good to see you. >> good to see you. >> i richard herman, good to see you.appy new year. >> happy new year, fred. >> let's take a look at the list, greatest legal cases. we've ranked favorites. let's count them down. avery ranks dominique strauss-kahn which you died with warren jeffs. >> a tie. >> couldn't decide. >> you chose actress lindsay lohan as number five. you both agreed on number four rod blagojevich for corruption and sentencing deserved that spot. for number three penn state's jerry sandusky, and american student in italy amanda knox also at number three. first why didn't you put sandusky on your list? >> well, you know what, if cases were based on allegations, then casey anthony would have been convicted. i think the jerry sandusky case is an important case and it's opening up a lot of observation and concern about what goes on in campuses and college campuses and high school. but the bottom line is at this point we have some very outrageous allegations. let's see what happens in 2012. may make the top ten of 2012. right now it's absolutely too

avery friedman and richard herman joining us. is is heartbreaking for the family of robert champion, the drum major. it's ruled a homicide. how is this going to redirect this investigation? richard, you first. >> it's horrible, fred. they are going to unturn every stone to look into the hazing activities that have been going on at this university. frankly hazing activity that goes on at universities all over the country. not only universities but high schools as well. every now and then we see a fatality, everybody gets in an uproar. they rant and rave how hazing must end. it dies down for a while. an incident like this comes to fruition. it's horrible. this death was unnecessary. the band may be taken away from this university for a while. i think that's what's going to happen. >> also at issue here is a pattern. avery, investigators are looking at other allegations of hazing incidents on tamp us. this death is being linked to an alleged hazing on campus. how are investigators going to look at how far was this common knowledge of

avery friedman in land and richard herman in las vegas.y, gentlemen, she is suing for millions. she is suing the marriott chain and also suing the convicted peeping tom. is this going to be difficult, though, for her to try to establish this, richard, particularly because she's -- in the public view? she works in the public view, people have been seeing her. how will she establish if there has been some damage? >> well, she going to be able to prove the invasion of privacy claims no problem there. on the negligence and the intentional infliction of emotional distress i'm not so sure. she is bringing the case in tennessee, fred. sued for $6 million against marriott. and, you know, i think if she got anywhere close to a six figure offer she should take it and run. you know, she was prancing around naked on "dancing with the stars," just about naked, almost naked. i don't know what the damages are there. i don't know -- she's not going -- this is not going to be a lot of victory for her. lotto victory for her. i think the case will settle. i

our legal guys are back, avery friedman in cleveland, richard herman in las vegas.is is a very touchy topic and disturbing one for this family in particular. avery, the cleveland's children and family services takes away the child saying he's 200 pounds, 8 years old. he should weigh on average 60, 65 pounds. this is putting his life, his health in jeopardy and they had to intervene. how common is this for child protective services to do this? >> like never. i mean, i don't know that i've ever seen a case. i've beenen court with these child care workers or whatever they call themselves. your visceral reaction is having the government break down the door and pull out a heavy kid, take him away from his parents and throw them into foster care is outrage. more than 2 million kids extremely obese, fredricka. it's an epidemic. when you think more deeply, there are circumstances where the standard is either abuse or neglect. did the mother medically neglect this child to require this removing the child to put the child into foster care in order to save his life. we'll find

. >> and low the angel of the lord came upon men -- >> herman cain may be gone but he'll not be forgotten, richardchristmas presents. yes, he is auditioning for something else. and that end of the year special with perry cuomo is wonderful. >> rockin' new year's eve maybe? >> we'll see. tbd. thanks again to richard, jacob, ben and s.e. that does it for now. have a great, great weekend. i will see you back here monday at noon eastern. until then, can you follow us on twitter. andrea mitchell reports is next. hello, andrea. >> hi, have a great weekend, alex. next on msnbc reports, the fallout from last night's debate. and ambassador dennis ross to talk about the prospect of a nuclear iran. and a government shutdown avoided for now. the latest from national journal's major garrett. and we'll have reports up next on msnbc. try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know. it's different. first, it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. the best part? it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as

in 1972 he ran for president against richard nixon and ended up losing in 70 land slide. >>> and republican presidential candidate herman he will make an announcement about his future campaign plans. he returned to atlanta to discuss the plans with his wife. the two have not talked face-to- face since a woman said she had a long-term affair with cain. >>> and penn state is standing by its decision to fire long- time coach joe paterno. they say it was in the best interest to fire him and the university president, coming after allegations that the men knew that coach sandusky sexually abused children on the school property. > and a company defending itself on accusations of smart wear key strokes, they monitor the strokes on the mobile phones but the company insists it doesn't record or restore private messages, they say the software in the phones is designed to help users with problems. the company faces two class action lawsuits claiming that the company violated federal wire tap laws. >>> and a new survey showing that distracted driving is a big concern for people on the road. the office of traffic safety says that 39%

in 1972 he ran for president against richard nixon and ended up losing in 70 land slide. >>> and republican presidential candidate hermansays he will make an announcement about his future campaign plans. he returned to atlanta to discuss the plans with his wife. the two have not talked face-to- face since a woman said she had a long-term affair with cain. >>> and penn state is standing by its decision to fire long- time coach joe paterno. they say it was in the best interest to fire him and the university president, coming after allegations that the men knew that coach sandusky sexually abused children on the school property. >>> and a company defending itself on accusations of smart wear key strokes, they monitor the strokes on the mobile phones but the company insists it doesn't record or restore private messages, they say the software in the phones is designed to help users with problems. the company faces two class action lawsuits claiming that the company violated federal wire tap laws. >>> and a new survey showing that distracted driving is a big concern for people on the road. the office of traffic safety says th

herman cain on october 3rd. michele bachmann visited october 13rd. mitt romney snuck in and out of without being on any cameras. on monday, newt gingrich will meet with donald trump. richard msnbc contributor. i get the feeling that trump decided to send this out, notify the media and then see what happens. >> i guess news max couldn't find ryan seacrest's schedule. the idea that the word "moderator" be in the same sentence as "donald trump" is ridiculous. if they want to project any serious presidential ambition, they'd say no. but they've already made their pilgrimage, kissed the ring of the birther in chief. if they want to project any serious presidential ambition, they'd say no. but they've already made their pilgrimage, kissed the ring of the birther in chief. >> next time i ask you a question, please don't hold back. tell us what you really think about this. >> i think it's a great idea for democracy, i do. >> joe, richard questions, you know, are they going to show up? let me tell you, jon huntsman will not be attending. his spokesman sent this e-mail, "huntsman declined the trump debate and we look forward to governor romney suck up to trump with a big bowl of po

richard nixon in 1972. >>> also, newt gingrich still rising in the polls. mitt romney trying to fight back. hermann -- what is herman cain doing? you know what? just look at what we've got in studio today. look at this. dear friends of our show for years now. this is the first time we've been able to actually get them to atlanta next to each other. republican mcallister and of course candidate strategist car doan. you all picked a he heck of a weekend to be here. we'll see them throughout the morning. i'm going to start with herman cain. is there any way in the world you can open a campaign headquarters and close it on the same day? is there any way he's really getting out? >> i say yes. >> today. >> i don't know if it's going be today, but think this is the beginning of the sunset. you can't open it up and close it within a week because how do you overcome this? i really felt that herman cain's goal was going to be number two. if you look at the early debates, you could see mitt romney was giving the olive branch to herman cain. how is he going to have the muster or direct them intentionally? i d

richard branson, virgin flying through the skies, flying to outer space. he comes out front. "anderson cooper 360" starts right now though. >>> erin, thanks. good evening, we begin keeping them honest. herman cain and ginger white, the woman who said she had a 13-year affair with him. both are speaking out. he's denying the fair. she's recalling details and saying he's not fit to be president. someone is not telling the truth. wherever the truth may be, however, herman cain is in full damage control mode and could drop out of the race. jim acosta caught up with the candidate in dayton, ohio. >> reporter: mr. cain? jim acosta. are you vowing to stay in this race? is that your message? >> we're reassessing, re-evaluating. >> reporter: you are staying in the race? >> we're re-evaluating and reassessing. >> reporter: how soon should we have an answer? >> we'll be making a decision in the next several days. >> reporter: late today, cain appeared on fox news. he routinely refuses to come on this program. we asked again today and his campaign said he was unavailable all week. somehow he did find time to sit down with fox. >> reporter: so i don't want to overbelabor this in you answering these que

when herman cain was beginning to dive and the huckabee forum, newt gingrich doesn't back off of anything like that. i wonder if there will be anybody joining donald trump. >> richard hatch. >> no. i think there are other panelists that their names are escaping me right now. >> wait a second, it's gary busesy. >> this may be true inside baseball a little bit. one of the things that people like newt gingrich, even if you don't agree with him, he comes out with a decision. he comes out right away and says that's ridiculous. that's silly or i'm in and who have we not heard from on this trump debate is mitt romney and a lot of people if they were going to criticize mitt romney would say that he hems and haws and sometimes goes both sides of the fence. have no idea if that is why he hasn't responded yet. it might be one of the reasons why they like it. >> nor do we know rick perry will be at the debate. somebody not invited is john huntsman. we'll play you two soundbites. the first one is mr. huntsman talking about how he thinks the trump debate is a bad idea but then you'll hear from donald trump himself saying not so fast, mr. huntsman! listen to this. >> i'm not goin