major, thank you. my pleasure.

in fact, there's already a healthcare case pending at the supreme court and an appeal from the ruling in the midwest that found the law constitutional. so if the justices take it, then, the case would be argued some time early next year. the calendar is already filled up through december and that would mean a decision wouldn't come down much before the court term ends which is in late june, craig. >> there's been some controversy surrounding the involvement of a particular justice. tell me about the controversy with justice geoghan. >> some conservatives are saying because she worked in the obama

administration, in the solicitor general's office, that she should recuse herself. it came up during her confirmationi confirmation hearing that she took herself out of any decision about how to hand them issue that she delegated it to deputies in the solicitor's office, but i'm sure the question will come up again. >> pete williams from d.c. for us. thank you. more and more americans are making risky health care decisions as a result of tough economic times. there's a new consumer report sur ray out and it found that 48%, rather, 48% of prescription drug users are putting off doctor visits or declining tests to help manage their healthcare costs. many of those surveyed admitted to taking expired medications or even skipping a dose. >> this is it. another trial of the century beginning in los angeles. michael jackson's personal physician, dr. conrad murray charged with manslaughter.

the king of pop's siblings and parents arrived at the courthouse to a packed los angeles courtroom. for the first time ever we will hear in murray's own words precisely what happened when michael jackson died. nbc's kristen dahlgren is outside the courthouse to set the scene for us. kristen, i would imagine it is a circus there. >> reporter: yeah. exactly, craig. did you expect anything else? there are both fans of michael jackson here and supportes eer dr. murray. they have lined up outside the courthouse and they have pictures of the singer. a little more than half an hour ago the singer's family arrived here, tito, la toya, janet and randy all arriving. the family said they are going to be here every day through this trial that's expected to take five weeks. in a way, michael jackson will also be here because the defense expected to blame the singer for his own death saying that it was

michael jackson who took that fatal dose of propofol either by drinking it or intravenously when dr. conrad murray was out of the room. they planned to say that murray was actually trying to wean the singer from the propofol and that the singer was stressed out from the upcoming "this is it" tour from doing 50 days and so that he needed to sleep, was so worried about sleeping that he actually took that fatal dose. the prosecution expected to play dr. murray's interview two days after the singer's death. they contend that murray should have never been given the powerful anesthetic at home without proper life-saving equipment. the first prosecution witness expected later on today is kenny ortega. he's the choreographer and co-creator of the tour. he was so concerned about the singer's health that he settle him home erly from one of those final rehearsals and that he had a meeting with dr. murray at michael jackson's home. to express his concerns and dr.

murray told him not to worry and not to try to blame michael jackson's doctor and getting under way. so far we're expecting it to begin about 15 minutes ago and so the crowd out here waiting and, of course, family inside now watching to see what will happen as opening statements get under way, craig? >> if he's convicted, what does he face. and it would also lose his medical license. kristin dahlgren from los angeles where she will be stationed for the next several weeks. thank you, kristin, appreciate that. real action movie stuff. some amazing pictures on the left there. those are not superheroes or spies. those are structural engineers

rappelling down the washington monument. they are checking that monument for cracks and they're checking it for other damage as well from the earthquake that hit last month. on the right side of your screen there, or on the left side of your screen, this is surveillance video just released yesterday from the day of the quake and you can actually see chunks of the walls and ceiling falling down. a park ranger scene in that surveillance video says when the shaking started she couldn't help, but think terrorism. >> that was the first thought i had. it was some sort of attack. i didn't know what, but i think whatever was happening the best place to be was not at the top, it was at the bottom of the monument. that was my next move, to get out of whatever was going. >> she had a job to do, and she ran back up the monument when she reached the bottom to make sure everyone got out safely. new jersey governor chris christie, absolutely insists he is not running for president next year.

short of suicide, to convince people i'm not rung. >> it seems governor christie's actions speak louder than words. plus ellen degeneres making light of her own health care. what happened? first, a quick look at the markets. the dow up 283 points. s&p, nasdaq, also up. we're right back after this. i'd race down that hill without a helmet. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor,

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the chance is not going come again. four years from now if barack obama's elected it will be jeb bush or marco rubio. the republican bench is extraordinarily strong unlike the democratic bench. this is chris christie's shot.

it's a shot. >> just go over today on "morning joe" commenting on chris christie tossing his hat into the presidential ring. christie insisting that he's not considering it. >> i'm governor. i want to be governor. i'm not running for president. what do i have to do short of suicide to convince people i'm not running. >> i simply do not have the desire to do it, nor do i think i'm ready. >> but according to his longtime friend and adviser former governor tom cain christie is thinking about it and this week smacks of a campaign swing, visits to louisiana, california including a speech today at the reagan presidential library. the title, real american exceptionalism. mark murray is nbc news deputy political director. mark, christie's words don't seem to jive with his schedule. >> well, right. he is taking -- one of the things he's doing is raising a lot of money both for the new jersey republican party, but

also other key republicans. look, even if he doesn't run for president, he is a superstar and someone who is a big draw. so a lot of his schedule has to do with raising money, and of course, giving that speech tonight at the reagan library has certainly raised a lot of eyebrows, craig. >> on the off chance that he does decide to get into this thing, can his constant and adamant denial comes back to haunt him? >> well, i remember president -- then senator barack obama always saying he wasn't going run for president and there was a treasure trove of those types of denials and then when he decided to run that wasn't used against him. if anything that could be used by chris christie is during the sound bites where he said i'm not ready. you never heard senator barack obama say something like that. that is something that a rick perry or mitt romney could use against him. the biggest obstacle has to do with time. joe scarborough is right. there is an opening and sometimes you have to strike

while the iron is hot, but in order to do that and do it effectively you have to prepare for it. you have to have your ducks in a row. you have to have your campaign staff ready to go, the fund raisers and endorsements and we don't have any indication that chris christie has set anything up like that. >> here's the thing, mark, let's just say hypothetically that christie does get into this thing, who is to say that republicans who have demonstrated over the past few months that they don't love long, who is to say that chris christie isn't rick perry? >> exactly. rick perry seems to be like how chris christie is right now and one thing to note about chris christie, republicans, tea party folks love him and part of it has to do with temperament and he isn't as conservative on the issues as rick perry is and he'll end up having a vetting stage the same way that we're seeing rick perry having to go into the presidential debates and it isn't easy. and of course, with contests justo less than four months from

now, he wouldn't have a lot of time to learn on the job. >> one of the other things that struck me. meg whitman, apparently, hosting one of the fund raisers in california. whitman says she's backing romney. you r to assume that she would not have chris christie out there if chris christie were getting into the race. >> that's right. one other note, chris christie's media consultant is rush rafer as the man who created his campaign ads and he's working for mitt romney. just a symbol in the campaign team when the folks are working for other presidential campaigns is tough. >> it may not happen, but it's not going to stop us from talking about it. >> exactly. coming up in today's "side bar," governor christie versus snooki and "the jersey shore." you don't want to miss that. also joran van der sloot. his jailhouse murder confession? we'll talk about that. details in three minutes.rney f epic proportion.

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openingç statements in the michael jackson trial. the trial of dr. conrad murray, the houston cardiologist accused of okinvoluntary manslaughter i connection to jackson's r we are going to listen in for we are going to listen in for just a f]. get started. i want to bring in criminal defense attorney mark geragos 4j time in his moles5ision trial. mark, good afternoon to you.< ÷ >> good morning. how are you? >>ko9 that's right. it is morning out there. mark, first of all, how are they going to portray michael jackson? dr. conrad murray's attorneys,u how are they going to portray ther my going to ñiembrace the idea and ="a5uiie is someone who was th and who had great affection him and was trying to help him through a difficult situation

and that one of the ways he was doing it was by weaning him off of this drug inc a residential settyn >> i think you can contrast that with what the ñrprosecution's going to say and theñi prosecutn is getting it it upq there and saying that this was somebody who was financially under water, who had tremendous problems, who was offered $150,000 a month and deputy district attorney david walgren making the opening statement. >> the investigation continues and the investigation centered the investigatingç centered on the events of january --xd excu me, june 24th and june 25th, 2009, and the question became what occurred between june 24, 1

2009, when mic@úl jackson shown in this picture is performing at staples centerr song," what happened between thatc time and approximately 12r hours(g. later whenokok michaeln is dead on june 25, okr what you will learn throughxd t evidence is that what happened during that timeframee1 is that the acts and the omissions of michael jackson's personal doctor,a5 conradnb led to hisxlç premature death a the age of 50.c ladies and gentlemen, the judge indicated this part of the trial is what is referred to as the opening statement and fact, )na opportunity to give yu dtqi q+idence to show, to give as the cwác9?9ñi said, acwl roa.

often times in trials witnesses are calledr scheduling and things of that 4-a(come in and testify in a kif chronological order, so this is an opportunity for bot%i partie to present to you andxdlpçójf h a logical fashion what we expect the evidence to show. and as i indicated, whatr expect the evidence to show is

õk%ey'll start off with mr. ortega and have him on the stand and i think they'l4d try to com head-on with this idea that this wasp,xd ready to die and try to debunk that )"ht out of the box. >> the strategy is going to be to pointxd the finger at michael jackson himself, to blame him, blame jackson for his own death. was that the --<  is that goin? is that their only option?ht conrad murray's attorneys? >> well, i don't know that it's the only option.z3 c1 it's k danger, but you're absolutely correct that one of ther8u$ings they're doing is trying to shif. you'll notice that one of the questions when they were doing the oralg

do you believe someone should be responsible forñi their own act and not blame others? orç jurors e others? that more traditionally you would think of as prosecution jurors, kyn( of tougherríi la order types, e1thinking, at lea the defense qteam's thinking tht you want people who will say, çó look, this is somebody who is not dr. murray and so%et'e else has and it was not his faultxd he w the last man standing. >> i understand the judge decided that there were some thingsok that he was not going allowt(jf jurors to see2d and something that he would notc allow jurors to hear as well. what dook we know about those things? what were they? >> the thing that i think the defense is mostok upset about i there was a motion to have2tje

televised press conference, the one that you showedr littleçóct( bit of a clip of, i 0r'k, previously when he announced that this was going to be his last tour. the kind of urban legend is that it took somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 minutes to get michael on tot( that stage he did in the pressfá conference and t back xdstory, supposedly is tha he was hung over, that he was out of it and blah, blah, xdr the defenseokk."sperately wante to put that into evidence and they wanted tots7ç show that to u$uz elicit testimony. inadmissible at this time. gingrich gaining groun

against his republican opponents. could he be the newó[çó comeba kid? i'll talk to his taught behr w3 th about that on the other side of this break. that's a lot of green. go to v8juice.com for coupons. you can count on us. an accident doesn't have to slow you down.

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welcome back to msnbc. i'm craig mekå9ñ even thexdr from job cuts. thelp u.s. army said it will la off 50,000 troops. the reason? demand in iraq and afghanistan is diminishing. medal of"h sergeant dakota meyer, noxd dou an exceptionuz guy, but heçó do not believexd he is an entitledo an exception. he will not accept the court's

offer to join the fire department of new york r meyer missed thexd deadline tor apply. form imf chief dominique strauss-kahn is hoping thatht juj out a civilok suitq filed by the hotel maid whor accused him of rape. his lawyer claims he is protected by diplomaticr immunity. k c1 and facebook now hasñi a political action committee. the facebook patu employees to donate to candidates in future elections. a lotok of the republican be tries to figure out who it wants for president. president obama will try to rally some of his base. the washington post reportsñr h campaign is rolling out operation vote, a portion of the campaign to bring out the minority vote which made up a quarter of allqehvotes. that was the highest percentage ever reclb in a presidential electionñi according to pugh research.s8 (jj you. >> good afternoon, craig. m591ñ the president

has gottent( grief from his bas of late, that he caves to republicans which is worse than the national avee. how fair is that andxd how do y battle that perception? >>ñi i think açó lot of america are unhappy with the state of

what doesñr it is a about the state of his candacy? >> i think president obama has taken some hits from his own baset( for being too centrist, d being the xdgrown-upéx in the negotiations over the debt ceiling and the budget, over a lot of policies6zr americans like hisa5 jobsn6 pr and theó[ right winge1 of the republican party just says no, no, no. "ñ4zrách mcconn senate saying his number one l-zú as a legislator in congress a second term so that everythi]

there's going to be a widew3 grp of americans. >>q it's a wide group çfáçóher congressman. it sounds like the goal of the organization is to target jewish voters,w3 to target black voter and to target young voters and to target the president's base, right? >> whenever you'rejf in the primary, whether you're a repu,ran you go to your base and try to persuade them to vote in the primary. i think the president is doing some oft( that to makee1 suret( he wins the primary. i don't think there will be any problem,ok but he's also reache

out to the american people as a whole and that's why his centrist message of shared sacrifice, everything is on the table and let's do this together with compromise and common sense will win out over the right-wing extremist rhetoric and policies of the republicans. >> congressman rothman, thank you. >> thank you, craig. >> a new poll out, the firstxd since last week's gop debate show perry and romney are in the lead. coming in third?tj?jdñrgingrich. for the first time he'sçó pulli double digits and he's gotten a strong endorsement from the founder of tea party nation on monday. gingrich has unique capabilities to be a field general. he's the bigok idea man.u much as ronald reagan was.fát( jackie is newt gingrich'sq ñ adviser to his obkb campaign. do you father's?; resent surge. >> thank you for having me on.

clearly if youñr look at the la two debates, he's doing an outstanding job. he's very good on the floor. he has a command of all of the+ issues and he can answer any question, so i think,r you see thathhas debate perfosvp'ce is standing out and the second thing that you're seeing is a reflection of peopld really thinking about who they want to takelp them and toç co president obama. he spoke earlier about his he's actually done things that president obama has notñi done d let me g when he was speaker,÷d there we four years of a balanced budget.

we haven'tt( seen that since th. it hasn't happened since the xd 1920s and it's been a veryxdw3 time. there were 11 million more people were employed -- >> washington was far different back then. i mean, it was onlyjf 15 years ago, give or take a few, only 15 years ago, but the culture offñr washington was very differenei your father had folks on the other side of the aisle that on occasion were willing to work++r

beat the rushlp outçó of th parking sflot. >> thank you.çóe1xdi]xdñ funny, yes. funny, yes, but you have to concede that itjfñi does raise has been one of the chief

criticisms of your father. some say that newtjf givg%! is too lazy and lacks the c hard worker.lpqçadnofe1

also, a video games, are those video games are helping autistic children learn in the classroom. we'll talk about that. uh, it is, yeah, it's a chevy volt. so what are you doing at a gas station? well it still takes gas to go farther. but you're not getting gas. true. not this time. uh, don't have to gas up very often. so you have to go to the bathroom? no. yes you do. thought these were electric? yes, it's a uh, a chevy volt. so what are you doing at a gas station? our neighbors putting their lives on the line. and when they rely on a battery, there are firefighters everywhere who trust duracell. so, look for these special packs to see how you can help your local volunteers. duracell. trusted everywhere.

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she's supporting breast cancer programs for her neighbour's tennis instructor's daughter's 1st grade teacher who's also her mom. help fund breast cancer programs in your community. redeem your lids today >> insomnia costs the u.s. billions of dollars in lost productivity according to a new report out of harvard medical school. researchers found more than 20% of participants reported symptoms of insomnia. while many went to work, experts say they accomplished less because they were tired. a strange turn today in court as amanda knox fights her

murder convict in the killing of her roommate in italy. defense attorney today comparing knox to a cartoon character. nbc's keith miller is live in perugia, italy. keith, which character? >> reporter: well, it's a little surprising to all of us. this is becoming a courtroom drama made for television. today one of the defense attorneys came up and said that amanda knox has actually been misrepresented by the prosecution, that she's not some she-devil witch as described yesterday, but more like jessica rabbit, i'm not bad, i'm just drawn that way. the defense lawyer said amanda knox was a young woman in love and not democrated and did not devote her life to alcohol, sex and drugs. so really trying to present a different character than what we heard yesterday. also the defense today went after the dna which, of course, had been discredited by an independent panel of forensic

scientists and so basically the defense lawyer for her co-defendant raffaele sollecito, a and it has been thrown out and they showed bloody footprints which they said could not have belonged to the defendant and belonged to the man convicted of the kercher killing. the case today, trying to bolster the fact that there is not that much evidence and certainly not enough evidence to convict, and as we know, we now have the image of jessica rabbit in this italian courtroom as well, craig. >> keith miller from italy this afternoon. keith, thank you. side bar now. sarah palin may sue author joe mcginnis for the book "the rogue." her attorney calling the book a series of lies and rumors. she made those claims in a letter to the book's publisher. what she failed to mention was the book's reviews have rallied even critics to her defense.

the man at the moment, chris christie has vetoed a tax credit for "the jersey shore." it's a reversal of opinion for the new jersey governor and supporters of a president christie probably hopes the first of many reversals. [ man ] our retirement isn't a simple budget line item. [ man ] i worked hard. i paid into my medicare. [ man ] and i earned my social security. [ woman ] now, instead of cutting waste and loopholes, washington wants to cut our benefits? that wasn't the agreement. a [ carrie ] i remember my very first year as a teacher,

setting that goal to become a principal. but, i have to support my family, so how do i go back to school? university of phoenix made it doable. i wouldn't be where i am without that degree. my name is dr. carrie buck. i helped turn an at risk school into an award winning school,

and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world. we are in the second day of nbc news education nation summit here at 30 rockefeller center. one of the topics of discussion has been filling the technology gap in our classrooms. joining me is pat braddock and she's a teacher in high school and is working to create games and apps to be used in the classroom as well, and we should note -- and we should note that you also are a curriculum consultant for microsoft. microsoft, one of the sponsors of education nation. we want to make sure we put that out there. let's talk about the kinect. the kinect is a video game system. >> yeah. >> microsoft pushing this as a

device that can help children learn in the classroom as well. >> yeah. >> explain how. >> well, you know. students these days are bored. they're bored in class and teachers have to do what they have to do to get kids interested and if that's taking entertainment technology, video game technology that they're currently using at home and bringing it into the school and helping them learn and immersive experiences, then we've got to do that. >> and this is technology that kids are familiar with. this is technology that keeps them up late at night and entertains them on the weekends as well when they're supposed to be doing their homework. so the thinking, i guess, if they're already doing it why not try to incorporate it into learning? >> exactly. >> what do we know about children specifically with autism? >> a great example is using it to help students understand how facial expressions work. so special education students sometimes have trouble reading

body language, and so with the kinect, you can -- the kinect is a camera and it emphasizes certain facial features and so students with problems, with certain disabilities can use the kinect to communicate with one another in just innovative ways. >> yeah. ways that they're not used to. >> a lot of parents out there, what you're saying right now is resonating with them, i'm sure. you said you were nervous and you did just fine. >> thank you. >> safe travels back to maryland. >> all right. thank you. as we've been mentioning, opening statements are under way in the michael jackson trial. again thshgs is the trial of dr. conrad murray. his houston cardiologist charged with involuntary manslaughter. we want to take a listen to sound played in the courtroom. this is michael jackson -- possibly, possibly under the influence of propofol. take a listen.

when people leave my show i want them to say "i've never seen nothing like this in my life. go. go. i've never seen nothing like this. go. it's amazing. he's the greatest entertainer in the world. i'm taking that money, a million on. >> again, some sound that was just played inside that los angeles courtroom as the trial for dr. conrad murray has gotten under way there. opening statements are being made right now. we expect the first witness to take the stand in a few hours and we will, of course, continue to follow that trial and lots more here on msnbc. i'll see you right back here at noon eastern, tomorrow, 9:00

a.m. out west. up next, "andrea mitchell reports." [ male announcer ] to the 5:00 a.m. scholar. the two trains and a bus rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be. ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu.

right now on "andrea mitchell reports," live from new york, failing to finish. despite decades of increasing enrollment, a new report shows college student aren't making it to the finish line. it's one of the big challenges we're tackling today at the education nation experience. our guests, education secretary arnie duncan, vicky phillips with the bill and melinda gates foundation and nfl hall of famer frank o'haris, chairman of the pittsburgh scholarship program. also this hour -- >> my question is would you please raise my taxes? >> perhaps proving that silicon valley is not really america, the president gets a surprise request from a pioneer google employee at a california town hall. today the president heads to denver, colorado