and right now lawmakers on capitol hill are taking another turn grilling staff at the gsa after the lavish las vegas conference came to light. the man in charge has resigned and there could be more fallout from the agency that's supposed to keep track of how taxpayer dollars are spent. i want to wribring in nbc's mar potter. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, chris. the scandal unfolded at this posh hotel in cartagena, but officials say it actually began miles from here at a strip club in a working-class neighborhood. officials say that club, the play club, is where some members of president obama's advanced security team went and partied and hired prostitutes that they brought here. employees at that club deny that's where the agents hired the prostitutes. one official told nbc's michael isikoff that the scandal erupted after two agents brought one prostitute here together and then afterward got in a verbal argument with her over how much

she wanted to charge. she wanted to charge double. they argued over that. the amount was somewhere in the neighborhood of $60. in the course of the argument, police were called, the u.s. embassy was notified, and the scandal erupted and the u.s. government was badly embarrassed by this. residents say that prostitution is a widespread trade here. it is legal, and ut attracts a lot of american tourists comer hoar for sex, drug, and alcohol. we are told that investigators are here now from the secret service and from the military trying to unravel this scandal and among the people they are hoping to interview are the prostitutes themselves who allegedly were hired by members of the president's advance security team. chris, back to you. >> mark potter, thank you so much. i want to bring in congressman chris van holland, democrat from maryland and ranking member of the house budget committee. good to see you. >> good to see you. good morning. >> senator susan collins has asked the secret service this question -- could they have planted bugs, disabled weapons or in any other ways jeopardized

the security of the president of our country? is there any other previous of previous misconduct by these or any other agents on these other missions? how concerned are you? do you think these are leg legitimate questions? >> absolutely they are. we need to get to the bottom of this right away. as you indicated, there are inspectors on ground right now in colombia asking the questions. the head of the secret service has recalled all the individuals that may have been involved in this. we need to get to the bottom of it right away both for the reasons senator collins and others have expressed, also because it's unacceptable conduct, the alleged conduct here. >> what should happen? the white house says iz hat confidence in the secret service chief. let me play this. >> the president has confidence in the director of the secret service. director sullivan acted quickly in response to this incident and is overseeing an investigation as we speak.

>> do you have confidence in the secret service chief? >> yes, i have confidence in the director of the secret service. but i also think congress has an appropriate oversight role here and that it should exercise that role vigorously, and it will be done on a bipartisan basis. so i'm sure that the director of the secret service will get to the bottom of this, but i also think it's appropriate for congress to, as i said, as part of its oversight responsibility, hold people accountable and be agrelszive in determining what happened. >> speaking of accountability, we've been talking for days now about the gsa. we've seen two days of hearings where your colleagues are asking how this could have happened. bottom line, congressman, at a time whenever dollar is important, when average americans out there are trying to balance their budgets, figure out how to pay for gas, put gas in their tanks, what can you tell them about how this could have happened? >> well, chris, again, this was inexcusable behavior, and people need to get to the bottom of it right away.

this is why we established inspector swrens in different agencies to try and root out any kind of wrongdoing like this. i'm glad they caught them. now people need to learn from these lessons and make sure they monitor all these conferences not just at the gsa but throughout the federal government. it's important that we hold people individually accountable. federal employees as a whole should not be scapegoated for this. but the individuals responsible need to be held totally accountable and as has been indicated there are also possible criminal proceedings against specific individuals for misuse of taxpayer money. i mean, if these people were treating taxpayer money like their own money, they should be held criminally liable. >> analysts have pointed out that beyond the obvious, you know, trying to come to grips with these issues at a time when so many americans are, indeed, struggling, there's a bigger problem and it's a messaging problem. obviously, the administration, your party have a lot of issues

they want to get out there, and then the headlines become things like the secret service and the gsa. so let me ask you about a couple of things otherwise that are going on in the news, congressman. particularly, let's say the buffett rule. we talked a lot about it, and yet at the same time it's considered to be doa. make your argument. >> well, just because there are a majority of republicans against the buffett rule doesn't mean we shouldn't keep pushing for it. after all, it got a majority vote. it got 51 out of 100 votes in the united states senate. what we've said is we have to attack our deficit from all different angles. we have to cut spending, but we also have to eliminate a lot of tax loopholes. unfortunately, our republican colleagues have taken the the position that not one penny from closing a tax loophole or not one penny from asking millionaires to pay more can go to reduce the deficit. in fact, the overwhelming majority of them have signed a pledge saying that they won't allow one penny from closing tax

loopholes or special breaks to go to deficit reduction. so that's why it's important to press forward on this issue. we need a balanced approach, which is what all the bipartisan groups that have looked at the deficit challenge have recommended. we have to make some tough cut, and that has to be done. but we also need to cut special interest tax breaks. the buffett rule is an example. it's unfortunate it continues to be blocked by our republican colleagues. i understand why mitt romney doesn't like the buffett rule. it would impact a lot of people who were not sharing full responsibility for reducing our deficit. that seems to be his priority, protecting those individuals and interests. >> congressman chris van holland, always good to see you. thank you. >> good to see you. thanks. right now, the committee on environment and public works are questioning gsa administrators. just might be as heated as yesterday's house hearing. >> this is just the tip of the iceberg. but none of that information was in there.

so the question is, if it wasn't in there, why are you hiding it from us? >> there pl chairman -- >> do you not have that information? >> mr. chairman, i don't have access to any information from gsa anymore. >> anymore. this is not a republican or a democrat issue. this is about an american issue of knowing what their government is doing. >> as far as these conferences were concerned, you would have it so you have absolutely nothing to say about that, a person in your position? >> unless i -- unless someone brought something to my attention and i thought that there was something out of line, i would not generally be supervising where and when regional conferences were happening. >> as i listen to you, i think that you've made it sound like you played a very light weight role in this. and, sir, i must tell you that i think you played a major role. >> well, this week, more than one lawmaker has asked if criminal charges should be filed. >> i want to indict this mr. inspector general. that's a great way to get people's attention is an indictment. not a memo.

not corrective measure. an indictment. >> and congressman trey goudie joins me live. good morning. >> yes, ma'am. good morning to you. >> what do you think this rises to the level of indictments? >> well, because there was criminal activity. you can't use your position with the government to negotiate a reduced cost for a pocketbook at a hotel. you can't bring family members along at a reduced rate. these aren't policy violations. these are criminal violations. you can't share bids with competing contractors. why have a bidding process if you're telling a competing contractor what someone else bid? i liken what happened this week, chris, to an autopsy. something bad happened and we want to figure out what happened. that's great. i want to take preventive measures. and one wonderful way to take preventive measures is to show there are consequences for people's decisionmaking when it rises to the level of

criminality. so i want indictments. i want the department of justice to send a clear message that you can't spend taxpayer money like you're at a casino. >> understanding that you might be able to pursue this criminally, let me ask you about congress, because i'm sure you know one of the frequent criticisms we hear the that when something like this happens, congress holds a lot of hearings but in the end they don't really do anything about it. is there something congress can do? >> sure. well, you have to start by getting the facts. and i'm a former prosecutor, so i don't like political speeches. i like facts. you have to gather the facts. you have to make systemic changes. for instance, i suggested to the acting gsa head a bar of all conference-related travel. there's a presumption in favor of doing telephone conferences or video conferencing instead of going to las vegas or some place that starts with san. so there are things congress can do from an proepgts appropriat

standpoint. we don't have the power to indict, but we do have some oversight over the department of justice and we can certainly is ask them. the inspector general was pretty clear. he recommended criminal charges. so if doj is not going to accept that recommendation, i feel quite certain we will ask them why. >> let me ask you as a former prosecutor, which from what you know now and understanding, there are many questions clearly at least based on parts of the hear ig saw yesterday you haven't gotten answers to yet. do you think this was a failure of a few individuals, or is this part of a larger systemic problem? >> it's both, and i am mindful as a former federal prosecutor, there are lots of women and men who do a very good job who work for the government. lots of them. and they are tarnished by the sins of a few. but there's also a culture. the notion that when we're asking people to sacrifice, when there are furloughs in state government of even having a conference in las vegas to, quote, exchange ideas at the

cost of $800,000, there's a culture problem. there's a more systemic problem than just a few bad apples. so the answer to your question is yes to both. >> congressman trey gowdy, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. good morning. >> yes, ma'am. thank you. i want to bring in hu "huffington post's" amanda turk el and david corn, msnbc political analyst and washington bureau chief for mother jones. good morning to both of you. david, do you think this is a problem for the administration at the very least a messaging problem overshadowing what they want to talk about or a bigger problem in terms of them sort of being in a bull's-eye of the romney campaign? >> well, i think this is a case both with the secret service and the gsa where you can have easy but justifiable outrage. i don't think anyone's going to hold the president accountable for doing anything wrong per se, but the problem that he'll have and the democrats will have in general is that, you know, republicans and others,

conservatives, will use this to sort of portray or predict, you know, government as the problem. you know, they'll use this to feed their narrative that government can't do anything right, that it's corrupt, that it's just faceless bureaucrats that are lining their own pockets at the expense of taxpaye taxpayers. and for an administration that wants to, you know, use the power of government to invest in the future and build infrastructure and innovate and increase education, you know, it cuts against that a bit. so i think it gives ammunition perhaps unfairly but still ammunition to the -- you know, to the right that wants to denigrate government any chance it gets. >> there was an interesting piece today, amanda, in "the washington post." nay daina milbank. the headline kwuz "debauchery: an american special ti." kind of chung in cheek. dana wrote in land of paris hilton, lindsay lohan and snooki, debauchery is an american specialty. i suppose the question is are any of us necessarily surprised that this happened, you know,

and i guess getting to the point i was just talking to the congressman about, you wonder if it is a couple of individuals who got out of control or if it was a more systemic problem. >> well, the gsa itself has had problems for quite a while. i mean, dating back to the bush administration, there were charges of politicalization, favoritism, out of control spending. it's clear hi something within that agency that needs to be changed. but david is right. this unfairly demonizes many federal workers who have been working very hard and have been already demonized by republicans saying we need to cut government spend, they are overpaid, lazy bureaucrats. many people are working hard and are seeing this and i think also very upset at what's going on because it's making them look bad. these scandals are certainly going to get a lot of attention in the same way that reality tv does, the videos of the gsa employees throwing money around, dancing, drinking big margaritas. this is just something that people are going to be paying attention to, unfortunately. >> yeah.

amanda, dave, you eel stick around because we'll talk more about the race for the president coming up after the break. in the meantime, an attention. grabbing protest for sure. john brenan of portland, oregon, stripped naked at the international airport to protest against tsa screeners. parents covered their children's eyes. others looked, even taking pictures. police arrested brennan for indecent exposure and disorderly conduct. >> i know that nude but not lewd in oregon is a protective -- protected speech, and so i chose that option. >> the price of his protest? he missed his flight to san jose. [ male announcer ] while others are content to imitate, we'll continue to innovate. the lexus rx. why settle for a copy when you can own the original? see your lexus dealer.

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it's happened again. another incendiary comment from someone not directly connected to a presidential candidate but forcing the campaign to respond.

this time it's from rocker and romney supporter ted nugent. the secret service is following up on remarks nugent made at the nra convention over the weekend. >> if barack obama becomes the president in november again i will either be dead or in jail by this time next year. we are patriots. we are braveheart. we need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in november. >> nugent follows hilary rosen, bill maher and others whose statements have become fodder for the opposition even though they don't have an official role with the campaign. as politico points out today, in this era of twitter, social media and cable tv, it's making harder than ever for the campaigns to control their carefully crafted message. amanda teshg el and david corrk.

david, they jumped all over this by putting out this video. >> ted nugent, said he had a great conversation with you. ted says you're okay, he endorsed. you i'm tempted to do the same thing. >> that's good to hear. i spent time getting to know him, ted nugent. >> well, the romney campaign quickly put out a statement saying, quote, divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from. david, they say romney believes everyone needs to be civil, but is this going to be a year when social media can be any candidate's biggest headache? >> well, it can, and you'll notice that when hilary rosen said what she said, whether it was good or bad, the obama campaign very quickly distanced itself from her and from those specific remarks. mitt romney responds with a sort of bland statement calling for civility. now, i'm tempted to say that this is a lot of silliness and this is part of the silly season, but there is a serious element to this. and that is on the right, for

years now, people have been making very violent statements, sometimes violent statement, about barack obama saying that he's not really american. alan west just days ago says there were 81 communists in the democratic caucus in the house. michele bachmann on "hardball" called for investigation of anti-americanism in congress and said barack obama was anti-american. here you have ted knew jenlt saying this administration hates america. it's all part of a piece, and you'll hear mitt romney echo it by saying barack obama doesn't understand america, he doesn't get america. the whole message here is that barack obama is not really one of us and that runs this whole spectrum from the far right to the middle right. and that's i think what's most dangerous and why romney is not making a more forceful statement against that. he wants to exploit it. >> when it takes off in the twittersphere and becomes part of the more mainstream media, it

can take a campaign off message. amanda, are there more than these two options? you quickly condemn it and run the risk of alienating our base or give your half-hearted disapproval and come across frankly as insensitive? >> or you could embrace it, which we aren't see manager of the candidates do. but you are generally seeing the candidates, and we saw -- i mean, we saw this with mitt romney like david was saying sort of keeping his head down, hoping that maybe you don't remember that his campaign touted the endorsement of ted nugent. but politicians to some extent are supposed to also ideally be moral leader, and you aren't going to encourage civil discourse in this country if you're ahead to stand up and denounce what is serious enough for the secret service to investigate. we don't expect mitt romney or barack obama to be out there every day denouncing everything, every one of their supporters said. this to me rose to a slightly higher level. i mean, he compared the obama administration and the president to coyotes that need to be shot.

you should .afraid to denounce that and move on. >> david, is the truth that campaigns hate it when they're on the defense in these thing, but when it's the sop situation's surrogate that can't help themselves, they have to go after it and try to use it to their advantage? >> that's certainly true. campaigns are control freaks. they want to control everything they can, the messaging and what their surrogates say, as well. but i think in this age of twitter and social media, you know, you lose that control because things become viral so fast. if ted nugent had said this at a rock concert 20 years ago, it might have taken days for anyone to even notice. and, you know, there wouldn't be this immediacy that there must be a comment from romney campaign. by and large, campaigns have to be more prudent in who they associate with, particularly when you deal with someone like ted nugent, who's a known quantity in 2007. he held up a machine gun and said, barack obama, you can suck on this. not like this is a surprise, yet romney still sought his support. >> david corn, amanda terkel, i

was going to ask you if there was any chance that civility returns to the campaign, but i think that was a rhetorical question. thanks to both of you for being with us. laughing. the biggest laugh i'm going to get today. unfortunately, we have to make a tough turn here. there are some troubling images coming out of afghanistan. this morning we found out about it in the "l.a. times" when they published pictures of u.s. paratroopers posing with the corporation of an insurgent suicide bomber in 2010. the pentagon did release a statement. it says in part -- secretary panetta strongly rejects the conduct te picketed in these two-year-old photographs. these images by no means represent the values or professionalism of the vast majority of u.s. troops serving in afghanistan. today an investigation that could lead to disciplinary measures is under way. now, the pentagon had requested that the photos not be published by the "l.a. times" because they feared the images could be used to incite violence against u.s. troops in afghanistan. you see it in the brush... ♪ oh oh oh oh ooh oh

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to politics now, where the retail sales for president is going to the dogs. mitt romney is still catching flak for the infamous dog incident where he drove with his pooch strapped to the roof of a car in a carrier. now republicans are fighting back, picking up on a line from president obama's book where he admitted to eating dog meat. a romney adviser called the picture of the president and his dog chilling. an obama campaign spokesman said the president was only a 10-year-old kid when he tried dog meat. nascar driver tony stewart got a warm welcome from the president at the white house yesterday even called on for advice. >> i was also hoping he would give me some tips on the media, because he's got that quiet, reserved personality. i figure i'd stay out of trouble if tony gave me some advice on that. >> and check out the birthday cake for ann romney baked by the famous cake boss. it was served as a combo fund

raiser/birthday party with donald trump yesterday. brought in more than half a million bucks for the romney campaign. the fund raiser, not the cake. no time for my morning must-read. today marks 100 days until the olympics in london. there's a terrific story on nbc sports at about the hungarian from my mother land who has michael phelps in his sights as well as gorgeous photos of the venue. let the countdown begin. you can find the link to the story and see those photos on our facebook page at jansing&co-. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. and make your business dream a reality. havi ng ad make your business dream a reality.

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being held without bond. this next video might be disturbing to some of our viewers pap car careening out of control and into a florida goesry store last weekend. ten people were hurt including a 3-month-old. the 76-year-old driver has been charged with careless driving, and police say alcohol was not involved. a 25-year-old lottery winner from michigan seems to be out of luck. amanda clayton is facing fraud charges for collecting $5,500 worth of food stamps even though she'd already taken home a $735,000 jackpot. she pleaded not guilty saying she thought it was justified because she didn't have a job. in just a couple minutes, illinois lottery officials are expected to reveal the third and final winner of that giant mega millions jackpot. three winning tickets were sold last month. each gets a whopping $218 million. the countdown has begun just 100 days to go before the start of the olympic games. london is getting ready to host

the world's biggest sporting event. duncan joins me from london. governor romney will be heading to london for the first day or two of the events, but is the city ready for the big show? >> reporter: good morning, chris. i think they are. many of the screen yous are completed, including the stadium behind me. the velodrome is done. some things are yet to be finish. we haven't seen any sand or seating for the volleyball, the horse parade near buckingham pala palace. that's going to be a spectacular low raticati location. the first unknown is the transport system. on the best of days it's tough getting around london. the subway system here takes 4 million journeys a day, and that's on a good day. it can be really difficult

getting around. but they are going to open up 30 miles of special olympic lanes. and they're trying to encourage employers here in the capital to let their employees stay at home and work by teleconferencing. the other big concern, of course, is security. the day after london was announced as the host city back in 2005, terrorists struck in the heart of the capital, killing 52 people. so the budget for security has skyrocketed to $800 million. there will be 40,000 soldiers, police officers, and guards on the streets hoping to make this a safe games. but, you know, excitement is building here, chris. >> all right, doesn't van. thank you so much. social media will be playing a major role in this summer's conventions. "the new york times" reports google plans to live stream all of the republican speeches during the four-day event in tampa. similar plans are in the works for democrats in charlotte, and both sides have good reason to ramp up their social media

strategies. a new study found that the candidate most frequently mentioned in social media won the race 75% of the time. msnbc's richard liu joins us now. who's got the buzz? >> google news mentions show who's got the goods. rick santorum has left the building and so has his buzz by almost half in just the last week. the benefactors here, newt gingrich has seen a little built of a bump here and ron paul a moderate rise in this line chart. now, mitt romney has almost doubled the mentions of his competitors when you look at his blue line there. the orange line is president obama, about the same number. but no noticeable bumps as santorum exits. but then there is of course what facebook likes, those who are on facebook. we tallied on the facebook likes for the past ten days. the president has received close to 2 million, as you can see on the left-hand side, more than romney has since he started on

facebook. and gingrich, there could be an error here, but facebook -- look. zero new likes for the past ten days. the last new like goes back by almost a month. here's who likes the candidates. 18 to 24. that age group goes for the president. 35 to 54, santorum, and 45 to 54 go for the other groups. the older groups is where all the money is and volts more often. so how does buzz translate to votes? a neilskneenielsen/mckinsey stu more buzz wins more often. florida's 2010 senate race, marco rubio led in buzz with 40% and won the seat. but the share of buzz did not equal the share of voefts. votes were higher. the twoer had less vote than buzz. the worst case, good buzz, bad loss. in ohio's 2010 governor's race, you can see john kasich right here with 47% but won the race by 2%. the buzz did not match up in

this. part of the reason, buzz is not always real or positive. according to impeerian, fake stories on candidates are posted more than three times a minute or by the time of this report, six times. >> fascinating stuff. thanks, richard. president obama heads to ohio today to talk about what may be the critical issue in this campaign, jobs and the economy. the president is expected to tout his administration's job training initiatives when he returns to an ohio college that he visited two years ago. when the state's unemployment rate stood at 10.9%. now the number of unemployed has dropped to more than three percentage points to 7.6%. i'm joined now by the national press secretary for the rnc. good morning. >> good morning. hi sh chris. how are you? >> good. in states like ohio, how are republicans going to argue things haven't gotten better when you have a three percentage point drop in the unemployment rate? >> sure. well, so, he's actually going

to -- president obama is going to ohio state the same venue he was at two years ago where he made a promise he wasn't going to stop working toward job creation until everyone had a job. two years later, if you ask anybody in ohio, similar to across the country, that isn't the case. he has stopped. i think we've seen it in the last couple week. two weeks ago, what was he focused on? he was focused on his buffett tax gimmick that he couldn't sell to the american people. this week -- >> i can interrupt you there because the polls show overwhelmingly that people support the buffett rule. >> well, i think when they actually hear what's in it they do not. >> it's not very -- it's a 30% tax on people who make over a million dollars a year. there are many proposals that are very complicated out there. that doesn't seem to be one of them. >> well, i think that when you see that the president's done over 20 events since the state of the union specifically on the buffett tax, it has changed his

explanation for what it does at least seven times in the last two weeks, i think that that shows you that he has a problem selling it. >> he compared the president to a coyote that should be shot, ted nugent. pretty violent rhetoric from a guy who frankly the romney campaign has embraced. the candidate himself said he was pleased to get that endorsement. one of his sons tweeted about it that he was excited to get ted nugent's endorsement. yet when he was asked to disavow those comment, he put out a generic statement that did not name ted knew jenlt by name. the dnc has called for disavowal. will you as a spokesman for the reasons reasons disavow the comments of ted nugent? >> chris, i think that we need to all put this into perspective because, you know, not so long ago president obama was on the

stage saying that, you know, if you didn't have a record to run on you would talk about small things. what do we see the dnc and president obama's campaign talking about? small things. they're talking about ted knew jenlt. they're talking about dogs. they really -- >> do you think it's a small thing if the secret service is looking into it? >> i'm sorry? >> if it rises to the level of the secret service investigating the comments, does that make it a small thing? >> i think that what the american people want us focused on right now is how we're going to create jobs and turn the economy around. so i do think that we all need to be talking about that right now. >> let me ask you about some focus groups that nbc news did. 12 republicans and gop-leaning independents in tampa just last night where it was clear that many of them had reservations about mitt romney. and the thing that they mentioned most often was flip-flopping and inconsistency. despite saying that they were probably going to vote for him in november. do you think that the support for the presumptive nominee is soft in that way?

and what does he need to do to get republicans to more enthusiastically rally around him? >> no problem. sure. i think that what we've seen over the last couple weeks, the governor -- governor romney has had a very good couple of weeks. you've seen conservatives, all republicans, coalescing around him today. he got an endorsement from mitch daniels, governor of indiana. so i think that you're seeing people coalescing around him. now, i think we're still in a primary. you know, the numbers are what they are. but over the next -- you know, in the next couple weeks and months i think we're all going to be behind governor romney. and i think that we all feel pretty good about that. >> rnc national press secretary kirsten kukowski, thanks so much. >> thanks. have a good day. a bombshell from one of the world's most recognized ceos, warren buffett. he says he has prostate cancer. jackie, what's remarkable about this is buffett made the

announcement just days after his diagnosis. >> that's right, chris. in a letter to berkshire hathaway shareholders yesterday warren buffett announced his stage one prostate cancer diagnosis, but he says his prognosis is very good and that the condition isn't life-threatening. also, he's decided to delay his treatment until mid-july so he can keep some travel commitments in place. remember, berkshire's annual meeting is next month. as you said, buffett taking a very up-front approach to this in sharp contrast to how steve jobs handled his illness, keeping his health issues private for quite some time. >> another group of shareholders at citigroup, they are striking back at the country. >> the shareholders giving the vote of no confidence to its executive compensation plan which included about $15 million for the ceo. the voting process is part of an sad advisory law required under dodd frank. it won't force the bank to change its pay packages, but it sends a strong message and was embarrassing for the ceo.

>> good to see you, jackie. thanks. here's a quiz for you. what are america's hardest working cities? i would have said new york. "parade" looked at several factor including average hours worked and willingness to work among personal time among others. columbia, missouri, takes the number-one spot thanks in part to its 6.2 unemployment rate. number two, hartford, connecticut, known as the insurance capital in the world. home to the largest naval base in the world, norfolk, virginia, is third, bloomington, indiana, fourth and five, tuscaloosa, alabama.

are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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retep sors in the brain, and because most treatments are nicotine replacement therapies like patches and gum, they are less effective in women. the study suggests women seek out treatments that don't involve nicotine, like behavioral therapy. i'm thomas roberts. next hour, disturbing new photos with american troops smiling and posing with the remains of suicide bombers in afghanistan. how the pentagon is reacting today. plus, a double boes of d.c. scandals. lawmakers continue to question and lament over the gross spending of the gsa. and peter nealy, the men with the secret service members embroiled in colombia will sit down for lie-detector tests. debbie wasserman schultz will be here on how this all reflects on the president and the re-election efforts. chris? thanks, tom. the judge in the trayvon martin case could decide as early as today whether to recuse herself from the case. she is expected to sign an order

taking herself off the case because of a potential conflict of interest. her husband works with a lawyer who is a television analyst on the case. i'm joined by michael nutter, the mayor of philadelphia. mr. mayor, good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> you've been outspoken about this case calling trayvon's death an assassination. what's your view on how this has been happened led so far? >> well, i think finally we will see justice carried out as it's supposed to be in our system here in america. the special prosecutor will bring forward charges in this case. it will now go through the normal process. i heard your intro with regard to the judge. i mean, sometimes these things happen. but i think a larmer issue here is that clearly trayvon martin was killed. we do not have many details. we know that the person was mr. zimmerman. and beyond that, quite honestly, we don't know a great deal more. and all of that i'm sure will

come out through the course of a trial. so it is where it should be and at least in my view it is where it should have been, you know, 30-plus days ago when this tragedy took place. >> well, this case has been called, in fact, just yesterday, called a textbook example of racial profiling at a senate hearing. legislation to ban racial profiling, frankly, has got little movement since it was introduced last year. what do you think needs to be done? >> well, i think we need to allow this case to go forward. of course all of us should be against racial profiling. the issue is a tragedy occurred, the young man was killed, and when that happens, anyone, regardless of who they are, where they come from, what they look like, should be brought to justice and then you go through the criminal justice process and you let the chips fall where they may. >> you've also expressed outrage over what you call the epidemic of black-on-black crime. i read your speech on it and i want to bring out some points

that you made. you said 316 people were murdered in philadelphia last year. 75% of the victims were black men and 80% of those doing the killing were black men. why don't you fi this issue has gotten more or enough attention? and what can be done about that? >> well, i think this is a very complicated issue and it involves one of the most difficult subjects for us as americans, again, regardless of our racial heritage or background. it's the issue of race. and that is a very difficult and at times uncomfortable conversation for many americans to have. the fact of the matter is is that it's not just a philadelphia problem. many of the major cities all across the united states of america have pretty much similar problems with race for victims who are african-american males anywhere from 40% to 80%. this is an epidemic. it is a public health crisis.

and i think that much more attention needs to be brought to it, which is what many of us as mayors are trying to do through an entity called cities united. this is an organized effort with foundation support, certainly casey family programs and the open society institute, the knight foundation and many others looking at the issue of the epidemic of violence in america and specifically the disproportionate impact that it has in the african-american community and specifically african-american males. so i'm trying to articulate on this issue. many other mayors are starting to speak up about it as well. without taking any focus away from the trayvon martin case, unfortunately, there are many va trey von martins all across america, and we need to focus attention simultaneously on that great challenge at the same time. >> philadelphia mayor nutter if nothing else a silver lining that we are having more discourse on these issues than we did previously. >> yes. >> thank you. >> thank you.

>> today's "tweet of the day" comes from b.e.t.'s t.j. holmes. i don't know how they do it. just met trayvon's brother and parents for the first time. don't know how they stayed that strong. they had to comfort me. i look at her, and i just want to give her everything.

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baseball's oldest player. let's go "down to the wire." amazing video from nasa showing active solar flares earlier this week. as dramatic as these pictures are, this is actually a medium sized flare. it went off to the side and not toward earth so it's not expected to disrupt anything here. pippa the party planner. the sister of the future queen is penning a book on the topic due out in october. but she's been in the news after being photographed in a car with a friend pointing a fake gun at the paparazzi. kim kardashian for mayor? the reality tv queen says she is for real about plans to become

the mayor of glendale, california. she says it won't be, quote, for, like, five years. by the way, mayor is not an elected position in glendale. and score one for the baby boomers. yes, 49-year-old jamie moyer now the oldest pitcher to ever win a major league baseball game. he pitched seven strong innings for the rockies' win. his 268th career win tying him for 34th on the all-time list. take that. papa time. that wraps up this hour. i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen.

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