>> you got that right, sam.anks so much. >>> coming up next, jesse james breaks his silence in an abc news exclusive. woman: i just joined extracare advantage for diabetes at cvs/pharmacy. i'm taking the right steps to manage my diabetes and my budget. extracare advantage for diabetes is a new program that helps me save money and earn double bucks on over 100 items, so we can stay a step ahead of... all: our diabetes! join extracare advantage for diabetes today and receive a free gift when you enroll. only at cvs/pharmacy. i own a small law firm. and i'm a much better lawyer than i am an accountant. so, when i wasn't getting paid as quickly as i would like, i did what came naturally. i threatened to sue. turns out, that's not the best way to keep clients. so i went looking for answers online at openforum.com it's a place where i can talk with other small business owners like thomas and connie and learn about tools like acceptpay. it's a new way to bill online that can help me get paid much faster, without the ne

that's a great shot, sam. good morning to you. >> robin, we found the one coroner central park that is not completely covered by jonas brothers fans. let me just show you. take a second before we get to the weather, what it looks like at the stage there. the band has been out doing sound checks. anytime there's any movement, there is this huge, huge sound of screaming teenagers. there will be more of that this morning. here's what's going on. day 32 of the oil spill. we'll show you what it looks like in the last week. constantly shifting tides and changes, means the oil spill goes in a lot of other locations. now, in the marshes. and there's the tenderle that gets close to the loop current. the bigger deal will be wind gusts and hail. that hail will be bigger than about an inch, we think, in diameter in a lot of locations. it is gorgeous in new york city. there's another storm system. this is like march in the northwest. very windy and some rain. >>> and a very good morning, brian van de graaf hear the sunshin

thank you, sam.ood to have you back with us. >>> new, to the new information about the murder at the university of virginia. police say the lacrosse player accused of killing a member of the women's team, has admitted to the crime. ashleigh banfield is in charlottesville with the latest on the investigation. good morning, ashleigh. >> reporter: good morning, robin. this is a campus in shock, after court documents revealed chilling details. details of a night of terror of a young coed who was then attacked by a man who confessed to killing her. a family rushes past a throng of reporters. their son, george huguely, accused of murder in the beating death yardly love. >> she had a real kindness about her. she had very kind eyes. she just was a sweetheart. >> reporter: court documents reveal that george huguely, quote, kicked through the door that leads to love's bedroom. and during the course of the altercation, he shook love. and her head repeatedly hit the wall. police say she was found facedown in a p

he went on to say he did it for other reasons. >> always with the fairness, sam.e that. >>> let's talk about the pennsylvania senate race and congressman joe sestak's victory over arlen specter. widely considered to be one of the most effective ads in the election cycle. >> my change in party will allow me to be re-elected. >> he's been a republican politician. >> i can count on this man. he's a firm ally. >> but now -- >> my change in party will enable me to be re-elected. >> wow, let me ask you this. the republicans are trying to make hay against the alleged deal that the white house tried to make with sestak. is it a big deal? >> not a big deal. politics is a transactional business. they offered him a transaction, if they did. and i don't see a thing wrong with it. >> they're trying to make a big deal out of it. >> i don't care. it's a small thing. not since 1980 when four incumbent senators were defeated for nomination, did this happen. we have specter out. bennett is the third, and mccain's state is still in doubt, blanche lincoln. arlen specter, when he chan

what ways does sam colt represent your model as an innovateor? >> well, he, he brought a object which he had invented to the masses -- >> what was that. >> it was the repeating revolver. some people say that was a terrible invention. but without that revolver america would not have won the war with mexico. it would not have had california or new mexico or arizona or colorado. >> did he sell his firearms mostly to the military. >>y. >> is that where he made his money? >> yes, he did it but if you were a gold prospector going out to california you could protect yourself against indians or whatever. >> you getting back to farnsworth did he ever try to sue any of the companies that robbed him blind? >> yes, he did. >> did he have any luck? >> he did. he was protected by r.c.a.played the game so long that there was a time farnworth was manufacturing his own television cess the patent was rung out. >> here is my question to you: we hear a great deal today and you heard it at the republican conventions, you saw the reaction of the conventioneers to geor

sam ford has more on how contest and a lot of hard work made it come together. >> we are at 14th and , the crown plaza hotel, a high-school students dancing up at the prom, including four young people who won an essay contest and came here with their dates with rolling thunder. it was a group of people including the police, the shriners, and motorcycle clubs. we waited for the escort in southeast where the essay contest winner lives. we found a crowd. she and her date, also a contest winner, their siblings, mothers, friends. >> we will have fun at our prom. >> the party bus is coming. is exciting! >> the escort was a dozen motorcycles gathered in ballou high school parking lot. then they stop to gather the winners of the essay contest on why it is a board to have a father in the home. it was the idea of the ballou high school resource officer who wanted to make a special for the kids. >> year senior in the prom is one of the most exciting things in your life. >> by the time they rolled into southeast, the people were going wild. rolling thunder, the party bus. the next bout, a solemn

. >> and by: sam's club, committed to small business. and the spirit of the entrepreneur. and proud to support pbs's "to the contrary" with bonnie erbe. additional founding provided by: the colcom foundation the charles a. frueauff foundation and by the sanofi aventis foundation. >> this week on "to the contrary". sarah palin and frontier feminism: something new or same old same old; behind the headlines: latina entrepreneurs help build wealth in their communities and conquer the recession. >> hello, i'm bonnie erbe. welcome to "to the contrary," a discussion of news and social trends from diverse perspectives. up first: the women of the tea party. former alaska governor sarah palin claims that armed with "mama grizzlies" they will "take this country back" in the november midterm elections. palin says maternal activism is an "emerging, conservative, feminist identity" and it includes young mothers and grandmothers who are upset with federal spending, the government's handling of issues such as health care, immigration, and abortion rights. grounded in the tea party movemen

it's very cozy here at sam's today. luckily, i found another mattress i liked at sam's club. and confirmed the two were similar in every way. that is great. back at the register, my final price is just $493. that's a savings of over 400 bucks and 45% off the department store price. >> i went to a mom and pop shop to try to negotiate a good deal. can you do any price negotiations? >> no. we have different stuff, all different prices. but the prices are the prices. >> wrong. everything is negotiable. just keep pushing. >> you want $700, no tax, free delivery is what you're saying? >> your selling yourself a mattress right now. >> i'll ask the boss. >> okay. get the boss. okay. he agreed. and with no tax and free delivery, that's over $200 in savings, more than 20%. >> reporter: score that one for me. last up, a last-minute hotel room. i decided to try a new travelocity service called top secret hotels. come on, baby. i find a three-star room for $117 a night. the bentley hotel in new york, new york. the bentley is a hip boutique hotel in a nice neighborhood. rooms usually go fo

and freddie mac needs more help from uncle sam. late today, the mortgage finance company under government control said it needs another $10.5 billion in federal aid. the request came after freddie posted a $6.5 billion first quarter loss. the new request brings the total tab for rescuing freddie to over $61 billion. still ahead on the program, what's new for the world's number three beverage? one that's been around since 9000 b.c. we talk with molson coors c.e.o. peter swinburn. >> susie: financial reform continued working its way through the senate today: lawmakers voted to drop a controversial $50 billion fund that would have reimbursed taxpayers for the cost of any future big bank failures. the money in that fund would have come from the big banks themselves. republicans worried that money would become a permanent bailout fund. the obama administration was also opposed to the idea. so the fund is out of the senate bill, but k.b.w. washington analyst brian gardner says big banks will still be on the hook when the next financial c

and i'm going to name my computer "sam," and i'm going to say, "sam, get morley on the phone for me." this your cousin morley in toronto, or the morley safer in new york?" and i'm going to say "morley safer." and the next thing you know, i'm going to be talking to you. >> welcome to the c brkts s sports cup date presented by viagra. at the ht byron nelson championship today outside of dallas 22-year-old australia jason day earned his first career pga tour victory. at the french open venus williams cruised to the second round and in the nhl chicago beated san jose to advance to its first stanley cup final since 1992. more sports news and scores at cbssports.com this is jim nance, reporting. i've been thinking... no. you know how... no. so, doc, i've got this friend... [ male announcer ] talking to your doctor about erectile dysfunction isn't easy. actually, doc, there is something i want to talk to you about. [ male announcer ] but it's definitely a conversation worth having. twenty million men have had their viagra talk. when you're ready for yours, visit viagra.com for helpful conver

we have a report from special correspondent fred de sam lazaro.sion of this story aired on the pbs program "religion and ethics "newsweek"ly." >> reporter: for several months as many as two million cambodians tuned in to a weekly court drama on tv. >> hello and welcome to the 22nd program in our series "on trial." >> reporter: this is no fictional series. the genocide being described killed almost two million in the 1970s. however, most viewers know little about what is now distant history. two-thirds of today's cambodians weren't even born when the khmer rouge were in power. and few cambodians know much about the international tribunal that is trying a handful of prominent survivors of the khmer rouge regime for their role in the killings. the tv series is intended to change that. >> now we're going to see a selection of evidence given to the court about some of the crimes which with he has been charged. >> viewers should be aware that some but not all the stories told here were denied. >> reporter: the first to trial was comrade doik now in his

sam ford has the details. >> d.c.ents try to lobby against restrictions that would weaken the gun laws. they walked the halls of congress with the parents of recent murder victims trying to be heard. this took place after a rally at city hall. >> [inaudible] >> se d.c. residence at a rally name of a long list of friends killed by guns on d.c. streets. from the mayor, they expressed outrage over a gun bill. >> a campaign stunt. >> introduced by john mccain and the montana government -- montana democrat. changes include allowing concealed weapons in d.c. and repealing the ban on assault weapons. parents of victims of deadly shootings in march involving an ak-47 were also there. >> you cannot have a law like this pass. >> i don't think an ak-47 should be anywhere. we have seen what it has done. >> [inaudible] we can get an ak-47. >> the parents and opponents took their protest to capitol hill, first talking to eleanor holmes norton and trying to get hearings would senator mccain, no luck. they ran into the montana and li

[laughter] i give obama a great credit because i have no chris matthews 30 years sam barack obama is the first mayo to send a team go up his leg. [laughter] but in some ways the commanding heights may not be so commanding because you cite the case of dan mathers broadcasts and a great career kind of like the king midas prophesy it turned out it was not a career choice. you cite the case in the 2008 cycle we have happened since the other than the james okayed -- james o'keefe video from the acorn office this is ignored by "the new york post" ixempra, etc. that big government been public discussion to resulted among other things the director of the bureau of the census immediately that with the community outreach i think dr. gross is a well appointed professional to take action before the white house could tell him not to. [laughter] that is my suspicion. do we really want the commanding heights? >> one of the themes i did not want to hit too hard in the book because it would go on and on is the theme of the intellectual decline in this country. serving in the culture nine months engin

sam adams is less than 1% of the entire u.s. ] at samuel adams, we're in a perfect place as brewers. we're big enough to be able to get whatever ingredients from wherever in the world we need to get it from, and we're small enough to still want to do all that crazy stuff. and you can taste that passion in every glass. someone named terry says, "i need you right now"? you say what? oh. [ male announcer ] need a moment? now try twix java. made with coffee-flavored caramel and crunchy chocolate cookie. terry. my boss. oh! [ male announcer ] chew it over with twix java. you don't have to worry about this inside your dishwasher. that's because finish quantum has three chamber technology that releases agents to breakdown food residues so they wash away. leaving nothing behind but the shine. quantum. only from finish. the diamond standard. 3q a busy man kept to a busy schedule. [ male announcer ] this is steven, his day starts with his arthritis pain. that's breakfast with two pills. the morning is over. it's time for two more pills. t

will the weekend status sam? i will let you know in a detailed outlook just minutes away >>> the mothers of three american hikers jailed in iran are heading back to the united states this evening. but they're coming home empty handed. they would hope -- they hoped to get their children released. they expressed thanks to the iranian government for the meeting. >> we know our children need to come home, and we want them to come home. this humanitarian gesture we are grateful for. >> they have been held since last july, arrested after crossing the iraq-iran border. they say they crossed the border by accident. american forces released a couple of iranians in iraq. it is raising hope that the americans will soon be set free. >>> massachusetts police took a gun from a pilot that threatened to harm himself. he e-mail her threatening to kill himself in a spectacular fashion. the pilot was confronted by police at logan international airport and agreed to undergo a medical evaluation. the pilot never threatened in aircraf

us when we were sleeping. >> reporter: sam and handful of neighbors complained to the city of phoenix saying it was in violation of the noise ordinance. a local judge agreed. >> your right to live your life in peaceful tranquility in your home has been recognized by the supreme court for 200 years. >> i was convicted of two misdemeanors. >> reporter: bishop painter received a ten-day suspended jail sentence and was placed on three years' probation. that is until his church and several others sued the city. >> this is about the united states constitution. this is about freedom of speech and freedom of religion. >> reporter: that's how a federal judge recently saw it too issuing a permanent injunction which cleared pish open painter's criminal record and allows the church bells to toll once again. in an effort to try and be a good neighbor the church is in the process of relocating the speakers away from the neighborhood and adding foam to create a sound barrier until they resume the ringing. in phoenix, casey stegall, fox news. >>> the fox 5 storm force tracking wicked weather and this

is ofnarrow slice >> lyndon johnson was rapsidizing about how brilliant jack kennedy's cabinet was, sam ray burn, all the ivy league pedigrees, sam. >> suarez: burn said he wished somebody had run for sheriff. >> lehrer: david can speak for himself, but, mark, if you ever do run for sheriff , i will vote for you. >> thank you. >> lehrer: will you vote for him david? >> i'll think about it. >> lehrer: thank you both very much. >> lehrer: again, the major developments of the day: president obama vowed to end what he called the "cozy relationship" between regulators and the oil industry, as the u.s. government approved the wide-scale use of undersea chemical dispersants for the leak. and the standoff in the streets of bangkok, thailand, between thai troops and anti-government protesters left eight people dead and more than 100 wounded. >> brown: the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari. >> sreenivasan: find more from scientists about the size of the gulf oil spill. explore different scenarios on the oil tracker you saw on tonight's progr

what i meant by that, i was using sam malone in "cheers" the big show at that time where sam would activate discussion. that is what it does -- informs you but allows you to activate your social awareness and discussion points with family members and friends. >> what were the 13 years that you were at america online. >> 1993-2006. i have owned the washington capitals and the mystics, i own 44% of the verizon center right around the corner from here as well as the washington wizards. >> the mystics are -- >> the wnba basketball team. we have a good team. and they are now going to the playoffs. >> let me go to the discussion 30 years ago and get your reaction. >> there's the sensitiveness newspapers themselves bring to some of this. it is not going out of business. television did not go out of business with cable. but i will tell you that 10 years ago i sat in a conference where ted turner was on with cnn and there were broadcast executives saying this is not journalism. this is chicken noodle network. you're spending too much money. and time offered $5 million for it. and he did not do it. n

sam? >> thank you. >> don't worry, lester, despite that sour look on your face i'm going to get over here. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> yes it was. it's not now because you're smiling but everybody is looking. [laughter] >> the solicitor general was quote and i think back in '95 colin the confirmation proceedings hollow at substance less. i'm wondering what you like to see her by baltimore information during confirmation hearings? would you like to see her asked and we feel opinions about places that she'd stand out and -- in line with this opinion that she expressed, was it 15 years ago? >> well, sam, i would point you to answer that -- but answers that she gave last year during her own confirmation process to the solicitor general and -- in which she understood differently, from the perspective of a staffer, the perspective that a nominee can and must take during the confirmation process. so i would point you to what she said. april. >> robert, on kagan, how much did the issue of the age

-wow. [ man ] sam adams summer ale -- there's just something about it.s like, totally reminds you of summer, you know? >> bob: brilliant pitching on the part of both ball clubs today. francis and olsen both over 100 pitches and pitching in the 7th inning. >> olsen did a fantastic job today. 7-pitch stand off with stewart . smith will bat for olivo. 27 year-old outfielder and 2nd round draft choice back in '04. 2 and 0. changeup floats in there. top of the order, next gonzalez and spilborghs for the rockies and they have fowler and giambi on the bench. not even close there. coming into this game today the nationals struck out 217 batters this year and walked 147. >> i would like to see how many of those 147 scored. >> bob: yeah. >> you try to not give up any homeruns or make any solo. >> bob: guzman charged the ball well and a base hit by gonzalez and the rockies can push the lead run to 3rd base. >> gonzalez has been held to just one single today. spilborghs there. 2 men on and nobody out. four sacrifice bunts on the year. that ball is hit off the plate.

move into another school district, so she went to school with george and the first couple of years at sam houston and transferred over to james buoy which is where i was, but i am very fortunate and george is too, to have this long history of friendship with all us friends we had in midland. jan and joey that introduced us, many, many others, the women i hike with in the national parks every year, women that i've known since then. george is still -- we still see those same friends, and george office to temperature the story that the midland friends, the first time they came up and he took them to the oval office and they'd said, gosh, bush, i can't believe i'm here and then they would like at him. -- look at him. >> that's good. >> but the one thing about a lingual history of friendship like that, we've known these people, they've known us our whole lives. they were our friends long before politics, and they're still our friends and they're great emotional support really in those kind of friendships. >> praying an's mother was wanda. >> wanda, that's right. >> my mother's mother married t

her plane goes by the call sign "sam" for "special air mission."ght, leaving kabul, the windows were shaded to make sam less of a target. secure communications are wedged in. and across the aisle is the "burn bag" stuffed with national secrets, now reclassified trash. to see clinton today, selling obama's foreign policy... >> president barack obama: that is simply not true. >> pelley: ... you forget, two years ago, they were near each other's throats. >> clinton: i did not mention his name. >> obama: your husband did. >> clinton: well, i'm here, he's not. >> obama: i can't tell who i'm running against sometimes. >> clinton: we were campaigning hard against each other. i've lost track of how many debates we had where we stood within inches of each other and hammered each other. but that's a campaign. so, yes, i ran hard against him, he ran hard against me. he won, i lost. and then, he asked me to work with him on behalf of our country. >> pelley: and you've repaired all of that? >> clinton: oh, of course. yes. and i mean we... we have a great relati

sam stein, go ahead. >> we need to look at the broader picture here.e things overseas that have crippled al qaeda's recruiting efforts. the fact they're turning to practitioners who are probably not the best -- i say this without expertise, but the fact they're turning to practitioners who are is a success story. and we are lucky in some respects the bomb diplomat go off in this man's underwear or in times square. but the fact of the matter is, you are going to have to live or we are going to have to learn to live with an element of terrorism in our lives. this will happen under the obama administration. >> michael graham, can you tell our audience tonight that you have never smoked pot, because i can. >> sadly, i have never smoked pot. >> well, you ought to be behind bars. you are a law-breaking son of a gun. >> when i was a kid, i was in the garage one time, i snorted some midol. >> good to have you with us tonight. >> coming up, florida is on red alert. a current is sending oil from the gulf towards the keys, locals are saying that this would be an

we actually just blocks from each other but he went to sam houston. lived in the same apartment complex in houston without ever really running into each other. it really was like we had known each other whole lives. and we knew all the same people. but there weren't any surprises really. from either one of those. >> ever? >> there wasn't something in our background that the other didn't know about. [laughter] >> among the things that might be a surprise, the minute you got home from getting married he was running for congress. >> that is right. that was really fun. it was very fun. he was running for congress in bush's seat, the congressman i had interviewed with. [applause] >> he had taught us all where to sit on the subway at the capitol and not to get your hair blonde. [laughter] but anyway, he was retiring in 1978, so george thought, what the heck, why not try to run for it? it was a seed that it only been held by congressman bush for as long as the district had been a district. so that is what he did and we traveled up and down the panhandle of t

. >> and don't forget tomorrow on "good morning america," sam champion is going to take a scuba dive gulf to see more of what is happening there beneath the ocean. hope you have a wonderful ooeching and we see you again tomorrow night. ♪ [ male announcer ] progress. progress for new york city cab drivers, like ossman ali is being able to carry people, who aren't carrying cash. meaning more convenience for passengers, and more business for cab drivers. all thanks to the ease and freedom of visa digital currency. now that's progress. visa. currency of progress.

. >>> they are supposed to be a great place for your baby but now uncle sam wants to ban drop side cribs>>> plus teens learn how they do it csi style. this latest way to put a little misty back into school. >> clouds and a few shower this is morning. now replaced foggy conditions as we go through the overnight. the forecast coming right back. gas is very expensive, and just when you think the gas prices are going down, they go back up again. we know saving money is important. this summer, shop with your giant card and save on shell fuel. earn one point for every dollar you spend. every 100 points earned gets you another 10 cents off per gallon. the more you spend, the more you save. i'm saving money at the store, i'm saving money at the pump, and that works for me. more savings every time you shop, only with your giant card. . >>> for generations drop side cribs have been a fixture. parents use them and then pass them down to family and friends. now the government said this baby furniture is very dangerous. abc's david kurly has more. >> the consumer product safety commission plans to ha

. >> and don't forget tomorrow on "good morning america," sam champion is going to take a scuba dive gulf to see more of what is happening there beneath the ocean. hope you have a wonderful ooeching and we see you again tomorrow night. captioned by closed captioning services, inc. this is "jeopardy!" please welcome today's contestants--

and our coverage from the gulf coast continues on "good morning america" with sam champion and diane sawyer reporting live and diane will have more in-depth reporting tonight on "world news." >>> the white house says south korea can count on full support from the u.s. in demanding an apology for its worst military disaster since the korean war. the south wants north korea to be accountable for a torpedo attack on a naval ship that killed 46 sailors. the u.s. is also warning the north to stop its "belligerent and threatening behavior against the south." >>> kicking off two days of economic talks hillary clinton urged china to step up the pressure on north korea that as air main ally they have stayed neutral on the attack. >>> they are joining the search for answers after a deadly air india crash in mangalore. they'll be able to get vital clues now that the black boxes have been recovered from the wreckage. the boeing 737 overshot the runway saturday and plunged over a cliff killing 158 people. only eight survived. many of them by jumping from the wreckage just before it burst into fla

uncle sam owns more than 60% of the automaker thanks to the bailout under the tarp plan. lazard is being paid half a million dollars a month to weigh in on planning for an initial public offering. >> tom: it was a wicked week for >> tom: it was a wicked week for american stocks investors with the major indices ending lower for the third time in the past four weeks. after some slim gains on monday, the dow dropped tuesday and wednesday before the big drop on thursday. thanks to the buying today, for the week, the dow was off 4%. it was a similar pattern for the nasdaq, only more so. on the week, the nasdaq dropped 5%. and the s&p 500 fell 4.2% this week. early friday, the index briefly dropped below the lows seen during the flash crash two weeks ago. it has been a rough four weeks for stock investors with the s%p 500 down more than 10.6% since its high on april 23rd. a few of some of the biggest stock mutual funds have done slightly worse. the biggest stock fund out there, american funds growth fund dropped a little more than 12% from the high. vanguard's total stock marke

the "forbes" flipside says uncle sam should force all americans to take it now.king this argument? >> it doesn't like i'm a civil libertarian here, does it? if you take money from the government, if you are going to get free healthcare, you ought to be able, you ought to throw in your d.n.a. into the data base that will help bring efficiencies and improvements. if you have a pre disposition for diabetes, find out now, because that's a really expensive disease to treat once you've got it. >> david: dr. kumar, what do you think? >> i couldn't disagree with more with his view point. the reality is jennette rick testing is a very, very complex issue. we need to take this carefully underneath guidance of geneticist and doctor who can interpret the result. >> david: don't go to drugstore for a test. >> right. once you test for genetic disorders is one thing, but testing for chronic diseases, diabetes, glaucoma and obesity, then you have to deal with environmental and genetic factors. you could still be preexposed due to the lifestyle and that could be a bigger issue. >

. >> reporter: that is part of what kept sam waterson around for 17 seasons. >> that's exactly what antainment show with a brain ought to be doing. >> reporter: and "law & order" did. in its own basic style. >> you think i killed my son? >> reporter: for 20 seasons. >> looks like he was a business major. >> reporter: television as we know it changed. i don't think any television though after us will reach this milestone. >> reporter: the end of an era in more ways than one. mark barger, nbc news. ♪ >> because the cancellation of "law & order" came as a surprise to the writers, folks at nbc say it's possible that there could be an official sendoff episode or even a movie. >> they can always come up with one more, can't they? the reunion show. that's right. >>> so we got some changes coming our way? gray and gloomy most of the day to day. >> exactly. we're going to get rid of the gray and gloom. certainly a little bit of fog for tomorrow morning will wipe that out of the way. we were talking about sunscreen earlier. this memorial day weekend, a lot of us will make our first sunscreen lot

sam waterston as prosecutor jack mccoy said "law & order" succeeded where other crime shows failed. >g to the newspapers was in an exhaustible source of stories. >> reporter: the original "ripped from the headline" show and its spin-offs became a $1 billion juggernaut and an endless casting call that in two decades handed out nearly 6,000 speaking parts and more than twice as many shots as extras. >> we'd like to help, but you have to help too. >> they're uniformed policemen, there are the ladies on the street corner, there are nurses, there are doctors. there's every conceivable kind of new yorker. >> reporter: some in featured roles were already famous, like julia roberts. but for most, "l&o" was an early stepping stone. samuel jackson, cynthia nixon, veteran new york film and television actor john korks was a defense attorney in the first of three "l&o" roles. >> there's an order to l"law & order" and you sensed that. >> reporter: new york city itself became a familiar character. even these courthouse steps became a touchstone for fans. it's where mccoy would scowl after a tough da

. >> but it did happen to ralph eason sam. >> my pediatrician was worried, and he also discussed that this is a problem he started seeing in the city. >> into the panic steps the centers for disease control which put out a report in just 12 days saying it found no evidence that anyone had higher blood lead levels. >> in all places, the nation's capitol, there was lead in the water. >> at a congressional hearing thursday morning investigators reported the finding was "scientifically indefensible, in part because all the people the cdc looked at were drinking battled water. mark edwards, a father, genius grant winner and civil engineering professor at virginia tech is furious. >> the harm that's done can never be undone, and that's the real tragedy here. >> reporter: the city dug up thousands of lead pips and replaced them only to figure out later that that actually made the problem worse. experts finally tweaked the chemistry of the water going into the pipes and officials say that seems to have largely solved the problem. >> but all the monitoring we're doing is he showing the numbers