about during the state of the union address and expanded on it today in a speech in northern virginia. marketers of calling cards that duped tens of thousands of consumers will be paying $2.3 million in a settlement with the government. the federal trade commission says the marketers bilked people out of millions by advertising prepaid phone cards that did not provide as many minutes as advertised. it's the biggest of its kind in the prepaid calling card industry. that is the settlement is. hard-bound textbooks may be going the way of slide rules and typewriters in schools. education career arne duncan challenging schools and companies to get digital textbooks in students' hands within five years. but $8 billion is spent each year in the u.s. on textbooks for children and digital books

are viewed as a way to provide interactive learning, save money, and get updated material faster to students but many schools lack the broadband capacity or computers or tablets to embrace this technology. an army veteran from california suing the federal government because she and her wife are being denied military benefits granted to heterosexual couples. the lawsuit was announced today in washington. it involves tracy cooper harris who served in the army for 12 years and married maggie cooper harris in california in 2008. the american civil electricities union suing the obama administration to force the release of details about u.s. drone strikes in yemen that killed anwar al awlaki, a suspected terrorist, and other americans. the lawsuit is directed at the defense department, cia and justice department, asking for documents and medical row is

justifying the killing of americans. two days ago, president obama acknowledged in a social media gathering that the u.s. was using drone attacks in pakistan to target terrorists. back in a minute with more "washington today." "washington today" is now available as a podcast. download each program individually at cspan.org or subscribe using itunes. accuracy the "washington today" podcast wherever you are with the c-span radio iphone app or on your data-enabled mobile device. a dramatic recording that we'll hear in just a moment. the national archives has released two hours and 22 minutes of a conversation that took place aboard air force one during the flight from dallas, texas, to washington, d.c. november 22nd, 1963, following the assassination of president john f. kennedy. the tape was donated to the

national archives, the recordings involve conversations between pilots and others on the flight as well as individuals in washington, d.c. as the plane was making its way back to andrews air force base with the newly sworn in president lyndon johnson on board. the audio also includes logistics, bringing the new president back to washington, d.c., and at one point asking for a forklift to meet air force one in order to remove president kennedy's casket. also at one point a call arranged between the president of the united states, lyndon johnson, and the wife of the slain president, rose kennedy. here's how that conversation unfolded. >> this is air force one, do you read us, over. >> i'm reading you loud and clear. i have mrs. kennedy standing by, are you ready, go ahead. >> yes, we are ready. can you put her on and i'll turn it over to you, over. >> roger, she's coming on now.

>> af one to mrs. kennedy, go ahead, please. >> hello, mrs. kennedy. we're talking from the airplane. can you hear us all right? over. >> hello. >> yes, mrs. kennedy. >> yes, thank you. >> mrs. kennedy? >> yes. >> i wish to god there were something that i could do. i want to tell you we're grieving with you. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. good-bye. thank you very much, good-bye. good-bye. good-bye.

>> with more on these recordings, we're joined on the phone from philadelphia by nathan rabb, vice president of the rabb collection, thanks very much for being with us. let me ask you about these recordings. in particular from november 22nd, 1963. how did they come about? >> the recordings capture the federal government's response, immediate response, to the kennedy assassination. who was, there what were they doing, what was the federal government doing in response to what really was a national crisis. clifton had these recorded at some point prior to when he left the white house, which was 1965. why that was don, no one knows. maybe he was writing a book, maybe he wanted records kept for his own interests. he is after all on the tape quite extensively. they remain in his family. he died in 1991, his wife died in 2009. and when the estate was sold, they had no heirs when the

estate was sold. we acquired the tapes. >> now, some of these recordings, including that exchange between rose kennedy and president lyndon johnson, have been around for a while. but what you were able to find, an additional 40 minutes of material. as historians pore through this information, these recordings, what will they learn? >> i think you're looking at these tapes as important for a few reasons. first of all, who was involved and where were they? from that perspective there are new names, new locations on this tape. most of the names are code names. one of the people referred to is monument. who's monument? we also learn the location of curtis lemay, whose name is often mentioned in conjunction with any supposed conspiracy. secondly, where's the president's body to go? one of the most important things we learned from the tape. and it really is the primary historical resource.

does it go to walter reed or beth then de? this matters to researchers in retrospect. the folks on the plane seem to be pushing walter reed. the folks down at washington at the white house and on the ground were pushing for beth then de. and whether that played any role in the quality of the autopsy, no one knows. but here on this tape, there are several conversations which were omitted in the previous public version. but which surface in this version. and then, of course, the tale of the tapes, the johnson tape was created in the waning days of the johnson administration. it's shorter. it's later. this tape was presumably created immediately after the assassination. and probably it's the closest we'll ever get to what is the original raw tapes, which have since gone missing and are very likely destroyed. >> one of the stories describes the events of november 22nd as chaotic circumstances, for understandable reasons. do these tapes capture that?

>> much of what's missing actually is that chaos. you do get this on this new round. communications are not great. you're not dealing with a situation where i could text you immediately or get constant access to e-mail. communications broke, they were pulling in patches from all over the country. the old version, when i say the old version, the previously known version, really doesn't capture that caucasian yas. the new version, you really get that impression. you see people attempting to reach other people. the connection gets broken. there's static in the background. one of the questions that hopefully this tape will lead to some resolution is, are we able to decipher some of the information in the background? will somebody with access to some kind of forensic equipment which we don't have be able to hear something that we can't hear? >> when you first heard about these recordings as a historian, as somebody who archives

political and historical memorabilia, what was your reaction? >> well, we suspected there might be something. when you find a box from somebody who left the white house in '65 with the headline, air force one communications, and it's property of ted clif n clifton, not a minor figure, he was a military liaison and high up, he was on the plane, he was directing much of what happened from kennedy's perspective after the assassination. when we got it back from someone who took it from the reel to reel to an actual digital file, we're thinking, this is a good deal longer. we were shocked. we expected there could be something interesting. but the actual results far surpassed our expectations. >> we're talking with nathan rabb, vice president of the rabb collection. you heard that exchange between president johnson and rose kennedy. what was your impression? >> my impression was first of all rose kennedy was very lucid

and clear. she referred to lyndon johnson as mr. president. it shows that even in that moment of great crisis for her personally, remember, we're going through this as a nation, she's going through it at a very different level, she remembers to refer to johnson as mr. president. it's a very short conversation. it's a little bit awkward. probably she had other things on her mind. that's kind of what i thought. >> there are two copies of these recordings. you have one, and you've donated one to the national archives. can you explain? >> when clifton left the white house he had two identical copies made. why that's the case, there's no one alive who could tell you. which is interesting in and of itself. maybe he wanted to write a book. his name is all over the tapes. so maybe he just wanted a record kept for his own posterity. we felt it was important not only to donate the tape to the national archives so that the american people would have the exact piece that we have but

also the information really was not proprietary to us, but that the american people -- that it really belonged to the american people. so we have a copy which we're selling and we donated another copy to the national oar could is. >> what is the arrb collection? what do you do? >> we seek out, buy and sell important historical documents. think of letters to george washington, thomas jefferson, abraham lincoln, winston churchill, in this case kennedy. we find the most interesting, most important pieces, and find clients. sometimes those clients are private collectors, sometimes they're museums, governmental institutions. we have clients on both sides of the atlantic, from all spectrums of life. >> as we listen to these recordings, really some fascinating material. >> it's -- listen, this is the most important addition to the historical record for the kennedy assassination in a very long time. for americans who are -- i think

the -- no matter what you actually believe, most americans feel that the entire story of the kennedy assassination has yet to be told. and this is an additional piece of the puzzle. there's no denying that at the end of the day, when researchers have a chance to listen to this, we'll know more about the kennedy assassination than we did before. >> nathan raab joining us from philadelphia, thanks as always for being with us. >> thank you. >> and you're listening to "washington today" on c-span radio. at the state department today, secretary of state hillary clinton saying russia and other countries must ask themselves whether they stand with syria's people or with its dictator. the secretary of state saying efforts are continuing at the united nations in hopes of winning security council approval for an arab league approval. it calls on syrian president assad to leave power. russia as we're reporting opposed this language. regime change in syria. the secretary of state was

speaking at a signing ceremony with the foreign minister of singapore today. she appealed to the security council meant to make their place known, asking the question, whose side are you on? here's part of the exchange as she took a question from reporters at the state department. >> thank you, madam secretary. firstly, could you tell us what you think about this recent report that details from taliban detainees cooperation between the taliban and pakistan? and then also realize that today the u.n. security council will be discussing the resolution on syria. yesterday the russian ambassador, after hearing your comment, said that the u.n. security council can't endorse the arab league plan in a resolution. if the russians will refuse to endorse the arab league plan as you're calling for, do they bear responsibility for the continued bloodshed there? thanks. >> well, first, with respect to

the confidential document that you're referring to, elise, i am obviously not going to be commenting on it. i think that there have already been comments that there's nothing new in what has been released but i'm not going to go into it in any depth. with respect to syria and the attitude of russia, we recognize that getting the security council to act will require continuing consultations with our partners in the council, including russia and china, on what the wording of a resolution will be. and i look forward to discussing this with my counterparts at the ministerial level as we go through that discussion. but i think yesterday's meeting

certainly highlighted the importance of the security council acting and the importance of supporting the arab league. the arab league has set forth a roadmap as to how we can, working together, through the international community in support of the arab league, help to end the bloodshed and help to begin a peaceful political process that will result in a more democratic future for the people of syria. the syrian people themselves are the ones who are crying out for peace and justice, for dignity, for their rights, for a better future. and every member of the council has to make a decision. whose side are you on? are you on the side of the syrian people? are you on the side of the arab league? are you on the side of the people of the middle east in north africa who have during this past year spoken out

courageously and often for their rights? or are you on the side of a brutal dictatorial regime? each country will have to be mulling that over and making a decision. but certainly from my perspective, as members of the security council charged with the responsibility of trying to help keep international peace and security, it is absolutely imperative that we all be on the right side of history. and that means standing with the arab league and standing with the people of syria. >> the comments of the secretary of state hillary clinton, she was in new york yesterday back at the state department today pushing the u.n. security council to move ahead with that resolution that takes aim at syria by some estimates more than 5,400 syrians have been killed in recent months. an estimated 200 just over the weekend. and her comments today saying that russia and other members of the u.n. security council need to decide which side they are on. this is "washington today" on

c-span radio. the president today traveling to falls church, virginia, conceding that his earlier housing programs have fallen short. ben feller is writing the story for the associated press. pointing out that the president proposed a "vast expansion of government assistance to homeowners" to make lower lending rates a possibility for millions of borrowers who have not been able to get out of what many view of burdensome mortgages. the president's proposal is laden with election politics and faces a difficult path in congress. the president wants to pay for this plan by raising fees on some of the nation's largest banks, fees that would increase about $5 billion to $10 billion to help homeowners who are essentially under water. particularly in battleground states like nevada and florida where the primary was yesterday, and nevada caucuses on saturday. the president himself drew attention to politics surrounding the issue when he pointed out that former massachusetts governor mitt

romney, who is now the front runner in the gop race, had suggested that the foreclosure process should be allowed to "run its course and hit the bottom." well, at the white house following the announcement today by the president in falls church, virginia, the housing and urban development director shaun donovan taking reporters' questions r. again, this is the latest in a series of plans put forth by the white house, a swift rebuke by members of the republican side of the aisle. wheel hear from the speaker of the house coming up in just a couple 6 minutes. here's the housing director, shaun donovan, at the white house. >> how many homeowners have you helped since october when the president said he was going to move? >> so in total, since -- and the program is called h.a.r.p. since it was first introduced in 2009, it's helped close to 1 million homeowners refinance. the changes that the president called for, and that were then implemented later in the -- or there were specific details

released later in the fall, those changes began to go into effect just in december. >> the ones from october 2011? >> that's right, the ones -- so to be clear, he gave his jobs speech and called on his administration to work with fannie mae and freddie mac to make changes. we worked on those through the fall and they were implemented starting in december. and so already there are tens of thousands of homeowners that have closed on those loans. but again, they've only been in place for a few weeks at this point. where folks can actually get those loans. >> the president announced that first plan in february of 2009, three years ago this month. he promised i think up to 9 million people would stave up foreclosure. why should the american people have confidence this is now the fourth or fifth plan you've had, this one's actually going to work? >> so to be clear, the h.a.r.p. portion of it, the hope was that it would help 4 to 5 million

homeown homeowners. that was one portion of it. as the president said this morning, morning, while we've made significant steps, we've made real progress, just to take one example, nearly 5 million families have had their mortgaged modified since the president took office. foreclosures are down by almost 50%. the number of people entering foreclosure down by almost 50%. so we made progress. as the president also said, we're not satisfied. we've been disappointed that we haven't been able to reach more people and frankly, specifically, on this refinancing program, what we found after we rolled it out is that there were many barriers out in the market to more people being able to participate. we fixed the problems on their first liens but many of them had second loans and lenders were unwilling to let toes families refinance because of the second lien. so we went out and negotiated with those lenders and we got

their approval to automatically resubordinate those loans. mortgage insurance. were standing in the way of those families being -- so there's a whole series of barriers out in the market and one of the problems we had is the mortgage system got so complex and there were so many different players that that very complexity that led to the crash made it harder to fix. we went out and negotiated with all and made steps and they've all agreed to make changes to allow more families to refinance and what that means is that there are now about 11 million additional families, just with fannie mae or freddie mac mortgages who will have the opportunity if they choose to, to refinance. >> you were saying at the top, that basically, to make this the president's plan work, you're going to tell his financial institutions that they can't say no to refinancing? how do you actually, how does

the federal government tell private institutions you can't say "no?" >> you misunderstood. >> you. >> sickle-family loans many this country are repayable. any homeowner already has the right -- if you've $300,000 on your house and it's a $250,000 house and you have $300,000, you can pay off your mortgage today, right? the issue is -- they can't get a new $300,000 loan. so what this man would do, the way it breaks through this barrier for these families is to allow them to refinance that loan to get a new loan that allows them to pay off their existing loan. there's nothing the existing lender can do today. we're not changing it. the existing lender today can't stand in the way of a family paying off their existing loan. >> so if he have $300,000 to laying around to pay it off? how do they do that, i don't understand. >> they'll get a new loan and

that new loan -- >> okay. this is the rate you have right now and it's fine if you want to change it? >> they refinance into a new fha loan and that would allow them to pay off their old loan. that's what that plan would do. the hud saek tear shaun don van donovan and interest rates are very low and banks have been reluctant. an eligible homeowner could refinance a loan through the fha. reaction on capitol hill, a question posed to the speaker of the house, john boehner. >> the president is announcing a proposal today to help underwater homeowners refinance. >> one more time? >> one more time? >> how many times have we done this? we've done this at least four times where there's some new government program to help homeowners who have trouble with their mortgages, none of these

have worked. i don't know why anyone would think this next idea is going to work. and all they've done is delay the clearing of the market. the sooner the market players and we understand where the prices really are, will be the most important thing we can do in order to improve home values around the country. >> you can work with the president in any way to actually -- i've -- i'm always opened to working with the president of the united states. we both have a job to do. if it makes economic sense and it's fiscally responsibility, i'll take a look at it. >> comments of john boehner earlier in the day. this is "washington today" on c-span radio from the bbc, david kameron can be clashing over the issue of bank bonuses. prime minister's questions the bbc reports that during the heated exchange in the house of commons today.

mr. mylyband called on the prime minister to enact legislation to force banks to the reveal how many employees earn over a million pounds in a year and install workers to keep track of all of this. we'll let you listen in to how the debate unfolded earlier "today" show in london. >> before the legislation, they had support to make all banking disclose how many people earned over a million pounds but it needs the governor to trigger the change. will the prime minister do it? >> we have the toughest and most transparent regime of any may for financial center in the world. for the first time ever, banks are going to publish the pay of the top eight executives that never happened in 13 years of a labor government. on the specific walker reforms. walker himself said, it should be done at the same time in all

countries across the european union. >> mr. speaker, exactly what we would expect, no leadership on top of -- >> in case you haven't heard the news, there are more than eight people earning over a million pounds at our banks. what did the chancellor say in opposition? he said this. we, i think honorable gentleman of the opposition, listen to what the chancellor said in opposition. he said this -- we support proposals to make these banks disclose the number of their employees who are on high salaries. mr. speaker, he even called for them to publish their names. it's another broken promise from this government. i asked him the question again.

the legislation is on the books. it's ready to go. it has all party support. why doesn't he make it happen? >> well, we're listening to the advice of the man who produce the report for the last labor government. he asks about the number of people getting million-pound bonuses. let me remind him of this. it was the last labor government when he was in the cabinet that agreed an rbs bonus pool of 1.3 billion pounds. literally -- literally, hundreds of people were getting million-pound bonuses and he signed off. the issue for the honorable gentleman is why is he in favor now of opposition of things he never did in government? some might call it opposition. some people might call it hypocrisy. >> mr. speaker, i'll tell him what hypocrisy is. it's saying he's going to stop a

million-pound bonus to steven hester and then nodding it through. and i have to say to him, i think we've now heard it all. because he says that the class war against the bankers is going to be led by him and his cabinet of millionaires. i don't think that's going to wash, frankly. >> from the british house of commons earlier in the day live on c-span2 and sundays on c-span television and here on c-span radio. the debate over salary and bonuses for british bank executives as it untold inned with dave kameron, the prime minister. every year we provide the coverage of the state of the state addresses to get a sense of what's happening. today, maryland's governor, martin o'malley gave his speech before a joint session. he talks ax jobs, the economy, his plan to raise taxes in some areas to try to keep the budget

bransed and provide additional funding for education and towards the end of the speech he touched on an issue that's getting a lot of regional and national attention. a movement to install -- to make marriage legal between men and women same sex. >> i'd like to talk to you now about a quality of civil marriage rights for all marylanders. the very reason our state was founded was for religious flee come and at the heart of religious freedom is respect for the freedom of individual conscience. the way forward, the way to sustain and enhance our common life together is equal respect for the freedom of all. we all want the same thing for our children. we want our