truce or no truce? when that fragile cease-fire ended, fighting resumed. but now hamas and israel are considering a new truce. we'll go live to gaza and tel aviv. >> he stuck up for his rights. he's not here to stand up for them no more, so it's left up to me and my kids and his family to give justice for him. >> justice for her husband. the widow of the new york man who died after a police officer put him in an apparent chokehold, vows to fight for change. we'll hear more from her and new details about another allegation of police brutality. caught on camera. >> if you know the persons that did this, you have to be able to

look yourself in the mirror and say, do the right thing and turn these folks in. >> manhunt in philadelphia. right now police are looking for two carjackers who mowed down a family, killing three children and leaving their mother clinging to life this afternoon. what's being done to find them. also, preventing hot car deaths. i'll talk to a 12-year-old who's created a device that does just that. it's today's "big idea." ♪ and offensive opera? we're opening the curtain on a classic show that's raising questions about racial and cultural attitudes toward asian-americans. a lot to get to on this sunday. good to see you. i'm craig melvin. let's start in the middle east where the back and forth continues where israel and hamas trade temporary cease-fire proposals at this hour. hamas proposed a new 24-hour pause in fighting. we're told the israeli cabinet

is actually meeting right now to talk about it. israel had resumed aerial, naval and ground activity earlier in gaza. they say more than 55 rockets have been fired from gaza into israel since midnight. secretary of state john kerry returned to the united states this morning after meetings in paris, failed to break any new ground. nbc news producer jamie is live for us in gaza city. first of all, what's the situation there on the ground as both parties appear to be working out some possible plans for another truce? >> reporter: good afternoon, craig. as far as evenings here in gaza go, things have been relatively quiet. but it's really a wait and see moment. it's a tender moment in the evolution of this crisis. we're in a gray area. there are, as you've said, competing -- competing truce proposals. last night at around midnight, israel proposed a 24-hour

cease-fire. overnight hamas rejected it. and then this afternoon local time hamas proposed its own 24-hour cease-fire. the israeli cabinet is meeting to consider its next steps. and it's in these gray areas where the situation again can spiral out of control, where violence can spike and where the situation can move onwards and out of control of the decision makers. >> shortly before the broadcast, we got reports the israeli military has completed their investigation into that deadly attack on a u.n. school thursday. at least 15 people were killed. scores others were hurt. many of them children. the idf concludes a single errant mortar landed in an empty courtyard of the school. how are these findings going to be received in gaza? >> reporter: well, we'll see. on the day that this happened, on thursday, we went and spoke

with the director of operations of the u.n. organization that runs that school and that runs many other shelters here in gaza that have taken in almost 10% of the population here in gaza that's been displaced since the beginning of this conflict. the director of operations told us it's his operating assumption that it was the israelis who had done this. he didn't say it was deliberate. but the assumption was that it was israeli fire and this morning israelis said in a statement a single errant mortar was the cause of the incident. >> thank you, sir. stay safe. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is doubling down against hamas. here he was this morning in one of four sunday talk show interviews. >> we've accepted five cease-fires, acted upon them. hamas rejected every single one of them, violated them, including two humanitarian

cease-fires, which we accepted and implemented in the last 24 hours. now hamas is suggesting the cease-fire, and believe it or not, david, they've even violated their own cease-fire. >> the brain trust is here to talk about it. we'll also get into what "the new york times" says is, quote, high time to do more. beth, senator editor for msnbc.com and retired general, barry mccaffrey, former drug czar under president clinton. secretary of state john kerry, home once again, no deal in place. how much stock should america put into this administration's chances? even chances at brokering a deal for peace or even a lasting cease-fire at this point? >> well, certainly a deal for peace, that's not going to happen on this president's watch. the next time you'll see deep u.s. engagement potentially on the peace process, regardless of

what heats happening now, will be in the next presidency. i think at some point john kerry is probably going to be able to get a cease-fire, but right now the way the israelis are reacting to his latest proposal does not leave me optimistic we'll get one in the coming days. maybe a temporary halt tomorrow for the end of ramadan but israelis are planning to continue with their operations until they finish with these tunnels, as many as they can. >> is that how they're defining victory? once they feel like they have found and destroyed all of these tunnels? >> well, that's been one of the problems so far, trying to figure out exactly what the israeli strategy is. prime minister netanyahu talks about ending the rocket fire, destroying the tunnels but there's no way, by their own admission, they can get to all the tunnels. on the point of the cease-fire, it's tough because john kerry's is a little hamstrung. he can't talk to hamas because there's defined as a terrorist organization by the state department. >> beth, the obama administration really has been

scrambling to solve this crisis to no avail. at this point we've seen secretary go back and forth a number of times to the middle east, a number of times to europe, trying to broker a deal. are they starting to feel at least a little helpless at the white house with regards to the middle east? >> well, i mean, it's hard to feel any other way at this point. both sides are so dug in. you've got the palestinian side, you know, they've lost something like 1,000 of their citizens, a number of them being children. they don't want to give up anything at this point. what would have been the point of this loss of life, to suddenly wave their hands and say, okay, we're done? likewise on the israeli side, they've lost soldiers. the tunnels, as we've been discussing, they feel like they really need to winnow those out because they provide danger to the israelis on the other side of the border. there's little the administration can do. >> general, what should we be doing, the united states be doing that we're not doing right now? bodies piling up really is not in anyone's best interest.

>> i'm not sure we ought to see it as our responsibility to end the fighting. both the earlier comments i totally agree with. the israelis are stuck in this terrible situation where they're fighting in built-up areas in gaza and causing enormous lot loss of civilian life. they have to respond to thousands of rockets being fired all over the country, as well as the absolute major threat of infiltration in israel through these tunnels. i don't think the israelis would be advised to stop this until they're convinced they have, for now, reduced the threat to the israeli population. hamas is on the ropes. they've lost their allies in egypt. they're running out of support from the iranians. they're really in trouble. they have decided to go for broke regardless of the loss of civilian life. >> you wrote something in

"slate" that caught my eye. don't know if you wrote this or another author. with their country under fire by rockets and soldiers fighting and now dying on the battlefield, israeli journalists' role transforms from dog meal to purveyor of piecemeal information provided by the military. >> i did write that. >> i wanted to make sure. i wanted to make sure i didn't give you credit for something you didn't write. give us a sense of what israeli citizens know about this conflict from their journalists. >> yeah. i think, you know, a lot of people have been focused on foreign media coverage of this, myself as a foreign correspondent for years. i've looked at that perspective. what's more interesting here is how unified the israeli pop yuls behind prime minister netanyahu. i've covered it for two decades. it's hard for israeli journalists to separate themselves out and see the role

as reporting both sides. for example, most of the coverage is very focused on the rocket fire inside israel and very little on what's going on on the palestinian side. how many people are being killed. very little questioning when you normally have such an aggressive israeli press of whether or not this is really smart. i mean, i wrote something else in "slate" a while back after the last israeli invasion and operation, which was, being justified is not necessarily the same as being smart. and there's going to be long-term consequences for israel after this is done. and in the short term, i'm not exactly sure this operation is going to make israeli's safer. >> really? >> yeah. >> despite the fact we've seen so many tunnels destroyed? >> yeah. because they're going to be -- they might build more tunnels. there are key questions not being asked as i wrote in that "slate" piece. are you trying to take down hamas or not? you're killing certain political leaders but leaving major political leaders in place but killing, for example, the hamas

police chief. you're trying to destroy their capability enough so it doesn't threaten israel but you want to make sure hamas can fight off more radical elements in the gaza strip. this is the nuance discussion you don't see. israelis are under fire. israeli journalists are also going into rocket shelters. there's a sense of, we need to be together when israeli soldiers are dying. you see very little coverage of the civilian death toll on the palestinian side. >> i want to switch topics, general, when i read this this morning i immediately thought of you, and i'm sure you've become acutely aware of this article by now. "the new york times" editorial board with a repeal on illegal marijuana. they write, there are no perfect answers to people's legitimate concerns about marijuana. we believe on every level, health effects, the impact on society, and law and order issues, the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization. general, you have an interesting viewpoint on this.

you were drug czar under president clinton. in one of two states where pot is legal for recreational use. you've come out against what colorado and washington state voters have done. what do you make of this "new york times" editorial board? >> ill-informed. bad policy. we ought to listen to dr. kevin sabet, dr. dupont, american medical association, american society of addictive medicine. it's hard for me to imagine -- i was just listening to david brooks and ruth marcus on "meet the press." terrific layout of their own thinking. look, i spent a lot of my time in and out of drug and alcohol treatment centers around the country. associated with the national association of drug courts, west huddleston, and we think increasing marijuana availability will predictablpre and it has, after three years of reducing adolescent drug use, it's gone up.

no use will come of this. they say let's make it more like alcohol and cigarettes. for gosh's sake, cigarettes kill 400,000 people a year -- >> but they're not illegal. >> well, what do we want to do? make another big tobacco out of the marijuana industry? it's another carcinogenic smoked compound with euphoric impact. i think, again, this is bad policy and we ought to carefully consider what science is telling us about this. >> beth, we're already seeing this with some gop presidential candidates already. so far governor chris christie in colorado this week, slammed the state for legalizing pot. then senator rand paul, who may be running for president in 2016, come out as an opponent of the drug war the next day or the day after. how might this play into a national presidential election, or is this just something we're going to continue to talk about occasionally here? >> i think it's going to come in a very important way. the republican party is desperate to get some young

people back in their fold. >> this could be the issue. >> you know, marijuana could be the issue. seriously f you look at polling, the generational divide on this issue like gay marriage is profound. older americans are not for legalization of marijuana. younger americans, very much so. in general, the country's becoming more libertarian on this issue. rand paul has a very good ear to what the republicans need to do to broaden their coalition. whether you agree with him or not on a host of other issues. chris christie stuck in the establishment mode which is perhaps where most republicans are right now, but is going to be a shrinking group that cannot sustain itself as a national party unless they bring in other voices. those voices largely are younger people who would like to see this issue decriminalized. >> a big thanks to all three of you on the sunday afternoon. see you soon. as a street side memorial grows in philadelphia, right now police are desperately, desperately trying to find two carjackers who ran down and killed three children and left

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lightning and dark skies over parts. midwest saturday. this is video coming in from mt. vernon, illinois, about 80 miles east of st. louis. fortunately, no major damage reported. that looked bad, but it could soon get really bad for folks in the ohio valley and the northeast, who are bracing for some potentially dangerous weather. strong thunderstorms, large hail, even tornadoes are expected. the weather channel's carl parker is standing by with that forecast. >> what we're looking at today is a significant severe weather threat from the ohio valley and also into the northeast. let's begin with a look at the

water vapor picture. so a strong, upper level disturbance now coming down through the lakes. and along with that, very strong midlevel winds are driving through. that is setting the stage for long-lasting thunderstorms that produce wind damage, also large hail and tornadoes. already a number of tornado warnings today because of that wind shear. the area of concern extends into the northeast. now, it's going to be much later tonight across a lot of the northeast. more immediately in the ohio valley. that's where the tor:con index is 5 out of 10. that means a 50% chance of a tornado within a 50-mile radius, ohio, pennsylvania, also into kentucky and west virginia. more of a wind and hail threat back through the ten continue valley. and then it's cool air drives down behind all this and moves into much of the middle of the country. that severe threat is going to end up in the carolinas and also across the northern gulf coast. tomorrow more of a wind and hail

threat, though there could be tornadic storms in the eastern part of north carolina in particular. back to you. >> weather channel's carl parker there for us. thank you. hundreds are evacuating their homes this weekend as wildfires threaten big parts of california and washington state. washington's wildfire is the largest in that state's history. it's now 60% contained, but some 300 homes were lost before that happened. our friends at nalvas news took a look at the devastation. >> reminds me of the mt. st. helen's blast of the 1980s, the darkness, uncertainty. >> pretty sure there was no chance my house was going to make it. i just knew it was gone. >> as long as we have hot, drishgs windy weather, we're going to have problems containing the fire. >> our hearts are with the guys

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welcome to america. you're going to go to school and get a job and become americans. we have 3,141 counties in this country. that would be 20 per county. the idea we can't assimilate these 8-year-old criminals with their teddy bear, preposterous. >> george will talking about immigration, raising a few eyebrows this morning with those comments on fox news. congress has not found common ground on funding. a bill designed to address the border crisis. they're scheduled to leave for a five-week recess this coming friday. here are a few other headlines we are watching this hour. just a few moments ago. word that a second american has tested positive for the ebola virus while working with infected patients in western africa, days after we learned a

u.s. doctor, 33-year-old consistent brantley, also tested positive working in liberia. he's now undergoing treatment. the current outbreak in africa has killed more than 660 people so far. it's being called the deadliest ebola outbreak ever. meanwhile, in eastern ukraine this afternoon, more complications in the effort to recover evidence and remaining bodies from the crash site of malaysia flight 17. a team of international forensic experts say the escalation of violence in the area has forced them to cancel their trip. all of them comes as u.s. intelligence is releasing some new satellite images supporting claims russia has been firing artillery shells over its border into ukraine. right now a manhunt continues in philadelphia for two carjackers who police say mowed down a family selling fruit on a street corner. three children are dead.

their mother is in critical condition this afternoon. nbc's kristen dahlgren is in philadelphia with the latest. >> reporter: good afternoon. with a six-figure reward on the line, we're hearing tips are coming in but so far police have not named any suspects in this case. people here are angry, but they're also just sad. take a look behind me. you can see the memorial here is growing. there's been a steady stream of people here all day, paying tribute to and remembering those young lives. in philadelphia saturday night, a community came together to mourn. >> i put a little teddy bear. >> just a tragedy, you know. touched my heart. i cried all day yesterday. >> reporter: even those who didn't know the family, touched by the deadly crash. >> they were, you know, younger kids, you know, i'm a parent myself. and, you know, it was just a senseless -- it was a senseless accident. >> reporter: 7-year-old terrence moore, his 10-year-old brother

thomas and 15-year-old sister were all killed, mowed down saturday afternoon when police say two carjackers lost control of an suv they had just stolen. mom, a family friend was seriously wounded. the family was selling fruit for their church to help build a new playground. but as this community's anger grows, so does the manhunt. the suspects fled on foot and the city is offering $100,000 reward. the fraternal order of police another $10,000 if an arrest is made by noon on monday. >> all i can say is if you know the persons that did this, you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, do the right thing and turn these folks in. >> reporter: police say they are confident they will find suspects in this case. they've been looking through surveillance video taken in the area on that day. they've also been able to talk to the carjacking victim to try to get more details from her.

she remains, though, in the hospital in critical condition, as does that mother, craig, who was just 34 years old and a family friend tells us she has not yet been told that her three children are dead. back to you. >> kristen dahlgren for us in philadelphia. thank you. crossing the line? while the nypd investigates the man put in an apparent chokehold, the department now faces another allegation of police brutality. also, offensive operetta. we'll pull back the occur tiven on a controversy of a classic raising questions about racial attitudes toward asian-americans. carmax is the best with a quick written offer, right on the spot. perfect for jeannine, who prefers not to have her time wasted. ...and time! thank you. your usual. she believes life's too short for inefficiencies. i now pronounce you husband and wife. no second should be squandered.

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attack earlier this week at a u.n. school in gaza. nbc's kate snow is live for us in tel aviv where it is now 10:30 at night. kate, first of all, what can you tell us about that meeting? >> reporter: well, first of all, the cabinet is meeting, as you say, craig. i think the thing to understand here is they've gone back and forth throughout the last 24 hours, the israelis and hamas, arguing over whether there should or should not be a cease-fire. israel will tell you it was hamas that first broke the cease-fire overnight last night. so, this morning israel started in again with its ground operation, saying, look f they're going to shoot at us, we're going to fight back against them. so, at this hour, the fighting continues, though it hasn't been quite as bad a day as weave seen in recent days. the fighting continues. there is no cease-fire yet. it's expected the israeli cabinet will probably most likely tonight reject a cease-fire but then again, you never can tell. as for the school, last thursday, that was the school

you remember where 16 people were killed inside a u.n. school. tonight we're learning from israel that they've done a look back on that and they have discovered israel did fire a mortar that landed in the school courtyard. they say that happened only after everybody had been evacuated there. >> so, we still don't know precisely how it was that those folks died, a number of them children. we follow @tvkatesnow on twitter. you posted a picture earlier today and found out you're taking a look at israel's iron dome anti-rocket defense system. what can you tell bus that? what did you find? >> reporter: right. here's what happens is every time a siren goes off here in israel, whether it's over tel aviv or more commonly to the south of me here, the sirens go off. you hear a boom in the sky. that's because israel has these launchers of missiles that go up in the air and it's called the iron dome. they intercept incoming rockets

from gaza. it's been very effective for israel. it's why you're not hear being civilian casuals on the israeli side of the border, because they are able to block these things. today we went down and took a look ourselves. that picture you saw was me standing in front of these rocket launchers on the israeli side. again, the missiles this send up to intercept what's incoming from gaza. >> what's been referred to as the most successful missile defense system in the world. kate, really quickly, before we let you get to bed tonight, israel said it wants to continue finding and destroying the tunnels going from gaza into israel. is there more? what's the end game here? how is israel defining victory? >> reporter: right. well, benjamin netanyahu, prime minister of israel, was on "meet the press" this morning. and he said, we're not done yet. that's what we're hearing over and over again from the israeli side, is that they feel there are more tunnels to be found.

there are more -- more ammunition to be found. they feel if they pause too long for a cease-fire, perhaps hamas radio rearm and come at them again. they really to want decimate hamas. that's their point of view. where that gets us diplomatically is anyone's guess. of course, u.s. secretary of state john kerry continues to try to press for some kind of lasting peace here. >> nbc's kate snow for us in tel aviv. thank you. back here, the widow of eric garner who died after an apparent chokehold used on him by an nypd officer is demanding justice on behalf of her husband. >> my husband was not a violent man. not in any way, shape, form or fashion. he only yelled at me. he didn't yell at nobody else. and he was a quiet man. but he's making a lot of noise now. >> and now another video has surfaced. what happens to have happened in

this one, an nypd officer approaches a man who's being pinned to the ground by another policemen and raises his foot to stomp on his head. on friday that officer was put on desk duty. i'm joined now from los angeles by msnbc legal analyst, faith jenkins. faith, thanks for being with me on this sunday. >> hi. >> there is now another conversation happening. it seems like we have one of these conversation or a variation of this conversation every few years in this country about police brutality. when we see videos like this, are we getting the full story, though? >> well, i think what you're seeing is more police officers and their behavior being exposed. as you know, craig, i was a prosecutor in manhattan and i worked with hundreds of nypd officers during my career there. and i will tell you, most of them are good, hard working cops who want to do the right thing. but in every profession, police officers are not excluded, there are bad apples. i think what you're seeing with

these videos are the bad apples being exposed. what police officers have to do, nypd included, there are over 35,000 nypd officers. they have to conduct their own internal investigations, assessments and reviews on a consistent basis to try to find these officers before they kill and injure people out on the street. >> here's what i don't get. you would think even these officers would know and realize that just about everyone walking around on the street has a camera phone. everyone -- >> right. >> everyone's shooting video. they have to know that before they engage in some of these acts that are caught -- that are captured by camera phones. >> i think that what you're seeing is just a level of undiscipline here and officers who have probably gotten away with doing things so many times in the past. look at what happened with eric garner. how many officers -- officer number 99, the one that puts the alleged chokehold on eric garner, look how many officers are standing around observing him.

his supervisor is there. he puts the chokehold on him, even as eric garner is pleading, i can't breathe, i can't breathe. he continues. why is he able to do that? and the other officers around him seem completely unphased by it. it doesn't cause any alarm among them. is it because this is something he has consistently done? is it an accepted practice? that's what's being investigated. >> let's pivot here. i want to talk about the renisha mcbride murder trial that resumes tomorrow. this is the case of the detroit man, theodore wafer, who shot and killed mcbride when she crashed her car near his house, knocked on his door for help. very early in the morning. we've already had two full days of testimony. the court heard a recording of wafer saying he did not know that his gun was loaded. if he didn't think that the shotgun was loaded, why would he pull the trigger? >> well, now, of course, he's saying it's self-defense. that recording was taken back when the incident first

happened. and the story has now evolved. when mr. wafer takes the stand in this case, and i believe that will happen, i think you're going to hear a very different story and it's going to be one of self-defense. now, whether ms. mcbride was seeking help or breaking in, craig, that's what's being argued here. the prosecutors are arguing she was seeking help. her car was in some kind of accident. a few hours later she showed up banging on mr. wafer's front door. he's going to argue she was trying to break in. in this state in michigan, a homeowner has the right to use lethal force if they believe someone is breaking into their home. so, that's going to be a point of contention in the case. >> what makes you think wafer is actually going to testify? >> because he is alleging self-defense. you don't get a charge of self-defense to a jury unless there is evidence put before that jury that a self-defense charge is warranted. i think in this case his testimony will be that evidence. >> it also seems to me that this is another one of those cases where the person who's dead is

also being put on trial, to a certain extent as well. >> absolutely. renisha mcbride, trayvon martin and also the case -- jordan davis, another case down in florida. you look at cases where you have unarmed teenagers walking with skittles, at a gas station, after a car accident. they're unarmed and they end up being shot and killed. and you're seeing the trials are resulting in being more about them, their character, their actions, than about the accused. >> faith jenkins, always appreciate your insight. joining us this afternoon from los angeles. faith, thank you. >> thanks, craig. it was 40 years ago today, our long national nightmare was almost over. the house judiciary committee recommended president richard nixon be impeached and removed from white house in the wake of the watergate scandal on july 27, 1974. 12 days later president nixon announced his res igs nation.

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you're looking for a place for your life to happen. zillow. take them on the way you always have. live healthy and take one a day men's 50+. a complete multivitamin with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. age? who cares. now to an msnbc original. a seattle theater company wants to celebrate its birthday with one of its favorite shows, the mikado, a comedic operatta, it's so popular and seen in 46 states. the albert gilbert and sullivan society faces a storm of outrage. msnbc's richard lui went there

for the story. >> you cannot use someone's culture for entertainment. >> reporter: outside of seattle's theater, mikado, a gilbert and sullivan opera, is offensive. while inside begins another performance of the 129-year-old comedy that's been performed thousands of times. what the protesters don't like about this traditional interpretation? they point to the twist on asian names, tiddy-poo, yum-yum, just as painful as painful slurs against african-americans like amos and andy. the gestures in the opera? as insensitive as jokes about how african-americans may act or walk. and the costumes, 18th century japanese fashion. they say, is the equivalent of the 40 mostly caucasian actors

wearing mostly tribal village costumes. this is the tenth time they performed this play here over the last six decades. the question they're asking, why the protest this time? >> miqado has been criticized because of its use of yellow face. >> reporter: seattle times opinion editor says it's similar to caricatures of afric african-america african-americans. >> i don't think people were aware of it until i wrote the column. ♪ everyone agrees all these yanks with british accents play japanese. >> reporter: it's a well-respected 60-year-old amateur theater company with experienced actors performing the opera. long-time producer says this controversy is a catalyst for a better understanding. >> instead of a delegation coming to us a year ago and saying, we're uncomfortable with this, can you change something? it whammed our opening weekend, here was this article in the

biggest paper in the northwest. we are not putting down japanese. we're trying to invoke an image of japan, as it may have been 130 years ago. >> in all the coaching that i've done with the actors, i don't think i've said a japanese person would do this. this is really a british genre. that's who we're poking fun at, is my ancestors. >> reporter: but the country's oldest asian american civil rights group says it's poking fun at theirs. >> we are an old community that's been here for a long time. and there's been so much that's happened with discriminatory policies that's had a major impact not only in the way we're perceived but the way we identify. >> reporter: the producer and director both say they're open to removing offensive parts of the japanese mean. moo, a performing arts company in minneapolis, did that. just as performances no longer use 150-year-old uncle tom portrayals, they updated names and costumes seen as pejorative

to asian-americans. next month the same outcome may happen in seattle as both sides sit down for the first time to hopefully come to a compromise on this enduring and celebrated opera. >> richard, fresh back from that trip. thanks for that, by the way. i mean, is this a situation where much like the redskins moniker, people for the longest time just didn't think it was offensive? >> you know, when you talk to them, they're both surprised, both sides. both the producer and the director and the supporters of that society, as well as the asian-american community. they couldn't believe this was happening. so i think on both sides, at least in seattle, they're discovering that this dynamic, which has existed there -- i mean, they've played this ten fi times over 60 years. as you were saying, 46 states across the union. this is a very popular play but few people realize the equivalency of yellow face with black face. >> minus that coverage in the "times," minus your reporting here, they have not gotten a

great deal of coverage. this is not something covered widely. >> i was speaking with the producer -- this is the first time we have any sort of tv camera inside that theater covering this story. so it's an opportunity here, surely, to bring awareness. it's an indication also of the space that the asian-american community has in developing awareness. when we look at african-american benchmarks such as harlem renaissance in the '20s and black face disappearing 50 years later, you can see despite both groups, asian-americans and african-americans being here for centuries, asian-americans have a long way to go. >> what's the next step? >> they'll meet and hope to come up with a compromise. they said, we're open to changing this without having the japanese setting. >> it would seem to me, based on what i saw, it would be difficult -- >> well, that's a good question because in 1938 african-americans decided we are going to put together something called the hot mikado in 1938 and that became the first

rendition of this particular play, not in a japanese scene. so, that's an interesting derivative of that play thatcou. >> msnbc's richard lui, thank you. preventing hot car deaths. a 12-year-old has created a device for just that. i'll talk to him next. it is today's "big idea." [ cat meows ] ♪ ♪ da-da-da-da-da, bum-da, bum-da ♪ ♪ bum-da, bum-da ♪ the animals went in two by two ♪ ♪ the sheep and the frog and the kangaroo ♪ ♪ and they all went marching, marching in two by two ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the nissan pathfinder, with intuitive four-wheel drive. an adventure worth sharing. nissan. innovation that excites. an adventure worth sharing. really... so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 dollars a month? yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention.

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a kansas foster parent will learn this week whether he'll face charges after leaving his 10-month-old daughter in a hot car. wichita police say the infant died thursday after two hours in the car that was parked outside a house. temperatures outside the car reached 90 degrees. that hot car death in kansas is just one of several this year. at least 18 children have died so far this year because of heat stroke deaths in cars.

that's according to san francisco state university. last year there were at least 44 deaths. but one 12-year-old boy has an idea that he hopes can put a stop to it. it is today's "big idea" and it is called the easy baby saver. there it is right there. it is a strap made of rubber bands that parents can connect from the back seat of their car to the door handle. it stops tell before they get out of the car reminding them that something could be in the back seat. andrew pelham is the creator of the baby saver. he is joining us now by phone. we are having some transmission troubles there in nach vilnashv tennessee. how you doing, buddy? >> i'm doing great. >> first of all, how did this idea come about? >> well, the idea first started when i had entered a contest called the rubber band contest. what you did was you had to create a device using rubber bands. i had recently heard about

someone in the local area who had left their child in a car and it was very kind of close to home so i thought maybe i could solve this problem with combining that with the contest and see if i could create an invention that would do that. >> it seems like a pretty simple invention. it looks like you're obviously using rubber bands and tape. what else is used? >> that's pretty much it. i know people, there is a couple in south carolina who they made something like it and i knew from the start that people were going to make something like it because when i tried getting a patent, it was going to cost a lot of money. so i decided zwrouft let people -- let the public have use to this and you don't need to buy anything. you can use rubber bands. you can use string. can you use whatever you can find. it doesn't really matter. you don't even have to make what i made. just kind of just use what you have at home and just --

>> no, i'm with you. do have you any plans to sell this? >> no, i don't really have any plans to sell it. >> you just wanted to do some good. >> yeah. yeah. raise awareness. you know? >> what do you want to be when you grow up? >> well, i want to be either a computer coder or a mechanical engineer. >> i could see that. i could see that. andrew pelham. thanks for coming on. our apologies of having to put you on the phone instead of television. be well. >> i will. >> and do you have a big idea? let us know about it on twitter. right there, the #what'sthebigidea. bigidea.msnbc@nbcuni.com. that's our show on this sunday afternoon. thank you so much for watching. i'll see you back here next saturday, two ii:00 eastern. until then, have a great week.

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