>> we're here because today is equal pay day. america should be a level playing field. restoring that opportunity for every american, men and women, has to be a driving focus for our country. >> the olympic sprinter is testifying for a second straight day. >> for first time oscar pistorius explaining to the court what happened in his version. >> overcome with fear and started screaming and shouting. >> jeb bush knew he was stirring up potential backlash when he said many immigrants come to america illegally as an act of love. >> we need to be a nation that welcomes and celebrates legal immigrants. >> the core of the bill which is to lead as a civil offense rather than criminal offense. >> governor o'malley will sign it and called enforcement a low priority for police and prrters. >> the huskies are in basketball heaven. >> police say at least 30 people

were arrested and students tore down street lights and smashed a window. cheering on the still undefeated women's team as they play notre dame in the championship game. welcome, everybody. today president obama is shining a spotlight on an ugly inequality that flies in the face of america's principles and could be holding back america's prosperity. it is the income gap between men and women. about an hour ago the white house staged a high profile announcement of a new executive order and memo focusing on this challenge and announced that today is equal pay day. >> equal pay day means a women has to work this far into 2014 to earn what a man earned in 2013. think about that. a woman has got to work about

three more months in order to get what a man got because she's paid less. that's not fair. that's like adding an extra six miles on a marathon. first we'll turn to peter alexander. what do you think these executive orders will accomplish specifically? walk us through what's being done and what's not here. >> reporter: the white house focuses on the key word of transparency. one an executive order that the president signed today during the event. that first one will allow government and federal contractors to openly discuss their salaries without fear of retaliation. the white house makes it very clear that if women in the workplace don't know what other individuals are making, they don't know they are getting underpaid, they can't do anything to fix the problem. that's the first issue.

the second one is focused on requiring federal contractors, ultimately the president will engage the labor department to do this but engaging in federal contractors to report salaries by race and sex. that's for better targeted information to help the enforcement of this process going forward. that's the president's desire today. this is obviously coordinated effort by the white house with congressional democrats. we expect to hear on the floor about an hour from now from at least eight senate democrats who will speak in support of this topic as well. >> these are incremental steps, but he is making a big splashy play and shining light on that, including getting more data on this. to what extent is this about politics going into the midterms do you think? >> republicans say this is entirely about politics. i spoke to a republican strategist before i woked ought to speak to you and they described it as jazz hands, this is the white house and democrats trying to refocus attention on a topic that they say is not nearly as big of an issue as the

white house is making it and insist pay equality is better in the genders than in years past and point to the white house saying the 88 cents on the dollar the white house has to reconcile itself. for the white house this is a significant topic and for democrats in general. they need to raise this issue, that targets women specifically, women the plarnlgest demographic in terms of voting and on top of that single women specifically for whom this issue really speaks volumes. >> it's a huge and serious problem as we just heard. some are calling this move, jazz hands. thank you so much for that, peter alexander. >> how big of a challenge is this? for starters, all across america, women still make and this is the figure the white house uses, although some across party lines contest it, 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. so according to a new study, that extends even within the white house. women are making less, 88 cents

for every dollar white house male employees make. as peter alexander mentioned, that is something they have to contend with. jay carney responded yesterday to those uncomfortable numbers. >> i think those studies look at the aggregate of everyone on staff, from junior levels to most senior. i can tell you as an inconstitution, we have addressed this challenge. and obviously though at the 88 cents, that you cite, that is not 100 but better than the national average. >> better than the national average, a fair point. all of this matters not just because it's unjust, it could raise america's gdp up to 9%. they are pragmatic reasons to care about this too. for a take that's both personal and political, i'm going to

bring in lilly ledbetter, a trailblazer who fought this issue in the supreme court and the act named after her, the lilly ledbetter fair pay act bill was the first president obama signed when he came into office. >> thank you for having me. it's a pleasure to be here. >> so many people around the country have watched your long fight on this and eager to get your reaction today. what do you pay about the pay disparity in the white house itself? >> the news today is just wonderful because it's been something that i've been fighting and lobbying for ever since the ledbetter bill was signed because had this today paycheck fairness been the law or this thing, this executive order i signed today but having the government contractors be followed and make sure that they

are adhering to the law, if this had been the law back in my day, i wouldn't be here because i would be at home drawing the proper retirement i had legally earned through my working career. i could not discuss my pay and couldn't find out and worked for an employer that had government contracts from the time i walked in until my retirement. and this would have been so beneficial to me and my family and i can assure you that unequal pay is still a big problem in this country today because i travel constantly talking to women and groups and different male and female groups and the men are beginning to understand it because they had mothers who worked and wives and daughters and this is critical to this country. >> i know this resonates with so many. going back to the white house

specifically, a positive announcement in terms of new executive actions, what do you say to the idea there's inequality with what the white house pays its male and female staffers? >> i don't know the math on that one, i would have to check, but i've not heard that. i would think that -- >> it's 88 cents to a dollar according to the latest study. >> okay, well they are working on probably trying to get it moved into order because they have a whole program that they are coming out in june with about women's benefits, they are rights and every area. so i'm sure that will be addressed. i was in a meeting earlier where the round table discussion was simply about equality in every asset for women and their families. when you talk about women, economy and their pay, this is a family affair. this is critical. it's important. and i'm sure that the white house is looking at their facts and figures and they will get it

up. >> that is what jay carnkarn ald to, it's something that all of us have to work on. republicans are saying that the white house is playing politics on this and in particular they are arguing that legislation is not going to help. what do you say to that charge when republicans say, for instance, that legislation will just clog up the system, there will be more lawsuits? >> no, sir. i can attest to that, there will not be. because this legislation will help encourage korpgtss and employers, especially larger ones and even sometimes smaller ones or mid size, they will look at their policies and procedures and put into place a program that will help benefit not only the employees but them as well. and also, when legislation comes up like this and it becomes law, then people look at it. the ledbetter bill didn't hurt or create more lawsuits because most people don't want to do what i did.

i spent nine years fighting for what i had legally earned in those 19 years and 10 months working for that corporation that had government contracts, but they chose not to pay me equal to the white males doing the exact same job. you know what, that still affects me today. i'm still unequal in my retirement and social security as well. >> and it has been a long hard fight for you. lilly ledbetter, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for let being me speak my peace, thank you very much. we find out exactly what happened on that night oscar pistorius killed his girlfriend, according to oscar pistorius.

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welcome back, today marks the most dramatic yet in the world's highest profile trial, south african court hearing the case of oscar pit or yus forced to add adjourn early after the olympian broke down after testifying about the night he shot his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp. >> heard the noise from inside the toilet. that i perceived somebody to be coming out of the toilet. before i knew it, i had fired four shots at the door. >> it was the moment he described finding reeva's body, that pistorius became so distraught he couldn't continue. >> i don't know how long i was there for -- she wasn't

breathing. >> we'll take an adjournment. court will adjourn. >> that was the court taking an adjournment. in south africa is mike taibbi. tell us, what was it like being inside that courtroom as pistorius broke down? >> reporter: the whole courtroom was riveted and hanging on every word and gesture by oscar pistorius. there were times when you could sense that people weren't even breathing loudly, they were just so affected, almost physically affected by the emotional power of what he was saying. it could be argued and has been argued by some watching, it would be just as emotion pally overwraugt if he blew his temper and after a fight and fired those shots or accidentally shot her as he claims and laid out today in detail because he thought she was an intruder. he went on and gave the first

detailed account of how and why he shot reeva steenkamp today. along the way he made other claims and claimed other facts as part of his story that the prosecutors no doubt will jump on once they get to cross-examination. the prosecutor is a bear for cross-examination, once taking eight days to cross examine a defendant in a high profile case. that will probably start tomorrow afternoon. as i said, oscar pistorius did give him a few things to work with. one of the principle things, both he and reeva were awake at 3:00 in the morning, she asking him if he couldn't sleep. it was at that point he said he heard a noise, he was convinced immediately was an intruder who gained entry to his apartment and he felt he had to arm himself and had to get his gun. he shouted to reeva to call police, et cetera, et cetera, never responded. he fired those shots. ronan.

>> so today palpable emotion in the days to come, high stakes, cross examination up ahead for oscar pistorius. thank you for that overview, mike taibbi. >> i'm joined now by attorney tom mesereau. incredibly powerful. do you think it established anything factually about whether this was premeditated. >> ronan, you have to keep in mind there is a jury of one person and one person only and that is an experienced criminal courts judge, presumably this judge has seen hundreds of criminal trials and probably watched thousands of witnesses testify and it's not like speaking to 12 people all of whom come from different walks of life. this is a jury of one person. i think the emotion is going to have a lot to do with helping rep fact in society and a lot less to do with what the verdict is.

it may affect sentence because someone who is remorseful committed a crime can sometimes affect a judge when it comes to sentence. when it comes to judging guilty or innocence, i don't think the emotion will have nearly the effect that a lot of other people think it will have. >> there was a moment today, speaking of things that may or may not have a big effect on the outcome or sentencing, when pistorius was actually asked to remove his legs. what was the purpose and how important do you think disability will be? >> disability plays a role in a lot of areas, particularly, how he was raised, and what kind of fears and paranoia he experienced growing up. how vulnerable he feels in society and how vulnerable he could be in a high crime neighborhood because he is disabled. so it has a lot to do with his mind set and paranoia and fear and willingness to strike first before someone gets close to him because he's at a tremendous disadvantage in he gets in any type of grappling match with an

intruder. i think it has a lot to do with his state of mind, whether or not the judge will think that excuses recless behavior, i'm not sure. >> the judge -- speaking of the judge's behavior here, made the call to adjourn early. do you think that plays into the defense's hand in terms of establishing his vulnerability? >> i really don't. i think this judge wants to keep control of a very high profile case. things have gotten continually and powerfully emotional. she wants everyone to know she's in control. she is not going to let emotions run amuck. this is a proceeding that is based upon laws, procedures, order. and i think that's why she adjourned. >> proceeding based on law and order but one thing she can't control is the way in which celebrity is looming so large over all of this. what impact do you think it has that this testimony and that breakdown is being heard by millions around the world and that the judge knows that?

>> it can go one of two radically different directions, the judge can say i'm not going to be influenced by celebrity and don't want the world to think my decisions are influenced by celebrity. on the other hand because he's a national hero, she may give him some leeway. it can go one of two ways. i'm not sure. >> all of us are waiting and watching, not sure. we'll come back to you as this drama unfolds. >> thanks for having me. just ahead on "rf daily" we've been asking for your votes on this week's most under reported story. some of your responses hot off the twitters next. if i can impart one lesson to a

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janine says gmos and one that stood out to me, mac flagged increase in deaths from prescription drugs. just today there are new numbers out showing the largest unsured rate in the united states since 2008. it is a big success story for oba obamacare and more insurance could mean more prescriptions and that presents risk as it saves lives. keep the votes coming rfd under. we'll cover the winner. up ahead, the surprising new fight over affirmative action from the last people you'd expect. that's next. ♪ [ woman ] i will embrace change... everything life throws my way. except for frown lines. those i'm throwing back. [ female announcer ] olay total effects. nourishing vitamins, and seven beautiful benefits in one. for younger-looking skin.

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transferred money from his before larry instantly bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america. welcome back to "rfd", today leaders of the civil rights movement are gathered to kick

off a summit kmemicommemorating 50th anniversary of the civil rights act. we're looking at discrimination and civil rights challenges across the country. today we focus on a fight about the incredibly divisive policy of affirmative action. a policy that was supposed to create equal opportunity and help min orts but it's now pitting minority against minority. in california, an effort to revive affirmative action at state schools was quashed by asian american legislators and this week members of the state's black and hispanic legislative caucuses lashed back, killing an unrelated bill about electric vehicles on hov lanes sponsored by one of those asian american opponents of the affirmative action bill. minority versus minority on an affirmative action. a dynamic we're seeing across the country. how should the civil rights

community act? i put that question to two professors, james peterson, direct of africana studies and victoria soto, professor the university of texas and i hope a future regular on the show. james, is affirmative action unfair to asian students? >> no, ronan, the data doesn't bear that out. what you're seeing with the piece of legislation designed to put affirmative action back in place for college admissions has overturned prop tool 9 from 1996, has been used as a wedge issue in communities of color. important lobbyist groups have worked with chinese american community to sort of get out and say this is going to affect your children. and so this is why you're seeing this sort of bubble over. the reality is that chinese american youth had admissions

increasing in california prior to prop 209 and they have not increased as much since prop 209 was put in place. there's no evidence in the state of california that this will necessarily harm the admissions processes for chinese americans but politico seeing an opportunity to continue the fight to assault and dismantle affirmative action. >> increasing representation of asian americans in schools is one we see around the country and part of the changing landscape on this. i'll go to you on that, victoria, is the asian american community doing a disservice by fighting affirmative action in cases like this. >> the thing about affirmative action, a rising tide -- when you have a diverse classroom and have a die verse institution that enriches all students, not just minority students, but asian-american students and white students. i'm standing at the university of texas and i have taught at a variety of institutions and i can tell you from personal experience that nontangible and

diversity really does count. on the 50th anniversary of the civil rights act where affirmative action was put into place, it's a time of celebration but it's not a time to say, okay, we reached parity and equal opportunity, it's a time to say, let's reflect, see what we've done right and see where we need to keep working on this equal opportunity for all americans. >> and that is what you see over and over again in the jurs pruns on this, the court, including the supreme court saying this is a stop gap, there are imperfections but do we still need it? we'll come back to you on that. but, james, does affirmative action need to evolve given the increasing opportunities for minorities like we're seeing in the asian american community? >> well, let's be clear here that the affirmative action policies have been evolving over the last 20 years, some of it has been dismantling and evolving around issues of class, removing quote ta.

this has been been static legislation, let's make that point. the reality and irony here, ronan is that affirmative action policies were put in place to specifically address issues of white supremacy and slavery that affected african-american communities. when we look across the spectrum of institutions, that's not just college admissions but jobs and unemployment and lending and sort of institutionalcies we face and african-americans and latinos are at the bottom of the economic wrung. the fact we talk about this based solely on a small group, not just asian americans of upper middle class and wealthy asian americans able to have comparable economic and educational opportunities to white america, that we would somehow use that as the metric to determine whether or not affirmative action needs to be in place. that seems to be to be absurd. it's very clear that in certain institutions and certain situations amendments to

affirmative action need to be made, cross referencing with class, for instance, is one way of making important change, removing quotetas. but to say we should abolish it does not make sense when you look at the metrics that tell us that african-americans and latinos are lagging behind other minority groups as well as white americans. >> it's a really important point you make, james, this is more nuanced and can be more nuanced than a race based metric. victoria, let's talk about the politics. you're attending that summit, a lot of political leaders are there. this is an issue that splits a reliably democratic block, see this as a wedge between the asian population and hispanics and blacks. where do you see this going politically and could it cost the democratic party? >> we do see the republican party in california is indeed trying to use it as a wedge issue. what needs to happen here in california and probably elsewhere because we're going to

see policy, is the democratic party and civic activists sitting together with the chinese-american community and say let's figure this out. i said this before, a rising tide lifts all boats. we need to figure out how to bring asian americans into the fold. we know historically asian americans suffered some of the worst discrimination going back to the chinese exclusion act -- >> internment camps, sure. >> that's right. >> so we need to bring them in as allies and not let other parties drive this wedge as a community. >> thank you so much to both of you. i hope as you suggested we can seal a unified front on some of this. >> thank you. >> we're asking you in the audience to take a stand yourselves on equality all week long. states are imposing new limits on early voting all around the country and those limits disproportionately affect people of color in the civil rights movement we've been talking about. we're asking you to contact your secretary of state or lieutenant

governor to demand more hours of early voting. let us know what your state official says on twitter or facebook or online. our website has the contact information and some suggested points to send in. we'll be covering your responses. first, up ahead, maryland governor martin o'malley sparks up a huge one, a huge debate that is, about pot.

welcome back. yesterday maryland's democratic governor martin o'malley staked out the latest front in the battle over pot legalization around this country saying he would sign a bill decrimin decriminalizing position of less than ten ounces. i now think decriminalizing the possession of marijuana is

acknowledgement of the low priority that our courts and prosecutors and police and vast majority of citizens already attach to this transgressions of public order and public health. it is the latest salvo in a fight that doesn't cut neatly along party lines. governor rick perry wants to move texas towards decriminalization and rand paul says it's wrong to jail pot smokers and jerry brown is leery. to look at the state of weed in america, two people who know the subject well, jeff smith, former democratic member of the missouri state and the author the of the last pirate, his growing up with a father who was a major pot dealer. we'll get your personal take as well. i want to start with you jeff on the politics of this. is this issue a winner or loser for democrats? >> i think it's potentially a winner. any time you have an issue that cuts across your party base, you're going to have apprehension about going there, if you will, the democrats have

struggled for about a generation as being seen as the weak party or soft on crime party. consequently, some politicians like chuck schumer and dianne feinstein in california came of age in the 1980s when drugs were a huge issue. you still have a strain in the democratic party reluctant to move forward but the momentum is ir reversible. >> overcoming that -- >> yeah. >> tony, what do you think about the pragmatic reason for politicians to get behind this? we see huge revenues out of colorado. is that going to change the tide? >> i'm not competent that it will. i think that the polls are shifting but a lot of benefit of legalization can be accomplished with something short of it decriminalization. o'malley significantly comes out for not a commercial market but not throwing users in jail anymore. that is a position that solves social justice problems without creating a big business that could be seen as another vice industry. >> so when you see democrats

hesitating to go for full-on legalization, what are your objections you're hearing from them? >> well, the objections -- the primary objection if you go forward, what do you win? well, potentially you win social justice points but you also potentially lose huge counter points on kids and education and winning future. jerry brown's comments are -- they and a republican attack which has been very effective in the early 1970s and late 1970s, throughout the 80s. >> brown also seen an attack within his own party. >> absolutely. people look at the poll numbers and think it's a steady line up on acceptance of marriage marriage but in fact there's a lot of variation. there was a huge -- people were very for it in 1970s and against it by the end of the 1970s and very against it by the '80s, it goes back and forth. because the science is not conclusive, republicans have

enough ammunition to make a big deal out of it this we want to. >> before we declare a pot friendly america -- >> tell me where you see it going. >> as pointed out before, tony, even young people in this country were supportive of criminalizing marijuana. so right now you have this huge generational split in the polls, 3/4 of people between 18 and 29 are supportive of this. and it's very similar to the polling on gay marriage. that issue moved faster than anyone anticipated and we're seeing a similar speed with which this is going to move. >> do you think that's because a generation coming up has a different set of opinions or generation to generation if you looked back -- we don't have hard numbers, but to speculate, do you think young people of every era are more drug friendly? >> yes, right. more drug friendly, absolutely. we have to think about race when we talk about this. this country is increasingly diverse. we're reaching a point where in about 2040 there will be a

majority of nonwhite people in this country. we've already reached a point i believe last year where the majority of babies born were not white. what that means is that as long as in this country we don't actually enforce the law in an equal way and marijuana use may be similar among whites and blacks but marijuana use is -- marijuana prosecution and enforcement is targeted at minority communities, i think that's going to help young people be more supportive of total legalization. >> jeff, a lot of your insights were shaped by personal experience. you spent time behind bars for a file you're to disclose a campaign finance violation. how did that shape? >> 90% of the people i was locked up with were drug dealers, all nonviolent, and i got to tell you, ronan, i met some of the most brilliant people i've ever met in my life. they were selling something that was illegal, but if -- i guess what i'm trying to say --

>> they are entrepreneurs. >> and there's a huge amount of untapped potential in our federal prisons. i feel the law enforcement resources would be much better served targeting other crimes. >> and maybe our economy too. >> tony, what about your experience growing up with a pot dealer father, this is personal to you too? >> marijuana taught me to read and i appreciate you saying my father was some sort of genius. that overstates the case quite dramatically. my father was simultaneously a dealer but also a user that's a two-sided coin here. >> did you see a lot of users behind bars as well? >> no, because -- the meth dealers behind bars were users. the crack dealers, none of them used. >> typically the thrill of dealing is bound up with the thrill of using and one leads to the other and vice-versa, you're seeking a high and get it one way or the other.

so i guess you could release entrepreneurial energy that way, could you push them into a different line of work without going full legalization. >> someone who grew up with the human costs saying not so fast in the. >> it's the addiction problem i'm worried about. >> an important point to not lose sight of it. we're going to keep talking about this. up next, our panel will stick around to look at another harder developer in the global drug economy. really it was just a gate way segment. in the nation, we reward safe driving. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side [ female announcer ] f provokes lust. ♪ it elicits pride... incites envy... ♪ ...and unleashes wrath.

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we are back with our panel, jeff smith and nbc news.com tony decopo. we'll get their thoughts on the second most tracked illegal drug in the world, cocaine. the biggest pipe line runs from

south america into the united states. colombia yan cartels produced 800 tons each and every year. dismantling of cartels has led to the coke industry becoming more home grown. we're going to take you inside one of those home grown labs. take a look. >> reporter: cocaine exports act for roughly 2.5% of colombia's gdp, they have made a serious dent in the cocaine industry, producers of traffickers of drugs are finding more creative ways to keep this $8 billion business thriving. so who is really winning, so-called war on drugs? i want to see the cocaine industry up close to find out people who produce and traffic the drug really think. i reached out to some sources and eventually found a senior

cartel boss who gave me the green light to film. first up is an urban cocaine lab. when the day came it turned out to be a little more complicated than i imagined. i got into a taxi with an escort from the i got into a taxi when quickly blindfolded to hide the location of the cocaine lab. i was relieved when the blind fold came off and i was in the lab. i started filming. in a sweltering room two men labored away making cocaine. they worked directly for the columbian cocaine cartel. the process of making cocaine is really just a matter of chemistry. naturally growing coca leaves are mixed with lime. this activates the alkaline in the leaves. then kerosene and water are added. the mix of kerosene and alg lloyd from the leaves is

siphoned off. sulfuric acid and sodium carbonate are also added. this mix is put into a microwave oven creating a paste. the microwaves are working so much it often causes the house to lose electricity. next in a little hydrochloric acid and po thats wrum, and you have what is called pure cocaine. these small urban labs are the latest shift in columbia's cocaine industry. previously there were huge labs operating in the jungle where the leaves are harvested, but these labs were easier to protect and vulnerable to being raided, so the industry is decentralizing with smaller more disposable labs cropping up. i'm following the trail of the product from the lab. this cocaine will be sold inside columbia. .

>> the world's demand for the drug also has to be met. i'm on my way to meet santiago, a trafficker who works by himself outside the cartel system. >> translator: it's sent to europe, but more commonly to the usa. that's the biggest market. lots of consumption there, and the cost is high. also, it's easier to enter america. >> reporter: he ships pure cocaine in a liquid form. he gives me a demonstration of how to turn the liquid into powder. traffickers use liquid cocaine because it can be hidden in a variety of ways. from mix it with other liquids to soaking pieces of clothing so the drug seeps into the threads. the clothing is then shipped. when it reaches its destination abroad, the cocaine is extracted from the clothing using the same method you see here. he has other methods if the police crack down on this one.

>> translator: the bess is always evolving, just like the police are. traffickers used to use the old methods, but now liquid is the way to go. you can't just have one method. >> reporter: once the liquid is transformed into powder, the result is pure cocaine. like in many south america, he doesn't believe the war on drugs can ever be won. >> translator: to talk about legalization would be devastating. it would end the business. now you can earn so much. legalization would be terrible. >> reporter: he says someday he would like to get out of the business, but that day is a long way off. >> translator: in 20 years time i want to get away from this business, but not quite yet. i want more. >> we want more. all right. what do you guys think? i'll start with you. we obviously just saw some evidence of cocaine production

shifting to a smaller scale in columbia and other exporting countries. also, we were seeing right now actually overall consumption rates in the united states down. do you think that could contribute to the rise of other drugs, like weed, as we were just talking about? >> i think it's possible that it could, but to go back to a point that you were making earlier about the human cost of these drugs, one of the ancillary costs that we haven't talked about yet is the violence that's associated with all the profits from the drug trade. >> it's not going to go away. >> especially not in columbia, which is torn apart by that. >> not columbia, but here in the united states there are cities like my hometown of st. louis that has 130th the number of people that new york city has and nearly half as many murders every year, and most of those are associated with the drug trade because of the huge profits to be made. i think a decriminalization regime would go a long way towards reducing the profits and then reducing potentially the associated violence. >> tony, what do you think? could we see the legalization of cocaine on the heels of what we're seeing with weed? >> that's what advocates for

reform really want. the legalization means regulation. it doesn't mean better public health. prescription drugs are heavily regulated, and the human toll is huge as the abuse is huge. >> thank you both of you for that. appreciate it. all right. well, that wraps things up for today's edition of "rf daily." thank you for joining me. you can catch me at 1:00 p.m. eastern time here on msnbc. now it is time for the reid reported with my colleague joy reid. joy reid, what are you doing on the show today? >> you know what i have been -- in studio 3a. >> enough to finish running overtime. >> great show. thanks a lot. appreciate it. >> have a good show. >> thank you very much. coming up next on "the reid report" the push for equal pay for women. it's getting newscast where i. i'll talk to a policy director from the white house who is here to answer republicans' attack on the president's new push. then kicking off today the big civil rights summit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the civil rights act. we'll look back, but also look

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hi, everyone. i'm joy reid. this is the reid report, and right now a major three-day summit is underway in austin, texas, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the 1964 civil rights act. just how far have we come in 50 years? we'll have more on a simmering battle over civil rights, race, and president obama that suggests maybe we haven't come as far as we think. but, first, the president is signing off on another year of action agenda item -- equal pay for equal work. the white house wants to close the pay gap for women who make 77 cents to every dollar earned

by a man doing the same job. according to the national woman's law center, the gap widens to 64 cents for african-american women and to 54 cents for hispanic women. >> first i'm going to sign an executive order to create more pay transparency by prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with each other. secondly, i'm signing a presidential memorandum directing the department of labor and our outstanding secretary of labor tom perez to require federal contractors to provide data about their employee compensation. >> now, the woman you see standing next to the president there is lily ledbetter, and she's the woman who worked at goodyear tire for 19 years making 40% less than her male co-workers until one of them wrote her an anonymous note exposing her pay gap. the actions build on the fair pay act t