joining me now is new orleans mayor, democrat mitch landrieu. mr.ayor, thanks so much for being with us. >> great to be with you. >> let's talk about the exchanges, the medicaid program. what will the governor's decision mean for new orleans? >> well, the governor and i get along very well. but in my opinion he's wrong on both these things. unfortunately, louisiana has a very poor health care delivery system now. we have a lot of very poor people, lot of very sick people, and in my opinion, doing both of those things would be better for the state rather than not. >> is there anything that you as the mayor can do to persuade him? >> we can continue to talk to him. in the meantime, we will start working hard on getting ahead of the problem. in new orleans, we have moved away from a centralized health care delivery system to creating 88 primary health care clinics that actually get on the front end of this problem. this is something everybody in the country can agree on. to the extent that not doing these two things is going to affect now delivering pr

all this began two years ago when new orleans' mayor mitch landrieu concluded his police department was out of control. so he asked the justice department for help. >> the citizens of new orleans deserve a police department that prey tects, that serves, and partners with the community to keep our city safer. >> reporter: after a 10 month investigation the department found that officers in the new orleans police department routinely use unnecessary and unreasonable force. officer involved shootings and in-custody deaths are investigatedded inadequately or not at all. training is severely deficient. the report also found that officers routinely engage in race and sex discrimination during one 17-month period officers fired weapons at 27 people, all were african-american. and the report says there was a sweeping failure to investigate allegations of rape and domestic violence. the new orleans police department has been plagued by corruption and scandal for decades. one notoriously incident followed hurricane katrina when four officers opened fire on a group of unarmed people killing two an

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 though, you can take a look include this -- this is the main thing, a barbecued shrimp. >> just shrimp and grits. >> she says this is the dish that's their specialty, i'm told. and this is bananas foster french toast and over there is eggs benedict with crab in it, all very calorieic. >> new orleans health food. >> that's right. >> joining us this morning is representative bill cassidy, a republican from louisiana and only practicing physician in congress, not going to ask him to weigh in on the cal orric content in the food, serious radio talk show host and new orleans native and michelle u banks is with us, nice to have all

mayor mitch landrieu is the mayor of this fine city, and he is joining us.r. >> 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 injured. let's get right to rob marciano in our extreme weather center with an update. hey, rob. >> good morning, soledad. this is an area that is highly populated during the summer months. a lot of tourism in the area. great smokey mountain national park. and this storm tore right through

outstanding former mayor of new orleans, we've also got the outstanding current mayor of new orleans, mitch landrieu is in the house. [ applause ] fine young congressman from this area, cedric richmond is here. [ applause ] and one of the best mayors in the country, we're glad he came down from his hometown of philadelphia, mayor michael nutter is in the house. [ applause ] and all of you are here. and i am grateful for it. [ applause ] and we love the young people who are in the house. mitch, don't you -- i wasn't referring to you, man. i was talking to those folks over there. mitch is all waving, thank you. for nearly a century, the national urban league has been inspiring people of every race and every religion, and every walk of life, to reach for the dream that lies at the heart of our founding. the promise that no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, no matter how modest your beginnings, no matter what the circumstances of your birth, here in america, you can make it if you try. of course, this dream has never come easy. that's why the urban league w

attorney general eric holder formally outlined the deal yesterday, an agreement mayor mitch landrieu estimates will cost roughly $11 million a year to put in place. landrieu said it will "fundamentally change the culture of the new orleans police, once and for all." the planned reforms include: mandatory training for officers in the use of force, routine stops and searches and bias-free policing. new standards for recruiting to increase diversity on the force. and videotaping of interrogations involving suspected homicides and sexual assaults. the department must also install video cameras in all patrol cars. >> this consent decree belongs to the entire community, and includes ideas that were brought to us by community members, front line officers, and experts alike. >> ifill: that extensive review grew in part out of actions taken by police after hurricane katrina devastated the city in 2005. but it also tackles a culture of misconduct years in the making. last year, the justice department reported that in the storm's wake, officers often made unlawful arrests, engaged in racial prof

new orleans mayor mitch landrieu. >>> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in aspen, colorado. republicans a big opening to label president obama as a tax and spend liberal, or try to. but their only problem is, didn't mitt romney do the very same thing in massachusetts? that's what democrats are asking. chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com for our daily fix today. let's talk about this tax versus penalty. where does it all come down? wanted to show a little bit of eric fernstrom, the top advisor from the romney campaign, talking to chuck todd on the daily rundown this morning. >> the governor believes that what we put in place in massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees wi the court's ruling that the mandate was a tax. but again -- >> so he agrees with the president? he agrees with the president that it is not -- he believes that you shouldn't call the tax penalty a tax, you should call it a penalty or a fee or a fine? >> that's correct. >> so how does this play out politically, chris? >> well, andrea, look, this was i think part o

i'm talking to new orleans mayor mitch landrieu and "essence" magazine's editor-in-chief. [ mrs. hutchison ] friday night has always been all fun and games here at the hutchison household. but one dark stormy evening... there were two things i could tell: she needed a good meal and a good family. so we gave her what our other cats love, purina cat chow complete. it's the best because it has something for all of our cats! and after a couple of weeks she was healthy, happy, and definitely part of the family. we're so lucky that lucy picked us. [ female announcer ] purina cat chow complete. always there for you. use the points we earn with our citi thankyou card for a relaxing vacation. ♪ sometimes, we go for a ride in the park. maybe do a little sightseeing. or, get some fresh air. but this summer, we used our thank youpoints to just hang out with a few friends in london. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou visa card. redeem the points you've earned to travel with no restrictions. rewarding you, every step of the way. i tell mike what i can spend. i do mbest to make that work. we'

i was just with mitch landrieu, the mayor of new orleans who was a terrific student of mine talking aboutld cost new orleans. when you take people off the medicaid rolls, they go off the emergency rooms. this is not only something that is given to the states for free for three years but when you want to opt out, but it will cost the states money. a decision made for partisan and ideological and political reasons and these governors deserve condemination for it, i believe. >> why is it the case that the normal mechanics of political accountability are not functioning? shouldn't it be the case that you would be scared to walk away from in the case of louisiana, i'm looking at the number here, $8.9 billion in federal money because, if you do that, presumably, you will be punished by the voters. but they are making a political calculation that they will not be. what is not working that that is the case? >> those people are not their voters. the people affected by this horrible decision and who are going to suffer terribly are not their voters. they are so invested in proving to their slightly

vanessa williams will be with us, mitch landrieu will be with us and bill cassidy also talking with us and many more. "cnn newsroom" with don lemon begins now. hey, don, good morning. >> new orleans, you're going to love it, love, love it, soledad. >>> condition critical, powerless and starving. west virginia this morning without basic necessities, food, water, thousands of emergency meals on their way. we're going to speak with the red cross coming up. in court, george zimmerman and the money trail all in question this morning. should trayvon martin's shooter be set free before his trial? >>> plus this -- >> i'm not going to put my job over helping someone again. i'm going to do what i thought was right. >> a life guard credited with saving a life then getting the boot, fired. six of his coworkers quitting in protest. >>> and 21 tomas lopez tells us his side of the story. >>> an ipad mini? a smaller version of the popular ipad. rumors are heating up saying it's already in production. we'll separate fact from fiction straight ahead. >>> blade runner, an amazing inspirational story, a s

all-star lineup, jay thomas, vanessa williams and mitch landrieu joins us.y 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

vanessa williams will be with us, mitch landrieu will be with us and bill cassidy also talking with usood morning. >> new orleans, you're going to love it, love, love it, soledad. >>> condition critical, powerless and starving. west virginia this morning without basic necessities, food, water, thousands of emergency meals on their way. we're going to speak with the red cross coming up. in court, george zimmerman and the money trail all in question this morning. should trayvon martin's shooter be set free before his trial? >>> plus this -- >> i'm not going to put my job over helping someone again. i'm going to do what i thought was right. >> a life guard credited with saving a life then getting the boot, fired. six of his coworkers quitting in protest. >>> and 21 tomas lopez tells us his side of the story. >>> an ipad mini? a smaller version of the popular ipad. rumors are heating up saying it's already in production. we'll separate fact from fiction straight ahead.

report and what it means if you are employed or underemployed and also the new orleans mayor mitch land r landrieul us what he is doing to combat violence in his city. and also, we will be joined by a panel to talk about aids. and we are talking about jobs, j j jobs, jobs, and the employers are not hiring enough to bring down the latest figures. you see that 80,000 new jobs were added last month but the labor unemployment rate remai remairemains 8.2%, and that is because of the jobs added in may. it is a different picture from the jobsarlier in the year. now president obama and mitt romney are talking about it. >> our mission is not to get back to where we were before the crisis, and we have to get back to w