doing, he may be appealing to those soccer moms, but he's playing on some racial bias. and he knows that. he must know that, otherwise -- i have to give him a lot less credit than i would for intelligence. >> thank you all, that is all in for this evening, the rachel maddow show starts right now. >> thanks. thanks to you at home for joining us at this hour. the chinese state science and technology commission posted these images on a chinese government website. they are high resolution photos taken on march 9th. these images show what appears to be something floating in the south china sea, roughly here, in terms of the location of where those pictures were taken. because of the vague proximity of that location to the expected

flight plan of malaysian airlines flight 370 that disappeared this weekend before these pictures were taken. these pictured posted by the chinese government today have raised hopes that if that picture does show debris related to the plane crash it might lead people searching for evidence of what happened to the plane, to a potential recovery site. i should tell you the chinese government has not made any assertions that this picture of is debris. they are drawing no conclusions about whether this has anything to do with the disappearance of the plane. senior u.s. officials tell nbc news tonight they have no information on this imagery either, in terms of corroborating what it is we're looking at here, or the crucial question of whether or not it has anything to do with that missing plane the new image is raising hopes at least that it

might turn out to be a lead in terms of finding out where that plane might be, which has to be the first order of business and then the second question, if it's proven to come down in a way that has put its wreckage in the sea the second question is figuring out what might have brought that plane down. anybody speculating on these matters is just speculating, nobody knows if we will know. in terms of understanding the realm of possibility of what might have happened, it is right-hand to try to understand what has happened in the past, what have been the causes of planes, big commercial jetliners coming down. sometimes when you get on a plane, even at a big airport, you don't board through the jet bridge, that slightly bouncy hallway that goes right to the door of the plane sometimes even at big airports you don't go down the jet bridge and you get to walk across the tarmac and walk upstairs from the tarmac on

to the plane. i always like it when that happens to me. it gives you a good view that you otherwise don't get to see as a civilian of what these enormous miraculous machines are like up close at human scale. on lots of these different planes, these pictures of people boarding a boeing 737 and here's a mcdonnell douglas md-83. lots of these different planes, one of the things that might attract your attention as a layman as you're getting on to a plane are these acute shaped oddly looking sort of fragile looking small probe things that stick out of the fuselage. you've seen these? they look kind of fragile, right? this is what they look like on a commercial plane. this is what they look like on a military aircraft. they're called ptow tubes.

the basic technology of a pitot tube measures develvelocity, an instrument that measures speed. planes can't measure how fast they're going by rolling distance, it's important for pilots to be able to know how fast a plane is going. part of the speed sensing system on modern aircraft are these little tubes that stick out of the fuselage. and a malfunction in that speed sensing system is how we lost an air france flight in 2009, a crash of a big plane that killed 228 people. >> a commercial jet has disappeared. search teams are scouring thousands of miles of open atlantic ocean for any sign of an air france jet that was carries 216 passengers, a crew of 12, including two americans

on a flight last night from reyoi to paris. >> the flight left rio bound for paris, it's last radar contact before heading over the ocean was at 9:30. at 10:00 p.m. the plane entered an area of extreme weather. then transmitted an automatic text message to its base that its electrical systems were malfunctioning. >> eventually that air france pla plane's wreckage was found. we'll have more on that for you in a moment. what they were able to determine about why that plane went down is that one of those pitot tubes clogged with ice and particularly if a plane encounters with extreme weather, it's not an unusual problem. but in this case it ended up

being catastrophic. the crew misunderstood what had happened. the tube told the pilot something about the speed of the plane as they did not identify as the pitot tube having iced over. they made decisions that ended up bringing that plane down into the atlantic. it's not the first time it happened and it's not just the type of plane it happened to. in 1996, twice it was two different boeing 757s that crashed, both because of problems with their pitot tubes, these are fragile instruments that when the planes are on the ground, pitot tubes get covered up to protect them, like from the weather. or if the plane is getting maintenance work or cleaned. one of those crashes in 1996 happened when a marnt nens crew

put tape over the pitot tube while washing the plane. that inadvertently covered pitot tube led the pilots to a misunderstanding and a plane crash. the tube was not blocked by a piece of ice or a piece of tape, the other one that year was an insect nest covering up the pitot tube, and nobody noticed it. and it being blocked, brought that plane down. speed sensors, the speed sensor systems including those fragile looking tubes you can see when you walk up to any commercial jet on the tarmac, that system is known to have caused at least three commercial airlines to come down, all fatal crashes. sometimes the blame is something much less gadgety. in 1988 this aloha airlines 737

miraculously was landed by its pilots after the fuselage of the plane failed. eight people were injured in that incident. a flight attendant was ripped out of the plane and killed. that flight attendant was the only fatality. it's amazing the pilots were able to bring that plane down when you look at the condition of the plane. in 2009 you'll remember the miracle on the hudson captain sullenberger was able to land his airbus a-320 on the hudson river. that happened after the plane sucked a number of canada geese into its engines. the crew knew exactly what happened as soon as it happened and they knew how serious it was. >> we hit birds. we're turning toward laguardia. >> they could not get back to laguardia or any other airport. they found this nice open spot with only a little bit of traffic in the form of water

taxis on the hudson river. it was a bird strike that brought down that plane. large commercial airliners have been brought down by pilots apparently committing suicide while on the job. that's believed to be the cause of this crash in 1997, a silk air flight, crashed in indonesia. pilot suicide is also thought to be the cause of an egypt air flight in 1999, both of those incidents it's contested by various people associated by the pilots, but u.s. investigators believe members of the crew of the aircraft brought them down on purpose to kill themselves, as pilots, to kill themselves along with all their passengers. commercial airlines have been brought down not by suicide, but murder in the cockpit. a pacific southwest airlines flight in 1987 was brought down when a disgruntled former employee of the airline walked into the cockpit and shot both of the pilots.

43 people died in that crash in california including the shooter and all of the passengers on board. planes have also been brought down by terrorism like lockerbie scotland in 1988. that plane took off from frankfurt germany, there was a bomb on board packed into a cassette player, packed into a suitcase. a fire on board that was not necessarily a bomb, was blamed for this south african airways 747 in the indian ocean in 1987. a cargo fire was blamed for the crash of valujet in the everglades. in that case it was oxygen tanks improperly stored in the cargo hold. lots of different things can bring down commercial airliners. it's hard to believe after a list like that, taken in context, air travel is safe. compared to the other ways that we travel, considering the huge number of commercial flights all over the world that have taken off and landed safely just since i started this segment, air

travel broadly speaking is safe. but when it's not there's a lot of different ways that it can go wrong. and we have an empirical set of data, really well documented all -- from all over the world about why planes come down when they do come down. if malaysia airways flight 370 did come down, then finding its wreckage will be the first and necessary step in figuring out what was the cause of that disaster. but when planes do come down, there are as many ways to find them as there are ways for the plane's failure to have occurred in the first place, there's no mystery as to where the plane is, and that's true both in heroic and happy circumstances like with that u.s. air flight on the hudson, it's also true sometimes in unbelievably tragic circumstances like in lockerbie, when the wing of pan am flight 103 came down into a densely populated area in scotland and killed 11 people on the ground. sometimes it does feel like these planes vanish into thin

air, that was the case with that air france flight in 2009. they found some debris right away, right after that plane crashed into the atlantic, it took them five days to find much of the wreckage. and in terms of recovering the bulk of the plane, with the air france crash, that ended up taking years. it took until 2011, it took these remotely piloted undersea vehicles to recover the main part of that wreckage, because it sank 13,000 feet into the depths of the sea. in terms of the missing flight right now, the malaysian airlines flight, in terms of where it is, where it might be, where they're looking for it, it was a flurry of interest in statements from the malaysian military over the last few days, when they had indication that the plane turned sharply off course, which could have put it into position to crash into the straights of malacca. if it went down in that water, that water is not just a very

busy sea corridor, it's not very deep. if the plane on the other hand followed its original flight plan, it likely would have been over the gulf of thailand when it crashed. it's also very business illy travelled water, less than 300 feet. you would have to do nothing like the undersea exploration you had to do to find the air france flight. this plane went missing in the very early morning of saturday local malaysia time. there have been false leads before and false hopes before about finding it. initially they said they found an oil slick. it contained no jet fuel, it's not thought to have had anything to do with that plane. two different objects have also been found. both of which initially were thought to offer some hope of maybe finding the plane. one of them turned out to be the lid of a large box floating in the water. found by vietnamese authorities. the other turninged out to be a

bunch of logs that have been tied together. these latest images from the chinese government just found today, again, these were taken on sunday. they were taken the day after the plane disappeared. we don't know if these images offer more hope than those earlier ultimately false leads. if whatever these pictures show is related to this plane, it's worth noting these pictures were taken near the actual planned flight path of the plane. these pictures were taken on the path that plane was scheduled to be traveling. the silence not only of the crew, but of that plane's transponder itself is one of the mysteries that has made this search so frustrating so far. and has also made it such a mystery. coming up, we're going to be talking with someone who's been following this story from the beginning and very closely. stay with us.

hey kevin...still eating chalk for hearburn? yea. try alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heart burn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. alka-seltzer fruit chews. enjoy the relief! the chinese news agency reporting these images were taken at about 11:00 a.m. on sunday from a government satellite over the south china sea. the images according to the chinese show three objects that seem to be floating in the ocean, large pieces, 43 by 59 feet. 56 by 62. and 78 by 72. importantly, these images are identified as being in the very area of the south china sea over which this plane was last reported, halfway between

malaysia and vietnam. >> that's tom costello tonight describing these new images that lots of people are hoping may show evidence of the malaysian airliner. the images were posted by the chinese government with no corroboration from the chinese government that they mean anything in particular. what made whatever happened to it, happen to it. joining us now is barbara peterson, she's been covering this story from the beginning. thank you for buying here. what do those pictures mean to you, can you tell at all what those satellite images might show? >> what it does show is that at least we are getting an incredible amount of air and sea coverage, they are using every available means, satellites, helicopters, planes, they have

state of the art military aircraft. this is something that may not have been possible decades ago. we're using all the available technology, as far as what those images mean, it's too early to tell. in this type of investigation, there's a hunger for anything that we could go on. there have already been several false leads, that's the nature of these things. i think it's weigh too early until they can get to that piece of debris. >> the thing i find striking is the contrast between the amount of technology it takes to get not just those pictures but those specific size measurements they're giving us about what might be the size of those things we're looking at in those images, that seems like incredibly technical data. and the fact that they don't know which ocean to look into. they don't know which side of malaysia to be looking into. the areas they're searching have not only changed so much, it's bigger than a needle in a hey

stock. it's a needle in a field full of haystacks. the search areas doubled in the last day which is not the direction it should be going in. this is what's unusual about this situation, usually the stage in an aircraft investigation, they have a lot more to go on. even with air france, they knew within a few days more or less where they had been. this is really unprecedented. >> is that specifically because the transponder for whatever reason stopped tran pond issing? >> yes, and he don't know why that happened. i think the real question now is, why are we still relying on 1960s era technology to find this? basically it boils down now to a search for the black boxes that contain really what will be the most important bit of information in sorting out what happened to this.

and that's -- well, who knows, possibly at the bottom of the ocean, we really don't know. but there is a way to do that in realtime, to stream it over satellite bandwidth, and we would get that information instantaneously. >> if transponders were higher tech and checking in not by radio bursts, but rather in a constant and realtime way you think the transponder idea could be much more effective. in every day use? >> i think that most of the industry resists that latter option. i think this would be an alternative to the black boxes which are only useful when there has been a terrible tragedy like this, essentially what it would be is we wouldn't have to wait to find them, this could become available as soon as the accident happened. and the technology is there to do that. >> do you find it -- obviously

you said if there had been an utterly catastrophic event on board that plane, it would make sense that at that moment the transponder would cease tran pond issing. is there any other circumstance in which you could imagine why the transponder would stop or why a pilot would have shut it off? >> there's been a lot of speculation about that in recent days, most of the interpretations or explanations for that are not terribly encouraging. there are things like the pilot turned it off. why would the pilot turn off the transponder, it either suggests a hijacking or something else nefarious. all of which have all happened before too. a lot of these scenarios are things that we know can happen. and yet there is no evidence to go on in this case, to suggest any of it. >> that's what we're all waiting for. thank you for helping us understand this matter. >> appreciate it. we have a lot to get to tonight, including some bizarre

and slightly scary news that is emanating out of an abandoned gas station in rural north dakota. scary story, stay with us. $1,000 fuel reward card is really what makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans

that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ my mom works at ge. c'mon, you want heartburn? when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast, with tums. heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact. and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum... tums! and a hotel is the perfect place to talk to you about hotels. all-you-can-eat is a hotel policy that allows you to eat all that you can. the hotel gym is short for gymnasium. the hotel pool is usually filled with water. and the best dot com for booking hotels, is hotels.com. it's on the internet, but you probably knew that. or maybe not, i don't really know you.

bellman: welcome back, captain obvious. captain obvious: yes i am. all those words are spelled correctly.

tennefly new jersey just under 15,000 people live in tenafly new jersey, politicswise there are a lot more registered democrats than republicans.

but independents outnumber them both. still, though, president obama beat mitt romney by a lot. the mayor of tenafly is an independent. maybe it was that independent minded yet democratic leaning area that made them important for chris christie's re-election campaign. they could help prove that the republican governor had bipartisan appeal. the chris christie campaign actively sought re-election endorsements from local officials in tenafly. you can see where the governor's campaign wanted this thing. look at this growing story in the local press, this was right before election day last year. a borrow official on friday became the latest democrat to reach across the aisle and stump for chris christie. anthony barcelatto became the 60th democrat in new jersey to

endorse chris christie in his bid for a second term. well, now, thanks to new reporting for the new york times we know how the christie administration internally planned to get those endorsements, in order to get those very nice headlines heading into election day. one of the ways the christie campaign courted their top priority endorsements from local officials was to hand out pieces of steal salvaged from the ruins of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. to hand those pieces of steal out as political gifts. the year before the 2013 re-election effort by governor christie, governor christie's top staff appointee travelled to cities across the state of new jersey to bestow upon local officials pieces of the destroyed world trade center, this footage is of bill baroni in tenafly in 2012. the object he's touching is a piece of a beam from the world

trade center. tenafly was not alone, there were several towns across the state that got this treatment. here's a piece of steel being presented to the mayor of secaucus, new jersey. we have no reason to believe that the government officials who were being courted at these events knew that they were being given these essentially sacred objects. relics of mass murder as part of election year politics. according to the times the christie campaign knew what was going on. handing out pieces of the world trade center to impress people, and hopefully get something for themselves in return. new jersey was the only place in

the world that was treated this way, that allowed a political appointee at the port authority to decide who would get a piece of world trade center steel. for the other 49 states in the un york, including new york, and for the entire rest of the worlds, there was an application process, and anybody who wanted a physical remnant of that terrible day had to apply, and then nonpolitical career staff members would handle those requests. that's how it worked for everyone, except for new jersey. once chris christie got elected at least, new jersey handled it differently, in new jersey after chris christie got control of state government, the process of handing out relics from the world trade center wreckage changed just for his state. in 2011, governor christie's political appointee came to the port authority and he decided he would change the rules just for new jersey. the new procedure just for new jersey would be that bill baroni

would be in charge of deciding who would get pieces of the trade center steel. it won the be someone at the port authority who had been doing it for a decade. it would be mr. baroni. the times reported that is how the christie administration managed 9/11 wreckage for their own political gain. today the times reported that the christie administration has decided to stop doing that. at least the christie administration appointees have decided to stop doing that. the person who was chosen to replace bill baroni has decided she will give up the decision making authority over that 9/11 steel. the decision that bill baroni had ceded to his own office to use the ruins of 9/11 to help governor christie's re-election campaign. treating the relics like they were campaign buttons or swag bags at a campaign party. the person who has replaced bill baroni has decided to stop doing

that, and allow the person who oversees all the other states to also oversee new jersey. it's weird timing, right? the same week that the new york times is reporting this cringe inducing story about political scheming by the christie administration involving one of the most sacred events in american history. that same week, governor christie's new appointee says, nothing to see here, we're not doing it that way any more, we've had a change of heart. the port authority told us tonight that the new york times reporting had nothing to do with their decision to change the rules nor how new jersey was handling world trade center steel. so apparently they were going to make that change anyway, it's just coincidence that it changed as soon as the world was about to find out about it, and collectively wretch in response. just a coincidence. that's what they say. life's an adventure when you're with her.

and it always has been. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives,

swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. ♪ ♪ ♪

told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. (voseeker of the sublime.ro. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro. most of the pasta made in america is made from north dakota wheat. north dakota has super low unemployment, the angie dickinson comes from north

dakota. also ed schultz, fargo, north dakota. north dakota is a great place, and yet they're alarmingly terrible in one specific thing, that turned up today at an abandoned gas station in a small town in a very bad way, that story is next. meant. so. much. your quicken loans college basketball bracket picks could change your life...forever. ♪ the quicken loans billion dollar bracket challenge with yahoo sports. pick a perfect bracket. win a billion dollars. enter today at quickenloansbracket.com. win a billion dollars. but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. i saw my doctor. a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. we talked about axiron the only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal

in about two weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these symptoms to your doctor. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer, worsening prostate symptoms, decreased sperm count, ankle, feet or body swelling, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing while sleeping and blood clots in the legs. common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and increase in psa. ask your doctor about axiron.

you're an emailing, texting, master of the digital universe. but do you protect yourself? ♪ apparently not. when you access everything, you give everyone access to everything about you. but that's ok. while you do your thing... [ alert rings ] we'll be here at lifelock, doing our thing. watching out for things your credit card alone can't. [ alert rings ] and relentlessly protecting your identity. get lifelock protection and live life free. [ alert rings ]

marie currie, nobel prize in physics, chemistry. we have the word radioactive because marie currie figured out radio activity. she came up with that term. the unit we use to describe how radioactive something is is a currie, it was named for her. she was polish by birth. the first radioactive element she discovered she call ed polium. she worked with and discovered radioactive elements all her life and it killed her. she died by a form of anemia, brought on by exposure to radio activity. the second of the two elements has the added and memorable feature of growing in the dark, just like everything radio active on the simpsons. because radium grows steadily

over its half life for thousands of years, some elements of radium were put on watches. watch makers used to paint radium on the hands of the watches so you could tell time in the dark. for decades until the 1960s, lots of people wore radium painted watches on their wrist. just wearing that kind of watch would not mean you would be irradiated. it is radioactive, but in most cases you have to inhale it for it to hurt you. you need to get it in your mouth somehow. and people don't tend to lick the face of their watch. the factory girls that were hired to paint radium on to watch faces, they tended to lick the paintbrushes they were using to apply the radium.

they were doing fine work and they were small brushes they were working with. it was standard operating procedure to lick the paintbrush hundreds of times a day. and the radium girls in those factories died because of it. in the 1920s, the united states radium corporation was sued by their own low level employees who were dying from exposure to radio activity encountered in their every day work on their job. the upper level scientists knew it was radioactive, they prot t protected themselves from it but not their lower level work irs. a lot of the lower level employees died because of it. they sued because of it, and the suit became a foundation governing how dangerous our workplaces can be. radium is a naturally occurring element. it tends to turn up in mining operations, it's in the earth,

so much so that in drilling towns in the united states, in places where there is a lot of deep drilling activity for oil or natural gas, at the local dump in some of those towns they have installed these, giant geiger counters. radio activity sensors on a large scale. if you drive a truck full of drilling waste into the town du dump, thanks to geiger counters like these ones at the mckenzie landfill in north dakota, if you try to drive into the landfill to dump your land waste as if it is normal trash, the town dump should start beeping like a smoke detector caught in a house fire. should do, doesn't always. north dakota has experienced a huge oil boom. north dakota is the second largest oil producing state next to texas.

every day in north dakota, several dozen tons of these are produced by the drilling industry. it looks like a long net. it's a filter. they call it a filter sock, it's used to filter the wastewater from the tracking sites to capture the solids from the fracking. it includes salts, compounds and radioactive materials like radium. and because the filters catch all that solid stuff, the filters themselves end up being radioactive. because these things are radioactive, you need to take some care in throwing them away. no landfill in north dakota is supposed to take a piece of waste that clocks in over 5 picocurries. shale reporter said last summer, one of them came in at 374

picocurries. that's 75 times the radio activity that any north carolina landfill is supposed to be able to take. the people drilling north dakota are producing dozens of tons of these filters every day, and there's nowhere to legally dispose of them anywhere in the state. if you get caught bringing one of these in a north dakota landfill, it's a thousand dollar fine per filter. what do you think is happening to them in north dakota? this was found at an indian reservation in north dakota last year, nobody knows who dumped them all there. the tribe said they realized they had a problem when one of the trucks from the reservation had been picking up regular consumer trash tripped the geiger counters. they didn't know they had anything radioactive, apparently somebody had been dumping these filters in the tribe's trash cans and the dumpsters, dump

them on the side of the road it's radioactive waste full of radium, which can kill you. it's happening all over the state now, last month, look at this these leaking trailers loaded with thousands of pounds of radioactive filters were parked just outside watford city, north dakota leaking radioactive material. the company that owns that truck has been fined already. this new haul where they were piling them up, that is the biggest radioactive dump in the state. some of the filters maxed out the meters, the geiger counters. they could read as high as 1,000 picocurries, they maxed out the meters. this, these trailers is the worst anyone has ever seen in north dakota. until now yesterday at an

abandoned gas station in the remote divide county north dakota town of noon an, population 120. at a 4,000 square foot abandoned gas station on the edge of town. a place that looks like this from the outside. on the inside of that facility, it was stuffed with hundreds of bags of industrial sized black garbage bags filled with highly radioactive filters. more than 200 bags of waste on the edge of town. the guy who owns the property is a fugitive, he escaped from law enforcement custody in wyoming, where he was being held on a larceny charge. maybe at his abandoned gas station property in noon an, north dakota he's not the best landlord. the fact that north dakota has no state plan for dealing with the tons of radioactive material they're letting the drilling industry to produce every day, other than telling them to

charge 1,000 bucks a filter if they try to throw this stuff away. that has earned tiny noonan north dakota the distinction of being five times as radioactive a site as what humans are supposed to live with. the worst illegal radioactive dump the state has seen yet but no one's expecting it's going to be the worst one forever the mayor says she's furious, why isn't the state more on top of this? why don't they have a more stringent plan for getting rid of this stuff? good question mayor of 120 person noonan north dakota, one of the consequences of the drilling boom is literally radioactive toxic waste turning up on indian reservations and the abandoned gas stations of the state, and municipal trash cans used by unsuspecting businesses. and sometimes dumped along the side of the road. drill baby drill, keep licking those paintbrushes, we will handle the radium issue later,

some day. joining us now the executive director of the dakota resource council. mr. morrison, it's nice to see you again, despite the circumstances. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me, rachel. good to see you. >> how common are discoveries like this? not necessarily just the filters specifically, but stuff being disposed of improperly from the drilling industry that poses a threat to public health in your state? >> well, they're becoming more common. we're finding out more and more all the time. and there's 75 tons of oil waste generated in north dakota every day. about a third of that is radioactive. and most of that is being dumped illegally in north dakota. >> why aren't regulations and oversight, even of something as extreme as radioactive waste, why aren't regulations and

oversight in the state keeping pace with the growth of that industry? >> well, i think there's this -- we have the drill as fast as possible. we have to get the oil out of the ground as fast as possible. and other things just take a backseat to that. and that's one of the reasons that there is these kind of problems. >> in terms of how the -- >> it's not just limited to the waste. >> let me ask you about the broader picture about, both the waste and these broader consequences. looking at those trailers full of very hyper radioactive filters on that land in mckenzie county, looking at the gas station discovered today, reading accounts from towns across north dakota where they're finding this stuff just in their city waste, truckers just dumping it wherever they can to avoid getting fined to ship it out of state, it makes you wonder who should pay for

this stuff if the industry is going to these lengths to not. they're making the cost benefit calculation that it's better to dump it than to legally pay for what they're creating? >> that is absolutely true, rach rachel. we have a great economy in north dakota in many ways and people are very thankful to that, but the costs are growing daily and we're seeing those costs come out all the time. dakota resource council members have been tracking and taking photos and sending them into the state health department and to their newspapers for over a year, we've been talking with the north dakota health department and showing them that this is happening. we've been bringing their attention to these kinds of illegal dumpings of radio active waste for over a year. and we often get a deer in the headlights look from the department officials. they're not sure how -- they can't track it.

they don't know -- when the municipal land waste dump facilities turn them away and fine them $1,000 a filter sock, the health department told us recently, they don't know what happens to it after it leaves that dump. >> wow. well, we're starting to see what happens to it. >> yeah, well, what we have is that yeah, is that they are -- they have two rows. the one role that trumps the other is promotion. promoting the oil industry. and the regulatory part of the state government's job has definitely taken a backseat. >> don morrison, the executive director of the dakota resource council. a group of north dakota landowners, concerned about what's going on in their state. thanks very much for being with us. appreciate it. >> great to be with you. thanks to the state of michigan. there was a new kind of insurance, just for women, that starts tomorrow. it's kind of hard to describe. i will try to in just a moment.

you may want to grab your inhaler or paper bag or what else keeps you from hyper ventilate on your couch. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? an apron is hard work. an apron is pride in what you do.

an apron is not quitting until you've made something a little better. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? for us, everything. ♪ ♪ no two people have the same financial goals. pnc works with you to understand yours and help plan for your retirement. visit a branch or call now for your personal retirement review.

[ male announcer ] nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. anybody have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three types of good bacteria. i should probably take this. live the regular life. phillips'.

>> happy wednesday to everybody includelinging the great state of michigan. you're getting a new law tomorrow. specifically it is a new law just for michigan's lady people. and it has one of the toughest names in all of american politics. >> i think the fact that rape insurance is even being discussed by this body is repulsive. and for those of you who want to act aghast that i use a term called rape insurance to describe the proposal in front of us, you should be even more offended that this is an absolutely accurate description of what this proposal requires.

this tells women that were raped and became pregnant that they should have fought ahead and bought special insurance for it. >> despite that opposition, despite testimony like that at the state house last year, michigan republicans in december pazed an anti-abortion bill they call a rape insurance bill. it goes into effect tomorrow in michigan. tomorrow by order of the michigan legislature and michigan governor, it will now be illegal for your private health insurance in michigan to cover your abortion unless you thought ahead and bought special insurance just for that. your insurance cannot even cover you if you got pregnant because you were raped. that's why the law's opponent are calling it the rape insurance bill. if you want to make sure your abortion is covered in case you get raped, you now have you to buy special stand-alone coverage for that in michigan. if you can find it. if you have been getting health insurance through your job, maybe there's a possibility that

your insurance company might start covering that so you can pay for your abortion and start planning ahead now. but if you coverage as part of obamacare, then no insurance will sell you this new special coverage. none. not one company. they're not offering specific abortion coverage to individuals at any price. so michigan law now says buying separate abortion insurance is the only way you can have your abortion covered by insurance if you need one. but also that's not available for purchase in the state. the only way you can have it is this way. and by the way, it's not available this way. michigan, you are amazing. i continue to maintain that over the last few years, michigan state government has become way more insane than anyone nationally gives them credit for. the michigan rape insurance bill goes into effect tomorrow. it goes into effect on thursday. but the michigan rape insurance bill is not the most intense thing going on in michigan politics.

over the next couple of days we're going to have a new exclusive report on something further, something else going on in michigan, surprisingly radical and occasionally bizarre state government. that special report is ahead this week. you will want to watch this space. that does it for us tonight. esoo you again tomorrow night. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. we have breaking news about congressman dpar rarrell issa tonight, but first, there's also breaking news about the missing malaysia airlines flight. >> some startling new developments. >> the release of three grainy satellite photos from china. >> they were taken at about 11:00 a.m. on sunday. >> an airplane the size of a 7 777 doesn't just vanish. >> search and rescue teams are spread out over 31,000 square miles. >> the plane was originally on a course