scranton get $6 million. the people get paid. town is technically in all but name bankrupt. >> they are insolvent and the reason they got this loan is the stated valueing them. the difference between whether cities in bankruptcy or not is whether the state will back or not in california they are not backing them and letting them go. in pennsylvania they have distressed programs and same with harrisburg but they haven't come up with a financial plan yet that is going to give them a sustainable budget over time. stuart: the basic problem pay for employees and what they have been promised? >> that is essentially basically their expenditures based on those contracts are out of whack with actual tax revenues. they have a financial plan talking about raising taxes. the kind of taxes they can't raise without the state accruing them with sales tax and income tax which is not what you usually do. one way or another people of scranton have to pay more money in taxes. stuart: they borrow $600 million -- that is union -- they got to pay that

the latest city to face financial crisis, scranton, pennsylvania. and what the mayor is doing, a real emergency in a swing state. top of the hour for you. last night, senator rob portman, he took aim at president obama's economic plan in his address to the rnc. listen to this. >> i ask you, where is the president's economic plan? blaming others does not qualify as a plan. now, the president did submit a budget, it was so bad, folks, that not a single republican or a single democrat in the entire united states congress would vote for it. he got zero votes. that is a failure of leadership. stuart: all right, so, he asked the question, what is the president's plan? joining me now is congressman peter welch, he's a democrat, from vermont and he joins us. thanks very much for being with us today. so, we do appreciate it. if i can give you very easily 20 seconds on what the romney-ryan budget medicare plan is. i can very easily. can you give me 20 seconds on what the obama plan is? >> yes, balance. he has submitted a plan that would have reduced the debt

it got loose friday night at a fair 30 miles north of scranton. 10 people were injured. one of those was an elderly woman who hit her head after being knocked from her chair. she was airlifted to a hospital. none of the other injuries are believed to have been serious. with the republican national convention days away, security is starting to get tighter in downtown tampa, florida. there is definitely more of a police presence. federal, state, and local authorities, and even members of the military were seen on the streets today. mitt romney will accept the party nomination for president on thursday. lowell melser will >> for many, the first day of school is monday. many students still do not have the necessary supplies. officers and members of local lodge 3 and the american legion post 19 took over madison avenue in baltimore this afternoon. they held a back-to-school block party. the organizations provided free school supplies to over 200 children. >> we know some of the kids cannot afford it. some of them need it. we wanted to give it to them and have a good time. >>

and it is another beautiful day in scranton, pennsylvania. oh, my god. oh!telephone] pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up.

have the possibility of wind damage and large hail it includes a good section from state college to scrantongh philadelphia, baltimore and d.c. so we don't get too many bouts of severe storms, the coverage won't be that great. but whatever strong storms could dorm, could do some damage. that's why we have the thunderstorm chances in those areas. other storms are possible in the southeast. middle of the country looks dry and relatively nice. >> good deal. bill, thanks so much. >>> coming up, a teen star's dramatic change of looks and an action stars confess of a failure and an affair nearly 20 years later. >>> plus, in his first interview since kristen stewart's cheating scandal, just what did robert pattinson have to say for himself. your "first look" at entertainment is straight ahead. greater risk of a stroke, my first thoughts were about my wife, and my family. i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabig

. >> david schuller drives nearly 1500 miles from madison, mississippi, to scranton, massachusetts, forpa -- town pizza, it's called, every year. schuller, his brother, and seven sisters moved to mississippi 38 years ago. they haven't been able to get over the pizza from their childhood home. last year he took home 150 pizzas. this year he bought 200 pizza pies. now, i know -- i know new york is known for its pizza, chicago. but massachusetts, i feel like i've got to taste this pizza. >> i looked it up. town spa has almost 14,000 facebook fans. apparently he takes a lot of frozen pizzas with him and a couple of cooked ones for the ride home. comfort food for the journey. >> i'm going to have to try the pizza. i love pizza. >> i know. my goodness. >>> stay with us now. "news4 today" continues at 5:00 a.m. >> trying to seize momentum. mitt romney and his new running mate are on the campaign trail and stepping up their attacks on the president. >>> but first, the steps v dot is taking in one fairfax county community to prevent another deadly accident like this. good morning, everyone. i'm

a cool 62 around scranton.ather pattern will diminish as high pressure comes in and out of the western great lakes. one more day of the transition from unsettled weather to more stable conditions underneath this high. the risk of a show are popping up will be there. 58 suburbs. 68 downtown. showers and thunderstorms chances should end by 11:00 p.m. and partly cloudy. the sun sets at 7:54 p.m. clouds and a mixture of temperatures. cooler than normal. light wind out of the south and waves around 1 foot. the temperature is at 82. highs in the low 70's. a fall-like feel and we will run that 20% chance of a storm before it dries out wednesday and thursday. eastern shore locations warmer but below the normal for this time of year. has around 81.s temperatures are still below normal for most of the next seven days. 81 tomorrow and 83 on wednesday. we're staying in the low to mid-80 range. generally partly cloudy skies and some morning fog. >> we began with what stock market analysts are calling blue monday. the market

the problem at hand -- we are seeing the same thing in scranton, pennsylvania, edging towards vagrancy a landmark court case over it. only 24 states allow cities to go bankrupt at all. interestingly enough, another rating agency has stopped drawing a distinction between states that illegally allow municipal bankruptcy and those who do not. one way or the other, you have to go bankrupt, it's going to happen. >> you are absolutely right. the truth is that it's happening all over the country and now we are starting to see the real picture of what is going on. those involved are reporting that there is actually a lot of the serious financial problems flying under the radar. take a look at this. this is a federal reserve report. the bank of new york. literally thousands of municipalities having real troubles here. when you make of that? at the end of the day cometh, do you think we will be over to overcome this anytime soon? without some kind of major change in a funding mechanism for the cities and townships and states? >> well, i worry about the major changes. jefferson county, alabama, s

we are living at my grandfather's use in scranton. my sister used to be three years younger and now she is 20 years younger. [laughter] i don't know how thatshe looks 20 years younger and happened. she is twice as smart. i guess those things factor in. not one woman in history that has been older than any man in the biden family. i don't know how that happened either. my dad said, "dad is going to move away from a year." he is going to wilmington. "i will try to come every weekend. i will get a good job and i'll bring you down and it will be ok." my dad believed it was going to be ok. he convinced me to believe it. it was a tragic. -- it wasn't a tragic. i realize he made a longer walk. he walked into my grandfather is pantry and said -- my dad was a proud, graceful man. i cannot imagine what it was like to say, "i need a favor. keep jean and the kids for a year. i promise i'll pay you back." i promise i will do it. you know people who have made that walk. you know people right here in danville. some of you may have made that walk. th

they stress his scranton upbringing and the idea that he can appeal to blue collar democrats, but they went so far as to say look, when they said maybe hillary clinton should -- john mccain who they don't take advice from, but hillary clinton should replace joe biden and they reiterated that nothing is going to happen in terms of that. they are going to let biden be biden and feel that the positives outweigh the negatives. >> mean while there are two candidates at the top of these tickets which we've now talked about, mitt romney and barack obama. mark, you've covered this for years. do we make too much of this? do people vote for president based on who the vice president is? >> no. i really don't think they will. i think the last time that i mentioned this the previous sunday the last time a candidate actually won states and won the presidency was 1960 when lyndon johnson won his homestate of texas and kept the solid south when there was a solid south for the democrats, but i think sarah palin definitely hurt john mccain, but it wasn't the determining factor in the election and you ca

the coldwater fans were considered to grant tax -- anti- government, rockefeller-scranton establishment. the disaster came 16 years later with another goldwater elected as president. the religious right is another analogy which is mentioned on the floor of this paul reilly, the notion that after pat's robert failed, he got his people doing the same thing that ron paul possible are doing, taking apart from the bottom up, being the people that go to local precinct meetings, get people elected, become delegates to the national convention, even if they do not get to vote for their candidate. they become the party establishment and the rule makers who are running the wrong ball people down. >> what role do ron paul delegates have been in their convention? >> from what i am gathering -- and i am not expert on republican national committee for procedure. i am talking to a lot of delegates who have never been here for. most of them feel like there will not be any actual outlook for them to feeexpressed their support for paul. there is a spokesman for the delegation that announces them. most of

but he wants to be portrayed as that real guy, joe from scranton, we'll see more of that on the trailnk. >> thank you very much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> later, we'll hear from someone who knows something about vice presidential choices, megan mccain. why she thinks the president should drop biden. that coming up. >>> wildfires raging across the west. some residents who were forced to flee are being allowed to see if they have a home to return too. kristen dahlgren live in washington just east of seattle. good morning to you what are conditions like right now? >> reporter: good morning, craig. overnight things tend to die down a bit. but it's still burning. they did get more of a handle on the fire yesterday. 40% contained. but far from out. late yesterday, we were watching huge flareups. still 100 homes here in the danger zone. for the fifth day, the flames raced through the dense, dry pine forests, little to stop them but the hurricaclean effor from firefighters. >> oh, in i goodness. >> reporter: those with homes nearby keeping a close eye. >> what do i do? i mean,

he knows the working town like scranton, pennsylvania.ows the price you feel in never giving up, always getting up, and fighting for what is right. ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce the vice president of the united states, joe biden. [cheers and applause] >> hey, folks, hasn't she amazing? [cheers] i want to introduce you to another athlete, not a gold medalist, but a heck of a lacrosse player. this is my granddaughter. [cheers and applause] and i think she came because kirsch was going to be here. [laughter] i am so happy to see you all. that is pretty impressive. i have to tell you something. a watching you, clarissa, it reminded me -- some of you have heard me say this from afar. my dad had just one saying. i have played sports, but it was nothing like this child. i played sports and i thought it was the essence of what was most important in my life in high school and college. my dad would have only one thing to say when he would watch me play football or baseball from the time as replying in fourth grade. he would say,

i thought scranton and rockefellers were shamed. think the network correspondents had to be carried off the convention floor. it was quite a disaster, that convention. host: mr. whalen? guest: in 1964, barry goldwater day one of the most memorable speeches. he created a conservative movement. it did not serve him well in the general election. but it helped to sweep reagan and other conservative presidents to power. his line was extremism in defense of liberty is not a vice. his words resonated with the conservative backers the party and gave a rallying point to what had been a demoralized party. it provided an organizational base to control the party in the decades ahead. we all know the result of that. host: have been talking about the history of political conventions with professor whalen. thank you for joining us on the "washington journal." [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> the form policy positions of president obama and republican presidential ca

he knows the working town like scranton, pennsylvania.e knows the price you feel in never giving up, always getting up, and fighting for what is right. ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce the vice president of the united states, joe biden. [cheers and applause] >> hey, folks, hasn't she amazing? [cheers] i want to introduce you to another athlete, not a gold medalist, but a heck of a lacrosse player. this is my granddaughter. [cheers and applause] and i think she came because kirsch was going to be here. [laughter] i am so happy to see you all. that is pretty impressive. i have to tell you something. a watching you, clarissa, it reminded me -- some of you have heard me say this from afar. my dad had just one saying. i have played sports, but it was nothing like this child. i played sports and i thought it was the essence of what was most important in my life in high school and college. my dad would have only one thing to say when he would watch me play football or baseball from the time as replying in fourth grade. he would

i'm a corrections lieutenant at a prison in scranton, pennsylvania. yeah.nd a half ago and have our little boy on the way. and you guys shoot. uh, uh, you--you share that interest. at each other, yeah. no, not each other. (laughs) well, maybe you do, but, uh... no, i-i collect and, uh, restore firearms, and you know, a lot of the times we like to get out and go shooting together. all right. well, good. a family that shoots together reboots together, yeah. survives. (laughs) i have no--i have no finish for that. uh, let's do another "toss up." $2,000--that's the amount. "place" is the category, and here we go. ♪ bob and jamie. the grand ballroom. that's it. whoo! all right, we're gonna go to jim. we're gonna frisk them in the meantime. and, uh, jim, what do you have? frisk away, pat. tonight's jackpot round is brought to you by... (man) schiff megared omega-3 krill oil absorbs faster in your body than fish oil and you just need one small pill. schiff megared-- the better omega-3 choice. (jim thornton) and here's tonight's featured prize-- insight vacations p

. >> for 37-year-old inmate perry scranton, the dorm search is just part of being a prisoner. >> actuallyobody likes people going through their personal property, but it's something that has to be done. it's their job. they have to make sure everything is right. >> after the search, inmates return to their cells to clean up the mess. >>> next, "lockup" takes you inside old max, l.a. county's 50-year-old maximum security facility, and we'll see how two new inmates are dealing with the first week of being behind bars. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could ve you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. to me, relationsh

. >> for 37-year-old inmate terry scranton the dorm search is just part of being a prisoner. >> well, likes people going through their personal property. but it's stuff that has to be done. it's their job. you know, they've got to make sure that everything is right. >> after the search inmates return to their cells to clean up the mess. >>> next -- "lockup" takes you inside old max, l.a. county's 50-year-old maximum security facility. and we'll see how two new inmates are dealing with their first week of being behind bars. x beds and now beds infused with gel? but through all the fads, 6 million people have found their best night's sleep on something else. ask me about my tempur-pedic. ask me how fast i fall asleep. ask me about staying asleep. [ male announcer ] so next time you hear that gel is the answer to sleeping hot know that tempur-pedic beds have been proven in independent tests to sleep cooler than the leading gel beds. just ask me. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. [ male announcer ] if you had a dollar for every dollar car insuran

finally reveal exactly who is behind those document tritt cameras capturing all the action at the scrantonhink everybody is eager to see who's behind the cameras and hear from them. we don't know the yet if the steve carell will return to the show for part of the last season. according to "the new york times," the show would love to have him back if he can manage with his schedule. nbc is not canceling the show, it is the network's highest rated scripted series but the contracts are expiring for much of the original cast. they're going out on top. >> the best way to go out. tom cruise, katie holmes, is it over over over now? >> we're working to officially confirm that news, but according to multiple reports today, on monday, a judge did sign off on the couple's divorce settlement which seems to be a formality at this stage because they reached a settlement within days of her filing for divorce. it took only 53 days from the day she filed to the day the divorce became official if the reports are accurate. it is pretty remarkable these twos had such a mature discreet split when you think of

we tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in scranton and another way in san francisco. as for my running mate, you can be certain that wherever he goes, and whoever is listening, john mccain is the same man. i'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. and i've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. but here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators -- i'm not going to washington to seek their good opinion -- i'm going to washington to serve the people of this country. americans expect us to go to washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people. politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests. the right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it. no one expects us to agree on everything. but we are expected to govern with integrity, good will, clear convictions, and

we are living at my grandfather's house in scranton . my sister used to be three years younger and now she is 20 years younger. she looks 20 years younger and she is twice as smart. i guess those things factor in. not one woman in history that has been older than any man in the biden family. my dad said, "dad is going to move away from a year." wilmington. to wellingto "i will try to come every weekend. i will get a good job and i'll bring you down and it will be ok." my dad believed it was going to be ok. he convinced me to believe it. it was a tragic. i realize he made a longer walk. he walked into my grandfather is pantry and said -- my dad was a proud, graceful man. i cannot imagine what it was like to say, "i need a favor. keep jean and the kids for a year. back."se i'll pay you you know people who have made that walk. some of you may have made that walk. the president was generous enough to ask me to join him. i asked him a question. i said, you do me what you say about the middle class? we both kid about it. we have shorthands. we

we tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in scranton and another way in san franciscoing mate, you can be certain that wherever he goes, and whoever is listening, john mccain is the same man. i'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. and i've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. but here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators -- i'm not going to washington to seek their good opinion -- i'm going to washington to serve the people of this country. americans expect us to go to washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people. politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests. the right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it. no one expects us to agree on everything. but we are expected to govern with integrity, good will, clear convictions, and a servant's hear

i thought scranton and rockefellers were ashamed -- shamed. i think the network correspondents had to be carried off the convention floor. it was quite a disaster, that convention. host: mr. whalen? guest: in 1964, barry goldwater day one of the most memorable speeches. he created a conservative movement. it did not serve him well in the general election. but it helped to sweep reagan and other conservative presidents to power. his line was extremism in defense of liberty is not a vice. his words resonated with the conservative backers the party and gave a rallying point to what had been a demoralized party. it provided an organizational base to control the party in the decades ahead. we all know the result of that. host: have been talking about the history of political conventions with professor whalen. thank you for joining us on the "washington journal." we have one more segment coming up. we will be talking with susannah goodman about voting systems. that will be coming up in a minute. i want to finish this segment with this tweet. , conve

things were a little tough in scranton, pennsylvania, at the time in the mid '50s.y, there are good jobs are uncle frank is in wilmingt wilmington, delaware. i'll be gone for a year. it's only 157 miles but i'll try to come home every weekend. i thought, my god, 157 miles, speaking of mars, i thought that was mars. i thought that's how far away it was. i wasn't frightened by it. i was disappointed by it. my dad had absolute confidence. absolute confidence. he had another shot that it would work. it wasn't until i got to be in my 20s i realized my father who was a proud, graceful man, made an even longer walk. he made a walk into my grandfather's pantry with my mom's grown brothers and said, ambro is, i need a favor. can you take care of -- can you take care of jean and the kids for about a year? i promise, i promise i'll pay you back. you know people have made that walk. you know people have had to do that. you know people as recently as this past spring who were sitting down at the kitchen table, husband and wife saying, how are we going to tell mary she can't go b

scranton, pennsylvania s , is a example where they didn't do that and they've been shut out of the marketur paper >> what is the best paper if you were going out to buy something? what is the best rate you can get in a municipality that's not going bankrupt? >> so if you want to go out 30 years, which a lot of people don't want to do because they're saying okay, rates have to go up at some point in the future, but if you go out 30 years you can get close to 5%, let's say for 0.4, 0.7%, from a general obligation, i can nt' give yo g that's off the general municipal scale. you want to look at where municipals are trading as a percentage of treasuries because if you can get more than 100%, you can, and in fact probably the best area right now is in -- >> what do you mean? >> take a treasury bond yielding 3% and you can get a municipal yielding 3.5% in that same maturity, and you're not even factoring in the taxes you'd pay on the treasury bond, then the municipal bond, even if you are an investor that's in zero tax bracket. >> alexandria, i don't know which of the bills introduced by the oba