joining me now, christina bellatoni and james peterson. thanks so you both.hristina, i want to start with you on this push to get women voters. clearly women are the key to the democrat hopes in 2014, making a big push between the equal payday as well as the president's executive actions. >> yeah. that's absolutely right. and it's not just women. women are part of the coc co-coalition. they go into hibernation during the midterms. the democrats can't afford to have that happen. control of the senate is on the line so they are trying to do lots of things to motivate people. what is interesting to me about this executive action is that it also opens them up to criticism from others who want to see him take executive action on matters like immigration. >> right. >> like on stopping some of the deportations that are happening, perhaps going further on marijuana laws. so there are a lot of different types of things that the president can do. >> and james, specifically, since the president took action on the minimum wage for federal contra contractors, the push has

david james peterson is the director of africana studies at lehigh. both are msnbc contributors.reby entitled to a difference of opinion. i've been learning about them. professor peterson, is this the strange eye of the current, or is this the norm, the commentaries coming in these tape recordings attributed to donald steriling? >> this for me, chris, this is more than norm. it's still infuriating to kind of hear this. but when we put this into the context of the scotus decision last week cigling they don't believe racism really exists in terms of hiring and admission practices. you put it in the context of cliven bundy. then the history of donald sterling, the guy responsible for the largest settlement in any housing discrimination case against blacks and latin knows. he's essentially a slum lord. and all the bad behavior antics we've been hearing about in the media with this man, it seems clear to me we've got to focus on the institutional racism and focus less on the sensational things. but i don't think we've passed some point in our history where it's not important to addres

i put that question to two professors, james peterson, direct of africana studies and victoria soto, sor the university of texas and i hope a future regular on the show. james, is affirmative action unfair to asian students? >> no, ronan, the data doesn't bear that out. what you're seeing with the piece of legislation designed to put affirmative action back in place for college admissions has overturned prop tool 9 from 1996, has been used as a wedge issue in communities of color. important lobbyist groups have worked with chinese american community to sort of get out and say this is going to affect your children. and so this is why you're seeing this sort of bubble over. the reality is that chinese american youth had admissions increasing in california prior to prop 209 and they have not increased as much since prop 209 was put in place. there's no evidence in the state of california that this will necessarily harm the admissions processes for chinese americans but politico seeing an opportunity to continue the fight to assault and dismantle affirmative action. >> increasing represen

joining us to put a human face on this report, james peterson, director of africana studies.esident of the public policy organization demos. thank you both for being here. you guys were here listening to our discussion with david kennedy on just how dire the situation is in schools. you heard about that report that we've all been reeling in response to about inequality in the education system. how related is -- i'll start with you, heather, is this educational inequality early on to the long-term effects we've seen chronicled in this urban league report? >> i understand one of the things that connects these two issues, disproportionate locking up of 4 and 5-year-olds to the babies to the inequality in the job market is something we shouldn't be ashamed to talk about it. which is our often unconscious prejudices and stereotypes. i have a thinking that a call to action for your viewers should be to go on the harvard university website for the implicit association test. which allows you to just go and find out how hard it is for you to make a connection between a darker face and

. >> our panel, joe walsh, editor at large for salon dot cook, james peterson director of africana study at she lie university. vivian lotata, and josh barrow, correspondent for "the new york times." joan, james, josh with are all msnbc contributors as well. i just love saying that. my "j" crew. so i want to start with the irs hearings. joan, start with you. it was pretty clear this week and this morning on some of the sunday talk shows that they are not going to let this go. they are going to go after miss lerner pretty hard. it is kind of a double. now that they've referred the case to the department of justice, they can actually plame it on eric hold per. >> right. there is an investigation. i found is to so striking that the other day they shut out the media, shut out the public. dave camp has taken to acting like darrel issa. he shut down congressman levin. there is this attempt not only to create -- or inflate this scandal but also to shut down the democrats who are asking legitimate questions but also want to get to the bottom as well. >> part of the problem with this investigatio

with more i turn to james peterson, lehigh university and msnbc contributor., one of the things taking off online about this is a very impassioned minority opinion written by justice soto mayor. we cannot wish away racial inequality. do you agree? >> i do. there's a stark reality here that race informs our history and there's this idea or prevailing perception, not just in the supreme court but also amongst too many americans that we sort of achieved more than what we have in terms of racial equality. for justice sot to may or this is a setback and i tend to agree with her. it is interesting to think about this, there are states that will be emboldened by this decision, ohio, utah and missouri and few other states. the reality is when you don't have that federal overlay for affirmative action, states rights become as always one of the sort of prevailing issues when we think about progressivism. >> there are certains inside ak deem ya. >> the academic community is more conservative than most people think. there are those in the academic community that welcome t

comments he later called iner a tiarticulat joining me is a strategist with bush and cheney, and, james petersond also robert traynham as well. listen to this comment about inner city schools. >> it is competition, and some poorer schools would go out of business and some of the better schools will be bigger. defy anybody to meet some of the young kids like joes fsephine ws doing so well, and not only get into college, and graduate, but get into college. >> and the message in total here, james, is this the message that minorities want to hear that going to bring him over? >> well, actually not exactly, richard. i mean, the -- at the end of the day, school choice is a euphemism for the privatization of the school can system, and as we can see some school systems that some of them are successful, and he is right that some families can benefit from the better school choice to present, but it is not providing education for us all, and so if we privatize the public education, we are abrogating the responsibili responsibility, because we don't know how the bring the quality schools to scale for all of

. >> and james peterson and goldie taylor, great conversation, and thank you both for coming in todayys russia has 40,000 troops along the ukrainian border, and tanks and artillery attacks. and russia denies the claims, but the satellite images verify the claim. >>> and now, accord ting to the sydney herald, he says that he submitted a code that was flawed before it was activate and it became known as the heartbleed bug, and now millions of people are changing their passwords to avoid their data from being sto stolen. >> and now there are counts for vance mccallsticcallister to re. speaker boehner says he has some decisions to be made. >> i expect everybody to be held to the highest of ethical standards, and this is no different. >> and bobby jindal says he wants privacy to work on the issues with the family, and the best way to get privacy and putting the family back together is to resign from congress. he was sworn in five months ago after a special election where he touted the christian family values, and he has apologized for the affair and the staffer has resigned. >>> oh, how cl

joining me now is james pooets -- peterson and viviana ortato. let me go to you first.on? >> i have to say, reverend al, i was not surprised, because i remember covering justice sotomayor's nomination and confirmation hearing and a lot of this came up with the whole comment of the wise latina. what is actually really baffling to me, though, she is being demeaned, her intellectual capacity is being undercut. it was called intellectual hog wash, but she wrote a 58-page dissent out of a 108-page decision and really took us down the trip of constitutional, historical memory lane, focusing on the importance of checks and balances in our constitution and for our government, as well as our principle of process and of equal access and protection so we can have a fuller society that is participating and protecting against the majority, oppressing the minority. i really don't know how that's intellectual hog wash, and if anything i think what she's doing is taking a very hard look at our based based in constitutional law in order to not only understand what this decision means, b

james is trying to finish this up. the ball next to an alligator. his playing partner john peterson, he is a hunter and officials and grabs the rake and he's going to work. get out of here, gator. who does this? if they are lucky, they don't end up his lunch. unbelievable. that's a wrap on morning sports. have a great weekend, everybody. i'm larry beil. >> next, a northern california baby elephant seal getting a second chance at life on the east coast. why zookeepers have named him cooleo. and watch abc7 news online or on smartphones and tablets. just go to abc7news.com and click on the "watch abc" logo to find out how to access it. also find it in your app store and download the app to watch all your favorite abc shows live or on >> here are the winning numbers from last night's $59 million mega-millions draw. 3, 11, 18, 20, 66, meganumber 9. nobody picked all six numbers. tuesday night's jackpot goes to $68 million. becoming a grandparent is one. life's greatest treasures. one daughter tried to get creative when she broke the news to her dad. we promised it was a lovely reaction.

james driscoll on 18, trying to finish his round he didn't make the cut. his ball next to an alligator. no sweat. playing partner john peterson is a hunter, he fishes, he grabs the rake, he's going to work, get out of here, gator. who does this? i mean they're lucky they didn't end up as lunch. okay, i'll hit my shot. unbelievable. that is a wrap on morning sports. have a great weekend, everybody. i'm larry diehl. >> next, the northern california baby elephant seal getting a second chance at life on the east coast. why zoo keepers have named >>> new this morning, a baby seal has a second chance in pittsburgh after he was rescued on the california coast. this is culio, 500-pound and growing elephant seal now at home at the pittsburgh zoo. north coast marine mammal center nursed him back to health after he was stranded on pebble beach. not only did culio lose his way, he also lost his sight. zoo keepers say they'll have to use touch and verbal cues to train culio. who got his name because trainers say he has a pretty chill personality. things chill in the bay area this morning. >> we dropped off into the 30s in the north bay an