even though the terms of victor paleologus' plea agreement prevented any appeal, he attempted one anyway in october of 2007. a panel of judges noted that he had waived his right to appeal, and in january of 2008, the california supreme court said it would not consider his petition for review. that's all for now. i'm ann curry. for all of us here at nbc news, thank you for joining us. tropical storm lee, the gulf coast braces for heavy rains and winds. it's only getting worse at this hour. is new orleans ready? lights out. still. almost a week after hurricane irene hundreds of thousands of people with no power across parts of the northeast. why is it taking so long? unraveling the jobs puzzle.

does anyone have a solution to unemployment? will the president go big with a new plan? internet sensation. this isn't your garden variety viral video. it's the child behind the wheel of a car driving down the highway. you're not going to believe how old this little one is. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt. welcome to msnbc saturday. we have breaking news to share this morning about tropical storm lee, which is bringing torrents of rain to the u.s. gulf coast. the storm is expected to make landfall in louisiana later on today. parts of louisiana and florida could see as much as 20 inches of rain this weekend. louisiana governor bobby jindal warns there's a lot of uncertainty over the path the storm may take. he and the mississippi governor have declared states of emergency. >> it is going to be a slow moving storm. a lot of rain. that water is going to accumulate. >> it has intensified and indications are that it will continue to do so. we're encouraging citizens in new orleans to make their

preparations again. prepare for the worst and let's hope for the best. >> weather channel meteorologist mike seidel is in new orleans with more. mike? >> this is what we've seen all night across new orleans. wind swept rain. wind gusts up over 40 miles an hour. so far the rainfall rates have held in check below the threshold for having issues for the pumping system and speaking of that, all 24 pumps are fully operational as well as all of the backup generators. yesterday two inches of rain here in new orleans. so far since midnight a little over an inch and that's not enough to cause a backup into the streets here of a city that is under sea level. about 9,000 customers have lost power due to the wind. some tornado warnings. in a tornado watch until 10:00 a.m. eastern but so far the issues have not been the tornadoes. there have been no reports of any touchdowns. this is going to be a long drawn out affair right on through monday because of the slow movement of tropical storm lee but the city is ready. there's now a state of emergency here across louisiana and for seven of the southern counties in mississippi. back to you.

>> okay, mike. thank you for that. let's get more on tropical storm lee from nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning to you, bill. >> good morning to you, alex. all eyes are on the gulf coast. this is where we're getting drenched throughout this labor day weekend with tropical storm lee. we're not worried about the winds doing damage or anything like that. we're mostly concerned with heavy rain and flash flooding and then river flooding eventually. let's take a look at the big map. you'll see that all of the green and white down there over the top of new orleans and all over louisiana, that is our storm system that we're dealing with on the gulf. now, as far as the heavy rain goes, all of those bands coming off the gulf, the center of the storm located just south of the b in baton rouge. back toward mobile and toward the panhandles of florida, you're still going to get drenched even far from the center. anywhere down there from i-10 all of the way to i-20, that's who will see the worst of the heavy rain. take a look at our computer estimates. all through areas of louisiana especially mississippi, that purple color you see there is

six to nine inches of rain. some locations could get close to a foot of rain by the time this weekend is over with. this is just a big rainmaker. here's your forecast. on your saturday, tropical storm lee is soaking the deep south. still 100-degree heat in texas. by the way, none of this moisture from the storm is heading to drought stricken texas. a lot of storms to deal with in chicago, minneapolis, kansas city this afternoon. not a bad day d.c. through boston. looking at your sunday, heavy rain from lee continues over areas of mississippi, alabama and louisiana. and then by the time we get to labor day, we'll see a lot of those showers and thunderstorms beginning to spread along the eastern seaboard as the middle of the country drys out. the bottom line with lee is it's a rainmaker and flooding will be a concern over the weekend. >> another storm is brewing in the atlantic. that's hurricane katia which is gaining strength. the national hurricane center says it's too early to tell if that category 1 storm will hit the u.s. in southern california crews are

battling a fast moving wildfire that closed down part of interstate 15 and forced the evacuations of more than 1,500 homes. the fire covers nearly two square miles. it's about 20% contained at this hour. in california, beach goers are warned to watch out for big waves and dangerous rip currents. high surf advisories in effect through tomorrow night from san diego to san francisco. the waves are expected to be six to ten feet high. to vermont where the national guard is moving in. 250 soldiers will help clean up the devastation left by tropical storm irene. hundreds of roads and bridges remain closed or damaged nearly a week after the storm slammed the area. and msnbc's craig melvin is live for us in vermont. good saturday morning to you. nearly a week since irene hit vermont. what's it like there this morning? >> reporter: what a difference a week makes. we're on main street. you can probably hear some of these construction trucks going by. there's been a lot of those

here. the rebuilding started. ludlow was cut off by storm damaged roads. 250 roads were completely cut off. then you had bridges. you had dozens of bridges that were completely washed out. worke erers spent the better paf the week rebuilding the infrastructure in vermont. meanwhile, there's also been a renewed sense of spirit among the folks here. the people who live in vermont. a lot of folks have been helping out their neighbors and pitching in and helping. there's a big concert last night i'll talk about in a second and we have video to show you of that. what's top of mind for a lot of business owners here in ludlow is fall foliage season where you have tens of thousands of people who descend on vermont to look at the leaves change on the trees. it's $300 million a year industry. because so many restaurants and hotels have had to shut down

because of the flooding, so many roads to the great trees are impassible. there's concern here that the leaf peeper season is going to be affected. >> that's huge. that's really just around the corner. what are biggest challenges they face right now to getting completely back to normal? >> reporter: the biggest challenge continues to be the roads. there's a number of roads that are if not totally impassible that are so badly damaged that you can only get through if you have some sort of four-wheel drive vehicle or all-terrain vehicle. that continues to be a major problem. what was a problem a week ago, power outages. at one point there were 50,000 people here in the state of vermont that did not have power. at last check there were close to 1,000. also want to make quick mention of a concert that was held last night here in ludlow. there was a free concert for folks. money went to the black river foundation. one of the many rivers that flooded here. it was an opportunity for folks

who live in this area to sort of take their mind off of the damage, off of the destruction that has so plagued vermont over the past week. >> okay. we'll talk with you later this morning. thank you so much. you heard craig talking about the power and indeed one of the biggest problems following irene continues to be the massive power outages nearly a week after that storm hit, fewer than 1,000 homes and businesses are without power in vermont where craig was but in connecticut we got 120,000 still in the dark there. the state's utility company hopes to get that number down to 100,000 by sometime this evening. moving to new jersey, fewer than 25,000 remain without electricity. new jersey's governor says the board of public utilities plans to hold hearings on the performance of the state's electric companies and then here in new york, 116,000 are still not connected and that includes 78,000 onning long island and 0 in upstate new york. to the job market, it feels like there are no new jobs out there and if it feels that way,

it's because there aren't. the labor department says no new jobs were created in august. that's zero job growth. zero. unemployment rate remains unchanged at 9.1%. some industries are faring better than others. the health care industry added 30,000 jobs. professionals and business services added 28,000. that includes engineering, accounting, legal services and the like. every job gained in august was matched by a job lost so the biggest losers in job creation, the government shedding 17,000 positions and manufacturing and construction down 8,000. august jobs report also shows a growing racial disparity. the national unemployment rate is unchanged, the jobless rate for african-americans has shot up from 15.9% to 16.7. that's the highest unemployment rate for black americans in 27 years. we have new word this morning from the president on jobs ahead of thursday's speech on his plan to put americans back to work. in his weekly address, president obama does not discuss the

latest unemployment figures from august but he urges lawmakers to immediately pass a transportation bill that will keep construction workers employed. >> there's a lot of talk in washington these days about creating jobs. but it doesn't help when those same folks turn around and risk losing hundreds of thousands of jobs just because of political gamesmanship. we need to pass this transportation bill and put people to work rebuilding america. we need to put our differences aside and do the right thing for our economy. >> joining me now is erin mcpike. a reporter for really clear politics. good morning. we heard about this going back on the jobs plan relative to the president. what is big and what would that include? >> big is anything that moves this unemployment figure down below 9% and closer to 8% and right now everything that the white house has done hasn't really moved it much at all. what will that include? it's got to be something along the lines of tax incentives for

employers who are hiring people. that's the thing. incentives to get people hiring again. >> okay. let's talk about what the president can actually get through congress. what do you think about that? >> well, like i said, it's going to be tax incentives, credits for employers who can start hiring and save money or, you know, have anything that will allow them to hire. what he probably cannot get are tax hikes on anyone. republicans will not put tax hikes through. other spending measures, the republicans control the house. anything like that that will be a tax increase is probably not going to get through. >> let's talk about the original stimulus plan, erin. nearly $800 billion supposed to stop the bleeding and create jobs but we seem to see this economy just grinding to a halt. how can the president now make the case for more stimulus spending? >> actually, alex, that's what he might not be able to make the

case for is stimulus spending at all. in fact, the word stimulus is sending cold shutters throughout the white house, through democrats in congress. you hear administration officials, cabinet members saying the same thing. they're not wanting to talk about stimulus measures. stimulus spending. that didn't go very well for them and the american public doesn't even like hearing the word stimulus anymore so we're not going to see probably a lot in the way of spending measures and we're probably not going to hear this called a stimulus ever again. >> i want to ask you politics and who's playing it right now. for the first time the president was not granted the joint session of congress state that he requested. speaker boehner offered him thursday instead but the president's initial request would have upstaged the gop debate on wednesday. is there politics being played here and is it being played by the speaker or the white house? >> actually, i think politics is being played on both sides. and both sides look very bad. they look bad to the american people. frankly, they look bad to a lot of us in washington.

obviously the white house played some politics because they wanted to upstage it the republican debate. speaker boehner also played politics because when he sent a letter to president obama, he didn't say anything about the debate in that letter. it was all about security measures, which aren't really that big of a deal and they can reschedule things. they both look bad in this and they are both playing politics and you have democrats in congress and democrats working in washington who think that the president himself looks bad because he looks weak and let john boehner win. in a way, maybe the president looks worse. maybe the president wins because it's an hour or hour and a half before the nfl season begins and he may have more americans watching him that night. we don't know yet who's going to win. they are both playing politics and they both look bad for it. >> but all this politics aside, bottom line when the president speaks to joint session on thursday, is he going to say anything new? do you have a preview of what

he's going to say? >> it doesn't seem like it's going to be much in the way of new. as you were mentioning before, it's going to be a lot in the way of infrastructure jobs and hiring for transportation. the transportation bill. getting people to work fixing the nation's infrastructure is going to be key and also some in the energy sector as well. >> okay. many thanks. >> thank you. >> president obama certainly has a busy week ahead of him focusing on jobs. he'll tour the damage from hurricane irene in patterson, new jersey and then in detroit with workers and their families on monday and on thursday a major speech on job creation and then friday he'll promote that jobs initiative when he visits richmond, new jersey. we invite you to watch the president's address to congress on thursday at 7:00 p.m. you can see the full field of

presidential contenders squaring off for the first time in the nbc news politico debate wednesday september 7th right here on msnbc. authorities in aruba are still trying to find witnesses in the case of missing american tour tift rist robyn gardner. they released a photograph of a small white car. they may have seen gardner or gary giordano as they left a bar near the beach when she disappeared on august 2nd. giordano says gardner disappeared while snorkeling. he was held 60 more days while prosecutors seek evidence against him. he denies knowing anything about what happened to robyn gardner. more on hundreds of thousands without power following hurricane irene. why is it taking so long to get the electricity back on? plus, did your parents let you drive at age 4? a couple in china is letting their little girl do just that. the story behind this incredible video not to be believed. and it's a pristine place of

learning by day that is a raunchy nightclub at night. the investigation into what happened at this florida school coming up on this msnbc saturday. so i was the guy who was never going to have the heart attack.

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across the nation this morning, two small planes collided in western alaska. the single engine planes crashed into each other near nightmute. there were no other people aboard those planes. a florida surfer is recovering this morning from a shark bite on his ankle. 19-year-old daniel true drove himself to the hospital after

suffering that shark bite. he says he didn't see the shark but he certainly felt it. >> we'll hear him talk about that another time. he did make it safely to shore and headed to the hospital where it took 34 stitches to put his ankle back together. also in florida, parents of children attending a miami area charter school are looking for answers after learning that child parties could be taking place on their campus on the weekends. the school district says it received complaints from parents last week about empty beer bottles and smell of smoke at that k through 8th grade charter school. parents pointed to flyers circulating which feature women. police aren't aware of parties but are investigating now. let's move to the retail world. the holiday weekend is the sweet spot to buy cars saying you can save up to 20% on those 2011 models as dealerships try to move that out and move to 2010

inventory. vera gibbons has more on how stores are trying to close deals in a struggling economy. what tricks do they have for consumers? >> they are doing demonstrations and videos to get people to stick around and spend a bit and hang out and learn something. you see this at william sonoma and also at boutique stores. people feel part of the community. they are learning. may have a cooking class, demonstration. >> cooking has become popular. i was going by a mall. you see those. >> people watch and learn and they buy a few things. >> there are also retailers trying to appeal to our senses. what is that? >> they are using candles, potpourri. the scents come from either the actual products like baked goods or an in-store unit where they use a spray or device to get the

scent out there. experts tell me it can boost sales by 50%. >> i was doing back-to-school shopping and i heard a song i liked. i was about to leave. i had to stay inside and listen to the whole song. >> retailers use music to get people like you to stick around. you'll make those unplanned purchases and it seems to work. they have to have the right mix of music for target audience and decibel level. it has to work or you could be turned off and leave. for adults in the retail section you may see instrumental music or in teen section loud music that works for the kids. >> let's talk about some of the other tricks out there. what do they have? >> another thing is make it more of a treasure hunt. you may find unexpected things. it is like shopping -- you never know what you're going to find. it's a treasure hunt. they try to make surprise items up and down the aisle. you have to have this and then

you stick around and you browse more and you spend. >> even when you got your cart all loaded up and you get to the checkout line, they are still working on you. >> one more opportunity to make a sale here. they have your attention. they may give you coupons or discounts. save 20% if you continue shopping today. it's the last opportunity to sort of try to boost sales. these are the kinds of tricks that are out there. you have to be aware as a consumer but of course we want you to spend to keep the economy going. >> don't buy what you don't need. that's the way it goes. thank you for that. let's check this out. you're about to see a 4-year-old girl driving a car. she's four. come on. we'll give you the story behind this video next on msnbc this video next on msnbc saturday. transitions adapt to changing lit 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.

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ask your doctor if pradaxa can reduce your risk of a stroke. for more information or help paying for pradaxa, visit pradaxa.com. we've been talking a lot about the struggle to get the power on in the northeast following hurricane irene. in a couple minutes we'll talk to an energy expert about why it's taking so long to get power restored. i want to know if you're surprised it's taking so long to get the power restored.

you can talk to me on twitter. i'll be reading some of your tweets throughout this morning. if you are looking for a new car, this could be a great weekend to find a deal with the unofficial end of summer, car dealers start bringing in next year's models to many discount the outgoing models. consumer reports says that in chicago, a buyer can save 20% off the msrp for a select 2011 nissan coupe in stock. if you're on the road this weekend, there's a list of places to pay extra close attention to your speed. the national motorists association put out a list of law enforcement areas. vermont, new hampshire, michigan, wyoming and colorado lead the list of states with new speed enforcement zones. cities with most speed traps, in michigan. a growing number of small stationary companies are seeing more demand for products because people who are meeting online

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creating and integrating solutions, helping business, and the world...work. rethink possible. tropical storm lee on the move this morning triggering states of emergency along the gulf coast of the parts of louisiana, mississippi and alabama are bracing for as much as 20 inches of rain from that slow moving system. let's get the latest from nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning to you, bill. >> good morning to you, alex. all eyes on the gulf coast where we are getting drenched throughout this labor day weekend from tropical storm lee. we're not worried about winds doing damage or anything like that. we're concerned with heavy rain and flash flooding and then river flooding eventually. let's take a look at the big map. you'll see that all of the green and white down there over the top of new orleans and all over louisiana, that is our storm system that we're dealing with on the gulf. as far as heavy rain goes, all of those bands coming up off the

gulf, the center of the storm is located just south of the b there in baton rouge. back toward mobile and also toward the panhandles of florida, you're still going to get drenched even far from the center. anywhere down there from i-10 to i-20, that's who will see the worst of the heavy rain and take a look at our computer estimates. all through areas of louisiana and mississippi, the purple color is 6 to 9 inches of rain. some locations close to a foot of rain by the time this weekend is over with. this is just a big rainmaker. here's your forecast. on your saturday, tropical storm lee is soaking the deep south. still 100-degree heat in texas. by the way, none of this moisture from this storm is headed to drought stricken texas. we still have a lot of thunderstorms to deal with in chicago, st. louis, kansas city, minneapolis this afternoon. not a bad day from d.c. up through boston. looking at your sunday, that heavy rain from lee continues over areas of mississippi, alabama and louisiana. and then by the time we get to labor day, we'll see a lot of those showers and thunderstorms beginning to spread along the

eastern seaboard as the middle of the country drys out. the bottom line with lee, alex, it's a rainmaker and flooding will be the concern over the holiday weekend. back to you. >> all right, bill karins, thank you for that. thousands of residents in new jersey are feeling the effects of hurricane irene with 25,000 customers remaining without power in that state. many towns are trying to add up all that damage from the storm in hopes of getting federal aid. we go to patterson, new jersey, where the president will be visiting tomorrow. good morning to you. what's the latest from there? look at those rushing waters behind you. that tells it right there. >> that tells the story. you can see the waters still receding a week after the storm hit here flooding this entire area. you see this storefront behind me here. the waters rose halfway up that store. this was the worst flooding this

area has seen in more than a century. floodwaters started receding on wednesday and then revealing all of the damage they were leaving behind. trash strewn all about. roads destroyed. businesses here in the downtown area severely damaged. as of yesterday, 1,000 people here are still without power. about 1,500 displaced. the mayor says that all told over the course of the week about 6,000 people here alone have been affected by this. earlier this week president obama signed a disaster declaration for new jersey making federal aid available to help this area recover and rebuild. that was after two members of his administration visited here including homeland security secretary janet napolitano. as you mentioned, tomorrow president obama will be here himself on the first visit to see the damage left behind by hurricane irene touring damage here to see firsthand how this area was affected. >> how frustrated are the folks there in paterson looking at these rushing waters and wondering about power and talking about the cleanup.

where are emotions standing this some week later now? >> it's something that you hear not just in paterson but across the east coast. people are still without power almost a week after the storm hit. a lot of people are starting to get very frustrated that power hasn't been restored. they are expressing that frustration saying that power companies should do a better job. the power companies themselves are fighting back a little bit taking out ads in newspapers and things like that saying that they did their best to try to counter the effects of mother nature. here in new jersey, governor christie said he'll hold hearings on this to make sure power companies did everything they were supposed to do but certainly six days without power is a very long time and people here just want to get back to home and back to their lives. >> absolutely. thank you very much from paterson. the dismal new jobs report is renewing fears of another recession because no jobs were added in the u.s. last month. the bureau of labor statistics reported on friday that the unemployment rate held steady at

9.1% with 14 million americans out of work and looking for a job. steve liesman is joining me live in the studio. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> let's talk about this. i was shocked by these numbers. no net job growth. explain that. the lack of confidence now that's out there. >> i have never seen a zero before either. there was an expectation on wall street of say 70,000 to 90,000 jobs depending on what survey you looked at. a couple things were happening. we don't think there was a lot of firing going on. there wasn't a lot of hiring. that gets to your question of maybe it was a lack of confidence. maybe it was kind of the spectacle that happened in washington in august. at the end of the day you have to believe that there aren't a lot of customers coming through the doors that are giving businesses the confidence to hire out there. there's also questions about the uncertainty created by regulation and tax structure. that's also out there. fundamentally it's probably the issue of demand. you're not going to hire people

if you don't see demand coming. one other thing i want to highlight, alex, which is the decline in government workers. 17,000 government employees lost their jobs. the more striking number was revision to the july data. they go back and revise and get new data. 79,000. we haven't seen a decline like this since early 1980s when it comes to state and local jobs. it creates layoffs for government employees. >> when we talk about potential of another recession, let's look at this. spending was up. and there were not huge layoffs. i look for a silver lining here. is it safe to say we're not headed for another recession? >> i wouldn't go into precious metals for lining. i might go to copper or iron orr lining. this is not yet a recession. there are a few pieces of data that kind of counter weight this incredible gloom that's out there. spending was up.

retail sales not too bad. the other thing that we're looking at is manufacturing seems to still be growing. just barely. still growing. the best hope here is that we have a full series of temporary factors hurting the economy. increasingly i have to tell you, there's a view that there are more permanent problems with this economy that need to be addressed by policy so we're talking more about responses of stimulus from washington and of course the federal reserve perhaps kicking in again in later september when they meet. >> you talk about the government losing those jobs. is the government ironically becoming the drag on the economy? >> there's no doubt that government spending if it were to decline would become at least an immediate drag on the economy. of course there are those that think government spending is the problem and government needs to get out of the way. more fundamentally when the government removes a dollar from the economy, the economy is less robust and you see what you have all these state and local budget issues. they are required to not run deficits and not allowed to run deficits. they cut workers. i think the number is 340,000

state and local workers have lost their jobs in the past year. the city of cleveland is about 400,000 people. it's something of that magnitude. i don't see any particular stop to this coming any time soon. a couple other things that were a little disconcerting were wages were negative and workweek was down. this could be a silver lining you were looking for. we saw a huge surge in part-time for economic reasons. people who want full-time work but can't get it. this could suggest and i say could suggest that employers are holding onto their workers. they're not so unconfident in the future that they are ready to fire them so they shifted them into part-time. 450,000 more people were working part-time for economic reasons. we'll have to see how that shakes out. looking for a silver lining, that's what i offer you. >> i'm calling you my copper guy today. thank you very much, steve liesman. >> we're safer in base metals when it comes to lining.

president obama's speech on job creation this week follows the pour unemployment report and this week the white house revised its future job forecast saying the jobless rate will stay at 9% through next year and only dip below 6% in 2017. john harris is editor in chief of politico. thank you for joining th ining morning. >> realistically, what do you see as possible on the jobs front. are there any immediate job boosting programs that the president can talk about on thursday night and push? >> there's no question they feel they have an arsenal of some tax measures and some other short-term measures that they believe can get bipartisan support that they want to talk about. now, that is not the big grand strategy for jobs. when you call a joint session of congress and ask to speak to the nation from that platform, it better be good. you got to have something big to

say. i'm not yet clear what the president has that's going to fill that moment. we'll have to see. >> so as we look right now at 9.1% unemployment. no job growth last month. you heard me talk about this with steve liesman. is an 8% jobless rate by the election a pipe dream or do you think that's possible? >> we don't obviously know what's possible. we don't have a crystal ball. what i can tell you are the assumptions of people in the political world on the republic side and on the democratic side are operating under the assumption we'll have a general election a year from now, fall 2012, in an economic climate where the unemployment rate is probably still well above 8%. >> has the white house devised a strategy to win this election without any major progress on jobs? >> they are grappling with that. they recognize the severity of that political challenge. needless to say the substantive challenge getting the economy

going is more important at the end of the day than the political challenge. the political challenge for president obama's team is to convince the nation that we're seeing progress and not that things are good or at an acceptable level yet but that we're seeing progress and that he deserves more time to see his ideas and his approach work. give me a chance. things are getting better. that's going to be his message. the republican message that we'll see at the debate in california on wednesday is going to be you've had your chance. you've had your experiment. it hasn't worked. >> i want to focus on that. you're front and center on that event on wednesday. how surprising is perry's sudden rise? >> it's been striking. i wouldn't say it's been surprising. i certainly always expected that he would have a dramatic -- if he entered the race, that would be dramatic. i've been struck by how quickly and consistently in poll after poll he's now the new front

runner for now. he's above mitt romney in most of these polls. i say for now. we have seen several times people come in with a rush of speculation. there's a sensation and yet they don't have long-term staying power. that's one reason this debate is the first one that rick perry is going to be in is important because it's our chance to sort of see him and to test him. mitt romney's whole campaign is based on staying power. look, i'm not your sexy candidate. i'm not glamorous. i'm in it for the long-term. >> who do you think is ultimately more electable in a general election? is it mitt romney or is it rick perry? >> rick perry has to demonstrate, i think, that his obvious appeal is dramatic and strong as we've seen from these polls that his appeal to republican activists can translate. it can translate geographically and can he play in northern states and mid-atlantic states that are key to presidential

elections and is it -- does it translate ideologically. he appeals to hardcore conservatives. can he make an appeal to independent voters? >> john harris, editor in chief of politico, great to talk to you. thanks so much. we'll see a lot of you this week. john harris will co-moderate the next republican debate along with brian williams this wednesday, 8:00 p.m. eastern from the reagan library in california. almost a week after hurricane irene's fury, hundreds of thousands of people are still without power. isn't there anything that can be done to prevent storms from knocking out power? also ahead, look who is at the wheel. it's life in the fast lane for a little girl. when i say little, i mean little. you won't believe how old she is unless you heard me talk about the last commercial. she's four. we'll be right back. now, when you want powerful wifi, you've got it.

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rain is already falling in some places along the gulf coast as the outer bands of tropical storm lee sweep over the region. this storm could bring as much as 20 inches of rain to some areas. tropical storm warnings are in effect from mississippi to texas and flash flood warnings extend along the alabama coast and on into the florida panhandle. we'll keep a very close eye on lee for you and bring you the latest. nearly a week after hurricane irene slammed the east coast, hundreds of thousands remain without power and as you can imagine, the frustration is growing. everyone wants to know why it is taking so long to restore electricity. roger anderson does not work for con ed. he's a professor at columbia university in the department of earth and environmental sciences. a good morning to you. thank you for being here, roger. can you tell us why in this era in 2012 you have people going a week without power? >> it's because of trees basically.

a power line is put on a tree. and trees fall down. when you have big storms. and only way to get around that is for instance the very high voltage transmission lines that are big aluminum towers and they are clean cut of trees along swaths across the prairie basically as they lay those. they weathered the storm pretty well. it's the trees that are the problem. it's not rocket science. >> as you say it's not rocket science, this is certainly not the first big storm we've had in this area. why is this such a challenge to be fixed? why haven't the power companies gone ahead and repositioned trees when things clear up? what's behind that? >> well, obvious answer is to go underground. that's what new york city and many of the global metropolises do is put power lines under ground where the rest of the

utilities are. that's where your gas line is, water, sewage, why the power is still up in the trees is puzzling and it always comes down to an argument of cost. good lord, how much did this hurricane cost us? for that amount of billions of dollars, we had a stimulus program, we had a smart grid, where's the smart? >> exactly. so where is the smart? does this suggest that the power companies do not look ahead? for instance, once everything is put back into order, let's say by next week, the price at the power companies don't sit there and devise a plan to get everything fixed before the next big, you know, storm comes along. >> it's not just the power companies. they're regulated, and they have public service commissions in different states, and it's a battle of prices. it's like the subways and raising a fare by a nickel versus not raising it, and the

subway itself is deteriorating over time. it's a similar problem with the power grid. >> okay. are there any other alternatives to this what would probably be cost-prohibitive to move everything under ground? >> well, you could lay it on the ground in ducts. that's probably -- >> that makes sense, actually. >> i know. why do they put the poles back exactly the same place where they just got knocked down? it doesn't make any sense. move them. if you want to keep them from falling down, then lay them on the ground. >> why do you think that concept hasn't been employed? that makes perfect sense. >> well, you could put it in plastic. obviously, you don't want the pedestrians electrocuted, dogs electrocuted, so you will have to protect them. the concept of putting power lines up on poles is from 150 years ago back when you didn't have polypropalene ducting that

we could protect electric cables from -- companies do that, like after 9/11. they laid the cables on the ground. >> okay. i hope we hear more about that or something else to fix all this. roger anderson, professor at columbia. thank you very much. >> it's a pleasure. in a moment the child who goes for a spin on the roads and drives a lot of traffic on the intbt. you're watching msnbc saturday. cease young. she's little. we're talking about it next. [ female announcer ] age doesn't look the way it used to.

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awe new video posted on-line is drawing shock, even confusion. i mean, unbelievable. today from people asking how did she do that? it's incredible footage showing a young girl in china driving a car along a busy stretch of motorway, and her parents are apparently in the back seat.

they're fleming here as she calmly nav gates the traffic. i'm joined live from london on this one. i'm telling you, michelle, let's talk about how this video surfaced, and what are people saying about it? >> hey, alex. s it was posted to the internet in china, sparking all kinds of angry reaction there. now, this driver looks like she could be one of the best on the road in, say, miami, but the thing is she also looks to be only about 4 years old. along that mind-numbing morning commute, imagine this little character pulling up along side. it's confident lining xaxang taking on the highway in china, sweater, pig tails and a sedan. she is very intent on the road ahead. that she could barely see above the steering wheel. speeds up, passes other cars.

concentrate, be careful dad coaches. not to be slowed down. she even skillfully steers into a better lane. finally, you hear stop the car. let daddy drive. you see him get out of the back. she puts what looks like a pacifier in her mouth. then dad pulls something up from the pedals. possibly an extension so she could reach. sure enough, youtube is littered with clips of parents letting their kids have a go at all kinds of things. cheering them on. off roading in australia. two 8-year-olds. here's a kid with an ak-47. big hug. a 3-year-old learning. you know, way too many toddlers who can barely walk are smoking these days. here's one having a beer in a bar. >> kids are not action figures. they're not toys. adults are putting them in these

situations as though it's simply for the fun of it. >> what some parents find hilarious can land them in big trouble. a woman videotaped her 2-year-old daughter smoking pot, and she ended up charged with felonies. the father of this guy, quite the lead foot at age 7, apologized for letting him drive. after police launched an investigation. a stellar a motorist as a 4-year-old can be, maybe not the best idea to proudly share with the rest of the planet. >> some people think these videos look fake. maybe the child is actually sitting on mom or dad's lap, and most of them, you see the parent right there. in other not so much. we have seen on-line so far little kids, to the lers, using guns, drugs, and motor vehicles. maybe the real question is what is this woshld coming to, alex? >> my favorite line in your

piece, ak-47. big hug. i cracked up. that was great. thank you, michelle. >> thank you, alex. what can we expect. president obama offering next week agency jobs speech to the nation. nothing nony about that. what will the chances he will accomplish his goals. we're keeping watch on tropical storm lee. is the nation ready to handle up to 20 inches of rain? you're watching msnbc saturday. how 'bout we start with the guaranteed low price on the carpet... the pad, and installation. let's get peace of mind for a lifetime. it all adds up to better carpet at a better price and a great-looking room transformed. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get 10% off or 24 months special financing on your first purchase of $599 or more when you open a new home depot credit card account. ♪ apply fixodent once, and it holds all day. ♪ take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge.