Wave thats gripping the nation as some 130 million americans continue to bake in some of the hottest temperatures of the year. While the heat wave may be more than half over, misery, yeah, has plenty of company on wednesday. Nbcs tom costello starts us off. Reporter tis the season but boy, is it hot outside. Add in the humidity and the heat indices are at or near 100. From the lakeshores of chicago to minneapolis. From the carolinas to new england. I come out thinking im going to run as far as i usually do, but then i hit the heat and think, let me scale that down a little bit. Reporter in new york two children and nine firefighters were taken to area hospitals after a fire in suffocating temperatures last night. It has vapor barriers that keep the heat in so we have to relieve quite often and make sure we hydrate them. We have this dome of High Pressure which means this air is sinking. Reporter 45 states experiencing temperatures in the 90s or above, many cities five to ten degrees above average. New york city could see the longest stretch of 90degree weather in 11 years. Even hotter for the guys working the city food carts. Terrible. Really i sweat like a chicken, you know . We need to drink a lot of water. Reporter after three days of extreme heat in d. C. , doctors at Medstar Washington Hospital Center are starting to see heatstroke patients. Whether youre a worker with physical exertion or an athlete, you have to take water breaks and cooling breaks and get out of the sun. Reporter crews now say they can fix a water main without turning off the water. Meanwhile, out on the streets, making a buck means sweating a bucket. I need sunscreen, sunglasses, this hat and gatorade, man. Reporter this is david landermans first week pedaling a cab. Not the best timing there. That was nbcs tom costello reporting. Extreme heat out west is adding fuel to a large and growing wildfire in southern california. The socalled mountain fire outside palm springs grew to more than 30 square miles on wednesday. Thousands of homes are threatened and hundreds of residents have been forced to flee. Nearly 3,000 firefighters and 25 aircraft are battling that blaze. Authorities say its about 15 contained. Once again, republicans are trying to chip away at obama care. And despite a veto threat, the house passed bills calling for oneyear delays in two key provisions. One requiring nearly all americans to purchase insurance. The other, mandating businesses to offer it. Now both are scheduled to kick in come january. The administration has already put off the component for employers. President obama will deliver a speech later today on the benefits of the law. The fight over obama care goes on. There is good news for the tens of millions of americans with student loans. Congressional sources tell nbc news a Bipartisan Senate deal is in place to lower Interest Rates. Those rates doubled to 6. 8 earlier this month after congress couldnt come up with a deal. The bill reportedly includes a cap on both federal stafford and plus loans. And the relatively low rate peg 2 treasury notes. A dispute over fees could dramatically increase the cost of the u. S. Withdrawal from afghanistan. The Washington Post reports the issue resides with the flow of u. S. Military equipment across afghan borders. Because of this dispute, the flow has stopped. And commanders are relying more heavily on air transport which spikes the cost. If the conflict is left unresolved, the post reports the price tag of the drawdown could surge by hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars. Afghanistans Customs Agency says the u. S. Owes them 70 million in fines already. There is hopeful news out of south africa where Nelson Mandela is steadily improving today, which is his 95th birthday. It is a milestone in itself. But its one that takes on a special meaning this year. Ron allen is in pretoria, south africa with more on this. Good morning, ron. Reporter good morning, betty. This is the scene outside the hospital in pretoria where Nelson Mandela recovers. Day 41 of his hospitalization now. There are hundreds upon hundreds of people gathering here to pay their respects to join the celebration and, of course, to sing happy birthday to mandela. Its also his wedding anniversary. The word from the hospital, from his family and others is his condition continues to improve, but hes still listed as critical and stable. The doctors say they were upgraup wont uch grade conditions until he recovers for a long time. Hes recovering from a severe lung infection. We expect the Mandela Family to arrive here to have the traditional family lunch. President jacob zuma was here. They sang the National Anthem and happy birthday. Everyone singing happy birthday everywhere. Today is International Mandela day around the world and the call is for people to do 67 minutes of community service. 67 being the number of years that Nelson Mandela dedicated to the struggle for human rights and freedom around the world. So here the celebration continues. Everyone remains hopeful that at some point soon Nelson Mandela will leave this hospital and be able to go home and continue his recovery. Now back to you. Thank you, ron allen. National mandela day. Back here in the states, can we celebrate with a break in this heat . Coast to coast, you never i can give you 1,000 guesses of the coolest temperatures in the big city was yesterday. I mean, think south. Think florida, think miami. No way. Really . It was cooler in miami . 78 degrees in miami. One of those wild, wacky days. In the northern half of the country its been hotter than the southern half during this heat wave. Miami with 78. Thats like the temperature l. A. Was yesterday but it wasnt raining in l. A. Much warmer in many other areas to the north. Almost 20 degrees warmer in new york city and washington, d. C. And the temperatures just havent cooled off. Thats the difference really with the west and the east. When the west goes through a heat wave, at least at night theres not a lot of humidity in the air so temperatures drop off. But in the east it hasnt cooled off because of all the humidity in the air. Heres how it looks. Still very hot today. We are going to see a cooldown for the Northern Plains and then the great lakes and then eventually towards the east coast. But thats not really going to help out a lot of the Intermountain West and rockies will remain on the warm side and the desert areas, too. No rain in sight for areas in the west. We have a couple fires that have also flared up which firefighters would love a little help with. Thats your national forecast. Now heres a look at the weather outside your window. So today in many areas of california, oregon and washington, another dry day. Another pretty warm if not hot day. Some spots even a little warmer than yesterday. Red bluff almost mid100s. As we head towards the upcoming weekend, it looks like a few spots will even get a little warmer. Lucky us. Thank you, bill. Just ahead, big ben chimes in on the u. S. Economy. And the 92 quadrilliondollar mistake. Have you seen it. Plus why this Rolling Stone may gather some moss. And why Queen Elizabeth doesnt want to be kept waiting. A live report from london. Welcome back. Here are some other stories making news today. According to the aclu, Police Across the country are using automatic cameras to scan license plates to help solve crimes. Now the Organization Claims millions of innocent americans are having their information stored in these Location Tracking systems. At least 25 children in india are dead after being poisoned by a school meal on tuesday. The tragedy has triggered violent protests as people demand answers. Medical teams currently suspect the food was contaminated with insecticide. And unmanned airforce drone crashed in florida wednesday as it attempted to take off. No one was hurt, but police were forced to close a nearby highway. Late last night, a wild fire broke out at an indiana Fireworks Store as you can see. Fireworks erupted overhead. Can you imagine these fire crews trying to put out that blaze . They did, and there are no reports of injuries. The six jurors in the George Zimmerman trial received mani and pedis, went to the movie and spent time bowling during their sequester. They were closely monitored to make sure they did not receive any outside information about the case. The total cost of the sequester was about 33,000 bucks. New york city mayor Michael Bloomberg is continuing his crusade against unhealthy living. Hes urging new yorkers to take the stairs. Yeah, even going so far as to have Architects Design more stair centric buildings for the future. Yeah, try taking those stairs in this heat wave. Not so fun. For an early look at business we turn to hampton pearson. Good morning. Stokd posted small gains wednesday following comments by ben bernanke that while the fed may start cutting back, an Interest Rate hike isnt coming in the near future. Intel and ebay reported disappointing earns. Microsoft, google, yahoo and facebook sending a letter to president obama and congress today. They are urging the government to be more transparent on its secret surveillance programs. The economy it turns out may impact how much families spend on backtoschool shopping this year. The National Retail federation estimates people will spend an average of 635 on clothes and supplies, down from 688 last year. An early look at some business headlines. Back to you. Thank you hampton. Cvs and walgreens are among at least five retailers dropping Rolling Stones latest issue. Thats amid outrage over boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appearing on the cover. Exactly how much is 92 quadrillion . Take a look. You may never see it again because its enough to make that guy the richest person in the world. One pennsylvania man knows the feeling, but only just for a moment. Thats because paypal accidentally transferred 92 quadrillion dollars into his account. Alas, they quickly realized the error and returned the balance to zero. Unfort funately for that guy. Tiger woods is gearing up to tee up. Is arod any closer to joining the yankees . Highlights and more next. All right. So any day now, we are expecting the birth of the royal baby. And the hype is reaching absolute fever pitch. Nbcs Danielle Leigh is outside buckingham palace. Good morning. So i can only imagine the preparations being made for babys arrival. Reporter betty, good morning. There are quite a bit of preparations going on. Of course, the media is here, ready, watching and waiting for that big moment. At buckingham palace, i cant walk around without people asking me, when is this baby coming . What do you know . Its here that the official announcement will be received and then posted. And then, of course, a massive celebration that will follow. That is all in the works. Over at st. Marys hospital where kate is expected to give birth, they are readying a private room and a private wing. Were told it could look Something Like a wing picture in this brochure that the window link has put up. Could look somewhat like this. Maybe altered a little bit. But it is getting ready. And outside of the hospital, there are crowds of people watching and waiting, hoping to get a glimpse of kate arriving or leaving. Many royal fans who can just not wait to see this royal baby. This is something that the entire country can really rally around. Much like we rally around the fourth of july is what historians are telling me. And they are so eager for this babys arrival. Even the royal family is getting excited. The queen told some schoolkids that she is ready for this baby to come just yesterday. Do you want kates baby to be a boy or girl. I dont think i mind. I would very much like it to arrive. Im going on holiday. Reporter of course, everyone thought that kate was going to have this baby on saturday. That was almost a week ago now. So everyone is guessing as the watching and waiting continues. No telling when this baby is going to come but i can tell you there will be a celebration afterwards fit for a king or a queen. Live in london, im Danielle Leigh. The queen cracks me up. Shes going on holiday. Can this baby just hurry up and get here . Thank you danielle. The latest in sports tiger woods and other top golfers are teeing off at the british open in scotland. This is the 16th time the course has hosted the championship. Lindsey von is in scotland with tiger woods but she told vogue magazine shes not getting married again to anyone. No wedding bells in the future she says. Vonn is still recovering from injuries but plans to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics in russia. Also rehabbing yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez who will play in aaa this weekend. He hopes to rejoin the yankees monday in texas. And you may remember jack hoffmans touchdown run at nebraskas spring football game. At the espys last night that was named the best moment of the year and of course jack was there to accept the award. This is super duper awesome. Thanks for the trophy. Im glad that you are all now on team jack, and i know with you we cant lose, thanks. Announcer early todays sports brought to you by just for men autostop. Gray is over. Just ahead, weve got a preview of the emmy nominations and the list of hollywoods highest paid actors is out. Youll never guess who made 75 million bucks. Welcome back. A lot of sunshine once again today. And the only rain well see or even storms for that matter in the Intermountain West with afternoon convection and thunderstorms. As far as temperature goes, today is going to be warm if not hot. Salt lake city, boise, nevada, interior sections of Washington State and also through oregon and idaho. The coastal areas, not bad today. Beautiful day in the northwest once again. Still, i mentioned miami was one of the cooler spots yesterday. Still wasnt as cool as San Francisco. Youre stuck in this pattern with the onshore flow into friday. Notice how hot it gets into boise. Maybe an offshore wind for a change in San Francisco when they get a little warmer there. Right through the weekend, still upper 60s. I didnt see a sharknado anywhere on that map. No, are we sponsored by sharknado now . Stay tuned. In entertainment news, the syfy network has another perfect storm brewing. The channel has green lit sharknado 2. This time the big fish are taking a big bite out of, of course, the big apple. Where else . Robert downey jr. s starring role in iron man 3 and a new contract for two avenger sequels launched him to the top of the forbes 2013 list of highest paid actors. With an estimated 75 million in earnings. Doesnt that sound good. He is followed by magic mikes channing tatum, hugh jackman, mark walburg and dwayne the rock johnson. Over 40 million each. Much better than us. And a cutting edge web series could crash the party at the emmy nominations are announced this season. For the first time house of cards and arrested development are expected to be in the running for gold statuettes, along with cable and broadcast network shows. I think thats a good idea because theres some really good shows out there. Have you ever watched a show that only aired online . No. Neither have i. Well, i arrested Development Though because the only ones are out on netflix. I guess the answer is yes. Im betty ngyuen. This is early today. We hope its just your first stop of the day on nbc. Leading the news in usa today, housing recovery leaves millennials behind. High unemployment and debt loads are just some of the factors that have led to a decreasability to save for a down payment or even qualify for a mortgage. And from bbc news, stolen picasso and monet art burned in romanian oven. Say it isnt so. Unfortunately, a woman has admitted to torching masterpieces taken from a dutch gallery last year to cover up for her son. There is some hopeful news from south africa. Nelson mandela is steadily improving today, which is his 95th birthday. That, according to a statement from the office of president jacob zuma. It is a milestone in itself. But it is one that takes a special meaning this year for a nation praying for their former president since his hospitalization on june 8th for a lung infection. And they are everywhere. Yes, Police Cameras capturing, storing and sharing data on license plates, possibly yours. Allowing authorities to track your movements with a few legal restrictions. Thats according to the aclu. And in sequester, what did the jury of six women who determined George Zimmermans fate do during the 21 days of close monitoring . They got manicures, went to movies and even took in a little bowling. Well, a group of domino enthusiasts were trying to break the world record for most dominos toppled in a spiral. But they went above and beyond the old record. Check it out. They stacked over 270,000 dominos that they top that is so pretty. They toppled including planes, pyramids. They made it much more than just your typical dominos. How do they not fall down by mistake . You have to set them up so quickly. Can you imagine the trial and error of that. I would get shaky hands. You dont want me doing surgery. Lets put it that way. A congressional hearing on the irs controversy. The treasury departments jay Russell George will be asked why he his report did not mention scrutiny of progressive groups. Texas governor rick perry will host a ceremony today to sign the new law that may close most abortion clinics in texas. Also happy birthday to vin diesel. Hes 46 today. Singer Martha Reeves famous for heat wave which were experiencing, turns 72. And astronaut and senator john glenn is 92. Heres whats coming up later on today. Trayvon martins parents talk about the verdict. Im betty ngyuen. Thanks for watching early today. Have a good one. And that breaking news, a 7yearold girl is dead today shot to death overnight in her own home and oakland. Her grandmother and two other children in the house at the time were also shot. It is 4 30. Good morning. Im laura garciacannon. Good morning. Im marla tellez in for jon kelley. Police spent most of the night at this home on wilson avenue just across from interstate 580, from fruitvale elementary school. Today in the bays Christie Smith is outside Childrens Hospital in oakland where the two other children are being treated. She joins us now on the phone. Christie, at this point what have you learned . Reporter good morning. I can tell you were outside of chdr