our priority has always been saving the day. because our priority... amazing! ...is you! the amazing spider-man 2 delivered by the united states postal service. arrogant hypocrite. $31 billion does not entitle you to tell us how to live our lives. stay out of our homes, stay out of our refrigerator, and stay the hell out of our gun cabinets because this freedom is not for sale. >> the national rifle association making a boogie man out of michael bloomberg at their annual convention. they vow to stand and fight. how do you fight the magt of the nra? stand up, speak out for the

lives that you save very well may be your own. >> this hour, i'll talk to the new bloomberg backed coalition fighting gun violence. they're in indianapolis taking on the nra at its convention. president obama arrives in malaysia, becoming the first president to visit that country since lbj. he talks about the economy and security in the asia-pacific, the crisis in ukraine continues with more sanctions coming. and international observers are now being hailed. we'll update you on that. also, you won't believe what someone caught the guy who owns the l.a. clippers allegedly saying to his girlfriend about black people. we're going to play what he reportedly said and talk about why so many are disgusted and demanding the nba do something. it's an assembly of amino acids, fats, and water that's

like what you get out of an animal. >> but will the masses bite? and if they do, what it could mean for the future of food in this country and the world. and how about this? no batteries needed. a flashlight that runs solely on the heat of your hand. a 15-year-old google science fair award winner came up with today's big idea. a whole heck of a lot to get to on this saturday afternoon. we start with that developing story out of los angeles. one that's lighting up the sports world and social media as well. a new ten-minute audio recording obtained by tmz sports and what is said to be l.a. clippers owner donald sterling on a racially charged rant. the business mogul was reportedly on the phone with who tmz says is his girlfriend and was upset that she was posting instagram pictures of herself with minorities. >> people call you and tell you that i have black people on my instagram and it bothers you. >> yeah, it bothers me a lot

that you want to pro -- broadcast that you're associating with black people. >> msnbc has not independently verified the authenticity of that recording. during the conversation, there's a specific mention of nba legend magic johnson, after he was featured in a photo can sterling's girlfriend with sterling telling her not to bring johnston, quote, his games. johnson called that recording, quote, shameful and tweeted just a few moments ago that he will never go to a clippers game again while sterling is the owner. also in the last hour, the nba confirmed to msnbc that an investigation is underway saying, quote, we are in the process of conducting a full investigation into the audio recording obtained by tmz. the remarks heard on the recording are disturbing and offensive, but at this time, we have no further information. we've made calls to sterling's office. we've left messages requesting

comment. so far, no word from him or his people. rob simmelkjaer joins me live on the phone from stanford, connecticut. rob, at this point, have we heard anything from the clippers or sterling himself? have you heard anything from those guys in response to this? >> no, craig. we've seen the statement that you referred to from the nba. their pr spokesman saying the league is looking into this. and the first thing the league has to do, obviously, is determine whether that was donald sterling on that tape making those statements. and that is the key question here. if they can confirm it was him, either by him acknowledging it or through some other means, then they have to make an immediate decision about how to handle his position as owner of the los angeles clippers. >> what are we hearing from some other folks in terms of whether it's civil rights activists, whether it's business leaders? are we hearing anything from

those kaninds of people? >> i've seen al sharpton. i haven't had a chance to read a statement, but i've seen a statement from him. this story just broke this morning, craig. it is starting to really pick up momentum. you know, what's particularly troubling timingwise for the nba here is that the l.a. clippers are in the playoffs. they are actually scheduled to play a game tomorrow. the head of the nba players association, the president of that association, chris paul, is the point guard for the clippers. so chris paul, the other players on the clippers, they all have to make a decision if this turns out to be an accurate recording as to how they as players and frankly as african-american players are going to handle playing for sterling. >> yeah, the majority of sterling's team is black. we should note his girlfriend is also half black as well. so rob simmelkjaer, i know you're continuing to dig on this story. we're going to check in with you come next hour. thank you, sir. >> thank you. the white house at this hour

is watching developments in ukraine where a threat of russian military action remains high. russian planes have been flying over ukrainian air space. president obama is currently on a trip to asia, but the obama administration has imposed a fresh new round of sanctions on russia to take effect monday. nbc's peter alexander is in kuala lumpur with more. peter? >> reporter: craig, good day to you. president obama arrived here this saturday, the first american president to come to malaysia since lbj in 1966, nearly 50 years passing since that time. he was welcomed with a red carpet. he was greeted during a state dinner by the malaysian king, who thanked president obama and the americans for their continued support and efforts to find mh-370. that jetliner that's been missing now for more than a month, an investigation that's confounded folks in this country for that period of time. tomorrow, president obama will be a part of a news conference with prime minister in this country, where he's likely to be

asked a series of new questions about the status of sanctions against russia. on saturday, american leaders alongside g-7 leadership insisted they will impose new sanctions on russia as a result of its failure to crackdown on separatists in eastern ukraine. the white house says those new sanctions could come as early as monday. they will be coordinated but not identical to other sanctions that are done by the european nations. president obama wrapping up a conversation with a series of european leaders in the last 24 hours or so. the focus according to the white house will be on top business leaders in russia. the way one adviser described them was cronies that could have a significant impact on the russian economy. that's the latest. back to you. >> all right, peter alexander traveling with the president. in rome right now, history is about to be made. we're just hours away from the canonization of not one but two late popes. pope john paul ii and pope john

xxiii will be declared saints by pope francis. e mother us it pope benedict xvi will also be attending that ceremony. more than 1 million people from all over the world are expected to attend. nbc's claudio levongo is live in the middle of it all for us. some perspective here. first of all, how historic is this event, and what are we expected to see? >> reporter: well, we'll expect to see about 1 million excited faithful catholics come here to witness one of the biggest events the catholic church has ever staged, the sanctification and recognition of saints as two of the most popular popes in the past 40 or 50 years. john paul ii and john paul xxiii. now, 1 million people who are going to come here around the vatican. they can only fit 250,000. so that may be the reason why

even though they were told to come here tomorrow morning, which is about ten hours from now, look at how many people showed up already. there are tens of thousands of people here. they are from all over the world. you can see the brazilian flag there. here's mexico. there's croatia. you see an american flag. of course, germany. holland, of course, scotland i'm being told. >> there are so many people in that square in italy, we're having trouble hearing him. we're going to come back to him during the 3:00 hour for more. msnbc will have full coverage of tomorrow's services beginning at 4:00 a.m. eastern time. one school for special kids, another for regular ones. for many, that's the rub with charter schools.

is it really as simple as that? we're going to take a look at that. first, though, it's being billed as nine acres of guns under one roof. close to 80,000 people are expected at this week's nra annual convention. how anti-gun activists are fighting back. this is msnbc. salesperson #1: so, again, throwing in the $1,000 fuel reward card is really what makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a jetta tdi.

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here's a look at some of the top political headlines this hour. with congress returning from recess next week, president obama used his weekly address to prod them to raise the federal minimum wage. >> and while not all of us always see eye to eye politically, one thing we overwhelmingly agree on is that nobody who works full time should ever have to live in poverty. that's why nearly three in four americans support raising the

minimum wage. >> meanwhile, house speaker john boehner made a special appearance on the air waves today, giving the republican weekly address. he also focused on jobs and wages but pointed a finger in the other direction. >> i know why americans are still asking the question, where are the jobs? for the last five years, we've had an administration in washington that acts as if everything can be done from the top down. from the stimulus to obamacare, it's a record littered with promises that never panned out. and pain for people trying to get by on payroll. republicans, we've kept our pledge. we've offered a new way forward. >> and new york republican congressman michael graham will face criminal charges as early as next week. those charges involve the congressman's private business dealings. they are separate from an ongoing investigation into his campaign finance activities. you may remember grimm made news a months ago when he was caught on camera threatening a local new york reporter who wanted to ask him about the investigation.

>> let me be clear to you, you ever do that again -- >> i just wanted to ask you. >> and the national rifle association is holding its national convention this weekend in indianapolis. the theme for the thousands gathered there, stand and fight. nra chief wayne lapierre yesterday criticized those who want to tighten gun regulations. >> history has proven again the truth that president obama and anti-freedom activists everywhere deny and try to suppress. the truth that firearms in the hands of good people save lives. >> but not everyone was in indianapolis to support the nra's message. i want to bring in mcbath, a national spokesperson for moms demand guns in america. she is also the mother of jordan

davis, the 17-year-old shot and killed november 23rd, 2012, in a dispute that started over loud music while he and some friends were parked outside a jacksonville, florida, convenience store. the gunman is awaiting a retrial on first-degree murder charges. lucia, thanks so much for being with me this afternoon. >> thank you for having me. >> what did you hope to accomplish by traveling to indianapolis? >> well, our messaging is very clear for gun safety. basically, we are not here to antagonize the nra membership. we're not here to cause conflict or controversy for them. what we want their leadership and their lobbyists to understand is that we are very much aligning ourselves with 90% of the americans in this country that want some common sense solutions in concurrence with their second amendment rights to use their guns, they want common sense solutions to keep citizens safe. >> as you've tried to make that case there in indianapolis, how

has it been received by the nra's membership? >> well, i'm not really sure what they think about us. and that's not really going to be anything we're really completely bothered by. we know that -- we know what we need to do. we know how we want to go about making the citizens safe. we know that our messaging is clear. we know that we're not trying to cause any trouble, but we know that what we're offering to the citizens are the best solutions for every town, every citizen, every american. >> you live in georgia. just this past wednesday, as you know, georgia's governor signed a sweeping expansion of gun carry laws in that state. take a listen. >> what a great day to reaffirm our libertieliberties. we as georgians believe in the right of the people to defend themselves, and therefore we believe in the second amendment.

as governor, i have signed legislation that protects the rights to keep and bear arms. it is a right that is engrained in the very fabric of our nation. >> so many people believe that the right to own guns is absolute. how do you have any success against that kind of mindset? >> well, any time you want to change a mindset, that means that you're changing the culture. and to change the culture, you have to engage the citizens, you have to engage individuals that believe such as yourself as what you're doing is the best cause for everyone. so it's not going to happen overnight. whenever you change a mindset, you change the culture, it evolves over time. you have to begin to engage all facets of population of the country to get people to understand the necessity of making sure that, you know, our citizens can walk the streets

and not be in fear of being shot down or gunned down. and we're not going after the law-abiding citizens that are law-abiding hunters. we're not going after those individuals. we're going after those individuals that use their guns in a criminal fashion. >> lucia, michael bloomberg has funded a new group now which just launched this week. it's called every town for gun safety. there's this new ad that targets the nra specifically and focuses on the survivors of gun violence. how much are you hearing there in indianapolis about michael bloomberg? is he being demonized there in indy? has he done more to help or hurt your cause, you think? >> well, you know, we're not listening to the naysayers. we're not listening to those individuals that would want to put a bad spin on what we're doing. we're just moving forward. we're moving in the direction that we believe that's going to make all of our citizens safe. so we're not really concentrating on anything other

than doing the right thing. >> you are such a strong spokeswoman. >> thank you. >> we always enjoy seeing you. thank you so much for being with me. >> i enjoy coming. thank you so much. >> safe travels. >> okay. thank you. if you live anywhere from texas to south dakota, severe weather is headed your way. what you need to know about when that storm is coming. cars are driven by people. they're why we innovate. they're who we protect. they're why we make life less complicated. it's about people. we are volvo of sweden. it's how i look at life. especially now that i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem.

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still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day? when i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories. welcome back. turning now to the developing story affecting millions across nearly half the country. what could be the worst severe weather pattern of the season is breaking out right now in the nation's heartland. and it is on the move. some 32 million americans from dallas to des moines are under a threat today for hail, high winds, and tornados. overnight in the east, at least one twister touched down near washington, d.c. and strong storms brought down power lines and traffic lights in north carolina. but so far, fortunately, no reports of injuries there in the tarheel state. weather channel meteorologist

dr. greg postel has the very late latest. >> well, the first day in several days of severe weather may indeed begin tonight. let's have a look at our thunderstorm outlook across the plains. we've got the chance for some thunderstorms here, some of which could be severe. right now, the question is wether or not we'll get thunderstorms developing across this region because there's a lot of warm air aloft that's trying to inhibit the thunderstorms. what we think, we're pretty sure about, is most of the afternoon, in fact, will be quiet. we won't have much going on. but as we head toward the sunset hour and shortly after that into the early evening, there is a chance that thunderstorms will develop along this feature called the dry line. the reason why is because winds will be coming at it from different directions and then forced upwards. imagine winds coming at and then going up. but the problem is that convergence strong enough to break the cap? the models are disagreeing on whether or not that's the case. we'll keep an eye on this region out here in texas and oklahoma for the possibility of

thunderstorm initiation. again, some of those storms could be severe with hail, high winds, and possibly even some tornadoes. but tomorrow, the tornado threat goes up considerably. that very same system moves in with stronger dynamics and more moisture to work with. we'll have the chance for severe storms from the arklatex through the midsouth and the lower missouri valley, even up here in parts of iowa and nebraska. all modes of severe weather are possible with hail, high winds, and tornadoes. this is a very powerful system, so watch out all across this region for the possibility of big storms tomorrow. you know what? it doesn't end there. because this same system only slowly moves eastward such that on monday we still have a chance for some really big storms out here across parts of the tennessee valley, all the way into the south, and again that's not it. because on tuesday, we have a chance for more severe weather as this system continues to

crawl eastward across parts of the south. so several days to keep an eye to the skies and to stay tuned. back to you, craig. >> all right. thank you. the founders of twitter think it's a good idea. so does bill gates. the money is there, but do they have the right recipe to get the masses, not just vegetarian, but the masses to take a bite out of the multibillion-dollar meat industry? udy. say "hi" rudy. [ barks ] [ chuckles ] i'd do anything to keep this guy happy and healthy. that's why i'm so excited about these new milk-bone brushing chews. whoa, i'm not the only one. it's a brilliant new way to take care of his teeth. clinically proven as effective as brushing. ok, here you go. have you ever seen a dog brush his own teeth? the twist and nub design cleans all the way down to the gum line, even reaching the back teeth. they taste like a treat, but they clean like a toothbrush. nothing says you care like a milk-bone brushing chew. [ barks ] nobody ever stomped their foot and asked for less. because what we all really want... ...is more.

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... good things happen. this is the ram 1500. the 2014 motor trend truck of the year and first ever back-to-back champion. guts. glory. ram. what should have been one of the highlights of high school turned into a vigil for one of their classmates. friends and family gathered on a connecticut beach to remember maren sanchez. she was stabbed in the hallway at jonathan law high school. police are looking at whether a boy attacked her because she said no to him being her prom date. that 16-year-old classmate has been charged with murder. the prom was postponed. here's a look now at some of the other top stories making news on a a saturday. prosecutors have upgraded charges against 16-year-old alex

hribal. he's the teenager suspected in the pennsylvania school stabbing earlier this month that wounded 20 students and a security guard. the charges now include 21 counts of attempted homicide. according to newly released court documents, hribal told an administrator who tackled him, quote, my work is not done, i have more people to kill, end quote. in afghanistan, the election to determine that country's next president is headed to a runoff. in preliminary results, none of the candidates have reached the necessary over 50% threshold. the final results will not be released for another two weeks now. also in afghanistan today, five nato troops are dead after a british helicopter crashed saturday in the kandahar province. today marks the deadliest day this year for foreign forces in afghanistan. the cause of the crash is not yet known. meanwhile, back in the states, several tornadoes caused damage and power outages in eastern north carolina friday night, including this one that

was caught on camera. according to officials, two mobile homes were destroyed. and the weather here in new york tomorrow should be pretty good for the second annual 9/11 memorial 5k run and walk. the event raises awareness about the national september 11th memorial and museum. as of right now, 17 states and the district of columbia have legalized same-sex marriage, but it was on this day in the year 2000 that vermont became the first state in the nation to allow civil unions. on the same day, the supreme court heard arguments over whether the boy scouts should allow gay members. >> the boy scouts told the supreme court today that homosexuality is incompatible with the scouting oath to be, quote, morally straight. and their lawyers say, their right to freedom expression. >> they do not believe that a gay rights activist and an open

and avowed sexually active ho homosexual is the kind of role model they want to provide to the youth of america. >> even so, some justices seemed skeptical of that ruling today. justice o'connor wondered how far this anti-discrimination argument could go. could the boy scouts be forced to accept girls too? and some justices wonder if the boy scouts must accept gay scout masters, could religious groups be forced to accept atheists? >> today the scouts do allow gay members in their ranks, but they do not allow gay scout leaders. that's caused friction with many of the churches who sponsor the troops. recently when a seattle-area church vowed to keep its troop leader, who's a gay man, the boy scouts said the church could no longer be a charter partner. the church's pastor say the move was expected and they would still offer a youth program to the 15 or so boys in the troop. now to the latest on that

ferry disaster in south korea. today, police arrested four more crew members, and the grim, desperate search continues for the 115 still missing and presumed dead. nearly all of them are high school students. nbc chief global correspondent bill neely is in jindo, south korea. bill, families seem to be growing more anxious by the hour. >> reporter: good afternoon, craig. real frustration here for the families of more than 100 missing students. searching here has been suspended all day. and with a storm approaching, it may stay suspended for some time. the police boats are returning empty. no bodies have been brought ashore for a day. they wait for 115 still missing. the rescuers withdrawn due to strong currents and high tides. the families fear their children will never be found. fishing nets have been strung under boats at the sunken ferry,

a circle of eight miles to stop bodies being swept out to sea. the weather here is set to deteriorate, and that will hamper the recovery of the bodies. much to the fury of the families, who say that operation is already far too slow. divers report seeing children clutching each other, 48 crammed together in one room. they just can't get them out. these photos were posted by one of the students who's still missing. the ship is sinking, he wrote. more than two dozen students huddled here without life jackets. prosecutors say they were the victims of negligence. investigators found cargo restraints on the ferry's sister ship didn't work. life rafts on the sunken ferry couldn't be freed. the cargo was overweight. the steering faulty. four more crew members have now been arrested, meaning all 15 crew responsible for navigating the ship are now in custody.

they say they tried to stabilize it as it sank but couldn't. the long wait goes on for so many families. they have cried their way to exhaustion. most now get medical help. doctors say they're traumatized and trapped too, waiting for a ser search that for now is going nowhere. but the investigation hasn't stopped. prosecutors are now building a case against the ferry operators, who they suspect of ignoring so many safety rules. back to you, craig. >> nbc's bill nealy in south korea. thanks. meat substitutes are getting talk from some of the biggest names in technology. i headed down to columbia, missouri, to find out a little more about what has become one of the hottest trends in food. >> this is the beginning of the ultimate free-range chicken. >> chickens and cows might like

this plant outside columbia, missouri. >> it's all loaded into the system here. >> in the world of mock meat, ethan brown thinks what's sliding off this conveyor belt is the perfect fake. just don't call it that. >> i sort of bristle at the use of the word fake. it's an asemibring of ami no e fats,s a its, and water. >> his product beyond meat is actually a hodgepodge of proteins from mainly this, peas and plants. that doesn't look like a pea. >> it's very clean. there's no starch with it. it's very little fat. it's all protein extracted from the pea. >> the extract is then put through a secret process. it's a high-tech recipe that caught the attention of men who started twitter. they've invested millions, and so has billionaire philanthropist bill gates, who blogged about how impressed he was and even met with brown a few times. >> he said, if you can drop the price of this well below meat

and get an international contribution, you can get a contribution. >> gates and twitter founder have also put their money with their mouth is. san francisco's start-up hampton creek foods uses plants to replace a different staple, eggs. their eggless mayonnaise helped the company raise more than $30 million from private investors recently. >> it is a growing trend more and more. they're looking to appeal to the vegetarian audience and the wider audience of consumers who are interested in healthier products. >> but brown knows to take a bite out of the $177 billion animal meat market, his chicken has to taste like chicken. and his new ground beef crumbles like beef. >> for me, the focus has really been on getting the texture right so it's seamless for people. >> as a self-proclaimed connoisseur of good food, i decided to give beyond meat an honest try. that really does taste like chicken. >> it's convenient. it's cooked.

>> this is really good. and their beef -- >> this is chili. >> i would eat this chili. this is excellent. the biggest hurdle, converting carnivores, getting people to accept their plant-based product as matte. to do that, they're trying to win over consumers one taste at a time. stephanie strom is the food writer for "the new york times." good to see you. thanks for stopping by. >> thank you, craig. good to be here. >> how big a part of our food future are these plant-based foods? >> well, folks like ethan would tell you it's going to be a very big thing. right now it's teeny tiny. the market is a little bit over $500 million, which is out of a multibillion-dollar business. quite small. but there is growing interest in people in eating less meat. for health reasons, for environmental reasons. >> let's talk about the environmental reasons for a second. that's one of the reasons that ethan pointed to as well.

when you talk about the sheer amount of land that is used globally to cultivate livestock, we're talking about the size of africa. literally. how much of a factor is that in all of this? >> well, the tech guys are very interested in that aspect of it. we're on a road to 9 billion people in the world. and to put that many animals out, we're going to have to start moving people out of cities and putting animals into them at the rate we're going. so if the growing middle class and the demand for meat continues, we have no place to put the animals. so we're going to need these kinds of substitutes. >> and the cost of meat as well right now. when you look at the sky-rocketing cost of chicken, the sky-rocketing cost of beef as well, this is something that some folks have said can help bring down the cost of that, perhaps. >> yes, yes. there have been a lot of animals that were slaughtered as a result of drought. so bacon prices are very high. i know a lot of bacon people are

crazy about that. >> food writer michael poulan has coined the phrase, eat meat, not too much, but mostly plants. the fact that it was even noteworthy is what's noteworthy about it. it's a measure of how perplexed we've become about food as a result of what the food industry has done. what has the food industry done? >> well, i think michael is referring to processing food. a lot of the food we eat is very highly processed. but you know, the critics of these fake meats will tell you that -- >> it's also processed. >> they're also processed. >> very interesting. so you think that this is -- there is a future here, but the future may not be as massive as some might like for us to think that it will be. >> well, i think it'll grow quite a bit from where it is now. do you have meatless monday? >> you know what, in my house, we've done it a few times. >> so a lot of people are doing that. this is one way to have meatless

monday. if dad wants meat, fool him. >> all right. did you try the chicken beef crumbles? >> i did. >> what did you think? >> i thought they were very, very good. i couldn't tell the difference. >> all right. that means a lot coming from you. thank you. >> thank you. up next, a 16-year-old girl invents something high tech and human powered, and she won the google science fair with it. it's our big idea. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment.

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those that share buildings with traditional public schools. some say those charter schools have created a system of the haves and have nots in school. new york city may be the epicenter of that controversy. the controversy that's brewing around it. msnbc.com's tremaine lee visited a building that houses both harlem's success academy, a charter, and a traditional public school as well. he's here in the studio with me. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> in your reporting, what did you find has become one of the effects or the effects of this co-locating? >> what i found, craig, was kind of quite shocking and startling. so this policy has spread throughout the city. there are dozens and dozens of schools co-located. you find a patchwork of schools. separate administrations, separate entrances in some locations. there is a feeling of separate and unequal. there's one hallway, carpet, beautiful carpet, a stairway

apart. the other school is pockmarked with concrete. it's startling and stark the differences. >> how did we get here? what was the thinking behind co-locating? >> one, in new york city, space is a premium. this is happening all across the country, but in new york, the property is a premium. for the better part of 12 years under the administration of mayor michael bloomberg, the charter schools got unprecedented access. meanwhile, they're getting public funding, but they're benefitting from private donations from wall street, the hedge funds. one part makes sense, the space is limited. on the other hand, it's certainly kind of tipping the charter's favor in terms of resour resource. >> the people to you talk to, a lot of them really seemed to hone in on the mentality of being separate but unequal, what the charter schools have versus their neighbors. this is a snippet of what you found. >> because the charter school can accept any number of donations from corporations,

their classrooms are luxurious. you negotiation our kids see this. you don't see an equivalent for us in that way. we can't afford this kind of stuff. it's created very, very much a world of separate but equal. >> what kind of effect has that kind of environment had on the students? >> it's tricky. when you talk to the families, it's clear that the students can see the difference. they feel the difference. the anecdotal evidence points to students from the same neighborhood not speaking with each other. one group of students has nice uniforms, little orange ties and they're happy. the other traditional public school students, less so. one teacher described it as their students having their nose pressed up against a window looking at things they can't afford. when you go into these schools, there's no doubt as a parent you might choose what some could believe would be the better options. test scores are great. it looks nice. the feel is happy. once you're in bed with those who support charters, it's an

interesting group of people. so it's top to bottom -- >> and it's interesting because if you don't see what you don't have, you really don't know you don't have it. >> exactly. >> then when you see it and have that point of reference, it changes everything. co-location is not a policy that's just in new york city. it's found in urban districts all over the country. chicago, denver, boston, milwaukee, several school districts in california as well. what's next for charter schools nationwide? >> i think that we're going to continue to see the trend of more enrollment. in new york city, they can't create charter seats fast enough. in communities where schools have long been failing students, particularly students of color, parents are flocking to these charter schools. they're flocking for options and choice. at the crux of the issue is at the expense of the majority, is that what we're going to do? still in new york city, they only educate 6% of the students. so that 94% are still living with these conditions that are

terribly difficult. >> this co-location controversy, is it having any effect so far on the popularity of charter schools? >> not really. we're still at the heart of the debate, but as long as the traditional public school system is not educating children the way -- the manner in which parents think they should -- >> and that's what it always goes back to. >> that's right. even mayor de blasio campaigned on tamping down the charter schools. a political misstep in underestimating the voices of the people. one school alone has 6,000 families rallying beside the governor. black and brown faces. >> we spent a lot of time talking about the charter schools that are more successful. the fact s you have some charter schools out there that really are garbage. >> oh, outside of new york -- new york city is the exception where the average charter school performs at the same level or better as traditional schools. in the rest of the country, you have some really good charter

schools but some really terrible charter schools that are as bad if not worse than their counterparts. >> all right. we always enjoy your reporting. you can find the entire story at msnbc doing. thank you, sir. we'll be right back. miles per tank. salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? salesperson #2: exactly. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. all stations come over to mithis is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one.

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time now for saturday's big idea. it comes from 16-year-old ann. she's the google science fair award winner. she designed something called the hallow flashlight. it runs solely on the heat of your hand. again, it's our big idea on this sat. the flashlight is powered by peltate tiles. it gives off energy when one side is heated and the other side is cooled. the light itself can last up to 20 minutes. joining me now, the inventor of that hallow flashlight. ann is joining us via skype. good to see you. first of all, how did you come up with this? >> well, i saw when i went to the philippines and india that a

lot of people didn't have any electricity or couldn't afford it. so i just kept on thinking. i used peltate tiles, which i used in a previous science fair project to produce light and energy from the human hand. so with the tiles, if you heat one side of them and you cool the other, a small amount of electricity is produced. so in my case, i would heat one side with the palm of my hand and cool the other side with just the ambient air and a hallow heat sink. >> do you have one of the flashlights there with you? >> yes, i do. so here is one of the versions of the flashlight. the lights here isn't that great, so you probably can't see it very well. >> we can see it. >> it's like this. the tiles are covered in tape. that's basically what they look like. >> ann, you may not know this,

but in the world of 15-year-old scientists, you are quite the superstar. you won the science fair, the google science fair. you were on jimmy fallon in his first month. how has all of the attention been for you? >> it's been pret itty crazy. i never would have thought in a million years i'd get so much attention for a simple project. it's been quite a great honor. the only downer is someone stole my name for a website, so i can't use it. but otherwise, it's been a great ride. >> what are the chances? how much are there out there? >> i know. so crazy. >> what's next for you? what's the next invention? >> i don't know. we'll have to see. i think for now i'm really concentrating on finalizing the patent for the flashlight and working on its brightness and efficiency. so in the future i can be working with companies on distributing it worldwide, and especially to the people who need it in developing country.

i'd probably also in the future will be studying the sciences and hope to have some sort of maybe science tv show, something like that. >> a science tv show. you come back to us in a few years and we'll give you one on msnbc in the afternoon at 3:00. >> sounds very good. >> congrats to you. we should note, by the way, we had one of these nice studios booked there in canada, but something happened, so we had to take her via skype. that's why the signal looked a little weird. do you have a big idea? let us know about it on twitter. use #whatsthebigidea. also, shoot us an e-mail. northwestern university football players have voted on whether to unionize. one player has already come forward to say that he voted no. we'll tell you why. then later, the message and

the messenger. why have grassroots efforts worked for drunk driving, smoking as well, but not for gun violence? our brain trust is going to weigh in on that. this is msnbc. this is mike. his long race day starts with back pain... ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines"

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and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side you can see some -- kind of looks like birds, but it's not. it's debris flying in the air. >> more scenes like this are expected today from texas through south dakota. tornadoes packing high winds, rain, and hail. >> for a while, we may be different as nations, our people have similar hopes and similar aspirations. >> president obama toasting the malaysian people at a state dinner held in his honor. but while his asian swing continues, all eyes are on ukraine. the military there sets up a check point near a separatist stronghold in eastern ukraine to try and curb the pro-russian insurgency. plus --

>> and i've often wondered, were they better off as slaves picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidies? >> my thoughts on why we can't seem to stop talking about cliven bundy, and also why bundy never should have made so many headlines in the first place and what we can all learn from the side show that unfolded out west this week. and on this saturday afternoon, another race controversy. you won't believe what the owner of the l.a. clippers reportedly told his girlfriend about bringing black people to his games. keep in mind, now, most of his team is black, and his girlfriend also half black. the backlash has been swift and intense. the nba is now investigating. we'll get to that story in a moment. good afternoon to you. i'm craig melvin. meanwhile, president obama continues his overseas trip this hour. he arrived in kuala lumpur earlier today, marking the third stop on his asian tour. but it's new developments on the crisis in ukraine that are topping his agenda.

nbc's kristen welker is live at the white house this afternoon. kristen, first of all, what's the latest on ukraine? >> well, craig, we learned just moments ago that secretary kerry spoke with his russian counterpart earlier today. the first conversation the two have had in several days about the crisis in ukraine. secretary kerry had more strong words for russia, urging russia to work to try to liberate the inspectors who were being held hostage right now. here's more of what secretary kerry said. according to a read-out we got moments ago from the state department, he said, quote, we also expressed continued concern that russia's provocative troop movements on ukraine's border, its support for separatists and inflammatory rhetoric are undermining stability, security, and unity in ukraine. the united states, its european allies agree that russia is escalating the crisis in

ukraine, has essentially violated the geneva pact that was agreed to last week, and for that reason just yesterday, the u.s., the g-7 announced that new sanctions could come against russia as early as monday. now, president obama convened a conference call with the other g-7 leaders yesterday. that's when they agreed to these new sanctions, which we anticipate will target individuals, high-ranking officials who are close to putin, people who the administration describes as putin's cronies. they'll not, however, we anticipate, target the various economic sectors of russia. mining, banking, as well as the energy sector. senior administration officials would like the sanctions to target the various sectors, but european allies are not agreeing to that because they say that those types of sanctions against russia could ultimately take a really big bite out of their economy. so that's the very latest, craig, and this continues to

overshadow president obama's trip. he's currently in malaysia. >> kristen welker from 1600 pennsylvania avenue for us on a saturday afternoon. kristen, thank you. now to that developing story out of los angeles. one that is lighting up the sports world and social media as well. a new ten-minute audio recording obtained by tmz sports and what is said to be l.a. clippers owner donald sterling on a racially charged rant. the business mogul was reportedly caught on tape arguing with a woman who tmz says is his girlfriend and was upset that she was posting instagram pictures of herself with minorities. >> people call you and tell you that i have black people on my instagram and it bothers you. >> yeah, it's bothers me a lot that you want to pro -- broadcast that you're associating with black people. >> we should note here that msnbc has not independently verified the authenticity of that recording.

during the confeversation, however, there is a specific mention of nba star magic johnson. he was featured in a photo with sterling's girlfriend. the man tells her not to bring johnson to, quote, his games. johnson called the recording, quote, shameful. he tweeted a few moments ago that he and his wife will never be going to a clippers game while sterling is the owner again. he then went on to say, quote, i feel sorry for my friends, coach doc rivers, and chris paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about african-americans. this afternoon, the nba did confirm to msnbc that an investigation is underway, saying, quote, we are in the process of conducting a full investigation into the audio recording obtained by tmz. the remarks heard on the recording are disturbing and offensive, but at this time, according to the nba, we have no further information. we should also note here at this point, we have made calls to sterling's office as well. we have left messages,

requesting comments. so far, we have not heard anything. for the first time ever, two popes will be cannonized tomorrow. the late popes john paul ii and john xxiii will be declared saints by pope francis. more than a million people from all over the world are expected to attend. in fact, many of them are already there. so is nbc's claudio lavango, who's live at the vatican. what can we expect to see tomorrow, my friend? >> reporter: well, craig, tomorrow we expect to see 1 million pilgrims gathering here at the vatican around st. peter's square right behind me in a place that can only fit 250,000 people. that's almost -- just a fourth of them. well, that means that many will be left out, but there will be 17 screens across the screen for other pilgrims to see this event. this will be the biggest such

event to be held here in st. peter's square in the history of the catholic church. because apart from that million pilgrims who will be here to witness history, we also expect -- well, the vatican says they expect 1.5 billion people to watch that on television. and this is a first in many ways. well, this will be also the first time the vatican will broadcast such an event in 3d, for instance. it will be broadcast in 500 3d cinemas around the world, in countries including the united states. so the excitement and anticipation is definitely building up, especially in the view that these pilgrims can't wait to reach that square behind me that's empty right now, simply because the authorities are stopping the pilgrims from coming. not too far from here, there are already tens of thousands of pilgrims trying to make their way. they want to sleep on the street. they want to sleep in st.

peter's square. they brought their sleeping bags because they want a front-row seat for what is going to be the event of the year. you said it. this is a very special event for more than one reason. for the first time, two popes are going to be recognized as saints. the first time that two popes will preside that event. pope francis, of course, but pope benedict xvi. all ingredients to make that event tomorrow very special, craig. >> claudio, really quickly here. again, this is an historic event, but it's also been somewhat clouded by controversy as well. walk us through that quickly. >> reporter: well, that controversy will touch john paul ii. there are many survivor networks of people who were abused as children by priests who say that -- who claim that pope john

paul ii closed an eye during his 20-year pontiff cat on all those cases. they say he really could have done something to stop that from happening to change the catholic church's course and do something about it so that it will never happen again. well, obviously those are critical in the sense they don't want pope john paul ii -- but a million other pilgrims coming here think otherwise. >> nbc's claudio lavango from rome for us. thank you. msnbc will have full coverage of tomorrow's services at 4:00 a.m. eastern. >> will northwestern football have the first union in college sports? why one player says no. he told us why he voted no. we'll also talk about whether that's an indication of how that vote went. also, a bar owner wants to run a gay bar, but his lease

says no. can a landlord even do that? we'll explain. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. turning dreamers into business owners. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk.

let's get you up to date on what's expected to be a major weekend of severe weather. there's an outbreak right now. it's developing right now. it could be the most dangerous line of storms this year. today it's impacting the nation's midsection. overnight, at least one twister touched down near washington, d.c. and strong storms brought down power lines and traffic lights in north carolina. so far, no reports of injuries. weather channel meteorologist mike bettes joins me from the national weather service in wichita, kansas. mike, first of all, what can we expect tonight? >> well, it looks like this evening things will really start

to blossom across the plains. multiple states could be at risk. it could be one of the most significant outbreaks we've seen all year. it's that winter weather that has really squashed any severe weather. we're here at the national weather service office. if a severe thunderstorm warnings are issues or tornado warnings are issues, it's done by these fine meteorologists that are watching the weather closely. we're joining by andy cline, one of the meteorologists here. let's talk specifically about kansas. what do you see playing out here? when does it happen? >> right now we're looking for two things. dry line convergence and enough moisture to surge out ahead of the dry line. the latest gfs model from this morning, we are looking at some enhanced convergence just west of the area. so if thunderstorms are going to form, there's enough wind energy, there's enough moisture and instability for a few super cells to form with main threats of baseball-size hail, 70-mile-an-hour winds. can't rule out an isolated tornado between roughly 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. this evening.

>> the result of dry line convergence means we have air moving upwards in the atmosphere. baseball-size hail can be significant and damaging. >> oh, yeah. and people here in wichita definitely know from the last several years baseball to softball-size hail can really do damage. >> yes, it can. good to talk to you. thank you very much. you thought we had some tools at the weather channel? they geek out about it here. but this is no laughing matter. we have to watch this very, very closely. the threat tonight will be nocturnal. it has shown that 2 1/2 deadly are nighttime tornadoes that daytime tornadoes. we want everyone to stay ahead of the weather. stay very alert and keep this in mind, craig. the next couple of days, the threat just inches its way eastbound. it becomes the midwest, the southeast, all the way to the atlantic coast. so maybe another four or five days of severe weather. >> our weather channel's mike bettes with the forecast and behind the scenes look. thank you, sir. it is common knowledge that

waiting for football season to start is america's second favorite sport. when it comes around this fall, the college scene could look a bit different. 76 scholarship athletes from northwestern university have now voted on whether to form the first labor union for college athletes. the vote was possible thanks to last month's ruling by the national labor relations board, ruling that classified players as employees of the university. the outcome won't publicly be known until appeals by the university are exhausted. >> northwestern believes very strongly that our students, our students first and foremost. they are not employees. and we believe very strongly that their role here at the university is primarily students. >> former northwestern quarterback and nfl running back mike adamly joins me live from chicago. mike, thanks for being with me. first of all, almost as soon as the nlrb ruling came down,

northwestern really stopped at nothing to try and squash the move. any sense at this point on how the vote went down yesterday? >> well, i have a pretty good feeling that it was probably voted down, and it might have been a majority of players who voted no. the reason i say that is because once they were given a lot of information, at least the university's side of things, they created a manifesto, if you will, of the pros and cons. i think they felt in the end that it wasn't the right thing to do. make no mistake, though, this whole story really isn't about the unionizing of northwestern's football program. it's about being a catalyst for change. there is no question beyond a shadow of a doubt that the ncaa needs to change the way it does business and the way it treats

its athletes. especially at a school like northwestern. you're not talking about dumb jocks. you are talking about student athletes. they are 24/ 7. they wake up at 5:00 in the morning. they go to study hall, have breakfast, go to class. what northwestern was really voting on was a long-term thing. just change. make it better for college athletes. >> ncaa officials, coaches, recruiters worried about this vote. we know northwestern's coach, pat fitzgerald, who is beloved on that campus, he did send a number of e-mails to parent, players as well. one of those e-mails he sent to his team read in part, quote, understand that by voting to have a union, you would be transferring your trust from those you know -- me, your coaches, and the administrators here -- to what you don't know, a third party who may or may not

have the team's best interests in mind. how aggressive of a campaign was launched on the campus of northwestern by fitzgerald, by the administration? how aggressive of a campaign was launched to defeat this vote, to make sure that those players voted no? >> well, first of all, i would say that that was -- what you just read makes it very powerful stuff on the part of pat fitzgerald. with good reason. football teams don't need unnecessary disruption on the side. but if i'm a football player, and i don't know if seniors were aloud to vote. i don't know if it was by class. 76 people that voted. i've been assured that, you know, my vote is secret and will always be secret. that being said, if i feel as an athlete that, you know, they could help mt. out here a little bit if they would just do this, if they would just do this, i wouldn't shy away from that.

but obviously it's very powerful when your football coach says those kinds of things. hey, listen, this is what we're all about. i strongly encourage you to say, no. as a player, i might be swayed in that direction. >> mike, i don't want to put you on the spot, but i'm going to put you on the spot here. if you were still in uniform at northwestern, how would you have voted? >> well, let me just say this. when i went to school there, the vietnam war was going on. football players were looked at as part of the military establishment. we had student demonstration picket lines we had to breakthrough just to get on the football field. we were told to ask as one of the team captains to ask our head football coach who was a decorated marine corps veteran in the pacific theater of war if we could wear black arm bands in honor of those who lost their lives at kent state university. we went in there, we broke the picket lines. it was tough times.

and i think this -- again, this is actually a good thing for northwestern. northwestern prides itself on teaching students to think on their own, to be activists if need be. and again, this really isn't about -- from all the players i've talked to -- >> you didn't answer my question, mike. >> what would i have voted? >> yeah. >> i would have voted probably yes. if i was 21 years old and going through what i went through back then. >> mike adamle, we're going to leave it there. former northwestern quarterback. also, quite the renowned sports anchor there in chicago. good to see you, mike. thank you. >> good to see you. i was a running back, just to set the record straight. >> a running back. sorry. it looks like even our tiniest earners are victims of the income gap. a new survey from junior achievement says 67% of boys get an allowance compared to just 59% of girls. > also, more boys reportedly getting allowance for doing

household chores specifically. looks like we have a long way to go. this is msnbc. and that's epic, bro, we've forgotten just how good good is. good is setting a personal best before going for a world record. good is swinging to get on base before swinging for a home run. [ crowd cheering ] good is choosing not to overshoot the moon, but to land right on it and do some experiments. ♪ so start your day off good with a coffee that's good cup after cup. maxwell house. ♪ good to the last drop

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if i say negro or black boy or slave, i'm not -- if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offensive, then martin luther king hasn't got his job done yet. >> i don't think i've ever heard the word negro used casually on tv than i have over the past few days. cliven bundy captivated many in this country for different reasons. he became a poster boy for the government is way too big crowd when he stood up to uncle sam, when sam showed up and essentially asked for his money. no one has disputed this key fact. cliven bundy's cattle fed off our land in nevada, the government's land, for about two decades, and he didn't pay his grazing fees like thousands of

his fellow ranchers after years of asking the guy to pay up, the government showed up to enforce the law, to confiscate his property. cattle. some would call it rule of law. bundy and the armed posse who showed up to defend him and his cause called it another great example of government overreach. what followed was the stuff of late-night comedy gold. some conservatives joined the militia members and rushed to bundy's side. he was celebrated and applauded by pundits and talk radio heads from coast to coast. bundy sympathizers were falling all over themselves to hold up the 67-year-old as a personification of all that's wrong with our great republic. then something happened. bundy started talking. and he wouldn't stop. there are apparently no crisis management firms in southeastern nevada. >> they abort their young children. they put their young men in jail because they never learned how to pick cotton.

and i've often wondered, were they better off as slaves picking cotton and having family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidies? >> he maintains he's not a racist. even many of these previous supporters became suspicious. possible presidential candidate and lover of freedom, rand paul, and dean heller, some who had supported him from another cable network, they nearly started a stampede, falling over themselves to get away from the guy. by the time bundy took off his boot on live tv yesterday, held up a dead calf, and started talking about dr. king and rosa park -- not parks -- but park, most folks seemed to realize something. cliven bundy never should have been held up as anything other than a guy who hasn't paid his bill. he gave law-abiding ranchers a bad name. he didn't help certain members of a political party that's been trying to make itself seem a little less hostile toward brown

people. here's a thought. before you put someone on a pedestal and rush to stand next to them, check him out. before you decide a guy represents your political believes, listen to him spout off some politics. maybe someone with just a half a brain should have talked to the guy before hailing him as a hero. if someone had, we would not be talking about cliven bundy.

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they're why we make life less complicated. it's about people. we are volvo of sweden. the rise today. the ukrainian military has now set up check points in eastern ukraine in an attempt to curb the insurgency by pro-russian separatists. there's hope this afternoon that separatists holding a group of international observers might be willing to exchange the group for some rebel prisoners being held by the ukraine government. all of this coming against a backdrop of u.s. threats of new sanctions against russia. those sanctions set to take

effect on monday, we're told. illinois congressman mike quigley part of a delegation that just returned from ukraine. congressman, what was your impression of the situation there? you were on the ground. you presumably saw a lot more than we've seen. what can you tell us? >> well, it's a real set of conflicts. it's a country full of turmoil, certainly a lot working against them. before this happened, they had an economy that needed a bailout. an extraordinary corruption. their president left, fled the country. and they're facing military aggression from russia. at the same time, i saw optimism. i think what they see is this is their doorway to the future, an opportunity to get past all this and to throw off, finally, the yoke of russian military intervention. >> but how do they go about doing that? you and i both know if there's an armed conflict right now,

that russia has a sizable advantage over ukraine. >> well, it's interesting. the first thing they talk about isn't that fact. the first thing they talk about is the election on may 25th. they think the election gives them legitimacy and takes away a lot of what putin is using as political opportunity against them. so the first thing they would say is, this election has to take place. we need your help to make sure it works and shows the world this is legitimate government. they obviously recognize the military threats there, and they recognize that yanukovych basically dismantled their military the last four years. their jets have no fuel. their trucks have no gas. their tanks have no batteries. but they're hopelessly optimistic. i left the country rooting more for them than i did coming in. >> president obama, as you know, has said that harsh new sanctions, harsher new sanctions are going to be taking effect monday, as early as monday if

russia does not stand down. what kind of impact do you think that these new sanctions will have? >> i think the old sanctions are already starting to work. i mean, the russia ruble is at an all-time low. the stock market is down 20%. their credit rating is at nearly junk bond status. the capital is fleeing the russian economy at an extraordinary rate. i think there will be movements to have more independence from russian exports of oil and natural gas. that's 75% of their exports. i think mr. putin is risking economic turmoil in his own country by doing this. i do think another round of sanctions makes sense. and if we can agree on anything, it is an international unified effort to target perhaps the banking and energy sectors for further sanctions. >> congressman, really quickly here, very simple question. how concerned are the ukrainian

people? how concerned did they seem to be that they're going to be invaded by russia? >> i think those are very legitimate concerns. when i talked to the leadership in ukraine, most of them feel like what putin is more likely to do is invade further in the east. they don't see a full country invasion. their response is that 89% of the ukrainian population supports a unified ukraine and wants nothing to do with the russians. so they don't think putin could be very successful politically in a military invasion in terms of the reaction he would get. and obviously i think that as a result of this, they need more nonlethal military aid as quickly as possible. >> illinois congressman mike quigley just back from ukraine. thank you for your time this afternoon. the national rifle association vows to stand and fight at its annual convention, taking on michael bloomberg and

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we put members first, because we don't have shareholders. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side so i ask you this afternoon, do you trust this government, really, to protect you and your family? we're on our own. >> that was nra ceo wayne lapierre at his group's convention in indianapolis. the brain trust is here. chris, democratic strategist. he was chief of staff for senator joe manchin. dana millbank, columnist for "the washington post." amy holmes. this is one of my favorite brain trust groups right here. good to get you guys all together. >> right back at you. >> dana, let me start with you. you were prolific this week, by the way. you wrote two articles this

week. that's a lot. >> i wrote four, craig, but i'm glad two got to you. >> even i know that. >> but here's the thing. the nra out in full force in indianapolis. opponents there calling themselves the davids versus the goliaths. the nra, it seems, still winning the messaging war. how can these davids get their messages heard? >> well, we've been asking ourselves this for a long, long time now. and the fact of the matter is the people who want gun control are far more numerous than the people there at the nra convention. so it's not really a matter of public opinion. if it were a matter of public opinion, this would be resolved long ago. what it is, they have a strangle hold over the national legislature here in washington and in the state legislatures in

various states. public opinion actually has weighed in on this. it's just the debate is impermeable. >> that's a very big word. >> and we heard -- we do know a fair amount of time was spent at the convention in indianapolis talking about the need for the nra to back senate candidates. that can help turn the upper chamber red. it does seem as if the nra is as politically savvy as it's ever been. >> certainly. it's also an issue of intensity. gun rights activists, they point to the constitution and second amendment and unlike owning a car, owning a gun is a constitutional right. i think we conflate gun control with gun violence. if you look at the justice department's national institute of justice and you look at their statistics, gun violence has actually been steadily declining. so i think you don't see the intensity for gun control because most gun owners are very responsible, law-abiding people. >> gun violence is down, why do we need so many more guns?

seems like the problem isn't resolving itself. >> if you want to own a gun, you should be able to own a gun is what activist rights would say. >> chris, here's the latest message, this one coming from the new michael bloomberg funded group. take a look. take a listen. >> gun control supporters have the blood of little children on their hands. >> the presence of a firearm makes us all safer. >> there's no victory until we get guns in school to protect ourselves. >> we will buy more guns than ever. >> these words were said by the gun lobby. >> but they don't speak for us. >> it's time for our words to be heard. >> it's going to take -- >> every survivor -- >> every town -- >> to build a safer america. >> chris, is that the kind of ad that can change a mind? >> i mean, i think it can help obviously, you know, push the debate. part of the problem here is i think kind of dana hit it on the head. public opinion already is clearly in favor of, you know, some reasonable common sense gun

control. the reason why the background check legislation that was pushed specifically by my old boss didn't fail because it wasn't public support. it failed because basically you had the republicans and a few democrats, mind you, that just didn't want to get behind it for their own state political reasons. i'm not sure how that changes because there's a lot of factors here that are kind of feeding this. it's not simply about the gun control issue. it's about their, you know, dislike of the federal government. it's ideological. it's political. whatever it might be. >> but chris -- >> so it helps, but i'm not sure it's going to be enough unless we see just a wholesale dramatic change at the elected level where they start realizing we need to have, you know, common sense reform. and after newtown, if we didn't have it, i'm not sure how we're going to have it. >> but chris, your own boss, the former -- rather, the senator from west virginia, he is a supporter of gun rights and gun ownership and actually cut an ad when he was running for senator of himself using a gun, shooting it through cap and trade. so i think, in fact, he's emblematic of a broad opinion

that guns in the hands of law-abiding people is perfectly okay. >> well, i mean, but, you know -- so if i may respond for my boss, i guess, here is, i think, the reality. the nra had a position on gun control. used to support background checks. then surprise -- >> we have background checks. >> you have to let him finish. >> all right. >> they supported expanding background checks. then all of the sudden after newtown, they decided to oppose background checks. so part of the issue and the frustration that i think people like my boss and others who believe in reasonable, common sense reforms that are not going to undercut, you know, the second amendment or take people's guns away is how can you oppose that? especially when you supported it before. >> i think the point here is that newtown changed manchin's point of view. while it is true -- >> he didn't get rid of his guns. >> it's not about that. >> if we could have all gun owners in america just shooting cap and trade bills and not people, i don't think we'd have a problem. >> i want to pivot here. i want to talk about something

else that has emerged as sort of a new theme in this whole debate. michael bloomberg, former new york city mayor, financing every town with $50 million of his own money. a drop in the bucket for michael bloomberg. there's a story on slate.com headlined "why the nra loves michael bloomberg." dana, i mean, is bloomberg -- is he helping or hurting the cause? >> i don't think he's really hurting the cause because it's such an uphill climb to start with. but they want -- you know, every cause wants to have somebody to fight against. now wayne lapierre can get up there and say, michael bloomberg is trying to take your guns away, this fast-talking new yorker. so that's going to help him rally his people even further. but you know what? i'm glad michael bloomberg is doing it. it's a worthy fight, even if it's a completely uphill climb. >> amy, is he the perfect boogie man for the nra? >> nothing like a northern billionaire to tell gun owners what to do. in fact, mark pryor, who's in a

tough re-election campaign in arkansas, one of his first campaign ads was to say that he was going to oppose michael bloomberg and he wasn't going to let that northerner tell him anything about gun laws. so i think actually michael bloomberg is undercutting his cause. if he wants to support gun control, he should be doing it with more local support. >> chris? >> you know, i'm kind of torn about it. politically, i'll be honest with you, he doesn't help in some of these red states. it's just too easy, you know, to kind of basically box in some of these democratic candidates. >> who love their big gulps too. >> i'm sorry? >> who love their big gulps. >> 16-ounce colas. >> i prefer he invest his money in the cause but not necessarily be the face of cause. >> he could give the money secretly like the koch brothers. >> that would be better. >> i like what dana did there. really quickly, i want to get your take on a developing story. i'm sure you've been following what's been popping off on social media. out in los angeles, the owner of

the clippers. there's this ten-minute long audio recording that's been obtained by tmz sports. it purports to be l.a. clippers owner donald sterling on a racial tirade. here's a snippet of that recorded phone call. >> people call you and tell you that i have black people on my instagram and it bothers you. >> yeah, it bothers me a lot that you want to pro -- broadcast that you're associating with black people. >> now, again, that's donald sterling. he owns the clippers. we should note here that in addition to the guys who play on the court for him, nearly all of them are black, his girlfriend is also half black as well, chris. it really is a bizarre story. what should the nba do here? >> well, i mean, what they should do is obviously at a minimum after whatever the investigation is going to be, it's pretty obvious. he said it. they should probably fine him, suspend him, and i'm not sure why he is an owner of a basketball team or, you know, major professional sports.

it is insulting to his players and to the management of his team, let alone the fans. and just sends a terrible message, you know, to the country that people are, you know, still out there in incredibly prominent positions with these abhorrent views. >> we're going to end there. chris, amy, thank you so much. dana millbank, i will read you more. always appreciate you. we want to note the nba did quickly release a statement this afternoon. it reads in part, quote, we are in the process of conducting a full investigation into the audio recording obtained by tmz. the remarks heard on the recording are disturbing and offensive, but at this time we have no further information. we, of course, will continue to follow this story. when we come back, though, the owner of a new york city bar says that he would make more money if he turned his business into a gay bar, but his lease says no. no gay bars allowed. can a landlord even do that? that's next here on msnbc. is ev.

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sglmpbts one local bar in brook lynn is trying to keep up with their changing neighborhood. they want to convert the existing watering hole into a gay bar. he thinks it's going to increase traffic and revenue at a time he desperately needs it. however, the lease includes a nongay cause. it shall not operate as a gay bar or restaurant. the owner is taking the couase court. we reached out to your landlord and never heard back. our first question was simple, is this even legal? we called over to nyu and got a law professor on the phone who told us "it is clear that any lease that is designed to exclude a segment of the population violates the public accommodation statues and therefore violates state and federal law. it is also a violation of new

york executive law 296 for an order to discriminate against sexual orientation." where's your case stand right now? >> it's not good. we're trying to resolve the issue and get some more time on our lease so we can reopen as a gay bar. >> what's the landlord telling you? >> right now, it's an issue with back rent. we held the rent with the idea they could negotiate a better term. we had a couple buyers for the lease and the landlord turned down a couple buyers and the only way to resolve the issue was to hold back the rent and then get to court and plead with them to open up our gay bar that we wanted to do in the beginning. >> you own several gay bars. >> we had six, we own four right now. >> what makes you think that turning this into a gay bar is

going o increase traffic and revenue? >> well, the neighborhood is ripe for it. and gays have more spendable income. they are a nicer people. >> wait a minute. is that a stereotype, generalization? >> it might be a generalization or a stereotype but it's true. it's just true, that's all. >> this is something else i wondered. forgive my ignorance, what make s it a gay bar? why couldn't you just change the name and it just becomes widely known that it's a gay bar. how do you advertise that this is now a gay bar, please come. >> it's simple. a couple gay magazines and and 100% gay employees and it wouldn't take very long to change the whole ambience.

>> were you aware o of the clause? >> we signed it because we wanted the location. my son who signed the lease thought we could do a straight bar and it didn't turn out that way. it turned out to be difficult. the best way to resolve our monetary issues now is to turn it into a gay bar, which would increase significantly up to 50%. >> and your attorneys tell you you have a pretty strong case here. >> they think so. >> okay. keep us posted. it's a fascinating story. and what's even more fascinating is how you define a gay bar. thank you. appreciate you stopping by. appreciate your time. >> thank you. thank you for watching. i'll be back tomorrow at 3:00 eastern. first though, disrupt with karen finney. there she is right there. what do you have coming up, my friend? >> we got a lot more on that breaking news today about the tapes tmz released of what says

los angeles clippers owner telling his girlfriend he didn't want her to bring minorities to clippers games, which as you know, comes after clive and bundy was caught on tape espousing his views on the. >> and the guy owns the clippers, pretty much everyone that plays for the team is black. his girlfriend is half black. i'm very interested to see precisely how the nba is going to respond. they already put out a statement, but i want to see what sort of action. >> it's pretty interesting. there's a part on this tape, the tape hasn't been verified, but she makes that point that she's half black and half mexican and it's a very strange conversation. the thing is, as i think you

pointed this out earlier this week, the word negro has been used a lot. >> it's like tv in the '60s. >> it's been a strange -- everybody seems to have something to say on race this week. >> karen finney will pick it up at the top of the hour. have a great afternoon. i'm l-i-s-a and i have copd, but i don't want my breathing problems to get in the way of hosting my book club. that's why i asked my doctor about b-r-e-o. once-daily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs for a full 24 hours. and breo helps reduce symptom flare-ups that last several days and require oral steroids, antibiotics, or hospital stay. breo is not for asthma. breo contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. breo won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day.

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♪ ...and unleashes wrath. ♪ temptation comes in many heart-pounding forms. but only one letter. "f". the performance marque from lexus. thanks for disrupting your afternoon, i'm karen finney. fear of change, clive and bundy dares to say what he really believes. that and more is coming up. >> a lawless hero on the right chose his true colors. >> clive and bundy is apparently also a professor of negro studi studies. >> what the? >> sorry, republicans, you bought the ticket, now you have to take the bundy ride. >> how