and ernst & young. the message is the u.s. tafx code is too cumbersome and too complicated hurting u.s. businesses. this is "washington today." let's turn our attention to afghanistan. number two commander in afghanistan announcing today the u.s. military advisory team will start deploying to afghanistan later this year with a goal, to help the afghan combat forces as they take a more prom meant role in fighting the taliban. the plan was outlined by lieutenant general louis skap rotity as they begin to step back. we heard from earlier in the month from leon panetta. the lieutenant general saying the responsibility for the war will be fully in afghan hands by the end of 2014. general skap rotity is in charge of day today military operations as the commander of the joint command pushing to get more afghan forces into the lead before the u.s.-led coalition shrinks. there have been a number of stories as to whether or not the situation in afghanistan is being painted too rosie, including a report by the armed forces journal, just

miss ernst. >> thank you, commissioners. i looked up the report. figure three is just four illustrations of purposes. they try to put information that shows some comparisons, but they do not have to do with this site specifically, and the grass that has the numbers is also done at worst case scenario, so it was showing even if it were lower on the pole, it would be in compliance, and i want to emphasize we will be doing a test after the installation is complete. i believe this is closer to 45 or 50 feet off the ground. i will make a note to provide it to appellants so they have thought. thank you. >> anything further? >> at this point the department would have nothing to add that would be germane to this hearing. >> if there are no further questions, the matter is submitted. >> i think i understand the point raised by the appellants. i do not think they go to the question of whether we should grant for repeal or reject the permit, but i appreciate that you raise them today. >> i am in agreement. one could infer from the appellants argument that the

dan ernst, thanks so much. first to join the 700 club on wall street.xt we're trading what's trending on twitter. more "halftime report" up after the break. >>> welcome back. take a look at silver streaming higher today. b.k. are you a buyer today or what? >> bought some this morning. it's the silver/gold trade. the one thing that silver has that gold doesn't, does have some industrial uses, if you get any whiff of global growth silver is going to rocket. it's also a small market. i would also look to the platinum area, too. that is trading below gold right now. >> i was going to go there. >> and i -- >> palladium, too? >> i bought the platinum this morning, pplt. >> interesting. let's find out the top tickers traders are watching on twitter. herb greenberg is always plugged in. >> scott, earlier today, office depot was really getting a lot of activity because the company came out and stock's up 15%, 16%. but, the interesting part of the story, same-store sales down 5%. >> margins were up? >> margins were up because they're making some changes but they

and here is bruce reed, the executive director of the commission on cochaired by ernst and and i wrote idaho. i don't know how he got into that. i'm not going to go any further i see you looking over there, one of my citizens at harvard. ..

highest capital gains in dividend taxation in the world when you factor in double tax ace according to ernst young. theertz things we freed to fix if we really want middle class jobs. >> dan, interesting. i understand the administration, geithner announced the administration is coming out soon with a corporate fax reform proposal to bring down the rate and something i know you and others on this show have been calling for for a long time. look, the one thing i would object to in dan's wrap which i actually thought was pretty reasonable is a, the assault on the president's policies, whose fingerprints are all over these improvements and, b, the idea somehow people think things are getting better. no. things are getting better. are they where they need to be, no? getting better? not a matter of people somehow, an illusion. they are getting better. >> they are getting better, but instead of continuing bush's policy of too much spending and another intervention what if obama did a clinton and reduced the burden of the government? the economy would be doing better. i'm not here to make a partisan

. ♪ love is louder >> reporter: those words written, sung, and deeply felt by cameron ernst. ♪ >> itmusic, i think. >> reporter: the 23-year-old's message to north texas, love is louder. >> love is louder than hate, than fear, than loneliness. love is louder than pain. >> reporter: cameron is taking his message on the road already to 20 local schools. this assembly at bishop lynch high school made an impact on sabrina di genova. cameron asked the students to write down one stop by finishing this sentence. love is louder than blank. >> i said love is louder than stress because junior year there's a ton of stress about grades, about starting to look at colleges, about the s.a.t. >> i think a lot of people say love is louder than bullying. >> reporter: with three simple tasks cameron challenges the students to love harder. say hi using people's names in the hall. reach out to someone new during lunch. and write encouraging notes. >> the three that i wrote on my hand almost every day is just to remind me that i can do three simple things that'll remind everyone that love is louder. ♪ >>

.  >>> back now with the job of thh day, ernst and young havend you several openings, including auditaud manager. for more on this, and to see thousands of other listings, head to myfoxdc.com, and clickd on the job shop.op >>> all right, we've been'v talking e about this, the $25 billion mortgage settlemente it will help strugglingst homeowners in our area. >> it was announced with five the nation's biggest banks, onlo oklahoma is holding out.ou here in our area, the districts of columbia is gettingge $40 million, 480 million will go to virginia, and maryland will get about $960 million. many say it's long overdue. >> finally have a little bit of good news that we're bringinge some sort of justice to a lot ot people who have been hurt. >> if your loan is with freddiey may your fanny mack, you dodo not -- if your loan is withwi freddy may orphan any mack, youo do not qualify. >> you'll get an official lettea in the mayl . >> some argue against the whole settlement. we'll talk about this during tht 9:00 hour. >>> right now, it is 8:42.s bizarre loss for the washington caps, plus,

daniel ernst is with hudson square research. he joins us this morning to talk facebook.ing to you. >> good morning. >> i have seen all kinds of headlines today. i saw one a minute ago, don't bet the farm on zynga, to use a farmville pun. is that the right sentiment, do you think? >> yeah, no, i don't think that it is. the facebook filing revealed a couple of things that were interesting. just how important zynga is to facebook, 12% of revenues. someone you want to take care of. i think people more feared the facebook effect and appreciated how important it was. the other thing they revealed was that their app sales inside facebook rose 20% quarter on quarter. some of that is from migrating the app platform or payment system to other providers. but we were really modeling zynga's first quarter's public company up 5% quarter on quarter. so i think that will be a potential bit of surprise. of course, the stock's already run. so that's taken the team at a surprise. the other thing that's interesting for investors on zynga's column next week will be to our extent is monetizin

you taught -- you love education, and, steve, you talked about the ernst & young high-growth ceos.t seems to me there's this real world education happening, and we're trying to get on the same page with the need of management teams of high growth companies are unique. and you've got to have less friction, more velocity, more people on the same page and make decisions faster. but from your experience in education, how do we do that quickly? because it's easy to not be on the same page and just be focused on risk or growth or conservation of capital. and we need to get everything aligned. and that, you know, from my time at mckinsey, a management team working cross-functionally is the hardest thing to do, much less get multiple organizations to work together. >> right. from a business standpoint, i think some tension is healthy as long as everybody is moving to the same goal. you debate, you come out with better answers that way. so there's a healthy tension that i think is very good. but from education, what i've seen most success. , and when i was in florida i was on the state scho

forth will hear from tom neubig, the national director of quantitative economics and statistics for ernst and young, and the former director and chief economist for the treasury's office of tax analysis. mr. neubig leads a group of 24 quantitative analysts who assist clients with tax and economic policy issues. finally, we welcome mr. timothy heenan, vice president for treasury and tax at praxair inc. praxair is the largest provider of industrial gases in north and south america. mr. heenan joined praxair inc. 2004 from earnest and young were hit last year a senior manager specializing in the development and implementation of international tax strategies. thank you all very much for your time today. the committee has received each of your written statement and they will be made part of the former hearing record. each of you will be recognized for five minutes for your oral remarks followed by questions. so, mr. fryt, we begin with you. you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. good morning, chairman camp, ranking member levin, members of the committee. i very much appreciate this

and, steve, you talked about the ernst & young ceos. it seems to me this is this real world situation happening and we're trying to get on the same payment that the needs are -- page, that the needs are unique. you got to have more velocity, make decisions faster. but from your experience in education how do we do that quickly? because it's easy to not be on the same page and just be focused on risk or growth or conservation of capital. from my time of mckinsey, a management team working cross-functionally is the hardest thing to do, much less get multiple organizations to work together. >> right. from a business standpoint, i think some tension is healthy as long as a everybody is moving to the same goal. you debate, you come out with better answers that way. so there's a healthy tension that i think is very good. from education, what i see as most successful, when i was in florida, i was on the state school board. it was the integration of business into the curricula of the school where superintendents actually sat down with businesse