we will begin with michael watkins. >> good morning. another fantastic day on mars -- curiosity continues to be paved basically flawlessly. we executed all the planned activities successfully yesterday. it is a good time for me to point out that the team operating curiosity is also performing flawlessly. completing all planned activities as well. it is really just a great day all around. the activities consist of a couple of things. we are about to do -- upgrade

we will begin with michael watkins. >> we had another fantastic day on mars. curiosity continues to behave flawlessly and executed all the planned activities successfully after a period is a good time to point out that the teen operating curiosity is also performing flawlessly and completing all planned activities is well-preparedsol 3 activities consist of a couple of things.

we will begin with michael watkins predicts good morning. but another fantastic day on mars. curiosity continues to behave basically it flawlessly three had executed all of the planned activity successfully and nominally yesterday. it is a good time to point out the team operating curiosity also is performing basically flawlessly and completing of planned activities as well. it really is a great day all around. a couple of things for these activities, we are about to do or upgrade our software on the

. >> mike: crazy finish at watkins glen.inal round, kyle busch spins out on the tap from brad keselowski. made at it two-car race. through oil slicked pavement, grass and dirt, marcos ambrose returns the favor with a tap of keselowski. goes wide for the pass, and ambrose takes the checkered flag. his second win in as many years at watkins glen. the only other road course besides sonoma. >> a look at the final medal counts of the games. united states, 46 golds and a total of 0104 medals, great britain that the third most gold medals. >> alan: coming up. "the dark knight rises" has >> ama: coming up at 11, the latest on a pair of fast-move are wildfires in lake county, we now know who mitt romney chose as his running mate but before the announcement romney's staff kept at it secret. >> blasting off on the bay. an interesting new way to enjoy the water tonight at 11:00. >> alan: checking in on the weekend box office, new release takes the number one spot. the action tale bourn legacy knocked down dark night rises to number thre

[applause] >> latham and watkins. [applause] >> scad and arps. [applause] >> cooley. [applause] >> morrison and forester. pillsbury. and simpson thatcher. [applause] everybody here has contributed and these have made a special contribution which we want to honor separately. i also want to thank tracy jennison of kirkland and ellis for doing whatever she needed to do to get the fine wine donated by duckhorn wine company and shea lure. you should have bottled of that on your table right now. we're also grateful to mark richardson and merrill corporation who contributed the printing of our luncheon program and menu, and i want to personally thank our friends at the recorder and "the daily journal" for their pro bono support in leading us up to today. i also want to thank the committee that worked on this and the honorary committee, all those people contributed to is. and now the only reason you really want to hear about from me is that i'm the guy that gets to give away presents. for the first time this year, we have compliments of our former chair, ken gurnsey, a silico

we have also learned the name of the truck driver. 34-year-old gregory watkins from fort washington worked for cardinal logistics. he was hauling lumber. fuel leaked onto the highway after the crash and ignited and caused the fire. >>> there maybe one less referendum question on your november ballot. married's highest court is consider an appeal to stop the referendum on the state's redistricting map. lawyers argue an on lane petition used to gather signatures violate a legal requirement that information must be submit by the signer. caught of appeals has until monday to make the ruling. >>> double shooting last night in northeast baltimore has police worried it may spark more violence. it's connected to a previous shooting in the city. as brian kuebler tells us tonight, the case is being looked at by a brand new homicide task force, aimed at solving the more unusual murders, two are dead, in what police are calling a targeted shooting on ham illtop avenue. it happened at midnight. there is a possibility it is connected to the triple shooting earlier this week in southwest baltimore. this

watkins says: "every time we get a newwone, we all crowd around the screen and watch the new ones come this photo shows the distinct mountain ridges of the gale crater. leads up to an even bigger mountainous region called "mount sharp" -- which is curiosity's next stop. milkovich says: "looking at the dust covers on the various cameras on curiosity we know that a lot of dust was kicked up over the hopefully in our future images we'll be able to detail in these." the photo was taken with curiosity's mars hand lens imager -- nicknamed "mahli." it's the first of its kind to áreallyá showcase why mars is called "the red planee." edgett says: "the mahli is a focusable color camera and this is the first color image of the landscape where we have landed (butt to) i have waited a long time for this to come back.'' in the meantime - - engineers will start booting up curiosity's various instrumeets, antennae, scanners, and it will continue to send back photos of what'sssuccessful mission. watkins says: "curiosity is still healthy, still in what we call surface nominal modd, and still in great sh

they're taking watkins but they hope you will apply on-line in in advance. >> there is still time for you to apply. the job fair is open tomorrow and saturday. colleges are finding new ways to spend, send financial aid to students. some students are now getting a debit card. one bank candling those cards has been under fire for charging students numerous fees. julie watts has more on a higher one >> she is studying psychology but renee is also getting an education in finance. the salon of community college student receives for financial aid on her school branded debit card from higher one. it is a connecticut-based financial institution that has been under fire and under investigation for its fees. >> $2 a year or $2.50 there >> when you put the university sign of approval on particular card students often interpreted that as fact >> he says more than 700 u.s. colleges now outsource financial aid disbursement to hire one including half of all the community colleges in california >> the attractiveness of these offers are that they help reduce the university's administrative costs for m

we'll hear from rory mcilroy and what a finish in nascar, watkins glen.ll see you at 6:00. >> alan: tiger woods, four years without a major. >> mike: i don't think he'll ever catch jack. he has played well enough for the first two rounds and then on saturday and sunday starts to melt down. he is 36. and jack won one at 46, but going to be a tough road row -- row to hoe. >> ama: coming up. it wasn't a bird nor a plain that made people look up. >> alan: it was this man and his high to jet pack. >> alan: coming up at 6:00. paying more for protection. 850,000 californians will be getting a new bill in the mail this week. the firefighting fee that is debt citizenned for a legal battle. plus. >> taking its toll on a southern california lake, where there's no water but lots of fish. join us at 6:00. >> ama: oakland's jack london square was the scene of a unique promotion today. oh, lots of boys are going to be wanting this. looked like a scene out of a james bond movie. customers at the weekend farmer's market were treated to a man flying a water powered jet pac

watkins glenn and some final lap drama. cars coming around the final turn. kyle busch is bumped by brad koz lou ski. they're going to talk about that one. they're going to talk about that one. home stretch now. trying to hold off ambrose. ambrose wins the finger lakes 355. and 23-year-old rory mcilroy won the u.s. open here at congressional, but since then, he's been less than impressive, but he's getting it back at the the pga championship. he leads at 11 under. >> that is our news for now. "nightly news" is up next and we will be back tonight after the olympics. until then, have a great night, everybody. [ male announcer ] the choice on debt... mitt romney's plan: huge tax cuts for millionaires, tax breaks for oil companies and corporations that ship jobs overseas, adding trillions to the deficit. president obama's plan: a balanced approach that asks the wealthy to pay a little more, eliminates tax breaks for outsourcing and oil subsidies, cuts government spending, and reduces the deficit by four trillion.

stacy watkins wrote in say, mom told me i was get a baby brother but why doesn't it looks like me?a simmons saying well, i'm wearing a diaper so don't blame it on me. michael saying don't pour worry, i'll watch him but can you please change his them comi >>> we lokeep them coming. >>> we love the pictures. always babies and dogs. thank you. >>> boston held the os hitless through the first fivennings until mark reynolds and the other os hits came alive. baltimore sick games back in the ah wild card. the os are in a mathematical die with the tampa bay rays. a portion of your tick the price goes to help the maryland zoo. all part of the orioles high five program. >>> crews battled dozens of wildfires across the west. we'll have more on what is delaying the battle. >>> the baby chairs now being recalled and the dangers they could pose. >>> new video this morning and new reaction after police a a

the driver a 34-year-old gregory watkins died there on the scene. authorities believe that one of the fuel tanks on the truck sprayed fuel everywhere. at some point they say there was a spark that set the it on fire. it was shut down for several hours. the investigation is expected to take weeks. >>> for folks who go downtown that part of light street that was closed down is going to be back open monday morning. crews working weekend to repave it down -- the city chose to close the roadway to repair two pipes to rebuild the structure underneath they said for the businesses on that stretch they are all saying thank goodness to finally be over. >> it's affected the business in the fact that there are a lot of customers that have avoided the area, it's difficult to drive around, takes a lot of time to get around the block. it's hard to find entrances into the garage. there are alternate entrances but its been challenging and difficult. >> certainly has. the city transportation said barring any major issue that two block section will be open for traffic

. >> another author with a book coming out is john watkins. >> free market revolution. this comes from the executive director of the i plan institute and they really argue for the u.s. to pull themselves off the brink of the economic crisis we should revert back to the libertarian principles of ayn a ra rand. and editor and reporter--the largest spanish-language daily newspaper in the u.s. and works on a book called killing the american dream which argue anti-immigration policies in the u.s. saying we are not only reporting ourselves economically by losing contributions to social security and income tax but we will experience a brain drain. >> if this book published simultaneously in english and spanish? >> an english-language publisher. we won't be punishing it -- publishing it in spanish as well. >> talking to michele fitzgerald. we are at book expo america which is the book publishing industry annual convention in new york city. >> coming up on booktv in a few moments nancy gibbs and michael duffy on their book examining the relationship between sitting american pres

the maryland transportation authority says 34-year-old gregory brian watkins was behind the wheel hauling lumber, he was pronounced dead at the scene and investigators believe the fire started because of a rupture in fuel tanks on board the truck. >>> police identified the woman whose body was found in the woods in pasadena this month. she is jessica lynn lee, lee had been reported missing in may and police are now investigating her death as a homicide. the investigation started august 6th when officers were called out to the woods behind the alleys bargain outlet in pass dee navment the call came in after a human head was found. a search crew was formed and later the rest of lee's body was located. police used dna to match remains to lee's records. they are asking anyone with information to call 410-222- 3417. >>> school year hasn't started yet but drivers are educateed about slowing down in front of lock raven high school. that is until someone blinded the automated speed camera along cromwell with spray paint. jeff hager joins us with more on that story. >> they not only spray paint to

we will begin with michael watkins. >> we had another fantastic day on mars. curiosity continues to behave flawlessly and executed all the planned activities successfully after a period is a good time to point out that the teen operating curiosity is also performing flawlessly and completing all planned activities is well-preparedsol 3 activities consist of a couple of things. we are about to upgrade our software on the rover. we needed new flight software load that is optimized for the service garrett kern we want to switch to a new flight software that is optimized for surface operations. we will do that starting, the day after tomorrow. we have to do a little prep work for that activity. refit of some files to get ready to for the software transition garrett kern the other thing was to check out some more of our instruments. we checked out the instruments and that all past successfully and are all in great shape as far as we know. that is a great sign. no anomaly showed up in any of the tests. we took a lot of imagery around us free we took a panorama in th

both of them at watkins glens.ohnson is the points leader. >>> raider fans can get their first look at the 2012 version of their team along with the rest of the country as they and the cowboys will be featured tomorrow night on monday night football. a sneak preview of the silver and black at the coliseum today. dennis allen waving into the crowd to sign autographs. >> absolutely. i haven't played an actual game this a while so i'm excitedded to get out there. a little nervous like i think everybody else. but excited to play real football against somebody. >> excited to hit somebody? >> yes, i'm getting tired of hitting. >>> the big play of the game was this effort. in the battle for the back up quarterback back, all four quarterbacks saw action in the game. >> the offensive line did a great job blocking the box. our receiver blocked a corner. our corner led at safety. which left me with green grass. >> he can operate in the pocket or outside the pocket. and i thought he did well. all our quarterbacks really played

we will begin with michael watkins. >> good morning. another fantastic day on mars -- curiosity continues to be paved basically flawlessly. we executed all the planned activities successfully yesterday. it is a good time for me to point out that the team operating curiosity is also performing flawlessly. completing all planned activities as well. it is really just a great day all around. the activities consist of a couple of things. we are about to do -- upgrade our software on the rover. just like we upgrade our operating system on your home computer or a laptop or something -- we will do the same thing. we will have a new flight software that is optimized for service. we landed with one optimized for landing. that does not have to operate the arm and all that. the surface is not have to land the vehicle. we want to switch to this new software that is optimized for service operations. we will do that starting tomorrow. -- the day after tomorrow, sorry. we'll start that activity. we will do preparation for that activity. we will check o

should suspend the show for a few minutes and maybe make some flight changes that said, joe cat w watkinscornell finney, and gather myself. i am still interested in what this -- what this moment might mean in terms of reinventing romney. i want to go to one thing in particular work owning ing on m. his conversations about work. we heard romney repeatedly saying he is one of the unemploy unemployed. let's listen to that for one second. >> i'm also unemployed. >> we can help you. >> so i get it. that part of him like being folksy. but the new me from the romney folks, president obama doesn't respect work. so let's listen to this sort of welfare to work conversation that is the new main out of the romney/ryan camp. >> if i'm president, those who can work, they have an opportunity for a job and getting state assistance and we will end a culture dependency and restore a culture of good, hard work. >> good hard work is good for poor people, but if you are wealthy, whatever, on the value of work, like this is -- this for me is like the inherit angst that i have with romney. i don't know what he

. >> there are cancellations pin they're also taking watkins right now. they have this seven day cancellation policy. they're taking what-at in the people >> the places with the mice are getting in the cabins to close indefinitely. there try to redesign them to make them house approved. but there is no time to make them ready for this weekend. >>pam: a firefighter was seriously hurt while battling a blaze at -- blaze at a church here >>rob: the fire is out of the drama continues here in downtown san >> the they had to knock out all hall over the chapel. we do not know what led to the collapse of the firefighter. all afternoon there was a steady stream of fellow fighter fighters visiting here at regional medical center. this is being categorized as a cardiac defense. the whole department is calling for their fallen comrade. >> we're all struggling if we have another fire right now the same crew will be at the fire appeared. in winter families are injured rear their pin. we have our suggested management team. hopefully they will come to our fire station and

at rockville high school and watkins mill, students there will be able to enter a new international baccalaureate career program that. will focus on the needs of students who perhaps aren't going on to college but do want to start a career in technology or other fields like that after high school. only 19 schools in the nation are authorized to offer this program and two ever those schools are here in maryland. so just some of of the things coming here to montgomery county. we'll talk more about it throughout the rest of the morning. back to you. >>> all right. new this morning, two american troops have been killed in afghanistan today, apparently shot by an afghan soldier but we are now hearing that afghan officials say this was not a green on blue attack but rather an accident. they say the americans and afghans were working alongside one another when they came under attack. the afghan soldier fell and accidentally discharged his gun hitting the two americans. nato has not commented on that claim. ten other american service members have been killed in hostile attacks by afghan soldiers so far t

us have played our part in a fire drill or two but as shooting incidents become more commonplace, watkins in ohio decided to prepare its students for the worst. more than a dozen law enforcement agencies were involved in the drill saying education is the first step to surviving what is known as an active shooting. >>> canadian police are continue to scour wooded areas in a park west of toronto. search teams were called in this week when hikers made a grizzly discovery. a right foot. a day later a severed head spotted nearby and two hands were found in a river. >> conclusion that they are most likely associated to the -- sorry. the foot and the head that was found yesterday. >> today, other remains were found in a ravine east of toronto but it's unclear at this stage whether they are human or animal. >>> inflight emergency forced an airline pilot to quickly return to newark airport this evening. investigators say a tire on united flight 96 blew apart on takeoff. the piece damaged an engine. the pilot managed to land without a problem. 173 people were on board. everybody is safe and making

and it is his second win in as many years at watkins glen.ames concluded with team usa wining a second consecutive gold in men's basketball. it wasn't easy. he had 24 points and game tied at 70. durant and another huge game in london. he has 30 and broke a tie with the corner three. lebron james and left alone and that means a one-handed jam. usa by eight and chris paul driving through the trees to ice it. coach k is jumping for gold. gold for team usa. the united states lead the way with 46 gold, best ever in olympics not held in the united states. a total of 104 medals. britain ended up with third most gold. this sports report is brought to you by river rock casino. raiders are in the black hole for their first pre-season. >>> that's it for the abc7 news. >> abc7 news continues tomorrow morning at 4:30. >> thank you so much for join us.

and it is his second win in as many years at watkins glen. olympic games concluded with team usa wining a second consecutive gold in men's basketball. it wasn't easy. he had 24 points and game tied at 70. durant and another huge game in london. he has 30 and broke a tie with the corner three. lebron james and left alone and that means a one-handed jam. usa by eight and chris paul driving through the trees to ice it. coach k is jumping for gold. gold for team usa. the united states lead the way with 46 gold, best ever in olympics not held in the united states. a total of 104 medals. britain ended up with third most gold. this sports report is brought to you by river rock casino. raiders are in the black hole for their first pre-season. >>> that's it for the abc7 news. >> abc7 news continues tomorrow morning at 4:30. >> thank you so much for join us.

here to tell us about all of that in an update on all the at to the we have michael watkins, the msl mission manager from the jet propulsion laboratory. the principal investigator for the camera on the curiosity, at dawn summer, science team member from the university of california davis. and in the midst -- in the michigan, team chief from jpl. and dougie ellison, visualization producer at jpl, and we will begin with michael watkins. >> a very good morning. we had another fantastic day on mars. curiosity continues to behave basically flawlessly. and executing all the planned activities successfully and phenomenal yesterday. a good time for me to point out that the team operating curiosity is performing basically it flawlessly and completing of planned activities. this is really just a great day all around. so the activity consists of a couple of different things. we are about to -- it would like to upgrade our software on the rover, just like we upgrade our uprighted system under on computer and laptop. we're going to do the same thing. we need a fellow that is optimized. we landed

>> fortunately, this was just a training drill at watkins memorial high school in ohio.nforcement agencies participated. the frightening scenario was planned for almost a year to help train officers and prepare students for the worst. >> this isn't about seeing how prepared we are, really, it's to find out how prepared we are not. >> it's too close to home. i mean, it's a very -- i have a junior here at the high school, and it's a very scary situation. >>> one of america's most infamous killers is up for parole. mark david chapman, the man convicted of gunning down former beatle, john lennan, is seekg freedom for the seventhtime. he's serving 20 years to life and was last denied freedom two years ago. lennon's widow, yoko ono, in the past, has been against his release. >>> the summer heat has been brutal for people in all types of jobs. an automechanic in tulsa, oklahoma, found a unique way to stay cool. >> this is the manliest man wear you can wear. >> david o'brien says he won't work another summer day in pants. he prefers kilts, until it cools down in october, hey, th

strategist and senior adviser to hillary clinton's 2008 presidential campaign kiki mclean and joe watkinswith george h.w. bush's administrati administration. joe, give me your list, winner and losers of this convention and where does marco rubio fit in that? >> well, i think that marco rubio hit a home run last night. he had a great speech. it was from the heart. he connected not only with the people inside that arena but with americans all around the country. and it wasn't just so partisan as much as it was sharing a vision for what could be for america by sharing his own story. i think it's very, very moving. he's a star, a rising star in the party. >> winners and losers quickly? >> oh, my other winners? >> yeah. >> yes, my -- i'm sorry, chris. enjoying the warm tampa sun. my other winners marco rubio, of course, chris christie, condoleezza rice. >> chris christie? >> chris christie i thought gave a really good speech and certainly set himself up as somebody to be considered on the national stage. i thought his speech was very, very good. condoleezza rice gave a great speech. >> kiki, h

we will begin with michael watkins predicts good morning. but another fantastic day on mars. curiosity continues to behave basically it flawlessly three had executed all of the planned activity successfully and nominally yesterday. it is a good time to point out the team operating curiosity also is performing basically flawlessly and completing of planned activities as well. it really is a great day all around. a couple of things for these activities, we are about to do or upgrade our software on the rover, just like we upgrade our operating system on your home computer or laptop, we're going to do the same thing. the software though it is optimized for service. landing does not have to drive the rover and operate the arm. the service does not have to land the vehicle. we will switch to the new flight software that is optimized for surface operations. we will do that starting the day after tomorrow. sol 5. prep work for that activity. we will check out the backup flight computer and make sure it looks fine. we sent the files to get ready for the software transition. we also c

joining us is republican strategist joe watkins and democratic strategist steve mcma on. said mitt romney needed to close the deal and make the sale. did he do it? >> he did. he did. it was a great speech. he reached out to not only people in the audience but the 40 million americans watching around the country and i think he hit a home run, big home run. >> steve your take on it from the other side of the aisle? >> i think that mitt romney did a good job delivering his speech but i don't think there was enough in the speech to move independent voters and the people who are sitting on the fence. there was a focus group among the voters last night by another network which indicated they didn't hear anything new and i didn't either, but i think he did a good job delivering the speech, he warmed himself up a little bit, he talked about his record as governor and bringing women aening lo, which i thought was a nice touch but his attacks on the president were -- >> he also brought in 12 million new jobs, you can't not look at the fact 20 million americans not working and creat

joining us right now we have a michael watkins, and the mission manager. miguel san martine, mission near of guidance control. sarah milkovich, hirisie investigation specialist. >> welcome back. the surface mission has dealt a gun. for those of us on the project knew we had to get through some big events. launch was a big one for us. we built this rover and not just to be launched or land on mars but to actually drive on mars and execute a very beautiful science mission. we have ended one phase of the mission much to our enjoyment. another part has just begun. it is the fundamental reason we built the rover. we are just starting that mission. about two hours after landing, just before 1:00 a.m. in the morning, a curiosity called us via mars odyssey. mars odyssey was overhead. it comes around two hours later. mars has rotated. it was still over the horizon. we were able to have a short talk with curiosity. she told us she is in service nominal mode. she quickly transitioned to surface and nominal mode. not in safe mode. she is otherwise very healthy. we hav

we're first good to hear from michael watkins -- we're first going to hear from michael watkins. ken edgett is the principal investigator for mahli. >> curiosity had another busy day. she is asleep right now getting ready for tomorrow. at the end of the day, we get a call through the corridors with the status for what happened with that day's activities. curiosity is still healthy, in service nominal mode and in great shape. yesterday's activity started off wi the antenna deploy. we talked about that yesterday. this is the high gain antenna. we want to get this antenna deployed. it allows us to talk with a little higher bandwidth to curiosity and allows her to talk to us directly by the big antennas. we have always been talking to her through the orbiters. the first thing it has to do is go through a range of emotions. that was successfully done. the antenna mechanism is in fine shape. it was not pointed at her early at the earth to get the telecom signal that we wanted. we have looked at that as a parameter we can set. there is a bias in the pointing. mechanism folks have taken

. >> another author who is a book coming out as jurong brooks and done watkins. >> yes, free-market revolution. it has come to us from the executive director of the ayn rand institute and they really argue that for the u.s. to kind of pull themselves off the brink of the economic crisis we are saying we should revert back to the libertarian principles of ayn rand. be finally michelle fitzgerald one more book we wanted to ask you about from palgrave macmillan from our program. >> the largest spanish-language daily newspaper in the u.s. and she's written a book called killing the american dream which really argues against the anti-immigration policies in the u.s. right now saying that we are not only hurting ourselves economically by losing contributions for income tax but also a experiencing a brain drain with all these great thinkers being forced of the country. >> is this a book that will be published simultaneously with english and spanish? >> palgrave is only in

i tell the story in the book was steve watkin made by his house that he grew up in when he was very john and his dad -- he built a sensitive data and should and ship me to send them he touched it. he said my dad taught me to make the back of the fence is because the front. he said nobody over cedar know. my dad said, but you will now. and that is why even on the apple ii he wants the circuit court to be beautiful. and when they get to the macintosh, the next one over, even though you cannot open a commie he holds it up for a while because the chips on the circuit board are not neatly aligned. when they say nobody can open it, nobody will know. he says to the mac designers, you will know. and the other thing that is interesting in talking about steve's wozniak, steve jobs and steve had the passion of an artist to have and to rent control. hardware, integrated the software, don't open it up. wozniak was much more open and, but on the apple ii i think it has eight slots. you could check into it, put stuff into it. you could open it up and get to the circuit board and steve jobs was against

joining us right now we have a michael watkins, and the mission manager. miguel san martin, mission near of guidance control. sarah milkovich, hirise investigation specialist. >> welcome back. the surface mission has dealt a gun. for those of us on the project knew we had to get through some big events. launch was a big one for us. we built this rover and not just to be launched or land on mars but to actually drive on mars and execute a very beautiful science mission. we have ended one phase of the mission much to our enjoyment. another part has just begun. it is the fundamental reason we built the rover. we are just starting that mission. about two hours after landing, just before 1:00 a.m. in the morning, a curiosity called us via mars odyssey. mars odyssey was overhead. it comes around two hours later. mars has rotated. it was still over the horizon. we were able to have a short talk with curiosity. she told us she is in service nominal mode. she quickly transitioned to surface and nominal mode. not in safe mode. she is otherwise very healthy. we have

host: michael watkins talking about the landing and what is to come. joining us from virginia, alex. caller: good morning. i am a big fan of this project. i think it is an inspiration. i think this is exactly what america needs. and as much as it focuses our attention above the common phrase -- politically -- particularly in the political season right now. admittedly a number of callers pointing out across the world there are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed, with food it shortages and the drought we are experiencing, but just this idea that we could collectively come together, the brightest minds in one room, and go to mars and take a picture we can all look at is just phenomenal. host: did you stay up to watch a landing? caller: admittedly, i did not. i was actually not very familiar with this project until things started getting published out there. and i think that maybe even made it sweeter to me. while i go about my day to day life, i get to wake up and see a picture from mars. as if it is commonplace. it is just wonderful -- i think

dick watkins, chair of the republican party. he's the chair of campaigns across the country and works for colorado senators over the years. next to him, dr. sam cayman, a professor of law at d.u. he studies laws and social science and he's an expert on medical marijuana which is a pretty important issue in this psych until the state. and finally, last but not least, dr. robert mcgowan. i'm going to toss questions around but feel free to comment on each other and then we'll take some questions from the audience. dick, i'm going to put you on the spot for a little bit. for a long time, maybe a couple of generations, colorado was reliably red state. in 2008, obama won after a close election. and now it's a swing state again. what changed? >> one of the methodologies as the democratic national convention came to denver a few years ago, once colorado was a reliable red state. in fact, colorado had a generation of democratic leaders like dick lamb, roy rumer. and it wasn't as red as you might think. it's been a very competitive state

republican national convention kicks into high gear and we're keeping score with gop strategist joe watkinsmer dnc chair howard dean. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. >>> good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen. andrew son vacation this week. we've been watching the futures. they are barely budging again. no major moves in the stock market. the futures have barely budged. very light volume the last couple of days as well. >> hurricane ice action working its way inland after making land fall in louisiana with winds topping 80 miles an hour. we're visiting with you again, scott. looks about the same as it was. >> it's getting worse, joe, and it's going to continue to get worse. >> we had hits on this camera also a time. >> scott? >> yeah, we got you bsh -- yeah, we have both. >> as you can see, the winds are picking up. it does havoc with the signal. this is canal street. servicen years ago this was under water when hurricane katrina hit. the real havec didn't come until 4 hours later when the levees broke. one thin

on behalf of the committee and chair and vice chairman ann bo dollis of ohio, and damon watkins of ohioe john boehner of ohio. [cheers and applause] we also recommend that the permanent co-chair be guam, harryof bom barber of mississippi, barbara comstock of virginia, john davidson of ohio, becky hill of montana, governor bob lee of nevada. we further recommend that the temporary chairman, a temporary secretary, and temporary officers whose names have been injured into the records of the convention be made the permanent officers of this convention. mr. chairman, i move the adoption of the report of the committee on permanent organization. >> thank you. without objection, the previous question is ordered. all those in favor, signify by saying aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, they ayes haven't and the motion is agreed to. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the chair of points the following individuals who have been named as the escort committee to the permanent chairman. tom coughlin of arkansas, maggie brooks of new york, ricky deal of c

joining us we have michael watkins, the mission manager. miguel from jpl the chief engineer. sarah from jpl she is the high- rise investigation scientist. and john of caltech the project scientist of the mission. >> good morning everyone. welcome to mars, welcome back to march if he were here last night. the surface mission of curiosity has begun. for a long time, those of us on the project knew we had to go through some big events. but we built this rover not just to land on mars but to actually try weimar's and execute a beautiful science mission. we have ended one phase of the mission and to be a joy a lot of folks on our team. another part has just begun. it is really the fundamental reason we built a rover. we are just starting admission. we are not ending it. two hours after landing. just before 1:00 a.m., curiosity called us from mars odyssey. mars odyssey was overhead. it comes around two hours later. mars has rotated. it was still over the horizon. we were able to have a short talk with curiosity. she told us she is in service nominal mode. she quickly transitioned t

mike watkins, mission manager, is joining us. your shift is about over.e been up here for quite a few hours. >> take us through. what happens here? >> okay, so this room here, normally it's packed with engineers here. we're kind of staffed 24/7 for the first couple of weeks of the mission. normally is packed with engineers. we're about to start our transition we talked about earlier today. data comes down via mars odyssey. a little bit comes by the big antennas of the deep space network. that downlink comes first through this room. each of the engineers take a look at what that data's telling them. if you look at each of these stations, we've got power, thermal. the payload health, flight software. the engineers look at that. they make sure the rover's healthy. they get a first look at new pictures, at first payload telemetry, is everything healthy. >> reporter: then it goes to the science team from here. they look at -- >> that's exactly right. so the engineers are making sure everything looks good. a lot is science data so the engineers look at that. th