the unemployment rate is above 9%. we just got some new numbers out today showing the approval rating of the president's handling of the economy is at an all-time low at 26%. the white house is saying, look, the president is always working. even when he's on vacation. as you mentioned, he's going to be releasing a new jobs plan. that's going to come out after labor day. also some investments for construction projects. there will be a deficit reduction element to this package. again, we're not going to hear about this until after labor day when the president gets back from this vacation. white house officials say this is one of the things he's working on while he's on vacation. he will also be paying close attention to the economy. which you just mentioned, tamron. >> it's interesting. there's talk of a new round of stimulus. because by all accounts the white house still having a difficult time convincing people

that the first stimulus worked. the president often pointing out new jobs at factories at other places that were, in fact, helped by the stimulus. you can also look at, for example, jobs in the teaching industry that were saved as a result of the first stimulus. but even still there's a great divide over whether, at least opinions, over whether the first round of stimulus worked. >> reporter: that's right, tamron. there's a great public divide. also when you think about getting another stimulus passed, you have to imagine it's going to be quite a tough battle. i mean, think about the battle that we just witnessed that went on over increasing the debt ceiling. and there are a lot of people saying, look, we're not going to support anything that adding to spending one penny. it's hard to imagine any new stimulus plan would get through. as you know, the president has been calling for a balanced approach to deficit reduction all along. so he is going to be trying to make that case again when he introduces this new stimulus plan, tamron. >> as you've pointed out,

kristen, earlier today for the folks who say this president is taking too much vacation time, when you look at over the years, he's actually taken less vacation time at this point in his presidency than all of the others. >> reporter: that's right. i have to give credit to sort of the unofficial white house his tor yan, mark knoller. even the white house says ask mark knoller. he's the one who knows. he has tallied all this. cou according to his reporting president obama has taken 61 vacation days at this point. at this point in bush's presidency, he had taken 180 vacation days. more than twice that. president reagan had taken about 112. when you think about it, president obama really has taken far fewer than his predecessors, tamron. >> thank you very much. while president obama is waiting until after labor day to announce his plan for job growth, the congressional black caucus said it is tired of waiting for action. listen to california democratic congresswoman maxine waters confront the issue facing

african-american members of congress when it comes to calling out this president. >> we're supportive of the president, but we get tired, y'all. when you let us know it is time to let go, we'll let go. >> congresswoman maxine waters and members of the congressional black caucus, joins us live from atlanta where there's a very important jobs fair happening sponsored by the cbc. congresswoman, let me get your response on the reaction from that crowd yelling at you, let go, let go. >> the clip that you played is from detroit. >> right. >> and it was a very lively crowd. a lot of anger in that crowd. and people basically saying to the black caucus, what are you doing? why aren't you urging the president? why aren't you encouraging, pushing the president to do more? i basically laid out the politics of all of that.

i basically said that, yes, increasingly we were hearing this kind of thing. but we all support the president. and they support the president. what would they have us do? would they have us create this conversation? would they have us confront? what would they have us to do if they wanted to unleash that kind of energy, let me know. and they did. they most certainly did. that's what we're hearing all over the country. as you know, we were in cleveland and detroit. and here in atlanta, thousands of people in line in each of these cities. today we have people in the hot sun still at this hour trying to get into this jobs fair. the congressional black caucus decided to get out of washington, d.c. to hit the ground. to come into our districts and, first of all, to let people know we feel their pain. we understand the suffering. this unemployment of 16% nationally translating into 35%

and 40% in some neighborhoods who have had long-time unemployment, and right here in atlanta where it is 10.2% unemployment. we wanted them to know we understood that. >> right. >> we weren't going to sit in washington and keep talking about it. we were going to create these job fairs and try and get all of those companies who are always in washington lobbying, trying to get advantage, to come into these cities and give out the jobs that they have available, whether they're in expansion or they have turnover. but we wanted the connection. and that's what we're doing. >> listen, we're looking at this line of people standing, as you pointed out, in the hot sun looking for a job. this problem is not -- you don't get that many people in line with a problem that was created a year ago or two years ago. we know that this has been a systemic problem with the high unemployment rate in the african-american community. with that said, congressman allen west of florida was on fox news earlier this week. and he says that the democrats and he included you in this, have been taking the black

voters for granted, even referring to you and other leaders as plantation bosses. let me play what he had to say. i really want you to react to this. let's play it, please. >> you have this 21st century plantation that has been out there where the democrat party has forever taken the black vote for granted. and you have established certain black leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation and now the people on that plantation are upset because they've been disregarded, disrespected, and their concerns are not cared about. so i'm here as the modern day harriet tubman to lead people on the underground railroad away from that plantation. >> your thoughts, congresswoman waters, on that comment? >> hello? >> are you able to hear us? >> i heard i think most of what he said. it's a little bit outrageous. a little bit, you know, ridiculous. and that's hard to respond to.

because it absolutely does not make good sense. the fact of the matter is, we're here. and we're connecting people with jobs. we're using whatever influence and power that we have not only to connect people, but to inspire and to motivate them. as a matter of fact, mr. west's brother is here. he found himself out of a job. and he asked his brother to help him, and his brother told him to come to me. to come to us. >> wow. >> we're here in atlanta where his brother lives. and he came up, he introduced himself, and i want his brother to get a job. and i hope that his brother gets a job here today. and that mr. west will understand that the reason he sent him to me is because he knows that i am serious and the black caucus is serious about connecting people to jobs. >> that's incredible. congressman west who referred to you as the plantation boss sent his own brother to this jobs fair seeking help from you and the other members of the congressional black caucus who are trying to get folks their

jobs. that's incredible. >> i'd like for you to repeat that. i'm having a little trouble with my earphone here, my -- would you please repeat that. >> yeah. i was saying that's incredible that congressman west would refer to you as a plantation boss but send his brother to that -- to that jobs fair seeking your assistance. what does this say? it seems that people these days will say anything for a sound clip and obviously their actions don't match it. >> well, absolutely. that's why i said that, you know, those statements are rather ridiculous and they don't make good sense. but i guarantee him this. we're going to do everything we can to help his brother get a job. >> wow. congresswoman maxine waters, thank you very much. we greatly appreciate it. we know there are a lot of people down there talking, probably putting on their best sales pitch in hopes of getting a job. thank you. by the way, i'll be anchoring news nation live from the cbc jobs fair in miami on august 22nd and 23rd right here on

msnbc. breaking news on today's stock market turmoil. right now the dow is down over 400 points. 435. it is down nearly 500 points, in fact, earlier this morn ing. i'm joined now by melissa francis, co-anchor of cnbc's "the call." >> what else is fueling what we're seeing today? >> at one point the dow was down 528 points. it all started in europe. all these wor ris about the liquidity of european banks. we saw the european indices sell off big time. this really has been the cue for our markets to sell off as well. then we piled on with a whole bunch of weak u.s. economic data like you mentioned. we had jobless claims, we had a manufacturing index out of philadelphia that we expected to be slightly positive and it came in severely negative. just a lot of bad news. there was a note out from morgan stanley saying we're taking basically one step closer to another recession here. that made things a lot worse. we saw the flight from stocks into treasuries. a lot of buying up in treasuries. also gold screaming higher

today, hitting a new record of 1,829. up about 30 bucks right now as people put on the safety trade. really another very tumultuous day in the markets here. we still have time before the close. we're looking at the dow right now. down about 3.7%. nasdaq down almost 5% on the day. oil falling as well. about 6%. back to you. >> melissa, thank you. with the uprising in government crackdown in syria, now claiming almost 2,000 lives including at least 18 people just yesterday, president obama has issued a long-awaited call for syrian president bashar assad to step down. president obama said assad has been imprisoning, slaughtering and torturing his own people. secretary of state hillary clinton has this to say earlier. >> the people of syria deserve a government that respects their dignity, protects their rights and lives up to their aspirations. assad is standing in their way.

for the sake of the syrian people, the time has come for him to step aside and leave this transition to the syrians themselves. >> nbc's mike va caviqeira. >> bashar assad has refused to step down. the brutal crackdown with just 18 dead yesterday has continued a pace. whereas the obama administration had been very careful not to exert undue influence or being seen as trying to pull the strings in syria, today the dam just broke and they came forward explicitly asking that president bashar assad step down after he and his father have ruled syria for some 41 years, tamron. over the course of the last

several weeks and months, we've heard the administration use phrases like syria would be better off without assad. or he should reform or get out of the way. well, after the continuing crackdown, the killing of many civilians on the streets, the firing, the shelling at sea from certain protest areas in eastern syria, the dam just broke. the administration called for that. you're absolutely right, tamron. they were back in a coordinated effort, obviously, by their international allies with the united states and canada, great britain, france and germany as well as the united nations calling for an investigation into the atrocities, the alleged atrocities that have happened in syria, tamron. >> mi >>. a major scandal brewing surrounding the university of miami's football program. among the allegations, players reportedly earned cash bounties for injurying certain opponents. who was on the hit list. today's news nation gut

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welcome back, everyone, to news nation. the university of miami football team in a shocking allegation -- i mean, in a shocking situation, a scandal, anyway, after allegations that a booster for the team showered players with cash, cars, prostitutes and other gifts over the past decade. today the head of the ncaa said if the allegations are true, a, quote, fundamental change in athletics may be needed. not just in miami, but nationwide. charles robinson is an investigative reporter for yahoo! sports. he's the reporter who broke the story. he joins us now on the phone. charles, thank you for your

time. >> thanks for having me. >> let me be honest here. a lot of people are saying they're not really surprised by this. we've heard this kind of thing so often. what makes this miami case, though, more scandalous than perhaps some of the other things we've seen and heard in the past? >> well, i think, you know, really just the length of time that was involved here. we're talking about eight years. we're talking about the number of individuals involved. we were able to corroborate as many as 72 athletes who received some form of benefits, seven coaches and three support staff members. we either had knowledge or took part in some rules violations with this booster, nevin shapiro. i think the fact that nevin shapiro is an individual who engaged in a $930 million ponzi scheme, one of the worst financial scandals in american history also adds something to this. really, the length, the breadth and just the total number of individuals involved. that depth makes it different. >> you mentioned nevin shapiro. he's the person that provided all of this information. why is he talking now? >> i think there are a number of

reasons. number one, i think, you know, he has an ax to grind. i think that's something he's made clear. he made clear to us up front that he felt abandoned by many of these players who he took care of when they were at the university of miami. when he ran into his legal troubles he felt like they abandoned him. secondarily i think he told the federal government he agreed to be honest regarding all of his financial dealings prior to his incarceration. >> you mentioned he has an ax to grind, charles. some would say that would be motivation to embellish or even try to hurt people since he's behind bars. what proof is he providing? >> well, we've gotten over 20,000 business documents, credit card bills, essentially his entire financial life going back to 2000. on top of that, 5,000 pages of phone bills. he gave us access to three e-mail accounts. over 1,000 photographs. human sources. there's a great deal of proof

that he's been able to provide to really build an infrastructure of, you know, proof and infrastructure of believability that would have not have existed otherwise because of the crime he's committed and pled guilty to. >> charles, your investigative report has a lot of people talking. it may have a big impact on what happens with college football. thank you very much, charles. great story. >> thanks for having me. joining me now, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, michael smir connish. as far back as i can remember people have been saying it's time to start paying college athletes. that may alleviate this problem that we're having in basketball and football. year after year in these big school programs where big money is at stake and the schools are making big money. >> first of all, i've missed you and you are looking good. >> thank you very much, michael. >> i just had this debate on the radio. half the audience call and say exactly what you just said. give it up already.

you'll never be able to police it. just pay them pip don't like that. you open up the flood gates. all of a sudden you're going to get the most wealthy benefactors of a particular school. whatever that school might be that will be the dominant team in the nation. some say we already have that. i really hope we don't have to go in that direction. >> it seems that's exactly what's happening. we don't see small schools hooked up in this. i don't want to call out any names, but usc. i mean, the list goes on and on of these programs, both football and basketball, now miami, that this is happening in. and they are the big money programs. it's not the little small college. quite honestly, those aren't the colleges who win these big bowls. and the way the system is set up for football, the bowl games, we know that this is a lot of money. i don't want to make excuses for anyone. but if you have someone who's coming from an environment, they have no cash, they can't work because of the football schedule, the way it's built, they can't hold down a full-time job or work through college like i did, for example, or work like you did, i'm sure, so this is

their job. >> you're right. i'm not excusing it. but it's hard for somebody who couldn't truly afford to buy a pair of sneakers to turn down a flat screen that a guy shows up like this guy allegedly did and offers to give it to them. i feel sorry for al golden. he was the football coach at temple who just went down to miami. tamron, he's probably -- your alma mater, as a matter of fact. he did a heck of a job. he's going to have to perform while this investigation will probably take years. >> you're right. al says that, listen, 90% of the kids are not caught up in this. he's hoping that it will bring his team together and that they can move forward. you're right, he gets a raw deal in this because apparently this was all going down before he even signed up for this program. >> yeah. he's a good guy. >> yeah, he is. thank you very much, michael. appreciate it. coming up on "news nation." >> in texas, we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools. >> ask him why he doesn't believe in science. >> i figure you're smart enough

to figure out -- >> this poor kid caught up in political fire. one day after rejecting climate change, republican rick perry goes face to face with a kid and he gives him his theory on evolution, calling it just that. saying it's theory with gaps, in fact. a rare and deadly brain infection claims a third life this summer. officials say tap water was the source of the infection in at least one case. we'll tell you about this. plus, one nba player, a multimillionaire player, says the basketball lockout has him applying for a new job. where he's trying to land a gig after making $10 million. ♪ i like dat

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for the third time this summer, an extremely rare water born parasite has taken a life here in the united states.

the latest victim is a louisiana man. doctors say he contracted the brain eating ameba from tap water he used in a device to rinse out his sinuses. health officials say the parasite was confined to the victim's home water system. earlier this summer a 9-year-old virginia boy became infected with the bacteria. it moves in the body through the nose and destroys brain tissue. experts say the ameba is usually found in warm, stagnant water like a pond or lake. there's no known treatment. disturbing new details about an american woman missing in aruba. plus, the fbi investigate a threat posted on an al qaeda message board about david letterman. this is my band from the 80's, looker.

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welcome back to "news nation." million dollar insurance policy. authorities say the man last seen with a missing american woman in aruba reportedly tried to cash in on an accidental death insurance policy he took out on her before she disappeared. fight obama, not each other. that's karl rove's advice to the republican presidential candidates who are attacking each other. more oil in the golf. a new oil sheen is spotted. guess which big oil company quickly denied it had anything to do with it. today's news nation gut check. a 61-year-old life guard says he was forced out of his job because he refused to wear a speedo. he says he's being discriminated against because of his age. what does your gut tell you? new details this hour on that missing maryland woman who disappeared while vacationing in aruba. the associated press reports gary giordano had a $1.5 million

insurance policy on her and he tried to collect on that policy just two days after telling police she disappeared while snorkeling. meantime, aruban authorities are prepping a massive search of the island for the woman's body. nbc's janet shamlian has the latest from aruba. >> reporter: tamron, good afternoon. as you mentioned, the associated press reporting more about that insurance policy we heard about a few days ago. it's an accidental death payout. we're learning that gary giordano, the man being held in connection with the disappearance of robyn gardner tried to start the process of cashing in that policy within two days of when his traveling companion went missing. in fact, he was still here in aruba. the search was still on for robyn gardner. and giordano was still answering investigators' questions. but yet he started that process of trying to cash in on this policy. by some reports it was worth more than $1 million. giordano for his part remains locked up in prison here in

aruba. prosecutors got another 16 days a couple days ago to try to gather more evidence. giordano was questioned by prosecutors yesterday at length with his attorneys present. there's also interesting information about items that have been seized from gary giordano, including his digital camera which by some accounts contained very graphic, disturbing images of robyn gardner. that camera along with his cell phone and his laptop have been sent off to a nearby island for further analysis. they're looking very closely now at the insurance policy. whether he had a financial motive back home. there are reports he lives in a million dollar house and that his small company took in less than $100,000 last year. that's something that u.s. officials are assisting with as this investigation continues. that is the latest from here. back to you. >> the fbi and nypd are investigating a death threat from a jihadist website urging

muslim followers to, quote, cut the tongue of late night host david letterman. the threat comes after jokes letterman made about osama bin laden and another al qaeda leader killed by u.s. forces. letterman has been made aware of the threat. right now his show is currently on summer hiatus. i'm joined by nbc news terrorism analyst evan coleman. you were just on this -- you've been doing great work investigating this. you believe this person behind this site is full of it. >> yeah. we monitor this site on a daily basis. we have dozens of accounts in order to do that. i can tell you right now this threat was pest posted two days ago. it got a total of eight responses most of which were simply cutting and pasting parts of it and repeating it once again. to give you some idea what that means, right now there are dozens upon dozens of people chatting about the attacks al qaeda activity in afghanistan. this is a nonissue. what's more important, right now there are people on this forum that are trying to post overly sensationalized stories and are

trying to get the attention of western media and are laughing about it afterwards. this is the same forum where those initial false claims of responsibility for the attacks in oslo came from. these guys laughed about it afterwards. i think you have to be really cautious right now. this is not al qaeda. it's a lone crank. it's one person. no credibility except having a big mouth. >> but it is obviously -- this person can be a joke and still -- we've seen other people killed, quite honestly, by extremists after a film maker, for example, van gogh, he was killed in 2004. there have been threats against cartoonists and other satirists. we've seen this before. >> there's no down al qaeda would like to go after high profile figures and media entertainment. the idea david letterman is the subject of some kind of active al qaeda plot is just ridiculous. what's more, i think, all this

publicity, kind of feel sorry for letterman. all this publicity if anything is really where the threat is. it's not the eight people that commented about a story that was a nonissue on an al qaeda web forum. >> thank you very much, even. appreciate it. see you soon. a not guilty plea from the long-time girlfriend of a reputed boston crime boss. that's our look at the stories around the nation. if convicted, she could spend up to five years behind bars. she and bulger were captured in california back in june. he has pleaded not guilty to participating in 19 murders. oil giant bp sais it is investigating the source of a new oil sheen in the gulf of mexico. it says there's no indication it is the result of a new spill. it also appears the sheen is not near the location of the oil spill we all witnessed back in april 2010. boston celtics guard delante west says the lockout is hitting

him so hard he's applying from a job at home depot. he says he's also reached his daily limit at the atm and his car, well, he says it's broke down. according to espn, if you were wondering, west made $10 million since 2007. he also, by the way, can't leave the country to go play for a foreign team like other players have been doing to make ends meet. because he has a 2009 weapons position charge. west tweeted, quote, it is official. pride 22 side. just filled out a application at home depot. lockout ain't a game. that was his tweet. most of the gop candidates plan to spend the next few days in the battleground states of new hampshire and south carolina. the newcomer to the race, texas governor rick perry is in the granite state. on one day after his comments on global warming grabbed headlines, here's what he had to say as a follow-up when asked about evolution by a kid. >> you know, it's a theory that's out there. it's got some gaps in it, but in texas we teach both creationism

and evolution in our public schools. >> ask him why he doesn't believe in science? >> i figure you're smart enough to figure out which one is right. >> national politics editor at politico, charles, thank you for your time. >> hi, tamron. >> tell us what was going on there. you could actually hear someone in the background urging the little boy to ask the governor about science as well. what was the setup there? >> right. i think that's the right term. it was a setup. i think what you're seeing is rick perry is beginning to experience the next stage of his campaign. the first stage was getting ramped up for it. generating interest. having people come see him in austin to talk him into running. now once you enter the race, it's a very different experience. this is more akin to the meat grinder like aspect where you've got goch cha questions like that with a mother prepping her kid to ask questions designed to get answers to say something that can be used against him. you see different kinds of stories emerging about his

record. criticism from arnie duncan, secretary of education, texas public education. all of this i think is rick perry, it's his welcome to the show moment where he's in it now. >> should he answer where he stands? i mean, he says evolution is a theory. he questions the science. is that a gocha question at this point? >> the question itself isn't. obviously that's a position he's going to have to elaborate on at some point during the campaign. when you see a moment where you have a kid and the mother is behind the kid asking questions designed to elicit a certain answer from the governor, it tells you something doesn't smell right in denmark. >> that kid's face says a lot. how did i get here this morning? my goodness. karl rove also making headlines. a column in the "wall street journal" talking about the gop going in on each other and attacking each other. he wrote because primaries tend to be binary contests, mrs. bachmann and mr. perry will now likely compete to be the not

romney candidate. they can aclooef dominance by attacking each other, attacking mr. romney or attacking mr. obama. the smartest course is the last. if they are all saying, listen, this is what the president is doing wrong, how would they distinguish from one another at this point? you've got republicans out there who want to know where they stand as far as being tough on spending and all of these other things where they quite honestly differ. >> i think what strategy they come up with will reveal to the public how much of a threat each sees the other. i think rick perry will shy away from attacking michele bachmann. i think bachmann probably the onus is on her to attack perry more. because what she's confronted with now, you see this in some of her remarks and attempt to address this, she is a legislator confronting two executives. one current executive, texas governor and one former in mitt romney. they have very different issue profiles. she's going to need to, i think, elaborate a bit on her agenda and show some contrast and show why she's in the same ballpark in terms of experience.

you hear the governors especially talk a lot about the value of executive experience and how important that is in the presidential race. i think she needs to probably show why she has the kind of experience necessary in a way that rick perry might not. >> you don't have to attack in an underhanded way, but you got to go at them? >> i think what karl rove is talking about there, ronald reagan's 11th commandment about attacking it shall not attacking other republicans. that commandment has been around for a long time. i think you follow the commandment when it's advantageous to your campaign and probably not otherwise. >> very interesting. thank you very much. greatly appreciate it. thanks for coming on with me. don't forget, we are just a few weeks away from the nbc news politico gop debate at the reagan library, speaking of reagan. nbc's brian williams will moderate. september 7th, 8:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. every time a local business opens its doors

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coming up at the top of the hour, the markets are tumbling once again. you know what? we've got no one to blame but ourselves. we'll tell you why and what needs to be done as the market comes to a grim close today. plus, in a crowded gop field, which one is worthy? there's a new report out today about how poorly american students are scoring on standardized tests. newly released a.c.t. scores show that just 1 in 4 high school graduates are ready for college. nearly 30% of test takers could not meet the benchmarks in four key subject areas, english, reading, math and science. in a statement, secretary of education arnie duncan said these test scores are another sign that states need to raise their academic standards and commit to education reform that

accelerate student achievement. the principal for the detroit school of arts, rita davis. principal davis, great to see you. thank you for joining me again. >> you're welcome, tamron. >> in detroit, you know this problem. 80% of high school students fail to produce -- 80% of high schools fail to produce a single student with college ready scores for the a.c.t. these new national numbers that are out reflect what you are seeing in detroit. what is the problem as you see it when getting high school students even able to pass these tests let alone ready to go to college? >> first of all, tamron, we're going to have to assess and reassess what's going on in that classroom. data driven instruction and research best practices are only a part of the story. we need resources. human resources in the form of teachers and capital resources in the form of materials, technology, and in my case, we

need to be able to upgrade our technology. teachers, they need professional development. if they're going to be the one decisive element for our students' success, we must provide them with the tools for which to teach. then we have to monitor, make sure that they are giving the students what they have been given in order for them to have success. >> and i think anyone would agree with that list of things. and everything you've laid out, we've honestly heard before. that is a good thing. we know the problems. we see a list of solutions. but, again, going back to this number, 80% of the high schools failed to produce a single student with college-ready scores for a.c.t.? from that number alone, we are failing these kids. >> i agree with you. we're going to have to reassess what's happening. i'm glad that the children are still applying to go to college.

they're not dropping out of school here where i -- at my school, the detroit school of arts. they are receiving scholarships and 100% of our students at detroit school of arts have been accepted into a higher institution for learning. so the scores, a.c.t. scores as we talked about in the town hall meeting, tests speak to homogenious groups. >> we greatly appreciate what you're trying to do. thank you so much for allowing us into your school on sunday. thank you. >> oh, you're more than welcome. before we conclude, i'd like to just recognize the principal and founder of detroit school of arts, dr. denise david copton.

she established the school in 1992. it's a great institution for arts and academic excellence. >> it is that. thank you so much, principal. abercrombie & fitch has a situation on twitter with members of the "jersey shore" cast. and a fire marshall says kim kardashian's wedding is too hot for tv. abercrombie & fitch says they would pay some of the cast of "jersey shore" not to wear their apparel. now the cast going on twitter and fighting back. what are they saying? >> well, this was a big no-no on abercrombie & fitch's part. "the jersey shore" cast literally has millions of twitter followers. they have has berabid fans. obviously we have the situation, we have paulied. tweeting things back. the situation noticed abercrombie stock fell 9%.

he says looks like abercrombie & fitch has a situation on their hands. which they do. paulie d. noticed they make a gtl t-shirt, a "jersey shore" term which stands for gym, tan and laundry. >> as you pointed out, this sort of backfired on them. >> it could have backfired. it has in terms of the stock. at the same time, it is excellent press for them and it's press for "jersey shore." in some ways everybody's happy. >> kim kardashian will be a happy woman very soon. her wedding just around the corner. there's word she invited too many people. >> unfortunately the fire marshal put the ka bosh on everybody she has invited to the wedding. 50 people actually are no longer allowed to come to the wedding. >> who's getting dissed? >> i guess we don't really know. we have heard it is some members of bruce gener bruce jenner's f

>> some of his family members may not make the cut. how many people have been invited? >> i think we're looking at around 500. >> she's on the cover of your magazine this week. you have some people skeptical that this is all playing out on tv. they met just a short time ago. what is she saying about, you know, all of this? >> she feels like from the moment she met kris, she knew that he was the one. if you look at her younger sister khloe, she didn't know lamar for that long before they got married. they're still happily together. i think the kardashian women just like to marry soon after they've found their soul mate. >> whatever works. great job, julia. appreciate it. for the latest entertainment news logon to scoop.today.com. we'll be right back. i'm jon haber of alto music. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount has given us money to reinvest back

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time now for the news nation fwut check. how old is too old to wear a stee doe? 61-year-old roy--er says he was fired from his job as a life guard after more than 40 years

of service because he refused to wear a speedo. lester says no man his age has any business wearing a skimpy swim suit and he's suing new york state for what he says is age discrimination. he joins me via skype from garden city, new york. thank you so much for joining us. >> hi. >> we showed pictures of you throughout the hour. you obviously are in fit shape. not only physically but mentally you're alert and you do a great job by all accounts in everything that i've read. what is your issue with the speedo here? is it about, listen, i don't have to wear it to do my job? what is your issue here? >> you know what? at a certain point, and i guess it's around the time you start wearing glasses, you shouldn't be wearing speedos. the older you are, the less skin you should show. and it's just -- speedo is not appropriate for someone my age. >> does the speedo make you a better life guard? why did they explain to you that you would need to wear it?

>> none of the explanations ever really made any sense to me. at one point, they said, well, we can't let you wear a certain type of swimsuit because it's too fast. don't you want your lifeguards to be fast? that made no sense to me. then they said, well, you know what? it's state regulation. we can't let you wear it. i've been a lifeguard for 40 years. there was never a regulation. in fact, new york state employees lifeguards throughout the state and it's only on long island where they won't let you wear a jammer type swimsuit. that's just really recent. it just so happens that long island employs most of the older life guards. >> i want to read this statement from them. they say there's no probable cause to believe the respondent engaged in discriminatory practices. because of the 271 life guards hired at jones beach, 80 are over the age of 40. six are the same age as roy

lester. and 80 employees range in age from 40 to 80. they point to the numbers and say we've got people not only your age, we have folks older than you working as lifeguards. >> let's be honest. does that mean you can't discriminate? does that mean that there's no discrimination because you hire the people? no. it might not be massive discrimination. but there's a thing calmed de facto discrimination. when you make it difficult. how come the one year that they put in that no jammers were allowed after 50 years, six lifeguards lost their jobs? six of them. >> that is a question in your lawsuit. we're almost out of time. i want to ask our audience, they've heard from you, what does your gut tell you? is it age discrimination to force you see there roy lester, to wear a speedo just to be a lifeguard? thank you, roy. go to newsnation.msnbc.com to cast your vote. that does it for this edition of "news nation." i'm tamron hall. my doctor told me calcium

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