>>> tonight, second public hearing is going to be held on the planned merger between synergy and excelon. the commission is deciding whether to approve the proposed $7.9 billion deal. and tonight's meeting will take place at the war memorial building in downtown baltimore. another one will be on tuesday in annapolis, and both meetings will start at 7:00. >>> take a look at the east coat coast right now. quiet dons out here. and we'll continue to expect to see things remain clear. zooming in, and the bottom line is across the area, quiet winds, temperatures cooling off. and current conditions running in the 40s to third, north and west. so 39 frederick, 45 easton, and 45 in salisbury. tomorrow we'll climb out of the 40s and into the fefz by 4:00 -- 50s by 4:00. will this holdup all where could? we talk about this in minutes. >>> haberty grace could win a major award. the town is one of ten semifinalists for the 2012 great main street award. >> reporter: folks here say it'll be the culmination of a lot of hard work by folks who have worked hard over the years to keep this small main street

of a bought countrywide back in 2008 and the justice department has cleared the planned merger of excelonellation energy. that's the latest for cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." >>> welcome back to "hardball." today the republican presidential field shrank. the former new mexico governor gary johnson quit the party to run as libertarian but if more high-profile candidates like ron paul or jon huntsman make independent runs, new polls show that they could really hurt the republican nominee. even donald trump takes a big chunk from mitt romney in an obama/romney/trump three way. here's what worries republicans. ron paul on "meet the press" keeping his options open. >> are you ruling out a third-party run at any point? >> i have no plans to do that. >> are you ruling it out? i -- i'm not going to rule anything out or anything in. >> are you open to a third-party run? >> i am not even thinking about it. >> but you won't rule it out completely? >> i have enough on my plate right now. >> look what could a third-party candidate do for a 2012 race? i want to show you some