medication to lower your bad cholesterol but your good cholesterol and triglycerides are still out of line? then you may not be seeing the whole picture. ask your doctor about trilipix. statin to lower bad cholesterol, along with diet, adding trilipix can lower fatty triglycerides and raise good cholesterol to help improve all three cholesterol numbers. trilipix has not been shown to prevent heart attacks or stroke more than a statin alone. trilipix is not for everyone, including people with liver, gallbladder, or severe kidney disease, or nursing women. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you are pregnant or may become pregnant.

blood tests are needed before and during treatment to check for liver problems. contact your doctor if you develop unexplained muscle pain or weakness, as this can be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. this risk may be increased when trilipix is used with a statin. if you cannot afford your medication, call 1-866-4-trilipix for more information. trilipix. there's more to cholesterol. get the picture. top of the hour here on msnbc. i'm ed schultz live in new york. here are some of the stories we're covering at this hour. a desperate situation grows even more desperate. dangerous air forces crews to abort a coal mine rescue mission. we'll tell you how tiger woods is doing after teeing off at the masters today. but a lot of buzz about the new television commercial. >> i want to find out what your feelings are and did you learn

anything? >> woods is hoping the voice of his father will help get him back into the good graces of golf fans. plus, some economists say it's only -- really the only way to deal with the massive deficits we have in this country. a new tax on everything you buy is under serious consideration in washington. hello. i'm ed schultz. thanks for joining us this afternoon here on msnbc. now to the last chance rescue for four missing miners in west virginia. if the workers made it to a refuge chamber the supplies would be dwindling at this point. right now rescuers in west virginia are in a stand by mode. crews had entered into the mine before dawn but then dangerous gas levels forced an evacuation. nbc news' brian mooar is in naoma, west virginia for more on this. what are the chances of them

getting back into the mine before darkness tonight? >> well, ed, they're really hoping to get back in right around 7:00 this evening when we're going to get another briefing but officials were very frank about it. those crews were angry when they were yanked out of that mine. to give you an idea of how close this was they have a sort of threshold of 5% of a buildup of explosive gases before they had to get out. it got to 5.4%. they told the crews to double time it out of there. they really did not want to do that. just like all these families who have been waiting for some measure of closure they really wanted to get in there and they got so close, they got within 500 feet. keep in mind, they went almost five miles into this mountain. within 500 feet of the area they were looking for and then ordered back out. so it's basically a stand by mode for many more hours and authorities say the chances are very, very slim that these four

miners had gotten into a sort of rescue chamber. we believe if by some miracle they had gotten inside they'd have about 24 hours of supply left of oxygen. authorities say there is time if chance against chance they did get in there but authorities say at this point they cannot risk the lives of 32 rescue workers even to save the lives of four. >> so, brian, what are they doing right now to prepare for a re-entry? what kind of operations are taking place around the mine that would allow them to go back in later on this evening at i think you said 7:00 tonight? >> reporter: well, let's go back a couple hours. the first thing they had to do was get these miners out. they dropped 30 pounds each of equipment in place where they were so that'll speed them getting back in a little later. they had to get out of that mine and once they got out they started the drilling process. you might remember that they were drilling several holes into the side of this mountain. a thousand feet deep to try to vent these explosive gases out,

equalize that air so the miners can go back in. here's the catch. they have to get the miners out to start the drilling because there could be an explosion. then they have to get those drills back out. that's a couple more hours there before they can get those miners back in. they will not drill. they will not remove the drill while the rescue workers are inside. >> okay. brian mooar in west virginia on the scene thanks so much. monied, the u.s. military h confirmed the latest harrowing hostage video released by the taliban is that of private first class bo bergdahl. the u.s. soldier disappeared from a u.s. military forward operating base in eastern afghanistan back in june of 2009. the taliban captured private bergdahl last summer. in this video bergdahl says he would like to return to his family in idaho. and a craving for nicotine ends in an airplane bomb scare. a diplomat from qatar has been released after an incident on a

d.c. to denver united flight. here's how officers say it went down. the man's first mistake? ignoring the no smoking sign and lighting up in the bathroom. then when questioned about the smoke officials say he made a joke that he was, quote, lighting his shoe. air marshals were, no doubt, not laughing. fighter jets were scrambled until that flight landed. the qatar embassy calls it a, quote, misunderstanding. tiger woods teed off at the masters a short time ago. we have snapshots hot off the press from augusta. nbc news kerry sanders is at the tournament. of course early going but how is he doing so far? >> reporter: well, he's one under par through four holes which is very respectable. when he came out onto the green today to tee off on that first hole there was a very large crowd there. they cheered for him when he came up. some applause. he put the ball down on the tee. a lot of silence. then he drove it and then the

cheers resumed. it was a long, straight shot. a lot of people have been talking about whether tiger woods can live up to his legend and that is that he can compartmentalize and focus and everything else in his life can be washed away when he gets on the course. well, at one under par through four he is certainly doing a respectable job he's got a long way to go today and tomorrow to see if he'll make it into the finals but he certainly is showing that even with the time away from the competitive course he is a very respectable golfer. now as he was coming up to hole number one upstairs there was a banner plane flying overhead and the tail of the banner plane said right there, tiger, did you mean bootyism? which was a joke or a play on his statements about returning to his roots in buddhism. obviously everybody glanced up and looked at it. now it's flown on and the only real concern above now are the clouds that have moved in because it may rain. if it rains, they have to

suspend play and if they suspend play it could break the rhythm. as tiger woods and the other players here late in the afternoon would have to resume their game later. monica? >> kerry, anyone claiming responsibility for that sign yet? >> reporter: no, and if i can say, i didn't think it was that funny. there are better plays on words to use. it flew over and a lot of people were like, mm-hmm. okay. >> thanks as always. we'll continue following tiger's game today. coming up this hour we'll have more on tiger's return. is woods really back on course? for now, ed, back over to you. >> i tell you what, monica, if he is at under par after the first round that is a very dangerous place for other golfers to be. i tell you what, if he's under par after the first round he's going to get on a roll and he's got a chance at winning this thing. the first round is going to be the key. it's going to be fun to watch. >> everybody will be watching for sure. a total of 18 states are now part of a lawsuit against the federal government challenging the new health care reform law.

led by florida, the suit claims the law is unconstitutional because it forces americans to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. the attorney general of the state of indiana, one of five states that have just joined the lawsuit. good to have you on msnbc this afternoon. why was your state of indiana so late in joining in on this? >> well, we weren't really late, ed. i had already explained that i would be joining a challenge to this legislation but i wanted to see what were the best things for the people in indiana. so we looked at the claims brought in florida, we looked at possibly bringing our own claim. there may be yet more but i think in the end after about a week i decided that collecting up with all of the other attorneys general, bringing as many claims in a single action, the efficiency that that has to the supreme court if it gets that far, and also it avoids a

lot of the costs to be borne collectively as opposed to just my state. >> so this was a deliberate move on your part, certainly not political. is that what i'm hearing? >> no. i had already said that i would be challenging because i think that's part of the role of attorney general. people have made a lot more out of this as being a political thing but frankly, this is a healthy thing. attorneys general challenge the federal government if they try to usurp authority of either the states or of individuals and i think this is clearly one of those areas where a question needs to be brought to the supreme court so we can have it asked and answered. >> there has been somewhat of a rallying cry for a lot of gopers around the country. this is michele bachmann at a rally yesterday in minnesota. >> the night that we took that infamous monstrosity of a vote to nationalize the health care in the united states of america i turned to one of my colleagues on the floor and i said, this is

it. we have got to file a repeal bill and he said, go for it. and so the next morning i was the first member of congress on the floor to slap down a bill to repeal obama care. >> do you believe that this bill that's passed into law is unconstitutional? >> well, i produced a 55-page report for indiana senator richard luger and in that report we question whether the federal government has the authority to mandate every individual to purchase a commercial product. this would be the first time in history that the federal government doesn't require you to join a program like medicaid or social security. all of those things are clearly constitutional. here you're saying that the federal government can require every person in the united states to purchase a commercial product. so i'm raising the question about the constitutionality and frankly i think it deserves a challenge. >> okay.

and is this the only part of the health care law that you have a problem with? or are there some other things in the bill that you feel may be constitutionally challenged? >> there's going to be a number of claims. remember that insurance products are sold within states' borders. they're not sold across state lines. so essentially what you have is the federal government coming in and commandeering the instrumentality of state government. we're the ones who regulate insurance policies. they're using state government for their own purposes. that, again, raises constitutional questions between the authority of the federal government, the authority of state governments, and, again, this is part of the natural challenge. whenever the federal government wants to expand their authority, i think it's incumbent upon the states to push back and see whether they actually have this constitutional authority. >> all right.

indiana attorney general greg zoeller with us here on msnbc. thanks so much today. >> good to be with you, ed. >> you bet. it's tax time again folks but only 53% of americans really have to worry about it. i'll talk to someone who says we need a value-added tax in america. a move critics call an economy killer. plus, new fighting breaks out in the capital of a key american ally. hear how the united states military could be affected by the unrest overseas. and then tonight at 6:00 eastern right here on msnbc, it's "the ed show." i'll be back at 6:00 eastern. the president of the united mine workers of america joins me to talk about the mining disaster in west virginia, the legal ramifications, and if it could have been prevented. that's tonight at 6:00 right here on msnbc. [ female announcer ] sometimes, you can get so much out of so little. woohoo! [ female announcer ] especially when it comes to charmin ultra soft. its ultra soft design is soft and absorbent.

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welcome back to msnbc. upset about your taxes? think you paid too much? well, then you must not be among the 47% of americans who will pay no taxes at all this year. according to the tax policy center, in washington, d.c., the top 10% of earners pay 73% of all taxes while the bottom 40% pay nothing. come april 15th almost half of the united states households will send nothing to uncle sam either because they don't make enough money or they have enough credits to offset any taxes at all. those numbers, combined with the growing anger over health care reform and a skyrocketing deficit is reigniting a debate over a value-added tax or what would amount to a national sales tax.

white house economic adviser paul volcker suggested this week the united states should consider a value-added tax as a way to get the deficit under control and of course that brought a firestorm of reaction. the national republican senatorial campaign committee said, quote, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the obama white house would advocate a european-style tax to help finance their european-style government health-care plan. it's almost as if the democrats think the american people will forget that we're in this situation because of the reckless spending agenda. leonard burrman is a professor at syracuse university and dan mitchell is a senior fellow at the cato institute. gentlemen, good to have you with us today. i think we can all get on the same page that we can't have these skyrocketing deficits and something has to be done. everybody in washington is clearly on the same page on that one. mr. burrman, how would a national sales tax affect the treasury? would more money actually come

in and would we be more of a solvent nation if we were to go down this way? >> well, there is some controversy about the latter but a value-added tax can raise a lot of revenue. it's basically a tax on all spending like a sales tax collected at the state level but done in a way that is easier for the irs to enforce. my view is that there's no way we're going to get spending down to the level where we can finance them with the current income tax and a value-added tax is more conducive to economic growth than an income tax. that's important going forward. >> what do you think, mr. mitchell? would this be good for the country? >> no. i think it would be terrible for the country because although it doesn't do as much damage as the income tax per dollar raised it clearly would drive a bigger wedge between pretax pay and post tax pay in terms of whether people are benefiting from actually producing in the economy. but the real thing that bothers me about the value-added tax, look at europe. they have giant deficits, places

like greece and ireland and italy and england and yet they have these big value added taxes. if we put that in in america the politicians will spend all that money that comes in and then we'll still have big deficits because that's just the way the political class behaves. >> what should we do, mr. mitchell? what should we do to get our fiscal house in order? >> well, if i was economic czar i'd have a very easy answer. if you're asking me to look at these folks in washington, we had big spending, wasteful programs under bush, and now obama has picked up the baton and he is racing in the same direction. so i'm actually very depressed and i'm afraid that the politicians are going to saddle us with a vat and then spend more money and go into further debt because that's just the way as i said politicians behave. we need to just limit the growth of government spending so we get our budget under control. the real problem isn't deficits. it's big, wasteful spending. >> well, explaining the

value-added tax, it's a tax added to a product at each step in the production process. every company handling the product pays the v.a.t., value-added tax, and those costs are passed on to you, the consumer. i'm just a little skeptical, mr. burrman, wouldn't this pick on lower income people? >> there is a problem. the value added tax tends to be regressive. there are ways to deal with that. one way is to provide an income tax credit to offset regressivety at the bottom. it's basically the same thing the national retail sales tax people have been proposing. the fact is that under the current system we have these huge taxes and we just haven't decided who is going to pay them. the deficit will be paid by our children or grandchildren with interest and possibly trying to pay it with a wrecked economy because of the damage from the huge debt. you know, i know mr. mitchell would really like to reduce the

size of government dramatically but we have a democracy and it's clear that people want more government than the current tax system can support and a value added tax is a relatively efficient way to raise revenue. >> leonard burman and dan mitchell, good to have you with us this afternoon. thanks so much. in northern italy there is a political debate going on that may remind you of this seinfeld episode from back in the day. take a listen. >> you're driving the car. you're with your friend. minding your own business. >> yeah. >> then what happened? >> well then we saw this woman and she was wearing a bra with no top. >> no top? she didn't have a top on? >> yeah. so i got distracted and i crashed the car. >> well, that's what lawmakers in italy are trying to prevent. we've seen dangerous curves signs before but nothing like this. that region of italy has a problem with prostitutes positioning -- propositioning drivers, right there. according to the uk mail, the

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i like it. a lot. welcome back to msnbc. the president of kyrgyzstan says he is still in control of his country and refuses to step down. earlier today there were reports of gun fire throughout the capita capital city one day after violent protests led to a bloody coup leaving at least 74 dead and 400 wounded. an nbc news producer is in the capital of kyrgyzstan and joins me on the phone from the capital city. what is the situation at this hour? has it settled down quite a bit? >> reporter: well, ed, it seems to have settled down a bit. today was much quieter. we didn't see any of the violent protests we saw yesterday. in the evening after we got to

our hotel we could hear gun fire from the hotel windows and the hotel tried to basically block out most of -- black out most of the hotel to keep a low profile. security guards came to each room. they asked me to close my blinds and only use the light we really needed. we heard a lot of movement in the city tonight. now it's late enough we haven't heard too much. it's touch and go and we're not sure of the situation out on the streets. >> okay. the president says he still has control of the government. does it seem that way? >> reporter: not at all. he is saying that he is still the president but the actual lefrs levers of power seem to clearly be with the provisional interim government right now. they say they have the security forces on their side, the police force on their side, and the president is basically relegated to one or two areas in the south

where he sort of still has a traditional area of control. >> and of course the united states said today that it had not decided about the legitimacy of the new leaders government. thanks for joining us here this afternoon. some of florida's teachers are outraged over a new bill that could tie their jobs to the performance of their students. plus, it's usually the last swing of the tournament that everyone watches but not in tiger's case. the golfer teed up about two hours ago, making his official return to the game. we'll have more on that. ♪ if it ain't got that swing

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cnbc market wrap. here's a look at how stocks are trading today. the dow is up about 43 points. it is hovering underneath that crucial 11,000 mark at 10,940. electronics retailer best buy says it has sold out of apple's i-pad in all 673 u.s. stores with apple shops. best buy was the only nonapple retailer in the u.s. to have the i-pad when it launched on saturday. meantime steve jobs says apple has sold a total of 450,000 i-pads since yesterday. the undisputed queen of day time talk oprah winfrey is headed to primetime and says she'll make the move with an hour long talk show titled "oprah's next chapter." oprah will travel the world talking to celebrities. her next chapter will make its debut in late 2011. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. monica, back to you. the white house says the united states is marking a new era of cooperation with russia

after the two countries signed a treaty today aimed at reducing nuclear weapons. the ceremony happened earlier this morning in prague where president obama suggested the entire world benefits when the former rivals find common ground. >> this day demonstrates the determination of the united states and russia, the two nations that hold over 90% of the world's nuclear weapons to pursue responsible global leadership. >> here at home the treaty, signed by the president, could have a real impact on towns like great falls, montana, the site of the airforce base which oversees 150 nuclear-tipped missiles in launch facilities scattered around central montana. the base is home to over 450 people who account for roughly 40% of the economy in great

falls, montana. steve malicott is the ceo of the chamber of commerce in great falls, montana and joins me on the phone. steve, good to have you with us today. >> thank you. i'm glad to be with you. >> how much of an impact would this have? you know, 40%. what does that mean? >> in terms of 40% of our economy it includes not only the airforce base but the montana air national guard. if we were to lose either of those it would have a significant economic impact on our region to be honest. but we don't know what the impact of the new treaty is going to be as of yet. we're looking right now at minimal cause and in both of our senators have assured us that right now we're in good shape at least until 2012 while they evaluate how they want to implement this strategy. >> well, i've seen towns of this size that have military bases and if the base goes away, the town goes away. i mean, do you fear that?

>> no, i don't fear that at all. we have a pretty stable economy beyond that and i don't think it'll happen overnight and we're looking right now to expand our economic base and a diversity of our economy here. so i think that we've been told we're good for at least seven years and then even during that seven years impact of malmstrom airforce base may be minimal and we trust our senators to make sure that happens. as we continue to diversify and grow i think we'll be fine down the road. >> what would you do, agriculture, ranching? >> agriculture is a major industry here. we grow an awful lot of wheat for the united states up here in montana. we're very, very pleased with that. but, yeah. we have other industries here that also are attached to the agricultural industry, too. >> some bases are going to be closed. what do you expect out of your senators? what can they do? this is an international treaty with the former soviet union and reducing 30% of the stockpile,

something's got to give. >> well, keep in mind that we're not talking about, just about icbms but also talking about submarines and bombers. and how they implement that strategy, i mean, to add everything up we have now, the 450 inground silos, 60 bombers, 288 nuclear missiles, that's 798, the treaty limit is 700. we'd have to reduce 98 and it would depend thouhow that's implemented. we have full trust in our senators to represent our best interests here. >> appreciate your time this afternoon. >> thank you. have a great day. monica novotny is back with a look at other stories we're following at this hour. we'll start with republican governor bob mcdonnell of virginia, apologizing for what he called a major omission from the proclamation he issued last friday declaring april confederate history month in virginia. mcdonnell has since inserted a

paragraph condemning slavery as, quote, evil and inhumane and blaming it as the cause of the civil war. governor mcdonnell said he wasn't focused on slavery in drafting the original proclamation but rather on civil war history. lawyers for three teenage girls charged in tormenting the new girl at school so much that she committed suicide have entered not guilty pleas today. the three girls did not appear in court. 15-year-old phoebe prince hanged herself in january. the judge ordered the girls to have no contact with the prince family. three other teens charged in connection with prince's death are being tried in adult court. security officials in rio de janeiro say at least 200 people have been buried and they're feared dead. this in the latest landslide to hit the area. if confirmed it would sharply raise the death toll which currently stands at 153. as many as 60 homes were flattened in the shanty town neighborhoods. the landslides triggered by the heaviest rainfall in the city's history. ed, back over to you.

>> thanks, monica. all right. only in san francisco. that's the city's very own tag line. but today, it sounds much more like a punch line. take a look at the jersey of giants outfield er velez. okay. it was spotted as he entered the game last night against the astros in houston. his name is spelled right but the city's name, well, it's spelled wrong. the "c" and the "s" are backwards. the team says it was only wrong on his jersey and they'll get it fixed before the next game. losing weight clicked for me when i realized

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anywhere. that's msnbc on sirius xm radio. that's all starting on april 12th. let's go to florida. florida may have just lost its chance for the first white house race to the top school grants. but now the most sweeping education changes in the nation may be on the way right there. the big issue is merit pay. the florida state bill would tie 50% of teacher pay increase to student test scores. and they'd say good-bye to tenure. anyone hired after july 1st can only sign one-year contracts. the bill would also make it easier to fire under performing teachers, teachers and teacher unions are furious about this. and they have been protesting the changes. >> we don't necessarily know if the next year if we're going to be paid or not. we don't know how much we're going to be paid. how can you pay a mortgage when you don't know how much you make? >> the problem is they're going to kill the public school as we know it and also drive away all

of the good teachers. we'll be left with rooms full of substitute teachers coming in and out. >> let's bring in congressman marty care. he's on the phone. and also he is the state house democratic ranking member on education and is against the bill. in support of the bill is mark wilson, president of the florida chamber of commerce. all right, mr. wilson, why are you in support of this? doesn't this put undue pressure on people who are trained professionals? >> what this is all about is this. florida's economy is changing and we're going from a low skill, low wage state to a high skill, high wage state. because of recent education reforms in our state, we are now one of the top ten education states in america. and what the florida chamber of commerce is trying to do in florida is to improve education even further, get teachers higher salaries, more money in the classrooms, higher standards, so that we can

compete internationally and in addition to being a top ten state in the nation, we need to be a top ten state in the world. it's as simple as that. >> congressman, what do you think? >> thank you, ed, for allowing me to appear. i think it's very interesting when just about every single teacher in the state of florida is opposed to this bill and the only people really in support of it are either politicians or policymakers, it really shows this is a very bad bill. i tell you, i believe personally that teachers know much better how to educate our kids than politicians do. and my good friend from the chamber mentioned florida is one of the top ten in the nation. it is. we were ranked as number eight in large part because the teachers of florida were ranked number fourth in the entire nation. to me, that shows me if already we have some of the greatest teachers in the nation, then why should we try to fix a system that is not

whether they're two grades below or above grade level every child regardless of their situation can learn. this bill is about rewarding good teachers with higher pay. this bill is not about testing. the unions would like you to believe that it is. the unions are supporting a system where the only way a teacher can make an additional $2,000 in florida in some school districts is to teach for ten years. what we're trying to do at the chamber of commerce is to create a system where when kids learn, teachers make more money. this is about getting a lot more

money to good teachers and we refuse to accept the union rhetoric that kids are too stupid to learn. every kid can learn and every teacher deserves more pay when those kids learn. it's as simple as that. >> congressman, what do you think of that? >> i'll tell you, it's very interesting hearing my friend speak on this issue. the teachers' salary will be based on how the kids do on one test throughout the year and it takes in no other outside factors. for example if a child's mother dies the day before an exam that child probably isn't going to do well on the exam and under the current bill a teacher will be held accountable for how a child does on that exam. that's not right. you know, i believe yes teachers should be held accountable for how the students do in the classroom. the way this bill goes about doing it, however, is very wrong and will set us backwards for many years. one other thing, ed. it takes away professional service contracts. you're talking about tenure. right now in florida, florida pays our teachers $5,000 below

the national average. it doesn't fund education well and constantly takes benefits from our teachers. a bill like this that takes away another benefit from our teachers will discourage more teachers from going into the profession or will send them to other states. it's a very bad bill that's not in the best interests of our children. >> congressman kiar, mr. wilson, good to have you with us here on msnbc today. it's a story to follow for sure. >> thank you. tiger woods back on the course in the world of competitive golf playing right now at the masters. while many fans are excited, feelings about his return are pretty much mixed. san francisco chronicle blogger zennie abraham writes, tiger woods winning the masters is the ultimate middle finger to society and people will love it. today at the masters attention turned back to the sex scandal for a moment as a plane flew by with the sign saying, tiger, did you mean bootyism?

joining us is david dusek, deputy editor at golf.com. good to have you on. this is certainly the most attention the first round of the mast e masters has ever gotten. no doubt about that. the people that are watching tiger today, are they genuinely supporting him or are they just watching to see something big happen? what do you think? >> they're not generally supporting him. they're absolutely 100% behind tiger woods. there has not been a single instance so far this week here at augusta national where a fan has called out anything derogatory towards tiger, made any kind of slanderous statement, yelled out any kind of joke. the people heerp at augusta, georgia are golf fans, big time likers of tiger woods. he has received nothing but support so far. >> let's talk about this commercial. this of course has been the topic of conversation down there. what's the response of the golf fans that all of a sudden this rather strange commercial from nike comes out with tiger woods' dad's voice on it?

>> well, i think a lot of the golf fans out there who saw that commercial, tiger woods basically just staring, expressionless, into the camera, and hearing his father who passed away in 2006, you know, sort of question him, had the same response as everybody else. twle so they were sort of shocked and stunned and it creeped some people out no question about it. i think it was effective for nike in that people are talking about it. people are all abuzz of it, not all of them positive. a lot of people think it's too early to market tiger woods that the point and i tend to agree. >> what's his demeanor on the golf course? he was talking about not getting too excited or too angry. does he seem even tempered and kind of going through the motions, accepting everything that happens? what's he look like on the course today? >> i think that he looked really at ease and very calm over the course of every day since i had a chance to follow him for 18 holes on monday. i walked a lot of holes with tiger this week. every day he has gotten more and more comfortable. i think the most insecure moment

was monday morning at 8:00 a.m. the very first tee shot he said he didn't know what to expect and didn't know what was going to happen but he received so much support from the people here in augusta that i'm convinced he right now is mentally at as good a place as he can possibly be. through six holes he was one under par, playing halfway decent golf. he put his first tee shot, usually the toughest one of them all, right in the middle of the fairway. he was smiling, shaking hands with playing partners, matt kuchar and k.j. choi. tiger seemed at ease with himself. >> david, i think if tiger woods is under par after the first round that's a really good place to be having not played for a long time. he is going to be a force in this tournament if he can get that first round under his belt. good to have you with us, david. >> tiger woods -- thanks a lot. >> david dusek with us from the masters. the international space station got some extra space with a new 13-ton walk-in closet. that and the day's top stories are up next.

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here is a look at the top stories on this thursday afternoon. the rescue attempt of four missing west virginia minors suffered a setback today when crews met dangerous levels of gases underground. rescue crews got into about 1,000 feet from a rescue chamber, but they had to pull back. crews will be back out this evening about 7:00. figurer skater nancy kerrigan's brother has been

charged in the death of their father. the international space station has a new walk in closet. they attached it to the space station. the carrier includes dozens of experiments and supplies and a new bedroom and freezer. sometimes we all crave the comforts at home, and even nasa astronauts hundreds of miles away from earth. for the past four months, colonel timothy kramer has been stationed at the international space station, and he put in a special request with his bosses at mission control for his favorite cookies baked outside of houston, texas. when the space shuttle "discovery" blasted off on

thursday, guess what? a big batch of sand tart cookies were onboard. the co-owner of the italian cafe in texas says she is the baker behind these space cookies. they say don't eat on radio or tv, so i won't but we will show how wonderful they are. this is about the best promotion they can get in an astronaut out of this world. these are ouft this world. >> yeah, i have been saying that all this time, my cookies are out of this world. >> how long have you been baking these cookies? are these your favorite? >> well, they are one of my favorites. i have been baking them probably for 12 or 15 years. my mother, who is now deceased, originally was making them for

me at the restaurant. and finally it got to be too much for her, so i took over the job and i have been rolling out cookies ever since. >> do you know the astronaut? does he frequent your cafe? >> yes, he is a patron of the cafe, yes he is. >> does he always order these cookies? did you know what he was talking about? >> well, he has had them before, but initially it started as he wanted to send food to the international space station, and nasa said you can't do that, and he said about how your cookies, and i thought, yeah, that would be a fabulous idea. and that all took place about a year ago. >> thank you so much for joining us. they sure look good. i will taste them right after the show. >> well, i hope you enjoy them. >> i am sure that i will.

there is not a whole lot of food i don't enjoy to be honest with you. monday on the show, tune in for an interview with astronauts of the space shuttle "discovery" onboard the international space station. that's our show for now for this thursday. catch me again tonight at 6:00 p.m. eastern for "the ed show," and donny deutsch will be here to break down the nike commercial. up next, the dylan ratigan show with monica novotny filling in. broth. (announcer) roundup extended control does two jobs... at once. one: kills weeds to the root. two: forms a barrier,

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