deep connections to the eastland organization, and it was being -- it was coming not only from mississippi bank, but other banks in mississippi, and he's also, as you may know is getting some favorable loans from the administration here, and he got into trouble because he had gone out and gotten billy estes's grain elevators in texas. the people who have hair like mine remember that. [laughter] he had about a billion bushels of beans that disappeared, and there's all sorts of crazy stuff, but, you know, he was getting money from the federal government, and clearly, after senator eatland passed from the scene, it was people close to trent who were doing favors for him. one guy named jim lake who had been ronald reagan's press secretary in the campaign had an instrumental point in helping pl blake getting the farmer home loans administration in the 1980s, so he was gathering in from all sorts of sources, and everybody i talked to is mystified. everybody remembers him as this poor boy from tallahassee county, but, you know, he's got a lot of friends too. you know, played football at the same time

along the banks of the mississippi river stands this. the gateway charge.et's go inside and check it out. been here for two decades. thomas jefferson got the western expansion starts, but really, it started with a dream. >> it is a dream. he wanted this country to be an empire in itself and to do that, we had to go west. at this time, united states western border was the mississippi river. >> he wasn't the only dreamer. >> everybody has dreams today and back then and the people that would populate this area lighter all had dreams of survival, freedom, ownership of land and getting rich. >> how important was the land and ideology of jefferson? >> it's all about land. come with me. we'll go for a walk. jefferson's mission was simply to follow the missouri river, see if it would take you to the pacific and come back. on your way, record everything that you see. animals, plant life. american indians, their friends, the weather. everything about this new land we needed to know what was there. >> that's a dream. so, this is an actual wagon and from what i underst

. >> reporter: samuel clemens, twain's real name, grew up in missouri, on the banks of the mississippi: stomping grounds for the fictional tom sawyer and huck finn. he left school for good at 11 and later became a pilot on river boats also material for later works. out west, during the gold and silver rushes, he worked at newspapers in nevada and california, and started his literary career. he was a traveling man and wrote about trips to europe and the holy land and to the sandwich islands, now hawaii. he wrote voluminously, continuously. but for his autobiography, composed during the last three years of his life, rather than write it, he dictated it to a stenographer. she's not only accurate as clemens says, she's a good audience. very important to mark twain, to have someone there reacting to what he says, laughing i presume at what he says or at least... at least extolling it in some way. since twain's death, four different editors have taken a stab at publishing portions of his biography, despite twain's wishes to wait 100 years. but the project at berkeley-- a team of editors work

the early 1990's, many of the catfish ponds overflowed their banks and the asian carp were released into local waterways in the mississippi river basin. in an effort to prevent the carp from getting to the great lakes, a barrier was constructed in the chicago sanitary and ship canal which connects the mississippi river to the great lakes. unfortunately, the asian carp are steadily making their way northward up the mississippi, and ashan carp d.n.a. has been -- asian carp d.n.a. has been discovered beyond the barrier. if these carp reach lake michigan, they are likely to spread throughout the great lakes. where they go threaten the environment and the economy. the great lakes is one of the most unique bodies of water on the planet, and they would threaten not only the commercial and recreational fishing on the lakes, both of which are major contributors to the economies of great lake states. the asian carp prevention and control act lists the bighead variety of the species called asian carp as ininjurious to wildlife under the lacy act. and by including them in the lacy act, this bill will prohibit importation or interstat

banking system. to get this nation back to work. tomorrow, we'll wrap it up at the gateway to the west aboard a river boat on the mississippi. i know how cold it is, people. "hardball's" up right now. >>> deadline. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening i'm chris matthews in washington. last harumph. reluctant house democrats are roaring their disapproval one last time before probably voting for bill. here's the irony. the closer this gets to passage, the more it's the republicans having second thoughts. they think it's too good for president obama. the president likes it, must be trouble in there somewhere. that's the republican attitude now. plus, the reviews on afghanistan are in and they're not good. yes, we're making some progress, but it's slow going and here's the killer. pakistan isn't helping enough. and that's not to mention the corrupt afghanistan government, so even if we had to go into afghanistan after 9/11, does the war still make sense today? plus, who's the grinch? do democrats hate christmas? this year, it's jon kyl and jim demint attacking harry reid. and skung at the tea party a new stimulus bill. the ol