who's that sitting between a fern and a hard place? plus, the new study on how police perceive young black men and the unlikely champions for justice in texas. first, the biggest mystery in the world today, where is flight 370? good morning. i'm jonathan capehart in for melissa harris perry. the search for malaysia airlines flight 370 and the 239 people on board is growing ever more expansive. this morning, the malaysian minister of transportation announced that the area being searched is bigger than ever. >> the search area has been significantly expanded, and the nature of the search has changed from focusing merely on seas,

we're now looking at large tracks of land in every country as well as deep and remote oceans. the number of countries involved in the search and rescue operations has increased from 14 to 25, which brings new challenges of coordination and diplomacy to the search effort. this is a significant recalibration of the search. >> the new search area is based on information reported yesterday that a private satellite company picked up signals from the plane hours after it lost regular contact. apparently due to an intentional act to shut down the plane's communication systems. the area stretches in two arcs from turk men stand to thailand in the north to indonesia to the remote indian ocean in the south. officials also announced yesterday they believe the plane was diverted from its original path as a result of a, quote, deliberate action. this morning, they said they are investigating the plane's crew and passengers as well as staff

on the ground and looking at four motives, hijacking, sabotage, personal problems and psychological problems. yesterday, malaysian police searched the homes of the flight's pilot and co-pilot. they even confiscated the pilot's homemade flight simulator. officials are coming under increasing criticism for not moving more quickly to expand the search area once it had radra radar data and for waiting for a week to search the pilot's home. officials in china were almost two-thirds of flight 370's passengers have been especially critical, demanding more detailed information and sending its own technical advisers. after more than a week of searching, there's still no physical sign of the boeing 777, a jet with a 200-foot wingspan that weighs 420,000 pounds without fuel. for more on this incredible mystery of a story, we have nbc news correspondent kerry sanders

live in our washington bureau. kerry, what's the significance of this search area expansion? >> well, it would sound like it's actually good because the reason they can expand the area is because they are at the same time eliminating areas. let's look at the map here. as we look at the map, first let's look at this is the known flight of where the 370 lost contact. then we move to the west. see the malacca strait there? that's already been ruled out. now, as we cut over to another map, i'll show you the areas that they've actually searched. it's all along the coast here. so they've looked all along there. they haven't seen anything in that area along the coast that tells them there's any evidence. so that now leaves this vast area here, the indian ocean. consider it's more than twice the size of the continental united states. they have the bay of bengal here. now, as you just noted, up here to about 11 countries or so up in central asia. again, some of that area is

mountainous, so it's difficult. as they start moving into this area up here, it's actually good because up here they can use the satellites, as you mepgsed. they can look at something because it's a two-dimensional view. whereas, down here over water, it's three dimensional because things sink down in the water. the other piece of the puzzle here, which i think is important, is you mentioned about how that piece of equipment on the plane was disabled. it's sort of up in the top of the plane. as it's flying along, it's sending out a signal. it's just sending back data bursts of information. in this case, about once every hour information about how much fuel the plane is using and how the engines are running, whether they're hot or whether they're running at the proper temperature. as they've been using all of that data, it appears now that it was intentionally turned off. no doubt it was in the first hour of flight. so it suggests that really going back to what the malaysian officials have been saying for

two days, that this was a deliberate act. >> nbc's kerry sanders in washington. thanks. now joining me from denver is the former investigator for the national transportation safety board and an nbc news aviation expert. greg, this is an enormous search area. how do investigators narrow it down? >> right now, jonathan, really they can't narrow it down. they're trying the best they can based on some very generalized data that they're getting off of the satellite in these pings. without the data burst that kerry was talking about, which would have given them very specific information as far as their location, now they just have a generalized area. i think that's one of the reasons that they've expanded this search to both land and sea. >> how do you conduct a search like this? where do you even start, and how do so many countries coordinate their efforts? >> it is a daunting task. and you have to, you know, get all the assets together. then literally put together a

grid of what your probability is of finding anything. so they'll assign each of these different countries and their assets to a particular area in that grid and make them responsible for covering that. again, not only will they do it on land, but they will do it on sea. the question is how they're going to do it on land. aerial observation is one thing, but if this airplane has gone down into a jungled area or a very remote area or even in a mountainous terrain like kerry described, that makes it more difficult, especially people on the ground. that's so much territory to try and cover. >> greg, explain the significance of the pings we keep hearing about connected to this story. >> the ping itself, the way the system works in brevity, if you will, is it's a box that is a repository of information. so the airplane has a number of different systems. it sends all of the results of these status updates from the airplane to this box.

the box then communicates to a ground station via a satellite and says, i've got some information for you, are you ready to receive it on the ground? the ground then communicates back to the airplane saying, yes, so they handshake and then once that handshake is made, then there's a burst of data. it's all of the data that was in the repository about the health of the airplane. what has happened is the flight crew has actually turned off the data portion. so even though the information was collected by the box, it is in limbo. it was turned off. so now the ping, if you will, is the airplane telling the ground station, i've got information to send you, are you ready to receive it? the ground station says, yes, i am. but unfortunately, there's no data to be downloaded. so it pings with no results, but it does it automatically once an hour. that's how they've been able to track how long the airplane was at least operational. >> greg, that's great information. thank you. >> you're welcome. after the break, the other

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we want to bring everyone up to speed on the story we focused on, on yesterday's program, the developing story out of ukraine. at this hour, the fate of crimea lies in the hands of its people, as thousands across the region line up to vote on the referendum on whether or not the region will break away from ukraine and move to align itself formally with russia. voters have a little less than four hours remaining to cast their ballots. given the ethnic makeup of the people in crimea, nearly 60% of them being ethnic russians, the results may be a foregone

conclusion. what we know so far is that russian foreign minister lavrov told u.s. secretary of state john kerry on friday that putin wouldn't make any decisions on crimea until after the referendum. thousands of russian troops have amassed along the eastern ukrainian border. yesterday, helicopter-born russian forces seized a natural gas plant near the border, while russia vetoed the u.n. resolution that said sunday's referendum in ukraine was illegal, casting a sole vote against a resolution. china abstained from the vote. and tens of thousands gathered in moscow in the largest anti-government demonstration to protest today's vote. while so much of the world seems opposed to the referendum taking place at all, it is happening as we speak. joining me now from moscow is nbc news correspondent jim maceda.

given that the referendum vote seems to be a foregone conclusion, what's the sense in moscow regarding putin's next move? >> reporter: hi, jonathan. well, this is when putin's chess game, if you will, gets interesting. let's start with the latest twist. that is as russia builds up its forces in crimea and along its border with ukraine, we're learning it's reportedly agreed to a truce with kiev, a government it doesn't recognize, saying there will be no military measures taken against ukrainian military facilities before march 21st. so what does putin do now? well, analysts say that he has two choices. he either accepts crimea's vote to join russia, in other words annexes it outright, or he acknowledges the will and desire of the krooe mi yan people to join russia but doesn't actually annex the region. i have to tell you, the vast majority of public opinion here in russia expects putin to annex

crimea, even if that triggers a wave of u.s. and u.n. sanctions. we're not -- now talking about economic and financial sanctions, not just visa bans. now, the question is whether putin will use crimea, if you will, as a launching pad to take other parts of ukraine in the east, for instance, where there are these ethnic russian compatriots that need his help, he believes. but so far, many of those krem lin watchers we're talking to are saying he's going to stop his land grab with crimea. that's really the big prize for him. and he'll keep his forces, however, in place as a reminder to kiev and the rest of us that at any time he can move and take more of ukraine. but really, the bottom line is that nobody but vladimir putin really knows his next move. back to you.

>> jim maceda, nbc news correspondent. thanks very much. now joining me at the table is "new york times" lead blog editor, viktoria de francesco soto, beth fui, and julian zelleze, professor at princeton university and author of "governing america." welcome on this momentous day. before we begin the discussion, i just want to bring up something senator mccain said just coming back from ukraine. expressed a very troubling thought yesterday. let's take a look. >> finally, let me say a word about military assistance, and this is my personal view. ukraine is going to need a long-term military assistance program from the united states, equipment both lethal and

nonlethal. when free people wish to defends themselves and their homes from further aggression and when they ask for some modest means that can help them resist, i believe we should provide it. >> that was his personal opinion, but the fear -- is that the big fear here, that there could be a need for u.s. soldiers or nato forces to go into ukraine? >> jonathan, last week the pugh institute did a study as where we are with this. we're very isolationists. we're the most isolationist we have been in 50 years. about two-thirds, about half to two-thirds of the u.s. public says, you know what, we don't want to get too involved in ukraine. even though you have mccain saying this, remember what america is thinking and saying. >> it's also within the republican party post george bush. you have a big divide with people like paul who are pushing back hard against anything other than sanctions, even if that is something they'll accept. >> i think we cannot

underestimate how dire the situation is. there's another poll last week by cnn that actually pointed out that americans see russia as a threat for the first time in decades. we are already at a new cold war. it has begun. the question is, vladimir putin is almost certain to annex crimea today or this week. after that, does he want eastern ukraine or not? we are before historical precedent here that is very, very scary. once before, the united states turned its back on eastern europe and let it fall underneath russia and soviet communist domination. are we going to do it again? how far are we willing to go? will we send troops? will poland determine that we must send troops to kiev or even to eastern ukraine to be prepared to battle russians? these questions are going to very quickly get past any of the popular opinion we're feeling now in the country. >> john mccain, 2008, i was covering him. russia invaded georgia. he proclaimed we're all georgians now. john mccain tends do go down this route. he doesn't necessarily reflect

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and get a $1000 dollar fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. this week on a shopping trip to a new york city gap store, president obama had his daughters' modesty in mind when he picked out crew-neck sweaters for them instead of the v-neck version offered to him by a salesperson. he told the gap employee, quote, i'm worried the v-neck is going to slip. sasha and malia may be lukewarm on their father's fashion sense, but he more than made up cool points with them because of another choice he made to appeal to young people this week. on thursday, president obama told ryan seacrest about malia's reaction to his tuesday appearance on "between two ferns." a funny or die talk show hosted by zach gag fa knack kis.

>> i was at the dinner table with the girls. i said, i did something today with zach. it was called "two ferns," i think. >> if the president had been a regular viewer of the series, he would have known the show's schtick is an awkward and antagonistic interview with galifianakis. the president definitely delivered. >> i have to know, what is it like to be the last black president. >> seriously? what's it like for this to be the last time you ever talk to a president? >> i love that every time i see it. the president also gave as good as he got. >> it must kind of stink, though, that you can't run three times. >> no, actually, i think it's a good idea. you know, if i ran a third time, it would be sort of like doing a third "hangover" movie. didn't really work out very well, did it? >> eventually the president got around to the real reason he was there. >> what we want is for people to know that you can get affordable health care. most young americans right now

are not covered. and the truth is that they can get coverage all for what it cost you to pay your cell phone bill. >> read between the punch line, and it's clear that president obama's turn at comedy was really just a different approach to another role he's been playing of late. presidential pitchman. with the clock winding down on the affordable care act's may 31st enrollment deadline, the president is making a final inning appeal to so-called young invincibles. obamacare's success depends on those healthy young adults signing up to subsidize older enroll lees. while the president was making a push to save his signature legislation, a few pearl-clutching critics feared he'd sacrifice the dignity of his office. unimaginable that truman, ike, jfk, reagan would appear on "between two ferns." a veteran white house adviser

tweeted. and of course bill bill. in fact, the american presidency has managed to survive intact through a long history of oval office occupants making with the funny. through bill clinton showing his sax appeal on ar sin yoe hall's show through ronald reagan joking at the height of the cold war joking about bombing russia, and george w. bush at the annual dinner of the radio and television news correspondence association making light of that oh-so-i had lair yaus time he started a war in search of weapons of mass destruction that didn't really exist. if anything, president obama's viral video moment was in line

with a long tradition of presidents showing their humanity by showcasing their sense of humor. but more than that, the president's pitch was indicative of his understanding of a more modern reality. an increasingly fractured media landscape where there's no longer a single, one size fits all way of communication. take a look at this 2012 study of where americans get their news. while more people overall are still turning to tv for their nurz, those numbers are on the decline. as are the numbers for all traditional news sources, except one. the only news source that is increasing in popularity is the exact place the president went to pitch his plan, online. but the proof is in the page views. more than 17 million already for the president's interview on the funny or die website. compare that to the 4.2 million who watched the president's last major on-camera interview when he sat down on super bowl sunday

with bill o'reilly. then there's already some indication that the president's time "between two ferns" may be paying off. on tuesday alone, the white house reported more than 45,000 referrals from the funny or die video to the acas federal enrollment site, healthcare.gov, which probably means the president's primary concern is that the dignity of americans who for the first time will be able to afford the cost of their care. joining the panel now from washington, d.c. is john braebender. john, i'll let you weigh in first here because i understand you are one of those who take issue with the president's decision to appear on "between two ferns." >> well, let me say this, i think the first thing you have to realize is there's a symptom of a bigger problem. that is that under obamacare, only 25% of the people who have signed up are younger people. for the model to work, it needs to be 40%. so i think the president was put in a situation where he now has to try to do something drastic.

the problem i have with it is i do think this particular program at this particular time when you have all the things going on in the world that you have this president losing the respect not only of russia but also many of our allies that he'd pick to trade the dignity of the white house and leadership for getting more web hits. i think what it really does is shows that obamacare has some huge problems that are going to make this something, anything but the affordable care act. it's clearly going to become more expensive for every american because of the way the signups are going. >> julian, i want to play a memorable moment from another former president speaking of the dignity of the presidency and of the white house. let's take a look at that. >> i know. i dent think weblgd get mr. nixon to standstill for a sock it to me. >> sock it to me? >> now, john, if the presidency can survive richard nixon saying sock it to me, then certainly it's okay for the president to

go on "between two ferns" to push a policy that is his signature policy. >> well, my big problem is that on both sides of the aisle, democrat and republican, we are tearing down the institution of the presidency in this country. i think both sides have to lower the rhetoric. second of all, right now with what's going on in ukraine, what's going on with venezuela, what's going on with jobs and so many places in the world, the last thing this president needed to do is when his numbers are falling to look like he cares more about humor and comedy than he does about leadership. so i don't blame the president quite frankly. i blame those people around him. sometimes you have to protect people from a bad idea. they should have tackled him to the ground before they aloud him to do this. >> all right, julian. has the institution of the presidency been destroyed because of "between two ferns." >> not at all. the dignity of the office might have been hurt by campaign finance and issues like that. not because of pop culture.

presidents have been doing this for a long time. jfk did it as well when he ran. i think in this media environment, you have to go on different kinds of shows. the line between soft news and hard news is no longer as clear as it used to be. i don't think this is what will hurt americans' impression of the presidency. i think if anything, reaching out to broader audiences is something that presidents need to do now. >> from an international point of view, the biggest disgrace that our country faces having lived in the u.k. until just last year is the fact we have millions and millions of uninsured americans. this is incomprehensible to our western european allies. that is the greatest disgrace they see for our nation. >> beth, i was going to ask you, feeding off of julian's point here, what option does the president have when only 5% of the american young people are getting their news from the traditional means? what other option does he have? >> right. you have to go where people are. that's the fundamental change in the media landscape now. you go where they are. young people are on facebook. young people are online.

young people are on these kinds of shows. another smart move, i think, with the president going on this particular show is zach galifianak galifianakis, he's the hangover guy. the folks they need to sign up are young men to the aca. younger women are going to sign up. younger women need doctors much more acutely than young men. young men really never go to the doctor unless they're sick or break an arm. so you want to get these young guys to sign up. that's the real key demographic. this is a very appealing form for that. >> i think the bigger problem is, why wasn't the president doing this five years ago, six years ago? my biggest problem with the aca is there wasn't an aggressive offensive play from the beginning. he had the millennials charged up in 2008. why didn't he follow through? perhaps if we would have had this going on in 2008, 2009, the she lacking of 2010 wouldn't have happened. >> i think that's the biggest risk. the political risk of the fact what the democrats were certain was going to be their ace card

in this midterm election is probably going to be the thing that drags them down the most. >> part of public policy is explaining it to people, selling it to people, especially something this complex. congressional democrats have been very frustrated with the president since 2010, 2011 for not doing that and allowing republicans to shape this as some kind of socialist intervention into america. so i think the problem with this is it might come too late, not that it's taking place at all. >> honestly, let's face it. the thing president obama's always been good at selling is himself. he's never been great at selling his policies. even though this is his history and his legacy, he's been very meek about sticking his neck out and owning this. it's fun and effective, but it's not the kind of sales job it needed from the beginning. >> everyone, stay with me. when we come back, i want to get into what the funny or die video is really about, and it's this one simple fact. time is running out. >> i want to thank president obama for being on the hope is. >> i'm going to press this. >> don't touch that, please.

[ buzzer ] >> thanks for the interview and thanks for letting me shoot my show here all these years. >> you've been shooting these shows here in the diplomatic room? who gave you permission to do that? >> bush. and i've got this runny nose. i better take something. truth is, sudafed pe pressure and pain won't treat all of your symptoms. really? alka seltzer plus severe sinus fights your tough sinus symptoms plus your runny nose. oh what a relief it is

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know, some of the other things we've done. >> that was white house press secretary jay carney on tuesday talking about some of the many ways the administration is letting americans know that time is running out to enroll in a health care plan. the enrollment period, which ends on march 31st, was intended to insure people purchase coverage before they get sick and really need it. so far, 4.2 million people have signed up, but with just more than two weeks left, that number still falls far short of the 7 million benchmark the administration hopes to reach by the end of this month. and while the white house has long predicted a last-minute surge in signups, president obama isn't leaving that to chance. with the clock ticking down, he's giving it the full-court press. who better to recruit for an assist on obamacare than the guy who always comes through in the clutch? >> hi. i'm lebron james. i know how important it is to take care of yourself, your friends, and your family. that's why i want to tell you about the health insurance marketplace at healthcare.gov.

>> so beth, i'm going to throw this to you. actually, vicky. is the president communicating the urgency of the impending deadline? >> he is. he's procrastinated. again, i'm afraid it's a little too late for all of this. however, there are two weeks, and the millennials and latinos are another key group the president has to get. we were just talking off air, march madness. i think this is a key time to get to this demographic. i also think the president should have done a telanovela to try to get the latino population engaged. >> so how realistic is it, though, do we think that millennials with two weeks before the deadline, that they're really going to come out and flood healthcare.gov and sign up at the very last minute? i mean, it did happen in massachusetts when massachusetts did the same thing. >> it's realistic to expect a surge, but the two problems are

not having enough people and not having enough young people. the administration is very aware that the premise of this program is to bring all these people in to lower the cost. so i do think there's a sense of urgency. i don't think he can sell it based on urgency. he has to sell it based on quality. he has to be careful he's saying the right thing to these mil millennia millennials. >> john, how will the president and affordable care act be judged if the enrollment numbers don't meet the white house goal? >> well, it's hard to judge because their original goal was 7 million. then they lowered it down to 6 million. a study came out and found only 27% of the people signing up were uninsured to begin with. and, you know, you also have this problem of the younger people not signing up. but i find the real irony is that while republicans have been talking about repealing obamacare, you have this president basically delaying the mandate for businesses, delaying the mandate for individuals to sign up and changing the hardship rules so if you're

breathing, you basically qualify. he seems to be the only person really trying to repeal it at this point. >> real quick question here, are we making a mistake by focusing on this march 31st deadline and not thinking about the fact that the affordable care act is on the books and this is a long-term project? >> yes, that's what we should be focusing on. the point is all these people are signing up, maybe a little short of the numbers they wanted, but nonetheless people are gradually getting on to it. you can't take away something people have. the republican argument is over. how do you take away a right or an entitlement that they have? that's the problem with social security if you're a republican and think there's too much public spending on medicare. people like these programs, and people are going to like obamacare once they're on it and taking advantage of it. >> and we see red states signing up at higher levels than blue states. the people previously against the aca or maybe lean republican, they're like, oh, this isn't so bad. >> if the democrats actually have kind of suffered their

nightmare scenario in the midterm elections and lose the senate as well as not having the house, if that happens, republicans may well try to undo something people have. if not enough people signed up for it, they may pay a large price. >> they've been running on repeal, but they haven't talked a whole lot about they're going to repeal and replace it with what? it used to be repeal, replace. then it just became repeal. >> and the idea of repealing something where people have expectations of benefits is extraordinarily difficult. we're talking millions of people who will have a backlash against this. so the history of all programs is it takes time to get them right. there's a lot of back and forth. there's a lot of mistakes made. even social security. it wasn't until 15 years after it was created that policymakers in washington said this thing is going to stick. so i think these deadlines, i understand them, but we can't measure its success yet. >> that's a good point. john, thanks so much for being with us today. >> thank you. >> up next, we'll get a fresh report from texas where the effort to boost signups is

underway right now. our reporter is on the ground with the up close and personal scoop. that's next. first, the latest on missing malaysia airlines flight 370. the search was greatly expanded this morning to include large tracts of land in central asia as well as deep and remote parts of the indian ocean. still, no sign of the missing plane. stay with msnbc throughout the day for this developing story. hey there, i just got my bill, and i see that it includes my fico® credit score. yup, you get it free each month to help you avoid surprises with your credit. good. i hate surprises.

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for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. hi boys! i've made you campbell's chunky new england clam chowder. wow! this is incredible! i know. and now it has more clams! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. what? [ male announcer ] it fills you up right. we've been talking about president obama's multifaceted national push to get people to sign up for health coverage before the enrollment deadline, but all of its efforts ultimately boil down to this. individual americans assessing their health coverage needs and taking the time to enroll either online, by mail, over the phone, or in person with specially trained community navigators. and there's one organization, enroll america, that has been working to make sure as many of those people as possible get connected to coverage before time runs out.

for a look at exactly what that looks like on the ground, let's go to houston, texas, the state with the highest number of uninsured people in the country, where thegrio.com political editor perry bacon has been reporting on efforts underway this weekend to boost enrollment. perry, what is enroll america's strategy for getting people to sign up? >> they're trying to go everywhere they can so they had five events. it's like being at the end of a presidential campaign. they're trying to touch everybody they possibly can. i went to several events yesterday. two at churches, one at a community center. it's a lot of older people, a lot of older women who want to find out -- some of them don't use computers very well. when you go to these events, you can talk to somebody who has a computer in front of them. they lay out for you, here are your options, and they help you sign on. it takes an hour at times. that's the average time. it makes people feel more

comfortable they can do it in person. >> one of the things, perry -- vicky brought this up earlier about latinos and them not coming out and signing up for the affordable care act. does enroll america reach out to latinos? have you seen -- since you're on the ground, what are they doing? >> at each event, the city of houston, despite rick perry being opposed to the law, this is his funding translator. there's a lot of events around town where they have -- yesterday, there was probably 100 people, all latino, all of whom were signed up. all of the navigators spoke spanish there. there's a very big focus here on people who speak spanish and making sure they enroll in high numbers. texas is among the 20 cities -- houston is among the 20 cities

that enroll america is very focused on. >> so perry, what is turnout looking like? how many people are they reaching? >> so some of these events are very small. i went to one at a church where there were like ten people. that was by design. they want to catch anybody they can. the community center had about 500 people in a four-hour period coming to these events. the vast majority of people are going to sign up online. they're trying to catch people who are for whatever reason afraid to do it online at their home and need extra help. they're trying to catch whoever they can at these events. there's a lot of enrollment going on at churches happening next week where your pastor will talk about -- like, obama had a conference call with pastors a few weeks ago. they want pastors to talk about during their sermons why you need to enroll in health insurance. >> perry bacon, thanks very much. we need to take a quick break. when we come back, after the loss in florida, will democrats rise to the occasion, or will they sink? plus, the latest on the missing malaysia airlines jet. stay with us.

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we're going to get back to our political conversation in a moment, but first the latest on the missing malaysia airlines flight 370. just this morning, we learned that the search area has been expanded, stretching in two arcs, one through central asia from turkmenistan to thailand and one from indonesia to the remote indian ocean. here's the transportation minister at a press conference earlier today. >> the search area has been significantly expanded, and the nature of the search has changed. we're now looking at large tracts of land crossing 11 countries as well as deep and remote oceans. the number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation has increased from 14 to 25, which brings new challenges of coordination and diplomacy to the search effort. this is a significant

recalibration of the search. >> the plane with 239 passengers and crew aboard has been missing since march 8th. investigators believe someone on board deliberately took the plane off course and disabled its communication systems, but we have no word yet on a possible motive. stay with msnbc today for the latest developments on this story. for now, we turn back to president obama, his messaging efforts on the aca, and the political football the issue continues to be. and republicans are eager to make the case that the law is a fumble for the president and the democratic party. on friday, think progress reported that obamacare opponents have already run more than 30,000 television ads attacking the health care law and democratic candidates who support it and this week brought an early indication that for one republican candidate at least it was money well spent. on tuesday in the special election for a house seat in florida's 13th district, democratic candidate alex sink lost to republican lobbyist david jolly after sink's

campaign was targeted with what the united states called, quote, a tsunami of advertisements tying her to president obama's health care law. so i'm going to bring this open to the panel. is this special election an indicator of what's to come in the midterm elections? vicky, you're shaking your head no. >> for every instance we have of a special election going one way, we have another one going the opposite way. i don't think it's a good crystal ball. i think what's going to happen in the midterm is going to be pretty boring. we're not going to have a wave. the republicans have already won as many seats as they can win. maybe there will be a couple seats changes hands, but that's about it. also, looking in terms of the generic ballot, the democrats have a slight edge. that's balanced out by the approval rating of president obama. no big story in the house. in the senate, that's where we're going to see the action. >> huge question mark. >> that is. but in terms of the house of representatives, which people are trying to use as a crystal ball, it's a no go. >> this was a very republican

district, in fact. you actually can't go by this special election. the fact is the senate landscape looks very dangerous for democrats. the fact that the president is more unpopular than he's ever been in his entire tenure and the fact the aca rollout has been a terrible failure, means the republicans will get to paint democrats with this brush. there's no way to escape it. i think that's really, really dangerous for the senate hopes of the democrats. >> and the crystal ball you have is history. historically the second midterm goes poorly for the party of the president. other than bill clinton in 1998, these don't go well. >> the whole thick abong about tsunami of ads, that's really a concern. money isn't the only thing that wins elections, but it's a lot of it. if democrats don't get into the game, it's going to be very, very dangerous for these democratic senate candidates and senate incumbents. we have democrat super pacs

jumping up for hillary clinton, who maybe isn't even running for president. how about people stepping up and saving this president? >> and let's not forget the states also. we're looking at the house. we're looking at the senate. all politics is local. the type of policy that affects us day to day from abortion rights to immigration happening at the local level is at the state legislatures. so we also have to keep an eye on that. >> and republicans already have a majority of the states. >> as people live with the affordable care act, the longer they live with obamacare and the benefits they get from it, does that help change the messaging for democrats leading into the november election? >> not in terms of the midterms. >> you don't think if democrats were to go around the country and say, hey, your kids are on your health insurance until they're 26 thanks to the affordable care act, that you can get insurance now even though you have this pre-existing condition, thanks to the affordable care act.

they can say that now. >> they've been saying that. they've been saying that for months. is hasn't worked. it hasn't made a difference. >> there's still a lot of uncertainties about the law. that counteracts some of the positives at this moment you can sell. some of the delays that the administration itself has done make the administration and its program vulnerable to the attack that we've heard that something is wrong with this. i think it's going to take a little more time until that argument can settle in. >> you know what's going to happen is after the midterms, if the senate goes to the republicans and they start talking about repealing the law, that's when people are going to wake up and say, hey, wait a minute, that's not what i wanted out of this election. that's when 2016 will make a big difference. >> it's getting better and better for hillary clinton. >> thank you, perry bacon, for being with us. thank you to our panel here in new york. coming up next, a new study reveals disturbing trends about the perception of young black men in america. there's more nerdland at the top of the hour. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china,

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welcome back. we want to bring you an update on the malaysia airlines flight 370. the search area has been expanded into two arcs. >> the search area has been significantly expanded and the nature of the search has changed fr from. we are now looking at large tracts of land stretching across wasn countries as well as deep and remote oceans. the number of countries involved has increased from 14 to 25, which brings new challenges of coordination and diplomacy to

the search efforts. this is a significant recalibration of the search. >> the new search area is based on information that a private satellite company picked up signals from the plane hours after it lost regular contact. the plane, with 239 passengers and crew aboard, has been missing since march 8th. investigators believe someone on board deliberately took the plane off course and disabled its communications systems, but we have no word yet on a possible motive. this morning, malaysian officials said they are investigating the plane's crew and passengers as well as staff on the ground and looking at four motives, hijacking, sabotage, personal problems, and psychological problems. yesterday, malaysian police searched the homes of the flight's pilot and co-pilot, and they even confiscated the pilot's homemade flight simulator. we'll continue to bring you the latest on this story throughout the day here on msnbc. but now i want to turn to an incredible new report that couldn't be more timely coming in the wake of stories involving trayvon martin and jordan davis.

although we are in 2014, when it comes to race, we are reminded all too frequently that it's an area where we will still need lots of work. a new report published in the journal of personality and social psychology and called "the essence of innocence, consequences of dehumanizing black children" reminded me of this very fact. last year i wrote about the hate generated simply by my writing about trayvon martin. at that time, the hateful rhetoric that trayvon martin was a thug who deserved to die was as strong as ever. some readers took issue with the photo of trayvon martin that i used, especially the one that showed him to be young and fresh faced, the one you're looking at now. which he was. one reader went so far as to chide me for not using what he said was the up-to-date picture of trayvon martin. the only problem, this is not trayvon martin. this is 34-year-old hip-hop artist and actor the game. not only had trayvon martin just

turned 17 when he was shot and killed, the only tattoos on his body as revealed bit medical examiner were on his right arm and left wrist. needless to say, instead of ledding jesus take the wheel, i let the reader have it. one would have thought that that was that. then the read r responded with this. the photo was sent from someone who i believe is a trustworthy source. if that photo is not of trayvon martin, i apologize. if? seriously? this is a term for the assumption this reader made about trayvon martin without even checking to see if that picture was an accurate representation. it is the insidious thing called implicit bias. implicit bias referres to the attitudes that affect our understanding and decisions in an unconscious manner. those attitudes force us to have feelings about other people because of their race, ethnicity, age, even appearance. that's exactly what this new report found.

that an african-american boy can be seen as less innocent than their white counterparts. and one of the most chilling findings in the report was how much more police use force against young african-american children who are under the age of 18. the study shows that this dehumanization of young african-american boys and men is compounded by the fact that they're often routinely estimated to be older than their actual age. these findings are among many examples that show us the struggle continues when it comes to protecting our young african-american boys and men. joining us from california is a

professor of social psychology at ucla and director of the center for policing equity. philip is also co-author of "the essence of innocence" report. philip, i want to come to you first. let me start with the amount of force that police use against young african-american boys. what did your study show? >> so in the study that we did, the officers that participated showed they had use of force about three times as high towards black children as towards white children or latino children. it's really important to note that these are just the officers that participated in this study from one department. perhaps the most distressing thing is i can't tell you what the rates of disparity are for black children across the country because there are no national data on police use of force or police behavior generally, which is part of what the center for policing equity is trying to do across the board. trying to put together national data so we can at least know where we are on exactly those

issues. >> philip, was there a reason behind why there was such an overestimation of age when it comes to young african-american boys? >> well, we believe there is a reason why. this is now confirming evidence that social psychologists are beginning to see. in our minds, we represent particularly those young men that we imagine are possibly dangerous to be older than they are so that we're essentially justifying the threat that we feel. so if we're seeing them as maybe suspected of a felony, suspected of a misdemeanor, suspected of any crime, that black as opposed to white or latino in our study, boys those folks we're seeing as older. it justifies our threat an affirmative response to that threat. >> this implicit bias is not new. all of us around this table know it. but is it helpful to have a study like this out there to educate folks on this? >> absolutely. in fact, when philip talks about the fact that there is not a

national database of police brutality or police interactions with black youth that are inappropriate, it actually is a consequence of a much deeper and richer history where we've not asked the kinds of questions that tell us something that is pathological on the other side of the color line. for example, we used to know that there were italian-american, irish-american, german-american criminals in our midst. it was what animated the progressive era in the 1920s, 1930s. at a certain point, we said, oh, they're all white. it normalized behavior amongst those groups. in other words, our capacity to study a problem is a consequence of the racial choices we make in policy setting. so the fact we don't have a national database of police brutality, the fact we don't actually have a long, deep tradition of implicit bias grows out of the fact we are actually not making equitable choices about what's wrong in our community. therefore, only black bodies bear the burden of having a

problem in our society by virtue of even our data set. so what philip is doing is actually revolutionary. >> the other thing in terms of psychology is these biases tend to be implicit. we do know that once an implicit bias comes to the floor that you recognize, there's this bias towards young black men, you can counteract it. it doesn't happen overnight, but i think this is where you can intervene. in an ideal world, you would have training programs for police officers to counteract that bias. knowledge is power. we know it exists, let's take care of it. >> philip, tell people why it's important to understand why these biases and this dehumanization can leave young men of color more susceptible to having violence perpetuated against them. >> absolutely. one of the most important things about childhood, one of the essential characteristics of childhood is children are innocent. they're needing of our protection. if we take away that innocence and that childhood protection early, then what we're doing is

exposing a population to greater risk. i want to cut in here a little bit on one of the elements we've been touching on. this is not just a police officer problem. it's very important to understand that we did this with police officers, it was done earlier with parole officers. we also do this with very liberal college undergraduates who show the same kinds of effects. if anything, sometimes they're even worse. so this is a human problem. it's just that the consequences are way worse when it comes to the area of policing, which is why the center for policing equity is putting together a national database, not just on use of force, but also on stops so we can begin to measure those things we most need to imagine. >> i think this study is so critical to come to the floor. you're right. the key is to name implicit bias. we're in an era that when anybody suggests someone is being racist -- and i'm so thankful you got on top of the trayvon martin conversation, about putting up images of the

wrong person. whenever we talk about racism, you have white people who say, oh, you're just being a reverse racist for even bringing this to the floor. the idea that implicit bias exists is something we should talk about. we need to see black boys as the victims that they are. this conversation now is creating a space for us to do that. trayvon martin was a victim but wasn't allowed to be because he wasn't allowed to be vulnerable because he wasn't allowed to have empathy. i think this is a great study to create that space for us to talk about that. >> and he wasn't allowed to be a kid. >> little boy. >> yeah. thank you, philip, in los angeles. >> thank you. >> when we come back, i want to get into how some of these implicit bias assumptions sometimes appear to extend to our elected officials. before we go to a break, though, this update on missing malay that airlines flight 370. the french minister of transportation today announced that france is sending to malaysia tle investigators from the bureau of aviation investigation. the agency that was responsible for investigating the crash of air france 447 in the atlantic ocean in 2009.

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congressman paul ryan wasn't the only politician walking back a statement this week because of its perceived bias. minnesota state representative also found himself in a bit of hot water after he tweeted the following on sunday night. let's be honest, 70% of teams in nba could fold tomorrow and nobody would notice a difference with the possible exception of increase in street crime. although he initially stuck by his words, he had this to say on monday. >> today i want to apologize for my comments and promise everybody that i will do my best in the future to not repeat those mistakes. i don't have a racist bone in my body.

i pride myself that i have tutored in inner city minneapolis. >> okay. that was another jesus take the wheel moment. isn't his tweet an example of implicit bias that we've been discussing? >> it's ignorant racism is what it's an example of. it's so frustrating to me when these politicians get on television and they like to pretend like, oh, i'm not really racist, i just say ignorant things and you should excuse me. no, it's absolutely racist. don't let him off the hook for it. >> i tutor, so i'm not racist. the amazing thing about what paul ryan said was the fact -- he also said that he wanted us to kind of help out these poor black people. >> let's congressman ryan speak for himself. i think we have that. >> you know, your buddy charles murray or bob putnam over at harvard, those guys have written books on this, which is we have

got this tailspin of culture in our inner cities is in particular of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work. so there's a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with. >> now, let's keep in mind that the congressman ryan did walk those words back. his office released a statement. after reading the transcript of yesterday morning's interview, it is clear that i was inarticulate about the point i was trying to make. i was not implicating the culture of one community but of society as a whole. >> has he been to rural texas or rural appalachia? i mean, here he was pinpointing one specific group. i think it is good that he's talking about poverty, but it's not regrettably just for one group. it's not just for blacks or latin latinos. it's an all-around problem. >> he says, oh, you should volunteer for your church.

let all the churches take care of the poor people. i grew up poor from trenton, new jersey, raised by a single mom. i benefitted from every single social welfare program that existed and was able to go on from there to stanford university and then to t"the ne york times". these programs don't exist anymore. i started working when i was 14 through a summer jobs program for poor kids. that doesn't exist anymore. >> that's the cultural problem. the conservatives are rolling back the social programs that help those people. >> but we can't accept the construct that social programs are the root of all breakdown. we have social programs for wealthy people. we have social programs that help to maintain an infrastructure that allows commerce to flow in this country, which is not paid for by private industry. therefore, paul ryan is exacerbating this notion that only dependency works amongst poor people as opposed to rich people who have been fighting through the koch brothers, for

example, to hold on to their independence for deregulation, for corporate welfare, to a low-tax policy where you don't have to contribute to the very community where you actually conduct business. >> and those social programs created this massive kind of gutting of the middle class in our country. so you have companies making greater profits than ever before, but in fact wages more stagnant than ever before. >> it gets back to implicit bias. >> my question would be, if paul ryan is so concerned about these african-american men in the inner city, how involved is he with the my brothers keeper initiative that the white house just released? what is he doing with that? >> and that's a good question. >> on this point, i actually think that program actually, if you heard the president, if you heard the interviews with bill o'reilly where he says, we should have a culture of shame because of the breakdown of the family because that's the number one cause, there's this house budget committee report that looks at the war on poverty.

there's amazing convergence on the idea that there's a cultural problem. it's even implicit in my brother's keeper. i actually reject those ideas. i think that it is a structural problem that interacts with individuals who operate from a set of limited choices, which is to say then that we can't entirely call what paul ryan said racist necessarily because it is in the ether, and it effects all of us in terms of the air and the ideas we communicate. >> well, i just want to be clear. i don't think, at least not to my mind, the discussion was that what paul ryan said is racist but another example of the implicit bias we're talking about. the report we've all been talking about since the last break is an implicit bias against young african-american men and boys. i want to throw this out to the table. do you think that implicit bias also translates to african-american girls and women? >> absolutely. you see that in the numbers. i just did a report called beyond bullying looking at the

school to prison pipeline for lgbt youth. one of the things that comes out of the research is black girls in particular in schools face more harsh discipline penalties than do their peers and not for engaging in any activities or behaviors that are more extreme or that are different than their peers. there's some implicit bias happening against black girls where they're seen as being more aggressive, more difficult to manage. they're being pushed out of their schools, being arrested, being pushed into the prison system. there's absolutely a conversation that we should be having about black girls as well. >> real fast, marcus. >> this is a horrible, vicious cycle that feeds itself. i want to know, where do we stop it? where can we stop it? where do we start teaching about this implicit bias. when you're trying to turn around a 20 or 30-year-old, it's often too late. >> marcus, thank you very much for being with us. everyone else is sticking around. we have a lot more to get to this hour. first up, after the break, an update on the latest with missing malaysian airlines flight 370. that's next.

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in just a moment, we're going to talk about whey this mp is so important. but first, another map showing the widening search area for malaysia airlines flight 370, which is still missing, along with all 239 people aboard more than a week since it initially disappeared. for more on this, we turn to nbc news correspondent kerry sanders live in washington, d.c. kerry, what is the latest on this ever-expanding search area? >> well, the ever-expanding search area means that, first, they found very little to go on. they're working on some data points and that's about it. so let me just sort of take you here on the telestrator as you look at the area. first, let me draw a line down along the coast here. so this is an area that is primarily already been searched along the coast. then you have out here in the bay of bengal and down here in the indian ocean. those are two areas that require a fair amount of searching.

but remember, the planes are flying out of kuala lumpur. so just going to the shore is easy because they can spend hours upon hours. they're airborne for about ten hours. when the flight goes all the way out here into the indian ocean, takes three hours to get out, three hours to get back. that leaves about 3, 3 1/2 hours to spend searching out there. so it actually means that the more time spent out in these distances from land, the actual less amount of time spent searching. now we're adding all of this area to the north up here on land. land is good because it means that it's not just airplanes flying over searching, but it means the possibility of satellites. many of the satellites have already passed over. so it's an analysis of the pictures that have been taken to determine whether there is some sort of evidence of a crash or a plane in a spot that it just does not belong. >> kerry, how big a role is the

united states taking in this investigation? >> well, because there are so many different nations together, it's not as if the united states is leading this. primarily, it's the malaysian government because they are the ones who have determined now at this point that it is a criminal investigation. but the united states, japan, india, all the countries are working together. based on my conversations with the u.s. navy, which has its p-3 and p-8 aircraft out there doing the search, it is extremely well coordinated and things are going well, but the national transportation safety board and of course boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft, while participating and offering assistance, are not making the calls of what exactly is going to happen next. >> one more question, kerry. is there a sense that authorities in malaysia are sharing information with other countries, including the united states? >> you know, there is a sense that quite frankly there may be some information that they're not sharing. it may go towards a whole other

layer here, which is in the region they may not want others to understand how sophisticated their military apparatus is. so while they may have more information available, they may not be sharing it because they don't want, for instance, china to know just how much information is being gathered by their military apparatus every day. but at the end of the day, i think we're going to see this information is going to make its way out. there was a lot of criticism, though, of the malaysian government for waiting eight days before they actually went to the pilot and the co-pilot's house and began taking items out like the computers to see whether perhaps there's some information on those hard disks that would reveal something about what happened to this flight. >> and also the homemade flight simulator. nbc's kerry sanders in washington. thank you so much. >> sure. >> stay with msnbc throughout the day today for more developments on this incredible mystery. aflac.

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take a look at this list of counties. they're all located in the u.s. south, and what they have in common is something you might not expect. these counties have the highest percentage of same-sex couples with an african-american household in the country. this is the top ten list all located in the south. if you look at a map of the united states, you can see that the majority of same-sex couples with an african-american householder live in the south. in 12 states, more than one in four same-sex couples are raising children. again, you can see that more than half those states are located in the south. higher rates of adults living with an hiv diagnosis also track along the south. as you can see in this map produced by a.i.d.s. view, where the darker colors show higher rates of diagnosis. and the south is home to the most rapidly evolving views on same-sex marriage. in the past decades, support for same-sex marriage increased by 26%, jumping up to 48% of people

reporting support. that's exactly the same percentage of southerners who oppose it, making the region exactly split on the issue. and this year has started off with movement by three southern states on same-sex marriage. in virginia, a federal judge overturned the ban on same-sex marriage, a decision now being appealed. in kentucky, a judge ordered the recognition of same-sex marriages performed out of state. and in texas, a federal judge struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, a decision also being appealed. questions of rights and protections for lgbt individuals are front and center in the south as are the individuals and couples who stand to benefit from their extension. joining the table now is marcus hunter, assistant professor of sociology at yale university. marcus, we see that gay couples with an african-american household live predominantly in the south. but that isn't true overall. as we see in this map in southern states, the percentage

of zults who identify as lgbt is mostly below the national average at 3.5%. when we factor in race, the south stands out. what does that tell us? >> right. several things, i would say. so first, i think it tells us about the reconcentration of black people in the south, right. so atlanta is a very striking example. in a post-1996 olympics era, they've seen an increasing influx of black people across sexual orientation. i think one major driver in some ways a sort of push factor out of traditional destinations has been the feelings of racial exclusion that black, gays, and lesbians feel to their white counterparts. their traditional neighborhoods are not necessarily places of inclusion for blacks, gays, and lesbians. so this adds to the draw to other places. so even if the place is more socially conservative, the idea of going to a majority black

location, residence, locale, is appeals. so folks are moving in large numbers back to the south, if you like. >> now, we also know that a greater percentage of black and latino same-sex couples are raising children compared with their white same-sex couple counterparts. more than half of black and latino same-sex couples are raising children as well as more than half of la tee that same-sex couples and 36% of black female same-sex couplesco. we know marriage comes with a slew of protective benefits. what are the implications for gay couples, especially gay couples of color, of a turn towards legalizing same-sex marriage in southern states? >> the key stat that you didn't mention is that these families, these families of color, these african-american lesbians who are raising children, are also more likely to be living in poverty. that's really critical to understand, particularly in the south, where it's a region that's been unfriendly and has

very anti-gay policies on the books. i think it's going to be huge for the economic condition of lgbt families in that region. families who are already in some way accessing social service programs, families that are being discriminated against at work because employment protections are not taking hold in the south as rapidly as we'd like to see s even though marriage equality attitudes might be changing. people there can still be fired from their jobs simply because they're gay. having marriage equality is a good barometer. the truth s there's still a lot of work we have to do. as you mentioned earlier, these changes that we're seeing are going to happen through the courts. don't think that the legislatures overnight are going to start passing pro-gay laws. >> yes, mississippi, hello. >> as the token southerner at the table here, we have to be very cautious about how public opinion translates into the electorate. we saw here that we saw a doubling of the support for gay marriage, but this tends to be millennials, also people of color, latinos, and blacks.

and we also know with the exception of black folks, latinos and millennials are infamous for not turning out, especially in midterm elections. so it's going to have to be through the courts because we're not going to see the legislatures move any time soon. in the meantime, we need something in terms of civil unions and anti-discrimination job rights. we also need the baby steps in between. >> there's one other point marcus mentioned at the top, which is that it's important to re-enforce one of the things that makes these places attractive in the south is the larger proportion of a black community. with that larger black community comes greater acceptance of the diversity within the black community. even though among socially conservative evangelical blacks still we see very low rates of support for same-sex marriage. but that also means within those lgbt communities, you had many people not on the same-sex marriage bandwagon because they see it crowds out some of the core poverty issues upon which

black people had been leading an effort to say, well, we happen to be gay, but we also are starving, we don't have quality jobs, and they find a space in those black communities to organize around those issues. >> we're running out of time, but is it possible for there to be a connection, cohesion between, you know, the push for same-sex marriage, for marriage equality and also for this push for job protections and wage earning and things like that? >> well, one rallying point that i see is really around the issue of voting rights. because i think that it's really -- it's imperative that the lgbt community understand that progressive issues generally and certainly lgbt equality is not going to move forward when you have the electorate that supports those issues being suppressed. i think there could be coalition building around voting rights that could translate. >> up next, texas' unlikely heroes. business: do more with less with less energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers,

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♪ but we're not staying in the kitchen. just start the slow cooker, add meat and pour in campbell's slow cooker sauce. by the time you get home, dinner is practically done. and absolutely delicious. everyone is cooking with new campbell's slow cooker sauces. [ 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. ♪ in 1998, two texas men, john

lawrence and tyron garner, were in lawrence's apartment when the police, while responding to a report of a weapons disturbance, arrested the men for violating the homosexual conduct law. that mathe two men decided to challenge the constitutionality of that law and their case made its way all the way to the supreme court. that case led to the 2003 landmark ruling overturning the texas law and setting a legal precedent protecting private same-sex sexual conduct. the two plaintiffs were not active in any gay rights groups and had no past history of activism. but they decided to make a stand against a law they found unjust. tyron garner told the houston chronicle in 2004, i want to tell other gay people, be who you are and don't be afraid. that case, lawrence v. texas, changed our nation. now it is again two men in texas who are challenging the law and hoping to advance rights for gay

individuals. they have filed a lawsuit along with another couple challenging texas' 2005 constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. in february, a federal judge struck down the law but texas is appealing. mark and vick are now at the forefront of the fight, and they join us today from dallas. thank you so much for coming on the show today. >> thank you, jonathan. >> thanks, jonathan. good to be here. >> tell me about your story. how you ended up joining this lawsuit. >> well, the whole thing started when we went down to apply for a marriage license in san antonio. we were rejected. that, as you pointed out earlier, was definitely not right. we didn't think it was right. so that's where we wound up saying, you know, this isn't right. someone's got to do something about this. so we did. >> it was just last month that a federal judge ruled in your favor and declared texas' ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. what was it like when you

received that decision? >> we were ecstatic. we were so happy. but interestingly, beyond being happy, we found ourselves cry can go. something we really didn't expect to do. we -- i'm not really a crier. i only cry at funerals. and we anticipated the judge would rule in our favor. once we actually heard the words that we were equal, brought something forth emotionally out of us that we didn't expect. >> mark, you were out to friends and family when you joined this lawsuit but not professionally. taking on such a public role comes with serious risks in terms of safety among other factors. you're in a state where less than two-fifths of people believe same-sex couples should even have the right to marry. what is it like being in such a public role in a state that trends more conservatively on this issue? >> well, it's obviously not a role i've ever played before.

so it's unique. it's by and large been very positive. we've had friends contact us from gun barrel city where they have a lake house. they came to our house and all were congratulating us. we've received letters from couples who have been together for 30 years and 45 years from midland and south padre, tha thanking us. it's generally been positive. my co-workers, it's been positive. vick received a standing ovation at his work. but i have lost a couple friends as a result who were opposed to us bringing this lawsuit. >> i was going to ask you, such great news you're hearing from all these people, positive news and positive energy. but you are getting some backlash from people. >> we are. a little bit. i mean, we've been really amazed that it's been by and large positive, but there has been a little bit of backlash for us. though it's been by and large positive. we've been very appreciative of

that. >> mark, you are also friends with texas attorney general greg abbot, who is named in this lawsuit, and who has promised to appeal the decision. a lot has been made of your friendship in the press. in many ways, it's emblematic of the lives of many lgbt individuals, especially in the south, who have these relationships across ideological lines that people who might not approve of their sexual identity. do you think these types of relationships have any impact on public opinion about gay rights? >> oh, absolutely. they can't help but have an impact. as you noted earlier, back in 2005, 76% of the citizens voted in favor of constitutional ban. now it's split 50/50. i think in large measure it's because of communications that gays and lesbians have been having with their friends and acquaintances and relatives. i still don't have all of my friends and relatives brought along on this issue.

my own twin sister is not supportive. so we'll just continue to work on them. that's one of the reasons we've been willing to be so public, is to try to let people realize there's a face to these issues. >> vick, before we go, real quickly, once you do get the right to marry, how quickly are you going to get married? >> well, we're making arrangements. it shouldn't be too much longer after that. >> days or hours are we talking here? >> i'd like to go with minutes, but we have to get all the friends and family together. we'll have to see. >> terrific. thank you, mark and victor, in dallas, texas. and thank you to my guests at the table. up next, the size of the underground sex industry in america. and i've got this runny nose. i better take something. truth is, sudafed pe pressure and pain won't treat all of your symptoms. really? alka seltzer plus severe sinus fights your tough sinus symptoms plus your runny nose.

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according to a new study, one industry in miami accounted for more than $300 million in

2003. i'm talking about the underground commercial sex economy spot lyinged in a new study funded by the justice department, believed to be the first of its kind. it gathered data from eight cities in cities in 2003 and 2007. according to the national journal, washington, d.c.'s underground sex economy accounted for $100 million in 2007. in atlanta that same year, $290 million. but this study encapsulated just one part of what is more commonly referred to as sex work, or as author and journalist melissa jared-grant argues in her new book "just work." in an excerpt published next week in "the nation," she writes, "there is no one sex industry. escorting, street hustling, stripping, performing sex for videos and web cams, it makes speaking of one just sometimes feel inadequate. to collapse all commercial sex that way often risks con

injuring something so flat and shallow that it would only reinforce the insistence that all sex for sale results from the same phenomenon, violence, deviance, and desperation. it is just a part of the larger informal economy, that shadow marketplace of work forces with varying degrees of regulation and legality. joining me now is melissa jared-grant, author of "playing the whore: the work of sex work." we've heard a lot about sex trafficking last month, especially when the super bowl was played. what are the key myths you try to debunk in your book? >> my book comes from a place of starting with how sex workers think of their work. sex workers fundamentally regard their work as what they do to survive, as what they do to make a living, particularly in a really hard economy. there's so much pressure on people to just get by, and sometimes that means doing work in the informal economy.

doing work that's considered criminalized. so for sex workers, their work is their job. it's not a crime. it's not a personal failing. it's not even necessarily something that they always think of as abusive or violent, which are the misconceptions they do hear. they may experience those things. they may experience arrest, violence, but fundamentally it's their job and they want their rights as workers to be considered the same as any other workers' rights. >> what are your thoughts on the study done by the justice department? >> it's so important -- >> i should say funded by the justice department. done by the urban institute. >> we have to hold that in our mind as we think about the study. who funded it and where it came from. if the study did what it's been represented as doing, which is creating a picture for the very first time of the size and scope of the sex industry, it would be ground breaking. but the reality is this study just looked at a particular slice of the sex industry. this looked at people who are more likely to experience

criminalization. they primarily talked to people who are incarcerated. they only talked to people who were already in a prostitution diverse program. they didn't talk to people in the sex industry who weren't already part of the justice system. they tried to find 80 sex workers, which i think is a pretty small sample. they only found 36 sex workers. so from 36 workers -- >> for a national study. >> for a national study looking at eight cities. in some cities they didn't talk to any sex workers at all. i don't think we can represent that as a true picture of what the sex industry looks like. >> we know you've been reporting specifically on transgender sex work activist monica jones, who was arrested last year in arizona thanks to something called project rose. can you tell us more about that and about her case? >> project rose is a prostitution diverse program operating in phoenix. monica jones is a transgender woman, activist, human rights activist, former sex worker who

was a protester against project rose and shortly after that, she herself was targeted for arrest. she claims that she was profiled by the police in this. she's doing something remarkable, which very few people who are arrested on prostitution related charges do. she's fighting her charges. just on friday, her case was postponed pending a constitutional challenge to the prostitution statute that she was charged with. this system is set up against sex workers to make them fearful. these diversion programs are usually all that we offer them to say accept that you were guilty and just accept this 36 hours of therapy, which is all that project rose offers to people. >> monica jones was on "all in with chris hayes" and she described the stigma on sex work on her and other transwomen. >> going through this process of walking while trans and being

assumed that i'm a sex walker because i'm walking down the street from my neighborhood. it's that whole rhetoric because you're trans you're a sex worker or because you're a woman in poverty, you're a sex worker. >> what's the prospect of her winning her case? >> it's unclear. the stakes have also been raised in her case because now we have a chance to look at this law manifesting prostitution that she was charged with and this law now is what's on trial even as much as monica might be. this law is used to target transwomen, as monica was discussing, and it's a law used as a racial profiling law. i think that now that's the conversation we can finally have, not about sex work, but about the way that police are targeting sex workers under these very vague laws. monica should be applauded for that. >> melissa jared-grant, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> you might know that tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, we are launching something brand-new, the nerd land scholar chachblg even while melissa is away from the show, she will be leading this online challenge about the intersection of motherhood and politics.

you'll learn facts like how many supreme court justices have been mothers. the answer is two. out of the four women supreme court associated justices. three of whom currently serve on the court. melissa will be sharing facts like that during the challenge, while also diving into the deeper questions of gender representation and parenthood. you can still sign up. just go to mhpshow.com and click on the nerd land scholar challenge graphic. that is our show for today. thanks to you at home for watching. i'll see you next saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. now it's time for a preview of "weekends with alex witt." >> hello, jonathan. long distance here from los angeles. welcome, everyone. the mystery deepens. the search widens. why the investigation for the missing malaysia flight 370 just got harder. also, from the passengers to the pilots. new questions are being asked after the disappearance was called deliberate. congressman paul ryan blasted for comments about the inner city. now he's going to meet with the congressional black caucus. so what will members say to him? plus, the new turn in the

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new wrinkles into the flight 370 investigation. what exactly did officials take from the pilot's home that could hold important clues? a live report next. the vote in crimea. in just a matter of hours, it will be over. what happens then when russian troops mass on the border. i'll ask a member of the house intel committee. tapped out, a new report about the ongoing saga in west virginia. why are people in one town still afraid to use water? you're going to see how a chemical spill has changed their lives. hey there, everyone. it's high noon in the east. actually, i'm out west where