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"starting point" begins right now. ♪ >> there they are, that's carey allen lee and the new creative collective is the new band playing this morning. they'll provide the playlist coming to you live from the ruby slipper cafe in the heart of downtown new orleans. i guess i should mention first the food it's in front of us. lots on the menu, some of the specialties though, you can take a look include this -- this is the main thing, a barbecued shrimp. >> just shrimp and grits. >> she says this is the dish that's their specialty, i'm told. and this is bananas foster french toast and over there is eggs benedict with crab in it, all very calorieic. >> new orleans health food. >> that's right. >> joining us this morning is representative bill cassidy, a republican from louisiana and only practicing physician in congress, not going to ask him to weigh in on the cal orric content in the food, serious radio talk show host and new orleans native and michelle u banks is with us, nice to have all of you with us this morning. we appreciate it. lots to get to. but first we'll start with the breaking news on deadly storms on the move right now. violent thunderstorms have slammed into eastern tennessee, happened overnight. reportedly so far, two people have been killed, dozens others injured. we want to get you right to rob marciano. what's going on? >> hey, soledad, this cluster of thunderstorms popped up late yesterday and bumped into heat and humidity. i don't have to tell you that if you live east of the mepississii you're in the heat. there's with the biggest storms hit as far as the most intense winds, smokey mountain national park, a lot of people camping here. this is prime time for camping season. tents and rvs, not a lot of places to hide. the trees coming down injuring dozens of people and two fatalities, rescue workers are still in there trying to get folks considered to be trapped. these storms weakened overnight but they'll be back along the front which will eventually cool down the eastern third of the country but not until later on this weekend. until then, heat and humidity will be the call. record breaking stuff expected again today with a couple of dozen states under heat advisories or warnings. dangerous stuff with heat indexes over 100 degrees and when those storms do develop, they will have an intensity to explode. 83 in chicago, 84 degrees in st. louis, we're off to a running start. it's probably close to that in new orleans, but maybe not quite that warm. we don't expect severe weather across the big easy, try to stay cool. >> we appreciate that. we're grateful for that today, thanks, rob. let's get right to brooke baldwin. >> got breaking news out of syria, a high ranking commander and close confidant has defected to syria, this is according to a syrian official. tlas is a member of the elite guards and son of defense minister. his deinfection would be the first from the inner circle since the uprising began and could mean the hold on power is beginning to crack. george zimmerman's bond set at $1 million by a judge who fears he may be plotting to leave the country. it means zimmerman has o to come up with $100,000 cash plus 1 million in collateral to get out of jail. zimmerman is accused of killing trayvon martin. martin's family attorney spoke to erin burnett last night. >> trayvon's parents would rather that the killer of their unarmed son remained in jail until the trial. however, they respect the court's order and the fact that the judge sent a very strong message in his order. >> zimmerman's original bail of $1 $150,000 was revoked after the judge learned zimerman and his wife failed to disclose donations they had gotten from the public. >> jackson has been on a leave of congress since last month. his office has released a statement saying jackson is being treated for physical and emotional ailments, that he has been battling for a long time and will need extended inpatient treatment. another day of burgers and beer and bus rides on tap for the president. he is waking up in akron, ohio, will wind up in pittsburgh wrapping up the two-day campaign tour of the rust belt. he is expected to push his accomplishments ahead of the june jobs report. and june boone. they raked in $100 million in contributions, a huge increase from the total in may of $77 million. that's a look at the stories we're watching out for here. back to you. >> all right, brooke, thank you very much. this morning we're waiting for the crucial june jobs numbers, going to be released we're expecting in 90 minutes. the outcome could be an indicator about the state of our economic recovery. it will have a great significance for those both president obama and mitt romney's presidential campaigns. the report is expected to show it has added $95,000, that would be an improvement of 69,000 in may, but if the jobless numbers are stagnant or if the unemployment rate goes up from its current 8.2%, we're expecting mitt romney will say it is evidence that the president isn't getting the job done. we'll go to ken rogoff. first we're going to introduce another member of our panel. roland martin is with us. in terms of politics, every month we do the same game in a way. the jobs numbers come out and we see both campaigns, here's why my guy should be president of the united states and not the other guy. we expect the same thing this time. >> here's what you have, obama folks would say private sector job growth has increased. they will tout that as being an actual recovery, although it is very slow. for mitt romney, very interesting for republicans, you see job losses largely in the government sector, it's interesting, they'll criticize the jobs but i'm going, wait a minute, i thought you liked smaller government so you want to see the jobs go away. these are going to be the most crucial four months. what happens over the next four months will be the narrative what takes place in november. >> would you agree with that? tgs so difficult right now. >> do you think next four months will be a litmus test of how the election is going to go? or do you think, the district you represent here in louisiana is localized, do you real lie look at the national job numbers? you want to know how your people are faring. >> it is not statistics, it's families, right? and families stressed that the husband or wife is out of work and the finances are stretched. if you do that, clearly over the next three or four months, if families don't feel better about themselves wherever they are, they are going to tend to vote against the status quo and if it is 96,000 is still under performing. they want to see something where they have the chance not only to earn more money with better benefits but to move to a better job if they so choose. people are hanging on because of an insecurity. i think it will be critical over the next four months, 96,000 jobs, is obviously inadequate. >> that's been an estimate. >> that will be inadequate to grow the economy. >> you talk about it's underperforming, we're operating what i call the new normal. our economy right now, we're no longer driven by credit when 77% is based on consumer spending and people don't have the level of credit before hand, you won't see the level of spending. it's amazing how we want what used to be the case but that no longer exists. >> there are things coming on now that are better. when i first ran four years ago, 56% of the imported oil came from opec, which meant we sent that much to opec nations. now we buy it from north america, those dollars are kept in north america. that's a good thing. >> is the question about blame. they say who is the person to blame, you say it will be whoever is in the status quo and people say the congress is in the status quo, all of your colleagues in congress have not moved on a jobs bill fully, which they could and that would make a change. do you worry about that criticism, and as you know those congressional approval numbers are not as terrible as they had been in the past but not great. >> the house of representatives passed 30 different jobs bills, one of the reasons we push the keystone excel, 100,000 jobs created indirectly. >> you know some people dispute those numbers and say it's 6,000, not 20,000. i'll concede 20,000 for the moment. >> it will be a huge private sector job creation for people who are currently underemployed. >> also about the president's construction bill, we talked about rebiltding roads and bridges. you support and all of a sudden say not really. you talk about keystone, those are short term jobs. if you're talking about rebuilding the country, have to rebuild bridges and schools, why won't that bill also get passed? >> any construction job is only for the construction project. rebuilding a school or road similarly, if you do the keystone excel, not only are you building a pipeline but expending the pet trow chemical plans with permanent manufacturers -- >> why don't we do both. >> we absolutely should. we passed a transportation bill that puts the money in inf infrastructure that releases the money to states. we're hitting that. now let's hit the other. we should do both. >> the fiscal cliff coming in january, literally january, things will fall off this cliff. again, i think it goes back to who's to blame for the lack of movement that's bringing us to a cliff. >> there's fiphilosophical differences, republicans think we should be a low tax state and relatively -- and allow the private sector to generate economic opportunity. the president thinks, no, the reason we're in trouble, we cut a lot of government jobs sean republicans will respond, you can't lift yourselves up from the bootstrap, eventually that can only go as far as greece has gone so far. so there's to philosophical differences and there's going to be some battles. >> you know, it's funny, i don't look at these every day. i looked up this morning, the bureau of labor and statistics reported in june, 422,000 more people working in may and they created 100,000 jobs in june, better than the prior month. why don't we consider the economy recovery -- i know it's slow and you may want 500,000. i go, gee, these are stats i found myself this morning. is it because you have to win in november you can't ever give obama a little pat on the back or economy? it's a trillion dollar economy. it's going to take a long time to turn the boat around. >> economists say we need to create 226,000 jobs roughly, speaking off the top of my head, a month, to not only take care of the 125,000 entering the job market monthly but those unemployed or underemployed. i don't think we as americans should live with diminished expectations. we should say, wow, if we can create our own domestic energy and lower the cost of energy for energy intensive manufacturing sector on and on, we should not settle for less. >> michele can speak to it, look at the housing prices and lack of access to credit, it goes beyond energy. it goes to other areas as well. >> we'll have two hours to talk about all of this. we've got to take a commercial break -- >> don't tell me until 9:00, would you? if my name comes up on the list -- >> i'd be happy to, not after the show ends. >> still ahead this morning, we're going to be talking about challenging the power of the commissioner, nfl players suing over punishment. the players association will be our guest coming up. melinda gates talks about her mission to provide birth control to women around the world. she's a practicing catholic and tells dr. sanjay gupta what she would say to the pope if given the chance. you're listening to the new creative collective, they'll provide the playlist all morning long. we're back in just a moment. go out without my covergirl. are you crazy? i want to look natural, not naked! but all you need is 3. lashblast for volume, outlast -- for kissing... simply ageless to help you look easy breezy beautiful covergirl. ♪ [ male announcer ] with 50 horsepower, dual overhead cams and fierce acceleration, the gator xuv 825i will shatter your expectations. ♪ and so no one gets left behind, check out our affordable xuv 550s at johndeere.com/gator. ♪ happy friday, i'm poppy harlow with quick business headlines. u.s. stock futures slightly lower ahead of the big june jobs report set to be released at 8:30 a.m. eastern. a lot of weight on this report, especially since there are four more jobs reports coming out before election day. apple has been slapped with a lawsuit over the voice assistance service. the la times says a chinese company says siri violated a patent. the new record low for a 30-year fixed rate, 3.62%. this number has been dropping for ten of the past eleven weeks and 15-year rate is 2.89 report. if you're been thinking about buying a home, this might be the time to do it. spidy back in a big way, "the amazing spider-man" made more than $58 million in its first three days, including a $36 million opening night. that is a record for a tuesday. soledad, looks like you're having fun down there at essence fest. enjoy. >> yes. yes, we are poppy, we appreciate it. the nfl players association is suing the nfl on behalf of three players suspended in connection with the pay for play bounty scandal under the bounty program. certain players were allegedly paid money to hurt their opponents on the field. the lawsuit is the latest development in a fight that original natured with the new orleans saints claiming that the nfl commissioner was biased in making decisions about the suspensions of the accused players that would be will smith, and anthony hardgrove and say that he didn't give them a proper chance to defend themselves. brings us to dominic foxworth, a free agent nfl quarterback. it's nice to have you with us. what exactly are you looking for from this lawsuit? i assume lifting the suspension, certainly? >> absolutely. we want the suspensions vacated and negotiated a deal that would require roger goodell to be an impartial ar bitter, based on the campaign, echs not doing so, so we find that the -- the penalty should be vacated and other players should be allowed to play. >> you're saying it violates the league's collective bargaining agreement. what do you mean by that specifically? >> as i said, we agreed to have roger goodell as an impartial arbitor, to convict our players of penalties or committing pay to injure program without allowing our players to properly defend themselves and face down evidence they found against him, by him doing so it's made him impartial, so our players not -- are kind of facing a penalty with the decks stacked against them. we've asked that this penalty be vacated and players be given a fair and due process. >> so you think it was sort of being tried in the press essentially was part of the reason behind your lawsuit? >> absolutely. i think that's the wrong way to go about it. our guys are pillars in their community for most part and these guys have worked hard to build up strong reputations and in this case they had their reputations tarnished by actions of the league and forced to go in front of arbitor who is not fair and unbiased in this situation. >> i know you're aware what the league says said back, there's no basis for asking a federal court to put its judgment in place of the procedure agreed upon in the collective bargaining, basically saying, you do not have a legal leg to stand on here. what's your strategy? >> i don't expect they would agree with us, if this did, we wouldn't have to go to court. in these cases our players have had a season taken away and year of earnings taken away. if they are lucky enough to play ten years compared to a normal working person who would work maybe 40 years or so, you're taking the equivalent of four years of working life away from those players. it's our obligation to defend our players and i'm going to stand by the players who told me this didn't happen. we've had a conversation with our players and it's unthinkable if a pay for injure kind of program was taking place but our players have said there hasn't. and league has refused to show evidence it has. until then, we're going to fight and defend our players in any way they can, that includes the federal court system. >> dominique foxworth is thepla association. interesting position, there's the 2000 players who have -- and family members suing say, that not enough was done to protect against injury, specifically the brain injuries. one would imagine that puts goodell in an interesting position. >> goodell had reams of evidence. i love the nfl. the players did not bring one -- did not bring one person forward who disputed any of his evidence. i found -- i can't believe they are doing this lawsuit. it's silly. they ought to just pay the fine, not play for a year and never do it again. but i think he had a ton of evidence. >> jay, don't you -- put it this way. is it only the saints or other teams? >> of course there's other teams. >> in which case do you say we'll penalize a guy for his whole year of earning potential but we'll make him an example -- >> these guys got caught. >> these guys got caught. >> and there were confessions by the way. you're making $10 million a year for $1500, i'm going to hit you harder, to make ends meet. that seems silly that you would need another $1,000 if you're a multimillionaire to hit brett favre harder. >> we've got to take a break. ahead this morning, we're going to talk about a contraception controversy, melinda gates taking heat from bringing birth control to developing countries. the catholic church is not for it. khari lee and the new decree itive collection coming to you live. [ male announcer ] this is the at&t network. in here, every powerful collaboration is backed by an equally powerful and secure cloud. that cloud is in the network, so it can deliver all the power of the network itself. bringing people together to develop the best ideas -- and providing the apps and computing power to make new ideas real. it's the cloud from at&t. with new ways to work together, business works better. ♪ with new ways to work together, business works better. we charge everything else... maybe it's time to recharge the human battery. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system from beautyrest... it's you, fully charged. get a free set of sheets when you buy a select beautyrest mattress. hurry, offer ends soon. we're coming to you live from the ruby slipper cafe. we're talking about melinda gates getting major criticism by catholic bloggers about the new birth control program she's been promoting. the gates foundation provides contraception to 120 million women in developing countries, bloggers claim that that not only violates the sank kitty of sex but -- dr. sanjay gupta spoke. here's where he asked her and what she said. >> you're completely comfortable being a practicing catholic and advocating for this and encouraging funding it? >> to hear a poor woman say to me, i can't find the means to feed this child and if i have seven children, there's no way i can feed and keep alive seven children. i think somebody needs to give voice to that and i think it's important i do that. >> it's an interesting dilemma, she's in, i think, as a practicing catholic, very strict on birth control issue. as a woman who's saying, my mission is to make practical actual change for women who need it in countries that have such major poverty issues they cannot have more children, you know. >> it seems so logical that you should -- we're not talking abortion, it seems so logical that you should be able to use contraception but i know you as a republican can't just -- can't just say it. and i don't how you really feel but you -- it see