with the russian foreign minister to try and workout a deal for the peace talks. here's what he said on saturday. >> we are committed to this. we both want to make this conference happen if possible together with many other countries that joined up and today we talked through a number of issues. when the conference might take place and obviously that depends on the participants and the decisions that need to be made together with our friends and allies and the united nations. i want to bring in the national journals correspondence chris and jackie. good to see both of you. good morning. >> good morning. >> chris, the administration had no response to mccain's trip and we haven't heard anything specifically about that from john kerry. so when we look at mccain's surprise trip and the eu decision, is there a chance that those two things together are starting to push the

administration to change the game? or are they likely to hold firm? >> i think they're likely to hold firm in the short-term but i think long-term this is something that the administration has been grappling with and mccain making this visit only rangers chets up the pressure for them to react. you had them vote to arm the syrian rebels so you had that piece of legislation going through the senate. look for that to get a renewed interest when the lawmakers come back from recess next week and remember, mccain back in 2011 made a trip to libya to talk to those rebels before the united states got involved militarily in the overthrow of gadafhi and that worked as well. they're going to take a renewed look at this and i'm sure they'll be getting questions in the briefing today.

>> chris brings up a good point about 2011 and it worked for him although these were different times obviously. but is that all that's going on here? john mccain figuring it worked in 2011 and maybe i can help put the pressure on in 2013? >> well, the white house also has an eye toward the public and the public is still hesitant to get involved in syria. cnn had a poll out yesterday that said 36% of people were concerned but only 43% were some what concerned. some said if chemical weapons were used military auction would be warranted. there's still hesitants about getting into another conflict. >> chemical weapons are key to that. the president said that would be crossing a line but didn't say what would be the administration response to that. and part of the president's concern, chris, is that if you support the moderate rebels and

those are the ones mccain was meeting with it could impower the more radical element of the opposition. i want to play what mccain said about that before he went to syria. >> support the good people and separate them from the bad people. that's the answer to the problem. and that side is winning and that's because the united states is not leading or assisting. >> there's complicating issues separating good rebels from bad rebels and making a decision about what you do if there are chemical weapons figuring out if they were used but is the biggest calculation about the u.s. not having an appetite to get involved in another messy conflict. >> jackie is right when she talks about the polling on this and when mccain went to syria yesterday, he met with a very moderate rebel leader. a moderate general on the ground and that was on purpose. and certainly the administration is worried about the kinds of

arms that we would ship to rebels falling in the wrong hands but we also have a problem that hezbollah, a terrorist group is also involved in backing the syrian president and the government in that war. so there is already a threat there that the hezbollah feels like they need a side to stay in the power because syria is a conduit between iran and hezbollah. it's a very complicated issue and that's why we have seen the president walking so slowly on this. he needs to get public support before he decides what to do and he needs congressional support and it's starting to feel like with all the pieces falling into place here over the last few days that there maybe a time here for the president to act and to maybe shift his policy a little bit on getting involved militarily. >> let me bring in richard,

senator from connecticut on the armed services committee. it's always good to see you. good morning. >> good morning. >> do you sense we're in a place where things are shifting. you had the trip by john mccain, much like what he did in 2011. combine that with the decision to lift the arms embargo. could this sway the decision either to arm the rebels or even just commit some use of u.s. forces to enforce a no fly zone. >> there are two very, very important developments here apart from the mccain trip. the active overengagement of hezbollah and number two, the potential use of chemical weapons at an increasing magnitude. at the same time, i am strongly opposed to american involvement with boots on the ground or troops as i think a majority of americans are and the administration as well. so i think the trend is toward providing more arms.

the foreign relations committee voting overwhelmingly in favor of that resolution last week. all but three voted with it and those arms have to be clearly tracked once they reach the opposition and the opposition forces have to be vetted so that we're arming only the good guys, not the bad guys. i think the mccain trip is very helpful because having travelled twice with him to that part of the world including libya as well as egypt and afghanistan, i know that when he meet with the opposition forces and i have done it with him, he extracts and collects important spell jens as well as sending a message that we have not abandoned or forgotten them. there are shifting developments that move us in favor of engagement but without troops on the ground. >> so you would be in favor of arming the rebels. >> we have been arming the rebels for some time. the aid has been nonlethal,

night vision goggles, very equipment and we need to be very careful and cautious but some nature of arms are appropriate. >> but in some -- giving them guns. >> that would be appropriate if we can track. let me ask you about hezbollah. it can be interrupted and they see it as a life or death situation for them. their support of this regime which allows them to get the flow of arms and it's critical to what they have said is their mission which is to challenge israel. put that into context for us and how that influences this decision as it's being made. >> very good question. we need to be mindful about the situation of our allies. jordan as well as israel. jordan is under extreme strain because of the refugee flow coming across the border and more aid to jordan is critical.

humanitarian aid to the refugee camp. i visited the camp with senator mccain and saw the huge number of children without sufficient education or health care not to mention basic essentials so aid in that respect and also in possible arms and continued support for the israelis, the dome and possible offense and working with turkey. it's a complex situation with a lot of moving parts and the mccain trip i hope will also support secretary of state kerry's hand in bringing the parties to the table in these peace talks and i think that may well have been one of his objectives. >> i want to switch gears if i can senator and ask you about the president's visit today. he is going to new jersey to look at the rebuilding effort for hurricane sandy. paying for rebuilding was c

controversial because congress needed to approve it and republicans voted against it. this time around fema has the money to deal with the tornado relief, what we just saw. but do you think we need to have a conversation when you all get back to washington about how to pay for these things going forward or the process to deal with this so that when an oklahoma happens these questions aren't raised about whether there needs to be an offset. >> rebuilding is a national cause and disasters like these super storm sandy or the oklahoma tornado bring out the best in america. with we have seen some of it over the memorial day weekend and we need to have that conversation about avoiding offsets and controversy about how we pay out of existing funds. i think rallying together as a country in the wake of disaster is something is that we should do. the president is visiting new

jersey with governor christie. a very bipartisan picture and that same bipartisanship has to characterize the conversation in washington. >> it is always a pleasure to have you on the program. thank you for being with us. >> thank you chris. >> jackie, the senator says he does not oppose disaster aid. he opposed the add ones but would we have a different conversation if fema needed more money to pay for oklahoma's tornado recovery. >> i don't think when that comes to tom because that's been his stance on everything when it comes to offsetting disasters or anything for that matter but i think when it comes -- yes, we would have a different conversation, in the house especially. when it comes to, you know, oklahoma versus sandy, i think you'd hear more of that. but at this point it seems like fema has that money but we'll see what happens down the line. there needs to be a conversation with this. it can't be if you happen to have a disaster in the begin ofg the year you're find but in the

end of the year there's all this -- >> every time something happens you have to have another conversation. besides the legislative part of it it's the side by side appearance of president obama and chris christie which is getting people talking again. let me play what the governor said on the today show. >> do you ever worry that another visit and more imagines of you two walking along the boardwalk will cook your personal political goose. >> no because i think what people in my state want more than anything else is for me to do my job and the president wants to come back here and see the progress and look at him himself. i never worry about that stuff. >> it's interesting when you looked at oklahoma as well, chris, the governor is a republican obviously and, in fact, several people mentioned well the president doesn't come here to oklahoma very often although they certainly welcomed him in a circumstance like this. does party really go out the

window when you have something like this? >> i think we saw it really did go out the window, particularly when sandy hit. the president did go down right before the election. that was about as political of a time as you're going to get in america a month before a election and it was depoints higher l-- it was like that. when you have a state like new jersey, my home state, it helps to have that bipartisanship and what he is demonstrating to people is that i get things done. i helped you get federal aid to rebuild the beach. they did a big, big kick off at memorial day weekend. a 5.5 mile ribbon cutting to let people know the jersey shore is open for business and that's good for governor christie to stand next to a democratic president and say i can work with anybody that wants to help new jersey. now looking forward, for presidential aspirations in

2016, that may become a problem with republicans in the primary states. >> jackie and chris, it's good to see both of you always. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> and speaking of good news for a democratic president, the president heads to new jersey with the dow up almost 200 points. it was over 200 just seconds ago. what's going on? consumer confidence numbers are out and they're at a five year high. the do you up 199. we'll keep our eye on that. this hour, passengers from royal caribbeans grandure of the seas returning from the bahamas. a fire broke out on board yesterday. no one was hurt but the cruise lines apologized and is giving each passenger a full refund as well as a certificate that will be good for another cruise. i'm a firefighter. i'm a carpenter. i'm an accountant. a mechanical engineer. and i shop at walmart. truth is, over sixty percent of america shops at walmart every month.

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. hearings still underway in samford florida setting the stage for the trial of george zimmerman on charges he killed trayvon martin. zimmerman plaed not guilty. the lawyers fighting over everything from whether the still to be selected jurors should be taken to the scene of the shooting. that, by the way, just denied. to the compelling issue of whether to allow the testimony of an audio expert that says that in the background of a 911 call it was trayvon martin that was in distress. joining me to talk about today's critical motions, joanne reid and jamie floyd. good to see both of you. these can be boring but this is consequence stuff. it's about zbuns and race about the controversial stand your ground laws.

this is about setting the stage for trial that started a national conversation. >> it was an issue for the african american community who looked at this young man and saw this as a larger issue of the profiling of younger black men but for george zimmerman he is fighting for his life. if he is convicted of second degree murder he can be facing 25 years to life in prison. you have two families, both of whom say their son was the victim here. it couldn't be more potentially polarizing. >> let's go through the things we have seen in court today or are waiting to see. first of all, zimmerman's defense wants to push the june 10th trial date back because they say the state held on to evidence. what's the chances they delay. >> the judge has a tough call here. that's about the 911 tape. now states experts are conflicting about who is saying what on the tape. specifically, who is crying for help and the lawyer for the defense says when you have a conflict i have a right to investigate further. this is the key piece of

evidence in the case, i need a delay. the judge doesn't want a delay in a case this big so she has an important decision to make about whether it would violate his rights to push forward. >> they fought for an anonymous and sequestered jury. >> he is going to keep the jurors name a secret during jury selection as is always the case but she is taking it under advisement how to proceed once the trial gets underway. >> there's also texts and they ask someone if they have a gun. there are texts where he talks about getting kicked out of his mom's house. indicating he may not have gotten along with his dad's fiancee. they're arguing he was angry the night he ran into zimmerman. that's important. that's their argument. >> all that's important and the judge really smacked the defense down on all of the motions about anything that happened before february 26th. all that is important is what happened on the night in question. what was george zimmerman's state of mind. marijuana smoking not coming in.

school records not coming in. text messages not coming in. toxicology not coming in. gold teeth not coming in. why? because george zimmerman didn't know any of that. so as of now the judge said none of that is to be mentioned in jury selection and none of it is coming in. of course the defense can always renew those motions during trial. >> one of the arguments that's been made here is their only case -- and this is from the other side -- is that they can paint trayvon martin as the stereo typical angry black man which is part of the reason this is such an important and compelling story. >> that's why the case is so polarizing too because a lot of people, particularly in the martin family feel that the strategy is to put trayvon martin on trial before george zimmerman goes on trial. they just released these text messages and photos from martins phone, some of which date back to november of 2012. well before the incident took

place. >> cell phone pictures of him blowing smoke. text with a friend where he references an apparent fight. all of those things. >> those are trying to come in but because zimmerman and martin were strangers on the night of the encounter he wouldn't have known that. they said you cannot present this picture of trayvon in opening saying look at what he texted in november, look at the foe foes from his phone. that cannot come in and the martin attorneys says he knew it wouldn't come in but he has gotten it out there. it's in the media and part of the public conversation. >> and part of a potential jury poll. >> and the same reason they say there was information released about zimmerman and exfiancee and order she had against him. this is just beginning. thank you for coming in. >> and to be clear, we do want to say that george zimmerman has sued nbc universal for defamation, an allegation nbc strongly denies. >> she hasn't stepped into the roll and already rutgers

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chastain all in the running. a 1965 high school yearbook signed by mitt romney was dropped off for donation at a chicago bookstore. that's according to the huffing ton post. the inscription read it's been a great year fellow. i'll never forget the picture we took together, the times and your help in math. i'm sure the combination kbrof your self-confidence and fine example will lead you to success next year and all the years to come, mitt. is donald trump thinking about giving politics another shot in 2016? his executive vice president told the new york post they didn't spend $1 million on research to let it sit on the self-. it apparently looked at trump's standing in each state. if you read only one thing this morning my must read is a heartbreaking story. police say has come to symbolize the gun culture in chicago. a beautiful 6 month old baby

shot and killed over a stolen video game console. it's on our facebook page. we'll be right back. maxwell is not. he's on geico.com setting up an appointment with an adjuster. ted is now on hold with his insurance company. maxwell is not and just confirmed a 5:30 time for tuesday. ted, is still waiting. yes! maxwell is out and about... with ted's now ex-girlfriend. wheeeee! whoo! later ted! online claims appointments. just a click away on geico.com. i tthan probablycare moreanyone else.and we've had this farm for 30 years. we raise black and red angus cattle. we also produce natural gas. that's how we make our living and that's how we can pass the land and water back to future generations. people should make up their own mind what's best for them. all i can say is it has worked well for us.

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the new fiber one caramel nut protein bar. the president who is heading to air force one, he is bound for the jersey shore and he'll be with governor chris christie. this is moments ago. his second visit there and looking at the progress that has been made since super storm sandy. meantime, a new poll finds a majority of americans still oppose the affordable care act as the administration ramps up a pr campaign to get the uninsured on board. 54% are against it but 35% oppose obamacare because it's too liberal. 16% say it's not liberal enough. that poll was taken right after the republican controlled house voted for a 37th time to repeal all or part of obamacare and republicans are trying to tie

the implementation of obama care to the irs scandal. an upcoming mobile billboard campaign will target house democrats. for example barrow where it will read congressman barrow's plan put the irs in charge of your health care. fed up. let's bring in karen and republican strategist chris wilson. good morning. >> good morning. >> well, the senate finances committee chairman said he is worried obamacare is going to be a train wreck. another liberal lawmaker that didn't want to be named told the hill he's been terribly defenseless and slow to react. how does the administration navigate this if they want to be successful? we know the uninsured can start getting insurance on october 1st? >> what they're trying to do is go around in the same way that their campaign was so

successful -- political campaign going around traditional media and trying to communicate with people directly. that's the kind of campaign they're going to do. in the poll you read, one of the things we see -- part of the reason -- people say they don't like the plan. a large majority of americans don't realize it's current law. they still think it's legislation. a large% of americans still don't understand what is in it. so i think part of the big problem here is that there's so much misinformation that the administration has to find a way to directly communicate and target the people that need to get into the system and who will benefit the most from this program the information they need and try to cut through some of this other stuff. >> well, chris, there is early ammunition for the administration. rates under the california health care exchanges were much lower than expected. an average monthly premium of about $400. if there are more success stories like this that come out it makes it tougher for the republicans that have been

opposed to it. >> it does. there's a lot of success stories and you'll start to see the numbers flip around but i will submit california and massachusetts aren't going to be the standard example that most americans are going to live under because most american versus descent insurance. there's a segment this is going to cover that are going to be more supportive of it once they learn more about it but right now it's looking at 54% oppose it and you'll see the number grow as we get closer to the election as people see taxes go up and their average health cost go up and wait times go up and the challenges will exist for most americans. there's a small segment of americans this definitely helps and we'll probably like it and may cause them to vote more democratic but max was right. overall for democrats this will be a train wreck because as the implementation ramps up it's going to be a real challenge for democrats at the ballot box. >> the republicans, have to say,

have been effective at sort of going after the same talking points about what they think the negative impact will be and there was actually a funny line in a report that mpr did that said obama care has been through more life and death cliff hangers than a season finale of homeland. some back and forth is inevitable because this is still settling in. we're starting to see what the real impact is but there will be some problems. the president said even before it passed there will be problems. >> sure. >> will kathleen and the administration have to be ready to respond quickly to those problems that will come up. >> there's a couple of things i want to mention. the danger for republicans here, every major piece of legislation like social security, like the chip program, like medicare and medicaid, they've always have to go back in -- congress always had to go back in and address additional fixes, unintended consequences. this time what you have is republicans saying we don't care. if you have a pre-existing

condition and that means you can't get health care, we don't care. if you're a woman and you get charged more just because you're a woman or by the fact that you were rape that counts as a pre-existing condition where as the president is trying to say under his legislation it's not a pre-existing condition you shouldn't be charged more than men, what the gop is essentially saying is we don't care. by refusing to work with the administration there's a huge liability for the republicans that they're basically saying we do not care if you don't have health care. we're not even willing to try to make the program better. i think that is a huge liability. >> chris, when you look at the republicans 37 times trying to repeal obama care, does it just look like obstruction and not like they're trying to do something substantial here. >> this is the latest talking point from democrats to say republicans aren't working with democrats so they don't care -- >> it's not a talking point. it's a fact the republicans said they won't work on it. >> right. it is a fact. i don't know if this is an

attempt to pass blame or if it's an attempt that there's surprise that republicans don't want to support or be a part of the massive expansion of government. if that's true surprise you might want to take a look at republicans voting patterns say maybe there's a challenge of republicans not being in support of massive government and maybe you should have made sure the fixes were taken care of before you passed it into law. >> at the end of the day that's going to hurt people. that's going to hurt voters and that's going to be a liability for republicans. >> well taking more money out of their pockets and costing jobs. >> it's not going to do that though. >> we're out of time. thank you for being with us. chris, karen, thank you. and a close call for a few storm chasers in kansas when a tornado moved right over their specialized vehicle which is made to with stand storms. the wind speed hit about 150

miles per hour. look at these pictures and then the instruments got ripped off the outside of the vehicle. by the way, there's a threat of more severe weather throughout the day today and the rest of the week in that part of the country. fast moving wild fire forced more than 6,000 people out of their homes and camp sites near santa barbara california. this started yesterday afternoon and grew to nearly 1,000 acres in just a couple of hours. official sas strong winds are fuelling the flames. shocking story out of china where a newborn baby had to be cut out of a sewage pipe and a scene was caught on video. firefighters cut the piping out of the wall with the baby in it. took the entire thing to the hospital and then cut away the pipe piece by piece. the baby reportedly in stable condition. investigators are looking into reports that the mother had been hiding the pregnancy and unexpectedly gave birth to the five pound boy. the 17-year-old accused of planning to blow up his oregon

high school will be arraigned today. prosecutors will charge him as an adult. meantime they're returning to the opening high school after they did a search of the grounds and decided it was safe. aiken ken mega church will no longer have a boy scout group. the church made the decision after scouts decided to allow gay members although the church claims that was just one factor overall they say scouts have become too polarizing. the troop has until the end of the year to relocate. paul mccartney made his first ever visit to graceland and tweeted a photo of himself leaving a guitar pick on the king of rock and rolls grave. quote, so elvis can play in heaven. they met him in 1965 at a top secret location where they were so star struck none of them knew what to say. stocks are soaring on wall

street. man man mandy is here. >> this is the best day since january 2nd of this year. we had a lot of supportive comments helping here and it's reinsured investigators that monetary policies designed to support the global and by default pushing up asset prices as well there's the reassurance that they're going to remain in place but this spornt because remember last week the u.s. markets were jittery and had their first week since mid april on fear that our central bank may scale back. it's sooner than expected, i guess, but here we've had good comments from the ecb refirming that at least their policies would remain in place. that's why we're up. >> consumer confidence is up although over the memorial day weekend people were flying less. it's because of the fees and now

there maybe another one. >> it's crazy. obama administration wants to tack on a new fee to every ticket. it's an imposed tax increase and could increase the cost of flying for you and me and could raise it by $14 per flight to help pay for airport improvements and add new immigration customs officers at airports. the airline industry is saying these are going to hurt the economy and does nothing for the customer at the end of the day. >> all right. mandy, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> fast and furious drove over the competition this holiday weekend. it's the 6th installment of the action franchise and it took in $120 million over four days. a record for the series and for the memorial day weekend. fast and furious also had the biggest weekend debut for universal pictures, part of our company, nbc universal. the hang over part 3 couldn't hang in but still made $51 million. star trek into darkness took in

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laughter is more complex than you think. researchers looked at how the brain responds to three kinds of laughter and showed brain regions that process social information are active during joyous laugher while tickling effected regions associated with audio complexity. right now president obama is on his way to the new jersey shore where he will join up again with governor chris christie to check the progress of the recovery seven months of super storm sandy. the president will deliver remarks this afternoon in the park. good to see you again.

good morning. >> greetings and good morning from asbury park. >> how important is to it your town for the president to make this again. >> it's tremendously important. the jersey shore is open for business and his visit does highlight the hard work we have done over the past couple of months and that we're open. >> this did mark the unofficial start of the summer season. mother nature could have been nicer to you and other places where the weather was not fantastic but how did it go this weekend and how are you doing overall seven months after sandy? >> we're doing very well. we got a little bit of drizzle and rain over the weekend but we survived sandy. so this weekend, we had some clouds. we had some sun. it was really a beautiful weekend all the way around. so we're good. we're up. we're about 95% up and running and we are ready for the greatest or summer yet, both at

the jersey shore. >> the first time the president went to the jersey shore he made a promise. he said fema is going to act quickly. the federal government is going to be there for you. recently i talked to your congressman that was very critical of the federal response and yesterday he came back on to msnbc. i want to play you a little bit of what he said. >> a lot of homeowners are still not back in many of the towns. i was up in union beach over the weekend and the majority of people probably are not back there. so we need to do a lot of work yet to help homeowners of the jersey shore. >> he says only 15% of approved small business administration loan versus been sent out. there's also been problems with private insurance and those monies have been slow to arrive. how do you feel about the way the federal response has gone. >> let me divide it into two. the emergency response we received immediately after the storm was very good. and we're very thankful for that. as you know, in january, when i

appeared on your show, i railed against congress inability to pass a sandy relief bill. we still have a lot of businesses and a lot of homeowners that need help. that are trying to get back into their houses, get their businesses reopened and even those that have received sba loans, for instance we have a business here that took $500,000 worth of loans. that's a heavy burden so whether you have been helped or you're still waiting for help it really is still challenging for us. >> you mentioned it was important for people just to see your open for business. all publicity is good publicity. >> absolutely. >> well your local newspaper caught governor christie and the cast of the jersey shore meeting for the first time ever this weekend and i'm sure you know chris christie has been a critic of the show saying it casts new jersey in a bad light. i'm going to play this exchange between the governor and snookie. >> i wanted to meet you.

>> i appreciate it. we'll do our best. we will. good to meet you. >> thanks. >> good to meet you. >> he just doesn't like us. >> i don't know if you could hear what snookie said. she said he just doesn't like us. would you like to go on the record. do you think that in the whole the mtv show was good for new jersey. >> well, look, let me just say this, that is a show. it's a television show. come on down to the jersey shore. come on down to asbury park. meet real jersey people and as i said earlier today, you know what snooki, you're invited too. >> have deep fried oreos. that's what they were showing yesterday and they looked good. good to see you again. >> thank you and we hope to see you down here at asbury park and the jersey shore. >> at some point i'll get there when the sun is shining. thank you mayor. >> thank you. today's tweet of the day comes

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rutgers university still daling with the mess from coach mike rice's firing from player abuse because now word that the school's president is stand big the new athletic director julie hermann but she has been accused of similar treatment of players in the past. joining me now is the senior sports writer for the new jersey press media group. good morning. >> good morning. >> this story broke when a reporter made calls to hermann's former tennessee volleyball team players. they said she called them whores, alcoholics and learning disabled. was this a surprise to rutgers university. how could you not have vetted her business or did they vet her and then decided this is okay. >> from my understanding they

did not vet her. there was a 1997 lawsuit that was well reported by a newspaper in knoxville and that broke, we report on it as well as the star ledger the day before she was actually appointed. so was it a surprise? considering it came out the day before she was appointed they had time to ask her about it. as far as specific allegations with the players coming forward that was a surprise. i don't think anyone ever asked that question. the search firm that actually brought her to rutgers, they never detailed that in her background check. so truthfully, i do believe it was a surprise. >> let's look at a few more of the claims here. former volleyball players say he yanked them by the jersey and forced them to wear clothes inside out at a restaurant and hit a player in the stomach with the back of her hand and when confronted about these things

she quit her job. she responded saying am i an intense coach? i'm absolutely an intense coach but there's a big canyon between being super-intense and abuse and this was not an abusive environment for these women. i guess the question becomes is there any indication these are disgruntled players exaggerating claims about what happens in coaching environments all the time. >> this all stemmed from the mike rice scandal back on april 1st. the men's basketball coach at rutgers. we all saw the tape. how horrific it was. throwing the basketballs and slurs and the like. pre-mike rice it was the culture in every athletic field or basketball court in the country. college, pros, everywhere you see coaches use this type of abusive tactics to try to

motivate. that being said, what i have -- the most alarming part to me is the fact that mike rice, when his players came forward supporting them saying that they did not believe that he should have been disciplined, it was taken out of context where as julie hermann's players all rallied. 15 players unanimously wrote a letter requesting that she get fired and 17 years later they all go on the record bringing forward these accusations. that's the biggest issue i have with it. >> the president of rutgers standing by her. we'll see what happens next. chris christie says he's going to look into it. keith sergeant, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> that's going to wrap up this hour. thomas roberts is up next. >> good morning. good morning everybody. the agenda next hour, inside the courtroom for george zimmerman's pretrial hearing in the murder of trayvon martin. what evidence will be allowed in the trial and why zimmerman's lawyers are pushing for more time to gather evidence and the

wheels on the bus go round and round so why is speaker boehner being targeted as the weakest speaker in history? we'll weigh in on that and then the odd couple reunited. president obama heading for a recovery tour with chris christie. we take you along as well. see you in a minute. [ musick ] i knew there were a lot of tech jobs available out there. i knew devry university would give me the skills that i needed to make one of those tech jobs mine. we teach cutting-edge engineering technology, computer information systems, networking and communications management -- the things that our students need to know in the world today. our country needs more college grads to help fill all the open technology jobs. to help meet that need, here at devry university, we're offering $4 million dollars in tech scholarships for qualified new students. learn more at devry.edu.

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good morning, developing news at the top of the hour. two weeks until the start of his trial and the case which is the state of florida versus george zimmerman is in court for the most crucial hearing to date and a judge denying the request to delay the start of the trial. that was a defense request. you're looking at live pictures inside the courtroom in samford, florida. the judge and attorneys are hashing out how the trial will unfold and what the jury is able to hear. zimmerman that is pleading not guilty and claimed self-defense is not in the courtroom today even as the attorneys sought to delay the trial they're fighting to include evidence that could

be considered damaging to trayvon martin including mast marijuana abuse and detail of the suspension that had him out of school on the day he died. all of which we found out is going to be blocked from the courtroom. >> the state is seeking to prohibit the defense from making any reference to the fact that trayvon martin had at any time been suspended for school. >> that will not be mentioned at all without a prior ruling of the court. >> any communications or evidence that trayvon martin had used marijuana in the past we're asking the court to exclus that. >> previously used marijuana the state's motion will be granted. that will not come in. >> among the most compel -- compelling of the issues, how do you keep a jury, impartial, anonymous and away from the press. >> the concern i