tv News Nation MSNBC April 26, 2012 11:00am-12:00pm PDT
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like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. unaccording more secrets. it is hard to believe but there are new allegations of another alcohol fueled romp with prostitutes and the secret service days before the president visited el salvador. what's the solution? >> hire more females. >> we'll have more on the reaction. plus a new nbc news battleground. the map shows the stage is set for the general election. a big showdown. we'll break down the map as
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president obama's campaign announces a kickoff campaign with two big stops in two key states. and call it rude bedside manor. debt collectors in hospitals looking for people who have not paid outstanding medical bills. the "news nation" is following developing news in the secret service scandal and another major accusation involving the conduct of agents while abroad. the secret service says it now investigating whether its employees hired strippers and prostitutes in advance of president obama's visit to el salvador last year. moments ago, homeland security committee chairman peter king told nbc news, as part of the secret service's extensive investigation, it is examining this allegation regarding el salvador. this certainly does not mean there is any validity to it. just that they are looking into all allegations. kristen welker joins me live from the white house where press secretary jay carney was giving
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the latest on these, the latest and new allegations out. what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, good afternoon to you, tamron. white house press secretary jay carney really tight-lipped about these allegations and referring most questions to the secret service. a couple interesting things did come out of briefing. we asked how the president responded. he said he wouldn't comment on that. did he say he didn't believe the president was aware of these allegations until they were first reported this morning. so that certainly is something that is interesting. the secret service has reacted though. they released this statement which i'm going to read to you right now. according to the secret service, they say the recent investigation in cartagena has generated several news stories that contain allegations by mostly unnamed sources. any information that can be brought to our attention that can be assess as credible will be followed up on in an appropriate manner. that was from edwin donavan, a special agent in charge of the secret service. so certainly these allegations
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point to the central concern in all of this which is that perhaps what happened in cartagena is not an isolated incident. perhaps this is part of a larger cultural problem. nancy pelosi was asked about this earlier today. if this is part of a larger cultural problem, should the director keep her job? she is still standing behind him. >> his reputation is such that it is hard to connect him with any culture of this kind. nonetheless, an investigation has to take place because first of all, whatever the agency of government this might be taking place in is disgusting. >> so tamron, everyone is still standing behind director mark sullivan. he was pointed in 2006 under george w. bush and he has a lot of allies on both sides of the aisle who are saying that he should remain in charge, in part because of the way he reacted to this initial scandal. he acted swiftly. now all 12 agents who are initially implicated have been
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dealt with in some way, shame or form. most out the door. but certainly, this raises the specter of concern about whether or not this might be a part of a larger cultural problem within the agency. that is going to be the question that a lot of people will want answered. >> thank you. and the race for president took a heated turn to foreign policy today with vice president joe biden slamming mitt romney on issues of national security. now while speaking at new york university, the vice president highlighted the obama administration's achievements like the death of osama bin laden while calling romney, quote, totally out of touch. >> governor romney's national security policies in our view would return us to a past we've worked so hard to move beyond. governor romney i think is downing on collective amnesia of the american people. he starts with a profound misunderstanding of the responsibilities of a president and the commander-in-chief. that may work, that kind of
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thinking may work for a ceo. but i assure you, it will not and cannot work for a president. >> meanwhile, nbc's new 2012 battleground map has president obama adding to his laurel vote lead. this as team obama launches plans for ohio and virginia next week. michael smerconish as well as senior political editor mark murray. i'll start with you and get your reaction to these heated words from joe biden today. very fiery. his comments about mitt romney having this profound misunderstanding remind immediate when the critics referred to president obama, or then candidate obama as naive. >> when i go back and look at elections in the last, say, three decades, it has usually been that national defense has been a strong suit of the republican party. i don't think that will be the case in this election because there are some achievements that i think any rational person
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would have to credit the obama administration with. i'm referring to not only the successful takedown of bin laden but getting out of iraq and we hope because it appears to be in progress, getting out of afghanistan. hopefully for the obama administration, iran doesn't blow up. so it seems to me this is the year where the ds are going to be the ones touting their record on foreign policy. >> we'll talk about these key states such aspen pen but you heard joe biden refer to mitt romney's time as a businessman or a ceo. isn't that what's on the minds of your home state and everywhere else, maybe not national security because there's not been a major attack on this country but the attack is in the wallet, at the gas pump and places where we know people are really suffering. >> i think you're right. i think that foreign policy and also the social issues only come into play when people are feeling comfortable about the economy.
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it will be the economy if the economy remains unsteady or unstable. then we'll look at those other issues. what i'm saying is if it gets to the other issues, i think that the ds have something they can tout. >> to his point, it is extraordinary that you have the ds being able to tout foreign policy. this story line of democrats being weak, ineffective when it comes to foreign policy really went out the window on several occasions but nearly a year ago, we watched this president walk out and stun the world by saying that osama bin laden was dead. something that the prior president, the prior administration could not and did not, wasn't able to say. >> that's right. we know that the economy will be this central issue in this presidential election come november. but foreign policy does play a role. and as you guys were discussing, for a very long time, since the vietnam war, democrats were always seen as weak on national defense. and now all of a sudden, that has been turned. it is worth noting mitt romney
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doesn't have a whole lot of foreign policy experience. he was a one-term former governor of massachusetts. >> how does he counter? you have marco rubio who is not, you know, oxley, i believe it was joe scarborough who said he doesn't have the resume to really get out there and talk about foreign policy. he is the front man at least for this week. so how does mitt romney downer these words coming from the vice president and we will hear from the president. >> mitt romney just needs to be able to cross a certain threshold. we saw barack obama who was then a candidate do that when he web on his european tour. he went to iraq. web to the middle east. for the people to see him on a national stage. you will have to see mitt romney do something similar to that. i would remind that you it was a governor of a small state from arkansas, bill clinton, who didn't have a lot of foreign policy experience and he beat president george h.w. bush that was based entirely on the
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economy. >> with regard to what the president was able to do to his resume increased when it came to foreign policy, he was also the senator who stood against the war in iraq. we've not seen such strong stances from mitt romney. >> right. and what you are seeing the obama and the obama campaign do and it was a big focus of vice president's speech, saying that mitt romney's foreign policy, policies, his national security team, would be almost eye deb cal to what you saw in the bush years. that's the argument team obama would make. >> let me get to the battle ground. i want to get to the toss-up state. colorado, florida, nevada, north carolina, ohio, pennsylvania and virginia. mark, continuing first read team talked about that nevada, colorado, you can probably see going the way of the president. but it is when you start to shift on over to the east that things get certainly interesting. >> well, right. and no surprise why president obama is having those campaign kickoff rallies in ohio and in virginia on may 5th. those places are probably going
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to end up deciding the election. ohio has been a place that has been a battleground state. virginia is the one i'm keeping an eye on. it was the one that actually matched the popular vote margin in 2008. and it does have that mix of suburban voters, urban voters, minorities, young people that the obama team thinks can be a win for them. >> all right. let me get you to talk about pennsylvania. it is on that list. we know that you have the white working class male voters who we talked so much about. what is your feeling on the ground when you look at this map for pennsylvania? >> i don't see it as a swing state as things stand right now. we always make the list. but pennsylvania hasn't voted for a republican presidential candidate since 1988 when it was george herbert walker bush. so i'm not saying that it is securitily in the obama column but i don't know that if i were dividing a list of those less than ten swing states, that the commonwealth would be on it. when i look at that map, what strikes me is how many states are apparently spoken for in the
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polarized world in which we live. so mark, why is pennsylvania on the list if what michael lists out is accurate here? >> well, we list it in our map that we have pennsylvania is a toss-up but it has an edge to obama, at the polls and certainly the historical nature of that state that michael was referring to. we're being a little liberal with our toss-up state. if the poll show essentially that race is about five points between obama and romney, that pretty much qualifies as the toss-up column and most of the polls we've seen show president obama with a three to five-point margin. i think he will probably win that come november. for now we're being pretty liberal in putting it in the toss-up column. >> i have to get both your reaction to speaker boehner going after the president saying he is misusing air force one. that he should reimburse taxpayers for his battleground trips. and we've got some air force one facts here as far as reimbursements. bush, 1.3 million. president obama, 1.5 million. what are we to make of this
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accusation from the republican that's there is a misuse when you see the figures here? >> it is politics. we saw democrats making the same point in 2004 against george w. bush. this is republicans want the obama campaign to have to spend as much as it costs to ferry air force one and president obama's security detail, for that to come out of campaign funds. you will see them put money aside for things that pr are strictly the campaign. if there is a loophole and there is some related business, that that falls on taxpayers. and president obama is the first to pay for re-election travel you said these updated rules. let me bring you in quickly. you have the president all week talking about student loans, talking about the million. i believe it is 15% of the people who went to college who still owe some kind of student loan debt. there is more student loan debt than credit card debt and you have speaker boehner he saiding the week talking about air force one and whether or not the president is misusing this.
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is that time well spent? >> i think there is something else going on. and mark is absolutely right. i cut my teeth as an advance man. it is an issue that come up every four years. i think what he is trying to do is plant a seed in the minds of the american public so that when they watch public events that are now about to unfold, somewhere in their mind they're asking themselves, hey, is that a campaign speech? and are we paying for it? >> thank you, gentlemen. great pleasure. i'll talk with you both very soon. coming up -- >> i have to say that i failed. >> in his own words, rupert murdoch points the fingers at his employees he says tried to cover up the hacking scandal. more of his testimony and who he is blaming even though he said i failed. plus, a practice that is going on in hospitals in this country. debt collectors trolling
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welcome back. media mogul rupert murdoch reported today there was a cover-up. during the second today of questioning before a british panel, he called on the -- called out the paper's journalist for hiding the hacking from him. >> i do blame one or two people for that. perhaps i shouldn't name. because for all i know, someone took charge of a cover-up which
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we were victim to and i regret. >> stephanie joins us from london. so murdoch apologized but he said other top executives were shielded from what was going on. basically he did not know. >> it's interesting, you know, you could describe the strategy as contrite but distant. yeah, he apologized. by our count, 17 times he apologized. but then he also went on to say it was a subordinate's fault. he blame two people at the news of the world, including the editor for not telling him what was going on at the paper. and he did that repeatedly. there were some other interesting moments from murdoch. he also admitted that news corps has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the wake of this scandal. and that's a huge amount of money. that could grow even larger. there have been a number of new civil cases here in the u.k. there are as many as three new civil cases that could be filed soon in the united states.
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the other interesting moment is that yesterday, there really wasn't much tension between the lawyer asking questions and murdoch today. that changed a little bit. there was some tension. we have this example. >> this picture is consistent with one to cover up rather than the desire to expose. would you agree with that? >> with minds like yours, yes, perhaps. i'm sorry. i take that back. excuse me. >> there was another interesting moment where murdoch asked if they were going to post his comments online. and then the lawyer hesitated and murdoch came back at him and said, well, are you going to answer my question? the lawyer almost taken aback looked up and that, mr. murdoch, i don't answer questions. i just ask them. >> wow! not used to being in this situation, certainly. stephanie, murdoch said if he had known how serious the
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problem was, he would have shut down news of the world years ago. what else did he say regarding that? >> he did mention that. and there was another moment. this is sort of a unique glimpse into the man that is rupert murdoch. he talked about that week where the millie doweller story broke. that's the young girl who was murdered and whose phone was hacked by reporters at news of the world. and what really made this case grow into what it was. he said that he actually panicked. that he actually threw the window, that it had grown so big. that is when he closed down the paper. he didn't say he regretted closing down the paper but if you might remember, quite an emotional week. hundreds of people at the paper lost their jobs. presumably a good portion of them very nnlt of the behavior that has been described. >> thank you. stephanie gosk live with us for the saga of rupert murdoch and his media empire. coming up, a new terror
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warning issued days after the anniversary of bin laden's death. and a teacher said she was fired at a catholic school because she used in-vitro fertilization in an attempt to get pregnant. >> i loved my job so much. and trying to expand my family, to have this happen, it was awful. >> we'll have what the school is saying. first in today's money minute, here's a look at wall street. eat good fats.
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or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible. a terror alert has been issued days bcht anniversary of the killing of osama bin laden. federal officials are not citing any specific threat in their advisory but they are urging vigilance on. may 1, it will be one year since president obama made the surprising announcement that osama bin laden had been shot in the head by u.s. special forces during a daring raid on his
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compound in pakistan. joining me now, terrorism analyst evan coleman. let's talk about this alert. obviously, this would seem like a natural thing to be cautious of with this one-year anniversary. we were in the commercial break. there have been threats since the death of osama bin laden. >> it is always healthy to have an abundance of caution and we know these anniversaries tend to have some significance. if not for al qaeda, for extremists and others. we've gone a year now and there were a lot of concerns right after the death of bin laden that there would be a retaliatory strike. it didn't happen. there has been a year that's gone by and nothing has happened. you kind of think if they were really going to do something to mark bin laden's death, they would have done it now. >> what does that say about al qaeda and whether or not it is the force worldwide globally that it once was? >> al qaeda is still a threat. i think it is more a threat locally. if you look at yemen, for instance, al qaeda is on the
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rise in yemen. al qaeda is on the advance. it is taking ground. at the same time, if you look at it, the last major terrorist plot they were engaged in was the attempt to send bombs through fed-ex and ups planes and that didn't work and that was two years ago. look, they have achieved some level of progress in places like afghanistan, pakistan and yemen. but at the united states, their real goal, the thing that we're really worried about, they seem to be striking out so far. >> we were looking at the video nearly a year ago. the president walked out and told the world that osama bin laden in fact had been killed in that compound where he had been hiding. when you look back at this year, we'll talk more about it next week. when you look back at this year, many people wondered what impact the death of this man most wanted terrorist in the world would have and we see it now in our foreign policy conversation with joe biden and mitt romney today. >> yeah, look. there's good and bad. the good news is that al qaeda
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has suffered a blow. i think the one lesson that we've learned in the last year is that al qaeda wasn't defeated by killing osama bin laden. al qaeda is still there. it continues to release videos. they continue to come one terrorist plots. are they less effective? yes. now the question is how that will affect places like pakistan where there is growing pressure from a lot of circle on the u.s. to withdraw its forces from the region. >> thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. coming up -- >> suggest that one group of us, one party speaks for all women or that one group has an agenda to harm women and another to help them is ridiculous. >> heated comments from senator john mccain today. that happening on the senate floor. mccain called the war on women, quote, imaginary. plus, a new search today for that missing ft. bragg soldier who disappeared two weeks ago. we'll have the latest details on
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[ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ] allegations of patient harass many at some of the nation's hospitals. aollection company. they have used overly aggressive tactics in two hospitals in her state. in a six volume report released tuesday, laurie swanson says the employees collected debts in emergency rooms, labor and delivery rooms, even at patient' bedsides, many time not telling patients they were debt collectors which is against the law. swanson says some workers insinuated patients would not be treated if they did not pay up. swanson filed suit in january
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claiming the company had access to patients' private information, a possible violation of federal law. the company has contracts not only in minnesota. they have health systems in other states including michigan and utah and hospitals in at least 11 states. minnesota attorney general laurie swanson joins me live. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> let me understand what would be against the law because it seem that they do have some kind of window here that they're trying to work with. >> you know, hospitals are supposed to be places that treat the sick and the infirm. people who are injured. 20% of americans have life changing events in the emergency room. it is where people go when they have a car know, when babies are born prematurely, when a husband or wife has a stroke. and they should be nurturing places that focus on patient treatment. when these aggressive debt collectors come into hospitals, trying to get money out of people at a time in their life
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when they're not only facing serious medical problems but also aren't in the best frame of mine, it can really create real tension for patients and can ultimately, the concern is, it leads to patients not getting the type of care and treatment and that they're supposed to get. >> the emotions of it, unimaginable. i can't imagine needing treatment, having a baby and having an individual come to me saying pay up or you need to get out. what does the law say here? >> there are a couple of different laws at play. one of the laws, the debt collection laws. we have a lawsuit pending saying that they violated the debt collection laws. in addition to that, hospitals in many places are charitable organizations. they don't pay property taxes, sales taxes. this he get to issue tax-exempt bonds. in exchange for that, they're supposed to treat people with compassion, serve a mission and basically do good for the people
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of the state. and so we believe, it is not consistent with mission of a charitable organization to have what amounts to an aggressive boiler room sales oriented culture put into the hospital in a way that potentially can get between the patient and their doctor. for example, in the reports that we outlined, accretive is putting quoteas for how much money they have to collect from patients every derrek every week. they're putting on it white boards. playing games if you collect x from the patient, i'll shave my head or dress up like a clown. that type of behavior isn't what you expect to see in a hospital when you go there to treat yourself or a loved one. >> well, let me read one of the statements from north memorial hospital. you said they're not cooperating. they give us the statement, we continue to provide additional information in a manner that is as timely as possible. we take this matter very seriously. as for the debt collection company, they say we have a great track records of helping
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hospitals enhance their quality of care. for example we've help over 250,000 patients get insurance coverage which is not at the heart of what you are talking about here. we do know that hospitals say they go uncompensated some $39 billion in the past year. so there is an issue with compensation. if people don't have the money, that is part of the whole health care conversation that we can talk about. these debt collector tactics, we've heard recordings of people being threatened in their home. but what are some of the things people have told you specifically happened to them while in the hospital. >> yeah, so this takes it to a whole new level. this is not a case of only hospitals hiring debt collectors long after treatment has been rendered, to ask people to pay a bill. we're about collection tactics in the hospital. and we've heard from patients who literally had bedside collectors visit them in the emergency room. a woman who was hooked up to an i.v. tube in the emergency room is still hooked up to the i.v.
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tube. in comes the people trying to collect money from her when she is not only facing physical ailments but also facing very, a tough time in her life. we've heard from patients who had just delivered babies and they were will you cannot be discharged with your baby until you give a credit card. even people with insurance told, we're not going to let you out of the hospital until you give us a credit card. we've had people overcharged. >> it sounds like they're strong arming these people. >> it really is taking a very aggressive sales oriented boiler room culture. the type of can you recall you might expect to see in a gore badge boiler room and putting it into hospitals where it has no place. >> minnesota attorney general lori swanson, thank you for your time. we'll see what happens as this moves forward. developing now, senate majority leader harry reid just announced the senate will vote this afternoon on what has become the focus of yet another partisan battle. renewing the violence against women act. the senate will vote on
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competing versions of the measure. republican accuse democrats of inserting politically charged issues into the bill. they say provisions that deal with immigration and protecting gays and lesbians, the rights of gays and lesbians. democrats charge republican objections are the latest exam plaintiff hostility to women. all of this as senator john mccain who supports renewing the violence against women act blasts them with waging a war on women. >> my friends, this war on women or the similarly outlandish rhetoric has two purposes. and both are political in their purpose and effect. to suggest that one group of us, or one party speaks for all women, or that one group has an agenda to harm women and another to help them is ridiculous. >> nbc news correspondent kelly
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o'donnell joins me. he said this is imaginary. people on the other side of the aisle have a different opinion. you have some women who disagree. when we look at conversations we've seen on contraception, so on and so forth. give me insight from the passion and remarks from senator mccain. he supports the violence against women act. >> reporter: many republicans whom we've been watching on the floor have been talking about the general agreements. some say 80% of what is in the renewal law is not up for much debate. it is some of what you indicated. some questions that have been added to it and that has been what they've been trying to sort out. could you extend some of these provisions to, for example, the federal lands that are native-american where the laws, they have their own sovereignty. or for domestic abuse with same sex couple or the number of visas that might be provided for people who have claimed abuse but not fully citizens. those have been the issues. those are oxley more representative of hot button issues. you have a much broughter even
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more friendly debate that goes on when you listen to the hours of it that are part of putting this kind of legislation through. both parties see the value of the women's vote. both think that it will in fact be very important, not only for the races that i be volv members of congress but certainly the presidential race. so there are very strong feelings about this. democrats believe this has been too politicized with some of the issues that they want to do to adjust this law that otherwise has been very widely supported and republicans, as you heard for mccain, feel they are being sort of unfairly tarred with this notion of not being supportive of women. it really boils down to your perspective and there are lots of nuances in some of these arguments. that is often is hidden story of what is happening when they're battling out legislation. they announced there will be a vote today, much more friendly tone. when we peek in on it, we can get a we are sense of how they're working together. we expect that vote this afternoon. >> objectiviously both parties
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how important this is. when it is something in the past they've been able to agree on time after time, it allows to you raise an eyebrow as a woman. >> reporter: it is the change. when you add these new issues to it, that's where the debate came in. just trying to find out what's is the best mix. >> good to see you. a catholic school teacher said she was fired for undergoing fertility treatments. that tops our look at stories around the "news nation." emily kirks is suing the ft. wayne, south bend diocese. she said she thought she had the school support. >> for two years my supervisor had known about it and said she was praying for us. so there was no warning, nothing.
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>> in a statement, the diocese said it debs any such discrimination occurred and teachers in its schools must as a condition of employment have a knowledge of and respect for the catholic faith and abide by the tenets of the catholic church. police have made an arrest in the death of a north carolina teenage here disappeared while visiting family in baltimore. 16-year-old felicia barnes vanished back in december of 2010. baltimore police have now arrested her sister's ex-boyfriend. his name is michael johnson. police say he was the last person to see her alive. hundreds of volunteers in fayetteville, north carolina, are helping in a renewed search for a missing ft. bragg soldier. kelly bordeaux was last seen leaving a bar on april freenl. the last person to see her alive was a convicted sex offender who lives behind that bar. nicholas holebrook was arrested two days ago on unrelated charges. he claim he dropped her off at
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her home. on the "today" show this morning, bordeaux's husband said he does be buy that version of the story. >> me and her, we never went there. we never went to that bar. i never went to that bar. i don't even know this guy. but i mean to tell you the truth, i don't trust anything he says. i don't believe a word he says. >> investigative crime reporter michelle sigona joins me live by phone. what kind of tip are they dealing with here? >> reporter: i can tell you from what investigators told me, they are focusing on an area where kellie's cell phone last pinged. that will be the focus of the search, thankfully. as you mentioned, hundreds of people out there today donating their time to be able to look for kellie. >> nicholas arrested two days ago on unrelated charges. what are those charges? >> reporter: failure to register. reregister his address. >> why did he need to register
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his address? >> reporter: apparently for when he was last seen living behind the bar there was an area that he was living behind there. he did not register that particular address as all this entire story unfolded, investigators picked up on that. realized that he did not comply with his sex offender status. they took him into custody. he is being held on a 100,000 secured bond. >> let me get some clarification here. you said he needed to reregister. was he a sex offender? >> reporter: just his address. apparently it was his, the last known address. any type of sex offender move, they have to notify and go through a series of steps. to my understanding from investigators, he did not do that. that's why he was taken. >> we'll see what happens. her family absolutely heart broken and have begged the public for help in finding her and we certainly hope there is something positive that can come their way soon. thank you very much. up next, defense attorneys
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take aim at the prosecution's star witness in the john edwards trial. we'll go live to north carolina for the latest on the drama unfolding. first, there's a lot going on today. here are some things we thought you should know. the obama administration is threatening to veto a cyber security bill which has bipartisan support. the white house said it does not do enough to protect personal information. the house is expected to vote on that bill tomorrow. it remains stalled in the senate. the social security numbers of as many as 13 million voters may have been mistakenly released by the office. the office stresses the information was never publicly released. and this saturday, the world of washington and hollywood collide for the annual white house correspondents' dinner. among the invited guests, lindsay lohan, george clooney,
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sandra fluke, viola davis and uggie, the famous dog from the amazing movie, the artist. aspirin? i don't really know what it's for. isn't aspirin like a vague pain reliever? aspirin is just old school. people will have doubts about taking aspirin for pain. that's why we developed bayer advanced aspirin with micro particles. it enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of pain. we know it works. now we're challenging you to put it to the test. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer. then try it yourself and tell us what you think. when you pour chunky beef with country vegetables soup over it... you can do dinner. four minutes, around four bucks. campbell's chunky. it's amazing what soup can do.
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coming up at the top of the hour, we hit 88 miles per hour as the vice president attacks mitt romney in his back to the future foreign policy. plus, speaker john boehner's very cranky thursday. and an appallingly partisan attack from the mississippi governor. you won't believe what he said. now back to tamron. now to the latest in the john edwards corruption trial. edwards' lawyer struck hard at the star witness, andrew young. he is trying to discredit him saying he is a liar. that he was giving conflicting accounts about the mistress who was pregnant in 2008. jay gray, another day of really trying to make young the
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adversary here for sure. >> no question about that. very strong questioning as they continue their cross-examination of andrew young. at times, using all the dates and everything that is going on, it has been scattered at best. even the judge saying a couple of time that she is confused by what's going on in the courtroom. no confusion over what's happening as far as what the point is that the defense is trying to drive home. and it all centers around that bunny money, the money from multimillionaire bunny melon who donated $900,000. initially after young said they solicited that money to ever could up the pregnancy of rielle hundredor to make sure that it didn't get into the public and to make sure that john edwards' wife did not find out. today the defense continued to hammer home the idea that he had no idea about that pregnancy
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until more than a month after the first check was received. the inference he was trying to line his own pockets, the defense trying to make andrew young the bad guy and ultimately the criminal in all this. >> and we know they were waiting to hear from andrew young. he is the star witness here. who is next as far as testimony of importance? >> it would appear that his wife would be the next to stab for the prosecution. as you know in earlier testimony, she was really thrust into the center of this as the money lady in their family. all the checks that went through bunny melon's interior decorator ultimately came through andrew young's wife. sometime she would co-sign in her maiden name and then they would go through the family cheging account. she has been called the head financier. she would have to substantiate that money trail for the prosecution. if it wasn't such a tragic story, the bunny money line would be one to laugh at.
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bunny money. it is an awful thing. a bad one. thank you very much, jay. coming up -- >> to the kid? that's awful. >> what would you have done? so many people are talking about this. even if you're not a sports fan, fans at a yankees-rangers game refused to give a foul ball they caught to a crying toddler sitting right next to them. and look. they're totally tuning out the kid. it is our "news nation" gut check. should they have given it to the kid or should he have stopped crying?
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the ball was tossed into the stands by a rangers player during last night's game against the yankees. >> the little boy is crying. >> my goodness. >> he didn't get hit. he just didn't get the ball. >> here's what happened. he tossed the ball. >> he was crying before. that kid was crying before. >> they can't give it to the kid? >> no. the kid is crying before. >> we're in the eighth inning. 7-3, texas. >> they're putting it in the kid's face. >> she was posing for the picture. >> wow, cold. >> okay. but there is a happy ending for that little crying kid. take a look. >> somebody saw the kid crying. somebody from the ranger' dugout themselves tossed him a ball. unbelievable.
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at least he has a nice smile on his face now. now they're comparing baseballs. all is well. >> all is well in baseball will so what does your gut tell you? i think the kid was crying before the whole incident. should the rangers fan have given the ball to the crying kid or does it just teach you if you cry, you get what you want in life. that's what our senior producer said. go to facebook.com/newsnation to cast your vote. i won't reveal what i think because you may not like me after i tell you what i think. i'll give you the ball whenever you want it. i'm tamron hall. you can catch "news nation" every day at 2:00 p.m. eastern. martin bashir, i'll give the ball to him. let's go. from the crack, off the backboard. [ laughs ] dad! [ laughs ] whoo! oh! you're up! oh! oh! so close!
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