seriously. the national spelling bee champ wins with the word most of us have likely never used, maybe not even ever heard of. >> the answer to that is probably no, right? these kids are really bright nowadays. >> nothing surprises me anymore. every year they get smarter and smarter. good morning, everybody, welcome to "early start." >> we're really happy to have you here this morning. we are bringing you the news from a to z 5:00 a.m. here in the east. let's get started. up first, john edwards likely off the legal hook for good after a jury acquitted him of one count of campaign finance fraud and was hopelessly deadlocked on five other counts. the judge declaring a mistrial on those charges. and many legal experts don't expect prosecutors to retry the former presidential candidate who was accused of misusing campaign contributions to hide an extramarital affair during the 2008 election. here is our jeffrey toobin. >> i don't see any rationale for going forward with this case. john edwards is humiliated, he is discredited. he is appropriately out of american politics. but i don't see any reason why this case should go forward. >> jurors deliberated the case for nine days. outside the courthouse, edwards was happy, but contrite. >> while i do not believe i did anything illegal or ever thought i was doing anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot. that was wrong. and there is no one else responsible for my sins. >> cnn's joe johns has been covering the trial. and he is live in greensboro, north carolina. i've got to tell you, i was watching you yesterday as you're running in and out of the courthouse bringing in all of those little nuggets of details that we're sprinkling through. now what happens? a lot of people say there will not be a retrial. >> that's for sure. and it's anybody's guess, you know. the government didn't really hint at what they plan to do. it is their right to bring the case if they want to. just wanted to show you the greensboro, north carolina, news and record this morning. edwards walks free. the question, of course, what happens next for him. you know, that statement on the steps of the courthouse here last night was really calibrated to encourage the government not to reprosecute this case. he certainly expressed a lot of contrition there. he talked about his family, especially his daughters including quinn, the daughter he had with rielle hunter, his mistress while his wife elizabeth edwards was alive. so when you look at the situation, anything could happen. what's also clear, though, is that john edwards is talking about something he's talked about before, and that would be starting some type of a law practice or something to help poor people, especially poor children. listen to the sound bite from last evening. >> i don't think god's through with me. i really believe he thinks there's still some good things i can do. and whatever happens with this legal stuff going forward. what i'm hopeful about is all those kids that i've seen, you know, in the poorest parts of this country and in some of the poorest places in the world that i can help them. >> one thing is clear and that is that if the prosecution tries to retry this case, it's probably not going to get any easier for them than it was this time around. so many of the witnesses are just simply not available, including elizabeth edwards. of course, she's deceased, fred b barron, he's also deceased. he's a texas trial lawyer. bunny mellon, the other big contributor in this case, 101 years old, lives in northern virginia, can't see very well, and didn't testify at trial. john edwards himself did not testify in this trial. and neither did rielle hunter. so a whole list of people who didn't get on the stand this time and probably wouldn't get on the stand next time if the government were to decide to retry it. >> and one would imagine a very expensive retrial, right? >> reporter: that's for sure. we've been trying to figure out just how much all of this would cost. and it's very difficult to calculate, partly because you have to wonder what some of these expensive attorneys particular already for the government might be doing if they didn't have this case to do. so it's a little hard to calculate that. but it's one of those kind of keeping them honest things you might want to look into. >> joe johns live for us, thank you very much. a big victory in the courts for supporters of same-sex marriage. a federal appeals court in boston ruling that the federal defensive marriage act was unconstitutional. prosecutors called it discriminatory and the judges agreed because federal benefits like social security were being denied to gay couples in states where same sex marriage is legal. this is the first time an appellate court has declared any part of the federal doma laws it's known as unconstitutional. all this in the face of a story we ran yesterday about a pastor in seneca, kansas, who had some pret things to say about what he thinks the government should be doing about gay people. have a listen. >> we punish pedophilia, we punish incest, we punish polygamy, and various things. it's only homosexuality that is lifted out as an exemption. if there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act. they shall surely be put to death. >> pretty offensive comments according to many. and i made comments yesterday that ended up getting a lot of traction out there yesterday not only on twitter but elsewhere. and i want to be very clear about what my comments were about. i want to be very clear. when i said that incest and pedophilia involve people who don't have a choice, victims who don't have a choice and then said a gay relationship you do have a choice, they are not crimes. gay people involved in relationships are not committing any crimes at all. however, those who perpetrate incest and perpetrate pedophilia are committing crimes. i don't know my comments were taken in that light and i certainly hope they were, but in no way did i want to suggest that being gay is a choice. it is not a choice. i probably used the word lifestyle choice, not what i meant to say at all. being gay is not a choice, being in a voluntary gay relationship is a choice. it is not a crime. i hope that clears up any of the comments i made after that story of the pastor. and in no way do i agree with or standby any of the comments that that pastor made either. >> all right, thank you, ashleigh. police in seattle say a deadly shooting rampage could have been much worse. if it wasn't for a hero who took action when the gunman opened fire inside a popular coffee house. >> he was sitting next to the suspect when the suspect started shooting. and the suspect had two guns. the hero picked up a stool and threw it at the suspect. hit him. picked up another stool as the suspect is shooting and now pointing at him and hits him with another stool. >> they say the hero saved at least three lives. police also released witness 911 calls. >> what are you reporting? >> i'm at the roosevelt and 59th, the cafe racer, there's been a shooting. somebody came in and shot a bunch of people, i'm hiding in the bathroom. >> how many -- >> we need help right away. >> wow. a total of five people were killed in two separate shootings. the suspect identified as ian stewicki took his own life. the big may jobs report is set to be released in just over three hours and wall street's going to be watching it closely. the analysts surveyed expect to see about 150,000 jobs added last month. with unemployment steady at 8.1%. now, that would be better job creation than we saw in april, but significantly slower than the numbers that came out in january and february. and in about 15 minutes, our christine romans is going to have more. and then you'll want to make sure you tune in to cnn at 8:30 because the official report will be released. we'll have it live right after we hear from the vice chair of the house financial services committee. that's on "starting point" with soledad o'brien. and right now, new mexico is battling the largest wildfire in state history. take a look at that. it is getting even larger. nearly 200,000 acres are now destroyed. the fire is only 5% contained. the massive fire started in the national forest two weeks ago, but it's spread in all directions. rugged terrain is making it difficult to put out the fire that has consumed a dozen homes so far. an update on that breaking news story that we brought you yesterday morning, a harrowing ordeal for two american tourists who were kidnapped in egypt at gunpoint and later released. the americans are brandon kurtz, both from houston, and they told the affiliate kprc how they were forced from their car in the region and held for 24 hours. >> all the windows had bars on them and they nailed the doors shut and then they were outside shooting their assault rifles the whole night and all the way through the morning. they were all very loud and aggressive and speaking in arabic. and i mean, we didn't -- had no idea. what their intentions were. >> the americans were eventually freed in a trade for a relative of their captors who have been arrested earlier on drug charges. >> ten minutes past the hour. a grand slam. that's what the founder of space x is calling the first commercial mission to the international space station. the space x "dragon" capsule splashing down in the pacific two days ahead of schedule. five miles off the coast of baja california after dropping off supplies to the international space station, it returned with 1300 pounds of cargo including trash and scientific experiments. the company has two days to get that to nasa to have complete success. >> talk about a word of the day. are you ready? guetapen. ever heard of it? well, the winner of the spelling bee. >> guetapen, g-u-e-t-a-p-e-n-s. guetapens. >> and guess what? we have a champion. of the 2012 scripps national spelling bee. >> release the ticker tape. the san diego eighth grader who reads encyclopedias for fun called her victory a miracle. she finished 27th in last year's national spelling bee, and she says she plans to use the $30,000 in prize money, no surprise here, to save for college. her winning word guetapen is a french word and it means ambush, snare, or trap, and she'll be soledad's guest at 7:30 eastern time. >> sweet to watch. very nice. so the impossible may now be possible. check it out. this rat used to be paralyzed. more on this amazing treatment and what it could mean for humans coming up. strong sunscreen feel great? actually it can. neutrogena® ultra sheer provides unbeatable uva uvb protection and while other sunscreens can feel greasy ultra sheer® is clean and dry. it's the best for your skin. ultra sheer®. neutrogena®. support team usa and show our olympic spirit right in our own backyard. so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen. tom chipped in 10,000 points. karen kicked in 20,000. and by pooling more thankyou points from folks all over town, we were able to watch team usa... 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[ female announcer ] new ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. twenty-one vitamins and minerals. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. refreshing nutrition in charge! there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning.. you can feel. introducing the all new cadillac xts, available with the patented safety alert seat. when there is danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. made with only milk... cream... a touch of sugar... and pure natural flavors. coffee-mate natural bliss. from nestle. add your flavor naturally. new hope this morning for people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. scientists in sweden report they successfully used electrical stimulation of the brain to train paralyzed rats to walk again. and even run. ten rats in all had the nerve connections to their hind legs surgically severed. scientists stopped short of completely severing the spinal cord, the spinal cord below the injury and within weeks, look at that. they began to regain use of their paralyzed legs. >> that would be remarkable if we could have the same results. 16 minutes past the hour. let's get you up to date. here's christine romans with the day's top stories. >> thank you. legal experts are saying john edwards will likely not face another trial. after nine days of deliberations, edwards was acquitted on one count of campaign finance fraud. and jurors were deadlocked on five other charges leaving the judge to declare a mistrial. edwards was accused, of course, of misusing campaign funds to hide an affair. he says he wants to devote his life to helping poor children saying god is not done with me yet. nancy reagan endorsing mitt romney for president. the former first lady had the romneys over for cookies and lemonade yesterday. they put out a statement saying her late husband ronnie would've liked his strong business principles and i have to say i do too. i look forward to him being elected president in november. a surprise guest on the last day of school. a 200-pound bear tracked down by animal control in bakersfield, california, wandering outside of an elementary school. >> oh, my goodness. >> also crashed a middle school graduation ceremony going on next door. >> some girls came in running, there's a bear on -- right in front of the school. >> a really big bear. >> we saw a bear. >> authorities cornered and tased the bear inside an apartment complex. >> oh, my goodness. >> it was released back into the wild later in the day. >> that's 250 pounds? looks like a baby. >> i know. >> inside an apartment complex. >> but they did release it into the wild. that's the happy ending to that story. but that was a confused little bear and a bunch of very -- >> excited kids. >> i was going to say frightened school children, but they didn't look frightened to me. >> i was going to say very brave animal response officers. i don't think i've ever seen a bear captured that way. looks like what the dogcatcher uses. >> usually they tranquilize them. and most we see -- they tased him and got a restraint around his neck and got him into the car. >> it was easier on the bear. >> thank you. >> thank you. 18 minutes past 5:00 on the east coast. the first of june. that also means the first day of hurricane season. rob marciano standing by. >> we're off to an early start not just for the show, but for the hurricane season. already two named storms. the averages are 12 named storms, six of those hurricanes and three major hurricanes. and we've already knocked two out of the way. so we're off to a quick start here. get used to this shot. the tropical atlantic, pretty quiet, although there's a little disturbance there southwest of florida. this would be the spot this time of year for development. in the eastern gulf of mexico where the waters are nice and toasty and we've got a little something brewing right now. but this really isn't tropical. it's going to be rainfall across parts of south florida today and up to the north, a little front across the eastern third of the country. that'll cause showers and storms, mostly east of chicago, but toward the i-95 corridor, as well. once this front pushes through, you get in cooler, drier air toward the weekend. a severe threat especially through the mid-atlantic and the carolinas and the delmarva as this pushes off to the east continued very, very hot down across the desert southwest, but comfortably cool in chicago, 62 degrees, 73 degrees with sb intermittent showers. and the next one after you meal and beryl, chris. >> we were trying to figure out beryl, beryl, what is that? >> i'm glad that name's over for the next six years, at least. >> i always find it amazing how those computer generated names, just pick them out of a book. >> it's some secret -- very top secret committee that is somewhere way above my pay grade that decides that. >> and they wear hoods and they're crazy. thank you, rob marciano. issue number one in the race for president, jobs. hours away from a critical report on job growth in this country. christine romans on why it might be a bit of a downer this morning. that's coming up. you really thig is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. listerine... power to your mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. now's the time to move from to where you want to go. look up. with u.s. bank let's get the wheels turning. use our strength & stability to open new opportunities. to lend, and lift ...every business...every dream... to new heights of prosperity. good things are happening. just look up. with u.s. bank. [ young man ] whoo-hoo! ♪ so soon you'll take me there he is! the party's arrived. ♪ [ both hiss ] [ screaming, explosions ] oh, he-- [ crickets chirping ] [ owl hooting ] [ gasps ] ♪ fate ♪ up against your will ♪ through the thick and thin ♪ up against your will you know what's exciting? graduation. when i look up into my students faces, i see pride. you know, i have done something worthwhile. when i earned my doctorate through university of phoenix, that pride, that was on my face. i am jocelyn taylor. i'm committed to making a difference in people's lives, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. it's time to live wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system... from beautyrest. it's you, fully charged. mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. welcome back, it's 24 minutes past the hour. we're minding your business this morning. and in just a few hours, the labor market is expected to release the big may jobs report. u.s. markets trying to rebound this morning after another day in the red yesterday. the problems, several negative reports on jobs and growth of the economy. and that really dragged the markets down. >> christine romans has a preview of what we can expect in the jobs report. not great news there. >> well, no, for stocks, no. i've got to tell you, may was a really terrible, terrible month for the stock market. and what we want to know what it was like for the jobs market. it's so important. the most important economic report for you because your personal economy is driven by whether or not you have a job. what we're looking for in may according to analysts, 150,000 jobs created in the month of may and probably 8.1% on the unemployment rate. that is the forecast. we'll know for sure at 8:30 what happened. but i want you to look at the trend here, guys. you can see there was concern in april. only 115,000 jobs created, remember? that was disappointing. that showed a lackluster recove recovery, especially since december, january, and february, were months when we saw some better job gains. there's concerns that we're going into this other period just like last year where we're having a little bit of a slowdown in the summer and what's that going to mean for job creation and people really getting -- really getting back into the swing of things in the labor market. i want to show you something really quickly. and this is the overall trend from the last months of the bush administration to this entire obama administration. and you can see, this is the recovery from that huge jobs drought. this is that terrible, terrible period of jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs being lost every single month. and here is where we are trying to crawl out of that hole ever so slowly. this is last month, 115,000, you want to be seeing more than 115,000. the bottom line, you guys, for today, if we get a number, 150,000 jobs created or more, that's going to be seen as good news. if the economy, the labor market is still healing. if you get less than 150,000, i think people are going to be disappointed. they're going to say we need to see the economy and the jobs market doing -- this is critical for where we are in the economy. >> thank you for that. >> thank you. mitt romney with a big surprise on the campaign trail. coming up, more on a secret bus trip. not so secret now. look where he showed up. but you know sometimes timing is everything. trading economic attacks, mitt romney outside a bankrupt company. the obama administration backed the obama campaign in the state mitt romney once ran. and be very, very quiet. i'm hunting bobcats. oh, yeah. an incredible battle about to go down between that stealth gator and the bobcat who has his back to him. so did the cat become dinner? we're going to show you what happens next. >> it's incredible. incredible pictures. and he simply refused to stop running. a student with cerebral palsy lifted by the cheers of his class mates on field day. we'll talk to the star of this inspiring viral video. i'm telling you, this is something you do not want to miss. bring the kids to the tvs, this is amazing. >> such a story. look at that. >> it is fantastic. it just brings a smile to your face and makes you feel -- we're always talking about bullying and what a problem it is, and these kids, you know, they are just on the right path. we're very excited to share that with you. >> there's hope. >> a lot of hope. >> welcome back to "early start." >> nice to have you with us this morning, 31 minutes now past the hour. and let's get right to it. we learned something kind of interesting about mitt romney this week. he keeps a heck of a secret, don't he? witness yesterday's stealth visit to solyndra. reporters weren't even told where they were headed until after they got on the bus and here's where they ended up. romney was using the bankrupt solar energy company as a backdrop to hammer away at the president's handling of the economy. why did he keep everyone in the dark about where they were going? our jim acosta asked him that very question. >> why is there so much secrecy surrounding this event? one of your advisers say it was because you were afraid that president obama would try to shut it down. >> i think that there are people who don't want to see this event occur. >> well, to be very clear, that was on public land, very interesting argument that the former governor makes. our cnn political editor paul steinhauser is live in washington, d.c. for us this morning. here's the deal, if you're working on a campaign, paul, aren't you supposed to check what the competing events are? what was going on at the white house at the very moment that this stealth effort was underway? >> yeah, because the payoff wasn't so good. it was the unveiling of president bush's portrait. yeah, if they waited, ashleigh, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, i'm sure most of the cable networks would've taken those comments live. but -- >> big oops. >> oops, another oops. a big oops there. but listen, you know what i called yesterday? i called it in your face politics. and here's why. you had the president's top political adviser david axelrod. and there's mitt romney at solyndra. what were both sides trying to do here? discredit the other side's presidential candidate. that's basically the name of the game here. and for romney, he went to solyndra, why? because the green energy company received about $500 million of federal money during the early parts of the obama administration and it went bankrupt. and what mitt romney's trying to say is that president obama has wasted your taxpayer dollars. and again, this is all about trying to discredit the other candidate. you know you've seen the president's campaign go after mitt romney on his massachusetts record and you saw them over the last couple of weeks going after mitt romney over his record at bain capital, the private equity fund he co-founded. not all democrats agree with that attack on bain capital. and former president bill clinton to the list, take a look at what he said last night on piers morgan. >> so i don't think we ought to get in the position where we say this is bad work. this is good work. there's no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office and, you know, basically performing the essential functions of the office. a man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold. >> so bill clinton there not maybe agreeing with the obama campaign's attacks on romney at bain capital at the private equity firm. but actually bill clinton goes on to say he thought that president obama, of course, would win the election by five or six points and, yeah, of course, he's supporting obama. >> something tells me what he just said last night on cnn might make its way into a campaign ad for mitt romney possibly, anyway. >> i think you've got a point there. >> what else might make its way into a campaign ad? christine romans just joined us saying it's not looking like it's going to be stellar. >> why does this matter? you ask any american what's the most important issue to you when you go to vote in november for the white house for the presidency. the economy, the economy, the economy, jobs, jobs, jobs. who's doing a better job on jobs? president obama or mitt romney? take a look at this. brand new numbers in three important battleground states. in two of the three, romney has a slight edge, dead even in nevada. we're going to look at the unemployment numbers and these numbers straight through to november 6th. >> thanks for getting up this morning. >> of course. this is what ashleigh was talking about, george w. bush back at the white house again. the former president and his wife laura welcomed back by president obama for the official unveiling of their portraits. the mood was light. the current president thanking his predecessor for his extraordinary service to the country among other things. >> your kind words of encouragement, plus you also left me a really good tv sports package. >> when you were wandering these halls as you wrestle with tough decisions, you'll now be able to gaze at this portrait and ask, what would george do? >> yesterday's meeting was only the second between the two men since president bush left office. >> i always love seeing those nice nonpartisan moments. that's a special moment in america, isn't it? sign says it all. london about to go royally crazy for the huge diamond jubilee celebrations kicking off this weekend. queen elizabeth is commemorating 60 years on the throne, and at 86 years old, she's the oldest monarch to rule england and she has reigned longer than anyone else except for queen victoria. people in the uk are going crazy for the queen spending over $650 million in jubilee-related memorabilia. better known here as chachky. i'm sure you can get them on ebay. >> 36 minutes past the hour. a florida bobcat encounters a 10-foot gator and it is all caught on camera for you. brian grabbed his camera when he spotted a bobcat sitting at the edge of his pond. he was stunned by what happened next. we'll let him pick up the story. >> and all of a sudden this monster head of a gator pops out of the water and it took my breath away. i mean, i was literally standing here breathless. >> so check out this incredible sequence of photos that brian snapped. look, the monster gator sneaking up on its prey, getting within inches of the bobcat feast, but at the last second, the big cat senses the gator's presence and leaps out of harm's way to safety. >> i like that he looks back too almost as if to say i am very fast, i am a bobcat. >> i know this is the natural cycle of life, but i'm glad he got away. >> look at that, he looks back. bye-bye. all right. so get ready to be inspired. kids who are cheering as their classmate with cerebral palsy crosses the 400-meter finish line. we are going to speak live with the boy who is inspiring millions coming up next. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have six grams of sugars. with fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ welcome back to "early start," and good morning, new york. it is 53 degrees. a little later there are going to be thunderstorms, but we're going up to 74 degrees. not so bad. 11-year-old matt woodrum ran the 400 meter race even though, look at him there, he has cerebral palsy. it wasn't easy for him. but he got help from his classmates who spontaneously broke into cheers encouraging matt across the finish line. this video of matt and his classmates was shot by matt's mom and has since gone viral. take a look at this. >> let's go matt -- >> matt woodrum, his mom and coach blaine join us this morning. thank you so much for being with us this morning. anne, i'm going to begin with you. i was reading that matt really prepared for this. you know, he took the week before the race and, you know, he kind of got ready. you had the video camera ready because this was an important moment for him. were you expecting what you saw that unfolded? all of the kids encouraging him? >> no, absolutely not. i had wanted to videotape this each year and this was actually the first year that i had a video camera to tape it. and what i thought was just him, you know, running the race which is what i wanted turned into something really amazing, and i was just -- it was a magical moment when his class mates joined him. i'm so glad this is the year i got it on tape. >> matt, how did you feel when all of your classmates started cheering you on. i know the physical education teacher also ran with you a bit. how did that make you feel? >> it was really cool. >> and afterwards, i understand you became a pretty popular kid? >> yeah. >> so what are the folks asking you? i hear they were asking you for autographs? >> yeah. >> and was it tough for you, matt, to run the race? >> yeah, it was. >> yeah. and there were some people who actually joined you in the race, right? one of them is sitting right next to you, it's john blaine. you know these kids really well. does it surprise you what happened there? >> no, not at all. the kids at colonial hills are just great kids. the parents are great. the teachers there are great. and i've got to admit, though, it was just thrilling to be a part of that and matt's holding back here. he's an inspiration. every activity, he gets involved in it's the same experience. it's a blast. he's very inspirational to the whole school. >> what did you do to prepare for the race? >> i didn't practice that much. >> but what did you do? i heard you took it easy the week before? because you were determined to finish, weren't you? >> yeah. >> well, we're really excited about this, and, john, is this the culture that you all create in that particular school? because often times we're talking about, you know, kids being bullied, kids that are different being bullied. >> well, i hope so. i mean, there are several things that they go through. one of the first things we talk about from kindergarten all the way up is if it's just about the sport we're doing, it's not worth doing. it has to be more than that. so the character issues are the most important center piece of any athletic thing we ask the kids to do. and i think that showed in the video. the other thing is they're asked to simply do their very, very best with the skills that they're taught in class. that happened, everybody in that race did what they were supposed to do. they ran their race to the best of their ability and including matt. the difference was matt had cerebral palsy. and the other thing is they're taught to accept any outcome that comes. you're not always going to cross the finish line first and sometimes you may cross last. but if you give it your best, then you ran with honor. >> all right. well, we're really excited you joined us this morning. and anne, clearly you've done a great job with that young man. congratulations to you, as well. and matt, are you running another race? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> lots of them. >> a young man of few words. but clearly a huge impact. thank you so much, matt, john, and anne for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. good luck to you, matt. >> thank you. >> ashleigh, back to you. >> christine romans and i were over here listening to your interview and both of us were tearing up. it's an incredible story. >> it's incredible. and for a mom to be able to witness that with her child. >> that's human nature. and the parents of all those kids at that race, you're raising good kids. honestly, that's what you want to see. >> so nice to see a story like that. finally it is 46 minutes now past the hour. let's get you up to date and that's why christine and i are trying to back off the tears and get back to the news. >> thanks, ashleigh. from the best in human nature to this. john edwards speaking out after a jury acquits him on one count of campaign finance fraud. and can't decide on the rest. the judge then declared a mistrial. afterwards, edwards said he didn't do anything illegal, but he did do an awful lot that was wrong. a tragic new update in the case of a missing toddler. police in maine believe ayla reynolds is dead. she was 21 months old when reported missing back in december. officials suspect foul play, but they don't have any suspects and haven't found ayla's body. they're hoping a $30,000 reward will bring new leads. jury deliberations could begin today in the child abuse trial of two philadelphia priests. reverend james brennan also on trial for the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy. both men have pleaded not guilty. new york city mayor michael bloomberg defending his proposed ban on big sodas and other sugar-filled drinks. saying more than half of new york city adults are overweight or obese. he's doing something about it. what he's not doing, he says, is taking away the right to drink what you want. >> we're not taking your right away to buy soda. you can still buy a 32-ounce can of full sugar drinks or bottles, but in a restaurant, they can't serve more than 16 ounces in any one cup. >> the board of health has to approve this ban. restaurants caught selling oversized sodas could be slapped with a $200 fine. if you're heading out, set your dvr for this, new york's health commissioner going head to head with coca-cola about the proposed policy at 6:45 eastern. one graduation, nine sets of fraternal twins are graduating this week in south carolina. the cdc says the twin birthrate is rising in the country, but this is still, i mean this is way out of the normal. all of them say 18 years of competition is enough. none of these sets of twins, you guys plan to attend college together. >> what? >> what is in the water over there? seriously, that's a lot of -- >> nine sets of twins. >> i'm more amazed not one of them wants to go to college with his sister or brother. >> you don't have to be a twin to feel that way. did i say that out loud? >> i went to the same college as my sister, but we're five years apart so we just missed each other. if i had the chance, i would have loved to be in college with my sister. >> all right. apparently some people believe if you had the twins you would not be surprised by that. >> oh, yeah. >> somebody on our staff does. it is 49 minutes past the hour, looking for salvation on the side of a bathtub. take a look. yuck. >> some tile you may think needs cleaning but whose owner say has a deeper meaning. we're going to explore this when we come back. warning.. you can feel. introducing the all new cadillac xts, available with the patented safety alert seat. when there is danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. now's the time to move from to where you want to go. look up. with u.s. bank let's get the wheels turning. use our strength & stability to open new opportunities. to lend, and lift ...every business...every dream... to new heights of prosperity. good things are happening. just look up. with u.s. bank. it is 52 minutes now past the hour. time to take a look at what's trending on the interwebs, and so much for the cleanliness being next to godliness. they're getting strength from an image of jesus they found growing in the mold of their shower. that's it. that's what she's pointing to right there. to be clear, the owner does not know whether this is mold or mildew, doesn't make a difference to many, but in this bathroom she says the appearance of jesus to her has meaning. i don't know if it means it will stay there or whether there'll be an effort to clean it. >> i just don't see it. >> i don't either. i'm trying. if you really squint. >> oh, i see it. if you for the further away, as opposed to being closer to it. there it is. >> i think it's the bigger issue of the mold growing all over the place, folks. get some bleach in there. eek. >> all right. who saw this coming? i think probably everybody. the heart attack grill in las vegas nearly forced to close its doors after receiving a "c" grade on the health report. inspectors found warm meat and a mold-like substance in the ice at the restaurant. famous for its nearly 10,000 calorie quadruple bypass bacon cheese burger. two people have collapsed eating a burger there this year. the owner who dresses in a white coat and stethoscope nearly pushed over a local news reporter who asked about the inspection. >> and those are the bibs you get to wear so you're ready to go to the er and those are the waitresses dressed like nurses. i'm still stuck on the 10,000 calorie burger. okay. ready for this? i find your lack of leniency disturbing. video posted of darth vader haggling with a traffic cop over a parking ticket. >> apparently there was a street fair. the best part was darth vader with a thick new york accent along with the signature darth vader breathing. take a peek. >> you put a ticket on my car. i had paid this to parking. i had the tag. it was on my dash board. i got a ticket on my car, the tag was sitting on the dash board. >> why do i think this is a conan o'brien stunt? what are these buttons for? if you push them, your mother comes to pick you up. the new york city meter maid immune to the jedi mind tricks had no part of it. off went darth. his trial is over and now he's speaking out, john edwards saying he didn't do anything illegal, but he did a lot wrong. he's also talking about his daughter quinn who he had with rielle hunter. we have a live report coming up next. 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that's it. former presidential candidate john edwards' fate is still in the balance after nine bizarre days of jury deliberations. coffee house hero. a man who refused to duck and cover gets credit for saving lives. and are you smarter than an eighth grader? probably not this one. the national spelling bee champ wins with a word most of us have never even heard of. we're going to enlighten you shortly. good morning to you. welcome to "early start," we're happy you're with us this morning. >> good morning, everybody, i'm ashleigh banfield and we're bri from a to z. ashleigh and zoraida. the story of john edwards not guilty but maybe not quite so innocent either is the headline on this one. jury acquitting the former presidential candidate on one count of campaign finance fraud and the judge declaring a mistrial on the five remaining counts. after the jury said they just cut' get out of the deadlock. prosecutors have to decide whether or not to get at this again and retry john edwards. legal experts really don't expect it to happen. listen to our own jeffrey toobin. >> i don't see any rationale for going forward with this case. john edwards is humiliated, is he discredited, is he appropriately out of american politics. but i don't see any reason why this case should go forward. >> the jury deliberated the case for nine days. outside the courthouse john edwards was happy but he was contrite. >> while i do not believe that i did anything illegal or ever thought i was doing anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong, and there is no one else responsible for my sins. >> cnn's joe johns has been covering this trial and was there every day waiting on that verdict, live in greensboro, north carolina. is this thing over now, joe, or are we going to all be meeting on this again after about a year and having to do it all over again. >> i think there are a lot of people who are hoping we don't have to meet again. it's pretty clear that it's not going to get any easier for the government because so many of the critical people did not testify in this trial. if the government were to go ahead and decide we'll retry it, they'd still have those challenges, fred behren, the texas trial lawyer who didn't testify, he gave a whole lot of money that was at the center of this case, bunny melon, another person who didn't testify, probably wouldn't testify again, she's 101 years old, elizabeth edwards is deceased. fred behrens is deceased. there's a bunch of reasons why the government wouldn't want to do this including the expense and if you look at the statement from john edwards on the courthouse steps he was clearly calibrating this to try to encourage the government not to retry the case, talked a lot about his family, including his daughters, especially quinn, who is the daughter he had with rielle hunter, his mistress, while his wife, elizabeth edwards, was alive. let's listen to what john edwards said about quinn. >> and then finally my precious qui quinn. who i love more than any of you could ever imagine, and i am so close to and so, so grateful for, so grateful for quinn. >> we haven't heard a lot from the family. we did see a tweet just a little while ago from cate edwards, the daughter of john edwards who is a lawyer and spent a lot of time in the courtroom with him, behind him, throughout this trial, throughout the jury deliberations, that tweet going out essentially saying she'd really like to see things getting back to normal and i think that probably speaks for everyone in the edwards family. the lawyers meanwhile are still being diligent as you could imagine, ashleigh. we haven't heard a lot from them on the defense side. they still don't know whether the government might actually try to come back with another retrial of this case. >> notwithstanding cate's tweet the prosecutors have a big decision to make. if they had a chance to debrief the jury and get an idea what the split was. that plays heavily often into a need to retry a case. >> that's a very good question and we don't know. we know judge katherine eagles can't tell them not to talk to the media or not to talk publicly. she did tell them she'd never they didn't do that and said she wasn't going to release their names publicly until next week and all of this is in a posture of several of the counts ending up in a mistrial and the concern this case might have to be retried again, so she told them, i can't tell you what to do but i'd prefer if you didn't talk about this case publicly, and that's because the government still has a decision to make. >> maybe publicly but i for one hope the attorneys get a chance to find out what was going through the minds of the jurors. it's always so enlightning. joe, great job, long, long work and well done. thanks for that. >> yeah, thanks. thanks. just who is he remains a mystery but seattle police say he is a hero who saved lives during a shooting rampage that began inside a coffee house. >> he was sitting next to the suspect when the suspect started shooting, and the suspect had two guns. the hero picked up a stool and threw it at the suspect, hit him, picked up another stool, as the suspect is shooting and now pointing at him and hits him with another stool. >> they say he saved at least three lives. police also released 911 calls from the cafe shooting. >> what are you reporting? >> i'm at roosevelt and 59th, cafe racer, there's been a shooting. somebody came in and shot a bunch of people. i'm hiding in the bathroom >> hold on, sir -- >> we need help right away. >> all five people were killed in two separate shootings. the suspect took his own life. police have no motive but say the suspect's family described him as mentally disturbed. the investigation into the multibillion-dollar losses at jpmorgan chase is getting wider this morning. "the wall street journal" reports that the enforcement division of the commodity futures trading commission is now issuing subpoenas requesting e-mails and other internal documents from the financial giant. the fraud probes focusing on jpmorgan's traders and what the traders told their supervisors and their staff about their wrong way bets just as those bets started to go south. the big jobs report for may set to be released in just a little under 2.5 hours from now and wall street will be watching this closely. analysts surveyed by cnn money expect to see about 150,000 jobs added last month, with unappointment staying steady at 8.1%. that would be better in terms of job creation than we saw back in april but a whole lot less and slower than the numbers we saw back in january and february. new mexico is battling the largest wildfire in state history and folks this is getting even bigger. nearly 200,000 acres are destroyed. the fire is only 5% contained. the massive fire started in the gila national forest two weeks ago. dozen homes have been destroyed. rug rugged terrain it making it difficult to put it out so far. cargo from the international space station, this mission was a grand slam and you can see it, grand slam, right into the ocean, the capsule splashing down into the pacific two minutes ahead of schedule, happened yesterday morning, about 560 miles off the coast of baja, california, after dropping off supplies to the international space station it came back with a heavier cargo including trash, that's good, you shouldn't leave your trash out, and scientific experiments as well. it's going to arrive at nasa tomorrow, a 48-hour deadline for the mission to be a success so they're on target. are you smarter than an eighth grader? if it's 14-year-old snign snigna nadipati you're in company. she sealed the deal with this word. >> g-u-e-t-a-p-e-n-s, guetapens. [ applause ] >> and guess what? we have a champion of the 2012 scripps national spelling bee. >> you could see the stress, couldn't you? this new champ who reads encyclopedias for fun called her victory a miracle, she finished 27th in last year's national spelling bee. she plans to use $30,000 in prize money to save for college of course and the winning word guetepens is french meaning ambush, snare or trap, and snigtha nandipati will be soledad's guest. >> even people who speak french might be struggling with that. >> no doubt. the impossible may be now possible. look at amazing video of a rat walking and what is so incredible about that? the rat is paralyzed. more on this incredible treatment and why that experiment may have ramifications for humans as well. we'll explain it. 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ with gold bond intensive healing cream. it targets the underlying causes of itch and irritation. gold bond. intensive healing for lasting relief. 13 minutes past the hour. scientists in sweden report they have successfully used electrical stimulation of the brain to train paralyzed rats to walk again, even run. ten rats all had the nerve connections to their hind legs surgically severed but scientists stopped short of completely severing the spinal cord and began stimulating the motor area of the brain and the spinal cord below the injury and within three weeks the rats began regaining use of their paralyzed legs, as you are seeing there. researchers are working on plans for a human trial. >> that is awesome. just awesome to look at. 14 minutes past 6:00. time to get you up to date on top stories. christine romans with the details. >> thanks, ashleigh. the threat of prison time is no longer hanging over the head of former presidential candidate john edwards, acquitted on one count of campaign finance fraud but jurors were deadlocked on five others leaving the judge to declare a mistrial. legal experts say it's not likely the federal prosecutor also retry edwards, accused of using campaign funds to cover up an affair. nancy reagan said her late husband ronnie would have liked governor romney's business background and strong principles and i have to say i do too. i look forward to seeing him elected president in november. a surprise guest on the last day of school, a 200 pound bear tracked down by animal control wandering outside of a school of bakersfield, california, also crashed a graduation ceremony going on next door. >> girls came in running "there's a bear" and right in front of the school. >> a really big bear. >> authorities cornered and tased the bear, inside an apartment complex. it was then relsed back into the wild later in the day. the indiana teen who was stuck in mexico because of a visa technicality is back in the u.s. this morning. she'll be able to graduate with her class after other. elizabeth olivas was trying to obey the law when she returned to mexico to apply for a visa. because of a miscalculation she was one day late and had to stay in mexico as a result. >> i just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible but i had to continue to wait, but it was worth it, because in the end, i'm good and i can continue to pursue my dreams. >> her dreams of course she's speaking at her graduation, and she has some kind of ungodly good gpa and she's got a very bright future so we're glad she's back. >> valedictorian, good to have her back. great end to the story. first day of june, if you're checking your calendar. also happens to be unfortunately the first day of hurricane season, so sorry about the debbie downer moment. rob marciano joining us live. is there any way to predict the season to look ahead and see how bad or good it's going to be? >> these forecasts come out every year and you look at the water temperatures in the atlantic, you look at whether it's an el nino or la nina. this year we're going into a la nina face. this year it may be average or even below average as far as storms go, so just to get you up to the debbie downer hurricane season you can get discounts into the hurricane zone you want to go to puerto rico, st. thomas, it's a little bit cheaper because you may have to deal with a tropical storm. all is quiet on the western front with the exception of a favorite area of development, the gulf of mexico, the eastern gulf during the month of june. there's a little something down here but this probably won't develop into anything tropical. just more heavy rain across the south of florida. rainfall in the form of showers and thunderstorms moving across the great lakes, eventually up and over the adirondacks and appalachians. today severe storms possible across the mid-atlantic and the carolinas, cool temperatures across chicago but still hot across the desert southwest, 62 degrees in chicago, low levels of humidity and 94 degrees in albuquerque. happy hurricane season. >> a tweet coming from somebody saying it is really cold in wisconsin. >> yeah, they had frost advisories, a little bit warmer today. you're going to get a little, you know, last taste of winter or at least spring. >> oh my gosh. all right, rob, thank you very much. head to puerto rico and enjoy a hurricane instead. >> might not need your sunscreen. >> true. 18 minutes past the hour. the man responsible for the best political tantrum of all-time explaining what made him lose it. first if you haven't seen the original rant you have to. here is illinois state representative mike bosk throwing a major fit on the house floor. >> not the american way. these bills all the damned time come out here at the last second and i have to try to figure out how to vote for my people! you should be ashamed of yourselves. i'm sick of it, every year! we give power to one person. enough! i feel like somebody trying to be released from egypt. let my people go! >> wow! bost explained that outburst on cnn's "out front" telling eastern burnett got upset when state democrats presented a last bill to overhaul illinoil illin pension program. >> it had been an extremely rough day with 200, 300-page bill that had been changed that we had been working on for a year and a half, and now all of a sudden it was time to vote and they came in ten minutes before the meeting and decided now we would hand you a bill brand new with all of the things we had not supported. so yeah, there was a problem. >> illinois democrats have dismissed bost's meltdown as a stunt. that's what they're calling it. >> i don't know, i thought he was genuinely mad. >> genuinely mad. he was mad. >> imagine if we did it? this script was so last minute, i can't handle it, ugh! imagine for a minute? >> great tv, ashleigh. >> get to go on piers morgan. okay so it wasn't a last-minute script but this is issue number one in the race for president, jobs, jobs, jobs. we're hours away from getting a critical report on jobs growth in this country and christine romans is on it. why might it be a downer, coming up. well hello, welcome to hotels.com. summer road trip, huh? yep uhuh let's find you a room. at hotels.com, you'll always find the perfect hotel. cause we only do hotels. wow. i like that. nice! no. laugh...awe hmm nice huh ooh, yeah book it! oh boy call me... this summer, we're finding you the perfect place - plus giving you up to $100 at hotels.com 23 minutes past 6:00 in the morning on this friday morning. yes, it's friday. hopefully that's good news for you this morning. we're minding your business. u.s. stock futures down ahead of the jobs report coming out later this morning. the u.s. markets in the red across the board yesterday and why, you ask? a lot of negative reports on jobs and growth in the economy and that was dragging the markets down. >> christine romans has a preview of what we can expect in the jobs report today. not good news >> maybe. they're looking for 150,000 jobs to be created in the month of may and an 8.1% unemployment rate. if you get 150,000, ladies, enough to absorb all the new people coming into the labor market and enough to add the few more jobs for people who are looking. this is the estimate for may 150,000. the reason why it's so critical this month, every month it's critical but this month especially because in april this was the slowest job creation in six months so people are keen to find out if you had a little more robust job market activity last month or if this was the beginning of something that happened like maybe last year, when you had a slowdown into the summer. >> what was april's problem? could it have been a blip? >> maybe. we see these things revised all the time so that's why every month we parse over the data, why it's the most important economic report in the world because of the american labor market and how the american worker is doing is the driver of global growth, the biggest economy in the world. china will be the biggest economy soon in the next 20 or 30 years. i want to back up here, too, because this is really important because this is a political story. i can almost tell you now what the press releases will be from each camp, whether they get 150 more or less, because this is what we're fighting over, politically. fighting over what the recovery has been since this horrible, horrible job debacle here. this has not been robust enough economic growth. this has not been robust enough jobs growth and there's been a lot of fighting about why. mostly because we've never seen something like this in our lifetimes or our parents' life times something this horrible so this recovery since then has become very, very political, and this is why its see key, while we watch. we want to make sure the slowdown isn't going to be a slowdown that you'll have a pickup there. bottom line i think if you get more than 150,000 jobs that will be good. i think if you get less than 150, that will be bad. now one thing about your money today, one thing that you can control about your money today, mortgage rates, ladies, are at new record lows. the 15-year fixed is now below 3% for the first time ever. >> holy could yow! >> if you already refinanced you might have to refinance again because the rates keep going down and they keep going down in the near future as well. >> if you refinance this year and you paid all those costs, i mean there are a lot of costs involved, it could be worth it to do it a second time. >> carefully do the math, carefully do the math but there's some people holding off an refinancing, i just did it 18 months ago. it might be time again. >> good advice. >> below 3%. >> it's incredible. i got an e-mail yesterday because i'm thinking of buying and it was incredible the rates they quoted me. i thought really? am i misreading this? >> it's all about qualifying. >> and some people are pulling their hair out because they don't qualify or are underwater and that's the unfortunate part. >> lost all the equity in the houses and so frustrated it's dangled in front of you and there's nothing you can do about it. christine, good news and bad news, thank you. i love you. 27 minutes past the hour. just another monday and day at the bar, changed in the blink of an eye when a pickup truck plows right through a wall, pinning people up against the bar. we're going to talk to the man who helped pull them out and the guy that was behind the bar as well. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. support team usa and show our olympic spirit right in our own backyard. so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen. tom chipped in 10,000 points. karen kicked in 20,000. and by pooling more thankyou points from folks all over town, we were able to watch team usa... 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[ male announcer ] aggressive styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. and a completely redesigned interior. ♪ the 2012 c-class with over 2,000 refinements. it's amazing...inside and out. ♪ the c-class starts at just $34,800. against all odds a bartender in this bar coming within inches of being crushed by an out of control truck, and he's here with us to talk about it live today. and too big for the big apple, new york city trying to ban those super size sodas. we're talking to both sides of the issue this morning. plus, torture me elmo? seriously? the pentagon confirming what we have suspected for years that muppets are a secret weapon in the war on terror. you're going to stick around for that one, aren't you? welcome back to "early start." >> kids who are watching that. >> by the way i have said for years this music has been torturing me. >> oh, it brings back good memories. >> i'm ashleigh banfield, nice to have you with us. >> i'm zoraida sambolin, it's 31 minutes past the hour. we were looking at this amazing video yesterday. we need to look at it again. an afternoon at the bar turns into a chaotic scene as a pickup truck plows through the wall, pinning the patrons in the bar, it happened when a 51-year-old woman had a diabetic reaction, losing control of her truck and driving into gordy's place, that is a bar in little canada, minnesota. it is tough to look at those pictures. yesterday, we were so worried about the folks who were there. jen cosack helped free the customers and bartender pat crzynski. the folks who were hit in that video, how are they doing this morning? >> for one we've heard most of them have been released now and the one lady we haven't heard from, the most injured one, we haven't heard what's up with her yet but most of the people have been released. >> do you know what the injuries are of the one that's still in the hospital? >> when she went in we heard she had two broken legs and i didn't hear anything other than that. >> we're just happy to hear that everybody's alive. when you look at that video you are shocked to believe anybody survived that. pat we can see you behind right there, take us through exactly what happened. >> well i just moved to that spot like a minute before, i was trying to hear what chuck, the customer at the end, was saying, and as i was walking over and leaning over the bar, i had noticed the telephone pole going through the parking lot and then i heard a bang, and then the truck came through, and then all of a sudden i was rushing out of the bar, there was a dead silence and the next thing i know, i just looked and everybody was like they were, put their heads down sleeping on the bar, and i was just a terrifying experience. >> and what did you do? >> we just jumped into action. chuck, the guy i was talking to, jumped into the truck, and shut the truck off. i dialed 911, as i was dialing 911 the ramsay county sheriff's department showed up. jim and becky came in. it was just like everybody that we needed to be there was there at the correct time, and it was just amazing that everybody walked out alive because i thought the other way. >> now, jim, we're taking a look at all of the damage there and i know that this has been very difficult for your family. you've had this bar for years. everybody in the community loves going there. do you think any of this is going to be able to be salvaged? >> yeah, we lost the bar and part of the wall and floor but that's not much, if everybody made it out we can replace those things, be the same little neighborhood bar it's always been since 1938, something like that. >> so jim, have you heard from the driver at all? do you know if anybody is going to press charges against the driver? >> i haven't heard that, no. >> well, gentlemen, we're very happy to see you. >> i don't think there'd be a reason. from what we've heard. >> i really appreciate your being with us this morning. glad everybody's okay and we hope the person who is still in the hospital makes it out well. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> thanks a lot. >> i think if you go through something like that you're just so rattled to the core. it's really hard to get past, to get over that. >> i can't imagine. everybody's alive, which is fantastic. >> it is a miracle to say the very least. 35 minutes past 6:00, the pentagon's secret weapon has been revealed. here he is. barney. how barney has reportedly been deployed in the war on terror. i kid you not. ♪ ♪ and the flowers and the trees all laugh when you walk by ♪ ♪ and the neighbors' kids... what does being true to yourself have to do with being healthy? everything. ♪ but you're not ♪ you're the one ♪ one, one, one, one, one ♪ the one ♪ one, one, one, one, one ♪ the one ♪ one, one, one... 39 minutes past 6:00 on the east coast. let's get you up to date on the top stories of the day with christine romans. >> good morning, thank you ashleigh and zoraida. that sound you hear is john edwards exhaling after a jury reprieve, acquitted on one count of illegally using campaign funds to cover up his affair and the jury deadlocked on five other counts leading to a mistrial. prosecutors could try for a second bite at the apple but legal experts say that's not likely. "the new york times" reporting the obama administration conducted a wave of super secret cyber attacks against computer systems that operate iran's nuclear enrichment facilities. the president decided to accelerate the attacks when a computer worm accidentally became public in 2010. more on the story coming up on "starting point." it's green lantern, we've been talking about it but we know who d.c. comics is relaunching as a gay superhero. "the new york post" reporting readers will be tipped off earlier the formerly earlier married father of two is gay when he's welcomed home by his boyfriend with a kiss. the sign says it all, london about to go royally wild for the huge diamond jubilee celebrations kicking off this weekend. queen elizabeth commemorating 60 years on the throne. she's the oldest monarch to rule except queen victoria. they spent more than $650 million in jubilee memorabilia, everything from jelly molds of the queen's face so lawn gnomes of her likeness. might be enough to make you confess of the kennedy assassination. ♪ c is for cookie, that's good for me ♪ ♪ k is for cookie, that's good enough for me ♪ >> come on, cookie, torture, cute but imagine sesame street on a loop for a day. the pentagon confirming reports we've heard from years music is regularly used to punish prisoners at guantanamo bay, they are forced to listen to barney and sesame street for 24 straight hours. officials insist it is not torture. i call it raising a preschooler actually. >> i was going to say what is this about? we hear this 24 hours a day, christine, you and i have children under 6, this is normal. >> i could join the two of you in a sing-along. >> you remember the songs. >> i do remember them. thank you very much, christine. soledad o'brien joins us with a look at what is ahead on "starting point." >> ahead on "starting point" the big monthly jobs report will be released at 8:30 a.m. eastern time, what does it mean for the economy? we'll break down these numbers, get reaction from the vice chairman of the financial services committee, texas congressman jeff hensarling. snigdha nandipati will be with us, live of the 85th scripps national spelling bee. marilyn monroe like you've never seen her before, literally pictures that have never been released before, rare pictures and the rare story of the private marilyn monroe who was nothing like i think history remembers her. that and much more coming up on "starting point." we're here at walmart with the burtons, who love movies. let me show you something new. come on. walmart can now convert your favorite dvds from disc to digital. so you can watch them on your laptop, tablet, phone... anytime, anywhere. cool, huh? yea! yea! what'd you guys think that it would cost? i thought it'd be around $10. it's only $2 per disc. that's a great price. bring in your favorite dvds. see for yourself. boooom! 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[ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. the fallout from a controversial new policy proposal here in new york city, a war on soda, is actually raging this morning. the mayor here, michael bloomberg is facing some very sharp criticism over a proposal that's brand new that would limit the amount of soda that can be sold in a single container. the critics are saying, wait, the city is really overstepping its bounds here. mayor michael bloomberg, though, is defending the idea. >> we're not taking away your right to buy soda in a supermarket which we don't regulate. you can still buy a 32-ounce can but in a restaurant they can't serve more than 16 ounces in any one cup. >> the limit is set to apply to movie theaters, food cards and concession stands and being submitted to the board of health on june 12th. here to talk about it, new york city's health commissioner dr. thomas farley. thank you for coming in. i'm sure you have heard the chorus of criticism that erupted so quickly after this became public, and the biggest headline for those who criticize this idea is that this is just nanny nation, stay out of my business. why is anybody wrong to tell you to stop telling them what to do? >> any time you have a new idea it takes some time for people to adjust to it. we have smoke free bars and restaurants in new york city and don't have transfats in our food. we have a crisis in obesity in new york city and the nation as a whole and think putting a cap on the default size of sugary beverages makes sense. if people want more than that they can but the default size would be promoting of health than we are now. >> are you targeting the right thing? the reason i ask is because there's a cdc study that people tend to get small amounts of sugar from soda, less than 10% of sugar coming from soda so i sort of am curious about why you chose soda. look at the stats on the screen, kids between the ages of 2 and 19 are getting up to 8.2% from sugar and adults that goes up to 8.8%. >> there's many studies come out over the last ten years that show particular link between sugary drinks and weight gain and it's not entirely clear why. somehow when you put sugar and water it makes it so much easier for people to consume that and add it to the total calories in the diet. we've seen increases in the last 0 to 40 years. when i was a kid a standard size of coca-cola was 6 1/2 ounces. we're proposing capping it at three times that. it was advertised in the '50s 16 was enough to serve three people. now we have portions sizes are, half a gallon that has 800 calories. >> i've been amazed people can get all of that liquid down but that is a choice and i do remember the days when the servings were little so i guess my question, dr. farley, by limiting the cup size do you really think you're going to limit the intake? i can still buy two or three cups. >> you can if you want to, but there are a number of studies done over the last few years that demonstrate people are influenced by the portion sizes given to them. if you give people twice as much they'll consume more and won't notice and feel any different about it. if you give people a 16 ounce cup they'll probably consume less. the studies suggest this would have a big impact. >> let me play something for a moment of levelily, jon stewart on "the daily show" took on this issue last night. let's have a look at that and i want to ask you something serious about it on the other side. >> all of this is legal in new york city! until, god forbid, i want to wash it down with a little something as pure and refreshing as a mountain dew! >> okay, so it's funny and i can see you're laughing as well. there's a good point to be made. there is a veritable cornucopia from bloomin' onions to snickers bars that are the length of my arm. again, soda is the only focus here at this point. why not the candy and the heavy fats in the restaurants and the menu items that are 10,000 calories like the quadruple bypass burger? >> portion sizes have increased in foods over the last 30, 40 years but not nearly to the degree of soda. again, this year is about ten times the size of a soda in the 1960s and also there have been these studies shown a particular association between these sugary drinks and weight gain and increasingly sugar drinks and diabetes. >> if you're going after the soda, is the bloomin' onion and things like that next? >> no, we haven't considered portion sizes other than sugary drinks which have the unique association with the epidemic, two-thirds of americans are overweight or obese, one in four military recruits is denied because they're overweight. we have to do something about that. >> i want to bring in somebody else clearly on the opposite side of the argument, dr. rona applebaum from coca-cola and joins me live from chicago. thanks for doing this. you've been able to listen in on the interview with dr. farley. aren't we out of control when drinking drinks the size of our tor torsos? >> first and foremost, the one thing that i can agree that dr. farley said is the issue of obese sit serious and very complex but to try to get a simple answer to this complex problem is not going to fix it. the points that were made as it relates to the other parts of the diet focusing exclusively on soft drinks just makes no sense, and the data that was discussed has no, there's not any cause and effect associated with it. so i think in terms of the proposal, though intriguing, is not going to be effective and what we should be doing is focusing on those interventions and solutions that are going to make a difference in our public's health. >> public health, i'm glad you said that. for those who say keep your laws off my body and i get to choose what i want to do and it's my business if i want to drink myself into diabetes, that may not necessarily be the case because there are serious national statistics that show 25.8 million americans are diabetic and the cost for treating that disease is somewhere between 174 billion in 2007 and beyond. president clinton even decided to weigh in on this last night, right here on cnn, he was on piers morgan's program being interviewed by harvey weinstein. let's have a listen. >> i think he's doing the right thing. you've got this explosion of diabetes in america among young people, for the first time, type ii diabetes showing up in 9-year-olds and among the baby boomers retiring. together these things are going to bankrupt us. it's aer itable human tragedy and basically too much sugar going into the body. we can't process it all. if you get rid of these giant full sugar drinks and make people have smaller portions, it will help. >> dr. applebaum, look, we are in crisis in this country and our kids as the former president mentioned are in crisis. doesn't what mayor bloomberg has done show a form of leadership that perhaps we really need? some call it nanny nation, others call it for god's sake we got to do something. >> stepping into traffic is, some people would also define as a leadership moment. being gutsy is not necessarily being right and it is a tragedy but what's even a bigger tragedy when talking about our children and a straf gee is the fact we've taken physical education and physical actinderson coopctr schools. we're not saying the diet should not be addressed. we want our public and consumers to have a sensible balanced diet but they also have to have regular physical activity so if they want to put their money where their mouth is, look at the built environment and look at the schools, increase physical activity. one of the things that's really concerning is this non-invented here. new york wants to be different. there's a lot of information out there and there's a lot of blueprints that have been demonstrated to work. we have a national physical activity plan, right here we have the academy of nutrition and dietetics, we have stake shoulders with ideas and proven interventions, let's find solutions that are going to make a difference. >> dr. applebaum great of to you join us and dr. thomas farley thank you for being part of this debate. methinks this will not be the last of this conversation. good morning to you both. >> thank you. we will be back after this. are created and protected. s gonna need more wool! demand is instantly recognized and securely acted on across the company. around the world. turning a new trend, into a global phenomenon. it's the at&t network -- securing a world of new opportunities. ♪ of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. [♪...] >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, clang] you need lifelock, the only identity theft protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. hey, everyone, this is "early start: the news from a to z." i'm ashleigh banfield. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. welcome, everybody. our starting point this morning, john edwards off the hook at least for now. >> while i do not believe i did anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong. >> he's been found not guilty on one charge and a hung jury on five other charges, but will the former senator face a judge again? and we're 90 minutes away from the big monthly jobs report, what will it tell us about the economy. and the queen bee. >>