stuff we see. you can catch karen finney and betsy woodward the national review. thank you all. that is all if for this evening. the "rachel maddow show" starts right now. thank you very much. >> good evening, thank you, uncle sugar. thank you very much. i have been stilling myself for an hour without laughing. i laughed in the middle. thank you at home for joining us this hour. whether or not you are my uncle or offering sugar. a lot in the news, including stuff breaking late this evening. so my only advice is buckle up. it's going to be an interesting and fast-moving hour. there is a lot going on right now that was not going on at this time yesterday. okay. when it comes time for a potential candidate to pick a running mate, up pops one of these shortest lived and most specific niches in the book publishing industry. it's the really well-timed,

mostly positive work about the guy who might get picked for vice president. this particular publishing niche is not where you look for great literature. but it is where at least a small reliable audience of political junkies will be looking to figure out how to handicap the vice presidential prospects of whoever it is that will be the presidential nominee that year. okay, if you are the author of one of these mini vice presidential prospect books. if the subject of your book gets actually picked for vice president, then, you might end up having a megabest seller on your hands, even if the book is not very good. so you see this happen every four years, every time a presidential nominee is about to pick a vp. in 2012, mitt romney is the nominee. well, maybe he will pick marco rubio. out comes the rise of marco rubio. that gets published june 19ing, 2012. so maybe he will pick chris christie, the inside rise of power gets published at almost the same time as the rubio book.

that came out june 5th, 2012. mitt romney surprised everyone and picked paul ryan, quick, rush out a book about paul ryan. so you get straight to ebooks stuff like this one, published two weeks after mitt romney picked him or this one published a few days later. the might be a vice presidential candidate or has just been picked as a vice presidential candidate book shelf is kind of a strange book shelf. it is not a short book shelf. there are a lot of books. if they survive beyond what is expected to be the microshort self life in politics. after the fact, they can be pretty great evidence for what was supposed to be the appeal of those guys while some presidential candidate was betting them, doing their due diligence, deciding who they were going to pick to be vp. in the case of chris christie

was not picked to be vice president, the shining star on his resume is now very clear when you look back at that stuff. the thing that got him into the governor's office the thing that everybody always thought would be his greatest political asset was chris christie's time as u.s. attorney. quote, when chris christie got the u.s. attorney post, he had no sympathy for the poor old pauls who were plying their crooked trade at taxpayer expense. chris christie cut a far more public figure than previous u.s. attorneys. every week seemed to bring a few development, a perk walk or a leaked word from christie's office of an official being subpoenaed. after he had been in office as u.s. attorney for a year, the media and people on the street were already suggesting chris christie should run for governor. chris christie was appointed u.s. attorney for the state of new jersey in 2001. he was appointed by president george w. bush. mr. christie had no prior experience in law enforcement at the time. he certainly had no prior experience as a prosecutor. he was a lobbyist in his previous job. but he had also been a pioneer for the george w. bush for president campaign in 2000.

mr. christie bundled middle eastern half a billion in campaign funds from bush-cheney in 2000. that was apparently enough to get him considered for the u.s. attorney job. he served as u.s. attorney in new jersey from 2002 until 28. and he used that job in as high plo file away as possible. the u.s. attorney's office under chris christie was known not only for its conviction rate but for its pr, headline press events, lots of documents and information leaked to the press, particularly in public corruption cases of which mr. christie and his office prosecuted many. chris christie was one of the highest profile federal prosecutors in his time in that office in newark, new jersey. frankly, nobody in the state was surprised when his next big job after u.s. attorney was governor of that state. when he did run for governor, look at the way he ran. >> mayor sharpe james, he took thousands in illegal

contributions. as u.s. attorney, chris christie led the war on public corruption, brought corrupt public officials to justice, 130 jailed. democrats, republicans, tens of millions saved in tax dollars. today, new jersey is broken and chris christie will fix it. just as he did as u.s. attorney with leadership, independence, determination. >> chris christie ran for new jersey governor in the first place as that high profile federal prosecutor you've heard so much about. >> that high profile u.s. attorney. he ran the u.s. attorney's office in such a way as to give himself the biggest and best possible platform for his next job in politics. there is nothing inherently wrong with that. that was his first law enforcement job ever. he used it to make a big political splash.

he parlayed that splash into his next big political office. but the man appointed to that job after chris christie the guy who is in that job now, his reputation is roughly the option of that. have you ever heard of paul fishman? no. you are not alone. appointed u.s. attorney for the state of new jersey in 2009 by president barack obama. paul fishman is, has as small a public profile as chris christie's was large. but paul fishman is now right in this thing that is going on in new jersey with no end in sight and the speed at which this is unfolding in new jersey right now is almost breath taking. it was saturday when msnbc steve kornacki broke this story with new allegations of the governor of hoboken the chris christie communicated to that nair that relief funds for hurricane sandy might flow more freely to her city if she approved a private development project the governor favored and his top appointees had a professional stake in. those allegations those top officials have denied absolutely.

but that story broke here on msnbc tomorrow morning. by sunday that, hoboken mayor said she spent more than two hours with the u.s. attorney's office at their request, answering their questions about her charges and handing over documents related to her charges. that was sunday. by the very next day, by monday, nbc news reports that fbi acts and federal prosecutors from paul fishman's office were in hoboken, interviewing at least five people, including people who have said they can corroborate the hoboken mayor's charges. saturday, sunday, monday. all that happening against the backdrop of the shutdown of lanes on the george washington bridge in september, which were seemingly ordered by chris christie's deputy chief of staff as a way of inflicting traffic problems purposely on the city of ft. lee for some as yet unexplained reason. two weeks ago today on the day that governor christie issued his first apology for the scandal, after months of ridiculing anyone who asked about it. two weeks ago today, u.s. attorney paul fishman's office was first reported to open an

inquiry into the bridge lane's shutdown. today, two weeks later, we now know the u.s. attorney in new jersey, paul fishman's officer, has sent its first federal grand jury subpoenas in this inquiry the new york star ledger first to report today the subpoenas had gone out. they went to the re-election campaign for governor christie and to the offices of the republican party of the state of new jersey. interestingly, though. the news of these subpoenas didn't come from the u.s. attorney's office. didn't come from paul fishman from the federal prosecutor who issued the subpoenas. as recently as tonight the office of u.s. attorney paul fishman told our staff they would neither confirm or don't they had subpoenaed anyone in conjunction with this inquiry. the only reason we know for sure these subpoenas went out is because the people who got them, who were subpoenaed, who received the subpoenas, they are the ones who confirmed that they got them in this public statement.

quote, we can confirm that the christie for governor re-election campaign and the new jersey republican state committee received subpoenas for documents from the u.s. attorney's office, in addition to the subpoena that campaign previously received from the state legislative committee. >> that statement was released today from the general council for the new jersey republican party that christie re-election campaign has hired him to help them in this matter. 96, though, they've also hired bob luskin probably the most famous for representing carl rove when carl rove was accused of purposely leaking if identity of an undercover cia officer valerie blame wilson and representing lance armstrong when he was denying that he took performance enhancing drugs. so that's who is representing the party and chris christie's re-election campaign in this inquiry now as they confirm they've received federal grand jury subpoenas. but that's not all. at least the new york times is

reporting that that's not all. alone among all the newspapers reporting on this story tonight. the new york times is citing one person briefed on the matter as saying that these federal subpoenas have not only gone out to the republican party of new jersey and the chris christie re-election campaign, but also, quote, to a number of the 20 people and entities that received subpoenas last week from a new jersey legislative committee. the 20 people and entities include including both potential witnesses and people under scrutiny in the inquiry. if that new york times reporting is correct, then some of these people and these entities already subpoenaed last week by the legislature could be getting additional federal grand jury subpoenas from the u.s. attorney. they may have gotten them already. we den know. frankly, the u.s. attorney's officer is so tight lipped about these matters that we will probably never hear it from them if they subpoenaed these other people. if they did it, we will have to wait to hear from the subpoenaed folks, themselves, or from their

attorneys. meanwhile, though, the fact that federal subpoenas have been issued today by this prosecutor has to be seen as a sign of a new degree of seriousness or at least any serious phase in this federal inquiry as to who did it and whether it was criminal. we will know more about the direction of that federal inquiry when we see more of the subpoena list. already it seems notable the republican party of the state of new jersey has been ordered to hand over documents to the u.s. attorney, the state republican party wasn't subpoenaed before by the legislature. getting the state republican party to hand over documents is something the legislature never tried to do. meanwhile, those subpoenas that didn't go out from the legislature. they are still in effect. they still have the force of law and the responses to those subpoenas that demanded documents and diary entries and call logs and cell phones and blackberries. those are all due to be submitted to the legislature on february 3rd, which is the monday after the super bowl, which, of course, this year will

be held conveniently in new jersey. joining us now is the reporter for the bergen record who has been on this story from the very beginning. thanks very much for being here. >> thank you. >> what are the implications of their being federal subpoenas now for governor christie's re-election campaign and the republican party and maybe others? >> well, we heard a lot about subpoenas in this series unfolding investigations thus far. until now, we have not seen subpoenas from a law enforcement agency. they have been legislative subpoenas. so from that very fact, it's more serious. the other issue here is when paul fishman announced his office would be reviewing this, it was an initial, it was a preliminary review to see if there were any laws broken, any federal laws broken, any number of law enforcement agencies down to a local prosecutor could look more deeply into this. the fact that subpoenas had gone out by the u.s. attorney's office indicates that they have

identified some federal laws. let's remember, these are allegedly vindictive lane closures. there is not a federal statute that matches up for lane closures. this is not your garden variety. >> there is no federal law that says toll lane 23 must be opened to people from ft. lee, right, exactly. >> fair to say. >> that means, in other words, what you are saying is for them to have taken this act of furtherance, to issue binding subpoenas to people means that they, in order to get that far, they have to think that some federal law is implicated. that's a threshold issue for a serious federal inquiry. >> exactly. to be clear, though, there is a long road ahead, and this is not to say that there is any allegation that a law has been broken at this point. but to carry an investigation to say dime, for example, or someone is held criminally responsible, there are a lot of steps that need to take place before that hams. but certainly, issuing subpoenas is a serious development. it shows a widening investigation, that federal authorities are taking this

seriously. >> forgive my layman's ignorance on this subject. and tell me if you don't know, but as far as i can tell, the fact that these are called federal grand jury subpoenas, that doesn't necessarily mean that a federal grand jury has been convened specifically to look into this matter, right? we shouldn't read that into the type of subpoenas these are? >> yeah, i'm not clear. as you pointed out the u.s. attorney's officer has been very tight lipped about this. >> very. >> i anticipate that will continue. we may not know what's going on in the u.s. attorney's office in terms of the direction of this investigation for some time. >> let me also ask you, what you think the significance is of the fbi and federal prosecutors interviewing people who say they may be able to corroborate the mayor's charges against chris christie? >> sure. to some degree, it's routine.

when someone comes forward with an allegation of using political carrots to get beneficial treatment for a private development, i think in such a public way, the fbi has to take steps the federal authorities have to take steps to show they are taking it seriously to investigate. part of what would go to the heart of whether mayor don zimmer is credible on this case is when she was allegedly approached, did she tell anyone else? did she tell her aides? i think that's what the fbi is looking at now. she's obviously got her journal entry. but the more people who can corroborate what she says, i think the more credible she becomes. >> the fact that fbi acts and federal prosecutors are doing those inquiries. it doesn't necessarily mean they have found that corroboration. thank you for hipping us chart these steps forward here. your reporting has been invaluable from the beginning. thank you. >> thanks. >> all right. so it turns out the feds had a very, very busy day in new jersey, not just with hoboken

and the ft. lee scandal. tis the season, corruption investigation season apparently. we got late breaking news tonight about some political actors apparently in hot water, including potentially a united states senator, new story. stay with us. [ male announcer ] welcome back all the sweet things your family loves with 0-calorie monk fruit in the raw. it's made with the vine-ripened sweetness of fruit, so you can serve up deliciously sweet treats without all the sugar. get recipes at intheraw.com. woman: welcome to learning. spanish in the car.c on. without all the sugar. passenger: you've got to be kidding me. driver: this is good. woman: vamanos. driver & passenger: vamanos. woman: gracias. driver & passenger: gracias. passenger: trece horas en el carro sin parar y no traes musica. driver: mira entra y comprame unas papitas. vo: get up to 795 miles per tank in the tdi clean diesel. the volkswagen passat. recipient of the j.d. power appeal award, two years in a row.

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♪ >> also in new jersey investigatory news tonight, this one concerns senior senator bob menendez, a late breaking story tonight. senator menendez has been under investigation with a that eye doctor and major donor. if senator advocated in a port security contract in the dominican republic. also for advocating for that

same doctor in a dispute with the federal medicare program over $8 million in alleged overbilling. the doctor denies the charge and is suing medicare. nbc new york, channel 4 here in the new york area has learned this ongoing federal investigation into new jersey senator bob menendez is bigger than originally known. tonight it's reported the new jersey senator is under criminal investigation by the department of justice for his dealings with two fugitive ecuadoran bankers, he attempted to influence their status to gain permanent residency by writing letters and making calls to the homeland security and state department on their banker's behalf. what the feds want to know is if senator menendez made those calls in return for campaign contributions. these two banker brothers left ecuador more than a decade ago

after allegedly embezzling millions of dollars from the bank tehran there in the banking collapse in the 1990s. they have been living in the u.s. and have run businesses here. they have not been charged with crimes in the united states. they deny the charges in ecuador. they are appealing tear case. late today, senator menendez said he was not aware of federal inquiry and claimed the brothers are being politically persecuted by the brothers in ecuador. it should be noted, senator menendez of new jersey is the chairman of the foreign relations committee in the united states senate. also in late breaking news tonight, the conservative pundit and author and film-maker d'souza has been indicted for allegedly using straw donors to a candidate for senate if 2012. federal prosecutors say in the indictment that in order to get around election contribution limits had other people give a total of $20,000 to a particular senate campaign. and then he personally reimbursed them for those

donations. you are not supposed to do that. the senate candidate in question was not listed in the indictment. according to publicly available data, the only candidate that mr. d'souza donated do was wendy long, giving her the maximum $5,000. she lost that campaign. mr. d'souza's lawyers say he did not act with corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever. one was declared federal investigation week and why did nobody tell me in advance so i could get more sleep? joining us now is jonathan dietz the chief investigative reporter. thanks very much for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> on the menendez investigation, i should tell you we have a statement from senator menendez, i will read that in a moment. if i summarize that right, what is important? >> what is important on the investigation is the timing.

at the time the senator was writing letters and making phone calls and these were repeated efforts as explained to us, there were campaign donations that went into about the senator's campaign and the democratic party coiffures, $100,000 to the democratic party, from relatives who are here legally on behalf of democrats and senator menendez specific campaign. so it was the timing of this. there were concerns about it. continued concerns about money laundering, allegations involving these brothers. they allegedly smuggled over $100 million out of that bank into the u.s. the brothers vehemently deny it. say they did to the do anything wrong. they never toll a penney. we were rich before, we didn't feed the steal that money to come here. there was a lot of concern if you reach inside the state department and homeland security. there was a lot of concern about the nature of the calls and

letters done on their behalf because there was concern both on a foreign policy stance and also in terms of who these guys are and the charges against them. that being said, it is extremely important to note the problems in ecuador, both in its justice system, the politics, the current regime there that has been extremely aggressive in this case and also in terms of attempting to seize their assets, television stations, other matters. so it's a mess down there in terms of some of the politics and the judicial questions, be you the question remains, why was the senior senator from new jersey the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, taking a special interest into alleged criminal bankers from ecuador living the high life. we have statements from one former ambassador on the record who says the issue of them being in florida remains a real concern, a major concern between both countries and there is a lot of questions about what's been done on, why haven't they

been extradited? why haven't they been kicked out of the country? according to state department officials we spoke to, everyday was lost. how that evidence got lost, that is a big question about what went on down in ecuador. again, the brothers insist they have done nothing wrong and that their only crime was being rich and victims of an economic collapse. i think dick fold, if you will, here in the u.s. and that he did no crime and yet his bank collapsed, if that analogy kind of works, that sort of paints the picture of their defense and that they insist they did nothing wrong and they are being smeared. >> let me get to the statement just released tonight from the spokes woman for senator menendez, once again, we see anonymous sources making outlandish allegations, our office works each year with hundreds of individuals and families seeking help with the immigration process, who review each and every request we receive. if we feel any inquiries appropriate, we make it. in this particular case, senator

menendez believes this family has been personally persecuted, which were critical of the government, we are not aware of any inquiry into the senator's actions on this matter. is this consistent with the way that they have held themselves in, throughout these, as these questions have been raised in the past? or is this no? >> in terms, this is their first statement on this matter. they have denied and offered explanations in each case that the senator acted appropriately in each of the questions when a major campaign donor came up. they tried for the make calls on a security deal. he says his only interest was to stop the flow of trucks into the u.s. he called in connection with a medicaid investigation. he said it's just the rules were written terribly and they were unclear and they need to be reformed. you will see in the end that, is true. we will see in the end because it's our understanding that in the next few weeks, there will be a decision made out of the public corruption division and the department of justice as to

how to proceed in the criminal investigation involving senator menendez on this and some other matters that we believe their review. >> thank you for helping us sort through this tonight. it equipment through, we thought, we should call jonathan, thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> all right. we'll be right back. lots going on tonight. stay with us. i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms. hmm? [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. thanks for the tip. [ male announcer ] no problem. oh...and hair products. aisle 9. [ inhales deeply ] oh what a relief it is. ♪ which 4g lte map has the most coverage? this isn't real difficult... pretty obvious to me. i'm going to have to say verizon. verizon. that's right! the choice is obvious. verizon's superfast 4g lte network is over three times larger than any other 4g lte network.

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>> today john boehner and mitch mcconnell finally announced who will do the republican response to the state of the union next week? it is kathy mcmorris rodgers, the highest ranking in the house of representatives. she will be the first woman to be a part of the republican state of the union response since susan collins did it 14 years ago. and kathy mcmorris rodgers will be the first republican woman to be trusted to do it alone without a man sitting next to her since 1995. when that honor went to then new jersey governor christine todd whitman. now, for the past four years, the republican party has also

made the strategic puzzleing decision to give not one but two responses to president obama's state of the union addresses. for the past four years, there has been the official republican party response and also a competing republican tea party response that's true against this year as well. it will be kathy mcmorris rodgers doing the republican response and republican senator mike lee doing the republican tea party response. wait, there is more. politico now reports that for rand paul is also going to give a republican state of the union response this year. so for those of you keeping score at home, we are up to three republican responses by actual elected republican officials currently serve in washington to tuesday's state of the union address by the president. mcmorris-rodgers will speak for republican, mike lee will speak for tea party republicans and rand paul as always will speak for rand paul. if republicanism was a religion, this would be the part called sectarian warfare. until then, though, we will be calling it tuesday night. [ male announcer ] winter olympian ted ligety

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of philadelphia, the deriver to its east is the one i think most people tend to think of when think think of philly. the delaware is larger and happens to be the border between pennsylvania and new jersey. the schuylkill is inextricably tied to the identity of philly. in part the surest way to tell from an outsider is if they can look at this name, it looks like it should be pronounced sure kill or sweet kill. if you look at that and say the schuylkill, boom, are you from philly. easy, right now, dangling perilously over the schuylkill river in the middle of philadelphia is a crude oil tanker. this is one of several tankers that brings tens of thousands barrels of crude from oil-rich north dakota to a refinery in south philadelphia every week. early monday morning, this week, a train that had six cars loaded the highly volatile crude oil went off the tracks crossing the river, leading to this, rather

terrifying sight of the train car full of oil dangling over the river. thus far, no oil has been spilled and nobody has been hurt. this remains an ongoing situation in philadelphia. . and this, of course, is the latest in a string of real accidents involving crude oil. there was the derail. in quebec in july that killed 47 people, nearly destroyed an entire town, spilled a million-and-a-half gallons of crude. there was the oil tanker derailment in alabama in november, a train carrying 3 million gallons of crude oil, that fire burned for days. there was also the derail. and explosion that happened a few weeks ago outside fargo, north dakota. that led to the release of 400,000 gallons of crude oil. if it seems like these sorts of the accidents are happening with more frequency, it's because these sorts of accidents are happening with way more frequency, way more. there has been a huge spike in oil railcar accidents over the past year. accidents involving railcars

that transport crude oil. according to fairly remarkable new data released by the feds, more crude oil was spilled from railcars in the last year than spilled in the previously 37 years combined. if you add up all the oil spilled in railcar accidents starting in 1975, take it up to 2012, that combined is less than the amount of oil spilled just in the past year. the alarming frequency with which these sorts of accidents have been happening led the ntsb today to take the unprecedented step of joining with their counterpart agency in canada to call for an overhaul in the way crude oil is delivered by train. the two agencies issued a series of recommendations aimed at making crude oil rail shipments safer. and it's pretty clear that it needs to be made safer, just ask the poor schuylkill river with this looming ahead right now. the alternative to traveling huge amounts of oil by rain is instead by pipelines and

proponents of pipelines, specifically, of course the keystone xl oil pipeline. they right now are using these high profile recent oil train accidents to say, hey, pipelines are safer, trains are blowing up everywhere. give pipelines the green light. go keystone. undercutting that argument is, of course, the mine numbing number of pipeline spills that have also spilled big swads recently like the pipeline explosion in may flower arkansas in march. >> that made the entire neighborhood uninhabitable. the one that fouled if pristine yellowstone river in montana in 2011 or the spill under the kalamazoo river in michigan a year earlier. that cleanup is still ongoing in michigan. sort of a pick your poison, right? do you want the exploding railcar behind door number one or the potentially exploding pipeline behind door number two. in texas, they are getting an

extra dose of number two. yesterday, they started shipping crude oil through the southern leg of the keystone oil pipeline. the proposed stretch of the keystone pipeline awaiting approval from president obama is the northern leg, which would stretch from nebraska into canada. yesterday, it was the southern leg of that pipeline that opened for business. it carries crude oil through the state of texas through the gulf rof mexico. a number of land owners have been fighting that pipeline for months. as of yesterday, it's up and running. in response, those land owners announced they have launched a new group called texas pipeline watch to insure that any leaks along that pipeline are detected as soon as possible. this is some video the group sent us today of their initial inspections along the newly pumping pipeline to tell us they have been checking temperature

gauges along the pipeline as well as visiting pump stations along the route. they are calling the texas pipeline watch, texas's biggest neighborhood watch program. you might not expect that kind of thing in an oil and gas state like texas, right? but it turns out, texas pipeline watch isn't an anomalous thing. there are things going on in texas and texas politics right now that might surprise you. this is the city of azle, texas. it's located in north texas just outside ft. worth. over the last few months, something has been happening that has never happened before. open november 5th at around 9:30 p.m. local time the ground as far as to shake beneath azle, texas. a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. they're not a common feature in that part of the country. that quake took everybody by surprise. then the next day, it happened again, this time a 2.7 magnitude earthquake which hit around 11:00 in the morning. that same night, two more earthquakes.

what? something was going on in azle that had never happened before. >> did you feel it? another earthquake rumbled through north texas. >> some homeowners are reporting minor damage after that quake struck. it was around 6:40 near azle. it measured 3.6. that's the 12th earthquake this month alone. it is also the strongest in five years. >> the 12th earthquake in two-and-a-half weeks? that was in november. then it started getting worse. >> it seems like every single day now, we are reporting on yet another earthquake at the parker county line. now we know that where i am standing right now along boyd road, this is the epicenter of many of those earthquakes. there have been 30 quakes since november 1st in this area. the three this week were magnitude 3.3. >> 30 earthquakes in a span of two months in an area that does not experience earthquakes at all? what is going on?

most of the earthquakes that have struck have been clustered around a pair of injection well sites for fracking. residents of the city of azle pointed to those injection wells as what they believe is a possible cause of the quakes. earlier this month about 800 residents packed into a town hall meeting where they called on state officials to give them some answers about what is happening in their city. >> it feels like a semi truck hitting your house with a bomb going off. >> we shut down an injection well and see if the earthquakes stop. >> we are not going to have any clean water. >> since we are on such a tight time frame, we're trying to keep it to comments only. so we want to hear, no, we're here to listen. >> after only an hour, residents began leaving the meeting. most grumbling the same frustration as kevin wilson.

>> i truly believe -- >> the texas state officials who came to that meeting did refuse to answer any of the questions from the residents. they said they were just there to listen. they sat there while the residents talked. they didn't talk themselves. after that meeting was over, a group of residents decided instead of the state coming to them and refusing to answer their questions, they were going to two to the state. so this week, a group of residents of azle, texas, loaded themselves on to a bus, traveled 200 miles to the state capital in austin to plea with the state's railroad commission, which oversees drilling in that state, to help them physical out what is causing these earthquakes in their town. >> would you like to have it where you can't have your grandkids come over to play in their yard, because if they fall in a sinkhole, they'll break their leg. >> while you are doing your studies, i would like to ask you to shut your wells down. >> what do you think is behind the large amount of earthquakes in a short period of time? >> that's what we are going to try to find out. >> after hearing the residents' concerns for more than three

hours, quote, the three-member commission remained noncommittal about a response to the tremors. so what happens next? how does a tiny city like azle take care of itself here, when the very ground on which it is built is starting to betray them? they are saying they need help from their state and so far they are not getting it. joining us now for the interview is the mayor of azle, texas. mayor, thank you very much for being with us. i appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> let me just just ask you first, knowing what the magnitude is, isn't the best way to understand how bad these earthquakes are? have you felt them, yourself? how bad are they in town? >> they're fairly bad. it depends on what kind of structure you are in as to how much you feel it. but the first earthquake i felt was actually during a city council meeting. we had a meeting and that one it felt like somebody kicked the back of your chair. >> i know that we heard a resident there talk about

sinkholes and worries about their own personal property, of having the grandkids play in the yard. has there been structural damage or visual damage caused by the quakes? >> there has been reports of people saying they had cracks in their bricks and things like that. the hard part is being able to prove it was caused be the earthquake, you know, for a fact. that's been the difficult part for it, especially with the settling ground that we have here in texas. >> i know that you helped set up that meet income azle where state officials came, people trying to get some answers to this new problem of earthquakes. it sounds like, at least from the local news reports that i watched, that it didn't help matters, that people were more frustrated than anything else. what happened there? what were up hoping for? how did you feel about that? >> we really didn't have much information. they said -- i sent some letters to the railroad commission requesting a formal investigation into the

earthquakes. they actually responded fairly quickly. within a week, they called me and scheduled the town hall meeting. so logical thinking it would be a question and answer-type meeting, give some people some information, what they plan to do with it. things like that. but it was none of. that they had the meeting. they came out and just to the comments and it frankly frustrated people. it did more harm than food in my opinion. >> some folks in the energy industry arrange you that, it's maybe coincidence, that there is no what i to know for sure if fracking and techniques like these injection well sites, if those are the things that are leading to the earthquakes. is there anything that you think could be done or should be done to prove the cause of the quakes? >> i would say a coincidence first of all if we had one earthquake. not that we had 30 earthquakes in a matter of months. we definitely need to get the wells shut down. any common sense person that looks at the research dating

back to the 1960s can see that injection wells can cause earthquakes. so they need to be shut down and that would be the easy thing, see if the earthquakes stop. that will tell you if it caused it or not. >> what is next for you and for your town and those frustrated residents who formed the earthquake express. what's next for you to try to get this fixed? >> well, i have some plans in place. right now, i'm trying to get some data. you know, they don't want to do anything without data, without scientific proof. so, you know, the usgs, they have been doing some studies in azle already. they have been for, for over a month now. then we'll have ammunition to go get them shut down. the wells are outside our city limits, so we don't have any kind of authority to do anything, but once we get some evidence and make some noise, basically, i won't stop until it's done. >> the noise you are making already has national resonance, i can tell you that from here in new york.

mayor of azle, thank you for being willing to explain this to us tonight. i hope you stay in touch as you keep up this fight. >> definitely. thank you. lots of news tonight, including a surprising turn in virginia politics and corruption investigations. still lots to come tonight. i told you, it's a busy day. stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. paws off pal. [ female announcer ] new charmin ultra soft is so soft you can actually see the softness with our new comfort cushions. plus you can use up to 4 times less.

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one of the things that has been fascinating all along balanced budget amendment the former governor bob mcdonnell corruption case in virginia has been the timing. "the washington post" reported in december the u.s. attorney in virginia was not only ready to bring criminal corruption charge against bob mcdonnell and his wife, he had told their lawyers that he was about to bring those charges in december. and that's, of course, while bob mcdonnell was still governor of virginia. the mcdonnells' lawyers responded by taking their case straight to the department of justice. and they pled their case to please not make him the first

sitting virginia governor to ever be criminally indicted while still in august. this guy, james cole reportedly agreed with the mcdonnells' lawyer request. he agreed to change the timing. he overrode the local prosecutor, the u.s. attorney in virginia, and made that u.s. attorney wait to bring the charges until after governor mcdonnell was out of office. that was the first thing that was weird about the timing of this case, and that part of it is still unexplained by the u.s. justice department. we've asked them repeatedly, they will not talk to us about it. but the second weird thing about the timing is what happened next. even after they worked so hard to get the indictment pushed back, bob mcdonnell defense team apparently still didn't know when the indictment against him was going to come down. and the reason we know they didn't know about the timing is because when the indictment did happen this week, one of bob mcdonnell's key lawyers was not only on vacation, he was apparently on vacation somewhere that would require a boat ride and three airplane trips to return from. he was totally off the grid. when the indictment happened,

this lawyer, who was a key part of the bob mcdonnell defense team, he was not around and couldn't be around easily. and when they announced that arraignment, when they announced the arraignment in which they would have to show up in court to face the 14 felony counts spelled out in their 43-page indictment, when they announced the arraignment was going to happen on friday, as in tomorrow, the mcdonnell defense team asked to please delay that arraignment because their lawyer is somewhere presumably far away from the polar vortex where only boats can go and he will not be able to get back in time. so the defense team asked to delay the arraignment. the prosecutors did not object. they said that's fine. let's give the lawyer time to get back here. so the defense asked the judge, and the prosecution said we're okay with it and everybody expected the arraignment to be pushed off for a week. but it turns out no. one of the judges presiding in the case apparently does not care about that request from the defense. he does not even care that the prosecution doesn't mind. the judge is insisting that the

arraignment go ahead as originally scheduled, and so tomorrow morning, bob mcdonnell and his wife are going to be in federal court, minus this guy who is apparently still on his way back into the country from somewhere i'm sure really nice. why did this one judge decide to push this hard line and not move the arraignment? we have no idea. one thing we do know about this judge is that he -- before he was on the bench, he's best known for having prosecuted zacharias moussaoui. mr. mcdonnell was reportedly offered a plea deal several months into the investigation. he was basically told if you plead guilty to one felony bank fraud charge, just that one charge that has nothing to do with corruption while you're in office, a charge that would allow you to avoid a very public trial, if you plead guilty to just that one case, that one charge, we will let mrs. mcdonnell get away scot-free and

we will not charge you with anything else. governor mcdonnell apparently said no thanks, turned down the plea deal. so if he did turn out that plea deal, as "the washington post" reports, that is why bob mcdonnell and his wife have had their previously private correspondent made embarrassingly public. that's why they will face 14 felony charges related to corruption, conspiracy, fraud and much more, and they will face those charges tomorrow in federal court in virginia. stay with us. i have the flu, i took medicine but i still have symptoms. [ sneeze ] [ male announcer ] truth is not all flu products treat all your symptoms. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus severe cold and flu speeds relief to these eight symptoms. [ breath of relief ] thanks. [ male announcer ] you're welcome. ready? go.

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canada? or the u.s.? the answer is... the u.s. ♪ most of america's energy comes from right here at home. take the energy quiz. energy lives here. i took medicine but i still have symptoms. [ sneeze ] [ male announcer ] truth is not all flu products treat all your symptoms. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus severe cold and flu speeds relief to these eight symptoms. [ breath of relief ] thanks. [ male announcer ] you're welcome. ready? go. >> one last note, out of virginia, the attorney general used to be ken cuccinelli. he devoted a whole section of his campaign website to talk about his affection for virginia's sodomy law. now mark herring announced his

office would no longer defend virginia's ban on gay marriage. elections have consequences. sometimes really, really blunt consequences. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> the rnc winter meeting. >> will the ghost of past election defeats haunt their efforts? >> eventually republicans will come around. >> a kinder, gentler brand. >> who is the leader? who is the voice for the republican party? >> that's a good question. >> speaker boehner maz to get something for the caucus. >> we're here to bring fiscally responsible leadership. >> remember why we're here. we're here to win elections. >> let's talk first about the broad change of strategy. >> wernd not defought on our debt.