a spa and gym. we'll take you inside on this "american morning." good morning to you. thanks so much for being with us on this thursday, may 26th. welcome back. what a whirlwind few days it's been for you right there in the heart of what's going on joplin, missouri. >> it continues. and more bad weather. >> another night of meteorological mayhem as tornadoes wreaked through the region. from louisiana to the great lakes. oklahoma's governor declaring a state of emergency in 68 counties hit by tornadoes. this video taken by storm chasers is about as close as you can get. 16 people were killed in the latest round of storms. >> in memphis tornado warnings ringing out again last night, the sirens sounding. you can hear them there as the sky grows darker by the minute. an ominous sky, a funnel cloud that was in the distance. the national weather service warned people in memphis as well as nashville to take shelter and in some cases to evacuate. >> right there, you got it. we've got a photo. >> and that funnel clouds spotted as far west as california, believe it or not, in the town of durham in the central part of the state. severe weather knows no bounds. >> in joplin, the search for tornado victims goes on. an estimated 1500 people are unaccounted for. city officials say many may have been out of town when the twister hit or they left right after. that list is being created as they try to reconnect with those who might have fled the town. >> it may sound worse than it is. state officials will release a list of people still unaccounted for. that does not mean definitely missing. again, the cell service and other issues -- >> it is hard to communicate. they'll make a distinction between those people missing and those who haven't been able to be reached. casey wian is live for us in joplin. casey, this is as people start to find out the condition of their homes and where their loved ones are. >> yeah, ali. you were here. you know how bad it is. imagine surviving one of the worst tornadoes in u.s. history by hanging on to a couple of dog crates while you're home collapses around and on top of you. a beautiful house in a joplin, missouri, suburb reduced to a memory. p it belonged to jim and stacy richards who are just now telling a harrowing tale of survival. jim was at work. i started to come home. i got a text from my wife. first couple were gibberish. then finally came through saying help, roof under. >> then came a desperate voice mail from stacy. jim hasn't been able to bring limbs to listen to all of it until now. [ screams ] >> help! there was this kind of pressure in my ears, and the next thing i know was dirt and grit and stuff was hitting me in the face. i realized that the roof was coming off. >> she was in between those two kennels. >> those two kennels, yes. tried to have one hand on top of each, one on each. >> i could feel the dog's crate lifting up, so i got on the floor and i was holding the dog crates and i had one other dog under my arm. and things started to land on me. and i actually did get trapped. i remember thinking the next thing that lands on me, i'm going to probably die. >> reporter: stacy was pinned for about 20 minutes unable to contact her husband or son. >> my son texted me and said, are you okay? it was the most awful thing because i couldn't tell him no, i'm not. and that was awful. laying there, screaming and screaming and screaming. it was horrible. >> reporter: stacy and her three dogs survived, rescued by a neighbor. >> i have no idea how she walked out of this. >> reporter: battered and bruised, she still has a sense of humor. >> no, i didn't feel like dorothy in kansas. i felt like stacy in joplin with a house ripping off the foundations. >> reporter: they took refuge in a local hotel. and during around round of tornado warnings tuesday night. the next morning jim met with his insurance company to assess the damage. >> we've got everything. two bedroom and two bath. we'll get them paid either today or tomorrow. >> reporter: the richards haven't decided whether they're going to use those insurance proceeds to rebuild or relocate. what they have decided is the next house they live in definitely going to have a basement so they have better protection from tornados in the future. >> as we saw while we were there, those with basements just had a better chance -- a substantially better chance of surviving. those flat to the ground, the houses were just gone. casey, we'll check in with you later. let's check in with rob marciano. we've been talking for days that seems like one area after another is under the gun. how about today? >> today looks lighter than the last two days. last night was no picnic, as you know. 81 reports of tornadoes yesterday. from what we can tell no fatalities. that in itself a small miracle. it is rotating slowly off to the east. the only watch and warnings that we've seen so far this morning. down across texas. there you go, corpus christi. a little cell there that was at one point severe. that's been allowed to expire. that thunderstorm watch stays in effect for the next few hours. here's the main system itself. centered over minneapolis. you can see it elongating. it's beginning to weaken somewhat, but the threat for severe weather will exist mostly to the east of louisville and up to charleston. along the appalachians. as it progresses eastward, it will get weaker still. nonetheless, 2:00, 3:00, the usual time period of the highlighted area in red, that's where we thing the severe weather will break out. possibility of tornadoes but the way the winds are set up today, not as good of a chance as we've seen the last two days. that's certainly hopeful. but a number of -- hundreds of severe weather reports yesterday with damage as well. but luckily as far as we can see right now, no significant injury or fatalities. we'll keep you updated on last night's situation and today throughout the morning. >> rob marciano in the extreme weather center. confused, irrational and unfit for trial. that's part of a federal judge's ruling on suspected arizona gunman jared lee loughner. >> he's accused of shooting congresswoman gabrielle giffords and shooting six others. the hearing was brought to a brief halt with bizarre outbursts in court. one reporter heard him say, quote, thank you for the freak show. >> ted rowlands was there when it happened. he's live for us in tucson this morning. a very bizarre courtroom appearance as we said. what ended up happening, ted? >> reporter: well, kiran, it was a very dramatic day in court. loughner was pulled out of court because of his outbursts and this happened just moments before the judge in the case ruled that he was unfit to stand trial. jared loughner was pulled from his chair and dragged out of the courtroom by u.s. marshals during a mental competency hearing wednesday in tucson. it happened following an outburst from loughner who sounded like he said, thank you for the freak show. federal judge larry burns then ruled he was incompetent to stand trial for the january shooting rampage. the judge agreed with two mental health evaluation of loughner that concluded he doesn't understand what's going on in court and can't help in his own defense. he'll spend a few months in a mental health facility where prosecutors say they're confident he can be helped enough to stand trial. >> our goal has always been and will always be to go to trial in this case. we're prepared to go to trial. >> reporter: loughner pleaded not guilty to 49 charges. the shooting rampage outside a safeway wounded congresswoman gabrielle giffords, causing brain damage and killed six people including a federal judge and 9-year-old christina taylor green. several of the victims were in court, some clearly upset with the ruling, others said they agreed with the judge. >> you don't have to be a professional psychiatrist to know that the boy is disturbed. >> reporter: criminal defense attorney greg kirkendal says there's a good chance he'll be able to stand trial. but a jury may send him to a mental hospital instead of prison. >> he's clearly got a diminished mental capacity right now. i think there's a strong argument that he had a deeply diminished mental capacity at the time of the crimes. >> reporter: we reached out to gabrielle giffords' office for comment, they say they're not commenting on this at all. they haven't commented on loughner up until now. they don't plan to start with this ruling. loughner will go to springfield, missouri, for a few months, then expected back in court in september. >> ted rowlands for us this morning. thanks so much. >> the question is what happens now with loughner. can he be rehabilitated? can he face trial? we'll take a closer look at this at 7:10. sunny hostin and clinical psychologist dr. jeff gardere will be here. president obama left london overnight touching down in france an hour ago for two days of meetings at the g-8 summit. leaders will be tackling issues like europe's debt crisis, america's budget deficit and global inflation and food prices. >> as expected the senate rejected the house republican budget plan put forth by congressman paul ryan. 40 republicans voted yes for the measure which includes a big point of contention, a provision to overhaul medicare. votes that are sure to make their way into campaign commercials in the next cycle. justice for elizabeth smart. brian david mitchell sentenced to life behind bars. the homeless street preacher was convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting smart in 2002. the horrifying ordeal lasted noorly nine months. yesterday smart faced her abduct are in court and said though she could never get those nine months back, she was confident that mitchell would be punished. >> i told him today in court whether he received his just sentence here on earth or after this earth life that one day he'll have to be responsible for his actions. >> smart said she couldn't be happier with the sentence. new research showing an alarming problem among young adults. 20% of 22 to 34-year-olds have high blood pressure. that's a much higher number than once thought. over half have no idea that they have hypertension. high blood pressure's linked to early heart disease and stroke. a dangerous situation. >> it is not always obvious to someone that they have. >> especially for young people. >> stores about giving blood thinners to kids at ages as young as 8 because of diet and lack of movement. it's a dangerous trend. people keeping your hand unusually clean with hand sanitizer. repeated use of alcohol based hand sanitizers can lead to a positive urine test for high alcohol levels. >> if you drink it or use it on your hands? >> it goes in through the skin. but researchers say hand sanitizers don't impair you in any way. most women would pay almost anything to be beautiful. a research poll found that nearly 25% of women would turn down winning a million dollars in the lottery -- >> in exchange for david beckham? >> not -- for their dream body. we're talking about j. lo's curves or beyonce or halle berry's figure. >> the poll asked the question beauty or age. almost half of women polled said that they would rather be their ideal weight and five years younger. by the way, whoever cut this, i love the pictures. >> we're trying to whet your appetite here. here's the question of the day. which would you pick, the perfect body or a million dollars? the perfect body for life. >> and we don't know if it's a million dollars before or after taxes. >> don't overcomplicate the question. would you rather have a perfect body for life or a million bucks. >> or a million post-tax dollars. send us an e-mail, tweet, find us on facebook. we've all made our discussions. >> yeah. >> let's say a million dollars in small bills tax-free. >> a million clean bucks voirs the perfect body for life. that's settled. lawyers for john edwards are defiant in the face of possible federal charges. we'll give you the latest on the john edwards' legal saga. dominique strauss-kahn, as we know, he left the one pad and now has a luxurious new apartment on -- it was on the real estate sites for, what was it, 14 million bucks? >> wow. >> if you can pay for it, i guess you can do it. ♪ when it's planes in the sky ♪ ♪ for a chain of supply, that's logistics ♪ ♪ when the parts for the line ♪ ♪ come precisely on time ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ a continuous link, that is always in sync ♪ ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ there will be no more stress ♪ ♪ cause you've called ups, that's logistics ♪ i want you tonight! [ female announcer ] wish granted. lean cuisine has a fresh new bag. lean cuisine market creations steam meals. like new chicken poblano with tender white meat chicken, crisp veggies, in a savory cheddar sauce. new from lean cuisine. yet an instant classic." with sports car styling and power, plus the refinement and space of a luxury sedan, the jaguar xf is a timeless blend of performance and craftsmanship. see how jaguar outperforms the competition at jaguarperforms.com or visit your local jaguar dealer. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. lawyers for john edwards defiant in the face of possible federal charges. >> what prosecutors are claiming is that the former presidential candidate used campaign money to pay off his former mistress rielle hunter so she'd keep quiet about their affair and the baby he admitted fathering. >> an indictment for a plea deal could come very soon. jim acosta is live in washington with the latest on the long legal struggle that's been going on behind the scenes. a lot of people may think this has come out of the blue, but this has been going on for a very long time. >> reporter: this has been going on for months and months, years and years really since that book came out from one of edwards' former staffers andrew young which laid out the government's case. cnn has reported on this, that the government has given the green light to federal prosecutors to seek some kind of indictment in this case. what is going on behind the scenes right now is that advisers to john edwards and john edwards himself are sort of debating whether or not it makes sense to go forward with the trial. or somehow try to get out of this situation he's in, try to come up with a plea agreement that will satisfy federal authorities. it's not clear at this point whether or not that's going to work out. and there was a pretty glaring statement that came out from john edwards's attorney, a powerful attorney here in washington, greg craig who essentially said that the government is not putting together a very strong case, essentially saying that this is really an fec matter and to lay it out for you, this is what the government is looking at, based on some of the claims coming from andrew young. and that is that campaign money from various donors to john edwards -- and we have sort of a graphic that can lay this out for you -- campaign money from john edwards' donors somehow went to rielle hunt are to keep her affair with john edwards quiet. some of those donors have been contacted by various reporters over the years. they have said through their attorneys they did not know that money was going to rielle hunter. but last night, yesterday, late in the day, greg craig, john edwards' attorney put out a statement. i want to read it for you. it's pretty interesting. actually quite emotional statement. john edwards has done wrong in his life and he knows that better than anyone, but he did not break the law. the government's theory is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. that from greg craig. they really feel like if you were talking about campaign contribution, we're talking about donations going to john edwards, then this is really a matter for the fec, the federal elections commission, and not a matter for federal prosecutors. guys? >> jim, thanks very much. it's a complex story but one you're on top of. we'll follow it with you. thanks, jim acosta. coming up, we're all kind of fascinated by the new digs that dominique strauss-kahn -- >> because it's far cry from rikers island. >> yes. luxurious digs. >> the monthly rental on a place like this is more than a average family makes in a year. when you think about what money it takes to put yourself in a big townhouse in tribeca. we'll talk about that. do you have these credit cards in your wallet? because you don't want them. [ male announcer ] in 2011, at&t is at work, building up our wireless network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download, we're covering more people in more places than ever before in an effort to give you the best network possible. at&t. rethink possible. [ laughs ] not funny. act my age? -why? -why? -why? i love the sun. past sun goddess. every line has a story. [ female announcer ] we all age differently. now there's roc multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. a lifetime of stress lines, sun damage, and worry wrinkles will fade in just 4 weeks. -crows feet... -belong on birds. [ female announcer ] roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you. -aging... -bring it on. with two children and no way to support them. people told me i wasn't going to do anything. and i just decided i have more to offer than that. i put myself through nursing school, and then i decided to go get a doctorate degree. university of phoenix gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people's lives. my name is dr. kimberly horton. i manage a network of over a thousand nurses, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu. yet an instant classic." with sports car styling and power, plus the refinement and space of a luxury sedan, the jaguar xf is a timeless blend of performance and craftsmanship. see how jaguar outperforms the competition at jaguarperforms.com or visit your local jaguar dealer. [ beep ] [ beep ] [ beep ] ♪ [ beep ] [ male announcer ] find an italian masterpiece in your grocer's freezer. buitoni shrimp and lobster ravioli with garlic butter sauce. simple ingredients, artfully prepared. winner of 2011 product of the year. buitoni. create an italian masterpiece. on display in the freezer section. it's 24 minutes after the hour. minding your business now. sony posting a $3.2 billion loss for the past fiscal year. the biggest in its 16-year history -- the biggest loss for 16 years for this company. it was hit by the record earthquake and then the tsunami then these recent hacker attacks we were talking about. experts say chinese toy maersk are paying more for labor and materials. those costs will be passed on to consumers just in time for christmas. at & t announcing the first cities to get its high speed 4-g wireless data network. dallas, houston, chicago, atlanta and san antonio this summer. at&t plans to add another ten locations by the end of the year. bank of america, jpmorgan chase and wells fargo will allow customers to transfer money from their checking account to another person's account using an e-mail address o are a cell phone number. right now paypal dominating the electronic cash transfer system. a credit card comparison system is out with a list of the worst cards on the market. they include the visa black card. it has a $495 annual fee and includes the vague promise of luxury gifts. also the first premiere bank credit card requires a $95 security deposit just to get a $300 credit line. has a $75 first year annual fee and then that jumps to $120. if you just got your college diploma, a national study finds 3 out of 4 companies plan to hire new grads this year. 23% plan to hire m