and it has been dubbed the virtual city. see you next time. >>> welcome to "news4 this week." >> hi, everyone. we're going to show you some of the most interesting local stories making news this week. among them, you may not want a shot but you can you stop the flu on your own? we'll look at some popular recommendeds. surgery success, the incredible story of a baby in need of a heart transplant. how a new procedure is saving lives. and we'll visit a vineyard taking orgic wines to the next level in going green. but first, a marriage proposal in front of the hundreds who showed up for a public hearing at the d.c. counsel chambers it was. you a hearing on whether to legalize same sex unions in the district. out of all the council hearings he's covered, this was a first. >> that it was going along as scheduled monday. witnesses using their three minutes argued for or against it whmpl suddenly, there was a real proposal. >> i hope to love, honor and cherish andy. i hope to care for him in sickness and health on. this historic occ

virtually nil in grand rapids, michigan. locals battled the snow owe all sides from residents, city snowplows. >> busy since 4:30 this morning. >> reporter: lake-effect snow hammered south bend, indiana, with wheout cditions that made driving tricky for drivers and pedestrians. >> it was slippery out here. i tell people to be cautious. >> reporter: meantime, philly's big chill rced many into a big bundle. in parts of new engnd snow settled into a stubborn layer. >> i pushed the driveway with a oom the first time. now i'm just going over it again. you keep up with it, it's not so bad sfwlr in bad. >> reporter: imaine, eight inches had skiers flying gh. >> it's a winter wondeand. >> now here's a look at som other stories making news early today in america. >>> three teenagers were rescued after being stranded on an ice sheetin a michigan river. their boat diedn a frigid 4 degree weather and that forced them to float across a floating piece of wayward ice. firefighters usedn air boat to rescue them. >>> orange farmers in florida are sambling to save their trees. some have sprinkler running all week. the younger trees arespecial

whether you live in a big city or small town, virtually everyone has been affected as municipalities have been forced to "a", trim library hours or "b", close the doors to branches altogether. one community here in southern california closing all three public libraries, laying off 60 staff members in an effort to save the state money. this is not just limited to california, funding for public libraries has been slashed about 30% in the state of south carolina and florida funding about 24% down from this time last year. it seems virtually is affected as most states start this new year with gaping holes in the budget. >> julie: how is the problem twofold? >> a lot of people think of libraries to go get books check out the dewey decimal system. there is a bowl lot more. one of most popular services, computers and internet. a lot of people don't have those products at home so they go to the library to check their e-mail or look for jobs. as we know, unemployment jobless rates at an all time high. more people are going to the library to use the internet to find new jobs. this is having a

virtually nil in grand rapids, michigan. locals battled the snow on all sides, from the residents to city snowplowers to the independent contractors. >> busy since 5:00, 4:30 this morning. >> reporter: lake-effect snow hammered south bend, indiana, with whiteout conditions that made maneuvering tricky for drivers and pedestrians. >> sort of slippery out here. i'm telling people to be cautious. >> reporter: meantime, philly's big chill forced many into a big bundle. in parts of new england. snow settled into a stubborn layer. >> i bushed the driveway with a broom the first time and now i'm going over it again. if you keep up with it, it's not so bad. >> reporter: but in maine, 8 inches of fresh powder has fears flying high. >> it's like a winter wonderland. >> reporter: frances coe, nbc news. >> no snow, but it is cold. >> too cold. let's go to tom kierein. >> these temperatures are way below the averages for this time of year. our average high for this time of year is 43. we're probably getting within maybe ten degrees of that on the low side. it's now 29 in washington. probably only going to make it near freezing here over the ne

be the haitian leaders, regional leaders, city leaders said in some cases they felt that white outsiders from the united nations and aid groups were virtually running a parallel government and weren't letting them take responsibility for any aid effort. i'm not sure weather they feel this is going on. it is a structural problem, a traditional problem, how far the government is in charge and how the united nations and other aid organizations are in charge and how these two interact with one another. >> at a time when so many people have died and many more we fear can die as well. we have established communications with anderson cooper. we will take a quick break and go to anderson right after this. d >>> as president obama has said, we will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead. and speaking personally, i know of the great resilience and strength of the haitian people. you have been severely tested. >> the secretary of state spent part of the day today in port-au-prince at the airport. joining us on the phone is kenneth murton, the united states ambassador to haiti. what was accomplished mr. ambassador by the secretary's visit? >> w

september until the end of this year and we have virtually no incidences of gun violence during the most dangerous hours in the most dangerous places in our cityause not of the mayor and of the police and what they were doing, but because residents did night patrols. you can see the video of it on you tube. it got so popular that we have well over 1000 residents from a woman in wheelchair that was coming out, taking buses to get there, to six and seven year- old. with christmas parties, hanukkah party. we would gather in a grudge and then go out. people as far away as california came to do night patrols with us. sarah silverman can out and did night patrols with us. it made a difference. i do not know what your strategy is that is going to work in your city, but the point is that we can always do more. as my residence should hold the account to, because we were down to -- down 46%. but we had a 55-year-old woman killed by stray bullet this year. one shooting of an innocent citizen is way too much. daly disciplined analysis of the numbers, holding everyone to account within the organizations that you control. the second thing is bringing people

national figures are virtually every kind of school district has enjoyed the same kind of growth over time. the department of education keeps statistics -- it disaggregatege cities with which mike casserly on my right is connected to the smallest school districts of the approximate 14,000 school districts in the united states, there's a high level of concentration in the big cities. the 25% of all students in the united states are in 1% of our school districts. 50% of them are in 5% of our districts. the remaining 50% of students are spread or distributed across the remaining 95% of our districts. as you can see most of our school districts actually are quite small. and the big ones get her attention. but it doesn't matter what kind of district per pupil spending over the last 70 or 80 years has been going up in all of them. now here coming up is the point i want to make at the beginning and i'll emphasize. when you ask, for what has the school district spent the money? would've made public this? overwhelmingly, they have five people. they have bought the time of professionals and of class employees. so on my last and your last, the upward trending line is the n

virtually no strings such as withholding some for cost-saving. and little discussion of the cliff in the year 2011, round the corner. i would stress firsthand in chelsea when the citys in receivership and the city and boston university made things work with a lot less than its peer cities, that they had to. today the city of chelsea and its new schools all new build, is fiscally solvent and the schools are performing well. they are at the top, albeit the lowest level in massachusetts. so in preparation of this i decided to speak with a former accountant, in the romney administration and then was appointed the head of the control port of springfield, massachusetts, in 2004. when the city was fiscally insolvent and the state came in to help not bail out the sense i am out of time to let me just give you these key takeaways. the city budget at the time was 500 million. have other schools, half of the city. these are the savings that they brought in. they received 52 million a non-interest-bearing loan. within two years they had earned that back. the money still is in the cat account. they have earned that back in savings. they did on the outsourcing of the janitorial