co-founder of countryside and two other executives have agreed to pay to avoid a trial on civil fraud and insider trading charges. those are your fast five headlines. reports this morning that mexican state police have called off their search on a texas border lake for an american man. tiffany hartley says that mexican pirates shot and killed her husband on falcon lake last month. joining me is steve fagan, editor of the monitor. on tuesday, the big development here was that mexican police commanders involved in the case or a mexican police commander involved in the case was found dead. shockingly enough, he had been decapitated. now there are reports that mexican authorities are stopping the search for hartley. does this mean should we read this that the mexican drug gangs have taken control, they re winning here and they ve thwarted the investigation? i certainly think that that is something of an indication,
perhaps even a greater concern is the influence that the money involved in the drug traffic has had on local law enforcement officials on this side of the border. that s even a bigger concern? from our standpoint, yes, it s a significant concern because certainly we ve been doing a number of stories over the past several years and they seem to be increasing on local law enforcement officials from sheriff s deputies to local police to even federal agents from border patrol and customs who have been charged with various forms of abetting drug trafficking. steve, thanks for your insight on this. thank you very much. 10,000 empty plates set out in front of the eiffel tower today to commemorate world food day. it symbolizes the number of children who die every day from hunger. other events are being held in 2,000 cities and towns around france. a florida man is $650,000 richer
next on msnbc saturday, did the fbi get tipped off about the mumbai attacks and not even realize it? why is the pentagon on the lookout for wikileaks? plus, the campaign coffers of christine o donnell. is all the controversy dogging ms. o donnell doing a number on her fund-raising? you might be surprised. and some painful high jinx on the big screen and it s coming your way in 3-d. great to have you with us today. i m thomas roberts. welcome to msnbc saturday. alex witt has the day off. it is 11:00 in the east, 8:00 in the west. new report says u.s. officials knew about plans for the attacks three years before they actually took place. federal agents were reportedly tipped off by the wife of an american businessman, david coleman headley. his wife told authorities that her husband was a militant in a pakistani troop. former inspector general for the homeland security department. forgive me for botching your name there. we ve talked many times. not at all. i m ou