an informational fair will be held next thursday at the united steelworkers union hall. session includes presentations about unemployment insurance benefits and career services. it takes place from 11 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. >> and now york 11 insta-weather + forecast with meteorologist john collins. >> if you like yesterday, you certainly like today with all the sun and warm temperatures. we have had a few thin clouds moving overhead. does not show up well on this satellite image. we also have a lot of jet contrails in the sky. the atmosphere is set up right for that. that adds a little bit to the cloudiness filtering the sunshine. so we do not have a perfectly blue sky. but it is a very nice day. let's look at the current conditions as far as temperatures. annapolis, 59. cambridge, 55. boardwalk, 56. only 49 at edgewood. that is all right. 52 at westminster. farther south, to riches of getting closer to 60. for the north, further away from 6 to come closer to 50 degrees but only in the 40's in the mountains out to the west. i want to show you a black and white satellite imag

and information fare will be held next thursday january 12 at the united steelworkers union hall. it will include presentations about unemployment insurance benefits and the career services. 11 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. the holiday season paid off for most retailers. holiday sales were not as robust as 2010 but still finished on a high note. the stores with the best deals did the best business. >> the majority of retailers are bringing in the -- bringing in the new year thanks to holiday shoppers. >> the economy was a little better. i did a little bit better shopping than last year. >> sales were up this season 3.3% over all. stores have to go all out because consumers waited until the very end to spend. >> we have been calling it a white knuckle christmas. it came late and it was on sale. >> still on a budget shoppers looked to get the most for their dollar. >> i was shopping with discounts. i wanted to get all the discounts i could. >> there was a twist on stores that did well this season. big department stores like macy's and nordstrom's saw an increase. discount

one session featured the president of the united steelworkers union and president of the united statesel corporation. >> -- studies program and i am very pleased to be here with this very distinguished panel one to talk about some of the aspects of manufacturing and technology and we are also going to look a little bit about germany and what's happened in the german labor market over the last few years and how that may be different from what we have had in the u.s.. so we have a terrific panel. leo gerard come to my right is the national president of under the united steelworkers union. >> [inaudible] >> mabey. i don't think when i was in the government i was necessarily the afl-cio's favorite economist. those days are past. relative to the current political spectrum. next to him is john surma, the ceo of u.s. steel, and next to him is elisabeth jacobs, a fellow here at brookings and government studies. and as i already previewed has written a paper which is outside and has attracted a lot of attention. it's a very good paper on what's happened in germany and some of the differences wi

james sanderson, president of the united steelworkers local union 7898 in georgetown, south carolina. sanderson, good to have you with us tonight. we keep hearing the stories about bain and mitt romney's involvement. what can you tell us about this? what happened here, what does the public, in your opinion, need to know? >> good evening, ed show. the first thing i would like to say good evening in the labor movement, brothers and sisters that also understand the dilemma we face here in south carolina, south carolina has over 10% unemployme unemployment, we are very much in need of jobs. to hear mitt romney running around this state talking about that he's a job creator is very disturbing and is not true. he does indeed like to fire people like he already said. we go back to 1997, whenever bain capital becomes very much involved with our plant, at georgetown steel, and he basically just took a lot of profits, assets away from the company and forced it in bankruptcy. >> mr. sand esanderson, explain carolina. the story does not seem to be hitting or hurting mitt romney's campaign at all.

steel, and the international president of the united steelworkers union. we'll have live coverage. here's our run-down of today's gop presidential campaigning. mitt romney is spending the day campaigning in south carolina. he will be in aiken around midday and travels to hilton head late this afternoon for a veterans event. rick perry stops this afternoon in bluffton and travels to charleston for event at a crab house. rick santorum started at a town meeting in rock hill, south carolina, and then travels to york for a meet-and-greet and cookout. newt gingrich is in florida for the morning. he open as state campaign headquarters in orlando. this afternoon he returns to south carolina for the candidates forum. jon huntsman doesn't have any scheduled campaign stops today but he will also be participating in the candidates forum in duncan, south carolina, 6:30 eastern. you can see that live on c-span. ron paul has no public appearances scheduled for today. as we mentioned, former massachusetts governor mitt romney is meeting with veterans in hilton head, south carolina and you can see

the united steelworkers union is telling refinery workers to prepare for a strike as early as 12:01 a.m. wednesday. most refine ers are expected to reject the shutdown offer and begin assigning temporary replacement workers to operate the refinery units. talks between the union and oil company representatives for a new three-year deal are said to be continuing. about 6% of refining capacity is expected to shut down if workers walk off their jobs and another 5% is expected to shut if it lasts up to three months and, to this day, i haven't seen gas -- it's $3.40 at $101 -- whatever oil has been and it's got to be -- it's different this time as the crack spreads. but it hasn't been -- >> it hasn't been a very cold winter. >> that's true. >> you haven't seen the demand. >> it is a game changer, though, for the economy and the election and everything else and it's strangely staying down. >> spring you'll see more. >> the situation in iran will get worse. >>> let's get to the markets. the stock markets. last week the dow turned in its first weekly decline in 2012. of course the blue chip inde