i'm joel brown, the story's coming up. >>> i'm kristy breslin in wjz- 13 traffic control. we'll have up the -- the updates, coming up. >>> with opening day just a day away, we have a great character here with us for coffee with and he's one of the best catchers in the history of mlb. i would say top 20. and he's coming by and sometimes, we just hang out and today, we're talking baseball from his perspective. that's as the morning edition continues after this. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, >>> hello again, it's the bottom of the hour, it's almost 6:29 and it's another summary day's start. >> well, you're welcome. you're most welcome. >> i like when you say, you're welcome. >> kristy breslin has the traffic. >> you like what, i couldn't hear you. well, i like when you say you're welcome. >> and thank you, for the compliment. >> and there's blue's brothers here somewhere. it's in the low 70s now, it's a gorgeous, gorgeous day's start and the cold front's sitting to the west and showers and thundershowers to the west and moving our way. and i think we stay, well, we'll stay cloudy and ra

joel brown has more. >> the consistent theme from management is get smaller, reduce risks and get closer to home. >> reporter: but it could be an uphill battle. >> there's in no doubt their behavior was unethical. >> reporter: lawmakers arrived armed with millions of e-mails. they say the paper trail shows the financial firm put its own interest ahead of its clients by betting the mortgage market would collapse. sound like we will make some serious money one employee e- mailed as the number of foreclosures grew. another trader wrote, i'm not so convinced this is a total death spiral. in fact we may have terrific opportunities. >> it profited by taking advantage of its clients reasonable expectation that it would not sell products that it did not want to succeed. >> reporter: but in testimony, he'll deliver later today, the ceo of goldman sachs expected to tell them his company did not bet against his client. this hearing is ten days after the government filed a fraud lawsuit against the government. the sec claims the company never told company one mortgage- related investment was designe

joel brown is in augusta, georgia with the latest. joel, good morning.ooks like we're having some technical difficulties, so let's turn now to cbs "moneywatch." stocks in asia ended this week with more gains and ashley morrison is here in new york with that and a whole lot more. ashley, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, michelle. well, the hang seng added more than 1% this morning and the nikkei finished up nearly half a percent. on wall street, a positive retail sales report helped keep stocks on the upside thursday despite worse than expected jobless claim numbers. the dow added 29 points, while the nasdaq gained 5. >>> according to data from the new york fed, several major banks have been hiding the risks by underreporting their debt. the "wall street journal" says 18 banks, including goldman sachs, jpmorgan chase and bank of america, temporarily lowered their debt just before reporting it to the public presumably in an effort to help keep their stock price. >>> apple's upgrade for the iphone and ipad will be available this summer. the n

joel brown, cbs news, washington. >>> here in maryland the gubernatorial vase starting to heat up. current governor o'malley will kick off his re-election campaign in largo, maryland this afternoon. o'malley will embark on a state- wide tour with lieutenant governor brown. the pair leads ehrlich by four points in the latest poll. >>> northrop grumman is moving corporate headquarters to virginia. it is not certain where in virginia but governor mcdonnell will come to arlington tomorrow to make the announcement. northrop grumman headquarters currently have 300 people. they provide aerospace, electronics information, shipbuilding and technical services. >>> both virginia and maryland are in the top ten rankings of states with mortgage fraud. maryland is sixth in the 2009 rankings while virginia is tenth. compared to last year, maryland is lower but just one spot and virginia rooked up to 24th in 2008. >>> in the news now, crews are racing to seal off an under water oil well that is spilling 42,000-gallons a day in to the gulf of mexico. the well began to leak after it exploded last we

joel brown, cbs news, washington. >>> and as we said, the senate and a 57-41 vote failed, to get the 50 supporters needed to proceed on their regulatory overhaul. >>> one local community college is offering a -- this weeks men and women's college lacrosse poll, remember, you can look at wjz for the latest news. >>> today, a mayor group community care donated $8,000 to that cause. providing free vitamins for women who can't afford them. >> here in the city, unfortunately we have the highest rate of infant mortality in the state. so what we would like to do is reduce that number by at least 10%. reduce that rate by 10% by 2012. >> the donation will buy enough prenatal vitamins to provide women with the vitamins. >>> new information is out today and the news is not good. americans are literally eating themselves to death. >> reporter: stop someone on any street in america and chances are, you will find a chronic health problem. >> a little high on the cholesterol. >> i have high cholesterol, yes. >> this man has high blood pressure. >> hopefully i can get off this medication. >> reporte

joel brown reports from washington. >> reporter: the securities and exchange commission workers were being paid to police the financial markets. instead, some spent hours surfing for hard core porn on their government computers. >> our country is in shambles and they're doing their own thing. >> reporter: 17 people caught were senior staffers, making as much as $270,000 a year. one attorney spent up to eight hours a day watching porn. when he ran out of room on the hard drive he burned the porn on dvds and stored them in his office. an accountant was blocked 16,000 times from visiting explicit websites. the report says he still found a way around the web filters. >> they're being paid to do a job for the people, and when you lose sight of that they have to be dealt with appropriately. >> reporter: the sec inspector general called the behavior a violation. they have already suspended or fired some of the staffers. one resigned and another is serving a two week suspension. >> in a statement republican congressman charged sec officials were distracted when they should have been overseei

joel brown reports from capitol hill to explain what happens now. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> for the third day in a row, republicans blocked debate on the financial overhaul, saying the bill still needs work. they want that work done before debate begins on the senate floor. >> once this bill does get to the floor, we all recognize that it's going to be very, very difficult to change it. >> the place to nitpick a piece of legislation isn't in sequence. it's on the senate floor. >> some analysts have argued that the goldman sachs' showdown tuesday and public sentiment against big banks would help push the vote forward. but that doesn't seem the case, at least so far. republicans want to scale back, saying they hurt small businesses. and they want the bill to restrict financial assistance. >> why are we reigning in main street and ignoring the two great housing agencies that were at the root cause of this great recession we're in? >> reporter: while lawmakers hashed it out, president obama took his reform on the road. >> reporter: visiting small towns in missouri and illinois.

joel brown, cbs news. >>> and at this point, no one can say lounge it will take to get the fire underontrol. >> you'll want to check back in tonight for hissen hazards in -- for hidden hazards in all of our homes, children falling through screen windows. >>> those are the stories and more breaking news today at 4:00. >> please stay with us, the five-day forecast is next. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, >>> not like this is going to be a real, wet day. i'm concentrating on tomorrow, friday and saturday. and 66 by saturday and a few degrees below normal. we're still cruising in on the end of april. and we're going to get one of these, well, you know, spring like cold fronts moving through, 60 and still cloudy, breezy and 60, that's what i'm saying, today, it is what it is. the party starts for the next three days and we'll have a sunrise. >> tonight, another csi and at 10:00, it's csi new york and immediately followed by eyewitness news at noon. >>> well, it's a monkey menace. a group of monkeys are causing trouble for tourists in india. they're fond of nonvegetarian food and they're aggressive in their

joel brown tells us this is in response to the attempted christmas day bombing. >> security screeners have new tools to try to keep america's skies safe. they're now using a list of characteristics, provided by intelligence agencies, to snag suspected terrorists before they board airplanes. they will also look at travelers' physical descriptions and where they've traveled before. passengers departing from baltimore, give the new party mixed reviews. >> don't see any problem with it at all. >> i just wish they did security that seems to make sense. >> the changes reflect the current policy. it singles out some for additional screening. >> that comes after a failed attempt to blow up a plane in detroit christmas day. >> it is a system that we think is much more effective, much more efficient, much more concentrated than the threat as we see it. >> the u.s. government has no authority to screen passengers in foreign airports. so officials offered to share intelligence and hope other countries get on board with this new plan. if foreign airlines choose not to follow the new u.s. guideline

. >> reporter: i'm joel brown on capitol hills. democrats may have taken a bad bet, thinking they could convince at least one republican to get on board with their financial reform package. calling the gop's plaintiff and they took the vote anyway -- bluff and nay took the vote anyway. >> reporter: democrats needed just one crack to their opposition of the reform bill. they didn't get it. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> reporter: just one gop senator had voted yes, it would have green lighted debate on the most sweeping changes to the banking system since the great depression. but republicans wanted a deal beforehand. and without it, all 41 said no. >> we're negotiating for a better piece of legislation. not for the sake of the legislation. >> with the complex bill, there's a lot of opinions that people have. but we autoto be able to start the de-- ought to be able to start the debate. >> reporter: they mite bring it up -- they might bring it up again on wednesday. >>> a question mark now hangs over the construction of rail to d

joel brown is live in our washington bureau. good morning, joel. >> reporter: good morning.s time over financial reform. the memory of the billions in taxpayer money that bailed out the banks is still fresh. >> americans are really frustrated and fed up and they feel like wall street for the the sweet end of this deal. >> reporter: the democrat senate bill would create a new independent agency protecting consumers from abusive credit card practices and faulty mortgages, make it harder for financial institutions to get pail squo bailout money and give shareholder assay in executive pay and compensation. >> this is reform that will force banks and financial institutions to pay for bad decisions that they make. >> reporter: but republicans say they've got their own ideas on overhauling wall street and democrats are ignoring them. all 41 gop senators have signed a letter opposing the bill in its current form arguing it gives endless taxpayer bailouts of wall street and establishes new and unlimited regulator powers that will stifle small businesses and community banks. the presi

joel brown reports for wjz from washington, with more on what was uncovered. >> reporter: the securities and exchange commission workers were being paid to police the financial markets. instead, some spent hours surfing for hard-core porn on their government computers. >> our country is in a shambles. and they're dog -- doing their own thing. >> reporter: 17 people caught were senior staffers, making as much as $220,000 a year. worn manner attorney spent up -- one attorney spent up to eight hours a day, watching porn. he burned the porn onto dvds, and stored them in his office. and an s.e.c. accountant was blocked more than 16,000 times from visiting explicit websites. the report says he still found a way around the s.e.c.'s web filters. snairs being ask -- >> they're being paid to do a job for the people. and when you lose sight of that, they have to be dealt with appropriately. >> the agency says it's already suspended or fired some of the staffers. one has resigned. and another is serving a two two-week suspension. >> reporter: in a statement, republican congressman darrell issasaid t

in wall street, joel brown, wjz eyewitness news. >> meanwhile, the senate is still trying to overhaulhe nation's financial regulation system. it hopes new laws will prevent another mortgage crisis from ever happening again. >>> the granddaughter of etiquette expert emily post has died. elizabeth post died at age 89 in florida. post once said, quote, etiquette is meant to smooth the path for people to better relationships. >>> if you've ever drowned your sorrows in chocolate, you're not the only one. a new study finds a link between depression and eating chocolate. according to the study, people diagnosed with depression ate an average of three more chocolate servings a month than those who were not depressed. researchers can't be sure whether chocolate is the cause. depression or a cure. >>> and time now for a quick look at some of the stories you find in tomorrow morning's edition of the baltimore sun. health insurance companies could bring with it 300 new jobs. tips on how to shop the farmers markets like a professional chef. and meet this week's top high school athletes. remember t

brown mentioned spending -- absolutely, too right. i don't think we're really going to get those smaller class sizes, that one-to-one tuition that i think joel agrees is necessary, the catch-up classes, unless we find the money from savings elsewhere. we've spelt that out in our manifesto, so we can provide under our plan 2.5 billion pounds extra to our schools. >> i'm going to stop you right there, because i know what the questions are and you don't, but the next question continues that debate. your answers are entirely a matter for you, and your rebuttals as well, but i think you may find that the next question will continue that discussion. it's robert lewis, a senior manager in healthcare. mr. lewis, your question. >> how certain can you be that your party's policies will deal with the budget deficits without damaging economic growth? >> mr. cameron? >> this is an absolutely vital question, and i'm glad it's been asked, because we've got to get this economy moving. we've got to get this economy growing. what we say is save 6 billion pounds in the coming current year in order to stop the jobs tax which we think will derail the recovery. b