striped shirt, gray shorts, brown sandals, no glasses, no mustache or beard. they still haven't found that person. they can't confirm that that person was or still is on the campus. and secondly, they don't know what, in fact, that person was carrying. ey describe a long-barreled gun with a srt handle, which was described in the university's bulletin as a handgun. now, that gives you a different picture. that would be something different. but in any event, the witnesses said it was vered somehow by an article of clothing, a piece of cloth or something. so, they say they didn't get that good a look at it. and anyway, for all these asons, nobody seems to know exactly what's going on here, whether, in fact, there was a gun or not. that's the question. no confirmation there was.

in any event, certainly, thomas, no reports of shots fired. this initial report now is two hours old of these juveniles reported seeing this two hours ago at 9:09 this morning. so, at some point, we think we're going to hear from the university officials. they'll have a choice to make sure in the next hour or two if this person is not seen, if there is no indication that this person is still on campus, and there is no confirmation there ever was a gun, then at some point, the virginia tech folks will have to decide whether to lift this lockdown or not. now, these three young people were attending a camp, a summer camp at the university. i'm told the three were from the washington, d.c., area. and they said they saw this person near what's called the new residence hall east. now, the university has a facts and figures little publication here. and this i'm holding up so you can look at it briefly, this is a picture taken at night, a

black-and-white picture of what the new residence hall east looks like, and this is where the three young people said they thought they saw this person this morning with what they thought was a gun. so, that's really -- we're all just waiting to find out. everybody here, all the federal officials here are also waiting well while the campus police and the police from the surrounding areas see if they can find this person that was described as -- this is new residence hall east, the picture of it, where the young people say they thought they saw this person with a gun this morning. so, the question is, can they find him, can they figure out what he was actually carrying, was it, in fact, a gun? if it was, was it loaded? what was the person's intention? all those questions have yet to be answered, and federal officials here are waiting, as we are, as the university is, as parents and students are, to find out what actually happened. and at this point, nobody knows. >> let's just remind our viewers, almost three minutes

after the top of the hour. if you're joining us on msnbc, we are following breaking news, the virginia tech campus on lockdown after reports this morning, three summer campers saying they saw a man with what appeared to be a gun on campus. the university then issued an alert on its website at roughly 9:37 a.m., telling students and employees inside the campus to stay inside as well as to secure door doors. you will all remember in april of 2007, a gunman killed 32 people and wounded 25 others before turning the gun on himself on this campus. so obviously, this is a very heightened issue for any campus around the country, but especially for virginia tech, currently on lockdown, and we're looking at a web cam shot that's coming off the university's website. as we've been monitoring this shot, we have seen a few cars, as you're seeing on the bottom right there, drive by, police vehicles. we've seen some people on bike, some people on foot. but for the most part, this has been a very empty shot as we're watching and waiting to see if

we can get confirmation of whether or not this person of interest carrying a gun on campus actually exists. again, there is a summer camp currently going on on the campus itself, and these three summer campers are the ones that reported seeing someone on the caus. criminal profiler clint van zandt, an msnbc analyst as well, joins me now to talk about this. clint, obviously, this is something they want to take very seriously, given the fact that virginia tech the site of that deadly shooting from 2007. this is nothing that they want to play around with. >> no, it's not. i was on the campus on the day of that shooting, and then i was there the following week covering the story for msnbc, and i mean, there was no more tragic event that one could cover than something like that, obviously, other than 9/11. and i think what pete is suggesting, too, is what's going on right now. this is the proverbial abundance of caution. realize that, you know, what one

has to say is just the time you think a shooter would actually object a college campus, the answer is that there is probably not, there's not that many people on campus. then again, there are a lot of athletics going on, people carrying anywhere from maybe baseball bats to hockey sticks, inside of sweatshirts and things like that. what interests me as an investigator is that we have three witnesses. now, the first thing i would want to do is separate those three -- >> clint, i want to jump in quickly, because as promised, at 11:00 a.m., they're giving a simple press briefing now. let's listen in. >> at approximately 9:09 this morning, the police department received a call from dietrick dining hall. three juveniles that were here attending a camp this summer reported they saw a person with a handgun near dietrick hall, and the police were called. we responded. we did not find anyone in the area. the juveniles were interviewed. officers determined that their

information was credible, and so, at that point, we decided to issue the alert that mst of you have received. since that time, officers have been searching the campus. we have assistance from local law enforcement hping us do that. we have not had any further reported sightings. we have notad any reports of anyone suspicious, at least with this person's description or any more information regarding this person. the alert's still in effect, and officers are still continuing to patrol and look around the campus and search the campus. >> i think the context that i'd like to provide is that, you know, we're in a new era. obviously, this campus experienced something terrible -- >> so, we're hearing that officers are still on patrol, but they have had no further reported sightings of the man the three campers, juveniles, that are on the campus this summer, attending camp there, that they said they saw.

the descption was a white man, light brown hair, roughly 6 feet tall. officials say the person was wearing, according to reports, a blue and white striped shirt, gray shorts, brown sandals and clean-shaven, a very detailed report. clint, as you were listening to that, as authorities are saying this is somethg they feel to be a credible alert, the campus will remain on lockdown, but if they don't find anybody with this description, what do they do? >> well, there will come a time. right now, we're involved in much ado about something, we just don't know what that something is. again, you know, from our virginia tech experience in 2007 up to just last month, the shootings that took place in oslo, norway, i think this has caused, you know, the entire world to be on guard. and when you get a report of a man with a gun, you have to respond to it. but right now, as you and i were talking, the first thing i would have done is separate these three young people and see if their stories are consistent or not and whether they are or not

could mean a lot, too. so, first you have to try to validate the information. then you have to look for this person. and you would hope that if this is just an innocent guy walking around with a baseball bat tucked in a sweatshirt, that he would raise his hand and say, hey, that was me. >> you would think that parents that are going to be sending their kids to any summer camp around the country or one that has had a serious and saddening event, like what happened on virginia tech's campus in april of 2007, would probably advise their kids to be on the lookout for anything they considered to be suspicious, and maybe what you're saying could be accurate, that maybe the kids overreacted, thinking they saw something that maybe they didn't? >> well, you know, if we go back to, for example, to the d.c. sniper that was functioning in the washington, d.c., area, those two men driving around in that chevrolet killing people wantingly. the report was originally they were in a white van. well, they were reported to be in white vans all the way from

monday do maryland down into district the columbia, because everyone all of a sudden realized there were white vans on the road. so, if we start looking for white vans or volkswagens or somebody with something tucked inside a sweatshirt, we're going to find it. but i think if the bottom line is if we tell our children and tell those on campus to be aware, we have to expect that we may get positive reports and we may get false reports that are just out of error. >> well, you know, if you see something, say something, which is always a good rule of thumb. my colleague, peter alexander, was on the air live when this broke, roughly in the last hour. and peter, they did have a rough description of what they thought was some type of weapon under a cloth or a sweatshirt, correct? >> yeah, that's how it was described to us, is that this was covered by something. it was unclear exactly what was covering it. the police, as we heard in that news conference a moment ago, described it as a handgun. pete williams' contacts are saying that the reports they're getting is this may have been some form of long-barreled gun with a short handle. those two descriptions conflict

a little bit. but what's interesting about the news conference that we saw beginning about five, ten minutes ago, which is taking place at burruss hall, and having spent several days, even more than a week, i guess it was there, following that awful attack in 2007, to give you a sense of where burruss hall is, it's right next to the april 16 memorial. this was that place, that iconic image we saw of so many people coming there to the memorial of these 32 victims, the 33rd being the shooter himself, these 32 victims, laying flowers and mementos. and that is literally just paces away from where this news conference is taking place, right alongside -- and anybody who's floor with this story, you can see in the top right of your screen, it's called the drill field, that green area, now a little dried out becausef the hot summer, but that green area right in the center of campus, and where the student was, this individual, we should say, was seen is just on the opposite side of campus. so, here it's pretty close. right there in the middle is the drill field. right beneath where it say the

place for politics on your screen, that gray area, that's burruss hall where the news conference took place. that small white area, the arch area, the sort of top side of your screen over there on the left, that's where the memorial itself is. and now, on the opposite side of the drill field, just below it to the sort of right above the words "virginia tech" that you can see, the banner on our screen, that's where this dietrick hall is, and that's where this new residence hall east are, where this man was apparently spotted by these three juveniles a short time ago. so, to give you some perspective of this campus, it is a stung place. sadly, it was the first time i was there under those circumstances, but it is for anybody who has been to blacksburg and virginia tech, a beautiful place. still haunted, though, of course, by the memories of april 16th of 2007. >> peter, i'm going to ask you to stand by. we have joy sutton on the telephone right now, a spokesperson for a nearby hospital there of the campus,

which is lewis gates medical center. joy, you have been put on standby there in blacksburg out of an abundance of caution, correct? >> well, we actually are not commenting on that, but what i can tell you is that we are aware of the situation and that we are in communication with the police department. because we're allowing the police department to handle this, we're not making much comment at this time, but i can tell you that we are aware of the situation. >> are you the closest facility, hospital, medical facility to the campus? >> yes, we would be the closest facility near the campus. >> and when were you put on alert or when were you notified? i'm sorry, when were these avenues of communication opened up between police and your facility? >> well, what i can tell you is when the alert went out, or when they started telling people about what was going on, that we were made aware of the situation. i can't go into specific details about it, but i want to just let the public know that we are aware of it and that, you know, we're in communication with the police department.

>> all right. joy sutton with the lewis gale medical center, closest to the virginia tech campus, currently in communication with the police there in blacksburg. joy, thanks for your time. i appreciate it. >> okay, thank you. >> we're going to continue to follow this breaking news out of virginia tech. we're going to regroup in this quick break and come back with more information. ♪ there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder to help neutralize odors in multiple-cat homes. and our improved formula also helps eliminate dust. so it's easier than ever to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different.

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good morning, everybody, and welcome back to msnbc. i'm thomas roberts and we're following the breaking news that's coming to us out of virginia tech this morning. the campus is on lockdown after reports from three summer campers there on the virginia tech campus in blacksburg, that they saw a gunman on campus this morning. they gave a description -- a white man with light brown hair, 6 feet tall, wearing a blue and white striped shirt, gray shorts, brown sandals. he was described as

clean-shaven, according to the university's website. we're taking a look on the left-hand side of your screen there is from a web cam from the virginia tech campus, where we've seen some activity, people walking by, some people on bikes, other police vehicles that have been driving by. however, the campus remains on lockdown. virginia tech notified people this morning on their home page and through facebook, posting the following alert, saying "a person with a gun reported near dietrick. stay inside. lock doors. emergency personnel responding. call 911 for help." a short time ago, we heard from blacksburg police officials and campus officials, saying they consider this to be a credible alert. no further reported sightings, though, of the man that the three summer campers say that they saw this morning, roughly at 9:00 a.m. however, this alert still remains in effect while officers on patrol are looking for this alleged gunman on the campus. my colleague, peter alexander, is with me, as well as criminal profiler clint van zandt. and pete williams is also back

with us now. pete, i want to start with you. i know you're just off the phone with your sources. what are you hearing? >> well, the three young people who reported seeing this -- and the map you're looking at -- what they thought is sort of at the very bottom right of that map, that's where they were at a residence hall, these science summer campers, high school students from the washington, d.c., area who were at a residence hall when they said they thought they saw this man carrying what they thought was a gun. they're 14 years old, we're told, and they've also told authorities that when they saw the man carrying what they thought was a gun, they couldn't be sure, they said, because they thought it was partly covered by a piece of cloth or some clothing. they say it was what they thought was a long-barreled gun with a short handle. so, that's a fairly specific description. but in any event, what they emphasized to the police, we are told, is they said we saw him carrying it but we didn't see

him threatening anybody with it or pointing it. he just seemed to be carrying it, and that was the point they were making. but in any event, the police have emphasized they have yet to find either a weapon or this man that the young people described was wearing shorts and sandals and a striped shirt without any facial hair or glasses on his face. so, we'll have to wait and see if they can ever find him. if they don't, then the university has to make a decision on when to lift the lockdown. >> well, that's the question now, because at the top of the hour, when we had reports from the campus and blacksburg police officials saying they are still on alert there -- and you can see somebody walking across the campus right there through the web cam shot -- but pete, they were saying they do consider this to be a credible alert right now, and while police officials continue to look for this suspect, there haven't been other reported sightings. so, you have to think, how long can they keep the campus on lockdown, when do they get back to regular activity? >> yes, and what the university president said just a moment ago is we're in a new era.

because you could conceive that in a time before virginia tech's own sad history with a campus shooting, they might have responded to this very differently. they might have waited for confirmation that somebody else saw him, that he was still on campus before they issued the lockdown. as soon as the police got to the scene where the three juveniles reported seeing this man, heard it for themselves, the university taking no chances, immediately issued the lockdown. and as we said earlier, the university came under some criticism for not issuing lockdown much earlier in the 2007 shooting. officials say they followed procedures and did the right thing then, but there's no question we're seeing a much different response, based sko their own unfortunate history. >> to remind our viewers, we're looking at the left-hand side of the screen at a web cam shot from the virginia tech campus

website, and we are following reports that a gunman was reported near the campus hall this morning of dietrick, roughly at 9:00 a.m., by these three summer campers. pete, do you think since 2007, we are talking about a new campus hall, but since 2007, they would have installed more security cameras on site and maybe now campus security is combing over all of the tapes looking for any sign of the man they describe as a white man, 6 feet tall, wearing this blue and white striped shirt, gray shorts, brown sandals? i mean, it's very, very accurate of a description. >> well, and you can be sure that they are, in fact, looking through all of the possible surveillance cameras, partly to see if they can figure out whether they can see this person at all, and secondly, get an indication of which way he was headed. the young men told police which direction he was going, and they looked in those directions, but it would be interesting to see from the cameras, whether they can spot him and if so, whether he kept moving, whether he left campus. >> my colleague, peter

alexander, is also here joining our coverage. he was on the air live when this first broke. peter, as you listen to what pete is saying, the fact that they did witness, these three 14-year-old kids there for the summer science camp, that they did witness someone with what looked like to be a long-barrel, short-handled type of weapon walking across campus, that it was covered. and as pete said, they described the direction where he was heading, roughly toward the volleyball courts. >> and it's also important to note what happened in 2007, what made that tragedy so awful, aside from just the number of victims, was the fact that the shooter in that situation locked the door to some of these buildings so no one could escape. in this situation right now -- and again, no verification that this person was carrying a weapon -- the police officer who was speaking at that news conference, we listened to it and then went away, i continued to listen to it, and he said this sighting took place outside one of the buildings walking toward the volleyball courts, outside that residence hall near dietrick hall, the dining hall

on campus. he also said, to give you a sense of the challenge for authorities right now to try to pinpoint exactly what happened here -- obviously, they benefit by the specifics of the description, but they say they have questioned, to use his language, a few people, that all of them were cleared. "we have not found the suspect" is what wendell flinch, the police officer on campus said, "no one is in custody." he could not say specifically how many people, in fact, were stopped and questioned. as for blacksburg, virginia, this is a population of about 42,000 people who live in this city in montgomery county there. to give you a sense of where this is, it's about 80 miles or so from winston-salem, almost 90 miles from greensboro, carolina. and i was just looking through some of the crime rate facts, to give you a sense, if this person ends up to be carrying a weapon, blacksburg's crime levels are lower than virginia's levels and violent instances tend to be lower than virginia's average as

well. so, absent the fact that so many of us are familiar with the awful tragedy of april 16, 2007, this is an area that is very safe, certainly much safer than the rest of virginia. and finally, thomas, we should note, obviously, as we heard from the university relations head a short time ago, larry hinker, that we're in a new era, this is also now trending on twitter, with many people saying, everyone please be safe at virginia tech. >> peter, thanks. stand by for me. kelsey hider is managing editor of "the collegiate times," on the virginia tech campus right now. kelsey, what are you experiencing or seeing since you've been on lockdown now since roughly 9:30 a.m.? >> sure. i'm near the main entrance on campus, sort of south side where our gym is. there's a traffic circle, you know, cops, cop cars, ambulances, a couple rescue cars on our campus as well as vehicles kind of going around. people are laying low, not a lot of action on campus, no one

walking outside. we're a significant distance away from where dietrick is, but we are on that side of campus. our campus is split in half, academic to residential. we're on the residential side of campus. so, like i said, not a lot going on. constant, you know, alerts. we received the first one, i want to say around 9:45, somewhere around that time. we received three or four since then. the first one, you know, just told us to stay inside, stay safe, there is a potential gunman on campus and that was about it. the next few, you know, sort of the same lines, but as the third one came, we had the information you've been receiving, the striped shirt, brown shoes, no glasses details. so, like i said, we're just laying low here. we are on a lockdown, so the doors are locked. they're not allowing people in or out. this has been since about 9:30 this morning. >> kelsey, for you as a student and someone on campus currently,

what does this do to you personally and emotionally when you get an update or notification like that? kelsey, can you still hear me? >> are you still there? >> kelsey, can you hear me? kelsey heiter, managing editor of "the collegiate times outside. can y can you hear me? i'm sorry, we've lost communication with kelsey, but we'll try to get her back on the line. she's a student on campus right now under this lockdown. we continue to follow the breaking news on the virginia tech campus that a gunman was reported by three summer campers, who they believed to be a gunman. there are no other confirmed reports. authorities have been scouring the campus looking for a white man. they describe roughly 6 feet tall, wearing a blue and white striped shirt and sandals and gray shorts. he's described as clean-shaven. we're going to circle the wagons, get more information for you right here on msnbc. we're back after this. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables?

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welcome back, everybody, to our breaking news coverage here on msnbc. let's take you back to virginia tech. that campus is on lockdown after reports this morning from three 14-year-old summer campers that they thought they saw a man with a long-barrel, short-handed gun under some sort of cloth or sweatshirt. the description that they gave of the man is that he is a white man with light brown hair, roughly 6 feet tall, wearing a blue and white striped shirt, gray shorts, brown sandals, and described as being clean-shaven. right now there are not a lot of students on campus. however, they were alerted through facebook and the campus website to remain on lockdown. campus officials put out that notification this morning, saying that a person with a gun reported near dietrick. that's a reference to a dining hall. they said stay inside, secure doors. emergency personnel responding. call 911 for help. at the top of this hour, we had a brief press briefing from campus as well as police

officials, who said they did get this report from summer campers, three kids. they did decide to put out a credible alert based on their information. no further reported sightings have been happening since that time this morning. however, the alert remains in effect right now while officers are still on patrol looking for the man that they believe might be carrying a gun on campus. we're going to continue to follow this story, bring you more details as we get it, but there is other breaking news that we're following this morning, and this is coming from wall street. take a look at the boards. the dow has tumbled this morning. it's now down roughly over 200 points. if we can take a look at the markets, there we have it, red arrows across the board. almost approaching down by 300 points now. the dow jones down by 279, the s&p down by almost 34, and the nasdaq down by 77 1/2. stocks dropped so sharply as investors have grown more skittish, more concerned about the economic weakness that's happening in the u.s. as well as eupe. rick newman is the chief business correspondent for "u.s.

news & world report" and joins me in studio to talk about this. rick, what's your reaction, as we watch the breaking news, these markets volatilely reacting to what's taking place, obviously in light of the debt crisis and the fact that we've signed this new deal? >> there's been a lot of bad news piling up over the past few weeks. the economy is growing much more slowly than we thought. we know that practically nobody's hiring in the united states. this debt problem in europe is very serious. we're now talking about italy. italy is a huge economy, and if they start to go under and ruggle to pay their debts, that's a massive bailout, and europe has not martialed the resources for that. so, this is not really all about the u.s. debt crisis. it's not all about us. this has dominated the news for the last couple of weeks, but there are major problems in the global economy right now that have not been dealt with, and that's i think what the markets are reacting to. >> i think we do sometimes lose sight here in the states that it's not always about us, as much as the u.s. pys a dominant factor in the world markets itself. but to look at this and knowing

we closed out last week in what was the lowest weekly average in a year, i think we're about to beat it this week. >> oh, absolutely. and what we're now seeing is what looks like a so-called correction, which is a drop of 10% or more in the overall stock markets, which if it would close today where it is now, over the last month or so, we've seen about a 10%. this is basically traders saying we think that the global economy could be headed back toward recession and headed back that way fairly quickly. i mine, this was -- you know, even a month ago, economists were saying, eh, maybe a 20% chance of a second recession or a double dip, and now we're hearing 40%, 50%. and as this bad economic news just piles up, you know, that worry gets a lot stronger, i think. >> i would think, yeah, it's a signal for a lot of people, the indication that's happening right now as we're watching these markets and now the conversation in washington has shifted to where everybody is talking about jobs, jobs, jobs, and there aren't any bs to be had. >> it's important to point out, there's no conversation in washington this month because

congress is leaving for a month. so, they passed this debt deal. the debt deal doesn't -- it does help reduce that debt over the medium and long term. it does nothing for the economy right now, nothing whatsoever. in fact, because it's going to start to cut spending, it's actually going to take away from the economy a little bit over the next year or so, and there is no discussion about jobs and nothing's going to happen, obviously, until congress comes back in september, if then. >> you make a good point. they're on recess through the month of august right now, but anybody that can get a microphone and camera in front of them, politically elected, that is, is talking about jobs, at least they reference that word. as you say, they might not be doing anything physically to move that forward, but you did write something about how washington can create jobs right now, and you think that the global component is really the biggest, the biggest indicator for how we can do this. give us your top three. there's ten, but the top three. >> sure. i try to think of ways -- and it's not just washington, it's states and cities, and i think we almost need to think, like assume maybe washington's not going to do very much, but you

know, businesses are not based in washington. they're based in states and cities and communities. so you know, big companies have taken advantage of globalization. small companies have not really been able to take advantage of globalization, so one idea is to find ways that cities can help small businesses find business overseas. i mean, there is a lot of business that's in products services and things like that. it's just hard for small busisses to find that but you can help them. you can draw big businesses into town that know how to do that, set up outreach groups and things like that to help small businesses go where the action is. >> when we talk about where the country can go in terms of the great new landscape, is it hi high-tech? is it going to be back to manufacturing? >> we assume it's high-tech, but it's all kinds of businesses. i know a landscaping business based in las vegas that's now going to places like china and hong kong, and they know how to do landscape architecture, so they're going over there and doing things like that so, you know, we are good at high -tech but lots of businesses can find

business overseas if they ow where to look. >> and as we close out, let's look at the boards once again and see where we stand right now, because rick, as we're watching this go toward, you know, roughly edging near 300, we've still got that mental note that we're above 11,000 in terms of the average, so that's good, but when we look at that 266, you know, roughly down by 270 just moments ago, you think today's just going to be a red board day? >> i'm not sure. one thing to keep i mind here is the u.s. companies that form the s&p 500 and those stock indexes, they're in terrific shape. they are really healthy. they've done a great job staying healthy and even getting healthier throughout the recession, so they are going to be okay. that doesn't mean, that's not necessarily great news for americans, because those companies get a lot of business from overseas. but you know, traders know that those companies are in good shape, and i think we'll see some people coming in and saying, at some point, saying these stocks are underpriced, this could be a bargain. >> there's the silver lining. >> could be. >> rick newm of "u.s. news &

world report." thank you for joining us. appreciate it. haiti is in the crosshairs of tropical storm emily today. the storm is expected to hit haiti's southern tip later in the day. and then next, emily moves north along the east coast, but shouldn't be too bad for people living along the east coast. mainly rain in southern florida coming up this weekend. in other weather-related news, at least 15 southern states are under heat warnings and advisories today, as triple-digit temps stretch from arizona to florida. today will be the 34th straight day of 100-plus-degree temperatures in dallas. and little rock, arkansas, broke its all-time record on wednesday. get this, readings of 114 degrees. some relief is in the forecast coming up for this weekend, much-needed relief. well, the agency in charge of regulating millions of airline flights across the country is literally flying without a paycheck. thousands of employees of the faa temporarily laid off, all

because capitol hill couldn't resolve its squabbles over service cuts. and for the people in charge of keeping planes in the air, the cost is grounded in a very harsh reality. nbc's lisa myers has more on this story. lisa? >> reporter: hey, thomas. good morning. when you cut to the chase, the policy issues at the heart of this standoff are relatively small. this really seems to be about who is going to give in to whom, and tens of thousands of families are paying the price. the shutdown of 240 airport modernization projects already is affecting real people. luca tescana had to lay off 70 workers in brooklyn. >> looking them in the face is like telling them to their families, sorry, we can't feed you today. it's a hard feeling. >> reporter: so far, 70,000 construction workers have been laid off and 4,000 faa employees furloughed. many say the financial impact is immediate. >> september mortgage won't get paid. >> reporter: troy swanburg says

every expense is scrutinized, even a birthday party. >> 2-year-old daughter's birthday is coming up right now, and it's added a lot of stress. the question has come up to me from my wife is, do we need to cancel her 2-year-old birthday party? and it's embarrassing to me that this is the position congress has put me in. >> reporter: the president said all this is hurting a weak economy and urged congress to stop bickering. >> this is a lose-lose-lose situation that can be easily solved if congress gets back in to town and does its job. >> reporter: but for now, both parties seem more focused on the blame game. democrats accuse republicans of extortion. >> it's as if someone puts a gun to your head and says "give me your money." >> reporter: democrats want to temporarily fund the faa through next month, but republicans demand that any temporary funding also cut subsidies for flights to and from 13 rural airports, some in states of powerful democrats. the government has to subsidize

tickets to keep service running to many small cities. >> when you can't even pass one slight reform of cutting subsidies that are as high as $3,700 per ticket, we're in pretty sad shape. >> reporter: earlier this week, the administration pressed senate democrats to give in to the house. they refused. now the administration is imploring both sides to end the impasse. >> this is the thing that really makes the public mad, that congress can't do their job. >> reporter: the fact is that either house republicans or senate democrats could end this dispute right now and put people back to work, but so far, no one seems willing to give in. thomas, the administration emphasizes, this does not impact flight operations or airport safety, but tens of thousands of workers could be without paychecks for at least five weeks. thomas? >> lisa myers, thank you. we appreciate it. all right, we want to tell

you more about what we know going on on the virginia tech campus right now. the campus does remain on lockdown as an active search is going on for a gunman that was reported seen on campus by three summer campers this morning, roughly after 9:00. the campus alerted its students, its employees through facebook and through their website to stay guarded and to go behind closed doors. we're going to be back with much more on this after a quick break. man: be kind to your eyes with transitions lenses. transitions adapt to changing light so you see your whole day comfortably and conveniently while protecting your eyes from the sun. ask your eyecare professional which transitions lenses are right for you. woman: discover the protection, comfort and convenience of transitions lenses for the entire family at transitions.com/walmart or visit a walmart vision center today.

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morning, campus officials and police gave an update, saying that this alert was credible. they have had no further reported sightings. pete williams is our nbc justice correspondent who's been with us all morning long. pete when we talk about the witnesses, these three 14-year-old, science students, i believe, you reported they are? >> right. they were attending a science camp at the university. >> when they take into account how credible their description may be, is this something that, you know, and i hate to say it because i know they're working out of an abundance of caution, could end up being something they witnessed incorrectly, or possibly a prank? >> i don't know about the prank part, but it's certainly possible they thought they saw something that wasn't there, and that's the big question here. everything's the big question at this point. they haven't seen this person that was so vividly described, they haven't found any weapon. the young people did tell the police that they thought they

saw what they described as a long-barreled gun with a short handle, and there are such firearms, but they said it was partly covered by a cloth or clothing or something, so they didn't get a really good look at it, which, of course, raises some potential doubt about this, but they also say that they didn't think that the person who was carrying this was doing it in a threatening way, that he seemed to be just moving through the campus, wasn't aiming it at anybody, didn't seem to be angry. of course, it is against the rules at virginia tech. there is a prohibition on even carrying weapons on campus. >> former fbi profiler and analyst clint van zandt is also joining us this morning. clint, what we're seeing out of virginia tech, obviously, is an all hands on deck type of alert, after watching the terrible and saddening massacre that happened there in april of 2007. so, what they're doing is completely within their right to do and what they should be doing. however, as pete is saying, that

they have not had any other credible reports of this alleged gunman. >> yes, and an end to this is probably going to have to come pretty quick if they can't verify this information. as we're talking, these three young 14-year-olds, you know, they hopefully were interviewed separately, and it would be interesting if they all had the exact same description, because as most of us know, eyewitness identification usually varies from person to person. all that aside, it doesn't appear that they tried to embellish their story, that he pointed a gun at us or did anything like that. so, we have this ongoing abundance of caution. and realize, it was just two weeks ago in norway, where the father of one of the students who was under the gun when that gunman was on an island outside of oslo, he called 911, said my son or my daughter is on that island, they're being shot at. and the police said, well, we can't take your report. tell your child to call us and then we'll take the report.

well, we don't respond like that in america, and especially not on virginia tech campus, because we know what happened there these few short years ago. >> right. >> but i think the time's going to come, probably within an hour or so, even though it's a large campus, where not finding the individual, no other threatening action, there is going to have to be an all clear, but you'll see an enhanced law enforcement presence probably the rest of the day on that campus. >> and we are watching the web cam that's coming off the virginia tech campus. we were just a second ago. this is a larger shot of the map there. but there it is, the shot from the web cam of virginia tech's campus. we've been watching activity, minor activity, mainly of police vehicles, but some people still on foot, some people on bikes. my colleague, peter alexander, was live on the air this morning during his hour when this all broke. peter, i know you were on the campus in 2007, in april after the shooting that happened there. and it seems this morning that they have, with the alerts, anyway, been very proactive in

making sure that they were able to get the information out to students and employees about the lockdown. >> yeah, thomas, that's exactly right. a lot has changed in the four years since april 14 of 2007, when 32 people and the shooter in that situation took his own life and theirs. the alert system in particular, has changed, and i just printed this off the virginia tech website. in the past, the challenge had been communication on that awful day. now they have multiple means of communicating with the students and staff. a question, i guess, today would be can they communicate the same way to those who are there only for the summer, these summer campers? that could offer some confusion in a situation like this. but now it's through the home page, through e-mails, through electronic message boards that now sdmiexist in some of the classrooms on campus. there is even also sirens and loud speakers there as well. this is important to note that it's a challenge for us as we report this right now because there is an abundance of caution taking place, and the folks in virginia and at that campus are

trying to be careful as they report what's going on right now because there is no verification specifically about what has happened there in terms of the actual finding of actual findin. right now, being handed a note that virginia tech's football team is scheduled to begin their summer practice this evening. a spokesperson says there's a meeting scheduled this afternoon to determine whether that will continue as planned. but on twitter, where you get a general sense of what the world and even the country is saying about something like this, this is now being reported literally around the globe from bbc and elsewhere because the sensitivities with gun violence in the u.s. and certainly those sensitivities, no closer to home than they are at virginia tech. >> real quickly, i want to pass along to everybody a statement we have gotten from the virginia governor, who is saying this is of course a frightening reminder of the events that took place four years ago on the tech campus. virginia tech has correctly taken all precautions to ensure the safety of students, faculty, staff, and the blacksburg community while law enforcement, virginia tech officials and the

administration work diligently to ensure that this incident is investigated thoroughly. msnbc contributor melissa harris-perry is joining us for our coverage now, a professor of political science at tulane as well as columnist for the nation. i know we were going to talk about something else this morning but i know in your heart, you are a college professor through and through, so when you hear something like this, i'm sure it makes the hair on your arms just stand up, hoping that this is a false report, a false sighting. >> absolutely. look, we went through this not long ago at the last university where i was, princeton university, where there was a report that there was a gunman had been sighted. it turned out there was an all clear not long after but we got that sense, it was after the virginia tech experience, it was after the campus had set up this whole communications process so we were, you know, all sitting in our offices and got this alert across on our text messages. but the fact is we think of campuses, particularly in the

summer, parents send their kids off to college campuses for sports camps, for academic camps and i think it's a constant reminder for us that we need to think about the kinds of policies, both campus policies and government policies, that help to keep all of us, from faculty to students to summer campers, safe in these kind of spaces. >> melissa harris-perry, good to have you joining our kompcoveras we wait for more answers to come from virginia tech authorities. again, they continue with this alert on campus and the lockdown but there have not been other credible sightings of the person they believe to be a person of interest, that these three young campers reported seeing this morning. the other breaking news we're following happens to be coming from wall street and the markets around the world. london closing its markets today down 3.4%. that's a loss of $200 billion on just one day with the drop of more than 350 points. let's take a look at what the american markets are doing right now. we're seeing the dow jones is

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it's a really turbulent thursday as we watch world markets and take a peek at what's happening within our own country. quickly, london closed down 3.4%, losing $200 billion in just a day. take a look at our boards. it's pretty severe today with the drop of roughly around 350 points for us here in the states. the dow is effectively lost its gains for the entire year. this is stocks plunging to this broad selloff as people are concerned about the economic slowdown within the u.s. and other markets around europe. that's going to do it for me today. thank you for your time. we've had a lot of breaking news throughout this hour. don't go anywhere. coming up in the next hour, contessa brewer will take things over on msnbc. filling you in on the updates coming to us from virginia tech and much more in the world of financial news. stay with us.

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