storm. nbc meteorologist todd santos joins me now, because he's been following this storm. todd, what can everyone expect? they're waking up, certainly, they know the rain's been there overnight, but what can they expect today? >> one of the biggest thing, especially for coastal residents, especially out in south carolina, especially up towards myrtle beach, the rip current reach. between south carolina, georgia, and florida, over the last 24 to 36 hours, there's been over 100 rip current rescues. keep that in mind. a number of beaches closed today. you also mentioned the rainfall. that's across this large area, you're talking 3 to 5 inches worth of rainfall. and in some of these bands, you're talking 1 to 2 inches per hour, and locally we could see some numbers higher than that, up to the 10-inch rain of rainfall. this is the system ths right now. maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour, moving west at 8. we will see some weakening over the next couple of days. into tuesday, notice, we're still dealing at that point with a tropical depression. this is where you're really

adding to the rainfall numbers. not as much the wind issues there, but still the big-time rain. and then, at least wednesday, you see that system kind of accelerate off the coastline, maybe able to regain tropical storm characteristics briefly off the outer banks before pushing out into the central atlantic. there's the time frame, and a good idea of where we'll be dealing with some of the rainfall. you do see at least some of the thunderstorm activity here through eastern portions of iowa and even through northern missouri. that may fire up over the next couple of hours some hail and wind-producing storms possible there. maybe even some isolated tornadoes. once you get up towards the northeast, we have a front hanging in the area, and that could kick a few showers off as well through the northeast, some of those isolated thunderstorm chances, even up towards boston. at least for your memorial day parties and backyard barbecues, make sure you keep an quite to the sky, especially for lightning dangers there. thomas? >> todd, thank you, sir, appreciate it. so this morning president obama will mark memorial day at the tomb of the unknowns in arlington national cemetery.

>> we'll pay tribute to patriots of every generation who gave the last full measure of devotion. from lexington and concord to iraq and afghanistan. >> nbc's kristen welker is live for us at the white house this morning. kristen, also the president taking time to mention the newest generation of vets, iraq and afghanistan, those that are coming home, and what they're coming home to, that country, that is. he made sure to mention them in his radio address, correct? >> reporter: absolutely. and of course he and the vice president have talked a lot about this new generation of veterans in recent weeks. president obama has a pretty full day. he's going to start it off by hosting, along with the first lady, a breakfast for gold star families. those are, of course, families who have lost loved ones to war. then he heads, as you mentioned, to the traditional ceremony, where he will lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown in arlington national cemetery. and then something a bit different this memorial day. president obama will head to the vietnam veterans' memorial wall to mark the 50th anniversary of

the start of the vietnam war. he will also deliver remarks at that event. and he issued this presidential proclamation to correspond with this event, and i believe we have a graphic of it and i'm going to read you just a little bit of that, thomas. president obama saying, "beginning on memorial day 2012, the federal government will partner with local governments, private organizations, and communities across america to participate in the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the vietnam war. a 13-year program to honor and give thanks to a generation of proud americans who saw our country through one of the most challenging missions we have ever faced." so that certainly making this memorial day a little bit unique, thomas, as president obama and the vice president mark this 50th anniversary. thomas? >> kristen, as we look at the candidate mitt romney, it's kind of a tale of two coasts for the two candidates, with the president on the east coast and mitt romney out west. >> reporter: that's absolutely right. mitt romney will be attending a

memorial day ceremony in san diego, at the memorial museum out there. the veterans' memorial museum out there. and he will be joined by senator john mccain. and it's worth noting on this memorial day, thomas, that the veterans' vote is an important one. they make up about 13% of all voters, and according to the latest gallup poll, mitt romney is leading the president by about 20 points among veterans, but president obama is leading romney when it comes to nonveterans. so both candidates will be courting that vote this election year. thomas? >> kristen welker at the white house for us this morning. kristen, thanks. i want to remind everybody, we are going to have live coverage of the president coming up right here on msnbc. again, that's at 11:00 a.m. also, later this afternoon at 1:00 p.m., with president obama honoring the troops beginning at 11:00 a.m. with the wreath laying at the tomb of the unknowns at arlington. democrats, they are sticking with the same line of attack against mitt romney, going after him for his time at bain capital. and some are warning that it

could backfire. >> i question the obama decision to go after, and to start negative. they've decided to focus on a negative way. and this seems to be self-destructive. people like him personally, they admire him. now he's at risk of throwing that away by starting negative. >> that was david brooks on meet t the press. and now msnbc contributor, susan del percio. nice to see both of you today. chris, i want to start with you, republicans are truly assailing the obama camp for attacking capitalism, but is that the problem? you know, attacking capitalism, or is it the problem that they've actually just gone negative out of the gate? >> well, i mean, this argument that the president has gone negative. look, elections are about choices. and each candidate and each campaign has a responsibility, if you will, to frame those choices. and i think with respect to the president and his criticism of governor romney and his experience at bain, this is not

about bemoaning anyone's wealth or success, but it is, i think, pointing out the fact that when you make enormous amounts of money buying companies, that you have a certain responsibility, a certain responsibility to those workers, to those families. and pointing out that contrast and that governor romney, when he was at bain, and his company, did not live up to that, i think that is an important critique to make. i don't necessarily see that as overtly negative. >> why not come out of the gate and just do stickily all positives, reminding people of the option that they elected to put into place four years ago, and reminding them of the confident choice that they made. instead of going after someone negatively, why not just come out of the gate and do all positive things. remind people, proof of performance. >> in fairness to the president, i think he has actually made the positive argument. they put out a spot about that, i think, a few weeks ago, basically outlining all the positive things they've din since they've been there. but at the end of the day, listen, when you're talking about campaigns and candidates, it's always going to be a

mixture of the positive and negative, and i think a campaign and a candidate has that responsibility to point out both. you don't want to do one and not the other, but you also don't say i'm going to run a positive campaign and let the other guy kick you in the teeth all the times. >> i want to play this lip from robert gibbs. he was on "face the nation". >> mitt romney and his investors walked away with tens of millions of dollars. and look, they were very good at that. making money for themselves. >> so just like chris is saying here, susan, if romney's runn ng on this knowledge of the economy, of being a businessman, doesn't that make bain completely fair game and the president and the campaign may have every right to go after it? >> it is fair game in that you can critique mitt romney as a businessman. the problem is, they're trying to parse it too many ways and they are getting feedback from the democrats that they're not going to support this attack on private equity. you have candidates running for senate and congress who don't like this conversation going on. and to go to your other point, it is very unusual for an

incumbent president to be this negative, which means that, a, he's having a problem with his base, and secondly, he has to bring it because none of his surrogates are really getting the job done. >> i have to ask, though, as you say, you're talking about private equity, does this hit too close to hope for too many people? too many of our elected leaders, that they just don't want to go on the record having to deal with it? >> of course it does. it's not just private equity. you have to look at it from the wall street community, which everyone's concerned about. but that's how campaigns are funded right now, unfortunately. >> chris, take a look at this. this is a headline from "the washington post" today. it says with the democratic leaders back obama's bain strategy versus romney, acknowledge risks." and some of the risks alienating independent voters, especially, the business, you know, susan bringing up the fact that we have wall street to think about in all of this. but can president obama continue to get the backing that he needs going forward coming out this strong, out of the gate, when it is taking down the money issue?

>> yes. i mean, listen. in terms of second-guessing strategy, that is a, you know, par for the course when it comes to both the republicans and democrats. they're going to question their party leader's strategy. that's just part of the game. the reality here is, listen, the country is struggling. and there's a lot of frustration and anger about the economy. there's no question about that. but there's a bigger question here about the responsibility that all of us have, big corporations, small businesses, business leaders have, if you will, to the each other. and i think pointing out governor romney's, arguably, mistakes, with or strategies, or tactics when he was at bain, the impact those had on hard-working families, i don't necessarily see that as a negative attack. on the other hand, you donate want to make that the soul purpose of your campaign. >> right. susan, real quickly, why doesn't mitt romney talk about massachusetts more? he was elected there, he was the governor there. why not talk about it more? >> if you look at the recent nbc poll, mitt romney does extremely well when you ask, what do you think of his business

experience? you play to your strengths, just like the president isn't talking about the poor investments in solyndra or other places, you play to your strengths. that's why he's doing it. >> susan, great to see you, and chris kofinis, great to see you as well. my thanks to both. huge greetings for u.s. troops when they return home from war, but sometimes paying for that home is not so easy. what one veteran group is doing to help out. plus, the phone hacking scandal and a former prime minister, tony blair, testifying today about his friendship with media mogul rupert murdoch. ♪ how are things on the west coast? ♪ ♪ i hear you... ♪ rocky mountain high ♪ rocky, rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ all my exes live in texas ♪ ♪ born on the bayou [ female announcer ] the perfect song for everywhere can be downloaded almost anywhere. ♪ i'm back, back in the new york groove ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. rethink possible.

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welcome back, everybody, to our coverage here this memorial day on msnbc. a live look right there at arlington national cemetery, where service men and women of all walks of life are pausing to remember their fallen comrades

this memorial day. the president will be there at arlington later this morning at 11:00 a.m. to lay a wreath right there at the tomb of the unknowns. according to the department of veteran affairs, more than 27 million vets and service members are eligible for va home loan benefits. now, that number is expected to increase as more veterans return home and others enlist in military service. grant moon is a decorated war veteran who started the company that helps vets secure a safe home and joins me in-studio to talk more about this. grant, great to have you here today. as i said, you're a decorated war vet, but you came back and started this company. it's called va loan captain, correct? >> correct, va loan captain. >> so what inspired you to do this? >> sure. well, vets and service members for the past decade have been targeted for unscrupulous lending practices. and just as of recent, there were two instances, one being that 1.1 million veterans were illegally charged fees on their

home loans and the second was a settlement that just actually finalized in february whereby 5,000 veterans were illegally foreclosed on. so just learning of this, you know, we, quite frankly, just were sick and tired of it. and we wanted to create something that addressed it. >> i think for a lot of people out there, they're going to be, you know, when you hear about this, confused by the banks, the incumbents who have managed these va loans, the benefit to our service men and women, why have they been allowed to provide such a dishonest path for people to get home ownership and the benefits that are rightfully theirs when they return? >> well, that's a good question. i think that, you know, well, just by program design, veterans are entitled to va home loan benefits. and the va actually guarantees the home loans on behalf of the veterans. but private lending institutions are actually the ones that

provide the lending to the eligible beneficiary. and you know, because of that, there's a handoff process that created some gaps within the industry. and that's probably how that occurred. >> that allowed for the infiltration, so to speak. so in addition to the possibility of homelessness, unemployment is another major issue that we need to realistically talk about. according to "the new york times," the jobless rate among vets, aged 20 to 24, averaged 30% in 2011, which more than doubled non-vets of the same age. from what you've seen from your experience, how does that the play against the need to provide shelter, you know, and the fact that they can put down roots, the investment of home ownership. how does it play against that? >> sure, well, our model is, we intend it to be a circular business model. whereby the va loan industry is $71 billion and growing. so it's a very big market, but what we're finding is there's not a lot of veterans that are

employed within the mortgage industry and especially handling some of these va home loans. so with our veterans guarantee pledge, which our participating banks and lenders sign, they have to provide veterans hiring preferences for applicable divisions that support our program. so we're hoping to address that with our hiring preferences that these bank and lending institutions sign. >> obviously, this is a business for you, but this goes a lot deeper than that. this is very personal for you. >> that's right. that's right. you know, the best end state for us is to assist our veterans and homeowners, provide real value to them through competitive interest rates and fees, but also be able to give back to society. and for every loan closed, our participating bank lenders on our platform give $200 to one of our partner veteran charities. >> that's excellent. va loan captain, ceo and president, grant moon. grant, great to see you today. thanks for your time. >> thank you very much. soldiers back from fighting in iraq and afghanistan are filing for disability benefits

and doing so at a record rate now. of the 1.6 million vets, 45% are seeking compensation for injuries. now, the estimate for benefit claims from the person -- or excuse me, from the persian gulf war in the early '90s was just 21%. so new veterans are claiming eight to nine ailments on average. coming up next right here on msnbc. >> the cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me. >> that bloviating ignoramus, conservative commentator george will is talking about donald trump and he's going to be headlining a fund-raiser for mitt romney this week. what are the costs? we'll have it for you. let's play indoors this weekend. all we need is a couple of gallons of our hardest-working paint... ...from the home depot. the place that gives us more top-rated brands than anywhere else... ...at prices that won't shake up our budget. let's make a one-wall statement... ...or tackle a total room takeover ...with paint that'll get the job done in fewer trips up and down the ladder.

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>> excuse me! >> jpmorgan paid him off for the iraq war three months after we invaded iraq. he held up the iraq bank for $20 billion. he was then paid $6 million every year and still is from jpmorgan, six months after he left office. the man is a war criminal! >> that protester, as you see there, physically dragged from the court. blair quickly resumed answering questions, defending his close relationship with rupert murdoch and the media. >> i cannot believe we are the first and only government that has ever wanted to put the best possible gloss on what you're doing. that's a completely different thing from saying that you go out to say things that are deliberate untrue and you bully and you harass journalists and so on. >> nbc's stephanie gosk joins us live from london with more on this. stephanie, we'll talk more about that protester in a second, because that was really some jaw-dropping television there. but when we talk about what's happening from the testimony today, what more do we learn about this cozy relationship

that's alleged between tony blair and rupert murdoch? >> well, right out of the gate, thomas, blair addresses that word you just used, cozy. he says he doesn't really like it that a better word can be unhealthy to describe what happens when the media has too much influence over the government. he did say, however, that it makes sense for senior politicians and members of the media to have a close relationship, just in essence, for what they do. but they said that in this country, newspapers, particularly, wield enormous amounts of power. and that when they support a policy or a person that they then are very aggressive about that. and if a politician falls out of favor with a newspaper, with it can be very painful for him, as it was with his relationship with the "daily mail." but this is, specifically, most of the questions were about his relationship with rupert murdoch. and they were very close. in fact, rupert murdoch's paper, "the sun," which had supported conservative politicians for quite some time, in the late '90s decided to support tony

blair, right before he was elected prime minister of this country. thomas? >> stephanie, when we talk about the security around the courtroom, we all remember when that one protester got in, tried to pie rupert murdoch in the face and was hit by wendy deng, stopped in midmotion there. as we talk about the protester that got in today, what do we say about the security that allowed someone to get in and be able to interrupt in such a capacity. >> it's important to point out first of all that those two incidents took place if different places. today blair is in a courtroom and the rupert murdoch incident took place in parliament. but it is a public courtroom and people do have access to it and the man wasn't armed. it certainly will raise some questions on how he got in through that door that he got into, but it's an interesting insight into just how divisive tony blair became towards the end of his administration. he really was elected in this --

on this wave of public support. and his decision to go to war with iraq ended up being extremely divisive that was against that war, predominantly. >> stephanie gosk in london for us today, thank you. to syria now, where u.s. special envoy kofi annan arrived in syria this morning. annan said he was quote, shocked and horrified of the killing of more than 100 people in the town of hula friday. and more attacks to tell you about today, with shelling and troops killing at least 24 people in the city of houma. tropical storm beryl makes landfall back here at home, at almost hurricane-strength, it is one of the most powerful storms to ever hit this early in the year. plus, total recall. wisconsin governor scott walker faces a recall election in just eight days. what the results could really mean come november.

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parts of florida and georgia after making landfall overnight and drenching rain, 40-mile-an-hour winds were coming with this, battering parts of the southeast. some areas could get as much as a foot of rain today. the weather channel's jim can torre has the very latest from st. simon's island, georgia. jim? >> reporter: happy memorial day, thomas, and everybody out there. as you can see, we've got definitely a lot of debris here sitting, complements of the storm surge. this came in at high tide last night. but what's amazing, even as as wet as it was on the beach, it is still windy enough to dry out the top layer of the sand and occasionally blow it back up the beach at us and to the dunes here. obviously, people out walking around, enjoying some dry weather at least for now, but still very rough surf. nobody is being advised to go out in that water, obviously. we've had some damage here on st. simons island. about 26,000 now without power. those numbers are coming down, though. that's good. a lot of these damages are

basically tree limb s on wiress opposed to entire grids that are down. like we certainly could see with a tropical storm. still a miserable day today. plans for the island this afternoon, they've got a "taps" at twilight planned. so far we have not heard if that has been cancelled. and hopefully a little wind and a little wet weather won't cancel such a great event here on st. simons island. we'll keep you posted here, guys. back to you. >> thank you, jim. please do. so the romney campaign rolls into sin city this week joined by newt gingrich and the donald. be mr. trump is not regarded by everyone as a super surrogate. take a look. >> the coast of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me. donald trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your iq can be very low and you can still intrude into american politics. >> i want to bring in now reid wilson, he's editor in chief of the national journal's hotline

and politico deputy white house editor, isaac dovere. reid, right off the top, what are the political positives and political negatives for romney to appear with donald trump? do one outweigh the other? >> at the end of the day, i don't think donald trump is going to move any voters either to mitt romney or away from mitt romney. this is one of those side shows that we love to talk about in washington, d.c., but don't actually resonate with the average voter outside the beltway. what it does say, i think, is that these candidates are sort of slaves to the way we run our campaigns these days. they have to raise so much money, they have to be constantly dialing for dollars and hanging out with every surrogate who can bring another million bucks to a fund-raiser, that sometimes they have to be associated with some sort of unsavory characters and both democrats and republicans have their own fund-raising issues and sort of these surrogates who aren't -- don't necessarily present the best image. donald trump, though, he's great fodder for folks inside the beltway, and, of course, he'll

be sort of an avenue that president obama can use to portray mitt romney as what he likes to call the vulture capitalist. >> well, george will really not holding back. obviously, he's not going to be on "celebrity apprentice" next season, or maybe he is, because it would be really good ratings. as we talk about this, donald trump hit back, did best by doing so on twitter. "george will may be the dumbest and most overrated political commentator of all time. if the republicans listen to him, they will lose." will the romney campaign try to keep trump away from the microphones in vegas? >> i don't think you can keep trump away from the microphones. but what you see going on here, every minute we spend talking about trump and everything he says that's a little bit controversial is a minute we're not talking about the economy, which is what mitt romney doesn't want to us talk about. so when he brings donald trump out, he gets people off of that topic. on the other hand, as reid said, he's got to raise money and get attention for his campaign, and that is what donald trump is

helping him to do. >> reid, donald trump is so connected, or in a lot of people's minds, obviously jump to the birther issue. does the romney team help themselves by hinting to trump that this isn't story they want in the news cycle? can they control -- as isaac is saying, you can't keep people away from cameras and microphones, but can they try to control him to any extent and not derail what romney's true message is about the economy. >> i think isaac is exactly right. when donald trump is going on twitter and blasting everybody who blasts him, i'm thinking i might as well tweet at him and if he tweets back at me and y l yellsyel yells at me, i might get a few more followers on twitter. why try to control somebody who's uncontrollable. i don't think the birther issue will be associated with mitt romney or the romney campaign. they don't want to touch it, they've never touched it. it's not something that sort of mainstream republicans, anybody who's not a fringe nut job is actually going to be talking about. so, you know, separate the guy

with, you know, from the actual campaign, separate mitt romney from somebody that he's not really associated with. i don't think it's fair to put them -- to sort of make mitt romney apologize for all the bizarre things that donald trump says. >> all right, reid, don't get in any twitter battles. i don't want you lowering yourselves to any twitter feuds. just to get a few more followers. >> isaac, newt gingrich will be in nevada as well. how important is he to mitt romney moving forward? and the potential that he's there to see his old buddy, sheldon addleson. >> certainly can stop by for a meeting. but newt gingrich was a guy who was very good at promoting his own candidacy. it's not clear that he'll be very good at promoting mitt romney's candidacy. certainly will draw a lot of attention, and that's something that we can see, if you do an event that has donald trump and newt gingrich, you're going to get some headlines. and mitt romney's campaign has made the decision, clearly, that they would like those headlines and get the attention that will come from it. but i don't know, it's not clear to me how many votes newt gingrich is actually going to move and how many votes those

will be outside of the republican primary base. >> and isn't it always when you try o figure out how many egos you can stuff into one state at the same time, maybe not at the same event. >> that's the problem in washington, d.c.. >> we'll see how it goes. thanks so much. appreciate it, gentleman. so in poketello, idaho, the whole town has been involved in preparing for one of the more unique memorial day ceremonies. here's mike taibbtaibbi. >> reporter: a war vet remembered the way a supporter greeted him. >> he stopped holds up his arms like this, and says, hey, you baby burner. >> so he vowed nine years ago that those fighting in iraq and afghanistan would be seen and remembered differently. >> the tighter the better. it will be straighter. >> reporter: this is poketello's

field of heroes. a high school soccer field that once a year becomes a patch of hallowed ground in the shadow of the rockies, a cross for each of those fallen in those two wars, the crosses made by korean war vet, oscar noreen, and the name, rank, and casualty date of each service member on labels made by local signmaker, dennis davosky. >> it's not just a name on a cross, it's a family, it's a soldier member. >> reporter: and it's who those family members are. like sergeant blake stephens killed in iraq and buried in his hometown. >> this is blake country. ever since he was little, he would climb these hills. >> reporter: his mother, kathleen, thankful that anyone who wants to learn the story behind his cross can know what she knows about his passion to serve. >> he was just born with that, that sense of, one of well-being. he really knew who he was, but he loved, um, protecting.

he loved protecting people. >> reporter: so did tiffany petty's husband, gerrick. tiffany labeling the crosses of other fallen soldiers, whose service and sacrifice has often been overlooked by too many. >> it hurts your heart and hurt yours soul. we need to remember them, not as a group of people, but as specific people. >> so here, throughout the weekend, they're remembered by visitors from all over the west. those who have lost a loved one to war, and those who haven't. >> how old was the little girl? >> 6. >> reporter: even dennis the signmaker pausing to learn the story behind some of the names. >> had a little girl. >> mike taibbi, idaho. the national memorial day concert in the nation's capital had to be cut short when bad weather rolled into washington,

d.c. among the performance last night, there was natalie cole, trace adkins, and "american idol" finalist, jessica sanchez, all taking the stage to remember the troops. natalie cole was the last performance of the evening, that's when they had to cancel the rest of the show. the event was hosted by gary sinise and both men have dedicated themselves to supporting troops in active services. and on this memorial day, a truly special thanks to all the troops that are currently serving our country, the troops that have served in the past, and all the heroes who have given their lives to protect our freedom. [ female announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role

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♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. decision 2012 coverage now. the head of the democratic national committee, debbie wasserman schultz, is headed to wisconsin tomorrow to help milwaukee mayor, tom barrett, raise money. >> i think that he has a real opportunity to win. we have put our considerable grassroots resources behind him. >> well, barrett faces off against governor scott walker in a recall election one week from tomorrow. but joining me now is josh orden, political director for progressives united. they describe themselves as a group dedicated to fighting corporate influences in politics. josh, it's great to have you here. and the congresswoman, debbie wasserman schultz, she needed to send out this tweet and i want to show it to everybody. she said, on twitter, "let me be clear and direct. i will be in wisconsin to raise money and getting out the vote

push because barrett is well positioned to win." hopefully i read that. you know, sometimes you can read twitter incorrectly. hopefully i got that out well. before that, josh, she was catching a lot of heat over what she had said later in that interview. i want to play that for everybody. take a look. >> ultimately, i think tom barrett will pull this out. but regardless, it's given the obama for america operation an opportunity to do the dry run that we need of our massive, significant, dynamic grassroots campaign. >> is that something of a slip-up there from the congresswoman, josh, do you think? >> well, look, i think that everyone recognizes, this is a national fight. you know, scott walker has implemented what's become a national corporate agenda. you see it in indiana or new jersey, and other states. he's implementing what's basically a corporate agenda that's been brought upon the national, you know, that's --

he's brought a national agenda. and, look, there are some people who want to make this about something besides wisconsin. >> right. >> but in the end, this is a wisconsin fight. so scott walr can go across the country and raise money from different corporate donors in, you know, california or new york or texas, but in the end, this is a fight about wisconsin. and so -- >> josh, as you say, though, if it is a wisconsin fight, the chair of the dnc is going to be there on tuesday. there are some union officials. they're angry, because they say the democrats haven't done enough to unseat walker. so have big democrats been too quiet in wisconsin? the union basically getting the ball started on all of this, to get the recall election in process, and then, has there been a hands-off approach to seeing it the -- >> no, i think democratic officials are realizing, this is a national fight. and i think they've sent an e-mail that is raising money for the democratic party of wisconsin.

chairman wasserman schultz is coming in to raise money for the effort. so i think that the national party is realizing that this is actually a way -- this is a first step to slam the breaks on what's becoming a national fight against working families and working people. >> do you think, though, as i talked about, the recall all started because of the union bargaining rights and scott walker with's stance on them. we saw the, debate over the weekend, turning into more than just that. tom barrett even saying, this is about the middle class. so is he trying to change that issue here? >> no, i think he's -- no, i think what mayor barrett is doing is absolutely correct. he's seeing this as a larger fight, beyond just collective bargaining. obviously, collective bargaining is the bedrock issue which spurned this recall effort. but what mayor walker -- i'm sorry, what mayor barrett is saying is clearly that scott

walker is trying to divide the state of wisconsin. so he's trying to unite the state of wisconsin on a variety of issues. the war on women, the attack on workers' rights, and, you know, there's been people who have stopped being able to talk about politics around their kitchen table because of walker's just brutal divisive tactics. and i think that mayor barrett is doing a great job unite einge state, and i think ultimately he'll win on tuesday. >> josh orton, great to have you on this morning. thanks for your time, appreciate it. >> thank you. hundreds of people were treated for heat-related illnesses at the indianapolis 500 on sunday. the temps there, they reached 91 on the speedway. that's one degree short of an all-time high that they've seen. organizers relaxed the rules there. as you see, they allowed some ice and coolers in the stands. they also set up misting stations and air conditioned

buses, to help to cool the people off there. but it was a crash by driver mike conway in that final lap that handed scottish driver dario franchitti his third win. conway wasn't hurt, but crashed in nearly the same exact spot in the race two years ago. and the san francisco icon marks quite a milestone today. the golden gate bridge marks its 75th anniversary today. hundreds of people flock to the bridge on sunday for a fireworks celebration. nearly 2 million vehicles, they have traveled over that famous span since it opened to traffic on may 28th, 1937. it's the unofficial start to summer and the start of the driving season. but some good news out there, the pain at the pump is less painful than originally thought. that and much more, next. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing

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it is getting more costly to travel in one kids and one senator wants to change that. chuck schumer is calling on airlines to remove unnecessary fees for families who want to sit together on flights. senator schumer is responding to reports that airlines have increased the number of seats set aside for elite frequent fliers, making it harder r for families to find seats together. right now, memorial day travel is in high gear and more people are hitting the roads this weekend than last year and many are spending the unofficial first day of summer at the beach or amusement park. peter debuick wrote a story on the suggest and joins us. peter, it's good to have you back on. let's talk about the beaches and amusement parks. or is there a combination of both that really draw the family's attention? >> you can do that over at cedar

point in sandusky, ohio. they've got a fantastic amusement park there, but also a beach as well and moore's pier, a great place to do that as well. there are some good places to go. when we think about people traveling for these amusement parks, for a lot of people, they can do the research online and figure out where they want to go. do you recommend for families traveling to do this, they stick to one place? is it too ambitious to try to map out a park quest for a certain family? >> the most important thing when making a trip is to book early. get your plans together. it's important for everyone to be on the same page. and if you book early, i talk about this in my book and also in the reality show pilot i have, you want to make sure everyone is happy. you're making the memory for

this vacation. >> what do you think is the american fascination with roller coasters? >> even before the roller coast er, the amusement park itself. people used to go to parks, compounds in crystal, connecticut before they had the amusement parks there. it's a place to get away. just for a couple of hours, get away, get close to your family. that's the attraction. everyone is pretty much trying to do that. get back to family and back to the times. some want to go back and remember the times they were there when they were younger. >> what is the roller coaster right now in the country considered the scariest death ride hell raiser? which is it? >> there's a lot out there, but the tallest and fastest is in six flags great adventure in jackson. imagine going 0 to 128 miles an hour in four seconds up 444 feet and back down 444 feet and over

another lift hill. and hold this in about 28 seconds. >> that's pretty good. >> 5 gs. >> what is one of the older roller coasters still considered to be one of the best? >> 1927, you've got the cyclone here in coney island in new york. it's a great ride. >> all right. pe peter, thanks so much. you're the author of america's top roller coasters and amusement parks. great read. thank you so much. appreciate you coming in. hopefully, a will the of people are going to be hitting the roads this summer. thanks for your time. see you back here tomorrow. my regularly scheduled time. 11:00 a.m. eastern. until then, follow me on twitter don't go anywhere though. chris jansing comes in and picks up coverage next. stick around. [ female announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role

throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day women's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. ♪ it has more of seven antioxidants to support cell health. that's one a day women's 50+ healthy advantage. i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like.

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bringing with it heavy rain for florida and georgia and possibly even some flooding. on this memorial day, a staggering new report about the number of veterans filing for disability benefits. we'll talk to veteran john schultz about the study. and think congress is sophomoric? our nation's lawmakers are embracing plain speak, or is it the dumbing down of congress? here's what's on the agenda today. people living in the southeast are waking up to drenching rains this morning. beryl, the second strongest storm to ever hit the u.s. in may could dump as much a foot of rain on florida and georgia. al vin brown is preparing for the worst. >> everything's going to be shut down. we're really preparing for this tropical storm and it's all about safety. we want people safe through this

storm. >> todd santos is here now. good morning. >> good morning. a number of issues especially around jacksonville. some of the specific report, first want to get to this tornado warning in eastern portions of duval county in florida as well as duval county. that goes until 10:30. doppler indicated tornado, mayport, little talbot island, areas you want to take cover. until 10:30 local time and in tropical systems, you can sometimes get these little rotations to spin up, again bref briefly cause potential for tornados. you may not be able to see them or the funnel clouds themselves, so something to keep in mind. safety wise, you see the swirl itself. max sustained winds, 40 miles per hour. moving towards the west at 8 miles per hour. in the next couple advisories, 11:00 a.m. or 2:00, we could see this becoming a tropical depression. one of the biggest