counsel. that's who hires those lawyers, his office, correct? >> yes. >> so what i want to know is what investigation began after that deposition. >> that is part of the investigation, there would be -- >> so you don't know whether or not anything happened after that investigation. >> i don't have the complete facts to share with you today. >> okay, well that is incredibly frustrating to me. >> and it only increases the pain for families not happy with mary barra's answers about gm's responsibility for those faulty ignition switches. >> do you give her credit for holding that meeting, or do you find her to be sincere? >> no. not enough answers. again, it was scripted. there was no dry eye in the room except mary barra. money talks. the supreme court today opening the floodgates on campaign contributions. removing one of the last barriers. we'll get the latest on today's decision from pete williams at

the supreme court. peace offering. jonathan pollard, a convicted israeli spy was the latest bargaining chip to try to salvage middle east peace talks with the administration. we'll talk to his ex-wife who served prison time for her involvement in the spy plot, as talk of his rerelease has sparked a firestorm. and light it up blue, as the world marks autism awareness day. we'll talk to the founders of autism speaks bob wright and suzanne wright about the next frontier in early intervention and research. and good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. right now, mary barra is back in the hot seat, this time facing senators with tough questions about what general motors news about car defects and when. starting with committee chair claire mccaskill, who opened with a blistering attack.

>> in a culture of cover-up that allowed an engineer at general motors to lie under oath, repeatedly lie under oath. it might have been the old gm that started sweeping this defect under the rug ten years ago, but even under the new gm banner, the company waited nine months to take action after being confronted with specific evidence of his egregious violation of public trust. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez joins me now, who has been following this investigation for quite some time. i wanted to show you an exchange between connecticut senator blumenthal and mary barra about whether she would permit her own kids to drive in the cobalt. >> is that cobalt car, as driven now, safe for your daughters to drive? would you allow them to drive? >> i would allow my son and daughter -- well, my son, because he's the only one eligible to drive. if he only had the ignition key.

>> the question is whether or not the ignition key, if there's another attachment, a tag of some sort. as almost all of us do with our car keys, whether that extra weight would pull it down, with the original defect cause the ignition to go off. >> well, andrea, ceo mary barra has been very careful on how she's answered this. in facing quite a grilling from those senators today. as you mentioned, the nbc investigative unit has been digging into the story for the last month. several parts of our reporting came up in yesterday's house hearing and today's senate hearing. steve scalise brought up that document we talked about yesterday. the internal signoff form with the lead design engineer for the chevy cobalt apparently signed off on a change to the ignition switch in 2006. now, that engineer, still a current employee at gm, later testified in a civil lawsuit deposition last year that he knew nothing about that change. now, barra was asked about that

point-blank why the change was made, why the part number was not changed, and the safety concern was not publicized. and why no recall was issued. now, yesterday, she didn't directly answer the questions, citing the ongoing investigation that gm has commissioned. now, she reiterated that she hoped to find the answers to what happened. in today's senate hearing, however, she did call the part change without changing the part number "unacceptable." and we've reached out to ray degeorgio for comment but have not heard back. andrea, we are still waiting to get some of these clear answers to the specifics, those technical specifications that senators are grilling barra about right now. >> but gabe, she keeps repeating that gm has launched its own investigation, is going to wait for that assessment. but at the same time, even though they're doing that internal investigation, you've got people like claire mccaskill. senator mccaskill is a former prosecutor in missouri.

and she has general motors plants in her state. i mean, she's very familiar with these issues. and she is going after mary barra because her point is your own investigation, what about the lawyers from king and spalding in atlanta, the firm hired by general motors to report back to the general counsel of general motors. didn't they come out of that deposition and say we just have a problem, and call general motors' executive suite, call the general counsel, their bosses, their client, general motors and say we've discovered a major problem? >> that's exactly right. senators have continued to grill barra. claire mccaskill called this a culture of cover-up. mccaskill brought up the story of mark hood. he's that engineer hired by the family of brooke melton, the woman who died on her birthday in 2010 in a 2005 chevy cobalt crash. mark hood testified in the civil lawsuit last year that he

essentially appears to have uncovered the complicated technical details of this ignition switch problem. several weeks ago, the nbc news investigative unit first spoke with him and he described how gm appeared to have changed the ignition switch part, that key part in 2006 without telling anyone, and now his investigation, mark hood's analysis of the whole issue, has really become central to these congressional hearings. >> one point about this, just the sort of -- the look of this whole thing, and what general motors might have thought with mary barra, the first female ceo of a major auto maker. the fact is that she went up there and two days in a row, we're seeing that it is the women and many of them are former prosecutors who are just going after her and citing a lot of details that she may not have expected. so she cannot come up there and follow whatever her lawyers'

advice and public relations advice is to just say well, we're investigating, we're following up on that, that's the old gm, not the new gm. they're pointing out to her that she had executive responsibility in her 33-year career. at one point, mccaskill said, isn't this your resume? and asking her how could she not have some responsibility and be answering for the company here. so gender does not matter, and it does not matter in perhaps the way that general motors thought it would with this star witness today. to be continued, gabe. thanks so much for your great reporting and for the nbc investigative unit. we appreciate it. >> you bet. and we are following breaking news today here in washington also. across from the capitol at the supreme court. the supreme court has issued a major decision, striking down individual limits on campaign contributions. nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins me now from the supreme court with more. this is such an important decision. it is the companion, if you will, to citizens united. take it from there, pete. >> right. this is the limit that was

struck down today. not on how much a person can give to an individual candidate, but how much you can give to all candidates put together. it's called the aggregate or total limit and it limited any individual from giving no more than a total of $48,600 and there was a companion part of this that limited how much money you could give to all political parties and packs put together. the supreme court struck them all down. the individual limit still stands. you can only give $2,600 to any candidate in any collection. but the supreme court said when you give money, that pays for a speech, and went back to basically 40 years of supreme court decisions that have equated contributions and speech, and said that congress can no more limit how many candidates an individual can contribute to than it could tell a newspaper how many candidates it could endorse. it's all a matter of the first amendment. now the dissenters felt very strongly about this. it was a 5-4 ruling.

chief justice roberts writing for the majority, joined by anthony kennedy. justice steven briar saying when you couple it with the citizens united decision of four years ago, that removed the restrictions on corporations and labor unions spending their own money to support candidates, he said that "is going to open the floodgates." he said today's decision may well open a floodgate. the real -- i think the heart of the disagreement between the two sides of the court here, andrea, is what it is the law was intended to prevent. the majority said it's intended to prevent only what's called quid pro quo corruption. i give you a lot of money, you give me a favor in return. it doesn't make any sense that you can give the maximum to nine candidates but you can't to the tenth because that would somehow be quid pro quo corruption. they say it's trying to level the playing field, trying to prevent big money from

overwhelming the voices of small donors. the majority said sorry, that is not what the first amendment permits. you can't say that we're going to limit how much speech some have in order to make it possible for other voices to be heard. doesn't work that way. >> pete, let's just go back into the real world. we're going to hear from the republican chairman in just a moment and get his point of view. but there's a lot of talk over the last couple of days about the so-called sheldon adelson primary this past weekend in las vegas, where you had a lot of high profile republicans, the leading 2016 possibilities with the exception of rand paul, showing up in las vegas and really paying obeyisance to this onli online donor. >> he was able to achieve all that dominance before this

ruling. while the aggregate limits were still in place. that really didn't matter to him because he was giving his money to groups that support candidates. what the opponents of -- what the proponents of this decision, the supporters of the law say is now people can try to get around the individual contribution limit, by giving a whole bunch of money to other candidates and packs who will then funnel it to candidates. you're getting it around the individual campaign contribution limit. that was the essence of the argument in favor of keeping these laws. the supreme court said all those claims about circumvention were too speculative. >> pete williams, thank you so much for laying the groundwork there. for more now on just how the supreme court ruling will impact elections, i am joined by the republican national committee chairman previs. thank you very much. give me your best arguments about why this is a free speech issue? >> well, it was our case. we financed the case.

pete knows his stuff. he did a great job explaining it. the issue for us is the individual limits are still there. it's not like people are going to be able to write out million-dollar checks to the republican party or to an individual candidate. all we're saying is the idea that you have aggregate limits -- in other words, you can't give the full amount to ten candidates running for office around the country, or you can't give the full amount to the congressional committee, the senate committee in the rnc, doesn't make any sense. so the problem with the campaign finance laws generally, andrea, is that the whole thing is a mess. i mean, the legislatures made a total mess of everything. i think to your question to pete, which was a good one, and pete's answer was right on the spot, generally is that the committees, like the rnc, the individual candidates, we disclose the most to the public, to the s.e.c. every month.

every stamp we buy, every dollar we bring in is disclosed every month. and we're the most restricted and we have the most limitations on what we can raise. but a lot of these outside groups have no restrictions, but they're unlimited in what they can raise. and so the reason we're excited is that it brings the political parties -- i think the most accountable groups in america a little bit closer to exercising our first amendment rights, just like everybody else. >> in fact, one of the criticisms of what sheldon adelson and on the other side some of the other wealthy democrats do is that it has really supplemented the impact of parties. that the committees are far less important when you've got billionaires running around on both sides financing people and doing so without disclosure. >> well, to me, in my own personal opinion is that the

political parties and candidate should be on the same level playing field as everyone else. so yeah, the limits are still there. personally i think they shouldn't be, but that's not what this case is about. i think we should get to a place where the committees and the candidates that disclose everything should also be able to raise whatever they want, as long as it's disclosed in public. look, i don't disagree with citizens united. i think it's a good case. i think that we should all be free and exercise our first amendment rights. but this is a victory today for people who want to see political parties and candidates on the same playing field or a little bit closer to the same playing field as the first amendment was intended to allow us to be. >> isn't the problem in politics, though, that there's too much money, not too little money in politics today? >> you know, i don't know about that. i do know that the laws that

have been written and tasked by the legislature, they don't work. i mean, it's a maze. you look at 2012, so we have all these laws restricting money, having all these odd limitations. to figure this stuff out, honestly, there are very good lawyers here in washington, d.c. and elsewhere. we had one of our own in indiana that sent their entire careers on these laws because they're so complicated. and you know what? it's not slowing down money. 2012, before this case, as peter mentioned, you had the most money ever in politics. in spite of all of these folks who think that they're limiting money and politics. the only thing that has happened is the money is shifting from the committees that disclose everything to the public to places that don't. that's what's happened. it's more money. just in places that you don't know about. i personally think our parties need to be more on a level playing field. and it's equal, too. it goes for the democrats and the republicans.

>> reince priebus, plaintiff in the case that brought the case before the supreme court. thanks for joining us. appreciate it. and the president of chile has declared that the area rocked by this morning's 8.2 magnitude earthquake is a disaster zone. at least six people are dead. thousands are displaced. damage was somewhat mitigated by new construction techniques used there after the major earthquake in 2010. as nbc meteorologist bill karins explained, the big concern right now is the aftershocks for such a major quake. >> we only get about one earthquake a year on this planet in this category, in this magnitude of 8.0 or greater. it's a pretty rare event. considering how strong it was, only 12 miles deep near the coast. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early,

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jonathan pollard has been at the center of a political storm this week. he's the israeli spy who's been serving nearly three decades of prison time for providing classified documents to israel, but that could change if the obama administration recommends an earlier release for pollard to get the middle east peace talks back on track. his ex-wife and henderson pollard was sentenced to five years for her involvement, convicted of conspiracy and received embezzled government property and being an accessory after the fact to possession of state secrets. she served more than three years before being paroled. anne henderson pollard joins me from tel aviv. thank you very much. very good of you to be with us. >> shalom, andrea. >> shalom to you. tell me why you think that your former husband jonathan pollard and with whom you were involved in this case should be released before he has served his time. >> well, there are countless

legal reasons and numerous political reasons. let me start at the beginning. jonathan and i, first and foremost, we never enjoyed a trial with a jury of our peers. so we were hoodwinked into signing an agreement, an agreement that promised that if we cooperated with the government, that they in turn would give jonathan a minimal sentence. he receives a life sentence. there's no bargain in that type of agreement. one of the worst problems that's happened as a result is so much slanderous information and disinformation has occurred since day one of our arrest. unfortunately if we had had a trial, i think this would have put an end to speculation of things that never occurred. three, jonathan never, never spied against the united states. the information that jonathan provided to israel was

information about countries which the united states and israel both share as enemy nations, countries such as syria, such as iran, as examples. jonathan has lived in really horrible, horrendous conditions. he's lived in maximum security prisons, in isolation, in really horrific situations. and because he's been in jail so long now, he has obviously aged considerably. he has become very, very ill as a result. to this day, he sits and lives racked in pain, sometimes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. >> let me ask you a couple of questions. >> uh-huh. >> go ahead, finish your sentence, i'm sorry. >> i use myself as a great example. i was in prison for five years. and during those five years, i lived much of my five years in isolation. i was incarcerated in a men's prison in minnesota on three separate occasions.

i live d confined to a 6 x 12 cell with no windows. we really lived under horrendous conditions and it's incredibly difficult as a human being to live like this. and as a result of 29 years of living like this, i mean, jonathan's in horrible, horrible health. and so, because of that, i am pleading and begging that president obama please, please do all in his power to release jonathan, and at least give him a chance to live a few short years of his life in freedom, years where he could breathe fresh air and recover his health. >> let me ask you a couple questions, because i've read the damage assessment that american intelligence wrote and it was extraordinary. i mean, the damage assessment said that the secrets that were taken, disclosed sources and methods to israel which is an american ally, but to a foreign country, and there's no way of

knowing who israel then turned those secrets over, that it was one of the worst spying cases in american history. >> okay, so i'm happy you started there. this is the original disinformation that was spread about our case. and this is because our information -- >> and last night, i also -- let me just continue. last night i interviewed the naval intelligence investigator, who is now retired, but who recounted the millions of documents that were taken and the size of the documents, six feet tall, ten feet wide. so there was real damage. >> please, andrea, stop one moment. jonathan is not 7'5" and can't carry millions of pounds of documents. this is a grossly exaggerated statement. for years now, i've heard all kinds of estimates of what jonathan carried, which is virtually and literally impossible. he is not a muscle man, okay?

so these are grossly exaggerated statements. and let me refer you now to something which has just recently become declassified, and that is of the cia assessment of damage. and this is what you need to look at. because this is the truth. this is what the assessment at the cia did at the time, after gathering all the facts, having all the documents, and after, by the way, after the israeli government cooperated in jonathan's prosecution. so everything was out there. jonathan saved the city enormous sums of money. there was no prosecution. he saved the fact that any embarrassing information coming out between two allies, jonathan cooperated fully and completely. i grew up an american, believing so strongly as a child in the justice system and in the system of mercy and compassion. i have not seen that bestowed to jonathan in all these years. and this is where i come from. i come here as an american

citizen, as a fourth generation who grew up believing that in america, we forgive, we have compassion, we have mercy, and we don't endure cruel and unusual suffering. and jonathan today is enduring cruel and unusual suffering, as i did when i was in prison. >> well, let me ask you a couple of details. because there's been so much conversation about what happened when jonathan pollard was first arrested. the reason you were implicated is because he then made a call to you and he used a code word to get you to hide some documents and to call your israeli handlers and give them a warning so that they could get away, they had some time to get out of the country or to get away and escape arrest. did he use the code word cactus? can you tell us behind the scenes what actually happened that day?

>> it's another lifetime, it's still very much present in me. jonathan didn't come home. when he said he was on his way home, it meant exactly 30 minutes. when he didn't arrive home, i knew it meant something horrible to him. because i decided to stay quiet about what did transpire in those days, i've never in 29 years revealed anything of any type of classified information. but what i will say is let's just say there was information in the house that should not have been in my house. this was wrong. and as a result of his not being there and not coming home, i knew immediately something was wrong. it's true. i did go and i did meet a colonel, a hero of israeli, someone who bombed the reactor in iraq back in the day. so this was somebody that i thought was a true hero of both of our countries and i went to

him and i implored him to help jonathan. this is why i suffered for five years. because of that meeting. i asked him to protect jonathan and he promised me he would. within two hours, he and his wife were on the first plane out of the states. they took a car from the embassy and they ran. he gave me a phone number, rather than helping me or providing an attorney or providing some advice, he told me to go become into my house and provide jonathan with a phone number of the other handler, which i did. i did that out of loyalty to jonathan. i met jonathan when i was a teenager and he was then the love of my life. he called the secondha handler d this guy promised to protect and asked jonathan to stall. and this stalling caused an enormous amount of problems that we now realize to this day. but those people also left and they ran out of the united states. all of these people ran back to

israel and they told the top levels of government in israel at that time. this was under former prime minister, the president today. jonathan made up a lot of stories in those days to try to create a diversion and it was a terrible mistake. rather than stay quiet, he cooperated and by creating these diversions, all these stories and nonsense have come out from that. and to this day, you know, i still have to read these stories of things that never, never transpired. >> well, anne pollard, thank you -- i just want to say thank you for giving -- >> i just want to go back now -- >> thank you. but i am praying for jonathan, for his health. >> thank you very much, anne pollard, for giving us your side of the story today. and a quick note. senator patty murray was at the supreme court to hear those

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but the truth, so help you god? >> i do. >> thank you. >> it's been nearly 23 years since anita hill was confronted by an all male panel of senate inquisitor. she inspires others to find their voices today. anita hill is now back in the spotlight, the subject of the documentary "anita: speaking truth to power" when she speaks about the impact of her testimony. >> inside these file cabinets are letters that i've received over the last 29, 20 years. they're probably at this point about 25,000. you can look at one, for example, this one came in october. it's dated october 17th, 1991, which was less than a week after i testified. and it says, it's unfortunate that you had to be subjected to

attacks. you and you alone made the public cognizant of the sexual harassment that is pref lenvale the workplace. for this, the women of america will be eternally grateful. i and many like me sincerely hope that you will have a very bright future, which you richly deserve." and this is from a man. >> anita hill joins me, where she is a prefofessor of women's studies. >> thank you for having me. >> i was wondering, you've avoided the spotlight, you wrote a memoir, and we interviewed you back then. why did you want to do this documentary? what is it about the next generation that you wanted to reach? >> well, what it is is that the next generation are still confronting these issues. we have made a lot of gains in the past 22 years through any number of people raising their voices. they filed complaints.

they changed policies in the workplaces. they have actually -- you know, engaged and informed each other about our experiences. nevertheless, what we find, especially on college campuses, but also in the military and in workplaces, we find that sexual harassment still exists. and it's still a crucial issue for us to confront. so what can we learn, or what have we learned in the past 22 years, and what can we do to move us forward? >> what is so striking is that there are many young pwomen who do not know about the thomas hearings and do not know this whole history. do you find that among your students? >> oh, absolutely. when you think about it, it's 22 years. i teach on the college campus and the age of people entering, 17, 18 years old, they weren't even born yet. i think it's important that they

know not only about those hearings, but they need to know how those hearings were a reflection really of where we were as a society. and i think that in that way, they can kind of measure, have we moved forward, what are some things that they can look at and look back on and say gosh, that would never happen today. and what things will they look back and those hearings on and say you know, these are the same kinds of questions that i've been getting when i raise challenges to behavior. >> you revealed there is a voicemail that you received from virginia thomas, which said, i would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. so give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. tell me about receiving that voicemail. >> well, that voicemail came about -- oh, gosh, i think it had been about 18 or 19 years since the hearings. it sort of came out of the blue in a way. so much so that i thought maybe

it's a prank. but it was a message that she had sort of sent out a year or so earlier when justice thomas had written his memoir and she and he were on television together, this idea that i should apologize for her. and you will hear that voicemail message at the beginning of the film. and in some ways, ironically, it sort of frames the message of the film. what happened. why i came forward. and what has transpired since then and why it continues to resonate with people. >> now, last week, i interviewed president carter about his new book, about violence against women, how women are victimized and he singled out university campuses, university presidents, and the military as two institutions unwilling to change and unwilling to protect victims. >> they have been -- i'm not sure that they're unwilling entirely to change. i think what we have to do is to hold them more accountable for

change. the accountability is a key factor, whether it's in the military or in colleges and universities. we do have laws outlawing harassment on college campuses. title nine is a very effective law. it's a very comprehensive law. it covers a wide variety of behavior from today, from sexual harassment, sexual taunting, sexual bullying, all the way up to sexual assault. and it's unfortunate and even beyond unfortunate, we have reached a crisis stage on college campuses when you hear statistics like one in every four women on college campuses will be sexually assaulted during her time at the university. or will experience some kind of sexual misconduct. we're talking about a crisis, a public crisis. and we need to address it as such. so i would agree with president carter that we need to do more.

we have the military situation with brigadier general sinclair, which really amplifies a point that our processes are in need of refinement. if we, in fact, are going to get to some solution to these problems. so we've got a lot of work that we could be doing. accountability is important. good and strong and fair investigative processes, and then trials and hearings are important. and all of these are lessons that we thought we had begun to learn in 1991, but as the film shows us, we haven't completed learning. >> indeed, and thank you for keeping to teach and keeping the message very, very current. thank you, professor anita hill. very good to see you again. >> well, thank you. and everyone else really for raising the public awareness of this issue, because the media does play an important role in making sure that we keep dilige diligent. >> thank you. and we are continuing to light up for blue for world autism awareness day.

the founders of autism speaks, bob and suzanne wright joining me next. your heart ♪ ♪ you have to let me know [ female announcer ] when sweet and salty come together, the taste is irresistible. sweet and salty nut bars by nature valley. nature at its most delicious.

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[ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. today is world autism awareness day. a new report recently found that one in 68 children are identified as having autism spectrum disorders. that's a stunning 30% increase this only two years. bob and suzanne wright are the founders of autism speaks and they join me from new york city. i should point out they are our former head of nbc and my great friends, and thank you for all that you have done. bob, this new cdc report shows that the autism spectrum disorders are broadly throughout our society more boys than girls. but the diagnoses are really increasing, and it's not only because people are finding more cases, there's something going on here. >> well, there's a lot going on. certainly awareness is a factor,

more diagnosis, better access to diagnosis. then there are a whole bunch of other factors that we done understand that we generally put in the category of environmental. the same thing i would say is true in many cancers and others where there's just not a current answer. one of the things that we do know now, this is 2.5% of boys. this is an incredible number. so we have to get out and get early diagnosis and try to get as many services as you possibly can. and we're going to try at autism speaks to provide a lot of those services, at least the definition and the direct connection to people in your community to help you out with that if you guetta diagnosis. >> and suzanne, early diagnosis is really important. dr. nancy sneiderman had an example earlier this week in her report for "nightly news." what's the ideal timeframe where you can first start noticing that there is a problem and start intervening?

>> well, i first want to thank you, andrea, for always being such a great supporter of ours and i want to thank our nbcu family for wearing blue today. it's wonderful to have all of your support. it means so much to bob and i. >> you bet. >> i'd say right now when we were discovering how bad autism was, now i think six months you can start to see signs of autism. mostly the joyful babble, not the eye contact, the loss of words. it's pretty evident now because of autism speaks. we have the well baby check-ups at 18 and 24 months. but before that, you can go to our website at any time and see the milestones that each child should be making at six months. >> and you see comparisons between typical children and children that have a develop mental disorder all the way up to a tool kit if you get the diagnosis. a lot of material and a lot of things at least being informative that you would not

be able to see. >> and it's better safe than sorry. >> one of the things we discovered is what your rights are in the public school systems, for instance, i was under the misimpression that some school districts, including right here in d.c., don't provide services, but under the disabilities education act, they're supposed to provide some services. perhaps not the best. but what are your options if you discover there is a diagnosis of some range? >> you have to go zero downright in your community. we have got insurance bills passed in 34 states, which represent the vast majority of the population. but every state is a little bit different. some of them are extraordinarily effective. all of them provide some services for preschoolers. but they can vary in terms of occupational speech and behavioral as to how much. but you have to check that right away to find out whether you're eligible for that, because whether your employer is covered

in that or whether it's mandated, and the odds are probably you are and then you can get into those services. but the school districts often do not provide that, even though technically they should be, they often don't do it. >> and i'd say don't be shy. call autism speaks, we'll help you in any way we can. >> that's one of the great things that we've learned, suzanne, through your example an bob's, is not to be shy, to be very aggressive in finding out what your rights are, what's available in the community. and you have the awareness, just the landmarks that have been lighted up. 8,400 landmarks in 2013. 1,300 cities. 101 countries. seven continents. all of this is just extraordinary, what you've accomplished. and only today we can see the empire state building and some of the great landmarks there. >> we lit up the empire state building this morning with my grandchildren. and our new ambassador from "sesame street" abby cadabi. with her magic wand, she'll

light the world blue. we see the video from the international space station telling us that they will be up there lighting the heavens blue, and nothing travels faster than light. >> i want parents to know, or viewers to know, we have over 400,000 people in the united states involved in our walks, and they are available. they can be contacted through our walks, they're in almost every city, and these are people that do know a lot about autism. they're experiencing it themselves. they're dealing with insurance. they're dealing with taxes. they're dealing with services. they know doctors, they know therapists. so that's available. >> bob wright, suzanne wright. our love to christian and the whole family. thank you so much for everything you've done. i should point out that today across social media, use the #liub for light it up blue. people are sharing how they're marking world autism awareness day. share your photos on facebook and twitter @mitchellreports. [ male announcer ] the 2014 nissan altima.

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that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the program, the usid administrator and katherine schwarzenegger on her new book. ronan farrow has a look at what's next. >> good to see you. great coverage of autism there. and i wore blue. >> good deal. minutes away, the supreme court rules that you can give more of your money to the people who need it most, politicians. also, we're live with an update on this weekend's explosive preelection violence in afghanistan. plus, the very latest on the devastating earthquake in chile. don't go away. over the next two days, we're going to be tracking severe weather in the middle of the country. today it's going to be areas from arkansas to missouri, up through illinois.

we will see a potential for isolated tornados. as we go into thursday, the same area is going to have a much greater impact as the storm system gets even stronger. so we're watching closely in the middle of the country. travel safe. hey kevin...still eating chalk for hearburn? yea. try alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heart burn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. alka-seltzer fruit chews. enjoy the relief!

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battlefield state that a few more dollars to the minimum wage. as wu tang warned, cash rules everything around us. >> breaking news from the supreme court. >> what the supreme court has done is strike down the federal law that limited how much a single person could give to all political candidates put together. >> president obama is set to leave the white house and make his way to michigan where he will continue his push to raise the federal minimum wage. >> if you raise the minimum wage, you have more money to spend, you have more money to get off of social assistance. >> now to second day of questioning for gm's ceo about why the car company did not recall more than 2.6 million vehicles sooner. >> when we have answers, we will be fully transparent with you. with our regulators. and with our customers. >> is the american government planning to release a spy? >> i think this is a horrible idea. >> that dunn help american government, does it not? >> no, it makes us look weak, frankly, and desperate. >> the idea that everybody in this count