maine, 37 votes. >> madame secretary.nvention on like our friends in tampa. maine turned red overnight in 2010 but we will turn blue and deliver all four of our electoral votes to the democratic candidate for the sixth election in a row. tonight we're honored to deliver 35 delegates for the nomination of president barack obama. [applause] casting 35u, maine, votes for barack obama. maryland. 124 votes. [applause] >> madam secretary, mdaryland, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the number one state for entrepreneurship, the number one state for four years in a row for public education in america has a great vote to cast here but we have a couple more things we would like to share with you. >> working with our great gov. martin o'malley, being -- having driven down violent crime by 30%, made college education more affordable for the people are state, looking forward to the baltimore orioles' winning the world series, and the ribbons, the redskins beating in the super bowl. maryland, where we move forward, not

thank you, madam president. mr. franken: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: thank you, madam president. two enormous challenges will await us when we return from recess. our economy is still not yet fully recovered from a devastating recession, and the prospects for our middle class and for those aspiring to be in the middle class or to get back into the middle class remain uncertain. meanwhile, our budget remains sorely out of balance and our long-term debt crisis is putting our nation's fiscal future at risk. these two challenges are, of course, linked. we can't hope to solve our long-term debt problem unless we get our economy growing again, and we can't hope to rebuild our prosperity unless we resolve our budget problems. so we will have big decisions to make when we come back, but in the meantime, the american people will be wrestling with the same issues. what should we do to grow our economy and reduce our debt? what are the right investments to make? how should we pay for them? what sacri

madam speaker, the g.s.a.rnished the reputation of government workers who dedicate their lives to public service which i believe is unfair. this legislation as amended will prevent a few reckless and selfish individuals from engaging in activities that discredit the entire federal work force. madam speaker, i urge the support for this bill. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from illinois. mr. walsh: i continue to reserve. just inquire if there are any speakers. mr. clay: i do have one, yes, i do. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois reserves. the gentleman from movement. mr. clay: i'd like to yield four minutes to the gentleman from new jersey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for four minutes. mr. holt: madam speaker, i thank my friend from missouri and i rise in opposition to h.r. 4631. i oppose this bill because it would make significant changes to federal employees' ability to travel to confer

so, madam president, i feel very strongly about this. i guess what you're hearing from senator mikulski is grief for what's happened in libya, worry about what's happened in cairo, tension about what continues to happen in the middle east, and then frustration about what goes on here. when after all is said and done, what is said gets done and what is said is often not very good. the world is watching us here. we're supposed to be the greatest democracy in the world. not only are we supposed to be but i believe they are. but democracy begins with us. democracy is not always something written on a piece of paper which are our founding documents. but we have to live what is within those founding documents. we have to, first of all, start with civility, start with respect, start with conversations among ourselves about how we can truly work together to help our country and to help our country help the world. so -- and this is what it was all about 50 years ago when a young president went to rice university. the russians were pounding their

madam clerk, can you read item 9? >> approve the final report of the central freeway and octavia circulation study. >> there any member of the public who would like to speak on this item? please come forward. you have three minutes. >>> good morning, commissioners. >> is the mic -- >>> now it's on, thank you. good morning, commissioners. my name is jackie. i'm a member of the citizens advisory committee for the transportation authority. we heard this item at our last cac meeting and i attended last week's plans and programs committee meeting. the one thing that was not brought up as far as the octavia boulevard study, you have to remember there are a lot of senior and disabled individuals that live along this corridor that depend on safe walking, safe crossing the streets sort of thing. besides the fact there is also a major

a senator: madam president? a senator: thank you, madam president. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. i'd like to take a few minutes today to talk about our nation's economy. this speech is not about the economy that we wish we had. this speech is not about the economy that we used to have. this is about the economy that we have today. by now, americans are all too familiar with the bad economic news. front page of today's "wall street journal" provides little respite from that bad news. it reads -- and here's the headline, front page -- "household income sinks" -- sinks -- "to 1995 level." say that again. "household income sinks to 1995 level." the president talks about moving forward but the reality is that the american paychecks are moving backward. the article goes on to describe a report from the census bureau, a report that illustrates what millions of americans already know -- we're not better off than we were last year, or the year before, or the year before that. in fact, the census bureau data shows that household incomes in 2011 fell fo

madam president, with that, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. i rise today for two reasons and they are separate and distinct, and i ask that they be separated in the record, if i may. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. first, i rise to protest an action by the federal housing finance agency, fannie mae and freddie mac, that punish my state of connecticut and four other states for effectively protecting our citizens against unfair and abusive mortgage foreclosure practices. and i want to say right at the outset, i am determined to fight this action, along with my colleagues, during the comment period that we have to contest this very unwise, misguided, unacceptable decision. these agencies have just posted for 60-day comment a decision to increase fannie mae and freddie mac's guarantee fee for connecticut and four other states -- new jersey, new york, illinois and florida. why? because the protection

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. sessions: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: madam president, i know my colleague, the democratic assistant leader, is here and i'll make a budget point of order now so -- because i understand he would be objecting. madam president, the pending amendment number 2789 offered by the senator from washington would cause the underlying legislation to exceed the authorizing committee section 302-a allocation of the new budget authority and outlays. therefore, it violates the budget and i raise a point of order against this measure pursuant to section 302-f of the congressional budget act of 1974. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: pursuant to section 904 of the congressional budget act of 1984,ty move to waive that section of the act and ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there aappears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. sessions: thank you, madam president. by say to my colleague i appreciate h

thank you, madam chairwoman. i saw the gentleman from maryland, now i'm losing track of where everybody is from. i saw mr. van hollen on television this morning, it was the first i'd heard of his proposal so i had toance -- i had a chance to go and look at it today and also had a chance to look at the c.b.o. report that was performed on it. and saw some interesting things. i don't know if we've discussed lly here today, it raises taxes by $85 billion other the 10-year window. according to the c.b.o., it raises spending by almost $80 billion. this is a refrain i used to hear a lot when i was younger, taxes and spend, taxes and spendi, raise taxes, increase spending. mr. duncan: i thought it was gone from today's party across the aisle burr here it is alive and well in mr. van hollen's substitute, raising taxesnd raising spending, a deficit re ducks of $5 billion, it increases the deficit by $5 llion in the first year. it does that, part and parcel but offering what they call the buffett rule. the last time i came

thank you. >> madam clerk, are there any other items before us? >> there are no further items before you. >> thank you. then we are adjourned.

madam clerk, any communications? >> angela calvillo: i have no communications. >> president chiu: could you call our 3 pm special order. >> angela calvillo: first item of business is policy discussion between mayor and linley and board of supervisors. this week representing the even districts, specifically district 4. the mayor may address the board for up to five minutes. the president will recognize the sproofers who will present her question to the mayor, as long as the entire discussion does not exceed five minutes per supervisor. >> president chiu: mr. mayor, welcome back to the board. >> mayor lee: thank you. good afternoon, supervisors, and to the public, thank you again for inviting me here to present answers to your questions. before i begin, i want to welcome everybody back from the august break. and, also, just to add to the moment of silence, we had earlier for 9/11 victims, if i might just ask you to remember our local heroes, as a part of that, and in addition to the -- some almost 3,000 people who lost

poe: thank you, madam speaker. yesterday was the 11th anniversary of the attack on america from 9/11 in 2001 where americans were killed and it was an act of terrorism. but yesterday americans were attacked again. in two attacks, in egypt and in libya. apparentry terrorists attacking us again on 9/11. the embassy in egypt was stormed. the american flag was brought down and a black flag was raised by those who came into the compound. in libya, the consulate was attacked, set afire and our ambassador to libya, chris stevens, was murdered. and according to the bbc hi body was brought through the streets in benghazi. the groups are individuals that committed these acts must be found. there's no evidence yet there was any act by either one of these two governments but by individuals or even by groups. in libya, al qaeda cousins, as i call them, claims responsibility for the murder of our u.s. ambassador. it's no coincidence that these two attacks occurred nearly at the same time and they both occurred on the anniversary

thank you. >> madam clerk, are there any other items before us? >> there are no further items before you. >> thank you. then we are adjourned. >> when the new california academy of sciences opened in 2008, it quickly became one of the top tourist magnets in the city. part of the cal academies' astronomical success is the weekly nightlife party. >> i am joined by helen, who is here to school me on all the nocturnal activities that are getting ready to take place here. tell us a little about what we can expect to see at nightlife. >> we open up the doors every thursday night at the california academy of sciences. there are certain things you can see every week you can go to the museum, visit the planetarium, and we bring in bars and a deejay or band. it is a different feel from during the day, something different every week. tonight , we have beer and music. -- tonight we have great beer and music. it is beer week. we have a dozen local brewers in african hall. we have a deejays to set up throughout the museum and a live performance at 9:00 p.m. ton

burton: thank you, madam speaker. i'm not going to take the full 30 minutes, but i have been in this congress for a long, long time and i have been frustrated a lot and i think maybe i have learned a little bit and for any of my colleagues who are in their offices watching on television, i thought i would make a few comments about some of the things that i hope that they will take as a little bit of a lesson for them down the road. the first thing that -- i have been on the foreign affairs committee for 30 years, and the first thing i learned is that you can't make the world over in our image. no matter how hard we try. there are different cultures, different people, different religions. tribal, all kinds of things. and when we go into another part of the world and try to make them like us, we cause a lot of problems. we caught a lot of lives. and we lose a lot of money. we should always realize in the back of our minds that we should do what's in the interest of the united states of america first, last, and always. a

madam clerk, if we can have roll call. commissioner. >> thank you. i'm going to be supportive of the amendment to the code, but i'm kind of -- i've been kind of alarmed or concerned that the attendance at our meetings has not been as thorough as it needs to be. i'm not calling out anyone in particular, but i expect, you know, hearing the program, finance approved the full board, we'll make every effort to be here for the greatest length possible, if not possibly the entire meeting. that hasn't been the norm, and i think we owe the public a real service for being here the length of the entire meeting. and i just want to make sure that we can, you know, self-regulate ourselves in a better way to make sure that we can be here. and everyone who is here right now, great, we're all here. but i just think that moving forward we really need to be watchful of each other's time and the public's time as we participate on this body. >> thank you. commissioner, i think your point is duly noted. colleagues, this is an action item. madam clerk, if you can please do

supervisor campos. >> supervisor campos: thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, i have a couple of items. on behalf of board of education commissioner kim tree -- board of education, board of supervisors committee, i am requesting a hearing that deals with the memorandum of understanding between the san francisco unified school district and the san francisco police department. the second item that i have is a resolution welcoming to the city and county

thank you, madam chairwoman. i saw the gentleman from maryland, now i'm losing track of where everybody is from. i saw mr. van hollen on television this morning, it was the first i'd heard of his proposal so i had toance -- i had a chance to go and look at it today and also had a chance to look at the c.b.o. report that was performed on it. and saw some interesting things. i don't know if we've discussed fully here today, it raises taxes by $85 billion other the 10-year window. according to the c.b.o., it raises spending by almost $80 billion. this is a refrain i used to hear a lot when i was younger, taxes and spend, taxes and spending, raise taxes, increase spending. mr. duncan: i thought it was gone from today's party across the aisle burr here it is alive and well in mr. van hollen's substitute, raising taxes and raising spending, a deficit re ducks of $5 billion, it increases the deficit by $5 billion in the first year. it does that, part and parcel but offering what they call the buffett rule. the last time

thank you madam clerk, any other items? >> no, madam chair.ir kim:"xn seeing none, the meeting is adjourned. >> good afternoon. i would like to call the meeting of the public utility commission to order. madame secretary, will you call the role? thank you. commissioners, you have the minutes of the august 14 meeting. >> move to adopt. >> all those in favor. motion carries. public comment, this is the time for the public to make comment on any item that was an art -- within our jurisdiction, but is not on the agenda for today. are there any -- is this all for general public comment? >> commissioners, i want to take this opportunity to thank my good friend ed harrington. i know he will be here until the 22nd of september. i will be returning from my vacation in europe. >> nice. >> in october. i want to thank him for all he has done. i am also very happy that we have a brother now in holland so that the will of the people can be done. we need to focus on the sewer system improvement project. some of the contractors are

thank you, madam clerk. i just want to ask that my colleagues join me in a moment recognizing the life of mr. robert price. he's passed on. and would like to close the board meeting out in his memory. a little bit about mr. price is that he was an army man. he served in the united states army, and then he came west to san francisco in 1969. as an outreach worker for youth for service, which was at that time a nonprofit organization here in san francisco, dedicated to the service of the, quote, throw away. the throw away children of san francisco, bob worked with neighborhood gangs. bob's success was attributed to his ability to accept youngsters as he found them and channel their frustration through competitive sports. he was also very well known as the supervisor of the emma gri resettlement program. he trained and placed 500 -- in various jobs in 20 months. he was named man of the year in 1979 by bear area council on soviet jewry and was recognized and commended by california assembly on february 20, 1980.

. >> madam chair, members of the committee, debra knew man from the budget analyst office, as ms. widner mentioned, we have made an amended proposed ordinance to remove the language but not limited to on the specific servicing so that you would be only waiting the competitive bidding for those specified support services. i would also note that without the competitive bidding, the rental rates for any leases between the airport and the aviation support services would be set by the airport's approved summary of airport charges, these are the current -- these are very close to the current charges currently being charged, the airport currently estimates receiving about 13.5 million dollars in annual revenue from these support services which would be continued and with the amendment, we indicate that approval is a policy decision, it would waive the competitive bidding procedure. >> thank you very much for the report, why don't we open this item up for public comment, is there any members of the public that wish to speak on item number 1, seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagu

gohmert: thank you, madam speaker. and in the summer of 1973, it was a real honor for me to be selected to go on an exchange program, of course, i had to borrow the money to go and pay that back by working hard, but went on an exchange program some the soviet union. quite an eye opener for me. despite how wonderful the country was made to sound and how great it was that the government -- they proclaimed was the safety net for everybody in the country and they are proclaiming because the government was in charge of everything and in charge of everybody's business, there was 100% employment. they talked about how wonderful their socialized medicine was. there were eight americans on this program that summer and we all had very different backgrounds, different political views, a lot of big hearts in the group on both ends of the political spectrum. but for me, a kid growing up in east texas, it was an extraordinary education. because even though people talked about how wonderful it was to have socialized medicine and ever

thank you, madam chairwoman. i saw the gentleman from maryland, now i'm losing track of where everybody is from. i saw mr. van hollen on television this morning, it was the first i'd heard of his proposal so i had toance -- i had a chance to go and look at it today and also had a chance to look at the c.b.o. report that was performed on it. and saw some interesting things. i don't know if we've discussed fully here today, it raises taxes by $85 billion other the 10-year window. according to the c.b.o., it raises spending by almost $80 billion. this is a refrain i used to hear a lot whe i was younger, taxes and spend, taxes and spending, raise tes, increase spending. mr. duncan: i thought it was gone from today's party across the aisle burr here it is alive and well in mr. van hollen's substitute, raising taxes and raising spending, a deficit re ducks of $5 billion, it increases the deficit by $5 billion in the first year. it does that, part and parcel but offering what they call the buffett rule. the last time i

thank you. >> madam clerk, are there any other items before us?ere are no further items before you. >> thank you. then we are adjourned. >> welcome to "culturewire." today we are at recology. they are celebrate 20 years of one of the most incredibly unique artist residency programs. we are here to learn more from one of the resident artists. welcome to the show, deborah. tell us how this program began 20 years ago. >> the program began 20 years ago. our founder was an environmentalist and an activist and an artist in the 1970's. she started these street sweeping campaigns in the city. she started with kids. they had an exhibition at city hall. city officials heard about her efforts and they invited her to this facility. we thought it would coincide with our efforts to get folks to recycle, it is a great educational tool. since then, we have had 95 professional artists come through. >> how has the program changed over the years? how has the program -- what can the public has an artist engage with? >> for the most part, we worked with metal and wood

supervisor campos. >> supervisor campos: thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, i have a couple of items. on behalf of board of education commissioner kim tree -- board of education, board of supervisors committee, i am requesting a hearing that deals with the memorandum of understanding between the san francisco unified school district and the san francisco police department. the second item that i have is a resolution welcoming to the city and county of san francisco the gay and lesbian medical association which will be here for its 30th annual conference. i want to thank supervisors ween wiener and olague for their support. it was founded in 1981 for the purpose of using medical expertise, public policy work, and other things, to ensure a quality in healthcare for lgbt individuals. this association is actually the world's largest scientific organization that will be meeting with a focus on lgbt health. so we're very happy that they will be here in san francisco from september 19 through the 23rd. the third item is an ordinance that amends valencia

we had this morning good faith discussion. >> madam, my question is to the prime minster. prime minster, why did the government abolish offshore processing on the rue four years ago? >> the prime minster -- >> thank you very much and to the member who asked the question of course former minister of immigration and consequently a great deal of experience. he's aware of the government was elected to government with a set of policies about offshore processing. that is a matter of history. >> my question is to the prime minster. it is costly and unsustainable and wrong as a matter of principle. given that her expert panel disagrees and restore offshore processing, will she now apologize for her policy failure that led to 22,000 illegal arrivals and $4.7 billion cost blowout? >> the prime minster has the call. >> thank you very much deputy speaker and the opposition. it -- what was done in the past. she's consequently -- i suggest she apologize for that. >> with the asylum seekers put to debate, the opposition return to its favorite topic the carbon tax. which the government in

franken: thank you, madam president. i would like to associate myself with the remarks of the senator from vermont. i am one of the cosponsors of the reauthorization of the older americans act. and i just, before i talk about a bill that i've just introduced, i just want to say, to underscore the fact that the older americans act was introduced in 1965, and it keeps -- it allows seniors to stay in their homes. and it saves money. and it costs $6 a day to do meals on wheels per senior. and this allows seniors to stay in their home and not go to a nursing home. we know what a nursing home costs every day. so this is an example of just common sense. seniors want to stay in their homes if they can. and this is -- i've been through the presiding officer in my state in minnesota doing round tables on the older americans act. it is a great program that we need to reauthorize in order to do a, really a commonsense thing, which is allow seniors to stay where they want to stay -- in their home -- and at the same time not have them

madam clerk? >> ok. i'm finally getting there. i can't talk anymore. the working draft map i can supply copies of that. the map submitted by the public, city wide map, we can -- i can work with and make sure i get the right ones attached. public comment, i'm not really clear on what you would want covered. >> the documents from from my point of view, the documents that u.p.f. then sent to us. they simply get printed and they're an appendix. >> so i have them individually with each 30 meetings and separate separate them out and put them in one stack? there were over 1,000 e-mails. >> miss tidwell. >> i just wanted a clarification point in that nothing changes about the public file, so i think it's the goal is to keep them in the public file. that certainly is -- i would recommend excluding the public comment and leaving it in the public file. >> anybody object to that? >> no. just make a note in the report that they are available. >> very good. madam clerk, on the community newspaper advertisement. >> i have a copy of the tear-outs and i can work with m

. >> co-chair campos: thank you, madam chair. you know, i do sort of see this task force as -- to use a term in basketball, it is sort of a dream teadream team in terms ofe people who will be, on behalf of the city, talking about and strategizing about the future of the aging lgbt community. it is very impressive roster, and as i indicated at the outset of the meeting, i think that any one of the applicants could do an excellent job. in trying to look at the names, what i have tried to do is tried to look at all the -- not only the applications, but also the different comments that we have received from members of the public, not only here, but also e-mail, and also to the extent that there are different comments from other members of the board, or other members of the community, that's sort of what i'm trying to figure out. and my support of a candidate doesn't necessarily reflect, you know, how i would have chosen 15 people, but it's really based on what is it that we're hearing from the community. because at the end of the day

madam chair, supervisor kim, only that we recommend approval. >> thank you. why don't we open these up for public comment? are there members wishing to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. we have a motion to send these forward with recommendation. we will do that without objection. thank you very much. item 3, please. >>the clerk: resolution authorizing the office of contract administration to enter into fifth amendment between the city and san francisco and en pointe technology sales. >> thank you. would you call items four and five. >> item four, resolution authorizing office of contract administration to enter into fifth amendment between city and county of san francisco and xtech to 67,890,000. item five, resolution authorizing city office of contract administration to enter into third amendment between city and cct technologies contract limits to $34,460,000. >> thank you. for these three we have bill jones. >> good morning, supervisors. bill jones, office of contract administration purchasing. today i'm here to request your approval of these t