show? ♪ federal prosecutors across the nation are starting to implement attorney general eric holder's two-step plan to declare war on the war on drugs. first, the feds will stop charging many nonviolent drug offenders with offenses that are tied to mandatory minimum sentences. instead of default imprisonment, holder wants the focus on these offenders to be on drug treatment. last year alone, 60% of federal drug offenders received mandatory minimum sentences. step two is to get congress to act on a bill giving judges greater discretion in sentencing. but with congress being congress, let's focus on step one. 17 states are already doing something similar to what holder is suggesting, by diverting taxpayer money away from prisons and toward drug treatment and supervision for repeat

offenders. and did i mention they are already seeing big results? our first guest today is candice mccoy from the graduate center of sidney university out of new york. thank you for being with us. >> a pleasure. >> the changes attorney general holder ared advocating are real. we have to realize only 10% of our prison population is made up of federal prisoners. do you think the attorney general will serve as sort of a leader to push states to enact their own reforms in this regard? >> i think there's no question that he gave a real shoutout to those 17 states that are already doing that and trying to emphasize a nonpunitive approach to the drug problem, which is being embraced nationwide. >> and candiccandice, one thing thinking through is let's say you were just charged with one of these drug offenses before holder gave his speech and you have the language there that

does trigger the mandatory minimum sentencing. then after these changes, you could have someone with the very same offense who had the very same amount of drugs and do not have that language that leads to the triggering of the mandatory minimum sentencing, do you have a concern at all that because those two individuals who committed the very same crime would end up with different punishments after this announcement? do you worry that contributes to a sense that our criminal justice system is sort of arbitrary? >> well, krystal, i think you're getting a little ahead of yourself on this. let's worry about, yes, whether it would be applied retroactively is an important question. but i think first the idea is to implement the new policy, see how it works out, and work with the federal bureau of prisons and the judges to ameliorate the worst disparities. >> also something the attorney general mentioned that caught my attention, he spoke about the

elderly, the nonviolent elderly and the terminally ill. he suggested they should spend the rest of their time just at home, the rest of their life at home. this is obviously something that seems to make some sense and would be a step in the right direction. is this at all a reality? what would have to happen for this to be a reality? >> it's very interesting. you'd have to have an extraordinary compassionate leave finding and maybe an equivalent of a pardon. but that's quite possible. if people are in prison for life sentences and they pose no threat of violence and are, in fact, sick, they can return to their homes and their families with very little risk. now, to have that happen, again, you're going to have to have judges and the executive be involved. it certainly is not only cost effective and safe, but

compassionate. >> professor mccoy, we've seen a historic drop in the american homicide rate. we are down to levels we have not seen since the 1960s. part of this is because the crack epidemic is waning. part of it is because of innovations in the way we're doing policing. i think that this change gives politicians, gives the attorney general that political space to be able to maneuver away from tough on crime and into smart on crime. you think that's part of what's going on here? >> oh, definitely, definitely. i think there's a seat change happening here. it's about time. in the 1980s when these draconian mandatory minimum sentences were set into place, no matter what are we may think about the great disparities -- and there are huge racial and economic disparities here. nevertheless, the fact was the crack cocaine epidemic was associated with high murder rates, open-air drug dealing.

it was the wild west. it was really bad. today the d markets, those drug markets have been shut down through a combination of good policing and other approaches, and it's not as if the drugs have stopped. it's just that it's not crack cocaine anymore. the worst drug problem we have today is abuse of prescription drugs. that's a real problem. but it's not associated with violence. >> yeah, candice, it does seem like a seat change, as you said. a lot of viewers will remember literally decades of elections that were about two political parties competing to be, quote, tougher on crime, to be tougher on defendants, even as we've emphasized nonviolent defendants who while may need treatment and to be in a system for some way for some period of time, clearly don't pose the kind of threats people think of when they think about someone coming into their home or threatening their family. when you look at the positive republican response to attorney

general holder, including rand paul's relatively straightforward embrace of aspects of the proposal yesterday, you see those different politics. do you think that translates into us actually getting some laws passed here, or is there the risk that because this is being done already directly through the executive, you have the excuse of members of congress to say, hey, it's already happening, we don't need to codify it? >> well, i think the attorney general did reference several senators -- i recall senator durbin and others -- that have come forward and said that we should be changing the laws regarding the mandatory minimum for drug offenders. so i think that on the federal level, we might actually see some action. on the state level, it's already happening. that is in regards to low-level drug users, small petty dealers, and the attorney general had a very solid quote in his speech

in which he said there are some things better handled at the state and local level. that would be these low-level people who really need the treatment. i would also say it's not just drug treatment. there's a move underway to realize that a lot of these folks have mental health issues. this is a mental health system breakdown problem. we ended up throwing people in prison instead of giving them mental health treatment. >> right, it's like as the saying goes. don't make a federal case out of it. >> that's absolutely right. >> and we did, and that's pretty silly, isn't it? >> to the health point, this health treatment aspect, that was what richard nixon was talking about when he started the war on drugs. not just throwing everybody in prison and what we're acknowledging now is that prison itself is krim no jennic. >> absolutely. you can say who won the war on drugs? the prison industry. there's no question.

and it's interesting. you go all the way back to richard nixon as the beginning of this, quote, war on drugs. we have to look at what we've done over the last half a century and come up with some better responses. >> incredibly, it seems like we're at that moment now where a lot of people across the political spectrum are reassessing our approach, which is incredibly encouraging. candice mccoy, thank you so much for your time today. >> a pleasure. thank you. up next, he just can't help himself. what anthony weiner's revealing now. i can't look. "the cycle" rolls on for tuesday, august 13th.

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back now with the spin cycle. i don't think it's totally fair to say anthony weiner is trolling the new york city mayor's race. but it kind of feels like that. weiner's presence in the race is dragging it into a behavior. even around stop and frisk. is that weiner's fault, the media's fault or both? >> both. >> yes. last night the train wreck continued in a 45-minute interview with my man ben smith as weiner ranged from defensive to combative and explained what he hopes his presence in the race should symbolize. >> part of what i want people to think about when they're choosing a mayor is who's going to be tough enough to stand up to do the tough things in the city. part of what i'm trying to demonstrate with this campaign is what type of a mayor i'll be, and i'm going to fight. i'm going to stand up strong. there are things i believe in and i'm going to fight for them.

>> are they going to be more scandalous? >> secondly -- can i -- i have more than one. can i finish? >> he can't even answer the question. weiner also spoke about the impact he's had on his wife. >> it huma still working on the campaign? >> she's helping out every day. >> do you know what her role in hillary's 2016 campaign is going to be? >> i do. >> what will it be? >> i'm not telling you. >> do you feel like you've damaged her place in that world? >> i feel that what i've done has hurt her, yeah. it's hurt her professionally. it's hurt her personally. >> that's part of why this isn't really a funny thing. weiner also said he's still seeing a therapist. he proposed new york should be the world's call center capital. he railed against policy jihadists and had no answer to it the rather obvious question, why didn't you just use snap chat? duh. but overall, i'm growing tired of the weiner pile-on. not because he doesn't deserve it, but it's a distraction at an

important moment in new york city's history. we've had the same mayor for like 30 years now, something like that. we need to figure out who's going to be the next mayor. i'm still undecided who i'm going to vote for. i know a lot of new yorkers haven't fully plugged into the race. there will be a debate tonight. a lot of people will plug in, figure out who they're going to vote for. we have weiner emerging as this caricature of what an outsider would think of new york city. slimy, gross, brash, obnoxious. that's not who we are. i look at someone like bill de blasio. that's what a new yorker is. >> he's very tall. >> he is very tall. >> his ad with his son donte is really an amazing, powerful thing. it cuts through the clutter of the race. it really sort of reshapes him as a character in this race, i think. look, to me, you know, the ending of stop and frisk is the most important thing that i want to see come out of this race.

bill de blasio is strongest on that issue, so i'm leaning toward him. i'm still watching tonight. >> you say you're tired it of hearing about this. i think weiner looked exceptionally tired. he looked miserable. he looked like he didn't want to be there. i think he agreed to do the interview before all of this happened, and it was very obvious that it the last place he wanted to be was there. but look, i mean, you have to look at the audience he was speaking to. he was talking to the buzz feed audience, which is this very young, tech-savvy group of people. i thought an interesting point, and you already mentioned this, was when ben smith said one of the questions we got the most asked was, why not use snap chat? for those that aren't familiar with snap chat, it's an app you can take a photo and send it, and it deletes within eight to ten seconds. had he used that, he probably be where she today. it's a very fair question to ask. his response was simply, i don't have a good answer to that. so why not have some fun? if you're going to put yourself in a situation, if you're still running for mayor of new york

city when pretty much no one thinks you should be in the race, have some fun with it. get people to laugh, right? >> i mean, watching this interview, it felt sort of voyeuristic. why am i really watching this guy? it's pretty obvious he's not going to win at this point. he's not close to being in the top two. he's in fourth place right now. so it felt like the only reason to watch him was to see what sort of outlandish thing he would do to watch him squirm. on the one hand, yes, you very much got the impression he didn't want to be there. on the other hand, he is there of his own volition and has put himself in this spotlight intentionally. the thing that strikes me is here's a guy whose rise was very fast, who clearly knows what he's doing. he's very good at retail politics. he knows the room. he knows how to work a room. he understands the media. he knows how to work the media. yet, when it's come to his own crisis, he could not possibly have handled it more poorly. and you saw that in this interview. i mean, like you're saying,

abby, if you're going to show up and do the thing, you can't give everyone the impression that this is the last place on earth you want to be. you've got to be able to laugh at yourself, make it feel like you're in on the joke. because people might, might vote for a likable creep. they're not going to vote for some crotchty, angry creep. >> i agree with that. >> he's a deeply unhappy person at this moment. you can't have fun with it when you're not happy yourself. >> the same thing jumped out at me. it was weird how he seemed to uncomfortable with it. he seemed to say, yeah, i know i did these things that are bad or that people say are bad, but i'm exhausted by this process. this is the very process that he has forced on the race. he has ever right to run. i'm glad he didn't drop out. all told, this wasn't a lot of new information that it's a problem that's continued for him and his family. but the fact that he acts like, oh, my god, why are we tall talking about this? which was the most heated sort of back and forth with ben smith. >> which he blamed on the slow

news cycle, by the way. >> he blamed it on the media. i was sort of reminded -- and i know krystal probably feels the same way -- of the akon song "dangerous." noticing you noticing me from across the room. it's like, hey, bro, of course we're noticing your sexting. it's the biggest thing about you. if we talked about what you did in congress, it's nothing. so, yeah, we're going to notice you for what remains the weirdest digitized sex scandal to date. if that surprises you, if you don't get why we're noticing you on that, then what is going on? >> the weariness that you point out, i recognize in him. you know when you have -- i know you watch a lot of boxing. when you're losing and you're up against the ropes and somebody is pummelling you and you're trying to punch back but you're all beat up and you can't punch back anymore. you're trying to just robotically and you can't. he seems like that. i'm supposed to be punching

back, but i'm so tired. i just want to fall, by can't fall. >> which is the opposite of what bill clinton used to do, which was much more of a rope-a-dope. hit me as hard as you can over the sex, then move forward. >> which i think he thought he was doing, though. >> even sarah palin, for all her faults, she had a way of laughing at herself. remember after she wrote the notes on her hand. they said like, taxes, family, whatever. she got made fun of. afterwards, she made a point of when she'd be at public events, she would write notes on her hand to show she was in on the joke. it worked really well. >> we as a group are circling the drain with weiner when we're complimenting sarah palin. >> she handles public scrutiny and public criticism better than a lot of folks. >> no, i think it's an important contrast because she does accommodate the criticism better than he does. so did bill clinton. so i would argue does elliott spitzer, who's in the race. he's gotten people talking about what he's going to do with $159

billion in public money and why he's going to stand up to wall street, not as a metaphor about prostitutes, just why he's going to stand up to wall street. weiner keeps saying sexting is some sort of metaphor we haven't understood. it's funny you mention palin. is she going to be on the show tomorrow? >> i don't know that we're supposed to let that cat out of the bag. up next, after a nice dramatic spin cycle, more drama. now to the jury room of the whitey bulger trial. apparently there was anger there. plus, a young democrat breaking the mold of his state's politics. we're going to meet him in the guest spot next. is like hammering.

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the news cycle begins with drama in the whitey bulger murder trial. a juror described deliberations as, quote, stressful with all kinds of ascension that involved walking out and slamming doors.

>> there was people that didn't want to be on the jury. people looked sick in the beginning. i think they were terrified. people were turning red. i saw people leaning over like they looked like they were sick and taking bottles of aspirin. >> bulger was convicted on monday on all but one of the 32 counts he faced. a third of one structure at the summer bay resort suddenly collapsed on sunday night. everyone got out safe. officials are now worried about the integrity of two nearby buildings. nbc's kerry sanders witnessed mother nature's incredible wrath first hand. >> it's remarkable every got out alive, especially when you look at that three-story building that opened up under cover of darkness. most people were in bed, many of them asleep. the reason they were able to get out alive without injury was one man, a r security guard who discovered what was going on and

then jumped into action to save lives. >> the building was coming down so quickly. you don't have time to think. you just go knocking door to door and getting people out. the justice department is trying to ground a proposed $11 billion merger between u.s. airways and american airlines. that merger would crow yiet the world's largest carrier. and a new study could provide the biggest experiences of near-death experiences. researchers believe it could be the brain trying to save itself. and that is your news cycle. as you know, if it's tuesday, it's the latest installment of virginia politics, starring yours truly krystal ball. today it's actually west virginia and an up-and-comer named rod snyder. he just wrapped up two terms as president of the young democrats of america. with rod at the helm, the group

helped burn for lgbt rights and made major progress toward marriage equality. last week was time for rod to clear up some unfinished business of his own by coming out in a poignant letter to his fellow young democrats. certainly grab our attention, so we wanted to grab a few minutes with rod in the guest spot. rod, thank you so much for joining us. it's great to see you. to start with, congratulations. >> thanks so much, krystal. appreciate you having me on the show. >> of course. in your letter that you sent out to your fellow young dems, you said, i'm a christian, an american, a west virginian, a young democrat, a rural advocate, a singer/song writer, a brother, a son, a grandson, a nephew, uncle, and a gay man. you belong to a lot of different communities. how are all of those different communities reacting to your news that you are a gay man? >> the response has been overwhelmingly positive. i actually have been very moved in the last week. hundreds and hundred of messages

from people i've never even met before thanking me for my honesty and coming out in such a public way. i guess that's the reaction i had really hoped for, that me doing this while i was still president of the young democrats before my term ended, that it could have a positive impact. >> and you recently looked at running for congress in the state of west virginia. i'm sure it's only a matter of time before you actually put yourself in a race. obviously, there's a way to go for an open gay to run for office. we've seen it before, but still not a governor or president, obviously. are you optimistic about the idea of running in a more conservative state like west virginia as an openly gay man and a christian? >> yeah, i'm very hopeful. obviously society is changing at a very rapid pace. i think it's mostly driven by young people. if you look at the polling, about 70% of voters under the age of 30 now support full marriage equality. it's only a matter of time before society moves much more in that direction, even in more

socially conservative places like west virginia. i've always felt like, you know, public service was the path that i would like to be on. you know, i'm not certainly stepping back from that now just because i'm openly gay. >> you mentioned the support for marriage equality among people who are younger. that's an interesting contrast if you look up here comparing them to, say, the baby boomers, where only about 38% currently are open or support -- open to marriage equality. unpack that for us, from your perspective. when we talk about so many issues in american politics -- we talk about religion, we talk about race, we talk about geography, red states, blue states. this really seems to be an age thing, though, huh? >> it's totally an age thing. i think honestly what's helping move the needle so much is people telling their own personal stories. if you look back 15 or 20 years ago, a lot of people could say they didn't know a gay person or at least didn't think they did. now as people are being more honest about who they are, there

are immediate family members or friends or neighbors or co-workers. once you have a personal interaction with someone who's gay, it's not as foreign. it's not as frightening. i think just the honesty that we're seeing in society is really helping move the issue more than anything else. it's starting with young people. >> rod, that's absolutely right. the sociology has shown over and over that knowing a gay person is a huge predictor of being open to gay rights. so the more people come out, the more gay rights are spreading. i want to shift to talking about the first adjective you used to describe yourself. you are a christian. it bothers me the way that the right over the past 30 years has been able to sort of co-opt christianity and act like they are the party of christians and of the left is, you know, immoral folks who want to reach out to you. is this partly the failing of the left to allow christianity to be co-opted by the right? >> i think that the left has had

a more difficult time articulating the way that people's faith impacts their world view in the political arena. the separation of church and state is obviously very important to folks on the left. i think it's something we have to work much harder at. i started the faith and values initiative within the young democrats of america so that young progressive people could talk about their faith in that way. within the gay issue specifically, there are a lot of leaders coming out now like justin lee, who's the head of the gay christian network. he was the author of the book "torn," which had a huge impact on my life, talking about how this is a debate that we actually need to have within the church and that there are so many families with, you know, children who are suffering in silence because they're in an evangelical community like i was. it's time to bring that out in the open and say, you know what, you can be a christian and be gay at the same time. you know, that conversation is starting to pick up, which i'm optimistic about. >> and rod, talk a little bit about your personal struggle growing up in a very strongly christian household as a strong christian yourself and how you

saw yourself within that context and sort of were able to come to grips with who you really were. >> it was a really long journey for me. i didn't articulate for the first time to anyone, didn't vocalize that i was gay until i was 31 years old because of the deep believes that i had and very historical interpretations of scripture, et cetera. to not even be able to mention it to a single person until the age of 31 meant that i was, you know, so deeply in the closet i couldn't even say it myself. so when i finally reached that point where i knew it was time for me to really address the issue starting with friends and family, you know, close to me and ultimately leading to the point last week where two years later i had reached a point of self-acceptance and could be honest with the public. it took a really long time. i know there are a lot of other people in that same situation. >> and rod, i'm sure a lot of people out there right now are watching you and are getting a lot of courage and strength from your courage and strength. thank you so much for joining us today. >> thanks for having me. up next, is there an actual

sports gene that separates the greats from, well, the rest of us? it's fascinating stuff, and it's coming right up. ♪ [ villain ] well mr. baldwin... it appears our journey has come to a delightful end. then i better use the capital one purchase eraser to redeem my venture miles for this trip. purchase eraser? it's the easy way to erase any recent travel expense. i just pick a charge, like my flight with a few taps, it's taken care of. impressive baldwin. does it work for hotels? absolutely

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jordan, ruth, gretzky, bolt, fphelp phelps, serena. they're talked about as the greatest ever. what makes them so much better than the average joe? is it practice, instinct, or is it in their dna? take tiger woods. as a pro, he's won 14 majors and earned $100 million from pga tour victories. but even at the age of 2 appearing on the mike douglas show in 1979, it was clear he had a better swing than most adults. look at that. >> so adorable. >> so is sports greatness just in his genes?

"sports illustrated" senior writer david epstein looks to answer that age-old question in his new book "the sports gene: inside the science of extraordinary athletic performance." david joins us now. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> you talk in the book about how genes teach us that a lot of sports advice doesn't necessarily apply specifically the idea that you should keep your eye on the ball. you write about how that's actually impossible because it takes a fifth of a second for the retina at the back of the eye -- you can see, you know the eye is red. it takes a fifth of a second to go from the back of the eye to process the ball, move across the si napss to get to a place where you know what you're doing. you write baseball players are actually aiming their bat and swinging before the ball comes halfway towards them. explain how that fits into genetics. >> so i thought that baseball players just had faster reflexes. turns out, it's absolutely not the case. that's why pro softball players

can strike out the best baseball players. the bare minimum time it takes to initiate muscular action is half the total flight time of a major league pitch. just to initiate muscular action. a blink is almost as long as that. really, in order to hit that ball, you actually have to be able to predict the future. that's all based on learned cues from a pitcher's body and from the flicker, which is the flashing pattern that the seams of the ball make. that's all perceptual cues. if you face them with a softball pitcher, who has unfamiliar shoulder motion, they absolutely can't do it. i scored faster on a reaction time test than albert pujols did. >> but you're a baller. >> he was only in the 66th perce percentile. >> that's crazy. here's what i'm trying to figure out. is there a sport that's sort of like a sure bet. like, if you put in the work, you're going to be at least pretty good. i've got two kids. i'm thinking of college scholarships. i'm trying to figure out what to push them into.

are there some sports that are more nurture than nature per se? >> and we're not talking about ari. everyone but ari. >> wow. >> well, broadly, it depends on the sport and the athlete. i tell a story in the book of two high jumpers. one accumulates 20,000 hours of practice. another, about zero. they average the famous 10,000 hours, even though one is zero and one is 20,000. they meet at the world championships. the guy with zero wins. there are sports like golf where there's some evidence that early hyperspecialization will get you pretty darn good. tyinger it goes back to 2. he could balance on his father's palm when he was 6 months old, which doesn't mean you're destined for greatness, but it lets you start practicing earlier. >> this genetic explanation of all this makes me extremely uncomfortable for a lot of reasons. partly because there's an extraordinary amount of work and effort that goes into becoming an elite athlete. and there's always the impact of

culture in all this. you talk in your book about jamaica, this tiny island that's a global sprinting power for decades and decades. and you point out that because of the nature of jamaica's culture, every kid has to try sprinting at least once. so in that way, the culture cultivates them noticing who would be the best sprinters as opposed to in america the best sprinters may end up in any other sport. if you go to jamaica, everybody knows the name of usain bolt or the great sprinter from 20 years ago, 30 years ago, whatever. so the nature of sort of social currency and culture also encourages kids to do their best at this thing that their uncles, their fathers, their mothers, everyone will love them for succeeding at. culture is a big part of this, isn't it? >> a huge part of it. there are more -- people of jamaican decent in america than jamaica. if it were just down to a

jamaican gene, they would be kicking our tails. their school system is just like ours with football. shady boosters. in the highlight of the year, the biggest entertainment event is the high school national championships where kids can gain local renowned. usain bolt, there may be two other countries in the world where a 6'4" 15-year-old would have been allowed to run track as opposed to playing another sport. >> david, let's talk about performance enhancing drugs. i feel like you can't talk about being born to greatness without talking about steroids. in the world we now live in, it's made it all very fuzzy. when we talk about steroids, it helps muscle recovery, athletes train longer, but can steroids actually make you a better athlete? >> steroids absolutely make you a better athlete. i have a chapter that discussed from a genetic standpoint why we separate men and women in sports. steroids are chemical analogs of testosterone. the entire difference athletically between men and

women is testosterone. you have denser bones. you pack in more muscle fibers, longer proportional limbs, more red blood cells, so it's good for endurance athletes. they can absolutely complete change your athleticism. >> before i let you go, i have to ask you one more difficult, personal question. as you know, you were all east honors in varsity track. congratulations. what portion of that was your genes? >> you know, i think a huge portion of it was my genes. i worked out so hard in college that i was, you know, throwing up many times in practice and people just said, oh, such a hard worker. for this book, i got my genes tested. they showed that while i did have a low sort of aerobic baseline, an ability to use oxygen while exercising, i had genes that made me respond well to training. >> maybe you're gist genetically disposed to throw up a lot. >> that could be too. >> david epstein, thanks for hanging out with us. i want to tell you about a hot new workout play list. that's why you watch this show.

it's courtesy of none other than first lady michelle obama. 19 songs. a lot of hip-hop. it's called songs for a healthier america. it's part of that let's move campaign. it features hits like "you are what you eat," "veggie love," and "we love vegetables." you're listening to "everybody" by jordan sparks and douggie fresh with a guest appearance of dr. oz. ♪ ♪ >> i love it. >> always think about what dr. oz looked like there before you do anything at a work party or ever try to dance in front of your children. that's useful on a number of levels. now, what did you guys think about it? we asked you on our facebook. ellie said, it is great and anned a trous mix.

willie said, way to go, let's keep these kids moving. amen. keep it moving with us on facebook, where you'll find a link to that entire album. stay with us. up next, we have a story that's been flying around the web at lightning speed. the high-speed transportation system designed by an iron man hills. the average pizza dinner out is over $8.00 a meal. this digiorno dinner from walmart is less than $2.30 a serving. replacing one pizza dinner out a week saves your family of 4 over $1,200 a year. save money. live better. walmart. and my family moved es, straight to chicago. d america is the only country i have ever known. senior year of high school, i was promoted to city court staff commander, i held the rank of cadet brigadier general. i was head of chicago rotc. i want to be a us citizen and i want to be a marine, i'm gonna be a marine, because i care. i care about this country. i care about those around me,

i care about my family, my neighbors. you know, i do want to give back, i believe one hundred percent in what this country stands for. let me earn it, you know, let me serve. i just want an opportunity, i just want a chance. to, to show everyone out there that, i am, american and that i will honorably serve this country wearing a marine corp uniform. if you have high cholesterol, here's some information that may be worth looking into. in a clinical trial versus lipitor, crestor got more high-risk patients' bad cholesterol to a goal of under 100.

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i am the ghost of cookies past. residue. so gross. well you didn't use pam, so it looks like you're "stuck" with me. [ female announcer ] bargain brand cooking spray leaves annoying residue. that's why there's pam. all right. this story has a lot of people talking. imagine being able to get from new york to los angeles in 45 minutes.

we're not talking about traffic, but that's the boast coming from tube travel backers, one of whom has an impressive track record. >> if the idea had come proanyone else, the world would hardly notice, but this idea of transporting passengers at 700 miles per hour through tubes, just like the jetsons, comes from, well, "iron man." yeah, that iron man. or the rich inventor that hollywood based the tony stark character on. 42-year-old elon musk is the billionaire who helped found paypal, then founded tesla motors, which has turned heads with its battery powered cars, then founded space x, becoming the first commercial company to dock with the space station. now he's talking super fast travel called hyperloop. >> how would you like something that can never crash, it's

immune to weather. >> on monday, he released the details. 57 pages of schematics, equations, and artist renditions of his plan to whisk travelers the 400 miles from l.a. to san francisco in just 30 minutes. the hyperloop tubes, he says, would sit atop giant pylons along interstate 5. a quiet ride without turbulence. >> it's the cross between a concord, a rail gun, and an air hockey table. >> a colorado company has been working for years on a similar plan, only bigger, going 4,000 miles per hour. >> new york to beijing, china, for instance, in about two hours. >> pretty amazing. that was nbc's tom costello reporting. how close are we to hyperloop travel? the senior tech editor at "popular mechanics," which recently explored the possibility. great to have you here. we are somewhat behind other countries in forms of advanced

forms of trains. this is something we're all very excited about, especially folks in california. is this a reality, though? is this something that can actually happen? >> so musk's plan actually is technologically very feasible. whether or not politically it's feasible, economically it's feasible is another question. although, by musk's estimates, the $5 billion or so it would cost to make this is well below the current proposal for california high-speed rail, which i've seen estimated anywhere from $45 billion to $80 billion. >> what about the political challenges? >> well, the political challenges are everything from literally politics, in other words getting people to clear this type of stuff, to the just logistics of actually building such a structure along i-5. imagine the construction equipment and stuff like that. imagine what it's like to get funding for something like this when everybody is cutting back. so there's a lot of stuff like that. and regulatory issues, of course, for a completely new mode of transportation that has no established regulatory framework. >> and some environmental issues. but it is a possibility. >> it's a possibility, but congress doesn't want to do

anything, so they want to do this train that would help us all. who knows. if you're into nascar, you're going maybe 200 miles an hour, maybe more than that. japan has a high-speed train where you're going 300 miles an hour. musk's train, talking about 600 to 700 miles an hour. and there was a 4,000-mile-an-hour train they're talking about. what is the experience of the body that when you are traveling at 600 to 700 miles an hour? and is there sort of a valuable sort of passenger experience while you're going that fast? do you have to be vaped in like dale earnhardt jr.? >> there's a couple of questions there. the truth is, actually, it's not that the disruptive the way that musk has foreseen it. he's trying to keep g forces to 1 g or below, which is pretty common to what you'd experience when cornering in a car. it's all about -- people don't feel speed. they feel acceleration. if you launch them like in a -- like in an amusement park ride,

that's designed to make you feel that way, but this is a public transportation system or proposal for one. they would do their best to limit acceleration and make sure people don't get the questionsiness. the actual ride, here's one thing i've been questioning. in the proposal i've seen, there's no windows. i'm actually curious about little things like that. what's it like to ride in a very confined space like this with no windows. there's a little screen that he's proposed will be put in front of you that would show you entertainment or environmental scenes but you can't see outside. >> not great if you're claus tro phobic. >> is there going to be a quiet car? >> i go on amtrak and you get on the quiet car and people are still doing the conference calls. i don't care how was i'm going, we need to get on that. >> do you confront them? >> might be a screening car. i don't know. >> are you one of those who confront those who talk on the quiet car? >> that sounds like a backspin. the question i want to ask you is, how important is it to have

this idea coming from a proven venture capitalist and creator, right? if this were just floating around, i don't think it would get traction. >> that's a very good point. with the et 3 proposal, the 4,000-mile-per-hour train, a lot of this stuff is out there and circulate package.musk really does have an established track record. he said he wanted to start a rocket ship company and people were like really. now a couple years later, he has nasa contracts and he said he wanted to make a silicon valley new car company. we now have very good cars that are coming out of the tesla factory. so musk has -- he's not a crackpot. he's a real guy with a scientific background and an established business record. >> glenn, it's great to have you here. i hope that this gets done. >> me too. >> very, very cool. thanks for being with us. >> we appreciate it. up next, america loves a redemption story except when he this he don't. confused? crystal will make it crystal clear. stick with us. [ female announcer ] made just a little sweeter...

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making news on monday, attorney general eric holder called for a more humane and a more pragmatic approach to criminal justice saying in part, as a society we pay much tool high a price whenever our system fails to deliver outcomes that deter and punish crime, keep us safe and ensure that those who have paid their debts have the cannes to become productive citizens. here here. those reforms will not only save us money, they will keep us safer because we all benefit when those who break our laws can be rehabilitated and resbeg greated into our society.

we all benefit when we treat those who break our laws as citizens and human beings rather than just as criminals. and yet, for million who have serve the their debt to society, there is no possibility of reintegration, no possibility of feeling like a full citizen with a real stake in our democracy because that most cherished and basic democratic right, the right to vote, has been permanently stripped away from them. 35 states restrict the voting rights of people who were previously incarcerated leading to the disenfranchise chaosment of 5.3 million people. the impact of this falls most heavily on men of color. in fact, across the country, 13% of black men have lost their right to vote. just as racial profiling and harsh mandatory minimum sentencing tears at the fabric of our communities, deny diagnose access to the ballot to millions leads to a sense that they are not full members of our nation. here, too, though we are seeing a shift in mind set even among republicans. my home state of virginia has

historically had one of the worst records on allowing convicted felons to vote. virginia mandate atwo-year waiting period before they can even apply for restoration of voting rights. to his credit, republican governor mcmcdonnell has used his executive authority to automate the restoration of voting rights for most nonviolent felons. this is an important step forward. though it is only a first step, not the final one. how must it feel to know you are not permitted to exercise your basic right and responsibility as a citizen of this country? how would it change your mind-set to be living in a country that thought so little of you, you're not even allowed to cast a ballot and raise your small voice in our great democracy? it's tough to imagine. here's what one woman named linda steel says how empowering it was to have her voting rights restored. >> i've been battling substance abuse for 30 years and in and out of prison all my life.

i've been clean for four years. my life has completely changed. on november 4th, with millions of americans i had a say about what happens in our country. there were tears in my eyes as i waited to vote. i felt like i was finally a productive member of society. i've never before felt like i could make a difference in terms of what happens around me but i walked down to the polling place on election day feeling like i made a difference. i realized how far i've come. amazing. amazing indeed, linda. we need more stories like that. we are on the march, but that march has a long way to go. all right. that does it for "the cycle." martin bashir, it is all yours. >> it's tuesday, august 13th. and while some threaten one nation indivisible, the fight continues for liberty and justice for all. >> drop it. ♪ >> the issue that is really dividing americans. >> a candid honest discussion of

race. >> those like me who believe in personal responsibility and self-reliance. >> a landmark decision on the stop and frisk practice. >> we go to where the reports of crime are. >> i've experienced it all over the world. >> core neighborhoods and minority neighborhoods. >> politicians don't care enough about the issues to be honest. >> and young african-american men disproportionately have involvement in criminal activities. >> the left claims the mind of every young person of color. >> black male offenders have received sentences nearly 20% longer. it is shameful. >> anyone who says that racial discrimination is no longer a problem in american elections. >> they're more interested in divisive politics. >> -- must not be paying attention. >> everybody should be treated fairly and the system should work for everyone. ♪