we were warned about it year ago. cycling now, the white house extending the obamacare deadline, seeking reassurance that you'll sign up for health insurance. i'm abby huntsman. republicans are already writing their latest prescription, and it could be bad medicine for the president. oh, boy. and march madness madness is down to the sweet 16, though not many of us at this point would use the word "sweet" to describe our brackets. i'm toure. jordan shultz is back at the head of the table to tell ari once again while coastal carolina was not an intelligent pick. this is still the most credible lead that we have. it now seems to corroborate some form of objects and debris, and if it is confirmed to be mh370, at least then we can move on to

the next phase of deep sea surveillance search and rescue. >> the search is back on for flight 370 wreckage. airbus, the french satellite firm, has says they've spotted more than 120 pieces of debris in the general search area, that is 116 miles off the coast of perth, australia. and for the first time, there are reports of a possible debris field. that's not just individual items flo floating in the waves, and a major variable is how far yesterday's 12-foot waves and winds spread the debris. on sunday, the items were found in an area half the size of new york city. they are described as bright, possibly metal materials. this new lead has reduced today's focus to about 31,000 square miles. the search is divided into two sections on the east and on the west. u.s. assets have been flying over the western portion. the search is still coordinating by the australians, who say time is limited before the next storm

hits. >> it does look at the moment as if we are going to see conditions probably as bad as they were yesterday. we are expecting strong winds. we are expecting precipitation from a cold front, and we are expecting reductions in visibility through the rain. and also, we're expecting to see the sea pick up as well. so it does look as if conditions are going to deteriorate as we move into the latter part of today and into tomorrow. >> with another storm bearing down, let's check in with nbc's tom costello for a live report. tom? >> yeah, ari, they're really up against it. we've talked about this tight window to find anything. let's first talk about these images from the french airbus satellite. it's hard for a layman to figure this out, right? we've got very, very grainy white spots here, and they're in through these clouds. now, here's what we need to drill home. you talked about the area that they're searching, half the size of new york city. how about the entire size of denver. i mean, this is a massive zone. yes, it's shorter than it was

before, but it is still a massive zone. and that's the problem. let me give you a little more specifics on why this area is relevant. this is now the new search zone. we are at about 90 degrees or so east by about 44 degrees south. and why does that matter? that is almost exactly the general area that the chinese photographs came from, those satellite images, and the australian images. so we've now got three sets of satellite images over the course of the past week, and all in the same general area, and all showing debris. but now, we've got what appears to be a real debris field. so the challenge is going to be to find it, because, of course, those images were taken on sunday. since then, we had the cyclone move through there, very high winds, very high waves, very tumultuous weather in terms of what's happening in the indian ocean and the southern sea, and they're expecting that they're going to get just a tiny little hole before the weather

deteriorates yet again. so the search now, the searchers are back out in that area and beginning their search from the air again. chinese and australian air crews as well as ships moving into the region. we talked to a university professor at the university of new south wales, who said that we're talking about some of the roughest oceans in the world. it is very, very difficult to predict where anything goes and it's entirely possible that debris, any debris, would quite literally circumnavigate the globe, at the bottom of the ocean. why? because there aren't any landmasses to get in the way. if it's in the southern ocean, that becomes a huge challenge. and just today, we talked to a professor at the university at -- where was that? western australia in perth, and he also made the point, this is an area called the roaring 40s. let me go back, if i could. i'm going to go back to this map. this is an area called the roaring 40s in here because the water is just so tumultuous. and in fact, they have never

attempted any sort of a rescue or a major salvage operation like this before in these waters, because it is so remote. you know, we've been saying this now for the better part of ten days. but every day, some expert there in australia drills down on how remote and how difficult this is going to be. all right, another front. now, you know that the fbi has been assisting malaysian authorities in looking at the hard drives that came from the pilot and the copilot's house. just a short time ago, the fbi director provided a bit of an update on that. >> i have teams working, literally, around the clock, to try to exploit that. i don't want to say more about that in an open setting, but i expect it to be done fairly shortly, within a day or two, to finish that work. >> all right. so they're waiting for that data to come back. and in the meantime, all they have to go on, tor the best the have to go on now are these satellite images. 122 pieces of debris. they believe, the biggest one, about 75 feet. by the way, that's consistent, of course, what the chinese said

and also the australians said within the past week, when they spotted something, about 75 feet long. guys, back to you. >> tom costello, as always, thanks for your reporting. appreciate it. let's turn to david tidly, now teaches at penn state's college of earth and mineral science. welcome. >> thanks very much for having me. >> dave, let's start at the ocean's surface. we've had this reporting of how rough and difficult it is. walk us through that. >> well, everything that you've heard from the australians, and i've worked with the australians on many different operations throughout the years, they really know this area. this is their backyard. and what you've heard is true. having said that, we might, might, just be able to luck out here, just a little bit, because the core of that antarctic polar current you've heard your other guests talk about is actually

200 or 300 miles to the south of where this debris field was reported this morning. so if you can imagine a strong river flowing, you know, if you get to the edges of the river, you find these little countercurrents and eddies, but sometimes anything that's in there, like branches or whatever, doesn't move as fast or as far down there. so if, and this is a huge if, that the debris is, in fact, towards the australia side of this big circumpolar current, than that would give us a little bit more time to find a debris feel that's more or less in tact and hasn't just been sort of shredded to bits by this very strong current, your other guests have described there. >> dave, let's talk about the search beneath the surface. you have the navy blue fin 21 underwater drone that is sitting in perth, waiting to be fitted to an australian ship. once it goes out on its search,

how do other conditions impact the underwater search that would take place? >> well, now, of course, you're talking about towing this from a surface ship. so the surface ship is not only going to be affected by the winds, but they're going to be affected by the seas. and, again, as i think your bureau of australian meteorology guest mentioned earlier, the seas down here are pretty challenging. today, it looks like a pretty good day. a pretty good day means seas like about 7 feet. so from your floor to the ceiling of your average living room. they're going to pick up and come up to about 10 to 15 feet over the weekend. we should get another small weather window at the early part of next week, and then, again, it's going to get pretty sporting out there. so this is very typical for, you know, right now, it's fall down in the southern hemisphere, going into winter. so at this latitude, at this

time, this is pretty typical. you'll get these weather windows of like today, like a day or two, maybe two and a half days, and then it gets pretty cruddy again, and then it will come back out. but the other part is on these kinds of operations is the length of these seas is really like nothing else in the world. and it's because there's no land to stop it. so you get a lot of motion when you're on these ships. >> well, and david, we're in sort of a race against time right now between now and when the battery will run out on the black box and it will stop sending out those pings that make it more easily locatable, not that it's easy by any stretch of the imagination, but once that battery life runs out, then how will they go about searching for the black box, which contains so much important information in unraveling this mystery? >> well, i think the lessons that we saw from the tragedy with air france 447 kind of tells you how that can be done,

although as difficult as that was, this is going to be, you know, five, ten times harder because of the location and because of the adverse weather conditions. you basically use a technique called basian search. you basically take lots of information and you keep refining where you think the area is. and then you have to, what we call, mow the lawn. you are really looking at very, very small parts of the ocean bottom in high detail. and it can be done, but it takes persistence and it takes time and it's not easy. but it can be done. but that's what you sort of drop back to, after the pingers stop. >> right. navy rear admiral, david titley, thank you for your time. and even without hard evidence of a crash, lloyd's of london is already paying out claims over this loss and one lawsuit is in

the works on the behalf of a victim's father. a chicago law firm has filed a petition of discovery and names both malaysia airline and boeing as defendants. michael penga is an aviation attorney and safety specialist. a chief litigator at the faa and represented victims and their families after some major air disasters. welcome. and michael, so far, i want to mention, you're not representing any of the, what would we call, victim's families or passenger families -- >> well, the families of the victims of that air crash, no. i'm not presently representing any of them. >> correct. let me jump in and say, we wanted to put that out there. and the first question i want to ask you, though, is when you look at these kind of cases, given your extensive experience, how does a court balance the desire to pursue some justice for the passengers' families with all the uncertainty remains about what happened? >> well, that's a very, very good question. and this particular case, we have an international flight and it's covered by a treaty. it's covered by the warsaw convention. and malaysia is one of the

countries that is a signatory to that convention. and it gives families of victims rights, limited rights, against the carrier, without having to prove any negligence. now, i say it's limited, it's limited to the extent of the amount. it's based upon what they call drawing rights from the international monetary fund, which tends to vary. that's between, like 135,000 to 175,000 of losses, that you have to prove, of course. and it's also limited in another respect, to the countries that you could bring such a lawsuit in. and it's got to be the country of the carrier, for example, or the destination of the flight. so that's either bangkok or malaysia. so i doubt if you're going to see any viable lawsuits here. of course, if you're going against the manufacturer of the engines or the manufacturer of the aircraft, they are present

here, of course. but you have to prove your case. and right now, for an airplane that can make a drastic turn and fly for hours and hours, the chances of there being nothing wrong with that airplane is strong. so -- >> michael, let me ask you something, because nbc news is reporting today that passenger's families could sue and get up to $8 million to $10 million per passenger if they are american citizens and that if you are a chinese national, you could be looking $1 million. why is there that disparity? and would you encourage folks to get into a class action lawsuit? >> well, there are no class action lawsuits in airline crashes, first of all. class action lawsuits are brought in this country. i don't no malaysian law. but in this country, we don't have what's called class actions where one person represents a whole class. we have those for certain types of cases, land contamination cases, cases where the amounts

of individual damages are small. but we don't have class actions in -- can and we've never entertained a class action in an airline crash case. and we talk about the disparity of money. now, a lot of these figures being thrown out, i don't know where they get those figures. i mean, realistically, under the warsaw convention, there are limits. and then over and above those limits, you have to prove negligence of the carrier in order to break those limits. but the problem is, we're talking about lawsuits in this country. and i doubt very much whether lawsuits will be maintained. so, about this lawsuit that's filed in chicago, i don't know anything about it, but i doubt very, very much that it's going to go anywhere. >> you doubt it would get very far let alone succeed on the merits. michael, thank you for spending us time on this. we have more about the plane coming up. next, foreign relations of a very different sort. president obama's big speech, this overseas trip, it just wrapped up, and why what he's

saying there matters right here at home. "the cycle" roll on for wednesday, march 26th.

and if the russian leadership stays on its current course, together, we will ensure that this isolation deepens. sanctions will expand and the toll on russia's economy, as well as its standing in the world, will only increase. make no mistake, neither the united states nor europe has any interest in controlling ukraine. we have sent no troops there.

what we want is for the ukrainian people to make their own decisions. just like other free people around the world. >> cycling now, president obama delivering the most important speech of his overseas trip this afternoon in belgium, setting the tone for a critical next two weeks. both internationally and domestically. first, gathering our european allies to form a united front against russia for its land grab in ukraine. and when the president gets home, it's all about a united front on obamacare. the administration now facing one of the most crucial deadlines since implementation. well, i use the term "deadline" a little loosely here. the administration has pushed the march 31st signup time until some time in april. expect republicans to offer up a healthy dose of criticism for that decision. and there's more news this week on another political hot potato, the president now pushing for an overall in a way the nsa collects america's phone data.

that's object to get a lot more difficult if the administration gets its way. ukraine, of course, has overshadowed so many of these other headlines, let's start there with peter welsh from vermont, chief whip of the caucus. thanks so much for being with us. and to start with, i would love to hear your reaction to the president's speech today, and in general, the approach that he and the administration and you and congress have taken to responding to russia. >> well, everyone's very upset about what putin did unilaterally and it was in violation of international law, but i think what we're not focusing on is what's the end game? what's the strategy here? i think by the actions of europe >> the united states, crimea is gone. i mean, that's part of russia right now. the question is, what happens to the ukraine? and the goal, i believe, should be a neutral ukraine. a neutral ukraine would mean that they didn't necessarily try to force them to go into nato. that russia didn't get them into any military alliance there.

the bottom line, the ukrainian people had a right of self-determination, and to maintain active economic ties with the west and the east. and the reason why that is really critical and i think that's really what the president is focusing on when he's telling putin to back off, is that if we have a tug-of-war on the ukraine, it could unleash the ethnic fighting between russians -- the russian-speaking population and the western european-oriented ukrainians. so self-determination and neutrality, i think, should be the goals. >> congressman, let's bring it back home and talk about pushing back this obamacare signup deadline. the white house equates it to letting people vote past the time the polls close, if they were already in line, that's one way to put it. but here's what speaker boehner had to say about it. >> last night brought us yet another delay of obamacare. another deadline made

meaningless. you know, he hasn't put enough loopholes into the law already, the administration is now resorting to an honor system to enforce it. what the hell is this? a joke? listen, this was part of a long-term pattern of this administration, manipulating the laws for its own convenience. >> now, this comes after kathleen sebelius said just a week ago that there would be no such delay. so congressman, why is the administration having to make so many changes and why can't we all just acknowledge that the rollout of this law isn't working as it was originally designed to? >> well, i don't see how anybody can deny what you just said. it has been a mess on the rollout. but bottom line, health care is really important to people. and we should have it be as user friendly as possible. and if you're going to have implementation challenges, with any complex operation, you're going to have those, we should be flexible so that at the end of the day, the american citizens who have to get on it, have access to it.

and i would counsel for flexibility on that. the rollout mess, obviously, is being exploited politically by folks who want to kill the law. i mean, mr. boehner left out that retried to repeal the law 55 times, without offering any alternative. so, in a better world, there would be some bipartisan cooperation, at least with respect to the implementation, so that we could make the best opportunity for the most americans, to get this and move on. >> i think that's very well put. speaker boehner looked mad there. he was mad when they passed the law to provide health care. he's mad when he doesn't think the health care is being provided. he seems mad no matter what. i also wanted to ask you about these new developments around nsa spying and reform. the president endorsing a reform that would go through the house and through congress, potentially. and glen greenwald said, this potential reform clearly constitutes an attempt by

president obama to end the nsa's domestic bulk program which is the first program that we reported with the snowden documents. do you share that view? do you think those disclosures are leading potentially positive reforms now? >> well, i do. i think the fact is, i think the president should let the program expire. one good thing in the patriot act is that it had an expiration date. let it expire. we can do that. in fact, if it came up for a vote in the house to reauthorize it, i think it would go down and go down hard. and i think that the president's acknowledging that with this effort. and, you know, the bulk data program, the nsa overreach, it's just endless. and it's got to be curbed and there's a lot of bipartisan support to the store. a better balance to respect individual liberties along with security. >> congressman, the house is dysfunctional. i think everybody understands that and it's probably going to be that way for several years. do you ever get tired of the uphill battle, and what some people call the crazy club? >> well, you're being kind to

elevate us to crazy. it's kind of a madhouse. you know, there's a part of me that does. i represent a great state. and every day, seeing that there's a lot of good people here, both sides of the aisle that would feel better at the end of the day if we've made a little progress. but the institution doesn't have a structure that allows us, together, to consider things, to debate them. the jury marndings have made it tough. both sides have a real interest in trying to make this be a functional operation. and that means focusing for now on areas where there is some agreement. we passed an energy conservation bill that i passed and that had oil state guys in renewable energy and women working together to get something done. your job's hard, but a lot americans have much tougher jobs than both of us. >> there are a lot of people who are really glad you are there.

congressman peter welsh, thanks so much. up next, the latest in that deadly mud slide. workers digging with their bare hands and making a miraculous recovery, next. it says your afib puts you at 5 times greater risk of a stroke. that's why i take my warfarin every day. but it looks like maybe we should ask your doctor about pradaxa. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate)... ...was proven superior to warfarin at reducing the risk of stroke. and unlike warfarin, with no regular blood tests or dietary restrictions. hey thanks for calling my doctor. sure. pradaxa is not for people with artificial heart valves. don't stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor. stopping increases your risk of stroke. ask your doctor if you need to stop pradaxa before surgery or a medical or dental procedure. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding or have had a heart valve replaced. seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk

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breaking news now about that massive mud slide north of seattle. a flood warning will stay in effect for at least the next five hours, in the area where more than a dozen people died and more than 100 are still missing. the official death toll stands at 16, but officials say they located 8 more bodies today. there have been glimmers of hope, like a 4-year-old boy pulled from the mud that destroyed his home. the rescue was caught by a helicopter camera. nbc's jennifer bjorklund has the very latest on the investigation. she is in arlington, washington. >> reporter: toure, everybody saw that video of that little boy being rescued and it made people feel hopeful, even though that video was shot on saturday and nobody has been pulled alive out of that rubble since. and they're characterizing the

search as what happened at ground zero after 9/11 at the world trade center. it is now considered sacred ground. they have to be very careful. it's a forensic exploration of the mud. and it's so much of it that they have to dig through, knowing that there could be pockets with possible survivors underneath. but also knowing, realistically, that likely there are many, many victims buried underneath the mud. the mud wall that came down, we heard a geologist earlier today describe it as, if it were concrete, it would be the volume, enough to pour three hoover dams, coming down the mountain, towards the city, the town of people, at 30 miles an hour. so everything in its path was pretty much obliterated and that's what they're dealing with as they search with dogs and their bare hands as the best tools in this case. >> jennifer, thank you for that. a tough story. joining us now with more on all of this, how all this happens and where it could happen again,

david montgomery, a geologist at the university of washington and the author of "the rocks don't lie: a geologist investigates noah's flood." fantastic title there. sir, simple question, how do mud slides happen? >> well, the basic problem is that we had a lot of rain, a very wet winter. and the basic physics are that the strength of the hillside decreases the wetter it gets. you can think of the water filling all the porous spaces, the voids between the particles that make up the hillside, adding a buoyant force that literally helps to float the hillside off. that slide started to rotate, t that caused further and it slid. there could have been no possibility of a realtime warning. >> "the seattle times" obtained a 1999 report from the army corps of engineers, warning the potential for a large catastrophic failure on this very hill, where that mud slide happened.

there have been other smaller slides on that same hill in the past. could we have possibly predicted this event? >> well, it was known that that site was -- had failed in the past and that prediction in that report, you know, in hindsight, prophetically predicted the kind of event that happened, a catastrophic failure of that hillside. even so, predicting the timing and size of a failure that could happen in the future can be very difficult. it was a foregone conclusion that that slide would move again in the future, but i doubt that anybody that was living there had any idea that it could have moved so much bigger, so much farther, so much faster and so with so much more force than the slides that had happened there in the past. and, of course, the last slide there was in 2006. so anyone who had moved into that area since 2006, wouldn't have any firsthand knowledge of the slide having gone in the past. and it can be very difficult for people to imagine geologic

events that can be so much bigger than things that might be in their experience. and this was a really big slide, even for that site. by no means larger than geologists could forecast could happen in that region, but still bigger than you might, then i think anyone there would have imaged. >> david, you heard our reporter, jennifer, talking about those rescue efforts, the difficulty. what do you do in this type of situation when the nature of the threat means that the rescuers, themselves, can get into a lot of danger as they both look for people or potentially rescue people? >> that's a rial good point. those people are putting their lives on the line for doing this type of work. it is not safe. it is difficult. it is dangerous. they do an incredible job under just the worst imaginable conditions. i can't even imagine how hard it would be for them to actually do that job. working in a slurry of mud and silt is difficult under the best

of conditions. it's just hard to move, it's hard to get to stuff. they have a real difficult job on their hands, obviously. >> david, you mentioned a reaction that many of us have is we're shocked. how could something like this possibly happen. and the next question is, could this happen again? and what places are most vulnerable? >> well, you know, that's a question that geologists wrestle with all kinds of hazards, it's part of what we do. landslide hazards in the northwest are different than in different parts of the country. but all parts of the country, except very flat areas, have some risk of landslides. if you look up and down that particular valley, there's geological evidence, very solid psychiat evidence of large slides in the past. when did they move? how large were they at a time, how fast did they go? those are questions that require geological studies to actually try to evaluate. the slide that failed was mapped as part of a larger landslide

complex in the past. one of the key things, i think, that needs to happen from this tragic event is the re-examination of where are those places that could be subjected to this kind of very rapid, catastrophic failure. >> david montgomery, thank you very much for that. up next, the global implications of flight 370. what it's revealing about the new world order. hint, looks a lot like the old world order. much more on that, coming up on "the cycle." in the nation, we reward safe driving. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance

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[ female announcer ] we eased your back pain, you turned up the fun. tylenol® provides strong pain relief while being gentle on your stomach. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. other stories making news today, the houston ship channel, one of the nation's busiest sea ports, has partially reopened, following that massive oil spill. 170,000 gallons of oil spilled into the galveston bay, after a barge carrying the oil collided with a ship. 500 workers have been on the scene to assist with the cleanup, as oil has begun washing up on local beaches. an investigation into how the collision occurred is now underway. and a spring blizzard is blasting new england today. more than half a foot of snow

fell on cape cod, accompanied by winds gusting at more than 60 miles per hour. the stormy skies should clear by tomorrow, ahead of another system this weekend, but that one should be all rain. oh, good. a manhattan jury has found the son-in-law of osama bin laden guilty of conspiring to kill american. sulaiman abu ghaith said he was merely a spokesman for bin laden. he gave speeches in which he said a storm of airplanes would continue to attack the united states. they described him as being bin laden's right-hand man. he's the highest ranking al qaeda figure ever to be tried in the u.s. he faces life in prison. as we continue the discussion of the missing malaysian airliner, it's a story that has put intense focus on asia. but it may actually be president obama's trip to the region next month that could have a greater impact on us and not just us. in fact, analysts believe the mounting tensions over the south china sea, oil reserves, and economic autonomy could have global implications. a new book, asia's caldron, the

south china sea and the end of a stable pacific argues that the fight over waterways could welcome a major foreign policy priority. it's the latest from robert kaplan, author of 15 books, and kaplan served for two years on the defense policy board during the obama administration. he also wrote this week's time cover story about geopolitics and the new world order. i want to start with something nubz this book. you write, behind all questions of morality, like questions of power, humanitarian intervention in the balkans was possible only because the serbian regime was not a great power, unlike russia, which at the same time was committing atrocities of a similar scale in chechnya, where wi the west did nothing. it is the balance of power itself, a lesson that humanists do not want to hear. and you say humanists there as a foreign policy reference. you could also say a lot of progressives and human rights advocates don't necessarily want

to hear that or agree with that. what do you mean by that and how does that analysis of russia relate to what's happening today? >> right, the issue with russia is an issue of geography. ukraine is just too thrusty and to spatially exposed to russia for ukraine to ever be a normal state without a close and stable relationship with russia. the future of ukraine, of a prosperous, stable ukraine, has to be some kind of neutrality. some sort of, you know, a western system, but with proper, correct relations with russia. remember, foreign policy is about, it's about, who can do what to whom, and it's about america protecting its power in the world, its influence in the world, and if it does that well, if it plays the game of realism correctly, then it will have power to spare to engage,

periodically, in new humanitarian concerns. >> on that note, let's pivot over to asia, where you write in your book that southeast asia is now made up of a cluster of states with problems of domestic legitimacy and state building, mostly behind them, that are ready now to advance their perceived territorial right beyond their own shores. this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen in the south china sea. what is the united states' role in all of this? >> not exactly. because the bottom line of this book is that there's not going to be a war, but we're entering a more nervous, anxious, complicated world with waterways packed with warships, packed with oil tankers, packed with container ships. and what -- for decades, china was internally occupied. building its economy. japan was in a quasi pacifistic state. vietnam had its wars, malaysia had its wars. all that's passed. all of these states have now strongly institutionalized, and sustained capitalist growth, guess what, leads to military

acquisitions. and so, they're all building navies, air forces, cyberwarfare capacities, and they're projects power outwards. and lo and behold, they have come into conflict about what their borders in the blue waters of the south and east china sea should be. because these seas may contain significant hydrocarbon reserves. and also, china looks at the south china sea the way the united states, we, looked a to the greater caribbean in the 19th and early 20th century. we control the caribbean, it unlocks the door to world power. >> so should we be concerned about the growing u.s./china military relationship? >> we should be. because, look, the united states and china are locked in a tight economic embrace. which is a stabilizer for our relationship. so that's the soft end of our relationship. the hard end is where this chinese navy is deployed in its adjacent seas and where the

united states is deployed in the pacific. the chinese officials have said to me, look, you've come from half a world away with your navy. that makes you a hegemonic power, but these are our own seas, we're just protecting our own. but the united states would say, wait a minute, we're a pacific power too. we fought world war ii in the pacific, we fought vietnam, korea, we've been supporting the philippines sin 1899, we're destined to be a pacific power. so the different points of view of the united states and chooin are geographical points of view. >> the book is "asia's caldron." thanks for being here. >> it's been my pleasure. up next, we have your march madness update. to quote dmx, where's my coasties at? the bracket busters, the cinderella stories and the solid bets for sweet 16 straight ahead. a new catalytic converter when all you got is a loose gas cap.

what? it is that simple sometimes. thanks. now let's take this puppy over to midas and get you some of the good 'ol midas touch. hey you know what? i'll drive! and i have no feet... i really didn't think this through. trust the midas touch. for brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling)

[ chainsaw whirring ] humans -- sometimes life trips us up.

sometimes we trip ourselves up. and although the mistakes may seem to just keep coming at you, so do the solutions. like multi-policy discounts from liberty mutual insurance. save up to 10% just for combining your auto and home insurance. call liberty mutual insurance at... [ thump ] to speak with an insurance expert and ask about all the personalized savings available for when you get married, move into a new house, or add a car to your policy. personalized coverage and savings. all the things humans need to make our world a little less imperfect. call... and ask about all the ways you could save. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? i jbut they blacked me out.ht these miles are useless! that's turrible. and all the other dates are triple the miles! triple the miles?

that's as useless as chuck at a golf tournament. or you at the three point line. or you in a spelling bee. you gotta switch to the venture card from capital one. you can fly any airline. no blackouts. that's what i did. i don't say this often -- but listen to the ref. i can't believe i said that. don't get blacked out, get the capital one venture card. earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, every day. good on any airline or hotel. what's in your wallet? they don't call it march madness for nothing, and we are only halfway through. the first weekend of the ncaa tournament saw the blue devils get burned, witchta state, a one seed got booted in the second. and the dayton flyers, a team you might not have heard of, shocked everyone, sliding into the sweet 16. and while no one is walking away with warren buffett's billion-dollar prize for a perfect bracket, someone at this table is walking away with some bragging rights. hey, guys, who's got the best

bracket right now? >> you do. >> it's a little early, but, whatever. >> do you want to win in the middle of the game? >> winning at halftime. >> all right, all right, all right. but you want to know why? i listened to our next guest's advice. gordon schultz is sports columnist"the huffington pos post". he's back with us to preview the sweet 16. great to have you here. thank you so much for the good advice. >> jordan has the best bracket so far. >> yeah, you probably do, actually. if he had just told you what to pick. >> do you want to go with harvard or north dakota state. >> toure doesn't take defeat very well. >> i don't have that much practice. >> well, let's start with the cinderella stories. that's my favorite part of march mansd. we saw harvard go a little bit further than many people thought. and the flyers, we're not talking about philly here. >> we're not, dayton flyers -- >> that's what i think of, i'm a philly girl. this is the dayton flyers. archie miller, their head coach,

who we had on our radio show, he's the younger brother, ten years, of sean miller, the head coach of arizona. >> they could be matched up together. >> he could. he played for his brother in college and dayton'scould. and dayton beats ohio state, kind of the younger brother of ohio state. they never play them in the regular season. then they come back. i love dayton's team. they're absolutely the cinderella story of the first weekend. >> i had a little trouble with my brackets but i'm not that far behind abby and a couple other folks, our executive producer. >> i like that final four. >> i need louisville to beat michigan and for that to happen, louisville has to beat the great kentucky. what do you think? >> i do think they do beat kentucky. lexington and louisville are separated by 70 miles. louisville has senior, kentucky has a lot of freshmen. kansas is gone, duke is gone, louisville had a lot of seniors and louisville starts four se

seniors. >> i have virginia going all the way. might be a little bit biased. what do you think is going to happen? >> i like virginia to win that game in a close game. virginia is another team that has a ton of seniors. unlike other teams, they play very slow. i love virginia's team. i told you that before the tournament. >> i appreciate that. >> i want to turn back to something you and i discussed before and that is coastal carolina. they had a strong team and i haven't been following -- >> oh, that is ugly. take it off, take it off. >> i haven't seen any of the games but i would like an update from you. how are my coasties doing? >> coasties are out, as you saw. >> coastal carolina gave virginia a game. we told you a six team has never beaten a one. so, ari, in many ways you almost look like the kid genius here.

>> almost. i'm like abby. i count early. >> you know what my favorite moment of the weekend was when you were on up against the clock with -- i'm sorry, "up with ste ste steve." >> it would look a lot different. >> it would. now you have guys leaving at their freshman year. look at jabari parker, these guys would be forced to come back and i think college basketball would be greatly benefited by having the two-year rule. >> i think get rid of it altogether. >> since '05, 57 guys have gone one and done and we had so many other guys, lenny cook, who never even got to college. >> love myself some march madness. thanks so much for being here.

up next, what is happening in the courtroom may not be nearly as intriguing as what's going on behind the bench. is a scotus scandal in the works? >> it is disappointed when your bracket against busted early on, but if you find yourself in that situation, there's a new product on the market that may be of help. >> suffering from depression because your march madness bracket is busted? ask your doctor about get the [ bleep ] back to work. it's a safe and effective pain reliever. answer e-mails, send faxes, even pay attention in meetings. hi, are we still on for tomorrow? tomorrow. quick look at the weather. nice day, beautiful tomorrow. tomorrow is full of promise.

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and although the mistakes may seem to just keep coming at you, so do the solutions. like multi-policy discounts from liberty mutual insurance. save up to 10% just for combining your auto and home insurance. call liberty mutual insurance at... [ thump ] to speak with an insurance expert and ask about all the personalized savings available for when you get married, move into a new house, or add a car to your policy. personalized coverage and savings. all the things humans need to make our world a little less imperfect. call... and ask about all the ways you could save. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

olivia, i thought i said no visitors. >> actually, that was my secret. as a friend, however, i think you need all the support you can get. >> as a supreme court justice, as soon as i go public, i'll have half the country rooting for my demise. >> "scandal" isn't the only place with intrigue over retirees on the supreme court. a new debate is roiling on the supreme court. on today's court of

conservatives and moderates, justice ginsburg has prove i don't know -- proven to be one of the only actual moderates. she's an icon many law students and liberals, affe. this famous poster quotes "to all the ladies in the place with style and grace, allow me to fight to protect your equal rights and inclusion in society." it was a major deal when a major law school recently called on ginsburg to retire. the argue is that she should retire soon so president obama can replace her rather than when the gop might win back the white house. jeffrey toobin jumped into the sweep tak

sweepstakes, publishing a list. i think the best line was from reporter michelle dean. she said "if you admire ruth bader ginsburg so much, stop asking her to quit." the assumption is that ginsburg's special role can be replaced by another cookie cutter democratic pick. but it can't. compared to 1993, the court was less right wing. when president clinton touted her that year, he embraced her unifying approach. >> she will be able to be a force for consensus building on the supreme court, just as she has been on the court of appeals. so that our judges can become an instrument of our common unity in the expression of their fidelity to the constitution. >> a lot has changed since then. while the court should not be reduced to merely an ideological

contest, we should remember both parties' picks have been marching the court to the right. george w. bush replaced justice o'connor with a more current justice lito. if liberals want to intensify the fight for progressive bench, we should probably start by pushing more great jurists in the lower courts, not badgering one of the best off the highest court in the land. that does it for us on "the psych o cycle." it's time for "now with alex wagner." >> what could be a much needed break in the search for missing malaysian airlines flight 370.