calling for hazy skies and smoke and respiratory problems will be an issue in this area. warm temperatures through the weekend. wind will be light. no relief in terms of rain. here is our big weather-maker, the one we ll be watching over the weekend. that yes, it could affect florida and more and more looking like this system will affect florida. what extremity, you know, when exactly it he is going to move in, still, really up for discussion. there is your latest track as of 11:00, moments ago. still at 45 miles an hour, sustained winds. still a tropical storm. moving westward at 21 miles an hour per hour. we re expecting this to come a hurricane as it comes very close and brushes the island of hispaniola. looks like it will move over cuba. by sunday, still remaining a very strong tropical storm. waters here along the florida straits, 90 degrees. that is the fuel that this storm really needs to strengthen. we do indeed think this will
boy were they amazing. welcome to early start, i m zoraida sambolin. and i m john berman. 5:00 a.m. in the east. what we re all talking about is morning is politics. after 36 hours joined at the hip, mitt romney and his new running mate are going their separate ways today. the former massachusetts governor says he s happy with his new teammate. at one point, ryan teared up with emotion during a stop in wisconsin. on 60 minutes, romney praised his vp pick for being a lot like him. of course, the president is weighing in, too. this is a man who s dedicated the last 14 years working in washington in ways that are not highly partisan. this is a man who s also analytical. he s a policy guy. people know him as a policy guy. that s one of the reasons he has such respect on both sides of the aisle. i m a policy guy, believe it or not. i love policy. i love solving tough problems. congressman ryan is a decent man. he is a family man. he s an articulate spokesman for gove
puerto rico, showing some of the damage left behind. the wind knocked over trees. we have the latest on hurricane irene s path. and where it is right now. hi, nick. those pictures by the way were when irene was a tropical storm. a minimal hurricane 80 miles per hour but expected to get stronger. its location 105 miles weft northwest on san juan, puerto rico. there are hurricane warns for the dominican republic and turks and caicos. probably just skirting the northern coast of the island of hispaniola. this is critical. if the center stays out over open water, we re going to have a stronger hurricane on our hands than if it went directly over land. but we ll continue to see it strengthening all the way up into the bahamas near florida by the latter part of the week.
pretty good title for a new column. it ll be interesting to see if we talk about the tea party in the next ten years, something we can t predict at this point, ramesh, but it s nice to have your insights today. thank you so much for joining us. you re welcome. rick: well, tropical storm emily breaking you have after soaking the island of hispaniola. the storm dumped more than 5 inches of rain on the island shared by haiti and the dominican republic. that rainfall yesterday. and now the biggest concern is flooding and mudslides, especially for thousands of haitians who are still living in tents after the earthquake in january of 2010. the national hurricane center has canceled all hurricane watches and warnings. jenna: on, really, the complete opposite spectrum, parts of texas and the southern plains are in desperate need of rain all while battling record-breaking heat. the crippling lack of rain is becoming worse because of triple-digit temperatures. forecasters are now saying the dr
developments on wall street. the dow takes a plunge, wiping out its gains for the year amid signs of a weakening u.s. economy and concerns abroad. plus, virginia tech in lockdown. police searching for an alleged gunman on campus. all that plus the faa funding fight. lawmakers pointing fingers as 70,000 workers wonder how are they going to get paid. see you in 15 minutes right here on andrea mitchell reports. tropical storm emily is battering the island of hispaniola right now, unleashing fierce rain on haiti and the dominican republic as it heads closer to the united states. let s get a check on the storm s path from the weather channel s nick walker. nick, first of all, how s it looking there over the island? reporter: it could be devastating. we re looking at heavy rainfall, perhaps six to 12 inches could fall over the dominican republic and haiti and maybe in the mountains of the dominican republic. we re talking as much as 20 inches of rain. that s bad news because this is