her morning begins with arthritis pain. that's a coffee and two pills. the afternoon tour begins with more pain and more pills. the evening guests arrive. back to sore knees. back to more pills. the day is done but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. just 2 pills can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lara who chose 2 aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. good day. i'm craig melvin. we are covering the big news from coast to coast. the big story we're watching today, jobs now. >> they will be specific, they will be measurable, they will be paid for. >> the white house insists it's big, bold and urgent. >> i want you all to tune in on thursday. >> tonight, presidents obama unveils the american jobs act. >> so the president tonight will

be -- will continue to be firm about action now. >> reportedly, it will include a middle class tax cut, infrastructure projects, housing help and more. it's now a high stakes, low expectations game for mr. obama mid the lowest approval numbers of his presidency. >> go ahead, make your speech. but i hope you have something to back it up. >> strangling america's economy. >> a band of feisty republicans eager to replace him. >> he's just over his head. >> so fed up, some republicans won't even bother to show up tonight. >> he's cheapening the very notion of a joint session of congress. >> is it too much to ask for a real plan? >> the definition of insanity, albert einstein once famously put it, is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. >> still, the only group with a worse public opinion rating is congress, and the president's supporters say that could be his opening. >> it's the beginning of a long process, but it's the beginning of a dialogue with the american people that i think he can win.

>> kristen welker is at the house. the white house saying the plan is comprehensive, also saying many of the ideas had gop support in the past. what do we know about what's in the president's plan? >> reporter: white house officials are telling us this plan will cost several hundred billion dollars potentially, somewhere between $300 billion and $400 billion. as you say, they believe a lot of these ideas should be able to gain bipartisan support so what's in the plan? we're told it will include extending payroll taxes, investing in infrastructure, aid for state and local government so that teachers, police officers, firefighters can stay on the job, and also, training for those who have been unemployed for long periods of time. here's what we're looking for tonight, craig. we're going to be watching for the tone of the president's remarks. is he going to come out swinging here against the gop or will he have a more conciliatory tone, a tone to sort of soothe the american people in these

incredibly troubling economic times. the other thing we'll be watching for is, of course, the republican response to this. as you pointed out, some republicans have already said they won't be there for the president's speech. some other republicans have said that so far, what they've heard here are just a bunch of old ideas. so we'll be watching to hear what republicans have to say. republican presidential candidate michele bachmann expected to make remarks after that speech. this is really a critical speech for the president, craig. unemployment rate has been stuck above 9%. he is experiencing some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency so a lot of people here saying they want to hear more than just words when the president takes the podium tonight. >> a lot riding on the speech at 7:00. what about after the speech? there have been those who have called on the president to hit the road as early as later this week to try and sell this thing to the american public. any word at this point about the white house's plans to do that? >> reporter: well, by all indications, that is exactly

what the president is going to do. in fact, he'll be traveling on friday to try to sell this plan. as you may remember in the past, this white house has been criticized for not explaining to the american people exactly what they're trying to do. they got a lot of criticism for proposing something that a lot of the american public didn't really understand so this is a shift, certainly. the president expected to get on the road, sell this to the american people starting with the day after this speech. >> kristen welker, thank you so much. want to go ahead and bring in kentucky democrat john yarmouth, a member of the house budget committee. good afternoon to you. thank you for joining us. we just heard from kristen welker, we know a little bit about what's in this plan, based on what you've heard is the plan big enough? >> well, it may be big enough depending on what the elements are. i think kristen really hit on the most important point, though, and that is what the president is going to need to do is explain to the american

people how this will impact them directly. that's one thing we always fail to do. we talk a lot about economic theory and big numbers but one of the problems with the american recovery and reinvestment act was a lot of americans didn't understand how it affected their lives. that's what i think most citizens are looking for. so the elements i think are less important than making that critical point to the average citizen. >> which president needs to show up tonight? kristen just alluded to the tone of the speech. do you want to see the fighter in chief coming out swinging, or do you want to see the president we've seen a lot of over the past few months, the compromiser in chief, come out tonight? >> no, i think we need a president who has clarity, who has a very clear direction, and is confident in the plan and how it will improve people's lives. needs to be a leadership speech. somebody has to show the american people a direction out of this very, very tough time we have.

so i don't think it's combative, necessarily, but i think it has to be very decisive and clear. >> i want to turn to political feasibility for a second. i'm going to play a piece of sound here from house majority leader eric cantor this morning. i'll get your reaction on the other side. take a listen. >> we know that republicans and democrats are not going to agree on everything, but i do think that the people of my district and this country expect the fact that we're not going to let those differences get in the way of coming together for common sense solutions. >> specifically here, what are you guys going to be able to agree on with the gop? >> well, as long as the gop in this time basically says the only thing that they want to do is get the government out of the way, both in terms of making investments in the economy and in regulating where it needs to be regulated, we're going to have a tough time coming to an

agreement. my business community in louisville, kentucky, is very clear. they think the government has a very important role to play in investing in the future of this country and creating jobs. as long as it's kind of we don't need the government, the government has no role, then i think we're going to have a tough time. i don't think the american people believe that and i certainly don't think my business community thinks that. and so we've got -- we're going to have a tough negotiating process but again, i think the congressional republicans, particularly in the house, are very much out of touch with many of their own supporters, and that's what i'm hearing from my people back home. >> kentucky democrat john yarmuth, thank you for your time. appreciate you. folks, don't forget, you can watch the president's address to congress 7:00 eastern tonight right here on msnbc. some big news today about bank of america, the largest bank in this country. i talked to a spokeswoman by phone who said they are, in fact, closing as many as 10% of their branches.

that number could put the closings as high as 570 branches. thousands of jobs could be lost. not exactly what the president was hoping to hear on the day of his big jobs speech. i would love to hear what you think as well. what would you like to hear from president obama tonight? you can tweet me, one word, @craigmelvin. we'll share those responses later in the hour. as the president prepares for one of the biggest speeches of his political career, the republicans who want to replace him were going at it at last night's gop debate. >> this is a president so committed to class warfare and bureaucratic socialism that he can't possibly be effective in jobs. >> we need a president who's going to provide a little bit of leadership in giving us some direction and opening up the opportunities. this president's got to go. this president's a nice guy. he doesn't have a clue how to get this country working again. >> william welch, national reporter at "usa today" , msnbc

political analyst and author of "the promise." gentlemen, didn't take long for the two front-runners to go after each other, a few moments in. perry and romney boasting about their jobs creation record, then took swipes at the others. >> yeah. >> let's take a listen. i think we've got that sound. >> we created more jobs in the last three months in texas than he created in four years in massachusetts. >> texas has zero income tax. texas has a right to work state. a republican legislature, a republican supreme court. >> michael dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, mitt. >> well, as a matter of fact, george bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, governor. >> they had their one-liners ready. on the issue of job creation, which of the two candidates did a better job last night of defending their record? >> you know, i think romney had a better night. but the upshot of all this is that they are creating sound

bites that barack obama and the democrats will be able to use in the fall. they are softening each other up for the democrats. by the time this is over, the whole country will know after however many debates that massachusetts was 47th out of 50 in job creation. that is not a good statistic for mitt romney to be taking into a general election. should rick perry be the nominee, they'll know not just all about his positions on social security and calling it a ponzi scheme and the rest, but they'll also know his claims for a texas economic miracle have been challenged by republicans, namely mitt romney. even though they get some good batting practice, some good preseason work here that helps toughen them up for a general election, they -- >> you think by the time this thing's over, they're so battered and bloodied that the president will have a leg up? a considerable leg up or just a leg up?

>> i'm certainly not predicting it will be decisive. when you're running with 9% unemployment and you're the incumbent, you've got real political problems. i'm saying that what this does do is it will help clarify some of the big economic issues for the general election. >> william, perry and romney see their record on job creation differently. rick perry and mitt romney also see social security very differently as well. take a listen to what they said last night about social security. >> it is a ponzi scheme. to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today you are paying into a program that's going to be there, anybody that's for the status quo with social security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids. >> our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing social security, but is committed to saving social security. >> can rick perry crisscross the country and continue to call social security a lie and ponzi scheme, and expect older americans, especially, especially older americans in places like florida, can he

expect them not to punish him at the polls? >> you're right, craig. this is a very risky proposition for governor perry. he has laid out this ponzi scheme rhetoric in his book, which was out less than a year ago, and his opponents in the republican party as well as democrats who might take him on later have been having a lot of fun going through there and pulling things out. this is probably the starkest difference between governor perry and others in the presidential field right now, and using the rhetoric like ponzi scheme and monstrous lie can be off-putting. there are a lot of americans who are supported, who are living as a result of social security right now. >> and jonathan, romney used perry's position on social security as perhaps demonstrative of his inability to get elected in a general election. jon huntsman then piles on and talks about global warming.

let's take a listen to what huntsman had to say about not just what perry's position is on it but the gop position in a lot of cases. take a listen. >> when you make comments that fly in the face of what 98 out of 100 climate scientists have said, when you call into question the science of evolution, all i am saying is that in order for the republican party to win, we can't run from science. >> there's mainstream jon huntsman trying to appeal to i guess the six or seven moderates in the room last night. is that going to be the strategy in terms of attacking perry, going forward, that hey, this guy you might like him but there's no way he wins this thing come next november? >> i think we're seeing the emergence of what will eventually be called scary perry. this is a guy who is out of the mainstream and what's different about this, craig, is that we have been operating for a number of years under the assumption that within republican primaries, it's impossible to be too far right and that you pay

no penalty for going over and appealing to the fringe of the party. we will find out in the next few months whether rick perry pays a penalty for being that far out of the mainstream, or whether that kind of red meat which a lot of republican primary voters believe, works just fine. the problem for him i think will be less on global warming and more on social security, because a lot of republican primary voters are older and they depend on social security -- >> especially in places like florida. >> yeah. the system being called like a bernie madoff system which is what he means when he talks about it as a ponzi scheme. >> thank you, jonathan, william. appreciate your time this afternoon, gentlemen. the northeast has not had time to recover from irene and now the remnants of tropical storm lee are already soaking waterlogged communities. in pennsylvania, officials have ordered more than 100,000 to evacuate the northeastern part of the state along the susquehanna river. they have to leave by 4:00 this afternoon, when officials

believe the river could begin to crest. flooding is already being blamed for three deaths. meanwhile, in maryland, flash flood warnings have been in effect since this morning. many roads are closed throughout the region. police in pasadena say one man drowned in flood waters near his home. the susquehanna is threatening binghamton, new york. officials are forcing 10,000 residents to evacuate. the river started flowing over retaining walls downtown less than ten hours after the evacuation order was issued. the weather channel's chris warren is in binghamton right now. what's the scene right now? >> reporter: well, we're seeing one of those walls, one of those flood walls, craig, where it is getting very close to being overtopped. in fact, i may already be at this point. some spots on the wall are seeing some overtopping of the flood waters because the forecast is for it to be almost a foot above that, which they have never seen here. so we had record flooding in 2006 and this is going to top

that for this town here. as we look, you look across the surface and it's hard to even make out where the wall is. keep in mind, there should be a wall that's about 15 feet tall going down to the river, but instead, you can't even see the wall. so we're slowly starting to see i think a few of the waves make it over. this part of binghamton, it's only going to get worse. so you have the wall that's keeping the water out. however, now that the water's rising, starting to get over the top of it, and we're also told by police that there are parts of the wall where at the base, some of the water's starting to get through. so the overall integrity of the wall is also in question at this time. so if that breaks, it's going to make things that much worse. we're seeing now that the police are saying nobody's allowed back in town. once you get out, you're not coming back in. craig? >> chris warren from the weather channel, thank you. coming up, the dramatic 911 calls from the deadly shooting

at a nevada ihop yesterday and a look at the lives lost. first, a quick look at wall street right now. here's what's happening. the dow down about 20 points. s & p down about two. nasdaq, up a hair. [ groans ] you okay?

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authorities in nevada have released the chilling 911 calls made during that deadly shooting rampage at an ihop restaurant. let's go live to carson city, nevada. what do these 911 tapes reveal? >> well, they show us what's really been described as a war zone. indeed, the nevada national guard lost as many troops here as they did in iraq and afghanistan. but we're also hearing today about some incredible stories of heroism.

>> there's a shooting going on. >> reporter: days after the deadly shooting, new details that almost take us there. sounds captured in chilling 911 calls. and images of some who died. three national guard troops, trained to defend our country, gunned down having breakfast near home. they leave behind families, co-workers and questions. authorities still have no idea why 32-year-old edwardo went on this deadly rampage. >> i have known him to be a very gentle, kind, giving person. unfortunately, it involved military during 9/11 which is very unfortunate timing. >> reporter: whatever the motive, it turns out the moments that unveiled such evil in others inspired incredible acts. the cheney family was just a few feet from the shooting, until a good samaritan showed them a way out. >> how can you thank somebody

for saving your children's lives? >> reporter: quick-thinking kevin insists he did nothing out of the ordinary. >> no. i don't know what i did. to me, a hero is somebody that can repel bullets. >> reporter: or perhaps stay calm, guiding a family away from a gunman instead of running himself. >> i wanted to but it wasn't the right thing to do. >> reporter: the humble hero who survived a massacre still left wishing he could have done more. >> that's what hurts the most. for goodness and kindness to show up in such an evil act. >> reporter: one other bright spot, three of the seven wounded have now been released from the hospital, including one of the other national guard troops who was shot. craig, we do expect her to make a full recovery. >> all right, thank you. so much for the war on drugs. doesn't seem like it's working.

at least not according to a new justice department report. plus the football season that nobody expected to happen kicks off tonight. get your fantasy lineups. we'll head to green bay after this. [ male announcer ] this is coach parker... whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain.

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after an off-season dominated by a labor lockout, the nfl season kicking off tonight on nbc. in just hours, the defending super bowl champion green bay packers will take on the new orleans saints at lambeau field. kevin tibbles live in green bay this afternoon. new orleans won the super bowl two seasons ago, got green bay -- how big of a matchup is this? >> reporter: you know, i don't even think it really -- of course it matters, the size of the matchup, but the bottom line is we are in lambeau field here today, home of the green bay packers, super bowl champions.

by tonight on nbc, there will be 70,000 screaming green and gold fans in this building. that's almost as much as the population of this entire city. people are driving for hundreds of miles to be here. i've just walked into lambeau from outside. the tailgating has already started. the brats are already on the barbecues and they are doing the sound checks because before the game even starts today, they're expecting some 40,000 people to be outside listening to the music of kid rock and getting into the mood for this game tonight. but it's really going to be a big game and i'm sure a lot of people are going to be watching not only from inside lambeau field. >> of course, the story line that dominated during the off-season was the lockout that thankfully was resolved. at this point does the nfl have any lingering concerns about attendance around the league because of that lockout? >> reporter: i certainly don't think that they have a concern in this particular city and i haven't heard anything about that during the time i've been

here. the bottom line is they did work it out, they've got aaron rodgers here, they've got a lot of -- there's a lot of momentum going into this season. this is the perfect type of game to start this season off. and i think a lot of people sitting in the driver's seat are looking out the front window. i don't think too many people at this point in time are sticking their eyes in the rear view mirror to see what they've just managed to avoid. they are going forward this season and this is a great way to kick it off here tonight. you couldn't ask for a better day for football. there isn't a cloud in the sky. it's going to be about 60, 65 at kickoff and when they come out on to this field, you're not going to be able to hear yourself think. coming down the same tunnel, the same tunnel that so many of our boyhood heroes came down in years past. >> one of the most storied places in all of sports, lambeau field. couldn't be a better spot to start a football season. kevin tibbles, thank you so much. appreciate that report from football to nascar now. talk about life in the fast

lane. president obama welcomed nascar driver and five-time champion jimmie johnson to the white house yesterday, as well as some other top drivers as well. the president compared life at 1600 pennsylvania to life on the racetrack. >> nascar's a sport where anything that can go wrong, will go wrong at some point during the season. similar to being president. a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. ♪ got so many scratches and scars ♪ ♪ maybe time can mend us together again ♪ ♪ it's not what we've done but how far we've come ♪ ♪ i know that we will recover

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lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? welcome back to msnbc. i'm craig melvin. the international criminal court prosecutor wants interpol's help in arresting moammar gadhafi. the fugitive leader is believed to be hiding out near his hometown in sirte. bill clinton is heading to haiti to meet with the president and tour a shop that employs about 180 people. california police are looking for a robbery suspect dressed like gumby. he claimed to have a gun, demanded some cash. the getaway driver honked the horn. apparently that startled gumby.

he dropped 27 cents and gumby'ed away. actress reese witherspoon is recovering after being hit by a car. she was hit in a crosswalk by an 84-year-old driver. she is expected to be just fine. she just had minor injuries. we are hours away from president obama's big jobs speech and we are learning about some big changes at the biggest bank in this country. changes that could put a lot more people on the unemployment line. bank of america is reportedly closing about 10% of their branches. the report comes days after ceo brian moynihan sent two top executives packing. last quarter the bank reported a $9 billion loss. mandy, we really can't understate how significant this is. >> reporter: absolutely. 10% is about 570 of its branches. it did put it out there in march of this year, craig, that it

might close or consolidate up to 10% of its 5,900 nationwide branches but you know, these big changes seem to be coming from bank of america almost daily. it is under increasing pressure to improve its profits. this is a pressure that only got a whole lot hotter, you might remember, on friday with the lawsuit filed against b of a and 16 other banks over its risky mortgage-backed securities sold to fannie and freddie in 2008. we have to watch this because b of a owns or services one in five home loans and services 58 million customers. reports are also saying now that it's finalizing plans for a 10% reduction of its work force that could cost up to 30,000 americans their jobs in the coming months which compares with the previous indication that only 10,000 jobs would be cut. furthermore, the boston business journal earlier reported that b of a workers' retirement plans are already likely to take a beating because of course, the 401(k) program is heavily invested in its own falling stock and it really has been falling of late. >> a lot of folks pointed to bank of america's acquisition of

countrywide as sort of the beginning of a lot of its problems. >> reporter: absolutely. even though of course it got that $5 billion investment from warren buffett recently among other capital raising efforts it's not convincing investors completely. >> thank you so much. appreciate you. even before the gavel drops on tonight's joint session of congress, some gop leaders are already voicing skepticism about the president's speech. >> the american people shouldn't be forced to watch some politician they don't want to listen to and frankly, most would rather watch the football game. >> what is surprising is the president's determination to apply the same government-driven policies that have already been tried and failed. the definition of insanity, albert einstein once famously put it, is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. >> we've got two former white house staffers with us today. democrat strategist david goodfriend, worked for president clinton. joe watkins, republican strategist who worked for bush

41 and 43. thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. david, does it even matter what the president says tonight, if that's the audience that he's going to be facing? >> well, it always matters what the president says. he is still the chief executive and he's not surprised that republicans in congress want to try to kill job creating efforts. what he's trying to do i think is lay out his case to the american people and his case is actually an interesting study in how republicans tend to flip-flop depending on who's president. a lot of these ideas come straight out of the republican playbook. you want to cut small business taxes, cut payroll taxes, when it's a republican president, republicans in congress are for it. but the minute a democratic president says he's for it, now they're against it. i think this is just going to bring into stark contrast the fact that as mitch mcconnell himself says, they don't care about the economy. they care about defeating president obama. that's what this is about. the president speaking to the american people and hoping, hoping that republicans in congress for once will put the country and the economy before their own political aims.

>> joe, david raises a good point there. a number of the proposals that we know about that are going to be in this plan are things that traditionally, republicans have championed. i mean, do we think this is going to be another one of those cases where no matter what the president says, the gop says no? >> i don't think so. i think the gop is open and willing to listen. certainly to ideas that make sense. you heard mitch mcconnell say that it's lunacy to suppose if you try something that hasn't worked over and over and over again, with the expectation that there will be a different result, that's not very good. so the hope is that the president will lay out a plan, a significant plan that will actually put people back to work and actually employ the private sector, and we can have a sense of what he's going to do. here's my hope. my hope is the president will not try to play the game of i told you the republicans wouldn't support me, they wouldn't agree with any plan i had so therefore i'm going to throw out a plan i know they won't accept so i can say

they're obstructionists. that doesn't work. right now you have 58% of americans working. that's the lowest number in 28 years. you have 8.8 million people working part-time so they're working but working without benefits. they want to be working full-time and the president, they're hoping, will come up with a plan that will actually work, that if the republicans throw him a curveball, they're hoping he will hit the curveball out of the park for a home run and put them back to work. >> david, i want to share some tweets. we asked folks earlier in the broadcast what they wanted to hear from the president. we got a tremendous response on twitter. here are just a few. tyler smith says i want to hear the president say he isn't afraid of boehner and boehner's gang. i want the president to come out guns blazing. is this what we need to see from president obama tonight? >> no. no. no. no. >> let me run with this one. first of all, i want to say to you, joe watkins, my republican friend, i'll be the first guy to eat crow tomorrow if the republicans come out and say that they are actually supportive of the president. i would love to be wrong. i would love to be wrong on this

one, joe. now, what that audience -- >> i would love for you to be wrong, david. i really would. >> we'll come back on the show tomorrow and i will apologize to you face-to-face. i will tell you this. what that viewer was expressing was a frustration that we're dealing with people who clearly don't want to deal, and the frustration that somebody who is unemployed today for 99 weeks or more must be feeling when they see members of congress say i don't want to try anything as long as this guy's president. that's not how -- >> hang on a second. if that's true, why bother with the session before congress? why not just take the message on the road? why not take it to the american people? >> you know why? i'll tell you why. president obama's more of an optimistic man. he believes he can work with these republicans in congress and i hope he's right and i hope i'm wrong. >> based on what? why would he believe that? >> why would he believe that? maybe he actually thinks there

are some rational republicans. i don't know. you figure it out. >> does the president believe that, joe? >> there are rational republicans, absolutely. >> that was not the question. that was not the question. >> the point is this. i argue that the president did not need to do a speech before the joint session of congress, that he could have given an oval office speech laying out the details of his plan to americans without all the fanfare and accompanying politics that will necessarily be played tonight in that arena. and score a victory for americans, especially for americans who aren't working. there are all these people who are not working, many are people who voted for him and support him and would like for him to win, but he's got to give them something that ends up being a concrete job at the end of the day. anything short of that, a plan that says that him coming out saying it's the republicans' fault, him saying the republicans are trying to be obstructionist, any of that stuff, doesn't work. >> i want to -- i'm sorry, craig, can i just agree with joe on one thing? >> ten seconds. >> joe, you are right. it would be nice for him to give

a speech from the oval office. the proposals he's coming up with today need congressional approval. i would love to see him do things by executive order that don't require congress. >> that's your ten seconds. i know you'll be watching the speech tonight. joe, you watching the speech or watching the packers/saints game? >> i'm watching the speech. >> thank you so much for your time. appreciate it, gentlemen. the ramped-up drug war may not be working. a shocking report from the justice department reveals that more illegal drugs are pouring into america and more americans are using them. this is despite an intense crackdown by the u.s. and mexican governments. let's get more from nbc's justice correspondent pete williams in washington, d.c. what else does this report reveal? >> reporter: it's not a promising snapshot of the status of the drug war. it says despite everything the u.s. is doing, the amount of drugs coming across the border is increasing and the abuse of illegal drugs here in the u.s. is on the way up, and it says this is true for heroin, marijuana, ecstasy and

methamphetamine. the only potentially good news involves cocaine. its use spiked in the '80s and plateaued. the report says that hasn't changed. it says marijuana use is up especially among young people, what the report finds is there's less of a concern that it may have harmful effects, which the report speculates may be the result of increasing number of states moving to decriminalize marijuana possession. it also says the abuse of illegal drugs by young adults of all categories is on the way up. the report also says that it does not think this picture is going to change in the near future, that the mexican drug cartels have adapted to u.s. enforcement, they found new ways to smuggle this material in, and this is a curious thing, because on the one hand, border enforcement, according to the administration, has greatly reduced by about 30% or so illegal immigration into the u.s. in other words, the numbers of illegal people coming in. but at the same time, the amount of illegal drugs coming in is on the way up and shows no sign of decreasing.

may i just mention one other thing to you, important legal development here in the last few minutes. that is the federal court of appeals in the fourth circuit has thrown out one of the first cases that resulted in a negative ruling against the obama administration over health care. the fourth circuit court of appeals has just ruled that the state of virginia had no legal standing to bring its lawsuit in which it challenged the constitutionality of the law's requirement that all americans buy health insurance. so it's a victory for the obama administration but it doesn't end this because there are many other cases still alive, including a big lawsuit filed by 26 other states. >> most assume that this is obviously a case that is going to end up before the nation's highest court as well. >> reporter: i think that's a safe bet. >> pete williams from washington, always a pleasure. thank you, sir. also, some developing news to pass along right now. fbi agents are executing search warrants at the headquarters of a california solar firm that received a $535 million loan from the federal government. today's search warrants are part of an investigation with the department of energy's office of

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the doctor charged in michael jackson's death is back in court at this hour. this is the second round of jury selection for dr. conrad murray. an eligible jury pool was chosen earlier this year but the judge had to let them go after deciding to delay the trial so the defense could have more time to prepare. nbc's stephanie stanton is live in los angeles for us this afternoon. stephanie? >> reporter: good morning, craig. the jury selection process got under way about 45 minutes ago and as usual, there is a small crowd of jackson supporters gathered here outside the courthouse for the start of this very high profile case. dr. conrad murray was driven into the courthouse in a dark suv shortly before 9:00 this

morning, but so far, we have not seen any members of the jackson family. remember, they have vowed to be here every step of the way. an appeals court has sided with the judge in this case and ruled that the jury will not be sequestered during the length of this trial. the defense had argued that the jurors would be exposed to media reports that could possibly taint their opinions, but the judge says that he has faith in this jury to do the right thing. now, murray is facing one count of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the june 2009 death of michael jackson. prosecutors claim that he improperly -- rather, that he failed to monitor michael jackson when he gave him the powerful anesthetic propofol to help him sleep. the defense is suggesting that jackson could have given himself the lethal dose when murray left the room, but one medical expert says that that claim, that theory, is impossible. that is what is happening here at the courthouse in downtown l.a. craig? >> in terms of the selection process that starts today, what exactly is going to happen with that? >> reporter: well, here's how

it's going to go down as far as we know. there are about 160 potential jurors, those jurors are being given questionnaires. the questionnaires are 38 pages long. the judge is going to be looking for potential hardships, anybody that may not be able to serve. now, the defense is looking for people with a bias, of course, against michael jackson, while the prosecution is looking for jackson sympathizers. this trial is expected to last four to five weeks. >> we'll see. stephanie stanton, thank you so much from los angeles this afternoon. america remembers 9/11. ten years later. [ groans ] you okay? i'm not looking forward to my flight. try this. bayer aspirin? i'm not having a heart attack. it's my back. no, this is new bayer advanced aspirin... clinically proven to relieve tough pain twice as fast as before. what, did you invent this or something? well, my team did. i'm dr. eric first, from bayer. wow. look. it has microparticles. it enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief right to the site of pain. better? great! thanks.

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as we get closer to marking the ten years since the deadliest terrorist attack on u.s. soil, turns out many americans are worried we could be targeted again. a new quinnipiac poll finds that 58% of new yorkers and 49% of

voters nationwide think that another attack against new york city is likely. 70% of americans say those concerns are not stopping them from leading normal lives. former senator slade gordon of washington state is a former 9/11 commissioner. first let me get your reaction to those poll numbers. does that surprise you at all? >> i like the 70% because i would certainly recommend that people do not change their lives as a result of that kind of threat. of course it's there. we can never defend ourselves perfectly. but there's good news. for the last ten years, we've had exactly one successful terrorist attack of the kind of 9/11 here in the united states. the fort hood massacre. i think both president bush and president obama have done a very good job in reorganizing the way in which we deal with intelligence and terrorism. it isn't perfect. the threat is always there. there's more that we could do

but basically the news is good news, as far as i'm concerned. >> are we safer than we were ten years ago? >> clearly we're safer than we were ten years ago. what we have done has been able to break up the kind of organization that could plan as elaborate a plot as 9/11 amounted to. there's a lot of terrorism going on from that smaller group of violent islamic extremists but mostly, they're engaged in terrorism in their own countries, in the near world. i don't think that they have the ability to plan as elaborate a plot as 9/11 in the future. >> have you been pleased with the legislative action that's been taken as a result of the work of the 9/11 commission? >> well, we probably had more of our recommendations adopted than any other commission in history, but there were some shortcomings. congress has clearly not reformed the way in which it oversees intelligence gathering,

and national security. that's its greatest single failure. they probably didn't give the new director of national intelligence all of the powers he needed. the power over the purse. but most of our recommendations have been adopted, and the good results are part, i think, part of the work we did. >> here we are just a few days from the ten-year anniversary. do you think that we will ever be able to truly recover the innocence that was lost that day? >> no. we will not. and this struggle, this idealogical and quasi-religious struggle in which we are engaged has a far greater impact in the muslim world than here in the united states. it's going to go on for a long, long time. we have learned lessons from 9/11. they were very expensive lessons and we can't forget them. >> the major threats that we face today as a country, even with osama bin laden out of the picture, what are they?

>> the major -- ironically, i think probably the major threat that we face today is people who are radicalized who are already here, who are citizens, who are legal residents of the united states. not only the fort hood massacre, but a couple of the aborted terrorist attacks in the united states have been from americans themselves. to a certain extent, we've got to look internally. we've got to keep up what we're doing overseas but the threat may come from inside the united states. >> former senator slade gorton, also 9/11 commissioner. thank you for your time, sir. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. see you back here tomorrow noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. out west. up next, "andrea mitchell reports." free flight. you know that comes with a private island. really? no. it comes with a hat. you see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... [ man ] there's never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn't it? but that won't happen with the capital one venture card.

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