three-star recruitteph curry has some advice for the underrated that can't be overstated. and what did the head coach the san antonio spurs do to geticked out of the game just 63 seconds after tip-off? "early today" tips off rig now. good thursday morning. i'm frances rivera. >> and i'm phillip mena. is there more than meets the eye the mueller report? there's new insight this morning into how some of the special counsel's team may feel about attorney general bill barr's fourage summary of the 22-month investigation. according to "the washington po" and "the new york times," some of the investigators are frustrated, claiming theirgs findre more damaging to the president than what's been revealed thus far. the papers cite government officials and others familiar with the investigators' thinking. one source told the post, quoas, there immediate displeasure from the team when they saw how the attorney genera characterized their work instead. the president's team has ifended barr's decision to release antial summary, and mr. trump's attorney, he's shrugging off the reports. >> they're a bunch of sneaky, unethical leaknd they are rabid democrats who hate the president of the united st'tes. and i c tell you how much false information they leaked during the course of the investigation. >> nbc new has notnt indepen confirmed the reporting. meanwhile, the house judiciary has authorized a subpoena for the entire report, though they have not yet used it. committee chairman jerry nadler says they will work with the attorney general for the time being but will issue subpoenas if they don't get the special punsel's full findings. sident trump and his secretary of homeland security are set to visit the front lines of theorder battle. today secretary kirstjen nielsen will meet with immigrationn officials yuma, arizona. and tomorrow the president is scheduled to tour a newof secti he border fence in california. nbc's tracie potts joins us with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: hi. good morning. as they head westak to a look at the border and the border fencing, here in washington, president trump is getting pushback fromwn his party from republicans who are concerned if he shuts downbo the er, the economy will take a hit. we're talking about $1.7 billion a day in goods crossing the border back and forth from mexic mexico. everything fro agriculture to auto parts. and now the president is taking some political heat for shutting down- oronsidering shutting down the border for any period of time. the white house saysenhe pres is looking at a possible plan that would shut down the border to migrants but keep those truck lanes open. frances? >> all right. we heard about the economic happenif tha but i want to talk about this new investigation into the president's taxhi returns morning. >> reporter: yeah. the ways and means committee has now made its formal request to the treasury department to get six years of president trump's tax returns. there are three different committees here onitol hill that are considering that. this is one. ene treasury depar says it will review the request and i provided, make sure there's privacy as they would r any other taxpayer. president trump, when asked about it, seemed to brush off the request saying he wassu rised they didn't ask for ten years of back tax returns, which is typical. >> tracie potts for us, thank you. meanwhile, joeiden is breaking his silence and addressing the latest accusatsan acons against him. the former vice president released a video pledging to be more mindful of peoprs's al space. this after three more women came forward tellingthwashington post" of encounters with him that made them uncomfortable. amidst these damning new developments, the question now is isn' bi video enough to get him off the hook? our andrea mitchell investigates. >> reporter: his would-be campaign on the line, joe biden tweeting tvideo. >> today i want to talk about gestures of support a encouragement that i've made to women and some men, and i made them uncomfortable. >> reporter: at home, deliberately informal, responding after four he had physical contact they felt was inappropriate, not a sexual advance but making them uncomfortable. >> social norms have begun to change. they've shifted, and the boundariesf protecting personal space have been reset, and i get it. i get it. i hear what they'reyi sang. >> reporter: the two newest accusations in "the new york times,"ne of them d.j. hill telling nbc news what she says happened when she met the then vice president at a fund-raiser in 2012. >> mr. biden's hand went from my shoulder and started to descenda down my , and it was one of those things where i'm going, oh, okay. this is making meeel uncomfortable. >> reporter: nbc news has not lrrified all of the accounts. but they aredy fodder for president trump, who has denied accusations of sexual misconduct by mulple women,ow mocking biden to republican donors. >> i said, general, come here. give me a kiss. i felt like joe biden. >> reporter: 2020 candidate have been piling on. >> i'm glad that people are willing to and have the courage to step up. >> i believe him. >> reporter: notably, biden did not apologize and is not backing down signaling he will be joining the race. phillip? >> andrea mitchell, thank dyou >>ma in a federal court in boston where actresses felicity huffman and lori loughlin faced a judge along with ten other parents. they're accused of paying top dollar to cheat their kids into elitesi unives. loughlin and her husband are accused of payingalf a million dollars. prosecutors say huffman paid $15,000 for a professional test taker to take h daughter's s.a.t. both did not enter pleas during their separateappearances. u.s. attorneys tell nbc news more charges and arrestsre expected. urgent efforts are under way to find an american tourist kidnapped during her dream vacation to africa. richard eel has the latest. >> reporr: the brazen ductions unfolded in one of uganda's most beautiful andatost populaional parks, officials a searching for a 35-year-d american woman and her local guide, kidnapped and now being held for a half million dollar ransom.it auths say they were on a safari trip with two other tourists when theroup was stopped by armed the two other tourists, an elderly couple, were robbed but released. >> the kidnappers were armed. they were four in number. >> reporter: so far, police have not identified the suspects, who used the american woman's cell phone to make their ransom demands. authorities arehi sea the national park and have sealed off the nearby border with the democratic republic of congo. the state department has not released the american woman's name. a famils in illinois i anxiously waiting for more answers after ar teenagen kentucky tells police he is a boy who went missing when he was only 6 years old, and that kidnappers held him captive for nearly eight years. >> he was a very smart boy -- is a very smart boy. he knew his name. he knew his address. he knew his grandmother's phone number. her's w his grandm address. he knew many details that he would have been able to keep. >> reporter: timmothy pitzen's aunt teled the that the family expects to learn the results of a dna test later thi afternoon. for more on this case, we go to nbc's ron mott. >> reporter timothmothy pitzen chicago was just 6 years old in may 2011 when his mother cutcked himf school early, then took him on a road trip including visits to water parks. three days later, amy fry-pitzen killed herself at this illinois tel. the note she left behind saying her boy was safe but that he would never be found. >> we stillo not have any solid leads asti to wherothy may be. >> reporter: there also was blood found in her car which tezed positive as timmothy's. but a possible major development. according to an ohioolice report, a 14-year-old named timmothy pitzen told investigators he had just escaped two kidnappers that have been holding him for seven years, running from a red roof inn motel in theincinnati area across a bridge into kentucky. the boy described his captors as white men with bodybuilder-type build, one with a spider tattoo on his neck, the other a snake tattoo on his arms. police in his hometown said they are working with the fbi on missing persons tip but would not confirm if it's timmothy. his grandmother hopeful. >> we've never forgotten, never stopped thinking about him every >> reporter: ron mott, nbc news, chicago. family, friends, and colleagues gathered to say their final farewell to the university of south car ina student who was killed after police say she mistakenly got into a vehicle she believed to be an uber. 21-year-old samantha josephson was laid to rest on wednesday. her funeral was held in princeton junction, new jersey. the suspect, 25-year-old nathaniel david rowland has been charged with kidnapping and murder. her father has vowed to his life to improve the safety of rideshare services. 29 pele including firefighters were hurt after a fire ripped through an building in brooklyn, new york. it started on the sixth floor of the building and there were 40-mile-per-hour wind gusts, which made things more thdicey. fire completely gutted the apartment, leaving severe damage and at least 54 families without homes this morning. let's say good morning to meteorologist janessa webbg, >> good morneveryone. we're still dealing with those fire concerns across northeast. boston under a fire watch. those winds are still going to be gusting throughoutour morning, up to about 25 to 30 miles per hour. then it really srts to depart. composite radar, we're watching this morning this ryl fei line across oklahoma into little rock. potential for severe weather throughout your afternoon wh temperatures this warm, we have 6 million under that severe weather risk a that's a loo the big weather story for today. here's a closer look at your day ahead. warm air in place from salt lake to denver. look at this. above average. finay we're back i the upper 60s. the heat is building for the south into the southeast. daytime highs, 75 to 80 degrees. so what comes along with this severe weather risk is warmer ymperatures that are rea going to stay in place, but flooding across the south. >> we got the bad with the there. janessa, thank you. what has gotten into san antonio spurs coach gregg popovich lately? for the second time this week, he was ejected, this time it was just 63 seconds into the gamnu against the ets. >> he was upset. he thought that aldridge might have got fouled by millsap. >> he was argseng a mis foul when this happened. that was the fastest a coach has ever been kicked out of a game. still ahead, can you guess hoay big those bonuses are for the final four coaches? bob kraft fights back against charges. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. making wrinkles look so last week. rapid wrinkle repair® pair with new retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. neutrogena® i am proud of you, my man. making simple, smart cash 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[boy gasps] for real cold and flu protection with lysol, you can help protect them from a real cold. lysol disinfectant spray kills the #1 cause of the cold and clorox wipes don't. lysol. what it takes to protect. friends & family sale - the savings add up!... with an extra 20% off! save on women's tops - $15.99 and jumping beans tops - just $6.40. plus - take an extra $10 off your $50 or more kids' sale purcha!... plus - get kohl's cash! right now... at kohl's. the ncaa final four is set and fou it's time to hit the road. w onnesday the auburn tigers and michigan state spartans departed for a chance to take home the championship. both teams were sent off in style by their cheering fans. so t next stop, minneapolis. this is auburn's first trip to the final four while it's the spartans' tenth appearance. virginia and texas tech are the other two teams vying for a chance at theational championship. it's no secret that the ncaa men's basketball tournament may.s a lot of mo it's also a cash cow for the coaches. the finalto forbes, four coaches all stand to gain bonuses from wins in the sweetnd 16 elite eight. virginia's tony bennett is already close to the millionn dollar mark bonuses while auburn's bruce pearl has earned $100,000 for each regional victory. xas tech's chris beard has claimed $600,000 in bus money, and michigan state's tom izzo could claim $200,000 if his team wins the national championship. a freethe players get meal -- >> that's it. >> they're going to get in trouble. >> crossing the line rige. th leading the news, the supreme court has swiftly ended a legal battle over the death penalty in texas. the court ruled that the texas death chamber will not allow clergyut or anyonerison security and staff inside effective immediately. so that meansn inmate's execution cannot be stopped if e state fames to provide a religious adviser. it comes after prisoner patrick murphy tried to stop his execution when he was denied a spiritual leader. attorneys for robert kraft are going after police sayofg cers violated the constitution. this is according to a report by espn. aft's lawyers submitted a court filing claiming police misrepresented evidence to obtain a search warrant that allowed themo install secret video cameras inside the orchids of asia day spa. police say those cameras recorded kraft paying for sex twice. now the attorneys want all the evidence in the case thrownout. kraft was charged withlici soliciting and has pleaded nott guil. still ahead, country industry brad paisley strums up a new kind of grocery store. and jon snow knows nothing about what "saturday night live" has in store for him this weekend. you're watching "early today." te around down dirt, dust and hair? 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>> yeah. it kind of --t's pretty obvious. there's phillip and i right there. the thing is -- >> is 30 feettall. >> right now it is gone, like that. we come in this morning, and the crews are all breaking it down. no evidence that that was even th ie. >> yeah know. i was excited to see it again. ce. we have picture evid >> yeah >> a lot of hype. >> the whole team. country star brad paisley has broken ground on a specialo t. the musician is teaming up with hi alma mater, a food bank to create a free grocerystore. nonprofits and agencies will refer filies in need this. they can visit the store and go shopping. no money is exchanged. here paisley hopes this takes the sting away from the embarrassment a kid should feel. it's hard enough if you're in a tough way to come up with that money. the last thing y want is to have to, you know, expose your kids to that sort ruggle. so it's nice to see brad paisley not only doing something good, but he's going a step further and making them feel better about themselves. >> and collaboratier with ody else. i love it when artists do that, you know, when they go all out. they're so busy. they've got so much going on and they're like, nope, this is myiv way ofg back. >> good dude. justahead, janessa is going to break down our thursday forecast for us. and the ultimate alley-wp. ho basketball superstar steph curry is giving young underdogs a leg up into the league. their 14 different hotel brands, so i get the right hotel for every member of my family. like a doubletree for my cousins who love their warm chocolate chip cookies. a homewood suites for my uncle who likes a long stay. a hampton for my sister and her kids. that's a lot of syrup and the waldorf astoria beverly hills for me. but i thought your family vacation was in miami? 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