>> and i'm john berman. huge crowds at chick fill a's all across the country. they weigh in about the national debate about gay marriage and free speech. >> some people wanted a sandwich. another thrilling finish leads to gold for team u.s.a. this is cnn breaking news. breaking overnight a frighteningly close call in the skies. three commuter jets came within seconds of a mid-air collision. we're talk 12g seconds after confused air traffic controllers dealing with bad weather launched two flights at another plane that was coming in for another landing. the two closest plains were less than 1.5 miles apart and they were closing in at 400 miles an hour. they were operated by u.s. airways. they had a combined 192 people on board. listen to how it unfolded on the radio. >> 3329 stand by. hold on. we're trying to get a copy. stand by. >> okay, we really -- >> we'll get back to you as soon as i can. >> we've got to get off the ground here pretty quick. >> everybody stand by, we've got a couple of opposite direction arrive alzheimer's. >> one of the pilots saying they didn't have enough fuel to circle. disaster was avoided. all the flights did make it safely in the end to their destinations. >> wow. red flags might have been missed in the aurora movie theater massacre. unanswered questions about communication between dr. lynn fenton, the psychiatrist who was seeing shooter james holmes as a patient and the school itself. according to cnn affiliate kmgh holmes failed an oral exam at the school on june 7th, then went out and bought an ar-15 assault rifle. it was about this time that dr. fenton made an urgent call to the university and it appears there was no further action. kngh reporter john feruja picks up the time line. >> something that he said to his psychiatrist caused her to contact the university of colorado threat assessment team. now that threat assessment team was formed in part with her help and she's on that team so she's a member, she helped form the team, she contacted several of her colleagues on that team. we don't know what she told them. we don't know what triggered her to call them. on the 10th of june he dropped out of school. they then thought, the team thought, we're told by our sources, the team thought they had no jurisdiction, they had no contl over them so there was nothing they could do. we have been told no one contacted the aurora police department with any of these concerns. >> so moving forward from that time line. about six weeks later 12 people were gunned down at the aurora cineplex. a lot of people asking what they knew and whether they were legally obligated to call police with their concerns. in the next hour of "early start" we'll explore that very question with noted criminal defense attorney joey jackson. sources tell cnn president obama has signed a covert order authorizing u.s. support for syria's opposition forces. this secret directive allows clandestine activity by the cia and other activities. it's not clear what type of support has been authorized or when the order was signed. fran townsend told our anderson coop cooper, she believes the u.s. needs to move with more urgency in syria. >> reporter: the longer we wait to act, the more radicalized the syrian population becomes. they've been tortured, abused by their own leader. they will turn to whoever can provide them weapons, food. if that's al qaeda, that's who they'll turn to. >> the state department said yesterday it had set aside $25 million for non-lethal assistance to the syrian rebels with another $64 million in humanitarian assistance going to the syrian people. >> we're going to have a live report from turkey on that coming up shortly. 4 minutes past the hour. extreme weather threatens to ruin a lot of tropical vacation plans. rob marciano is tracking the storm's path. looks really active there. >> finally it's been about a month. we got off to a gang buster start of the season. went through four named storms and we had a month break. now we're into august and things will start ramping up. this is tropical depression number five. it is about 500 miles east of the win ward islands. here's south america. pretty far to the south. not necessarily good news meaning it's got some time before it recur fs if at all over the next few days. here's what the forecast track is. it doesn't look all that impressive on the satellite. the convection of the thunderstorms around the center getting a little bit more better organized. as it gets into the caribbean, you notice it gets into tropical storm status. when this circle closes, that's when we denote a hurricane. we don't have that for hurricane strength at least in the first five days. got some obstacles in the forms of dry air and winds pushing against it. the track continues it on a west, northwesterly position into the central caribbean. this is a scary proposition, when you get that southern trajectory potentially getting into the gulf of mexico in a week's time. that has everybody nervous. the folks who live in central america, they're definitely nervous as well. it will create rough weather for the islands. some of our computer models, several of them, and they take this thing with the exception of one renegade takes one into the caribbean. that's the preferred track for the month of august. we'll watch it carefully. ernesto will be its name once it gets its winds up another five miles an hour. in washington, more time and more money being based on capital hill. it extends the bush tax cuts at all income levels. it extended tax cuts for everyone but not at people above $250,000. the two sides are at an impasse and they're not expected to revisit the issue until after the november election. so another day well spent on capitol hill. this was widely predicted. 7 minutes past the hour. people across the country flocking to chick-fil-a. did you see the crowds? they had littleo do with the chicken biscuits. they came out for chick-fil-a appreciation day. something started by mike huckabee who supported the chain and its fans for same-sex marriage. some waited an hour in line. more than 700,000 supporters have liked the chick-fil-a appreciation day on its facebook page. >> a lot of republican candidates and republican figures, sarah palin, rick santorum, all taking their kids to chick-fil-a to show their support. it's very political and increasingly so. team u.s.a. continues to rule the pool at the london games and, boy, tonight we have a giant showdown between two teammates. we're going to go live to london coming up. tap... pinch... andoom... in your car. introducing the all-new cadillac xts with cue. ♪ don't worry. we haven't forgotten, you still like things to push. 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we are. japan is in third place with 17 medals. >> you bet we are. u.s. women's gymnastics looks to add more gold in the all around final. as we mentioned, ryan lochte and michael phelps go head to head in the 200 meter individual medley. coming up at 5:30 eastern time we'll be talking about gymnastics and more with our favorite three-time olympic medal list john roethlisberger. >> i wonder what he has in store for you. >> let's get you up to date. 16 minutes past the hour. welcome back. >> thank you. nice to see you. let's get to the news this morning, guys. new questions this morning in the aurora movie theater massacre. did the university of colorado ignore warning signs? according to kmgh the psychiatrist who was seeing suspect james holmes was so alarmed about something he said in early june she called the school's threat assessment team to warn them. holmes dropped out a few days later. it appears there was no further action taken and police were never called. an arizona law banning abortions 20 weeks into pregnancy has been blocked. it was set to take effect today but an appeal by the aclu was upheld yesterday by the ninth circuit court. the ban calls for physician toss have their licenses revoked and face jail time if they violate its terms with exceptions for life threatening situations and medical emergencies for the mother. a safety recall alert. toyota announcing that it's recalling close to 800,000 rav 4s to fix a suspension problem that could cause a crash. they're model years 2006 to 2011. it also includes 18,000 lexus h 250s from 2010. there have been nine crashes with three minor injuries due to the problem. odd sight in brockton, massachusetts. 25 miles south of boston. that's a 30 foot rv inside a swimming pool. >> oh, my goodness. >> local station is reporting the driver of the rv may have lost control yesterday because of a medical emergency. he was pulled out of the pool, is in the hospital in stable condition. >> oh, wow. >> it is not every day you see a huge rv in a swimming pool. >> that is an odd sight. i would agree with that. definitely odd. >> i'm glad he's okay. >> stable condition. it is now 17 minutes past the hour right now. we're getting a look, an early read on your local papers across the country making national headlines. our first look is here in new york city. michael bloomberg is a leading voice for tighter gun control laws in this country. he's defended his police -- what he's doing now is he's defending the new york city police department's action to sell shell casing, 28,000 pounds of shell casings. he has sold them to a georgia ammunition store in june. what happened was the police train at shooting ranges. left over all these shell casings, thousands and thousands of pounds of them. one time one of the highest bidders was this arms store in georgia. there's nothing illegal about this, the mayor says, but a lot of people thinks this looks sketchy because mayor michael bloomberg is such an advocate for gun control. he's trying to keep guns out of the wrong hands not ammunition to people who use it lawfully. an exciting discovery by researchers in texas could change the way that doctors fight cancer. this is a very interesting study. it comes to us via the "los angeles times" and researchers were studying mice -- or who were studying mice conclude the tumors grow and grow back after being treated because they're fuelled by stem cells that drugs don't kill. apparently they've studied this before but were skeptical. this is an independent study. the university of texas southwestern medical center in dallas conducted the study. they say the discovery of a so-called cancer stem cells will allow researchers to device new strategies to destroy them. it confirms what's been long suspected, that specific cells within tumors are actually responsible for their continued growth. the study that used mice, they studied tumors of the brain, intestines and skin. hopefully this will lead to new ways to maybe treat them and new drugs also. >> certainly a whole new area of research. >> very exciting. expanded look at all of our top stories, head to our blog cnn.com/earlystart. attention shoppers. the month of august is a great time to buy if you know what to look for. so guess what, christine romans with some late summer barring gains coming up. looking forward to that. ♪ school's been blown to pieces ♪ the way. not anymore. the way. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink wow, you look terrific! 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[ male announcer ] fiber one. 23 minutes past the hour. we are minding your business this morning. our top business story, the european central bank meeting in frank further. >> christine romans is backment we are so happy you're back. they didn't hear anything from the. >> fred: >> i would say mario draghi might be more important than ben bernanke. you hear us talking about the fed chief in the u.s. there he is, incredibly important guy right now. just about a week ago he said we will do whatever it takes to keep the euro intact. now he's got to prove to investors that they will. that guy's pretty key to what's going to happen overall in europe. that matters to us because there's so many things happening in the u.s. right now to be concerned about. for example, new car sales down. this is something that's a concern to investors. manufacturing slowing. this is most recent piece of evidence that we have, that the europe's problems are affecting the united states. the housing market appears to be bottoming out. we don't know how long that will last. those are all things you can't control. big things that will control your 401 k. there are some things you can control. deal news out with a list of things to buy in august. you would think, of course, back to school items are on that list. summer clothes. have you checked these sales? unbelievable right now. swimsuits, by the way, they point out victoria secret, land's end, barbecue grills. 30% more sales on grills this august than last year. hdtv, whatnot to buy, what should you