in major cities across this nation, and there have already been arrests. breaking news in the fight for the little girl known as baby veronica. her biological father has been fighting to keep her is in court right now. plus, outrage over an app that tells you what neighborhoods to avoid and why so many are calling the app known as ghetto tracker, that's what it was originally called, they say it's racist. but, first, the "news nation" is following the president's face-to-face meeting with russian president vladimir putin over syria. it's happening right now. the so-called working dinner comes one day after putin called secretary of state john kerry a, quote, liar for denying al qaeda made up a majority of the rebel forces. also today in a disturbing video that's been released by "the new york times," from a rebel group this week, syrian rebels are seen posing over seven prisoners and then executing them. the "times" said the executions

happened in april and was given to the paper by a former rebel who had grown disgusted by the problems. it could pose problems for president obama and others who are trying to support a military strike against syria. >> i also look forward to having an extensive conversation about the situation in syria and i think our joint recognition that the use of chemical weapons in syria is not only a tragedy but also a violation of international law that must be addressed. we begin our team coverage with chuck todd who's traveling with the president in russia. first, chuck, let's talk about the details of why this is now a working dinner at the request of vladimir putin. this is where syria is to be addressed. >> reporter: yes. the opening session right off

the bat he essentially said let's hold off on a discussion of syria and save it for the dinner. it's my understanding what the president's goal is tonight. he's going to be out there at this dinner making his case and his hopes to get as many of these g-20 world leaders on his side even if just rhetorically. we already know for instance you look at great britain. david cameron is on the president's side rhetorically. he can't be there policy wise because of that vote in parliament, so it's things like that. talking to aids, they believe that they could give as many as ten of these leaders to at some point tomorrow, and tomorrow's the day that all the world leaders, they talk to their own press cores, they make statements, if they can get ten leaders, they know they'll get positive statements from turkey and from the leaders obviously of france and brittain, but, you know, can they get australia? can they get korea? can they get japan? can they get germany and italy,

if they can get that, they think that can help them win over democrats on capitol hill. so tonight the president is essentially making his case the way he's been making his case on capitol hill. he's doing it tonight with 19 world leaders. >> let's talk about, chuck, the comments made by vladimir putin regarding john kerry. this has to be part of the equation and certainly a question if the president is to secure at least verbal support from 10 of the 20, that has to be amongst the questions that they want answered as well. >> reporter: well, and you have to wonder how aggressively will putin push back at the president. >> right. >> reporter: he pushed back very aggressively in these interviews saying john kerry is wrong about al qaeda. we don't know. this dinner is just beginning. we don't know the atmosphere going in there. is this going to be point, counterpoint, or is putin, which he did in the past, at the g-8

he kept his mouth shut, he let everybody know where he stood, he didn't try to get into a debate with the president and cameron at the time. granted they were on david cameron's turf the last time they got together at the g-8. this is putin's turf. he may feel compelled because he's got allies that are on his side whether it's china, whether it's brazil and he may decide to challenge the president here and that's going to be the group dynamic that we don't know yet and it will really depend on the atmospherics. how confrontational will putin be right back at the president. >> chuck, i want to elaborate because vladimir putin didn't say that kerry was wrong or that the information was inaccurate, he used a choice word of liar and we know that that implies deception. we know that that immediately goes to so many people, iraq, which was seen as clear deception to eventually get us

into war there. >> reporter: and that's no longer hider here. both the americans and russians were trying to downplay the relationship here. it's fine. the chemistry looks bad on television. you have no idea. they no longer pretend that that's the case. both sides, there is some level of distrust, the question is does it get so bad that it makes a dinner like this unworkable. it's hard to imagine it would get to that point. on the same day that putin went out and called john kerry a liar, in an interview earlier he talked about, look, we weren't elected to get along with somebody in another country, we were elected to serve the people -- that was his version of an all the points. the question is which putin shows up tonight. >> thank you very much, chuck, for those details. let's bring in nbc's ayman

mohyeldin. he's in lebanon. he's following the developments in the region. that's the other important issue here, and we can't stress it enough, ayman, this humanitarian crisis. i think we get so focused on the votes in congress and what's happening with the g-20. it is an ongoing crisis with these people who are leaving syria and seeking shelter. >> reporter: you're absolutely right, tamron. at the end of the day what it comes down to is the people inside syria and those being affected by some of the local and regional governments that are under the pressure to provide for them, you really get a sense of why they're so nervous about a military strike. aside from the politics of what is happening and how the u.s. plays down the international support of the vote, the countries in the region, countries like lebanon where we are, extremely under pressure. they've taken in 750,000 syrian refugees in relationship to the population, that means that almost 1 out of every 5 people

now in lebanon is a refugee. the country simply doesn't have the ability to handle that type of pressure. in addition to that, lebanon's composition ethnically reflects that of syria in terms of some of the minority groups and some of the sectarian tension. it's a country very much divided by those who support the opposition, those who support president assad. they're concerned that as the fighting and violence intensifies with a possible military strike, that could spill over across the border. there have been car bombs, assassinations. that's why there's so much concern that the humanitarian organizations like unicef, like the unhcr and the red cross and others are simply not going to be able to meet the humanitarian needs of these people. we spent the day speaking to refugees and the doctors that we were speaking to told us that 50% of the children they're dealing with have mall nutrition. they're suffering from skin diseases because they don't have access to clean water. this is the major concern that these countries and organizations are facing and the

anxiety is increasing every day. >> and the anxiety also over the rebels, ayman. you've been in this region, you know it better than anyone. you've got this "new york times" video that was obtained by the "times" reportedly by a rebel who has grown disgusted with the behavior that shows seven members of the regime being executed. the syrian coalition and supreme military council want to make sure in their statement and make it clear that they have not and they do condemn this type of behavior but it brings the other concern of who the rebels are around if a military strike happens, if it's a success, who they are and what their agenda will be. >> that's right. right now the opposition con 'tises cysts of a lot of different factions. they want to remove president bashar al assad. however, there are ideological differences between these groups and that is a major concern.

what we have seen in the past two years is that some of the more extreme opposition elements that include groups ideologically affiliated or those that support al qaeda and their extremist allies, they have gained momentum. they're battle tested. they have fought in iraq. they are people who are coming to syria because of an ideological reason. because of that, there is growing concern that if president bashar assad and the opposition might begin to fight among itself between the ideological extremists that are allied with al qaeda and those that are the secular perhaps more western friendly organizations, such as the free syrian army and the syrian national council. that is something that major countries in the region are watching very closely and more importantly, there's no guarantee and there's no certainty as to who will replace bashar assad either through democratic means or continued violence. >> ayman mohyeldin.

thank you. let me bring in our panel. we have john and the chairman and co-founder of vote now.org. gentlemen, thank you. you wrote in a blog that you oppose taking military action against syria. what is your chief reason? >> first, it's not in my heart as someone who's been to iraq a couple of times. secondly, we asked our members, 360,000 people, and 78% of them say no. operationally it's very hard to do what the president are going to do. you're going to strike them with airstrikes that hurt him but don't take sides in the civil war. several months ago we opposed the president arming these rebels. when i was in the army, these rebels fought us. in 2012 they came into iraq and killed parts of the iraqi army. they are a fragmented group of different ideologies. we've long had guess what they look like. if you want to hurt assad, you

have to strike against his alawite forces that protect him in damascus. it's hard not to take sides. we are not going to go after the chemical weapon sites. >> you feel that this goal of the president, if the concept of this strategic military strike to go in and take out key parts, tactically it sounds like you believe it's not possible. >> how is it going to prevent him from using these weapons again or killing tens of thousands of people? >> in retaliation for a strike? >> there are people that want to kill him. how does this deter him from using these weapons again? it doesn't. we can't stop his ability to have them. we can go after his delivering capabilities, his missiles, artillery rounds. they're going to disperse these assets. it sucks us in. >> let me bring it to what we're seeing here. the washington post has this whip count as of 12:30 p.m. on the syria resolution to the senate, 13 against, 10 leaning no, 54 undecided, 23 supporting

the house, which is what we've been talking about. this is a relevant component here. 86 against, 92 leaning no, 103 undecided, 19 support here. this is still also even if the president decides to take action without congress backing him, this is a relevant part of the equation, we know that. >> very much that. and i think it's indicative of just how long a slog he has ahead of him, though john's poll from his members speaks to the sort of broader feelings of the american public. they're incredibly war weary. a poll that pew ran show that 30% of the public supported any action in syria. that's what we're seeing in congress. they're going back to their group. they have a lot of public support. >> you speak to this. you've been in war.

>> the administration says they're clearly on their side. why do we not see that call for action. the president says it's not his red line, it's the red line established by the world, john. >> it's complicated because bashir assad has a lot of strategic support. he has a russian naval base so he's protected at the u.n. really what you have in iraq was you had shiia elements. you don't need the exact same thing in syria. you have hezbollah, alawites. >> that has never stopped us from acting. >> politically the president can't generate that type of international support. so he wants to act alone without england. it makes it very complicated. specifically operationally because it solely falls on us if something happens to bashir assad. >> i'm trying to find out how do you capture the sentiment.

we've heard lawmakers say they've heard from their constituents overwhelmingly do not take action here. is it a sense that it is not our problem or where are we? >> there's an element of that. more than anything, it's a war weary public. it's incredibly hard for the president who ran for the office on the premise of getting us out of wars rather than in them to be making this case. i think also what john said, there's a real concern over what a strategic and limited strike means. the crux of their sales pitch to congress and then to the american public should the president actually make one is that this is somehow distinct from iraq and afghanistan, that this exists in a vacuum. that's a very hard sell at this point in time. >> the hard sell continues with this dinner happening right now with the president and members of the g-20. we talked with chuck about this, but when you have vladimir putin choosing the term liar, i mean, he didn't say wrong or that we've not gotten enough information, he chose to call

secretary kerry a liar. what does that tell you? >> he's not one for toned down rhetoric. >> no, he's not. he knows this is playing to congress and people in the united states. >> exactly. as chuck was saying earlier, he's looking to sort of influence, however subtly -- >> i saw one headline that he is lobbying congress. >> sure, one can extrapolate that. yeah. >> and, john, if the president does not get the votes he needs, what do you believe should be the next action here? >> well, i think he's in big trouble in his votes. we hear from a lot of our veteran members of congress who are very concerned about this who in their heart don't support it. we're hearing from concerned democrats. he has another decision to make. they'll come back to congress and try to rewrite legislation. there are a lot of people who talk to us, retired military, who although they didn't agree with the red line statement, nobody wants to undercut him in the eyes of the world. >> we'll see if that is the case. thank you both. still more ahead.

there are more protests against walmart expected this afternoon. massive ones. in fact, in a couple of hours they've been happening all day and already there have been some arrests made. more on what walmart is called a stunt backed by unions. plus, a controversial app that people are slamming. they say it's racist with the name ghetto tracker. it promises to help determine which parts of town are safe and which parts are not. some people say it's okay to have an app like this. it is our gut check. what do you think? join our conversation on twitter. you can find us @tamronhall and @newsnation.

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across the country today, hundreds of walmart workers and former employees are protesting what they say has been unfair treatment by the retail giant. at least three demonstrators

were arrested this morning in new york city as they attempted to deliver a petition to walmart board members. the demonstrations have been planned in more than a dozen locations. walmart is responding to the protests saying in part, quote, a handful of union or kes straighted media stunts made up of primarily union members and activists don't represent the views of the vast majority of the 1.3 million associates who do work for walmart. nbc's kerry sanders joins us live from miami where demonstrators are expected to gather soon there. kerry, let's talk about the timing there. we saw a little flare-up of this over the last christmas holiday where walmart employees have become vocal. why are we seeing this coordinated effort.

>> they're trying to get their jobs back by labor day. walmart didn't respond. they deny that they fired employees as a result of the walkout. they say that's against their policies. they say that employees may be disciplined but they certainly wouldn't be fired. the real issue here among those who are going to gather out here today and at other locations, 15 different locations across the country, is that they believe that wages should be higher. this falls on the heels of what we most recently saw of fast food workers saying they need to have an increase in the wages. the effort will be out here to try to draw attention to what they say are low wages at approximately an average of $8.81 an hour. those hearsay they believe wages should be raised up to about $13 an hour. again, walmart has not responded. in fact, they say that this is a very small individual 15

locations across the country as you noted. 4600 walmart locations. they're saying this is somewhat insignificant and not that important and certainly something they're not responding to. >> they're calling this an orchestrated media stunt by the union. that is not shrug off language, kerry. >> exactly, but they're not responding directly. as a matter of fact, they're being sort of aggressively, as you put in the words right there, to say that they're not responding to the claims that the people are making that, in fact, they're not even sure, they tell me, that the people who will be out here ever worked for walmart. >> okay. that's an interesting development if that's to be the case, but i don't think that that is. that's their version of it. we'll talk to more people affiliated with the protesters and find out more. thank you very much, kerry. greatly appreciate it. >> sure. still ahead, an investigation underway after this video surfaces of officers tasing and beating a man as he laid on the ground. the police department says this video does not tell the entire

story. what are they saying? plus, officials say they know what caused that massive wild fire near yosemite national park. we'll have the latest on the conclusion of this investigation. where would you go? woman: 'greece.' woman 2: 'i want to go to bora bora.' man: 'i'd always like to go to china.' anncr: download the expedia app and your next trip could be on us. expedia, find yours.

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grab your friends and family and start a team today. register at alz.org getting through airport security lines could soon get a bit easier for many passengers across the country. that's because the tsa is now expanding its expedited screening program to 60 more airports this year. that means more passengers who have been pre-approved will get to avoid hassles like taking off your belt, jacket, shoes, etc., taking out your laptop. you know all the rules. in a statement tsa administrator says, quote, looking for more opportunities to provide the most effective security in the most efficient way possible. nbc's gabe gutierrez has more on this expansion. >> reporter: tamron, more than 90 million passengers slog

through this airport each year. congestion here, the tsa says it is moving away from a one size fits all approach. for many passengers, it's the worst part of air travel, the dreaded security line. >> the lines are getting longer and longer and longer. >> it's not efficient. >> there is a big hassle with lines, with having to wait. >> reporter: but now more of them will be able to keep their clothes on as the transportation security administration expands its expedited screening program called pre-check. >> it would make travel much more enjoyable once again. >> it's going to be less stressful. >> it's going to save me time. >> reporter: currently pre-check is available at 40 airports. by the end of the year the program will pop up in 60 new ones, meaning 100 total across the u.s. in the next few weeks the tsa says it will also add more lanes at current pre-check locations. pre-check passengers have what's become an unthinkable luxury these days, passing through security while wearing their shoes, light jackets, even

belts. they can also even leave laptops and small liquids in their carry on luggage. until now it had been left open to frequent flyers. this year a fee-based application process will be taking off. for $85 travelers will be able to verify their identities and provide fingerprints at an enrollment center. >> this pre-check program gives them the opportunity to pool a group of frequent travelers that are familiar with the airport, familiar with the process and get them through in a faster, more expedient way. >> more than 50 million passengers have used the pre-check program since it was launched two years ago. most airlines participate. jetblue and southwest are expected to join soon, tamron. gabe, thank you. still ahead, the fda is looking into the maker of a popular greek style yogurt after the company waited until people got sick until going public with a

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these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! welcome back to our msnbc news. the obama administration now has one clear target, the left. joining me now to talk more about it is nbc news senior political editor, mark murray. mark, i want to break this into two sessions. you have interesting developments as well. on the right for people and powerful voices who are pushing for a strike. let's talk about the left here. what is the challenge or what does the president need to do at this point? >> tamron, he has to get his democratic base to support this, particularly in the house of representatives where if president obama can lock down a good portion of the 200 some house democrats, then that makes

it easier to go back to the republicans like john boehner and say, hey, i just need 50 or 60 house republicans to get those 218 votes you need to pass in the house of representatives. he has to work on his base right now. it's not surprising bill clinton had to pass stuff when it came to bosnia with his own base. >> right. >> so president obama works on his base first, then tries to peel off republicans later. >> let me play a little bit of what democratic congresswoman carol shay porter from new hampshire said on msnbc today. let's play it. >> we're not sure exactly what would happen if we intervene. if our strike is too light, we could embolden assad and he could claim that he was able to still stand and resist the united states. if we strike too heavily, we could accidentally upset the balance of power there. and we know there's an alphabet soup of extremists who are waiting to step in. >> so you've had a series of hearings this week. we know there have been other private calls and conferences leading up to today, but, you know, when you listen to that,

mark, you wonder how, for example, could congresswoman porter be convinced after everything that we've heard if those are her chief and primary concerns? >> well, tamron, those are really good questions that the congresswoman raised. >> right. >> that is one of the reasons why there is momentum and actually growing support for president obama to be able to address the nation, to have him talk about it. of course, you know, we've seen over the past two days secretary of state john kerry, defense secretary chuck hagel answer a lot of those questions. her question isn't original, but they haven't come from the president. the president being the leader of his party. the person who can give cover to the carol shay porters of the world to say, look, president obama laid it out in pretty clear terms. he was convincing. i'm going to go ahead and cast a vote for that. getting to the point is really the challenge. that kind of seems to lead to the president having to take the biggest step possible and actually addressing the nation to allay not only the people in his own party but also some republicans who might be with him in the end. >> you know, talking about

republicans and who may eventually support the president in the end, "huffington post" and others have noted sheldon adelson, a man we talked so much about during the general election, adelson and other gop donors, powerful folks are now backing syria's strike resolution and pressing some members of congress, republicans, to do the same. >> we have seen republican hawks who have joined the president, including folks who normally wouldn't support the president, including someone like freshman congressman tom cotton. tamron, there are two cross currents. you have a republican party that doesn't like president obama. there are others who are hawkish when it comes to the middle east, iran, israel. those are people that could be potential votes. right now what i've seen, a lot of the votes, a lot of people coming out, that animus against the president seems to be a stronger and greater force than some of the hawkishness we've seen from past republicans. >> let's talk before we run out

of time, you have the washington post and their tracker. i know you and your team are tracking this as well. at this point how would you weigh particularly the house here? >> they have an uphill climb. i would actually say that they still have one in the senate as well. the one thing worth noting on all these trackers, tamron, there are a lot of undecided people. that goes back to the point of the president addressing the nation. that will be interesting to see if he does that, if that can flip a lot of the undecideds into the for column. >> he's canceled his trip out west following the trip abroad. >> that's a good indication of what his plans might be next week. >> that's what it sounds like. more troubling news out of egypt today. egypt's interior minister, muhammad ieb brahim was the taurgt of an attack. he survived. at least ten people were injured. this is the first attack on a senior government official since mohammed morsi was ousted in

july. ibrahim is the head of the police force. no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. a muslim brotherhood association group says they strongly condemn what happened. the obama administration has made its most aggressive decision yet in applying federal benefits to same-sex couples. under the new policy, couples in legal gay marriages will now be eligible for veterans' benefits. the decision comes after the supreme court struck down the defense of marriage act this summer. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us with the latest. pete, i understand there was a letter also from the attorney general regarding this. >> right. the reason we say this is the most aggressive move by the administration is because all of the steps beforehand, including the one from the irs last week saying that same-sex couples could be considered married depending on not where they live but where they were married, all those depend on interpreting the regulations. but there was a federal law,

actually two provisions of federal law that defined who is eligible for veterans' benefits as a marriage between a man and a woman. so what the attorney general said in this letter you referred to to congress yesterday is, we're basically not going to enforce that law. we're going to ignore it and we're going to go ahead and direct -- what he said is the president has directed the federal government to have the veterans administration make same-sex couples legally married eligible for veterans' benefits. here are the reasons the attorney general gives in his letter. first of all, he says the wording of this provision in the law is just about identical to the thing that was struck down by the supreme court and the defense of marriage act. he says it's the same problem the supreme court identified treating same-sex couples' marriages as different puts them in a second tier that's unconstitutional. secondly, he says a federal judge in california reached the same conclusion that the provision is unconstitutional. he says the justice department

thinks so too. for all of those reasons the va will go ahead and recognize and has been instructed to recognize same-sex couples. that's the full panoply. pete williams, thank you so much. still ahead, a california police department under fire after this video you see on the screen surfaces of officers beating a man who was on the ground. well, some say it is excessive force but the department says the video does not tell the complete story of what happened there. ♪ ♪ (announcer) answer the call of the grill with new friskies grillers, full of meaty tenders and crunchy bites. [ chainsaw buzzing ] humans. sometimes, life trips us up. sometimes, we trip ourselves up. and although the mistakes may seem

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a youtube video show police in long beach, california, beating an unarmed man. people are questioning whether they went too far. it shows officers using batons and a stun gun on the man as he lay on his back in the middle of the street. both the long beach police department has now released this

video. this is what the police department is saying. it shows the suspect fighting with other men before officers arrived on the scene. they say the suspect aggressively resisted arrest and kicked them. our nbc station in la has more on the story. >> reporter: the young woman who shot this cell phone video -- >> oh, my god. >> reporter: did not want to appear on our camera today nor use her real name but spoke with us anonymously about her youtube upload. >> the footage is out there. the footage speaks for itself. >> reporter: as many as a half dozen cell phone cams were rolling, she says, as officers used batons and a taser on a suspect monday night. on a ground mr. lopez. >> he was not fighting. he was not resisting the police. >> long beach police have been doing a little video relosing of their own. a security cam from the licker store where the street fight began shows santos lopez in the dark shirt scuffling with two

men in white shirts. this was before police arrived. >> got involved in an argument over some beer. >> reporter: they claim that santos lopez refused commands to turn over at one point kicking one of the officer's batons out of the hands. >> he kicked the officer in the face. this is irrational behavior. >> reporter: it's not the first time video has factored into a use of force investigation here. in the summer of 2012 surveillance cams captured long beach officers allegedly stepping on a suspect's neck during a marijuana dispense sari raid. another one breaking a camera at an off site location. tonight his wife hopes it will back up his claim. a man in nothing but shorts is not a threat. >> he says, i'm laying here like this and they hit him again. that's not right. >> so the long beach police chief says they're conducting a thorough investigation into this case including the use of force

by those officers. federal investigators say they now know what caused that massive rim fire burning near yosemite national park. the u.s. for res service says a hunter allowed an illegal fire to escape triggering a massive wild fire. officials are withholding that hunter's name pending further investigation. so far no arrests have been made. fires burning since august 17th is still only 80% contained and authorities estimate it could take at least two more weeks before it is fully contained. dustin brown, that was the father of baby veronica. he's back in an oak courtroom one day after oak's governor signed an extradition order for him to south carolina. this is the latest twist in a year's long custody dispute between brown and veronica's adoptive parents that has gone all the way to the supreme court. a south carolina court ordered brown to hand veronica over, however, last week oklahoma's

supreme court ruled that veronica should temporarily stay with her father. the fda is investigating greek yogurt maker chobani to reports of mold in certain batches. they're officially recalling those containers. the move comes nearly after a week of consumer complaints forcing them to remove the yogurt. still ahead, backlash over an app that critics say is racist. the idea behind it purportedly was to help the rich avoid the poor. controversy surrounding the so-called ghetto tracker. that was the original name of the app. we'll tell you what they changed the name to. it's still our "news nation" gut check. be sure to like the "news nation" on facebook. we're there facebook.com/newsnation. small. too soft. too tasty. [ both laugh ] [ male announcer ] introducing progresso's new creamy alfredo soup.

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is @newsnation. feel free to tweet us. there's a lot going on today. here's some things we just thought you should know. we now know what apparently triggered new york city mayoral candidate, former congressman anthony weiner's shouting match with a voter yesterday. the voter is heard on camera making an incendiary comment about weiner's wife. his campaign has provided a lengthy video of the verbal back and forth. >> very nice. in front of children. that is charming. >> disgusting. it takes one to know one [ bleep ]. >> don't lose your temper. >> what's up? what's that? what's that? you wait until i walk out until you say anything. that's courage. >> we'll have a discussion. come back in here. i'm not afraid of you. >> don't use language in front of -- >> you do disgusting things. >> you're a perfect person? you're my judge? what rabbi taught you that.

>> it was hard to hear there. the man said you married an arab and that was what set off the reaction. polls show anthony weiner's in fourth place among democrats in the mayoral race in the primary next tuesday. min knee app poe lass mayor r.t.rybac was there inviting gay couples to marry in his city. he's hoping to attract lucrative gay marriage business. time now for the "news nation" gut check. a lot of you have sent tweets about this. a new app designed to help people identify and avoid so-called dangerous neighborhoods has been taken down after public outcry from critics who said the site which was originally called ghetto tracker was racist. users rate neighborhoods based on whether they think are safe or unsafe. other users can look at the map and avoid the ghetto neighborhoods.

it showed a stock photo of a smiling white family leading many to conclude that there are racist undertones there. after the backlash developers added pictures of black families and changed the name to good part of town. today it's inactive. it says, we are revamping the site to make it even better. please check back soon. joining me now sirius xm's michael smirkonich. they were working on the site. maybe they're adding latino families. any who, what do you say about this? >> beyond the obvious what i say is when i first heard of it -- >> i'm sorry. >> when i first heard of it i thought i'm going to go there and i'm going to get comp stat data. i'm going to read about crime statistics, murders, assaults, so forth. one of the worst aspects of it is that it's to be anecdotal. people who are knowledgeable about these neighborhoods are supposed to chime in and offer their thoughts and it's going to be the old story if it were to

continue of how anonymity online just breeds racism and viciousness and if you don't believe me, all you need to do is google this subject and see what people are explaining to one another about it. nothing good comes from this as far as i can tell. >> you know, that's a great point. it does speak to the anonymity. we all are public figures on air. you read some of the things that people say and we can dismiss it. there is a really incendiary tone particularly when you look at these kinds of sites. it is not like, michael, for example, where people can look at the area and tell when someone has been a convicted sex offender in their area. something based on stats. it does seem that they leave it up to you to determine what ghetto means in the original version and what is safe or not because what is safe for one person may not be safe for another. >> well, right. i mean, there's no fact here. it's all opinion. that's among the things that i'm complaining about. >> yeah. >> also what you're really

saying is let's write off entire parts of town and let's write them off in a whole host of respects, cultural respects, educational respects, etc., etc., when i think we're all best served when we're involved in different neighborhoods. that's the obvious point i shouldn't have to say. >> absolutely. it paints a picture that low income also somehow means bad neighborhood, that if you don't have wealth, that somehow you are a bad person, whereas, bernie madoff, a guy who was loaded from head to toe was ripping people off. that's what bothered me. a lot of times it was neighborhoods that people were not high income. because you're poor does not mean you're robbing people. >> you took the words out of my mouth. someone online said i wonder if wall street will be listed on that map when it's concluded. >> absolutely. i think there are certainly some people that have walked out of there in cuffs. nevertheless, michael, it's always a great conversation and i'll be looking forward to talking to you about something

else soon, something hot, i'm sure. that does it for us. in the meantime we do want to know what you think, what does your gut tell you. even by changing the name from ghetto tracker to what they did which was good neighborhood, whatever, do you think this website should have been taken down permanently? i've gotten tweets interest people who say, yes. keep it up. they want to know where the bad neighborhoods are. go to facebook.com/newsnation to cast that vote. we have an update regarding ecigarettes. a lot of you tweeted about that. a new report that says last year twice as many middle and high school students used ecigarette over the year before. last year 1 out of 10 high school students reported using these ecigarettes. cdc director tom freeden called the numbers, quote, deeply troubling. yesterday we asked should ecigarette ads be banned from television. 29% said yes. 71% said no. that does it for this

edition of "news nation." i'll see you tomorrow and every weekday at 2:00 p.m. "the cycle" is up next. when her sister dumped me. grandpa was my dad a good athlete? no. oh dad, you remember my friend alex? yeah. the one that had the work done... good to see you. where do we go when we die? the ground. who's your girlfriend? his name is chad. and that's where babies come from. [ male announcer ] sometimes being too transparent can be a bad thing. this looks good! [ male announcer ] but not with the oscar mayer deli fresh clear pack. it's what you see is what you get food. it's oscar mayer.

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thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. straight ahead in "the cycle," from russia with love. putin welcomes the president. maybe welcome isn't the right word. >> the president has the weight of the world, i mean wait and i mean weight. that's a double entendre. >> i'm krystall ball. the troubles the president is facing within his own party. one democrat did decide to join us in the guest spot today. >> i'm ari. all of that plus what the syrian people would like us to know. we're hoping to pump some facts into this debate.

wooing the world is day two of president obama's overseas trip. and while the focus was supposed to be on the world economy, the crisis in syria is quickly dominating the g-20 sidelines. the president is trying to shore up support from its allies. our friends at politico point out president obama is walking a fine line with g-20 host vladimir putin. obama will face the delicate task of trying to paint putin as an obstacle to justice in syria without picking fights with other countries that have expressed skepticism about a military response to the chemical weapons attack. how is this playing out so far, chuck? >> reporter: good evening here, abby. it is actually dinner time, and that's an important point because right now is this working dinner that's going on between the 20 world leaders at the g-20. as