hometown disadvantage, a new poll shows rick santorum leading in the state mitt romney was supposed to own, michigan. can romney stave off a catastrophic primary loss? this battle is on. new details emerging about whitney houston's funeral. who will be there and is the family trying to block ex-husband bobby brown from her fortune? outrage from the family of susan powell as josh powell's family tries to bury him near the boys that he brutally murdered when he attacked them with a hatchet and blew up their home. a new study out shows interracial marriage in america has hit a new high. there's an economic side to this story you're going to want to hear about. great to have you with me today i'm thomas roberts. here's what's on the agenda. must win michigan, mitt romney be desperate to avoid a melt down.

michigan governor rick schneider is putting his political clout behind romney in an endorsement that is scheduled to happen roughly an hour from now. for mitt romney, it's looking more like a fight to the finish. here's mitt romney playing up his hometown roots in a re re-introduction of sorts. >> there's another guy in my high school. and a gal from my -- there's a lot of high schoolers here. i'm just -- this does bring back memories. any old girlfriends here? oh, i have to be careful. ann's not here today. don't tell. >> meanwhile, rick santorum plans to take the battle right to romney's backyard. he's giving an economic speech just an hour from high school that mitt romney attended. ron mott is live in detroit this morning. ron, how critical is this endorsement that we're expected to hear from the governor in the next hour and how is santorum

fighting back? >> well, good morning, thomas. for mitt romney he's got to hope that this endorsement is going to give him a pop because right now in the polls he is polling second in this new boel poll out by the detroit news. rick santorum obviously coming off that big surge last week where he shut out all three of his opponents in those three victories last week. up in the polls here. 34% to mitt romney's 30.4%. it's within the margin of error but it's significant that rick santorum is leading at this point 12 days to go in race. in endorsing mitt romney, here's a little bit of what governor schneider had to say in his op-ed this morning. the american economy as a whole remains in difficult straits. he writes. our next president must understand how markets work and how to get our nation back on track. mitt romney is the man for the job. he has deep ties to our state. mitt understands the challenges confronting michigan. as few americans do. what rick santorum has basically said here, he's going to challenge mitt romney on his former home turf and he's trying

to do that and trying to fight back on the air. now, his pro-santorum super pac has committed $652,000 here in michigan to santorum campaign itself, $42,000. and that's a significant buy. but still just a fraction of what mitt romney and the pro-romney super pac spend here, over $2 million. there is a very effective ad for the santorum campaign out on the air right now. it shows an actor who looks similar to mitt romney running through a warehouse firing shots at rick santorum. effective, memorable ad. we'll see if that holds this lead in the polls for him. we can talk about the tax returns that rick santorum released here. four years worth of tax returns showing that his highest earning during that four-year period, a little over a million dollars which pales in comparison to what governor romney earned in 2010, which is close to $21 million. what a lot of folks are saying

here in this race and perhaps this is why rick santorum is leading, finding a way to connect with the blue collar republican. they're going to look at his tax rates and see that he paid 28.5% in taxes to mitt romney's 13.9%. that's a message that is going out across the state and it's working as of now for rick santorum. thomas? >> nbc's ron mott. thank you, sir. we want to brake down the battle for michigan with our panel this morning. karen finney and chip, republican stat gist and campaign manager for mike huckabee in 2008 for his presidential bid. kar karen, we want to start with you. mitt romney's problem in his home state may be his stance that the car companies have been allowed to fail. today gm is releasing the numbers from last year. posting its biggest profits over and then last night president obama took aim at him as well while he was in milwaukee. take a look. >> when i took office the american auto industry was on the verpg ge of collapse.

and there was some folks who said we should let it die. with a million jobs at stake i refuse to let that happen p. >> karen, how much does this hurt mitt romney? looking at the numbers here, gm numbers, 2001, the profit $7.6 billion. is that -- 2001, i think that's wrong. it should be the number from last year, 2011. >> yeah. >> when we talk about the numbers there, such gang buster profits. >> absolutely. >> everybody glad to see it. buy american, get out there. given romney's ties to the auto industry those words are coming back to bite him, aren't they? >> absolutely. look, the way you know the romney campaign knows that this is a huge problem for them is the numbers that ron mott was just talking about. they are out-spending rick santorum by very large sums and trying to emphasize, over-emphasize almost his roots in the state of michigan, tells you they know they cannot afford to lose michigan and they know there is a very good chance they

could lose michigan. i think what we don't yet know santorum is on an upswing. what we have seen before, they go up and come down. the question will be, let's say santorum is able to stay on the upswing, win michigan, will that give them enough momentum to defeat romney? if romney cannot win his home state, critically important in an general election, that's not going to look so good to donors and supporters who say i don't think this guy can do go the distance? >> chip, we've wampd santorum evolve from a punch line to a real possibility for the nomination, as karen points out, he's actually leading in certain michigan polls if super pac supporting him just launched another big ad buy in michigan. using his tax returns to draw a contrast as we got with our reporter ron mott telling us how things are looking with mitt romney. take a listen to this. >> for me, i felt very successful in making money. also was very successful in paying taxes. you know, i do my own taxes and

maybe i didn't have the -- used all the deductions and exclusions that i could have, but i try to be as straightforward as i could and paying the taxes i thought i owed. >> is this another area, chip, where he's going to capitalize on the weakness of mitt romney being perceived as this 1 percenter out of touch with the rest of america? >> yeah, i think so. gu he's also coaching to his own strengths. he's everybody. every man. he does his own taxes. he believes he's doing it. the blue collar crowd in michigan. this is a very tight race. it's a must win for mitt romney. let's be honest. if he can't do well, where is he going to go. i agree with karen on that. this is where rick santorum plays. he's playing to everybody's heart. if you look at the next area of polling. who is the leader? who is the best to beat barack obama? mitt romney. we're going to see over the next two weeks can the romney

campaign capitalize on that and talk about how they can win in november? >> great to see you both this morning. thank you. lawmakers are ready to lock an extension of the payroll tax cut for 160 million americans through 2012. conference members announce the agreement to continue the tax cut in the early hours of the morning. along with extensions of unemployment benefits and the doc fix. and leader pelosi discussed the latest on this deal just minutes ago. take a look. >> it appears that we may be shortly voting on this legislation to give a payroll tax cut to 160 million americans. we do recognize that the bill does contain the three features that we said were necessary. we'll wait and see if the bill -- if the speaker is going to move the bill. >> nbc's luke russert covers capitol hill for us. give us the backgrounder, the detail on this and, also, pivot

pivotly when we can expect these votes. >> sure. it was worked on late into the early morning hours and today. the announcement, it was done after midnight. let's take a look at what is in here as speaker boehner says, the devil is in the details of this bill. specifically, ebbs tend the payroll tax cut, add $100 billion, deficit no longer paid for. huge concession by the gop. extend unemployment benefits, however, there will be reforms in there to bring them down to around 63 weeks for a lot of states. and then extend the medicare doc fix so doctors who take medicare patients see a 27% reduction in their pay. how are the unemployment benefits and the medicare doc fix paid for? that was what there is a lot of negotiation about yesterday. and all throughout this week. essentially what you're going to see is a spectrum sale by the government so that media companies can buy up spectrum. as well as federal workers will have to -- new federal workers will have to put more on their pension plans than previously

before. we will be able to come into an agreement on them. what do we expect to see this bill on the floor of the united states house? possibly friday however the gop has a rule that any pill has to be posted for three days. it came after midnight last night, the earliest that could be is saturday. so maybe a late friday night, early saturday morning vote or a decent hour on saturday. or they might just get rid of their own rule and do it on friday. i want to go home because i have a president's day recess coming up. either way, thomas, big victory for president obama and congress. they did the act last week. amazing thing. republicans and democrats coming to a conclusion that they both find agreeable. >> a trend of bipartisanship, how uncommon in washington, d.c. nbc's luke russert. >> take it while it lasts. only family and close friends are going to get to attend whitney houston's funeral this weekend. everyone else is going to be watching online. and there's new information in the investigation into her death

as investigators look to her doctors for more answers. plus, the shocking request from josh powell pou well's family. they want to bury him near the sons that he murdered. what's being done to stop it, after this. capital one's new cash rewards card

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the coroner's office released whitney houston's death of certificate. it does not release a cause of death for the 48-year-old singer. stevie wonder has been added to the list of entertainers performing at her funeral on saturday. newark city leaders are asking people to stay away from the new hope baptist church and the invitation only funeral will be broadcast online for fans, disappointed fans now with know new orleans public place to mourn have been leaving cards and now weres outside the church.

kristen dahlgren is joining us this morning with more on the funeral and the investigation into her death. kristen, good morning. >> hey, good morning, thomas. yeah, a little bit of controversy over this funeral. let's start with what we know ability what's going to be happening, as you said, we just got confirmation that stevie wonder is going to be there, and aretha franklin and clive davis and marvin winans, gospel singer and pastor who married whitney houston and bobby brown will give the eulogy there. but as you said, the fact that the family is trying to keep this so private and only going to be having a live stream online of the funeral has a lot of fans upset. newark police have said that the family wants to keep everyone away. they're going to have a six-block area locked down around the church beginning five hours before that funeral is supposed to be to begin. there's not going to be any type of procession, no monitors outside. and thousands of fans have said

that they still want to go out there. they want to in some way pay tribute to whitney houston. there's also that controversy over new jersey's governor who says he's going to be lowering the state's flags to half staff on saturday. he says his office has gotten some e-mails from people who say that whitney houston's admitted past drug use means she shouldn't be honored in that way. but governor chris christie is standing by his decision to lower the flag, saying that her accomplishments in life should be honored. now, as far as the funeral goes, there have been all of these reports that bobby brown was told by the family that he is not welcome. we spoke to a publicist for houston who tells us those rumors are completely false. so bobby brown is expected to be there. also, we're talking about the investigation going on here in los angeles. and not a whole lot new on that

front today. there have been subpoenas to to go out an doctors and pharmacists still looking to try and federal government ur out whitney houston's medical records and what she may have been taking. but, thomas, it's going to take for the reports to come back before we know exactly what caused the pop star's death. back to you. >> nbc's kristen dall dren hlgr l.a. for us. a new twist after she killed both his sons and himself in a fiery house explosion. josh powell's family is trying to bury him near the two boys. a local anti-crime group will have none of it. they bought the plots next to them to make sure his remains are kept away. >> they have to know this is extraordinarily offensive to the cox family and that the cox family is not going to stand for the murderer being buried next to the victim. >> that fight is now headed off to court. ann bremner is one of the

attorneys representing the fam life susan cox. as we've been following this story about susan powell and susan and josh, they were married when she vanished in 2009. until the day that josh died he was the only suspect in all of this. how does susan's family feel about this latest development and how do they feel about the efforts to keep josh's remains away from the boys' graves? >> just when it couldn't get any worse you feel like in this case and the cox family feels like, it does. susan goes missing, they can't find her. all of these efforts to find susan cox powell, of course, the horrible deaths of these boys, set on fire with the hatchet. you know, empg elverything else. and then to add insult to injury, the worse case any of us has ever seen, this. which is, the murderer being buried next to his victims. so the family, of course, was outraged. they want to do anything they can do to make sure this couldn't happen. and then wonderful thing from crime stoppers in piers county

buying up those plots yesterday. >> ann, we're also learning about the home that josh had in graham, washington. this home that he then torched on february 5th. basically it was all fake and josh powell used this to fuel the social workers into think that the boys had a stable place to go during these supervised visitations. as the cox family is getting more and more information about this, how are they able to disseminate this and react to it and deal with what that means with the fact that susan is still missing and they have no answers in findsing her? >> it's like the hits keep coming. the fact that this was basically a staged house is outrageous. and you wonder what about the state workers looking at where these kids are going to be for visitation. he even had pictures of susan up on the wall and little else. didn't look in the kitchen, look in the drawers, look to see if a toothbrush was in the bathroom. and so every day there's just more information. it's more upsetting. my clients are lovely people.

they are people of faith and they're going to find susan and they believe that susan is with the boys and that they're safe now. >> i've had an opportunity to interview the coxes and they are a lovely family and we do -- we just wish them the best as this is a horrific time for them to go through this and we do mope they can find some answers for their daughter susan who remains missing. ann, thanks again for joining me. >> thank you so much. so, apple is expected to unveil its next generation of ipads next month. what new features the ipad 3 or whatever it's going to be called is expected to have? we'll take a peek. plus, even if you're not a sports fan you've no doubt heard the name jeremy lin. new york knicks sensation. how was he overlooked for so long? [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing.

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caucus back. i want to give you a quick peek at what's streaming online. the first lady is a surprise to say hello and welcome them as they visit the white house. you can see at her feet there's bo the dog as well. wouldn't that be cool. you go to the white house and the next thing you know the first lady shows up. what else is cool, some day you might be able to watch that on your ipad 3. talking about what's coming from apple because there's a new report that the electronics giant is about to unroll this third version of its popular tablet. reportedly buying enough parts to make, get this, 1.5 million of them for all of us. danni injoins me now. that's a big number, 1.5 million ipad whatevers because we don't know what the title is. >> the ipad 3 or the 4g because they've got 4g in it. they sold a lot of ipad oneses and i had 2s. >> high hopes with what

features? what do we understand is going to be a part of this to make this more special? >> the most persistent is it's going to support 4g data network. it's faster than new phones. most of us have 3g. but everyone has the wi-fi version is it's not going to make a difference to us. >> what does it mean about affordabili affordability? >> they just add new features rather than lowering the cost because that's the apple model. keep the price same. make it difference. >> when we look at the overall model, the business model in terms of market value, apple has been basically a rocket lately. we can show everybody worth more than $500 billion. what do you think the new product of this ipad, the newest tan bracel tablet is going to do, since the death of steve jobs? >> huge thing for apple, death of steve jobs. right after that they came out with the iphone and it did well and mac books and mac book airs is doing well, too. they've got a good eco system of

products. every march they've got to have a new ipad now. >> dan this would have been something in the pipe like that steve jobs most likely would have had a purview over, the features. >> understanding is there was a multi-year plan that steve jobs worked on so the next several generation of products are going to be things the had his fingers on. >> everybody get excited. it's coming your way. dan, great to see you. thanks so much. all right, so, next up, the real reason mitt romney is having trouble hanging on to his front-runner status. plus, how the record rise in interracial marriage is literally changing the american landscape as well as the economy. what do you get when you combine the home depot with this weekend? the cure for cabin fever. because with get-it-done savings on everything we need... we can turn this weekend into a fresh floor... or an updated bathroom... or a brand-new look. so let's hit those orange aisles, and make today the day, we make a big difference, no matter how big our budget. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot

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today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. today the american out to the industry is back and general motors is once again the number one automaker in the world. >> there you have it. president obama touting the auto industry's comeback. and the numbers we saw from gm

this morning, they back up that assessme assessment. business is booming for an industry that was once on life support. cnbc's phil lebeau is covering the auto city. guys, excuse me. are we going to this breaking news? quickly -- do we want to go to the brieaking news there? stick with me with that. we're going to go to phil lebeau and talk about gm and the big numbers released today. does this mean, phil, this is just going to be more of what's to come? did we lose phil? all right. we've lost phil. all right. we're going to move on now to our next story. can we get back to the breaking news? show everybody the story coming to us out of new jersey right now? all right. let's show this. showing the aerials of this school bus crash that happened in the state of new jersey. as you can see, rescue crews are on the scene. as we understand from the early reports coming from the scene

there that this is one child who was found deceased on the scene. we understand that child is a state trooper. we are still learning. it happened in chesterfield, new jersey. the governor chris christie came out discussing his deep concern for this crash. rescue crews are still on the scene. we don't have the exact numbers of how many kids were on board that school bus. but we do understand that one child has died in the wake of that accident. we're going to get more information on that. bring it to you right here on msnbc. i understand that cnbc's phil lebeau is back with us about the numbers. good news about how they were able to bounce back. they were basically an a19 mick industry and now showing the forceful growth from last year. the biggest numbers we've ever seen. >> that's right. general motors is benefiting from two things. making $7.6 billion. and that's primarily driven by

one huge rebound in sales here in north america. not just for gm but all auto owners. gm was allowed to strip down the cost considerably. they used to have to pay $5 billion a year in health care costs. that's not a problem anymore. so as a result, because of those lower costs, combined are growing sales and pricing power that they've never had, they are able to rack up the profits they've been able to rake in. $7.6 billion the last year. $3 billion improvement compared to 2010. thomas? >> phil lebeau. thank you, sir, appreciate, back to the campaign trail and mitt romney's campaign appears to be stalling. while he's getting the governor's endorsement in michigan today, he is out-spending rick santorum in the ad diplomat department. h there is one thing he can't buy and it could cost him this nomination. michael is a special correspondent for "newsweek" and daily beast and writes that mitt

romney has an emotional disconnect. in fact, he calls romney the gop's al gore. all right. so let's get into this. you write that romney's emotion deficit is doing to him what republicans, basically what we saw with al gore. expect what you mean by that? >> yeah, sure. when we talk about romney's trouble connecting with the conservative base we tend to talk a lot more about issues, the health care program in massachusetts that was passed or even his religion which some christian conservatives might be suspicious of. but really i think it's more of a personality and temper meant tall kind of thing. temperamentally he's not a conservative. conservatives, one thing you can say about them, real committed, engaged political conservatives hate liberals and hate liberalism. if you go to them and you give a speech that's rip roorg of what liberals are trying to do to this country, ra-rah-rah.

romney can't do that. romney doesn't hate liberals and liberalism in the same way and he doesn't try to make that emotional connection and sometimes he tries and even then it looks worse because it looks like, you know, it's obvious that he's faking it. he can't convey that emotional connection. he he tries to reach it through reason. and that doesn't really work very well. that's why i compare him to al gore, because al gore, you know, was mr. reason for democrats. >> critics would say he does have a tough time serving the red meat out there. michael, there are parallels here from what we saw with president obama in the campaign for '08, not moving too far from the extreme, leaving himself up to coraling a larger piece of the general election pie. is that romney's game here? the long game looking at this not for the primary but for the general? >> i guess that is part of his game, thomas, yes. but is it costing -- is his short game going to be so bad he's not going to get to play the long game? you know, that's a very real question now. you can see it in how he's

trying to talk in michigan about the auto bailout. and he's really trying to have it two ways. this denunks asian of it as crony capitalism is obviously trying to play to the conservative base. yet, at the same time, your average michigander is pretty happy, i think, that that bailout happened. so how can he please both of those audiences? he's finding that a really tough need to thread. >> the balance is tough. thank you. >> my pleasure. here's a look at other stories topping the news now. two democratic congresswomen walked out of the house oversight committee hearing on the separation of church and state this morning. this all has to do with the obama administration's decision to require all health insurance plans to offer contraception coverage. a group of pastors, ministers and rabbis are testifying. all of them are men. that's something the democrats objected to.

>> we owe it to the tens of millions of american women whose lives will be effected to let just one, just one woman speak on their behalf today on this panel. >> all those testifying before the committee said they saw this issue as an issue of religious freedom and not one of access to health care. nigerian man who pled guilty of trying to blow up a plane in 2009 learns his fate today. he will be sentenced to live in prison today. the 25-year-old pled guilty to try to light explosive just minutes before that plane lan d ed. in maryland, backers of a bill to legalize same-sex marriage is just one vote away from moving forward after a key republican legislator announced he could cross the aisle and vote yes. this moves puts governor martin o'malley's bill one vote closer to passage. a vote on the bill could come as early as tomorrow.

a record number of americans, as many as 1 in 12, are marrying outside their own race and ethnicity, according to a new report by the pugh research center out today. nearly 8 1/2% in american marriages are interracial or interethnic. that's up from 1980. david love is a contributor and he wrote about this study and its impact today. it's great to have you with me this morning as we talk more about this study, it really is eye opening because it shows and it finds that all ethnic groups out of all of them, blacks are the most accepting of family members marrying you side of their own race. what does this tell us about american attitudes and the shift that we've seen towards interracial marriage? >> well, thomas, it's a pleasure to be with you. i think that the biggest take away from this is really that interracial marriage is no longer a taboo. you just look at the fact that it was 50 years ago that we still had laws on the books in 16 states where it was illegal

for people to marry a person of a different race. so what we're really seeing, i think, is a generational shift and it's really a shift for the good. >> david, as we look at this study and who is marrying who. the study finds the majority of mixed marriages are between whites and hispanics. how have the changes in population in particular when we look at immigration influenced the way that americans now have the opportunity to choose their spouses? >> clearly this country is becoming more and more diverse. and in particular regions of the country, particularly the west, you find that interracial marriages are a lot more prevalent. i think that it's only inevitable that as the country becomes more diverse, you're going to see this shift continue. >> all right. as we look at these numbers, this is what i thought was interesting. 43% of american, nearly half, say the rise of interracial marriages is for the better of society.

we see that ambivalence of 44% saying there is no difference. it's really not even on their radar, they're kind of cool with it. do you see this is encouraging? >> i think it is encouraging because also in that study they said that 11% of people are against interracial marriage. now, just contrast that to back in the '80s where only a third of people were accepting of interracial marriage. i think we're seeing a shift. essentially you see a third of people who say that they have someone in their family who is involved in interracial marriage. you have two-thirds who say that would be an all right thing to do. so clearly things are moving in the right direction and i think that, wow, things are not perfect, clearly things are getting better. >> david love. david, nice to see you today. thank you. >> my pleasure. >> i'm going to tell everybody that there is more about this on thegrio.com. check it out. whitney houston's final days, drinking, drugs, major concerns. plus, cha-ching, the

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[ laura ] hot, right out of the shell. i love lobster. i'm laura mclennan from spruce head, maine, and i sea food differently. welcome back. another kennedy tries to keep the family tradition alive. the grandson of rfk and son of former congressman joseph p. kennedy ii is run for congress. he made this announcement this morning. take a look. my. >>fy my family has had the great service of serving massachusetts before. that trust must be earned each and every day. that's exactly what i intend to do. >> kennedy is hoping to fill the seat being vacated by congressman barney frank. the actress in that con tro version shul hoekstra campaign ad is apologizing for the role she played in this. lisa chan wrote that she feels horrible about it and is

determined to resolve her actions. the ad was highly criticized for racial overtoneses. rick santorum is reportedly the latest presidential candidate to request secret se verse protection. in a tv interview this morning santorum didn't know but did admit it's been talked about santorum has been bliter bombed often, including twice yesterday. hollywood greets president obama with open arms and open wallets as well. commander in chief was fund raiser in chief last night at a $35,000 plate fund raiser in los angeles. george clooney and jim belushi was in attendance and the multi,000 dollar den ter president was talking dollars and cents at a factory in wisconsin. >> we're still recovering from one of the worse economic crises in three generations. and i'm not going to lie to you guys. you know it. we've still got a long way to go before everyone who wants a job can find it. >> all right. so the president has several more fund-raisers planned for

today and nbc news correspondent kristen welker joins me now from california. the president doing well last night. where does he go on from here in terms of raising campaign cash, kristen? >> well, he has four more fund-raisers today, thomas. it is a big day of fund-raising. i'm here in san francisco where president obama has three fund-raisers a little bit later on today. he will start his day in corona del mar, a private breakfast. the average price is $35,800 for these fund-raisers. these are big ticket events. president obama is going to cap off his night tonight in a big event at the knob hill masonic center and there are going to be some very familiar names there, as well as including chris cornell of sound garden and al green. we all know president obama is a big al green fan. as you mentioned, though, thomas, it was a big night of fund-raising last night in los angeles. we all know that's where president obama gets a lot of his cash. some star-studded events there.

two separate fund-raisers including george clooney, jones, jack black, jim belushi, the foo fighters as well as los angeles mayor antonio villa. they came on the heels of a little bit of tension between the obama administration and hollywood over that anti-piracy legislation. hollywood was in support of the anti-piracy legislation and president obama had been quite critical of it. of course it wound up not going anywhere in congress. you wouldn't have known there was any tension last night. president obama got a very warm welcome. president obama, three fund-raisers here in san francisco and ends his trip with an official event tomorrow in seattle at the boeing plant there where he will talk about american manufacturing. thomas? >> nbc's kristen welker in san fran for us. thank you. the big we that everybody is talking about now, the signs of trouble. were there a lot of signs of trouble the days before whitney houston's death at a pregrammy party on thursday evening

witnesses describe houston as smelling of alcohol and behaving erratically. this week's "us weekly" takes a closer look at houston's final day. joining me is senior editor of "us weekly." it's nice to have you here as we talk about this. certainly not a topic we want to have you to talk about but when we hear the details and the witnesses that have spoken to your magazine and they've used the words and i want to say them correctly, explaining whitney houston's behavior as moody and wasted. saying that her daughter was with her at this party. is this basically all of us getting to witness what is an addict's relapse? >> absolutely. it was one of several relapses she had since she had been in reh rehab. a lot of this was caused by bobbi kristina in the last few years she was acting out, started a lot of the same address dictions as her mother. she was tapicking up on a lot o these things. it caused whitney anguish and caused whitney to become so down

trodden she relapsed. it's not just this party though. it was a whole week of events leading up to it. she was smelling of cigarette, smelling of alcohol and acting erratically the entire week leading up to this. >> parents seeing a teen in trouble, parents know what teens are going through nownowadays, t trials and tribulations they can put a struggliing parent throug. we saw chaka khan talking about the negative influences that were in whitney's life. >> whoever flew her out to perform at that party should have provided someone to be there, to somehow look -- just keep the riffraff out of the situation, just keep some of the dangerous people away. >> so is that a veiled mention of clive davis. she was flown out to perform at his party. >> yeah. >> is she saying that clyde who knows her history has tried to put her in rehab numerous times

before, should know that this is putting her in a precarious situation to have her come to hollywood and be in this social scene? >> yeah. it's not only that, but this is a woman who knows more than anyone what's going on. not only was chaka close to whitney but she dealt with her own addictions. regard that party, he did not want it to go on but the organizers were already in too deep. it was only hours from it starting. no way to pull the plug. what we also found out is from people at the party it was a very somber scene. very eerie. it was like a memorial but made even more eerie because she was lying upstairs, her body, and being wheeled out. so everyone there said it was an incredibly strange experience being there but it was just too late to pull it with so many people coming already. so they made it into a makeshift memorial but perhaps for many people, including chaka, that was not the right decision. >> ian, thanks so much. [ tom ] we invented the turbine business right here in schenectady.

without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. [ brad ] at ge we build turbines that power the world. they go into power plants which take some form of energy, harness it, and turn it into more efficient electricity. [ ron ] when i was a kid i wanted to work with my hands,

that was my thing. i really enjoy building turbines. it's nice to know that what you're building is gonna do something for the world. when people think of ge, they typically don't think about beer. a lot of people may not realize that the power needed to keep their budweiser cold and even to make their beer comes from turbines made right here. wait, so you guys make the beer? no, we make the power that makes the beer. so without you there'd be no bud? that's right. well, we like you. [ laughter ] ♪

bear with me here, because his on court skills, lin-credible. those are the puns being used to play jeremy lin, a man so on the sports map, that even president obama, a known chicago bulls fan, keeping tabs on him. the "sports illustrated" bob's litori went to school with lin. he joins me on set to talk about jeremy lin. nice to have you with me. two weeks ago, this guy was not on the radar for anybody. basically a bench warmer, not a headliner. now the knicks have their seventh straight win last night. this kid is incredible. the sensational jeremy lin is on everybody's tongues. >> when you go to harvard, you don't expect to meet kids you'll be writing about in the sports industry. the fact that jeremy lin had talked to me before was not the most interesting thing about me a week and a half ago, but now

it is. he surpassed everyone's expectations. it's ridiculous. >> so everyone who doesn't know, pablo went to harvard. so you were a nice senior to him when he was a freshman. if you're out there, you know, take to it heart. be nice to the kids -- >> only stuffed him in a locker once. >> only that once? >> only once. >> but what do you think about this? he is somebody who has now taken the nation by storm. this is from kobe bryant, had to say about jeremy lin. "players playing that well don't usually come out of nowhere. if you go back and take a look at his skill, his skill level was probably there from the very beginning and probably went unnoticed." but tell us about the harvard days. because he was a star back in harvard, but nobody knew it was going to propel him to the nba. >> you talk to his teammates and coaches, his ceiling was as a backup point guard, but not be a star. and that was so farther ahead than anybody else in talent evaluation in the nba thought. they never saw this degree of

stardom coming, and now, full stop, he is the most popular basketball player in the world. >> this is a kid who was living on his brother's couch just a little while ago. what do you think his earning potential is? >> it's astronomical. they cannot print jerseys fast enough. in china and taiwan, he is the favorite athlete, replacing yao ming. and you have every asian american in the united states who's never had one of their own to actually say, here is my avatar, the guy that i can look to as an example of what stereotypes can be broken. >> and you've got us in the news building writing as many lin pun as we can. pablo torre, thanks so much. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. "now with alex wagner" is coming up. >> oh, thomas, what a lin-credible block you just had. polls are showing mitt romney losing ground to rick

santorum in michigan, the state where his father was once governor, but in the next hour, the state's current governor is due to endorse mitt romney. will it even matter? meanwhile, president obama seems to be riding a wave of positive mow joe, so why is his campaign turning its sights on rick santorum? and a deal has been reached over the payroll tax fight. is bipartisanship back? can cats and dogs be friends? answers to all of this when john podesta and melissa harris perry join us in a mere 180 seconds. ♪ ♪ they hatin' ♪ patrolling and tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ [ mom ] hi, there. why do we always have to take your mom's car? [ male announcer ] the security of a tiguan, one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick.

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