christine connolly. >>pam: with many roads wiped away and many other passable, for trains, airports are flooded. and not-possible, and teresa estacio is of san francisco international airport. she spoke with several people that just a rock from japan. >> people just does are rod from japan. travelers seven sharing similar stores-ride from japan. i spoke to some of these travelers and what it was like to be there before and after the earthquake/tsunami hit. >> horrible. words, the worst i've ever experienced and the past 10 years. >> we were on a train platform it got shaky. when it was over everybody priest a sigh of relief. as soon as the was over, they've breathed a sigh of relief however, all the highways and transfer blocked. it actually took 5.5 hours to get back into downtown tokyo. hundreds of lives were lined up hundreds of lines-were waiting for supplies, food it was near panic. >> speaking of near panic that he was glad to get back to oakland. he has no plans to return anytime soon. reporting l

christine connolly. >> oh my gosh! look! >> holy crap. welow, wow, oh my gosh! >> he is in english teacher in japan. during this earthquake on friday he is back with the school. this was just 10 seconds later, the quake was a full and the ground was shaking and moving. it was difficult for them to stand. and eventually the shaking stopped and this building separate from its foundation. >>catherine: the better look from the devastation. this is satellite technology from google earth. the before and the after the we are going to show you speak for themselves. this first is from above the cushion of 2 mi. south of the ku shima watched as we transition to the after picture a huge destruction. moving on to another area real view of the hikoshima you can see the plant is on the coast and there is the after. the facility is practically wiped out. finally, a before satellite imagery of the yagu yohama this is a agricultural section and it is wiped out. covered with mud. you can barely see any of these buildings that were standing. >>pam: this disastrous earthquake has a

christine connolly. >>pam: our team coverage of the rising price of gasoline. how high could it get? maureen kelly found out. >> prices of the pop art likely to keep going up at least for the next couple of weeks. of the death-gas pump analyst up? >> it is difficult to say that how prices will go. it is a $1 million question. >>reporter: difficult to answer would happens and libya. and how investors will react. what we pay on the pump will depend on the futures of oil departments. it is becomin increasingly difficult to predict. >> and perhaps what could happen and saudia arabia and other oil producing countries. it is puzzling for foreign investors. >> the price of regular gasoline has been going up at a factor of a is crazy as 35 per day! that trend stopped short on monday according to aaa. but only by 15. >> hopefully that is a trend for consumers that there will not conceive continue to see those increases. >>reporter: not see those increases. some more, gasoline use the goes up. in the summer. increasing demand and prices maureen kelly, kron 4 news. >>pam:

connolly: what if his situation worsens? what if he suffers the loss of employment or developed a catastrophic ill snns how am i supposed to tell him or his family, not to mention the thousands of others like him in our communities that we're turning our backs on him? rather than continue to provide for the needs of our veterans when they need us the most, this legislation pat ronizes them by calling for yet another study to tell us what we already know. that our military families suffer disproportionately from foreclosures. we don't need a study to tell us the right thing to do. mr. speaker, many of my colleagues post pictures outside their offices of lost service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the sincere attempt to honor their memory. those men and women fought and died protecting our homes. how can we now tell them and their families we're not going to fight to protect theirs? mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to support the final amendment and help preserve the american dream for those who are out there

christine connolly. >>pam: as always time is the essence for relief workers trying to find and save survivors. this devastating tsunami that struck friday >> we saw some of the people that of either died or survived or caught in between crushed by the rubble. and we have acute medical care. the situation is what we've been speaking with is that people have either left and there were okay. or they died because of the were drowned, severe trauma, head injury or this force of the tsunami. >> the red cross and other aides are employing numerous response teams. water, food, shelter, are critical. dangerous levels of radiation are released from the damaged nuclear reactor. iodine tablets will be distributed for those who live in close proximity. that is preventative for the star wars plan of taking on too much radiation. for the-thyroid gland of taking on too much renovation. >> similar indicators to be installed. but it would cost $150 million. officials have to decide weather this system of the worth the cos

this week with david brinkley used to be on every sunday morning and it struck me connolly represented the network of nbc, all of the talent that was on the show frankly, roberts, a donaldson in most of the time they would represent the talent that was on the show james carville and mary magdalene and to cap it all off also the attorneys for archer daniels midland which for many years part of which is three told in the movie of the informant with matt damon. as i look at brendan sullivan's career, i always used to say in my articles when i was talking to people, brendan sullivan has gone 35 years and never had one client serve any time in jail which was pretty remarkable because by the time people came to him they were pretty far up the creek. not like he was defense gain to many roman catholic nuns. and after a while i began to wonder if it is true. was i just saying this or maybe i just repeated the story so many times i believed it. so what i try a two do is talk about why brendan sullivan had a passion and that he had and what is the pattern from when he first came to williams conn

so i always thought the story of williams and connolly would make a great book. a few years ago the washingtonian i did a piece called the firm that runs the world in which it talked about a lot of the sort of concentric circles and some might say conflicts that still enveloped this legendary firm for example that represented the tobacco industry and the supreme court cases involving whether or not tobacco should be treated as a drug by the food and drug redmon attrition. but they also represent the parties concerned institute. one of my favorite ones involved bob barnett. when this week with david brinkley used to be on every sunday morning and it struck me williams and connelly represented the network of broadcasters show abc, they represented all of the talent that was on the show as john -- george will, brinkley, cokie roberts, sam donaldson. most of the time they would represent talent that was on the show. james carville and matalin for it simple, and then to sort of cap it off, the with the attorneys archer-daniels midland which for many years part of whic

christine connolly, kron 4 news. >>catherine: the big reason that scientists are not worried is that it diminishes quickly.. this is just a small percentage. any radiation making it across the pacific will only be detected by the most sensitive instruments. >>pam: despite the restaurants, fear is high. people are searching- despite all of the reassurance the thompson spoke with dr. stuart? >> correct. one thing that we have been saying is that masks are not like going to be doing anything. the radiation levels are nothing to worry about. also, to stay inside. and i asked him if that is advisable? in the bay area? taking reaching california. a risk? take it right before, and will be ample>> should people be staying inside? >> at this point, no. we are not in japan, we are in the united states that plume is very predictable. it is doing what it is expected. and very low levels. if there are levels to be concerned about? the shelter would be in place. we would do that if there are chemicals in the air atmosphere. >>pam:

christine connolly shows us. in the bay area, $4 is already here! >> talk about sticker shock!e is paid $111. the price for a gallon on the chevron in san francisco is $4.13 this drivers of the few is not running on fumes would not have stopped. it seems like gas prices are changing daily? they are! increasing. 13 consecutive days. we have not seen these prices in quite some time. average prices from aaa. uva the most in the san francisco it is $3.25. you will-. the most, and opened = $3.91, san francisco, $3.95, in the real price increases. right now, $3.50, one week ago when tripoli said it was $3.82, and right now, it is $3.50, in one month ago, $3.47, and it is not right now, $3.95 baulking sen >> according coverage continues with maureen kelly. >> regular unleaded at the current price is $3.25. aaa says that they can expect these prices to go up. this is $3.95 some are saying that the record what to make lifestyle changes. >> it is some place is that are even worse! >> is a fact of life, they go up, they come down. >> i believe that one day we will go completely green and

christine connolly. >>pam: new details on the ongoing investigation of possible police misconduct, said oroszko police department. another video surfaced of alleged illegal activity from san francisco police department. theresa? we wanted to figure out if this video is the same officers accused from the other video? >> it is the same officers and then some! in total, eight officers. and what we have this was >>this just in to the kron 4 news room surveillance video from the henry hotel in november. a man showing a black jacket. this is from this past december. as i mentioned, 2010. he was arrested in a hotel room with the charge of possession of drugs. the attorney says that the drugs for in his jacket. and the jacket was confiscated by police. and a detailed police report said that the jacket was white. and it was not his jacket but he was arrested, anyway. this case went to trial and then, dismissed. >> there is nothing in the report that i would think it was them, this is the man. and with this the vi

christine connolly? >>reporter: >> a teenager surviving!ear-old from windsor high- school. com on a field trip with 45 other students. with two to 0 ft. down into this water. the teenager 17 year- old student. if this was suicide? or witnesses' statements to think that this was breakfast a joke, hopes, throw, dear? perhaps- a joe, hopea joke, perhaps a hoax? or a deeif he was on a dare? >> he was taken to sfo general. if >>reporter: teachers for the is group were part of the advanced placement high- school windsor high-school. college level class's of a high-school level. >>pam: classmates 7 talking about this online. classmates have then. -- >> kimberlee: we just had a conversation on foot with marcus about what he saw. with twitter on twitter. he says the we did not cheer him on he did this on his own free will. we're trying to hold him back. and he told the medics said finally, this final tweet that he only broke his tailbone. and nobody cheered him on at all. the facebook fan is saying that because he was an experienced high driver jump

on behalf of supervisor mirkarimi, for the late brian connolly. >> madame clerk, is there any more business in front of this body? colleagues, we are adjourn for today.

christine connolly has been a point to these documents. >>pam: and with more of these controversy? >>reporter: that is correct, a contra costa county who was arrested on drug and weapons crimes. let me show you video. according to this affidavit investigators say that he was making a 30 to w 30'dirty dui' arrests. >> how was this conducted? >>reporter: according to these documents a reserve officer reported investigators about the incident that allegedly happened on january 14th. he was working with him in the evening after it happened outside of a wine bar and danville. he received several phone calls from butler. this is what came to light. he was receiving updates about an individual who was currently consuming alcoholic beverages at the wine bar. and after the description was given he was pulled over. and the officer said the we were going to conduct a " dirty d ui " >>pam: and where was he pulled over? >>reporter: the reserve officers said that he was feeling bad for the man who'd been in the bar allegedly discussing a deal about being featured on a reality show. and it could

on behalf of supervisor mirkarimi, for the late brian connolly. >> madame clerk, is there any more business in front of this body? colleagues, we are adjourn for today. >> a good afternoon. i would like to call the meeting to order. mr. secretary, first item please. >> roll call. [roll-call] president vietor: next item please. >> approval of the meeting for the march 8th regular meeting. due to an editorial oversight, some of the printer -- some of the printed copies have the template date between the footer. it has been fixed but i apologize for the oversight. president vietor: is there a motion to approve a the minutes without the template? all those in favor? suppose? next item. >> public comment. members of the public may speak before the commission for any item not on today's agenda. president vietor: public comment? >> there is none. the commission, having received at electronic -- if you have a comment on those -- and request regarding the calendar or staffer written reports submitted to the commissioners? vice president moran: i notice the next update is july 26th. i was wondering w

while i was there i had an idea for writing a story of one of the lawyers at williams and connolly to have the greatest dream job of running a baseball team. that was larry i went to his office he was the president of the baltimore orioles. and i got almost all through the whole story to the end and then seven negative was interviewing said i guess you know, about his illness? i said yes. of course. terrible. anyway i began to piece together how the age of 39 years old he was stricken with nine hodgkin's lymphoma and was a 36 person the history of medicis and to have a bone transplant. while he was in recovery from this illness, he went to the institute in boston a pipe din the boston red sox and when he got out of isolation they said what is the one thing you most want to do not a you get out of the hospital? he said i want to walk around fenway park greco here it is by the way. [laughter] but i have always thought his story was one of the most dramatic and wonderful stories because 13 or 23 years later he not only survived against all odds but an even greater that nobody thought was

please welcome from pittsburgh pennsylvania the national commander ronald connolly.ly appreciate the introduction. we are here to honor a tremendous person that serves our country as the veterans. the honoree is the third term united states congressman representing the fourth district and a small corner in western pennsylvania. before coming to the nation's capital, he actually was a kent brockman you can see how tall he is and handsome and he was a regular track and field and football player at the high school just north of pittsburgh. he went to florida and went to florida state university where he graduated in 1990. he came back to washington, d.c. and worked as a legislative aide to the then for our congressman pete peterson he gained expertise and health care. he returned to western pennsylvania in 1998 with his recently acquired expertise to work at the university of pittsburgh medical center which compromises 20 hospitals, 45,000 employees and a 7 billion-dollar revenue each year. by 2005 he was acting vice president for a government relations and community he

reporter: to anyone else it's just a 30-foot long piece of smashed and muddy fiberglass but to jody connolly it was his life. >> it's a weird feeling to actually see your home and the place of your, you know, where you run your business and your lifestyle just get, you know, sunk away in 15 or 20 minutes. >> reporter: the trident had been his home for the last two years. but, by the time the power and instructive force of the tsunami became obvious in the santa cruz harbor it was too late. he lost all his photos, business and life. >> i feel fortunate to be able to share it with a lot of people who had it and, you know, it's -- it will definitely be a, you know, in the memory books. so? divers spent the day attaching balloons to the sunken ships to float them to the surface. a crane handled the rest. the work is slow and dangerous. only 5 boats have been recovered since the weekend. what do you tell people watching this and say this is going really slow, why can't you go faster. >> this is going extremely fast. you would be priced. >> reporter: out of the hundreds of boats in the arborists n

connolly, has insurance. a lot of his loss will probably be recovered. but a lot of people don't have insurance, don't have that kind of coverage. so they're out. it's a very difficult situation for them especially in this terrible economy that we're going through. >> absolutely. all right, len ramirez with the latest from santa cruz. thank you. >>> now, up in crescent city, that harbor was just about destroyed by the pacific tsunami. at least 50 boats there were damaged, 16 sank. there is also some major damage to the inner harbor as you see here. a town hall meeting meeting set to happen tonight. city leaders will talk about the response efforts to determine if anything more could be done. >>> many here in the bay area share a close link with the people of japan. there are family ties and business partnerships, but ann notarangelo is in concord with more. >> reporter: elizabeth, we are in the concord friendship gardens. since 1974, they have been sister cities and ever since the earthquake hit, there's been a flurry of email messages to find out how to

connolly: thank you, mr. speaker. and happy st. patrick's day. today we debate the rule on whether or not to fund national public radio. in is an ideologically driven attempt of defunding a revered institution. you can't stand balanced, objective news, so let's defund it. regardless of whether one supports n.p.r. or not, and i do, we can all be clear this bill does not do one thing. it does not create jobs. we've been here for 11 weeks, mr. speaker, and the republican majority has yet to bring a single jobs bill to the floor of the house. that's why i introduced the build america bonds now to create jobs act, legislation to extend the build america bonds now. during the last two years, $4.4 billion from the recovery act leveraged $181 billion to construct and repair schools, bridges and roads and more than 2,270 projects in every state in the union. according to moody's chief economist, this resulted in eight million potential preserved jobs. i ask my colleagues, turn away from this ideological driven debate on national public radio and let's get

connolly. mr. connolly: if the house will rise. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: the chair will entertain up to five one-minute requests from each side. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker: without objection. mr. poe: mr. speaker, ashton mcmurray, a 16-year-old kid with cerebral palsy, was walking home from a football game in massachusetts when he was ambushed, beatened, stabbed and murdered. an illegal from cambodia was sent to prison. ashton's parents said he would be deported back to cambodia after his sentence. why? because cambodia and other nations refuse to take back their convicted felons from the united states. so the assassin, by u.s. law, has been released on the streets of america. he is still illegally here. mr. speaker, there are over 140,000 criminal aliens in the united stat

how deeply ashamed james connolly would be today that the labour party which he founded marchs into -- [inaudible] to become part of a government that will burn not the bondholders, not the speculators, not the grasping big bankers, but the irish people, the working class, the unemployed, the poor, the low and the middle-income workers. socialist party and the united left alliance rejects the right-wing program proposed by deputy kenny. of we reject the rule of the financial markets which is causing such crisis and suffering among our people. we demand instead that they be brought to heel, brought into public ownership and democratic control in ireland and europe and used instead as vehicles of major public investment to create projects that would very quickly see tens of thousands of our people back to work there the tragedy of laying in the dull queue. the government that is incoming today will have a crushing majority in this. they should not think from that that their economic program of savage austerity will go unchallenged. it certainly will in here. but remember this: we in the

look at the color chart look that connolly start to see some red on the map. that 60 mi. an hour a potential guest for the north bay intel long the coast at half moon bay. -- and along the coast way. heavy wind and rain to the morning pillio. another sto. here is a look at your 7 day around the bay. a lot of rain this morning saturday another round of it, looks like we will have some relief next week. now, here is a look at the traffic. >> george: love very good told he this is a live look at the emergency crews that are working to clear the trains, as you see there are shipping some equipment on the track. that may be a good sign, they did have to lean shut down between marina and davis. about 30 minutes ago they opened up the number to lin, is just the number one lane that has been shut down. if they're picking up this lane closure we had dodged a bullet. if not we're looking at the potential for a huge hot spot. it could affect the southbound because of lanes being blocked, there's just low slowing pass the scene on the southbound side but, as we noticed in that live s

we have been wallowing the story higher gas, kron4 is maureen kelly and christine connolly shows how much more. >> reporter: it's not uncommon to see gas prices over $4 a gallon. at this server and its $4.13 off increasing daily over the past few weeks, the average is $3.95 a gallon of 145 from last week. the highest recorded average was back in june of 2008 when it was $4.61. >> reporter: continuing our coverage iceboat to aaa his says consumers can expect these high prices to get even higher. the average price of regular has been rising at a faster than normal pace. in some areas it's been shooting at as much as 35 a day. back to murdoch, after getting a bite from our restaurant that is when she found he was gone. >> of how her for six years, obviously she is a pet but she is much more than that, she has been a constant companion. i never thought this would happen to me. i feel like a pet owners quickly jump into the post office, store, coffeeshops to run a quick errand they take their dogs with them, i just want to highlight the situation not to do that. >> james: if you have seen

james connolly says we are only on their knees. let us rise.i believe we must rise up until the e.u. and the imf that we were not paying the debts of the irish banks. as a combination of these debt and the imminent arcus crisis will cause this disastrous default and will make current problems seem minor. putting ireland did a much weaker position to remedy the situation. i want also to refer to the organization and delivery of acute hospital services in this country. and i believe that if something very imparted for the patients and their families in the deep fork community. the hospital committee for which i chair has received election commitments from both fine gael and the labour party that they will resist all parties in the hospital. i will be relentlessly pursuing the honoring of those commitments and today i call in the incoming government and the incoming heads to immediately and start the service i could get to hedge the reconfiguration process. >> on behalf of the people and along with our colleagues in the united left alliance, we al

christine connolly is live along highway 92. >> mark: she is watching the traffic a big backup good morning. >> reporter: good morning there are tens of people here that have come to this area because they have evacuated, we're here now with one of the people who evacuating. i can run for 30 a.m. >> mark: . we lost the signal i do apologize for that. let us be sure you, the traffic map has been bumper-to-bumper. residents are leaving the immediate coastline as a precaution. this anomaly is possibly 3 ft. expected new the cows. james is monitoring the latest out of japan. >> james: we wanted to take a step back and explain what causes this anomaly. i went to the state of california at website them an interesting diagram it breaks it down simplifying what we saw. you see the fall line, you have one played jamming underneath another one thrusting that second played higher up. it pushes the water up, flowing out. it is rippling out in all directions from the line. you can see here there's normally of activity one wave after another, after another. with a tsunami waves you have a dwelling of wha

congressman connolly? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would also like to welcome you to this committee. i ask unanimous consent to introduce a copy of the testimony of the national letter carriers association. >> without objection. members will have seven days to submit opening statements and extraneous information for the record. we have two panels. i like to refer to it as a double header. i would like to introduce our first panel. to my immediate right is pat donahoe. in the middle is ruth goldway, and phillip herr. we have your written statements before us. what i would like to do first is to swear everyone in. if i can ask you all to rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear, a firm, that the testimony you are about to give to this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? let the record show that all witnesses answered in the affirmative. please be seated. please limit your testimony to five minutes. your entire testimony will be made parts of the record. i will recognize, mr. donahoe. >

connolly. >> thank you. our former chairman and my predecessor in this seat in virginia, my good friend tom davis. welcome back, tom. in fact perhaps congressman davis we could begin with you. you talked up the fact it would be a wise investment to expand the number of acquisition procurement personnel within the federal government so that we are looking for a efficiencies and cost savings. could you expand on that just a little bit? because one of the things that certainly has struck a number of people is federal contracting increased enormously in the 1990's but procurement and acquisition personnel within the federal government didn't keep up with that. >> and cemetery as it declined. it cut budgets and in fact many times to go to a procurement meeting and what you have is a lot of contractors running the procurement. that's not all bad that you need a cadre inside of the government to understand the tool box that they have to figure out what is the best value for their government and that needs constant

secretary of state hillary clinton and her debut predecessors in conversation, madeleine albright and connolly's of rice. you'll hear from president clinton tonight and michele bachelet on saturday morning and courageous activists removinmoving women's rights from rhetoric to reality. wonderful to be partners with such organization as vital global voices partnership women international, and they un foundation and our sponsors, without whom we could not be here. our founding partner hp, american express, coca-cola company, mobil goldman sacks 10,000 women, price waterhouse coopers the virgin foundation, delta, and david yurman. framing issues and covering the discussions, we brought together journalists and producing teams of newsweek and the daily beast.com. so many people attending the summit have advanced to the dignity and rights of women and some at great personal risk. let's celebrate them and all the women who cannot be here from all over the world. for passionate activist --, she brought back a photograph she visited in the condo. she said to me, "i want to say to people if you knew them,

connolly. >> thank you. our former chairman and my predecessor in this seat in virginia, my good friend tom davis. welcome back, tom. in fact perhaps congressman davis we could begin with you. you talked up the fact it would be a wise investment to expand the number of acquisition procurement personnel within the federal government so that we are looking for a efficiencies and cost savings. could you expand on that just a little bit? because one of the things that certainly has struck a number of people is federal contracting increased enormously in the 1990's but procurement and acquisition personnel within the federal government didn't keep up with that. >> and cemetery as it declined. it cut budgets and in fact many times to go to a procurement meeting and what you have is a lot of contractors running the procurement. that's not all bad that you need a cadre inside of the government to understand the tool box that they have to figure out what is the best value for their government and that needs constant

connolly, for five minutes. mr. connolly: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the year-long continuing resolution of the republicans in this house passed last month on a straight party-line vote represents misguided values. house republicans sought to cut an arbitrary amount of funding and did so with a meat axe, indiscriminately attacking worthwhile investments giving no concern to the tremendously negative impact this will have on our economy. in the race for ever increasing and arbitrary cuts, they have demonstrated they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. moody's says this approach will cost the nation 700,000 jobs. the economic policy institute said 800,000 jobs. goldman sachs said the long-term republican plan would lower economic growth by 2% while increasing, increasing unemployment by 1%. even the conservative group called it a mistake, stating the cutting spending is important but economic growth is even more important. -- -- important. the need for fiscal police plin is clear. we must return to a long-term path of fiscal re

a lot is riding on an agreement connolly the billions of dollars for owners and players but for lovers. some observers believe a deal will be reached before the current agreement expires. >> i'm optimistic as a fan and a lawyer that there be a delay but during that time i do not believe that this will not work out. >> reporter: those sites have through the spring and summer to figure away to save the season to >> will: . football is still fallaway baseball is right here giants manager has denied that there is any truth to san francisco report suggesting left- hander barry's ego is not assured a spot on the roster this coming season. he addressed the media before last night's spring training game against the d baxter says he remains his no. 4 starter. he also said there has never been any talks about suggesting otherwise. otherwise the san francisco chronicle quoted an otherwise unidentified sources indicating exasperation as saying his place in the rotation was deftly not safe. coming up we will talk about charlie sheen who is turning into a must see tv these days. a live look outside

connolly of virginia for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. chairman schapiro argued a chairman who appointed the inspector general who in fact is charged with investigating mr. becker? >> no, sir. he was appointed by my predecessor. >> by your predecessor in that investigation continues? >> yes. i requested. >> you requested? >> i requested the investigation. >> you requested at? >> yes. >> thank you. we just heard a line of questioning asking you to it to look at a budget without additional regulations that was burdensome and so forth. the dodd-frank legislation added some regulation in areas that heretofore had not been regulated at all. is that not correct chairman schapiro? >> that is absolutely correct. >> take derivatives, what are the values of the derivative markets? >> the last record 600 chilean dollars. >> i'm sorry gc trillion? it is entirely unregulated until dodd-frank passed? >> largely unregulated. >> whatever could go wrong was an entirely unregulated 600 chilean dollar market? >> we saw something that went wrong and presumab

connolly. that is the last of our questions. we will recess for now. thank you for being here. weill prepare for the next panel. >> thank you, sir. it is an honor. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> we have a senior policy expert from the heritage foundation. we also have the resident scholar at the american enterprise institute. we have the president for the partnership of public service and the national president for the national treasury employees union. if you all would not mind, please stand up to be sworn in. please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give this committee will be the truth, the old trees, and nothing but the truth? thank you. let the record show all witnesses have answered in the affirmative. i will recognize each of you for by minutes to summarize your testimony. the transcript has been submitted for the record. >> chairman ross, ranking member, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify. the views i

james connolly said the great are great only because we are on our knees. let us rise. and i believe that we must rise up and tell the e.u. and the imf that we will not pay the debts of the irish banks. that the combination of these debts and the imminent mortgage crisis will cause a disastrous default and will make current problems seem minor. but with ireland in a much weaker position to remedy the situation. i want, also, to refer to the organization and delivery of acute hospital services in this country, and i believe that is something which is very important for the general public, for patients and for their families and, indeed, for the community. our hospital committee of which i am chair has received election commitments from both fine gael and the labour party concerning that they will retain all existing acute hospital services at the general hospital. i will be relentlessly pursuing the honoring of those commitments, and today i call on the incoming government and, indeed, the incoming minister for health to immediately instruct the health service executive

connolly. that is the last of our questions. we will recess for now. thank you for being here. we will prepare for the next panel. >> thank you, sir. it is an honor. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> we have a senior policy expert from the heritage foundation. we also have the resident scholar at the american enterprise institute. we have the president for the partnership of public service and the national president for the national treasury employees union. if you all would not mind, please stand up to be sworn in. please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give this committee will be the truth, the old trees, and nothing but the truth? thank you. let the record show all witnesses have answered in the affirmative. i will recognize each of you for by minutes to summarize your testimony. the transcript has been submitted for the record. >> chairman ross, ranking member, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify. the views

please welcome from pittsburgh, pennsylvania, past national commander, ronald connolly. [applause] >> thank you very much. i truly appreciate the introduction, but it is not about me. we are here to honor a tremendous person who served our country and serve as the veterans. our honoree is the third-term united states congressman, representing the fourth district and a small corner in western pennsylvania. before coming to our nation's capital, he actually was a jock, and you can see how tall he is and handsome, and he was a regular track and field and football player at a high school north of pittsburgh. seeing sunnier climates, he went to florida and went to florida state university. he graduated in 1990. he came back to washington, d.c., and worked as a legislative aide to then former congressman pete peterson. it was during that time he gained expertise in health care. he returned to western pennsylvania in 1998 with his recently acquired expertise to work at the university of pittsburgh medical center, which compromises which -- which comprises 20-odd hospitals, and

. >> gary: connolly * to receive a guy who was an athlete, they wish there were a little more accessibleood personality words are boring. i cannot not to infer this. you just have to win, or all of the stove becomes a joke. >> darya: we will see. >> gary: well accounts he is a good head on his shoulders, a good guy. >> darya: by all accounts of here he is a god. >> gary: but it is website. on my website i would be god. >> darya: cal ripken is writing these kids' books, one just came out, it's about kids and your temper. i think this is a great thing, he's got a three things series. the next one is about bullies. >> gary: that is good. >> darya: he had a bad temper back in the day. >> gary: nothing jumps out at me. the only thing i heard a contractor is image, some of the teammates thought hey, it would help our team if he took the dare to off. but he was so intent on getting the record that he went even if he wasn't helping. that is the only negative thing i've heard about him. good for him. if the book helps some kids. >> darya: did sing with the stars came out, i was looking hill was i

i'm happy to learn that representative connolly of this subcommittee has prepared a bill addressing this issue, one that killed builds -- builds on prior work by reactioning member lynch -- ranking member lynch. we hope you and your colleagues will embrace this bipartisan consensus. fourth, while this proposal backed by the postal service has no downside, that's not the case with some of the other usps ideas. eliminating saturday service, for example, would be disastrous. it would save about 5% of the postal budget by sacrificing 17% of service. it would inconvenience millions of small business owners who transact business on saturdays and americans who need medicines on the weekend. it would add 80,000 postal employees to the jobless rolls. i would imperil the future by portion forcing customers to turn elsewhere, and future revenue would decline. all this to save an amount barely half the annual prefunding payments. no business would choose this option over an internal transfer of it own funds and neither should we. finally, the postal service has a bright future. the current channels

students, multiple connolly mandated department of education studies have concluded that the program has not improved these students' academic achievements in reading or math. further, the studies found the larger program to have no effect on student satisfaction, engagement, motivation or students' feelings of security. the studies found no significant impact on students' career aspirations, participation in extra curricular activities, home work completion, readiness or tardyness. students with special educational needs, students with needs will have less likely access to these tools. despite receiving public money under the d.c. voucher program, these private schools do not take off students. in addition, teachers at these private schools are not subject to the same certification requirements as d.c. public schools. this bill also makes an exception to the ma scombrort's own budget rules which -- majority's own budget rules which require that new funding must slash funding from somewhere else. this bill adds $300 million to the deficit without any such offsets. these kinds of exce

connolly. >> thank you. our former chairman and my predecessor in this seat in virginia, my good friend tom davis. welcome back, tom. in fact perhaps congressman davis we could begin with you. you talked up the fact it would be a wise investment to expand the number of acquisition procurement personnel within the federal government so that we are looking for a efficiencies and cost savings. could you expand on that just a little bit? because one of the things that certainly has struck a number of people is federal contracting increased enormously in the 1990's but procurement and acquisition personnel within the federal government didn't keep up with that. >> and cemetery as it declined. it cut budgets and in fact many times to go to a procurement meeting and what you have is a lot of contractors running the procurement. that's not all bad that you need a cadre inside of the government to understand the tool box that they have to figure out what is the best value for their government and that needs constant

connolly. >> mr. chairman, thank you. general fraser, you mention -- mr. conaway. >> mr. chairman, thank you. general facer, in regards to china's activities in venezuela. the numbers have shown it's commercial. in your statement you talked about military armed sales to venspla. russian -- sales to venezuela. russian weapons, automatic weapons, the ak-47 deal they made with chavez, and also i guess sales to bolivia. can you talk to us somewhat of our visibility as to what chavez is doing with respect to those relationships, folded into that the iranian work and russian work with chavez in terms of at least talking about nuclear power fram within venezuela and how -- program within venezuela and how that will morph into something else other than his bluster? a comment the other day reduce their caloric intake. give us the military aspects of what china and russia are doing in south america in general. >> thank you for the question, comment, congressman. as i look across the region and look at china it's very much focused on commercial and diplomatic efforts. they do have m

connolly: the reckless continuing resolutions that republicans passed two weeks ago is an abject failure of leadership. in the race for ever-increasing and arbitrary cuts, they demonstrated on a party line vote that they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. moody's anly thic said their approach would cost -- analytic said their approach would cost 800,000 jobs. goldman sachs said it would lower economic growth by 2% and increase unemployment by 1%. even the conservative club called it a mistake, stating, cutting spending is important, but economic growth is even more important. mr. speaker, i ask that all of us, republicans and democrats, negotiate in good faith in a bipartisan manner to pass a fiscally responsible c.r. that reduces deficits without sacrificing economic growth. the that prioritizes investments in our economy, that support american competitiveness without costing jobs. let's pass a continuing resolution that streds -- spreads the economy and creates jobs for all americans. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what p