insecurity. > and roller coaster ride on wall street this afternoon as the new jobs report is sending stocks into a tail spin. it's another day of dangerous weather, we are tracking all of it. >> they'll recover from this latest tragedy, they'll heal their wounds and we will go forward, we will learn lessons about what's occurred here and to minimize the chances of this ever happening again. we'll mourn for those that we have lost. we'll find out the answers that we can and we'll continue this vital mission that this post and men and women across the country have serving in our military. >> the american flag is flying at half staff in honor of the

ft. hood shooting victims. the conditions of the 16 survivors are all improving. but families of the three soldiers who were killed are facing the grim task of planning funerals. today investigators are builting a psychological profile of the shooter. they're looking into report that ivan lopez go into some kind of verbal confrontation on the base and that he was upset about his leave -- he appeared agitated and disrespectful. it's just one of the many angles investigators are pursuing. nbc's charles hadlock starts us off live at ft. hood, we're two hours away from the next military briefing, where do things stand right now? >> nbc news is reporting that the ft. hood gunman opened fire after he was denied a leave form to fill out. he was told to come back later to fill out that form. well, he came back later, and opened fire, killing three

soldiers and wounding 16 others including himself. he killed himself. that account comes from the father of army sergeant jonathan westbrook, who spoke to his wounded son, directly about what happened, you can read more about that account on nbc news.com. meanwhile, the father of the gunman issued a statement from the lopez family, saying in part, i asked for prayers for the affected families, my son must not have been in his right mind, he wasn't like that, the father said. specialist lopez had a 15-year spotless record with the army, but according to the army, he had some psych logical problems. he was suffering depression and was having trouble sleeping and had anxiety attacks. his father says in that statement that the recent death of his mother and the transfer to ft. hood changed his mental condition. >> charles hadlock, thank you very much. this week's shooting is raising

questions about the security of u.s. bases here at home. experts say we need to think of ft. hood like a small city. the entire base covers 340 square -- tens of thousands of soldiers, civilian contractors and guests every day. ft. hood has its own police department, it has restaurants and it has big city problems like theft, domestic problems and dui. the mayor of the town who hosts ft. hood says there's no such thing as 100% security. >> you can't search every car as it goes on ft. hood, it would be logistically impossible to search those. violence is not something that just happens at ft. hood, it happens in chicago, new york, it happens all over the united states. >> fred burton is the vice president of intelligence at

statfor, and a former special agent with the state department. you were at ft. hood the day before the shooting. were you carrying a gun and did you feel like ft. hood was safe? >> i think you have to keep this in perspective, ft. hood is no different than any other city, and in essence, anybody in any city needs to practice a high degree of situational awareness when they're walking around or visiting. but the important aspect here i think for people to understand is that society's problems do not stop at the perimeter gates of military bases. that all the problems that exist in any major city in america also exist on any military compound. >> absolutely. well, in your view, what is a reasonable level of security at a large base like ft. hood? are there security changes that you would recommend?

>> i think once the dust settles here, we're going to find that from a contingency planning perspective that the ft. hood police really did a great job of neutralizing the threat. you get better as you practice and as unfortunately, you run through these events, as they had the previous attack with major hassan. like new york city is the best prepared city in america to deal with an act of terrorism. ft. hood is getting better at contingency planning. there's no doubt in my mind that the emergency medical response and the actual reaction to the active shooter probably went a lot better than it would on any street of america, programs absent new york city. >> and, fred, you mentioned that of course society's problems are not going to stop at the edge of the base, that makes sense, but it's also a militarized environment, we have seen reports that they don't allow

concealed weapons there, but they do have something that amounts to an honor system with soldiers who come on base with their weaponry. is that the right balance? >> i think the military has got the right balance that's in play, let's not lose sight of the fact that on ft. heood, thee are weapons on the -- you have the ability to react at a moment's notice. what the military does and does probably better than anybody is after action events much like what occurred at the navy yard and the previous incident at ft. hood and they're going to fine-tune their operation to try to fix what potentially could be broken. but at the end of the day, you can't stop crazy in society and what's happened at ft. hood is indicative of many places around america. >> and that's a really important point to make, because so far

the investigation as not turned up really any red flags about the gunman. he had every right to be there with his badge on, as far as we know, we keep asking, what more can we do? what more could have been done. we have to accept the fact that these terrible facts happen no matter how much we try to prevent them? >> unfortunately in my career, i have seen a lot of tragedy, whether it be assassinations or embassy bombings or other kinds of attacks. we live in a violent world, people don't want to reck no that crime happens, workplace violence happens. and it just so happens that this act of work place violence occurred on a military base. up next, examining security at another hot spot, the first anniversary of the boston marathon bombing is approaching. two journalists who cover the

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in just a short period of time we'll make room in our hearts for the anniversary of another tragedy that scarred this country. april 15 is one year since the boston marathon bombing, a day of needless violence and loss. within that sorrow, our stories of triumph and heroism of victims, their families and a city was changed for everybody. "a long mile home" is about the

tragedy. we have the co-writers of that book, thank you so much for joining us. i'll start with you, the boston marathon was chosen intentionally as a target here. talk to us about what the boston marathon means to the city. >> the marathon is an incredibly special day in the city, it's such a long, historical tradition for us. it's patriot's day, it's a state holiday and everybody comes out, the kids are out of school, the families flock to the racecourse and everybody is in a great mood. it's spring and the leaves are just coming out on the trees so you couldn't find a happier day in the city of boston. >> you highlight the lives that were changed forever after this bombing, one of them being heather abbott, anyone who reads about her story, you have so much sympathy for what she lived through this, young beautiful woman, lived a carefree live.

she was waiting in a line for a restaurant with her friends when the bombing happened. she was faced with the hardest decision you ever have to make and that is to amputate both of her legs. >> it's amazing to see her strength and her spirit through all this. i think you hit on one of the most interesting parts, is a lot of times these cases are not black and white. it's more of a gray area, she woke up very happy and relieved to find that she still had her foot and her leg intact. and it was only after days and days of -- counter intuitively, she would have a better life without her foot than with her damaged foot. that's one of the many stories we tried to bring to light in this book and go deep in a way that no one else has been able to do yet. >> that's what a book can do is

provide -- jenna, you also write about -- was on the scene and fought back the urge to three, which you write that she had and instead rushed through the barricades to help the injured? >> shana katone is a very young boston police officer, just 24 years old. she was a teenager at the time of 9/11 and was very deeply affected by that. when she came to live in boston, she fell in love with the city in part because of how safe it felt. so for her that day was a light duty at the marathon, expected it to be a wonderful day. and as you say, she was incredibly honest with us and she trusted us enough to confess that she had that urge to run. instead she ran toward the explosion and ended up being extremely instrumental in saving some lives there that day. >> scott, this incident has had a huge impact on all of boston, even folks who weren't there that day.

how is boston overall been changed by this incident? >> i think changed forever. i mean this is, needless to stay one of the biggest things that has ever happened here, one of the biggest stories ever to unfold. and there's so much that happened during that week of the bombing and in that year since, this is a story that's going to go on forever in many ways. the year anniversary, of course, just like what we saw with 9/11 is a very special event, a very mournful and somber one. i think in the years to come, memories will fade and they will change and the marathon hopefully will be restored to the glory that it always had. but i think you even see today, the red sox had their home opener and they had survivors and family members bringing out the rings to the ownership to bring to the players. i don't think there was a dry eye on the globe, certainly not with me there. >> can you even imagine what kind of emotion will be going

through all of boston? do you think people are going to go to the marathon route to be part of just celebrating the return of boston. >> i think you'll see the biggest marathon ever, both from a running stand point and from a spectator stand point. i think we have seen since the first moments that this happened, this feeling of defiance on the part of runners and also on the part of boston residents and spectators, and i think you will see people go to the race this year in droves. and i think it will be in many ways perhaps the most special running of the mar thong athon history. >> how on a personal level has a resident of boston and someone who loves the city, how has this tragedy affected you? >> as scott said, it's an event mike nothing else that we have seen here, it was an unbelievable week in the globe newsroom where all of us came together and worked around the clock to try and tell this story as responsibly and as well as we could. that work has continued for a year. looking back now having gotten

to know some of these people very well and were close to the events, i can't help but see it in a different way and feel it very deeply. i think it will be an emotional day here. >> and scott, how do you look at the past year? >> it was a very tight deadline to finish the book so we were very focused on that work. and in a lot of ways we were able to put our emotions aside because we had to. and as journalists, we infortunately see these things from from time to time. but we have all had moment where is we had to pause and shed tears and were very sad and emotional ourselves. i think that will only intensify the next few weeks, honestly. >> thanks for sharing your story with us. we are in the storm cycle this friday, and that is rarely a good thing.

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that line of severe weather that tore through the south this week has caused damage in south carolina to nashville. more on that in a minute. but first, what had the storm already done? eight reported tornadoes, nearly 100 wind reports and more than 100 reports of hail falling. we go to richard louie in memphis, tennessee. >> reporter: it may be sunny here in memphis at this hour, but in the middle of the night when it was dark, many of the residents here were awoken by the sound of thunder as that huge system passed overhead. as we stand by this tributary of the mississippi, there was concern about flooding. the national weather service put out one of those emergency texts that alerts through your phone

that you should be concerned about. in the end, there was no flooding, good thing, because in all, just part of 51 million people across the country who had to stay indoors and be concerned about rough weather. that's from texas to indiana, to the south, the plains, the ohio valley. those that did not heed the warnings like these drivers going down the road encountered in missouri of a funnel cloud. there was also a state of emergency declared there. there's also those that were in texas, as they were at a minor league baseball game, the frisco rough riders, fans ran for cover. and the fans at the university of north texas who huddled in doorways and hallways as the storm passed over them. back here in memphis t worst conditioning was just water in the streets on behl street. and as we look at the sun this

afternoon, the good thing is that there's going to be something special here, and that is the grand reopening of the national civil rights museum. 46 years ago at the lorraine hotel, which is just about a mile over there, they will be commemorating the killing of martin luther king jr. let's turn now to the all important friday afternoon and weekend forecast with rafi miranda. >> hey, guys. happy friday. you can see the good news is the severe weather threat has diminished today. overall the storms are packing much less of a punch today, yet yesterday we had hundreds of storm reports and today we have got about 10 so far. and we may not add to that. we are tracking one line of storms around the gulf coast, it's been moving through new orleans and now gulfport and mobile areas, but you can see the heavier storms weakening there, take a look at the white flashing, that indicates lightning and when you see that fading away, this indicates a

weakening storm. now pensacola, panama city, still going to have to watch these storms closely, they're capable of bringing severe weather, but the shear isn't there like it was yesterday, to the components for severe weather and especially tornadoes are not being seen today like they were yesterday. the severe threat will continue, so new orleans, even though the storms have moved away right now, there's a chance for more severe weather as we head through the weekend. this is a sign of spring finally making a come back. when you have the continental polar air sitting in place, clashing with this maritime air, that's good news for us trying to break out this cold winter pattern. >> you know who loves spring? >> the weekend will be lovely.

>> last weekend, i apologize, it was the worst, it was like one of those bing watching tv forecasts. tomorrow starts out with a little bit of cloudiness, it looks worse than it is, there's a little bit of sunshine all afternoon. 158 and sunshine. then the range comes back monday and tuesday. who cares, working then and it's fine. >> or you can go get a tan, finally. he's got a little bit of a tan. rafi, thank you so much. and cycling now, as little as two days remaining until those pingers stop pinging in the search for the flight 370's black boxes turns from improbable to nearly impossible. that search has now moved below water where an australian search boat is dragging a -- it's now been four weeks to the day since flight 370 vanished.

both australia jn and malaysian searchers have vowed never to stop searching. this is the first friday of the month and you know what that means on the cycle. what does that mean? that means it's job reports friday. quickly in march, we added 192,000 jobs, the unemployment rate held steady at 6.7% and the report is basically okay but not all that great. welcome to you both. one thought here is that the unemployment rate in the high s i sixes feels to a lot of people like normal. >> we have certainly been there for too long. i wouldn't call it the new normal, i think that would be accepting a labor market slup that's way too high. the 6.7 unemployment rate is

split between short-term unemployment, which is somewhere around 4%, that's actually back down to its historical average. the thing that's boosting the unemployment rate, is the very historically high numbers of long-term unemployed people, people who have been out of work for six months, many much longer than that. the goal is to pull those people back into the job market. >> you can look at the numbers and say at least they're better than they have been. but the reality is that the gdp is still stagnant and wages are still down. we're still way below the pace needed to bring unemployment to respectful levels. it's underemployment that's still a huge problem for so many, but especially for african-americans who have an underemployment rate of 20.5%. and the young people as well who are trying to get that first job out of college. so how do we begin even breaking this trend? >> let's take a different tack.

jared likes to talk about more stimulus and i like to talk about the trade deficit. the approach to either of those, how do we get these long-term unemployed and these disadvantaged folks back into the labor mark and back into the jobs for the future. i would suggest that the time has come for very targeted programs, similar programs that we saw for youth during the depression, but this time around, during the jobs core, during the johnson administration, this time around, towards specific groups, for example men between the ages of 25 and 55, one out of six are unememployed and no prospects for finding a job. long-term unemployed among minorities and specific targeted programs that put them to work, provide them with a skill and so forth. if we want to spend more government money, jared, i would be for that. if we're going to build roads, let's make sure that those are the guys that are building the roads. >> we're going to talk about

things that we might do, i want to talk about something that's completely noncontroversial, like the minimum wage, the restaurant industry is hiring a lot of folks, those folks are largely working at minimum wage. if we were politically able to raise the minimum wage to that $10.10, what would that do to future jobs reports? >> it would not be very good. according to the congressional budget office, which is hardly the research department of the republican national committee. it wouldn't cause us to lose 500,000 jobs. how could that happen? the waiter in the upscale manhattan restaurant, he would keep his job. mcdonald's are more likely to go to the kind of check outs that walmart has, you would -- there is a real potential for job losses and that's why i think that we need to go at this a different way than just to

campaign around the country and say please raise the wages. we need to give businesses the wherewithal to raise them by giving them more customers. >> jared, what do you think? >> well, i think that there's kind of an all of the above answer to this. workers need more jobs. peter was just talking about the quantity of jobs and i'm absolutely with him on that point. but we also have to be concerned about job quality, and as you have suggested, one area where we have been creating a fair number of jobs is in the low wage sector. but we know that the pay down there has been really tough for a lot of folks trying to make ends meet. and by the way, what we now know, is that those are not just kids or teenagers, lots of those folks are parents trying to make their families' ends meet. so it is critical to worry about job quality. so you want p to raise the minimum wage. by the way you mentioned the restaurant industry, unfortunately, there's something called a tipped minimum.

the actual federal minimum wage for waiters and wait tress is $2.13. they get tips on top of that, but clearly, there needs to be this pay increase. and by the way, peter mentioned the 500,000 from the cbo, what he failed to mention is that the cbo shows that 24.5 million workers. 24.5 million workers get a boost from that wage increase. that's something like 99% of the targeted audience. >> but let's remember, jared, if we increase employment by 500,000, those people pay the price for that. we can't deny that there are tradeoffs. i think you have to admit to that. >> i take your point there. i think the one thing to consider there is that there's a lot of churn in the low wage labor market, so once those folks get back in, they'll get back to a better job. >> now you're negating what you said, because there are a lot of people now that are permanently

stuck in low wage jobs, they're supporting families and so forth. >> let me jump in here because i want to get you to weigh in on another social logical phenomenon which is income equality. there's a book out called "capitalists in the 21st century" and he argues that in the u.s., a large part of the i inequality we ski is because of the rise of the supersalaries, ceos at the top making insane amounts of money. and he further ties that directly to the fact that the top tax rates are historically low now. so those top managers at the top of the chain have a huge incentive to bargain for these really large pay packages and our corporate governing structure allows them to two it. what do you make of that analysis. >> i think that analysis is very much on target, if you look at

where the vast majority of the growth, at least where market incomes have gone in the past few years, it's right there at the top of the pay scale. what the work has shown is that that's not unrelated at all to the very favorable tax treatment that many of these folks get. when we tax more capital income, that's really the final chapter of the book, is all about taxing wealth, taxing those very high salaries. when we create a tax structure that captures more of that income and the revenue base, it actually dampens some of the -- >> from supersized fries to supersized inequality. thanks for being here today. and one job that will be gone next year, so we hear will be david letterman's at cbs. he said he would step down in 2014.

dave has been with us making many people laugh during his 30-plus years, first on his daytime show here on nbc, then following johnny carson, david letterman took his act to cbs and made millions for himself and a popular company. this is what he told the world that he was calling it quits. >> i just can't to reiterate my thanks for the support from the network. all of the people who have worked here, all of the people in the theater, all of the people on the staff, everybody at home, thank you very much. and what this means now is that paul and i can be married. ♪ my name is jenny, and i quit smoking with chantix.

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blown and it's all led to this, the final four. uconn takes on top seeded florida, then it's preseason favorite kentucky facing wisconsin. but most importantly, who's winning the cycle bracket challenge. better luck next time, my friend. how about me with my pick of the arizona wildcats. that leave one person left. yes, torrey is winning. keep winning. >> show me. >> i chose the florida gators. >> can we get a shot of torrey? >> i won? i won? yeah. >> congratulations, you get to be on television. we have got jordan schultz, sports columnist at "the huffington post."

we'll preview this weekend's matchups and maybe you can explain where it all went wrong for me, because i took your picks. >> you should have followed my advice. >> i took your advice. >> yes. >> arizona lost. and then you said okay michigan state, because that's what jordan told me to do. >> here's the thing, iowa state, their third leading scorer breaks his foot. then they lose to uconn. michigan state, injuries all year, and then my pick arizona, unfortunately, against wisconsin, i believe as does abby, got absolutely jobbed and one of the worst officiating of the games. >> i hate it when people say oh, the referees stole the game. >> all my teams -- >> are you saying the referees were in the tank? >> my teams were all unfortunately had big injury problems or had referee issues. >> referee issues is like the

worst thing for a sports guy to say. >> you saw that call, that was absolutely horrendous. >> i'm already on your side. i agree. >> if you came out here and said arizona's going to win and i came out here and said florida's going to win. >> florida's not going to win. i'm still standing here, you're not. but do you think florida's going to lose? >> i think connecticut is going to beat them. florida is only two losses this year, connecticut, wisconsin, both final four teams, they are a very good team, and we talked about the year of the freshman, we talked about -- billy dono n donovan, their head coach, if he wins this title, it will be his third. it is a tremendous honor. but i do like connecticut, a major upset. >> i'll tell you, jordan, this has been a tremendous march madness. >> he just loves gainesville,

the gators. >> the gators like the coasties. >> except not at all. i would say, this has been a tremendous march madness. >> yes. >> the games, the playing, torrey mentioned the referees. it's all been happening. >> it's a real mix of things. >> the toutime-outs. >> if you had watched any of the games you would have more to say about it. i didn't watch any of the games so i don't have a lot to offer. but you have written about kentucky, kentucky's got a recruitment strategy that focuses on younger players. tell us about that? >> kentucky broke the year with six mcdonald's all americans and thai have played four or five of them consistently. i think what their head coach has done is remarkable. he recruits one and done guys. he recruits people that are going to be be a top 10, top 20 recruit and go to the nba.

so its a remarkable balance there. kentucky has been incredible, because the run they have put on basically looking like an nit team for more than half of the year has been remarkable. >> why are we talking about march madness, it's april, move on folks. no, i wanted to ask you about another issue, which is dan murphy, who plays second base for the mets, had a baby boy on monday, decided to take the three days off that he's entitled to be with his wife and his newborn thing which seems like a wonderful thing to do. but apparently there were a few people who took issue to that. >> if i had a c-section, before the season starts, i need to be at opening day. this is what makes our money, this is how we're going to live our life, this gives your child every opportunity to be a success in life. i'll be able to afford to send my kid to any college he wants

to go to. >> no complications. >> i should mentioned that boomer has since apologized for what were insensitive comments. unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who said similar things. this is outrageous the idea that you can't even take two games off to be with your new baby. >> the crazy thing about that, he didn't do anything wrong, major league baseball allows him to have that opportunity. he was gone for two games in april. we're not talking about the world series or the playoffs here. this is april. >> but the point isn't only the month, right? >> what he did to me is commendable and i woumtd actually have a problem if he didn't go. he took the proper measurementm, he told the gm, he did everything right. and fore ee esiason.

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that it puts some people in the position to show uncommon school lore and courage. a black religion meant that was relegated to menial duties even though they wanted to fight. until the french let us know they needed some soldiers and the all black regiment was allowed to go into combat. they served edadmirably. they were highly decorated. yet when they returned home, that were parades as well as riots and lynchings. this story is told in the stunning new novel "the harlingen freedo fighters" what got you intrigued with this story. >> i was 11 years old, i'm 41 now, so three decades ago, i was a college student working his way, and told me about it. when you're a white kid from the

good part of l.a., that kind of injustice is inheard of. that was a shock to me. i studied and i was interested. and back in the 90s, i tried to write a movie script, i was surprised because nobody wanted to do a movie starring black people. and now hollywood's come back again. >> now will smith is interested in producing, he may or may not be in the actual film. but the story itself, these guys who distinguished themselves as amazing fighters, they also had to zedeal with a lot of racism while they were in the army. let's talk about the meat of their story. >> this was a good time for america, that was the great migration, a lot of black people were moving into northern cityis and becoming part of the culture. so there was a huge backlash, the last thing people wanted was black people marching off to defend democracy and -- the u.s.

army did everything possible to sabotage it's own soldiers. evening so far as throwing them away and giving them to the french. and that was the final insult, because during that pershing head of the u.s. army said absolutely not. americans will fight under an american flag with an american lead leader dot dot dot except for the black guys. you can have them. >> when they came home, you close the story by saying it would be a nice story if i could say our parade or even our victories changed the world overnight. truth's got an ugly way of killing nice stories. the truth is that we came home to ignorance, bitterness and something called the red summer of 1919. talk to us about that. >> that was some of the worst racial violence this country's ever seen. and you see this in history. there's an action and then there's a reaction. this was a tremendous reaction from the status quo. to try to suppress them. because we got to remember, world war i was the first war we ever fought for an ideal. to make the world safe for democracy. well, that wasn't lost on black

people who didn't even have democracy at home. w.e.b. dubois said when they came home, we saved it in france and by the great jehovah we will save it in the usa or note reason way. >> the artistry in this novel is amazing. done by keenen white. so little is known about these guys. why the entire novel is graphic? why not actually write out their stories? >> first of all, i think it's a visual story. i wanted to keep it visual. i wanted it to appeal to younger people. most americans don't know much about the first world war, particularly young people. if you want to turn -- as a history major i can tell you, you want to turn off people to history? give them a big thick book as an introduction and say here you go, eighth grader. so comics are a great introduction to history, toedcatitoe education. this should serve as a primer. >> you make this graphic novel after 16 years of trying to get hollywood to do it, now

hollywood's motivated to do something with it. >> yeah. >> why did that change their mind? >> hollywood, i always assume hollywood's kind of like the pretty girl in high school. as soon as you stop paying attention to them, suddenly they're interested in you. >> playing the hard to get game. >> i've been ignoring hollywood for 40 years and still they don't pay attention to me. amazing how that goes. but this story is so extraordinary. and right at the end of it when you have the soldiers coming home and they're wearing these uniforms and folks are saying you're not an american soldier, take that off. and those sort of clashes created a lot of riots, led to a lot of lynchings. that's the red summer krystal was talking about. the book ends before that. that's a critical part of the story. >> definitely true. i wanted to focus on their combat experience. they were so magnificent in combat. the first american, black or white to win the french medal was a black soldier. had this unit been white they would be part of our natural

fabric. we'd be on our third or fourth remake of this movie. >> thank you so much, max brooks. so much still ahead the age-old question of a tree falls in the forrest and no one's around to hear it did it make a sound? >> oh, boy. i'm falling. everybody look out. oooooh! a little help here? >> i love that commercial. look, someone's got to be listening. first, choose unlimited soup or salad. then create your own pasta with one of five homemade sauces. and finish with dessert. three courses, $9.99. at olive garden.

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>> let them eat cake. >> america is today distributing wealth more unequally than they did at the time of the french revolution. we have a level of inequality that is according to thomas piketty" unique among all nations in the history of the world" the supreme court decision in the mccutchen case has continued the long term e evisceration of campaign lays. there's a massive difference between our equality and finance statutes. the concentration of wealth leads to the concentration of political power which leads to a further concentration of wealth which leads to a cycle that is destroying our democracy. the court has once again amplified the voice of the wealthy over that of the many. there is no equality in a system where it's essentially one dollar, one vote. our system's privileging of the voice of a very tiny wealthy elite has already had a profound impact on america. a study of the political beliefs and habits of the wealthy published in perspectives on

politics shows they are far more likely to have spoken directly to an elected official than the general public has, and almost half have of of respondents acknowledge their politics focus on a narrow economic self-interest. they speak to official about regulations that hurt their business, thus their political operations are business operations. the wealthy are far more conservative than the general publics on issues of regulation, taxation, entitlements, deficits and public school spending. all that is why since the early 1970s when corporations and the wealthy began organizing politically like never before, the result has been taxes on the rich falling, regulation falling, labor union protection falling, the ability to donate large sums rising, and a massive shift of capital from the middle class to the up tier. since 1971, the upper tier's share of national household income has soared from 29% to 46% while the middle class's share has fallen from 62% to

45%. that shift toward massive inequality was brought on -- was bought by spending on races. spending by outside groups has grown exponentially from 193 million in 2004 to 1 billion in 2012. we have a weak democracy, overly controlled by the wealthy elite. and mccutchen will lead to them having even more control. the reason why certain issues poll well but can't get passed us because of the overwhelming influence of the tiny elite. expect more and more of this in the future. it's clear republicans will benefit more from mccutchen than dems but dems will benefit as well. the real loser well be the nonwealthy, the overwhelming majority of us. perhaps we dispense with elections all together and just let the elite announce who they've selected for the rest of us. we must change all this with substantive campaign finance reform that says money is not speech and corporations are not speak and allows for donation limits. but that, i fear, is many

possible. it's too late to stop the wealthy's hold on politics from growing ever stronger. our democracy is the titanic heading for an iceberg called the end of campaign finance limits. and if we don't turn soon we'll plunge into the icy waters of oligaarchy and sink. time for "now with alex wagner." the u.s. has now officially regained all the private sector jobs that were lost in the great rescission. but what does that mean for the men and women still out of work? it is friday, april 4th. this is "now with alex wagner" now live from los angeles. we are currently awaiting a press conference from the commander at fort hood regarding wednesday's deadly shooting. while we wait let us turn to today's jobs report where we learned that half a million americans started looking for work last month, and most of them actually found jobs. it is