that mrs merkel welcomed me here to germany and the federal government recognized the work that mr again she had done making this possible now they also mentioned the the work that had been done behind the scenes between russia and german authorities in order to to make this happen in order to get because what it called ski into the country now from his own people from his own press. spokes person can see an earpiece spondon who's been working for me she put forward a an open letter that's been issued by mr holocaust in which he lays out exactly what happened from his side he says he put forward a petition to president putin on the twelfth of november for release on humanitarian grounds and that he was very glad that that it being granted he goes on to say that part of the petition said he didn't admit any guilt for the crimes that he. he was incarcerated for for those ten years he thanked his supporters and there was in that letter quite an emotional moment where he said that he just looked forward to spending time with his family now that was again reiterated in a in a statement by his

was put on by the the former foreign minister of germany hans dietrich genscher and it seems that mr again she has been instrumental in making sure that mikhail khodorkovsky could come here to germany he also it seems help things along to make sure they missed out of course he could receive a visa we don't know how much more we're going to see of mr hart of course after he gives this press conference later on sunday but that's where all of our eyes are focused right now to see what he has to say when he faces the world's media for the first time as a free man in ten years and political analysts and acts out on russian relations alexander rar was one of the first to greet me hail khodorkovsky on jan and soil and here's what he had to say his face didn't change in the past ten years i haven't seen him for ten years. and i think he didn't lose his humor he's still. very strong mood. xander rar was invited by the format german foreign minister. to consult him in his push to release. last politician paul hamm pulled from the euro skeptic alternative for germany party why what of course kay's en

i joined live by the president of the council of roumania ecologist party demitra bandra gan mr boucher again welcome to aussie very nice to see you so the drilling continues despite all the procedures that doesn't mean that the government is siding with. hello good morning does this we see the distance between the government and the people of this is the main problem and also we cannot understand how these government take a decision to stop. decision to stop a referendum it is a problem because. this distance between government and people is bigger every day and that's why it's there are many people. go out from his houses and try to support these people who fight from what hoult and also economy the fight from your economy strategy from the rural people from the media. talking about positive sides of fracking i'm sure there are many of them like cheaper energy for instance could people benefit from that. it's difficult to. fight from energy because this strategy doesn't mean the many and people who many on government we have this economic activity under his authority we have private investi

thank you, again, mr. kennedy and look forward to working with you as the process goes forward. with that, we'll take a 10-minute break. thank you [ applause ] >> item 12, approving the conceptual traffic-coaxing project for the dewey boulevard. >> we have a brief overview, and there is a well-written staff report explaining what we are proposing and we have gotten a lot of written feedback on this. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. thank you, director reiskin and directors. my name is nick carr and i'm the project manager for the dewey boulevard area traffic-calming project, a project looking at the local streets and forest hill and upper golden gate heights neighborhoods. i'm going to put up the map of proposed traffic-calming changes, developed through this project and quickly go through the community process that was involved. we're here today seeking approval of a conceptual plan for this neighborhood for traffic-calming. if approved many of the traffic-calming measures within this plan will still come back for an additional layer of legislation or detailed design work

so again, mr. secretary, thank you for a today and i look forward to hearing your testimony. >> members of the house, this afternoon we're pleased to be joined by john kerry, our country's 68th secretary of state. prior to his appointment, secretary kerry served as the united states senator for massachusetts for 28 years, chairing the senate foreign relations committee during the last four years of his tenure. the secretary was in the middle east just last week. he'll be returning there tomorrow before heading to southeast asia to, among other things, assess relief efforts in the philippines. it's a demanding schedule. without objection, mr. secretary, your prepared statement will be made part of the record. the committee members here goif da days. we welcome you before this committee today. thank you. >> thank you very much, ranking member engel, members of the committee, thanks very much for welcoming me back, and i'm happy to be back here. there is no more important issue in american foreign pol

so again, mr. secretary, thank you for a today and i look forward to hearing your testimony. >> members of the house, this afternoon we're pleased to be joined by john kerry, our country's 68th secretary of state. prior to his appointment, secretary kerry served as the united states senator for massachusetts for 28 years, chairing the senate foreign relations committee during the last four years of his tenure. the secretary was in the middle east just last week. he'll be returning there tomorrow before heading to southeast asia to, among other things, assess relief efforts in the philippines. it's a demanding schedule. without objection, mr. secretary, your prepared statement will be made part of the record. the committee members here goif da days. we welcome you before this committee today. thank you. >> thank you very much, ranking member engel, members of the committee, thanks very much for welcoming me back, and i'm happy to be back here. there is no more important issue in american foreign pol

mr. brooks. >> eric brooks again. san francisco green party and also you might remember a few years ago 2006 and 7 my organization and we are still part of a coalition when when google and earth link -- we're seeing tomorrow today or tomorrow the announcement that the fact that we kept them for actually charging us for wifi is leading to these corporations just giving it to us so that's something that's positive. and i'm hoping that in 2014 we finally do get scheduled on this item of building a public broadband internet network just like building the roads and highways we need in san francisco i'm hoping in 2014 we'll finally get action items on that and doing studies on how we can roll that out. >> great thank you very much. anything else? so not seeing any member of the public commenting this item is closed and i believe that leads us to our next item which is item number 8 but before i do that i want to wish everyone a very happy holiday i hope you have a please ant and safe and joyful holiday season and best wishe

mr. president. i come again to the floor to remind my colleagues that in 11 days, 1.3 million americans will lose their unemployment insurance. with the goal of providing certainty to these families that they will continue to have access to this vital lifeline, i and my colleague from nevada, senator heller, are introducing a bill that would extend unemployment insurance compensation benefits for three months. i hope this sensible and bipartisan approach will provide a path forward to extending the program through 2014, which will give families and our economy more time to recover. and in many parts of the country, the recovery is just getting underway. my own state of rhode island has 9% unemployment. there are states throughout the country that have over 8% unemployment. there are some states that are doing well and we're awfully glad they are. but for the millions of people who are still looking for work, they need this help. this program is designed so that workers continuing to look for work while they rece

mrs. chang moved again to the united states to live in fremont with her daughter, wendy, and 40 other family members. >> can i have you raise your right hand please? >> reporter: mrs. chang has wanted to be a citizen for five years now but it takes 20 years to be exempt from having to learn english. her daughter convinced the department that that might not be feasible for health reasons. so today was the big day. >> so help me god. >> thank you. >> mrs. chang, congratulations. >> reporter: mrs. chang says her favorite things about america are the weather and the people. in that order. and what's the best part of citizenship? >> the best part of being american is the sense of belonging and also happiness and everybody in the family asks, you're citizens, so why not her, right? [ laughter ] >> reporter: so after being chinese and canadian, mrs. chang is now an american citizen with all the benefits that come with that. >> you can run for public office. you can apply for a government job. >> reporter: think she is going to do that? >> sure! sure. [ laughter ] >> reporter: she might. >> if she s

will never feel embarrassed to say what i'm about to say i have said it before and i will say again that mr vernon civility is my role model and i will always follow his example with you i will always accept advice from him especially since i know that this man is only useful and beneficial becoming people if we have to listen to for him or a logical expert's critiques from the opposition why can't we listen to someone who made a difference of this magnitude in our country that will make you free to our country and society from a monstrous series sheena that is the national movement regime in just does not make any sense to me and if we claim to be pragmatic and efficient then why not listen this is my answer and i am being totally honest with you since you mentioned the opposition there are many things that happened for the first time in georgia in the past eighteen months the first democratic election in the history of modern georgia peaceful transfer of power and it is for the first time that an actual opposition is present in the parliament having a real opposition force in a parliament

mr. holtz again. we've heard the bipartisan concerns here and we want to make sure we take care of our seniors. we can see over and over the affordable care act is so negatively acting your seniors with their medicare advantage plans. just coming from a completely bipartisan perspective, what can we do now moving forward, what would you like to see in medicare advantage that we can move to, that we can actually make a difference because we are going to have to make changes in medicare, yes. and i would like to know from both of you what your thoughts are on what we need to do in >> it is important that we have a sustainable social safety net for our seniors. medicare needs to be a different program in the future both financially and because the care seniors need is different than when medicare was founded. it is not the and but it is a great stepping stone. it needs to be preserved and not wither on the vine. >> we need that financial backing. is a serious concern in terms of funding. >> very quickly

to all the speakers if you have any other comments and again mr. chin or commissioner arsy if you want to come back up and any other questions or comments otherwise we will wrap it up. >> thanks supervisor. just one thing i wanted to say and you mentioned city build on the work force side we are exciting about city build and the role pat mulligan can play and the department of the environment and we have them here and there is capacity and infrastructure with cal and rich at the department to be really supportive so i wanted to add that component and everything is set and ready to go and we're excited about the potential moving forward with the program. >> supervisor mar. >> i did want to ask if rich can elaborate more on how this is legally defensible given the changes at the federal and new changes at the state level and how this is privately financed as well? >> sure supervisor mar. so as i mentioned and supervisor farrell also alluded to this, the statements from 2010 from the federal financing agency were statements of concern, and since those

he asks the president to negotiate with al qaeda so that he can see his family again. >> mr. obama, you are a family man and so you understand the deep mental anxiety and anguish that i have been experiencing for these past more than two years. i am therefore appealing to you on a humanitarian basis if nothing else and asking that you take the necessary actions to expedite my release. >> reporter: the u.s. state department said it is trying to authenticate the video and has called for warren weinstein's release. al qaeda leader ayman al- zawahiri has previously said that weinstein will only be released if the u.s. stops carrying out air strikes in pakistan and afghanistan and releases al qaeda prisoners. but, jim, that is clearly not something the u.s. government would consider doing. >> axelrod: holly, thank you very much. president obama took time out from his vacation in hawaii today to sign several bills into law. one is a defense authorization bill which, among other things, includes a crackdown on sexual assault in the military. another is a bipartisan budget deal that

thank you, again, mr. kennedy and look forward to working with you as the process goes forward. with that, we'll take a 10-minute break. thank you

again so much. of course to our ranking member, mr. engel, i thank you again for your leadership and for helping craft a bill that we could get to the floor that is a bill that i think will really put the united states on the right side of history as it relates to haiti. and also for your focus on the western hemisphere. thank you so much. let me also just reference and thank all of our original co-sponsors of the assessing progress in haiti act of 2013 including representative yvette clarke, maxine waters,on conyers, charlie rangel, karen bass and of course ileana ros-lehtinen. i want to thank congresswoman sheila jackson lee for staying strong and steady and supporting this legislation and for all of their tireless work and long-standing commitment to the well being of haitians and the country of haiti. nearly four years ago, i stood as chair of the congressional black caucus and led a special order recognizing the importance of our relationship with haiti. a short time later, i led a delegation to hay he tee and we witnessed firsthan

and, hang on, before you assume this is just another celebrity getting involved in politics, think again. mr. clooney is the real deal. more when "in case you missed it" returns. every day we're working to be an even better company - and to keep our commitments. and we've made a big commitment to america. bp supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u.s. than any other place in the world. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here in the last five years - making bp america's largest energy investor. our commitment has never been stronger. >>> i'm brooke baldwin. in the ukraine tonight that political standoff we've been telling you about. the huge emdenstration and clashes between police and protesters all seem to have come to a crisis point. the opposition that has led an estimated 1 million people into the streets is now blocking almost all government buildings in this capital city of kiev. they're determined to oust their president. they see him as a puppet of russian president vladimir putin and they're furious that he obeyed putin a

topping your monday "pulse" the first lady does it again. mrs.ama dresseded last night at the condition dissenter honors. getting a lot of buzz this morning. >> look at her teal gown. waiting to hear and find out who the designer was. the dress got a whole lot of reviews overnight on social media. >>> now to the stroller fit for a future king. it's all the rage. >> kate middleton recently spotted walking prince george in the stylish navy blue pram. it's been eyed by the moms who have everything. it costs 2300 bucks. >> it's a royal must have. it's the brand used to carry prince william, prince charles, even queen elizabeth. >>> a gravity-defying stunt on the edge of a fiord in norway. he lifts himself into a handstand. >> he makes it into a one-handed handstand. he's about 1800 feet above water. that is below. no safety harness and no net. >> he says his only safety line is years of physical and mental preparation. i wouldn't even stand there. >>> real-life nightmare for a man trying to travel from louisiana to california. tom wagner woke up in h

husband who used it after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, and again when she claims she was subjected to an act of terrorism from mrain quoting here "i have to say since freeing myself from a brilliant but brutal man, i am now totally cannabis, cocaine, any drug, free." and there were also the questions about that famous picture of her ex-husband's hands on her throat in that restaurant earlier this year. lawson says he told everyone he was trying to take cocaine out of her nose. she claims that a child walked by that day. and she said she was looking forward to becoming a grandmother. and sachi responded saying "i am the only person you should be concerned with. i am the only person that should give you pleasure." sachi testified last week that he was simply trying to get nigella's attention in the restaurant. the accusations go back and forth. the trial continues. >> and they're both under oath. so somebody's lying. all right, trace, thanks so much. we'll see you tomorrow. >> okay. >>> lions and tigers and bears, oh my. the famous line from the "wizard of oz" now a reality at one animal sanctuary. the blt family

it's wisconsin all over again. >> mr.us >> within minutes joel keller fired a shot at unions a plan to pursue a ballot measure banning public transit strikes.. >> i got here 19 years ago if someone put that before the board boy have said not no, but hell no. but after 19 years i've come to the conclusion our riders deserve better than what is happened in the last six months. >> i'm just so discouraged by your conduct. >> union leaders say they felt detrayed by a man they used to skr a friend. >> i think attention is on bart now for mistakes made during negotiations and willful things they've done. >> i understand this is a shock to the union leadership. i expect they'll do everything they said they'll do. >> keller's comments as

it's wisconsin all over again. >> mr. president, it's unanimous >> within minutes joel keller fired a shot at unions a plan to pursue a ballot measure banning public transit strikes.. >> i got here 19 years ago if someone put that before the board boy have said not no, but hell no. but after 19 years i've come to the conclusion our riders deserve better than what is happened in the last six months. >> i'm just so discouraged by your conduct. >> union leaders say they felt detrayed by a man they used to skr a friend. >> i think attention is on bart now for mistakes made during negotiations and willful things they've done. >> i understand this is a shock to the union leadership. i expect they'll do everything they said they'll do. >> keller's comments as negotiators for bart and unions with the table a building away. >> four days of meetings between union and bart negotiators have yet to produce a compromise. another round of talks set for friday morning. >> the national transportation safety board issued urgent new recomme

. >> i also wanted to ask about, again -- was it mr. abboud talking about it's public policy, were you the one talking about how now we've turned gambling -- that was you, mr. bernal. here's the thing. we're sold -- i was in the state legislature. we're often sold the lottery and other kinds of gambling revenue as helping our schools and -- in illinois, supposedly, for education. i know that for a time it really displaced money that would ordinarily go from the general revenue fund to education. i think that was corrected now in illinois. but what is the history of that? do these revenues, which are significant, actually help us to fund the needed priorities for our governments? >> without question, the answer to that it has failed to produce revenues that they promised. you can't -- no one can name a state in this country where -- georgia to washington state where people have said, you know, in georgia they're going to fund scholarships through their lottery. in the end what we see happening is low-income people losing money to pay for

mr. wildstein again purchased domain names using other people's names. vice chairman of the port authority was involved in that settlement. his name is scott rechler and also his adviser, david garten. now scottrechler.com and davidgarten.com is named by wildstein. patfoye.com was purchased by david wildstein. he even bought up the name of the faa's associate administrator of airports. do you think anybody needs that name for any reason if your name isn't christopher norato? really, this david wildstein guy needs that website? and that's kind of a unique name. it's not a famous person's name, not the name of a company, it's not bruce springsteen's. you only buy that to specifically annoy one person and one person only. the site with her name as the web address takes you to the website for the new york yankees, who apparently are david wildstein's favorite team. neener, neener! hope you never wanted to set up a website. i've got your property. democratic candidate for lieutenant governor of new jersey this year was a woman who also has a unique name, mill

mr. hurt, again, the author of h.r. 1105. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for two minutes. mr. hurt: thank you. i rise in opposition to the gentlelady's amendment. i appreciate her work and interest on this important issue but with all due respect, this amendment would defeat the entire purpose of the bill. if adopted, all advisors to private equity that are currently undergoing the burdensome and unnecessary registration process would still be required to do so. additionally, it would establish an entirely subject so-called simplified compliance standard that would have to be defined by the securities and exchange commission. there's no reason to believe that such a so-called simplified standard would provide any meaningful relief for those private equity companies investing in small companies across this country. as has been stated, small and midsized private equity firms are expending hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual compliance costs and would still have to be registered with the

mr. grijalva: thank you again, mr. speaker. i yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlelady from new york, ranking member of the joint economic committee, representative maloney. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york is recognized. mrs. maloney: i thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this legislation and so many other important areas before our country. i rise in strong support of this bill, h.r. 1846, the lower east side tenement national historic site amendments act, which was authored and introduced by my good friend and colleague, representative velazquez from new york. this legislation will expand the boundaries of the lower east side tenement national historic site, to include one 103 orchard street which is located just two doors down from the original museum location. tanned will expand -- and it will expand -- because of this it will be able to expand its educational programs and allow more people to learn about our nation's immigrant history. i had the privilege of repre

mr. chairman, i think we did a good thing. again, thank you for your leadership. mr. franks isn't here. i would like to mention him and say to him i'm proud to enter associated with his effort. he's arrived now. excuse me, mr. franks. my apology. mr. franks from arizona. we had an opportunity to spend lot of time together. and gratified we have the chance to see and unmany things about the philippines. mr. chairman, i don't know how much time you have given me. if you would allow mae couple of more minutes. i appreciate it. i want to mention our relationship with the philippines is one that is solid, in my opinion, because the relationship is based upon, in part, business. we are their second largest trading partner. it's more than a relationship. it's a partnership. we have a visiting force agreement with the pill find -- philippines. it's more than a partisanship. it's also a kinship, because we have many american bhos live in the philippines. about 300,000. and we have americans with children that are being born in the philippines. and this relationship this partnership, this kinship

mrs. murray: i would suggest that the senator ask that question to chairman ryan. but i would say again, as many of us have talked about here today, this isn't the deal that democrats would have written on our own. it is not the deal that republicans would have written on their own. nobody got everything they wanted. and we each had to give up some things to get to where we are today. madam president, again, to bring us back to a time of certainty -- because without a budget moving afford today, we would be facing a time in a few short weeks where there would be dramatic changes and cuts to, in particular, our department of defense, meaning furloughs and layoffs and a threat to our national security, as so many members of the military have told us. so, madam president, i hope that we can move afford. i no he that we're going to go through some parliamentary inquiries and a motion in a minute. er but i hope that our members would take the time to say, what is the end process here and vote with us to not -- to not change this at this point and to allow us to go afford and bring certainty

mr. bass again for allowing me to be here. i want to add an amen if i made to what you said about the faith-based initiative. they not only help after a disaster, but also before. i had seen evidence of it because they know what the vulnerable hour. they know where the help is needed. they are intimately familiar with the people in the neighborhood and they can do an awful lot with the evacuation process. when people have to shelter in place, and that is usually what you finally hear from a shelter in place. there's no more we can do, given the hurricane, in our case, or the typhoon is so near and that we have to just stay where we are. when that happens, it is peace institutions, the state-based institutions that are still there. we leave, but they write these things out. as soon as it's over, they know exactly where to go to render the most aid. i would just like to give my compliments to you for bringing that up. >> thank you, mr. green. the concern we have about the bias against ms well-founded. after super storm sandy, i

when authorities arrested her they told her that she was on the terror watch list now eventually mrs eager again was allowed to travel again but her student visa was revoked and she was not allowed back in the us the evidence levied against her is on clear at this point and the government argues that revealing that information would jeopardize national security and misses it but he was not alone. by the end of last year the u.s. database of potential international terrorists known as the terrorist identities data mark environment or time had had eight hundred seventy five thousand names on it that's up from seven hundred forty thousand names from just the year before now because the list includes of multiple aliases there are fewer individuals and there are actual names but nevertheless a huge number of people have been affected and the tide list just feeds the master terrorist watch list run by the f.b.i. which adds in potential domestic terrorists and critics argue that this list is not effective time allowance or naive for instance was one of the boston bombers he was on that list for years y

mrs. kennedy, let us hope the president. no response. i did it again. still no response. i had been with her for a little over four years so i knew pretty much how she thought, and i realized the problem was she didn't want anybody to see the condition he was in. because it was horrible. so i took off my suit coat. i covered up his head and his upper back. as soon as i did that she let go. and we put it on the gurney and raced them into the trauma room to in the emergency room. hundreds of doctors were in the hospital at the time and many of them reacted and came immediately to the emergency room, trying to do everything they could to resuscitate the president. >> and so you're inside. outside, the press has gathered. most of the press was in the vehicle several cars behind. they knew something had gone terribly wrong. they are trying to gather information. meanwhile, you're inside. you are told or you decided that you need to contact the white house immediately and let them know what's happening. what was that phone call like? >> i opened the line to washington to my sup

mr. brooks. >> eric brooks again. san francisco green party and also you might remember a few years ago 2006 and 7 my organization and we are still part of

mr. johnson again answered the call for public service. first as the air force's top lawyer in the second term of the clinton administration, and more recently in the first term of the obama administration as the top lawyer for the entire department of defense. in both positions, he was confirmed by the u.s. senate with strong bipartisan support. having served in such important positions at the department of defense has no doubt helped him develop a number of outstanding skilled that will enable him to lead this department effectively. there are few better places to learn how to manage a complex national security bureaucracy than at the department of defense. for example, for four years, he was a partner -- he was a part of the senior leadership team that ran the defense department. he played a critical role in overseeing more than 3 million military and civilian personnel scattered around the country and across the world, including having direct responsibility for nearly 10,000 attorneys. he provided key advice to two exceptional defense