service, saying at the same time that it was more so than i expected, but then we re hardy new yorkers and we can deal with snow. it didn t sound like it came from a clear place, and if he snaps his political capital with weird explanations like that, he s going to have a hard time doing other reforms. okay. bill scher, sabrina, irin carmon, who s staying right here, because you re with msnbc.com, so don t have the mayor call you. thank you very much. meantime, here s a look at some of the stories topping the news now. president obama heads west to california today. he s going to assess the damage and bring attention to the record drought in the golden state. it is the state s worst drought in more than a century. olympic and paralympic runner oscar pistorius is speaking out, as today marks the one year since he shot and killed his girlfriend in south africa in his home. he mistaked reeva steenkamp as an intruder. here s something you may
should be able to get married. pretty strong words. pretty clear, too. dan lothian is live in washington, d.c. with us this morning. it took a long time for the president to evolve to this position. but why now? and why this way? that s right. well, the president had been under a lot of pressure to really state his position on this. and some top members of his administration over the last few days had come out and made their positions clear. and so the president finally came around on this after almost two years. he said after talking to his friends, his daughters and the first lady. me personally, it is important to go ahead and affirm that i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. reporter: president obama made the announcement wednesday in an interview with abc news. becoming the first sitting u.s. president to publicly support same-sex marriage. his remarks come on the heels of north carolina passing a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex
going on camera with new details. what the lawyer is saying about what really happened that night at the beverly hill hotel. plus this this is barn number eight where the body was found and the barn backs up to the racetrack itself. this is the backstretch. you can see the twin spires in the background there. this is where the horses ran on the backstretch of the kentucky derby. behind the track. cnn gets unprecedented access at churchill downs. the murder and the mystery. is the killer living among those who work here? newsroom begins right now. good morning to you. i m carol costello. we begin this morning with the repercussions happening already after president obama s endorsement of same-sex marriage. most of the outrage coming from his largest group of supporters, african-americans, who some believe may bail on him. take north carolina for example. mr. obama captured 95% of the vote from black supporters in 2008. the same-sex marriage issue is not popular amo
rich if they earn a million dollars or more a year. shannon: president obama heads west today to raise money for his 2012 reelection campaign. he section pecte expected to tw aggressive message on the notoriously liberal growth in an effort to energize voters. and on the gop side presidential contender herman cain scored big in florida. 37% of the straw poll yesterday, more than rick perry and mitt romney combined. i m shannon bream. hour number two of america s news headquarters live from the nation s capital begins right now. after two years in an iranian prison, american hikers are back on u.s. soil today. jenna lee has been tracking the
clearly it was a daunting task, feinberg s attempting to do a good job. i think it is fair to say that some of the criticism seems valid. cf1 o the economic loss related to the moratorium is not covered by the bp oil spill. feinberg specifically said those folks are out of work because of the administration s actions in terms of the moratorium are not eligible for the bp fund. there is another $100 million fund, that s only for the folks who directly worked on the rig. if you had a small grocery store, that supplies groceries to those on the rig, and that you re not selling those groceries anymore, you don t qualify for reimbursement from anybody. there is the act of bp for which the $20 billion fund covers, there is the act of the administration slowing things down when the engineers said you didn t have to, there is no coverage for those. those small business people and the people whom they employ, they re the ones who are really suffering now. congressman cassidy, thanks so much