hi, everybody. good morning, i'm thomases roberts in for tamron. a deadly crash. nine servicemen killed in afghanistan when their chopper goes down. we'll take you there live. the end of don't ask, don't tell. the controversial policy could come to an end today when the senate votes on a bill to repeal it. it's getting so bad, it needs a summit. bed bugs are the focus of a summit to focus on solutions to take care of these blood-sucking pests. driving while distracted could the nationwide ban on cell phone use be behind the wheel be on the way? we'll take a look at all that stuff this morning and developing right now, nbc news confirmed that nine u.s. troops are dead after a predawn helicopter crash in afghanistan. jong yang is live in kabul. >> that's right, thomas. the taliban quickly made phone calls to news organizations, including nbc news, here in

kabul to claim responsibility. to say that they shot this helicopter down. the military says not so. they say there was no reports of, no reports of any enemy fire before the crash, before the helicopter went down. the taliban often exaggerates its role and claims responsibility for things that actually turn out to be accidents and, actually, most helicopter crashes here in afghanistan have turned out to be accidents. maintenance issues, also the dust that fills the air here just grinding up the helicopters and their rotors. this was in zabul province. a province in southeastern afghanistan. an area where the taliban is in control of a lot of the territory. it's next to kandahar province and a name people are more familiar. an area where coalition forces have been ramping up their efforts to drive the taliban

out. the worst helicopter crash in four years in terms of casualties and this is already the deadliest year of the war for both coalition and u.s. forces. thomas? >> in afghanistan for us, john, thanks very much for that update. we'll continue to follow that story and bring you more details as we get them here on msnbc. we move on to this, a bill for the controversial don't ask don't tell policy banning gays from serving openly. the bill also contains $725 billion for the pentagon and a pay raise for u.s. troops. it passed a house in may, but senate democratic leaders are struggling to get the 60 votes needed to end a republican filibuster and allow a final vote. pop star and long-time gay rights activist lady gaga travelled to maine yesterday early and susan collins and olympia snowe to vote for the bill. nbc's luke russert joins us live now from capitol hill to talk

about this. luke, with at least one democratic senator indicating that he'll vote against this bill, do the democratess really have the 60 votes they need to move forward? >> right now, thomas, according to sources that i have spoken to, it does not look like democrats have the 60 votes to break the filibuster on this bill. one of the key problems with this, aside from the democratic senator that you mentioned, snowe and collins of maine, two republicans that go on to break filibusters. voted for don't ask don't tell out of committee and both have problems with the parliamentary process and usually when you have a bill of this magnitude sometimes an open amendment process and bring up relevant issues and in this case harry reid is worried that republicans will bring up amendenedments on this bill that can prove to be controversial before an election season. because of him limiting the amendments, snow and collins have cried foul saying they

don't want to go through with allowing debate on this vote. there are some folks who are very close to the organizations that asked to repeal don't ask don't tell that are upset with harry reid because they would be secure of these two votes to allow debate on the measure to go forward. it remains to be seen what happens in the next few hours. republicans will hold. >> we were just seeing susan collins speaking on the house floor live there and also just to get in what senator olympia snowe is saying. she is saying she would rather wait until the report by the military is complete, which is supposed to be december 1st. give us an indication of why harry reid is trying to move this forward when right now the military is trying to actively gain the information they need and secretary gates is saying that will be by december 1st. >> what you hear a lot from republicans is saying that harry reid is trying to play politics to fire up the democratic base, specifically the left, the folks they really need to turn out

before these midterms and an important issue to a lot of democrats. that being said, the criticism you just uttered is one heard from jim mccain collins and webb is saying before we take up this process, why not allow the military to complete their review on how don't ask, don't tell will affect soldiers in the field. democrats are saying, look, that's not what we're trying to do. no matter what we do on capitol hill if this legislation passes, it has to be signed by president obama and defense secretary gates. we're simply unlocking the door, gates, obama and the military will actually have to hoopen th door and go through. not necessarilypushing it through the finish line. >> right now i'm being told that susan collins was saying on the floor she doesn't want to vote on it right now, she wants the debate to continue, but we'll talk more about this coming up right here this morning. luke, thanks so much. >> always a pleasure.

joining me now mike almay that was discharged in 2006 after a very distinguished career that included four tours in the mideast in support of the war in iraq. mike, i want to appreciate you joining me this morning. i know we brought up that rally yesterday of lady gaga in maine. you were there. give us an indication. how did it go? >> it was a tremendous event, thomas. she brought so much force to this issue here. she drove on a tour bus from her concert last night, the night before, excuse me, all the way through the night just to get to that rally in time, just to bring such a presence to this issue. we had approximately 7,000 people by some estimates there. we did that just to put pressure on senator collins and senator snowe so they could hear from their constituents in their own backyard and highlight this issue that 80% of the american public support repeal and elected officials continue to

stall on this bill. >> we just heard susan collins on the floor saying she would rathver the debate continue and also olympia snowe is saying she would rather wait to have the report that is compiled by the pentagon right now to be complete by december 1st, but rather have all that information moving forward. however, senator olympia snowe did give a statement saying this is overdue for a thorough review. why not wait until december 1st so none of this has to have an asterisk by it. >> the same bill that the house of representatives passed in may allows that time frame. it does not, don't ask, don't tell will not go into effect until next year. allow the pentagon to submit their study to congress on 1 december. even if they voted for repeal this month, it would not go into effect until next year. a certification period after 1 december which the president, secretary gates, chairman mullein all have to sign off on which basically states that

don't ask, don't tell repeal will not harm the military, but, in fac, enhance it. even after that, there is a 60-day waiting period after the certification waiting process. there is an ample timeline after 1 december which is already built into this legislative process, into the bill that the senate is debating today. >> mike, we will continue to talk about this y know, for probably a long time to come, but we appreciate your distinguished service and we thank you for you. >> thank you for having me today. >> thank you. christine o'donnell is denying accusations that she misused more than $20,000 in campaign funds. a campaign watchdog group known as crew or citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington, filed complaints with the federal election commission charging o'donnell used campaign money for things like rent and gas. o'donnell denies any wrongdoing. >> i am confident that we have been ethical. we have not, i personally have not misused the campaign fund.

we have our fec lawyer, great attorney answering those charge physical it ever goes anywhere. >> kelly o'donnell joins us now live from washington to talk more about this. kelly, she seems to be dogged by so many accusations. >> that comes with sudden overnight political sensation status. everything about a candidate is taken very carefully in a new level of scrutiny and this group that you mentioned, a watchdog group has looked at o'donnell's campaign records and financial reports from 2008, not the current campaign, but the money that she was given for her campaign in 2008 when she was also a candidate and did not succeed in that. so, what they're talking about is an o'donnell campaign aide from that time period offered a sworn statement saying that he believed that o'donnell did use those funds improperly. you just heard her defense and her campaign says this is politically motivated. the group, c.r.e.w. says it is

nonpartisan. a name of a delaware citizen who says he has been harmed by this is someone given to democratic campaigns in the past so, many people will interpret this differently. o'donnell's team says she's motivated. so, it's a lot of attention and a lot of scrutiny and, at the same time, thomas, we have seen some laughter and fun alongside this campaign, as well, because of things that o'donnell said in the past that had nothing to do with campaign funds but had things to do with her opinions on life. you heard about witchcraft and some of the other things. i had a chance to talk to bill mahr who is the host of "politically correct" back in the day and here's what he had to say. >> i wouldn't put her on the

intelligence committee if she got to the senate. she is sincere. >> he had nice things to say about her but disagrees with her politically and saysñi he'll ke distributing these clips unless she comes on his show. >> i want to pass along a programming note to everybody. bill maher joining chris matthews as a guest today on "hardball." he just released all those clips from the several of the christine o'donnell appearances on his old show. what else is in christine o'donnell's past? she is sincere, but you can watch "hardball" tonight at 5:00 and 7:00 eastern right here on msnbc to find out what chris is going to get from bill. iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad is in new york this week and at a gathering of muslim leaders ahmadinejad brought his anti-west rhetoric and accusations against other world leaders.

ali joins me here in new york to talk about this. what is the rhetoric, the anti-west rhetoric he is spouting this morning. >> his rhetoric was actually aimed at the foreign media this morning saying that there has been this huge coverage of this woman who is stoned to death and this virginia woman who used money to kill her son and st stepson. completely focus on this woman in iran, but they don't talk about her. he loves to talk about these double standards. at the yoou.n., he said capital is facing defeat and there has to be an undemocratic decision making. it is a taste of what is to come for his u.n. general assembly speech on thursday. >> a few nations in the west is

over. >> and he always goes on about this, just before he left iran he said the future belongs to iran, although iran doesn't want to build a nuclear weapon. he cekept going on about the future belongs to iran. we don't know exactly what he's talking about. >> good to have you here and we'll continue to talk about this as the general assembly meeting continues this week in new york. a frightening accident at an auto race in brazil. look at this. wow, more than 100 people were hurt when a set of bleaches collapses. six people rushed to the hospital and two in serious condition but look at the damage there. local officials are trying to figure out what was the cause behind that massive collapse. a wife pleads for help after a washington state politician is attacked by a bear at his vacation home. >> i'm at north shore road and my husband's been attacked by a bear. >> you'll hear more of that

dramatic 911 call coming up. a bank president mysteriously disappears. now police are investigating whether foul play is involved. we'll take a look for you. and the bed bug invasion. what experts are doing today to get rid of the annoying blood suckers. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time... time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a liquid gel. zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. [ male announcer ] ever have morning pain slow you down? introducing bayer am, an extra strength pain reliever with alertness aid to fight fatigue. so get up and get goin'! with new bayer am. the morning pain reliever.

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welcome back, everybody. president obama supporters are sending him a very direct message. it's all about the economy, mr. president. the president got a big earful yesterday at a cnbc town hall meeting on the economy. you can just listen to some of the comments from people who say they voted for him. >> i'm one of your middle class americans and, quite frankly, i'm exhausted. i'm exhausted in defending you, defending your administration and defending the change that i voted for and deeply disappointed with where we are

right now. >> times are tough for everybody right now. i understand your frustration. my goal here is not to try to convince you that everything is where it needs to be, it's not. that's why i ran for president. but what i am saying is that we're moving in the right direction. >> well, nbc political analyst richard wolffe is at the white house joining us this morning. we can tell there just by that one person that was taking the president to task that they are frustrated. how did the president do handling the questions of frustration? >> well, for start, what you heard there was a president trying to say that he gets it, he understands what's going on. but there is a whole package of things they want to do here for a start they expect the house to move on the small business package and debates with the other side. remember, this is in an election with a choice of policies and choice of candidates and they were trying to say to people here, look, we have plans for

getting infrastructure spending going and getting people back to work and the other side wants to turn the clock back. it is a number of things. on the specific policies and the kind of tone and also on what republicans are offering, too. >> richard, when we look at this, what does it say about the kind of disappointment that we're seeing here from admitted obama supporters. how much does this hurt the democrats? >> hurts them hugely because democrats when you look at the polls, the big difference isn't between democrats and republicans in terms of head to head, enthusiasm and turn out and this white house and every political analyst knows around washington midterms are about turnout. democrats are frustrate would the economy and they stay at home. democrats can do badly. if they can get them fired up, however they do it, this election can be pretty different than expectations. >> richard wolffe live at the white house, thanks so much. we want to ask you this morning, what do you think about the way president obama handled the economy? you can let me know that

twitter.com/underscore thomasroberts. speaking of twitter, the social networking site gets hacked. how that's impacting thousands of the twitter users out there. first, the woman who say police said lied about being the victim of an acid attack now faces criminal charges. the surprising new developments in that case, next. [ male announcer ] if you have type 2 diabetes, you struggle to control your blood sugar. you exercise and eat right, but your blood sugar may still be high,

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purina one improved with smartblend. discover what one can do. stay twice... earn a free night! two separate stays at comfort inn or any of these choice hotels can earn you a free night -- only when you book at choicehotels.com. in michigan, authorities are trying to figure out what happened to a resident who appeared to have just vanished. president of central community bank was last seen on sunday night. on monday night a maintenance worker saw his car and went to visit him in his office and saw no one there and his desk in disarray. the worker called 9d 11 and authorities are treating this incident as suspicious. new developments to talk about in the state of a

washington woman who camed she was the victim of an acid attack. she went on national tv describing what happened to her and the donations, well, they started pouring in to help pay for medical bills. last week she admitted that the attack was a hoax and now prosecutors have filed criminal charges. kristen welker has the latest. >> bethany sorro being charged with three counts of felony theft. now, according to prosecutors, she duped the community which donated $30,000 to help pay her medical bills. last month storro told police that a woman she didn't recognize approached her and threw acid in her face and then admitted to police that her injuries were self-inflicted and the whole ordeal was a hoax. doctors and police were skeptalical of storro's story because her burns were even as

if the acid was applied to her face and no splash marks on her body or clothes and no physical evidence at the scene. the arrest warrant states that her burns were self-administered and came from drain cleaner that she purchased at the hardware store. she applied the acid with towels hours before she reported the incident. storro told them she wanted to kill herself but once it realized it wasn't working, she attempted to alter her face. she used $1,500 of the donated money on personal items. >> i don't have to prove that while she was putting the acid on her face that at that time she was thinking to do it to get money. the theft by deception charges, like i say, are for her behavior afterwards. >> storro's friends say she checked herself into a local hospital for treatment and will face those charges once she is released. thomas? >> thank you. it is considered one of the most dangerous things you can do

while driving. texting and talking on the telephone. could a new national law banning cell phone chat while driving be in your future? we'll take a look. bristol palin pokes fun at her famous mom on last night's season premiere of "dancing with the stars. weets we'll take a look at what she did. my name is vonetta, and i suffer from allergies.

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[ male announcer ] we bet you'll love zyrtec®, too -- or it's free. [ vonetta ] it is countdown to marshmallow time. [ woman laughs ] officials in washington have a special message today directly to people who text while driving. pay attention. cell phone use and other behind the wheel distraction are behind far more traffic deaths in the u.s. than just five years ago. it is causing some groups to increase a nationwide ban on cell phone use while driving. the second annual cell phone use while driving summit is under way right now. tom, let's talk about the

statistics revealed over the longerterm. >> bingo. that's exactly what we do want to focus on because you may recall the number of total fatalities on the nation's roads dropped in 2005 compared to 2008, but the proportion, the percentage of detracted drivers and fatal accidents remained the same. here are the numbers for you. distracted driving led to 448,000 traffic injuries and claimed more than 5,400 lives in '09. 16% of all traffic fatalities and that is the same number as in 2008. 16%. compare that to 2005 when it was 10%. so, you can see, we have seen a dramatic increase in the numbers of people injured and killed since 2005 in proportion because of texting while driving and also using that cell phone. the national transportation secretary, transportation secretary, i should say, calls all of this an epidemic. >> people have been so

accustomed to having that cell phone in their ear or texting and driving and while you're punching a number in your cell phone or you're texting somebody and you go a little more than four seconds and a 3,000 to 4,000-pound vehicle, you drive the length of a football field without looking at what's in front of you. >> in fact, right now 30 states and d.c. ban texting while driving. eight states and d.c. ban using a handheld cell phone while driving. but there is now a movement, talking among the governorers called the ghsa. there is talk about endorsing a total cell phone ban. a handheld cell phone ban nationwide that would, of course, be up to state legislatures across the country, but there does seem to be a movement to have a zero tolerance policy on distracted driving, thomas. >> also the message from the summit right now that they're trying to say that, too. >> in fact, if you ask the

secretary, ray lahood, he'll tell you that he wants to see zero cell phone use. not even a blue tooth. absolutely nothing in the cockpit, if you will, in the driver's seat that could distract him or her. he recognizes that not even allowing the use of a blue tooth or hands held device might be a tough hill to climb. >> the habit some of us have formed over the years, would be tough to break. tom costello in washington, thank you. >> okay. investigators are trying to determine what went wrong with a small plane that landed on an interstate in the middle of rush hour. not a single vehicle hit the plane when it made the belly landing yesterday evening. mechanical problems forced that emergency landing and the faa says no injuries were reported. did you see that coming at you on the road? amazing. from the wires today, a washington man is recovering this morning after a frightening bear attack 100 miles east of seattle.

the city councilman from bellevue, washington, was with his wife in the rural part of the state and the man's wife saw the attack and right away she called 911. >> i'm at north shore road and my husband's been attacked by a bear. >> your husband's been attacked by a bear. >> yeah, he's at the bottom of my driveway. he said he's dying. >> how traumatic. the man did survive, but he suffered bite marks on his face, head, neck and puncture wounds all over his body. the bear involved in that attack was tracked down and killed. some good news for a change about the housing industry. construction of new homes rose 10.5% in august from the previous month. applications for building permts an indication of future activity also grew. diana olick joins us now from washington and we have a bright spot from august to talk about. the numbers better than expected. explain, diana. >> the numbers were much better than ecpected.

we were looking for either zero or less than 1% jump up in housing starts but you have to look inside those two numbers to see what's going on and that is the difference between single family housing starts and multi-family, which are apartment buildings, most of which are for rent. the big jumps were in multi-family, not to say that single fammy didn't go up 4%, which is good. anything up in this housing market, trust me, is good. multifamily is going up. why is it going up so much more? because homeownership is decreasing. more and more americans are saying, i want to rent. the. homebuilders saying that is where the demand is and they're building more apartments. kind of a mixed bag on housing. >> the foreclosures rising and also the high unemployment factors into all of this. how we moved through the q4, quarter 4, that is. >> it's all about inventories and the supply of homes on the market. we talk about lack of jobs, which means a lot of people are not able to move up and sell their homes and move up to that

step-up home. you're not seeing that kind of activity in the sales market and then when you see the rising foreclosures, the shadow inventory. we don't know the exact numbers and that's also adding to supply. when you look at so many existing homes for sale and also new construction for sale, where is that demand going to come from? we have to see recovery in jobs and we have to see consumer confidence in housing recover before you can start to eat up any of that supply. if you have too much supply, demand goes down. check out diana's blog at real realtycheck.cnbc.com. the newest member of president obama economic team just started this week. wall street critic elizabeth warren and this morning on "today" she talked about making credit card and mortgage agreements easier for you to understand. >> credit agreements ought to be easy enough for people to read that they can make direct

comparisons. they shouldn't be about fine print. they shouldn't be about legal ease and they shouldn't be about tricks and traps that nobody knows are there until they reach up and bite you. >> warren also said the faster the new consumer bureau is up and running, the faster we can start leveling the playing field for american families. in washington today, president obama will award the medal of honor to an airman who was killed in 1968. chief master sergeant richard etchberger's sons plan to attend the white house ceremony. he held off an enemy force while loading three wounded comrades into a rescue chopper. the story was kept under wraps for decade because the mission was secret. the only people that knew exactly what happened were the airmen's wives and they weren't allowed to tell their kids about that mission even after it was over. on a much lighter note, the social media site has been

hacked. we'll get the scoop from courtney hazlett and, courtney, i understand your twitter page is affected. >> my twitter page was affected, white house press secretary robert gibbs, his page was affected. this has been fixed now, but in the earlier hours of the morning here on the east coast, thousands of users were affected with this virus and this is what happened. it was an attack that was made possible because of the main twitter interface. in other words, twitter.com didn't disallow a java script, it didn't disallow that and so when you just rolled your mouse over a link, it was the same as clicking on link. >> okay. >> so, if you were using something like tweet deck or one of the third party twitter users, you were fine, but if you were like me and actually went to twitter.com, you might have gotten this virus. twitter has already issued a statement earlier saying that we have identified and we're apatching the attack. it is now fixed, but there were

more than 70 million tweets sent out every single day. for a security breach to even take place, it becomes a head scratcher wondering what kind of other information might be allowable. but, again -- >> did they say anything about our best friends, the applications for our phones and things like that if we tweet from a blackberry. >> your phone appears to be fine. it was in the actual twitter yourself. not like if you're tweeting from a blackberry. >> thank you for spelling that out. >> i'm sure some person will send me a nasty e-mail. your dozens of followers might be affected. >> it was mass chaos. >> i'm sure people were twittering about "dancing with the stars." >> sarah palin's daughter, bristol, was on "dancing with the stars." and she wrote sweet division

from politics. what did you think about her performance? >> i think she did a good job. >> people who said she didn't do a good job, the situation. >> he only had five days to practs. >> bad excuse. he knew he was going on the show. >> i think he has some talent. >> i don't think she has any talent. i will respectfully disagree with you. i find this to be the case with the male contestants. they spend time walking back and forth or just kind of hopping awkwa awkwardly. what you're seeing right there. >> what about the real stars. >> jennifer grey is one to point out. she had a really emotional moment in rehearsals. i think we have a clip about that. she broke down about missing patrick swayze. we don't have that clip right now, but -- >> one of the songs from the movie that she was assigned to dance to.

this feeds into my other issue with "dancing with the stars." >> that no one puts baby in the corner. >> no one puts baby in the corner. when you're a professional dancer anyway doesn't that make it unfair competition? i feel like they should all be amateurs. >> she was only in dirty dancing. >> she had professional training, though. >> margaret was funny. moving on because we can't do a scoop without mentioning lindsay lohan. late yesterday a warrant was issued for her arrest. we spoke earlier about the failed drug tests that happened last week. she is now do in court at 7:30 a.m. pacific time on friday and we'll know more about whether she's headed straight to jail after that court hearing. >> which means she'll show up at 10:00. >> no, no, think positive, thomas. >> i try. i digress, though. for the very latest on entertainment news logon to scoop.todayshow.com.

thank you. >> thank you. some things considered news in this world but only a few stories that make us say -- >> no way! >> only in america can a teen be crowned perfect teen even if she's not an american. she is gorgeous, talented and smart and she is welch. she answered all her questions with an accent. her parents have a vacation home in florida. she won the cash and scholarship to study here in the u.s. congratulations to her. rivalry runs thick in ohio college football, but maybe this is just a little bit too much. before saturday's game, ohio university mascot, rufus the bobcat ran on to the field tackling brutus buckeye. rufus attacks again in the end zone. good grief, ohio university apologized to ohio state and its fans. the student playing rufus has been banned from any further aff affiliation with ohio athletics.

wow. ohio on ohio crime there. bed bugs invade forcing businesses to shut down across the nation. we have been talking a lot about this over the summer now into the early fall. certain experts are meeting to put a stop to the small pests. was it a caffeine-induced confession really a confession of guilt? too much caffeine accused him to falsely confessing to strangling his wife. [ gasps ] [ rattling ] [ laughing ] [ announcer ] close enough just isn't good enough. - if your car is in an accident, - [ laughing continues ] make sure it's repaired with the right replacement parts. take the scary out of life with travelers. call or click now for an agent or quote.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t and blackberry have teamed up to keep your business moving. introducing the blackberry torch. at&t. rethink possible. welcome back, everybody. the man accused of killing a north carolina's police chief's daughter is expected in an upstate new york courtroom this morning. michael neal harvey was arrested on monday in niagara falls. a nationwide manhunt was launched after the body of valerie hamilton was found in a storage unit in north carolina over the weekend. last night the community held a

vigil for hamilton who was the daughter of murl hamilton. a funeral will be held this afternoon. in kentucky, the lawyer for a man accused of strangling his wife says his client falsely confessed it that murder. woody will smith is charged in the death of his wife back in may of 2009 and initially, according to court documents smith's attorney was going to argue that caffeine made him do it but in opening arguments yesterday the caffeine made smith confess and that actually someone else committed that murder. joining me now here in the studio is former attorney general of new jersey. good to have you with us. this is kind of confusing because we have the original confession, but now the attorney is arguing a different argument in court. how smart is that now that this trial is in motion? >> it may be the only thing he is left with. number one, the attorney has to get this confession or statement suppressed. number two, he has to persuade the jury that his client was under extreme emotional disturbance and did not understand what he was doing.

>> >> we have smith told a psychologist he was not sleeping prior to his wife's murder and he was wordied that his wife was having an affair and she would be leaving with his kids. he was drinking five or six caffeinated drinks and energy drinks and taking diet pills a day. when he is taken in to have this talk or address by police and he goes ahead and confesses, how can the attorney now argue against that confession with him making that statement of clear and present mind? >> there is a body of case law that says if a suspect is interviewed at a time when the suspect is tired or impaired, that that interview can be suppressed. that you can exclude it from court because the suspect doesn't quite know what he or she is saying because he or she is tired or impaired in some way. that is one line of defense. if he can get the statement suppressed, his next argument would be he didn't understand

what he was doing with respect to the killing because he was under extreme emotional disturbance, which kentucky law permits. >> let's talk about some of the evidence. because some of the dap evidence under the wife's fingernails points to smith. what is the evidence pointing to him? >> they have a statement. if he can't get that suppressed, that presents a powerful tool for the prosecution. secondly, they have evidence of this defendant strangling his wife with an extension cord, using that cord to tie her up and then using a second cord to tie another part of her body. so, that's pretty strong evidence. you have to persuade the jury that you didn't quite understand what you were doing at the time because you were so mentally impaired that you took leave of your senses. >> it's a case to watch, that's for sure, especially with this interesting route that they're taking to argue his innocence. thank you for coming in. >> thank you for having me. the nation al on slot of be bugs is so serious that they're

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welcome back to msnbc, everybody. earlier we asked you, what do you think the president is doing about the economy? what do you think about how he's handling it? i asked you to tweet me. i'm frustrated, in the lack of change. i'll cast my vote for dems. we must stay the course. president obama began in his term in a recession. experts say it ended in june 2009. the economy is improving year after year. that's just a few of the things you had to say this morning. i do appreciate it. you can always let me know what you're thinking about things or write to me in general. they have seemingly taken over the country now. bedbugs are taking center stage at a special summit in illinois. can you believe this? there's a summit for bedbugs. they've crawled into movie theaters and landmarks across the nation, including the empire

state building in new york and hotels. nbc's kevin tibbles has the story from the bedbug summit in roseville, illinois. >> reporter: thomas, used to be the only time we worried about bedbugs is when we were traveling abroad. that is certainly not the case in america today. the empire stadium in new york, even a nike store had to be shut down. universities, libraries, a military installation was infected. it seems like the little critters are everywhere these days. perhaps it's because we're traveling more often. this is not a bedbug next to me here, although you might be confused by the getup. brian, what is that and how can that stop bedbugs from getting into my house? manufactu . >> this is it a mattress encasement for bedbug control. this is a mattress encasement for bedbug control. basically, what it does is it encases the mattress on with a

special designed zier and end clasp. we had to do a lot of independent lab testing. it has a u.s. patent now. once it's on there, bedbugs can't burrow in. if you have them, they can't get out. >> this way, if you've got them, they're encased in there. if you don't have, they won't get in. >> precisely. >> reporter: this is just one of the methods we're hearing about here at the bedbug summit here in chicago, the first ever. of course, i can't tell you where it is because we're not allowed to disclose the location of this bedbug summit for the safety of the folks who are here, but we've heard of several other ways aside from brian's as to how to get rid of these things, including using a cry on ick freezer ray gun to freeze them. we've heard about frying them by heating up your room and putting all of your belongings into a portable type trailer to heat them up. they even have sniffer dogs to

go from room to room to see whether or not you have bedbugs in your house. how to prevent them getting into your house, check your luggage before you come home from a trip. have your visitors check their luggage before they come into your home and just to help brian out, get one of these things, especially designed -- >> mattress encasement for bedbug control. >> reporter: back to you. >> our thanks to kevin for that report. that will do it for me this hour. i thank you for your time. i'm thomas roberts. contessa brewer is here to pick things up. >> my skin is crawling because of that report. it grosses me out. >> it's a little creepy. but there's a summit for it, contessa. we're watching now in washington, d.c., looking for this don't ask, don't tell vote. it's coming up in about two hours. already people are staking their claims, lawmakers on both sides of this issue. the question is, will there be consequences for people who don't support don't ask, don't

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good tuesday, everybody. i'm contessa brewer. covering the big news and coast to coast. the careers of gay military leaders are in the hands of their lawmakers. a critical vote for don't ask, don't tell in about two hours. it's being debated and a key moderate republican just took to the floor supporting the repeal of don't ask, don't tell but not really the way the democrats are doing it. this is carl levin, chairman of the armed forces committee. >> i think it's the right thing to do. i think it's only fair. but i cannot vote to