that killed him. this is the man that determines who gets what when disaster strikes. he will join us to talk about his new book that talks about putting a price on tragedy. we have a packed show this morning. talk to florida's lieutenant governor jennifer carol and also minority whip steny hoyer will be our guest and roland martin checking in and ellen burstyn with us. >> welcome, everybody. starting point this morning, fighting words from mitt romney as joe biden prepares to address the naacp convention in houston after romney's rocky reception at the convention and he is now telling the detractors go vote for someone else. it was a tough sell. he was trying to convince african-americans they would be better off with him but when he prom i canned to repeal president obama's health care law the crowd erupted in boos.

>> i am going to eliminate every non-essential program i can find, that includes obama care, and i will work to reform and save -- >> romney is getting hammered in the wake of that by the naacp. jim acosta is live in houston this morning. good morning. how did it go? >> well, soledad, whenever you get booed for 15 seconds it is not exactly going well. the romney campaign did send out some of their folk who is do outreach for the campaign with the african-american community to talk to reporters. i was there. they said that they were pleased overall with what he got in terms of applause. he did sort of get a standing ovation at the end of the speech. about half the crowd stood up and plauded. it wasn't all boos for the former governor. soledad, what is sort of

interesting is what romney has said after that speech. he went to a fundraiser in montana last night and basically said that he was okay with the reaction that he got. he said in an interview right after the speech on another news channel that he sort of expected some of the booing that he got, so, soledad, keep in mind some of this works with the conservative base of the republican party. after that speech he gave even though the reaction inside the roomg was not so great, there were a lot of conservatives online and on twitter saying this was the best speech that mitt romney has given so far in the course of this campaign. they like the fact he went into a fairly progressive liberal crowd and threw out some pretty conservative red meat, and the reaction was not so great inside the halls of this convention center within the naacp, and here is one sample of what we heard after his speech. >> he literally came to our house and attacked the issues that are important to us on our

turf. >> that was one sample of what we heard. i also talked to another woman who said that she absolutely booed but she said she was not booing mitt romney, she was booing his agenda. vice president joe biden will be coming in here later on this morning. the president is not coming to the naacp. the white house says he has a scheduling conflict and that's why joe biden is here, but, soledad, i have to tell you if romney's aim yesterday was exciting the conservative base with that speech he gave to the naacp, he may have also excited the liberal base of the democratic party or at least african-american voters because i think this crowd will give joe biden a warm response when he gets into this hall later on this morning. as for mitt romney, later on today talking about speaking to your base, he is going to be holding a fundraiser in wyoming with none other than dick cheney. soledad. >> jim acosta for us. thank you. i should mention in a few minutes we'll be speaking with florida's lieutenant gov, jennifer carol, the first african-american elected

statewide in the state of florida. other headlines first. christine romans has a look for us. >> good morning, soledad. joe paterno's legacy a reputation of a beloved university hanging in the balance today n less than two hours former fbi chief louie frooe will release his report commissioned by penn state university on the jerry sandusky sex abuse scandal. it will detail whether the head coach and school administrators could have done more. yesterday a seven month old letter surfaced from the late joe paterno in which he defended the integrity of penn state saying, quote, this is not a football scandal. a live report on what to expect inside the freeh report coming up in less than ten minutes. florida's state attorney plans to release fbi reports later today that could explain whether race played a role in the shooting death of trayvon martin. it includes federal interviews with more than 30 people including members of the sanford police department and friends of shooting suspect george zimmerman. we're also expecting details of e-mail exchanges between

zimmerman and fired sanford police chief bill lee. florida a&m university looking for a new president. james amans is stepping down after five years in the wake of the hazing scandal. he anoupsed it the same day the parents of a student who died after being hazed to a wrongful death lawsuit. champion was beaten by fellow members of the university's marching band during a hazes ritual on the band's bus last november. mississippi only remaining abortion clinic getting a retrieve. they ruled the clinic can stay open until he reviews how the state department of health will administer a new abortion law that provides providers to be obgyns and have patient admitting privileges at local hospitals. a connecticut group home employee is put on leave without pay after she was caught on tape physically abusing a disabled and defenseless adult. the video we're about to show is hard to watch.

the caretaker was caught cooking the woman in the gut, whipping her with a belt, dragging her by her hair and the victim suffers from an intellectual disorder. state staff went to check on other people and found no other signs of abuse. they're trying to find out who shot the video. that person could face charges, too. the medical mystery surrounding jesse jackson junior's absence from congress may have been solved at least partly. jackson's office says he is receiving intensive treatment for a middisorder. the statement released quotes an unnamed doctor saying jackson is responding well to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery. the illinois democrat has been missing from capitol hill since may. last month they announced he was taking a medical leave. soledad. >> all right, christine, thank you for the update. back to our top story. vice president joe biden is going to be addressing the naacp today. it is one day after mitt romney was booed there over his health care comments. we to want get down to florida's republican lieutenant governor jennifer carol. she is the first african-american elect to state

office in the state of florida. thanks for being with us this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> our pleasure. did you attend the naacp convention? >> i did, and it was absolutely wonderful, although governor romney received some boos, he received a number of applause for the policies that he plans to bringing forward. >> so we'll play a couple of chunks of that, the booing and the cheering. let's start with booing, though. he talked about eliminating every non-essential expensive program. let's play a piece of that. that's the booing that followed. how does that play into how his overall speech went? how would you rate it? i know there was some clapping, some booing, but overall how did it go? >> i think overall he was well received, and the booing came

from when he expressed about getting rid of obama care, but he also followed on by saying that he will do additional things to reduce the cost of health care, and i think once he explained that afterwards, the audience was a little more receptive, oh, you're not just going to get rid of it, will you do something and put in place that will be affordable to us. the thing about it is that individuals say why did he say obama care? if he says that in other speeches, he should not placate and say something differently to this audience and one thing i appreciated with governor romney is his honesty and his candor and that he did not sway from how he would speak to other audience that is he spo he can to this audience. >> some people said that's intentional and calculated. here is a little bit of nancy pelosi talking about governor romney's speech. let's play that. >> i think it was a calculated move on his part to get boos at the naacp convention. >> in fact, the former governor himself said he expected to get

booed, meaning he went in knowing he wasn't going to grab the hearts and minds of the audience he was talking to. is there some kind of strategy in this presentation to the naacp? >> you know, it is amazing. if he didn't go, he will get ostracized for that and he went and he faced an audience that typically doesn't vote for republicans and in the last election the republican candidate received less than 10% of the african-american vote. one great thing is mitt romney was not afraid to go into an audience that does not support him at least knowing that from the on set and also recognizing that he cannot ignore them either because they're a great voting block and they are constituents and she are voters and residents in this country. if he is fortunate to be elected president, he needs to represent all people. therefore, he cannot excuse not going to any audience to address them and particularly their issues. he brought up education. he brought up poverty. he brought up about jobs and the economy and fixing the did i lap

dated condition that is exist if urban areas, and i commend him for that. >> and education as well and i should add to the long list there. he was speaking in montana to 150 donors and told them h thought the booing was okay, and here is what he said talking about the folks speaking to the folks at the naacp. when i mention i am going to get rid of obama care, they weren't happy. that's okay. i want people to know what i stand for and if i don't stand for what they want, go vote for someone else. i hope people understand this, your friends who like obama care, you remind them if they want more stuff from the government, tell this em to vote for the other guy, more free stuff. don't forget, nothing is really free. it has to be paid for by people in the private sector. i don't know what he means by free stuff there. will you elaborate? what does that mean free stuff from the government? >> since i was not there to hear what he said, he would venture to think that he is letting people know that although it is assumed that health care would be free, it is not free. someone has to pay for it.

whether it is a chunk of the middle class or upper class or however the situation arises, it has to be paid, and that's probably what he is going to. going back to your comment with regards to it being expected to be booed, if you go into any situation where you don't have the majority of support from the people, that is an expectation. if he expected differently, then he would be fooling himself, but again going back to his candor and his honesty and his willingness to let this audience know i am not going to ignore you because your issues are too grave, your community is hurting, and the statistics that are continuing to occur in your neighborhoods are not healthy for sustainable prosperity for your families and i want to do something about it. i commend him for that. >> there is other free stuff that people often talk about when they talk about the government giving free stuff and welfare and they talk about food stamps and i know you know that more white people than black people are on food stamps and

more white people than black people are getting welfare, but i am curious about corporate welfare. i mean, free stuff comes from the government for corporations, too. i assume that that actually is the group that mitt romney is appealing to. there are all sorts of free things that corporations get, so when he says if you don't like free stuff from the government, go vote for the other guy, doesn't corporate welfare fall under that, tax breaks for corporations? >> i think the governor has also addressed that in other forms where he addressed for the loopholes for some of these corporations that we need to close those loopholes as well. i think the bottom line is for us to turn the economy around so that individuals can have a good quality job to have the income that's necessary to take care of their families, to plan for future, and for their hard-earned monies to go into their pockets and not to go out the door to the government. >> lieutenant governor, thank you for joining us this morning. thank you for being with us. we appreciate your time.

>> i appreciate you. >> thanks. ahead on "starting point," what really happened in happy valley? a report on the jerry sandusky sex abuse scandal is due out. we're expecting to get it in less than two hours. we'll tell you what it could mean for penn state and the get real this morning, team usa's uniforms aren't from the usa. huh? a shark tired of doing his own hunting does this. snags a fish right off a woman's line. we had to bleep a lot of the reaction. we'll tell you what happened. that's ahead on "starting point." back in just a moment. banfield.

minding your business this morning, the government settlement over foreclosure fraud is clearing the way for more foreclosures. foreclosures jumped 9% in the second quarter, more than 1 million homes had foreclosure filings in the first half of the year. the federal reserve may consider a new round of stimulus. officials say they're worried about risks to the american economy because of the eurozone debt crisis. a slowdown in china's economy and the possibility of spending cuts and tax increases set to go into effect here in the u.s. at the end of the year. markets, stock markets down

because the fed did not commit to taking any new additional steps to boost growth right now. soledad. >> christine, thank you very much. in less than two hours we'll find out more about what penn state knew about the jerry sandusky child abuse scandal. 9 a.m. eastern and the former fbi chief will release an online report that will likely describe just what the university administrators did when they were told about the incident and an incident involving sandusky and a young boy on penn state grounds. susan is live for us in philadelphia this morning and also i have ken feinberg in the studio joining "starting point" this morning because penn state of course called him a year ago and asked him how to set up a program and secure funding for the trial and more but i want you to start for us. talk about this report. how detailed is it expected to be? what will it focus on? what was the scope of the investigation? >> well, you know, it is supposed to be, soledad, up to about 200 pages long and judge louie frooe said from the

beginning there will be no holds barred and no one would be immune from getting a serious look on this. we do expect to find out what top pen stan state officials kn and what they did about it. did they follow their own procedures that they had in place when they found about allegations involving misconduct, or misconduct potentially involving children? was there a coverup or was there simply a culture in that side, that community, to simply look the other way? remember, publicly we heard from top penn state officials they were only told about inappropriate conduct involving jerry sandusky, just horseplay, but remember we also know from coach joe paterno's sworn testimony that he said he was told about fondling and something of a sexual nature. so if it was just inappropriate or horseplay, why is it as cnn

has read in purported e-mails that penn state officials were worried about being vulnerable or possibly not and they didn't report it to any outside authorities. all good questions that we expect to be addressed in some way, soledad. >> i have to imagine there will be some focus on what exactly joe paterno knew and his family has a statement that they put out. they say this. joe paterno did not cover up for jerry sandusky. joe paterno did not know that jerry sandusky was a pedophile. joe paterno did not act in any way to prevent a proper investigation of jerry sandusky. to claim otherwise is a distortion of the truth. he wrote an op-ed about seven months ago before he died obviously and said focus on it was really focused on the legacy of the football program and the school. tell me about that. >> that's right. he wrote this just after the scandal broke and this was meant toe an op-ed piece but according to family spokes people and in the rush of event

it is never got published. it was sent to some former football players and then came out just yesterday, and here is an excerpt from it. it says, quote, this is not a football scandal and should not be treated as one. it is not an academic scandal and does not inny way tarnish the hard-earned and well deserved academic reputation of penn state. will there be fallout from penn state? that's the question. in the audience today we expect to see attorneys for the victims, some of them said they would be here, these attorneys, and they're looking for of course ammunition for their expected lawsuits against penn state. >> fallout, i guess, is fair to say what ke feinberg focuses on. how do you? you recall called in a year ago to try to figure out how to set up a fund around the trial, part of your job, and and has been for many years is navigating the financial compensation in a disaster. i think this would qualify as a kind of disaster.

>> i just had one conversation with penn state. they called and just asked 9/11 and bp and virginia tech. >> all of those other stories. >> all of those other stories, how do you set up a program? what are the parameters? who is eligible? who is funding the program? what are the rights and obligations of a claimant? what are the proof requirements, sexual abuse, i mean, assuming penn state wants to do the right thing, you announce a compensation program and you will get scores, hundreds, thousands of people who will see there is a compensation program available, file a claim, and bp in 18 months, we received over 1 million claims from 50 states and 35 foreign countries. you build these programs. they will come. >> it will be interesting to see what they do. susan candiotti, we thank you for your reporting and we'll continue to check in with you throughout the morning on this.

ken feinberg has written a new book and we'll talk with him later this morning about how you do navigate the ground between compensating people for something horrible that's happened in their life. it is a fascinating book. have to take a short break. still ahead on "starting point," the video of san diego's epic fireworks fail has now been viewed millions of times on youtube and even better, a video of the incredible display. plus team usa is heading to the olympics in ralph lauren stylish outfits. the only problem, they weren't made by team usa. that's get real. the rest of the team is heading in. abbey ntsman joining me. look at you rocking those shorts. my playlist, marvin sapp. we need you right now. going to take a short break.

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welcome back to "starting point." this morning's team is ken feinberg, the author of a new book who gets what which really at the end of the day is what you do as a job. you are the guy who is responsible for giving out the money after a disaster and a tragedy. he will talk about the bp oil spill, obviously 9/11, virginia tech as well, and i didn't realize that it all started with agent orange in the late 1980s and we'll talk about his book in a few minutes. abbey huntsman rocking cute shorts. twitter is afire on that. >> will wasn't wearing shorts today. i am shocked. >> anything you want. >> not at all. not even for a minute. and will cain column bis for the blaze.com. get real. team usa is going to the summer

olympics in london. they have these uniforms from ralph lauren, blazers, berets, red, white and blue and they're not made in america. every single clothing label says made in china. this comes from abc news report that got a look and apparently they're tough hard hitting investigation was to look at the label and it is made in china. the u.s. olympic committee says this. u.s. olympic team is privately funded and we're grateful for the support of our sponsors and proud of our partnership with ralph lauren, an iconic american company, a quote that sort of says absolutely nothing if you think about it. how do you feel about this? >> i am not too offended the fact that the uniforms weren't made in america. the bottom line is we don't make clothes that much anymore. i know you can find companies made in the united states that manufacture clothing but we don't do it anymore. >> you could find a clothing manufacturer and like it is going to be a blazer and beret. >> and others are pointing out they really have them pick the american style icon of a beret.

>> what? >> also that. that might be tomorrow's get real. today we're talking about made in america. i know. >> have you ever seen made in america when you buy your clothes? i can't remember i saw a tag on my clothes that said made in america. >> the designer said that she really was -- she said why not just have pride in american athletes? why in american manufacturers, too, and laborers who are the backbone of the country and i thought she had a good point. >> i think it is all tied up to the sponsorship. sounds like they have an on going deal with ralph lauren. ralph lauren is funding this and other things so i think it is part of a sub sighization of the whole olympic program. >> what will be made in america is speed owe and nike and american made suits. >> fine, fine, but i am a little outraged. still ahead on "starting point" the woman that got away, a close encounter with a shark. have you seen that? that is right off the pier.

she is fishing and the shark decides to steal the fish. the family of yasser arafat is accusing israel of poisoning him. we'll take a short bak. we're back in a moment. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --

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coming up in a few minutes we'll get to roland martin live at the naacp convention in houston and talk about the fallout of mitt romney's speech about health care there and first to christine for a look at the top stories. >> the family of yasser arafat officially accusing israel of killing him. his nephew telling the afp israel poisoned the late palestinian leader with palonium. they have given final approval to dig up his remains to investigate and israeli officials denied the charges. syria's ambassador to iraq has

defected. noah feres appealing to his country and he says he joining the syrian opposition. he became the highest ranking member of the assad regime to leave. just last week a bringing dear general and close ally also defected. dry storms and intense heat plaguing the west coast and could ignite new wildfires. let's get the latest from rob marciano. >> the front moving across the west coast and will probably throw up thunderstorms. not a ton of moisture. some could be dry, especially across nevada and western idaho and eastern oregon and thunderstorms and wind gusts on top of that. this is on top of the heat this area has been enduring. temperatures cooler across the desert southwest and the further north you go in places like reno and boise could see temperatures above 15 degrees and all the way to the canadian border. the other big story is the rainfall that will fire up along this frontal boundary, especially south where there is the most amount of moisture and

seeing it right now in houston. heavy thunderstorms across houston metro plex, slow movers and ground stop at houston intercontinent allea intercontinental. rainfall 2 plus inches per hour. flash flood warning for the houston metro area, especially north and west and temperatures in chicago 90 and 88 in new york city. not a bad day in new york city. >> in the am house call a gene that causes early on set alzheimer's could carry a mutation that creates the opposite effect. mutations are rare but it could help doctors develop future treatments. 5 million americans suffer from alz timers disease and the findings are published. it is an emergency. a new report says most medicate patients visit the emergency room for urgent or serious issues despite the perception they're driving up costs for going to the er for routine

care. the report is from studying health system change. they had great seats for a 20-second show. new, close up, high-def, deafening video posted on youtube of the july 4th san diego fireworks fail. a computer glitch caused them to go off all at once, 20 minutes worth in just over 20 seconds. a woman fishing off a dock in south carolina reeling in a fish when another comes along, another very big fish. >> oh. >> oh, [ bleep ]. >> [ bleep ]. >> it is all mine. it is all mine. >> just about to land it in the net and a huge bull shark swooped in and stole it. you would be cursing or cheering, too. i am not sure. i don't know what's more entertaining, the audio or the video of that. >> the sleeking. wow. that's amazing.

let's watch it again. come on, you're killing me. that was amazing. >> good stuff. >> loved it. thanks, christine. there it is. watch again. >> oh [ bleep ]. >> oh [ bleep ]. >> it is all mine, it is all mine. >> he thought he caught it. >> it is a shark. >> it is a shark. >> let's move on. as we have been telling you this morning vice president joe biden is going to be addressing members of the naacp today at the group's yearly conference which is taking place in houston, texas. he is appearing one day after mitt romney's speech was booed in parts there and booed specifically when he promised he would be repealing the health care law. listen. >> i am going to eliminate every non-special expensive program i can find that includes obama care and i will work to reform and save -- >> [ booing ]

>> that's a long 15 seconds when you get booed. gaining favor at the annual event is obviously a challenge for any republican nominee. could be a problem for president obama as well. his decision not to appear at the conference could come with its own backlash this november. let's get to roland martin covering the event all week. before we talk about president obama and his not showing up at the convention, let's talk a little about mitt romney yesterday. we heard some booing obviously when he talked about obama care. i know that at the end there was half the crowd roughly apparently stood to cheer. how overall would you say was the reception for him? >> i won't say they stood and cheer. in fact, when he came out half the room stood up, applauded him, being polite, half didn't and the same thing happened when it was over. there were certainly moments during the speech where he did get applause and when he talked about the importance of family and how he was going to make that a priority of his administration and then when he says he was going to defend traditional marriage and also

when he talked about education, allocates federal dollars to each student, allowing parents to send their kids to any school they want to saying that kids should not be stuck in low performing schools, so that's where he got a lot of the applause lines on and certainly when he began to criticize the president, when he talked about health care and also what was interesting, soledad, when he made this comment about who would do more for african-americans as president and i am your guy, pretty much folks started laughing when he made that comment. >> let's talk about after the speech. he was in montana talking to donors, and he said this. when i mentioned i am going to get rid of obama care, they weren't happy. that's okay. i want people to know what i stand for. if i don't stand for what they want, vote for someone else. your friends, if they want more stuff from the government, tell them to vote for the other guy, more free stuff. don't forget, nothing is really free. it has to be paid for by people in the private sector. when i spoke to the lieutenant governor of florida a little

earlier this morning she said, listen, he is being consistent in his message across the board. what do you think he is saying there? >> i think he is using coded language when he uses they and free. here is the point i would raise. a lot of people in the room yesterday, they also work in the private sector. they also are small business owners. in fact, african-american women have the fastest rate of small business owners in this country. who is he talking about when it comes to they? also, look at corporate welfare. i remember when general collin powell spoke at the republican convention in philadelphia in 2000 and said don't criticize free stuff or welfare but he said nothing about corporate welfare. so i would love to hear mitt romney talk about the freebies we give his corporate buddies in the private sector and say let's get rid of those as well. i doubt he will be saying that. >> roland, it is will, just so i am clear, are you saying he is using the term they and free as code for what? >> no, i am saying what when he

is they and talking about and free, i am saying that has been coded language that we have heard before. >> coded for what? >> excuse me, i will make the point, from republican candidates speaking of poor people, speaking of african-americans. we can talk about i remember the image of the welfare queen going back to the '80s, what that looked like and this morning on the morning show i interviewed sophia nelson, a gop general counsel, long time republican and she also said this is one of the problems republicans do, using certain language speaking of certain groups. >> will, you and i have had this conversation about the dog when i say elg. you like to say there are these conversations that you think i can hear thaw can't hear and they go by you and we have had that i. i call that an out and out fight at times. >> you and me fighting? >> never, never. disagreement. i want to ask you a question, roland, before i let you go about president obama. he will not be talking to the

audience at the naacp today. joe biden will be giving a speech today. do you think there is going to be backlash for the president on that? >> there will not be backlash in terms of i think at the polls, but i can tell you now i talked to a number of people, board members and regular attendees and delegates who are happy the president is not there and this is the third consecutive year the president has not spoken to the naacp. he did speak in 2009 for the 100th anniversary and he will speak to the national urban league and they believe with voter suppression being a critical issue and the naacp and focusing on social justice, the president should be there. eric holder was there on tuesday, but, look, i heard it. i have heard it talked about on social media. some people say, say, he is busy, he really doesn't have to go and others say if you are going to the human rights campaign, have you gone to other groups, this is an important constituency in a tough, close

election he should be there. >> and mitt romney said, hey, if i am elected i will be here next year talking to you again. >> yeah, but i am sure if he comes next year maybe he will talk about free stuff. >> roland, thank you for the update. appreciate it. going to take a short break. still ahead, putting aprice on tragedy. from 9/11 on the gulf oil daster, it is something ken feinberg knows too well. we will talk about his book who gets what. if president lincoln survived, would honest abe have been impeached? a yale professor imagine that is history in a new book. you're watching "starting point." back in a moment. ♪

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welcome back, everybody. ken feinberg was trained as a lawyer and a policy maker but he spent his career compensating people for some of the biggest tragedies of our time. he has worked with thousands of people, vietnam vets, who were sickened by agent orange, victims affected by september 11th, witnesses of the virginia tech massacre, executives from companies who received tarp money and americans who lost their savings in the gulf bp oil spill. he has had to determine how to value a livelihood and a life and his new book is called "who gets what," talks about the ups and undoes of the job. last time you were on we talked about this am coming out.

i am glad you're back. what is your job like? you run in after a tragedy and you are the guy with the calculator. you basically have to figure out how much a life was worth, how much a career was worth, how much a livelihood is worth around people who are upset and crying and emotional. how do you navigate that? >> first of all, the other people, policy makers, congress, president obama, president bush, they decide there ought to be such a program. then when i come in to try and set up a program, the number one problem you confront as you just point out is emotion. people are angry. they feel wronged. they're innocent victims. the challenge is to design a program that vulnerable people believe will compensate them in a manner that will at least some way replace the loss they have suffered. >> what's the equation? is there a math equation, a

human life is worth x? >> every day as you know, soledad, in every court in our country, city, village, hamlett, judges and juries do that every day. what would the victim have earned but for the death of the injury? how much pain? how much suffering? judges and juries do it all the time. my challenge is everybody knows about the program, so it is not just one off, one person in a rural courtroom. it is everybody gathered together and everybody counsel other people's money. that is a human trait. not just what am i getting, what is my next door neighbor getting? how much am i getting compensated? why is my next door neighbor getting more? that is always going to be an emotional challenge to try and overcome. >> agent orange was the first one. you described going back between the two groups, the sort of negotiate being and lying is a

strong word, maybe being a little bit what's the word, deceitful and you said to the companies, you cannot win and basically v il lify veterans. you told both sides you are not going to win so you can navigate a settlement. sthat role, the model of how it usually goes? >> that's one case, the uncertainty of litigation, the cost of litigation, how long it will take. you don't know how it will end. here is an opportunity. step back. self help. voluntarily resolve it yourself. in 9/11 or in the bp oil spill, you can go the other route. you can hire a lawyer. you can file a lawsuit. in 18 months in bp as you know, we distributed over $6.5 billion to 220,000 people, before the first trial was even set up, and that very success is what poses

problems because expectations increases and everybody feels they out to have a program like this as well. >> is it difficult to not get emotionally involved in some of these cases? what was the hardest cases? what was the hardest one for you and why? >> well, in the book, i talk about all these emotional cases. you can't help but be affected by victims. one lady came to see me and said, i want the money from 9/11 right away. i lost my husband at the world trade center. he was a fireman. i have two children that he left me with, and i need the money in a couple of weeks. and i said, well, why do you need it so quickly? and she said i have terminal cancer. my husband was going to survive me and take care of my two children. now they are going to are orphans, and i have only eight to 10 weeks to live. get me the money, please, mr. feinberg. we got her the compensation. and 10 weeks later, she was gone. >> wow.

oh, my goodness. the book is called "who gets what," it's a fascinating read for some of your biggest challenges. the bp oil spill you say was one of the toughest ones just emotionally and really having to overpromise thing to people. >> the volume of claims in bp. we received over 1 million claims from 50 states and 35 foreign countries. >> ken feinberg, the book is great. imagine this. abraham lincoln survives the assassination attempt and is impeached. it's a novel about what if. we'll talk to the author next. ae and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader.

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welcome back to "starting point." a military court hearing scheduled today in the case of

accused ft. hood shooter major nadal hasan. to clear up questions about the jury screening process. he faces the death penalty. he is accused of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in november 2009. calls for d.c. mayor vincent gray to resign after revelations in federal court that his election was aided by a shadow campaign. a campaign aide admitted she helped a localnessm businessman spend $600,000 to support gray and none of the money was reported. to many, abraham lincoln is one of the greatest presidents who ever lived regardless of party affiliation. but what if he had not been assassinated and after the civil war his fellow republicans didn't like how he was handling the nation? could he have been the first sitting president to be impeached? there's a new novel called "the impeachment of abraham lincoln." the author is here with us. he is also a professor of law at

harvard. this is sort of a mystery, whodunit that ends with crazy sleuthing. why would you want to start with the question if lincoln had survived, what would have happened next? why was that intriguing to you? >> well, i'm a great lincoln fan. i'm not anti-lincoln. i don't think he should have been impeached. i'm not even saying he would have been. but as a fictional premise, the notion that he might have been fascinated me. in part because there were so many things that lincoln did that we don't think about that had they come up, had people wanted to argue about them, suspending habeas corpus, arresting reporters who wrote unfavorable stories, things like that, it's fascinating to think what kind of arguments we could have had if people had debated those things at the time. >> i was surprised in the lore of what you read about it, you don't realize he locked up people that were critical of the war. he shut down opposition newspapers and often just ignored court orders altogether.

that was pretty stunning, you know, as a person who obviously is not an expert in lincoln. >> lincoln did all of those things, but his argument for doing them is it was necessary to win the war. in lincoln's view, the united states was threatened. if the war was lost, the south was lost, slavery would continue, and the united states would be broken in two. and he argued they shouldn't be forced to comply with some particular law in order -- if that was going to retard the greater cause of defeating the south. >> doesn't everybody always argue that, there's a greater cause they are fighting for? why do you think people turn a blind eye to what he has done there or did then? is it just because ultimately it was successful, or was it because ultimately it's overshadowed by ending slavery? or is it because ultimately, you know, he just was able -- he was assassinated, and we know that's sort of the narrative that we follow? >> today we look back at lincoln with the eyes of history. and history has a way of softening the edges of these moments.

so we look at him as the great emancipa emancipator. he won the war. did many great things. but at the same time, it's important to recognize there are some hard edges. there was a side of lincoln, this determination to win, for which he was willing to sweep everything else away. now today very commonly, we yell this president or that president should be impeached. he did this or that. and we forget the things that lincoln did, which were far more serious than we see today. >> do you think he would have been impeached? >> i hope not. i think he was our greatest president. but designing a thriller, a courtroom drama around that, that was a lot of fun. >> and what a thriller it is. i'm going to read a little bit. you're going to kill us anyway, said jonathan. i'm going to kill you a lot more slowly if you don't give me the list. and without warning, he stabbed abigail in the hand. abigail is the black female attorney protagonist. why pick and shape that character, who really doesn't exist in real life at that time, a black woman who's an attorney who is going to be representing lincoln? >> abigail, the protagonist, 21

years old. she is just out of college. she wants to be a lawyer. she has this crazy idea. at that time, there were no female lawyers in the united states. probably only six or eight black lawyers in the united states. i wanted someone who was an outsider, who was ambitious, who people could identify with. and i'm thinking, you know, i'm an outsider. i'm upwardly mobile. i face some of the same barriers. at the same time she is trying to solve a mystery and protect a president from impeachment, she is also trying to break down various barriers both on the base of race and sex that are holding her back. >> it's a page turner. violence, crime, inteague. it's called "the impeachment of abraham lincoln," a new novel by stephen carter. thank you so much. >> thank you. still ahead, a feisty confrontation between robert blake and our own piers morgan. did you see this last night? completely out of control. we'll share some of it with you. also, sexual exploits, obsessions, and a financial wizard that studied economics. and a new book that digs into

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good morning, everybody. our "starting point" this morning was a tough crowd for mitt romney. he is running against the first plaq black president, getting boos from the naacp. did they put the football program ahead of the children? a former fbi director's new

report is expected out in less than an hour. it's about what penn state knew about the jerry sandusky scandal. plus, in your face. >> well, before you start asking questions, you should do some [ bleep ] research. >> oh, yeah. and that was kind of how it began. that's the actor robert blake kind of defensive about his legal ordeal. the murder of his wife. the testy piers morgan interview is straight ahead. we'll share that with you. plus, ellen burrstyn will be stopping by. it might remind you a little bit of bill and hillary clinton. "starting point" begins right now. ♪ because you're amazing ♪ just the way you are ♪ and when you smile >> a little "just the way you are" off my play list.

everybody has that, i think. hello, everybody. abby huntsman is with us, the host of "huff post live." congratulations on that, by the way. >> thank you. very excited. >> ken feinberg is with us. the author of "who gets what." and will cain, contributor to theblaze.com. and now to christine for a look at the day's top stories. breaks news for you just in to cnn. a killer avalanche in the french alps. police say nine people are dead. three germans, three english, two spanish, and one swiss tourist. four people are missing at this hour, and the search is underway in the alps. it is already the deadliest such saster there in a decade. legacy on the line. in one hour, former fbi chief louis freeh will release his report commissioned by penn state university on the jerry sandusky sexual abuse scandal. it will detail whether joe paterno and school administrators could have done

more to stop the child predator. a seven-month-old letter surfaced from the late joe paterno surfaced yesterday in which he defended penn state, saying, quote, this is not a football scandal. a live report is coming up in about 30 minutes. florida's state attorney plans to release fbi reports later today that could explain whether race played a role in the shooting death of trayvon martin. the reports contain federal interviews with more than 30 people, including members of the sanford police department and friends of shooting suspect george zimmerman. we're also expecting details of email exchanges between zimmerman and fired sanford police chief bill lee. florida a&m university is looking for a new president. james amonds is stepping down after five years in the wake of a hazing scandal. he announced his resignation on the same day that the parents of drum major robert champion, who died after being hazed, added the university to a wrongful death lawsuit.

champion was beaten by fellow members of the university's band during a hazing ritual last november. jesse jackson jr. says his month-long absence from congress has nothing to do with alcohol or substance abuse. they say he's being treated for a mood disorder. cnn's ted rolands is live in chicago. ted? >> christine, the bottom line here is that we're getting some information from the jackson camp, but we're not getting a lot of detail. and there have been two camps here in terms of folks on capitol hill that want more information. you've got people like luis gonzalez and dick durbin that have come out in the last few days and said give us more information, give the public more information about what's ailing you. the other side, we ran into roland burress yesterday. and listen to him. he blasts democrats on the hill and the media, saying leave jesse jackson jr. alone.

>> all of them need to back off of jesse jr. and let's wait and see what will come forward at the proper time. >> reporter: don't people have a right to know what's wrong with him? >> he is a public servant. at the proper time, they will know. and i'm asking you all to give him some space. the young man has evidently some problems. >> now the extent of those problems, christine, is the big question that remains in chicago. and in the state of illinois this morning. how long will he be out? will he run for re-election in november? we just haven't gotten those details yet. but a lot of people are asking for them, and hoping that they'll come out in the days to come. >> all right. ted rowlands in chicago, thank you. a woman recovering this morning after a very close call on the road. her car impaled by a bundle of 30-foot long wooden poles that went all the way through the back window. police in washington state say she rear ended a station wagon

holding the teepee poles. doctors spent two hours removing wood fragments from her skull. she is on facebook and texting her friends two days later, soledad. >> what a great sign, right? if you're on facebook, emails and texting and posting to your wall, you must be ok. all right, christine. thank you. fighting words from mitt romney as joe biden prepares to address the naacp convention in houston today after romney's rocky reception. he is now telling detractors to, quote, go vote for somebody else if they don't like what he said. romney was trying to convince african-americans they'd be better off with him in the white house. but when he promised to repeal president obama's health care law, the crowd erupted into boos. >> i'm going to eliminate every nonessential program i can find. that includes obamacare, and i'm going to work to reform and save -- [ crowd booing ] >> and it went on like that for 15 seconds. we want to get right now to the

house minority whip, democratic senator denny hoyer of maryland. i want to talk a little bit about this romney speech. the minority leader nancy pelosi said that it was a calculated move to be booed by the naacp. what do you think she meant by that? and do you agree with that? >> well, i don't want to speculate on what exactly nancy meant by that, but clearly i don't think romney was surprised that he was going to get an adverse reaction. the african-american community feels very strongly that the obama care bill, the affordable care act to provide affordable health care to all americans, is a very important piece of legislation, not only for them but for america. so i don't -- i don't think he was surprised that there was an adverse reaction. >> do you think it's a mistake that president obama is not addressing that group today? it will be joe biden speaking today. >> i think the vice president

clearly is representing the president and himself. he's going to talk about the policies that this administration has put forward to try to turn the recession around that they inherited, create jobs. we created 4 million jobs, more than 4 million, over the last 28 months. the economy has grown. too slowly, but grown. and i think that the vice president and the president are well known to the naacp and african-americans and to america. and i think those policies are going to be supported by that organization and by frankly americans across the country that understand how hard the politic and vice president have been working to get this economy moving. >> you have a new jobs initiative, a plan, and i should say kind of a sort of new, because it's half -- part new and part old. from the democrats called the make it in america plan. a combination of old bills and some new bills. why are you highlighting it now, and what's the new part as compared to the old part? >> well, very frankly, soledad, we're continuing to focus on what we call make it in america.

that is to say that we're going to make it in america, have success, get jobs. grow the economy. have a more successful economy. if we make more things in america. the president has set forth an agenda to double exports. the way you double exports to make more things in america. so what we want to do is adopt policies that will focus on expanding our manufacturing sector of our economy. we also want to make it easier to keep jobs in america by giving tax credits, and make it less beneficial to ship jobs overseas. we want to make sure there's a level playing field, that our trading partners are trading fair, and not providing barriers to our exports that make their products cheaper in america and more expensive for us to excel there. so we are continuing to focus on growing jobs in america. >> it will not come as a huge surprise to you that eric

cantor's office doesn't think it's such a great idea. here's what elena fallon, a spokeswoman for his office, said. whip hoyer's umpteenth version of make it in america isn't new and hasn't moved the needle on job creation. rather than focusing on the same old same old, we reduce red tape and stop. >> the president's bill was proposed six months ago to put it on the floor. mr. cantor has the ability to do so. he has refused to do so. so when he says it hasn't grown jobs, we haven't put an agenda on the floor. obviously, jobs have not grown because we haven't been focused on that. we passed -- we voted on yesterday for the 31st time a repeal of health care for all americans. without any alternative plan from the republicans. they continue to focus on issues

that appeal to their political base but don't focus on jobs. in my opinion, had they put mr. -- president obama's agenda on the floor, had we passed that, had the president signed it, we would have created one to two million additional jobs in this country. >> representative steny hoyer is the democratic minority whip. nice to see you, sir. thank you for talking with us this morning. >> soledad, thank you very much. today's "tough call" is an automatic r rating if you smoke in a movie. will that stop kids from lighting up? we'll talk about that. plus, sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, and the london school of economics. a new biography reveals some secrets of mick jagger on the 50th anniversary of the rolling stones. we'll talk to the author up next. hey, good morning. i don't have to use gas. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. drive around town all the time doing errands and never ever have to fill up gas in the city.

i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. the last time i went to the gas station must have been about three months ago. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. ♪ delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet the house is considering a bill to close thousands of offices, slash service and layoff over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses,

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marquee club in london. today they are considered to be one of the world's greatest rock bands. the group famed not only for the music but also their lifestyle, which was pretty hard partying. high profile relationships. and by relationships, we mean sex with other people. mick jagger stilletting attention for some of those escapades in a new book called "mick, the wild life and mad genius of jagger." christopher andersen is here with us. you have written about jennifer aniston, the clintons. what did you find most over the top that you didn't know about mick jagger? >> well, everything. >> everything? >> well, i have been working on this for 43 years, i hate to say. but i covered a rock festival in 1969 for "time" magazine, and i toad there, and i don't remember if you remember that. for people who don't, it was the hells angels were hired for

security. right away there's a problem. and there was mayhem. there was a murder captured on film. the documentary "give me shelter" was based on that. i stood there and watched the person being stabbed. i watched mick singing "under my thumb" and the expression on his face. and he got on a helicopter and went off. it was a dark moment in the history of rock. and i thought, boy, some day, i'm going to write a book about this. over the years, have i covered him for a variety of publications. and now is the time. 50 years. >> why now? why after 43 years did you decide it's finally time to lay it out? >> the most important thing about mick is he's still here. he said i'd rather die than be 45 and still singing "satisfaction." now he's 69. and he is still relevant. so many of his peers have self-destructed, but he hasn't. and he has done everything that they have, and then some. >> sex.

>> well, again, 4,000 women is one estimate. >> that's the number. >> carla bruni, one of his longtime mistresses, former first lady of france, said i was just one of the 4,000 women when it was all over. and they had a fantastic relationship, an interesting relationship, during his marriage to jerry hall. and she was one of the reasons that broke up. there are many confrontations between jerry and a number of mick's high profile mistresses. >> to this day, he still tries to tweak sarkozy. >> as a matter of fact, sarkozy when he was still president, he was going to get an apartment with carla bruni in paris, a place to get away to, and she picked out an apartment that was the former apartment of yves st. laurent. and he said fine until he realized that mick lived in the penthouse two floors above. so that deal was nixed rather quickly. >> he slept with men and women. >> yeah. people forget that in the '70s,

it was androj me and bisexuality was a big thing. david bowie was bisexual, and that was part of his appeal. and david bowie's wife told me that she found he and mick in bed together. and it's interesting when you look back from this part where we have sir mick jagger, he wasn't that. you know, he built his fame and his wealth and his iconic status on being an enemy of the establishment. and that's what got him in trouble with the queen, for example. >> the fact that he slept with both men and women is almost the understory to who some of those men and women were. >> yes. >> in your book, you have a ton of amazing names here. eric clapton. david bowie. uma thurman. madonna. >> madonna was a groupie in the early '80s. and just recently, madonna chose mick's daughter as the face of her material girl clothing line. so the connection goes on.

>> i'm more stunned by the fact that he went to the london school of economics. and you describe him as a financial wizard overseeing his $400 million financial holdings. >> right. those are his personal holdings. and he is also in charge of the minimum $2 billion that the stones brought in just in the five top 10 tours that they have done. that doesn't count the income from the 250 million album sales for example. he oversees the logistics, costumes, right down to the designs of the t-shirts sold in macy's. >> at his age, will we likely see another tour? >> you bet. >> does he have to get along with keith richards first? >> today is a big day. >> you see people from teenagers, all the way up to late in life, everybody goes. it's sort of a very diverse audience. >> right, right. the justin bieber crowd and baby boomers. and who else appeals request el

l equal lee -- equally though those? "moves like jagger" by maroon 5, big hit last year. i think keith richards rubbed mick the wrong way with his memoir. and because of that, the huge tour that should be going on right now isn't, but i think it will be. >> so, soledad, you could number 4,001. >> i can feel comfortable going out on a limb and saying that will not happen. the book is called "mick, the wild life and mad genius." thank you for being here. >> wonderful to be here. thank you. is smoking the same as profanity and sex and violence? a new study says it should be treated the same when it comes to movies. we'll take a look at that straight ahead. brave knights!

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welcome back to "starting point." i'm christine romans minding your business. the federal reserve is concerned about the slow recovery. officials say they are worried the eurozone debt crisis and the slowdown in china will hurt the u.s. they are also worried about the so-called fiscal cliff of spending tax increases looming at the end of the year. the minutes of the fed show it's seriously considering new stimulus measures but it's not ready to do anything yet. and that's why u.s. stock futures are lower this morning. also concerns about slowing economic growth weighing on the markets today. and european markets are lower. a south carolina funeral home offering a new perk to mourners. a coffee shop that will brew starbucks coffee. it will be right next to the new chapel, and, yes, mourners will have to pay. the starbucks will be open to the public too if you're passing by. today's "tough call." should movies feature people who are smoking?

and if they do, should they be automatically rated r? if you look at popular movies like "the lord of the rings," "pulp fiction," they all show well-known actors smoking. and a new study which comes out of the journal of pediatrics says any movie that 2350e67s smoking should get an r rating. what they did was look at the effect of exposing kids to watching movies, and they found that actually when you controlled for everything, kids were twice as likely to start smoking so they started asking themselves, how do you make them stop? ratings could do that. how do we feel about that? >> we were talking about this earlier. we discussed the fact that the npaa, the motion picture association of america, is a voluntary association that the movie industry submits itself to. with that in mind, if they choose to make smoking an r rating, they submitted themselves to that. >> i don't think it should automatically be rated r. a lot of kids, their parents

smoke. >> if you sat on the board, you would say no, i don't think we need to elevate this? >> i think there are a lot of other things that you could rate a movie as r. i don't think smoking is one of them. >> when they controlled for that, when they said they accounted and adjusted for age, gender, outside influences like your parents smoke or you have friends who smoke, that kids who are exposed to any movie that had tobacco use, it made the kids smoke, even if their own parents smoke. that's pretty damning research. >> but you see smoking on tv. >> not in commercials. not allowed in television commercials. >> it's so interesting when you see the old style commercials, and someone will be like, we want to thank camel for sponsoring this. >> 30 years on tv, you can't show liquor being ingested or drinking. you never -- in fact, now i don't think there are even any

ads on television. >> there are. they are awful to watch. they are the anti-smoking ads. >> oh, right. those are. >> i'm talking about liquor. i think those have been voluntarily taken off. still aheathis morning on "starting point," baretta on fire, man. did you see this? robert blake literally got out of his seat a couple of times as he was sitting down to talk to piers morgan. this interview was completely crazy. we'll play a little bit of it for you this morning. plus, one u.s. soldier will take his life on average every single day. we'll take you inside the "time" magazine cover story about the shocking rise of suicides in the military. and a report on the jerry sandusky sexual abuse scandal is due out in just about 30 minutes. what is it going to reveal about penn state? we have details. you're watching "starting point." we're back in a moment. in just . steam bags from lean cuisine. be culinary chic.

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welcome, everybody. we'll start with christine romans, because in less than 30 minutes, we're going to be finding out what penn state knew about the jerry sandusky child abuse scandal. we're expecting that at 9:00 a.m. eastern. the former fbi chief louis freeh is going to release an online report, likely describing what university administrators did when they were told about an incident involving sandusky and a young boy on the grounds of penn state. we'll detail whether the head coach and the school administrators could have done more to help stop that child predator. a 7-month-old unpublished op-ed published yesterday from the late joe paterno defending the integrity of penn state, saying this is not a football scandal. we'll get to christine with the rest of the day's headlines.

good morning. >> first, breaking news. the search for four missing people in the french alps after the deadliest avalanche there in a decade. police say nine people now are dead after an avalanche swept over a group of european climbers. the mayor of a nearby town tells the afp no weather report was forecasting an avalanche risk at this time. mississippi's one and only abortion clinic will remain open for now. a federal judge extending his injunction against the state's new abortion law. it allows the jackson women's health facility to stay open until he reviews how the state department of health will administer the law. it requires abortion providers to be ob/gyns and have admitting rights at local hospitals. doctors dispensing drugs to patients in their offices and turning a huge profit. a new u.s. times report says that doctors can make millions a

year operating their own in-office pharmacies. but it can add hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to insurance companies, employers, and taxpayers. san francisco officials say apple is no longer green enough. the city's 50 departments will no longer be allowed to buy apple laptops, desktops, or monitors. that's because the tech giant withdrew from an international green electronics certification program last month. but the ban does not apply to ipads or iphones. soledad? >> so they are banning apple but not the ipads and the iphones? >> right. the fastest-growing parts, by the way. the numbers are pretty shocking. on average, one u.s. soldier will commit suicide every day. and among veterans, one every 80 minutes will take his or her own life. it's "time" magazine's cover story this week. and it focuses on the incidence of suicide in the military. leon panetta recently called military suicides possibly the most frustrating challenge he's had to deal with since heading up the pentagon. mark thompson is the writer on

the story and also "time" magazine's washington deputy bureau chief. thank you for talking to us. it's so interesting to me when you see the military presence in a place like afghanistan actually winding down, you see suicides ramping up. why? >> well, soledad, i think it's important to realize that some of the stressors that can lead to suicide are like seeds that are planted. and they don't sproud immediately. whether it's ptsd, traumatic brain injury, these are sort of things that don't manifest themselves or months or years after troops come home. >> when you look at the actual people who are committing suicide, many of them never saw combat. didn't go into combat. what's the explanation for that? >> well, the stressors apply across all 1.4 million men and women in active duty forces. we have been at war for a decade. and even if you haven't been deployed, you're in that environment. where you will feel some of those stressors. >> hey, mark, this is will cain. this conversation reminds me a

little bit about the conversation we have over autism. and i have to ask then, are we seeing an increase in suicides related to military service, or are we seeing an increase in awareness of this problem of suicides in military service? >> well, plainly, will, suicides especially in the army, are now at an all-time high based on the degree we can tell on their records. it's been very frustrating. the military and the army have put a lot of money against this problem, but nothing seems to be working. they are always eager to do more because they a trying to figure out what the key is. and what they are finding out is that every suicide is unique. the reason for every suicide is unique. the logic such as it is for every suicide is unique. so it's difficult for mental health professionals to figure out what is the proper screen to get the folks before they kill themselves. and the army especially is

having trouble hiring enough mental health professionals. there's a shortage of them nationwide. if the v.a. hires them, the army can't. if the civilian world hires them, they oftentimes come from the ranks of military mental health professionals. so it's a problem. and it's a problem not only in the military. >> hey, mark, this is

mental health for soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. the problem is that it's not enough. that -- and the other part of the problem in terms of talking about stigma is a general recently filed on his official blog that he was fed up with soldiers killing themselves, and they should just suck it up and go on to live their life. there are folks in the military who believe, number one, they are stunned that he remains in his current job down at ft. bliss. and that he never really apologized. he retracted the statement, but he didn't apologize for it. and i think that gets to the heart of the matter because it's that attitude that this is something that you can deal with, and you should be able to deal with, that misses the essential point about what suicidal tendencies are all about.

>> the article is really fascinating. thank you for being with us this morning. appreciate it. >> thank you. still ahead this morning on "starting point," the weekly jobless numbers just released. they stand out in a big way. we'll have those for you up next. plus, robert blake goes completely nutty on piers morgan in their exclusive cnn interview. he calls piers out for calling him a liar. piers says he's defensive. the whole thing goes to pretty much hell in a hand basket. we'll show you some of the fireworks coming up. plus, one of the greatest actresses of our time will join us to talk about her latest project. all that and more straight ahead this morning on "starting point."

just in to cnn, weekly jobless numbers. a four-year low for the number of jobless claims filed last week. 350,000 unemployment claims were filed. that's 26,000 fewer than expected. the lowest since 2008. stock futures are still down. dow futures are down about 75 points here.

again, a four-year low for jobless claims. these are people for the very first time lining up for jobless benefits, soledad. but it's important to note that week included the fourth of july holiday, so we'll see what the vacation week might have had to do with that. but the right direction indeed. robert blake has emerged from seclusion, and he is as weird as ever. did you see the cnn interview? he went off on piers morgan last night, calle him a liar concerning his wife's death, which blake was acquitted of murder back in 2005. here is kind of how it went down. >> tell me where i'm lying, because if you don't know i'm telling you the truth, then you must have a little scratch in the back of your head about where i'm lying. >> no. i'm not saying you're lying. >> but you're saying you don't know if i'm telling the truth. what the hell is the difference? >> i said i have met you for what, 20 minutes? >> i don't care about that. you put me on the stand. >> i didn't put out stand. why are being so defensive? >> because you just insulted me.

>> i didn't insult you. >> yes, you did. nobody tells me i'm a liar. >> i didn't call you a liar. >> you said i might not be telling the truth. what the hell is the difference? >> i said i'm going to ask you -- >> i don't want to take this anyplace special. all i want -- ok. let me say it this way. my skin is a little bit thin. >> wow. >> i felt like i was watching a scene from a movie. that was so crazy. >> i have to say, regarding that clip we just watched, i think robert blake has a point. what is the difference between saying you're not telling the truth and calling someone a liar? >> well, he didn't outright say you're not lling the truth. he was asking him questions. he's on a book tour. so he was asking him to justify things that had been written, things he had written in his own book. and what we knew in accounts in the press. so that, you know, i think is sort of reporting about the thing. >> he agreed to do the interview with piers morgan. what do you expect? that's what piers' job is all about. you should have expected that going into it. >> the thin skin thing.

>> will, you must have lent him your cowboy hat. >> yeah. that's my attire backstage. he got into it, obviously. >> we weren't even talking about the outfit, which was crazy. the whole hour was like that. just -- strange. >> what do you think? >> i was on during the bp oil spill. piers had me on. and i got grilled. you know, you expect it. >> what did you wear? >> it goes with the territory. i wasn't dressed like that. >> he took some clothes off. he didn't start out the interview that way. >> seriously? >> oh, yeah. did you take clothes off? >> at least he didn't start smoking. who did that? >> charlie sheen. yeah. >> crazy things happen on piers morgan, i tell you. >> yes, they do. ahead this morning on "starting point," she is a drunken floozy in the white house. but we're only talking about her new tv show, of course. take a look. >> tell the truth and you say -- >> tj started it. he said that you can't make margaritas with jack daniels. >> turns out you can, and it's

good. >> ellen burstyn will join us to talk about her new series, "political animals." how are you? welcome. great to have you. thank you for being with us. nd . nd . congratulations you are our one millionth customer. people don't like to miss out on money that should have been theirs. that's why at ally we have the raise your rate 2-year cd. you can get a one-time rate increase if our two-year rate goes up. if your bank makes you miss out, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

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welcome back. lebron james of the world champion miami heat, the big winner at last night's espys. he picked up three awards, including male athlete of the year. but the king missed this coronation. he was in las vegas with the u.s. olympic basketball team. actress kristin chenowith hit on the head. details about her condition not released. and incredible video of a petrifying video. a great white shark circling two spear fishermen off the coast of australia. they stood their ground, poked it when it got real close, and then made a dash for the boat when the shark swam away. wow. >> and it turn out to be an excellent strategy. they lived to tell the tale. the former first lady of the

united states decides to pursue her own political ambitions, but loses the party's nomination. she is given the job of secretary of state. we're not talking about hillary clinton. we're talking about the premise of a new tv show, called "political animals." >> don't waste your time. they never let me talk on the record anyway. i'm either too drunk or too honest. or god forbid both. >> we're off the record. tonight is just for color. >> oh, just for color. well, tell me, do you have a boyfriend? >> yes, i do. >> is that right? i always thought you were a lesbian. >> multiple award-winning actress ellen burstyn is with us this morning. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> your character drinks throughout the entire show. at least in the first show, he has a cocktail glass in her hand

the whole time. >> and i never seem to be drunk, which i didn't understand at all until i spoke to the creator, and he said it was based on somebody close to him. and she never seemed to be drunk. >> and also a foul mouth. >> she has a very foul mouth. i must admit. that gave me a bit of a problem at first. >> it did? why? >> i don't know. it just didn't feel very lady like, shall we say. but we negotiated, and i swapped certain foul words for other foul words, and we finally settled on a level of foulness that was acceptable to all. and now it's funny to me. >> what did you like about this role? you're surrounded by all these really strong women. what did you like about your particular role? >> well, she's the truth teller in the group, you know. it's politics. so everybody's negotiating with everybody. and making deals. and covering up how they really feel. and then i come in and go, bonk.

so that's always fun. >> i'm trying to decide as a potential viewer, the relationship of your story to real-life events or the connection to the clintons, the similarities, is that something that appeals to me or not? but is that something in taking the part you thought, that's a plus, or that's going to be more difficult? >> well, at first i was a little shy about it because i felt like we were exploiting somebody else's life. but very soon, i realized that it's just those immediate details that are similar to hillary's. and then after that, it's so different that you sort of forget about it. and hillary clinton does not have an ex-show girl as a mother. she doesn't have two boys. >> how realistic is it going to be? could a character you're playing actually survive in politics today? >> well, i'm not in politics, you know. my daughter is. and the family is. but i represent the home life, the family life. and i'm a pretty tough character. so i could survive anywhere i

had to. >> it's a little bit of a tough home life. let's play another clip. >> you're not going see bud for the first time in two years dressed like that, i hope. >> well, first of all, i'm divorced. secondly, i was involved in a diplomatic crisis all day. i didn't have time for a costume change. are you two really drinking already? >> tj started it. he said that you can't make margaritas with jack daniels. >> turns out you can. and it's good. >> i saw the attendee list. why is that [ bleep ] susanberg coming? >> because that [ bleep ] is covering me this week. please do me the favor of not talking to her. or if you must, try not saying things like the country didn't elect me because they didn't want to sleep with me. >> it's true. >> that's going to be a great show. >> yeah. i'm afraid i'm going to get bleeped a lot if you show more. >> we did have to go through this with a fine tooth comb this morning because your character, as i said, sometimes some rough language. you're going to do this for six

weeks. it's a six had-week -- >> six episodes, and then it could get picked up for more. we don't know yet. >> filmed in philadelphia? >> we filmed in philadelphia, although it's set in washington. so we're pretending. >> what do you like best about where you are in your career now? >> i'm having an awfully good time. >> it looks like it by that role. it really does. >> yeah. and i just signed on to do a play, a revival of "picnic" this winter. and sebastian, who plays my grandson in the show, is cast in the lead. so we're very excited about working again. and, you know, acting is fun. i was watching you earlier talking about abraham lincoln, how he was your favorite character. in history. he's my favorite historical character too, but i played mrs. lincoln once. and every time i see anybody talking about abraham lincoln, i think they are talking about my husband. >> they should really turn that book, stephen carter's book, into a movie. that's a great book as well.

>> is it? i'll have to read it. >> yeah. >> has hollywood over the years evolved in how it treats women and how women are given more prominent roles, less prominent roles? what have you seen over the years in hollywood's approach to feminism and women? >> well, when i made "alice doesn't live here anymore," it was the first film ever made from a woman's point of view. it was a new idea at the time. since then, there have been many. but i stilling hollywood has a long way to go to catch up to the realities of life as a woman. >> ellen burstyn. >> you, meryl streep, and others have paved the way. >> with a machete. this show looks great, with the cursing and all. so great to have you here. we appreciate it. >> it's my pleasure. thank you. >> "end point" is up next. we're back in just a moment. [ female announcer ] the coffee house.

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and our end point, i'm doyle it today. ken, i want to ask you from your book, "who gets what," what was the hardest compensation to manage? >> 9/11. >> why? >> 3,000 traumatic deaths. people offered money weeks after their loved one is incinerated. no bodies, no nothing. very, very emotional and difficult. >> the book is called "who gets what: fair compensation before tragedy and upheaval." ken, great to have you with us.