crooks. maybe we can rejoice in the fact that so many of them get caught. oh, yes, they do. and we will get to the pope's visit in a minute gut first. another 400 are wounded. following a stampede that

according to the country's civil defense directory. happened during the annual hajj pilgrimage. millions of muslims from around the world attend the sacred gathering every year. at this point the number of injuries is rising as emergency crews continue operations. this is a developing story. we'll have more information as this comes in. a day after pope francis came face-to-face with americans from the leader of the free world to normal regular folks on the street, today the pontiff prepares for an historic address. there have been 266 popes in world history. just 17 popes since the united states was founded. and in just a few hours francis will be the first pope ever to address a joint meeting of congress. then, blessing a meal at catholic charities before leaving for new york city. at 5:00 p.m. eastern he'll lead evening prayers at st. patrick's. yesterday was full of special moments. francis riding down constitution avenue, smiling, waving, blessing the crowd. at one point 5-year-old sophie cruz.

the daughter of undocumented workers from mexico broke through the line, scooped up by security. the pope called the detail to bring the girl to him and in a magic moment, the two embraced as the child gave the pontiff a t-shirt and a private letter of hope. in maryland, catholic schoolchildren held their own procession with a 4-year-old pope. but yesterday wasn't without controversy. june pero serra was made a saint in the first canonization to ever take place in the u.s. although he's credited with converting native americans to catholicism in california, critics say he destroyed their ancestor's tradition and culture. the vatican and supporters argue he saved natives from spanish soldiers. in all the u.s. has so far embraced the pope and he's embraced it back. but also, challenged it. for that, nbc's anne thompson reports. >> reporter: pope francis met the american people. the average. and the elite. pulling up to the white house in his modest fiat for an elaborate

presidential welcome. >> the generosity of your spirit, we see a living example of jesus' teachings. >> we are living at a critical moment of history. >> reporter: the blunt-speaking pope outlined his priorities. the son of an immigrant family he praised our nation's immigrant roots, urged the protection of religious freedom and commended president obama's outreach to cuba and action on climate change. >> climate change is a problem we can no longer be left to future generations. >> reporter: a beaming president obama took the pope for a tour of the white house and a private meeting. then under a cloudless sky francis toured the ellipse in the pope mobile blessing the 50,000 along the route, kissing children, and by every indication, enjoying himself. >> it was a blessing to see him. you know he waved to us and we felt energy. >> the whole world came together

as one. >> reporter: there was work to do. the business of the church. the pope a pep talk of sorts to his brother bishops, acknowledging the pain of the sex abuse crisis and lauding their efforts to make sure it is never repeated. here at st. patrick's cathedral he brought up immigration again, telling the bishops to welcome immigrants and they will enrich the nation and the church, while outside a small protest. he finished the day with another historic moment. canonizing the first saint on u.s. soil june pipero serra. a controversial priest who founded missions in california. ending a day that saw this often bitterly divided city united in joy. >> god bless america. >> was pope francis involved in a miracle? one arizona family shared a very personal experience after seeing the holy father in st. peter's square. brian west from nbc affiliate

kpnx has their story. >> it seemed really like it was meant to happen. >> reporter: lynn cassidy stood in the pouring rain for three hours with her husband, two teenagers, and 3-month-old baby ave. >> we were told if we stood on a barricade in st. peter's square, the metal fences, if we were there in the front, that the pope would come by in his pope mobile. >> reporter: the family's only intention to see pope francis. they had no idea the holy act about to happen as the pope of the people's motorcade turned into the square. >> my husband scott held her up, like the lion king, and the pope came by, and the secret service person, johnny stopped and took her from scott and held her up to the pope, and the pope asked my husband, how old is she? and what's her name? he told her that she has two holes in her heart. when we got home in may, we went back to the cardiologist for a checkup, and one of the holes was totally closed. and one was half the size. >> reporter: holes sealed in ave's heart, now the miracle

baby is able to fill the holes left in others. the family says the healing may be incredible timing, but they believe it's divine intervention. >> i mean it's possible that it closes just over time. but, when you see the picture that the professional photographers took, his hand is here, and we believe he's serving god so it's just close to a miracle as we'll ever see, i'm sure. >> reporter: and if she ever gets a chance to speak with pope francis again. here's what she'd say. >> thank you for spreading the word that all life is precious. even -- even life that seems like it might have struggles, and issues, like hers. she is as precious as anyone else. we just thank you for spreading that message. because people need to hear that. >> that was ryan west reporting. the feud between gop presidential candidate donald trump and fox news is back on. trump says he's now boycotting the cable news network. on twitter he writes, fox news has been treating me very

unfairly and i have therefore decided i won't be doing any more fox shows for the foreseeable future. fox news released a statement saying trump announced his boycott after the channel canceled his appearance on the o'reilly factor that was scheduled for today. a new poll shows marco rubio pulling ahead of jeb bush in florida but donald trump is still on top. according to the poll by florida atlantic university, donald trump is winning among florida gop primary voters with 51.5%. marco rubio has 19% and jeb bush just over 11%. presidential debate organizers have announced the dates and sites for the 2016 debates. the democratic and republican presidential candidates will meet three times next year on september 26th at wright state university in dayton, ohio. october 9th at washington university in st. louis, missouri. and then on october 19th at the university of nevada, las vegas. vice presidential candidates will meet just once on october 4th at longwood university in farmville, virginia. according to a new gallup poll the democratic party has a

better image than the republican party. 43% of americans view the democratic party favorably versus 38% leaning towards the republican party. and be sure to tune in to "meet the press" this sunday. host chuck todd will have an exclusive interview with the democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton. earlier this month, video showed john jay high school football players hitting a referee from behind during a game. in a new espn report, principal robert harris is cited as saying assistant coach admitted he directed the students to make the referee pay for racial comments and calls. adding that he wanted to take full responsibility for his actions. the school district disciplinary hearing was held for the suspended players yesterday. nbc news is working to confirm. and espn reports the players will be eligible to return to school for the spring semester. texas university's scholastic league will hold its own hearing today. let's get down to business now with cnbc's landon dowdy. good morning. >> good morning to you. millennials may be more likely than their predecessors to save

for their kids' college education. a survey by fidelity finds 74% of parents age 30 to 34 have put money aside versus 58% of parents the same age polled in 2007. nearly half of millennial parents also plan to shoulder most of the cost for college. china goes on a spending spree. boeing has won $30 billion in orders for 737 jets and the couple will build a final assembly plant for the planes in china. union members are protesting the move saying they stand to lose work. and netflix knows when you've got hooked on your favorite shows. the service did a survey to find out when people get sucked into series, and it's never the pilot episode. that goes completely against what network tv's philosophy is with pressure to cancel shows if they don't immediately catch on. >> landon, thank you so much. and now to sports, where yogi berra remembered. the empire state building is illuminated in blue and white

pinstripes. and at baseball parks around the nation fans paid tribute to the giant of the game and a man whose turn of a phrase made him a household name. for the remainder of the season yogi's number 8 will be worn on yankee uniforms. the bronx bombers were shut out by the blue jays 4-0 giving them a 3 1/2 game lead in the a.l. east. pittsburgh pounded colorado 13-7 and solidified at least a wild card spot in playoffs. and a moment when money ceases to have meaning for some golfer rory mcilroy, commenting on the possibility of earning a $10 million bonus if he wins the tour championship. said quote, luckily, that amount of money doesn't sort of mean much to me anymore. it will go in the bank, and if i want to buy something nice, i will. since 2007 mcilroy has earned more than $28 million in pga prize money. well just ahead the eu pledges more money to help the growing migrant crisis. plus the latest fallout from the volkswagen emission scandal as a big shake-up at the company beginning. "first look" is back in three.

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welcome back to "first look." we have a few bad spots today. but overall the trend is still for some great weather out there. problem spots, sioux city down to holm omaha. yesterday record rainfall in omaha. we had five inches of rain yesterday. and now we're expecting to get another two inches on top of that today. that's why we have flood watches for this area as we go throughout this morning. it should end this afternoon. you can see on the radar. already a new batch of showers and heavy rain about to approach sioux city and omaha. those morning rush hours by far the worst in the country. the other spot we're going to have to watch over the next three days, an ocean storm will slowly begin to throw a lot of rain onshore. already a lot of bad conditions along the coast from the jersey shore all the way down through the carolinas. a lot of problems with rip currents out there, large waves. thankfully it's not really swimming season anymore. rainfall totals over the next 48 hours, possibility of one to two, maybe even three inches especially pinpointing north carolina. notice d.c. you should be dry over the next few days.

as far as great weather goes from d.c. northward, new england looks fantastic, the midwest looks nice, and still summerlike there in the lone star state. >> thanks so much for that, bill. i know we do need the rain, so -- >> a lot of areas need the rain. the ones that need it aren't getting it. the european union is planning to give an additional $12.1 billion in aid to help the refugees streaming in from syria. the money will go to the united nations refugee agency and the world food program to provide migrants with food and shelter. martin winter korn, the ceo of volkswagen has resigned. this follows the shocking admission by the german company that 11 million of their cars had been rigged to fool air pollution emission tests. >> volkswagen marketed this car as a high performance, superclean and environment friendly vehicle. they lied to consumers. two massive plumes of smoke exploded out of mexico's volcano yesterday shooting ash 1.2 miles into the air. this is the latest eruption in

the last two months that has blanketed nearby towns in ash. ben carson cashes in on his muslim comments and pope francis meets the nation's first dogs. scrambled politics is up next. milk cow here with an important announcement about how yoplait original now has 25% less of the sugar. less sugar?? yes. but don't worry it still tastes good. oh that is great news, milk cow. enjoy! i will. mmmmmmmm! it tastes good! i know. yoplait! isn't it beautiful when things just come together? build a beautiful website with squarespace. bleeding gums? you may think it's a result of brushing too hard.

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and a relationship built for the unexpected, she could control her cash flow, and keep the ranch running. chase for business. so you can own it. chase for business. hi mi'm raph. tom. my name is anne. i'm one of the real live attorneys you can talk to through legalzoom. don't let unanswered legal questions hold you up, because we're here, we're here, and we've got your back. legalzoom. legal help is here. here's your look at this morning's "scrambled politics." been carson nabs a big fund-raising hall after islam comments. a spokesperson for carson's campaign said they raised $300,000 in just two hours

yesterday. this comes after carson said on "meet the press" he could not advocate a muslim to be president. senator elisabeth warren stopped by the late show with stephen colbert last night. she was asked why she's not running for president and she said it's because the game is rigged. >> we have so much going for us, and yet we have a federal government that works great, for millionaires. it works great for billionaires. it works great for giant corporations, for anybody who can hire an army of lobbyists, an army of lawyers, give lots of campaign money. for the rest of america, it's just not working, and it's time for us to take that government back. donald trump took a swing at hillary clinton during a campaign stop in north charleston, south carolina yesterday. >> hillary, who's become very shrill. you know the word shrill. she has become shrill. she was saying what i said -- >> trump faced criticism lately for remarks he's made about

certain women like carly fiorina and fox news host megyn kelly. during his trip to the white house pope francis got to meet the first dogs, beau and sunny. this photo was taken by the white house photographer. and as conan o'brien pointed out last night the pope had one very historic moment yesterday. >> for the first time, this is true, for the first time on u.s. soil, the pope said a mass today canonizing an american saint. canonizing an american saint. that's pretty cool i thought. very cool. yeah. so congratulations to saint oprah. >> and that's your morning dish of "scrambled politics." in washington i'm joined now by syndicated columnist bob franken. good morning to you. that was very funny bit there. >> she's not canonized. >> not yet anyway. >> i think she's been self-canonized. >> well, i do want to talk to you about what the pope is doing. because pope francis will be the

first pope ever to address a joint meeting of congress today. what are we to expect? >> well, i think we're going to expect a new version of the speech that he made yesterday at the white house, where he forcefully spoke out about the need to correct climate change, danger that faces us, spoke out in support of immigrants, and also spoke out in terms of religious freedoms, and that type of thing. it was a speech that had something for everybody, and made everybody uncomfortable a little bit and i think we're going to get the same kind of thing when he speaks to congress. >> how do you think congress is going to react? do you think there will be applause? hooting and hollering or standing? or do you think they'll be very respectful and just politely clap? >> well, one would hope that the congress this time would be respectful, but a lot of people don't have confidence in that. as a matter of fact the speaker of the house, john boehner, and nancy pelosi the minority leader, sent out a letter to members saying don't do anything dumb. >> don't do anything dumb.

>> that's a paraphrase. >> okay. it's a good paraphrase, though. i do have a question, pope francis has been very bold in his comments. he spoke about climate control, and also about fighting isis since you had brought that up. how much influence do you think he actually holds? >> well, obviously at the moment he holds a tremendous amount of influence, and while he should, he is, of course, the leader of the faith that has over a billion members worldwide. but, in washington, to be perfectly honest about it, politics is the religion, and i suspect that his pleas will be quickly forgotten, to be very honest about it. i think we should point out, however, that pope francis may be the only person alive who hasn't had a nasty tweet about him from donald trump. >> that's a good point. but it's still early in the campaign. we don't know yet. the pope is -- >> that's right. >> will most likely still be in office for our next elected president. so how do you think his interest aligns with any of the potential candidates? >> well, the two sides have many

things that they agree with the pope on, and many things that they disagree. of course they are different things. and i suspect that there's going to be a respectful relationship no matter who the next u.s. president is. >> well religion is playing a big part in this election. there have been comments and noncomments about the muslim faith. this affected donald trump and dr. ben carson. can you talk about the impact? >> well, dr. carson is displaying a great knowledge of neurosurgery and a real bad knowledge when it comes to the american constitution. his comments about the muslims, of course, go right in the face of the constitutional provision that says there should not be a religious test for somebody running for president. but then he's sort of marching to his own drummer. and he is able to get away with a very, very soft demeanor, but some very harsh views. >> and we know that carson is meeting later today to discuss this. do you think he's going to be able to pull out of that? >> well, i suspect that he's going to try and soften, to tap

dance backwards just a little bit. but he said what he said, and he said knowing that he would be appealing to a base, the republican party, that has some very strong regressive views. >> bob franken. thank you so much for your input. always a pleasure to have you. just ahead an update on our breaking news story about that deadly stampede that claims scores of lives in saudi arabia. stay with us. scary. they come into ts world ugly and messy. ideas are frightening because they threaten what is known. they are the natural born enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary,

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and calls and e-mails me if something, like this scary storm, takes it offline. so i can rest easy. what. you don't have a desk bed? don't be left in the dark. get proactive alerts 24/7. comcast business. built for business. an update on that breaking news from saudi arabia. saudi officials now say there are at least 220 dead, more than initially reported. and that number could continue to rise. another 450 people are injured.

it happened during the annual hajj pilgrimage outside the muslim holy city of mecca. millions of muslims from around the world attend the sacred gathering every year. emergency crews still sorting through the fatalities and injuries. this is a developing story. we'll have more information for you as it comes in. in addition to attending the pope's historic speech to a joint meeting of congress, senate lawmakers are scheduled to vote on a spending bill. the republican sponsored measure would fund the government through december 11th to avert a government shutdown while also defunding planned parenthood. democrats are almost certain to filibuster the bill. nasa released video of earth pulling off the ultimate photo bomb yesterday. the earth's revolution passed it to cross the vision of the solar observatory. this sunday evening a super moon lunar eclipse will occur the earth's shadow will cover the moon giving it a red color and the nickname of blood moon. i'm excited for that. >> the whole superman is like a -- makes you think what's

going to happen. it's as close as it's going to get to the earth. >> i'm dara brown and this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned, "way too early" is starting right now. well the pontiff is asking is for all of us to change our position on carbon emissions. which is surprising because for years the church has had a clear emissionary position. this -- pope francis heads in to day three of his whirlwind visit to the united states, touching on plenty of hot button political topics. but right now the world is waiting to hear what he'll say later today in a rare speech before joint session of congress. plus -- >> in 2008, she was the original birther. she's the one that started that whole thing.

hillary is a birther. >> donald trump tells a half-empty room at a black business event that hillary clinton is to blame for the birther movement. now clinton is firing back. and the pairs among the military's most elite. the first women to pass the gruelling ranger school. the army says they're ready for combat. but one congressman is apparently not convinced. it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west, this is "way too early." good morning. it's thursday, september 24th, i'm jonathan capehart in washington. we begin this morning right here in washington, d.c., where in just a few hours, pope francis will deliver a speech before a joint session of congress and become the first pope in history to do so. after that he'