have an impact on people's perceptions. but you know, these are long campaigns. they say that a day is, you know, like a lifetime in politics. we have plenty of time to talk about the real issues, and some of the impacts, and the back and forth diminish over time as people put those things in context and learn the reality with regards to any particular candidate. >> mitt romney, the republican presidential candidate announcing it's good to be back home in massachusetts. he will be there tonight to monitor the results. massachusetts, one of ten states with more than 400 delegates on this super tuesday. about a third of the delegates needed to win the nomination in tampa in late august. you need just over 1100 delegates. according to "the washington post," super tuesday could nudge newt gingrich out of the race. all depends on what happens tonight. or lend ron paul more credibility if he's able to win in alaska or idaho. it also could help either cement mitt romney as the front-runner, or give rick santorum the element that he needs to prove that he is the real thing.

again, ohio, is the real test tonight. mitt romney indicating that he expects it to be a long evening. he'll be monitoring here on c-span radio, and live on c-span television with the speeches by ron paul, newt gingrich, mitt romney, and rick santorum. the results also available on our website at c-span.org. we'll have them on the bottom of the screen on our c-span networks and keep you up to date on all that's happening on this super tuesday. it's 6:31 here in washington, d.c. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. we're coast to coast on xm channel 119. more in a minute. first some other news on wall street the dow dropped 203 closing at 12,759. nasdaq was down 40, s&p was down 20. there is a bit of relief at the gas pump. prices have finally dropped after 27 days. the nationwide average for regular unleaded is down less than a penny at $3.76 per gallon.

prices jumped 28 cents since february 8th. experts still predict the national average could hit $4.25 next month. a bipartisan transportation bill failed to clear procedural hurdle today in the senate. democrats fell eight votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate on this bill. it's a two-year, $109 billion bill. all but two republicans voted against the motion. senate minority leader harry reid accused republicans of political obstruction. republican senators say they were trying to pressure -- preserve their right to offer amendments, including on such issues as the keystone oil pipeline, and pollution controls by industrial boilers. the house is also considering a transportation bill and the government's power to fund transportation programs is due to expire at the end of this month. congressman donald payne, democrat from new jersey, died today. he was 77 years old. he served 12 terms -- or is in his 12th term in the house.

he was undergoing treatment for colon cancer. payne was new jersey's first african-american congressman, republicaning the 10th district in the northern part of the state since 1988. he was a member of house committees on education and foreign affairs. also served as chairman of the house subcommittee on africa. or did serve, as chairman of the house subcommittee on africa. the top u.s. commander in the middle east says the advanced air defense weapons that russia's provided to syria's regime would make it difficult to establish a no-fly zone there as part of an effort to help the rebellion. general james mathis is the head of u.s. central command and he testified before the senate armed services committee. back in a minute with more "washington today." >> on march 26th, 27th, and 28th the u.s. supreme court will hear oral arguments and challenges to the health care law. you'll hear arguments cited in several of the pending health care cases saturday on c-span radio's historic supreme court

oral argument. from 1997, county sheriff's j. prince and richard mack petitioners versus the united states respondent. >> in the federal state context this court has upheld laws passed under the spending power, the commerce power, including the power to preempt state legislation, and the article 6 duty of state judges to hear federal causes of action. the intern provisions of the brady act at issue here is not an exercise of any of those powers. the court of appeals from that circuit held that in essence congress may commandeer the sheriff's departments of our country as long as the laws concerned do not interfere unduly with their duties. >> mr. holbrooke answers in oral argument are i believe fully consistent with the position that they have taken in their brief, and i say for understandable reasons. they believe that there is an internal failure of power on the part of the federal government to enact a law of this kind,

just as if it were the government of brazil or of belgium. >> well, can the state require the federal government to do something? >> no. >> why doesn't it work in he will verse? >> because of the supremacy clause i think justice kennedy. >> saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span radio. >> you're listening to "washington today" here on c-span radio. thanks for being with us. well by the time the suspect in an alleged bomb plot against the u.s. capitol was arrested in a parking lot wearing what he thought was an explosive suicide vest he had been living illegally in the u.s. for a dozen years. this is the criminal case against amid el caliph if i from alexandria, virginia. it also refewed the debate after the u.s. government a decade after the terrorist attacks from september 11th, 2001, routinely failed to track millions of foreign visitors who remain in this country longer than they're allowed. the obama administration in the past has not considered deporting people whose only offense is overstaying a visa a priority. instead the administration has

focused on immigration enforcement efforts on those people who have committed serious crimes, or are considered a threat to public or national security. while a house homeland security subcommittee today conducted a hearing on this issue the panel's chairwoman is representative candice miller, republican of michigan, and wanted to get more information about how in this case, he felt through the cracks, his tourist fis sa expired the same year he arrived from his native morocco as a teenager. that was back in 1999. you're going to hear from congressman miller of michigan and questions to john cohen, who is the deputy counterterrorism coordinator for the department of homeland security. >> mr. cohen, i've taken some notes when you were talking there. you were saying when your new system that you have that you now have the ability to track by country. and your vetting served a backlog that you testified before the subcommittee previously back in september. how many overstays do you think you have from special interest

countries or how are you doing with identifying from particular countries and as you also mentioned the secretary when she was testifying here earlier said that the system that you're operating under now is that a good bridge to our mutual goal is to have a really robust biometric system. so i guess i'm just again trying to get a feel for what you're looking at with the various special countries as my colleague was mentioning all of the various countries and the days. it is rather startling to look at some of those kind of things and obviously that's an indicator that we all need to be looking at. >> thank you, madam chairman. so it's a work in progress, still, so we're continuing to implement these improvements that i referenced in my opening statement. i will get back to the subcommittee with regard to specific numbers on the special interest countries but your pref question to mr. edge and your question to me raises sort of the key issue here.

which is up until this effort, there was no systematic effort by the department to integrate all of these various repos fors of information in which information vital in determining whether someone had departed the country, had changed their status, was in custody for another crime, was or actually an overstay or think weren't linked together so it was difficult. in the case of mr. khalifi, and others who wanted to overstate prior to the development of u.s. visit the information repository which reflected that they were potentially overstayed was text. treasury enforcement communication system. tecs system is a system that part of the data collected were border crossings so we could tell when somebody came into the country and we could also tell if they left the country. that was in tecs. however most local police departments during that time didn't have access to tecs and unless they had some reason to

believe that an individual detained for some other offense was, in fact, an immigration violator it would be rare that they would call i.n.s. and ask them to do what we could call to do a tecs check. through the system enhancements that i described earlier woo automating that process. so today, if someone is arrested for any type of offense, part of the query that will take place through both the security communities program and through the enhancements that i've been describing will be an automatic check of immigration systems, will be a check of tecs, as well. so, the chances are, are greatly enhanced that today somebody were to be booked in for a minor drug offense, or a serious traffic violation, even, the person's immigration status would come to our attention. >> from today's congressional testimony, and the department of homeland security and the immigration and customs enforcement looking into this with new information and the report expected within the next couple of weeks in the case of khalifi he is an unemployed

individual. he came to the u.s. back in 1999. he is one of an estimated 1 million illegal immigrants who are in the u.s. with visas that have expired, and again the immigration and customs enforcement agency which is responsible for deporting those illegal immigrants has routinely combed through those visa records trying to first identify people who have overstayed their welcome. and then to deporthos who are considered threats to the community, or national security. department of homeland security officials have not said how many people have been put deportations proceedings as a result of those reviews and again a new report from homeland security on this expected later in the year. well, back to today's news conference at the white house. the president accusing his republican critics of, quote, beating the drums of war. but he says that's easy for his republican critics to do so, when they are not the commander in chief. a news conference got under way at about 1:10 this afternoon from the brady briefing room, and the first issue that came up, israel and iran's nuclear capabilities. >> when i came into office, iran

was unified, on the move, had made substantial progress on its nuclear program, and the world was divided in terms of how it feels. what we've been able to do over the last three years is mobilize unprecedented crippling sanctions on iran. iran is feeling the bite of these sanctions in a substantial way. the world is unified. iran is politically isolated. and what i have said is that we will not countenance iran getting a nuclear weapon. my policy is not containment. my policy is to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon because if they get a nuclear weapon that could trigger an arms race in the region. it would undermine our nonproliferation goals. it could potentially fall into the hands of terrorists. we've been close consultation with all our allies including israel in moving this strategy forward.

at this stage, it is my belief that we have a window of opportunity where this can still be resolved diplomatically. that's not just my view. that's the view of our top intelligence officials. it's the view of top israeli intelligence officials. and as a consequence we are going to continue to apply the pressure, even as we provide a door for the iranian regime to walk through where they could rejoin the community of nations by giving asurances to the international community that they're meeting their obligations, and they are not pursuing a nuclear weapon. that's my track record. now what's said on the campaign trail, you know, those folks don't have a lot of responsibilities. they're not commander in chief. and when i see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war, i'm reminded of

the costs involved in war. i'm reminded of the decision that i have to make in terms of sending our young men and women into battle. and the effects that has on their lives. the impact it has on our national security. the impact it has on our economy. this is not a game. there's nothing casual about it. and you know, when i see some of these folks who had a lot of bluster, and a lot of big talk, but when you actually ask them specifically what they would do, it turns out they repeat the things that we've been doing over the last three years. it indicates to me that that's more about politics than actually trying to solve a difficult problem. now, the one thing that we have not done is we haven't launched a war. if some of that's folks think that it's time to launch a war,

they should say so. and they should explain to the american people exactly why they would do that and what the consequences would be. everything else is just talk. >> and that was one of the main messages, the main points from today's news conference with the president. it lasted about 45 minutes. it began at about 1:15 this afternoon here in washington, d.c. and one of the follow-up questions from abc's jake tapper. >> thank you, mr. president. what kind of assurances do you give prime minister netanyahu about the role that the u.s. would play if diplomacy and economic sanctions fail to work to convince iran's leaders to change their behavior, and israel goes ahead and prepares to strike a nuclear facility? what kind of assurances did you tell him? and shouldn't we, i recognize the difference between debate and bluster, but shouldn't we be having in this country a vigorous debate about what could happen in the case of the middle

east war in a way that sadly we did not do before going into iraq? >> well, i think there's no doubt that those who are suggesting or proposing or beating the drums of war should explain clearly to the american people what they think the costs and benefits would be. i'm not one of those people. because what i said is is that we have a window through which we can resolve this issue peacefully. we have put forward an international framework that is applying unprecedented pressure. the iranians just stated that they are willing to return to the negotiating table, and we've got the opportunity, even as we maintain that pressure, to see how it plays out. i'm not going to go into details of my conversation with prime minister netanyahu. but what i said publicly doesn't differ greatly from what i said privately. israel is a sovereign nation that has to make its own

decisions about how best to preserve its security. and as i said over the last several days, i'm deeply mindful of the historical precedents that weigh on any prime minister of israel. he they think about the potential threats to israel and the jewish homeland. what i've also said is that because sanctions are starting to have significant effect inside of iraq, and that's not just my assessment, that's, i think, a uniform assessment, because the sanctions are going to be even tougher in the coming months, because they're now starting to affect their oil industry, their central bank, and because we're now seeing noises about them returning to the negotiating table, that it is deeply in everybody's interests, the united states, israel, and the world's, to see if this can be resolved in a peaceful fashion.

and so this notion that somehow we have a choice to make in the next week or two weeks or month or two months, is not borne out by the facts. and the argument that we've made to the israelis is that we have made an unprecedented commitment to their security. there is an unbreakable bond between our two countries. but one of the functions of friends is to make sure that we provide honest and unvarnished advice in terms of what is the best approach too achieve a common goal. particularly one in which we have a stake. this is not just an issue of israeli interests. this is an issue of u.s. interests. it's also not just an issue of consequences for israel if action is taken prematurely. there are consequences to the united states, as well. and so, i do think that any time

we consider military action, that the american people understa understand there's going to be a price to pay. sometimes it's necessary. but we don't do it casually. when i visit walter reed, when i sign letters to families that have -- whose loved ones have not come home, i'm reminded that there is a cost. sometimes we bear that cost. but we think it through. we don't play politics with it. when we have in the past, when we haven't thought it through, and it gets wrapped up in politics, we make mistakes. and typically it's not the folks who are topping off to pay the price, it's these incredible men and women in uniform and their families who pay the price. and as a consequence i think

it's very important for us to take a careful, thoughtful, sober approach to what is a real problem. and that's what we've been doing over the last three years. that's what i intend to keep doing. >> the president and abc's jake tapper at today's news conference. he used the event today to announce new mortgage relief for members of the military and veterans as well as homeowners with those government insured loans. borrowers with mortgages assured by the federal housing administration, fha, would be able to refinance at half the fee that the fha currently charges. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. we're keeping an eye on the super tuesday results here on radio. live on television. and on the web at c-span.org. with speeches, later in the evening, by the four republican presidential candidates. in other news today, the fbi offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the safe return of a former special agent robert levinson. he vanished back in 2007 from kish island which is a resort area in iran. the fbi director robert mueller

telling reporters in washington that we often speak about the fbi family, and that charles levinson had retired from the fbi. he was still and remains part of the fbi family. alsofamily. also on hand for the announcement of the $1 million reward for leading for information on the return of robert levinson, his wife. >> i am bob's wife christine levinson. i want to say how proud i am the government has offered this reward for bob's disappearance. this is the best way to successfully find bob and bring him home safely. we also believe that bob as a retired fbi agent would say the same. knowing that bob is being held against his will and not being able to help him has been extremely difficult for our family. there are no words to describe the nightmare my family and i

have been living every day. i never imagined that we would still be waiting for bob to come home five years later. on january 25th of this year, two hostages were rescued by navy s.e.a.l.s in somalia. after the rescue, president obama made the statement, which i quote, the united states will not tolerate the abduction of our people and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens. president obama added this is yet another message to the world that the united states of america will stand strongly against any threats to our people. bob is a hostage. for my family, that message was reassuring to hear. i look forward to the day when the president calls me with the same good news that bob has been found and is coming home. lastly, i would like to express

my appreciation for the words of support and encouragement my family has received from around the world through our web site helpboblevinson.com. my children and i read every message that comes in. we hope one day soon to post the following message, thank you, everyone. bob's home. thank you. >> christine levinson, the wife of bob levinson and the fbi announcing a $1 million reward for his return. you can get more information by logging on to the fbi web site. at howard university today, the remarks by the education secretary arne duncan on racial disparities. it points out that black students, especially boys, face harsher discipline in schools than other students. this is according to data from the department of education. although black students make up 18 to 20% of those enrolled in

schools sampled, they account for 35% or more of those suspended, 46% of those suspended more than once and nearly 40% of all expulsions. this is from the civil rights data collection from 2009 to 2010 gathered by the department of education. here is more on the issue with secretary duncan. >> the support talks about three different subjects. teachers, access to rigor and discipline. first one, teachers. in fact, through the second round the data collected in the 2009/2010 school year, teachers were paid on average $2,200 less per year than colleagues in other schools because they are younger and less experienced. they vary by district. in new york, the discrepancy in high schools is more than $8,000. in philadelphia, the number is greater. we have some work to do there.

more than $14,000 per teacher. the best way to challenge this reality is for districts and unions to work together in very different ways and reward great teachers and great principals for taking on tough assignments in schools and communities where there is high turnover and positions are hard to fill. we have to attract and retain great talent. great teachers and great principals make a difference. we have to get them to the children and in the communities who need them the most. the news is not all bad. there were cases where high minority schools. teachers in chicago elementary schools serving minorities earn approximately $1,800 more a year. but in chicago high schools, however, teachers in high minority schools earn $5,000 less than teachers in schools with fewer minorities. the second is rigor.

we have evidence there that minorities have less access to rigorous high school classes. for example, only 29% of a high minority high school attends calculus. even in schools offering calculus, just 10% of the students enrolled in calculus. that under representation has to end. overall, while black and hispanics make up 40% of the students in the survey, they make up 26% of students in gifted and talented programs. something is wrong with that picture. many states are taking steps to try and address these opportunity deficits. several of the race to the top states received grants in part because of the real commitment to increasing stem subject offerings in their schools. their partnering with schools to

give their students more rigorous and challenging classes to set them on a pat for college and give them a regular leg up. all districts and states need to challenge themselves to do more to create rigorous classes for minority students. third is discipline. perhaps the most alarming findings in the second round involve the topic of discipline. the sad fact is minority students across america face harshers discipline than non high minorities. for examples, african-american students, particularly males, are far more likely to be suspended or expelled from schools. black students make up 15% of the students in the survey. 35% of the students surveyed were black.

nationally, students with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be suspended as students without disabilities. some of the worst discrepancies are in my hometown of chicago. we worked hard to train teachers and principals to work hard as an alternative to suspension. we began peer juries to find alternative ways to resolve disputes. we found a tiny percentage of our schools actually accounted for the majority of our student arrests. we worked hard to challenge that status quo as well with better training and professional development for teachers and principals in the schools. it is clear that chicago and so many other cities still have a lot of work to do in this area. >> the new report on the issue of racial disparity when it comes to discipline and other matters is available on the department of education web site. the comments of secretary duncan today here in washington at howard university.

the washington post reporting on a number of aspects of the president's news conference and weighing in on the comments of rush limbaugh. the president had phoned sandra fluke who was labeled a slut by rush limbaugh. the president was asked about all of this from usa today's amir mahammad. >> do you feel that was sufficient and heart felt? do you agree with the decision of growing number of sponsors that decided to drop his show and stop supporting his show? has there been a double standard on the issue? liberals have made distasteful statements and there hasn't been such an outrage. >> you know, i will not comment

on what sponsors decide to do. i will not comment on the economics of it. i don't know what is in rush limbaugh's heart. i will not comment on the sincerity of his apology. what i can comment on is the fact that all decent folks can agree that the remarks that were made don't have any place in the public discourse. and the reason i called ms. fluke is because i thought about malia and sasha and one of the things i want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about. even ones i may not agree with them on. i want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way. and i don't want them