if allentown, most loews power and there's nothing they can do about it. >> it's a relief to see that someone is going to try to get some of the work done. >> they haven't been able to give us, okay, we'll be to your town in three days. basically as they say, bad news is better than no news but we're not getting any news because we can't figure out where this is going to end. >> people in allens town are using again generators and wood stoves to stay warm until power is back on. >>> leftover ice from that storm has created new trouble in new york. ice broke through a glass a tree yum at the sewn building last night. ten people were injured. the injuries were not serious. the city's fire department says ice and glass fell into the building's lobby area. >>> hundreds of people packed seaworld stadium for the first killer whale show since a trainer was killed by one of the orcas. you may remember a 12,000 pound orca grabbed trainer dawn brancheau by her ponytail. trainers are not allowed back into the water with the animals until an investigation is complete. >> i'm glad they moved forwa

live in allentown, thank you very much.t is. >> brian: at the health care summit, john mccain reminded president obama of his repeated promises for change in washington. here the president's response. >> let me just make this point, john, because we're not campaigning anymore. the election is over. >> i'm reminded of that every day. >> brian: senator mccain is with us right now. let me ask you right off, senator, do you feel the president of the united states was being disrespectful to you? >> no. i think the president of the united states was probably trying to in a way not directly respond to what clearly was a campaign promise. but i wasn't talking about the campaign. what i was talking about is the sleazy deals, the incredibly bribery and purchasing of votes and of special interest that went on in this process. the people in my state are as angry about the process as they are about the product. >> gretchen: senator, i'm with you on this because i think the american public is so frustrated with the deals and there are so

looking at right around 12 to 18 inches, that's by allentown and 6 to 12 around philadelphia and youoser to binghamton, new york. two feet not out of the realm of possibility and since it's already turned over to snow, that number may go up if it doesn't mix back up into the rain. we're going to see some warm air just around manhattan and stretching down the jersey shore and the green and the yellow, that's all rain. you see the red pop up, that's sleet. you are looking for snow in the west. jersey, philadelphia and also parts of delaware and new york state reporting decent amounts of snow coming in right now. if that rain, snowline moves to the east you'll see more snow picking up from new york city and back to the west, that's how it looks. yesterday storm moving away from maine and lots of downpours and coastal flooding from maine all the way down to cape cod area and back to the west, winter storm warning for cleveland and wrap around snow affect you later today and snow goes all the way back and get to areas looks like around the north carolina mountains and tennessee, too. live

host: and that's allentown, pennsylvania.this is the financial times from san francisco -- host: oklahoma city, is next. quinnde lla, gornings on our democrats lines. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say it is really a shame that i don't know my legislators. i have been here over 15 years. i am from arkansas. and these people are not involved. i've been to the state capital, complained about a number of things, i have two, three nieces and nephew that is go to the oklahoma city public schools, and it's horrible. i mean, the school grounds look like a penitentiary. i mean, this is the capital of penitentiaries, and most of our legislators own penitentiaries. so it's ridiculous. everything looks like a penitentiary when you look at the -- anything dealing with the children, you don't have anything child-friendly here in oklahoma. everybody wants to open up a club, and our legislators are letting them. you want to open up a drug house, you can get that if our legislators will let you open up a drug house for our club. i do

on allentown road a new accident. losing a couple of lanes out there and the inner loop, two lanes are lost because of crash activity. switching the camera over and show you 270, you can barely see the pavement. the snow is coming down real hard. at 109 more crash activity reported here and the main interstates out here are untouched when it comes to crash activity and the vulnerability of drivers, even in four-wheel drives. we are watching big cars becoming disabled here. we are watching the power lines shake here. remember, if you are driving, as topper mentioned put on the hazards and watch the acceleration. do it slowly. do the best you can to maintain control of your car. on 395 northbound, past duke street, we are looking at snow removal off to the right side. this is actually causing a lot of drivers to slow down, which is a good thing. very icy and dicey conditions on the interstate to and from the district. one last camera for you. constitution and 17th, we are watching the lanes disappear in front of us. the

however, inner loop of the beltway at allentown road, initial reports of an accident.should be over to the shoulder. in town, rock creek park weigh % atwater side drive is closed because of icy conditions. park police set up a detour. on the rails, doing okay for the most part, metro, vre, brunswick 870 is 23 minutes late this morning. >>> we're bringing you live team coverage of this winter weather. we've been out all night checking out the conditions before you have to head out in it. >> news4's megan mcgrath is in northern, virginia. she predicted this to be a slushy mess. we begin with tracee wilkins in largo. >> reporter: with we just saw a plow come through this way and they knocked down a lot of the slush here on the secondary road. but roads are, of course, very wet because we've got the slushy wet snow. susan with prince george's county is with us. you have been out doing a lot of work, taking care of the roadways. how are things looking so far? >> roadways look good. crews have been out since late yesterday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. we pretreated the roadway

one thing i found interesting obama had a jobs summit in allentown pennsylvania and he was photographed of the president shaking hands with workers' outside and they happen to be working at said nestle's planned for it is a subtle sign from the president i will go shake hands with american workers their employer matters less than if they are americans and working. >> host: it has been six or seven years since your book. anybody will get a sense of the deep research that you do. you must live with this five 4/6 years as you work on your book and work for the times. but if we fast forward to the year 2016, what might you be talking to us within? what topic might engage you? >> i am very interested in what will happen next in the american economy in places like michigan and as we remake ourselves. it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. ottilie comes about in a couple of times and in history. after the great depression and we rebuilt and the industrial complex by a military complex he essentially. after world war ii we looked inward and rebuild america. this time i don't think we can the r

first of all, and i have not taken trips to allentown, pa., or ohio most recently. >> baltimore. >> ie. had a great time in baltimore. just recently, new hampshire. i've not been to searchlight yet, but we are going to get there. [laughter] everywhere i go, you talk to small business and they will tell you they are still experiencing a severe credit crunch. the larger businesses right now are able to get financing. even the medium-sized businesses, the credit markets have improved. smaller businesses, even if they're making a profit and have not missed a payment, are finding that banks are averse to providing them capital. now, two reasons that they have cited. one is they say their bankers are telling them that the regulators are just looking over their shoulder too much and so the community banks feel that their hands are tied. these are independent regulators. they are diligent in doing their jobs. obviously, they feel caught off guard because of the lax regulation in some cases of the banking industry before the financial crisis. you get a sense that the pendulum has swung too far

just above that in -- north of that in lehigh valley, the allentown-bethlehem region, they're at 9.8%, some 40,700 people out of work. my home area in northeastern pennsylvania, north of the lehigh valley, we got reports today of the job market going up to 9.7% unemployment. highest in 17 years. we could go across the state and tell the same story. so the numbers are going higher. and, of course, that means the challenge, the misery, the -- the heartache, really, for those who have lost their jobs is only rising. so we have to meet that challenge and part of meeting that challenge isn't just addressing in terms of policy. and i'll talk about that tonight for a couple of minutes. but also to try to understand, as best we can from the distance of washington, but even when you're -- as i was sitting in the same room more than a week ago, with eight of our unemployed pennsylvanians. just give you two examples. one individual sitting right across from me, his name is ron, he was laid off last april. he's 61 years old. one of the most compelling stories in terms of where he was with a job a

you remember back in early december, the president had visited allentown, pennsylvania, that same day, the numbers had come out for november. the numbers had ticked down 0.2%, and hugs all around in the white house. this time, down 0.3%. any minute, we can expect to see david axelrod do a tumbling run up the driveway at the white house, because as a political matter, that number is what everybody is focused on. the administration itself, and the budget that was released earlier this week on monday, had assumed the unemployment rate would stay up around 10% for the remainder of this year. that city may happen. there's no question about it, but from the short-term, this is good news for republicans, even as yesterday the democratic leadership of congress, nancy pelosi, harry reid, steny hoyer and dick durbin were here, talking about a jobs bill and health care, but talking about a jobs bill, the senate says they're going to try to take something up next week. that is the biggest part of the urgency, as far as democrats are concerned on capitol hill. meanwhile, republicans already out wi

. >> first of all, i have now taken trips to allentown, pennsylvania, hiohio -- >> baltimore -- >> i was in baltimore. had a great time in baltimore. just recently. new hampshire. i haven't been there yet but i'm going to get there. everywhere i go, you talk to small business and they will tell you they are still experiencing a severe credit crunch. the larger businesses right now are able to get financing. even the medium sized businesses, the credit markets have improved. smaller businesses, even if they are making a profit and have not missed a payment, are finding that banks are averse to providing them capital. now two reasons that they cite. one is they say their bankers are telling them the regulators are looking over the shoulder toochl and the community banks feel their hands are tied. these are independent regulators. they are diligent in doing their jobs. obviously they feel caught off guard because of the lax regulation in some cases of the banking industry before the financial crisis. you get a sense that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. the challen

. >> first of all, i have now taken trips allentown, pa. -- elyria, ohio, most recently -- >> baltimore i was in baltimore. [laughter] i had a great time in baltimore. just recently and now shock, new hampshire. have not been the searchlight yet, but we're going to get there. -- have not been to searchlight yet, but we're going to get there. [laughter] everywhere i go, you talk to small businesses and they will tell you they are still experiencing a severe credit crunch. the larger businesses right now are able to get financing. even the medium-sized businesses, the credit markets have improved. smaller businesses, even if they are making a profit and have not missed a payment, are finding that banks are averse to providing them capital. two reasons that they cite -- one is that they say their bankers are telling them that the regulators are just looking over their shoulder too much and so the community banks feel that their hands are tied. these are independent regulators. they are diligent in doing their jobs. obviously they feel caught off guard because of all lax regulation, in some

from, oh, i don't know, fredericksburg and up to baltimore and allentown and beth le thlehembe philadelphia some spots 20 inches of snow, thank goodness it's on a saturday. don't want to get stuck out there. >> slop, meteorological term. >> that's what my father would get fed in north korea, slop. >> that's an accurate way to describe the weather, i don't know about the war. thank you, chad, we appreciate it. >>> born in the usa but now heading to their homeland, two gorgeous giant pandas, mei lan and tai shan, and our reporter is at the washington dulles airport for the breaking story. hi, courtney. >> reporter: hi, don. we have the two giant pandas en route to shanghai right now. they are making their waiy, a 14 1/2-hour journey, they'll enter a breeding habitat. it's a bittersweet good-bye for everyone here in washington. we watched as he grew from cub to giant panda. >> for me, i'd go home after work and turn on the panda cam and see what he was up to, so i think he's a little part of all of our lives. >> reporter: now 4 years old, tai shan is saying good-bye to the u.s., to washington

of the union as well as what he said a number of weeks ago when he met unemployed individuals in allentown, pennsylvania. what he saw in that job center in pennsylvania is what i saw in another job center in another part of the state. people who don't fully understand why they're in this predicament, people who have worked their whole lives, had great work records, never missed a day of work for the most part, many of them well over the age of 50, many over the age of 60 and feeling the kind of economic insecurity and vulnerability they've never felt before. but despite all that, they're not -- they weren't complaining. they weren't pointing fingers. they weren't complaining about the number of applications they fill out, scores of them -- 25, 30, 50, 100. and in many cases getting either rejected or hearing nothing at all. that's what i heard. i also heard, as the president said, a real determination to keep fighting, to keep applying and to keep trying to get a job. that maybe the thread that runs through all of them is they're grateful for the country they live in and they want to work.

the reason we visited allentown, pennsylvania, ohio, florida, an asheville, no -- new hampshire, talkingfactories and diners, they want to know how they will find a job when they only have had one trade in their life. how will they send kids to college? how will they pay medical bills? how can they retire with their rich -- rich401k's so banged up? -- with their 401k's so banged up? i understand your frustrations. you understand it as well. michelle is always a good barometer. i was talking to her the other day. the front page was, oh, what is obama going to do to get his poll numbers up? are the democrats in a tizzy? she said, listen. if you are the average family, if i am a mother out there, i am working, my husband is working, we are worried about losing our jobs, hours have been cut back, the cost of our premiums just went up 30%, the credit card company jacked up our interest rate, our home value has gone down by $100,000, suddenly someone calls up and says, so, how do you think president obama is doing right now -- [laughter] what are they going to say? what are they going to say?

. >> my goodness looks like allentown is expecting a lot. >>> the military contract orformerly known as blackwater under fire from congress, accused of playing fast and loose with rules in afghanistan and almost with no government oversight. at a senate committee hearing in a few hours, company executives will be called to answer allegations about weapons signed out by a character from south park. chris lawrence is following this story for us. >> reporter: private mercenaries running around afghanistan without any accountability. taking weapons, shooting civilians, that's a picture being painted by a congressional investigation. >> what you need is oversight. and hopefully this hearing will lead to dramatically better oversight. >> reporter: last spring cnn brought you and exclusive interview with one of the contractors now charged with murdering two afghan civilians. >> when i got out of the vehicle i had no weapon in my hands. >> reporter: this investigation alleges a series of problems that nobody caught led up to that shooting. it goes back more than two years, it involves blackw

. >> first of all, i've now taken trips to allentown, pennsylvania; elyria, ohio; most >> i was in baltimorehad a great time in baltimore. just recently in -- >> searchlight. >> -- nashua, new hampshire. haven't been to searchlight yet, but we're going to get there. and everywhere i go, you talk to small business and they will tell you they are still experiencing a severe credit crunch. the larger businesses right now are able to get financing. even the medium-size businesses, the credit markets have improved. smaller businesses, even if they are making a profit and have not missed a payment, are finding that banks are averse to providing them capital. now, two reasons that they cite: one is they say their bankers are telling them that the regulators are just looking over their shoulder too much and so the community banks feel that their hands are tied. these are independent regulators. they are diligent in doing their jobs. obviously they feel caught off guard because of the lax regulation, in some cases, of the banking industry before the financial crisis. you get a sense that the pendulum

seeing in different labor markets in pennsylvania -- the eerie labor market, pennsylvania, is at 10%, allentown and that region is at 8%. my home area is at 9.7%. so even though our rate has not yet hit statewide 9%, we're seeing in different poblghts that number going way up. so we have to continue to put job-creation strategies in the pipeline, continue 0 have the recovery act to have a more positive impact and thirdly we need to make sure that we pass safety net provisions. with that, madam president, i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. specter: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. specter: madam president, i have sought recognition to talk briefly about two subjects -- a recent codel where i participated, and secondly on the passing of a beloved staff member. and i would ask consent that the time for business be extended until 12:45. the

president obama: first of all, i've taken trips to allentown, pennsylvania, ohio most recently, i was in baltimore. [laughter] president obama: had a great time in baltimore. just recently new hampshire, haven't been in searchlight yet. but we're going to get there. and everywhere i go, you talk to small business and they will tell you they are still experiencing a severe credit crunch. the larger businesses right now are able to get financing. even the medium-sized businesses, the credit markets have improved. smaller businesses, even if they are making a profit and have not missed a payment are finding that banks are adverse to providing them capital. now, two reasons that they site, one is they say their bankers are telling them that the regulators are just looking over their shoulder too much. and so the community banks feel that their hands are tied. these are independent regulators. they are diligent in doing their jobs. obviously they feel caught offguard because of the lax regulation in some bases of the banking industry before the financial crisis. you get a sense that the pe

the reason we visited allentown, pennsylvania, ohio, florida, asheville, new hampshire, talking to workers in factories and diners, they want to know how they will find a job when they only have had one trade in their life. how will they send kids to college? how will they pay medical bills? how can they retire with their with their 401k's so banged up? i understand your frustrations. you understand it as well. michelle is always a good barometer. i was talking to her the other day. the front page was, oh, what is obama going to do to get his poll numbers up? are the democrats in a tizzy? she said, listen. if you are the average family, if i am a mother out there, i am working, my husband is working, we are worried about losing our jobs, hours have been cut back, the cost of our premiums just went up 30%, the credit card company jacked up our interest rate, our home value has gone down by $100,000, suddenly someone calls up and says, so, how do you think president obama is doing right now -- [laughter] what are they going to say? what are they going to say? of course people are frustrated.

opposite side of the roadway inner loop and allentown road had a jackknifed tractor trailer.o stay off the roads. venturing out there, in a car, suv, whatever you got on four wheels. tracey wilkins has caught a lot of people on two feet. >> a lot of people have gone in to work today as you said, not everyone by any stretch of the imagination. want to say thanks to the folks who brought me some coffee this morning. we have lots of people who live in this two or three block raid yusz here. so there you go, you can go on down there and check out some of their coffee. they said they have been very busy with lots of wind. it will float in a little bit. but then it will get high and then it will float in a little bit. he took the metro in here, columbia heights station, he says trains are running fine let me show you the roads at irving street.ñr >> i think you got the beer, sweetie. >> taking care of the baby here and walk them. >> fortunately i live right above that building. >> we're going to be open at 1:00. >> thanks, folks, as you're crossing the street, be careful, be carefu

in recent weeks i visited allentown, pennsylvania, tampa, florida, nashua, new hampshire, talking with families and they want to know how are they going to find a job when they only know one trade, how are they going to sepped their kids to college, pay medical bills when they get sick, how are they going to retire? most of all, they are wondering if anyone can or anyone will do anything about it especially here in washington. i understand the frustration. you understand it as well. i was talking to michelle the other way. she's always a good barometter. and the front page was oh, what's obama going to do to get his poll numbers up and the democrats are in a tizzy. and she said, listen, if you're the average family, if i'm a mom out there and i'm working and my husband's working, but we're worried about losing our jobs or hours have been cut back, cost of our health care premiums went up 30% and credit card companies just jacked up our interest rates 39% and our home values have gone down by $100,000, 401k's banged up and someone calls up and says, so, how do you think president obama

the reason we visited allentown, pennsylvania, larry, ohio, tampa, florida -- talking with workers who want to know how they are born to find a job when the zero -- how are they going to find a job when the only no one career, how are they going to pay their bills, how are they going to retire. most of all, they are wondering if anyone cares or will do anything about it, especially here in washington. i understand their frustration and you understand it as well. michelle is always a good barometer. the front page said what is obama going to do to get his poll numbers up? are the democrats all in a tizzy? she said, if you are the average family and i am a mom out there and working, my husband is working, but we are worried about losing our jobs, arour hos been cut back, our health care premiums just went up 33% our interest rates have been jacked up 39%, our home values have gone down by hundreds of thousands of dollars. our 401k is banged up. somebody calls and says, how do you think president obama is doing right now? [laughter] what are they going to say? [applause] what are they goi