y'll even get membership rewards pois wiach purchase... and peace of mind when you travel. can your card say that? to start losing essential nutrients? not long. in fact, green beans lose half their vitamin c in a week. that's why green giant freezes them within 8 hours to lock in nutrients. ho ho ho green giant with annuities from fidelity. turn your savings into income -- guaranteed, and get a retirement "paycheck" for life -- guaranteed. call... to get started, and learn how to secure retirement income that won't go down -- guaranteed. call fidelity at... for details about guaranteed income for life, and change the way you think about your retirement savings. good morning, everyone. i'm tamron hall. right now on msnbc, terrifying accounts of just what happened when an american airlines jet skidded off a jamaican runway and broke into pieces. federal aviation officials and american airlines represe representatives are on their way as we speak to jamaica this hour. and will it be jail time? it's decision day for the parents who pulled off or tried to pull off the now infamous balloon boy hoax and right now they are in court awaiting their sentencing. we'll bring it to you. and, could it be another potential setback for health care reform? just as democrats push full steam ahead for tomorrow's christmas eve vote, top lawyers in at least seven states are now questioning the legality of the sweetheart deal offered to senator ben nelson's home state. and as we just said, we are right now waiting to hear if that colorado couple behind the balloon hoax could be in jail or land in jail. richard heene could face up to 90 days behind bars and his wife 60 days. his client will beg the judge to send him to jail and not his wife. nbc's leanne gregg is in denver with the very latest outside the courtroom. so this is certainly a big day. this family, both of them, could end up in jail. what are people saying there? >> reporter: well, people are saying, tamron, most likely richard will serve some time in jail according to his attorney, and that mayumi will probably have probation. they both pled guilty last month, richard of a felony, mayumi was a misdemeanor and said they did make up the story about their 6-year-old boy flying away in a balloon. also at issue is the money, the cost of the search, the sheriff's department sent the heenes a bill for more than $42,000 to pay for all of those searches, the helicopter, the overtime for law enforcement and the extra people who came in from neighboring communities. now the lead investigator for the sheriff's department says also he wants the judge to not allow the heenes to profit off of their story in a future book deal or tv deal of any kind. their attorney said that would be a violation of first amendment rights. he was quoted as saying or son wells didn't have to go to jail and was not penalized for "war of the worlds." more to come, set to get under way any minute from now. tamron? >> what is the attorney saying about the fine is this $42,000, they're saying that's what it cost the state to follow that balloon on the escapade. >> reporter: right. he says they're not paying a penny of it until they can see the receipts to legitimize that is, in fact, the cost of the search. >> interesting. well, we'll bring our audience the verdict as soon as we have sev sentencing for the heene family. thank you very much, leanne. and right now a big mess for amtrak passengers here in new york city. amtrak says power problems have halted trains coming in and out of penn station. the rail line does not know what caused the problem now plaguing the northeast corridor and the new jersey coastline. the planes have enough electricity to power the lights and heat but not the engines and new clashes today in iran following the weekend death of that country's most senior dissident leader. police reportedly fired off tear gas and beat protesters as they gathered for another memorial south of tehran. northern arizona's digging out after a snowstorm dumped up to eight inches on flagstaff area. eight people were hurt after this 20-car pileup and a dust storm turned deadly in phoenix, arizona. this is amazing. traffic was at a standstill due to poor visibility and at least four people were killed in car accidents. teresa heinz kerry says she is battling breast cancer. the wife of massachusetts senator john kerry says she's being treated for cancer discovered through a mammogram. the 71-year-old argues that younger women should continue getting mammograms despite those recommendations from a federal panel that was very debated early in the year. now to capitol hill where less than 24 hours from thousand the senate is expected to cast a final health care vote. that's right. at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow just in time for christmas senators are expected to cast the 60 votes needed to pass the ten-year measure. now the passage would clear the way for negotiations to resolve the differences with the bill already passed in the house. kelly o'donnell is live on the hill. and that is not a passing moment here regarding the house and the senate. there are some very key differences we're talking about, kelly. >> reporter: they are huge differences and that will give us a lot to talk about in january. this is like covering the season. they're getting to the postseason championships now, winning the conference today if they can, in fact, get through that big vote tomorrow. what are some of the differences? they are big, philosophical differences. they voted to have a government-run insurance plan that would be alongside private insurers to compete and they would require in both plans everyone would have to buy insurance. now on the is that the side, want that government run plan but still favor a new system of putting together a series of choices a lot like when federal employees have for their health insurance. we see differences in how to pay for it. the millionaire's tax, increasing the tax on income above $500,000 or individuals. $1 million for couples. and the senate side different ways to pay for it. we talked about the tanning tax. you pay an extra 10% but the bigger number, the more controversial one, is a proposed 40% excise tax on health plans more valuable, those that cost more than $8,500 a year. so big differences. also some difference on abortion but many people say that issue and taxes will be the real struggle. there's a stronger sense the public option probably would not survive the conference process because we saw how it went over here on the senate side, tamron. >> and kelly, we'll talk about this in the hour. the deal given to senator ben nelson under scrutiny, some are questioning the legality of it, whether or not it is unk unconstitutional. what's the latest from senator nelson on the sweetheart deal after lifetime for him? >> reporter: well, senator ben nelson, a democrat able to be the 60th vote after he was able to secure language he liked on the issue of abortion and as you mentioned some, as critics called them, sweetheart deals for his home state where medicaid coverage for people in nebraska would be paid for by the federal government. nelson went to the floor of the senate, said that he defended this and that the governor of nebraska really was behind this and pushing for it and that other states have some similar protections. what you're hearing from republicans who don't have the votes, they are focusing on these so-called sweetheart deals that a number of senators on the democratic side were able to work out and one of the arguments they're making is that there is not equal protection under the law, meaning that any citizen living anywhere should have the same opportunities. that's one of the challenges they're going to make. tamron? >> thank you very much, kelly o'donnell. parker griffith switched to the republican party. it may come as a shock to democrats but apparently not a big surprise to conservatives in the house. political sources within the gop said griffith made his intentions known weeks before he made it official with house minority leader john boehner. he also had inside information. reports say he caught wind of a possible switch in the fall. republican leaders stress that no deals were made to bring griffith to the other side of the aisle. developing right now david goldman is one step closer to bringing his son sean back home to new jersey. we have learned the brazilian family caring for sean will not appeal a supreme court decision yesterday that ruled in favor of david goldman. it now seems that mr. goldman's five-year international custody battle is coming to an end. nbc's jeff ross ep is in rio de janeiro where he's been watching this and speaking with david goldman. jeff, what's the latest? >> reporter: yeah, you mentioned the very latest is a very big development because even with this ruling yesterday there were still those questions will there be another appeal, will the family go after another last-minute emergency injunction and now, as you mentioned, i spoke with a brazilian family's attorney just a short time ago and he confirmed for nbc news the family will not appeal this position. they are working on logistics of a smooth transition to david goldman and a peaceful, in his words, handover to david goldman, the father so they can return to the u.s. it's unclear when that could happen t. could be this afternoon t. could be tonight. it could be tonight. it could be tomorrow. we understand the brazilian family's attorney will hold a news conference later this afternoon to perhaps announce what they're thinking about but there's certainly a lot of behind-the-scenes wrangling to figure out how to do it. >> and i can't imagine, jeff, what david goldman is feeling right now, five years waiting for this moment to happen and now he has to wait at least it seems for a few more hours a day. >> reporter: and it still seems unreal to him. he's always said from the very, very beginning until he's with me, it doesn't matter how many rulings, how many news conferences from the other side, that they won't appeal. until he has his son on american soil it's not over. the impression i get, and i have not spoken with him today, he's been holed up in his room, is that he's being very calm. he is not jumping up and down in victory yet. >> does he have like a charter arranged as soon as they hand over sean to get out of there? what is his plan to immediately leave there? >> reporter: those details are still completely unclear. >> thank you very much, jeff rossen. officials on their way kingston, jamaica. 150 people were onboard as that plane landed in heavy rain. it skidded and bounced across the runway before coming to a stop. but get this, the stop was just ten feet from the caribbean sea. dozens were rushed to the hospital. fortunately no one died in this. and here is how one passenger is describing that landing. >> there was smoke and debris everywhe everywhere. we were in the back. they were able to open up the back exit and people started to clamor for the exit. >> tracy wilkins from wrc in washington is at reagan national airport where the flight originated. tracy, the flight left there, went on to miami and then to kingston. what do we know? investigators are on their way but what are the accounts from people on the plane? >> reporter: well, people are talking about just how amazing this accident was, that it was like being in a car check and then hearing that plane tear apart and then all of the darkness and the fact that they weren't expecting it to happen because the last thing they heard before this crash happened was we had a little bit of turbulence but we should be fine with this landing. so no one knew that this was coming and so it was even more of a surprise and of course a complete shock to folks who were on this plane. a very uncomfortable situation for them and also an uncomfortable situation for folks who were heading here to reagan national airport this morning for their flights and hearing on the radio that there had been this kind of accident and they were coming to fly out of the airport where this plane originated. now we have some flights going to miami and then on to jamaica. we had one at 6:00 a.m. and another flight happening this afternoon. you can see from the pictures just how devastating this crash was. passengers say there was a severe problem throughout the flight with turbulence and they also said that at one point beverage service actually had to end. that's how bad it was. some of the crew members had to take their seats and belt up because the plane was just that bad. now from what we understand the best news, of course, of all of this is that there were no serious injuries to people admitted to the hospital but no one was killed in the accident. some folks are calling that a miracle. now we know that there was a lot of bad weather that contributed to this. that has been explained. what has not been explained is what else could have possibly cause this had plane to overshoot the runway the way it did. one passenger described what it was like on that plane. >> we just felt a big crash on the window, a big impact and realized the plane had crashed. we scrambled out. we tried to get out as quickly as possible. >> reporter: now because this happened on foreign soil, the way these things go, is that whoever leads investigations into airplane accidents and that specific area will handle the investigation. in this case the jamaican civil aviation authority will be leading this investigation. but they will have some help from american investigators as well. six ntsb representatives will be assisting. in fact, they left here from reagan national airport just a little while ago. one federal aviation administration representative will be there as well among other american investigators, all looking into what happened with this incident trying to figure out why this accident happened. tracy which will kips live at reagan national airport. back to you. >> thank you, tracy. coming up, the latest on those widespread glitches crippling blackberry users on this side of the atlantic. plus another major recall with the swine flu vaccine. why federal health officials say the nasal injection may not be enough protection. and we are live at the north pole where final preps are under way for santa's big day. get a , or award-winning cc for practically just your signature. and volkswagen even covers scheduled maintenance at no cost. it can't be that easy. 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[ female announcer ] ask an expert at your pet store which formula is best for your dog. ♪ ♪ (announcer) we're opening more lanes than ever, to make christmas shopping easier. and with unbeatable prices, christmas costs less at walmart, save money. live better. blackberry users are slowly getting all that backlog e-mail after a massive system outage for the second time in one week blackberry service suffered widespread delays in its message service. the problem affected people throughout the u.s. and also in south america. and citigroup is denying again today that it suffered a massive cyber attack that cost the bank giant tens of millions of dollars. now that's in response to some exclusive reporting in yesterday's "wall street journal" that claimed that the fbi was investigating a breach of security. citigroup denies the report and tried to reassure clients that their funds are indeed safe. and that bonus cash that aig afwred to give back to the federal government, well, it's the end of the year and more than half of that money still not returned. "the washington post" reports that aig has not kept its word to return millions in bonus money. taxpayers bailed out aig for $180 billion and then aig decided to give employees $165 million of it in bonuses and that cause add huge public outrage and the company actually promised to give back $45 million. to date, according to the report, $19 million has been returned. and tomorrow night we have a special one-hour report to tell you about. msnbc is airing a documentary called "american story" and it highlights the extraordinary lives of ordinary americans. take a look at part of this special from nbc's bob dotson. >> reporter: enjoying an active retirement but one day he got a call. from a couple of longtime employees, debbie and majerle otto. >> they needed some help. they needed a place to work. >> reporter: why was their problem your problem? >> when someone gives me 20, 30 years of their life, i feel i owe them something other than just to say, oh, nice to talk to you. good-bye. >> reporter: he didn't just give them back their jobs. he's teaching them how to run the business. in a few years when he retires again, he will give it to them. >> wow, and with me now bob dotson, the author of "make it memorable." that is one of the stories. this is the story of all of us. >> that's right. this is not an hour of do good. this is the story about the people who are too busy coming up with solutions in this country to any kind of problem we might have and they're really the engine that push this country forward like, for instance, who cares if there's any indians on the oregon trail. we're going to get in the wagon and get there. to see someone like bud retired with a lot of money from a candy company and relied he had valued employees now out of work and so he came back and opened up a smaller business not just to give them a place to work but to teach them how to run the business so when he retires again they have a livelihood. >> were you amazed -- again, we live in this world now where the story is whether the balloon's family will get sentenced or not and some of the other things happening in tiger woods' life. this kind of reporting we miss. it used to be this is a part of what we would show our viewers and now they get to see an hour long of this. >> the one thing people really have a shortage of these days, they have all the news in the world washing over them constantly. it's perspective. where are we from? where are we going? who is going to get us there? that sort of thing. and this hour is filled with those kinds of folks like, for instance a little town you're seeing pictures of now in montana. 900 people. all the other towns in their county are ghost towns. it's a great trip if you want to go on vacation. i ask the question, why is this town still existent? no matter what problems they have, say the cattle industry was down, the coal mining people would come along and help people. they have an opera they put on every month in a town of 900 people. they have a hospital that they raise mopey for. not original hospital, their hospital. a superintendent of schools out there who has cancer and he went out and he was fishing this summer. he came back. the entire town put up a tent over main street and provided the money for him to actually go and have all the operations and now at christmas he is cap certificate free. >> amazing. well, there are many, many stories to share and we want everyone to get a chance. this is something you can gather the family around and where i think watch this. it premieres tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern only on msnbc. i'm going to be glued to my set watching it. thank you very much. thank you for coming by. americans getting some much due recognition. what about man's best friend? pawnation.com topped their top pooch. what is it? who do you think the top pooch is? >> the top pooch, datsun. >> no. it's snoopy. it's snoopy. he's a beagle. the comic canine beat out other beloved tail waggers including texas a&m mascot and also scooby doo and eddie from "frazier." tough competition. "the peanuts" pooch a winner at a special exhibit in new york city. the exhibit is open now through the end of april so, there, the top dog is not the datsun, snoopy the beagle. >> it does rhyme with my name. >> trying to get the vote in on that. snoopy rules. time for your business small business advise. here are some tips on generating repeat business. create a loyalty program and reward frequent customers with discounts or special sales. keep in touch. follow up with people after the point of sale. and offer incentives to customers who refer your business to their friends. well-informed people are considering chevy malibu. are you a cop? no. you didn't hear it from me, but this malibu, it offers better highway mileage than a comparable camry or accord. estimated 33 highway. i saw that on the epa site. so how come the malibu costs so little. it's a chevy. you have cop hair. now during the chevy red tag event, get an '09 malibu with o percent apr for 72 months. see red and save green. now at your local chevy dealer. get an '09 malibu with o percent apr for 72 months. - kids: cup-cakes! cup-cakes! cup-ccup-cakes!-cakes! - come on. cup-- re-do! re-do! 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( cheering ) announcer: relax. pam helps you pull it off. well, it is beginning to look a lot like christmas on the international space station as well. the soyuz spacecraft docked yesterday and three new crew members came in with elf seed and santa hats. they were carrying an american, russian and a japanese astronaut. christmas is just two days away and santa claus is checking that list figuring out exactly who was naughty and who was really nice. will rudolph and his crew be ready to go? they've got to be ready. bob is at the north pole in alaska. how is it going? >> reporter: good morning to you, tamron. just freezing my tail off with rudolph here outside santa's house in north pole, alaska. is a at that a santa and the elves are inside the workshop getting ready. one thing we did notice that is different this year, he's spending a lot more time in front of the computer trying to get into the 21st century, if you will, with technology. we caught him posting to facebook where he has a million friends on there sending tweets out on twitter and that sort of thing so that's something we've noticed there's been a lot of changes with. >> well, that's interesting. sap at that h santa has gone high tech so he can get our gifts here even faster? >> reporter: absolutely. with the sleigh, it's aerodynamically curved with this plywood technology to cut through the air. >> let's hope he doesn't replace the reindeer with anything robotic. we like the real thing there. and i have to ask you about the temperature. i saw you earlier this morning and there wasn't smoke or whatever coming from your mouth but now it seems you're a bit colder than a few hours ago. >> reporter: in spite of that it's probably dipped a couple degrees but has been unusually warm this season. in years past it's been 20, 30, 40 below and now we're hovering around zero. only 3:40 of sun light each day. not suntan weather. >> you look good without a tan. thank you very much, bob. thank you. >> reporter: yeah, right. thanks, tamron. merry christmas. a christmas traditional children's national medical center. first lady michelle obama and first daughters malia and sasha and their dog made a visit to spread a little holiday cheer. the first lady read "'twas the night before christmas" and the girls were asked what they got their dad. >> we got him sports stuff -- well, i got him sports stuff. >> we got him -- >> don't say it. >> i'm not. it's something he likes. >> okay. >> well, there you go. got to get him something he likes, that's key. i don't know. you know, volkswagen takes care of the scheduled maintenance at no cost. and during the sign then drive event, you can get a cc, jetta, or top safety-rated tiguan for practically just your signature. it's that easy. i can't believe it. 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[ male announcer ] smartphones, plans, and no annoying mail-in rebates. the best gifts come from best buy. welcome back. more now of that american airlines flight from miami that had a nightmare crash landing in jamaica. 150 people were onboard the plane. they were picked up off the beach after the plane skidded and bounced off the runway in kingston. it ended up just ten feet from the caribbean sea and many of the passengers according to reports suffered broken bones. here's what one passenger had to say after the crash. >> then the lights went out and we just buckled and bumped and falling out of the overhead baggage starting to fall and literally it was like being in a car accident. people were screaming. i was screaming, covering my face and hands and next thing you know we were at a standstill. >> author and retired american airlines tom casey. looking at the picture of the aircraft, you see it's broken in two pieces. that was designed to happen at least with the engines, right? >> the engines were designed to break away. that's a particularly interesting runway. norman manly field in kingston -- >> i've been there. >> i have, too, many times. the runway runs along the sea and it's rather rough on the side overrun. i'm sure that's what happened, they began to bounce around. >> how do they start putting together this investigation? several from the ntsb are heading there to jamaica but looking at it you have reports of passengers saying it was very turbulent. they stopped the food service and drink service carts because of the turbulence there and then it just wept from bad to worse. >> first people have to realize we can't jump to conclusions. >> we know it got worse. >> it got worse rapidly. it's not uncommon flying over the mountains. it's a mountainous area just west of wing ston. to fly over the mountains, thunderstorms there almost all the time so turbulence en route to kingston is not unusual now whatever the weather conditions were on the field at the time they made the approach, other planes had made successful landings. that goes into the captain's calcul calculus, the circumstances he's likely to confront when his turn to touch down happens. what happens down there, though, torrential rain can fall and make puddles on the runway. it could be hydroplaning incident. i don't want to speculate but this is what i've seen down there in my career. so things can happen very rapidly. the good things that happened -- there were no fatalities. >> which is amazing. you are the expert, but when you see the picture, you're thankful but in some ways knowing it was ten feet from the caribbean sea but even just the panic alone would have sent some people into crisis. >> sure. to have a successful evacuation under the circumstances of a surprise mishap is remarkable. you'll probably find the cab increw has a lot to do with it. i saw a captain aiding one of of the passengers. >> since you are familiar with the airport, tell us a little bit more about how the design helped the aircraft from perhaps going into the sea ten feet away. >> well, it's hard to say. you're going to land on the side of the runway. whatever caused them to slide, put them in some peril of going into the water, often the side -- >> there looked like there was some kind of a slope. >> yeah, but it ended up in the best possible circumstance for the worst possible event and we could just be happy that it had this outcome. it quite easily might not have had that good outcome. >> that is so true and we've seen it so many times. captain tom casey, thank you so much. we'll have more on the investigation into exactly what happened there. and travel troubles from this past weekend's winter storm are making it on twitter. this is the picture of the delta terminal at jfk monday. the twitterer described it as being, quote, a nut house. port authority police were called in when a group of delta customers whose flight heading to haiti was canceled and they could not get on standby. no one was hurt or arrested but a clear sign that some travelers have not escaped the turbulence caused by the storminess. and just in time for christmas, a major winter storm is plowing through the west and midwest creating long delays and making it really tough for people to drive even. time for the holidays, well, hopefully they'll make it. the storm is expected to dump a foot of snow in utah and move into the east, into the plains states through christmas day. nearly 5 million doses of the swine flu vaccine are being recalled because of the nasal spray losing strength over time. the vaccine recall is the second, by the way, this month. a woman accused of telling the secret service she would, quote, blow away michelle obama appeared in federal court tuesday in hawaii. she was arrested sunday less than two miles from the home where the obama family's planning to stay for their holiday visit later this week. president obama says the massive bailout of the fpgs industry is the most important achievement of his first year in office. but right now the president's focus certainly is on health care. he's delayed his trip to hawaii and is waiting in washington for the senate's vote on the health care reform bill expected tomorrow morning. nbc's brian mooar is at the white house. so as the white house waits, certainly they hear the criticism, brian, including the deal offered to senator nelson to perhaps forward this faster. what's been the reaction thus far? >> reporter: well, at this point, tamron, it's essentially a done deal. the senate will vote tomorrow. it looks like it will pass without any problem but then the real fun begins that the house and senate will work out a compromise bill that everyone here in washington can at least vote on if not agree on but the question is when exactly will that happen? this is going to, of course, take place right as the senate's about to go on its christmas break. the house will come back on january 12th but then they're going to go -- democrats will go on a retreat. the senate won't come back until january 18th so a kind of long process. at this point the white house is not expecting the bill to get to the president's desk until after his state of the union address and we're talking about the last week of january or first week of february. tamron? >> brian, thank you very much, a live report from the white house. to some breaking news happening in new york at penn station. our own nbc's peter alexander is on the scene where amtrak says a power problem has kept trains from moving in and out of new york city. this is file video. we're working to get some video of exactly the scene there now. peter, update us. >> reporter: amtrak, we will try to describe the scene to you. tamron, we are standing right beneath the departure sign. the next 15 items going to pittsburgh, miami, boston, washington, albany, dover, all of them either delayed or canceled right now. a good 1,500 to 2,000 people now parked here, staring up at a sign that hasn't been moving. the trains are temporarily suspended but the challenge for the folks we've spoken to is exactly what they're supposed to do now when they call amtrak they get a recording that says their trains should be on time which is obviously not the case. they get online and they're finding that the trains should be ontime which isn't happening as well. had a chance to visit with doug fuller here with his grandkids, connor and preston, trying to get to washington, d.c. they've been waiting for the last hour and a half. account best information we're learning right now is an alterp tiff route is to take the path train, people in the new york area will be familiar with to help you get to new jersey. if you're trying to take new jersey transit or amtrak now, that's where you're facing the biggest challenge. right now the delays started early this morning while amtrak says the trains should be moving again here, essentially is at a sta standstill for those of people trying to get to their holiday destination. >> i can't imagine what the scene is like there. what are some of the passengers saying to you? >> reporter: a lot of these passengers don't even speak english as their first language. there are so many tourists coming to new york city this time of year. i visited with folks from scotland and france. the folks from scotland speak english just fine. i tried to translate in french. the woman is sitting with two kids on the ground just playing little video games as they try to occupy their time. i think there's just a lot of frustration mostly because there's very little communication. if you've been to amtrak or any one of these train stations or an airport you know the mess amgs is often inaudible and that's the best information they're getting. we tried to speak to employees here, the people here are mostly frustrated because when they do get their turn, they talk to an employee, that employee has very little to tell them. >> that is tracrazy. frustration is a universal language. even if you don't speak frep of, you can probably see it in the faces of those passengers. we'll give the audience any more news as it develops there. at least seven state prosecutors are looking into how that deal was brokered and specifically prosecutors are probing whether a political deal that gave nebraska a free pass is unconstitutional. ben nelson was the key person democrats needed to get their 60th vote on the bill. a reporting with "roll call" quite honestly the criticism has been coming from the right but you have people on the so-called left as well wondering if this deal was on the up and up. how is senator nelson defending it at this point? >> senator nelson took to the senate floor yesterday in trying to explain in his words this wasn't a special deal for nebraska. it was a special deal for all states that it set the table for every state in the union to come to washington and explain it. it could not afford to pay for the medicaid expansion and wanted to take advantage of the deal. i don't think his explanation is holding water and even if you support the deal, even if you support the compromise, i think it's clear this was a special deal made for nebraska and, in fact, there were special deals made for a number much of other states where senators held out for various reasons philosophical and practical and able to extract certain things and get them into the bill and then later they moved on to support the bill. it's difficult for senator nelson. he comes from an overwhelmingly republican state. this is putting him in a difficult box. >> it's interesting, david, now we're talking about you've got prosecutors who want to know if this was even constitutional. our own investigative reporter lisa myers was digging into the deals and as you report these things happen but many are classifying the deal as in a category of its own. what about the argument of its not being constitutional? >> i don't think that will hold water. what's extraordinary about the nelson deal, it's getting so much attention. normally these things are just brushed under the rug. the public isn't much interested in them. because health care has gotten so much attention, because people are so interested in how the bill is coming together, nelson is victimized by the publicity. the truth is if this is unconstitutional, take half the legislation passed and will be passed and throw it out the window. there is nothing wrong with making deals for a particular state to compromise and get senators and members of congress onboard. in this case it's a matter of how people feel about them. if voters aren't happy they might exact some retribution in the next election. i don't think a constitutional challenge on this will hold up. it's possible there could be a constitutional challenge to hold up on the mandate forcing everyone in america to buy health insurance, but on this i think it's constitutionally safe. >> david rucker, reporter with " "roll call." thank you very much. >> good to be here. and a political duo whose pairing may have helped seal the fate of the senate health care deal. well, they're caught on tape. new york senator chuck schumer recently traveled to nebraska to join the man we were just talking about, sthor ben nelson, on a hunting trip. now according to politico, schumer bagged three pheasants on the trip and six weeks later senator nelson's crucial vote on health care came onboard. be sure to stay with msnbc for the latest on tomorrow's health care vote. it will be an exciting, a very big day for the country. live coverage at 7:00 a.m. eastern right here on msnbc. and from affairs to indictments, the past decade has given us plenty of political scandals to talk about. political director chuck todd blogged about the biggest and best ones in first read section of msnbc.com. here is his top five political downfalls of the last ten years. number five takes us to illinois and this guy, former governor blagojevich, faced federal corruption charges -- faces them -- for his attempts to make a profit on president obama's vacated senate seat. that story is to be continued. and next on the list former house majority leader tom delay. his indictment in texas on political money laundering charges, sent him packing from congress. but he returned -- not to congress, on "dancing with the stars." we have to interrupt this list and take to you colorado where the heene family is learning their fate right now. they're being sentenced. let's listen in. if you have a brief statement to make, you can do so. >> judge, mr. lane called into question whether or not the defendant does have a felony conviction or not. as the court knows we don't provide certified copies of all their cop vixs. they collect that information and give it to the court. they did indeed it was a felony conviction. if the court has not commenced, i do have a copy of that felony conviction i can given to the court. >> i would like to see it, yes. have you given this -- [ inaudible ] >> okay. >> what we're looking at is colorado -- denver, colorado, courtroom where richard heene, the dad behind the ba loop boy hoax is about to be sevntenced. he face as couple months in prison. his wife mayumi does as well. richard heene has begged the court -- you're looking at mayumi heene there. he begged the court to not send his wife to jail, only sentence him. they've been jailed $42,000 for the cost, the expense of the hoax in which they hid their son in the family's home and pretended to the media, to the world, the child -- at least they believed the child was trapped in this homemade balloon that they kept in the backyard and right now this is accept tense i tensing day for richard heene who has begged the court to not sentence his wife but to sentence him instead. they're talking about a possible past conviction or something he has encountered with the courts before. we'll get more information on that and here shortly we'll see if he will serve some time for that awful hoax involving his own child. gecko: quite impressive, yeah. boss: come a long way, that's for sure. and so have you since you started working here way back when. gecko: ah, i still have nightmares. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. the father involved in the balloon boy hoax about to be sentenc sentenced. let's listen in. >> everyone to this point, i'm not going to go through all what i think is accurately stated, heard here. this in simple terms was an elaborate hoax devised by apparently mr. and mrs. heene, although today the implication was more mr. heene than mrs. heene. involving their children. the intent was to deceive the public, to deceive law enforcement officials and the media in believing their 6-year-old son had been accidentally carried aloft in an experimental weather balloon. as mr. lewis for the people, part of this rehearsed scheme was, in fact, videotaped, and calls made by mr. heene were to the faa and the media not to 911. the call was made later by mrs. heene. sheriff's deputies responded. they searched the home and the surrounding area. the balloon was tracked by several law enforcement agencies, news helicopters and air national guard until it landed approximately 15 miles east of denver international airport. air traffic was delayed and falcon heene was not in the balloon. in a letter to this court, the lead investigator for the sheriff's office explained how difficult it was for him to advise the heenes that falcon had not been found since the assumption was that he had fallen from the balloon. when he did so, mr. and mrs. heene continued the plan community, law enforcement and it turns out people throughout the nation and the world worried as to falcon's well-being. approximately five hours after the report was made by the heenes falcon emerged from his hiding place in a place above the garage. what ensued was much relief, happiness in the community, law enforcement, emergency personnel, as well as those persons worldwide when had become transfixed by this story. that evening, they appeared on national television show to tell their story and to obtain the publicity that they sought. this is also the time that falcon slipped up and revealed that this was all for a show. and two days later mrs. heene confessed that this, in fact, was a hoax designed to pitch a reality tv show involving the heene family and appears clear from mr. lewis' e-mails there is a long background of this, going on for an extended period of time. this was clear lay planned event. in summary, what this case is about deception, explanation, exploitation of the children of the heenes, exploitation of the media and emotions of the people. it is about money. this was all done for the purpose of making money. the people and the defendant in this case did, in fact, reach a disposition concerning the incident. whereby mr. heene agreed to attempt to influence a public servant, namely the larimar county sheriff. punishable by up to six years in the department of corrections. however, there was a stipulated sentence to probation agreed to by the people. this presentence report was ordered and, i believe, the underpin sing that the court at this time would accept the stipulated sentence and really the -- issue for the court would be the conditions of the probation and the 90-day sentence. this court does have the right to reject the agreement entered into but i'm not going to do that. i think that the district attorney's office represents the people of the state of colorado. they have made a reasoned decembernition this case that the appropriate sentence here is a probation sentence and, obviously, mr. heene not comply with probation he faces the possibility of that department corrections sentence as was explained to him at the dispositional hearing. so today's comments have been directed, again, more at the question of whether a jail sentence is appropriate and terms and conditions of the probation sentence. i think it is worth noting that mr. heene, i believe, is contrite. i believe he does regret this incident. i don't think he in some way does not realize the damage that's been done here. but i don't know he realize it is extent of it. i say that because in his letter where he first -- the ripple effect, he clearly expresses by when occurred here and the breadth of the persons it touched. at the same time, it is hard to understand how he wouldn't realize that since all of this was designed to attract attention, to accomplish a result that, i believe, he had enough background from talking to television shows and so forth to know that this would likely be the effect of this incident. mr. heene does have some past criminal background. as toum how many convictions he has, that may not be entirely clear. but these are matters in the state of california that resulted in probation sentences and some jail time in those cases. again, those were -- >> we are listening to the judge of ft. collins discussing the sentence for richard and mayumi heene, the parents behind the balloon boy hoax. it sounds like he's leaning towards probation. he says he's the right to sentence them to jail but it appears that as a result of them pleading guilty to their charges, the -- it may be an issue of probation. they are facing 90 days behind bars. we are going to continue to listen to this and see the ultimate decision from this judge now but does not appear to be ready to give them any hard time for that hoax involving their 6-year-old son. they pleaded guilty to the charges and facing a fax of 90 days behind bars and probation. we will continue to follow it. we want to update you on another breaking news story out of new york where amtrak announced power outage preventing trains from coming in and out of new york at penn station. the problem has been fixed and hope to get trains running there shortly. a lot of people inconvenienced. lot of holiday travelers. several tourists in the city were affected this, confused by what was going. now the trains are up and running. we are going to keep listening to the sentencing of the heene family. breaking news out of colorado to find out exactly what this judge will do. the judge is deciding whether he will put richard heene behind bars for this. we will keep an eye and ear on this and bring thank you latest on msnbc. >> profiting from this incident. and length of the probation sentence. the probation report rider does recommend the jail sentence, does recommend with alternative sentencing considered. something other than complete straight jail time. the jail sentence clearly is directed more deterring of this type of contact by others and is taking into consideration the seriousness of the offense. based on these considerations, the court is going to sentence the defendant to probation for a period of four years. this will be supervised probation. the terms and conditions will be that mr. heene is, in fact, prohibited from receiving any form of financial benefit from whether it be media, a book, an article he writes, anything of that kind that stems from this