person's name is bill rhodes. but you can't take him. you can only borrow him on that. and so, you know, and here was the fun part, the fun part was every once in a while bill rhodes would go on vacation. and every time he went on vacation it was walter riston who had to call him and tell him, please, come back to new york right away. in all of that. so the joke was -- and it wasn't much of a joke -- was that every time he started talking about going on vacation, people ducked. on this one, because they knew something was coming. and with all the lessons that he has developed and learned and applied to in terms of debt crisis, i'll not name the individual's name, but this one person said there isn't a debt crisis that bill rhodes doesn't like on that part. [laughter] so, ladies and gentlemen, you know, our treat tonight is to be with bill rhodes and, ladies and gentlemen, the banker to the world. [applause] >> thank you very much, wilbur and terry, for your very kind comments. i should mention that the, actually, the title of the book was the idea of mcgraw-hill, the pu

the person's name is bill rhodes. you can't take him. the kelly borland. and so here's the fun part. every once in awhile bill would go on vacation. and every time he went on vacation it was walter who had to call in and tell him, please come back to new york right away and all of that. so the joke was, and it was not much of a joke, it was every time he started talking about going on vacation people ducked because they knew something was coming. and with all of the lessons that he had developed and learn and apply to in terms of debt crisis , that name the individual , but this one person said, there is in the debt crisis that bill rose does like. so ladies and dental, you know, our treat tonight is to be with bill roads. ladies and gentlemen, the banker to the world. [applause] [applause] >> a few very much for your very kind comments. i should mention that actually the title of the book was the idea of the publisher, just to get that straight. and i want to thank the japan society for inviting me to talk about my book, "banker to the world". i should men

bill is in rhode island, independent line. good morning. caller: hi. [inaudible] host: i apologize. we will have to move on. you're having trouble hearing you. in port st. lucie, florida, phil on our independent line. caller: it must go through. as other callers have said, they will not cut anything unless they are forced to. so we have to go through with sequestration. thank you. host: wall street journal lead story this morning is about the potential merger of u.s. airways and american airlines. right below that is this story dealing with john brennan. back to your comments on sequestration, whether or not it should be allowed to go through. a tweet -- stephen is a republican in florida. good morning. what do you think? caller: no, sequestration and should not go through. the people on twitter don't understand the impact of sequestration. if we had a president that was a , he would of stepped up to the plate much sooner. this president is johnny-come- y.teli i am very much behind the military. this is tough on the military. people saying this thing should go through, who runs cong

on current tv. >> bill: in the next hour, sheldon whitehouse from rhode island here in studio with us champion baltimore ravens linebacker brendon ayanbadejo. the president leaves the white house at 9:35 this morning out to andrews air force base and then down to decatur georgia. he will be talking about universal preschool today. what we've been talking about in this hour. visiting a prekindergarten classroom at college heights early childhood learning center. talking about the importance of universal preschool. leaving georgia decatur georgia, at 2:40 this afternoon. back at the white house at 4:25. and then the president this afternoon will be participating in a -- they're calling a fireside hangout with google from the roosevelt room of the white house to talk about his state of the union. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. happy valentine's day. what do you say? it is thursday, february 14. great to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" this thursday morning. and you know, on valentine's day, boy republicans have

a coalition of fire safety groups, supports rhode island congressman jim langevin's efforts to reintroduce the "fire sprinkler incentive act" next week, a bill to provide tax breaks to building owners who retrofit their properties with fire sprinklers. "this particular piece of legislation is not a mandate but a tool to help business owners protect the people they're trying to get into that same building." but opponents have balked at the cost - well over a hundred thousand dollars for a small business. "at this point, for me, that's a cop out. they're in denial if they think it could never happen here." the bill would allow building owners to deduct the cost of installing sprinklers with a shorter depreciation schedule - 15 years, not 39 years as in earlier bills. "it's always an incentive for business owners to make a capital investment if they get a bigger deduction up front." according to the national fire protection association, nfpa, sprinkers increase survivability rates in fires by more than half. the governor of michigan is threatening to take over the motor city. he claims detroit is in a state of financial emergency. governor rick

bill. we'll see you again, certainly. the snow still falling hard in a few places, rhode island specifically.rologists calling for up to another half a foot of snow in the next few hours there. joining me from providence, nbc news ron mott. we can tell not looking good where you are. what's the latest? >> reporter: alex, good morning. if we don't have all of the people sitting at home in the cold, this would be a little more enjoyable assignment. snow can be fun, not fun when you don't have power. a lot of people in rhode island without power. standing in the middle of francis street. our hotel a block up. i had to walk up the street. the sidewalks difficult to pass. a while before people can walk around this part of downtown providence. you can see, a truck down there. i believe that's a plow down there. continuously plowing the streets down here. next to no traffic. these are important arteries to get to trauma centers and hopefully we won't have a big need for that today in rhode island. we are hoping in the next hour or so, the bulge of the wind will start to die down and some of the prec

bill? jerry is joining us from rhode island. caller: i would like to make an informed comment on the different laws that were passed. i can go from experience. i grew up in a city that had quite a few immigrants from massachusetts. there were immigrants driving without a driver's license. some of them were getting around the system. you may have a lot of immigrants who are not paying taxes in this country. we are covering up for that. on the other hand, agricultural people need immigrants. they are hard workers. the mexicans and the guatemalan people come into this country. i have this small firm -- a small farm. i had a worker who send money home to his father and ended up getting his american citizenship and got married and settled in america. that is fine. a lot of problems go on on the borders of this country where there are too in -- there are too many criminal elements bringing drugs and bad news and taking over the borders of arizona and walking across people's farms and pre-k -- creating a lot of problems. guest: thanks

bill karins will join us with snow totals in a minute. let's go to rhode island.sts are calling for up to another half a foot of snow in the next few hours. joining me from providence, ron mott. the winds have picked up from the last time we spoke. >> they have, alex. we thought we were on the tail end of this, but winds have picked up. flakes starting to get big again. we thought most of the snow had fallen here. went out direct until front of the statehouse, just behind the path of the camera 20 to 24 inches we think perhaps at the capit capitol. crews working all night, trying to keep arteries open downtown. there is no traffic. these streets head to the trauma centers in the area and want to keep some of the major thoroughfares open. i'm on francis street. saw someone walking their dog a few moments ago, the dog lay down in the snow and had a good frolic in the snow. a serious issue here in rhode island with power. 40%, almost 40% of customers of national grid are without power at last check, 185, 187,000 customers. a lot of folks in the dark this morning and

bill karins. where is the worst of it now? >> the time is up for people in rhode island and connecticut. the snow is moving in. they are saying noon but it looks earlier than that. again, the snow is starting to blossom as the storm moves up the virginia coastline and it's heading northwards. we have six inches in maine and that's not even from the blizzard. they are going to get buried up there, especially coastal maine to rhode island. the green is the rain. new york city, a mixture of snow and rain. long island, now over to mostly rain. coastal areas of southern new england, it's going to be a battle. that's why your snow totals will be a lot less. the full-blown snowstorm begins from boston to the hartford area and definitely around prove d providence. that's when the storm will be the strongest. that's when we'll have the blizzard conditions, high tide cycle. very dangerous at 10:00 a.m. near boston. that's when the highest winds will be felt. storm surge of two to four feet. if we're going to see houses damaged and falling into the water, we go early throughout tomorrow morning. ag

bill weir. >> good evening. thank you for joining us tonight. well, a massive blizzard is battering the northeast, dropping up to three feet of snow, whipping up hurricane-force gusts of wind. connecticut, rhode island, new york, new hampshire, and massachusetts have all declared states of emergency tonight and at least 500,000 homes and businesses now without power. so while the rest of us hunker down to ride this thing out, our extreme weather team ginger z is reporting from the bull's eye of the storm, boston, massachusetts. >> reporter: snowed in, shut down, and nor'eastered. more than 40 million americans are being forced to spend their weekend indoors, thanks to this. a nor'easter that will likely make weather history. the brunt of this beast is hitting right now, snow falling at amazing rates. one to even four and a half inches per hour. winds gusting from 50 to even 70 miles per hour. and on a crazy night where only the plows are running, we hopped in with a captain of this boston city plow. oh boy, now i'm driving. oh boy. to see thousand force was fighting the worst of it overnight. this is just the beginning of it. >> yeah. >> reporter: how long do you expect to be out tonight? >>

bills. >> heather: thanks thank you very much. >> kelly: a memorial service in rhode island for the 100 people killed in a nightclub fire ten years ago. 2003 blaze broke out inside the station night club when pyrotechnics for the band great white caught fire. they paid tribute and a group hopes to break ground on a memorial sometime in the spring. >> heather: pope benedict xvi blessing the faithful in st. peter's square this morning. he will actually resign on february 28th. at least 50,000 pilgrims attended the event during which he made no direct reference for his decision to step down. though he did ask the crowd to continue praying for him and for the next pope. >> kelly: huge crowd. >> heather: i was able to do that. >> kelly: new concerns that the economic downturn we're experiencing may have much greater impact on future retirees than originally thought. >> heather: massive cleanup effort after this, a meteor explosion over russia. we'll update o you on that. >> kelly: middle school teacher accused of bringing a loaded gun to school apparently for self-defense. our legal panel debates w

bill karins is here with more on what is shaping up to be a powerful nor'easter. >> the conditions are changing. we want to keep you safe during the storm. blizzard watches have been issued for rhode island, the eastern half of massachusetts, and now about three quarters of the state of connecticut. so they've expanded the blizzard watches. the confidence is growing in what the storm is going to do. in the blizzard area, again, the areas covered in this green color, 12 to 24 inches of snow, wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour. and then a storm surge with a high tide cycle, especially from boston southward, any north facing beach, we could have moderate to major coastal flooding with water going into homes and destroying some homes. and on top of that, we could get the wind damage. the winds up to 70 miles per hour. not going to be a fun two days out there on cape cod as we go throughout the high tide cycles and anywhere in eastern mass, south of boston. as far as snow totals, this is the american computer. one to two feet. less for connecticut and massachusetts. a little less for new york city. widespread 6 to 10 over northern new england. the european computer which has been on th

so i am geein going to close het thank the senator from rhode island for the leadership that he is showing for his billfrom rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i thank the distinguished senator from michigan. i appreciate very much that he has signed on as a cosponsor to one my one-year and full ten-year -- nine, now, sequestration alternative that avoids the calamity to our economy, the potential crash of a million jobs, by looking exactly where senator levin suggests: at the tax loopholes. as i showed a moment ago, it used to be back in 1935 one-to-one of dollars paid to individual americans in taxes to dollars paid to corporations in taxes. now it's 6:1. what's allowed this? well, the biggest chunk of it is all the money that flows out through the tax code. we've got virtually the same amount flowing out through the tax code as we actually keep our hands on as revenue. so for $2 trillion in tax eligibility, half of that goes right back. and on the personal side and out here, it's $338 billion and $157 billion goes back, never sees the tax man, goes straight back through the tax code. lobbyists have been h

rhode island to boston. the next four hours are going to be incredible. stay inside, look out your window, and cross your fingers you don't lose power. >> bill, what are you anticipating for folks hit by hurricane sandy just four months ago? how bad are they going to get it? >> we did catch a little bit of a break with the jersey shore on this one. the high tide cycle that we went through this morning we had some minor flooding, really not that bad. we're going through another one right now. but the winds have already backed offshore. they're not onshore anymore the jersey coastline. so that's going to keep the water levels down that was the good news for the jersey shore. but the people on long island that suffered the power outages for weeks after sandy, those are the ones i'm most concerned with because they're most hikely to lose power in the next couple of hours. >> lots of conversation about the 1978 storm. what is the comparison here? >> i mean, that's kind of the benchmark. over the last three decades, especially for the boston to providence area, i mean, this one could go toe to toe with it. we'll have to wait and see tomorrow morning when it's a

388, a bill to appropriately limit sequestration to eliminate tax loopholes, and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators as follows -- reid of nevada, mikulski, murray, gillibrand, reed of rhode island, brown, leahy, casey, durbin, shaheen, blumenthal, cardin, schumer, stabenow, boxer, whitehouse, begich. mr. reid: madam president, we do this so -- to make sure that people are on their toes. sometimes these signatures aren't the easiest to read. i ask consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. reid: i now ask unanimous consent that we proceed to a period of morning business with senators allowed to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask consent that we proceed to -- the senate proceed to s. res. 56. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 56, a resolution recognizing the significance of the 100th anniversary of the death of hair hair -- harriet ross tubman. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceed to the measure? without objection. mr. reid: madam president, i am going to ask unanimous consent that we pass this, but i r

rhodes and our future. -- roads and our future. these cuts will undermine our national security. only the wasteful, excessive and bloated spending is targeted. i'm especially pleased to see that this bill includes enforcement language that will audit the pentagon. these measures would increase transparency and accountability with the pentagon budget and get us on a fair and balanced road to fiscal sustainability. oftentimes, my colleagues don't really realize that the pentagon has not been audited and cannot be audited and we need an audit and we are calling for an audit of the pentagon. i'm going to re-introduce my bipartisan bill as a separate stand-alone effort to keep wasteful spending at the pentagon in check. the bottom line is we need to completely re-evaluate the bloated pentagon budget and scrutinize each item. there's no reason to continue spending billions on outdated weapons programs. i'm very proud to stand with my colleagues today inputting forward the balancing act which again is a commonsense approach to reducing our long-term deficit and creating an economy that works for all in a fair and balanced way. thank you again for your leadership. >> we have jim mcdermott -- a