around d.c., all of delaware could possibly see two feet of snow. the pink shading, pittsburgh, philadelphia, roanoke, richmond, we could see six to 12. new york city is up a little bit. we think they'll just be in the northern fringe, possibly three to six inches. north of new york city into new england will not be hit hard by this storm. philadelphia, we're calling eight to 12 for you. we mentioned baltimore and d.c. friends in the ohio valley, it is snowing pretty good from indianapolis to columbus. that's where it's getting colder and the snow is coming down. new computer projections project three to six inches, highest totals around columbus, ohio, where you'll be plowing up to a foot of snow come tomorrow. this is not just a huge storm but affecting a large area, contessa. the important thing, d.c., this could be one of their biggest snow storms all time. >> they've gotten walloped

already this year. >> when this storm is over they'll have more snow than boston for the year. which is ridiculous. >> thank you for staying on top top of it, bill. glass half empty or half full for the jobs? put democrats in the half full category. nancy pelosi this morning said drop in january's unemployment rate to 9.7% shows the democrat stimulus package is working. but republicans see this as glass half empty, pointing to the 20,000 jobs slashed last month. the labor department now says 8.4 million jobs have been lost to the recession. in less than half an hour, president obama returns his focus to jobs, announcing new programs aiming to help small businesses. mike viqueira is at the white house. what's surprising to me is hearing anybody championing this number as great. you're looking at 20,000 net jobs lost, that means people are giving up looking for work.

>> well, that could be one way to look at it. look, back in november, when the job rate took down two-tenths of a percent, today it took down three-tenths of a percent. the president was almost in a celebr attachment ory mood when the new was brought into the room. today, yes, once again they're being very careful to say this is good news that it's going down. the unemployment rate is going down. bad news that as many as 8.4 million people, a new statistic out today, 8.4 million people total lost their jobs since this recession began way back in the middle of the last year of the bush administration. christina romer was on our air a few minutes ago, contessa. here is what she had to say in reaction to these new numbers. >> with the unemployment rate at 9.7%, the first thing to say is, of course, that's completely unacceptable. it's still very high, which is why the president has continued to push for actions to help to jumpstart job creation.

he will be announcing a small business lending program this morning. >> so, the president has turned his focus in recent days, ever since that massachusetts debacle, senate election of scott brown, the republican, the leadership was here yesterday, contessa. harry reid, nancy pelosi and others. they talked about the way to move health care forward. no progress on that to report. the president has a number of initiatives, tax cuts for small businesses who add new worker, bolstering the small business administration, their ability to lend, lending to community banks, trying to get them to free up some capital to lend to small businesses across the country. >> add those up that's a lot of votes come november. we'll bring you the president's remarks live from maryland, announcing new help for small businesses. that coverage begins when we see the president speaking, expected in about half an hour here on msnbc. my big question today -- it's a simple one -- is the

government doing enough when it comes to putting people back to work? you can share your thoughts with me on facebook, contessa.msnbc.com. in south florida, new information in the murder of paula sladewski. the one-time playboy model's body was found burned in a du s dumpster after she disappeared from a south beach nightclub last month. her boyfriend says he recognizes that guy. >> matter of fact, when i walked in the club, this is the gentleman that double i.d.' d paula. we were i.d.' d by one bouncer and this gentleman asked to see her i.d. a second time when we were walking in. i just don't think paula, on her best day, looked under 21. >> and that was kevin klim, the victim's boyfriend. in arizona now, self-help guru,

james arthur ray, will stay in jail at least another week after pleading not guilty to manslaughter, accused of the deaths of three of his followers in a sedona sweat lodge. the daughter of one victim speaks out about her mother's death. >> reporter: for andrea puckett, it doesn't bring back her mother, but the arrest of the man who police say was responsible for liz newman's death does bring some comfort. >> that's been a couple of voids in our life, obviously my mom and the other void is justice. we're happy to see this step. >> reporter: andrea and her family have been try iing to understand how her mother's spiritual retreat to arizona, to see someone she so admired, self-help guru james arthur ray, ended in her death. >> i think about my mom every day. i cry every day. and just dealing with it from moment to moment, trying to get back to a normal life. >> and now we turn overseas to london. mystery surrounds a real-life

sleeping beauty. rare disorder causes her to sleep for up to two weeks at a time. here is nbc's stephanie gosk. >> reporter: unlike the fairy tale, this sleeping beauty has no prince charming coming to wake her up. she has kleine-levin syndrome, with only 1,000 known cases around the world. >> this kind of state lasts for about one to two weeks generally, and then it disappears suddenly. so, people feel this is over, but unfortunately it comes back. >> reporter: pediatrician in london made the diagnosis for the family. a frightening syndrome with no cure, only a chance louisa would grow out of it. life passes her by while asleep. dancing is her passion but this year she keeps missing recitals, school work and her social life suffer. stephanie gosk, nbc news, worthing, england. a harrowing tale today,

jumping into shark-infested waters to try to save a surfer. the surfer was trying to free himself from a swarm of sharks. >> it wasn't until i finally got to him that, you know, realized with the amount of blood in the water and he told me that he had been, you know, bitten, that this is what's going on. >> despite those efforts, 38-year-old steven schafer died a short time later at the hospital. kristin dahlgren is in florida right now. this guy, this life guard risked it all. >> he really did, contessa. the beach is back open, we've seen surfers back in the water. these are similar to the conditions that they saw here on wednesday night. you can see just how difficult this rescue attempt was. keep in mind that dan lung, that lifeguard, was a shark bite victim himself about 20 years ago. he knew exactly what the dangers out there were. >> i kind of kept him in the

kite himself, cradled in the kite and offered somewhat protection, because it made us much bigger in the water than if i tried to just get him out of the kite. i figured this was the best way to at least offer us some protection. i had the board butted up against the kite and i knew that, yeah, there is a possibility this could turn into a frenzy because of the amount of blood that was in the water. >> reporter: he talked about how he talked to schafer on the way in, trying to reassure him, to comfort him. unfortunately, as you said, there was just too much blood loss. schafer did die. experts are trying to determine what type of sharks those were. they believe they were bull or tiger sharks, probably between eight and nine feet. those same experts, though, say that the chances of being bitten by a shark are infintesimal.

there are only 14 recorded deaths from shark bites in florida's history. >> kristin dahlgren, thank you. moving to south florida, what would you be willing to pay to attend the big game in miami? passion might be priceless when it comes to cheering on your favorite team. we head to miami in moments. party in d.c. ♪

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all right. developing right now, we're

watching that snow storm making its way toward washington, d.c. and now the forecast is in. the capital could see between a foot of snow and perhaps as much as two feet of snow before that storm ends tomorrow. let's go to the weather channel's meteorologist paul goodloe in washington, d.c. right now. that's pretty widespread here. you're not narrowing it down, between a foot and two? >> reporter: we're thinking it's closer to two foot but we want to give these folks some hope it might be less than that. the week before christmas they picked up over 16 inches of snow, which closed schools for three whole days. d.c. area schools are being let out basically right now, at noon. in maryland, montgomery county schools being let go early. virginia area schools in the metro area were closed today. the know continues to increase. even amtrak has canceled all but one train going south of d.c. because of this snow storm. again, winter storm warning in

effect from now through 10:00 pm tomorrow night. ea easily 20, to perhaps 24 inches of snow. last time we picked up more than 24 inches of snow was 88 years ago. contessa? >> paul, thanks a lot. newly released e-mails from the state of alaska are painting an unflattering picture of sarah palin and her husband, todd. e-mails were obtained by nbc news and it showed todd played a much bigger role in palin's administration than just first dude. several e-mails showed he got involved in a judicial appointment and even monitored contract negotiations. another e-mail shows he sent confidential reports from his employer, bp, to the attorney for the state. then there's one from the governor herself saying, quote, man that gossip crap bugs me, after the anchorage daily news wrote about mansion repairs. many e-mails were requested redacted or when would, with the claim that privilege extends to todd palin as an unpaid adviser

to the government. $150 per ticket tea party convention is happening at a swank hotel in nashville, meetings and speeches. one speaker today has called environmentalists a greater threat than islamic extremism. later today, convention goers will hear from justice roy moore, famous for refusing to remove a ten commandments monument from a state building. participants will be treated to a seminar on how to hold fund-raising drives. how many people are we talking about for this tea party convention? >> reporter: there are about 600 people here, they all paid about $550 a piece to be at this event. that comes to about $300,000 that they're able to rake in. we know that about 100,000 of that is supposed to go to sarah palin and also other sponsors have kicked in or donated. organizers here say they hope to just break even. as you mentioned, contessa, a lot of red meat is going around

today to fire up the troops for sarah palin tomorrow. but we talked with a lot of people, people coming from hawaii, from florida, from all over. this is for them. they want to take their country back. they think the government is spending too much. they think it's off course and not doing the right things for the country. >> i get that here, dominico, that they think it's heading off course. we've already had major organizers of this tea party movement to quit the convention because of the costs involved. they say we're trying to get a grassroots movement going here, $550 for a ticket is not really fair. it's not fair to pay sarah pail ibin $100,000. do they real think they can compete with the republican party if they've got 600 participants in this convention? >> reporter: they're not trying to compete with the republican party, they'll say. we don't need a third party. we need to be able to influence elections on a local basis. 1:00 today there will be a news

conference and they'll unveil some of what they're going to try to do politically of what they'll try to do on a local basis. >> good to see you, thanks. sarah palin speaks tomorrow night at 9:00 pm eastern. watch that right here on msnbc. scott brown's first stop after being sworn into the senate? a bar. reporter for the hill says brown was spotted at the popular pub the dubliner half an hour after he took the oath of office. just a wee bit of celebration. he pushed to quickly become the junior senator from massachusetts so he can vote on big issues in the senate next week. new video from haiti, former president bill clinton has just arrived at the port-au-prince jail where ten americans charged with child object deduction have been held for seven days. the former president is expected to hold a news conference in about 45 minutes. we'll be watching for that. the group has entered a local court for another hearing. their lawyer has requested a provisional release. let's go to nbc's michelle ko

kosins kosinski, joining us from port-au-prince. on what basis are they arguing they should be out of jail? >> reporter: we don't know exactly what he's going to tell the judge. the defense attorney has told us he felt that they should be released because they're not violent people, that they really didn't know what they were doing, he claims. but one odd thing he said yesterday -- he represents all ten of these jailed americans. he said if there was one person who ought to be charged with these crimes and one of them that ought to be held, it might be the group's leader, laura silsby, but that the other nine didn't know what they were doing, that she was the one who was in charge of this plan and they were mostly ignorant of the process and didn't know which documentation was needed before they crossed the border with children. something strange for a defense attorney to say when he's supposed to represent all of them. but we're not sure exactly what he's going to tell the judge and how much detail they'll be able to go into since it is closed to the public. what a situation it is out here. we had a traffic jamming protest for women's rights. we have bill clinton inside

right now, meeting with haitian officials and we have all ten of these americans taken away in a hurry, in a van and taken downtown to this judicial building, i guess we would call it. but what's interesting, the timing of this also. the americans were taken away without warning. we didn't even be know that that would happen this morning at the time that it did and bill clinton did not arrive until later. so we don't know if they didn't want him to have contact with them or to -- that might not have been planned from the beginning. it's really unclear. you know he's going to be asked about this situation and today hillary clinton actually commented on it. and she said that this is really a matter for haitian officials. they violated the law, potentially, which is what they're accused of doing here in haiti, not the united states, contessa. >> michelle kosinski, thanks for keeping tabs on that story. oh, man. this has taken fan fervor to a new level here. fleur-de-lis, saints' symbol and

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well, how do you like that one? that, my friends, is an earring. if flo-ellen richards' throat, lifelong, die hard new orleans saints' fan, who wears these earrings, the saints' football symbol. it was on the night stand, she went to grab some vitamins on the night stand, the earring was there, swallowed them all. took eight hours and two teams of specialists to retrieve it. what did she get out of it? memento for the rest of her life. >> this is dr. pepper jerry. >> amazingly smooth because it's got a little kiss of cherry

flavor. >> this isn't going to work. >> oh, it's going to work. >> that's a rockin' super bowl ad, stars of those big ads, saints are gearing up for the big game. right now, it looks like they're prepping, in some cases, and not just by holding up in the hotel but instead in the party hot spot of miami. some of the teammates out this week. >> we're going to go out monday night, early in the week and shut it down after that. i don't think you'll see any guys out late. i haven't been out late past 10:00, since that night. >> just one night out of the whole week. you can rest up after that. if you want to party like a rock star in miami f, you better hav some cash. $1,200, chump change if you're

willing to shell out the dough for plane tickets, vip parties, the lowest ticket prices have been for the super bowl since 2001. cnbc's darren rivell in miami. this is the cheap season now? >> reporter: well, you've got $1,200, the minimum, stub hub is saying it's $2,025, average price. it is a little bit cheaper because a lot of people say this is about corporate america, new orleans, indianapolis, not exactly fortune 500 cities. it would have been a whole different city if we were talking about the new york jets, if they were able to beat the colts last week. >> 26% of sales coming from louisiana, 7% from indiana, no predictor, by the way, of who wins the super bowl. darren, thanks. coming up here on msnbc, if you want to be in good company, getting drunk, a new survey says go to fresno.

men's health magazine asked readers to rate their cities based on alcohol related issues. fresno won, and boston rates the least drunk. they're too busy talking. oh, no. i'm getting the no from the guys on the floor here. we're keeping our eyes on two developing stories right now, that massive storm pounding the east coast up to 24 inches predicted in some areas. we'll give you the heads up about what to expect in your area. live pictures from maryland right now. this is where we're expecting president obama to talk about job creation and some new initiatives for small businesses. this is supposed to happen any minute. when we see the president, so will you. yes, i hear progressive has lots of discounts on car insurance. can i get in on that? are you a safe driver? yes. discount! do you own a home? yes. discount! are you going to buy online? yes! discount! isn't getting discounts great? yes!

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all right. right now, president obama expected to begin talking about jobs and initiatives for small businesses in maryland. there, you're seeing part of the

facility that's hosting the president today. as soon as we see the president and he takes to the podium, we will pass that along to you, live. welcome back to msnbc on this friday. right now, toyota is apologizing for problems with its vehicles. it's considering yet another recall. but one city is already pulling at least a few of these priuses off the road. coming to a theater near you, rush limbaugh the musical. we'll talk to one of the show's producers about that. happening now, light snow is already falling in charlottesville, more is on the way. that storm could drop 20 to 30 inches of snow before heading further up the coast and then eventually offshore. msnbc meteorologist bill karins is tracking it for us. what do you see as the biggest problem anywhere? >> mid atlantic anywhere from the delmarva to chesapeake bay. first off, you can see the storm, bright white clouds. the storm itself is located in two pieces, one be headed

through missouri. and the dominant storm now developing in northern florida and southern georgia, as the moisture spreads up the coast. expected snowfall totals, very significant, right from virginia, west virginia, maryland, delaware and southern jersey. why isn't this storm heading up to new york city, hartford, boston, providence? there's this huge ocean storm, a blocking storm. this looks like a hurricane in the north atlantic. it's not going to allow the storm that's coming off the mid atlantic coast to head northward. this storm will push it out to sea. that's why, contessa, areas to the north get spared but not areas in the mid atlantic. it's very rare. >> you're keeping a close eye on that. we'll check back in with you during the day. john edwards' sex scandal a judge has found edwards' former aide andrew young in contempt of court over a sex tape. superior court judge is demanding young return that tape to edwards' former mistress, rielle hunter. hunter sued young, asking that he return the video.

the judge says the contempt ruling will be lifted if young returns that tape by wednesday. they call it a personal videotape being sought by rielle hunter. he says it's a copy of a video showing edwards in a sksual encounter with rielle hunter. latest sign of the worry surrounding brake problems with the toyota prius. washington state officials have sent out a memo, telling them to yank 2,300 priuses off the road. grandson of the man who started the company issued an apology. phil lebeau joins us from illinois. it has to be the kind of news that hits the dealers and salespeople so hard that they're pulling them off the roads. it's not a good sales pitch. >> reporter: it's more of a pr hit than anything else, contessa. washington case is only six priuses, not a large fleet of

tens of thousands of vehicles. nonetheless, those types of stories, as they go out, it brings up the question again and again, are they safe to drive? toyota has said time and again, the vehicles are safe to drive, they're looking into the issue regarding the brakes. there have been 124 complaints filed with the federal government, four accidents reported to washington. that's what the national highway traffic safety administration is looking into. what caused these problems with the prius brakes? many people who filed these complaints have said they don't react right away. if you hit a bump in the road and hit the brake there's a delay there and as a result you get the feeling your brakes are failing. that's what they and toyota are looking into. as long as this continues to be out there, you're going to hear reports out of washington state or someone else where there are people who are saying don't drive the prius. that hurts the dealers more than anything else. >> the local governments have to be wondering if they're going to get any blame if something goes wrong because of these brakes.

>> sure. >> does the blame get put on them, will they be facing lawsuits? new york city has a whole fleet of these priuses. toyota's statement, we're making every effort, they say, to address this situation for our customers as quickly as possible. are they accepting now them for repairs or for attention at the dealerships? >> reporter: no. they will look at your prius if you bring it in but there's not a stated repair. this is different than the gas pedal issue. there is a fix for that that's in place, parts have been shipped to the dealers and they will start to then repair those 2.3 million vehicles. with the prius, there have been these reports that the brake software needs to be updated. there has not been a fix, so to speak, sent out to the dealerships. if you're a prius owner, only for 2010 models, the third generation been on sale since may, bring it to your dealer, they can look at it. but if they don't have a fix there's not much you can do.

>> thanks a lot, phil. in a few hours, michael jackson's doctor supposedly will turn himself in, whether they want him to or not. for days there have been speculation that conrad murray will be accused of involuntary manslaughter but prosecutors haven't formally charge d him. stephanie stanton is outside the courthouse now. what are you expecting to see if we don't know if he is or is not going to be form ally charged. >> reporter: good morning, contessa, there is a lot of speculation going on with this case. at this point, the media has descended on the courthouse here at lax. dr. conrad murray, according to a spokesperson, he is supposed to come here at 1:30 today to turn himself in. that is whether or not charges have been filed. now, talks between the d.a. and murray's attorneys broke down last night. there's been a lot going on here. this is like a chess game with all the players involved. everyone is waiting to see what the next move will be. lapd wants murray to be arrested, taken into custody. but they don't want it to appear that murray is getting any

special treatment. that's why they want to go forward with that. apparently the lapd was upset that the d.a. was negotiating with murray's attorneys to have him surrender on his own. talks broke down last night, defense attorneys saying an arrest would be purely for the cameras and they don't want him paraded around in handcuffs. at this point, again, late last night, the spokesperson for dr. murray says he will come here at 1:30, whether or not any charges are filed, to turn himself in. if no charges are filed we're told he will be getting on a plane and heading back home to houston. we are on standby, contessa. >> stephanie, we'll check back in with you. when you see something, i know you'll share it. let's look at what you may have missed today, especially if you're just waking up on the west coast. funny man jon stewart faced off with bill o'reilly, from iran to global warming and o'reilly suggested the two of them should team up and enter the political arena. >> let's play a little bit of a

scenario. i'm thinking about running for president. >> i think that's a really bad idea. >> i want you to be my vice president. >> i think that's a really bad idea, too. i have pictures of me in college that preclude me from working at the post office. you have no idea the trouble you're getting in. >> this is why i've selected you as my vice president. your image is so bad, no matter what they found, it wouldn't matter. >> wow, wouldn't that be something? sarah palin demanded obama's chief of staff be fired for using the word retarded. and guess who just had a field day with that. >> our political correct society is acting like some giant insult has taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards retards. i'm not going to apologize for it. i'm quoting emmanuanual. it's in the news. >> to his repeat ed use of the

word "retard," they responded governor palin believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of other sincere disrespectful. slightly understated from demanding a firing, for sure. rush limbaugh is always good for big news, something juicy to talk about. turns out it's not just news people who thinks he makes great entertainment. this time, taking a look at rush limbaugh's life and setting it to music. joining me live is kelly leonard, executive vice president of second city. kelly, please explain a musical about rush limbaugh. >> i'll try. about a year ago, we had a big hit with a show called "rod blagojevich superstar" and we thought rush limbaugh would be great because he can actually write the show for us.

>> can you give us an example of the lyrics we would hear in rush limbaugh the musical? >> based on the little mermaid, oxycontin song, talks about rush's love of that particular drug. we go way back and have a piece based on "grease lightning," holding on to the '50s, and hating the hippie scene developing around him. the whole thing is made up. we're not really tied to facts. we use rush limbaugh's style against him, so to speak. >> i can hear what he would say about that. he would say -- i think he would have fun with people making fun of the facts. how much of an inspiration was limbaugh dancing to lady gaga? we have that video from the miss america pageant where he was really pumping his fists in the air and "let's dance" was playing. maybe it was "poker face." at any rate, big inspiration for the actor who plays rush limbaugh? >> absolutely.

it's super awkward and so the choreographer had a fun time making sure rush was dancing just horribly. >> you also had the video of him back at c-pac. here is how i judge the success of a musical. if i see 15 kids singing songs, that must abe hot new show. can you picture teenagers singing the songs from rush the musical? >> i sure hope so. we do a nice blend of the broadway prestige stuff with songs that are parody of the band rush out of canada. we try to hit a wide swath. >> kelly, i'm sure this will be a lot of fan for people who are fans of rush limbaugh and perhaps those who aren't. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> remember the m.i.t. grad handing out resumes on the streets of new york, out of work for a year before he finally landed a job? well now guess what, he's out of work again. hey, this is the real world.

we're waiting for president obama to talk about how people can land more jobs and what the government can do to help small businesses spur them to create new jobs. when we see the president, we'll talk what he has to say live. small business owners have a lot of questions. can paperless billing get me paid faster? how can i keep my best employees? how can i bring down my insurance costs? that's why we're building a community called openforum.com where owners can swap ideas and ask questions. will tweeting get me more customers? how can i get paid faster? i was about to ask you the same thing. join the conversation at openforum.com. d switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance? host: is ed "too tall" jones too tall? host: could switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance?

host: does a ten-pound bag of flour make a really big biscuit? all right. here it is, atlanta, maryland, where president obama is talking about jobs today and talking about how he can convince small businesses to expand what they're doing and hire on more people. we're expecting this to be about a ten-minute speech about pushing small businesses to hire more people. of course, we've got some bad news on the jobs fronts and some very good news. the unemployment rate dropped .3%, now stands at 9.7%. it looks like we lost 20,000 jobs last month, much more than what economists had predicted. let's listen to the president. >> that these have been a rough

couple of years for our economy and for our country. the deepest downturn since the great depression ripped through our economy. costing more than 8 million jobs and rocking businesses, large and small. and that's why we took some very tough steps. in some cases, unpopular steps when i took office to break the back of this recession. and today, we received additional news suggesting that we are climbing out of the huge hole that we found ourselves in. last january, the month i took office, almost 800,000 americans lost their jobs. today, we learned that job losses for this january were 20,000. the unemployment rate dropped below 10% for the first time since the summer. manufacturing employment grew last month for the first time in three years, led by increased activity and the production of cars and trucks and auto parts.

these numbers, while positive, are a cause for hope but not celebration because far too many of our neighbors and friends and family are still out of work. we can't be satisfied when another 20,000 have joined the ranks and millions of more americans are underemployed, picking up what work they can. it is encouraging, the job loss in january was a small fraction of what it was a year ago and that the unemployment rate last month went down and not up. understanding that these numbers will continue to fluctuate for months to come, these are welcome if modest signs of progress along the road to recovery. now, even as we take additional steps to hasten that recovery, we know that there are limits to what government can do to create jobs. the true engine of job creation will always be businesses. what government can do is fuel that engine by giving

entrepreneurs and companies the support to open their doors and to expand and to hire more workers. that's exactly what this administration intends to do and what we've been doing, working with the sba and karen mills. we're starting with small businesses because that's where most of the new jobs do. over the past 15 years, small businesses have created roughly 65% of new jobs in america. these are companies formed around kitchen tables at family meetings, formed when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, formed when a worker decides it's time she became her own boss and it's worth remembering once in a while a small business becomes a big business and then changes the world. that's why last week i proposed a new small business tax credit, $5,000 for every any employee you hire this year. couple of these folks here, small business owners i talked to, said they would be interested in using that tax

credit. this week, i proposed a new small business lending fund that would take $30 billion of the fund originally used to rescue big banks on wall street and use it to provide lending capital, community banks on main street. i know we've got capital one bank here that's been a lender to oasis, capital bank, excuse me. and we appreciate the good work that you've done, supporting this company. under karen mills, sba has decreased loan fees, increased lending by 86%. we've called for legislation to increase sba loan limits to allow us to guarantee loans of up to 5 million, compared with 2 million now. and today, i'm taking yet another step to assist small business owners. get the capital that they need to grow and to hire. i'm proposing legislation that

allows firms to refinance their commercial real estate loans, their mortgages, under the sba. right now, even companies with great credit histories are facing challenges, refinancing and what are historically low ra rates. property values have fallen and lending has dropped. as a result, many businesses that otherwise would have survived this downturn are at risk of defaulting which, in turn, will lead to even lower property values and less lending, not to mention lost jobs. in addition, i'm also proposing that we increase the limits for sba loans used for lines of credit and working capital. something that i know could benefit business and countless others. the truth is the economy can be growing like gangbusters for years on end and it's still not easy to run a small business. it's not easy to stay ahead of your competitors. it's not easy to keep your costs down, to do right by your employees, to constantly

innovate, adapt in a changing world. talking to ruth, she reminds me it's not easy keeping up with health care costs and so she is very anxious to see health care reform passed so small businesses can pick up the cost for their employees. and in this deep and lasting recession, a hard job has been that much harder because for much of the last year, people weren't buying and customers weren't calling and banks were not lending. but even in the face of these obstacles, even in these tough times, all across the country, there are people like rick and dennis and ruth and will who haven't given up. you guys wake up every day and seek a way to safely navigate these troubled waters, to fulfill your obligations to your fami families and to your employees and your customers. and in that determination, that resolve, you embody what's best in america and you keep making

america stronger. next week, congress will start debating many of the jobs proposals i've outlined today and in recent days, many proposals to benefit small business, many of the proposals to spur hiring. if there are additional ideas from either party, i'm happy to consider them as well. but what i hope, what a strongly urge, is that we work quickly and we work together to get this done. america's small businesses are counting on us. thank you very much, everybody. and thank you guys. >> there's president obama, just talking about pushing for sba to expand its limits here so that people can get loans. i want to move from the president, revisit jobs momentarily. right now, breaking news is coming into us from -- this looks like a plane coming into miami and part of a plane fell into the parking lot of the dolphin mall when it was on its

final approach into miami. it doesn't look like anybody was hurt when this piece of a plane fell out of the sky into this mall parking lot but there, you can see it, now surrounded by police officers. this was a flight that was coming in from santiago, chile, into miami and part of that plane fell into the dolphin mall parking lot. nobody hurt but interesting picture nonetheless. let's go back to the president and what he was talking about with jobs. this is a serious time for president bush, the white house and his administration. even though unemployment rate dropped to 9.7%, and that's the good news -- the bad news is that we lost 20,000 jobs last month. when you're looking at those 20,000 jobs, most economists were expecting to lose only 5,000 jobs. so we were expecting to see better news all over. let's get real now with joshua persky, who captured headlines when he got laid off.

you went out and wore a sandwich board to call attention to the plight to professionals who found themselves out of work. >> i went out to hand out resumes and find a job and benefited from a lot of publicity. it was still very challenging to find a job. took me another eight months to get back in the office. >> and where did you land a job? >> i landed a job at an accounting firm. unfortunately due to the severe economy that only lasted five months and i was back out again looking for a job. >> in a year and a half, you've been laid off twice? >> that's correct. >> at this point -- you were listening to the president alongside me. what do you make -- do you think the government here, joshua, is doing enough to spur job creation? >> i think the president and the government are doing a great job and are very encouraging and i think they're starting to get on track now to encourage small business development and entrepreneurial endeavors in that -- that is the way to go.

most of america, 65% of new jobs are going to business -- small family businesses. probably closer to 78% of people employed in america are employed by small businesses and i think that's where it's main street not wall street that needs the enkornlment now. >> given now that you've been unemployed twice and you've been unemployed by big companies, does it change your perspective? if small business loans will be more readily available, does it coax you into thinking why go back to work for the man? maybe i should work for myself? >> it certainly does. i'm out there, networking, trying to build my own valuations business. if i can get enough potential leads and clients i'll start my own business or at least go into my next employer or partnership with strength with a network of possible clients. i'm also exploring more entrepreneurial and innovative indef endeavors, scan business cards,

trying to get business development for that. >> do you think this is -- it stinks. i don't want to put too pretty much a picture on it. it does force people to consider other opportunities and other roads that maybe they would be blind to if someone was giving them a paycheck every week. >> you've got to be creative, innovative, open to change and you can't give up. don't sit back. don't give up. you have to keep getting out there, networking, brainstorming and trying to use your skills in whatever way you can. market yourself. and find your way, negotiate your way through this economy. >> it's a good message. a big part of why we're seeing that 9.7% unemployment drop is some people have given up the job search. wish you the best of luck, josha. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. i asked earlier, is the government doing enough to putting people back to work? ron said is government done too much? and ron writes government should get out of the way, lighten restrictions on small businesses

and watch the people of this nation get back on their feet. you can share your thoughts with me any time via twitter, facebook or e-mail, contessa@msnbc.com. in fact, let's take a look at what people in seattle are tweeting about right now. toyota is a big topic, people talking about the recall. haiti, those americans charged with child abduction and, of course, wear red. you'll notice the anchors on msnbc wearing red to bring attention to women with heart disease. breaking news, dolphin mall, a plane was heading for final approach to a runway in miami and there went the part on to the parking lot. we're keeping an eye on that. don't forget. we've got updates throughout the day and evening now on the winter storm that's hitting washington, d.c. andrea mitchell is up next. i've been growing algae for 35 years.

most people try to get rid of algae, and we're trying to grow it. the algae are very beautiful. they come in blue or red, golden, green. algae could be converted into biofuels... that we could someday run our cars on. in using algae to form biofuels, we're not competing with the food supply. and they absorb co2, so they help solve the greenhouse problem, as well. we're making a big commitment to finding out... just how much algae can help to meet... the fuel demands of the world.

right now, on "andrea mitchell reports," a mixed bag. overall unemployment rate inches down, but the nation still lost

20,000 jobs and no one is happy about that, not even the commander. >> these numbers, while positive, are a cause for hope but not celebration. we can't be satisfied when another 20,000 have joined the ra ranks and millions of more americans are underemployed. >> this hour, we have the president of the afl-cio, richard trumka plus austan goolsbee. thousands and thousands of pages, e-mails from todd palin. was the governor's husband, in effect, her chief of staff? the latest from our political insiders, as sarah palin prepares to keynote that contentious tea party convention in nashville. and in miami, super bowl fever. our guest, espn's trey and nbc's chuck todd. unexpected drop of

unemployment rate sincere not boosting spirits entirely inside the white house. chuck todd is now with us, nbc news, and co-host of the daily rundown, cnbc john harwood, also of the "new york times" and steve liesman, cnbc senior economics reporter. welcome all of you. first of all, steve, what do we really know? take us inside the unemployment numbers that went down to 9.7%. you did not hear a whole lot of celebrating in washington. >> the reason, andrea, there's two different report that is come out every first friday of the month. one is a household survey where they call and say are you employed? that gave us the number that showed the unemployment rate declining to 9.7%. in the other survey, the payroll survey, they get reports of some 300,000 businesses and say how many people are employed there? that still showed a decline of 20,000 workers. so, two different reports. these things usually come together over time. especially at turning points, where a lot of economists think we are,