well that must be some good stuff eric aikens has come full circle today he teaches at the omega boys club. woodard's wake up call was a bullet that almost paralyzed him when he was 19. after getting out of jail he found his way to marshall and the omega boys club meetings. >> i seen a classroom full of kids he had their undivided attention. >> reporter: one year later he's in college in costa contra county. >> i want to be a radiologist. >> 25 years keeping them alive and free there's no greater gift. >> reporter: the boys club have helped 10,000 young people. this spring 176 have gotten college degrees 32 of them postgraduate degrees and 24 cities have adopted the omega program across the u. s. and in south africa thailand and canada. but as dr. marshall says his success can't be measured in numbers an milestones. for him it's the personal impact he made on these young people. >> linda, great story, thanks. >>> the academy awards have been handed out. the after party is well underway. >>> it's down to the wire in michigan where mitt romney is struggling to stay ahead. what rick sant

. >> jimmy: clay aiken. >> clay aiken. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: not the best photo, really, of clay.'s a talented dude. >> much different than you think. tough and smart. and really, you know, i knew it was a great singer with "american idol," he did so well, but he really is a tough cookie, and he's smart. you'll see what happens. >> jimmy: yeah. >> i mean, interesting. >> jimmy: yeah, the one episode, the first episode i saw, he's great. and i go, i like clay aiken. oh, here's some drama. >> oh, she's great. oh yeah. [ audience ohs ] >> jimmy: teresa giudice. she is -- that's some drama right there. >> she is. >> jimmy: is there some table flipping? >> there is, and she is -- she actually flips the table. i mean, you know, people would say -- >> jimmy: is that her thing? she has to do that every time she goes out of the house? >> i don't know. she gets so angry at a group. you know, she's a very calm person -- >> jimmy: yeah. >> -- until she gets angry. and then she smashed it. but she's terrific. >> jimmy: that's why you get her right? to flip tables. >> and she did a great job. >

aikens has come full circle. today he teaches at boy's club. his wake up call was the bullet that almost paralyzed him. he had their undivided attention. >> now he's in college. >> i want to be a radiologist. >> 25 years of keeping them after live and free, there's no greater gift. >> the boy's club has helped 10,000 young people. this spring, 176 will be getting college degrees, 32 postgraduate degrees. 24 cities have adopted the program across the states. as dr. marshal says, his success cannot be measured in numbers and milestones for him. it's the personal impact he made on all of these young people. >> it's so good to hear these success stories. >> you can't believe it's been around 25 years. >> look at this, one principal and teacher passing on what he's learned. >> thank you. >>> it's a sure sign of san francisco. 79 years ago today it was a shovel of dirt. how you can get a look at building of the bridge. >>> you can head down to arizona where dennis goes one on one with manny ramirez. why head coach mcclellan had to leave the game, and

. >> a new season of "celebrity" kicks off this sunday, to the delight of clay aiken and arsenio hall, you remember him. >> how are you? >> i'm doing great. i am seeing the promise for a season f -- promos for season 5. >> you put a group of italians together in a room, right? >> both of you have lots of experience with the reality tv. tell us how -- what it is like to be part of this show compared to what you have done in the past. you know what, for me, the reason why is i want to raise as much money as i can for my charity. we are all here to try to raise awareness. >> what charity -- >> the charitable cause -- i am doing it for boys and girls, the underprivileged and impoverished. and having experience with the reality tv, we kind of thought we knew what to expect, but we did not bring anybody who goes into this thinking even know what is going to be there -- thinking you know what is going to be there is mistaken. complete pandemonium, competition, constant backstabbing. you have to sleep with one eye open, really. >> i love how you smile when she says "backstopping." -- "backsta

you gotta taste this soup. >>> we are back with alice rivlin, douglas holtz-aiken and ronald brownsteint to ask you all, when you look at this year, where is the point or what could you see that would make you think, the recovery's for real? >> i would like to see strong employment growth continue, gdp growth continue, but most of all, i would like to see the republican and the democrats in the congress get together with the president and solve the long-run debt problem. gridlock is the greatest threat, much greater than anything else that could happen to our economy. >> because it undermines consumer confidence, basically. >> well, more than that, if we do nothing, as we said in the last segment, the default position is that we have a big tax increase and a big mindless spending cut. and that would be bad for the economy. we have to avoid that. >> i'd look at the housing market. and if there's one thing that says success, it says builders build houses. and we get up to something like 900,000 housing starts. they don't do that unless there are customers. and we don't get that kind of cu

>> well, clay aiken for sure.nds. >> i was going to say, really surprised. >> that's a huge surprise. >> the donald said she's tough. >> i don't think she's that tough. i think she is a cupcake. >> we're looking forward to it. thanks for stopping by, good to see both of you. >> good luck with the show. >> "celebrity apprentice" begins its new season tonight, 9:00, 8:00 central on nbc. and up next here on "today." >>>com time to find out w

her cards were aiken later used at three gas station, the s. anyone with information about s metro crime stoppers. >>> now that the latest on a midair helicopter crash that killed seven marines. jamie has the latest. >> reporter: all right. the collision between a cobra and a huey happened last night yuma arizona. officials say the marines were training in an area that mimics the terrain of afghanistan in preparation of deploying there. six were from camp pendleton. one was from the marine air corp station in yuma. several crashes have happened in the last year involving marine training. last september an ah1wcobra went down killing two and sparking a brush fire that burned 120 acres. abc 2news. >> thank you. >>> the maryland senate could have a decision on the same sex marriage bill any time. last year the senate passed a similar proposal, the senate president said it's not expected to change this year. the legislation would make maryland the 8th state to legalize same sex unions. >>> a consumer alert, facebook and google have come under fire

my meineke. >>> alice rivlin, douglas hoelts-aiken, and ron brownstein.pletely confused by this week, because friday it's like the best unemployment figures we've seen in three years and the dow industrials go crazy and the cbo earlier in the week said the debt outlook is horrible, the deficit's horrible and by the way unemployment's going back up. are we happy or are we worried? >> i think it was basically a good news week. the unemployment figures and the new jobs in the friday report were good news. they aren't definitive. that was one month, but it was a good, strong month, an indication that the economy is taking hold. if it lasts we'll have the best thing that anybody is able to predict is a good, slow recovery with gradual reduction in the unemployment rate from what is admittedly a very high level. >> the cbo said 9.3 or something next year which is like craziness. >> remember the cbo its job is to find the dark cloud for every silver lining so it did that. the reason it did that, all kidding aside is the cbo has to assume an enormous tax increase

>> well, clay aiken for sure.nds. >> i was going to say, really surprised. >> that's a huge surprise. >> the donald said she's tough. >> i don't think she's that tough. i think she is a cupcake. >> we're looking forward to it. thanks for stopping by, good to see both of you. >> good luck with the show. >> "celebrity apprentice" begins its new season tonight, 9:00, 8:00 central on nbc. and up next here on "today." >>>com time to find out what's coming up on "meet the press." david gregory is back again from washington. >> good morning again, jenna. coming up the republican race for the white house rolls into michigan. now our roundtable is going to break down the race. plus what government can and should be doing to spur economic recovery. joining me, republicans paul ryan, and his democratic counterpart on the budget committee. call coming up on "meet the press." ♪ you had the time of your life ♪ >> today's "life illustrated." we received thousands of photographs capturing what's important in your world. next week

this is a jonathan aiken book. he talks about how king charles ii said this to his brother james, they'll never kill me, james, and make you president or king. then along came agnew's own problems. the state of maryland is nicknamed the easy state. politicians like to call it the free and easy state because of the rampant corruption in that state. in the late 1970s there was a football game at the university of virginia, and they announced a special guest, the governor of maryland, who came out running in an orange prison suit, all right? because so many of them went to prison. agnew got caught up in this. he got caught up taking kickbacks. it was the way it was done in maryland. he believed that nixon should come to his defense, but nixon -- this was nothing nixon could or should have done. agnew would resign in october of 1973. they had a last meeting in the oval office. agnew said that nixon was very warm to him, but at the same time he believed that nixon couldn't wait to get him out of the office. they never s

in the eastern theater here in virginia it was aikens landing on the james river. and in the western theater it was on the mississippi river. there the physical exchange of prisoners would take place, but the official exchange would take place later when the two cartels had negotiated the release. so where do these union and confederate prisoners go until they're formally exchanged? they'll go to what is called parole camps. this is an image of the largest parole camp in the eastern theater known as camp parole in annapolis, maryland. this is for union soldiers, but their guards are their own men. they're guarded by union sentries. so it was essentially each side cease responsibility to ensure that their own men would not violate their paroles. and the confederacy had several parole camps as well. if you're from the annapolis region and you have driven through it, it is called parole, named after this particular camp. these parole camps had some problems. they're not fun places. the union soldiers disliked the fact that they would be treated as prisoners within the

aiken? >> thank you, mr. chairman. just a couple of questions.f you just said a minute ago thise is the budget that puts people e back to work.e boy, it would be nice if that were, in fact, true, but i'm not so sure that i'm sold on that t idea. but i first of all, on a larger context, when you tax small sins business owners in increased taxing them, what the effect of that is going to be is to make . their business less competitive and harder to create jobs. c specifically i wanted to call ia your attention to your tax increases that you've got. my understanding is that under g american energy producers you have a repeal of percentage depletion for hard mineral fossil fuels, i.e., coal. r so you're going to repeal a percentage of depletion for coal. to how is that going to effect theo income taxes of a coal company? >> it would increase them. >> increase them. about what amount? >> i don't know. i can follow up with you on fol that. >> you don't really need to.ou i know. okay.ey'r they're paying about a 22% tax, this

. >> the contenders, clay aiken, debbie gibson, arsenial hall and a dozen other famous faces.lk about the casting for this show. you seem to have a formula down. mine when you go into it are you looking for the villain, for the good guy? what's going through your head? >> we're looking for really good celebrities who are smart, tough, and won't quit. >> reporter: it's the show's formula for fireworks. like last season's duo between mimi and star jones driving the show to higher ratings. >> you don't tune in to see a bunch of people sinking kumbaya and being nice to each other. you nun in to see what they do. >> we have a couple of rivalries and i would say it could start with maybe clay aiken versus a few different people. lisa lambpy nelly who's very, very tough. she's terrific but brutally tough. she somehow didn't like miss universe diana mendoza, and she lets it be known. >> as usual, again. >> what do they expect from lisa? you'd think she'd be cracking jokes. >> she's tough. >> for these two, it's all part of the game. >> this is where the first challenge goes down. >> t

leave a trail of destruction more than 8 miles long and you can see the homes ripped to shreds in aiken county, thousands left without power as severe storms ripped through the state, winds blowing well over 100 miles per hour. elizabeth pran is live with more. >> reporter: violent thunderstorms and tornadoes leaving people without power and causing flash floods and leaving quite a bit of damage and north carolina, that state is feeling temperatures, 25 degrees cooler than yesterday and with that quick shift, came a very violent storm, people reported seeing quarter-sized hail as well as heavy rainfall, lots of falling trees, and, downed power lines, leaving thousands without power. also, in south carolina, folks there were also left in the dark, forecasters confirmed two tornadoes touched down there, one storm, an ef-2, winds blocking in at 130 miles per hour. and, as the storm carved an 8-and-a-half mile path, parts of the state seeing power outages as i said as well as damage to homes, and businesses, the cleanup efforts there are looking a lot like the cleanup efforts in parts of ge

. >> heather: extreme weather striking western south carolina, this video from aiken county there.nado that touched down yesterday. listen to this woman describing her loss. >> the last thing we had of our sister. we could come to and be a part of. this is where she lived and died. it is very hard to see that it is... it is gone like she is. it is gone. >> heather: the woman she is speaking of died previous to the tornado. no deaths reported as a result of these tornadoes. but, let's go to meteorologist maria molina live in the fox extreme weather center with the latest. >> unfortunately we are seeing severe weather as early as february, even saw tornadoes during the month of january and that is pretty much due to the mild winter that we have been experiencing, and we're starting to see the severe weather a little earlier than typical. though it is not totally unheard of. tornadoes during the month of february and one across parts of south carolina, it was confirmed to be an ef 2 with winds up to 130 miles per hour, what it is estimated at and the storm system pulled from the east

until then, a conversation with douglas holz-aiken from today's "washington journal." >> we're back with the former budget director from 2004-2005. you are prominently displayed this morning. here is your quote. by expectations could not be lower. that is on the front page of " the washington times" this morning. what do you mean? guest: my concern is this, the first budget he put out show the you was going into the debt spiral. it was at the point where we were borrowing to pay interest on previous borrowing. it is the kind of thing where world credit markets they just work it. that was in the midst of the crisis. we said it is a crisis, we have to do this. the next year put out a budget that did the exact same thing. and so he appointed a commission, his own fiscal reform commission, which came forward with a set of proposals that i thought made a lot of sense, the fundamental problem was spending. it is all spending. if you want to act on europe have tax reform. he put out a budget with the recommendation. here we are at budget member for, and we have yet to see serious reform on taxe

this report caught the eye of a congressman, todd aiken is a member of the armed services committee.s us now. there is a difference of opinion. why are we hearing about this now, ten years into this war? >> that is a very good question, and the thing that we are trying to find is have we created bureaucracy or things that are getting in the way of getting the very fastest treatment possible? and the people, to their credit, that are providing the medical services are doing a fantastic job. people who are flying the helicopters are doing fine. there are a set of rules that seem to be getting in the way, in this case costing us the life of one our troops. the issue centered around first of all a army helicopter with a white cross on it. the people in afghanistan consider that a good target. they don't care whether it's carrying somebody wounded. and so the question is, first of all, should those helicopters be armed so that they can defend themselves? and the second question is a larger one of the deployment of helicopters in general, and the rules that govern whether or not they can g

. >> clay aiken is totally different than i thought.a really strong player. great singer, and he's a tough guy and he's nasty. you wouldn't think it. we have victoria gotti, we have cheryl tiegs, we have so many people, lou ferigno. when you put them all together, it's been amazing. >> you mentioned victoria gotti. and you have theresa from "real housewives." which one of them is more likely to kill you? >> i'm afraid to fire either one of them. >> we'll save those until the end. >> they may go all the way. >> why do you think this works? >> we've had -- 14 copies of "the apprentice" and every one of them failed almost immediately. this works. so i assume it's because it's trump. >> but in terms of the genre and the format? it's just because people love to see others go at each other? >> i think so, to a certain extent. i think the firing as opposed to the hiring. if i would have said, you're hired, it would have never worked. friends of mine come up and bring their son, they say would you do me a favor, on tape, fire my son, for a bar

the men and women who are following in the footsteps of whitman and hemmingway, souza and armstrong aikens rock well. but i also hear america singing through the artists and writers who will be sitting here a few decades from now with another president. the students in denver who recently wrote a play about teenage homelessness, or the kids in grand rapids who designed a mural to bring joy to a struggling community. they're singing what whitman called strong melodious songs. somewhere in america, the next great writer is wrestling with the first draft. an english paper. [laughter] somewhere the next great actor is mustering up the courage to try out for that school play. somewhere the next great artist is doodling on their homework. somewhere the next great thinker is asking their teacher why not? they're out there right now dwelling in possibility. so as we honor the icons of today, we also have to champion the icons of tomorrow. they need our support. we need them to succeed. we need them to succeed as much as we need engineers and scientists. we also need artists scholars. we need them

for more on the new corporate tax plan, want to be joined by douglas holt aiken president of the americanpreviously served as chief economist for the white house council of economic advisers and directors of the cbo. welcome back. >> thank you. >> let's talk politics. i've heard some estimates that say the chances of this getting through and being made law are almost zero. maybe in a lame duck. would you go along with that? >> i think those are optimists. i think they are zero. i don't think there's any realistic chance that we've seen corporate tax reform this year. i think the politics are real simple. governor romney was going to make a major announcement about his tax plan on friday, moved up to wednesday and the white house decided to step on it. pretty simple. >> let's pretend for a moment then that this was a potential reality. you still say 28, as in percent, is not internationally competitive. why not? and what is? >> well if you look at our major developed competitors, they average somewhere around 25%. so we're still above the internationally competitive line. what's interestin

we just had a discussion about this, jared bernstein and douglas hoelts-aiken. and 25% of spending you know one way or another that 25% has to come down. i want to look at ways to get the 15% up, whether it's growth or whatever but you know 25 has got to come down and i think clint's point was if your parents say you got no money, don't spend $2, you don't say to your parents give me the $2 so i can spend it. you just don't spend it. that's not what's in the budget. >> the fact of the matter you talk about spending 25% now. we're on the leading edge of the retirement baby boom generation. >> are we headed to 35? >> 30 plus and growing over time so you can't just look at the 25. the try ut uth is you can't spe $1.40, charge it to the credit card and not expect to have a day of reckoning. we saw greece. there's an analogy here, the greek government was not truthful with its people. it was not truthful with its lenders. government grew too big, promised too much, waited too long to restructure and when the bubble burst you have to make dramatic and draconian change

the editorial response by the aiken standard to this anemic obvious conclusion is summarized by one word, duh. we have known for decades that this waste must be properly dealt with and discarded in a proper setting. the scientific community has determined that yucca mountain is the ideal location for a safe national repository. the president and the liberal control senate must quit playing political games and allow the nuclear regulatory commission to finish analyzing the licensed permit. it's time to let science dictate policy not politics. in conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget spetch and the global war on terrorism. -- september 11 and the global war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from new york rise? without objection. ms. hochul: thank you, mr. speaker. i stand with my good colleague from new york, brian higgins, united in the opposition to the postal processing distribution center in buffalo and the 700 jobs of people currently employed there. i understand the postal service has gone through some tough times, they ne