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>> boy were they amazing. >> welcome to "early start," i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and i'm john berman. 5:00 a.m. in the east. what we're all talking about is morning is politics. after 36 hours joined at the hip, mitt romney and his new running mate are going their separate ways today. the former massachusetts governor says he's happy with his new teammate. at one point, ryan teared up with emotion during a stop in wisconsin. on "60 minutes," romney praised his vp pick for being a lot like him. of course, the president is weighing in, too. >> this is a man who's dedicated the last 14 years working in washington in ways that are not highly partisan. this is a man who's also analytical. he's a policy guy. people know him as a policy guy. that's one of the reasons he has such respect on both sides of the aisle. i'm a policy guy, believe it or not. i love policy. i love solving tough problems. >> congressman ryan is a decent man. he is a family man. he's an articulate spokesman for governor romney's vision. but it's a vision that i fundamentally disagree with. >> today ryan will make his first solo appearance as romney's running mate. he's going to the iowa state fair in des moines. romney's bus tour makes two stops in st. augustine and miami. vice president biden has a campaign event in north carolina and obama will be out there as well. paul steinhauser joins us live. the tone of this race is somehow reset. >> it really is reset. the choice of ryan makes this election more of a choice election rather than an election which seem to be a referendum on barack obama. you're right, john, you saw that tough tone. beth from paul ryan and mitt romney at that rally last night in waukesha and wisconsin with both candidates talking pretty tough about the president. and you're going to hear more of that today from paul ryan in iowa where he'll continue to go with the romney theme, attacking president obama over welfare, something we heard first last week. the president obama, his requirements would end requirements for welfare. the obama campaign pushing back on that. you heard mitt romney take a tough tone against the president, against those negative attacks from the president and super pacs supporting him. take a listen. >> there's no question but if you follow the campaign of barack obama he's going to do everything in his power to make this the lowest, meanest, negative campaign in history. we're not going to let that happen. this is going to be a campaign about ideas, about the future of america. >> mr. president, take your campaign out of the gutter, let's talk about the real issues that american faces. >> you'll hear that sound bite a lot, i'm sure, this morning, john and zoraida. paul ryan will be releasing two years of his tax returns. does that sound familiar? mitt romney has released two years of his tax returns. no more. >> paul, i do have to ask, though, the democrats, a lot of them in congress have been sort of chomping at the bit to take on ryan and the so-called ryan budget plan. what are you hearing from democratic sources this morning? >> from the moment we learned it would be paul ryan. you saw statements aing toing ryan over that house budget which would alter medicare significantly. you're saying from democrats attacks that the ryan plan would hurt senior citizens, even though nobody over 55 would be affected. you'll hear more of that on campaign trail. sources telling me you'll hear it not only from the president and vice president in north carolina but pro groups, romney, pro obama groups. you were there four years ago. you saw when john mccain picked sarah palin. two similar results over the first 48 hours, increase in crowd size, increase in the base, and also increase in fund-raising. there seems to be chemistry between mitt romney and paul ryan which we did not see four years ago between sarah palin and john mccain. >> paul steinhauser. thank you very much. we're keeping a close watch on tropical storm hector. it's clocking in max winds at 40 miles per hour. rob marciano joins us live. where is hector heading? could it get stronger and welcome back. >> thanks. good to be back after a week away. good morning. hello, john. we're looking at this storm, the satellite picture it goes from very established tropical system to kind of lose a lot of its gusto. even if this thing re-organizes itself, we don't think it will do much as far as the southern tip of the baja, california. that includes mexico. off the coast by about 300 miles. we expect it to not even get to hurricane strength. watching a couple other systems in the atlantic basin, this one in the atlantic ocean. we have time to deal with that. this one is south of the island of hispaniola. winds are set up great to have it explode into something significant anytime soon. we'll watch it but at this point not terribly concern. we're watching th system moving across the midsection of the country. severe storms potentially across the midsouth, north into parts of the hey high river as well. temperatures will be warm down across parts of the south, 103 in dallas, 85 degrees expected in new york city. and a cool 71 with a little bit of rain in chicago. toss it back up to you. >> thank you very much. >> i like how rob says the storm isn't looking good when it's breaking up. two strong earthquakes kill at least 306 people in iran. the semiofficial farsi news agency reporting another 3,000 injured, 11 aftershocks followed. the deputy interior minister saying 110 villages were damaged as were historic monuments. evangelist billy graham was admitted this past weekend for treatment of a pulmonary infection that is believed to be bronchitis. graham's spokesman says no date has been set for his discharge. we wish him well. >> a ceremony of cleansing and birth. a sikh temple re-opened for services. the president's son said in his words, quote, a coward tried to cause a race war but ended up uniting people. an illinois man charged with shooting his air rifle at a mosque during ramadan services will appear in court today. the leader of the mosque says he thinks the suspect, 51-year-old david conrad should be charged with a hate crime. prosecutors rejected hate crime charges in this case. penn state's board of trustees says it will comply with ncaa sanctions over how it handled the jerry sandusky molestation scandal. they also expressed a desire to move forward. penn state was fined $60 million, among other penalties. the mars rover curiosity is getting what nasa calls a brain transplant. it's no small feat considering the remote upgrade is happening from 350 miles away. if anything goes wrong, it could be the last time nasa has contact with curiosity. the upgrade should be wrapped up later today. curiosity's been sending back amazing pictures of the death valley like environment around its landing site on mars. the color pictures are amazing. >> we hope that upgrade goes well. >> if it doesn't that is horrid news. >> rio, here we come. plenty of music, fireworks and star power. you'll have a live report about the closing ceremonies and the really cool passing of the torch, just ahead. i'm feeling ag male spirit present. it's the priceline negotiator. >>what? 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[ cheers and applause ] welcome back to "early start," everyone. it's about 13 minutes after the hour. so glad you're here, i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. the 2012 summer games, finally, officially over but they did not end quietly. london rocked it out. amanda davies was lucky enough to be there to see the handoff of the next host city, rio, in 2016. it was fun to watch, i hear and bittersweet. tell us all about it. >> reporter: you'll have to come and forcibly remove me from this balcony. i'm hanging on to these games as long as i possibly can. it has been the most fantastic 17 days. and really, really odd here this morning. olympic park which has been so packed and hustling and bustling for the last 2 1/2 weeks is eerily quiet. they're packing up the barriers. it's just been superb. there was that fabulous climax at the stadium last night. the best of 50 years of british music with the spice girls performing, george michael, the who, the most spectacular light display with those fitted boxes behind all the 80,000 seats in the stadium. now the concern here is that the olympic hangover is kicking in. it's a case very much of roll on the paralympics, which is just 16 days away. >> the men's basketball got the gold yesterday. i hear there was some level of competition going on. >> reporter: yes. it wasn't the cake walk the men's basketball final that maybe the usa had thought it was going to be.coach k. had been saying he was just going to sit there, put his feet up, he felt his team were playing so well they'd easily claim the gold. it went right down to the closing seconds of the final quarter. the usa did beat spain 107-100 to claim their 14th olympic gold medal in the basketball and successfully defend their title, of course. people saying maybe you know, it's a sign of the improvements of european basketball, that it did go as far as it did. in terms of the usa, what that gold men the is that they finished the top of the medal tables, 104 medals in all, 46 gold. and usa's best olympics outside of the states ever. so big success for the usa. >> yes. a really big success. my producer was saying that the bouquets looked like boutonnieres in the hands of those big guys. let's look forward, the next stop is rio. they have a whole lot to live up to. some folks are saying that this is probably the most successful olympics ever. how about that handoff? >> roll on, reyop. it's a busy four years for them. they've in 2014 got the football, the soccer world cup in brazil, haven't they? then two years later they have the next olympic games in rio. jacques rogue, the president of the olympic committee says these games refreshed the olympic movement. there are concerns for rio in terms of the transport in place and the structures, the arenas and how much work needs to be done with them. we do know it's going to be a warm welcome. they're very good at throwing a party in rio, particularly, are they? it's going to be a great amount going on at copacabana beach. i for one am putting my hand up already. >> i'm joining you. >> you have been a good sport bringing us all of the special moments. what was yours? >> mine is, i'm afraid to say is a team gb moment. i'm lucky enough to have gotten around some of the venues and seen incredible occasions, the final sbim from michael phelps, for example, saying farewell to him at the olympics for a final time. for me it was super saturday as it was described, the middle saturday hear at the olympics, i got into the stadium, literally as the bell went for the final lap of the 10,000 meters, the men's 10,000 meters to see farah roar to victory. it was just sensational. the whole stadium with union jacks flying and his utter delight. for me, that was the day that really put this olympics on the map. and it was a real, real honor to be there. >> john berman here, amanda. that was my favorite moment of the whole olympics, too. yes, i liked how your guy came in first but you can see running close behind him in galen rupp from oregon. he trains with farah. the 10,000 works, they run so close together for the entire race until there's basically one lap to go and then these guys start to sprint with everything they have. you have this pack of men, including farah and rupp, giving it everything they've got. you can see the emotion in their faces, racing down. my son and i were screaming for galen rupp there. we were happy when he won the silver. rupp was thrilled, too. it was so emotional. >> these guys are -- sorry. i was just going to say, they're great rivals. it was fabulous to see the two of them celebrating together. it's a journey for all of them. to be at the olympics is fantast fantastic. >> i know we'll talk to you again, amanda. my favorite moment, they said it had to be within the last 24 hours. i watched the men's swimming finals and david boudia, he overcame his fear of heights. and he came from behind. he was 18. he got the last spot for the semifinals. and look at what he was capable of doing. >> it is amazing. >> all those moments were spectacular. what was your favorite moment? tell us. tweet us at earlystartcnn. >> i'm going to miss the olympics and the jokes about tape delay also. 18 minutes after the hour right now. what we're talking about in this country right now, politics. paul ryan is hitting the road two days after being introduced as mitt romney's running mate. the congressman will be campaigning by himself in des moines, iowa today. ryan enjoyed a rousing welcome when he campaigned yesterday in his home state of wisconsin. he was wiping away tears before taking the stage to thank his supporters. switching gears here. let's get you up to date. gabrielle giffords is finally home again, 19 months after being shot during a political event. the former congresswoman and her husband moved back to tucson. they are there permanently. giffords had been spending most of her time in houston, rehabbing. her husband, retired astronaut mark kelly tweeting gabby has been waiting for this day for a long time. >> all right. we're getting an early look at local news making national headlines. if you live in florida right now, miami, one of the things making headlines, sports. chad ochocinco, now he's known as chad johnson. he's a former dolphin, because the dolphins waived him after a dust-up that really seems nasty. he got in a fight apparently with his wife. the police arrested him saying he headtted here in the car, according to the reports down there. the two were fighting in the car after she found a receipt -- i'm going to say it out loud -- for condoms in the car. a fight ensued. police say he headbutted here. he said it was her fault that his head hit hers. he's not playing for the dolphins. >> it was her fault that his head hit hers. >> he said her head was moving forward. >> okay. all right. i have another one for you. the university of central florida is rolling out a website to make class registration easier. time arnold, he's a senior marketing major. he was put on probation for creating a website called youcouldfinish.com. he plugged into the school's registration server and it allows the students to search for classes and send a text when classes becomes available. that was something the system and school could not do. he got punished because he never asked for permission. >> he's the kind of guy that is going to be worth billions in a few years. he'll be begging for his money in a few years. >> he was ordered to write two research papers on the error of his ways and ordered to pay $15 for a counseling session as well. >> bill gates, mark zuckerberg, this kid's next. >> there you go. >> and why is barnes & noble slashing the price of their ereader, the nook? we'll tell you why. stay with us. welcome to hotels.com. summer road trip, huh? as the hotel experts, finding you the perfect place is all we do. this summer, save up to 30%, plus get up to $100 on us. welcome to hotels.com. the blissful pause just before that rich eetness touches your lips. the delightful discovery, the mid-sweetening realization that you have the house all to yourself. well, almost. the sweet reward, making a delicious choice that's also a smart choice. splenda no-calorie sweetener. with the original sugar-like taste you love and trust. splenda makes the moment yours. with the original sugar-like taste you love and trust. 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. minding your business this morning, stocks are set for a lower opening after notching solid gains last week. keep in mind the trading volume has been light lately, which is normal for this time of year but it means there is more volatility and that is something you could see this week, too. on the move this week, gas prices. alison kosik with where things stand. >> this is significant. gas prices are up to $3.70 for a gallon, that's the national average. gas prices are up 31 cents in a month. that makes a difference when you head to the gas station. i know it does when i do. this is a culmination of sort of the perfect storm of circumstances. first of all, there are refinery problems all across the country, in california, there was a fire at a refinery last monday. our gas supply has taken a hit and gas prices are being pushed up. it's not just the supply. it's also corn. did you know that current law mandates that 10% of gas in your tank has to be made up of ethanol. ethanol is made up of corn and corn prices are up, because the corn prices are expected