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in his tough senate campaign than she did in 2008? rescuing homeowners. a new plan from the president aims to save the housing market and why should that spark controversy? the no-cussing kid takes on vice president joe biden. we'll hear why. and paying more at the box office. prices going up. you might be surprised how much it could cost your family just for a night out at the movies. good morning, everyone. i'm contessa brewer. sarah palin will be back in the campaign spotlight as she tries to rally support for senator john mccain in arizona. they're in tucson yesterday. >> we're being accused of being the party of no because we oppose some of the things that the administration's doing. the louisiana governor says, well, no, we're not the party of no, we're the party of hell no. >> well, mccain is facing a tough re-election fight of his senate career.

he's leaning on his former running mate to boost his conservative credentials. nbc's norah o'donnell is in mesa, arizona this morning. he's in a tough re-election fight before he ever gets to a general election. we're talking about the primary here, norah. >> reporter: that's right. he's fending off a challenge from his political right, a primary challenge from a former congressman j.d. hayworth. so today, it is day two of the john mccain and sarah palin reunion tour. i'm joined here by a group of republican women, very involved in politics here in arizona. tell the truth, ladies. let me hear it loud and clear. are you hear to see john mccain or are you here to see sarah palin? >> sarah. >> both! >> reporter: so you can see, contessa, a lot of them of course here to see sarah palin. what is it about sarah palin? >> i love her energy, her passion for doing the right thing. that's what i'm here for, to support her and john mccain because he's about doing the right thing also. >> shawna, one of the questions that's been raised is, can sarah

palin help john mccain and how would she help him since there is a lot of distrust with john mccain in the state this election year? >> she's a good person po to bring more energy and more interest into women in politics. not only that, but the women who support the men that are in politics. we don't get enough credit. >> why is that going to rub off to john mccain's benefit especially with tea party conservatives who don't think he is? >> the only way to get the message out is have the people come. she will bring the people and then he can sell his message to them. >> donna, you've been a long-time mccain supporter. why do you think he's facing such a challenger this year around? he's been in the senate for 24 years. >> because j.d. hayworth wants to get back into congress, period. >> but do you think arizonans distrust john mccain? that the tea party movement is strong? >> a lot of the tea party people are supporting john mccain. maybe not all of them, but who can get everybody? john mccain does a wonderful

job. >> what do you think of the argument that sarah palin has used inappropriate language, that she has said that she is targeting democrats, she's urged her supporters not to retreat but to reload, that she's using gun imagery. do you think that she's inciting violence? >> i don't. i listened to her last night. she's not about violence, she's about doing the right thing. i think she's just trying to get people energized again and passionate about our party. >> shawna, you're running for office, a republican running for office for the city council. there are very few republican women in office. >> that's correct. and that's why we like sarah, because she's bringing attention to our plight, that we need more support and we've got tons of things out there for women, more educational programs to get involved and get mentored and get up there. >> reporter: so, contessa, there you see. it is a good group of republican women here. this is a rally for john mccain but there is a lot of people who's come out to see sarah palin. he was the republican nominee in the last election. he was at the top of the ticket, but it's clear that sarah palin is now the main attraction.

contessa. >> norah, thank you. we're extending our live coverage today to bring you the mccain campaign rally with sarah palin at noon eastern or 9:00 a.m. if you live in the west this saturday. south korea is stepping up the search for 46 missing sailors today after a navy ship sank near a disputed sea border with north korea. just-released photos show a portion of the south korean ship on the surface. a military official says a hole in the bottom of the ship is to blame and some sailors indeed died on-board. south korean authorities say there is no indication north korea's to blame but troops are being extra vigilant anyway. there's a big political shakeup happening in iraq this morning with the surprise upset in the parliamentary elections held earlier this month. the sunni alliance led by ayad aallow wi. the victory sets the stage for months of political wrangling. though allawi says he's open to

negotiations, they are being accused of fraud. the united states is closely watching the transition of power ahead of the planned withdrawal of u.s. combat troops this summer. a few minutes ago i sat down with nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel about what happens next in iraq. >> the government ministries, education, transport, health, barely function. the u.s. military has its role and has its role in providing security and that role is less and less. but the actual institutions of the iraqi state haven't worked for years. so iraqis are looking for leadership and look foring for secular leadership. >> the obama administration has revamped its program that helps borrowers struggling with their mortgage payments. mike viqueira is at the white house. how optimistic is the white house that the moves they'll make make a difference for families facing foreclosure? >> i think they're realistic in

that they had a similar program last year where they thought they would get a lot of lenders and borrowers together to write down some of the value of some of these mortgages, how much they owe, do homeowners owe. not a lot of people subscribed to it and not a lot of lenders wanted to get involved. now they'll throw billions of dollars in it to try to incentivize this, to get lenders and banks to sit down with people underwater with their loans and try to write down the principle of those loans. look at how the plan works. jobless homeowners. if you're unemployed, can you get a three-month to six-month break on payments, maybe even elimb napted. banks will get incentives to reduce balances for underwater borrowers if you owe more than the house is worth. lenders can offer government-back refinancing. let's look at who qualifies. if you have a mortgage that is under $729,000, you have to prove that you're in financial trouble, you have to be up on your payments as well. you have to be spending at least

31% of pretax income on payments. that is the so-called loan to value ratio or debt to income ratio, i should say, where people will be -- have to qualify to get some of the help from the federal government in this new program. . kentucky, ntsb officials are spending the day at the site where a deadly highway collision took place. they're trying to figure out what sparked that horrific accident. 11 people died in the fiery crash yesterday on interstate 65. a tractor-trailer slammed head-on into a van carrying a family of mennonites. it killed ten of them. family members of the group say they're devastated but believe they see god's hand in this. >> this isn't an accident. this was -- god knew this from the beginning. that will be one of the beginning things that the community will do is accept it as the will of god and we have the confidence that they were saved. >> two young children survived

the crash. they've been released from the hospital. officials say the cable barriers there in the roadway weren't designed to hold back a tractor-trailer. the driver of that truck also died in the crash. more snow headed for colorado. the national weather service says the mountains could get up to ten more inches of fresh snow this morning. bill karins joins us with more. we're seeing a lot of flights canceled in denver. the vail pass closed. here we are, officially in spring. >> want to know a weird fact about the denver area? >> yes. >> the two snowiest months of the winter for them. what would you guess? >> i'll guess since you say that, march and april. >> actually, november and march. it is the beginning and tail-end. >> 1 out of 2 ain't bad. >> that's good for you. let's talk a little bit about this storm that was out west and heading east. what's going to be interesting this week, probably one of the biggest weather stories is going to be this storm system that's now middle of the country heading to the east coast. looks like it could be another rain event.

this morning it is cold and chilly out there in many areas. probably one of the bigger stories of today. windchills up in new england are brutal. in the teens and single digits. it is at least sunny so it makes it feel a little bit better but it is a big change from what we have been dealing with. new york city right now, windchill is 27. let me take you through the forecast and what's going to happen. today, no problems. it is cold but it is sunny. by the time we get to sunday, the storm begins to arrive. washington, d.c. will start to see light rain late sunday afternoon. everyone from philly up to new england is dry on sunday. but sunday night, into monday the rain moves in. this looks like another long duration storm. of course we've had river flooding on and off all month long. looks like we'll go through another cycle of this as the storm system lingers monday, into tuesday. it looks very ugly up through the big cities. we'll see river flooding. we could see more strong, gusty winds. of course the soil is so -- the big storm we had about a week and a half ago that knocked out all the trees? once again, remember we were

just talking in like a lion, out like a lamb? this will be a lion of a storm. >> in like a lion, out like a lion. want to know a weird fact about that? >> i do. >> i would love to share it with you but i can't get google to work in time to give you one. sorry though. >> we'll wait. tonight, millions around the world are expected to observe earth hour. let's show you sydney harbor bridge in sydney, australia. 1 of 4,000 cities turning out the lights at 8:30 p.m. for one hour. the goal is to draw attention to saving energy and the fight against climate change. the campaign is sponsored by the world wildlife fund. if you've been to the movie theater lately you may have noticed, boy, prices are going way up. nbc's ron allen has more on why we're seeing the latest releases at the box office and paying a lot more for it. >> toothless? down. gently. >> reporter: the reviews are in. audiences love the new animated tale about a boy named hiccup and his unlikely friend, the

dragon. but they hate the price of administration at some big theater chains. to get prices up this weekend by several dollars per ticket and as much as 20% on some imax films all because of 3-d. >> this is some of the largest year over year price increases in recent history. 3-d's drawing people to the theaters. theater chains know it and they are taking this opportunity. >> reporter: in big cities like new york premium prices mean it could cost a family of four nearly $100 to see a 3-d film. that's including popcorn and soda. >> am i the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? >> that's too much money to go see a 3-d movie. >> reporter: you can blame "avatar," the biggest grossing movie of all time, convinced hollywood audiences would pay more for 3-d. then kwl ""al lis in wonderland shattered more box office records. theaters have been doing the price hikes very quietly. they know this is sensitive territory. no big announcements. this weekend they are watching

audiences closely to see if price hikes get a thumbs up or thumbs down. >> i would like to see the whole movie in 3-d, not just pieces of the movie. >>ly come if someone else pays for me. >> somebody's going to have to make a stand. >> one day somebody's got to say enough. >> reporter: big theater owners say it is the higher cost of new and emerging formats like 3-d now reaching the box office. and they say they'll charge less for matinees or during the middle of the week. but some critics don't buy that. >> even though we're coming out of the recession, a lot of people are still hurting and this is their vacation. i think this is socking it to them when they're down. i think it is unconscionable. >> reporter: hollywood isn't hurting. audience numbers are soaring. more high-priced 3-d films will soon hit the big screen. and hit your wallet harder as well. ron allen, nbc news, new york. up next, in the middle of big security changes at the tsa, the agency still doesn't have a

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security chief has now withdrawn from consideration because of questions over his background as a defense contractor. retired army major general roger harding took himself out of the running last night. harding has extensive intelligence experience but he says the distractions caused by his background would not be good for the administration be, nor the tsa. the administration has called the tsa chief opening one the most important unfilled positions on the president's team. this has been a historic week in washington. democrats are celebrating this landmark win on health care reform. republicans are promising to fight it well into the future.

after losing the legislative battle, the gop is rolling out a new platform aimed at repealing the newly enacted law. president obama says it is a debate he's ready to have. joining me now, pat buchanan, msnbc political analyst and joining the conversation, peter fenn, democratic strategist. good to have both of you gentlemen in here. pat,ky begin with you? is it realistic to think that you're going to have republicans moving forward and all the things they said they supported, rolling back these pre-existing conditions as a precursor to getting health care, some of the savings, cutting down on waste, fraud and abuse in medicare, can't you just cede the focus on that in the future? >> look. replace and reform or repeal and reform, i think it is a good campaign idea and i think it's got enormous pore. unites the republican base and they're really making it an issue. as a practical matter, can they do it. what they would have to do, even

if they passed repeal and reform, barack obama would veto it. so realistically, none of this can be done until 2013. a lot of it is going to be in place by then and it will be unchanged. it is a political issue, they got a good one though. >> they were the ones that said during this whole health care battle that democrats and the president were ignoring the real issue of jobs and the economy. why now would you have republicans moving forward if they really think that's what the american people care about, why would they go forward and keep ranting on health care reform? it is a done deal. >> they think it's a socialist takeover of a huge slice of the american economy that the american people in every way they could, in polls, in surveys, elections, referendum, demonstrations said they didn't want. i think the american people, majority want that done and i think that's why they're moving. people don't move politically in this direction, contessa, unless they think it is going to work for them. >> mr. fenn, what's your prediction about what we're talking about come october?

will it still be health care reform and whether republicans want to repeal it, or are the lawmakers who are up for re-election going to try and focus the conversation on jobs and the economy? >> i definitely think that it is going to be jobs and the economy, too. look, i think it is a fool's errand, contessa. i think the republicans are making a big mistake. they're the ones screaming all along, let's get jobs, let's get the economy moving again, let's go, let's go, let's move on to something else. well, now they're saying, oh, well, let's not move on to something else. we're just happy to talk about this. as pat says, look. the american people are going to find out very fast that nothing's going to happen. that they're not going to be able to do it, that even -- they can't pass it. look, they're beloved filibuster is 60 votes. you telling me the republicans could get 60 votes in the united states senate? >> not just 60. they'd have to get 67 to get it past president obama's veto. >> exactly. my point is they can't even pass it to get it to president obama

for him to veto. so you got these two hurdles which are so huge that it is a fool's errand. >> let's talk about the bigger issue -- >> contessa, let me make a point here. why is barack obama out talking about it? he realizes he has not sold the country on it and he has to sell the parts that are attractive to convince the country that he didn't ram a socialist program down their throats. that's why he's talking about it. >> yeah, i had to question this week about why he wasn't just automatically moving. and the white house has launched the foreclosure to help struggling families, this new program. but it is true, it has been such a divisive issue, why spend anymore time on now that it is a done deal. what political strategists like you, pat, told me, it is really important to help those democratic candidates who may suffer from health care reform. i want to move forward. if we're looking at people who are fired up, in mid-term elections people who turn out to vote are typically very

politically active, they voted in every election regardless of how big it is, but health care, government takeovers, bailouts, there's a lot of things that spark sort of general anger and a lot of people across america. are you expecting to see more of the base turn out during this particular election? what do you think, peter? >> yeah, contessa, look. for the republicans especially this is about the base. they don't care a wit about the moderates in the party. they're really going to the base. that may and little bit of a problem for them, too. the democrats have got to, conversely, also fire up their base. they have to get people going. one of the things i think on the health care debate is, giving that base the ammunition to say, you know, this is historic, we did the right thing, we're moving forward, but also to make them convinced that the stimulus package now has come into place, half the money's spent this year, that we're going to see growth of the economy, jobs. if that's what's happening in the summer and fall, contessa, my sense is that the democrats

will do a lot better than folks think they will. if the economy tanks, big trouble. >> i'm going to say this -- >> i hope so. because folks don't think they're going to do well at all, peter. >> this conversation will be continued, don't go anywhere. we have more of it coming up ahead on this saturday morning. pat, peter, thank you guys. coming up, florida's most wanted primate. the story of the elusive monkey and how to has avoided capture. do you not love this song? it makes me want to revisit my old -- what was that? high school? college days? we'll be right back.red by he wid on the plains. there's a hospital where technology has a healing touch. there's a factory giving old industries new life. and there's a train that got a whole city moving again. somewhere in america, the toughest questions are answered every day. because somewhere in america, more than sixty thousand people spend every day answering them. siemens.

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vernon, what kind of trouble is this monkey causing? >> well, actual trouble as far as really doing some kind of personal property damage, he really hasn't done that. it is more of a simple case, it is clearly his well being that he be taken out of the wile. first off, he is a social creature and he has no other primates to be with. and he's not an escaped pet. he's -- my opinion is he's one of them from the old tarzan movies from silver springs. he's looking for another troupe of monkeys. unfortunately he can't find them. >> you've had an opportunity and wildlife control has had him within their grasp. i understand you found the monkey once. what happened? >> we've guarded him several times. if you've got 15 minutes and are scared how far can you run? we believe he goes to sleep someplace, hides on us. when he wakes back up, of course we can't find him. that's because he goes over fences and over fences and we lose track of him.

and the tracking device method doesn't work. that's attached to the dart because he pulls the dart out and throws it. basically we just keep darting him and he keeps leaving. i keep joking we're basically just turning him into a junkie. but eventually we will get him. >> you think that he's getting any human help? he certainly has a lot of support. he has a facebook page, called "the mystery monkey of tampa bay." has more than 54,000 fans and in fact it says on the page he was watching the st. peterburg's grand prix yesterday. there any chance humans are feeding him? >> no, because he wouldn't take food from you. he wants nothing to do with people. he's basically if you go back to it, he was in a troupe. i'm sure in silver springs. ones all along for attraction. he high-mile challenged the elders, the elders booted him out. this has happened multiple times. they show up in orlando,

jacksonville. so in the wild state, if he was where he naturally belonged, he would leave and go join up with some other troupe or start his own little troupe and he would get another troupe of rhesus. but unfortunately for him he can't find another troupe of monkey. fortunately for florida we don't have that problem. so he's basically being a social creature, you got to also look bad for him because he's not been able to find his own kind. us capturing him would be for his benefit just as much because he'd be locked up with other monkeys so he would at least be with his own kind. >> the locked-up part is what doesn't sound that attractive, i got to be honest with you. in new york city we've been having this issue with a coyote who's been on the loose, running all over manhattan, eluding animal control, eluding police. they finally captured him, vernon, this week but it took 30 nypd officers to corner this wild animal. is this time to get 30 animal

control people on this monkey and try to get him, as you say, locked up? >> from time to time, we've probably had more than 30. we've had helicopters on him, we've had fire departments. you know, the problem with it is that it is almost like he is toying with us. when he gets tired of us messing with him, he gets a good head start on you. he's extremely intelligent. i mean a game commission officer was standing five feet from him and didn't see him as he sat in the bushes. last time we darted him he was up in a palm tree. you couldn't see him because he'd blend in so well. a large group of people isn't going to do the trick. >> he really did not want to be caught, either. because i understand he was throwing his waste at you. it has to be embarrassing to be outsmarted by a monkey. but there it is. vernon, i appreciate the phone call. keep me "in the loop" if you catch him. i want you to come back on with me. okay? >> i'm sure if i catch him it will be all over the news. >> all right, thanks, vernon. next on msnbc, we head out

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a busy day for sarah palin who's not only campaigning for john mccain, she's also kicking off a major tea party effort aimed at removing democrats from office. it begins at 12:00 p.m. eastern. msnbc has live coverage of this big palin-mccain event -- really it should be mccain-palin. a short time later the former governor will address the kickoff rally for the tea party express. that group is traveling to search light, nevada, the hometown of their first target, senate majority leader harry reid. that's where we find eye nanitan

of kabc. what's searchlight normally look like? >> searchlight is a town of about 800 people. tea party organizers tell us that they expect at least, if not more, 10,000 people to attend today's rally. this is a live picture behind me. the crowd has easily tripled in the last hour or so. there's a lot of excitement. the crowd is growing steadily and there's a lot of anticipation over today's event. as i mentioned, searchlight is about an hour outside of las vegas. it is a town with a population of about 800 people. it is a small, quiet town. of course, as you mentioned, this is where u.s. senator harry reid is from, and that is why the tea party is setting up here today. many of the people who are here today are here to see sarah palin speak, the former alaska governor, as you mentioned on the campaign trail with her former running mate, john mccain, who is up for re-election in arizona. palin was in tucson yesterday with mccain. she's speaking in mesa this morning before the rally here at

noon in searchlight. this is also exciting because this is the first stop for the tea party. first stop of 44 stops in 23 cities. so it's exciting to see how this whole thing will kick off. of course, the whole goal, contessa, is to get voters to vote key democrats out of office. >> all right, thank you very much for that, anita. let me bring in a white house reporter for the "washington post," ann, one of the interesting things when i said that harry reid is her first target. some people are really saying, yes, she's on the map where she's saying here are some congressional democrats who we need to target. she's telling her supporters to reload. she put the crosshairs of the rifle up there. she's really using some fiery rhetoric to inspire people to take political action. >> yeah. it is really provocative. some would say that it is dangerous. obviously the word "reload" is an image that invokes guns and ammo and now this may be just the language that she's accustomed to using, but there

are critics who think that it goes too far. what's interesting is to see how much excitement and energy she's actually brought to these races, setting aside the critics who think it's dangerous, that she still has this ability, that even in describing the event that it's a palin-mccain event, instead of a mccain-palin event. a lot of people had been skeptical this would last past the election. pretty dismissive of her. a lot of public opinion polls show her with very high negative ratings, and yet we see what we see today. >> she was very dismissive in her book of some of the campaign mccain campaign staff, and they were very dismissive of her. it looks as if mccain's people and her did not have a great relationship, yet here she is back in arizona stumping for him. is there any indication that those campaign appearances will help him be successful? >> well, the rift of the campaign did really seem to be between her and the aides, not between her and mccain personally. she and mccain actually have

been very careful to be respectful of each other, much in the way public officials often are. but this is strategic for both of them. it's good for mccain. it helps shore up his base. it's good for her. it puts her back in the heart of the political action instead of just talking about a reality show or talking about her family or talking about her book. this is less of a celebrity activity for her perhaps and more of a political one, one that i think gives her greater standing to continue talking about politics and substance of politics. >> she was very colloquial in what she was saying. she called is b.s., some of the legislation that's been past, saying the "lame street" media is responsible for attaching some of the threats and harassment towards members of congress to conservative activists and took a strong stand against that. that being said, health care, it seemed to me that if you were one of those republicans who were criticizing president obama and democrats for tackling health care when so many people are unemployed, then you should be among the first to move on to

jobs and the economy. >> yeah. we'll see if republicans stay on health care as the year progresses. i'm skeptical that it will be the only issue people are talking about. we get very excited in washington when something's happening, we talk about it as if it will be the top issue forever. that was last week. we'll see in six months. i suspect it will be more economy and jobs. the question of sarah palin's rhetoric and fascinating one, time and again she's criticized for the way she speaks, yet she's able to define the dialogue, "hopy-changy" stuff. she talks about the terms and is then quoted smeep did that again yesterday. >> despite america's short attention span, sarah palin seems has sticking power. a california teenager is calling on vice president joe biden to apologize for using a swear word on live tv earlier this week. 17-year-old mckay hatch founded a no-cussing club.

he says biden needs to set a better example for the nation. the vice president dropped an "f" bomb tuesday describing the historic signing of the health care reform law. remember he told the president it's a big "f'n" deal. mckay says biden ought to be held to a higher standard. >> many kids and adults all over the world look up to vice president biden as a role model. with this huge responsibility he needs to be a good role model for kids and use clean and appropriate language. >> the same teen persuaded the california assembly to approve a no-cussing resolution earlier this month. maybe he should have challenged them to balance their budget. viewers are weighing in. a lot of them confeign the "f" word. eli says, who does this kid think he is? he's just 1 of 100 million kids in america and he's demanding an apology from the vice president of the united states? he's the one who needs to learn some respect. bill writes, i'd like him to channel all this excess time and energy into feeding the homeless and the poor in his community.

robin has sympathy -- i agree with the teen but i don't think it is fair to single out joe biden when so many other public officials are just as guilty. what about john "hell no" boehner? positive signs on the economic front this week. jobless claims falling again to the lowest level in weeks. does it mean the labor market is recovering? msnbc financial analyst vera gibbons joins with us some answers. are we looking at a mixed bag? >> it is a mixed bag. claims have been going down for some time. that's a positive trend. we can take that as potential sign things are stabilizing. things don't seem to be getting worse where we had massive, massive cuts. but the unemployment rate actually went up last month in 27 states. it is a record high in four of those states, including florida, north carolina, nevada, georgia. >> my understanding is that it matters more what's happening at the state level than on the national employment level. >> the national employment level, at about 10%. if you look at all the underemployed people, it is

closer to 20%. another astounding statistic is that 6 million americans have been out of work for six months or longer. the bottom line is that the job market continues to be a very challenging one. >> looking at some numbers we got this past week, durable goods, that means people are buying stuff that lasts a long time. you've got to invest money if you're buying a washing money or dryer. >> appliance sales are down 13% year over year. that's why you have some of the incentives to get people to go out and spend and buy those durable goods. we are spending a little bit more than basics and necessity. that's a positive trend. before we were just buying basics only, necessities only. now we're spending a little bit more on ourselves. we're not spending freely. if you look at easter sales, for example, that's about $13 billion. up 2% from last holiday season and that's considered a positive sign, even though it is up just 2%. >> holidays come and go but it means retail stores can focus on that and hope to bring a little

more money in. we're talking this morning about how much it now costs to go to the movies. especially 3-d movies which hollywood is depending on to really reshape the profit margins. >> that's right. 3-d movies with a big profit money-maker for them, they're charging more for them, $15 to $20 in some cities, some are raising them as much as 26%. >> will that discourage people from going? >> there might be a tipping point. we'll see. ahead on msnbc, testing the faith of the nearly 2 billion catholics around the world. fresh reaction as the church strikes back at the allegations the vatican turned a blind eye to predator priests. and flash mobs show up out of nowhere, terrorize stores in neighborhoods and then in an instant, they're gone. up next, in philadelphia, a new crackdown. we'll be right back.

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in philadelphia, there is now a no-mob rule in effect.

that's because police have been facing these flash mobs. hundreds of teenagers texting each other, posting on twitter, other social networks where they are showing up so a huge crowd amasses, then turns violent. with me, the assistant city editor with the "philadelphia daily news." describe some of the real problems when these teens arrive en masse in a certain neighborhood in the city. >> i think what happens is for the most part you have some really good kids, but within those groups you have kids who are coming with the intent purpose to fight, to rush stores, to run over cars, to pull people out of their cars, to yell "gun" forcing everyone to start returning and you have mayhem. >> do the police know what's behind the texting that goes on to say, hey, show up at this certain time and certain place? >> i'm not sure if the police know what's behind it but my understanding is that these kids belong to various groups, either party groups, neighborhood groups, school groups, and they

want to go and socialize. >> my understanding is that the officers also want to start holding adults accountable for their children's wherebs. >> absolutely. as they should. >> what's the city's plan to crack down on the flash mobs if they're considered dangerous and at least scary to community members? >> i think what they're trying to do is enforce the -- do better enforcement of curfew. i think they're trying to hold parents accountable, involving the fbi who are better technology than police in terms of tracking down the source of some of these text messages and tweets and posts on some of the sites that aren't that familiar to some of us. >> has anyone been charged so far? >> yeah. they've charged about 29 kids and the judge has thrown the book at them, as people would expect. >> all right, thank you so much for bringing us up to date. >> thank you. ahead this hour, the fallout from the health care bill signing. we're talking to congressman

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in colorado, an 84-year-old great grandmother with terminal cancer made a final wish. she wanted to go sky drivindivi. thanks to her family and friend, the dream came true this week. >> i have lymphoma which is the first form. i was supposed to go in three months to six months. but it's going on seven. i just had a lot of projects i had to get done first. and i've got all the projects pretty well done. so i'm ready to go. >> with that, she was off making the final wish of her life come true. diving out of an airplane.

look at that smile. after a safe landing she said she enjoyed every moment of her seven-minute glide to earth. good for her. now to the countdown of countdowns. nasa's getting ready for one of the last shuttle missions. shuttle "discovery" is now set to launch april 6th at 6:21 in the morning. crew members are in houston right now training ahead of the launch at kennedy space center in florida. republicans may have lost the legislative fight over health care but it doesn't mean they're giving up on the issue. senator mitch mcconnell says the gop will work to repeal the bill and replace it with something better. joining me now, representative phil roe, republican of tennessee. do you support the effort to repeal and replace be, congressman? >> contessa, i do. certainly i am a physician and spent 30 years practicing medicine. one of the things about this bill that struck me is, it's really sad that we're going to put $10 billion in strengthening

the irs to see if you have health insurance instead of putting the $10 billion into health insurance coverage. that $10 billion that we're going to create to have irs agents look at sea whether you have insurance coverage would essentially fix our problem for the citizens of tennessee. it's astonishing that we would do that. >> but congressman, if you want to talk about waste, isn't it a waste of time for republicans to spend any time or energy on this when it doesn't have the votes to overcome the veto by president obama. you would need 67 in the senate. you're far from that. even if you pick up seats in november, it is unlikely that you could actually make that happen. so -- and a lot of republicans are saying, while we were debating health care, let's talk about jobs, let's talk about the economy. isn't that the big winner for republicans? >> there's no question you're right about that. i don't want to back off health care, because this changes forever the direction of our country. >> but if you're not going to win, why spend time on it?

>> i think that you're wrong about that. i think if you had been there -- you probably were this weekend and saw the energy that was in washington, d.c. that's what elections are for. we're going to have one in november and we're going to have another one in 2012. most of these changes don't go into effect -- some of which i agree with. but what we should have done was sat down and done things that we agree with. ps t it is the law now and people have to understand it is the law. it will be challenged. people on your show this morning were talking about the potential court challenges of some of the provisions of this bill. >> i want to ask you about one of the things that got this bill passed in the first place. president obama tackling the issue of abortion. bart stupak wrote in the "washington post" op-ed today that it wasn't because people -- that he wasn't taking a stand against abortion, but rather, people who wanted to kill the health bill politicizing abortion. do you think that's the case and are we going to see abortion now renewed attention on abortion

once again leading up to the november election? >> yes, i think you are. bart stupak can't have it both ways. >> but there's no language in this bill that says federal money will be used to pay for abortions. >> here's the key. here's a little caveat though. the reason the hyatt amendment was passed in 1976 was because if you specifically don't exclude it, it can be included. and that's the language it wasn't in there. that's where -- what the president did doesn't trump federal law. otherwise we won't need courts and we wouldn't ned legislatures. you just need a presidential directive. that's not the way laws are done here. >> that fight has made strange bedfellows out of people who oppose abortion and people who support abortion rights, both angry at the action that bart stupak and the president took on that issue. congressman, i appreciate your time today. thank you for joining me on a saturday. >> thanks, contessa. ahead next hour on msnbc, sarah palin's turning up the heat and turning up the volume on her political battle cry in

support of her former running mate. she's speaking at a mccain rally in a little more than an hour and we're following that live. plus, sandra bullock cancels another public appearance as her husband's list of mistresses get longer. we'll have more on that ahead on msnbc.