one of them, 29-year-old eva, who came to astoria in the spring without a work visa. she spoke to us on the condition we hide her identity. >> like 500 euros in my pocket. that's it. it's like the decision of a lifetime. we are leaving everything back. we are here alone and you're starting from zero. >> reporter: eva says working off the books is stressful, but she says the trip was worth it. >> for me it's better to leave the country instead of staying there and, like, dying there especially when you're young and you have dreams and you want to do things. >> so this is the machine, a famous tap. >> reporter: the owner of astoria's restaurant says eva is one of the luckier ones. many greeks who come to the area leave quickly without finding employment. >> people coming from greece are staying with friends or trying to figure out some sort of situation for them. and then they disappear, you know. you don't hear from them. or they will come back a few months later. or you'll find out that their brother came. and they left. >> reporter: many believe it's inevitable that

hilton wants to turn the historic building into a 245-room waldorf astoria luxury hotel.uld also feature four restaurants and high end retail shops. the old post office is on pennsylvania avenue between the white house and the capitol. half a dozen companies have already submitted profiles to develop the property, including donald trump hotels. they are considering the proposals and will make the selection in the next two weeks. >> so you'll be able to get a room but not able to buy a stamp. >> maybe not. >> probably not. >> it's just a beautiful building. >> it is a gorgeous building. >>> the news keeps getting worse. stay with us. "news 4 today" continues right now at 5:00 a.m. >>> the news keeps getting worse for presidential hopeful herman cain as more accusations surface this morning. >>> tornadoes in oklahoma, a state already reeling from a series of natural disasters. good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. >> and i'm eun yang. welcome to "news 4 today." it's a chilly start to your day for this tuesday. 46 degrees out there. tom is here to tell us more. i think we're g

room for a chicago hotel sources say that he plans to convert the gold coast hotel to into a waldorf-astoriae hilton luxury lifestyle brand it cook county board committee is considering a proposed tax increase it would affect sales of liquor and tobacco robert jordan is live downtown with more on the story >>the cook county board is looking at many creative ways to close at $315 million revenue shortfall after the board rescinded a 1 percent sales tax last year it is now looking at a tax on tobacco and alcohol. >>you are now using poor people taxes to close the deficit gap ... patti texas >>if we just had one tax to take care of all of this why bring in 15 different taxes to make up for this >>some commissioners say that the taxes are necessary >>we need some fiscal discipline and this is an opportunity to address public health concerns in the cook county population >>others are saying the tax of 3¢ on a six-pack of beer is tolerable >>i believe this tax is necessary we have to find the funds somewhere >>when you hear from with the president and her financing committee have to say you have t

- trums hotel business they are expected to make a decision soon. >>> i hope they go with waldorf astoria as steroid. >> the size of an aircraft carrier, the 2005, wy 55, that is what they named it will move between the earth and moon at 6:28 p.m. eastern time tonight, while you are eating dinner. it will be approximately 202,000 miles away, which sounds like a lot but scientists say that is not according to computer models there is no chance it will hit earth, the as steroid completes 1 trip around the sun every 15 months. >> let me write down these famous last words, no chance. >>> we have bruce willis on our side. >> fantastic. >> and will smith. >> yeah, he has some -- >> get him on speed dial. >> fly out there. >> we don't have any rocket ships any more. >> we don't. >> yeah okay. >> you will have to do the job. >> i will do whatever it takes. whatever it takes listen as long as the asteroid doesn't hit we will have a perfect day. temperatures will touch 70. >> that will be nice. >> in fact i was thinking about whether or not this will be our warmest day for the next several months i

hilton wants to turn the historic building into a 245-room waldorf astoria luxury hotel. it will also feature four restaurants and high end retail shops. the old post office pavilion on pennsylvania avenue is between the white house and the capital. half a dozen companies have submitted proposals to develop the property, including donald trump hotels. the general services administration is considering all the proposals and will make a selection in the next two weeks. >>> it is now 5:57. 47 degrees. a local woman with a new allegation against herman cain a[ male announcer ] want toain achieve more with your money? pnc virtual wallet gathers your spending and saving in one place. credit and debit purchases, checks, bills, and other financial information. it lets you see the details as well as the big financial picture. so you can do more with your money. see what a complete view of your money can do for you at pncvirtualwallet.com. ♪ pnc bank. for the achiever in you. >>> good morning. we begin with breaking news. firefighters on the scene of an intense fire in kensington,

. >>> the old post office in the district could become a new waldorf astoria hotel.n worldwide wants to transform the landmark into a 235 room hotel along with stores and restaurants. six other companies including one run by donald trump have submitted other proposals for it. >>> it is 6:54. >> we'll have one more check of weather and traffic when 9news now returns. >>> a reminder of something that's just a good thing to do. earlier on the newscast, we had a marine on. the marine anniversary is coming up. the marine corps anniversary. veterans day is friday. make it a habbity to say thank you to service members you see in the grocery store or the airport or walk down the street. it may be a little awkward at first but they really do appreciate it if you talk to them and of course they're protecting our freedom and our future and our families. >> if they're there with their family, thank them, too, because they put up with a lot so their servicemen relations can protect all of us. >> that's right. howard, quick check of the weather. >> beautiful this afternoon after t

hilton wants to turn the building into a 235-room waldorf astoria luxury hotel.feature four restaurants and high end retail shops. it's on pennsylvania avenue between the white house and the capitol. half a dozen companies have submitted proposals to develop the property already, including donald trump hotels. the general services administration is considering the proposals and says it will make its selection in the next two weeks. >>> prince george's county public schools face a budget short fall but not as bad as it could have been. the "washington examiner" says william hite has recommended more budget cuts. they face a budget shortfall next year because enrollment and tax revenue have dropped. hite says next year's budget shortfall is a lot less than it would have been than if the system had not already made budget cuts. >>> first lady michelle obama will talk about the need to mentor the future. she'll attend an event at george washington university this afternoon. it includes students from the district, maryland, and virginia. >>> time is 6:36. >>> 6:39 is

>> well i was born in astoria, which is right at the mouth of the columbia river and i grew up in seaside. >> how long did you stay there? >> well, i was there until i graduated from high school. 18 years. >> then what? >> then i got a scholarship to yale so i left, and i joined the marines out of high school. and went to yale and i said i had this program called t.l.c., team leader's class so i could go summers for training. i owed the marine three years when i got out but i would be commissioned as a second lieutenant. i got the rhodes scholarship, well it was for 1967 when i graduated. i thought the marines wouldn't let me go because they were short of junior officers. they were wonderful, they let me go. i had friends that had gone to training who were over in vietnam fighting. i had been told five kids from my high school died over there. i knew certainly i had friends from high school fighting there. here i was drinking beer in england, running around with the girls. and the war was looking dicey. this question of what is the truth, did they really attack us in the gulf or did they

you had the one at the waldorf-astoria and put on by the home depot starter, and you had masters of universe-typeom the lunch two days ago and yesterday morning you had the big event at the grand hyatt, a packed ballroom, we were told several hundred people inside, even the protesters were getting into the sort of wall street element, you had 20 to 25 occupy wall street signs outside saying gordon gekko signs say "greed is good" but greed may be good in terms of the money they are raising. mitt romney raised $3.5 million in the state of new york so far this cycle, it's seven times more than his closet competitor in the primaries, rick perry. >> garrett, the campaign embed for mitt romney, following him literally everywhere he goes, garrett, thanks for taking the time this morning. >> you bet, chris. >>> mitt romney isn't alone in chasing big bucks for his campaign. president obama is raking in record amounts, too, and regardless of the candidates' opinion of wall street, the finance sector is pouring in the cash. nbc news correspondent michael isikoff took a closer look at the issue and he joins

and went to see roosevelt in italy, came back, and one of his first speeches he gave at the waldorf-astoria was between all the outdoor people, the america the beautiful movement. and roosevelt weighed in on it and ended up creating the most successful third party in american history, the bull moose party in 1912. and that bull moose conservation plank becomes what the ccc will become under fdr. roosevelt had all these ideas of how to inventory our biology in the country, but also save these treasured landscapes. >> you have a chapter in "the quiet world" called the new wilderness generation. who is that about? is. >> well, the new wilderness generation, what happens after fdr dies in 1919 and, believe me, he was a force of nature, a tornado, he was our naturalist president who was a bird watcher, a great hunter. he saved 230 million acres of wild america, so after he died no -- there was not one figure who stepped into the fray, but leopold out of new jersey had wrote roosevelt a letter, and eventually leopold, i think, is one of the great writers in american history wrote a county almanac

the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until speeders astoria was told in the administration when obama was given first budget and there were 60,000 earmarks his first was the details and he was by his lobbyist for capitol hill that there is no way you can do that. you can't touch cut ties with democrats and i think had he vetoed he would have been a tea party. had he signaled his fundamental desire to change the system and to change the way washington works, he could have continued to rally the reform movement that now breaks out literally all over the world because of their frustration with the current way democracy does not function. >> next, president obama addresses australia's parliament as part of its asia-pacific trend. his remarks come after he and australian prime minister julia gillard announced a new military partnership between the two countries. from canberra australia this is 30 minutes and comes from apac public affairs channel. >> mr. president gives me great pleasure to invite you to address the house. >> prime minister gillard

someone might call the dialectic, the intellectual thought goes in one direction, goes too far, of astoriae other direction. the targets those people, the free-market economics, in reaction, that then pave the way for someone to then become much more intellectual going forward. actually, there is a role for the welfare state or they're is a role for the state. >> yes. i was fascinated. now, again, i'm sure i can be the first person to point out, bud after world war ii cain who had been at the versailles peace conference at the end of world war one and had warned but not been able to convince the allies that economic recovery there were reporting political disaster. after world war ii, of course, cain was instrumental in setting up the international monetary system because if you think about it, you know, the kind of debt crisis, you know, that we have now, okay, both after world war one and world war ii was immense. and that was one of the reasons that the economy, you know, especially as europe was frozen and, you know, the conventional wisdom was that it would reconstitute itself. and he