where people are struggling so hard to deal with this. and there is a lot of -- a lot of unknowns that we are legislating off of in our policies generally. thank you both. >> thank you so much. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. >> chris, you are in land mine territory there. in terms of talking about stuff that upsets people. i want to see your inbox tonight. well done, man. thanks to the viewers at home for joining us this hour. if you are a u.s. taxpayer, add this to the list of things that you own, that maybe you did not know that you owned. you own the united states government's explosive destruction system. eds for short. the explosive destruction system is a chamber with stainless steel walls that are up to nine inches thick. thought to be totally indestructible. thought to be totally blast proof.

at least the hope is that it is indestructible and blast proof. today your explosive destruction system destroyed one steel bottle. and the destruction of that one steel bottle is a landmark moment, it turns out, in the history of some of the scariest things in the united states of america. because what was in that one steel bottle destroyed by your explosive destruction system today was mustard agent. mustard agent is a chemical weapon that we made into bombs by the tens of thousands, by the hundreds of thousands, all the way through world war ii. and these kind of weapons, chemical weapons obviously are illegal. we promised decades ago we would never use them. but we did make zillions of them. we have tons and tons and tons of them laying around, getting old, and starting to leak in some cases. and there is this question of what to do with these mustard bombs.

now, what we used to do with them, i think, was the greatest acronym of all-time. the way we used to get rid of mustard bombs was a program called operation chase. operation chase. chase standing for cut holes and sink 'em. operation cut holes and sinkel. that's what the acronym stood for. the u.s. military would take chemical weapons and nerve agents and unwanted ammunition and munitions of all kinds, this would load them into containers, sometimes they would even load them onto a ship they didn't want anymore, and they would cut holes and sink 'em. they would just dump this stuff into the sea. the ocean's big, it can take it. they did this for years. they did this like at a dozen sites on both american coasts. that is how we handled our problem of all these chemical weapons that we had laying around, that we had pledged not to use, and that were illegal. what do you do with them? dump them in the sea.

in 2004, there was this amazing story out of bridgeville, delaware, where a guy ordered a big delivery of crushed clam shells because he wanted to make a new driveway on his property in delaware. and the truck with all the clam shells came, dumped the clam shells on his driveway so he could spread them out. he noticed something that was sticking out of the pile, that sort of looked like a rocket sticking out of the pile of clam shells he had just had delivered. the property owner was smart. he did not handle that rocket. he called local authorities. they ended up calling in the air force, which brought out an eod team, an explosive ordnance explosive team, they showed up on site to check out the rocket and ultimately to take it away. the rocket that turned up in this guy's pile of clam shells. the centers for disease control and prevention ended up writing this up as a case study, when those air force personnel ended up getting terrible chemical burns and they needed to be hospitalized because of what had turned up in this guy's clamshell delivery.

it was a mustard bomb dumped into the sea years earlier, because that was for a very long time how we used to get rid of our chemical weapons. that was our national plan for handling this stuff for years. until congress in 1972 passed the marine protection research and sanction arys act that stopped us from throwing our chemical weapons into the sea and hoping for the best. 1972. 25 years later, during the clinton administration, our nation signed a chemical weapons treaty, a global chemical weapons treaty that committed us as a country to destroying all of our chemical weapons by the year 2012. and we mostly did it. we destroyed chemical weapons in nine states, as well as on this beleaguered island. we set off high altitude nuclear weapons at johnson. we destroyed chemical weapons and nerve agents there.

we made 20 is, made that 2012 deadline, and in all the military facilities in the united states where we had these chemical weapons laying around, except for two. there are only two places left in the united states where we didn't make the deadline. and we still have chemical weapons that still have to be destroyed. one of them, which has a comparatively small amount of the stuff, is in kentucky at the blue grass army depot in kentucky. the other one which has most of what we got left in terms of this stuff is in pueblo, colorado. and today was day one of the beginning of the end of what we have got left. today became day one of the beginning of the end when they destroyed that one steel bottle in your explosive destruction system that you didn't know you own. explosive destruction system did it today. moz el tof. it will destroy 12 of these

steel bottles, all of which contain some mustard agent that was drilled out of these mustard bombs and extracted for testing. it will destroy about 1,400 or so mustard bombs themselves. ones that are leaking or that have been drilled into or otherwise somehow messed up or compromised. they will all get exploded inside this destruction chamber. which with a nine-inch-thick steel wall, right. but those 1,400 shells, and those dozen steel bottles, the first of which they destroyed today, those are only a tiny proportion of what we've got on hand. and what they have to destroy at pueblo. there are 780,000 mustard bombs at pueblo, colorado, that we have got to destroy. 780,000. and other than those 1,400, all the rest will be destroyed by something else that you own as a u.s. taxpayer.

it cost about $5 billion to build it. $5 billion of your dollars. it is basically a massive automated robotic anti-factory. some humans will have to be involved in the operation of this thing. but mostly, it's going to be robots in a $5 billion super complicated isolated machine that we have built to take these 50-year-old chemical experiment, decaying horror show chemical weapon bombs, take them apart very delicately one by one, remove the mustard agent, mix it with water, and then take the toxic mustard agent goo, seed it, literally seed it to the world's most terrifying bacteria. which like to eat that stuff, apparently. and even after they chemically neutralize the mustard agent with the water and the bacteria

that eats it, and all the rest, the end product of this multibillion dollar robotic anti-factory and all of these hundreds of thousands of shells, it will still be hazardous waste. but it won't be chemical weapons anymore. and they started it today. by 2019, by four years from now, this stuff, if all goes according to plan, this stuff is going to be gone, in what will be a multibillion dollar effort that you have paid for. we talked to somebody at the pueblo chemical agent destruction pilot plant today, which you own, and they explained to us what it is they're doing with this two-part process. they've got the explosive destruction system for the odds and ends, where really they have to blow it up. then they've got this big multibillion dollar factory thing for all the remaining hundreds of thousands of shells. they actually intended to start the process of destroying these chemical weapons yesterday, but in pueblo, colorado, yesterday, the wind was blowing from an odd direction. and that might have complicated their planned evacuation route

had anything gone wrong on day one. and so they put off day one, and did not start -- yesterday they didn't start until today, because they needed the wind to be blowing a different direction so they can be sure just in case anything went wrong. so people in and around pueblo, colorado, over the years have been understandably a little edgy about the fact that they have got america's largest stockpile of hundreds of thousands of aging chemical weapons bombs sitting there. getting old. for a long time. as they planned this destructive process of what to do with them. but that process is now under way. they do have a very complicated plan. they are being very careful. it is very expensive for a lot of very good reasons, and they built a lot of specialized equipment to deal with it. it was a four-year plan, and they pushed the deadline, but that is pueblo, colorado, as of today. it's happening. that's pueblo, colorado. and then there's basically the

opposite of that. which is a place called minden, louisiana. camp minden is a state-owned site in northwestern louisiana where for years, contractors have done various kinds of work for the u.s. military. for years at that site a company called explo -- that's foreshadowing -- a company called explo took in huge quantities of m-6 artillery propellants from the government. they resold it mostly to the mining industry, which obviously has a need for explosives from time to time. but at some point in the last few years, the inflow and outflow of this artillery propellant in northwestern louisiana, the inflow and outflow got a little out of whack. for some reason this company started accumulating tons and tons and tons and tons of this m-6 propellant at camp minden. and this propellant is not only

toxic in its own right, it is explosive. the longer it sits around, apparently, particularly if it is exposed to the elements, the more likely it is to spontaneously come bust. and on october 15th, 2012, some of that stuff comebusted in the middle of the night. there were two huge explosions at camp minden in louisiana. they were big enough they were felt in texas. they were seen as weather by the national weather service satellites overhead at the time. this is some of that satellite imagery. here's how a local resident described it back then. >> i saw the sky light up. just a loud -- there wasn't no noise. it just lit up. and it caught my eye. i looked to the west. and then it -- the light died down. it was like, what was that? it lit up again. and then we heard the loud boom. it looked like a sunset, it was so bright. >> given how big those

explosions were in october 2012, it is amazing nobody was hurt in those explosions. but there was an investigation of what had blown up, what had gone wrong at camp minden. that investigation turned up something that really nobody could have imagined there before they saw it. it turns out what this company had created, in this little corner of northwest louisiana, what they had done there was unbeknownst to anybody. they had created the nation's largest stockpile out in the open, rotting in a field, the nation's largest stockpile of unstable toxic explosive artillery propellant. 18 million pounds of it. at that site. and then seven of the employees of the company got indicted. and then the company went bankrupt. the stuff is still sitting out there in a field. and nobody knows what to do with it. they started stuffing it in bunkers. nobody exactly knows what's going to be the ultimate dispensation of this stuff. look at the site.

and this stuff can't just be left to rot. because when it rots, it tends to explode. you can't just leave this stuff. it has to be destroyed. and there's millions of pounds of it sitting there at this site. and two years after those giant explosions shook minden, louisiana, all the way to texas, it let the world know the toxic stuff was there. two years after the explosions, the epa came in and announced their plan to safely dispose of all that toxic explosive artillery propellant. the biggest pile of it in the country. they announced what they were going to do with it. their safe plan for disposal was that they would set it on fire. they just burn it. not going to move it anywhere, not going to build any special facilities, or explosive destruction systems for minden. they're not going to build some multibillion dollar sealed system to turn it out to bacteria food. nope, they're just going to set

it on fire in northwest louisiana. their announced plan as of this last october was, i kid you not, it is not more complicated than this, they were going to take the stuff outside, put it in big trays outdoors, and set it on fire. burn it into the open air. 80,000 pounds of it a day. for, maybe a few hundred days, 220 days, maybe more, depending on how it went. and that was not just like the idea that was floated of one way to do it. that was what they announced the plan was going to be in october. look at the headlines from the associated press. plan reached to clear explosives. and the plan is to burn it in trays. even the local officials expressed interest at least burning it in an incinerator. no, the plan was just an open fire. campbell robertson has a great piece today about people who

live in the area around minden, how they felt about this plan. in january, local folks, experts they consulted with, convinced the epa and the louisiana national guard to please delay this genius plan to just set everything on fire. just a few days ago, this group of concerned local residents and experts submitted a draft plan with six other potential ideas for different ways to handle this stuff, instead of just openly burning it in minden. and now tonight, we can report that the epa has just signed a new agreement, that instead of just going ahead with their plan to openly burn all this stuff, they are now officially going to allow the consideration of alternative technologies for disposing of all of these millions of pounds of toxic artillery propellant. when they talk about technology alternatives, to be clear, what they're talking about are alternatives to the technology of fire. because fire had been the original technological solution

to this problem. now they're going to consider at least some other ideas. it doesn't mean they won't end up setting it on fire, but at least they'll consider some other ideas. you know, we used to, not that long ago, we used to just dump chemical weapons into the sea. the original plan for getting rid of all of our chemical weapons by the treaty deadline was to burn them, incinerate them, including in blue grass, kentucky, and colorado. it was the concerns about the safety of burning that stuff that forced a slower process. when that was more careful and thought to be more safe for the people who lived there, alongside the century of american military experimentation, pueblo has got this $5 billion robot plan, and this fancy explosive destruction system with its nine-inch-thick walls, because in pueblo, they yelled loud enough and long enough that their concerns were taken seriously. the stuff didn't just get burned there. minden, louisiana, is a corner of that state that is rural, not

a ton of people there, somewhat poor corner of louisiana, it is a mostly african-american part of that state. and problems like this in our country get solved by equations that include political capital. and since camp minden blew up two and a half years ago, and they realized what they had on their hands there, there has been a real question as to whether the local residents in this corner of louisiana had enough political capital, that this huge national problem in their backyard would be handled in a way that would be safe for them. and they still have a long way to go. and this is not anywhere near over yet. those millions of pounds of propellant are still sitting there. but what they have done already in organizing and yelling and demanding to be taken seriously has already stopped the open burn plan that was originally approved in october. and it has forced us as a country, now, to at least try to think of something better to do here than just setting everything on fire in an open burn. there's got to be a better way.

joining us now is brian salvatore, a professor of chemistry at louisiana state university. the committee has been pushing for more options in dealing with this stuff at camp minden. thank you for being with us. >> thank you, rachel. >> this is a complicated story, and a dramatic story. i've got to ask you if i clearly stated, at least accurately stated where you think things stand currently? is it now the plan they're not going to go ahead with the open burn and think about other ideas? >> yes. i think you've done an excellent job here of summarizing this story. and it is a remarkable story. even as i'm listening to you tonight. it's just incredible. you could not dream a scenario like this. fortunately, what could have been a pure nightmare, may have at least a good ending here. and in fact, this group of

concerned citizens here in northwest louisiana may actually be able to set some precedent here, so something like this never happens again. >> from your perspective as a chemistry professor, what you know of this problem, i was struck by the parallel with those mustard shells in pueblo, and blue grass. but they honestly did not know what the process would be of safely handling those things, safely disposing of that huge quantity of stuff. in part, they had to invent the technology. they had to invent a process to safely handle all that material and get rid of it in a way that wouldn't be harmful to the surrounding community. do you feel like in louisiana something is going to have to be invented that we don't already understand a way that this stuff can be safely disposed of or handled? >> well, over the short term, there is not time to invent anything new. there are safer alternatives. and we definitely are aware of those, and we tried to bring those to the forefront. and the epa was aware of them as well.

we're not really sure why initially they did not consider all of the safer alternatives. but they certainly are considering them now. and i think the path forward could actually be safe, and technology is always going to be able to get better and better. so over the long term, it's my hope that these chemicals do not have to be destroyed, they actually could be repurposed. but we have a number of technologies here that we think are going to be adequate. we hope that one of the safer alternatives is chosen. >> professor of chemistry at louisiana state university in shreveport. i know it's not done, but already i think it's struck a remarkable victory in making us come up with better ideas of dealing with this as a country. congratulations. >> thank you. >> thank you. that giant pile of artillery propellant sitting there in louisiana, that is the biggest stockpile of that stuff that we know of anywhere in the country.

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turns out the relationship between delicious cinnamon rolls and mike huckabee is way more complicated than you might think.

in 1996, the legendary senator from the great state of kansas, bob dole, ran for president. but dole was the republican nominee who challenged president bill clinton in 1996. senator dole lost that race.

after that race, he became a paid spokesman for viagra. >> courage, something shared by countless americans. those who risk their lives. those who battle serious illness. when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer, i was primarily concerned with ridding myself of the cancer. but secondly, i was concerned about possible post-operative side effects like erectile dysfunction, e.d. it's embarrassing to talk about e.d. but it's so important to millions of men and their partners, that i decided to talk -- >> pfizer hired former presidential contender bob dole to be the face of viagra. but he did not just do viagra. he also did visa. and he did dunkin' donuts, and pepsi. once he did pepsi alone, and once he did pepsi with britney spears. he was the face of a lot of things after his presidential run.

same thing with senator fred thompson from the great state of tennessee. senator thompson ran for president in 2008. he did unexpectedly poorly. lots of people thought that he would win the race overall. but he didn't win a single state, and he quit early, and somehow john mccain ended up winning the nomination. after that senator thompson went on to become the face of reverse mortgages. do you own your house, senior citizen? let me convince you to unown it for a cash payout. call now. it wasn't quite as exciting as watching britney spears dance around with bob dole on a recliner. but pays the bills. having a high political profile is a form of celebrity. and politicians do sometimes choose to trade on that for money. but when they do it, we think of them of usually doing it after they hang up their political boots. it doesn't usually happen that you become a pitch man for something, as a means of preparing to run for president. it doesn't usually go in that direction.

>> hello, i'm mike huckabee. let me tell you that diabetes can be reversed. i should know, because i did it. and today you can, too. that's why i'm strongly suggesting that you look into this product from barton publishing called the diabetes solution kit. and i should know. it works. i use the same techniques to lose 110 pounds of fat, get my own blood sugar under control, and completely reverse my type 2 diabetes. your free presentation is coming up right now. see for yourself how this kit works. and what it can do for you. i'm mike huckabee, and i approve barton publishing's kit. >> these are cinnamon rolls. and in a few minutes you'll find out how these tasty pastries contain a real ingredient that reverses diabetes. well, here's the deal. the secret ingredient in the cinnamon rolls is cinnamon. >> the first is from mike huckabee, and the second is when you go to the barton publishing

solution thing website, barton presentation goes on to say they do not recommend you eat cinnamon rolls. what they are pitching you is adding cinnamon to your diet might cure you of diabetes. might reverse your diabetes, just like former arkansas governor mike huckabee. the american diabetes association insists that there is no credible research that says herbs or spices such as cinnamon can manage or cure your diabetes. still, there's mike huckabee, former governor, prospective presidential candidate, who quit his fox news hosting gig, so he presumably could run for president. there he is, right now, showing for barton publishing, telling people, yes, your diabetes can be reversed. i'm living proof. sign up for a free offer, plus shipping and handling. the republican race for the presidency this year, i kid you not, mike huckabee in 2015,

that's not some previous thing he was doing. that's what he's doing this year. mike huckabee is killing it in the presidential polls right now. in the latest gallup poll out there, mike huckabee is right up at the top with jeb bush. among people who identify themselves as conservative republicans, he is far and away the leader at 54%. marco rubio is the next closest to him. there's the in you cnn poll that matches republican candidates up with hillary clinton who see who would do the best in a head-to-head matchup. the front-runners are jub bush and scott walker. they aren't formally declared as candidates yet, they're running hard, basking in mainstream press adulation. you know who outperforms them? mike huckabee. kentucky senator rand paul also does well in the cnn poll

against hillary clinton. she beats him by less than she beats everybody else. rand paul is now expected to announce his presidential bid very soon on april 7th. we also got the exciting announcement today that an eccentric new york city real estate developer named donald trump is pretending harder than usual that he's going to run for president. he said he told nbc that he will not renew his contract for his reality tv show, which is called the "celebrity apprentice." although nbc says they're still planning on that show, having a new season this year. so who knows. in terms of the latest 2016 news, it can be a little hard to get your head around. hillary clinton is still running alone for the democratic nomination for all intents and purposes. on the republican side, they're about to officially get rand paul, son of ron, they might be--might be about to officially get donald trump. and the guy who's running at the front of the pack, who the press is ignoring, is a guy whose

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as you know, the state capital of oregon has recently been under attack by an owl,

patrolling a local park and attacking joggers at that park. last month we proposed a scary owl warning sign which the city of salem installed in that park to warn people. now it gets better. yesterday we learned a local beer maker has named a beer after the angry owl. you can now tip back an attack owl ipa in celebration of salem's attack owl. i would like to try some, thank you very much. but there's more. down the road in salem, there's another company rolling out their own owl beer, called hoot attack, that includes the owl warning sign. oregon has two new owl beers. i feel a road trip coming on. the truly amazing first of the nation news out of oregon, nothing to do with either beer or owls. and we've got on top a visit

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oregon, beloved state of

oregon, blessed art thou among women. when john quit as oregon's governor a month ago amid a criminal skregs into alleged corruption in his administration, mostly involving the role of his girlfriend in that administration, when john quit last month, right after being sworn in for his fourth term as oregon governor, something sort of remarkable happened in the musical political chairs that followed him quitting. oregon has no lieutenant governor. so in the event that an oregon governor has to leave office, the person who replaces the governor is the secretary of state. in this case, the secretary of state was oregon democrat kate brown, who is now the governor of the state of oregon. the state of oregon then needed a new secretary of state to replace her. governor kate brown chose this person, jean adkins, to take the second highest ranking job in the state.

the third ranking statewide job is the attorney general. this is the attorney general of the state of oregon, ellen rosenbloom. the number one, number two, and number three jobs are now held by women. as long as we're counting, so is the job of the oregon speaker of the house. so oregon, blessed art thou among women. and yes, the departure of the previous governor was a shocking and bizarre political trauma in that state. and it has left a trail of unresolved investigations in its wake. but you know what? there's new folks in charge now. he's gone. and so apparently there's no reason not to get down to business in oregon. when she was still secretary of state, before she unexpectedly was elevated to governor, kate brown, this past january, introduced a bill to the oregon state legislature, a bill about voting. secretary of states of state are obviously in charge of running elections at state level. and when kate brown in january introduced this new bill to

profoundly change the voting system in that state, she did so as secretary of state. and then, surprise, this week, now as governor, she just got to sign her own bill into law. and everything you have heard about voting rights in this country in the last five years has been terrible for voting rights. but this, what just happened here in oregon, is actually great news. honestly, over the last five years there have been 395 new pieces of legislation introduced in 49 states to make it harder to vote. or to make it harder to register to vote. leading up to the presidential election in 2012, in the two-year period before the 2012 election, new bills were signed into law in 19 states to make voting harder. 19 new laws to make voting harder, or make voter registration harder. well, oregon as of this week, is leading the country in the completely opposite direction. oregon already votes by mail, and that has helped them have

the highest voter participation rate in the country. but thanks to this new law as of this week, that state is about to start automatically registering people to vote. at the dmv, they know if you're a citizen. they know your current address. they know if you're legally eligible to vote. and if you are legally eligible to vote, oregon has just decided they're now just going to register you and mail you a ballot. you don't have to ask. they're just going to do it. you can opt out. you can choose to not be registered if you don't want to be. there's a 21-day opt-out period if you do not want to be registered to vote. and of course, nobody's going to force you to vote when election time comes. but the state of oregon will now become the first state in the country where it is easier to be registered than not. it's an opt-out system, instead of an opt-in, system. as the tide of voting laws in this country has been rushing the other way, oregon is first to push this hard to get more

people to vote, not fewer. oregon, blessed thou among women, politicians. this is groundbreaking. joining us now for the interview is the new governor of the state of oregon, kate brown. governor brown, thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you so much. i was delighted to hear your recap of our new motor voter law. >> did i explain the change in the law correctly? no other state has done this, so i'm learning it just from you. >> that is correct. however, louisiana is essentially doing the same thing with their 16 and 17-year-olds. the first state to have it happen to all of our potentially registered voters in oregon, we're very excited about the legislation. >> so the way i understand this is going to work, logistically, is you've got about 2.2 million people registered to vote right now in oregon. when this law goes into effect, it's expected to almost instantly add about 300,000 new voters to the rolls.

people who are eligible to be registered but have so far not chosen to do so, or have not taken the steps to do so. how do you think that will change politics in oregon? that's a huge jump in the number of people who will be eligible to vote. >> well, what i like about this proposal is that it's actually more agnostic than our voter registration drives that are happening throughout the election cycle. and so this will more evenly impact the state. and more importantly, it will enable those folks -- in oregon, we have a 21-day cutoff. you have to be registered 21 days prior to the election. this will enable many more people to have their voices be heard. we think that's critical. >> when you say more agnostic, you mean when they do voter registration drives in oregon now, either the parties themselves or groups who have partisan interests. in this case, nobody knows anything about you, it ends up happening by virtue of your existence rather than by the

fact that somebody knew to seek you out. >> that's correct. that's the beauty of the system. the dmv requires proof of citizenship before issuing driver's licenses of the we'll be sending out notices to the potential voters. they have three weeks to opt out if they choose so. if not, they'll go ahead and be registered as a registered voter. the other pieces we have vote by mail, so they'll get a ballot in the mail prior to the election. >> with the rest of the country, particularly red states, going in the opposite direction, again, right before the 2012 election, we saw 19 states move to make voting harder, or voter registration harder. why do you think you were able to get this done in oregon? i know it's a cause of yours for a long time. why were you guys able to do it? >> we were very excited about the fact that the legislature passed the bill. the goal is to put the ballot in the hands of every oregonian. this will make voting more convenient and more accessible

for more oregonians. we're really excited about it. >> governor brown, i have to ask you, because i have you here, and i say this out of concern, and an increasing -- daily increasing affection for the state of oregon. the more i pay attention, the more i love you guys. how are you doing in oregon after this strange thing you have just gone through with the governor? you became governor under strange and unexpected circumstances. but it's got to have been a real shock to the state. how do you think the state has been changed by this process? >> well, my goal as the new oregon governor is to make sure that we provide a level of stability for oregonians. but also do some housecleaning. so we've done both of those. i have a package of bills to restore, help oregonians restore their faith in the oregon government. we're working hard on key priorities, especially education and the economy. oregon is a very special place to live.

and i look forward to working with oregonians to keep it that way. >> governor kate brown of oregon, thank you very much for helping us understand this tonight. and good luck to you in your unexpected new gig. great to have you here. >> rachel? we have a present for you. on your next road trip, we'd like to present you with a t-shirt. >> that is excellent. that is really good. i will come pick it up in person, i promise. >> thank you. we look forward to seeing you. >> that's awesome. >> bye. >> thank you. that's great. i grew up in northern california. and at times over the history of northern california, i think there were moments when we wanted to secede and become part of oregon. i think part of my soul is doing that already. becoming very affectionate. whether or not they send me beer. we'll be right back.

this is matt. matt is a fairly ordinary guy, who happens to have just had the world's most astounding and life affirming thing happen to him. his story is one of those stories that asks very little of

you, but sometimes you need to hear things like this on planet earth and you will. it is the best new thing in the world, and it is really good, coming up. progressive insurance here and i'm a box who thrives on the unexpected. ha-ha! shall we dine? [ chuckle ] you wouldn't expect an insurance company to show you their rates and their competitors' rates but that's precisely what we do. going up! nope, coming down. and if you switch to progressive today you could save an average of over 500 bucks. stop it. so call me today at the number below. or is it above? dismount! oh, and he sticks the landing! ♪ ♪ i'm almost done. [ male announcer ] now you can pay your bill... ♪ ♪ ...manage your appointments... [ dog barks ] ...and check your connection status... ♪ ♪ ...anytime, anywhere. ♪ ♪ [ dog growls ] ♪

♪ oh. so you're protesting? ♪ ♪ okay. [ male announcer ] introducing xfinity my account. available on any device. this is the bardo museum, located in the capital city of tunisia in northern africa. it houses one of the largest and oldest collections of mosaics anywhere in the world. this is one of the most important museums in that entire part of the planet.

at around noon local time, as tourists were getting off tour buss into enter and explore that site, there was an ambush. two gunmen wearing military style uniforms and carrying assault weapons launched an attack on the museum. they appeared to single out the groups of foreign tourists who were there to see the art. the attack began when the gunmen getting out of a vehicle and opening fire on people who were getting off their tour buses. the gunmen then ran into the museum itself. they initially took hostages inside. that set off about a three-hour standoff with security forces who brushed us around the building. the security forces entered the museum. they killed both gunmen during the firefight and set the hostages free. so far a total of 19 people have been confirmed dead in the attack. most of them european tourists. this is the single deadliest attack on civilians in that country in more than a decade. there's also a question whether the museum was the primary

intended target. it's located in a set of buildings that includes the parliament building. could they have been intending to attack political targets? the parliament was put on lockdown today. take a look at this video. these are lawmakers while in lockdown. while in there, they break out into the tunisia national anthem. it is unclear if the parliament might have been the intended target for this attack. tunisia was the scene of massive street protests in 2011. it was the first country to overthrow its dictator and the start of the arab spring. again, nobody has claimed responsibility and the death toll in tunisia stands at 19.

two nationals, 17 foreign tourists. we'll bring you more as it develops. the former u.s. ambassador to tunisia will be a guest on "the last word" in the next hour. we'll be right back. real transformations can happen as much inside a person as out. that's why you should take the listerine® 21 day challenge. use listerine® and over 21 days you'll experience a transformation. take the listerine® 21 day challenge and start your transformation today.

best new thing in the world today spans two hemispheres and two giant countries. a little over a year ago, matt stoparo left his iphone at a bar in new york city but it was gone. a year after matt lost his phone, he noticed a bunch of photos on his new iphone, pictures he had not taken. like for example, this menu and lots of store fronts. and avra lavigne. a girl on a motor scooter. many, many pictures of the guy in front of the kumquat bush.

so matt wrote a piece about what was happening for buzz feed. the folks at the apple store told him it was because his old phone, the one that had been stolen or lost in new york, had somehow ended up in china. china! and that stolen phone was still connected to his apple account. so they quickly fixed it. they essentially turned off the stolen phone in china, except it wasn't the end. that buzz feed story matt had written became a sensation in china. apparently everybody and their brother in china read the story and went on a hunt for the guy in front of the kumquat bush or the orange tree as they called it. people all over china decided they wanted to help matt find this guy two had his phone. they thought the story was romantic somehow or like they were long lost brothers. ultimately, they found the guy

in front of the kumquat bush. first, they figured out the photos were taken in southeast china. a kid who lived there recognized the guy as his uncle. then everybody started calling him uncle orange. then the kid and uncle helped the two get in touch. although the orange tree guy stated his preference to be called brother orange. he then invited matt to go to china. said he would cook him a nice meal. and wouldn't you know it, that's where matt is right now. earlier matt was greeted at the airport by brother orange, and a bit of a mob scene. matt has been live tweeting his trip to brother orange's village. over the course of today, they celebrated their new found celebrity by taking a mud bath together and planting a tree together. all this over an iphone stolen over a year ago halfway across the world. bringing people together in the

weirdest celebrity way ever. best new thing in the world today, by a mile. that does it for us tonight. >> good thursday morning. right now on "first look." new bizarre details. and if he was planning to flee the country. then to a brazen terror attack on helpless tourists on vacation. 19 dead and over 50 injuresed. a protest far beating sustained by a third year student after a confrontation with police and then to ncaa basketball tournament that afternoon. good morning. the twists keep coming. stunning new evidence that the million air robert durst may have been preparing to leave the country. it allegedly includes a latex mask and