right now, the clean-up is just beginning in parts of the south and midwest after devastating storms leveled buildings, snapped trees, flipped tractor trailers on their sides. more severe weather forecast for this afternoon. also right now, the search for missing malaysia airlines flight 370 entering a new stage. it involve, a huge expansion of the search area. that could take 6 to 8 months to complete. right now, outrage is intensifying over the racist comments alley made allegedly the own of the clippers. the question now, what should the nba do, what can the nba do? hello, i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. we begin with powerful tornadoes ripping through the central and southern united states. at least 16 people are dead and 100 or more have been treated at hospitals. residents were warned about these tornadoes, but they were still stunned by the intensity. listen to what one witness found off a highway in vilonia,

arkansas. >> what did you see as you guys were some of the first on the scene after the destruction hit. >> well, it was a crazy scene when we pulled up. we knew there would be damage. because we did see the tornado on the ground. we knew it would cross the freeway. but we weren't really prepared for the scene we were about to roll up to. this is some really, really bad damage. there are cars flipped everywhere. there were people screaming. it was a really tough scene. it was a good thing there were a lot of people around to help because it was a tough scene. >> this is what it looks like in mayflower, arkansas, national guard troops and snipper dogs are out. they're looking for anyone alive in the rubble. this incredible video was shot by a storm chaser as a massive funnel cloud began building in pleasanton, kansas. iowa, nebraska and missouri were hit but arkansas got the worst of it. we're getting a clearer picture of the devastation it the town vilonia, once again.

people still haven't been able to return to their own neighborhoods. how are they holding up? >> well, they're making piles. the ones that are back to the neighborhoods. piles of what to keep and what to throw away. and that sorting is going on here at mayflower rv. it was an rv park but people actually did live here. the pile back there is the throwaway pile. this is literally all that's left from the family that lived right here behind me. so, you know, i know it's only stuff, and many of these people did lose loved ones, friends and also lost pets in this. this is the sad part about this storm. but the people behind me, they don't even know the people that live here. but they're here to help. they're here to help because it's friends helping friends. neighboring helping neighbors. volunteers helping people they don't even know try to pick up the pieces. something i'm not a big fan of right now, though, wolf, is that my coat is off. it's warming up here. all morning, it was cold and that was great.

there's a chance for more weather coming in this afternoon right here in this devastated area. the people picking up, they don't need lightning. they don't need thunder. they don't need rain to try to help this cleanup. that's certainly a possibility now that i see blue sky and sunshine here. it's called convection. not a common event but it can happen when we have such a vigorous storm system like we have today. >> i take it this is still considered a search and rescue operation with power lines down, serious safety concerns all around the area. do officials think they can find more people alive? >> i think they do. we know there are people missing because the national guard has been flying their helicopters very low over that tree line. you can see how the trees are just twisted apart. the bark gone from the trees. just stripped from the tree itself. the national guard has been flying very low, just ten feet off the tree tops, with men looking down, searching for anything they can find.

this is the hardest hit of the initial area. it touched down about ten miles to our west. hit mayflower right back over here. came across the highway. and then continued probably another 30 miles, wolf. so if you think about a half mile wide tornado, maybe more in some spots, we don't know that it's more. we at least know it's at least a half mile because that's what we have here. a 30-mile swath of that. that's 15 square miles to search. that's a big area. that's about a third of the size of the mh-370 search with the bluefin-21. i know there's a lot people and there's not just one bluefin. think of the size of that search area and that people are injured or they're waiting to be rescued in collapsed buildings. because there are still many of them. >> chad, we'll stay in close touch with you. thank you. it's certainly a familiar nightmare for the residents of vilonia. that's just north of little rock. sunday's twister demolished some of the same homes that were just rebuild after a tornado hit the town three years ago.

almost to the day. vilon vilonia, mayflower, both in the hard-hit faulkner county area. the public information officer took these pictures. he's joining us on the phone from vilonia. david, thank you so much for joining us. our hearts go out to all your residents there. tell us about the rescue efforts. what's the -- david, hold on for a moment. i just want to go to los angeles. a very different story we're following. this is a news conference. the naacp l.a. chapter speaking about the l.a. clippers owner donald sterling. i want to hear what they have to say. they were going to offer him an award but they're now holding back. >> -- and economic equality, rights of persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. the revelation that mr. sterling may have made comments in a

phone conversation that was reminiscent of the ugly time in american history that contain elements of segregation and racial discrimination demands that the los angeles naacp intention to honor mr. sterling for lifetime body of work must be withdrawn and the donation he's given to los angeles naacp will be returned. there is a personal economic and social price that mr. sterling must pay for his attempt to turn back the clock on race relations. if these statements are not who mr. sterling is, then he should spend a sufficient amount of time that's necessary for the african-american community to prove that he is not the person those words portray him to be or suggest he may be. thank you. >> how much money did he give the naacp and what is the

standard for achieving a lifetime achievement award? >> first thing i want to say, we're going to -- [ inaudible ] the first thing, we're going to allow you to have one question. >> okay. how much money did donald sterling give to the naacp? >> it was not a significant amount of money. i'm not going to tell you the amount -- >> why not? >> because i just said it. it's an insignificant amount of money and we're going to return it. >> given mr. sterling's track record as a landlord, given the elgin baylor lawsuit why was the naacp honoring him? >> when the naacp found out about the lawsuits, the naacp called mr. sterling up and said if there is any of the allegations in that lawsuit that is true, you need to pay those people, you need to may amends. and that case was settled. >> sir, do you believe that it is the voice of donald sterling

on that audio recording? >> i don't know. i honestly don't know. >> -- rescind this honor if it's still up in the air? >> the reason we're doing it, because there is some things that happens that you have to take immediate action. now, this is one of these times that we can't wait a week or two. and especially given the fact that our freedom fund dinner is two weeks away. we have to make preparations. we're getting our souvenir journal together. we have to make decisions. it's a decision that we'd rather err on the side of caution than to do something with advance knowledge that it may be harmful to what we represent. we're going to allow everybody to ask a question. if you ask one question, you don't get a chance to ask a second one, all right. >> what was the criteria used to

nominate mr. sterling for this recognition -- >> this year? well, what we do, we look at the body of work that he's done. and what we specifically looked at, we looked at all of the sports franchises in l.a. the dodgers, the lakers. even the angels, the red wings and the ducks. and we look at how involved are all these organizations are in the community. mr. sterling organization has on a consistent basis brought in numerous minorities and inner city kids to games. almost every game, there is a section where there are young people there. he also has, over the years we looked at, contribute to a lot of minority charities, including the naacp. so we looked at comparing that with all of the other l.a.

franchises. his organization gave more money to the community, to the minority community, than the others. >> -- someone from your organization -- >> hold up -- >> so when he approached you -- when this money started to come in -- >> what money? >> the contributions to the naacp -- [ inaudible ] when does someone like mr. sterling's reputation suggest that -- when does that sort of become so disreputable that it sort of sullies -- >> we don't deal in rumors, guy. if you got specific facts, we willing to listen to them. but rumors about someone character is not something that we deal with. we deal with the actual character of the person as we see it. and that's displayed. if there's rumors and stuff, that's not a factor in our

decision. yes. hold on. >> -- not only talking about l.a. but nationwide, how would you explain how detrimental you see these comments -- >> on a scale of 1 to 10, 11. if you look at the content -- and the one thing you do have to consider is that it was a private conversation, but notwithstanding that fact, the words used were very jim crowish. it goes back to a segregation system and a time that nobody in america is proud of. and i think when you say things like that, you have to pay a price for those kinds of things. you have to demonstrate, if it's possible, that that's not who you are. so it was devastating. it's off the scale. yes. >> i have a question, back in 2009, mr. sterling was not -- [ inaudible ] >> no, he was not -- i believe

that was a humanitarian award and that was an award or a decision that i inherited. the prior president made that commitment and i just honored it. hold up. i gave you -- it has to be somebody that's not spoken. i got to look in the back. let me look in the back. yes, young lady? >> has anyone from the naacp reached out to mr. sterling? any plans to do so in the future? >> at some point in time, the los angeles branch will sit down with him and try to discuss and discern what really happened. because at this point, one of the -- made a good point, it had not been proven yet, and at some point when there have been some proof, i think that would be a legitimate time for the naacp to sit down mr. sterling and try to work out how and why he did what he did and what is he going to do in the future.

well, the -- but i'm going to ask that. because it's biblical. god teaches us to forgive. and the way i look at it, after a sustained period of just proof to the african-american community that those words don't really reflect his heart, i think there's room for forgiveness. i wouldn't be a christian if i said there wasn't. so -- in the back there. >> all right, so that's leon jenkins, the president the naacp los angeles chapter, offering his thoughts on what's going on. clearly, he's no longer going to get this lifetime achievement award in a couple weeks from the naacp l.a. chapter. let's bring in rachel nichols, she's the host of cnn's "unguarded," she covers sports for us. rachel, this is obviously a huge embarrassment for the naacp chapter in los angeles.

give us your immediate reaction to what you just heard leon jenkins say. >> yes, i find that press conference puzzling. i find the fact the award was going to be given in general puzzling. yesterday, this past weekend, this is not the first time we've heard that donald sterling might not have good feelings towards minorities. this man has one of the worst track records of any public figure in sports when dealing with minorities. he's had two u.s. department of justice lawsuits against him in relation to the apartment buildings that he owned and discrimination over the fact that he was shown not to want to rent to black people, not to want to rent to hispanics. instead of fighting those justice department lawsuits, he settled out both of them for record amounts, huge amounts, a record at the time. this is a guy who was also sued by one of the greatest players in nba history, elgin baylor, 11-time all-star, who then went and worked for sterling who eventually sued him personally

for racial discrimination. how they want to give a guy like that a lifetime achievement award before any of these recordings came out is beyond me and how you can sit up there today and justify it is also beyond me. i'm glad at least now he won't be getting that award. >> i want you to listen to what kevin johnson, now the mayor of sacramento, speaking as a representative. been asked by the players union to come in and help out with this issue. adam silver, the commissioner of the nba, asked him to get involved. listen to what he told chris cuomo earlier today on "new day." >> this is a defining moment for the league. when i think about commissioner silver, he's got to make sure the players are represented and that's taking place. he's got to do something very decisive and it goes as far as he possibly can take it. it's got to make a statement. ultimately for us as players, we want to make sure, is there something within his powers that allows him to say this owner is

not fit to be owner of a team. if that's not the case, then we need to have ongoing discussions because we as players, we have character clauses in our agreements. we've got to make sure there's two-way accountability. certainly owners need to be held to the same standard. >> as you know, rachel, the commissioner can only do what his boss, the owners, of the nba teams, allow him to do. what can the nba do right now to punish sterling? >> well, it's a little bit complicated because the constitution that governs those things inside the workings of the nba ownership agreements, those aren't public, those are private documents. we do know that it would probably be very hard for adam silver to force donald sterling out, to force him to sell. however, he does have fines available to hip, suspensions available to him, he could ostensibly suspend him indefinitely from day-to-day operations of the team, and the idea would be to make it so uncomfortable for him and to have sponsors not contribute,

which we've already started to see sponsors start to suspend their business dealings, that sterling finally decides, you know what, it's in my best interest to sell. that's basically what happened with former reds owner marge shot in baseball. basically, baseball said to her, we're going to keep indefinitely suspending you. it's in your best interest, it's in the team's best interest, for you to sell. that could happen with donald sterling. but this is not a guy who has a history of going quietly into the good night. he is a very litigious guy. part of the caution we've seen on the part of the nba so far has been by necessity, he could turn around and sue them. so it's a very delicate balance. you also have the internal politics that are so interesting. because we've seen a few owners come out and express some outrage. however, how much power, as you say, are they going to give adam silver, because in this moment, there's a lot of justification with this owner. but if they turn around and give adam silver the power to basically cast any one of them out of the league, there's a

spirit of cronyism among ownership of any sports teams in this country and there's going to be some of these older owners who say, wait, my views may not be popular too, am i going to be next, so there's a lot to balance here. >> very quickly, rachel, because we're out of time, but you're in char lt right now, the bobcats are playing tonight in the nba playoffs. the owner of the bobcats, michael jordan, issued a statement, but has he said anything else since then? >> no, he was very strong in the statement talking about being disgusted both as an owner and former player. that's where it is going to get interesting. you have younger voters like michael jordan who may make this push and say, hey, we've got to change some of the constitution and the charter so we can force guys out if they have views like this. we did see with roger goodell and the nfl him use the opportunity when there were a lot of player arrests and bad behavior, he basically did a power grab. he widened his responsibilities. he created a situation where he was both judge and jury and the

appeals court for player punishment. he had the power to do that because of this wave of public opinion. there might be enough of a wave of a public opinion right now for adam silver to grab similar power within the nba and owner powers structure. you can bet sterling will not be happy at the end of it. >> a huge challenge for the commissioner, silver who took over from the previous commissioner stern. now this huge issue on the top of his agendagenda. there's other developing news we're following right now, including a united states congressman, michael grimm, he has just spoken to reporters, defending himself after surrendering to the fbi earlier today. he's just been indicted. we'll tell you what he had to say. ♪ ♪

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a two-term new york city congressman is facing a slew of federal charges today. republican michael grimm surrendered to the fbi this morning. now facing a 20-count indictment related to his ownership of a manhattan restaurant. >> we're here to announce the unsealing of a 20-count indictment against michael grimm. charging him with impeding irs functions, conspiracy to defraud the united states, causing false tax returns to be filed, mail fraud, wire fraud, health care fraud, perjury, obstruction of an official proceeding and the hiring of undocumented workers. these charges stem from michael grimm's role in managing a restaurant that he owned and operated from 2007 to 2010. >> only moments ago, the

congressman defended himself. >> i've gone to know and love most of my constituents. i didn't abandon them. they're not going to abandon me. when things got tough, what did i do? i went to work. i got to work. the proof is there. that's irrefusible. when super storm sandy hit, relentlessly, i gave it my heart and soul to secure $60 billion to help people rebuild their lives. then we find out that flood insurance rates are pushing hard-working families out their home. when all the political experts said it would never get done, my bill was signed by the president to help them, to relieve them. >> let's bring in our chief congressional correspondent dana bash. she's been following this story for us. i take it this congressman is going to still run for re-election despite this indictment, is that right? >> that's what he said, he's going to get back to work.

he also said he's got an election to go forward with. of course, he has already been in a very tough re-election campaign because of just the fact where his district is. the only republican from new york city. already one democrats were hoping to turn over. let me just go back to the defiance in his press conference. it was really remarkable. this was somebody who was charged with a lot more than even those who thought he would be in trouble thought he would be charged with. he says it's a political witch-hunt, a vendetta. the fact of the matter is, he still has to deal with the politics in washington. it's not worthy we heard nothing yet, nothing, from house republican leaders, the leaders in his own party. we knew this was going to happen as of friday. they've had three days to react. we don't know if there's going to be any ramifications for him.

according to our reporting, our deirdra walsh, our congressional producer, was pointing out there is precedent for somebody facing charges like this to be removed from his committee assignments and this particular congressman sits on the financial services committee. so it will be very interesting to see what his fellow republican -- or his own republican leaders say about the way they're going to deal with him, given the fact these are serious charges. nothing to do with his current job in congress. but certainly a lot to do with allegations breaking the law in more ways than one. >> but you know this and i know this, the house speaker john boehner, eehe's got very little tolerance for fellow republicans who get involved in these alleged activities. he's made sure others, other republicans who have gotten in trouble, whether for extramarital affairs or what else, he gets rid of them pretty quickly. i suspect he's going to be

pretty firm when all is said and done with congressman grimm. maybe i'm wrong. >> in terms of the way john boehner tends to personally like to deal with these issues, no question, you're absolutely right, he's got no tolerance. but he might be limited in what he can do, if michael grimm is determined to not only stay in his seat but run for re-election as he just said he was. i mentioned the committee assignment. those are tools the republican leadership, they have at their disposal. there's another interesting wrinkle going on. which is grim, according to new york law, which apparently is very complicated and pretty strict, his name will be on the ballot. so even if republican leaders want to try to get rid of him and run somebody else for his seat, which as i said, is going to be already a tough race in that district, according to new york law, the only way they can get him off of the ballot at this point is by running him as a judge for the court in

new york or if he moves out of the district or if he passes away. those are the only rules. still, given how strict that is, or even though it's so strict, i should say, my understanding is that there are activity discussions going on, still in the republican party, to try to get him off the ballot. so this is something that republicans on a political level in particular are not taking lightly, despite the fact that publicly at least in new york state they are defending him and his party, saying they have to let the justice system go forward. this is certainly not an easy thing for republican leaders both in terms of just basic, you know, the way they reprimand him or in terms of just the raw politics. >> all right, dana, thanks very much. still to come, we're going to go back to our top story. the tornadoes ripping through the central and southern parts of the united states. one arkansas town has now been hit twice in three years. we'll have a live report. that's coming up. the conversation about her mortgage didn't start here.

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i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. got back to our top story. powerful tornadoes blasted through several central and southern states, leaving towns completely flattened. search and rescue teams are hoping to find people alive in the rubble in arkansas just north of little rock. at least 16 people were killed. most of those in arkansas. which was hardest hit sunday night. there's also a jumbled mass of uprooted trees and what's left of homes along the twister's path. the national guard troops have been deployed. people knew that the storms were heading their way, but were still taken by surprise as how strong they wound up being. missouri, iowa, kansas,

nebraska,ed ed aall reported t touchdowns. residents of vilonia, arkansas, feeling a sense of deja vu. for the second time in three years, a tornado has flattened sections of their town. george howell has made his way there. search and rescue efforts are still under way there. what is the latest, what are you seeing? >> wolf, let me set the scene. so a gentleman just a minute ago told me exactly what you said, three years ago, and he said three days ago, they went through this. here they are dealing with it again. we're getting closer access. obviously trying to respect people. they lost property, they lost homes and things that they had for many, many years. but we're starting to get a little closer into these communities. you look at what this tornado did. it went right through. tore through homes. snapped trees in half as if they were twigs. if we could pan over. you can see people are now going through these homes. they're trying to find out what's left over. you see the blue tarp there on

top of the home. if you look at it, it looks like the tornado basically came over the road and basically went through this community. so we're getting a little closer access now. power lines down. people are without power. here in faulkner county, it was especially hard hit. we know at least ten people died here. this all happened, wolf, overnight. so the sirens were going off. a lot of people, most people, went to those storm shelters. when they came back out, this is what they were left with. ten dead in faulkner county. in arkansas, at least 14 people dead. and overall, the storm, within three states, including arkansas, one in iowa, one in oklahoma. a total of 16 people were killed by this very powerful storm system. >> george howell with a devastating report there. we're going to stay on top of this story and have more coming up. to our viewers who want to help, there's something you can do. if you want to help the victims.

go to cnn.com/impact. you can impact your world. still ahead, some big changes in the hunt for flight 370. why they are now facing a massive new search zone. hey kevin...still eating chalk for hearburn? yea. try alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heart burn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. alka-seltzer fruit chews. enjoy the relief! ♪ ♪

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but that would require wifi. switch to comcast business internet and get two wifi networks included. comcast business built for business. so after 52 days, searchers looking for flight 370 say it's time to regroup. the search area will be expanded once again. it will be massive. 350 times the search that was just completed. it covered an area roughly the size the state of indiana. the aerial part of the investigation for all practical purposes is now being called off. private contractors are being brought in to help. officials say new technology also will be deployed but it could still take months to

complete. australia's prime minister was emphatic they were not giving up on finding the plane. >> i want the families to know, i want the world to know, that australia will not shirk its responsibilities in this area. we will do everything we humanly can, everything we reasonably can, to solve this mystery. we will not let people down. >> let's bring in our panel of experts. peter goelz is a former ntsb managing director. our law enforcement analyst tom fuentes is here, former assistant director of the fbi. i guess it looks to me like they're almost starting from scratch. >> they certainly have expanded it far beyond what i had imagined. i thought they would start the search around the four pings and check each one of the remaining three pings as carefully as they checked the first one. but apparently they are.

they're going back to scratch. and a size the state of indiana awfully big. >> what does that say to you, that it's not just another ten square miles or whatever that they're going to search but they're going to search an area the size of the state of indiana, which is a pretty big state? >> well, it still says they have confidence in the marsat data. if they were starting from scratch -- >> they don't have confidence in the pings they may have heard? >> well, less confidence because it wasn't exactly the frequency they were looking for. certainly, they're still looking in that part of the indian ocean. they're not looking in the himalayas or vietnam or china. they still appear to have a great deal of confidence in the mrsat data that put that plane on that arc west of australia. >> when i heard they were going to look at the bottom of the indian ocean in an area the size of indiana, my immediate reaction was they no longer have

confidence in the pings, the pings that were detected, four sets of pings. because each one of those pings that a distribution area maybe two miles or three miles. it says to me maybe they're reassessinging what they heard. >> i agree with you, wolf. i think this means that for whatever reason, the pings are not the top priority, but they're going to go back in. i assume they're going to be bringing in an array of equipment that will expand the bottom search dramatically. >> when they say they're going to bring in private contractors to undertake this underwater search, i guess navy personnel, military personnel, they're not going to be used. what does that say to you? >> think they are going to be used but i think private companies own the equipment and are under contract to the navy and to the australia authorities. i don't think that's anything we wouldn't have expected to see private companies supplying equipment. who are under contract to the

u.s. military. >> are they just right now hoping they have a hail mary and they're going to find something, is that what they're about to do? >> no, i think they still -- as tom mentioned, they trust the mrsat data. they just got the look over the entire arc and they're starting. >> is there anything else they need down here if they're going in this whole area? the underwater search, that goes very, very slowly. think about somebody walking along all of the state of indiana, how long that could take. >> when they finally found air force 447, they had three rima 6,000s plus a towed array, so they need to bring in some more equipment quickly. >> the air france search which went on for two years, after five days, they did find wreckage. so they at least now where approximately the plane had gone into the atlanta ocean. this was a two-year span, but

the actual search time was only, what, 14 or 15 weeks during the course of those two years. >> right. and here you have everybody in a big hurry to get up. almost the third day the bluefin was in the water, people were complaining, it didn't find it, let's quick. so i think the lack of patience is astounding when experts from the very beginning said this could take months, this could take years. everybody wanted an answer the first week of the search. >> a lot of people are saying maybe they'll never find it too. that's obviously a possibility out there. but it's going to take a long, long time. guys, thanks very much for joining us. up next, more fallout from the racist comments attributed to an owner of an nba team, the los angeles clipperses. we're going to hear what president obama has to say about this scandal. the choice is yo. chalky. not chalky. temporary. 24 hour. lots of tablets. one pill. you decide. prevacid. ♪ 24 hour

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nba players certainly understandably angry about racist comments attributed to the owner of the clippers donald sterling. now the team's business partners they're jumping ship. state farm, car max, they've all announced they're cutting ties with the clipper. let's bring in our guest, associate professor at columbia university in new york. i guess this is what's supposed to happen. you hit him first in the bank account, right? >> i'm sorry, i couldn't hear you. >> yes, this is apparently what happens, first reaction is sponsors, advertisers, they go

after the team directly and they sever ties because they're so angry at these alleged comments. >> well, they're angry and they're also very practical. they know if they stand next to the clippers, they look complicit as well. you'll begin to see sponsors run. some of the most apolitical athletes in american history. michael jordan, you know, runs from this. barack obama, who i'm sure -- i'll be speaking about this on asian tour, talks about this. it's not surprising the sponsors run. this guy is not just pr, he's bad for business. if he's bad for business, this may be a sign of the beginning of the end for donald sterling. >> i want to play what the president had to say. you point out he was in asia when he said these remarks. he was asked and this is what he said. >> when ignorance folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk. that's what happened here. obviously, the nba's a league

that is believe by fans all across the country. it's got an awful lot of african-american players. it's steeped in african-american culture. i suspect the nba is going to be deeply concerned in resolving this. >> what should the nba really do about this incident do you believe, mark? >> i think they have to give an indefinite suspension to sterling, go through the due process and push him out of the league. this is bad for business. i'm not of the mind-set people should be fired for what they believe privately. there's a connection between his private beliefs and his public practices. we've seen that through the elgin baylor lawsuit and we've seen it again today. the league can't >> which raises the question that we hadn't earlier, a very awkward moment for the naacp,

which we all know does really important work. they were about to give him a lifetime achievement award, the la chapter of the naacp. they gave him a major award a few years ago. how do you explain them? >> there is no reasonable explanation. this was not some obscure case. the department of justice went after sterling for housing discrimination in the very city where he's getting an naacp award. if we believe that the ncaap is operating with good intentions, means they were completely unaware and did no research. sometimes big money talks and poor people walk. he is going to great lengths to show how much money he donates to people of color. he goes to extravagant ways to do superofficificial gestures.

>> when these allegations are made, when baylor makes these charges of discrimination, that should be a warning sign to the naacp. >> it absolutely should have been a warning sign. there hasn't been a case this bla blatant. i think somebody fell asleep at the wheel and i think they are deeply embarrassed by the choices they made to offer the award in the first place. >> we heard earlier this morn that they were going to return the money that he had given the chapter and said that it wuds not a significant amount of money although he would not say how much he had given over the

years. we will stay on top of this story. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> up next, the u.s. level 2 sanctions against russia, russia is firing back calling them meaningless. we will get more of the larger picture of president obama's power in the region. stay with us. n from tracfone? check the weather. borrow ted's wheelbarrow. post big tomato pics. buy a birdhouse for sparrows. download gardening apps. answer my wife's texts. search how to sculpt hedges into a t-rex. i can do all that with my android from tracfone for as low as $7 a month. [ male announcer ] unbeatable nationwide coverage, no contract. for a limited time, save $50 on the zte valet. now just 49.99. tracfone. do everything for less. humans. we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back,

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>> president obama propositioned new sanctions on russia over continued meddling he claims they are under taking in the ukraine. it targeted more individuals and more businesses. among those targeted with travel bans are two members of putin's inner circle, one is the deputy prime minister and the other is president and chairman of the country's largest petroleum company but no sanctions directly on putin himself.

gloria, how significant are these latest sanctions? >> i think you just have to say this is another tightening of the noose. it's not as tight as it could be or will potentially be in the future. i think you see the struggle about how far they can move ahead of the european allies. i think it's clear that you have seen the president making a decision that it's better to show unity than for the united states to move unilaterally because in the end it has been argued to him that that could hurt american businesses. he's kind of caught in a tough place. the question moving forward is how strongly he argues for tougher sanctions. >> for the sanctions to really be successful, you need the

europeans on board. >> right. exactly. so what he is doing behind the scenes is trying to get the europeans on board as much as he can. there may come a point where the president will just have to say that we're going to do something with or without you. and that may make him look stronger but in the end if that hurts american business, that could be a bit of a problem. i think he is hearing both sides of the argument and i think that at some point, if this situation doesn't get better, even the europeans may be prompted to move in ways that they have not done yet. you're dealing with a bully here. when you go into a schoolyard and you're confronting a bully who has got a bat, you have got have something that you can fight back with. >> the president is facing criticism for his foreign policy strategy, implementation. he answered some of his critics.

let me play a little clip. >> in the asia pacific region, just to take one example, we are much better positioned to work with the peoples here on a whole range of issues of much ral issues. that may not always be sexy. that may not always attract a lot of attention. every once in a while we may be able to hit a home run but we steadily advance the interest of the american people. >> this is a very clear expression of his world view.

he would argue that we have established stronger alliances. there are a lot of people in this country, particularly on the republican side of the aisle who argued that he has weakened alliances and not strengthened alliances because he has not led out front. this is an argument that we will have to see played out in the results. >> he has got so many issues right now. looks like the peace process is on the verge of collapse. he's coming back to the united states with a lot of headaches. >> he has got a lot of headaches foreign policy wise. he also has a lot of headaches domestically. what's going to happen on immigration reform is a big example of something he wants to get done before his presidency ends. he has got to work both ends.

second term presidents like to have an impact and so far not so much. >> he has got a big agenda ahead of him. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i will be back 5:00 p.m. with another special two-hour edition of the situation room. newsroom starts right now with pamela brown. >> it may be beautiful from space but this weather system has produced ugly and deadly scenes in the plains and south. >> we're in it right now. all right. we're pulling over. an apparent funnel cloud, all but two victims were