that decision. >> you know what's awesome? when you find yourself in the middle of a swirling controversy. and everyone's asking questions like what did you know and when did you know it? so you promise a full and thorough investigation, because that's what the people of your state deserve. and then you hire your hand-picked law firm to do it. and you send the million-dollar legal bill to the taxpayers. the internal review begins, your office makes good on its pledge for full cooperation. everyone who still works for you is asked to sit down for an interview. when the report comes out, you're magically cleared of all wro wrongdoing. governor chris christie, explain. >> bill stepien, bridget kelly, were they interviewed for this investigation? >> no. bridget kelly, bill stepien, bill baroni, david wildstein, dawn zimmer, the mayor all refused to be interviewed. >> so bridget kelly, bill stepien, bill baroni, david

wildstein, that's most of the key players in bridgegate. how does that work exactly? democrats not surprisingly are slamming this so-called complete report, saying it's anything but complete. steve kornacki is the host of "up with steve kornacki" weekend mornings here on msnbc. he's also a former new jersey reporter and has been breaking news left and right on this story for months. he also previously worked for david wildstein, one of the key players in the bridgegate saga. you know everything there is to know about bridgegate. >> i was not interviewed for this report either. >> let's start with the report from the law firm. start by telling us what is the relationship between this law firm and the christie administration? >> this law firm has also been hired, retained by christie to represent his administration, or help his administration as it deals with a federal investigation. as the u.s. attorney for new jersey looks into the allegations from dawn zimmer and looks into the controversy from

the george washington bridge lane closure, this law firm was already hired by christie to cooperate with that investigation and also potentially to cooperate with the state legislative committee. so simultaneously, this law firm is charged with basically representing christie and investigating him. >> but they're saying listen, we went through and we talked, but not to the major players in the investigation. explain. >> again, we're calling it a report finding. but honestly, the best way to look it this -- and i would stipulate, going through now most of it, i still haven't gotten through all of it, it may all be true. but this is basically a defense. this is the defense that christie's legal team is offering, that christie himself is offering to the allegations that were made by dawn zimmer and to the suggestions of impropriety when it comes to the lane closures. i mean, this reads like -- here, i'll give you one example. there is so much, like, loaded language. it does not sound like an independent report. here they are talking about,

they are relaying a conversation that david wildstein had with the spokesman for the governor. a conversation in december. they said wildstein says he did not act alone, identifying kelly and stepien as others who knew in claiming he had e-mails to prove it. a public event during the lane realignment, and then they say a reference that the governor does not recall and even if actually made would not have registered with the governor in any event because he would not have considered it to be memorable. this is not -- they have a bunch of citations, a bunch of footnotes in here. there's no footnote. they're giving the credit for not knowing. they're giving the credit -- of course, he wouldn't be able to remember. if this was an independent investigation truly, there would be skepticism. they would not just take this at christie's word. it would be christie claims -- they talk to christie about this, they would say this is what the governor claims. if they couldn't substantiate it, they would say we couldn't substantiate it.

instead, this is loaded language that makes wildstein come out in a most negative possible light. that's throughout this whole report. >> i think that's probably what -- it does read sort of like a defense. this reads like sort of the opening statement of the defense, right? and what's interesting, to your point, is that they essentially lay all of this at the feet of bridget kelly and bill stepien without ever talking to them, and when something comes up where it is wildstein's word against christie's, without having talked to wildstein, they simply give the benefit of the doubt to the governor and say he's completely clear. >> yeah. interestingly, stepien comes up in here, but is not -- they are really coming down and pinning this on two people. that's david wildstein and bridget kelly. i don't have in front of me -- i wish i had the exact wording. but one of the most astounding things to me, it strongly suggests that bridget kelly -- it says that bridget kelly and

bill stepien had a personal relationship. nobody's ever aired this publicly, but if you call around and talk to people around trenton, it was sort of -- this was common knowledge and supposedly it's true and everybody knows it, but nobody talks about it. so they are putting it in public with this thing. but they suggest that her state of mind in august, it might have been part of her motivation for orchestrating the lane cover-ups. basically suggest in their language that stepien cut off the relationship with her, this might have affected her state of mind. this is when she started communicating with david wildstein. almost like they're saying she wanted to somehow impress bill stepien or something by pulling this off after he broke up with her. it's an amazing -- the insinuation in here -- >> it's just an insinuation, because they say straight out that they have no motive. they come right out in the opening sort of sentences in the report and say we don't have a motive. but let's just imply a motive.

another thing i want to get to is there is these insinuations about dawn zimmer, the allegations that she was essentially bullied by christie. i do want to read you a statement from the mayor on the report really quickly. it says randy master could have written his report the day he was hired and saved the taxpayers the millions dollars in fees he billed in generated this one-sided whitewash of serious misconduct by the christie administration. mastro's conclusion that there was nothing to the threat that was made to me that hoboken would not get sandy relief money it needs and deserves unless i supported the rockefeller group project was surprisingly predicted. it includes the damaging fact that after the lieutenant governor made the threat to me in the parking lot, she got in her car and told an aid that i was not playing ball. this reinforces the soundness of the decision i made not to cooperate with mr. mastro's so-called investigation, and to do so would have only lent credibility to an effort that unfortunately for the taxpayers of new jersey has no credibility or legitimacy. this is another piece of the puzzle. this is somebody who didn't

cooperate, but she's saying, essentially, it's one-sided. should we expect more people to come out and defend themselves based on basically being blamed for this without being interviewed? >> sure, but blame is so narrowly cast in this thing. even stepien comes off -- you read this and you're saying he didn't seem to do too much. baroni doesn't come off like he did -- they really pin this just on kelly. if you look at david wildstein, any of these principal players -- well, there's somebody else who can and in some cases has already talked to them. that's the u.s. attorney for new jersey. we know that dawn zimmer has talked to the u.s. attorney. we know the people around her have talked to the u.s. soe attorney. we know they've turned over documents to the u.s. attorney that they did not give over to christie investigation. it's the u.s. attorney, ultimately, all the interviews, we couldn't get to this and that, that is not an issue for the u.s. attorney. we know the u.s. attorney is looking into this. so i read this as this is the

defense. if the u.s. attorney is asking the christie administration any questions, this is the answer. this is our defense. >> so the next question, i think the obvious question after that is so far bridget kelly and david wildstein have not necessarily been that cooperative in terms of the larger investigation. this seems like an incentive to seek a deal. >> yes, well, the other thing is -- so yes, bridget kelly and david wildstein have not been that cooperative. there's a passage in here that basically says because she's invoking her fifth amendment rights and trying to withhold these documents from the committee, it suggests she has something -- it suggests that she has some issues trying to cover up. that's essentially what they're saying in one part of this report. interestingly, they only say that about her. they don't say it about bill stepien, who is also simultaneously asserting his fifth amendment right not to turn over documents. >> if you're choosing a couple of people to make the fall guy, choose wisely. whatever it is that they know,

or whatever it is they've got, they've now been essentially blamed. it's a party of two now. it's two against the rest. and i guess they better hope they don't decide to start talking. >> that's the thing. one of the mysteries in this has been -- one of the mysteries has been a month or two ago, david wildstein's lawyer put out that letter to the port authority where he said that evidence exists that christie knew about the closures at the time. this apparently is their -- this idea that -- >> the response. >> when they're saying there was apparently a conversation that wildstein served and christie would not remember, that's their response to that apparently. that's what they're saying, that they seem to be suggesting that's what wildstein is referring to. >> the saga continues. i think that there's going to be an escalation here. i would not be surprised if suddenly loose lips begin to emerge among the two people getting blamed. steve kornacki, thank you so much. i'm quite sure there will be much more on "up with steve kornacki." you guys have got to watch that. it's must-see tv every saturday, sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. eastern right here on msnbc.

now to the latest on the missing malaysian airlines flight 370. the australian-led search teams were unable to search because the winds kicked up by a major storm system, thwarted friday's search. the latest hope is that saturday's rescuers can fully examine this new batch of data, indicating where in the southern indian ocean flight 370 may have gone down. nbc's bill neely is in perth, australia, with the latest. >> reporter: another very frustrating day for the families and for the crews here. only a few of the 11 planes due up today actually reached the search area when they were ordered back. some didn't even take off. the reason? severe icing in the search area. high turbulence. and near zero visibility. and that weather is expected to continue until midday tomorrow. all the more frustrating because there were more clues today, more satellite images. this time from thailand, images

that showed about 300 objects, some as long as 40 feet. so the circumstantial evidence is building off one or two debris fields. yesterday we had fresh images from the french showi ining 122 objects and that was about 200 miles from where the thai satellite photographs were taken this week. so circumstantial evidence is building. the planes simply can't get there. and so far, there isn't a single piece of debris that has been positively identified, photographed close up, never mind recovered. so it is a race against time, and it's one in which we seem to be not going very far, an astonishing 19 days after this plane vanished. bill neely, nbc news, perth, western australia. >> all right, thank you, bill. an update now on the nsa big data controversy. after getting slammed for months about the program, president obama today is asking congress to make big changes to the way

the nsa collects and holds metta data. the president's plan would transfer the storage of millions of phone records to the phone companies, instead of letting the national security agency hold it for five years. also the government would be court ordered to access phone records, except for cases involving national security emergencies. coming up, as the rescue workers continue to comb the site of that massive mudslide in washington state, new evidence indicates what may have contributed to the tragedy. i'll talk to a reporter who's uncovered information about clear cutting in the area that may have gone beyond what was allowed. plus, the president and the pontiff. president obama gets an audience with pope francis to talk about their shared commitment to justice for the poor. and some controversial american domestic issues came up, too. and we'll be right back. on, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old.

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with more rain in the forecast, the search for survivors and answers continues in the tight knit community of oso, washington. so far, 24 bodies have been found. 16 of which have been identified. the total number of missing has been reduced to 90, as officials get a clearer picture of how many residents remain unaccounted for since saturday's mudslide. the fire chief responded to a question about the status of the effort. >> we're going to exhaust all options to try to find somebody alive. all of these resources that we've had here since saturday, if we just find one more person that's alive, to me, that's worth it. that's worth it. we're going to continue. >> meanwhile, the stories of the missing and those searching for them continue to pour in. like one oso firefighter who lost his wife and his grandchild. his stepdaughter says that while

her mother's body has been recovered, her 4-month-old daughter is still missing. >> i lost my mother. i've lost my baby. my mom, she was the most beautiful woman. >> the search here is not just for bodies. questions are growing about why and how this disaster happened. one of the first answers is the more than seven inches of rain that fell in the area earlier this month. "the seattle times" has been digging deeper. according to this watchdog report, a forest clear cut nine years ago appears to have strayed into a restricted area that could feed ground water into the landslide zone that collapsed on saturday, taking at least 16 lives. mike baker is a staff reporter with "the seattle times." he co-wrote that article. tell us about that little bit of clear cut and how it might have contributed to the landslide.

>> right. so this clear cut came about in 2004, the company that owned the property filed a permit with the state. they wanted to cut about 15 acres right there on top of the plateau above the landslide area. the problem with their initial permit is that they were looking to cut a portion into a restricted zone that had been set aside because of concerns that it might contribute to the impact on landslide below. so the state rejected their first permit. the company came back and said okay, well, we're going to cut out that area and we're just going to cut a portion right here on the edge of that zone. it was about seven and a half acres. looks like a little triangle. our analysis, what we found is that the area that the state said was permitted doesn't appear to match up with what was actually cut in the end, and that this company potentially by our analysis could have gone 350

feet inside this zone as sort of like their triangle that was once looked like a little piece of pizza, was stretched out like a long piece of pizza that strayed over the edge. >> what is the agency, federal or state, that would have been charged with monitoring to make sure this company didn't stray out of the zone that they were allowed to clear cut? >> the state department of natural resources, we've spoken with this yesterday and they're looking at this now. they're gathering records, trying to figure out what happened here. the state forster, when we spoke with him, we were looking at the maps together and it was sort of like it looks like a portion of this did go inside the restricted area, but he wasn't willing to make the final conclusion until they could really analyze this further, gather all the documents that they have on this permit, potentially even go out to the site, which they're not going to be able to do any time soon, since it's -- literally, the tip of that cut is right at the edge of that landslide, that really

steep landslide face. >> and would developers who were deciding to build homes in this area, is this information that they would have had access to when they were drawing up plans? is there some way they could have known in advance if they were developing that area? or that homeowners would have been notified that they were in near a clear cut zone and that there are potential dangers? >> sure. i think that's kind of a matter of dispute right now. there was a landslide in 2006, and right across the way at that time, they were building homes right at the river's edge, and so there is a discussion right now. there is documents obviously raising a lot of warnings about the potential of a catastrophic landslide in that area. but it's sort of unclear how much homeowners were notified. the county seems to say there were plenty of warnings, that the homeowners were well aware of the risks, but someone who

bought in the area apparently was totally unaware that there was actually a landslide there before. >> there's also been some criticism. i think that is obviously worth looking more into. we're talking about one company, right? there is one clear cutting company? >> yeah. it's one landowner in the area. >> there's been cuts in the past. back in the '80s there was logging by a different company, the previous landowner and there was a long discussion at that point. when they first proposed cutting at the top of this plateau, there was a long discussion by scientists looking and saying, you know, i'm really not sure if this is going to potentially contribute to a landslide, and as a result of the research that came out of that, that's where these zones were created, these restricted areas. they concluded that this area up here is going to potentially feed water down into the landslide and they could destabilize that whole area and contribute to this deep seeded

landslide that we ended up dealing with last week. >> important information. hope you'll come back. thank you. >> thanks a lot. some controversy now in the house after passage of a bill that delays a 24% cut in medicare reimbursements to doctors for 12 months. in an unexpected move, the leadership allowed the bill to be passed by a voice vote rather than a regular roll call. the bill faced some serious opposition in the movement that members' votes didn't have to be recorded. the bill now heads to the senate. eye on the ball! that's all it is. eye on the ball. that's a good tip. i'll try it. by the way, bill... this is delicious! so many grilled tastes and textures. and all the nutrition i need. go on. no really. top notch. (laughing) there it is - there ya go. new american grill from kibbles 'n bits... go together like... food 'n family.

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split conscious uncoupling, which translates to the end of their ten-year marriage. paltrow says this uncoupling is necessary to human evolution because folks just live too long to stay together forever. for some reason, folks on social media find this new agy version of i quit you to be worthy of snark. paltrow is famously friendly with the power couple beyonce and jay-z. now everyone's wondering who will get custody of the sasha fierce friendship. a team of astronomers has discovered a brand-new planet. its official name is 2012 vp 113. but people are already nicknaming it planet biden. this frozen pink world is a whopping 7.5 billion miles from the sun. no word on whether planet biden actually says "watch out now." but in any event, it's a big deal. go, joe. back on earth, space exploration has fundamentalists cursing the

cosmos. by that, i mean the show about the far reaches of the universe. the new host has spawned vicious backlash from some christians who take offense at his assertion that evolution is a fact. an oklahoma tv station was even accused of censoring him for it. tyson has brushed off the naysayers and he continues to reign as what many are calling him the world's coolest nerd. a nerd, i should add, that we would love to have join us one day on "the reid report." join the conversation with fellow reiders on twitter, facebook, instagram and keep telling us what's important to you. coming up, president obama in an historic meeting with a new pontiff, who has quickly become the world's most popular world figure. more "reid report" next. salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? avo: during the salesperson #2: first ever exactly. volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi,

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and diverge on the catholic church's prohibition on contraception and gay marriage. but the american president will take an alignment with the pontiff, who may now be one of the world's most popular figures and whose calls for tolerance and fairness echo the president's political and economic agenda here at home. at a joint meeting later in the day with italy's prime minister, the president touched on a few specific topics. >> the largest bulk of the time was discussing two central concerns of his. one is the issues of the poor, the marginalized, those without opportunity and growing inequality. in terms of domestic issues, the two issues that we touched on, other than the fact that i invited and urged him to come visit the united states, telling him that people would be overjoyed to see him, was immigration reform. >> here's what the president told an italian newspaper before

today's meeting. given his great moral authority, when the pope speaks, it carries enormous weight. that's why i quoted him in my speech on income inequality. the domestic appeal of today's visit can be seen in two recent nbc news "wall street journal" polls. the pope with 55% favorability and just 7% unfavorability among americans. president obama, 41 to 44 respectively. in a country where one in four americans are catholic, that's not nothing. but not everyone wants the pope's input on policy. the group catholics for choice, which supports a woman's right to choose, took out a full page ad in the international "new york times" today with this open letter to president obama. mr. president, the pope may offer you advice and guidance from his perspective. as your constituents, we want you to hear the echo of president kennedy's words. and here are the words that they're referring to, spoken by then presidential candidate john f. kennedy to the greater houston ministerial association in 1960. >> i believe in an america where the separation of church and

state is absolute, that is officially neither catholic, protestant, nor jewish. where no public official, either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the national council of churches, or any other ecclesiastical source. >> father james martin is a jesuit priest and editor at large of the catholic magazine "america." he's also author of "jesus a pilgrimage." father martin, let's talk about the dichotomies and where the president and the pope converge, and then we'll go to where they diverge. i think the president really was excited to meet this pope, because the issue of social justice is sort of central to what he's doing and what the pope is doing, too. >> interestingly, president obama worked in chicago for a catholic church as a community organizer and someone who is very steeped in catholic social tradition, so he understands those things. he's on the same page, as you said, in terms of poverty and the marginalized. and i think where they are united is greater than where they're divided. >> the pope has been tough on

this issue of income inequality. this at a time of a domestic win on the president's side. connecticut just raised their minimum wage, something the president is really pushing. can the president use the pope's message, including his pretty tough language about the rich versus the poor, to sort of move forward his domestic agenda? >> i think he can, and i think he should. i think because he's using, as he said, someone with great moral authority, and he's using someone who also can speak to not only american catholics and bring them into this idea of income fairness, but also someone who speaks to people who might not be catholic, but who look to the pope for his moral authority. >> now let's talk about where they diverge, because you did have that group that talked about wanting the churches, in general, not just the catholic church, to step back from public policy. so on issues like gay marriage. on issues like contraception. on issues like abortion. the pope may have created a kindler, gentler vision of the papacy, but he hasn't actually changed those policies.

>> that's correct. number one, catholics for a choice is a very small group, so they don't really represent a whole lot of catholics. it is true that a lot of catholics disagree with the pope on those issues. but on the central issues of the christian faith, the resurrection, jesus christ, the gospel, american catholics are right with the pope and that's why you see his ratings so high. i think it's something that president obama would surely want. >> it's interesting, because now you do have these fights over the contraception mandate in health care, which is really the first time you've seen under this pope, kind of a clash in terms of politics domestically, whereas before, you know, there was this feature of catholic politics where you had people saying so and so should be denied communion because of their views on x. it is a different vibe, right? even the fight over contraception. >> i think it is. and the pope ihimself in an article for "america" magazine said he believed the church was too focused on those things, abortion, same-sex marriage, contraception, and he said he wanted to move the catholic

church to a broader view of more topics. i think a lot of catholics in the united states agree with that. >> let's listen to president obama, because he did bring up this topic about contraception during his meeting overseas. let's take a listen. >> in my meeting with the secretary of state and the cardinal, we discussed briefly the issue of making sure that conscience and religious freedom was observed in the context of applying the law. >> is the contraception mandate going to be that place where everybody loves pontiff x, but with this particular pope and president start to diverge? >> it depends on the person. it depends on -- you know, i think more politically than it does on your religious believes because there are catholics that are even differing about that. the u.s. bishop's conference has been very clear, though, what they feel about that, what they feel about the conscience exception, those kinds of

things. but we're even seeing it in the supreme court in the last few days, so we'll see where that goes. president obama said that they actually didn't spend a whole lot of time talking about that. so we'll see how much influence the pope has and how much obama has on american catholics. >> do you think this pope is going to wind up changing some policies and dialing back some church policy on gay rights, on contraception, on things like that? >> on those kinds of things, no. but i do think there are some things that he has already signaled more tolerance on. just his stance in terms of speaking with gays and lesbians i think is very welcome. i know a lot of gays and lesbians have told me they feel more welcome in the church, so something's changing. also this restriction on divorced and remarried catholics receiving union, that's going to be changed or discussed. >> are you going to go see "noah"? >> yes. >> good. and succinct. appreciate you being here. >> pleasure. coming up, a game-changer in the big money world of college football. how a labor board's decision

could pave the way for the players to finally cash in. but first, some sad news to pass along. the nation's first energy secretary has died. he was a republican economist. he served as a cia director and defense secretary under president nixon and energy secretary under president carter. he died of complications from pneumonia. he was 85. physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks.

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i look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. you have potential. you have...oh boy. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. the ncaa's bid for a perfect season was ruined wednesday with a loss at northwestern. a regional director ruled the school's football team could hold a vote to determine whether they wanted to form a union. and why not? he found that "student athletes should be treated like employees and thus should be able to fight for the same rights as employees. they have bosses like employees. they work full-time hours on top of school work like employees. they get financial rewards in

the form of scholarships like employees. and if they don't perform. well, they can get cut, like employees. to quote the ruling, "it cannot be said that the employer's scholarship players are primarily students." in separate statements, both the school and the ncaa, which isn't a party to the dispute, said that they were disappointed by the ruling, which only applies to private universities. an appeal from northwestern is likely. some critics are calling this next step to pay-for-play, you know, money to play college sports. but that's not really what this fight is about. it's not even about northwestern, really. their quarterback who's helping to lead this fight said as much in january when the petition was filed with the nlrb. >> this isn't a matter of mistreatment from northwestern. a lot of times northwestern does great things, but that's not the norm. this is trying to protect everybody and future generations to come. >> joining me now, a new york

giants broadcaster whose career in the nfl covered 12 seasons and one super bowl victory with tampa bay. and alhandra cansino. what is it that the players actually want? >> medical coverage. they want to be able to have all full rights as employees. i think the ironic part of this for me is that only 23 out of 228 division i programs operate in a surplus. everything else is -- they have a deficit. so this argument that's been made should college athletes get paid is always based on what the bigger programs are doing. oklahoma, alabama. those type of schools. but this is northwestern, where you are a scholar athlete. in every sense of the word. but again, they are fighting for themselves and for everyone. but 90% of -- we went to the johnny manziel argument. 90% of texas a&m's student

athletes aren't johnny manziel. 90% of the student athletes aren't these big programs just like northwestern. the irony that the president said we could drop football and northwestern would still be fine. alabama, usc can't do that. >> the union goals that have been set forward include things like guaranteed coverage, medical injuries, increased number of scholarships, compensation for commercial sponsorships, meaning that if their likeness is used in video games, etc., improved due process rights when a rules violation is alleged. what are the financial stakes for the ncaa if those requests that those goals are actually met? >> i think it's a little early to say that. basically, what the union has said is that they're not intending to ask for wages, so they said that they are going to follow the ncaa rules and regulations and that they hope to bargain over health benefits and anything that they could bargain within the ncaa

regulations. >> and so just to come back, roman, you played at louisville when you were in college. just tell me about the absurdities to which you guys as tlee athletes have to go. you're a star player for the team. you're getting lots of accolades. what were you not allowed to do? >> you weren't allowed to work because of the 20-hour rule. because of the time you had to spend in the classroom. plus the 20-hour rule during the week. so between class, practice, games, you weren't really allowed to work. you could have a summer job, but you couldn't actually benefit being a scholar athlete. i came up in the area when chris webber so famously said that my jersey is being sold in a bookstore, but i can't afford to buy regular amenities like most college students that can afford to go to the university because they have help from their parents. >> and if you were to get cut, you could lose your scholarship. >> yeah, 100%. that's why one of the issues for me with this case is workman's comp. if you're an employee, you have those benefits. if you get injured, you file for

workman's comp. you get 1099ed as an employee. a scholarship is 40,000, 50,000 a year to go to northwestern. there's a lot of intricacies. this is going to go to litigation for a long time, but i think the ncaa does have to start to standardize or change some of the rules in which an ncaa scholarship athlete is perceived. >> and i want to read something from taylor branch, who wrote an e-book. he said, the term is meant to conjure the nobility of amateurism and the precedence of scholarship over athletic endeavor. but the origins of student athlete lie not in the disinterested ideal but in a so firstic formation designed to help the ncaa in its fight against workman's compensation insurance claims for injured football players. is workman's comp really the crux of the issue financially

for the league and for the players? >> i think we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves just yet. basically what we have here is a ruling by the regional director of the nnrb. northwestern has said that they hope to -- they're going to appeal this decision in washington to the full board. we have different agencies at the federal level, and so here we have one agency ruling that the student athletes are actually in use of the university. the experts say that this ruling by the regional director could be used by other agencies if those agencies want to start thinking on whether or not they want to rethink their ideas about athletes at the schools. so this could be the beginning of something like that. it's certainly opening the worker's compensation commission to come in and say well maybe we

should rethink about how we think about football players and whether or not they're defined under simple use of the workers compensation act. but i think it's a little early to get to that point just yet. >> to talk about expansion of this case, there are other cases, there are other issues that the ncaa has to worry about. you have stories about fake classes being formed for athletes. what other things are hanging out there? >> fake classes, fake majors. there's the student athlete majors. there's always this perception to certain schools where student athletes just gravitate to a specific major. so i think all those things will start to come up. i think the moral victory that allowed scholar athletes have talked about, is students finally stood up to the machine and won. it is a moral victory for student athletes. this argument about should athletes get paid, have some type of compensation beyond the grants, beyond what they deserve as scholar athletes, now they've stood up to the machine and won this small victory, or the small battle, rather. what are the other battles they can win as a part of this?

>> absolutely. thank you so much. thank you both for being here. coming up next, a beauty pageant in las vegas. just this week, with one judge, and the prize is more than college scholarship money. it could be the means to the republican presidential nomination. reading between the lines on the sheldon primary next. ♪ [ 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. ♪

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remember this cast of characters from the 2012 elections? >> take your message of enslaving the entrepreneur will and spirit of the american people somewhere else. you can take it to europe. you can take it to the bottom of the sea. you can take it to the north pole. but get the hell out of the united states of america. >> she says you asked her, sir,

to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. >> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. there are 47% who are with him, who believe that they are victims, who believe their government has a responsibility to care for them. >> what did they all have in common other than losing? they were all backed by this man, las vegas billionaire and gamblie ining ee ining emprasar. they dropped more than $92 million in an attempt to elect far right candidates in 2012. and to buy himself a candidate named newt gingrich. mitt romney lost the big race.

while quirkier estimate candidates went down in flames. so now uncle sheldon has decided that quirky isn't clever. so he's looking to bet on establishment types in the next presidential cycle. sorry, ted cruz. sorry, rand paul. the bar for support is going to be much higher, according to andy abud, adelson's top political adviser. the beauty agent, officially known as the republican-jewish coalition spring leadership meeting, is drawing former governor jeb bush, current new jersey governor chris christie, who just conveniently cleared himself in bridgegate, wisconsin governor and union buster extraordinaire scott walker, and former fox news presenter and current ohio governor john kasich. it's being called the sheldon primary. the contestants won't be competing in a swimsuit competition or doing high kicks on the venetian stage, but they

will have one-on-one chats with adelson, which they'll get to pitch their merits. what uncle sheldon will be looking for in a presidential candidate is simple. don't be nuts. according to gop donor and las vegas sands board member victor chalatel, sheldon is neutral with his eye on jeb bush and christie. he doesn't want a crazy extremist to be the nominee. he wants someone who has a chance to win the election, who is reasonable in his positions and has convictions but who is not totally crazy. and it would also be really nice if they were very pro-israel, anti-union and totally ready to shut down online gambling. in fact, sheldon has already gotten no less than lindsey graham onboard, introducing a bill in the senate to ban internet poker. another presidential hopeful rick perry is onboard with the internet gambling ban as well. perhaps rick perry should book himself a flight to vegas. that wraps things up for "the reid report." be sure to visit us online.

"the cycle" is up next. hey, cyclists. >> hey, joy. got a packed show. we have father james martin joining us here at the table to talk about president obama's visit with pope francis this morning. the latest on flight 370. we will debate players being able to unionize, so that's sure to get exciting here. and i will take on my critics tackling entitlement reform. >> that's going to be a hot one. "the cycle" comes up next. so we're up early. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com

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narrowing the search, despite the weather. so why are the malaysians suddenly so tight-lipped. and slippery slope. increasing evidence that we knew of the mudslide risk in washington state far before this week's deadly disaster. and there's a very gruesome reason the death toll hasn't grown higher today. all of that, plus cycling out of control. talk about a leap of faith. the youngest man to ever climb mount everest is taking it on again in a bird suit and live on tv. last night he joined jimmy fallon, and this afternoon he will experience the greatest adventure of his life. a seat in "the cycle." good afternoon. we begin with a historic day at the vatican. president obama became just the ninth american president to make an official visit there. it was his first ever meeting with pope f