i'm lynn berry. today we begin with building the bench. today we learn that president obama plans to select ee lae na kagan to the supreme court, an announcement from the white house is expected this morning. nbc's tracie potts is in washington with more. tracy, good morning. >> lynn, good morning. she argues cases for the government before the supreme court but she's never been a judge. we do understand that she will be the president's nominee to replace justice stevens. just a little bit of background about her resume. she was a former harvard law school dean, a professor, and also a graduate there, a clinton adviser, and she also was a clerk for justice thurgood marshall. now, because she's never been a judge, we don't know a lot about her history as you would with some other nominees in terms of what types of opinions she might render or contribute to, but she is considered a moderate. that's the way she's viewed at least of the four that we believe were intervieweded for this position. now, as i said, she'd be replacing justice john paul stephen who's considered the liberal leading voice on the court. but what they're looking for is no big fight during the election year. we do no last year seven republicans supported her. we'll hear more when the president is expected to make this announcement at 10:00 a.m. tracie, so much. u.s. attorney general eric holder flatly accused the pakistan taliban of training the defendant with the bombing on times square. the u.s. government now has evidence that the taliban helped plan and direct the failed plot. he said it was only a matter of time before they had evidence the radical group helped finance the bombing attempt. meanwhile holder also confirmed the administration is working with congress on a law which would allow investigators to immediately interrogate suspects without informing them of their rights even if they're american citizens. miranda rights established in a landmark 1966 supreme court ruling. it comes following republican criticism over the pakistani-born u.s. citizen shahzad initially being treated as a criminal dephone dent rather than as a military detainee. well, efforts to deal with the massive oil spill were dealt a big blow over the weekend when british petroleum's containment box clogged up with ice crystals on saturday and now it's anyone's guess what happens next while millions of gallons of oil continue to pour into the gulf. nbc's kristen dahlgren is in venice with the latest. good morning, kristen. >> reporter: good morning. they ice crystals clogging up the top of the pipe where it would have siphoned the oil. they have now come up with a plan b, another containment dome that they have been building, a smaller version. they call it the top hat because of its shape. they continue to build that. they are hoping tomorrow to get that finished and to get it deployed. they're hoping that that doesn't have the same type of problem with those slushy ice crystals building up, but we'll have to wait and see. they're also working on plan c, what they call a jump shot, directing mud and concrete into the leak. that could be two to three weeks as oil is starting to wash up in tar-like balls only son baalaba beaches, lynn. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in louisiana, a bus carrying victoriousmyle school students from a band competition caught fire and became engulfed with flames within minutes. thankfully all of the students got off the bus safely but they did lose all of their instrument and the first place trophy they just won. officials in southern new jersey believe an abandoned camp fire was responsible for a forest fire that burned 450 acre this weekend. the same high winds that pummeled the area over the weekend thankfully blew the fire away from nearby homes. one firefighter sustained minor injuries. a hiker in northern california is recovering after being stranded on a remote beach without food or water for five days. the 50-year-old man sustained injuries after falling from a nearby cliff and was luckily spotted by a fishing boat. he was later rescued by the coast guard. and in philadelphia, open tryouts were held yesterday for the philadelphia passion, one of the ten teams making up the lingerie football league. ladies from new jersey and pennsylvania came out in very little to compete for a spot on the 2010 roster. the league began in 2009. >> and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning, bill. >> thanks, lynn. i feel scared now. it was a little scary. let's chat about the chilly temperatures. lynn was mentioning the winds from the northeast. it was incredible from the great lakes to new england. the winds were gusting from 40 to 50 miles an hour. the temperatures plummeted and everyone was going where is my warm spring. it continues this morning. it is jacket weather. hopefully you still have those gloves around, maybe even the hats for the kids because they'll need it today from the ohio, great lakes, through new england. we also have a big storm in the middle of the country and this will take the headlines later this sboochb the evening. a severe weather outbreak, possibly a tornado outbreak in oklahoma, kansas, and possibly missouri and arkansas. currently the rain is in areas of arkansas. here's where the high risk is. again, northeast oklahoma, southern kansas, that's the possibility of large long track tornados later on this afternoon toward tonight. the east coast is chilly and sunny. it's the middle of the country that we're going to have to watch out for the bad storms. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. sunny in raleigh and also pittsburgh today. look at raleigh, north carolina. remember last week when you were in the low 90s? today only in the upper 50s. it's another chilly day up in new england. lynn, we'll talk more about the severe weather outbreak later in the show. european nations pony up, the feds off help and so far the markets are calmer. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, you knew "iron man 2" was going to smash its way this weekend but did it smashny records. >> the sun sets on is spurs and gulf was a pain in the neck for tiger woods. you're watching "early today." good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. singer lena horn, the pie neerg black actress who broke racial barriers as a hollywood and broadway star has died at age 92. famous for her sultry remember diggs of the song "stormy weather," she broke into a career in the 1930s that would take her from singing in the jazz and nightclubs from the big screen and then onto broadway. later on horn became a voice for civil rights. >> flights out of europe are being canceleded once again because of iceland's volcano. still delays are not as bad as the ones that led to last month's travel chaos. federal investigators say that no engine alarm sounded before staten island ferry slammed this weekend. two s impact but two others were still running. the crash involved the same ferry that slammed into a pier in 2003 killing 11 people. city officials believe a mechanical error was to blame for this weekend's incident. and even before babies can talk, it turns out they may be able to tell the difference between good and evil. in a recent experiment involving puppets 6-month-old babies showdown a preference for good helpful characters and rejected unhelpful ones rejecting the idea that human beings are born with blank states. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 10,380. the s&p is shed 17 points, the nasdaq fell 54 points. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei went up 166 points while in hong kong the hang seng gained a whopping 506 points. political posturing and soothing words failed to convince investors last week that greece's financial implosion could be contained so this weekend european leaders were showing the money. the european union and the international monetary fund pledged nearly a trillion dollars to defend the embattled euro hoping to turn back financial attacks against greece and the euro zone owes other weakened nations and continue the growth of the economic recovery. federal banks including the federal reserve joined the effort to prevent the debt croesus from derailing. the fed reopened a program to ship billions overseas in a bid to pump more short-term cash into the financial system and to make sure banks have the dollars they need. so far it all seems to be soothing markets. the euro rose in asian trade and asian stock markets one up across the board. overnight u.s. stock futures jumped up substantially suggesting a comeback. other positive signs, oil rose more than 2% on hopes the eu plan will calm jitters and lead to higher energy demand. gold, the safe alternative to stocks, fell overnight down from a record high on friday. still, there are no answers as to what exactly caused last week's frightening plunge in stock prices, and the heads of the leading u.s. markets have some explaining to do. they've been called to washington for an emergency meeting today with the chairmen of the securities and exchange commission. finally maryland police investigating a recent armed robbery call confronted the victim when they found conflicting stories. he indicated that his cell phone was out of minutes and 911 was the only number he could still call. turns out he made the whole thing up because he wanted to get a ride home. not a smart idea. well, the suns torch the spurs, the celtics even up with the cavs, and tiger calls it quits. plus a guy from oakland named dallas does something only 18 other guys have ever done in major league baseball. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. tornado alley will live up to its reputation later on this afternoon. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports a virtual unknown, this morning oakland a's pitcher is only the 19th player in major league history to pitch a perfect game. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. it would have to be a really big story to lead with something other than the nba playoffs. well, it wasn't only big, it was perfect. we'll go to oakland. the a's dallas braden pitched a perfect game. he shut down the highly potent tampa bay rays. 27 up, 27 down, memorable mother's day for braden whose grandmother was in attendance. she raced him since his mother lost a battle with cancer. now to the nba playoffs, suns and spurs, steve nash till ak elbow above the eye in the third quarter, left the game, received six stitches, and came back. nash pulled up and drill add three to give phoenix the league. moments later with his eye shut he was able toll find stoudemire for the bucket. he was a one-eyed wonder. the suns are heading to the western conference finals after sweeping the spurs 107-101. to boston where it was rashon rondo and his show. no look behind the back to tony. that was incredible. rondo had 13 assists. the celts pulled away in the final minutes. celts up five, and rashon finished off the cavs with a rebound and putback, 29 points, 18 boards. he's a point guard and has a triple-double in this one. celts won it, 97-87. clark won the championship by a stroke. that's not what people are talking about. that would be tiger woods. he withdrew from the tourney at 7. the reason, unbearable neck pain that he fears is a bulging disk. tiger had been playing with the injury since he returned last month. he'll have an mri sometime this week. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. well, with mothers still fresh in our minds whork's the craziest mom in hollywood? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, it is their home that's been trashed, it's their backyard these been ruined. helping the wildlife of the gulf coast. you're watching "early today." welcome back on this monday morning. hope you had a wonderful weekend, especially all you moms out there. today's going to be a strong day. we could see tornadoes on the ground for a long time. the target area is northeast oklahoma. so if you're from oklahoma city to wichita to kansas city to springfield, missouri, anywhere in between, especially interstate 44, that is the danger zone later this afternoon into the night. the rest of the country, the east coast has a cold start and sunny afternoon. the northern plains into areas of iowa, you're going to see a lot of rain over the next couple of days. if you're watching us on wxia, tv 11 in atlanta, georgia, meet the outback's very own red kangaroo who can hop up to speeds of 40 miles an hour and leap 29 feet at zoo atlanta. that's your "early today" event of the day, lynn. that's a big fence. >> what, bill? say it ain't so. well, now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. "iron man 2 yts rocketed impressive throw the top of the box office this weekend but failed to break the all-time opening record starring robert downey jr. as the gadget-happy billion air super hero. "iron man 2" earned more than $132 million in the opening weekend. in doing so it notched the fifth biggest opening of all time. already a hit overseas, "iron man 2" has made over $327 million worldwide. and one last note on mother's day. hollywood's scoop.com lists the craziest hollywood moms. number five goes to joan riverses for making daughter melissa thinking surgery is not optional but necessary. number four, sarah palin. number three courtney love whose daughter frances bean went to live with grandma. number two goes to so-called octomom, nadya suleman, and the number one most crazy hollywood mother, dina lohan for reasons that need another be explained. and this comes to us from ft. jackson, louisiana, where rescue crews are on the ground and ready to help sol of the feathered victims of gulf oil spill. volunteers armed with dish soap and hoses are ready to start cleaning the oil slick pelicans and birds. while only four birds have been brown in, more are expected to come in as the slick moves ashore and rescue areas are being set up for mississippi, alabama, and florida. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station. may day, may day, where did spring go? after a windy weekend, there's a chill in the air this monday morning. good morning to you. >> welcome to new 4 today for this monday, may 10th, 2010 it is chilly out there. only 36 degrees. >> tom kierein joins news the new rooms. >> last week, we were forwarding to summer, this morning rewinding back to winter. frederick is at 39 degrees. sterling now 38. that's out near dulles airport, down to 39 in manassas and culpeper. charlottesville at 40 degrees in the central shenandoah valley, mid 30s as well as the northern shenandoah valley and the panhandle of west virginia, the mid 30s. don't have reports of frost, though. closer to washington, prince george's county, in the mid 40s. 46 at reagan national. in the low and mid 40s in montgomery county. fairfax county, arlington county, in the low 40s at this time. southern maryland right around the bay, in the mid to upper 40s. away from the waters on the eastern shore, temperatures there are on right around 40 degrees. out in the mountains, there is a freeze this morning. western maryland and west virginia, many locations have dipped down below freezing into the upper 20s in many locations this morning. there is some frost there.