ves. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 6 2015, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for the morning hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to five minutes but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from texas for five minutes. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, mr. speaker. today i rise with a question -- should america be brought to the brink of her own security and safety? with that question i can my friends on the other side of the aisle, the republicans, i ask the speaker to put on the floor of the house the full funding of the department of homeland security. mr. speaker, i had the tragic privilege of beginning my tenure on this committee in the aftermath of 9/11. some of us who served at that time were able to go to the site of 9/11. we were able to go soon enough to see some of those who were in the midst of recovering since the first responders of new york refused to leave anyone behind. it was a devastating and emotional time but the resilience of that time also reflected america's values, for i remember very strongly standing on the steps of the house, republicans and democrats, and singing the song "god bless america." what do we come to today that frivolously we are using these political tactics, taking political security over national security and rejecting our responsibility of ensuring that men and women who are on the front lines for the security of this nation can continue their jobs? first, mr. speaker let me say that there is a court order that has temporarily issued an injunction. that court in texas did not in any way assess the constitutionality of the president's executive actions. why? because he has the authority. his comments that have been repeated over and over again about his lack of authority was, yes, he does not have the authority to convey an immigration status. his executive actions are not immigration status. they are simply keeping families from being torn apart and mothers and fathers and children from being deported. it is not an immigration status. it is a stay of deportation. and so the fuss that is being made impacts the t.s.a. officer in a los angeles airport where someone was tragically shot or new york or houston or dallas or chicago or rawleydurham, that t.s.a. officer -- raleigh-during ham, that t.s.a. officer who stands on the -- stands on the front line and we look them in the eye and we say they can't be paid. mr. speaker when the shutdown happened before, it was the democrats that ensured those workers were paid. we want border security, we won't be paying our border patrol agents or i.c.e. agents. even though it is suggested that oh the fees will take care of it. there are 30,000 employees that fees will not take care of. so i rise today pleading to have my friends acknowledge that first of all they're wrong on the executive actions as we go to a hearing in judiciary, i'll be able to show that these individuals will be vetted more extensively probably than many others in the immigration process. 14 provisions have to be utilized before they can be eligible for the executive action the president has. but what i am going to say mr. speaker, is that i started by saying that we're bringing america to the brink and in the midst of my comments, i indicated that i remember how we came together in the tragedy of 9/11. well, we have a tragedy right now. we have a raging isis and isil. we have an unknown terrorist threat, and we know that the united states, although strong, stands as the rest of the world does, in needing to be prepared for those who want to be individualized franchised terrorists. i take my responsibility seriously. i believe in the constitution. i even believe in language that indicates as we say often in the declaration, we are all created equal, and language in the constitution that says we have come to form a more perfect union. this is not perfect, and this can be remedied and i ask the speaker to put on the floor of the house in the name of firefighters and police officers and i.c.e. officers and grants going to cities for using their best tactics, fusion centers that deal with terrorism in their name and many orders, border patrol i.c.e., as i indicated, and many others t.s.o. agents f.a.a., parts of that, fema, when the north is freezing and needs that kind of assistance, in the name of people of the united states of america, how much pleading do i need to do? as a member of the homeland security committee, believing in those innocent families who have come here to do nothing more than to work on behalf of their families and desire to be reunited or -- on behalf of the mothers and fathers mr. speaker, i ask that the speaker puts on the floor of the house a clean d.h.s. bill so that we can vote now, now, now. i thank the speaker for his courtesies. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the chair will now recognize the gentleman from california, mr. lamalfa, for five minutes. mr. lamalfa: thank you mr. speaker. the veterans affairs office of inspector general issued a report last wednesday under investigations that nearly 14,000 veteran benefits claims that were found in a filing cabinet in oakland, california. last year these claims were brought who knew about this for many years. this, despite their efforts on how these claims were being handled. in july, 2014 the former deputy undersecretary for v.a. field office testified before the house committee on veterans' affairs that 14,000 claims that were found had been brokered so they would receive attention by the v.a.'s highest performing offices. just two weeks prior to that on a site visit to the oakland v.a., the regional and division management told me that these 14,000 claims basically never existed. as a matter of fact, they claimed it was a storied made up by disgruntled employees. the investigation confirmed the discovery of 14,000 claims in a filing cabinet, confirmed that some of these claims dated back to the 1990's, confirmed that thousands of these claims had not been processed and confirmed that the staff at the oakland v.a. had not been directed to properly store these claims. oakland v.a.'s management claimed after my visit that they then had discovered 13,184 veteran benefits claims and 2,15 claims which required action or review. but during an onsite review, office of inspector general could not confirm the existence of these claims due to the oakland v.a.'s management poor record keeping practices. how was oakland v.a. able to arrive at such exact numbers without maintaining records that allowed the o.i.g. to verify the existence of these claims? it just doesn't make sense and we have to get to the bottom of these numbers. the v.a.'s required by law to respond to every initial claim they receive to safeguard federal records and to protect private information of the veterans they work with. when the oakland v.a. managers discovered the 2,155 claims were more than several years old and required review, a special projects team was formed to complete this urgent task. members of this team have told my staff that many of those claims belonged to veterans who passed away while waiting for their benefits to be processed and their families were never contacted. inexplicably, the office of inspector general later described that 537 claims that had been marked by the special team as processed were never actually processed. some of these claims were as old as june 2002. yet, another troubling instance of the oakland v.a. manager failed to provide the type of service northern california veterans deserve. the v.a.'s office of inspector general reviewed only 34 of these unprocessed claims, though for some reason they decided to select a random sample. they were reviewed selected judiciously, which really doesn't make any sense. of the 34 claims that were reviewed by the inspector general's office seven still remain unprocessed. in fact, though, these claims had been reviewed several times from deuce, 2012 to june, 2014 without any action being taken. one instance, a veteran with ptsd was underpaid almost $3,000 because his initial claim was not processed correctly. this and many other examples like that. this type of dysfunction complete lack of oversight and accountability cannot continue not in oakland, not at any of the v.a. regional offices across the country. sadly, this report sheds very little light who should be held accountable for these failures and is incomplete. i'm grateful the report was done, that the inspector general did delve into this issue with oakland and many other offices, but in the fact that no real conclusions were made who's to be held accountable, much work remains to be done. we must continue to search for these answers and work to make sure the v.a. regional offices are properly serving our veterans. i'm also grateful on the positive for the many staff members of the v.a., some former veterans themselves, that they do care about this and they process many of these claims they make sure veterans are served. we see there's a lot of holes in this system obviously, that are making veterans not have the confidence that they're going to be served, that they're going to get their claims processed or indeed get health care if they need later. anywhere from 12 to 22 veterans give up each day in this country commit suicide because they have no hope left of having the promise kept to them shows we have much to do. so i'm grateful for those v.a. staffers that come to us with blowing the whistle on what's wrong with this system when they can't get help, when they can't get help from their management to make things right. we ask them, please keep coming forward contact my office contact my staff on what needs to be done to get the word out, to help make this right because we want the v.a. to function well. we want the employees to feel like they're part of a system that's serving veterans and have a good relationship within their office but also ultimately to serve what we need as taxpayers, as americans that help our veterans. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair will now recognize the gentlewoman from ohio, ms. kaptur, for five minutes. ms. kaptur: thank you mr. speaker. i stand here this morning as a member of the appropriations committee and its subcommittee on homeland security. our subcommittee is responsible for setting and overseeing funding for the operations of the department of homeland security. but in two days on february 27 astoundingly, funding for the department of homeland security runs out because the republican majority can't agree on a bill due to their internal disagreements on the immigration provisions which are also contained in the same bill because that's in the same department. although a clean funding bill, h.r. 861, could quickly be brought to this house floor for a vote to fund the entire department for the remainder of this fiscal year republicans have defaulted to the right-wing extremists in their own party and instead have chosen to hold the security of our nation hostage in order to contort the legislative process. they would defund the president's immigration executive order merely because they want a partisan win more than they want to govern. what a tragedy. to quote an editorial from yesterday's "washington post" and i quote, the fervor of republican partisanship, especially in the house, is immune to logic beyond an insistence on victory at any cost. this is a republican party that just a year and a half ago shut our nation's government down for 16 days stopping critical services and doing significant harm to the u.s. economy. . then, too, they seem more interested in the political wind than responsible governance. recall their party also had the opportunity last congress to bring a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bill to the floor for a vote but declined to act. they have chosen not to address the concern that an overwhelming number of americans believe needs to be resolved. there are grave consequences ing the detcht homeland security into a -- consequences for forcing the department of homeland security into a shut down. more than a fifth of personnel are furloughed. the republican congress would end the federal emergency agency's training activities with local law enforcement for weapons of mass destruction. the republican congress would cut off pay to thousands of department of homeland security employees who are personally tasked with protecting our homeland. and the republican congress would stop research and development work on counter measures to protect us against devastating bilogical threats, nuclear detection equipment, and on cargo and passenger screening technologies. the republican congress would shutter the department of homeland security domestic nuclear detection office meaning there will be no alerts or coordination efforts with local law enforcement agencies if a nuclear event occurs. this is so utterly irresponsible. in an area -- era of amplified global threats, brutal terrorist attacks throughout europe, and escalating tensions throughout the middle east, to cut off funding for the department tasked with ensuring our homeland security is safe and secure is truly dangerous. this sort of behavior throws sand into the gears of a great society. of a great contry. the oldest republic on the face of the earth. the american people surely are looking for reassurance that their government will offer them the security and dependability they expect. we have a responsibility to protect their security. even if it means we no longer can indulge in political brinksmanship. mr. speaker, we have a working bipartisan majority here in this house that holds the power to govern this nation. all it needs is the will. let's bring the clean department of homeland security funding bill to the floor today. let's stop playing political games with the safety and security of the american people. we owe it to them to govern and to do the job we were elected to do. mr. speaker, i yield back my remaining time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house >> good morning. i'm john kline, i chair the house education and work force committee. we've got some legislation coming up this week that i think is critically important. it's caused me to think back -- back a long way to when i was a kid in school and, boy my parents were so intent on me getting through school, getting my diploma getting to college. i had a paper route. i sacked groceries. i did all those things to be the first person in my family to get to college and graduate. and that's what we want for children across america. we want every child to get an excellent education in every school. and what we have right now is simply not working. we have -- many places, half of our kids are not graduating from high school. many of those who do graduate, they are really not ready to go to college or go to work. we need to change the status quo and what we have up this week is legislation to do that. it's a bold step to take us in a different direction to return control to parents and local school boards and states and get away from this one-size-fits-all mandate program that we have coming from the federal government. i'm excited about it. i'm excited about the change in course. and i'm excited about giving every child a chance to succeed. >> today the house going to vote on h.r. 529 to expand strengthen and improve 529 plans. our country's fallen from first to 19th in college graduation rates. a larger than average percentage of children have less education than even their parents. the cost of college is skyrocketing and student debt now stands at an all-time high, $1.2 trillion. as a mom with two kids currently in college watching our nation fall behind is a result that i'm not prepared to accept. studies have demonstrated how the existence of a college savings account substantially increases the chance that a child will attend college. we should be encouraging families to plan ahead and 529s are proven and they are popular tax-free college savings tools. i'm using them for my kids, and i know that we should be boosting not taxing 529s so more americans use them, extend their education, and get that job they always dreamed of. that's what i want for my kids, and that's what all americans deserve. while the president was forced to withdraw his college savings tax hike, if he's really serious about helping families, more members of his party should be onboard to support this bill this afternoon. >> first off i want to say how disappointed i am. how disappointed i am that the president vetoed keystone pipeline simply for political reasons. with that veto the president said more no to more than 40,000 jobs. the president with that veto said no to bipartisan legislation to work with the house and senate. so despite the obstruction of what this president is doing saying no to the american public, you will find in the house that we are working in a different manner. i know the president earlier in his budget said no to every family in america that tries to save for their children's future in a 529 account. we are glad he rethought that with the pressure put forward. there is more we can do. i have two small kids that are now one in college, and one about to go to college. my wife and i when we first found she was pregnant we started saving. because it was no longer what we would become it's what opportunities our children would have. education is the great equalizer. so we want to make sure that you have that opportunity no matter where you come from in america. and that's what's going on today and this week in the house. one's improving our education system that empowers parents, empowers local school districts to make kids prepared for the 21st century. but also with lynn jenkins' 529 account to expand it. today in education yes, you do need a computer, you do need to have the ability to have all the facts and figures out there as you go through college, but the opportunity to reach as high as you can. so our message today is, mr. president, stop saying no to the american public, but let's say yes to a 21st century where america leads once again. >> late they are week we are going to be bringing an important education reform bill to the house floor. the students success act as chairman kline described is going to make important reforms to get the federal government further out of the role of education and allow the states and local governments and parents to make those good decisions. and to come up with really important innovations. something i have seen in my home state of louisiana where we have transformed some of the most failed public schools in the country, the city of new orleans school system before hurricane katrina was one of the most failed and corrupt systems in the entire nation. you literally had children who were graduating, they had a high school valedictorian who couldn't pass the state exit examine. that kid did everything he was asked to do. the system failed him. so what we were able to do after hurricane katrina is set up a system of charter schools where communities and parents got involved in the process of educating their kids in a very direct way. where they were able to be inknow veterans day tifment those innovations have now served as a model for how to transform failed public school systems all across the country. in fact, the governor of georgia will go there next week to see how it's done so he can replicate that in georgia. that's how education success works. where states are able to be creative, local school boards, and parents are able to make those decisions. it doesn't work well when the federal government is given this one-size-fits-all approach. this bill gives that flexibility to states, local governments and to parents to be more in charge of how their kids are able to succeed. it's worked well when it's been done. so this bill gives that flexibility. unfortunately, this morning, the president issued a veto threat on this bill. so time and time again we see the president saying no to things that help parents give their kids more opportunity in life. yesterday the president said no to 40,000 jobs in america. and billions of dollars of private investment when he vetoed the keystone pipeline. it's time for the president to stop saying no and start saying yes to getting our economy back on track. giving kids the opportunity to succeed and their parents the ability to go to their local school board, their state without the federal government coercing and using federal taxpayer dollars to tell them how to do things when they can do it better. give them the flexibility. that's what we are going to do later this week. >> america is the land of opportunity. this is the country that no matter where you come from, no matter your walk of life this is the country where you can make your dreams come true. you know what? so often that starts with an education. when it was me when i was in school, or for millions of other kids in classrooms across this country, the real opportunity comes with a great education. i'm also the mom of three kids and want every opportunity for them. i was one of those kids, too, that was the first in my family to graduate from college. that was my parents' dream for me. for as long as i could remember they say kathy, you go to college, we want you to have a better life. and it meant -- when i had 4-h animals and sold them, i saved that money so coy go to school. and paying for college today is even harder than even when i was in school. some time ago. i, too, am just excited. i applaud the leadership of chairman kline, i'm excited about lynn jenkins' 529 bill that opens up more opportunities because we are committed to strengthening education opportunities for every child in this country. everyone in this country should have an equal opportunity for education. from elementary school to college. and we stand committed to making that happen. >> education is the civil rights of the 21st century. i want to applaud chairman kline for the job he's doing to provide local communities, states, and parents more flexibility over how federal dollars are used to educate america's kids. the bill that will come forward is a good conservative bill that empowers america and does not empower the bureaucracy here in washington. the same issue lynn jenkins' 529 bill. to expand 529 plans to allow more americans to save for their children's college education. again, empowering parents. if you step back and look at what the president is doing, the president is trying to protect the bureaucracy here in washington. the president wants to have all this control here in washington. we are for an opportunity society. empowering people around america to do their best and begin empow -- empower them to get the education that will help them be successful in life. >> are you concerned if you bring up a clean bill, it will be the end -- >> i'm waiting for the senate to afpblgt the house has done its job to fund the department of homeland security and to stont president's overreach on immigration. -- and to stop the president's overreach on immigration. senate democrats have stood in the way for three weeks over a bill that should have been debated and passed. so until the senate does something, we are in a wait and see mode. >> you know the way your caucus feels. are you concerned about a rebellion? >> i'm waiting for a senate to pass a bill. our staffs talk back and forth, but senator mcconnell's got a big job to do, so do i. our staffs have been talking back and forth. the senate has to act. i made it pretty clear over the last couple weeks, we are waiting for the senate to act. i'm waiting for the senate to pass a bill. there's a lot -- i don't know what the senate's capable of passing. until i see what they are going to pass, no decision has been made on the house side. i'm waiting for the senate to act. the house has passed the bill to fund the department. it's time for the senate to do their job. thank you, everybody. >> republicans leaders after their meeting this morning and roll call right writhing about the house g.o.p. in a holding pattern on funding for d.h.s. g.o.p. lawmakers won't know how leadership will respond until their regularly scheduled meeting this morning. saying if mitch mcconnell, the senate leader, is able to convince -- advance a d.h.s. funding bill scrubbed of house language to block president obama's executive orders, then speaker boehner and his lieutenants are going to have to make a calculation. one of the major issues is the constitutionality of the president's immigration orders. those executive orders of last year. it's the subject of a hearing before the house judiciary committee this morning. it just gaveled in about 10 minutes ago. we'll take you there live now here on c-span. >> consider the most basic obligation we have. it is our responsibility to pass bills to fund the government. if we don't do our job, the government shuts down. congressional republicans got their wish in october, 2013, and shut the government down for more than two weeks. now the majority here again is set on a collision course this. time they will shut down the department of homeland security because they refuse to pass a clean spending bill because they want to block the administration's executive actions on immigration. keep in mind that the spending bill we are talking about was negotiated between republicans and democrats in the house and the senate. truth be told there are aspects of that bill that i disagree with. i strongly oppose the detention of -- believe it is wasteful and unjust to include that language in the appropriations bill. but i also understand the importance of funding the department of homeland security and the need to keep our nation safe. second congress is also failing to do its job because it is ultimately our responsibility to fix our broken immigration system. instead of doing that work, we are holding hearing after hearing to vilify the president for taking important and commonsense steps to prioritize the deportation of felons before families. the limited legislation that this committee has considered would make our immigration system even less efficient less humane and less able to meet the needs of american families and businesses. earlier this month we held two immigration subcommittee hearings on draft language for deportation -- four deportation only bills that would separate families, strip protection from dreamers, destroy the agricultural industry and the millions of jobs that depend on it. and return vulnerable children to face persecution and violence with no meaningful due process. finally, i want to note that the title of today's hearing demonstrates a glaring disrespect for the office of the presidency and for this institution's responsibility to conduct oversight that is rooted in fact rather than political presumption. the title of today's hearings is, the unconstitutionality of obama's executive actions on immigration. not president obama's executive actions, but obama's executive actions. since when are we on such familiar terms with our commander in chief? i cannot recall a previous administration during which members of congress, from either side of the aisle, showed such a persistent disrespect for the office of the presidency. the title of this hearing is also interesting because it is a statement not a question. it just presumes that the administration's actions are unconstitutional, even though no court has found the actions unconstitutional. and there's -- there is strong legal authority and historical precedent supporting these policy decisions. so in closing our current immigration system is not working for american families, businesses or the economy. these problems require real legislative solutions. so i urge our colleagues, my colleagues on this committee, to start doing the job that we were sent here to do. mr. chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. and thank you. >> the chair thanks the gentleman. it's now my pleasure to recognize the chairman of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration and border security, the gentleman from south carolina, mr. gowdy, for his opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, the thread that holds the tapestry of our country together is respect for and adherence to the rule of law. the law is the greatest unifying and greatest equalizing force that we have in our culture. the law is what makes the richest person drive the precise same speed limit as the poorest person. the law is what makes the richest person in this country pay his or her taxes on precisely the same day as the poorest person in this contry. the law, mr. chairman, is symbolized by a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales and a sword. the law is both a shield and a sword, and it is the foundation upon which this republic stands. we think so highly of the law, mr. chairman, that in the oath of citizenship administered to those who pledge allegiance to this country, to their new country, it makes six different references to the law. so attempts to undermine the law via executive fiat, regardless of motivation, are detrimental to the foundation of a democracy. president obama after the november midterm elections, i hasten to add, announced one of the largest extra constitutional acts ever by a chief exec tifment he declared unilaterally almost five million undocumented aliens would receive deferred action under some newfangled definition of prosecutorial discretion. moreover, in addition to using prosecutorial discretion, is a license to rewrite the law he also conferred benefits on those same people. you may like the policy, you may wish the policy were the law but one person does not make law in a republic. if you enjoy a single person making law you should investigate living in in another contry, because our framers did not give us nor have generations of our fellow citizens fought and served and sacrificed for a single person to make law in a unilateral way. so removing consequences for breaking the law is one thing. bestowing benefits such as work authorization and immigration benefits is another. the president himself recognizes his own inability to do this, mr. chairman. more than 20 separate times he said he lacked the power to do what he ultimately did. in 2011 he said this, and i quote, the notion that i could just suspend deportation through executive order, that's just not the case. he told us time and time again, mr. chairman, that he was not a king. his position may have changed. but the constitution has not. and that document is clear and it is time tested and it is true and it says the congress passes laws and it is the responsibility of the chief executive to take care that those laws are faithfully enforced. the prosecutorial -- is that better, mr. court reporter? let me see where i was. his position may have changed. but the constitution has not. prosecutorial discretion is real and actually valid, mr. chairman, but it is not a synonym for anarchy. as u.s. distrkt court judge andrew haynin wrote, d.h.s. does have the discretion in the manner it chooses to express the will of congress. cannot ignore congress but actively thwart them. the constitution gives the president a lot of power, mr. chairman. he's the commander in chief, he nominates supreme court justice, he can veto legislation for any reason or no reason. he can fail to defend the constitutionality of a law. he has the power of pardon. he has a lot of power, mr. chairman. but what he cannot do is make law by himself. that is the responsibility of the congress. and if this president's unilateral extra constitutional acts 6 -- acts are not stopped, the future president, you may rest assured, will expand that power of the executive branch thereby threatening the constitutional equilibrium. the argument the previous administrations have acted outside constitutional boundaries holds no merit with me. the fact that other people make mistakes is not a license for this executive to do the same thing. mr. president, in conclusion, we live in a country where process matters. the end does not justify the means. no matter how good the intentions. when a police officer fails to check the right box on an application for a search warrant, the fruits of that search warrant are suppressed. when a police officer, even though he has the right suspect for the right crime but he just fails to include one small part of those prophylactic miranda warnings, what happens? the statement is suppressed. even though you have the right person. even though you have the right crime. because we view process over the end. i'm going to say this and i'll finish. i'm going to say this to those who benefit from the president's policies. you may be willing to allow the end to just fight means in this case. you may well like the fact that the president has abused pros cuorial discretion and conferred benefits in an unprecedented way. you may benefit from the president's failure to enforce the law today, but i'll make you this promise. there will come a day where you will cry out for the enforcement of the law. there will come a day where you long for the law to be the foundation of this republic. so you be careful what you do with the law today because if you weaken it today, you weaken it forever. with that i yield back. >> the chair thanks the gentleman for the very cogent remarks. it is now my pleasure to recognize the ranking member of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration and border security the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren, for her opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. the 113th congress is considered to have been one of the most do-nothing congresses in history. the biggest symbol of the republican failure to govern was the unnecessary and irresponsible shut down that lasted from october 1 to october 16. federal employees were furloughed for a combined total of 6.6 million days, $2 billion was spent on payroll to these furloughed employees for work they were prevented from doing. the recovering economy took a hit, and millions of americans were denied access to programs and service that is they rely on. perhaps it's fitting then that the 113th congress ended with the so-called cromnibus, a spending bill that promised to yet again puts on the path of the government shut down. we are only two months in the 114th congress but it already seems like the republican majority in the house and senate is trying to outdo itself. for the past six weeks rather than proceed with the d.h.s. funding bill, the democrats and republicans in the house and senate agreed to last year, republican leaders in the house and senate have insisted that funding be contingent on a series of poison bill immigration riders demanded by the most extreme members and supported by all but a few. thins the cromnibus was first attached, many -- passed, many republicans argued that the president acted unconstitutionally on november 20 when he and the secretary of homeland security announced a series of measures defined to bring a measure of sense to our broken immigrationcies tefment we have been told these measures cannot be permitted to take effect. last week, of course, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting two of those measures. the deferred action for parental accountability, and the expansion of the deferred action for childhood arrivals program. these efforts are designed to offer temporary protection from deportation to certain parents of u.s. citizens and lawful permanent residents, and to dreamers with long ties to our country. the department of justice this week requested a stay of the injunction and noticed an appeal. the matter's finally in the hands of the federal courts. the branch of the government that the constitution entrusses to settled disputes arising in the constitution and laws of the united states. some people, including some republicans in the house and senate have speculated that a court injunction would convince republican leadership to stop holding the spending bill hostage. what we have seen over the past weeks, however is that many republicans are even more determined to take us over a cliff and once more shut down the government. several points are worth noting. first, we continue to hear republicans minimize the impact of a shut down on national security by arguing that 85% of d.h.s. employees were deemed etension during the last government shutdown. i just can't understand how we in congress would take comfort at the idea of forcing border patrol agents to secure our borders, coast guard personnel to patrol the seas and i.c.e. officers and agents to conduct law enforcement investigations and secure detention facilities without receiving their paycheck. it's unconscionable, really. further, it's bizarre that we will defund the e verify program, stop the immigration enforcement efforts, but at the same time because they are fee supported, the processing of immigration petitions will be unimpeded. so the effort stops immigration enforcement but it does nothing to actually stop the processing of immigration petitions. second, since we know the court has already temporarily halted implementation of daca, expanded daca, it's important to remember what other initiatives congressional republicans are trying to block as part of d.h.s. funding. they voted overwhelmingly to eliminate the daca program itself. stripping protections from more than 600,000 dream act kids and subjecting them once more to deportation. they voted to prevent d.h.s. from implementing a new enforcement strategy along our southern border and creating three new law enforcement task forces. they voted to block d.h.s. and d.o.d. from working together to ensure that u.s. citizens who wish to enlist in the military would be able to do so notwithstanding immigration status of close relatives. they voted to stop d.h.s. from taking important steps to capitalize on the talents of entrepreneurs to help companies attract and retain highly skilled immigrants and promote zintship. just yesterday a final rule was issued extending work authorization to the spouses of certain h-1-b visa holders. if the appropriations bill passed by the house were to become law uscif would have been prevent interested finalizing that rule. republicans don't talk about the fact that they are refusing to fund d.h.s. unless they block each of these efforts, but that's what they voted to do. turning to today's hearing, i note that although the title of this hearing as has been mentioned, presumed that the president's executive actions are unconstitutional no court, including the texas district court, that issued the preliminary infunction have found that these actions are unconstitutional. in fact, a challenge to the original daca program brought by the state of mississippi was thrown out of court for lack of standing. in a challenge to the administration's recent executive actions brought by marea copea county sheriff, was also dismissed for lack of standing. of course i'm disappointed by the court's ruling and i know millions of american families across the country are also greatly disappointed. still, i expect that both programs will be upheld as fully within the president's legal authority by appellate courts. i say this because there is ample legal and historical precedent supporting the president's action. the supreme court has long recognized the administration's authority to exercise prosecutorial discretion when enforcing our immigration laws, and specifically recognize that granting deferred action is a legitimate exercise of that authority. congress directed the secretary of homeland security to establish national enforcement priorities and policies, and empowered the secretary to performed acts that quote, he deems necessary for carrying out his authority under the immigration and national act. every -- nationality act. every year congress gives the administration only enough money to apprehend detain, and remove a fraction of the people in this country who are removable. and directs the department to prioritize the removal of people with criminal convictions based on the severity of the offense. the texas court ruling seems to turn on the fact that daca recipients may apply for work authorization and social security cards, it fails to acknowledge that the legal authority for granting work authorization and social security cards is entirely distinct from the authority to grant deferred action. and in fact is stat torial. all those authorities long predated daca and congress has never taken action to limit that discretion. this is arguably the fourth hearing, mr. chairman, that we have held on the legal authority for the president's actions on immigration. the last two hearings -- >> the gentlewoman is advised she's now 2 1/2 minutes over. we all exceeded by a minute or so. >> i will then conclude by saying that the courts will ultimately decide whether the administration's programs can take effect. it is our responsibility to reform the law and it would be irresponsible of us to shut the government down. we should allow the courts to do their job and we should do our own. i yield back. >> the chair thanks the gentlewoman. we welcome our distinguished panel today. if you would all rise i'll begin by swearing-in the witnesses. do you and each of you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god. thank you very much. let the record reflect that all the witnesses responded in the affirmative. adam paul currently serves as nevada's 33rd attorney general and is the youngest attorney general in the country. prior to becoming attorney general, he was in private prackcies in las vegas. the attorney general served in iraq at forward operating base camp victory where his team was in charge of more than 20,000 detainees. he has also served as a special assistant u.s. attorney as an assistant professor of law in the leadership ethics and the law department at the u.s. naval academy and as a special advisor to the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. attorney general laxalt graduated magna couple loud from georgetown university and georgetown university law certainty. professor josh blackman is an assistant professor at the south texas college of law specializing in constitutional law and the united states supreme court and is the author of "unprecedented the constitutional challenge to obamacare" and over a dozen other articles about constitutional law. professor blackman clerked for the honorable danny j. boggs of the u.s. court of appeals for the sixth circuit and honorable kim r. gibson of the u.s. district court for the western district of pennsylvania, and is also the founder and president of the harlan institute, which provides a stylized law school experience for high school classrooms and the founder of the internet's premiere supreme court fantasy league. professor blackman graduated magna couple loud from george mason university law school and magna cum laud from penn state with b.s. in information sciences and technology. professor elizabeth price foley is a founding member and professor at florida international university college of law where she teaches constitutional law. prior to joining f.i.u., professor foley was a professor of law at michigan state university college of law and served as a law clerk to the honorable carolyn king of the united states court of appeals for the fifth circuit. professor foley is the author of multiple books on constitutional issues including, "ribert for all, reclaiming individual privacy in a new era of public morality." and presently serves on the editorial board of the cato supreme court review. professor foley graduated from the university of tennessee college of law and holds a b.a. in history from emory university and l.l.m. from harvard law school. professor stephen h. lagumsky is a university professor at washington university school of law, focusing on u.s. comparative and international immigration and is the founding director of the law school's whitney r. harris world law institute. a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law. he recently returned from a two-year leave of absence serving as chief counsel of u.s. citizenship and immigration services. he is the co-author of "immigration and refugee law and policy" which has been a required text at 176 law schools since its inception. the professor graduated first in his class at the university of san diego school of law and clerked for the u.s. court of appeals for the ninth circuit. your written statements will be entered into the record in their entirety, and i ask that you each summarize your testimony in five minutes or less to help you stay within that time limit, there is a timing white on your table. when the light switches from green to yellow, you have one minute to conclude your testimony. when the light turns red, that's it. your time is up. please stop. attorney general laxalt, welcome, you may begin. >> mr. chairman, ranking member conyers, and members of the committee, my name is adam paul laxalt, attorney general of nevada. on behalf of nevada i thank you for the opportunity to testify today about the state's lawsuit challenging president obama's unilateral executive action granting deferred action to over four million people. i represent one of the 26 states that has sued the federal government. the state's lawsuit, while immigration is the substantive issue underlying the president's executive action, this lawsuit is not ultimately about immigration. rather it's about the president's attempt to change the law through unconstitutional executive action. like most of us, i am the descendent of immigrants. my ancestors came here in search of a better life. my grandfather, paul laxalt, was the son of an immigration sheep hearder. he rose to become the governor of nevada and united states senator. in our nation's history, similar stories have been repeated over and over. they are what we have come to know as the american dream. however, it's never been true that in order to sympathize with the plight of immigrants or to believe in the american dream one must reject our constitutional system. to borrow a phrase our president's fond of using, that is a false choice. in significant part it is our commitment to the rule of law and to our constitution that has drawn people to our shores across generations. before taking unilateral action, the president said the following. i am president, i am not the king. i cannot do these things just by myself. there's a limit to the discretion that i can show because i'm obliged to execute the law. i can't just make the laws up myself. we can't ignore the law. the fact of the matter is there are laws on the books that i have to enforce. these are a series of comments the president made before this action. subsequently on november 20, 2014, after repeatedly acknowledging his duty to faithfully enforce the immigration laws passed by this body, and after emphasizing that he lacked the authority to unilaterally change those laws, president obama directed his secretary of homeland security to do just that and change the law. to quote the president himself he said, i just took an action to change the law. that on november 25. in earlier statements by the president, a coalition of states brought suit in federal court to enjoy the president's unilateral action. since the lawsuit was originally filed, the number of states challenging the president's action has grown to a majority of the 50 states. the states' lawsuit focuses on flee areas. first, the constitution requires the president to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. during the korean war president truman relying on the exigencies of war unilaterally seized the nation's steel mills. president truman justified unilateral action because congress refused to pass a statute authorizing his action. the supreme court held that truman's actions were unconstitutional. here as judge han none, the federal judge presiding over this case has observed, no statute gives the department of homeland security the discretion it is trying to exercise. quite the contrary, the president's executive order not only ignores the dictates of congress, but actively that warts them. for the same reason that truman's unilateral action in the steel seizure cases was held unconstitutional by the supreme court, we think president obama's unilateral action here is unconstitutional. second, federal statutory law namely administrative procedures act, similarly requires when an agency issues a substantive rule t. must be consistent with congress' clear statutory commands. under unambiguous federal statutory law the department of homeland security here i quote judge hanon again, is tasked with the duty of removing illegal aliens. congress has provided that it shall do this. the word shall certainly deprives the d.h.s. of the right to do something that is clearly contrary to congress' intent. the president's plan of millions illegally present individuals be granted legal present work authorization, eligibility for state and federal benefits cannot be squared with federal law and therefore we believe violates the administrative procedures act. third, when a federal agency challenges -- changes the rules like the president has ordered here, the administrative procedure act also requires that due process is followed. .
schools, where less than half of the kids that graduate. and those who graduate are nowhere near ready to go to college or go to work. we have seen across the state and across the country and in most states, charter schools public charter schools popping up. and giving parents hope, giving them a chance to get those kids out of failing schools. i said the other day in the rules committee, because it was so moving to me, i went to a charter school in north minneapolis, 430 kids in that school, their parents are delighted with the education they're getting now and thrilled to have gotten their kids out of failing schools and when i asked the principal and founder of the school if she could take more kids she said no, this is the right size for this school. they would like to replicate this school and that's what this bill allows and how successful is it? there are 1,000 kids 1,000 kids on the witnessing list to get into that charter schools because parents want to get out of failing schools. this bill allows this to happen. it comes down to, who do you trust? parents or local governments? we want to put the control in quite a debate on the edge -- quite a debate on the education program. the measure would eliminate no child left behind. a final vote is expected by the end of the week. the white house is expected to veto calling it insignificant. another bill of dealing with education has to today. -- past today -- passed today. there could be legislation to fund in the homeland security. coming up tomorrow on our companion network c-span3 the sec considers -- the sec considers -- the fcc considers that neutrality. we will hear remarks from governor scott walker of wisconsin. as well as former alaskan governor sarah halen. it will -- sarah palin. [video clip] >> it was very clear to me i still have a problem with public trust. use of force is down 46%. the lawsuits are down. shootings are dramatically down, we are moving in a positive way. people in the community say they do not believe it. on c-span's q&a. [video clip] >> this hearing continues as negotiations continue off the floor. this is three hours 10 minutes. >> good morning, we welcome everyone to this morning's hearing on the constitutionality on the immigration executive order. >> last november, president obama announced one of the biggest immigration grabs -- almost 5 million illegal immigratnts would be granted access to the social security tax fund and the earned income tax credit. he stated over 20 times in the past that he did not have the constitutionality to do that. as of the "washington post" and their fact checked noted. president obama admitted that he just took an action to change the law. the constitution is also clear that it is the president's possibility to enforce the constitution. to take care that the laws be faithfully instituted. the integrity of our immigration law -- it would cause them irreparable harm. they challenged his action in texas. the court has granted a temporary injunction, halting the administration's plan. the immigration is rewriting the law from scratch. president obama has justified his actions under prosecutorial discretion. the authority as to whether or not to enforce -- telling entire classes of millions of unlawful aliens that they face no possibility of being removed is not prosecutorial discretion. the president relies on a memo prepared by the justice department council to attempt to justify his action as constitutional. that very memo finds that the discretion is not unlimited. limits are both implicit in an fundamental to the constitution's allocation between the two political branches. the executive cannot attempt to effectively rewrite the laws. the memo quotes the supreme court in stating that the executive branch cannot consciously and expressly adopt a general policy that is so extreme as to amount to an abdication of its step tutorial responsibilities. the federal court in texas agrees. they found the deferred action does not simply constitute in action. they are doing nothing against a class of individuals. deferred action does not represent mere inadequacy, it is complete abdication. the court points out that the president's inaction is in fact granting affirmative benefits to the alien's as i described earlier. in no way can the president's actions be a justified use of discretion -- they are a clear violation of his responsibility to faithfully execute the laws. he claims his actions are nothing new. it is true that previous presidents of both parties have provided immigration relief. most often the actions were based upon emergencies in foreign countries. for example, chinese students were protected after tiananmen square. or george h.w. bush's grant of voluntary departure was in fact granted by the department as it existed at the time. without any crisis in a 40 country to justify it, -- in a foreign country to justify it, president obama has exceeded his authority. no administration has abused it like obama's has. the administration is driving for steam ahead to a constitutional crisis -- tilting the scale in his favor. threatening to unravel checks and balances. this administration has entered around of rewriting laws. the house of representatives has taken decisive action to protect the constitution. we have asked the department of homeland security regulations bill -- including this grant of action. it is being filibustered in the senate, even as funds are set to run out. not allowing the bill to be debated, those citizens that have chosen obstruction are threatening access to funds designed to keep america safe. they are denying the american people a fair debate on this vital issue of whether congress needs to take action to protect our constitutional liberties. we hope they rolled relent in time. i look forward to today's hearing. it is now my pleasure to represent the gentleman from michigan. good luck to our witnesses. [video clip] in three days, the department of homeland security will run out of money. tens of thousands of federal government workers will be furloughed. around 200 house and workers -- 200,000 workers will be out of a paycheck. they will be told to conduct investigations and secure our ports, but they will not be paid. department of homeland security has low morale. that has been a problem since the department's creation a decade ago. this won't help. i'm sure those workers will do their job -- which is more than i can say for the legislative branch of our federal government. why do i say that? because congress has certain responsibilities. some ofare, located, some are less complicated. first, consider the most basic obligation we have. it is our responsibility to pass bills to fund the government. if we do not do our job, the government shuts down. congressional republicans got their wish in october, 2013, and shut the government down for more than two weeks. now the majority here again is set on a collision course this. time they will shut down the department of homeland security because they refuse to pass a clean spending bill because they want to block the administration's executive actions on immigration. keep in mind that the spending bill we are talking about was negotiated between republicans and democrats in the house and the senate. truth be told there are aspects of that bill that i disagree with. i strongly oppose the detention of -- believe it is wasteful and unjust to include that language in the appropriations bill. but i also understand the importance of funding the department of homeland security and the need to keep our nation safe. second, congress is also failing to do its job because it is ultimately our responsibility to fix our broken immigration system. instead of doing that work, we are holding hearing after hearing to vilify the president for taking important and commonsense steps to prioritize the deportation of felons before families. the limited legislation that this committee has considered would make our immigration system even less efficient, less humane, and less able to meet the needs of american families and businesses. earlier this month we held two immigration subcommittee hearings on draft language for deportation only bills that would separate families, strip protection from dreamers, destroy the agricultural industry and the millions of jobs that depend on it. and return vulnerable children to face persecution and violence with no meaningful due process. finally, i want to note that the title of today's hearing demonstrates a glaring disrespect for the office of the presidency and for this institution's responsibility to conduct oversight that is rooted in fact rather than political presumption. the title of today's hearings is, the unconstitutionality of obama's executive actions on immigration. not president obama's executive actions, but obama's executive actions. since when are we on such familiar terms with our commander in chief? i cannot recall a previous administration during which members of congress, from either side of the aisle, showed such a persistent disrespect for the office of the presidency. the title of this hearing is also interesting because it is a statement not a question. it just presumes that the administration's actions are unconstitutional, even though no court has found the actions unconstitutional. and there's -- there is strong legal authority and historical precedent supporting these policy decisions. so in closing, our current immigration system is not working for american families businesses, or the economy. these problems require real legislative solutions. so i urge our colleagues, my colleagues on this committee to start doing the job that we were sent here to do. mr. chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. and thank you. >> the chair thanks the gentleman. it's now my pleasure to recognize the chairman of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration and border security, the gentleman from south carolina, mr. gowdy, for his opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman the thread that holds the tapestry of our country together is respect for and adherence to the rule of law. the law is the greatest unifying and greatest equalizing force that we have in our culture. the law is what makes the richest person drive the precise same speed limit as the poorest person. the law is what makes the richest person in this country pay his or her taxes on precisely the same day as the poorest person in this country. the law, mr. chairman, is symbolized by a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales and a sword. the law is both a shield and a sword, and it is the foundation upon which this republic stands. we think so highly of the law, mr. chairman, that in the oath of citizenship administered to those who pledge allegiance to this country, to their new country, it makes six different references to the law. so attempts to undermine the law via executive fiat, regardless of motivation, are detrimental to the foundation of a democracy. president obama after the november midterm elections, i hasten to add, announced one of the largest extra constitutional acts ever by a chief executive. he declared unilaterally almost five million undocumented aliens would receive deferred action under some newfangled definition of prosecutorial discretion. moreover, in addition to using prosecutorial discretion, is a license to rewrite the law, he also conferred benefits on those same people. you may like the policy, you may wish the policy were the law but one person does not make law in a republic. if you enjoy a single person making law, you should investigate living in another country, because our framers did not give us nor have generations of our fellow citizens fought and served and sacrificed for a single person to make law in a unilateral way. so removing consequences for breaking the law is one thing. bestowing benefits such as work authorization and immigration benefits is another. the president himself recognizes his own inability to do this mr. chairman. more than 20 separate times he said he lacked the power to do what he ultimately did. in 2011 he said this, and i quote, the notion that i could just suspend deportation through executive order, that's just not the case. he told us time and time again mr. chairman, that he was not a king. his position may have changed. but the constitution has not. and that document is clear and it is time tested and it is true and it says the congress passes laws and it is the responsibility of the chief executive to take care that those laws are faithfully enforced. the prosecutorial -- is that better, mr. court reporter? let me see where i was. his position may have changed. but the constitution has not. prosecutorial discretion is real and actually valid, mr. chairman, but it is not a synonym for anarchy. as u.s. district court judge andrew hanon wrote, d.h.s. does have the discretion in the manner it chooses to express the will of congress. cannot ignore congress but actively thwart them. the constitution gives the president a lot of power, mr. chairman. he's the commander in chief, he nominates supreme court justice, he can veto legislation for any reason or no reason. he can fail to defend the constitutionality of a law. he has the power of pardon. he has a lot of power, mr. chairman. but what he cannot do is make law by himself. that is the responsibility of the congress. and if this president's unilateral extra constitutional acts not stopped, the future president, you may rest assured will expand that power of the executive branch thereby threatening the constitutional equilibrium. the argument the previous administrations have acted outside constitutional boundaries holds no merit with me. the fact that other people make mistakes is not a license for this executive to do the same thing. mr. president, in conclusion, we live in a country where process matters. the end does not justify the means. no matter how good the intentions. when a police officer fails to check the right box on an application for a search warrant, the fruits of that search warrant are suppressed. when a police officer, even though he has the right suspect for the right crime, but he just fails to include one small part of those prophylactic miranda warnings, what happens? the statement is suppressed. even though you have the right person. even though you have the right crime. because we view process over the end. i'm going to say this and i'll finish. i'm going to say this to those who benefit from the president's policies. you may be willing to allow the end to just fight means in this case. you may well like the fact that the president has abused prosecutorial discretion and conferred benefits in an unprecedented way. you may benefit from the president's failure to enforce the law today, but i'll make you this promise. there will come a day where you will cry out for the enforcement of the law. there will come a day where you long for the law to be the foundation of this republic. so you be careful what you do with the law today because if you weaken it today, you weaken it forever. with that i yield back. >> the chair thanks the gentleman for the very cogent remarks. it is now my pleasure to recognize the ranking member of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration and border security, the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren, for her opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. the 113th congress is considered to have been one of the most do-nothing congresses in history. the biggest symbol of the republican failure to govern was the unnecessary and irresponsible shut down that lasted from october 1 to october 16. federal employees were furloughed for a combined total of 6.6 million days, $2 billion was spent on payroll to these furloughed employees for work they were prevented from doing. the recovering economy took a hit, and millions of americans were denied access to programs and service that is they rely on. perhaps it's fitting then that the 113th congress ended with the so-called cromnibus, a spending bill that promised to yet again puts on the path of the government shut down. we are only two months in the 114th congress but it already seems like the republican majority in the house and senate is trying to outdo itself. for the past six weeks rather than proceed with the d.h.s. funding bill, the democrats and republicans in the house and senate agreed to last year republican leaders in the house and senate have insisted that funding be contingent on a series of poison bill immigration riders demanded by the most extreme members and supported by all but a few. since the cromnibus was first passed, many republicans argued that the president acted unconstitutionally on november 20 when he and the secretary of homeland security announced a series of measures defined to bring a measure of sense to our broken immigration system. we have been told these measures cannot be permitted to take effect. last week, of course, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting two of those measures -- the deferred action for parental accountability, and the expansion of the deferred action for childhood arrivals program. these efforts are designed to offer temporary protection from deportation to certain parents of u.s. citizens and lawful permanent residents and to dreamers with long ties to our country. the department of justice this week requested a stay of the injunction and noticed an appeal. the matter's finally in the hands of the federal courts. the branch of the government that the constitution entrusts to settled disputes arising in the constitution and laws of the united states. some people, including some republicans in the house and senate, have speculated that a court injunction would convince republican leadership to stop holding the spending bill hostage. what we have seen over the past weeks, however, is that many republicans are even more determined to take us over a cliff and once more shut down the government. several points are worth noting. first, we continue to hear republicans minimize the impact of a shut down on national security by arguing that 85% of d.h.s. employees were deemed essential during the last government shutdown. i just can't understand how we in congress would take comfort at the idea of forcing border patrol agents to secure our borders, coast guard personnel to patrol the seas and i.c.e. officers and agents to conduct law enforcement investigations and secure detention facilities without receiving their paycheck. it's unconscionable, really. further, it's bizarre that we will defund the e verify program, stop the immigration enforcement efforts, but at the same time because they are fee supported, the processing of immigration petitions will be unimpeded. so the effort stops immigration enforcement but it does nothing to actually stop the processing of immigration petitions. second, since we know the court has already temporarily halted implementation of daca, expanded daca, it's important to remember what other initiatives congressional republicans are trying to block as part of d.h.s. funding. they voted overwhelmingly to eliminate the daca program itself. stripping protections from more than 600,000 dream act kids and subjecting them once more to deportation. they voted to prevent d.h.s. from implementing a new enforcement strategy along our southern border and creating three new law enforcement task forces. they voted to block d.h.s. and d.o.d. from working together to ensure that u.s. citizens who wish to enlist in the military would be able to do so notwithstanding immigration status of close relatives. they voted to stop d.h.s. from taking important steps to capitalize on the talents of entrepreneurs to help companies attract and retain highly skilled immigrants and promote citizenship. just yesterday, a final rule was issued extending work authorization to the spouses of certain h-1-b visa holders. if the appropriations bill passed by the house were to become law, uscif would have been prevent interested finalizing that rule. republicans don't talk about the fact that they are refusing to fund d.h.s. unless they block each of these efforts, but that's what they voted to do. turning to today's hearing, i note that although the title of this hearing as has been mentioned, presumed that the president's executive actions are unconstitutional, no court, including the texas district court, that issued the preliminary injunction have found that these actions are unconstitutional. in fact, a challenge to the original daca program brought by the state of mississippi was thrown out of court for lack of standing. in a challenge to the administration's recent executive actions brought by maricopa county sheriff, was also dismissed for lack of standing. of course i'm disappointed by the court's ruling and i know millions of american families across the country are also greatly disappointed. still, i expect that both programs will be upheld as fully within the president's legal authority by appellate courts. i say this because there is ample legal and historical precedent supporting the president's action. the supreme court has long recognized the administration's authority to exercise prosecutorial discretion when enforcing our immigration laws and specifically recognize that granting deferred action is a legitimate exercise of that authority. congress directed the secretary of homeland security to establish national enforcement priorities and policies, and empowered the secretary to performed acts that, quote, he deems necessary for carrying out his authority under the immigration and nationality act. every year congress gives the administration only enough money to apprehend, detain, and remove a fraction of the people in this country who are removable, and directs the department to prioritize the removal of people with criminal convictions based on the severity of the offense. the texas court ruling seems to turn on the fact that daca recipients may apply for work authorization and social security cards, it fails to acknowledge that the legal authority for granting work authorization and social security cards is entirely distinct from the authority to grant deferred action. and in fact is statutorial. all those authorities long predated daca and congress has never taken action to limit that discretion. this is arguably the fourth hearing, mr. chairman, that we have held on the legal authority for the president's actions on immigration. the last two hearings -- >> the gentlewoman is advised she's now 2 1/2 minutes over. we all exceeded by a minute or so. >> i will then conclude by saying that the courts will ultimately decide whether the administration's programs can take effect. it is our responsibility to reform the law and it would be irresponsible of us to shut the government down. we should allow the courts to do their job and we should do our own. i yield back. >> the chair thanks the gentlewoman. we welcome our distinguished panel today. if you would all rise i'll begin by swearing-in the witnesses. do you and each of you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god. thank you very much. let the record reflect that all the witnesses responded in the affirmative. adam paul currently serves as nevada's 33rd attorney general and is the youngest attorney general in the country. prior to becoming attorney general, he was in private practices in las vegas. the attorney general served in iraq at forward operating base camp victory where his team was in charge of more than 20,000 detainees. he has also served as a special assistant u.s. attorney as an assistant professor of law in the leadership ethics and the law department at the u.s. naval academy and as a special advisor to the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. attorney general laxalt graduated magna couple loud from georgetown university and georgetown university law center. professor josh blackman is an assistant professor at the south texas college of law specializing in constitutional law and the united states supreme court and is the author of "unprecedented the constitutional challenge to obamacare" and over a dozen other articles about constitutional law. professor blackman clerked for the honorable danny j. boggs of the u.s. court of appeals for the sixth circuit and honorable kim r. gibson of the u.s. district court for the western district of pennsylvania, and is also the founder and president of the harlan institute, which provides a stylized law school experience for high school classrooms and the founder of the internet's premiere supreme court fantasy league. professor blackman graduated magna couple loud from george mason university law school and magna cum laud from penn state with b.s. in information sciences and technology. professor elizabeth price foley is a founding member and professor at florida international university college of law where she teaches constitutional law. prior to joining f.i.u., professor foley was a professor of law at michigan state university college of law and served as a law clerk to the honorable carolyn king of the united states court of appeals for the fifth circuit. professor foley is the author of multiple books on constitutional issues, including, "liberty for all, reclaiming individual privacy in a new era of public morality.” and presently serves on the editorial board of the cato supreme court review. professor foley graduated from the university of tennessee, college of law and holds a b.a. in history from emory university and l.l.m. from harvard law school. professor stephen h. legomsky is a university professor at washington university school of law, focusing on u.s. comparative and international immigration and is the founding director of the law school's whitney r. harris world law institute, a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law. he recently returned from a two-year leave of absence serving as chief counsel of u.s. citizenship and immigration services. he is the co-author of "immigration and refugee law and policy” which has been a required text at 176 law schools since its inception. the professor graduated first in his class at the university of san diego, school of law and clerked for the u.s. court of appeals for the ninth circuit. your written statements will be entered into the record in their entirety, and i ask that you each summarize your testimony in five minutes or less to help you stay within that time limit, there is a timing white on your table. when the light switches from green to yellow, you have one minute to conclude your testimony. when the light turns red, that's it. your time is up. please stop. attorney general laxalt, welcome, you may begin. >> mr. chairman, ranking member conyers, and members of the committee, my name is adam paul laxalt, attorney general of nevada. on behalf of nevada i thank you for the opportunity to testify today about the state's lawsuit challenging president obama's unilateral executive action granting deferred action to over four million people. i represent one of the 26 states that has sued the federal government. the state's lawsuit, while immigration is the substantive issue underlying the president's executive action, this lawsuit is not ultimately about immigration. rather it's about the president's attempt to change the law through unconstitutional executive action. like most of us, i am the descendent of immigrants. my ancestors came here in search of a better life. my grandfather, paul laxalt, was the son of an immigration sheep herder. he rose to become the governor of nevada and united states senator. in our nation's history, similar stories have been repeated over and over. they are what we have come to know as the american dream. however, it's never been true that in order to sympathize with the plight of immigrants or to believe in the american dream one must reject our constitutional system. to borrow a phrase our president's fond of using, that is a false choice. in significant part it is our commitment to the rule of law and to our constitution that has drawn people to our shores across generations. before taking unilateral action, the president said the following. i am president, i am not the king. i cannot do these things just by myself. there's a limit to the discretion that i can show because i'm obliged to execute the law. i can't just make the laws up myself. we can't ignore the law. the fact of the matter is there are laws on the books that i have to enforce. these are a series of comments the president made before this action. subsequently, on november 20 2014, after repeatedly acknowledging his duty to faithfully enforce the immigration laws passed by this body, and after emphasizing that he lacked the authority to unilaterally change those laws, president obama directed his secretary of homeland security to do just that and change the law. to quote the president himself, he said, i just took an action to change the law. that on november 25. in earlier statements by the president, a coalition of states brought suit in federal court to enjoy the president's unilateral action. since the lawsuit was originally filed, the number of states challenging the president's action has grown to a majority of the 50 states. the states' lawsuit focuses on three areas. first, the constitution requires the president to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. during the korean war, president truman relying on the exigencies of war unilaterally seized the nation's steel mills. president truman justified unilateral action because congress refused to pass a statute authorizing his action. the supreme court held that truman's actions were unconstitutional. here, as judge hanon, the federal judge presiding over this case has observed, no statute gives the department of homeland security the discretion it is trying to exercise. quite the contrary, the president's executive order not only ignores the dictates of congress, but actively that thwarts them. for the same reason that truman's unilateral action in the steel seizure cases was held unconstitutional by the supreme court, we think president obama's unilateral action here is unconstitutional. second, federal statutory law, namely administrative procedures act, similarly requires when an agency issues a substantive rule t. must be consistent with congress' clear statutory commands. under unambiguous federal statutory law, the department of homeland security here i quote judge hanon again, is tasked with the duty of removing illegal aliens. congress has provided that it shall do this. the word shall certainly deprives the d.h.s. of the right to do something that is clearly contrary to congress' intent. the president's plan of millions illegally present individuals be granted legal present work authorization, eligibility for state and federal benefits cannot be squared with federal law and therefore we believe violates the administrative procedures act. third, when a federal agency challenges -- changes the rules like the president has ordered here, the administrative procedure act also requires that due process is followed. and allow public comment before implementing the change. everyone agrees that was not done here. this was the third reason the states are altering -- arguing. the states issued a preliminary injunction of the dapa program. wine avoid a -- nevada law says i'm us secure interest of the state. this issue is not about immigration. it is not about politics, it is about the role of law and our constitutional system. it seeks to prevent legislation ring prevented and usurped by fiat. it is more significant than any policy directive. that any political system at the time. thank you mr. chairman for allowing me to testify above this commission. [video clip] >> i understand your parents are here. >> my name is josh, i am a law professor at the south texas university. it imposes severe threats to the separation of powers. three points, first -- unprecedented exercise of the president's preferred action. second, it violates the duty. the executive must enforce the laws. nonenforcement poses a threat to the role of law. the congress --congress has not acquiesced. the justice department claims that for previous sentences justify this. these claims are demonstrably false. in 1997, deferred action was granted under the violence against women act. it had artie been approved, but it was not available. it served as a temporary bridge -- second, in 2001, deferred action was granted for aliens under the trafficking laws. lawful status was immediately available on the other side. third, in 2005, action was granted to foreign students who lost their the says following hurricane katrina. to enroll another college to gain success. in 2009, deferred action was granted to aliens widowed before the two-year. . where visa petitions have been filed. historically, deferred action acts as a temporary bridge -- from one to another. benefits arriving host deferred action. deferred action services serves as a tunnel, there is no visa -- no pot of gold on the other side of the rainbow. my second point is that it violates the duty to take care of the law. article two -- he he shall. first, the blueprint for top dapa turns discretion into a rubberstamp. it is an effort to bypass it, a transparent wanted that. according to previous cases like a mythical phoenix -- they rose from the ash of congressional defeat. congress voted down legislation. the president repeated over and over again that he could not act unilaterally in the precise manner he did. it points to the violation of laws. third and finally while the president's actions cannot be sanctioned, i hasten to add, if upheld, democrats have much to lose here. republicans like when the government takes less action. today, democrats might approve. obamacare, not prosecute marijuana -- the situation could be very different if republicans enforce tax codes and environmental laws. in the words of james madison federalist, the only way to keep separation of powers in place -- is to keep ambition in place. the all-important task of safeguarding the judiciary, to eliminate the dangers of nonenforcement, the congress must counteract. failure to do so may do bad things for congressional secrecy. the rule of law are destined to fail if the separation of powers fail. thank you very much, i will your questions. >> thank you. >> members of the committee -- thank you for the opportunity to testify against today. my criticism with the president's immigration accidents are based on legal process. not on political results. what shape immigration reform may ultimately take is not my concern -- as a constitutional scholar. my sole concern is with preserving the constitution and its separation of powers architecture. president obama has written a deadly -- repeatedly said he wants to fix our broken immigration system. what this means is that he is trying to fix our immigration law because immigration law is the only immigration system that we have. he thinks our immigration law is broken, and he believes that it is broken because it fails to exempt certain categories that he thinks deserve exemptions from deportation. and to whom he believes the law should grant benefits, such as work permits. fixing i law by unilaterally changing it, by granting exemptions and remedies that the law does not provide -- that is legislative. to be more precise, it is an amendment. that is a power given exclusively to congress by the constitution. the president's duty under the constitution is not to fix a law that he thinks is broken. but to faithfully execute the law. when a president takes it upon himself the power to change a law he doesn't like, we hundred democracy -- we have instead a legislature of one. if congress does not oppose president obama's executive order, and will be writing its own institutional obituary. when congress fails to express disagreement, but courts tend to construe that as acquiescence or implied authorization. this is called category one in the youngstown steel seizure case. congress has to be careful here, it has a constitutional responsibility to vigorously protect. president obama's immigration actions are unconstitutional for three separate and distinct reasons i elaborate in the statement. first, they alter the status of certain immigrants. magically transforming them from deportable to not deportable. secondly, they provide a remedy: deferred action that congress is not implicitly authorized. third, they confer benefits upon certain illegal immigrants that congress has not explicitly or implicitly approved for this population. while any one of these particular reasons will render executive action unconstitutional, when you have all three of them existing as you do here with president obama's executive action on immigration, it creates a bermuda triangle of unconstitutionality. a uniquely powerful gravitational pull -- capable of events a rating article one's powers. all three of these aspects of the orders make it uniquely dangerous to the institution. i would like to highlight two points i elaborate on that bear special mission. first, by granting work permits to recipients, president obama's orders encourage employers to hire aliens over legal. that is because of the affordable health care act does not allow illegal immigrants to obtain tax credits when they buy qualifying health insurance. what happens is, if you hire more recipients, this lessons the employer's responsibility tax. for more illegal immigrants, the fewer who are eligible to buy health insurance, and the few who are going to obtain a tax credit for doing so, the fewer employees you have. who are capable of triggering that tax. it means one important thing. president obama's immigration actions undermine the affordable health care act itself -- by providing insurance the of the workplace. granting work permits to recipients, president obama is undermining his own signature legislative achievement. second, the recipients are able to apply for advanced parole. they can get advance permission to leave the country and come back quickly. without advanced parole, if you've enter illegally -- you have to stay out for a long time. usually 3-10 years before you can reenter. once a recipients reenters the country after being advanced parole, they are considered to be paroled into the country. under the statute, they can adjust legal status. they can do this as long as they qualify for a visa such as a employer-sponsored visa. what does this mean? it means for some recipients obtaining advanced parole will provide -- >> you have exceeded your time limit as well. > absolutely. they will have a pathway to citizenship. this is problematic because congress has the sole power to do that. if just one person under dapa and daca is applying, we have a fundamental usurpation of congresses'power. >> thank you. >> for the privilege of testifying in this important hearing. i appreciate the reasonable minds that differ about policy decisions -- i want to respectfully share my opinion. that these actions are clearly within his legal authority -- that is not just my opinion. 135 immigration law scholars joined in a letter expressing their views that these actions are well within the legal authority of the executive branch. we are people who have spent years and in some cases mine decades researching and writing immigration law -- we are familiar with what the statute allows. the president has multiple sources of legal authority for these actions. i have submitted a detailed written statement on each of them. i also identified every legal objection i can think of that the president and his critics offered. they withstand scrutiny. with limited time, i hit the key points and refer you to the statement. deferred action has been standard practice for many decades. expressly recognized by congress and many court decisions. every lawyer knows that statutes are not the only source of law. the most explicit legal authority, not the only one, is in the agency regulations that authorized things and the reagan administration. these comments and procedures to have the force of law. not one of these laws even remotely implies that deferred action is per se illegal. the most vocal critics including judge hanon misunderstand. they confuse action itself with things you get when applying for it. it is one form of prosecutorial discretion, the decision not to prioritize someone's removal. the only thing affirmative about it is that the agency is giving a verse a paper letting them know. every immigration scholar knows it can be revoked any time for any reason. contrary to what my friends have said, there is nothing in any law that says it is deportable or not affordable. simply not true. it is also true that deferred actions cannot apply for other things -- including social security cards. the executive actions do not touch any of those laws. my feeling is is if you object, argue for challenging them. there's nothing wrong with deferred action itself. importantly, also, the applications >> can we ask you to speak into the microphone? >> sorry. they do not create a substantive right. the memo says that exquisitely. their discretionary both on paper and in practice. i hope to expand on that during the question. there have been some melodramatic claims that why there must not be any law for future presidents. my written statement has a divide for realistic limits. i have time now just to whiz through them, in a nutshell -- the president cannot simply refuse to spend the resources congress has appropriated. as president nixon discovered. that is not a problem here, because president obama has spent every penny congress has given him for immigration. he has used it to remove 2 million people. not that these actions will prevent him from doing the same. the governing sections on these limits -- they indicate how broad the discussion is in a particular area. in this case, congress has given the homeland security department -- to establish immigration enforcement, policy, and priorities. nobody claims these powers are limitless. to any specific statutory claims. none of the critics have identified any the priorities cannot be arbitrary or capricious. national security, public safety, and border security. i doubt many would say those are irrational. even if the priorities are rational they cannot conflict with any endorsements are priorities congress has specifically mandated. here it is just the opposite. congress has expressly mandated the same three priorities. thank you very much again for the opportunity to testify. >> thank you, professor. i will start this round of questioning and recognize myself. you state in your testimony that the administration's recent executive actions do not even approach an abdication of its statutory responsibilities. what in your view with the administration have to do to abdicate its statutory responsibility? what 9 million exceed it? >> the answer to that would depend on an imperial question. with the president still be substantially spending the resources that congress has provided every >> the president counts people for previous deportation that previous administrations did not count. about two thirds of the people who are deported under the president's 2 million figure that you cited were not counted in previous administrations. they were not put to that process. he that as it may, you're saying if the president blows through all the money in a way that uses it all up, whatever that number is that's the number of people he can give not only deferred action to but also employment authorization and social security benefits and earned income tax credit. >> as i just said a moment ago the answer is yes the president must be in the resources congress has provided regret if that meets the number if he spends it all on 100,000 people which is the number of actual deportations that occurred last year then he can give deferred action to the other 10.9 million people. that is your answer to >> no, it is not. for the third time, there were other limits as well and they include not only spending the money but making sure it is within the terms of the statute making sure the priorities are rational and compatible with those congress has specifically mandated and so on. it would depend on all those things. >> let me ask our other panelists, attorney general lack all, would you like to respond to that? -- general laxalt. >> congress has been debating this for many years. in this particular case this was not specifically voted on by congress. by president obama's on words many times over again before he did this, this is just not a power that our constitutional system contemplated him having. if he does as mr. chairman was heading in this direction, if 5 million is ok, then why isn't x, and why isn't seven. and if two years is ok, then why isn't three. it seems pretty clear that by his own words -- once you at benefits that are included, there's just no justification this sits under prosecutorial discretion. >> let me follow up on it. you and other attorneys general have brought an action in the district court in tech and do you agree with what judgment hanna and in his opinion in that case? the department of homeland security cannot enact a program whereby not only ignores the dig dates of congress but actively asked to thwart them -- ignores the dictates of congress. >> we believe that the three claims that have been made, that the constitution has been -- the administrative procedures act has been thwarted. he did not alternately decide that for this preliminary injunction. he reserved that an constitutional issues for the future. the state believed in all three cases the president has failed. >> i think implying that it did not go far enough, he wrote why did it not applied to the parents of the dreamers? many think the president did not go quite are enough. the reason why they did not go far enough -- one important point is, parents of u.s. citizens [indiscernible] more importantly they can never get a visa through their children. this is a case where the policies favor people who have not applied to congress as preferred. >> it seems patent to me that they are both categorical exemptions from law and the professor said that is not the case. just look to president obama's on words when he announced it publicly in november of 2014. he said in a televised speech before the nation, all i'm saying is we are not going to deport you. i think that speaks violence. the other thing i would say is, just look at the numbers. we have two years of experience at this point and the latest numbers say that 97% of applications have been approved by the administration and in a letter from director leon rodriguez to senator grassley not too long ago, he admitted that the reasons why the 3% have been rejected is because they are not filling out the paperwork properly or attaching the right checks for the processing fee. to me that sounds like it meets the criteria that has been unilaterally established by this president, you will get an exemption from deportation and that's not what the ina declares. >> thank you mr. chairman. professor, could you respond to the question that has been posed by the chairman? >> i will get it right this time. first of all, the figures 95% not 97%. the current website has laid this out in detail for several months now. wiccans big later if you wish about whether even 95% is to -- we can speak later about whether even 95% is too high. when you are speaking about people losing because they had not signed the form or submitted the feet, those are the rejections. there are more than 38,000 denials on merits. >> thank you very much. let me ask you this. in your opinion, do the executive actions taken by the administration alleviate the need for congress to pass brought immigration reform measures? >> thank you, congressman. i would say the answer is no. as the president has made clear on many occasions, he cannot do what congress can do. only congress can create the path to the green card and eventually citizenship. all he can say is we will give you a temporary reprieve from removal. we will make you eligible to apply for a work permit and then if eligible you can apply for social security card, but that does not approach a green card which would give you the right to naturalize and bring it family members and so on. >> let me ask you about the texas litigation. judge hannon enjoined the deferred action program because he believes the applications were not being adjudicated on a case-by-case basis. and concluded that this was not happening in the daca context. do you think that is a reasonable way to approach the decision in that case? >> i'm glad to have a chance to answer that question. judge hannon had no support in terms of evidence on the record that that was true. the starting point is the secretary's memo. it loosely says repeatedly must engage in individualized case-by-case determinations and also specifically says that even if the criteria are met, it you still need to exercise discretion. furthermore there is a lot of discretion being exercised just determining whether threshold criteria have been met. for example, figuring out of someone is a threat to public safety there is a opinion of how much of a threat a person has to be before you would deny them and so forth. the critics are reduced to having to argue in effect that the workforce is going to somehow systematically disobey the secretaries clear explicit instructions to exercise discretion. there is not one shred of evidence in the record support this accusation. >> are the president's critics correct when they argue that the president himself doesn't believe daca and dapa are legal? has he contradicted himself somewhere along the line? >> i don't want my answer to sound disrespectful, but that's one of the most irritating objects and not been hearing along the way. when you actually look at the statements the president has made, with one exception, almost all of them have just been general statements about how i have to obey the law, i cannot suspend the law on deportations and so forth. he recognizes there are limits on his discretion and obviously he believes that daca and dapa. the one exception i have to knowledge is the unfortunate statement made in a spontaneous reaction to a heckler at one gathering that said i'd took an action and change the law. i'm sure if the president could go back and edit his comments he would realize to should have said i took an action to change the policy, which is a more accurate description of what he did. next thank you for the balance that you have brought to this discussion and i yield back my time. >> thank you, the chair will recognize the gentleman from virginia, mr. forbes. >> let's go back to your political theater remark because there have been two lines in that political theater that our friends on the other side of the all have played over and over again for audiences around the country. the administration is ok because they have removed more illegal immigrants than any other administration. you stay in here that they removed -- i think you said 2 million aliens. but isn't really a little deceptive because word about half of those removals claimed by ice? one of the articles pointed out that the statistics are deceptive because obama explained that enhance border security has led to arresting more people as they cross into the country illegally. those people are quickly sent back to their countries but are counted as deported immigrants. is that a fair statement? we only have five minutes. we had sitting right where you are sitting now the president of both the ice agents and the border agents, who testified unequivocally that they are the ones interviewing these people and that the president policies were causing more and more these people coming across the border. isn't it really true if you're talking about political theater that for the president to say he is sending more people back and stopping at the border kind of like a fire chief justifying his right to commit arson because they can put out more fires. it doesn't make sense to me. the other line is this one. somehow or other, if congress doesn't act, and i determine the president of the united states that the law is broken it just doesn't work then all of a sudden it shifts the constitutional power over to me. so attorney general, i would ask you, congress as i understand it has the authority to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. is there anything in the constitution that says if the congress doesn't want to act because they like where the policy is, or even because they can't act, that somehow that ships constitutional right over to the president and that he can take any action that he otherwise could not have taken constitutionally? >> thank you, mr. congressman. this is the crux of the argument -- of the lawsuit, and it's certainly one of my biggest concerns. for many years, going back to when i was a law student at georgetown, our constitution is eroding and the executive branch continues to take more and more power. i cannot think of a more clear example of something that the constitution clearly says that congress is supposed to perform and as i said earlier, congress has debated this, the president did not get the policy wanted and now he's decided to do it. i like to read a quote in answering the professor. as to your comments that the president, his multiple statements did not in fact say that he couldn't do this. a heckler told him that you have the power to stop deportations. obama replied, actually, i don't. that's why we are here. what you need to know when i'm speaking as president of the united states and i come to this community is that if, in fact, i can solve all these problems without passing laws in congress , then i would do so, but we are a nation of laws. that is part of our tradition. so it's an easy way out to try to yellen pretend that i can do something by violating our laws. what i am proposing is a harder task which is to use our democratic process to achieve the same goals that you want to achieve. this president knows that he cannot do this. he knows that our system does not allow him to take these extra steps. there is no question as judge hannon said in his opinion. there is a wide berth for prosecutorial discretion. i don't think you will get a lot of argument about that. this goes so much further than any prosecutorial discretion that has ever been exerted. if this was allowed, then congress's role is abdicated. why would congress take year after year to debate these issues if the president is able to take a scope that we had never seen before, and in a addition, at benefits on top of simply deciding to not deport. >> we saw that kind of syntax change when we heard you can keep your insurance policy if you want to as well, but it makes no sense at we have these arguments. my time is up, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> we will recognize the gentleman from new york. >> i'm surprised to hear the attorney general of the great state confused political statements with legal statements. it's interesting in a political bait and political discussion. they are not interesting -- what is interesting is an relevant as the attorney general should know, as everyone here should know, are what the laws are what presidents are not anybody else's political statement in any context. let me say also -- let me ask the professor, we have heard that the president's exercise of discretion is categorical, somehow different, and he is establishing categories to people he has given rights that congress has not chosen to give. i think rather, and please comment on this, that that is not true. he can choose to do that by groups, by category. it would be difficult -- if the president came out with a list and said the following 2 million people by name or granted deferred action, you would think that a sort of ridiculous although i don't think anybody would question his authority to do that. by doing it by category, i don't think he changes that, and he's not invading congress's prerogative because this deferred action can be revoked at any time. it confers no permanent benefit. it has been stated repeatedly that they get benefits, you may get a social security card, but it's my understanding that you do not get benefits. could you comment on those two points? >> everything you just said is absolutely correct. two things on the discretion issue. i do agree there is no law out there that says the president couldn't grant deferred action on the basis of a class race discretionary judgment if you wanted to do so. we don't have to reach that issue here because president didn't even do that. he did provide specifically, or the secretary did, for individualized discretion. this is the way agencies normally behave, and it's very sensible. you want the agency to provide some generalized guidance to officers as to how to exercise its discretionary power. you want the information to be transparent because it is important. the officers on the ground need to know what to do, and we want some reasonable degree of consistency to the expense -- to the extent possible. in this particular case, the evidence in the record shows perhaps the applications are being may. what has been stated in dialogue with mr. for and some others, the decision to formally remove border crossings rather than to return them was a strategic choice first made by president bush in order to this incentivize future illegal entries. would you comment on that? >> i think border apprehensions and priorities make sense, and for another important practical reason, is just smart strategy. it's a lot smarter to stop a person at the port of entry divert resources from the border, let people in a try to chase them down years later. >> many of the critics complain that go beyond nonenforcement immigration laws and provide lawful status to people who were previously in unlawful status. is that correct? >> no, their status remains unlawful. >> finally, critics of the president's actions suggest they are unprecedented and act as though these issues are entirely novel to the federal court. hasn't the supreme court in fact spoken about these -- that the president has the authority and where graining deferred action is appropriate? >> they have done that in a couple of cases, as have any of the lower courts. one supreme court decision specifically recognize deferred action by name. the facts were different but the takeaway has the same, the president has this power. >> what about the president has done, aside from the fact of his name and perhaps his party and the politics of immigration, is different than what previous presidents have done? >> i don't believe it is different. they are not meaningfully different, a slightly different form was used in previous cases but on the fraction of the undocumented population is roughly the same and in all other respects. one common denominator is in all of these cases, presidents use their powers to relieve noncitizens -- to provide temporary reprieve from removal and temporary permission to work, both of them revocable too large, specifically defined -- defined categories of undocumented immigrants, and that is not unprecedented at all. >> the chair will recognize the gentleman from arizona, mr. franks. >> it's often said that when human rights and human laws are in human hands, that men lose their freedom. professor foley, i sometimes am entertained by reading from the federalist papers two law professors like yourself. i'm not an attorney, so it just gives me a little thrill, you understand. in madison bust a minute federalist number seven, he stated that the accumulation of all powers, legislative executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether one, few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elected, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. framers of the constitution understood the accumulations of powers and tierney were inseparable. they rejected giving the newly created chief executive the legal authority to dispense with the enforcement of the laws. that of course in their mind was the providence of congress. my question to you is, do you believe that the president's recent actions comport with the framers conclusions and is president obama refusing to adhere to the take care laws and was the acting constitutionally when he did that? >> you ask a very salient question. absolutely, the president here is violating the take care clause because his duty under the constitution again is to see to it that the laws are faithfully executed. even if the laws are completely broken, and everybody on both sides of the all agree that the law is broken, the president does not have the constitutional power to fix it. if it's going to be fixed it has to be fixed by congress and congress alone. i think the framers would be rolling over in their graves if they knew what this president was doing. let me address prosecutors real discretion for a moment, if i may. one of the hypotheticals that gets bandied about by those who support the president's actions, they say a sheriff can decide he is only going to pull over speeders who go five miles or more over the speed limit and let everybody else go. what this president is doing is no different. there's a world of difference between those two things. when the president is doing in that example is classic prosecutorial discretion. to be analogous to what president obama is doing here, that sheriff would have to first of all publicly pronounced to the world that he's not going to pull over the speeders, despite the fact that the law says they are speeders. it would have to say, and if i do pull anybody over, i'm only going to give them a fine of a dollar am even though the statute says it's a $100 or more fine. and i'm going to give them a gift card from best buy, and confer benefits upon them. that's what this president is doing, and that is clearly not prosecutorial discretion. >> professor blackman, do you agree with the comments basically? >> absolutely. ambition must be made to counteract ambition. the president wants something congress want something. the only way to prevent tyranny is if both of them butt heads. people say washington is gridlocked. it's very much the case that today people have strong opinions on issues. all it is regrettable that this congress has not been able to perform, as justice scalia noted last year, gridlocked is a feature not above our constitutional order. these are political problems not constitutional problems. the mere fact that washington is gridlocked does not give the president power. the case may turn on the equities of an individual case. read both paragraphs. this is one on a case-by-case basis. >> let me quickly expand on one of the things you mentioned. the federal district court in texas made this distinction between the federal government simply not enforcing immigration laws on removal of an individual and taking the next step of actually providing lucrative and if it's too unlawful aliens. that seems to be an incredibly stark president. could you expand on that a little bit? >> it's the classic example of why you don't want to start going down this road constitutionally with the president. think about what he is doing. he is publicly announcing to everyone that even though the law says you are deportable, you are no longer deportable. once he makes those moves, then he confers all these benefits upon this population. that is classic bootstrapping. if the president can make the first two moves, why not just bootstrapped and add the other move, which is the conferral of benefits. that's what makes it so dangerous. if congress's core constitutional powers include anything, it's not just naturalization, but the power of the purse. this is why they have standing to sue him. >> the time of the gentleman has >> before asking any questions i would ask unanimous consent to put into the records five statements by the following organizations explaining the illegal authority: the asian american justice, the national council of asian the civic americans, and three more. professor legomsky, i have been in congress for 20 years, i have read a lot of testimony. your testimony is the best, most concise, most logical testimony i have ever read. i thank you very much for your service in that way. i would like you ask you -- i would like to ask you a few questions. in professor foley's testimony she indicates that undocumented immigrants that are covered by daca and dapa are no longer deportable and that illegal immigrants that fall outside these priorities are not to be deported. do you agree with that? >> the statement is not true, and i am not sure where professor foley finds that will stop they are -- find that. deferred action can be revoked at any time. there is nothing to prevent the administration from initiating removal proceedings. i don't know the basis for that assumption. and thank you so much for those generous words. >> in the reno case, justice scalia had a key holding which is that congress has made immune from judicial review any action or decision to commence proceedings, adjudicate cases or execute removal orders. he went on to say that at each stage, the executive has discretion to abandon the endeavor. at the time, the ins had been engaged in a regular practice that has become known as deferred action. exercising such actions are simply for its own convenience. professor foley, in her written testimony, i think tries to diminish the significance of that case and to distinguish that the court merely acknowledged that congress did not want federal courts to get tied up in educating lawsuits. -- in educating lawsuits. >> that case did involve a denial of relief rather than a granting of relief. but the takeaway is evident from the court's language. it extends the decision about whether to execute removal orders. there is no basis -- >> there has been a lot of discussion about how dapa and daca grants additional benefits. but it is my understanding that it simply defers action. pursuant to section 274a of the immigration nationality act and a cfr -- and acfr 274a (12) grant that they may apply for naturalization if there is an economic the sesame. -- economic necessity. does the executive action give some kind of benefit directly? >> i think it is a little bit of both. first, there is the benefit of simply receiving a piece of paper in which the government tells you that we are deferring action in your case. people can disagree with the policy, but i have never seen anyone cite a law that it is illegal to tell a person that. the other are specifically authorized by statute and even more specifically authorized by regulations. they do have the force of law and they specifically say that if you receive deferred action you are eligible to apply for a work permit. >> we appropriate money every year that allows for the removal of roughly 7% of those who were in the country in an undocumented status. it appears to me that the affidavits submitted by the head of ice and the border patrol say that having a piece of paper would be very helpful to them. because the cost for removal is in the detention, the court processing. knowing that this person was not the priority at the beginning would be helpful to the agency before costs are incurred. do you think that without having these priorities, we are going to end up having to say that the nanny who is caught on the street is as high a priority as a drug dealer or gang member? >> i think that would be the logical result. it will be up to each individual police officer to decide when their agency's priorities are. helping ice sift out the low priorities -- in addition, they are collecting very useful data. all of that is being paid for by the requesters themselves, not the taxpayers. >> the chair would now recognize the gentleman from texas. >> thank you to the witnesses who are here today. i want to direct the first question to our two law professors. did both of you read the 123 page opinion deck of >> -- page opinion? >> yes. >> yes. >> for full disclosure, he was a classmate of mine in law school. he was the best -- he was one of the best and brightest. he is a brilliant guy. have you also read the response that has been filed by doj? >> yes. >> i was noticing in page 10 of the response, where they are saying that the government will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay -- and in the very next sentence they say that the in judge -- that the injunction blocks dhs from exercising their authority conferred by congress. and it is congress who is trying to stop them from exercising the authority, not by a written executive order but as a good monarch would do, the president spoke the law into existence and the secretary of homeland security ran and put it into a memo. i am wondering, if a law student , in response to an exam question on the 123 page opinion, came back and said irreparable harm because the injunction will prevent us from doing the job that congress conferred on us, what would be your response as law professors? >> i guess my first response would be bootstrapping argument. f. what is happening here is that they are saying that they will suffer irreparable harm because they are prevented from doing what they think they have the authority to do. but the $6 million question is do they have the authority? the answer has to be no, because despite professor legomsky attempt to identify for criteria that he believes provide meaningful limiting principles in fact they don't provide a meaningful limiting principle. if this president can do this, future presidents can unilaterally suspended for entire categories of people that they prefer for some reason, application of certain laws. environmental, labor, tax laws. that upsets the constitutional balance. >> if i may add, this was not a constitutional position. i think judge hated -- i think the judge showed his hand a bit and suggested very clearly that there would be an abdication. the constitution says that the president must make sure the laws are faithfully executed. the judge's opinion explains very clearly why. he says that we need rulemaking. we don't exactly know how this policy works. in my research, i find a checklist used by dhs. professor legomsky found a different form. do we know which one is being used? no we don't. show us what's happening and then we can go to court. we are learning this now, after the memo has been released. if texas had not filed a lawsuit when they did, the law would be in effect and there will be no way to challenge. >> this is an incredible response showing how poorly done it is. at page 10, it says that the responsibility for regulating the relationship between the united states and our alien visitors has been committed to the political branch of the federal government. as such, it causes irreparable harm. they cite that this belongs to congress and then come back and say that if you leave it to congress, it causes the executive branch irreparable harm. for heavens sake, our justice department needs better attorneys. especially when you look at page 15, saying that you have to throw out the injunction because it undermines the department's efforts to encourage illegal aliens. they were not given that responsibility, that is not their job. >> the chair would now recognize the gentlelady from texas, this jackson lee --ms. jackson lee. >> we should knowledge that we appreciate our witnesses coming and giving testimony. i also think it is important to a knowledge that there are many issues that this judiciary committee -- my friends on the other side of the aisle republicans and democrats collaborate on. i think that should be a message preceding the vigorous disagreement and unfortunate interpretation that is now given at this hearing. let me associate myself with the words of my chairman. i would like to think that this is a hearing regarding president barack obama's executive action. and i would prefer him not to be called obama and to honor the office in which -- the office of which he holds. i would also like to know is the constitution. we went through this argument to the various professors with respect to the powers of this president. we all can interpret the final words of section two which deals with taking care that the laws are faithfully executed. we make the argument that the executive actions are in actuality a reflection of those laws be faithfully executed. i don't really want you all to suggest that i am trying to show my smiley face, -- my smiling face, but immediately when the order came out, a group of families that would be severely impacted came together and said they stand with the president for the discretionary relief that allows him, not to convey status, but through his attorney general to have prosecutorial discretion and to be able to discern the prioritization of crooks, criminals, and felons versus families. this is an example of a parent that would be separated from their child. i want to make sure that i have professor legomsky -- that i pose a question to you because i think that you elevated us to a level of understanding worthy of commentary. this is a hearing that contribute to political security and not national security. in this meeting, the backdrop, we are not funding dhs. that is a horrific tragedy in the midst of i sold -- in the midst of isil. i would say to my good friend from nevada, that we have documentation that nevada be severely hampered by the presence of your lawsuit, but more particularly not funding dhs. i may have the opportunity to submit that into evidence. i am looking for my documents. but there are documentation that -- i ask you to review the impact of reviewing -- of not funding dhs. but you are engaging in a discussion that tracks why dhs is not being funded, allegedly why -- allegedly because this is not being authorized. for the people that believe that this is a frivolous exercise professor legomsky, these are the procedures that they have asked these individuals to go to. i count up to 15. i would like to know which of us go to 15 eligibility requirements to do anything. going back to the constitutional question of the executive action, you premised it on the fact that the president had the discretionary authority but in actuality the arguments made by my good friends are incorrect. that the authority that he is now exercising is limited. it is not offering citizenship not offering the affordable care act. could you tell us how we're in the context of not having a runaway executive, laying the president for a runaway executive in the future. >> as outlined earlier, i think that there are several tangible limits. i know professor foley just said that the four limits don't work, but i don't know why they don't. i very much appreciate your having brought to life what these issues are about. this is not an academic game, we are talking about the lives of millions. >> we would now recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania mr. marino. >> i have a request, with the chairman skip me for a moment? >> i would be thrilled to go to the gentleman from ohio. >> for faster foley, a number -- professor foley, a number of my colleagues in the other side of the aisle are saying that republicans are holding the dhs funding bill hostage. we passed legislation last month that funds the department at the levels they wanted. in your opinion as a legal scholar, do you think we have held anything hostage? >> i think you are doing exactly what the constitution says you should do. the framers anticipated that you would vigorously defend your constitutional prerogative. >> we did include language in the legislation that said that we think what the president did last december was constitutional -- was unconstitutional. we put language in there that said, we don't think you can use taxpayer money that you shouldn't use. do you believe the president's actions last november were unconstitutional? >> i absolutely do. it is one thing to hold an appropriations measure hostage it is another thing to hold the constitution hostage. >> you think it is unconstitutional, i think it is a constitutional, and a whole lot of other folks -- i think it is unconstitutional, and so do a whole lot of other folks. and last week we had a federal judge say that what the president did was unlawful. the fundamental question here is how can democrats in sis on making sure -- democrats insist on making sure that they can hold the dhs funding bill hostage to fund something that a federal judge has said is unlawful. isn't that an essential question? how can they insist on having a bill that they want to fund something that a lot of people have said is unconstitutional and a federal judge has said is unlawful. >> you might want to ask your colleagues that question. but in my opinion, it seems like it is the other side of the political aisle that is holding the constitution hostage. >> but it is not only that. they want to insist that they can fund something that the federal judge has said is unlawful, but they are not willing to debate the issue on the floor of the united states senate. let's have the full debate like we are supposed to. we invited secretary johnson to come in and testify at an oversight hearing next-door. he can go on every tv show, but can't come here to answer these questions? if anyone is holding this hostage, it seems to me that it is democrats in the united states senate. we have a bill over there that funds dhs but has language that says you can't do something that is unconstitutional and that a federal judge says is unlawful. but they refused to debate it. >> that is a shame. it is the process of debate that gives your value to the american people. i am glad we are having a hearing today. but they shouldn't play politics with the constitution. >> the final thing i would say and it has been said many times. the president said many times that he couldn't do what he did. legal scholars on the left and right have said it is unconstitutional. a federal judge has ruled that it is unlawful. we have a bill that funds dhs to the level democrats wanted. we put language and consistent with what political scholars across the spectrum say, and consistent with what a federal judge just ruled on last tuesday. it is unbelievable to me that we cannot just past that legislation in do with the american people want us to do. >> i think the gentleman from ohio. >> and i have unanimous consent to introduce two items into the record? >> ok. >> i would like to place the eligibility chart into the record. a chart dealing with the state of nevada homeland security profile summary of fina -- of fema. >> the chair now recognizes the gentleman from tennessee, mr. cohen. >> professor legomsky you said that -- how many different professors and attorney specializing in immigration law thought this was appropriate and constitutional? >> 135 immigration scholars and professionals, not even counting practitioners. >> do you know how many people in that similar class, although the class is hard to define, said it was unconstitutional? >> i am aware of two. >> 135-3. >> i don't want to represent that every immigration professor has opined on the issue. but of those who have, those are the numbers. >> if you are a professor of immigration law for 30 years? and you have written a textbook that was in hundred 83 loss goals -- 183 law schools? these people have done a lot of work, but you are the most expert person that we have today. you are the expert, and none of these other folks have written textbooks on immigration law. their main work has been on property law, constitution law and health law. you believe this is 100% constitutional? >> i do. i have a great deal of respect for my colleagues here. they have done a great deal of scholarship in their fields. but whether the custard has been violated depends on the immigration laws. if you are going to say he did not take care to faithfully execute the laws, you have to specify which laws he violated. there has been almost no reference to specific provisions of the law that they say have been violated. >> there is a clause in the united states code that says the secretary shall, acting through the undersecretary for border security shall do a certain number of items. one says enforcing policy priorities. does that give the administration the ability to do what they did? >> i think so, but that is not limitless. they must exercise that power consistent with statutory constraints. no constraints have been credibly identified. >> you are an attorney i think for immigration? do you have any idea of how many dollars it would cost the taxpayers to hire enough attorneys to try to stop -- to send those people out of the country? >> i don't have a number on that. there have been studies, and there is no doubt that the number is cost prohibitive. i don't of the number, but it is astronomical. >> astronomical is close to many millions. same ballpark. presidents reagan and bush number one have done similar things to what president obama has done. you commented that -- how would you distinguish the response he has gotten? how is it different from the other presidents? >> i think it is similar because in each case the president was acting in an area in which congress was deciding not to act. one of the differences that professor foley mentioned, and i have to say this is a fair argument -- the argument was that president bush was exercising a specific statutory power because there was something in the law that authorized voluntary departure. the only point i would make is that first, deferred action itself is recognized many places in the statutes. it has been recognized in many courts. and second, the most explicitly all authority that has the force of law is the regulation that has been in force for more than 30 years. >> i want to make clear, besser foley, i wasn't talking about the ut-kentucky game. >> the chair now recognizes the gentleman from texas. >> thank you all for being here. professor blackman, thank you for being here. i couldn't get into south texas. let's assume these hypotheticals. law professors love hypotheticals. the next president, whoever it is decides, i am going to postpone the individual mandate in obamacare indefinitely. so be it. the next president decides, i am going to postpone the implementation of epa regulations indefinitely throughout the fruited plains. sends out a memo. i have decided that in all fairness, some people should not pay income tax. so i am going to tell the irs not to enforce the irs code to a certain group of people that i think should not have to pay income tax. we could go on indefinitely. if everything stands like it is with the courts, the president executive issues -- orders, is this a possibility that these kinds of executive memos from future executives may happen? mr. blackman: with respect, we are already in that era. i think it is a very, very scary time. if we don't have enough agents to enforce the capital gains tax, we are not going to enforce it -- we can tell people the corporate income tax is too high. for any corporation that has so many employees, we are not going to enforce it. that is a dangerous precedent. the constitution says, you shall faithfully execute the law.
man: in the american west, most of the land is public land. it's owned by all of us. this is nowhere more true in the lower 48 than in nevada, where close to 90% of the land is owned by the federal government. it's owned by us. chisholm: particularly in nevada, so many people are oriented to spending time out on public lan, whether you hunt, you fish, you just enjoy it casually, you horseback-ride, you're a rancher, you're a miner, you're a farmer. whoever you are, you spend time out on your public lands, and it's an amazing part of our legacy, and it's something that really distinguishes the united states, distinguishes nevada as a great, great place to live. baca: one of the beauties of nevada is that we have these millions and millions of acres of public lands, but sometimes this can lead to conflicts, as you have generations of people who come through and engage with the land in different ways. [applause] nancy pelosi: today we unveil a portrait of one of the greatest leaders the senate has ever known. hillary clinton: both a trusted colleague as well as a friend. joe den: i le you, pal. i know that embarrasses you, but i do. [applause] [camera shutter clicks] harry reid: when i retired from the senate, we had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of boxes ofapers. archivists, when they start inventorying this, found out more of a half of the uff that i did in the senate, well, dealt with the environment. people have asked me on a number of occasions, "how come you became interested in environment?" it was because of piute springs. oh, it was a place of my dreams. for a young boy, it was beautiful. they had great big, tall cottonwood trees. most of all, there was a fort there. it was called fort piute. it was made out of rock. it had been built in 1864 to track the mail routes. you can still see some of the windows where the gunning placements were. there were ponds and you had lily pads, cattails. i mean, unbelievable. i mean, gee whiz, as a little boy cong from searchlight. as i look back, growing up in searchlight, i couldn't believe where i was raised. i was born in my parents' house in searchlight. we didn't have much money, but they left me something better. they taught me that by hard work, in america, you can succeed. my dad was a hard rock miner who--a lot of times, he worked and nobody paid him, and when they paid him, the checks bounced. my mother took in wash. now, you might ask, in a town of a few hundred people, whose wash would she take in? when i grew up in searchlight, it was a town of prostitutes. at one time, we had as many as 13 bordellos in searchlight. searchlight itself had no trees, no grass. it was just a place where there was no water. i'd wanted to go back to piute springs beuse as a boy, my youthful mind, it was like paradise. and i went back. somebody had burned the trees, the big cottonwood trees. the fort had been knocked down. the lily pads were gone, the ponds were gone. i felt so bad about that. if we couldn't protect that gem of the desert, then we're in big trouble as a country. christensen: so reid's had a very interesting, "only in nevada" kind of political career. woman: congressman harry reid, democrat of nevada, represents the first district, which includes las vegas. man: graduated from utah state and earned his law degree from george washington school of law in washington, d.c. woman 2: and served in the nevada assembly from 1969 to '71. reid: i'm out with a couple of my friends. one of them just nonchalantly says, "why don't you run for lieutenant governor?" "hmm. never thought of that. ok, i'll run for lieutenant governor." that was my preparation for running for lieutenant governor. woman: he was lieutenant governor of nevada from 1971 to '75. christensen: then, in 1974, he ran for u.s. senate against paul laxalt. reid: i never lost anything. freshman, sophomore class president. christensen: lost by 524 votes. he went back to las vegas, ran for mayor, lost again. reid: nobody knew who i was. o'callaghan: i first met harry reid when was teaching high hool in hendern, nevada. chriensen: then mike o'callaghan appointed him to the gaming commission... reid: regular meeting of the nevada gaming commission is called to order. christensen: where he played a central role in rooting out the mob from the gambling industry. man: the chairman called me a liar. you can dish it out, but you can't take it, can you, harry? christensen: then, in 1982, with nevada's booming population, the state got a second congressional district. reid: we need to get people who appear in the halls of congress who speak for the consumer. christensen: and harry reid ran for that new open seat and won. and that was the beginning of his long congressional career. reid: i will continue to be coistent... conservation, you know, is not a democratic issue. to be independent... tv announcer: independent like nevada. reid: and to work hard for oustate. this is gridlock in spades. and i'll always do what i think is right for nevada. christensen: when he won that congressional seat in 1982, nevada was still seen by many as a wasteland. [wind howling] tv narrator: the nevada desert, some of the most desolate acres to be found anywhere in the united states. chisholm: the federal government's role in nevada has been one of using it, quite frankly, as a colony. goes back to the mining history, where the mines generated all the wealth for san francisco, but also were important to the union cause. it goes to the cold war, when it was the testing ground and proving ground for the atomic weapons. at the height of the cold wa the u.s. government was testing atomic weapons above ground, underground, just 90 miles from las vegas. tv narrator: the nevada test site. it's sort of a backyard workshop. [explosions] ok, so nevada is important. chisholm: people would watch mushroom clouds from las vegas. cocktails were named after the atomic tests. i mean, it's absurd to think that we were allowing the type of atomic testing that was ocrring so close to a population center. man: ...minus one minute. chisholm: it was as a result of the cold war, the atomic testing that people really came to see nevada as being a wasteland. narrator: ...in the new world of the atomic age. [poignant music plays] [slide projector clicks] baca: it's interesting. in nevada, where we have these incredible wilderness areas, we have these beautiful night skies, there are so many assets. however, we had no national parks. so few places were really being celebrated for the incredible beauty that they had. christensen: when reid got into congress, he wanted to change that. wanted to put nevada on the p in a different way. reid: i wanted to do somethi about wilderness. because vada was growing so fast, i knew people unintentionally would ruin the environment. i had a press secretary. i'd been out looking around rural nevada, and she called me. she said, "senator, i'm in ely. these people up here think you should forget about this wilderness thing and go for a national park." chisholm: before harry reid was elected to congress, if you were an environmentalist in nevada, you didn't have a friend in congress. in fact, you had people who were working against you. laxalt: the values i have now are very much the values of having been raised in an old-country family, first generation, and also of small-town values. reid: a national park, which i want for nevada, it would be t first park in the united states in almost 15 years... christensen: reid isdvocating for a big park of 129,000 acres that would cover the entire wheeler range. laxalt and the other senator, chic hecht, want a smaller park of 44,000 acres to protect the mining and ranching interests. tv reporter: the town of ely could experience the most impacts om the great basin tional pk. manresident believe that the park's popularity cld spill oveinto ely and rejuvenate an otherwise dormant economy. christensen: when he heard that there was support for a national park, he saw a solution. reid: i was willing to didn't kill it. i'm sure healt could have, but he didn't. because of him, i made it smaller than it should have been, and i also allowed grazing on it. cows and sheecould graze there. i got it passed, and so there was talk about the secretary of agriculture at that time. was recommending to president reagan to veto that. ronald reagan: democrats and republicans must join together not to do what's easy, but to do what is right. reid: so i called william penn mott, the rector of park service, and i said, "mr. mott, there's talk about vetoing my park. how do you feel about it?" he said, "i, as a young park ranger, was asked by one of the senators from nevada to go out and find a place in nevada for a park." and he said, "i spent a lot of time, and i found the place atheeler peak. no one's going to veto this park." he says, "i have been in favor of this park for over 50 years." mott: congressecognizes that here, we do have natural resources of national significance. now that it's a national park, people will begin to understand that, and as we begin to interpret the natural and cultural values, it'll be clear that this truly is a national park. tv narrator: on october 17, 1986, president reagan signed legislation designating a carefully prescribed area as the great basin national park. senator harry reid, during his tenure in congress, was instrumental in the park's final push through congress. reid: this state is beautiful. we're now going to have a national park. it's a place of intersecting mountain ranges. it's a place of beauty, and we want people to know of nevada as something other than a place to set off bombs and to store nuclear waste. christensen: i think we can see this first big victory as confirmation for reid himself that he can get things done in congress. great basin national park is significant in an interesting other way. when the pa was being inaugurated, he s supposed to fly out there to join the ceremony, but the weather was too bad, and so he dre up eastern nevada. it's a couple hundred miles. reid: and all the way, from alamo up, there were great fields of grain. what are they growing there? they were growing alfalfa, all these huge alfalfa fields. [slide projector clicking] 'cause we have so much sunshine, they get as many as 5 or 6 cuttings each year and bundle up for hay. alfalfa's one of the most water-intensive plants there is, so i thought to myself as i drove up there, "how are they able to grow that?" it's not from rainfall. las vegas has 4 inches a year. it's being irrigated. it's irrigated land [slide projector clicks] [water sloshing] christensen: water is crucial for life in the american west and not just forcosystems, but so for aiculturein the stern pa of the united stat and in the midwest, agriculture can suive on rainfall. in the american west, it's dependent on irrigation. and late in the 19th century and early in the 20th century, settlers realized that to have agriculture at the scale that they envisioned, couldn't just be done with local, small irrigation projects, but required massive federal investments for dams and reservoirs and canals, and leveling fields and valleys to make agriculture possible, to make the desert bloom. this was called reclamation. narrator: parched scrubland was turned into green farms. reid: the idea with reclamation was to find a way to harness particularly rivers in the west to put people and support families out on the ground, to expand agriculture. people weren't really looking at what was the impact on native americans, what was the impact on our rivers, our fish. people didn't thinkbout that. avel pounds] barbara mikulskithe senator from nevada has the floor. re: firsbureau of reclamation project ever to take place in the united states took place in nevada--the newlands project. [bell dings] the newlands project was funded for one reason: nevada has a shortage of water. christensen: what the newlands project did was to dam the truckee river and divert that water over to the carson river basin to expand agriculture around the farming community of fallon. it also dammed the carson river and set up a network of canals to supply water to farms in what came to be called the truckee-carson irrigation district. ernie schank: i am a native nevadan. i was born in fallon. i live on the same ranch--in fact, i live in a house that my grandfather built in about 1930. i am the youngest who ever ran for the board of directors for the truckee-carson irrigation district. my main occupation, however, is a farmer. this is what i love. our farm is now in the fifth generation. our family came to the fallon area in 1929, and when i asked my grandfather why, he said he wanted to go to a place where reclamation was in its infancy. the mormon pioneers pioneered reclamation as we know it today. they came to what was considered a wasted area because nobody thought that you could grow crops, but when they got here, they determined that if they would dam the streams and build reservoirs, that soil could become very fertile. [water sloshing] baca: however, what they did not take into consideration was the the truckee river itself andn pyrad lake a on some of the other lakes that were dependent on ts water system. [wer splasng] man: this lake came under a great peril beginning of the last century because water was diverted from here for other irrigation distrt in fallon.on it silted up the are made spawning very bad. it was very difficult for the fish to find places to spawn, the beds were wiped out. not only did the lake go down, but the timing of the water and how it came down and what it came down with, the cleanliness, all of that, was just a big problem. tv announcer: since it is shrinking, the lake is becoming le pure. it's hardo predict how long it may be before fish can no longer survive in it. the turn of the century, the fisheries would be eliminated entirely. tv narrator: just 3 fish today, where there once were thousands. man 2: then they murdered the fish, i would say. just a murder iwhat it . ely: at one point, the lahontan cutthroat trout were extinct in this lake. we were very much afraid that the cui-ui were going to become extinct as well. tv narrator: pyramid lake is the only place they're found in all of the world. ely: we're cui-ui ticutta. we're cui-ui eaters. we fish for them, we eat them, and we want to do that again. when i was a kid, about this time of year, your es would be listening and u'd hear somebody say, "they're running" 'cause we knew the cui-ui were running. and when the cui-ui ran, you'd come to the lakeshore and there were people all up and down the lakeshore, catching cui-ui. so it was just this time of laughter and talk, and it was like a celebration. well, my kids have never experienced that. i'm the last generation to experience that. myrandkids haven't experienced it. they don't know at all. [applause] weeeded to fix that. we're out to protect our livelihood. we're out to protect our way of life. those things that we hold near and dear to us, which are part of our identity, part of who we are, we want to protect that and keep that integrity in place, and we are willinto do whatever it takes to do so. mid-part of the century, we decided to take it on ourselves. we were forced into a position of having to use the endangered species act. baca: many people probably don't realize that president nixon signed into law the clean water act and the endangered species act. richard nixon: each of us all across this great land has a stake in maintainingnd improving environmental quality. or never. the environmentaly now agenda now before the congress includes laws to deal with water pollution, ocean dumping, careless land development, and many other environmental problems. these problems will not stand still for politics or for partisanship. [tv clicks o] ely: we went to court and we took it on, and we were litigating it for years and years; decades, in fact. if the cui-ui go, that's a very intrice part of our way of life, and it goes, a big portion of our culture and tradition goes with it. man: well, if you didn't have the water, there'd be no farming. we have the water. presently, we have the water, and everybody else is wanting our water. man: we make a lot better use and more of a multiple use of the water within this irrigation district than i think is possible in pyramid. they should be compensated. tv anchor: the indians here filed suit in federal court to stop the diversion of waters bound for pyramid lake. ely: the supreme court ruled on behalf of the fish... [gavel pounds thrice] because at that time, the lahotan cutthroat trout had been listed as threatened and the cui-ui as endangered. baca: winning that case, for the pyramid lake paiute, was really a landmark moment. it created the ability to actually negotiate and torame things in a different way so that they could come in and leverage a new deal. chisholm: it was a complete shock to the system. the urban areas all of a sudden realized something that they thought they going to be available, and it meant working with the tribe. re: we have to resolve this issue. if not, it is going to be a long time before it can be worked out, if, in fact, it ever can be because each year that goes by, more demands are placed on the river systems. woman: a new water report indicates the truckee meadows will not have enough water to meet the demands here 50 years from now without a negotiated settlement or a water pipeline. reid: reno was growing significantly, and the business community, ty knew tha something had to be done or they re goingo not be able to buy y more water. woman on tv: an unforeseen jump in water consumption indicated that the day of reckoning about the water supply situation is rapidly approaching. christensen: so, at the same time that this is happening on the ground in nevada, paul laxalt is in washington, d.c., trying to push through a compact between california and nevada that would have divided the waters of the truckee river. he wanted to settle the water wars, but in the process, he also wanted to extinguish any possibility that the pyramid lake paiute tribe could claim more water on the river. when you have a compact between two states, it has to be approved by congress. that's why it was so important for laxalt to get this compact, so he called a meeting with the tribe. ely: we had to go to washington, d.c., and we had a meeting behind closed doors with our 4 congressional delegation. christensen: so imagine you're joe ely of the pyramid lake paiute tribe, in your 20s. you're called in to a meeting with one of the most powerful men in america, senator paul laxalt. with him, nevada senator chic hecht, congresswoman barbara vucanovich, and harry reid. ely: we knew prior to the meeting where senator reid was on this issue. we had a pretty good idea that he would assist us in this process. reid: yeah, i remember the meeting. i didn't say a word. i just watched. ely: senator laxalt is the one that took charge of the meeting, and it was very short. he called a meeting to inform us that he was going to have the california-nevada interstate compact ratified, that he understood that we didn't like it, but that was too bad. and then he said, "i want you to understand this. i want you to understand that we're going to get this ratified, and we're going to get it passed."nd he says, "do you understand me?" i said, "yes." and he got up a little bit. he says, "do you understand me?" i said, "yes," then he says, "do you understand me?!" and he stuck his finger about that far from my face. i walked outside and said, e're going to kill that compact, a we're going to get this thing settled." christensen: so, over the next weeks and months, they walked the halls of congress, they knocked on every door. they met with the press, they talked to representatives and senators, and they told them what an injustice this compact would be. these representatives and senators had not heard this side of the story,ut as they began to hear what the cost of this compact would be for the pyramid lake paiute tribe, they began to question the compact. reidby the te that i was focused on stoppg that mpact, alrea knew myay around the hse of representaves, so i felt that i was in a better position than they were, "they" meaning the laxalt folks. and then i did what i could just to throw a monkey wrench in everything. if i didn't want it done, it wouldn't get done. and the first hearing was in the house, and i didn't know the indians at all, but a number of them came from nevada tribes, and they stood and objected to what he was trying to do. it surprised everybody in nevada 'cause you had paul laxalt and all these big shots, were trying to push this through. and these indians stood up and took them on, and the house members felt it was wrong, they were being, as usual, preyed upon. those indis enlightened me. they stopped it, and i decided after that to try to be some help to them. [applause] man: harry reid is the man. i think he's going to make it. re: thank u very much. chriensen: t fall 1986... man: i'm kind of leaning toward harry reid. man 2: personally, i think he's a little wishy-washy. woman: i'm going to support harry reid. woman 2: senator paul laxalt will be retiring at the end of this term. laxalt: i've done my political bit, and that's it for me. [lively tune playing] reid: i've ner taken my good fortune for granted. there's one other thing i've never taken for granted, and that's you. [rousing music pla] tom brokaw: there were enough voteto bring about a fundamental shift of power in washington. in nevada, congressman harry reid was a giant killer, winning the senate seat of president reagan's close friend, paul laxalt, now retired. christensen: it's election night, harry reid has won the senate seat. big celebration, lots of reporters around, microphones getting stuck in his face. one reporter asks him, "what's the most important thing you're going to work on?" reid: i said, "water." now, frankly, at that time, i didn't know what i was talking about. man: from a staff perspective, one of the things i really appreciated about him is his sort of decisiveness. he would make a decision, and then you would go do the thing. he decided that he was going to save pyramid lake. he decided he was going to end the water war between california and nevada. there were components of doing that that were wildly politically unpopular, and he didn't care. he knew that it was the right thing to do, and he set about doing it. [tires screech] christensen: but he doesn't craft a top-down solution like laxalt's compact. instead, he sends one of his top aides, wayne mehl, out to nevada to listen to all of the different interests and try to negotiate a settlement. [slide projector clicking] reid: wayne mehl was a craftsman with legislation. his number-one goal was play all the golf he could. he was a good golfer. and so, when we start on this, neither of us knew what to do, but we learned. it was on-the-job training. woman: wayne met with irrigators, environmentalists, and city and county and state people and the tribe. he met with everydy. th he went backo senator reid, and i am told he said, "well, it's going to be nearly impossible, but we might be able to get a deal here." reid: they were all together on what they wanted done. they just didn't uerstand how they could work together, and tt's what were able to do, was kind of t them together. for the first time in the history of this dispute, we were able to have people sit in the same room. initially, they didn't talk much-- [click] [silence] woman: we were pretty much locked in a room for about 4 days running. reid's office was facilitating it with, i remember, cake, and i'm not sure why we had cake,
man: in the american west, most of the land is public land. it's owned by all of us. this is nowhere more true in the lower 48 than in nevada, where close to 90% of the land is owned by the federal government. it's owned by us. chisholm: particularly in nevada, so many people are oriented to spending time out on public lds, whether you hunt, you fish, you just enjoy it casually, you horseback-ride, you're a rancher, you're a miner, you're a farmer. whoever you are, you spend time out on your public lands, and it's an amazing part of our legacy, and it's something that really distinguishes the united states, distinguishes nevada as a great, great place to live. baca: one of the beauties of nevada is that we have these millions and millions of acres of public lands, but sometimes this can lead to conflicts, as you have generations of people who come through and engage with the land in different ways. [applause] nancy pelosi: today we unveil a portrait of one of the greatest leaders the senate has ever known. hillary clinton: both a trusted colleague as well as a friend. joe den: i le you, pal. i know that embarrasses you, but i do. [applause] [camera shutter clicks] harry reid: when i retired from the senate, we had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of boxes papers. archivists, when they start inventorying this, found out more of a half of thstuff that i did in the senate, well, dealt with the environment. people have asked me on a number of occasions, "how come you became interested in environment?" it was because of piute springs. oh, it was a place of my dreams. for a young boy, it was beautiful. they had great big, tall cottonwood trees. most of all, there was a fort there. it was called fort piute. it was made out of rock. it had been built in 1864 to track the mail routes. you can still see some of the windows where the gunning placements were. there were ponds and you had lily pads, cattails. i mean, unbelievable. i mean, gee whiz, as a little boy cong from searchlight. as i look back, growing up in searchlight, i couldn't believe where i was raised. i was born in my parents' house in searchlight. we didn't have much money, but they left me something better. they taught me that by hard work, in america, you can succeed. my dad was a hard rock miner who--a lot of times, he worked and nobody paid him, and when they paid him, the checks bounced. my mother took in wash. now, you might ask, in a town of a few hundred people, whose wash would she take in? when i grew up in searchlight, it was a town of prostitutes. at one time, we had as many as 13 bordellos in searchlight. searchlight itself had no trees, no grass. it was just a place where there was no water. i'd wanted to go back to piute springs beuse as a boy, my youthful mind, it was like paradise. and i went back. somebody had burned the trees, the big cottonwood trees. the fort had been knocked down. the lily pads were gone, the ponds were gone. i felt so bad about that. if we couldn't protect that gem of the desert, then we're in big trouble as a country. christensen: so reid's had a very interesting, "only in nevada" kind of political career. woman: congressman harry reid, democrat of nevada, represents the first district, which includes las vegas. man: graduated from utah state and earned his law degree from george washington school of law in washington, d.c. woman 2: and served in the nevada assembly from 1969 to '71. reid: i'm out with a couple of my friends. one of them just nonchalantly says, "why don't you run for lieutenant governor?" "hmm. never thought of that. ok, i'll run for lieutenant governor." that was my preparation for running for lieutenant governor. woman: he was lieutenant governor of nevada from 1971 to '75. christensen: then, in 1974, he ran for u.s. senate against paul laxalt. reid: i never lost anything. freshman, sophomore class president. christensen: lost by 524 votes. he went back to las vegas, ran for mayor, lost again. reid: nobody knew who i was. o'callagn: i first met harry reid when was teaching high hool in henderso nevada. chriensen: then mike o'callaghan appointed him to the gaming commission... reid: regular meeting of the nevada gaming commission is called to order. christensen: where he played a central role in rooting out the mob from the gambling industry. man: the chairman called me a liar. you can dish it out, but you can't take it, can you, harry? christensen: then, in 1982, with nevada's booming population, the state got a second congressional district. reid: we need to get people who appear in the halls of congress who speak for the consumer. christensen: and harry reid ran for that new open seat and won. and that was the beginning of his long congressional career. reid: i will continue to be coistent... conservation, you know, is not a democratic issue. to be independent... tv announcer: independent like nevada. reid: and to work hard for oustate. this is gridlock in spades. and i'll always do what i think is right for nevada. christensen: when he won that congressional seat in 1982, nevada was still seen by many as a wasteland. [wind howling] tv narrator: the nevada desert, some of the most desolate acres to be found anywhere in the united states. chisholm: the federal government's role in nevada has been one of using it, quite frankly, as a colony. goes back to the mining history, where the mines generated all the wealth for san francisco, but also were important to the union cause. it goes to the cold war, when it was the testing ground and proving ground for the atomic weapons. at the height of the cold wa the u.s. government was testing atomic weapons above ground, underground, just t 90 miles frm las vegas. tv narrator: the nevada test site. it's sort of a backyard workshop. [explosions] ok, so nevada is important. chisholm: people would watch mushroom clouds from las vegas. cocktails were named after the atomic tests. i mean, it's absurd to think that we were allowing the type of atomic testing that was ocrring so close to a population center. man: ...minus one minute. chisholm: it was as a result of the cold war, the atomic testing that people really came to see nevada as being a wasteland. narrator: ...in the new world of the atomic age. [poignant music plays] [slide projector clicks] baca: it's interesting. in nevada, where we have these incredible wilderness areas, we have these beautiful night skies, there are so many assets. however, we had no national parks. so few places were really being celebrated for the incredible beauty that they had. christensen: when reid got into congress, he wanted to change that. wanted to put nevada on thmap in a different way. reid: i wanted to do somethi about wilderness. because vada was growing so fast, i knew people unintentionally would ruin the environment. i had a press secretary. i'd been out looking around rural nevada, and she called me. she said, "senator, i'm in ely. these people up here think you should forget about this wilderness thing and go for a national park." chisholm: before harry reid was elected to congress, if you were an environmentalist in nevada, you didn't have a friend in congress. in fact, you had people who were working against you. laxalt: the values i have now are very much the values of having been raised in an old-country family, first generation, and also of small-town values. reid: a national park, which i want for nevada, it would be t first park in the united states in almost 15 years... christensen: reid isdvocating for a big park of 129,000 acres that would cover the entire wheeler range. laxalt and the other senator, chic hecht, want a smaller park of 44,000 acres to protect the mining and ranching interests. tv reporter: the town of ely could experience the most impacts om the great basin tional pk. manresident believe that the park's popularity cld spill oveinto ely and rejuvenate an otherwise dormant economy. christensen: when he heard tha there was support for a national park, he saw a solution. reid: i was willing to didn't kill it. i'm sure healt could have, but he didn't. because of him, i made it smaller than it should have been, and i also allowed grazing on it. cows and sheecould graze there. i got it passed, and so there was talk about the secretary of agriculture at that time. was recommending to president reagan to veto that. ronald reagan: democrats and republicans must join together not to do what's easy, but to do what is right. reid: so i called william penn mott, the rector of park service, and i said, "mr. mott, there's talk about vetoing my park. how do you feel about it?" he said, "i, as a young park ranger, was asked by one of the senators from nevada to go out and find a place in nevada for a park." and he said, "i spent a lot of time, and i found the place atheeler peak. no one's going to veto this park." he says, "i have been in favor of this park for over 50 years." mott: congre recognizes that here, we do have natural resources of national significance. now that it's a national park, people will begin to understand that, and as we begin to interpret the natural and cultural values, it'll be clear that this truly is a national park. tv narrator: on october 17, 1986, president reagan signed legislation designating a carefully prescribed area as the great basin national park. senator harry reid, during his tenure in congress, was instrumental in the park's final push through congress. reid: this state is beautiful. we're now going to have a national park. it's a place of intersecting mountain ranges. it's a place of beauty, and we want people to know of nevada as something other than a place to set off bombs and to store nuclear waste. christensen: i think we can see this first big victory as confirmation for reid himself that he can get things done in congress. great basin national park is significant in an interesting other way. when the rk was being inaugurated, he s supposed to fly out there to join the ceremony, but the weather was too bad, and so he dre up eastern nevada. it's a couple hundred miles. reid: and all the way, from alamo up, there were great fields of grain. what are they growing there? they were growing alfalfa, all these huge alfalfa fields. [slide projector clicking] 'cause we have so much sunshine, they get as many as 5 or 6 cuttings each year and bundle up for hay. alfalfa's one of the most water-intensive plants there is, so i thought to myself as i drove up there, "how are they able to grow that?" it's not from rainfall. las vegas has 4 inches a year. it's being irrigated. it's irrigated land [slide projector clicks] [water sloshing] christensen: water is crucial for life in the american west and not just for ecosystems, b also forgricultu. in the stern pa of the united stat and in the midwest, agriculture can suive on rainfall. in the american west, it's dependent on irrigation. and late in the 19th century and early in the 20th century, settlers realized that to have agriculture at the scale that they envisioned, couldn't just be done with local, small irrigation projects, but required massive federal investments for dams and reservoirs and canals, and leveling fields and valleys to make agriculture possible, to make the desert bloom. this was called reclamation. narrator: parched scrubland was turned into green farms. reid: the idea with reclamation was to find a way to harness particularly rivers in the west to put people and support families out on the ground, to expand agriculture. people weren't really looking at what was the impact on native americans, what was the impact on our rivers, our fish. people didn't thinkbout that. avel pounds] barbara mikulskithe senator from nevada has the floor. re: firsbureau of reclamation project ever to take place in the united states took place in nevada--the newlands project. [bell dings] the newlands project was funded for one reason: nevada has a shortage of water. christensen: what the newlands project did was to dam the truckee river and divert that water over to the carson river basin to expand agriculture around the farming community of fallon. it also dammed the carson river and set up a network of canals to supply water to farms in what came to be called the truckee-carson irrigation district. ernie schank: i am a native nevadan. i was born in fallon. i live on the same ranch--in fact, i live in a house that my grandfather built in about 1930. i am the youngest who ever ran for the board of directors for the truckee-carson irrigation district. my main occupation, however, is a farmer. this is what i love. our farm is now in the fifth generation. our family came to the fallon area in 1929, and when i asked my grandfather why, he said he wanted to go to a place where reclamation was in its infancy. the mormon pioneers pioneered reclamation as we know it today. they came to what was considered a wasted area because nobody thought that you could grow crops, but when they got here, they determined that if they would dam the streams and build reservoirs, that soil could become very fertile. [water sloshing] baca: however, what they did not take into consideration was the pyramid lake andn some of then other lakes that were dependent on ts water system. [wer splasng] man: this lake came under a great peril beginning of the last century because water was diverted from here for other irrigation distrt in fallon.on it silted up the are made spawning very bad. it was very difficult for the fish to find places to spawn, the beds were wiped out. not only did the lake go down, but the timing of the water and how it came down and what it came down with, the cleanliness, all of that, was just a big problem. tv announcer: since it is shrinking, the lake is becoming le pure. it's hardo predict how long it may be before fish can no longer survive in it. the turn of the century, the fisheries would be eliminated entirely. tv narrator: just 3 fish today, where there once were thousands. man 2: then they murdered the fish, i would say. just a murder iwhat it . ely: at one point, the lahontan cutthroat trout were extinct in this lake. we were very much afraid that the cui-ui were going to become extinct as well. tv narrator: pyramid lake is the only place they're found in all of the world. ely: we're cui-ui ticutta. we're cui-ui eaters. we fish for them, we eat them, and we want to do that again. when i was a kid, about this time of year, your es would be listening and u'd hear somebody say, "they're running" 'cause we knew the cui-ui were running. and when the cui-ui ran, you'd come to the lakeshore and there were people all up and down the lakeshore, catching cui-ui. so it was just this time of laughter and talk, and it was like a celebration. well, my kids have never experienced that. i'm the last generation to experience that. myrandkids haven't experienced it. they don't know at all. [applause] weeeded to fix that. we're out to protect our livelihood. we're out to protect our way of life. those things that we hold near and dear to us, which are part of our identity, part of who we are, we want to protect that and keep that integrity in place, and we are willinto do whatever it takes to do so. mid-part of the century, we decided to take it on ourselves. we were forced into a position of having to use the endangered species act. baca: many people probably don't realize that president nixon signed into law the clean water act and the endangered species act. richard nixon: each of us all across this great land has a stake in maintainingnd improving environmental qualit or never. the environmentaly now agenda now before the congress includes laws to deal with water pollution, ocean dumping, careless land development, and many other environmental problems. these problems will not stand still for politics or for partisanship. [tv clicks o] ely: we went to court and we took it on, and we were litigating it for years and years; decades, in fact. if the cui-ui go, that's a very intrice part of our way of life, and it goes, a big portion of our culture and tradition goes with it. man: well, if you didn't have the water, there'd be no farming. we have the water. presently, we have the water, and everybody else is wanting our water. man: we make a lot better use and more of a multiple use of the water within this irrigation district than i think is possible in pyramid. they should be compensated. tv anchor: the indians here filed suit in federal court to stop the diversion of waters bound for pyramid lake. ely: the supreme court ruled on behalf of the fish... [gavel pounds thrice] because at that time, the lahotan cutthroat trout had been listed as threatened and the cui-ui as endangered. baca: winning that case, for the pyramid lake paiute, was really a landmark moment. it created the ability to actually negotiate and torame things in a different way so that they could come in and leverage a new deal. chisholm: it was a complete shock to the system. the urban areas all of a sudden realized something that they thought they going to be available, and it meant working with the tribe. re: we have to resolve this issue. if not, it is going to be a long time before it can be worked out, if, in fact, it ever can be because each year that goes by, more demands are placed on the river systems. woman: a new water report indicates the truckee meadows will not have enough water to meet the demands here 50 years from now without a negotiated settlement or a water pipeline. reid: reno was growing significantly, and the business community, theknew that something had to be done or they re goingo not be able to buy y more water. woman on tv: an unforeseen jump in water consumption indicated that the day of reckoning about the water supply situation is rapidly approaching. christensen: so, at the same time that this is happening on the ground in nevada, paul laxalt is in washington, d.c., trying to push through a compact between california and nevada that would have divided the waters of the truckee river. he wanted to settle the water wars, but in the process, he also wanted to extinguish any possibility that the pyramid lake paiute tribe could claim more water on the river. when you have a compact between two states, it has to be approved by congress. that's why it was so important for laxalt to get this compact, so he called a meeting with the tribe. ely: we had to go to washington, d.c., and we had a meeting behind closed doors with our 4 congressional delegation. christensen: so imagine you're joe ely of the pyramid lake paiute tribe, in your 20s. you're called in to a meeting with one of the most powerful men in america, senator paul laxalt. with him, nevada senator chic hecht, congresswoman barbara vucanovich, and harry reid. ely: we knew prior to the meeting where senator reid was on this issue. we had a pretty good idea that he would assist us in this process. reid: yeah, i remember the meeting. i didn't say a word. i just watched. ely: senator laxalt is the one that took charge of the meeting, and it was very short. he called a meeting to inform us that he was going to have the california-nevada interstate compact ratified, that he understood that we didn't like it, but that was too bad. and then he said, "i want you to understand this. i want you to understand that we're going to get this ratified, and we're going to get it passed."nd he says, "do you understand me?" i said, "yes." and he got up a little bit. he says, "do you understand me?" i said, "yes," then he says, "do you understand me?!" and he stuck his finger about that far from my face. i walked outside and said, e're going to kill that compact, a we're going to get this thing settled." christensen: so, over the next weeks and months, they walked the halls of congress, they knocked on every door. they met with the press, they talked to representatives and senators, and they told them what an injustice this compact would be. these representatives and senators had not heard this side of the story,ut as they began to hear what the cost of this compact would be for the pyramid lake paiute tribe, they began to question the compact. reidby the te that i was focused on stoppg that coact, i alrea knew myay around the hse of representaves, so i felt that i was in a better position than they were, "they" meaning the laxalt folks. and then i did what i could just to throw a monkey wrench in everything. if i didn't want it done, it wouldn't get done. and the first hearing was in the house, and i didn't know the indians at all, but a number of them came from nevada tribes, and they stood and objected to what he was trying to do. it surprised everybody in nevada 'cause you had paul laxalt and all these big shots, were trying to push this through. and these indians stood up and took them on, and the house members felt it was wrong, they were being, as usual, preyed upon. those indians enlightened me. they stopped it, and i decided after that to try to be some help to them. [applause] man: harry reid is the man. i think he's going to make it. re: thank u very much. chriensen: t fall 1986... man: i'm kind of leaning toward harry reid. man 2: personally, i think he's a little wishy-washy. woman: i'm going to support harry reid. woman 2: senator paul laxalt will be retiring at the end of this term. laxalt: i've done my political bit, and that's it for me. [lively tune playing] reid: i've ner taken my good fortune for granted. there's one other thing i've never taken for granted, and that's you. [rousing music pla] tom brokaw: there were enough voteto bring about a fundamental shift of power in washington. in nevada, congressman harry reid was a giant killer, winning the senate seat of president reagan's close friend, paul laxalt, now retired. christensen: it's election night, harry reid has won the senate seat. big celebration, lots of reporters around, microphones getting stuck in his face. one reporter asks him, "what's the most important thing you're going to work on?" reid: i said, "water." now, frankly, at that time, i didn't know what i was talking about. man: from a staff perspective, one of the things i really appreciated about him is his sort of decisiveness. he would make a decision, and then you would go do the thing. he decided that he was going to save pyramid lake. he decided he was going to end the water war between california and nevada. there were components of doing that that were wildly politically unpopular, and he didn't care. he knew that it was the right thing to do, and he set about doing it. [tires screech] christensen: but he doesn't craft a top-down solution like laxalt's compact. instead, he sends one of his top aides, listen to all of the different interests and try to negotiate a settlement. [slide projector clicking] reid: wayne mehl was a craftsman with legislation. his number-one goal was play all the golf he could. he was a good golfer. and so, when we start on this, neither of us knew what to do, but we learned. it was on-the-job training. woman: wayne met with irrigators, environmentalists, and city and county and state people and the tribe. he met with everydy. th he went backo senator reid, and i am told he said, "well, it's going to be nearly impossible, but we might be able to get a deal here." reid: they were all together on what they wanted done. they just didn't uerstand how they could work together, and tt's what were able to do, was kind of t them together. for the first time in the history of this dispute, we were able to have people sit in the same room. initially, they didn't talk much-- [click] [silence] woman: we were pretty much locked in a room for about 4 days running. reid's office was facilitating it with, i remember, cake, and i'm not sure why we had cake, to y
the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their votes? if not, the yeas are 60, the nays are 37. and the nomination is confirmed. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: i ask unanimous consent that with respect to the nominations confirmed today the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the clerk will report the raskin nomination. the clerk: nomination, sarah bloom raskin of maryland to be deputy secretary. the presiding officer: there will now be two minutes of debate, equally divided prior to the vote on confirmation. mr. harkin: i ask unanimous consent to yield back the two minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. without objection. all time is yielded back. and the question occurs on the nomination. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motions to reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. under the previous order, the senate will resume legislative session and proceed to the consideration of s. 1086 which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 309, s. 1086, a bill to reauthorize and improve the childcare and development block grant act of 1990 and for other purposes. mr. harkin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: i'm pleased the senate is considering the childcare and development block grant act of 201. i have a subcommittee amendment to the substitute amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from iowa, mr. harkin, proposes amendment numbered 2811. mr. harkin: i ask further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: so, madam president, we are now on the childcare and development block grant of twinch. i know that senator alexander and i and -- of 2013. i know senator alexander and i are anxious to consider amendments, i encourage people who have amendments to bring them to the floor so that senator burr, senator alexander, or i or senator mikulski could look at them and get things lined up. it is my intent, i hope i can speak for senator alexander in this, too, to have an open yesterday managed process with respect to this bill for senators to have relevant amendments to have the opportunity to have them offered and to be voted on. i expect that we would have a couple of votes within the next few hours. i don't even know but sometime soon. so, again, i strongly encourage senators with amendments to bring them over and file them so we can get them discussed expeditiously. madam president, this bill was voted automaticsly out of the help committee last september. i hope it will receive strong bipartisan support here on the senate floor. i want to give tremendous credit and thanks to senators mikulski and burr, the sponsors of this legislation, for their leadership in this process for over a couple of years, working together, creating a bill that takes huge steps? in improving the lives of children and their families. i want to thank our ranking member, senator alexander for his partnership and for working with us to reauthorize this vital program. our offices have worked very collaboratively over the last couple of years to produce a strong bipartisan bill. if i might, i'd start first by saying that this program has a big impact in my state of iowa, too. right now iowa servers about 15,800 children each month with ccdbg funds and about 28% of infants and toddlers, about 26% ages 3 and 4 and about half, 46% ages 5-13. i want to continue to make it clear most people think of this simply as a childcare type bill that's for infants and toddlers. this goes -- about half goes to those urpd the age of five. the last time this was reauthorized in 1996, 18 years ago, this program was basically looked at as mainly a work-support program, a work-related support program taking care of kids while parents went to work. it was only incidentally thought of as something that could have a real impact on the kids. well, 18 years later, backed by impressive scientific research, we know the program can and should be much more. in addition to providing vital work support for pairptses, it ca-- forparents, it can be a riy learning program for children. a groundbreak being report was made that said from the time of conception to the first day of kindergarten development proceeds at a pace preceding that of any subsequent stage of life. that what happens during the first years of life matters a lot. not because it provides an indelible blueprint for well-being, but because it sets either a sturdy or fragile stage for what follows. and what it bill does is set that sturdy staifnlgt this report that i talked about from the national research council reinforces what we already know, that learning starts at birth and that preparation for learning begins hurricane -- ben before earth. 80% of a child's brain develops between birth and age 3. because much of a child's skills develop before he or she begins kindergarten, we need to give every child the opportunity to reach their full potential at the earliest stages of life. this means including access to high-quality child care. the bill before us represents a strong and positive advance for low-income families who benefit from the child-care subsidy. the bill makes many needed improvements that will help establish high expectations for federally subsidized child care in this country. it accomplishes -- the bill aplirveaccomplishes a lost thin. first of all, education and training for child-care workers. under this bill, the states that apply and get these block grants will need to develop minimum education and training requirements for child-care workers that describe what they must know and able to do to promote the healthy development of the children they serve. just as we know that great -- a great teacher is one of the most important factors in the classroom, we also know that one of the most critical components of early development in children is whether they have a supportive, nurturing interactions with caring adults. again, another important thing we do in the bill is to promote safety and health standards. this bill ensures that licensed child-care providers receive a pre-licensure inspection and at least one annual inspection thereafter. alarminalarmingly, some states t child-care providers once every five years. some don't even do a pre-licensure inspection until the provider is serving more than a dozen children. the bill also stipulates and focuses on vulnerable populati populations, including basically children with disabilities, infants and toddlers, children whose parents work nontraditional hours. the sponsors of this bill, senators burr and mikulski, took great care to ensure that child-care programs supported through this block grant will be well-suited for children with special needs and their families. the legislation asks states to consider the unique needs of children with disabilities when developing training requirements for child-care workers. a child-care worker may be trained to take care of nondisabled children but taking care of a child with a disability takes a little more expertise that's what this bill provides. it also let lets parents know -- gives them the information to parents to know the types of services available through the individuals with disabilities education act. the bill also provides families with stability on continuity of care for families, that once they receive care, they're going to get it for at least one year, once they're initially deemed eligible. currently some states require parents to reapply for care after only a few months. in some cases states will kick parents off of care if they receive a small pay raise that makes them ineligible under the state's eligibility guidelines. this bill remedies this by ensuring that as long as a parent is working or in a training program and whose income does not exceed 85% of the state's median income, they'll get care for at least one year without having to work. again, this helps children because we know that a lot of times these kinds of disruptions can really set a child back, and this allows at least for that continuity for one year. the bill also supports development of a web sievment i know senator burr was very interested in that and helped promote that and put that in there. development of a web site that's going to be available to all parents to show them the range of child-care providers in their area, so they can shop around, see what's out there. now, i have -- the other one -- on the current access right now, right now the law says states can set their eligibility requirement as long as it doesn't exceed 85% of the state's median income. but if you look at all of the children ages 0-13, that's because the bill covers up to age 13, if you look at preschool-age kids, those 0-5, you do a little bit better and states are serving a little more than a quarter of children who would be eligible under the federal guideline. i think this shows the present landscape right now. out of 100% of the kids that are eligible, we have 73% eligible but not being served, about 27% served -- of children. so we do have a long way to go. as chairman of the aeption pros subcommittee -- appropriations subcommittee on labor, health, human services and education, our committee has fought for years to increase funding so that we could serve more children. a fiscal year 2014 omnibus included more than a $154 million increase for the child-care pravment i know that sounds like a lot but all it did was replace the $118 million cut that happened because of sequestration. so we replaced the $118 million blues whatever that figures out to be, another $36 million more. so it helps. the increased funding will help states improve access to quality and affordable child care by increasing the numbers of kid whose can receive t but actually we have a long way to go and the last chart kind of shows what's happening here. if you look at the blue line at the bottom, it actually states actual funding under this program. if we go back to 2005 and we see inflation, we're about $600 million short of where we'd be if we just kept up with inflation. so if yoso you see just since 2e know what it was like before that. we have a lot of a lot of ground. and we need to make that up and i hope we can do that in our appropriations bills that are coming up. so, again, this bill changes the landscape, makes things a lot better for families out there. but i just wanted to mention the funding this bill authorizes. but the appropriations has to fund it. and i hope that we can in fiscal year 2015 continue to be able to keep up the funding increases for the child care and development block grants. so, madam president, it's a good bill. i'm very proud of this bill, proud of the efforts that senator burr and senator mikulski have put into this over a long period of time. so i urge my colleagues to join in the bipartisan spirit of cooperation that we have witnessed in the help committee over the last year, and as i said, if senators have amendments germane to the bill, i encourage hem to bring them over -- them to bring them over so we can take a look at them and determine a fair path forward with respect those amendments. i want to thank senator alexander for a great working relationship on this committee and thank him for working so hard to help bring this bill forward to the floor today. i yield the floor. mr. alexander: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i want to say to the senator from iowa how much i appreciate working with him. we were talking yesterday. he told me -- understand think i have the facts right -- that our committee in this congress has reported 17 bills that have passed the senate and ten that have become law, which i suspect exceeds that of any other committee. and as our hearing this morning on minimum wage shows, it is not because we always agree with each other all the time. we probably have the most ideologically split committee in the congress by party, but we get a lot done. and that's due in great -- in great measure to the way the senator from iowa leads the committee. and i apreasht that very much. -- and i appreciate that very much. and i'll have more to say about senator burr and mikulski in a few moments because they've done yeoman's work on this. they're the leaders in this effort. they've immersed themselves in it in the last two years. they brought it to a position that was -- which convinced everybody on the committee it was time to move ahead. but that's not where we were when we started. we had lots of differences of opinion and we came it a conclusion that they'll be explaining in detaivmen detail. the way we'll proceed is this: after my remarks, senator mikulski and senator burr will step up and begin to manage the bill. senator harkin and i will be here. we're continuing right through the afternoon. we hope that senators will bring their amendments to the floor. what we're hoping to do is have a debate about the child care development block grant. and we're hoping to have amendments about it. and we will have votes on those amendments. and it's not our desire to pick this democratic amendment or this republican amendment. if you have an amendment on the child care development block grant that's related to the bill, please bring it over and talk with senator burr, senator mikulski, senator harkin or me, and we'll start lining them up, and there will be time for debate, and there will be a vote, and it'll be considered. and our hope is to have votes this afternoon, votes tomorrow morning to let senators know that there won't be votes tonight so they can plan their schedules. senator burr will talk more about that -- and a time for attempting to conclude the bill tomorrow. that's ours goal. that's the way the senate has traditionally worked. it is the way we hope it works today. now, since senator mikulski, the senator from maryland, the senator from north carolina have done the principal amount of work on the bill, i see no need for me to go through the details of the bill. i think they're better- equipped to do that and better-prepared to do that. let me put the whole effort in perspective before i step down and step aside and senator mikulski and senator burr step up. during world war ii, there were a great many mothers, women, who took jobs outside the home. that was different. in our agricultural society, families worked together. as the industrial society in america developed during the 20th century, men, largely, went away from home to work and women, mostly, worked at home. but in world war ii, something different happened. most -- many of the men were overseas fighting. there was a lot of work to be done at home, and so women took jobs in the factories that they didn't have before. and that produced a new phenomenon in the american society which was called "work sight day care." someone had to take care of the children. a large number of companies provided sites at the work place so that mothers could bring their children while they worked. then after the war was over, things went back to the way they were before, and most american women worked at home. that began to change probably in the 1970's. it is probably fair to say that the greatest social change in our country over the last 40 years has been the gradual and steady phenomenon of women in the workplace outside the home and the adjus a adjustments thar society has made. i had an early head start in the town of merryville, tennessee p. my mother had one of the two preeducation programs. she had been trained in kansas in a settlement house in chicago, and she had -- it's hard for me today to imagine how she did this. she had 24 5-year-olds in the afternoon. that was mrs. alexander's preschool, which we called the institution of lower learning. she had nowhere else to put me, sos i became i guess the first united states senator to have five years of kindergarten, which i probably needed. but it gave me a head start, and it gave me the understanding of what senator harkin said earlier, that research then, but especially now, shows that the brain develops at least from the moment of conception and that all of the influence around an infant even are important to that person's development over a long period of time. and most parents who understand that want to make sure that they are with the child at a very early age, stimulating that child or if they can't be for some period of time for some reason, that someone else is. so along with the changing role of women in the work force came the idea of more childcare. i remember in 1986 i was governor of tennessee and the head of our human services division, a woman named marring aretail seli came to me and proposed i ask the businesses in tennessee to create a thousand work site daycare places. i was taken aback by that because i didn't understand the need for it and didn't think the businesses would do it voluntarily. we did that and we got twice as many work site daycare places as were asked for. it was good for businesses to do and plenty of demand for it from the parents who had to take their children to work. then in the next year i was out of a job, i was through with my time as governor and so was marguerite along with captain kangaroo, bob keeshon, my wife and bob martin founded a company that provided work site daycare places. after 10 years it merged with its competitor, bright horizons and became the largest provider of work site daycare in the world. as companies have realized the worse of work site daycare. but not all of -- not all mothers can send their children or fathers can send their children to bright horizons while they work. and so there came to be a recognition that there needed to be some response by the federal government. that came the next year in about 1988 with the first federal programs on childcare and in 1996, the law that we have today was basically a part of the reform of the welfare act. it's a remarkable law in effect because it involves lots of state flexibility, in other words, what's good for maryland may not be good for north carolina, it models our higher education system by letting the money follow the child to the institution that the parent thinks best. these are vouchers. and -- and it gradually has grown to an area where we spend $5 billion or $6 billion of taxpayers' money each year to provide about 1.5 million children with an opportunity for childcare. let me mention one success story so we can have an example of exactly what we're talking with. about. i'm thinking of a young mother in memphis, tennessee who was attending lemoine-owen college earning a business degree. she had an infant child so she put that child in a childcare center she chose, the voucher through this program that we're talking about today provided about $500 to $600 a month to help pay for that. infant childcare is especially expensive, as if you think about it, you can understand. the success part of the story is that she earned her degree, she's now an assistant manager at wal-mart in memphis. the child who was the infant in the childcare center is 5 years old and she earns enough money to pay all the bill for that child to go to the same childcare center while the money that helped her before is now available to some other mother. so this program encourages work, it encourages job training, and for those americans who are low income and working or low income and training or educating themselves for a job, this helps them get that job. so this is an important bill for -- for many, many families. i know in tennessee we have about 20,000 families affected, nearly 40,000 children. it's a big help to them. it makes a difference in their lives. so i thank senator mikulski and senator burr for working with this legislation. i know of no two senators in this body who approach -- who approach issues in a more serious, effective, and determined way, and they also understand that, you know, in a body of a hundred members where we each have a right to object, that no bill is going to be what any of us would exactly want. for example, i'm leery of the extent of the background checks here which is one of the major accomplishments of the bill. as a former governor i'm skeptical of washington setting rules for states. but i accept the compromise they've come to. we've talked that through and i think it's a sound -- a sound proposal. and i want to congratulate them for the way they've done this over the last two years, and the way we approach it. and then the conclusion, let me say where i started, we're asking senators to join us in a debate about the childcare and development block grant. what we hope senators will do is come to the floor with their ideas about it. we know of a number of senators who have amendments on both sides of the aisle. what we're saying to those senators is if you have an amendment that's related to our bill, you'll have a chance to talk about it and you'll have a chance for it to be voted on and perhaps accepted by the full senate and then hopefully this bill will go to the house and become a law. we know that that hasn't been the story as often as it should be in the senate but we'd like to see that happen more often. it requires a little bit of restraint on the part of each of us as senators. we can't all exercise all of our rights all the time and get anything done. it requires some trust and restraint on the part of our leader, senator reid, senator mcconnell, we appreciate them turning the management of the bill over to senator mikulski and senator burr with senator harkin and i in support of their efforts. and we appreciate the cooperation of the many senators who have already come up with excellent amendments, notified of us about them, senator burr and senator mikulski know about them and will talk about them. at this stage, madam president, i'd like to step down and turn the matter over to senator mikulski first and then senator burr and encourage colleagues to come over now, we're continuing through the lunchtime and discuss, debate, talk and beginning voting on the childcare and development block grant reauthorization. thank you very much. ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: before i speak on the childcare and development block grant, i have 11 unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and the is the minority leaders and i ask these these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: madam president, i'm so pleased to bring to the floor the very important bipartisan legislation, the childcare and development block grant of 2014. standing here today to really speak on behalf of families and children across this nation. i'm excited to bring this bill for two reasons. one, the content that it represents. a reauthorization framework for the childcare and development block grant, one of the most important tools that families have to be able to afford childcare so that they may go to work. it is a childcare development bill, and it is a work assessment bill. but i'm also proud of the process by which we are undertaking this bill. the process by which we arrived at this bill, and on which we're on the floor today. this legislation has not been reauthorized since 1996. senator richard burr of north carolina and i serve on the health education committee, which the presiding officer is a member. we once chaired the subcommittee -- i -- on children and families. senator burr and i, who have a long-standing professional relationship, said let's see what we can get done on that committee. where can we found common ground? where can we find that sensible center? how can we move things forward on a bipartisan basis where we add value to our country but don't add to our debt? so we put our heads together and looking at the childcare needs in our country, we began a regular order process. three hearings, lots of meetings with stakeholders, over 50 organizations, meetings with our staff, meeting with each other, characterized by three things -- mutual respect, focusing on national needs, how we can be both smart in terms of our policies, yet frugal in terms of the way we went about the money, how we could maybe not expand the number of vouchers the way some of us would like but that we could expand value by focusing on quality. we, because of the tone we set with each other, we think we were able to do this. this is the way the senate ought to operate. mutual respect, talking with each other and not at each other. listening to experts, listening to the grassroots, paying attention to the bottom line. we were able to do that. and today as we come to the floor, this is an open amendment process. you know, there are -- we talk a lot here about regular order. there are very few members of the senate, particularly those that have been elected since 2006, that know what a regular order is. a quick thumbnail, it means bring legislation to the floor, offer an open amendment process, debate, deliberate, and vote. this is where we hope to be able to proceed today. no strong arming, no stiff arming, no heavy hand, just regular order, regular debate with every senator having the opportunity to have their day and their say. this is the it should operate. what excites me coming to the floor is not only being the senator from maryland but also the presiding officer knows, i'm a professionally trained social worker. i have a master's degree in social work and work with the children, i was a foster care worker for catholic charities, i was a child abuse worker for the department of social services, and being here when one of the reasons i came into politics was to be able to take that values of a social worker and bring it to the floor of the united states congress to make sure we looked at families and their needs. and this is what i think this bill does. we're looking at childcare. every family in america with children is concerned about childcare. they wonder if it's available, they wonder if it's affordable, they worry if it's safe, and they also are concerned does it help their children be ready to learn. we all say that children are one of our most important resources which also means that childcare is one of our most important decisions. families will scrimp and save to make sure that they have adequate childcare. if you're a single parent working double shifts, you wonder if childcare is safe and sound. if you're a student working towards a degree, you're wondering if -- while you're in school are your children in a good preschool or daycare program. these worries weigh heavily on the shoulders of parents everywhere, and our bill helps lift that burden, giving families and children the childcare they need. this bill, as i said, is the product of a bipartisan effort. childcare is something all families worry about, regardless of income or zip code. this bill ensures that all children get the care that they need and deserve. what we did was focusing on what these needs are. childcare has not been evaluated since 1996. at that time the program was solely envisioned as a work force aid. what we know today is that this is also the time of the most rapid period of brain development. that's why it's imperative that we ensure that our young children are at high quality childcare programs. we need to make sure that childcare newerrures their development, prepares their mind, and prepares them for school. the program is out of date. it doesn't go far enough to promote health and safety and also to make sure that the staff is ready to meet emergency responses and to take care of the needs of those children. what we know in this legislation is that we are focused on quality. i will elaborate on that in more detaism but whadetail. but what i do know is that way back when this bill was first signed in to law, it was under george herbert bush. president clinton came in, and part of the welfare reform was to be able to do that. now it is a new day. and we want to make sure that child care not only helps the parents, but it also focuses on the children. that when they come to their day care, they know that their providers will be trained, that the environment will be safe, that their whole program will be able to help them make them learning-ready. we know there are differences in north carolina from in maryland. we know that there's differences in utah from maine. so what we've provided here is to make sure there's incredible state flexibility. i'll go into that in more detable, but i hope that -- detail, but i hope that my colleagues will join senator burr and i, senator alexander and senator harkin in passing this bill. and i look forward to further debate and discussion. the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. burr: i thank the president, and i thank my good friend and colleague, the senator from maryland, senator mikulski. you know, in the senate, for those of us that have been around for a while, we understand how it works. and i'm not sure that the media does justice to the american people about how difficult it is for legislation to actually pass the united states senate. as a matter of fact, the historical threshold of 67 and then 60 in agreement means that in you're a serious legislator and yoand your interest to workn good policy -- not perfect; i think senator alexander said, we've never seen a perfect bill -- then the first thought that goes through your mind as you work on a legislative agenda is, who on the other side of the aisle can i get that this would be appealing to from a standpoint of their interests and, two, an individual that understandunderstands how to geh difficult times? well, i'm here to say to my colleagues, barbara mikulski is one that fills that category -- not just on this, but on so much, because of her great depth of knowledge and more importantly her tenacity and her willingness to tell people "no" and to pur pursue what's right, because at the end of the day i think i can speak for both of us, this is not about headlines; this is about looking at a generation of kids that are going to be benefited by reforms to a reauthorization that hasn't happened since 1996. you know, historical on this issue is that george h.w. bush started the program, and it was under the clinton administration under welfare reform that we formalized these vouchers. and the vouchers were really created so that families who struggled to keep a job and were low-income but had child-care needs didn't have to worry about the child-care piece; that there was a federal assistance that was determined on a sliding scale. and by the way, let pe me say fr my colleagues, if a statedon stf a state doesn't provide a waiver, then they've got skin on these vowfns. and thi-- on these vouchers. this has benefited 1.6 million families. in north carolina there are 74,000 vouchers on an annual basis that benefit our children. those are family members that are either in education or in work, and they can commit to those jobs because they know that child care is available and the cost is affordable because of this federal voucher program. and i think senator mikulski would agree with me, we hope we never see a program that waits this long to be reauthorized. every program up here deserves to be reevaluated every five years: one, on its effectiveness, two, do we still have the problem that we had when the program was started. i dare say in her time here -- and she's been here a lot longer here than i have -- and i don't say that, barbara, as it relates to your age -- there are programs here that don't have a constituency anymore. but the hardest thing for congress to do is to get rid of something or to consolidate. and i think senator mikulski and i have taken the attitude, if we can make this better and have a positive effect on the people it was intended to, then that's our job. that's our responsibility here as members of the united states senate. so i have searchl certainly lood forward to the two years we have spent that some might listen to the debate and say, gee, why didn't you just go to the floor and pass an consent consent. yes, that's -- and pass an unanimous consent u yes. yes, that's an option. if you can make this bill, come to the floor and offer your amendment. if we come to the floor and we think it makes the bill worse, then we're going to vote against you. but we promise you this: we'll have a vote. and that's an important part of the united states senate is that members always feel that they can put their fingerprints, they can put their state's interest into every piece of legislation, whether they are on that committee or subcommittee or not. and we have now with this bill returned to a process that i think reaches out and incorporates that. let me say to our colleagues, it is our intent when i get through to start accepting amendments. and at some point, with both leaders' agreement this afternoon, we will target a period where we will vote on whatever stacked amendments we've been able to process. after that we will hopefully go back in to consider more amendments, and i think it's senator mikulski's and my intent not to have votes tonight but to work with the leaders then to roll those votes to the morning. but let me make this perfectly clear to our colleagues. it is our intent to finish this bill tomorrow afternoon. period. so, you know, the way to effect positive change in this legislation, to get your input into it and your fingerprints on it, is not to wait until tomorrow afternoon. it's to come down this afternoon, it's to debate the amendments, it's to let us process the amendments, it's to let us work like the senate is designed to work. so i encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do that. madam president, i do rise today to speak about s. 1085, the child care development block grant reauthorization bill with my good friend senator mikulski. and i must say, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the cooperation of senator harkin and senator alexander, senator harkin who has a long history of interest and involvement with policies that affect children. he's passionate about it. senator alexander with a similar lifetime commitment, a gentleman that's served as the education governor of tennessee, the secretary of education of the united states, and the president of the university of tennessee in knoxville. so both of them come with a tremendous amount of expertise and passion for this issue. this legislation is actually necessary to build on what the child care development block grant program was established for. as i said earlier, 1.6 million children nationally are served today. 74,000 in north carolina. and there tends to be a lot of talk in this body about strengthening job training, getting people back to work, and in min myincentivizing self-rel. that's imheact th exactly what d care development block grant does. it says to a family, work and we'll help you with child care. but one of the problems since 1996 when this bill was created was that the way we looked at one's income was an instantaneous snapshot. so as a parent, if i was offered a second shift where i could earn a little more money, i'd look at how that might affect my child-care voucher and realize that they'd take my voucher away if i took that second shift or if i worked overtime and got time and a half pay. well, this is evidence that we've looked at all angles, we've reached out to the communities that are affected, we've talked to people who are providers, we've talked to parents, we've looked at the difficulties that they struggle with because our inthent intento make sure that we have a piece of legislation that parents can choose to accept that shift offer, can accept to work overtime and know that they're not going to be adversely affected, because now we're looking at the year-long versus the individual snapshot. so through federal vouchers, parents who demonstrate they're working or they're in job-training programs are furthering education and are below 85% of the state's median income are eligible to receive the child-care voucher, to use that as a child-care provider of their choice in their state. now, this is not one where we're saying, you have to go here and you have to go there. we open it up for the choice of the parent. in addition, cdbg requires families, as i said earlier, to have skin in the game on a sliding scale based upon their income. as a block grant, states have great flexibility in how they administer the funds but are generally required to set health, safety, and quality guidelines to promote parental choice, assist parents in becoming independent through work promotion, and provide good consumer information so parents can make decisions about their child's care. s. 1086, the legislation that we've offered, would reauthorize this law for the first time since 19969. -- since 1996. it the would do so bhai by makig some commonsense changes which address the realities which i have highlighted: prioritizing the safety of children that receive care with federal dollars. first, we'd require all providers and individuals who have unsupervised access to children to submit to a criminal background check. that check would ensure that our young children are not left alone with individuals who've committed felonies, such as murder, rape, child abuse, neglect, robbery, and other serious offenses. this provision is the result of legislation i introduced over the past several congresses called the child care protection act, which i believe will do a great deal to improve the safety of our children. now, let me just stop there, madam president, and just say, this is incredible because most men's, americans, i think, belit these background checks take place today. in some respects they're right. states like north carolina have been responsible and they do carry out some degree of background checks. not all states. not all providers. but when this bill becomes law, it will say to all states and to all providers that receive federal vouchers, you must doz o this. you must assure every parent that these felons are not part of the workforce that was unsupervised access to your children. second, this bill asks states to monitor through inspections the quality of child-care settings so that basic health and safety precautions are taken. many states currently conduct no checks at all for certain settings and conduct them years apart, all while providers receive state and federal tax dollars. at the very least, parents who are working several jobs just to make it should know that their child is in someone's care who's been traininged in the basics of c.p.r., fire prevention, and other commonsense precautions. let me say, one of my colleagues, senator landrieu, i think will come to the floor sometime this afternoon and offer an amendment that requires evacuation plans. well, for a senator from louisiana who lived this firsthand, this is a really, really important thing. it is a great job of where a member's amendment is going to help to perfect our bill and for anybody who's on a coastal state -- north carolina, i'm sorry i didn't think of what she did -- but when you look at tornadoes and fires, we're all susceptible to the need of a day-care facility having an evacuation plan that local officials and, more importantly, parents and the providers that work there understand what to do. third, it asks states to make transparent all the information as widely as possible so parents are armed with all the information they need whe when y shop for child care under the federal child care vouchers. fourth, in keeping with the maximum flexibility afforded to states under the cdbg this bill provides states the option of seeking waivers from any federal law that funds early learning or childcare that might have conflicting or onerous results for the delivery of that care and requires the secretary of h.h.s. to work with other agencies to provide a waiver for those requirements so states and childcare providers can focus on providing quality care, not just complying with washington's confusioning -- confusing set of requirements. in other words, the focus of this is to make sure that the childcare quality component is the single most important feature to providers. fifth, it promotes continued employment incentives for parents to move higher in their careers by providing better guidance to states on how they determine the eligibility of parents and their children to me it's just common sense we shouldn't penalize a parent from taking an extra shift or working overtime. but at the same time we require states to make sure that only the most needy parents receive the childcare vouchers, and they can demonstrate that they're following the laws -- the law's work rules. let lett me say again, madam president. i think this is lost because we haven't talked about this in almost two decades. that for many in the communities that we all represent, this is the difference between a family being able to keep a job or to be 100% on assistance. and what we've got is a federal program that not just is beneficial, we have the data to prove it works. and that matrix continues to be in place. finally, madam president, it asks states to play a greater emphasis on building quality care settings by gradually increasing the amount of federal dollars that can be set aside from current law's 4% to 10% over the next several years that must be used to improve quality programs. let me explain. today we say that you can set up to 4% aside for quality. we want to extend that. we want to create an incubator that is an investment in what we can do to further enhance the quality of what these children are exposed to. i think senator harkin, senator mikulski, senator alexander have all pointed out when we go from infancy to 13, we've got the majority of the learning period of a child's life, and some of it we pick up in the education system, but if they go to childcare after that or they go to childcare before it, we want to make sure that the quality of that and more importantly, the innovation of that quality, is such that all students, all children can advance because of it. this bipartisan legislation is the result of work in the help committee. it was influenced and really ramrodded by my friend, senator mikulski. she was tireless at inviting experts, she sought practitioners in all of our states, and it was that and the leadership of our chairman and our ranking member that bring us here today. madam president, i believe this legislation will go a long way towards improving childcare in our country. but also towards promoting self-sufficiency and independence for working parents. this is not a federal handout. this is a partnership between the federal government and the opportunity for parents to have a better life. and i think that the way we have addressed the commonsense changes in reauthorization make it more likely, not less likely, that more parents will succeed at that. so i urge my -- i encourage my colleagues to support this bill, but i really do stress with my colleagues, now is the time to come to the floor. bring your amendments to the floor. let's debate the amendments, let's vote the amendments, let's prove that the united states senate can function in a very open process because in this particular case, those vulnerable parents and those children that are the next generation really do matter and what we do really does affect them. i thank the president, i thank my colleague from maryland, and i yield the floor. ms. mikulski: madam president -- the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: thank you. madam president, i know we'll be offering amendments through the afternoon, and we look forward to ample debate and discussion on them. i want to reiterate my appreciation to senator burr for the way we worked together on this bill. he was very generous in his comments to me about me, and i appreciate this, but what i so appreciated in working with him is that his whole focus was how do we really protect these children? and his work to ensure that the children were safe when they were at the daycare, regardless of the size of the provider, was really important. so yes, we have good background checks. at the same time, we were looking at health and safety standards. making sure that the staffs were at least trained in the elements of first aid so that if they needed help because they had swallowed something until the 911 -- excuse me, the 911 responders could be there, were really important. and yet we had to look at it in a way that we didn't overregulate so we wanted quality standards, but we didn't want to have so many rules, so many regs, exactly what senator alexander cautioned us about, let's not overregulate so that we then stifle or end up shrinking the pool. so we again worked on what -- the phrase "sensible center" really comes from colin powell, that if we work hard and listen to each other, we find that sensible center. so it was the balance between federal standards, but also local flexibility on the best way to achieve those standards. and also to help states pay the bill for the training. one of the things that we've done in our bill was set aside 3% of funding to expand access to improve the quality of care, especially for infants and toddlers, the most vulnerable populations because they can't tell you things. you know, they can't tell you where they hurt or some of these others. in addition the amendments they -- amounts they set aside for quality improvement also must be at least 10% within five years of enactment and states must say what they choose to invest in. we hope not only to have reporting and accountability, we're getting a idea for best practices we can circulate among providers and we think this will be really important. the other area that we focused was senator burr talked about providing protections for children who receive assistance. exactly what i heard in maryland. you know, this is all income based. in other words, your voucher -- this is a means-tested program. and -- but if your means change in the program, you could lose your daycare. so it was an actual disincentive for improving yourself or maybe taking a seasonal job. so if you had the opportunity perhaps to work in retail during a holiday season, exactly for your own family's holiday celebrations, you were going to be tremendously disadvantaged because it would be a boost, it would look like you've gone up when actually your income might be the same. so if you've taken that part-time job. so we want to reward work. we want to reward personal responsibility. and so we were able to provide that flexibility that when parents redetermine their eligibility they'll give them ample opportunity to be able to do so. so if your child is in daycare and you take your part-time job, you won't lose the daycare you have for that year or that determination. so we thought that was important. the other thing was meeting the needs of children with disabilities. this was a strong passion of senator harkin, a well known advocate for people with disabilities, and i know he will speak to that. but it will require states to examine what are they doing to coordinate with the idea programs, again, for preschool age children with disabilities. omnibus a child who faces a disability -- often a child who faces a disability is in a daycare that doesn't promote learning. canned i have, ms. rivera, i have a constituent in maryland, she spoke at our press conference yesterday. her name is kathy rivera. she's the mother of two children, age 7 and 2. she is also a resource person working at cen tro nio family services which is information and services and focuses on early childhood education. now, her little dpirl was born without an ear. -- girl was born without an ear. that's rough going. so imagine being an infant, then a toddler trying to learn language, your family is bilingual, it could be a great asset, but when you can't really hear and the doctors are doing the most for you to help you, you still need to have -- be in an environment that acknowledges that and is helping with the learning in childcare so at your pace, your way, so that your language skills are also developing because language and brain development are tied together. so without the proper environment, this little girl would have been doubly disadvantaged. one with the physical situation from birth but then the learning situation because of where she was. well, fortunately because of the -- her mother working in the field of daycare, working at a very agency who provides information and resources and with the help of the childcare subsidy, this little girl could be in the daycare that she needs to not only look out that her physical needs are being met but that her learning needs are being met. isn't that a great story? isn't that a great story? but here's a mother who is working. a bit strapped financially, but with her own sense of motherhood and personal responsibility she found what she needed, the childcare subsidy was able to help her pay for the daycare, and now this little girl has a promising -- it's going to be a challenging future for her, but she's ready, she's up for this challenge. this is what this is. this isn't only about numbers and statistics. so when we talk about improving quality, we've really tried to take in -- into consideration of these needs. you know, daycare is expensive, and in maryland, the maryland family network tells me that they had with all of the licensed daycare, over 23,000 children were on the wait list for this program. not for daycare. that's even larger. but for this program. so this is why we want to pass this bill and really be able to move forward on it. but, again, i'm going to come back to this bipartisan effort of focusing on safety, security, and also learning readiness. so, madam president, i yield the floor and i'll say more later. mr. burr: madam president,. the presiding officer: the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. burr: i just want to take this opportunity to say to my colleagues we're now at a point that we would like to consider amendments. so if you've got improvements to this bill, it's after lunch, before you take a nap, come down to the senate floor, offer your amendment, let's talk about it and let's process as many as we possibly can. it is our intent to consider amendments for the majority of the afternoon. at some point with the cooperation and agreement of leaders on both sides to set a time that we would then vote for the amendments that have been processed, hopefully continue to take some amendments early in the evening, but our intent would be not to have votes tonight, so that the schedules are predictable, to come back in the morning with the leaders' agreement at a specified time to consider the votes that might be stacked, any additional amendments that need to be debate yoed and voted on, and it would be senator mikulski's and my intent -- and it is our goal -- and when she has a goal, let me say to my colleagues, she will achieve that goal. so it is our intent and our goal to finish this tomorrow afternoon. we want to make sure that we've accommodated every member who has an amendment, every member who wants to make an improvement to this bill, but we ask you to come to the floor preferably today and to introduce that, call it up, debate it, let us schedule it in the queue of votes and we will feel more cch- feel more confident of exactly the time line we're on as this starts. so i remind my colleagues that the key enhancements in this bill is that it improves quality while simultaneously ensuring that federal funds support low-income and at-risk children and facilities. two, it addresses the nutritional and physical activity needs of children in a child-care setting. three, it strengthens coordination and the alignment to create a more comprehensive early childhood education and care system. four, it meets the needs of children with disabilities who require child care. five, it provides protections for children and families who receive assistance. six, it safeguards the health and the safety of children. i can't think of points that are more important as it relates to changes to a bill that was created in 1996 and still embraces, i might say, the context that it was negotiated in, which was wel welfare refor. how did we provide the avenue for more individuals to enjoy what great things this country has to offer for those who are willing to work? and welfare reform was a pathway -- bipartisanly agreed to -- to lead people from unemployment to employment and hopefully to continue to whatever degree of prosperity they chose to pursue. we all know that that means that you've got to have a partner and that you've got to have flexibility, whether that's flexibility in being able to meet the hours that might put you up for a for a promotion or get the skills that you need to consider a different career or the next level and that every parent should probably look at this like i did with mine; that they are the single-most important thing. there are sacrifices that every parent makes for themselves because of what they provide for their children. that's the right thing to do. but through this partnership for 1.6 million children and for 900,000-plus families, we've now provided for over two decades a federal program that helps to make that decision to where it's not either/or. they can -- they can pursue a career. they can pursue advancement. they can increase their skills. they can increase their education without sacrificing that federal subsidy that provides them the ability to drop their kids off in the morning and that those kids are taken care of. this is a win-win. it is what welfare reform was written to do, and i'm proud to work with my good friend, senator mikulski, to make sure that we get this across the finish line. so once again to my colleagues, come to the floor, brin -- brinr amendment, let's debate them, vote them. but we're going to finish tomorrow afternoon. with that, madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president, i ask that the call of the quorum be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: i reiterate senator burr's request. people wanted an open amendment process. we're open. come on and amend. and we're looking tbiewrd to -- and we're looking forward to it. but while we're waiting for our members to come careening to the floor -- and by the way, 25 amendments have been filed. so here we are. i want to comment on something else. if you notice, i'm dressed in green today and i also have on a girl scout pin. don't i look like a little girl scout standing here? i feel like a girl scout. but because i was a girl scout, and once a girl scout, always a girl scout, today, madam president, we are celebrating the 102nd anniversary of girl scouts in america, which started out as a group of 18 girls in georgia organized by juliet loarks which has grown into an organization of 3.2 million girls and weu78. i knew firsthand what it was like about learning, leadership, and service. i loved working on my badges. i loved the camaraderie of working with other girls on the various challenges we had. madam president, i was a child during world war ii. the day care -- the girl scout program run out of our parish was really important. it provided important activities for girls after school, and there were comparable cub scout, boy scout, just like we had the daisies and the girl scouts. in my community, women are working as rosie the riveters. so we could actually be in a safe environment, we learned wonderful thirntion and w -- wonderful things, and we learned about our responsibilities. i can't think enough about ms. helen nimick, i wanted to grow up like here because she knew how to do 43 things with oatmeal boxes. there's a little bit of an age difference between us, madam president, but what i loved also the most was our pledges. and i'll just say today, first of all, you know the girl scout promise: to serve god and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the girl scout law. pretty good. but here's the girl scout law. i actually carry this in my wallet, and i'll tell you why. because if you follow the girl scout law, you're in pretty good shaivment and, by thshape. and by the way, i think over 90% of the women in the senate were hereto a daisy ar or a girl scout. "i will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what i say and what i do, and to respect myself and others, to respect authority, to respect and use resources wisely, make the world a better place, be a sister to every girl scout, and a sister to every boy scout." and i think that this is great. to girl scouts everywhere, whether they're daisies or the senior leadership, we say congratulations on the 102nd anniversary. but i want to do a particular shoutout for the leaders, people who give of their own time and earn their own dime to help young women learn about their country, the world they live in, working collegially and in comradeship, camaraderie with others. i believe the values that i learned as a girl scout were the lessons of a lifetime. and, quite frankly, if i can live up to the girl scout law today, i think i'll be a pretty good senator. so, hats off to girl scouts everywhere, a big thanks to the leaders who do it, and let's eat those cook cheerks evethose coon a different program than they're called for. mr. burr: madam president, let me admit that i was not a girl scout. and i guess i could have assumed that barbara mikulski was a girl scout because scouting has made a significant difference in the lives of so many -- not just in america, but globally. and many of the qualities that come from that experience lead to some of our most important national leaders, both in the past and in the future. so i join her in recognizing this significant milestone for the girl scouts. i know that it must be challenging in today's nutritional environment to actually fund everything off of cookies, but, as we have seen drastically the change in the way they're marketed, i will assure you that we are raising a generation of girl scouts who are the most creative at how they market and sell their products that fund their programs of any generation that i've seen to date. and i think when kids are challenged at that age to be their own entrepreneurs, this is good for this country. we should be proud as parents, and we should continue to support programs like scouting. i thank the chair. i yield the floor. mr. heller: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. heller: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for up to ten minuteminutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. heller: thank you, madam president. i rise today to recognize the great state of nevada, as we celebrate 150 years of statehood. it is a remarkable opportunity to speak on the floor of this chamber about this milestone, given the role that congress played in the formation of the silver state. the movement to make the nevada territory a state began within the territory, but the first attempt to formulate a constitution failed. shortly affirmation the 38th congress passed an enabling act for nevada statehood, signed by president abraham lincoln on march 21, 1864, this bill made it possible for nevada to eventually adopt a state constitution. lincoln proclaimed nevada a state on october 31, 1864. the guarantee of statehood was given to us by abraham lincoln, who with our assistance would go on to pass a 13th amendment, win the civil war and heal a broken nation. making the 150th year of nevada statehood takes me back to carson city when i was just 4 years old. it was nevada's centennial celebration. the date was october 31, 1964. i remember being with my family, sitting on the lawn, listening to the carson city municipal band lead the festivities at the state capital. now, during that same year in 1964, lyndon johnson was reelected over barry goldwater and would go on to declare a war on poverty. in 1964, race riots broke out in harlem. across the nation president johnson signed the civil rights act of 1964 into law. the 24th amendment to abolish the use of poll taxes was ratified. in 1964 the summer olympics were held in tokyo, congress passed the gulf of tonkin resolution which ultimately escalated the increased military action in vietnam. the james bond film "gold finger" began its run in the united states and "bewitched" premiered on television. so much has changed over the past 50 years but the characteristic of nevada has not. from its first birthday to its 100th to its 150th, nevada continues to be shaped by its people. people who are entrepreneurial, fiercely independent, and as diverse as our terrain. we are molded by the grit, hard work, and pir pioneering spiritf individuals determined to succeed. the list of men and women who have molded our state is long. where some saw impossibility, a nevada senator by the name of nulance saw opportunity. to this day, his legacy lives on in the hay, the cattle, and very fields made possible by the water that he brought to this desert. standing among our nation's great frozen greeting visitors to the nation's capitol is another nevada's, sarah winnemucka, she challenged the status quo and refused to accept the injustices brought on her native american brothers and sisters. so instead of fighting with a weapon, she fought with her pen. through her words the plight of our fellow americans living on reservations was heard. of course in nevada, mark twain was born. samuel clemens adopted the famous pen name while covering the enterprise in virginia city. twain wrote eloquent by about nevada from the rough and tumble attitude of the wild west to its beauty dubbing it. more recently, i think of paul laxalt, former lieutenant governor and united states senator for nevada. he was instrumental in preserving lake tahoe, establishing our state's first community colleges and our medical school. or former representative barbara vucanovich who will be recorded in the history books to be the first woman to represent nevada in the united states senate. this remark is not only achievement but the integrity with which she fulfilled her duties makes her achievement grander. bill raggi also comes to mind, a true statesman, longest serving member in the nevada state senate. these people left their mark but it is the people of nevada who formed the silver state. during the formation of our state's constitution, nevadans demanded our mothers and sisters be heard. the women of nevada were granted the voice of a vote before the 19th amendment was ratified by our nation. we helped pioneer the vote for all. during world war ii when our brave soldiers fought for peace and prosperity, nevadans who were not able to fight brought forth minerals like magnesium from the ground. magnesium harvested near the township of henderson was considered a metal for airport parts which would help lead us to victory. the residents of boulder city built the hoover dam, a government infrastructure project which holds back 26 million acre feet of water and was delivered early and on budget. with an expected 2,000-year life span, the hoover dam supplies clean energy to the grid, water to thirsty cities across the southwest and protection to downstream communities. ever since we were born into battle to mend our broken nation, nevadans have been willing and able. though our population is small, our caliber is high. from all walks of life, brave nevadans have heard and respond to the call to the arms. the naval air force station in fallon we host the navy's top gun school. elite men and women who train here push the limits, compete and set the tone for global air superiorty. welcoming tourists from around the globe, farming, mining, ranching, serving in the armed forces, these are a few things we nevadans do. as our state motto goes, all of these things are done all for our country. recent times have been tough in nevada but our pioneer spirit lives on. we continue to move forward. we have seen the booms and now more than most we continue to feel the most in the recent bust. like many in our great nation, nevadans have lost homes, livelihoods and the promise of a steady paycheck, but this will not deter us. our state has battled more. we will continue to fill our 150-year-old promise of being willing and able to give all for our country. i'm a proud nevadan. and as the son of an auto mechanic from carson city, it is a privilege to stand on this senate floor today to recognize our state's 150 years of statehood. madam president, before i close, i'd like to thank lieutenant governor brian keurlicky, chair of the nevada sesquicentennial commission. over the course of this year the commission has planned and overseen many events and activities providing nevadans an opportunity to reflect on where we've been and where we are going. madam president, thank you. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: madam president, i rise today to discuss my disappointment in the recent turn of events involving the sustainable growth rate formula or what we call the s.g.r. or the doc-fix. enacted in 1997, the s.g.r. was conceived as a means of trying to balance the budget and restraining health care costs and medicare, but it was deeply flawed from the start. its reimbursement cuts to physicians would cripple seniors' ability to get the quality health care they deserve from their doctors. consequently, since 2002 when the s.g.r. came into effect, congress has patched it on a regular basis and there has been bipartisan support for doing so. these -- quote -- patches -- unquote -- have frequently been cobbled together at the midnight hour by the leadership of both parties and included in larger legislation without the input of the members or even going through the regular legislative process. now, this perverse annual dark of night ritual has to stop. seniors and physicians understand that. republicans and democrats in the house and senate understand that. for the better part of the year, congress, to the sacrifice of many, worked to fully repeal the s.g.r. and replace it with more reasonable reforms that moved medicare's physician fee for service reimbursement system towards a system that rewards doctors for providing quality care based on outcomes, and we have made tremendous progress. senator baucus and i worked for months on a bill that sailed through the finance committee on a bipartisan basis. the two relevant house committees passed bipartisan legislation, repealing the s.g.r. as well. then in a turn of events as all too rare these days, the chairman and ranking members of the senate finance committee, the house ways and means committee and the house energy and commerce committee worked tirelessly to come up with one unified policy that the house and senate democrats and republicans could support. believe it or not, we succeeded and we succeeded by involving all stakeholders, including the influential american medical association in a fair and equitable manner that as a resulted in a near unanimous support across the health care community. for the first time since its exact in 1997, the house and senate unite behind a policy that gets rid of this flawed medicare reimbursement system. so, madam president, if we have moved this far, what is the problem? why am i disappointed? i'm going to tell you. last night, i was informed that the majority leader is bringing straight to the floor of this body the very policy that we successfully negotiated, tacking on what are known as the health care extenders that the finance committee passed, but which were not included in what the house and senate agreed upon with the s.g.r. but -- and here's the problem -- the democrats have no plans whatsoever to pay for it. so if senate democrats want to pass a bill that has roughly $177 billion price tag without even trying to offset any of the costs. and sadly, these same democrats don't seem to care that they have quickly turned what was a true bipartisan accomplishment into another partisan political ploy. to me, this is deeply disappointing. madam president, i'm very sympathetic to those who say that since congress has never let the s.g.r. go into effect, we should not have to pay for it. but let's be honest. there's no way right now a bill that would add close to $200 billion to the deficit is ever going to pass the house, and i don't blame the house. this is reality, madam president. democrats in the senate have blasted the house s.g.r. repeal bill that is paid for by repealing obamacare's individual mandate. the senate majority leader has said that what the house is doing has -- quote -- no credibility -- unquote -- and that house republicans -- quote -- have got to find something else -- unquote -- to pay for it. but can't the very same thing be said of what the senate democrats are doing, that their plan has -- quote -- no credibility -- unquote -- and that they have to find a way of paying for this if they're going to do it? i think we all know the answer to that. madam president, i just don't understand how we've gotten here. i don't understand why -- why there are these unfortunate attempts to poison a bipartisan product with needless partisanship. we all want to repeal the s.g.r., so let's dispense with the games and get back to figuring out a real path forward, and that involves an offset. what's even more astonishing is that senate democrats are proceeding in this manner on the very week that some of my colleagues are trying to make the senate work. senators burr and mikulski have put forward a bill that the senate is set to consider to reform the childcare development block grant program. that's an important bill. certainly to me because i was one of the few who rammed that through way back when. i took a lot of flak in the process but it has worked amazingly well. now, since senators burr and mikulski have put forward this bill after a lot of work by senator alexander and senator schumer to get the senate working again to allow amendments and debate, i have to say i commend them. i think that senator burr and mikulski deserve great applause and commendation, as do senator alexander and senator schumer. that's what i don't understand, madam president. everybody here knows i have a record of working across the aisle, sometimes to the chagrin of members of my own party, and certainly sometimes to the irritation of some of our very far right people in utah. why turn this bipartisan proposal into a partisan exercise when so many senators want to work together to fix the problems the american people face each and every day? let me be clear. i support what house republicans have proposed. it is a reasonable approach to paying for a full repeal of the doc-fix. almost every week, the white house delays or repeals another part of obamacare, so it's time for the american people to get a reprieve as well. it's the right thing to do. but i'm interested in a result. i want to fix the s.g.r. system once and for all. i hope that after this pointless exercise designed for political cover that we can come together to do what's right. let's go back to our winning formula and get our bipartisan, bicameral negotiations under way to find a responsible path forward. look, i like both of our leaders. they're strong people. they have differing philosophies . there is much to commend both of them. and i suppose some would say much to criticize in each case. there's no reason for this type of ramming something through that has no chance of passing the house. frankly, it doesn't have much chance of having any republican support at this point because we believe that this kind of a program has to be offset to literally be valid and to be viable. i think everybody here knows that. we have got to find an offset to do it. if we can't find an offset, we have to keep the s.g.r. alive until we do, but to make it into a partisan game at this point after all the bipartisan work that has been done is really a tragedy. i hope they realize this. i told them lay back, we'll get this done for you. they didn't. it went right to the partisans in this body and undermined everything we were trying to do during this time which would have gone a long way toward sosmg some of these problems. we were on the verge of getting them solved. i hope that doesn't work this time because a lot of us have worked our guts out to get to this point on both sides of the floor, and it would be an absolute tragedy if we can't get the cooperation to get this through. the democrats, if they don't like the offset that the house has come up with, although it seems to make sense to me, then they control this body and let's come up with an offset that -- that both sides can agree to. but we have got to have an offset and we have got to do this the right way or we're right back at base one after all the work that's been put in florida bipartisan way to get this done. madam president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:
haystack. >> did the issue of adoption, it's near and dear to my heart because i have two adopt edisons. did that come up? >> yes. >> in the meeting? >> like i said, it was the primary thing we had spoken about in the meeting. you know, that's not the premise that got them in the room, and then they started -- it was essentially a bait-and-switch to talk about that, and everyone has basically said that in testimony already. so this is nothing new, but, you know, like i said, i'm now understanding it is an important issue to you and near and dear to many people's hearts, but this was nothing that was a campaign issue to us. this wasn't relevant to us, and it wasn't something we were going to do anything with. >> except that's not what the president said over the weekend. trump jr. was not pushed to explain the shifting explanations behind the story. meanwhile, "vanity fair" has reporting on former communications director hope hicks' reappearance at the president's side over the weekend, just hours before he tweeted about the trump tower meeting. hicks served as the go-between
when the president dictated his son's misleading statement that claimed it was primarily about adoption. according to "vanity fair", hicks planned to spend the weekend at the president's golf club in new jersey. people said he asked her to come along to the rally. "vanity fair" recently reported that hicks was discussed by some as a dark horse to one day replace john kelly as chief of staff. while speaking to the press aboard air force one hicks said she would perhaps consider it if the time was right. we will have more on this later when "vanity fair" reporter emily jane fox joins "morning joe" and prosecutors called rick gates, manafort's one-time partner and deputy in the trump campaign. gates, avoiding eye contact with his boss, testified he was heavily involved in helping manafort hide millions of dollars overseas.
he also told jurors manafort directed had him to make payments through wire transfers using income and accounts manafort asked him not to disclose. the former trump deputy campaign chair acknowledged crimes he committed on his own behalf, likeembezzeling money from manafort. the charges against him come with a ten-year sentence. >> supporting the state's acting governor, the president backed a congressional secretary of state chris kobach had, vice chair of his defunct voter fraud commission. trump made the endorsement in a tweet, of course, hours before
voters are heading to the poles. according to "the new york times" a number of high-level party options urged trump against supporting kobach fearing he could lose the general election. west wing aides had hoped to keep the kansas race away from mr. trump's line of sight, but were uneasy about what he may do during his trip to the golf resort. that's where the president unveiled his endorsement. collier county who collier who a few days ago made the case why he should not side with kobach. >> this morning voters in ohio head to the polls in the closely-watched special election in the state's 12th district. the heat is in a dead heat. a poll has danny o'connor ahead by one point over his opponent troy balderson. last week a poll showed the opposite. the district has been reliably
red for three decade, but this election season there's a clear trend of democrats outperforming in republican territory. henry olson, a senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center, points out ohio's 12th district is split between an after fluent core with loads of romney, clinton voters and towns with lots of obama-trump voters. in 2016 trump carried frankly county, home to the state capital, while trump carried each of the rural counties. overall trump beat kliclinton b 11 points in that district. in michigan, the democratic primary for governor pits gretchen whitmer against abdul el-sayed. now, in kansas, republicans are seeking a nominee for the open gop seat where democrat paul davis is expected to make a strong showing in november. meanwhile, democrats have a
crowded field of their own in the third district to take on incumbent congressman. in washington's 8th district, a seat welcome by hillary clinton in 2016, voters have until today to cast mail-in ballots. lacy clay is facing a challenge from corey bush. a lot of action there, yasmin. >> absolutely. let's head overseas. the united states has reimplemented economic sanctions against iran that were lifted under the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. specifically, the action targets iran's auto, civil aviation and coal industries. it also impacts the trade of gold and other precious medals, in addition to banning the importing of carpets and food. rouhani criticized the trump administration saying, quote, if you stab someone with a knife and then say you want talks, then the first thing you have to
do is remove the knife. rouhani did say he would sit down with trump for a meeting, something trump recently said he would do with no preconditions. however, rouhani said, first the united states would have to apologize and compensate for the past, adding, what sense do negotiations make when they impose sanctions. he said that the meeting is only suggested for domestic consumption in america ahead of the elections. a joint statement was issued criticizing the president's approach to this. secretary of state mike pompeo says sanctions relief would require enormous change from iran's leadership. however, nsa leader john bolton says the administration is not looking for regime change, a stark contrast from last summer when he promised regime change before the end of 2018. >> the declared policy of the united states of america should
be the overthrow of the mullahs regime in tehran. the behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change, and, therefore, the only solution the to change the regime itself. and that's why before 2019 we here will celebrate in tehran! >> our policy is not regime change, but we want to put unprecedented pressure on the government of iran to change its behavior, and so far they've shown know indication they're prepared to do that. i think this is regime is on shaky ground. >> white an aboutface from bolton to say the last. joining me now from axios, dave lawler. good to have you. let's talk about the newly-imposed sanctions on iran. we are hearing from rouhani obviously we're not having talks unless you take away the sanctions, also hearing they want the jcpoa reinstated if they were to sit down with the president and negotiate from
Updates of the day's news.
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welcome back, everybody. chicago mayor rahm emmanuel and police department officials are calling on residents to help step the surge in violence up following the deadliest weekend in that city in more than two years. at least 74 people were shot, 12 of them fatally, between friday afternoon and monday morning. the victims' ages ranged from 11 to 62. local media says 47 people were shot just on sunday alone, the most shooting victims in a single day since september of 2011. speaking yesterday, the mayor and the superintendent of the city's police department visibly frustrated, called for accountability of the people behind the violence. watch this. >> >> there are too many guns on the street, too many people with criminal records on the street,
and there is a shortage of values about what is right, what is wrong, what is acceptable, what is condoned and what is condemned. and we as a city in every corner have an accountability and a responsibility. >> you know what i never hear? i hear people holding us accountable all the time. i never hear people saying, these individuals out here in the streets need to stop pulling the trigger. i never hear that. i never hear that. they get a pass from everybody, and they shouldn't, they shouldn't. >> here is the thing. despite the weekend's blood shed, officials saying gun violence is actually down 70% from a year ago, while homicides have fallen 20% in that same time period. >> recently, writings by mike pence could put the president in an awkward situation involving impeachment of president trump.
pence argued that a president should be held to the highest moral standards and should be removed from office if not. he cited then president bill clinton's affair with a white house intern and public lies about it as an example. in one piece, pence writes in part, quote, if you and i fall into a bad moral habits, we can harm our families, our employers and our friends. the president of the united states can insin rate the planet. seriously, the very idea that we ought to on have at or less than the same moral demand placed on the chief executive we place on our next-door neighbor is ludicrous and dangerous. throughout our history we have seen the presidency as the repository of all of our highest homes and ideals and values. to demand less is to do enjustice to te injustice to the blood that bought our freedoms. he also adds in another article, further, the president's repeated lies to the american people in this matter compound the case against him as they
demonstrate his failure to protect the institution of the presidency as the inspiring supreme symbol of all that is highest in our american ideals. >> how time changes things. let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. hey, bill. >> good morning to you. we are watching this mendocino complex fire. it just continues to expand in size. now they're reporting that over 280,000 the acres, it is now the largest fire in california's recorded history. the fire history goes back to about 1932. how is this for a stat? we just broke the record with this fire, this video you're looking at here. last year the thomas fire broke the record for the largest-ever. in back-to-back years the larkest blazes ever, and this doesn't take into account the carr fire which burned 1,000 structures and killed five people seven days ago. yeah, our thoughts and prayers to all of the people in california and all of the families and firefighters on the
lines in 100-degree temperatures fighting those huge blazes. for today we are doing it again. it is dry and hot. 25 million people under excessive heat warning from vegas to los angeles to kingman. now the northwest is getting into it. excessive heat warning issued for portland, and it will be hot in seattle and all areas of washington state this week. excessive heat in the northeast, kind of your typical summer weather. 31 million people from new york city to maine are under heat advisories. that usually means temperatures between 95 and maybe 100. once it goes above 100, at that time you get excessive heat warning. it will feel like 98 in new york city, raleigh will be 99. thursday looks to be a better day as temperatures drop a little bit. but, once again, the california stats are just -- these fires are not regular fires. they're enormous blazes. up to this point the fire season
had been a little below average. in the last month it exploded. >> is it because of the extreme heat they've been having on the west coast? >> because of the drought conditions they've had, a long-term drought, and the heat on top of that. there's a lot of fuel to burn. >> thanks, bill. still ahead, everybody, we have great video. a soldier giving his family of a lifetime. you see part of it there. you don't want to miss this special moment, although you may want to have some kleenex ready for it. we're back in a moment. ♪ here. and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen by funding scientific breakthroughs, advancing public policy, and providing local support to those living with the disease and their caregivers. but we won't get there without you. join the fight with the alzheimer's association.
welcome back. time now for sports. we begin in columbus, ohio where buckeye fans rally outside of ohio stadium to show support for head football coach urban meyer. he has been placed on paid administrative leave while the school investigates claims he may have had knowledge of domestic abuse allegations involving a former assistant coach. we will see how it plays out for him the university of north carolina suspended 13 members of the football team by selling team-issued nike jordan sneakers. nine players, including the quarterback, have received four-game bans while two will sit for another two games and another pair for one. the ncaa approved the request to delay two of the suspensions affecting multiple players at the same position. turning to nascar, the nascar chairman and ceo is
taking an indefinite leave following his arrest sunday night in sag harbor, new york. according to police officers, they determined france was intoxicated after pulling him over for running a stop sign. he was arrested and found to be in possession of oxycodone pills. france, the grandson of nascar's founder, issued a statement apologizing for the impact of his actions. his uncle, jim france, will take over as interim chairman there. finally, for the moment of the night we head to cleveland where with the help of the indians, u.s. coast guard chief petty officer tim lee was able to pull off a surprise reunion for his young sons. their emotional response and the look on their face, his face, it just says it all. it is what it is all about. it is incredible. i love this moment. >> you can tell at first the son
doesn't necessarily know it is his dad because he's so shocked about it. he's like, is that my dad and then he runs to him. it is so cute, a sweet moment for them. >> we need more of that for sure. >> yeah. still ahead, a social media site's crackdown on content. a new push by several major technology companies to ban alex jones and info wars. plus, president trump weighs in on the deadly wildfires in california, claiming the state is wasting water, but fire officials say he's wrong. those stories next. e. e. but if that's not enough, our app helps monitor your spending too. and if that's not enough to help you save, we could start a carpool. look at this traffic. don't worry. ok, if that's not enough we'll start a trainpool. oh i have a meeting in five minutes. and if that's still not enough... i got it. we'll just create a shortcut. we'll do anything, seriously anything to help you save. ally. do it right. talking 4th quarter? yes. your hair is so soft!
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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis bergdorf. let's start with the morning's top stories. president trump's oldest son speaking out about his 2016 meeting with a russian lawyer at trump tower on the heels of his father's about-face on the sitdown. don trump jr. is down playing the meeting after the president admitted it was about getting dirt on hilary clinton. peter alexander has more on this shifting story. >> reporter: president trump on vacation, but hardly in vacation mode. no public appearances but plenty of public complaints. watching cable news coverage, still fuming about robert mueller's inquiry even after himself reigniting controversy about the 2016 trump tower meeting between his son and a russian lawyer tied to the kremlin. donald trump jr. trying to clean up after his father admitted outright it was about getting dirt on hilary clinton, blaming
the media instead. >> they've gotten plenty of mileage out of this thing and they're going to keep milking it as long as they possibly can. >> reporter: the president as stunning reversal coming by tweet. this was a meeting to get information on an opponent, a far cry from the misleading explanation he dictated from air force one on his son's behalf last summer, the president and his'des at the time insisting that meeting, now central to mueller's investigation, was primarily about russian adoptions. >> they talked about, as i see it they talked about adoption and some things. >> he certainly didn't dictate but, you know, like i say, he weighed in and offered suggestion like any father would do. >> reporter: the president's new argument that the research effort was totally legal, done all the time in politics. but it is illegal for a campaign to accept or solicit a gift of any value from a foreign person or government. the president's lawyer defiant. >> the question is what law, statute, rule or regulation has been violated and nobody has pointed to one. >> reporter: one question still looming over the president's
week here in new jersey, whether he will finally agree to sit down with an interview with special counsel robert mueller. the president's lawyer, rudy guilliani telling nbc news he is preparing to respond to mueller's request in the coming days. yasmin. >> thanks to peter alexander for that report. meanwhile, a person familiar with the matter telling nbc news that the so-called manhattan madam is set to testify to the special counsel's grand jury this week. the source says mueller's team questioned kristin davis about russian collusion last week. davis has ties to former trump campaign adviser roger stone. in a statement to nbc news last week, stone called davis a long-time friend and associate and a brilliant business woman. he also claimed, quote, she knows nothing about alleged russian collusion or any impropriety related to the 2016 election. after being contacted by mueller's team in july, davis said, quote, for them to come to me for information on russian collusion, i don't have anything on that. she called it, quote, out of the blue and very upsetting.
in 2014 davis began a two-year prison term for selling prescription drugs to an fbi informant. he she earned the nickname manhattan madam for running an escort service with a wealthy client list that she said included new york's governor at the time, elliott spitzer. she served several months on riker's island for her dealings in prostitution. and senator rand paul was in moscow where he met with russian lawmakers and invited several of them to visit washington. sitting beside a high-ranking member of russian senate who has been under american sanctions since april, senator paul said one of the reasons for the trip is because he wants to have engagement with moscow. paul met with former ambassador kislyak. he invited members of the foreign relations committee to visit the nation's capitol and added he will impose the passage of new sanctions against russia. russian lawmakers pressed paul to stand up in defense and push
for her release, adding if he can it will show he is a, quote, real human being. she is a gun activist currently held as a russian agent. eight lawmakers visited moscow over the july 4th weekend ahead of the trump/putin summit. let's talk about the california fires. officials are weighing in on president trump's recent tweets about the deadly wildfires tearing across the state. the president tweeting last night, california wildfires are being magnified and made so much worse by theed bad environmental laws which aren't allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. it is being diverted into the pacific ocean. must all tree clear to stop the fire from spreading. but as "the los angeles times" points out, the current wildfire situation is unrelated to water supplies or to environmental laws. fire agencies have not been complaining about a lack of water. major reservoirs are near the
worst fire zones and all are at or near historic levels. the president also tweeted yesterday, governor jerry brown must allow the free flow of the vast amounts of water coming from the north and be foolishly diverted into the pacific ocean. can be used for fires, farming and everything else. >> andrew: cording to "politico" trump's comments may be referencing an unrelated dispute between brown and california republicans over how much of the state's water can be diverted to california farms. one strategist told "politico" trump's recent tweets don't know, quote, an elementary understanding of water policy. a new watchdog report shows major flaws in the trump administration's long-promised border wall. the government accountability office claims a wall could cost more than projected, take longer than planned, and not perform as expected. the group has also found that dhs has not properly documented plans for building part of the
wall in san diego. trump has been pushing congress for more money recently, even threatening a government shutdown if his budget demand are not met. white house officials the entire wall could cost 8 to $12 billion while dhs estimates clock it as high as 21 billion, yasmin. let's talk about the wall a little bit. joining me world news editor for axios, dave lawler. once again shall good to talk to you. let's talk about the newly-released watchdog report louis just talked about. is it hurting trump's chance of getting more border wall funding? 25 million i think he want for the wall. >> his biggest challenge might be the mid sterm election. he is talking about shutting down the government and demanding wall funding. we are talking about billions of dollars, so if you are a member of congress and you're voting leading to the midterm, this is a polarizing issue, so even billions of dollars are not
going to change your mind. you are thinking about survival. >> do you think the misprojection is affecting taxpayers in the way to vote for the wall? >> it is certainly going to affect taxpayers. we are talking about huge discrepancies in what the trump administration says the wall will cost and what non-partisan analysts say the wall will cost. if you believe the trump administration it is only going to cost maybe 8 to $12 billion, that might be a cost you are willing to spend. $70 billion, something like that, that's much more expensive. if mexico would cut a check, that would change the equation here, but it doesn't sound like that's going to happen. so, yeah, no, it is going to be an issue continuing. >> the president would love it if mexico just cut a check, but it doesn't seem like, as you said, that's going to happen. let's look ahead to the mid terms while i have you, dave. do you think immigration will be a big issue that the gop will campaign on? >> this might be not the issue that, you know, paul ryan would choose, but president trump can't avoid talking about immigration.
this is his number one issue, dating back to the many campaign, and he is driving the conversation on quitter. so the wall will come up. i'm sure that democrats will bring up the dreamer issue and separation of family so it will be a major factor. >> what are you hearing that the gop wants to campaign on versus the democrats? what will be sort of the winning issues on the ballot with the midterm election with regard to both parties? >> republicans would love to campaign on the economy, especially members of congress. the economy is flying. tax cuts are popular, particularly among republicans. that's an issue they think is simple to express to voters. look, your paycheck is up, yet they probably have to be campaigning on the more divisive issues. for democrats, they think health care might be a winning message, especially with reports coming out that trump will return to health care, talk about defunding, you know, ripping up obamacare again. those are two issues they would like to campaign on, but
president trump is driving this conversation. >> dave lawler. thanks. good seeing you. >> thanks. i want to go to the passing of the man once described as ronald reagan's closest political confidante in the white house, former nevada governor and senator paul laxalt. he served in office from the 1960s through the 1980s. he connected with reagan during the gold water campaign in 1964 and two years later they were elected governors of neighboring states. laxalt managed his challenge to president ford and chaired two successful campaigns in the 1980s. laxalt was a conservative hero in his own right, leading the fight against the panama treaty. he was considered the rightful heir of reagan. his grandson is the republican candidate for governor this year. still ahead, some of the country's biggest media companies taking on alex jones's
info wars. the move they're taking to stop jones amid continued claims he is spreading misinformation. a dramatic rescue by police in atlanta, saving the life of one man and it is all caught on camera, plus bill karins back with another check on your forecast. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ a hotel can make or break a trip. and at expedia, we don't think you should be rushed into booking one. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage.
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with the fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. one week? that definitely works! rapid wrinkle repair®. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. see what's possible. welcome back, everybody. four media giants are banding together to take down controversial info wars from their site. they all have removed info wars and its creator alex jones' content from its platforms in various degrees. it is in an effort to stop the spread of misinformation. he has been behind several right-wing conspiracy hearings, like claiming the sandy hook shooting was in fact a hoax. he has a large following with most pages garnering millions of
subscribers. apple moved sunday to remove their platform spotify, following suit. facebook announced it unpublished four pages belonging to jones, repeatedly violating the standards. youtube followed suit, terminating his account. the move has caused an uproar in circles questioning a -- >> police released footage showing a rescue by officers. officers worked to pull a man from a car engulfed in flames. it took place early sunday morning. the man was trapped in the front seat of the vehicle following an accident. one officer used a fire extinguisher to keep the flames from spreading while another pulled the passenger from the burning vehicle. officials say all three of the
vehicle's passengers are in stable condition. those officers definitely heroes, bill. it is just pretty stunning footage there. >> you know cars can, you know, blow up. that's just crazy. yeah, hats off to them for that. job well done, yeah. incredible stuff. louis, i can't top that video but i have some impressive pictures from colorado, from an epic hail storm event that took place yesterday. this is the cheyenne county zoo, and there were softball and baseball-size hail all over the place. unfortunately, it hit the zoo and some of the animals weren't protected. a couple of birds did perish. a couple of people were hit by the hail and actually taken to the hospital. 11 people were treated, five were significantly injured. i mean if you are hit by baseball-size hail it can leave a mark. hopefully it won't do that again. colora colorado looks safe. we have heat continuing in the northeast. 31 million people under heat
advisories from new york to maine. this will be dropped most likely tomorrow as it cools ever so slightly. we add some thunderstorms to the forecast. the thunderstorms in colorado have now moved into areas of kansas. a lot of thunderstorms from kansas city through illinois this morning, had even a tornado warning overnight and severe storm warning in areas around springfield. a soaking morning, driving interstate 70. columbus looks okay now. as we go throughout the day today, the front will inch to the east. we'll pop up thunderstorms for you in western pennsylvania, maybe a few in central new york. h by the time we get to wednesday, showers and storm are more plentiful from new york city to d.c. and hit and miss from tennessee through the southeast. yasmin, this front eventually will knock down the temperatures in areas of new england where it has been hot to start our august. >> i think knocking temperatures down in that area could come as
a nice day. >> for a couple of people. >> for a couple of people. thanks, bill. still ahead, the federal government takes its latest shot to try to stop the merger between at&t and time warner. plus, facebook looks to get its hands-on your financial information. details on why the company is going to the biggest banks looking for that data. ♪ at uber, we're listening to what matters most to you. and we're committed to improving every ride. starting with features designed to make it easy for your driver to find you... taking the stress out of pickups. ♪ we're putting safety at the heart of everything we do... by making it easy to verify your car, and driver. uber has new leadership, a new vision, and is moving in a new direction... forward the new united explorer card makes things easy. traveling lighter. taking a shortcut. (woooo)
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let's turn to business. amid the continued backlash oerch data privacy breaches, facebook reportedly wants access to your financial data. joumanna bercetche joins us live information about their customers. in return facebook will give them access to their users. what more can you tell us about this? >> it's ironic. isn't it? facebook shares up 4.5% on the news yesterday. they're looking to find ways to partner up with large u.s. banks to share financial information about customers, and so one of the things they would look at offering is things like financial services, offering on facebook messenger, account alerts, fraud alerts. in early stages of discussions with big banks like jpmorgan, wells fargo and citigroup. one large group pulled away from discussions due to privacy
concerns. you named it. a company under a lot of fire because of hits handling cambridge analytica and harvesting user information and selling it on to third parties. comes is an interesting time for them. of course, there are pressures on facebook to expand revenues's this is one way to do it. fetting involved in the financial services as well. amazon is also having those discusses. >> making an argument in a bid to block the at&t-time warner merger. what the doj is saying about the judge that initially approved the deal missed things. especially misjudged the economic impact of this deal, especially time warner's bargaining power. what more can you tell us? >> exactly it. recap a little. back in june the u.s. district court judge richard leon gave approval for at&t to acquire time warner.
second largest media merger of all-time. the government appealed the order. that the judge didn't properly understand and ignored economic theory saying time warner wasn't have increased bargaining power over pay tv distributors and argued on the back of the deal, rising fees. if they win, the merger would need to be unwound. very tricky. >> great have you with us. talk to you tomorrow. coming up, axios, "one big thing." and on "morning joe," downplaying the 2016 trump tower meeti meeting. don junior, the excuse he offers for a meeting weekend the wake
of the revelation he may face. moments away, "morning joe." and it's also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you ♪
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welcome back, everybody. joining us from washington with a look at axios, ceo jim vandehei. good morning to you. >> good morning, talk to us about axios' "one big thing" today. >> a fascinating study by morning consult looking at dangers for any company weighing in on donald trump. everybody wants an opinion on the president. turns out that's a bad strategy for companies. that there's not much upside at all for a company taking a stand on a trump proposal. whether it's pro or con trump. both sides have deep reservations about it. in fact, there's probably more risk than reward, because the group that feels most strongly about it are sort of real red-blooded trump supporters with a visceral reaction if a brand takes a stand on a trump idea. >> does it matter which industry these companies are in? or that doesn't really make a
difference? >> it does. this is a broad-based look at consumers in general. one industry, tech industry, seems to be most out front in terms of taking position. whether a muslim ban, immigration. recently google made a decision about a government contract involving drones because of pressure from its own employees. tech companies are out front, but this applies to most companies. employs want them to take positions on guns or other topics but they understand the risk. >> talk about a new poll exies has on immigration this morning. >> yes. a lot of viewers, especially those in competitive house and senate races might wonder why republican candidates talk so much about immigration. the reason it is, even if not a hot topic in the district, there's total alignment between trump popularity and what people think of the wall and think of immigration. it is so clearly the chief
motivator of the republican party right now. even more so in a lot of districts than taxes or other bedrock republican topics of the past. total symmetry. if you are for the wall, if you have concerns about immigration, you're almost undoubtedly a trump supporter. >> even with the debacle of the family separation policy, seems as if immigration still is top of mind for a lot of republicans. >> one of the cool things we've done, poll different subgroups. one of the groups is suburban women and also voters who are never hillary voters. who voted for trump mainly because they didn't like hill y hillary. even in those groups, divided on the wall. almost split 50/50. more support for the wall. i think largely as a symbol of being tougher on the borders, but not as radioactive of a's toic. obviously, the child separation was a debacle for republicans
but not a political price at this point. >> new reporting on the tech industry regards to the midterm elections. talk to us about silicon valley's awakening when it comes to the ballot box. >> three serious tech folks rahning for seats in congress. basically you're seeing this uprising in tech. just talked about it in the corporate setting. also you see more and more awareness that their future will be determined by what's happening in washington. now you're starting to have people come from the tech community and run for office. remember, there was an anale al but now because the two words are colliding, tech and regulation colliding, see it with face book, google, the president's words about amazon. probably more from the tech world thinking their minds, solutions, algorithms, et cetera, to be the solution in
the 7th grader was missing for a day before her body was found in court. the accused killer did not enter a plea when he was in court but now he is charged with murder and they added kidnapping, rape, and lewd acts on a child. because of the special circumstances he could be sentenced to death if he is convicted. he is due in court at 8:30 this morning and is being held in jail without bail. >> thank you very much. new this morning the lead investigator in the oscar pistorius case is facing attempted murder charges of his own. we could find out today if oscar pistorius is granted bail. katie marzullo has the latest from the newsroom. yesterday was not a good day for the prosecution. >> no, bombshell and a real blow to the case and also happening right now, cnn is reporting there was a threat in the courtroom and the judge cleared the courtroom because of that but moments later everyone was blot back in and the judge, oscar pistorius, with no mention of the threat. on we go with the defense attorneys trying to explain away all of the key points the prosecution has been making. the prosecution trying to show the shooting was premeditated. the defense looking to show it was an accident. the defense catching a huge break. the lead investigator for the prosecution who testified that oscar pistorius should not get bail is facing seven charges of attempted murder himself. he is accused with two other officers of shooting at a bus in 2011 and his court appearance is scheduled for may. the prosecution says they did not know anything about it. on "good morning america" the legal analyst explains why this is bad news for the prosecution. >> he is absolutely crucial to the prosecution case here. he is the one who is talking about the ballistics. he is talking about how far away witnesses may have been who claim to have heard a fight beforehand. that is why he becomes such an important witness and now the prosecution is going to have to make the decision, do we want did keep him on the case? the defense says there is no proof oscar pistorius murdered reeva steenkamp, they say that after the shooting oscar pistorius carried her down stairs desperate to save her life and the prosecution has implied reeva steenkamp locked the door because she was hiding in fear but the defense now is saying she locked the door after oscar pistorius yelled out there was an intruder but to that the judge has asked, wouldn't reeva steenkamp have yelled out from the bathroom after oscar pistorius yelled. >> nike is suspending a contract with oscar pistorius saying oscar pistorius should be afforded due process. live in the newsroom for abc7 news i am katie marzullo. >> san francisco board of supervisors committee will consider two gun control measures today proposed by the mayor and supervisor. the san francisco chronicle reports that a measure requires ammunition dealers to contact the chief of police when anyone in san francisco buys more than 500 rounds in a single transaction. the other proposal would make it a crime to sell any ammunition designated only for a law enforcement or military agency. >> police in the north bay believe two other people connected to a triple homicide in sonoma are still loose. authorities have released pictures of two men who are associated of the man in custody after being arrested in alabama last week but police think he had help. three men were killed in a home in forestville on february 5th. they were trying to purchase a large amount of marijuana. sonoma county investigators have released a photo of a pickup they believe could be tied to the killing. >> woman has filed a several civil rights lawsuit against the police department of vallejo claiming the two dogs were wrongfully killed in a police stand off according to the "san francisco chronicle" and we were overhead in february when a swat team fired tear gas into a home rented by a 21-year-old and the tear gas start add fire that burned the home killing the two dogs inside. officers thought arm robbery suspects ran into the home following a police chase. but they were never found. she is seeking unspecified damages. >> seats design for a 360 million commuter rail project in the north bay have failed a key safety check. the sonoma and marin rail transit connects san rafael to santa rosa. official revealed the passenger seats failed a crash test. during one test stimulating 25 miles per hour crash one seat bent back and officials say the seats will be redesigned this month. >> a noon hour rally is planned at city college of san francisco today, members of the city college of san francisco coalition want the board of trust to reverse consults saying the board has refused to which you them in discussions on the accreditation and budget prizes that the school has been undergoing since last fall. city college director must submit a report to explain the changes and why the college remains opened. >> warmer, early this morning than yesterday but i saw a 32 up in forward. >> so, not warming up. mike? >> we had frost this morning so 32 at my house and it was just starting to freeze so there are pockets of colder weather. we will be in the mid-30's to upper 30's influence 7:00 and low-to-mid 40's from the bay not coast and a lot of sunshine with temperatures in the mid-50's with more cloud cover than yesterday but, still, a bright day with low 50's at the coach and near 60 for the rest of us and headed toward 7:00, you will not be so chilly at last evening with upper 40's to mid-50's. for friday it will be sunny and a few more clouds on saturday with temperatures in the low 60's away from the coast and in the mid-50's and we sunday we get a warm public air at low-to-mid 60's away from the coast and upper 50's there. >> thursday morning and the commute is underway nicely in san jose. we have headlights headed northbound on 87, beyond the pavillion and it is light with in problems here and everything is moving at the little. and bart and muni on time but ace train number one has 18 to 20-minute delay start from stockton because of other freight train traffic and eastbound 580 in pleasanton we have reports of a big truck toolbox in the lanes so you could have slowing eastbound. westbound the commute direction has no problems so far. kristen and eric? >> next a bag of money is found at the bridge and what the people did who found the cash. a major expansion that makes going to school >> novato, oakland, sunnyvale, and all the bay area, this is abc7 news. >> 5:12 on thursday morning. a vallejo couple is commended for honesty after turning in a bag of cash they found at vista point near the golden gate bridge on valentine's day, the couple found the black bag with $10,000 in $100 bills in an envelope and another $1,000 in a wallet. they decided to immediately take the money to san francisco police but it spoiled their valentine's day plans. police tracked the bag to a tour frist china who accidentally left it after the family posed for photos. the officer they specific to was shocked they were turning in the money. >> we turned it in and he said you are very good people and we felt proud of doing it. >> the tourist drove all the way to vallejo to thank them. they were not hope and he left a hand written note and invited them to stay in china and stay at his home and they are considering. >> best arches ever, for the bay area. >> a state agency that cleared out a homeless encampment caused a bigger problem, a giant tenth city that popped up a shirt distance away with homeless people putting up tents near the mineta san jose international airport after caltran made the homeless leave. now the city is doing what the state did not do, shut down the camp and move out the homeless. >> folks are mobile. they will move from place to place but i think we have to pay attention to it because it gets worse if it is nut -- not tended to. >> the site is near public transit and it could budget a magnet if homeless from other areas. >> good news for college students mountain view based company online education provider says 29 more schools have signed on to offer massive open online courses for free. the partners include northwestern university, national taiwan university, and they offer online classes including stanford and duke. >> mountain view google is holding a contest to let the winners try out for the next big thing in mobile computing, called google glass a tablet like device embedded in a pay of eyeglasses this responds to voice command rather than the town. they expect i to go on sale in the family but google will let a number of people try them out by submitting an application of 50 words or less on google plus or twitter with a hash tag "if i had glass." the deadline is wednesday. the mayor and now lieutenant governor looks good in that the winners have to pay $1,500. google will not say how many winners there are but the glasses are awarded to creative individuals. you pay $1,500 and you get to try it out? >> that is "winning"? glad we don't have a lot of contests like that. you win the lottery you pay me a million. >> sounds like an e-mail i got from the jury folks. >> it is cool but not so much as yesterday. we have a breeze. the winds are trying to blow change in the forecast. right now, the only thing we seed is radar return way out knee modesto with snow showers in the hire elevations to tahoe and yosemite. now, the temperatures will start at 36 at american canyon and correct crack at 37 and union city at 41 and palo alto 39, and san leandro 40, and right now a beautiful picture from mount tamalpais with the breezes shaking the camera at 2,600' with sausalito in the foreground and sausalito in the background. oakland at 41 and san jose at 40. if you are headed to santa cruz, 37 degrees. you can see we have blue sky today but a few more clouds than yesterday and breezy at times and the brightest day is sunday and it looks like no rain in the forecast all seven days. 87 near the pavilion in san jose and our temperatures are going to run today about three degrees warmer than yesterday in concord, san jose, and santa rosa. oakland will have 60 for a high a degree cooler than yesterday. storm track moving to the north and to the east. a few of the clouds will overrun this area of high pressure so it will be partly cloudy. but the clouds are in the upper part of the atmosphere with in rain. 61 in san jose and everyone else in the santa clara valley in the 60's and we start around 56 in millbrae and mid-to-upper 60's along the coast and in to downtown san francisco and upper 60's through low 60's through the north bay and near 60 along the east bay shore and upper 50's to low 60's in the east bay valley with concord at 62 degrees, the warm spot. tonight's temperature is cooler and the breezes will go away with frost forming inland again and temperatures in the let to upper 30's if the bay and the coast and upper 30's to mid-40's and the seven-day outlook more sunshine, less breezes, a couple of degrees warmer tomorrow and cooler with the cloud cover on saturday and you can see the warmest day is sunday. have a great day. >> no metering lights and traffic is slowing nicely through the toll lazy and i see blinking emergency lights ambassador -- around the first overcrossing maybe an issue but maybe it is just road work vehicles. the approach from 80 and 580 and 880 the macarthur maze flowing nicely, otherwise, just road work, eastbound dumbarton bridge until 6:00, and southbound 280 before sullivan and daly city expect road work in the lanes until 7:00 a.m. a.m. >> sony finally unveils the play station. is it worth it in. >> and prince harry has a new love. >> today on "katie" prepare to be grossed out we are revealing the dirty secrets of restaurants, hotels and butty restaurants, hotels and butty salons and the diet secret today [ lorenzo ] i'm lorenzo. i work for 47 different companies. well, technically i work for one. that company, the united states postal service® works for thousands of home businesses. because at usps.com® you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. i can even drop off free boxes. of hats. well, technically i wear one. the u.s. postal service®, no business too small. hi, i'm ensure clear... clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water. i've got nine grams of protein. that's three times more than me! [ female announcer ] ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. nine grams protein. zero fat. new almay smart shade mousse is like smooth velvety magic. it instantly transforms to my perfect shade and gives me a flawless, airbrushed finish. >> facebook is apologizing after a glitch forced a michigan woman to lie about her age online. the woman is 104 but she is unable to say that on facebook, her granddaughter says when she put in the birth year at 1908 they changed it to 1928. the oldest age that will show up on the page is 99. facebook says it is now working to fix the problem. >> people are live longer. in the fast paced world, cereal makers want you to have breakfast on the go. >> now the bloomberg business report. >> are you spending less now that the paycheck is lighter? according to the natural retail federation the tax hike that took affect as a result of fiscal cliff deal is leading more than 70's percent of americans to cut back on spending. it adds up. especially with gas prices rising. many are delaying major purchases like tv's and cars. >> if you don't have time to sit down and enjoy a bowl of cereal you can take it with you. general mills and circle logs are -- and kelloggs have breakfast to go milk-baseed drink is being tested. sony has a new play station last night, sort of, showing what the new play station can do with cloud and social media features but did not show us the actual console. gamers can see what their friends are playing and take over games from others and is on sale in time for the holiday season. >> workworkers are putting finishing touches on the float for the chinese new year parade. here is a look at floats being put together. the snake, because it is the year of the snake. and the citizens have plenty of glitter. the builders enjoy designing and make the floats and they take special care to make them sparkle under the night lights. >> gorgeous floats in full splendor and beautiful magical chinese jewel boxes that will be out there. >> the chinese new year parade starts at 6:00 p.m. on saturday and gets going from market and 2nd street and goes through union square and ends in china town. there is an event in redwood city city that i will emcee at courthouse square with a family friendly event. a lot going on to celebrate. >> now a check with mike for a forecast. >> so respectable. >> we are looking up at state of the union he watching it snow, a few snow showers and heavenly so friend powder with not much going on, maybe a couple of inches but it is out there and it is something new and something desperately needed. as we look to the lower elevations we have showers near modesto sliding to fresno and frizz el headed into the afternoon. we will have upper 50's and low 60's through the central valley and 41 headed to tahoe and sunny around los angeles and san diego and temperatures in the low-to-mid 60's. >> no chain requirements in the sierra on either 50 or 80 so it is a nice time to go listen and get new snow. san rafael, by lucas valley road south we wet headlights headed southbound will go beyond the civic center with no delays and we have an ace train delay coming out of address at 25 minutes late and no other mass transit issues for you this morning. kristen and eric? >> tonight, jimmy kimmel takes on a two-year-old from kansas who is a youtube sensation making fun of the boy after he went on the "today" showed and missed all the shots. >> trick shot is here. caught your shot other day saw you said he "stinks" without editing but what he would want is to challenge you, jimmy, to a game of horse. here is how it will work. you make a shot they times your height and we will see who needs editing to look good. >> i will compete with a baby. watch that. >> jimmy kimmel live airs week nights here on abc7 at the new time followed abc7 news at 11 and then "nightline." >> is prince harry in love? sorry, ladies it looks like he is off the market, the red headed royal was spotted with a new flame at an exclusive ski resort in switzerland. the two started dating in may of last year but this is the first time they have been photographed together. coming up at 7:00 "good morning america" will have a lot more on the lovebirds and relationship they are working so hard to keep a secret. >> only on abc7 news an exclusive interview with president obama and he is asked about proposition eight and whether the administration. ask the supreme court to overturn california's ban on same-sex marriage. >> but, first, are the oakland a's leaving the east bay? we will tell you what major league baseball has done that could pave the way for potential >> live from the kgo-tv broadcast center this is abc7 news. >> what a beautiful morning, at 5:29. thanks for joining us. >> you going to stop there? >> i left it for you. >> what a beautiful day. 5:29. is the weather cooperating? >> it is. nice this morning as far as getting around with not having to worry about what street to want out for or breezes if the lower elevations. they are there in the higher elevations but not the lower elevations. you can see how dry it is on live doppler 7 hd. from mount tamalpais, it is bouncing around at 2,600' and the temperature at san jose is 40 and oakland and 37 in petaluma and livermore is 39. headed into the afternoon hours more cloud cover than yesterday, temperatures hang on in the mid-50's at the coast and near 60 for the rest of us. sue? >> thursday morning and the drive is looking good and getting busy on the san mateo bridge moving from the toll please to the flat section, a few brake lights before the high-rise but no delays or major problems moving toward the san mateo side of things. getting slow out of antioch with speeds of 35 or 36 and it picks unat pittsburg to 242 and cop cord area and still road work out there eastbound dumbarton bridge with various lanes until can this morning, another half hour. >> new this morning, big news for oakland a's fans, major league baseball has given the team guidelines for potential move to the south bay. abc7 news reporter is like at san jose city hall. the key word here is "potential." right? >> potential and tentative are the words flying around downtown san jose. amendment's have -- oakland a's have plans from four years ago and now major league baseball is giving a tentative green light to play ball. sources tell "los angeles times" the baseball commissioner has provided the a's with tentative guidelines for a potential move to san jose. it doesn't mean it is a done deal. but if they can satisfy concerns of the league office the commissioner could let the club owners approve the move. the a's have pledged to pay for a $500 million ballpark in downtown san jose. major league baseball's biggest concern could be the fact the giants still hold territorial rights to san jose and do not want the a's to relocate. is far no comment from the giants or the a's this morning on the big move which appears to be moving forward. we are live in downtown san jose this morning. cornell bernard for abc7 news. >> major silicon valley news, chip maker is planning a $300 million expansion in santa clara, with construction set to begin in june on a new state-of-the-art campus near the current santa clara base. this shows what it will look like, with two buildings totally a million square feet and video provided by the company known for products that enable high performance graphics in interactive computer games, thousands of employees are expected to be hired. >> a major twist against olympic athlete oscar pistorius. the lead detective in the case is now facing felony charges of his own charged with murder for opening fire on a minivan of people while he was drunk. oscar pistorius is in court for the final day of the bail hearing accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp, at his home on valentine's day saying he thought she was an intruder. the prosecution case unraveled yesterday after several police blunders were revealed. we will have much more on the developing story at the top of the hour. >> murdered bay area teen will be buried the same date accused killer will be in court. funeral services will be held today for the 13-year-old janell conway allen, the teen found dead at a fairfield park february 1. the funeral is held at benicia city cemetery at 1:00 o'clock today. the suspect in her murder, 32-year-old anthony lamar jones is scheduled to be arraigned in a fairfield courtroom and faces kidnapping, rape, and murder charges for her death. if convicted he could get the death penalty. >> santa clara man accused of threating a state senator will be in court today for a plea and bail hearing. everett basham did not enter a plea on friday. the 45-year-old is accused of e-mailing a death threat to state senator leland yee for efforts to tighten gun control laws. investigators certained his husband for four days and found let assault weapons and detonated explosives outside the home. >> police are looking for a suspected gunman after they found he was not inside a home they thought he was barricaded in. officers surrounded a house last night in berkeley and they moved in at 1:00 o'clock this morning they found the home everyonety. they looked for a man involved in an early argument where a shot was fired. officers found a car connected to the christmas and took the suspected gunman's uncle into custody on a warrant. >> police are alerting residents of burglaries producing peninsula homes. in two weeks ten cities is been lit by burglars or home invasion robberies. you can see the map they are all over but yesterday an 86-year-old woman scared off a burglary who entered her home in bell minute after someone rang the bell. she got to the door no one was there but she heard a noise in the basement and went to check it out. >> she opened the door to the stairwell and the burglar was standing at the top of the stairs and both were surprised and she challenged him and asked what he was doing in the house and the burglar ran down the stairs and fled. >> police say ringing the doorbell is part of a burglar's ruse. if you answer they offer garden services and if no one answers they force their way in from the back of house. the suspect is hispanic in his 30's and stocky build with a mustache and wearing a black jacket. >> this morning, redwood city police are looking for other victims in the case of martial arts instructor child with molestation on children. he worked at the same academy for a dozen years and detectives are trying to determine if he had inappropriate contact with other minors. they are looking in anyone who may have seen something. he is free on bond. aubades of pilot commissioner hear a progress report on the i'm tanker investigation that hit a bay bridge tower. there are new rules foe big ships in san francisco bay. six weeks ago the "overseas raymar" hit a bridge tower in the fog causing $3 million in damage. tankerstankers can no longer sat of the bay in heavy fog. >> the obama administration is considering urging the united states supreme court to overturn california's been on same-sex marriage. dan ashley was the only bay area reporter to speak one-on-one with the president yesterday. obama raised expectations when he folk of equality if gays and lesbians during the inaugural address and dan asked the president about it. >> considered in the united states supreme court, what will your administration do when it is considered? >> the solicitor general is still looking at this and i have to make sure i'm not intersecting myself too much into the process particularly when we are not a party. my personal view is that same-sex couples should be treated like everyone else. >> the justice department has until february 28 to file a friend of the court brief. you can see the entire interview that dan conducted with the president on our website at abc7news.com. >> and now how about golfing with tiger woods? >> the president said he will keep his day job. >> i wouldn't want them to trade. we will check in with mike nicco. a chilly morning. >> i would not mind working with the president if he switched with dan. for a day. it would be cool. >> send him an invite. >> good morning, everyone, the northern wind at the lower elevation, not so fast as mount tamalpais until you get over the ocean where we do not have the friction of the land, elevation change, and the trees. gusts at 20 miles per hour at half moon bay and everyone else is seven miles per hour. we are then inland and low-to-mid 40's around the bay and coast and by noon sunny and mid-50's and the clouds return in the afternoon and thicker than yesterday. temperatures in the low 50's at the coast and near 60 for the rest of us and you will node a light jacket in the evening as we hang out in the upper 40's to mid-50's the as we lack ahead through the weekend, we will see mostly sunny conditions tomorrow and we will have a few more clouds for saturday but trending dry. i regretted put rain in the forecast yesterday and that is the reason why because it is trending dry. the warmest day this weekend is sunday low-to-mid 60's arrest -- away from the coast. >> 680 if the commute from pleasant hill to walnut creek is looking good southbound 680 making the turn at north main and toward the 24 junction and busy at the junction but, otherwise, smooth sailing to dublin/pleasanton. otherwise we have a car east roadway in fremont and it cleared from the lanes but this could be emergency crews to get that off of the ditch it want into southbound 880 at fremont boulevard and we still have ace train onedly 25 minutes as it heads in with train three on time out of the stockton. no other mass transit problems. >> thank you. >> we are a week away from pope benedict stepping down as head of the catholic clutch and the just released poll reveal his popularity. >> reward offered to help track down a person who shot a raccoon in the bay area. almost tastes like one of jack's cereals. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! yeah, this is pretty good. male announcer ] over a third of a day's fiber. fiber one. ♪ shimmy, shimmy chocolate. ♪ shimmy, shimmy chocolate. ♪ we, we chocolate cross over. ♪ yeah, we chocolate cross over. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing fiber one 80 calorie chocolate cereal. ♪ chocolate. >> benicia, san ramon, san mateo and all the bay area, this is abc7 news. >> 5:42. a $3,000 reward is offered in the latest shooting of an animal on the peninsula, the 12000 since december. fragmentness the body of a careen found alive but unresponsive in south san francisco on sunday lying against a cushion -- a curb. anyone with information about the shooting or the others obtains peninsula should call the humane society. a veterinarian put the animal to sleep. >> high school football coach in vallejo was fired and the school put five football coaches on leave after he report a hazing incident in december. four of the coaches were re-instated but he was fired. he says it was retaliation. the school says he was dismissed because he had ultimate responsibility if the players. in the lawsuit, he says the church violated state whistle blower laws. >> this morning, we know former san francisco restaurant workers will receive settlement checks in the largest wage theft settlement. according to the city tone, a pastry in china town is paying $25,000 in back wages and penalties for forcing employees to work long hours for less than $4 an hour. the minimum wage when the case was filed was $9.92 an hour and now it is $10.55 an hour. >> the terra cotta warriors are the most popular attractions in china and you can see them in san francisco starting tomorrow. the asian art museum previewed the exhibit yesterday with the life sized figures dating back to 200b.c. made during the time of the first emperor and discovered buried. more than 8,000 exist. they were to ensure the emperor's immortality. >> his dream was to transfer his material kingdom to this world to the next world. if he could not bring the real thing he created images to bring with him. >> each warrior is different and each represents a member of his army. new discoveries are on display like a crane from his park. the exhibit opens tomorrow and runs through may 27 at the asian art museum at san francisco's civic center plaza. >> the wore yours -- warriors he come to us much cleaner that flying to china and xian. >> how does it look in tahoe? >> snowy but it is moving to the south and if you are leave now everything should be fine by the time you get up there. live doppler 7 hd shows wet weather slipping away from modesto and the snow is pulling away from state of the union he and headed to i don't set. now, what is going on at home 87 in santa clara valley near the shark tank in san jose, it looks clear. temperature is running 40 in san jose, and oakland is 41 and san francisco is 45. correct crack is 37 and if you leave the house soon, palo alto 41 and napa is 33. this is how it looks from the roof, the flags are moving and blowing out mainly to the southwest so we have a north to northeast wind this on the embarcardero. senator that rose is 39 and napa is 37 and fairfield is 39 and concord is 41 and los gatos 37 and gilroy 38. more cloud cover in the afternoon hours and breezes will work down from the higher elevation to our neighborhood. it will be brightest and warmest on sunday the best time for outdoor activity and all seven days are going to remain dry. in san jose our 24 hour temperature change is three degrees warmer in concord and san jose and santa rosa and fremont and san francisco a degree warmer. most of us will not notice the temperature change in the afternoon. the area low pressure, the upper low that is sliding along the spine of the sierra the bulk of the wet weather stays to the northeast with the jet stream and the main track has the low undercutting it with high pressure building in and that will keep us dry. now, in the south by, 61 in san jose if a high and everyone else in the valley is near 60. headed to santa cruz, about 63 degrees today. mid-to-upper 50's along the coast and mid-to-upper 50's in millbrae and san mateo and 59 today in downtown and 59 in sausalito and low-to-mid 60's through the north bay valley and headed to the east bay shoreline and the cool spot is union city and fremont at 58 and everyone else is around 59 to 60. san ramon is come at 57 but to the west of the neighbors in the low 60's and tonight, cooler with more frost inland valleys and upper 30's to mid-40's around the bay shore and to the coat. seven-day outlook is sunny tomorrow and we will see a few clouds for saturday and sunday you can see sunny and probably the warm of the day in 9 forecast until we get to wednesday. sue? >> we go now back to the bay bridge toll plaza, no delays here, no metering lights but a couple of cars stacked up in the cash paying lanes but no problems on the upper deck moving to the tunnel and san francisco, and c.h.p. trying to locate a car in fremont southbound 880 that went off the road but they have not been able to find the location. we will update that when we hear from c.h.p. very slow which is typical from antioch this morning, under 20 miles per hour moving westbound on highway four. kristen and eric? >> a former senator admitted to fathering a secret love child with 9 daughter of a senate colleague, former new mexico senator pete dominici has a 34-year-old son with a former lobbyist and daughter of former in never senator paul laxalt. they is kept it a secret for more than three decades. dominici confessed because someone else was about to reveal the secret. >> poll shows the pope is leaving the post on a positive note. a new washington post/abc news poll shows 76 percent view him fairly. the pope's popularity pales compared to john paul ii would before his death in 2005 was seen favorably by 87 percent of catholics. pope benedict is stepping down for health reasons next week. >> we are days away from the academy awards right here on abc seven. ahead, the closing promise the show's producers are making. a photo session for first lady and we will show you the new picture replacing this one as picture replacing this one as the official [ male announcer ] with citibank it's easy for jay to deposit checks from anywhere. [ wind howling ] easier than actually going to the bank. mobile check deposit. easier banking. standard at citibank. okay. [ male announcer ] with citibank's popmoney, dan can easily send money by email right from his citibank account. nice job ben. [ male announcer ] next up, the gutters. citibank popmoney. easier banking. standard at citibank. >> san francisco and san jose are looked at as possible host cities if the him pick games in 2024 with leters sent to mayors of 35 cities including san francisco and san jose and sacramento among the cities but san francisco mayor and san jose mayor have said hosting the olympics is an expensivest and they have other priorities. >> on oscar nominee almost did not make it into the country for the academy awards, a palestinian filmmaker and his family were detained at lax by authority whose doubted the legitimacy of his story. his film "five broken cameras" is nominated if best documentary was held for an hour for questioning. lawyers intervened from the academy awards and he was released. it sounds like "argo." >> the hot of the academy awards is teaming up with an actress for a closing musical performance after the best picture award, a "can't miss" moment and our coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. with "on the red carpet" and you can see the stars arrive at 4:00 and the big she at 5:30. following the oscars we have a re-cap of the biggest moments and your after parties and jimmy kimmel's oscar special is at 10:00 followed by abc7 news at 11 and we have oscars app featuring the best access to a dozen streaming video cameras behind-the-scenes and on the red carpet with the oscars experience by downloading our app that is available. >> christian is -- kristen is so good and i would like to see that number from "wicked." >> he may hold his own. >> can't wait to see. the weather will be good? >> maybe he will do it in a different voice, too. not that i have ever watched the show. now, the know is sliding sideways and we will look at our radar and in the last 15 minutes or so of snow that is fall nothing that area we have rain that will fall apart headed to the south so expect some sunshine through the central valley and upper 50's to low 60's and low-to-mid 60's around san diego and los angeles and 41 in tahoe. >> the drive from novato to lucas valley wood looking good with nod on the golden gate bridge, either, but slow traffic from the central valley, now, up and over the altamont pass, and you get to the dublin/pleasanton westbound 580 it picks up. kristen and eric? >> good news and bad news in the fast food craze revealing on average day 11 percent of american's food comes from fast food with young adult and blacks and obese people getting more but the figure is down from 13 percent reported a few years ago. it is expected that people could be underreporting their burgers and fries and shakes. >> there could be a biological reason why women talk more than men. a study shows women have higher levels of a protein in their brains which is the language protein and laboratory animals with high levels of this protein tried to communicate more through noises than other animals with less of the protein. previous research discovered women talk he times more than women, triple the amount that machine talked, 300 percent more. i think i am in big trouble now. >> i am just trying to balance that out. >> next at 6:00, the international murder case getting more stunning by the day, the lead investigator in the oscar pistorius case is finding himself on the other side of the law. >> governor brown convinced california voters to pass a tax hike and now the impact on the poll numbers. >> live from the kgo-tv broadcast center this is abc7 news. >> our time is 5:59. i am kristen sze. >> eric thomas here. weather there. mike? >> live doppler 7 hd shows dry spell. we are in the midst of it right now which is unfortunately not yielding temperatures that should be warmer than average. we will talk about what is going to happen as we head through today. you can see it is quiet. with live doppler 7 hd. we will talk about what it will do inland, the dry spell will be clouded up but partly cloudy, a few more clouds than yesterday. temperatures are around 40, in the mid-50's at noon and upper 50's at 4:00, and clearing conditions during the evening hours at 53. inland valleys, we have forecast but not such as yesterday. mid-to-upper 30's at 7:00. we will be in the mid-50's at noon and near 60 with less cloud cover then, say, around the bay especially the east bay valley with a little bit more cloud cover in the north bay and some clouds linger in the evening at 51 degrees and our final stop at the coast where we starting off at 45 degrees this morning and little breeze at noon at 53 so you can see extra clouds here and partly cloudy and low-to-mid 50's at 4:00. >> how is the commute? >> quiet. long line of headlights as you make your way westbound 80 from president reagan bridge where the 580 merges, where you find brake lights you with it is moving and you have a lot of company at the bay bridge. it is getting crowded with brick lights on the upper deck. ace train one still running at 25 minutes later headed into pleasanton and no other mass transit problem and ace train three is running on time. kristen and
everything you want in this kitchen. >> you know what i like to reach for? healthy, colorful snacks like justy fruits and crunchy vegetables. >> those look good. >> it marks the third anniversary of let's move, mrs. obama's initiative to make sure kids grow up healthy and reach their full potential. >> jerry bus was so beloved. his memorial service success televised live today. before last night's case kobe bryant called him the greatest owner in sports and led fans in a moment of silence. he was 80 when he died monday. thanks for watching. newsroom international is next. >> welcome into newsroom international. i'm suzanne malveaux. >> and i'm michaelle holmes. >> we begin in south africa. oscar pistorius will not get out on bail today. his court hearing adjourned without a decision on whether to let the olympic star out of jail. so charged with murdering his girlfriend. also police pulled the lead detective off the case today. very strange development. full details and we're live from south africa in just a minute. a search is under way for a 34-year-old navy s.e.a.l. the sailor got separated from his unit but they are not releasing any other information about the incident at the moment. the u.s. coast guard and local crews are helping with the search. we'll update with the details of this story as soon as they become available. >> a gunfight, a car crash on the las vegas strip killed three people today. check out the pictures. pretty dramatic. police say someone in an suv fired at police inside a maserati. that car blew through an intersection. the taxicab caught fire killing the driver and passenger. the maserati's driver also died. no word yet on what actually led to the shooting. oscar pistorius not going to be let out of jail at least not today. the bail hearing end ad couple of hours ago. the judge putting off a decision. another strange development. >> this is day three going into day four in this murder case. we'll go to pretoria, south africa, police removing the lead investigator after a revelation that came out of nowhere. robin, extraordinary develops. this just goes on and on. >> reporter: i want does, doesn't it. it is like a television drama, csi south africa somebody says. it gets so bizarre because that lead investigator who took over, who took the stand yesterday gave quite an embarrassing bit of evidence on the stand. it turns out he's been charged with seven counts of attempted murder himself. now, of course, the police coming out and saying we now are going to remove him from the case, put one of the top detectives on the case now. but essentially this points to bungling perhaps of the case and somebody asked the police commissioner if they were embarrassed, this is what she had to say. >> embarrassing. there is nothing embarrassing for us as police because that's the judgment you're taking and you have that judgment. at this point in time i don't know when we talk about embarrassing and we talk about great performance. i'm not a judge. we can't say. that's not for us to judge. it's for that court to judge whether it was a mistake or poor performance. >> okay. here inside the private private magistrate court there were some bizarre twists and turn. again very dramatic and compelling evidence coming throughout the day. i'll bring in a law professor just to take us through some of the key points. i was in that courtroom and it was riveting. for me it seemed like the state was really punching holes in fence. >> you must remember that oscar pistorius has to convince tha t m magistrate. >> remember the defense must prove the exceptional circumstances. they need everything and anything they can use to corroborate their version. forensics one way to do so and that's probably the reason why they went about as they did. >> they also paint ad picture of oscar pistorius as a violent person, incidents where he perhaps assaulted somebody or threatened them and accidental shooting of a gun in a restaurant. they are trying to paint a picture of him as beyond the golden boy. >> the state must prove premeditated murder. in order to do so they can't paint a picture of a happy go lucky world famous athlete. they must prove to the court that this is an offender. that this is a murderer. yeah. >> thank you so much. of course we'll be back here tomorrow. it's hoped according to many people, close to the case that there will be a final judgment, there will be something from the magistrate. >> also covering other stories a car bomb exploding in the heart of damascus. >> this appears to be targeting the headquarters of the syrian government ruling party the baath party. >> ivan watson is covering the story. ivan, does anybody claim responsibility for what happened today? >> reporter: no. we haven't had any claims of responsibility yet. we certainly know this was a massive blast, according to all the video evidence that's emerged. devastated this square, damaging buildings all around it and hurling cars, setting fire to more than a dozen of them. the syrian state news is reporting that some 63 people have been killed in this blast and more than 200 wounded and some of the casualties are school children since there are at a least two schools in the nearby vicinity. take a listen to what some of the survivors were telling syrian state tv today, suzanne. >> translator: this is terrorism. this is murder. this cannot be endorsed by islam. may god curse them. they come and kill our women and children and claim that it is in the name of islam. what kind of islam are they talking about? >> translator: to the free syrian army i am from iraq. car blew up when i was in the area. why? why? may god curse you. is this the freedom that they want? may god curse you? >> reporter: so we hear there are people, survivors condemning not only the free syrian army but also a hard line islamist group that's been labeled the terrorist organization by the u.s. government. that's the nusra front. nope claims of responsibility thus far. in the past the nusra front has claimed responsibility for car bombings in damascus. another syrian opposition group in exile, it has publish ad statement, suzanne, condemning this act calling it a heinous crime. >> ivan, thank you. that bomb was absolutely huge. >> it's interesting. he mentioned the nusra front. this is the organization where we're talking whether the u.s. should arm rebels and who those arms should go to. that's who we're talk to. whether they are linked to al qaeda. >> and just to hear that woman, unbelievable. los angeles hotel guests are upset now. they were drinking water from a water tank that had a daddy body in it. >> this is a body of a 21-year-old canadian tourist. she had been missing for weeks. today the health department now looking into whether the water was actually harmful for the guests in the hotel. >> the hotel has had a bizarre past that actually includes serial killers. >> it tasted horrible. it had a very funny, disgusting taste. it's very, very strange taste. i can barely describe it. >> michael and sabina tourists from the uk never imagined the taste. the canadian woman came to los angeles january 26th. then she disappeared january 21st. >> there was something wrong. the pressure in the water was terrible. the shower was awful. >> the hotel's maintenance man responding to guest's complaints went to check the four rooftop tanks that feed the buildings main water supply. tanks that is unlocked but the rooftop is locked to guests. a maintenance man found lamb's body inside one of the tanks at the bottom. >> it made me sick. knowing we've been drinking this water for eight days. >> makes you physically sick. more than that you feel psychologically, you think about it and it's not good. >> the l.a. county defendant health said the hotel was on an order of flush only. a reasonable solution if the hotel provides bottled water. the hotel would not speak to cnn but did notify guests about a quote and health and safety condition. guests tell us if they leave they don't get a refund. if they stay they must sign this legal agreement releasing the hotel of legal liability. it says if guests stay, quote, you do so at your own risk and peril. this gruesome discovery in the latest chapter for a dark history. two serial killers have lived here including the night stalker found guilty of killing 13 people in the 1980s. he lived on the 14th floor host tell. >> he was living here during his killing spree, going out at night and killing people. >> this is just the latest unusual chapter? >> i it is. it's the sort of thing hard to forget because it's such a graphic and disturbing story. >> very graphic and disturbing. later on today we'll find out what the health department has to say. >> can you imagine that? >> you find out that's what is it. here's more of what we're working on this hour. thousands of companies hacked. yes thousands. we'll have the "new york times" journalist reporting this after the newspaper itself was attacked. >> later this is pretty cool. looks like a giant slinky. but that's a building in japan shrinking before your very eyes. searching for a bank designed for investors like you? tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 schwab bank was built with all the value and convenience tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 investors want. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like no atm fees, worldwide. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and no nuisance fees. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 plus deposit checks with mobile deposit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and manage your cash and investments tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab's mobile app. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 no wonder schwab bank has grown to over 70 billion in assets. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so if you're looking for a bank that's in your corner, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 not just on the corner... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call, click or visit to start banking with schwab bank today. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i took something for my sinuses, but i still have this cough. 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>> so, do you fish? >> i love fishing. >> this is called fish fraud. smoked salmon, 90% of the fish we eat in this country comes from somewhere else. >> even if you thought otherwise. a new report reporting a third of the time the fish you think you're buying is actually something else all together. we'll tell you what really is in that tuna can coming up next. transit fares! as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. no? oh, right. you're thinking of the 1.6 million daily customer care interactions xerox handles. or the 900 million health insurance claims we process. so, it's no surprise to you that companies depend on today's xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. with xerox, you're ready for real business. humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. at liberty mutual insurance, we understand. that's why our auto policies come with accident forgiveness if you qualify, where your rates won't go up due to your first accident, and new car replacement, where, if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call... to talk to an insurance expert about everything else that comes standard with our base auto policy. and if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. call... to switch, and you could save hundreds. ♪ born to make mistakes liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? . all right. we have a warning for all you guys who love seafood. the snapper or tuna you bought may not be the real thing. >> a new study a third of the time you buy fish in the united states you are not getting what you pay for. you're getting substitutions. we're talk being fish fraud. >> you've been all over this study here. tell us who is this group and how did they find it out? >> reporter: the group is called oceana and they sent volunteers and staffers to different restaurants and grocery stores and had them take samples of fish and sent them out for dna testing. >> what did they find? >> so what they found, unfortunately, one-third of the time that consumers were not getting the fish they thought they were paying for. salmon lovers can rest easily because for the most part they were getting what they were supposed to get. if they were ordering snapper that was often being substituted for much less expensive fish. if they were ordering tuna it was substituted for something called white tuna which is something called escolar. and grouper was being substituted for something for four other varieties of grouper or other kinds of fish that had been flagged for excess mercury. >> this doesn't sound good. if you're not getting what you paid for but also being misled there's something not quite right with the fish? >> 91% of the fish we're eating in the u.s. is actually imported. that includes fish that was caught here and sent overseas for processing. that's a really, really long food chain. and deception can happen along the way. it can happen anywhere from the boat to somebody mislabelling fish at the restaurant. >> how do you make sure you get what you pay for? >> well the great thing is that there are a lot of people who are doing the right thing. you can make sure to patronize stores and fish mongers who are registered with these advocacy groups. go to your fish monger and make sure you're getting something from the whole fish. the further it gets from the whole fish the harder it is to determine where it comes from. like diamonds if the price is too good to be truie too good to be trui true, it pry is. get to know the people who sell you your fish and ask many questions. there's a lot of people doing the right thing. don't punish them. so make sure they are still getting your business. >> you couldn't help notice that. >> we like the whole bourbon thing we were talking about on monday. >> thank you. appreciate it. all right. >> now after banning american families from adopting russian children, they are pushing for a complete ban on international adoptions. >> we'll drou to orphans whose futures hang in the balance. that when we come back. the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. 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around the world in "60 minutes." >> south africa of course oscar pistorius murder case. police today pulling the lead investigator off the case and replacing him. it turns out the man who was leading the investigation is himself facing attempted murder charges. in syria's capital a car bomb exploded killing 53 people, injuring more than 200. the target the headquarters of the government's ruling party in damascus. several schools are nearby. some of the casualties were reportedly children. >> terrible explosion. news today that negotiations with iran are about to kick into high gear in the hopes of slowing down the nuclear program there. western officials tells cnn they are prepared to make iran what they are calling a serious offer of new economic incentives. in exchange iran would have to close down an underground uranium facility. >> western officials optimistic about the new offer. john kerry the new secretary of state has publicly spoken in favor of negotiating with iran. and in russia 130,000 children who need homes. but americans cannot adopt them. that's because the country has banned adoptions from the united states. >> and there are many in russia who disagree with that. the kids, of course they are caught in the middle. >> reporter: sonya is only 8 years old but she already knows a lot about love and rejection. she was given up at birth, adopted not long after but then returned to the orphanage when she was 5 because her adopted parents realized she had learning difficulties. i would like to go back to my family she says. i love them. and they just left me. this young boy spend most of his day in his wheelchair. he has spina bifida. he wants his condition to be cured so he can be adopted. this 6-year-old doesn't know why he was given up at birth. he said my parents kicked me out of the family. i want a new family because then you have parents. these children live in a moscow orphanage. some with disabilities. most don. they are among russia's 130,000 orphans. in 2011 only around 7400 were adopted by russian families. despite the obvious need for more people who are willing to love these children, russia has banned americans from adopting here. and some officials are now pushing for a total ban on all international adoptions. the orphanage director supports international adoption because she says there aren't yet enough russian families willing to do it. she says she hopes the government will encourage more russians to adopt. some russian officials fought for the ban on american adoptions because they claim russian children are often mistreated in the united states. it was also a response to an american law targeting russian human rights abuses. critics of the ban like the tens of thousands of russians who marched against i want say the country's orphans are suffering because of a political effort to steer russia away from the west. the debate has split russian society. but few here have ever cell phone its orphans. victor has been cared for by the state since she was 7. she's now 16 and no longer hopes to be adopted. when she was younger she wanted it desperately. because she says it's always better for a child to be part of a family. >> and phil, on this program, we talked numerous couples who are caught in limbo just not knowing whether they can take those kids home. you got the kids over there who essentially no longer have the possibility of a adoption. where does this go from here? >> reporter: well, suzanne, the logic here in russia among those who are most outspoken say the national disgrace, that so many russian children have effectively been in their words exported overseas in the last few years turned into commodities rather than being looked after here. when you talk to international experts they agree it's usually preferable for orphans to be placed with families within the same culture or country. the concern in this case russia is getting it the wrong way around. by implementing the ban before it has built up a durl of adoption with enough russian families willing to take on the responsibility russia is effectively condemning so many more children to institutionalized childhoods. >> the whole thing has expanded out. a lot of people want all adoptions banned internationally. is there any chance, any talk there that this ban on say the u.s. adopting russian kids could be reversed? is there any kind of appetite for that? >> michael it doesn't seem likely at all, no. the one remaining battleground however is with american families who have begun their adoption process but not completed it before that ban kicked in. these are people who spent a lot of money, may have already been here, met children, formed a bond with them. they are still fighting for the right to complete that process and take the children home. but it is not looking good in their case. and the outrage we've seen in russia just in the past few days over the death of a russian orphan in texas, that outrage, that concern, that has not head their cause at all. >> bill, good to see you. one of the things that's important, a lot of those kids are disabled. that americans will adopt. >> yeah. as you pointed out a lot of them just won't be adopted in russia. very sad. we'll switch gears. when we come back have a look at this guy. a year ago all of basketball seemed to be talking was linsanity. >> where is jeremy lin now and what happened to all the excitement? we'll hear from lin in his own words up next. welcome back, everyone. of course you remember the nba and fans got swept up in what became known as linsanity. it was crazy. >> all the puns. there were tons of them. lin this, lin that. but after a spectacular few weeks with the new york knicks jeremy lin sat out with an injury and now he was traded to the new york rockets. >> they are hoping he can carry them into the playoffs. he's still a media sensation. >> he told our own rachel nichols he's bringing in the crowds. >> it's crazy how many people were there and how excited they were to just be there and so i felt kind of like the president almost just being escorted, you know, backway tunnels and crazy stuff. wow, this is really intense. >> the experience you went through, that intense cycle of something happened and then the internet goes crazy and the paparazzi descends and everyone in the world is watching your every step. now that you've been through it what advice would you have for someone? >> slow down and embrace it all. soak it all in. and just have fun with it because at the end of the day, when i think back to it, all i'm going to really have is my memories and thoughts and what i remember from that time. so i'm fortunate to have what happened to me last year and i just remember how fun it was. so that's what i would encourage anyone else going through. >> the best of basketball. >> it was against the odds thing. >> i got to support my team. >> break through scientists being honored with prestigious awards and big cash prizes. >> it's really cool. the break through prize foundation that's what it's called headed up by facebook ceo mark zuckerburg and other silicon heavy hitters handing out the group's first reward in research for curing deadly diseases. >> each of the 11 winners took home $3 million each twice as much as nobel prize winners get. zuckerburg said the money is well deserved. >> the big thing here is that science and technology are very closely related and when you're building these information technology companies the market reward us and you can make lot of money. but a lot of these folks who are doing extraordinary work in science don't have the same opportunity and because of that i think it would be a shame if a lot of folks who are growing up trying to figure out what to do now don't choose to go into critical work because of that. >> good for them. >> good idea. >> coming up, kind of like a dirty secret for some of the world's biggest companies, something they keep from their competitors, shareholders and the stock market. >> we're talking about big businesses falling victim to hackers. stay with us. we'll have that when we come back. ♪ my friends, they do surround me ♪ ♪ i hope this never ends ♪ and we'll be the best of friends ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing the reimagined 2013 chevrolet traverse. all set? all set. with spacious seating for up to eight. imagine that. chevrolet. find new roads. to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief. try aleve d for strong, all day long sinus and headache relief. then you're going to love this. right now they're only $14.95! wow-a grt deal just got a whole lot better. hurry. $14.95 won't last. welcome back. the movie," the life of pi." in london it won an award for visual effects. >> though it looks life like, check this out. incredibly 87% of the time you're actually seeing a digitally created tiger on the screen. this is a terrific report here. >> reporter: making a regal entrance. every bengal tire is different. this male is ten years old. and weighs in at about 500 pounds. his name is king. and he was born to be a star. >> every animal has his own look. >> reporter: and king looks very sure of himself. he looks dominant. this story is about king. it's also about his mir r ident twin made for the movies. >> we knew if we had a realty gear, our digital tiger had to be flawless. the tiger took about a year from start to finish and that's before we started doing the animation. >> reporter: he has been a professional cat trainer since he was 16. for our benefit he put a younger tigress through her paces. he apologized she wasn't king but king is much less easily bendable. half the movie is set on a lifeboat on an ocean the boy pi and the tiger. it was shot in a water tank in taiwan against special effects green and blue screen. for safety reasons the actor and tiger were never filmed together. here is king. creating king's digital twin took about 600 animators. >> one starts painting texas tuesday, all the details of the eye. combing each individual hair. there were 10 million hairs on the final model. each one had to be hand adjusted. all those things had to be specifically controlled. >> one of the shots i'm most proud of at the end of the film, pi pulled a sock on him that was a digital tiger. >> reporter: 80% is digital tiger, 13% realty gear. >> many friends called me and said to me -- they said great. they didn't even see the difference. most of the time they thought the whole movie is the realty gear. but we, of course knew. >> reporter: the truth is king was marked out for the part literally. the very defined black stripes on his forehead matched the chinese character for king. it's bittersweet. the company has stunned the film industry by filing for bankruptcy. nick glass, cnn with king and his twin. >> i love that story. >> a great story. nick does some good pieces. coming up and we have a lot of this because the script says it's like playing jenga. we never heard of it. with a high rise. we'll show you how the japanese bought this building to the ground one floor at a time. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. an entirely new pursuit. there's nothing like our grilled lobster and lobster tacos. the bar harbor bake is really worth trying. 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[ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on every purchase plus a 50% annual bonus on the cash you earn. it's the card for people who like more cash. what's in your wallet? i usually say that. u.s. trade secrets worth billions of dollars confidential government documents and key information about the canes infrastructure. >> these are all prime targets for cyber thieves but attorney general eric holder says the u.s. is fighting back, pushing for tougher cyber security laws, and sharing intelligence with hacked companies. >> and there are plenty of those. thousands of those companies being compromised right now. joining us from san francisco, nicole. good to see you. we talked about this before. you have a front page article in the "new york times" today. you also wrote about it before, how the "new york times" itself was hacked. this has become a very big deal for a lot of companies and the "new york times" disclosed this but a lot of companies don't. tell us why it's a dirty little secret. >> that's right. there are thousands of companies that we now know have been hacked and you only really hear about a few of them so we came forward and right after we came forward you saw the "wall street journal" come forward. you saw "the washington post" come forward. we reported that bloomberg was hit as well. but you really, these are sort of the tip of the iceberg. the fact is if you ask government officials they say there's only two type of companies in the u.s. now, companies that have been hacked and companies that don't know they've been hacked. the reason you don't hear about the ones that have been hacked kmeen it because they are scared about shareholder lawsuits, scared it will brand a big scarlet letter on their company logo. you don't hear about it. >> china, we talked about this as well is the biggest offender when it comes to hacking. we had that report that accuses the chinese military of being linked to a major hacking group. this was in shanghai. we'll show you these pictures. this was our own reporter trying to get lose to the building where the hacking is reportedly taking place. they were chased away. what do you make of that response. usually reporters get chased away when they are filming in china without permission. what do you make of that response? >> we were lucky because we were able to break the story. our reporter was able to go out and take pictures pretty quickly with his phone. but now that the story is out i know that they are being very cautious about letting media go report about this. >> china says it's not us. what do you make that? >> yeah. i think their quote is always it's unprofessional and baseless to accuse china. the fact is that there are thousands of attacks that are coming from one ip range in shanghai, and we mention this in our report. we couldn't get in the building. but if it's not the chinese then there are,000 sansd of hackers outside that building hacking into u.s. companies without china knowing about it which when you think about it is a little preposterous. >> we know they are stealing trade information worth billions of dollars. do we have any idea what this is costing us here in this country. >> there's been estimates all over the place. there was one estimate last year this now will cost the u.s. a trillion dollars. how do you quantify. everybody values their ip differently. without companies stepping forward and saying hey we've been hacked we don't know what's been taken. >> all right. nicole, thanks. appreciate it as always. >> thanks so much. >> now you know a good reporter will do anything to get a story, particularly an aussie. >> this is crazy. >> aussie weatherman. he may have taken a step further than he could handle. >> identify been fascinated my whole life to do this and i don't want to do it any more. >> he blacked out 10,000 feet. we're going to explain how, why. oh, my god. alec, for this mission i upgraded your smart phone. ♪ right. but the most important feature of all is... the capital one purchase eraser. i can redeem the double miles i earned with my venture card to erase recent travel purchases. and with a few clicks, this mission never happened. uh, what's this button do? 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[ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. welcome back, everyone. why am i reading this? >> one of you guys. the us aies. >> my people. an australian weatherman known for his on air antics took it a little bit too far. he passed out while broadcasting from a stunt plane. >> his anchors were only too happy for the world to see it for thems. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: you're about to see a weatherman's face become more weathered. doing the weather live from a stunt plane on australia's sunrise show. the host and weatherman were all smiles congratulating himself that grant hadn't gotten sick in their words he hadn't spewed. >> not one spew this morning. >> reporter: grant describes himself as the dummy of live television. he jumps hoops. to make the weather crazy and fun. this time he wanted to experience the force of 8gs. >> i've been fascinated my whole life to do this and i don't want to do it any more. >> reporter: grant urged the stunt pilot on. >> he's breathing. he's breathing. he's breathing. >> reporter: grant's camera went to black as he blacked out. not that he realized he had as he later told us. >> i could have sworn i didn't pass out. i passed out like a 12-year-old girl. >> reporter: after more than 10 seconds ever silence grant started talking. >> it's unbelievable. >> reporter: grant is far from the first to have his eyes roll back in his head on live tv. it happened to one of glenn beck's guests. >> you okay? somebody help him. >> reporter: it happens all the time at political rallies. timber! marie osmond's case instead of dancing it was fainting with the stars. the bad thing about passing out on camera -- >> man i don't look pretty when i'm asleep. >> i look like a member of the addams family for a bit. >> reporter: and he tried to get blood to his brain. jeanne moos, cnn. ♪ new york. >> better him than me. >> yeah. >> i'm slightly offended we used sub titles on australian. they going to start doing that for me? you taught see this. great video. tokyo, a new technique being used for the first time to demolish a hotel. >> not an optical illusion. time lapse video of a building being demolished from the inside, lowered floor by flower. jacks hold up the ceiling as workmen destroy the column. >> the jacks lower and work on the next floor. apparently quieter, cleaner and in a city as densely packed as tokyo safer. >> this guy, he should provide some inspiration for all of us runners. this is the world's oldest marathon runner, 101 years old. >> he's decided to retire after his last race this weekend. it will be in hong kong. he said he feels fine but racing for him is getting tougher at this age. 101. >> wonder what his time is. >> four weeks, three days. >> don't do that. >> you're a big runner. i drive to the mail box myself. >> we'll drive on out of here. >> thank you, michael. good to see you. oscar pistorius sitting another day in jail waiting for the judge to decide whether or not he gets bail. meanwhile the olympian is losing supporters. nike bales on the blade runner. and former first lady laura bush is featured in this ad supporting same sex marriage. if she has her way you won't see her in the ad that much longer. tim tebow bowing out at a mega church. his pastor hit a nerve. this is cnn newsroom and i'm suzanne malveaux. gunfight car crash on the vegas strip killing three people. check out the pictures. police say someone in an suv fired at people inside a maserati not far from cesar's palace. that caused the maserati to blow through an intersection causing a multiple car crash. well a taxicab caught fire, killing the driver and a passenger. the maserati's driver also died. three other people involved in the crash were injured. no word yet on what actually led to the actual shooting. now it's a rather scandalous revelation involving a sexual affairs involving two political families. pete domenici admitted having an affair of a daughter of a friend with senator laxalt. this is a secret that was kept between them for more than three decades. why are they coming out with this now? >> reporter: the indications from the statements that both issued do indicate someone or jones at any time was about to go public and publish this information. we're going to get to their statements in just second. but it's worth noting that senator domen everyone ici back in the late '90s voted to impeach clinton. he did say the impeachment was more about fact that president clinton lied under oath but called the president's behavior tawdry and cited the value of truthfulness. we now know at that very time he was hiding the fact that he had an adult son who he fathered out of wedlock. senator domenici and the woman involved, the daughter of paul laxalt have admitted they had a one night relationship. a statement issued by senator domenici said my past action caused hurt to my wife, children and others. for that i'm solely responsible. i deeply regret this and am very sorry for my behavior. both domenici and michelle laxalt alluded to the belief that someone was going to go public. that's what prompted them to speak out. here's her statement. recently information has come to me that this sacred situation might be 2015ed, rewritten out of whole cloth and shopped to press outlets large and small in a vicious attempt to smear, hurt and diminish pete domenici, an honorable marines his extraordinary wife, nancy and other innocents. it's not clear if the "journal" was going to reveal this. we tried to interview the person that wrote the article, a man named john robertson. he's decline an interview and declined to tell us any more about the details of this. the son of pete domenici is alex laxalt and is an attorney in lfrgs. he sent me an e-mail saying i have lived my entire life as a private citizen and intend to remain one. i plan to address personal issues privately and will not be commenting or joining any public discussion opinion i respectfully ask that my wish for privacy be respected. through a representative senator domenici declined an interview with us and we have not been able to reach michelle laxalt for further comment. >> domenici was involved in a scandal for firing eight attorneys. what was that about? >> very interesting moment in time and moment in cnn's television history. this is back in 2007, senator domenici was involved in a scandal in which the bush administration fired eight attorneys. michelle laxalt appeared on cnn's "larry king live" to defend the senator. >> when you're attacking the integrity of someone who has been in public service for his entire lifetime at great sacrifice, supporting no fewer than eight children and with the many sacrifices and the many contributions senator domenici has made nt only to the country but to the state of new mexico i don't think one political appointee who has a chip on his shoulder because he was asked to leave a position that he wasn't offered per man thency in to begin with should ever take a crack at the senator. >> so, of course, at the time we have no knowledge that she and senator domenici had a child together. she came and defended him. we've not been able to reach michelle laxalt for further comment. >> a former penn state football coach jerry sandusky trying appeal his conviction one more time. he's saefrg erving a 30 to 60 y sentence. last month a judge in a lower court reject ad motion for a new trial. the sex abuse scandal led to the firing of penn state's long time football head coach the late joe paterno. of course didn't take long only a week after passengers got off the crippled cruise shape "triumph" class action lawsuit being filed on their behalf. on february 10th a fire broke out on that ship bringing the trip, of course, to a screeching halt. thousands of people were stranded for days. the toilet started to overflow. the sue wag leaked into the hall weighs. the lawsuit alleged carnival knew the ship would experience engine problems. in a few days we're talking about $85 billion. going to be chopped from the federal budget if congress doesn't do something. it will happen automatically across the board and almost no federal agency is going to be able to dodge the cuts. christine romans is reporting from new york. so if this happens next friday that a lot of people are anticipating here, a lot of people are going to be impacted. what are we talking about specifically? >> well, look. when you talk about people getting unemployment checks, people on those federal emergency long term unemployment checks those will be cut by 9.4%. from march to. september, people on those extended benefits will lose about $400 in benefits. so that's first and foremost. look at prices for things we use. think about usda inspectors who are in slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants. fur loss from usda, the secretary of agriculture says you'll see beef prices and pork prices and chicken prices rising because you'll have delays getting product out of those plants. also national parks a lot of folks have been seeing you can see this as a place to have budget cuts. closure of roads. shorter hours. higher fees to use some of the services. so definitely watch for that. more closures most likely thing for national parks because they are free. >> do we know how deep these cuts will go? >> they go deep. ma meals on wheels. 4 million seniors could lose their meals on wheels. other end. spectrum, head start, 70,000 different spots in head start could go. that's that pre-kindergarten program for many needy americans to get their kids in school early to get them up to speed by kindergarten. 70,000 spots there according to the education department. you could also get like roofs that were blown off by sandy may have to be delayed. you could see small businesses and homes supplemental bills for repair and recovery for southeast post-sandy work, that could be delayed, put off or not happen all together. so all the way up and down the line you got government agencies touching all different parts of american life trying to figure out how to pull that 9% or 13% of the budget. >> a lot of people hoping there will be a deal but a lot bracing for the possibility there won't be one. thanks. we're looking at a brutal winter storm piling across the country bringing blizzard conditions in many places. 20 states will be affected by this. some will see as much of a foot-and-a-half of snow. missouri in the bull's eye. the governor has declared a state of emergency. the snow will turn into heavy rain and south and east could spawn tornadoes. joining us on the phone ted reynolds. can you hear me? >> the freeways here are a mess. absolute mess. i was stuck on i 29 for about an hour and a half. just dead still. but on 35, i-70 all of it a mess. the biggest part not just visibility but snow accumulation is piling up and people are getting spun out. trucks are all over the road. couple of medical emergencies which have made it very difficult for first responders to get to those people. they warn people do not drive in these conditions. there's a reason why. this storm is a whopper and it is really hammering the kansas city area and the surrounding area especially the freeways. the airports are closed. just stay off the roads if you're anywhere near this area. >> ted, please be safe. here's what we got going on. tim tebow, he was supposed to talk at a dallas mega church. instead he's back out of his appearance. why? his controversial pastor. we'll hear from the pastor up next. >> is same sex marriage good for the economy? financial experts suzy orman says it is. she will explain. mission was to get all six james bond actors reunited at the oscars but that mission reportedly a dud. instead can you get your bond fix here? yes. we'll take a look at 007. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a pain reliever fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. anti-depressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not for children under 18. people taking maois, linezolid or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. take the next step. talk to your doctor. cymbalta can help. new york's jet quarterback tim tebow had a change of heart. he's cancelling his appearance at a dallas mega church that he was set to speak at in late april. pastor at first baptist dallas has come under criticism for some very publicly held views on catholics, gays and islam. we're following the story. eric give us a sense of what this pastor has said. >> reporter: the pastor at first baptist, 11,000 member congregation said christianity is right and a lot of other religions long. he called mormonism a cult. he said unkind things about islam. he's come under a lot of fire about how he talked about gays and lesbians. this is part of the reason why this controversy erupted by tim tebow accepting to speak at the church saying he was there to endorse the pastor. how they express those beliefs are much different and obviously tebow is a much softer in how he talks about his faith. pastor jeffers has been more critical about other faiths when he talks about his own. pastor jeffers has been kind enough to join us on the telephone from dallas. good afternoon. thank you for being with us. >> appreciate you having me. let me just say one thing about your report. you know, when it comes to catholicism i've said publicly there will be millions of catholics who will be in heaven because they trusted in christ the savior. i was talking about theological differences. we're outspoken in our beliefs. it's funny to me that a church like ours that simply says christ is the only way to heaven and sex should be between a man and a woman is somehow now considered to be a hate church. >> well pastor there are some things you said particularly about gays and lesbians that have upset many of them. i want to give you a chance to explain your position on sexual assault -- sexuality. >> actually the ap did a story several weeks ago talking about my compassionate attitude towards homosexuality and that i believe it's a sin like adultery or pre-marital sex. god has a standard for sex and that is a man and a woman in marriage and any deviation from that whether it's homosexuality, adultery, pre-marital sex is wrong. we don't hate homosexuals at all. i have homosexuals friends gays and lesbians. they are in our church. but we have to uphold the truth of god's word. god created sex. he knows how it operates best. >> pastor let me ask you this last question here. your criticism has been how you spoken. do you think this controversy will to change the way you approach these issues and how you talk about them even if what you believe doesn't change? >> no. because people who know me and listen to my messages rather than listening to people characterizing my message we are filled with hope. i've had letters there gays and lesbians that have attend our service and we were surprised how compassionately you dealt with the subject. we'll be a love hope based church and that's not going change. >> pastor thank you so much for joining us. suzanne, back to you. former first lady laura bush featured in this ad supporting same sex marriage but she would like to take her participation out of that ad and not be in it. then suzy orman tells us why same sex marriage is good for the economy. big bird, back in politics after mitt romney threatened the pbs star. the white house announcing first lady michelle obama teaming up with "sesame street's" big bird for two public announcements. they are encouraging kids to get active and eat healthy. former first lady laura bush featured in the ad supporting same sex marriage. the respect for marriage features other republicans supporting same sex marriage. a spokesperson said mrs. bush did not approve of her inclusion or associated with the group that made the ad. she's asked the group to remove her name from that particular ad. same group behind the ad invited financial expert suzy orman to host an event in new york today. she talked about how banning same sex marriage actually hurts the economy and now orman's comments come at a time when the supreme court is considering constitutionality of the defense of marriage act. it defines as marriage exclusively between a man and a woman. it allows states not to recognize same sex marriage licenses that are issued in other states. so, suzy, good to see you. you're not a member of the group. we want to make that clear. you're not in this ad. but you were invited to speak before the group. you're making the case now allowing gay couples to get married makes financial sense. temple us how? >> it makes financial sense because many people may not know that just because nine states and the district of columbia have passed same sex marriage that doesn't mean that the federal government has passed it. so the federal government does not on any level recognize same sex marriage. here you are in your work and this is just one example. you want your spouse, same sex couple on your health insurance policy. to cover him or her. you will have to pay income taxes on that imputed benefit. many of the couples we talked to this morning when we were giving our talk at nyu, it costs them anywhere between $5,000 and $9,000 more per year in taxes because of those benefits. or added income to themselves. now that is money that doesn't go into the economy. now while it's true that they pay more in taxes, the taxes are not in the united states of america what holds up the economy, the earnings and job growth and everything like that holds it up. that is millions and millions of dollars not going into the economy because of things like that. that's just one example. >> give us an example, i you know have our own, you have been married to your partner for quite sometime. you were married in south africa several years ago. how does it impact you personally? >> it impacts me personally it's no secret or you would hope somebody in my position would be a very wealthy woman and when i die if k. t. were still alive or vice versa, k. t. or myself we'll lose over 50% or approximately 50% of our estate to estate taxes. if we were married and recognized on the federal level we would not owe one penny of tax. how would all the heterosexuals that were married if they knew upon the death of one of them if they have a certain size of estate they will lose up to half of that estate. they wouldn't stand for it. it affects me on that level. it affects me for the fact that i've been gay my entire life. this is something i've been fighting for my entire life. i pay a lot of money in income tax. i do everything i can to help america with their money problems. i really feel i should be recognized every single gay person in the united states of america should be recognized for who they love and not penalized for it financially speaking. >> you make a financial argument. you make a social justice argument. you know a lot of people turn, we just heard from the pastor five minutes ago making a moral argument. how would you respond to him who doesn't seem to acknowledge it at all even saying it's not legitimate. >> he can say what he wants and obviously people are going to follow him with that. but the majority of people in the united states of america especially the young ones today i do not believe that they believe in what the pastor said. they believe in human equality. they believe in civil rights. they believe in economic rights. they just don't believe what our interpretation, of what god would want is how it should be. they look at people their sons and daughters and parents and best friends they are employer, employees, it's everybody today. so everyone, we belong to the united states of america, we need to be united for everybody not just for the elite heterosexual few but for everybody. >> suzy orman, good to see you. a bizarre twist in the oscar pistorius case. the olympic runner faces premeditated murder charges the investigator is face several counts of attempted murder. a live report from south africa up next. big change in one of the world's biggest murder cases in south africa. this is the detective who was leefding the investigation into the valentine's day killing of reeva steenkamp. she's the girlfriend of olympic star athlete oscar pistorius. today that detective is out, replaced after the court learned about his own legal problems. we'll go live to pretoria south africa. i find this extraordinary. this bombshell that this guy, the lead investigator of this murder charge had been charged facing murder charges himself. how is that even possible? >> reporter: well it is. it is. the police seem to say they knew about these charges for alleged murder, seven counts of alleged murder. they knew about it. you just heard the police commissioner talk to cnn. they have obviously decided to remove him from this case. this is obviously a matter of credibility. remember this is the same man, same investigating officer who gave extremely weak, quite poor evidence yesterday in court and i think for the prosecution they would no doubt like a stronger team which they now got. south african authorities putting their top detectives on this case, high-profile case and many people asking why didn't they do it soon center >> how is it they didn't know this guy was charged with murder before. was it swept under the rug? >> reporter: they did know. this is the thing. this is a process. they say the national prosecuting authority knew about this. he shot seven times at a mini bus taxi along with his colleagues. this took place while on shift. there was talk this group of policemen were drunk. this is something, this charge was removed off the books and now been reinstated. ate bit confusing, i must say. either way the man is no longer investigating oscar pistorius case and it's one extra sort of bizarre twist and turn in this dramatic story. >> absolutely unbelievable. just day after day. almost like, you just can't make it up. thank you very much. oscar pistorius still in jail. we're still awaiting another day to see just how long he'll stay in there as they determine his bail hearing. the brother of the victim in the shooting of reeva steenkamp says he hopes that pistorius stays in jail. he talked to our own jake taper. >> what was your impression of her relationship with oscar pistorius? >> i had no bad indications whatsoever. i did not actually talk to my sister in any detail about oscar at all. i mean, in fact, i didn't talk to my sister about oscar at all. there was no indication that anything was bad. i mean we know reeva. she was happy. if reeva was happy everything was okay. >> that was last night on anderson cooper 360 telling him he hadnever even met pistorius. we have shocking video showing two little girls fighting here, pulling hair, slapping each other. the worst part sounds like adults are actually egging them on. showed up on youtube. we got new details. inted one of his master works at 56. doris taerbaum finished her first marathon at 50. not everyone peaks in their twenties. throughout their lives. passion keeps them realizing possibilities. an ally for real possibilities. aarp. find tools and support at aarp.org/possibilities. how did i know? well, i didn't really. see, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive... but when i started losing energy and became moody... that's when i had an honest conversation with my doctor. we discussed all the symptoms... then he gave me some blood tests. showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number -- not just me. 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[ male announcer ] in a clinical study, over 80% of treated men had their t levels restored to normal. talk to your doctor about all your symptoms. get the blood tests. change your number. turn it up. androgel 1.62%. so, the video is kind of shocking and it's not just because little girls are fighting. it's actually because you got adults who essentially are egging them on. watch. >> slap her. slap her. >> all right. so we're watching this, you know. i mean some of it, you know, smacking, pulling hair, some of this, you know, we've seen before. but what is really strange and crazy about this is you've got people, adults who seem to be encouraging this. what do we know about this video that's emerged? >> reporter: the question is whether this rises to the level of child abuse or child endangerment. that's what detectives are trying to figure out. it's disturbing not just adults or maybe it was teenagers let this happen but one in one of them recorded it and then posted it online. as you look at the video it starts with a face to face confrontation. listen to those adults or teenagers shouting to have this continue, both of the children appear somewhat defiant. the child in the black says it's a play fight. the adult says no you were play fighting before. then the tone changes. grab her. slap her. the adults or teen urge the girl in white to slap the other child. it lasts for 40 seconds. the child in black doesn't fight. she's clearly in pain. visibly shocked that her friend is doing this to her and that the others are cheering for this to happen. she starts to cry. what you don't see she grabs her backpack suggesting this happened after school. look at her there. she's in clear distress and later you hear hearsay i'm not going jail. there are other children around as this recording place. it appears perhaps it was teenagers making this fight happen. a manhattan special investigation unit is investigating. they are trying to figure out where it took place. it is clearly so distressing and so disturbing and police could potentially file charges if they figure out who was involved in all of this. >> this is wrong on so many levels. do we think any of the adults who were there were the parents or these were people who just happened to be on the schoolyard? do we have any idea? >> reporter: no. it's so totally unclear. that's why detectives are trying to track it down. it's one of those instance where something bad happens and then rather than have broken the ups or adults intercede what ends up happening you see this video posted on youtube and that want itself is fundamentally disturbing. >> they are encouraging these kids then videotaping these kids and then post it on youtube. i don't even understand it. let us know if you get any details. if you love seafood, pretty fishy situation. snapper, tuna you bought might not be the real thing. we'll take a look at fish next. and how does it feel to wear google's new glasses. this is a company that has a video that gives you a glimpse at reality altering eye wear. that's right. it's the real deal. right after this. first what dr. gupta has coming up on the next list. >> i'm dr. sanjay gupta. this week on the next list -- >> my name is diandiana. i like to work with electronics in fashion. it's what people think of as adding technology to a garment. >> that is so clever. >> i integrated in a way where the circuit can become a part of the design itself. i work with conductive thread which replaces wires. today this dress has some magic powers. >> no. it's the electronics. it has some circuit boards over here and microcontrollers in there. basically like a little computer and then there's a microphone over here. so the microphone senses if there's sound and then the little computer over here will make these l.e.d.s light up because they are connected with conductive thread instead of wires. as a designer i ultimately want to create products that people can relate to. >> that's this sunday on the next list. 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>> reporter: so let's start with what they actually do. these glasses are really the future here now. what these glasses can do is take video from the actual glasses as you mentioned, take pictures but also be able to do things translate languages and also be aware of where you are. let's say for example you're heading to the airport and once you arrive at the airport your itinerary or flight information says the plane is delayed or the flight is on time. these are like wearing a computer on your face, on your eye. it's pretty intense what the capabilities of what this will bring. i can imagine even going out home shopping wearing these glasses and you look at a home that's for sale and outside of the home you'll be able to get images or information or data or even a video playing about the inside of that home through these glasses. >> that sounds kind of cool, mario on first blush. could you not get distracted. would it get in the way of real life happening if you have videos and information popping in your glasses all the time? >> reporter: i think there's definitely some validity to that type of comment. we already have things that we're trying to figure out how to do more than one thing at a time. i'm not suggesting that's right or wrong but we're already using our phones, putting on ear buds, doing a lot of these things already. i think with it will be a lot of common sense. but i think it's going to be much better than always having to whip out your phone. i much rather have a pair of glasses that would give me my information where i could still see things as posed to looking down. >> how much are these glasses going for and what do they look like? >> reporter: they are $1500. not everyone can get these right away. they are running a contest as you mentioned. i think this is smart. what they are trying to do is a, build buzz. but two, get these glasses out in the wild with people who really want to do some interesting things with them to try to come up with all the different use cases for these glasses. so you have to send in 50 words or less why you want a pair of these glasses through their website or through twitter and then have the $1500 to pay for them. >> have you already submitted your application? >> reporter: i've submitted like three. i'm going to have my brother, my wife, my mother, everyone submitting on my behalf. i want to be the first journalist that would actually wear these out in the field, compiling news reports doing news gathering and conducting interviews. >> some people, the skydiving thing. they put the glasses on and can we see you in one of those. you can do a dive for us? >> reporter: that's one thing i won't do for you. although oil jump out of a plane. for you oil jump out of a plane. >> mario you said the right thing. leapt us know how it goes. maybe i'll submit an application for you too. thanks, mario. some people said cars, others might have said mass emails. this kid sent out a music video. got two celebrities as well to get in on the action. ♪ understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in real-time. plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. because they know i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. 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[speaks gibberish] sunday night's oscar ceremony will feature a star studded celebration of bond, jail bond. this would not be an iconic super spy and history without the super villains and evil schemes. now a museum giving the road gallery its due. barbara star has the story. >> daniel craig. 007 battled evil for a half century. as this year's oscars celebrate 50 years of bond. >> you expect me to talk? >> mr. bond, i expect you to die. >> here at the washington, d.c. spy museum, it's bond's enemies in the spotlight. >> james bond. allow me to introduce myself. >> bond's villains were a creative bunch. you can find the steal teeth of jaws and houston moon raker. >> his name is jaws. he kills people. >> the tarantula in dr. know and the rope used to beat bond in casino royal. the exhibit, exquisitely evil, shows us how the villages changed along with the times. you see the director is a former covert officer.
contracting every bit of bad news in europe. that lines up with u.s. companieses that does business there. mixed economic news here at home m weekly unemployment claims came in higher than expected but the housing market, yeah, that remains a bright spot. existing home sales we found out today, they rose and home prices have been going up. that was good news. stocks were lower but they have bounced back up. >> that's a nice way to end the hour and the day with the markets and good news. a couple bits of good news. thank you so much, alison kosik. that's going to do it for me. "the situation room" with wolf blitzer starts right now. fred, thanks very much. happening now, a brazen shooting leads to a deadly chain reaction crash all within major sites of major casinos in las vegas. the major investigator in the pistorius case has been thrown off the case. and a senator admits that he fathered a child with another one-time senator's daughter. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." all that coming up. we begin with today's new concerted effort to make president obama withdraw the nomination of chuck hagel to be the next defense secretary. 15 republican senators signed a letter arguing it would be, quote, unprecedented, unprecedented for a secretary of defense to take office without a broad base of bipartisan support. let's bring in dana bash. she's working this story for us. the critics of chuck hagel, and there are many, they are not giving up? >> they are not. and that's really what this is about. this is about hagel's harshest critics to say that they are not happy. it's a big deal. they are saying, mr. president, please withdraw it. if you look at these faces, they are the most conservative members of the senate so it isn't surprising that they would be this aggressive on what has really become a partisan issue and they know what that what has happened in this recess -- the senate is in recession -- is that some of their fellow republicans have come out and said, we will allow this to go forward. so they know it's not technically going to be possible for them to stop it but the votes, they thought maybe if there was a bombshell that came out during this time, that would help. they were digging for it. that didn't happen. what is interesting, we are going to see a very partisan vote and that is very different from what we have seen in the past most recent defense secretary votes. take a look at this. leon pa net tark the current defense secretary, 100 to zero. unanimous. robert gates, not much different. 95-2. and donald rumsfeld who end ended up being controversial but didn't go in that way, he was confirmed by voice vote. that shows you how unusual this is and that does make these senators' points. >> they were always confirmed with bipartisan lopsided votes. so this would be highly unusual. and i've got to tell you, based on my own reporting, what i'm hearing from some democrats, some within the defense department, some grumbling going on, they are wondering, is this the smartest thing, is he the most effective secretary of defense right now to go forward and do what the country needs, given that he's been so politically tainted that almost all of the republicans will vote against him. >> there is some concern about that. there's no question about that. there is private grumbling among democrats -- look, it wasn't a big surprise that this was going to be controversial. the president made a tactical and strategic decision knowing that this would happen. he knew it beforehand. but the fact that he did not do so well in his confirmation, that didn't help him. it hurt him. and it made some democrats a little more than wince. and that is the point of the republicans, even though they are very partisan on this issue, the point of the letter, it would be difficult for him to do his job if and when he is confirmed because it is so partisan and he's so bruised. >> they vote next week, right? >> yes. tuesday. >> dana, thanks very much. in las vegas, they are still talking about this morning's brazen shooting that led to a fiery multivehicle crash. it all went down on the vegas strip. all three people are dead and as far as we know, whoever is responsible got away. let's go to cnn marquez. this is obviously a source of great concern. >> reporter: it is unbelievable. we are on flamingo road right now, wolf. the entire strip is completely cut off at the moment. something that vegas, a town that doesn't shock very easily, has ever seen. >> horrific nature, the fiery end to this horrible accident. >> reporter: a shocking shootout on the vegas strip in a city not easily shocked. it started at 4:30 a.m. someone in a black range rover with dealer plates fired into this maz rat tea killing the driving causing it to go out of control. it continued through an intersection and smashed into this car. hard to tell, but that is a taxi cab. it burst into flame. the driver and passenger trapped inside died. >> it's possible that the cab may have been running on propane. they are investigating the engineering and mechanicals of that vehicle. >> reporter: still on the loose, the black range rover with dealer plates. a common vehicle here. police warning that the occupants are armed and dangerous. >> very dark, tinted windows and occupied multiple times by black males. >> reporter: now, we expect that las vegas police will be holding a press conference shortly, in about an hour, about 5:00 p.m. eastern time, wolf. we're going to try to bring that to you live. we hope to learn more details about how this thing played out. we do know that police have requested video from all of the major hotels on this part of the strip. so they are hoping that that leads to more clues and they can track down that black suv and it is occupants. wolf? >> we know there are a lot of cameras in las vegas. miguel, thanks very, very much. we turn to yet another unexpected and bizarre twist in the murder case against oscar pistorius. he's accused of deliberately killing his girlfriend a week ago. today the lead detectives was actually removed from the case after it came out he's facing attempted murder charges. cnn's robyn curnow is joining us from south africa. how did it go? >> reporter: hi there. very different today in terms of oscar pistorius' demeanor. i know we've had a chat over the week and a few days ago he was slumped over, he was crying, he was uncontrollable, he was emotional. today, wolf, the complete opposite. he barely moved. i sat in that courtroom the whole day. i of course watched him quite closely. once or twice he kind of sobbed quietly to himself but he was like a statue. he was frozen. he was immobile. maybe this is a guy that suddenly realizes he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, perhaps the severity is sinking in. i don't know. it was very obvious that there's been a shift in the way that he's dealing with this. >> robyn, if you take a look at what's going on right now, and obviously we're all watching it closely, not only in south africa but indeed around the world, especially here in the united states, it seems like the prosecution, they've made so many blunders, including now this lead prosecutor. update us what is going on in that front because a lot of mistakes clearly were made. >> reporter: absolutely. and i think there's a lot of egg on the face of the south african police. you know, it does appear to have been very sloppy, inept police work right from the beginning. we talked about how the lead detective walked through the house without any foot covers, poe he tensionally contaminating the scene. this is the very same man we hear has charges of attempted murder up against him and what is also interesting, the police commissioner admits that they knew that this policeman was facing attempted murder charges. so there does appear to be this sort of crazy scenario of blunder and blunder and blunder but i just want to remind you, this is what happens in south africa every day. sloppy police work and inefficient justice system. 50 people are murdered in south africa every day and they don't get the benefit of the police commissioner saying, hey, you guys aren't doing a good enough job, i'm going to put the top detect tif in as they did today. all in all, this is an indication of just how shoddy the police system has become. >> and tomorrow, more testimony, more hearings. will we know as early as potentially tomorrow whether he will be out on prison, out on bail, or whether he will suffer in prison as this process goes forward? >> reporter: you know, i think we will know tomorrow. i got a sense from sources inside the prosecution team that they really understand that things need to be wrapped up. i think the magistrate knows that things need to be wrapped up. i still can't judge which way it's going to go. legal experts say he probably will get bail. others say it's a strong case against him. because despite some of the shoddy police work, the state's prosecution team today really tore into oscar pistorius' version of events, his affidavit. there are key inconsistencies within his version of events, with forensics and what they say they will exploit as the trial goes on to the end of the year and perhaps early next year. when this trial does come into the high court, i think it's going to be quite a spectacular piece of clashing between these two legal teams. >> it would though -- very quickly, robyn, be highly unusual for someone charged with premeditated murder to be eligible to be out on bail as the process goes forward. that sounds pretty extraordinary. >> reporter: i think what is going to happen -- if you remember, the magistrate said he was open to the fact that it was premeditated murder. and i think what we understand has been happening in the courtroom is that they will probably downgrade that charge to just murder and that's what's easier, of course, to get bail. what i understand, this has actually all been a rather shrewd trick by the state's prosecution. they actually upped this murder charge to premeditation because it forced oscar pistorius' legal team to show their cause. he had to. and to those conditions present an affidavit. so we now have oscar's version of events much sooner than his legal team would have liked. so i think this might have just been a ploy in the end. they know that he really only perhaps fits the conditions for a murder charge. by upping it to premeditated murder, they've managed to get his version of events which they can now work on for the next six to eight months and try to breakdown. >> we'll see what happens tomorrow. robyn curnow, we really appreciate it. you can learn a lot more about the victim, reeva steenkamp's best friend is among tonight's guest on erin burnett's "outfront" at 7:00 p.m. eastern after "the situation room." right now there are people in a major winter storm. 20% of the population will feel some effects. emergencies have been declared across kansas and missouri and a number of major cities could see record-breaking snow and ice. let's get the very latest on the storm from cnn meteorologist karen maginnis. >> kansas, nebraska, and portions of arkansas, missouri have seen snow, sleet, and ice. on top of that we're looking at fairly gusty winds. big thunderstorms now erupting across the southeast and the gulf coast states. there is a tornado watch that goes until 7:00 p.m. local time and several perishes where they have tornado warnings. very interesting weather system meet logically speaking with the snow, the sleet, the freezing rain and eruption of the big storms across the southeast. it has impacted a number of the airports but right across this region into southern missouri and north central areas of arkansas, they have seen ice and i've seen pictures posted on twitter and instagram where they have seen as much as four inches of sleet and ice being reported there. well, what happens with this system? we're going to move along in time and over the next 24 to 36 hours, the storm is system actually is going to weaken just a bit. but if you're going to chicago, they are forecasting about seven inches of snow. that's a little bit more than what we were looking at but right now temperatures across the central u.s., mostly into the teens and 20s. if you were to look at the temperatures in louisiana, they are in the 60s and 70s. a sharp temperature contrast with this area of low pressure moving across the central mississippi valley as we go into this evening and then going through time for friday, into the tennessee valley, ohio river valley. and this is where the storm really starts to ring out. but across the southeast, some of these areas in georgia, south carolina, north central florida could see between 4 and 8 inches of rainfall. we'll keep you updated on that. wolf? >> karen, thanks very, very much. new questions about how one of the most prominent catholic leaders in the united states handled the problem of pedophile priests. i've discovered gold. [ female announcer ] roc® retinol correxion max. the power of roc® retinol is intensified with a serum. it's proven to be 4x better at smoothing lines and deep wrinkles than professional treatments. roc® max for maximum results. and deep wrinkles ththe people of bp made ants. commitment to the gulf., and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we've shared what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. bp's also committed to america. we support nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later. oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas. the nation's most prominent roman catholic leader was questioned by lawyers for victims who were sexually abused by priests in milwaukee. this occurred because he was the archbishop when the incidents came to light. while dolan says he is eager to cooperate, questions remain about the hard line the arch dire cease took to protect its money during his leadership. cnn's ted rowlands has details. >> truth. it is a fundamental ingredient for human life. >> reporter: during a weekday morning mass in wisconsin, father jim con nel uses part of his sermon to discuss the catholic clergy sex abuse scandal. >> what actually happened? who knew what? when did they knew it? what did they do with the information? >> reporter: he was archdiocese of milwaukee until mandatory retirement kicked in last year. given his rank in the church, he is an unlikely public critic of how his archdiocese has handled the ongoing sex abuse scandal and battled victims over compensation. >> there's a secrecy at that top level and i would say starting with the holy father. the pope benedict xvi would tell the cardinals and bishops, talk, open up, let it all be known. >> reporter: he agrees with victims here in milwaukee that the archdiocese has taken an especially hard line to keep abuse secrets hidden and to protect its money. representing hundreds of clergy abuse victims from around the country. >> the archdiocese of milwaukee has been particularly deceitful because they've been insulated for so long. they felt and believed they could get away with it. >> reporter: for decades, wisconsin's state law prevented most victims of sexual abuse from filing lawsuits which protected the church. when that changed, critics say the archdiocese prepared for upcoming lawsuits by moving its money. church financial records show $55 million buried here, in a cemetery trust fund. the church says the money was paid by people who bought burial plots at eight archdiocese cemeteries. a law professor says that if any money was moved to protect the abuse victims, the diocese may have broken the law. >> you can't, in anticipation of insolvency, transfer assets away from yourself for your own benefit. >> reporter: abuse victims cried foul about the cemetery fund and also other transfers, including a $74 million parish deposit line. they point to these minutes from a financial council meeting about abuse cases that reads, we are working on a plan to shelter the parish deposit fund. in december, a bankruptcy judge said that the transfers were fishy but legal. father con nel says the archdiocese should have been more open about the transfer. >> the motivation for not moving the money, i'm not sure. but it -- it needs explanation, right back to our same word, why we are doing this. the cemeteries we talked about with moving money out of the -- that ought to have been explainable. >> reporter: who could explain? nye york cardinal timothy dolan, now arguably the most powerful catholic in the u.s. he was archbishop of milwaukee when the cemetery trust fund was established and when the $74 million parish fund was moved. >> archbishop dolan made a decision to secretly and in a quite sinister way move funds into parishes and transfer funds into other corporations to avoid having to pay the survivors. >> reporter: ridiculous, says the cardinal. this was his response in february 2011 when the allegations of sheltering the money first surfaced. >> to think that there was $130 million in hidden funds, like dolan's got some offshore account in the cayman islands or something? this is just ludicrous. >> reporter: he declined an interview with cnn and the toirn representing the cemetery trust fund says the obligation to maintain the cemeteries never ends. no one knows for sure how much is enough. an ultimate win for the victims could open up not only the 55 million in the cemetery trust but future cemetery earnings. a win for the church could provide a blueprint for other diocese going through bankruptcy and could propel dolan's into the vatican as the diocese of the catholic church. meanwhile, the disease is spending millions in legal fees to protect its money and reputation which father connell believes needs to stop. >> it's the love of money that translates into greed that is the root of all evils and that's what i see playing out in this situation. what's under the lid? what is being hidden? how embarrassing can it be? >> reporter: for now the position of the church is pitting potential obligations to living abuse victims against the care of the dead. ted rowlands, cnn, milwaukee. >> cardinal dolan will be among those who will choose a new pope to replace pope benedict xvi although he himself has been mentioned a candidate a. british book maker lists dolan a 33 to 1 long shot. good reporting from ted rowlands. a former u.s. senator make as stunning admission. we're going to tell you the 30-year-old secret that new mexico's ex-senator pete has revealed. and billboards has changed the way and the surprising number one hit. transit fares! as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. no? oh, right. you're thinking of the 1.6 million daily customer care interactions xerox handles. or the 900 million health insurance claims we process. so, it's no surprise to you that companies depend on today's xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. with xerox, you're ready for real business. nlove. as americans, we believed we can'tin freedom.person we which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. that's what i fought for as a marine, and that's what we believe in as republicans. freedom means freedom for everyone. i didn't use to understand the importance of same-sex marriage, but after learning my brother was gay i wanted the same rights for him. he was the best man at my wedding and i want to be the best man at his. it's only fair that calvin should have the freedom to marry the person he loves, too. it's time for marriage. ♪ [ male announcer ] start with a groundbreaking car. good. then invent an entirely new way to buy one. no. no. no. yes! a website that works like a wedding registry. but for a car. first, you customize it. then let people sponsor the car's parts as gifts. dad sponsors the engine for your birthday. grandma sponsors the rims for graduation. the car gets funded. then you pick up your new dodge dart at the dealership. and all that's left to do is say thanks. easy. ♪ a deadly pair of explosions today in india. kate bolduan is here monitoring some of the other stories in "the situation room." what happened? >> more than a dozen people were killed and more than 50 others injured in two bombings in southern india. the city's police commissioner says explosives were planted on bicycles parked in a crowded spot. he isn't ruling out that terrorists were responsible for the blasts but refused to identify any group as a suspect as of now. a 34-year-old navy s.e.a.l. is missing after getting separated from his unit off the coast of hawaii. the navy and coast guard and honolulu fire department are assisting in the search effort. they are notify fiing the family about his disappearance. evidence that the housing market is rebounding. the national association of realtors says that home sales remained strong last month and prices had the largest gains since 2005. last month builders filed for the largest number of building permits in four years. what started out as a viral solution holds the top spot on the billboards music chart. ♪ i'm sure you already know what this is. this is the harlem shake and it's soared to number one because they are counting youtube views in its tracking of songs. the harlem shake is a soundtrack for numerous, as you can see, viral dance videos and i dare to say, i'm going to make a version of that in the coming days. >> would you start that for us? 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[ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums you'll forget you had heartburn. the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf., and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we've shared what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. bp's also committed to america. we support nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. one of america's biggest cities is facing a financial crisis right now. it may go bankrupt. detroit used to be america's fifth largest city. that was back in 1960. it's now slipped to 18th having lost half of its population. this afternoon, michigan's governor told reporter he's putting off a decision on whether to put a special manager in charge of the city's finances and in a break from the kind of politics we often see here in washington, the governor went out of his way to avoid the blame game. >> we shouldn't be spending any time on the blame question. this isn't about the last year. this isn't about what's going on since mayor bing. this is an issue that's struck urly been there for decades. and if you look at what it behind all this, it's this, the decline in population. >> a huge decline in population. let's discuss what is going on. detroit's mayor is joining us. mayor bing, thanks for coming in. >> thank you, wolf. my pleasure. >> do you agree that the key to the economic problems has been the depleting population? >> yeah. i mean, that's one of the issues, no doubt about it, because your revenue from taxes is based on your population and we've lost over half of our population in the last 20 years or so. and until we can get stable and then start growing again, it's going to be a very, very difficult situation here. >> it's hard to believe the city has gone -- the actual city of detroit has gone from 1.4 million to 700,000. so why is detroit now poe technically on the verge of bankruptcy? >> a big reason. there are a lot of different reasons. i don't think the city was managed very well by its leadership, number one. number two, there was a huge loss of population. so therefore, a huge loss of revenue from a taxing standpoint. i think the other thing is the state. the state has not been as good to detroit as they should have been. we lose revenue based on population loss. most of it involves around revenue and, you know, we can't cut our way back out of this problem. i think we've cut as much as we can cut. we've got to think about how we can raise revenue again. >> so how do you get out of this problem? what's your plan? >> well, i think the governor has a plan. i've had two or three different plans that i've shared with the state. they've never told me that they didn't like our plan. so on a going forward basis, to fix the city, i think we're going to use a plan that i have in place. but the governor now is -- has to make a decision whether an emergency manage ser going to come into the city and take the opportunity to run the finances of the city. so we're waiting for the governor to make that choice and once he makes that choice, then we'll figure out what our next steps are going to be. >> some other big cities not far from you have gone through similar problems in the decades. pittsburgh, the steel industry, can cleveland. but they seem to be doing so much better right now. they've got new industries, they've got new talent that have come in there. detroit -- we know the automobile industry has suffered but it's come back dramatically. look at this commercial that chrysler put out at last year's super bowl. >> what does a town that's been to hell and back know about the finer things in life? well, i'll tell you. more than most. you see, it's the hottest fires that make the hardest steel. add hard work and conviction and a know-how that runs generations deep to every last one of us. that's who we are. that's our story. >> we see the automobile gm, chrysler, ford, they are doing well right now. so why isn't detroit doing well? >> well, you know, none of those plants are in the city of detroit. at one time, 20, 30 years ago, detroit had a lot of the automotive oem plants in the city of detroit. but as the industry started to shrink, they shut down the plants in detroit and a lot of the revenue that we were getting from a taxing standpoint or even people paying taxes is no longer here. i do believe detroit is going to come back but we are not going to be the same city that we were 30 years ago. it's going to be a smaller city based on population and we can't be as dependent on one industry as we were for the last 40 or 50 years. we've got to diversify and we are doing that. the health care industry is growing at a double-digit rate in the last five years. they are projected to continue that growth for another five years. you'd be surprised that just from the theater district -- outside of new york city, we have the most theater seats in any other city other than new york. so we're looking to try to grow that area. so those are things that are starting to happen and we've just got to be a little patient but at the same time, we can't continue to go down the same road as we are. >> it's the home of motown so there's a lot of history there. what are the chances that you will file for bankruptcy? >> i think they are very slim because, once again, it will really -- when we've got aaa ratings from three -- our state has got a high rating. i think it's probably bb plus. we've got two of the surrounding counties that are aaa. and if in fact detroit were to file for bankruptcy, it would have a negative impact on the counties surrounding us as well as the state. so i don't think anybody want to go in that direction. >> mayor, good luck to you. good luck to all of the folks in detroit. we hope you guys come back. >> thank you so very much. we appreciate the support. >> dave bing is the mayor of detroit. a former senator makes a startling revelation. he was long known as a family man but he's just revealing a major secret he's kept for three decades. that's coming up. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." all waking up. connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. ♪ it's going to be amazing. and exciting. and maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. we're going to wake the world up. and watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. cisco. tomorrow starts here. cisco. througet a sealy queen set $500 on befor just $399.osturepedic. even get 3 years interest-free financing on tempur-pedic. but hurry, sleep train's presidents' day sale ends sunday. a 30-year-old secret is now out t involves one former u.s. senator and the daughter of another. cnn's brian todd is coming into "the situation room." he's got the details of what happened. what's this all about? >> wolf, this is something you might find in a hollywood version of a washington political drama. two families, iconic in the senate, royalty in the republican party. and infidelity long ago between two members of those families produces a child out of wedlock t is a deep secret for decades and because someone apparently about to go public with it all know, it blows up. he was an immensely powerful and influential senator, a republican icon who voted to impeach president clinton over the lewinsky scandal. >> mr. domenici, guilty. >> he says truthfulness is the first pillar of a good character. >> i think there's an element of hypocrisy, no question. >> reporter: matt cooper says that now because we're finding out while domenici was blasting bill clinton, he was hiding from everyone, including his own family, that he fathered a child out of wedlock several years early and with the daughter of another republican legend, former republican senator paul laxalt. pete domenici has said that he's aware of this for several months. my past action has caused hurt and disappointment to my wife, children, family, and others. i deeply regret this and am very sorry for my behavior. >> what do you make about the revelation and the timing so many years later? >> it seems like someone forced their hands. someone was going to write about it. so they thought they would come out and be forthright about it. >> indeed, michelle laxalt says, recently information has come to me that this sacred situation might be twisted, rewritten out of whole cloth and shopped to press outlets large and small in a vicious attempt to smear, hurt, and diminish pete domenici. they sent the statements to the al kwer key journal newspaper. it's not clear if the journal would have taken the information public. the journal john robertson wrote an article on it but declined an interview with cnn. six years ago, when their connection was largely secret, michelle laxalt appeared on "larry king live" defending pete domenici. he had been involved in a scan can dal over firing u.s. attorneys. >> he's a totally honorable man. when you're attacking the integrity of a man who's been in public service for his entire lifetime, great sacrifice, supporting no fewer than eight children and with the many sacrifices and the many contributions senator domenici has made to the country and to the state of new connection mexico. >> now michelle call it is one night's mistake. domenici retired from the state in 2009. he declined an interview with cnn. their son, adam laxalt, e-mailed us today. he said, i have lived my entire life as a private citizen and intend to remain one. i plan to address personal issues privately and will not be commenting or joining any public discussion, wolf. >> did he know that senator domenici was his father? >> i e-mailed him back asking him that question. they say in their statements that they did not want to reveal their parenthood of adam laxalt. michelle laxalt said that she chose to raise him as a single parent and only asking that domenici avail himself for health-related purposes. it is not clear at all whether she let him know that pete domenici was the father. >> brian todd, thanks very much for that report. syria's bloody war made its way into the heart of the capital today. coming up, details of a car bomb that wounded at least 200 people and killed 53. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. whoa! you really feel all 335 foot-pounds of torque. it's chevy truck month! silverado was also recognized for the lowest cost of ownership. hey, what are you gonna do with it? end table. oh. 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[ coyote howls ] how about no more surprises? now you can get all the online trading tools you need without any surprise fees. ♪ it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. a day of terrible atrocities in syria's civil war. at least three car bombs went off. cnn's international correspondent ivan watson reports. >> reporter: in the heart of the syrian capital on thursday, syrian state media is reporting at least 53 people killed by this enormous blast and more than 200 wounded. and if you look at the video, the images have that have been posted online and broadcast on state television, you can see the devastating impact where cars were hurled across streets and surrounding buildings. seriously damaged. the blast took place, we're told, within about 20 yards of one of the main headquarters of the ruling bath party in damascus, in syria. of course, there were also several schools in the immediate vicinity as well. and we're hearing reports that children are among the casualties and that the schools called out for parents to come and pick up their kids for safety to bring them home. syrian's state media was reporting interviews with some of the survivors and bystanders and they all uniformly condemned syrian rebel factions, accusing them of the attack. >> translator: this is terrorism. this is murder. this cannot be endorsed of islam. may god curse them. they come and kill our women and children and then claim that it is in the name of islam. what kind of islam are they talking about? >> reporter: now wolf, as of thursday evening there have still been no claims of responsibility, not even from one hard line islam mist group called the musruf front. meanwhile, another group that calls itself the syrian national coalition published a statement that it strongly condemns without any reservation the bombings that justify the fall of innocent civilians or those premeditated and planned targeted attacks on civilians. wolf, the battle for damascus is still far from over. within minutes of this major car barack obamaing, there were reports of it taking place in other parts of damascus and sadly we're going to see many more civilian casualties before the fate of this ancient city is decided. wolf? >> ivan watson reporting for us. i'm joined by fareed zakaria. on syria, fareed, do you think the president is reconsidering his opposition to arming those rebels? >> i doubt it very much, wolf. ivan's report actually highlights just the difficulty of getting involved. remember, it appears to be that this might have been the work of one of the rebel factions. so would the united states arm those rebel factions engaging in this kind of terrorism? would they find cleaner ones? how do you control the factions that you are arming? this is the situations that have stayed obama from arming them. we see there is a free for all. we know that there are many forces against the government but they do appear to be some supporting the government. in the middle of that, to inject american military man ohpower, even just advisers, training, or arms is to get the united states involved in something that looks like it could get a lot messier no matter what. >> a lot of administration officials have said to me, justified the president's refusal to arm those rebels. you arm some of them, you don't know where those arms, those weapons are going to wind up. they are going to wind up in the hands of a terrorist organization. you've got to be careful. that's one of the main reasons that president obama rejected that. michael lawrence said something intriguing this week, quoting the prime minister of benjamin netanyahu that israel believes that iran will breach the red line of nuclear progress by early in the summer. they will have enough new sent trifujs to really be on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb. what do you make of this early summer red line? >> i think it's fascinating, wolf. i'm glad you picked up on it. because there is no magic moment here. the iranians are moving in an incremental fashion. it's not clear what that red line is. it means they will have enough enriched uranium to potentially convert it into fuel rods and such the the really interesting question is why are the israelis publicly putting this out there? my questions is that the prime minister netanyahu has little room to maneuver. he's had to make a deal with people in power who are not in favor of an israeli strike. that means his only hope is to have the americans do the work for him. so he's putting out a red line there which could force president obama's hand and could force him into action. i don't know if it will work but i am as intrigued as you are, why would the israeli ambassador set this up in a way that by early summer the u.s. administration has to act or seem to be countenancing the iranians crossing a red line. >> on march 20th, assuming the trip goes off, they will have a lot to discuss. fareed, thanks very much. coming up a new outrage at airport checkpoints. airport checkpoints. id caght? 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[ angry gibberish ] [ breathes deeply ] ♪ oh, what a relief it is! music: "make someone happy" music: "make someone happy" ♪it's so important to make someone happy.♪ it's so important to make meone happy.♪ ♪make just one someone happy ♪and you will be happy too. then you're going to love this. right now they're only $14.95! wow-a grt deal just got a whole lot better. hurry. $14.95 won't last. the transportation security administration is apologizing to a 3-year-old little girl. rene marsh has the story. >> reporter: lucy has spine na bif da and is wheelchair bound. tsa agents at the airport took away her stuffed animal and pulled aside the 3-year-old saying she needed a pat-down. the child's mom videotaped part of the since dent. it was her first time flying. the family was headed to disney world. her dad said he didn't know the rules but patting down a 3-year-old just felt unreasonable. >> if it's to the point where it's acceptable to pat down 3-year-old girls in a wheelchair just so everybody feels a little better, i don't personally believe that's worth it. >> reporter: tsa says any child 12 and under should not be patted down. it's a last resort. the tsa regrets inaccurate guidance was provided to this family during screening and offers its apology. >> i don't want strangers to lay their hands on my child. that's not going to happen unless there's a really good reason. >> after 30 minutes, supervisors allowed him to carry his daughter through security without a pat-down. once they did get on the plane, things got better. >> we had a great time at disney world. in contrast to the tsa, it seemed like everybody at disney went out of their way to make lucy feel like she was very special. >> wolf, forks says that the one thing he would say to the agent who tried to subject his crying daughter to a pat-down is, know the rules of the tsa. wolf? >> rene, thanks very much. and you're in "the situation room." happening now, with the federal government facing massive spending cuts, workers can expect less pay, even some layoffs. but will the lawmakers who voted for these cuts watch their own salaries shrink. and looking at a medical bill is enough to make you sick. we're going to he can pose some of the shocking secrets behind sky-high health care costs. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> with no deal in sight, beginning eight days from now, workers are getting ready for the worst pay cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and a lot more. but will that misery be shared at all by congress? our chief congressional correspondent dana bash is working the story for us. what's the answer? >> the legislative brampbl would see a 9% cut. it includes congressional staff, capitol police, capitol physicians. pretty much everybody except for the people who wrote the law that put this doomsday scenario into effect. pain from forced spending cuts is a week away and lawmakers are preparing for the fallout. >> we've actually budgeted with a 10% cut in mind. >> we reorganized our office last december. we had to let people go then because we were anticipating at least a 16% cut. >> reporter: but get this, members of congress, the very people who voted to put these cuts in place, won't see any change to their own $174,000 a year paychecks. they are exempt. they didn't include their salaries in these spending cuts. so before lawmaker left town for a week-long recess without doing anything to head off the coming cuts -- >> congressman, dana bash with cnn. >> we took an informal survey. >> we are all in this together and we are all suffering together. >> most lawmakers in both parties said yes. >> would you take a pay cut? >> absolutely. let's make sure that we're doing our part as well. >> but cutting lawmakers' pay now is not so easy. the 27th amendment to the constitution prohibits members of congress from changing their pay until after the next election, though they can't k get creative, write checks to charity or the treasury. ironically, some tea party-backed lawmakers are reluctant to give up their own pay. >> do you think members of congress should take a pay cut? >> no. i think they should raise our pay. >> republican billy long was elected in 2010 to cut washington spending. >> it's a minuscule part. i don't think it will have an effect. >> will you, as a member of congress, take a cut michelle back man talked only about her staff, not her. >> we'd like to keep everybody on the payroll if we have but they will have to work fewer hours. so we're looking at reduction in our staff and that's what we need to do. ironically, one of the biggest opponents of congress cutting its pay is one of the wealthiest. nancy pelosi says she knows others are not so fortunate. >> most of my colleagues, the bread winners in their families, a pay cut to me doesn't mean as much. >> beyond lawmakers' own salaries, some are going out of their way to show that they are saving uncle sam money in other ways. senator rand paul, for example, of kentucky announced that he's returning $600,000 of his office's operating budget to the federal treasury. he did $500,000 last year. he's doing this by cutting on paper clips to ink to following the philosophy of the tea party. he said it's possible. that's a separate issue, of course, from his own pay. >> if he wants to make a contribution out of his own salary, you can get the same salary but if he wants to make a contribution to the u.s. treasury, nothing is stopping him or anyone else? >> you're exactly right. the tricky thing is whether or not -- that's what they can do. it's hard for them at this point because they didn't, as i said -- they are exempt from last year. it's very hard for them to technically change that but they can make symbolic moves. >> right. take out the paycheck, write u.s. treasury -- >> and write a press release. >> dana, thanks very much. a steady drumbeat about the forced spending cuts that are looming. why do we keep lurching from crisis to crisis. happening now, a vote of confidence in the president's controversial tax cut deal with republicans. >> so yes you're going to run into trouble in the house. >> it's been a day of dramatic changes in washington's debt crisis. >> so much silence at lockdown that there is now a conversation going on between this building and capitol hill. >> the key thing here to watch, wolf, is that nancy pelosi is the house has got to deliver an awful lot of democrats. how many republicans will john boehner be able to deliver? >> we now know the united states will in fact go over the fiscal can cliff at midnight tonight. >> it's almost like whack a mole. as soon as they get one thing done, another one pops up. >> gloria borger is here. >> it's groundhog day and you're in it and i'm in it and you're in it. we're going through it all over again. so let's do a little -- we're going to take a little trip down memory lane, okay? december 2010, wolf, we showed that in that clip. that was one month after republicans took control of the house. you remember when the tea party was so popular? congress came back for a lame duck session because the government was running out of money and the bush tax cuts were expiring. so what did they do? they extended some of those tax cuts, extended them all and guess what they di they kicked the can down the road. that will be a theme of our discussion, wolf, kicking the can down the road. so that brings us to summer -- >> the summer of 2011 and that debt ceiling crisis. >> that long, hot summer. remember that fight? there was a grand bargain, you'll recall, and then there wasn't a grand bargain. the speaker and the president thought they could agree to something. that fell through. finger pointing on both sides went down to the wire. the credit rating was downgraded and finally there was a deal to set up another deadline and, of course, kick the can down the road, which, again, they did. >> new year's eve, most recently, we were all waiting for that fiscal cliff. we were working really hard to make sure we didn't go over the fiscal cliff. we went over but just by a day or so. >> by the way, this was a manmade fiscal cliff. >> right. >> and this was supposed to be the moment when you would finally get the real deal to finally reduce the deficit in a substantial way. what did they do? they did raise taxes on the wealthy but, as the president had promised during the campaign, but they put off the budget cutting again until now where we're facing this march 1 deadline. so the american people kind of feel like we've been through this. we're tired of this. we're not sure we believe that this is a real crisis and, by the way, the american public believes that they are going to find another way to kick the can down the road. >> there is some good news, though, gloria, and it happened today and i was very pleased to hear that the president of the united states picked up the phone, called the house speaker, john boehner, he called the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell. they had good conversations, we are told. i don't know if anything was achieved. but 24 hours ago when dan pfeiffer, the white house senior adviser was here, i said to him, why doesn't the president at least pink up the phone and call these guys, get together the way tip o'neil used to do, the way ron neld reagan used to do and work out a deal? >> and the answer to that is serve still jockeying. the president and folks that i've talked to at the white house are very concerned about the potential impact this could have on the economy. if you go over this deadline and these furloughs really start taking effect, don't forget, it's not as if on march 1 everything kicks in. it's going to be gradual. but at some point somebody is going to lose this fight and it could well be the american people. so the president did pick up the phone. the question is whether it's going to have any real impact. >> i hope it it does. >> i hope they will go over to the white house and get involved in real negotiations. >> but here's the problem. republicans say no way. we need a 50/50 deal. >> we'll see what happens. >> the vice president joe biden today made another strong pitch for action on gun violence. he told public officials they need to worry more about the survival of children and not their own political careers. let's bring in our crime and justice correspondent joe johns. >> the vice president said there's a moral price to be paid on the issue of inaction on gun control. he tried to put pressure on politicians who might think twice for voting against measures that fight gun violence. vice president biden appearing in connecticut on thursday, not far from the scene of the newtown school shooting, which many see as a political turning point in the national debate over guns. >> an assumption in american politics today is that this is kind of a third rail of politics, that if you take this on, somehow there will be a severe political price to pay for doing it. people say and you read and people right about the political risk and why the unacceptable take on. i say it's unacceptable not to take these on. >> though the december 14th massacre is still fresh in the memory, how congress will respond to newtown is an open question. the best guess is that expanded background checks for guns has a passage. in an interview with john king at harvard university issued a warning for congress. >> will the nra target punish, seek to punish members of congress who decide to change their position or decide to vote yes on these issues? >> it depends on where this finally coming out but the answer is yes. >> the vice president and his supporters say that the public is on the side of gun control and the nra doesn't have power to pull strings on capitol hill like it used to. >> if they are afraid of the gun lobby, they shouldn't be. >> to counter the administration's gun control push, the nra ran newspaper ads in five key states where democratic senators are expected to face tough re-election fights. it's too early to say the nra has lost its clout on capitol hill. >> gun owners who support the nra had been steeled in their resolve because of the administration's proposals. look, the bottom line is the president will get some of what he want but not all of what he wants and at the end of the day the nra will have to live with all of that. >> the president's political action committee organizing for america says it's launching for a new push to rally hill support for 100 gun events in 80 congressional districts. the battle is being joined. >> it is a battle indeed. joe, thanks. as walmart goes, so does a worried america. what is causing slowing sales at walmart. and the death of a russian boy may have serious repercussions for more than 100,000 orphans. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. ♪ make it worth watching. ♪ the new 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit. stop! stop! stop! come back here! humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back with great ideas like our optional better car replacement. if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. call... and ask one of our insurance experts about it today. hello?! we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, and we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. [car alarm blaring] call now and also ask about our 24/7 support and service. call... and lock in your rate for 12 months today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? walmart announced that it is taking a hit in sales in recent weeks. and ali velshi is joining us from new york. why are walmart's numbers right now declining? they are not so good. >> walmart because of the number of people who shop at walmart, we get a real read on what people are doing. obviously walmart is a value operation. you're dealing with a lot of people looking to stretch their dollar a little further and they are getting hit by three things. one is, at the end of the year, at the end of last year when we had the fiscal cliff, payroll taxes went up. there had been a discount on payroll taxes. so everybody who earns a wage let's a little bit less money. number two, tax refund are delayed because the tax departments couldn't get things worked out. number three, gasoline prices have been going up steadily so the combination of those three things is cutting into disposable income. you are still making designifican designificadecisions to cut back a little bit. >> why is walmart such an important barometer? >> when we get employment numbers and things like that, it's an extrapolation. with mall mart, you are talking about a 200 million purchasers, customers worldwide a week, about 64% of their sales worldwide come from the united states. so more people go through a walmart than do pretty much anything else in america on a weekly or monthly basis. also, walmart has sam's club, like costco, a wholesaler where you buy in bigger lots. 47 million members and half are small businesses or entrepreneurs buying from sam club. you get a small business se sentiment as well. >> what is walmart's condition right now? tell us about small businesses across the united states and about the broader u.s. economy. >> people are uncertain. in the case of the broader u.s. economy, higher gas pricese, delays on tax returns, means if you got less money in your pocket, you're spending it differently. your discretionary spending is pulling back. the extra things you're pulling back on and what it tells us about those businesses who shop at sam' club or walmart is that they are keeping less inventory on hand, buying smaller amounts of things because they are uncertain about what is going to happen. are the forced budgets cuts that we're going to be discussing next week, are they going to have an effect on what people are spending? it tells you a story of uncertainty. it's almost the new normal. small businesses are uncertain. individuals who earn a little less than average are uncertain and that's what walmart is telling us. >> excellent explanation. ali, thank you for joining us. >> always a pleasure. coming up, who needs a smartphone. google introduced smart glasses so you can search the internet without even looking down. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." the bar harbor bake is really worth trying. 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[ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. my favorite entree is the lobster lover's dream. what's yours? come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. one of the world's most recognizable streets is shut down after a deadly shooting this morning. kate bolduan is monitoring that. what happened? >> can you believe it, right on the vegas strip. three people were killed on a violent scene in vegas. someone stopped at a stoplight and shot into a maserati. you can see the taxi cab bursting into flames. police are searching for a black range rover sport with large, black rims. a massive winter storm is dropping snow, sleet, and ice. new jersey has declared a state of emergency and cans satisfy authorities are telling people to just, quote, stay home. winter warnings watches and advisories. dumping rain across the south where tornadoes are possible. and making the decision to retire can can be tough for anyone. but the man believed to be the world's oldest marathoner says it is finally time. after all, he says he's 101 years old. he's run nine marathons and after one last race this weekend in hong kong, le stop racing competitively. he started running marathons when he was, if you can believe it, 89 years old and says he will run for fun but the age has caught up with him. >> i don't believe that either. >> 89 and running a marathon? 100 years old, running a marathon? >> i tell what you i know. >> he's amazing. >> he's 101 now. >> god bless him. >> i know. i think it's time -- >> maybe half a marathon. >> he's going to dial it back. he's putting me to shame. yes. up next, when just looking at a medical bill can be enough to make you sick, you're going to see how one family is almost destroyed by the astronomical costs of getting well. >> i thought, what am i going to do? i've worked my whole life. this is how my life is going to end? male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums it's lots of things. all waking up. connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. ♪ it's going to be amazing. and exciting. and maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. we're going to wake the world up. and watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. cisco. tomorrow starts here. i have to know the weather patterns. i upgraded to the new sprint direct connect. so i can get three times the coverage. 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. waiting for your wrinkle cream to work? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair has the fastest retinol formula. to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®. if you've ever had a bill from a hospital, you know what it's like. high prices, confusing codes. together with "time" magazine, we're going to shed some light on the secret world of health care costs. the special report, be "bitter pill, why medical bills are killing us." it's based on a seven-month investigation into these costs and it shows how understanding them is key to fixing our health care system. drew griffin of cnn's special investigation unit is covering the story on this end. >> reporter: bob winecoff is finally healthy enough to walk the short steps to his mailbox but it's a step he dreds because he knows what is waiting. you might think you've heard this story before but not this one because the health care industry has managed to keep this largely a secret. this story is about what's actually in bob's bills and how he and maybe you are getting completely ripped off. >> this drawer here and this drawer here are nothing but medical bills. >> last month, a sudden hacking cough put him in a hospital in an intensive care unit. he had problems breathing. >> i made reference that i wanted to breathe and that's where it all started. i don't remember. >> it was the bill that could eventually bankrupt bob and becky winecoff. >> yes, beautiful. >> at 60 years old, struggling to keep a small business going, bob had just switched to a discount insurance company. after just four days of treatment, the hospital was telling becky her husband's insurance would not even come close to covering the costs. >> she said, the bill is up to $80,000 already and said, mrs. weinkauf, i hope you're responsible for this bill. and i got in the car, and i was just hysterical. i thought, i have worked my whole life. this is how my life is going to end? >> $80,000 was only the very beginning. >> all together, i totalled them up, about 400,000. >> well over. in fact, $474,016.60. this is the summary of those charges. broad categories with few details. becky started to ask questions and began to see just why health care in america is so expensive. everything bob touched, used, or was given came with a whopping charge. nurses pricked his finger to check his glucose levels 190 times, $39 a piece. the total bill, $7,410 just for that. asking for that ventilator because he was having trouble breathing? 32 separate billings. total cost, $65,600. if he had been five years older and qualified for medicare, all of these items would have been a tiny fraction of what he was billed. as it turns out, even asking for a urine bottle cost him extra. >> aren't you surprised they even charged you for that? isn't there a charge for the room itself? >> oh, yeah. there's a flat rate charge. i don't know what's included. i guess it's the room and the bed. because everything they brought in, whether it be kleenexes, a urinal bottle, some kind of tubing that i needed for the iv or whatever, all of that was an extra charge. >> reporter: think that's outrageous? take a look at this little white cup. you probably last used one of these getting ketchup for french fries. well, if you've been hospitalized, you probably recognize it, too. it's that little white cup the nurse carries on a tray to bring your aspirin. well, i want you to remember this little white cup, because in a minute i'm going to tell you a little hospital billing secret about these little cups that you will never forget. does anything surprise you anymore as to what particularly a hospital will bill? >> no, absolutely not. >> reporter: pat palmer has made a career battling hospitals over outrageous invoices. she's not battling for the weinkauf. she runs her business out of her basement in roanoke, virginia. each time the phone rings, it's most likely a hospital discharged patient suffering sticker shock. >> just flabbergasted of the costs that's involved in the treatment that they had. they never dreamed it would be that high. >> reporter: so where in the world do the hospitals come up with these prices? that, too, is sha rouded in mystery. it's off a master list called the charge master. a journalist steven brill says any hospital can charge any amount or anything. >> it's a price list and nobody can explain how this price list happened and more importantly nobody wants to try to explain what the costs are behind it. it's totally irrational. >> reporter: a cost of tissue, a muk cows recovery system. >> certainly as a patient could you would think that's a nice gesture or gift. >> reporter: remember the little white cup? it's billed as oral administration fees. >> i've had a patient that had $5,000 worth of charges just for the little white cup to hand you your medication three or four times a day. >> reporter: how did they get away from it? mostly they don't. only the uneducated, unrepresented, or under or uninsured get charged full price. big insurance companies negotiate discount rates. medicare goes even further determining preset prices, maximums a hospital can charge. but for people like bob and becky weinkauf, hospitals can charge whatever they want. >> can they ruin you? >> of course they could. >> if we sold our house and everything we owned, it would be a quarter of the bill. there's no way. it would kill us, literally. >> reporter: drew griffin, cnn. >> rick stengel, "time" magazine is joining us. >> we have a generic acetaminophen tablet and hospitals usually mark that up by 1,000 percent. the detail that got me is you know how if you're getting surgery in a place where the surgeon makes an x with a pen, they charge 6 or $7 for the ink where they are going to operate. >> it's amazing that they can get away with these kinds of things. how is that possible? >> it's because the system isn't really being monitored ultimately. it's a seller's market on the part of the hospitals and health care providers but buyers don't have any opportunity to negotiate. we don't have any knowledge. even though we think it's an industry that is too regulated. >> what do you think washington needs to do to fix this s? >> one of the things that they do is medicare is a hero there because the federal government medicare has to monitor costs and can't pay more than a few percentage points more than what it actually costs the hospital but even in obama care and traditional federal legislation, medicare can't actually evaluate the costs of drugs, evaluate the efficacy of drugs and that would bend the cost curve. so there are different things that washington can do and, again, it's a nonideological piece. both republicans and democrats are at fault in not monitoring this process and not allowing the pharmaceutical companies and the hospitals to really be too much on their own. >> correct me if i'm wrong, this is the first time "time" magazine has ever devoted this entire section to one writer, one story, 20,000 words to a single subject. is that right? >> yes, that is right. but i thought the story was so important and steve did such a fine job. this can change the situation. >> thank for doing it, rick stengel of "time" magazine. >> thank you, wolf. wait until you see what top hospital administrations are paid millions and millions of dollars while health care is crippling companies. don't miss part two of the "time" magazine special. that will air tonight at 8:00 p p.m. eastern right here on cnn. russian's ban on adoptions by american families have left thousands of kids waiting for a family. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history. and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. a 3-year-old boy adopted from russia is dead and texas authorities are calling his death suspicious. russian officials are not holding back judgment. but caught in the crossfire, american parents desperate to adopt and russia's orphans, more than 100,000 of them, waiting to be part of a family. here is cnn's phil black. >> reporter: sonia is only 8 years old but she already knows a lot about love and rejection. she was given up at birth, adopted not long after but then returned to the orphanage when she was 5 because her adoptive parents realized she had learning difficulties. i'd like to go back to my family, she says. i love them and they just left me. this boy spent most of his day in a wheelchair. he has spina bifida. he's dreaming that his condition is cured so a family wants to adopt him. this 6-year-old doesn't know why he was given up at birth. he says, my family kicked me out. these parents all live in a moscow organ naj. 3 to 18-year-olds, some live with disabilities, most don't. they are among russia's 130,000 orphans. despite the obvious need for more people who are willing to love these children, russia has banned americans from adopting here and some officials are now pushing for a total ban on all international adoptions. the orphanage director supports international adoption because she says there aren't yet enough russian families willing to do it. she says she hopes the government will encourage more russians to adopt. some officials fought for the ban on american adoptions because they claim russian children are often mistreated in the united states. it was also a response to an american law targeting russian human rights abusers. critics of the ban, like the tens and thousands of russians who marched against it, say the country's orphans are suffering. the debate has split russian society. few here have ever spoken to its orphans. she has been cared for by the state since she was 7. she's now 16 and no longer hopes to be adopted but she says when she was younger she wanted it desperately. because, she says, it's always better for a child to be part of a family. phil black, cnn, moscow. >> hundreds of russian children had been matched with u.s. families when the ban went into effect. the state department here in washington is hoping to complete them all but russian courts have only approved about 50 that were in their final stages. coming up, the former first lady laura bush has a strong message for a group featuring her in their brand-new ad. take me out of it. the issue dividing conservatives, up next in our strategy session. you can prevent gas with beano meltaways, or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later. oh, somebody out 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>> no, i think that would be the best thing for our nation, if that were to happen. you know, donna's right. he won't get an oscar, but i wish he did. i wish that was an act. but i'm afraid it was the real chuck hagel. he didn't even know the president's iran policy. and iran is probably going to be the biggest issue that the secretary of defense has to deal with. wolf, i'm just worried from a substantiative point of view that at a time like this, america is going to have a very bumbly, stumbly secretary of defense. he says his job is not even to make policy. we could do so much better and this could have been a bipartisan process. the president probably picked the only person that could have created this result and barack obama wants him. and it's not unprecedented, by the way. you know, in 1989, of course, the democratic senate voted down, absolutely rejected former senator john howard to be george h.w. bush's secretary of defense. so all this talk that it's without precedent doesn't make sense. >> we'll see what happens between now and tuesday and then on tuesday, considering that name is still up. let's move on to another issue. a group put out an ad promoting same-sex marriage. they used the clip of laura bush and dick cheney, if that matter, as well as colin powell, saying everyone should have the right to get married. today the group pulled the ad, changed it, because they said laura bush complained about her clip in there. the people who put out the ad said, we used public comments for this ad from american leaders who have expressed support for civil marriage. we appreciate mrs. bush's previous comments, but are sorry she didn't want to be included in the ad. ari, this is a very dicey issue for a lot of republicans and a bunch of democrats, i should say, as well. >> yeah, and i have not talked to mrs. bush about it, but knowing her, i don't think her view is any different. i think what she said she meant, it came from her heart. i do think this is in keeping with the bush's desire to just really retire from active duty, combat, and politics. and so she didn't want to be in it. it's very gracious of the group to pull the ad. they could have continued to run it. it was gracious of them to do so so. but at the end of the day, wolf, i suppose all of this publicity helps their cause. >> do you think the president, donna, will ask the justice department to weigh in on the defense of marriage act, which bill clinton signed into law, saying that marriage should only be between a man and a woman? it's going to be coming up. oral arguments at the end of march, a final supreme court decision by the end of june. should the president actively tell the justice department, go ahead and say this defense of marriage act is unconstitutional? >> well, he's been a lead on this issue and i think it's important that the president continue his consistent support for marriage equality. and i'm glad that the group issued an apology to mrs. bush, and of course, in deference to her, because they have extremely -- of course, they respect her and they respect her views, but this is an issue, as you well know, the american people are well ahead of the politicians. and they believe that it's time that we are not only go full speed ahead with marriage equality, but end discrimination against gays and lesbians in our society. so i would hope the president would push forward. >> and ask the justice department to formally express its own position against doma? >> absolutely. and i've fought against doma at the time and i will continue to raise my voice and urge the president to do the same with the justice department. >> donna, ari, guys, thanks very much. at the top of the hour, employees behaving badly with company phones. we have disturbing findings in an exclusive report. you don't expect employees of the fbi to need this kind of reminder. >> when you're given an fbi blackberry, it's for official use. it's not to text, you know, the woman in another office who you found attractive or to send a picture of yourself in a state of undress. fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? 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>> google is really keeping this device under tight wraps. you have to tweet to google in 50 words or less what you would do if you had google glasses, but now there's still no word on when it will be available to the general public. >> what's coming? >> reporter: in the movie, "minority report," tom cruise uses cameras on his fingertips to help see crimes before they happen. google glass doesn't quite let you see the future, but it does allow you to record the present. >> okay, glass, take a picture. >> reporter: with simple vocal commands, the specks are being touted as allowing wearers to take photos, send text messages,ed and record video, all hands free. >> this is like taking an iphone smartphone and putting it on your body. >> reporter: the glasses don't have really lenses. they're a headband hooked up to wi-fi, allowing wearers to search the internet, see driving directions, and see language translations on the go. >> will people want to have this type of technology on their body at all times? if they do, it's a game changer. >> i always take pictures, so it's really convenient. it's right on my face. that's awesome. >> i think it's too much technology. i mean, it doesn't really let you enjoy the moment. >> reporter: as google refines their product, it's making the glass available to select beta testers. the testers will be winners chosen from a competition based on creative tweets, but winners will have to spend $1,500 to buy the device. that's more than the average laptop. >> that's expensive. >> reporter: expenses aside, google, a company known for internet search domination, is moving even further into the product market. its an destroydroid operating sw dominates the smartphone market, it's introduced the driver's license car, and now it's pushing into artificial intelligence. google glass, coming soon to a face near you. another hurdle for google is to really make this device fashionable. they've reportedly teamed up with eyewear designers to help redesign them. so there really is a push to make these glasses hip to wear. wolf? >> zane asher, thanks very much. now, shocking misbehavior by fbi employees. a deadly shooting and a fiery crash on the las vegas strip. a dramatic twist in the oscar pistorius case. the lead detective is charged with attempted murder. jimmy cart tells cnn his grandson clinched the election for president obama. plus, fish fry. there's a good chance you're not getting what you think. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." it's a laundry list of bad behavior, some of it even criminal, including mistresses, nude photographs, check fraud, and sexual favors. cnn has learned all of this and more is contained in confidentable fbi internal reports of misbehavior by fbi employees. drew griffin of cnn's special investigations unit has a exclusive report for us. drew, there are some pretty incredible stuff in all of this. >> reporter: wolf, this is an example of, it can happen anywhere, even at the fbi, where they're continuously warned what not to do at work. the fbi's motto is fidelity, bravery, integrity. agents take down bank robbers -- >> shots are being fired! >> reporter: -- and the mob. the fbi's polished image kept in the spotlight by countless tv shows and movies. >> i'm with the fbi. >> reporter: but there's another side to the fbi, contained in these confidential internal records obtained by cnn that show serious misconduct by employees and even supervisors. assistant fbi director candice will oversees the agency's office of professional responsibility. she sends out the reports four times a year to all 36,000 employees. >> we do our very best. we don't, obviously, if you know anything about our quarterlies, and they're not a public document, but we know that doesn't mean that cnn doesn't have a copy, there are no names. there are no locations. there are no job titles. we do our very best to sanitize the quarterlies so that the employees' identity is protected, while imparting as much knowledge as we can about what happen what happened, so that employees can learn about it. >> reporter: cnn obtained these summaries from the last year that include an employee who hid a recording device in a supervisor's office and did an unauthorized search of that office. another who was involved in a domestic dispute at a mistress' apartment, in which the police were called. another hid or destroyed electronic evidence. and one other employee repeatedly committed check fraud. and then there's the employee who married a drug user/dealer and lied about it. all of them were fired. knowing what this agency does, knowing what this agency is about, how can anybody be so stupid? >> well, you know, it's funny you say that, because we do -- we look at our cases and we are struck sometimes. i've been doing this a really long time. i've been doing this nine years at the fbi, and as long as i've been doing it, and there are days when i think, okay, i've seen it all, but i really have. i still get files and i think, wow, i never would have thought of that. >> but i've got to tell you, i don't think i would ever bug my boss's office, especially if my boss was an fbi agent? >> i know, it's extraordinary. i agree. there are some that really do just take the cake. that was one where, you know, planting a recording device and rifling through a briefcase and then lying about, that's why this employee -- that's why that's a former employee. >> reporter: the intern report shows a 14-day suspension for the employee who paid for a sexual favor at a massage parlor. using a personal cell phone to send nude photographs to other employees got a ten-day suspension. but there was only a five-day suspension for the employee who repeatedly used a government-issued blackberry to send sexually explicit messages to another employee at work. these actions follow misconduct we reported two years ago, that included sleeping with informants and viewing pornography on bureau computers. >> is that enough punishment for this kind of behavior? >> keep in mind, that if you lose a week's pay, that hurts. or two weeks' pay in some of those cases. and we have seen a rash of sexting cases and nude photograph cases, and people misusing their blackberry for these reasons. and we are hoping that getting the message out in the quarterlies is going to teach people, you can't do this stuff. you know, when you're given an fbi blackberry, it's for official use. it's not to text, you know, the woman in another office who you found attractive or to send a picture of yourself in a state of undress. >> reporter: in the last three years, the fbi disciplined 1,045 employees, 85 were fired. and will says the internal warnings sent out by her office do deter bad behavior. >> they do learn, because i've had employees e-mail me, stop me in the hallway, call me and say, you know, i didn't know you couldn't do that. >> drew is joining us now. o what do the employees say about this bad behavior? >> reporter: you know, we reached out to the fbi agents' association, who told us really the same thing that candice will at the fbi told us. although this looks really bad, you need to keep in mind that the ratio of disciplinary issues among fbi agents, especially, are among the lowe esest in the federal government and the private sector. we're really talking about, wolf, a small fraction of people doing some incredibly stupid things. >> very stupid, indeed. drew griffin, thanks very much. drew griffin in our special investigations unit, kate, doing an amazing, outstanding job. >> two great reports today. drew is working double duty today. you've got some new information on republican opposition to obama care, maybe slipping a little bit. >> maybe some new cracks in that opposition, wolf. six republican governors have already agreed to the provision expanding medicaid. and now, florida's rick scott, the governor there, who campaigned aggressively against the president's health care law, he is the seventh. cnn's national political correspondent, jim acosta is here with more details. so, jim, what's behind the suddenly reversal? >> well, it is another sign that the president's health care law may be here to stay, kate and wolf. republican governors who once vowed to strike it down are now starting to say, sign me up for a big part of the law. this is one flip-flop you won't find on a florida beach. the state's republican governor, rick scott, has gone from trying to erase the president's health care law to embracing one of its key provisions, its massive expansion of the medicaid program for the poor. >> i want every florida family to have access to high-quality health care. so we have a choice, okay? and it's not an easy choice, okay? but my job is to worry about every florida family. >> reporter: even before president obama signed the bill into law, scott was tapping into anti-obama care outrage to advance his political career. >> you could end up with government bureaucrats taking away your choices. >> reporter: first as a health care executive, airing tv ads, warning of government rationing -- >> i've been pretty tough on the president, but he asked for it. >> reporter: -- then running for governor of the state that led the charge against the act at the supreme court. even after the law was upheld, scott promised he would stand against its medicaid expansion. >> don't put more people on a government program that will always run out of money and ration care. >> reporter: health care advocate joanalker says the reason for the reversal is simple, to provide coverage for 16 million uninsured americans, the government is offering the medicaid money at no cost to the states. >> i think, you know, this is a time for common sense over politics. and there is federal money on the table here, and governors, i think, are beginning to realize they should accept it. >> scott joins a growing list of gop governors who are making the same move. from jan brewer, who once famously stuck her finger in the president's face. >> we can't simply wag our finger at the federal government. trust me, i tried that once. in short, the affordable care act isn't going anywhere. >> reporter: to ohio governor, john kasich. >> i can't look at the poor, i can't look at the mentally ill, i can't look at the addicted and think we ought to ignore them. >> reporter: but tea party leaders say they're not waving the white flag over health care just yet. >> i think in the long-term, we can overturn it. i do. >> reporter: you really -- >> time is on our side in this respect. it really kicks in in 2014. the full impact of it. millions of americans going to lose their private insurance. >> reporter: but we should point out, there are plenty of other big-name republican governors, like rick perry of texas, who are blocking the health care law's expanded medicaid coverage. and even those governors who are taking the medicaid money say there are parts of obama care that still make them sick. and as for the case down in florida, the reversal down there, still depends on what the legislature does. they have to sign off on what rick scott wants to do with the medicaid. >> but there are cracks among those republican governors. >> you know, the president has talked about this, about whether or not the tea party fever is breaking among some conservatives out there, and perhaps this is a sign of that. that when these governors see this money on the table, and then they decide to go for it, because they really their going to cover a lot of people. >> especially rick scott. i remember interviewing him when he was just kicking off his campaign, and that was -- this was the center of his campaign for governor. >> this is the reason why rick scott is the governor of florida. and for this to occur, remember, he's running for re-election next year, john kasich in ohio running for re-election next year. the tea party folks that we were talking to today say, maybe that has something to do with it and it might be smart politics in the long run, if you want to appeal to swing voters out there, accepting medicare money might not be a bad idea. >> might be the right thing to do for the people in their states as well. >> we'll see what happens in the legislature. jim acosta, thank you. another wild story today, a shooting, a fiery and deadly six-cash crash, and now an intense search for a luxury suv. all of this happening in the heart of one of america's top tourist destinations, the las vegas strip. that's where cnn's miguel marquez, he is there. miguel, what's the latest? >> the latest is the sheriff just held a press conference here to say that they now believe that all of this began in the valet section of the aria hotel on the vegas strip. it let out into the streets and became deadly. >> the fiery end to this horrible accident. >> reporter: a shocking shoot-out right on the vegas strip, in a city not easily shocked. >> to be in vegas, like all the lights and, you know, the whole thing, but, like, i mean, i don't believe it, still, that this is actually happening here. >> reporter: police say it started at 4:30 a.m. someone in a black range rover with dealer plates fired into this maserati, killing the driver, causing it to go out of control. the maserati continued through an intersection, and then smashed into this car, hard to tell, but that is a taxi cab. it burst into flames. the driver and passenger trapped inside died. >> this is investigating the engineering and mechanicals of that vehicle, to determine why it exploded and why it started on fire immediately. >> reporter: still on the loose, the black range rover with dealer plates, a common vehicle here. police warning citizens the occupants are armed and dangerous. >> make no mistake, we're going to pursue these individuals. this act is totally unacceptable. and we are going to make a very clear message to these individuals in regards to that. >> reporter: now, one thing to keep in mind, the car that exploded into flames, literally, the police describe it as exploding. they believe that it was not a propane tank, as they had earlier thought. it was just the force of that maserati, hitting that taxi cab that made it explode. they also say that there's now a multi-state manhunt for the occupants of that suv. of that black range rover. back to you guys. >> clearly they would love any help they can get from the public on trying to track that range rover suv sport down. miguel marquez, thanks so much, miguel. sentencing, a high-profile case in illinois. the former police sergeant drew peterson was ordered to serve 38 years in prison, yes, 38 years in prison, for the murder of his third wife. her death in 2004 was initially ruled an accidental bathtub drowning, but after peterson's fourth wife, stacy, disappeared in 2007, the case was reopened and peterson was charged with murder and conspiracy, convicted. stacy peterson still has not been found. and there are lots of frayed nerves on wall street after stocks suffered their biggest two-day drop so far this year. quite a roller-coaster. the dow, the nasdaq, and the s&p all lost ground again today and they're on track to post their worst week of 2013. the good news, they're still up, at least 3% for the year. he was a powerful republican senator, she was the daughter of one of the senate colleagues. now new revelations of a one-night stand and a secret son born decades ago. chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. 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[ male announcer ] when you wear dentures you may not know it, but your mouth is under attack. food particles infiltrate and bacteria proliferate. ♪ protect your mouth, with fixodent. the adhesive helps create a food seal defense for a clean mouth and kills bacteria for fresh breath. ♪ fixodent, and forget it. a one-night stand more than three decades ago has been revealed and it involves a powerful former republican senator, the daughter of another republican senator, and it turns out they had a son together. cnn's brian todd is piecing it all together for us. what are you finding out? >> wolf and kate, this is something you might see in a hollywood version of a washington political drama. two families, iconic in the senate, royalty in the republican party, and infidelity along ago between those two families produces a child out of wedlock. it is a deep secret for decades, and because someone was apparently about to go public with all of it, now it blows up. he was an immensely powerful and influential senator, a republican icon, who voted to impeach president clinton over the lewinsky scandal. >> mr. dmenchi, guilty. >>. >> reporter: at the time, he called president clinton's behavior tawdry. >> i think there's an element of hypocrisy, no question. >> reporter: matt cooper of the national journal says that now, because we're now finding out that while domenci was blasting bill clinton, he was hiding from his family that he had fathered a child out of wedlock several years earlier and it had been with the daughter of another legend, paul laxsalt. they just issued statements, acknowledging they're the parents of adam laxsalt, an attorney. he says, my past action has caused hurt can disappointment to my wife, children, family and others, i deeply regret this and am very sorry for my behavior? >> what do you make of the revelation and the timing of it so many years later? >> it seems like someone forced their hand, someone was going to write about it and so they decided it made sense to be forthright about it. >> michelle laxalt says in her statement, recently information has come to me that this sacred situation might be twisted, rewritten out of whole cloth, and shopped to press outlets large and small in a vicious attempt to smear, hurt and diminish beneath domenic. "the journal's" joe robertson wrote an article on it, but robertson dlied an interview with cnn and refused to explain any further. six years ago, when their connection was still largely secret, michelle laxalt appeared on cnn's larry king live, defending pete domenici. he'd been involved in a scandal over the firing of u.s. attorneys. >> senator pete domenici is an entirely honorable man. when you're attacking someone who has been in public service for his entire life, at great sacrifice, supporting no fewer than eight children, and with the many sacrifices and the many contributions senator domenici has made not only to the country, but to the state of new mexico. >> michelle laxalt now calls her liaison with domenici, quote, one night's mistake. domenici retired from the senate in 2009. pete domenici declined an interview with cnn. we could not reach michelle laxalt. but their son, adam laxalt e-mailed us earlier today, saying, quote, i have lived my entire life as a private citizen and intend to remain one. i plan to address personal issues privately and will not be commenting or joining any public discussion. kate, wolf? >> i feel really bad for adam laxalt in this entire thing. i mean, did you find out -- did he know that senator domenici was his father or was this even a surprise to him? >> it could be a surprise to him. it's very unclear. i e-mailed him back when he e-mailed me today, asking, did you know? he never replied to that. domenici and michelle laxalt have said in their statements that they did not want this revealed at all at any point and had to do it now. michelle laxalt has said in the statement that she raised him as a single parent and would only ask pete domenici to avail himself for, quote, health-related purposes. so it's not clear if she ever let adam laxalt know if he was the father. it's a bit of a tradition. >> unfortunately, i guess. brian todd, thanks, brian. so michelle obama is bringing a big name to her let's move campaign, big bird joined the first lady in the white house kitchen and in the east room. >> no matter what your age, it's important to get your body moving every single day to help keep you healthy. >> look, mrs. obama, i'm getting moving right now by jogging. >> there's so many different activities you can do, indoors or outside. >> now i'm jumping to get moving. >> just find an activity that you like. >> and now, i'm dancing. >> good for you, big bird! get moving. it's good for you. >> i really wish wolf could do that -- i wish we could just reenact that entire thing right there. it wasn't that long ago, you'll remember, that big bird was in the political limelight for a very different reason. here's a reminder. >> i like pbs, i love big bird. i actually like you too. but i'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from china to pay for it. >> big bird ended up in an obama campaign ad, which sesame workshop asked to be taken down, and it looks like big bird has clearly moved on. >> certainly has. all right. he's charged with attempted murder. he's also a police detective and until today he was leading the oscar pistorius murder case. coming up, details on a shocking new twist. plus, why jimmy carter says his grandson clinched president obama's re-election. the former president is talking to cnn and his grandson will join us live, right here in "the situation room." that's coming up. 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[ male announcer ] next up, the gutters. citibank popmoney. easier banking. standard at citibank. a dramatic twist in the legal drama surrounding the murder case involving the olympic star, oscar pistorius. it turns out the lead investigator is now facing attempted murder charges himself, and he's been pulled the off the case. >> we also have something you won't so anywhere else. a virtual tour of where prosecutors say pistorius murdered his girlfriend on valentine's day. first, let's get to robyn curnow. >> reporter: wolf and kate, as oscar pistorius spends another night in prison, some extraordinary developments in this case that is already playing out like some sort of television drama. of course, oscar pistorius, trying to get bail, trying to avoid spending the next six to eight months behind bars. but take a listen to what happened today. photos and videos are all that friends and family have to remember reeva steenkamp. more than a week after she was shot to death by her boyfriend, her dreams shattered. >> she always wanted to have kids. >> reporter: gena myers was her best friend. >> she actually, she, the irony of it, she actually sent me a message in the beginning of the month, and she said, g., this month is going to be amazing and it's going to change our lives forever. >> reporter: the hot and stuffy courtroom exploded with flashbulbs again as oscar pistorius came in. previous days, he was visibly emotional, frequently crying, today, frozen, immobile as his lawyers challenged investigators in his effort to be freed on bail. saying if pistorius really wanted to kill his girlfriend, he could have done it in the bedroom. that her empty bladder proved she went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, that steenkamp probably locked the door franticly as she heard pistorius shouting about a burglar. and that her lawyers insist that pistorius carried her downstairs to take her to the hospital, desperate to save her life. the key issues came toward the end of the day. they ripped apart oscar pistorius' affidavit. in particular, they pointed out some forensic inconsistencies. for example, why were the cartridges inside the bathroom when oscar pistorius alleges that he shot from outside the bathroom? also, crucially and quite damningly, the state's prosecutor says pistorius lacks an insight and realization of what he's done. and in another twist in an already dramatic case, the lead investigator, who in past days has struggled to offer clear evidence pistorius killed steenkamp, was removed from the case because he himself is facing charges of attempted m e murder in an unrelated case. so the prosecution now has put their head of detectives in charge and the bail hearing continues on friday. so many twists and turns in this case, it's very hard to sort of judge how the magistrate will rule in this. legal experts i've spoken to say they kind of believe that oscar pistorius will get bail, but if he doesn't, just remember that his legal team can appeal and this can then follow through and continue in the high court. back to you, wolf and kate. >> all right, we're going to have a lot more on this store coming up later. tom foreman's got a virtual tour of the actual place where they lived. >> we'll take a look at that coming up. but also ahead, a check of today's top stories, including a building demolition like you've never seen it before. are the days of wrecking balls and huge implosions a thing of the past? let's go. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing the all-new cadillac xts... another big night on the town, eh? ...and the return of life lived large. ♪ google's backyard for the wbing it on challenge.. 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[ barking ] ♪ come on, boy! [ barks ] ♪ oh, heavenly day here we go. ♪ cha-cha-cha ♪ don't you know that i love ya ♪ ♪ cha-cha-cha-cha-cha ♪ always thinking of ya ♪ all around the world ♪ everybody singin' along ♪ singin' along ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ let me play among the stars ♪ let me see what spring -- ♪ [ birds chirping ] [ male announcer ] with the best lineup of vehicles ever, introducing the new chevrolet. ♪ oh, heavenly day why just go from "a" to "b" when imagination can take you everywhere? ♪ all the clouds blew away chevrolet. find new roads. so does president obama have former president jimmy carter to thank for his re-election? the former president explains how his grandson, james carter iv, may have clinched the race for the president. listen to what he told cnn's piers morgan about that and his own relationship with president obama. >> last time we spoke, you sort of suggested you didn't have much of a relationship with president obama. have things improved or deteriorated or are they about the same? >> about the same. you know, he and i respect each other when he came to atlanta this past week. his staff invited me to come to the speech, i was in atlanta to make a speech myself, i couldn't go. but he met my grandson, who was in the state senate. he met my grandson, who was the won who found the 47% tape and -- >> won him the election. >> i personally think so. james, my grandson, who did that, was born a month after i moved to the white house. >> so basically, carter won obama the election? >> well, i think so. that's kind of a prejudiced -- >> but it was a key moment, actually. do you think that was the pivotal moment in destroying mitt romney's chances? >> i think it was. it was something he could not deny and it stuck with him for the rest of the election and i think it was a major factor if not the major factor. and when james went to meet president obama, president obama ran across the room, embraced him, and thanked him, for the first time, by the way -- >> last week, for the first time -- did he actually say, thank you for winning the election? >> i don't think he said for winning the election, but thank you for helping me win the election. i don't know exactly what the words were. >> piers' full interview airs later tonight at 9:00 eastern. but james carter, the grandson of the former president is joining us now live from atlanta. james, thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> tell us about your meeting, first of all, with president obama last week in atlanta. >> well, it was before the event, and i was in line to, you know, to have to shake hands and have your picture made with the president. there were several of us in line, and my cousin, jason carter, who's a state senator here in georgia, was in line ahead of me. and he, after he got his picture taken, told obama that i was the one that had found the 47% tape and so then obama said, hey, great, get over here. and then you know, kind of half embraced me, i want to say, put his arm around me and we shook hands and he thanked me for my support several times. >> what else did he say, the president? >> well, he thanked me for my support, and then i had my picture made, and then my wife, who was also in line, he called her in, and we had another picture made. and afterwards, he talked to both of us and thanked us for our support and said, you know, now that i have a second term, we can make sure these kids get what they need. and the event was an event about pre-k, and so, you know, he was definitely on message if the policy piece. and that's the reason that i do what i do. so i was -- >> you were happy about that. walk us through how you came up with that tape. it was at a fund-raiser in boca raton, florida, at a hotel. how did you come up with that tape, where romney spoke of that 47%? >> well, i had been doing regular searches, i'm a researcher. and so i'd been researching videos and making sure that i knew all of the videos that were being posted online about romney and some other republicans. and i found a video that had just a piece of what ended up the 68-minute video. and i tracked the person who had made it, who goes by anonymous, and i introduced anonymous to david corn, and, you know, that's how it got out. >> david corn from "mother jones" magazine. and they released it. can you tell us, was it a guest, was it a waiter, was it a bus y busboy, was it somebody who was at -- it was a closed-door meeting, obviously, the dinner. >> well, i can say that it wasn't one of the people who had paid $50,000 to be there. but i'm not going to say anything more than that. >> and did you realize when you got that tape to david corn of "mother jones" magazine that it would have such a potentially pivotal impact in the election? >> no, i didn't, actually. i hadn't seen -- i didn't see the whole thing until after it -- until after it was actually posted online by mother jones. but everything that i was doing at that point was trying to make some sort of a difference in the campaign, and so i obviously hoped that everything that i found would make a difference. it ended up being way beyond my wildest dreams. >> how does it make you feel that your grandfather is so proud of what you did? what has he said to you? >> well, he's -- on the day that it came out, he said that it was extraordinary and that was in a very short e-mail. but i think it got the point across. he's always been proud of all of the grandkids, but it is nice to have him be publicly proud of me, in front of all the people who watch him on these various shows. that's fun. >> he certainly was proud of you in the interview with piers morgan. that will air later tonight on "piers morgan tonight," 9:00 p.m. eastern. jaums carter, thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. coming up, something you won't see anywhere else. our own tom foreman, he's getting ready to take all of us on a virtual tour of the home where oscar pistorius' girlfriend was killed and the different accounts of what happened. this is something you're going to want to see. and a fraud that's becoming more widespread in this country and it involves fish. ve brought overmany discounts to thine customers! 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[ male announcer ] it's chevy truck month. now get 0% financing for 60 months, plus trade up to get $1,750 total allowance on a silverado all-star edition. or trade up and choose customer cash plus option package discount for a total value of $7,250. could lose tens of thousands of dollars on their 401(k) to hidden fees. thankfully e-trade has low cost investments and no hidden fees. but, you know, if you're still bent on blowing this fat stack of cash, there's a couple of ways you could do it. ♪ ♪ or just go to e-trade and save it. boom. ♪ back to the case of olympic star oscar pistorius, charged with murdering his girlfriend. let's take a closer look at where and how it happened. cnn's tom foreman is here. this home, tom, is where this entire case, what it centers on. >> that's right, kate. and to understand what happened, you have to consider the layout of this home and the two competing narratives that we're hearing. let's start in the bedroom, because that's where oscar pistorius' story begins and what he has to say about it. he says in the early morning hours of valentine's day, he and his girlfriend were in bed and he got up in the darkness to go to the balcony to retrieve a fan and to close a window. unbeknownst to him, he says, she got up too and went to the bathroom. then he started to go back inside. that's where this whole story gets very, very strange. and i want to fly you through the house, to follow his story. he says, as he comes in off the balcony, the room is very, very dark and he thinks that she's still lying in bed over there. remember, he doesn't have his prosthetic legs on, he's moving around on what's left of his natural legs, so his angle would also be lower. but he does hear a noise down that hallway. there have been break-ins before, there have been problems in the neighborhood, he's had death threats. he gets his pistol from under the bed, he says, and he goes down that hall. as he rounds the corner, he sees an open window and he hears noise inside that locked room in front of you where the toilet is. he thinks there's an intruder there, according to his story. he begins yelling out for the intruder to leave, he starts yelling out for his girlfriend, reeva, behind him, to protect herself, and then he suggests he essentially panics. he's so afraid, he begins shooting through the door. only when he comes back into the room to put on his prosthetic legs does it occur to him that something else happened, because she's not there. and he goes back to the bathroom and smashes the door down and indeed she is there and he begins calling for help. that's his version of what happened in this house. >> that's the defense's story, but what do prosecutors say actually happened in their view? >> very different view. very different. they say it was never dark and confusing, the lights were on the whole time, and the reason the lights were on, is because this couple was having a big argument. so loud, it could be heard for hundreds of yards from some witnesses who believe it was coming from that house. of some point, he did, indeed, retreat to the bathroom to get away from him, and he lacked the door behind herself. that's when prosecutors say he took his pistol, he went down that hall, in the full light and with the full intent of pursuing her, and when he got to the lock door, he shot her through the door. the details, all fit for both stories in a strange way. that's what makes it so fascinating and how those details are parsed out in court will determine whether or not he spends a lot of time in jail or not. >> so fascinating. and we're only at the bail hearing phase of this case. that's the amazing part about it. tom foreman, great work. thanks, tom. cnn's erin burnett is going "outfront" on this at the top of the hour. erin, what do you have? >> all right, well, wolf, as you know, the chief investigator on this story was removed today. it turned out that he himself is under investigation for murdering seven people, an allegation, of course, he denies, but that has caused him to be removed. he's also the person who walked into that room and had contaminated feet, who said there was testosterone, and then had to admit, oh, maybe it wasn't testosterone. who also missed a bullet that was in the toilet. someone says that is going to cause a big black eye to the police in south africa. we talked to the national police commissioner and put those questions to her. wolf, she says they have made no mistakes, they did a great job, and we are rushing to judgment. back to you. >> we'll see you at the top of the hour. erin, thanks very much. so chances are the fish you buy in the market or order at a restaurant may not be the fish you think. cnn's mary snow has been digging into this. >> reporter: the label says red snapper, but a new study finds more often than not, the label may be wrong. the nonprofit group oceana finds one thrd of seafood is not what it's ill billed to be. it's no surprise to frank andia, who's worked in his family's fish business for nearly 30 years. he welcomes the study. >> i'm happy that people look into it, because i'm totally legit, and it costs me money to be that way. >> reporter: because? >> because you want to do the right thing and people say our prices are high. they're not. they're not. they are what they should be. you know, oh, this guy's got it for $10 a pound less. well, there's a reason why. >> and that reason is? >> it's not real. >> reporter: his gray sole, for example, sells for $35 a pound. he says it's an expensive business and blames lower end stores and restaurants for cutting corners and selling fakes, maybe swapping red snapper for tilapia, which is cheaper. oceana did its testing with dna samples and found of the samples it took, snapper was mislabeled 87% of the time, tuna 59%. what is the source of the problem? oceana says it's unclear, because the system is so complex from the time the fish is caught until it's on your plate. but it says, although more than 90% of the seafood americans eat is imported, less than 1% is inspected by the government, specifically for fraud. the food and drug administration, which oversees food safety, told us in a statement, it screens all seafood imports electronically, and some is physically checked, depending on potential risks. it adds that mislabeling has been a concern for some time, because it is also a public health risk, saying, the fda has recently invested in significant technical improvements to enhance its ability to identify its seafood species, using state of the art dna sequencing. >> so that's a fluke. >> reporter: but chef john mooney says more needs to be done. he's among 500 chefs calling on the government for transparency in the seafood industry. >> who controls this? i mean, what is the process in making sure it is what it is? >> and democratic congressman ed markey of massachusetts has been trying to pass legislation to improve transparency in the seafood supply chain, saying american fishermen have been undercut by foreign countries and companies. he says he plans on introducing a new bill to congress in the coming weeks. wolf? >> mary, thank you. up next, the incredible sound of nature's real-life squeaky toy. ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums [ male announcer ] start with an all new award winning car. good. now find the most hard core driver in america. that guy, put him in it. what's this? 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the suspect, am tone lamar jones will be arraign in court and faces kidnapping and raping and murder for her death. if convicted he could get the death penalty. >> a man accused of threatening senator yee did not enter a plea dug the first court appearance. the 45-year-old is accused of e-mail a death threat to the senator because of efforts to tighten gun control laws. investigators searched the house and found three assault weapons and they detonated explosive materials found at the house. >> east bay police are looking for a suspected gunman after he was not in a home they thought he was barricaded him. officers surrounded a house last night in berkeley. when they moved in at 1:00 o'clock a.m. the home was empty. police were looking for a man involved in an early argument where a shot was fired. officers found a car connected to the crime and took the suspected gunman's uncle into custody on a warrant. >> police are alerting residents of burglars with ten bay area cities hit by burglaries or home invasion robbers. yesterday an 86-year-old woman scared off a burglar who entered the home. someone rang the doorbell. she got there and no one was there but she heard a noise in the basement. >> she opened the door to the stairwell and the bug hard was standing at the top of the stairs and both were surprised she challenged him and asked what he was doing and he turned ran back down the steps and fled from the house. >> police say ringing the doorbell is part of a ruse, if they answer they offer garden services or a fake story. if no one answers they go to the back of the house and force the entry were the suspect in belmont is described as hispanic man in his 30's, stocky build, 5' 8". >> this morning, redwood city police are looking for other possible victims in the case of a martial arts instructor charged with child molestation on a nine-year-old boy. he worked at a martial arts academy for 12 years. they are looking for potential witnesses. he is free on bond. >> board of pilot commissioners will hear a report on the investigation of the oil tanker provision with the bay bridge tower. there were new rules approved for big ships in the bay. six weeks ago the "overseas raymar" caused $3 million in damage. tankers can no longer sail in heavy fog when they are headed out of the bay. >> the obama administration is quickly considering urging the united states supreme court to overturn california's ban on same-sex marriage. dan ashley was the only bay area reporter to talk one-on-one with the president yesterday and raised expectations among opponents when he spoke of equality for gays and lesbians during the inaugural address and asked the president about it. >> being debated or considered in the supreme court next month, what will your administration do? >> well, the solicitor general is still looking at this. i have to make sure i am not interjecting myself too much into the process particularly when we are not party to the case but obviously my personal view which is that same-sex couples should be treated like everyone else. >> the president has until february 24 to file a "friend of 9 court" brief with the entire interview on our website at abc7news.com. they touch on lighter topics. >> dan is a golfer and the president play add round with tiger woods and i imagine that came up in conversation. >> the management said he was keeping the day job and tiger was not threatened. >> tiger is not commander in chief, either. >> it is now 4:37. now, the weather forecast. >> mike nicco? >> got a promotion, how about that in spencer and sandy might have something to say. how about for the morning show? maybe? live doppler 7 hd showing nothing around us so i pulled up the radar and you can see from reno scattered snow showers headed to tahoe hanging around for the better part of the morning and the system will slide down to the south and move away so no need to worry if you are leaving a little bit after 6:00 or 7:00 headed that way. back at home, not even any fog to contend with this morning a slight chance of frost in our democratist inland valley and it is not so cold as it has been and 37 inland and low-to-mid 40's at 7:00 with total sunshine around the bay and inland or coastal neighborhoods. headed toward lunch everyone is under sun around the mid-50's and headed toward the afternoon hours like yesterday we will see clouds but probably more clouds and thicker than what we had yesterday and that will keep us at 52 at the coast at 4:00 and 58 around the bay and 60 inland and the clouds will fade when the sun sets. the three day forecast, sunny tomorrow and mid-50's at the coast and low 60's elsewhere. mid-50's at the coast on saturday and low 60's but trends going to be to be dry. >> in the bay bridge toll plaza we have a couple of our finest california highway patrol officers to the side with no problems issued. we have four of the center right toll lanes blocked for maintenance work until 5:00 this morning. so you may find brief delays. elsewhere, to the dumbarton bridge westbound at center span road work until 5:00, eastbounding in 6:00 a.m. and road work through oakland and south 880 embarcardero until 5:00. kristen and eric? >> a raccoon falls victim to a demorable crime, the officer being made to find the people who left it for dead the. >> a bay area high school coach sues the catholic church and is being punished for doing the right thing. >> ancient chinese army in the bay area >> fremont, palo alto and all the bay area this is abc7 news. >> a live look from the cameras with the embarcardero and bay bridge. not as cold as yesterday. >> more news, this morning a $1,000 reward being offered to help track down the person who shot a raccoon. gunshot fragments were in its body. it was found alive but unresponsive sunday morning. it was lying against a cushion palm avenue in south san francisco and a veterinarian had to put the raccoon to sleep the 12000 animal the humane society has found shot since december. >> remarkable exhibit showcasing the life and legacy of china's first emperor opens tomorrow at the asian art museum in san francisco. it showcases the famous terra cotta warrior statues. here a preview. >> 8,000 terra cotta warriors have been unearthed but this is the only standing general that has been discovered. >> i thought it was interesting looking at faces. they are all different. >> the opening of the exhibit which coincides with the last public appearance before running to china of the counsel general and hopes to strengthen united states and chinese relations and attract more american students to his country. >> how many people from the private sector are enthuse attic about supporting the initiative? >> only a few warriors are visiting the united states, created by artists 2,000 years ago after china's first ever unified the seven warring states and requested a terra cotta army for the after life. there are hundreds of archers but only one with green paint, a military specialist who could, they thought, communicate with the divine. >> a specialists who could predict future battle outcome. >> if you went to china to see the dig you have to stand at least 30' away from the figures. here at this rare exhibit you can examine them up close. it is a civilization that was connected to the roman empire bit silk road and now the 1120-piece exhibit is making its last stop at the asian art museum before returning to china. in san francisco for abc7 news. >> the worriers opens on friday and runs through may 27 at the asian art museum in san francisco's civic center mass -- plaza. >> high school football coach who was fired for turning in those that were hazing at high school, was fired and five coaches were put on leave after he reported the incident. four of the coaches were re-instated but he was tired. he says it was retaliation. the school says he was dismissed because he had the ultimate responsibility for the players. in the lawsuit, he says the church violated state whistle blower laws. >> this morning we know the name of the man who died after accidentally falling down a a vine at the park in san jose. the 53-year-old man fell at least 100' in rugged terrain. authorities were called after he did not return to the santa clara home. his body was not recovered until monday because of the difficulty trying to reach him. >> seven former san francisco restaurants receive settlements in the largest wage theft settlement ever. according to the city attorney, a pastry in china clown is paying $525,000 in back pages for allegedly forcing employees to work long hours for less than $4 an hour less than half the minimum wage. the city's minimum wage when the case was filed was $9.92 an hour and now it is $10.55 an hour. >> the temperatures are not changing a lot from yesterday. >> not too much. we will be close with some tweets here and there and into the weekend. no wild swings in the temperatures or big strong storms coming our way as the storm track is slowly moving off to the east. live doppler 7 hd shows the wet weather gear tucked arm or store ed away or stowed away. that is where we will be through the weekend. temperature-wise in the financial district it is 47. 40 in richard monday and san leandro and santa clara and saratoga at 36 and same with walnut creek and american canyon and pittsburg is 44. from mount tamalpais you can see the breezes are up and the temperatures are warmer this morning and looking down on san francisco this morning where it is 45 degrees and oakland is 41 and san jose 40 and 41 at palo alto and 34 in napa. so, today, you can see the low is pulling away and high pressure building, kind of a dirty area of high pressure so we will have a few high clouds roll in and it will be thicker than yesterday. that along with the breeze is what will keep our temperatures about the same as yesterday. now, the storm track all the moisture will stay north and stay east going through places like washington, oregon, idaho, nevada and toward utah and once in a while may slip the sierras like it is this morning. 61 in san jose for a high and santa cruz is warmer at 63 degrees, and along the coast today we are in the mid-to-upper 50's but 56 at millbrae and everyone else in the upper 50's to near 60. to the north we have mid-to-upper 50's around daly city and moving through the north bay we have sausalito at 59 but low-to-mid 60's traveling up 101 and a few 60's at your beaches and 59 at hayward and newark and 60 in san leandro and oakland, and the cool spot in the east bay valley is san ramon and everyone else in the low 60's and tonight temperatures are cooler with the winds calming down and we will have forecast back in the north bay and east bay valley, and you per 30's to low 40's around the bay. seven-day outlook shows sunny tomorrow and temperatures like today with more clouds but trending dry, and more sunshine and warmer weather if sunday and unsettled next week with more clouds monday and wednesday and both days are looking mostly dry. have a great day. >> the commute takes you from hayward to foster city, take a live look at the taillights headed westbound and everything is moving at the him with no delays to the high-rise and san mateo. daly city before sullivan we have road work until 7:00 this morning and also, road work, to northbound 680 is closed until 6:00 a.m. this morning in the fremont area and southbound 880, the ramps for ongoing long-term renovation project closed until 6:00 this morning. kristen and eric? >> a former senator has admitted to fathering a debt -- secret child with the daughter of a colleague. pete d'montre says he has a 34-year-old son, a former lobbyist, and daughter of former nevada senator paul laxalt and kept it a secret for three decades. he says that he made the confession because someone else was about to reveal the secret. >> a poll finds undocumented immigrants should be deported according to reuters online survey, 30 percent say most should be deported, and 23 percent believe all undocumented immigrants should be deported. 31 percent on the other side say most should be allowed to stay and only 5 percent believe all illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay, and the results are consistent with other polls that suggest views on immigration have not changed since the mission debate was re-ignited in congress last month. >> coming up, a burger here, fries there, have size me, the surprising number of calories americans are getting from fast food. >> women could be accused of being more chatty than men, but is that true? the proof that shows we >> it is 4:52. a poll shows pope benedict is leaving the post on a positive note. a new washington post/abc news poll shows 76 percent of catholics view pope benedict favorably and only 14 percent rate the pontiff unfavorable. his popularity lags that of the predecessor who before his death in early 2005 was seen favorably by 87 percent of catholics. pope benedict is stepping down for health reasons. san francisco and san jose are being looked at by the olympic committee as possibly host cities for games with letters sent to the mayors of 35 cities. san francisco, san jose, and sacramento are among the cities. san francisco mayor and san jose leader say this would be an expensive effort and they have other priorities. former san francisco mayor tried to get the olympics for 2012 game but that effort fizzled. >> oscar nominee almost did not make it into the country. the palestinian filmmaker and his family were detained at lax by authorities who doubted the legitimacy of the story. the film "five broken cameras" is nominated for best documentary and say he was held an hour for questioning. academy lawyers finally intervened and he was eventually released. >> oscar producers revealing more details about sunday, with the post teaming up with actress for a special closing musical performance. it will happen right after the best picture award and producers say it will be a huge moment. coverage beginning at 2:00 p.m. with "on the red carpet" with the stars arriving at 4:00 with oscars red carpet live and the big show at 5:30 following the oscars we have a re-cap of the biggest moments and your path to all the after parties with otrc at the oscars and jimmy kimmel's oscar special at 10:00 and then abc7 news at 11 with our special app that has action stows a dozen cameras streaming video behind-the-scenes and from the red carpet. you can download our oscars app available for iphone, ipad, droid and the kindle fire. >> and the woman with big voice, but, seth is not bad. so he could be good on the academy awards. >> now, tahoe this morning, a little bit of snow falling at tahoe as we speak and this will continue through 10:00 and here is the radar from reno, the snow is moving across lake tahoe and headed down toward 50 and pulling away with a light dusting of snow. the only game in town across the entire state as we head in the afternoon and everything is falling apart, 41 at tahoe, with clouds and sunshine, and upper 50's to low 60's with clouds through the central valley and high clouds and sunshine and 65 in los angeles and 60 in san diego. safe travels. how about at home? >> not bad. we have a couple of lane closings at the bay bridge toll plaza until 5:00 a.m., and that is what this stack up is here. looking good into san francisco with bart and muni off to a great start but ace train one from stockton is running 18 to 20 minutes behind out of the chute so we will follow that. eastbound, road work in lanes until 5:30 and you are on and off at the on-ramp. >> good and bad news this morning in the fast food craze for america. a study reveals on an average adults in the united states get 11 percent of calories from fast food. other findings show young adults, blacks and obese people get more calories from fast food but 11 percent is higher than recommended that figure is still down from the 13 percent reported a few years ago. researchers suspect people could be underreporting their burgers and fries and shakes. >> research suggests had coming a biological women talk more than membership. a study from the university of maryland school of medicine shows women have higher levels of a certain protein in their brains that is called the language protein, and laboratory animals with high levels of this try to communicate through noises more often, and twice as often as other animals with lesser levels. previous research in humans discovered that women talk three times more than women. the study in the journal of neuroscience. >> vindicated by science! san francisco takes aim on new gun control legislation with a law considering to force gun vendors to do something they have not done before. >> the seats have to be redesigned for a computer >> live from the kgo-tv broadcast center this is abc7 news. >> wake up. 5:00 on this thursday. we like your company. thanks for joining us. i am kristen sze. >> was that "wake up" aimed at me? >> now the weather. mike? >> we start with live doppler 7 hd. it is showing good news for the commute this morning. no wet weather. you are doing fine driving around with drier streets. >> the temperatures are up. mid-30's in fremont and napa and fremont at 36 but low-to-mid 40's around oakland and mountain view and concord and novato and santa rosa. as we head into the afternoon it will be a few more clouds than yesterday but temperatures are mild around 60 for the bay and low 60's inland and mid-50 and breezy conditions at the coast. sue? >> good morning, everyone, we have a live shot of the golden gate bridge with crews headed in the northbound direction to pick up the cones and open up the lanes for your morning commute with four southbound lanes. we have road work at the northern portion of the span to be picked up in