. >>> well, mike miller and michael bush may break records. we may long for the 6% sales tax. the governor hints at raising our sales tax again. abc2 news don harrison at the statehouse. >> reporter: maryland's legislators gathered in annapolis to find out how to spend the state's money. everyone is having financial problems, so the fight for every penny can be intense. governor o'malley has proposed an option for a gas tax increase and now a possible one cent sales tax increase. >> we must be strong enough to make the right cuts and right investments. >> reporter: not all legislators are on board with tax increases. >> we're not spending the money we currently take in which is billions of year in the current gas tax that's advantageous to marylanders. >> reporter: it failed last year and is up for debate this year. >> we'll probably move forward quickly on the issue and try to decide whether this mr. pass the senate or -- will pass the senate or not. >> reporter: if the same-sex marriage bill does pass, it will probably go to referendum and the voters will decide on the ballo

in just a few minutes, michael bush is expected to be elected speaker of the house. this will make him the longest serving speaker in maryland history. >> i have appreciated the support of a lot of great people. >> i think that speaker bush has done a very good job leading a diverse maryland house of delegates. you look at the diversity of interests geographically in maryland and the eastern shore, even prince george's and montgomery. each of those could be in five different states but they are all here in this state. mike busch has handled himself with a candor and honesty. he has been a very capable an effective speaker. >> i say congratulations, and one way he should be congratulated, another he is a poster child for term limits. >> the senate president is joking. until today, he had been the longest serving president in senate history. fasten your seat belt, this is expected to be a roller-coaster ride for the next 90 days. >> mitt romney 1 at the nation's first primary and he is hoping back-to-back victories in iowa and new hampshire will build momentum. the gop

joined by michael bush in annapolis for the announcem at german town elementary.ficials labor leaders and elected officials are scheduled to attend. u.s. department of transportation says it will spend 1.5 billion dollars reimbursing states for repairing roadway damage by natural disasters. >>> let's take you back in time. annapolis, had snoi most of yesterday afternoon. see it on the time lapsed camera. it's not going stick on the water. we got some on the docks and through the evening. places picked up close to an inch. official amount not reporting that. snow content in annapolis goes on. this morning low clouds, little bit of fog, holding near 31. we have seenther mommers ranging between 31-34 degrees. churchville, 39. 32 by pass dee natural pasadena. little bit of icing around places in central southern maryland. we will get the low clouds out of here. there is the storm that brought severe weather to texas. wintery mix west of dallas. that rain band brings storms across the south. that comes back at us and future trend highlighting, we are dry, looking for t

mike miller and house speaker michael bush are scheduled to give a legislative forecast at a meeting cambridge. >>> and homeowners could soon be paying more. right now our flush tax runs about $2.50 a month for sewer customers and $30 a year for homes with septic systems. environmental groups want to raise that flush tax to $90 by 2015. the money goes to help clean the chesapeake bay. >>> and are you looking for a job? wegmans is now opening a new store in colombia and they're looking for workers. the supermarket will open in mid june at the intersection of stone river and mccall road. you have to apply online. and to give you the size of this wegmans, there'll be two- floor parking garage out front. this is wegman's fifth store to be opening in maryland. in the meantime, wegman wants to make sure your shopping experience is pleasurable and you save money. the chain has released 50 items that will remain the same price through the winter months. the price freeze goes into effect sunday and lasts through april 28th. for a list -- you can find a list of those products at our website, a

. >> reporter: the real fight may be in the house, where even speaker michael bush, who supports the bill, isn't sure of the outcome. >> we do need a little help. >> and opponents don't intend to give. >> this is a fight we will not run from. >> reporter: now, the bill is expected to be passed out of the senate judicial proceedings committee and go to the floor of the seantsz, where it's expected to pass there, too. but we don't have an estimate as to when that first vote will be taken. reporting live from annapolis, i'm pat warren. back to you on tv hill. >> if the bill makes it through the general assembly, it is expected to go to referendum. >>> coming up new at 6:30, you can see my exclusive sit-down interview with governor martin o'malley. what he has to say about his gas tax plan and being in touch with marylanders. that's coming up at 6:30. >>> right now, florida voters are wanting to challenge president obama in november. polls predict mitt romney will finish on top. but newt gingrich is not giving up. wjz has the latest from tamp. >> hi. i'm mitt romney. how are you? >> repo

. >>> house speaker michael bush was arrested also for being the longest serving speaker -- speaker in maryland history. >>> it was rainy a little earlier. gloomy all around the area. bob is in the first warning weather center, tracking live doppler radar. bob? >> just starting to get steady rain. take a look at radar. just from the industry now down to maryland. batch of steady rain moving in. a few pockets. north of the town, very light stuff. from the city now, down over toward rockville. gaithersburg. steady rain, anne arundel county, down to southern maryland. and western maryland, pretty good rain out there as well. it's all moving off to the north and south of the region. steady area of rain. from denton to salisbury. that is also moving in our direction. look for a wet night tonight. it will be improving considerably tomorrow. once this rain moves through, we'll get in sunshine and very mild temps. ahead of a very sharp front that will drop temperatures quite a bit this weekend. friday, it will be much colder than tomorrow. maybe even a few snowflakes early on friday morning. v

house speaker michael bush was also recognized by the legislature today, for being the longest-serving speaker in maryland history. >>> back to practice for the ravens, as they prepare to face the houston texans in the divisional round of the play- offs this weekend. wjz is the place for complete coverage of the play-offs. gigi barnett is there, where they are still continuing to paint the town purple. hello, mark. >> hi, denise. first official play-off practice for the ravens included full participation. all ravens present and accounted for as they get ready to take on the texans, coming up on sunday. four straight years for the playoffs. that is the longest current streak going in the nfl. and the players talking today say they believe that this year's team is the best that they've had. >> reporter: the focus is play- off football. and it is intense. but these confident ravens also had a lighter side. ray rice showed up for his press conference, sporting a joe flacco mustache, made out of tape. good for a laugh to lighten the mood. >> no, this thing is hurting my face. i have to get

. >> reporter: the real fight may be in the house, where even speaker michael bush, who supports the bill, isn't sure of the outcome. >> reporter: but today, the bill was in the hands of the senate judicial proceedings committee. no word yet on when that committee might vote. reporting live from annapolis, i'm pat warren. back to you on tv hill. >> if the bill make its to the general assembly, it is expected to go to referendum. >>> the occupy d.c. movement is still defying police orders. protestors remain with their tents in mcpherson square, despite a ban on camping in the park. a federal judge has ruled that demonstrators will have a chance to challenge any eviction plans in court. >>> right now, florida voters are casting ballots in the florida primary. state polls predict mitt romney will finish on top. but newt gingrich is still fighting hard on the campaign trail. danielle nottingham reports for wjz with details. >> hi. mile -- i'm mitt romney. how are you? >> reporter: mittmittmitt romney picked up the phones last night to try to get last- minute votes. romney reached primary

house speaker michael bush believes the procedural change will increase the chances of passing the law year a same-sex marriage bill unexpectedly died in the house after the senate had passed it. >>> today two d.c. council members will introduce a new bill that places limits on the number of medical marijuana facilities that can go in any particular ward. council members vincent orange and marion barry are backing the plan. it says only five marijuana cultivation centers and two dispensaries could be permitted in any single ward. right now the d.c. department of health plans to issue up to ten cultivation registrations and five dispensary registrations without ward-by-ward guidelines. >>> ward three council member mary shea is the latest target of a rush limbaugh rant. during the rant about how liberal washington is, he dismissively referred to her as "babe." >> this mary cheh babe, c-h-e-h, she is the woman behind the plastic bag tax. >> cheh did support the tax but another member introduced the bill. limbaugh was doing a monologue about her "humane extermination law" in relation to o

bush in this. it sets the table for something interesting to happen. >> michael, is jeb bush's silence deafening whens? >> yeah, i think it is. i think for jeb bush, there are two considerations here. one is the idea that you come to florida, you earn the support and the vote here and you earn my endorsement. number two, i think he is looking longer term at his own political prospects beyond 2012, and wants to make sure he doesn't cloudy or make that water murky for himself. >> we shall see. karen hunter, michael steele, appreciate your time this morning. >>> the florida primary will test republicans' popularity among hispans, the country's fastest growing population. mitt romney visited a strong hold yesterday. he sliced into a pig while his son addressed the crowd. a new poll shows romney beating gingrich among the state's hispanic voters. ron allen is live from miami with more on this. an important voting block it is. ron, florida's hispanics say they're voting both parties, but interestingly, don't know which way they're going to go on the republican side. >> indeed, thomas. it is a very importan

bush is a tall man. michael dukakis, not so tall. so they lifted the space right behind the podium michael dukakis wouldn't look as short compared to george h. w. bush. all of that was negotiated. one of the candidates, some of these candidates slept a lot more than passion sweat a lot more than others. we all know that. the people who sweat always want the temperature to be 30 degrees. >> host: and negotiate the temperature. >> guest: and negotiate the temperature. and it's all in the formats. bob dole, i remember the bob dole negotiation. bob dole is a man who talks in versus. one-liners, and he never talks more than two and have many. so his negotiators were willing to give up anything in order for those answers to be only, never more than two and a half minutes long. and, of course, against bill clinton, bill clinton could talk for two and a half hours on any given question. so in order to get at, clinton also wanted a town hall thing. so they swapped. they are negotiators. they swapped. dole got what he one of which was short an

and here is michael singh the national security advisor bush the bush administration. >> we could seelic sanctions, but likely to see big sanctions against iran's main oil customers? it seems unlikely given that waiver provision in there. >>reporter: the threat of sanctions which appear to be the backdrop to all of iran's war games and missile tests and announcements about a new nuclear fuel rod, that it says it can now manufacture, has caused the iranian currency, shep, to drop in value, by 12 percent today. >>shepard: 12 percent is a big number, and thank you, jennifer, happy new year. and happy new year to you and yours, so many of fox people who you do not know and have never seen but are here by the hundreds have worked sear health insurance christmas away from their families and they missed new year's at homes and their kids. they missed it all to get this ready for you. and as one who sits in front of the camera and doesn't work very hard i am very thank will the they have done a spectacular job. that is it from "studio b" this afternoon. back later for the fox report at 7:00 e

. >> michael moore, he came out and said i have been a beneficiary of the bush tack cuts. ney. >> sean: i was at convention and there on the tarmac was a huge gulf stream, that is michael moore's plane. >> here is the reality. we have a lot of folks here. we talked about how far to the left obama is and he is a socialist. but you look at michael moore, there a spectrum. he is far, far to the left of president obama. when you hear him talking, it shows you how in the middle president obama is. i think that is the difference that people don't want to acknowledge. we just came through the greatest recession. >> sean: he said, if i don't fix this in three years, it's a one-term proposition. >> he did say that. and he started from a place losing 800,000 jobs a month. >> december of 20 -- the summer 2010 he said we in recovery. >>> he a politician. >> sean: he lied? >> but people that register to vote for the first time, it was so powerful for barack obama didn't believe he was just another politician. >> shep: is it at the bow or brady and jim demint will take a look what is goi

bush 41. atwater was the guy who helped champion those ads about michael dukakis' message -- massachusetts prison furlough program that truned dukakis that year. >> and who knows thoum times willie horton's scowling, angry face of a killer was televised? absolutely for free. >> there's a story about a fella named willie horton. >> willie horton. >> convicted murderer. >> first degree -- >> convicted murderer -- >> killer. chris: atwater denying any role to less had i stall. >> you think the willie horton commercial, though, gives hints of racial politics? >> -- chris: you don't have a willie -- >> you don't have a willie horton commercial on the air? >> no. >> you don't have an ad on the air about the crime issue? >> no. chris: lee atwater died of brain cancer in 1991 and apologized for his tactics before his death including a direct apology to michael dukakis for what lee himself called his naked cruelty. and when we come back, are the evangelicals who want barack obama out of the white house really going to worry about whether mitt romney is a mormon? and scoops and predictions right from the n

machines for our airports former homeland security director michael chertoff who played his part in hyping up fear while working for the bush administration went on to become a lobbyist and then went on t.v. telling the american people that these machines were needed to keep us safe and guess who is one of chertoff lobbyists rapid skin so we all bought it hook line and sinker and now we're all being a radiated when we board airplanes a little regard to the health risks and there are risks. according to research as many as one hundred americans could get cancer from these scanners every single year and in boston union reps at logan airport worry that these scanners may be responsible for cancer clusters that are showing up among t.s.a. agents and despite requests from the union the t.s.a. has yet to provide individual dosimeters to t.s.a. agents to wear or to measure the radiation they're getting hit with from the scanners so senator susan collins is introducing legislation this week to call for a new independent health study of these scanners and some people might argue that one hundred cases of cancer plus a few sick t.s.a

jim baker who is helping george bush's long time friend run that campaign talks about being on a camping trip with michael, they were down 18 points deep in the wilderness at the time, they came out of there and knew they had to do two things. sell the george bush story and define michael dukakis and who he was. and then they got an enormous amount of help from michael dukakis himself in that famous debate in which he was asked about how he would respond to the murder of his wife and he said he was still opposed to capital punishment and made it like a legal brief. it was the most clinical description you could possibly imagine. and you can see the flip going on at that point. we've got a long ways to go. >> a long ways. >> there'll be a lot of changes. >>> stick with us. still ahead, dr. brzezinski joining us on the set, also dick durbin on what the president's state of the union address means for the next year in congress. >>> and up next, from the other side of the aisle, house majority leader eric cantor joins the conversation. >> are you going to be able to handle that, donny? >> "morning joe" brewed

michael reagan is joining me now. he created waves when he threw his support behind newt gingrich. it is good having you. there doesn't seem to be a favor war between the bushats and reaganites. you are after all ronald reagan's son. and then george bush senior endorsing romney . jeb bush all but endorsing mitt romney . last president bush thinks highly of mitt romney . john sonunu. campaigning aggressively for mitt romney. is there a split? >> there is always been a split. it is the rockefeller side of the republican party and reagan conservative side of the republican party. >> your dad chose that side on his ticket. >> and he chose that side for second place on his ticket and not first place on his ticket. you might remember that. >> even though his second place guy became the first place guy. >> absolutely right. but the guy who became the first place guy, and i love george w. bush and george bush. and he wanted to make his pregnancy his own and he got rid of the reaganites when he became president of the united states. i choose newt gingrich it made me uncomfortable watching the debate for mitt romney who has been running the office for five years. i w

bush? >> i would settle for michael reagan at this point. >> i will tell you this -- >> it's mitt romney. >> i know this sounds crazy. but if i'm looking at the field right now, i'm telling newt gingrich, keep your head down, don't blow yourself up in iowa because there's going to be a lot of teeth gnashing and weeping after the guy that's got a 24% ceiling wins iowa. and the conservative split. because everybody's going to start looking saying, okay, who is the conservative? we're not going to allow a guy that has the 24% of the moderates in the republican party voting for him while this conservative party pushes another let's say gerald ford to the finish line. >> most of the scenarios -- >> and by the way, i need to explain this. this isn't necessarily what i feel. i know i need to explain this. i'm telling you as i have predicted crazy never wins in the republican party and it doesn't. but the republican party just like i said when newt gingrich was at 38%, 39% wasn't going to stand for that, they're not going to stand for a guy with a 24% ceiling. >> right. >> walking away with a nomin

michael sign for markets they are wraps up today straight for us. on the domestic side sentiment remains quite positive supported by the high oil price without support potentially getting in for the bush news today that the e.u. has imposed an embargo on. also we note that putin's popularity has risen substantially to highest levels in six months in the latest opinion polls and this substantially reduces the chances of a second round of presidential elections and to some extent improves political visibility. russia has found a new markets for its giant stockmen gas field gas from c i like say miller says the energy monopoly and its partners are considering supply liquefied natural gas to japan the country is expected to increase consumption all the laundry after the cited to reduce nuclear power generation gas from has one council on the us as a market for many but it had to start looking for alternatives following a spike in the us the mass of production. that's all we have time for this hour for more stories head to our web site r c dot com slash business. sure is that so much of. which are called you and it will be. the biggest and most expensive elections money can buy this is how

he's the same guy who accused the bush administration of somehow knowing about 9/11. that's right. none other than michaelan filmmaker says he's the most popular director in iran. they know his shows because they're played on the national television all the time. this is a country known for censoring almost all western influences. >> i hope he's making some money there, then. >> yeah, he's the 99%, right. it's another nerd alert. the teleprompter says. did you type that? >> clayton morris is like a kid in a candy shop at the consumer electronics show in las vegas. good morning to you. >> hi. good morning, guys. i was getting all my gadgets ready and i heard nerd alert and i woke up and i was ready for you guys. i'm out here at the consumer electronics show. you like photos? you like photos of your kids. you have lots of kids, you want to take and print out your photos and don't want to send it off to the store anymore. everyone has a smart phone these days. what if you could print off things from your iphone. you go into this free app you down load from the store and you pick your photo that you want and

on michael's part a about the large group of independents, think about what independents have gone through over the last several years. 2008 they saw a very unpopular bush administration leave office. 2010, the economy was still in the dumps. they were feeling very pessimistic. they are not liking the results better. they are trying to look at this election as the tie breaker to see which way are we going to go? neither of which have felt all that great. obama's got to try to make that a forward looking choice and play off the failures of the last two years rather than the difficulty of the first two. >> gop presidential candidate, mitt romney has already put out a rebuttal to the state of the union. let's listen and talk about what he said on the other side. >> what he's proposing is more of the same. more taxes, more spending, more regulation. all of this proposals involve big government and big price tags. >> what say you michael? >> there's nothing new in that. i think from john boehner and mitt romney and the other republicans, you're going to hear it's the same old, same old. i think the chord the president needs to strike is this is going to get

bush tax cuts for the wealthy and fighting for the middle class. republicans are not in agreement with those policies right now. >> a.b., michael, always a pleasure. thank you both. >> thanks. >> coming up next here or on "news nation." >> no matter what we argue about here on this florida or in this country, there is nothing more important than family. and friendship. >> congresswoman debbie wasserman-schultz there delivering an emotional tribute to her friend gabby giffords who stepped down from congress today. we are going to bring you more of that moving moment in a few moments here. last night, president obama calling income inequality "the defining issue of our time." dylan rhadigan weighing in live from his 30 million jobs tour on the other side of this break. >>> and it is one of the largest prisoner civil rights settlements in u.s. history. details on the $22 million payout awarded to one former inmate. wanna know the difference between a trader and an elite trader? it's this... the etrade pro platform. finds top performing stocks -- in three clicks. quickly scans the market for new trading ideas. got it? get it. good. introducing new etr

bush. >> you're becoming less and less likely to do it. there's no incentive. >> why do i want that fight? >> conservatives and michaelshment. george w. bush was doubling the national debt and took $155 surplus into a trillion dollar deficit. his foreign policies he said he would rid the world of tyranny in all four corners. as bill buckley said before he died, bush's ideas are not conservative ideas. will we rush into the arms of mitt romney when we're afraid we may get four more years of big government conservatism? the republican establishment, they don't mind that. they just want to win. we actually want to win the country. >> the old saying fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. >> telling me that mitt romney is not as bad as barack obama, is not enough for me. i want someone to transform this country. take on the teachers union. go after medicare and balance the budget and get us out of war zones across the globe. >> you don't know that. >> i know i don't. >> you'll find that person some day but you ain't finding them this year. >> this is the key. you hit it right on the head. it's not big gove

bush, 171, president obama so far has made 32. winston-salem, north carolina, michael on the democrats' line. good morning. michael, are you with us? don't think michael is there. we are going to move down to idaho. jackie on the independent line. you are on "the washington journal." caller: good morning. well, i did not vote for obama and i probably will not vote for him again, but i got to tell you, somebody's got to do something. and the republicans and democrats -- might congress, i am just ashamed of them, totally ashamed. and somebody has got to start doing something. our country needs to be fixed and everybody wants to stand around and not do anything. at least he is doing something and i've got to back him on this. host: allison -- branson, missouri. another independent. caller: obama is doing what he can for the country. the rest of the people in the house and senate are sitting on their hands and playing tiddlywinks. i feel he is trying to move the country in the right direction but he has to many obstacles. host: thank you for coming in this morning. "the wa

bush's raising of taxes, having promised not to do it in the campaign against michael dukakis.the republican party from that moment, not his election. >> interesting. do you get 8 sense of his relationship with president obama? of course when president obama was running his chief rival was bill clinton's wife. >> yeah. i think that at least in his mind for political purposes that's been papered over. i don't think -- i think fundamentally every ex-president has a tremendous reservoir of sympathy for every other incumbent president because it really is a lousy job. and there have only been -- there have only been 44 people -- 44 times have we elected one of these guys. it aefs a very small club and it's getting smaller. yes, i do -- obviously he far prefers him to any republican right now, but i think he looks at the parallels and i do think he firmly believes that president obama was handed a much tougher hand when he walked into the oval office than even president clinton was. >> "esquire's" charles pierce, a great article. wish i could talk about it with you further. everyone

bush policies. governor romney was giving money to democrats and voting for the most liberal democrat in the 1992 presidential race. for them to come back and try to fabricate. ask michael reagan who was there. megyn: and we will. michael reagan is here. he will join us live in 20 minutes to talk about this controversy, his endorsement of newt gingrich and about gingrich's real relationship. megyn: his father. what a day we are seeing, several things before the florida primary which is on tuesday. the labor department reporting new unemployment claims jumped to 377,000 last week. this comes after claims dropped to a four-year low just two weeks ago. but some positive signs for manufacturing. orders for durable goods, that is products that last at least three years, like machinery and equipment, those rose 3% last month. that is a trend that may mean businesses are starting to spend money. bad news, this is like a good news bad news day, i'm getting exhausted reading the script. bad news if you're trying to sell your home. 2011 the worst sales year on world dating back to 1963. ouch. builders ended 2011. megyn: a third straight year of disphral hom dismal home constructi

bush, 77, for president obama, this is the 32nd congressional recess appointment. >>> up next, wes moore joins the conversation, also michael book that expands on that explosive "rolling stones" piece that led to the firing of stanley mcchrystal. m al glawe took this last minute trip! you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played sir. get the app. hotels.com. >>> welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now, the united states army veteran, best-selling author, our good friend wes moore, and michael hastings. michael's article on afghanistan in june of 2010 you'll remember made huge headlines and ultimately led to the firing of general stanley mcchrystal. michael's expanded on that piece with his new book with new detail called "the operators: the wild and terrifying inside story of america's war in afghanistan." wes and michael, good morning. let's look back at the piece first. >> sure. >> remind us exactly in the piece led to the firing. >> well, what led to the firing was one of mcchrystal's top advise