the commission could rely upon and that included an extraordinary survey of several thousand state and local election administrators conducted by the state's political scientists and survey research experts and we gleaned very significant information about some of the issues we addressed from that survey. overall throughout the report, the effort was to look very closely at the evidence, how the electoral system was performing. and in that connection, one of the recommendations that we make is that we need in this country much more collection and analysis of data to enable us to pinpoint the strength and weaknesses in the performance of our electoral process. beyond that, there was a few other and i will go through them, considerations that we discussed at the outset of our report. does one size fit all? we have many different jurisdictions. some believe that you cannot generalize all reforms across jurisdictional lines and to some extent that is true, there are enough common features across the united states that one size in many respects can fit all in many of these recommendations and the

that's hard to do because elections are run at the state and local level. the patchwork system sometimes creating challenges, former supreme court justice louie brandice famously called the states, quote, laboratories of democracy. they sometimes provide us with examples of innovation that can be shared throughout the country. soon after the last election, the president acted and created a bipartisan commission to study election administration and best practices for improving voting in america. the president insisted this not be a partisan exercise. the commission was supposed to seek out the best ideas for making voting easier and better no matter where they came from. that's what the commission did. the presidential election -- commission on election administration was made up of 10 members, included current and former election officials, executives from successful customer service oriented businesses and two chairs, both well known, one republican, one a democrat, but each with a long, storied history in this area. and so, mr. bauer and mr. ginsburg, you

that is a difficult task because elections in the united states to run at the state and local level withour 50 states with 50 unique collection systems in houston of election districts with patchwork systems, sometimes reading challenges. former supreme court justice, louis brandeis called the states laboratories of democracy. they sometimes provide us with examples of innovation that can be shared throughout the country. soon after the last election, the president acted and created a bipartisan commission to study election administration and best practices for improving voting in america. the president insisted this not be a partisan exercise. the commission was supposed to seek out the best ideas for making voting easier and better no matter where they came from and that is just what the commission did. the presidential election -- commission on election administration was made of 10 members, including current and former election officials, executives from successful customer service-oriented businesses and two chairs, a well-known. when a republican, when a democrat, but each with a l

local projects. thus the federal government is in a position to be a provider of technical assistance, helping state and local officials identify and use the best available information that is specific to their circumstances, while also enhancing access to experts who can help translate that information down at the local level. that concludes my opening statement. i welcome your questions, thank you. >> thanks so much, mark. and for the work that -- anybody here on your team? anybody from the audience from gao? >> gentleman right behind me, yes. and there's plenty more back in the building. >> on behalf of dr. coburn and myself how much we value the work that you do, and appreciate the opportunity to partner with you. >> thank you, sir. >> i want to first talk a little bit more, talk a little bit more about the flood insurance program. dr. johnson -- well senator johnson and i both -- dr. coburn -- voted against the flood insurance corrections bill that passed the senate not very long ago just earlier this month. late last month. and i go back in time to 1990 i was a house member on the banking commi

local projects. thus the federal government is in a position to be a provider of technical assistance, helping state nd local officials identify and use the best available information that is specific to their circumstances, while also enhancing access to experts who can help translate that information down at the local level. that concludes my opening statement. i welcome your questions, thank you. >> thanks so much, mark. and for the work that -- anybody here on your team? anybody from the audience from gao? >> gentleman right behind me, yes. and there's plenty more back in the building. >> on behalf of dr. coburn and myself how much we value the work that you do, and appreciate the opportunity to partner with you. >> thank you, sir. >> i want to first talk a little bit more, talk a little bit more about the flood insurance program. dr. johnson -- well senator johnson and i both -- dr. coburn -- voted against the flood insurance corrections bill that passed the senate not very long ago just earlier this month. late last month. and i go back in time to 1990 i was a house member on the banking commit

and comply with state and local legislation. that is really to allow us to as i said get pro actively track changes in federal state and local stages in our work that would have collecting analyzing and presentation in health data and would help the directors in terms of being able to provide outreach so that the city can be more of a player region wise and there is an education component to that. that is one position. the next page is the next group of funding packages. the next one is implementing the strategic wellness plan and this is to go to the general fund. we are at somewhat off. it syncs because we have to put our charter mandate before february 21st. you are going to hear the wellness plan and march. we've heard from the other response aureus -- response sponsors and the wellness plan and operating expenditures for the wellness, the work that's done through the wellness center. one of the positions, the major part of the two positions is to help focus on other departments and help them with their wellness activities th

local officials? mr. bauer, you want to tackle that? >> he isn't recommending a federal solution but recommending a series reforms by state and local governments can keep the wait lines down and comply with the 30-minute standard that we have articulated. secondly, it is a problem -- obviously, it is going to be scattered throughout the country. long lines, some have some real problems with long lines. but the best data indicates that in the united states, five million americans waited more than an hour to vote and another five million between a half an hour to an hour and 10 million americans is significant number of people and other jurisdictions who haven't had that experience could be significantly at risk if there are not if they are not ajustments to the electoral process to address problems, like for example, weak voter rolls or inadequate voting machinery and then you would have lines where you didn't have them before. >> is this a truly national problem or is this something that is very localized? >> i think in our experience, it was pretty localized. any time you have 10 million people voting for long periods of time, that would sugg

that is a confidential database of the state and local level. it seems to me perhaps that information can also be made andlable to water companies proximity to those facilities in the same kind of confidential database that exists. thatt me ask you, you said while more data is necessary for response preparation, it is important to use the information effectively rather than just dumping massive amounts of data on small water systems. can you explain what you envision? >> one of my concerns is that some of these are very large. they might be thousands of square miles with industrialized facilities. if legislation requires that these systems be provided with , that is aesponse lot of information for any public water system today just and understand and figure out how to respond to. what we have heard this morning about prioritizing, those facilities close to water supplies, those are the ones that are critical for that information to be in the hands of water providers downstream. >> i agree with that. what has been highlighted earlier today, a lot

or tribal -- participating state, local or tribal government. the purpose of this provision is to highlight costs the federal government is passing along to state and local governments that would otherwise remain hidden, but borne by taxpayers regardless of which governmental entity is taxing them. c.b.o. director's statement before the committee on government reform, march 8, 2005, speaks further to this issue saying that, quote, according to umra, the conditions attached to most forms of federal aid, including most grant programs, are not mandates. yet complying with such conditions can sometimes be burdensome. in particular, states consider new conditions on existing grant programs to be duties, not unlike mandates. too often cited -- two often excited examples of conditions are the requirements for receiving federal funding under the no child left behind act, and the individuals with disabilities education act. those laws require school districts to undertake many activities, including respectively designing and implementing statewide achieve

and the regulatory agency in our space and state and local agencies. these are all outside the executive order. so again, the collaborative work we understand the white house are state and local and independence cycle agencies, extremely important to us to ensure this doesn't somehow an advert we become basis for regulation that was not intended to do so. >> can you talk about how the framework interact with existing regulations and your thoughts on what the future holds? >> the last question is fair for streamlining to occur. there's always going to the level of anxiety on the private sector side about criminal regulation but right now we have been very encouraged about comments made by the administration about it being on regulatory and voluntary. we had conversations with independent regulator and at this point we are optimistic to work with them to rollout the framework that works for the business side and the agency side and catherine pointed out the coordinating council, very prepared to start through the outreach committee working to roll the fra

day,e president asked one what is state and local jobs -- what is state and local jobs have had the same unemployment would be 5.8%. if you look at private sector gdp, if you just looked at the private sector component, since it started, about 3.5%. so i think to the degree we could see less contraction from the state and local government side, a little more certainty, i think there is some reason for optimism. the one thing some people pointed to is consumer confidence and small business confidence have stayed fairly positive. those are things likely not affected by weather as much. i would say cautious optimism, but i think everyone in the economics world will look at the numbers to see how much of it was weather related or whether something has changed. i would still be cautiously optimistic that we are having increased momentum in the recovery with the following caveat, it is not good enough. >> that was part one of the of -- part of an event held today by politico here did you can see all of it later in the schedule or anytime on our website. here is a look at the primetime schedule

noim is steven luke i didn't i'm the business agency for the state local 16 here in san francisco. i'm here to speak in support of the moscone expansion. in the a wonderful opportunity for san francisco to continue to attract the how level fire department's. without the moscone expansion san francisco risks losing high profile conventions to other companies in california and throughout the united states. the expansion of the moscone center will enhance local 16s ability to service this world-class designation with the best technicians in the industry. the moscone expansion is essential to maintain good wages and benefits for our local 16 and as well as many other businesses that support this industry. thank you very much. >> linda (calling names). >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm starting to recognize all of you i'm the executive director of yerba buena gardens festival. our philosophy is that art should be unconsciously available for everybody. this expansion is great for yerba buena and great for san francisco. on behalf of audience and artists we serve i ask the design of the pr

we cannot be efficient if our state and local partners aren't efficient. and so in addition to stabilizing the trust fund, new investments could introduce new competitive programs that reward innovation and adoption of best practices at the state and local levels. by taking this approach, we will dramatically increase the value proposition of federal dollars by encouraging investments that help whole economic regions, improve mobility and quality of life. now, you all know how much this matters, and i want to in closing finish where i started out. because somewhere in america right this second, as sure as we're sitting in this room, there is a mayor or a governor or a county commissioner or in some cases all three of them sitting down with some business representative who's talking about bringing jobs back to the u.s.a., bringing them right into their community, but they need an access road or a bridge or some rail built into the right place. and if that happens, hundreds, if not thousands of people will start working again. i've seen it happen in my prior

that's hard to do because elections are run at the state and local level. ith the patchwork system sometimes creating challenges, former supreme court justice louie bran dies famously called the states, quote, laboratories of democracy. they sometimes provide us with examples of innovation that can be shared throughout the country. soon after the last election, the president acted and created a bipartisan commission to study election administration and best practices for improving voting in america. the president insisted this not be a partisan exercise. the commission was supposed to seek out the best ideas for making voting easier and better no matter where they came from. that's what the commission did. the presidential election -- commission on election administration was made up of 10 members, included current and former election officials, executives from successful customer service oriented businesses and two chairs, both well known, one republican, one a democrat, but each with a long, storied history in this area. and so, mr. bauer and mr. ginsburg,

statings, our county governments, and cities. the gentleman from virginia, from the other side, earlier said that certainly he supported this when he was a localal elected there in virginia. and rightfully so because i can share a personal story, mr. speaker, from a senator, jim davis, from my home state who was a county commissioner and now a state senator. mr. meadows: i asked him why do you have such a hard time balancing the budget here in the state? and he gave me two words -- unfunded mandates. and why is that? because we continue to pass regulation after regulation after regulation, send them down to the states, ask the states to deal with them, the states say, well, we don't have money to implement this, they send it even further to the county government, so what happens? property taxes go up at the local level. state income taxes go up there. all because we believe that we know what is best here in washington, d.c., on how to implement rules and regulations. mr. speaker, i would suggest that during the first term of the obama administration we saw a 10% increase in regulatory budgets. now, that's a 10% increase in regulatory budgets w

it was a teach for america group of state and local law enforcement folks who would come temporarilyto the department of homeland security and the national counterterrorism center, which was created just about at the same time. on what thedvise bulletins should look like that go vertically from the department of homeland security down to first responders so that first responders could understand what to look for and what to do. are you aware of these outreach efforts? do you think they need support? >> absolutely. given the evolving terrorist threat which is becoming more decentralized, , less of ae traditional al qaeda or al qaeda like command control structure, we have to be more concerned about homegrown threats, the lone wolf, the person who self radicalized is. that is going to require that we continue to build relationships with first responders. in the boston marathon bombing, it was a perfect illustration of this. we need as a department in a federal government to build relationships with state and local law enforcement and government. the federal government cannot be everywh

and they work with state and local authorities. the biggest overlap are in the drug laws. everything the state can do, the federal government can do, and they talk to each other. there should be nobody who is prosecuted for the same act by the state and the federal government. that's because the two of them talk and decide which way is best to go. so, you know, there is some filter there. there are all these laws - not all of them are used. there are laws, but all come in in theory in each district through one person, and that person is making decisions and in the vast majority of cases are dismissed. we talk about resources, but there is no - certainly no federal posterior who will be allowed to spend more resources than they have. they pick and choose their cases. in a miami florida, you may not do what looks like a large drug case that may get done in, say, idaho, because they don't have the volume of cases or the problem. >> i mean, the question is is this still safe, are commuters responding. does it make us more safe: no, it doesn't. laws are not followed by lawmakers

3rd's but there was a possibility of having s it reduced for school bonds and local jurisdictions who are struggling as the state support for local programs gets smaller and smaller and making that more possible for us. the constitutional all the times cover a broader ranges of local funding and mark can speak to this but the intent is all issues are still on the table and we'll be psyching hi seeking consensus >> thank you. >> y0rd cap and trade with respect to those measures as well as seeking new state funding for affordable housing this is new on our elective program but something it's increasingly important and we want to make sure we have support between affordable housing and transportation. finally, we'll be getting support for bicycle programs and for number one infrastructure like education that are rising to the top to help protect bicyclists and pedestrians. at the federal level it will be for the transportation bill it expires on october 1st, we'll be continuing to work with the mayor's office and the other stakeholders to advance the priorities in that area. with that, if you have any questions, i'

sometimes that investigation may be led by dea, sometimes assisting our states, locals. sometimes like new york we're involved trying to find out the sources of supply, going against the facilitators. it's led by these mexican drug trafficking organization he, who control distribution and most of the american drug markets. >> hmm. is there -- is there more heroin or the streets now, because of u.s. troops pulling back in southern afghanistan? >> no, that's not even related, we don't see afghan heroin very much in the united states. we see heroin from columbia and from mexico. production of heroin in mexico is way up significantly in the last few years, we are seeing more and more of the mexican product here on the streets of the united states. >> we have reported significantly about the i-95 corridor, a lot of the eastern seaboard users. there are hot spots in the country? >> i've talked to prison officials in west virginia, they told me heroin use is the biggest problem in the rural elements of the country. >> how about other places, dallas, cincinnati, los angeles? >>

it creates unnecessary regulatory legal uncertainty, increases costs for businesses and state, local and tribal governments and impedes plain common sense. i will offer an amendment dealing with the homeland security. we have just had a hearing today and emphasized the importance, if you will, of the work of the homeland security department. with our new secretary of homeland security, secretary johnson, we are very much on the right track recognizing franchised terrorism, the needs for securing the border. many of the work done by homeland security is a regulatory structure, and i would insist that why would we ant to impede securing america ? well, my colleagues, this is what would happen with this legislation, the all economic regulations are transparent act. that is not the case. i had an amendment dealing with baby formula. for those of us that raised children as mothers, who tend to their needs as they are newborns and used an infant formula, it is well-known that there is a great need to regulate companies that man infant formulas in an effort to protect babies from food-borne

at the local state local, climate change is causing real costs to go up because of emergency response infrastructure costs. there's a big drive to get something done on it. >> it seems sochi is becoming a platform for a lot of political debates including same sex marriage. that's something y're addressing. >> it is. it's looking at ten years ago to the month, it all started in massachusetts. we've got governor mitt romney on who talked at the time about the impact of society of same sex marriage, rights moving forward. we'll ask him ten years later. >> he's weighing in on clintons too right? >> he is. his answers on hillary clinton as secretary of state are interesting. >> thanks. we'll watch in a matter of minutes, "meet the press" following our show. that's going to wrap it up for us on news 4 today. i hear we're going to do a last check of weather. >> our best chance of an inch of snow is tuesday morning. the timing has he concerned. the amounts not as much a concern. any time you get an inch or two on the morning commute that's a problem. >> we don't make the call here at storm te

stability at both the state and local level is good for employers, who want to grow, and for those who want to come to wisconsin. our unemployment insurance reforms save employers tens of millions of dollars, while protecting the unemployed as they seek work. we are trying to make it easier to create jobs. most importantly, we are helping people transition from government dependence to true independence. we are helping people live the american dream, which comes, not from the heavy hand of the government, but from the dignity that comes from work. our reforms offer people more freedom, more opportunity, and, ultimately, more prosperity. our reforms are based on common sense. we ask those receiving unemployment checks to seek work four or more times a week instead of two. we ask adults without children seeking food stamps to enroll in employment training. we're not making it harder to get government assistance; we're making it easier to get a job. we are putting in place similar reforms for medicaid, too. years ago, under governor doyle, eligibility for badgercare plus went up, but not

scraping and he could be working for money to be traveling to either mexico or to oregon, washington state. >> local police have been warned to look out. if you see briggs call 9-1-1. >> ukraine president yanukovych struck a deal with the european union announcing early elections and a coalition government after all night negotiations with european union diplomats intended to end the battle between the police and protesters. 70 protesters were killed and more than 500 were injured in downtown kiev yesterday. yanukovych scrapped a pact with the e.u. in favor of close ties with russia and that started the protesters. the opposition agreed to initiate the deals but it is too early to declare a breakthrough. >>> a special task force will look into how anuallied hate crime on a black student by his white roommates started and continued. studentses and staff and community members met two weeks ago for the first of six meetings. hate crime charges have been filed against four of the roommates. they have been suspended. the task force will release recommendations for policies to prevent future hate crimes i

the law-enforcement is conducted by people who are at state and local law enforcement agencies. helping them do their jobs makes a great deal of sense. i also think that what we see is innovative practices being done by our state and local counterparts. anwant to try to support experiment and see which things work and then try to push those out to other parts of the country. if we want to have a truly safe country with safe communities, law enforcement practices, the federal government has the unique mechanisms funding to funnel money to agencies that have particular crime problems that they're dealing with or have innovative solutions to crime problems that many communities around the nation are facing. >> thank you. i am a strong believer in the capacity of the federal government to apply specific programs and combine research, training, and funding assistance to leverage those either unique practices or important programs. i want to draw your attention to two of them. -- centersbuse act are an effective tool. the critical importance of strengthening our enforcement against sex

perkins distracters think that it's not progressive enough and points to the situation with state and local taxes where the wealthy pay a smaller percentage of their income in those taxes than anyone else. if you subscribe to perkins logic and believe the i rich should get more votes for federal elections, everybody else should get more votes at the state and local level. we've been asking tom perkins says there is a war on the rich. tell us why he's right or wrong. tds said it's not a war on the rich. it's a war on their unfair practices that are bleeding people and our country dry. and jeremiah writes if there is, their enemy is under funded outgunned and lacks funding. >>> mr. johnston, what is your reaction to mr. perkins' statements? >> i'm grad he' glad he's sayine things. we need to understand that we're a democracy, we are not a corporation. the ideas he has been proposing have been examined by philosophers and economists for more than 2,000 years, and every classic worldly philosopher and by the way george w. bush believes in progressive taxation. the idea of it is that we're all e

>> well, this project through the department of justice is an effort from the state, local and also federalrities out looking for and prosecuting people who exploit children around the country. >> thank you. rosa flores, we appreciate your reporting. >> candid remarks from the michael dunn trial jury, and why a woman says that race placed no role in the decision. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ >>> one of the jurors in the murder trial of michael dunn is breaking her silence. the jury convicted dunn of three counts of second -degree murder for shooting into an suv carrying four black teenagers, but they could not agree on the murder charge stemming from the death of 17-year-old jordan davis. we sat down with the woman known as juror 8. >> i never once thought about this is a black kid and that is a white guy, because that is not the case. >> a

it owns cable operations in 29 states local news and sports channel, internet and cloud computing services. now the two plan to become one, merging the first and second kyle providers to control a big share of the american cable t.v. market, and put the other pet r toes in the shade. if you are watching us on television, you are by definition a cable tv customer. and whether you get your service from comcast, time warner, or another company, this merger may have long term impact on a product you buy. what this massive merger will mean for their competitors, and the tens of millions of customers who buy able, internet, and other communications services is the inside story. the two are planning to join forces by the end of 24 year. comcast would absorb time warner for some $45 billion worth of stock. >> i think it is incredibly exciting. the move will first effect the 33 million subscribers. >> the invasion that's going to be enabled by the two companies coming together, i think can be truly spectacular. >> new product, better product, and the opportunity for our customers is terrific. >> ne

both the federal, state, local governments. it is a primary responsibility of government to protect the public safety of the people of our community. the system did not work on january 9th in west virginia. the system failed. yes, the reckless conduct of private company freedom industries was responsible for the spill, and failure to report properly. but our system needs to be adequate to protect against all contingencies. it was not in this instance. so i think we need to look at how we can strengthen our laws to make sure that the public, indeed, has a safe drinking water. and i want to congratulate and thank senator boxer, senator manchin, senator rockefeller for introducing quickly legislation that deals with some of the fundamental issues that we have to be concerned about. the current law requires a risk assessment, but does not -- of chemicals maybe in the area that could jeopardize say drinking water. but it does not require an update of that information nor does it require that there be a plan on using that information