Transcripts For MSNBC News Nation 20131031

Jurisdiction and whether if this was a crime, whether it could be tried in federal court. He did not say whether he thinks theres enough evidence to warrant criminal civil rights violation. Hes just looking into it right now. Now, within the past few minutes, we did get some reaction from the county sheriffs office. Lieutenant stride jones says that, quote, we welcome the state attorneys investigation. We are willing to listen to what they find, but we stand behind our initial investigation. Tamron . So gabe, were going to speak with his parents here in a second, but back to one of the questions the u. S. Attorney plans to look into is the cause of death here. The Police Department has maintained that it was an accident, but this separate, independent autopsy showed Blunt Force Trauma. What did he say specifically as it relates to that . Reporter he did not say anything specific with regards to that. This was a very carefully worded statement. He took no questions. So he couldnt get into details. As he mentioned, the Sheriffs Department and the Georgia Bureau of investigation conducted this autopsy shortly after Kendrick Johnsons death. Five months later, the family exhumed the body and hired a private pathologist to conduct that second autopsy. As you mentioned, that second autopsy determined that it was Blunt Force Trauma to the right next. But the u. S. Attorney is he got those findings. He got the second autopsy. Hes been talking with a private investigator that the family hired. Because of all that, he found it sufficient to open this federal investigation. Again, he did not say whether he believes the first autopsy or the second autopsy. Thats something we should find out. Okay, gabe. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Kendricks parents join me now along with their attorneys. Thank you for joining us. Mr. And ms. Johnson, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Mr. Johnson, let me start with asking you your reaction that the u. S. Attorney is now investigating as you had requested and your wife requested, theyre now looking into your sons death. What is your reaction . We are happy theyre reopening the investigation. That puts us one step closer to the truth. And you believe the truth is what, sir . My son was murdered. Ms. Johnson, i said to you the last time no parent should ever experience what the two of you have, whether accident or not here. But youve had to deal with this lack of closure as your husband stated and you told me you believe that kendrick that your son was murdered here. Why would authorities there cover this up if that is the case . Thats what we are trying to find out. We dont i dont understand why. Thats why were waiting for the truth. What did you see in the video i know that the portion that weve shown our audiences is an edited portion. What in this video you believe confirms that something happened to your son and that it was not an accident . Because there was too many other people inside the gym for kendrick to fall inside the mat and nobody not see nothing or hear nothing. And that was originally part of the information you received, that your son was alone at the time. And this video shows he was not. Yes. Benjamin crump, we know you were involved with the Trayvon Martin case. Why have you joined this family in this effort to find out what happened to their son, if it was not an accident, as the Sheriffs Department has stated . Well, when the Johnson Family and i first talked, then i talked to attorney king. We all came to the conclusion as everybody in america has come to the conclusion, tamron, that it is asinine to believe that an exceptional athlete, 17 years old, would climb into a wrestling mat, get stuck and die. It defies all logic, all the laws of physics and all common sense. He was murdered, and were trying to find out who murdered him and whos covering up for the individuals involved. It is unfortunately a reallife murder mystery, and we have to solve this mystery. C. B. , i want to the play a little more of what the u. S. Attorney said regarding how he will go about investigating kendricks death. Lets play a bit of that, please. Facts, not feelings or opinions, no matter how sincere they may be, are the basis of a legal investigation. I do this with an open mind, neither accepting nor rejecting the opinions of anyone who has previously investigated the circumstances of his death. He says facts, not feelings or opinions, but some of the fact you and the family are presenting is the second autopsy. I think people have a difficult time understanding if this autopsy, an independent autopsy, says Blunt Force Trauma to the head was a cause of death here, how has that not been priority number one as part of this investigation for the Sheriffs Department and even with this u. S. Attorney . That seems to me not to be feelings or opinion. That would seem to be, if this is accurate, fact. Yes, and i would agree with you the fact that you have a second autopsy that focuses upon an injury that was never discussed or identified by the first autopsy, that this injury was identified first by the emts who were there at the gym within a matter of minutes after his body was discovered and the fact that the second autopsy says that the findings are inconsistent with positional affix ya, which was given as the first autopsys cause of death. So while we are totally appreciative of the u. S. Attorneys decision to reopen the investigation, we dont think that he should have to govern his investigation by feelings. We think that the facts speak for themselves. We certainly hope that if he proceeds as zealously as i have reason to believe that he will, then he will have more than enough evidence in which to back a decision in favor of the johnsons. Why was it so difficult to get this Surveillance Video . The judge ordered the Surveillance Video and documents be released yesterday. Why was it difficult to get this . As i understand again, isnt there more that will be provided to you and the family . Yes. We have approximately 1900 hours of video that the attorney for the sheriff is attempting to reproduce not only for the family but for all of the requests that have come in from news outlets. Why it took so long for us to get to this point, i really dont have a good answer for, except for, you know, weve been stone walled each and every step along the way as weve tried to uncover the evidence in this case. But we hope that as a result of not only the involvement of the u. S. Attorneys office but also a coroners inquest, which we intend to go forward with, that there will be more evidence uncovered pointing to why Kendrick Johnson was murdered. C. B. , the Sheriffs Department originally was reluctant, as i understand, to release the video saying it featured minors who did not consent to having their images shown. Again, for people at home, any time that theres a Surveillance Video in the school, one would believe that it is there to monitor the students if something goes wrong or if there is an investigation of any kind. So the conversation or the concern that images of minors would be shown, the very existence of the camera in a school you know that images of minors would always be captured 24 7 in that building if they are there. Thats correct. And of course were accustomed to seeing all sorts of incidents taking place on school buses, and its never a problem to release the identities, the images of individuals who may have been involved in an accident or criminal conduct. So we thought that this explanation given by the Sheriffs Department and the School System that the release of the video was tantamount to a quote unquote academic record made no sense whatsoever. Again, it appeared to be consistent with the kinds of answers that the johnsons had been experiencing all along, and these answers, of course, we believe were not designed to enlighten us but rather to shield us from who was involved in causing their sons death. And mr. Johnson, with that said, that this challenge that you and your wife have faced just to get the Surveillance Video, we know why youre not giving up. This is your son. And you want to know and deserve to know exactly what happened to him. But i imagine that has added to the pain and the difficulty that both of you have faced. Youre grieving and then in a sense youre also not a sense, you are also fighting just to see the Surveillance Video of the last minutes or the minutes leading up to your sons death. Yes, that is something that we just going to have to do because we want to know the real reason and who killed our son. And benjamin crump, let me ask you what is the next step here. We know that it is the investigation, but as far as the legal team thats in place to help this family, what would you like to see happen next here . Well, as attorney king said, we are looking forward to the coroners inquest. We think that the biggest thing that has to happen is we have to change the manner of death and the cause of death from being accidental to homicide to make the Sheriffs Department reopen their investigation and do a full and proper investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson. The Video Surveillance was not the home run we wanted. It just gets us on first base. We think its going to provide answers. But we have to change this manner of death because it is a shame that they would call his death an accident. And just quickly, c. B. , i understand some of the documents released were written testimony from students, details of kendricks facebook page, details of a fight police investigated soon after his death, and phone records here. Have you been surprised by any of the information thats come particularly some of the testimony of students, is there anything there you feel points to what the family believes happened . Yes, however, i should say that in the county there is quite a bit of fear amongst the residents. So information has been shared with the family but in bits and pieces. Certainly not in the manner in which were accustomed to taking statements when you do an investigation so that you can follow up on those statements and, you know, be thoroughly comfortable as to their reliability. But we are already in possession of a lot of information that was reflected in those reports and were glad we have unredacted reports so that we can make contact with the students that were interviewed by the police and conduct a more thorough examination of the facts. Well, thank you for your time, and especially to mr. And mrs. Johnson, as i know you continue to struggle every day and this continues to be an unanswered question that you have, what happened to your child. Thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, our new nbc poll shows the public upset with both parties in washington. The president s Approval Rating has hit an alltime low, but its nowhere near where the approval or lack thereof of the Republican Party stands right now. Plus, hope and then sadness after a potential break in the case of a missing autistic boy. A picture with a striking resemblance to the boy has gone viral, but police in the last few hours now say this picture of a young man on the subway in new york is not avonte. The faa is now relaxing inflight rules on Electronic Devices. Fliers are one step closer to being able to do something closer to touchdown and takeoff. And please, join our conversation on twitter any time. You can find me tamronhall. My team is newsnation. Nothing says, youre my 1 copilot, like a milkbone biscuit. Say it with milkbone. Today im proud to announce that im expanding and enhancing select usa to create the first ever fully coordinated u. S. Government effort to recruit businesses to invest and create new jobs in the united states. President obama of course speaking in the past hour at a conference in washington designed to attract foreign investment. The president did not talk about the problems with the Health Care Rollout today, but these comments come at a time our new nbc news wall street journal poll Shows Americans are increasingly unconfident in the president. Our poll shows the president s Approval Rating is now at an alltime low of 42 . That is down from 52 in our poll in january. Its approaching, according to the pollsters, president george w. Bushs territory. He went from a high of 75 in 2001 to 39 at this same point in his second term. But if the president s numbers are bad, the numbers for the republicans are worse. The image of the Republican Party hit another alltime low. Just 22 see the gop positively. 53 view the party negatively. Nbc News White House correspondent Kristen Welker joins us. Kristen, the president was in massachusetts yesterday discussing the Health Care Rollout and his optimism for the process and ultimately what the American People who are uninsured will get in the end here. Today the pivot was to the economy as well. Reporter right. And White House Press secretary jay carney emphasized youre going to hear the president continue to talk about the economy while they try to troubleshoot given this rocky rollout of the president S Health Care website. I think, tamron, in terms of what youre seeing in those numbers that you just mapped out in our latest nbc news wall street journal poll, it really shows an accumulation of setbacks for this administration. Everything from syria to questions over the nsa and of course the latest over the Health Care Rollout. Whats interesting, though, if you look at how the nation is viewing health care specifically, that hasnt changed all that much, tamron. Our poll shows that 37 see the law as a good idea versus 47 who see it as a bad idea. That is down slightly from the 38 who saw it as a good idea and 43 who saw it as a bad idea in the previous poll. Now, i think the administration has time to turn some of the president s Approval Rating numbers around. Thats going to depend on this website working by the end of november, as the administration has promised. And also, calming public concerns. Some of the issues brought up recently relate to security, as it relates to this website. Today White House Press secretary jay carney reiterating the administrations line that they believe this website is a secure location despite the fact that some republicans have questioned that. Also, Senate Republicans today blocked the president s nominee to head the federal Housing Finance agency, which oversees fannie mae, freddie mac. Another battle to discuss here, kristen. Reporter another battle. Mel watts, they did block that nomination just recently. The white house saying that they are determined to stand by that nomination. Hes a real flash point. Mel watts, a representative who served for 21 years, including on the Financial Services committee. The white House Democrats believe that he is qualified for this role. Republicans say hes too political, one of the reasons that some voted to block his nomination. I wont get into the nittygritty, tamron, but harry reid can bring his name up again. So the white House Democrats determined to stand by him. I should also say today, tamron that, patricia malette was also blocked today. All right. Thank you very much, kristen. And new york city at it again. From calorie counts to soda ban, the city will soon get tough on tobacco. A new law would ban the sale to people who are younger than 21 years old. The councilmember who sponsored the bill will join us live to explain why this needs to be done ain his opinion. Plus this is more an issue parents should be working with their kids on. It seems inappropriate to me. So this halloween, one woman has decided to shame kids she thinks are obese. So today instead of candy, shes going to give them a harsh letter about their weight. It is todays gut check. I started parttime, now im a manager. N. My employer matches my charitable giving. Really. I get bonuses even working parttime. Where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. Healthcare starting under 40 a month. I got education benefits. I work at walmart. Im a pharmacist. Sales associate. I manage produce. I work in logistics. Theres more to walmart than you think. Vo opportunity. Thats the real walmart. Why would i take one pepcid® when i could take tums® throughout the day when my heartburn comes back . cause you only have to take one. [ male announcer ] dont be like the burns. Just one pepcid® complete works fast and lasts. [ male announcer ] youve reached the age where you dont back down from a challenge. This is the age of knowing how to make things happen. So, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way . Talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. Ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. To avoid longterm injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. Stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. This is the age of taking action. Viagra. Talk to your doctor. Well, smokers younger than 21 in new york city will soon be barred from buying cigarettes and those new fancy ecigarettes, in fact. This after the new York City Council voted to raise the age for buying tobacco from 18 to 21. That, by the way, is the strictest age limit of any major american city. But other parts of the country could soon be following new yorks lead. A similar measure is expected to come to a vote this year in hawaii and the state of new jersey is reportedly considering a proposal as well. The new york city law will go into effect six months after its signed by mayor michael bloomberg, whos a strong supporter of smoking restrictions. Joining me now, the new York City Councilman who sponsored the bill. Thank you so much for joiningfo. As i understand it, your mother started smoking when she was 18. You say it took her life and that is what prompted you to do this. It did. Yeah, she smoked for about 30 years. The last 20 years of her life were smoke free, but the damage had been done. You just see this so often. I felt like it was important to try to do something. And the city of new york has done wonderful things. When we first came in, in 2002, within six years we had reduced teen smoking by 50 . So when the government takes action, we really can do good things, but since 2007 we kind of plateaued at about 8. 5 in a rate of teen smoking, which is much lower than the country as a whole, but we feel we can do better. What we found in new york city is that if people can make it to 21 without smoking, theyre probably not going to start. So we think this could lead to a reduction in teen smoking between 18 to 20 by as much as 50 and even more importantly between 14 and 17 years old by as much as 70 because most of the people who buy cigarettes for underage kids are between 18 and 20. So i think were going to get a double hit on this one. When you say teen, though, were not talking 13. People believe the minute youre 18, youre an adult. Theres people fighting for this country, raising their own kids. Were not talking 12, 13yearolds. Were talking 18yearolds. Is this an example, some people say, of the government yet again from soda bans to transfat to whatever, telling us how to live our lives . And over a legal substance, by the way. Duly noted. But weve been working with the new York City Health department. Theyve found that theres a big difference between someone whos 18 and 21 in terms of the kind of decisions they make, particularly if youre talking about something thats addictive. The amount of nicotine it would take to hook someone at 18 is less than that for someone who is 21. So and this bill was put forward by me eight years ago. Its been eight years in the making, trying to do the science. We certainly didnt want to move this forward if we felt we were not on, you know, sound, scientific ground. Beyond the issue of whether or not the government is always hovering over us and policing us, you have james calvin with the new York Association of convenience stores. He says 18 and 19 and 20yearolds who smoke wont be able to buy cigarettes in our stores, but theyll still be able to smoke because theres a thriving black market in new york city that accounts for half of the Cigarette Market here. So half of the market, according to him, exists underground in new york city where you can buy anything these days thats a knockoff. Id say two things. Number one, i dont really believe that number. One of the things we did yesterday is pass a bill that was put forward by the mayor that has all kinds of new measures that the city could take to crack down on the black market because we realize doing this can lead to more of a black market. So the bill that we did yesterday with this bill is a bill that would give the city much more tools in going after that black market. We felt it was important to do both together because we realize that was an issue. And right now part of that measure that you said, it sets a minimum price of 10. 50 a pack for tobacco and cigarettes and steps up Law Enforcement on Illegal Tobacco sales. Yes, yes. All right. Well, well see what happens. Im sure a lot of people have strong opinions about this one. Yes, they do. No shortage of that. I bet so. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Of course. Coming up, a famous british artist alters a 50 painting and returns it to a thrift store. Now it could go for 300,000 in an Online Auction that ends tonight. And new revelations about the embattled toronto mayor. First rob ford denied smoking crack cocaine. Well, now the police chief says it has obtained video that shows otherwise. [ mom ] over the years, ive learned how to stretch my party budget. But when my socalled bargain brand towel made a mess of things, i switched to bounty basic. Look one sheet of bounty basic is 50 stronger than a full sheet of the bargain brand. Bounty basic. The strong but affordable picker upper. Medicare open enrollment. Of year again. Bounty basic. Time to compare plans and costs. You dont have to make changes. But it never hurts to see if you can find better coverage, save money, or both. And check out the preventive benefits you get after the Health Care Law. Open enrollment ends december 7th. So nows the time. Visit medicare. Gov or call 1800medicare about yoplaits fall favorites. So we brought pumpkin pie and apple crisp back for a limited time. See . You really do call the shots. Yoplait. It is so good. announcer scottrade knows our and invest their own way. With scottrades smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. Their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in realtime. Plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. Because they know i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Im with scottrade. announcer ranked highest in Investor Satisfaction with selfdirected services by j. D. Power and associates. Welcome back. Syria has destroyed all of its chemical weapons production facilities. The International Watchdog group that won the Nobel Peace Prize this month says its teams inspected chemical weapons sites across syria and confirmed the Production Equipment had been destr destroyed. Nbcs atia abawi joins us from beirut, lebanon, with the latest on this. Is this ahead of the time schedule that people were expecting here . Reporter hi there, tamron. It is ahead of the time schedule by a day. They were expected to destroy all the production facilities by november 1st. But the fact they beat it by a day does show the commitment that the syrians have and theyre implying they are serious about this deal that was brokered by the u. S. And russia that prevented the u. S. Strikes on syria back in september. Lets also just remember that this is just the production facilities thats mixing and filling equipment. They still have 1,000 metric tons, more than 200 million pounds, of toxic agents and munitions they still need to destroy. That being said, the next deadline for the Syrian Government is november 15th when theyre supposed to submit a detailed plan on how they will go about destroying these chemical weapons that they have left throughout the country. As you mentioned, the opcw has visited sites throughout the country to confirm the destruction. They were able to visit 21 out of 23 sites. The two sites they werent able to visit was because of the danger involved. This is an ongoing civil war, and its very dangerous, but the syrians said that these production facilities that they werent able to visit have actually been abandoned anyway. So the next task thats coming forth and by mid2014 the syrians must destroy all of their chemical weaponry. Thats going to be the hardest part of it all because this is a bloody, divided country at the moment. Its going to be very difficult for them to reach most of these some of these facilities. Atia, thank you. And more now on that nbc news wall street journal poll and what the numbers signal for president obama. Our nbc news First Read Team sums it up this way. Public places a curse on all of washington. Our pollster described the results as a shock wave which shows just how much recent events have sapped the american spirit. Joining me live, nbc news senior Political Editor mark murray. Mark, you need to walk us off the ledge with that. That is not inspiring, let me tell you. Sapped our american spirit. Well, you have to consider all the events that weve witnessed over the past month and a half. Whether it was the Government Shutdown, the litigation of the Health Care Law and of course the tough Health Care Law rollout the administration has had as well as the debate over syria. You were just, of course, talking about some of the updates regarding syria and its chemical weapons. Just the totality of all those stories, all the dysfunction in washington, d. C. , has just soured the american public. As you mentioned, the poll we had a couple weeks ago, the first shock wave really hit the Republican Party. The big headline was how the Republican Partys numbers started to tank. We see with this poll two weeks later, this shock wave hits president obama and everyone else and all of washington is indicted. You point out the president s numbers. His Approval Rating hitting a new low of 42 . David axelrod was asked about this. This is his assessment. I think he needs to step up his visibility on these questions. I have no doubt hes doing it internally because i know how he operates. But the public needs to see that. I think thats whats driving some of those personal ratings down. Your assessment, mark, on that. I think hes right. You saw the president out in boston championing hiS Health Care law, trying to rebut a lot of the critics regarding the law and the implementation of that. Thats really the first time weve seen the president in such a public way defending hiS Health Care law recently. It was just two weeks ago where the Government Shutdown ended and president obama was doing a lot of media appearances, a lot of campaigning regarding that. Pretty much after the government reopened you saw not as much activity coming from the obama white house. I think that David Axelrods comments probably are going to predict that were going to see a whole lot more of the president talking about the Health Care Law as they try to fix the website. Right. And speaking of fixing the website, i was just handed information that i believe you have as well regarding this tech surge. Key personnel have now been added to address the problems on healthcare. Gov. What can you tell me about this . This is just trying to get as many people as possible to help pitch in to get this up and running. Tamron, the white house has said they want it operational for most people by november 30th. Again, the reason why, and you and i have talked about this many times, is they expect much of the enrollment to come in december. So they need to have all the kinks worked out. They need to have this system working and trying to get everyone on board and bringing people from some of these wellknown companies shows this is a big priority for the obama white house. One of the people that are coming one of the persons coming on board, michael dickerson. Hes a site reliability engineer on leave from google. So they are, as the president said, tapping what they believe to be the best and the brightest to come in and try to fix this problem. Obviously, when we think of tech, we think of google. Right. And one of the challenges the administration has is youre bringing all these people in as far as being able to make sure its delegated. You know, tamron, in the News Business and almost a lot of bureaucracies, sometimes the more people you bring in, the harder it is to actually get things done. Of course, as theyre tapping into all these people, they need to make sure they end up having a good command structure to be able to fix all these issues with the now so many more cooks in the kitchen. Theyre now saying folks from red hat and oracle included in the dozens of people brought in to reenforce and strengthen the team they have working on the technical issues. Mark, thank you so much. See you tomorrow. Well, Airline Passengers are one step closer to keeping their smart phones and tablets on during takeoff and landing. This after the faa announced just today that airlines can expand passenger use of portable Electronic Devices during all phases of a flight as long as the device remains in that Airplane Mode that im sure youre familiar with. So these new guidelines will allow the use of tablets, ereaders, dvd players during flight. However, cell phone calls and Text Messages will still be banned. Some Flight Attendants say the new faa rules will put them in a position of being tablet police and could create confrontation with passengers. Joining me now, nbc news aviation expert, captain john cox. Thank you for your time. Good to see you. Off the top, you have some Flight Attendants concerned theyre going to be in more confrontations with people who simply dont want to be told what to do. Well, i think weve had this issue with personal Electronic Devices for many years. I expect that the rules released today are going to actually help the Flight Attendants. I think that the opportunity for people to use these person Electronic Devices is going to deescalate any conflicts with the Flight Attendants that might have occurred in the past. One Flight Attendant, a 26year Flight Attendant and National Safety and security coordinator said, its going to become more challenging to determine whose device is okay and whose isnt. My greatest concern is that its going to put Flight Attendants at risk for more confrontation. Shes a Flight Attendant saying this. Well, i certainly respect her opinion, but i think that they have had so many different conflicts over the years with personal Electronic Devices that this is actually going to be a help and a step forward. I think the faa has acted responsibly here, and theyve done it in such a way that it maximizes the safety for the passengers and the operators and minimizes the potential for conflict with crude members. Unfortunately, Flight Attendants have had to be the enforcement of the federal aviation regulations on personal Electronic Devices for many years. I think this is a step forward. Now, in this being a step forward with the faa, as i understand it, each airline will determine if they will implement this, right . Its delta right now is working on its plan to submit to the faa. Is it up to then american to come up with their own plan, united, and so on . Each of the airlines will put together an application with the faa. The faa will approve that application of the procedure changes. Once thats approved, and it will vary slightly from airline to airline, but once thats approved, they can go ahead and implement it. As it stands, the belief at one point in time that these electronics affect the plane somehow and could compromise our safety, thats been resolved and we know thats not the case. The concern from years ago was the type of transmitters used. There are still types of transmitters that are very inappropriate on aircraft. But we have been able to show scientifically that things such as ereaders and nooks, those sorts of things, those do not pose a hazard to the airplane. Once that proof was in place, the faa moved appropriately. All right, captain. Thank you so much for your time president greatly appreciate it. My pleasure. A lot of people will be happy about that. And a new picture. This picture on the right on the subway, you see the bars there. Well, it renewed open in the search for a missing autistic boy. A lot of people were sending this out on facebook overnight. Well, despite a striking resemblance, police say that it is not avonte. What this means for the nearly monthlong investigation for this child, the search for him. Plus miss, you all right . Miss . A bus driver saves a woman who was threatening to jump from an overpass. Were going to have more on him. It is one of the stories around the news nation. 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Online or on the phone, we help you hire right the first time. With honest reviews on over 720 local services. Keeping up with these two is more than a full time job, and i dont have time for unreliable companies. Angies list definitely saves me time and money. For over 18 years weve helped people take care of the things that matter most. Join today. The search for a 14yearold boy with autism missing for nearly a month got a jolt when a picture of a boy thought to be him went viral. Police have confirmed it is not avonte. The photo was taken tuesday by a 13yearold who posted it to his account after asking the boy if he was avonte and getting no response. Nbcs katy tur has been following this story and joins me now. Last night people were all over social media showing this picture, believing or at least hoping. Authorities say theyve talked to this boy. Unfortunately, they really did think it was him. It looks so much like him. Even avontes father said he couldnt tell whether or not it was him. But he was wearing different clothes. There was some concern, some talk, why would he be in different clothes . He looked well fed. But theres a lot of hope out there. The cops have been looking. Volunteers have been looking. Every subway station youre seeing not only posters, but they have the announcements looking for this child. Last month the Police Commissioner said he has less hope that hes going to be found alive. That angered the mother, as you could imagine. No mother wants to hear that anybody is deciding to maybe look less for their child. The commissioner said thats not the case. Theyre looking through surveillance photos. Its certainly a really tough story because the kid has autism. Our friend Holly Robinson is meeting with the family. Shes been a volunteer out there looking for him. A number of organizations have participated. This has been a ground swell of folks who have given up their time and weekends to look for him. Its this mystery of what happened. Well, the idea of a 7yearold being lost in the city is hard. But a child who is 14, who has potentially the mind of a 7yearold, he cant help himself. He doesnt speak. That has made everybody across this entire town super concerned. Everybodys trying to help. Unfortunately, though, there just hasnt been a valid spotting. 500 tips so far to nypd. None of them have panned out. Right now the reward for any information leading to his safe return is at 95,000. Well, again, for people who and many of you sent us tweets and Facebook Messages showing this picture and saying what about this. The police have said they confirmed the identity of that boy on the subway. It is not avonte. So the search continues. But its important not to give up. Thats what the family is saying. Please keep looking for our son. Thank you, katy. A massive storm system is moving across a stretch of the country from new england to texas this halloween. It tops our stolook around the s nation today. Tornado warnings have been in effect. More than 40 Million People could be affected. Keep that in mind if youre planning to go out and trick or treat. The weather has already triggered flash floods in texas and dangerous winds in parts of the midwest. Officials in some states are postponing trick or treating until friday. The british graffiti artist known as banksy is creating more buzz after buying a picture for 50 from a manhattan thrift shop. He donated it right back to the store after tweeting it. He added a nazi soldier to the scene, calling it the finality of evil. An auction for the painting is tonight. Right now if you want the banksy portrait, its now over 300,000. All of the proceeds will go to housing works, which is one of the charities i support in this city. It helps People Living with hiv and a. I. D. S. Fantastic program. If you have 300 grand, go bid. And a bus driver in buffalo, new york, went far above the call of duty earlier this month and is being hailed a hero after he talks this woman out of jumping to her death. Surveillance video from the bus shows the moments that Darnell Barton spotted that woman standing on the ledge of a highway overpass and decided to stop his bus full of passengers to jump into action and help her. Eventually, authorities and officers aririved to help that woman out. Up next, its our news nation gut check. Its perfect for halloween because instead of candy, one woman says shes not giving out candy to kids she believes are obese. Instead, shes going to give them a letter that says in part, your child is moderately obese and should not be consuming sugar and treats. Gee, thanks. Is she going too far . I started parttime, now im a manager. N. My employer matches my charitable giving. Really. I get bonuses even working parttime. Where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. Healthcare starting under 40 a month. I got education benefits. I work at walmart. Im a pharmacist. Sales associate. I manage produce. I work in logistics. Theres more to walmart than you think. Vo opportunity. Thats the real walmart. Why would i take one pepcid® when i could take tums® throughout the day when my heartburn comes back . cause you only have to take one. [ male announcer ] dont be like the burns. Just one pepcid® complete works fast and lasts. Okay. It is time for the news nation gut check. A woman in north dakota has sparked a halloween controversy by announcing she plans to give children she believes are obese letters instead of candy when they come trick or treating. Part of this letter reads, take a look here. It says, your child is, in my opinion, moderately obese and should not be consuming sugar and treats to the extent of some children this halloween season. My hope is that you will step up as a parent and ration candy this halloween and not allow your child to continue these unhealthy eating habits. But eating disorder specialists say the letter could obviously do more harm than good. Just that type of thing that first some kids if theyre vulnerable might trigger major problems. But others say that Childhood Obesity is even more dangerous and the letter sends out some muchneeded tough love. What does your gut tell you . Do you think this womans letter is out of line . Go to newsnation. Msnbc. Com. If she lived in my neighborhood when i was a kid, we would leave a steaming pile of something on her front door. Just being honest. That does it for this edition of news nation. We will give you candy any time you want. My favorite is candy corn. Have a safe halloween. The cycle is up next. Before they sat down, one more time, just for themselves. Before the last grandchild. Before the first grandchild. Smile. 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