they've repelled the deadly attacks in kabul and three other provinces. the explosions and gun fire have stopped at least for now. the latest on the prostitution scandal. nearly a dozen secret service agents pulled off the job. and the president, not surprisingly, not pleased. >> i expect that investigation to be thorough and rigorous. >> ahead, how a complaint from one prostitute in colombia set the scandal in motion. and, yes, that is secretary of state hillary clinton. she was caught on camera, take a look, folks, you don't normally see her had like this. she's knocking down a beer and dancing up a storm at a cuban nightclub in colombia. up first, the alarm after the storm. people in the midwest and plains still reeling from violent and deadly weather. take a look, more than 130 tornadoes touching down over the weekend, many of them in kansas. the governor says 97 twisters were reported there. some of the worst damage, though, was in oklahoma. that state's governor declaring a state of emergency in 12 counties. the tiny town of woodward was nearly leveled and five people there lost their lives. power was knocked out ahead of the storm, disabling the warning sirens. >> i thought it was a train coming down the tracks over there. and i looked out, and i seen the funnel and i started running through the house screaming, marcia, marcia! i mean, loud. i was scared. >> it gives me a whole new respect for tornadoes and how they can, in an instant, just destroy everything that everyone knew. >> cnn's rob marciano got a firsthand look at the tornado damage e.'s lift in woodward, oklahoma. what can you tell us, rob? >> reporter: this town reeling. block after block you see damage like you see behind me, where it's trucks an cars tossed like toys. this area, though, fairly narrow but it cut right through the heart of woodward. as you mentioned, it came at night after the power was off because this town got hit by two other separate storms during the afternoon. so the result was five fatalities, 29 injured, as you mentioned, and the recovery effort is still going on. an incredible weekend of tornadoes across the midwest and moving all over toward the east. the cleanup today begins. yesterday we talked to a number of people who wanted to share their survival stories. this is a town steeped in tradition of tornadoes. they just celebrated the 65-year anniversary of the great 1947 tornado which killed over 100 people in this town. and some of the survivors of this one survived that one as well. i talked to a gentleman who's been living in this town his whole life, paul lord. he's been through a lot, several heart and brain surgeries, and yesterday, well, early yesterday he survived this storm with an incredible story. >> i was laying down there on the curb, and i looked up and saw the house gone. i didn't know what to do. and then neighbors come in, started pulling bricks off, and tilting walls up, and everybody started coming out. >> reporter: what specifically are things that you want to find in this rubble? >> i found them. my son, my daughter, son-in-law, my grandbabies, my wife. everything elimination just -- else just brick and stick. >> reporter: the family members he just mentioned were covered with those bricks and sticks and appliances. he had a huge gash on his head, his grandson cuts on his arm. he drove he and his grandson to the hospital, later found out his wife and the rest of his family was okay. grateful they're alive. but his house leveled. they were selling the house this week and were going to move out. not sure what will happen there, but they're certainly happy to be alive. >> i have a couple of questions. you mentioned that the power was out. did they get the siren warning in time or not? >> reporter: you know, sirens are meant really for people who are outside so this happened late at night, actually shortly after midnight. about half the sirens went out. they were watching television, the tv stations do a great job here. so they knew the storm was coming, but when it flattens your home, there's only so much you can do. the fatalities happened at a trailer park down the road and also a couple out in their car. they may not have heard the sirens or the media reports and they may have been in a bad place at a bad time. >> rob, we're taking a look at storm chasing video. and i came in this morning to this really dreadful picture of you with what looked like two twisters behind you. were you chasing storms? >> reporter: yeah, we were out chasing all weekend. we knew it would be a high-risk day. we teamed up with seasoned storm chasers, and we actually went after the cells that came through woodward earlier in the day. the tornado picture that you see was a tornado storm that came through here and likely knocked out power during the afternoon, made its way up to the kansas/oklahoma border. we were in just as it was dropping not one but two tornadoes. an incredible sight. at the time it was just tearing up some grass and farmland so it was something just to marvel at. but as night fell and the tornadoes continued to get worse, obviously the danger lurked and the reality set in yesterday morning. >> the danger, rob, i said i was going to scold you this morning when i saw this. you've got to know what you're doing in order to do what you did. >> reporter: you need to be on the right side of that storm as it's passing. and you don't want to get too close obviously. you you've got to respect it. we do so from a fairly safe distance, but you want to get close enough where you can feel it, where you can hear it and get a good view of it. and we did just that. >> rob marciano, live in woodward, oklahoma, for us. thank you very much. president obama back from colombia this morning and demanding a thorough and rigorous investigation into the prostitution scandal that's rocking the secret service. 11 advanced secret service agents and officers allegedly brought prostitutes to a hotel in colombia just before the president arrived for the summit of the americas event. they've been placed on leave. president obama says he's reserving judgment for now. >> if it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course i'll be angry, because my attitude with respect to the secret service personnel is no different than what i expect out of my delegation that's sitting here. we're representing the people of the united states. >> and in the next half hour we'll talk to new york congressman peter king. he's chairman of the house homeland security committee and has oversight over the secret are service. he's been briefed on the incident and we'll hopefully get more details from him and the latest on that. also on capitol hill, a house hearing gets under way this afternoon as lawmakers begin investigating the spending circle at the government services administration. the gsa exists to ensure taxpayer dollars are wisely spent. that's why the agency can justify $800,000 at a lavish las vegas convention in 2010. i know you know these details. we're getting more. the videos then surfaced of gsa employees mocking president obama as well as a fake red carpet ceremony. gsa administrator martha johnson resigned two weeks ago. she is expected to testify. we'll be all over that later. in the next hour of "early start ", we'll preview the hearing today with representative mike kelly, on the oversight committee. i have questions for him. >> i know you've been following this closely. it's 8 minutes past the hour. just in, gas prices, no change in the price at the pump, the national average remains at $3.91 per gallon. >> painfully high. >> oh, yes. >> ridiculous and misleading are the words treasury secretary tim geithner is using to slam mitt romney. geithner blasting the gop candidate claiming 92% jobs lost under president obama are women. geithner says that calculation unfairly sticks president obama with recession fallout from the bush years. >> it's ridiculous and deeply misleading look at the economy. remember the recession and the crisis started at the beginning of 2008, more than a year before the president took office. and it caused a huge amount of damage to men, to women, to families, and the damage lasted for a time. you're still seeing the scars of that. and if you look at the damage early on, you know, most of the early job losses were in construction, manufacturing and disproportionately ach lly affe. >> as you well know, both candidates are vying for the female vote. afghan officials say they've repelled a deadly wave of terrorist attacks that rocked kabul and three provinces. nato says as many as seven locations in the capital city were attacked in the nearly 18-hour assault, including afghanistan's parliament building and the american german and russian embassies. cnn's mohammed jamjoom is live in kabul. what's going on? still hearing gunfire and explosions there? >> reporter: kate, no. all the operations finished around 7:00 a.m. today. we did get information from the interior ministry earlier that, all in all, about 36 suicide bombers were involved in the attacks across afghanistan yesterday, and that a majority of them were killed by afghan security forces in those operations. now, to give you an idea of just how chaotic and volatile it was yesterday here in central kabul thshgs is a very heavily guarded part of the city that houses embassies, as close to the presidential palace. these attacks were around 1:15 p.m. yesterday, didn't end until 7:00 a.m. this morning. the insurgents were holed up in a building that was close to several embassies. that's where they were launching their attacks. in the overnight hours we heard helicopters flying overhead. we heard small arms fire. we heard several loud blasts. we found out later that was due to rpgs that afghan security forces were firing into that building to try to clear the building of the insurgents. and in that operation. we also got information from the interior ministry that isap was involved in aerial support in these operations to finally end these attacks early this morning. >> mohammed, as you know, this a heavily fortified area, which makes it all the more surprising. general allen said this was meant as a signal or to send a message. what does he mean by that, and what are u.s., nato and afghan forces doing about this? >> reporter: well, kate, as you said, it's a very heavily fortified part of the city, they call it the ring of steel, very wording that the terrorists could get in here and infiltrate this area clearly a signal by the insurgents they have reach, they have stepped up their attacks. we've seen more attacks from the taliban and haqqani network in the last year. clearly they're saying they can do whatever they want despite the fact forces are still here, despite they'll be withdrawing by 2014. they have the reach, the sophistication. they will target what they want in kabul and other parts of the country. now, nato, you talked about flait t nato. yesterday they were overflowing with praise for afghan security forces saying they really appreciated how responsive they were. flout throughout the day, isap, nato and u.s. officials were with saying nato and isap were ready to back up the afghan officials if need be. they didn't request that. now we know there was aerial support by nato. the fact aerial support was needed clear lir shows afghan forces weren't able to do quite as good a job as was originally billed. kate? >> much more to talk about coming up soon. thank you, mohammed. it is 12 minutes past the hour. it is suddenly cool to be the secretary of state. did you see the pictures? >> i did. you know what? everyone's allowed to let their hair down. >> boy, did she literally and figuratively. first it was tumblr that had pictures. now new pictures of hillary clinton letting her had hair down. she's hitting the dance floor at a club on saturday night. she's also seen sipping a beer there. clinton is in colombia for the summit of the americas. still ahead on "early start" -- edge endary comedian bill cosby speaking about the trayvon martin tragedy. he says the issue should be about guns, not race. search called off for four missing in a yacht race disaster. we have an update coming up. you're watching "early start." bet you think you're pretty quick? yeah, i guess it is pretty quick. jesse?!? jesse? jesse?! much obliged. suddenly, everything else seems old-fashioned. ultrabook. inspired by intel. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? 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[ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business. cuban so they can focus on keeping the world moving. cajun raw seafood pizza parlor french fondue tex-mex fro-yo tapas puck chinese takeout taco truck free range chicken pancake stack baked alaska 5% cash back. right now, get 5% cash back at restaurants. it pays to discover. it is 16 minutes past the hour. a lot of laughter going on here. hope you're having a good monday. time to check the stories making news this morning. tornado alley, living up to its name. people in the midwest and the plains assessing the damage from more than 130 twisters that struck over the weekend. five people were killed, all in the town of woodward, oklahoma. president obama wants a thorough and rigorous investigation of the prostitution scandal at the secret service. 11 agents have been relieved of their duties. they are accused of bringing prostitutes to their hotel in colombia in advance of president obama's arrival for a summit there. the gunfire and explosions have stopped after 18 intense hours of fighting in kabul. afghan officials say they've weeded out the remaining insurgents after a wave of deadly weekend attacks targeting afghanistan's parliament building and the american, russian and german embassies. afghan's interior minister says the majority of the attackers used women's clothing with burqas covering their faces in order to reach their targets. >> amazing details on that. the trial begins today for the norway mass murder suspect. an derz braan derz breivik has to the killing. he said he wanted to save norway from, quote, multicultural forces. in a past hearing he gave what appeared to be a fascist salute. federal prosecutors making another pitch to put former baseball great roger clemens before bars. the retrial begins today for allegedly lying to congress about using performance enhancing drugs. it comes nine months after a judge declared a mistrial when the prosecution introduced inadmissible evidence in court. and four people now feared dead in a yough race accident. the coast guard suspending its search last night. a seven-person crew was hurled into the waters off the coast of the far alawn islands near san francisco saturday when their boat hit 12-foot waves. o pers one was found dead. three others survived. >> head to our blog for more stories at cnn.com/earlystart. 18 minutes past the hour. bill cosby weighing in on the trayvon martin shooting. in an interview on cnn's "state of the union," cosby says the anger over the florida teen's death is misplaced. he says the real issue isn't whether zimmerman profiled martin but that the neighborhood watch volunteer was carrying a gun. >> what is solved by saying, he's a racist? that's why he shot the boy. what solves that? this. and what is he doing with it? and who taught him and told him how to behave with this? because it doesn't make any difference if he's a racist or not racist. >> gun violence is a very personal issue for cosby. his son wand shot and killed in 1997 while he was trying to change a tire on the side of a road. george zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder in the trayvon martin case. it is now 19 minutes past the hour here. we're getting an early read of your local news making national headlines. this morning we have papers from richmond and from boston. >> all over the place. we'll start with the richmond times dispatch. it's now five years since the virginia tech massacre that took the lives of 32 students. the big question is, what have we learned? w. gerald massengill writes a column for the "times" dispatch. he served on a review panel that made recommendations in the wake of the shooting. he says three important things, background checks should keep felons and mentally ill from getting guns. he would like privacy laws clarified so they could flag those in the need of mental help. he wants more assistance for the victims and the families of the victims. >> that conversation ongoing. >> he says it's actually helped. he's seen things implemented in the recent shootings we've had. >> good thing, you learn. also in the boston herald, you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen and i guess get off the street. the 116th boston marathoners are bracing for record high temperatures today. could reach 90 degrees. i don't even want to go outstied, let alone run a mare thoon. race officials considered calling off the rice, they're leaving it up to the runlers to decide. anyone who can't hack the heat should sit this one out and new runners should wait until next year. they're so serious about this they're even allowing people to defer their race number until next year. they just don't want to take the chance. >> i think that's very smart. some years back the chicago marathon had that problem and some people lost their lives, record heat. it's tough on the runners. i have a friend running the boston marathon, he's ready. >> you're dealing with a group of people who probably won't take that advice. >> right. >> if you're going to run 26.2, i'm very proud of you. >> good luck. good luck with that. next on "early start" -- >> state at home moms? 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