HTML5 Validator doesn't appear to understand colspan

  

The HTML5 validator doesn't seem to understand a colspan attribute
on a  in the first row of a table. 

Here is the error I receive:
Table
column 2 established by element td has no cells beginning in it.
Date:
Thu. May. 19, 2011 

If I put a "dummy" row with the structure

  

 

before the above row it validates correctly. 

In reviewing the
HTML5 spec, I don't see anything that prohibits a colspan from appearing
in the first row of a table, nor can I find anything else syntatically
wrong with my code. 

-John