basically blind for a year. >> we can't just let them down. we've let them die. this is awful stuff. >> veterans complain they can't get service from the v.a. and i'll talk to a concludeman who says even he is getting the runaround from veterans affairs. chaos and confusion. voters in arkansas say poll workers went beyond the law and wound up blocking the vote. we start with the saga of donald sterling and what for now are his l.a. clippers. sources are now telling nbc news that donald sterling has given control of the team to his wife shelly and that she has agreed to voluntarily sell the team. those same unnamed sources also tell nbc news that there's no truth to the rumor that shelly sterling's camp is suing the nba. the news comes less than two weeks before the league's owners are set to vote on whether to force a sale of the team, following sterling's outrageous comments to a young "friend" that were caught on tape. the nba just issued this statement. "we continue to follow the process set forth in the nba

constitution regarding termination of the current ownership interests in the los angeles clippers and are proceeding toward a hearing on the matter on june 3rd. joining me now is executive editor of the sports law blog. he is also a professor of sports law at boston college. dave ziren, at "the nation." in your viewing of it and your understanding of the nba constitution, can this be done this way? can donald sterling effectively hand the team over to his wife, shelly, and then she negotiate with the nba on the sale of the team? >> well, absolutely. i mean, you've got the by-laws and constitution that the nba has had and exskutd kutted. they've been following those rules in imposing sanctions on donald sterling, and moving forward towards forcing him to sell. they're certainly happy if the rumors are true that sterling has now passed on or will pass on the ability to sell to his wife because the bottom line is the nba certainly would like someone else to own this team and they would like to do it sooner rather than later.

>> and you know what, dave, obviously the nba feels that they have an air tight case against donald sterling and we've now seen what the formal sort of charges against him are that he dispairaged african-americans and minorities, that he directed a female acquaintance not to associate publicly with african-americans and not to bring them to clippers games, that he criticized african-americans for not supporting their communities. that coming from nba.com. you also have these key facts apparently according to the nba attempted to destroy evidence, evidence destroyed, false and litmus leading evidence provided and the clippers organization issued false and misleading statements on the matter. is this a capitulation by donald sterling, or is this a way of weasling out of it and still making the money for the sale of the team? >> it's participate capitulation, and it's also part of the negotiating process. the sterlings believe that if they sell the team, they get two things out of that. first of all, they think they can get a better price as opposed to the nba just unloading it to whoever lines up at their door.

second of all, i'm convinced -- to keep even a small price of this team. whether it's 5%, 10%, and find a way to figure out how to make that happen because the revenues in the nba are about to explode for ownership over the next ten, 20 years as international streaming rights become the norm and that's, by the way, revenue that the players are largely shut out of. the nba, i think, is going to hold a tough line saying that no sterling can hold any part of the team. that would be a deal breaker for them. i think the sterlings are still trying to figure out a way to make that happen. then the last thing, joy, is that if roshl sterling sells, that means the sterlings get to control who gets it, which means that the moriarti to sterling's sherlock holmes, magic johnson, won't be the person sitting in the owner's box when this is all done. >> that's interesting, warren, to sort of build on what dave was saying. you do have those two aspects of it, right? the ongoing weird kind of psychological torment that magic johnson visits on mr. sterling,

and this attempt to keep at least some of this money. that is team that right now is said to be valued at $575 million. that has got to be an underestimate. now the clippers for the first time in anyone's memory are actually good, right? they made it to the playoffs. you could see a team that could be twice that valuable. these guys aren't going to let go of it easily without making a tremendous sum of money or in today's point trying to hold on to some equity. >> absolutely. clearly this team was purchased for about $13.5 million 40 years ago. in most reports they are putting it in $1 billion or potentially even more as the franchise and as dave pointed oit correctly, the league's revenues are about to skyrocket. another thing to this is, of course, the role of long-term capital gains tax. right? when you have a team that you have purchased that long ago, either appreciated that much, you're now talking about both federal long-term capital gains tax and the california sales tax. there's no doubt that the league is pleased if this does go through, but don't forget, they do still have a say in approving who that final owner will be.

while the sterlings certainly have ability to seek out ownership groups and accept bids, ultimately the league will get to say who gets to sit in their room with the other 29 owners as they move forward running this operation of the league. >> dave, you brought up a point that even in just talking about the tacks talk of capital gains, you made a good point that i think we need to come back to, which is the within group of people that get nothing out of this overall potential huge windfall are the players. do the players have any say, any vote at all? i mean, anybody can end up owning this team, and who knows if they'll be any better as a person than donald sterling? >> well, i think it's safe to say that whoever -- if this goes through, as we think it may, and the sterlings get to say who they sell the team to, the nba is not going to approve any owner that has anything in their closet, any skeletons whatsoever, anything that can be construed in a light that would make it look like it's business as usual. that being said, it's very difficult to find somebody in this country who has several

billion dollars lying around to buy a team who doesn't have something who if you want to, you can say, well, wait a minute, look at this housing practice. look at this thing they invested in their hedge fund. look what happened right here. that's tough to find in the 21st sen cle, so that will be very interesting in terms of what the media response sshgs but for the nba, i think what they want more than anything else is not to have hearings two days before the nba finals about donald sterling, which was what the schedule of this was, so to remove that shadow from the most lucrative part of their calendar year has to be a huge relief. >> forgetting anything about hedge funds or housing practices, we've just had mark cuban come out and talk about his own prejudices. i mean, you're never going to be able to have somebody who is free of anything that they would ever say that's controversial because, remember, this is what this comes down to. sterling is not getting booted because of his terrible housing practices. he is getting booted because of what he said. i want to play you guys what mark cuban had to say. he has walked back from some of

it, but let's listen to what mark cuban has said that has caused a huge conflagration for him over the last couple of days. >> i know i'm prejudiced. i know i'm bigoted in a lot of different ways. you know, i have said this before. if i see a black kid in a hoody at night on the other side of the street, you know, i'm probably -- on the same side of the street, i'm probably going to walk to the other syphed the street. if i see a white guy with a shaved head and lots of tattoos, i'm going back to the other side of the street. >> so, warren, i mean, there's got to be, right, some -- that was the dallas mavericks owner mark cuban talking, but are owners in your reporting at all nervous about this process still going through as mark cuban has expressed some nervousness about based on something that an owner has said rather than something that they have done? >> certainly there's some concern here, and to be clear, though, this is a been for adam silver and the league. if they're able to extricate themselves from the sterling ownership in the nba and they're able to do it in a reasonably

quick fashion, despite the unfortunate time if anything it happens in the playoffs and the draft lottery, et cetera, this is clearly a win for the league. they also don't -- they also, quite frankly, sidestep a potential anti-trust lawsuit that the sterling family could have brought against them if they were forced to set team and did so under open market value here. ultimately, i think that the league is happy that they're able to move on, hopefully put this episode behind us, and at the beginning of next season, we're talking about new ownership in the sterling saga behind us. >> for your part, do you think this has been a cleansing moment for the nba? you now have mark cuban talking about his own personal prejudices. we're talking about race. we're debating, you know, what old men believe about other races. or has this just been a complete embarrassment and expose something really ugly that we need to examine more thoroughly in had sports? >> it's more like cutting off the gangrene limb. i think they're glad to be rid of it before -- mark cuban represents a transmission to

that. i just have, to i've heard mark cuban's statements the last 24 hours. i hope he is watching right now. i would love to ask him how many gun nuts like george zimmerman -- the ekwifl ensy of that statement. mark cuban was right to apologize to trayvon martin's family, which he did today. the hoodey reference, it's glaring. frankly, the thing about what cuban said, it's great if he wants to -- it seems like he wants us to applaud him for admitting it and not saying and this is something i need to work on. >> yeah, it was interesting. i was going to point out that he did push -- he did walk back part of that statement and say that he did apologize to trayvon martin's family, and we have to point out zimmerman was acquited in that case. always got to point that out. d and z, thank you for being here. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, veterans are waiting to get answers from the v.a. and so are members of congress. i'll tell you what even lawmakers are saying they're getting stonewalled and ignored.

plus, elijah cummings is here and he will say why he led the gop-led special commission on benghazi even though many democrats say it's a witch hunt. >> i think we have to go in and be finders of the fact. we have to go in neutral. i don't think we need to be making accusations before we even get in the room to hear the facts. you, my friend are a master of diversification. who would have thought three cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. it's a masterpiece. thanks. clearly you are type e. you made it phil. welcome home. now what's our strategy with the fondue? diversifying your portfolio? e*trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. are you type e*?

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to keep fighting for balanced budgets. democrat john perez for controller. i than they can schedule people in faster than what they do. to get into your primary care is like pulling teeth and it hurts just about as bad. >> anger like that from veterans is just one of the many factors making it tough for the white house to get ahead of the v.a. scandal.

particularly as calls for v.a. secretary eric shinseki's ouster only grow. this morning defense secretary chuck hagel was the latest official trying to support his fellow cabinet member, but even the support of a fellow veteran sounded kind of tepid compared to the call for shinseki to step down or be fired. >> is it premature to ask for his resignation? >> i think it is. i support secretary shinseki. i have known him for a long time. this is an individual who has the responsibility as he has said to be accountable. there does have to be an accountability on right up and down the line, but i think we've got to fix the problem. that's the real focus here. >> one of the big problems for president obama and the white house is that this scandal, while many, many years in the making, has burst into the american consciousness six months before the midterm elections. in fact, today georgia senate county michelle nunn became the

latest democratic to call for shinseki's resignation. she follows former governor and gubernatorial candidate krist and allison lundgren-grimes in kentucky, making at least three key 2014 hopefuls who are distancing themselves from shinseki. while republicans so far aren't speaking with one voice on whether the shinseki -- whether the secretary should stay or something, that doesn't mean they can use the scandal as a back door to bring up some of the more preferred targets. case in point, obama care. sflool waiting lists are inherent to government medicine. they really need to explain not only the problem in the v.a. system, but is this going to happen to the rest of us when the government takes over medicine in america? >> steven, the democratic congressman from nevada. let's start with that. is there any ekwifl ens whatsoever between what's happening in the veterans administration and the administration of the affordable care act in your view? >> no. what's happening with the veterans administration is

wrong. there clearly is wrong doing that could even include criminal actions and people do need to be held accountable. we talk all about the time about supporting our men and women. what we need to do now is fick the problem. >> let's start with some of the problems. let's -- putting aside the current scandal, which is really horrible. people with long wait times. some people allegedly who may have died waiting for care. let's just talk about the v.a. itself. you've had your own experiences with the agency. frustrations. tell us about that. you have written to the v.a. talking about your own inability to get answers for your own constituents. >> i met with shinseki and other leaders in the v.a. administration. i sent a letter to harry reid in february asking for a formal meeting because i have a rural community in nevada that has been waiting for more than two

years to get an outreach clinic built. we've been waiting on a piece of paper to be signed by the secretary and haven't been able to get a call back, let alone help for my veterans out there. >> it sounds like a sort of bureaucratic nightmare that is caused by what? understaffing? underfunding? having looked at this issue and dealt with them as a member of congress, what do you think is the core of the v.a.'s problem? >> well, it's a large bureaucracy, and i'm not a defender of the v.a. or any other federal agency. i'm a defender of my constituents, in this case veterans, who have waited long period of time to get benefits. we have increased wait times at our local v.a. hospital, which is in my district. it's one of the first comprehensive hospitals to be built in 17 years. it's located in my congressional district. what we need is the v.a. to be more responsive, to be customer service oriented, and to really

care for the needs of our veterans. >> i want to play you what the veteran himself, former united states senator bob dole of kansas, had to say because a lot of the focus i think at least the media focus and a lot of the focus among people running for office and who are already in office has been on shinseki himself and whether he needs to go. take a listen to what bob dole had to say. >> i have mixed feelings because i know general shinseki. i think particularly he should stay until the white house gets its investigative report that they're doing until get the facts and see what you can lay at his feet. >> you know, very measured response from senator dole. what is your view on whether or not the administration needs to remove eric shinseki as head of the v.a. in order to start the process of moving the agency forward? >> first, i respect secretary shinseki and his service. look, this september about the secretary. it's about our veterans who need

to be served by the v.a. i do understand that the administration is waiting to get the full investigation and the reports so that they know all of what's wrong so that we can fix what's wrong and to hold everyone accountable. there may be more people than just secretary shinseki who need to go, and my view is we need to do whatever is necessary to hold those accountable. >> i think one thing that people do worry about because everything, unfortunately, that goes into washington eventually becomes a partisan squabble. this, in a sense, doesn't feel like it. you've had john boehner who is as measured as bob dole. you've had a lot of democrats -- there have been a few issues on the hill that is kind of bipartisan. >> i sure hope so because it should be about our men and women who have served our country who we made promises to and it's time for us to keep our promise to them. our veterans need to be the first in line for employment, for quality health care, for housing, and right now that is not happening. they're waiting too long and it

needs to stop. it needs to end, and we need to fix the problem now. >> i would be remiss on having you here on a completely different note. you are obviously the representative whose district includes the home of one cliven bundy. zi have been working with the local sheriff. we talk on a regular basis. we now have a smaller fringe group that is remaining according to cliven bundy and others that have broken federal law will be held accountable like any other u.s. citizen that's broken federal law or refuse to pay their fines or their fees to the federal government. >> when you say a small number, how approximately people are left? snoo we've heard it's between 20

or so militia. this is a small community of only about 1200 or 1,300 people in bunkerville. they're not used to having these out of state people with armed weapons in their community. they want them to leave so that their community can go back to normal. >> here's hoping that that gets resolved, but also, very importantly for the whole country that the situation at the v.a. gets resolved as well. thank you for being here. >> thank you, joy. in about an hour from now president obama will nominate julian castro as head of the hud. he is a rising star in the democratic party whose profile got a major boost when he delivered the keynote address at the 2012 democratic national convention. castro would replace sean dom donovan who is set to be no, ma'am made as the white house budget director during the very same announcement, and we will be right back. will you help us find a new house for you and your brother?

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article that has everyone talking and rethinking everything they thought they knew about race and american history. first, it's time for we the tweeple, and we kick things off with the washington pro football team and the continuing controversy over its name. yesterday 50 u.s. senators sent a letter to the nfl commissioner urging him to have the team change it. calling it a racial slur. the nfl responded quickly saying, in part, the intent of the team's name has always been to represent a strong powerful respectful image. many of you aren't buying the nfl's response sending tweets like this one. "rich, white men assure everyone their obvious racial slur is not racist because they really don't mean it that way." leaders of the oneida indian nation of new york also reminded the nfl in a statement by dictionary definition the r-word is a racial slur, and i think they would know. meanwhile, speaking of new york, what do you think are the biggest search terms in the state? according to the real estate blog estately, they are bail

money, bed bugs, bill maher and fur coats chshgs means according to their announcements the saddest day in a new yorker's life is the day you raise bail money by selling your fur coat. many of you can't stop tweeting about this map created by the blog. it allegedly shows the top google searches in your state, and it's gone viral, and there's been a lot of chatter about which states are searching for what. everything from curling in north dakota to white snake in north carolina. remember that group? don't get too excited over the blog vox.approximate com. tlooef done some debunking. the map shows the top crazy searches by state and not the number one searches there. in other words, as vox writer zach puts it, that map cannot say whether "do i have herpes is the single biggest search term in texas at higher rates than any other state. it will just tell you that slightly more sempz for that term came from texas rather than any other state. if that makes any sense. they also said don't mess with texas. just kidding. now from texas to great britain,

and a lucky, lucky man named greg who overnight got a free vacation after his vacation request went viral. yesterday his boss accidentally sent his time off request to their entire company. e-mails of support crashed the server and then bubbled over to social media. the _#give greg the holiday was born and went viral, and then, get this, the company trek america offered greg a free vacation to vegas. they even made him this lovely t-shirt. greg has been granted the days off as a result and many other fine parting gifts. you summed up this story perfectly with tweets like this one. "this is amazing. the power of social media, epic. greg, it's time to buy your boss a beer. and you can join the conversation with fellow reider autos or buy them beer. keep telling us what's important to you. now this news, pope francis, sets his sights on his first trip to israel tomorrow, and here's more on his interfaith journey by the numbers. life with crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis

is a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps end our night before it even starts? what if i eat the wrong thing? what if? what if i suddenly have to go? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisadvocates.com to connect with a patient advocate from abbvie for one-to-one support and education.

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advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. welcome back. technically summer is still a few weeks away, but that's not stopping millions of americans from kicking off the season at, oh, around 5:00 in their respective time zones today. likewise, there have been a plethora of reports and investigations conducted and completed surrounding the tragic deaths of four americans in benghazi, libya, on september 11th, 2012. that's not stopping house republicans from launching yet another inquest. thus, the summer of benghazi has been born. it's already heating up. indeed, after democrats decide

thissed week to join the republican counterparts, the 12 member select committee on benghazi is now complete. yesterday the committee's chairman tray gowdy who will lead seven members and the ranking democrat elijah cummings, whose side will have five, got together for the first official meeting. it's all rather cordial. they've got this. enter chair darryl issa. apparently he is not quite gotten the memo that the select committee has got this because in a move that can best be described as puzzling, issa leaked what he thought was a previously unreleased portion of a state department e-mail. sent at 9:11 p.m. eastern time. it reads, in part, "white house is reaching out to you-tube to -- of the pastor john video." now, that was supposed to be a bombshell, but as the new republic's brian boytler points out, it's more like a major dud because far from showing some neff airus white house plan to

retend that they thought an offensive video touched off the violence against americans in benghazi, the e-mail shows that's exactly what they actually believed just after the attacks begun. to quote botley, did darryl issa just sabotage the new benghazi committee because he just blew a hole in one big piece of the conspiracy theory. joining me now, congressman elijah cummings, and, sir, thank you so much for being here. i appreciate it. >> it's good to be with you. >> i want to start with that point because darryl issa has been selectively releasing information from the committee which you are the ranking member of the house government yooefr sight committee, and now he has done it again. do you think that he is undermining the new committee that's been formed which you are a part of? >> without a doubt. i had a discussion with trey gowdy within the last hour or so, and he did not even know about this, and so he is very

upset about it, and it does undermine the select committee. keep in mind, joy, what speaker boehner said, when he formed the select committee, is he wanted everything to come within one committee. he felt that would be the most effective. here we have chairman issa on the sidelines interjecting himself into something that has been removed from his jurisdiction, and, by the way, the jurisdiction of another three other committees and all of it will come under select committee. he just wants to be involved, and obviously the speaker has no control over him, but we're going to have to get some understanding, joy, as to what, if any, role the speaker has for mr. issa to play because the select committee has to be clear

that it is our jurisdiction to address this issue. >> yeah. in staying with that same theme, you also have chairman issa subpoenaing john ker re, the secretary of state. he wants him to testify before the house deposit reform committee, but the state department has said the following. they've said that that would remove any need for the secretary to appear before a select committee. if john kerry appears before your committee, the government oversight committee that chairman issa is chair of, would he then have to appear again before the select committee, and if so, does that make any sense? >> well, no. it doesn't make any sense. as a matter of fact, if you think about what speaker boehner said, everything coming under one committee, would have been better if kerry were to appear that he appear one time before the select committee. well, secretary kerry today said that he would agree to come now before the government reform committee pursuant to chairman i

guess soa's subpoena, and he would come either on june 12th or june 20th. we will not even begin to have hearings, according to mr. gowdy, in the select committee for another month, month and a half at best. i mean, it really does undermine the select committee, and there's another thing that undermines the select committee, and that is this fundraising with regard to the deaths of these four diplomats. it's so sad what's going on with the republicans. the one thing i want to make clear is? all of us on the democratic side are willing to vote and pledge that we will not fundraise based upon the deaths of these four brave americans. >> we did a chat, and it really got a ton of response. a lot of it was from the usual sort of trolling and people sort of asking the same kind of conspiracy theory questions, but a lot of people also asking why

democrats are interested at all. i it ask your colleague congresswoman sanchez who was on the committee. you have a "time" article saying the democrats have lent a bipartisan air to something you just also described as kind of a fundraiser for republicans. let me let you listen to what your colleague linda sanchez had to say yesterday. >> it certainly puts us at a great disadvantage, but i think we owe it to the american people to be the seekers of truth on that committee and to be keeping republicans in check at every step of the way in whatever way possible we can to try to make sure that they're not shoe-horning facts and evidence to fit their predetermined outcome, and that we are there to question and to make them stop and reflect and justify why they continue to do what they do. >> does it frustrate you that that is the mission that democrats who have decided to do this against, you know, the wishes of i guess a lot of your base that isn't happy you're doing it, but at the same time to your point, republicans are going ahead with the fundraising. >> that's right. well, let me tell you, somebody

has to be the defenders of the truth. somebody has to challenge when they bring witnesses in and have been testifying to things that are not accurate. we have a pattern with chairman issa where he would make these accusations and would hit the front page, and everybody would get all upset, and then he went searching for facts that weren't even there. somebody has to challenge that. that's what we're going to do. we're going to challenge the untruths and try to come to conclusions that are based upon the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. >> sir, just one exit question i want to ask you from one of our viewers. we did a twitter chat on this yesterday. got a lot of response. one of them a question that we got asked repeatedly was why isn't there a greater outcry over the coarse to taxpayers of these hearings? >> i agree. >> can you quantify the costs so far and how much you think is going to be spent by the select committee? >> i don't know, but i do know that we now have had eight investigations, 25,000 pages of documents that we've gone

through, mum russ employees in the various departments trying to obey subpoenas, other appearing at hearings. it's in, i'm sure, the millions upon millions of dollars and continuing to count. >> yeah, indeed, sir. well, we appreciate you coming here, and i think you've shown that you are up to the challenge of dealing with your colleagues on the other side of the aisle based on your work on the house oversight committee. thank you, sir. >> just defending the truth. >> elijah cummings, thank you very much. up next, state of confusion. an msnbc.com original report on voter id violations during this week's arkansas primary. ent you can get a $500 bonus on top of all current offers on select volkswagen models including the sporty jetta s, now leasing for just $159.00 a month the remarkably versatile tiguan and the passat midsized family sedan. so, what's the shortest distance between you and a great deal on a new volkswagen? a straight line... to the volkswagen memorial day event.

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my friend and colleague reverend al sharpton happened exactly one month ago. moments after an arkansas state judge declared that the state's voter id law was, as reverend said, unconstitutional. as written, the law requires voter id's, bans out of state college id's, and forces voters without voter id to prove that they were too poor to get one. now, fast forward 30 days, and as msnbc.com zach roth points out, the arkansas law has twice been struck down by the same state court judge, tim fox, who ruled that it violates the state constitution's right to vote. since many arkansasans lack id and can't easily obtain one. but the state supreme court this month vacated one of those rulings saying the constitutionality question wasn't at issue in the case, and fox put the other ruling on hold while it's being appealed. that left the id measure in place for what amounted to a test run during tuesday's primaries. now, without any high profile races on the ballot voter

turnout was relatively low. folks that did show up with an id in hand were optimistic. >> it's the one thing that we really have for free in this country and that we ought to exercise that freedom. >> voting represents freedom in our country was founded on the principles of freedom. how can you not do your civic duty to support our country? >> freedoms, duty, american principles. score one for democracy, right? except not everyone left their polling place feeling inspired and patriotic. in fact, thanks to the new voter id law, some people felt interrogated. one voter told the arkansas times blog "i was quizzed on my date of birth after providing id." another said they took my photo id and then asked for information. yet another says i was quizzed about name, address, and birth date while the election volunteer held my license where i couldn't see it. are we testing for fake id's now too?" the reports of voters feeling quizzed and in some cases feeling harassed at the polls

prompted at least one legal group to tweet at the doj, and the problems don't stop there. election officials said 80% of absentee votes in one county were disqualified because of a lack of identification wrfsh this wree minded some of painful time in the not so distant past. >> once upon a time we weren't allowed. they wouldn't count it. it was just like being ignored and being, well, unimportant. the question is with voter id laws in effect in more than half the country, are we moving backwards instead of forward? zach roth covers voting rights for msnbc.com. to clarify, the voter id law was legitimately in place at the time that these things weren't taking place at the poles, right? >> it was legitimately in place because, as you said, the rulings against it were put on hold, but it wasn't enforced properly, as you explained in

your lead-up. go ahead. >> do voter id laws allow the person at the polling place to inquire as to whether or not the id that you hand them is legitimate? can they hold the idea eid like at the airport and say state your name, i want to see your full name and try to sort of quiz you as to the things on the id? >> absolutely not. that's very clear in the law that all the poll workers are supposed to do is match the name and the picture. they can't be asking questions about state your birth date, state your address, all these types of things that voters are reporting they were asking. >> i think what strikes people about it as uncomfortable is there is a presumption that the person must be lying or preshum shon that they don't have a proper id, and isn't that presumption lotto loded into all voter id laws. >> there's no way to know who they are asking and who they are not asking. you end up with the situation of basic inequality, or you have some poll workers asking that in some counties around the state. others not. that's a big part of the legal basis for the ongoing complaint, the aclu tells me. >> i am wondering is the aclu

gathering data on who was being asked demographically, sxwree graphically, and who was not? what are they planning to do with it? >> they tell me they are gathering exactly that. they say the original suit, they're saying under the state constitution this law is unconstitutional anyway just because we know for a fact there are several hundred thousand voters who don't have an id, and the state constitution specifically guarantees the right to vote, which goes further than u.s. constitution, by the way. now we're seeing beyond that being implied inekwail kwael and improperly, and that's -- >> when this goes back before the state supreme court, these new cases, these new complaints will be a part of that suit? >> you're right. you're seeing the same thing happening in north carolina where that voting law, both voter id and cuts to early voting are being challenged by the aclu as well, and they're gathering information about the impact of that in the recent primaries and so that too will be added to show in that case to

show racial discrimination, which is what they're alleging there. >> with so many of these voter id laws across the country, are you expecting to see the justice department start to weigh in here, particularly as we now have primaries where these laws can be tested? >> well, they're weighing in in north carolina and in texas where they're leading the lawsuits there. there is cause for them to comment in arkansas. they haven't said anything on that yet. they're certainly eric holder and his kind of rhetoric is making a big theme of voting rights. they're applying pressure in that way. >> i think they are planning for the law to be in place because the situation is unclear, and so they need to plan for that eventuality. i think -- they think they have a pretty strong case under the state constitution that it presents a burden on the right to vote and that it's already been struck down twice and that

that ruling will be upheld. >> federalism strikes again because i didn't miss the point you made that the law -- your right to vote is actually stronger in the state of arkansas than it is federally. zach roth, keep us up-to-date. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. >> next on "read between the lines" the piece that's shaking up the status quo and rocking the intellectual world." (music) defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. calcium citrate plus d. highly soluble, easily absorbed. tigers, both of you. tigers? don't be modest. i see how you've been investing. setting long term goals. diversifying. dip! you got our attention. we did? of course. you're type e* well, i have been researching retirement strategies.

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an essay by tanahasi on the age-old and often incredibly culturally divisive subject of rep rags has shaken up the splekt wal world. it's one of the most talked about pieces of writing in a very long time. touching on everything from slavery to housing discrimination, to what debt, if any, america owes to its citizens of african descent. coats writes this movingly about

the plunder of black wealth. the robbery of 200 plus years of black labor through slavery. followed by more than 100 years of jim crow in the south and red lining and contract sale housing schemes in the north. >> the piece has set off a firestorm over whether they are practical let alone fair. p after all, why would americans that came to america in the -- didn't prom you will gate the slavery system. why should the entire country have to pay for the sins of people who are long dead? as coats writes, in 2001 the associated press published a three-part investigation into the theft of black owned land stretching back to the anti-bellum period. it documented some 406 victims and 4,000 acres of land valued the tens of millions of dollars.

some of the land taken has become a country club in virginia, the a.p. reported, as well as oilfields in mississippi and a baseball spring training facility in florida. meaning that the beneficiaries of that land grab are actually very much alive. as ezra cline explains in a piece today on fox.com, the concept of wage is like the childhood math problem. would you rather have $10,000 a day for 30 days or a penny that doubled in value every day for 30 days? the answer, of course, is you want the penny that doubles in value every day. if you take the $10,000, you end up with $300,000 after the fist month. take the penny, and you end up with about $5 million. coats' essay walks us through the myriad ways that america for hundreds of years grabbed that penny by force and then let

compound interest work its magic. coats makes a forceful argument that for all of our talk about trayvon martin and donald sterling, america really never has had a cultural reckoning with the violence, the horror, and the fundamental plunder of labor of families and of opportunity that this country was born with. more that we really haven't had that conversation on race. that wraps things up for the reid report. i will see you back here next tuesday at 2:00 p.m. eastern and be sure to visit us on-line at the reid report.msnbc.com. the cycle comes up next. hey, cyclists, happy friday. >> hey, joy. happy friday to you. >> thank you. >>. >> that piece impacted me really deeply. i'm going to talk about it next friday. long time to wait. the show that's coming up in three minutes, though. we'll get you ready for memorial day and the pope's trip to jerusalem and bethlehem. we're going to talk about

michael jordan. another great book on him is out today. we're going to talk about is batman a superhero? very deep and important questions this friday on the cycle. we're also going to unveil something brand new for our show. josh barrow as our barbecue correspondent. >> chief barbecue correspondent. i love that is that a man superhero that's a deep question. >> it's a deep question. 1%ers everywhere want to know the answer. >> the barbecue thing is pretty cool too. cycle comes up next. d cash back. let that phrase sit with you for a second. unlimited. as in, no limits on your hard-earned cash back. as in no more dealing with those rotating categories. the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase, every day. don't settle for anything less. i'll keep asking. what's in your wallet?

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join today at angieslist.com the season's first big chance to get away. one in seven of us will high tail it out of here this weekend. sand, surf, and, unfortunately, severe weather is what they're going to get. we have you covered. cycle style. pope francis is putting our holiday weekend get-aways too shame over three days. is he traveling to three of the most sacred spots in the world.

president obama has a little unfinished business before he starts his weekend. we'll see him in the rose garden this hour with a man who has many democrats very excited. speaking of getting out of town, don sterling has finally gotten the hint. explosive new details right now in the cycle. good afternoon. as we doom on the air today, we know many of you respect checking out for the holiday weekend. just hanging there one more hour. especially if you own -- i digress. here's a live look at interstate 4 near orlando. not far from the magic kingdom, but also not exactly the greatest place on earth at this hour. now, let's take you about 1,000 miles north to columbus, ohio. they got a big parade, complete with a 21 gun salute there this weekend. of coursou