you're listening to khari allen lee and the new creative collective.providing the "starting point" play list for our entire morning coming to you live from the ruby slipper cafe right in the heart of downtown new orleans. our team has changed up a little bit. mayor mitch landrieu is the mayor of this fine city, and he is joining us. nice to see you, sir. >> welcome to new orleans. >> thank you. i appreciate that. >> can i get you breakfast? >> you have gotten me breakfast. another round. jay thomas is with us as well. award-winning actress, new orleans native, and talk show host. and also michelle, who was filling us in on what's going to be happening at the essence music festival, which is one of the real reasons we are here actually. our friend roland martin will be back in just a moment. he is of course with washington watch. >>> we want to start with breaking news. deadly storms on the move right now. violent thunderstorms have been slamming into eastern tennessee. happened overnight. reportedly two people are dead. dozens of others have been injur

we're going to have an opportunity to play for you harry lee allen and the new creative collective, theyhe entire morning. we'll start with deadly storms moving through the national park. lots to tell you about there and the critical jobs numbers to get to, talking about the saints bounty battle heads to court with the nfl players file ag new lawsuit. all-star lineup, jay thomas, vanessa williams and mitch landrieu joins us. "starting point" begins right now. ♪ >> there they are, that's carey allen lee and the new creative collective is the new band playing this morning. they'll provide the playlist coming to you live from the ruby slipper cafe in the heart of downtown new orleans. i guess i should mention first the food it's in front of us. lots on the menu, some of the specialties ou

the most frightening stories she uncovered the belt way it sniper attacks in 2002 when john allen muhammad and leefour weeks went around randomly killing others. -- for weeks went around, randomly killing others. >> there were many times when we ran out on a sniper scene. we had a sense that they were watching us. but she also turned war correspondent, venturing to the middle east, and, of course september 11. >> pentagon police. people in the military. to be able to tell their stories. quantico virginia. richmond virginia. rested. in manassas. i am gail pennybacker, abc 7 news. >> so many stories and hairstyles. for all of that and through all of that, her grace and compassion and her 26 years of service to our station and to you, our viewers we will always be grateful. >> we are happy she will be closed your family. she is ecstatic about the move. >> we are not going to say goodbye. we are going to say see you soon. >> let's take a look at what is coming up on abc 7 news at 6:00. >> we really are going to miss gail pennybacker around here. when i grow up, i want to be just like her. we are follo

. >> george allen spent some time meeting with the mount vernon lee chamber of commerce. tim kaine visited some small shops in the mount vernon area. >>> today redskins fans heard what might be the most eight exciting words of the summer, robert griffin, iii has signed his contract agreeing to a four- year $21 million deal earlier today. the media did not talk to my players or management, but rg3 sent out a tweet this morning saying well, people, it's time to go to work, off the unemployment line and oh, yeah, httr. that means hail to the redskins for the uninitiated among you. topper is not one of those people. >> no. some good news. the watch has been trimmed a little bit, so the severe thunderstorm watch covers the southern 1/2 of the metro area until 9:00. there's one warning in rockingham county till 8:00, some good news, but still the chance of thunderstorms tomorrow and again on friday. let's start with live doppler 9000 and we'll show you where all the thunderstorms are. first we'll go down to our friends in southern maryland. pretty good thunderstorms rolled thro

be sitting on your couch one night going gee, there was a song that i wrote called an a bell lee, an edgar allenhould try to record that. it's not planned. it will just come into my head. so i don't really go searching usually. it's usually -- it's almost like the moment for the song to be right presents itself and i think that is extraterrestrial. that just happens. >> there was a great shot of you sort of looking over at lindsay. it's well-known that the two of you have a thing. there seemed to be a lot of group things in the group of fleetwood mack. a lot of boinging going on in the group. >> didn't your mom ever tell you you're not supposed to get involved in the people that you work with? did you miss that memo? >> that happened -- >> lindsay and i were together before. >> i was a senior in high school and i was a junior. so my parents and we weren't going out. we were just in a band. so we were in a band together '68, '69 and '70 and we weren't going with each other. we had separate boyfriends and girlfriends. we didn't start going out until '71. >> you know the point i'm making. there was

if you are woody allen you do what you want. if you are spike lee, you can go ahead and tweet out the address of the guy who the new black panthers has put a bounty on and there is no repercussions because hollywood will decide who is guilty and who is not guilty. unquote. joining us now from los angeles, mr. carolla. how much influence do you think show biz is going to have on the presidential election? >> i kind of think it is who the celebrity is. it's a double edged sword there is some celebrities you don't want backing you like if you are barack obama you don't want michael richards backing you. that would be a problem. you probably don't want mel gibson but george clooney is cool but, on the other hand, if you hang out at too many parties with aretha franklin and jessica jessica. and all the celebrities. then you are losing touch with the common man. you are hanging out with the man. so, to me, he has got to be careful how about hobnobbing he he does with celebries. >> bill: but there is no doubt that hollywood is firmly behind barack obama. w

and mitt romney going to the naacp is not going to win him votes in the black community, but as lee allenup. he's got to show up, but go to the urban league and the black chamber of commerce, other places besides the naacp. >> dave: as close it a political slam-dunk, going to being to 2000 the closest the republican has been bush 2004, 11% to john kerry's 88%, other than that and that's even a blowup. but receipt now, you've got obama at 91% and romney at 4%. does he have any chance with that african-american vote? >> well, i hope so because i don't think that republicans are the answer, but i think that they are an answer. you know, shirley put it this way, you do not vote for the party, you vote for the individual. blacks are not brain washed or bamboozled as-- >> and thank you, thank you. >> and you know, we both are interest not the party. we have chosen johnson over goldwater, a very good thing, but the abolitionists of old have become the obstructionists. and they warn against two water season. >>, but santia-- >> let me finish, he says that this division caused by the two party sys

allen had gathered around him at a number of important folk singers, young pete seeger, harvard dropout, leeommonwealth college, josh white, other black musicians from the piedmont. that is the concert where woody guthrie first meet pete seeger. lomax later says, go back to that first night when they meet. then you can date the right sound of american folk music. -- it renaissance of american folk music. >> pete seeger talked about alan lomax and woody guthrie. >> he managed to woody guthrie. he said, your mission in life is to write songs. do not let anyone or editing distract you. you are like the people that wrote the balance of robin hood, jesse james. you keep writing ballads as long as you can. woody took it to heart. he was not a good husband. always running off. but he wrote songs, you know? >> do you remember when you first met with the guthrie? >> yes, i will never forget it. a benefit concert for agricultural workers in california, midnight. golden gate quartet, josh white, leadbelly, my wife was dancing, i sang one song very amateurish way and return to a smattering of applause,

we're going to have florida representative allen west right here, right here with me, we're going to talk about things like nat gas and so much more. melissa leely. >> let's send it over to kayla tausche. >> rick just showed you the intraday chart of nat gas. up more than 5%. that's helping a lot of nat gas stocks, namely range resources, western energy and cabbott oil and gas. these have exposure to nat gas prices. it's helping southwestern up nearly 4% today. simon back to you. >> straight ahead on the program, why the city hosting the olympic games won't be alone in paying an arm and a leg to make the games great. more on that and more live. s? anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. she's not just natalie coughlin. she's every 5-year-old who ever jumped in a pool and didn't want to get out. ♪ every coach, every rival who ever pushed her. she's the tip of a spear that goes all the way back to the beginning. it's amazing ho

simpson-bowles deficit lee ducks plan that was put together by a group of insiders and outsiders, inside and outside ever congress, led by erskine bowles and former senator allenimpson to try to come up with a deficit reduction package, also using some of the provisions from the so-called gang of six, senators. but those plans, in the past at least, have not gained the favor of leadership particularly who were not really involved in those efforts other than senate majority whip richard durbin. so that's sort of the side plan that people are working on of the but it doesn't look like that plan will be coming up right away. although in the lame duck, you know, it's a different ball game because we don't know who will control the senate really or, of course, whether or not governor romney will be the president in waiting or whether president obama will be re-elected. so it will be a lot of the cards that are played in the lame duck depend on what cards you're holding in your hand are based on what's coming up next year. host: that ties into what joseph is asking on twitter, whether the plan is a solution to budget issues. talked about how there are discussions al