capital punishment after a death sentence went wrong. donald lockett was to be scheduled to death, but the injections went terribly wrong, and witnesses watched as lockett writhed and even spoke for 40 minutes. >> at 6:39 before they closed the curtain, he said, man. >> yes sh, he had full body upp movement, and able to lift his heads and shoulders from the gurney, and he was struggling to talk, but those with were the words i got out, and he said, man, i'm not, and something is wrong. >> and the corrections director robert patton made the decision to stop the execution, and mary fallon issued a 14-day stay for the second conviction of a rapist and rapist charles warner

scheduled for later that night. lockett died at 7:06 of massive heart attack. 3 -- 43 minutes into a process that should last six minutes. and we go to a witness of the botched execution from tulsa. we know that the execution start started at 6:23 p.m., and at 7:06 clayton lockett died and walk us through the experience as a witness. >> well, at a 6:23, the curtains in the execution room went up, and we were witnessed the inmate laying on the gurney with a white sheet. he had no last words. and the execution began, and then ten minutes later they announced him unconscious, and this is the fourth execution that i have covered and they don't normally pronounce that. it was three minutes that past. and then he began to have a rather violent reaction for three minutes. he with was grimacing, clinching

his jaw, and the body was shaking, and several times his entire head and shoulders lifted up off of the gurney as if he was literally trying to get up, and he mumbled something that we could not understand, but the only thing that the witnesses agree on that we heard him say, man, and he appeared to be in pain, and one or two of the witnesses said that something is wrong, but i did not personally hear that. after three minutes of this, the warden who was inside of the room said, we are going to close the blinds temporarily, and they closed the blinds, but they never reopened them. >> who is in the room at this point with him? what are they doing? particularly during this 3:00 period? >> well, yes, so, in the room is a correctional officer in uniform, and the warden and a physician is seated in the left corn can over the room, and then two other corrections officials

as well. at one point, the physician got up at one point in the execution to see if he was conscious, and he remarked that the inmate was still conscious, and three minutes later, they pronounced him unconscious, and then when he had this violent reaction, literally the warden was distressed, but they did not do anything until 3:00 into the process when the warden went around to check the inmate's right arm, and lifted the sheet, and checked the right arm, and apparently seeing some problem with the vein, and at that point time the warden announced they were closing the curtains. >> and you sweeted last night, this is the fourth execution i have witnessed, and by far, nothing like this has happened before. what did the head of the correctional s department tell you what had happened? >> well, he came n and we were

all in the execution chamber for ten minutes, and the warden came in, and the and the d.o.c. dire robert patton, and they had issued a stay for the second execution that was to occur at 8:00 p.m., and that the inmate's vein had collapsed essentially what he said. later back at the media witness center, the warden said that the inmate had been pronounced dead at 7:06 of a heart attack, but it is in my understanding that the inmate was in the execution chamber that whole time, but we don't know. >> and stay there, because i want to bring in the managing editor who has covered the racial bias in the criminal justice system for a long time, and tell us, how could this have happened and this is the latest in what are bungled execution t attempts. there was a problem in ohio and

oklahoma and when you hear these descriptions, they are horrific, and it apparently going back to the drug combinations. >> yes, and the effort to conceal the drug combinations which is an important facet here. there has been an effort through the courts to force oklahoma to declare what is in the lethal drug combinations that they were using and untested before on inmates on death row. >> this combination in these amounts had never been used before? >> that is right. >> and there are 32 states where the death penalty is still on the books in this country, and system of them have laws and regulations where they do not declare or make public what is in the drugs. in the case of oklahoma which has been pushing back very lard on governor mary fallon's insistence to go forward with the executions is the combination of the drugs. and i want to say to the

reporter what a terrific job they do to give us a a firsthand look at what is happening, and what the executions look like in the country. >> and in fact, i want to echo what she said, because this is not an easy situation for you, obviously, and governor fallon did put out a statement saying that the full review in the procedures, but there is a news conference later today, and what are we expecting to hear? >> we are expecting to hear the state try to assure the media and the public that there is a full and thorough investigation. one of the attorneys for one of the inmates, the one that was not executed has already called for a more independent analysis, and i want to hear more details of what happened after the curtain thes closed, and more specif specifics, and i plan to ask for more records, and we want more answers and understand exactly how things are going to change

if they are going to change at all. >> and it is not just about oklahoma, because it is debated ak cross the country. i want to show you a couple of graphics here. the first one is 80 countries who have abolished the death penalty since 1976, and the second is a short list of the countries with the death penalty, and the u.s. obviously included and not exactly the finest company with afghanistan, syria, north korea. and dafna the long term debate is the morality of this, and whether or not it deterse crime, but it seems to me that the case in oklahoma and the others that we have talked about are switching it. it is about the constitutional ti, a and is this cruel and unusual punishment when you hear what the inmates have gone through, and further a debate of whether the states are competent to even do these executions. >> right. here is a perfect example of where competency is front and center. even proponents of the death penalty, and their numbers are

shrinking rapidly, but, you know, the proponents of of the death penalty do not want to see this kind of process in place, and they don't want to see a cruel and inhumane process. this is not a death penalty about beheadings, and even the proponents of the death penalty, and as i said, their numbers are fading fast in the kun tcountry >> and what we don't want to get lost here is that the inmates they committed horrific crimes. one rain and killed a baby. and lockett's victim was a teenager stephanie niemann who was buried alive and the parents issued a statement saying that they don't want her memory to get lost in this, and it is hard for people to be sympathetic in situations like this, but what about the bigger picture in this ongoing debate as someone who has been in that room and studied it very closely? >> well, of course, as a media

witness, i don't take sides on the issue itself, but it is an important role that the media serves witnessing the executions, and reporting to the public accurately what is going on in that room if the state enacts the penalty. i have talked to the relatives of the victim in many other stories and relatives of the offe offender in other stories, and so i understand the both perspectives and the issue is in ev every case whether it is punishment that is cruel and unusual and that is for the judges in the state to sort out, but there are two sides obviously to the story in every one of them. >> but a constitutional question that we will continue to follow. thank you, both. >> thank you. the other big story we are watching is the weather alert, and still a threat of severe weather in a large part of the country, and right now, 30 miles of the i-10 are closed in the

florida panhandle because of major flooding, and two inches of rain falling throughout the night stranding people in their cars. and in north carolina, there were tornadoes touching down, and damage, but no deaths. and meteorologist bill karins is tracking the storms. this is a huge swath. >> yes, the same storm that is plaguing us this morning is the storm that was with us sunday and monday with the tornado outbreaks. we didn't have the fatalities this morning, but the damage, this is going to be worse, this flood event than the tornadoes. the damage in the pictures is probably hundreds if not thousands of homes with water in them. and these are the rainfall totals in the last 24 hours, and this gauge in pensacola stopped working when it was still pouring, so from 12 to 20 inches of rain widespread. they are saying in pensacola the damage they are looking at now is worse than with hurricane ivan, and that was almost like a

direct hit in the area. we will wait and see by the time it is all done, and add it up, but it is impressive stuff. this is a picture of the downtown a area this morning, and again, the truck all of the way up to the windows, and three feet of water through the downtown area, and the bridges are washed out, and car cans all over the place, and one person is reporting that 50% of the inventory of the car dealerships is gone, because they have been flooded out. the this is the same storm that plagued us with the torn e dose, and now it is located over the top of the quad cities, and so we have rain up and down the east coast, and we are starting to see the effects of the heavy rain, and not tornadoes or the historic flooding, but the airports are a mess running two to four-hour delays from philly, and newark is the worst at 3 1/2 hours. we have only gotten an inch of rain in the new york area, and we are expecting 4 to 5 inches by the time it is done. and so maybe some flooding in

that area when we are all said and done. and 36 million people are in the slight risk of severe storm thes, and the best chance of tornadoes southern virginia, and north carolina and the upstate of south carolina, and i do not expect the damage that we will see today to be compared with pensacola, florida. we will hopefully get a break for the weekend as the storm leaves. >> thank you, bill karins, finally, it is leaving. and the next race is shaping up like another clinton and another bush. our "wall street journal" poll has insights into the american political dynasties. and the nba may say that donald sterling is banned for life, but does that mean that he has to sell the team? could he drag the whole thing out in court? we will talk to a lawyer next. hello? i'm trying my best. seriously, i'm...i'm serious.

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now, the pressure is on nba team owners. will they vote to force disgraced owner donald steriling to sell the los angeles clippers? in a decisive series of moves the nba commissioner adam silver slapped him with a historic punishment for racist comments caught on tape. >> i am banning mr. sterling for life from any association with the clippers organization or the nba. i will urge the board of governor governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team, and will do everything in my power to ensure that that happens. >> we are one! >> well, that announcement was univers universally applauded around the nba, and provide an almost cathartic release for the pla r players and the fans alike as the clippers took the lead in the playoff series. >> you think it is just the

players burk it is the fans, too, and everybody was going through this. it is almost like everybody wanted to exhale tonight. it with was good. the healing process has started, and so we are going to keep growing and getting away from this, and that is good. >> but it may not be that easy, because steriling is an attorney the, and highly litigious, and he has had at least nine laws t lawsuits in the last few years, and he has the money to put up a fight. does he have a way to stop the ban? we are joined by dave zirin, and an e gel la rye and gabe feldman from tulane university and law program. let me start with you, dave, he is banned for life, but he says that the commissioner had enough

to rule to take him out. >> well, this is an 80-year-old man with a net worth of $2 billion. and you are talking the about the longest tenured owner in the nba, and he knows where all of the bodies are buried so to speak. it depends upon how nasty he wants to get, because we can expect for them for the stand up en masse to say, we don't want you in the club, because you are bad for business. >> and given that, gabe, what are sterling's legal options? >> well, the assumption is that he is going to be trying to block a for sale. he can make a couple of arguments, and one he can say, that even if you disagree with everything that i have said, and nobody is saying that they support or condone the statements statements, but if you think that i'm a vile racist, it does not give you grounds to force the sale of my team. and there are rules in the nba constitution that dictate when

an owner can be forced to sale, and this is not one of the circumstances. the other argument is that if they do force a sale, that constitutes the anti-trust violation. if he says this is an open market without the for sale, he would have gotten $9 billion, and not the $100 million, and that is then under the anti-trust law, and he is entitled to $300 million in damages. that is some of the arguments. >> and he could file for divorce from the estranged wife, and california law sayings she is entitled to half of the worth in a settlement, and that would at least delay things, and tie it up for a while. is that the possible? >> it is possible. a lot of the legal maneuvers that might tie it up. he could basically go to court based on what adam silver said yesterday, that there is no vote yet, but convinced that the vote has to come down against dond silver, and he may say, i have to go to court and seek an injunction, and drag it out for

year and years and years and there are a lot of things that he can make it difficult for the league, a nd keep it in the pres longer than anyone else wants it to stay. >> and this is a tipping point for the nba, and the last hour isaiah thomas was on the "daily rundown." this is his reaction. >> the decision by adam silver, the commissioner of the nba, he not only spoke for sports, but also for society. we hope in sport and in the nba, we are going to continue to be the leaders in these types of discussion discussions. >> how important is his decision, and how important is what with we see going forward in terms of what is going to happen next? >> well, it is incredibly important, because it was 88 days off of the tenure, and right off of the birthday weekend, and unfortunately sterling's birthday weekend as we

well, and he made a mon you men to us decision, and not just for the race relations in the nba, and race relations in the country, but for america relations, period. the fact that we are all equal citizens here, and the fact that the nba is standing with the americans and saying that, it is huge. he should be in the running for person of the year. great courage. he looked afraid and nervous, and yet he stood there flat footed and delivered a very, very strong message to the country. i think that he should be applauded for it, and the players should be applauded for it, because without the pressure of the fans and the players, i'm not sure that we would be here. so it was a major decision and very, very important of going forward and in some ways the folks who were suing sterling and not successful including elgin baylor, they feel vindicated, but we have a long way to go.

>> but chris -- >> yes, go ahead. >> before we are excited about adam silver, there are big questions that remain here. i mean, adam silver did not answer the question about why it is that donald sterling had been coddled for so long by the nba, and yes, it is under david stern the former commissioner's tenure, but adam silver was the right-hand man for 25 years, and that needs to be answered. >> but as soon as he was in a position of power and 88 days, and not even for more organizations, probation period, he acted. >> the point is not whether he was in power, but the point is that he is refusing to answer the question, and that is something that he needs to account for it. >> he did account for it, because he said that as soop is as the nba was presented to the evidence to the nba, he acted. i have to say. >> and let me say we can go back to the press conference. >> well, it is a fact. >> here are the allegations of an attorney for the former girlfriend v stiviano say ths t

my client is very articulate, and she's very smart. she used to work with the da's office, and it is not her fault that she wanted the tapes to get out, and she a private person, and she just wants to be left alone. and gabe, i should also say that she thinks that she has been treated unfairly by the media, and gabe, a third party was there when the tapes were made in december, and does it make a difference in how this is going to play out? >> well, it doesn't make a difference in what the other owners may do. and maybe it is illegal for her to do it, but it is not the court of law here, and commissioner silver is not bound by the same rules, and she may get in trouble for it or not, and we don't know whether he consented to it or not, but nothing in the california state law or the nba constitution to prevent the league from relying on the legally acclaimed

material illegally will be admitted regardless. and this lifetime award for racism to warrant not only the suspension and the fine, but also to sell his team. >> and real quick? >> another question is whether donald sterling can give the theme to his wife who is also up to her neck in the housing practices. >> thank you, all of you, for being with us. a lot more the talk about in the days to come. >> one democratic pollster is declaring that president obama is not the next george w. bush, and what he sees in the numbers that might give the democrats number. and turning texas blue or at least shading it purple. could wendy davis be laying the foundation for 2020 and beyond? with brand-new versions.

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a democratic pollster says that new numbers show that president obama is no george w. bush. a new "wall street journal"/nbc news show the uptick of disapproval is up a little bit, and it may not be on the downward slide like bush's. and talking about the minimum wage, there is ahead a senate vote. we know that there is a slim chance that democrats will bring it to the $10.10, but it does further the strategy. let me bring in beth and nicolas, and good morning to you both. >> so he spends a week in asia, and the president comes back to talk about the domestic issue, and minimum wage is the first order of business today, a nd w have said that the poll numbers have rebounded a little bit, but still below 50%, and that is a tough place to be. do they need to be reboundling

for him to help democrats in november, beth? >> yes. the conventional wisdom is that the president needs to be at 50% for the party to maintain where they are or make some gains there. is growth for the numbers in the past month which is good for the dem cratz, but they are not out of the woods by any means. >> when you look at who is ahead in the poll, it is split dead even, but looking at the groups with the highest interest, the gop has a 15-point advantage. for democrats obviously, this is about trying to energize the groups like women, minorities to go to the polls, and obviously, i think that, nicolas, the minimum wage is going to help them do that. >> and look, the approval ratings are not going to go up, and he is -- >> he is not going to get a 10-point jump tomorrow tomorrow. >> right. and the democrat s as are tryin change the electorate without, and huge investments with the field comparable to the presidential election, but it is not won on the basis of president obama beicoming five

points more popular. >> and we want to talk about something interesting the clinton and the bush dynasties and we all remember barbara bush saying that we need to move on, and 69% of the people say that they ingagree with her, and doe that translate to people looking for something else? >> well, that is what this country is not built on the dynasties, and people have a resistance to this. but break it down to the people involve involved. jeb bush, the numbers polled are not good. one could speculate on how that is. >> and it is 21% positive versus 48% hillary positive. >> people are not looking at he is from a dynasty and she is from the dynasty, but jeb bush made controversial comments about illegal immigration being an act of love, and his brother's numbers went into terrible number, and people

don't define hillary as that dynasty. >> and if you look tat the part base for hillary, it is up to 77%, an jeb, 40%, and what does that tell you? >> she has no base problem at the moment. you have heard talk by elizabeth warren, and other talk, but right now it is intellectual discussion, and not those championing a bid against her. it is a difficult path for her and him. he is unfortunately right in the middle of a couple of the issues that are about to be the next big thing in the gop standards, and it is going to be hard for him. i think that he has a much tougher road to the nomination if he wants to run. we don't know that yet. thank you, both for coming in. >> and full coverage for the president and his call for the minimum wage at 3:00 eastern time, of course, and after the break, we will talk to congresswoman gwen moore about her meeting with paul ryan today. if i told you that a free ten-second test

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in less than two hours, republican congressman paul ryan is going to face the music as he meet s wi meets with the members of the congressional black caucus over the controversial comments he made about poverty last month o. an con ser servative radio show offended some about the culture of work in inner city, and something that he has apologized for since. and joining me is gwen moore of wisconsin, and good morn, congresswoman. >> it is fantastic being with you, good morning. >> i know that the cbc sent a list of questions to paul ryan in advance of the meeting, and have you heard back from him, and what do you want out of the meeting? >> well, first of all, chris, this is not an ambush. we have sent the questions to him. we see it as an opportunity to have a serious discussion with him about poverty, and about ways to alleviate the lack of job and job opportunities with african-americans as we speak

with paul ryan having one of the classic discussions of poverty in the budget committee right now as we speak. what we want to do is to challenge his assumptions about the laziness as it were of the inner city men, and, you know, point out some very specific proposals that we have regarding training opportunities and the economic development opportunities that help not only african-american men, but all poor people called the so-20 -- called the 10-20-30 program, and we want to challenge him on the assumptions that creating gre greater inequality is good for the economy overall. >> and you are part of the budget committee with congressman ryan and you have said previously, and i will quote you, we will not let him get away with this sleight of hand on this, and we know how the crunch the numbers as well. and the house version of the budget has already passed, so i wonder where you think that the conversation is going to go,

because you have clearly got different fundamentally different ideas about the budget. >> yes, and the caucus puts together a budget every single year. it is true that it has passed. it won't become law, and the door is always open for adapting and changing strategies going forward. paul ryan is not going anywhere. he is the budget committee chair now. next cycle, he is going to be either the ranking member or the chair of ways and means committee. he is a leader. we want to put these ideas on the table, and the congressional black caucus like barbara lee, and our chair marcia fudge, we v have worked very, very hard on putting together a responsible budget that looks at deficit

reduction and lifting the people out of poverty and helping the economy grow, and something that we don't believe that the ryan budget does at all. >> and let me get a couple of quick comments on a up kofl things in the news this morning. and big news out of wisconsin, the federal judge striking down your state's voter i.d. law, and shortly after you tweeted victory for voting rights and a judge ruled that it violates the constitutional rights of minority and low income voters and how important is this ruling? it is extremely important, because it invokes section 2 of the voting right act. you know, in the previous decisions, the argument has always been that the sbintegrit of the vote is at risk. but what he found is that the cases of impersonation of voters was almost negligible and non-existent, and that the burden on regular vote issers some 300,000 of them of

wisconsin would be great. and so we think that this is a really sets a new bar for other states and the fact that he invoked the voter right law, section 2 of the voter rights act is important as we go forward towards making sure that we preserve those provisions under the voting right act. >> and if i can ask you about the lead story, you have advocated about the death penlty, and cosponsored the death penalty abolition act, and we have reported on the botched execution in oklahoma, and how does what happened in oklahoma do you think play into the overall national conversation? >> well, you know, i do think that even as a person who has experienced having a close belove beloved relative murdered, that was then when i really realized that i was against the death penalty. i am against the death penalty, i don't think that it makes us

better. i don't think that we ultimately get that kind of revenge. i do think that people of conscious will continue to fight against this. >> democratic congresswoman gwen moore, good to have you on the program, and thank you. >> and thank you. walmart, the world's largest retailer is getting into the insurance business. mandy drury is back here after your jaunt in australia. >> yes. >> and here is walmart on one side, and warren buffett's geico on the other. and walmart is going against the biggies. >> absolute ly. and walmart is teaming up with the comparison website for auto insurance is and it is called auto insurance.com, and a simple name to remember, and you can go online to compare the different coverage and rates and what is best for you, and walmart is hoping to give you the best rate out there, and apparently

according to the walmart the average household spends $1,530 a year on auto premiums, and that is a chunk of change, and walmart consumers are price sensitive, so they want to help you out to get the best and the cheapest rate for you, and it is like preline, or orbitz or expedia because they shook up the travel agency, and go on there to compare the airfares. and walmart is hoping to do if same for the auto insurance. >> and they had that breach with the credit cards and they are changing them. >> yes, to make them more secure to keep your data secure. so starting next year, they are going to roll out the new brand of debit and credit cards as s mastercard pin and chip cards. it is a lot more secure than the cards that have the magnetic stri

stripe, and i know that already a lot of the credit cards and including my own credit card have the microchip embedded in it, but the target is going to do it for all of the branded debit, and the credit cards, but it is coming at a cost, chris, but in light of the breach that target has to incur. so they are rolling out the new infrastructure, and gradually each store rolled out with the new cash registers that can accept that technology, and that is all going to be completed by september of this year at a cost of $100 million to target. >> mandy drury, it is your birthday. >> who told you! >> little birdie. >> and nothing is secret with the social media. >> and it has two openings, and apparently one cup cake. >> did you seat it? >> no, i did not. >> and i think that john wilson the producer, and shout out to john, and thank you so much. >> somebody said that we had a candle. >> and here it is. >> don't light the candle, because we will get in trouble, but here it is.

>> i will set off the smoke alarms. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. >> and colleagues over at c nshncnbc are celebrating a birthday of their own, and they have compiled a list of people who have had the most impact of business and finance and since they went live, and here they are. jeff bay soes, and sergey brin and larry page and then ben bernanke and alan greenspan, and second is bill gates, and the most influential is apple's steve jobs. fely. only from allstate. call 866-906-8500 now. [ dennis ] zach really loves his new camera. problem is...this isn't zach. it's a friend of a friend who was at zach's party and stole his camera. but zach's got it covered... with allstate renters insurance. [ female announcer ] protect your valuables for as low as $4 a month when you add renters insurance to your allstate auto policy. call 866-906-8500 now. what are you doing?

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check out the incredible photos. this is scenic highway in pensacola, florida, and this is the result of severe flooding. you can see that the road broke off and took the cars with it. there is another photo to show what it looks like with a neighborhood with the road completely washed out. all of that from the massive

storm system that dumped up to two feet of rain in the florida panhandle. it is socking the state still, but the system stretches all of the way up the northeast, and we will continue to monitor the storm, and if you are flying today, check the flights, because they are far behind and hours behind in many cases. and the democratic governor's association is warning texas democrats not to get their hopes up. and vermont governor and dga chair says that we are hopeful in texas, but we're candid about the fact that they have not won in many times. and then there is cryptonite that was thought to be golden. >> and let's bring in the new issue of "marie claire" who has a new article called "don't mess with the texas women" going behind the scenes of the texas campaign. and leah, what is interesting about the article is this deputy

campaign manager for wendy davis who said that we are working as if it were a month before the election, and nobody has created a structure this quickly with this amount of staff. and the women you profile are 30 an 32 years old, and tell us about them and the strategy. >> and deputy campaign manager for wendy davis is teresa guerrero, and she is a spitfire in cowboy boots. shoo se a rock star, and she has victory notches under her belt, including wendy davis "senate race which is hotly contested and nobody figured that she would be a win there, and she pocketed it. thee is one to watch. >> and the other thing that this points out is that they have started a a organization called battleground texas, and they signed 12,000 volunteers, and raised $3 million and then they get wendy davis elected. the polls aret to great, but are

they laying the groundwork to turn the state purple? >> that is what is exciting here, pause you can't make progress without having exciting candidates and through wendy davis, battleground states are turning texas blue, with texas, and california and new york in democratic hands it would be very, very difficult and nearly impo impossible for republicans to win at the presidential level. >> well, 38 electoral votes, and obviously, new york and california, they have got, but if they had texas, it is almost as if they could win every presidential election moving forward and that is half of what they need. is this what the people working behind the scenes of wendy davis have in mind? >> yes, this is a big picture that victory is claimed in inches and not miles in the next couple of year, but they are stealing a page of the obama playbook of the battleground and

the texas people are former obama field officers, and literally going door-to-door, and recruiting, and recruiting potential candidates and voters and getting them to the polls there. is a low voter turnout historically between the presidential elections in texas, and the goal is to get them out, and that is the key to winning. >> they are yuzusing things lik what got wendy davis into the spotlight is the reproductive rights. >> yes, and the folks are saying that the strongest message for them has been around equal pay which is an issue that greg abbott has struggled with and the surrogates have struggled with. but to echo leah's point here that part of the problem in texas is that you do have a large latino population, and historically, they have registered at low levels and voted at low levels, and so the democrats are focused on getting that population engageded, because they tend to vote democratic. >> and another thing that

impressed me is that i have been covering politics for 30 years is long ball, and things won't change overnight, but it seems that the young women have the long game in their heads. thank you, crystal, and catch her and her fellow cyclists right here at 3:00 on msnbc. this photo posted on starwars.com has taken the industry by storm. this is the cast for episode 7, and you can see it, harrison ford, carrie fisher, and mark hamill, and today's tweet of the day comes from luke skywalker himself. he says, ki finally officially say, i'm in. #starwarsepisode 7.

the performance review. that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business.

right now the senate is debating the minimum wage bill on the floor, and of course, that is ahead of the president's speech coming up at 3:10 today talking about the minimum wage, and we will have that for you today live. to politics now, where you have to hear how senator barbara boxer tried to make the point of

raising the minimum wage. >> i worked for the minimum wage a long time ago. at that time it was $1/hour, and i earned 50 cents and hour, because i was a teenager. and today, 50 cent is a singing group. am i right about that? >> well, not really, but 50 cent is actually a rapper, am i right about that? ok okay. and now checking out the congressional dinner, lupita nyong'o is going to be there, and jessica simpson and spike jonze and joel mchale, and i will be there. and now more on the flooding stranding hundreds of people, and plus more on the botched execution in oklahoma with tamron hall coming up. i will be back tomorrow.

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hi, e everyoveryone. i'm tamron hall, and this is "newsnation." there have been rains that have flooded florida and part of northern alabama with over two feet of rain. in the last 24 hours, and causing historic flooding in those states and killing at least one driver and stranding hundreds more people. and take a look at the dramatic pictures just in from pensacola, a scenic highway collapsed taking the cars and trucks with it. and what was once a road running down a residential neighborhood is practically as you can see there a river. the flooding closed about 15 miles of the busy i-10 highway and emergency crews had to be called in to reach stranded drivers. one county spokesperson said that the crews cannot reach the people because of all of the water. this is all happening right now in the florida panhandle which

has brought to a standstill in pensacola. six inches of rain fell in 45 minute which is more rain than the city got during hurricane ivan. the governor has declared a state of emergency in 26 counties and mobilized the national guard to help with the rescues, and he is warning people that more bad weather is on the way. >> every family member needs to be careful. and the floods in alabama are in the highest they have seen in 60 years. much of downtown mobile is completely flooded overnight, and the severe weather is part of the same system that has been tearing through the southeast this week, killing at least 35 people in six separate states, and gabe gutierrez is in pensacola with the very latest. >> tamron, we have been seeing the amazing pictures here out of pensacola, and the florida governor has declared a state of emergency for 26 counties, and this is why. heavy flooding across many neighborhoods and roads ar