And good morning, everyone. Welcome to weekends with alex bit. Witt. Im richard lui. The deadliest day in months in the ukraine. At least 42 are dead as protests broke out. Pro russian separatists and government supporters clashed in the streets and threw firebombs and stones as riot police attempted to suppress the flairup. In a statement this morning a spokesman for russian president Vladimir Putin claimed that the new government in kiev was a direct participant in the violence in odessa. There was some good news today that pro russian separatists have released the European Military observers who were kidnapped eight days ago. Were in Eastern Ukraine with the latest. Reporter the authorities here in ukraine insist that their offensive to try to regain control on the part of the eastern control of the country is not over. Despite a day of set backs in which they lost men and at least two helicopters and in which the Battle Ground to a halt, they say this morning they renewed the attack on the town which is just short of the separatist held strong hold of slavyansk, their target. If they tend to press that battle to conclusion, from what we know of the defenses in slavyansk, it could be very bloody, indeed. All the while the world is reacting in horror to the death toll yesterday in the southern port city of odessa, 500 miles west of here. Crowds of pro and antiukrainians fought running battles in the street ending up with a major building burning down killing possibly 30 people, maybe more. Most of them pro russians. Of course, that raises the specter of how moscow and president putin is going to react. He has claimed repeatedly the right to intervene and defense of ethnic russians here in the ukraine. He has the tanks to do it, the question is whether he will see this as an opportunity. James mates, thank you for the opportunity. Joining us from the white house, kristen welker. Amongst the back drop of the violence were seeing and a real spark as has been reported, president obama, german chancellor Angela Merkel, they met yesterday. They were watching that very carefully. What came of that meeting . Reporter well, there were some significant developments, richard. President obama, german chancellor Angela Merkel announcing that they had agreed to move forward with sectoral sanctions if it continues to worsen after the may 25th election. I dont anticipate that we will see any new sanctions prior to that, but that is the date that you want to be watching for. So essentially another stern warning to russia. Now the reason why this is significant, richard, is because there had been deep divisions between the United States and its European Partners about this issue of sectoral sanctions. The u. S. Wanted to move forward with them. European partners were hesitant because of course their economies are so tightly linked to russias economy, particularly when it comes to the issue of energy. Interestingly, when president obama was listing the various sectors of russias economy that could be sanctioned, he didnt talk about the Energy Sector so that is something to be looking for as well. But, again, another stern warning coming out of that meeting that president obama had with german chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday. Richard. Kristen, as youre looking forward and youre talking about how theyre together on sec to recall sanctions, we have to look back as well and there are some tensions that were still in the air a bit. Tell us about that. Reporter absolutely. Tensions over the revelations of the nsa spying program. Of course this is something that infuriated german chancellor Angela Merkel. Yesterday president obama tried to say that there had been great progress but also acknowledged that theyre still working to smooth over the differences and the frustrations that were created in the wake of the revelations by edward snowden. Heres what president obama and lang merkeling had to sa necm had to say. We had a few difficulties. This is why theres going to be a dialogue between our two countries and this is also why there needs to be and will have to be more than just business as usual. Reporter now in the wake of the snowden revelations president obama banned spying on world leaders. Berlin has been pushing for a no spy agreement but the u. S. Says they dont have that type of agreement with any country. Richard, back to you. Kristen welker live at the white house. Thank you. Now to chilling new details emerging about the foiled bomb plot and shooting. Officials say if it were not for a tip from concerned local resident, one specifically, they may not have been able to stop ladues deadly plan. Nbc newss Pete Williams has the story. Good morning, pete. Richard, good morning. Some parents of School Children have started sending flowers to one of their fellow residents, a woman who was doing one of her evening chores on tuesday and set in motion a chain of events that police say averted a potentially dangerous attack. Chelsea schelhaus of wauseka, minnesota, said she was doing her dishes and she awe a young man enter a storage unit. Thinking it looked suspicious, she called 911. The fact that he was sitting here struggling for ten minutes trying to open the storage unit, something didnt feel right about it. Police say the 17yearold they found inside, john david ladue, was in the final stages of planning a deadly attack on his own school. He intended to set off numerous bombs during the lunch hour, kill the School Resource officer as he responded to help, set fires and shoot students and staff. Reporter in Court Documents investigators say ladue obtained seven guns and built six working bombs. Members of the bomb squad they said were shocked by the amount of bombmaking chemicals and components he amassed. Police say ladue had been planning his attack for nine months recording how he set off practice bombs in march near the play grouped of an elementary school. They say his plan was to shoot and kill his sister at home, light a fire nearby to distract first responders, set off the bombs at school and shoot students as they fled. The information has been revealed indicates that we have escaped what could have been a horrific experience. Reporter investigators say ladue was ready to carry out the attack within the next two weeks and they say they might have if not for a woman who happened to be looking out her window at the right moment. Grateful parents have started sending her flowers. Thank you whoever sent them. Theyre very beautiful. Reporter for now ladue is being held in juvenile detention but the state has filed legal papers to have him moved into adult court. Richard . Pete williams, thank you so much for that report. At the half hour we will hear more from the woman who made that 911 call and talked to reporters with more details about the plot. Now to the woman at the center of the firestorm surrounding l. A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling abcs Barbara Walters she believes he is not a racist. V. Stiviano was originally on the tapes arguing with the 80yearold when he made racially charged remarks. Shes now coming to his defense. Is Donald Sterling a racist . No, i dont believe it in my heart. Have you heard him saying derogatory things about minorities in general, blacks in particular . Absolutely. Youve heard him seder rog tori things . Yes. Dont they sound racist to you . I think the things he says are not what he feels. Anyone can say anything in the heat of the moment. Alleged racist remarks well, stiviano goes on to say sterling is from a, quote, different generation and she did not take his comments about blacks and other minorities to be racist there. In dujour magazine, sterling is speaking out saying, quote, i wish i just paid her off. Sterlings statements led to the nba giving him a lifetime ban and 2. 5 million fine. Later well talk with a sports attorney about the legal strategy sterling might take to avoid selling his team. Stick around for that. A potentially deadly virus has reached the u. S. For the first time. An infected patient lies isolated in Good Condition with a deadly middle east respiratory syndrome or mrs. The man recently traveled to saudi arabia. Health officials are trying to find out if he had contact with anyone. The general population is not at risk. There has not been a clear case of persontoperson transmission outside of the Health Care Setting yet so i think we need to keep this in perspective. There is no specific treatment, cure, or vaccination for this virus. Experts saying it is not as contagious as influenza. We have more rain expected in florida today. Neighborhoods do not need it certainly. Streets and cars remain submerged in tampa following heavy rain falling friday. Many found the only way they could get around was to walk through the flood waters themselves. Up north an ice tsunami of sorts for those living in michigans upper peninsula, the u. P. The winds pushing ice farther in more than usual. Some of it stacking up alongside homes. For the 30 years weve been here weve never seen the icebergs and the ice come inasmuch as it has this year. This year, like i said, its almost like a winter tsunami. Were in may. For more on the forecast the weather channels ray stagic is here. Good morning. This tornado outbreak we had was saved by that rain in florida. This could have spread further east but that rain shut it off. The areas may be under the gun again. Mayflower, tupelo and into mississippi and arkansas respectively. This is later in the week. The next chance of possibly seeing some severe weather. As we go through tomorrow in the northeast, we have damp weather. Unfortunately more cool weather coming in. Most of the showers tonight, tomorrow, new york, boston, the rain totals less than a quarter inch. The warmth will come in. The jet goes north, the mild temperatures come on in from atlanta off towards charlotte and down into places like mobile and jacksonville. This is where we had all of that flooding rain. 20 inches of rain in two days in pensacola. Dry weather. The cleanup will be able to continue. The heavy rain out across parts of florida, heavy rain coming into tampa as we speak. Little noise, thunder, fire, looks like a slow drive around. Then lets get into louisville here for the Kentucky Derby. Beautiful weather, sprinkles off to the east. We have great weather in the forecast as the satellite picture andrey dar showing plenty of clear sky around. Beautiful day in Churchill Downs. Just a few clouds around. Heres what it looks like at 8 00 in the morning, 50s, 60s, for post time temperatures in the 70s. Ray, that is perfect to hang out in the infield, no doubt. Beautiful weather. Thank you, sir. From tattoos to knowing your neighbors and reading the newspaper. The new poll, times are changing for americans. After seattles big announcement, is there still a need for a National Minimum wage . Well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38 more than allergy medicines alone. So you can breathe and sleep. Shut your mouth and sleep right. Breathe right. [ female announcer ] theres a gap out there. Thats keeping you apart from the healthcare you deserve. But if healthcare changes. If it becomes simpler. The gap begins to close. When frustration and paperwork decrease. When doctors are better connected. When grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home. The gap closes even more. And you begin to live a healthier, happier life. So lets simplify things. Lets close the gap between people and care. I dont always have timeh to eat like i should. D care. Thats why i like glucerna shakes. They have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [male announcer] glucerna. There are reports now that Speaker Boehner is preparing to create a special select committee to look into benghazi. Is that something you have talked to him about at all . Just what is your reaction to that . That would be news to me. Ive not had any i have not been informed by the speaker of his plans to establish such a commission, is it . Benghazi is such a very sad event, more than event, a tragedy, and for the exploitation of it to be just never ending by the republicans is really hard to understand. All right. That was House Minority leader nancy pelosi speaking with my colleague Steve Kornacki about the latest benghazi allegations. Joining us is Chicago Sun TimesWashington Bureau chief, lynn sweet and ed okeefe. Thank you for joining us on a saturday. Lynn, well start with you here. This latest benghazi revival comes over the emails weve been discussing just released by the administration that republicans claim show that the white house tried to rewrite the attack. When you look at the debate thats ensuing here as they have put out the request here to bring in secretary of state john kerry and who else they might issue subpoenas for, is this about 2014 . Because were just really months away from the election. Richard, yes, its about 2014, its about 2016 and its about building a two cases now that the republicans want to relitigate because its not like we havent been around this movie for years now. They not only want to talk about whats in this newly revealed email, they also want to you hear terms like theyre obstructing, theyre not releasing. The white house doesnt want you to know so there are those two channels though certainly the white house said they wished they had released this email earlier because they say it doesnt say anything they havent been saying publicly. Thats what it is about, yes, politics. Politics 2014, 2016. Ed, to you on this very same issue. The possibility this has been talked about that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton might be asked to either by the select committee or Darrell Issas committee as well, if she is there put in front and questioned, what might be said and how might this hurt her should she run in 2016 . Well, thats one of the biggest sort of issues out there outstanding regarding her tenure as secretary of state. So certainly if it comes to that, you know, well have to see whether or not she is willing to engage and take it on. She did testify a few times regarding this and seemed to hold up her end of the bargain. Right. And didnt really sully her image that much or damage her Approval Rating so well see whether or not shes willing to engage. Remember, her book is coming out next month where its expected shell discuss this a little bit. Its a year now, a year and a half if she were to run shell get into it. Its kind of early perhaps to be bringing her in front of congress, would you say . Yeah. In fact, you know, maybe she thinks, you know what, if they really want me to come and do this, lets do it and get it out of the way so i can just go run for president. But lets just remind people, youve got this new select committee on benghazi, you have the House Oversight committee already looking into the issue. The other thing that came up on friday is House Majority leader, eric cantor, called on the Justice Department to hire a special prosecutor to look into the problems at the irs. Lynn, i dont know about you, but i didnt hear much talk about obamacare. It seems they have shifted to these other issues. There are legitimate concerns that the administration is withholding information and not necessarily telling congress everything, but this is definitely part of 2014 strategy and beyond. So are you saying here then, and to you, lynn, on this, theyre shifting gears, republicans are, thinking that, okay, obamacare, its a win for democrats because they hit their numbers and polling is starting to turn up and go positive. Lynn . I think theres a few things here. In the house they have to worry district by district. They have members with primaries. 32 states have had their primaries by now, so what theyre doing is i think theyre just doing theyre putting out issues. Theyre reviving benghazi, not that it you know, everyone should know, the issue deserves serious inquiry. Absolutely. There has been a lot of serious inquiries on it. Does it resonate in those key states that youve been watching, lyn, and ed here, when it comes down to the senate . Because thats where the fight is for 14 . Right. These are three key issues for republicans. It doesnt hurt to keep all three of those in play at one time to see what works in these different states and districts. Go ahead. I want to move to this subject. As we were looking at what happened this past week and that botched oklahoma lethal injection, the president or, rather, at a press conference yesterday, president obama received a question about that lethal injection. I want you to take a listen to this first. This situation in oklahoma i think just highlights some of the significant problems there so ill be discussing with eric holder and others, you know, to get me an analysis of what steps have been taken, not just in this particular instance but more broadly, in this area. I think we do have to as a society ask ourselves some difficult and profound questions around these issues. And with the Justice Department now getting involved in this, where might this go . Well, you know, this is an issue primarily up to the states. We sent my colleague down to oklahoma and the people say, you know, this guy deserved it and they have no real wavering support or concern about the Death Penalty. The problem is a logistical one. Some of the drugs that have been used in the lethal injection executions arent available. States are having to think about how they would consider carrying these out. Virginia was thinking of the electric chair and some anesthesiologists say that might be a better remedy. There seemed to be so many problems with lethal injection and the shortage of drugs. State by state this