>> i can tell you right now, e.p.a. has completely revamped the way they examine the incentive bonuses, retention bonuses, the way they do examine travel vouchers, revamped the way they do time and attendance for senior executives. there will be some very good changes coming about because of this case. >> it is a fascinating extremely depressing at the same time case. patrick sullivan, appreciate you joining us to talk about it. let's check in with hermela to see what's trending. >> the crossword puzzle turns 100 years old. it was born in 1913 when one was published in the new york world, a major newspaper at the time. it wasn't an instant hit. over a decade passed before it became a fad first in new york city, then spreading to the rest of the country. simon and shuster deserve a lot of credit for its popularity. it published the first book of crossword puzzles and didn't think it would be a hit. after my demand, 2 million copies were sold in the first two years. it was one of the top best sellers in 1924 and 1925 on t

work was ongoing, or how he made the e.p.a. fly him first class all the time because he had a bad back, again i'm assuming ball-related. [laughter] or we could talk about the retention bonuses they pay john beale lest he leave and not show up at a different job. but that's not what elevates this story from the ridiculous to the sublime. ladies and gentlemen, i give you former e.p.a. air policy office director robert brenner, a friend of mr. beale's for over 30 years. he recruited mr. beale to work at the e.p.a. this is how his trust is repaid. he's got to be furious. >> when's the last time you saw him, besides today? >> i've seen mr. beale periodically over the last... well, actually i've seen him a lot over the last two weeks. >> jon: sure, i can imagine because of coincidental courtroom run-ins and that sort of thing. >> because he had rented out his house in arlington. he's staying in my guest room now. [audience reacts]. >> jon: and that, my friends, the prestige. enjoy. >> he's staying in my guest room now. >> mr. chairma

i was able to do this because he told the e.p.a. that he was busy on assignment in pakistan working for the cia but bill was actually just taking on vacations and getting paid handsomely for them he never worked for the cia that he was able to get away with the ruse for more than a decade because the e.p.a. never bothered to check out his cover story as part of the plea deal beal has a greed to pay nearly nine hundred thousand dollars in restitution back to the e.p.a. plus forfeit another half million dollars. we have some breaking news now from the white house as i mentioned earlier in the show the president's review panel charged with looking at surveillance capabilities and practices was going to release its report and it has now released its report more than three hundred page report provides nearly fifty recommendations to improve the program that n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden has unveiled over the past six months and better protect americans privacy in the process some of those recommendation recommendations include amen

the e.p.a.'s scheduled listening sessions only -- only, madam president -- in cities far, far away from coal country, both geographically and philosophically. cities including new york, boston, seattle, and san francisco. they held 11 listening sessions in all but the closest one to eastern kentucky was in atlanta. requiring kentuckians to make a 14-hour round trip drive simply to attend. so it's pretty clear from the location of all these listening sessions the e.p.a. did not want any real input. that's why i convened a listening session in pikeville that resulted in the powerful testimony i've shared with my colleagues today. since the obama e.p.a. would not come to kentucky, i brought the voices of kentuckians to e.p.a. we held three panels composed of those in the coal industry, miners and their families. and local elected officials to illuminate the disruption in these communities caused in large part by the war on coal. many of my constituents filled out comment cards and my office delivere

simply put, the e.p.a.'s interpretation of reduced lead standards unnecessarily imposed a huge burden on municipalities and first responders without any discernible safety benefit. we have now undone that danger. i yield the floor. i'd be happy to yield to my colleague from ohio. mr. portman: i want to thank our colleague for their work on this issue. municipalities including the state of ohio were shocked to hear about this and i appreciate joining my colleague from new york on a letter to the e.p.a. and cash strapped cities in new york, ohio and other states are happy to know they're not going to have to take on this burden. it makes sense to stop, take a look at this, be sure we're not forcing these hydrants to be repaired and replaced, it's not something that's in these budgets that these cities have and so i appreciate the gentleman's work on it and look forward to ensuring this does not move forward as a regulation but we figure out a more sensible way to deal with the issue. mr. schumer: i thank my co

set on the amount of carbon pollution new power plants are allowed to emit this is the e.p.a. is way too slow or reverse the effects of climate change in a letter addressed to the head of the agency lamar smith wrote the agency is a stubborn insistence on placing its judgement above that of its science advisers raises serious concerns that the a.p.a. as a rule making is based more on partisan politics than sound science but on wednesday he shot for the stars with a two hour long hearing called astrobiology the search for bio signatures in our solar system and beyond the discussion that is possibly just about life on other planets or the possibility of you know any more about these new. questions to ask are what could we find on these planets the atmospheres of these planets provide bio signatures that would indicate the presence of some form of rudimentary life and what would be the implications of such a discovery. critics are now questioning how lamar smith can see aliens as sound science but climate change as part of politics but danger will robinson there is a bigger issue

enough resources into studying the effects that fracking has on groundwater but that didn't stop the e.p.a. from coming up with a report in favor of the practice. phillips case were advised to vent the gas constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas well continues to frack despite thousand peter you were pretty much standing right on top of that one hundred years from now when somebody dies because there's some contaminant in the border area and they're able to trace it to this fracking and we've got the office ted who cares investor feel awesome free for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so fired up on fracking potential profits that households like steve leaves his family are left to fight alone to get a healthy environment in their homes. down our team parker county texas. and we're now learning that one of the highest paid officials with the environmental protection agency the e.p.a. has managed to swindle the government out of nearly one million dollars and project on wages and benefits how did you do it while simple you just

the e.p.a.'s scheduled listening sessions only -- only, madam president -- in cities far, far away from coal country, both geographically and philosophically. cities including new york, boston, seattle, and san francisco. they

and i'm to assume you know this is not enough the us e.p.a. does should know better is also part of the dumping. for instance belongs to the united states and vibrant a protection agency the us the v.a. and i found out a dump site here. just never ends just keep going. we can really recycle everything in a time if there's no problem something's going harm or costly to recycle now that's like a lead in the glass you know that's very close to recycling yeah that's going to go away eventually because now they have the l.c.d. screen but the l.c.d. screens have mercury and so that's another issue you know the mercury has to decide if they can just come up with a better way it's coming out i would think of not having hazardous stuff in there it is just going to keep going to keep growing and more people are more transient more landfills and just will be recycled everything out of the recycling. is everybody's problem and so many landfills and why you know i'd rather have a car built and then another landfill and if we can keep this about a landfill

e.p.a. does should know better is also part of the dumping this is a problem for instance belongs to the united states imbibing to protection agency the u.s. e.p.a. and i found this at a dump site here. just never ends just gets done. we can really recycle everything in a computer. there's no problem showing things because more costly to recycling like a lead in the glass you know that's very close to recycle you know that's going to go away eventually because now they have the l.c.d. screen but the l.c.d. screens have mercury and so that's another which you know the mercury has to be stopped if they could just come up with a better way up i would think the not having hazardous stuff in there it is just going to keep going to keep growing more people more transient more wind fields and just will be recycled everything out of the inside. it is everybody's problem you know you have so many landfills and why you know i'd rather have a car built than another landfill and if we can keep this abou

they had a good meeting with the e.p.a. and it will, i think, lead to better regulations come out of the e.p.a. that was a product that we had not just to the majority party but to the minority party as well. i feel that's been lost and i think that's a shame. i wish we could go back to the system that we had and the system the senate has operated on for a long, long time. when i gave my maiden speech here on this floor a few months ago, i mentioned that the party holding the gavel is on a short leash. bringing even the most noncontroversial resolutions to the senate floor requires the agreement, or at least the ack acquiescence, of the minority party. i mentioned at that time, that over the past decade both parties have chafed under these arrangements. both parties have at times considered changing the rules that would in some measure make the senate more like the house. i mentioned at that time -- up to that time that both parties had resisted that urge and had been convinced by their own members and others that it wasn't

nixon nixon created the e.p.a. he actually be the first but in general a congress created obama live at home in nixon's republican party or ford's republican party arguably but i think the real issue here is that some progressives better working with big business of the clinton democrats at the top did republican strategies and i think it's right frustrating as a progress as one of the progressives on this panel know you'll see obama thirty seconds for you here. i don't i'm not comfortable with the team but in general trade deals i don't think trade deals or a bad idea we have to be more competitive at home and figure out how to educate our young so that we can be more competitive why don't we do wear a limit you can in germany and china and taiwan and south korea are all doing which is have trade policy is that make it harder for people to import and where you are happy to have trade barriers break them family policies and education policies that are better than ours and yes i'm afraid the president is a progressi

the statute clearly says what the e.p.a. may do and may not do. they were going beyond what they're permitted to do, and the d.c. circuit court of appeals said so. that's not the only case in which the d.c. circuit court of appeals has ruled in ways that are problematic to some of our friends here. another was a decision they made regarding recess appointments. you may remember this. awhile back, the president made a very extraordinary decision. the president decided for the first time in the history of the republic that it was up to him to determine when the senate was in recess and when it was not. that was his unilateral decision to make. no other president ever took it upon himself to decide that it was his power to determine when a different branch of government was in recess or not, but this president did. he said, that's -- that's his decision. so i guess by his logic, he could decide when we're out on lunch. that's a recess. over a weekend, that's a recess. you know, it's up to him by his standard. and so he created an opportunity for hims

the e.p.a. to change the level of allowable t.c. in water they say is that ok level right now what's ok it may be ok for may may not be ok for you you have your chemicals there which is actually a pool in the ground in the groundwater and the vapors are seeping up through the ground they take the easiest path. and then they try do your home and that's why you have these really great on machines it's a subset of thing takes the pollution dispersant coming into the home puts it in the air outside where it's breaks down we know tricolor at the link askance or we know that and they say it's a moot point now because they're not using it but it's on the ground the first year i moved into this building. and there was not. i had to see this storm one long the i.b.m. problem in the chemicals is du pont's problem and the chemicals silicone valley's problem in california nationally we are a hidden. chemical kind of out there worry about people but it would come as stupid frogs are not stupid. they get you can do it but you could be people. you

one e.p.a. worker got away with it for years. that's ahead in the news room. now, stay tuned, "your money" with christine romans begins now. >>> a federal reserve confident in the u.s. economic recovery. investors cheering economic growth revised higher. i'm christine romans, this is your money. on wednesday, the fed announced they will pull back on the stimulus. only a little bit, a teeny bit. 10 million dlar$10 million a mo. for investors, it's the best of both worlds. still, plenty of stimulus in the system. that means short term you could see stocks still run. what else can we expect? the fed indicated they are in no hurry. the same for car loans. greg is a chief political strategist. you said the fed's decision means the recovery is real. we saw economic growth in the third quarter. tell me the long, national nightmare is over. >> i think so, christine. happy holidays. everything looks good. there are still people that need unemployment insurance in january, but i think that the level of acrimony on the budget has diminished. the fed can start taking the

dumping this equipment for instance belongs to the united states environmental protection agency the us e.p.a. and i found this out a dump site here. just never ends just keep going if. we can really reach. so i do everything in a computer. there's no problem showing things because more costly to recycle bin to like to live in the glass you know that's very close to recycle you know that's going to go away eventually because no they have the l.c.d. screen but the l.c.d. screens have mercury and so that's another issue you know the mercury has to be sought if they could just come up with a better way in the uk i would think the amount having hazardous stuff in there it is just going to keep going to keep growing more people more transient more landfills and just will be recycled living out of the result. that is everybody's problem you know you have so many landfills and why you know i'd rather have a car built than another landfill and if we can keep this about a landfills we can put the items that should go into landfills but i mean recycling you know it just makes sense and smart i mean thi

and consistent with the laws regulating the e.p.a. they didn't believe that the president had the right to decide when congress was in recess and make appointments that suited him when we were not able to deny consent. that was the d.c. circuit court's decision. and this -- and several others -- was completely unacceptable to some of my democratic friends, unacceptable that an independent, nonpartisan court might reach decisions that are inconsistent with the liberal agenda. now, how do we know that this was unacceptable? well, we've got some quotes. just one second on that chart. the senior senator from new york, senator schumer, discussed this. he was speaking to a group of supporters -- it's on the record darned he complained that the d.c. circuit "overturned the apse ability to regulate existing coal plants. he explained that the s.e.c. can't pass rules unless they do a cost-benefit analysis. he complaininged that they struck down utah administration's illegal recess appointments to the nlrb and told a group of supporters -- and h

enough resources into studying the effects that fracking has on groundwater but that didn't stop the e.p.a. from coming up with a report in favor of the practice. believes this word vice to vent the gas constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas wells continues to frac slide thousand feet deep pretty much standing around on top of one hundred years from now when somebody dies because there's some timing on the border and they're able to trace it to this frack him everybody else instead who cares invest in a few loss of feed for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so fired up on fracking potential profits that households like steve leave his family are left to fight alone to get a healthy environment in their homes. going to check out our t. parker county texas a controversial industry is already experiencing some unwelcome festive attention across the ocean in the u.k. protesters dressed as santa as have blocked the entrance to a drilling site with a wind turbine blade but this won't be enough to stop the government from further sh

enough resources into studying the effects that fracking has on groundwater but that didn't stop the e.p.a. from coming up with a report in favor of the practice. believes his word vise to vent the gas constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas well continues to frack despite thousand it were pretty much standing around atop of one hundred years from now when somebody dies because there's some. war and they're able to trace it to this fracking everybody off his head who cares invest in a philosophy for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so fired up on fracking potential profits that households like steve leave his family are left to fight a low to get a healthy environment in their homes. to check on our team parker county texas. well the trends we picked up of corporations around the world not willing to give open a potential money making opportunity protesters in the u.k. for their part been fighting off all companies you could draw on their learned despite being banned by european power which is what france and germany the fran

enough resources into studying the effects that fracking has on groundwater but that didn't stop the e.p.a. from coming up with a report in favor of the practice. believes kids were advised to vent the gas constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas well continues to frack is alive thousand feet deep or you were pretty much standing around on top of the one hundred years from now when somebody dies because there's some contact being at the border and they're able to trace it to this frack him and we've got the office ted who cares invest in a few last three for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so fired up on fracking potential profits that households like steve leaves his family are left to fight alone to get a healthy environment in their homes going to check on our t. parker county texas. meanwhile the u.k. government would like to see greater energy exploitation in the countryside a report is lay the groundwork to open up vast areas of britain to exploration including shale gas drilling now the light blue on this map shows how

enough resources into studying the effects that fracking has on groundwater but that didn't stop the e.p.a. from coming up with a report in favor of the practice. believes his word vise to vent the gas cost and to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas well continues to frack it's hard thousand it were pretty much standing right on top of the one hundred years from now when somebody dies because there's some timing on the border and they're able to trace it to this fracking everybody off his head who cares invest in a philosophy for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so fired up on fracking potential profits that households like steve leave his family are left to fight alone to get a healthy environment in their homes. down or to keep parker county texas and george barda is a social and environmental justice campaigner who has become a leading voice in britain's anti fracking movement he says it's going to be a long fight the key from our point of view is to keep up the pressure so the government and the cronies in big business can't get aw

filibusters voted to filibuster president bush's nominees to be assistant secretary of defense and e.p.a. administrators, and twice voted to filibuster his nominee to be a united nations ambassador. they must have thought very different back then about whether the president deserves his team. we have heard a lot about that from the current democrats. their actions then spoke more loudly than their words do today about whether they think all nominees really do deserve an up-or-down vote. look at the past. look at what they have done. it's hypocritical. however, the majority will not acknowledge those facts and others like them because those facts do not fit the spin that they're putting on this. it's hard, after all, to claim an obstruction crisis when so many nominees are confirmed and are being confirmed, so the majority instead makes a claim about what they call filibusters because that sounds bad to most people, and most people will not know whether the claim is even true. calling something a filibuster does not make it so. a filibuster occurs when the senate cannot vote on passage of

respective districts and lay out alec's corporate agenda the model bills being attacked this week are the e.p.a. is regulation of green. house gases and the opposition to food labeling among many others and yet another story overshadowed by the cayo nonsense is n.s.a. spying which by the way is getting worse by the day as the leaks continue to confirm the newest revelation is that the n.s.a. collects a staggering five billion international cell phone g.p.s. locations daily expanding its open air spying prison globally and also the editor of the guardian was recently called to testify before the british parliament why well after publishing n.s.a. leaks related to britain the u.k. government is trying to charge the publication under the terrorism act it's an unprecedented move which many see as the criminalization of journalism and as journalist glenn greenwald brilliantly tweeted if you want to make a list of the world's worst governments you can began with ones equating journalism with terrorism so while the real news is going on the focus is instead on mobs of black people randomly attacking w

we will have to see what the e.p.a. does.t would dent the industry. >> thank you, olivia. we will be on the markets again in 30 minutes. berg west is next. ♪ live from pier three in semper cisco, welcome to the early edition of "bloomberg west." emily chang in our focus is on, technology and the future of business. blackberry takes a page from apple and begins to outsource manufacturing of its phones to foxconn. the