that. that is very bold. very bold. can t wait to share the ending with you. good morning. welcome to early start. i m zoraida sambolin. i m john berman. this morning mitt romney is in ohio. so is bobby jindal and jeb bush. parade? coincidence? it is sort of a parade. all about the veepstakes. also the key state of ohio. more coming up. also nelson mandela s 94th birthday. we ll hear from former president clinton who just visited with the icon in a cnn exclusive. that s coming up. first, zoraidzoraida, the b story affecting so much of the country, the weather and the devastating drought conditions that have turned half of the u.s. into a disaster zone. the department of agriculture is declaring natural disasters in 1,000 counties across 26 states. blistering temperatures are making conditions even worse. across the midwest temperatures have topped more than 100 degrees. and heat advisories are reaching up into the mid-atlantic regions. the bone dry conditions
back to you. shepard: elizabeth prann live tonight in tuscaloosa. search for two girls in iowa search dogs have picked up subsequent near a lake grandmother s house. they found the girl s abandoned bicycles. here they are. 8-year-old elizabeth collins and 10-year-old cousin lyric cook morsi vanished last friday in evans dale, iowa, north and east of des moines. police are now draining the lake which they say could take days. we spoke with the mother of one of those girls on studio b. and she said she believes somebody lured the cousins to that lake and kidnapped them. wr t would never go on a bike ride down there by herself without an adult. shepard: she has never done that? she has never done that 1.5 miles from our house. her normal route is around like the block. shepard: friends say that mother just got out of the hospital for treatment of heart problems which have almost killed her in the past. as i mentioned, they are draining that lake.
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folks inside describe total chaos. bullets and shattered glass flying everywhere. panicked customers crawling toward the exit. outside the shooter was waiting. here is one victim. gunshot. so we tried to get away from him by going out front. that s when the guy was outside and started opening up. one of my friends ducked under the pool table. i got behind the wall and then went out through the back. shepard: as for the suspect, police say they took him into custody this afternoon about an hour north of cuss can a loose is a. there he is after he walked into a fedex store and told the clerk, i did it call the cops and he did. elizabeth prann with the news in tuscaloosa for us this evening. what do we know about this suspected shooter, elizabeth? shep, we know 44-year-old is sitting in the jail tonight facing 18 attempted murder charges and a 2-million-dollar bond because before he came here to the copper top bar and opened fire we know he was at a home about 25 miles north of here