this always provides a real breathtaking moment when you're seeing a runaway car approaching stalled traffic in that way and how they're going to get around it. it looks like he's taking a ramp now, lifting him up and above or out of those more congested lanes of traffic. the question is, be is that an hov lane we're seeing or is that the wrong-way ramp? i'm not sure. all right. with me now on the phone is former new york detective vito polucci. vito, if the traffic here is moving at 30, 40 miles an hour maybe, this car, it appears to me, is going about twice as fast. we're seeing chp officer behind him, keeping at least a couple car lengths between him and the suspect vehicle. why is that? >> well, you know, there's a big danger in this. and let your viewers understand that. across the country now, authori authorities have been going police department to police department to train officers on mostly backing off of most of these chases, unless it's something of an extreme nature. if they have the plate number of this car, other officers could have called the home, see who's there, see who has this car possibly out on the road. this is a very dangerous situation. as an ex-cop, you want to catch the suspect that just did a burglary, whole bit. we don't know what else happened at the burglary. but this is very dangerous. you've got workers on the road, working, like you said a couple of minutes ago. you've got pieces of the car falling off all over the place. what good is it to catch this guy if two people wind up dead, contessa? >> you can see the damage now that we're on a closer shot of this vehicle. the front left driver's side fender is coming off. the hood is dented in. when we first started watching this chase, it looked like the bumper, probably made of plastic, had just come right off of the car. it's not dragging any longer, but we saw that. obviously this is a vehicle that's already been in some collisions. and we saw him side swiping some vehicles, coming very close to others as he's trying to get around. obviously it's a busy morning there, approaching just now after 9:00 am, so the workday just starting. they have to be concerned about public safety as well as now catching this guy and wanting to know, why is he running from police. >> that is true. the whole thing, though, as a cop, i've done these before. last thing you want to do is get called off these things. your adrenaline is running high, you want to catch the guy. nowadays, contessa, it doesn't work like that. sometimes you have to back off. >> why wouldn't they let him -- the cop is not right on his tail. they wouldn't back off entirely, would they? >> it's not so much the backing off. the guy knows, whether the cop is 100 yards or 300 yards away, he knows he's being pursued. that's why this guy is going 70, 80, 90 miles an hour. the key is to let the chase go, let the helicopter in the sky monitor it a little bit, follow his route at least, what exit he's getting off. let them know in advance so people can head to that area. this is not good. it's not worth it to catch the suspect. look how close he's getting to these cars. >> right. >> you're going to have somebody panic. i've seen that myself, even with my training in driving, you'll have somebody panic or swerve into traffic, something like that. this needs to be called off. >> in california, again we're watching long beach, california, orange county, south of los angeles. it appears to me that there's still traffic moving. part of the problem in california, especially, is that there are so many freeways and interstates that for chp to try to go ahead of the suspect and clear traffic, it's just not very effective because there's so many options for a runaway driver. >> no, you're not going to clear traffic. he could get on another extension, another highway. he could get off an exit, get right back on some place else. that doesn't make any sense at all. look at the amount of traffic you're dealing with. he has been all over breakdown lanes, all over the place. you've got three squad cars. all you need is some person to panic and not know which way to swerve -- you look in your rear view mirror and you see somebody approaching 80, 90 miles an hour, you don't know whether to stay in that lane, swerve right or swerve left. >> it's those split-second decisions that really make a difference. when you don't know what another driver is going to do, it's very hard to know how to avoid an impending crash. a lot of these people, if you see this car coming up behind you, going twice as fast as you are -- especially now, it looks like traffic is lightened somewhat. these are probably cars going a normal speed limit, which in california usually means at least ten miles over the speed limit. a car that's coming up behind you that quickly, passing you that fast, you do have to make split-second decisions whether to stay in your lane. now i'm seeing three chp squads. >> yep. >> it looks like traffic is fairly light. the question is, does he remain on this interstate and run out of gas, maybe give them an opportunity to put down spike strips at some point or is this just a situation where he is going to get more and more chaotic in his thinking and make a desperate, dangerous move? >> you know, if this suspect has a big trinl history, he knows if he gets caught, he may be going away five, search, ten years with his history. that's why he has nothing to lose in doing this. california highway patrol are good, trained officers in how they drive. the suspect is not and the people around them don't have the same training. to an interesting point, he seems to be trapped in. this is dangerous, too, because you have to see what he's going to do here. he seemed to get through a little bit. >> right. though they are multiple-lane ro roads, it looks like now these are more local roads than interstate freeways. now we can see where he is. he has just gone in a tunnel under an airport there. i'm wondering if this is orange county's airport. i think that's john wayne there in orange county. i'm not sure which -- this could be a municipal airport. but it does give us an idea now where he is. we're waiting for him to come out the other side. and, vito, stick with me here. my colleague, tamron hall, was just wrapping up her hour when this whole thing started breaking open. >> right. >> you and i have done a lot of these high-speed chases together and typically what happens when they get on these local roads things get real dicey. >> really quick, our producers are telling me one affiliate is saying this is lax airport and this was a burglary suspect that they are pursuing here. this is the information we're getting. i'm not that familiar with airports from an aerial shot, but according to one of the affiliates in california, who is also following this, they are reporting this is lax airport. this is information being passed along to me from our team there. >> that definitely would not be orange county. >> no. >> if that's lax. >> so this is the result of a burglary suspect they were pursuing here. i don't know if that's the vehicle that's on the side there. you see the white vehicle on the side. >> we're being told the big boulevard that runs outside lax, one that commuters would take, approaching the airport. or if you're in that local area, obviously, freeways dump out on to the lax entranceways as well. at this point, i'm wondering if the chopper has actually lost him or if the driver has gone underneath this tunnel and something is happening. >> contessa? >> go ahead, vito. >> something could be going on underneath the tunnel. you see the backup of traffic heading in that direction before the tunnel like your cameraman just shot. something could be happening actually inside the tunnel at this point. i don't remember seeing them come out and the traffic seems to be backed up at the entrance to that tunnel. >> here is the other thing. we're being told that the choppers have to wait to get clearance from air traffic control, something to consider, tamron, if you've got air traffic control coming in and planes going in and out, landing at this airport. you can't just have news choppers flying about. >> absolutely. from our colleague, researchers here, apparently, contessa, it was just wednesday that the sheriff's department told officers that after a string of deadly shootings that they need to think twice before chasing and trying to arrest suspects who are believed to be armed. we don't have any indication to believe this sm is armed. this, according to the reports, this was a burglary suspect. you see this officer now on his motorcycle near the underpass or overpass of the airport here. they were just given strict guidelines. the sheriff's department was told the nation's largest sheriff's department that officers need to think twice before chasing and trying to arrest suspects who are believed to be armed. we see here a chase happening right now. and we also see this officer -- >> on foot. >> -- on foot going to this overpass, contessa. >> there he is, going into this tunnel. we're going to call it a tunnel just for our purposes. it's where you can see the runways and maybe it's just the taxiways now for the planes. this is lax. now you're seeing another squad. you see that, tamron, with that squad car blocking now the entrance to the tunnel. that leads you to believe they're confronting somebody inside this particular tunnel. >> yeah. you have the guy get off the motorcycle, the other side being blocked off. before that happened, you saw traffic heading to the tunnel all starting to merge to the left lane. something is going on in there where they don't want anybody else coming in and out and even -- so much even on the other side. they just free d up the other side now. >> okay. so, we're hearing that this is a chase that began in orange county, but obviously now, if this is lax, this is out of orange county jurisdiction. and it looks like, you know, l.a. county chopper apparently is overhead now. all the choppers would have to get clearance from air traffic control when they are around an air space because you have planes landing and taking off. tamron? contessa, again, i pointed out the strict guidelines that were handed down to members of the sheriff's department. that happened february 17th. so, just a few weeks ago, they were told to be more cautious when they are chasing suspects who are considered armed and dangerous. and this was a possible burglary suspect that they are pursuing here. we want to go to stephanie stanton, who is actually in california covering a different story. but she is very familiar with the location that the cameras are pointed on right now. stephanie, contessa discussed a tunnel entryway, one officer got off his motorcycle on foot. we see this white vehicle on the left of your screen. we believe that is the white vehicle they've been pursuing. it's pulled over off to the side. tell us more, stephanie, about this area we're looking at. >> tamron, i'm watching the chase right now. and the tunnel that you're talking about, what this looks like is the 105 freeway. it's a main artery going in and out of lax. in fact, it's the way that i take when i go to the airport. and the way it works, the way that i go is if you take the 110 freeway, it merges to the 105. then there is this tunnel. it's a pretty long tunnel that you go through. and it gets you to lax. when you're inside this tunnel, it's pretty dark. at least when i drive through it. you can't get radio reception, cell reception seems pretty difficult to get. whatever is going on in that tunnel, it's -- >> hang on, stephanie. we hear something. as we point out, you're covering some protests and we could hear that in the background. we don't want our audience to get confused. stephanie has great insight to this information. the white vehicle is over to the side, surrounded. you see the flashing lights of the authorities who have at least the vehicle -- we don't know if the person fled on foot. the vehicle is surrounded. >> for all we know, the suspect is in the vehicle, out of the vehicle, in the back of the squad car. we don't know because we haven't been able to see until right now this vantage point. at any rate, the end result is this is a chase that began in orange county, we're told. burglary suspect leading police on a chase and it has now ended. we will, as soon as we get a heads up about what's happening down there, we'll let you know. tamron, thank you for your particular commentary. it's always interesting to watch this stuff happen, unfold live on tv. let's take a quick break here. we'll return after this on msnbc. these are actual farmers who raise vegetables in campbell's condensed soup. so if you've ever wondered who grew my soup, well, here they are. ♪ so many, many reasons ♪ it's so m'm! m'm! good! ♪ mine too. my cut's all better. 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[ male announcer ] upgrade to first class investing technology at e-trade. welcome back to msnbc. again, this is the breaking news we've been following. you're just now seeing the cars now being allowed through this tunnel at lax airport, where a suspect, reportedly a burglary suspect, led police on a high-speed chase from orange county, california, into l.a. county, finally ending around sepulveda boulevard. that car had some damage on it. we didn't actually see the crash that led to the damage of that particular car. all is well that ends well, correct? democrats are blasting republicans for a fund-raising presentation using fear and crude caricatures to encourage people to donate. part of an rnc presentation left behind at a florida hotel last month obtained by politico. you've probably seen the picture of president obama, the one before as the joker from the batman movie. pelosi is cast as cruella de ville and harry reid is caricatured as scooby doo. are you embarrassed by this? >> certainly unfortunate language and images. we took the proactive step before the article came out. really, as soon as i found out about these images and this language, we made sure that people knew that it was unacceptable, that the chairman didn't know about it, that he, himself, found it unacceptable. the real reason there, contessa, is michael steele has experienced it personally. steny hoyer said he was slavish. no one called for his resignation then. unfortunate things and michael steele knows these things and that's why he was upset about it and we've made sure this was over and done with as quickly as possible. >> in fact, you point out that often it is controversial, the tactics used in fund-raising and democr democrats are not without blame in using similar tactics, when they were trying to raise money while george w. bush was in the white house. this was a presentation delivered to donors, we understand, by rnc's finance director, rob bicker. what might be particularly interesting, politico describeds it as an air of disdain for political operatives. is there a way you have to use underha underhanded tactics to give money? is this part of politics as we see it in this day and age? >> no, absolutely not. in this day and age, it's not about anybody trying to push here. it's about us listening. what we've found out every day is that voters are scared. if you're claire mccaskill, you saw it last august f you're arlen specter, you experienced that personally at a town hall in august. voters are upset, scared about what's going on with obama agenda. >> does that provide an opportunity for republicans to make money? >> absolutely. we're going to talk about these issu issues, raise money so we can be competitive and fund victory campaigns in certain states. when dick cheney's cast his darth vader, real villain in my youth, eric cantor cast as no, the old james bondvillen. if they're out of line, and we think they are, it ought to be wrong for everybody. >> marketing strategies revealed here, dividing fund-raising in two categories, visceral giving, motivated by fear or extreme negative feelings toward existing administration and then major donors treated as calculated givers. they say their motivations would be that they want access or are ego driven. is that how you see republican donors, they're either fear motivated or ego motivated? >> no. we know that they're motivated to do what's best for their country as they see fit and donate to the republican party to elect republican candidates. >> this was the finance director giving this presentation. >> that's why in the statement, we said that that was unfortunate language, that the chairman didn't agree with. i can tell you, speaking for chairman steele, we don't just like our donors. we need them. and we need them to help us fund raise so we can be competitive, take back the house and turn minority leader boehner into speaker boehner. that's our priorities. our donors are part of that. >> i don't think big donors want access to the power players in washington, d.c., do you? >> we think all americans want access to their government. that's a good thing, contessa. >> doug, i really appreciate you spent some time today, explaining the rnc's tactics on this presentation. >> any time. nice to see you. >> nice to see you, too. florida officials just released 911 calls from the deadly incident at seaworld and you won't believe how calm the person on the telephone is. plus, it's like mud wrestling. kind of, with a twist here. very messy, though. right now, the most watched videos on youtube, goalie places a ball -- put it up -- for his teammate to kick. the wind picks up the ball. what happens? right back into the net. goal for the other team! more than 600,000 people have watched a different video. we want to show that one to you, too. it's called the worst timing ever. talking about that powerful chilean earthquake shifting the earth's axis. >> days for the rest of time have gotten 1.6 microsecond shorter. it's not like you're i'm late for lunch. >> foreign talent shows for a contestant who is a little mini lady gaga. youtube commenters are lashing out at the parents for putting this little girl in a rather awkward, questionable position. . there's a home by the sea powered by the wind on the plains. there's a hospital where technology has a healing touch. there's a factory giving old industries new life. and there's a train that got a whole city moving again. somewhere in america, the toughest questions are answered every day. because somewhere in america, more than sixty thousand people spend every day answering them. siemens. answers. you can label as "different." like janice. uh-huh. yeah. fashion deficient. and tom... copy incapable. it's open kimono time. looking good, dan. oh, we want to make sure all our ducks in a row. yeah. volume control syndrome. but we focus on the talent and skill that each person... brings to the team. i mean, no one's really concerned about labels. not even mine. labels get in the way. disabilities rarely do. visit thinkbeyondthelabel.com to evolve your work force. labels get in the way. disabilities rarely do. investors are demanding more for their money. good. this time, i'm watching fees like a hawk. i hate hidden fees. why should i have to pay for something that i shouldn't have to pay for? 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up next, those 911 calls from the seaworld incident, killer whale to dragged his trainer under the water and the caller, it appears, doesn't even know what happened when he dials 911. first chile, haiti and today taiwan. why so many earthquakes? i'll ask bill nye, the science guy, just ahead. we just learned within the hour that president obama is bringing members of the house of representatives to the white house for two big meetings on health care this afternoon. the president is now pushing the house and the senate for an up or down vote that could come within two weeks. a short time ago, house speaker nancy pelosi expressed optimism. minority leader john boehner did not. >> this debate is far from over. republicans are going to continue to stand with the american people, against this job-killing, massive government takeover of this system. >> i feel very confident that the up or down vote on the majority rule proposal that will come to the house will satisfy members' concerns about the senate bill. >> nbc's mike viqueira is at the house right now. what members is he meeting with? >> reporter: full core press, pick your cliche, they're doing everything they can. march 18th, president set to leave for his trip to southeast asia, robert gibbs telling msnbc this morning that he wants to see a bill out of the house, does the white house, by the time the president leaves. that will be very difficult, considering they don't have the bill written yet in the preferred language that the president set forth. we've seen kathleen sebelius, secretary of health and human services, in the white house driveway. she just came out of a meeting with ceos. the president, we're told, dropped by that meeting. they want to know why premiums are going up as much as they are. the president right now, matter of fact, will be holding a meeting with two groups of lawmakers in the west wing, all off camera. those on the left of the political spectrum and the political caucus, progressive caucus, 70 strong liberals, hi hispanic caucus, congressional black caucus, and all about how many compromises have been made by the president and democratic leadership with moderates that they don't like, public option on top of them. then the president turns around, meets in the west wing with moderates of the democratic party, trying to cover all the bases here, as they are still shy in the house of representatives, contessa. >> thank you, mike viqueira, for the wrap-up there. reports two-time preside presidential candidate john edwards is about to be indicted by a federal grand jury. in february, edwards admitted he fathered a child with a former campaign worker. "national enquirer" first reported news of edwards' extra marital affair with rielle hunter in september 2007. now the "enquirer" reports he is on the verge of being indicted following an investigation for possible misuse of campaign funds. long-time edwards' aide, andrew young, admitted he helped edwards cover up the affair and he and his wife even allowed edwards' mistress to move in with them. the scandal that brought him down. andrew young joins me live. what do you know about the use of campaign funds and specifically as it was geared toward rielle hunter? >> well, i know -- i don't know anything about any campaign funds, per se, being used. there were very close friends of the senator who gave over $1 million to keep rielle hunter up in terms of -- and keeping her hidden from the presidential campaign. >> given the fact -- >> i don't know of any specifically campaign funds. >> so, given the fact that you helped cover up edwards' affair -- >> right. >> you are have been interviewed by the grand jury as well. >> right. >> do you bear any responsibility in any wrongdoing that is found in a court proceeding? >> well, i mean, not in a court proceeding as far as i know. campaign finance laws are very, very complicated but i have been assured that we did nothing illegal. there were some things that i was shown during the 8 1/2 hours, nine hours that i was questioned by the grand jury, there were some things that i did not know about. i was not -- you know, i never wrote the checks for the campaign or for any of the entities that were affiliated with john edwards, but there were some things that were shown to me that would -- that seem to be problematic for senator edwards. >> like what? >> there were two large checks from two entities, one having to do with a program called college for everyone that adopted a really, really poor community in eastern north carolina, and it appeared that one of those checks had been written to the benefit of rielle hunter. and rielle hunter had absolutely nothing to do with this poor school in eastern north carolina. >> i want to ask you about your own entanglement with the court, shall we call it? here you have this book out, but you've also been battling the court over turning over this so-called sex tape. >> right. >> do you still have any of those materials? >> no. i've turned everything over to the court. people have criticized us for what we kept, the voice mails, once we started -- >> why did you? >> -- this process well, if i didn't have that information would you -- would anybody have believed me against john and elizabeth edwards? no. they're worth $50 or $60 million. if we hadn't kept something that corroborated our story, then nobody would have believed us. >> did you ever intend to make that tape public? >> absolutely not. absolutely not. no. and we haven't. we've had it for over two years. if we had wanted to sell it, we could have sold it for a very, very high amount of money back when this was at its zenith. absolutely not. >> the judge has put off a contempt ruling for you until next tuesday. what do you expect to happen? >> hopefully, we'll get to the merits of the case, which is were these properties abandoned? and if they were abandoned and they were my property, we're going to put them in a lock box just so that after the fact nobody will come back and sue me for making false accusations in my book. >> andrew young, good to have you with us today. >> we have no plans of suing. it's an honor to be with you. >> have a good day. >> you, too. >> weary families in remote parts of chile finally getting food supplies after a deadly earthquake. the military is handing out food to the survivors after securing several areas from looters. at the same time, powerful aftershocks continue to shake the region. in fact, 6.1 magnitude aftershock sent people into a panic in constitucion. scores of residents read for higher ground after false rumors of a tsunami. that's got to be difficult to try and cope with all the damage that's done and still be rocked by these aftershocks. >> reporter: contessa, good afternoon. i apologize for my voice. the rubble and the dust that's created has really destroyed it. it's nothing compare d to what people here are going through. you're talking about how one's focus can maybe be diverted through these aftershocks. a couple of hours ago, we felt a pretty strong one. most people are so focused on their personal reality and the destruction that they are undergoing. i just got back from a rubble that used to be a home where a young man was telling me that just yesterday -- by the way, we were the first people that ever went to visit him. no authorities. yesterday, he uncovered a huge chunk of rubble and there he found his wife, his wife's mother and his 5-month-old boy. and he said, i had to take a shovel and bring this boy out from under the rubble and then i had to bring my wife and her mother out of the rubble. and he said how can i start again when my entire future just died? and i had to bring it out from under the rubble yesterday. these are the story that is when you see about these after-effects and shocks, it doesn't matter. people are just trying to deal with something so monumental and i think it's difficult to convey. i tell you, this is happening time and time and hundreds of times every single day here in constitucion. they found an elderly woman buried under the rubble because she didn't want to move. they said a tsunami could come. she said no, it won't and i don't have anything to look forward to if i don't have my home. they're bringing her out right as we speak. that, contessa, is a reality of much of chile today. >> jose, thank you so much for sharing those stories with us. >> reporter: thank you. >> it's got to be difficult to cover all of that. you can catch more of jose's reports on the nightly spanish newscast tonight at 6:30 pm eastern time on telemundo. >> for more now on the science behind all these earthquakes, i'm joined by bill nye, known as the science guy. we've seen the earthquake in haiti. it was huge. this earthquake in chile, mega earthquake. now one in taiwan. is there something going on with the tectonic plates? >> no, and yes. the tectonic plates are always moving. every year there are about 1,000 measurable earthquakes around the world. so, by the way, if you're a psychic and so on, you can predict an earthquake very easily, because they happen all the time. it's just unfortunate these last few have been so big and in areas with a populous whose infrastructure, the buildings are not what you would hope for. earthquakes don't hurt people. buildings hurt people. >> but if you're talking about an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, even if that hit, say, in california where there are standards for building to survive earthquakes is very strict and very technologically advanced, wouldn't that do some real damage? >> oh, yes, absolutely. you're absolutely right. when you get over 8 -- anything over 7 is a very large earthquake. i remind you, you can go to, for example, u.s. geological website. these are the earthquakes in the last 30 days. there are many, many earthquakes around the world all the time. >> can you hold that up? >> the rest of the earthquakes -- >> can you hold that first one up again? yeah. >> u.s. geologic survey that collects data that their own monitors. >> and five of them within the last 24 hours. >> oh, yeah. well, once you have this big shift, this enormous plate this one in chile was enough to nudge the earth's axis a little bit. when you get them that big, they keep shifting for many days and hours afterwards. you to use the expression earthquake swarm. what i -- what we have to do, people come up with new ideas when they live together in villages and so on. we also have the opportunity to export the technology, building technology that will help us withstand earthquakes. very difficult problem but one we can understand and solve. >> bill nye, it's good to see you. thank you. >> thank you. developing right now, 911 tapes have just been released following the death of a trainer at seaworld in orlando. dawn brancheau was killed when she was dragged into the water by a killer whale named tilikum. seemingly unaware of the gravity of the situation. >> we actually have a trainer in the water with one of our whales, the whale that they're not supposed to be in the water with. >> okay. >> so we don't know what's going on. we were just told to call and have people here on standby when they get the person out. >> the killer whale, till y, as it's known, has been involved in the deaths of three people so far. seaworld says it won't euthanize the whale, but hasn't decided whether to put it back on show. ♪ [ male announcer ] you've wanted to quit smoking so many times, but those days came and went and the cigarettes remained. ♪ today's a new day. talk to your doctor about prescription treatment options and support. and this time, make it your time. which beneful prepared meals. tonight? 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obviously these kids weren't on their own, decision making in the air traffic control tower. >> that's correct, contessa. they weren't controlling aircraft, just repeating what their father was telling them. not an ideal situation and one the faa has to address. i don't think safety was ever compromised here. >> let me play what ray lahood, the secretary of transportation, his reaction today in washington. >> this is a stunning example of a lack of professionalism, not following the rules, not using common sense. the idea that a young child would be directing planes in and out of an airport is totally unacceptabl unacceptable. >> it opens up the door here to other questions, in terms of how many visitors are allowed in air traffic control, whether anyone who does not work there should be in the tower. what's your take on it? >> actually, for years, air traffic controllers have allowed family members, friends into the tower as long as they're not in an area where they can interfere with operations. it's a fascinating exercise to look and see how these air traffic controllers work. and i think a lot of them are proud of the job they do and want to share it with friends and family. but, in fact, when you have a child speaking over the radio to the airplanes, it's a bad perception and certainly a bad pr issue for the faa. safety wasn't compromised. this has happened in the past. this happened at jfk. >> even if they're saying here, george, that the pilots might be surprised by it or might not be able to understand a child's voice, especially if they speak another language first? >> that, of course, is the safety issue. in this case, the safety was not compromised. the kids were parroting and the father was standing close by. safety was not compromised, not an ideal situation and certainly not something that anybody, particularly the faa would want to repeat. >> thank you, george. tower visits have been suspended, pending this investigation of whether they should be letting visitors into the towers. >> thank you. shotguns, riot shields, ba tcht batons and even a machine gun. we'll explain why. what's our favorite part of honey bunches of oats? the sparkly flakes. the honey-baked bunches! the magic's in the mix. my favorite part? eating it. honey bunches of oats. taste the joy we put in every spoonful. honey bunches of oats. we call the bunches in honey bunches of oats the prize in the box. well, now there's a prize inside the prize. pecans! pecans! baked into crunchy oat bunches. taste the delicious surprise in every spoonful. honey bunches of oats with pecan bunches. a louisiana sheriff's department says it needs to be prepared for anything, whether it be a terrorist attack, civil unrest. no matter what, they have a possey ready for action. >> the public and community to get involved with law enforcement in order to better secure the parish as a whole. we'll be ahead of the curve when it comes to fighting islamic extremism. if we become self sufficient, we won't have to rely on outside resources to take care of us in an emergency situation. we can handle it ourselves. >> zach roth is a senior reporter for talking points memo. is islamic extremism a big problem in the louisiana parishes? >> not that i'm aware of. the sheriff's office wants to be ready for any possibility. they say it's not a militia they're forming, it's just to be ready. >> who are the people making up -- if it's not a militia, i'll go back to what i called it before, a possey. >> volunteers who are mostly nonformer law enforcement, though there are a few law enforcement guys in there, 200 people, 195 of them apparently are white, somewhat racially diverse parish, all volunteered to sign up to protect the parish. >> what other circumstances might they need to protect the parish for? >> manmade or natural disasters. these sort of hand-to-hand combat techniqueses, it's not clear if they would be used against terrorists or looters or rioters in a terrorist attack. >> a lot of people in louisiana might already own shotguns, it's not uncommon to see a rifle rack in the back of the truck, going through some of these louisiana parishes. how does this differentiate itself? is it just in the training and organization? how is it any different than where we would see anywhere across the country? >> they would have a lot more weaponry at their disposal, a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on what they call a war wagon, which looks like a huge monster truck, batones and shotguns. i think they would be significantly more armed. >> is anybody else in the state concerned about this? >> no concerns so far. local fbi seems to be unaware of what's going on. they're looking into it. i guess we'll see what happens. >> zach, thanks for coming in, sharing the story. i'm contessa brewer. that wraps up this hour for me. see you back here noon eastern tomorrow and 9:00 am if you're out next. andrea mitchell reports, talking with senators tom harkin and bob ca casey to talk about the president's push for health care reform. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] all we ask is that you keep doing what you've always done. the lexus rx. never has a vehicle been designed to feel so natural. ♪ right now on "andrea mitchell reports," a vote before the president leaves for asia two weeks from today. the white house says game on. >> we believe that we're on schedule based from the conversation that is have been had with the speaker of the house and majority leader that we're on schedule to get something done before we leave. >> for the second day in a row, the president has called key house members in for a little arm twisting. is it going to work? >> when i talk to my members, i have to have two important pieces of information. one is what is the final status of the bill? and, two, what is the senate going to do about it? >> what is the senate going to do? we'll be talking to two key senators, bob casey and tom harkin. plus, bush's brain gives his version of how we went to war in iraq. eight years later and after 4,384 american lives lost. you'll be amazed what he has written in his new book. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. house speaker nancy pelosi has two weeks, two weeks to get the votes together she needs to pass health reform if she's going to meet the white house'