strategy by the obama re-election team. the plan according to reuters is to broad yep the attacks on mitt romney beyond bain to his record as the governor of massachusetts. the president and governor romney are not on the campaign trail today but a hint of that new strategy came during a campaign visit for the president in iowa last night. >> governor romney has made his experience as a financial ceo. the entire rationale of his candidacy for president. he doesn't really talk about what he did in massachusetts. but he does talk about being a business guy. >> and for his part, governor romney has said he is proud of his tenure as governor of massachusetts. listen to a claim made by reverend al sharpton. >> he is the official portrait of romney as governor. and if you look closely at the lower right corner, you will see

a folder with a medical symbol on the cover symbolizing his universal health care law. he was so proud of it, he put it on his official portrait. now he tries to act as though he never did it at all. >> let me bring in our "news nation" political panel for this friday before the holiday. msnbc contributor and democratic strategist, jimmy williams as well as christopher rollin, chief for the "boston globe." i love that i have two men with beards on. i don't know why that got my attention. we'll go to therapy about it but i love it. gentlemen, let's start off here with what's going on. i'll start with you. you heard the reverend al sharpton point out in the official photograph, the painting for governor romney is that universal health care symbol. the only time you hear him talk about universal health care is the pledge to repeal it if he is elected. >> you're right. it is one of the ironies of mitt romney's campaign is that his biggest accomplishment as governor is something that he doesn't really boast about much

on the campaign trail anymore as he is to repeal. when mitt romney was governor, he was, there were a lot of messy things he had to do. he had to balance budgets, cut education spending. he had to raise fees. job growth was weak as the democrats keep pointing out so there are quite a bit, a number of things they can criticize him during his term as governor. what they won't be saying about criticizing is his biggest accomplishment which is the health care law. >> to your point about the weak job growth. i can't tell you how many times supporters of the president will send an e-mail, tweet, anything on facebook making the point about the job growth being 47th in massachusetts when governor romney was there. >> right. it is one of the, it is one of the blemishes on his time there. he came into office saying that he wanted to create jobs, attract new businesses to massachusetts. but you know, it was a much more difficult proposition than he

portrayed during his campaign for governor. ultimately what he ended up doing besides passing health care was balancing budgets and managing crisis. fiscal crisis within state government. that's what he spent enormous amounts of time doing. >> let me compare it then and now. the parallels between massachusetts then and the country as a whole now point to the same central problem that has dogged the u.s. economy the last three times it's climbed out of recession. the recovery has not created enough jobs. many economists and policy makers say romney struggled to apply his business expertise to massachusetts's problems during his tenure. when he makes the claim about his experience as a businessman in the private sector know you have democrats and the president's supporters who say if it didn't work in massachusetts, how can it work on a grander scale for this country sf. >> that's a very interesting thought. one thing i've said, i've

written about this. being a ceo, running a company, whether a publicly trade company or a private company is very different than running the government. whether that is a state government or the federal government. by the way, the vice versa is obviously true. what we do know is this. we know that romney, governor romney, was the ceo of a wall street firm. and we know that that firm's job was to do was to maximize profits. we also know that after that, that governor romney was the ceo of the commonwealth of massachusetts and his record there was spotty at best. what we also know is that when he left, massachusetts climbed from -- 47th in job creation to today which is now tenth in job creation. so taking your point, can you take what he did at a company and at a state and apply that to the federal level to all 50 states? then that's a pretty hard road to tow. and i would not want to be that. if i'm the obama administration, i would point that out every

single day and then i would talk about what i, president barack obama, am going to do to fix the problem and make romney talk about how he failed. >> i want to play what the governor said during one of the debates. specifically in south carolina when he defended his record as governor of massachusetts. let's play that clip. >> my record as the governor of massachusetts and as the person that led the olympics flowed from the fact that i had experienced turning around tough situations. a number of people there encouraged me to come back and run for governor. i did. we were fortunate to have an unemployment rate by the time i left office. 4.7%. sounds pretty good today. and i was also proud of the fact that we balanced the budget every year as an office. we reduced taxes 19 time. put in place a rainy day fund of over $2 billion by the time i left. my record is out there, proud of it. >> so christopher, is that enough to push back against the report in reuters that the president's team plans to go ahead on against that record that romney says he is proud of

and present a whole different load of facts that downer what he said during that primary debate? >> the thing about it, when you're governor, there are a lot of things taking place. so yes, the accomplishments the governor ticked off are true. at the same time, the democrats have a whole raft of ammunition that they'll bring up. they'll talk about how long term debt in the state increased 16% under his tenure. they're going to talk about how he vetoed a proposal to reduce class size in schools. so there's going to be, i think by the time this campaign is over, the u.s. citizens, the u.s. voter will be very familiar with a lot of minutiae of massachusetts government. >> it is interesting, for example, in massachusetts funding for higher education fell $145 million. tanch student fees rose 63% during romney's time in office. that's according to the "boston globe" as well. tuition rosa's well and we heard the government say that the education system in this country

is third world. many would downer, if you keep cutting out and adding to defense and wars, that people don't want to see fought in this country for a litany of reasons. how do you get out of that third world status if that is even a true statement? >> governor romney is not the first republican, for that matter, democrat to talk out of both sides of his mouth. to the point that you cannot have it both ways. at the end of the day what we know is that class sizes in the commonwealth of massachusetts have not shrunk. teachers' pay has not increased with inflation. and the cost of going to school in the commonwealth of massachusetts is higher. now is that the same for pretty much every other single state? yes, it is. if governor romney is going to, when asked that question, if his response is what my response was, which is so that's the state in every other state, that's not good enough. he has to have a proactive, what is he for instead of what is he

against? if he's saying that all education in this country, all public education in this country is third world, then that has to include his record, too. and he has to sit on it and own it. >> all right. christopher and jimmy, great pleasure having you both on. thank you so much. i hope you have a nice weekend planned for yourselves. >> thank you very much. >> coming up, playing with fire. mitt romney, he tries the raise money by getting votearies chance to raise money by having dinner with donald trump and mr. romney. nbc's first read team says now this makes trump an unmistakable surrogate for the romney campaign. in four days, they'll be together on stage. but get this. donald trump just gave a new interview where he is again bringing up the birth place of the president. what will romney say? plus, $100 million and counting. we are learning more about the stunning losses created by facebook's ipo. what a difference a week has made. join our conversation on twitter. and on a holiday weekend.

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the romney campaign is defending itself from the latest criticism over the governor's relationship with donald trump. mitt romney hopes using trump's name will raise a little cash, maybe a lot of cash. a donation to the romney campaign will enter your name into a drawing for dinner with donald trump and governor romney. but donald trump is once again questioning the president's birth place. in fact in a new interview with the daily beast just yesterday, he insinuated he's still not sure where the president was born. he says, quote, a book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book, he said he was born in kenya and raised in indonesia. his mother never spent a day in the hospital.

last hour, during andrea mitchell's report, a romney campaign adviser said romney is absolutely not on the birther bandwagon. >> he has made it very clear he disagrees with that. >> he'll stand up next to donald trump and -- >> he'll talk next to donald trump and say yes wants to be president. >> joining me now, political reporter for the "washington post." also with us, a republican strategist and form he campaign manager for mike huckabee. it is great to have you on as well. we vnl seen you in a while. let me read what the dnc said. once again mitt romney is failing the moral leadership test. instead of rejecting donald trump's birther conspiracy theories, he is endorsing them by campaigning and fundraising with him. >> i think it is hog wash. i think we all jump on when we had the celebrity endorsements. they've been involved in politics for 20 years and i've only found one politician i agree with 100% of the time and that's me. i still support other candidates i disagree with from time to

time. donald trump is a celebrity in his own right. i think it has a lot of excitement for folks. i may distribute to the romney campaign just to have a chance to have dinner with donald trump. i think it would be fun. >> two points to make, when cory booker was on "meet the press" and disagreed with the approach on the bain attack line, instantly there were web ads saying even cory booker, the president's supporter, agreed these attacks were wrong. that's the first point. the second point, i think it is different when you have an individual who may disagree with how you approach a fiscal issue or how much should be cut from defense. when your surrogate and his people refer to him as a very significant surrogate of mitt romney. when your supporter is outright using what many have described as hate and divisive language. why else are you curious or wondering or you don't believe the president was born in this country. doesn't that fall into a uniquely different and concerning category than a difference on how to approach a

fiscal issue? >> i disagree. i think just like you brought cory booker up. he was disgras everything with the president in the most important way he could. saying wouldn't do it. i don't think the president can do it. the rnc jumped on that and they disagreed with that. i don't agree with particularly either one of them going after it. we all have surrogates. they don't agree with each other 100% of the time and at the end of the day, this election will be about jobs and the economy and i think most of the voters look at this and it is not much of anything. >> i have no reason to doubt your honey. i'm going to pose it this way. why do you believe people still don't believe the president was born in this country? >> i don't know. he's the president of the united states. >> shouldn't romney care if the motivation is race, is it hate? shouldn't he care that a man he is sharing the stage with -- i totally get your point regarding disagreeing. you shouldn't have to follow or tow the line for anyone. especially if it is not within your heart or opposed to your

convictions. but this issue, this unique issue of birtherism which many believe is based on hate. is based on race of this president. it is certainly not based on fact. his birth certificate has been presented and we all thought this was dead. you're now sharing the grand stage with an individual who seems to be proud of people referring to him as the king of birtherism. to me, chip, and i think you're a reasonable person, this is different from disagreeing on a fiscal issue or maybe an attack line. don't you think? >> well, look. i agree. i hope it is not based on hate and race but there are some people that don't like this president because of that and i disagree with that. i think governor romney has pushed back on that and said i do not agree with donald trump on this issue. again, donald trump still is a celebritiry. he is still an endorser and they're going to use that next week to raise a little money. we have people on both sides of this campaign that we don't agree with a lot of what they say. but they endorse and support. and look, i hope that this country is past that.

>> we're not. we're not past it. >> there are some segments that's not. that's a very sad part of the election pros he but i think governor romney's comments stand for themselves. he said he disagrees with it. he doesn't agree with donald trump on this. >> let me bring you in on this, nia malika. there were some who oppose what cory booker said and others applaud it. with that said my mother has a saying, not all money is good money. now in a couple of days these two men will share a stage to raise money. and donald trump is not talking about the economy which mitt romney's surrogates and folks have said he would like to focus. on his interview with the daily beast is bringing up again the president's birth place. and that obviously is something important to him. >> right, it is. and i think what is important to donald trump is that he stays in the news. that he stays in the spotlight and he knows very well that one way to do this is to keep peddling this birther conspiracy

that most americans, including mitt romney, have overwhelmingly rejected. i think we're seeing mitt romney be very practical here in going after a stage with donald trump to swell his coffers, as a fund-raiser. but i think not only mitt romney but also, democrats do have to be careful about their surrogates. what they say. voters sometimes do make this assumption that you are the company you keep. so i think he has to be very careful. he has come out and certainly rejected that. and i think, let's face it. donald trump has no constituency. he has no effect on policy. he is an enter taper. obviously very wealthy. >> i don't know about that. listen, i don't believe that this event in a couple of days is just because he is the host of celebrity apprentice or he can bring in money. there are a lot of people in vegas with a lot of dough. there has to be i believe something bigger than donald trump's ability to raise money. we've seen mitt romney's

numbers, chip, surprise a lot of people. he knows how to raise money and it is not just from donald trump. >> that's true. but i think this is probably going to be one of his bigger fund-raisers. he is probably going to bring in a lot of money from this fund-raiser and he will certainly get some buzz from this. you're right. in some ways it might not be the sort of buzz that he wants. we're bringing up this birther conspiracy theory. but i think mitt romney has judged that the money in the end is worth the sort of controversy that comes along with associating with donald trump. >> if you were advising mr. romney, is it worth the headache to be in las vegas to raise, even if it is a significant amount of money knowing in this latest interview, donald trump is not discussing just the economy which mr. romney says that he wants to be laser focused on. he is bringing up some book that wasn't even published from an author whose synopsis was that the president wasn't born in this country. >> i think what we were about,

you can't control what your surrogates say. i'm sure the romney campaign would much rather donald trump focus on the economy and jobs. >> you can't control who you stand on the stage with. you can control it. >> you can control that, that's correct. but overall, donald trump is a big endorsement. he is a celebrity. a lot of buzz about it. and you would rather him talk about jobs and the economy and when he does something like, this you say i disagree with that. >> you give it a thumbs up? >> i give it a neutral but like it, i think i may contribute. i think it would be interesting to have dinner with donald trump. >> i'll leave it on the neutral. i think you showed your true answer there. thank you, chip. thank you. the best, chip. up next, damage control five days after cory booker's "meet the press" appearance sparked a firestorm. booker tweeted out a new response. detail in our political post script this friday.

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siemens. answers. mitt romney's visit to a philadelphia school is met with some pretty unhappy faces there. politico notes it was one of his first visits to an inner city area. all campaign season. plus, just in time for memorial day weekend. have you heard in gas prices are falling. they're now down 17 cents from a month ago. who would have thought that? but first -- despite growing outrage over the paf corporate executive ceos, pay reached record heights last year. according to the associated press analysis, the average ceo earned $9.6 million in 2011. up 6% from the previous year. meantime the median pay for u.s. workers was $39,300. the highest paid ceo last year

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the volkswagen passat. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $209 a month. back now with the "news nation" politico post script. when we look back at the headlines that dominated the week's political week, it started with cory booker going after the president's attacks on mitt romney's record at bain cap. >> i'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. we're getting to a ridiculous point in america. if you look at the totality of the bain capital's record, they've done a lot to support businesses to grow businesses and this tow many i'm very uncomfortable. this kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. it is nauseating to the american public. enough is enough. >> let me be clear.

mitt romney has made his business record a center piece of his campaign. he has talked about himself as a job creator and therefore, it is reasonable and in fact i encourage it for the obama campaign to examine that record and to discuss it. i have no problem with that. the reality is that the barack obama team in the white house and their political team have been good to me for many, many years. they have never pressured me to do anything. they've done nothing but encourage me. in this case in particular, i certainly did talk with campaign officials. but they did not force me to do anything. >> first of all, i think cory booker is an outstanding mayor. he is doing great work in new york and obviously helping to turn that city around. i think it is important to recognize that this issue is not a, quote, distraction. >> let's bring in assistant managing editor for "time" magazine. thank you so much for joining us. so to add to the post script, because it is not over yet. it ain't over yet. cory booker tweeted out last

night. he said to someone, sorry i make you sick. i'm sorry i made a mistake. i'm sorry the 15 seconds on "meet the press" erodes my 20 years of work in inner cities around the nation. we are all imperfect. the best we can do is learn from our mistakes. not let them stop you but make you stronger austin. and there's one more. it is honestly still needs to be expressed with care. sad when being honest to the public is considered a mistake. that's what someone else retweeted to him. >> wow! a lot there. >> a lot. in the end the bigger question was how much damage if any has this caused to the strategy of going after the bain camden record? and cory booker's future as well. >> i'll take the first question first. i think that there are two issues. is private equity supposed to be job or making money? the job of private equity is first to create profits and to enrich shareholders. in that sense bain capital has done its job. if they create positions as a side effect of that, it's great.

when you look at romney's record, it is pretty much a wash in terms of job creation. there were jobs created and plenty cut. the other bigger issue and i think this relates to mofrt political concerns, are these skill sets of ceos, folks in private equity, i would say that mitt romney's skills as a ceo are more applicable to being a mayor in some ways. it is more of a command control position than they are being a president. >> he held it down as the governor of massachusetts and there they had the 47, ranked number 47th in job creation. the new attack line from the president's re-election team. when you say that his bain cap record was a wash but the job of private equity is not to create jobs. i think people have a hard time reconciling that. and governor rendell brings up the point. there was a factory closed down. it went bankrupt. $80 million made but the men and women who worked there walked

away with no health care, no pension. they were sent packing. this brings in values versus experience. what the president was saying the job of the president is to look at it all. not to make money. >> absolutely. that's something i've been concern about. that you can take a ceo skill set and translate it into the white house at a time when the major economic problem in this country is the hollowed out middle. creating job for 70% of the company. >> let me play the other post script moment. romney's education remarks really hit home for a lot of people, referring to the education system as third world. let me play what happened. >> i talk to the white house quite often. i'm a surrogate for the obama campaign. >> the sexy stuff of campaigns, the media plays over and over again that we've wasted time talking about is this negative stuff. >> that's not governor romney. that's cory booker. you did say romney would make a good mayor so i guess we made him a mayor overnight. we know the comments by now. third world education.

he was greeted, not so warmly by annul of people in philadelphia. michael nutter went after romney as well. >> i think that part of the problem is there is a flip-flop. until recently romney was talking about cutting education budgets. even eliminating the department of education or melding it into another department. where is he coming from? i think there is concern about that. a lot of what he's saying has already been said by president obama and acted on by him so it is kind of interesting. >> one of the pushback issues was the issue of unions. romney accused of president of basically benn being in bed with the unions and his people came out and said that couldn't be further from the truth. he's talk about charter schools. if you're in a room full of teachers, they are on the attack as soon as you bring that up. >> yeah. i can't imagine anybody accusing president obama of not having taken on the unions. he's definitely taken them on head on and taken a lot of flak for it and it is an issue to be addressed. there are a lot of broader

issues. we have to talk about more funding. particularly for the public schools. i think. >> thank you for joining us. i hope you have something plan for the week. thank you. great pleasure. could it be the next step of mitt romney's presidential campaign? twice this week he reached out to minority voters on wednesday. he spoke to hispanic business leaders. he made that stop in west philadelphia. the mayor of philly was not happy saying he did not know why romney was even there. >> i don't know that was not-day experience in the heart of west philadelphia is enough to get you ready to run the united states of america. >> politico reports, quote, it was one of romney's first ventures on the campaign trail into inner city america. after months of campaigning in the mostly suburban and rural areas that were the focus of primary contests, philadelphia is heavily democratic turf. education is more central political ground for the presumptive republican nominee. joining me now, syndicated

columnist. it was his first stop in the inner city. it is the headline, the push for african-american vote betters you the l.a. times believes this is more about moderate suburban people and not african-american voters. >> well, i think it's both. actually, he has to pay attention to the african-american vote. only in the sense of saying or at least showing, i can be broader than just talking to suburb i can suburbia and the constituency. if i'm going to be the president of all the people then i have to talk to urban america, too. and of course, all roads lead back to african-americans and to an extent, latino voters. especially african-american voters. so i think it is part of the broadening our image of mitt romney. and then the second thing is, look where he chose and look what he chose. not only to speak but speak on. education. it was very smart in this sense.

what he is thinking is school vouchers, chart he schools. that does touch a nerve among many african-americans. so why not essentially talk about issues that do in fact have some resonance with african-americans and talk about it in the venue where he is guaranteed to get maximum exposure. whether good, whether bad, it doesn't matter. at the end of the day he gets the exposure. >> many have noted when he spoke before the latino business leaders which by the way, the registered voters in this new "wall street journal" poll. 61%. obama, 27%. romney. he did not talk about immigration. he did not talk about the dream act or even those infamous remarks he made regarding self-deportation that would criticize for members of his own party. that he also chose to talk about education there as well. >> well, that's important. two things, number one, education. here we go again. chart he school, vouchers. remember, these are things very sensitive among african-americans and latinos

simply because they think, and correctly so in many areas, that public school are failing their children. so it touches a nerve. the second thing, too, remember, business. that's very important. especially among hispanics and african americans, too. remember, that strikes to the heart of something else. romney's mantra is jobs and the economy. why not talk about business and education and on top of that, african-americans and latinos. that's an audience. so it is a perk fit. >> let me play a clip of an exchange that governor romney had with a teacher in philadelphia regarding class size. >> i can't think of any teacher. mr. bennett would you want more kids in your classroom? >> no. >> it's large enough. it is too large. >> how many students do you have? >> it varies between classes. but anywhere from 23 to 28? >> that's just a snippet there. but the heart of conversation

was that mitt romney's citing stats that show class size don't matter. he was countered by another teacher who said there's other research that says class size in fact does. there he is in this roundtable in a setting that we've not, and obviously factually not seen him in at least cynic he has been running for president this time. >> and the other thing, too, even beyond that. he was challenged, too. so he picked a very comfortable venue. he picked a very comfortable, what he thought was an audience. and he picked a very comfortable sub, too. which essentially once again touches a nerve among many african-americans. he was about class size and other thing, too, he was challenged on. at the same time, tamron, there was still skepticism, deep skepticism among the audience that essentially was a very, you would think, romney friendly audience if there would ever be a romney friendly audience among african-americans. >> thank you for your time. i greatly appreciate it. right now, millions of americans heading out the door to kick off

their memorial day weekend. mine starts in 20 minutes. aaa says nearly 35 million people will travel for the holiday weekend, the most, by the way, ever. who would have thought all w all those travelers, most would be going by car. the price of gas helping out a lot. despite prediction that's gas would climb as high as $5 a gallon. the price is dropping. look at that. the price of regular gas now $3.67 a gallon. a 25 cent drop from 2011. more than 30 million folks hitting the road. mike viqueira is so he is not on the road but he is what's happening in rockville, maryland. we know that this even entered, of course, the presidential race. the conversation. if the president is responsible for gas, all of that aside. where things stand right now. at least have people comfortable enough to travel this weekend. >> it's funny that you should mention that. the spike in gas prices, it happens every spring. it started so early. it really caught people off

guard and became even more of a political issue than ever. now they're sinking. they have sunk for seven straight weeks. they've been since april. you reported, down to $3.67 a gallon. not only 17 cents lower than a month ago but they are lower than they were at this time last year as far as a nationwide average is concerned. if it were not for california where the prices still remain high and many places, above $4 a gallon, that average nationwide would be even lower. it will be a busy weekend. it is hot out here. they say there are summer people and win people. i know where i stand. some like it hot. i'll take this over a day in january any day of the week. and people are already on the roads. in this area, they go down to the ocean, as they say if you're from baltimore, to have crabs. if you're going to the shore, the lake, you will have lower gas prices. $3.67 a gallon. if you're traveling more than 50 miles, you will be in, you will have a lot of company by car. 31 million americans and again as you record, that's a 1%

increase. the most ever memorial day weekend. also happens to coincide unfortunately with a spike in traffic accidents. some 40% of them alcohol-related. you can bet the police will be out in force as well. they have that annual click it or ticket campaign that is out in full force during the memorial day holiday. a lot to think about. i was out on the road instate 270 north of washington. already clogged up. a lot of people getting an early start. >> if you can get out the door, you should. some of the country seeing amazing weather. speaking of that, i need you to transition to air travel. apparently that's down slightly. i saw a report on the "today" show. airfare, even though gas is down, up 40 to $70 depending on where you're traveling. >> right. i believe the figure, 7% airfares are up this year over last year. and air travel, it is predicted, down about 5.5%. this ties back into politics, if you make more than $100,000 a year household income, you're

more likely to travel this memorial day. a 6% increase as they calculate these according to aaa. if you make less than that, you're less likely to travel during the memorial day holiday. >> you cannot see the bottom of your screen but it says, gas up meaning gas up and go. not gas is up. >> i thought you were going to point out that i'm wearing shorts and sandals. >> i'm sorry. i can't see it. our screen cuts you off at the waist. >> yeah, forget about that. >> tweet out maketure and i'll give you a thumbs up or thumb down. >> have a good one. >> we're following developing news. out of new york, certainly a story that has captured the attention of the nation. in about an hour, the suspect who police say confessed to the murder of one of the first missing children to ever appear on a milk carton in head coaches bringing him home safely. he will have an appearance with a judge and he'll do it from a hospital bed. we'll give you the details. first a lot going on today. here's some things we thought you should know.

the general services administration. the gsa executive behind that lavish $800,000 party in vegas. he is no longer with the agency. officials did not say whether jeff neely resigned or he was fired. the scandal led to several other high level firings and resignations. president obama heads to broadway next month for a campaign fund-raiser along with former president bill clinton. the june 4th event is timed, barack on broadway. among the stars set to be there, angela lansbury. finally, south dakota congressional candidates' ad. >> along the way i learn shots in iceland. i bicycled 1,000 miles through great britain with my church youth group. i was afraid of nuclear war the whole time. i've ridden an ostrich. i've done a lot of stuff. for six years i served in the u.s. military with one of these.

>> well, jeff bart is one of two democrats challenging incumbent congresswoman in the june 5th democratic primary. those are the things we thought you would want to know.

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beneful. play. it's good for you. with features like scanning a barcode to get detailed stock quotes to voice recognition. e-trade leads the way in wherever, whenever investing. download the ultimate in mobile investing apps, free, at e-trade. coming up, cow pies. the president's powerful metaphor for mitt romney. we'll talk about race on the campaign trail and romney's education. also, a jump start to your memorial day weekend. i'll have lots more on that straight ahead. 33 years to the day after etan patz disappeared.

pedro hernandez will be arraigned in the hospital where he has been placed on suicide watch. he has given them a detailed signed confession to the crime. ron allen is outside the new york city courthouse. we're expecting to hear what charges and more information regarding the charges on hernandez. so ron, so compelling yesterday watching this news break. obviously, locally and then going national with this story. many had wondered if this man had made up the story. if he was sane or what his motive was. and then these charges came down. >> reporter: we expect the charge to be murder. in 1979 hernandez was an 18-year-old store clerk who worked in a store along the route, the two-block route that etan patz took to school that day. the first time he walked alone. and hernandez has told police that he lured the boy into the store with a soda and strangled him in the basement. he has not said why he did that. police have not given us any

indication of what the motive would have been. this only came to light about a month ago, police say when some of hernandez' relatives told police that they remember him telling stories over the years about doing, quote, bad things to a young child in new york many years ago. and those relatives were alerted to this or remembered this because you'll perhaps recall the police had an operation going on in that neighborhood digging up a basement that belonged to another man who they thought was a suspect in the case. that jarred these relatives' memories. that's why this is all happening now. again, as you say. there are a lot of up answered questions. what was the motive? there seem to be no physical evidence linking this man to the case and there seem to be no relationship between hernandez and etan patz. hopefully we'll learn more about that in court. we expect this arraignment to happen around 3:30 or 4:30 this afternoon. it seems to have been delayed because hernandez was apparently ill. he is in the hospital and won't appear in court. he seem to be arraigned at his bedside. >> thank you very much for the

live report. an innocent man cleared tops our look at stories around the "news nation" this friday. a former high school football star who served five years in jail for rape has had his conviction overturned after his accuser retracted her story. brian banks was 16 with a football scholarship to usc when a childhood friend accused him of rape. banks maintained his innocence but pled no contest to avoid a possible life sentence. police spoke with andrea mitchell a short time ago. >> at that age, it was hard for me to comprehend, today it is still hard to comprehend, how you can have one decision where it is possibly serve a minimum time in prison. then there's another scenario where you can face life but there was no scenario where there is an option of the truth actually being told. >> banks now says he wants to pursue his dream of playing pro football. the charity started by

former penn state coach jerry sandusky is shutting down. it claim it has been financially crippled by the scandal. the they are asking to move millions of dollars in assets to a charity in texas. an historic hook-up in space. the spacex dragon capsule has become the first privately owned spacecraft to dock at the space station. it is also the first to reach the space station since nasa's final shuttle launch in july. they hope to use dragon and other capsules like to it send astronauts to space within the next few years. our news nation gut check is up next. speaking of space, this sounds like sci-fi meets what? two schools in texas want to track where students go. by using locator chips. we'll let you tell us what you think of that one. ♪ surf's up everybody get your boards and your wetsuits ♪

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time for the "news nation" gut check. two schools in san antonio texas have just approved the use of devices to keep tabs on students. the schools say the technology will improve attendance and raise money beginning next year. a chip will be implanted into student i.d.s at jones middle school and high school. the device will only track students inside the school building. it is a pilot program for now. if it is successful, it could go into all 112 san antonio schools. one official says the district could receive almost $2 million in state funding next year from higher attendance. two school districts that use the system in the houston area say they've received hundreds of thousands in revenue from students it to class. some of the school district trustees are worried it could violate a kid's privacy. one says, quote, i think this is overstepping our bounds and is

inappropriate. i'm uncomfortable about this. how comfortable are you with it? do you agree with schools? putting tracking devices on student i.d. cards? keep in mind, this is just when kids are in school. at least that's what they say. what does your gut tell you? go to facebook.com/newsnation. thank you so much for joining us. i hope you have a safe memorial day. we'll see you back here on monday. craig melvin is in for marine bashir. ♪[music plays] there's another way to help erase litter box odor. purina tidy cats. only tidy cats has new odor erasers... making it easy to keep things at home... just the way you want them. new tidy cats with odor erasers.

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i'm craig melvin in for martin bash eefrl it is friday, may 25th. the start of the memorial weekend. here's what's happening? ♪ hit the road jack ♪ don't you come back no more >> memorial day is here and millions of americans hit the road. while the president hits the trail and his opponent. >> the last time he visited these same fairgrounds, he famously