cheers to sylvia and pearl's. >> redevelopment efforts on sixth street have been intense for years. without redevelopment efforts, pearl's would not be here today, i think it is safe to say. like to recognize redevelopment and have tiffany, the director, say a few words. [applause] >> thank you, jennifer. the opening of pearl's here at the corner of sixth and market st. marks a major milestone as the mayor and our community partners have indicated. what was once a vacant and blighted corner is now this incredible, beautiful store where we can all enjoy burgers and then some. that history dates back many years. since 2003, the redevelopment and the city have invested in this area. more than 30 businesses and tenants, ranging from great community partners -- they are all here due to our sixth street economic revitalization loan program. without the partnership of folks like urban solutions, and jenny mcnulty is here -- we would not have been able to achieve the success, even though we had the strong backing of our mayor and our chief. we are excited that this is just one of many great

and that was a wonderful day, it really was. >> sylvia plat. >> sylvia plath keeps on coming up in my story because she wrote about two things. she didn't write about suicide, she committed suicide but she is the invocation of an enormous number of books about female self-destruction. and i don't just write a chapter about my mother's suicide, but i also write a short chapter, reflections on suicide and the plath story keeps coming up in that. and then in one of her most famous lines, it's in the bell jar. she describes her family coming from some manic-depressive hamlet and the german polish border lands, and it so happens that is where my mother's family comes from. it was at secret kept in my family for a long time. i didn't find it out out until i was about 30. but my mother's family was of jewish descent from what is now poland and is now germany. it is always very horrible when that order moves at any time. terrible things happen when that border changes. and i have a chapter on why i think it is that she kept it a secret from my father and from her two sons and from everyone sh

sylvia hall takes a look at the announcement and what it means. >> reporter: when you drop a letter ine postal service expects to deliver it in one to three days. but the service now hopes to relax that standard to two to three days instead. >> our network is too big. we've got more capacity in our network than we can afford. we can't afford it today, we've got to make adjustments today. >> reporter: the cut in service standards would result from postal service plans to close half of its 487 mail processing centers across the country. dave williams runs network operations for the post office. he says last year the postal service delivered about 73 billion pieces of first-class mail. that's almost a 30% drop from its peak mail volume of over 100 billion pieces of first-class mail hit back in 2001. and by the year 2020, he thinks the postal service expects will have lost almost half of its first-class mail volume. >> the economy has really been tough on us the last couple of years, but the other more long- term issue is people pay bills online. theoretically, if you looked at us as a reg

sylvia hall reports. >> reporter: across the country and with few exceptions, home prices dropped in october. the closely watched index tracks residential property values in 20 cities. it fell 3.4% in october as home prices dropped in 18 of those 20 cities from the year before. >> altogether, home prices have not hit bottom and these numbers have not started to rebound. >> reporter: atlanta led the decline with annual returns down almost 12% from last year. blitzer blamed poor consumer confidence and the low cost of foreclosed homes. he also cited market watchers. >> anybody who's looking at buying a house looks around at numbers just like this, probably finds it very hard to convince himself that home prices are going to go up. in fact, looking at these numbers, he probably says, "they may go down further. why don't i just wait around for six months to see what happens?" >> reporter: while data from november and december are still being collected, blitzer says its pretty clear that home prices are still trending lower. sylvia hall, "nightly business report," washington. >> susie: on

he would say good morning sylvia. i said cynthia. and he would say sylvia. a while i was like, fine, sylvia. and after a while i went to confession to him because he was my friend. and he started yelling saying my mother was going to go to hell because i didn't go to mass. i said to him in the confessional, what do you know about my mom? you doesn't know anything about my mother. she's a good woman, she works hard and she loves us and don't tell me she's going to hell. after that the church contacted my mother and they said listen, i think maybe this kind of relationship is not happening. >> i admire the first one. the second one was a bit naughty. >> they were nasty sometimes. they'd hit us and the parents would come and then the parent would come and they would lie. they brought you to the convent school so you would go to heaven because obviously she was going to hell. >> what did your mother make of your career as it began to unfold. >> the first time she said, you know, cindy, i didn't know. as a kid the nuns told her i should have sung opera. we didn't

sylvia hall reports. >> reporter: as the economy lurches along, some people are finding unemployment lasts longer than the benefits. for some americans, a disability helps bridge the financial gap. an ongoing study released by the white house is tracking the trend. for people between 50 and 65 without significant savings, applications for social security disability benefits spike just as their unemployment benefits expire. in the last week of unemployment coverage, nearly 10% of americans in that group apply for the disability program. economists say it happens during almost every recession. gary burtless of the brookings institution says this is a snapshot of a troubling long- term upward trend in the number of adults collecting social security disability benefits. once they start collecting, few ever re-enter the workforce. >> it means that the contribution rate that all of us are currently paying for social security disability insurance will eventually have to go up unless there is some kind of a change in that trend. >> reporter: burtless says over the long run he hopes to see ne

sylvia hall reports on what to expect in the new year. >> reporter: you can hear the noise from iowa as election season heats up. and in 2012, and as washington waits for november, analysts expect much of the same, with gridlock continuing. >> i think it's going to be a year for screaming and little action. >> reporter: first up, the extended payroll tax cut, a sticking point between democrats and republicans that gridlocked congress last week. those tax cuts expire in february, along with an unemployment insurance extension and a "doc fix" that prevents deep pay cuts to doctors of medicare patients. alex brill served as an economist on capitol hill and on the council of economic advisors under george w. bush. even if congress extends these benefits again, he only expects a temporary fix, not a solution. >> our other problems, longer- term issues around social security, medicare, those issues will remain in the background while we focus on these nearer- term, temporary issues. >> reporter: that could leave consumers and investors in limbo. >> people are hesitant, they're not sure wha

sylvia hall tonight takes a look at what's fueling soaring college costs and how to pay for them. >> reporter: if you went to an occupy wall street protest you wouldn't have had to stay long before hearing angry cries of frustrated college graduates. the frustration has been fueled by ever-higher college tuition forcing more students to borrow more money to afford a higher education. >> i'm very optimistic about college affordability over the next decade. >> mark cantrowities publishes an information web site saying government uj abouts slashed university funding to have schools have students were i a higher price. this year alone tuition at four year public universities is up more than 8% from last year according to the college board. the recession also has dealt a below to financial aid grants leaving students to foot more of the bill than ever before. for many it's a bigger burden than they can afford. >> we see this first and foremost with the lower and moderate income students. they're the can av-- canars that eel over first. >> jane wellman tracks how colleges use their funds.

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and i am sylvia gold steam. we are joined our representatives who have matters before the board. jarvis murray is here representing the division of taxis. john fong is here representing the department of mapping. and anthony greco is representing the department of building inspection. at this time, could you please go over the meeting guidelines. >> the board request that you turn off all phones and pagers so they will not disturb the proceedings. please carry on conversations in the hallway. the presentations are as follows -- appellants, permit holders, and the department representatives have seven minutes and three minutes for rebuttal. people affiliated with these parties must include these comments within the seven or three-minute periods. members are not affiliated with the parties have up to three minutes to address the board with no rebuttals. to assist the board and the accurate preparation of minutes, members of the public who wish to speak on an item are asked, but not required, to submit a speaker card when you come up to speak at the podium. cards and hence are avail

finally, this friday the friends of the mission campus are having a celebration with sylvia mendez. there will be a reception at that campus of city college from 5:30 to 7:30. i did not know this history about mendez being a six year old in an orange county public school who was denied admission before the brown vs. board of education decision. has the sense left a legacy of desegregation throughout the country. there was a resolution that mary hernandez, when she was serving on this board, get together on the anniversary of the court victory. commissioner fewer: i also wanted to let the public know that tomorrow night, aim high summer program will be celebrating 25 years. we wish them much success. thank you for partnering with us. also, i had the pleasure to go to el dorado school and is sought children making day of the dead alters about the memory of their very close family members. and had the pleasure of going into room 9 and enjoyed a great day. >> i have a couple of things. this last week i attended the equity summit. crosshead. -- go ahead. >> i am hoping to lead a campaign