general john nicholson is testifying this week before the senate armed services committee. right now there are nearly 10,000 u.s. troops on the ground in afghanistan. it was under nicholson' s instruction that president obama abandoned his plan to have nearly all u.s. troops withdrawn by the end of this year. ed: a migrant ship sings off the coast of greece, 30 people were on board. more than 200 men, women, and children have died trying to reach europe, fleeing violence in syria and afghanistan. more arrests tonight in the standoff at an oregon wildlife ranch. jc: still to come tonight, the plea being made by the group' s leader from his jail cell. ed: the popularity of the fitbit continues to grow, but do they the claims tonight the devices are a scam. what new testing shows. barbie doll. the new version getting high jc: -- ed: the so-called affluenza teen is back in texas tonight. this is video of ethan couch before he boarded a plane in mexico earlier today. couch and his mother are accused of fleeing there aft he violated his probation for a 2013 drunk driving crash th

senate armed services committee meets this morning to consider e:@máujáp& john nicholson to bee next mmander of u.s. and coalition forces in afghanistan. general, congratulations on your nomination and welcome, and as our tradition, general nicholson, we hope you will take the opportunity before your remarks to introduce any family and friends joining you today as senator kirk mentioned you have a distinguished family lineage including your umpgle and old friend, members of this committee, jim nicholson and of course your father, as general nicholson as well. i'd like to begin by thanking you general for in your many years of distinguished service and leadership in of agab stand at a critical time. you presided over important progress, improving the capability of the afghan military and developed a strong and productive relationship with the afghan unity government. when you saw the progress was in danger, insisted that further troop withdrawal should be baseded on conditions on the ground. while president obama decided to keep troops in afghanistan beyond 2016, conditions on the grou

vago: last week the pentagon nominated lieututenant army genera john nicholson to be the head of the. nato mission in afghanistan for during his senate confirmation heararing, nicholsomade it clear it will take many more years before the country can stand on its own. la year, as the tell up a and searched, president obama abandoned pls to reduce the number of f u.s. troops in afghanistan to 1000. today, about 10,000 0 troops remainith plans to cut that number in half by next januy. assuming, of course, that all goesell. for the time being, that is not the case. nicholson admits t security mission is deteriorating, as isis gains groround. impmproved nato have the effectiveness of u.s. ground forces, but the country's air force, logistics, and medal systems have a long way to go. this will be a long, slow,w, and expensive project, which would lead to the country's rapid collapse. it's simple is in ready to stand on its own and its enemies, including the taliban and isis, know it. i continued u.s. and nato presesence in afghanistan is vil to preventnt the creation anothr -- creation of

. >> army general john nicholson is the presence nominee to be the next commander in military operations afghanistan. at a hearing he talked about the security challenges in afghanistan and the u.s. strategy in the region. this hearing is one and half hours. [inaudible] >> good morning. thank you for being here, i would ask the indulgence of the committee to allow our distinguished collet from illinois, senator kirk to make a few words of introduction before we begin the committee proceedings. senator senator kirk. >> thank you mr. chairman. i am here to give general nicholson my highest recommendation. he has had three and half years of active duty service on the ground, more than any other general officer in the military. i have served him several times as a reservist in afghanistan. there is no officer who has as much experience in the u.s. military than he does. i would note that with him you get a multigenerational input from his father and grandfather, and great grand uncle. the famous nickel saying who has also been given a monument in northern pakistan who led the british forces.

. >> army general john nicholson is the presence nominee to be the next commander in military operations afghanistan. at a hearing he talked about the security challenges in afghanistan and the u.s. strategy in the region. this hearing is one and half hours.

john nicholson junior told u.s. lawmakers today that he would do a thorough review of u.s. levels needed within 90 days of taking the job. succeedrmed, he would john f campbell, who is retiring. more trouble for detroit toss embattled public school system. suing overents are mold, rodents and other problems. they want the problems fixed in the emergency manager fired. protestingve been over school conditions and poor pay since the start of the year. is 500 millionem dollars in debt and may be unable to meet its payroll by april. 69% of americans feel anxious about a trump presidency according to a new poll. about a tediety cruz presidency. 51% say they are anxious about hillary clinton becoming president. 43% have anxiety about bernie sanders. " will be due respect live from des moines, iowa all this week ahead of the iowa caucuses. coverage begins at 5 p.m. new york time on bloomberg television. 30 years ago today, tragedy struck america pass space program as seven astronauts died when the challenger exploded. nasa held memorial services at the johnson space center in houst

army lieutenant general john nick nicholson is up for top american commander there he says he will have a better sense of conditions within the next two months if he gets the position this time last year president obama plan to bring home the nine thousand plus troops from afghanistan by the end of two thousand sixteen. now the president says that number would shrink to just over five thousand developing now more money is flowing into the flint water crisis the michigan senate has allocated twenty eight million dollars to buy more bottled water and filters the emergency spending bill will also go to unpaid water bills and testing u s senate democrats are working on spending up to four hundred million dollars to replace pipes. meanwhile the owner of the nba is detroit pistons is promising to raise ten million dollars shopping trip grocery store i took off after him and i was streaming audio stops per game and that i was screaming some obscenity that led me to a the ohana targeted by thieves chases down the robbers and with iowa the iowa caucuses just days away thirteen years now has excl

. ♪ >> president obama's -- john nicholson testifies at a confirmation hearing.coverage this morning from the senate armed services committee at 9:30 a.m. on c-span3. the head of the fda testifies about access to generic drugs. live coverage gets underway at 10:00 eastern. next, presidential candidate bernie sanders campaigns in mason city, iowa. he talks about health care, the economy and republican presidential candidate, donald trump. susan sarandon introduces senator sanders. [applause] susan: the last time i was in iowa, i was here at the time that barack obama was coming through for the second time to thank the people of iowa for believing in him and for giving him the chance to go on to become the president of the united states. [cheering and applause] the people of iowa did not listen to the machine that said he was unelectable. to what this black man with a funny last men -- the funny last name have to say. they gave him a shot. now here we are again facing the machine with the effect -- with the same complaints. except with a man who has proven over and

armed services committee meets this morning to consider the nomination of lieutenant-general john nicholson to be the next commander of u.s. and coalition forces in afghanistan. congratulations on your nomination, welcome, it is our tradition, general nicholson, we hope you will take the opportunity to introduce any family and friends joining you today and to have that distinguished family lineage including your uncle and old friend, members of this committee and your father, general nicholson as well. i would like to begin by thanking you for your many years of distinguished service and your leadership in afghanistan at a critical time, you presided over important progress in improving the capability of the military and a strong relationship with afghan unity government. you stop progress is in danger, insisted further troop withdrawal should be based on conditions on the ground. and keeping 9,800 u.s. troops in afghanistan beyond 2016, additions on the ground in afghanistan demand an immediate evaluation scheduled american troop withdrawals. this administration based on a calendar based w

meanwhile, the pentagon has announced that lieutenant general john "mick" nicholson has been chosen to replace general john campbell as the commander of international forces in afghanistan. nicholson is currently the head of nato's allied land command. his selection must be confirmed by the senate. this comes amid a deteriorating security situation in afghanistan that caused president obama to reverse his promise to withdraw the majority of u.s.troops by the end of last -- and of the year. newly discovered emails show michigan officials were trucking clean water to a state building in the city of flint last january, long before admitting to residents the water was poisoned. progress michigan, which obtained the emails, told mother mother jones they "blow a hole in the governor's timeline for when they knew or started to have concerns about flint water." the crisis began when an unelected emergency manager appointed by michigan governor rick snyder switched flint's water source to the corrosive flint river in a bid to save money. the fbi has released video of the fatal police shooting o

that came from john nicholson. many senators argued against the plan to remove about half of u.s.ops in afghanistan by next year. nicholson has promised to make recommendations based on conditions he sees on the ground >> i share your concerns and i would ask your indulgence to come back to you once i've had a chance to get on the ground and do a detailed assessment of this to really give you the answer sz you're looking for >>> u.s. troops are officially only in an advisory role in afghanistan. despite that an american soldier was killed in a fire fight last month and six air men were killed in a suicide bombing in december >>> the pentagon is out with proposals to help service members and their families. a plan for increased parental leave, including doubling maternal leave, in an effort to recruit and retain quality members >>> turning to weather, the west coast is expecting some wet weather this weekend in parts of california are in for some long awaited rain. >> reporter: wet, windy, wintery all for the west. a lot of ws in there. part of it is the fact that you can see this

lieutenant general john nicholson told the senate armed services committee during his confirmation. right now there are about 9,800 troops in afghanistan on a mission of training, advising and assisting afghan forces and counterterrorism. the number of troops is set to fall about 5,500 by the end of the year. again, that from "the hill." >>> this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. on c-span, senator rand paul will be speaking to voters at a campaign rally in des moines and afterward we'll take your calls. he'll be part of tonight's debate among the gop presidential hopefuls in iowa. skipping tonight's debate, though, is donald trump. he instead will be holding a rally at drake university in des moines. that's scheduled for 9:00 p.m. eastern time. we'll have it live also on c-span. >>> c-span's campaign 2016 is taking you on the road to the white house for the iowa caucuses. monday, february 1st our live coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span 2, we'll bring you live precaucus coverage taking your phone calls and tweets and texts and at 8:00 p.m. eastern we'll take you to a rep

it confirmed, nicholson would succeed retiring general john campbell. a judge has agreed to delay dennis hastert sentencing in a hush money case. his attorneys said the former house speaker nearly died last november. sentencing is now set for november 8. hester and pleaded guilty to breaking banking laws as he sought to pay someone $3.5 million to conceal what prosecutors call prior misconduct. the michigan legislature has approved $20 million in additional funding to address the lead contamination in flint water. the bill now goes to rick snyder who is expected to sign it. meantime on capitol hill, senate democrats are introducing a measure that provides up to $4 million in new federal funding to replace and fix lead contaminated pipes in flint. donald trump is maintaining his big lead among republican primary voters across the nation. according to a new poll, trump leads with 34%. marco rubio has 14%, and ted cruz is up 12%. no other republican candidate is in double digits. a programming reminder, "with all due respect" is live from des moines, iowa