standards to cut salmonella,

that's by the end of the year, for your meat to make that safer. the usda is going to test more at meat packing plants, looking out for the deadly e. coli bacteria and the fda going to be working on measures to make sure your vegetables are safe. we had so many headlines about tomatoes and spin achl over the past few months and years that is something that may really help. in fact, some of the grocery stores were even in on saying look, we want to make sure people when they come here they can trust their food and we want the system to have some more rules. it may take longer than you were hoping for home prices to come back. a mortgage insurance company is predicting home prices are going to keep falling all the way until 2011. they even say in most major cities there is a 75% chance prices will keep on falling and the reason for that, they're looking at the rising unemployment rates and the rising foreclosure rates and finally want to throw in our sister website, cnnmoney.com

says they have heard from thousands of homeowners that they haven't been able to get help under the new obama making home affordable plan. we're hoping that there's going to be more work on that because we know the president has acknowledged that plan is not working fast enough. we'll be looking for more changes to try to find more people are going to be able to get help right now, calling and contacting their banks and just hitting a mountain of paperwork and not getting the refinancing. >> thank you very much. people around the world are talking about michael jackson's enormous impact. the crowd in russia released balloonses in his honor yesterday. you will see more jackson tributes from around the globe.

michael jackson's reach did extend around the world. in berlin, 8,000 people packed into an arena to watch the live broadcast of his memorial.

♪ >> in moscow fans were in tears as some sang some of jackson's greatest hits and then released dozens of balloons in his honor. people braved the rain to catch the service outside the o 2 arena in london. jackson was scheduled to start a series of 50 concerts here next week. some jackson fans, they stopped working to watch the memorial. others gathered in theaters, parks and held their own private gatherings. richard lou, there was talk this could be the biggest celebrity memorial ever. how big was it, though? >> to your point about people stopping work, i was watching cnn.com live and they had a live blog going on, folks saying i hope i don't get caught but i cannot pull my eyes off the screen right now. as many as 1 billion people tuned in to watch it on tv, almost one in seven people in the world. it was broadcast live in 180 different countries. it also got a lot of attention on the web as i was just

mentioning. some points, web traffic worldwide was 31% above normal. facebook as i alluded to said some 800,000 users updated their status during the event and facebook's jackson page got nearly 7 million hits, possibly the largest following of anyone on the web. >> keep seeing records broken but that's a lot of people. we're blogging, too, about yesterday's service at cnn.com/robin and richard, you've been looking at some of comments this morning. what are people saying about how it went? >> we have been getting a lot of responses. blogger michelle, for instance, saying i cried from the first word out of mariah carey's mother. take a listen. ♪ where there is love i'll be there ♪ ♪ i'll be there >> yeah. other viewers saying that they thought she was so emotional, she could barely sing that song. carey performing jackson's "i'll be there." blogger pam who says, this of yesterday's event, i was so

happy that michael jackson's memorial and celebration was executed appropriately and in good taste. perhaps all will find closure and a sense of peace with michael. again, if you would like to join this conversation, cnn.com/robin where we're blogging and sharing people's thoughts. >> you were mentioning, mariah carey singing but when jermaine jackson sang "smile" his brother's favorite song, i could not believe how he kept it together there. it was very emotional for the family. >> very difficult. it was amazing. you're right. >> thank you, richard. >> sure. two of l.a.'s biggest sports stars were among the mourners at michael jackson's memorial yesterday and larry smith has more on that. i know exactly who this was. >> you guys came out, it's michael jackson, didn't know who was going to pop out. these two big stars come out, the tallest by the way. kobe bryant and magic giant each have nine nba championship rings between them as los angeles lakers super stars. johnson talked after kobe about

playing games and shooting fireworks with the jackson family with his days of the lakers and recalled the evening he went to michael's house to discuss a role in one of his music videos. >> the chef brought me out the grilled chicken, but he brought michael out a bucket of kentucky fried chicken. and i went crazy like, wait a minute, michael, you eat kentucky fried chicken. that made my day. that was the greatest moment of my life. >> laughter and tears punctuating the moving two-hour ceremony in l.a. one of the most populars on cnn.com this morning, former figure skating champion nicol bobek faces drug charges, free on bond after being arrested at her home in florida last week on conspiracy to distribute meth. the 1995 u.s. champion is alleged to be one of 20 people connected to a new jersey drug ring people have been following for a year. the 31-year-old faces up to ten years in prison if she is convicted.

>> thank you. a woman was about to give birth, thought her husband was in iraq, but wait until you hear his emotional reaction to his daughter's birth.

30 minutes past the hour. president obama is getting ready to work with world leaders in italy. you're seeing mr. obama here arriving less than an hour ago for the g-8 kickoff lunch in l'aquila. this is near rome where they're meeting. the group will spend three days working on climate change, iran and the world economy. several large banks have stopped accepting those ious that california is handing out because it can't pay its bills, but people need cash. affiliate ktvu reports some people are selling the ious to brokers for 80 cents on the dollar. california has issued 70,000 ious so far. it's promised to pay off those the october. there will be a new fda commissioner to try to keep the foods that you eat safe.

the obama administration announced the fda will also release new safety standards to help prevent contamination of tomatoes, mellons and leafy greens and the agriculture department intends to cut e. coli outbreak with new instructions on beef production. and this is from the headlines we're following this morning. welcome back. i'm natasha curry in for robin meade, on assignment but will be back tomorrow morning. stay tuned for that. michael jackson's three children now know exactly how much the world loved their father. paris, prince and blanket surprised everyone by attending the public memorial service yesterday. you can see them in the front row. they sat next to their grandmother katherine jackson who right now has custody of them. several speakers, including the reverend al sharpton, had a message for jackson's kids. >> i want his three children to know, wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. it was strange what your daddy had to deal with. but he --

>> jackson's brother jermaine said he would like his brother to be buried at neverland ranch. there's the coffin, of course. the family, though, would need special permission from state and local officials to have him buried at neverland. his grandmother is buried at forest lawn cemetery in hollywood hills. the private memorial for michael was held there yesterday, but his family is keeping his final resting place a secret for now. we're learning more about the condition of jackson's body when he died. sources tell cnn that his arms were riddled with marks and his veins had collapsed. both are characteristics found in intravenous drug users. jackson's dermatologist said he seemed healthy just three days before he died. >> no troubles sleeping in my office, okay. he was not in terrible pain when i saw him. he danced in the office and he danced for my patients. very muscular and very, very happy and dancing. >> the exact cause of death has not been determined yet.

los angeles is already more than a half billion dollars in debt, so how is the city going to pay for yesterday's memorial for michael jackson? correspondent richard liu, they're asking for some help. >> that's right. from folks like you or other folks that might be interested in helping the city out, they've set up a website so fans can donate money to help with the expenses. it's been up and down several hours, they might have a lot of people interested in helping them out. we don't know an exact price tag for yesterday's memorial. the mayor's office does estimate, though, that the security cost itself, anywhere between $2 million and $4 million. 3,000 officers as you know, which is almost a third of l.a.'s police force, were on hand there. that compares to about 2,000 cops that were deployed for the l.a. lakers championship celebration last month. natasha. >> they did have a lot of security there yesterday. richard, what about the investigation into jackson's death? >> you know, when we take a look at that, we actually have some more information. we have the death certificate itself, public officials

releasing this. got a copy of it in the area, cause of death, it says deferred. they're waiting for more information at the moment. meanwhile, the coroner still has at least a part of jackson's brain. why is that important? investigators will run a series of tests on the brain itself after two weeks it has been said they will return that back to the family. the coroner says holding on to brain samples is not necessarily uncommon when we take a look at the process of determining the cause of death. >> they really are looking into this to find the cause and a lot of people very curious to know. thank you. >> sure. we do have new video for you of a violent attack at a hotel. the couple here was just coming back from a movie when they were assaulted. look at this. you can see one of the men take the husband's wallet. the couple is okay. police say it looks like the suspects jammed the key slot to the room so they could attack the couple at the door. freaky. google is taking on microsoft with its own operating system. the company says it will

initially work with netbooks, the smaller, you know, cheaper laptops, but you won't be able to use it until next year. google says third party developers will be able to design add-ons, like an iphone application. all right. let's get over to meteorologist bob van dillen. i would call it a pony tail day, bob. lot of funky weather going on. >> i think it's going to be out there again today. you're talking about relative humidities, 80%, 90%, first part of the day around southern florida feels like it's 92 already in miami because of the humidity and the warm temperatures in the mid 80s, but hey, how about the activity breaking out now across the plains and the midwest. showers and thunderstorms developing and they are now stretching in towards lower parts of indiana trying to get in towards louisville.ú on the light side, no big deal. towards indy, little heavier downpours to your south.@? light rain over chicago and that's going to develop later @ this afternoon and stronger stuff off towards your west. look at the rain dropping down out of kansas in towards oklahoma.

basically drifting down towards the southeast. these kansas thunderstorms, they were producing golf ball size hails and winds around 60 miles per hour, dropping down towards oklahoma over the next couple days. look at omaha, most of the action around you, been there the last couple hours. pop-up showers and storms. heavy rain makers there. south of those boundaries we are looking at extremely hot temperatures today all the areas in yellow, heat advisories, talking about 101 to 106. san antonio, austin, corpus christi, going to feel like about 114 on your skin by the gulf coast with all the humidity in place. showers and thunderstorms, towards northern florida, blasted earlier this morning, around the region right now, north farther with the frontal boundary around georgia and the carolinas, severe thunderstorms possible this afternoon. flood watches here and towards the north, severe weather is possible for northern new england today. what about new york city? live there now. things are dry. a lot of sunshine for the

morning. the city corp building, the tallest one in the middle. decent start narcs tasha -- natasha, thunderstorms could be strong north of the city, but yonkers saw quarter-size hail out there, to golf ball size hail. >> did a lot of damage. >> hopefully doesn't happen again today. there is a risk of a slight chance of shower or thunderstorm. >> thank you. >> you got it. a guy left his jaguar at a repair shop and didn't have the money to pay the bill and the mechanic drove the jag home. why the mechanic says he was doing the guy a favor.

michael jackson never forget one of his closest friends ryan white. that's what white's mom says. he was a teenager from back in the '80s who got aids from a blood transfusion. you're seeing white's funeral in 1990 which jackson attended. yesterday white's mother said jackson never left her son's side even when others were scared away. >> couple years ago, he called me and he said, him and his mom had been talking and he said, i just thought i would call you and tell you happy mother's day. he said, and, you know, that -- people don't know those kind of moments from michael. >> she says she hopes jackson will be remembered for his human side. a georgia man thought that his jaguar was in the shop until he got a ticket in the mail. turns out the repair shop owner took his jag home and didn't pay a highway toll. he agreed to keep the car at the shop until the guy could pay the bill. it was there for weeks so the shop owner wanted to make sure the jag was running properly.

he drove it 87 miles. he says that's from test drive. and the trip home. >> i'm not out sporting around in his car, styling. i've got one of my own. >> i don't think any other dealership would have driven my car home. >> now the shop owner paid the ticket. that's the good thing, right? he admits he should have told the guy he drove his car to his home. but he says if the man doesn't get his car and pay the bill soon he's going to charge a storage fee. billionaire oilman t. boone pickens is putting his plans to build the biggest wind farm on hold. pickens says his idea for thousands of wind turbines ran into technical problems. today, though, pickens is going to start a new campaign to promote natural gas for cars and trucks. oil prices, guess what, they are starting to fall again. jennifer westhovan is joining us

now and you're saying this could be good news for american drivers. >> it might be, natasha, especially as you go to the gas pump may be that spring run up you saw may be history. you remember gas prices ran up to the average was about $2.69 a gallon. but since then, oil, the major ingredient in gas, the price of oil has been dropping ever since. last night it went down to about $62 a barrel. so that could be good for you at the gas pumps in the coming weeks. aaa says the national average down about a dime from that high, down to $2.59. in the meantime the federal government is reacting to the violent swings we've seen in energy prices making it hard for businesses. the government is looking at new rules to curb speculators. remember you heard a lot about them last summer when gas was $4 a gallon. they want to limit trading by purely financial investors. we're talking about hedge funds, for example, not companies like airlines or oil companies who use the oil. we're talking about people who are just in there trying to make a buck by betting in futures

market. the agency also wants to know more about who exactly is trading the energy contracts. americans frequently say that one of their biggest daily pet peeves, traffic. sitting in it. well there is a silver lining to the bad economy. for the first time since they started measuring, you are now spending less time in traffic for two years in a row. now, you're still spending 36 hours a year, just about that, the average. that's wasted in traffic. the transportation institute says things are getting back in atlanta, san francisco, dallas, even los angeles, although l.a. still has some of the worst traffic in the country. lance armstrong, he's trying to go from retirement to an eighth tour de france title and he is so close. just a breath away from the lead.

the man supposed to direct

michael jackson's comeback tour is ending up directing his memorial service. kenny ortega talked about his last days on prime news. >> tell us about the final days of jackson. he was steering us to london. he couldn't have wanted it more. he couldn't have been more excited about it. it was important to him for so many reasons. he wanted to share it with his children who are now old enough to appreciate what it was that he loved and loved doing and while he was still young enough to really do it, you know. and he wanted to do it for the fans, you know, the fans that had stayed at his side through thick and through thin. >> get the latest on any developments on the story on "prime news" with mike starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern on hln. a supreme court nominee is getting the nod from one group,

while another says it has serious concerns about her. the american bar association rated judge sonia sotomayor well qualified to be a justice, but the national rifle association said it has very serious concerns based on her rulings on weapons rights. the senate judiciary committee will open hearings on monday on sotomayor's nomination. shocking video shows a man smashing and stealing a virgin mary statute. watch him here. this happened at a church in turlock, california, saturday. a church member says he found broken shards of the statute's head on sunday. he says he's been driving around looking for the rest of the statute. the italian made statute is said to be worth $3,000. seven-time tour de france champ lance armstrong is doing better than expected in this year's race. why is he disappointed? larry smith has that answer. >> how are you? disappointed because he had a perfect chance to be in the lead. so close.

he is less than a second away, but he blew it. tuesday's stage we'll show you the video, was a time trial. for one team, it was a disaster. now watch this coming up. nine riders on a team, watch four of them, they just go off the road. where are you going? the asphalt ran out, they were stuck. arm strong's team takes off, lance seemed to let up a bit. he's .22 seconds off the lead. watch this, the spot shadow here as armstrong on the outside messing with his handle bars. if he pushed it he would be the wearing the yellow jersey. college football's championship system an issue on capitol hill. utah senator orrin hatch urging the justice department to investigate the bcs for possible violation of anti-trust laws. the university of utah was shut out of the title game despite being undefeated, instead florida beating oklahoma in a battle of once beatens. in a subcommittee hearing this year, one legislature asked the bcs to be changed to a playoff system.

rest easy it's officially okay to go to the bathroom during the singing of "god bless america." i know, you're worried about that. a baseball fan settled his lawsuit against new york city and the yankees after he says he was kicked out of the game for leaving his seat during the song. he'll receive $10,000 and the new york civil liberties will get $12,000. >> $10,000 buys a lot of adult diapers. >> lot of depends. will we see twitter updates from nfl huddle? cincinnati bengals receiver chad ocho cinco plans to tweet for games in the nfl. back in april some teams were posting their draft picks on twitter before they were officially announced. hard to put that blackberry in your pocket in your pants during -- >> exactly. >> get hit by a defender and the phone breaks. >> never know. >> may not be a good idea. >> thank you so much, larry. instead of paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a flight across the country, what about paying $9.

sounds good. hln money expert clark howard has the scoop on a new airline ? hln money expert clark howard has a tip that could really help your savings take off. >> when i was in ireland, i took a tr a flight within europe and paid -- get this -- $1.70. can you believe that? i was flying on a no-frills airline called pioneer. in america, they want to do the same thing. they're starting an airline called jet america where they will have nine seats on each airline for $9. they're starting really small, flying to a lot of communities that don't have jet service right now. this idea, i believe, has legs. the right operator am the united states can offer ultra-cheap no-frills services. no reason this has become such a big deal in europe with easy jet

and ryan air and also couldn't be a big deal in the united states. but it's not the idea, it's who operates it. good luck. i'm clark howard. for more good luck for your wallet wallet, go to my web site at cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> catch him on noon eastern saturday and sunday right here on hln. the u.s. is asking for support in honduras. the hon durks ran military threw him out of office on june 8. the president has offered to mediate talks, and clinton says the previous president of honduras as also signalled his interest to participate. when these red buckets go out this time of year, it means that people are in desperate

need. 

hey, good morning, i'm natasha curry in for robin meade this morning. so glad you could join us. here's the headlines making news on morning express today. we heard emotional goodbyes from family and friends to the king of pop. now the question is, where will he be buried? president obama is in italy. he has some tough subjects to tackle in a short time. she gave birth, but she got a huge surprise just in time for her daughter's debut. we don't know where his final resting place will be, but the man celebrated as the gre

greatest entertainer of all time had a memorial long remembered. jackson's brothers each wearing a single white glove brought his casket into l.a. staples center here, and jermaine jackson spoke for the family, saying he hoped michael jackson would find peace in his death. >> michael wore the same shoes wherever he went, but i guess that was his way of trying to explain what we take for granted. we would never, ever understand what he endured, not being able to walk across the street without a crowd gathering around him, being judged, ridiculed. how much pain can one take? maybe now, michael, they will leave you alone. ♪ we are the world

♪ we are the children ♪ we are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving ♪ >> the entire jackson family came on stage during this performance of "we are the world." organizers say that was not planned, and neither were the heart-wrenching words of jackson's 11-year-old daughter, paris. listen. >> ever since i was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. and i just want to say i love him so much. >> jackson's brother jermaine has said he would like his brother to be buried at neverland ranch but the family would need special permission from state and local officials to do that. his grandmother is buried at forest lawn cemetary in

hollywood hills. a service was held there yesterday, but his family is keeping his final resting place a secret for now. we're learning more about the condition of jackson's body when he died. sources tell cnn his body was riddled with marks and his veins had collapsed. both of those are characteristics of intravenous drug users, but people tell us he was very healthy right before he died. >> he was not in terrible pain when i saw him. he danced in my office, he danced with the patients. he was muscular and very, very happy and dancing. >> the exact cause of death has not been determined yet. right now president obama is getting down to business with world leaders in italy. take a look as mr. obama arrived here less than an hour and a half ago for the gh kick off lunch near rome. they have three days to tackle climate change, iran and the iraqi economy.

friday obama will have an audience: the pope. a man accused of holding his ex-wife hostage for ten hours demanded a priest to give her her last rites. the couple has been going through a nasty divorce. police finally threw canisters in, forcing him to surrender. the wife was able to escape. the man was menacing and bizarre. he will probably be charged with kidnapping and arson. under several agents, they easily snuck bonds into federal buildings. that's from an office report coming out today. this video shows agents smuggling bomb materials through x-ray machines. they tried this at ten federal buildings. each time they succeeded.

then they managed to assemble bombs inside and carry them to different places. the federal protection service says it's already taken steps to improve security. well, football fans in tennessee will have two days to pay their respects to former star quarterback steve mcnair. larry smith joining us with more on that. hey, larry. >> good morning to you, natasha. an emotional couple days. the titans will open their stadium to say goodbye to the slan star. the nfl most valuable player was most likely the victim of a homicide suicide. the gun was purchased by his girlfriend, 24-year-old kazimi. mcnair was married with four sons. those attending the memorial will be allowed to sign a guest book. natasha? >> all right, larry. thank you so much for that update. okay, so some of you are going to get some really hot weather.

others of you are going to get storms. let's check in with meteorologist bob van dillen with the forecast. bob? >> heavy downpours across northern florida and it's in the same spot we had yesterday. look at the showers in the frontal boundaries, developing on the gulf coast, trudging to north florida getting to gainesville and jacksonville. south georgia, parts of south carolina had up to 2.5 inches of rain. it's going to come down pretty heavily this afternoon, specifically across the low part of south carolina, lothe low country. heavy rain today. three to four inches of rain, ú? including hilton head and ú? savannah, and you can see it continuing tomorrow with lots of action. to go along with the heavy rain, we'll see the chance of severe thunderstorms. slight chance sef veer weather across georgia, northern parts of florida. you'll see gusty winds and hail to be the main threat there. again, flash flood watches in the areas of green.

a dry day for you in new york. still a chance of a scattered shower or thunderstorm developing, but most of the heavy rain should be across parts of northern new england. more rain in store for you today. high pressure dominating the four corners, but you get up to the northwest, a little light rain in seattle. right now it's just scattered activity. later today, moderate risk of severe weather. we'll be talking about that again, natasha, in about half an hour. >> when you were growing up before you got married, did you ever almost crash your car trying to check somebody out? >> only on the jersey shore where it's legal to do that. >> that's what happened here. we told you about the owner of a barbecue restaurant. he was forced to take down his scantily clad mannequin. it almost caused accidents in the area, but now the board is giving him the green light to show his mannequin. the owner calls her barbecue and

says she has boosted business 40%. people in town are divided over barbie. >> the first time i passed barbie, i thought there was a hooker on the corner. i couldn't believe what i saw. i had to take a second look. >> what i saw around the pool was much more revealing than what i'm seeing standing next to me right now. >> the girls really aren't that bad looking. you don't have to resort to a mannequin. that's all i'm saying. >> i wonder what she charges for -- never mind. he says he's going to change barbie's outfit for each season. maybe he'll put a little muff around her hands. have you noticed your morning commute seems to be getting a little less hectic? there is a reason for that. how the economy may be having a positive effect on rush hour traffic.

[ music playing ] ♪ when there are clouds in the sky ♪ ♪ you'll get by ♪ if you smile with your -- >> jackson fans stopped work to go watch the memorial. others gathered in theaters, parks and held their own private gatherings. richard lui, there was talk this could be the biggest celebrity memorial ever. how big was it, though? >> to your point, natasha, about people stopping working, i was watching cnn live, and they had a live blog going on. folks were saying, i hope i don't get caught but i cannot pull my eyes off this screen right now. it was huge. estimates of as many 1 billion people watched it. it was broadcast live in 80

different countries. it also got a lot of attention on the web, as i just mentioned. web watch was 30% above normal. facebook alluded to some 80,000 users updated their status during the event and facebook status page got nearly 7 million hits, possibly the largest following of anyone on the web. >> we keep seeing records broken, but that's a lot of people. we're blogging, too, about yesterday's service at cnn.com/robin. what are people saying about how it went? >> blogger michelle said, i cried from the first word out of mariah carey's mouth. take a listen. ♪ i'll be there >> the other viewers saying they thought she was so emotional to be able to sing that song. blogger tammy says this of

yesterday's event. i was so happy that jackson's memorial was executed appropriately and in good taste. possibly all will find closure and a sense of peace for michael. thank you for sharing your thoughts. they will seek the death penalty for some riots there. they saw a lot of violatience o the weekend. china flooded the area with security forces and say things are now under control. over the weekend, 156 people died in fighting between two ethnic groups. we keep seeing those headlines about americans getting sick from salmonella and other outbreaks associated with food. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you, though. jen, it sounds like something is being done now to help keep us safe. >> if you are sick and tired of seeing those kind of headlines,

not knowing if your food is safe. they're planning to have a sweeping overhaul of the nation's food that has failed so many people. 76 million people -- 76 million people get sick every year from their food according to cbc and 5,000 of those people die from those illnesses, so they're looking at several fronts here. first your eggs. they're going to try to cut salmonella in eggs by the end of the year. they're going to test meat more in meat packing plants. they're worried about the e. coli that occurs in meat. and they'll have higher measures on vegetables. here's something else that's pretty good for you. falling gas prices are giving the airlines a little bit of room to cut fares even further. that is good news in a bad economy. it may have been that if you thought i can't afford a vacation this summer, check out

some of these fares. southwest started this big fare sale yesterday with a 48-hour sale. they've got 30, 60 and $90 flights. it ends tonight, but $30 for short flights like baltimore to boston. many of the major airlines followed suit. so check it out. continental, delta, for example. one said this is probably the best deals you'll see all year. >> this is the best deal i've seen all year. thanks, jen. a guy left his jaguar at a repair shop and he couldn't pay the bill, and his mechanic drove the jag home. you're going to hear why the mechanic was just doing the guy a favor.

michael jackson fans around the world stopped what they were doing to say goodbye yesterday. in berlin, 8,000 people packed into an arena to watch the live broadcast of his memorial. in moscow, fans were in tears as they sang some of jackson's hits. then they released dozens of

balloons here in his honor. and people braved the rain to catch the service at the o 2 arena in london. jackson was scheduled to start a series of 50 concerts next week. you can thank the bad economy for better traffic. for the first time they started measuring, you're spending less time stuck in traffic for two years in a row. now, it's still almost 36 hours a year wasted, but the texas transportation institute says it's because of unemployment, more carpooling and because people stopped moving farther away from their jobs. a georgia man thought his jaguar was in the shop until he got a ticket in the mail. it turns out the repair shop owner took it home and didn't pay a highway toll. he took it home until the owner could pay the bill. the owner said he wanted to make sure it was running properly so

he drove it 87 miles. he said that was for test drives and the trip home. >> i'm not out there styling, i've got one of my own. >> i don't think any other dealership would have driven my car home. >> he says he should have told the guy before he drove his car home. but he says if the guy doesn't pay his bill soon, he's going to start charging a storage fee. a couple star athletes at the michael jackson memorial, they shared thoughts and memories about the superstar. >> kobe bryant and "magic" johnson have nine super bowl rings between them. they certainly felt at home where the lakers play. they talked about playing games and shooting fireworks with the jackson family during his early days with the lakers and recalled the evening he went to michael's home to discuss a role in a "remember the times" music

video. >> the chef brought me out grilled chicken, but he brought michael out a bucket of kentucky fried chicken. and i went crazy, like, wait a minute, michael, you eat kentucky fried chicken? that made my day. that was the greatest moment of my life. >> laughter and tears punin the memorial yesterday. she is fre on bond after being arrested in her home in florida on a conspiracy to deliver meth. the champion is suspended to be one of the people connected to a drug ring the police have been following for a year. bobek faces up to ten years in prison if she is convicted. pampona spain, the running of the bulls.

only four injuries which is considered a clean run. the bulls will run every morning for a week with excited fans spraying runners with sangria. in case you're wondering, yes, it is the customary wear, the white pants and red kerchief. so doctors know from where you're bleeding. >> man. that is dangerous stuff. all right, larry. thank you. so when people were turning their back on ryan white -- you remember him -- michael jackson was just becoming his friend. and when the teen died of aids, jackson was there. well, now white's mother is telling us more about their very unique relationship.

the new york stock exchange is open for business now, and you're going to hear why the market may be slack this morning after yesterday's tumble. a live report in new york is less than five minutes away, but your live look here as that opens. look at the puppy. how cute! well, there is still no word on where michael jackson will be buried. his brother jermaine has said he would like his brother to be buried at neverland ranch, but the family would need special permission from state and local officials to do that. a private memorial for michael was held at forest lawn cemetary in hollywood hills yesterday. there will be a new fda commissioner to try to keep the food you eat safe. the obama administration

announced the fda will release new safety standards to check tomatoes, melons and leafy greens. and they plan to check e. coli with more production. agents were able to take bombs into federal buildings. there's even video of a guard sleeping at his post. welcome back. i'm natasha curry in for robin meade. she'll be back tomorrow. she's been on assignment. paris, prince and blanket, michael jackson's three children, surprised everyone by attending his public memorial service yesterday. they sat near their grandmother, katherine jackson, who right now has custody of them. several speakers, including the reverend al sharpton, had a

message for jackson's kids. >> i want his three children to know, wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. it was strange what your daddy had to deal with. but he dealt with it. >> people who didn't even have tickets to the memorial mostly listened to the service and watched it at home. more than 5,000 people gathered outside the staples center in los angeles. the p.d. had originally planned on a crowd of 1 million. they said he was happy, dancing and muscular just three days before he died, but sources say he was very thin before he collapsed, and when jackson was found, his arms were riddled with marks and his veins had collapsed. those are characteristics of

intravenous drug use. they will announce a tour of the don't ask, don't tell policy. the titans will open their stadium for fans of steve mcnair who was shot to death over the weekend. fans will be able to sign a book to be given to the late star's family. vice president biden will be announcing what is a major health care announcement. staff sergeant john hernandez got to see his daughter's birth on sunday at fort campbell, kentucky. his wife didn't even know that he was coming, and he described his thrilling reaction. >> it is awesome just seeing her come out and see her cry. definitely an experience. i was really glad i could just be there for my whif because she's been doing if it by herself for the last two kids. >> we can't show you his face because he is in special ops and

goes back to iraq very soon. they're getting the nod for one group while another group says they have some serious concerns about her. the american bar association rated judge sonia sotomayor well qualified to be a chief justice. but the national rifle association has some major concerns based on her rulings about weapons rights. she will be evaluated. a local news reporter just trying to get an interview with an onlooker about the show was interrupted by a "real world" camera man. some people are twittering, blogging and facebooking cast member's every move. >> it's the first time, i think, that "real world" has had to deal with twitter, and it's not good for the "real world" people. >> people who live nearby say the house is becoming a nuisance

with all the camera lights on all the time and tour bus drive-by. let me show you what's happening across the west coast. not much happening when you get -- camera number one, by the way. camera number one has been getting us the entire morning. let me show you what's up right now. you can see showers right around montana. showers and thunderstorms will be out there for the better part of the day and then developing again around the northern plains states. moderate risk of severe weather. just bear with us here for a second. we're experiencing some technical difficulties. put down the bottle! just kidding. let me show you san francisco real quick because the west coast actually looks very nice right now. lots of blue skies around san francisco. daytime highs to 60s and 70s. how gorgeous is that? look in the background.

you can see the golden gate bridge. how awesome. i will be out there in about ten days running the half marathon. check it out on my blog. it's cnn.com/robin. hopefully it entertains you a little bit because inherently i'm not a runner, but i'm trying to be. >> you're doing good. >> i lost a good two pounds. severe weather threat in about half an hour. stocks on wall street -- we just got a butt shot there -- stocks have been at their lowest level since april yesterday. susan is in the newsroom. hopefully the stocks will be looking better than camera one this morning. >> oh, wow, yes, but that little

sliver of green that you see there on the chart, yes, that indicates there is some buying. so yes, we're off to a positive start and things are especially looking good for investors and family dollar. its shares right now are 11.5%, thank you, after the discounter posted a 35% jump in income. that's the best quarter on record. the company's ceo says the company has gained market shares during the recession. people are using family dollar more often and relying on the discounter for their basic needs. we're bargain hunting and with good reason. google prepared to challenge the search engine giant is launching computers. windows, of course, is the dominant operating system. drug maker angen says an

experimental drug helped bone injuries and cancer patients. it could be worth up to $2 million in annual sales for the company, and more importantly, hopefully do a lot of good for so many millions who are suffering from breast cancer. finally, the former chairman of oscar mayor died yesterday at the age of 85. what is his name? oscar g.mayer, jr. he started working for his grandpa's company in 1966, retired in 1977 after they posted their first billion-dollar year. that's a lot of hot dogs. he was known as being very vigilant on making sure the company was a good corporate citizen. >> that's fantastic. 95 years old. there is a real oscar mayer.

i didn't know that. >> three of them. california, you're talking about money. california can't pay its bills so it's handing out ious, but that is not helping people who need money, like, right now, so they're doing something about it.

on the international front, we discussed the importance of europe and the united states raising standards on financial institutions to ensure that a crisis like the one that's taken place will never happen again. >> president obama immediately turned to the economy after arriving here in italy for the g 8 summit, and take a look here

as president obama gets to work with world leaders less than two hours ago at the kickoff launch near rome. they will have three days to tackle climate change, iran and the iraqi economy. friday, mr. obama will have an audience with the pope. michael jackson's friend and long-time dermatologist is talking about who fathered michael jackson's children. that's just one of the new stories coming up for you in the next hour. richard lui has a preview. what's this about? >> coming up in about 15 minutes, in the last few hours, michael jackson's doctor is saying he may actually be the biological father of jackson's kids. you'll hear what he has to say about that. also, legend barry may be stalking his ex. garbage lying in the streets

in a city known for its cleanliness. natasha, it's all for you at 10:00 eastern. cnn is once again taking a look at what it's like to be black in america. documentary, "black in america 2" premiers this month. it takes a look at how two brothers built a vast empire from the very beginning. >> you know you've arrived in the business world when your business looks like this. they launched their business empire from a historical black neighborhood in north st. louis. they estimate their company to be worth almost a billion dollars. >> so somebody watching this says, that's easy for these guys, they've got millions and millions of dollars. they can go out and buy whatever you want. i've got two quarters to rub together. what do you tell that person. >> that we also had two quarters to rub together.

we weren't rich, we weren't poor, but we had no money, either. >> get your hands dirty, know sweat equity, then you will know it and it becomes yours. >> they say it's putting ideas into actions. they are relentless creatures always looking to make a deal. >> what other animal retires? if a lion retired today, tomorrow morning he would want breakfast, right? >> they were both elected to the st. louis board off afa al derm. their name adorns every property. the roberts village, the roberts loft, the roberts may fair hotel. but don't try comparing them to donald trump. >> years from now, it will be

legacy. we have to have examples of successes in order for us to be able to let the generations to come know that many of the successes that occurred for african-americans in this country can be seen and pointed out and can be emulated. >> the orpheum theater in downtown st. louis symbolizes the legacy. years ago, black people were only allowed to sit in the highest seats. now the roberts brothers own the theater. >> mom can sit wherever she likes. >> that is priceless. >> hey, mom, how you doing? >> cnn, st. louis, missouri. they step up, they take charge. "black in america 2" airs july 22 and 23 on cnn.

lance armstrong is trying for an eighth tour de france title. he is so close, too. he is just a breath away from the lead!

several large banks have stopped accepting the ious that california is handing out because it can't pay its bills, but people need cash. so they're selling the ious to brokers. some are making 80 cents on the dollar, but people say it just doesn't matter, they need the money. the state says it's perfectly legal to sell the ious. >> landlords are not going to accept ious, you know. they want money. >> the vultures are going to

come out of their nest and descend and try to take advantage of the situation. >> california has issued 70,000 ious so far, and it's promised to pay those off in october. lance armstrong, he loves to put his blogs on twitter, and he wants his chance. do you think they're good chances? >> he came out of retirement not supposed to compete in this, but he's a hair behind the lead. it was a disaster. four of the nine riders going off the road. count them, one, two -- where you going? come back. armstrong beginning the day just .22 seconds off the lead, but watch towards the finish. lance on the outside seems to let up a bit. had he pushed it at the finish, he could be leading right now, but instead, watch this, he kind

of adjusts his handlebars and what are you going to do. on ca. utah senator orrin hatch urging the justice department to investigate the bcs for possible violation of antitrust laws. now, the university of utah was shut out of january's title game despite being undefeated. florida topped oklahoma in a battle. in a house subcommittee hearing this year, one legislator asked the bcs to be changed to a playoff system. in case you are wondering it is official, it is okay to go to the bathroom during the singing of "god bless america" the judges ruled. a baseball fan settling his lawsuit against the yankees after he said he was kicked out of his game for leaving his seat during a song. he will receive $10,000 for his pain and suffering. >> poor pregnant women, too. >> emergencies, you can go. hey, will we see twitter updates from nfl huddles? chad ochocinco says he plans to

tweet during games but the nfl hasn't signed off on that just yet. in april, some teams were posting their draft picks on twitter before they were officially announced. we will see what the nfl does about tweeting. >> yeah. >> coming up this fall. >> people doing so much work on the side, everywhere seems like these days. >> can't escape it. >> thanks, larry. check in with bob van dillen for today's air travel updates, something you might want to tweet b. >> so far, so good. see thundershowers develop when you get into places like boston later today. the visibility is down right now, but how about the delays for the day? what it looks like on saber flight explorer, thunderstorms out there for florida. mco, orlando, tpa, tampa, jax, top of your screen, jacksonville a line of thundershowers between those cities. going to give you a delay a, unfortunately. here is what we have for the day. one hour or more, boston, and jacksonville to orlando, half hour. more on that in a bit. some stores like to run christmas in july sales even

just to drum up extra business. when the bucket goes out this time of year, people are in desperate need.