Murder Plot to Kill Lyle Mitchell?; Tropical Storm Bill Batters Texas; Stocks Futures Are Higher; FDA Bans Trans Fat
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: New questions this morning about the woman arrested for helping two dangerous killers break out of prison. Her husband's attorney on the record about their relationship, as the search grows cold for the escaped inmates. Happening now: rain pounding Texas. The threat of dangerous flooding rising this morning. The damage done and what is still to come, ahead. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. John Berman has this Wednesday morning off. It is 30 minutes past the hour. She may have been plotting to kill him and now Joyce Mitchell and her husband have come face to face behind bars. Mitchell is the prison worker, of course, who allegedly helped two cold blooded killers escape from a maximum security facility in upstate New York. Now investigators believed she may have been plotting to have her husband murdered. Mitchell's lawyer insists that is not the case. He claims his client is devastated.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you tell us how your client is holding up, Ms. Mitchell?</s>STEPHEN JOHNSTON, JOYCE MITCHELL'S ATTORNEY: I haven't talked to her today but as of late yesterday, she was pretty distraught.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please elaborate on that. She had visitor today, her husband, correct?</s>JOHNSTON: That is correct.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you explain how that visit went?</s>JOHNSTON: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.</s>ROMANS: Now that's the lawyer for her. The lawyer for her husband says he is not standing by her. Not standing by her. Officials investigate whether she had had a sexual relationship with both escaped inmates. Let's get the latest from CNN national correspondent, Jason Carroll.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, we are learning a little bit more about Joyce Mitchell and her alleged role in all this and why she may have initially agreed to be the get-away driver. A source telling CNN that she did have some sort of an inappropriate relationship with both Richard Matt and David Sweat and that same source telling CNN there may have been some sort of a murder plot to murder Mitchell's husband, Lyle. And perhaps she felt threatened herself at some point and that she may have been coerced to being the get-away driver. Investigators also looking more closely at Lyle Mitchell to see if he knew anything at all about the escape plan. His attorney telling CNN on Tuesday that he knew nothing about the escape plan or the murder plot. We could also tell you, Christine, that Lyle Mitchell did visit Joyce Mitchell when she was in custody out here on Tuesday. That visitation lasted for about an hour. There was no physical contact between the two of them. They were separated by a glass partition and spoke over the phone. Joyce Mitchell, as for her, she was being held here not too far from here and moved to another facility to the south near Albany. As for that massive manhunt, that is still very much under way. More than a thousand leads, but still no sign of these two men. Christine, it seems the trail has gone somewhat cold.</s>ROMANS: Unbelievable. Thanks, Jason. Let's move on now to Tropical Storm Bill downgraded to do a tropical depression overnight. It's still taking a big toll in Texas. The storm rolled in Tuesday afternoon, high winds, taking down trees and power lines and 4 to 8 inches of rain swamping the eastern half of the state.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The roads are gone. The big rock piles, the dunes down the beach side, they are nonexistent. This water is just pouring in and flooding.</s>ROMANS: Officials have called for voluntary evacuations in parts of Houston where residents are still reeling from Memorial Day floods that swept away hundreds of cars and homes. We get more this morning from CNN's Sara Sidner.</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are in Seabrook, Texas. This is a very low lying area. We need to be fair about that because this is not what it looks like everywhere. However, there is some trouble from Tropical Storm Bill. A boat sitting here near the water where it should be, but we are actually in a parking lot, and next to us are homes. And these homes are kind of used to it because on the one side, they have the Galveston Bay, which is kicking up on the other side, an estuary. So they are getting a lot of water and they are in a very low lying area. The water has made it into the garages of these homes here, but the folks here say, look, we are used to this. The worst we ever had was Hurricane Ike back in 2008. After that, they said, the rest of this, we can to deal with. They know not to put things in their garages and lift things up. And that's exactly what they've done. Most folks taking it in stride, there has been a tornado warning that has been in effect throughout the evening and into the night to midnight. But so far this storm really hasn't done much damage. There is still always a concern about flooding and it's supposed to last at least through Wednesday, so everyone is waiting and watching to see what happens with Tropical Storm Bill -- Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right, thank you, Sara. You know, much of Texas still under flood watch today. The dangerous situation is not over yet. I want to get right to meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri.</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. Let's take a look at this because you know, for some people, the worst of the storm certainly is not over yet, models doing a pretty good job so far with the storm system. At this point by this afternoon, the center of circulation of the tropical depression goes over the Dallas metroplex region. Once it gets there thunderstorm potential back in the picture and radar estimates totals 6 to 8 inches from La Grange and heaviest rainfall remaining offshore in the past 24 hours. Still some strong thunderstorm activity around the Port Lovoca region work your way to the north. Waco getting strong thunderstorms this morning and again, give it a couple of hours and we think Dallas will begin to pick up some tremendous rainfall as well. You take a look, some 30 million people from Houston out towards St. Louis underneath the flood watches, warnings, and advisories that are in place this morning. The storm exhibiting some rotation so about 3.5 million people underneath a tornado watch that expires at 7:00 a.m. local time includes Houston as well. So certainly something worth noting before the storm system slowly pushes out of this region in very slow moving feature here and by midweek to the latter portion of the week, the rainfall, anywhere from Indianapolis even towards Pittsburgh, and by Saturday night, New York City gets in on some heavy rainfall. That will be remnants of the storm system, so a wide reaching impact over this region -- Guys.</s>ROMANS: All right, thank you so much, Pedram. Millions of federal employees' records were not encrypted when they were allegedly stolen by Chinese hackers and security software that could have prevented the software, that software was never installed. That admission is coming from the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government's human resources agency. Intelligence officials are concerned that breach could be used to blackmail Americans, millions of Americans or recruit spies. Dozens of new e-mails between former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton and her confidant, Sydney Blumenthal, could be released sooner rather than later, that is according to the top House Republican investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack. Blumenthal turned over the e- mails yesterday before appearing in a closed door deposition with Benghazi House committee members. Time for an EARLY START on your money this Wednesday, U.S. futures higher while we wait for news from the Federal Reserve. No action expected today, though, we could get a better look at just how the feds sees the economy if it's on track, you could be looking at an interest rate hike as soon as September. Soon you won't find trans-fat on any grocery store shelves. The FDA declared trans-fat unsafe for eating and told companies to get rid of them by June 2018. A lot of giants and restaurants have already phased out trans-fat especially after the FDA started requiring warning labels. But some of the most popular food brands in America are still guilty, Bisquick, Duncan Hines frosting, Jiffy Pop popcorn, Popeyes onion rings and Cajun fries. These companies say they are working hard to change their recipes. The former NAACP local leader accused of lying about her race defends herself with new questions about who her real parents might be. A bizarre new twist in an already bizarre story ahead.