i'm contessa brewer. 27 days before the midterm elections and all of the political talk is about 2012. legendary reporter bob woodward says they're throwing around the idea of a obama/clinton ticket. >> bring her on the ticket and make biden secretary of state, they would all go out there and be delighted and happy, and it might help obama politically. >> i think the vice president is doing a wonderful job. he's a great friend of mine. we work together closely. he's an expert on foreign policy, chaired the, you know, foreign relations committee in the senate for years, and we have a great relationship, and i have absolutely no interest and no reason for doing anything

other than just dismissing these stories and moving on because there's no -- we have no time. we have so much to do and both of us are happy doing what ee were doing. >> there you have the response. it's not going to make republicans happy. he says obama will win the re-election. new e-mails coming out that sarah palin will stop that from happening, making it clear she's going to make a run for the white house. jonathan, good to see you. what would÷d be the upside hereo swapping out hillary clinton for joe biden? >> reporter: hey, look. i get why people are talking about this and why it's sort of the longed-for scenario. what hillary clinton would bring. the millions of people who voted for her blue collar americans and other democrats who sided with her in the 2008 campaign. as the secretary of state just said, she's not interested.

you know, contessa, this morning -- >> wait, wait, wait. she didn't exactly say she wasn't interested. she said she had nothing to do but just tamp down on those rumors. she said she had absolutely no interest and no reason for doing anything else. the thing is she didn't say it wasn't happening. she didn't say, no, that's not being talked about. >> reporter: it's not happening. contessa, i emailed bill burton at the white house this morning when everyone was talking about it on "morning joe." i'm going to read directly what he said. the president is blessed to have a spectacular vice presidentx:et outstanding secretary of state, they're both doing great work, and he wants to keep them on the job. i mean at this point -- >> okay. that's pretty clear-cut. >> reporter: right. at this point, the dude's only been in the oval office for less than two years. we haven't had the midterm elections. the fact that e we're talking about swapping out the vp and secretary of state is aed by

premature. >> we talked about sarah palin, throwing her name in the ring. there's a lot of names in the ring. romney, huckabee, newt gingrich, donald trump, the naked cowboy. the list goes on and on. at this point who isn't throwing hit hat in the ring? >> reporter: michael steele? by 2010 they'll have been out of the white house. john mccain isn't going to try for it again, the nomination again, so, of course, you're going to see a bunch of republicans tossing their names out there. once we get into the primary season and the names come out, that's when you're going to hear huckabee and romney and even mitch daniel who are more serious to my mind. >> i hate when they have the vehicles driving in reverse when

we're talking. >> there's a major renovation going on. >> i know. republicans are loving to push this talking point about the president and parties being out of touch. you mentioned michael steele. he apparently doesn't have a solid grasp on the working lives of many, many americans. here's michael steele getting the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> what is the minimum wage, michael? >> you really like the minimum wage, don't you? i'd rather talk about more. whether it's $7, $10, whatever it happens to be in whatever part of the country you live in, the fact if you don't have a job, that number is irrelevant until you get one. >> the minimum wage is not $7 or $10, but let's move on. >> all right. that will be your headline. that will be your headline, lawrence. still doesn't know the minimum wage. >> he doesn't know, joe miller, the tea party-backed candidate doesn't believe it's

constitutional and then you've got this democrat talking point going into the midterm. is that a problem? >> reporter: when they can't speak coherently or consistently about what the issues are facing the country, that's a problem. the member mum wage question is the equivalent of what is a price of a gallon of milk or carton of eggs or in new york, what's the price of a subway ticket. that's basic knowledge. if you don't have that, you shouldn't be leading. >> good to see you. >> reporter: you, too, my friend. >> he's arguing unemployment benefits even though his wife had unemployment benefits back in 2004. the tea party candidates saying it's unconstitutional. so my big question today, will voters see that as out of touch? i'd like to hear your thoughts on. this you can reach me on

twitter. get me on facebook. it's contessa on msnb. "the washington post" is reporting the karzai government andlp taliban. nbc's mike viqueira joins us from the white house. mike, give me a sense of the meetings happening today between the government and the taliban. >> reporter: well, it's very interesting. two reports, one in "the washington post," one in "the wall street journal." the first time since 2008 when those saudi-sponsored talks broke down between the karzai and afghanistan. they are talking -- the administration, we asked robert gibbs about that today. they're aware these negotiations

are going on. there are pre conditions as far as the american side is concerned with talks with the taliban, many in agreement with the taliban, specifically that the taliban renounce al qaeda and renounce violence in afghanistan and also operate under the rules of afghan law. the second report in "the wall street journal" relate and very interesting as well, contessa, says the report sent up to congress about pakistan and their cooperation with the fight on terrorism, this report says that pakistan is not engaged in some instances in military engagements in the tribal areas as regions of the country where these groups are known to operate and gibbs for his part, the reaction from the white house says it should with no surprise there are security challenges in that part of pakistan, in that part of the world. he's not knocketing down either story. breaking news. two tornadoes touched down west of the city in nearby belmont

this morning. at least seven e people were hurt. their injuries don't appear to be serious. the reports are extensive damage to homes here, include 15g houses with torn up roofs and smashed up windows. the red cross has set up shelters. apparently i-40 is closed right now. they are reporting that some of the semitrucks that were on that interstate highway have been blown over and a local rv dealership was hit badly. so as soon as we get video in, we'll share that with you. again, that's the severe weather situation we're following in north america. the latest on a couple. tiffany hartley says her husband was shot and killed in the ambush. his body has not been recovered. they're questioning the story.

this morning on the "today" show tiffany was asked if she had anything to do with her husband's death. >> no, not at all. i loved him very much, and i went back for him to help him and i did what i could. i have no proof. i have no cameras. i have nothing. i don't have the photos that we were taking. i don't have anything except for my word. >> nbc's janet chamlian is in mcal en, texas. what are they saying? >> today rick perry, a governor running for re-election said he would like to hear from the president of mexico within 48 hours that they have recovered a body. if he doesn't hear from them, they're not searching hard enough. for the sheriff investigating this case on the u.s. side, responding to reports that mexican a authorities did not believe this young woman, the sheriff here says he has no

reason to doubt her story, there is a credible witness. here's what he had to say. >> there's no doubt in my mind that tiffany's saying the truth. tiffany, when we saw her, when she came over here, she was distraught. there was a -- one witness -- independent witness who had neff met tiffany before, who actually saw this, you know, commercial fishing boat chasing her. >> reporter: they're looking for some closure here. they want that body back. there was a memorial service here in the mcallen area last night but they feel like they can't have closure on this until they receive david's body. u.s. authorities don't want to go to that side of the lake. they have no jurisdiction there and they think it could become violent if they went over there, contessa to search. >> all right, janet. thank you. new terror concerns. france is warning of new terrorist risks. british authorities believe the risk of an attack is very light likely.

we'll get the latest. plus the government cracked down on a company that scammed consumers millions by promising to get them out of tax debt. and those cheerleaders known for their pom-poms and short skirts, these girls don't like it. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] there's a big idea happening in health care called the humana walmart- preferred prescription plan. it's a medicare prescription drug plan that saves you an average of over $450 a year, with monthly plan premiums less than $15 and copays as low as $2. with savings like these, you have more time to remember what it's really all about. enroll starting november 15. ♪ go to walmart.com for details.

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nbc news has learned that the federal trade commission is taking action against a company that took millions of dollars from consumers promising to get them out of tax debt, but then they didn't do anything about it. nbc's kevin tibbles joins us from chicago. what's the story, kevin? >> hey, contessa. well, the ftc is saying this was an elaborate fraud preying on

people trying to climb out from underneath a mountain of tax debt. >> if you owe over $15,000 in taxes -- >> you've probably heard the pitch. >> this is your one-second chance. >> american tax relief got them to accept a fraction of what we owed. >> he was desperate. >> they said we can reduce your tax debt by up to 90%. >> you said whoa. >> sounds like a plan. >> turns out fullerton wasn't the only one. some 20,000 people paid american tax relief fees totaling as much as $100 million. the problem is they didn't deliver. >> because of the downturn in the economy, scam artists are trying to take the last dollar out of people's pocket. >> today the federal trait commission announces that a judge has shut american tax relief down, accusing it of bilking consumers.

>> plainly a company preying on the most vul neverable, people dietly in debt to the irs. >> at first tim said he didn't tell his wife. >> it's a guy thing. >> it's a guy thing. you just want to fix it. >> $2,750. nothing happened. then he fessed up to darlene, who just happens to be an accountant. >> i was on a one-woman crusade to take him down. >> she wasn't alone. the american tax relief often cashes the checks and never approaches the irs. meanwhile they live large in a beverly hills mansion and drive luxury cars. >> i was very, very angry with american tax relief. >> they got half of their money back after protesting and have worked out their own arrangem t arrangements to pay the irs. >> it comes down to the old phrase if something's too good to be truly -- >> it is too good to be truly. >> and lawyers for american tax relief did not return phone calls. meanwhile the ftc, contessa, is

saying if you do owe money to the irs, you should talk to ty rs or least get a certified tax professional to work with us yo and don't just rely on television or radio ads. >> and also you should tell your wife because she can probably help you. that's the other lesson i took from that. kevin tibbles. >> as a guy, i know. it's a guy thing. >> it is a guy thing and guys should stop being so guyish and tell their wives. >> there you go. a city councilman from washington state talks of his story. john lost his eye when a bear mauled him last month. he was walking his dogs outside his family's vacation home when the bear attacked. >> in a split second i saw the bear coming and she just launched right into me. we went flying down onto the road. most of what we did, i would call, was quite, frankly, wrestling. there were times when she was

biting. i just vividly remember being bitten on the head and the sound that that makes as her teeth were going into my head and running along the skull. it was just a horrendous fight. >> well, his wife scared the bear away and called 911. officials say unprovoked attacks by black bears are rare. john is recovering sight in his right eye. in tennessee the police are charging this man for shooting a 17-year-old in the rear end. it was because of what he was wearing. it was a group of kids sports those pants. you know what i e-mail talking about. i saw a kid with these on his -- almost down to his knees. they yelled at the teens to pull up their britches. they refused. he pulled out allegedly semiautomatic pistol and started

firing. >> two, four, six, eight, these women don't appreciate the skimpy uniforms. they say their outfits leave little to the imagination, so they went to the school board to do something about it. >> i did feel overexposed. my whole stomach wut out. i don't like that. there's grown men at the games. there's a whole bunch of people there. there's people taking pictures. >> school officials say part of the uniforms were missing from the shipment. it's a body suit that fits under the top. they're working with the vendor to address that problem. less than an hour away from the big announcement from the world's largest social networking site, facebook. what will it reveal today? we're waiting. we're watching. we start with a political ad. clark, she wants to take boxer's congressional seat and she breevs her own campaign ad.

>> michelle bachmann not doing [ bleep ] anything for the district. >> they give bachman a 9-point lead. ing. >> an overnight photo shop sensation. the match-up, one of the most views and one of the most searched online. here's the original. it was the fan, you know the shot of tiger woods hitting the golf ball at the photographer? then somebody copied his face on to err person in the picture and on tiger woods's body. why it's so popular, i have no idea. the homeless puppeteer is not actually homeless. his video is viral with a sign saying family in need, homeless. out of work. the performer told the magazine he does have a home, he doesn't have any kids.

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or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual auto insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? in a little less than an hour, we'll hear an announcement from facebook, the social networking site no stranger to headlines. they have, of course, a big movie faced on facebook. right now it's number one at the box office. the question is what will facebook reveal? carol mccarthy writes a social column for c nnn news. >> they announce redesigns and in products every couple of weeks. they have an internet strategy where they're always working on a ton of things. >> what are you hearing about this announcement? considering they work on so many things there's a gamble. it may be a redesign of the home

page, which, of course, they do all the time. >> by the way, there are lots of senior citizens on facebook. how annoying is it for them you just learn how to use facebook and then they're redesigning it. you're like, where's that button i'm supposed to push? >> it's interesting because facebook has gone through redesign after redesign already. at first they complain and then eventually they get used to it. i think they run a little come placea placeant, they'll do whatever and get over it. >> that's me, complaining. you say they're also maybe looking at a redesign of the events? >> yes. you can invite your friends to parties and get-togethers or whatnot. there have been lots of indications in the rumor mill that they're working to revamp that. they started hot potato this summer specifically for an executive at the company who's

specifically in charge of this new product. they've done so much at one given time that whatever they announce now, whatever they do they'll be announcing in a few more weeks. >> care line, i appreciate your help on that. the astonishing part? this woman thrown more than 60 feet and she walked away. she had minor injuries to her collar. she was walking home from work. there it is. witnesses say the driver appeared to be drinking. wow. a lot more of a low blow than a hot shot. it comes from number ten. that's the bolivian president. wham. knees an opponent right in the groin. the incident happened within minutes of the start of a friendly match between rival parties. he had been taken down in a hard tackle moments before he delivered the hammer. by the way, the head of state

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breaking news right now from arizona. the national weather service has issued a tornado warning. two tornadoes made extensive damage in the area today. let's get right to adam berg. what are you seeing in terms of the weather? >> they issued another tornado watch, meaning conditions favorable for that, more tornadoes. kind of rare to see tornados around arizona, especially around the flagstaff area.

we still have a tornado warning, meaning doppler radar showing we may have that there. maybe a third jest west of flagstaff. huge problems there. cars derailed from a train. all kinds of problems. maybe some of that getting back online tonight. thunderstorms continuing to fire west of flagstaff. we'll probably see flash flooding here as well. a lot of folks wondering when this thing is going to move on out. finally getting this upper low that's been sitting off the southern california coastline. we're thinking around the flagstaff area will be so much better pushing into thursday and then better thursday to friday. what was once arizona's problem may be someone else's problem as we go into the next several days here. at least looking a lot calmer across the southwest, but still a very busy afternoon and evening, guys. >> i wanted to mention i-40 at last report was closed down. it looks like if people are

traveling up i-17 from phoenix to sedona, it may be causing a problem too. thank you for your help on that front. >> no problem. >> some other stories. president obama scheduled to have lunch with vice president biden as we speak. of course, there's been speculation about a possible presidential ticket without biden, clinton taking his spot. yesterday he told andrea mitchell it was on the table. axelrod called it fix and it was dismissed. and sources in the white house say absolutely not, not going to happen. "the washington post" reports that hamid karzai is in secret talks with the taliban to end the war. and in yemen, a convoy carrying america's number two diplomat was hit by rocket fire near the capital. she was not hurt. an ominous warning from

france. there's likely the risk of a terror attack in brittain days after america issued a terror alert for europe. this sounds like a more strongly worded warning than the ones we've seen in the past. >> it does, although it does stem from the same threat of reporting that led to the state department alert over the weekend for americans traveling in europe. a lot of intelligence has been building for the last few weeks, much of it stemming originally from this one german from hamburg who was captured in afghanistan on his way to pakistan over the summer and told of this plot that was supposedly under way for simultaneous attacks in multiple european cities along the lines of what happened in mumbai in november of 2008, and that's the

intelligence that has everybody worked up right now. >> michael, i also wanted to ask you about the attack on the diplomat in yemen. we know they've been working to root out the terrorists in yemen. is it safe right now for westerners to travel to yemen? >> you know, a member of congress who has just come back from yemen who i spoke to over the weekend described it as the most dangers place on the plant. it's certainly after the afghanistan/pakistan border where al qaeda is the most resilient, most insurgent, and most menacing at the moment. there have been a series of attacks in the last year or so from the al qaeda near the yemeni branch of al qaeda, and, of course, it was the very same branch that was responsible for the christmas day bombing attempt where the nigerian suspect was trained. so this is very much a focus and very much a concern.

the united states has had repeated visits. john brennan, the counterterrorism adviser was just there. high level of concern about yemen. >> all right. thank you. 2010 shaping up to be one of the most expensive election years, and billionaire republican meg whitman is doing her share. she's spent $140 million, that includes money she paid from her own pocket. by comparison her opponent former governor jerry brown has spent about $10 million this year. the "daily beast" has come up with a unique way to come up with outcomes of the elections, twitter, facebook and even blogging which candidate is getting the most buzz. how does it work? >> well, everybody's got polls, right? what we do is scrape the internet to find the sentiment,

who's blogging, who's commenting, and who's tweeting so we can measure the candidates so we can figure out not only whether it's positive or negative but how much it is. it helps us predict it. >> let's go through nevada first. >> we give harry reid a 60% chance of winning the election. what's interesting is he's winning none of the issues. sharron angle is winning almost all of it. harry reid is tied. >> you have jack conway up against rand paul. >> no surprise. we give paul an 80% chance of winning. he has 71% to conway's 39%.

in alaska lisa murkowski, you include the independent candidate. she was a republican but, of course, beaten by joe miller, the tea party candidate who sarah palin endorsed. before i ask you about why you're picking joe miller on top, why only two candidates there? why didn't you include the democrat? >> we actually do include the third. it's in there. hard to explain. >> no chance at all joe miller has a 70% chance of winning. miller being the candidate on the ballot, not the write-in candidate, that obviously gives him a huge advantage. in florida you have charlie crist up against mario rubio.

a similar scenario wh rubio has a 70% chance to win. here's what's interesting. crist is more popular on the internet chatter on almost all the issues. but for him where's he to find the votes? he has to peel off republicans and democrats, so he's losing. >> what about in delaware? you have chris coons who is wanting to move forward and christine o'donnell who's grabbing a lot of attention and headlines of her own. >> she certainly does. she has twice the chatter but we give chris coons 90% chance of winning. has big leads on jobs. in fact, chris coons is winning that issue and handily almost twice as much as christine o'donnell. >> so bryan, i wanted to mention. we'll see whether your incredible ail go rhythms come out in successful ways. >> absolutely. >> -- in the election there. thanks, bryan. we've been talking about the republicans' efforts to paint the democrats when the rcn chairman doesn't know what the minimal wage is. wesley lawrimore writes.

dean fox says republicans certaintily don't stand for the poor. by process of elimination, who do you think they stand for? renee dale writes dems are robbing our kids of their financial future by wasteful spending they will have to pay for. i'd like to hear your response. e-mail me, get me on facebook or twitter. things didn't go quite as planned when president obama spoke at a woman's event. take a look. >> science, engineering and math. we cannot sustain. whoops. [ laughter ] >> was that my -- [ laughter ] >> oh, goodness. that's all right. all of you know who i am. [ laughter ] [ applause ] but i'm sure there've somebody

back there who's really nervous right now. don't you think? they're sweating bullets back there right now. >> well, the presidential seal fell off. maybe next time gorilla grew or a big heavy-duty velcro. all right, insurgent attacks push the military to go green. why the environmental effort. and for years pregnant women have been told to avoid alcohol, and now british scientists say there's new research suggesting one or two drinks a week don't hurt. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] introducing new wheat thins crunch stix. with the humana walmart- preferred prescription plan, you have more time to remember what it's really all about.

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welcome back, everybody. i'm contessa brewer, massive flooding and landslides. in indonesia helicopters dropped food to isolated villages while security forces cleared debris

and rescued survivors. the flooding has also affected countries like china and vietnam where mud slides have led to the deaths of 26 people. more are dead, more than 120 injured and hundreds evacuated after a toxic sludge leaked from a metal refinery. it's not actually a mud slide here, folks. this is sludge which has heavy metals poisonous to people. hungarian officials declared a state of emergency, calling this an ecological disaster. lots of speculation today from south korea on kim jong-il's face. the question is did he have plastic surgery to look more like his grandpa? the founder made a four-star general and likely the hairair apparent. this time 20 trucks were torched.

a driver was shot dead. it's the sixth major attack since last week when pakistan closed a border crossing into afghanistan. in fact, those fuel convoys are increasingly targeted as they cross into afghanistan. the u.s. military's moving to find ways to replace diesel with renewable energy sources like solar that could mean less depen dance on fuel that has to be trucked in and thereby better security for troops. i'm joined by retired major general don edwards. good to talk with you today. first of all what's the problem with relying on imported fuel? >> well, there are several significant problems, contessa. first of all and most difficult is we lose a soldier or marine or a contractor killed in action every five or six convoys due to the various security issues that you raised in your introduction.

on top of that it places us in a situation where it puts them in the position where they can influence how we do operations by holding up the fuel, which is exactly what the pakistanis are doing at the moment. >> and in many cases the fuel accounts for as much as 80% of the load on the convoys into afghanistan. some of that fuel goes to running generators that then power things like laptops and lights in the tents out at these camps. how can portable solar panels help? >> well, they're of a huge, huge benefit. first of all you cut down on the gas getting out there. for the troops on the ground it's enormous because you have quiet around you. if you have a gas-powered or diesel-pow ired generator,

imagine in your studio having a huge generator going on tall time. you can't hear around you which means the bandits, the other guys, can sneak up on you and get close and you don't know they're there. with solar, we'll have much better security awareness around us. >> major, how much do you think we'll see the military moving toward alternative energy? again, it's not about being environmentally friendly. it's literally for cost and security. >> think it's going to happen and happen as a quickly as the military can get it to happen. the beauty of this is in many ways the americans -- the military can make the effort, spend money that they have, get this technology proven out to the troops. but the spin-off on that, it's good for our sons and daughter es, that's for dash sure, but they also provide the impetus for technology to become

available to americans here in america. >> thank you very much for joining me today. i appreciate your time. consumer reports is out with its pick for the absolute worst credit card. the question is are you carrying it in your wallet? and here's some of what we'll watch later on msnbc. later this afternoon an appeals court will hear arguments on whether michael jackson's father should be allowed to challenge the current administrators of his estate. the judge dismissed it back in december. this evening they scare off in a debate moderated by george steph on lis. also christine o'donnell holds conversations with christine event in newark, delaware. to keep their bodies s. carnation instant breakfast essentials supplies the nutrients of a balanced breakfast to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start.

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lots of people complain about their credit card companies but consumer reports has named the absolute worst one. it's the first premier bank

mastercard. why the dubious honor? consumer report says the card tooiss a pro seing charge of anywhere between 25 dollars and then $95. then the fine print. a $75 annual fee and annual percentage rate of 23% to as much as 60%. there's also a credit limit increase fee. that's 50% increase. come on. bad news for anyone who has that credit card but here's some good economic news to share. it looks as though we'll have a pretty good shopping holiday season. the national retail federation says sales should reach nearly $450 billion, up more than 2% from last year. cnbc's bertha coombs joins us with the information. >> it's a little bit of both. people are tired of being stingy, and even in the worst of years -- obviously 2008 was really an outlier year as we call it.

we saw sales drop about 4% but that's because the world felt like it was coming to an end, so nobody spent, not to mention a lot of the stores discounted retailers like saks, discounted up to 75%, so the sales didn't rack up. but we're seeing people coming back into the stores. costco just reported today that september was pretty good. same-store sales in the u.s. weren't so strong but overall they were up when you add international 6%. contessa, the real issue is the retailers have kind of figured out how we're shopping these days. so they're planning pretty well. they're going to have enough inventory, and they're not going to have too much stuff. they're going to try to make it a good christmas on both ends. >> why do they think we're going to make that much money when consumer confidence is low? >> consumer confidence is low but people are buying certain things. there are some things that you have to replace and also the holidays is just a different

time. you don't want to disappoint your child. you may not buy them the $15,000 life-size edible gingerbread house from neiman marcus christmas book, but toys "r" us are going to hire some 45,000 people. it's going be temporary. we're going to see an awful lot of promotion. black friday, you could see big deals. don't do what i did last year. you know they talk about cyber monday coming later? i remember last year when i looked, the actual deals were on black friday and the cyber monday deals weren't that good. >> say you need a vacuum clean to be replaced, that means that's what you're getting for christmas. >> also people may not be buying the big ticket item or if they are buying the big ticket item,

if they u decide, okay, i'm going to buy that new ipod, i mean look at apple. they put out apple tv. they used to sell it for $300. now they have the $100 product they hope people buy for christmas just in time for the holiday season. >> bertha coombs, thank you very much. in america women are increasingly the ones bringing it home, at least a higher percentage. according to a city of new hampshire, women brought home 47% of the family income in 2007, up 2% -- wait, wait, from 2008. 2007 up 2% from 2008. i'm not really clear on how that works. not really a reason to celebrate. the increase isn't because of a rise in salary for women but instead because of higher unemployment and wage losses for men. that wraps up this hour for me. i'm contessa brewer. i appreciate you watched no matter who brings home the bacon.

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