good morning. gun safety advocates are putting on a full court press from ads to speeches, trying to get support for new gun laws. mayors against illegal guns, the group backed by new york city mayor michael bloomberg, will unveil a new scoring system for lawmakers, similar to what the nra does right now. a new ad is specifically targeting pat toomey, the conservative senator working with democrats on a background checks deal. >> senator toomey understands how important that change is. >> i'm in favor of making changes to a background system. >> in pennsylvania, almost 90% of us support comprehensive background checks. call senator toomey, tell him it's time to take pennsylvania's solutions to washington. newtown families will be on capitol hill today lobbying lawmakers. they flew to d.c. aboard air force one with the president after he delivered a speech in connecticut. he said congress should put politics aside and do what's right. >> connecticut, this is not about me.

this is not about politics. this is about doing the right thing for all the families who are here that have been torn apart by gun violence. it's about them, and all the families going forward, so we can prevent this from happening again. >> but resistance to even having a vote is growing. now mitch mcconnell will join 13 other senators who have pledged to filibuster. i want to bring in nbc news politics producer casey hunt and perry bacon, political editor for the grio.com and msnbc contributor as well. casey, start with you. between bloomberg's ads as we were mentioning, that scoring system, and the families lobbying for the next few days, i know that you're going to be talking with the newtown parents. what are you hearing about what the families are doing today? >> they're going to spend about three days up here on the hill, all the way through thursday, trying to talk to members and really bring home the emotional toll that gun violence takes, something that a lot of lawmakers up here feel have been lost in the wake of newtown,

that so much time has passed, people are starting to forget just how heart-breaking this tragedy was. the other question up here, of course, is how senator harry reid, the majority leader, is going to proceed on gun legislation. i just spoke with some of his top aides and they say that he's going to decide by the end of the day how to proceed. so senators joe manchin and pat toomey, who have been talking about a compromise, they really have until the end of the day to try to hammer something out. if reid decides to go forward in a certain way, we could see a vote on thursday. otherwise, we might have to wait into next week. and we're also waiting to see how republicans are going to conduct that filibuster. they haven't said whether or not they're going to stand on the floor like rand paul did on drones, but they haven't eliminated that possibility. so we could see that in the coming days. >> a lot of moving parts there. perry, as casey was mentioning, we do have that issue of the republicans trying to filibuster, that group of 13. take a listen to what was said here by harry reid.

>> those have been yelling the most for this free and open debate are the people sent me a letter saying we're going to filibuster everything that relates to guns. talk about speaking out of both sides of their mouth. this is the poster child of that. >> okay. perry, the president speaking in connecticut, straight on on that very issue of coming up, going straight on against the issue of the filibuster. how do you see harry reid dealing with this? >> you're seeing a few republicans, lindsey graham, john mccain and a handful of others saying we don't want to filibuster a gun control bill the way that we're talking about doing that right now. so it's possible that harry reid could bring a vote, a bill to the floor, in which five republicans join the 55 democrats and say we're going to move this forward, and at that point, you only need 51 votes to actually pass the bill. so harry reid could decide to scrap this kind of bipartisan negotiation and just go forward with a bill and still have it pass through the senate. but if it passes with only 51 or

55 votes, it will be hard to get through the house, which is controlled by republicans and republicans in the house have said so far they won't back any kind of gun control measures. >> greg sargent in today's "washington post" suggests republicans just aren't scared they're going against public opinion on guns because most people think background checks are already the law. he writes this, quote, it's also my sense that republicans don't view gun violence as a motivator of voting, no matter how broad the support is for the proposed response to it, defending the second amendment is a winner among republican based voters, even if the great majority of them support expanded background checks, end quote. so how do gun control advocates overcome this thought process, this disconnect? >> what they've been trying to do is really convince lawmakers that this issue has so shifted and that the support is there to the extent that they'll actually ultimately be punished if they vote against it. for somebody like pat toomey, he's going to face re-election in 2016, there are a lot of

places in pennsylvania's suburbs outside philadelphia that are swing areas that will matter for his re-election, where people really care about this issue. so their challenge is proving to people that they should be just as afraid of voting against this as they should be of voting for it. >> perry, talk about that. pat toomey, here he's the one republican working with democrats right now, and with that ad running, you know, instead of encouraging him to vote for background checks, could it instead turn him against it if people in his district believe he's somehow beholden to mayor bloomberg here? >> i don't think, for pat toomey, for mark kirk of illinois and susan collins of maine, there are a few democrats who are in states obama won, we call them blue states. for those democrats the ads might really work. what you have seen is the ads have not really worked in louisiana, in arkansas, in sort of red states where people there do not like mayor bloomberg and senators in those states, mark pryor being among them, from arkansas, has said explicitly i'm not taking advice about how to do things in my district from the mayor of new york. so i'm not sure his rating

system, mayor bloomberg has not moved this issue a lot, particularly in the red states where democrats need votes, because he doesn't have a lot of influence in those places. >> casey, perry, stand by. want to bring in democratic congresswoman rosa delauro of connecticut. she was at the president's speech yesterday and flew back to washington aboard air force one with the president and the newtown families. good to see you here, congresswoman. still very emotional to hear them, you know this, just to hear them speak. want to play a clip from nicole hockley, who introduced president obama. >> for days after dylan was killed, i was so filled with grief i felt unable to move. paralyzed from shock, hollow and empty from the sorrow of losing my precious boy, and there are still many days when i feel like that. but though sometimes the waves of sadness are so great they threaten drown me, i stand before you now and ask you to stand with me. >> representative, did you get a

chance to speak with some of the families about their goals in this process? >> yes, i did. and i have listened to nicole on a number of occasions, including last week, where the governor of connecticut signed historic gun prevention violence legislation, and it is always poignant and just heartwrenching to listen to these parents, but they show unbelievable courage and strength and take this unspeakable tragedy and have turned it into a mission on behalf of their murdered children. >> is there a fear that some of them will be seen, these families, as being used as political props throughout the process? >> no. no. this is so heartfelt, you must listen to them. look, there is nothing that we

can do that will repair the hole in their heart, that will always be there. what we can demonstrate is what the president talked about in newtown and he spoke about again yesterday, and that is are we doing enough to protect our children. and the answer to that is no. and that must change. and he spoke about change again yesterday, and that we have to live up to the promises that we have made, and we need to not walk away from these families, but demonstrate to them that while their loss is almost unbearable, that we have it within our power to help to make a difference. and that is what he's asking us to do. that is what these families are asking us to do. we owe them a vote. >> representative, there's a new poll that shows just 45% approve of the way the president is handling the gun issue. should he be doing more arm twisting, maybe fewer speeches, or is this the right approach,

the one that -- >> let's get to the statistic that makes a difference. 90% of the people in this great nation have said that they support a background check. they support it. you know, we don't get too many 90% affirmatives in the congress. what is the risk involved? that is the statistic that is critically important. let's not talk about politics. let's talk about what is the right thing to do. the right thing to do, the right thing to do is to do what 90% of the people in this great nation want us to do, and that is to put in place background checks, and we have a united states senate today, a small group of people who are unwilling to even bring the piece of legislation to the floor to have a vote on it. now, does that fly in the face. that's the question that should be asked. what are they doing? >> what more might the president

be able to do to effect this 45% number we're looking at? >> the president is doing everything he can do. i think one -- i think if we examine the 45%, i think what they're saying is that the president -- the president is being stopped from doing what he wants to do by this small minority in the senate that says we can't even bring this up for a vote. keep in mind, 90% of the public. that is what the critical issue is. and you know, you tell me, what is the risk involved, if 90% of the people say they want this to happen? where is the courage? where is the strength? quite frankly, it's almost a no-brainer with 90% support. >> congresswoman delauro of connecticut, thank you so much for spending time with us today. we go straight to the senate floor and speaking of what the congresswoman was talking about, they deserve a vote, a sign there that harry reid has behind him. let's take a listen to what he's saying. >> -- family that loved her.

noah, jack. we have a responsibility to safeguard these little kids, and unless we do something more than what's the law today, we have failed. it's long past time for a thoughtful examination of the lax laws and culture of violence that put newtown and aurora, oak creek and carson city, nevada on the map for such a devastating reason. i only hope my republican colleagues will allow us to have that conversation. mr. president, i hope -- >> harry reid there on the senate floor speaking right now. casey hunt still with us as well as perry bacon. casey, the question is will a vote happen and if so, when? >> harry reid is trying to decide that right now, and republicans can stand in the way of that. they face some practical limitations. if you'll remember, rand paul had to step off the floor after his filibuster because he needed

to use the restroom. so they'll face similar rules this time if they're going to stand in the way of it, they're going to have a limited way of doing so. reid could handle it in a way if they get a compromise that puts this off until monday, that delay would actually probably be a good thing for the bill's prospects. he could also decide to go forward with what he has and that's what even senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, the top republicans in the senate, has also threatened to filibuster. if he did that, we could see a vote as early as thursday. >> okay. that's the timing for us. perry, want to move to you. putting the guns issue in perspective, the national journal today writing this, why gay marriage is getting political traction and why gun control isn't. the generation gap that's driving same sex marriage here doesn't exist in the debate over guns. when you consider that, is that why we're now seeing senate democrats come out in support of same sex marriage? >> i think the difference here is most people view gay marriage issue where it's kind of the inevitable. you keep hearing that word. it's inevitable gay marriage

will be legal and therefore, i must accept it even if i'm a republican on some level, like rob portman. i don't think people view gun control in the same way. it's not clear that an assault weapons ban or high capacity ban or background checks ban is inevitable. also, you're seeing in a lot of places, most democrats, three-fourths of democrats are for gay marriage now. so if you're a democratic senator, you're pretty out of step if you're not for it versus gun control doesn't break down exactly the same way, particularly among republicans. lot of republicans not sure about gun control or opposed to it. a lot of democrats in states like louisiana, not as pro-gun control maybe as democrats would like them to be. >> casey, on that note, senator tim johnson the latest senate democrat to support same sex marriage. now mary landrieu, joe manchin and mark pryor, the holdouts right now. when you look at the political landscape, will they evolve, too, or is the political risk in their specific cases too high? >> for pryor and landrieu the political risk is pretty immediate. that's probably the issue for them. they will face challenges coming

up in 2014. otherwise, looking forward, i have been talking to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on this issue. among democrats, they really are at the point where they think that this is going to become a problem if you are not for it and you're in the democratic party. they really do see the winds shifting to the point that people will be running against folks who don't support gay marriage in the party. >> all right. great conversation today. thank you so much. north korea's urging foreign tourists and companies in south korea to evacuate because it says the two countries are headed for nuclear war. analysts say a direct attack on seoul is very unlikely. japan is not taking the north's threats lightly, though. that country rolled out several patriot missile launchers in and around tokyo. a live report from seoul later this hour. t color just seem to fade away...? now start vibrant, stay vibrant! new vidal sassoon pro series has an exclusive hydrablock system that helps fight fade out -- for up to 8 weeks. vidal sassoon pro series. salon genius. affordable for all.

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alabama becomes the latest state to toughen its abortion laws when governor bentley signs a bill this morning requiring abortion clinics to use doctors with admitting privileges at local hospitals. alabama joins six other states that have adopted similar laws. legislation has led to the closing of abortion clinics in those states. it's part of a growing movement to increase restrictions on a woman's right to choose. joining me now is jeff calally, health writer for msnbc.com who just wrote about this very issue. great to see you here. last year alone, in your article, you say 19 states passing 43 laws making abortions more difficult and costly, only second to the year of 2011. what's the anti-abortion supporter's agenda? what's the strategy? >> i think the strategy that's been so successful in the past couple of years is to chip away incrementally at abortion access. we know that roe v wade protects a woman's right to choose until

the fetus is viable. what the states are doing is throwing up as many barriers as they can, requiring doctors who have admitting privileges to hospitals, requiring them to use medically unnecessary ultrasound exams just to show women pictures, forcing them to share inaccurate medical information, saying that abortion may raise your risk of breast cancer even though that's been thoroughly debunked. >> but the barrage, how does that work, because then you have the states having to defend these laws if they'd like to, spending millions of dollars. what's the end goal here? >> actually, these incremental attacks are legally pretty sound, on the basis of a 1992 decision, k.c. versus planned parenthood, the supreme court held though a state cannot reverse a woman's right to abortion, the states can regulate abortion so they are taking advantage of that loophole to just put as many barriers in place as possible. that's been a very successful strategy. what we've seen in the past month is a couple of states saying that's for sissies.

we want to go all the way, we want to pass an outright ban on abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected. >> that's north dakota, their governor recently signing a bill that outlaws abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be heard. they're not the first to do so. i think you're also saying is it arkansas? >> arkansas did the same thing just weeks earlier. so in the course of one month, we've got two states -- >> but abortion foes may not like this type of law. it's ironic. >> that's what i found in my reporting, it's very interesting, there's a real divide within the pro-life community. people who have been on the moderate end advocating these incremental restrictions are very worried that by shooting the moon, by saying we're going to outlaw all abortion, even though it's clearly unconstitutional, we're going to invite the courts to strike that down so that we can appeal their decisions and get a hearing at the supreme court. they're hoping that this moon shot is going to overturn roe v

wade and the more moderate elements of the pro-choice movement say that is a bad idea, we could lose a lot more than we gain, we could spend years in court, waste a boatload of money -- >> the opposite of what they want. >> end up in a weaker position than today. >> how does 2013 and '14 look in terms of law since you're counting those? >> i don't think we need to worry about these moon shot laws. we're going to see more heartbeat legislation coming up. kansas is about to consider a bill when the legislature comes back in may. i don't think those are going anywhere but i think we can count on a continuation of this trend toward incremental restrictions that make it harder for women to exercise their constitutional right. >> thank you so much, geoff. you can get the entire article on our web page. a funeral will be held on april 17th for former british prime minister, margaret thatcher. queen elizabeth will be among the guests paying their last respects. the coffin will lie overnight at the houses of parliament before

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to politics now, where senator marco rubio is fuming about beyonce and jay-z's trip to cuba, saying the trip was used for propaganda purposes by the cuban regime. may have been licensed by the treasury department. he's asking the obama administration to explain how trips like this follow the law. arkansas state senate approved a bill that would randomly drug test people who get unemployment benefits. the bill still has to pass the house. the state's governor said it may violate federal law. in louisiana, bobby jindal is giving up his plan to eliminate state income tax. it would have jacked up the sales tax in louisiana to make up for lost revenue. right now, voters in illinois are picking the replace iment f jesse jackson junior. robin kelly is favored against paul mckinley, ex-con turned

activist. when it comes to voting, the average african-american voter waited 23 minutes to vote, according to a new study. hispanics waited 19 minutes and whites waited 12. paul ryan pulled in $600,000 in the first quarter, including a hefty check from condoleezza rice. we don't know what his future plans are, but he has about a million and a half cash on hand right now. former president bill clinton is now on twitter thanks to stephen colbert. >> do you tweet? >> no. i think i'm so sort of insecure, like, you know, what if you tweet and nobody tweets back. >> i took the liberty of opening you a twitter account. >> now, president clinton was taken. william jefferson clinton was taken. but prezbillyjeff was available. >> clinton's first tweet that colbert typed, just spent amazing time with colbert.

is he sane? he is cool. as we were talking about in the story before, the republican paul mckinley, ex-con turned communist activist going up against democrat and former state lawmaker robin kelly. community activist. that's right. so again, paul mckinley, ex-con turned community activist going up against a democrat and former state lawmaker, robin kelly. we'll be right back. i should be arrested for crimes against potted plant kind.

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that feeds them for up to six months. you get bigger, healthier plants, guaranteed. who's got two green thumbs thanks to miracle-gro? ah, this gal. boom! with the right soil, everyone grows with miracle-gro. the next ten weeks could be a make or break period for president obama as the hill describes it. two key presidential priorities, gun control, immigration reform, are headed for action in the senate. the president will also unveil his new budget tomorrow. but time is ticking before they hit a wall. congress shifting to the fight over the debt ceiling. just moments ago, majority leader harry reid pressured republicans to back off their threat to a filibuster, a package of gun control laws. >> we have a responsibility to safeguard these little kids, and unless we do something more than what's the law today, we have

failed. i hope republicans will stop trying to shut down debate and start engaging on the tough issues we were sent to washington to tackle. >> let's bring in democratic strategist emily sussman and republican strategist and senior advisor to speaker john boehner, david winston. good day to both of you. emily, is it ten weeks? >> well, i think what we have right now is truly an unprecedented situation when we look at a lame duck. if it is ten weeks. the president has unveiled his own plan to go forward, pushing his own agenda, his legislative agenda, first it was obama for america, now it's organizing for action. so he has an army of people continuing through the country to push on his issues. on the other hand, we also have a republican leadership in the house and republicans in the senate who seem more interested in stopping the president's agenda, stopping any democratic agenda, than they are on law making. if you're not even going to bring -- if you are talking about filibustering, not even

bringing debate to the floor on an issue that 90% of the american people support, what are you doing? >> so that could get in the way of the ten weeks is what you're saying right now. you're questioning the efficacy of that. david, in order to make the ten week time frame, there is that. there's also immigration reform needs to get done by the end of june, as the hill was noting. how do you see things going to make that ten-week goal if it's possible? >> well, look, i think the problem the president has is not on the number one issue the country's concerned about, and republicans in the congress are sort of focusing on the economy. i mean, the question that existed in 2010 is still very much present, that's where are the jobs. when you take a look at that jobs report last week, 88,000 jobs, that was way under what people thought and half a million people leaving the work force. so what i think you see is a different agenda. the president wants to go off and do gun control and things like that, whereas republicans want to focus on the economy and start creating some jobs here so we can get this economy moving again. >> you know, emily, a new poll finds president obama's approval rating stands at 51% right now,

but on his key agenda items, he's below 50%. gun policy, 45%. immigration reform, 44%. handling of the deficit, 38%. when you look at these numbers, does he need to get more involved, like some of his republican critics are saying? has he shown enough leadership in the process here? >> what the american people want to see is results. i think the difference that we're seeing in the second administration versus the first administration is in the first administration, there was the desire to go after one big issue at a time. now that we've come into the second administration, laying out the issue of priorities and pushing them all forward at the same time so the budget is coming out this week. in addition to immigration and gun violence prevention. so moving all of the issues at the same time. the only way you can really do that is if you have the support of the people behind you. so i think that's a piece of what, you know, of what the president's group is trying to do is turning the poll numbers into actual voices so it's not just a couple of voices in washington that are dominating the conversation, but you hear

from a vast variety of voices across the country. >> trying to turn those voices, you're saying. david, you know, the president, does he risk being too out front on some of these issues, if it has his fingerprints on it, basically, the republican house is going to have nothing to do with it? >> again, i go back to, look, presidents have a relevance in terms of their second term when they're dealing with the issues that the country are concerned about. his problem right now and what he's running into is he's off on other issues as opposed to the key central issue. look, there's plenty of agreement in terms of things, in terms of how we get jobs going again, potentially, if he's willing to focus on it. the problem is he's talking about completely other things. the pipeline, if he simply agreed to that, that's 60,000 jobs right there. let's get on the topic that the country's concerned about. if he wants to stay relevant, that's the way he can do it. >> what about immigration for republicans? if that doesn't get going and that doesn't get passed by june, does that hurt republicans more, david? >> look, i think ultimately there's going to be agreement on immigration. will it happen in the next two to four weeks, doubtful, but is

it going to happen, i think there's a general consensus in this city which you don't see very often that we have to come up with something and move that issue forward. i see that occurring. whether it's going to be in a four week time frame, ten week, 12 week, i don't think that's particularly clear but it will happen, i think. >> win or lose, does the president win here on immigration? >> on immigration? the president does need to keep going out to the people and he needs to get the voices in there. that is how he wins. >> emily and david, thank you both so much. >> thank you. wacky spring weather across the country today. summer-like temperatures in the east, tornado threat in the midwest and snow in colorado to boot. that's where we find the weather channel's mike seidel. mike? >> reporter: good morning, richard. it sure doesn't look like spring out here on the front range. in denver, we went from spring to winter in a matter of hours last night after dinnertime. we were in the low 70s, three hours later in the mid 30s with snow and thunder and blowing dust. right now, 15 with a wind chill of five below zero.

we're only three degrees from the record low for april 9th. you can see the snow and the wind and you can see i-70 behind me which is still open. we've had several storms this winter where they shut i-70 from here to airport road all the way to the kansas line, about 155 miles. so far, so good. i-70 and i-75 both major interstates here in colorado are open. of course, with this kind of condition, nobody is doing the speed limit or at least most people are driving probably under the speed limit here, at least on the east side of denver. most schools were closed today. at nearby denver international airport, they canceled about 300 flights. mostly the commuter airlines. still, check ahead. no delays listed on the faa website but there will be de-icing through the afternoon. it will be cold tonight as the snow winds down. we're looking for a total here of five to eight inches of snow. nowhere near a top ten snowfall for april. and as you go north and east of here, they may actually get 15 to 20 inches of snow parts of wyoming, some of the mountainous

areas towards rapid city. and we've got warnings out as far east as minneapolis-st. paul, snow for the twin cities tomorrow, tomorrow night, the thursday morning rush hour in minneapolis will be dicey. it will warm up here again by the weekend, back in the 60s in denver. back to you. >> appreciate all of that. checking the news feed this morning. wildfires are threatening about 100 homes in ventura county, california. overnight evacuation order has been lifted this morning but the fire is still not contained. sprawling across some 170 acres. at least two homes were destroyed but no one was hurt. a connecticut mom is accusing a man dressed in an unsanctioned cookie monster costume of pushing her 2-year-old son, saying after her little boy posed for a picture with him in times square, the man in the cookie costume became belligerent when her husband went to get money for a tip. now she says her son is afraid of the sesame favorite. >> why don't you like cookie monster?

>> because cookie monster gave me boo-boo. >> the man is facing child endangerment charges and is out on $1,000 bail. several women took off their shirts in protest at a trade fair in germany yesterday in front of vladimir putin and angela merkel. putin gave a thumbs-up and later told a press conference he liked it. the women were part of a feminist group famous for these kind of protests. the louisville cardinals are the ncaa men's basketball champions. there's next year i guess for the michigan wolverines. kevin ware helped cut down the net a little more than a week after breaking his leg in the regional final. coach rick pettino becomes the first coach to win two titles at two different schools. louisville has a chance at another title tonight when its women's team takes on uconn. jc penney has fired ron johnson. mandy drury is here with what's

moving your money. meet the new boss, same as the old boss. >> absolutely right. you know what, ron johnson is only out midway through the major overhaul of the stores. we've got mike olman rejoining us, the ceo and he's got to kind of work out real fast whether or not to press on with or roll back ron johnson's changes and something does need to be done fast, because this company is burning through cash, it's losing customers and you know what, not a lot of retailers in the past have been able to rebound from such sales decline. i think they've been as deep as 25% under johnson's first year at the helm. so ullman has to make decisions not just on that but whether or not to also keep johnson's management team and i guess you could also say the choice of him in itself shows the challenge of filling that top job because a number of other retail ceos have said they would be unwilling to take on that job given the size of the company's problems right now. >> that's a tough job. let's talk car loans. now up to eight years, you can get a duration of? >> yeah. you know, this is kind of a new trend in the u.s. auto industry.

in the final quarter of last year, apparently the average term of a new car loan stretched out to 65 months, that's the longest ever, and 17% of all new car loans in the past quarter were between 73 and 84 months. there are even a few thrown in there as long as 97 months. you know what, only four years ago, about 11% of loans fell into that category. so you've got basically rising new car prices, you've got competition among lenders to attract borrowers and that is one of the reasons that's pushing those loans to those longer terms. i guess the longer terms are a way to attract buyers. who doesn't want a longer term and longer time to pay off your loan, right? >> we could pay for half a house in some of those situations in terms of the term of those loans. mandy, thanks a lot. >> thank you. i'm sure many of you are aware it's allergy season. the asthma analogy foundation of america ranked the worst cities for allergy sufferers and the southeast dominates.

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ally bank. your money needs an ally. president obama has officially declared today national equal pay day, the date symbolically marks how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned the previous year. the white house saying women who make up nearly half our nation's work force face a pay gap that means they earn 23% less on average than men do. but a new survey shows women aren't making their case in the workplace. the i-village study found only 35% of women surveyed have ever asked for a raise, less than one in five have ever asked for a promotion. joined by kelly walsh, chief correspondent for i-village and tenesha white, senior finance editor at "essence" magazine. why aren't women demanding more money? we look at these stats and all of us said wow. >> we were talking about it, i

was really surprised. then when you look deeper down into the numbers, many women were saying when you ask them how do you define career success, 91% of the women in our survey defined it as job security. so if you have women feeling like i'm just happy i have a job, they're worried that if they go to the boss and say i want a raise, i want a promotion, i even want a meeting, they might be worried it about rock the boat and they will lose their job. we have to get the message out that that's not the case but i think too many women feel if they ask for more, they could be penalized. >> why do they feel like that particular dynamic you just described, why is it not moving forward to the hey, give me a promotion, hey, up my pay? >> but i do think if a woman is worried, you know, look, it's taken me a long time, it is a hard thing to do for many of us, i think, because sometimes you think i want my boss to like me, i want to do a good job. somehow we sort of have that training if i work really hard i'll be rewarded. no. you also have to be an advocate for yourself. i think, a, the mindset we all have year after year but i also

think if you're worried, if you're worried about the job and you need the job, 72% of women in our survey are making 50% to 100% of the family's household income. this isn't just shopping money for families. this is real money. if they're not advocating for themselves, they're not getting as much money as they could have for their household. >> which means they need to work longer and harder. i want to show you this number here. the survey also found only 17% here of women had ever asked for a one-on-one meeting with their boss, also 17% saying they weren't good at selling themselves on the job. why aren't more women taking the initiative to advocate for themselves? >> i think it goes really back to the value proposition and women just not fully understanding what it is that they fully bring to the table. i think sometimes we think well, if i do a good job, head down, making sure that i come in and i'm consistent every day, the boss is going to come to me. i'm here to tell the ladies of the world those days are over. you really do have to step up and advocate for yourself and i

always tell the "essence" reader if you don't ask for the ask, you don't get the get. >> what's the first step? >> the first step really is making sure that the boss knows what you're doing. you have to be checking in. maybe it is a quarterly meeting, maybe it is that one-on-one meeting but making sure you say to the boss hey, i'm working on this project, this is how it's adding value to the company, i'm making money for the company, i'm saving money for the company. because at the end of the day, it's about a bottom line for companies. >> part of this, kelly, you have been on this program discussing the issue of sheryl sandberg, her book "leaning in." are women leaning in enough? >> my headline i felt like after looking at the result is sheryl sandberg at least on this point is partly right. i know she's been heavily criticized but she seems right when it comes to women may not be leaning in enough when it comes to managing their own careers. we're not talking about if a woman doesn't want to become a ceo or get the corner office. we're just talking about, again,

pitching yourself to your boss for that meeting, going in and asking for a raise, going and asking for a promotion. also, it found less than 30% of women even ask for additional responsibilities or additional training to get the skills. it's hard to know why. another number, under 10% are asking for some type of mentor and many of us can benefit from reaching out and working with other women who can lead us forward. >> compelling data for a great conversation. another number that came from it, 89% of women surveyed define career success as flexibility, work/life balance. how does that work into this? >> i really think it does take a big part of it. i thought it was really interesting that that came up, that over 90% really thought work/life balance was an important thing because many of us are mothers, more than half of us in the united states are mothers and we are wanting to make sure even when you're not a mother that you still have life outside of the workplace. because sometimes it's not enough to do 10:00 to 6:00 or 9:00 to 5:00. others of us have lives and we

really want to enjoy them. >> something what you just made me think of, we're not really clear how many of these women who don't ask for the raise or the promotion or the meeting, how many of them are feeling like i have such a good deal, in terms of work/life balance. i may work part-time, i may have flexible hours. so those are other benefits that might not have a dollar sign attached to them, that they're saying this really works for me and that's why i'm not asking for a raise or, you know, a promotion. i think that is important. women may be factoring in other benefits in their life as opposed -- >> tangibles for them. >> even if that's the case, you're not ready for the promotion or not interested in the promotion, you have to make sure that you ask for those things. whether it's more vacation time, whether it's working from home, maybe i want to share a job, you have to make sure that you're asking. that's so important. and get those sponsors and those mentors in your pocket, because you need them. >> good advice for everybody. again, that research is on ivillage's website. thank you both so much. great conversation. today's tweet of the day

comes from attorney and author reva martin saying quote, hey, ladies, don't forget, you're red today. it's equal pay day and we deserve to be paid equal wages. ♪ [ man ] excuse me miss. [ gasps ] this fiber one 90 calorie brownie has all the deliciousness you desire. the brownie of your dreams is now deliciously real.

today, north korea's state tv warned foreign tourists and companies to evacuate south korea, saying the two countries were on the verge of nuclear war. we are following the latest developments from the south korea capital of seoul. south koreans still seem to be shrugging this off, these warnings. is it largely because the north does not show any indication of yet of mobilizing their one million man army? >> reporter: hi, richard. well, it has something to do with that. south koreans are concerned but you know, they tend to internalize their troubles. it's very hard to get them to talk about the north or the current threat. they have been living under a threat of war for some 60 years, of course, since the korean war

ended and remember, almost two million koreans died in that war. we have spoken to a psychologist here who has told us that there's a defense mechanism that the koreans use that allows them actually to kind of cast out any thoughts about the north or about the border which we know is bristling with mines and weapons and it's only some 30 miles away from here. we also spent some time earlier with university students and they are actually more concerned about their upcoming exams than about any nuclear conflict. one sophomore told me that she's so used to hearing these threats coming from the kim regime that she's numb to it. you hear that word numb a lot. another said look, we follow the news, radio, tv, online, there is no sign of an imminent threat anywhere right now on the peninsula so why worry about it. that said, richard, there are towns along the border now that are beginning to distribute these pamphlets by the thousands. they are actually telling people

what signs to look for and where to find shelter, and south korean military bases we've seen have been beefed up as well with patriot missile defenses. by the way, here in seoul, there's a vast underground maze of malls and subways that interconnect and where some two million people at least could be sheltered from a conventional attack, but this is a city of over ten million, so just the math itself, richard, is troubling. back to you. >> eerie existence in seoul, korea. thank you so much. that wraps up this hour of "jansing and company." thomas roberts is up next. hey, thomas. good morning. our agenda next hour, several new developments on gun control this morning. this show-down heating up on capitol hill with the families of newtown victims in washington to lobby and possibly shame lawmakers into some action. which side will win this game of political chicken? plus, very fresh this morning, the secret audiotapes revealing just how far mitch

mcconnell aides might have gone to target actress ashley judd, had she chosen to face off against him in a senate election fight in kentucky. so what was his campaign ready to do? we will have the audio recordings. and a former clinton advisor reveals his incredibly moving story about how he came out to his dad, a renowned psychiatrist, who believed in gay conversion therapy. we are joined on that and much more coming up in the next hour. [ male announcer ] if she keeps serving up sneezes... [ sneezing ]

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whether you're an allstate customer or not. all you have to do is call. [ female announcer ] call and sign up for good hands roadside assistance today. [ dennis ] are you in good hands? hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda today, can emotion trump deep division? the gun debate getting personal, shifting from connecticut back to washington today. this time, with family members of the newtown victims confronting lawmakers face-to-face on capitol hill. those families will spend two days lobbying members of congress, traveling to washington last night on board air force one with president obama. many also in attendance for the president's verbal push for gun control in connecticut yesterday. that was a speech wherehe