the heat, gas prices are down about 22 cents over this time last year. people in the atlantic will spend time cleaning up after deadly storms, over a million people are sweltering without air conditioning. tom costello has a lot more and joins us from the hard hit area of bethesda, maryland. >> we could have picked any number of neighborhoods and so many look like this. a massive tree shredded and down in the middle of a road. this is four days since the storm. take a walk with me over here. another tree fell on this house. you can see blue tarp is hanging from the side. look at the size of the tree that was cut in half right here. power is down in this neighborhood and so many more in the greater washington, d.c. area. it is thought in the entire zone of affected states, 1.3 million people are still without power and some of them may not get it

back until the weekend. total death toll thought to be about 22 or so. the mayor of d.c. is asking president obama to declare a state of emergency and the crews in washington, d.c. are overwhelmed with work and the cost of the clean up is expected to rise dramatically. we are expecting yet another hot day here in the washington, d.c. area. temperatures in the mid 90s and high temperatures and humidity. that's not unusual in july. the state and the communities are used to having electricity and air conditioning that people escape to. when you have that kind of heat and humidity and no electricity, it can be a very uncomfortable and dangerous situation. we have seen many retirement communities moving their retirees into cooling centers or into other homes where they might have air conditioning. it is as we said, day four following this massive storm

that came through and another hot and sticky day here in the nation's capital. back to you. >> tom costello, thank you. joining us is a break down of where the heat is concentrated. maria la rosa. who will see it the worst? the the mid-atlantic has been suffering for the fact that so many have not had the comfort of home air conditioning because of the electricity being out. >> it breaks your heart. they are not seeing the excessive heat, but the wave will push off to the east and the core of that heat continues to be in the central u.s. and everywhere you see the orange on the map, we see the excessive heat and the advisories from minneapolis to cincinnati and some spots without power. what this map means is those areas will see the heat and humidity push that feels like temperature above 100 degrees and maybe some spots 115. this is the problem. high pressure dominating and not

moving. you have kansas city and des moines just on the thermometer hiding 100 or above. st. louis at 104. chicago will be pushing the mid-and upper 90s and into thursday, 103 in kansas and dodge city at 102. places like d.c. will be pushing the 100 degree mark well into the weekend. >> thanks for the update. appreciate it. moving on to politics and president obama gearing up for a swing state bus tour touting american jobs as new polls show where independents stand on health care. the obama campaign pivoted back to bain. look at this new ad. rit romney's companies were pioneers in out sourcing to low wage countries. he supports tax breaks for those who shift jobs overseas.

out sourcing versus insourcing. it matters. >> i'm barack obama and a, approved this message. >> let's say good morning to jonathan cape heart. govern nor and cochair for the campaign. msnbc contributor. it's great to see all three of you. the obama campaign plans to hammer romney on outsourcing. joe biden pushing the romney out of touch point to a crowd in the capital. take a look at this. >> the governor said not long ago that these students had to be willing to take a chance. how? go home and borrow money if have to from your parents. how do you know you can go home and borrow money to start a new business from your parents?

he said the president is out of touch? how many of y'all have a swiss bank account? >> average joe on the stump. we wait for the critical june jobs report. how important is it for the president to define on this economy? >> very important. the bain attacks and biden talking about romney being out of touch. this is the attempt by the obama campaign to define mitt romney before he has the chance to spend the millions to define mitt romney for himself. we will see the attacks continue at the top of this segment. they are working despite the discomfort and some democrats had and are working in the battle ground states. we should get used to this up until and through the conventions and once we get

through the conventions we will start to see more substantive ads out there. >> this week the message has been about repealing and replacing the affordable care act. as we take a look at this "washington post" poll, independent voters give mitt romney and the president high unfavorable marks on health care. do you think the romney camp needs to shift and get the message back on jobs and the economy over the next five jobs reports? i was showing you certain writers that put out messages from the romney camp on health care. tweeting breaking news and the romney camp and the ceasefire. is it smart for mitt romney to put it back to what he is strongest with? >> yes. right now there is an issue that the republicans in the house and the senate are talking about health care. that's their strongest argument for reelection. for mitt romney, it's absolutely about the economy and he should

move back there. we will talk about the independents and how people feel. keep in mind that 40% of the people out there said they were unaware of the supreme court decision last week. people's priorities are their hot spots. >> we have news of romney's upcoming trip to israel. this highlights his foreign policy and the relationship between mitt romney and the prime minister. president obama's relationship with benjamin netanyahu and the israeli government has been rocky in part because he has not visited the country since he has been president. is the relationship the entirety of the foreign policy? >> mitt romney said strange things about foreign policy. his attitude towards afghanistan and what he said he may do with iran. his comments about russia being the greatest foreign policy.

i think his credentials are thin and his business experience is not snag he should be very proud of. as governor, his record was 47th in the nation. he outsourced jobs to other countries and closed factories and cost workers their jobs and they are pin-- their pension an health care benefits. he is looking for a way to distinguish himself in a positive light. he stood with the capital in the background right after the supreme court decision and promised on his first day in office he would attempt to take away health care coverage for 30 million americans. that's not a legacy that any president would be proud of. he is struggling obviously. he is struggling in ohio. i think the president is doing well in ohio and will be here this week and will be in

sandusky, ohio and looking forward to the president's next visit on thursday of this week. >> as the governor talks about that and mitt romney trying to distinguish himself, if you have joe biden out on the stump and the president out there, this is a coordinated effort. mitt romney working by himself, but there is a lot of talk about the veep stakes. chris christie was out there today giving interesting sentence. take a look. >> this is an election with one voter. mitt romney. he gets to decide what he thinks will be the best vice president. if governor romney takes the calls, you have to answer the call and listen at least. >> that means the door is open. chris christie and a lot of people wanted him to run to be the gop nominee to begin with, but does this mean and signal to people that there is a chris christie potential there as the governor brings up ohio and rob

portman could be pivotal in all of this. >> after what happened with rubio and if he was being vetted or not, they opened up the circle more. i think you are looking at a rob portman or tim pawlenty. the most important thing for mitt romney is to have something he is comfortable and doesn't up stage him at times. he can say something and cause headlines for a few weeks. >> someone who is not fond of them is donald trump. donald trump is appearing on slamming chief justice john roberts. >> roberts was reading "the washington post" and the "new york times" and he said i can come out like a hero if i do what everybody does not expect me to do and voted to keep it and frankly i think he should be ashamed of himself. >> i think john roberts should be a shamed of himself and it is

reverberating the opposite. she looking like a dummy. >> i want you to weigh in on this. donald trump was throwing parties for mitt romney, raising money, but he will go out and call the chief justice a dummy. >> right. because donald trump doesn't agree with the decision he wrote. imagine what he would have said maybe the chief justice would have been a genius if things had gone the way he wanted them to go. donald trump has his perch there to say what he wants to say. we listen and comment on what he has to say. he has no impact, no effect whatsoever on certainly what most people think, but most definitely on what the chief justice of the supreme court of the us thinks about his job and himself as a person. >> the sword strikes both ways in all of this. democrats are going to be mindful of how they react to the supreme court decisions. in your estimation, how do you

sum up how they reacted to how roberts came down with his opinion? >> if donald trump is an example and calls the chief justice a dummy, i would say it takes to know one. for this man to assume that he is qualified to make a legal judgment about the supreme court's decision is ludicrous. i was concerned as i said earlier that soon after the chief justice and the supreme court spoke, mitt romney stood with the capital in the background and said on his first day in office, his first day in office, he would attempt to take away health care from 30 million americans. that's what he said. i will repeal the affordable care act. it will provide health care to 30 million americans. that's the issue here and not how the right wing responded,

but how mitt romney responded. >> he did not say he was going to take health care away, but repeal and replace. that's what he said. the governor was putting a few words in mitt romney's mouth. >> it takes it a step forward. if i repeal this, 30 million americans would lose access to what the supreme court wants to deliver. >> not if they replace it with a different plan. it's disingenerous to say that's what the governor said. >> what's the replace plan? >> there a lot of factors to it and he does have to explain it, but to say this is what the governor said is not sincere. >> he said on my first day in office, i will go to work to repeal the affordable care act. >> correct. >> the affordable care act provides coverage for 30 million americans. he didn't say what he would do to replace the act, but he said

i will work to get rid of the affordable care act. that's what i said and i stand by what i said. >> mitt romney said something different. i understand where you were going. to say they were his words is not correct. >> we can agree what he said, but the intention is to take away the health care access to more than 30 million people. >> replace it with something else. >> he didn't say that. >> we can talk about it, but that's what he meant. >> i have to go. i make the rules here. we have to mention she killing it today. thanks to all of you and there is this great article about what's going on with the supreme court and about chief justice roberts and what it means for the upcoming supreme court term. he mights on affirmative action and same-sex marriage and voting

rights. thanks to all of you. much more on the health care confusion coming up. how can americans like so many of the benefits that get the benefits of this law and they want it repealed? do they really understand what it's for? >> giving up a chance for gold. why an american sprinter gave up the chance with allyson felix. would you do the same? tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about that 401(k) you picked up back in the '80s. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like a lot of things, the market has changed, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and your plans probably have too. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so those old investments might not sound so hot today. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we'll give you personalized recommendations tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 on how to reinvest that old 401(k) tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and help you handle all of the rollover details. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and bring your old 401(k) into the 21st century. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550

>> do you get a good sense of how people are reacting to the supreme court justice on the american health care law. two new polls show the even

divide that the mandate as a whole are constitutional. that split is echoed in a new kaiser poll. a 41-41 split on the favorability of the law today. the other big question is how important it will be to voters. they found that they were not even aware of the ruling. the chief of the gallup poll and are these more about the division or how the political battle lines are being drawn and does that make it more an issue of a wash? >> i think probably business as usual. the affordable care act was highly divided along partisan lines before the supreme court ruled. it touches on one of the big issues of our time and highly identified with the president and naturally it's partisan. the supreme court rules and low and behold, we look at the data and four different polls are

coming out and it's split in a partisan direction. it's highly polarized. >> from the political standpoint, the talk of repeal and replace is ramping up. 56% of the respondents say stop efforts to block this law and more importantly, the political 51% of independents have the same message. shouldn't that be a resounding heads up to both sides about how this conversation will move forward? >> probably so. the interesting polling on the issue, the kaiser poll showed the majority of americans said let's get on with it and stop worrying about this. only 3 out of 10 said repeal it. the public is split on what to do. i totally agree based on all of our are you view of the data.

that you have here in particular, this is not the number one issue on americans's mines. health care is low on the list any time we ask americans why they are voting and what's the most important, it's still the economy. >> down to the pocket book. always great to see you. thank you, sir. >> my pleasure. >> what did joe paterno know and tell penn state officials about jerry san dusky in 2001? was there a bigger cover up? his family wants all the records revealed.

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about the graduate assistant whoa told paterno he saw jerry sandusky molesting a boy in a locker room shower. those raised questions about what approximate turno knew and whether it was covered up by the school in place. what exactly are we learning from the chain of e-mails? >> these e-mails are being turned up by the fbi director and security consultant hired to conduct an investigation and what according to these e-mails, people who have seen the e-mails and described them to my colleague, they show that the university had a long debate about what to do about san dusky and about this incident in 2001. they originally planned to inform authorities and child youth services and the state

welfare agency for children. the athletic director said i'm thinking it over and after talking to paterno, he decided not to report it. we don't know what he said to him in that conversation and obviously paterno is dead, we may never know. according to his family he never used e-mail and probably didn't commit anything to writing. they changed course and decided not to report it. aside from the question of paterno's reputation and when he knew and didn't know is the question of liability on the part of penn state university. this was in 2002001. after that, three of the young men that sandusky was convicted of abusing, those instances happen after that incident. if they reported it, it might not have happened much the liability is a big question.

thomas? >> john yang reporting live from chicago. coming up next, the young and the restless. young voters helped president obama ride to victory in 2008. could they be the key to his defeat in november? [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's four course seafood feast, just $14.99. start with soup, salad and cheddar bay biscuits then choose one of 7 entrees plus dessert! four perfect courses, just $14.99. come into red lobster and sea food differently. four perfect courses, just $14.99. you do a lot of kayakingno. whoooa i'm in a river. what are some good kayaking words? like...rapids? look, i'm going through the rapids. ok.

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she would help her child. no. no no no no no. mommy's here [ male announcer ] with everything. but instead she gives him capri sun super-v. with one combined serving of fruits and vegetables. new capri sun super-v. >> the obama campaign has a wave of enthusiasm in 2008. the president claimed 66% of the 18 to 29-year-old aiming group. fast forward to today and there is a new breed of voter who is appear less than enthusiastic leaving a possible opening for mitt romney to make a connection. ladies, it's great to you have here and emily, i want to start with you. the president made young voters a priority focusing on the student rate hike and holding rallies. here's what the article said with young voters in the

country. the nation's first time voters are less than enthusiastic and more likely to identify as conservative. what's different compared to what we saw four years ago? why were people more passionate about an incoming thought of a president obama than they are about a second term president obama? >> thanks for having me on. you talk about the quote you pulled saying that young people are more likely to be conservative. if that were true, why would the right be trying so hard? if they thought they could win on your ideas. go ahead and let them vote. there is something of a difference it would be that from the last campaign to this campaign, governing is very hard. i think we have seen a lot of that over the last 3 1/2 years moving into the election. coming in, there was great

ideas. i think we have seen a lot of those things. it's a messy process, particularly when you have an opposition party that is dedicated to blocking every one of the ideas. i believe they said at one point, defeating the president is the number one priority. not policies for young people. young people will see that. >> as emily points out, why kids today might be a little more conservative, this is a generation that has grown up knowing this country had more for the last 11 years and coming out of college or high school at a time where things are tough and bleak on the unemployment front. as we look at the numbers for the 18 to 29-year-old age group is 12.1%, higher than the national average. the voter turn out is expected to be lower this november. why aren't the numbers turning them towards the polls? people looking at the brighter

out come and the pocket book politics and get them to the polls. >> it's a good point, thomas. it points to what wuyounger peoe are thinking about. they are thinking about finding a jb with unemployment rates as high as they are. they are thinking about guarduateing for college and the debt they are now carrying. on average, $25,000 for those who graduate with student loans. to be honest, most are thinking where they are going to barbecue tomorrow on the fourth of july, but not november sixth more than four months away. we have a long way to go. if we look at the next couple of months, we have a long way to get people to register to vote and the campaigns have laid the infrastructure. it's late summer and fall when the door knocking and the community outreach makes it

relative and addresses the issues they are thinking about. >> you bring up the retail politics, romney's campaign will roll out soon a new dorm to dorm initiative. do you think based on what president obama's outreach was in the past, the grass roots social media outreach to get people enthusiastic, can this mbat that? >> it's funny that romney is calling it the dorm to dorm. something the obama campaign and the democrats have beenuing for a long time. our organization has been doing it since 2006, 2007. i'm glad to see they jumped on board seeing that young people want to listen to their peers. if you look at the peers they are choosing to use, the romney campaign rolled out the cochairs last week. look at the list is see how those people represent young people today. one of the people the romney campaign has congressman duncan

hunter. you covered this a lot on your program. duncan hunter was the vision for the right of who they were going to use to combat don't ask don't tell. he was the young person they put out in front on it. clearly that didn't go that well and that's not where young people are today. those are the people the campaign is looking to reach out to,they have a bigger task. >> what is rock the vote doing to get an enthusiasm fervor going for november? >> the first thing we were doing is making sure that young people are registered so they can vote on election day. there is about 12,000 young american who is turn 18 every day. we are out there every day getting them registered to vote. our goal is to register 1.5 million youth. the vast majority will come in the summer and early fall. we are at concerts and festivals

and talking to people peer to peer and through networks and making sure they have to get register and prepared. we aring on the campaigns. we know they will. this generation, the under 30 vote makes up a quarter of the electorate. 46 million of them. neither can win without the youth vote. look forward to a busy four months. we will get them registered. they certainly care. we will have a turn out that predicts the president. >> not a group to be discounted. this is your season for rock the vote. thanks to both of you ladies. here's a look at the other stories topping the list. the military decided to grown them as they investigate a crash

of one. there was a weekend crash of an airplane tanker taking place in south dakota. the graduate student suffering for a rare flesh eating disease out of the hospital. she will head to a rehab clinic where she had a leg, foot, and both hands amputated after contracting this infection after suffering a keep cut. a new mission to mind amelia ehrhardt's plane 75 years after she vanished off the south pacific. they will embark on the expedition from honolulu to a remote island in the pacific hoping to find the wreckage. she disappeared in a bid to be the first woman to circle the globe. we are weeks away, just weeks from the start of the 2012 olympics. we are in the trials. if the drama there is any indication, these games are going to be historic. we have nbc sports today with one of the big stories to

emerge. rob will be anchoring our coverage here. it's great to have you here. this is the precursor to the big events to come, but we have seen the drama, especially from the ladies on the track field. >> always drama and controversy. it's usually during the games and not during the trials women had some this week during the trials. the big issue was the women's 100 meter final. that ended up in a third place dead heat tie. third place determines the last athlete to go to the olympics. allyson felix and jeneba tarmoh tied exactly. they were not able to come up with any distance between the two. what are you going to do to break this tie? this never happened before. they didn't have a procedure to fix it. what they offered was a chance for a run off. literally. a run off where they run one on one against each other yesterday and tarmoh decided she didn't

want to do it. she did not want to go through that after having thought she won. the initial result said she won. then she was told she hadn't and she was not up to running again. she pulled out and allyson felix gets the spot. >> there was a coin toss? >> they talked about that. they all decided that was not fair to anyone. it's so random. you might as well make it mean something. >> unless you have a double headed quarter. >> allyson felix is going to the olympics and tarmoh is the alternate. >> michael phelps, a kid from my hometown will not be going for eight gold medals. he will be focusing on actually being able to maybe achieve seven? >> that's right. seven possibly. it's not likely he will get seven golds. this all to me puts into perspective how amazing it was what he did 2008.

it's almost impossible to be competitive in eight swimming events. you have preliminaries and semi finals. you are swimming three or four times a day to to even have a chance. he decided the 200 meter freestyle was not his event. he decided to drop that one. he is swimming seven. four individual and three relays. i would think for him, three to four is probably a more realistic chance given the relays and maybe bronzes and silvers. >> for the female swimmers, dara torres is not going? >> 45 years old and not going. it finally ended. she has been in the olympic scene since 1984. five olympics and countless medals, but she finished fourth in the 15 meter fry style by .09 seconds and she said it's over for her. she is 45 and a mom and ready to

hang it up and watch the olympics from her couch like the rest of us middle aged people. >> she can still go. >> i think she should. >> take her with you. >> i think she should come. we will find a way to get her over there. maybe there is a spot for her on nbc. she would be good. a big inspiration to a lot of women out there. >> it's sad she is not, but what an amazing athlete to even be considered. >> no other swimmer in the pool for the final was there when she ran her first olympics. >> buy her a ticket to london. we will be checking in with rob. each week in the hours leading up to the olympics women look forward to you anchoring the olympic coverage. logon for more and watch all the best coverage on the networks and nbc universal. it's exciting stuff. thanks again.

a bear market on wall street and why firms are leaving the big apple and heading to the bushes. john roberts siding with the left over health care. come the fall, we could do a 180 on hot button issues of marriage equality, affirmative action and voter id laws. you can tweet me. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?

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his morning starts with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. >> wall street as we know it not on the part of the country you might expect. wall street giant are shifting middle tier positions into states like north carolina, florida, and arizona. the change could have a profound impact on new york's economy as had helps other states. the "new york times" wrote about the shift. it's great to have you here. your article points out that a

lot of us began after the financial melt down in 2007. now there is over 191,000. over the same time period, arizona gaining 2600 jobs. delaware gaining 1300. when we talk about the shift and see those saturations of jobs in other markets, what jobs are we talking about? >> mid-level jobs. not the guys making millions. it's not the folks making 30 or $40,000 a year. these are people in the middle around $100,000. it's not glamorous work, but the work that doesn't have to be in the new york area anymore because of the technology. they are moving to different states where the cost of living is lower and they can pay less. >> this is near shore something. >> a lot of these jobs for regulatory reasons, you can't ship them to indy or the

philippines, but they want a cheaper locale. >> good news for the people who want them where their buck can stretch further and invest in the housing market and the local economies. >> right. >> this is something where states probably want to seduce into their place. >> oh, yeah and going after the jobs. folks from delaware and florida and utah and a big way, giving incentives and reaching out and trying to lure bank jobs to the places. these are ecofriendly and good for the tax base. >> there is an impact on new york who won't watch this wash away and the tax base here will steal from the revenue. >> right and the issue here is that a lot of these jobs in the middle, new york is very dependent. about 14% of the new york state come from the securities industry. they have to hold on to that. there was a real tension there. >> great to have you on.

>> we'll be right back after this. stick around. so you're no marathon man. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost. introducing the musically enhanced htc one x from at&t. rethink possible.

talk about some fireworks. check out this remarkable video, a solar flare popping off the sun, powerful enough to disrupt radio communications in europe. nasa says it happened yesterday. it may spell good news for tomorrow, enhancing views of the northern lights, giving americans a natural fireworks display on the fourth of july. this story is lighting up on twitter. the scientific world buzzing about an announcement expected tomorrow from physicists at the world's biggest atom smasher. they say they have all but proven a subatomic particle known as the god particle does exist. the fabled particle is believed to be what lends mass to matter and holds the universe together. chief justice john roberts, a lot of talk about him, right? he emerged last week as the unlikely savior of president obama's affordable care act. roberts' ruling has riled the right and prompted swift and strong reaction from

conservatives across the country. in case you missed it, donald trump resorted to name calling on cnbc today. >> roberts was reading the "washington post" and the "new york times" and he said i can come out like a hero if i do what everybody does not expect me to do and he voted, you know, to keep it and frankly, i think he should be ashamed of himself. i think john roberts should be ashamed of himself and interestingly, it's reverberating the opposite. he's looking like a dummy. >> sticks and stones, right? according to today's politico, liberals aren't spiking the ball too high, fearing the chief justice will rebound when the court convenes this fall. joining me is josh gerstein. great to have you here. we talked earlier about donald trump calling roberts a dummy but he hasn't become the savior of the left that some contend. you write this of chief justice roberts, saying some liberals contend that roberts' surprise crossover on health care law has given him a free hand to craft and sign on to a slew of

conservative opinions and as we look at this and the term coming up, josh, the pending cases in your estimation where you think roberts could have the most impact. we're talking about voting rights act, and a bunch of others. >> yeah, there's also a big affirmative action case that the court has already said it will definitely hear this fall, and we know that chief justice roberts' leanings on that tend to be in a very conservative direction. so there's no reason to think that he has sort of strayed from the conservative fold here and is going to be the next david sutor. to the contrary, we will see a tough conservative bent from the court in the coming term. >> chief justice roberts also cited as we saw earlier in the week with the left-leaning justices on certain provisions of arizona's immigration law. is there this fear, though, among the right that roberts is undergoing a change in ideology? i think in one part of your piece he's been referred to as chief justice john o'roberts?

>> yeah, somebody was making that i guess as a joke suggesting that some folks think he's signing on to the obama administration. but really, you got precious little data to make that judgment. the affordable care act, the health care law, is a big, big deal to paraphrase vice president biden but beyond that, you think of that immigration case, sure, he did strike some provisions there, but so did justice alito, he was also along to strike one of those provisions. if you go beyond those two cases it's sort of crickets out there. the only other time that he voted with liberals to strike a law down and he was the only one who crossed over was six years ago in an obscure property lien case. so there's just not a lot of evidence that suddenly he's way off the reservation. in fact, just last week, that same day they did the immigration case, he had a pretty strong conservative opinion in something having to do with whether juveniles can be sent to prison for the rest of his life and he led the court's

conservative wing on that decision in a dissent. >> is this more about innoculating roberts' court from partisanship? or the look thereof? >> well, who knows. i think we have to assume that he did this because he thought these were the merits of the case, affordable care act, but the effect of it clearly is to suggest to a lot of liberals and a lot of middle of the road folks that the court is doing its best to work through these issues and isn't trying to take a hugely political stand. some of the second level issues just don't get the level of attention that that affordable care act ruling did. that was president obama's signature achievement. if the court goes ahead and strikes down the voting rights act next year which would be a tremendous thing to have happen, i wonder if we'll hear the same level of outcry as we would if that hadn't happened before. >> josh, great write-up today. thank you for coming on. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. have a good fourth. >> thank you. that will wrap things up for me. have a great fourth to all of

you. see you back here thursday at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. until then, follow me on twitter. don't go anywhere. "now with alex wagner" is coming up right here on msnbc. hi, alex. hey, thomas. happy 3rd and eventually, happy 4th to you. >> thank you. >> governor romney will brush up on his foreign policy creds with a summer vacation in israel. we will talk about his overseas experience. and days of severe storms and heat render washington virtually powerless. but wasn't it already? we'll discuss the politics of climate change with environmentalist david de rothschild. what's your citizenship iq? in preparation for the fourth of july, tune in for our american history trivia test and our very own "now" version of the romney olympics. it is must-see tv when "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. ta. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult.

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