including that an organization that tracks hate groups has been monitoring wayne michael page for more than ten years now. police are looking into the 40-year-old page's ties to white supremicist. this photo of page in front of a swastika is front of a facebook page that's been taken down. he was the front man for a white power rock band whose music was promoted on a neo-nazi website. >> i would not have known that was wade. what has changed him i have no idea. and obviously we're never going to know. >> i'm totally devastated. his father is devastated. we're in pretty much in shock. >> david mattingly is live with us in oak creek, wisconsin. it's the southern poverty law center who said they've been tracking page since 2000. was law enforcement involved at all? >> reporter: this man han talking about his believes for quite some time. he may have been off the radar when it comes to law enforcement. but for the people who knew him, they say that his thoughts about racial ideas were well known to them. this going back to when he was in the military. in the u.s. army. a former army buddy tells us he describes him as being a kind person, a quiet person, someone who had a soft spot for his friends, but who believed very strongly in a coming race war. and even when they talked to him about this idea, he wouldn't talk about or elaborate about why he felt that way. but he had some very strong beliefs. >> he would often mention the racial holy war that was coming. and you know, we just looked at it as he was trying to get attention to himself. because he was always the type of person, even in a group of people, he would be off alone. >> even when he was maybe calling attention to himself by talking about his beliefs, his friends says that he never thought he would take those beliefs and do something violent with them. that's almost cliche when you look back at other cases. 15 to 20 years ago he was talking about these ideas that he still was holding when he carried out this shooting. >> there are still several victims in the hospital recovering including i believe brian murphy, the police officer who first responded to the scene. how is their recovery going? >> reporter: well the last update we had was yesterday evening at the hospital. all three are still in the hospital. all listed in critical condition. of course that officer shot eight to nine times, he's gone through a couple of surgeries. yesterday was described as resting comfortably. we're hoping for the sake of all three of them that we hear a new update today and hear of some sort of improvement in their condition. >> that's something we are all hoping for. david mattingly in oak creek, wisconsin, thanks very much. among the six people killed in the massacre, the sikh's temple president is being remembered this morning as a hero for trying to stop shooter wade page with a butter knife. his actions gave several temple members time to run for cover. his son and mother recalling how proud and fearful he was when he bought the family's home. >> my dad put the flag outside when we first bought the house. we came home from school and said, that's going to be an eyesore. you have an elementary-sized flag in the front yard. and he said, do you see any other american flags, our house, because it's our house -- >> we should know that we are close to the american friends, you know. >> and now we're in a form of protection. >> he said look, i don't want anybody doing anything to our house. >> in the next hour of "early start," you'll hear more the anderson cooper's interview with the son of the slain sikh leader. we'll be joined by mark potok, his civil rights organization had been tracking gun man wade page for 12 years. the fbi is in joplin, missouri this morning investigating a fire that burned a mosque to the ground a month after an attempted arson at the same facility. the fire broke out early monday morning at the islamic society of joplin, fortunately, no one was there at the time. last month an arson caught on camera caused minor damage to the mosque. and the july footage, a suspect is seen aappropriating the mosque and throwing some kind of ignited object on the roof. coming up at 6:40 on early start, we'll hear from kimberly kuester, an american member of the islamic society of joplin. a big story to watch for in arizona, where attorneys for jared lee loughner are expected to enter at least one guilty plea on behalf of their client. he's accused of killing six people and wounding 13, including gabrielle giffords. that court hearing wil happen later this morning. if a federal judge finds him competent to stand trial. loughner has been getting psychological treatment at a missouri prison facility mpblt. president obama's campaign visit to contracts contract causing a commotion in the air. amateur video of two f-15 fighter jets intercepting a small plane that strayed into the president's airspace over long island, new york. the pilot was escorted to the ground and questioned. half an hour later, another small plane was intercepted near new haven, connecticut. but norad said that plane was allowed to continue on to its investigation. >> how bizarre. they declare these no-fly zones. ant gas prices rise overnight for the ninth day in a row. the average price of unleaded is now 3.63 a gallon, a 1.5-cent increase overnight. aiming for gold, the u.s. women's soccer team pulls off an amazing semifinal win. i mean really amazing. outlasting canada in a gripping match. i was on the edge of my seat. team usa's youngest starter, alex morgan scored a header in the 123rd minute giving the u.s. team a 4-3 victory. and a date with japan in the finals with the gold medal at stake. japan beat team usa in the world cup final. in men's basketball, argentina gave usa all it could handle for the first half. it was a one-point game at halftime. but then u.s. started pulling away, mostly thanks to kevin durant who started hitting bombs from everywhere. he led the way with 17 points in the third. in the end the u.s. ran away with a 126-97 victory. next up, the quarterfinals against australia tomorrow. >> tomorrow people were saying they're no fun to watch because they dominate all the time. >> i think there's something to that. i think they're too good. they're too much better than most other teams. >> yesterday there was a little competition for you, okay? >> for a few minutes. check out the overall medal standings, china has the most medals, the totals is 64, the most golds, 31. team usa, 63 overall medals, 29 are gold. russia has 42 and great britain has 40. a big day for gymnastics, medals up for grabs in the men's parallel bars and horizontal bar finals and in the women, floor exercise finals, gabby douglas does go for her third gold, competing in the balance beam. ahead on "early start" where war zone. 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[ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. well hello, welcome to hotels.com. summer road trip, huh? uhuh yep uch let's find you a room. at hotels.com, you'll always find the perfect hotel. because we only do hotels. wow. i like that. nice no. laugh... awe uch ooh, yeah hmm nice huh book it! oh boy call me... this summer, we're finding you the perfect place - plus giving you up to $100 at hotels.com welcome back to "early start," it's about 13 minutes after the hour. >> we're learning more about a key defection as more people die in syria this morning. the prime minister of syria declaring his allegiance to the rebels after showing up in jordan. i highest-ranking official to date to abandon president bashar al assad. meantime, the bloodshed continues, the opposition reports at least 11 more deaths just this morning on top of 161 deaths in fighting across the country yesterday. watch as amateur video shot inside homs, the nation's third most populated city, shows droms being dr bombs being dropped on the city. >> cnn cannot independently confirm the authenticity of this particular video. meanwhile, fighting over the country's biggest city, aleppo is raging, with rebels maintaining their control over a number of areas inside the city. cnn international correspondent, ben wedeman has made his way into aleppo and we have him on the phone. what we see of aleppo is complete and utter crisis. >> reporter: we spent a very sleepless night inside the city in one of the areas controlled by the free syrian army. throughout the night, our building was shaken by multiple explosions and every ten minutes or so we heard large blasts coming in quite close. early in the morning we went out into a bakery where about 100 people, men, women and children were lined up, and the situation is a very dire one. most of them don't have any cooking gas. some of them have to cook their food over a fire. many of the children seem to be somewhat traumatized by the fighting that's been going on around them. one man told me that they had left the city and come back in the hopes that things were calming down. but then we saw on the streets of the rebel-controlled parts of aleppo that people are starting to pack up and leave again. there's real concern that the syrian army is massing forces on the outskirts of aleppo in preparation for tanks to take the city. it definitely will be a bloodbath here. >> ben, is there no clear sign of humanitarian support or efforts in that area? >> none whatsoever, coming from outside, cheerily, the syrians have been providing free showers for the bakery and therefore, the food, their bread is given to the people for free. but for real international humanitarian aid organizations, we can see nothing on the ground here. people very much feel that they've been left to their own devices. it's a very, because of the suffering, the lack of food, the generally diffult circumstances, the help they were hoping that they would get in terms of ammunition and hasn't arrived. there's desperation among fighters and civilians. >> ben wedeman live in aleppo for us, please be safe. it's 16 minutes after the hour. we want to get you up to date on the morning's top stories. we're finding out more about wade michael page's ties to the white supremicists. he once posted this photo of himself in front of a swastika or facebook. he was the front man for a white power rock band called end apathy. neo-nazi websites promoted this band. a huge black cloud of smoke has been flowing from the chevron facility in richmond. health officials are warning people to stay indoors or to leave the area. maybe this show should be called stupid criminals. police say two thieves that robbed a pennsylvania pizza shop taped their crime on a cell phone and they told the victims it's part of a new reality tv show called, we just got robbed. a worker at the shop said he thought the whole thing was just a prank. >> i thought it was a joke at first, i was like, really? okay, ha, ha, now you can get me go. and it got real real, real quick. a guy grabbed me by the throat and got my wallet. >> both suspects were arrested and charged with robbery, harassment and disorderly conduct. that's the end of this show. >> dumb dumb dumb dumb. this morning we're getting the first color pictures from the mars rover "curiosity." today is the first full day on the rad planet after its spectacular landing, labeled seven minutes of terror. black-and-white photos beamed back showed one of the vehicle's wheels on the ground and another photo shows mount sharp in the distance. it's "curiosity"'s eventual destination. scientists at the jet propulsion laboratory are expecting to receive weather data a little bit later this morning. >> that's so cool. it's about 6:18, we're getting an early read on the local news making national headlines. we have sports news for people sleeping in san diego, this from the north county "times." guess what the padres were sold overnight to a familiar baseball family. a group led by the o'malley family has purchased the padres for the relative bargain price of $700 million they were famous for moving the brooklyn dodgers to los angeles. a detroit boy sends his summer vacation selling snacks to save his city. i love this little boy. 9-year-old joshua smith has raised more than $3,000, selling lemonade, fruit punch, giving all the money to the security council to help detroit out of a financial crisis. a 9-year-old boy. so smith is set to be honored by the city. he's giving the money he raised to the city council today. he got a $2,000 scholarship from a community group and a surprise visit from the university of michigan baseball team. detroit is facing a $200 million deficit. he's got a little bit of work to do. how incredible that he took matters into his own hands to help try to save his city. >> he's raised so much money. i think to date by friday, joshua had made $3,392.77. >> go josh. we're pulling for you. for an expanded look at all the top stories, head to our blog, cnn.com/earlystart. would you pay to have your bags delivered tour home from the airport. perhaps, american airlines things so, alison kosik has all the details coming up. 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[ whirring and beeping ] it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪ to help business do more for customers. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. take the steps to reach yours, everyowith usgoals. with real advice, for real goals. the us bank wealth management advisor can help you. every step of the way. from big steps, to little steps. since 1863 we've helped guide our clients, so they can take the steps to help grow, preserve, and pass along their wealth. so their footsteps can help the next generation find their own path. all of us serving you. us bank 24 minutes past the hour, we're minding your business, u.s. stock futures are trading higher after solid gains yesterday. >> alison kosik is in for christine romans this morning. allison we have more good news on the housing market. >> if you own a home or an apartment we love to hate our closing costs, but good news, the average costs of closing on a mortgage fell about 7.4% over the past year. you put it in dollars and cents, at the end of june of took out a $200,000, put 20% down. paid $3700 as a closing costs, it's actually $300 less than a yearago. the lovely fee, cots of doing credit checks, title searches. why is this happening? >> new regulations so lenders are required t be more accurate when they estimate these closing costs for borrowers. so these were put in place a couple of years ago, they're required to give a good faith estimate of fees, within 10% of the actual amount that the buyer will pay. so listen, the good news is that lenders are doing a better job of estimating what the costs will be. now that they're required to be within 10%, what were they doing before shall? suddenly a light bulb came on and they were able to estimate better. what, were we being ripped off before? >> yes. >> american airlines, delivering your luggage. >> you have to be really wealthy or really lazy. american airlines is that's what i'm thinking. starting this week, what you can do is pay for the service, you can do it when you're booking your flight or two hours before you bod the flight, check out the fee if you want your bags delivered to you to your home, your office, wherever, this is convenience at top dollar if you ask me. or you know, if you have running to a meeting or something and you can't wait at the baggage carousel. you can get your bags shipped to you it would take about one to four hours depending on for 40 miles away or less if your address is more than four hours it will cost $1 for every extra mile. you're paying for this convenience, how lazy do you have to be? >> if you have children, right? and you have a lot of bags and you've got the kids and the strollers, well you just send your luggage and you don't have to worry about it. >> do you see these prices here? >> i hear you, but for the convenience? >> if you're rich, lazy and have a lot of children. >> the american is going to rake it in if it does well and other airlines could catch on if it is successful. >> i predict it's going to be successful, allison. it is 26 after the hour, still to come on "early start" -- if you rebuild it, they will come. a diner destroyed by a devastating tornado gets a new look and a new name. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more [ russian accent ] rubles. eh, eheh, eh, eh. 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