0 >> don't listen to the judge and the courts and everything. you've got it, show it off. you only live once. >> it's a pretty inspirational message from a very unlikely place. that's it for us. thanks for watching. thanks for watching. "early start" begins now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com may is for mayhem, weather wreaking havoc tras the country, tornadoes, dust storm, heat wave. we'll tell you when and where to prepare. a shocking arrest in the explosion that rattled disney's toontown. a park employee now behind bars. and tears, disbelief and rage. the american grandmother jailed in mexico, accused of drug smuggling, speaks out from behind bars, first on cnn. and high-flying descent. incredible video this morning as a b.a.s.e. jumper leaps off mt. everest. >> oh, my goodness! crazyville! >> wow. >> that is an awesome picture. good morning. welcome to "early start," i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans this thursday, may 30th, 5:00 a.m. in the east. developing this morning, a persistent, unrelenting threat of severe weather in parts of the country already torn up by tornadoes. we could see more dangerous storms today. meteorologist inarea petersons following all of us for us. good morning. >> good morning. storms have hit the country hard this week, and unfortunately, there is more on the way. storms raged from texas all the way to new england and had nearly half of the country in the danger zone. and in texas, dangerous hail and fierce winds causing many to worry. >> look at this hail! we're going to have broken windows. >> reporter: this video was shot in corinth, texas. look at the hail bouncing off of the ground. the diamondbacks and rangers game postponed wednesday night when heavy rain and lightning moved in very quickly. the ground crew struggled to gain control as heavy winds ripped the tarp right out of their hands. in amarillo, texas, heavy wind gusts were blamed for blowing down this iconic billboard, ripping its post from the ground. owners of the business watched as the 30-year-old sign fell to the ground. >> my sales associate actually went to open up the overhead door to get ready for them because the winds were really strong and then we heard him holler, so we all came running and that's when we saw the billboard actually falling down. >> reporter: these residents in truxton, new york, south of syracuse, had a close call trying to get a glimpse of the storm from their back porch. >> i was trying to film, and all of a sudden, a tree cracked down right above us, and i told her, we've got to run inside. >> it was crazy. i mean, all around us is just trees and glass and everything. it's nuts. >> reporter: just as crazy, floodwaters caught on this surveillance video from tuesday. torrential rain caused flooding that burst down the doors at an illinois college. and all that wild weather continues again today, the northeast bracing for what could be a heat wave. temperatures really going up. and look at these temperature jumps, 15, even 16 degrees from just yesterday. keep in mind, just two days ago they were seeing temperatures in the 60s with rain out there. so, what we're looking at, a heat wave. we have three days of 90-degree temperatures out there, and it looks like, yep, we're getting pretty hot out there. new york today looking for 91 degrees, boston so close, 89 degrees, and it looks like towards d.c., 90 there, but of course, add the humidity to that and that really gives it that hot, sticky feeling. speaking of that hot, humid air, really big trouble-maker for us still today, all that hot, humid air continuing to mix with the dry air behind it, all that mixing with the low, and of course, the jet stream really fueling the severe weather. we have that threat again for you today. it looks like a good 15 million of you still under the slight risk for severe weather. again, today switching a little bit farther to the east, so the severe weather threat extends now from iowa through missouri and all the way through texas. we'll continue to monitor this through the day. we saw tornadoes yesterday and today, another threat out there as well. >> crazy stuff, and it is hot here, indra. >> oh, yeah. >> downright hot. >> in here, too. >> thanks, indra, appreciate it. two letters containing threats against new york city mayor michael bloomberg have tested positive for the deadly poison ricin. one was addressed to the mayor, opened at a new york city mail center, and several police officers who came in contact are reportedly being treated now as a precaution. the other letter was opened by mark glaze in washington. he is the director of mayors against illegal guns, an organization founded and financed by michael bloomberg. >> the letter was obviously referred to our antigun efforts, but there's 12,000 people who are going to get killed this year with guns and 19,000 are going to commit suicide with guns, and we're not going to walk away from those efforts. >> both letters were postmarked from shreveport, louisiana, according to the american postal workers union. the fbi now investigating. new information this morning in that explosion at disneyland's toontown. a disneyland employee being held on $1 million bail in connection with that blast. police arrested 22-year-old christian barnes, charging him with possessing an explosive device. they believe he's responsible for a dry ice blast that sent guests running for the exits. cnn's sara sidner now with more. >> reporter: disneyland's toontown turned into a ghost town after an improvised explosive device went off in a trash can on tuesday. >> it was loud. it startled us, you know. we kind of ducked and looked up, and i looked a little higher than the ground to see what was going on. >> reporter: crowds evacuated as the bomb squad responded. not the kind of scene visitors ever expected to encounter. police say no one was hurt, but they did discover evidence of a small explosion. >> when our officers arrived, they found the remnants of a water bottle, which is kind of indicative of a dry ice type explosion. >> reporter: that's right, this stuff, dry ice, often used for special effects. it turns out, exploding dry ice bombs is a popular form of fun in some circles. if you don't believe me, just check out all the videos on youtube. >> we're going to show you how to make a dry ice bomb. >> reporter: and the results when they do. what the videos don't tell you is that creating and detonating an ice bomb is a crime. you could be charged with a felony if you're caught. 22-year-old christian barnes, a vending cast member at disneyland, is being held on $1 million bail on suspicion of possessing and detonating an explosive device. >> there is potential any time this occurs for there to be injury, there is potential for someone to get injured to the point where they lose their life, and that's why the charges are so serious. >> reporter: disneyland officials say barnes had the dry ice in his vending cart where he sells items that need to be kept cold. police say that barnes is cooperating. across the country in disney world's animal kingdom, a grandmother found a loaded gun on the seat of the dinosaur ride as she boarded with her grandson. the gun owner said he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon but told authorities that he didn't realize that guns are not allowed in the park. the happiest places on earth turning scary for some visitors until both situations were under control. sara sidner, cnn, anaheim, california. six minutes after the hour right now. and if president obama can't figure out a way how to work with republicans, he's hoping at least to out-number them next year. the president in chicago last night for a democratic fund-raiser. he says while washington appears to be broken, he's holding out hope it can be fixed, and if the gridlock remains, he says there's always plan "b." >> if day in, day out, what we confront is obstructionism for the sake of obstructionism, then we've got to figure out a way to work around that. and one of the best ways to work around it is to have a democratic house of representatives. [ cheers and applause ] >> roughly 150 people paid up to $5,000 apiece to hear the president speak about gun control, education, infrastructure and climate change at a private fund-raiser afterward, a little more exclusive, couples paid up to $32,000 each to dine with the commander in chief. new word this morning that president obama will nominate a former high-ranking bush official to run the fbi. james comey served as deputy attorney general under president george w. bush. he would replace robert mueller, who's stepping down as fbi director in september. cnn's brianna keilar has more on comey, who nine years ago played a major role in one of the most dramatic episodes of the bush administration. >> reporter: like a scene out of a hollywood thriller, a critically ill attorney general is in intensive care at a washington hospital. two of the president's top aides rush to his bedside, hoping to pressure him to sign off on a secret wiretapping program the night before it's set to expire. this was real, though, and what happened that night, march 10th, 2004, put james comey, president obama's pick for his next fbi director, in the headlines. >> i was very upset. i was angry. i thought i had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man. >> reporter: comey was attorney general john ashcroft's deputy, and with ashcroft very sick, comey was the acting attorney general when then white house counsel alberto gonzales and chief of staff andrew card visited ashcroft's hospital room, a last-ditch effort to get his endorsement of a warrantless eavesdropping program he thought was illegal. comey caught wind of it and ordered his driver to speed through the streets of washington, sirens blaring, and beat them there. >> attorney general ashcroft then stunned me. he lifted his head off the pillow, and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent and said to them, "but that doesn't matter because i'm not the attorney general." >> reporter: cnn contributor fran townsend was one of president bush's top national security advisers at the time. >> this is a man with a very strong sense, internal sense of right and wrong and what is appropriate, and he's going to follow that sort of moral compass. >> reporter: as a federal prosecutor, comey handled the khobar towers terrorist bombing case following the 1996 attack on a u.s. military facility in saudi arabia that killed 19 service members. he also took on the mafia, putting john gambino behind bars as well as the diva of domesticity. comey brought charges against martha stewart and found her guilty of insider trading. michele bachmann has a trial date. the lawsuit against her will go to court in may of next year. it claims bachmann stole and misused an e-mail distribution list from an iowa home-school group during her failed 2012 presidential campaign. the plaintiffs say they suffered emotional distress and loss of business opportunities after the bachmann campaign sent two unapproved e-mails to the iowa christian home educations network. so, incredible, new video you need to see this morning. a b.a.s.e. jumper leaping off of mt. everest. holy cow! 48-year-old russian valery rozov made the jump on may 5th to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of everest. the feat took four years of planning, four days of arduous trekking and only one minute for the actual jump, not to mention a giant set of guts. in that 60 seconds, he reached speeds of 125 miles per hour, soaring down more than 23,000 feet. that's four miles. that's a long way and that's fast. this seasoned daredevil made nearly 10,000 jumps, including one into an active volcano, so he knows what he's doing, but he says this one was particularly tough, both physically and mentally. >> two years of planning, four days to get up there, one minute to come down. >> and a giant set of guts, as we like to say. >> i didn't know that guts came in sets. >> they don't, but my other options weren't so tenable. coming up, her desperate, terrifying cries for help. first on cnn, the american grandmother jailed in mexico' accused of smuggling drugs tells her side of the story. why she believes thoferts aauthe trying to frame her. and aerosmith, james taylor, even new kids on the block, some of boston's biggest music icons, all, all on stage to rock out for a good cause. >> "dream on," baby. 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