to do is ramrod the cuts before the post office could act. it doesn't matter if they don't have the time to dole with the comprehensive legislation. we agreed to a five-month moratorium on cuts. the importance on that is when we return to washington in january, at the end of january, one of the first orders of business in the senate will be comprehensive postal reform. . what is disappointing about the postal presentation, i really have a hard time understanding you, it is absolutely true. first class mail service is out. but one of the great financial problems facing the post office in addition to the decline in first class mail, in addition to the recession is the absolutely unfair financial requirements being made on the postal service. and it's very hard more me to understand how in a presentation this is not dealt with. the postal service as a result, not their fault. as a result of congressional action some years ago is required to come up with about $5.5 million every single year for future health care retirees. there is no other agency

the post master general will outline the hearing. we begin with the capitol hill reporter's conversation. >> rachel covers postal service issues for the post master. the post office could run out of money by next fall. why is the post office in such serious financial shape? >> the 200-year-old postal service is going bankrupt because of the internet age in part. it has too many mail men and not enough mail to carry. the most obvious thing is the internet. people are paying their bills online. because of this, the volume of first class mail has dropped 20% in the past five years. with that drop comes a drop in postal service revenues. last year, the postal service lost $5 billion. it would have lost $10 billion if congress did not extend the deadline for bills it owed the u.s. treasury. that comes on the losses from 2010 as well. $8.5 billion. donohue said it will increase. >> senator susan collins has called the usps financial situation "dire." what legislative solution is that committee working on? >> that committee has a bipartisan

the postal service has a lot of post offices. and one of the numbers i have seen about the post office is that it has more retail outlets if we can put it that way than starbucks, walmart, and mcdonald's combined. so we have to close some post offices. i've been through this a few times in connecticut. here again, this is where it's not a typical business. because there was one case where in a mall town years and years ago where the postal service tried to close the post office. and probably on a sheer numbers basis, they were right. but that little post office not only was important to the small businesses and the people in town, and really you can't - al had become like a community center. people would come down and pick up the mail and chat. we can't afford that really now, but it's very difficult to closa to do that now. and i do want to state for the record. senator mccain said something earlier, which is that this bill will stop the closing of post offices by the postal service. it will not. and it doesn't do that. including

well, you know, i mention -- the post puts out a party. lily greenfield as editorial page editor puts on a party every year for cartoonists whe work appears on the saturday post drawing page or other parts of the paper, and jeff of course comes to these things and we use a lot of his cartoons, and -- well, a bunch of us went over to the white house, i don't know. the president invited us over, and -- what was it you started to ask about? >> i asked, you said that jeff went off and ot married, and -- >> well, i'm not saying married was -- jeff actually at one of these things were some of the visiting cartoonists get up and tell what happened to them during the year and so on, jeff n year said some of you may have heard a rumor that i ran off to alaska with my secretary, and after a long pause, he said, well, it' true, and i must tell you that i checked with jeff if that was all right to use it in the book because i didn't know if he would like it or not. he said that was something well in the past and that it's certainly all right to use it.

office it's mentioned twice in the cars no shit water republicans have against the post and over the years trying to knock the post office or trying to save the post office and if one of those concerns employee benefits that's when they have to look forward to or how many times we've seen companies dump stuff in the pension benefit guaranty fund over and over and over again and put on the federal dime i mean we are in a serious debt situation this is already the federal dive number one and number two if they said you have to you have to fund the retirement benefits for all the employees who are currently working for you that would make perfect sense except that was already the case they already had the money so they said ok it's got to be employees seventy five years from now. i don't get it if they had the money already then why they have to put the money and they were having because it was always until it was not a point it was designed it was designed to force the post office to lay off a whole bunch of people to create a financial crisis for the post office so that you had accide

what the inspector general of the post office has told us the other day, if the post office does not r nickel in the fund, it accumulates 4% interest in 21 years that fund is fully funded, stronger than any similar fund in the united states of america. so we should use that 5.5 billion in order to stablize the post office today. >> how are you going to get the private sector to help rural america. in the long run this is a real thorn in the side of american business, i think. >> you're absolutely right, ed. this is what we're talking about. 230,000 jobs being lost in the postal service in the middle of recession. postal service is responsible for millions of other jobs, in the private sector, businesses who use the mail, have to use the mail, packages every day. we're talking about losing 3700 post offices, many of them rural. we're talking about if these guys get their way of slowing down mail delivery, so that instead of one day delivery, it may be two or three, instead of three it may be five, if you do that in my view, and the view of many experts, you're talking about a death spi

the posting for the hearing was put in the window for 30 days. i have an affidavit of that posting. and a photo of the large white paper with the notice of hearing theire. >> if you could put that on the overhead -- >> yes. behind that is the photo. president garcia: who sign the affidavit? >> it is the architect. he happened to be there. president garcia: could you point to the image of the posting? >> this is the window. there is a lot of reflection. you can see up here better. it is a notice of public hearing. >> what is the date on that notice? >> the date was february 23, 2011. >> what does the after that it say again? -- the affavdavit say again? >> "after that it of posting, and posted public noted -- pose a public case for 234 9th st. in san francisco, up block for -- block 4. hearing to be held on the planning commission in february 23, 2011 he get -- 2011." i determined that the notice was real quiet -- the notice was posted during the required duration. as far as the question about the parking, we started construction on this permit december 5, 2011. the permit had been is

a lot of people think the post office is a relic for a bygone era. i think it has a lot of relevance. senator collins has alluded to, there are 7 million jobs that are related to the postal industry and need for the industry to be viable and do its job more and a more cost effective way. just as the auto industry has right sized, that what the postal service needs to do with the legislation. they have more employees than they need. it is down from 800,000 to 550,000. they want to bring it down by another 100,000 over the next couple of years. this legislation will help them. not by laying people off or labor contracts, but incentivizing people to retire. we want to incentivize them. i am a guy to see how you can leverage and get more with less. what we are doing here is making sure that the $7 billion overpayment to the federal employee retirement system can be used in part to help people retire. 80% of the cost of the postal service is people. they have more employees than they need. this will help them get their head count down to right size the ent

some say he is the post as a weapon of power in politics, some say to the detriment of the post. germany hopes his successor can restore faith and integrity to the country's highest office. >> and the story goes on. that wraps up this edition of the "journal." captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

the post has a comprehensive piece talking about how, for example, the department provided $2.4 billion in public funding to clean energy companies that were, at which this guy, sanjay, used to work. now, why do we care that he used to work at companies that got $2.4 billion in taxpayer monies? because that guy was tapped by the energy department to be their consultant on green energy investment so, you know, what did sanjay apparently say? it look like he said, hey, consider my former company, they'd be a great investment, and now the post is raising questions about the propriety of that, lars. should it be? >> hey, they should be, absolutely. the whole thing sounds like dirty dealing at the white house to get the clean energy that's turning out not to be all that clean.

or a public meeting, the post office will be the first one that comes up. with the ten-mile issue that senator moran brought up, it's an issue that people have talked to me about in extentia, because the post office closures is really going to close a lot of communities. that's not ever healthy for rural america. so i want to express my appreciation for offering the amendment. appreciation to the committee for passing it. the amendment i want to take up now deals with executive compensation. i want to thank the undefeated senator pryor and senator mccaskill in joining me in offering this amendment. it's simply restricts the pay of the postmaster general to the same for the member of congress. $174,000 a year. prior to 2008, the postmaster general's salary was set by law. however, the 2006 reform bill had been talked about today allowed the postal board of governors to set the postmaster salary at the same rate as the vice president. it also allowed the postmaster arizona and as many as a dozen senior executives to receive bonuses up to 20% of their base pay

demands there would be airstrikes very public airstrikes on nuclear facilities in iran and the washington post just reported u.s. defense secretary leon panetta believes israel could attack iran as early as this spring so let's talk about all of this soup to nuts currency wars to the actual ones the man i had to talk about is just the man jim records the senior managing director of tangent capital partners an officer of this bestseller currency wars and we're so thrilled to have you in studio nice to see you thank you are nice to be here first i just have to thank you for being so sweet in your support of our coverage of davos it was really just very sweet where we were following it closely you were on the ground and you were getting firsthand reports and that was great reporting thank you thank you let's move on to your fantastic reporting and i have this great op ed for a meal and i want to start with because he's been on the hill a couple times and people really focused on the dual mandate because some are really interested in inflation and some are really interested and poignant and there'

the local post office is in a lot of places are really community institutions, but people depend on the mail. and even though the volume has been going down, obviously our population fortunately has been going up. and therefore, the post office has to deliver to more and more people and it has -- we have given it -- now, maybe somebody wants to change this and we have given it by law a very unique responsibility which is universal service and that's a big responsibility. it has been deemed over our history to be very important. in other words, we're going to deliver the mail to you, the postal service is going to deliver the mail wherever you are in the country. whether or not it's -- it's profitable. whether or not it makes sense. so if you have a certain sense of uncertainty about it it's justified because it's certainly not a private corporation. it's not totally a public function but it's more public than private. and we're trying -- like the rest of our government now we're trying to get it back in the fiscal balance. because otherwise it's going to go under. >> mr. chairman, thank

the other side. there are syrian army posts over there. ld be a conduit for humanitarian aid and weapons. it is mostly the united states at this point that has the biggest reservations. the united states doesn't know this opposition well. the muslim brotherhood, the syrian muslim brotherhood is deeply involved if the opposition. the united states isn't keen to give that organization weapons or even more radical islamic factions. >> richard engel, stay safe my friend. appreciate you. >>> to politics now, nbc news just released its new 2012 battleground states map. take a quick look, folks. dark red areas representing solid gop states. the lighter red indicate likely gop states. the dark blue areas, solid democratic states, light blue signifies likely democratic. and all of those yellow states, all of the states in yellow, florida, north carolina, toss-up states. joining me to talk about it is senior political editor. good morning to you, sir. what are the biggest takeaways. >> how the map has started to tilt back in president obama's favor.

stop laying off the postal workers. post office should be based on human -- [ inaudible ] save it, stop destroying it. hey, hey, ho, h oo -- [ inaudible ] [ booing ] >> well, the good thing is, they've definitely been paying attention to the situation. [ laughter and applause ] at any rate. if we could only get that $11.4 billion back, we'd be able to keep a couple post offices open. but such mandated obligations have really been an enormous drag on our financial stability, and they are obligations which we've had absolutely no control over. consider this -- during the worst downturn in mail volume in 2008 and 2009, the operations of the postal service, the operations were profitable. our $6.6 billion in losses were due to a $7 billion mandated retiree health benefit payment that no other business would have made. given the volume declines we experienced, that statistic says to me that we do a very good job at controlling cost, but we're working with insurmountable constraints. over the past four years, we've reduced the siz

we, you know, it's an interesting statistic with the post office. we have 70% of our floor space is owned, yet we only own about 30% of our buildings. so, we own the big ones, we lease the small ones, and as you close some of these up, you get rid of leases. now, that's where some of the pushback comes from. there's somebody out there with a lease for a post office. that's considered better than a municipal bond, right? and now, don't get rid of that! >> so, then what happens to the employees once that facility closes? >> we're working through that. you know, from an employee standpoint, we've reduced the career head count and noncareer head count in this organization by over 250,000 people since the year 2000. we've never laid anybody off. there's been a couple of people that have chosen to leave based on moving somewhere. but you know, we're proud of that. i mean, i come from pittsburgh, steel town. i watched thousands, you know, 50,000 people get laid off in one fell swoop. when you come to work for the postal service, people do a good job. you ra

the minute that happened the post stopped and dropped right through the floor, cost the post something like a million bucks to challenge those licenses. that's not the action of a guy that is particularly interested in discourse with the press. i think at this point it becomes a blood feud. i think at the end of the day, i don't think anybody came out of this very well. as a lifelong reporter, you read from a lot of people leak leslie stahl, daniel short who were involved in all of this, this became a great party. daniel shore talks about being so elated. leslie stahl writes about the watergate parties they were having every night, and it becomes, i think, the news media. i've been in this for many, many decades and almost breaks their arm patting themselves on the back for bringing this guy down. whether he had it coming or not is of course, another question entirely, but i don't think anybody got out of this unscathed. you mentioned the naybobs of negativism, that is still part of the national discourse. i don't think fox news and rush limbaugh can get through ten minutes without com

cycle because he always has something interesting to say shannon i think you should actually fix the post office if it's the old post office building there and there is a post office in there that maybe you should donate some of that money to the post office as opposed to making a luxury hotel. bill because religion and the post office is broke and there's all sorts of ideas about what could happen out of that but let's talk about this because we've been dying to february is national tent time management month and though it isn't an officially standing holiday with government it was created maybe by super organized people like shannon to bring attention to productivity maybe it's not a national holiday because productivity is actually really high in this country because workers have to work harder because there's fewer jobs but we wanted to give you a sneak peek at our productivity. thank you what's what's going on with the blinds wait shannon hold on a second this is on sale. yeah that's how the magic happen the thing is that is so true you are true all i barely ever look at shoes the mo

and with the people, because he's got to go back to the post office where to many of the people in the post office, he's just little dicky wesley, to whom they can go up, as he put it, and put their finger on his head and say, what are you guys doing in albany? i kind of caught it after a while, because i have to go back to the post office in poughkeepsie and see some of those folks. i think it's a quality that's wondrous and one that's endeared dick wesley to us, the kind of judging that we appreciate and i think the public does, as well. so fast forward, many years later, judge wesley is on the second circuit and writing a decision talking about ex-party merriman and milligan. and we thought what a great addition to this program to have dick wesley talk about that. so with that, here he is, judge richard wesley. [ applause ] >> my presence here tonight is the result of a conversation that i had with albert about four months ago when he was telling me about coming and talking about lincoln and i got all excited about it, because i think most of us who end up judging become somewhat in

>> in the last year, we've closed about 500 post offices. that was in the first run-through, this 3,700 we're looking at now, we're still in the evaluation process. we closed about 50 processing facilities over the course of the last year and a half, and we'll continue to do that. i mean, it's -- as the volume has dropped, we have to make these changes. you just can't wait until the bitter end and then try to close. we've got to take the costs out now. >> and is there an appeals process where a community says, hey, we're special? >> yes, yes. >> how does that work? >> here's what happens. if you close a post office, you have to have a public meeting and you explain why you want to do that. one of the things we've learned going through this is it's better to go in and give people some options. i think that that's an area where we haven't done as well going in. it's not been -- we haven't articulated the options. so, we'll go in, a town has the opportunity to come back to us with an objection or to the regulatory commission. they're doing that.

"the washington post" says -- host: according to "the washington post" there are still ways lawmakersre getting around the semantics of it. let's go to brian. did you participate over the weekend in the caucusing? caller: no, i did not. unfortunately, i had to work. i am an independent, a moderate. i like to listen to both sides. even though we are democrats or republicans, we are all citizens of the united states of america. however, i voted for president obama last time. i'm voting for congressman ron paul this time. i do not like earmarks if they are not disclosed to the public. congress and the president has to realize they are the employee. we, the voters, are the employer. anything you have to do has to be disclosed to the public. for example, out here, we are supposed to have a bullet train that goes from l.a. county to las vegas. they've been talking about that for over 10 years. that has not happened yet. our founding fathers said this in the 1700's. our government has been slowly but surely too corrupted. i am personally sick and tired of all the politicians, democrats and r

original design included multiple levels of parking to accommodate to hundred 72 parking places for the postffice. those spaces are no longer included. as proposed, the design is within the threshold of the approval and i will let the architect outline the changes. çspecifically, the number of units decreased and the number of parking spaces decrease from 1000 -- the rate of 121 units remain. w3the amount of residential open space increased significantly as well. that additional project review and design review -- significant items that a review would include ground level townhome design, streetscape improvements and passageway design. at this point, i will turn it over to project sponsor for their presentation. >> good afternoon, commissioners. weç are front of you, the revised design for 201 in conformance with the original approvals. i will turn it over to bernardo. >> a good afternoon. i would like to take you through the plans and elevations. the volumetric presentation. in the process of doing that, i'm going to showç you the differences that were just point out and how they affect

go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. >>> where were investors pumping up the volume this week? vivus. >>> welcome back to "options action." time for the upside call where we take a look back on our winning trades. last week khouw and carter made a call on priceline. the stock has only moved a little, but they've made a lot. and here's how. on "options action," we only have one policy when it comes to price. risk less, you can make more. that's exactly what khouw and carter did on their bullish bet on priceline. carter thought shares were ready to take a trip higher. >> great equilibrium. gives way to disequilibrium. >> better get in on this priceline business. but there was a problem. 100 shares of priceline cost nearly $57,000. so to spend less, mike instead bought the april 620 strike call for a total of $20.50. now to make money, mike needs priceline stock to rise above that price by more than the cost of the trade or above $640.50 by april expiration. but 20 bucks? yo, bill, you're no longer with priceline, but you do make a good point. mike, show us how to do th

larry took on the post office, like you said, and won. m, and yet dhl is not really much of a player in the u.s. market. >> with right. >> it was founded

we'll answer it after the show on our website. we also post trade updates too. do check it out. here's what's coming up next. >>> so maybe it wasn't a swish. made a bearish bet on nike headed higher, but with time left on the shot clock, how will they save the trade? find out when "options action" returns. >>> time for pump up the volume. the names that were heating thup the sizzle index this week. this name got hot 100 years ago after offering a corny way to start your day. on thoughts of recent acquisition is no small potatoes. who is it? the answer when "options action" returns. there's nothing worse than going to the post office and waiting in line. i don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps.com, you can print real u.s. postage for all your letters and packages. it gives you the exact amount of postage you need the instant you need it. can you print only stamps? no. first class. priority mail. certified. international. and the mailman picks it up. i don't leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4-week tr

and people got their newspapers from the big city like springfield by post. and they soon began wondering why their newspapers came instead of in their usual crisp together looking like they had been read. well, the answer is, they had been read. the post master was reading the he was -- he was introduced to the world beyond his mill town by the newspapers that covered springfield and chicago and even washington. it awakened the world in him, but awakened it in a way that was extremely partisan. he read democratic and republican papers, playing away at other each. in that world, he developed greater ambitions. i think they were fueled in large part by what he read was possible from the newspapers. of course, excuse me, judge, and of course educated himself in the law just as he educated himself in the bible, geometry, shakespea shakespeare, and all of the other things. >> much of that was conducted in the first instance by the military who thought this was necessary for the war effort in one way or another, guided or misguided as it might have been. but was th

cook county circuit court also of flames on top of the old chicago post office in addieville but dozens of firefighters putting both on fire by hand. top story road closures and manpower in the bill tonight outside of the old post office with the story tonight. >> the roads have finally cleared crews have started to pull out of the area and not in large fire but a large structure in a large building and that what was causing big problems for firefighters tonight video you are looking at now the fire on the 10th floor the top floor of the old post office manpower out here tonight 130 locally firefighters were not necessary. because of the square footage of the old post office firefighters could see the smoke from the outside but cannot get to it. finally able to use hand pumps to put it out. how and why did the fire get started? no answers tonight. the trains run under the building ventilation system a very elaborate ventilation system to exhaust through the roof. the fire started in one of those phantom limbs recently reports not working as deputy chief if a broken fan was the issue, he

the washington post lost... >> smith: they lost a lot of folks, too. they lost a lot of reporters. >> moyers: there is not enough advertising any longer. >> smith: can you imagine a scenario in which the washington post or the new york times would cease to exist, what that would say about our... >> moyers: it is not just conceivable; it is even feasible. >> smith: yeah. >> moyers: particularly in washington. >> smith: right. well, we will have public television at least, we hope. you mentioned that public television is sort of the exception to much of what is being discussed, and i want to segue into a conversation about your new program. you are the energizer bunny of media. you just keep going and going and every time we think moyers is off and we are not going to have him back, you pop back up. this program, moyers and company, which is going to be on in january on public television stations all over the country, is... well, let me let you define it. i know what you have said about it, but i want you to tell us yourself what your intention is. >> moy

and shairp the space with a reduced size post office. >> the idea is gaining support for many, a post office just won't be the same. >> and a spokesperson says the sale is a business deal and will do what is best for taxpayers. >> we're trying to get our facts together so we can make a credible proposal to the post office as soon as possible. >> the building could hit the market in mid day. -- may. and p if sue richardson has anything to say, her p.o.box isn't going without a fight. >> yes. >> yes. >> hopefully, not. >> in palo alto abc 7 news. >> mountain view based vivus is like to be the first drug maker market a new prescription weight loss bill. a panel recommended a proveal as a treatment for obesity. and today, telling the panel the benefits outweigh risks. the fda is expected to mick a decision by april. >> tonight's money matters a disappointing day at hewlett-packard. earnings reports show revenues down 7%, profits down 44%, computer sales down almost 20%. it was hp's first full quarter under meg whitman. wall street can't seem to fully turn the corner. the dow is still set

mills have ebitda margins in the mid 20s range. post market share. now the company plans to stabilize this market share and start taking share again. the important point to recognize here is that the expectations for post are extremely low. so any improvement at all will be viewed as a huge positive. why do i believe post can turn itself around? because the new management seems to understand all the company's problems and what it needs to do to fix them. post has decided to increase its advising promotion budget by 400 basis points. ralcorp had dramatically underspent, which is a big reason why post lost so much share under their previous administration. plus, post has decided to invest heavily in innovation, something they haven't done for over a decade. i've got some ideas for innovation. yum. then there's pricing. historically post's sweet spot has been price points that are below kellogg's and general mills but higher than private labels. now post intends to get back to that historical sweet spot and hopefully take some share doing

the hacker group, anonymous, posted the address and home phone numbers of oakland's top city leaders from the police chief to the mayor. nbc bay area's marianne favro is live in oakland with how the city is handling this security breach. marianne? >> reporter: janelle, some city council members say they are just going to ignore it, they say they won't be intimidated but the police chief is looking into ways to protect his officers from having their personal information released again in the future. crime in oakland is spiking. >> the last seven days alone, the city has had 20 shootings, five have been whom sides. >> reporter: but police trying to fight crime on the streets have another concern. anonymous hackers posted the phone numbers address and personal information of many officers online, including the police chief himself. >> this is a distraction. my information was posted and i didn't feel well about it. but i understand that comes with the turf and i have done what i can do protect my family and myself. >> reporter: today, police chief howard jordan called the posting cybert

of the building they're posts and the cars run into them and they break. pical problem. in an earthquake things are going side to side but bouncing up and down. a serious likelihood is a post will come off the post base, po off and flip around. when that happens that's a serious problem because nothing is supporting the floor above and it settings so it's not going to collapse the building but it could provide tremendous damage to the build. >> you don't won't to have a floor where you walk down the floor and walk downhill. not good. >> the top of the post is once again not connected. here's a t strap five bucks. you put this at the top, drill hole and nail it on. for $40 your house won't have $10,000 worth of damage. >> the thing to remember in an earthquake is ground is shaking violently this way and up and down which you want to keep you building tied together. these cheep little straps believe it or not work. >> wait a second. we have a question here. >> not a question, a comment. i just want to suggest a caveat that everything you say is absolutely tru

when it's done, the old post office will be renamed trump international hotel. that's too bad. like to see the old name on there. >>> haeir yet tubman is immortalized in wax. a statue in her likeness was revealed in downtown washington. some of tubman's descendants were on hand for the reveal. she escaped in 1849 from maryland's shore but later returned to lead a countless number of slaves to freedom via the underground railroad. nice tribute to her -- >> very nice. yeah. good gesture. >> important figure, yes. >>> about 4:51. we have some snow headed our way. here's tom. >> snow. >> and who told you that? >> you. >> tom kierein did. >> that's right, yes. we've been talking about this for the past -- >> we don't mess around here. >> the last couple of days we've been talking about this. it does look like it's going to be working out. into the late morning hours, maybe a few flakes flying in the shenandoah valley. around noontime arriving in washington. and it may get moderate at times by late afternoon for the afternoon commute. you have no trouble this morning getting off to wo