simple to use websites, tools, and apps. for making your financial life a little bit easier. on news nation right now. >> these words -- >> the member will -- >> these words, shown your man what is good. >> a protest like no other, congressman bobby rush wears a hoodie on the house floor in support of trayvon martin defying a house rule. developing news on what happened after the lead officer investigating the shooting recommended manslaughter charges. we have new exclusive information this hour. all or nothing, the final day of oral arguments over the president's healthcare law has the justices questioning if the individual mandate goes, does the rest of the law go with it? why some are asking if this red hot case will paint the justices

as political actors in, quote, black robes. the ceo jet blue tries to calm worries after a pilot losing it. how will airlines weed out crew members too fragile to fly. cheaters never win or do they? new rules in place to keep college bound students from scamming their way to high sa.t. scores. >> the news nation is following exclusive new developments in the trayvon martin shooting case. rio.com managing editor is reporting that the sanford police chief along with the state attorney made the call not to charge george zimmerman with a crime the night of the shooting. this comes as a report of the miami herald claims the lead investigator on that case, originally wanted zimmerman arrested in trayvon martin's death. in the meantime, congressman was kicked off the house floor this morning after putting up a hoodie or putting on a hoodie in

honor of trayvon martin. bobby rush out of illinois was asked to stop taking after taking off his jacket and putting on the hoodie as well as sunglasses. >> just because someone wears a hoodie, does not make them a hood lum. >> heed these lessons. may god bless trayvon martin's soul. >> the man who claims he is a friend of shooter george zimmerman is making the rounds on tv shows defended his relationship with zimmerman and here is what happened a short time ago when he spoke with my colleague thomas roberts. >> one thing that we want to play is charles blow tacking to you last night about -- >> again, again, that interview had nothing to do with george and trayvon martin. >> it has everything to do about what you know about the man you're trying to defend because you weren't there at the shooting. >> neither was anyone else, and that's the problem.

>> we talk about who george zimmerman is and you're trying to defend a man that no one else is showing up to defend, not even his own parents have come out for an interview. >> a major twist in the case, the report the lead investigator wanted manslaughter charges filed came as i mentioned last night and now there is word the call was made by higher ups the very night of the shooting not to file any charges. joining me from sanford is joanne reed, contributor, managing etd tore of the rio got come. you have this exclusive information. give us more details, please. >> tamron, what we already knew is the state attorney's office advised the police department on the night of the shooting that there was not sufficient grounds to charge george zimmerman with the killing of trayvon martin. what we learned and what i learned exclusively early this morning was that it was the state attorney who is over this county who made that decision after consulting with the police chief, then bill lee, and robert o'connor, who was in charge of

investigations for the sanford police department. we hadn't heard that before buzz wolfinger you will recall at one point was going to be the state attorney investigating this case. when police sent that case up to him, he, if this is all true, presumably knew he had made the decision not to arrest zimmerman over ruling the homicide investigator who after talking to zimmerman decided he didn't believe the story and filed an affidavit to that account. >> joanne, also what is happening behind the scenes? obviously when you have a report like this that the lead investigator made this recommendation and now the exclusive information you have been able to uncover, what is the police department saying if anything today? >> well, the police department is not talking, tamron. that's one thing that is definitely not happening here in sanford. every piece of information, everyone is being routed up to angela cory's office and the state attorney from a neighboring county in charge of the investigation, and i think what is significant here is that we did see state attorney

wochlinger wochl recuse himself. if he was actually on the scene, something that would be unusual for a state attorney to do, if he came to the scene or to the police department, consulted with the chief, and that they really made the call to, quote, cut george zimmerman loose, he should have never taken the case. that fact that he recused himself would make that make sense. the question is whether or not the police department, the actual investigator, they ever acted on an attempt to get a charge against zimmerman. that's not clear. of course as you said the miami herald is saying there was at least a request for an arrest warrant. >> joanne, thank you very much. how does this new information about police initial wanting or at least one lead investigator wanting zimmerman charged, how does that impact where we are now? joining me now miami criminal defense attorney and former u.s. attorney kendall coffee. help me understand, the state attorney made the decision the night of the shooting, the killing of trayvon martin.

is that usual business? >> it is not inconceivable. all of that is startling, especially when we examine the fact early on we were told there was never any consideration given to charging zimmerman, that it was in an open and shut self-defense case supposedly. now we're hearing something very, very different. according to these reports, the lead investigator, the person on the scene, the person that normally law enforcement would say is in the best position to assess whether or not there is prospect in arrest, he apparently was effectively overruled by people sitting back at the office. it does happen, but it certainly raises a lot of questions. >> what question does it raise? does it say that are you asking if the sanford police department is incompetent, the question many others have asked, is this a coverup? what question as the experienced top legal person in the state of florida, what is the main question you have 30 days after trayvon martin was killed we're now learning this critical information about this lead

investigator's analysis of the crime scene and what he thinks should have happened? >> the most obvious thing it tells is is there is going to be a thorough investigation of what happened that night and also an investigation of the investigation by sanford police and the state attorney's office. from my standpoint, one of the big concerns is how can you so quickly dismiss what the lead investigator said where you have somebody dead, an unarmed somebody who was killed by somebody with a gun, and if that decision was going to be made so quickly, they better be darn ready to show a detailed file of all of the other steps they took before they overrule the judgment, the professional judgment, the person in the best position to determine whether or not there was probably cause to arrest george zimmerman. >> what i am going to ask about now, i am not sure it is relevant at this point but you have this person that says he is george zimmerman's friend and an associate of the family and

nonetheless making the rounds on a lot of shows. i want to play two clip from lawrence o'donnell's show on the last word with zimmerman's friend who so far is the only person coming out defending him. let's play both of those clips, please. >> george zimmerman learned from his mistakes and grew from them. >> what mistakes did george zimmerman tell you about and what did he -- how did he tell you he grew from his mistakes? >> i am just saying from what i have seen, the person that i know, the george zimmerman i know was not the george zimmerman who was arrested in 2005. i wouldn't put myself on the line like this if i didn't know in my heart that george zimmerman was in a life or death struggle. i wouldn't be here, i would not be risking myself. >> how do you know in your heart? >> have you ever had a gut feeling? >> you were not there. >> have you ever had a gut feeling? were you there? were you there were you there? >> you have been a prosecutor. you have been a defense

attorney. if you were george zimmerman's attorney, would you at some point contact this alleged friend and say you're not helping the situation here, what is your motive here? >> i would have called him a few days ago. enough already. understand part of defense strategy sometimes, remember, you can't put george zimmerman on the camera, is to use surrogates. this is becoming an unhelpful, distraction and just keeps feeding emotion and public discussion and controversy and so if i were the kwens lawyer i would say sit down, go quiet, you have had your 15 minutes of fame. move on. >> is it likely oliver is acting on his own or do you believe that zimmerman's attorneys would at this point be using this guy whose story changes with every interview as a surrogate for them? >> somebody connected him up with the press. i don't know for a fact, but my instinct and speculation is the defense lawyer did it initially. it may have gotten out of his control at this point. it is not helping george zimmerman, that's for sure. >> thank you so much for

reacting to the latest news exclusive information from joanne reed. thank you. we're following breaking news out of the supreme court. the justices signaling today big chunks of president obama's healthcare law would have to be thrown out if the individual mandate is found unconstitutional. the court just finished hearing arguments on whether congress had the constitutional authority, the four states, to dramatically expand the medicaid program for the poor under the healthcare law. in an earlier session arguments on whether the law can survive if the justices strike down the requirement that almost all americans have health insurance or pay a penalty. pete williams joins us live from the supreme court. obviously a lot of highlights, pete. i will let you take it away. >> i think the take away from this morning is the justices concede there may be parts of this massive healthcare law that can be salvaged. it seemed the further away they were from what the law was intended to do, which is to provide universal coverage, the more likely it is that could be

saved. in other words, i think even the conservatives, even those who feel the most strongly this law is uninstitutional believe there is a lot of tough tacked on as the bill moved through congress, a train leaving the station, and threw a lot of extra stuff in the baggage compartment that can probably withstand even if they strike down the individual mandate. that was the assumption today. that was the intellectual exercise here. assume the insurance requirement is unconstitutional, what else has to go? now, the four liberal members of the court said we really ought to leave this up to congress. let's just carve out what we have to carve out and let them decide, throw it back to congress and see whether this creature that is now vastly changed if it is by the court, what do they want to salvage? let them do it. several of the courts conservatives were concerned about that for two reasons. one is, they were concerned where the court would draw the line between what you can send back in tact and what you have

to take out. secondly, i think two of the justices are concerned about what that would do in the short-term for the insurance industry, that you would be leaving a lot of the requirements of coverage, the expanded coverage environments for the industry, but you would be taking away the mandatory insurance revenue stream, and they seem to think that would be a real blow to the insurance industry. so for all of those reasons it seems likely that the court if it does strike down the individual mandate, and i must say i don't think we got any further hint about what they will do on that today but if they do strike it down, i think the guts of the bill, the core of it, the increased insurance coverage, all of that is very much in danger and seems like the further away it is from the essence of the bill, the safer it is. >> and you mentioned kennedy and roberts, as you well know, maniable lists say this rests in the hands of those two justices here. >> yes, and in my view we're back to the larger question of whether the insurance mandate is unconstitutional.

seems to me the key is really justice kennedy. then i think for him the question is what they're all worried about is if they say congress can do this, does that mean congress can do anything. it seems like justice kennedy was wrestling with saying maybe the healthcare industry really is different and you can say, okay, congress can do this because it is so unusual, everybody gets healthcare, whether they can afford it or not, and people with insurance have to pay for it and maybe that makes the insurance industry different. whether roberts is really in play, i don't know, but i think he would be if justice kennedy were inclined to uphold the law and maybe just roberts would say make sure we write this opinion very narrowly. my impression right now is the court is leaning against upholding it. >> thank you so much, pete. in the three days of arguments here is what they say are the take aways, the future of the law rests in the hands of justice roberts or kennedy and

also point out it is about the broccoli, meaning will allowing the healthcare law open the door for congress to mandate americans to buy other products and did the government's lawyer blow it? joining me from the supreme court, josh garseen from the white house. i want to pick up on what people williams is talking about. it is roberts or kennedy that certainly could make the difference here. >> i think he was right about that. there were indication from roberts yesterday that his vote might potentially be in play here. he made comments on both sides of the ledger. kennedy people always thought of as being a swing vote and roberts didn't express himself very clearly in one direction or another and i think that's why people are thinking he might possibly be in play, but one of the reasons to think that he wouldn't simply side with the liberal justices alone is he has already never done that in the time he has been on the court.

there have been no 5-4 cases where it was roberts with the liberal justices controlling a case, only one case even close to that and it was a 5-3 case. it never happened aside from that. it is not a position he likes to be in. he likes a consensus opinion. if he can't get a consensus opinion he usually sides with the conservative brethren on the court. >> you brought up a 5-4 decision. if we see a 5-4 decision it would feed the perception that the supreme court is as partisan as congress and increasing parts of the media and in other words they're sieg the nine justices would be seen as political actors wearing black robes. let me get your reaction to that. >> i think that is a big problem with the 5-4 decision especially if it is the four liberals defense the four republican appointed justice. it would be seen in many quarters as a repeat of bush v gore from 2000 and perhaps a repeat of the citizens united decision on campaign finance. as i said before, i think chief

justice roberts is very eager to avoid that, but if the conservatives and liberals line up in the expected positions it unlikely would be impossible for the chief justice to do that unless they take the law, the case out on some tech any kalt like the tax issue. >> i want to skip to the other thing on the list. did the government lawyer blow it as you well known and someone will always look for someone to blame, especially if the ruling is not what they desire. the attorney has taken a lot of heat after yesterday. >> yeah, don, the solicitor general of the united states representing the government, he didn't have a great performance yesterday. he stumbled a little bit at the outset, and he had a difficult argument with justices jumping in on him repeatedly and sometimes the justices jumping in on each other, and i don't think it was really a bad job as some people made it out to be but simply that he had a tougher case to argue in front of the justices because because the government case here isn't

reducible to slogans the way some of the other arguments are. it is easy to say they can force you to buy wrongly and for him so say why it is not the case is not as easy to make and if they're jurping all over one another and all over you, it is a harder job. paul clement who represented the other side did by all accounts a tremendous job, so i would say it is doubtful that in the end this case will be resolved based on how one particular person did or didn't do arguing inside. that would be a pretty frightening thing to consider, i think. >> it would be. thank you, josh, for your time. >> coming up, downsizing or down-and-out. newt gingrich claims he has a big strategy. he is going to do some things perhaps we have never seen done before. he is making big plans and cutting back his campaign staff. plus. >> i have known the captain personally for a long period of time and there has been no indication of this at all in the

past. >> too fragile to fly? jet blue suspends the pilot who had the meltdown mid-air. how much do airlines screen the pilots and flight attends? plus, standing by rush. listen to this one. clear channel's ceo calls rush the, quote, king of radio. what he is saying about advertisers fleeing and his confidence that rush is not going anywhere. join our conversation on twitter. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans?

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we're back with decision 2012 and questions of whether newt gingrich is a goner. the republican presidential candidate has gotten rid of his campaign manager, a third of the staff and cutting back the campaign schedule because he is low on delegates, cash? he plans to reach out to

delegates one-on-one in an effort to win the nomination and at what he believes will be an open convention come august. in a radio interview this morning newt gingrich defended this strategy. >> until mitt romney has 1,144 locked down solidly i owe it to the people that helped me for the last year to represent their views and values and i find it fascinating, none of you guz call a football team or basketball team and say why don't you drop out? that's exactly why we're downsizing and we need to be able to stay in. >> we will bring in our political panel. steve, i want to read something from salon, the dilusions that sustain newt gingrich. they say what he is doing is accommodating a certain amount of reality without acknowledging it. this way he saves face and money while still getting to insist

that he is a candidate for the nomination and he simply is pivoting to a new phase of the can daes sigh and doesn't have to sell his critics they're right, meaning the critics that want him out and saying he can't win. what is the big strategy he is talking about here? >> i think what newt is alluding to is there is still an uphill climb to get to 1,144 delegates by mitt romney. michael steel that devised this system, he was on your network a couple of weeks ago, and he said it would be very difficult for romney to get to 1,144. i spoke last week with someone with rick santorum's super pac, and they have a strategy in line, the santorum campaign, of infiltrating a lot of caucus states that have non-binding contests and trying to up the delegate count and take delegates away from mitt romney. the margin for error to get to 1,144 is still very slim, not a slam dunk by any means. >> you believe this is still a

reasonable chance for newt gingrich to be a player here? >> yes, i think anybody, when i do the delegate math here, and i think the key date is april 24th. that is the key date. that is the pennsylvania and new york primaries are that day. i think rick santorum has to win his home state of pennsylvania and has to stop romney from getting all 95 out of new york f those two things happen, this race is going to go until at least june 5th because the calendar in may is very friendly towards rick santorum. so if we're talking about mitt romney coming within 100 to 250 delegates either way of clinching this nomination, and you're newt gingrich and sitting there with maybe 100, 150 delegates, you bet you might still have leverage. >> okay. a.b., are you in agreement with steve here? >> i think steve just outlined the reasons that newt gingrich should get out and endorse rick santorum. >> that's what i thought.

>> if you truly want to make the case for mitt romney, and i think many members of the republican party want to see barack obama defeated in the fall and even those who have given to newt gingrich are starting to wonder how we're going to get there. i don't know that they still want him hanging around trying to bust up a convention. we don't even have brokers for brokered convention, so what he would do is try to really weaken mitt romney at the convention by trying to peel off delegates and make hay. if rick santorum is a real threat to mitt romney, help him out. if not, let's just i think that most of the people supporting newt gingrich would want instead of this kind of big convention jihad, a real effort to get a nominee together and consolidate behind him so he can actually have a fair fight against obama. >> so, steve, are you for the big convention, quote, jihad that a.b. just referred to, you're a supporter of newt gingrich. >> i would love a convention

jihad as a matter of fact. >> i don't think i ever heard that in my life put this way. go ahead. wow. >> i wouldn't use that sort of terminology, by the way. i might say on open transparent debate if you will or a battle royale, but i think there are a lot of conservatives that are not sold as a whole. i think public policy polling put out numbers that 53% of republican voters would like somebody else to vote for or change their minds from whom they're currently voting for. romney has shown consistently he cannot win non-morman middle class voters in battle ground states which is death to you in a general election. i think there is a lot of conservatives that would love the idea of saying, hey, we played this out for a year, nobody distinguished themselves, let's get everyone together on the same page and go to a convention, and find out who we can actually rally behind. i don't think there is anything unattractive at all. >> to steve's point when you look at the numbers out,

washington post poll shows mitt romney's unfavorable numbers at 50%. last week it was 42%. i want to play what ar lan spechter said about mitt romney this morning on morning joe. let's play mr. spechter. >> what mitt romney will appear in october, bill rofls had it right, he said that mitt romney has changed positions more often than a pornographic movie queen. >> a.b.? >> boy, well, look, i think that the problem for the republicans is that they didn't like their choices and they had a weak field. they know that even if you go destroy a convention that romney is trying to get to as the nominee, and you blow it open, that newt gingrich is not going to not choice of the republican party. he has not been. he won south carolina and that was terrific and won georgia but he is not going to be the choice of the republican party. so really the question is is it

rick santorum? does he have a better shot in the general election? is he a better nominee or is it mom? if you go there to stop mitt romney, you are not a loyal republican and not trying to help a republican beat president obama. those numbers for romney are not good. he has a general elections problem. he needs to get started now healing the wounds with the women voters and all of the other groups that have really have been turned off by the republican primaries. however, you have to make a point late in the game, it is in longer january 10, at what point are we blowing a republican's chance against the president and at what point do we have to help him? >> real quick, steve. >> can i address that? can i address that? >> i don't think i have a choice now. go ahead. >> i am sorry. i didn't mean to interrupt. you know, i think that it is not the voter's obligation to decide whether or not this candidate meets my value system. it is the candidate's

obligation. mitt romney has out spent his opponents 10-1. he spent $17 million trying to destroy newt gingrich in florida. he out spent rick santorum, 6, 7, 8:1 in illinois, michigan, ohio. this is his job. it is his job to say to the republican base i am your champion. it is not the base or any other voter's job in the republican or the democratic party to say how much of a pretzel can i con tort myself into to sacrifice my soul? that is romney's job>> he has a 2:1 delegate lead over the other guys and that never changes. in the end he will have the math. >> i promise that's the last word. thank you both for joining me, steve. thank you as well, i appreciate you both. thank you. i will see you tomorrow probably. coming up. ♪

>> hundreds of thousands gather in havana as pope benedict delivered mass and said cuba and the world need change. we'll have a live report from havana. plus, an unbelievable rescue at sea. have you heard about this story? this teenager survived 28 days alone stranded in the pacific ocean. fon da as the first lady? which one? here is the money minute. look at the markets.

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welcome back to news nation. we begin with new details about the cap tatain restrained by passengering after a mid-air meltdown. clait ton ostbone has been suspended after his erratic behavior forced a flight to make an emergency landing in texas. witnesses say he tried to force his way into the cockpit while screaming about bombs and al qaeda. passengers pinned him to the floor until the plane landed safely. he is undergoing evaluation at a medical facility. police say he has been charged

with interfering with crew member instructions. >> just out of his mind and screaming and saying to the passengers, say your prayers. >> it appeared he was trying to open the side door. i wasn't going to let that happen. there was a lot of people at risk, 130 people on the plane. >> jet blue officially labeled this episode a medical situation but one customer says jet blue is sanitizing a serious incident by not calling it a security threat. jet blue ceo spoke with matt lauer earlier. >> the call into the faa is that we had a medical situation. that's how we responded. clearly, special in today's media is realtime so we know that it also became a security situation. i think as we know less than 24 hours later, it is started medical, but clearly more than that. >> i am joined by former pilot and aviation expert jim tilman. jim, clearly more than that, that was the last thing we heard from the ceo of jet blue, so how

would you define what happened there? >> we're dealing with the situation which we're very fortunate that has not happened before. it is very, very rare as i am sure you know, so it is not something ushtd be worried about every time you get on an airplane and look in the pilot's eyes and see if you see something there you don't like. it is just a terrible situation that happened as a result, i think, of some of our misunderstanding or lack of appreciation for mental illness period. >> with that said, what does the industry, the aviation industry do to ensure that the people, the flight attend ants, the crew members, are as you pointed out cared for properly if this is a mental health issue, that it is dealt with, and recognized before this incident or when we saw the flight attendant having an episode when she did not take her medication just recently. we know the other incident that happened where the flight attendant grabbed drinks and went down the emergency chute.

what is done? what does this industry do to make sure these episodes don't happen? >> there is not a lot they can do. >> that's not comforting, though. >> i don't believe. >> i know it is not. it is the real world. we don't have any magic wand or magic magnifying glass we can examine each individual and determine what's going on in their personality or some of their psychological problems. i will make a general comment here. generally, when a pilot has serious situation of any kind, medically, they generally go to their own physician and not to the faa doctor or flight surgeon. that's because there is so much stigma and so much interest in weeding out anybody that might possibly be a problem, so you hide those things and it is done fairly routinely throughout the industry. that does not pose a real problem for safety generally.

what it means, however, is that they have to hide it because any inkling that the airline has you have a mental disturbance, your career is over. it is terribly unfortunate because it leads us to a situation like we had here on this deal, but, remember, this is extremely rare. i mean, it is like not going to happen on your next flight certainly. >> we hope not. jim, thank you so much for coming on and talking with us about it and also broadening the issue of overall mental health issues to your point not discussed because people are fearful of what will happen and the consequences of it. thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. breaking news in now. the healthcare arguments at the supreme court are over and the case has been submitted to the high court. kelly o'donnell was inside for today's final arguments. she joins us live from the supreme court. kelly, what's the update there? >> you can say this was a your money or your life argument. the issue discussed today was whether the states have to

expand their coverage of medicaid in order to allow more people to be covered under the healthcare law. there was a lively debate that went beyond the scheduled time, and the government is saying that it is important to be able to expand this because it is a benefit. by having that benefit, the pursuit of your own liberty is actually enhanced with healthcare and with that coverage. the other side, the 26 states challenging this expansion say it is coercion to require states to take the money from the federal government and if they don't, they lose all of their medicaid program. it got really lively and at times even humor us when the justices posed questions. alaina keg an said it is a boat load of money. it is a gift. whys that coercion and justice roberts repeatedly raised the question if it is a case of having such a good gift, why is there the club in effect of taking away the rest of the

program for states if they choose not to participate? it was difficult to see where this was going, but notable that justice ruth bather ginsberg says there seems to be a need to fix that part compelling the states which is different than what those who are bringing this case are asking for. they want to see it all thrown out. for a justice like ruth ginsberg to acknowledge there might be something needs repaired seems significant. the whole theory was is it your money or your life? can you be compelled to do this in terms of how the states must act. >> we know they're set to deliver the fate of all of this in late june. >> lots of work to do. >> another very hot day and back and forth as pete also gave us the color from what was happening earlier sessions. thank you very much, kelly. greatly appreciate it. another big story, pope benedict has met with cuban revolutionary leader fidel castro. this video came in just moments ago. you see an aling castro comes as

the pope wraps up his three day visit to cuba and just before that meeting during mass he demanded more freedom for cuba's more than 1 million catholics. again, i want to stress,s this the latest video of an aling fidel castro meeting with pope benedict. people were uncertain this was going to happen and we see it did. >> absolutely. confirmation coming from the cuban government and the vatican it was going to happen and it did. we have the video. somebody who has seen the entirety of the video and lived here a long time and knows the situation here and described him as looking quite frail as he walked in to see the pope. he was accompanied by his two youngest sons, alex and antonio and accompanied by his wife dalia wearing a blackout fit, something around his neck for this meeting. we do not know whether the meeting is still under way, what they talked about, whether they have finished any of those

details but we do have confirmation this meeting has occurred between pope benedict and fidel castro, the leader of the cuban revolution and headed the government for so many decades until 2006 when he understand thatted control of the government over to his younger brother raúl as he fell into ill health. in about two hours from now the pope will arrive at the airport here in havana for a closing ceremony, a final speech and that will end his three day trip where today he celebrated a mass in havana calling for more freedoms and reconciliations. back to you. >> thank you. again, incredible video coming out of this meeting. you see castro fail with his family meeting with pope benedict. thank you very much, mark. coming up. >> do you want to get the job done, hire a veteran. >> that was dr. jill biden just this morning at the hiring our heroes jobs fair. 100 companies are on board the uss intrend trying to get vets

back into the workforce. we'll have a live update for you. first, there is a lot going on today and here are things we thought you should know. a democratic campaign treasurer will appear in court friday accused of multi-million dollar scheme dating back more than a decade. federal prosecutors say she defrauded at least 50 candidates, current office holders and political organizations out of $7 million. in one case they say the former treasurer took $23,000 of senator diane feinstein's account to pay kraurd charges from disney land. despite being dropped by advertisers, the head of the company that distributes rush limbaugh's radio show says he will stick with rush. clear channel ceo bob pitman says the derogatory comments were, quote, part of the normal day-to-day of talk radio. the ceo also referred to limbaugh as the "king" of radio.

actress jane fonda who is well known of course for her political activism and her great acting will reportedly play former first lady nancy reagan in a new film called "butler" about eugene allen that worked under eight presidents. some say it is a poor choice. those are the things we thought you should know. ouncer ] there's a crushing national debt hanging over us. hindering economic growth. it's time for some common sense -- people in congress who'll come together and put partisan politics aside. not with radical schemes that gamble with america's future. but with a plan that requires washington to balance the budget the right way -- protecting the priorities of america's families. tell congress to pass a common sense balanced budget -- now. sign the petition at center-forward.org.

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coming up at the top of the hour a very mitt romney 24 hours from playing the straight man on jay leno's couch to playing red dawn with the russians. in the meantime newt gingrich running on empty and more bowling for voters with rick santorum, plus day three of healthcare arguments at the supreme court. now back to tamron. thanks, martin. an 18-year-old rescued after spending four weeks in a small boat in the pacific ocean tops our look at stories around the nation.

adrian vasquez was fishing with friends and they found him near the galapagos islands 600 miles away from his starting point in panama. his two friends died. he says he stayed alive by eating fish and drinking rain water. magic johnson and a group of investors is buying the dodgers for a record $2 billion. that is twice the amount ever paid for a sports team. owner frank mccourt had to sell the struggling baseball franchise after taking the team to bankruptcy last year. and from bankruptcy to banking, it is record jackpot for mega millions. no one picked all six numbers in last night's drawing so the jackpot grows to half a billion. mega millions is played in more than 40 states. i have my money ready. we'll be right back. are we in? [ johan ] hello, piper. nice up-do. i see you're crunching numbers with a cup of joe... when you could be relaxing with a delicious gevalia. or as i like to say, a cup of johan. joe's a cubicle.

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♪ >> very nice sight there, the ceremony toads kicking off a hiring our heroes jobs fair

aboard the uss intrepid aircraft carrier. hiring our heroes is a joint effort by nbc universal and the chamber of commerce to help vets and their spouses find jobs. according to the chamber the unemployment rate is 12% and that number jumps to 29% for vets under the age of 24. more and are more hiring our heroes fairs in the past we have seen some of these vets be able to land jobs. richard louie joins us now with the latest, so, richard, i saw you out there all day, a lot of optimism and that's good to see. >> optimism is definitely here today on the aircraft carrier intrepid. good day to you. earlier it was tough to walk in these halls that they set up with about 100 exhibitors, about a dozen to my right and a couple dozen more and then there is three dozen to my left as well. the reaction so far has been good as well as mixed. >> what everybody says they

always want to hire the vets and oftentimes they're not job openings, due to positions already filled, but job fairs like this let me know there are. >> now, one of the issues here, tamron, is pts. there is a perception that employers have, 46% according to society for human resources says that when they think about hiring a vet, they think about pts. that is definitely an issue they need to overcome. yet 13% of the actual employees that are hired, they find that it is only 1 out of 8 times there is actually an issue with pts onsite. one last thing for you here, tamron. i was looking at some of the exhibit orz earlier, about to close down, they had about 15 more minutes, but you know what, i have the latest statistics, about 1,500 people have come through and 150 are getting follow-up interviews. we have couriers, people looking for sales jobs, everything today.

>> thank you very much, richard. greatly appreciate your work there and obviously happy this is happening for some people who sdernl deserve it. thank you for joining us for this addition of news nation. i am tamron hall. my colleague martin ba shirr is up next. labored breathing ] [ coughing continues ] [ gasping ] [ elevator bell dings, coughing continues ] [ female announcer ] washington can't ignore the facts. more air pollution means more childhood asthma attacks. [ coughing continues ] log on to fightingforair.org and tell washington: don't weaken clean air protections.

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