home. i'm going to go home tomorrow, all things with travel. i want you to know we're not going to give up this story and following it and talking about the moment we have in criminal justice and policing in this country, just because there's no fare gas and nothing to chase in the streets. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. amazing work you've done down there. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. happy monday. one of the strategies the u.s. army uses in recruiting efforts is they'll sometimes take very young soldiers, soldiers just out of basic training, and they'll assign those young soldiers to recruitment centers back in their hometowns. or at least near to where they, themselves, grew up and where they, themselves, decided to join the u.s. army. it's not the only strategy the army uses for recruiting, but it's one that makes sense. these young soldiers can have sort of the closest thing that you can get to a peer-to-peer

conversation with somebody else basically in a similar circumstance that they were in when they decided to sign up. somebody from the same part of the country, roughly the same age. somebody who might be thinking about a career in the armed forces the way this young soldier plainly did. right? that u.s. army recruiting strategy is how in june 2009 these two young army privates were standing together just outside an army recruiting station in little rock, arkansas. they were on a smoke break and standing outside together having a cigarette. one was 23 years old from conway, arkansas, 30 miles north of little rock which is where the recruitment center was. the other man was 18 years old, the man on the right. he was from arkansas as well. from just outside little rock in the town called jacksonville, arkansas. so, those two local men, these two native sons of arkansas, they were standing together outside the recruiting center in

little rock when this man drove up in a pickup truck and shot at them. opened fire with a .22 caliber semiautomatic rifle. police were able to find him moments later. found the rifle he used in the shooting. found other weapons in the vehicle. found more ammunition in his truck. they took him into custody. the 23-year-old private william long, youngm man from conway, arkansas, was killed in the shooting. 18-year-old private, youngman from jacksonville, arkansas, private quinton ezeagwula, he was wounded but survived. the young man who shot at the soldiers was ultimately convicted of capital murder in that case. he will never get out of prison. he's serving 12 life sentences. he was born in memphis, tennessee, with the name carlos bledsoe. in college, he converted to islam and at some point became radicalized. in 2007, he traveled to yemen where he studied the al qaeda brand of radical ideology and

global terrorism. and while he was in yemen studying with these al qaeda guys, another american studying alongside him says that he tried to make friends with him, tried to make friends with carlos bledsoe. it didn't work. "tasiturn, withdrawn, maybe depressed." "he didn't like me very much. he was an are you with me or are you against me kind of guy and he felt i was against him." after that failed effort in yemen at striking up a friendship, one of those americans, carlos bledsoe, changed his name to abdul hakeem muhajeen mohamed and mounted that attack on the little rock recruiting station. the other american from that encounter in yemen was undercover during that encounter. he had faked his conversion to islam in order to get close to these al qaeda-affiliated cells in places like yemen that were hosting american and western recruits, teaching them, radi l

radicalizing them and setting them loose in the world as terrorists who quite conveniently had western passports. the undercover guy, the guy who faked his conversion so he could get into the al qaeda-related cell in yemen and see what they were doing, he was a journalist and ultimately wrote a book about what he did. it was called "undercover muslim." as you see on the cover there, his name was theo padnos. after theo padnos wrote that book, presumably because what he had written about, what he had done was a fairly dangerous thing to have done and described, after the publication of that book, particularly his family says because he wanted to be able to continue to travel in the arab world, theo padnos legally changed his name. he changed his name to peter theo curtis. peter theo curtis was a fluent arabic speaker, fluent french speaker, also spoke german and russian. october 2012, while traveling inside syria to report on the

civil war there, american journalist theo curtis was abducted and ultimately held in captivity for 22 months by a group called al nusra front, al qaeda affiliated radical syrian group. theo cur titis is not one of th americans held in captivity who's had his name widely publicized. jim foley's name had been publicized before he was killed in a video posted online by the radical group isis last week. theo curtis' family had taken a different approach. they decided to keep his name out of the press in the hope that that might be part of the way they could try to keep him safe as they tried to negotiate for his release. but yesterday, the curtis family was able to announce that he had been freed. and the news that he's out of captivity and in safe hands and on his way home has also freed up information about him and his captivity that before now people had really withheld from public view because of the perception that it might put him in further danger while he was being held by these radicals in syria.

and now that he's on his way home, though, now, for example, we can connect theo curtis to the case of another american who was held in captivity by the same group, but who managed to escape last summer. his name is matt shryer, kidnapped by al nusra front in syria as well. he was held for seven months. after he managed to escape, he told "60 minutes" last year about the moment during his captivi captivity, three weeks into his zempb months in captivity when he realized he was not the only american that this group was holding, that this group was holding a number of americans. >> after 21 days, one jailer named mohamed moved him to a cell where another prisoner was lying on the floor. >> this guy shoots and and his beard is out to here and he's dirty and he's talking to mohamed in arabics, and mohamed is just like, america, america, like you. and i was like, what are you talking about? i didn't believe him. because the guy was speaking

arabic, wrouyou know? he had the beard and everything. i looked. oh my god, he is an american. it was a curve ball. i didn't expect this at all. you know, like one of the first things i said, oh my god, they're collecting us. >> the way that that photographer, matt, escaped from captivity last year in syria, is almost impossible to believe. he squeezed through, physically squeezed through a tiny opening he was able to finesse in a small overhead window in one of the cells that he was held in. the only way he was able to reach to the window to get out was by standing literally, standing on the back of one of the other americans with whom he was jailed. here's how he described it to "the new york times" after he escaped. "their cell was in a basement. the mesh and welding on one window was damaged and had only be partially repaired." he said he stood on his cell mate's back and unraveled wires

opening a hole large enough to fit his head and one arm but got stuck and had to return inside and rewire the mesh he and his cell mate argued over whether to try again. after the morning prayer before dawn mr. schrier said he pushed both arms own oult and followed with his lhead. he reached in, pulled his cell mate up. the man had a heavier build than mr. schrier. he lid with hundred arm and his head. he was stuck. he slid back. he was stuck again. the street was silent, mr. schrier said. a light showed in their jailer's office. his cell mate dropped back in. mr. schrier said, i'll get help. his cell mate looked up at him and told him, all right, go. we now know for the first time,

the man who he tried to pull through that window but couldn't get him out because he had a slightly thicker build than the man who was able to squeeze out, we now know that that man was peter theo curtis. that escape attempt where matt schrier got out but peter theo curtis couldn't. that was last july. theo curtis was released safely yesterday. even though "the new york times" had published that account when "60 minutes" did their interview with matt schrier they agreed to hold that back, worried it could make things worse for theo curtis in prison, for his captors to know that he had tried to escape and failed. now that he is out and safe, and on his way home, they have released that portion of the interview. the part about that escape attempt, the part they had previously held back. >> he had me by the wrists. i had him by his wrists. i'm looking up. he just wasn't fitting. so i said, i was just like, i can't stay here. there are windows up there that

are open. i was like, i got to go. he was like, come back. and i said, i can't come back. and he was like, all right, go. i couldn't leave until he said it. >> there are still american hostages being held by these extremist groups in syria. but six days after that horrible video was posted last week showing the execution of american journalist jim foley, we do have this remarkable news now that theo curtis has gotten out. it was apparently the government of the nation of qatar that interceded on theo curtis' behalf. nobody quite knows how they arranged to get him out. the family says they were advised that no money exchanged hands. that qatar respected the u.s. policy of never paying ransom for hostages. nobody knows quite for sure how he got out, and other hostages that have been released

including a number of french and spanish journalists who were released earlier this year, in nose cases there is thought to have been a ransom paid to get them free. did qatar do that for theo curtis? here's how the white house handled questions on that matter today. >> the curtis family said that the qatari government told them that they did not pay a ransom for mr. curtis. the united states government did not ask the qataris to pay a ransom. >> that leaves open the question of why he was released. trying to get a sense of what you think the reason was. was there something else promised to al nusra? >> certainly not by the united states. >> nothing else promised to al nusra? >> again, not by the united states. >> they promised -- >> again, you'd have to ask them. >> the news that theo curtis had been released in captivity in syria, that news arrived in the united states literally during the memorial mass that was being

set for jim foley in his hometown of rochester, new hampshire, yesterday. the families of these hostages have become close during the months and some cases the years that their loved ones have been held in syria. theo curtis' mother in cambridge, massachusetts, wrote to jim foley's parents to tell them the news about her news being released even before she told the rest of her family. >> the first thing i did was i -- first thing i did when i heard that he was safe is i didn't want the foleys and the other families to find out from the media. i wanted them to hear the news from me first. so i wrote them all e-mails. and then i called my daughter to them her. i don't know if they got the e-mail because it turned out that it was the same day that they were having the memorial services for their son, so they may not have seen it. but i felt i needed -- it was incumbent upon me to tell them. >> there have been some

conflicting and sort of, i guess i could say, internally inconsistent reports out of the british press today about whether or not the british government has conclusively identified the man who at least sounds like he's of british origin, who speaks in the execution video of jim foley, ranting at the camera threatening to kill another american hostage, journalist steven sotloff, and ultimately killing mr. foley in that video. some british press reports yesterday and today said the man in that video have been identified. the papers say the possible suspect is a 24-year-old from london. to be clear, at this point these are just british press reports, and the uk government is not confirming them. although they have said that they think it is a british citizen in that video and that they are trying to identify him. as the uk pursues basically that manhunt approach, it is worth keeping in mind that having that specific biographical information about this one killer may not necessarily open up any new avenues for getting

at this group, isis, or for rescuing any hostages that are still there, but at least yesterday and today, that is what the press is full of in this case. here in the united states, president obama today had a closed-door meeting with secretary of defense, chuck hagel, and members of congress are not exactly rushing back from their own long vacation in order to handle this matter in washington, but members in congress are starting to make an increasing amount of rather pointless noise about whether or not the u.s. should not just bomb isis targets in iraq the way we have been since august 8th but perhaps also start bombing isis targets over border in syria. the government of syria warned today the united states should not do that and any action taken within syrian borders by any other country without the permission of syrian government would be viewed as an act of aggression by syria and treated as such. on paper that makes perfect sense for any country to say that. in the real world, it's complicated by the fact that syria plainly does not control

its own borders or its own territory. huge swaths of the nation of syria really are controlled by this terrorist group which among other things is still holding mu multiple american hostages and wants to use them not just for ransom but provoke another american ground war there. first of all, let me ask you as somebody who's been keenly involved in this issue, as a reporter i know you traveled to syria multiple times during the course of the civil war. the way that i described that in terms of our u.s. government interactions, our u.s. government, i guess, deliberations over this issues and situation on the ground, does that largely square with the way you understand it? >> well, you know, there's a lot of confusion because obviously it's a tough nut to crack, but last week in the heated aftermath of the posting of that terrible video of the death, th

were a lot of expectations that were raised by senior u.s. officials that, you know, perhaps there were u.s. air strikes imminent in syria, the same kind launched earlier this month against isis in iraq. today, however, the government, the obama administration, went to a lot of pains to try and roll back those expectations, and in the process i think probably created more confusion about exactly what it is contemplating. >> in terms of that dynamic within the administration, is it your perception that the administration was raising expectations on purpose about possible strikes in syria and now they're trying to change those expectations, or did they raise those expectations in error and people interpreted those remarks, those pretty belligerent remarks on thursday or friday as if we were going to do something they never actually wanted to do? >> i think it all took place in this heated aftermath, this outrage that was created by the

execution of mr. foley, but also, you know, there's politics here in the united states. you had john kerry, the secretary of state, coming out and saying isis must be destroyed. you had the secretary of defense chuck hagel saying isis represents an imminent threat to all u.s. interests then you had the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general martin dempsey saying the only way to destroy isi sn isis was hit them on the syrian side of the border and ben rhodes on friday saying the death of mr. foley was considered a terrorist attack on the united states. so, all of that put together, i think, raised these -- plus, you know, we were being told that the administration was not ruling out the possibility of attacks against isis in syria, and we have the unprecedented, at least, as far as we know, disclosure that u.s. troops had

actually -- special forces had actually gone into syria in july to try and rescue mr. foley in a failed rescue attempt. and so i think in that atmosphere, and the politics involved here in the united states, there were these very belligerent statements, but today, we heard them being rolled back first by the chief of -- the chairman of the joint chiefs who said, well, you know, i would recommend strikes if we came to know that isis was plotting attack directly on the united states. and we heard the same thing from the white house as well. so, again, you had all those belligerent statements, you had the rollback and what that leaves still is a lot of confusion about how the administration is going to -- is going to go after the problem in syria. >> right. and the whistling wind sound alongside all of it is hearing absolutely nothing in official capacity from congress which isn't in washington right now and doesn't seem to be eager to weigh in at least formally. yet. jonathan landay, senior national security and intelligence

reporter for mcclatchy. thanks for being here. >>. my pleasure. much more to come including today's funeral ceremony for young michael brown in ferguson, missouri. former virginia governor bob mcdonnell cross examined for the first time today and went off with a lot of fireworks and an amazing allegation from the prosecution. there's lots to come. stay with us tonight. what's the first thing you're going to do when you see your son? >> i'm going to cry and he's going to cry, and then we'll probably have tea. and maybe he'll have a beer. i guess i better get some beers in. it's monday. a brand new start. your chance to rise and shine. with centurylink as your trusted technology partner, you can do just that. with our visionary cloud infrastructure, global broadband network and custom communications solutions, your business is more reliable - secure - agile. and with responsive, dedicated support,

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easily absorbed calcium plus d. beauty is bone deep. what does it require of us? we can't have a fit. we got to have a movement. a fit, you get mad and run out for couple of nights. a movement means we got to be here for the long haul. and turn out chance into change. a demonstration into legislation. we have got to stay on this so we can stop this. michael brown does not want to be remembered for riot. he wants to be remembered as the one that made america deal with how we're going to police in the united states. this is about justice.

this is about fairness. and america is going to have to come to terms when there's something wrong, that we have money to get military equipment to police forces, but we don't have money for training and money for public education, and money to train our children. how do you think w when young people march nonviolently asking for the land of the free and the home of the brave to hear their cry, and you put snipers on the roof and pointed guns at them. how do we look? >> today in st. louis, missouri, the reverend al sharpton gave the eulogy and was the rousing closing speaker at the funeral

for 18-year-old michael brown whose death in a police shooting two weeks ago convulsed not only his community, but in some ways the whole country in an upset and anger and unanswered questions over his death. well, today, thousands of people came to pay their respects at the friendly temple missionary baptist church in st. louis. this is a big church. it holds more than 2,000 people in its main sanctum. it was full today as were the overflow rooms that were set up on site. >> this generation stood up when all of this was occurring and said, we have had enough. we have had enough of seeing our brothers and sisters killed in the street. and they're speaking to those who are in charge right now. those who are in positions of powers and saying, hear our voice, we have had enough of the senseless killing, we have had enough of it, and what you guys can do to continue this is show up at the voting polls.

let your voices be heard. and let everyone know that we have had enough of all of this, and this change must come, and any time changes come in this country, it has come through the youth and the young generations. >> there is a cry being made from the ground. not just for michael brown, but for the trayvon martins, for those children in sandy hook elementary school, for the columbine massacre, for the black-on-black crime. there is a cry being made from the ground, and god is hearing. >> this follows the precedence by the 1787 3/5 amendment that said an african-american was to be considered 3/5 of a man.

but we declare here today that we pay our final respects to michael brown jr. that he was not 3/5 of a citizen. he was an american citizen. and we will not accept 3/5 justice. we will demand equal justice for michael brown jr. >> we should not sit here today and act like we're watching something that is an order. in all of our religious and spiritual celebration, let us not lose sight of the fact that this young man should be doing his second week in college. >> this young man should be doing his second week in college. the family of michael brown asked this weekend that there not be protests in their son's name today. at least not before the funeral out of respect for them. but the fact that mike brown was

about to start college led college students across the country today to basically count him among their number. students at washington university in st. louis, missouri, said, hands up, don't shoot. and st. louis university, they said so. and syracuse university, they said so. and western michigan university and george mason university in fairfax, virginia, and antioch college in yellow springs, ohio. universities across the country, college students across the country did this today as part of a hands up, don't shoot, college walkout on the day of michael brown's funeral in st. louis. one of the terrible material consequences for the family of not just the death of their son, but the means of their son's death, is that they were not able to bury him until now. until more than two weeks after he died. you'll recall that this young man's body laid on the street in ferguson for hours after he was shot two saturdays ago. then there was a first autopsy done by the county medical

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halfway between las vegas and death valley, if you know where to look, you'll find this little guy, endangered devil's hole puff fish. there were 92 of them at last count on earth and they're all here inside tefl's hole. it's the only place in the world that they live. there's only 92 of them left. this cavern they live in is 500 feet deep. when earthquakes hit, as far away as haiti or japan, the devil's hole puff fish way down in that cavern, they feel the earthquake. this is what happened in devil's hole a few yearsing ago when an earthquake hit the edge of mexico mexico. they can feel it. today the biologist who watches out for them tells us the puff fish also felt the earthquake this weekend in northern california. he says the fish did get sloshed around when the quake went off

this weekend, although probably less than they did in this quake. he told us on inspection today, the fish, quote, look fine and are active. so the puff fish felt the quake, but they're fine. the rest of us oddly have some reason to be hopeful after this latest big quake in california, and that unexpectedly good news is coming up tonight in a moment of geek right at the end of the show. please stay with us. wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters shopping online is as easy as it gets. and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list, now it is. we've made hiring anyone from a handyman to a dog walker as simple as a few clicks. buy their services directly at angieslist.com no more calling around. no more hassles.

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other's throats, they couldn't have committed the murder. that's the premise of the episode and this is how the episode ends with the verdict and everything. watch jimmy smith earn ten years' worth of "l.a. law" paychecks with just his facial expressions at the end. watch, watch. >> will the defendants please rise? >> the matter of the people versus wayne lafferty, criminal complaint number 6239, we the jury find the defendant not guilty. in the matter of the people versus elizabeth lafferty, criminal complaint 6240, we the jury find the defendant not guilty. >> so say you all on both questions? >> yes, your honor, say us all. >> members of the jury, thank you for your time and service. this matter is concluded. you are dismissed. you're adjourned. >> mrs. lafferty, will you be -- >> you really think you did it? >> we're very pleased with the verdict and we have no further comments. thank you. >> any chance for

reconciliation? >> so what now? was it a plan? >> will you file for divorce? ♪ >> oh, my god. now i get -- now i get it. they're not really against each other in the case at all. they're not at odds. they're not going to be divorced. these other things that the reporters were shouting. did you see what -- turns -- oh -- turns out it was just a strategy, they hatched this plan to use purported marital strife as their legal defense and it

worked but it was all a fake. did you see them holding hands in the elevator? it was the ruse. that was the "l.a. law" defense from march 1990 and today in court in richmond, virginia, federal prosecutors i kid you not basically accused former virginia governor bob mcdonnell of engineering a similarly concocted defense for himself and his wife. it's not murder this time. it's public corruption. but the strategy of the mcdonnell defense has been to say that maureen and bob mcdonnell could not have conspired to be corrupt. they could not have conspired to accept gifts for their family in exchange for official actions by bob mcdonnell the governor, because maureen and bob mcdonnell didn't talk. they had a terrible marriage. they weren't on speaking terms for years. certainly not about this stuff. well today, on the first day of his cross-examination on the witness stand, the prosecution pointed out to governor bob mcdonnell over the 22-month period when he was in office, when he supposedly had this terrible marriage and they never spoke, governor and mrs.

mcdonnell took 18 vacation trips together. 18 trips over a 22-month period. prosecutors also displayed photographs in court of governor and mrs. mcdonnell coming into court in january of this year and in february of this year and in may of this year each time the couple walking hand in hand, at one point even sharing an umbrella together, cutting a very different figure from the separate entrances never looking at each other, separate defense team strategy that the mcdonnells have maintained since the trial started. up to and including governor mcdonnell managing to mention the nonsec wa tor last week, that for the duration of the trial he's no longer living with his wife. he managed to slip into miss testimony that he now lives with his priest. today is day one of the cross-examination of governor mcdonnell in his corruption trial. the "l.a. law" defense allegation from the prosecution, while the rest of it, the tense standoffs between him and the assistant u.s. attorney who was

cross examining him today, he's an experienced lawyer, how did he do? joining us, matt, a reporter for the "washington post" in the courtroom today as governor mcdonnell was cross examined. thanks very much for being here. >> thanks for having me on. >> i can tell from looking at you that you're too young to experience the "l.a. law" defense when it came out in 1990, but am i right in characterizing that that's essentially the contention that the prosecution is making, that their at least implying that this whole idea of marital strife essential to the mcdonnell defense, that it may be contrived? >> right. exactly. i think their contention is it's put on only to get them off of these criminal charges that they face. you mentioned some of the evidence prosecutors put forward today to sort of bat down that idea. photos of them showing up to court appearances just months ago holding hands, him shielding her from the rain, vacations they took together, trips they

took together during the period covered by this indictment. they were in communication with one another. not only were they in communication with one another, but fthey were in communication with one another around some of the key events in this case, so prosecutors really taking aim today at the broken marriage defense. >> in terms of the way the prosecution has made its case, obviously you're watching there as a reporter who's well versed in all of the background details here. we saw the prosecution lay out their case in order. we've seen the defense start to lay out their case, this cross-examination is the prosecution's attempt, an effort basically to get back into the narrative. do you feel like the prosecution is presenting a case that is likely to be making sense to the jury? are they being coherent in the way they're approaching their chosen narrative about what happened here? >> yeah, i think absolutely. i don't think you would see the former governor of virginia on the stand testifying in his own

defense if prosecutors hadn't made a compelling case in the three weeks they had to do so. on cross-examination, i think you're seeing prosecutors start to get across the narrative that they want to, or at least to bat down the narrative the defense attorney sort of put forward in the days before when they had their own crack at the former governor. we'll see. cross-examination isn't done yet and defense attorneys will sort of get a chance to restore the narrative that they want to put forward when it is, but i do think the prosecutors so far have put on a fairly compelling and fairly convincing case. >> we know that her lawyers were also able to do some cross-examination of the former governor today. does it seem like the two defense teams have a sort of a collaborative strategy to get them both acquitted or does it seem like they're forming their own arguments potentially at the expense of each other's case? >> absolutely, they're working together. i mean, what sort of helps one

helps the other. if they didn't conspire together, maureen mcdonnell is off the hook. she's not a public official. she can't grant official acts to jonnie williams. so if their defense teams can work together and prove, look, she was a little bit crazy, their marriage was a little bit broken, they couldn't conspire, that helps the both of them and i think it also helps the governor to prove that he was in a broken marriage, he was undergoing all these sorts of stress in this personal life and just really didn't have the wherewithal to see what his wife was doing or just what was going on with jonnie williams. but prosecutors have sort of an important counterpoint to that which is, look, this guy was an extremely detail-oriented guy, at one time managing the rental properties he had. he actually was involved in the nitty-gritty of buying a bocci ball set for his rental properties. he's concerned with the details. >> matt zapotosky, reporter were

the "washington post." started with ferraris and rolexes, we're now down to the level of bocci balls. this is a case that keeps on giving. thanks for being here. >> thank you. all right. lots more ahead including a moment of geek that involves a loud alarm that will nevertheless make you happy i'm guessing. we'll be right back. but most of our employees live in the same communities that we serve. people here know that our operations have an impact locally. we're using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. the trucks are reliable, that's good for business. but they also reduce emissions, and that's good for everyone. it makes me feel very good about the future of our company. ♪ so i'm going pro. [ male announcer ] new crest tartar protection rinse. the only rinse that helps prevent tartar build-up and cavities. a little swishing. less scraping. yes! [ male announcer ] new crest pro-health tartar protection rinse. it helps you escape the scrape.

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tomorrow voters in four

states head to the polls. tomorrow's primary day in vermont, florida, arizona and i it's primary runoff day in oklahoma. lots of races in the four states tomorrow, stays, none with a national profi profile. there is one race in the great state of arizona it may be worth keeping an extra eye on if you have an extra eye. congresswoman ann kirkpatrick is the democratic congress woman for the first district of arizona reserve are. there are three republican candidates facing off against each other vying to challenge her this fall. one of them is republican state legislator adam quasman. he showed up at a protest in oracle, arizona, to oppose what he thought were imgrint children arriving by bus at a shelter. adam quasman was wrong about that. >> adam quasman was making a speech. >> the reason why lady justice holds a blindfold over -- >> reporter: then the republican congressional candidate suddenly

stopped. he got word a bus was heading down the road and took off for it. it's what quasman and the oracle protesters were waiting for, a confrontation with a bus full of migrant children. quasman tweeted from the scene "bus coming in. this is not compassion, this is the abrogation of the rule of law." he included the photo of a yellow school bus. >> i was able to see some of the children in the buss and the fear on their faces. this is not compassion. >> did you know that was a bus with ymca kids? >> they were sad, too. >> reporter: reporters saw the children laughing and taking pictures on their iphones. >> i apologize. i didn't know. i was leaving when i saw them. >> reporter: quasman later deleted his tweet but we found it on a site that captures politicians' deleted tweets. he did backflips trying to take back the story. >> i said i saw children. i saw children. >> those weren't migrant

children? >> those were not, that's fine. >> but they were sad, too. mr. quasman of the failed protest of the ymca bus attempted to get the endorsement of the u.s. chamber of commerce in this race. a chamber spokesman said "he did not get a single vote because of his embarrassing and bizarre campaign." they flew support behind andy tobin, another arizona state legislat legislator. recently said that

of gun massacres in the united states are caused by democrats. later apologized. so the republican field for this u.s. congressional seat in arizona's first direct is going to be the ymca bus guy, the ebola border guy, and the democrats commit 99% of mass shootings guy. one of them is going to details off against a very lucky congresswoman named ann kirkpatrick in a real-life election this november. polls in arizona close at 7:00 local time. >> i was actually able to see some of the children in the buses and the fear on their faces -- >> did you know that was a bus with ymca kids? >> they were sad, too. . [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality

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digital communications travel at the speed of light. thanks to things like fiberoptic cable we can move information literally in a flash. and that is good just in the abstract. but that is, turns out, potentially life-saving if the information that you are moving at the speed of light is notification that an earthquake is about to happen. earthquakes happen in a specific place in the ground, right? earthquakes have an epicenter. but you don't just feel an earthquake at the epicenter. the shuddering waves and motion from the earth, the earthquake, they emanate out from the epicenter of the quake, traveling at the speed of sound. so if you have the kind of motion sensors that detected earthquakes, if you had seismometers along fault lines in earthquake-prone regions, when there was an earthquake the seismometers nearest the epicenter could register the

earth quake has happened, feel the shake, then send a digital signal at the speed of light notifying communities nearby that this traveling at the speed of sound tremor, this motion of the earth, is about to arrive. this is not a way of predicting earthquakes before they happen, it's a way of basically warning people that an earthquake has just happened and that they are about to feel its effects. brace yourself. but this thing works. scientists at uc berkeley say their shake alert earthquake early warning project, it set off an alert, it did go off this weekend. during this weekend's large quake in napa, california. it was about to be felt in berkeley and this is the alert that told them so. watch this. [ buzzing ] >> announcer: earthquake, earthquake. light shaking suspee ining expe seconds. >> they got a ten-second washing they were about to feel the quake.

ten seconds is not much time. but this brace yourself warning system, it work, thanks to the simple fact that speed of light is faster than the speed of sound and earthquakes only move at the speed of sound. with more sensors in more places that deliver more warning time california is hoping to have that bigger system in place in the next few years if they can get it funded and finished. from the "l.a. times" today, once fully developed the system could question of downtown los angeles 40 to 50 seconds of warning that big one was headed from the san andreas fault, giving time for elevators to stop at the next floor and even up, for firefighters to open up garage doors, for high-speed trains to slow down to avoid derailment, and for turns to take the scalpcall out of a pat. giving your surgeon enough time to get the cap bell out of your before the giant earthquake shakes the room? that idea of a tectonic shaking scalpel inside your body somewhere, that is something you can never undo and i'm sorry.

the warning technology that works, it worked this weekend, it's not on a drawing board somewhere, it could be expanded and is being expanded, an excellent thing. alaska could get their whole statewide system done in a few yes, there is. god bless the geeks. they will save us all. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." hi, lawrence. >> rachel, i want them to make the earthquake warning voice a little less scary. >> maybe with a little music or something. ding dong. >> thank you, rachel. well, we're now more than two weeks after michael brown was shot and killed by a police officer and we still don't have the police story of what happened. . >> the brown family calls for a silent night. >> people want to respect the family's wishes. >> while the streets of ferguson may have quieted. >> my community deserves honest ---yy.