mitt romney is closing the gap on santorum in his former home state. and four day easter break isn't the traditional recipe for success. romney is taking advantage, already in the keystone state to persuade republican voters in the quest for delegates. switched out primary jeans for his general election suit wednesday, taking a washington, d.c. stage 24 hours after president obama, and taking sharp campaign shots. >> the president came here yesterday and railed against arguments no one is making, and criticized policies no one is proposing. while i understand the president doesn't want to run on his record, he can't run from his record either. i'm running for president because i have the experience and the vision to get us out of this mess. we know what barack obama's vision of america is. we've all lived it the last three years. >> nbc's peter alexander joins me. the santorum team says their candidate will be back on the

trail by monday. however, mitt romney not taking his foot off the gas. >> rick santorum's team made it clear, looking at the release as you were speaking to see exactly the language. they say he has a full calendar of events scheduled to fight for pennsylvania primary beginning monday. that does mean this devout catholic, santorum, will try to enjoy the next four days off, spending time with his family over easter holiday. mitt romney has the state of pennsylvania, santorum's home state to himself the course of the next several days. he is trying to spend as much time there today as he can. he began this morning at a phone bank event where he said among other things he will win pennsylvania this fall, and that winning pennsylvania will win him the white house. he also continued to chip away at the president, barack obama, taking tacts the president used against him, saying the president is out of touch. take a listen. >> i don't think he has been out seeing the people of america, talking to the people of america.

i'm afraid he has been in this bubble in washington, d.c., surrounded by people that love everything that comes out of his mouth, and he hasn't had a chance to see what's happening in america. >> and if there's any thought that mitt romney is more focused on rick santorum or in any way focused on rick santorum going forward, listen to the first thing out of his mouth yesterday when he first arrived in pennsylvania, his words are, we wrote them down, i have only one more thing to ask you, please help me defeat barack obama next november. it is very clear his focus is on the general election, trying to put rick santorum behind him, opening up a new office in the state in the last week or so, adding new staffers in that state as well. >> nbc's peter alexander, thank you. want to breakdown the race with our political power panel. washington bureau chief, susan page, bob shrum, and jp fare, senior communication strategist. great to see you all. susan, i want to start with you. mitt romney is conveying this me

versus the president message. a strong speech gave way to other things. look at this. >> the democratic party has done an effective job to try to mischaracterize our views. i think in the final analysis i will win by having support of men and women. my wife has the occasion as you know to campaign on her own and also with me, and she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy. >> the economy, susan, very important issue, not the only issue for women in america. how hard is it for romney to close the gap we saw in your wing state poll? >> i think it is a huge task. he's now lagging, president obama, 18 points among women. there are not enough men in america to elect you if you have that kind of deficit among women. has he to focus on the economy and probably has to mend fences with women when it comes to some of the women's health issues that have been controversial in the past month. >> i saw this in politico, bob, want to show everybody about an

army of women from dnc for re-election of president obama, compared to mitt romney. does he need a stronger female presence in each state? >> i don't think it is sending ann romney who can be effective out to talk to people. his problem is rooted in what he said. he had to go along with anti-contraception, signed onto the ryan budget that assaults a lot of things women care about, capacity for kids to go to college, investment in education. he has a woman problem that susan suggests across the board, and i don't think you fix it by sending ann romney or a group of women out there. on the other hand, if you try to fix it by edging away from those positions, romney is in a dilemma. he deep ens his other big problem which is a character problem. he looks like a flip flopper who will say anything he has to to

try to get elected. so everything is a business plan. in the primaries, we have one business plan, appease the right. in the general, we have another business plan, go to the middle, mainstream. the difficulty with that is it is so transparent that it undermines his fundamental credibility as a candidate. >> jp, we are seeing the ad war heat up between the president and governor romney. want to show everybody the latest from the team. >> when you attack business and you vilify success, you're going to have less best and less success. >> i know that the true engine of job creation in this country is the private sector, not washington. >> tax increase has not only become a necessity but also desired tool for social justice. >> i have cut taxes for small business owners 17 times in the last three years. >> jp, multiple rebut he wills to his claims. the facts he won't be able to knock down are what? >> the facts that president obama won't be able to knock down is that he is not able to

defend his record. you have somebody whose administration had been saying they would be keeping unemployment down. unemployment went up under president obama. also to get back to the women's issue, president obama, i don't know if you recall this, there were reports how a lot of women felt the white house was not particularly good for women working there. anita dunn, christine roam air, both reported to say if we could level a lawsuit against this place, it would go down. the idea that romney somehow has a woman problem but obama doesn't doesn't make sense. >> when you hear that ann is on the campaign trail, women are talking to her, why not use the first person, say when i am on the campaign trail, women are talking to me about the economy. he uses his wife as the conduit, like women talk to women, i don't. >> i think it was more of an effort to talk about his wife, the fact that he has a good relationship with his wife, and i don't think there's anything wrong with that. >> susan, even in his suit, suited look of mitt romney, he

still took time to make the personal connection. i want to play a portion of it for everybody. take a listen. >> my grandfather was in the construction business, and he never really made it himself, but he convinced my dad he could accomplish anything he set his mind to. my father made the most of the opportunities that came before him. i loved cars. and i was tempted to stay in michigan and go into the car business. but i always knew that i'd wonder if any success i might have was due to my dad. >> mitt romney loves cars. susan, going back farther than the president to highlight family struggles, do you think trying to resonate or portray himself as the hard scrabble guy is going to work? >> you know, he's not a guy who had the kind of tough upbringing that president obama had, for instance, but i do think it makes sense for him to try to make this, to reveal a little more about himself and his upbringing, talk a little more about his religion, talk about his dad. i think these are things people want to know.

and he's not the most -- smoothest candidate on the stump doing that, and not going to be, but if you are sincere, come across that way, goes a long way to make voters comfortable about you. >> bob, i have to get to you on this. saw reports that long time gop campaign strategist ed gillespie will be adviser to romney camp. is there worry that gillespie, karl rove, other operatives will bring an attack strategy to hurt the president in the court of public opinion? >> the attack strategy has to be premised on rebuilding romney, no matter how you talk about it. i think ed, who is very talented, has been hired as the etch a sketcher in chief. he is supposed to get romney to a position where he is not upside down the way voters feel of him in polls. he is in mid-30s. you can't get elected president that way, can't get across the

50% threshold in terms of general election by saying the kinds of things we heard a few minutes ago. well, he promised unemployment would never go up. ronald reagan did the same thing. unemployment went up. it then came down. as it steadily went down through election year, ronald reagan got reelected. what's happening now is we're seeing the economy constantly improving. romney is losing his rationale, message, narrative. he said i'm the ceo that can fix the economy, create jobs. guess what, we're creating jobs and people are changing feeling about the direction of the country. it is steadily, still not great, but steadily getting better. we're here in the spring. romney needs a better argument. maybe ed gillespie can come up with one. >> thank you, all three of you, for taking time out for me this morning. i appreciate it. takes two for bipartisanship in the beltway. one day after he shared the stage with a handful of republicans and scott brown, he

will welcome one of his biggest critics, eric cantor, to a bill signing ceremony for the jobs act. nbc correspondent kelly o'donnell joins me. a lot of people wonder, is this the last time we see anything like this in 2012, bipartisanship? >> well, the big debt deal you've been waiting for, if they were to resolve the concerns about social security, could that happen election year, probably not. when you talk about a chance to see a signing ceremony that has both parties present, it's one of those moments where both sides want to claim a bit of the responsibility on this, but then much of the rest of the year we'll get into trying to just be in the opposition game again. so this is an important moment. a gesture from the white house, gesture from cantor to attend, a way for both sides to attend and do something together. it is helpful for both parties to say they accomplished some

things working together, even as they go into the heavy season of throwing only the hard punches and fast balls. expecting something else this year that's big, probably going to be hard to find. but sometimes these moments give even individual members who will attend a chance to showcase themselves. scott brown running for re-election to senate in massachusetts put out releases, talked about the fact the president will sign pieces of legislation he has been a part of. that could be helpful to him in massachusetts where the president is far more popular, and that could be something that he wants to do to not appear to be in lock step with his party. >> this dispels the rumor th bipartisanship can't exist in washington. five days until the grand jury hearing on trayvon martin shooting. george zimmerman claims it was all self defense, but forensics

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check out our online calculator and find out how your school would benefit. visit ourchildrenourfuture2012.com today. a grand jury on the trayvon martin case convenes in a week, and a special prosecutor pieces together evidence from that fateful february night, george zimmerman's attorneys says his client is exercising his right to remain silent. his newest attorney insisting his client did what he had to to save himself. >> the way the law is written in florida and 23 other states, if you are in fear for imminent injury and when getting your head slammed in the ground after your nose is broken, that's pretty good fear of imminent

injury, you're entitled to use deadly force to protect yourself. >> you're suggesting that's what happened here? >> that's exactly what happened. >> kerry sanders joins me, that attorney coming out sharply. >> indeed. and of course, the challenge for the special prosecutor is to determine what happened on that rainy night nearly a month ago. zimmerman at this point is the only eyewitness to what happened, and he, of course, is the gunman. you heard his attorney say he was defending himself. because his lawyers say he is exercising his right to remain silent, that means the special prosecutors have a little to work with, if the sanford police department followed its protocol, there is a videotape of his initial investigation interview with the police officers. but since he's not talking, now that means that the fdle and

special prosecutor have to balance that with csi forensics to see if his story holds up. investigators may have no eyewitnesses to the shooting other than george zimmerman himself. he says he fired in self defense, which leaves detectives with a puzzle of evidence, including ear witnesses. >> so you think he's yelling help? >> yes. >> all right. what is your phone number? >> just there's gunshots. >> physical evidence, and a scientific challenge. can csi explain what happened? >> without eyewitnesses to contradict george zimmerman, forensic evidence will be critical, because if you can show that zimmerman lied about what really happened, you can perhaps show that he committed a homicide. >> veteran detectives in florida say if sanford's major crimes unit followed protocol, they should have gathered trayvon's clothes and analyzed for gun powder burns. that could reveal how close they were to each other when the shot

was fired. microscopic blood spatter on george zimmerman which will likely reveal not only proximity but coupled with the autopsy report should reveal if zimmerman was standing over trayvon down on the ground, or if trayvon was standing over him on the ground. or were both standing. there are evidence photos of the crime scene that should reveal in florida sandy soil if there really was a scuffle. hall uhrig is his newest attorney. >> you'll find the two were closely engaged. they don't do their investigation sharing it with you and i. >> not having an eyewitness is not uncommon, which often leads to expectations that csi forensics can fill in the blanks. >> there's no magic bullet here. the evidence is what it is. there is no computer that holds all of the answers, nothing here that they can go and push a

button, get some printout that says yeah, he's lying, or no, he's not. >> state agencies are examining evidence and the fbi is running a parallel investigation. but the justice department is focused on a possible civil rights violation. the feds trying to answer the question was 17-year-old trayvon martin targeted by george zimmerman because of racial prejudice. zimmerman's two attorneys say their client, george zimmerman, is not a racist. they expect the special prosecutor will take this to a grand jury, and if there are charges, they say that they welcome the opportunity to defend him. thomas? >> nbc's kerry sanders, thank you. no women allowed. it has been that way at augusta national. could all of that change because of one woman at the helm of one of the biggest companies? and the maryland woman that claims she won the lottery hires an attorney, holds a news conference, but provides no ticket and still no official word until later today. hey dad. see how the carrots i grow

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welcome back, everybody. wall street is waiting for march unemployment numbers due out tomorrow. meantime, weekly unemployment benefit applications out today are the lowest in four years. those numbers will be the backdrop as president obama signs the latest jobs bill into law later today. the bipartisan jump start our business startups act will make it easier for small business to raise much needed cash. joining me to talk about the jobs act and what it means for american businesses, j.j. ramburg, host of your business on msnbc. always great to see you. >> thank you, thomas. >> important piece of legislation that's about to be signed into law to talk about. explain to us what the new law is going to do for businesses and what it means to their fund-raising abilities. >> well, there are a lot of provisions to the law. the one that's most exciting to small businesses out there is the one that says it is now legal to go out and crowd fund.

that means i have a business idea, i can put it out there to everyone and say hey, you want to invest $10, you want to, get that together, suddenly i have $10,000 i can use in my business and for that, they own a piece of he can quit in my company which was illegal before. now i have access to capital i never had. >> when you hear about ipos going public, this is taking that back in time, allowing people to get in on the ground floor before a company made it to that launching point. >> exactly. we've been hearing the last few years i can't get money, bank is not giving me a loan, i don't have friends and family to give me money. this is saying there are all these people out there think this is interesting, they can give you money now. >> bipartisanship shown on capitol hill in washington, d.c. by getting this through, and signed. but what are the down sides? there are critics to this.

>> absolutely. on crowd funding side, people say this opens up to fraud, so i am some fraudster, i invest, you take your business and go home. things are in place to stop that. you can only invest a certain amount. i have to go through an organization that's registered to do this. there are more down sides or critics against some of the other provisions of the act about going public. >> you're going to talk about it in detail this weekend. >> in detail this weekend on my show. >> j.j. ramburg. a programming reminder for all of you, catch your business on msnbc at 7:30 a.m. eastern time every sunday morning. thanks again. how whitney houston was found the night of her death, and also what was found. new details from the autopsy report next. and former penn state football coach jerry sandusky in court this morning, two months before the start of his sexual abuse trial, and showing up with a new toerp. attorney. good afternoon. don't feed that meter.

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>> mitt romney taking the fight to rick santorum in pennsylvania. a win in the keystone state would shift the gop conversation from their nominee, who will be who will be the best person for this ticket. one gave a familiar response. >> would you serve as vice president? >> i don't know, man. i am having a great time being governor of virginia, got a lot left to do here. those decisions are left to mitt romney. >> mark murray, nbc senior political editor joins me. so many potential vp picks are ducking that question.

is it a sought after job? >> it is. people always want to be able to help the party. it does give you a bit of a leg up if you want to be president. the problem is even if you are a successful vice president, it doesn't automatically give you entrance to 1600 pennsylvania avenue. we saw al gore who wasn't able to become president after serving as his vice president for two terms. but thomas, we know the general election season is heating up when we're talking about deep stakes, and this is something we'll talk about from april to the republican convention in august, if mitt romney holds true to form whoever the nominee is in picking the vice presidential candidate right before the convention. >> there's mark, a huge curiosity factor getting into the romney camp to figure out who is best suited to be paired with mitt romney, whether a vetted, more establishment figure or vp candidate with the tea party, fire up voters, get

them behind romney. >> there are two strategies a presidential candidate makes. shore up deficiency or weakness. if you're mitt romney, feel people question your conservative, you get a conservative tea party person to help out there. the other strategy, i mentioned bill clinton and al gore, double down on the string. double down on both being southerners, being youthful at the time, being baby boomers. if mitt romney wants to go to that strategy, pick an issue, maybe that's where paul ryan talk comes, if mitt romney wants to talk about debt reduction austerity picking someone like paul ryan. >> the game change pick was sarah palin in 2008. can mitt romney and should mitt romney do something with someone off the political grid mark, someone we're not talking about. some kick around condie rice. >> she would be a very

interesting pick. it would be a female, just as democrats are accusing republicans of launching a war on women. she would also be a minority, someone with foreign policy experience. the down side, it would kind of tie mitt romney to the george w. bush years. but as far as going for a game change, the advice i've always heard is always try to do no harm. someone might actually try to pick somebody for strategic reason to maybe help with minority vote, help with females, help in a particular state, but the advice is always to do no harm. since 1960, the vice presidential pick really hasn't helped a presidential candidate win a state or win a presidential election. >> mark, real quickly, i want to get you on what's going on with newt gingrich, not so much his campaign but what's going on in his business life with the gingrich group. >> that's right, thomas. nbc has confirmed that one of newt gingrich's parts of his newt inc businesses filed for

bankruptcy. had to do with his health care business. it does raise the question, does newt gingrich want to stay in the contest through april or may or through republican convention, whether his businesses are actually taking a hit as he does this. >> nbc's mark murray. great to see you. thank you. >> thanks. jerry sandusky in and out of court again today for a quick pretrial hearing with a new attorney on his team. the former penn state assistant football coach was accused of sexual abuse against ten boys. despite the hearing in court, sandusky's lawyer says his client is upbeat and looks forward to the upcoming holiday. >> in general, his spirits are much higher now that he's been able to see some friends, been able to see most of his grandkids. this is an important weekend for the family, easter weekend. he is looking very forward to seeing at least the majority of his grandkids over the weekend. >> nbc's michelle franzen is

live in pennsylvania with more on the proceedings. explain what was accomplished at the hearing and explain as we saw joe amendola there, there's a new member of the sandusky legal team to talk about as well. >> well, that's right, thomas. most of the information that we heard today spilled out after the court arguments were heard. took a short time this morning, as you mentioned, jerry sandusky's defense attorney joe amendola officially added another co-counsel, carl rum in injury. he had been consulting several months. he will be co-counselor. still joe amendola very much the lead attorney. they finished talking to the media outside here as well as prosecutors. what they were trying to decide this morning, they were presenting arguments to a judge joe amendola presented a motion a few weeks back asking that all 52 counts of child sexual abuse be dismissed and dropped in this case saying that the prosecutors

wouldn't have enough evidence to present to a jury. he in court this morning decided to remove that motion, asking a judge to dismiss that, but also asking the judge to preserve at a later time that should they get any more information in that they could also file that motion again. so what does all of that mean? well, the judge had mentioned in court that this case, this investigation is still very fluid. there's an on-going investigation and there's also a grand jury that's still taking testimony. outside of court, prosecutors also said they still just want to present their case. they're ready june 5th for their alleged victims to come forward and begin their testimony under oath. >> nbc's michelle franzen in bellefonte, pennsylvania. thanks so much. other stories topping the news, starting with whitney houston's final autopsy confirming that the legendary singer accidentally drowned in a hotel bathroom in february. the report also says she had

cocaine throughout her system when she died. houston was found face down in skalding hot water. nearby on the bathroom counter, investigators fount a crystal like substance, in a drawer, a white powdery substance. heart disease and long time cocaine use were listed as contributing factors to the 48-year-old's death. exclusive nbc news video after hurricane katrina, police shot people on the bridge. two victims died. five former new orleans police officers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 6 to 65 years. the defendants were also convicted of civil rights violations as well as a coverup. texas governor rick perry finished an aerial tour of the

destruction left by the tornados that tore through dallas, fort worth area. they packed winds up to 165 miles per hour. since tuesday, more than 1600 flights in and out of the airport there were cancelled. officials expect things won't get back to normal there for a few more days. today, the masters tournament kicks off in green jacketed glory. this elite sporting event is lined with a controversy over equality. augusta club refuse to go allow women members, not even if she's ceo of one of its main sponsors. we have more from nbc's lisa myers. >> reporter: augusta national is among the most iconic venues in sports, and the masters is the super bowl of golf. augusta's chairman billy pain was pommelled with questions about when the club finally will admit a woman member. >> once again, that deals with the membership issue, and i'm not going to answer it.

>> reporter: what would he tell his granddaughters about why women are excluded? >> my conversations with my granddaughters are also personal. >> what would you suggest i tell my daughters? >> i don't know your daughters. >> reporter: the controversy over women was rekindled because the tournament's long time sponsor, ibm, has a new female ceo, and the last four ceos all were invited to become members. >> it's getting unseemly. the longer this goes, the more ridiculous the club looks. augusta national is sending a strong message to women and girls which is you're not welcome here. >> reporter: he wrote a book about it, argues they play a public leadership role in an international sport and has a responsibility not to exclude half the population. but he says the situation also puts pressure on ibm, whether to continue to sponsor the masters. >> she has to explain to female

shareholders why they support a club that won't have them. >> reporter: ibm spokesman says they have no comment and she is folk ugsed on her job. she was in brazil last week negotiating a billion dollars deal. sources say she will host clients at augusta later this week, but there's no indication she will be wearing that iconic green jacket, reserved for club members and past champions. lisa myers, nbc news, washington. did this woman win the mega millions jackpot or not? what her own attorney is saying, and why we're still scratching our heads over this mega mystery. and "meet the press" moderator david gregory gives his impression of presidential candidates. any guess who this is? find out for real in today's side bar. >> david, you didn't come back to me on the medicare, on the exception on medicare. i want to be able to respond on the ryan plan, get into the prescription drug.

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a new study from harvard medical school gives advice for raising a healthy child, put down the disinfectant. according to the research, kids that encounter germs have stronger, more developed immune systems than kids with clean obsessed parents. the rise in food allergies, asthma, and other diseases may be due in part to kids not being exposed to germs at an early age. welcome back. i reported on a piece in the huffington post about apple and microsoft marrying up, asking the national organization for marriage to boycott like they're doing to starbucks. at the end of the article, it says it was satirical. we take issues of equality seriously, not as satire. it was my error. national fight over voting rights taking some twists in the

past 24 hours. they approved a bailout measure, letting residents decide whether the state allows them to vote, as long as they have photo id. in new hampshire, a senate committee wants to kill a bill passed by the house of reps that makes it easier to challenge voters at polling sites. and asking people to boycott coca-cola and walmart for backing an organization that supports these laws. democratic congressman from virginia is the president, ceo of the center for american progress action fund. sir, great to have you here. your organization recently issued a report condemning new voter id laws in florida, texas, tennessee, kansas, wisconsin. that inspired others to launch boycotts of coke and walmart for supporting the group pushing them. within five hours of this boycott, coke backed off, walmart didn't. what are your thoughts on reactions? >> it is a great day for coke and a smile, seeing them distance themselves from these

efforts to disenfranchise voters, particularly seniors, communities of color and young people. i think so many working middle class folks feel like the economic system is rigged against them. these are systemic efforts to rig the democratic process, and it is important to note these are not response to systemic fraud. report after report has shown that's not in fact true. this is a response to the fact that these reforms were working. efforts to make it easier for seniors to vote, those working two jobs to get by, things like early voting have been effective making more americans able to participate in the democratic process. response from conservative groups has been to roll back these efforts, roll back all the way to efforts of the jim crow era to make it more difficult, particularly for minorities to vote, and corporations like coke and pepsi don't want any piece of that. that's why they're distancing themselves from these efforts. >> tom, the groups in support of these voter id laws, some being strict photo, some not, called

the american legislative exchange council. how does targeting corporations help your group and what is the ultimate goal? >> alec is a friendly sounding acronym, but this is a group helping systematically disenfranchise voters across the country. color of change has done a great job getting activists aware of the fact that groups like coca-cola sat on their board, helped fund those operations. they're trying to appeal to consumers across the board, and i think by getting the facts out there, like the center for american progress voter suppression report, connecting the dots and their efforts to educate commerce as well as voters has really shown, pulled the veil back on a group like alec to show they rigged the democratic process. when people have more information, it is a good thing. when it is easier for people to vote, that's a good thing. >> with the primary season, we haven't had any issues of fraud in any of the states with people

going to polls? >> that's correct. to the extent there have been problems, they're where ridiculous laws have been put in place, and you've senior citizens coming to the polls, which isn't always easy to do, being told they can't vote, don't have the right ids. over 20 million americans who can legally vote do not have government issued ids. and this is not an effort to combat fraud, it is clearly a response to the fact when more people vote, it doesn't work out well for conservatives, so they're trying to rig the game. >> center for american progress action fund, former congressman, tom, thanks for joining me. >> thank you. if you want the to attend ann romney's new york birthday bash and haven't gotten your ticket, you're out of luck. that's today's poll ee side bar, ann's fund-raising bash at the trumps is sold out. price of admission, $1,000 a pop, proceeds go to the romney

campaign. massachusetts u.s. senate hopeful elizabeth warren has 2.5 million in her campaign coffers. warren is running for the seat currently occupied by scott brown. president obama will host "to kill a mocking bird" for the films 50th anniversary. he will provide special introduction for the film when it airs saturday on usa network. appearing on "the tonight show," "meet the press" moderator, he explains what hopefuls were like behind the scenes at the gop debates. >> they come bounding off the thing, they come in, everybody has there thing to tell you. rick santorum looks a little stressed out, says david, you didn't come back to me on the exception on medicare. i want to be able to respond on the ryan plan, get into the prescription drug -- i was like you're right, senator. gingrich comes over. after he attacks the press, say i only have one question.

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>> you probablyly have been following this deepening mega millions mystery. nearly a week since the winning tickets were sold. not a single winner has officially claimed their prize. in illinois the wing store will receive a fat check today. lottery officials in maryland, though v a news conference scheduled for this afternoon. and they had their doubts about a mcdonald's employee who says she won the state's ticket. she hasn't forked over that piece of paper. even her attorney hasn't seen it. >> i cannot say with any certainty that this ticket exists, and i would caution anybody until it's presented to the lottery commissioner for processing that it does exist. >> so let's sort this south. joining me is yvonne winger of "the baltimore sun." good to have you. what's going to happen this

afternoon. lottery officials in maryland are giving a press conference, correct? >> yes. i called and checked with the spokeswoman and she said that they don't have a winner as of right now and that this afternoon's press conference is a chance for lottery officials to tell folks more about the benefits coming to maryland as a result of this jackpot winning ticket. >> let's talk specifically about mirlande wilson, the woman who claims she is the winner, the multi-million-dollar question here, very obvious, why doesn't she just show off this ticket if she does claim to have it? she's holding press conferences, has a lawyer, the lawyer hasn't seen it. it's a real mess. >> yeah. it's a great question. why not just take that ticket, sign the back of it and parade down to the lottery office and collect your winnings. but miss wilson isn't talking. she sat silently at a press conference yesterday and her attorney basically said that he didn't know the answers to pretty much any question that was asked.

miss wilson did give an interview to "the new york post" and said that she was waiting until things calmed down and the excitement subsided a little before she went and retrieved her ticket, which she said she hid in the mcdonald's where she works. >> let's talk more about that. her co-workers have insisted that this winning ticket was part of an office pool. however, mirlande willsie is saying it wasn't. where does this stand? do employees have the proof that this winning ticket was part of the pool? >> we went down to the mcdonald's in milford mills up from where the ticket was purchased. we were asked to leave the property. we didn't get a chance to talk to any of the employees or managers. but we did get a statement from the franchise owner and he said she has no proof that the ticket is there and no definitive information about whether or not there was an employee pool that will make a lot of mcdonald workers very happy.

>> we shall find out. we'll know more from lottery officials. this big mystery. we'll see where it goes. thanks for your time today. i appreciate it. >> thanks. >> i want to pass this along quickly. president obama's press secretary jay carney said that the president of the united states believes that women should be admitted to augusta national, home of the masters. we had that report by lisa myers that that is in question right now. the president thinks women should be allowed there. that's going to wrap things up for me. i'll see you tomorrow every week day morning. until then follow me on twitter at thomas a. roberts. now alex wagner is coming up. >> hi, thomas. a lot of ladies that would like to play augusta if they do open it up. up next, we will examine the grass root and the board room stylings of one willard mitt romney and ask if there is a home field advantage for rick santorum. are republicans and democrats

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from behind closed doors in washington. because you've earned a say. >> president ob and eric kanter are going to be in the same room at the same time in two hours, agreeing on something. what's next. a ram nissan tomorrow ticket? this is "now." joining me today ari melber of the nation, the digital director of the onion and author of how to be black, bear a tunldy thurston. s.e. cupp and richard wolffe.