north dakota, indiana and possibly on his way to canada. plus, america's most famous or perhaps infamous flight attendant. steven slater is out of jail and he's not apologizing for cursing out a passenger and then making a mad dash off the plane. and political smackdown. wwe founder linda mcmahon crowned in connecticut and the president's pick in colorado defeats bill clinton's choice. also, take me out at the ball game. a boyfriend ducks a foul ball leaving his girlfriend in the line of fire. what? that is off the charts. good wednesday morning, i'm chris jansing, live from msnbc world headquarters in new york and we are hearing incredible stories this morning about what survivors had to endure after that plane crash that killed former senator ted stevens and four others. right now, four people are hospitalized with serious injuries, including the former head of nasa, sean o'keefe.

reporter jason is live at dillingham airport. good morning what is the latest from there? >> good morning. what we are going to be anticipating today is investigators heading back out to the scene and that's 17 miles north of dillingham and continuing their investigation. what they might be focusing on for the rest of their investigation is how much flying experience that terry smith, the pilot, actually had to handle an otter. ntsb said he had 29,000 hours flying experience, but a lot of that turns out to be flying xhurns jets. obviously, not the same kind of plane that crashed on monday. now, there's been no official word on what caused the crash on monday, but as you've likely heard, the weather was extremely poor. not good weather to be flying around in.

one interesting stat we had from the ntsb, since 2000, there have been 958 plane crashes in alaska. and that number really has to deal with the fact that there are a lot of planes in alaska. in fact, alaska has the highest number of planes per capita than any other state in the union. and that has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of rural villages in alaska are not connected to the road system. the only way to get around village to village is to hop on a small commuter plane and go take to the skies. now, meanwhile, of course, today mourning continues for the five people whose lives were lost in the plane crash on monday, including that of former u.s. senator ted stevens, who had served in the senate for 40 years. that's longer than any other republican. chris? >> jason lamb, thank you so much. tips are coming in from people who think they've spotted

the fugitive couple who call themselves bonnie and clyde. they are still hiding out after authorities say she helped him break out of prison. the last confirmed sighting of the couple was in billings, montana, on friday. welch was seen at a restaurant near glacier national park and checking out reports that the couple is in calgary. george lewis is in billings, montana. george, i understand they have a lot of leads coming in. what are police saying? anything solsnud. >> nothing really solid at this point. there have been several sightings near the canadian border near the northern part of montana and sunday night a strange-looking woman was spotted that bad frog cafe. she ordered a bean and cheese burrito. one woman who talked to her said she spoke, this woman spoke of meeting a man somewhere and the next day the witness saw the picture in the paper of casslyn welch and called authorities and

said i think that's the woman in the restaurant. they have been getting those kind of leads along the border area so they beefed up border security on both sides. now, cars heading into canada will be checked to see if the suspects may be in those cars. they don't have a whole lot of solid information at this point. they assigned all sorts of extra personnel to this case and coordinating the montana end of the search out of here in billings and, so far, nothing really solid and the search trial, obviously, will grow colder as time goes on. there is a lot of concern about finding these two who are armed and considered extremely dangerous. chris? >> often when we have cases like this, george, one thing that police look at is where do they have friends, family, known associates. somebody who might help them as they're on the run. have police said anything about that? do they have relatives in the areas where they've been spotted? >> well, that's why the search is broadening to places like

indiana and pennsylvania. these are places where the couple has relatives. so, the search will concentrate on their family members as time goes on but also the authorities are appealing for help from the public. if they spot these individuals to call police immediately. don't try to approach em. >> george lewis, thanks so much. we're also watching wall street this morning where stocks are tumbling. 40 minutes into the trading day, take a look at these numbers. the dow already down 180 points and the s&p and nasdaq down, as well. the nasdaq almost 50 points. overseas markets from japan to europe have also seen steep declines today. the selloff comes in part based on the federal reserves comments that the u.s. economic recovery is slowing down. the fed said it would start buying government bonds in an effort to keep mortgage and other rates low to encourage borrowing. those interest rates are tied to government bonds. some new help for the sluggish economic recovery, president obama signing a $26

billion job's bill into law. shortly after it won congressional approval by the house yesterday. the bill is designed to save the jobs of over 160,000 teachers, plus, 150,000 police officers, firefighters and other public workers. republicans criticize the bill as a gift to the unions. th that's spent heavily in supporting the president. the flight attendant turned folk hero who flipped out on a jetblue plane is out of jail after making bail last night. he now has 104,000 new fans on facebook and after he was released last night he talked about that new internet following. >> it's been very, very appreciated. it seems like something here has resonated. that's kind of neat. >> stevens is a self-proclaimed bad nazi who went off over a passenger's oversized luggage and it hit him in the head, by the way. "the new york post" reports the media frenzy was so crazy that

the driver hired to take him away from the jail dumped him back on the sidewalk. meantime, new audio from the control tower as that whole incident went down. >> we just had a slide deployment on 274, so, that's that's in the book. >> copy that, sir, there are technicians on the way to assess the situation. >> thank you. >> can you give me the location of the slide that deployed? >> it's the r-1 slide, it was intentionally deployed. >> slater is facing reckless endangerment charges and could face seven years behind bars. jeff rossen will take us live with more on what's next for him in our next half hour. just before bp can cross the finish line with its blown out well, a tropical depression is causing crews to stop just short of completing the relief well. weather channel's mike sidel is live in venice, louisiana.

mike, what is going on with this storm system? >> well, the storm, chris, is basically a life support like with bonnie, like with cauline, the systems have had a tough time remaining organized and this one may degenerate into an area of low pressure. hurricane hunter aircraft will go back out there early this afternoon. we had rain across southeast louisiana and parts of new orleans has been hit by heavy rain. that is going to be the real impact at this point. some heavy rain, three to five inches along the gulf coast and on the satellite loop, you can see a large, broad circulation but the low-level center is a couple hundred miles south of the florida panhandle and really hard to find. we have this big area spinning of clouds and thundershowers and that's all we have right now going for it. it may just fall apart and fall onshore and bring some rain to the areas that need rain. they did get everybody off the water yesterday ahead of this system. they should get this thing wrapped up in three to four days.

>> thanks so much for that update. an alert from ki kidsandcars.org. the number of children dying in hot cars is rising at an alarming rate. 28 children have already succumbed to hypothermia in cars through the end of july, that's a record for the first seven months of any calendar year. half of the deaths occurred in children entering parked cars and falling asleep or finding themselves unable to reopen a door. there's an education crisis here at home. what's working for students and what isn't. we have a success story you have to hear about. and also an epic fail. who knew it was so hard to spell the word school. me neither.

it's beneful incredibites. it's just the way you like it-- with carbohydrates for energy and protein for muscles. [ woman announcing ] beneful incredibites. another healthful, flavorful beneful.

a pregnant nantucket woman missing for the last two weeks may have had two husbands looking for her. massachusetts records show that trudy hall was married twice in 2009. once in barnsstubble county. police found blood and bullet casings more than a week ago and linked them to that case. the cape island attorney said hall's disappearance is still a missing person's case. astronauts doing more maintenance on the international space station this morning. two american astronauts are removing a failed pump that has been spewing toxic ammonia coolant. it will help double the cooling capability of the station. you know, we're constantly bombarded by education statistic showing that our kids need more help but in the midst of all the bad news, there are some success

stories. all this week on msnbc, we're taking a special look at the education crisis in this country. the series in conjunction with ebone magazine is called "making the grade." right now we're focusing on a school on a 100% graduation rate. ruhemia lewis has more. good morning, rehema. >> good morning, chris. this story makes you smile because if you talk about the fact that we hear a lot of grim and gloomy statistics on what is going on in education and the fact is that it is gloomy but there are some bright spots. arne duncan says we have to make that not the exception but the norm. one thing is charter schools. a mixed bag in charter schools. you have 1.5 million children in 5,000 schools and some 400,000 kids on a waiting list to get into those schools.

that tells you that parents are eager for an alternative. here in chicago, they have one alternative. it's called urban prep academy, but think about this. in the city of chicago, 60% of black men will not graduate from high school. and of those who end up going on to college, only 1 in 40 will end up graduating from college. those kind of statistics that brought this gentleman, him name is tim kaine who is standing here with me said it is time to start something called the urban prep academy. you were having amazing success, i want to know, how are you doing? >> it's a combination of things. est the biggest thing is you have committed parents and students who want to achieve and do well and we created an environment in which there is a positive school culture that the young men that come to our school understand that their job is to go on to college and succe succeed. >> every kid will tell you it is their job to go to school and do

well, but when is it really time to digest that into their very being? >> it is about creating a positive school culture. a culture that is focused on school achievement and making sure the young men know we have high expectations and as a community and a school we are providing them with the tools to meet those expectations. >> is there discipline, longer hours, longer days? what is it? >> we have a longer school day. our students are in school from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. we have an extended school year, our incoming freshman actually started two days ago and it's still the summer here in chicago. really, really hot. so, it's a longer school day, a longer school year and school discipline and really a caring community of adults who want to make sure the young men can succeed. >> i have done stories all across this country with children who are in good positions in school and, as i was mentioning to you earlier, one young boy said to me the reason he was succeeding nows the reason he didn't succeed

before, teachers cared about him. >> yeah. caring is key. these young men have often not had experiences in which they have been adults, particularly for our students who are all african-american males. they haven't had many african-american mens in their lives that really cared about them. i had one young man who said to me when he was a freshman. he said he had to get out of the school because there are too many men telling me what to do. he just hadn't had that experience is what he said. i'm proud to say now four years later that guy who wanted to get out of urban prep has graduated and is on his way to college. that would not havep haened if it wasn't for the positive environment we created. >> tell me about the young african-american men you have in this school? >> our first school in engelwood campus we had 107 in the graduating class. >> fabulous. congratulations on the work you're doing. chris, one success story and we hope to tell you more success stories of people who are making

a difference in education reform. >> thank you, rehema. special coverage of america's education crisis will continue all week long and hill harper for a two-hour special called "making the grade." begins noon eastern this sunday right here on msnbc. msnbc news will bring you education nation. an unprecedented week-long event examining the state of education beginning september 26th. host a two-day education summit on rockefeller plaza here in new york. now, just in the past hour, the department of education convened a first ever summit on school bullying. it follows a rash of bullying cases around the country, some of them leaving to suicide. the goal of the summit in washington is to create a national strategy to reduce and end bullying, including cyberbullying, an increasing problem. parents whose children have committed suicide will be among

those speaking at this summit. levi johnston hoping to become the next mayor of osila,a alas alaska. and a foul move. maybe this young lady should reconsider her choice of boyfriends. she finds out the hard way that chivalry is dead. when you pursue an mba at devry university's... keller graduate school of management, you'll have a professor with you every step of the way. whether you take classes on campus, online, or both, you get the same attention, the same curriculum, and the same quality. 85 locations nationwide and online. discover how to grow the business of you... at keller.edu. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no more $2, $3 fees.

tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no more paying to access your own money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it'd be like every atm in the world was your atm. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the schwab bank high yield investor checking(tm) account. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 zero atm fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a great interest rate. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no minimums. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the biggest thing in checking since checks. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 open an account at 1-800-4schwab or schwab.com. it was a mystery to me. i found out that connected to our muscles are nerves that send messages through the body. my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia, thought to be the result of overactive nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i learned lyrica can provide significant relief from fibromyalgia pain. and with less pain, i can do more of what matters to me. [ female announcer ] lyrica is not for everyone. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression,

or unusual changes in mood or behavior or any swelling or affected breathing, or skin, or changes in eyesight, including blurry vision or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. i found answers about fibromyalgia. then i found lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. the world's first 100% custom, invisible, digital,

and fully programmable hearing aid, loaded with today's most advanced hearing technologies, including our new sophisticated noise reduction system. this amazing new invisible hearing aid is custom made, allows you to talk comfortably on the phone, sounds natural. - the quality of sound is excellent, and yet they're, you know, the size of a thumbtack. announcer: to learn more, call: today. big primary night on tuesday. president obama backed a winner in colorado, senator michael bennet. the incumbent fended off a tough challenge from andrew romanoff who had the support of president clinton. linda mcmahon will get to battle for chris dodd's senate seat after spending more of her purse nol fortune. this morning on "today" she said it's not all about the money. >> what's really winning this race is being out talking with

the people of connecticut, meeting with them. i've done over 630 events since i announced last september. i have done walking town tours and i had one-on-one meetings and that's what is really winning this race. my message is resonating with the people in connecticut. >> here with some insights into the results, charlie cook editor of the cook political report and msnbc contributor and stu rothenburg political report. good morning, gentlemen. interesting stuff last night. let me start with the colorado primary, charlie. the incumbent, senator michael bennet defeated romanoff. this was sort of portrayed as the power of obama versus the power of clinton. is this good news for the white house? >> well, chris, i think i like the way that you used the word portrayed because that's exactly right. the thing is, these are candidates that have their own personal professional histories. they have campaigns and organizations and war chests and they have strengths and

weaknesses. they are big packages with lots of moving parts. so much about this race that had nothing to do with president obama and nothing to do with president clinton and we tend to oversimplify and it's as if one guy was wearing an obama jersey and these are two candidates, two individuals, two records. >> still, would you agree with that? do you think this is being overstated to say, well, maybe there is still something to having the president come and support you? >> chris, i think charlie is completely right. entirely correct on this. it's an element of explaining what happened and looking at the candidates, but it's only part of the picture. if you look at the two candidates, i watched both of them when they were on "daily rundown" a couple days before the primary and when i saw romanoff i thought, wow, he's so on script as the outsider, it's not even believable any more and bennet is the appointed senator,

but he has a very washington persona. i think it's much more confident and charlie is completely right. >> linda mcmahon and you just heard her say it's not all about the money but she did, however, spend $22 million building an organization and doing some very slick tv advertising and we should note that a lot of that money is spent in very expensive new york city market that covers connecticut voters. what do you think happened here? >> well, i think if she hadn't spent $22 million nobody would have heard of her or defined solely as this promoter of entertainment wrestling. so, obviously, the money was crucial. but there's the other part, chris, as charlie would point out. the other element of this. she was in front of voters a lot, she's personable and articulate and sounds smart. yes, they heard she was connected and involved in this wrestling company, but once they saw her, they saw a different, more appealing, more personable person. so, the money was important, but

she had to sell herself, as well. >> real quickly, she's the underdog in this race and she also has what shes so probably spend another $28 million, charlie. is she a real challenger here? >> i think she is. and i think the money was, obviously, hugely important. but the thing about it is rob simmons was former cia, it was a very, very effective congressman from connecticut. he was the default nominee. she took the nomination away from him and won it and with a relatively interesting odd background, she took the nomination away from her. it, yes, there is a lot of money there and she also turned out to be a good candidate. we have seen good candidates get killed every year because they turn out to be weaker candidates there. this was, i think it was a very impressive victory for her and i think this is going to be, yes, she's going to be the underdog. i think it's going to be a relatively tight race. i wouldn't be surprised to see

her pulling within five, six points of attorney general blumenthal and an upset isn't totally impossible. >> harry reid made some comments yesterday that are causing a bit of a stir about suggestions that the democrats are losing a lot of their traditional voters, including their minority voters. let's listen to what harry reid had to say. >> i don't know how anyone of hispanic heritage could be a republican, okay. do i need to say more? what do you think about that, charlie? >> i think probably some hispanic leaders that wouldn't disagree with him. hispanics like african-americans like asians or caucasians or anybody else, they could have all kind of opinions and all over the map. but the thing is, you know, it's clear that there are some folks and not everybody, not president bush, not senator mccain, not karl rove but some elements of the republican party that seem to be going out it of the way to

antagonize the spanish vote. no more so than we hear every day, you know, around capitol buildings and state capitals all around the country. >> good talking to you guys. thanks so much. >> thank you. a flight attendant who told off a passenger grabbed a beer and then slid down the emergency chute is out of jail telling his side of this whacky ordeal with the big smile, by the way. we have details in three. in phillips' colon health defended against the bad gas, diarrhea and constipation. ...and? it helped balance her colon. oh, now that's the best part. i love your work. [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. discover visine® tired eye relief with hydroblend™, only from visine®. just one drop instantly soothes and revives tired, overworked eyes. and comforts them for up to ten hours. visine® tired eye relief. try now and save $3.

embattled congressman is celebrating his birthday tonight one day after his 38-minute long rambling rant on the house floor where rangel practically dared democrats to oust him. >> don't leave me swinging in the wind until november. if i was you, i may want me to go away, too. i am not going away. i am here. if i can't get my dignity back here, then fire your best shot

in getting rid of me through expulsion. >> nbc's luke russert joins us live with more on rangel's ethic saga in today's "hill say." it's funny, it doesn't sound to me like he's talking about saving jobs of teachers, firefighters and police officers, which was the order of the day. >> no, no indeed, chris. that was a real criticism thrown to ehim by his fellow democrats. i spoke to one democratic matter that said what charlie rangel did was an absolute disaster and embarrassing and it was selfish. nancy pelosi and the democrats who essentially cheerlead a $26 billion job's bill, one that goes to teachers $16 billion going to state governments to help offset their budget deficits and for charlie rangel to take center stage on this day and a lot of democrats thought not only counterproductive to what they were doing, buts also thought it was selfish and shows

he was about himself. a lot of ofolks on the fence whether or not they thought they were going to be friends with charlie rangel or decide he is not worth the time right now. so, it will be interesting to see what happened when he comes back in september, whether or not this trial goes through, which looks like it is going to happen and whether or not he will have some defenders within the democratic caucus. chris? >> in the meantime, "esquire" magazine got an interinteresting interview with newt gingrich's ex-wife. >> especially a lot of congressmen across the country and competitive districts and they want newt gingrich's money and his wife first stating when she was first dating him, he was still married to his first wife that he met when he was 16 years old in high school and she was 25 years old. in fact, his geometry teacher. this is somewhat new information that newt gingrich was that young of a man when that occurred and a lot of juicy details within the piece but

it's going to be interesting to see how republicans frame this or if democrats want to attack them in terms of newt gingrich being a real family's value candidate and whether this will have any impact for the congressman to take money from newt ging rp. how that all plays out going into the november midterms which is christmas for us here on msnbc. >> presents all around, thank you so much, luke. there were some fireworks on "morning joe" this morning. joe scarborough pressing anthony weiner why the democratic majority failed to pass a $4.7 billion bill that would have helped 9/11 first responders that were suffering from health problems. take a listen. >> you control congress. >> i know -- >> democrats control congress and you could -- >> it's very easy for you to say. >> you could have passed this bill if you wanted to. >> it's easy for you to say. we knew we would get only 12 renz and the entire caucus would walk away from 9/11 responders. we made a mistake because we could not imagine this would be

so political. that was a mistake. that's very easy. i see people like you at jet gamealize the time. >> members of new york's congressional delegation are now working in an effort to finally get that bill passed. we'll keep you posted. a bump in the road to recovery. the federal reserve confirming what an awful lot of americans already knew that the recovery isn't moving nearly fast enough. more than 14 million americans are out of work and many families are cutting back on spending to keep up with their mortgages and other bills. is there something to the argument being made by liberals and conservatives that we could be witnessing the collapse of the middle class. i'm joined now by radio talk show host and author tom hartman. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> you wrote about this book a few years ago before this economic collapse. so, is it truer now more than ever.

>> manufacturing jobs and now it's about o10%. >> what about the jobs we talked about? >> this is the great promise of the clinton administration. you'll lose the manufacturing jobs to taiwan and south korea and now china but we'll make them up with high-tech jobs. now the high-tech jobs are going to india. so it's like any place, here's the big stat that's really shocking. everybody talks about the wonders of free trade. more than half of all trade. excluding oil, product trade. more than all product trade in and out of the united states is not actually with american companies and foreign companies. with american companies dealing with themselves. it's not actually trade. it's arbitrage of labor. sending labor off shore so it can be done more cheaply. that's what's killing the middle class. >> one of the better economic stories over the last couple months is the comeback of ford. classic. middle america manufacturing. >> yes. and if the market had just been left alone the fair notion,

leave it to the free market, et cetera. we would have no ford and no chrysler in all probability. >> let me ask you about americans who do have jobs. a lot of unease out there. people who can't afford to pay their mortgages and their bills keep spending. they are worried about paying their mortgages and their bills. what do you hear? >> panic. it is astounding the number of people who are calling in and saying remember that middle class, that used to be me. i used to have that job. now, my wife and i or my husband and i are both working jobs at half that rate and together we're almost making that and both of ous now are one or two or three paychecks lost away from being homeless. >> as somebody who studied this, do you see light at the end of the tunnel, will we feel better about our economy in the near future or is it further off? >> to a large extent it depends on our trade policy. alexander hammilton put togethe a trade policy and we stopped

and south korea picked it up and china picked it up and they're literally cloning hamilton's trade policy. we abandoned it for this free trade thing and it's killing us and they're building and we need to wake up and have a national trade policy. >> tom hartman, good to see you. in pakistan a desperate situation is being made worse by quadrupling food prices. thousands of people continue to flee pakistan. more than 1,600 people are dead and 2 million are homeless and now pakistani taliban militants are urging the government to reject western aid, just as the u.s. ramps up efforts to help the victims there. and new concern that those wildfires burning in russia could spread radio active smoke. firefighters extinguished several fires in the region around the 1986 chernobyl nuclear disaster caused a lot of damage. nbc jim maceda joins us live from moscow and, as i understand it, firefighters say six wildfires were spotted in that

region this week, the spot that suffered most from the chernobyl catastrophe and fire crews quickly extinguished all of them, but what about these overriding concerns now? >> well, that's right, chris. there are overriding concerns that some of these fires, which are still burning out of control could, in fact, trigger, unleash some of the radio active particles from 24 years ago and blow them through the smoke back into a place here like moscow. but i have to tell you, chris, today, moscow, 11 million of them are thinking more about being able to breathe freely for the first time in about a week. there were overnight showers and lasted only about a half an hour because the temperatures dropped a little bit and those thundershowers washed away that muck, that smoke and smog. you can actually see the kremlin now behind me. those fires continue. russian officials expect to take to extinguish 40 of them in the

moscow region, but it remains a very volatile situation. chris, back to you. >> jim, thanks so much. steven slater has a fan base of over 100,000, at least according to facebook. what does he think about his new-found hero status? we'll find out in three. plus, tiger woods in a shocking admission. actually, a little bit of humor. a little sense of humor amid all these bad shots. ♪ just one bite opens a world of delight... ♪ ♪ dreams of land meet sea, deliciously ♪ ♪ friskies surfin' and turfin' favorites. ♪ ♪ feed the senses. [ animals calling ] ♪ [ pop ] [ man ] ♪ well, we get along ♪ yeah, we really do - ♪ and there's nothing wrong - [ bird squawks ] ♪ with what i feel for you ♪ i could hang around till the leaves are brown and the summer's gone ♪ [ announcer ] when you're not worried about potential dangers,

the world can be a far less threatening place. take the scary out of life with travelers insurance... and see the world in a different light. waking up with morning pain drain the energy right out of you. fight it with (new) bayer am. it combines extra strength bayer aspirin to treat pain plus an alertness aid to help you get off to a running start. try bayer am - the morning pain reliever. the man you've become.

and you learned something along the way. about the world and yourself. ♪ this is the age of knowing what you're made of. and knowing how to get things done. so, why would you let something like erectile dysfunction get in your way? isn't it time you talked to your doctor about viagra? 20 million men already have. with every age comes responsibility. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects may include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. you didn't get to this age by having things handed to you. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. see if america's most prescribed e.d. treatment is right for you.

introducing total plus omega-3 honey almond flax cereal. all the nutrition of total, plus 10% daily value omega-3 ala, and a delicious honey almond crunch. new total plus omega-3. drinking alcohol can reduce the severity of rheumatoid arthritis and may even lower the risk of developing the disease. a new study finds that the heaviest drinkers have less joint damage and inflammation than those who drink

infrequently or not at all. nondrinkers were four times as likely to get the disease. tiger woods now admits that the circumstances surrounding his personal life have thrown off his golf game. but yesterday while answering questions from reporters he was able to find a silver lining to his struggles. >> with all of this going on and on and off the golf course, you know, i feel that i have to look at the positives. the good thing is, even though i'm one of the worst players on the planet, i might be able to beat you. so, i do feel good about that. yes, definitely. >> take that, you golf reporter. i can beat you still. over the weekend, woods turned in his worst performance since turning pro in 1996. he finished next to last at the bridgestone. internet fans are flocking to steven slater, that jetblue flight attendant who grabbed a beer before deploying the

emergency chute on his way out. we're learning more this morning about what made him snap. jeff rossen has more. >> reporter: with a gash on his head and a smirk on his face, late last night steven slater bailed out of jail. >> what do you have to say, steven? steven, can you tell us why -- >> what happened on the plane, steven. >> reporter: a flight attendant just days ago now so famous. he has his own facebook fan page. 86,000 strong and growing by the minute. you are my new hero, one person wrote. yea, for you, steven, writes another. out in a blaze of glory. you the man. >> very, very appreciated. it seems like something here has resonated with a few people. >> are you going it lose your job? >> nor than likely. >> reporter: here's what happened. steven was working jetblue 1052 and a passenger bumped his head with a piece of luggage and they got into an argument and that

passenger cursed at him. that's when slater a veteran flight attendant, unleashed. he scream under to the p.a. system. to the expletive, it has been a good 28 years. then slater deployed the plane's emergency chute, grabbed a beer and slid down and left the airport. police later arrested him at home and, after all that, he's stip diplomatic. tell me about rude passengers. >> there's a lot of wonderful people. >> reporter: but prosecutors say this is no joke. that emergency chute could have hurt someone on the ground. slater now faces felony charges and a possible seven years in prison. this morning, new information about slater's life. his mother is fighting cancer and there's more. on slater's myspace page he writes, beating alcoholism and substance abuse one day at a time. can't wait to see where i go next. >> steven, what happened? >> reporter: safe to say a op

wasn't part of the plan, but he did seem strangely happy, though. turns out a lot of you can relate. the internet is lighting up with support. there were free steven t-shirts and websites raising money for his defense. >> he's my hero. >> reporter: why? >> i think this is a dream. anybody who has had a bad day has wanted to do something like this. there is a lunatic that finally did. >> you were customer service for jetblue, what do you think about what he did? >> i think it was crazy, crazy. >> reporter: crazy? but maybe. he seems kay with it. >> i have to go take a bath, thanks, guys. >> after all, we should mention jetblue released an official statement that passengers, in their opinion, was never in any kind of harm and they were completely safe, the passengers onboard this plane when steven slater deployed that chute. however, he has been suspended pending an investigation. right now we're standing outside an apartment building on the

upper east side of manhattan in new york city where we believe and we're told that steven slater is in here spending time with friends, even after getting out of jail, he still hasn't gone home. probably trying to search the want ads or, who knows. trying to keep away. >> you're stalking steven slater is what you're telling me? >> yes, i want to college for this, too. >> jeff rossen, good luck with that. >> thanks. >> thank you. it's hot out there, too, and he's wearing a suit. looks good. yeah. levi johnston, meantime, apparently, does not have the mayor of wasilla running scared. he plans to run for wasilla mayor in 2012. he wants to make a difference and do something his son would be proud of. but current mayor vernee e. rupright says it's too early to declare and offers the former playgirl cover boy this advice.

since i nearly old enough to be levi's grandfather, i think it would be wise for him to get a high school diploma and keep his clothes on. the voters like that. words of wisdom from mayor vernee. maybe chivalry is dead. a guy who let a foul ball clock his girlfriend right in the elbow. you see him go to catch it, no, wait, i'll move aside. she seems to be a good sport about it. he claims he lost sight of the ball in the lights. girlfriend sarah told the reporters, she knew it was going to happen. she knew it. >> as soon as i got here and i saw where we were sitting i was like, baby, i'm going to get hit. he said, no, i promise i'll catch it and the ball comes at me and i said, baby and he just bailed. >> i have some sunglasses there for you for the next one. he gets the ball, a pair of

sunglasses and some advice from the reporter. next time, buddy, move to protect your girlfriend instead of acting "like a little chicken." in north carolina, the d.o.t. is getting an f in spelling. somebody managed to spell school wrong for a road sign right in front of a school. the big block letters are painted across two lanes of traffic. a d.o.t. spokesman says mistakes happen but this particular project was subcontracted to a private company. yeah, shift the blame. the company said it would find someone who could spell and then fix the sign asap. it's been almost five years since hurricane katrina nearly wiped out new orleans. louisiana native harry sheer warns it could happen all over again. why the big easy is feeling a bit uneasy. harry sheer joins me next. my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief,

comes in a new liquid gel. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. how's it work? ok, she's gas. he's constipation... why am i constipation? ...he's diarrhea.

and our special fiber helps our probiotics so that you can show those symptoms who's in charge. this isn't even my floor. [ elevator bell dings ] as a juicy flame-grilled cheeseburger on a delicious bun. and when you get it all at walmart's guaranteed unbeatable prices -- it somehow tastes even better. save money. live better. walmart.

we have breaking news out of california near los angeles where a man holed up in his residence this morning after allegedly confronting a person who was trying to repossess his vehicle. officers were sent to the area. there is a standoff that's continuing. we'll keep you posted on that. just ahead of the fifth anniversary of hurricane katrina, actor, writer, comedian harry sheer is relooeasing a ne documentary called "the big uneasy." >> we all know what happened in new orleans in august of 2005. >> their defense was, this was a humongous storm. >> some day there is going to be a catastrophic flooding. they never heeded this advice. >> congress sent a clear message, don't mess with the core. i'm now joined by director and louisiana resident harry shearer. when you went into this, i assume, you didn't know what you were going to find. what shocked you the most? >> well, actually, as a new

orleans resident, i knew that the story of the disaster was, had been pieced together by these two independent teams of investigators over a one-year period. and we knew the story and new orleans but i think most americans still think, hey, big storm, people living below sea level. so, what shocked me was that there's a whistleblower that i found within the army corps of engineers who has credible and validated evidence that some of the same mistakes, let's be nice about it, are being made in the new, improved system that is supposed to be protecting us the next time around. i think that should be shocking all of us and the fact that it's not just about new orleans. the same kind of haphazard approach to water policy, water problems is happening all over the country and at a time of climate change, water is going to be the big issue of the 21st century. we might want to take a whole other look at this. >> let me read to what you the

army corps of engineers sent to us. this statement in response to some of the things. they said the greater new orleans area has the great perimeter defense against hurricane storm surge than ever before. using sound engineering and science, the corps is building a state of the art perimeter protection comprised of 350 miles of reinforced levees, floodwalls, pump stations and flood gates. the fee keachekey features will place by june 2011. what do you say about that? >> i say that the corps is getting its money worth out of the $4.2 million pr contract they let out a couple years ago. the corps will tell you that it's better than it's ever been, that does not tell you that it is as good as it should be and that's what in the film the experts that i interviewed raised. are we really doing this as well as we should be in the time of climate change. the static structures we're living in a very dynamic era. the whole way the court go about

it should be reexamined in light of what we're looking at in the future. >> i'm looking forward to seeing it, it's called "the big unea uneasy." thank you. thomas roberts will pick things up next. stay right here.