my name is james robinson. i have and big business on westboro avenue for the last five years along with my wife, who will be speaking shortly after. the cbd's have a tremendous track record, where they go in and help improve the neighborhoods and to manage with the existing organizations, and i urge you to wholeheartedly support this, as i do. thank you. president chiu: next speaker. >> below, my name is gail. my husband and i have owned a business for five years. we are very excited about this. we believe it will bring continuity and unity, and it will elevate the business district, which is so sorely needed. thank you. president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is bob presley. i am neither an owner or a merchant. i live a couple blocks away. i have been around there for 10 years. we have enjoyed watching the good things on west portal. we have done a lot of shopping there. there are restaurants. we eat out a lot there. there are a fair number of new people moving in. there are five new families

president obama's top economic adviser james sperling, eugene robinson and david remnick. after the break, politico's top story. first, let's go to bill karins with the weekend forecast. bill. >> good morning, everyone. we are getting the pictures in from all the devastation in pennsylvania and new york. the country's latest billion dollar disaster took place yesterday. clean up is going to be massive. thousands and thousands of homes under water. thousands of people evacuated. the river is crested. the damage is done, especially in southern new york. a whole town had three feet through downtown. hopefully people will be back in their houses through the upcoming weekend. as far as what we are dealing with, showers around d.c. and baltimore. not the heavy torrential rains like yesterday. three tropical systems, hurricane katia is going to push away from new england today. nate and maria to worry about. nate looks like it's going to be mexico's problem. the storm i'm worried about that we have to watch for the southeast united states is tropical storm maria. this is forecast

robinson. >> michell lee jean robotham. >> donald a. robson. >> antonio a. rocha. >> raymond james rocha. >> laura rockefeller. >> john rodak. >> antonio j. rodrigues. >> anthony rodriguez. firefighter. >> carmen milagros rodriguez. >> gregory ernesto rodriguez. >> marsha a. rodriguez. >> mayra valdes rodriguez. >> richard rodriguez. >> david bartolo rodriguez- vargas. >> matthew rogan. >> karlie barbara rogers. >> and my domestic partner. we love an issue every day. >> and my father, a paramedic. battalion 57. dad, you are a grandfather now. my son is only a two-years old and i never let that day going by without letting him know that his grandfather was a hero. we love you and miss you. be safe. >> scott williams rohner. >> keith roma. >> joseph m. romagnolo. >> efrain romero, sr. >> elvin romero. >> juan romero. >> orozco james a. romito. >> sean paul rooney. >> eric thomas ropiteau. >> aida rosario. >> angela rosario. >> wendy alice rosario wakeford. >> mark rosen. >> brooke david rosenbaum. >> linda rosenbaum. >> sheryl lynn rosenbaum. >> lloyd daniel rosenberg. >> mark louis

james bennett, thank you very much. eugene robinson, thank you, as well.ank you, guys. that's fascinating. >> this is all about bennett having been like the third string first baseman on the baseball team. >> i know. >> and feeling exploited and feeling like he wasn't treated fairly. that's what this whole thing -- motivations here are very personal. >> he would have started at princeton. >> i have one piece of great sports trivia. do i have a second? john heilmann as a young man -- >> the answer is go. go ahead. >> gave up a towering home run to none other than darryl strawberry. >> i knew that. >> really? >> high school. >> yeah. >> still haunts me. >> well, where was the pitch? what was it, fastball, straight down the middle? >> it was a really good pitch. >> was it? >> it was a really good pitch. you know, 4 inches below -- >> did your hand hurt? >> and he had had taken the first one for a strike and they looked at the second one and i thought i could sneak another one by, and about 590 feet. i think the ball is still orbiting the earth. >> did the tea