new developments from colorado. 24-year-old accused mass murderer james holmes made his first court appearance not long ago. it was our first time seeing the suspect since he allegedly killed 12 people and injured dozens more inside that aurora movie theater friday night. holmes showing no signs of emotion there during today's hearing. did he did look extremely desired and struggled to keep his eyes open. the hair died reddish orange. you might remember he told police he was the joker. he's currently in solitary confinement held without bond. all of this as prosecutors grapple with the decision of whether to pursue the death penalty. >> victims will be impacted by that decision in an enormous way for years. if the death penalty is sought, that's a very long process that impacts their lives. for years. and so they will want to have and well want to get their input before we make any kind of a decision on that.

>> let's bring in mike taibbi outside the courthouse. good afternoon to you. >> reporter: hi, craig, how are you. >> what's the latest? >> reporter: i was inside the courtroom. i'll go through that. i was inside the courtroom, they had 35 seats set aside of the press. and everybody was watching for what you just saw, the demeanor of this defendant, the suspect, lone suspect in this horrific crime. you showed him being heavy lidded. beyond that his affect was one that just didn't engage with anybody. not with one of his two public defenders, that's tamara brady sitting next to him, not with the judge when the judge asked him if he had anything to say, not with the family members, the five family members of the decedents, victims who had died who were sitting just to the left of me. and their eyes were on him constantly. he didn't engage with anybody at all and the judge determined that there was probable cause to

hold him without bond until the next step and the next step of course will be the formal charges filed against him. after that there will be a preliminary hearing at which time his attorney will be allowed to call witnesses. the state will call witnesses, as well, to hold him over for an arraignment. the a in-rraignment could be mo from now. there's the question of the insanity defense. at that arraignment, the defense will signal whether it attends to use the not guilty by reason of insanity defendase. the state will have the clock starting on the 60 days it has on decide whether it will seek the death penalty. and that's not an easy decision and only would be that will be made in consuin consultation wi victims and families. and because it's an important decision for them, so it won't be made easily or lightly. but the state will have 60 days

to make that decision. if it's determined that the defendant is not cooperating with his attorney, not at all assisting in his defense, he'll be held over for psychiatric examinations with examiners both from the prosecution side and defense side probably sent to the state hospital in pueblo for those examinations. and if he continues to be nonresponsive, he can be given as happened in the jared loughner case in arizona psychotropic drugs to try to restore him to sanity so he can be ruled able to help in his defenses. so all those things are down the line. this morning was just the initial proceeding in this entire case. just advising him, an advisory proceeding advising this defendant of the charges that will be lodged against hill him. >> do we know whether the defendant is on any type of prescription drugs? >> he certainly lookedhill him. >> do we know whether the defendant is on any type of prescription drugs? >> he certainly lookedill him. >> do we know whether the defendant is on any type of prescription drugs? >> he certainly lookedll him. >> do we know whether the defendant is on any type of prescription drugs? >> he certainly looked him. >> do we know whether the defendant is on any type of prescription drugs? >> he certainly looked like he could have been medicated, but unless there was maintenance

medication that he was required to be given in the two plus days since he's been in custody, he certainly wouldn't have had any other drugs. maybe he was just exhausted. but his affect was one of someone who wasn't able to engage with anybody. >> mike taibbi inside that courtroom today. mike, thank you, sir. appreciate that. well have much more from colorado straight ahead here on news nation. >> what a great hero he is. he provided me the opportunity to survive. >> we'll take a closer look at the victims who lost their lives in the shooting and how many of them actually died trying to shield loved ones from danger. news nation also following another major story on this monday, the ncaa slamming penn state today with an unprecedented series of sanctions in the wake of the jerry sandusky child sex abuse scandal. among the sanctions, a $60 million fine which will go to a fund for victims of child abuse, a four year ban on postseason

bowl appearances, penn state will also lose ten football scholarships per year for four years. and awful penn state's victories from 1998 through 2011 will be vacated. ncaa president mark emmert announcing the sanctions. >> no price the ncaa can levy will repair the grieveous damage inflicted by jerry sandusky on his victims. however, we can make clear that the culture, actions and inactions that allowed them to be victimized will not be tolerated in collegiate athletics. >> within the past hour, former coach joe paterno's family issued a statement saying the sanctions announced by the ncaa today defame the leg gacy and contributions of a great coach and educator without any input from our family or those who knew him best. mike joining us live from penn

state college. good afternoon to you. >> reporter: good afternoon, craig. >> the ncaa did not hand down the death penalty, but there are many who are saying that this is actually probably in the grand scheme of things even worse or just as bad for the program. >> reporter: it could well be. look, football has been central to penn state's identity for decades. it's been a major source of revenue. so add up the sanctions here. $60 million in fines. that's the equivalent of an entire one year revenue from the football program. those scholarship limits. 40 scholarships lost. that's really going to hurt penn state's ability to recruit new top flight athletes to play on the football team. current football players will be allowed to transfer to other universities. and a four your bacn on bowl

games. if you're a top flight athlete, you want to get noticed, perhaps get drafted by the nfl. you won't be able on do that at penn state for the next four years. so you you add up all that, and it's really going to hurt penn state football on multiple levels. as one penn state football historian said to me earlier, who is going to be filling up this stadium on saturdays? how are they going to get 100,000 people as they have in the past and all that is going to have a big economic impact on this region. >> mike, thank you. >> reporter: thank you. >> ncaa president mark emmert talked about the culture of football. and college sports becoming too big to fail. >> one of the grave dangers stemming from our love of sports is that the sports themselves can become too big to fail, indeed, too big to even challenge. the result can be an erosion of

academic values that are replaced by the value of hero worship and winning at all costs. in the penn state case, the results were perverse and unconscionab unconscionable. >> want to bring in contributor, michael, good afternoon to you. the ncaa is frequently ridiculed for its sanctions. many say they go too far. do you think they got it right? >> i don't. and i'm in the midst of leading a conversation with radio listeners across the country who are very passionate and very divided. i come down in the camp that says that this was an unduly harsh sentence and the reason that i believe that is that the rule of law is already dealing with sandusky. it will deal with curley and schultz. it will probably deal with graham spanier, as well. and joe paterno is gone. i'm concerned that they've cast a very wide net that is now going to pin punish a lot of

folks that had absolutely no culpability in this whole scenario. >> michael, what about the flip side of that argument, what about those who say this is precisely the kind of punishment that send as clear message to folks in powerful positions to not ignore claims of child sex abuse. what about those who with a say that this sends an unmistakable message? >> i think there's already a remedy for that. the civil suits that have been filed and will continue to be filed on behalf of sandusky's victims i think will continue to embarrass and sting the university as they should. but, craig, how about the student who is going not to play football, but to perform in the marching band. maybe with a dream of performing some day at the rose bowl. perhaps they're all right on that campus. and now hair dretheir dream is because years ago is sandusky, what can he.

i'm concerned about that person's rights. >> the paterno family outraged again blasting the freeh report. nowlasting the sanctions, as well, saying they would have preferred to at least have had some input with the ncaa. what's your reaction to that, should they have gotten a say in any of this? >> no. they're absolutely undeserving of a say in any of this. they had the same complaint about judge freeh's report and if i were advising them, i would tell them to go silently into that night. i don't think they're helping restore the legacy of joe paterno. >> mike, you and many of your listeners apparently think that this thing was too harsh. what would you have preferred to see the ncaa do? >> well, i'm cool with the $60 million fine. that -- >> that's just a year's worth of profits for penn state. in the grand scheme of things that's a drop in the bucket. >> $60 million is not chump change. where i disagree is the four year of bowl nonappearances because, craig, that will have a

ripple effect on recruiting. that is really a punishment of probably six, eight, maybe even ten years. and as you said to michael isikoff, there are people who believe this is not the death pen tens sentence, but it's actually more harsh. and i'm one of those people. to say you can't play football for one year would have been more lenient than what they ultimately got. >> michael sm, i would imagine there are a number of the victims and the families who would disagree with you. >> there might be, but i'm so their side. nobody's been more of a hawk on this case of wanting to throw the book at all the evil doers than me. but my complaint in this case is how about the merchants in state college. how about the guy who owns a restaurant, a tap room, maybe a small inn where his economic model is dependent upon the business of those football games. they shouldn't be punished. >> thank you, sir, appreciate your opinion.

>> thank you. up next, the tragedy in colorado renewing the debate over gun control in this country. we'll talk about it with our political panel. . >> supreme court said, yeah, second amendment right it on bear arms, but there it are reasonable restrictions that can be put on it. >> look at this person, again, almost a creature. if he couldn't have gotten access to the gun, what kind of bomb would he have manufactured? also, we'll have the latest on the mystery surrounding michael jackson's mother after reports that katherine jackson was missing over the weekend. and don't forget you can always join our conversation on twitter. @newsnation. one word. ♪ ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing.

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over the next several days, several weeks and next several months, we all reflect on how we can do something about some of the senseless violence that ends up marring this country. >> president obama there marking the tragedy in aurora, colorado last night after meeting with some of the victims of friday's shooting. the president acknowledges that something must be done but says the white house does not have any new plans to push for new gun control measures. and according to the romney campaign website, the governor opposes any legislation that would restrict the second amendment. michael bloomberg, staunch gun control advocate had withis to say. >> you ask one of the families is this the time to focus on how to keep their other children from getting killed? they would be on the side of do it new. 18 months since arizona and we did nothing. if not now, when? >> so can anything be done. let's bring in our political

panel. president of the bernard center for women politics. and michelle bernard. good afternoon to both of you. let's start with this associated press quote here. here it is in part. "in a world where amazon can track your next book purchase and you must register to buy allergy medicine, james holmes spent months stockpiling thousands of bullets, head to toe ballistic gear without raising any red flags with authorities. and here's a situation regardless of party where one would think that both sides would be able to agree on rework the system. but yet there doesn't seem to be at this point any political will to do that. >> this has been the case for quite some time. and it is i agree surprising almost every time there is one of these incidents, we have another conversation about how there needs to be another conversation and then there isn't one.

some will blame the nra which has worked very hard over the years obviously to hold elected officials to a certain standard. but the will is not there with the politicians themselves and i think to a certain extent with the public. just as every time some incident like this, there is a call for more gun control. you also hear a call for people to be able to arm themselves. and that's the direction really for the last two decade, less gun control, not more. >> let's talk about political will. here's a january gallup poll. it shows half of those surveyed are at least somewhat satisfied with current gun laws. 42% dissatisfied. there's a huge jump from a decade ago when those numbers were flipped around. to what can we attribute the lack of public will as well? >> it is very difficult to say, but i think anecdotally if you go out on the street and you

talk to people when they look at the kind of violence that we saw in colorado over the weekend and in arizona just 18 months ago and elsewhere all throughout the day, people will time and time again tell that you they don't want the only people to be armed to be the people to actually be the criminals. people want to be able to be armed and protect themselves in their homes. but that being said, michael bloomberg said it perfectly this morning. if not, when. because over and over again, we're seeing mass killings and it is not the person wouho is i their home taking up their right to bear arms. it's how do we protect people in public places against these acts of civil terrorism. >> you mentioned michael bloomberg. i want to play a tape from over the weekend. >> to look at this person again almost a creature, if he couldn't have gotten access to

the guns, what kind of bomb would he have manufactured. >> and that's the counter argument, ladies. if someone is hell bent on weeking twee reeking the kind of havoc reeked on friday, there's not a whole lot of legislation that will stop them from doing it. >> that is one argument, byou could also argue that you don't put knives in the hands of 2-year-olds. you don't put weapons in the hands of people who are going to come damage with them. so i think there are obviously two sides of that art. i think what's interesting is the geographic flit on this. yo you -- there has been a lot of political willingness to do away with guns. but you don't see that in rural areas where people have had the right to walk around with weapons for longer periods of

time. >> craig, i'd love to add that there has to be a reasonable balance in terms of finding a reasonable restriction on your second right amendment to bear arms because the bottom line is if someone goes into a store and decides that they want to purchase 6,000 rounds of ammunition and any reasonable man's standard would have to tell the person selling the ammunition this that something is absolutely amiss -- >> here 's the problem. if you're buying ammo on line and there's no face to face interaction, then what do you do? >> this has to be a way to trace that, also, whether online, in person. we now know after the national tragedies that there are indicators of various types to tell someone that something is amiss and that there is a great possibility that we're going to see massive numbers of people murdered for absolutely no reason with no just iffif just whatsoever. >> and you mentioned restrictions to the second amendment. you look at washington, d.c.

when they tried to enact a handgun ban, a similar ban attempted in chicago in the supreme court basically pumps pumped the brakes on those attempts. >> and there have been a lot of legal efforts to try to curb the use of guns. there was an attempt to bring about lawsuits much in the same way that were brought against the tobacco manufacturers to try to do the same for the hand gun manufacturers which also did not go very far. so from a legal standpoint, from a political standpoint, it's almost at this point when any of these incidents happen, we start to talk about them, there will be a few days of political outcry, but it's hard to see where it goes when it happens. >> in fact just over the past few hours, new jersey senator had planned to introduce legislation that at least limited the availability of high capacity magazines and it does not appear as if that is even going to make it up for debate this session. so michelle bernard, thank you.

ann, thanks to you, as well. later this week, mitt romney will kick off the first overseas trip of his presidential campaign. coming up, what nbc's first read described as romney's biggest challenge abroad. we'll talk about that. plus why the wife of anthony weiner is under police protection. just one of the things we thought you should know p. [ annie ] this is the story of annie,

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siblingses are reportedly feuding over their brother's estate. coming up, the author of the anatomy of evil will join me to talk more about the accused gunman in the colorado shooting and what we know about him so far. also another person as died after that shocking crash in texas involving a pickup truck crammed with 23 people. we'll get details in our news around the nation. [ cellphone rings ] the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really. i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good. [ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months,

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you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org. new developments where colorado where the gunman made his first court appearance. 24-year-old james holmes did not say a word during that hearing. he appeared dazed and could barely keep his eyes open at times it seemed like. he's currently being held in solitary confinement. a lawyer for holmes family expected to hold a news conference just over an hour from now. meanwhile district attorney overseeing the case says the trial is at least a year away and it will be months before

prosecutors decide whether to pursue the death penalty in this case. carol chambers says her office first needs to speak with victims. meanwhile 26 victims remain hospitalized, nine in critical condition at five different colorado hospitals. we're also learning more about that alleged shooter. 24-year-old james holmes. one former classmate told the "los angeles times" that holmes was one of the smartest kids in the class. another student telling the same paper that holmes was a, quote, mediocre student, stubborn, shy and socially inept. so were there any warning signs before friday's tragedy? want to bring in a professor of clinical psychiatry at columbia college of physicians and surgeons. good afternoon to you, sir. let's start there. based on what you know and have heard and read about this case were therefully warning signs? >> there were warning signs that he was mentally very peculiar. for instance, he tried to join

this gun club some weeks before the massacre and he left -- he didn't speak personally to this fellow who was the director of the club. and there were voice messages that were incoherent and rambling, very peculiar, enough to warn or tip off the director to say we don't want this guy. so that was already one warning sign. and then from the things i was learning last night even around midnight, i saw youtube on the internet six years ago about his peculiarity, that he was giving a talk to classmates or something in college, talking about temporal illusion and how he was going to use his mind to change the past. >> that should have tipped off someone. >> at least alerts that you this guy is very strange.

>> here's something else, though. we've heard time and time again that he was somewhat withdrawn, he was quiet, he was a loner, it if you will. and it seems like anytime there's one of these mass shootings, the suspect is generally more often than not someone like this. >> that's right. >> why is that? >> because these are people because of the social -- incapacity to fit in socially, and there's a lot of signs in this guy that he could not fit in socially, he did not have an intimate girlfriend, sexual relationship, he was putting things on the internet like i swing both ways as if he was grandiosely telling the world that he's really superate when actually he had no experience at all. so these are people inadequate socially and very subject to being humiliated. and when they suffer a big blow like dropping out of college or

failing an exam, they tend to smoulder until they explode. >> he was socially awkward based on everything i've heard, we can conclude that he was socially awkward. but there are a lot of people watching and listening who may not be the most inept socially 37 how do you you discern from someone who is quiet and shy and introverted and someone who might pose a lethal threat? should have raised a red flag perhaps. >> and there's another red flag about an ak-47. what does a 24-year-old ph.d. candidate doing with an ak-47. so i think there are certain kinds of guns and certain types of orders that should trigger in interest in somebody that, gee,

i wonder if this guy is up on something. granted all the shy loan nelone can't put them all in a pen. but somebody who in addition has these strange signs that seems to be getting more strange by the minute can be a threat. >> michael stone, professor of clinical psychiatry, we appreciate the insight. thank you. we're also hearing more from family and friends of the victims of the aurora shooting. kristen dahlgren is live with more on how these victims have being remembered. >> reporter: hi, there, craig. well, there are six of the shooting victims in this hospital here, two of them still in will critical condition. but especially today when we're hearing so much about that rather strange court appearance from the suspect, the family of the 12 who were killed in this really want the focus to remain on those victims.

12 people killed in the simple act of going to the movies. but sometimes the real super heros aren't on the big screen. 26-year-old john blunk wanted to become a navy s.e.a.l., but his life ended in the line of fire right at home. >> what a great hero he is. and like he provided me the opportunity to survive. >> reporter: matt mcquinn took a bullet shielding his girlfriend and her brother. alexander teves was hit as he pushed his gir friend out of the way. and jesse childress died trying to save a colleague. friday was alec sullivan's 27th birthday. today would have been his one year wedding anniversary. meantime veronica moser's mother was still in critical condition when she was finally told she'll never see the 6-year-old who loved to play dress up. alexander was secretly engaged to his girl friend. and last night was honored high

school his high school. >> on the baseball team, had more friends than anybody i've ever known. >> jessica ghawi was an aspiring sports reporter. rebecca wingo was a working mom. and john thomas larimer, the youngest of five siblings. >> a valued member of our navy team and an extremely dedicated sailor. >> and 51-year-old gordon was a devoted father at the movie with his two teenagers. 12 lives lost to their loved ones and the world. and as part of this effort to make sure that the focus does remain on the victims, the president when he met with people members yesterday reassured them that he won't be using the suspect's name at all. now today we did see some tweets from at least one family

spokesperson, a lot of the family members were in the court today, and the one thing that we got from this family spokes person is he said that the suspect is a very smart guy and he thought, quote, working the system. >> kristen dahlgren, thank you so much for keeping all this in perspective. tonight on "hardball," chris matthews will talk to corbin dates who was inside that theater when the gunman opened fire. that is tonight 7:00 eastern right here on msnbc. turning to poll tick, mitt romney setting off this week on his first foreign trip since clinching the republican nomination. the high proceed pile journey is meant to highlight differences with president barack obama. romney will start his trip in the united kingdom where he will meet david cameron as well as former government officials like tony blair. he's also planning to attend friday's olympic opening ceremonies from london. romney sets off for israel where he will be meeting with n

netanyahu and delivering one public speech and will have a two day stop in poland where elvis it with polish leadership and meeting with the former president there. joined now by mark murray for more on what this this trip could mean for the romney campaign. this seems to be a fairly different trip than the one president obama, then candidate obama, made four years ago in 2008. >> well, craig, one thing it's not as long as hitting as many countries. four years a go president obama went to iraq, afghanistan, jord jordan, germany, france, england. romney is focussing on three countries so he's minimizing the risk involved. it isn't as quite a high wire trip act that president obama ended up having four years ago. and it is worth noting that two of these countries where mitt romney will be visiting have very conservative governments that will probably make him feel quite at home. >> a number of advantages to

this trip, but there are also some dangers for mitt romney, as well. what are some of the potential dangers? >> well, one is you never want to have a gaffe. he'll have two high profile speeches and i know that four years ago when we were covering barack obama's big trip to the middle east and to europe, everyone was waiting to see if this person who a lot of people said didn't have a lot of foreign policy experience would make a mistake. he didn't. he went on to win the presidency. i think people are looking for the same thing from mitt romney. this trip allows him to build on his credentials. you look at almost every poll out there and it shows he's trailing when it comes to foreign policy. the one thing i'm actually looking for to see if he kind of creates any daylight between the policies he wants to pursue and the george w. bush policies from 2001 to 2008. it will be interesting to see if there is any daylight there. >> let's play veepstakes here. i don't like you to have you on television for any stretch of

time without talking about the potential vp nominee could be. let's delegate talk about kelly ayot ayotte. how serious of a contender is she? >> well, if you're going to put one woman of a female candidate on that person of like five or six names, she's probably that person. she was campaigning with mitt romney last friday when he was in new hampshire. so it is worth note has gone she was by his side. i'm not sure she's necessarily top tier for reducing this to four or five names, but if you include to five, six, seven names, her name is definitely on that list. >> she's only been senator correct me he if i'm wrong two years or around two years? >> actually less than that. so she would actually help him on the female front, allowing perhaps mitt romney to erase that gender gap. but on the same front, she would draw comparisons to sarah palin who was less than two years as

alaska's governor before being picked by john mccain. >> thank you, sir, always a pleasure. coming up next, salmonella fears sparking a massive ground beef recall. we'll have details on who is affected. we'll tell you whether you need to check your beef. that's in our around the news nation. first, there's a lot going on today and there are just a few things we thought you should know. top aide to secretary of state hillary clinton and wife of disgraced former new york congressman anthony wiener is now reportedly under police protection. she was threatened by a new jersey man after michele bachmann accused her of having ties to the muslim brotherhood. bachmann's remarks have since widely been condemned by many including top republicans. vogue editor and movie mogul hosting a big fund-raiser for barack obama. they hosted one last year in new york. guest list you included gwyneth

paltrow, alicia keys. and then a conference call with reporters in just the past hour, michelle obama talked about leading the u.s. delegation to the london olympics. >> leading our nation's delegation and travel to go london is truly a dream come true. if anybody had asked me when i was 10 or 11 or 20 or actually 40 whether i would be doing this, i would have said not. >> the first lady will be on hand for the opening ceremonies, that's of course friday night. and those are just a few of the things we thought you should know. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios

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devry university, proud to support the education this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state.

one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. stayfocus lolo, focus.ya. let's do this. i am from baltimore. south carolina... bloomington, california... austin, texas... we are all here to represent the country we love. this is for everyone back home. it's go time. across america, we're all committed to team usa. syria issued a warning about its chemical weapons today. the government of assad said while it would not use chemical

weapons on its own citizen, it would employ them in the case of external attack. this is the first time assad has openly admitted to having such weapons. that announcement comes after a weekend of heavy fighting especially in the two largest cities. following the developments from cairo for us, first of all, eam eamon, the government saying it would not use these weapons against its opwn people, but in the case of a foreign attack. this is the first admission that they even have weapons of mass deconstruction. what's the intent of making this announcement? >> reporter: well, no doubt about it, it has a huge component as a deterrent to countries that were perhaps thinking of engaging syria militarily from outside. and that really is directed more towards the united nations. it was a message saying we wouldn't use it against our own people, but if the united

nations or let's say a coalition of countries decides to do some kind of intervention to force out the president, that syria has these weapons and more importantly, we would have the right to defend ourselves. so it was a very takes set threat, if you will, against any country thinking about doing any kind of military activity. >> what's the latest on the fighting there especially damascus? >> reporter: the past week has been one of the deadliest weeks since this conflict began. opposition activists are saying more than 1200 people have died in the last seven days. halv that was exacerbated by a bold attack last wednesday that killed the minister of defense and other securities officials. since then, the opposition rebels have been feeling emboldened by that, they've started to try to take control of certain districts within the capital, but syrian military has fought back and shown images of the syrian military in control of some of those neighbored hoods reportedly under rebel

attacks as of last week. but it's also expanding in places as you mentioned syria's second largest city, a commercial hub. they've seen intense fighting there, as well. >> and i did want to ask you, you have been in the unique position to sort of watch the transformation of the free syrian army, as well. early on, it really didn't seem like a rag tag bunch. it seems as if they have their stuff together. have they gotten markedly better or is it just me? >> reporter: no doubt that over the course of the last 17 months, the opposition in general both politically and may militarily have changed. some have said they've gotten more embolden ed. as you mentioned, when it began, these were peaceful protesters.

but in the face of the brutal crackdo crackdown, we saw defections from the military but no doubt that the actual composition of the rebels that have joined them has changed over times in recent days. it they've become more sophisticated and with the help of the neighbors countries now giving weapons and perhaps nonlethal weapons, there's no doubt the free syrian army has grown more sophisticated and more importantly as they take on the syrian military and acquire some of their military as we've seen, they have now been able to bring weapons from inside the syrian military in to the fold of the opposition including tanks and other heavy weapons. >> be safe, my friend, thank you. back here, a deadly truck accident in texas tops our look at stories around the news nation today. at least 14 people were killed when a pick july truck blew a tire and slammed into a couple ofjuly truck blew a tire and slammed into a couple of trees. a local official said at least 23 people were crammed inside the truck's cab and bed including two young children who

are among the dead there. at least nine others were hurt in the crash. the world's largest aids conference is under way in washington, d.c. more than 20,000 scientists, people living with hiv and policymakers are all meeting this week to talk about how to turn scientific advances into practical protection. about 50,000 americans become infected with hiv every year. hillary clinton will, bill gates and south carolina senator lindsey graham were among those speaking at the conference today.south carolina senator li graham were among those speaking at the conference today. >> and three been a recall of beef. the beef was produced at a plant in pennsylvania and has been linked to a salmonella outbreak that's made at least 33 sick so far. while the beef is no longer being sold in stores, customers should check their ground beef for use or sell by dates between may 29th and june 16th. up next in our gut check, we'd love to hear your thoughts on the penn state sanctions

handed down by the ncaa today. do you think they were appropriate or do you think of along the lines of those who think the ncaa went too far? you can june the news nation on facebook. facebook.com/newsnation. man: there's a cattle guard, take a right. do you have any idea where you're going ? wherever the wind takes me. this is so off course. nature can surprise you sometimes... next time, you drive. next time, signal your turn. ...that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you.

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time for our daily tradition here, the gut check p . we told you about the sanctions imposed on penn state. among them, a $60 million fine, four year ban on postseason bowl appearances, a loss of ten football scholarships for four year, and penn state's victories for the past 14 years have been wiped out. joe paterno technically no learning the winningest football coach in college history. so what does your gut tell you? do you think the sanctions are too harsh, not harsh enough, or

are they appropriate? go to facebook.com to vote. meanwhile, we have an update on our recent gut check about that school bus monitor shown being bullied by middle school students. that video of course went viral. you remember her. it happened on the last day of school before summer vacation. now that fund-raising drive for the bus monitor, it's ended. officials say it raised more than $703,000. that does to this edition of news nation. the cycle is up next. this happy couple used capital one venture miles for their "destination wedding." double miles you can "actually" use. but with those single mile travel cards... [ bridesmaid ] blacked out... but i'm a bridesmaid. oh! "x" marks the spot she'll never sit. but i bought a dress! a toast... ...to the capital one venture card. fly any airline, any flight, anytime. double miles you can actually use.

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