begich -- the changes are designed to save billions of dollars a year. >> this proposed change to service standards will allow a significant opportunity to consolidate the postal network in terms of facilities, postal equipment, vehicles and employee work force. and it will generate a projected net savings annually of approximately $2.1 billion. >> the u.s. ps sites designed -- declines in technology and demand for its business. >> much more at tonight. >> i'm rob roblin. the food pantry is running out of food. that story's coming up. sandusky where the ravens turnout for the community tonight. >> and there's a big temperature dropped this week as well. >> please be mindful of the fact that tools are now in effect on the injured county connector. until today, commuters could ride for free. rates are based on peak and non- peak driving hours. to calculate your toll, you can head to our website. be sure to click on local news. >> for more than 25 years, the assistance center of towson church has been helping those in need. >> the center gets help from 48 churches, but with so many needing h

begich learn the basics and fundamental safety. learn how to take a fall and get back for more action. dropping in on a quarter pipe and try the basis of all the tricks, progress to kick flips, sliding, and writing. increase your skills and move up to ramps and obstacles. s.f. rec and park instructors are also professional skaters. sign up and learn from the pros to develop your confidence on the board. listen up, parents. kids enrolled in glasses become safer skaters as they learn in a supervised environment. >> i am the general manager of san francisco recreation and parks department. we have hundreds of programs for the young and young at heart. signup is easy, online, at mclaren lodge, or read any of our rec centers. queried about the cost? inquire about our scholarship opportunities. >> this is holly lee knox. there are some proud pet owners in san francisco and they have brought all their pets here to strut their stuff. >> it's an annual event that we've had. this is our 18th year. we bring in rescue groupers, vendors, suppor

senator begich. >> thank you, mr. chairman. a couple quick questions.st obvious thank you both for visiting my office. thank you for your willingness to serve. once you've gone to the balmy minnesota, i'd expect you would come to alaska where it was 42 below in fairbanks last week. [laughter] >> he always has to one up. >> that wasn't even above the arctic circle. but i do want to invite, you have been there, i don't think you have -- you have been come but i would like to invite you both back as commissioners. is that something you'd be willing to do? we don't care what time of year. you get credit if you come in january. >> yes. if it's 42 below, i'm hard. >> i will do everything within my power to clear my calendar in july and august. [laughter] >> good, honesty goes a long ways. let me thank you again for being here. let me ask you kind of a philosophical question on universal service fund. when i heard your answer to senator lautenberg, and be frank and you've heard me say this, when i hear the word fair system, usually that means, to be very frank

begich learn the basics and fundamental safety. learn how to take a fall and get back for more action. dropping in on a quarter pipe and try the basis of all the tricks, progress to kick flips, sliding, and writing. increase your skills and move up to

, nick begich, played a key role in keeping the legislative process moving. by the end of the negotiations the subcommittee package was a tribute to the congressman's role as architect of the house compromise. one veteran lobbyist said it's the best individual achievement i've ever heard for a freshman congressman. i would be remiss in not mentioning the very unforgettable morris thompson. at 34 years old morris was the youngest commissioner of the bureau of indian affairs, held a cabinet position in the nixon administration. and with his interior department position, morris was very deeply involved in passage of ancla at the time. he was a prominent leader in the native, corporate and political world and known for a good sense of humor, wit and wisdom but also a very, very savvy businessman. he led an alaskan corporation to great success. his lifelong commitment to the people of alaska truly lives on in his legacy. i'm very proud of all of these people. i value their idealism, their energy, and the unique perspectives they brought to the table toward the ini

begich: again, mr. chairman, i -- mr. president, i yield the floor but i hope -- and i -- you know, if there's one thing i look for, if it -- if it makes a difference for alaska, if it's about alaska, i'm there. this is not only about alaska, it's about this country. it's about the middle class. not only am i there, i'm double there. and i hope we find the opportunity in this chamber to do the right thing. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. heller: thank you, mr. president. today the senate will consider my legislation again to extend the temporary payroll tax cut. this week the senate has been given another opportunity to do the right thing and provide much-needed relief to the american worker. it shouldn't be news to anyone that americans are desperate for solutions. millions of americans are unemployed, underemployed, or have simply given up looking for a job. inbetween looking for a job or paying higher -- or higher-paying employment, americans are busy try

my father, late representative dick begich, was one of them. there are many new native leaders involved -- willie hensley, john borborich and other young advocates who very quillen gauged in historic native rights legislation. today, i would also like to recognize all the wives, daughters, sisters, secretaries and other powerful women who contributed to the passage of anlca. many of them may not have received the former recognition of their contribution. women like marlene johnson who played an instrumental role in the creation of the passage of anlca. she spent countless hours flying to and from southeast alaska to washington, d.c., leaving behind her full-time job and five children, doing her part to see anlca move through congress, to engage in negotiations, alaskans would fly for days to get from barrow or fairbanks to washington, d.c. many of them camped out on couches and floors in washington for months to get it done. today, the alaskan native corporations are tremendous economic drivers, not only for alaska but for the entire united sta

begich: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. begich: mr. president, first i want to comment on the the senator from from vermont that the work he has done in regard to the guard affects us in alaska a great deal, and i want to thank him for all the hard work he's done. in regard to the nomination, the chairman of the committee, judiciary committee, senator leahy, has done an incredible job bringing so many judges to the floor. i come to the floor today in strong support of the nomination of morgan christen to fill a vacancy on the ninth circuit court of appeals. i have known morgan for years and am continually impressed with the keen legal mind, her outstanding record of public service and her ability to carve a time-out out of her schedule for her extensive volunteer work. for decades, morgan has been recognized by her peers as one of the finest attorneys and judges in alaska. she is currently one of the five justices on our state supreme court. i'm confident she will continue to be fair and an impartial judge as a member of the ninth circ

senator begich. -- before mr. chairman and ranking member.let me first say my view i remember when i was on the right to ethics code at the end of the day i can to the conclusion you are ethical or you are not. you can provide all the rules you want, but if you are going to cheat, you are going to cheat and set keeping that in mind, one of the views i have in the disclosure and for example you go on my web site and find every single disclosure for might ever found out since 1988, in the office of any public facility that i've participated in. the challenge we have and this is a question i have let me go to your -- i know it's hard to do simple things around here but actually sometimes simpler is better and i like your approach some great ask questions and comments from people but in the senate i asked a constituent of mine in alaska to get a copy of my disclosure form. thank god i have an online because they would have to come to washington, d.c. or have someone here come down to the office and get a copy of it, copy it, and then did it to me

begich: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. begich: mr. president, today i rise to note some good news about the state of our american economy. hard work clearly remains. we're still recovering from the deepest slump since the great depression but i think it's time to appreciate our recent progress. over the past few days and weeks, there have been plenty of positive economic news. listen to some of these headlines. from "the new york times," "jobless rate dips to the lowest level in more than two year yea" from cnn -- "dow closes with the largest gain since march 2009." from reuters: "private-sector jobs soar. payroll forecasts rise." from the "wall street journal" -- "on-line sales reach record $1.25 billion on cyber monday." i know it's far too early to claim and start to celebrate, but i want to tell you a little bit about some of the details of this news. and i know back in my state of alaska, just like everywhere else in this country, people are still struggling to balance the

unnecessary and underperforming weapons program that i've worked closely with senator mccain and begich to include. i was pleased to cosponsor senator leahy's national empowerment act which gives a strong voice to our citizen-soldiers in our national guard. now, though we have a good bill before us, i believe it could be better, and i've introduced several additional amendments, two of which are designed to provide the nearly 214,000 women serving in our armed forces with the reproductive health care they are currently denied under the law. unfortunately we were not able to get a vote on these amendments, but i hope to continue to work closely with the chairman and ranking member to address these important concerns. in addition, i've worked closely with senators collins and casey on an amendment to address unsecured and looted stockpiles of tens of thousands of shoulder-fire missiles in libya. if these weapons fall into the wrong hands, they pose a serious threat to civil aviation worldwide and to our deployed forces abroad. i want to thank the committee for including this provision in

in order of appearance, we will go to senator brown, senator begich and then senator tester.senator brown. >> thank you mr. chairman. i appreciate all of the examples of boyfriends and girlfriends and relationships. we are not talking about that. we are talking specifically about members of congress. if i'm in a top-secret meeting and i find we are going to drop a weapon system and by doing that the company stock is going to go down dramatically and i walk outside and i'd look at the floor and i say hey sell xyz company stock. that is what we are talking about. we are not talking about the classroom examples you are using. we are talking very specifically about real-time real-world situations at them and brought to our attention, so while i appreciate, listen i went to law school too and it reminds me of the law school class and quite frankly i want to start do something. you indicated that the courts you know still haven't decided what to do. well, if not now when? that is why we are here. that is why the chairman and ranking the ranking member asked for this very important

levin, lieberman, reed of rhode island, akaka, nelson of nebraska, webb, mccaskill, udall, hagan, begich, manchin, shaheen, blumenthal, mccain, inhofe, chambliss, wicker, brown of massachusetts, portman, ayotte, collins, graham, cornyn and vitter. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there are two minutes equally divided prior to a vote on the motion to proceed to s. 1917. mr. casey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president, could we have order of th order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in orderment mr. casey: mr. president, this middle class tax cut act is very simple. it does two things for employers and also helps employees. last year the senate came together on a bipartisan bill. we passed a tax bill that, among other things, reduced payroll taxes for employees. this legislation expands that. instead of just saying we're going to have a reduction of 2% of the payroll tax, it was going to be -- this legislation has it as a -- a cut in half. so you're cutting the payroll tax in half. that's take-home pay, 1,50

begich as always tried to be polite and courteous and leave it at that. >> of course i have to ask youout milly's phone and the voice mail interception you deal with in your written statement. to try to fix this into the chronology you think it must be in 2002, is that correct? >> yes, it was quite soon after she had gone missing because where she actually was a duck that was opposite this building down by the station and there were tv cameras so everything focused around these cameras and so we were asked to go up and have a look at some of these to see if we thought someone on there was milly, and do you want me to tell you about what happened? >> yes. first of all you tell us that you were phoning her voice mail quite regularly to see if there was anything else there. >> of course all the time. at first we were able to leave messages and then the voice mail became full and then you rain and just got the record you are unable to leave messages at the moment. so i had gotten used to hearing that and we have gone up to the building and when we were sitting downstairs in the reception a

senator begich, senator landrieu have also written in support of the pipeline. well, until recently president obama suggested that he, too, believed the pipeline could be in the interests of the united states. on april 6, the president held a town hall event in pennsylvania. there he received a question about canadian oil sands production. in response, the president of the united states discussed the keystone xl pipeline. this is what he said. he said, "importing oil from countries that are stable and friendly is a good thing." let me repeat. "importing oil" -- this is the president of the united states. "importing oil from countries that are stable and friendly is a good thing." however, now on october 10, the president reversed course and he showed a different side. after protesting from environmentalists, the president has decided to punt his decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 presidential election. many in the press say that the president delayed his decision so that environmental activists would turn out on election day to support him. if true, t