not close at all, alex witt.ne to great lengths to make sure that does not happen. they have cordoned off a six-block radius around that church. i want to take you closer as well and show you precisely what is happening at new hope right now. you can see outside. there's a cadre of police officers who have gathered there. they're getting a briefing about how to proceed over the next few hours. there's a makeshift memorial that's been set up by the hundreds of fans and mourners who have stopped by this church over the past several days, balloons and teddy bears and flowers. as you mentioned, before we all knew whitney houston, they knew her here in newark. she was singing in the gospel choir that her mother led at the age of 11. that's where the singing started before she started singing in nightclubs in new york city. her god mother, aretha franklin is expected to be one of the many performers throughout the service today. she spoke yesterday exclusively to al roker. take a listen to what the queen of soul had to

welcome to weaning ends with alex witt. among the stories we'll bring you this hour, overseas, search for a killer, fight for michigan. danika patrick fro fanity. carp invasion and nelson mandela news. we'll get to all of it. >>> we begin with breaking news, a man hunt is under way for an afghan intelligence officer wanted in the killing of two u.s. army officers. authorities are searching for abdul sabur but stopped short of calling him the gunman. the taliban says the on going attacks were in response to the accidental burning of korans by u.s. troops. atia baugh' is live in kabul. what's the latest from there? >> reporter: good evening, alex. the latest information that we have right now is that abdul sabur was working inside the interior ministry. what we hear from afghan officials is he was, in fact, a high-ranking intelligence officer. u.s. officials was saying he was a low-level police officer with access to the interior ministry, access to the office that is the two american officers were working in. he walked in an

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good morning, folks, welcome to "weekends with alex witt." i'm craig melvin. >>> we start with developments on the health of nelson mandela, the former south african leader was admitted to the hospital overnight. government officials say the 93-year-old sought specialist medical attention for what's being called a long-standing abdominal complaint. nbc talked with mandela family members. he joins me live from the phone. he's been there in capetown. there's been conflicting information coming out of south africa this morning. earlier we heard that the former leader had surgery. moments ago we heard that it was not surgery, this was in fact a planned visit. what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, i've spoken to high-level government officials, people extremely close to the family as well. everybody is saying the same thing. he's been monitored over the last couple of months. his military doctors have been watching him every day since the last time we reported on this last year. they've decided that he needs to be moved into the hospital as a p

this is "weekends with alex witt." >>> well, everyone, will come back to "weekends with alex witt."ne caucuses. romney and paul are holding events across the state. a report today suggests a very tight race between the two candidates. neither rick santorum nor newt gingrich is actively campaigning in the state. have have no events scheduled today. >>> we have new reaction this morning to president obama shifting his position on contraception coverage and health insurance. president says the revamped policy will both protect religious freedoms as well as a woman's right to contraception. under the plan, religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees. instead, the government will demand that insurance companies will directly responsible for providing free konlt contraception. joining me in studio for a change, we were just talking about that, msnbc contributor susan del percio and msnbc contributor crystal ball. it's good to have you guys here. >> thank you. >> let's get the conversation going with you, susan. do you have a snar yoe cenario you believe th

>> my handle at alex witt.roughout the morning. >>> much more on the life and legacy of whitney houston. we'll talk about why her songs touched so many and talk more about her struggles with addiction. more on weeb yends with alex witt. people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. i was worried it would be hard to install. but it's really easy. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. yeah. you're not... filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. plug into the savings you deserve with snapshot from progressive. [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. laces? really? slip-on's the way to go. more people do that, security would be like -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little p

welcome to "weekends with alex witt."t is high noon here on the east coast. 8:00 a.m. -- 9:00 a.m. out west. i can do the math. here is what's happening now. there fireworks on the campaign trail. gop contender rick santorum with fresh attacks on the president. but is he crossing the line? columbus, ohio, santorum escalated his retd particular stemming from the religious freedom and birth control controversy. >> this is what the president's agenda, it is not about you. it is not about you. it is not about your quality of life. it is not about your jobs. it is about some phony ideal, some phony theology, oh, not a theology based on the bible, different theology. no less than theology. [ applause ] >> meanwhile, mitt romney's arizona campaign co-chair sheriff balbo has resigned. a man with whom he had a previous relationship told the newspaper that the sheriff threatened to deport him if he told anyone with that relationship. he says he's gay but calls the man's allegations completely false. >>> meanwhile, mitt romney visit

now let's get more from alex witt over at the news desk. it's an alex morning it is. i'm glad to be here. good morning, everyone. >>> we begin in eastern afghanistan where officials say deadly rioting has broken out for a fifth day against the destruction of korans at a u.s. military base. we go to kabul. good morning, atia. >> reporter: good morning, alex. the violence doesn't seem to be letting up. we are in the fifth consecutive day of protests as angry afghans take to the streets. we know about northern afghanistan over a thousand protesters tried to storm a united nations compound. hundreds of demonstrators tried to take over the governor's compound and right now we have unconfirmed reports, i repeat unconfirmed, but that two foreign advisers may have been shot inside of the ministry of interior here in the capital of kabul. we're waiting for more details about that, and we're still not clear if it has to do with the burnings of the korans. alex? >> all right. thank you for that. >>> federal authorities have joined the investigation into the penn state sexual abu

i'm alex witt.ident obama says syrian leader bashar al assad has lost legitimacy and has no right to stay in power. it comes after an overnight artillery assault that killed at least 200 people. >>> russia and china have vetoed a u.n. security council resolution concerning the unrest in syria. the resolution would have backed an arab league peace plan which called for president assad to step down. >>> the gop presidential candidates are looking for love from the constituents in nevada. mitt romney is leading in today's polls with the caucuses, with newt gingrich and ron paul in it could. >> colorado digging out of the most powerful storm the u.s. has seen this entire winter. more than a foot of snow was dumped with up to six-foot snow drifts. tough on the trail, but great for skiers been more news later, i'm alex witt and now we'll take you back to vegas homicide here on msnbc. >> we've been watching the las vegas detectives on the pursuit of the killer. or producers were by their sides every step o

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welcome back to "weekend with alex witt." its hoosier hospitality especially from out of towners. >> this is very friendly. in new york everybody is stressed out. here everybody wants to have a good time and they don't care where you are from. >> all right. high praise from a giants fan. and indianapolis mayor greg ballard is joining me now. good day, mr. mayor. pretty big day for you folks. you seem to be winning overing the critics. what do you think about indianapolis that's so appealing to the sports fans? >> well, i think the hospitality is a big aspect of it. no question about that. we know how to put on big events. we do the 500 every year. final four. we have large conventions coming into the city. we know how to put on a big show and make the people feel welcome, organization is very, very strong and have several agencies to make sure that happen. >> yeah. i want to get to that security. how tough a challenge is it to prepare for something like this? you have a pretty concentrated area. have you people packed in. >>

now let's get more of the morning's headlines from alex witt over at the news desk. it's an alex morning. >> there's a lot of alexes at msnbc. we begin in eastern afghanistan where officials say rightioting has broken out fur a fifth day against the destruction of korans. atia abawi is. >> the violence doesn't seem to be letting up. we are on the fifth consecutive day of protests as angry afghans take to the streets. we know over 1,000 protesters tried to storm a united nations compound in the east. hundreds of demonstrators tried to take over the governor's compound there. right now we have unconfirmed reports right now that two foreign advisers may have been shot inside of the ministry of interior here in the capital of kabul. we're waiting on more details about that and still not clear if it has to do with the burnings of the koran. >> atia an been which in kabul. >>> federal authorities have joined the investigation into the penn state sex abuse scandal requesting information involving former assistant football coach jerry sandusky and other top school officials i

i'm alex witt.ey and ron paul are out campaigning in maine trying to close a deal in today's caucuses. this does not carry any delegates, but could give the winner a boost in momentum. they're not actively competing in maine. on monday president obama will unveil his 2013 budget proposal that calls for new spending to create jobs and raise taxes on upper income people. i'm alex witt. we'll have more news later and we'll see you in one hour on msnbc. >>> after strangling a young prostitute to death, budding serial killer joel rifkin spends months reliving the grisly event before killing again. >> maybe joel hadn't reached the point where the compulsion to kill again hadn't reached a zenith to act out again. sometimes it's years or weeks. but for him it was 18 months. >> in late 1990 joel picks up julie blackbird under the manhattan bridge. his mother is again out of town, so they drive back to east meadow and julie spends the night. >> yeah, she slept some of that time, took a shower some of that tim

i'm alex witt.mney campaigning hard in main for today's caucuses. romney is still widely believed to be the front-runner for the gop nomination, but is in need of a win after rick santorum's three-state sweep on thursday. ron paul's campaign has focussed a lot of attention on maine. paul today says he thinks he has a good chance of winning. i'm alex witt. i'll see you back here in one hour with more news. >>> donald harvey used his position as a hospital orderly to kill dozens of patients at three hospitals over 17 years. over the years, he has continued to call himself a mercy killer. the way he tells it, he was doing his victims a favor. >> the patients may have had a month to six months to live. and they were mostly put there just to die. the families, instead of sending them to a nursing home, they put them there. or they had no family. the county or whatever put them there. those are a lot of the type patient that is i terminated. >> you didn't stay with one specific method of hastening the dea

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welcome to "weekends with alex witt."s is our special coverage as we are remembering whitney houston. the final farewell to houston is expected to begin at any moment now. you can see there family, friends have all arrived to pay their respects. we are giving you a live look at the new hope baptist church in newark. there are giant clusters of balloons that have adorned the makeshift memorials honoring the star outside of that church where there now is an air of reverence inside, but there is also celebration because she has lived a life worth of celebration, her many, many achievements and there will be tributes and beautiful words paying tribute to whitney houston. craig melvin is there for us live. it is expected to begin shortly, correct? >> reporter: it is expected to begin at any moment now, alex witt. the funeral set to start at noon. weir told it will probably last about an hour and a half. a number of dignitaries, a number of performers are inside that church. we will see and hear from some of those throughout th

coming up next is weekends with alex witt. jared bernstein as guests. thank you for getting up. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. some aerosols may just mix with them. can febreze remove it. [ moderator ] describe the smell. it's very pleasant. some kind of flower maybe? awww, oh yuck! [ male announcer ] febreze air effects doesn't mix, it actually removes odors. so you can breathe happy. diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. nyquil tylenol: we are?ylenol. you know we're kinda like twins. nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom

. >>> we want to get more of this morning's headlines from msnbc's alex witt over at the news desk. alex, good morning. >> a very good morning to you both. thank you so much. good morning, everyone. syrians are voting today on a new draft constitution, as rebels report more clashes and shellings around the country. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel is on the border between syria and turkey. richard, good morning. >> good morning, alex. this referendum is effectively a yes/no vote on new clauses and amendments to the syrian constitution, which, in principle, sound very good. it sets term limits for the syrian president. president bashar al assad would have to step down in 2014. it allows for multiparty democracy, and removes the syrian bath party from its central role in politics. the syrian government is presenting this as the centerpiece of its reform process. i reform process the syrian opposition has been calling for. the problem is there are many good clauses in the old syrian constitution which are not being respected and the opposition has no confidence that any c

i'm alex witt. obama makes his strongest statement concerning the unrest in syria following after overnight crackdown that claimed at least 200 lives. president obama said the syrian government has lost legitimacy and has no right to stay in power. >>> mitt romney is the favorite to win the caucus with newt gingrich jockeying for success place. i'll be back in one hour. now back to "vegas homicide." >>> we found some credit card information and whatnot. looks like he's using that still. >> it had been three days since ginger's body was discovered inside a trash can and detectives now had a suspect. michael victor lane, a self-proclaimed spiritual healer from the uk. lane calls himself michael bodie or chase seville to people he meets in the holistic healing scene and makes his living building websites for them. but detectives found that lane has been going by other names, too, on darker online forums. >> he advertises himself for bondage, sadomasochistic transgender websites. >> he digs that? >> he

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know when the week began but right now a preview of what is coming up this morning on "weekend with alex wittquestions today good numbers on the economy complicate the gop message against the president? it is also the most powerful storm of the winter. it pounded colorado and now it's moving east but how far will it reach? we will bring you a live report owe that. >>> countdown to the super bowl. some numbers are staggering like this. how much would you have to pay for a ticket now? we are going to have that and more in 15 minutes. we are lucky because you're working tomorrow so we don't have to pay for those tickets. >> exactly right. thanks. >> okay. >>> thanks to release of the fell election commission filings for the end of the year 2011, we now know what we always suspected. that the new superpacs is an instrument for the extremely wealthy. we know pro romney super pac restore our future which is the largest got 86% of its money in donations greater than a hundred thousand raising nearly 26 million dollars from just 90 donors. we know the obama supporting super pac is barely raking in th