Sheriff DiBasilio announces his retirement, shares plans calaverasenterprise.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from calaverasenterprise.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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And a look at the latest medal count now. team usa in the number two spot. 27 medals. russia in the lead now with 29. norway is not too far behind, 25. canada and netherlands holding on at 24 medals each. well, let me turn now to a fast-moving development we are following out of kiev today. the three-month-long protests have reached a tipping point. ukraine s parliament voted to oust the president after he left town and refused to resign. an opposition leader has been freed. forces are celebrating, calling today liberation day. while the ukrainian president describes the events as a coup. nbc s jim macedo is live in moscow. kiev, is it in the hands of protesters? reporter: well, it is in the hands of protesters. whether it has fallen to protesters or not is unclear. but it does look like as you described, those streets in independence square, it does
media any time now. the college football star who came out earlier this month will be answering questions at an nfl event. a former pro football star joins me with his thoughts. also, business as usual as new jersey governor chris christie at a town hall this week. nbc s steve kornacki will be joining me for answers . hello to you all. it s high noon in the east. 9:00 out west, we re glad you re here. welcome to weekends alex witt is off today i m tj holmes. a tipping point in the ukraine. trying to oust the president after he abandoned the capital in kiev. he has refused to resign. a ukrainian opposition leader has been freed. the ukrainian president described the events. the angry oh protest three months ago after the ukraine broke ties with the european union in favor of a bailout from russia. nbc s chief foreign affairs correspondent, richard engel, has watched these events unfold in kiev. richard, hello to you, and are the protesters in charge in the capital now? reporter: they certainly are. and they think a revolution is under way, that they are winning it. that they are taking control of this country. it began this morning with a very surreal moment. protesters started to leave the square, called independence square, that has been the center of this protest movement to the last three months. and as they went out of the square and went deeper into the capital, they realized that the security forces, the government forces, were gone. and protesters occupied government buildings, they occupied parliament. they occupied the presidential offices. they occupied the president s residence. and the president himself, victor yanukovych, is no longer in the capitol. he has fled. he issued a statement from another ukrainian city saying he does not accept what is going on here, that a coup has taken place. but the parliament, which supports the protesters, has been meeting, parliament surrounded by supporters. and inside parliament, passing law after law, all against president yanukovych, voting to oust him, voting to release from prison his main political rival. and the authorities in this country are listening. che chenko has been released, reportedly on her way to greet the protesters here in kiev. so the protesters do seem to be in charge of this country right now, and the security forces and parliament in kiev and in the surrounding areas are obeying. all right. richard engel with the update there for us in kiev. thank you so much. we want to turn now to massive opposition rallies planned today in venezuela. resistance is growing there. maduro called on president obama friday to hold talks with venezuelian authorities after secretary of state john kerry issued a statement criticizing use of force against protesters. theism prisonment of students as well as limits on free speech and assembly. madu maduro blames the unrest on right wing extremists. mean time, troops are in force patrolling several streets where protesters have recently been gathering. let s turn now to sochi where team usa is squaring off against finland in men s hockey. we all know canada beat the u.s. 1-0 in a match yesterday that knocked the u.s. out of contention for the gold. we ll have an update on this battle for bronze that s going on right now. we ll have that for you shortly. also, usa s ted ligety competed for his second medal today in the men s slalom competition where he faced skiers from australia and norway. we ll have those results, as well. and four-time olympian julie chu has been chosen to carry the u.s. flag and lead the team at sunday s closing ceremony. this morning she told nbc s lester holt what it was like to get that news. i don t even know how to express it. it s just when i first found out, i kind of stuttered. and i m not usually at a loss for words. so what an honor. and tremendous team usa effort here in sochi. and a great honor to be able to represent usa and hopefully my teammates really well. all right. a spoiler alert for you here. in the next few minutes, we ll be talking about events taking place that have already happened, as well. but have not yet aired. so you can this might be a good time for a bathroom break. just turn the tv down, don t change the channel, look away or just stay here with us and we ll tell you what happened and you can watch it later. again, you can watch allment olympics coverage tonight on nbc. for more of the games, let s bring in msnbc s chris jansing. and chris, hello to you and pretty big letdown yesterday for the usa men s hockey team. are they going to be able to i don t know if they can get back up for just a bronze medal now. reporter: it doesn t look like it. they have this very cool thing here in sochi where they show you the score on the dome of the building. and it s changed from 2-0 when i started standing here to 4-0 now. i have to believe it s a huge letdown inside that arena, because i was there yesterday for usa canada. a big disappointment. this would be a big win for finland. it s only been since 1998 that nhl players were allowed in the men s hockey tournament. and if indeed finland wins the bronze as it looks like they re about to do, they would be the only team that has won four medals in olympic games, tj. well, ted ligety, is he looking any better, the ski champ? reporter: you mentioned he had already won gold in his signature event, which is the giant slalom. but today he was in the slalom, and he actually matched his best-ever. in the last six years, the best he ever had was six. he was sixth going into the last run. i just got word that he missed a gate on this run. so it does not look like medal is in the cards, second medal of these olympic games for ted ligety. however, 13 days of speed skating, 25 competitors and finally a medal for team usa. it came in the 5,000 meter relay. i talked to we talked to some of the four guys who won silver. here s what they had to say. couldn t be more happy to be with this group of guys. it s focused on the short track as an individual sport. what people don t see is the is the training that goes on behind the scenes and that we do it all together. it s better when it s shared, i think. it s more of a a group feeling, and it s more guys you have out there, the more exciting it gets. and we all share this forever. reporter: they did the entire interview with their arms around each other like that. and they said watch for the medal stand tonight, because they had something planned. we ll see what that is. and i just got word that indeed ted ligety is out, no medal for him. all right. but what about an american? you had had to explain this to us. an american that won gold, but he won it for another country. reporter: yeah, russia is wild for a guy named vic wild, born and raised in washington state. his mother, a long-time school teacher. his father retired. he was competing here in the united states, but a lot of the money in the ski and snowboard federation has gone to these new x game sports. and by the way, we have been tremendously successful at it. a big chunk of team usa s medals have come from those sports. but he is married to a russian woman, decided to come to russia where they have more attention to his sport. and indeed, won two gold medals, which has really pushed helped to push russia s whole standing. as of this morning, team usa and team russia were tied in the medal count. and it was very funny, at the press conference his wife, by the way, who was a russian athlete, won bronze, she kept touching his gold medal. i think she would have preferred that. i also want to tell you, the u.s. snowboarding federation did put out a congratulatory tweet saying congrats to vic wild on his gold. we have always respected his decision to ride for russia and are happy for his success and #sochi. it s not the only time in these olympics that americans have gone elsewhere. sometimes, though, in many cases, it s because they can t make the american team. in this case, it s just he felt he would have more support elsewhere than he had in the united states. tj? all right, chris jansing with the update there for us from sochi. thank you so much. and as she alluded to, that medal count there, we ve got some updated numbers, we ll put them up here, the team usa in the number two spot, 27 overall. russia in the lead with 29 overall. norway not far behind with 25. canada and the netherlands round out the top five. we want to give you a look at other stories topping the news right now. engulfed in flames. take a look at this. authorities investigating how at least ten boats at a washington state marina were destroyed or damaged yesterday in a fast-moving fire. nobody hurt there, however. also, a woman look at this. pulling into her driveway on long island, new york. plunged, front end-first into a sinkhole. fighters helped her escape through the driver s side window. she was shaken up, as you can imagine. not hurt, however. i was just telling my friend, i was only afraid that the sand around started to come down a little bit. i just didn t know if it was going to stay stationary or collapse. also, whiteout conditions and slippery roadways being blamed for a massive 30 to 40-car pileup in michigan friday. at least five people hospitalized. most with just minor injuries. the road was shut down. you can imagine what shutting down that major thoroughfare did to traffic for several hours through the central part of the state. well, mind the gap. president obama today talks about the big u.s. retailer and its dramatic move on the minimum wage. also, chris christie s town hall talk. how much did his chat with the people of one new jersey city help him get passed the bridge scandal? msnbc s steve kornacki joins me. meet our contestant. will she choose to help maintain her hands. or to really clean her dishes? oooh, we have a game changer?! 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[ female announcer ] dawn does more. it says here that increases at the age of 80. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. keep heart-healthy. live long. eat the 100% goodness of post shredded wheat. doctors recommend it. anybody have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? one phillips colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three types of good bacteria. i should probably take this. live the regular life. phillips . a steel cage: death match of midsize sedans. the volkswagen passat against all comers. turbocharged engines against.engines. best in class rear legroom against other-class legroom. but then we realized. consumers already did that. twice. huh. maybe that s why nobody else showed up. how does one get out of a death cage? vo: hurry in and lease the 2014 passat for $189 a month. visit vwdealer.com today. quarter past the hour. we turn to politics now. and new today, president obama wrapping up his year of action with a focus on raising the minimum wage. his weekly address, the president applauded the gap s decision this week to raise wages for its employees beginning this year. also renewed his call on congress to pass a minimum wage hike for the rest of the country. in the year since i first asked congress to raise the minimum wage, six states have passed laws to raise theirs, and more states are working on it, as we speak. but only congress can finish the job and lift americans wages across the country. and congress tom cotton criticized the president s policies, including obamacare. obamacare will add trillions in new spending at a time of record debt. it will mean less money in workers paychecks or less capital for businesses to expand and grow. less growth means less opportunity, and more stress for families. and republican governor jan brewer of arizona must decide whether to sign a controversial bill that is parking sparking protests, pushed through by gop social conservatives and would allow business owners to refuse service to gay customers based on their religious beliefs. brewer is expected to make a decision next week. is there really such a thing anymore as business as usual? new jersey governor, chris christie, is in washington, d.c., this weekend for the annual national governor s association meeting. embattled governor is heading back to new jersey early, however. he turned down an invitation for dinner at the white house sunday. joining me now is steve kornacki, host of up that you have seen earlier. you have been doing extensive reporting with this governor. he had a town hall just a couple days ago. can you get back to business as usual? is it possible? he s trying to, but right. can he? i guess this is a good example of whether or not he would be able to. well, i mean, look, it didn t come up, the question of the whole bridge scandal didn t really come up at the town hall meeting. one person raised one question about a sandy contract. otherwise, it didn t come up. and i would say that within those parameters, the christie you saw at that town hall meeting was sort of classic chris christie, for lack of a better term. he does very well in those settings in general. but it doesn t change the fact you ve got the you know, federal prosecutors looking into accusations by the hoboken mayor his administration tied sandy aid to the approval of a development project in their city. doesn t change the fact the from a prosecutors are looking into the bridge scandal and a state legislative committee has subpoenas all spread out across new jersey looking into these lane closures. so until and unless all of those questions are resolved, in a way that sort of exonerates chris christie, there is no getting back to normal. there is the calm between the storm. is he being consumed by it? we see him out there trying to do a town hall, trying to look like he s doing the business of the state. but how much behind the scenes is he just being consumed by, trying to answer questions and get his ducks in a row, get his staff answering subpoenas and what not? how much is he being consumed by this, even if we don t see it? no, it s tough to calculate. you ve got to imagine, just in terms of talking with lawyers, meeting with lawyers, there s that aspect. there s also the mental aspect, which none of us can qualify how much of this is actually, you know, on his mind. the best thing i guess politically that he could hope for, though, is that from a legal standpoint, this thing stretches out a little bit. and gives him at least a short term window where he can start to say, hey, look, you know, nothing new is coming out. i ve told you all i have to tell about this. this is you know, this is old news, the media keeps reporting it. you know, the longer this goes on in that regard, in a way helps him. but, of course, ultimately it comes down to if these proceedings that are in place produce information that more directly that shows that chris christie was not up front at that press conference back in january, then it s bad news for him. like he just said, he wants to say hey, there is nothing new media keeps reporting on it, but little nuggets keep coming out, one you reported on this morning. another possible tie, if you will, between the port authority police, someone who was possibly there when the lane closure was going on, has a pretty close tie to the governor. explain that. yeah. there s lieutenant michaelmi port authority police chip michaels was on the scene when david wildstein who oversaw the bridge closures. lieutenant michaels was on the scene when that happened and then drove around wildstein, around the area, to survey the mounting traffic. and then he exchanged texts with wildstein over the first two days of this. who is chip michaels? grew up in livingston, new jersey, a few years younger than chris christie. but there is ties between christie and the michaels family through the brothers. the brothers sort of all knew each other growing up. sort of stayed in touch through the years, as recently as 2010, chip michaels was describing a friendly relationship with the new governor, coaching his christie s son s hockey team. kids him when he says him, i can t believe you re governor now. and chip michael s brother, jeff, one of the most important republican lobbyists in trenton, a man to have almost peerless access to christie among power players. the governor s office did put out a statement, saying, and i quote, the governor has never had any conversations with either jeff or chip michaels on this topic. to wrap it up, a lot of people say he knew this guy and they were brothers and what not. still, kind of put it in a nutshell for us why this is still relevant and why things continue to trickle out and could cause problems for this governor. yeah, no, exactly. it could be just coincidence. but what that did was, it turned attention to the port authority police department. and there was also this claim, if you remember, when the documents first came out from the mayor of ft. lee, mark so socklich, telling commuters, if you re upset, you should call the mayor. now there has been further reporting in the last week where some commuters were tracked down and they corroborated that story. they said that port authority police officers were seeking them out, basically, hey, roll down your window, i want to tell you something. and then telling them, hey, if you don t like this traffic, you need to let the mayor know. now it raises the question, not just a question about chip michaels, it s a question about the port authority police department. that s the police union at the abort authority, the one police union in all of new jersey that actually has a very good relationship with chris christie. the rest of them refused to endorse him last year, think he really gave a bad deal on pensions. that deal did not apply to the port authority cops. they have done very well under christie. so now directs some scrutiny over there. steve kornacki. up with steve kornacki, extensive reporting. something new we get from you every week. trying. thanks so much. stay with us. about 20 past the hour now, and michael sam is facing the nfl combine as we speak. and going to be facing reporters for the first time since announcing he s gay. and former nfl player nate jackson talks to me at the bottom of the hour. 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[ female announcer ] new age defy color from clairol. well, first in today s number ones, how you doing? that was pretty much the question from the gallup healthways index survey of 178,000 americans. they re trying to figure out, in which state are people happiest? well, the good folks in north dakota are doing best. followed by the folks in south dakota. then nebraska. hawaii, understandably so, had been at the top of the list for the past four years. but this time around, hawaii is now number eight. and the most the unhappiest places. west virginia followed by kentucky and mississippi. now, let s move on to the top moving destinations in the country. atlanta leads penski truck rentals top ten list for the year. tampa, florida, second. followed by dallas. besides 401(k)s and health benefits, what are the most popular perks out there? forbes based its survey on tech workers and found that game rooms were the top perks. free food like pizza and doughnuts, pretty important, as well. and rounding out the top three, free gym memberships. you certainly need it after the pizza and the doughnuts. and that s your number ones for this weekend. [ male announcer ] winter olympian ted ligety can t take a sick day tomorrow. [ coughs ] [ male announcer ] so he can t let a cold keep him up tonight. vicks nyquil. powerful nighttime 6 symptom cold and flu relief. the bottom of the hour here now. welcome back to weekends . alex wit is off this weekend. i m tj holmes. time for headlines at the half. the associated press reporting a big arrest in mexico s drug war. ap quotes a u.s. official who says joaquin el chappo guzman was arrested overnight by u.s. and mexican authorities at a hotel in mazatlan. guzman is on the dea s most wanted list. rough commute on mass transit near san francisco. an out of service b.a.r.t. train derailed friday, halting all traffic east of the station for hours. it stranded hundreds of passengers during the friday evening commute. the only person on board was the train operator who was not injured. and at the vatican, former pope benedict joined pope francis at a ceremony to appoint 19 new cardinals. they greeted the former pope with tears and applause. the first time the two popes have appeared together at a ceremony. the ukrainian parliament voted to oust victor yanukovych after he called the crisis a coup. he made the comment during a televised statement after reportedly leaving the capital of kiev for the eastern part of the country. ukrainian president signed the deal friday with the opposition, agreeing to sweeping concessions, but says he has no intention of resigning or leaving the country. mean time, the white house says the deal should be implemented immediately to end the deadly violence that gripped kiev all week. nbc s kristen welker is at the white house. kristen, hello to you. we know about a conversation between president obama and russian president vladimir putin. what do we know about that chat? reporter: well, tj, we know the conversation lasted for more than an hour. it was initiated by president obama. both leaders agreed that a transition plan needs to be implemented quickly in ukraine. they also agreed that that plan needs to include a way to stabilize ukraine s economy. it s currently teetering toward default. and they also saw eye-to-eye on the fact that the violence needs to end, needs to stop immediately. but, of course, tj, this all comes amid tense relations between the united states and russia. the two countries have had sharp disagreements over a number of issues, including iran and syria. president obama, president putin also discussed those two issues. president obama congratulated president putin on the olympics. but the focus of that conversation last night was on ukraine and how to bring about stability. but, of course, they also believe that the deal that was struck is incredibly fragile, and so that means that both leaders are going to continue to monitor the situation, and it could continue to be a source of consequence itter nation between the united states and russia. and we re talking here about a phone call. but any plans for the two men to meet face-to-face? reporter: well, it s a good question, tj. we know that officials have been talking about that. you ll recall that last summer president obama cancelled a planned bilateral meeting with president putin amid these mounting tensions between the united states and russian. also, of course, over the issue of edward snowden. now, the two men will see each other this summer at the g8 summit held in sochi. it s going to be hosted by president putin. so, of course, under normal circumstances, the two leaders would meet. right now, there s a question mark surrounding that. the united states discussing exactly how to handle that situation. but if president obama doesn t meet with president putin on the sidelines of the g8 summit, that would, of course, be seen as a huge snub. but the situation underscores just how difficult it is for the united states and how difficult it will be for the united states and russia to mend this their fractured relationship. tj? kristen welker for us at the white house. thank you so much. going to turn now to indianapolis, where we are expecting a media frenzy. any time now that the nfl combine michael sam will speak with reporters for the first time since announcing he s gay. this morning, our betty ngyugen spoke about it. i think they ll treat him fine. i think to a lot of guys, it s a nonissue. hey, guy, if you can help us win, you re here. and as long as he acts well and hangs out with the guys and doesn t isolate himself or anything like that, i don t think that s going to be a big deal. prejudices, whether it s racial or sexual or whatever, we ve moved from 25 years ago. and the younger generation and the locker room is in their 20s, mainly. and those people, they don t carry the same prejudice people carry. let me bring in former nfl player, nate jackson, also the author of slow getting up, a story of nfl survival from the bottom of the pile. nate, good to see you again, kind sir. let me get your reaction to what he said there. you agree with him that this might end up kind of even being a nonissue for him in the locker room? yeah, i think in the locker room it will be a nonissue. football players by and large, are very accepting of their teammates. these guys get thrown together from all corners of the country, all different socioeconomic back grounds, religious beliefs, political views. interests and television shows they don t really care, as long as you re on the field working hard and contributing to the team, these guys learn how to work together as a family. i don t think it will be an issue inside. the issue is going to come from outside. is there a danger here in him being protected too much? i mean, so many eyes are going to be on whatever locker room he is in, and copiey coaches, the staff, the executives, are going to want to make sure he s protected in a lot of ways from any type of harassment or hazing of any kind. so do you think there s a danger and could turn off some of his teammates in that regard? no, i don t think so. i think that will police itself inside the locker room. there is kind of a self-governing situation inside the locker room where players learn how to deal with that on their own. i do think the kind of the circus and procession that s going to follow him in the door is going to turn off some of the coaches who might otherwise be interested in his talent. and be totally down with what he s doing. they might have a gay neighbor, a gay friend or a gay family member. but not want to deal with whatever is going to come along with it. and so that s going to limit the number of teams that are going to want him. but inside the locker room, i think it s going to be fine. it s going to be he was fine with his teammates in missouri. they knew that he was gay. and they performed well. and they apparently lived in a harmonious relationship with him. and so i think it will be good. but nate, it sounds like he could be the best place for him to be might be in the locker room. because we all know, and hear it talked about and some of us have seen this, it s a brotherhood in that locker room and those guys look out for each other, because they literally go during the nfl season, they re going to war with each other, is how they see it on sundays. so you spoke of kind of a danger from the outside. what do you think from the outside outside the locker room? is it too much media pressure? is it pressure for him to be a spokesman for the gay community? what do you mean by a danger on the snouds. i think it s all of that. i think it s coaches and general managers and front office people are very reticent of media attention anyway, about anything. whether it s sexuality or politics or really anything. they want it to be football only. they want to stick to their game plan. and any kind of attention from outside really life is a distraction to them and a lot of coaches will shy away from that. and there are a lot of people we re talking about it here on msnbc. he was on the cover of sports illustrated, new york times, you name it and there are a lot of straight allies or heterosexuals out there helping him along and really supporting him. and i think they mean well. but they don t have to live his life inside that locker room. he has to go in there and close his laptop, turn off his phone and deal with the reality of being a gay man in this environment. and i think a lot of times the people who are telling his story and egging him on don t have to live those consequences. and that could be dangerous. what kind of questions? again, we re standing by to possibly hear from him at any moment at the combine. what types of questions you all get put through all kinds of grilling at this combine, these players do, and one-on-one meetings. but everyone says, it s just if he can play, he can play. and who cares what he does in his personal life. but personal lives come up an awful lot. it s a big part of that q & a between these players and their potential bosses. yeah. i think if they do ask him about it, they re going to want to make sure that he is solely focused on football, that he s doesn t have plans to become, you know, out there in the community, talking about it, being a spokesman. which is a noble pursuit. but in their mind, it s going to detract from his ability to play football and to focus on the game plan and be part of the team. wait, nate. am i hearing that correctly? you think if he s out there trying to be too much of an advocate, that could take away from his performance on the football field and that s something that maybe coaches and owners might not appreciate. yeah. i don t believe that. i think that you can juggle different interests and focus on football and other things in life. but football men, these hardened football men, who have made a life of this generally don t have that belief. they think that you have to focus on football, football is everything. there is really nothing else. and anything else that does seep into your life and requires some of your attention and devotion takes away from what you re doing on the football field. they want it to be all football, all of the time. and last thing here, the miami dolphins report that just came out just days ago, i think a week ago now, it focused a lot on harassment and some of that stuff was jarring and shocking to read about the harassment that they say that jonathan martin went through in that locker room. but the focus now on harassment and it being a workplace that locker room, is that helpful right now to michael sam? yeah, maybe. i think but really, i think that what was going on in miami was different, because jonathan martin is not a gay man. so it was kind of just this really childish, adolescent teasing that was going on. but michael sam is gay and he s told everyone that he is gay. and so i think there will be a respect level for him and for what he s doing in the locker room. and there are going to be guys teasing him for being gay i don t believe. there might be guys who grumble to themselves or, you know, don t like it. but i think the majority of the guys will accept it. and those guys who don t will fall in. i think it will be a harmonious relationship. all right. nate jackson, good to see you, once again. make sure you give us a holler next time you re in new york, all right? i will, thanks. all right. again, to our audience, we re keeping an eye on that podium. wish we could swing around and show you just how many podium excuse me, how many cameras and tripods are set up in that room, waiting to hear from michael sam. but we are expecting hundreds of people in that room to hear from michael sam when he steps to that podium. we will bring that to you, live. also, blame canada. why team usa had such a hard time on the ice. hear from an american gold medal winner from the nagano games. stay with us. on the day she arrived in london. someone set up a bogus hotspot, stole her identity and opened some credit cards in her name. but she s not worried. checking her credit report and score at experian.com allowed her to better address the issue. .and move right in. experian. live credit confident.™ every now and then i get a little bit hungry and there s nothing good around turn around, barry i finally found the right snack [ female announcer ] fiber one. the olympic flame burning in sochi. the competition for the winter games winding down. tonight in prime time, ted ligety looks to pick up his second medal during the slalom. also a ukrainian skier fails a drug test. she posted positive for an illegal substance. an italian bobsledder also failed doping tests earlier this the week. they have been waiting since the games began. team usa speed skaters finally make it to the podium, winning the silver in the men s 5,000 meter short track relay yesterday. and friday night, alpine superstar michaela shiffrin succeed her way into a gold medal, the youngest to win an olympic gold, colorado native, 18 years old. congratulations to her. the women s hockey team may be bringing home the silver from sochi this year. but our next guest knows what it feels like to bring home the gold. she was 23 years old when she and her teammates dominated the newly introduced sport in 1998 winter games in nagano, japan. alana joins me now. thank you for being here. and we are talking here, the men yesterday, that s one thing. but the women. how difficult was that for you as you all won the first in women s hockey. to watch yesterday which would have been the first time to get gold since you got the gold, that was painful. it was painful. and even as a player at that time in 1998, i was so accustomed to losing to canada. they you know, it s so deep in their national pride. like when they play, these girls give it everything they have, and the men too. and it s so funny, because we would play up in canada in front of 15,000 people at the air canada center and then we would play here in the u.s., and people would be like, oh, we have a women s hockey team? you know? so it s a little different as far as it definitely is in their blood. how far have we come? you mentioned that back then, oh, we have a women s hockey team. we know it now, but still is it only during the women s olympics we pay attention to women s hockey in this country? that s interesting, as well. i do some coaching and i remember before 1998 i was doing a little bit of coaching and i would step on to the ice with young boys and i would say, okay, we re going to do skating and they would look at me and say, you re a girl. what are you doing? and when the women s soccer team won, as well, i think that did a lot to really sort of change just the knowledge of women sports that women play. this is the first winter games since 98 excuse me. this is the first one you haven t been to since 98. how difficult is it for you to sit on your couch and watch the u.s. men s women you re a former olympian. how difficult is it for you to watch and what kind of games are we having right now? it s very difficult to watch. i haven t actually played hockey in about two years. i ve taken time off. i m on the ice every day, and but i took a little time off and recently played in my college alumni game. and wow. i was so jazzed up to play in that game. and i was just going like a million miles an hour. and it made me realize what a wonderful, wonderful game it is. it takes so much stamina and ability, and i watching the girls play, canada, i was i didn t know what to do with myself. i was so nervous and excited and it s a little bit like coaching. when you coach in the olympics, you basically open the door. you know? you don t have much control over the game. you have input here and there, but you let those girls do what they know how to do. okay. last thing here. it s their game. you talk about canada here. and yes, we had strong men, strong women s teams. but it s their game. is it unreasonable for us to expect our national teams to really compete with canada? it s almost like no one should be able to compete with usa and basketball around the world. it s kind of that mind-set. so should we have reasonable expectations when we go up against canada? we want to win, we think we should win, but hey, this is their thing. no, absolutely. okay. we absolutely. the u.s. girls in that game i mean, they played their hearts out. they were blocking shots, canadians missing the net. canada was outplayed in that game. the entire game. and, you know, and then the u.s., they wanted to conserve the lead, and stopped being so aggressive. and, you know and canada is a very, very lucky, lucky team. so you re chalking it up to luck. it s talent and luck. but i ll say this past one, a lot of luck. okay. it s okay for you to be a homer. because you are a gold medal-winning it is so good to meet you, alana, thanks for coming in. hope to see you again soon. maybe in four years, a different conversation. sounds good. thank you so much. we re ten minutes off the top of the hour. and arizona now jumping into the battle over gay rights. the story behind the bill that would allow businesses to refuse to serve homosexuals. to help me become an olympian, she was pretty much okay with me turning her home into an ice rink. she d just reach for the bounty select-a-size. it s the smaller, powerful sheet that acts like a big sheet. look, one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less, with the small but powerful picker-upper, bounty select-a-size. we still run into problems. that s why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness if you qualify, and new car replacement, standard with our auto policies. so call liberty mutual at. today. and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what s your policy? 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[ male announcer ] so indulgent, you ll never believe they re light. 100-calorie progresso light soups. turn to politics now. and social conservatives in arizona say a controversial bill passed by the state legislature is a matter of religious freedom. opponents say it s nothing more than blatant discrimination. now republican governor jan brewer must decide whether to sign the measure that would allow business owners with strongly held religious beliefs to refuse service to gay customers. let me bring in christine bell antony and david in that case murrah. christina, all but three republicans in the state legislature voted in favor of this bill. what will the governor do? well, it s unclear what she is going to do. her political advisers are saying it s not necessarily that likely she is going to sign it. but she is in a tough position and it s one little piece of this gay marriage argument that s playing out across the country right now where you re seeing a lot of different legislatures make these decisions that people are calling discriminatory. and as the supreme court will ultimately be the final arbiter of what exactly is going to be allowed state by state by state, the decision last june was really just the beginning of this. and you re going to see actions like this in all kinds of states both react to go it in both a positive light for gay rights it activists and in a negative light in their mind, as well. david shi gave the veto a year ago. and you heard christina say she is in a tricky position here. what kind of position? what kind of pressure is she under? what happens if she goes one way, what happens if she goes the other? obviously, her party supported this bill in overwhelming numbers. jan brewer is not allowed to run again because of term limits. that may give her more freedom to make her own decision. but what she generally personally feels isn t clear. this is a governor who has supported, for example, strict anti immigration laws to go after illegal immigrants. it s been controversial. that shows how some of her conservative feelings might be in that area and how that sort of transcript lates translates is not clear. you talk to folks at the white house, polls around the country showing more liberalized views about same-sex marriage and i think that s the way they think the country is going. so i think there will be a lot of pressure on her. also pointed out the super bowl is coming next year. it s a big event that gives bad light to the state nationally if she goes ahead and does this. there are pressures even from national perspective on her. christine, is there something going on there in arizona that would make a bill like this or make someone in that state think that they need to go a step further in terms of religious freedom? there were already laws on the books that were supposed to protect or meant to protect those who have certain religious beliefs. but why go a step further? is there any other way to interpret this as legalized discrimination? well, that s how some people do interpret it. and particularly when you ve got this is a business decision. someone is making a decision not to serve a gay couple that can legally get married, wherever that may be. whether that is in arizona or another place. that sounds to a lot of people like discrimination. and you can take it back to the civil rights era, and when some private businesses were making decisions and they could claim whatever objection they want. ultimately, the supreme court is going to have to rule on legislation like this. arizona is not the only one you re seeing this in places like kansas and it tennessee and some others. and it s going to continue to be an issue, as states try to maneuver this very tricky legal ground that everything is on right now. this is the next civil rights fight for some people. david, let me turn from this civil rights fight. certainly not going away. jan brewer expected to make a decision next week. she has five days after it reaches her desk whether to sign it or not sign it. david, let me turn to the mid terms now that we are nine months away from here in 2014. and a lot of people did get a chance to read the first read, the political first read from nbc today. and talked about there s a do no harm strategy being put in place by both sides, democrats and republicans, right now. david, if that is the case, are we looking at 2014 being in some ways a throw-away year? this is a do-nothing congress from last year, it was labeled. is it possible they could get even less done this year, because if they re just in neutral and trying to cruise, trying to get to the mid terms, nothing is going to get done. i think so. you look at the good news is that at least congress has not does not look like their going to have any problems with the budget, the farm bill was passed. and the debt ceiling was lifted. that s the good news. this is a congress that s been battling over that for three years now with little success. the bad news is that on big pieces like immigration, the white house pushing minimum wage, other stimulus for the economy, the president has put a lot of that in his new budget released this week. but it looks very unlikely these things will move forward. even people pushing hard on immigration and feel like this is there has been signals from republicans in the house that they re willing to go along with it, it looks like a really big hill to climb, frankly. i think it would be a tough vote for republicans. they don t look like there is enough people willing to do it. and speaker boehner now saying, you know, he s not necessarily going to move forward and sort of putting the blame on the white house over trust issues with the president. the president we re seeing the signals from the white house as he s talking about going around the country, talking about using executive order. he did another one last week. these are small things. but the white house is saying this is what we re going to have to do, because it doesn t look like we ll get support from congress. thank you both. i have to leave it there. we ll see you again soon. thank you much. we re getting close to the top of the hour. take a look at these tiny homes. tiny homes changing people s lives in a very big way. could they be the solution for a crisis in america? 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[ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition in charge™. she s a golden girl. america s teen sensation on skis makes history. the latest live from sochi, next. and it s a tense calm in kiev. what the embattled president is speaking is speaking out and so is ukraine s top military general. will the military intervene. also, small houses, big hearts. is this the answer to one of america s biggest problems. also, pot luck. colorado s rocky mountain marijuana high brings an unexpected windfall. and hello to you all. welcome to weekends . alex witt is off today. i m tj holmes. it s 1:00 in the east, 10:00 out west. let me tell you what s happening right now. we start with sochi and a battle for the bronze. team usa and finland in a fierce men s hockey match today. the game just ended. we ll have those results for you in just a moment. also, the ice skating scoring controversy is not going away. the south korea olympic committee is now protesting the results of the women s figure skating competition earlier this week saying the biased judging cost euna kim a second gold medal. and four-time olympian julie chu had been chosen to carry the u.s. flag and lead the team at sunday s closing ceremony. chu says she is honored and humbled to represent team usa in that way. and this is that time. want to give you a heads up here. spoiler alert. in the next few minnesotans, we ll talk about olympic events that have taken place but not broadcast just yet. turn away, take your bathroom break if you want to. but make sure you come back. you can watch it all, all of the coverage, all of the broadcasting of the events on nbc tonight in prime time. let s get more now on the games. let me bring in msnbc s brian shactman. brian, hello to you. usa had to get up and fight for a bronze medal. did they seem to be up for the fight? reporter: unfortunately, tj, the answer is no. and it was i went to most of the game, so i watched it and i know hockey pretty well. they were down 2-0 going into the third period, all they needed was a couple bounces, but the opposite happened and they imploded losing 5-0 to the fins. and so there is no medal for men s hockey. they actually had two penalty shots early in the game. patrick kane took them not the famous tj oshie and missed them both and would have changed the momentum. they look tired. a great effort, but it really fell apart. they were just not as hungry or sharp as the fins, who have a fair amount of nhl players. but the one interesting note here, that the fins beat russia, knocked them out and knocked the u.s. out. who would have thought before the olympics we would say that neither russia or the united states would even get a medal. all right. that was tough. it s hard to get up after that game, losing 1-0 to canada and to fight for a bronze, that s a tough one. ted ligety, did he have better luck on the slopes? reporter: you know, i feel like there is a spoiler alert, because we have been spoiled with good results and we re not getting many today. he was in sixth place after his first run, did not finish his second run. so a dnf for ted ligety. of course, he had his gold in his best event, the giant slalom. he wasn t favored to win a medal here, but there was some hope he had some confidence and could really pull something off. so he did not get a medal in that particular race. so in both sort of key events today, not good news. although in the last item, we might have a little silver lining. okay. i m scared to ask you a third question. after the bad news on those two. okay, forget hockey. forget the slopes for a second. let s go to bobsledding. how are we doing in bobsledding? reporter: you know what, we re not doing that badly, tj. it s not over yet. the four-man bobsled is really our last chance at a medal. two runs today and the third and fourth runs for the medal tomorrow. steve holcomb, the pilot, they start the second runner and may be under way as they speak. they are in medal contention, have these incredible sleds designed by bmw and it s a huge advantage and right now has them in third place. definitely can still get a gold. they re not out of reach. they have three more runs. so it could be a good finish to the games. cross-country stuff tomorrow, but really our last shot at a medal. brian shactman with all of the good news today from sochi. we appreciate you, my man. thanks so much. and a look at the latest medal count now. team usa in the number two spot. 27 medals. russia in the lead now with 29. norway is not too far behind, 25. canada and netherlands holding on at 24 medals each. well, let me turn now to a fast-moving development we are following out of kiev today. the three-month-long protests have reached a tipping point. ukraine s parliament voted to oust the president after he left town and refused to resign. an opposition leader has been freed. forces are celebrating, calling today liberation day. while the ukrainian president describes the events as a coup. nbc s jim macedo is live in moscow. kiev, is it in the hands of protesters? reporter: well, it is in the hands of protesters. whether it has fallen to protesters or not is unclear. but it does look like as you described, those streets in independence square, it does look like the protesters who have been cheering and shouting victory for the past number of hours really look like they re in charge. parliament reformed itself, took back power from victor yanukovych and proceeded to vote him out of office. the police, meanwhile, seem to have vacated downtown kiev. government buildings now being guarded by protesters. volunteers who have taken up checkpoints outside of the presidential palace. and even outside yanukovych s vast residence, just outside kiev. and whiliae yanukovych fled, th is an amazing confluence of events. as he is fleeing east, to his hometown of karkov and goes on to claim, as you suggested in the lead that what s unfolding is what he called a nazi-like coup, atop a top opposition leader jailed for three years by yanukovych himself was released around the same time and flying west to catch up with protesters outside the parliament in the downtown kiev, at the independence square to basically claim her victory, as well. so it certainly looks like the opposition and protesters are in control. but ultimately, tj that, will depend on which side the military s loyalties fall. so far, the armed forces have said they defend the people, they have been vague about that, saying they want to stay out of the conflict. so it s still unclear who really is in charge. back to you. you re there in moscow, which has played a significant role in this. in fact, the protests started in the first place affidavit ukrainian president rejected the european union in favor of a bailout package from russia. so how are these developments playing there in moscow, and what kind of a role is russia playing right now? reporter: well, this has been the story. you can imagine how close russia and ukraine are historically, used to be called roos, the origin of russia. so there are very close ties. and this has been playing all over the russian media around the clock. you get two very different stories, depending on the media you re watching. the kremlin-controlled media, that s about 99.95%, especially state-run tv, is playing these events as an illegal palace coup, if you will, or parliamentary coup, portraying the protesters as hooligans, thugs, even terrorists. and blames the west, especially us, the united states, for encouraging the protesters to carry out this kind of insurrection. the independent media, which is really .05% of the media, is playing things pretty straight. they see this as an uprising by a suppressed people who are trying to topple a dictator, but not necessarily in a legal way. given and they say on-air that yanukovych is the legally elected leader of yu ukraine. but few russians are seeing this independent media and the kremlin has cracked down inside moscow. thank you so much. ten minutes past the hour. a breaking story out of mexico where the country s most wanted man, a notorious mexican drug lord, has been captured. authorities found joaquin el chappo guzman in the city of mazatlan. mark potter is live in miami. hello, mark. and give some people our viewers some perspective. just how big of a get this guy is. reporter: well, for mexico and for people fighting in the war on drugs, this is huge. this is as big as it gets. joaquin el chapo guzman, known as shorty guzman was considered one of the most powerful and most wanted drug trafficker in the world and has been captured. he led a drug cartel in the mountains in the western part of that country. and for years, authorities had been trying to get him. but they were unable. at the same time as they were searching for him, he was pouring hundreds of tons of marijuana into the united states every year, along with huge amounts of methamphetamine and heroin. his organization was very violent. a lot of the bloody wars that were occurring along the border in the last few years are the result of his organization fighting with other organizations. and so he was long sought. and this is a huge victory for the mexican marines and for the dea who worked in collaboration to bring about this arrest. a senior law enforcement official tells us that this happened last night. this happened overnight in a hotel in mazatlan, where guzman was staying with a woman. the arrest was affected without gunfire. there was no resistance. he was taken into custody. and, again, this is the result of a largely a dea investigation, a three to four week investigation we re told, where they worked together with the mexican marines, an organization they have worked with a number of times to take down large-scale drug traffickers. but this is a huge get. this is like colombia getting pablo escobar. it s like getting osama bin laden in the war on terror. as big as it is, he is one man. but can this one man and getting one guy translate into reduced violence on the border? reporter: it can result in reduced drug trafficking along the border, according to one former official from the dea that i talked to. he long thought on this side of the border against guzman, and he said that taking down guzman, who was the cartel, he directed the cartel. he was in charge of the cartel, is going to have a big impact on it particularly the flow of methamphetamine and heroin across the border now. he claims that we will see a drop in those drugs and a disorganization in the cartel. other cartels now vie for power and could lead to more violence. it so we ll have to see. but mexico is touting this and the dea is touting this as a major, major accomplishment. all right. mark potter, thank you so much for the update today. coming up next, aging rocker, ted nugent, apologizing for comments he made. but is he really sorry? we re getting reaction. can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don t want to think about the alternative. i don t even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? 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[ male announcer ] making a firehouse feel like home again. one more way the charmin relief project is helping people enjoy the go. conservative rocker, ted nugent, says he s sorry for offensive comments he made about president obama. during an interview friday on a text radio station, nugent said, and i quote, i do apologize. not necessarily to the president, but on behalf of much better men than myself. end quote. nugent is out on the campaign trail with gop gubernatorial candidate, greg abbott, seeking to replace current governor, rick perry, when his current term ends. let me bring in washington bureau chief, susan page and washington post columnist dana milba milbank. susan, i saw your tweet how do you spell apology. nugent said, quote, instead of just using more understandable language such as violator of his oath to the constitution, or the liar that he is. so, susan, at issue here, these mainstream, i guess we could call them, gop candidates. i mean, how do you separate or are they still struggling to try to separate themselves from people who they still want to endorse them? i think you have to put apology in quotation marks when you talk about this apology. my mother in kansas would not have accepted this as an appropriate apology for an offense. and it is causing a lot of trouble for greg abbott in texas. you saw wendy davis, his likely democratic opponent, out there talking about this today, talking about who he associates himself with, tying him to these words. although greg abbott his issued a statement saying he found it offensive and distancing himself from it. but this is you know, it can be a problem for political candidates, who they associate themselves with, who raises money for them. this is has been a gift to democrats. a gift to democrats. on a national level, dana. but maybe in politics and in texas and, you know, the smaller counties and towns, will this really have an impact on abbott there in texas as maybe we feel it might covering it from new york or d.c.? well, look. abbott still remains the favorite as any republican would in a race like this to be the next governor. but look, i mean, if the ted nugent fans were already voting for abbott, and this is probably a net negative, because it offenders just about everybody else. so he s not really gaining anything by this. i also don t think he gained much by four days after the fact. four days of outrage later finally saying, yeah, he disapproves of what nugent said. so just as the apology is genuine, the distancing from him does not seem to be a genuine either. clearly just the idea of limiting the damage after the fact. but susan, you have abbott and other gop leaders have come out and said they don t agree with, and said it was wrong for him to use these types of comments. do voters know? this happens on both sides. and candidates shouldn t be and republicans shouldn t be held responsible for every word that comes out of the mouths of people that may support them. you know, but the word s sub human mongrel, referring to the president of the united states. as dana said, anybody who that is a really small group of people that would not be offended by language like that. and the most serious cost, i think, for greg abbott is that now we re talking about this day after day, instead of talking about wendy davis own problems, the problems she has had with accusations she exaggerated in her biography, for instance, or problems with obamacare. that s a very popular topic for republicans in texas. we haven t been talking about that for days. we have been talking about this controversy. so that s where i think it s clearly messed up. does it cost greg abbott the governor s race in texas? that s hard to imagine. it s a pretty republican state. but this is in i think no way helpful to him. the president, at least, president obama, for his part, he is talking in his weekly address today about the minimum wage. raising the minimum wage. let s take a listen, and dana, i ll bring you in. in the years since i first asked congress to raise the minimum wage, six states have asked congress to raise theirs. and more states are working on it as they speak. but only congress can finish the job and lift americans wages across the country. well, we were talking a little earlier, dana, about both parties, pretty much put it in neutral right now, trying to just coast and not do anything controversial, nothing too dividing heading into the midterm. so is there much of a chance this year for minimum wage, in your opinion, and what path do you see it taking if we re going to get anything done before november? well, it s going to be a lost lot of heavy lifting, because the republicans are pretty well dug in on this. it s a favorable issue for the democrats politically, and they don t have a lot of favorable issues this year. so you can expect that at least in the senate they re going to attempt to keep bringing this up, force votes on this. and if they don t prevail, keep forcing republicans to vote against it. efforts in the house to get this discharge by the minority so that they ll be forced to place votes there. that s less likely. but they can keep it front and center and you can be sure democrats would rather be talking about raising the minimum wage than, say, defending obamacare. but is this one that has for both of you here. this is one that has to have it can gain momentum, because republican democrats a lot of people work in minimum wage jobs, no matter which party they may vote for. and can t this gain go ahead, susan. tj, i would say i would suggest we create a new category, which is legislation that is wildly popular. supported by a big majority of americans but has virtually no chance of getting through congress this year. minimum wage extended, unemployment, immigration reform, new gun control measures. these are things that you can poll all you want across the country and show support. but i think the reality is they aren t going anywhere, at least until after these midterm elections in november. and if you want to ask why people don t like washington, that s your answer. i take it, dana, you may anybody that reads your column will see you probably agree with a lot of what she just said. but i hate to throw my hands up. we have done this a couple times here on msnbc. doing these shows. and dana, you give me a reality check every time. but it s just so disheartening to think, here we are sitting not even in march, and just forget about it, people. nothing big is going to get done, because we ve got to get to the elections. well, i would like to be more upbeat than that. i m afraid it may even be worse. a lot of people saying they have to give up on anything getting through congress until there is another presidential election in 2016. so things really are stuck in the mud right now. i mean, susan was saying, immigration probably has the best chance of all of these things. and even that is hobbled right now. the government basically operates by crisis now. things get done when they absolutely have to get done. when you look at minimum wage, it s not clear that either side really wants it to get done right away. the republicans don t want it to happen at all and the democrats would like to drag out the issue as long as possible to embarrass the republicans, more than actually getting it paftd at the moment. dana, you always bring good cheer. dana milbank, susan page. good to see you both. thanks, as always. thanks. we re coming up on tbottom f the hour. they re the houses making an impact. a life-changing dream come true. you ve got to see this one. because you can t beat zero heartburn. woo hoo! 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. every now and then i get a little bit hungry and there s nothing good around turn around, barry i finally found the right snack [ female announcer ] fiber one. humans we are beautifully imperfect creatures, living in an imperfect world. that s why liberty mutual insurance has your back, offering exclusive products like optional better car replacement, where, if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. call. and ask an insurance expert about all our benefits today, like our 24/7 support and service, because at liberty mutual insurance, we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, so we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. plus, you could save hundreds when you switch up to $423. call. today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what s your policy? you ve heard it before. they say you can t go home again. but this past christmas eve, 30 people in olympia, washington, did just that. the homeless men and women moved from a tent city to new houses in a development of tiny cottages built around a community center. the project first reported on by the new york times could be a new solution to an old problem that has plagued this country. joining me now, jill severyn, board member of the nonprofit, and john watty, a resident. thank you both for being here. john, let me start with you. tell us, what were the circumstances that led you to end up living in the village in the first place. well, initially, i lost my job i d had for a little over a year, and the place just closed down. and then my unemployment got cut off. and that s pretty much it. it s provided me a very stable environment to deal with these problems. you said it s provided a stable environment. but how would you describe, i guess, the difference between how life was before you were able to move into the village and we re going to talk some more about these tiny homes if you will, but i guess how have things kind of changed for you? you said it provides a stable place. but how is life different? well, i would like to you know, you said homes. and that s the difference. they re not just houses. it s a community of people. we have a great support system. we ve got wonderful people, our resident advocates, reynolds salazar, julie montgomery and all the folks are just wonderful. it s a whole support system. and it s not just a roof. jill, let me bring you in here. we re showing pictures. i want to give folks a good perspective of what we re talking about. we re talking about folks who were in tents, if you will, essentially transferred into i think i read this correctly. they re about the size of a chevy suburban, but they provide a shelter and something that resembles a home. well, the cottages are very tiny, it s true. but each one has a little half bath, a toilet and a sink. and then a little room. and a front porch. and the residents of the camp themselves designed this village. and they were willing to give up interior space in their cottages to have a front porch. who is paying for this? how did that come about? you had to raise money to build these things. we were very fortunate to live in a progressive state. we got $1.5 million from our state legislature. our committunty commission is v supportive. we got community development block grant and a lot of individual and private donations and important support from the indian tribes. and what kind of cost are we talking about per unit, if you will? the total development cost for the entire village was about $87,000 per unit. that includes all the infrastructure, the community building permits, fees, all of that. can this be an option for communities around the country? we know homelessness is an issue in this country and certainly in many of our major metropolitan areas. but can this be an option, and you all have a model there for something that might work. yes. and i think there are two important things about the model. yes, ma am. the first is the village idea of creating a community, an intentional community, with shared facilities. and the second important part of why this works is because the community is self-governing. so people have the power to make the rules and people follow the rules that they make themselves. and john, one more thing to you, and i know you re certainly trying to get back on your feet still. but do you feel this is a i guess the sense that this is a temporary place and view it as a temporary place, or do some people get comfortable there in some ways, and may not want to leave? well, i guess that would be an individual s choice. for me personally, i am planning to go back to school. so this has, you know it s 30% of your income is the rent. so now i can work part time and concentrate on going to school, and i don t have to worry about, you know, the rent thing. and that s a huge thing for me personally. you know, i can t speak to how others take it. but for everyone, it s definitely a chance to move forward. all right. well, a lot more we re going to post i know a lot of people are going to be curious about this. but this is an interesting concept, and we re glad we re able to get you both on. john, good luck to you down the road. and jill, congratulations on what you all have been able to do out there. we ll see where it goes. thanks for being here. thank you very much. we re coming up on the bottom of the hour here now, and a billionaire is teaming up with u.s. olympians for a pretty big victory over in sochi. also, he was born in the u.s. now he s winning gold. before perhaps america s most formidable foe. announcer ] the rhythm of life. 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[ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! from crest 3d white, new brilliance toothpaste and boost. after brushing, our exclusive boost polishes your smile and whitens with 3x the stain lifting ingredient for a smile that dazzles. new crest 3d white brilliance. welcome back to weekends. alex witt is off today. i m tj holmes, just past the bottom of the hour. back to sochi now with a medal drought for team usa speed skaters finally over. the men finally won the short track relay yesterday, the first speed skating medal of these games. meanwhile, another american athlete is winning medals, but not for the u.s. msnbc s chris jansing has more on that. hey there, chris. reporter: hey, tj. vic wild, born and raised in washington state, where his mother is a long-time school teacher, his father retired, that s where he learned to snee snowboard, but just won his second gold medal for russia. and here s why. a lot of the money from the u.s. snowboarding federation have gone to these new x game sports. it s their first year they have been here at the olympics, and he just felt he didn t have enough money to train as well as he would like. and, in fact, the top american competitor in his events here finished in the 20s. but there he was, two gold medals. he said, look, i married a russian woman. he came over here, came on to the team legitimately. and said he got a lot of support. there has also been support from home. look, they get it. they get there s only so much money. they have put it where they think they have the best chance to win. so the u.s. snowboard association tweeted this, congrats to vic wild on his pgs gold. we have always respected vic s decision to ride for russia and are happy for his success in sochi. there is some success in sochi to tell but that a lot of americans have been following. and that is what about all these stray dogs? well, we learned today for the first time from the russian billionaire who has been really tracking this that he thinks that there were as many as 4,000 of them here in sochi alone. many of them who were brought and left by construction workers. and then, of course, many puppies. so i sat down with russian billionaire who also financed a number of big olympic projects like the airport. he s the one who within three weeks built a shelter for these 4,000 dogs. here s what he told me. i think it s great. yeah? but what s important, this area would not be able to adopt such a number. and for us i think it s important. yes, we doin injection in terms of all the veterinarian standards. but they need to be adopted. and yes, we have a few partners on the mainland and even moscow, adoption center. reporter: i did ask him about these reports that some of these dogs had been rounded up and would be put down. he said to me, none of them will be euthanized. he said, in fact, his two children who already have nine dogs may want to pick out one or two more from these strays at that shelter. and, of course, we have already seen that a number of high-profile athletes and is some other americans here after they have been vaccinated and gotten a clean bill of health are bringing them back to the united states. tj? all right. thanks to our chris jansing. and here s what you can watch tonight on prime time on nbc. men s and women s team pursuit speed skating finals. men s biathlon relay, men s s l slalom and bobsled competition. $184 million, how much colorado expects to get in tax revenue from marijuana sales, and that s just in the first 18 months of being legalized for recreational use in that state. you got to wonder, are other states going to want a piece of that green? reporter for the coloradoan, trevor hughes. thank you for being here. that is a lot of money. and is this now going to have an impact on other states? they look at that number and everybody is drafting legislation trying to get the pot legalized in their state. aren t they? you know, it certainly seems that way. the money that s flowing into colorado right now, i bought pot the other week as one does in a store now, and it was $20 a grah gram. i paid $7 in taxes for that and i got a receipt and that money went to the tax man for enforcement and all kinds of different testing and anti smoking campaigns for marijuana. but you ve got to think there are other states looking at this and saying, wow, that is an awful lot of money. that is a lot of cash changing hands every day in our own states, because we know that it does happen. you ve got to think other states are really looking seriously at this. especially given colorado s expert experience so far. okay. and you bought that marijuana for you. that was for a story, right? reporter: it was for a story. i bought it with my boss s money and expensed it. it was. and i actually had to get it destroyed. all right, my man. let see here, the colorado governor is actually warning other governors. i know the money looks good, but slow down here. you don t want to just jump into this thing. but how exactly is the recreational marijuana rollout? how would you say it s going? are there issues and problems that have propped up? you know, i ve been talking about this with a lot of friends around the country. and honestly, very little has changed here in the could. colorado. people have been buying and smoking pot in colorado for a really long time as they have in pretty much every state. very little has changed. we have heard a little bit more about possibly some armed robberies. the stores are struggling with handling their cash flow. they literally have piles of cash, because they re struggling to get access to banking. but honestly, it really hasn t changed much in terms of what you see every day on the street. people aren t just walking down the street smoking pot. just doesn t work like that. and the governor there, at least is warning, it s easy for him to say, is it not, to other states, don t let money be a factor. or don t let that be the primary factor. that s easy for him to say when he s going to be sitting on $200 million. right. and the first $40 million of these taxes it actually go to school construction. so we re looking at an awful lot of money here. and we haven t seen what the long-term societal impacts are going to be in terms of recreational sales of marijuana. but, again, people have been buying and smoking pot for a very long time. this is just allowing maybe the government to see actually how big that market really is. and do they have places they know where the money is going to go? i know the $184 million is an estimate right now. we ll see what it ends up being. but do they have is that money designated for certain areas of state government budgets? that s right. they have money set aside for educational campaigns, because people under 21 aren t allowed to buy pot. substance abuse, treatment. and then also a lot of money going into law enforcement to make sure this pot is being bought and sold by the people who are allowed to buy and is sell it. and that the money isn t being used to fund drug cartels in other parts of the world. but i hear this right. you said it goes to substance abuse problems or programs and things like that. and it s going to educational campaigns. it sounds like it s the big business of recreational marijuana is feeding itself in some ways. you re trying to educate people about it, so we re going to use some of this tax revenue. i guess we don t have the breakdown yet, but it sounds like a lot is going back into the cycle. that s true. although we ask ourselves, is there this any different than alcohol, than maybe lottery tickets? we sell lottery tickets and use money from the lottery to fund anti compulsive gambling campaigns. you can tell you have been doing this story and buying the marijuana for the sake of journalism. for the sake of journalism. trevor, good to talk to you. we ll chat again. have a good one. imagine a law that allows businesses to refuse to serve gay customers. the where and the why. that is next in the big three. huh.fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake? uh-oh. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. so ally bank really has no hthat s right, no hidden fees.s? it s just that i m worried about, you know, hidden things. ok, why s that? well uhhh. surprise!!! um. well, it s true. at ally there are no hidden fees. not one. that s nice. no hidden fees, no worries. ally bank. your money needs an ally. to help me become an olympian, she was pretty much okay with me turning her home into an ice rink. she d just reach for the bounty select-a-size. it s the smaller, powerful sheet that acts like a big sheet. look, one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less, with the small but powerful picker-upper, bounty select-a-size. yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! we are one, under the sun under the sun. [ female announcer ] fiber and protein. together as one. introducing new fiber one protein cereal. time now for the big three. and today s topics, no service for you. what will they ask? let me bring them in right now. msnbc contributor goldie taylor, whose column breaking black is featured on the grio every monday. democratic strategist morris reid and republican strategist and msnbc contributor susan d delpercio. republican governor jan brewer will have to decide whether she will sign into law the controversial bill that would allow business owners to refuse service to gay customers, based on religious beliefs. all right. she signs it, she doesn t sign it. weigh both sides for me. i don t think she can sign it. i think that this is an absolutely dangerous trend for arizona to take. i call them the gay codes. what if i decided that in my business i didn t want to serve eadvanta evangelical christians. wouldn t they claim tyranny? what if i wanted to discriminate based on my religious beliefs against people who have blue or green eyes. wouldn t people with blue or green eyes say that i was moving on tyranny here in the united states? i think that is absolutely dangerous. i think there are two takes. number one, is this constitutional. that question has to be answered and i don t believe it is. and secondly, people have got to vote with their wallets. i think you hit them both in court and in the pocketbook, and that s how you i think that people of have every right to be a by got. you don t have the right to exercise those beliefs on other people. susan, to her point about this you talk about religious freedom. but make the argument that this was necessary to take another step towards religious freedom, or is this just outright discrimination? outright discrimination. that s all this bill is, and i really hope for jan brewer s sake she does veto it. she has her legacy to think about, which has its ups and downs, and i don t think she wants to go out on a note allowing discriminatory legislation to go through. it s just unacceptable. there is no room for it in our society. and morris, there s not much you can say past that. but outside of arizona, we are seeing it. we talked about this on msnbc.com. we re seeing several other measures similar to this popping up in state legislators. some have been knocked down, some are pending. but you know what, guys, i need you to stand by for a second. something we have been waiting to hear from. michael sam, i m being told, is stepping to the podium here, a young man who came out as gay is going to be drafted into the nfl by all expectations at the combine. he s taking questions now. let s listen into this for a second. michael, yesterday bruce arians said, if you have a probl problem. [ inaudible ] are you worried about reaction from fans from opposing teams? has that gone through your mind is that a concern, how you ll be treated at stadiums? no, i ve been getting a lot of great positive from all kinds of fans. so you know, while i m on the field, i really don t focus on fans, so i just focus on my responsibilities and which is the guy right across from me. michael, you saw what happened to the miami dolphins. does that concern you, anything like that could happen to you? would you be hesitant about being in the miami dolphins locker room? if the miami dolphins drafted me, i would be excited to be a part of that organization. but i m not afraid about that going going into that environment. i know how to handle myself. i know how to communicate with my teammates, i know how to communicate with the coaches. and other staff, whoever i need to communicate with. what have the last couple weeks been like? i ve been in i ve been missing in action. so i really haven t been paying attention to the media. so i don t really know. [ inaudible question ] i have no endorsements. just combine and pro day. [ inaudible question ]. i have been working out. what have you been working on? i ve been working on everything from 40 to vertical jump, everything, the whole nine yards. do you notice a difference in anyone not naming any names. but when you told your teammates no, not at all. it was the same. what s it like for wearing one of those buttons staying with sam? i hope you all stay with sam. please do. but when i went to the basketball game against tennessee, a very kind lady gave it to me and i gave her a hug. and i got a lot of support out there. [ inaudible question ]. it s a great i love my fans. i love mizzou, one of the best schools in the nation. and then after what they did this past weekend, it was just amazing. i wanted to cry but i was like, i m a man. so i just i want to thank everyone who supported me, especially mizzou, the students, my coaches, the whole organization and every missouri fan. i m a tiger forever. [ inaudible question ]. do you think it s the kind of things that players need to be educated or you know, i ve been in locker rooms where all kinds of slurs have been said. and i don t think anyone means it. as time goes on, everyone will adapt. 9. do you kind of wish that this wasn t a story and we were just talking about michael sam, ball player well, heck, yeah. michael sam, how s football going, how s training going? i would love for you to ask me that question. but it is what it is. i wish you guys will see me as michael sam the football player instead of michael sam the gay football player. [ inaudible question ]. i want to play whoever picks me up as a defensive end or outside linebacker to rush that passer because that s what i do best. what kind of reaction have you gotten at the combine from other players, coaches i m not going to say who said it. but one of my friends said, michael sam, i didn t know you were gay? i was like, i didn t know either. apparently the media is blowing it out of proportion. there you go. since you made the announcement [ inaudible ] great. the positive outweighs the negative. i m actually kind of surprised actually. but there s a lot of support. there s a lot of people that want this. just a lot of support out there. after everything you went through, your family and brothers and sisters and your dad [ inaudible ] can you how did everything that you went through with your family [ inaudible ] it made me stronger. it made me who i am today. i wouldn t be talking to you people if it wasn t. what have you told your team about your sexuality? were there jokes about it? have you told them, i can take jokes and if so everybody can be normal around me if they wanted to. we joke around because it s a brotherhood. it s a family. we can say things to each other. we don t draw blood. it s all fun and games. [ inaudible question ]. i m sorry, what? are you surprised that word never got out during the season? like i said, a good portion of my student body knew. so word did get out. but we protect one another at mizzou, apparently, i guess other schools don t. michael, how would you feel if you opened the door for other gay players to come out freely? if i did that, i think it s just great. i just want to do what i love to do, that s play football. sounds like you have doubts about how your story might be received and the way things played out the last couple of weeks, are you surprised? i didn t have doubts. i just wanted to get my story out there before anyone else said or tell it. and i m going to continue on with my life and try to prepare myself for the nfl. [ inaudible question ]. i m going to fight? if someone wants to call me a name, i ll have a conversation with that guy and hopefully won t lead to nothing else. [ inaudible question ]. i am not a gm. i do not have control over my draft status. all i can control is me preparing myself to get the best scores out there. [ inaudible question ]. what was that? do you feel like a trail blazer? i feel like i m michael sam. in a perfect world, would [ inaudible ] in a perfect world, when i ve figured it out. when i knew that this was what i wanted. did you understand that answer? yes. in a perfect world, when i was ready to tell it. i m talking about right now, would you have waited until after the combine? no. i think i did it on my time, on my terms. it s out there. so it doesn t really matter. a football question hey, there you go! what s that? what do you think about this label a lot of guys face that every year. is it relevant, do you think it s legitimate? what? there are questions being asked about, can you play what about those questions? i m a pass rusher. you put me in a situation to get the quarterback, i m going to get the quarterback. whatever coaches or gms this league is a passing league. so i would like to believe myself as a good pass rusher. are those questions valid? i can drop back in coverage as well. but like i said, my specialty is rushing the passer. michael, you mentioned at the senior bowl how much that prepared you to be around nfl coaches it was a new thing. i m always around college coaches. and seeing it s just a business, this is a legit business. multibillion-dollar organization. it got me the feeling of what to expect on that next level. how did the interviews go then? were there any questions that they asked it was all football questions. they asked me about my size. they asked me about, have you ever played linebacker? general questions like that. didn t ask you about your sexual orientation? no. michael, you said you could [ inaudible ] how do you handle that i m not focused on that at all. how many other players do you look at and say, i d like to model myself after? there s a lot of great athletes and especially pass rushers out there. but i want to try to make a name for myself. but i admire michael strahan, he s an awesome pass rusher and many more like him. but i d like to make a name for myself. [ inaudible question ]. we just find that out tomorrow and then monday. you ve been listening to michael sam, the missouri football player expected to be drafted in the next nfl draft. came out as gay just a couple of weeks ago, taking questions at the combine. we ll continue to follow this. milissa rehberger picks it up on our coverage here on nbc. bloating? one phillips colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three types of good bacteria. i should probably take this. live the regular life. phillips . how much money do you think you ll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. 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