today, thursday, august 4, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television r welcome p s thursday morning. i'm ann curry. >> let's go right to the map. if you live in the southern half of the united states, you don't have to know how hot it is. arizona to florida, that's the area trapped in this brutal heat wave. >> excessive heat warnings are in effect for a dozen states as little rock smashed the city's all-time high. why the summer has been so brutally hot. and when we could see some relief. >> also ahead, remember the georgia mother convicted after someone else killed her 4-year-old son in a hit-and-run accident? she was found guilty of jaywalking. at her sentencing, the judge sald she could take probation or endure a new trial. she has made her decision. she'll reveal it. >> very tough choice. also, the intruder breaks into the home of the wealthiest man in sydney, australia and put what he claimed was a collar bomb around the neck of that man's teenage daughter. more on that. and a driver trapped in a car that would not slow down because he said his cruise control became stuck. a lot of this was caught on tape, ahead, what one officer had to do to stop that car. let us begin on thursday morning with the brutal heat wave gripping a large section of the country. lee cowen sweating it out in phoenix. good morning to you. good morning, matt. people are used to the desert heat, but here it's excessive. arizona is under an excessive heat warping this morning as are the other states as the heat wave enters the second deadly month. it's been on the football field where the heat is taking the most obvious toll of late. practicing now before summer in georgia after a player collapsed on the field and later died. >> this is serious stuff. i'm glad the coaches are taking the necessary steps to take care of the kids. >> reporter: across the country, temperatures have been hovering around triple digits for weeks now putting strains on the power grid. in texas, wichita falls have had 43 days in a row of temps over the century mark. in dallas, 33 straight days. no end in sight. >> there feels like the first one so far. i've been here 15 years. >> in little rock, arkansas, the high hit 114 degrees, it hasn't been that hot, ever, at least not in the last 132 years of recorded history. this atlanta train station, the man was so exhausted from the heat, he fanlted rig fainted ri tracks to be saved by a good samaritan. >> felt like a dizzy spell and my legs got wobbly. >> livestock is hurting too. the ranchers are selling them off to soften is blow. >> it's a disaster, crops are dieing in the field on the vines. nothing growing. >> reporter: no rain, no cool fronts. not an inch of relief. at the phoenix zoo, it's expected to be so hot today, the ostriches who normally this arrive in desert temperatures are going to be hosed off again. >> row can tell when an animal is dehydrated or suffering the effects of heat exhaustion. >> a wart hog, an orangutan or a working joe, it's time to sweat. things are starting to cool down at the beginning of next week. for the hardest-hit areas, it will be in the triple digits. doesn't sound like much relief for them. >> lee cowen, so when will relief be in sight? al roker has details on this. al? 14 states stretching from texas all the way to virginia you should heat warnings or heat advisories. and when you look at these temperatures for today. the forecast highs. it will be 104 in little rock. 104 in austin. 103 in memphis. flirting with 100 in raleigh. add the heat and the humidity, and it feels like it will -- it will feel like 120 degrees in memphis, 114 in jacksonville. 116 in charleston. we don't see much relief. here's the pattern we've been stuck in. big area of high pressure, upper level ridge, the jet stream way to the north. it's pumping up a lot of moisture out of the gulf. we don't see a change in this pattern until sunday. the jet stream will move south just a little bit. the ridge kind of retrogrades so that warm, moist air mass strays from the southeast to the northeast. the areas that are worst affect willed stay in this heat. al? >> thank you very much. we'll get to more on the weather in a moment. but right now, the president is imploring congress to return from vacation to end an impasse over funding in federal aviation administration that resulted in thousands of workers not getting paid. lisa myers is in re gan national airport. the latest on this. lisa, good morning. >> good morning to you, matt. when you cut to the chase, the policy issues at the heart of this stalemate are small. this seems to be about who is going to give into whom. and tens of thousands of families are paying the price. the shutdown of 240 airport modernization projects already is affecting real people. luca had to lay off 70 workers in brooklyn. >> looking in their face is like telling it to their families. it's a hard feeling. >> reporter: so far, 70,000 construction workers have been laid off. and 4,000 faa employees furlo h furloughed. many say it's immediate. >> september mortgage won't get paid. >> reporter: every expense is scrutinized. even a birthday party. >> 2-year-old daughter birthday is coming up right now. it added a lot of stress -- the questions that come up to me from my wife is do we need to cancel her birthday party. it's embarrassing to me this is the position that congress put me in. >> reporter: the president urged congress to stop bickering. >> this is a lose-lose-lose situation that can be solved if congress gets pack in to up to and does its job. >> reporter: but for now, both parties seem more focused on the blame game. democrats blame republicans of political extortion. >> someone puts a gun to your head and say give me your money. >> reporter: democrats want to fund the faa through next month. republicans demand that any funding cuts subsidies to flights to 13 different airports. the government has to subsidize tickets to keep service running to many small cities. >> when you can't pass a one-flight reform of cutting subsidies as high as $3,700 per ticket, we're in sad shape. >> reporter: earlier this week, the administration pressed senate democrats to give in to the house. they refused. now, the administration is in for both sides to end the impasse. >> this is the thing that really makes the public mad. that congress can't do their job. >> the fact is that house republicans or senate democrats could end this dispute right now and put people back to work. but so far, no one seems willing to give in. the administration emphasizes it doesn't impact flight operations or safety. but 10,000 workers to be without paychecks for five weeks. >> lisa myers at reagan national airport this morning. thank you very much. nine minutes after the hour. once again, here's ann. matt, thankings. president obama does have one reason to celebrate. today is his 50th birthday. chuck todd is at the white house. good morning. >> good morning, ann. starting today, assuming he's an aarp member, the president can get discounts at the movies and unlike most who turn 50, the birthday celebration was combined with a lavish campaign fundraiser in chicago. >> hello, chicago! >> reporter: it's been a while since the president saw so many friendly faces. >> we have a lot of work to do on the economy. i hope we can avoid a self-inflicted wound like we saw last week. >> reporter: wednesday nigh, the president attempted to turn the public's attention from the unpopular debt deal from the campaign and the economy. >> we don't have time to pay the partisan games. >> reporter: part business, part 50th birthday celebration, it featured a concert featuring okay, go, and jennifer hudson who sang happy birthday to the president. ♪ happy birthday mr. president ♪ happy birthday to you >> reporter: but it's an opening for republican front-runner, mitt it romney. in a new ad timed to coincide with the birthday festivities, romney said chicago unemployment has gone up 48% since the president took office. that attack caused the former chief of staff, now chicago mayor to swing pack at romney. >> when he was governor, massachusetts was 47th out of 50 in job production. if he forgot that, i'd like to remind him of that. >> romney is taking heat from the right flank, criticism on the debt deal including the stab from sarah palin. >> bless his heart, i have respect for mitt romney, but i do not have respect for what he's done in the debt increase debate. he did this -- he waited until it was a done deal. >> reporter: with nobody coming out ahead, democrats are desperate to move away from the toxic debt debate. >> this is how we go to the next step, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. >> reporter: later this month, the president will take that message to the campaign battleground of the midwest. >> american voters are increasingly hating washington to the extent if he can get out and get away from washington to be seen independent of washington, then it could help him. >> so the celebration continues for the president. a rose garden birthday party. the white house is quick to note it's not paid for by the government but personally by the first family, ann? >> chuck todd this morning, thanks. he joins the ranks of the rest of us who could sign up for aarp. >> i'm a member. i have my card. check the other stories of the morning. tamryn hall is at the desk. good morning to you. we begin with new numbers that paint a grim economic picture. more americans relying on food stamps today than ever before, with 46 million people receiving government assistance to feed their families. july saw the highest number of layoffs in 16 months, the steepest jump since the worst depth of the recession. let's check in with mandy drury. it's hard breaking when you think about all of the people needing food stamps. >> the numbers are concerning. 15% of the american population is using the food stamps. there's also a big sign that there's lingering damage from the recession and the fear that we're heading back to the recession or a so-called double dip is the biggest factors in the stock market. payrolls are expected to show 75,000 jobs were created in july. that would be encouraging. it would offset some of the ongoing layoffs. back to you. the salmonella outbreak, cargil is recalling 36,000 pounds of ground turkey because of the illness. 76 other people have been sickened across half of this country. but officials say contaminated ground turkey is safe if cooked and handled properly. haiti is in the cross hairs of tropical storm emily as half a million displaced residents living winds and driving rain. the storm expected to hit haiti's southern tip later in the day. the man accused of the brutal murder of an 8-year-old boy will be arraigned today. prosecutors say he abducted the boy as he walked home from day camp alone for the very first time. congressman david wu resigned, the fourth member of congress to step down in the wake of a sex scandal. he vowed to leave his post once a debt deal was completed. one bopping beluga. this connecticut mariachi band found an appreciative audience. that's juneau the ba lugo at the mystic aquarium. the band was playing for a wedding but decided to give a whale of an encore, look he's standing. i'm fascinated. 7:14. i think he's dancing from that zumba party yesterday. back to matt, ann, al. how cute is that? >> how was that bop. >> he's like rockin' with it. >> working with kirstie alley "dancing with the stars." a lot of lines. >> we're going to stop. >> mr. roker, you are keeping an eye on emily. >> yes. >> a lot of other things. >> we absolutely are. let's collect it out, show you what's happening. we've got tropical storm emily right now it is moving west-northwest at 7. 50 mile per hours. this system right now a lot of the models are diverging from this. you can see it move along the coast, also into florida, the gulf as well. official national hurricane center path brings it along the southeastern coast of florida and off the southeastern coast of the united states through the weekend and off and into the atlantic by the time we get into tuesday. but we are going to have to continue to keep an eye on this. we've got strong weather to talk about later on. heavy risk of strong storms later on in the mid-atlantic states. that's what's go on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> mild and muggy on this thursday morning. good morning, i'm meteorologist tom kierein. 77 at reagan national. we have patchy fog around. that should be gone in a couple of hours and sunshine breaking out. temperatures climbing into the upper 80s by this afternoon. a steamy tomorrow. partly cloudy, upper 80s during afternoon. highs saturday with clouds into the 80s. afternoon and evening storms likely. sunday partly sunny, low 90s. rather hot monday. cooler tuesday, wednesday. >> that's your latest weather. matt? >> ten hours of terror for the daughter of a wealthy australian businessman on wednesday. a masked intruder broke into the family's home and strapped what he claimed was a collar bomb to the girl's neck. sarah james is in sid sydney wi details on this. good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. it's a scene from a hollywood movie, something that couldn't happen in a luxurious family home in this neighborhood. the investigation of the first kind of its kind in australia is just beginning. after being rushed to the hospital overnight, the 18-year-old madeline tulver is on the mend according to her shaken father. >> we're glad for maddy. she's waking up in good spirits. she's tired and sore from holding this damned device in place for ten hours. >> reporter: ten hours unable to move while the bomb squad worked to remove what appeared to be an improvised explosive device. madeline's parents held a terrifying vigil close by as did friends and neighbors. finally, in the middle of the night, good knew. >> moments ago, we have secured the release of the young lady. >> reporter: the supposed bomb chained to her neck proved to be a sophisticated fake. but police say the crime was real. >> i confirmed there was a letter to this device that made certain demands. we're treating this as an attempted extortion. >> madeline's father is a mul - multimillionaire software company executive. the ordeal began wednesday afternoon sydney time. madeline was home alone studying for final exams when an intruder broke into the family's mansion and placed the device around her neck. >> to me, it sounded like a scene out of "saw," a horror movie. >> or perhaps television. >> don't move, don't move. >> reporter: talk radio with the uncanny similarities between this case and an episode of hawaii 5-0 which aired in ace trail yeah on april 10. mad lib's friends and classmates claim they're grateful she's okay. >> she's really comforting like best kind of girl you could show, nicest girl, smart, sporty, everything. rchlgts madeline's parents say the parents wanted to thank those officers who remained by her side during the ordeal. >> maddy particularly wanted to thank the few officeevrs many lg hours sitting with her showing little regard for their own personal safety. she is incredibly grateful. >> a strike force is looking for the man. one question is whether he was a stranger or if he knew someone in the family. >> sara james in sydney with this story. thank you very much. 19 after the hour. here's ann. now to a terrifying ride for a driver in texas caught on camera. it started when he said he could not get the cruise control on his suv to disengage. peter alex ander has the story. good morning to you. >> all the driver in this situation wanted to do is buy sif simple ere ronald. he said the cruise control locked up on him and he sped through traffic at 60 miles per hour. >> my car is on cruise control. i can't get it off. >> that's gatlin jeter on 911 as he said the suv was barreling out of control heading straight to huntsville, texas. >> i don't want to kill anybody! >> neater was driving along the highway when he said he couldn't get his vehicle out of cruise control. >> i went to slow down. when i hit the brakes, the brake wouldn't go in. the brake wouldn't move at all. at that point, i realized something was wrong. i used the keys, i tried the gear shift. nothing worked, nothing moved. >> dispatchers radioed for help. answering the call, rocky carroll wrapping up the afternoon shift. >> i didn't grab anything but a set of keys. i got in the car and took off as fast as i can. >> minutes later they reached jeter in his suv. >> he had a cell phone, i'll never forget that look. >> reporter: this is dash cam video. he passed jeter's suv. he pulled right in front of jeter to stop the suv by hitting his own brakes. >> i got to hit him and i got to hit him in the front. >> the first try failed, but officer carroll didn't give up. that's his white suv seen from another police car's dash cam. watch as he speeds around jeter's car again using the vehicle to slow his suv down as the two got dangerously close to the city's center. >> he hit my car again several times before finally coming to a grinding halt. >> reporter: just before the pickup parked at the red light. >> i took off my seat belt, got out of my car. i was shaking so bad, i approached him. i threw my arms around him and said thank you so much for saving my life. >> i said, the ride's over. >> reporter: after 20 miles, the ordeal finally ended three blocks from downtown huntsville. >> can you believe that? it lasted for 20 miles. we reached out to ford moto company about jeter's case. they told us -- we cannot comment on this matter as we have not had a chan to review the details. they told us, we are not aware of a safety issue with this cruise control system. he was trying to go to the store to buy his grandmother a gift. we asked, that never happened. she said, ann, the best gift of all is the fact that he was safe. >> thank you, peter alexander, what a story. also coming up, the dramatic rescue of a 17-year-old trapped for 30 minutes in the sand tunnel he was digging that caved in. first this, is "today" on nbc. just ahead, the judge ordered casey anthony back to florida suddenly stepped down. >> after your local news. 7:26 is your time now on this thursday, august 4th, 2011. good morning, i'm eun yang. breaking news in prince georges county. police are investigating a double homicide in the 11800 block of hickory drive in ft. washington. the victims are a man and woman but they are not giving any more information than that. we have a crew on the way there. we will bring you an update throughout the morning. we'll take a quick break. weather and traffic up next. na good morning. mostly cloudy, mild, 70s. patchy fog around. later today the sun breaking out. highs reaching upper 80s and humid. humid on friday into the weekend. highs in the 80s tomorrow and saturday. clouds around saturday. could get afternoon and evening storms as well as sunday. how's traffic? >> fairfax county parkway southbound lanes reopened at rolling road. new york avenue, bladensburg, i'm seeing delays as you pass "the washington times" plant and continue past bladensburg road. back to you. >> another news ♪ going like this 7:30. the fourth day of august, 2011. out on the plaza. for some, under a layer of clouds. we'll go out and say hi to these people. the song you're hearing is what people are listening to now, "moves like jagger." those people stick around for another 24 hours, they will be hungry, but they will be treated so great out on the plaza. maroon 5, the grammy-winning band at 8:30 tomorrow morning here on "today." inside studio 1-a, matt lauer alongside ann curry. the 17-year-old buried alive under six feet of sand when the tunnel he was making at the beach collapsed. rescuers dug frantically, took 30 minutes to find him. c