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right now on msnbc the gulf coast is getting drempled by tropical storm lee, so how much rain is coming? how bad will it get? a report from new orleans. still in the dark. almost a week after irene hundreds of thousands still without electricity, so what's taking so long? unraveling the jobs puzzle. does anyone have a solution to unemployment? will the president go big with a new plan? some say it's just another outrage in the casey anthony trial. you're going to hear how much someone want her to pay for her lies. good morning, everyone.

i'm alex witt, and welcome to msnbc saturday. we have breaking news to report from tropical storm lee. at this hour and for the next 15 minutes a crucial time in new orleans as there are numerous tornadoes warning in that area it's going until 8:15 eastern. all this news coming to us from the national weather service. again, that's tantamount to keep an eye on tornado warnings in new orleans right now. of course, the center of the storm is expected to make landfall in louisiana later today or early tomorrow, but the rain is already going for hours, and it could last all weekend. parts of louisiana and florida could be seeing as much as 20 inches of rain. louisiana governor warns there is still a lot of uncertainty over the path the storm may take. >> it has indications that it will continue to do so and we're encouraging citizens of new

orleans to make preparings. again, prepare for the worst, and & let's hope for the best. >> weather channel meteorologist mike seidel is in new orleans with more on this. good morning. hey, mike? >> welcome back to the big easy. i'm meteorologist mike seidel, and with an approaching tropical system, we have a tornado watch up here for this whole area, including new orleans until 9:00. that will likely be extended, and look at the radar. the red box area here at metro new orleans. we now have a tornado warning. based on doppler radar, and the gang back at the weather channel. we'll look at that more closely. what we have is just horizontal rain. we have wind gusts over the past 15 minutes that are just down behind me. i think it's pushing out at 50 miles an hour. a lot of rain, but so far so good here in new orleans as far as pumping the water out. we're not getting the rainfall rates we need. we need basically an inch an hour for three, four hours in a row. yesterday all day we only had two inches.

since midnight that's about all six or seven hours. we've had a little over an inch. even though it's been raining hard, it comes in waves. we're not getting that steady, heavy rainfall rate. we'll be showing you the pictures, rain permitting, of course. >> thanks for that. for more on what to expect from tropical storm lee, i'm joined by bill karins. good morning to you, bill. >> well, good morning to you, alex. aleyes are on the gulf coast. this is where we are getting drenched throughout this labor day weekend from tropical storm lee. we're not worried about the winds doing damage or anything like that. we're mostly only concerned with heavy rain and flash flooding, and that river flooding ethwe'll. let's take a look at the big map, and you'll see that all the green and the white down there over the top of new orleans, 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 up off the gulf, the center of the storm looking just south to be there in baton rouge.

now, back towards mobile and also towards the panhandle of florida, you're still going to be drenched. anywhere down it there from i-10 all the way to i-on 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 are seeing there is six to nine inches of rain. some lobbyings 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 that storm is headed drought-stricken texas. we still have a thunderstorm to deal with in chicago. st. louis, minneapolis this afternoon. not a bad day from d.c. up through boston. as we look at your sunday, that heavy rain from lee continues over the area of mississippi, alabama, and louisiana. then by the time we get to labor day, we'll see the showers and thunderstorms begin to spread along the eastern seaboard as the middle of the country dries

out. i guess the bottom line with lee now it's a rain maker and flooding will be the concern over the holiday weekend. back to you. >> okay. thank you very much for that where are bill karins. let's go to the economy now and the surprising new jobs number. the labor department says no new jobs were created in august. that is a zero job growth. the unemployment rate remains unchanged at 9.1%. the health care industry add the 30,000 extra jobs. professional and business services added 28,000. that would include engineer, accounting, and legal services. then every job gained in august was matched by a job lost. 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 while the national unemployment rate is unchanged. the jobless rate for african-americans has shot up from 15.9% to 16.7%, which is the highest unemployment rate for black americans in 27 years.

and this morning the president is urging lawmakers to work together to create jobs and avoid political posturing. ahead of the major speech on job creation this thursday, the president's weekly address calls on congress to cleanly and quickly pass a transportation bill that employs thousands of construction workers. >> there's a lot of talk in washington these days about creating jobs. folks are losing hundreds of thousands 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 nbc correspondent mike. good saturday morning to you. how is the president framing his debate? >> it's amaze. it's an indication of just how far apart the two sides are and how acramonious the climate is. it's usualingly authorize the once every six years. hundreds of billions of dollars

in road and bridge and airport projects to go into congressional around the country. it's always so popular in congress that one powerful chairman once named the bill after his spouse now that he can't pass the thing. it's set to expire on september 30th. the president says that would cost 4,000 jobs. they're still fighting over that. meanwhile, leading up to this big speech, thursday nigh night, of course, not wednesday night. very few details, although he likely will propose more infrastructure spending on some of those traditional road projects as well as extending some payroll tax cuts. he is likely to try to do something for employers in terms of tax credits to try to get them to hire the unemployed, but heading into this, it's unclear where there's common ground, if any at all. a report today delivered by a representative from virginia, representative bob goodlatte. >> government has gotten in the way when it can be part of the solution.

with millions of americans still asking where are the jobs, the president should help lead a bipartisan effort to remove government barriers to job creation. >> alex, putting all of it aside, putting ought offal politics aside, the economy is now stumbling. very highly respected experts on msnbc and elsewhere all day yesterday saying those new job numbers indicate a staggering economy that could now go back into a recession. the double dip. people have been talking about it for months, but it's now appearing to be at least a higher likehood that that could happen, alex. >> okay. mike viqueira. could you not cue the lawn blower? the second you start talking. what is that? it's rather amusing. thank you very much. >> all right. loo at least there's something to laugh at. we invite you to watch the president ae speech to congress at 7:00 p.m. on thursday on msnbc. well, president obama is spending labor day in michigan, and he is set to deliver a speech in downtown detroit. it should serve as a preview to

his big thursday night speech on job creation. i'm joined mou live by the mayor of lancing, michigan. mr. mayor, thank you for joining me. >> my pleasure. >> what are your expectations for the president's visit to your state? >> well, look, we're happy -- always happy to have him in michigan to see what's actually happening on the ground. you know, we're grateful for his action in saving the auto industry, which is going strong. that's an investment in gm and chrysler that is paying back. that's what is saving us in lancing. our manufacturings sector is -- it's coming -- barrelling back, and it's a reminder that we need to put the p in gdp. the reality is you have to make things in america. that's the problem. it's the outsourcing and the off shoring that is practically killing the economy. we need a main street agenda. what i am hoping to hear from the president is his willingness to go even further. the transportation thing, yeah, that's important. we need to put the p back in gdp. we need to support manufacturing because great nation advisory to produce greatly. that's what's working for michigan right now. it can work for the entire country.

we need fair trade policies in place of free trade policies. >> all right. let's look at the national unemployment rate with you. you know, it stands at 9.1%. stagnant, certainly. michigan's august jobs numbers won't be out until later on this month, but back in july i know your state was facing unemployment higher than the national average at 10. 9% in july. is that what the lancing residents are facing as well? what are your constituents telling you? >> no question. it's tough here. it is tough. but manufacturing is coming back. the auto industry investment paid off. gm sales were up again this month. the products we make in lancing are up. yes, people are hurting. i'll tell you the problem -- one of the problems, alex, the banks still aren't lending. banks are the new sell taers. it's where money goes to die. the money goes in, but it doesn't come out, just like in a cemetery. i am saying this to the administration for a couple of years. we got to find a way to get the money to the small and medium size businesses who are ready to go. the only one who can get a loan is a guy that doesn't need it.

to so that's part of what is stiffling the economy. of course, the mortgage problem. we still have people losing their homes. we need a foreclosure moratorium. some of these nagging problems that have not been dealt with. again, the fair trade. i was at a manufacturing summit the other day. some are dyed in the wool republicans, and i don't care democrats and or republicans, people understand we need fair trade. a guy stood up and said we need fair trade, not free trade. these trade agreements that they're trying to give us, the panama, the korea, they don't want it. we need a level playing field. >> but with free trade, meantime, how do you think that would really change the equation? how long would that take to turn things around if things went the way you're suggesting? >> well, alex, you are right. that's a long-term strategy, but a vital one. you know, part of what's turned around the auto industry is patriotic purchasing, which some people would call protectionism. our competitors practice protective protection policies and we don't. we're trying to play -- we're playing with one set of rules, and they're playing another. i'm saying we should treat their goods how they treat ours.

korea has a huge tariff on the vehicles that we send there. we have a 3% tear taerive on the ones that come here. we're going to treat your stuff exactly how you treated ours. instead, we're much kinder, and we can't afford it anymore. that's a policy. there are things we can do immediately. i have my back to the envelope test. the trade thing is vital. the access to capital is vital. that's something that can happen right now. uses the eda. you know, the economic development administration. let's get money to the small and medium size businesses who will use it. don't just throw money at the banks who are the new cemeteries. they're killing the money. the infrastructure investment. yes. mayors anywhere in the country will tell you, our schools and roads are crumbling, and we need help. we need an apollo style commitment to manufacturing. >> when you talk about that cemetery with the banks and the money goes in and it doesn't come out, isn't there something the government can do to push the banks to loan the money to get things flowing again, get people out there being prosperous? isn't there something that can be done because that's an

excuse. there's no solutions here. just problems. >> you forced me to relay a secret confrontation i had with the obama administration two or three years ago. i was talking to ron bloom who recently left. see ya. i said you have to find a way to bypass the banks and get the money do the businesses. he was -- even ron even said bypass the banks? that's not the american way. well, as long as you choctaw to the banks and choctaw to wall street, you're want going to solve the problem. there's only one outfit that's in worse shape than the tea party, that's less popular than the tea party, and that's the bangsteres. wall street is killing the economy, and we need a main street agenda in place of a wall street agenda. >> the mayor of lancing, michigan. thank you very much for your time. >> thanks, alex. s. >> back to our breaking news. down from the gulf coast, tropical storm lee has spurned numerous tornado warnings in the new orleans area right now. i'm joined by the weather channel's mike seidel there who

is getting us evidence this storm is really a soaker at this point. good morning. >> good morning. last week there's no sand involved, but, boy, we've had wind gusts pushing 60 miles an hour. in fact, the national hurricane center has now elevated the maximum wind speed to 60 miles an hour, so it's a strong tropical storm. it's not out of the question. it becomes a category one hurricane. you can see the rain coming hor zonktsly. we've got a wide open on the mississippi. behind me there's metal police barricades that were blown down by a squall an hour ago, and power outages continue to ramp up. about an hour ago it was 9,000. last time i had an on-line entity that had over 16,000, and now it's probably over 20,000 as these winds take out power around this part of louisiana. the situation, though, it's a slow-moving storm. it's not going make landfall later this afternoon and dissipate and drop a lot of wane rain. it's going to take three to four days to clear it out of louisiana. we're looking at rainfall totals

potentially as much as 15 or 20 inches. so far to so good, and new orleans, a city that sits below sea level,they've got all 24 pumps up and running and backup generators, and the rainfall rate has not been enough yet to cause water to back up into the streets. they did turn off one -- they did shut the gate on one canal. the london avenue canal. the core of engineers yesterday. now they're pumping the water from that into lake pontchartrain. everybody is on alert. this is not a katrina. we're not going see levees fail. we don't have a major hurricane sitting out in the gulf. nonetheless, a very stormy and windy labor day weekend. mississippi and even into parts of the florida panhandle, so the rain was wrapping in. most of, it alex, is on the east half of the storm. it's only moving north-northwest at 7 miles an hour. it's just limping along. we're going to add up the rain. already we've got, i would say, about three and a half to four inches of rain officially in new orleans. two inches yesterday. about two inches so far since

midnight. we're going to be out here for you all morning, alex, as well as -- as long as we don't have the all -- the old rain fade that can take out the signal at any moment. >> right. i just want to confirm for drought-stricken texas, nothing is going there? >> nothing approximate with this wrishts all in louisiana. now, louisiana is in a bad drought too. especially in the western part of the state. they're happy to see this rainfall, and also remember, unlike with irene, we've got a different setup here. we don't have mountains and hills like in jersey up through new england. especially vermont. we have a sandier soil. we're not going to have water rushing down anything because it's all flat here. louisiana is happy to see the rain. maybe not 15 or 20 inches, obviously, because of the low-lying areas, and it starts to add up. you get a sense of the wind coming off the mississippi right now, and pelting us. these gusts right now in the mid to upper 40s, i would estimate. >> okay.

>> and staying up around 30 to 35. we'll be here through the morning for you. >> oh, mike. you're the best. thank you very much. we'll certainly check back in if you are going to make that kind of effort. appreciate it. sdmrimplts well, the price of a lie. should casey anthony have to pay for the search for her missing daughter? first, the struggle to get the power back on for hundreds of thousands following hurricane irene. a live report on that recovery in vermont coming up next. plus, the new way more parents are paying for their children's college education, and it's making financial planners just cringe. [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage

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the painfully dismal august jobs report. many are wondering how can president obama win re-election given such bleak numbers? it has been done before.

not wunksz, gut butt twice. f.d.r. pulled it off in 1936, and ronald reagan followed suit in 1948 despite the horrific jobs numbers they were fatesing, particularly for f.d.r. who first took office with unemployment as high as 25%. i'm joined by alan lic thisman. alan, good morning. nice to see you. >> same here, alex. >> so file time making sfleen says f.d.r. and reagan argued that the country, though in pain, feeling improving and that his -- is that a strategy that might work for president obama? >> i think you're absolutely right. what you mentioned is very important. that the last trend of the economy for both of those presidents were awkward and that americans were very unhappy with the policies of their predecessors, herbert hoover on the one hand, and jimmy carter

on the other hand. let's also remember those were very powerful presidents, unchallenged in their own party, running with no strong third party challenge, no great disasters abroad, and running against a weak challenger. >> do you think the president can deliver an inspirational speech playing to the citizens' emotion that is will lift people's hopes in the economic future or do we need to see tangible results first? is that the only way we're going to believe anything? >> i think a little bit of both. remember, franklin roosevelt burst on the scene as president by saying we have nothing to fear but fear itself. barack obama is perfectly capable of elevating to the fraurnk franklin roosevelt level. he did during the election year with that extraordinary speech. for some reason and maybe he is listening to those darn consultants, he hasn't done it yet as president. he can do it.

that's the first step. then that has to be followed. not by a dispayings of all the problems, but by some tangible improvement that he can point to. >> you know, there's something that is a huge difference between this presidency and those of f.d.r. and rag. that is the sheer level of information out there. people are much more in tune with what's happening on the jobs front because of the internet and the unprecedented flood of information that we all live under now. how does this affect obama's re-election chances? >> i think it makes it more difficult. i it's a challenge for the president to craft a message and get it across to the american people because there is so many cross-pressures coming from meeting every today. everyone is a media premadonna, which makes a speech like this, when he has a command audience, so important. the other thing i think is crucial is that both ronald reagan and franklin roosevelt stuck to their principles, and were bold and big in their thinking. obama has a show that he is

sticking with principles and he has a plan equivalent to the challenges of the times. jimmy carter and herbert hoover were much smaller figures, and that along with their economic problems contributed to their political demise. >> great to talk to you. >> thanksing alex. the legal fight to get casey anthony to pay for the trial that was prompted by her lives. that is president reagan, of whom we were just speaking. we'll be right back. ♪ my subaru saved my life.

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33 past with this breaking news as tropical storm lee is generating heavy rains throughout southern louisiana. it is pelting the rest of the gulf coast this morning. this storm could bring as much as 20 inches of rain to some areas. we're going get the latest now from nbc meter ojs bill karins. bill, good morning. >> good morning to you, alex. s all eyes are on the gulf coast. this is where we're getting drenched throughout this labor day weekend from tropical storm lee. we're not worried about the winds doing damage or anything like that. mostly only concerned with heavy rain and flash flooding and then river flooding eventually. let's take a look at the big map. you will see that all the green and the 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 up off the gulf, the center of the storm looking at just south to be there in baton rouge. now, back towards mobile and also towards the panhandles of now florida, you're still going to be get drerchged far from the center. anywhere down there from i-10 to

i-20, that's who will see the worst of the heavy rain. take a look at our computer estimates. all through yarsz of louisiana, especially mississippi, that purple color you see there is the six to nine inches of rain. some location kooz 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 is00 degree heat from texas. none of the storm is headed drought-stricken texas. not a bad day from d.c. up through boston, and as we look at your sunday, that heavy rain from lee continues over the area of mississippi, alabama, and louisiana. 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 dries out. they get to the bottom line with lee, alex, and that it's a rain maker, and flooding will be the concern over the holiday weekend. thank you. >> thank you, bill karins, for that. the aftermath of hurricane irene

in new jersey. thousands are still feeling the effects, and almost 25,000 customers still without power in new jersey. the residents are cleaning up the extensive damage caused by the storm last weekend. the president is scheduled to visit tomorrow. with a good morning to you, mara, what is the plan for the president's arrival there tomorrow? >> reporter: well, the president is going to come here for his first visit of hurricane irene damage here in patterson, new jersey. patterson is a fitting place for him to come because they did suffer a substantial amount of damage here, and you can see behind me, i mean, this picture says a lot. this passaic river is not only raging, but the levels are still very high. as of 7:00 this morning the level of the river was at 21 feet. flood stage is at 19 feet. even a week after the storm we're almost two feet above flood stage even still. this entire area was flooded. just to give you some perspective, you see the storm behind me here, it had water rising halfway up it.

there was a lot of damage left in its wake. roads destroyed. businesses in the downtown area damaged, and the president will be coming to see all of that. now, in terms of the affect on the residents here, they are still feeling it. about 1,000 people are still without power. 1,500 still displaced. the mayor of this town says that as of the -- if he had taken the whole scope of the disaster, about 6,000 people have been affected. this kweek president obama signed a disaster declaration for new jersey so that they can qualify for federal aid to help them rebuild this area, and that's all stuff that he will be seeing firsthand when he is here tomorrow. alex. s. >> okay. thank you so much. well, on the campaign trail, republican candidates are blasting president obama for the latest jobs numbers. friday in tampa, florida, mitt romney said that the president's economic policies have failed to create jobs. take a listen. >> this president has been an extraordinary fail rur. he said three years ago on the "today" show -- he said if i can't get this economy turned

around, if i can't get it turned around in three years, he said, then i'm looking at a one-term propositi proposition. well, he has failed. it's been three years, and he is out. >> joining me from tampa is garrett hague. i know that mitt romney essential escalating his language about jobs yet. is that how you're reading it too? >> good morning, alex. s yeah, a little bit. governor romney is getting ready for this big roll-out on tuesday of his jobs plan, and they're setting this up. really the last couple of weeks since they announced that he would be rolling it out. he continues to step up the criticism of the president. obviously, those jobs numbers yesterday gave him a little bit of new ammunition. although he has been using that today show story for a while about coming back to collect the white house. yet, they're really trying to set the table for tuesday when they can take this chance to roll out their new big jobs plan, that they hope will set the political agenda for the next few days. >> i'm curious how the romney camp is reacting to polls that suggest that rick perry is the

frontrunner? >> publicly they're not really addressing those issues. governor romney has asked about this press release a couple of days ago whether or not he saw the whole thing shaping up or whether he was a frontrunner. >> he said i'm one of the guys running. you are seeing especially over starting earlier this week but for the next couple of days there's a long-awaited really significant campaign push from the romney campaign. they were going to sort of slow play the month of august, and now we're in september, and things are picking up dramatically. he is doing thinks first tea party rally on sunday night. he will be headlining an event in new hampshire and then flying the next morning to south carolina to speak at senator jim demint's palmetto freedom forum, which i challenge you to say three times fast, in south carolina, which is a big deal for republican tea party folks. demint is considered one of the god fathers of that movement. then it's a big jobs announcement on tuesday, and wednesday night the nbc debate in california. they're really ramping up that campaign schedule. whether or not it's perry part of that plan, it's coming on strong.

>> palmetto jobs -- what was that again? freedom forum. you stumped me. garrett, it's the last time you're on this show. i'm kidding. see you in i bit. >> thank you, alex. sarah palin will be speaking at a tea party rally in iowa. speculation of a presidential run surrounds her no matter where she goes. >> run, sarah, run! >> well, that's the response to a surprise visit she made at a palin meeting aat an iowa restaurant yesterday. you heard people chanting "run sarah run. she would decide by the end of this month whether or not she's running. congressman ron paul toured a gun factory and asked about the unemployment numbers. he fired shots at the president's administration saying no progress has been made on the economy. >> it's devastating. it shows that we really have had essentially no recovery and that we haven't addressed our

problems correctly yet. >> and rick perry will be speaking with voters in new hampshire today? >> well, the white house says president obama is taking his jobs plan on the road next week. the president will make a stop in richmond, virginia, on friday. a trip will allow the president to sell his plan just a day after unveiling it before a joint session of congress thursday evening. the plan comes as the economy is looking even weaker with a new jobs report showing employers stopped adding jobs last month. joining me live from washington d.c., msnbc political analyst richard wolf. it's always good to see you. good morning. >> good morning, alex. one big old goose egg. did that number that jobs created a lack thereof, did that catch the white house by surprise, or did the administration have very low expectations? >> well, low expectations, and there's sxwler expectations. these were bad numbers there. they knew they were bad in the white house. they don't get any warning, of

course, and so they're extremely disappointing. having said that, everyone can see the warning signs when washington hit that gridlock over the debt ceiling debate, and the markets retanked over the summer, so what we saw from that political fist fight, as ugly as it was, was first of all, market disruption in the financial sector, but they also are spreading through to the real economy. not a total shock, but still, extremely disappointing and troubling for this white house. >> we heard it said the president is going to go big on thursday night. are there any fresh ideas for the white house or congress to grow jobs, or will it be more of the same? >> well, it may be more of the same in terms of the politics and the ugliness, it would seem, but there are really specific ideas that they could move forward. i would think of looking at four areas. that's what i have listened for when the president speaks. first of all, broadly under the idea of stimulus.

the most obvious place to go is tax cuts, because that's what republicans say they stand for. and there are endless numbers of ideas of how to get money in people's pockets through tax. remember the first bush tax cuts were supposed to avert a recession from the bubble -- the tech bubble bursting. tax cuts is one idea. the republicans have traditionally supported. infrastructure spending. that's another area. then two specific things. incentives for getting employers to hire, and real measures to get the housing market back on its feet. that remains a huge drag on this economy. going big is the details that are big. the number of ideas that congress can take that are not that controversial and not radical and not leading to bigger government for republicans or activity to the left. >> do you think the president can win re-election in 2012 without a jobs revival, and how does dough that? >> well, if the economy is still stagnant at that point, it's

extremely difficult, but elections are choices. you end up with two candidates, and you know, you just have to think back to 2004. the last time a president was going for re-election, and in the early part of 2004, iraq was spiralling out of control. the pictures were devastating. you had the 16 words. you had no weapons of mass destruction. you had an economy that was slowing. there was a real sense of crisis for the bush white house at that point. what happened? yes, the economy wasn't so bad, but the situation in iraq really was awful. in the end they had a choice. they had a choice between two candidates. bush who was struggling, and john kerry, and they did an incredible job of making john kerry look unpresidential and an unacceptable choice. when we get to that contest, let's make a decision. that's a year away. we don't know what the economy looks like or what the head-to-head looks like. >> we'll be talking with you then, if not before. thanks so much. autopaying for college by

raidsing your 401k? how risky is this? that's next. do you have an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem? are you taking warfarin to reduce your risk of stroke caused by a clot? you should know about pradaxa. an important study showed that pradaxa 150mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regular blood tests. pradaxa is progress. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have kidney problems or a bleeding condition, like stomach ulcers. or if you take aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures,

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blog ask a money coach.com. this is pretty risky. look at this. we've got more than double people that are going and saying we want to send our kids to college. we don't have the money to do it. we have to break into retirement. >> this is an absolutely bad financial strategy. you know, i tell parents all the time that, frankly, your kids can borrow for college. you don't want them to take on student loans, but you certainly can't borrow when it comes to retirement. you really do have to develop an alternative strategy to be able to fund those college tuition bills. >> you say, what, you really have to leave it up to the kids. some of us are, like, we wanted to do this. >> all of us. i had three kids. you know, every patient, of course, wants to be able to provide for their kids. there are a lot of steps you can take. first of all, you don't want to take loans. if you don't want to raid the 401k, which is, he again, a bad decision, look at alternative methods to finance college. the five basic ones -- grants, scholarships, paid internships for the students, work study

programs, and then the family's own resources. grandmother, uncle, the cousins who might be able to kick in money and let them give the kid money towards a 529 plan, which is another great strategy in terms of saving for college as opposed to, say, holiday gift money or birthday money. >> yeah. that's actually pretty good bucks right there. in regards to the economy, where it sits right now, how do you think this trend will be continue sng. >> i think it's going to continue and increase in the future, because here's what's going on. the rate of tuition for college is really about triple the rate of inflation. we've got a big problem in this country in terms of college affordability. the average middle class family simply cannot afford college. think about private school. that's really very much out of the reach for many families. that's why the typical student is coming out of college right now according to the college board, more than $20,000 in student loan debt. parents have got to start saving earlier. they've got to get more aggressive about that

scholarship money. they have to be aggressive in filling out the form earlier in the year and not counting themselves out saying, oh, we're not going to qualify. we make too much money or whatever. every single strategy. you have to do it. then you have to push the students, of course, to get the good grades to perform well and to give themselves every opportunity to get those scholarships, grants, and other things. >> thank you so much. welcome. >> paying for her past. should casey anthony have to pay for the thousands spent by authorities as they went searching for her daughter? we'll be right back. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year.

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zimpl a florida judge is waiting to decide if casey anthony should pay the cost of investigating the did hes appearance of a it-year-old daughter. that price tag is a hefty one, and it's upwards of half a million dollars.

nbc's lily -- >> reporter: casey anthony may be a free woman, but she can't seem to walk away from her lies. >> the lies of casy marie anthony affected this entire case, as they do to this day. >> reporter: from the fake kidnapping of her daughter by imaginary nanny. >> i still have that feeling of presence. i know that she's alive. >> reporter: to phone conversations that never happened. casey anthony may have to pay for every hopeless search investigators put on to find missing caylee, while she already knew her child was dead. four government agencies tallied up their cost of investigation and prosecution. >> as a result of her telling those lies that she should bare the responsibility that the taxpayers now have to bare. >> reporter: just how many taxpayers dollars? more than half a million that prosecutors say was spent

following misleading looegz leads. >> what's so extraordinary here is the amount being sought from indicationy anthony. >> reporter: anthony's defense attorneys agree. they say she's getting billed for way more than her lying conviction. >> none of the state of florida's charges are legitimate. that's a stat other entitle of the dollar 5 for each of the four counts. >> casey anthony was unable to pay for her own defense. still on probation, and unemployed, she has to reimburse investigators. the question is how? >> casey has no money. she's i understand jent, period. >> if she gets book deals and movie deals, the state will look to collect that from casey anthony. >> george and cindy anthony were rumored have received $500,000 for an exclusive interview with dr. phil set to air september 12th. >> america has never heard this explanation before. why has it been until now? >> the case may be closed, but many hidden truths in the story

are just now starting to see the light. a live report from louisiana as tropical storm lee belts the gulf coast. plus, three words. test tube meat. what that's all about coming up in our next hour here on msnbc saturday. information first. for broccoli, say one. for toys, say two. toys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 central standard time. he's in control. goodbye. even kids know it's wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with an endless automated system. you can talk to a real person 24/7. it's just the right thing to do.

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