senator johanns. >> madam chair, let me also express my appreciation to thank you for having this hearing to the members of the panel. thanks for being here, and thanks to your commitment. let me, if i might, just associate myself with comments that have been made both by the chair and by the ranking member. i believe they are hitting the nail on the head. in my view of the world, part of the cost of war is caring for our veterans. there will be a point at which the uniform is set aside and they come home and need to find a place, if you will. if they have medical needs, then we need to find a way to address those needs. one of the things that is also enormously perplexing to me is the inability to transition so much, so many veterans into the workforce. i appreciate the economic times are difficult and challenging. we all know that. but it's so disheartening when i talk to veterans and i go around the room and try to figure out where they're at in the light and how they are transitioning from coming into the workforce. and so many of them say i haven't been able to find a steady job. and

johanns: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be set aside. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. johanns: mr. president, i rise today to remember a fallen hero. nebraska army national guard sergeant omar jones of maywood, nebraska. sergeant jones served as an electrician in the 623rd engineer company, nebraska army national guard out of wahoo, nebraska. sergeant jones died at a military base in afghanistan on july 18, 2011. omar grew up in mississippi. he lived in bogota, colombia, for many years. he graduated from high school in colorado and chose to enter the army instead of pursuing a college athletic scholarship. he served two tours in iraq, one as an infantry naan the active duty army and one with the nebraska army national guard. his love of country compelled him to seek an assignment in afghanistan. he volunteered and even changed units and developed new skills for this opportunity. in october, 2010, he deployed to afghanistan with the 623rd engineering company. it was a tough decision to deploy again because his wife ava and t

. -- senator johanns. >> thank you. so many things were said by senator alexander that it would almost be sufficient to say that i adopt his statement, but let me offer a thought or two if i might. i am anxious to hear about the safety concerns. we have nuclear power in the state of nebraska. it has been a good neighbor and our state. we feel it runs efficiently, smartly. we feel that the folks that are operating the facilities in our states are responsive to the community. i would be remiss if i did not mention the quality jobs that go with the facilities. all of that has worked very well for us. the second thing i would say about that is that, as you know, for many months, we have been in the throes of an historic flooding event with the missouri river in nebraska, and that has implemented -- infiltrated nuclear facilities. we have found the staff to be responsive, and it has been an experience that although difficult and trying, because so much land has been underwater for so long, we feel, in terms of the nuclear fa

you see this is what's very interesting and south african coming from johannes food if you showed that cavett to people in south africa they didn't even notice the headline because that's not our politics they saw i share and the controversy came from very many different places and therefore everyone responded in very different ways depending on the politics depending on the country they came from depending on a whole lot of different variables so it didn't affect me in that way in a in actual fact it was a catalyst and that it spread through the blogosphere world it was on t.v. it was everywhere and actually it was furthering and speaking about violence against women and more and more people were seeing this before we start there of the historian the pictures of a couple more words about the confrontation first of all what was your favorite picture among others among your competitors can you name some something else. and i quite liked that. one photograph i think it's in bangladesh of at x.x. so a photograph from the cinema and it's a far then he sun walking through the water and i li

characters, for example african american characters, i'm also caution -- i had written another play called johann that was about an african american gi and a japanese wife that got married in post war japan. i wrote that play 20 years ago. i wouldn't do it for about 8 years or so because i just didn't feel comfortable about being a japanese american writing an african american character. you have to think about, too, this whole idea of political correctness has both an up side and a very bad down side. one of those is people tend to be very cautious and not want to try things like that. i eventually through my relationship with danny glover pulled it out of my drawers -- out of the drawer, desk drawer, and read it and danny was instrumental in saying, let's do this. let's just do this. but, again, it was me working with some african american actors and i actually had it vetted by august wilson, read it and checked it out for me and there's another fellow who wrote soldier's story, charles fuller, took a look at it for me. i wanted to make sure my bases were covered. but this new play, what i did

and finally to malta sport of a more heavy duty variety germany's johann hong has extended his overall lead at the european truck racing championships the competition hitting the smiley and scoring for the second straight here over the weekend. power and speed all in one these trucks gear up to one hundred sixty kilometers an hour and could have gone even faster if they hadn't been restricted by the regulations of the european truck racing championships the high octane action which hit russia over the last weekend this mine's green the two year old track designed by famous formula one architect herrmann to get hosting the sport's elite for the second straight time for the fifth leg of the two thousand and eleven european championships the reigning champion until noble third in proved to be the fastest driver during saturday school vacation and started the race won from poll position although this season's leader and hun was quick to overtake this one year and lead the way to fourteen left action soon turned into a duel between the two with the spanish fire while i'm melting the german

chief johann hayes white pinned their badges on.irst fire fighting class that everyone was trained as an emergency medical technician. >> the next two years, i would have to do a little more with the economy. but it's a step in the right direction to have 35 new members in the department. >> currently the fire department does not have funding for another training class. it was somber tribute at the graduation. a moment of silence to remember the two firefighters that died back in a house fire in june. >> beginning this school year, months law is making it illegal to be friends with students on facebook. the idea to protect students of any contact but social networking is a standard tool for many teachers. here a lyanne melendez with a report. >> silicon valley teachers are learning new computer skills, facebook is not one of them. >> there is stuff that i put up there, that i wouldn't want my students to say, things about my kids and family. >> months lawmakers agreed making it illegal for them to interact with any student under the

you would not see a significant shift in of route, which is something that even republican senator johannsn calling for. host: next phone call. dan in oklahoma. caller: i had relatives who work in the refineries in oklahoma. i recall, growing up, it was like a super fund site with all of the oil development. one of the arguments -- actually, i was protesting in front of the white house, too. i was there on day 3. one of the point that people make is we need oil, oil is getting expensive, we seem to be willing to do anything to keep oil at low rates, such as going to war with other countries. it seems that we are trying to come from the other end. where is that the line we are going to draw? do you think that is part of the argument, trying to get america to draw the line by which they will go no further? guest: that is exactly the argument that some of the environmentalists are making. what are you not willing to do to produce oil domestically? this has come up in the context of offshore drilling, in light of the bp oil spill. ultimately, that is a question that the administration will nee

senator johanns. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you, madam chair. to the commissioners, let me just start out and tell you we appreciate you being here with us today. so many things were said by senator alexander that i concur with that it would almost be sufficient that i adopt his statement but let me offer a thought or two if i might. i'm very anxious to hear about the safety concerns. we have nuclear power as you know in the state of nebraska. it's been a good neighbor in our state. we feel it runs efficiently, smartly. we feel that the folks who are operating the facilities in our state are responsive to the community. i would be remiss if i didn't mention the quality jobs that go with the facilities. all of that has worked very well for us. the second thing i would say about that is, as you know, for many months now we've been in the throes of a historic flooding event with missouri river in nebraska. and that has implicated our nuclear facilities. we have found you folks to be responsive, the staff to be responsive. and it has been an experie