the pat-down controversy. the tsa is making a key change, but it won't affect flyers during the busiest travel time of the year. the way forward in war. the president meets with the heads of afghanistan and nato to plot an exit strategy, but when will u.s. troops be out? bar fights. a security guard and a patron get in a dispute at hooters. now the woman's family is suing the restaurant. meanwhile, she's behind bars. royal wedding plans.

mystery still surround when and where will and kate will marry. we have the latest buzz straight from london. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt. welcome to msnbc saturday. we have new and big developments this morning concerning the controversial pat-downs and body scan machines at airports. monica de la cruz has all the details. good morning to you. what kind of changes is the tsa making? >> the transportation security administration is changing the rules for one group of frequent flyers. the tsa says pilots no longer have to walk through the body scanners or submit to pat-downs while on the job. pilots traveling in uniform or airline business are allowed to bypass security by showing two photo ids. one from the company and one from the government, like maybe a driver's license. but for the rest of the traveling public, the in-house pat-downs and body scanners remain in place. 15% of americans disagree with airports using the body scanners while 81% say they are okay with the machines even though they show extremely revealing images.

>> security is more important than all the -- it is not really that big of a deal. >> she used her hand to go up my skirt, that's when i freaked out. >> now, the head of the tsa is not backing down on new security measures. in a statement late yesterday he said -- that is not good enough for many passengers opposed to the new teak sneaks techniques. a loosely organized body of people is going to boycott the machines slowing down things

during the holiday travel rush. >> monica, i understand this applies to pilots thus far. how about airline employees, in general? might they extend it for them? >> flight attendants are also talking to the tsa about similar exemptions. in fact, if pilots can bypass this so should flight attendants, but the rules have not changed so far. >> thank you, a veronica. president obama is in portugal. nato leaders are discussing the president's four-year plan to transfer security to the afghan government. >> i look forward to working with our nato and our partners as we move to a new face. a transition to afghan responsibility that begins in 2011 with afghan forces taking the lead for security across afghanistan by 2014. >> nbc's mike sri caro is live at the white house. what are the latest

developments? >> reporter: that's interesting. this is the third international summit in ten days the president has attended. two issues dominate. one is the s.t.a.r.t. treaty as republicans are dug in. it won't be ratified this year. and the other is afghanistan. early this morning our time, of course, it is five hours ahead in lisbon, portugal, where the president is attending the summit. there was a meeting of the 28 nato member nations. hamid karzai on the table went to transition nato forces, hand over the security, the responsibility for security of that nation to the afghans themselves. remember the controversial date, alex, july of 2011, when the president said when he reveals his new strategy about a year ago that u.s. forces would start to withdraw from afghanistan. that's still the case. they are still standing by that, but there's a new emphasis now, that's 2014. by the end of 2014 say nato and president obama, then afghans should be able to stand up on their own and take care of

security. and they are still seeing a controversy over how many nato forces remain after that. and the other controversy, s.t.a.r.t. the russian president dmetry medvedev is meeting with countries as well. of course, john kyl, the republican senator from arizona, a leader of republicans on the arms control issues, has said he doesn't think s.t.r.a.t. will pass this year. and now president obama is trying to get through there the senate. he says it is a matter of national security. he says no senate has ever rejected an arms control initiative with the soviet union or russia. here's a little more of what he had to say from the nato summit. >> the message that i've received since i've arrived from my fellow leaders at north korea to could not be clearer. new s.t.a.r.t. will strengthen our alliance and european security. >> leaders say this is a high-stakes gain here after congress gets back after

thanksgiving to try to get this ratified. president obama is invoking president reagan saying trust but verify is the creed by which he's operating with negotiating with the russians. >> thank you, mike. we invite all of you to watch "meet the press" tomorrow with david gregory's guests including hillary clinton. he will also have an interview with governor bobby jindal. check your local listings for the time. as nato leaders are meeting in lisbon, the battle on the ground and in the air is ramping up in afghanistan. right now coalition forces there are at the peak levels. they are dropping in record number bombs, far more than last year. ateah, what does all the activity look like? what kind of effect is it having there? >> reporter: good morning, alec. no doubt the fighting has ramped

up with the troop search in place here in afghanistan. the fighting is particularly strong in the south and east of the country, these are the areas that border pakistan where the militants have a safe haven going in and out of the borders. right now a big focus is on the south in kandahar and heldman province. record amounts of night raids and bombs. they said night raids have increased six fold. air strikes have doubled in the last few months. that has not come without a cost. this year has also been a record year for nato deaths in the war in afghanistan since it began in 2001. and although civilian casualties are down by 8%, there are still over 400 innocent afghans that have been killed or wounded because of the fight. as you mentioned earlier, right now there's a summit going on in lisbon about a transition of power. president obama stating that he wants to start transitioning some of the power to the afghan forces by july of 2011 hoping to

finish that transition at the end of the year in 2014. many people are wondering if that is even a possibility because when you go to these places that you see the fighting, you see the u.s. and nato forces taking the lead. and the afghan forces actually taking the backseat in the fight. many wonder if that can change in around three to four years. >> atia, i'm curious with hamid karzai talking about the night raids, in particular, saying those are the things when conducted by the u.s. troops that generate the worst feeling among the afghan people, fear and they want them out for that reason, do you see anecdoteal evidence of that and back up what hamid karzai is saying? >> reporter: yes, they do. the information can go into the wrong home. this is a tribal mentality here in afghanistan, so some people are giving the right information to the nato forces. other people are giving the wrong information to the nato

forces. i've gone to homes of innocent afghans whose homes have been raided and their families have been killed because, say, their neighbor had a tribal revenge and told the americans they were connected to the taliban in al qaeda. so i think what many afghans are really frustrated about is not necessarily about the nato forces going after the so-called bad guys, but not looking into the information deeply. actually looking at the intelligence to make sure that they don't target the wrong families. >> very interesting point you make there. nbc's atia abali, thank you very much. many workers were exposed to toxic dust after the 9/11 attack. this raps up a fight between new york city and first responders. they say they were not properly ready and developed health

problems. $625 million was agreed upon. more than $7 billion can be given to sick ground zero workers. the fbi is investigating a threatening letter and suspicious white powder discovered in the mail room at the studio of "dancing with the stars." emergency personnel responding to the studio say initial tests show the powder is not hazardous. the letter will be taken to a lab for further teing. no one was injured. drivers will be paying more at the pump as we look ahead to the thanksgiving weekend. thanksgiving pump prices are expected to be the highest in three years. however, a recent drop in oil should mean lower prices for drivers once the holiday weekend ends. the latest harry potter movie brought in a whopping $24 million from midnight screenings. the box office tracker puts harry potter third in the record books for midnight debuts. the last two "twilight" movies have first and second place.

and it is not too early to get in line for the black friday deals. one family camped out wednesday morning in front of a st. petersburg best buy. they expect to see 12 million more shoppers in stores than last year, but 53% of consumers said they would skip shopping on black friday. we'll let you know how that turns out. major snowstorms have blanketed the western part of the country this weekend. california and nevada are seeing accumulation in the lake tahoe region. high altitudes could see six feet of snow, and reno is expected to get a foot. significant snow will coat montana and wyoming as well. snow caused several accidents in billings, montana, on friday. for the complete national forecast, we'll go to bill karins. good saturday morning to you, bill. a great saturday morning to you, alex. today it is all about the west coast and the stormy weather they are dealing with. snow in the high elevations and rain for areas that don't typically see a lot of it. we'll break it down to show you the big picture across the

country. if you are waking up with us on the eastern seaboard, the tennessee valley down through texas, no problems for you at all today. a little colder than we would like from chicago to minneapolis, but we can deal with the cold. in the west we have the rain and we have the snow. we have a couple different storm system that is are all working through the west. it is moving into air that's cold, that means a lot of snow for the higher elevations. great for the ski resorts heading to the thanksgiving holiday. one area rain on and off, los angeles to santa maria and southwards down to san diego. we'll see rainfall today and even some snow in the high elevations of the mountains. outside in l.a. and especially in the central sierra region, of course, that ski country is out there, from tahoe southwards to yosemite we'll see the heaviest snow. you see the blue area in the middle near san francisco? that's 24 inches of snow. they could see two to four feet at the highest of elevations in california. this is the first big snowstorm of the system for them. today's forecast, a lot of rain

from seattle southward to san francisco with l.a. having a chance for rain on and off. tomorrow is not better. a murky weekend in much of the west. don't expect treacherous conditions travelwise unless you head up to ski country. >> which would be fun. thank you, bill karins. hooters comes under fire after a grandmother is put into a head lock. you can see the security video of what went down there. look at that. the president and the gop. are republican lawmakers using delay tactics to make sure president obama accomplishes nothing in the next two years? we heard about rising grocery bills, but the centerpiece for your thanksgiving meal could be cheaper this year. we'll break down the numbers coming up on msnbc saturday. be. to what i'll actually be doing. so in the rest of my life i like control, especially in my finances. that's why i have slate with blueprint. i can make a plan to pay off everyday things and avoid interest. or pay down my balance faster on the big stuff.

that saves money. with slate from chase i have everything under control... financially. debit card control... credit card flexibility. get both with slate. had a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit, which provided for their every financial need. [ thunder rumbling ] [ thunder crashing ] and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. ♪ and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

[ man ] ♪ trouble ♪ trouble, trouble trouble, trouble ♪ ♪ trouble been doggin' my soul ♪ since the day i was born ♪ worry ♪ oh, worry, worry worry, worry ♪ [ announcer ] when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance. travelers. take the scary out of life.

thousands of people in

california are without tap water until further nouts because of possibility chemical contamination. the water in barstow shows high levels of a chemical found in explosives that interferes with human hormone blends. so filtering the water doesn't do any good. anger about the cholera outbreak in haiti has sparked deadly riots. two people are died in the violent protests. many haitians believe a peace-keeping force may have contaminated a river with cholera and allowed it to spread from there. the strain of cholera in haiti matches one found most prevalently in south asia. and now 1,100 have died from cholera in the country. and now black farmers are step closer to a settlement. black farmers claim discrimination at the hand of the agriculture department will receive $1.2 billion.

a new appeal from president obama from the senate to pass the s.t.a.r.t. nuclear treaty with russia. republicans also pushed back the planned meeting with the president earlier this week. is this just politics as usual or is there good reason behind it? a man with good reason is joining us now, jim warren, msnbc contributor and columnist for "the new york times" is here rather than here. good to see you. >> good to see you live. >> it is all good. the gop is looking to make sure nothing significant is accomplished over the next two years it would seem. >> better watch out. there are a lot of republicans who come to washington thinking they've got some big mandate from the voters out there. i'm not sure that's the case. i think if we know there's a visceral range in place like illinois and other spots, they toured obama's health care plan, but there's unhappiness with

congress. forget, there are a lot of mainstream republicans, some conservative, who were booted by the voters back in the republican primaries. so there's a general unhappiness out there with congress. republicans better remember president obama's numbers are better than theirs. >> americans logics tells us they did not vote against democrats to have nothing done over the next couple of years. do republicans misreading what happened in the elections? >> my eyes were able to focus for a little bit this morning. there are 31 states that have run out of unemployment comp benefits and are begging the government for interest-free loans. 31 states. states like ohio and indiana are proposing to cut back their unemployment comp benefits. we are talking about $40 billion or so out is there that they have asked the government for. if the government cuts back unemployment benefits or forcing

employers to hike payroll taxes on employees to pay for the state funds, oh, i think it will be a backlash toward that. >> i would agree with you on that. we'll get to sarah palin with the new book out that she takes a shot at the president and first lady. here's what she writes. certainly his wife expressed this view when she said during the 2008 campaign that she had never felt proud of her country until her husband started winning elections. in retrospect, i guess this shouldn't surprise us since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the reverend jeremiah wright's church listening to his rants against america and white people. so, the point of all this, would this be a strategy that could garner the republican nomination for sarah palin were she to be going for it in 2012 but lose the general election? >> no. i think, alex, this question about reverend wright and the terrorist, the underwear guy who obama -- he got 9 million more votes than republicans did. i think palin when she makes her

decision, a lot of republicans need to make their decisions from thanksgiving to christmas. they have to decide whether or not they are going to run, people like mitt romney. i don't think reliving an election in which they got their butts kicked and which questions were brought up is the path to go down. i think they have to focus on what happens on what obama does or doesn't do in the next year or so. i think you can interpret a lot of the votes on november 2nd as anti-congressional, anti-congress. people have a general unhappiness to play both ways, particularly republicans are convinced that the way to go is not to give the president any victories, any achievements, whether it is the s.t.a.r.t. treaty or unemployment compensation or taxes, you name it, because they will be in charge in the house. i think there are a lot of people going, wait a second, you are in charge, did you do anything? remember back in 1995 when you were in charge, government slowed down, and guess who came out the big winner? bill clinton. >> okay.

jim warren, thank you so much. more next hour. royal wedding watch. why we have not yet found out the where and the when here on msnbc saturday. ♪ [ male announcer ] what does it take to excel in today's business world? our professors know. because they've been there. and they work closely with business leaders to develop curriculum to meet the needs of top businesses. which means when our graduates walk in the room, they're not only prepared... they're prepared to lead. devry university's keller graduate school of management. learn how to grow the business of you at keller.edu. and now #1 in the u.s. that's outlast lipstain from covergirl. light as air lipwear that does what a lipstick can't. the precision pen glides over lips with a flush of sheer color. it's never sticky. 'cause it's a stain. read my lips, this is not a lipstick. with one sold every 15 seconds,

it's the #1 selling lipstain in the u.s. [ male announcer ] outlast lipstain. from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl. [ drew ] top it off with the glossy shimmer of shineblast. when it comes to investing, no one person has all the answers. so td ameritrade doesn't give me just one person. questions about retirement? i talk to their retirement account specialists. bonds? grab the phone. fixed-income specialist. td ameritrade knows investors sometimes need real, live help. not just one broker... a whole team there to help... to help me decide what's right for me. people with answers at td ameritrade. get up to $500 when you open an account. thank you for calling usa pmy name peggy. peggy, yes, i'd like to redeem my reward points for a gift card. tell points please? 250,000. calculating... ooh! answer: five fifty! 550 bucks?! 5 dollar, 50 cents. minus redeeming charge. leaving 50 cents.

say what? happy time! what kind of program is this? want better rewards? switch to discover. america's number 1 cash rewards program. it pays to discover. ♪ i was young and i was stupid ♪ i had just turned 17 ♪ a harmonica and a box guitar ♪ ♪ in a canvas-covered wagon stuffed... ♪ [ male announcer ] while the world's been waiting on the electric car, maybe the whole time, the electric car has been waiting for this... the wattstation from ge. it's going to change the way we get to where we all want to go. ♪ i didn't think much of it till i took it apart ♪ switching to geico realis a bird in the handre one get tworth 2 in the bush?to go. appraiser: well you rarely see them in this good of shape. appraiser: for example the fingers are perfect. appraiser: the bird is in mint condition. appraiser: and i would say if this were to go to auction today, appraiser: conservatively it would be worth 2 in the bush.

woman: really? appraiser: it's just beautiful, thank you so much for bringing it in. woman: unbelievable anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. with the royal wedding set, the people want to know when and how much? 14% say the public should split the cost with the royal family. camilla is an nbc world news contributor. camilla, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. >> i have heard a lot of people are planning wedding watching parties thus far. they don't know the date, they don't know the when, and they do know how pricey this whole thing is going to be. first of all, how much do you think this wedding is going to cost? >> reporter: well, so far, alex,

the price of $40 million has been put on the wedding. i don't know if that's conservative or over the top, but it is a huge amount of money. >> it is. where the wedding is and all of that will make a huge differs difference in terms of the cost, but why is it taking details for it to come out? is there a lot of buzz after kate's appearance at westminster abbey this week? >> reporter: it is the favorite venue in london, but i think this is all because on tuesday it really was the first time a lot of people, and i include people in the palace, found out about the engagement. william and kate have known for years they want to get married. in fact, of course, they have known for weeks they are engaged, but palace staff and aids have not known for that long. >> with regard to westminster abbey, do you know any reason why kate middleton would be going there knowing full well people are taking pictures, and

also, if it is westminster abbey, we think about the funeral of princess diana. that might be a difficult thing for prince william, no? >> reporter: she's being photographed there, but it doesn't mean she hasn't been to other venues. she just may not be photographed at other venues. she was spotted at westminster abbey. a newspaper got a tip she was looking at the venue. on the issue of diana's fawn ral, it has connotations with her, but this is also the place where the queen and the queen mother got married. it was a site of the queen's coronation. it has huge connections to the royal family in general, not just because of diana's funeral. also, perhaps diane in is more associated with kensington palace more than westminster abbey itself. >> i have heard these two would want a more private, small wedding. there were negotiations about it being held in windsor and other things like that, what are the

chances of that happening? very slim to nil, to be honest. they have talked about places like windsor, but there isn't a venue big enough. westminster abbey is smaller than the cathedral holding 2,000 people opposed to 3,000. westminster abbey would be a smaller venue, but on the scale of things this is the biggest royal wedding since charles and diana got married in 1981. it won't be a low key affair. the whole word world is watching. >> we are already talking with you. we'll probably talk with you regularly until it happens. thank you so much. >> reporter: thank you. a new $1 coin honors president abraham lincoln. it was unveiled friday in washington for the 147th anniversary of the gettysburg address. are you suffering from frequent heartburn ?

try zegerid otc. it's the first 24-hour treatment with two active ingredients: prescription-strength medicine plus a protective ingredient so it's effectively absorbed. for 24-hour relief, try dual-ingredient zegerid otc.

i've been looking at the numbers, and i think our campus is spending too much money on printing. i'd like to put you in charge of cutting costs. calm down. i know that it is not your job. what i'm saying... excuse me? alright, fine. no, you don't have to do it. ok? [ male announcer ] notre dame knows it's better for xerox to control its printing costs. so they can focus on winning on and off the field. [ manager ] are you sure i can't talk -- ok, no, i get it. [ male announcer ] with xerox, you're ready for real business.

it is msnbc saturday. i'm alex witt. at 31 past the hour, here are the fast five headlines. at the nate toe summit in portugal, afghanistan is the most urgent topic. more on that in a home. back here at home starting today airline pilots are exempt from scanning or pat-downs. instead the tsa says uniformed pilots have to produce two picture ids. in new zealand heightened levels of methane carbon monoxide are keeps crews from entering the coal mine after yesterday's explosion. the fate of the the 29 in the mine is still unknown. the feds are preparing charges to uh uncover financial trading in financial markets. an untold number of hedge fund managers could be facing charges after a three-year investigation. and the fdic closed three more banks making 149 bank failures this year, nine more

than all of last year. and those are your fast five headlines. right now in portugal president obama is meeting with nato leaders to plan out the way forward in afghanistan. just one of several big issues addressed at the summit. chuck todd is traveling with the president. he has the latest from lisbon. chuck, good morning. >> reporter: well, good morning. president obama is only going to be in lisbon another 12 hours but the focus couldn't be more important. dealing with nato on an exit strategy out of afghanistan and reassuring the same allies that president obama still has political capital in washington to get a nuclear arm's treaty ratified out of the senate. president obama began his second day in portugal with a focus on afghanistan. attending a meeting of coalition partners in the war effort. >> the meeting is open. today marks the beginning of a new face in our mission in afghanistan. >> reporter: the new consensus? to begin a transition to afghan

responsibility in 2011 with afghan forces taking the lead by 2014. experts say there's no guarantee afghan forces will be ready by then. >> make no doubt about it, this is nothing to do with the reality of the on-the-ground military situation in afghanistan. >> reporter: transition not withdrawal is the key word now, both the president and vice president are using it repeatedly. >> so this summit is an important opportunity for us to align an approach to transition in afghanistan. >> we are going to begin to transition. we are keeping that commitment, that commitment will be kept. >> reporter: resonating among leaders here, the battle in the senate to approve s.t.a.r.t. >> the message that i've received since i've arrived from my fellow leaders here at nato could not be clearer. new s.t.a.r.t. will strengthen european security. >> reporter: key republican john kyl is blocking senate ratification drawing fire from the president's lone republican senate allie on the issue. >> well, i am not ascribing

motivations to anybody. at this point i'm simply trying in a civil manner as possible to say please do your duty for your country. >> reporter: and biden says u.s. relations with russia hang in the balance. >> the reason why we are having success in real sanctions against iran is because russia is cooperating. medvedev stuck himself way out on the line of this. >> reporter: meanwhile, back in kyl's home state of arizona a new commercial invokes the daisy act from the 1964 campaign of lyndon johnson. it is asking residents to take action. before leaving lisbon, alex, the president is also going to be holding a press conference where he's no doubt going to be pressed on the the 2014 deadline is truly a hard deadline out of afghanistan. and two, why is it that he is struggling so much to get this s.t.a.r.t. treaty ratified and out of the united states senate.

>> chuck todd, thank you for that. we'll get more now on the plan to end the combat in afghanistan by 2014. i'm joined live from washington, msnbc military analyst, retired general mccaffrey, good morning. >> good morning, alex. >> the 2014 goal, realistic or not? >> it is a pretty good political strategy. the president had to keep his nato allies in the game, and a bunch are withdrawing. the canadians are coming out, the dutch, the germans may be next, the u.k. is talking about withdrawal, so this was a message well received in europe. and secondly, i think the american people have had it. this is an $8 billion a month warment. a company killed or wounded, they have to reassure the american people there was an exit strategy. it is unrelated, i would argue, however, to what's actually going on in afghanistan. >> okay. well, so when you say unrelated, what do you mean by that? do things on the ground dictate potential change from that focus? and speaking of change, what

happened to july 2011? >> well, i think, again, he had to raise the red line in the sand because it was highly unlikely that next summer things would dramatically change. we are trying to build afghan security forces, the place in chaos, the fighting is higher not lower. i think that was good. this has now kicked the deadline into the next term of the next president. i think politically that was useful. >> okay. but speaking of presidents, with the allegations of corruption within hamid karzai's government, how much do things on the ground have the potential to change based on what changes with the presidents there? is that going to make a big difference as well? >> well, you asked the appropriate question. building a strong federal government in afghanistan is probably the work of 20 years. hamid karzai is not a bad beginning. he's been a very material, volatile, unpredictable allie. he doesn't have much power in

his own country. the force on the ground is actually 100,000 u.s. combat troops marx reen soldiers, special ops, they are trying to move the country forward. karzai right now is a questionable asset. and i think to some extent, by the way, he's eroding political support for u.s. support here in the united states. >> when it comes to military strategy, though, general, is it bad to set timelines? is this the kind of thing that gives those opponents of the united states and nato troops just the chance to say, we are just going to wait this out. we have a date, we are waiting. >> of course. you talk to a domestic political audience in your nato allies in lisbon, at the same time you are talking to the taliban and saying, here's the end game the americans are announcing. and you are also telling karzai and his security forces, look, these guys are going to pull out. you better start making accommodations to survive when

they are gone. on the oh hand, it is a political reality. i would personally endorse what the president has done in this case. i don't think he had much choices. and he couldn't leave next summer as the implied beginning of u.s. withdrawal. >> okay, general barry mccaffrey, we'll speak with you again later this morning. we are expecting to learn details about the deaths of two women and an 11-year-old boy whose remains were found in a trash bag hidden in a hallow tree in ohio. the coroner will release more information about tina herrmann, her son kody and stephanie sprang. their bodies were discovered a week after they disappeared. herrmann's daughter sarah was found alive in hoffman's home. he is charged with kidnapping and could face murder charges. sarah palin is taking part in a blog online. her publisher is suing for financial damages. on wednesday the blog posted

scanned images of 21 leaked pages of palin's book "america by heart." the ex-governor went on to twitter to complain, but the website claims it was fair use to post the material. so we are now just days away from the busiest retail day of the year, black friday. for those brave enough to face the mobs of people on the early morning hay hem, huge savings await. but you need some sort of plan of attack. i'm joined by vera gibbons to find out how to do this. >> you do need a plan of attack. >> deals are early, but there's interest this round two now. as many as 49% of the households are expected to shop on black friday up from a traditional 40%. some estimates say 200 million shoppers are out on black friday expecting $42 billion worth of sales. it will be packed. >> packed. give us the sfrat ji strategy for black friday. >> the pros say to hit the black friday states.

be checking the sites first. see what's out there and what is offered. do your comparison shopping at shop.com to see if the deals are as good as they are cracked up to be. then long before you get out decide what you want and what you're expected to pay for it. >> get the must-haves. >> you really need the must-haves. whether you are in the market for a flat-screen tv, target has a 40-inch tv for $299. can you believe it? people are going after these types of things. if you are in the market for that, a $90 e-book reader, a $60 blu-ray player, you need your plan of attack, your strategy before you hit the malls. this is not a day to be browsing. >> i am thinking you have to show up with your tag team. you go here, you go here. >> divide and conquer. that's the thing. you have to divvy up responsibilities. if we were to shop on black friday, you stand in the front

with the shopping cart. do not leave the area. i run up and down and dump it into the cart so we are working together. put a timeframe on this, like 15 to 20 minutes at a store because the lines become three to four hours long. put a timeframe on it, get your stuff and get out. >> i would love to see that happen watching you run around the store and making it happen. >> get my sneakers and dumping it in the cart. i never go out on black friday. >> thank you. it started out as a discussion over restaurant. then it turns into a fight. you are watching msnbc saturday. wow. hey, guys, i know i've been bad at this in the past, so i've come up with some mnemonic devices to help me learn your names. hello, a "penny" saved is a "penny" earned. oh, that's 'cause fedex ground helps you save money. that's right, penny. do you know ours? heavens to betsy. dwayne the bathtub. magic wanda. yeah!

what's mine? uh, you're a dan fool. oh. it's just a device, dan. you can't take it personally. yeah, i suppose. [ male announcer ] we understand. you need a partner who helps you save. fedex ground. this is norma. who's inundated with all the information coming at her concerning the medicare part d changes this year. so she went to her walgreens pharmacist for guidance and a free personalized report that looks at her prescriptions and highlights easy ways for her to save. because norma prefers her painting to paperwork. see how much you can save. get your free report today. expertise -- find it everywhere there's a walgreens. each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality.

which meant she continued to have the means to live on... even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

[trumpet playing "reveille" throughout] let's support the small business owners getting our economy booming with the first ever small business saturday. on november 27th, shop small. it's going to be huge. [trumpet playing "reveille" fades to silence] a 54-year-old grandmother is suing an illinois hooters restaurant and and off-duty

police officer. she is disputing the charge on the bill. she puts her credit card down to pay but an argument breaks out between her and the security guard. look at the guy in her face, that's joseph schmidt. when he turns around schmidt grabs her hair to try to restrain her. well, look at that. the family says he made a radically charged statement, a racially charged statement, sorry about that. he was sentenced to seven months of prison. okay, we have to talk about this. david schwartz, a crimin attorney and former prosecutor here. welcome. the officer claims she spit on him. did you see evidence of that, either of you in the video? >> yes, i did. i did see a portion where i believe she did, in fact, spit. >> i didn't see it from the video. clearly, they have his testimony. this is unconscionable what i just saw. >> she spent 200 days in prison

or in jail. can you do that for spitting on a cop? she's still there. >> absolutely you can. i'm going to disagree with everybody on this. i understand that people take a look at this video and think, he's grabbing her hair, but you back it up and go frame by frame, actually, if i was the prosecutor, i would have charged her with two counts of assault. i would have charged her with bodily fluids, disorderly person, resisting arrests. >> you have to be kidding. >> we saw him doing something with his face there. >> 200 days in jail in are we kidding me? what i'm seeing here is completely unconscionable in any reality whatsoever. 200 days in jail, even if she spit on the officer, even in the worst case scenario. >> she also has prior offenses, dui, retail theft, does that contribute to a sentence? >> absolutely. well, they always do contribute to the sentence, but you have to look at the crime itself. you always have to look at the crime. you have to look at the video.

>> if you have priors, you get probations. >> she did this on probation, that's it. that's when the book is thrown at you. >> yes, absolutely. if she has two or three, there's a presumption of nonincarceration with a lower demeanor-type crime. if you have two or three prior convictions, you are not getting the presumption. that's what happens here. >> prior crimes play a role. they are absolutely correct. the judge still looks at what are the facts of this case. what precipitated this incident? and i think the video is very clear. >> okay. >> my question to you, david, you put all this aside, if she spit on the security guard who is an off duty officer, doesn't she have to pay a price for that? >> well, if she was -- if there were racial slurs being down at h her, this officer is -- it is

unconscionable what she did to this woman. there should be a civil lawsuit. she'll do very well in the civil lawsuit. >> i think he acted in line with police procedure. i would not have taken this case. look at the video. if you are a a little person you are saying, oh, my god, he grabbed her hair. back it up at the moment he identified himself as a police officer and she bumped into him, he's allowed to arrest her. >> i want to ask you both about excessive force. we are showing the video, you see her turn around, he grabs the top of her hair and literally yanks her head back and gets the head lock going and all that. is this excessive force? >> no, and i'll tell why. you don't have to match force to arrest a person. you can go one up, so, yes -- >> this is an out of control police officer. >> at the moment she bumped him she's supposed to turn around and put her hands behind her back. she didn't do that.

you know what? >> any normal thinking person, this is an out of control police officer using excessive force. it is clear. >> the police officer in this case is not operating in the role as a police officer. >> you are a police officer 24 hours a day as long as he himse officer. >> i will say there's -- no, there's a distinction between on duty and off duty. >> no, tlt not. >> yes, there is. however, he clearly is wearing his jacket and it's a question whether or not he's on duty, he's off duty. bottom line is, you can't do that to another human being. this is going to be a civil lawsuit here and she's going to do very well. i think she's going to get -- >> she's in jail. obviously, she's not going to do well. >> you know what's great about having you two on? if anybody weren't awake before watching this, now they are. >> thank you. >> now to a look at sports beyond the scores, first, a new

yankees stadium hosts its first football game tonight when notre dame renews its rivalry with army. it is the 50th meeting between the team. in chicago's wrigley field hosts its first college football game since 1938, northwestern and illinois will be trying to reach the same end zone. that's because a brick wall is too close to the back of the end zone. officials are afraid the players can get hurt running into a brick wall. it's going to change directions at midfield and go towards the west of the end zone. in the nba, a mad dash for a loose ball in the bulls/mavericks game. one of the players winds up in the stands. but everyone survives that unscathed. and then a very strange occurrence at last night's knicks game. a ball is lost and goes above the backboard and lands on top of the shot clock. it remained there in the last two minutes before the first half brit was retrieved at intermission.

[ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if cars didn't need keys? if you could talk to them with this? if you turbocharged this little guy? if old water bottles became new seats? if you never bought another gallon of gas? or what if cars had force fields? that would be cool. nissan. innovation for today. innovation for tomorrow. innovation for all. ♪ consider this: drop & go charging for up to 4 devices at once... the duracell mygrid™. simple and smart. it's mygrid™. from duracell. trusted everywhere. [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. together we'll make her holiday.

that's why only zales is the diamond store. [ gorilla ] nice move. but can your retirement income keep pace with changing interest rates? this variable annuity from axa equitable has an option that can help your retirement income move with changing interest rates. but what do i know? i'm just the 800-pound gorilla in the room. [ female announcer ] make the retirement cornerstone annuity from axa equitable part of your retirement plan. consider the charges, risks, expenses and investment objectives before purchasing a variable annuity. contact a financial professional for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. whoo hoo!

a big week for general motors make its resurgence as a publicly traded company. the company issued what could be the largest ip the o in history. gm started publicly trading shares thursday at $33 and that price jumped more than $1 despite nearly slipping babb to its original price on friday morning, it closed at $34.26. jeff mason is the white house correspondent for reuters. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> as we talk about the profits which are up, sales are up, what created this turn around for gm in this economy? >> well, in a word, cost cutting and better sales in the united states. but you can't forget that the thing that basically painted the way for this to happen was a government bailout of $50 billion. but in that time period since the bailout, the company has worked very hard to cut costs

and sales have gone up in the united states. >> okay. so the government reduced its stake in gm from 61% to 36% and it made $11.8 billion in the process of doing that. how high does the stock have to go before it gets the rest of its bailout money back? probably another roughly 50%. in order for the treasury to break even on its investment, the share pride price would have to average around $52. so it still has a ways to go. >> gm brands, there's only four now, chevrolet, buick, cadillac and gmc. gone, pant yak, oldsmobile, saturn, sabb, they're all gone away. what does this latest sket success mean for detroit? does that mean gm is going to hire more or does it stay lean? detroit is certainly something that the obama administration is watching carefully. they would like to see hiring continue. they would like to see a continued return on this investment. but the company is saying we have a lot more work to do for our turn around. they want to pay down their debt. they want to fully fund their

pension program. so i would guess that investors are expecting them to continue to do what they're doing and not move too hard to increase their costs. >> jeff, how big a victory is this for president obama and his economic team? >> the white house sees this as a major victory, alex. the president came out and spoke to the pt press on thursday about it, about the fact how the money that his administration put into this company had helped save more than 1 million jobs. they see it as a major prurn on their investment and a major showing that they made the right decision and they would like to see themselves get a little credit for it. that's not necessarily happening, however. >> jeff mason, giving you credit for speak with us. thank you so much for doing that. >> my pleasure. there's a new gold rush in this country but it comes with warning. we'll explain. to change the wor. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility

to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. but basically, i'm a runner. last year. (oof). i had a bum knee that needed surgery. but it got complicated, because i had an old injury. so i wanted a doctor who had done this before. and unitedhealthcare's database helped me find a surgeon. you know you can't have great legs, if you don't have good knees. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. i don't always let the worry my pipes might leak compromise what i like to do. i take care with vesicare, because i have better places to visit than just the bathroom.

( announcer ) once-daily vesicare can help control your bladder muscle, and is proven to treat overactive bladder with symptoms of frequent urges and leaks, day and night. if you have certain stomach or glaucoma problems, or trouble emptying your bladder, do not take vesicare. vesicare may cause allergic reactions that may be serious. if you experience swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, stop taking vesicare and get emergency help. tell your doctor right away if you have severe abdominal pain or become constipated for three or more days. vesicare may cause blurred vision, so use caution while driving or doing unsafe tasks. common side effects are dry mouth, constipation, and indigestion. ( woman ) you have better things to join than always a line for the bathroom. so, pipe up and ask your doctor today about taking care with vesicare. smells amazing! it's been weeks and we're still enjoying it. the scented oil travels up through the wooden block and out into the air. and no spills. [ male announcer ] also from the home collection febreze flameless luminary.