>> reporter: yes, chuck and savannah. the snow has stopped falling, but not before about 17 inches fell here in the twin cities. public schools are closed in the twin cities, and right now we are dealing with the bitter cold. windchill values as i am talking are about 20 degrees below zero when you factor in the wind. highs today will stay in the single digits and folks are continuing to assess the damage, of course, at the metrodome. amazing before and after pictures. of course, typically air pressure keeps that dome inflated. but the heavy snow and wind over the weekend caused the dome to collapse, the fourth time in the stadium' history. and repair crews are on their way to assess the damage. no word on how much it will cost or how long it will take to repair the damage to the metrodome. now, the game originally scheduled for monday night between the vikings and the giants. that will take place at detroit's ford field. tickets are free to that game, so a lot of folks are lining up this morning in detroit to get tickets

good morning. >> good morning savannah and chuck. looks like the futures indicating a stronger open on wall street. like we're up for the dow futures by 20 points above fair value after we have good news on the jobs front. out with the weekly jobless claims. down by 3,000, not a big drop, down to 420,000. lowest level weeb we've seen, second low et seen this whole year. the trend is going in the right direction as three weeks in a row we've seen lower numbers coming in. a lot of people hopeful maybe we're getting at the point to chip away at unemployment. numbers today on housing. a mixed bag. new home starts out up by 3.9%. permits down by 4%. permits give a lot of indication about what's to come over the next few months. fedex out with numbers that were a little disappointing. right now futures down, at least it looks like opening shares down 2% but gave good news, too. let me tell you quickly. fedex said that volume's improving and starting to reinstate some employee benefits. a good picture for the american worker as well. back t

chuck, thanks. >>> now to other news from today. almost nine years ago, the kidnapping of 14-year-old elizabeth smart from her home in salt lake city, riveted this country. tonight, the case is finally over. and tonight we finally get to hear her voice. our own kristen welker is at the courthouse in salt lake city tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. elizabeth smart smiled today in court when that guilty verdict was read. this is the moment she's been waiting for, for nearly nine years. >> today is a wonderful day and i'm thrilled to be here. i'm so thrilled with the verdict. >> reporter: victory for elizabeth smart. >> i hope that not only is this an example that justice can be served in america, but it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened. >> reporter: after deliberating for only five hours, jurors found brian david mitchell, the man who kidnapped smart and stole her innocence, guilty. >> this is an exceptionally victorious day for us all. as mothers, women, daughters, that we can go for

chuck, i thought we would start with you. >> i think there's a couple of things relating back to public engagement issue. i thought about my city council sitting here yesterday and one member is really a climate change geek. he's the chair of my subcommittee so for him it's easy to sit down and talk about this but for many officials, whether it's boards or commissions you report to, it's not - if you want to sit down and have this discussion, it's not going to get far, but i think legislative engage meant, what are the consequences in simplistic terms - i know it's terrible to say that - what are your consequences to their election as far as this goes. what can you give them to give them political credit with not human down sides. this is like a comprehensive strategy on public engage meant you should have the same strategy on how to get legislative support for whatever programs you think need to go forward. i have great staff, as you all do, whom if you give them a task they can solve the problem. i can do that but i need the legislative authority to let them do their job. so the chall

i'm chuck todd. >> we're just creating our own excitement here.orning, everyone. >> we don't have the envelopes -- >> i know, the suspense is killing everybody. >>> also this morning, pentagon press secretary jeff morel. here are some of the stories we're watching this afternoon. the president is going to sign that tax bill this afternoon. the question is, will this be the turning point in the narrative of the obama presidency. some commentators already calling him the comeback kid. >> republican commentators. saturday sessions. watching two votes in the senate on saturday. one on the immigration bill known as dream act. and the other, a stand-alone bill repealing don't ask, don't tell. looks like it's got the 60 votes. once it hits 60, does it hit 75? >>> and one of the more perplexing political fights. white house aides thing they're going to get it passed in the senate. so the knot so sure. is s.t.a.r.t. going to happen this year? i say we flip the coin. >> it depends on if they catch this disease called go-home-itis. >> i know. a lot of us hav

chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian.hat made this trip doubly surprising is it happened today, a day of the jobs report, the day of the debt commission, and in the midst of this tax negotiation with a gridlocked congress, and all of it for a trip to afghanistan secretly done that was designed simply to boost troop morale. the president turned up in the dark of night at bagram airfield in afghanistan today. president obama was last seen at the white house hanukkah reception last night at 6:44 p.m. >> happy hanukkah, everybody. >> reporter: just after 9:30 p.m., he snuck off for a 13-hour flight, landing at 11:00 this morning in afghanistan. on the ground for less than four hours, the president was briefed by his team, led by general david petraeus, and ambassador carl eikenberry. although high winds prevented the president from taking a helicopter to kabul for a planned face-to-face meeting with president karzai, the two did speak by phone. it was just two weeks ago, the two sat across the table from each other at the nat

i was fascinated to talk with chuck clark yesterday and the chart of all those predictions. a couple years back a new one comes out that's radically different from the old one and this keeps happening. it never gets hard but just keeps changing. >> i would like to echo those last few thoughts on the floor. certainly our experience in the, uk, is you can't move forward at all if you face challenges in an integrated way, without engaging properly with the utility communist and regulators. it's absolutely essential. it's not natural for us in the, uk. we have spent a lot of time building trust between the agencies and companies but when we achieved that it's been enormously helpful and it's achieved the feedback back into the legislation process because when you get a collective bodies working together, it's very easy to influence the legislation process. >> chuck, i'm going back to running the office and be a regulator and tell you what i hated. what i hated is when people came in and said they didn't like the rules and they wanted a performance based standard and they would s

. >> i'm chuck todd. also the latest on the storms and very frigid weather out there if there is such a thing as very frigid. michael steele surprises us and everybody again and wait until you hear how julian assange described himself on an online dating website. we are going to get to the rundown in a moment. first, here is what we are watching today. at the top for us, where is speaker pelosi? as the tax deal heads toward the house after today's deal in the senate, simmering tensions between house dems and the obama white house are now boiling over. is she going to take the lead, start talking publicly and try to kwai yet yet things down? >> we will see. lawsuit politics also on our radar, will virginia attorney general ken cool. nelly use his success with the health care challenge to launch himself into higher office? here is a hint. he is raising money online. >> senate race in '12, governor's race in '13. >> rahm his day in court, facing legal challenges over whether he really is a resident of chicag

thank you, chuck. >> all right. coming up, the president's health care overall dealt a serious blow. just how serious? stay with us. >>> wac back. >>> welcome back. as we were preparing for this, about two hours ago, a major blow to president obama's landmark health care law. potentially. this afternoon a federal judge in virginia declared that part os it have law are unconstitutional. the attorney general filed the lawsuit because he believe the reforms require people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. he believed that was unconstitutional. pete williams is here to break it down. now pete, first of all, this is one federal judge, but explain what happened in this ruling, and explain the one part this judge said was unconstitutional. >> the one part was where everybody had to buy health insurance. the judge said congress had to power to require that. it's one thing that congress has broad powers to regulate economic activity. so-called commerce cost power. that doesn't extend to someone who is inactive. they

chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. i'm at the big board here. big end of the year poll where we test a lot of things. let's start with the news of the moment and that tax cut deal. overwhelming support. 59% support it, including 54% of democrats and 68% of republicans. it's why it did breeze through the senate and will likely get through the house. about the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, 70% approve of ratifying the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, even though it may not get done. there's still a negative tone in the public. 63% believe we're headed in the wrong track. this is the highest number of the obama presidency. guess what? it's having an affect on the president. believe it or not, a year ago, he was sitting at 47%, 46%, so he's hanging tough. pollsters say he should be in worse shape. why isn't he? it has to do with his americanal connection. 58% get him positive rating on personal characteristics. but only 36% believe he has strong professional qualities. what does this mean for 2012? not great when matched up against an unknown republican for the president. h

chuck bell w

chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. that's right. it was nearly a month since voters sent the message of change to washington. and finally, washington's leaders got together in the same room here at the roosevelt room at the white house to sit down and have a nearly two-hour meeting, top of the agenda? how to break the bipartisan impasse on dealing with those bush-era tax rates. after the highly anticipated meeting, both sides hailed the session as productive with president obama and republican speaker to-be john boehner almost speaking from the same script. >> the american people want us to focus on their jobs, not ours. >> the american people want us to create jobs and to cut spending. >> we have two parties for a reason. there are real philosophical differences. >> we believe in different things about the appropriate role of federal government. >> reporter: at the top of today's agenda, the so-called bush- era tax cuts. to have a small six-person working group, negotiate on their behalf, a suitable compromise but the white house s

chuck is absolutely right, we're all obsessed with this big political theater. why? i think that it mattered. into the framing of the usu. for those house democrats. not about nancy pelosi and other house democrats digging in, but about the fact that bill clinton had blessed this in a way, that led to the senate vote and i think it will eventually lead to a house vote that'll be successful. that circuit breaker i think was vital. the weekend would had been a lot different had it not occurred. >> and let's remember and you bring up a good point, mark, because let's remember what the picture, and i joked with a white house staffer earlier that day, i'm like, hey, you going to give us anything on this clinton/obama meeting? because other than that, i got about eight hours of bernie sanders tape to start running on air. so the of half kidding, half joking. and then you know they bring out the big dog. elvis comes into the building and guess what bernie sanders, his show ended up getting -- >> here's president clinton, though on his party. let's listen.

our chief white house correspondent and political director chuck todd is at the white house tonight. chuck. >> reporter: today was perhaps the last day upset democrats had to talk to the white house and other members of their own party out of the tax cut compromise and talk they did. rhetoric aside, this compromise appears poised to clear a big hurdle tomorrow in the u.s. senate. >> this is a good bill. >> reporter: after a week of pulling out all the stops to sell the tax cut deal to he reluctant house democrats, the white house is confident the deal will pass. >> every economist from right to left has said this would mean a big boost for the economy, and so i believe that ultimately people will come together around this plan. >> reporter: even top house democrats are reluctantly signalling support. >> we're not going to hold this up at the end of the day. most of us agree with almost all of what the president negotiated. tlz one thing that just was the choking point, and that deals with the estate tax break. >> reporter: assuming no major changes are made, the framework of the plan

perhaps you saw there about ten feet in front of him our chief white house correspondent, chuck todd, who was among the questioners in the room. chuck, on behalf of all those watching trying to understand this tenor, tone, substance, what's going on here? >> reporter: as you know over the past couple of days a lot of democrats have said -- hey, the president is lacking some fight. why won't he take the fight at the republicans? he sort of received the message and he took the fight but he took it to democrats who have been grouchy about this. the bottom line is this. he doesn't yet have the support among the lame duck congress, the outgoing democratic majority in particular, in the house, doesn't have the support for this tax-cut compromise. so he needed to go out here and sell it hard and in many ways, frankly, guilt the left into supporting him for this deal. it's unclear whether this is going to do it. you hear a lot of grumbling among the opinion left about this. but, brian, i'll tell you this. this is also a preview of what you're going to see of the president going forward dealin

well the excitement isn't over, chuck. >>> no, it's not. we unveil the chavannah for the worst presidential moment of 2010. >> you can follow us on twitter, compliment us on twitter. we like roses and thorns. you're watching "daily rundown" only on msnbc. introducing the duracell mygrid™. simple and smart. it's mygrid™. from duracell. trusted everywhere. think you can only charge one thing at a time...? consider this: drop & go charging for up to 4 devices at once... the duracell mygrid™. simple and smart. it's mygrid™. from duracell. trusted everywhere. hey tough guy, that cold needs alka seltzer plus! it has the cold-fighting power of an effervescent packed in a liquid-gel for all over relief! hiyah! dude! hiyah! exchange traded funds. some firms offer them "commission free." problem is they limit the choice of etfs to what makes financial sense to them. td ameritrade doesn't limit you to one brand of etfs... they offer more than 100... each selected by investment experts at morningstar associates. only at the etf market center at td amer

talk to chuck. >> stahl: facebook's launch of its new profile page will include a tutorial on all the new features, and for a while, you'll be able to choose between staying with your old profile or upgrading to the new, where you'll get to tell your friends who you really are. we decided to take the opportunity of the launch to find out more about who mark zuckerberg really is. as facebook becomes an intrinsic part of so many lives, how the site came to be in the first

but i'm start with you, chuck. where do we begin? what did they accomplish and what didn't they? >> not a lot got accomplished, gwen, but the table is set for the big tax package. you'll have a senate vote, a vote on monday to end debate and then probably tuesday or wednesday you'll have a vote on the measure itself. it probably will pass and it will go to the house and then that's where the fireworks are going to happen, as we noted with speaker pelosi in there, the house democrats are very unhappy about this. and they're unhappy with president obama both about the policy, the substance of the tax proposal that he cut with the republicans, and they're unhappy about the process. they felt that they were cut out and some of them are very resentful. i think the level of animosity between his normal allies in the house, democratic caucus, is quite high. gwen: let's talk about the policy and the process. i want to ask you about the policy. give us the bare bones of what the deal was that the white house cut? >> the bare bones, the core of this is the extension of the bush era tax bre

thank you, chuck. ine our headlines now a potentially huge day today in the senate. it plans to vote on whether to repeal don't-ask, don't-tell and it appears that there are enough stroets make it happen. republicans scott brown of massachusetts, lisa murkowski of alaska and olympia snowe of maine support the bill. now that it's been separated the policy thatans homosexuals from serving openly in the military could soon be repealed. >>> after much debate the extension of bush era tax cuts are official. president obama signed that bill into law which extends the cuts for another two years. democrats and republicans sparred over many different aspec of the bill but finally came together before the cuts expired at the end the year. the bill extends the tax cuts for every tax bracket. it also reduces the social security payroll tax which helps businesses. unemployment benefits were also extended and th estate tax modified so families can pass up to $10 million to their heirs tax-free. president obama says this law will help a recovering economy. >> this is real money tha

a look at the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll with chuck todd.ormer secretary of defense william cohen. good time to have him on. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. together we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store. where you can get up to $1,000 off now through sunday. >>> in his latest effort to win support from his own party, obama enlisted the services of former president clinton. >> with obama swinging this way and that, it only makes sense to call in the biggest swinger of all, the smoothest of them all, the barry white of democratic politics, slick willy. bill clinton is a bad mother -- >> shut yo mouth. >> just talking about bill clinton. >> i can dig it. >> ♪ taxpayers are getting the sham ♪ >> too good. too good. 22 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." >> guess what today is as we listen to nat king cole. >> what is today? >> suzanne scarborough's birthday, her 21st birthday. >> do you want to sing happy birthday to susan? >> we'll le

you know, i-- i'm much older than chuck, but i don't judge so easily people's, you know, choices, and you know, i am a person-- i don't eat any animals. i have just kind of--you know, people would say i was a renunciate, you know, and i took all of these drugs and had all this fun, and i'm having all of this fun now, and i haven't changed at all, you know, except that i don't eat animals, and i don't do certain things that i used to because it's not in my heart to do it today, but i certainly don't want to restrict anybody. i love hearing snoop dogg's-- i keep using his name because he's-- you know, for people who don't know any better, he's the gangster rapper, you know, but i love all of what we do in rap, and i think it's all important to learn about, and it's all our reality, and it's all god's work, believe it or not. since the late '70s, you've listened very carefully to the evolution of rap and hip-hop. you've seen it go through some changes, and there's no question that it's been among the most honest music made. is there a different message being heard, by and large, today th

ercent do woodchucks chuck wood? man: hey you dang woodchucks, quit chucking my wood! vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >>> right in the middle of every legislative debate we've had since i've been in this position. he's never disappointed. he's been instrumental. he's been an indispensable member of the team. when he walks out of this chamber for the last time he'd leave an enormous void and write the next chapter -- next chapter in his life. >> okay. going around. 45 past the hour. >> who was he talking about? >> that was senator mitch mcconnell yesterday saying good-bye to retiring republican senator judd gregg, getting a bit teary. >> great senator, judd gregg. >> absolutely. >> dr. jeffrey sachs back at the table. >> enough with the crying now. >>> time for the must-read op eds. >> boehner, mcconnell. >> we're sensitive. we're not ashamed to admit we're sensitive. we like little puppies and daffod daffodils, the end of "pretty woman." that always would make me cr

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. >> chuck ought to handle that one. >> i really do. >> go for it. how about the second part of that question. the terrorist. >> an issue of homeland security we've all had to do assessments and make improvements so almost - i can't think of a major water utility that's been dealing with this. our approach has been one using technology primarily and they've invested heavily for us to use? lieu of some of the initial reproaches but i think the water industry as a whole has been a remarkable job and there's also and,isac, program where we can share with each other. >> you painted a great picture of a diversified important foal quo is that in part o protect against events as well. >> more related to high ydraulic issue but i think the effort the water agencies have made since 1911 have been markable and i think we're one of the more secure utilities or areas as a result. obviously there's the converging but it does not mean just because you have a concern or risk you don't move ahead. you analyze the risk and the potential impacts and then make informed

do woodchucks chuck wood? (high-pitched laughter) man: hey you dang woodchucks, quit chucking my wood! vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >> 7 is on your side with a reminder -- federal express says you have just over a date to ship your christmas presents. if you mail them by friday the company can guarantee they will abide by next saturday, christmas day. fedex says it expects to ship 250 million packages during the holiday season, 11% jump from a year ago. >>> end of an era for a talk show icon, larry king signs off tonight after 25 years on the interview chairs. the final show will feature barbara streisand and several other guests. the 77-year-old will not be gone for good, he will have four specials on cnn every year. still ahead, adam will be back with a final look at our snow we last year, sick with cancer, jordyn was given just weeks to live. then my mom saw your st. jude commercial. i know... at st. jude children's research hospital, jordyn received ou

the footnotes of this slide is since we conducted this study and this speaks to something chuck just mentioned their subjectively lower than when we first did this so that's an issue we're trying to understand how to incorporate that into our plan when demand is not going up in the same way it did in the past. there's fundamentally a different relationship. part of sit just a different way and we're sighing higher and a lot of infill with residential and high density residential. these are some of the things we're trying to figure out how that impacts our planning. next slide. so what are we doing as a result of this work. well, first we plan to use our work with local models for watershed and there's new models this year for the,ipc, these we think will be better to down scaling the global effects on to a more watershed effect scale. the rest of these things are informed by the work we did so these are not things we went out and set out to do specifically but in doing all these things now we do have what we learned from our climate change. to go through these, a new wholesale water

let's try to figure that one out with chuck todd. you are watching "hardball," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] is your current denture cleanser missing something? now you get a cleanser with scope freshness. ♪ new fixodent plus scope ingredients. ♪ cleans...kills germs that cause denture odors... and provides your dentures with the freshness of scope. ♪ new fixodent cleanser plus scope ingredients. >>> well, sarah palin, the former governor of alaska, says that washington elites don't like her and guess what she is right. a new politico survey put out just today says that 11% of the elites in d.c. say she is qualified to be president. 11%. she can actually see 11% from alaska. 86%, a lot easier to see, say she is not qualified. get this, while 15% of washington elites in the survey say palin is a breath of fresh air, 79% find she is a negative influence in national politics. don't come to washington, governor. we will be right back. are you a senior concerned about financial independence? >>> welcome back to "hardball." the latest

for one fan of nbc's "chuck," just about everything. >>> another nfl coach is fired.iami heating up and the patriots pull out all the stops. you're watching "early today." >>> good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning -- the supreme court says it will decide whether the largest employment discrimination case in the nation's history can continue against walmart. more than 1 million current and former female employees are seeking billions of dollars in damages through a class action lawsuit, because they say they were paid less than men and given fewer promotions. a group of companies against class action cases, including general electric, the current other than of this network, signed a petition urging the courts to hear the case. >>> new york's daily news reports al qaeda terrorists are planning to create a horrific new type of suicide bomber, one who has explosives surgically implanted into their body. defense analysts are concerned about the development because the so-called franken bombers coul

talk to chuck. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 get real. get started. talk to chuck.on't want to deal with a lot of flibbity-flab or mumbo-jumbo. sounds like you need to name your price. no gobbledy-gook? never. do i still get all the dagnabbit coverage i need? sure. we give you a quote and you can adjust your price up and down to find something that works for you. ♪ this thing is okey-mcsmokey skiddly-doo. great! i think. diggity. oh! still not sure. the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. call or click today. >>> and now, the sunday funnies. >> nicolle wallace, a former aide to sarah palin. this is getting nasty things. she was on msnbc and said nasty things about her old boss. take a look at this. >> her aggressive cynicism. her attempt to claw at -- >> president obama needed to get 12 stitches. he took an elbow to the mouth during a basketball game. but he learned a valuable lesson. do not get in the way of hillary clinton's tomahawk jam. >> how many native-americans? how many native-americans were killed, by the arrival of the white man, through diseas

let's try to figure that one out with chuck todd. you are watching "hardball," only on msnbc. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. >>> well, sarah palin, the former governor of alaska, says that washington elites don't like her and guess what she is right. a new politico survey put out just today says that 11% in d.c. say she is qualified to be president. she can actually 150e9 1% from alaska. 86%, a lot easier to see, say she is not qualified. get this, while 15% of washington elites in the survey say palin is a breath of fresh air, 79% find she is a negative influence in national politics. don't come to washington, governor. we will be right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. princess of the powerpoint. your core competency... is competency. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size pric

. >> chuck bell joins us with a look at the weekend. >> hey there. good afternoon to you and a good friday afternoon, evybody. sunshine for a nice change outside. still on t cold side. our weekend snow chances, though diminishing, have not completely gone to zero just ye we're still keeping a close eye on the te saturday night front half of the day on sunday. it doesn't look like anything big but i can't completely rule out snow flakes. we'll keep you posted. right now, with sunshine out there. 38 degrees here at nbc 4. so far, this december, we've only had two days now out of 17 that have been warmer than average. and i don't see any warm days anywhere in the near future. for now though, here's a look at radar. light snow showers in weern most pennsylvania. portions of southern ohio. those won't be bothering us. we'll keep mostly clear skies. the clouds will art coming back. temperaturesre in the mid to upper 30s and enjoy it. this is about as warm as we'll be. the good night wake-up forecast into the teens and mid 20s tomorrow morning. a cold and d

i'm struck by what chuck todd just said. think he's absolutely right that this is the kind of tax bill that restores some certainty. i'm not so sure it's going to restore is kind of certainty needed to boost the economy. i don't think there's going to be a lot of stimulus here. >> matt, your thoughts, not politically, but again, we're on this boat for a reason. we're in st. louis for a reason. we're on this road show for a reason. the reason is that this country is in desperate need of meaningful jobs that solve this country's problems and whether that comes inside of communities like those here or philadelphia or seneca falls or places we will go, how does a policy like this go to creating jobs in a town like st. louis? >> it's a great deal if you plan to be alive for the next two years, but after that, the bill comes due. the idea that it's fantastic, we can come together to borrow a trillion dollars from the kids and spend on us now. i do think it's going to help the economy at the margins in the next couple of years, but

ercent do woodchucks chuck wood? (high-pitched laughter) man: hey you dang woodchucks, quit chucking my wood! vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >> couric: rome looked like a battle zone today after the prime minister survived two votes in parliament to remain in power. protestors set fire, broke store windows and fought with the police. more than a hundred people were hurt and there were 40 arrests. silvio berlusconi has been under fire for sex scandals and a sluggish economy. meanwhile, here at home, when researchers asked teenagers about drug use, they got some troubling responses. a new survey found daily marijuana use increased among all the groups surveyed-- eighth, tenth, and 12th graders. for the oldest group, pot is now more popular than cigarettes and a growing number of eighth graders admit to trying some type of illegal drugs. now to a baseball superstar who'd rather be in philadelphia. free agent pitcher cliff lee is returning to the phillies, the team he

chuck, thanks as always. >>> also in washington tonight, the u.s. supreme court has agreed to weigh in on the biggest job discrimination case in american history. this involves walmart employees, past and present, who say the company gave better pay and more promotions to men at the expense of women. walmart says this case is so big, it makes no sense. our justice correspondent pete williams is at the supreme court tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: the court has brought this huge discrimination case to a temporary halt while the justices prepare to answer this question. when it comes to big class action lawsuits, how big is too big? everything about this case is super sized. the nation's largest retailer facing the biggest class action lawsuit ever. hundreds of thousands of women who worked at walmart and sam's club claim the company discriminated against them, giving better pay and bigger promotions to the male employees. betty dukes, a walmart greeter in california, was among the first to sue when this case began nine years ago. >> we had

of this and i think the american people are are much relieved that the senate passed this yesterday chuck hagel a former republican senator who would like to have you on the program tonight thank you for being with us thank you. democratic strategist robert winter spoke to me he says he believes the new treaty was d.z. for the senate to ratify but that it could bring a nuclear free world a little closer one of the debates that made no sense was the republican saying that it wouldn't when this allows inspections on both sides and that's really what counts as reagan always said trust but verify and this treaty gives a very strong verification apparatus it was an amazing development that the president would get seventy one votes when only sixty seven were required for the supermajority and the reason for that is finally the republicans have decided all but only after the election that it's time to govern not to play partisan politics the fact that we're willing to cut is a moral statement that the world will pay attention to and it gives credence to the dream from reagan to obama and all the

my senior senator, chuck schumer.n unbelievable leader and an extraordinary public servant. he put his heart and soul into this. the is an extraordinary closer. he was here until the last hour last night making every effort possible to do what needed to be done. i can tell you with great honesty that he is an extraordinary man who put all of new york first. thank you, chuck. [applause] i >> want to thank our majority leader. harry reid is not only someone who leads by example, but leads from what he believes in. his core values are at the heart of a man who does unbelievable things for other people. he has led every step of the way. the has never faltered. he has never wavered. he has never forgotten our 9/11 heroes. thank you, perry. [applause] i want to thank senators and mendez and gothenburg for new jersey. they had been there every step of the way. thank you for your advocacy and commitments. thank you so much. thank you, frank. i want to turn to my house colleague who has been working on this for nine years. the

do woodchucks chuck wood? (high-pitched laughter) man: hey you dang woodchucks, quit chucking my wood! vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >>> the d.c. region is getting ready for what could be the first measurable snow fall of the season. we could get up to 3 inches today. a winter weather advisory takes effect in a few hours from now. the roads have been treated and the salt trucks are ready. >>> it appears d.c. police chief cathy lanier will stay on the job when vincent gray becomes mayor next month. abc 7 news has learned kenneth ellerbe will become the next fire chief. >>> president obama's war strategy in afghanistan, there has been progress in dealing with the taliban, but the gains are fragile. the report says u.s. troops could begin withdrawing in july. >>> we are not the only ones placing --bracing for a blast of winter. much of the country is in the grips of this. there are plunging temperatures. karen.orning, >> this relentless winter weather is showi