the decatur utilities crew says they were contacted and were called to come up there and help. they were invited. the utility worker we spoke with actually said they begged him to come help them. so they are saying right now everybody seemed to be avoiding the word "union." but the one person i spoke with on the phone who is a worker, he said, and it is a quote here, he said, "the union is basically shut us out. they shut us down." >> the bottom line here, whether they were shut down in seaside heights or shut down in virginia, they still wouldn't have been able to help without those union cards or accreditation? >> only in new jersey. they were going to new jersey. they were being held in virginia in a staging area. when we made contact with the employee, he said we're still in virginia because they will not let us work. again, it was his understanding, his feeling, that the union -- that they had to belong to a union to be working in new jersey or at least in this part of new jersey. they were basically watching and waiting and the paperwork involved here, it's up for interpr

. >> brittany in decatur, alabama won.said she never wins anything. >> danielle ritter won from arizona. >> you have a chance to win, too. you will need monday's buzzword. you have to be 18 years or older for your chance to win. >> stand by for monday's buzzword and good luck, everybody. >>> we show a lot of amazing dolphin and whale videos and they are all cute. this isn't one of those videos. this is in new zealand. see that fishermen? he got swooped out of the water by the two orcas. they weren't friendly. he is scooting his way on to the rocks to get out of their way. >> he was spearfishing for their food. they are like dude come on man. him scooting out of there looks like a seal. >> that looks like more whale food. >> apparently they don't like the competition. look at this dog. this dog is playing in the water close to the shore and these orcas come close to the dog. watch the dog. he is like okay i'm leaving. >> i'm surprised they didn't swallow this dog up. check that out again. the dog is like okay. get out of th

>> all of our crews that we sent to that area we have now returned to decatur.nded up in a virginia area in a staging area, they never actually got to the new jersey town that we were head today to support. we were presented with documents from idw that required our folks to affiliate with a union and something that we could not agree to and it was our understanding and still is, that that was a requirement of working in that area. stuart: okay, so your guys, they drove from alabama to virginia, which is a long, long drive, that's over 24 hours, if i'm not mistaken and they get to virginia, and the international brotherhood of electrical workers, the union presented your guys from alabama with papers and said, you either sign these or go home. you don't work. was it like that? >> it was not in person. we were dealing with those documents here dealing with those officials directly from alabama. >> okay. >> we ultimately chose that we could not agree to those documents and began looking for other areas that could use our assistance those conditions. stuart: have t

i am a political science at decatur and i see the world in politics. those -- educator and i see the world in politics. the people who benefit most from public education are not necessarily the people in the room passing the votes on where the money goes. for me, that is where the money -- that is where it starts. you can build up from there to a number of issues that may be a part of it all. when you look at congress in particular and look at the people making those decisions, i do not think they have education as a priority. i think they have other priorities. >> there are different reasons for the state and federal level. at the state level, education is a large part of every state's the second largest part of every state's budget. the states have had large contractions when it comes to walling off k-12 education. a lot of legislatures look at higher education and say we can cut funding and they can make up the difference. it is shortsighted because it is squeezing out access. at the federal level, our problem is everybody you talk to in congress wi

pat michaels is director of the decatur institute and i'm joined by nick christ stof of the times. skeptical that any of this that we've seen from hurricane sandy and the other big weather interventions over the last year is much to do with climate change. why? >> well, first of all, you know, the planet is warmer than it was and people have something to do with it and the ocean is warmer than it was 40 years ago. you would think that everything else being equal that would result in a frequency or power. and that's one thing we can look at to see if it's happening. now, i have an illustration that i gave over there that shows something called the accumulated cyclone energy beginning in 1972. that's when satellites began to go up so we can sense all of the hurricanes. and it shows no change between 1972 and now. in fact, if you look at the data, the recent years are at or near the lowest value for hurricane energy in the entire record. >> you have been watching this saying, that's all very well but we've just been hit by the biggest storm that anybody can remember. also, mayor bloom

one company coming to the rescue, decatur utility. they report their nonunion electric crews from right to work state of alabama were actually strong armed into joining the union before working on relief efforts. electric companies in the battered area and the unions deny this. anyway, gas stations seen in the tri-state area, looks like the arab oil embargo days of the 1970s. remember those long lines? odd and even days, the last digit of your license plate determined which day you could buy gas. we've got two reports. weather channel storm tracker jim cantore on the out of control gas lines in northern new jersey. and our kate kelly in new york harbor. thats go, g s ggas got to come pump some place. most of it will be by barge. jim, are you getting a '70s feeling out there? i've seen the lines. just driving up here to global headquarters. what's going on? >> reporter: well, remember back then, larry, we were talking about ands that got, what, 7 to maybe 11 or 12 miles to the gallon. so getting that gas once you got it didn't go very

i think this news really struck howard buffett by surprise in his own hometown of decatur.hool students are taking free lunches. and that, he said, was in a town where food processing is its home. >> exactly. >> and he basically decided, this is a problem we can fix. as he says in the piece, he wants to put hunger in america out of business, which does sound a lot like his dad. >> hard to do because you have to also look at the food and how it's made and the processing is such a part of the problem because you can have a hungry child who's also obese. and it doesn't make sense, but when you look at the way food is prepared and what is fed to these children when they can eat, it's not a good option for them. >> it's not, but you know, howard says, too, that there's no shortage of food, good produce food, in america that farmers either don't farm or harvest or is rejected by supermarkets. >> right. >> because it doesn't look perfect. >> right. >> and he basically feels that we can fix this. no farmer would let any child go hungry. there's a way to get this food into the right

[indiscernible] at decatur county, tennessee, my assertion is the issue of race and the civil war is still so passionate in this region. i will be brief. "our civil war heritage, the cavalry in tennessee, the historical museum --" it lists the people's names who fought in the cavalry. in other words, the issue is not dead in terms of passion and relative to bias. guest: interesting comment. some lawyers say things have changed and we don't have blatant racial discrimination like we had years before but they will tell you about a series of cases where things have happened in small towns and counties. for example, a black person looks like he will be elected to the county board and the board says we will change the voting rules so we will elect everyone at large rather than by district. in that case, you have to have more than 50% african-americans for an african-american to win a seat on the board. the impact of that would be to prevent a black person from actually winning a seat on the county board. those kind of things don't happen often but every so often they do happen and the arg

[indiscernible] at decatur county, tennessee, my assertion is the issue of the brakes and the civil war is so passionate in this region. i will be brief. our civil war heritage, the calory in tennessee, the historical museum -- -- the valry. names wille people's fought in the cavalry. in other words, the issue and is not dead in terms of passion and relative to bias. guest: some lawyers say things have changed and we don't have blatant racial discrimination like we had years before but they will tell you about a series of cases where things have happened in small towns and counties. for example, a black person looks like he will be elected to the county board and the board says we will change the voting rules so we will elect everyone at large rather than by district. in that case, you have to have more than 50% african-americans for an african-american to win a seat on the board. the impact of that would be to prevent a black person from actually winning a seat on the county board. those kind of things don't happen often but every so often they do happen and the argument for the contin